I think the confusion comes from al-Jizz expecting something different...
Confusion surrounds turnout statistics in Iraq's election, with the country's election commission backtracking on a statement that 72% had voted and top politicians insisting the turnout was high. The commission said its initial tally had been little more than a guess based on local estimates. "Turnout figures recently announced represent the enormous and understandable enthusiasm felt in the field on this historic day," a commission statement said. "However, these figures are only very rough, word-of-mouth estimates gathered informally from the field. It will take some time for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq to release accurate figures on turnout." Commission spokesman Farid Ayar indicated that around eight million people may have voted, or about 60% of registered voters. That would still be more than many had expected.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
9:06:36 PM ||
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#1
I think it's safe to say that a lot of the leadership in the MSM, Iran, and Syria will be confused for awhile.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 21:13
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#2
"On the basis of these results, we are unable to determine whether to spit or go blind."
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 22:51
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FAR across the frozen river two figures hurried from the North Korean shore, slip-sliding on the ice as they made a break for the Chinese riverbank to escape a regime that, by many accounts, is now entering its death throes.
It was a desperate risk to run in the stark glare of the winter sunshine. We had just seen a patrol of Chinese soldiers in fur-lined uniforms tramping along the snowy bank, their automatic rifles slung ready for action.
Police cars swept up and down the road every 10 or 15 minutes, on the look-out for refugees. A small group of Chinese travellers in our minibus, some of whom turned out to have good reasons to be discreet, pretended not to notice.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
8:32:00 PM ||
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#1
Paradise on Earth.
Air-drop all of our LLL SocioFascistIslamoBats⢠immediately!
I don't share the general revulsion to al-Jizz. I just regard it as "news from the other side," in the same vein as Jihad Unspun, only more refined. Qatar shouldn't own it — I'm against a government press on principle, to include NPR. But it shouldn't be put out of business. The solution is to have lots of good competition, something Fox News Arabic channels, for instance. Like CNN, al-Jizz will then either have to change or become a quaint irrelevance.
The tiny state of Qatar is a crucial American ally in the Persian Gulf, where it provides a military base and warm support for American policies. Yet relations with Qatar are also strained over an awkward issue: Qatar's sponsorship of Al Jazeera, the provocative television station that is a big source of news in the Arab world. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other Bush administration officials have complained heatedly to Qatari leaders that Al Jazeera's broadcasts have been inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false, especially on Iraq.
The pressure has been so intense, a senior Qatari official said, that the government is accelerating plans to put Al Jazeera on the market, though Bush administration officials counter that a privately owned station in the region may be no better from their point of view. "We have recently added new members to the Al Jazeera editorial board, and one of their tasks is to explore the best way to sell it," said the Qatari official, who said he could be more candid about the situation if he was not identified. "We really have a headache, not just from the United States but from advertisers and from other countries as well." Asked if the sale might dilute Al Jazeera's content, the official said, "I hope not."
Estimates of Al Jazeera's audience range from 30 million to 50 million, putting it well ahead of its competitors. But that success does not translate into profitability, and the station relies on a big subsidy from the Qatari government, which in the past has explored ways to sell it. The official said Qatar hoped to find a buyer within a year. Its coverage has disturbed not only Washington, but also Arab governments from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. With such a big audience, but a lack of profitability, it is not clear who might be in the pool of potential buyers, or how a new owner might change the editorial content.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005
8:19:19 AM ||
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#1
Jazeera should be sold to its rightful owner: al Qaeda.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:19
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Just let us know where to send the payload check.
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year. Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners — who must pay tax and employee health insurance — were granted access to official databases of jobseekers. The waitress ... received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile" and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job — including in the sex industry — or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990. The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars!. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
[Hamburg lawyer Merchthild] Garweg believes that pressure on job centres to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services. "They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but which don't count as prostitution," she said. "Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they don't want to do."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/30/2005
8:14:30 AM ||
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#1
This has got to be a joke. Not even a Euro bureaucracy can be that insane.
#2
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars!
Going out for a drink with the guys in Germany must be a lot of fun.
job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
On the other hand getting it on with a hooker could be painful. Those Germans are really into pain.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 8:37
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#3
Here we see illustrated the socially-enlightened compassion of the European Way.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/30/2005 8:39
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#4
Great! So the employment centers will become a new pimp. "Go fuck someones, or you can go fuck yourself!
#7
"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they donât want to do."
Ah, the joys of socialism: where "On your knees, bitch!" becomes state policy.
Feh.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/30/2005 10:16
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#8
Hope Prof. Reynolds takes note of this when he argues that it shouldn't be criminalized. The theory of libertarianism and the reality of the messy world collide. Of course we'll hear that ", but in a truely libertarian environment..." Act and Consequence in the real world.
#9
Out of work guys might think this is a great idea, but they better remember there are gay brothels in Germany too.
Posted by: Ernst Rolm ||
01/30/2005 11:17
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#10
Most of the article is speculation and nonsense. Since prostitution is legal (under certain circumstances), the job center could technically offer that "job", but only with the consent of the unemployed. German law stipulates that nobody can be forced or coerced into providing sexual services (which not only includes prostitution, but table dance, stripping and the like). So the job agency cannot threaten benefit cuts because this would violate the law.
A cleaning job in a legal brothel or serving drinks without sexual services would be acceptable though.
There might be a grey zone concerning the dress code maybe.
#12
I can see the unemployment clerk:
"We have good news and bad news. The good news is that you will be able to stay in welfare. The bad news is that the brothel refused to hire you because you were too ugly."
The new era in Iraq finally began to dawn with a massive voter turnout in Sunday's election and some bloody incidents.
Criminal terrorists tried to sabotage the election by carrying out attacks on polling stations, but the determined Iraqi people braved the threats of the gunmen.
After enduring eight decades of dictatorship and crime, the Iraqi nation has taken the first steps on the path toward a bright future and democracy -- a new phenomenon in Arab world.
The Iraqi people have experienced great suffering due to dictatorships, geopolitical conditions, and demography.
And, unfortunately, some neighboring Arab countries played a direct role in setting up despotic governments in Iraq, since they cannot tolerate the rule of democracy in Iraq due to its complicated ethnic makeup.
Indisputable evidence discovered after the fall of the Baath regime showed that Saddam Hussein could not have committed such crimes against his own people without these Arab states' support.
The Shia in the south of Iraq and the Kurds in the north succeeded in liberating 14 of the country's 18 provinces in 1991, shortly after the Iraqi Army was driven out of Kuwait. But certain Arab states pressured former U.S. president George Bush and he eventually gave Saddam the green light to brutally suppress the Shia and Kurdish uprising.
Saddam's government was on the brink of collapse, but the leaders of some Arab countries helped the Baathists quell the Iraqi nation's uprising mercilessly, since they preferred a weak Saddam to a democratic government.
Some 450,000 Shia and Kurds were massacred by Iraqi troops loyal to Saddam, who continued carrying out crimes due to the Arab states' misunderstanding of the Shias.
If power had been transferred through holding a free referendum under the supervision of the United Nations and the international community in 1991, Iraq and the rest of the region would not have witnessed such painful events.
In addition, the United States would not have felt compelled to sacrifice so many lives and spend such a huge amount of money to overthrow Saddam, and the Iraqi nation would have been able to establish a popular government calmly and without carnage.
Yet, the Iraqi people, despite their ethnic and sectarian differences, have maintained their national identity and cast their votes freely in order to find a logical way to resolve the current crisis.
Although the election cannot put an end to the current crises and challenges in Iraq, it will open a new horizon in the country's political life.
However, Iraq faces several challenges in the post-election era, such as establishing security, expelling foreign Arab terrorists, setting a timetable for the withdrawal of occupying forces, and beginning the process of economic reconstruction.
Iraqi officials must adopt new policies according to the country's history and should determine which neighboring countries really seek the interests of the Iraqi nation.
#1
TehranTimes? Wow! Is it actually available to Iranians?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2005 20:21
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I think they're just saying that Arab regimes have had their way up till now - and it's time to let the Persians (in the form of Mad Mullahs) have a shot at fucking up Iraq.
#3
Agreed, but it's still a more positive commentary than you'd get from several Democratic Senators.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 20:54
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Lol! Point taken. Sigh. Brit Hume & Co were particularly amazed today by the lameness / transparency of Kerry's statements attempting to play down & minimize the election's success. The Kool Aid seems to be getting stronger.
No more 99.99 % in Iraq!
This is the figure of the Arabs' dictators except Saddam!
He used to get 100%!
Surprisingly those who voted for the master of the mass graves are abstaining now!
Our voting is:
No to the terrorists!
No to the dictatorships!
No to hate and racism!
No to the fascists!
No to the Nazis!
No to the mentally retarded tyrants!
No to the ossified, narrow-minded and intolerants!
The Iraqis are voting in few hours time for the new Iraq.
We are going to create our future by ourselves not by dictators.
We are going to say:
Yes for the freedom and democracy!
Yes for the civilized Iraq!
Yes for peace and prosperity!
Yes for coexistence!
Yes for the New Iraq!
Let them bomb and kill us. It will not deter us!
Let them send their dogs to suck our bones. We care not!
Let them bark. It will not frighten us.
Let them see how civilised to be free and democratic!
Let them die by our vote tomorrow! It is the magic bullet which will kill them!
Welcome New Iraq.
Welcome freedom and democracy.
Welcome peace and prosperity for all nations with out exception but terrorists!
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005
7:53:06 AM ||
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#1
In the Iraqis rear-view mirror as they head down the path to freedom is a crowd of left-wing American pols (Kerry, Kennedy, et al) giving them the finger!
You go, Iraqis. It aint always clean or pretty (e.g., Wisconsin, in our recent election) but it's ALWAYS better than what you had before!
#2
Good for you, Hammorabi, and congratulations to the people of Iraq!
What Mohammed of Iraq the Model wrote brought tears to my eyes:
"On Sunday, the sun will rise on the land of Mesopotamia. I can't wait, the dream is becoming true and I will stand in front of the box to put my heart in it." [emphasis added]
Beautiful!
Americans forget how precious - and fragile - freedom really is.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005 11:29
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Good job American Soldiers. Helping the Iraq's vote for the first time in a real election. They may not have cheered you as much when you got there as we had hoped, but now they are cheering you with thier bravery.
#4
When the Iraqis vote, the outcome will probably be something aligned with the Shiites. However, the Kurds have developed quite a political force of their own. There will be checks and balances different than we in the US see. The Sunnis will be shiite outa luck for a while. Whatever. The point of the election is that Iraqis have a civilized alternative to government by murder and mayhem, be it Saddam or Zarqawi. If that seed is planted, then Iraq and the Middle East have great hope.
My hats off to Iraqi forces that have worked tirelessly in securing this day, our dedicated and professional US forces that have been doing a truly altruistic duty, and to the Iraqi people, that have, despite great personal danger to themselves and their families, gone out and voted. The elections are not everything, but they are a BIG SOMETHING. Despite the spin of the LLL and traitors like Kennedy want the world to believe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2005 12:29
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#5
Woo Hoo! Americans are celebrating with you Iraq! It's a historic day.
#6
It would be very nice if Americans would value the integrity of their own voting rights like the Iraqis do.
Iraqi voters must bring two forms of identification carrying a photograph to their local polling station. After voting, their name is crossed off the register and their thumb marked with indelible ink to prevent them from voting again.
#8
I'm reminded of the final song from Les Miserables which, ironically, was about the French back when they cared about goofy sh*t like freedom:
Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the plough-share
They will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!
AL-QAEDA'S group in Iraq said it was behind suicide attacks on several polling stations during Iraq's election today, according to an internet statement. "Lions from the martyrs' brigade of the al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked several polling stations in Baghdad and elsewhere," said the statement by the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, posted on an Islamist website.
Defending Saddam with their blood.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005
7:48:06 AM ||
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Iraqi expatriate Benjamin Nissan, a beautician who said he likes to dress like Elvis Presley, casts his ballot Friday, Jan. 28 2005, in Skokie, Ill., as voting begins in Iraq's first independent elections in more than 50 years.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005
7:38:18 AM ||
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#1
And then Elvis "left the building" applause, "thank you every much"
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:27
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I LOVE America! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005 10:29
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#4
I think Elvis voted in our last election in Ohio. If Elvis were dead, he most likely would have rolled over in his grave if John Kerry had been elected.
ABOARD JEANNE D'ARC -- The naval ship's pantry is stocked with wines, baguettes and pate, and its casual dress code is shorts and sandals. There's even an artist -- a painter to keep an illustrated record of the trip. With a panache all its own, France's military is delivering aid to tsunami-battered Indonesia -- and showing how a small force can make a difference. A month after killer waves struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the French finally are part of an international relief operation that includes forces from more than a dozen nations, including Japan, Russia and Switzerland.
The 1,000 or so French sailors and soldiers arrived in Aceh province on the island's northern tip two weeks ago. Their 11 helicopters and two C-160 cargo planes are airlifting rice and tents to isolated villages devastated by the Dec. 26 earthquake-generated waves, which killed at least 145,000 people in Asia and Africa. Foreign Legionnaires are clearing debris left by the waves, rebuilding schools in Maleuboh and occasionally extinguishing fires that flare. French doctors are treating the sick and vaccinating as many as 10,000 Acehnese children against measles. Many of those children had never been immunized against disease. "The children are smiling again. This is a good sign," said Maj. Francois Masse, a veteran pilot of French relief work in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chad.
Although media attention has focused on the U.S. contribution, particularly by the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its battle group, aid officials say the French and other forces are playing an equally important role. "(The French) increase our capacity to move loads into some areas where roads have yet to be reconstructed. Trucks cannot reach these areas," said Daniel Augstburger, head of the U.N.'s relief work on Sumatra's western coast. That responsibility likely will increase once the Americans leave with their three dozen helicopters.
The French, who also are conducting relief operations in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, object to comparisons with the Americans. "The feeling we had in France was that, as usual, the Americans were rushing in force to Indonesia and boasting about it," said flotilla spokeswoman Cmdr. Anne Cullerre. "For some people, it seemed outrageous. "How can you really boast of doing something from this tragedy? People were saying, 'They are doing it again. They are showing off.'"
Critics of the U.S. military's work in Indonesia say Washington has seized on the disaster as a pretext for advancing its strategic interests in the archipelago and improving ties with the Indonesian military. Those ties effectively were cut in 1999 after Indonesian troops and their proxy militias killed 1,500 East Timorese after the half-island territory voted for independence in a U.N.-sponsored independence referendum. During her recent Senate confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the tsunami provided a "wonderful opportunity" for the United States to reap "great dividends" in the region. The dispatch of the USS Abraham Lincoln's strike force has been viewed in some quarters as an effort not only to help survivors, but also to burnish America's image among Islamic communities worldwide by delivering aid to the largest Muslim country in the world.
The French maintain they do not have strategic interests in the region. The contrast with U.S. forces does not end there. The U.S. military bans alcohol aboard naval vessels and sailors generally wear casual clothes only in their quarters. But French sailors aboard the Jeanne D'Arc pick from wine, beer and other alcoholic drinks, and their ready-made meals come with pate. On deck, they sunbathe in the muggy heat in shorts and sandals. However, what really sets the French apart is the paunchy, bearded civilian riding a sloop to the shore. He is artist Michel Bellion, appointed to paint the French military in action in his trademark bold strokes and bright colors. "I'm here to show the drama," said Bellion, pulling out a sketch book as he accompanied a team of doctors vaccinating children. "For me, it's hell. That is what I want to show. I'm not looking to make it beautiful. I'm trying to show the emotion."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005
7:34:57 PM ||
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#2
Okay, so it took them how long to get there? And with tourist-like clothes, artists (!), and wine, just who's showing off here? And, of course, there's a chance to bash the US. We've just been there helping since the beginning, but we don't expect any thanks, no sir . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
01/30/2005 19:49
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#4
"Foreign Legionnaires are clearing debris left by the waves"
So typically French -- to have someone else do it.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 21:17
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#5
No brag; just the facts. And just how many more people would have died if all nations providing aid had waited 5 weeks to begin like the French did? Pathetic. Shut up and get to work.
#7
yeah BH, I thought this was scrappleface as well.
For instance:
"I'm here to show the drama," said Bellion, pulling out a sketch book as he accompanied a team of doctors vaccinating children. "For me, it's hell. That is what I want to show. I'm not looking to make it beautiful. I'm trying to show the emotion."
We've got combat correspondents and they've got an artiste.......bwhahaha.....fags.
#8
"The feeling we had in France was that, as usual, the Americans were rushing in force to Indonesia and boasting about it,"
-boasting about it? Maybe, maybe not. Rushing in force to save lives - definitely. You fuckers can sit around w/your thumbs up your ass, don't worry though, the yanks will handle business as usual & in a timely fashion.
"For some people, it seemed outrageous. "How can you really boast of doing something from this tragedy? People were saying, 'They are doing it again. They are showing off.'"
-as usual the french military couldn't pull off one candy-assed meals on wheels op without showing their massive inferiority complex.
#10
Just read the U.N. Recent press report of all which they have done - singlehandily. The Diplomat (the entry for Thursday Jan 27, 2005) shows that the U.N. is talking credit for just about everything everyone else as done and has ignored all the fine work the Australia and the United States had done soon after the disaster.
From the Diplomad:
So, "20 foreign militaries lent" their assets, eh? Lent? To whom? Not to the UN, that's for sure. For at least three of the past four weeks, the UN had nothing to do with the operations of the "20 foreign militaries." The UN certainly was not directing the Aussies, who were the first ones in; they blazed the path for the rest and thousands of people owe them their lives. They weren't running the assets of the Kiwis or the Singaporeans, either, and they sure weren't running ours. Up until just a few days ago, those "20" foreign militaries were Aussies, Singaporeans, Kiwis (who've gotten little credit for the fine work they've done), and Yanks with a modest but appreciated assist as of about 10-12 days ago of the Spanish and the Pakistani militaries. The coordinating was being done by the Australians, the USA and the Indonesian military. Up until just about four or five days ago, except for the disaster tourists such as Annan and Bellamy, the UN WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN -- except quite overwhelmingly in Jakarta's luxury hotels, a few UNocrats in Medan, and a tiny handful at the airport in Aceh writing up press releases claiming all the credit for the UN and bad-mouthing the hard-working Aussies and Americans.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi hailed Sunday's voting in Iraq as confirmation that Iraqis want to defeat terrorism and establish democracy. This day "also belongs to us," added Berlusconi, whose government has staunchly supported U.S. President George W. Bush on Iraq. The conservative premier said that with the election, "the Iraqis today confirm their will to defeat terrorism and acquire freedom and democracy." Speaking of the US-led coalition of troops in Iraq, Berlusconi praised security efforts "not only by our soldiers but also those of all the pacifying forces of the other countries, in the first place, those of the United States who have paid and are paying the highest price in terms of human life." Earlier this month Italy suffered its latest military casualty in Iraq with the shooting death of a soldier on helicopter patrol. Italy has 3,000 troops in Iraq, one of the largest contingents after the Americans.
MUCH fuss in Britain lately about Prince Harry's choice of costume at a fancy dress party: the uniform of the Afrika Korps, the Nazis' desert troops, complete with swastika. EU officials are now demanding a continent-wide ban on the display of the Nazi symbol. This is Brussels' answer for any complicated question: if something is bothersome, or might demand some nuanced thinking, outlaw it.
Actually, let's not. The practical effect of banning "symbols of tyranny" such as the swastika, and the communist hammer and sickle, can be seen here in Hungary. They become glamorous icons of rebellion whose display brings instant and copious media coverage... That said, it does seem incredible that nobody told His Royal Stupidness that: a) swastikas are neither cool nor funny; and b) there would be people with cameras at the party, and it was 110% guaranteed that he would end up on the front page of the newspapers...
Thousands of people have demonstrated in support of a Moroccan newspaper which claimed that the tsunami was an act of divine retribution. The newspaper of Morocco's Islamic party, PJD, said the disaster showed God's displeasure with South-East Asia's sex tourism industry.
So He clobbered Aceh? That makes sense. Islamic sense, but sense...
The comments have provoked outrage among people who aren't nuts human rights groups and rival political parties. But the protesters defended the newspaper's right to express its views.
I consider that to be a good sign. Everybody has the right to express an opinion, everybody has the right to throw rotted fruit when the opinion's stoopid...
The Attajdid newspaper said that Morocco could face a similar disaster to the devastating tidal wave if it did not stamp out immorality.
Moroccan immorality looks kind of different from the kind of immorality we're used to...
The articles have been condemned on Moroccan television and have prompted calls for censorship of the press.
Not a good idea. Rotted tomatoes work better...
The PJD said that 5,000 people took to the streets of the capital, Rabat, in support of the party.
It was an interesting sight, all those people rolling their eyes and jumping up and down...
A counter-demonstration called by human rights groups failed to materialise.
"Sorry. Can't make it. My eyes are too tired!"
The BBC's Pascale Harter says there is widespread fear among moderate Moroccans that support for radical Islamic opinions is growing. "They're raving loonies! We moderates know it was the HinJews wot did it."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/30/2005
7:07:22 AM ||
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#5
From Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, written in 1733-1734:
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of order, sins against th' eternal cause.
Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine,
Earth for whose use? pride answers, ''Tis for mine:
For me kind nature wakes her genial pow'r,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r;
Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew
The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;
For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;
For me, health gushes from a thousand springs,
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My foot-stool earth, my canopy the skies.'
But errs not nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
'No ('tis reply'd) the first almighty cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
Th' exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?'- Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show'rs and sun-shine, as of man's desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the light'ning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms;
Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs;
Account for moral as for nat'ral things:
Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind,
That never passion discompos'd the mind.
But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen'ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man..
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 14:23
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#6
No, Ship, Ima start to think maybe Mike is a Bandwidth Sucker.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 14:38
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The number of people looking for work in Germany could rise above the politically critical five million mark this year, Economy and Labor Minister Wolfgang Clement said in an interview published on Sunday. "At the beginning of the year the unemployment figures rise, unfortunately, on account of the winter temperatures, most of the time by around 350,000," he told the Sunday edition of Bild newspaper. "That means we are looking at around 4.8 million unemployed," Clement said. To that can be added "the more than 200,000 jobless who were receiving social welfare until now without actually being enrolled at an employment office," he said. Under the government's new social and economic reforms, aimed at cutting unemployment below the four million mark where it has hovered for years, these people have figured among the ranks of the jobless since January 1. When asked whether the highly symbolic five-million barrier would be exceeded, Clement told the paper: "Now is the moment of truth on the German labour market, the time of obscure figures has passed." Official unemployment figures for the month of January are due to be published in coming days. Analysts warn that the jobless total could rise to five million this winter, not least as a result of statistical changes that came into effect at the beginning of this month.
The French are readying for a fight to keep their 35-hour week, with a survey published Sunday showing nearly four out of five employees opposed plans by President Jacques Chirac's conservative government to make them work more.
The parliament will start debate Tuesday on a bill put forward by the ruling UMP party to water down the law covering the short work week, which came into force in 2000 under the previous Socialist administration.
But the measures envisaged, including making it easier to impose overtime and allowing small companies to maintain longer hours, are viewed by much of the public as a back-door attempt to bury the popular 35-hour week law.
Next Saturday, hundreds of thousands of public and private sector workers are to take to the streets to protest the government's proposed changes.
They are backed by four of the five biggest French unions, which say the reform would result in workers putting in longer hours without extra pay.
A poll by the Ifop institute published in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that 77 percent of employees want to keep working an average of only seven hours a day.
Eighteen percent were willing to increase their hours for more money, the survey said. Five percent of the 489 workers questioned did not respond.
Critics of the 35-hour work week, including French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and his government, say it has failed to achieve the objective of creating jobs by forcing short-staffed employers to hire more workers.
They point at the chronic unemployment rate of 9.9 percent as proof and say that France's economy - the fourth biggest in the world after the United States, Japan and Germany - would be more competitive if workers were able to work up to a maximum 48 hours per week.
Bosses say they are unwilling to hire new employees because rigid labour laws make it difficult to fire staff when circumstances change.
But supporters say the reduction from the 39-hour week that was the previous norm has made a happier workforce - the French, for each hour worked, are more productive than Americans who work an average of 40 hours, and Britons who work 37 hours - and allowed families to spend more time together.
It is, perhaps, in part thanks to the more free time that France, population 62 million, also boasts the second-highest fertility rate in the European Union, after Ireland.
Chirac and Raffarin have given no sign of backing down, however, and have already braved a recent series of strikes protesting their liberalisation programme and budget restrictions.
#1
It is, perhaps, in part thanks to the more free time that France, population 62 million, also boasts the second-highest fertility rate in the European Union, after Ireland.
Ok...but the big difference between the two is that popular baby names in Ireland are "John" and "Mary", while in France they are "Mohammed" and "Fatima".
MASSIVE new aircraft carriers ordered by Tony Blair to strengthen Britain's global role will set sail with outdated technology.
The Treasury is insisting that the two 60,000-ton craft cost no more than £3.5bn if they are to be built at all.
Civil servants at the Treasury have rejected Ministry of Defence arguments that the two carriers, due in service in 2012, should be equipped with the most advanced technology. They argue that the bill for meeting the Royal Navy's specifications would soar to about £5bn.
Sources close to the Whitehall argument said: 'The Treasury is insisting that the carriers be affordable. These ships are being built to last 50 years. It makes much more sense to build in the latest technology over time as it is proved to work rather than spend a fortune now when funds are limited.
'For example, we have perfectly good radar at the moment on our other ships. Why spend so much more on a radar that sees over the horizon when the technology is not completely proven?'
The most expensive and sophisticated part of the carriers will be the computer systems, which, in effect, allow the carriers to become the nerve centre controlling battlefields thousands of miles from Britain.
In the short term, the Navy might now be forced to accept less sophisticated carriers capable of handling 150 of the new Joint Strike Fighters.
At one stage in the battle for resources between the Treasury and the MoD, there were suggestions that the MoD might have to choose between scrapping either the orders for the carriers or for 232 Eurofighters. This is no longer an option.
The carriers are being built by a consortium of BAE Systems, Thales, Babcock and the VT Group. Oh bloody marvelous. Well, it makes sense to put Eurofighters on useless aircraft carriers. Maybe they could be on permanent duty on lake Windermere, not wanting to provoke other countries with displays of military might.
#1
The Eurofighter is NOT an aircraft that can fly from a carrier,it is strictly land-based like the F-15,F-16. I imagine the Treasury was trying to pit the RAF request for new fighters against the RN request for carriers,in the hopes that both would get axed. Unfortunately for Treasury,the Eurofighter is too politicaly connected to get killed,and the carriers are protected by drawing France into the deal. However,there is a strong chance that the RN carriers will eventually go to sea w/French Rafale fighters.(If JSF price continues to climb,don't be supprised to see France offer Rafales as alternative,and to seal deal,France offers to pay part of price of RN carriers.)
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 19:36
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Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday that cooperation between Iran and Ukraine in the fields of industry, trade, investment and energy are in line with mutual interests. In a meeting with new Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Kharrazi outlined Iran's future plans in the areas of oil and gas and added such mutual cooperation would promote industrial and trade ties. "Effective cooperation between Iran and Ukraine will lead to strengthening stability and peace in the region and will be in the interests of all regional states," Kharrazi said. The Ukrainian president said Iran is among important and reliable partners of Ukraine, adding his government's policy attaches importance to expansion of ties with Iran. He added the joint economic commission between the two countries should be seriously followed up and stressed joint cooperation in the fields of plane and wagon manufacturing and ship-building. Yushchenko expressed his country's readiness to play an active role in holding multilateral meetings on Iran's gas pipeline to Europe.
A bomb exploded Sunday in a Mediterranean resort hotel in southeast Spain after a telephone warning from the Basque separatist group ETA, Interior Ministry officials said. The ministry office in the southeast al Andalus Alicante region said it did not know whether there were any casualties. The bomb detonated in the Hotel Port Denia around 3:15 p.m., the news agency Efe reported. The town of Denia is located in the Spanish region of Alicante on the Costa Blanca and is popular with tourists. Efe quoted police as saying the warning call was placed to police in the Basque region. The hotel was immediately evacuated and the bomb exploded about 30 minutes later.
The hotel bombing occurred two days before Spain's Parliament was scheduled to debate — and almost certainly reject — a proposal making the Basque region virtually independent. On Jan. 18, a powerful car bomb exploded in the affluent town of Gexto near the main Basque city, Bilbao. That blast also was preceded by a call from a person claiming to speak for ETA.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005
5:47:57 PM ||
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As the webmaster would say..."Wotta Surprise".
ETA figures hey...if bunch of stupid Muslims can effect an election, then why not us?
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/30/2005 19:32
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The US is increasing the pressure on Iran by sending military planes into its airspace to test the country's defences and spot potential targets, according to an intelligence source in Washington.
The overflights have been reported in the Iranian press and the head of Iran's air force, Brigadier General Karim Qavami, declared recently that he had ordered his anti-aircraft batteries to shoot down any intruders, but there have been no reports of any Iranian missiles being launched.
"The idea is to get the Iranians to turn on their radar, to get an assessment of their air defences," an intelligence source in Washington said. He said the flights were part of the Pentagon's contingency planning for a possible attack on sites linked to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme.
"It make sense to get a look at their air defences, and it makes the mullahs nervous during the EU negotiations (over the suspension of Iranian uranium enrichment)," said John Pike, the head of GlobalSecurity.org, an independent military research group.
The flights come after reports of American special forces incursions into Iran. However, former US intelligence officials have said they believe the incursions are being carried out by Iranian rebels drawn from the anti-Tehran rebel group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, under US supervision.
The US military denied the reports. "We're not flying over frigging Iran," an official said, suggesting Tehran was making up the incidents to attract international sympathy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
5:16:42 PM ||
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#1
ROFL!
Oops, got all dirty and linty again. Gotta stop reading stuff like this.
#3
I suspect that at the moment the mullahs are more worried about the Blue Finger Brigades assembling on the other side of the border. They'll probably ban the sale of blue ink tomorrow.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 18:11
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#5
Wrong again!
Its not US warplanes at all.
Its just some plain old UFO's
attracted by the radiation from Iranian Uranium
purification Plants.
