Sure is a lot of money being offered for those poor guys. If the root cause of all this is poverty, where's the money come from?
Remember the tsumani relief fund? ...
A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers have offered rewards amounting to over US$1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide. The cleric offered the bounty during Friday prayers as Muslim anger against the cartoons flared anew in parts of Asia. Weeks of global protests over the cartoons have gained momentum and fears of a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam have led to calls on all sides for calm.
We're calm. How many mosques have been burned down? How many Danes have rioted against these morons?
On Friday, thousands rallied in Pakistan, police in Bangladesh blocked demonstrators heading for the Danish embassy in Dhaka and in the Indian city of Hyderabad, police fired teargas shells and batons to beat back hundreds of protesters, who had stoned shops and disrupted traffic. The Danish foreign ministry issued a travel warning for Pakistan, urging any Danes to leave as soon as possible. In the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, cleric Maulana Yousef Qureshi said he had personally offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees to anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist, and two of his congregation put up additional rewards of $1 million and one million rupees plus a car.
Okay. I think I get it now. This is the same goober we reported on a day or two ago. I'm making a tentative guess that the Hindustan Times got the story and decided the guy was Haji Yakoob, the MP, rather than Imam Yusuf, the fly-blown holy man from Peshawar. Whether the remarks attributed to Haji Yakoub are true or not, we have no way of knowing. But it's entirely likely he decided to climb on board the Islam train and offer his own reward, funded by the rubes people of Meerut.
"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden and Zawahri we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring to the al Qaeda leader and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri. The cleric leads the congregation at the historic Moonbat Mohabat mosque, on street known for goldsmith shops in the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province -- a stronghold of Pakistan's nutcakes Islamist opposition parties.
Protests in Pakistan have been large and violent and many have taken on a distinctly anti-US tone. Demonstrators, in addition to burning Danish flags, have attacked US fast-food outlets and burned US President George W. Bush in effigy. Islamist parties have called for a nationwide strike on March 3, around the time President George W. Bush is expected to visit Pakistan, despite the unrest.
Western leaders have been calling for calm. Former US President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac both said on Friday that it was a mistake to publish the cartoons. Clinton, on a private visit to Pakistan, said he saw nothing wrong with Muslims around the world demonstrating in a peaceful way, but he feared a great opportunity to improve understanding had been squandered. "This is not a time to burn bridges; this is a time to build them," he said, adding, "...I can tell you that most people are horrified that this much misunderstanding has occurred."
Chirac was more blunt. "I am appalled by what happened as a result of the publications of these cartoons," Chirac told India Today news magazine which published an interview with him on Friday. "I am, of course, in favor of the freedom of the press, which is a pillar of democracy. But I am equally for respecting everyone's sensibilities... So I deplore the situation," said Chirac, who visits India next week.
Bill and Jock are a good fit, aren't they? They both want to have it both ways, but if push comes to shove they'll settle for having it the enemy's way. Bill's especially cute, wanting to build a bridge to the 7th century.
Coincident with oil rebels? Sure, and OJ was innocent. EFL
Deadly protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad spread in Africa, killing 16 people in Nigeria on Saturday a day after claiming 11 lives in Libya.
Many of those who died in northern Nigeria were Christians, killed after a Muslim protest over the cartoons turned violent and rioters torched churches, shops and vehicles, police and local officials said.
It was the bloodiest protest so far over satirical cartoons of the Prophet, first published in a Danish newspaper, that Muslims regard as blasphemous.
"They went on the rampage, burning shops and churches of the Christians. The protesters killed the others. Some were even killed in the churches," said Joseph Hayab, north-west secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
The row over the cartoons also forced two ministers out of their jobs in Europe and the Middle East after 11 people died in the Libyan town of Benghazi in clashes on Friday between police and protesters who had tried to storm the Italian consulate.
Italian Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli, who had the cartoons made into a T-shirt which he wore on television, resigned after he was widely blamed for the violence in Libya.
In Tripoli, the General People's Congress fired Interior Minister Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdallah and police chiefs in Benghazi, saying "disproportionate force" had been used.
The Congress hailed the dead as "martyrs" and declared Sunday a day of mourning across Libya.
As thousands of Muslims rallied in central London to keep up the cycle of cartoon protests around the world, there was fresh bloodshed in Pakistan when four people were wounded in gunfire at a demonstration in the central Punjab region.
Protests in Pakistan this week have resulted in at least five deaths, and on Friday it became the latest country where Denmark has decided to temporarily close its embassy. Denmark urged any Danes in Pakistan to leave as soon as possible.
In Nigeria, whose 140 million people are divided about equally between Christians and Muslims, 15 people died in the northeastern state of Borno and one died in the north-central state of Katsina, police spokesman Haz Iwendi said.
He said 11 churches had been torched in Borno and the army had been called in to state capital Maiduguri to impose order.
"The Muslim group came out to protest and the security forces tried to ensure it was peaceful, but there were some hoodlums in the crowd and somehow the security forces shot one or two of them," said Hayab of CAN.
Thousands have been killed in Christian-Muslim clashes over the last five years in Nigeria. Twelve northern states, including Borno, introduced Islamic sharia law in 2000 which has contributed to the animosity between the two religions.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006
20:36 ||
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Japan has revealed that one of its diplomats, who committed suicide in Shanghai, had been set up with a woman by Chinese intelligence agents in a blackmail scam to obtain classified information.
Describing the scandal, Taro Aso, the Japanese foreign minister, said: "They approached him, offering to arrange a sexy woman for him."
"Then he was blackmailed to give away secret codes for classified information. It is clear from a suicide note he left."
Aso said the Japanese consular official killed himself in May 2004 after having an affair with an unidentified woman. The Foreign Ministry said there was no sign the official leaked information.
The Kyodo news agency reported that Aso planned to take action against China over the incident, but did not elaborate.
The Foreign Ministry had previously said that the official's death was a result of an unspecified diplomatic incident with a Chinese intelligence official.
"They approached him, offering to arrange a sexy woman for him"
Aso said the diplomat was asked to provide numbers needed to decipher secret codes, but that he chose to kill himself instead because he could not sell out his country.
wish we had a few diplomats like that
The government has since ordered changes to codes securing classified information and communication systems at Japanese embassies and consulates around the world.
The incident prompted Japan last month to accuse China of violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations that guarantees the inviolability of diplomats.
Beijing responded by issuing a protest over Tokyo's suggestion that the actions of a Chinese spy might have forced the consular official to commit suicide.
The foreign ministry also urged embassy and consulate workers worldwide to be on their guard, and ordered all staff in China to use extra caution against potential spy activities.
"Most diplomats aren't so good looking (and) they should be trained to be cautious when they're approached by women," Aso was quoted as saying.
ouch
Amid media speculation about intelligence operations featuring "honey traps" targeting Japanese diplomats in China, Jonichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, last month warned diplomats of "seductions or attempts to steal secrets."
#4
That means they will be able to stay in the field with us. (Provided their comms, etc. are also good.) The Brits can, for now, but the Europeanization of their military will make it pretty worthless as an ally in another decade.
Several German companies are under investigation for alleged involvement in Iran's disputed nuclear program, a German magazine reported Saturday.
Police searched the premises of eight firms as well as private homes on February 8 as part of the investigation, the Spiegel weekly said in an article released before its publication Monday.
Horst Salzmann, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, declined to comment on the report.
According to Spiegel, one firm from Cologne was involved in a planned delivery to Iran of equipment to detect radiation contamination on clothes and human skin.
Elsewhere on Saturday, French President Jacques Chirac said that the UN's nuclear watchdog would determine the ambitions of Iran's nuclear program, steering clear of the tough line taken by his foreign minister who recently called it a clandestine weapons program.
Chirac said it was not his role to say whether Iran was secretly making nuclear weapons.
"There are experts who are qualified to speak on the subject, and they are from the International Atomic Energy Agency," Chirac told a news conference in Bangkok. "Let's see what the experts say ... we are not going to enter into what-if in this situation."
On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called Iran's nuclear activity a "clandestine military nuclear program" and accused Tehran of ignoring the international community's demand to suspend all nuclear activity.
It was France's most direct attack on Tehran in an escalating international dispute and a departure from Europe's traditional diplomatic caution.
#4
In a 3 year period in the early 1900s KRUPP got the 3 countries (Chile, Bolivia Peru?) to replace their equipment kit 3 times in as many years as they sold equipment killers to one of the other countries.
Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados terminal on Saturday after militants bombed the tanker loading platform, a senior oil industry source said.
The company is still trying to ascertain the damage to the platform, which is located three miles offshore, but has already begun shutting oilfields in the area which feed the terminal, the source added.
"Of course no ships can go near there now. This is going to be a major deferment," the senior industry source said. "If we can't export, we can't produce," he added.
Nigeria is the world's eighth largest oil exporter and normally pumps about 2.4 million barrels per day.
The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which is fighting for more local control over the Niger Delta's oil wealth, claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks, which also included the kidnapping of nine foreign workers and the bombing of two pipelines.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has called a meeting of oil industry and security chiefs to discuss the crisis later on Saturday, the source said.
COALITION FORCES UNCOVER PLAN TO ATTACK ALBU-NIMR TRIBE
Release Date: 2/18/2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq Coalition Forces discovered an al Qaeda plan to attack and kill members of the Albu-Nimr Tribe. During an operation in a rural area approximately 30 miles northeast of Ramadi Feb. 11, (official press release one week later - look for release next week on follow-up ops) a document was discovered that identified plans to attack and kill Al-Nimr tribal members.
The plan revealed rocket attacks and assassinations against the tribe of Albu-Nimr in Hit.
A second document outlined details of how al Qaeda degraded and destroyed phone switches in Haditha, Al-Baghdadi, and Hit and took phone cards away from people so they could not call out. (How important is this Albu-Nimr tribe? Sound like potential allies to me.)
Al Qaeda threatened to follow-up with further action if the switches are fixed.
Coalition Forces turned both documents over to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior.
#1
Sounds like a blood feud in the making. Even the local enemies of Albu-Nimr are not going to be happy with outsiders doing crap like that, for fear that they might get blamed and some of their people hit in mistaken retaliation.
Earlier this week Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin warned that Russia's Muslims would stage violent protests if the march went ahead. "If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that -- Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike ... [The protests] might be even more intense than protests abroad against those controversial cartoons."
The march in question is a gay-rights march. The odds that the Muslims who gave the Chief Mufti his position will remove him are nil. Talgat's a moderate by most accounts; notably, he opposed violence over the Danish cartoons.
A different Muslim leader disagreed with Talgat, saying that gays shouldn't be flogged or stoned, because that would be illegal. No mention if it would be immoral, though.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006
14:38 ||
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#1
hmmm. the lady in robes mufti doth protest too much.
Women demonstrate on Wednesday in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, against the Mohammed caricatures. What, exactly, they want to say with the poster, remains unclear.
In his first public statement after the braking out of the scandal with the cartoons with Prophet Muhammad the Libyan Leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi announced that one day the Islam will disseminate its power over the European countries, the web edition of Libya Today reports.
In his statement Gaddafi calls those who had published the cartoons slanderers who disseminate religious hatred. He went on criticizing European schools that teach the children that the Muslim Prophet was not a messenger of Allah but a liar.
According to Gaddafi the riots in the poor suburbs of Paris last year were only the beginning of the armed struggle of the Muslims against discrimination in Europe. Probably one day Europe will be subordinated to the Islam, Col. Gaddafi claimed, cited by the publication.
#2
To see how such things evolve, look to North America, from 1600 to 1880. It took that long for Europeans to immigrate and out-breed the local population; for the most part the subjugation of the Indians was not done with bullets, but with sperm. Wake up, Europe (and get back to bed.)
#3
Regretfully I must agree with Mad Dog. France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Scandinavia ('cept Denmark) just can't surrender fast enough. And this time, I don't think the US should save them. If they don't value their freedom enough to act - to hell with 'em.
#4
Sad thing is that most Europeans know that Gaddafi is right. Islam and the European socialists seem to get on very well. The socialist majorities combined with the demographic development in some European areas make that the Islamification of europe won't even be violent but just a thing that is going to happen over time.....
#5
I'm worried a bit about islam becoming a "trend" pick for the LLL and the apologists. A cult choice for a generation with little education, buts lots of TV. Maybe reality becomes the next "Reality TV" show, with a large viewing audience of Real TV lovers thinking the choice is just a trend and part of the show.
And then there's the quiet scared parents, pretending it all isn't happening.
#2
His heart is in the right place, but the times, geography and practicality may not be. First of all, NATO is moribund, and remains almost solely in case Russia decides to become pestiferous again, which could still happen.
However, geography dictates that a similar treaty organization, like NATO, would not be a bad idea.
Right now, the Middle East could be poised for a window of opportunity that I had previously mentioned--like Europe was just after WWII. That is, to form regional organizations of several kinds: a "METO", like NATO; and a Middle East Common Market (MECM), intent on evolving into something like the European Union, call it the Middle East Union (MEU).
As in the EU, only true democracies with popular and transparent governments and a willingness for unrestricted trade could be members. And as with the EU, the advantages of doing so would be so great that countries would contort themselves to be able to belong.
Right now, Iraq and Turkey are about on a par as far as their ability to be founding states to such a union. If the two got together to take advantage of the most liberal character of both, they would match France and Germany as nexus countries for a MEU. Smaller countries, such as the UAE and Kuwait, would be irresistably drawn into such a union, and already are showing signs of making some of the changes they would need to make to do so.
Grand enlargements such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, even Syria, Lebanon, etc. would come in phases over decades. Israel might be like Switzerland to the MEU, friendly, but not a member.
Iran, however, is just too dominant in the region to belong, as such. But, if it were to be partitioned into smaller states, with representative governments, things might change.
#3
include India - call it Middle East Asian Treaty Organization. MEATO...we should apply this principle to all treaties: Only if the acronym sounds cool
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 16:26
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Like it. But the name would require permanently excluding France. The Canadians would have to work hard to stay in, too.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 17:18
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#8
New American Treaty Organization? Coalition of the
Willing? Make it a free trade zone as well as a mutual defense pact. Include nations that have stood and will stand with us like Britain, Australia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark, Italy, Ukraine, Iraq, et al. Exclude the pathetic Eurolosers like France, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Russia etc.
DALLAS A Dallas Democrat seeking election to the Texas House of Representatives has acknowledged that he once worked as a prostitute.
Tom Malin, a salesman and actor, said he no longer works as a prostitute but conceded that his previous life could cost him the nomination in the March 7 Democratic primary.
California lawmakers are asking for a permanent ban on drilling in federal waters off the state's coast as the Bush administration and Congress make a major push this year to expand offshore oil and gas development.
California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, introduced a bill Thursday that would block all new drilling in federal waters, which begin 3 miles off the state's coast. A federal moratorium now bars drilling off California and a dozen other states, but it must be approved by Congress each year.
"This bill will finally provide the permanent protection against our independence from the Muslim oil world future drilling that Californians have demanded for a generation," Boxer said.
The new measure is a response to an aggressive move by the administration and federal lawmakers to increase domestic supplies of energy -- especially natural gas -- by opening up coastal areas that have been off-limits to development.
Damn that aggressive administration! Why can't they roll over like they're supposed to? Don't they realize we're the progressive party and Mama Gaia likes us best?
The Interior Department announced a five-year plan last week that would open up new areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida and study the potential for oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay and off the Virginia coast.
Pro-drilling lawmakers have introduced a series of bills this year that would increase offshore production. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has proposed a measure to open an area 100 miles off the Florida coast known as "area 181." The Minerals Management Service has estimated the area contains at least 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 5 million homes for 15 years, according to the American Gas Association.
But Domenici faces opposition from Florida lawmakers. Florida's two senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, have introduced their own bill that would allow drilling in a portion of the 181 area. But it would also create new buffer zones to keep oil rigs at least 150 miles off the state's coast.
The Florida lawmakers' bill would also extend the federal moratorium on offshore drilling that protects California and other states until 2020.
The oil and gas industry has been trying to convince states to drop out of the federal moratorium. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and other lawmakers have introduced legislation to give states a 50 percent share of oil and gas royalties if they allow drilling in federal waters off their coasts.
"You have a White House and committee chairmen in the House and Senate who think they are running out of time to get these coastal areas opened to drilling," said Richard Charter, co-chairman of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition, which opposes new drilling.
No, they think we're in deep kimchee with our dependence on foreign oil
But Charter noted that similar efforts to open new offshore areas to development were blocked by Congress last year.
and we're paying for it with the attitude of Iran and its ilk
"Every time the oil industry has tried to gain drilling access in sensitive coastal waters, the backlash in Congress has been huge and bipartisan," he said.
The measure by California lawmakers also seeks to undo a key provision of the energy bill passed by Congress and signed by the president last July, which allowed a seismic inventory of oil and gas resources in the Outer Continental Shelf. The bill would prohibit the inventory from being conducted off California's coast.
Environmentalists say the powerful seismic air guns used to assess oil and gas deposits beneath the ocean's floor have been shown to harm whales and other marine species. But supporters argue the seismic tests are not harmful and are needed to determine the full extent of U.S. energy supplies.
#1
Airguns may bother the whales, but it's not like the survey boats are sneaking up on the poor things while they are sleeping and then making a big noise and waking them up. The boats move slowly back and forth over a pretty small area over days or weeks of time. The ocean's a big place and the whales wander most of it - if the noise bothers them, they can take a vacation trip for a little while.
California has had natural oil seeps on and offshore for millions of years. The Indians hundreds of years ago collected the tar balls to waterproof their baskets. Today's oil drilling and production practices put far less oil into the sea than the occupants of a typical marina (unless you count the oil coming from the power boats as the fault of the oil drilling and production companies because they, you know, produced it in the first place.) In fact, by depleting offshore oil reservoirs and reducing their pressure, the amount of oil NATURALLY seeping into the coastal seas is probably being reduced. I recall some years ago a large natural seep near Santa Barbara was capped by an oil company and the seeping oil collected - think it measured in barrels per day, which is huge by modern spill standards (other than tanker wrecks). Reported spills are typically small fractions of a gallon - what you get when a hard rain washes off the driveway where you park your old truck.
#4
Isla Vista, just north of Santa Barbera is the spot,Coal Tar Beach as its known, they call it "natural seepage" and the stuff is all over the beach, you HAVE to wash your feet with mineral oil after you leave as they eventually get pretty caked with oil, very sticky gooey oil.Its a very popular beach though as it is on the UCSB campus. There are lots of oil rigs out on the horizon and some of the locals say that the rigs leak the oil.
The rigs are pretty much of an eye sore and the feilds of oil lie out in front of ,amoung other things Ronald Regans old ranch, that is to say, where they want to put more of these rigs right in the sunset views of some of the highest priced real estate in America. I'm sure they'll fight it tooth and nail. Californians are the most massive consumers of all here in the US or at least a close 2nd or 3rd. They need to take account of their own needs and use their own resources, they already try to use everyone elses water out here in the West, mabey they should cough up some of their oil, help the rest of us out a bit.
Posted by: bk ||
02/18/2006 12:15
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#5
Seems to me, we get to pick one environmental fight. I suggest that we support nuke power. It is the only independent energy source with electrical distribution already in place.
#6
While I'm all for opening up these fields, I gotta say this isn't a Repub vs Democrat thing. Gov. Bush pushed a few years ago to keep rigs from drilling offshore of the Redneck Riviera in Florida (supposedly called his brother who put the kibosh on it later). However, blocking rigs from going in beyond the line of sight (for tourism purposes) is ridiculous. What's the distance of the horizon...something like 12 miles, so anything past that should be o.k.'d in my mind (you can't see them).
Posted by: BA ||
02/18/2006 14:38
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#7
I thought Call-e-fornication had strict rules against pollution?
Rep. Lower Her Knee Capps?
For those who forbid sourcing new energy, make them walk. It'll free up the congestion on the freeways.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/18/2006 15:04
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California lawmakers are asking for a permanent ban on drilling in federal waters off the state's coast as the Bush administration and Congress make a major push this year to expand offshore oil and gas development.
Remember this the next time anyone hears about either of our two IDIOT Senators bitching about the price of energy that citizens have to pay.
I suggest that we support nuke power.
Forget it. The typical Californian wants all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks of anything in question, and that mentality isn't solely confined to the issue of energy. A bunch of spoiled assholes, as far as I'm concerned.
There is a soviet-like denial by official media on this one, plus some cute infos manipulations (the funerals gathered about 2000-2500 persons according to witnesses, not 1000 as said here, while all french msm said "500" and showed only small clips of small groups).
See also this and this in French.
Thirteen people, all members of a dangerous and extremely violent gang, have been arrested following an investigation into the murder of a young Jewish man in the Paris area, French police announced Friday.
Meanwhile a difference of opinion arose surrounding the motivation for the murder. The Paris public prosecutor declared that anti-semitism did not appear to be the motive of the kidnappers of the 23-year-old Ilan Halimi, while family members of the murdered man suspect the contrary.
Trying to calm the Jewish communitys anger, the umbrella group of French Jewish secular organisations, CRIF, issued a statement on Friday calling on the Jewish community to keep calm, cautious and wait for developments in the investigation.
Among the arrested suspects aged between 17 and 32- are three women who were used by the gang to attract their prey. They were all arrested in the Paris suburbs. All these persons come from the city of Bagneux, in the Paris region, where Ilan Halimi has been detained. A person living in Brussels was also said to be under international arrest warrant.
According to an informed source, the head of the gang has been identified as the 26-year-old Youssef Fofana, a Black Muslim who is calling himself brain of the barbarians." He is already known to the police services as extremely dangerous. Fofana has not yet been arrested but an identikit of him was handed to the press by the Paris public prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin. He knows he is searched, Marin said Friday.
Headed for the hills, has he?
He insulted Ilan Halimis family members by calling them yesterday and issuing death threats if they did not pay the ransom, he added.
The investigation by some 200 policemen quickened after Ilan Halimi was found last Monday severely wounded, naked and hand-cuffed along a railway track in the suburb of Saint Genevieve des Bois, 30 kilometres south of Paris. Halimis body was found three weeks after he was kidnapped by a gang.
A person suspected of having helped the kidnappers was arrested on Tuesday. Police issued a call for witnesses and published two identikit pictures of a blonde woman who was used to charm and attract Ilan Halimi, as well as the picture of a suspect with his face mainly masked. The woman, who felt she had been recognized by friends, later gave herself up to police. If the identikit had been published 3 weeks ago, he would probably be still alive.