Little green man were actually reported to be mucking around the Centrifuges at Natanz !
#6
"we're not flying over frigging Iran",but those darn UAV's,it's amazing how often they get lost and wander all over the place,just ignoring borders as if they weren't there.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 19:03
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#7
Yeah .... those software bugs, you know how it is.
(ACTUALLY, those UAVs are the ones that were struck by lightning -- Number Five IS ALIVE and monitoring Iran all by his mechanical self. You go, guys!!!)
#8
3rd straight day a very similar article's been posted. Even the mullahs have read it by now
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2005 19:46
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#9
Mad mullah options:
1) Ignore incursions, keep the radars off, and have no warning before a real first strike.
2) Turn the radars on and make them prime targets.
3) Fire missiles, waste them, and lose face (if that's possible).
4) Launch weather balloons and claim the locals' reports of UFOs are weather balloons rather than foreign military aircraft.
5) Duck and cover -- constantly.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 19:59
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Gentlemen, please. The Iranian IADS is well known and well mapped, there are few surprises waiting for us should we decide to roll it back. There are a lot of surprises waiting for their anti-shipping missiles should they be so foolish as to engage with them. We have no need to play with their international borders, on sea or in the air, to get them to reveal anything new to us. We know what is Iranian military, that is, professional and nationalist and not truly opposed to the USA; what is Islamic nutjob and dedicated to destruction (ours or theirs, whichever we can effect first); and what is gangland thug, the street mobsters and brownshirts that work directly for the Mullahs. We know how to kill the right targets and leave the rest for the children of Iran to string up from the lampposts.
In the "triangle of death," where voting is a life-threatening experience, Karfia Abbasi held up her ink-stained finger, elated that for the first time she has been able to cast a ballot for someone besides Saddam Hussein.
"This is democracy," Abbasi said. "This is the first day I feel freedom."
For U.S. Marines helping guard Sunday's vote, the streams of men and women walking into the gritty polling places of this area south of Baghdad was a payoff more impressive than the toppling of Saddam's statue in the capital during the fall of his regime in April 2003 _ less spectacular but tougher to bring off.
"That was a work of triumphs _ those are always easy. This is the hard work of democracy now," Lt. Col. Bob Durkin of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines said Sunday morning, from a rooftop where Marine marksmen stood watch over voting sites.
"Even my Marines are saying, 'Boy, we're doing a good thing,'" Lt. Col. Vinny Coglianese said in the largely Shiite town of Seddah, where scores of voters lined up outside.
The election for a National Assembly was Iraq's first free vote in more than 50 years, and voters showed up in defiance of insurgents threats to kill anyone who cast a ballot _ a warning that rang especially dire in the collection of towns and villages south of Baghdad.
But the triangle of death had no deaths reported in attacks Sunday.
Not that there wasn't violence. The night before the vote, green and red tracer fire and white muzzle blasts lit up parts of the sky in heavy shooting. And in the morning, mortar blasts woke the heavily Shiite town of Musayyib to election day.
In the long stretch before dawn, U.S. troops moved the last concrete bomb barriers and razor-wire streamers into place around polling sites and police stations. They scoured for explosives, sealed off roads and bridges, and ferried last-minute needs _ like metal detectors, and then batteries to run them _ to election workers.
Daylight brought crowded streets, women's black shrouds billowing side to side as parents walked with their children to schoolhouse polling stations.
"We voted before but it was not democracy. You had to choose Saddam," said Abbasi, whose finger _ like those of all voters _ was stained with blue indelible ink to prevent multiple votes.
Abed Hunni, a stooped, whiskered man who walked an hour with his wife to reach a polling site in Musayyib. "God is generous to give us this day," he said.
In the past, "we were all scared of Saddam, but we could only drop the ballots in the boxes, we could do nothing _ Saddam would kill us," said Abdullah al-Seddei, an election worker in Musayyib. "Now everyone can vote for anyone."
On past election days, voters showed frenzied adulation, but only because Saddam's regime demanded it. Sunday, al-Seddei said, Iraqis showed a more realistic seriousness and purposefulness.
The triangle of death is a religiously mixed area. It was once heavily Shiite, until Saddam years ago encouraged Sunnis loyalists to move there from the north and west.
While many towns here have large shares of Sunni Muslims, all the dozen or so voters questioned in the streets and polling places identified themselves as Shiite.
Cpl. Florian Gonzales of Norwalk, Conn., looked on from the sandbagged police station roof.
The 22-year-old had a friend die and at least two others wounded in firefights and bombings on what is his second deployment here. Gonzales' first deployment, in the opening of the U.S. invasion, saw 18 Marines of his battalion killed at Nasiriyah.
"Hopefully, what happens today reflects what we've been trying to do for the last seven months," Gonzales said. "I don't want anyone else to have to come back here and go through what we've been through."
American forces called the elections a successful first test for Iraq's U.S.-formed security forces. So did their Iraqi cohorts.
"When these guys are very old, old guys, they will tell their grandchildren, 'I went to Iraq, to give them democracy and freedom," said Maj. Mohammed Salman Abass Ali Al-Zobaidi, local head of the Iraqi National Guard.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
5:15:20 PM ||
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"When these guys are very old, old guys, they will tell their grandchildren, âI went to Iraq, to give them democracy and freedom," said Maj. Mohammed Salman Abass Ali Al-Zobaidi, local head of the Iraqi National Guard.
Yes, they are the lucky ones.
They're not shovelling shit in Louisiana.
Unlike the Senatorial clowns shovelling shit in Massachusetts.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005 22:12
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American Forces Press Service
ââ¬" Multinational forces caught seven insurgents believed responsible for the rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 29. News reports showed video from an airborne military camera of men fleeing the scene of the rocket launch. They were tracked to a residence in southeastern Baghdad, where Task Force Baghdad ground troops detained them about an hour after the attack. Two Americans were killed and five wounded when the rocket hit a building connected to the Embassy Annex in the city's heavily secured International Zone. One fatality was a servicemember and the other a civilian, according to an Embassy spokesman, who also said none of the injuries is life threatening. "This was a great example of quick reaction on the part of some superb cavalry troopers," said Brig. Gen. Michael Jones, assistant division commander for the 1st Cavalry Division and Task Force Baghdad. "It's one more example to the insurgents that Iraqi and multinational forces will hunt down those responsible for these acts of terrorism."
In other news, three men wielding AK-47 assault rifles launched a pre-dawn attack on Iraqi army troops manning a checkpoint south of Baghdad today. When the attackers fled the scene, the Iraqi soldiers chased down and captured two of them and confiscated three AK-47s. The third man escaped, officials noted. In Kirkuk today, members of Task Force Danger and Iraqi security forces detained five men in a series of raids. The detainees were suspected of emplacing improvised explosive devices, weapons trafficking and kidnapping. The forces seized weapons, ammunition and propaganda in the raids. Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, were hit by a roadside bomb while patrolling southeast of Mosul today. However, they caught and detained nine individuals suspected of being involved with the attack. Insurgents launched mortar, grenade and machine-gun attacks Jan. 29 against police stations, polling places and checkpoints in Hilla, Abu Mustafa and Al Mashru. No multinational or Iraqi forces were killed or wounded. Whole lotta catchin goin on. Keep up the good work, guys amd gals.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005
5:14:21 PM ||
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Airborne Military Cameras are great on cloudless days. Hope their are more of them real soon.
Iowahawk Guest Commentary by Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Like all Americans, I had high hopes for the future of the Oldsmobile and its passengers, as we struggle against the onrushing water and its poorly-designed shoulder belts. But as claustrophobia sets in we must begin to sober up and face the truth: hope is no longer an option.
It is time for us to recognize that our continued presence in this volatile region is a hinderance to the Oldsmobile and its people. Rather than helping the situation we are further weighing down the Oldsmobile, causing it to sink faster and faster into the quagmire of Chappaquidick Bay, creating a dangerous situation for both ourselves as well as its passengers who are desperately seeking an air pocket in which to start a better life.
That is why I believe we have reached the point where we must take a deep breath and immediately depart the Oldsmobile. We must seek through the watery darkness and release the belt latch of madness that has kept us here, and reach out for a sane and honorable window crank.
Obviously there will be passengers in the Oldsmobile who do not want us to leave, and will likely try to grasp and grab at our feet as we depart. While we wish them success, it is critical that these passengers quickly learn independence and self-determination. The most effective way to teach them is through example, and with a vigorous kick-off. Let us hope they will cherish our shoes as a lasting legacy of our commitment to liberty.
And, after we return to the safety of the American shore and phone our lawyer, we must begin to ask the hard questions. How did we get here? The sad answer is that we were sold a lie by Gene Quinlan of Hyannisport Oldsmobile-Buick-GMC. We were told that this Oldsmobile had the Delta 88 Royale option package with 6-way electric seats. We were told that they were sold out of the new '69 Toronado. We were given a choice of a burgundy vinyl roof, but never given an exit strategy. We were told, repeatedly, that the Oldsmobile was waterproof and had an automatic pilot system. In short, Gene Quinlan sold us a lie.
There will be ample time for us to reflect on the mistakes and lies of the Oldsmobile misadventure, and hold those who were responsible to account. But that is for another day. Now we must focus our energy on getting out before it is too late.
Come home, America. Come home.
Posted by: .com ||
01/30/2005
5:08:24 AM ||
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That was crude, cruel and way over-the-top. I wish I could write like that.
They are no doubt fighting to free Iraq from foreigners ...
TWO of the suicide bombers who staged attacks in Baghdad during the Iraqi election were Syrian and Chechen, an interior ministry source said today.
The source also said some attackers had been detained during the day.
"We have arrested some people, but I cannot give figures or nationalities."
Several suicide bomb attacks, most by individuals who carried belts packed with explosives toward polling stations and other targets, were carried out during the election.
The group of Iraq's al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed overnight it had carried out 13 suicide attacks to "spoil the party". The Internet statement could not be independently verified.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
5:08:09 PM ||
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The Chechens had an opportunity to enjoy enormous sympathy among US citizens as underdogs who had suffered unjustly, who had resisted Russian oppression, and who deserved independence. They have pissed it all away in the past decade. It's a nation that has been thorougly criminalized.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 17:32
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#2
I agree with Mike Sylwester!?! I think I need to go lie down for a while.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 17:34
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#3
Title clean up Aisle 7:
Correct phraseology should be: Syrian, Chechen nationals all over were behind Baghdad booms.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 18:09
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Militants killed a Kuwaiti security officer and wounded three other commandos on Sunday during a shootout in this pro-U.S. Gulf state which is facing an outbreak of al Qaeda-linked violence. Police said the men, all with the special forces, were shot during a raid on suspected militant hideouts in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district. Witnesses said a civilian was also killed in the firefight. The raid, which targeted two buildings in Salmiya, came a day after the government of this oil-rich state and the U.S. embassy warned more militant attacks were possible. "We are searching for an armed group that is wanted by state security," a security official told Reuters.
Witnesses said police had cordoned off a block in Salmiya and were firing machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades at the gunmen. A helicopter also hovered overhead. A Syrian woman who works in one of the targeted buildings told Reuters the gunmen had knocked on her door before fleeing from their police pursuit. "I locked the door and didn't let them in. I then smelled gunpowder and heard blasts. Bullets have hit the windows in my office," she said, speaking by cellphone from the building.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
4:30:34 AM ||
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Pictures posted by Powerline. CLICK ON LINK ABOVE.
All cars were banned, so people walked to the polls, some for miles. The elderly and handicapped were carried, rolled in wheelbarrows, etc.
Americans who complained of long lines in our last election can SHUT UP.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005
3:21:32 PM ||
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Since the fall of 2001 various idiotarians have been warning us that if we fought back against the terrorists the "Arab Street" would rise up. Well, here's photographic proof that they were right -- just not the way they thought they would be right.
In particular I seem to recall our gallant ally (spit) Hosni Mubarak telling us that we would create 100,000 bin Ladens. Today it looks like we've created 10,000,000 of the kind of people Mubarak and his pals fear most: voters.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 16:14
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Many Iraqis living near Saddam Hussein's hometown said they will vote today because the ballot not violence will end Iraq's occupation by U.S.-led coalition troops.
The small town of Alam, 10 miles northeast of Saddam's home city of Tikrit, is relatively quiet unlike other Sunni Muslim areas west and north of Baghdad that roil with militancy and fierce opposition to the national elections.
The local leader of one of Iraq's largest clans here is bidding for a seat in the 275-member National Assembly that will govern the country and draft a permanent constitution.
Mashaan al-Jbouri, who heads the 37-member Liberation and Reconciliation Front, has said the country can be freed from occupation only through peaceful means.
Hasan Mohammed Khazaal, a 24-year-old university student, backed that notion.
"We will have a new constitution and I can get rid of the occupiers through elections. This is the only way to evict the occupiers,' said Khazaal, who decorated his car with posters of al-Jbouri, the local chief of the Jbour clan.
Al-Jbouri served as the governor of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, for a few months after the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003. He is now a member of the transitional National Council, a government oversight body.
Maj. Gen. Suleiman Youssef Ahmad, a retired officer who served in Saddam's army, has gone house to house in Alam explaining to people what elections are and why they should vote.
"I am not only going to vote. I am guiding the people how to do it,' he said.
Another official, 50-year-old Brig. Gen. Mattar Saleh, said he was voting as a means to get foreign troops out of Iraq.
"We are Iraqis who oppose sectarian division, and our aim is to liberate our country from occupation,' he said. "I can tell the government that I will elect to ask the occupiers to leave the country through peaceful means.'
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
3:14:37 AM ||
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This story deserves the jaw-drop image. They, at least those interviewed in SunniLand, seem to get it. Stop attacking, participate in the elections, follow the rule of law - and the troops can leave them in peace. Of course the reporter didn't talk to those who don't get it, but for these people to have given their names, and a clan leader among them, is surprising - given that it's an AP story. On AP's site, this headline has apparently already dropped off the menu - one bomb, shooting, or hangnail somewhere and that would have to trump the good news, of course.
I hope the Kurds came out in droves and achieve a near 100% turnout.
#3
Raptor, please, most of these people have never experienced Democracy or real elections.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:37
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#4
"We are Iraqis who oppose sectarian division, and our aim is to liberate our country from occupation,â he said. "I can tell the government that I will elect to ask the occupiers to leave the country through peaceful means.â
#6
The concept that the Occupier will just up and leave is not a scenario that the average iraqi or arab can get their mind around. That is not how politics is run in the Middle East. This idea that a vote process can determine the real outcome of a nation does not match reality. That Iraqis are prepared to go down this path is truly revolutionary.
Posted by: john ||
01/30/2005 13:07
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Although he shaped almost every facet of today's elections, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani has no plans to vote, one of his representatives said yesterday. The cleric leads this nation's 15 million Shiite Muslims, 60 percent of the population, and he may be the most powerful man in Iraq. But Sistani was born in Mashhad, Iran, he is an Iranian citizen, and, according to the rules of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, he is not eligible to vote, the representative said. "I assure you Sayed Sistani won't vote in this election, because he doesn't meet all the required conditions as spelled out by the IECI," said Sayed Murtdha al Kashmiri, Sistani's representative in London. "He will not vote, but at the same time, Sayed Sistani obliges every Iraqi to vote in the elections."
Sistani's name has been invoked frequently throughout the campaign. Although he is not a candidate, his picture appears on campaign posters for the major Shiite slate, the United Iraqi Alliance. He also blessed that list, positioning it to win the majority of seats. And he issued a fatwa, a religious decree, that declared voting a religious duty. In Najaf, where the reclusive religious leader lives, many residents said they hoped he would vote, or at least leave home to visit a polling center today. They said they believed that his presence would energize the process and ensure that victory for the United Iraqi Alliance. "It is expected that Sayed Sistani will go out to the polling centers because the grand ayatollah urged and motivated this election. He supported the Iraqis to move forward," said Abdel Amir Kadhim Jawad, 51. "And whether he is an Iraqi or Iran citizen, his word is first and final." Kashmiri, however, said that Sistani didn't want his advocacy of the process to be interpreted as political maneuvering. "I know that Sistani doesn't seek any political position of any kind," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
3:06:14 AM ||
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ooo.... now I understand.
It will be interesting to see him return to Iran...
#3
Dishman, Sistani always claimed that he won't be interferring with the political process, at least not directly. He is a part of the branch that adheres to the concept of separation of church and state, to which the grandson of Khomeini belongs to as well (that is why Khomeini has been exiled from Iran)
In a way, he can exert a great deal of influence, but he is not directly responsible for any policies. A grey eminence of sorts. He's already got all the power he needs.
There were several attempts on his life. Who do you think was behind it ... and then ask yourself why would he return to Iran?
#4
Cynicism aside, Sistani does not believe in injecting religion into politics. He has been remarkably consistent on this matter.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:26
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What Sistani says about keeping state and religion separate sounds very nice. But the reality is that Sistani's influence is considerable and will remain so in the new Iraq democratic government. The Shiite religion is already flawlessly integrated into the hearts and minds of the majority of Iraqi voters. Let's be serious here. Furthermore, the relationship between Iraqi Shiite clerics is not to be ignored. Besides Sistani's Iranian birthright, consider that many Iraqi Shiite clerics found sanctuary in the bosom of Iran during Saddam's reign of terror against Iraqi Shiites. And he issued a fatwa, a religious decree, that declared voting a religious duty.
They said they believed that his presence would energize the process and ensure that victory for the United Iraqi Alliance.
And whether he is an Iraqi or Iran citizen, his word is first and final
#6
I believe that Sistani is one of the biggest threats to the mad mullahs. If he returns to Iran, it will be under conditions they find less than pleasant.
From The New York Times
The execution of Michael Bruce Ross, the convicted serial killer who was scheduled to be the first person put to death in Connecticut in 45 years, was delayed hours after a conference call in which a federal judge criticized his lawyer's handling of the case. The lawyer, T. R. Paulding, announced early yesterday - little more than an hour before Mr. Ross had been scheduled to die - that "a question has been raised about a conflict of interest" that touched on his continued representation of Mr. Ross. ....
The Connecticut's attorney general suggested that Mr. Paulding's conflict could mean that Mr. Ross no longer had a lawyer and that without a lawyer, he could not be put to death.
"He must be represented by counsel," the attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, said in an interview. "We've said to all courts, we respect his right to counsel." ....
Another lawyer involved in the case, Antonio Ponvert III, who represents Mr. Ross's father, said Mr. Paulding had spent hours talking to Mr. Ross at the prison on Friday afternoon and evening "about the need to have someone take an objective look at Mr. Ross's mental state, but he was unsuccessful." Mr. Paulding then told corrections officials that he had "serious conflict of interest issues" and that he could no longer be an advocate on Mr. Ross's behalf for the execution, Mr. Ponvert said.
Mr. Ross, 45, has repeatedly expressed his willingness to die. He admitted to killing eight girls and young women in the early 1980's and raping most of his victims before he murdered them. He was first convicted in 1987 and sentenced to death for four of the killings. ....
The delay in the execution and Mr. Paulding's statement at the prison came hours after he took part in a conference call with Judge Robert N. Chatigny, the chief federal judge in Connecticut. Lawyers representing Mr. Ross's father, Dan Ross, and public defenders who had represented Mr. Ross in the past listened in. The judge told Mr. Paulding, who has been working with Mr. Ross in an effort to forgo all appeals, that "you are way out on a limb." The judge also threatened to have Mr. Paulding's law license revoked if it turned out that his advice to Mr. Ross had been incomplete or inappropriate. ... In the telephone call, Judge Chatigny said he was also concerned that a move from one prison to another had affected Mr. Ross.
Mr. Paulding had insisted that Mr. Ross was sincere in his wish to die and mentally competent to make the decision to stop the appeals. Opponents of the execution have said that Mr. Ross is simply masking a desire to commit suicide. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005
3:01:06 PM ||
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Travesty of justice. ...Ross, 45, has repeatedly expressed his willingness to die. He admitted to killing eight girls and young women in the early 1980âs and raping most of his victims before he murdered them
Heavy gunfire erupted on Sunday in the Kuwaiti district of Salmiya, east of the capital, after police cordoned off an area in search of suspected Islamist militants, witnesses said. "The shooting began about 9.30 am (0630 GMT) after police sealed off a main street, the one with all the restaurants on it," one witness said told AFP, adding that special forces arrived on the scene to back up police.
An AFP photographer in the area said grenades and heavy gunfire could be heard as an apparent gunbattle raged on. The incident came two weeks after a shootout between militants and Kuwaiti security forces left one Saudi gunman dead in Umm al-Haiman, south of the capital near the border with Saudi Arabia. The gunbattle, near the largest US military base in Kuwait, came five days after another clash closer to Kuwait City left two security officers and a Kuwaiti suspect dead. The authorities have seized arms and explosives in subsequent raids around the tiny oil-rich emirate and, according to Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, arrested about 15 suspected Islamist militants. However, an unspecified number, including the group's spiritual leader, are still at large. Sheikh Nawaf acknowledged that the militants belonged to an "organised group", but the country's national guard chief, Sheikh Salem al-Ali al-Sabah, said some of the group were members of Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
2:56:35 AM ||
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Kuwaiti security forces have raided a suspected militant hideout in the capital a day after officials and the United States issued warnings of more al Qaeda-linked violence in the Gulf state.
At least two police commandos were wounded in Sunday's raid which targeted two buildings in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district, security sources said.
"We are searching for an armed group that is wanted by state security," a security official told Reuters.
Witnesses and security sources said police had cordoned off a block in Salmiya, where intermittent gunfire and small blasts could be heard.
"They (police) were shooting at these buildings with M16s and rocket-propelled grenades," one witness told Reuters. "The shooting is coming from various locations."
Several police cars cut off access to the block and a helicopter hovered overhead. State security officers, wearing flak jackets over their traditional Arab robes, milled about among the commandos. Ambulances were seen racing into the area.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:45
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IRAQI Kurds flocked to polling stations in northern Iraq for today's historic election, which they hope will herald a new era for their long-oppressed community.
Pina Mohammed brought her two children to cast her ballot.
"I want their future to be better than ours," she said outside the voting centre at Arbil's Rizkari school.
While many voters across Iraq were hesitant to venture outside after insurgents carried out attacks, this school in Arbil's Sidawa neighbourhood saw an early rush of voters.
Kurdish areas are expected to register the highest turnout in Iraq despite fears that Sunni Arab extremist organisations would seek to target their rival communities to discredit the elections.
A heavy police and Iraqi army presence could be seen around polling stations in Arbil, a city which saw one of the worst Islamist attacks since the US invasion when more than 100 people were killed in twin bombings last year.
Hosniya Jabbar, an 83-year-old woman, also made the effort to reach the polling station.
"My husband is dead and my children live abroad but I am voting for the children of Kurdistan, to give them a better future," she said.
Kamiran Ahmed, 19, was equally enthusiastic.
"Democracy is great. We have deprived of it for so long and now we can finally choose the people who represent us," he said. "I hope that that our lives will be changed that those who made our parents suffer will never come back to power."
Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and is thought by some to be vying for a top position in the next government, was among the first to vote in Suleimaniyah.
The union and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massud Barzani are running on a common slate which is expected to perform strongly and secure more than 50 seats in the assembly.
Unlike the rest of Iraq, it is not the first time Kurds in the three northern provinces have had the chance to vote in a free election. In 1992, just after the first Gulf war, they elected a regional parliament, and in 1999 they elected three provincial councils.
But today's vote is likely to be crucial to the Kurds' political ambitions as the 275-member national assembly up for grabs is charged with writing a new constitution for post-Saddam Iraq.
Kurdish leaders want that text to enshrine their hard-fought right to self-rule and want their existing autonomous region expanded to include the northern oil centre of Kirkuk and parts of two other provinces.
Kurds will also pick their provincial councils and their 111-member autonomous parliament.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
2:53:49 AM ||
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A gunbattle has erupted in Kuwait after police raided a building where militants were believed to be hiding. Police cordoned off an area of the city, from where gunfire and small explosions were heard, reports say. Details of the incident remain limited, although one witness told the AFP news agency the shooting began at 0930 (0630 GMT) on a main street.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
2:52:34 AM ||
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sounds like they got the right bldg.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2005 12:08
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Iraqi women are almost guaranteed to win a significant chunk of seats in the National Assembly because by law they must make up 30 percent of each list of candidates.
The law means Iraqi women could have a strong influence on the policies developed by the country's new government.
It's a big change for candidate Amal Kashif al-Ghita, who paid dearly for her activism under Saddam Hussein's regime. A pharmacist, she was denied work, and her grown son was imprisoned.
Al-Ghita sees her campaign as a natural extension of her role as head of an Islamic charity that cares for women and children. "We should protect the rights of the family as a whole -- the man, the woman and the children."
Many female candidates, speaking recently of their reasons for deciding to run, describe suffering under Hussein's regime and the change that took place in their lives when it fell.
"There was a cover over our heads, but it was lifted once the regime was gone," said Salama al-Khafaji, who was a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council that preceded the interim administration of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
"There are now open opportunities for women to work in politics, in social reform and in any other field," she said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
2:47:44 AM ||
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Interesting. That seems to contradict the LLL talking point about sooo emancipated Iraqi women during Saddam's rule.
The story at the included link is a story that appeared in the local newspaper. It is a human interest story about a woman who survived the Nazi camps. The story is about the world 60 years ago. However, it is a story about facism gone rampant. Whether the threats are from the Nazis or Islamofacists today, the end result is not much different.
Interesting reading...
Posted by: John Q. Citizen ||
01/30/2005
2:11:11 PM ||
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The women took advantage of the national holiday declared for today's election to promenade through the center of this holy Shi'ite city. Shop owners lolled about on carpets by the shrine of Imam Ali, flicking worry beads, bouncing children on their knees, and gossiping with friends. Despite the presence of thousands of special police and Iraqi National Guardsmen, Najaf had the festive air yesterday of a country in celebration. "This is the glorious day Iraqis have been awaiting so patiently," said Raad Abdali, 26, a police officer standing guard at the al-Shekeri Mosque. "Election day will open like a flower, revealing our future."
The jovial atmosphere offered a marked counterpoint to much of the rest of Iraq, which has been plagued by anxiety and fear, with an intimidation and bombing campaign targeting voters and polling sites. Najaf is the spiritual capital of Shi'ite Islam, and one of the holiest places for Iraq's roughly 15 million Shi'ites. Yesterday also marked the Shi'ite celebration of Ghadir, which marks the designation of the first Shi'a imam prophet after the Prophet Mohammed.
Thousands of Najafis roamed the streets: Most stores were closed for the holiday, but people took advantage of a crisp sunny day and a city center suddenly free from traffic as a preelection security measure. Firemen handed out lemon taffy to the men and women strolling to the Imam Ali shrine, many of whom shared Abdali's exuberance. "The fall of Saddam [Hussein] was inevitable, but it was not inevitable that there should be elections," declared Maitha Abdullah, 44, a merchant who sells women's purses.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
2:05:03 AM ||
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This is what the left traitors and Fiskite media beasts worked and fought and lied to prevent. They are the true heirs of Goebbels and Streicher, monsters inciting terror and genocide. They likewise deserve to hang, and I mean that literally.
I am a bit confused as to why Muslims cannot use (give/get) interest. Living in a non-muslim country, it is almost impossible not to deal with interest. ..... Islamic foundations such as ISNA say that they will help pay your house, but they take money from people too, it's under a different title, but it's the same thing as interest.
In the Torah (Old Testament) where intoxicants, fornication and the consumption of pork are declared unlawful interest is also prohibited. ..... But the Jews in their egoism and transgression revolted against this divine law with such intensity that they became proverbial USURERS and INTEREST EATERS. .... This accursed nation was continuously afflicted with punishments and calamities even up to the present day. Their empires and kingdoms were repeatedly overthrown and they wandered from door-to-door. This was in reality the consequences of their insatiable evil deed to consume interest and their insanity ..... When the Christian empire was established, one Jew deluded Christians by proclaiming that Jesus was the son of God, thereby distorting the reality of Christianity. ....
Interest in the Holy Qur'an is referred to as 'Riba,'.derived from the word, 'Ribwun' which literally means 'increase'. This outward increase, in reality, is a loss. Allah most High sanctions in the Noble Qur'an: 'Allah has blighted Usury and made almsgiving fruitful' .... In the above verse, the word 'Yurbi' is used in its literal meaning which means increase and the word 'Riba' is used in its figurative meaning: that excess in a transaction, against which there is no value. If the above meanings are not observed, the correct translation of this verse will not be possible. This verse informs us that the apparent (outer) increase in Interest is in reality decrease and loss and the apparent (outer) decrease in charity is in reality expansion and increase. .... the prohibiting factor is also found in it i.e. decreasing and abolishing. These two realities i.e. prohibition and decreasing are original qualities of the very nature of interest and because the original properties can never be abandoned. From it, no portion of interest can be free from these two qualities. Consequently, each and every part of interest is forbidden and Haraam. The conclusion that little interest and single interest is lawful proves total ignorance of the reality of interest or is based upon false imputations. ....
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Are student loans in the United Kingdom permissible? The loan works around a concept called inflation. What this means is that, as the value of the amount received will depreciate in the following years, an additional amount would be returned, not as interest, but to make up for the loss of the initial value. Therefore, even though (for example) £1000 was received and £1200 was returned, the same amount of gold (or any other item) is purchasable with both amounts. In reality there is no change in the value received and the value returned?
The student loans as explained by you is interest and not permissible.
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I am a university student and have taken out a loan to help me with my studies. Under what circumstances must I pay the loan back, the loan is taken from the kafir in their country (U.K)?
At the outset, we wish to point out that it is not permissible to take out an interest bearing loan. If you did take a loan, it is compulsory to repay the loan even if it is from a non-Muslim in a non-Muslim country
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Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005
1:49:19 PM ||
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"Is it haram to make a living playing soccer or other sports?
"Allah Taãla - the Creator of our Universe - declares in the Noble Qurãn, 'I have not created Man and Jinn except for (the purpose) of worship.' .... Rasulullah (Sallallaaahu Ãlayhi Wasallam) said, 'Every game of man is Haraam except three: a man plays with his wife, breaking (training) oneâs horse and archery.' Rasulullah (Sallallaaahu Ãlayhi Wasallam) said, 'Teach your children swimming and archery.' ... A sport/game which has no religious Or worldly benefit is not permissible. .... the sport/game should not resemble the sport/games specifically identified with other religious communities e.g. Yoga; which may have some worldly and/or religious benefit but includes an impermissible act e.g. wrestling (exposing the awrah). Due to the many evils in contemporary sports, it is not permissible to earn oneâs living through that."
Good heavens! No golf, baseball, or shooting hoops! And what is the awrah?
#3
Thanks, Mike. Bandwidth is like memory, the price just keeps falling.
This should be put with the classics, in case any other Burgers have insomnia.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 16:53
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I stand beside myself with amazement.
Such a system, where things are so unclear that you must ask the Mullah if you can take a job . . . you cannot play soccer for a living?
As a Mormon, we don't hold with drinking, gambling, etc., but if we go to work for someone it is not our responsibility for selling the stuff (owning the business is distinctly different). You have to use your heart and your head (working for an abortion clinic would cross that line, IMHO) in who you will work for.
But not working for an institution which is in the business of providing captial in a way that no one else can? Even I can think of a multitude of simple methods around the strictures, which makes them meaningless. Have the bank buy the house, then charge you for it twice (look at your mortgage and this is what you are doing).
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/30/2005 17:35
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JR - They pay / collect "fees" which are simply usury by another name. Wotta joke.
#7
Interest is a problem for Jews and Christians too because of Ex 22:25, Leviticus 25:36-37. Jews have a partial leniency from Deut 23:19-20 but there are numerous anti interest verses from the prophets.
#8
The difference, BH, is that the Koran disallows one, but not the other. When the Koran speaks, reason, logic, even common sense are shut out. When people ask about the Pharisees, tell them they are like Islam, but not so nit-picky.
In the Koran there are two expressions that could be translated as interest:
Riba An-Nasia - Interest on lent money
Riba Al-Fadl - Interest on things, e.g., you lent me a shovel when it snows, then you have to pay back a shovel and a broom.
There are a number of verses in the Quran and many more in the Hadith and still more in the long discussions of the 4 schools of Islam about this. It is possible that, despite this, one could translate these terms as 'usury' rather than interest but its quite a stretch and it requires' basically ignoring huge numbers of legal precedents. In addition, the Quran and the Hadith specify some really, really nasty punishments.
By contrast, Jews and Christians have translated the hebrew words, 'neshekh and mashsha' and the greek word 'tokos'are frequently translated as 'usury' and there is a long history of post Talmudic and Christian jurisprudence that could support such a translation. Finally, the Hebrew and Christian bibles are light on specifying punishment (in contrast to the Quran)
In February, Georgia will send 550 Georgian servicemen to Iraq who will take part in peace-keeping operations there. The additional contingent will join 300 servicemen from Georgia who have been deployed in Iraq since last November, a representative of the Georgian Defense Ministry told Tass.
The additional contingent will be airlifted to Iraq by planes of the US Air Force.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
1:39:47 AM ||
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What are the odds that these guys are training with GI's? I would say very high...
#2
ZF, IIRC, we have had S.O. troops in Georgia for a couple of years training their troops to erradicate Chechens with Al Queda ties from the Pankisi Gorge. So no bets here.
A religious revival is sweeping Syria, challenging the secular, ruling Baath Party to allow more Muslim influence in government and worrying many Syrians schooled for decades to fear political Islam.
Growing religious feeling can be seen across the landscape, from the proliferation of head scarves worn by young women in Damascus to an enormous privately funded mosque nearing completion in downtown Aleppo. Muslim clerics are growing increasingly bold in asking for democratic political reforms that could give them a larger role in government.
Alarmed by the trend, some within Syria's secular intelligentsia and middle class have begun writing and organizing against it.
Writer Nabil Fayyad accused the government in September of softening its stand against the increasingly popular Islamic movement amid U.S. pressure to reform.
"It's a temporary cooperation," said Fayyad, 49, a Sunni Muslim who was arrested soon after his columns appeared in a Kuwaiti newspaper. "They have the same enemy: the United States. But once the U.S. soldiers leave Iraq, what happens to us?" he said...
Sunni cleric Salah Kuftaro runs Syria's largest Islamic education and charitable foundation, and in the past three years, enrollment has jumped from 5,000 to 7,000 students. "The revival we are witnessing has nothing to do with September 11, but the total failure of secular Arab governments," said Kuftaro, 47.
The profusion of head scarves in even the most upscale Damascus neighborhoods is a sign of piety and silent protest against the Alawites in power, those who wear them say.
"When I see all of these symbols," said Ghada Dassouky, 53, a host of women-only meetings that offer eclectic interpretations of Islam, "... I feel terror, really, because we are worrying about whether or not a woman can show her toes and the Americans are researching deep space. How far away are we?"
#3
When I see all of these symbols," said Ghada Dassouky, 53, a host of women-only meetings that offer eclectic interpretations of Islam, "... I feel terror, really, because we are worrying about whether or not a woman can show her toes and the Americans are researching deep space. How far away are we?"
Yup -- that's what is at stake for you. I sincerely hope you and the women with whom you work can mitigate the rise of Islamicism in Syria.
The buses stopped a few yards away from the polling center and dozens of men and women spilled out. Carrying Iraqi flags, they started chanting: "We are proud of Iraq. . . . Kick all the evil people out and Iraq is the best place in the world."
As they marched toward the entrance of the station, the Iraqis, including a couple of turbaned clerics, started clapping. A few women were crying.
"I have never voted in 60 years, this is the happiest day in my life," said a woman who gave her name as Layal. "I've been living in Lebanon since 1986 and I hope that my vote today will bring me one step closer to going home to Iraq."
For the second time in just over a week, this group of Iraqis had traveled from neighboring Lebanon, first to register and, yesterday, to cast their ballots. One man had brought his young children with him and said he wanted them to witness this "historic day."
The scene was viewed with some apparent unease by nearby Syrian security agents, who are not used to such spontaneous, popular outbursts. Syria remains a tightly controlled country, ruled by the Ba'ath party.
Syria is one of 14 countries where Iraqis have been casting ballots since Friday. In Damascus, they did so under the watchful eyes of Syria's president, Bashar Assad, whose picture, along with that of his late father Hafez, hangs in every classroom.
But outside the schools, in neighborhoods with large Iraqi communities, hundreds of posters of Iraqi candidates from a dizzying range of political and religious backgrounds lined the walls.
The pictures illustrated the choice available to Iraqis now that the Ba'ath party no longer rules Iraq, but it made the Syrians acutely aware of the lack of variety they have in their own elections. It's perhaps to try to avoid this rare exercise in democracy on their territory, albeit by proxy, that Syrian authorities first appeared sluggish in approving the Iraqi polls in Damascus. The agreement with the International Organization for Migration, which organized the absentee vote, was only signed on Jan. 2, weeks after preparations for the polls had started in the other 13 countries.
"The Syrians expressed their political will to support the Iraqi elections, but it took them some time to understand the operational needs," said Luis Martinez-Betanzos, head of the IOM's operation in Syria. "This is a new exercise for them, but since the agreement cooperation has been excellent."
Billboards from the IOM calling on Iraqis to register were displayed on the main streets of Damascus, and lists of polling stations as well instructions to Iraqi voters were published in the state-controlled newspaper. Heavy security was deployed near the polling stations and nearby streets were closed off. But coverage by the local state-controlled media was minimal...
Syria has as much to fear from a democratic Iraq as from an unstable one. The United States has repeatedly accused Damascus of trying to stop the emergence of a stable Iraq by encouraging the insurgency against American troops. Syria denies the allegations and says that chaos in Iraq is not to its advantage, as the violence could eventually spill across the border.
Other Arab governments are also watching today's election warily. One main worry is the rise of a Shi'ite state.
Sunni Gulf rulers are worried the vote will embolden Shi'ite minorities in their own countries, from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. King Abdullah of Jordan even openly raised the specter of a "Shi'ite crescent" from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria. The king has accused Iran, where Shi'ites are in the majority, of trying to influence elections in Iraq, an allegation denied by Tehran... It isn't Shiites you should be worrying about. Democracy can spread faster than influenza.
#1
I really want to know something.
The Iraqi expats in Syria and Iran got to vote.
Syria and Iran are our enemies. Syria and Iran are threatened by democracy in Iraq.
Whose balls got twisted how to force those two countries to cooperate in their own destruction?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/30/2005 17:24
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Depends, I think, on the veracity of the ballots which are in the hands of the Syrians and Iranians. Would anyone with 2 neurons to rub together believe they would not tamper, at the very least, or more likely replace the ballots with a set heavily favoring whichever parties are actually agents of the Mad Mullahs?
I believe all of the "expat" voting is bullshit and insane. Consider who was allowed to go abroad in large numbers... first and foremost: faithful Ba'athists, second: Sunnis. The odd exile, such as Allawi himself, were one-offs, not a large community. I worked with an Iraqi in Saudi at Aramco - he was allowed to study abroad, decided to stay abroad, and was working toward getting his family out - this was pre-Iraq War. Now he can get them out with ease, etc. His family are the proverbial faithful Ba'athist Sunnis from a tribe allied with Saddam in the Baghdad area. Even though he has acquired some Western-ish phrases (He loves to say "bloody hell", for instance...) and loves freedom - he would vote for the restoration of power to those who would favor his family. Period. Full stop.
The quickest way to find out if that Arab friend of yours, who seems so Western and modern and all gushy about freedom and rights and such, is your peer or not - just ask him about Palestine. Stand back and have a towel handy. They spittle really flies. Sorry to burst so many bubbles, for your "friends" are not rational, on average. They have been permanently indoctrinated from Day One. Their children (or grand children) might be rational, but only if you take them away and raise them sans the Islamic / Arab indoctrination.
Life's a real bitch, at times. Eventually, the West will realize the nasty fact: you have to either take their children away at birth, or fry 'em up. Otherwise, the shit will go on exactly as it has for century upon century, age upon age.
The FBI warned all federal agents Friday that a Mexican drug cartel has 250 armed men on the border near Matamoros and is planning to kidnap two federal agents in the United States and smuggle them into this nation, where they'll be murdered. The FBI office in San Antonio declined to discuss the source of the information, but issued a written bulletin warning of an "immediate threat to law enforcement personnel." The bulletin goes on to say the "extremely violent" drug-smuggling organization known as the Gulf Cartel already sent a contingent that are believed to have valid visas to enter the United States. "Due to the nature of this immediate threat, all law enforcement personnel are being cautioned to ensure appropriate measures are taken as well as to keep a high degree of vigilance," the bulletin states.
Rene Salinas, a spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio, said the information is "uncorroborated," but that federal agents and police are being told to use extra caution. "We are trying to see if it is legitimate," he said of the murder-kidnap plot. "It could be DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) or Border Patrol. It could be anybody," he said of potential victims. He stressed the FBI bulletin was "law enforcement sensitive" and not intended for the public.
Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar finally arrived back in Britain last week after their three-year imprisonment in Guantanamo, to near-universal acclaim and sympathy. Their lawyers insist that they are totally innocent of any involvement in terrorism. The men themselves say that they have been tortured, and that the admissions made by three of them that they had been recruited by al-Qa'eda , and undergone training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan are completely false.
The horrors of what undoubtedly took place in Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq, have convinced many people that the Americans must also have administered hideous tortures to everyone they imprisoned at Guantanamo. In fact it is not at all clear that the Americans have tortured anyone in Guantanamo. Some of the "sexual tortures" women interrogators rubbing their breasts against the backs of those being questioned sound, to Western ears, too close to the comfy chair of Monty Python's Spanish Inquistion to be taken seriously. Surprisingly, perhaps, the US army authorities took them very seriously: they dismissed for "inappropriate conduct" a female interrogator who was found to have run her fingers through one detainee's hair and sat on his lap during an interrogation.
The detainees in Guantanamo were certainly humiliated and made to feel extremely uncomfortable. They may have been deprived of light and sleep and forced to stand for long periods. But did it constitute torture? The US Department of Defence insists that none of the Britons even alleged they had been tortured or abused until October last year and that when US officials investigated those claims, they not only found they had no foundation, but that one of the Britons had assaulted one of his interrogators.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:50:50 AM ||
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..I wish they would have used pliers,awl,skil-saw,roto-hammer,blow torch, and dull butter knife!
After seeing this photo with the following caption: "People shout slogans during a protest in central Madrid January 30, 2005. Marchers were protesting Iraq holding national elections under what they called U.S occupation. At least 10 suicide attacks targeted polling stations and voters on Sunday, but Iraqis still voted in large numbers. REUTERS/Susana Vera," I dug out a translation of article, sent to me by e-mail, titled: EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE written by Matthias Döpfner, Chief Executive of German publisher Axel Springer AG, in the daily WELT. EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements. Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us. Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U. N. Oil-for-Food program. And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of
appeasement...
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany. I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".
What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction. It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.
Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed. In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China. On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything. While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive". These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house.
#1
The last image is an instant classic. Bravo to the Iraqis, well done. Arsenic raspberries to the tranzi "ists" - fascists, socialists, communists, maoists, marxists, multicultists, OWGists, ad infinitum ad nauseum... and their onanist apologists who frequent the 'burg.
#2
The U.S. Constitution begins "We the people...".
The European Union Constitution begins "HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS...". I kid you NOT. The Preamble begins on page 11 of this PDF file:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/21_07_04cg00086.en04.pdf
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 15:00
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#3
Yep, Tom.
I've always thought the difference between Euros and Americans is that we think of ourselves as citizens and they still think of themselves (if only subconsciously) as subjects.
European: Pay attention to your betters.
American (non-leftist): That sumbitch ain't been born yet!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005 15:25
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#6
That is a keeper (Winston Churchill reborn as an Iraqi woman), and that's saying something considering the many amazing photos coming out of Iraq today. What makes it really work here is the contrast with the top shot of the Spanish protest.Cowardice, meet courage.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 15:57
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#7
The Preamble begins on page 11
That alone should make you reject it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/30/2005 15:58
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#8
...flip me that blue finger any time!!!
Posted by: Red Stater ||
01/30/2005 16:00
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#9
In all fairness, there are a HELL of a lot of people in eastern Europe who just fume when "old Europe" and Brussels speaks on their behalf. They resent western Europe, always willing to let them suffer under the Soviet bloc, being snooty to America, who was always there to give them hope and encouragement, even if it couldn't do much more to help them at the time. And they see America *still* trying to help oppressed people, and western Europe *still* stubbornly wanting to maintain a loathsome status quo, or make some petty profit at the expense of suffering people.
I still think of a Czech professor who, in 1968, brought his class of American students to tears telling them about the ongoing invasion of his country. And I think of how few other countries there are, where students would cry in sympathy for a people they had never met, whose dreams of freedom were being crushed by tanks.
Old Europe had it's collective butt kicked today in Iraq in conjunction with the Democratic Party of the USA.
What must it feel like to be on the wrong side of history? What must it feel like to have no sense of one's manhood? No courage...no higher purpose? The answer to those rhetorical questions will never be known since I'm a card carrying Republican and a free man.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/30/2005 16:31
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#11
This is why we see a division between Old Europe and New Europe and why New Europe stood against Saddam. Countries like Poland have seen what happens when you end up with the short end of the appeasement stick.
#13
It is interesting to watch the progress of the rot in Old Europe, cloaked in the recurring guise of "experience". Inevitably I find myself saddened by what they are losing, especially in the U.K. and Germany, and their sense of resignation and surrender to the tides of Islamists who come to hasten the fall of the West. I was heartened today by the proof that great powers still have a sense of being able to shape the course of the world when faced with great adversity, and marvel at the old friends who have fallen to the wayside because they lost faith in us. I confess, I fear we are headed their way in time, but not yet, by God, not yet!!!
#15
Put your desired name in the "Your Name" box on the comment form, stop erasing your Rantburg cookie, and give it time. What's wrong with "Thraing Hupoluper1864"?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 17:14
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#16
If you lost your Rantburg cookie, then a name is generated for you. I think Thraing Hupoluper is a very nice name, but apparently there are 1,863 who had the name before you do.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 17:27
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#17
I think the number means that the Hupolupers first posted in 1864. Thraing should be proud to be part of the tradition.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 17:31
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#18
A couple of years ago a friend bought me as a gift the book "Atomised" by Michel Houellebeck (a European Novelist currently living in Ireland).
I have read about half through the book while I gradually felt an intense need to vomit.
The book is a fairly accurate description of the faithless, pointless, utterly materialistic, masturbating society Europe has become.
I could not bring myself to finish the book because it is so totally depressing.
It may , however, be mandatory reading material for anyone who wants to understand the spiritual abyss into which Europe has fallen.
Be warned though, it is not a very pleasant reading experience.
This European doesn't even know how to translate a word such as 'better' used as a noun. I can only translate it in the adjectival sense.
"I've always thought the difference between Euros and Americans is that we think of ourselves as citizens and they still think of themselves (if only subconsciously) as subjects."
I thought that was something that was typically used as the distinction between Americans and Brits. But I'm sure the proverb can be modified.
#24
Talk about your ultimate wingnut. How can the bleeding hearts in Madrid bitch about 72% of the Iraqis voting for their own creators of their own constitution?
Those people need to be swallowed up by a giant Whale and farted out its backside.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 17:59
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#25
And Tom, in regards to #2, you're always always amusing. European eurosceptics (mainly Brits) generally have the opposite argument:
"Ohmigod, it's a Constitution and that's so horrid because a Constitution is so very different from the treaties we had previously, and we don't need no steenking Constitution. Quick, quick, make it more like a treaty."
On the other half those people that only play with the pretense of having specific objections (mainly anti-European Americans) but in reality just either hate the entire continent or atleast the principle of the EU at its core, accuse the Constitution for not being Constitution-like enough.
Ofcourse thus they bring their arguments in opposition to those of the only eurosceptics that actually matter (the ones located in Europe and who oppose moving European Union having any Constitution at all). But idiocy is always self-negating that way.
To sum it up: If you want the European Constitution to become more like a Constitution, less like a treaty, then I agree wholeheartedly with you.
This European doesn't even know how to translate a word such as 'better' used as a noun. I can only translate it in the adjectival sense.
I'm glad to hear that, Aris.
Unfortunately, too many in Western Europe can't. It appears to me they still accept a "ruling class" which "knows better" in the form of their career politicians. The Phrench seem particularly bad about it, but they're not alone.
I don't remember the exact quote, but somebody in Austria said, when Arnold was elected Governor of California, that it was nice but he shouldn't be the governor, it should be left to the professional politicians.
Riiiiiight.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005 19:37
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#27
"...he's having a bad day already."
"...what are you talking about?"
I'm talking about this article and especially the Madrid protest photo. These are the people with whom you are in union. Even though you are very liberal about all kinds of unions, that must be depressing.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 19:47
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#28
These are the people with whom you are in union.
If by that you mean the European Union, we have similar and worse people in Greece, so I'd be in "union" with them regardless, unless I wanted to declare my flat a sovereign nation.
If by "in union" you mean "in agreement", then I'm quite sure that I've never argued against elections in Iraq.
#40
It was never planned. The most leftwing Greenie we have (so radical that he had to run without a secure Green list seat) proposed the Muslim holiday and was nearly laughed out of town by all parties (the Muslim organizations excepted of course). This article was written some time ago, the day when that proposition was made... that explains some of the bile. About every German found the idea nuts and it was of course buried.
Die WELT is, of course, the major traditional US and Israel friendly serious daily paper in Germany. I think it's too negative in some respects. The Eastern Europeans (and that would include the East Germans at that time), were no cowards when they faced down their commie governments in 1989. It's true that Ronald Reagan paved the way for Gorbachev's perestroijka, but lets not forget that the Stasi had already set up the camps for the peaceful demonstrators of 1989. Berlin could have lived a Tienanmen moment, with less luck. The demonstrators were well aware of that.
#41
TrueGermanAlly: The Stasi had already set them up? Where can I get more info about that? The more or less official line on the 'Chinese solution' was that the SED-bonzen balked because they couldn't be sure the troops would obey orders to shoot... and that Mielke gave up on it after the Leipzig demo where they were expecting 8,000 and 80,000 showed up. It is true that all the people participating in 1989 were very brave; nobody knew at the time that the commies wouldn't shoot back.
As for appeasement... the German Left is still sore at everyone for the failure of "die andere Republik". 1989 doesn't mean anything to them. The will of the people doesn't either. We have the same nuts here in Latin America. All they can see is their old and rotten Marxist dogmas, that tell them none of this should ever have happened.
Posted by: Hans Averdung ||
01/30/2005 22:50
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The controversial policy of detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial was a key tool in preventing Britain from being attacked by al-Qa'eda militants, senior security officials believe. The officials say that the emergency measure, introduced after the September 11 attacks on America, deterred scores of terrorists from entering the United Kingdom, and they fear that ending the policy will increase the chances of an attack here. Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, told the Commons last week that he was bowing to a law lords ruling to end the detention of foreign nationals suspected of threatening national security.
In future terrorist suspects, including those with British nationality, would be subject to a wide range of "executive control" orders, including house arrest and electronic tagging. The officials said they would have to "wait and see" whether the powers would be as effective. One security official added, however, that the threat from terrorism was as "real today as it was in the immediate aftermath" of the World Trade Center attacks. He said: "The terrorists knew that they could be detained indefinitely and so in many cases they stopped entering the country. It was simple but effective."
The officials described terrorism as a "covert conspiracy" in which family and friends of terrorists were oblivious to their activities and that the only way to counter the threat was to "develop tactics to subvert the threat". The evidence gathered by MI5 and the police in such circumstances cannot be used in court because it would compromise future intelligence-gathering operations and the human sources who helped to supply the information. In the cases of 12 foreign nationals being detained without charge by the British authorities, intelligence on their activities was revealed to the Special Immigration Appeal Commission, a court with powers to deport or detain terrorist suspects. The 12 suspects are being held under the 2001 Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act in Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons. When they are freed, they are likely to be held under house arrest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:46:17 AM ||
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One of the Guantanamo Bay detainees freed in London came face to face with Osama Bin Laden at a terrorist training camp, according to court documents revealed today. Richard Belmar, 25, and three others, were released without charge by Scotland Yard this week after officers concluded that there was not evidence to charge them with an offence. But the official US documents allege that all four were trained by al Qaeda in battlefield tactics and the use of assault weapons.
According to US Department of Justice transcripts of a military tribunal held last October, Mr Belmar admitted to living with Bin Laden as he finalised his plans for the September 11 attacks. He is also reported to have been a disciple of Bin Laden's "Ambassador in Europe" Abu Qatada - who is soon to be freed from Belmarsh jail. Mr Belmar, of St Johns Wood, said he did not realise he was at terrorist training camp and thought it was a "military camp for Muslims".
And the difference is...?
But when asked if he, "received basic weapons, war tactics and navigation training at a terrorist training camp?", Mr Belmar is alleged to have replied: "That is true."
All the detainees are accused of being al Qaeda members, according to the transcripts. Feroz Abbasi, 24 of Croydon, is said to have gone to Afghanistan to train to fight Americans and Jews, according to the transcripts obtained by the Sun. When asked about his role, he launched into a rant against "terrorist America".
Martin Mubanga, 32, from Wembley, was seized in Zambia and is accused by the US of being an al Qaeda member and fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan after receiving "advanced military training". Mr Mubanga denied all the allegations and later retracted his statement from the tribunal. The fourth Britain, Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham, refused to take part in the tribunal.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:43:18 AM ||
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A suspected recruiter of young Muslims for combat in Iraq and a man identified as a volunteer allegedly plotted attacks against French or foreign interests in France, the prosecutor's office said Friday. Under questioning, the two men "evoked the possibility of actions in France without identifying precise targets," a statement by the prosecutor's office said. The statement was released shortly after the men, of North African origin, were placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - as part of a probe into alleged networks suspected of dispatching Islamic combatants from France to Iraq.
Farid Benyettoun, 23, identified as an alleged recruiter, and Thamer Bouchnak, 22, a suspected volunteer for combat, were placed under investigation for "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise," judicial officials said. The broad charge allows investigators to hold suspects while they move forward with their probe. A third man, who was not identified, was expected to be placed under investigation Saturday on the same count. The three were among a group of 10 people detained Monday and Wednesday in the investigation of alleged networks in France funneling militants to Iraq. The three were from the same Paris neighborhood as three French citizens who died while fighting as insurgents in Iraq, a French intelligence official said.
The prosecutor's office provided no details on the alleged plot, saying the network allegedly "fomented attack projects on national territory against French or foreign interests." However, investigators noted the two men under investigation so far only spoke of the possibility of "violent actions" in France without defining targets. No explosives were found when the men were detained, the investigators said. The other seven people detained this week were being released, judicial sources said. The judicial and intelligence sources had portrayed the group mounted to funnel insurgents to Iraq as mainly a project among militant neighborhood comrades. One investigator said that at least seven people, including the three French killed in Iraq, used the network to reach their destination. A police official said the arrests "broke the network." Benyettoun was the brother-in-law of a man deported to Algeria in 2004 for his alleged links to the Algerian insurgency movement, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known as the GSPC, the sources said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:41:04 AM ||
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An airstrike by the Sudanese Air Force on villagers in southern Darfur killed or wounded nearly 100 people in a serious violation of a fragile cease-fire in the conflict-torn region, the United Nations said yesterday. The bombardment Wednesday of villages outside Shangil Tobaya sent thousands of people fleeing, UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said by telephone from Khartoum, Sudan's capital. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply disturbed" by the bombing, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
"Deeply, deeply disturbed."
"This is the latest in a series of grave cease-fire violations that have resulted in a large number of civilian casualties, the displacement of thousands of people, and severe access restrictions for relief workers," Eckhard said in a statement. Achouri said African Union observers at the scene had reported "almost 100 casualties" but did not specify how many were dead and how many wounded. "But 100 casualties is 100 too many, be they wounded or dead," she said. "It is definitely one of the most serious violations of the cease-fire" signed by the government and the Darfur rebels last year.
"We're hoping the next violation doesn't have quite that many."
The United Nations' deputy chief envoy to Sudan, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, spoke to the Sudanese Foreign Ministry about the bombardment, but had not received a reply, Achouri said. Sudan's government had issued no statement about the incident by last night. The chief spokesman of the Foreign Ministry did not answer his cellphone yesterday, the Islamic sabbath.
"We gots nuttin' to say. Piss off."
Aid workers based in Shangil Tobaya, 40 miles south of El Fasher, said they saw bombs exploding on the ground Wednesday afternoon and an air force Antonov, a Soviet-built aircraft, circling overhead. Later Wednesday, the African Union, which has 1,400 cease-fire monitors and protection troops in Darfur, confirmed the aerial bombardment, calling it a "major violation" of the cease-fire. "The government of Sudan always says aerial bombardments are not government policy and that President Omar el-Bashir has issued firm instructions that there should be no use of Antonovs for aerial bombardment," Achouri said.
Couldn't have been them, then, right?
The Sudanese government often has been accused of employing its air force against civilians in Darfur, and it has usually denied the allegations. It is rare that the African Union confirms an aerial bombardment. Achouri also said that rebels were believed to be responsible for the destruction of Hamada village in southern Darfur last week. Earlier this week, the United Nations announced the attack on Hamada, singling it out as the worst case of the escalated fighting in Darfur. More than 100 people, mainly women and children, were feared killed. Hamada and Shangil Tobaya lie in the northeast part of South Darfur. Fighting has displaced more than 10,000 people there in the past two weeks, the UN said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:39:19 AM ||
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#1
I expect an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, tonight.
#6
Anyone heard of leftists staging a demo in front of the Sudan embassy? Asking for sanctions? Burning the Soudanese flag? Putting themselves in front of Soudanese bulldozers?
#7
JFM, no, no, no, of course not, but they promise to talk about it sometime ... really they do ... cross their hearts ... mutter, mutter ... natter, natter ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2005 12:52
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#8
Sudanese airstrike in Darfur killed 100
This crap ain't gonna end until there's a nice little airstrike while Khartoum's in full session. Genocide needs to be met with annihilation for those who perpetrate it.
US software giant Bill Gates has high praise for China, which he says has created a brand-new form of capitalism that benefits consumers more than anything has in the past. "It is a brand-new form of capitalism, and as a consumer its the best thing that ever happened," Gates told an informal meeting late Friday at the World Economic Forum in this ski resort.
He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead". Manufacturers have created "scale economies that are just phenomenal", in part owing to companies there and elsewhere on the planet designing good products, Gates said. Looking ahead, he added: "You know they haven't run out of labor yet, the portion that can come out of the agriculture sector" was still considerable.
"It's not like Korea, Korea got to a point where, boom, the wages went up a lot," he said, adding "that's good, you know, they got rich and now they have to add value at a different level.
"They're closer to the United States in that sense than they are to where China is right now."
Gates continued by heaping praise on the current generation of Chinese leaders. "They're smart," he said with emphasis.
But are they smart enough to fix Windows?
"They have this mericratic way of picking people for these government posts where you rotate into the university and really think about state allocation of resources and the welfare of the country and then you rotate back into some bureaucratic position."
That rotation continued, Gates explained, and leaders were constantly subjected to various kinds of ratings. "This generation of leaders is so smart, so capable, from the top down, particularly from the top down," he concluded.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005
12:34:36 AM ||
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#1
Bill, you're losing it. As the Diplomad says, there is no magic third way.
#6
HV: Bill, you're losing it. As the Diplomad says, there is no magic third way.
China's isn't the third way - it's practising raw capitalism - without democracy (just like Taiwan and South Korea until about a decade ago). Bill is just flattering his hosts about their originality - he's an astute student of Alfred Sloan, who built up General Motors to dwarf Ford - he knows what capitalism is all about.
China will eventually reach the same point as Taiwan and South Korea - where economic growth starts to slow, and the population begins to question the legitimacy of the government - which was based on maintaining high economic growth. But China has a while to go before that point is reached - as Bill said, the population is so poor that China's economy is likely to continue growing for several decades. Note that Taiwan and South Korea kept chugging along for four decades before growth slowed. China will likely keep growing for at least that long, if not longer, given how far behind it is, relative to the developed world. The catch-up phase is the easiest phase, and China has a lot of catching-up to do.