The victim was burnt and cut on 80 percent of his body, died of his wounds as he was taken to hospital.
According to police, Halimi, a cellular phone salesman, was attracted by a young Arab pleasant woman who came to his place of work, on Voltaire boulevard, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, on January 17. The woman apparently charmed him and arranged an appointment. Ilan Halimi was kidnapped on the night of January 21, when he was supposed to meet the young woman. After the kidnapping, the gang contacted Ilans family and demanded a ransom of between 450,000 and 500,000 euros. No neighbour of the flat in the project building heard the cries of Ilan, held there naked with a hood on the head, in a way "reminscent of other scenes" (IE Abu Ghraib?), according to police press point, but when swat broke in, they called police because of the commotion.
Speaking on a Parisian Jewish radio on Thursday, the Paris public prosecutor said that no element of the current investigation could link this murder to an anti-Semitic declaration or action. Police even didnt mention the Jewish identity of the victim. Its out of question to draw a line to the victims membership of the community, Jean-Claude Marin told French Jewish radio Radio Shalom.
Judiciary police chief Francois Jaspar said that at least three other similar attempted kidnapping have been reported since last December, none were successful. Jews are about 2% of the Paris area's population; according to the msm, 3 of 4, or 3 of 7 attempted kidnappings targeted jews, but since it was not jews only, then "there is no antisemitic motivation", according to teevee. No muslim target, btw.
In each case, one of three young women, a blond, a brunette and an Arab woman, or a young man would attract the victim on a date, during which the victim would be attacked by the rest of the gang. Ilan Halimi was the only victim caught by the gang. Police meanwhile warned against charming approaches by pretty young girls or men.
So much for free-style French love-life.
For their part, Jewish community security services and Ilan Halimis family suspect that the crime may have been motivated by anti-Semitism. We think there is anti-Semitism in this affair, Rafi, Ilans brother in law, told the European Jewish Press. First because the killers tried to kidnap at least two other Jews and secondly because of what they said on the phone, he added.
When we said we didnt have 500,000 euros to give them they answered we should go to the synagogue and get it, Rafi stressed. They also recited verses from the Koran. We didnt know what they were saying but the police told us." Well, jews are all very rich, having stole their wealth, it's a well-known fact, at least for a youth(tm).
"Ilan was the pillar of the family. He was the only man and he protected and supported his two sisters and his mother. He was an extremely honest, mature and cheerful man, his brother-in-law said to EJP.
"We fear that the fact that Ilan was Jewish aggravated his case and caused his kidnappers to behave as Islamists. Why did the kidnappers, once they discovered that Ilans family was not wealthy, as they had thought, not let him go and instead tortured him to death?," asked Sammy Ghozlan, head of the French Anti-Semitism Vigilance Bureau.
In its statement, CRIF said it was in contact with the French authorities, in particular the offices of the Prime minister and the interior minister. We have asked the authorities to do everything possible to find the perpetrators as quickly as possible and to establish if the fact that the victim was Jewish was a determining factor in the tragic murder, the Jewish umbrella group said. According to the authorities, its about a gang from the suburbs whose act was not anti-Semitic in nature and which in the past attempted to kidnap persons who were not Jewish, CRIF added. "La voix de son maitre".
A Thousand people attended the burial ceremony of Ilan Halimi Friday morning at the cemetery of Pantin, in the Paris suburbs. Several shops of the Boulevard Voltaire didn't open Friday in a gesture of solidarity with Ilan Halimi's family.
#1
The situation in France is getting rapidly out of control and Chirac and Pinhead can't handle it. The French people need to rise up and boot him out of office, there must be a way. France is slipping away and if people act now, it could prevent so much blood and heartache. Time is critical.
#2
Big news on LCI cable news channel is the duck found dead of the avian flu. Well, you've got to prioritize, I guess.
They only slashed him up real good, enough for him to die of it, cut off one ear, burnt him everywhere, but it's not like if they desacrated a koran or something.
#3
According to an informed source, the head of the gang has been identified as the 26-year-old Youssef Fofana, a Black Muslim who is calling himself brain of the barbarians."
Nice descriptive nickname -- he must be very small and unemployed.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 14:46
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GALLUP Someone shattered The Independent's glass entrance doors late Wednesday. At about 10 p.m., an unknown individual threw a pair of fist-sized rocks at the doors, which caused the glass to shatter but not break. The rocks were covered in black marker with the phrases "public apology or else?" "think twice" and "repent, condemn or else?"
The vandalism occurred the same day of the newspaper's publication of two cartoons that portray the prophet Mohammed. The cartoons' initial publication in a midsize Danish newspaper fueled protests that have spread worldwide. The cartoons have since been published in at least a dozen newspapers.
However, no evidence has been recovered proving the incident was in retaliation for the publication of the cartoons or was done by a member of the local Arab community.
probably the Navahos again. yeah, that's it, must be from the rez. Or maybe it was immigrant Lutherans? maybe even the zen buddhists from Colorado, come down to stir up trouble.
Lapplanders. They range near and far. Never can tell when you're going to be confronted by a Lapplander.
Still, Independent Publisher Bob Zollinger said "This company is not going to be intimidated by any individual or group." By mid-morning Thursday, the two panes of safety glass were replaced.
Two Gallup Independent employees were at the newspaper at the time of the incident. One of the employees called Gallup police, who gathered evidence from the newspaper's entryway and documented the incident through a police report. No arrests have been made in connection with the vandalism. Police have increased their patrol of the area.
#4
They should show two more. And say quit throwing stones, or else, you'll see the rest of them, including the three that were never shown in the Danish papers.
There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but occasionally there's a cheap feast for the eyes.
Several topless bars, peep shows and sex show clubs in Amsterdam's famed "Red Light" prostitution district have declared an open house on Feb. 18, hoping to shore up their reputation with local politicians who are calling for a crackdown.
"You can come in, have a free drink, look around," said Bob de Maan, spokesman for the "Banana Bar," which is known for its live sex shows.
"People think that this is something dirty, but now -- it's an open house. They can see for themselves."
Prostitution in Amsterdam boomed during the city's 17th century Golden Age, when prostitutes catered to sailors on shore leave.
With its lingerie-clad women and red neon lights, the area in the city center became a major tourist draw in the 20th century. The Dutch government legalized prostitution in 2000 with an eye to making it easier to tax and regulate.
But problems have continued as the area acts as a magnet for pimps, drug addicts, petty criminals and human traffickers. A recent study found that despite health rules, about 7 percent of Dutch prostitutes have HIV, the virus that causes AIDs.
The open house came in response to proposals by the head of Amsterdam's largest political party meant to discourage women from marketing themselves in windows.
Several of the best-known institutions are opening their doors, in an idea supported by the Prostitution Information Center, the Sex Museum, and the Salvation Army which helps the district's many downtrodden. Having become very familiar with the area, as part of scientific investigation and all, I would recommend visiting the "Street of the Gigantic Black Women", adjacent to the big church. I'm talking 6'4" and maybe 350 pounds average. Holy Macanarsels. Otherwise, it is a really mixed bag, with a lot of eastern and northern European and Asiatic women. Eat most of your meals at the Argentinian steak houses, as their beef is far superior from anything you can get in the US. The coffee houses are also known for having good coffee, though not up to Austrian standards of excellence.
#2
I applaud the effort to emphasize the service industries. There won't be any manufacturing left if the EU regs are ever actually enforced, so they'll need something to augment the hard-currency kickbacks and Blue Light Specials on technology to our various enemies. Which reminds me, how's that arms embargo to China thingy going?
I'll take Ruth's Chris, Moose. If there's better, it's not enough so to justify the trip, lol. And those layovers in Japan where I snarf up Kobe beef? Heh. Awesome stuff...
#4
As much as a like Chinese food, I have terrible luck with Chinese restaurants outside of the US. Come to think of it, I actually found the *one* bad Chinese restaurant in all of San Francisco--no mean feat. I think it was run by Puerto Ricans.
One of the better oriental restaurants was a Japanese Benihana-style steakhouse run by a Korean with four very eligible daughters in Alabama. If you were a single male between the ages of 17-35, you were guaranteed a superb dining experience.
#5
lol, moose! I always chuckle when I look back in the back of one of the Chinese restaurants I frequent and see Mexicans cooking in the back (although, it is run and owned by Chinese, who stay up front). The price you pay for globalization I guess.
Now, about the place in AL...in Birmingham or somewheres else?
Posted by: BA ||
02/18/2006 14:30
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#7
I went to a Chinese Restuarant in either Bangor or Donnaghadee Northern Ireland twenty years ago. I went there because it was the weirdest place I ever saw a Chinese restaurant. Nothing special about the quality, though.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2006 17:19
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#9
Believe it or not Chinese food is very popular in India. Although the Indians (from India) I knew in Singapore didn't like the generally excellent chinese food there.
They eventually tracked down a real Indian Chinese restuarant and took me there. The food looked like Chinese food, but everything was curry flavoured.
So, I suppose the question is...what kind of civil trial will we see, or not see, between Cheney and Whittington? Whittington is certainly no stranger to a court room and to civil litigation. Will Cheney pay him off, preemptively? Will they go to court? I would imagine if a guy with a few beers in him shoots you in the face on a hunting trip, how could you turn down that opportunity?
What would Cheney do about the whole secrecy thing then? I mean, this is the guy that sicced Enron on Gray Davis and the state of California to embarrass Davis, trigger the recall and then watched Arnold Schwarzenegger become governor of California. (To this day, perhaps, still the low point in American political life.) Then Cheney covered it up.
Cheney's the guy who told Libby to out Valerie Plame. The rumor I heard is that someone yelled, "Look out! Shooter!" and Cheney thought he said Scooter and fired in that general direction.
Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately. Who ever thought Harry Whittington would be the answer to America's prayers. Finally, someone who might get that lying, thieving Cheney into a courtroom to answer some direct questions.
#2
Ya' know, I'm really beginning to hate these traitorous clowns.
There goes "Hunt for Red October" - I just can't forget this kind of stuff when I'm watching movies. If I were to watch it again, I wouldn't see Jack the character, I'd see Alec the traitor, and no amount of Sean Connery would change that. *Sigh.*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/18/2006 11:11
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#3
The movie was but a pale shadow of the book.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/18/2006 12:00
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#4
This is what passes as American cleverness in the cafes in France.
Just send my alimony check, you chump.
PS... Mickey Rourke is way hotter than you anyway. We did it on the set during "9 1/2 Weeks"
Posted by: Ex wife Kim Bassinger ||
02/18/2006 12:45
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#5
Then Cheney covered it up.
Yeah, that would explain why none of the Enron executives have ever been prosecuted.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/18/2006 13:58
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So far, the violent riots that have erupted throughout the Muslim world over the Mohammed cartoons have not been repeated here in the U.S.
But yesterday in New York City, one radical Islamic group was preaching a message that is anything but peaceful.
It wasn't Pakistan or Gaza. It was Manhattan's east side.The group calls itself the Islamic Thinker's SocietyITS, for short. The purpose of the demonstration was to condemn the now infamous cartoons.
But there was another message as well: that Islam will one day dominate the world.
One ITS member said, We are here to tell you that there is nothing you can do--and that your days are numbered...all of you who disbelieve: speak good, or Allah will silence you.
The protest began in front of the Danish Consulate. ITS members stomped on Danish flags and warned Denmark that it would suffer "Allah's wrath." The group then moved to the German Consulate, where they trampled on German and Israeli flags--and called non-Muslims "scum."
All of this took place under the watchful eye of the NYPD. Onlookers we spoke to were outraged.
Some people have evolved and matured and become civilized human beings, but they obviously haven't. And unfortunately we're supporting them and protecting them, too, One NYC resident said.
Members of the ITS declined to be interviewed for this story. But off-camera, their leader told CBN News that the group consists of mostly college students who live in New York City.
The Internet journal Worldnetdaily.com has reported that ITS is linked to al-Muhajiroun, a notorious British Islamist group that disbanded in 2004.
That group's former leader--Abu Hamza al-Masri--was convicted in a British court earlier this month of incitement to murder, among other offenses. ITS members deny any connection to al-Muhajiroun, but the black flag flown at ITS rallies--and its goal of a worldwide Islamic state--are identical to those of al-Muhajiroun.
Although this event lacked the violence that has been so prevalent in cartoon protests throughout the Muslim world, the message was eerily similar: America and Europe, your days are numbered.
#1
So where are the 'Mythical Moderate 'Mericans? Why aren't they protesting? Why aren't they in the streets in huge numbers, being quoted by the mythical media? Who speaks for them, and what are they saying?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/18/2006 9:29
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#2
A question that formed about halfway through reading this is: What's the bag limit in NYC?
#7
This menace has got to be dealt with firmly and effectively, RIGHT NOW. If we fail in that, then people ten, twenty, or thirty years hence are likely to decide-- out of sheer desperation-- that the only way to deal with it is concentration camps and mass graves.
Deport these ratbags back to the shitholes they came from-- NOW.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/18/2006 10:06
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#8
We are being invaded, VERY SLOWLY, exactly as it happened to Europe already.
But that is just the first phase, it can last many decades.
When they are enough, they start being noisy.
When they will be more, they will start being violent.
Our politicians don't understand history. History is long, our politicians understand only elections and chairs.
The muslims have understood perfectly how sleepy we are.
#9
I imagine the "moderate moslems" are in the same boat we are.
They have real jobs, and have to support their families.
They don't get checks from Saudi Arabia for being full-time layabout assholes like these people are.
They are apparently spending a lot of money in an effort to make sure salafi tendencies are the dominant strain of thought among moslems in the west.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/18/2006 10:50
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#10
From a Farah column in WND from a few days ago (hope this doesn't screw up the formating, feel free to edit at will) : pic taken in NYC, same bunch?...
#11
Islamic Thinkers Society? If that's a joke, Im not laughing. Nice pic, these guys couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground. Still, they need a righteous thumping.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/18/2006 11:08
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#14
I would love to have been in NYC during this rally. You would have seen me with my boom-allah cartoon t shirt and my sigh "suicide bombers convention" sign. Attention getters fer sure.
#20
I imagine the "moderate moslems" are in the same boat we are.
They have real jobs, and have to support their families.
They don't get checks from Saudi Arabia for being full-time layabout assholes like these people are.
They are apparently spending a lot of money in an effort to make sure salafi tendencies are the dominant strain of thought among moslems in the west.
The moderates are beneficiaries of Saudi dough, too. What's the percentage of US mosques funded by the Saudis? Last I heard, it was 80%, and likely climbing.
If the Muslim community in the US is truly moderate, they'd vocally, publically, and strongly reject Wahabbist cash, imams, and literature. Instead, all three keep flowing to US mosques.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 15:00
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#23
notice they get the wenches out to do most of the work...typical
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 16:37
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#24
"Wenches"????
Frank, those aren't wenches. Wenches are bawdy women who more than anything else in the world, want to have fun. Do those dour, drab, bhurka bitches look like fun people to you???
Wenches the world over deserve your apology.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/18/2006 16:51
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#25
Come on over and sit by us and we'll explain the difference, Frank. LOL
Posted by: National Organization of Wenches ||
02/18/2006 16:55
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#26
LOL - I was wrong - the "chattel"...works better
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 17:00
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#27
I believe that these people belong to the Super Holy Islamic Thinkers Society.
I'm not directly concerned by this one, but you may be... Long, needs to be p.49-ed.
By Lawrence Auster
The Mexican invasion of the United States began decades ago as a spontaneous migration of ordinary Mexicans into the U.S. seeking economic opportunities. It has morphed into a campaign to occupy and gain power over our countrya project encouraged, abetted, and organized by the Mexican state and supported by the leading elements of Mexican society.
It is, in other words, war. War does not have to consist of armed conflict. War can consist of any hostile course of action undertaken by one country to weaken, harm, and dominate another country. Mexico is waging war on the U.S. through mass immigration illegal and legal, through the assertion of Mexican national claims over the U.S., and through the subversion of its laws and sovereignty, all having the common end of bringing the southwestern part of the U.S. under the control of the expanding Mexican nation, and of increasing Mexicos political and cultural influence over the U.S. as a whole.
#1
Again, just annex the whole bloody place. Make them a Commonwealth like Puerto Rico with mandatory plebiscites every 10 years to placate the chauvinists. Integrate them to the dollar and vigorous purging of corrupt officials and bureaucrats, champion the civil rights of the lower class against the entrenched neo-autocrats and land[grabbers]owners, clear the Constitution of its xenophobic obstructions to foreign investment, etc. You start by propagandizing the media with the benefits of union versus the status quo of double digit unemployment, rife corruption, and squandering of Mexicos resources to enrich the old established family systems. The very reasons that millions of your brothers trek north can be there with you and your family and children. Opportunity not oppression.
Watch the attitude of the entrenched powerholders when that message arrives on the scene.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 13:19
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#3
You all may not see it, but living in Phoenix, I've noticed that the Mexicans who have lived here any length of time are integrating at a very accelerated clip. Normally it takes three generations, but in this good economy, they are Americanizing seemingly overnight.
First generation illegals are earning enough to buy a small house, and their children are pushed right into public school. Unlike other waves of immigrants, that have a "ghetto-crime-mafia" phase, a lot of the Mexicans are skipping that part entirely. If they enter the US over the age of 10, they are first generation. Under 10, and they grow up American.
Just today, there was a funny local news item about re-activating the moribund MeCha. But there was quick agreement that it would NOT be radical, or protest, or make any trouble at all, as it had in the past. Instead they were hoping that they could use it, I quote, "to help network".
We're talking from business, here. They were also quick to poo-poo the entire "Aztlan" thing. Not interested.
#6
Yeah the great irony in this piece is why a citizen fleeing a failing state, whose corruption and endemic disregard for Life or liberty, would flee to another state and than want to install the previous state over his adopted home! Its illogical and this long piece is in fact the wishfull thinking of the mexican elites. We should adopt a plan that reverses these trends by suggesting the border states of Mexico might best be served for application into the greater US, whereby the tax base of the mexican myth makers would further be eroded.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has handed over extensive intelligence dossiers to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf detailing how suicide bombers who attack targets in Afghanistan are being recruited, trained and equipped in Pakistan.
Although Mr Karzai stopped short of accusing Pakistan's military regime of perpetrating the attacks, he said the US and Britain would be "stepping up pressure on Islamabad" to take action to stop the attacks, as British troops soon deploy in southern Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai was on a landmark three-day visit to the Pakistani capital Islamabad which ended yesterday.
At least 30 suicide bomb attacks have killed nearly 100 people in Afghanistan, including civilians, over the past three months.
Mr Karzai faces extreme pressure at home where anti-Pakistan sentiment is rising. There have been dozens of demonstrations over allegations that Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence (ISI) is giving support to the Taliban.
"We have provided President Musharraf with a lot of very detailed information on acts of terrorism being carried out in Afghanistan and we discussed in great detail what actions Pakistan could now take," Mr Karzai told The Daily Telegraph.
"Americans are dying, a Canadian diplomat has been killed, our people are suffering, so it is time that action is taken to stop these acts of terrorism and interference in Afghanistan internal affairs.
"After all this information has been given to the Pakistanis, we will see if the bombings will stop or not. We expect results, we expect that terrorist attacks will decrease," he added.
Asked what he would do if the ISI failed to deliver and the perpetrators only went deeper into hiding, Mr Karzai said: "We will uncover them again. We have the abilities to do so and we will come again and again to talk and talk to President Musharraf."
Mr Karzai also made it clear that the US and Britain had increased diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to stop any support to the Taliban. Britain is to deploy 4,000 troops in southern Afghanistan over the next few months, mostly to the province of Helmand, where the Taliban has recently stepped up its activities.
"Britain now has a very special role to play. There will be thousands of British troops deployed in the south against the Taliban and neither Britain nor Afghanistan is in any mood to tolerate any more casualties," said Mr Karzai. "Britain will be piling on the pressure."
The Afghan dossiers include the names and addresses of Pakistani recruiters, trainers and suppliers.
"In places like Karachi, Pakistani extremist groups working on behalf of the Taliban for a fee carry out the recruitment and then bring them to safe houses in Balochistan for training and equipping with the [suicide] vests," said a senior Afghan official who accompanied Mr Karzai.
The official said that all the top Taliban commanders were known to be living in Pakistan with their families and the issue had been repeatedly raised with Pakistan.
Pakistani officials no longer deny that Taliban activity is being co-ordinated from their soil, but they insist that the government has nothing to do with it. After his two-hour meeting with the Afghan leader on Wednesday night, Mr Musharraf called on "all the progressive political elements in Pakistan" to suppress elements who may be abetting the Taliban.
Earlier Mr Musharraf - who usually is vehement in denying any kind of Pakistani involvement - told Mr Karzai that the onus of fighting terrorism "was on both the countries".
He said: "Therefore it is incumbent on both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the governments, the intelligence agencies and the military of both sides, to jointly co-operate, co-ordinate and fight this evil."
#1
"... no longer deny that Taliban activity is being co-ordinated from their soil, but they insist that the government has nothing to do with it."
The problem is that the government is doing little or nothing to STOP it, and actively opposing efforts by others (US) to stop it. That needs to change, but I can't see a practical way of forcing it. We can't even get too confrontational 'diplomaticly' because we need passage through Pakistan to support the Afghan effort. And, as little help as we get from Mushie, it's still more than would be forthcoming from any likely successor.
A Yuma Border Patrol agent fired a shot at a group of illegal aliens near the Colorado River Friday morning after being struck in the face by a rock thrown by one of the aliens.
The agent said that he did not think any of the rock throwers were hit by the bullet, according to Michael Gramley, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma sector. Gramley said the agent, who was treated and released from an urgent treatment center, PrimeCare Central in Yuma, could not comment on the incident. He suffered an abrasion beneath his right eye, Gramley said.
The rock throwing and shooting occurred after six agents encountered 35 illegal aliens at the salinity canal near County 22nd Street, Gramley said. The agents were able to apprehend 27 of those 35 aliens, but the remaining eight fled across the dry Colorado River bed and back toward Mexico, Gramley said.
As the agents were detaining the 27, nine persons emerged from the riverbed and began throwing rocks at the six agents, striking one agent in the face with one of the rocks. Some of the aliens who previously fled were among the rock throwers, Gramley said. He said the Yuma sector's critical incident team and the FBI are both investigating the incident.