#8
Bill joins a long list of China panderers: Cisco, Dell, etc. Its called greed, money over principals and patriotism.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:22
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#9
Anonymoose: Now he can be referred to as "The Charles Lindbergh of China".
Charles Lindbergh was a patriot who did not see the point of the US getting involved in European wars. He volunteered for the service in the Pacific theater and pioneered a few innovations that helped improve the effectiveness of American aviators in the region. He also felt that the long term danger was from yellow-skinned Asiatics.
Bill Gates is a great businessman, but I can't see him achieving the kind of folk-hero status that Lindbergh had. Lindbergh was not only admired - he was loved.
#10
DN: Bill joins a long list of China panderers: Cisco, Dell, etc. Its called greed, money over principals and patriotism.
I'm not sure that calling China capitalist is pandering or unpatriotic*. He's merely stating a fact. China doesn't have Social Security, welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, workplace safety requirements, restrictive zoning codes that impede what individuals can do with their property, et al. In comparison to China, the US is the socialist state.
* It would be unpatriotic for Gates to sell military technology to China without the US government's permission. Other than that, I don't see how patriotism comes into it.
#11
Zhang, can it really be called capitalist when the corporations doing all the 'capitalist' exploitation are all owned by the government, the party, the military, or well-connected party officials?
Just because they exploit their workers and don't have decent social benefits doesn't make them capitalist; by those standards, the old Soviet Union was capitalist too.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/30/2005 10:46
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#12
PF: Zhang, can it really be called capitalist when the corporations doing all the 'capitalist' exploitation are all owned by the government, the party, the military, or well-connected party officials? Just because they exploit their workers and don't have decent social benefits doesn't make them capitalist; by those standards, the old Soviet Union was capitalist too.
First, capitalism refers to the profit motive. Socialist states are operated not to turn a profit, but to allocate resources equitably and rationally based on the decisions of enlightened bureaucrats. Capitalist states allow the economic actors themselves to make these decisions - companies and individuals succeed or fail based on their own efforts. China's loss-making state-owned enterprises don't "exploit" their workers - they lose money because they pamper them.
Second, it is false to say that the corporations making money are government-owned. The government-owned companies are the equivalent of the welfare state. These are generally loss-making enterprises, with schools, medical benefits, et al, all attached to the companies.
Third, the word "exploit" is a socialist term. In a free market of capital and labor, workers are free to choose the jobs they wish to take up. The regulations and social safety nets prevalent in developed countries are socialist measures taken in response to popular pressure, unrealistic projections of how much they will cost and lies about the government (actually, taxpayers) footing the bill - they have nothing to do with capitalism.
#13
Charles Lindbergh was a patriot who did not see the point of the US getting involved in European wars. He volunteered for the service in the Pacific theater and pioneered a few innovations that helped improve the effectiveness of American aviators in the region. He also felt that the long term danger was from yellow-skinned Asiatics.
He was right there with Lt. Commander Lyndon Johnson.
#14
Bill is not losing it -- he never really had it. If IBM had been a little smarter and had not sold him DOS, you wouldn't even know his name. That and no one challenged Windows in time to prevent near-monopoly. The Chinese will eat his lunch.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 12:13
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#15
Two yardsticks for truly free markets: property rights and the rule of law. China is enormously deficient on both counts. Doesn't mean it isn't a hugely energetic nation. But it isn't free and it isn't rich. Absolutely inane remarks by Gates.
#17
Tom: IBM licensed MS-DOS from Microsoft. That's what put Microsoft on the map. Gates leveraged DOS into a monopoly OS franchise that continues to this day and has been extended to Microsoft Office. Take out profits from Windows and from Office and Microsoft is a breakeven company at best.
The Microsoft DOS deal with IBM was in part a fluke. IBM really wanted to do business with Digital Research and license CP/M the leading micro-computer OS of the day for its new PC. But Gary Kildall the founder of D.R. was a hard case and didn't want to work with IBM. So IBM looked elsewhere. They talked to Microsoft, which was known for it's Basic language tools, but didn't have an OS. Gates sniffed an opportunity, purchased a shitty little clone of CP/M from Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products called SCP DOS and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS. That might have been the single greatest feat of arbitrage in human history.
Gates did a lot of tub thumping during the anti-trust trial about preserving Microsoft's "freedom to innovate". The only real innovations to come out of Microsoft have been in the area of coercive and monopolistic business practices.
#18
Charles Lindbergh was a patriot who did not see the point of the US getting involved in European wars.
And here was me thinking Charles Lindbergh was a racist, anti-Semitic, Nazi sympathizer who argued that the Germans were not only unbeatable, but defenders of "our White ramparts".
"We can have peace and security only so long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood, only so long as we guard ourselves against attack by foreign armies and dilution by foreign races."
Not a very likeable or representative American patriot, if you ask me.
He did increase the range of the Corsair, though, and was an inspirational combat pilot, which was nice.
Not quite. It refers to private ownership of companies, in return for investing capital in them. Usually that ownership is in the form of stocks in a corporation, but not always.
It is, of course, the case that those who invest want profits so as to pay out a return on that investment.
#20
Take out profits from Windows and from Office and Microsoft is a breakeven company at best.
? Breakeven?
You mean if you stold 90 percent of it's intellectual property it would still break even?
#24
Reminds me of the people who came back from Nazi Germany raving about Hitler's autobahns.
Spot on, Bulldog!
China has absolutely nothing to do with capitalism. It is and remains an exceedingly dangerous kleptocracy. How ironic that Gates should praise a country within whose borders he has yet to turn a single dollar's profit (especially when balanced against government sanctioned piracy of his products), despite having opened doors there many years ago. Gates is nothing but an extremely fortunate and conniving moron. I can scrape out more vision from underneath my little toenail.
#25
It just goes to show that one can be enormously successful in one area and a doofus in another. There are many successful engineers who are creationists or Scientologists. Einstein was a Marxist.
#26
You are correct, Classical Liberal. Memory failed me. Gates did not buy his DOS from IBM, he just managed to retain the rights to the CP/M clone he bought elsewhere to pass off to them. And that was unusual because normally IBM would have owned all the rights to something produced for them by a contractor. But I'll stand by my statement that the Chinese will eat his lunch.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 14:34
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#27
ZF: Bill Gates is simply following a long and growing list of US firms that are helping the Chinese government accelerate their power grab and restrict freedoms from their people.
By now it is well known about how Cisco helped the Chinese government construct firewalls to block the free flow of information from dissenting voices within and outside China.
The US tech firms are simply play to the tune of the Chinese communist government with their eyes on the huge consumer market that China affords.
To equate this with capitalism is truly simple-minded and short-sighted.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 14:35
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#28
There are many successful engineers who are creationists or Scientologists.
Just reading that makes my skin crawl.
Excellent points, Duke. How those operating within a free economy can so actively sponsor their most dire foes is nothing short of astounding. Unless we break the Chinese mandarins' rice bowl d@mn soon, they will fill it with our collective lunch.
#29
From Time's reporter in Davos: "Huang gave a long overview of China's economic policies without confronting, until challenged by questions, the issues of intellectual property rights and China's exchange rate policy. Yet it is precisely such matters on which foreign investors want to hear clear, unequivocal policies from Beijing. As for the seminal question of whether China's economy can continue to steam ahead without the transparency and accountability that come with democracy and the rule of law, Huang was almost entirely silent..."
#32
Gates did not buy his DOS from IBM, he just managed to retain the rights to the CP/M clone he bought elsewhere to pass off to them
And that was because of family connections. The CEO of IBM at the time served on several charity boards with Gates' mother. When briefed on several approaches to providing an OS for their new PC, he responded "Oh, give the contract to Mary's boy."
#34
"For IBM, Microsoft was a low risk, plus IBM's president John Opel, and Bill Gates' mother both served on the board of the United Way."
http://ieee.cincinnati.fuse.net/reiman/01_1999.html
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 20:42
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A suicide car bomb exploded on Saturday close to a U.S. and Iraqi security center near a polling station in the Iraqi town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad, an election commission official in the province said. Abdul Jaleel Adel initially said the polling station had been targeted but later modified this to say the target may have been the security center. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. forces sealed off the site.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:34:03 AM ||
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Iraqis voted Sunday in their countryâs first free election in a half-century, as insurgents made good on threats of violence with bombs and mortar attacks in at least three cities. Two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were also wounded in the attack near the Zahraa school, used as a voting center.
More than a dozen loud blasts, believed to be mortar fire, echoed across the city shortly afterwards.
Mortar fire and explosions were also heard in the religiously mixed city of Baqouba 30 miles northeast of the capital and in Basra in southern Iraq.
MSNBC-TV's David Shuster confirmed reports of the Baghdad blasts. "In addition to what sounded like explosions, there was also the rattle of gunfire," Shuster said.
There were no signs of voting in the Sunni Muslim stronghold cities â and rebel centers â of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate.
There were no immediate reports of violence at the polls, but an explosion was heard at the U.S. military base in Kirkuk in the north. Scattered small arms fire was heard near another U.S. base near Baghdadâs airport.
âSo far the situation is excellent in all areas,â said the chairman of Iraqâs electoral commission, Abdul-Hussein Hendawi. âAll the polling centers, their doors are open. So far we havenât heard about any problems.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:22
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In Samarra, the crackle of gunfire was heard across the city minutes after polls opened. A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol but there were no reports of casualties. An F-15 fighter jet roared over the town, which was shrouded in a chilly mist.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:29
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Heavy explosions and a series of mortar attacks broke out across Baghdad, and in several other cities, including Baquoba, Basra and Mosul, less than two hours after voting began.
Two mortars hit near the Ministry of Interior on the city's eastern edge, one witness said. And there were gunfire exchanges in the New Baghdad area in the eastern part of the city.
Fighting raged late Saturday in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk between police and insurgents. The clashes occurred in a predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood and lasted for about an hour, according to police Brig. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:37
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Despite extraordinary security measures, several explosions echoed across Baghdad and there were multiple blasts in Mosul and Baquba. Police said a blast hit a polling station in the southern city of Basra but there was no word on casualties. A mortar attack also killed one Iraqi near Hilla, south of the capital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:52
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In restive Mosul in the north, American troops and Iraqi soldiers roamed the streets, using loudspeakers to announce the locations of polling sites and urging people to vote. But streets were deserted.
In the heavily Sunni town of Mahmoudiya in the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, the only cars on the streets were ambulances.
The suicide attack in western Baghdad claimed the life of one policeman and wounded several other people, while mortar attacks in Khan al-Mahawil, 40 miles south of Baghdad, killed another policeman at a polling station.
Witnesses said three other people were wounded when a rocket or mortar landed near a polling station in Sadr City, the heart of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community.
Voters nationwide began trickling past police guards and heavy security into schools and other buildings converted into polling centers. About 300,000 Iraqi and American troops are on the streets and on standby to protect voters.
"I don't have a job. I hope the new government will give me a job," said one voter, Rashi Ayash, 50, a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi force. "I voted for the rule of law."
"God willing, the elections will be good ... Today's voting is very important," said the head of the main Shiite cleric-endorsed ticket, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.
Under the eye of sharpshooters looking down from nearby rooftops, the three were searched first at an outer perimeter about 40 yards from the school, then they had to remove their jackets and take batteries from their cell phones before walking through coils of barbed wire.
Overhead, helicopters clattered and a jet fighter roared by. Occasional bursts of machine gun fire echoed through Baghdad's deserted streets.
Voting was brisk as expected in Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq, where voters were also choosing a regional parliament.
"I can't read or write so I ticked the number" of the Kurdish ticket, said Fouad Fattah, 29, a policeman in Irbil. "I was afraid to make a mistake. I hope the Kurds get a great number of votes so that we can rule ourselves."
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, only seven people showed up in the first two hours of voting at a school in the city center, while in the diverse city of Baquoba, jubilant voters danced and clapped outside a polling station.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, buses hired by city officials picked up people walking toward voting centers to get them there more quickly.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:13
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Despite the attacks, there was brisk turnout in the poor Shiite community of Jisr Diyala in eastern Baghdad, with the number of voters increasing as the morning wore on.
A spokesman for Iraq's elections commission said nearly all the 5,200 polling stations nationwide opened on schedule.
My guess is that turn-out is likely to increase as the day goes on, since most people were wary about going to the polls for fear of becoming Zarqawi's latest victims. In many ways, he may well be a victim of his own hype - he's put so much into bringing down these elections that unless he can mount some major operations across Iraq he is going to lose a lot of the fear that he's enjoyed to date. The emperor, as it were, will have no clothes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:22
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#9
I just about swerved off the road when I heard the ABC Radio (network) news reporter state that 'the insurgents [his word] had done a good job [his term] in intimidating the voters'.
The take-home message I get from that is: ABC considers Vote Suppression to be good when it happens in Iraq.
#10
It looks like at least one of those early explosions were mortars:
Three people were killed when mortars landed near a polling station in Sadr City, the heart of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community. Seven to eight others were wounded, police said.
In addition, two people were killed and three wounded when a mortar round missed a school serving as a polling centre and hit a nearby home in the neighborhood of Amel in southwestern Baghdad, said police Captain Mohammed Taha.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:59
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#11
And the Fallujah residents have started voting as well:
In Falluja, the devastated Sunni city west of Baghdad that was an insurgent stronghold until a U.S. assault in November, a thin stream of people turned out to vote, defying expectations.
"We want to be like other Iraqis, we don't want to always be in opposition," said Ahmed Jassim, smiling after voting.
In Baquba, a rebellious city northeast of Baghdad, crowds clapped and cheered at one voting site.
In Baghdad, a small group ululated as Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, a descendant of Iraq's last king, overthrown in the late 1950s, went to the polls in southern Baghdad. Ali heads a constitutional monarchy list standing in the election.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:01
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#12
Hmm, this may explain why the coalition is so concerned about attacks:
There were ominous signs that today could be violent and chaotic. The police in Baghdad reported that 11 police cars had been stolen in the past 10 days, raising the possibility that insurgents could stage attacks on polling places -- as they have promised -- using one of the few types of cars that will be permitted to move freely on the streets today. Masked men have been spotted carrying away police flak jackets from the scenes of car bombings recently, and security agencies were warning journalists and others to be on the lookout for fake checkpoints that are manned by insurgents in disguise.
For all the thousands of soldiers and police officers on the streets, the security around many of the polling places appeared inadequate and improvised. Many of the barricades consisted of little more than a string of bricks, tin cans and cardboard boxes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:09
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Large turnout was witnessed at polling stations in the different areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Sunday.
Witnesses told that many cast their votes in Sadr City, east of the capital, adding that many arrived early and the electoral process is going smoothly.
Women, elderly and those with special needs had difficulty getting to polling stations where traffic is currently restricted in the capital.
Large numbers of voters also cast their votes in Al-Saadoun, Al-Dawra, New Baghdad, Al-Ameen, Al-Shaab and Awar districts.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:18
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#14
Here comes Zarqawi's opening strike, let's hope the corpse count stays low:
Suicide bombers attacked at least three voting centers in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing a total of eight people, including three bombers, police and witnesses said.
One policeman was killed and nine people were injured in the first attack, which occurred in the Dawoudi neighborhood.
Another bomber struck the al-Quds school, killing three policeman and one civilian, officials said. Six people were wounded.
The third bomber attacked the Mutamaizen Secondary School in the Mansour district, injuring three policemen, officials said.
These could be the other unidentified explosions in Baghdad mentioned earlier. If they are, it is important to note that the Arab Times article I posted citing heavy turn-out in Baghdad post-dates these events.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:25
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A suicide bomber strapped with explosives blew himself up at a polling centre in western Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding nine, police sources said.
Earlier a suicide car bomb killed a policeman outside a polling station and another suicide bomber on foot blew himself up among voters queueing at another centre in western Baghdad, causing an unknown number of casualties.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:28
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#16
Even Rooters seems to admit things are going okay with respect to the security situation:
Some smiled, some were stoic and others kept their faces hidden as Iraqis trickled to the polls Sunday, braving anti-U.S. insurgents determined to drown the historic vote in blood.
In the relatively secure Kurdish north, people flowed steadily to the polls in Sulaimaniya and Arbil.
Families arrived on foot, went through strict security checks and then approached voting booths together under the watchful eyes of electoral officials and security guards.
In Samarra, a restive city north of Baghdad that has a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite population, the crackle of gunfire was heard minutes after polls opened.
A fighter jet roared over the city, which was shrouded in a chilly mist. After three hours, only about 80 people had voted at one of two polling sites. One woman, covered head to toe in black robes, kept her face hidden, but was proud to have voted.
In nearby Baiji, some people were unable to vote because electoral officials failed to turn up. "We are waiting for the manager with the key," said an election worker, apologizing for the mix-up. At one Tikrit station, only one voter pitched up.
In Mosul, Iraq's third largest city in the north of the country, where there is a mixed Sunni and Kurdish population and where the insurgency has been strong in recent months, U.S. officials said voting stations were busy and attacks were few.
"So far it's gone very well, much better than expected," said a U.S. officer, as small arms fire echoed in the distance.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:51
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#17
And all's quiet in Bulgarian-managed Diwaniyah:
The situation in the Iraqi city Diwaniyah, where the Bulgarian unit is located at peaceful at the movement, military officials announced.
Bulgaria's Defence Ministry once again reminded that the Bulgarian troops in Iraq won't be directly involved in guarding the polling stations in Diwaniyah, although the local Iraqi authorities have asked for that.
The soldiers will execute their everyday tasks- guarding the streets of the city and controlling the roads in the region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:55
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#18
Thanks for the updates Mr. Darling. Me and the Missus are opening a exhibition later today, we are asking all those who visit to ink their index-fingers blue to show support for the Iraqi people.
#19
Al-Jazeera, not surprisingly, has a pretty good break-down of the insurgent activities:
Meanwhile, Baghdad's al-Mansur district was hit by car bomb at a makeshift polling station in the Zahra school. Sources said six people were killed, including an Iraqi security member. Thirteen others were injured.
In northern Iraq, six explosions rocked Mosul early on Sunday, but there were no reported casualties. One polling station visited by the media was empty.
Similarly, a mortar shell landed near a polling station in the southern city of Basra, but there were no reports of causalities.
In the northern city of Balad, a mortar attack on a polling station killed one woman and wounded another and her child.
Meanwhile, mortar shells struck a polling station in Sadr City killing four voters and wounding seven others.
Also, few mortars exploded near the US military base in the northern city of Kirkuk shortly before the voting centres opened.
Further attacks were reported from voting stations in the city of al-Duluiya about 70km north of Baghdad.
In Latifiya, mortars struck two voting stations, an AFP correspondent reported. US troops killed one attacker and arrested 15 others, a US officer said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:12
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#20
WaPo is finally running their main story on the elections. If the other major publications start to follow suit, it'll mean that things'll have gotten as bad as it is going to today, as Zarqawi's best advantage would be to attack early in the day:
Final deliveries of more than 7 million pounds of ballot boxes, voting forms, cardboard booths and indelible purple ink to stain voters' fingers were made Saturday to about 5,000 polling sites across the country. It remained unclear, however, how many of Iraq's estimated 14 million eligible voters would turn out in the face of daily threats by insurgents to attack polling stations and to track down and kill those who take part in the elections.
It also seems that Ramadi may well be under al-Qaeda occupation or at least contested, which may explain the absence of voters given Zarqawi's recent statements on how he feels about democracy.
"They should take part because this is the future in the making and people have to take their fate in their own hands," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in an interview with British television. "I ask them to participate in the elections whether they are inside or outside Iraq: Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Christians."
"We have been waiting for this moment for a month," said Malik Adan Hamid, 26, a polling worker at the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad's Mansour district. "There is no fear at all. We were trained for this."
But half an hour after polls opened Sunday, ringed by Iraqi police and troops, only one local resident had voted. Laith Ali, 42, said he would be back later with his wife and mother.
"I don't know how to express this feeling because this is the first time I've done it," said Ali, a merchant.
Officials expected Iraqis to give polling places a wide berth in the morning hours, when attacks most often occur in Iraq and when insurgents likely would try to make an impression that would suppress turnout for the rest of the day. But a senior U.S. diplomat, speaking from the stricken embassy, said several factors, including the apparent disorganization of recent attacks, gave him hope that election day may be less violent than predicted.
"I have a certain faith in the human spirit," he said. "If we get through the morning, I think there's a very good chance it'll snowball and turnout will be much higher than anyone expects."
"It goes to the heart of the issue," said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly. "If Iraqis don't want to stand up and fight for what is right for their country, we can't do it for them.
"But if they do, and they come out, then all the naysayers ought to think a little bit about whether we ought to go home, or if we ought to stay and support that. We'll find out tomorrow."
In the capital, security around the Green Zone on Saturday was extraordinary even by Baghdad standards, giving the city the air of a combat zone. No vehicles were allowed within three blocks of the only public entrance to the fortified complex, protected by tanks at both approaches. Iraqi police cars, before being allowed to proceed to their precinct house, formed a line to be searched by barrel-chested American security contractors and bomb-sniffing dogs.
In a striking scene outside the main checkpoint, American soldiers marched several dozen Iraqi men single-file down the center of the street, like prisoners of war. Each had been frisked and had a decal of the Iraqi flag pasted on his coat. "Election officials," explained the soldier bringing up rear.
"The election returns to us our legitimate rights," said Aquil Sudani, 26, stationed outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Saturday, handing out campaign literature for the United Iraqi Alliance. Dubbed "the Shiite list" because it was assembled with the blessing of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most senior Shiite religious leader in Iraq, the alliance entered the six-week campaign as a heavy favorite.
"We are here to say to the world, 'By God, even if they sever our hands and legs, we shall crawl to the ballot booths to fulfill the pledge," thundered Jalaledin Saghir during Friday prayers at a Baghdad mosque favored by followers of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose clerical leader is listed first on the United Iraqi Alliance slate.
Sistani's portrait dominated the coalition's campaign posters, and mosques issued directions to polling stations. In recent days, however, the Shiite slate has appeared to back away from its overtly religious appeal, producing posters that feature not an ayatollah but a woman with luxurious brown hair.
"Where did that come from?" a senior British diplomat said. "That may mean the religious motif wasn't going over that well."
Allawi, appointed interim prime minister by the U.S.-led occupation authority before it returned political power to Iraqis in late June, was thought to be running strongly. A physician in a country where voters esteem the professional classes, and a secular Shiite, Allawi has run a well-funded campaign that quietly plays on his image of forceful leadership, not to mention fears that the Shiite list is supported by Iran.
"Of course our enemies are trying to break us and to break our world, and stop the process of our elections and the political process overall, but we are determined to move forward," Allawi said in the television interview.
Security concerns are highest in Sunni areas. Combat prevented advance voter registration in two provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, which includes Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. Voters in both cities will be permitted to register at the polls on election day.
In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, combat flared for much of Saturday. The city was emptied of many residents and all signs of local government, including a police force that bolted in the face of insurgent threats for the second time in three months. Two Iraqi military special battalions were dispatched to Ramadi to secure the city, and insurgents distributed leaflets boasting that "a number of policemen have repented" and quit.
Another flier, signed by the al Qaeda-affiliated insurgent group led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, warned, "We will wash the streets of Ramadi by the blood of the voters."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:26
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#21
Polling still hasn't opened in 3 Sunni towns that were the main escape routes for the insurgent forces that fled south towards Baghdad post-Fallujah.
POLLING stations in several towns in Iraq's so-called 'Triangle of Death' have not opened four hours after nationwide voting started today, the country's electoral commission said.
"In Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah, polling stations have not yet opened their doors," commission spokesman Farid Ayar told reporters.
"Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah are hotspots. We have allowed residents of these areas to vote in the nearest polling station" to the towns, said another member of the commission.
In Latifiyah, mortars struck two voting stations.
US troops killed one attacker and arrested 15 others, a US military officer said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:28
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#22
Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate.
All the more reason to participate, so that the impact of the majority can be mitigated. But nooo, they want to boycott the elections.
Fine, go ahead and follow through with your silly ass boycott, but don't complain when you wake up and discover yourselves practically powerless. Damned idiots.
Looks like dozens have been killed. This is not good, but if it is the best effort Z man can muster for an event of this importance, things must not be going too well for him.
The other interesting outcome is that turnout outliers will be unambiguous indicators of which areas are still under Z man's control and in need of the Fallujah touch. Sounds like someone is working on a list.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 7:35
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#25
Yup, nice job Dan.
This appears to be going better than anyone could have hoped.
Not to minimize the tragic loss of life, I was expecting a whole lot worse.
Seeing how success has many fathers, I wonder how the EU and the UN will weasel their way into sharing credit.
#28
Shipman, it seems to me that it is coming from the same mindset that beheads while dancing around and singing Alahu Akbar. When you think they can get any more depraved that 'that', they show you they can.
#30
According to Fox TV, a "suicide bomber" was actually a kid with Down Syndrome wearing an explosive belt that was detonated remotely...
Depraved, yes of course. But the Palestinian groups started doing the same kind of thing when they couldn't get 'normal' people to volunteer. So it's actually a good sign when the insurgents need to use society's rejects.
#31
Dan Darling, thanks for the best news we have heard in a while!
I truly hope that Fox story is inaccurate. I grew up with a Down's Syndrome kid...he was the one that the rest of us neighborhood brats would defend (the worst thing you could have said about anyone in our neighborhood was "he's so weak he picks on a retard"...yeah, not politically correct, but it was the 70's - early 80's)
Seven bodies of suspected terrorists were recovered by government forces as the death toll in the air bombardment of an alleged terror base in Maguindanao rose to 48, the military said yesterday.
The remains found late Friday, however, could not easily be identified as "most were mutilated," said Col. Jerry Jalandoni, chief of the 604th Army Brigade based in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
More casualties from the rebels' side are expected, Jalandoni said, as the airstrikes and artillery barrage launched Thursday hit Butilan Marsh where suspected renegade commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were meeting with Abu Sayyaf leaders and about five to six Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members.
"So far, we have received reports that there were 48 missing fighters who were believed killed in the airstrike, including a certain Commander Aguila," Jalandoni said.
The ground military commander believes the two JI militants reported killed were a certain Dulmatin and Muayha. A military intelligence report also showed that an unidentified Indonesian died in the massive air raid.
The government suffered only one fatality and one slightly wounded.
There were no civilian casualties, according to Brig. Gen. Alexander Yano, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), after an inspection of the devastated area by the joint committee on cessation of hostilities with members of the International Monitoring Team (IMT).
Military officials said the situation has returned to normal in Datu Piang. Not a single firefight was reported since yesterday morning although Jalandoni said movements from fleeing Abu Sayyaf and radical MILF rebels were monitored.
Yano said residents have made their way back into their homes from evacuation centers.
Amid renewed hostilities in Mindanao, President Arroyo has said peace talks with the mainstream MILF does not stop government forces to run after "renegade" guerrillas behind attacks such as the raid on two Army outposts in Mamasapano and Shariff Aguak towns also in Maguindanao on Jan. 9.
The Mamasapano assault was blamed on Abdul Wahid Tondok, a renegade leader of a breakaway MILF faction. The MILF heirarchy has disowned the raid, saying it was not sanctioned.
Tondok was believed to be with his men, Abu Sayyaf leaders including chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and JI members before the terrorist haven in the marshy area of barangay Butilan was bombed.
As the identities of those killed remained unclear, the military nonetheless warned Tondok that his days are numbered.
AFP Southern Command (Southcom) chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza called on Tondok to surrender, saying a relentless military offensive against him will not stop.
"With the (casualty) figure given on the ground from our intelligence unit, I better advise him (Wahid) to give up because I will not stop running after him and his cohorts," Braganza vowed.
The Southcom chief expressed belief that the Abu Sayyaf, a ragtag extremist group said to have links with the al-Qaeda, has been working with JI forces hiding in the southern Philippines amid reports that the two groups meet occasionally with some renegade members of the MILF.
Braganza said last Thursday's gathering of the band of terrorists showed that the JI was indeed training guerrillas in the South.
"We have been receiving reports on the training activities being conducted by the JI with the local fighters here," Braganza said.
He said the reported death of two JI members from the airstrike "is a big blow" to the Indonesian militants' activity in Mindanao.
The attack "was not aimed at the MILF," he clarified, but at terrorist cells "that pose a threat not only to national security but to the cause of peace itself."
"Very clearly, the objective of the military was to really run after terrorist cells," Bunye stressed.
Nonetheless, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said they have filed a protest before the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities against the military for alleged violations of the ceasefire pact.
Palace communications director Silvestre Afable Jr., head of the government peace panel, told The STAR yesterday that they are still awaiting official notice from Malaysia as to the specific date when formal talks resume.
The Malaysian government, he said, had expressed its "wish" to see a final peace treaty reached by middle of this year.
This was impressed upon by Malaysian authorities on both the government and MILF sides during their last meeting in Kuala Lumpur last month, Afable said. He quoted statements made by Malaysian defense minister and concurrent deputy prime minister Abdul Rajak Najib.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, called on the MILF leadership to penalize those in their ranks who are coddling JI members.
Congressmen Eduardo Veloso of Leyte and Edwin Uy of Isabela said it was hard to believe that the MILF were unaware of the JI's presence in areas it controls.
The solons, however, said the government should also give the MILF the benefit of the doubt in the absence of solid proof of terrorist links for the sake of the decades-long peace process. On the other hand, they said the MILF should cooperate with the AFP to ease suspicions of JI coddling.
"It will also be a confidence-building mechanism to pursue peace talks with the government," they said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:32:15 AM ||
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#1
Misfiled. Should be under the Philippines. Otherwise interesting, though. As always, thanks for the useful information, Dan.
#1
As has been pointed out, humans and chimpanzees share about 99.8% of their DNA. You can legally experiment on chimpanzees, but not humans. But what if you make a hybrid that starts with 99.8% chimpanzee DNA and adds a .1% human DNA? It may look like a person, and think and feel like a person, but *legally* be a patentable animal. It is *only* .1% human, anyway.
#3
Humans and sponges have 50% of their genes in common. So what? Well genes are not human or non-human (although a few are unique to humans). Banning these kinds of experiments becuase they cause some people moral/religous issues is no better than preventing immunizations and similar actions we decry all the time.
#4
The Chimp human DNA similarity is actually lower. The 99% figure was little more than a guess. The similarity is around 95% -- which sounds like a lot, until to realize that all living beings will have points of genetic similarity. Genes are only templates for very small parts -- like nuts and bolts. A car and a rocket have a great deal common at the level of parts, but they are quite different things. In addition, you can't just "add" DNA.
#6
As has been pointed out, humans and chimpanzees share about 99.8% of their DNA.
Actually, that is really not the case. Where did the "97%/98%/99%/99.8% similarity" come from then? It was inferred from a fairly crude technique called DNA hybridization where small parts (not necessarily genes, just random sequences of nucleotides) of human DNA are split into single strands and allowed to re-form double strands (duplex) with chimp DNA. This figure (actually 97% homology) comes from Sibley and Ahlquist's paper. However, there has been no replication and it also seems that the analysis contains a statistical error - averaging two figures without taking into account differences in the number of observations contributing to each figure.
You would have to compare sequenced DNA to get the actual figure of shared base. Chimpanzee DNA has not been fully sequenced yet, so any figure that is floating around is just a guess, nothing more or nothing less.
BTW, sequenced human DNA has quite a bit of variations. If you pool a large number of full sequences, about 96% are shared, the rest are variations. Of course, making a pool of full sequences would be prohibitively expensive, but you can pool partial sequences that would cover the full genome and statistically correlate variations within each partial sequence pool with the ideal full sequence of base pairs.
From that follows that figure given for similarity of human and chimpanzee DNA is incorrect.
Beside DNA itself, human cell differs in the count of chromozomes. We have one less pair than apes. It is not that it is really "missing", rather the #2 and #3 seem to be similar to #'s 2,3,4 of chimp chromosomes. For the lack of a better word, if you look at the #2 and 3 human chromosomes strictly from the microbiological POV, you would probably come to a conclusion that # 2 & 3 were "spliced", whatever the agent that caused it may have been.
And DNA is merely the cookie - RNA is the cutter... Lol! Mebbe maternal mitochondria or Golgi bodies, or Swamp Thing should come next, heh. Mmmm, Adrienne Barbeau... scroll down... yumm...
Russian law enforcement officials allegedly helped terrorists to carry out last September's school massacre in Beslan, Russia, that left 344 people dead, according to the head of a special parliamentary commission. Alexander Torshin, the head of the commission investigating the fatal hostage taking, told Russian media that two accomplices already have been detained, three are being sought and authorities are preparing the legal work to detain two more. Torshin said the suspects included officials ranking "higher than major."
Another Senator who is a member of the commission, Vladimir Kulakov, added that the people who aided the terrorists are not only in Beslan but "at the federal level" and "these people are still at their jobs." He did not identify the officials by name. His comments were quoted by Interfax news agency. The commission has been investigating the Beslan massacre for months. It is expected to release its report this spring. Analysts say the news is not surprising since, shortly after the hostage-taking was over, Russian officials announced that a local policeman had been arrested for "complicity" in the attack. It is not clear whether that policeman is one of those described by Alexander Torshin.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:30:31 AM ||
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#1
Rantburg called this right after the event. The Russkies had better get ahold of their corruption if they ever want to get anywhere.
#2
... the people who aided the terrorists are not only in Beslan but "at the federal level" and "these people are still at their jobs."
Indicating either that the accusations are false or that the officials were involved in an intelligence operation to penetrate the terrorits' organizations.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 8:56
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#3
Or (3rd possibility) that the accusations are true but they were not acting on own initiative when helping the terrorists.
That is the conspiracist theory, but even conspiracist theories can occasionally turn out true.
The new US Foreign Minister Condoleeza Rice who will start work today said that they were not making preparations for war against Iran.
German magazine Der Spiegel said that Rice met German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer last week during his trip to the US and assured him that the country was not preparing for war against Iran. It reported that Rice wanted Fischer to continue the efforts of Germany, France and UK to limit the nuclear program of Iran.
Meanwhile, the President of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Muhammad Al-Baradey remarked that they were in agreement with Iran's claims that it is not producing nuclear weapons. Making a statement at Davos, Baradey stressed that IAEA inspectors could not find any proof in the research they made in Iran about production of nuclear weapons. Baradey added, "If anyone has any knowledge about these issues and or reason to claim that Iran's nuclear program produces atomic weapons, I want them to share this knowledge." The president of the agency expressed that they had received no information about this yet.
#1
Duh. The last people you'd want to tell what you're up to are the French, Germans, or the Russians.
As Iraq has demonstrated, those people are not friends.
#5
Yup. This is a woman who spent her childhood in the black middle class of Birmingham AL when that was a recipe for being lynched and harassed. She is the daughter of a black man who patrolled their streets, along with neighbors, carrying a shotgun to protect his family. And she herself definitely supports the right to keep and bear arms today. People like Boxer and Kerry aren't fit to shine her shoes.
Dr. Rice was also one of the most noted scholars who thought long and hard about dealing with the Soviets. There's a REASON Brent Scowcroft mentored her, Dick Cheney sponsored her and Stanford made her a provost at a ridiculously young age.
#6
Here ya go, Barbara... I'm counting the times Mikey sez, "Nope. Ain't gonna happen. La la la la la... I can't hear you cuz I have my fingers in my ears and my head up my ass... La la la la la. Kofi is a great man and the UN is here to stay. La la la la la..."
A federal prosecutor says a Yemeni sheik and his assistant were intent on providing millions of dollars to al Qaeda and Hamas, while a defense attorney accused the government of entrapment in his opening statement. Attorneys delivered their opening arguments on Friday in the trial of Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad, 56, and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31. Both men are charged with conspiracy to provide support to terrorist organizations. Al-Moayad also faces charges of giving money, weapons and communication equipment to al Qaeda and Hamas, which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.
Charges against al-Moayad say he boasted of meeting several times with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and that he claimed to have personally delivered $20 million to bin Laden to support terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. If convicted, al-Moayad could get up to 60 years in prison; Zayad could receive up to 30 years. The charges were filed in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly said that some of the money he provided to al Qaeda was collected at the Al Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. The government's case rests on taped conversations in January 2003 between the defendants and FBI undercover agents. The men "talked about funneling millions of dollars to two terror organizations -- Hamas and al Qaeda," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore said in her opening statements on Friday. One of the informants, Sheik Sharif Sa'eed, played the part of a former Black Panther who wanted to donate $2 million to terrorist groups, she said. Moore said Sa'eed made everyone present swear on the Quran that they would keep the meeting secret. According to her, al-Moayad admitted on tape that he would give the money to "everybody that we learn is fighting jihad."
Al-Moayad quietly mumbled to himself throughout Moore's comments and smiled in response to some of her remarks. Al-Moayad has denied that he gave any money to bin Laden. He contends he was only following orders from Zayed and that the money raised was for charitable causes in Yemen. "The bottom line is when you're caught admitting a crime on tape, there are no explanations that can get you out of it," Moore said. Defense attorney William Goodman portrayed al-Moayad as an "ailing, vulnerable man who's devoted his whole life to charity." He told they jury they "will hear no evidence that he sent even one nickel to Hamas." Goodman accused the government of entrapment. Al-Moayad was caught in an "unfair and coercive situation" that was "meticulously staged" by authorities, the lawyer said. It "had actors, directors, it had stage technicians."
At the center of the defense argument is the credibility of the other informant, Mohamed Alanssi, and the authenticity of his translations of the taped conversations. Alanssi was in the only one in the meetings who knew both English and Arabic. In November, Alanssi set himself on fire outside the White House to protest his treatment at the hands of the FBI. He survived the incident. Jonathan Marks, Zayed's lawyer, said the court could not rely on Alanssi's translations. "He mistranslated, he embellished, he added, he subtracted," Marks told the jury in his opening remarks. Prosecutors said they will not ask Alanssi to testify. Goodman said his decision to call Alanssi depends "on what the government comes up with." Attorneys in the case said the trial could last up to four weeks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:28:30 AM ||
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The sheik will walk.
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 9:09
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Nine policemen were killed in Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya when their cars hit remote-controlled landmines, local police officials were quoted late on Friday as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Both cars were near the town of Alkhan-Yurt at the time of the attack, officials said without giving further details.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:26:17 AM ||
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A Russian parliamentary commission has found two high-ranking Russian military officers helped gunmen to seize a primary school in the city of Beslan last September. The chair of the commission says two highly-ranked military officials have been arrested after allegations they provided assistance to the gunmen. He says other officials, who are ranked major and above, may also be charged. It is speculated that they could have helped the gunmen indirectly by allowing them to pass through police checkpoints. Despite the allegations, those under suspicion remain in their posts.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/30/2005
12:25:33 AM ||
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#1
Despite the allegations, those under suspicion remain in their posts.
Perish the thought that these maggots should be deemed a threat to the public weal without having first undergone due process. Where is not-so-gentle touch of RasPutin's heavy hand? Russia is so busy screwing itself, it's a wonder they even have time to make trouble abroad.
#3
Notice how this article very carefully uses the term 'gunmen' and not 'muslims' or 'terrorists', 'rapist', or 'murderers' as if it was only a local criminal gang waving some guns around and not some islamic muslim extreamist terrorists who raped children, and bayonetted innocent babies.
It may not have been apparent on the surface, but Europe's recent commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was steeped in irony. Even while the Old World stirringly recalls the horrors of Hitler's death camps and vows never to forget the Nazi genocide of the Jews, it also embraces an increasingly -- and alarmingly -- antagonistic attitude toward the Jewish state that arose from the ashes of World War II.
As the Middle East conflict burns on, more and more Europeans are turning against Israel. A growing number subscribe to the belief that the impasse between the Israelis and the Palestinians is the wellspring of much of the world's ills today, and that the blame for all this lies squarely with Israel -- and by extension, with its staunchest ally, the United States. As President Bush seeks to find common ground with Europe in his second term, he might do well to acquaint himself more thoroughly with this reality. For as surely as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict divides Jews and Arabs, it also divides Europeans and Americans. If you're looking for root causes of the growing transatlantic split that go beyond the easy cliches about U.S. unilateralism, it's time to sit up and take notice.
Go to a dinner party in Paris, London or any other European capital and watch how things develop. The topic of conversation may be Iraq, it may be George Bush, it may be Islam, terrorism or weapons of mass destruction. However it starts out, you can be sure of where it will inevitably, and often irrationally, end -- with a dissection of the Middle East situation and a condemnation of Israeli actions in the occupied territories. I can't count how many times I've seen it. European sympathy for the Palestinians runs high, while hostility toward Israel is often palpable.
And the anger is reaching new -- and disturbing -- levels: A poll of 3,000 people published last month by Germany's University of Bielefeld showed more than 50 percent of respondents equating Israel's policies toward the Palestinians with Nazi treatment of the Jews. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed specifically believed that Israel is waging a "war of extermination" against the Palestinian people.
Germany is not alone in these shocking sentiments. They have been expressed elsewhere, and often by prominent figures. In 2002, the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning writer Jose Saramago declared, "What is happening in Palestine is a crime which we can put on the same plane as what happened at Auschwitz." In Israel just last month, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the Irish winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, compared the country's suspected nuclear weapons to Auschwitz, calling them "gas chambers perfected."
Moreover, in a Eurobarometer poll by the European Union in November 2003, a majority of Europeans named Israel as the greatest threat to world peace. Overall, 59 percent of Europeans put Israel in the top spot, ahead of such countries as Iran and North Korea. In the Netherlands, that figure rose to 74 percent.
Perceptions of Israel in the United States, meanwhile, contrast sharply. A poll by the Marttila Communications Group taken in December 2003 for the Anti-Defamation League had Americans putting Israel in 10th place on a list of countries threatening world peace, just ahead of the United States itself.
What accounts for this transatlantic values gap?
Part of the explanation is that, despite all the Holocaust commemorations, the memory of that event really does appear to be fading in Europe. Increasing numbers of younger Europeans have no real sense of what the Nazis did. In Britain, Prince Harry isn't the only one who's oblivious to the realities of Nazi tyranny. A BBC poll of 4,000 people taken late last year, in the run-up to Holocaust Remembrance Day last Thursday, showed that, amazingly, 45 percent of all Britons and 60 percent of those under 35 years of age had never heard of Auschwitz -- the Nazi death camp in southern Poland where about 1.5 million Jews were murdered during World War II. Such ignorance compounds anti-Israeli feelings; for those who have no understanding of the Holocaust, Israel exists and acts in a historical vacuum.
This faltering awareness of the most vivid example of racist mass murder in the 20th century is accompanied by enduring anti-Semitism. A poll in Italy last year, for example, by the Eurispes research institute showed 34 percent of respondents agreeing strongly or to some extent with the view that "Jews secretly control financial and economic power as well as the media." The Eurobarometer survey quoted above also showed 40 percent of respondents across Europe believing that Jews had a "particular relationship to money," with more than a third expressing concern that Jews were "playing the victim because of the Holocaust."
Yet while the persistence of anti-Semitism is undeniable, it's not likely to be the chief explanation for European hostility to Israel. After all, surveys show that some anti-Semitic attitudes persist in the United States as well, but they don't translate into visceral animosity toward the Jewish state. Instead, the intense antagonism toward Israel appears to be a subset of the wider European hostility, emanating mainly from the left, toward the United States. It's unlikely to be a coincidence that the 2003 Eurobarometer survey put the United States just behind Israel as the greatest danger to world peace, on a par with Iran and North Korea.
Many European intellectuals see Israel, perhaps rightly, as one of the central pillars of U.S. hegemony in the modern world. European leftists implacably opposed to America are implacably opposed to Israel as well, and for exactly the same reasons. Over dinner in Berlin not long ago, a Frenchwoman told me emphatically that Israel was "America's policeman in the Middle East." Her companion, nodding in furious agreement, insisted that the two countries are partners in a "new imperialism," leading the world inexorably into war.
In the contorted universe of the chattering classes, Israel is at once America's servant and the tail that wags the dog -- doing America's bidding while forcing it into madcap adventures such as Iraq. As Peter Preston, the former editor of Britain's Guardian newspaper, put it in an op-ed last October, bemoaning both U.S. political parties' alleged servility toward Israel: "Republican policy is an empty vessel drifting off Tel Aviv, and the Democratic alternative has just as little stored in its hold."
The left-leaning antipathy toward Israel is moreover buttressed by deeper and wider pathologies in Europe's collective memory, particularly in our overriding sense of guilt about the past, a guilt that springs from the great 20th-century traumas of war and imperialism. The first has made Europeans, especially continentals, overwhelmingly pacifistic: In the German Marshall Fund's 2004 Transatlantic Trends survey, only 31 percent of Germans and 33 percent of the French could bring themselves to agree with the ostensibly tame proposition that "Under some conditions, war is necessary to obtain justice." Such attitudes do not mesh well with television pictures of Israeli helicopter gunships firing missiles at militant targets in the crowded Gaza Strip, whatever the justification for Israel's actions.
Europe is also awash in post-imperial guilt, and I frequently get the sense that Israel's claim to a piece of land in the Middle East revives guilt-inducing memories, among my English countrymen and others, of white Europeans carving up the Third World and subjugating "lesser peoples" in the 19th century. While the disturbing view that there's an equivalence between Nazi Germany and modern Israel is a relatively new development, another view equating Israel with apartheid South Africa and referring to Palestinians herded into "Bantustans" has been around for decades.
Mixed with the supercharged ideological hostility of the European left, the demons of the continent's past can make for an intoxicating cocktail of anti-Israeli sentiment There is undoubtedly room for criticism of Israel and its policies in the Middle East, but reasoned criticism appears to be giving way to emotional and irrational antipathy that is coloring the wider debate. And as that sentiment grows, American support for the Jewish state will continue to scratch raw nerves in the Old World.
There is much, of course, that the United States should be doing to improve its relationship with Europe. But repairing transatlantic relations is a two-way process. Americans should now be aware that on one crucial issue, at least, it is Europe, and not America, that needs to clean up its act.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:22:48 AM ||
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#2
I have been trying to post a few articles and they've been going into the void. What am I doing wrong???
OT: Soros said this, cos I can't post the article:
Soros Says Greenspan Lost Credibility Helping Bush (Update1)
...While China loosening its decade-old peg of the renminbi to the dollar would ease pressure on Europe, ``probably it's best not to push China because it might hurt their national pride,'' he said....
Soros said his spending to defeat Bush was not an ``investment gone bad because when you stand up for principles you have to do it whether you win or lose.'' He said he now believes Democratic presidential nominee Kerry ``did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative.''
Soros said he would remain active in American politics, although he hasn't decided in what form.
#3
A poll by the Americans putting Israel in 10th place on a list of countries threatening world peace, just ahead of the United States itself.
I would be rather sceptical of poll results where Americans viewed their own country as a #11 "threat" to world peace. Sheesh. Anyways, there were only 1200 people polled, so not a large sampling.
However, I'd say it is a safe bet that Americans' views of Israel would be comparable to Europeans if GWB antagonizes Iran. Iran is clearly viewed as Israel's threat not ours.
Americans have already done the sacrifice of conscripted American sons for a foreign country per the Vietnam War - bad memories. And the ME country as purveyor of WMD against America has been used recently with embaressing revelations about our intelligence gathering.
So let's hope that the Iran situation cools off so Israel's #10 position as a threat to peace stays the same.
#5
Soros said his spending to defeat Bush was not an ``investment gone bad because when you stand up for principles you have to do it whether you win or lose.''
Pretty damned easy to say when one has money to burn.
#6
The revolution, the 444 day hostage crisis, the 200+ marines killed in beirut because of Iranian-backed terrorist, and they are the core of training and financing terrorist in the Middle East even now. It just happens to be that, Israel is constantly fighting terrorist supported from Iran, but it's the US and World's problem too, especially if they aquire Nukes.
#7
Europeans had to suppress their natural impulses for (almost) 60 years --- since Nazis made anti-semitism unfashionable. Now, when they've found an alternate rationale for judeophobia, the Europeans are just making up for lost time.
#8
This article misses two important reasons for the difference between US and European attitudes toward Israel:
1) The USA has an influential Jewish community that energetically and effectively explains Israel's postions and actions in public discussions.
2) The USA and its citizens have been attacked and targeted by Moslem terrorists many times over the past several decades.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 9:06
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#9
Our own left espouses the same views as this article. It just seems overwhelming to me, the ignorance and self-righteousness that goes behind those on the left (and extreme far right), who wish to blame Israel.
Start any discussion about anything and they will always bring it back to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
If you ask me, it's all marketing. Someone has done a GREAT job of marketing the Palestinian conflict - to the point where all other massacres, genocides, starvations are simply ignored - not because they don't care, but because they don't really know about them.
If during a rant about Israel, you ask someone on the left why they care so much more about the numerically fewer Palestinian deaths (usually terrorists) than the other civilian mass genocides of the day - such as Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, mass starvation in Korea, etc. etc. they get incredulous because they don't even know about them. And it's actually kind of fun to bring it up - cause they get really defensive because they can't argue what they don't know about - it strips them of their self-righteous I'm smarter than you because I understand the nuance that you don't grasp and they usually just will get huffy and walk off.
Educating about the Holocaust is important - but it does nothing to suppress the beliefs by this crowd, who have a disconnect between the "Jews" of Nazi Germany and the "Israeli's in Israel". Plus, as I've said before, and believe strongly, educating the holocaust in a vacuum without the context of the multiple other ethic cleansing genocides - reinforces Hitler's "Jews are bad, Jews to blame" propaganda to a whole new generation...many will reject it - but many will believe.
Sigh. I don't have any answers - but it's easy to see that, as in Hitler's time, it is the relentless propaganda in the media that is to blame for fanning the flames of anti-Semitism. CNN, AP, BBC, NPR have all been marketing the Palestinian crisis as "Jews bad" Palestinians good" for decades. IMHO that's where the battle against anti-Semitism needs to be fought - not in the history books - but in exposing the reasons why the MSM fails to put their focus on anything except The Plight of the Palestinians Against the Evil Jews.TM
#10
Re #8: We do have a significant Jewist population. The Europeans, under the wise (sarcasm here if you're missing it)guidance of the Germans, solved that problem. Growing up in the midwest, where there was hardly a black person to be seen, the racism against them was rampant and virulent. Same scenario. It's easy and cheap to be bigoted against people who aren't around to do anything about it. Same reason for supporting the paleos. Lots of moslems in Europe. Not wise to piss them off, since most of them appear to be crazy.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
01/30/2005 9:29
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#11
Let's put it this way; if Israel and the Jews didn't exist, her enemies would be forced to invent one.
If Israel disappeared tomorrow, all that hatred would find another outlet. It has *nothing* to do with Israel. It only has to do with hate...and envy.
#17
Perhaps the Left supporting tyrannies in preference to democracies needs no explanation. Otherwise, I think Europe sees its future in the Arab-Israli conflict and it is in denial. 'We are not nasty Jews and therefore this is not in our future.'
The United States and Gulf Arab states are discussing ways of pressuring Iran over a perceived threat from Tehran's nuclear and missile programme, the top U S diplomat in charge of disarmament said today.
U S Undersecretary of State John Bolton told reporters in Bahrain he was trying to coordinate policies on Iran with its Gulf Arab neighbours, and that Washington sought a "peaceful and diplomatic solution".
"We discussed ways of putting additional diplomatic pressure on Iran to prevent it from acquiring the technology they need for nuclear weapons programme, and also elaborated the steps we see coming in the future," Bolton said.
Washington accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian atomic energy programme -- a charge Iran denies.
"We want to get the views of some of the countries most threatened by nuclear-capable Iran," said Bolton, who has already visited Kuwait and will also travel to the United Arab Emirates during his visit to the oil-rich region.
"The central purpose of discussion in these three countries is to exchange views on the threat that we see posed by Iran's nuclear weapon programme and its ballistic missile programme." Iran has said it would continue to improve its missile capability and has unveiled the latest version of its medium-range Shahab-3 that it says could hit targets up to 2,000 km away. Yet another US-led diplomatic effort to prevent war. It will not be remembered.
#1
Never forget: The Gulf "States" view Iran's aspirations with alarm because they're Shi'a and Persians. They'd be the first to rise and give a standing ovation if the Islamic "State" of Iran nuked Israel.
While he's over there, it would be kinda nice if Bolton would mention to the Qatari emir, Hamadi bin Khalifa th-Thani, that we'd like to use a large FAE on Al Jizz HQ. Please stand back. Way back. Thanks.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spokesman Eid Kabalu Saturday dismissed claims of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that 48 rebels were killed in Thursday's encounter at the Butilan Marsh in Maguindanao.
Kabalu said there were no bodies of rebels found since Thursday. He said two people were injured after they were hit by sub-machinegun fires but could not say for sure if they were Abu Sayyaf rebels or plain civilians. Kabalu said the body of the reported Indonesian national said to be a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) could not also be located.
Colonel Jerry Jalandoni, chief of Army's 604th Brigade, meanwhile, said an estimated 48 rebels, including two alleged ranking Jemaah Islamiyah leaders, were among those killed in the military air strikes. He said his troops recovered seven mutilated bodies in the area. "Info from the locals said that most of the casualties are from the groups of Abu Sayyaf commanders Wahid, Aguila and Bagundali," Jalandoni said.
Kabalu, on the other hand, added that representatives from the International Peace Monitoring Team and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities immediately rushed to the Butilan Marsh to investigate. However, the group is having a hard a time proceeding to the area because of its location and it is marshy, Kabalu said. The team is at the evacuation center in the area. He said everything is back to normal after Thursday's air strikes adding that no MILF rebel was killed in the latest strike.
The military on Thursday claimed that five Muslim rebels, including an Indonesian suspected to be a member of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, were believed killed in a military air strike at their hideout in Maguindanao. Major General Raul Relano, chief of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said a military intelligence report showed that the unidentified Indonesian was killed along with four Mulsim rebels after the bombing on their hideout in Butilan Marsh, Maguindanao Thursday. "The intelligence report said five were dead and three were wounded," said Relano. "The hazy report from our (intelligence) assets in the area said that one foreigner was among those dead."
He said the foreigner is presumably one of several Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah members hiding in the area with leaders of the local Abu Sayyaf group and a renegade leader of the MILF.
Colonel Franklin del Prado, Army spokesman, said when the attack took place, among those believed to be in the area were Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani and at least three Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah members, including Dulmatin, who allegedly played a key role in the Bali bombings.
Relano said a video of Thursday's operation showed the militants fleeing along the river on the marsh as their huts were hit by 250-pound bombs and rocket fire. The Philippine Air Force launched attacks after receiving intelligence information Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani and three Jemaah Islamiyah leaders were in the area.
Meanwhile, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye in a statement posted at the government website www.ops.gov.ph said the military air strikes was directed against suspected terrorist elements and not the MILF. He said the military attack will not affect the peace talks between the government and the MILF. Bunye said the Joint Monitoring Team and the International Monitoring Team before properly notified before the air strike was launched. He said the fight against terrorism is not the government's alone by the MILF's as well.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:18:30 AM ||
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Ignore those piles of body parts, infidel.
Posted by: ed ||
01/30/2005 1:13
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(2005-01-30) -- News reports of terrorist bombings in Iraq were marred Sunday by shocking graphic images of Iraqi "insurgents" voting by the millions in their first free democratic election.
Despite reporters' hopes that a well-orchestrated barrage of mortar attacks and suicide bombings would put down the so-called 'freedom insurgency', hastily-formed battalions of rebels swarmed polling places to cast their ballots -- shattering the status quo and striking fear into the hearts of the leaders of the existing terror regime.
Hopes for a return to the stability of tyranny waned as rank upon rank of Iraqi men and women filed out of precinct stations, each armed with the distinctive mark of the new freedom guerrillas -- an ink-stained index finger, which one former Ba'athist called "the evidence of their betrayal of 50 years of Iraqi tradition."
Journalists struggled to put a positive spin on the day's events, but the video images of tyranny's traitors choosing a future of freedom overwhelmed the official story of bloodshed and mayhem.
#3
Hey yall, this may be Scrappleface, but this is no joke.
Another website I hang out on has a few people who go trolling on DU and the mood reported over there is nothing short of highly refined psychosis.
One of the quoted posts talks about how they hope that the Iraqis decide to revolt against whatever govnerment is elected, because it just has to be a trick by Bush to get at the OIL!!!
It my considered opinion that this skeleton in the closet of the Democratic party will end up fomenting revolution in the US. They have simply forgotten that it is not they who have all the guns . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/30/2005 17:17
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#4
this may be Scrappleface, but this is no joke.
I have totally lost the ability to distinguish between ScrappleFace posts and news from 'legitimate' sources like Rooters and the Beeb without looking at the link address. I don't know whether to blame Scott Ott or the rest of the nutjobs on this planet for this sorry state of affairs.
As for the Iraqi election, any bets on who will be the first to claim the turnout was much, much higher when Saddam was the only candidate?
A land mine blast killed nine Afghan soldiers near the border with Pakistan on Saturday in the bloodiest attack yet on Afghanistan's army. A local army commander told Reuters an Afghan border commander was also wounded when the army vehicle hit the mine near the southern town of Spin Boldak while traveling toward the Pakistan border. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack which he said had killed four soldiers. In a separate incident, two soldiers were killed and two wounded by unidentified gunmen near the eastern town of Khost, the local police chief said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:17:17 AM ||
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How do we know that it is a newly placed land mine, and not one of the entirely too many left over from Afghan's many, many wars? The Taliban are struggling to remain a factor, after all, and need to count coup often and loudly, whether they are responsible or not.
He wasn't supposed to live, and the way he tells the story today, this "suicide bomber" wasn't quite ready to die. Twenty-one-year-old Ahmed Abdullah al-Shayea had come to Iraq from Saudi Arabia to join the infamous terrorist known as Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in a holy war against the American infidels. On Christmas morning, 2004, he got his first assignment, to park a tanker truck full of explosives near the high walls around the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad. He didn't know that four fellow terrorists in a Jeep Cherokee following a safe distance behind held the remote-control trigger. When they pushed it, an explosion thundered across the city, killing 10 Iraqi policemen. But al-Shayea, unlike scores of other bombers who've been vaporized beyond recognition, was blown through the windshield and, against all odds, survived.
Taken to a hospital with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body, al-Shayea was thought to be just another bystander wounded in the blast. But when police got a tip the second week in January that men were willing to offer money to get him out, or kill him, the cops got interested. If terrorists wanted him, so did they. "Our intelligence agents kidnapped him from the hospital," says Brig. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, deputy minister of the Interior for intelligence affairs. Speaking to NEWSWEEK at his heavily guarded headquarters in Baghdad last week, Kamal described the scene. Al-Shayea was brought into the office swathed in bandages and propped up on a makeshift seat without a back. A pillow was put on his lap to ease the pain of his burned arms. Then the interrogators began their questioning, threatening to hand al-Shayea to the Americans, and at one point putting him on the phone with his father in Saudi Arabia...
Departing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on Friday he believed another attack on the United States was inevitable, and warned that America should not focus just on Al Qaeda, but also on similar groups that could carry out attacks. "I have accepted the inevitability of another attack or attacks," Ridge said in an interview on the eve of his departure from the department launched two years ago to guard against another attack like that of September 11, 2001. "It could be Al Qaeda or it could be Al Qaeda-like organisations," said Ridge, who departs on February 1. "I do think, when we talk about global terrorism, (it is) better ... that America doesn't focus just on Al Qaeda." "There are a lot of Al Qaeda-like organisations and there are quite a few (Osama) bin Laden wannabes out there - you've got one of them operating in Iraq right now," he said, referring to Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Ridge said the other groups he views as possible threats are driven by the same ideology as Al Qaeda and they would use "terrorist attacks" as their means to that end. When asked what type of attack he viewed as the biggest threat, Ridge said a biological or nuclear attack were of concern since they could involve "catastrophic" loss of life. "I'm convinced that if they had a nuclear weapon they'd use it," he said in a joint interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.