The incident marked the third time this month in the Yuma sector that a Border Patrol pursuit of illegal aliens ended in an assault against an agent. "The assault this morning shows that these smuggling organizations are frustrated with the success of our increased enforcement efforts," said Ron Colburn, chief patrol agent for the Yuma, in a statement Friday.
"We are very fortunate that our agent was not more seriously injured," he said, adding that a rock can be used as a "dangerous, even deadly weapon."
#2
The Israelis came up with a good replacement for the less-than-satisfactory rubber bullet, a bullet made from compressed sand that really packs a wallup, has a respectable range, but unless you hit someone in the eye with it, it's not gonna hurt them.
Alternatively, the border patrol might start using paintball guns loaded with pepper liquid. I've heard high reviews. Plus, it would get illegals back in the water faster than anything.
#6
I don't object to lethal force in such situations. These are not citizens exercising their right to assembly and free speech, these are illegal invaders attacking our country's defenders with violence.
#7
He probably missed on purpose - it's not clear what would happen to him if he actually shot one of them. The Border Patrol needs much better equipment and especially legal and public support.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/18/2006 10:54
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#9
I'm sure you're right, lotp. That must change -- why should the border crossers be afraid of the Patrol, knowing that they won't be harmed under any circumstances?
#10
Lotp, did you mean he missed because he feared he would be in legal trouble, or because he might have been outgunned as a result if he hit one of them?
The former is actually more troubling than the second.
#11
the Border Patrol agents' union is pretty agressive at defending their agents' actions. They have to, because Mexico, illegals, and immigrant activists routinely lie and distort incidents
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 12:28
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#12
Actually its a matter of escalation. We shoot buckshot, they'll start packing. We shoot pistol shots, they'll be totting AKs courteously of Presidente Fox and the other corrupt government officials. Well end up with some human sacrifices and retreat by our so dedicated HLS. Media coverage to obscure their loss in Iraq beating the drum of the failure of the HitlerChimpBush White House. Congressional hearings and investigations which go no where. You know the routine. Like I need that right now. Ho hum. /sarcasm off
#16
Unfortunately, due to our oil addiction, we do have to address the situation 'delicately'; Mexico is one our biggest sources of oil & gas imports (if not the biggest.)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 16:31
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#18
Things will keep getting worse until the US is forced to put the US military on the border. That will lead to border incidents with the Mexican military, where lots of Mexican body bags begin showing up. The ACLU and other agents wishing to destroy the US from within will whine, squeal, file suit, and do everything in their power to disrupt things. All this will eventually either lead to a full-scale invasion of Mexico, all the way to the Guatemala border, or the loss of several of the United States. The second option is not acceptable to most Americans. The ACLU, La Raza, and all the rest of the idiots will have to be physically restrained (blooding them is optional) if we are to have security of our own borders. The sooner the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/18/2006 17:57
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#19
Everyone sure is getting frisky at the same time. All parts of one puzzle. When is the kick-off?
When Islam is eventually outlawed as a terrorist ideology, here and elsewhere, this becomes moot.
[micro rant]
Hell, I'd wager that the decades of accumulated special-interest serving bullshit, failed Tranzi idiocy, failed & empty socialist blather, failed & moronic communist spittle, appeasement of any and all freedom-hating twittery, and general navel-gazer lint and fluff in US textbooks will require not only full re-writes, but dumping the entire wank-o-matic curricula in favor of proven pragmatic and rational approaches to life.
[/micro rant]
#2
I respectfully disagree with the first comment on this thread.
islam is not a terrorist ideology, it is a military-political enterprise to conquer the world.
Terrorism is only ONE of the weapons that islam uses: invasion is another (the idiot politicians call it immigration) and economy (OIL) is another.
That is why it's perfectly stupid to debate about MODERATE muslims: even if they existed (and there is not evidence of this), the whole project of conquest of the world would not change.
Is this prejudice ? A look at the last 1400 years of history will tell you how it happened that islam extends today its barbaric laws from Morocco to the (or nearly to the) Philippines.
#3
No argument, actually, P-L. In law it will be deemed a terrorist ideology, thus outlawing it will be understandable and, thus, defensible.
In fact it is, indeed, an ideology of global dominion and, effectively one of slavery for all who survive its takeover. I salute your post for the exceptionally high factual content and clear-eyed analysis. *applause*
:-)
#4
Okay, so what do we DO about it? How about a letter writing campaign to both the State officials in California and to the publishers?
California and Texas set the standards for textbooks, IIRC - I'm under the impression that everyone else just buys one of the texts they approve. If we don't push back on this issue, then we deserve what we get 10 yrs down the road when our own people don't believe militant Islam is a threat ....
#5
Thanks .com !
Yes, there is really no argument, my point is just always the same: they come at us from different directions and in different ways, the focus on terrorism can lose us. (And by the way, Bob Kennedy had been killed by a muslim, Kahane had been killed by a muslim...when shall we put the starting date of the terrorist attack in America ? the fact is, islam has ALWAYS been and will always be at war with all the Free world and with whomever is not submitted to islam itself).
Then this is a losing strategy, at least in the U. S. When I start seeing a burqa on a native American at my local high school, I'll start to worry. At the rate they're going, by the end of the century, the muzzies will be as interesting an historical artifact as the Zorastrians or socialists.
Democracy and toleration in Iraq, there's a strategery that's long term with a historical track record I'd prefer to back.
#8
P-L :-) We are definitely on the same wavelength!
lotp - I started a reply. After 45+ minutes I'm still typing away, lol. I'll let someone else pick it up and run with it - surely there's a less lengthy response out there I can agree with. I'm entering book territory, lol. I'll excerpt and quit, my bedtime's coming up, anyway.
The essence of my response is four points.
First, we are losing the battle here in America. The camel's nose is under the tent. Islam is using our institutions and civil protections against us. And they are succeeding in enough places to dishearten and dull the response for further attempts. Sami al Arian is a good example of this.
Second I believe that the LE / legal beagle approach is incredibly dangerous simply because it dulls the already dull into believing that nothing needs to change to deal with the threat - and that could prove fatal. But we are losing case after case in the courts system - for several reasons: from the high evidence threshold to activist socialist / Tranzi judges.
Third, given the politics of today, we see the various schemes of the partisan Dhimmidonks and the LLL, desperate to regain power at any cost, successfully attacking even the humane and (currently) legal approaches. Efforts are caricatured and twisted and turned into confusion and confetti, with great effect and repetition due to the MSM's alliance with the Left. The NSA wiretaps are a good example... this leads to:
Fourth, what we have are politicians - and textbook committees, with tons of cover to do nothing - or worse - cuz the voters are factionalized, confused, misinformed, misled. So nothing changes. The status quo almost always wins when the motivation to do so, such as this threat, is dispersed across several fronts, is misidentified and memed, and is mistakenly seen as something more benign. "Well, it's not like they're Nazis or something!" Um, yes it is like that. Precisely like that..
And more of the camel creeps in. It's not going to stop. It plays the loong game. It is implacable. It has the means, the money, the indoctrination machine to refresh its forces and expand the fronts and avenues of attack, and the motivation - and it will never end until one side is obliterated. Not defeated, not won over -- obliterated. It is Shari'a - and it is so obviously incompatible with liberal freedom that I should not need to say it.
More Metaphor Abuse & Summary:
What I fear, and actually expect, is that once the frog in the pot realizes the temperature is becoming dangerous, and that's assuming he does in time, the only way out of submission then will be both very expensive in American lives (within our borders) and apocalyptic (outside our borders). If froggy doesn't get it in time, then it is pan-fried and served in a butter sauce with fresh crushed garlic and julienned veggies.
Well, now I've typed for another 15 minutes and I've hit most of the peaks, but the result reads like shit.
Screw it. Someone else can replace or condense it. I'm not up to it today.
#9
Dang. That's a keeper, .com. And the "Metaphor Abuse & Summary" hits the nail smack-dab on the head. Bravo.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/18/2006 12:21
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#10
Lol, Dave - you must really hate metaphors, lol.
And I never actually got to an actionable plan of response - my apologies lotp.
How about:
1) A massive PR campaign to correctly identify Islam as the ideology of dominion it actually is.
2) Once redefined, we will see people waking up to it as a threat, not some misunderstood bunch of victims or romantic Oriental artifact. This will help disengage the Tranzis and Lefties from their coalition of convenience due to convergence of interests - the downfall of the defenders of a free America.
3) Another Massive PR Campaign: Identify the backers and supporters of both the Lefties and Islam for what they are: the REAL people who would destroy our freedoms and freaks who subscribe to failed and soon-to-fail ideologies.
4) Identification of the Lefties as seditionists and traitors. Provide the numerous examples of their perfidy (e.g. NSA leaks).
5) Identification of Islam as a terrorist ideology bent upon dominion and slavery.
#13
Step 5 seems redundant with Step 1. Then again, I don't see any harm in doing it twice, heh.
It occurs to me that this war against Islamic imperialism may not be winnable so long as our Useful Idiots on the left continue their efforts to undermine both its legitimacy and its progress. Winning may simply be impossible under the constraints they impose.
It also occurs to me that without the Left and its incessant interference, winning this war would actually be rather straightforward. Not pretty, for sure, nor painless; but straightforward nonetheless.
It may very well be that the only way to prevail against Islamic domination is to rid ourselves of the Left first.
I take it that's what Step 6 is for...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/18/2006 13:10
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#14
You said it better, Dave - that's what I was trying to get at in the second half of #2. Thx!
I was thinking we could alternate the jihadis and traitors in #6, lol. PPV, maybe.
#15
I've heard it said that you can't really call an activity a "sport" if you can also drink beer at the same time. Curling appears to meet that standard.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/18/2006 14:05
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#18
I am ready for the jump to step #9 I have had it. I feel the same way about islamo-fascism as I do about "Scientific Socialism". It has to be eradicated.
#19
Ultimately we agree. I am just much more confident of the outcome. I make two assumptions that justify this confidence:
1. The American People as a whole are the smartest people in the world with the most resilient society in the world
2. The Islamofascists are the dumbest people in the world with the least resilient society in the world.
Is this really a contest?
Only because we are subsidizing them by buying their oil. When the oil goes away or its replaced, they will once again control only their desert schooners.
But until then, the muzzies will have enough money to continue their activities in concert with their useful idiot accomplices and fifth column allies. That they and their allies have occasional victories by using our system against us is not surprising or discouraging. Itâs part o f the cost of our system.
But are they really winning the battle here in America? Iâll believe that when I see native born American girls wearing burqas to school. Until then theyâre just gaming the system against us with theyâre allies. But gaming the system is not the way to victory.
They are stupid. And impatient. And they are going to do something so stupid that the American people will agree to destroy Islamofascism and whatever else needs to be destroyed on the way. We are no where near this agreement and that is frustrating to those who already recognize the inevitability of the confrontation and that its delay only increases its cost. But thatâs the way we do things and part of the reason that once we do agree, the force created will be irresistible. The Islamofascists and other Muzzies need to carefully study what we did to the American Indians, the Germans, the Japanese and the Russians. Worse will be done to them and theirs before this is over. But they or we will be extinguished as the dominant force in the world.
#20
1. The American People as a whole are the smartest people in the world with the most resilient society in the world
2. The Islamofascists are the dumbest people in the world with the least resilient society in the world.
Is this really a contest?
I agree with you completely on point #1, but there's a big caveat: America's elites have bought into the only ideology dumber and less flexible than Islam: socialism.
When people truly believe they can make everyone equal in status, condition, and ability, their willingness to destroy the things that contradict that ideology is unbounded. The moral wisdom that underlies the West is directly opposed to their ideals, so, "Hey hey, ho ho, Western Civ has got to go!"
Islam is in direct opposition to the West. Socialism is in direct opposition to the West. The Socialists are going to ally themselves with the Islamists, expecting to be able to ride the tiger well enough to come out on top in the end.
We have a two front war going on, with a potential third coming from the far-right. Let's face it, folks, the French found it intolerable to unite with the British during WWII; their counter-reaction to the Islamist threat is more likely to be truly fascist than it is classical liberal.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 14:55
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#21
When I start seeing a burqa on a native American at my local high school, I'll start to worry.
I saw someone at a local shopping mall wearing one some months back.
#22
What a great thread. Thanks .com, NS, SPOD, Dave D., lotp, et al. I am enlightened reading these posts on a cold, rainy afternoon while eating Galle and Jessen chocolate wafers.
#25
that said, in America, if you wanna wear doughnuts on your head, and aren't bothering anybody, you're entitled to it. The burqa is a convenient indicator of the infiltration tho'.....
I've seen them in downtown San diego, usually on Somalis (the males seem to be the Cab Driver Du Jour)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 20:09
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#26
I will only add the observatiuon that I don't think we're a particularly hard target internally. Hell, they've already got 2 ex-Prez & 1 ex-Veep assholes in their pocket - and Gawd knows how many other current elected officials, State Dept types, and lobbyists are on the Saudi Retirement Plan. You can bet Bandar's, now Turki's, Rolodex would dazzle you with both sad confirmations and eye-popping revelations...
#27
.com, does that mean you've been on the phone with the ol' Turkmeister himself? Perhaps it's a new tone we'll be reading at the 'burg soon. Just don't start spending it till the check clears. :#)
#28
Lol. He could send me a fat check if'n he wants, lol.
When Bush went after the banking records of the Saudi Embassy, the gloves officially came off - and put the lie to the morons who claim the Bush Dynasty is in Saudi pockets, not Dubya, mebbe Daddy - at least as far as he was concerned. I'll bet there were some surprises in there...
In 1970, a bizarre gardening accident embedded a small nail deep inside Guy "Bud" Hart's body. More than 35 years later, the nail made an unexpected return, much to Hart's surprise.
The Placerville man was stunned earlier this month when a coughing fit expelled the inch-long sliver of metal, completing its decades-long trek inside the 84-year-old's body. "I didn't think something like that could happen," Hart said.
The story of Hart and his unexpected passenger began in Minnesota back in 1970. While mowing grass one day, Hart felt a slight pain in his throat and saw a small trickle of blood. "It was like a bee sting," Hart said. "But I didn't think much of it."
Hart wasn't overly alarmed, but just hours later, the discomfort began. "The next day, when I coughed, it was like I had a hot knife in there, cutting me," Hart said. His family rushing him to the hospital with a 105-degree temperature. There, doctors found the culprit, a small nail that had dropped down inside Hart's body cavity and nestled inside his ribcage.
Doses of penicillin helped Hart heal, but since removing the metal would require major surgery and doctors suspected the nail would seal itself off in Hart's body, the foreign object was forgotten for years. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Hart said.
Years later, the nail turned up again on a doctor's x-ray, but again, the unobtrusive item was left alone. Then, three weeks ago, an internal camera captured an image of the nail during a routine doctor's office visit. But it wasn't in Hart's ribcage area as he'd always thought -- the object was actually in Hart's lung. As Hart and his doctors made plans to remove the nail once and for all, natural physiology took over.
Hart was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth last week when the 35-year partnership finally came to an end. "I'd been having this tickle in my throat," Hart said. "Pretty soon, I started coughing. And it plopped right out."
Since the pair were separated, Hart's been feeling fine and doctors have no reason to think the nail had any lasting impact on his health. Hart keeps the nail in a small plastic bag but doesn't have any long-term plans about what to do with the strange artifact. "Sell it to the Smithsonian Institute?" Hart laughed. "No, I never gave it much thought."
#1
Millions upon millions of tiny erector pilli work feverishly for 3 decades and all he can say is "Pretty soon, I started coughing. And it plopped right out."???
Frickin' ingrate. Go ahead, jerk, eat Thai tonight and feel the burn, baby!
#2
At first view, this might seems unlikely, but...
Pépé Le Pen is traditional french far right, he has a real antisemite streak I believe, though he's certainly ot a nazi, and might even be justified in some way (he's been the Bête Noire of most of the official jewish orgs, who saw him as Hitler reincarnated); still many jews will vote for him for (quite realistical) fear of the rapid islamization of the country.
On the other hand, he's not as much anti-islam as one might think; ok, he talks about the islamization of France, about the real colonialist attitude of the migrants, about the predatory ways of the "youths", and the vast majority of his electorate are not fascisti, but plain people, often working class french citizens abandoned by the elites pandering to the special interest lobbies, who are fed up with the corruption, the ineptness, and the laxism of France's perpetual ruling class.
But, he has ties with some unsavory characters such as the swiss converted neonazi Ahmed Hubert, the late François Genoud, he is a Saddam admirer and had ties with his regime,... his anti-americanism is real, and he's quite opposed to an attack against Iran, for example, I heard him talk about that recently on the radio; he thinks the ramadan riots in november were neither religious nor ethnic; JF Martinez, the FN thinker has made some declarations and published a book that clearly leans toward the antiglobo left (even praising the french rappers as heralds of the french language, glups!).
In that regard, an "alliance" with the muslims is quite possible; after all, many muslim already vote for him, either because they're harkis (pro-France algerians during Algeria war), because they wish to dissociate themselves from the troublemakers in their "communities", or because they see Pépé Le Pen as anti-jew.
The "racist" FN is actually the only french party which has long held muslim candidates in eligible positions, and some islamists actually come from it.
His FN party is a conglomerate of various factions, many of which were purged in the past, and while I have no doubt his electors are decent "angry white males" whom I respect, JMLP is more dubious in my eyes. I enjoy the character, the great oratory (though he's getting quite old, 78, and it shows), the "right wing anarchist" who sometimes throws a monkey wrench in the machinery,... but I'm wary of the pol.
Plus, the FN long has been a de facto tool of the ruling elite, the "antithesis" to their "thesis" ("vote for us, or you'll get Le Pen, who is the Devil, elected", "don't even think about talking about immigration, it is playing in the hand of Le Pen, who is the Devil"). In 2002, when he got to the second turn of the presidential election, I was very, very amused, and almost voted for him as I was scandalized and sickened by the INSANE, UNDEMOCRATIC, IRRATIONAL two weeks of propaganda against him at the time.
I don't know, perhaps it would have been better if he had been elected (not a snowball chance in hell, though), since the System(tm), the french oligarchy would have exploded then... and there wouldn't have been so many algerian, moroccan, tunisian flags saluting the victory of Shirak (as he told his horrified wife, "thoses are our new electors", true quote).
Btw,
There are several "right wing" political families in France (I'm summarizing an article I've seen recently, and which I find very true to what I think), excluding the neonazis, a few hundred marginals at most.
On one side :
- the traditional far right, ranging from the conservative catholics to the Vichy's heirs à la Le Pen.
De villiers's MPF is a light version of it, perhaps less ambiguous about islam and antisemitism, though closer to the Establishment.
- the "National-révolutionnaires", national revolutionary, racist commies in disguise.
who are very much anti-americans and antizionist (or quite antisemite for the NR), opposed to capitalism, and may even be pro-arab (french arab policy)/muslim (the NR are absolutely pro-paleostinian, for example)
On another :
- the ad hoc "anti-islam front", a good example of which can be found at http://www.france-echos.com/
- the "Libéraux-conservateurs", conservative free-marketers (a good example here).
Bruno Mégret's MNR would be in that family too.
who are mostly pro-US and pro-zionist and very concerned by the islamization of France.
And finally :
- The neopagans, "one people one land", whose Guru are Pierre Vial or Guillaume Faye, the anti-modernity prophet of ethnic war, whose book "The colonization of Europe" (very interesting read), which cost him $18 000 in fine and bankrupted him, can be downloaded here or here (in french).
They are mostly anti-islam and anti-immigration, pro-unified Europe (not in the current tranzi way, of course), and while wary of the USA cultural imperialism, are not as anti-american as they used to be. The "identitaire" mvt would be close to it, though some are closer to the NR.
#6
France-echos actually has a much, much, larger archive, with really, really *interesting* analysis on french islam, articles on ordinary crimes, op-eds,... but they got hacked recently, and when they came back, they opted to (at least for the time being) to "forget" their previous articles (several thousands, I'd say), as there is now a new gvt org, the Halde, which is basically a wonderful tool given to the "thoughts police" (one of the members is the mrap, the main islamo-leftist org) by the dying Shirak regime, able to sue at whim, and they wanted to assess their liability.
As for the right-wing analysis, it is not mine, but I fully suscribe (I love it when an article sez things like I think they are...).
I wonder what Frenchfregoli, JFM, would think of that?
Plus, the FN long has been a de facto tool of the ruling elite, the "antithesis" to their "thesis" ("vote for us, or you'll get Le Pen, who is the Devil, elected", "don't even think about talking about immigration, it is playing in the hand of Le Pen, who is the Devil").
Sounds more than ever like David Duke here in the early 90's.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/18/2006 15:39
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Eleven people were killed and an Italian consulate was burned in Libya on Friday night during protests to denounce the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, sources in Libya said. There also was a "high number" of injuries, said an official with the Italian Embassy in Tripoli.
In the port city of Benghazi in northeast Libya, protesters set the Italian Consulate on fire, but it was safely evacuated and no employees were injured, said Francesco Trupiano, Italy's ambassador to Libya. "It was peaceful, then it became violent," Trupiano said of the protests in Libya's second-largest city. He said he doubts the consulate will close.
Trupiano speculated that the consulate was targeted because it is the only Western consulate in the city. However, many of the protesters said they were angry because Italian Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli recently flaunted a T-shirt displaying one of the controversial cartoons on state TV this week. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asked Calderoli to resign.
Another demonstration was held in Sebha, where demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers and issued a statement urging respect for religious shrines and beliefs.
The state-run Libyan news agency, Jamahiriya, or Jana, reported on its Web site that the casualties occurred when protesters clashed with police. The public prosecutor has been asked to investigate the way police dealt with the demonstrators, the news agency said. Jana described the protests as massive but peaceful. It gave no crowd estimates.
The government "strongly denounces" the actions of those who burned part of the Italian consulate, Jana reported. Police were able to prevent most of the attackers from entering the building, but a few went inside and some vehicles outside were burned, the news agency reported. "The participants in this demonstration expressed in a statement their denunciation and condemnation of such encroachment on Islam and Muslims, stressing the necessity to condemn and criminalize this heinous action," Jana reported.
Protests over the cartoons have escalated in recent weeks, more than four months after they first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. They were later reprinted by other publications, mostly in Europe. Muslims consider depictions of Mohammed blasphemous.
A written statement released by protesters in Benghazi said they consider Denmark's publication of the cartoons "a direct hostile action." The statement hailed the government's closure of Libya's embassy in Denmark and urged the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conferences to encourage boycotts of any nation that "may dare to touch our religious and historic symbols."