Although there were no new attacks during Ridge's tenure, the administration was criticized for not giving him enough leeway or resources to properly set up an effective department. Ridge was assailed for the five-tiered, color-coded terror alert warning system he created.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:15:33 AM ||
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"I have accepted the inevitability of another attack or attacks,â
That's gratifying to hear, Tom. Ho-hum, ZZZZZZZ.
But âitâs an imperfect world,â he said, and the agencies needed more work on the list to ensure the right people are stopped and the right people are allowed in.
Right, ye old lists, we need to apply our energies to compiling better lists, they will keep us safe all right. Original ideas coming out of Homeland Security is as exciting as watching mud harden. What is wrong with the GOP leadership? Are they so focused on their stock portfolios that they cannot see the obvious? Duh. National security is not achieved through open borders. Do these clueballs think that terrorists are so stoooopid that they are going to go to the well again and use hijacked airplanes? Maybe Michael Chertoff should consider that not all bad guys are going to appear on a "no fly" list because they are going to come here by foot,not by plane, along with their illegal compadres from Mexico. Maybe America should take some lessons from Israel with regards to how it protects itself from extremists. Does the Israeli gov't put a welcome mat on its borders with a few CPR-trained border guards and some fresh water for thirst quenched illegals? Hello, is anyone home at the WH? Ringadingding.
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/LatinAmerica/mexico1.html
"Mexico discovers Islam"
An Iraqi arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting an Al Qaeda suicide attack in Iraq said he was sent on his mission by Osama bin Laden himself, a German magazine reported on Saturday. German state prosecutors believe Ibrahim Mohammed K., a 29-year-old Iraqi believed to be a high-ranking Al Qaeda figure, recruited Yasser Abu S., a 31-year-old stateless Palestinian from Libya, as a future suicide bomber in Iraq. The two men were arrested last Sunday in the western city of Mainz, which US President George W Bush is due to visit next month. However, prosecutors said there was no indication the two had planned an attack in Germany.
Der Spiegel magazine said the Iraqi had told the other man he had been sent by bin Laden personally to Germany. It gave no details on the date or location of the meeting. "Yes, he sent me to work, to sell and buy," the magazine quoted him as saying, citing a conversation from their Mainz apartment that investigating authorities recorded. Authorities believe the terms refer to the recruitment and placement of volunteers for Jihad, or "holy war", the magazine said in a preview of an article due to appear on Monday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:13:37 AM ||
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Ibrahim Mohammed K., a 29-year-old Iraqi believed to be a high-ranking Al Qaeda figure, recruited Yasser Abu S., a 31-year-old stateless Palestinian from Libya, as a future suicide bomber
Wow, Iraq, Paleo, Al Queda, Libya all in one sentence. To me, the above quote succinctly demonstrates that these various groups are different manifestations of the same enemy and that in many cases we have indeed suceeded in luring them to Iraq to face the US military when they might otherwise be killing civilians somehwere.
Indian intelligence agencies have found the presence of American forces in Pakistan's Northern Areas, trailing Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Much to the discomfiture of China, the US has set up a "secret shop" in the region as part of its covert special operations against militant outfits, claim intelligence agencies here. Intelligence sources here said that besides the US Special Force units, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also set up "listening posts" in Northern Areas to monitor communication.
Quoting sources in India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Tehelka weekly paper reported that the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency's satellite intercepts had given rise to "credible evidence" that some parts of Northern Areas had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda militants. Last October, Christina Rocca, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, and Nancy Powell, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, had visited the Northern Areas. Since then many Americans are visiting Gilgit and Baltistan to oversee development projects funded by USAID. The US Army had also conducted military exercises in Deosai, 30 kilometres from Skardu. Earlier, the Indian and US Special Forces had conducted high-altitude wafare exercise in Ladkah, just on this side of Skardu. Indian intelligence agencies also believe that US intelligence operatives might have "developed" Shia border traders in Balochistan as "intelligence assets". In their most covert operations in Northern Areas, the US Special Forces have also focused on local Shia groups to gather intelligence. They attribute Shia leader Aga Ziauddin Rizvi's killing to his siding with the US forces.
That's certainly interesting...
B Raman, the former RAW additional secretary, also maintained that the Americans had set up a chain of monitoring stations in Gilgit and Baltistan to keep track of telephones and wireless communications. These centres, he claimed, are ostensibly run by the Inter-Services Intelligence and a number of US intelligence officers are attached to them—some of them US nationals of Afghan origin. He claimed that US's National Security Agency (NSA) had already its presence in the Northern Areas. For past many years, the NSA has been collecting signals from the space establishments of Kazakhstan and the nuclear establishments of China's Xinjiang province. The NSA uses gadgets and technologies for penetrating foreign devices and telecommunication and computer networks. "Mostly, the NSA depends on the CIA, organisations, the Voice of America and academic institutions such as Carnegie Mellon for such assistance," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:11:59 AM ||
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Via Lucianne: In a testament to the power of the Web, and to the power of political freedom, Internet viewers now have access to two very different images of war, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston. One is run by a single man with a shoestring budget, and the other is backed by all the resources of the U.S. military.
But on the Internet, the ideas behind both are on an even playing field.
Maj. Scott Bleichwehl says he believes there is too much focus on news that isn't so good in Iraq. To combat this focus on negativity, he runs a Web site featuring images showing progress in Iraq. "We're trying to reach the media and the general public with the information that we feel was pertinent to that operation," he says.
Trevor Davis, a 26 year-old blogger, runs a Web site that features disturbing images that most Americans don't see on the evening news or in a newspaper. Davis says he created crisispictures.org because he doesn't feel Americans are getting the whole picture from Iraq. "I really believe that if we're going to take responsibility for this war we have to know what its costs are," he says.
Davis's Web site focuses on images of suffering in Fallujah. His site features pictures of an Iraqi man weeping on a coffin, a little girl who lost her parents, and Iraqi men who lost their lives.
There is a real difference in tone between the two sites. In a sequence on Fallujah, the military's images focus on maps, weapons, and a torture chamber where an Iraqi captive was beheaded. There are few pictures of people. Bleichwehl says there are no pictures of military or civilian causalities because "the point we were trying to make is that Fallujah is no longer a safe haven for these terrorists."
Viewers can look at both and decide for themselves if one is more persuasive than the other. I need to take a shower - for See-BS to put out this shit - it's not just the blogger.
Posted by: Spemble Hupains4886 ||
01/30/2005
12:09:35 AM ||
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#1
File this under "find a funeral for the anaugeration" reporting.
Davis says he created crisispictures.org because he doesnât feel Americans are getting the whole picture from Iraq
They are. Their sources include ABC, NBC, CBS [which by the way is the source of this piece of crap], PBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WoPo, AP, Al Rueters....
But its nice to have people put their names on the list voluntarily.
#2
This fella is apparently a front for the anti-war left. He is closely tied to lesbian media dog Rosie O'Donnell in some form or another.
No question in my mind the site is politicaly motivated. This could be the left's big stab to try to stampede an American withdrawl from Iraq before the job is done.
Crisis Pictures is a non-commercial organization dedicated to building awareness of global crisis areas through pictures. Our goal is to make distant events personal by showing real people living through them. The face of a mother mourning her child needs no explanation. Crisis Pictures makes âstories about other peopleâ into âstories about other people just like me."
Crisis Pictures is a public information service that is free and open to the public.
Our Position on Iraq
We are NOT against the war in Iraq.
We are NOT for the war in Iraq.
Therefore, they are against the war in Iraq.
We want YOU to examine your own conscience and decide if this is worth it. We encourage you to research other aspects of the story and then make up your mind.
If we must take a side, it is the side of the mother who has lost a child, whatever her nationality might be.
Do Pictures Lie?
Pictures don't tell lies, people tell lies. That being said, this is not is it the whole story nor does it claim to be. . It is an aspect of the truth that is not shown elsewhere.
All of our pictures come from verifiable, legitimate sources which we pay licensing fees.
Who do you work for?
Crisis Pictures is not affiliated with any political organization or cause. We are neither Democrat, nor Republican.
Actually they are affiliated with Air America, and with Rosie O'Donnell, and whomever she fronts for.
#6
They may not want the world to know who they are, but I know for a definitive fact the server that serves their pages is on the same basic network segment as airamericaradio.com The server is out of New York at Globix Corporation, the same folks that host airamericaradio.
My thinking is this fella is not operating 'on a shoestring budget' and is by no means independant.
FORTY al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels, including two suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), were killed in a military airstrike over their alleged hideout on a marshland in Datu Piang town, Maguindanao province, officials said Friday. Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, military Southern Command (SouthCom) chief, told Camp Aguinaldo reporters that the death toll was based on radio signals from the rebels, intercepted by military intelligence. Major General Raul Relano, chief of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said in a separate interview that three rebels were injured based on initial reports.
Braganza and Relano said they could not determine the affiliations of the other casualties. One government soldier, flying a helicopter gunship, was slightly wounded, Relano said. Some 300 MILF rebels, led by renegade commander Wahid Kalil Tondok, were in Butilan marsh allegedly coddling some 40 Abu Sayyaf bandits and several JI members, Relano said. "They have scattered in the area. It is useless bombing them now," Relano said in a telephone interview.
Relano said checkpoints were set up around the marsh area to prevent the bandits from escaping. An Inquirer report from Cotabato City said one JI member was killed although he could not be positively identified. Colonel Gerry Jalandoni, chief of the 604th Infantry Brigade, said military agents could not say who among the Indonesians -- Dulmatin, Mohammad Ali Abdulrahiman alias Muhayiha and Saki alias Maruan -- was killed during the air strikes.
A Huey helicopter almost crashed when bullets from caliber 50 hit its tail while it was trying to insert troops in the marshland on Thursday to recover the remains of the slain suspected terrorist, Jalandoni said. This prompted the Air Force to launch a second wave of attacks in the afternoon, he added. Jalandoni said about 70 renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members were monitored in the area during the air attacks. He said the manhunt against the followers of Tondok shifted to Sultan Kudarat province following reports that his group moved from the towns of Datu Piang, Mamasapano, Sultan sa Barongis, Ampatuan -- all in Maguindanao -- to Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat.
Tondok's group was allegedly behind an attack on an Army detachment in Linantangan town earlier this month, which left seven soldiers and 15 rebels killed. Tondok has refused to surrender to the government and the MILF. The MILF, while insisting that it did not sanction the assault, refused to surrender the Muslim rebel leader. Meanwhile, MILF spokesman Eid "Lipless Eddie" Kabalu said the latest military attack was a "blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement" and that it would file a protest before the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH). Kabalu however maintained that the attacks would not affect the resumption of peace talks, slated in February in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Brigadier General Alexander Yano, military spokesman, expressed a similar view. "We don't think soâŠthe operation was targeted against the same groups which the MILF says is not affiliated with them," Yano told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo. "But informally, we told them that the operation was targeted against the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah and not against the MILF," Yano added. In Malacañang, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the ongoing clashes would not get in the way of the scheduled resumption of peace negotiations between the government and the secessionist group. But while the government was willing to sit down anew with the MILF, Bunye said government forces would continue to pursue terrorist cells in the South, including the renegade members of the MILF. "We are confident this will not hinder the peace talks with the MILF, which is also forsworn to fight terror. Terrorism is our common enemy and there is no disagreement that it could be defeated," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:07:31 AM ||
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Pakistani police have arrested as many as 16 Al Qaeda terrorists in various raids conducted all over the country. "Yes, we have arrested 16 suspects in different raids conducted in Pashtoonabad and Kharotabad areas of the city," The News quoted DIG Quetta Police Rafi Pervez Bhatti as saying. Police officials said that since all the suspects had earlier served in important posts in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, "the police were questioning the suspects."
Bhatti added that on being informed that Al Qaeda suspects were hiding in Pashtoonabad and Kharotabad area, police teams raided the areas and apprehended the suspects. The arrested included a former deputy governor of Helmand province of Afghanistan, identified as Mullah Khushdil Khan, former Afghan police chief Mullah Muhammad Ibrahim, former police chief of Mizar-e-Sharif Abdul Nabi and others. Police officials further added that following the arrests, police have widened their scope of investigations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:05:22 AM ||
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The chief executive of Halliburton said on Friday that the company would withdraw all employees from Iran and end its business activities there after its Iranian energy exploration contracts came under criticism this month.
Halliburton, the nation's largest energy- and military-services company, plans to cease dealings in Iran when it completes its present commitments, David J. Lesar, Halliburton's chief executive, told investors on a conference call.
Those commitments include a gas-drilling deal with an Iranian partner valued at about $35 million that the company secured this month, he said.
"The business environment currently in Iran is not conducive to our overall strategy and objectives," Mr. Lesar said.
Speculation has been increasing about potential military action by the United States in Iran.
Halliburton and a handful of other American companies have been able to circumvent sanctions against doing business there.
Halliburton operates in Iran through a unit based in nearby Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that in turn is registered in the Cayman Islands. No American citizens are permitted to work in Iran for Halliburton, and its investing there is limited to no more than $40 million.
Yet Halliburton's decision to no longer be in Iran, even working within the restrictions, suggests that it is still sensitive to criticism about its operations in the Middle East and its connections to Vice President Dick Cheney, who ran the company for five years until 2000.
Mr. Lesar also signaled on Friday that the company was moving forward with plans to split off KBR, the unit responsible for carrying out its military-services contracts in Iraq.
"In Iran they figured it's probably not worth the grief," said Michael Urban, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.
Halliburton's Iraq-related work accounted for $1.7 billion of revenue in the most recent quarter, out of a total of $5.2 billion. Leaving Iran raises an eyebrow, but why divest of KBR?
#2
The KBR divestiture may have more to do with the outlook for large construction projects (refineries, petrochemical plants, etc.) than any Iraq or other political considerations.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 14:45
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They'll just give their Mad Mullah Money to a Russian or Chinese company. Nothing is actually accomplished by this - except saving expat lives, of course, when the steel hard rain starts to fall.
The NYT doesn't care about anything but appearances. Image over content. That's why they suck so much and have made themselves irrelevant. This was merely an opportunity to prove that fact - and repeat the LLL Cheney meme, of course, lol.
Via Lucianne:
Ahh, they can handle it now, they're big boys as they keep telling US.
ABOUT 130 Russian spies are active in Germany, almost as many as during the Cold War, according to the German news magazine Focus. German political parties, companies, the armed forces and scientific research establishments were targetted by post-communist Russian espionage, said the report, quoting German authorities. The article, released in advance of Monday's edition, quoted an official of the German Federal Criminal Investigation Agency (BKA) as saying the targets were spied on "in an extremely aggressive way". It also quoted an unnamed senior official of Germany's domestic counter-intelligence service as saying Russian intelligence had been strongly reinforced, so that almost as many operatives were now undercover on German territory as there were Soviet KGB agents during the Cold War. Focus reported a Russian military intelligence officer had been caught trying to recruit a German soldier in order to get at confidential military documents . nope, no new tech for you.
The officer had been expelled following a German protest note to the Russian embassy in Berlin, it said. The magazine also reported Russian agents had been observed in Hamburg trying to recruit informers in the police force. The German federal attorney's department in Karlsruhe is currently examining statements by Russian former agents who have changed sides. Investigators do not rule out that the ex-agents are being co-operative in the hope of obtaining residence permits in Germany. Russian-German relations are generally perceived as cordialTalks between German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin last month were deemed to have strengthened friendly links..
"How are you today, Gerhard?"
"Fine, thanks for asking, Vlad. And you?"
"Our relationship has reached a breadth and depth like never before in our history," Mr Schroeder said during the talks in northern Germany. So, what do you think of W?)
The two leaders spoke in German, a language Mr Putin learned as a KGB agent based in Dresden in former East Germany during the Cold War.
Posted by: Anonymous2u ||
01/30/2005
12:04:13 AM ||
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Shhhh! I gotta tuna sandwich in my trench coat right now.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:25
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How do you recruit?
Russian money versus German?
Russian social welfare system versus German?
Russian honey trap versus Russian mail order brides?
Its not like any German political parties are not left of Puty's, so where's the political motivation?
Recruiting has got to be tough when you no longer have much to offer.
#4
There is a saying that the only way you can bargain with a German is with your bayonet at his throat, and the only way you can bargain with a Russian is with your boot on his back.
The Saudi Labor Ministry plans to secure jobs for 200,000 Saudi women within the next six months as part of a national drive to replace foreigners with locals. A ministry source said Tuesday that certain jobs allocated for women would be "Saudized," or taken over by Saudi nationals, including receptionists in female outlets, workers in female workshops and ateliers, diet centers, nurseries, secretarial jobs and estheticians. "The Saudization of these jobs will take place in phases after the candidates submit to training sessions financed and organized by the Fund for the Development of Human Resources," the source said. He said some 200,000 women are expected to benefit from that process. Saudi women, who have long been banned from employment under the strict rules of the Muslim conservative kingdom, can now apply for certain jobs allocated for them. Because, Allah knows, anything more challenging would give them the vapours, and the poor dears just can't be expected to do "man's work".
#1
Interesting development. Just musing about what jobs the Saudis would consider acceptable for their wymyns...
This will prolly hit Indians the hardest. It is an oddity of Saudi employment habits that Indian males, lesser numbers of Filipino and Pakiwaki males, end up in the "top" clerical and sales positions in "soft" businesses - such as retail stores and mall outlets. It's a freakish, particularly Saudi, form of soft racism - effectively, non-Arab Asian males are not viewed as men. At Aramco, the classification for non-Saudis is "AOA" - Arab and Other Asian. The OAs of that designation are automatically discriminated against - peaking out at clerical / bookkeeper jobs.
I guess this means that when Maha, Haifa, and Rima have their Indian / Paki / Flip drivers take them down to Fredericks of Mekkah for that special Eid teddy, the one with the cutouts, they won't have the thrill of dealing with Ravi Shankar. Bummer, babes.
#2
This has the feel of the Saudis gingerly backing into the thorny problem of male Arab ego vs. need for employment. I.e., first have women work - because they are after all inferior to begin with, so there is no dishonor in them working at the right sort of girly jobs. Then, maybe a generation from now, non-royal men might answer phones in their offices and who knows where it will go after that?
The Saudis have a massive demographic and unemployment problem of their own making.
Iraqis voted Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying threats of violence from insurgents determined to sabotage the balloting. As he cast his vote, President Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq's first step "toward joining the free world." Before voting began, mortar fire boomed across Baghdad and the world awaited the results of an event that will echo from militant Islamic Web sites in the Mideast to the halls of the White House. Insurgents rocketed the U.S. Embassy in downtown Baghdad late Saturday, killing two Americans.
Al-Yawer was among the first to cast his ballot, voting alongside his wife at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad. As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots and dropped them into boxes, and then walked away with an Iraqi flag given to him by a poll worker. "I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawer told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."
Voters nationwide began trickling past police guards and heavy security fortifications into schools and other buildings converted into polling centers. A spokesman for Iraq's elections commission said all the nearly 5,200 polling stations nationwide were opening on schedule. Turnout was expected to be low in the early hours. Most attacks occur in the morning, and many Iraqis were likely to wait to see whether rebels carry through with threats of violence. Final results will not be known for seven to 10 days but a preliminary tally was expected late Sunday.
Baghdad's streets were deserted at dawn. The only activity in one area was an American Humvee racing down an empty road in response to a burst of gunfire. In the northern city of Kirkuk, buses hired by city officials picked up people walking toward voting centers to get them there more quickly. Like al-Yawer, Iraqis will mark two ballots: one to elect the National Assembly, the other for a provincial legislature. There were no immediate reports of violence at the polls, but an explosion was heard at the U.S. military base in Kirkuk in the north. Scattered small arms fire was heard near another U.S. base near Baghdad's airport. "So far the situation is excellent in all areas," said the chairman of Iraq's electoral commission, Abdul-Hussein Hendawi. "All the polling centers, their doors are open. So far we haven't heard about any problems."
Insurgents have vowed to disrupt the vote, and threatened death to any Iraqis who show up. The country was under almost complete lockdown — across Iraq, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles blocked roads and bridges to prevent insurgent movement and the airport was closed. Iraqi National Guardsmen, wearing black ski masks to hide their faces, roamed through the capital in SUVs and pickup trucks, machine guns mounted. Police and Iraqi soldiers set up checkpoints and randomly searched cars. Iraqi officials have predicted that up to eight million of 14 million voters — just over 57 percent — will turn out for Sunday's election. Voters in the Kurdish-run north also will select a regional parliament.
It's at 74 percent as I read this...
But turnout is uncertain, especially in the Sunni Arab areas of central, northern and western Iraq where the insurgency is most deadly. About 300,000 Iraqi and American troops are on the streets and on standby to protect voters. Iraqi expatriates in 14 countries cast absentee ballots on the second of three days of voting abroad, and officials said that by late Saturday, about two-thirds of those registered had voted so far. Iraqi leaders had been disappointed that less than a quarter of the estimated 1.2 million expatriate Iraqis eligible to vote worldwide registered to do so. Government spokesman Thaer al-Naqeeb warned Iraqis to expect "sabotage operations" carried out by "the enemies of Iraq." But he encouraged Iraqis to vote nonetheless. "It is important. It will preserve the integrity of Iraq," he said. "If you vote ... the terrorists will be defeated."
Despite the strict security and a nighttime curfew, guerrillas hit the U.S. Embassy compound in the Green Zone with a rocket Saturday evening, killing a Defense Department civilian and a Navy sailor and wounding four other Americans, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay in Washington. The Defense Department released grainy footage shot from an unmanned spy drone of what it said showed figures shooting a rocket and running away. It then showed U.S. soldiers entering a house where the suspected militants sought refuge, and said seven people were arrested. Another American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. More than 40 American troops have been killed in the past three days.
Bush said in his weekly radio address from the White House that the election "will add to the momentum of democracy. The terrorists and those who benefited from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein know that free elections will expose the emptiness of their vision." A ticket endorsed by the country's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is expected to fare best among the 111 candidate lists. However, no faction is expected to win an outright majority, meaning possibly weeks of political deal-making before a new prime minister is chosen. Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate. A Western election adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated Sunni turnout could run anywhere from 15 percent to 50 percent.
Throughout the Sunni heartland, there was little enthusiasm for the election. "We will not vote because our houses have been destroyed," said Alaa Hussein of the Sunni city of Fallujah, which fell to a U.S. assault against insurgents in November. "We don't have electricity or water. The Iraqi National Guard fire at us 24 hours a day. So who will we vote for?"
By contrast, enthusiasm among Shiites was high. "There's joy everywhere," said Mohammed Hussein, who lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Iraqis who took part in the overseas voting were also excited. A line outside a Denmark polling station snaked for 700 yards despite freezing temperatures, and people danced for joy in Nashville, Tenn. "I learned from my parents about past bitter days in my homeland and I voted in the hope of replacing that with a brighter future," said Ahmad Abai, 21, casting his ballot in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where he was born to Iraqi parents.
Fighting raged Saturday night in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk between police and insurgents. The clashes occurred in a predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood and lasted for about an hour, according to police Brig. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef. "We have one life and one God," said Mohammed Omar, 35, repeating an Arabic expression underlining the futility of trying to cheat death. "Our hearts have died. We no longer fear anything. If death is written, then there's nothing that we can do."
Amar Samir, a Christian resident of Baghdad, said it was impossible to believe that things could get worse. "We get electricity for half an hour and then it disappears for six or longer," Samir said. "These are very strange elections. They will not change a thing. Or maybe they will," he added. "But not right away."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005
12:03:39 AM ||
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Indonesia's military says it has shot dead four separatist rebels in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province while government and rebel leaders are engaged in cease-fire talks in Finland. Military spokesman Edi Sulistiadie says Army infantry shot dead the four Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas during a skirmish in the village of Tanjong Punti in the east of the region. He says the clash broke out after soldiers spotted the four trying to "disturb" residents in the village. Mr Sulistiadie says one of those killed is Amin Syarif, a 40-year-old rebel commander.
Asked why the clash had occurred despite the ongoing talks in Finland, Mr Sulistiadie said: "The current position of the Indonesian Armed Forces is defensive-active. They fired at us first, so why shouldn't we fire back?" However, rebel sources say that the four had been in the village to meet relatives. They had assumed that they would not be captured by authorities while cease-fire talks are ongoing. Upon their arrival, armed Indonesian soldiers immediately surrounded their homes. A skirmish then broke out.
That's the way hudnas usually work, isn't it?
Mr Sulistiadie also accuses the rebels of shooting dead a resident and critically wounding another in the northern Aceh district of Bireuen after they refused to donate money for the separatists' cause. The Finland talks have resulted in an agreement to work towards a lasting peace deal to help rebuild the province, which took the brunt of the December 26 tsunami. Indonesia is offering limited autonomy for the gas-rich province of 4 million people on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The GAM has rejected that in the past but the Finnish mediators says the offer forms the basis of the talks. "We have an in-principle agreement to meet again in the near future to discuss a comprehensive peace settlement under the umbrella of self-autonomy," Indonesia's Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said.
That means they can enforce their local brand of shariah and rake off from the oil revenues. "Zakat" imposed on the oil money will support many, many pious holy men...
The Finnish mediator, former president Martti Ahtisaari who has previously brokered peace in conflict zones such as Kosovo, says the next round of Helsinki talks would happen soon. "I don't expect it to take months," he said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/30/2005
12:03:12 AM ||
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DAVOS: Pakistan and Turkey have resolved to clamp down on terrorism in various areas besides projecting Islam in its true perspective. The consensus was reached during a meeting between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Davos on Friday evening. The two leaders discussed economic ties, promotion of bilateral trade, development in South Asia, the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Middle East and matters relating to the Economic Cooperation Organisation. Both leaders agreed to hold a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission before Mr Aziz's visit to Turkey in June this year to prepare ground for substantial cooperation in various fields.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
12:01:44 AM ||
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A British military transport plane crashed northwest of Baghdad Sunday, British and U.S. officials said. A spokesman for Britain's Defense Ministry said he had no details about where the C-130 Hercules transport plane had come down, what had caused it to crash or whether there were any casualties. U.S. officials said the plane crashed near the Iraqi capital, and media reports said the aircraft was on its way to the city of Balad from Baghdad when it crashed. "I can confirm that a C-130 aircraft has crashed," the British spokesman said. "It was reported at 1725 local time but we have no details about cause, location or casualties." Developing...
#2
Bulldog, I can honestly tell you that there's no distinction in my mind between US and UK casualties. Here, I hope there are as few of both as possible.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 17:29
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NSW would do what it could to help the Federal Government keep an eye on Mamdouh Habib, Premier Bob Carr said today. The former Guantanamo Bay inmate returned to Sydney yesterday, ending more than three years of detention in the US as a terrorist suspect. Although Mr Habib has not been charged with any offences, the Federal Government said it would continue to monitor his whereabouts and activities. Speaking on the campaign trail in Sydney with new federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, Mr Carr told reporters that NSW police would assist in any way they could. "It's a matter for police and their counter terrorism unit. We will cooperate with commonwealth police but it is not a matter that I will direct or give a public account of," he said. "The police have got responsibilities and they will fulfil them with a high level of cooperation from the commonwealth police."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/30/2005
12:01:21 AM ||
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LAHORE: Qul of Hafiz Irfan, 23, the suicide attacker on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, was held on Saturday at his Sheesh Mehal Road residence under tight security. An Anti-Terrorist Court in Rawalpindi on Friday had directed the law enforcement agencies to hand over the suicide bomber's head to his father, Muhammad Mukhtar. Later, Irfan's body parts, which had been preserved by authorities for investigation were brought to his house and were buried late night on Friday in Miani Sahib graveyard, with a heavy police contingent led by Dr Usman Anwar, superintendent of police (SP) of City Division. Amid police security, nearly 60 to 70 people including a large number of fundos bearded individuals participated in Irfan's funeral and Quls.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
11:59:23 PM ||
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So not only does Daddy get the head, but the remaining body parts are delivered separately. Joy must be reigning supreme in that household.
A key local Taliban militant expressed his willingness to surrender to the government after holding talks with tribal elders and clerics at an undisclosed location in South Waziristan Agency, said one of the negotiators on Saturday.
Yep. Any time now. Just you wait...
Baitullah Mehsud, a key tribal Taliban commander in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, expressed readiness to surrender, Brig (r) Qayyum Sher, a member of the peace committee that met the militant, told Daily Times from Tank. "He (Baitullah) is ready to settle the matter with the government," said the tribal negotiator. "We met him today and he said he is ready to resolve the matter." The tribal negotiator said Baitullah did not press his old demand that his comrade Abdullah Mehsud should also be pardoned if he surrenders. "He (Baitullah) will surrender alone," said Brig Qayyum. However, the peace committee will discuss modalities for Baitullah's surrender with the government. "The modalities will now be sorted out with the government. How, when and where he will surrender will be discussed with the military and the political administration," said Brig Qayyum.
A military source told Daily Times that Baitullah's surrender would prove a serious setback to Abdullah Mehsud. "That is what we want. But we have to wait for the moment when he (Baitullah) surrenders," the source said on condition of anonymity. Lt Gen Safdar Hussain exempted Abdullah Mehsud from amnesty after his alleged involvement in two Chinese engineers' kidnapping in October last year. Brig Qayyum said Baitullah, who unlike Abdullah Mehsud and Nek Muhammad was not in the media limelight, set no conditions for his surrender and the Peshawar corps commander had already declared amnesty for him if he laid down arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
11:45:04 PM ||
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The countdown to Saudi Arabia's first nationwide elections began with the launch of campaigning for February 10 municipal polls in and around the capital.
Local newspapers carried a wide range of appeals to voters in Riyadh and neighbouring regions, who will be electing half of the members of 38 municipal councils in the first round of the three-stage ballot.
A total of 1,818 candidates are running, 646 of whom are competing for the seven seats in the capital's council, the official SPA news agency reported.
These seven seats represent seven separate constituencies, of which the eastern constituency of Al-Nassim alone attracted 118 candidates for a single seat, SPA said.
"Your vote = Easy housing and clean environment", said one campaign advertisement spread over two pages in Al-Jazirah daily by one candidate standing in the capital.
Candidates are permitted to place advertisements in the print media and set up campaign centres in private function halls.
But they are not allowed to campaign on radio or television or establish campaign headquarters in government buildings, embassies, or mosques, according to a list of do's and don'ts for the campaign, reported by Al-Jazirah.
The daily said that candidates were also banned from using pictures of public figures in their electoral publicity but other newspapers carried advertisements featuring pictures of King Fahd and other royals.
"I would like to congratulate our wise government ... for deciding to hold municipal elections," said one campaigner in an advertisement that took up a full page in Al-Riyadh daily, displaying his picture below those of ruling family members.
Government bodies or companies that are partly owned by the public sector are not allowed to offer financial or moral support to candidates, or act in a manner that might affect the outcome of the ballot, the list said.
The elections in the capital and neighbouring regions are the first of three rounds of local polls that will eventually see elected representatives take up half of the seats on 178 municipal councils across Saudi Arabia.
Voting in the Eastern Province and the southwest is set for March 3. Electors in the western regions of Mecca and Medina, and the north, will not be casting their ballots until April 21.
Women, who represent more than 50 percent of the population, were banned from participating in the election, despite neutral rules that say citizens over 21 years of age, except military personnel, have the right to vote.
Saudi leaders promised in October 2003 to organise elections within a year, but a campaign of violence by suspected Al-Qaeda militants had raised doubts as to whether the timetable would be maintained.
You needed to have your wits about you at this year's meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and not just because the Alpine resort's sidewalks had been rendered glass-like by a dump of snow just before the proceedings began. (The skiing, since you ask, was fabulous.) Blink too quickly, and you'd miss the founders of Google at a reception for the Australian Prime Minister; or Al Gore, Shimon Peres and the head of Iran's central bank scurrying to separate meetings in a crowded hotel lobby while Bill Gates conducted interviews in a room just above them. And then there were the celebs: Angelina Jolie and Sharon Stone; Peter Gabriel and Bono; Lionel Richie (if he still counts as one) and Richard Gere, whose white hair gave him the air of a distinguished professor parachuted in to elucidate the theory of comparative advantage.
Yet if this year's Davos was more star-struck than ever, it also returned to its European roots. Busy with their jobs in the second Bush Administration, key U.S. policymakers like Vice President Dick Cheney (last year's headliner) stayed home. Though a gaggle of senators graced the proceedings, the senior Administration figure present was Robert Zoellick, the new deputy to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. By contrast, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schröder gave major speeches...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/30/2005
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#1
And for his next punishment, Robert Zoellick will be sent to attend a CosPlayCOM in Peoria, featuring furries from the "Darkstalker" series and the dancing Ewok marching boogie band.
The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to provide hundreds of thousands of pages of documents sought by a government working group under a 1998 law that requires full disclosure of classified records related to Nazi war criminals, say Congressional officials from both parties. Under the law, the C.I.A. has already provided more than 1.2 million pages of documents, the vast majority of them from the archives of its World War II predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services. Many documents have been declassified, and some made public last year showed a closer relationship between the United States government and Nazi war criminals than had previously been understood, including the C.I.A.'s recruitment of war criminal suspects or Nazi collaborators.
Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced Iran's readiness to 'renovate and strengthen Lebanon's defense industry' during a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Abdulrahim Murad who arrived here Sunday for a four-day visit.
Shamkhani hailed the visit, saying it indicates the two countries' perception of the regional developments and the need for creation of a united regional (front) against common threats.
"Iran believes one of the effective ways in confronting expansionist ambitions of the world arrogance and the Zionist regime is to strengthen convergence and unity among regional countries," he said.
Condemning Israel's threats and 'insinuous moves' against regional countries, especially Lebanon, Shamkhani said, "the Islamic Republic of Iran calls on the international community to intervene and end repeated violation of Lebanon's sovereignty by the Zionists."
The Lebanese Defense Minister expressed his satisfaction with the visit, describing Iran's role in helping establish peace and stability in the region as pivotal and outstanding.
Murad outlined the prevailing situation in the region and stressed the need for solidarity among Muslim nations to fend off existing threats of the world arrogance.
The Lebanese minister described expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tehran and Beirut as indispensable, saying that establishment of enduring peace and stability in the region is impossible without their cooperation.
Murad's visit is Lebanon's response to an official visit by Shamkhani to Beirut and Damascus last February, which included conclusion of an agreement for defense and military cooperation with Damascus.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/30/2005
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I posted this over at Winds of Change and feel it is so important it is worth risking Fred's wrath (or veto) with the crosslink:
This is the most encouraging thing I've heard about the Iraqi elections - not just the high turnout, but this account by Mohammed and Oscar at Iraq the Model:
The first thing we saw this morning on our way to the voting center was a convoy of the Iraqi army vehicles patrolling the street, the soldiers were cheering the people marching towards their voting centers then one of the soldiers chanted "vote for Allawi" less than a hundred meters, the convoy stopped and the captain in charge yelled at the soldier who did that and said:
"You're a member of the military institution and you have absolutely no right to support any political entity or interfere with the people's choice. This is Iraq's army, not Allawi's".
This was a good sign indeed and the young officer's statement was met by applause from the people on the street.
'Democracy' (as in 'everyone can vote') is not a magic bullet. Voters who are not informed or not committed to a whole set of principles can impose a tyranny of the masses, can be manipulated .... but a mature understanding of representative government under law -- THAT is the heart of freedom.
UPDATE: I should add that one of the great contributions of the U.S. Military Academy is that it produced, from its founding in 1802, an officer corps whose loyalty was to the country as a whole and to the Constitution rather than to individual states, religions or ethic orgins. That loyalty was deeply tested during the Civil War and one of the most moving places at West Point is the Reconciliation Walk which documents how those who fought on both sides extended forgiveness and a commitment to national unity in the years afterwards.
The non-political nature of our military -- which is deeply engrained in regulations and culture both -- has been a key element in the success of our political system.
Posted by: Robin Burk ||
01/30/2005
11:00:53 AM ||
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#1
This is truly a great day, and those officer's words a cause for much hope. Let's pray the Iraqi people can hold it together-- and that we have the stamina and courage to help them do it in the years ahead.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/30/2005 12:52
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I should add that one of the great contributions of the U.S. Military Academy is that it produced, from its founding in 1802, an officer corps whose loyalty was to the country as a whole and to the Constitution rather than to individual states, religions or ethic orgins
#3
One can't help be moved by the Iraqi elections. These folks, in many cases, walked great distances to vote under great threat. We, in the U.S., should be very proud of the role our military has played in bringing about movement towards democracy in a part of the world that has long needed the light of democracy.
Well, there were a few military achievements by its grads, too .....
But yes, until I got there I never quite realized how important West Point was in the development of the country as a unified republic. Pretty amazing, when you think about it ... certainly the world experience hadn't gone that way before and in most places still doesn't.
Posted by: Robin Burk ||
01/30/2005 16:10
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It's been a goose-bumps kinda day, and this article started them afresh!!
The bravery of the Iraqi people in voting dwarfs the cowardice of the terrorists who threatened them!!
And now 8,000,000 of them have a stained finger that represents a badge of courage and honor. There are lots of bumps in the road ahead, but they took a good first step today!
JOHN Howard has lashed out at "old Europe", describing criticism of the US as "unfair and irrational", as global tensions grow over the Iraq war and free trade. During a vigorous panel debate on US global relations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, several European officials attacked President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, but Mr Howard stood up to defend his ally. Earlier in the summit, Mr Howard attacked the European Union over the reintroduction of wheat export subsidies, which he said harmed underdeveloped nations and were contrary to free trade. "Some of the criticism (of the US) by some of the Europeans is unfair and irrational," the Prime Minister said in the panel debate, organised by Britain's BBC TV. Nice to have a friend and a true ally.
"I mean, the negative mindset of the last five minutes (of this debate) is ridiculous — of course America has made mistakes," he said. Later Mr Howard told The Australian he found the European "irrational level of anti-Americanism" perplexing. "It is a sign of parochialism and it is disturbingly intense." He said the BBC debate "was based on an anti-American mindset which was established right at the beginning by the moderators from the BBC". Mr Howard said anti-Americanism had already affected world co-operation. "But it is very important to remember it is confined to sectors of Europe — not all Europeans . . . There remains in Britain some of the old jealousies that have always been there. I found the French and German attitude has lingered longer than I thought it might, and longer than is in anyone's interests."
Attacking Europe over its reintroduction of wheat export subsidies, Mr Howard urged the US not to follow suit. "Nothing would help underdeveloped countries more than the removal of trade subsidies and trade barriers. "If the nations of Europe and North America ... really wanted to help many of the developing countries, then they could do more to help in changing their trade polices than they could through official development assistance."
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005
1:09:32 PM ||
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With Howard as PM, the Ozzies punch so far above their weight class that it's absurd, an example being their recent first-on-the-scene performance in the tsunami relief effort. ("The UN? Oh, I expect they'll get here eventually. Have some food.") It's hard to remember sometimes that in terms of population Australia is smaller than Iraq by several millions.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 15:29
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Australia: 19 million people.
France: 59 million people.
Difference as "Allies": Priceless.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 15:38
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One salient difference France v. Howard & OZ is that France has proven repeatedly that they are whores who can be bought.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 18:21
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Tom,
A more pointed comparison is:
Australia-19 million people,Canada-31 million people.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 18:45
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Stephen:
I hope that your comparison doesn't go too far. 60 years ago, Canada had the 3rd largest navy, a real Army (as in multiple combat-capable infantry and armor divisions), and an air force with the latest equipment.
I sure hope Canada 2005 <> Australia 2065.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 20:45
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They had several carriers (CVEs, but that's more than anyone beside US and UK had), 2 or 3 cruisers, a dozen or two destroyers, and a whole pile of escort ships, from frigates and sloops down to corvettes and sub-chasers. Of course, it's kind of artificial in that I chose 1945, when Japan, Italy, and Germany were stripped of their navies, and the USSR and France had lost theirs combat or overrun by the Germans. In 1944, they were probably 4th. And of course, by 1950, they were 7th or so. Still...
Back then, they realized that they were at war and were willing to make sacrifices to win it. Now, they don't and aren't. I don't expect Canada to be able to match our effort, but would 1/10 be too much to ask?
#1
"The IMF noted in November that the Iraqi economy is already outperforming all its Arab neighbors." This statement is truly the death knell of Mafias and gangs, and they know it. Their greatest fear is prosperity, because with prosperity, the trouble-makers not only lose any active support, they lose passive support, and ordinary citizens become antagonistic to them.
#3
Oh, I agree. Uninvited foreign troops should pull out at a proper time after the Iraqi government is established, so they won't interfere with US soldiers invited by the Iraqi government to form semi-permanent garrisons in their country.
#14
I think it's time to pull our business and tourism out of France.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 16:36
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France, together with Germany and Spain, and the rest of OLD EUROPE lost big time today in Iraq. America is winning you LOSERS. Wake up and smell the khat.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/30/2005 17:07
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#1
No, no, no...rooters got the story all wrong --
"Iranians Fried Steaks Over At the Uranium Mine" is the way it should read, per the IAEA.
However, we understand that the CIA will be sending Joseph Wilson and his secretive wife over to investigate.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:32
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Graham Davidson, the general manager for operations at Rossing, said in a letter to Reuters that the company's board of directors only permits the sale of uranium for use in generating electricity. "The government of Iran has held a 15 percent shareholding in Rossing Uranium Limited since 1975," he said. The U.S.-backed shah ruled Iran until the 1979 Islamic revolution.Rossing Uranium Limited, which is majority owned by Anglo-Australian firm Rio Tinto, sells its uranium to nuclear power plants in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Sweden.
What's the problem? Did you read the article, #1?
I was skeptical until I read the article...it seems Canada did provide a lot of the technical details of the mechanics of the party and voting systems...but they did it all from Jordan and places other than Iraq. I wonder if they were more afraid of the terrorists or the scorn of the "international community?"
#1
This was reported a few weeks back. The Canadians participated in an international election group that decided to position themselves in Jordan for security reasons.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:31
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Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.
#3
I wonder if they support the new goverment that they are "Playing a key role" in creating? Will the double speak end on CBC? Will the ouright lies end? With the snarky comments from the LLL pols in Ottawa? Only time will tell.
#4
Even here in heavily guarded Amman, Canadians abound, from the squadron of Elections Canada monitors to the spokesperson for the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE). This man is a household name to anyone who follows Canadian politics. But last night, in an interview with the Toronto Star, he insisted we refer to him only as "spokesman." He too fears for his life, and the possibility that the reach of the growing Iraqi insurgency might extend to his Jordanian hotel room.
"You can say my name when my plane lifts off the runway. Until then, I'm the IMIE spokesman. Period," he said.
Such blanket anonymity makes one wonder what fresh hell awaits Iraq.
Or, it makes one wonder when Canadians lost their balls.
The US, French and British embassies warned their nationals of a terrorist threat in Kuwait on Thursday, with the Americans saying that militants have recently targeted a large apartment complex housing Westerners. The US warning was the fourth security message issued this month. Two suspected terrorists and two Kuwaiti police officers were killed earlier this month in shoot-outs. "Although a number of arrests have been made, we believe that individuals associated with these incidents are still at large and remain a threat to Westerners and Western interests," the British Embassy said Thursday. It urged Britons to remain vigilant and avoid "drawing unnecessary attention." The US Embassy said it had information that "the group behind the recent shootings did not distinguish between official and civilian targets and that they conducted surveillance of at least one facility known to house a large number of Western civilians."
The embassy identified the buildings as the Alia and Ghaliya towers in Fintas, south of Kuwait City. Additional security measures have been put in place at the location, the warden message said. "Heightened security awareness should be exercised in all residential complexes, as terrorists have specifically targeted a variety of Western housing facilities in the past," it said. About two years ago, a young Kuwaiti was arrested in possession of homemade explosives near the towers in Fintas. He had not used them.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
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The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it. By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad. With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics. "When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game."
Stevens' deployment landed him in an area known for insurgents' use of what the U.S. military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Some of those are vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs -- military-speak for car bombs. It is not unusual for Marine patrols on the two-lane roads through towns and gray-and-brown fields to encounter three or four bombs a day. Sometimes, there are more -- many more. The bombs contribute to an injury rate of one-in-five Marines during their 6-month-old deployment here. The bombs also kill U.S.-allied Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling in unarmored pickups and cars. Many Marines here have been bombed two or three times, and a couple seven or eight. Stevens, at nine, appears to hold the record that no one wants to break.
Posted by: Sobiesky ||
01/30/2005
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He is the on-the-ground equivalent of the WW2 US Bomber "Flak Bait."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2005 2:58
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That cat better get the hall outta town he has no more lives left.
This Mr. Kerry is what a hero looks like.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources exclusively report: 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: Sobiesky ||
01/30/2005
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Seems they have to shift operations elsewhere.To hot for them in Iraq.
THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein. Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme.
The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing calls for his resignation over the management of the humanitarian programme. The oil for food programme allowed Saddam to sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies under UN supervision. However, it has emerged that the programme was riddled with corruption as Saddam used it to buy influence around the world. Several senior UN staff are alleged to have profited from the scheme, and the apparent connection between Kojo and the programme has become the subject of intense international scrutiny. Critics claim that Kofi faces a significant conflict of interest if Kojo sought to profit from the discredited scheme. Initially it emerged that Cotecna, the company awarded the contract to monitor humanitarian supplies imported into Iraq, had previously employed Kojo and paid him fees throughout the term of the oil for food programme. However, a friend of Kojo's said: "He has explained to the investigators that his only involvement with Cotecna was in Nigeria and that he knew nothing about the deal in Iraq. He is looking forward to the investigation report being published so that he will be exonerated on this point."
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005
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Snicker. Is this the only link you have Duke? The Times?
#2
I really, really liked the oil business; all that money, but I feel like I am accomplishing something by holding conferences and by being better than the USA and all those red-staters in jesusland.
BTW, I got a really good deal on paper plates the other day, but I am afraid if I use them in a UN conference I will be attacked by the Greens for using rainforest trees.
#3
Since the Iraqi deal collapsed, Kojo, 31, has set up a company that imports oil to (sic) Nigeria from (sic) the Balkan states. He is a regular visitor to England, where he was educated, and has a ã500,000 flat on Londonââ¬â¢s King Road. He socialises with other well-known Nigerians, is always impeccably dressed and enjoys the use of a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.
Like a rubber ball I come bouncin' back to you.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 7:25
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.... âHe has explained to the investigators that his only involvement with Cotecna was in Nigeria and that he knew nothing about the deal in Iraq. ...â
.... Kojo acted as a director for [Saudi] Hani Yamaniâs company and was a close business associate. .... In 2001 Yamani lined up a deal to sell about $60m worth of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company. .... Kojo was involved in the deal. Kojo ... travelled to Morocco to help finalise the sale and was present at key meetings. However, the sale was abandoned by Yamani. ....
So, right now it still seems to me that Kojo Annan had nothing to do with Cotecna getting the a UN contract to participate in the Oil-for-Food program.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 9:22
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Kojo no way! He's clean until he confesses on Court TeeVee and even then we can't be sure.
President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday called on moderate forces to unite in defeating the designs of extremists who want to stop Pakistan progressing.
Pakistani moderates have such a great history of standing together and all ...
Addressing a public meeting here, the president said the "silent, moderate majority" must stand up to quell the minority of extremists who want to push Pakistan backward. "The time demands that all moderate forces make concerted efforts to curb extremism, which is a major challenge confronting the nation when IT is moving forward on the path of sustainable development and democracy," Musharraf said at the gathering, as Muslim League and Pakistan People's Party supporters waved their party flags.
Pakistan, he asserted, faces no external threat but internal challenges in the form of extremism. "Nobody will be allowed to retard Pakistan's progress. We all shall collectively confront the forces that try to impede the country's development." Musharraf asked the public to be pro-active in helping the government stamp out extremism. "The great religion of Islam stands for moderation. We should oppose elements who spread hatred and discord. We should practise the real values of Islam and foster love, unity and brotherhood." He said an "overwhelming majority" of Pakistanis want to pursue a moderate and enlightened path for development and prosperity and they are opposed to backwardness. He claimed his government had laid down "firm foundations for sustainable democracy" and vowed that there would be no early elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
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Lieutenant-Colonel Mowatassam Hachem al-Jebouri is determined to vote despite living in a guerrilla-infested district of Baghdad. He has devised a plan to do so. The former Iraqi Air Force fighter pilot has identified ten like-minded families from his neighbourhood. The men of those households will set off for their local polling station early in the morning, hoping that the terrorists will be deterred by their numbers. If they return unscathed, if they deem the streets and polling station safe, they will send their wives in the afternoon. Colonel al-Jebouri, 41, the father of two young girls, refuses to be cowed by the insurgents and their threats to kill those who vote. Having suffered 18 months of fear and bloodshed, he insists on his right to participate in Iraq's first free election in half a century. "This is a milestone which will lay the foundations for building a new future in Iraq," he told The Times. snip
Brigadier-General Erv Lessel, the chief US military spokesman in Iraq, predicted a surge of violence tomorrow, with some officials saying that the insurgents would probably attack early "to create the image and perception that it's unsafe to go out". But Colonel al-Jebouri was undaunted. He drew inspiration for his plan from a television advertisement produced by the Iraqi Government that shows an elderly man confronted by a group of masked and menacing youths in an alley. This ad was incredible!! If you haven't seen it, let me know and I'll send link
The old man refused to retreat and is slowly joined by more and more fellow citizens until, as a group, they move forward and the thugs disperse. The message is simple: together ordinary Iraqis are stronger than the extremists. "We held a meeting. We decided to go all together, taking the idea from the advert," the colonel said. The ten men, Sunnis and Shias, went yesterday morning to check out the polling station in Ghazaliya, a violent area on the western highway towards Fallujah where gunmen sometimes set up checkpoints to intimidate the population. Like the rest of the capital's polling centres, it had become a veritable Fort Knox, with razor wire and concrete barriers blocking the roads to thwart suicide car bombers. Police frisked everyone going in. The mere act of casting their ballots could cost this group their lives, but Colonel al-Jebouri says that fear is not an election issue. "Voting is just another risk in Iraq," he said. "But this one is worth is taking." The new Iraqi election counting game: how many BUT's will an article on the election contain? Lileks calls them the Damned Buts. Many we can have a Rantburg award for the article or TV commentator with the most Damned Buts!
Posted by: Sherry ||
01/30/2005
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My hopes and Prayers are with the Iraqi people. They deserve to be free. Look at the smiles and tears of joy on the faces of the Iraqis and you jusk know they're gonna make it work. They know this may be their last chance at freedom. God Bless 'em all.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
01/30/2005 0:19
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This isn't just Iraqi history, but a great moment in US History. What other noble cause to fight for than allow people to choose their own destiny.
#5
Fox is reporting live all night. One story was similar to the AD mentioned in Sherry's post. A group of (apparently anti-election) "toughs" had assembled not far from one of the Baghdad polling stations - presumably to intimidate voters. The Fox reporter and his crew saw them and grabbed their gear to do a spot on them - and they ran away. 3 guys with a camera and they scrammed. Heh.
#7
but, but...no WMD...says the whiners and weeners.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:49
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There are no WMD's because we took the bastard who wanted them out of Baghdad in the spring and summer of 2003. No doubt in my mind that Saddam wanted WMD's and would have eventually got them again. The word IS a safer place .... right Duke ?
#9
No stockpiles of WMD? Right on! Nor are there likely to be any now.
People always said "What if Hitler had been stopped in the '30s?" My guess is that about the same proportion of carping would have been heard about how the Germans were no threat... blah-blah-blah.
Kuwaiti lawmakers are divided over whether a special parliamentary session to discuss pertinent issues on terrorism and the security of the country on February 1 should be open to the public or held behind closed doors. The Council of Ministers, however, will decide on the issue at their regular session tomorrow. Their decision will depend on the sensitivity of the information garnered by the public prosecution in the interrogation of the arrested suspects in the two gun battles that took place between security forces and militants earlier this month. Interior Minister Shaikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah is expected to brief the Cabinet when investigations are complete and is also expected to elaborate on the nature of contacts that Kuwaiti authorities have with their GCC counterparts, mainly Saudi Arabia.
The official spokesman for the People's Front, Mussalam Al Barrak, MP, said, "such important issues should be discussed openly as we have arrived at a critical point and the situation is getting more dangerous. We have arrived at a stage where terrorists are labelling the entire Kuwaiti society as infidels and this is completely unacceptable."
Another lawmaker Bader Al Farisi, however, said, "if the information available is confidential and sensitive and endangers the security of the country it has to be deliberated behind closed doors." A ministerial source warned that any sensitive or critical discussions may cause a societal rift. "The Cabinet has to take into consideration the general political atmosphere in the country," the source said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
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He couldn't possibly be unstable, since he's on the shariah faculty... I mean, he couldn't be. Could he?
A Kuwaiti man employed at the Islamic Studies Department of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Studies is said to have admitted during interrogations with the Hawalli Prosecution to slitting the throat of his 14-year-old daughter to "wash the shame," reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. Earlier, it was published the father, identified only as Adnan, after returning from Saudi Arabia last Monday where he had gone to perform the Islamic ritual Hajj, killed his daughter identified as Asma. He believed she had lost her virginity which Forensic reports proved otherwise.
The daily quoting relatives of the suspect said the man tied his daughter's hands behind her back, blindfolded her with a piece of cloth, turned her head in the direction of Kaaba in Saudi Arabia and slit her throat. The suspect's brother, identified as Adel, said his brother is mentally unstable. This claim has been refuted by one of the relatives saying if he was mentally unstable, he would have not gone to perform Hajj or joined the Faculty of Sharia at the Kuwait University. It has been reported the victim, was well-known for fasting keeping in line with the Muslim tradition. She had also been awarded several certificates of appreciation for learning by heart verses from the Holy Quran.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
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This claim has been refuted by one of the relatives saying if he was mentally unstable, he would have not gone to perform Hajj or joined the Faculty of Sharia at the Kuwait University.
I think that they have it backwards. It proves that he is mentally unstable. Spending a fortune to go throw stones at something, taking the chance of getting trampled. Not to mention attending Sharia U.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2005 11:59
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Damn! of course! I figure you use browned Salwar.
Correct me if I'ma rong.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has assured the German government that the United States has no plans for military intervention in Iran, according to a report Saturday. Rice issued the assurances to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Washington this past week, said the report in Der Spiegel news magazine. Fischer also elicited a verbal assurance from Rice that she supports diplomatic efforts by Germany, France and Britain to resolve the standoff over Iran's purported nuclear programmefor now.
"You boys keep talking for now whilst we get things lined up at our end, 'k?"
But she categorically rejected any US participation in those diplomatic talks. Ahead of President George W. Bush's visit to Germany, on February 23, Rice said the US Administration would welcome a more positive attitude from Berlin toward the election in Iraq. Rice, who will be in Berlin this coming week, was quoted as having said that any statement which could be construed as being critical of the voter turnout or of the fairness of the election would be viewed by Washington as hindering the democratisation process in Iraq.
In Washington last Tuesday, Fischer conferred with Rice for 90 minutes at the White House. Afterward, Fischer said only that the American and European positions on Iran are "not far apart". Iran has denied US accusations that it is using its nuclear programme to build weapons, but the United States has threatened to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council if Iran does not better cooperate with international inspections. The Germans opposed a referral during a gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2005
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Now, being inveterate liars themselves, the mullas are really scared
#2
.... the United States has no plans for military intervention in Iran .... Rice ... supports diplomatic efforts by Germany, France and Britain to resolve the standoff over Iranâs purported nuclear programme
The plain truth.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 9:27
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Make no mistake, there is a "red line" here. Right now the US would prefer to let the EU-3 come to the realization for themselves that they are fooling themselves to think Iran is going to abide by the NPT or any other obligation.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:08
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I'd bet that there is no specific 'numbered' Oplan yet too. However, since planning of any such operation is the responsibility of CENTCOM not State or even the Pentagon [IAW the Goldwater-Nichols Act], that a certain amount of data collection and resource projections are being done as normal staff work just to be ahead of any prep curve when the word does come down.
#5
When I level a sand pile, I don't call that "intervenion" either.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 11:54
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Der Spiegel is rabidly anti-American,so I don't trust their reporting. For the US to have no plans for dealing w/Iran is ridiculous. Of course there are contingency plans,and I would imagine somewhere a planning cell or two is updating them. Now there may be no current intentions of intervening in Iran,but that could change at a moments notice.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 19:18
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You could get a fair idea from Global Security's Target: Iran page... if Mikey agreed, of course. I'm sure Mikey knows far more than John Pike, so this is clearly rubbish. Mikey's a connected guy. Pike's a piker.
You might find the countdown clock interesting, too, if Mikey agreed. Rubbish. Bad clock. Bad.
Sudanese police killed about 20 people and injured 40 on Saturday when they opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, a local political leader said.
"Your highness! The people are demonstating!"
"Why are you telling me? Kill them."
A U.N. spokeswoman said as-yet-unconfirmed reports put the death toll to at least 17 people and maybe as high as 30. A hospital source in the city said 17 people were killed and 20 injured when police opened fire on a protest march. An official source said the death toll was lower. Abdullah Moussa Abdullah, secretary-general of the Beja Congress in Red Sea state, told Reuters by telephone from Port Sudan that he had seen 17 bodies in the hospital morgue and had the names of three other people killed.
A witness to the unrest, Khalil Usman Khalil, told Aljazeera TV that the protest rally started Friday night. "Clashes took place between demonstrators and police, lasting for almost all Friday night. Work at Port Sudan was partially stopped and almost completely this morning after renewal of violence, so police resorted to disperse demonstrators," Khalil said on Saturday. Moussa said he was present in the morning when 300 to 400 members of the Beja ethnic group gathered to prepare for a march to demand that the Khartoum government start negotiations with the Beja on sharing power and the country's resources. "There was a special police unit that appeared and just opened fire at them before they even moved. They fired at their heads and bodies, not even in the air," he said. Three children were among those killed, he added. The source at the hospital said all of the wounds were from bullets. "About 17 were killed and around 20 injured," added the source, who declined to be named.
Three days ago members of eastern tribes, mostly the Beja, presented a list of demands to the Red Sea state governor, including wealth and power sharing. They warned they would take unspecified actions if the demands were not met within 72 hours. "This time was up today and they started a march towards the wali's (governor's) office," the hospital source said, adding the police stopped the march before it got very far. The source said seven soldiers were injured by stones, but only civilians suffered gunshot wounds.
I hope we, or maybe the Brits, are lining something up to give Bashir the little push he seems to need.
First the south, then the west, now the east, ...
Posted by: Fred ||
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Indian police said Portugal's Supreme Court has cleared the extradition of one of India's most wanted men, Abu Salem, sought for a string of blasts that killed more than 250 people in 1993. "We were informed by the Indian mission in Portugal that the Supreme Court has granted India's request for extradition of Abu Salem for all the offences," G Mohanty, a spokesman for India's Central Bureau of Investigation, said. Salem and his girlfriend, little-known Indian actress Monica Bedi, were arrested in Lisbon in September 2002 on charges of document falsification.
India has sought their extradition since they were arrested. Bedi, whose extradition was cleared by the Portuguese court last year, is wanted in India for forgery. Salem is believed to have helped orchestrate a wave of bombings in Bombay's commercial district in March 1993 that killed over 250 people and injured more than 1,000. As well as being wanted for the bombings, Salem is also sought in India in connection with more than 60 cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping that mainly targeted Bombay's film producers and stars. Salem, the subject of an international arrest warrant, has denied any involvement in the blasts or other wrongdoing. Portugal and India do not have an extradition treaty and the extradition case was complicated by a ban in the Portuguese constitution on deporting suspects to nations where they could face the death penalty.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet within two weeks, officials on both sides said. The meeting will kick-start the renewal of peace talks between the two sides amid increased hopes for a breakthrough in the Middle East. "The meeting will apparently be during the week of February 8, with the objective being to make progress between both sides, contingent on continued efforts by the Palestinians to prevent terrorism to Israel," Israeli spokesman David Baker said. The meeting is expected to coincide with new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region.