Demonstrators, some of whom set the Danish flag on fire, also appealed to economic institutions to ban the imports and consumption of goods produced in Denmark.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
02:02 ||
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#1
as long as all the deaders were rioting muzzies i see no problem
Libya suspended its interior minister Saturday, citing an "excessive use of force" in riots the day before that left at least 10 people dead in the bloodiest protest yet
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As the Iranian revolution enters its 28th year this month, the Islamic Republic stands at the most critical stage of its history. While power is being transferred to second-generation revolutionaries, the country is on a collision course with the United States over its controversial nuclear program.
At the center of this unfolding drama is the perplexing figure of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who has managed to isolate, enrage and frighten important domestic and external constituencies in the space of only six months.
Left to their own devices, Ahmadinejad and the second-generation revolutionaries who stand behind him are likely to change the Islamic Republic beyond recognition in the years ahead. But the complicating factor in all this is the increasing possibility of some form of military confrontation between Iran and the United States within two years. The key question is whether Ahmadinejad and his inner circle believe that military confrontation serves their long-term political and socio-economic agenda.
Ahmadinejad's first six months as president have had a mixed reaction. Domestically, he has tried to buttress his position among his core constituency, namely the urban poor and the lower classes who rallied around his calls for the revival of the Iranian revolution's egalitarian message.
While it is clearly too early to judge his performance as a champion of a more egalitarian society, it is important to point out that the Ahmadinejad government has not undertaken a single serious policy that would reverse the country's widening wealth gap. That said, there has been no let-up in the populist rhetoric and sloganeering that marked his election campaign.
Lack of progress on the economic and social-justice front notwithstanding, Ahmadinejad has introduced massive changes to the face and operations of the executive branch. Virtually all provincial governors have been replaced by Ahmadinejad loyalists, who tend to be young and hail from the Islamic Republic's security establishment, in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC - or the Sepah-e-Pasdaran).
Moreover, Ahmadinejad has replaced most senior bankers and other important figures in charge of the country's finances. Furthermore, many of the country's most experienced diplomats have been recalled from abroad and replaced by less experienced figures, with backgrounds in the Sepah-e-Pasdaran and other security outfits.
At a superficial level it appears that the Ahmadinejad government is preparing for conflict and is reordering the entire machinery of government accordingly. But the changes introduced since August have a deeper meaning; they signify the coming of age of so-called "second-generation" revolutionaries who were propelled into a position of leadership by Ahmadinejad's surprise election victory last June.
The most important feature of the second-generation revolutionaries is that they developed their political consciousness in the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, and not in the revolutionary struggle against the Pahlavi regime. While they are intensely loyal to the memory of the late ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (the leader of the Iranian revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic), the second-generation revolutionaries have tenuous ties (at best) to the conservative clerical establishment that controls the key centers of political and economic power.
Contrary to Western reporting, Ahmadinejad's performance has generated more controversy and ill-feeling within the corridors of power in Tehran than in the crucible of Western public opinion. Arguably, the most surprising development in the past six months is the extent of Ahmadinejad's independence and freedom of action.
Originally dismissed as the lackey of the clerical establishment, Ahmadinejad has proved time and again that the only agenda that drives him is his own. In the space of a few months the former IRGC commander has emerged as certainly the most independent and arguably the most powerful president in the republic's 27-year history. Even the Islamic Republic's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, does not seem to have any appreciable influence over Ahmadinejad and his inner circle.
While liberals and reformists are, broadly speaking, in opposition to the Ahmadinejad government, it is the conservative establishment that has emerged as the second-generation revolutionaries' most formidable adversary. This is not surprising, given that the latter aspire to reorder fundamentally the socio-economic system in the Islamic Republic, changes that would fatally weaken the conservatives.
The conservative establishment hoped to delay the coming of age of the second-generation revolutionaries by positioning Hashemi Rafsanjani in the presidency. But Rafsanjani lost to Ahmadinejad, and he has since played the part of a bad loser. Indeed, the most vociferous opposition to the changes of the past six months has been made by Rafsanjani in his unofficial capacity as the public head of the conservative establishment.
While Iranian-US relations have reached an all-time low, it is important to note that not even the most committed anti-American elements in Iran see war as a foregone conclusion. Near-universal public support for the country's nuclear program notwithstanding, Iranians are acutely aware of the consequences of military confrontation with the US. Insofar as Iran's standing in the region and the wider world is concerned, the stakes could not be higher.
Reformists and conservatives alike are desperate to avoid war, for diametrically opposed reasons. For the former, aggression by the US would spell the end (at least for another generation) of the country's emerging grassroots democracy movement. Reformists fear that war would entrench the conservatives domestically and enable radical elements to seize control of the country's foreign policy and reverse the gains of the past 16 years. Ironically, conservatives fear war more than the reformists, even though they are confident of being entrenched politically, at least in the short term.
What the conservatives fear losing (as a result of war and its concomitant extreme international isolation) is their economic and commercial privileges. Contrary to Western reporting, the conservative establishment is not held together by ideology, but by vast (and impossibly complex) networks of patronage and economic/commercial monopolies. These networks thrive in a wider context of socio-economic stability; stability that would be blasted away by conflict and its repercussions.
The central question is how the second-generation revolutionaries led by Ahmadinejad view potential conflict with the US. The answer to this question lies in a better understanding of the second-generation revolutionaries' background, ideology and socio-economic agenda.
The key personalities in this vast network are former IRGC commanders; this includes Ahmadinejad and nearly all members of his inner circle. This military-ideological background is accentuated by a strong sense of Iranian nationalism and Shi'ite supremacism. Some influential second-generation revolutionaries (including Ahmadinejad himself) even harbor millenarian beliefs.
While they do not welcome conflict, they see it as an opportunity for a full-scale catharsis. To men like Ahmadinejad, the Islamic Republic is unconquerable; with its ability to project power well beyond its size and resources, rooted in its "undeterrable" nature.
On a more practical level, the second-generation revolutionaries may see conflict as an opportunity for entrenchment and a context-generator for their long-term socio-economic policies. They would certainly see it as an opportunity to reverse Westernization and bring Iran more in line with developments in the wider Muslim world (where anti-Western feelings proliferate and Islamic movements are increasingly on the rise).
While a US assault on Iran would probably engender all the above, it also runs the risk of unleashing dynamics that will elude the control of the Islamic Republic. First and foremost, conflict will almost certainly strengthen militant Islam in Iran, but of the kind that even the most hardline elements in the regime would not countenance.
There are already many small networks of Shi'ite extremists in the country, but they are kept in check by the country's stability and an effective security establishment. Any weakening of the state will enable these networks to widen and deepen their influence exponentially.
More worrying, conflict would significantly strengthen Sunni militancy on the country's fringes, particularly in the near-lawless Sistan va Balochistan province (bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan). A US assault on Iran would run the very real risk of enabling al-Qaeda to gain a foothold in the country.
While Ahmadinejad and his supporters are correct in their belief that war would not fatally undermine the Islamic Republic, it is not at all clear whether they have properly thought through the potential consequences.
At a time when the Americans are giving every indication of preparing for a long-term containment strategy over the controversial Iranian nuclear program (likely characterized by periodic bombings followed by long spells of tense standoff - eerily reminiscent of the containment strategy employed against Iraq from 1991-2003), Iranians of all political persuasions ought to be thinking of avoiding this scenario, at unacceptable costs if necessary.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:58 ||
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#1
What the conservatives fear losing (as a result of war and its concomitant extreme international isolation) is their economic and commercial privileges. Contrary to Western reporting, the conservative establishment is not held together by ideology, but by vast (and impossibly complex) networks of patronage and economic/commercial monopolies. These networks thrive in a wider context of socio-economic stability; stability that would be blasted away by conflict and its repercussions.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
02/18/2006 7:49
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#3
Over all, good article.
The author, apparently iranian himself, describes quite correctly the internal political situation, specially about the revolution coming down to sharing the countrie 's wealth among few!!
However, there must be inside Iran, those who will stand up against this bunch in the face of total devastation.I 'm thinking of some miltary guys capable of pulling a coup to "save the nation".
Ahmadinejad and his ilk have decided that it will be them, the hell with the country.
The US should encourage and help those who will put IRAN first.
#4
Agreed. A military coup and a comprehensive campaign against the Revolutionary Guards is probably the only way to overthrow the mullahs short of a full-scale invasion. Unfotunately.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/18/2006 11:09
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#5
I don't buy it. AhMAD and the Moolahs are driven by the 12 century and the return of the 5th whatever.
AhMAD was hand chosen by Moolah #1 who runs the show.
This column is a diversion.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/18/2006 14:40
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#6
More and more it appears to this semi-ignorant outsider that the Iranians are waiting for us to do the heavy lifting of their revolution for them. All those young people who love America and hate the Mullahs don't seem to be interested in anything more than a few peaceful marches of the Ghandi sort, which only work when the government is made up of principled and essentially non-violent people, which the Mullahs are absolutely not. And while there is violence against the Mullahcracy in outlying areas like the Baluch tribal region, I don't yet see how that will shake the current regime.
The exiled political leader of Hamas said Friday the world has the wrong image of the Islamic militant group and he urged the international community to stop viewing it through the eyes of Israel. "We believe that most of the leaders in Europe, in the West, have ... a wrong image about Hamas, because this image doesn't reflect us. It reflects how some people, especially Israel, see Hamas," Khaled Mashaal told The Associated Press, surrounded by bodyguards on a commercial flight from Ankara to Istanbul.
"We want the world, and especially the countries in the West, to understand us, to understand Hamas well, to understand the will of the Palestinian people, the national goals of Hamas and the Palestinian people."
Hamas' parliamentary victory last month prompted U.S. and European Union threats to cut off massive aid to the Palestinians unless the group recognizes Israel and renounces violence. Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide attacks in Israel and has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and many Western nations.
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ruled out talks with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist and accepts past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Hamas has given no indication it will change its ideology, but has said it would stick to a long-term cease-fire if Israel reciprocates.
Mashaal said Friday the world needs to understand that Israeli occupation started the problem.
"The first step is the occupation. So our people in Palestine are suffering. This suffering pushes our people in Palestine to defend themselves against the occupation and against the aggression of Israel," he said.
"The international community must make pressure on Israel to recognize our right to get freedom, to fight against occupation, to have real peace, legitimacy on our ground," Mashaal said. "If the international community obliged Israel to do that, then they can come to us and ask us to take our step."
Mashaal contended that the international community was pressuring Hamas because it was weak compared to Israel.
"It is easy for those countries to make pressure on the weak side," argued Mashaal. "This is not justice. For this reason the Palestinian people refuse this pressure. It is hypocrisy."
Mashaal said Hamas wants an end to occupation of Palestinian territories.
"You can be sure that our feeling is peace and hope, good for all people in the world, but not any side that occupies our land or makes aggression on our people," said Mashaal. "No peace without our legitimate rights. No stability with occupation. No peace with occupation. This is our right."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:55 ||
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The habit of attacking civilians tells me all I need to know about Hamas, and saying otherwise is dmnable taquiya.
A Nigerian militant commander in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta has told the BBC his group is declaring "total war" on all foreign oil interests. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has given oil companies and their employees until midnight on Friday night to leave the region.
It recently blew up two oil pipelines, held four foreign oil workers hostage and sabotaged two major oilfields. The group wants greater control of the oil wealth produced on their land.
The warning came as militants and the army exchanged fire after a government helicopter gunship attacked barges allegedly used by smugglers to transport stolen crude oil. Correspondents say the militants provide security for the smugglers.
It is the first time the military leader of the Mend movement, Major-General Godswill Tamuno, has spoken publicly of his group's aims. He refused to be interviewed on tape or for his location to be disclosed.
"Are you crazy? I talk to you, and the Americans will come get me!"
He told the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar that they had launched their campaign, called "dark February", to ensure that all foreign oil interests left. He said that they had had enough of the exploitation of their resources and wanted to take total control of the area to get their fair share of the wealth.
Not that he has any idea how to make an oil platform work.
Our correspondent says the movement brings together a variety of local Ijaw groups that had been operating in the Niger Delta before. The group enjoys considerable local support and it is difficult to pinpoint exactly who is a member, he says.
How about the ones carrying guns?
Mend's leaders tend to like to be faceless, our reporter says, and they usually send statements to the media via email.
Shell, one of the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, told our reporter that security measures were being taken to secure their staff and property, but would not give details.
The Niger delta has been the scene of a low-level war in recent months and the government has increased its military presence in the region. After a government raid on oil barges earlier this week, Mend released a statement saying the helicopter gunship had fired rockets and machine-guns at targets on land and accused the military of targeting civilians.
It warned that its fighters were capable of shooting down military helicopters and accused Shell of helping out the security forces by allowing them use of an airstrip it operates. The military has denied it used the facility. According to AFP news agency, Shell has not confirmed or denied that its airstrip was the base for the attack.
The smugglers are believed to exchange oil for weapons from eastern Europe.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:54 ||
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#1
Let me guess, the "Nigerian Scam" is not making enough money anymore.
Trying to augment their income through another kind of theft.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2006 20:12
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Iranian Foreign Minister Manushehr Mottaki demanded on Friday the immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and British troops from Basra, accusing the British soldiers of destabilizing Iraq's second largest city.
Wrapping up a three-day visit to Lebanon, Mottaki said Iran supported the "current political process in Iraq," but he urged the incoming government to control the "escalating terrorism" targeting Iraqi civilians and to push for an immediate end to what he called the US occupation.
"We believe that the presence of the British forces in Basra has destabilized security in this city and has had some negative effects in the form of threats against southern Iran recently," Mottaki said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:52 ||
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#5
Guess that makes us even - we want the madmullahs™ out of Iran Persia.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/18/2006 11:13
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#6
I hope that when we go for the mad mullahs, we don't attempt to nation build. I like Iran so much, I like a lot of little ones.
We need to start arming whoever will target the mullahs, Basij, and IRG. The argument will be "we armed bin Laden..." Yes, but the situation in Iran is different. The asshats ARE the terrorists. They have now, or will have nukes soon. Terrorists with nukes - how can any thinking person in the West believe that this is acceptable?
Sen. Chuck Hagel reasserted his differences with President Bush's foreign policy Thursday, calling in part for a more measured approach to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Speaking to about 30 journalists who cover the military, the Nebraska Republican said a diplomatic approach was vital to confronting Iran, which has been pressing for nuclear technology.
"I think one thing we ought to be doing is engaging the Iranians. Why aren't we talking to them? That's the essence of good foreign policy," he said. "We must find a way to establish some relationship based on common interests."
Hagel said he was not convinced that military action against Iran was currently a viable option.
"You have to ask yourself what we would get in return. Would we destroy their capability to produce nuclear weapons?" Hagel said. "I don't think so."
U.S. leaders should also take into account the large portion of the Iranian population below the age of 21 who are sympathetic to Western ideals, Hagel said.
"We have to be careful we don't drive those people away from us, and if you attack them, they're sure . . . not going to embrace America and say, 'Thank you very much,'" he said.
Hagel, a consistent critic of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, also reasserted his belief that a larger, multinational force could have helped ease Iraq's transition to democracy.
"I was saying three years ago, you can't unilaterally make the decision to invade countries," he said. "We are faced with a global challenge and that's going to require a global response. The U.S. can't go it alone."
Progress remains painfully slow in Iraq, as evidenced by decreased electrical output and oil production, as well as continued insurgent attacks and U.S. casualties, Hagel said.
Still, he didn't agree with suggestions that U.S. forces begin withdrawing.
"I think if the U.S. pulls out now, there's a real chance for a civil war in Iraq," he said.
His criticisms of the war in Iraq are based on his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War, Hagel said.
"As long as I'm here, I owe it to those who died in Vietnam and their families to keep asking tough questions," he said. "Most of both parties were strangely silent during the Vietnam War. So who suffered? All those poor young guys who got chewed up every day."
Hagel also got in a gibe at Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner last weekend.
Referring to Cheney's repeated draft deferrals during the Vietnam War, Hagel said, "If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:46 ||
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Where has this turd been for the last 25 years in a cave? Talk with Iran? When have they wanted to talk to us ever? Maybe him being from Nebraska explains it?
#2
I think an undisclosed head injury is the only explanation...otherwise he's just a pandering jerk
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 2:07
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A friend of dad's is an associate of Hagel.
Hagel grew up in a really really dead poor and bad family. He was the chief breadwinner and man of the house at 16.
Says it gives him a different perspecitive on everything. Not sure why he became a Republican then...
#6
Talk? Only if the Iranians can't jawbone and weaponize plutonium at the same time, Chuckie.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/18/2006 9:20
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I agree with Hagel that we should be talking with Iran. I just disagree about the overall tone the US should take. I think something like this is more appropriate.
Hey, you, with the funny hat! Try to make one of them nukes and we're gonna kick your a**.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
02/18/2006 10:15
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Article: Hagel also got in a gibe at Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner last weekend.
Referring to Cheney's repeated draft deferrals during the Vietnam War, Hagel said, "If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety."
He's got what a lot of left-wing American veterans and just plain leftists have - Praetorian Guard complex (the idea that only veterans should get to talk about military matters, and then only if appeasement is the subject). Which is a really weird thing to have in a democracy. I think Hagel would really be more comfortable as a Communist Party apparatchik in Beijing.
#12
Talking with them would accomplish one thing: giving them time to finish.
Why the hell can't these supposedly bright people see that?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 15:15
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#13
I maintain that bright people can see it, but that our media only focuses on those that can't - thus it becomes the buzz and hype that the those who aren't really paying attention parrot, thinking that it is what they are "supposed to say".
What amazes me most since the advent of the internet is discovering just how much news has NOT been reported. The media selectively ignores anything that doesn't support the democratic party, which I am beginning to believe is just an extension of organized crime. I really hope that someday someone will write a book that exposes exactly who owns the media and why this is so.
#14
The media selectively ignores anything that doesn't support the democratic party, which I am beginning to believe is just an extension of organized crime.
Some interesting guilt by association runs through the unions.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 17:24
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The former leader of an Islamic militant group in Basra admitted on Friday that his movement "took part in death squads which operated in this city" with input from the Iranian secret services. Abu Kazem, who declined to name his group, told Adnkronos International (AKI) the 'members' of his political movement "were part of a group tasked with carrying out murders in Basra". Iraq's interior ministry on Thursday set up an inquiry into on-going allegations from the Sunni minority of death squads within the police force, after a US general revealed the arrest of 22 policemen allegedly on a mission to kill a Sunni.
"We met from time to time at the base of one of the [Islamist] organisations along with members of the Iranian secret services who gave us instructions on the people who were to be killed" Abu Kazem said.
"All the parties and the movements were in possession of a variety of arms which were usually used for this [murders] along with police uniforms and police cars which were provided to the parties at the time by the former chief of police" he added.
Abu Kazem underlined that the decisions on which people to kill were made "according to orders from Iran, and first and foremost targets were local officials, academics and journalists".
He denied taking part personally in these attacks, saying his role was limited to "planning, while the former members of my group took part in at least ten of these hit operations". He did not specify who was killed or when.
The official spokesman for the British forces in Basra recently spoke to reporters about the "death squads run within the Iraqi interior ministry" and has since undertaken probes into this. The situation in Basra have been tense since last September when Shiite militia arrested two British undercover agents.
Major Alex Wilson, of the seventh armoured brigade in Basra, told AFP the military had put in place a reform programme which involved reforming the police or punishing those "who refuse to reform and are part of assassination squads".
The British government has on several occasions accused Tehran of being behind some of the violence in Iraq.
In October last year, prime minister Tony Blair warned Iran against interfering in Iraq, saying London suspected explosives used to kill British troops there may have come from the Islamic republic.
In a joint news conference with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Blair said "what is clear is that there have been new explosive devices used not just against British troops but elsewhere in Iraq."
"The particular nature of those devices led us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah," Blair said. "However, we can't be sure of this at the present time."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:44 ||
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The epicenter is/remains Iran
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/18/2006 14:49
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Authorities are monitoring up to 250 Arab Muslims who fought in Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including some who are suspected of having links to international terrorism, a top police official said Thursday.
Zlatko Miletic, director of police for the Muslim-Croat part of Bosnia, told reporters that the Muslims under surveillance all live in or around the northeastern village of Gornja Maoca, where they settled after the war. Miletic said the Muslims were among 740 who obtained Bosnian passports during or just after the war, and that the names of nine men appeared on Egypt's list of most-wanted terror suspects.
He declined to identify the nine, and said Bosnian authorities could not be certain they were still in the country.
Police are keeping close tabs on ''200 to 250'' of Gornja Maoca's Muslims, and believe some have ties to global terrorist organizations, Miletic said. Others were suspected of involvement in the illegal smuggling of explosives and other crimes, he said, derisively referring to those being watched by police as ``mongooses.''
Several thousand mujahedeen, or Islamic fighters, came to Bosnia to fight on the Muslim side against Serbs and Croats after Bosnia dissolved into ethnic conflict in the early 1990s.
On Thursday, Bosnia's Council of Ministers set up a nine-member commission to review all cases in which citizenship was granted to foreigners dating back to 1992, Security Minister Barisa Colak told The Associated Press.
''It's for sure that all those who got citizenship illegally will be stripped of it and deported,'' Colak said. He also confirmed that ''a certain number of people who are interesting from a security perspective'' were under surveillance.
Bosnian authorities have stepped up their monitoring of fundamentalist Islamic groups and individuals since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
In October, police in Sarajevo raided an apartment and arrested two men after seizing plastic explosives, a suicide belt and a videotape in which a masked man begged Allah's forgiveness for the sacrifice the group was about to commit. More suspects were arrested in Bosnia, Britain and Denmark in what authorities said was a terror cell plotting an attack on a European embassy.
The probe began Oct. 19, when police in Sarajevo arrested Mirsad Bektasevic, 19, a Swedish citizen, and Cesur Abdulkadir, 18, a Turkish national, on suspicion they were preparing terrorist activities. Three Bosnian nationals later were arrested in follow-up raids.
None has been formally charged, and Miletic did not link the surveillance in Gornja Maoca to the Sarajevo case.
''Over the past few months, we gathered enough material evidence to support the filing of formal charges, and I hope the state prosecutor's office will do so soon,'' he said. Under Bosnian law, terror suspects can be held for up to six months without charges.
Bosnian police arrested 16 terrorist suspects in 2005, among whom five were suspected of involvement in international terrorism, Miletic said. He said some were involved in illegal weapons smuggling and that others were charged with endangering international personnel in Bosnia.