Wonder how they're going to spin this as something Bush is screwing up?
Posted by: Fred ||
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Good news about Abbas and Sharon having ongoing meetings. I really really hope these 2 men can make a go of it long term. Nice that Dr. Rice will introduce herself so soon after her appointment.
#3
Sharon is giving Abbas a chance to prove himself trustworthy, and thus someone with whom negotiating would be worthwhile. If Abbas can't carry it off -- which is the likely scenario -- Abbas will be written off just like Arafat. But a lot faster.
Voters trickled into polling stations under tight security Sunday in Iraq, casting ballots despite promises by insurgents to sabotage the country's first free election in a half-century. Poll workers checked identifications at schools and other buildings serving as polling stations. Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer was one of the first to vote at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, calling the action his country's first step "toward joining the free world." As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots - one for the 275-member National Assembly and the other for provincial legislatures - and then dropped them into boxes. A poll worker handed him an Iraqi flag as he left. "I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawher told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."
This is a great moment in Iraq. Neither the Iraqis nor we will ever get the credit both deserve.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Some 40 Palestinian police officers will go to Egypt for training next week as part of Egypt's contribution to the new security arrangements in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said on Saturday. The training for Palestinian police officers has been under discussion for months and almost took place late last year but the officers were unable to cross the border into Egypt.
Egypt will also receive delegations from the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to coax into a truce with Israel, he told Reuters by telephone after talks between Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Under an earlier plan, Egypt had offered to host a dialogue between the Palestinian Authority and the militants but Shaath said that would no longer be necessary. "We have concluded really the agreement with them but Egypt needs to support that agreement and continue to monitor and so we are happy that they are going to do that," he added.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has tried to end attacks on Israelis by deploying Palestinian security forces more widely in the Gaza Strip. Israel has responded by reducing its military operations in the area. Shaath said this cleared the way for Egypt to carry out its part in the Gaza security plan, including the training. "They (the Egyptians) will implement what has been agreed before. The training will start immediately, in the first week of February, with probably 42 officers," he said.
"So things are going well and President Mubarak is very pleased with our progress," he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Oman has been struggling with increasing infiltration from Iran. Officials said thousands of Muslims from Pakistan and South Asia have used Iran as a launching pad for illegal entry into Oman. They said the infiltrators charter boats to cross from Iran into the sultanate. Iran has been approached to help stop the infiltration into Oman. But so far little has been done to tighten security along the 900-kilometer Iranian-Pakistan border. Officials said thousands of Pakistanis and others nationals from South Asia have infiltrated Oman in a search for work. But they said the infiltrators were also believed to include Islamic insurgents and criminals.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Oman is a key chokepoint for sea vessels (i.e., navial supply ships) where two recent incidents of sea privacy were reported.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:01
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Just that brief glimpse of the behind the scenes activity that's just as important as moving divisions around. I'm sure there's some reason we shouldn't be doing it...
Israel and the United States have launched an effort to recruit European parliamentarians to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. Israel's Knesset and the U.S. Congress have begun a joint effort to persuade European Union deputies of the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. The Knesset and Congress plan to send representatives to Europe for meetings in Brussels with EU parliamentarians on defense and security committees. The Knesset program was spawned in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and would seek to focus on lobbying parliamentarians from Britain and Germany. Members of the committee discussed the effort with leading members of Congress. Sen. Jon Kyle, a Republican from Nevada, was appointed to lead the Congress-Knesset panel. Kyle said during a meeting of the panel on Jan. 11 that the EU was required for any diplomatic offensive to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005
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We shouldn't do it because it is yet another proof that Israel and the US are together aiming to subdue the World. Obviously, Fred! I'm shocked you didn't pick up on that ;-)
#2
Whatever the reason is, I'm sure the M$M will tell us what it is. And you can be sure that an underlying theme will be that we are working with the Jooooos. But it will be good for legislators to have a first hand experience of working with the EUniks.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 7:20
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Actually, I see this as a "don't make us have to bomb the shit out of them" move. One can't seriously believe that this effort would have any true impact on the euros.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:57
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The US consulate in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, which was stormed by extremists in a deadly attack in December, reopened for business Saturday, the American embassy in Riyadh said. Visa seekers from the western region of the kingdom were flocking lined up early Saturday at the consulate gates, the embassy said in a statement. Five non-American consular staff members and contractors were killed in the storming of the consulate on December 6 which also left four gunmen dead. The attack, claimed by Al Qaeda's Saudi branch, was the first on a diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia but one of a string of bombings and shootings in the kingdom which have killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds more since May 2003. Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden paid tribute to the militants who attacked the consulate in an audiotape attributed to him 10 days after the assault.
No video, unfortunately, since he's residing in a cave in Tora Bora.
US embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said at the time of the attack that her government had no immediate plans to relocate the beachfront mission after reports of a Saudi request for moving the consulate to a more secure place.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2005
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A main al Qaeda-linked group said it was behind a suicide bombing in northeastern Iraq on Saturday, and vowed more bloody attacks during Sunday's election, according to an Internet statement. "A lion from the martyrs brigade of the Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked the Americans and their agents in Khanaqin," said the statement from the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, posted on an Islamist Web site. "For the last time, we warn that tomorrow will be bloody for the Christians and Jews and their mercenaries and whoever takes part in the game (election) of America and (Interim Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi," it said.
The U.S. army said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a U.S.-Iraqi military centre in the town of Khanaqin near the Iranian border, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers and five civilians. The army said the blast was outside the protective walls of the military centre, which was continuing to function as normal. Local officials said the bomber had walked up to the centre wearing explosives and blown himself up. Zarqawi, appointed by Osama bin Laden as his top deputy in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for some of the grisliest hostage beheadings and suicide bombings to hit the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
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We have a law which forbids women in "abaya" from driving
In Kuwait we have a law which forbids women in "abaya" from driving. This law, which was sleeping in the drawers of the Interior Ministry for a long time, has been reactivated by the ministry because of the recent security scares. The government should implement such decisions strictly, especially since the terrorists at Umm Al-Hayman were found to have fooled the security forces by wearing this dress.
They're pretty fond of dressing up as girlies, aren't they?
As a first step in the implementation of this law the Interior Ministry should induct women in the security forces to inspect and search drivers wearing "abaya." This will help the Interior Ministry avoid invading the privacy of women motorists and offending our customs and traditions inadvertently.
The government should implement the laws of the land without fear or favour to tide over the current unstable security situation and root out its causes. On this occasion we thank Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Faisal Al-Hajji for warning various societies not to go beyond their mandate. We hope he will force all the societies to comply with his warning. "Time will reveal information which one is not aware of and provide news which one doesn't know."
Zahed Matar
Posted by: Fred ||
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Maybe there was something more to those panties at Abu Ghraib.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
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An opposition parliamentarian in Egypt has been detained by the police on suspicion of forging documents to form a new political party. Ayman Nour, founder of the al-Ghad, or Tomorrow Party, was taken into custody on Saturday after the Egyptian parliament stripped him of his parliamentary immunity. Lawmakers approved a request by the Justice Minister for Nour's parliamentary immunity to be lifted so he could be detained. Nour denies the forgery accusations. His arrest came two days before the ruling National Democratic Party will meet with Egyptian opposition parties to discuss political reform. State security investigators have accused Nour of forging all but 14 of the more than 2000 signatures he was required to present to the committee responsible for licensing political parties. Investigators searched his home and office for additional documents. Nour has described his party, one of just three to be given permission to operate in the past 25 years, as a liberal democratic party that represents youth. He has made numerous suggestions for Egyptian economic and political reform, including constitutional amendments to allow for the president to be elected and the removal of the reference of socialism as the country's guiding principle.
Posted by: Fred ||
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China has launched marketing of missiles designed for Iran. China's Hongdu Aviation Industry Group has exhibited three variants of two new guided missiles that were designed and developed for Iran. The anti-ship missiles, displayed at the China Air Show 2004 in November 2004, were identified as the JJ/TL-6B, JJ/TL-10A and KJ/TL-10B. Industry sources said the Chinese missiles are identical to Iran's Nasr and Kosar, also known as the TL-6 and TL-10. They said brochures by the state-owned Iran Aerospace Industries Organization contain photographs of the Iranian missiles that were identical to those exhibited in China. "It is now clear that two missile programmes revealed a few years ago by China National Aero Technology Import & Export Co (CATIC) - the FL-8 and FL-9 - were the TL-10 and TL-6, respectively, under yet another name," the London-based Jane's Defence Weekly reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Don't be too surprised if the Euro GPS technology hops from China to Iran either.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:59
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Does that mean they shouldn't pull out? Make up your damned mind!
A humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip is looming, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan might be the final nail in the coffin, an Israeli report has warned. Dozens of Palestinians may die if Israel does not act to ensure their medical care after a planned military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip later this year, according to the report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. Israel's current position is that it is not responsible for the fate of patients in Gaza, and is willing, at best, "to take into account humanitarian considerations" and "exceptional cases", without explaining what these may constitute, says the medical rights group.
About like we feel about the plight of patients in Mexico...
"Past and present experience shows that Israel does not interpret urgent medical need in a manner consonant with the accepted definition among medical professionals," said the report, titled The Morning After, which was released Thursday.
Does that make any sense to anybody? Bueller?
The Gaza health system is strained to serve about 1.5 million people. According to PHR, there is one bed per 715 people in Gaza hospitals, a rate almost a quarter that of the lowest acceptable standard in the Israeli healthcare system.
But they're not part of the Israeli healthcare system, are they? They're part of the Paleostinian healthcare system. You know, those guys who demand to be their own government? Who want to have their own state?
In addition, a number of services, including catheterisation and cardiac surgery, burn treatments, neurosurgery, radiotherapy, eye operations and organ transplants are unavailable in the war-torn coastal strip.
Life is tough, ain't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
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Maybe their Arab brothers would consider taking in the dozens of sick Palestinians? Haven't we been told the well being of Palestinians at the forefront of every Arab's thoughts?
Posted by: ed ||
01/30/2005 1:07
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Dozens of Palestinians may die if Israel does not act to ensure their medical care after a planned military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip later this year, according to the report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
Why is Israel responsible? If this group is all concerned, nobody's stopping their members from stepping in and filling the void. Sakes.
#6
Just because we blow up your cafes and buses does not mean you cant help us with our medical needs ?
What kind of shit is that ?
I know your " average " Palestinian is not a member of Hamas or a suicide bomber, but its time they ( as a people ) take care of their own.
Let Hamas and Jihad use some of that money they spend on weapons and explosives and fund and staff a few hospitals. The Palestinian people should not ask, they should rise up and take from their own.
Some 35 unidentified armed men attacked media office in Karachi in the early hours of Saturday, apparently in protest at an interview with the Israeli deputy prime minister. The 35 men rode up to the offices of the Jang group on II Chandigar road at around 2am, stormed the building after manhandling security personnel, and damaged furniture and smashed windows, said a press release. Seven vehicles parked outside were also damaged. The attackers, chanting 'Allah-u-Fubar Akbar', set fire to the main reception on the ground floor and ransacked newspaper and Geo TV offices on the first floor.
"Police in a nearby vehicle kept looking on and remained unmoved," said the press release. The Jang group felt the attack was the result of an interview appearing in The News and aired on Geo of Shimon Peres, the deputy prime minister of Israel, on Friday. However, a group calling itself Anjuman Tahafuz-e-Islami Aqdar issued a press release claiming responsibility for the attack, Online reported. The group claimed the attack was in response to a Geo show called 'Uljan Suljan' which, it said, had hurt religious sensitivities by "disrespecting" Islamic values. The Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the attack by "a group of religious extremists". Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
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PESHAWAR: Unidentified assailants shot dead a tribal elder and his son early on Saturday in South Waziristan Agency's Wana headquarters, eyewitnesses said. Hiyatullah Mehsud and his son Pir Alam were gunned down in Wana's Rustam Bazaar and the attackers fled after the killing, the eyewitnesses said adding that it was a "personal feud" and not linked to militants targeting pro-government tribal elders.
However, some tribal elders suspected that the killing might have been carried out by Al Qaeda-linked militants who targeted people collaborating with the government against them. Mr Mehsud got a government job recently after he provided information to the government about militants, but there was no independent confirmation about his cooperation with the government. Since mid-December last year, militants have assassinated a number of pro-government tribal elders, including the brother of Pakistan's ambassador to Qatar, Ayaz Khan. A local correspondent told News Network Internatioanal (NNI) that Mehsud had four or five death threats.
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Indonesia and Aceh separatists have agreed to work toward a lasting peace deal to help rebuild the province that took the brunt of the Dec. 26 tsunami. The two side said on Saturday after talks in Helsinki that they would meet again soon. After three decades of fighting that has claimed 12,000 lives, Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) put aside differences to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Aceh, where 230,000 people died or disappeared in the tsunami. The scale of the tragedy prompted ceasefire offers, and Indonesia sent its most senior delegation so far to meet the GAM's exiled leaders, who have been based in Stockholm since 1976. Jakarta is offering limited autonomy for the gas-rich province of four million people on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The GAM has rejected that in the past, but the Finnish mediators said it formed the basis of these talks.
Lord knows what's going to come of it, but it's certainly nice to see. Next year they'll probably be back where they were last year, but there's always a chance...
Posted by: Fred ||
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Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned European powers yesterday that they must take their nuclear negotiations with Iran seriously, otherwise Tehran would reconsider its co-operation. "The Europeans negotiating with Iran should know that they are dealing with a great, cultured nation ... if Iranian officials feel that there is no seriousness in the European negotiations, the process will change," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the Iranian media.
His comments followed the emergence of reports that the EU was hardening its stance towards Iran and calling on Tehran to completely dismantle its nuclear fuel programme in order to guarantee that it does not seek atomic weapons. Iran, accused by Washington of trying to build an atomic bomb, has suspended uranium enrichment as a confidence-building measure but the EU now wants the Islamic republic to definitively abandon enrichment as well as any activities for making plutonium. Khamenei told the Europeans that "wasting time could not impede Iran's path to nuclear technology since it is a part of its national interest." Iran insists that its nuclear activities are peaceful and that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty guarantees its right to peaceful enrichment activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Khamenei told the Europeans that "wasting time could not impede Iranâs path to nuclear technology since it is a part of its national interest."
It should be painfully obvious by now to anyone in the EU that matters that Iran is simply playing them for fools.
#3
" if Iranian officials feel that there is no seriousness in the European negotiations, the process will change," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the Iranian media "
Definition of CHANGE - US ARMY BOOT UP YOUR ASS !!
#4
the EU was hardening its stance towards Iran and calling on Tehran to completely dismantle its nuclear fuel programme in order to guarantee that it does not seek atomic weapons.
If Iran does not completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the the European Union will impose economic sanctions.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 9:33
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#5
Check out that picture ..
What does sticking your middle finger in the air mean in Iran ?
#2
With the IAEA, the E3, and the Mad Mullahs, well, it's rather unclear exactly who's pitchin' and who's catchin' at any given moment, but we promise to put a RUSH on that shipment of Sheikh Extra Extra Small condoms.
#4
I believe it was the IAEA that at one time also applauded North Korea and Saddam for their cooperation. Then the Israelis bombed the Iraqi nuke plant.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:11
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tw, lol! It depends upon which color ink the size is stamped with...
Red Mediums are, indeed, 12". Blue Mediums are 4".
Unidentified armed men kidnapped two foreigners from a highway near Kandhkot on Saturday, ARY news channel reported. Jocobabad police confirmed the incident and launched an operation to recover the hostages. The identity of the foreigners could not be confirmed, the channel said. Indus News reported that the foreigners were travelling on the Kandhkot highway under police escort when unidentified men attacked the convoy, kidnapped the two foreigners, and escaped.
How's that tourism initiative going, by the way?
Posted by: Fred ||
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They're out of synch with their American agents, e.g. Kennedy spewed yesterday. Amazing the level of desperation in those terrified that the Bush Doctrine will succeed. Anything to derail it, no matter how transparent or blatantly anti-democratic, mercenary, and asinine.
Iran has launched a crackdown on nuclear espionage. Officials said Iranian authorities have arrested more than a dozen people accused of relaying information on Teheran's nuclear program to opposition groups. They said some of the information has been used by the International Atomic Energy Agency as the basis of its inspections over the last two years. So far, four Iranians have gone on trial in Teheran on charges of espionage. The defendants were said to have been former employees or those with access to Iran's nuclear program. "These individuals, who infiltrated nuclear facilities and managed to win the confidence of the officials, were spying for foreign countries," Ali Mobacheri, the head of Tehran's revolutionary courts, told the government newspaper Iran. "They are in prison and their trial is under way."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Nyah, nyah, the ones you caught aren't ours -- ours are still out there, spying on you. Betcha can't find them, no matter how hard you look!
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.
The tiny state of Qatar is a crucial American ally in the Persian Gulf, where it provides a military base and warm support for American policies. Yet relations with Qatar are also strained over an awkward issue: Qatar's sponsorship of Al Jazeera, the provocative television station that is a big source of news in the Arab world. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other Bush administration officials have complained heatedly to Qatari leaders that Al Jazeera's broadcasts have been inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false, especially on Iraq.
No more 99.99 % in Iraq!
AL-QAEDA'S group in Iraq said it was behind suicide attacks on several polling stations during Iraq's election today, according to an internet statement. "Lions from the martyrs' brigade of the al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked several polling stations in Baghdad and elsewhere," said the statement by the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, posted on an Islamist website.
Thousands of people have demonstrated in support of a Moroccan newspaper which claimed that the tsunami was an act of divine retribution. The newspaper of Morocco's Islamic party, PJD, said the disaster showed God's displeasure with South-East Asia's sex tourism industry. 
A bomb exploded Sunday in a Mediterranean resort hotel in southeast Spain after a telephone warning from the Basque separatist group ETA, Interior Ministry officials said. The ministry office in the southeast 
Militants killed a Kuwaiti security officer and wounded three other commandos on Sunday during a shootout in this pro-U.S. Gulf state which is facing an outbreak of al Qaeda-linked violence. Police said the men, all with the special forces, were shot during a raid on suspected militant hideouts in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district. Witnesses said a civilian was also killed in the firefight. The raid, which targeted two buildings in Salmiya, came a day after the government of this oil-rich state and the U.S. embassy warned more militant attacks were possible. "We are searching for an armed group that is wanted by state security," a security official told Reuters.
Although he shaped almost every facet of today's elections, Grand Ayatollah 
Heavy gunfire erupted on Sunday in the Kuwaiti district of Salmiya, east of the capital, after police cordoned off an area in search of suspected Islamist militants, witnesses said. "The shooting began about 9.30 am (0630 GMT) after police sealed off a main street, the one with all the restaurants on it," one witness said told AFP, adding that special forces arrived on the scene to back up police.
A gunbattle has erupted in Kuwait after police raided a building where militants were believed to be hiding. Police cordoned off an area of the city, from where gunfire and small explosions were heard, reports say. Details of the incident remain limited, although one witness told the AFP news agency the shooting began at 0930 (0630 GMT) on a main street.
The women took advantage of the national holiday declared for today's election to promenade through the center of this holy Shi'ite city. Shop owners lolled about on carpets by the shrine of Imam Ali, flicking worry beads, bouncing children on their knees, and gossiping with friends. Despite the presence of thousands of special police and Iraqi National Guardsmen, Najaf had the festive air yesterday of a country in celebration. "This is the glorious day Iraqis have been awaiting so patiently," said Raad Abdali, 26, a police officer standing guard at the al-Shekeri Mosque. "Election day will open like a flower, revealing our future."
The FBI warned all federal agents Friday that a Mexican drug cartel has 250 armed men on the border near Matamoros and is planning to kidnap two federal agents in the United States and smuggle them into this nation, where they'll be murdered. The FBI office in San Antonio declined to discuss the source of the information, but issued a written bulletin warning of an "immediate threat to law enforcement personnel." The bulletin goes on to say the "extremely violent" drug-smuggling organization known as the Gulf Cartel already sent a contingent that are believed to have valid visas to enter the United States. "Due to the nature of this immediate threat, all law enforcement personnel are being cautioned to ensure appropriate measures are taken as well as to keep a high degree of vigilance," the bulletin states.
with the following caption: "People shout slogans during a protest in central Madrid January 30, 2005. Marchers were protesting Iraq holding national elections under what they called U.S occupation. At least 10 suicide attacks targeted polling stations and voters on Sunday, but Iraqis still voted in large numbers. REUTERS/Susana Vera," I dug out a translation of article, sent to me by e-mail, titled: EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE written by Matthias Döpfner, Chief Executive of German publisher Axel Springer AG, in the daily WELT.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us. Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany. I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".
Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed. In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China. On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything. While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive". These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house.
The controversial policy of detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial was a key tool in preventing Britain from being attacked by al-Qa'eda militants, senior security officials believe. The officials say that the emergency measure, introduced after the September 11 attacks on America, deterred scores of terrorists from entering the United Kingdom, and they fear that ending the policy will increase the chances of an attack here. Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, told the Commons last week that he was bowing to a law lords ruling to end the detention of foreign nationals suspected of threatening national security.
One of the Guantanamo Bay detainees freed in London came face to face with Osama Bin Laden at a terrorist training camp, according to court documents revealed today. 
A suspected recruiter of young Muslims for combat in Iraq and a man identified as a volunteer allegedly plotted attacks against French or foreign interests in France, the prosecutor's office said Friday. Under questioning, the two men "evoked the possibility of actions in France without identifying precise targets," a statement by the prosecutor's office said. The statement was released shortly after the men, of North African origin, were placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - as part of a probe into alleged networks suspected of dispatching Islamic combatants from France to Iraq.
An airstrike by the Sudanese Air Force on villagers in southern Darfur killed or wounded nearly 100 people in a serious violation of a fragile cease-fire in the conflict-torn region, the United Nations said yesterday. The bombardment Wednesday of villages outside Shangil Tobaya sent thousands of people fleeing, UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said by telephone from Khartoum, Sudan's capital. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply disturbed" by the bombing, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
A suicide car bomb exploded on Saturday close to a U.S. and Iraqi security center near a polling station in the Iraqi town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad, an election commission official in the province said. Abdul Jaleel Adel initially said the polling station had been targeted but later modified this to say the target may have been the security center. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. forces sealed off the site.
Russian law enforcement officials allegedly helped terrorists to carry out last September's school massacre in Beslan, Russia, that left 344 people dead, according to the head of a special parliamentary commission. 
A federal prosecutor says a Yemeni sheik and his assistant were intent on providing millions of dollars to al Qaeda and Hamas, while a defense attorney accused the government of entrapment in his opening statement. Attorneys delivered their opening arguments on Friday in the trial of Sheik 
Nine policemen were killed in Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya when their cars hit remote-controlled landmines, local police officials were quoted late on Friday as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Both cars were near the town of Alkhan-Yurt at the time of the attack, officials said without giving further details.
A Russian parliamentary commission has found two high-ranking Russian military officers helped gunmen to seize a primary school in the city of Beslan last September. The chair of the commission says two highly-ranked military officials have been arrested after allegations they provided assistance to the gunmen. He says other officials, who are ranked major and above, may also be charged. It is speculated that they could have helped the gunmen indirectly by allowing them to pass through police checkpoints. Despite the allegations, those under suspicion remain in their posts.
A land mine blast killed nine Afghan soldiers near the border with Pakistan on Saturday in the bloodiest attack yet on Afghanistan's army. A local army commander told Reuters an Afghan border commander was also wounded when the army vehicle hit the mine near the southern town of Spin Boldak while traveling toward the Pakistan border. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack which he said had killed four soldiers. In a separate incident, two soldiers were killed and two wounded by unidentified gunmen near the eastern town of Khost, the local police chief said.
Departing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on Friday he believed another attack on the United States was inevitable, and warned that America should not focus just on Al Qaeda, but also on similar groups that could carry out attacks. "I have accepted the inevitability of another attack or attacks," Ridge said in an interview on the eve of his departure from the department launched two years ago to guard against another attack like that of September 11, 2001. "It could be Al Qaeda or it could be Al Qaeda-like organisations," said Ridge, who departs on February 1. "I do think, when we talk about global terrorism, (it is) better ... that America doesn't focus just on Al Qaeda." "There are a lot of Al Qaeda-like organisations and there are quite a few (Osama) bin Laden wannabes out there - you've got one of them operating in Iraq right now," he said, referring to Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
An Iraqi arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting an Al Qaeda suicide attack in Iraq said he was sent on his mission by Osama bin Laden himself, a German magazine reported on Saturday. German state prosecutors believe 
Indian intelligence agencies have found the presence of American forces in Pakistan's Northern Areas, trailing Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Much to the discomfiture of China, the US has set up a "secret shop" in the region as part of its covert special operations against militant outfits, claim intelligence agencies here. Intelligence sources here said that besides the US Special Force units, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also set up "listening posts" in Northern Areas to monitor communication.
FORTY al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels, including two suspected members of the 
Pakistani police have arrested as many as 16 Al Qaeda terrorists in various raids conducted all over the country. "Yes, we have arrested 16 suspects in different raids conducted in Pashtoonabad and Kharotabad areas of the city," The News quoted DIG Quetta Police Rafi Pervez Bhatti as saying. Police officials said that since all the suspects had earlier served in important posts in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, "the police were questioning the suspects."
Iraqis voted Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying threats of violence from insurgents determined to sabotage the balloting. As he cast his vote, President Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq's first step "toward joining the free world." Before voting began, mortar fire boomed across Baghdad and the world awaited the results of an event that will echo from militant Islamic Web sites in the Mideast to the halls of the White House. Insurgents rocketed the U.S. Embassy in downtown Baghdad late Saturday, killing two Americans.
Indonesia's military says it has shot dead four separatist rebels in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province while government and rebel leaders are engaged in cease-fire talks in Finland. Military spokesman Edi Sulistiadie says Army infantry shot dead the four 
DAVOS: Pakistan and Turkey have resolved to clamp down on terrorism in various areas besides projecting Islam in its true perspective. The consensus was reached during a meeting between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Davos on Friday evening. The two leaders discussed economic ties, promotion of bilateral trade, development in South Asia, the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Middle East and matters relating to the Economic Cooperation Organisation. Both leaders agreed to hold a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission before Mr Aziz's visit to Turkey in June this year to prepare ground for substantial cooperation in various fields.
NSW would do what it could to help the Federal Government keep an eye on 
LAHORE: Qul of 
A key local Taliban militant expressed his willingness to surrender to the government after holding talks with tribal elders and clerics at an undisclosed location in 
The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it. By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad. With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics. "When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game." 
THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein. 
President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday called on moderate forces to unite in defeating the designs of extremists who want to stop Pakistan progressing. 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has assured the German government that the United States has no plans for military intervention in Iran, according to a report Saturday. Rice issued the assurances to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Washington this past week, said the report in Der Spiegel news magazine. Fischer also elicited a verbal assurance from Rice that she supports diplomatic efforts by Germany, France and Britain to resolve the standoff over Iran's purported nuclear programme
Indian police said Portugal's Supreme Court has cleared the extradition of one of India's most wanted men, 
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet within two weeks, officials on both sides said. The meeting will kick-start the renewal of peace talks between the two sides amid increased hopes for a breakthrough in the Middle East. "The meeting will apparently be during the week of February 8, with the objective being to make progress between both sides, contingent on continued efforts by the Palestinians to prevent terrorism to Israel," Israeli spokesman David Baker said. The meeting is expected to coincide with new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region.
Some 40 Palestinian police officers will go to Egypt for training next week as part of Egypt's contribution to the new security arrangements in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said on Saturday. The training for Palestinian police officers has been under discussion for months and almost took place late last year but the officers were unable to cross the border into Egypt.
Oman has been struggling with increasing infiltration from Iran. Officials said thousands of Muslims from Pakistan and South Asia have used Iran as a launching pad for illegal entry into Oman. They said the infiltrators charter boats to cross from Iran into the sultanate. Iran has been approached to help stop the infiltration into Oman. But so far little has been done to tighten security along the 900-kilometer Iranian-Pakistan border. Officials said thousands of Pakistanis and others nationals from South Asia have infiltrated Oman in a search for work. But they said the infiltrators were also believed to include Islamic insurgents and criminals.
In Kuwait we have a law which forbids women in "abaya" from driving. This law, which was sleeping in the drawers of the Interior Ministry for a long time, has been reactivated by the ministry because of the recent security scares. The government should implement such decisions strictly, especially since the terrorists at 
An opposition parliamentarian in Egypt has been detained by the police on suspicion of forging documents to form a new political party. 
Some 35 unidentified armed men attacked media office in Karachi in the early hours of Saturday, apparently in protest at an interview with the Israeli deputy prime minister. The 35 men rode up to the offices of the Jang group on II Chandigar road at around 2am, stormed the building after manhandling security personnel, and damaged furniture and smashed windows, said a press release. Seven vehicles parked outside were also damaged. The attackers, chanting 'Allah-u-
PESHAWAR: Unidentified assailants shot dead a tribal elder and his son early on Saturday in 
Indonesia and Aceh separatists have agreed to work toward a lasting peace deal to help rebuild the province that took the brunt of the Dec. 26 tsunami. The two side said on Saturday after talks in Helsinki that they would meet again soon. After three decades of fighting that has claimed 12,000 lives, Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) put aside differences to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Aceh, where 230,000 people died or disappeared in the tsunami. The scale of the tragedy prompted ceasefire offers, and Indonesia sent its most senior delegation so far to meet the GAM's exiled leaders, who have been based in Stockholm since 1976. Jakarta is offering limited autonomy for the gas-rich province of four million people on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The GAM has rejected that in the past, but the Finnish mediators said it formed the basis of these talks.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah 
Unidentified armed men kidnapped two foreigners from a highway near Kandhkot on Saturday, ARY news channel reported. Jocobabad police confirmed the incident and launched an operation to recover the hostages. The identity of the foreigners could not be confirmed, the channel said. Indus News reported that the foreigners were travelling on the Kandhkot highway under police escort when unidentified men attacked the convoy, kidnapped the two foreigners, and escaped. 