About 6,500 troops with the European Union peacekeeping force patrol the country, and hundreds of other foreigners work for the United Nations and other international organizations.
Although the vast majority of Bosnia's Muslims are secular or embrace a moderate and tolerant form of Islam, authorities have expressed concern about the presence of radical elements. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have built numerous mosques and set up dozens of charities in Bosnia since the end of the war, including several that have been shut down because of suspected links to terrorism or terrorist financing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:43 ||
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Communist rebels killed a government soldier and wounded four others in separate attacks in Mindanao, a regional army spokesman said Friday.
Lt. Col. Francisco Simbahon, of the 4th Infantry Division, said suspected New People's Army rebels ambushed two soldiers returning to their camp in Agusan del Sur province on Wednesday. He said one soldier was killed instantly and the other seriously wounded.
NPA rebels also attacked patrolling soldiers in Surigao del Sur the same day and wounded two while another soldier was injured when rebels ambushed him in Davao del Norte province.
"There are operations against the NPA in Mindanao and we will continue to pursue the rebels until they are neutralized," Simbahon said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered a heightened military offensive against the NPA, which the government considers the biggest threat to national security.
Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr. and Armed Forces chief Generoso Senga said the President made the order after being briefed on the security situation in the country.
"What the President wants is to intensify the military offensive against an international security threat to the country," Cruz said.
But Senga said aside from communist insurgents, the Abu Sayyaf and renegade members of the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front also pose a big threat to internal security.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is fighting the past three decades to topple the government and install a Maoist state in the country.
Peace negotiations between Manila and the rebels collapsed following the pullout of the National Democratic Front (NDF) from the talks due to its inclusion in the terror lists of the United States and the European Union. Rebel leaders demanded that President Arroyo ask the United States and the European Union to strike them off from the terror lists before they resume peace talks.
The rebels have vowed to step up attacks on government targets after Manila last year suspended safety and immunity guarantee for their negotiators following the collapse of the peace talks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:42 ||
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Russian police have claimed that the eight to 12 militants killed during an extended battle on 9-10 February in a village in the Neftekum district of Stavropol Krai were all Nogais, members of a djamaat, or militant group, based in the Shelkovsky district of northeastern Chechnya. If true, that report provides further evidence that in recent years ever-larger numbers of young men from other ethnic groups and regions of the North Caucasus have joined the ranks of the Chechen resistance.
The Nogais are a Turkic people descended from the Qipchaks who in the 13th and 14th centuries coalesced with their Mongol conquerors to form the Nogai Horde. They adopted Sunni Islam in the 14th century. Their language is most closely related to Kazakh and Kara-Kalpak. In other words, the Nogais are not ethnically or linguistically even remotely related to the Chechens and Ingush.
According to the brief history of the Nogais in Shirin Akiner's "Islamic Peoples Of The Soviet Union," which still remains an invaluable reference source 15 years after the demise of the USSR, the Nogai Horde split in the mid-16th century, with the Great Horde remaining on the lower Volga and the Little Horde settling on the right bank of the Kuban River and the shores of the Sea of Azov, and in southern Ukraine.
The two groups reunited in the mid-17th century after the Great Horde moved southwest, and became nominally subject to the Crimean Tatar khanate. In the 18th century, under pressure from the Tsarist Russian authorities, many Nogais moved either west to present-day Ukraine, south into the Caucasus, or emigrated to Ottoman Turkey.
At the time of the 1979 Soviet census, there were just under 60,000 Nogais in the USSR, while a decade later, that number had increased to some 75,500. Of those, roughly 28,000 lived in Daghestan, primarily in the northern Khasavyurt district. The Nogais constitute the eighth-largest of Daghestan's numerous ethnic groups.
There are also Nogai communities in neighboring Chechnya, Stavropol Krai, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. In 1979, over 90 percent of Nogais in the USSR considered Nogai their native language, and 75 percent also claimed fluency in Russian.
An informal Nogai association, Nogai Birlik (Unity), representing the Nogais in Daghestan, in 1991 called for a separate Nogai state, according to a 1995 briefing paper compiled by the British nongovernmental organization International Alert. At that time, the Nogais reportedly opposed sovereignty for Daghestan on the grounds that it would make it more difficult for them to maintain contacts with their coethnics in other regions of the Russian Federation.
Possibly because they considered themselves victimized, oppressed, or simply neglected and forgotten by the Russian authorities, the Nogais, who are overwhelmingly rural dwellers engaged in agriculture, were among the first non-Chechens to join the Chechen resistance.
In a 13 February article, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" traces that involvement as far back as 1996, claiming that between 1996-99 a group of Nogais from Neftekum traveled to Chechnya for training at so-called "Wahhabi camps," presumably meaning the training camp established in Serzhen-Yurt by Saudi-born field commander Khattab.
The Russian daily further claims that the so-called Nogai battalion participated in the 1999 incursion into Daghestan spearheaded by Khattab and radical field commander Shamil Basayev that precipitated the second Chechen war. Whether Nogais from other regions of the North Caucasus have since formed comparable, separate djamaats remains unclear.
In December 2005, the head of the Stavropol directorate of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Lieutenant General Oleg Dukanov, claimed that the leader of the so-called Nogai djamaat, which he claimed comprised residents of the Neftekum, Levokum and Stepnov districts of Stavropol Krai, was killed in August 2005 while resisting arrest, regnum.ru reported on 15 December.
If so, the Nogai djamaat apparently retained both its cohesion and its fighting capacity despite the death of its commander. Police claimed to have secured arms -- including six assault rifles, two mortars, and three grenade launchers, together with quantities of ammunition and several walkie-talkies -- in the wake of the Neftekum operation, and claimed that the fighters in question were preparing to launch a major terrorist attack, possibly involving the seizure of a school or orphanage, during the last week of February.
Simultaneously with the Neftekum operation, police detained six alleged militants -- four men and two women -- in Pyatigorsk, also on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, Interfax reported on 10 February. It is uncertain whether those six were also Nogais, and whether they were coordinating their activities with the Nogai djamaat.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:40 ||
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A man, who was a member of an armed group led by Ruslan Nasipov, who was killed in 2005, has been detained in the village of Samashki in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district, the press service of the republic's Interior Ministry told Interfax on Friday.
The militant told police where they could find his cache of arms and ammunition. Another militant turned himself in to police in the same village. He surrendered an assault rifle and ammunition.
Two militants were captured in the village of Belgatoi in the Shali district on Thursday. They are believed to have sheltered other armed group members and provided them with food supplies, weapons and ammunition, the press service said.
Two militants, including a woman, were captured in the town of Argun. They were members of an armed group standing behind the murder of several dozen civilians and policemen and car bombings. One of the militants, who was identified only by his last name, Bekhoyev, admitted to having helped other armed group members move around the town. The detained woman was responsible for gathering information on movements of trucks carrying servicemen and police officers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:38 ||
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An Islamic charity director accused by federal prosecutors of having links to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was resentenced Friday to 10 years in prison _ about a year less than his original sentence.
Enaam Arnaout, 42, pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2003, admitting he defrauded donors to his Benevolence International Foundation by diverting some of the money to Islamic military groups in Bosnia and Chechnya.
"Give me a life, your honor," Arnaout said in an emotional appeal to U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon for a much larger reduction in his sentencing. He said he wanted to "see my 75-year-old mom before she dies."
The resentencing was held because the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Conlon erred the first time. She boosted the sentence when she held that more than 50 donors to the charity had been defrauded, but the appeals court found insufficient evidence to conclude that the fraud affected that many people.
The initial sentence was 11 years and four months in prison plus $315,624 in restitution. With time off for good behavior, federal prisoners ordinarily serve 85 percent of their sentences.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald told reporters after the resentencing that he was "satisfied that the process has been seen through this is still a very serious sentence."
Arnaout, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen, has said he has met bin Laden but opposes terrorism, and has denied having anything to do with his al-Qaida network. His attorneys have said the two men met in the 1980s, when bin Laden was part of the U.S.-supported struggle of Afghan fighters to expel the Soviet army.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:38 ||
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President Bush said Friday that calming Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region will require "probably double" the current number of international peacekeepers and a coordinating role for NATO.
The U.N. already is planning to assume control of peacekeeping from the poorly trained and ill-equipped African Union force, numbering about 7,000, which has not stopped the violence in Darfur.
The United States and several other nations have said genocide has occurred in western Sudan, where 180,000 have died from famine and violence in three years. The Arab-dominated government in Khartoum has been accused of backing the Janjaweed militia against ethnic tribe members.
"The strategy was to encourage African Union troops to try to bring some sense of security to these poor people that are being herded out of their villages and terribly mistreated," Bush told a friendly, invitation-only audience of about 500 inside a Port of Tampa cruise ship terminal. "The effort was noble, but it didn't achieve the objective."
He said an effective mission "is going to require, I think, a NATO stewardship," which Bush said would mean the military alliance would providing planning and coordination. Bush did not say whether U.S. forces should participate directly.
"We believe it is premature to speculate about what types of forces and equipment may be needed until we see the U.N. plans," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Earlier Friday, Bush discussed options with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Before his address, the president received an update on Iraq and the war on terror in a private, hourlong briefing at the MacDill Air Force Base headquarters of U.S. Central Command. Afterward, he briefly stopped to shake hands with about a dozen enthusiastic, flag-waving supporters and met behind closed doors at the base with the family of a soldier killed in Iraq.
About 20 anti-war protesters also appeared along Bush's motorcade route.
The president asked Americans for patience with the war in Iraq.
"We shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks, short-term setbacks, or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy change the world in the past," the president said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:35 ||
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A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers offered rewards amounting to more than $1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide.
The bounty was offered during Friday prayers as Muslim anger against the cartoons flared anew in parts of the world. "If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden and (al Qaeda deputy Ayman al) Zawahri, we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," cleric Maulana Yousef Qureshi told Reuters.
Weeks of protests over the cartoons have triggered fears of a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam, and have led to calls on all sides for calm. "This is not the first time we've been threatened," one of the 12 cartoonists involved said on condition of anonymity. "The drawing I made was meant as a practical joke and yet I have been dragged into this absurd situation."
On Friday, thousands rallied in Pakistan, Bangladeshi police blocked demonstrators heading for the Danish embassy, and Indian police fired teargas and used batons to beat back hundreds of protesters who stoned shops in the city of Hyderabad.
In New York, about 2,000 Muslims gathered near the Danish consulate carrying placards reading "Prophet Mohammad, a man of peace" and "Spread peace not hate." Thousands of Muslims marched through the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salaam.
Protests in Pakistan this week have resulted in at least five deaths, and on Friday it became the latest country where Denmark has decided to temporarily close its embassy. Denmark urged any Danes in Pakistan to leave as soon as possible.
In the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, Qureshi said he had personally offered a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8,400) to anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist. Two of his congregation put up additional rewards of $1 million and one million rupees. The cleric leads the congregation at the historic Mohabat mosque, on street known for goldsmith shops in the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province a stronghold of Pakistan's Islamist opposition parties.
The cartoons were first published in Denmark in September, but last month newspapers and magazines in Europe and elsewhere began republishing to assert principles of freedom of expression.
The Danish ambassador in Islamabad said relations had not been broken off because of the furor. "I'm still in Pakistan and in a secure place," Ambassador Bent Wigotski told Reuters. "There is no question of broken relations or anything like that," he said, adding that the German embassy was looking after Denmark's consular affairs.
Denmark has already shut missions in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Indonesia as a result of violence or threats of violence.
Protests in Pakistan have been large and violent and many have taken on a distinctly anti-U.S. tone. In addition to burning Danish flags, demonstrators have attacked U.S. fast-food outlets and burned effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush. Islamist parties have called for a nationwide strike on March 3, around the time Bush is expected to visit Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:27 ||
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#1
Ok, so I've got a buck. Who wants to contribute to a Fatwa on the dirtball cleric Maulana Yousef Qureshi? What goes around etc.. ....Right?
#3
The headline I want to see is "Cartoonists set bounty of 1 million on Mullah's head"
They have no intention of paying, turnabout is fair play. Then when the Mullah's dead, just don't pay them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2006 8:27
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#4
"I am, of course, in favor of the freedom of the press, which is a pillar of democracy. But I am equally for respecting everyone's sensibilities So I deplore the situation," said Chirac...
I have a solution! Don't publish no more nuttin'! That way, NO ONE can be offended!
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/18/2006 9:32
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#5
carrying placards reading "Prophet Mohammad, a man of peace" and "Spread peace not hate."
Read your own damn signs. Now look around the world at where all the hate and violence is.
Now, march your little butts - signs and all - over to the Pak, Iranian, Syrian, Saudi, Yemeni, et al embassies you should more appropriately be protesting.
And try as I might, I simply still cannot see the moral comparison between a bounty on terrorists responsible for the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent people - muslim and infidel alike and a guy who drew a cartoon. Just can't.
So sit down, look at your damn signs demanding islamic peace and then take action to end islamic violence.
One of the wealthiest bankers in Iraq has been kidnapped during an audacious raid that left his five bodyguards dead, murdered by single gunshots to the head in the garden of a rented villa in western Baghdad.
Ghalib Abdul Hussein Kubba, the chairman of the al-Basra National Bank for Investment, was abducted with his son, Hassan, a senior employee at the bank, by up to a dozen gunmen. The kidnappers arrived at Mr Kubbas house in the affluent Yarmouk district on Thursday evening in a minibus and two cars. They were dressed in the uniform of Iraqi National Guardsmen.
They set up a checkpoint and sealed off the street, Mustafa al-Tahi, 20, a neighbour, said. We just thought it was an official raid, because they had everything: uniform, weapons, even night-vision goggles on their helmets. They moved and spoke like soldiers. Only their vehicles were non-military. They turned cars away from the street, told drivers to switch off their headlamps and ordered people inside.
There was no gunfire. They left after a short time. There was silence for half an hour. No one knew what happened. Then came the sound of sirens. The police arrived. First they raided the wrong house, then they entered Kubbas.
Inside they found Mr Kubbas wife, his sons wife and his two grandchildren huddled and sobbing in a corner. In the front garden of the high-walled, two-storey villa lay the bodies of his security detail.
They must have used silencers, Corporal Mahmoud, a policeman, who lives nearby, said. I was at home and didnt hear a thing until I turned up on my shift and discovered what had happened Kubba gone and five dead.
The kidnapping is the latest in a trend that is already the scourge of Iraq and has resulted in thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of foreigners being taken hostage since the American-led invasion in 2003.
Mr Kubba joins a list that includes, at present, four Western peace activists a Briton, Norman Kember, an American and two Canadians Jill Carrol, an American journalist, and two German engineers.
According to the US military, calls to the Iraqi Interior Ministrys kidnap hotline have jumped from nine a week in mid-December to 26 a week last month, and a report published by the Brookings Institute, an American think-tank, estimates that there were 30 Iraqi kidnappings a day in December, up from ten a day the same month a year previously.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said that the numbers of those taken hostage include at least 425 foreign citizens and 5,000 Iraqis.
The links between organised crime, terrorist and insurgent groups, tribal feuds and top-level corruption have made kidnapping something akin to a national industry.
As Mr Kubba discovered, bodyguards are no guarantee of safety. Yarmouk, the affluent neighbourhood in western Baghdad from which Mr Kubba was seized, has been the scene of numerous abductions.
Originally a leading figure in the southern city of Basra, Mr Kubba rose to financial prominence through canny banking deals and big-business ventures, facilitated by his strong relationship with leading Baathist figures in the regime of Saddam Hussein. People in Basra allege that he was a close friend of Uday Hussein, Saddams gangster son. Yet in 2003, after the regime fell, Mr Kubba was appointed head of Basras interim council by the British. He became the president of Basra commerce, headed many local businesses and was a leading figure in the citys al-Fadilah Islamic party.
One business associate described Mr Kubba as a man with a black history a different man for every day. The list of suspects must be lengthy...
Pakistan and Afghanistan will share intelligence about the whereabouts of Taliban and Al Qaeda activists inside Pakistan and are devising a mechanism to ensure that subversive elements were firmly dealt with, the Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said.
Talking to Daily Times, the Afghan foreign minister said that there were no two opinions about the presence of Taliban on Pakistani soil.
The issue, he said, was how to deal with the threat and how to fight the common enemy, he said, adding that the issue had been discussed by Pakistani and Afghan leaders during the current round of talks. He said that security remained the main focus of the talks between President Hamid Karzai and President Pervez Musharraf. I think this visit provided the best opportunity to find solutions to these issues, he said. Abdullah said that Pakistan had raised the issue of border incursions during the talks and it was also discussed in detail. He rejected Pakistans proposal to fence the border between the two countries as a way of curtailing cross-border incursions.
A fence or wall is something which separates nations. We are living in an age where we need to build bridges, not walls, he said. On Thursday, President Karzai addressed the National Defence College, where he was asked about this proposal by one of the participants, he said. Al Qaeda doesnt have a base in Afghanistan anymore, he said, adding, Although there are groups linked to Al Qaeda carrying out suicide attacks in Afghanistan, they dont have a base there anymore, he said.
He said Afghanistan was a global base of operations for Al Qaeda before September 11, and they controlled almost 90 percent of the country. However, the situation has completely changed now, he said.
The Afghan minister said that his government was in the process of developing close relations with all countries in the region, including India and Pakistan. Our relations with India are very important to us, he said. Expanding our relations with Pakistan, India and Iran and the rest of the world is our number one priority, he said. He rejected a comparison with Iraq, saying that there was a clear-cut difference between the situation of the two countries. Of course, the situation in Afghanistan is different, and calling it occupation would be incorrect, he said. The presence of international forces in Afghanistan has helped its people rebuild their homeland, he said.
In response to a question about Afghanistan acting as a channel between energy-rich Central Asia and South Asia, the Afghan foreign minister said that things had changed and now there was enough stability in Afghanistan to make trade with other countries in the region possible.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:26 ||
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I hope this isn't a mistake. I hope that the info doesn't immediately get to the Taliban.
The Mujahideen Shura Council of Iraqhas released to the internet numerous communiqués detailing their insurgent activities over the past few days. The most notable among these include assassinations of officers in the National Guard and attacks on vehicles of both the Crusaders and Converters, in areas surrounding Baghdad.
1. The first communiqué claims an attack resulting in the destruction of two Humvees.
2. The second message states that a rocket attack on the Converted National Guard took place.
3. On Tuesday, in the area of Abu Ghraib, the group detonated a package on a Crusader Humvee.
4. The Council attacked a Converted National Guard Patrol in Abu Ghraib, killing fifteen.
5. The fifth communiqué states that the group destroyed a National Guard vehicle, killing six converters who were inside.
6. Two converters of the National Guard were assassinated in Fallujah.
7. Three Crusaders were sniped in the area of Therab Tishris, located north of Baghdad.
8. The group assassinated a General of the Converted National Guard.
The Mujahideen Shura Council is composed of seven insurgency groups in Iraq: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, the Army of al-Sunnah Wal Jamaa, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the unbelievers gathering with different sides and defend Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:25 ||
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...They'll be going for the converted rice next...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2006 9:01
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We of the "Neener Neener Yo Momma Wears Curly-Toed Combat Boots And Fucking DIE You Cowardly Twisted Sick Fuck Girly-Men Galactic Coalition of Freedom" say "Your imminent dispatch to terminal oblivion cometh in its turn, you gutless little fuckwads."
I LIKE that..as good as that would sound, wish I could find a .wav of a B-52 starting up. If ever there was an overture for the Apocalypse, that sound is it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2006 11:24
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B2s and sub-launched missiles. Why give them warning?
Posted by: too true ||
02/18/2006 11:33
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Lol, Mike.
tt - it's like the sound of my old Harley, back in the day, compared to a hot ricer. One sound like a buzzsaw and the other sounds like raw power, lol.
The Defense Department did not hamper the transfer of intelligence gleaned from the Able Danger program to other agencies, and the program did, in fact, yield useful tools for the counterterrorism effort, a senior DoD official said here today.
In an interview before testifying at the House Armed Services Committee, Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said an extensive DoD review found that there were no formal requests for Able Danger information before Sept. 11, 2001, from other governmental agencies to DoD. The review also found that no one within DoD did anything to prohibit intelligence information from being transferred, Cambone said.
The Able Danger program was a 15-month planning activity started in October 1999 to develop an information operations plan against transnational terrorism. A review of the program was launched in August 2005 after a military officer who worked with Able Danger came forward with allegations that the program had produced a chart with a photo of Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, linking him to a Brooklyn cell of al Qaeda.
The review did not find the alleged chart, or any data from which such a chart would have been derived, Cambone said. A group of 90 people spent about 6,500 hours reviewing documents, searching for information and interviewing people who were involved with the program, he said.
The review also used current technology, which is much improved, to determine if information about Atta was available during the Able Danger time frame, Cambone said. No information was found.
Able Danger was not an operational activity, but was meant to demonstrate how data-mining tools could be used to provide useful information for counterterrorism efforts, Cambone said. The program used open sources on the Internet to gather information about people, events, dates and locations, and then used analysts to sort through the information and look for connections, he explained.
"Able Danger has demonstrated that it's possible to make use of those tools, and do so in a way that's effective," he said. "It has become a useful, but surely not silver-bullet-like instrument."
The information-gathering process used in Able Danger has been transferred to other U.S. government agencies and used to look for intelligence patterns that could help with operations, Cambone said.
Able Danger was the beginning of an effort by DoD to look forward and plan for future terrorist threats, Cambone said, and different agencies have made considerable progress in that area. U.S. Special Operations Command and the Army's Information Dominance Center house state-of-the-art capabilities and other agencies also have the ability to process, analyze, fuse and graphically display data, he said.
"Today these centers are collaborating on a continual basis, enhancing our ability to coordinate and conduct intelligence and operations in counter terrorism, counter proliferation, information operations, and unconventional warfare," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:24 ||
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One of the best tools against terrorism and we don't use it.
Posted by: Art ||
02/18/2006 17:59
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I believe extensive data mining programs continue. It's just they are cloaked in secrecy for obvious reasons.
To a large extent data mining works becuase people don't understand that how it works.
#3
Cambone was part of the cover-up ... Weldon caught him a few times in open session. Oh to have been a fly on the wall during the closed hearings. For more on the hearings, look Here.
3000 American lives could have potentially been saved but all we hear from the MSM is ... crickets. All they care about is Deadeye Dick Cheney's Hunting fiasco. Oh, and note to David Gregory - there's a special on Grecian Formula at WalMart.
A U.S. drive to deepen anti-terror ties with North African nations needs to be balanced by greater concern for democracy and human rights in order to gain wide political acceptability in the region, analysts say.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, visiting Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco this month, heaped lavish praise on their cooperation in Washingtons "war on terror" on his first tour of the strategic energy-rich region on Europes southern flank.
But local ears strained to catch any mention of good governance. It was left to Rumsfelds aides to voice U.S. hopes for internal reforms in the three countries, tightly governed states struggling with a variety of social and economic strains.
In a region where anti-U.S. resentment among ordinary people and intellectual elites runs high due to the war in Iraq and U.S. support of Israel , his silence on locals hopes for more jobs and greater freedoms spoke volumes, commentators say.
"The Maghreb has apparently no political purpose other than to serve as a watchman, to wear a uniform or serve as a vast communal protectorate in the face of the risk of terrorist infiltration for Washington," said Algerias independent newspaper Le Quotidien dOran.
Saad Djebbar, an Algerian lawyer and analyst based in London, said: "His meetings with the leaders in the region did not bring to the fore the U.S. commitment to promote democratic action and the substance of democracy."
"That revived the perceptions among people in the Maghreb that there is business as usual with Washington keeping the status quo for the sake of the fight against terror," he said.
Washington views Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as forces of moderation in North Africa, amid concerns about local Islamic militants with links to fellow radicals in Europe, the Middle East and Africas Sahel region.
Washington has long standing defense ties with Tunisia and Morocco. Its relations with Algeria, Africas second-largest country, have been warming after a long period of tension and the two opened military-to-military exchanges last year.
U.S. experts have been training local militaries in countries around the Sahel as part of Washingtons Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative, which aims to help governments prevent their territory from becoming safe havens for militants.
The training has involved Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria and Tunisia and may later be extended to include Libya.
Local people say the U.S. Bush administrations rhetoric about expanding democracy in the Arab world clearly takes second place to shutting down al Qaedas networks.
"For many people, the U.S. vision for democracy in the region appears strange and unclear. They accept anomalies and malfunction in the democratic process," said Touazi Mohamed, a Moroccan political analyst.
Recent developments in the region and beyond are likely to ensure Washingtons priorities remain unchanged.
Hamass stunning Palestinian election victory and gains for Islamists in Egyptian elections are likely to inspire caution in Washington, fearful that pushing for democratic change will empower Islamist groups opposed to its policies.
On the counter-terror front, security sources in the Maghreb say scores of young men from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco have made to Iraq to join the anti-U.S.insurgency.
Intelligence sources say some of the young men from the Maghreb who went to Iraq died in suicide attacks there.
"It is clear for the U.S. that it will not win the war in Iraq if it does not put an end to the insurgency. Many people from the Maghreb are joining the insurgency in Iraq and that worries the U.S.," said Mohamed Dariff, a Moroccan analyst.
Algerias government is fighting the radical Islamic faction Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which intelligence sources in the region believe al Qaeda wants to make its umbrella group in the Maghreb.
"There is a shift in al Qaeda strategy to unify Jihadists in the Maghreb under the umbrella of Algerian GSPC," said Dariff.
Rumsfeld said the three countries were successfully shutting al Qaeda out of the region. But Moroccos leading Le Matin du Sahara, which often reflects the views of policymakers, said al Qaedas threat to the region was serious.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:23 ||
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Dr. Hosham Dawod, an Islamic theologian of Iraqi descent, was on a tour to five Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren, in East Java recently with the aim of repairing the negative image toward Islam.
The theologian's visit to the Tebuireng Islamic boarding school in Jombang on Tuesday attracted the attention of students.
Those, who were engrossed in reciting the Koran at the school's mosque, stopped to closely watch him leisurely walking toward the custodian's residence, KH Yusuf Hasyim, the youngest son of KH Hasyim Asy'ari, founder of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization.
"I'm here to discuss with scholars about many things, including Islamic teachings, which originated from the Middle East," said Dawod, who was accompanied by Emanuel Subangun from the Ganesha Foundation in Jakarta and Hery Haryanto, executive board chairman of the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement (PMII).
The other four Islamic boarding schools visited by Dawod, who resides in Paris, were Ngalah in Pasuruan, Darul Ulum and Manbaul Ma'arif in Jombang and Lirboyo in Kediri.
Dawod's visit is connected to the currently declining image of Muslims around the world, since terrorists, who claimed they were acting on behalf of Islam, hijacked planes and crashed them into buildings in New York City and Washington, DC on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since that tragic day, Islam, which means "religion of salvation", cannot be separated from terrorism, especially when Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network who was allegedly responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, has repeatedly carried out terror acts in the name of Islam.
A number of bomb attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds in Indonesia have been perpetrated by similar means: Bali in 2002 and 2005, and the Hotel JW Marriott and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.
The attacks were purportedly perpetrated by the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network, one of al-Qaeda's offshoots in Southeast Asia. Dr. Azahari -- killed during a raid in East Java three months ago -- and Noordin Top are said to be the masterminds behind these terror acts.
The negative image of Islam, according to Dawod, is due to the attitude of Muslims themselves. In Europe, for instance, the image that has already been smeared by various incidents has been exacerbated, especially when Muslims demand a revision in the legal systems.
"Of late, Muslims in European countries have called for a change in the judicial system, which they maintain should be more accommodating to Muslims' interests," Dawod, a theological researcher at the Centre Nationale Research Scientifique (CNRS), told The Jakarta Post.
That is clearly not a wise move, especially as the judicial system in Europe has been enacted without accommodating interests of Islam since the beginning, when Islam had yet to exist on the European continent. Only years after the legal system was established, did Muslim migrant workers arrive in Europe.
Dawod disclosed that in general, dialogs between Muslims and European governments were needed to enhance better understanding among both parties.
Muslims, he explained, need to decide whether they want to understand and be aware that the legal system existed before the presence of Islam in Europe, or choose to return to their homeland or migrate to countries that are more accepting of Islam.
On the other hand "European countries should be aware that they need to refurbish their legal system because there are a large number of Muslims whose rights should be considered," he asserted.
The education systems used at pesantren in Indonesia, according to Dawod, can be used as a model to enhance understanding between Islam and non-Muslims.
"I was amazed to find non-Muslim students and a number of foreign uztad (Islamic teachers), at the Pondok Ngalah pesantren in Pasuruan," said Dawod.
Of the 8,000 students studying at the pesantren, 25 of them are non-Muslims and three of the teachers are Australians. "Its open attitude toward other faiths is a beneficial step to creating better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims," said Dawod.
Custodian of the Ngalah pesantren, KH Sholeh Bahruddin, disclosed the school's decision to accept non-Muslim students and the opportunity given to Australian teachers to teach there was an attempt to bolster religious tolerance.
"Many non-Muslims visit our school to have dialogs on many issues. They are our friends too," said Sholeh.
According to Sholeh, Muslims throughout the world believe that humans originated from one creation, Adam and Eve. "So, we're all brothers and sisters, and there's no reason for us to become enemies," he said.
Caretaker of the Darul Ulum pesantren in Jombang, M. Zahrul Ashar Asumta, was of the opinion that visits by foreigners to Indonesia to see the education system in Islamic boarding schools first hand was an important step for the development of Islam, because the pesantren teaches many things in life based on religion, and far from the fearful image perceived by the West so far.
"The perception of Islam should be straightened out," Zahrul, who is also the son of Darul Ulum's founder, KH As'ad Amar.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:21 ||
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a voice of reason in an otherwise impenatrable shit storm?
Posted by: bk ||
02/18/2006 9:24
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bk, there is no reason displayed in this article, only the oily smile of a man who wants you to stand close enough for him to use the eight inch steak knife he's holding behind his back.
"Of late, Muslims in European countries have called for a change in the judicial system, which they maintain should be more accommodating to Muslims' interests," Dawod, a theological researcher at the Centre Nationale Research Scientifique (CNRS), told The Jakarta Post.
That is clearly not a wise move, especially as the judicial system in Europe has been enacted without accommodating interests of Islam since the beginning, when Islam had yet to exist on the European continent. Only years after the legal system was established, did Muslim migrant workers arrive in Europe. On the other hand "European countries should be aware that they need to refurbish their legal system because there are a large number of Muslims whose rights should be considered," he asserted.
These are not assertions that make me feel all warm and cuddly...
#3
He's not telling them to stop. He's telling them to slow down, we're catching on.
That is clearly not a wise move, especially as the judicial system in Europe has been enacted without accommodating interests of Islam since the beginning, when Islam had yet to exist on the European continent. Only years after the legal system was established, did Muslim migrant workers arrive in Europe.
"So let's keep multiplying and sending in more instigators until we're closer to a majority. Then we'll bring them salvation!"
Three Muslim men accused in an elaborate federal sting operation of plotting to provide training and money to terrorists have been held for months in solitary confinement, locked in cells at least 23 hours a day with the lights always on, their lawyers said yesterday.
At a hearing in New York federal court, the lawyers said the harsh conditions have left the men disoriented and diminished their ability to understand the charges against them. The three men are Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician; Dr. Rafiq Sabir, a doctor from Florida; and Mahmud Faruq Brent, a paramedic from Washington, D.C. A fourth defendant, Abdulrahman Farhane, a Brooklyn bookseller and also a Muslim, was arrested and imprisoned last week.
Edward David Wilford, a lawyer for Mr. Sabir, said all four defendants will ask the judge to review the terms of their confinement and to be put with the general inmate population.
Mr. Shah and Dr. Sabir, who were arrested on May 27, are accused of conspiring to give martial arts training and medical help to al Qaeda operatives. Mr. Brent is charged with having received training in late 2001 in a Pakistan camp belonging to another terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Mr. Farhane, who has emerged as a central figure in the case, is accused of plotting with an F.B.I. informer to send money overseas to buy weapons and communications equipment for Muslims fighting United States forces in Afghanistan in late 2001. Mr. Shah took part in some of those discussions, according to the charges.
Because of the terror charges in the cases, prosecutors had sent the men to maximum security detention.
None of the men are charged with directly planning or taking part in terrorism. They are said by prosecutors to have spoken about their plans with the informer, a Yemeni named Mohamed Alanssi, who set himself on fire in front of the White House in November 2004, apparently to protest his handling by the F.B.I.
At the hearing, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the lawyers noted that none of the men has a prior criminal record or been convicted of any crime.
Hassen ibn Abdellah, the lawyer for Mr. Brent, told Judge Loretta A. Preska that Mr. Brent has not been allowed a visit from his family since he was arrested on Aug. 4. Mr. Brent, Mr. Shah and Dr. Sabir are being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, while Mr. Farhane is being held at another federal jail in Brooklyn.
Mr. Wilford said that trial evidence that the prosecutors sent to the Manhattan jail on Dec. 19 for the defendants to study was not turned over to any of them by the authorities until late January. He said there have been occasions in which relatives of Dr. Sabir who arrived for visiting appointments at the jail were turned away.
The conditions are "designed to break your will and your ability to focus," Mr. Wilford said. He said he believed that prosecutors had insisted on those conditions because "the buzzword al Qaeda" had been raised in the case.
The courtroom was packed for the hearing yesterday, with relatives and friends of the defendants in long purple and blue robes, the women with full head scarves and the men with their heads covered with caps. When Mr. Brent appeared, his relatives stood up in court and waved and called out to him, saying "God is great," in Arabic.
Mr. Shah appeared at times confused, smiling and laughing as the judge asked for his plea to a new charge of terror financing that was lodged against him last week. All three men pleaded not guilty to a new indictment.
Karl Metzner, a prosecutor, made no comment on the defense complaints about the jail conditions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:19 ||
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Sheik Riyad al-Gheili heard the sound of digging 10 days before authorities discovered that 23 convicted al Qaeda prisoners had popped through the floor of the women's restroom at his mosque and escaped.
But police, when told of the strange noises, discounted the Muslim cleric's warning.
"When I informed the prison guards of the sounds I was hearing at night, they told me I'm imagining things," Gheili said Friday, giving the first independent account of an escape that has raised concern in Washington about Yemen's commitment to fighting terrorism.
The prison break was discovered on Feb. 3, when, a few days after reporting the noise to authorities, Gheili again walked the few steps separating Al-Awqaf Mosque from the Political Security Department prison this time, to tell them of a hole discovered in the floor of the women's restroom.
Until then, officials at the maximum-security facility had not known the men were missing, Gheili said.
The prison break has raised questions about official involvement and whether Yemen, Osama bin Laden's ancestral home, is a serious ally in hunting down terrorists.
The Bush administration has expressed concern about the threat posed by the fugitives, as well as lax security at the prison and the wisdom of housing the prisoners together in one cell.
"There's definite collusion from inside the jail," said Muhammad Ali al-Saqqaf, a lawyer. "The story that the men used cutlery to dig their way out doesn't make sense. Yemenis eat with their fingers. Plus, they needed much stronger instruments to make that tunnel."
Yemenis, especially some who have been jailed in the prison, agree. They want the government to explain how the dirt extracted from the tunnel was disposed of, why no one reported the sound of digging and the smell of dust, and where the prisoners got the sharp digging tools.
The government has largely kept silent about details of the escape. More than 150 people have been detained in connection with the breakout, including prison guards and relatives of the fugitives.
A senior Interior Ministry official said the government is serious about finding the escaped prisoners and their accomplices and has gathered information that is helping the effort.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:18 ||
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Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte said yesterday that the future environment for terrorism worldwide will depend more on the outcome of the debate between Muslim extremists and moderates than on the acts of global jihadists such as Osama bin Laden.
"Entrenched grievances such as corruption and injustice and the slow pace of economic, social and political change in most Muslim-majority nations continue to fuel the global jihadist movement," Negroponte said.
In contrast to comments from other Bush administration officials, Negroponte traced the origins of global jihadism to the Afghan-Soviet conflict, when in the 1980s Muslims from around the world, including bin Laden, were brought in with U.S. support to fight the communist invaders.
The jihadist movement born then, Negroponte said, "is today inspired and led by al Qaeda" and is "the preeminent threat to our citizens, homeland interests and friends."
Negroponte, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and now President Bush's chief intelligence adviser, also gave a cautious assessment of the situation in Iraq, as he delivered a speech and answered questions at Georgetown University, which presented him with an award for his past service in the diplomatic corps.
In answer to a question, he said that "while there is enmity towards the West in general and towards the United States in particular, a struggle going on within the world of Islam itself may even be the more fundamental struggle that is taking place."
With regard to Iraq, Negroponte said that Sunni-Arab disaffection is likely to continue fueling the insurgency this year while the majority Shiite and Kurdish populations are making political compromise with the Sunnis more difficult by working to protect their separate interests after national elections.
"Although Kurds and Shia were accommodating to the underrepresented Sunnis in 2005, their desire to protect core interests such as regional autonomy and de-Baathification could make further compromise more difficult," Negroponte said, referring to the Kurdish desire to have autonomy in the north and the Shiites to have more control in the south.
While Negroponte was speaking at Georgetown, Bush was covering some of the same subjects in a speech in Tampa. The president's discussion of terrorism focused primarily on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and al Qaeda, and contained his traditional refrain that the extremists have to be defeated abroad so the United States does not face them at home.
"These people are cold-blooded killers," Bush said of al Qaeda. "They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to plan, plot attacks against the United States of America."
The two men used contrasting language to describe aspects of the situation in Iraq, where Bush said "on the political front they're making progress," and added that the current U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay M. Khalilzad, is "making our position known that we want the government to be a unified government."
Negroponte warned that "prospects for economic development in 2006 are constrained by the unstable security situation, insufficient commitment to economic reform on the part of the government and corruption," while Bush said that "businesses are flourishing in Iraq." Negroponte said that "Iraq security forces require better command and control to improve their effectiveness," while Bush said that "there's a command structure -- command and control structure -- getting in place, and this military's getting better and better."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:16 ||
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Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte
#2
Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte said yesterday that the future environment for terrorism worldwide will depend more on the outcome of the debate between Muslim extremists and moderates..
Then the outlook doesn't look good. Extremists aren't likely to place much value in debate as a method of convincing others.
The United States lags dangerously behind al Qaeda and other enemies in getting out information in the digital media age and must update its old-fashioned methods, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday.
Modernization is crucial to winning the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide who are bombarded with negative images of the West, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Pentagon chief said today's weapons of war included e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and Web logs, or blogs.
"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but ... our country has not adapted," Rumsfeld said.
"For the most part, the U.S. government still functions as a 'five and dime' store in an eBay world," Rumsfeld said, referring to old-fashioned U.S. retail stores and the online auction house respectively.
U.S. military public affairs officers must learn to anticipate news and respond faster, and good public affairs officers should be rewarded with promotions, he said.
The Pentagon's propaganda machine still operates mostly eight hours a day, five or six days a week while the challenges it faces occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rumsfeld called that a "dangerous deficiency."
He lamented that vast media attention about U.S. abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq outweighed that given to the discovery of "Saddam Hussein's mass graves."
On the emergence of satellite television and other media not under Arab state control, he said, "While al Qaeda and extremist movements have utilized this forum for many years ... we in the government have barely even begun to compete in reaching their audiences."
Rumsfeld also cited the methodical U.S. response to a Newsweek magazine report that interrogators at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had placed the Koran, Islam's holy book, on toilets and flushed one down.
After riots around the world killed 16 people, Newsweek retracted the story.
"It was posted on Web sites, sent in e-mails, repeated on satellite television, radio stations for days, before the facts could be discovered," Rumsfeld said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:15 ||
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Look to your own house Rummy. You're generals only want to fight the battle on the line and ignore the second front at home. You have a CSA who listens to the MI people and virtually shuts down their bloggers who are the only consistance source of positive news from the front. Yeah, yeah, I know op security. Those weasels don't understand the trade off between support at home and some casualties in the field. If you are unwilling to take casualties, don't fight! And there is no reason to fight if you win the battle but lose the war at home. Didn't you learn that from Vietnam? Fear and paranoia are the leverage of the MI people. They just about got closed down after GWI because they couldn't, wouldn't support tactical commanders. Now they're justifying their jobs by inducing fear and loathing in our own ranks. Now you notice a propaganda war is in effect. Time to start at home. If you can't do it at home, how in the hell do you expect to win it in a foreign environment?
#2
That's because USA fallows the precepts of DWEMs instead of native Peoples traditions. IMHO, in the fight for Muslims "hearts & minds" we must combine (i) Native American traditions (Aztecs) and (ii) Egyptian tradition (from the embalming procedures).
#3
You have a CSA who listens to the MI people and virtually shuts down their bloggers who are the only consistance source of positive news from the front
I wouldn't lay this at Schoomaker's feet. We're damned lucky he came out of retirement. Don't forget his special forces background or the fact that he retired when his unit's work with Able Danger was shut down.
#4
Just to add to that, I think that if the American public wanted to they (we) could force the MSM to cover Iraq etc. more even-handedly.
This is not a flame, but a call to action. How many people who post here are writing or calling the press and the TV news stations regularly on this issue? Or have invited a vet to speak at their church / civic group / school to give firsthand info?
This war is way too important for us to leave it up to the military or to a handful of leaders alone. And while milblogs help to get out detailed stories and keep our morale up, there's a lot more that really needs to be done IMO.
Michelle Malkin is covering a New Black Panther protest at the Danish Embassy in DC today. Go read who the leaders are and what they have said in the past, and if you're in the area consider getting together with Protest Warriors or some similar group. If we don't all start speaking up we may lose the ability to do so - or to influence what becomes of our country and our society.
#5
In a war it always seems like you're losing, the enemy seems to be advancing everywhere, until one day you wake up and realize you've won, and the enemy was never really as strong as you thought he was. Any impression that we are losing any aspect of this war is only due to the fact that we are exercising only about 1% of our power against this enemy.
#6
I agree with you - except (and it's a big exception) that we are badly losing the public opinion / perception war. And while we can tough that out for a while, do you really want it to get to the point where the UN (and all its members except us and perhaps Israel) declares an economic boycott of US goods and international arrest warrants for US officials?
Because that's what some are pushing for. And while they seem like loonies, the UN statement on Guantanamo is an example of an issue that Merkel and Blair are getting behind. At some point soon we all have got to openly declare support for the WOT or we will lose in the worst way - the way we lost Vietnam.
#7
He lamented that vast media attention about U.S. abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq outweighed that given to the discovery of "Saddam Hussein's mass graves."
He expected the same press that covered up Saddam's crimes during the '90s to suddenly reveal them now?
C'mon, Rummy, you're smarter than that. Get with the DOJ and find a way to charge some CNN executives with aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 15:14
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#8
Robin - the Union Tribune doesn't even bother to verify who I am - they know my email addy and letters to the editor rants :-)
Little less successful with the local news, which follow the national news memes, since that's where they get their goods (and promotions and....)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 16:17
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The director of national intelligence said Friday that while the United States has made important strides in thwarting Al Qaeda, it still remains one of the most formidable components of what he called a "global jihadist movement."
John Negroponte said despite the fact that many of its operational leaders have been killed or captured, "Al Qaeda will attempt high-impact attacks for as long as its central command structures functioning."
Negroponte told an audience at Georgetown University that explosives remain Al Qaeda's weapon of choice, but he says its operatives are still trying to get their hands on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Negroponte said the changes in the way the American intelligence community operates have made the nation safer than it was on 9/11. He said intelligence agencies are working together more closely than ever, and that coordination is critical in preventing another domestic terror attack.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:14 ||
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A Belgian court late on Thursday sentenced three Moroccans it found guilty of heading an al-Qaeda linked Belgian cell to a total 20 years behind bars. Abdelkader Hakimi and Lahoussine El Haski got a seven year prison sentence, while Mustafa Lounani, received a six year jail term. The high-security trial was one of Europe's biggest anti-terrorism cases since the September 11 attacks on the United States, and was widely seen as a test of Belgium's new anti-terrorism laws.
The court convicted Hakimi, El Haski and Lounani, all Moroccan nationals resident in Belgium, of leading a Belgian cell belonging to the al-Qaeda linked Moroccan Islamic Combat Group (GICM). The GICM group is suspected by investigators to be linked to deadly bombings in the Spanish capital, Madrid, in March 2004 and in Casablanca, Morocco, in May, 2003.
The court ruled that they had provided logistical support to the group by allowing members to stay with them after the Madrid bombings, and by raising funds. It found eight other men guilty on lesser charges but acquitted two.
Hakimi was convicted of founding the GICM in Maaseik, Belgium, and of being its "unifier". He also coordinated contact between the Belgian GICM cell and French cells, the trial judges said. He is a veteran mujahadeen from Afghanistan and the Balkans.
El Haski, also an Afghanistan veteran, was the cell's theologian and took part in gathering and administering funds, according to the judges.
Lounani was responsible for finding recruits to fight in the insurgency in Iraq, the judges said.
The Moroccans denied that they were members of the GICM cell. Defence lawyers argued the only evidence against some of the accused was that they knew men charged with serious crimes.
The trial began on 3 November last year, and is the first to be covered by Belgium's new anti-terror law. State prosecutors had requested a 10-year sentence for Hakimi and El Haski - the maximum allowed under the new legislation - and eight years for Lounani.
A maximum five-year sentence can be handed down for belonging to a terrorist organisation, the new anti-terror law stipulates.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
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Malaysia has extended by two years the detention of a Malaysian suspected of aiding al Qaeda hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, his lawyer said on Friday.
Yazid Sufaat, a 42-year-old former army captain, is accused of having provided lodging in the Malaysian capital to two of the hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who were aboard the airliner that hit the Pentagon in 2001.
Malaysia has held Yazid under its strict Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial, since 2002.
"The detention has been extended for another 2 years from Jan. 31," lawyer Edmund Bon told Reuters. "No reasons were given."
Police say Yazid, who holds a degree in biochemistry from a U.S. university, was also the local contact for Zacarias Moussaoui, who is being tried in the U.S. for conspiracy in the attacks blamed on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
FBI agents had interviewed Yazid in his cell in 2002.
Malaysia is due to decide by Feb. 22 the fate of 36 other suspected militants being held together with Yazid.
"We will know on Feb. 23 if their detentions are being extended as well," Bon said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
01:12 ||
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Newly released police testimony of al-Qaeda member Louai Sakka found in case records has come the fore.
Sakka resorted to his right to remain silent when asked by the prosecutor to testify. Although Sakka's initial statement was not included in the indictment, it is still clear from it that he is linked to al-Qaeda terror organization. He has knowledge of not only the Istanbul bombings that happened between 15 and 20 November 2003 but of Iraqi insurgents as well.
His statements were presented in a fact-finding report signed by Public Prosecutor Zekeriya Oz as well. "Sakka wanted his statements to be saved on the computer, and whatever he said was recorded," a note on the dossier read.
Sakka was arrested at Diyarbakir Airport while in preparation for a bomb attack against Israeli ships in Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya. His statement covered detailed information about his activities as a senior al-Qaeda official. According to Sakka, the idea of launching a bomb attack was first brought up during a meeting with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in April 2001. The dossier also contains information that he received an offer from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to be an emir while Sakka was in Iraq in 2002, when Habip Akdas asked Sakka to finance the bomb attacks on the Israeli ships.
Sakka's account provides detailed information about how he managed to finance those attacks. Although bin Laden assigned Sakka to organize the Antalya bombings, Sakka could not resist Akdas' opposition to the plan, and rejected the task. Sakka's report said he supplied $150,000 to conduct the bomb attacks, and Habip Akdas, Saadetin Akdas and Burhan Kus went to Syria one week before their suicide attacks.
Although attacks were initially targeted at Israeli ships in Antalya and other places occupied by Jews, said Sakka in his account to police, bad weather impeded attackers from carrying out their plan, forcing them to change their strategy.
Only the HSBC bombings in Istanbul, Sakka had no prior knowledge of. Bin Laden did not express his approval of those bombings, Sakka said in his testimony, because it would affect a very large number of Turkish citizens.
Azat Ekinci, Hadip Akdas, Gurcan Bac, Mohammed Tokas all died, according to Sakka. In Sakkas statements it is written that he is the one who provided two terrorists with a passport before they organized the September 11 attacks. Sakka's testimony also gives us some clues that Murat Yuce, the Turkish driver kidnapped in Iraq, was killed by a terrorist of Sakka's choice. There were also some Turkish people who took part in the execution of Yuce.
The following is the structure of al-Qaeda, according to Sakka:
Leader Osama bin Laden, His assistants: Mohammed Atef (Abu Hafs al-Misri), Ayman al- Zawahiri (Information Minister), Seyful Adil, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (his assistant is Sakka) and Abu Mohammed Zeyyiat al-Misri (al-Qaeda's camp emir).
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/18/2006
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Denmark temporarily shut its embassy in Islamabad and Pakistan recalled its envoy from Copenhagen on Friday, as violent protests against caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) sparked a diplomatic row. Copenhagen said its embassy staff would remain in Pakistan, but not in the embassy and denied that diplomatic ties were affected. We decided on Friday to shut our embassy for security reasons, because we believe it is not responsible to keep it open at the moment, Lars Thuesen, head of the Danish Foreign Ministrys crisis centre, said. Diplomatic relations have not been severed.
Denmark has consistently attracted the fury of the protesters in Pakistan and around the world, who have repeatedly burned effigies of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasumussen and torched and trampled on the countrys flag. It has already temporarily closed its embassies in Tehran, Damascus and Jakarta and its consulates in Beirut and Tunis. Pakistan cited the caricatures issue in its decision to recall its ambassador, but did not explicitly link it to the shutdown of the Danish mission. Pakistans ambassador in Copenhagen, Mr Javed A Qureshi, has been called to Islamabad for consultations over the caricatures controversy, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. Government officials said the decision was made during a meeting between senior Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials and the Danish ambassador in Islamabad, Bent Wigotski, at the ministry on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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#1
perhaps it is time to sever all ties with the muslim world, cease trading with them, cease selling them technology and let them rot in their 14th century hell. We can use ethanol.
First we may need to drop some nukes on major cities like for instance: Mecca, Jeddah etc. you get the drift then leave them to pic up the peaces. Seal them off in 14th century bliss.
The supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and All Pakistan Islamic Students Federation (APISF) almost came to blows on Friday when APISF supporters started chanting sectarian slogans at a rally held to condemn the publication of blasphemous caricatures in various Western newspapers.
The PML-N top leaders arranged a protest rally at Aabpara Chowk where hundreds of APISF supporters joined them PML-N leader Syed Zafar Ali Shah raised slogans that upset the APISF protesters. The APISF responded with sectarian slogans and demanded action against Zafar Ali Shah. The PML-N bigwigs intervened and asked both parties to remain calm. Later, the PML-N supporters and leaders dispersed peacefully. A heavy contingent of police, which was deployed there to avoid any untoward incident, remained unmoved during the verbal clash.
PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul-Haq condemned the despicable caricatures and said freedom of press did not mean the freedom to offend religious sensibilities. He slammed the government for not withdrawing Pakistani diplomats from the countries where the offensive caricatures were first published. He declared diplomats from Denmark, Germany, Spain, France and Italy in Islamabad persona non grata.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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#1
Really - we can cause the Gingham Dog and Calico Cat Syndrome in Pakiwakiland with toilet paper printed with cartoons and spread over the country. It doens't have to be "mo" on the paper. A few verses of Shia doctrine here, some Suni lit here, some cartoons drawn of the various groups leaders. If we did it right... every nutcase there would kill their opposite number within a month or two..
The Iranian government is a "central banker" for global terrorism and working with Syria to destablise the Middle East, the US Secretary of State has said. Speaking in testimony to the US Senate on Thursday, Condoleeza Rice signaled the US intention to step up the diplomatic offensive against Iran, saying the threat it posed went beyond its controversial nuclear programme. "It's not just Iran's nuclear programme but also their support for terrorism around the world. They are, in effect, the central banker for terrorism," she told the Senate Budget Committee.
Rices comments came a few days before a planned trip to the Middle East, during which she plans to hold talks with regional allies on containing a regime she said was bent on "political subversion, terrorism, and support for violent Islamist extremism." Claiming success for recent US efforts to haul Iran before the UN Security Council for its nuclear activities, she added that it was not possible just to address Irans nuclear program in a vacuum".
"Perhaps one of the biggest challenges we face is the policy of the Iranian regime, which is a policy of destabilization of the world's most volatile and vulnerable region," she said. "It is Iran's regional policies that really are concerning as we watch them, with their sidekick Syria, destabilizing places like Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and, indeed, even in southern Iraq."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian parliament will be sworn in on Saturday with Hamas as its majority bloc, paving the way for the Islamist group to form a cabinet despite calls by major world powers to boycott it. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Hamas, whose charter calls for Israels destruction, to ensure its government recognise interim peace negotiations with Israel and aim to halt violence, Palestinian officials said.
However, Abbass parliament speech will not explicitly insist on such measures as a condition for forming a cabinet, a top Palestinian official said. But he will clearly tell Hamas he expects its government to pursue the policies of the previous governments, that it must respect the Authoritys signed agreements with Israel and pursue peaceful means to resist occupation, the official told Reuters.
And if you can't trust a Paleo signed agreement, what can you trust?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2006
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Hat tip: The Corner. (really)
The menu at Beijing's latest venue for its growing army of gourmets is eye-watering rather than mouth-watering. China's cuisine is renowned for being "in your face" - from the skinned dogs displayed at food markets to the kebabbed scorpions sold on street stalls - and there is no polite way of describing Guo-li-zhuang: a dish combining the male organs of an ox and a snake
Situated in an elegantly restored house beside Beijing's West Lake, it is China's first speciality penis restaurant. Here, businessmen and government officials can sample the organs of yaks, donkeys, oxen and even seals. In fact, they have to, since they form part of every dish - except for those containing testicles. "This is my third visit," said one customer, Liu Qiang. "Of course, there are other restaurants that serve the bian of individual animals. But this is the first that brings them all together." Guolizhuang's owner, who set it up in November, is proud to combine his own surname (Guo), his wife's (Li) and his son's nickname (Zhuang) into its title.
A booking comes with a trained waitress and a nutritionist in attendance, to explain the menu and to boast its medicinal virtues. In China, you are what you eat, and The Daily Telegraph's nutritionist, Zhu Yan, said the clients were mainly men eager to improve their yang, or virility. Women could benefit, too, she added, although she told the Telegraph's female photographer: "I wouldn't recommend the testicles. The testosterone might interfere in fertility. But many women say bian is good for the skin."
Some dishes appear unexceptional, such as the simple goat penis, sliced, dipped in flour, fried, and served skewered with soy sauce. But Guolizhuang also has its showpieces, such as the elegantly named "Head crowned with a Jade Bracelet" (provided by horses from the western Muslim region of Xin-jiang), for £20 a portion, or "Dragon in the Flame of Desire" (yak, steamed whole, fried and flambéed) for £35.
For beginners, Miss Zhu recommended the hotpot, which offers a sampling of what the restaurant has to offer - six types of penis, and four of testicle, boiled in chicken stock by the waitress, Liu Yunyang, 22.
The Russian dog was first. It was julienned, and rather gamey. The ox was, of all six, the most recognisable for what it was, even though it had been diced. In texture seemed identical to gristle. The deer and the Mongolian goat were surprisingly similar: a little stringy, they had the appearance and feel of overcooked squid tentacles. The Xinjiang horse and the donkey, on the other hand, were quite different. Though both came sliced lengthwise, and looked like bacon, the horse was light and fatty, while the donkey had a firm colour and taste. The testicles were slightly crumbly, and tasted better with lashings of the sesame, soy and chilli dips thoughtfully provided.
One speciality, Canadian seal penis, costs a hefty £220, and requires ordering in advance. Miss Liu confessed that Guo-li-zhuang was an unusual place to work, partly because of her training - she has to recite tales proving the vigour of the animals in question as they are being eaten - and partly because of the interaction with the clientele. "I did find it embarrassing at first," she said. "And sometimes the customers take advantage of me by asking rude questions."
As for the supposed health benefits, Mr Liu, the most regular customer, was uncertain but hopeful. "I can't say I've noticed any difference yet," he said. "But it's a long-term thing." As long as they don't serve Jackal. (And no comments on how small of a dish that would make.)
#5
Chinese people eat anything that runs, swims, or flies. ANYthing.
I've gotten off pretty easy, though - hmm...the worst thing I've eaten was raw crab. Ugh. Drunken shrimp was actually pretty cool. Live shrimp dumped into an alcohol sauce. You pick up a nice lively one, bite off its head, and remove the shell and legs inside your mouth, chew, then spit the remains out besides your plate.
I actually think the spitting is worse than eating goat's penis. Gives you some sympathy for the 18th century European visitors to the American frontier.
Pakistan wants to act as a trade corridor for Chinese exports to the rest of the world and is also interested in setting up an energy corridor for China, if it is technically feasible, said President Pervez Musharraf. Speaking to a group of Chinese journalists, he said China was helping Pakistan with several development projects that were integral for the country's progress. The development projects would sustain economic activity in the country, alleviate poverty, end unemployment and help fight extremism, he said. He said Pakistan would be extremely happy if the Chinese came into the country for joint ventures, trade and investment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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#1
Yeah, just keep allowing Chinese engineers to be murdered and you will get your corridor in jig time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2006 1:08
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#2
He also didn't mention that he is double-crossing the Chinese over the port they have built for him at Gwadar. Though its primary use will be for Chinese goods, it is not particularly unfriendly to visits and use by the US navy.
Former US president Bill Clinton on Friday condemned the publication of Prophet Muhammads (PTUI PBUH) caricatures by European newspapers and urged countries concerned to convict the publishers.
Does "pusillanimous" have one L or two?
Talking to reporters after meeting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad, Clinton said he disagreed with the caricatures and that the publication was against religious and ethical norms.
... unlike a crucifix in a beaker of piss, or a Madonna smeared with dung...
Clinton said he had no objection to peaceful demonstrations being held worldwide, but this was not the time for violence. He said it was the time to promote inter-faith harmony and stand together on the issue.
It's a time to stand up for your principles, if you have any.
He said the peoples religious convictions should be respected at all costs and the media should be disallowed to play with the religious sentiments of other faiths. He said the media could criticise any issue including governments and people, but nobody had the right to play with the sentiments of other faiths.
If you have a free press, you have the right to do precisely that. If you can't do precisely that, you don't have a free press. Q.E.D., Bill.
Clinton said people in the US had also condemned the publication and were deeply concerned over it. He said they respected Islam, as it was the fastest growing religion in the US.
Posted by: Fred & Jackal ||
02/18/2006
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#1
Wow! WTF? Conyers wants to impeach Bush and Bill Clinton is talking this trash down in allenist central. We should tar and feather Hillary with Bill's anti-free speech brush day and night. The Freedom of speech is absolute. I am free to offend you, if you don't like it tough, It's a fundimental human right, full stop. No other postition will do.
#2
Yet another article to flash in the face of my Liberal friends with a hearty "YOU ACTUALLY VOTED FOR THIS GUY?".
Posted by: Dave ||
02/18/2006 0:53
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#3
It's just another bit of shiny proof that the Left secretly desire the Thought Police and the right to "Vince Foster" anyone they don't like.
When I was in 7th grade, I read a story about political correctness though that wasn't the name of it, it was undefined at the time. I can't remember the name of the story or who wrote it, but I've never forgotten it's message. It presented a view of society where equal outcomes was mandated. The main character was forced to wear headphones that blasted his ears with noise to prevent him from having lengthy coherent thoughts (His IQ was too high) He wore heavy chains to reduce his strength (He was too fit) and he had to wear horrible glasses that distorted his vision ( he could see too well). He watched however on TV as a pair of dancers in a ballet, likewise weighed down and restricted to be better than no one else, ripped off their chains and danced freely. They were promptly killed for it.
That's the society that the left wants to have. With their own elite exempt of course.
#4
not surprising - restriction of free speech is first plank of the Hildabeasts' platform - cheap shot, I know, but they both need to pay for this kinda trash talk which hurts all democracies, not just America, like usual
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 1:15
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#5
SB - That would be "Harrison Bergeron" - one of Vonnegut's truly lucid moments... wicked parody. And he nailed it.
That this is not Scrappleface, which it easily could be, rather puts the period to Clintoon. Not only is he obviously bucking for a Nobel Piss Prize, but he's also obviously jealous of Carter's descent rise to the #1 Worst All-Time US President. I'd say that this puts him in the running. He has no business running around meeting with world leaders, anyway. He's over, done, gone - and washing up in record time.
#6
DAMN! Thanks .Com! I've tried to find that story and never could for so long. That's worth a few beers if you ever wander through Middle Tenn. Now I have it to point to when talking about how insane PC crap is.
#7
Anytime, bro - it had the same profound impact on me, too. I saw the ShowTime production of it waay back, in the '80s I think. Vonnegut's pencil was, indeed, a rapier on this one. Of course, he and his fellow uberliberalsthought he was lampooning us knuckle-dragging mouth-breather fly-over America patriots, lol. Wrong-o...
#11
He talks about Islam as the fastest growing religion in the US as if its a good thing. That "fastest growing religion" thingy is used by a lot of cults as a marketing slogan. The smaller the religion the more likely it is to be true. For example a religion of 1 will grow by 100% if one more person joins.
#12
Guess he figured the Arabs can cough up more money than the Chinese right now.
Posted by: too true ||
02/18/2006 7:12
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#13
Guys, I dislike Clinton as much as anyone, but the only other reference to this press conference I can find says nothing about:
"and urged countries concerned to convict the publishers."
I don't think even Bill is dumb enough to say such a thing.
However, if it turns out he did then have at him with axes...
Posted by: DanNY ||
02/18/2006 8:04
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#14
I suggest you reverse the logic, DanNY - it's much more logical to presume the ArabNews cleaned up after His Pusillanimousness. It fits the actual behavior pattern far more closely.
BTW, the ArabNews is also known as The Green Truth - which I used to read daily in Saudi (the only easily available English language newspaper in The Magic Kingdom) and, as did every other Expat there, knew it to be so full of unmitigated shit we always speculated about their steady diet of split pea soup...
#21
I am not convinced he said this either. If he did, then he is more of a sociopath than I thought, because I don't think he belives it...
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
02/18/2006 12:05
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#22
ODA - Clintoon believes whatever will get him air time/
money/sex/adulation.
I think he's trying to out-Carter Jimmuh in hopes the Nobel pussies will give him one to give George Bush another "kick in the leg." >:-(
Oh, yeah - I also believe he's a self-centered, self-serving jerk.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/18/2006 15:01
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#23
I don't think even Bill is dumb enough to say such a thing.
Really? Why?
He was dumb enough to commit perjury.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 15:17
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#24
Billary wants Kofi's vacant seat when it becomes unoccupied.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/18/2006 16:38
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#25
I have read that the UN charter excludes US citizens from Sec Gen. Is this true?
Hillary cannot run on Slick's popularity. She is AWFUL when she speaks. She will alienate everyone except the "Hillary is the smartest woman in the world" set. Watch when she gets heckled in the campaign - her head will explode.
#26
"urged countries concerned to convict the publishers"
Excuse me, but what's the charge?
"He said it was the time to promote inter-faith harmony"
I'll bet the Paks don't realize which side is having the harmony problem. Hmmm, Islamic Neuroses or Free Speech -- which one should be compromised?
"He said the peoples religious convictions should be respected at all costs..."
Great! I'm starting the Religion of Darrell (RoD). RoD practioners hold the conviction that the world's cartoonists should draw and publish anything they want. Respect our conviction at all costs.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Friday vowed to continue the Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat movement till the government's ouster and said that religious organisations would take out a peaceful Shan-e-Mustafa rally on February 19. Delivering Friday sermon at Mansoorah, Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the religious parties did not want to create a law and order situation but warned that the government would be responsible for any such situation if it tried to sabotage the Shan-e-Mustafa rally. The JI leader condemned the arrest and detention of religious workers and common people taking part in rallies.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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The era when Britons were free to acquire farms and homes in South Africa was drawing to a close yesterday when an official panel recommended a "moratorium" on foreigners buying or selling any land. This freeze would apply to every category of land, ranging from housing and farms to private game parks and industrial sites. It could be followed by new laws banning foreigners from buying freehold property and restricting them to 99-year leases...
#1
hmmmmmmm no selling? Is that like KELO for SA officials? How about a cutoff from the commonwealth, EU, WorldBank and UN? F*cking thieves have made the bigtime
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 0:17
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#2
SA will be going the way of Zim-Bob. A real tragedy, when it had everything going for it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2006 1:12
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#3
Mandela and his pals are Communists. What did you expect for it to turn out different once?
#5
When I first saw the headline, I thought of Saudi Arabia, and wondered Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Since when were the Soodis agriculturalists? Now I understand.
Posted by: BA ||
02/18/2006 14:16
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#8
Ironic, since Mugabe now wants the Whites to come back.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/18/2006 19:23
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#9
he wants the whites to come back, fix the farms, then die
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 20:02
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We should start a ferry service from Cape Town to the US and bring every white man, woman, and child outta there that wish to come to America. Those kaffir bastards will recreat ZIM at their earliest opportunity.
#11
Think the descendants of Cecil Rhodes should return to eradicate every single piece of ZANU-PF slime in Zimbabwe and then turn Rhodesia back into the breadbasket of Africa.
#12
the peripheral countries have harvested the benefit of ZimBobland's folly - the white farmers moved and are doing the same productive agriculture elsewhere - Bobland will die a slow lingering death until someone kills the reigning elite
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 22:24
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This is nothing new. RB members old enough to remember the beginning of African decolonization in the 50's and 60's should remember the famous answer given by an African "Freedom Fighter" about what "Uhuru" meant to him: "It means we kill the white man and take his farm and live in his house." Nothing changes. Africa has been descending through the various circles of Hell since the end of WWII.
The United States has asked the Palestinian Authority to return $50 million in US aid because Washington does not want a Hamas-led government to have the funds. The money is being demanded as part of a review of all US aid for the Palestinians which began soon after the resistance group Hamas won last month's legislative elections. The US State Department expects to finish the review in the next few weeks.
Sean McCormack, the US State Department spokesman, on Friday said the caretaker government of Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to return the $50 million, which was given to the Palestinian Authority last year for infrastructure projects after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. "In the interests of seeing that these funds not potentially make their way into the coffers of a future Palestinian government (made up of Hamas) ... we have asked for it to be returned and the Palestinian Authority has agreed," McCormack told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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um.....waiting.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 0:32
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We can always just take it out of the UN money we continue to stupidly flush down the toilet.
#3
A sudden thought, how does the UN get electricity, phone service etc? Do they have their own powerplwnt? Is their bill current? Do they pay on time?
I'll bet the power company doesn't allow non-payment just because they're Soooooo important.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2006 8:39
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The White House has rejected a call from the United Nations for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, insisting detainees held there are "dangerous terrorists". A 54-page report published on Thursday detailed the findings of five UN experts who had sought to interview detainees at the detention centre but were refused by American authorities. It recommended the US "close down the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
A spokesman for the White House, Scott McClellan dismissed the report as "a rehash" of previous allegations made by lawyers acting on behalf of some Guantanamo detainees. "These are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about that are there," he said, "we know that al-Qaida terrorists are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations." McClellan said the UN makes many serious investigations of human rights abuse but "this was not one of them."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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WASHINGTON - The time is not right for the United States and Egypt to begin negotiations on a free- trade agreement, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview on Friday with Arab media. I do believe a free-trade agreement will benefit Egyptians and will benefit the economic reform in Egypt -- I think that it is an important element. But we are at this particular point just not in a position to pursue it very actively although we will continue to talk about it, Rice said.
Rice, who travels to Egypt on Tuesday, acknowledged some opening of Egypts political system, but said Washington was disappointed with a decision to delay this years local elections. It is important that we have the right atmosphere for free-trade agreements because they have to of course go through Congress, they have to be approved. But it is not a matter of punishment, its just a matter of the timing being not quite right, Rice said.
We'll let you know.
US Trade Representative Rob Portman said this week it was still possible the two countries would begin talks. But talks with Malaysia were more likely to start next, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2006
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The time is not right for the United States and Egypt to begin negotiations on a free- trade agreement, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview on Friday with Arab media.
Damn straight. Somerhing needs to be done about the Egyptian media, for starters.
WANA: At least six Punjab regiment soldiers were injured on Friday when their vehicle hit a landmine in Tanai, near Wana. The vehicle was part of a convoy of 20, headed to Jandola from Wana. Two critically-injured soldiers were taken to Peshawar by helicopter, sources said. Meanwhile, another landmine explosion damaged an army vehicle near the border town of Angoor Ada. However, no one was hurt in the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the National Assembly staged a token walkout on Friday to protest the arrest of the activists of opposition parties and police cases against their leaders following violent protests against cartoons in Lahore and Peshawar. The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claimed that none of their workers or leaders was involved in violence. The opposition lawmakers accused Punjab Police of arresting party workers from their houses and putting the houses of party leaders under siege. They demanded the government withdraw police cases against the party leaders, release workers and arrest "real culprits" behind the violence.
They claimed violence during protests was an outcome of a conspiracy to distort the image of Pakistan abroad and halt protests against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI peace be upon him), deemed blasphemous by Muslims.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/18/2006 15:08
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#7
Tutu was truly courageous in fighting apartheid in the past. But he started believing the kudos given him a bit too much. I saw this happening in the mid-80s when he visited our diocese here in the States and it's only gotten worse with time.
Fawning al-Guardian story about courageous Hamas women who will fight to make life better for women ... and send her son off to be a splodydope.
Ask Huda Naeem how she intends to use her influence as a newly elected MP for Hamas and she ticks off a list of wrongs done to women in the name of religion. Forced marriage, honour killings, low pay and girls being kept out of school are her priorities for change in the Palestinian parliament. That is when she is not preparing her 13-year-old son to die in the fight against Israel.
"A lot of things need to change," she said. "Women in Gaza and the West Bank should be given complete rights. Some women and girls are made to marry someone they don't want to marry. This is not in our religion, it's our tradition. In our religion, a woman has a right to choose.
"Mahmoud, what is that woman babbling about?"
"I dunno, Achmed, you want I should beat her?"
"As a woman and an MP, there are areas I want to concentrate on but that does not mean we have forgotten our struggle for our homeland, and preparing our children to die when the homeland calls for it."
Mrs Naeem, a 37-year-old social worker at the Islamic University in Gaza City and a mother of four, is one of six women elected to parliament on the Hamas ticket in the Islamist party's landslide victory last month. They will be sworn in when the new parliament opens today.
Women played a crucial role in getting out the vote for Hamas, knocking on doors and often getting a sympathetic hearing. Hamas's strategy to build political support through its social programmes - the provision of health clinics, nurseries and food for the poor - sealed the loyalty of many Palestinian women. "Women are closer to the problems of the society," said Mrs Naeem. "They are the ones who feel the unemployment. They are the ones who have to look after the children when their husbands are in deservedly in prison. They feel well treated by Hamas institutions. Now these women are looking to us, the women in parliament, to change other things."
"It's time we go blow ourselves up!"
Shortly before the election, Hamas launched a women's armed wing and pictured its members brandishing guns and rocket-propelled grenades in its campaign posters. But the women MPs say their priority is reform, not armed struggle.
Jamila Shanti, a philosophy professor at the Islamic University who headed the list of Hamas's women candidates, says the female activists agree on the need to tackle discrimination. "Our first job is to correct this because this is not Islam," she said. "We are going to show that women are not secondary, they are equal to men. Discrimination is not from Islam, it is from tradition. It may not be easy. Men may not agree."
No, I suspect they won't.
Attempts in the last parliament to change laws that impose stiff punishments on women who commit adultery while going easy on men and provide relatively light sentences for "honour killings" of women who are deemed to have disgraced the family, ran into the sand amid resistance from older secular MPs. Islah Jad, a lecturer in women's studies at Birzeit University, says the party is at odds with itself over women's rights. "In 1999, they admitted for the first time that women are oppressed and they have a cause. The second step is to attempt to formulate a kind of vision but it's very unstable. When family law was discussed they approved some reforms: that the age of marriage was 18 and that a woman can put any condition she wants in the marriage contract," she said.
"But when it came to the penal code and the punishment for adultery, [the late Hamas spiritual leader] Sheikh Yassin said it was based on sharia law and shouldn't be touched."
"Everything is based on sharia law, the old sheikh said. Said it was in the Qu'ran and we could look it up. Then he made me fix him dinner."
Many of the male leaders of Hamas favour the extension of sharia to cover civil as well as criminal codes. Some have said they want to segregate schools, others favour a ban on the sale of alcohol. They also want to see women dress in accordance with Islam.
Remember, ladies, blue makes your ankles look fat.
Mrs Naeem says changes should come only after Hamas has taken time to explain the benefits of religious law. "Our sharia is great if it's practised according to its values. It's not like they say about only cutting off hands," she said.
"It's not going to be forceful but anybody who believes in the religion has to be educated in it. At the end, what matters is fighting corruption, not what people wear."
And here comes the most heroic part according to the Guardian writer:
Then there is an issue unlike any other. The most controversial of the newly elected Hamas women is Miriam Farhat, known as the "Mother of Martyrs" after losing three sons fighting Israel. Her campaign video included a scene of her bidding a son goodbye before he died killing five people in a Jewish settlement. Mrs Farhat said later that she wished she had 100 sons to sacrifice as "shaheeds" - Muslims who die in a holy war.
Mrs Naeem, who named her youngest child after a Hamas leader assassinated by Israel, says there is nothing illegitimate about suicide bombers. "[The Israelis] bomb our neighbourhoods with high explosive. What kind of weapons do we have against F16s?" she asked. But would she encourage her own 16-year-old son to die killing Israelis? "Yes, as soon as his homeland calls for it. I am preparing him to be a shaheed," she said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2006
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So basically the message is, "ok for the kids to die, but not the female self to die".
There is no reason for either to die. She could see farther, reach higher.
#5
Actually, this might make sense. What if these women just want to kill all the male children in their society. Then, that would change the face of Hamas indeed. :).
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
02/18/2006 10:09
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#6
Jews vs Palestinian
at least the white sox were able to finally succeed
Posted by: bk ||
02/18/2006 10:27
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A team of experts has located the ferry that sank this month in the Red Sea, killing about 1,000 people, a Transportation Ministry spokesman said on Friday. Mohammed Amin said the team, which includes experts from France and Britain, found the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 on Thursday about 56 miles from the Egyptian port of Safaga at a depth of about 800 meters (2,625 feet). The team will use a robot in an attempt to recover the data recorder, equivalent to the black box on an airplane, that could explain what caused the tragedy, Amin said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to wait until after Hamas assumes control of the Palestinian parliament to decide on new measures aimed at weakening the militant group, officials said on Friday. Olmert had been poised to announce tougher restrictions on the Palestinians, including a travel ban and a freeze on funding, ahead of Saturday's swearing-in of a Hamas-led parliament.
But Israeli government sources said Olmert deferred a decision until Sunday's cabinet meeting after disagreements between some of his top advisers. Olmert was also urged by the European Union to delay an announcement, a diplomatic source said. Under the plan proposed by the Israeli Defence Ministry, Palestinians would be barred from working in Israel or travelling across Israel between Gaza and the West Bank after a Hamas-led parliament is sworn in on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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Stefan Meller, Poland's Foreign Minister, has ruled out allowing any Iranian researchers to examine the scale of the Holocaust committed by the German Nazis on Polish soil during World War II. Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported on Friday that Iran wants to send researchers to Poland to examine the scale of the Nazi crimes during the war. Meller's remarks came after repeated denials of the Jewish Holocaust by Iranian officials and their suggestions that more research is needed to establish the truth about what happened to European Jews. "Under no circumstances we should allow something like that to take place in Poland," Meller told Polish news agency PAP on Friday. "It goes beyond all imaginable norms to question, even discuss or negotiate the issue."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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#1
Good for Poland, I'l bet long money the real intent is to destroy the records.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2006 8:45
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Three ways to deny something (1) deny it (2) say more research is needed (3) see (2)
Afghan television broadcast Friday what it said was exclusive footage of men murdered, some of them beheaded, in Pakistan because they were against the extremist Taliban and Al Qaeda movements. The images broadcast on the evening news bulletin of private Tolo television station showed the decapitated heads of three men being held up in front of a crowd of onlookers. They also showed several bodies being dragged behind a pick-up truck.
Tolo said the pictures were filmed in Pakistans southern Waziristan province, which shares a border with southern areas of Afghanistan most affected by a deadly insurgency blamed in most part of Taliban militants. The men were killed because they allegedly opposed the presence of Al Qaeda and Taliban operators in Waziristan province, the television station said in a statement. The footage, obtained by Tolo TV exclusively, shows half a dozen dead bodies being dragged by a vehicle through the streets of Mandrakhel (in Waziristan) - while a uniformed Pakistani military officer drives past without interfering, the statement said. In other scenes mutilated bodies and severed heads are placed on display in various positions and locations to dissuade others from opposing Al-Qaeda/Taliban presence in the region.
Crowds are heard chanting long live Osama Bin Laden and long live Mullah Omar, it said. The television station did not say how it obtained the footage of the alleged incident, which it said occurred about a month ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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Sounds like the good old days when the Taliban" were in power in Afghanistan. Pakistan is doing nothing if not actually aiding this human refuse. Time to bomb and shell the rubble until it is sand. Pakistan will never do it.
#2
time to bomb the passes traditionally use - shut the border as much as possible and spread infiltrators out for detection and clusterbomb treatment. Pakland won't take care of the problem, let Mr. Predator solve it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 1:40
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used? PIMF
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 1:40
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Thank GOD they aren't kept in rooms where the AC's turned on high!
I couldn't bear that and would have to craft another strongly worded letter!
Posted by: Kofi Annan ||
02/18/2006 5:07
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Two US Marine Corps helicopters on a night time training mission have crashed into the waters of the Gulf of Aden, leaving two crew members injured and 10 others missing. The CH-53 helicopters went down around 5.30pm local time on Friday in the waters near Ras Siyuan in northern Djibouti, a US military statement said. "There were a total of 12 crew members aboard at the time of the crash," the statement said. "Djiboutian military members near the impact site responded immediately and were able to rescue two injured crew members," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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Eternal Father, grant, we pray,
To all Marines, both night and day,
The courage, honor, strength, and skill
Their land to serve, thy law fulfill;
Be thou the shield forevermore
From every peril to the Corps.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2006 11:11
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KPS Gill is a Sikh policeman and national hero in India. He was the head of the Punjab police during the khalastani terrorist campaign of the 1980s. His police crushed the Sikh insurgency in what ranks as one of the most effective counterinsurgency operations in history
By KPS Gill
A great deal has been written on the 'cartoon controversy', but it is far from enough. The current storm of orchestrated violence and intimidatory protests across the world is symbolic of a deep and sustained intolerance among Muslims, and of rising levels of tolerance of Muslim intolerance, that jointly undermine the possibility of freedom in large parts of the world.
Crucially, it is precisely this tolerance of intolerance that has allowed vocal and violent radicalised Islamist minorities to silence Muslim majorities and to transform the global image of Islam into the grotesque parody of the faith that the Danish cartoons sought - perhaps indelicately - to reflect.
Offensive though these cartoons may have been - and they were not offensive to at least some Muslims, who saw in them, not an insult to the Prophet or the faith, but rather a critique of the unrelenting violence that has become the defining character of much of the Muslim world - the criminal incitement and calls to 'butcher/kill/behead those who insult Islam' have only reinforced the images the cartoons reflected, "allowing mass hysteria to define Islam's message".
What dishonours Islam more? A few irreverent cartoons? Or the acts of remorseless murder, of relentless violence against people of other faiths, of the intimidation and abuse of all other faiths and communities, which the Islamists - including states adhering to the Islamist ideology, such as Pakistan - routinely engage in? Why, then, does the Muslim world not rise up in rage against these fanatics and political opportunists who are bringing disgrace and disrepute to their faith? Why are the voices of criticism against extremist Islam and Islamist terrorism so muted?
Indeed, why is it that all occasional and invariably qualified criticism of these terrorists is accompanied by vague justifications of the need to 'understand root causes' and the 'hurt' caused to the 'Muslim psyche'? Is the 'Muslim psyche' uniquely susceptible to injury?
Venomous characterisations of Hindus, Jews, Christians and, generally, all kafirs, are the stock-in-trade of the discourse in some Muslim countries, often communicated through official media, such as national television channels. The ideologies of hatred against other faiths are systematically propagated in so many Muslim states - we in India are familiar with the Pakistani case, where school curricula routinely demonise non-Muslims.
And do the words or pictures or caricatures by non-Muslims do more injury to the 'Islamic world' than the hideous acts of terrorism that Islamists have been inflicting on non-Muslims - and, indeed, on so many Muslims - all over the world? Worse, after so many Muslim-majority states have simply wiped out their own minorities, or are, even today, in the process of doing so, these very states go shrieking around about 'hurting the sentiments of minorities' when something is said against Muslims or Islam.
Indeed, 'Islamic' states oppress even their own sectarian minorities - be they non-Wahabbi Sunnis in some cases, or Shia, Ismaili, Ahmadiya, or Sufi, in others - not only through systematic denial of elementary religious rights to these sects, but, as in the case of Pakistan, through state sponsored terrorist movements against such minorities - recall that the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan was set up by General Zia-ul-Haq to target Shias in the wake of the Iranian revolution, and continued to enjoy the support of the state under successor regimes, till it got mixed up with the Al Qaeda and anti-US terrorism, and lost its status as a sarkari (state supported) jihadi organisation.
Many 'Islamic' countries have institutionalised this intolerance, outlawing the public practice of any other Faith, and made the possession of any religious icon, other than Muslim, a punishable offence. Non-Muslim minorities live in abject terror of blasphemy laws in Pakistan, as in many other Muslim countries.
The truth is, the state lies behind much of the Islamist extremism and frenzy that we are witnessing today. To return to the case of the Danish cartoons, there was no 'spontaneous outburst' of popular sentiment; it was only after the Organisation of Islamic Countries decided to whip up emotions around the issue, and states like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia began to incite the rabble through official statements and actions, or statements by religious leaders tied to the regimes there, disseminated through official media, that the violent street protests commenced.
In Pakistan, the protests and the violence have principally been led by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa - the reincarnation of the purportedly 'banned' Lashkar-e-Toiba - which has flourished under state patronage, and that was cast by the Musharraf administration into a 'leadership' role recently in the relief operations after the earthquake that devastated parts of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
But the 'cartoon crisis' is not unique. Even while this controversy was raging across the world, Shia minorities were being attacked by Sunni terrorists in Pakistan; in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, a case was registered against the local chapter of the Bible Society of India for the 'grievous crime' of distributing "gas cylinders, three water bottles, audio cassettes and a copy of the New Testament in Urdu" to earthquake victims in a village in Uri.
In Ladakh, riots were engineered between Muslims and Buddhists because some torn pages of the Quran were recovered, leading to allegations of sacrilege. In the Aligarh Muslim University, a young girl was being threatened with collective rape for daring to protest against a diktat against wearing jeans and a T-shirt. These are only a few current and proximate examples of a remorseless oppression over the decades.
Such thuggeries are, of course, not unique to Islam. There are extremist groups drawing dubious 'inspiration' from other faiths who ape such conduct as well, and Valentines Day this year - as in the past few years - attracted the ire and violence of Hindu extremist hooligans. But these remain - fortunately - aberrations in the larger context of conduct among adherents of other faiths. They have increasingly become the dominant form of public articulation in the Muslim community.
There is an American Indian saying: 'it takes an entire village to raise a single child'. Similarly, it takes a very large community, often entire nations, to raise a single suicide bomber. For far too long, extremist Muslim discourse has been tolerated - to the point of incitement to murder - in the belief that acts of terrorism are distinct from such ideologies of hatred. But it is the wide acceptance within large sections of Muslim communities in many countries of these ideologies of hatred that produce the environment within which groups can mobilise, recruit motivate, train and deploy terrorists and suicide bombers.
Muslim liberals have long advocated 'understanding and tolerance' when dealing with Muslim sensibilities, but have seldom been known to aggressively argue for greater 'understanding and tolerance' for other faiths in 'Islamic' countries, where the record of intolerance towards and oppression of religious minorities is utterly revolting. There is a great 'Muslim exceptionalism' at work here.
The 'Muslim world' demands an absolute freedom without limits, but confers no freedom whatsoever, either on other faiths, or on dissent within its own faith. The 'tolerance' advocated by certain passages in the Quran is only something to parade at inter-faith conferences, and constitutes no part of the practice of most Muslim majority states - no doubt with occasional exceptions.
The demand, today, to impose a selective censorship in Europe on speech that is insulting to Muslims - when similar speech against other faiths enjoys full freedom - is an effort by Muslim minorities to impose, through mass violence and intimidation, their belief systems within the larger systems they have come to inhabit.
Europe would be, not only foolish, but suicidal, if it succumbs to this terrorism and coercion to invent new curbs on the media and on the freedom of speech. The democratic world must remain committed to its enlightenment values and ideals, and to the rough-and-tumble of free discourse in the 'marketplace of ideas'. All communal thuggeries, whatever faith they may claim to 'represent', must be brought to an end, and every available means must be bent to this purpose.
Personally, I think, the more fun we make of our own religions, the better it will be for the whole world, and, indeed, for our respective Faiths. I am immensely proud of being a Sikh, and am confident that no jokes or cartoons can ever undermine the eternal verities of my religion.
Posted by: john ||
02/18/2006
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I am immensely proud of being a Sikh, and am confident that no jokes or cartoons can ever undermine the eternal verities of my religion.
One of the things that have struck me theses last years is how feeble actually is the muslim faith, if one must at all price forbid any criticism of it, any disrepectful comment, any joke on it, anything.
Not only do muslim have to fight for their god, for he has ennemies (who knew God had ennemies???), but it looks like their belief system may come crashing down at the slightest threat. Such sensitive skin!
Since faith is not interiorized, but rather manifested through obsessive ritualistic behavior, superstitions, public affirmation of submission to the collective credo,... I can only conclude they are very, very afraid of being "proven wrong".
The "proof" of islam is its "superiority" (to conquered people from other religion), I wonder how this "proof" stands the test of Reality(tm), since last time i looked, the islamic civilization is the big underachiever, with no prospect of getting any better, quite the contrary (farewell, oil money!)... unless they can conquer Europe soon, of course, and restart the parasitical process the arab Master Race (islam is a vehicle for arab colonialism, always has been) has enjoyed in the course of centuries.
#4
"One of the things that have struck me these last years is how feeble actually is the muslim faith..."
Heh. Any "god" who simply cannot endure disrespect or rejection by us mere mortals is hardly worthy of worship.
And any "god" who occupies his attention with such trivialities as which direction a person faces when he squats to take a shit (i.e., DO NOT face Mecca), or precisely what order various parts of the body are washed in at the end of each day, or any of the other senseless minutae Allah is allegedly so strict about, is not a "god" at all: he's a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive control freak.
Fragile, indeed.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/18/2006 11:56
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I think a lot of people have lost their respect for these drooling rioting fools. I refuse to tolerate their intolerance, as most all RBers refuse. It's time to spread that mem- do not bow before these idiots pretending to be thugs. Incidents here need to be front and center. Don't let the Dhimmis hide.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 12:35
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Since it isn't insults to God that enrage these crew, but insults to Muhammad; can we figure out who is really their god? And if its who I think it is, then this certainly is a feeble faith. . .
Of course not all the Muslims are getting their underwear in a knot about the cartoons. I think there might be some room for a PR campaign offering a distinction between true Muslim and Muhhamadan.
Posted by: James ||
02/18/2006 12:35
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#7
Once had a Morman friend whose I enjoyed talking about differences in our faiths with. Dennis Rodman, american basketball player and attention seeking dufus, made disparaging remarks about mormons. I asked my friend if he was offended and he said " When I was on my mission in Germany I was regularly pelted with stones while I rode my bike. Unless Rodman starts hitting me with rocks, there is not much he can do to shake my faith.
Pretty elegant answer I thought.
The Canadian province of Ontario passed legislation this week banning all forms of religious arbitration in family matters, including Shariah law. According to National Post, religious arbitration including the Muslim legal code has been allowed in Ontario since 1991 and the passage of Bill 27 elicited diverse reaction from religious groups when it was passed.
Im overjoyed, said Tarek Fatah, spokesman for the Muslim Canadian Congress. This is a great victory for all Ontarians because weve finally asserted that there will be one law for all. Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian said the new legislation was a setback for Islamic fundamentalists, who tried to use Canadas multicultural values to advance a set of laws detrimental to womens rights. Laws that cannot be debated in Parliament should never be part of public policy, he said.
A spokesman for the Canadian Jewish Congress said that organisation was extremely disappointed with the legislation. Mark Freyman said the provincial Liberal government failed to consult with it before announcing changes to the system. He said Jewish courts have dealt with an unknown number of divorce and custody cases in the province since 1991. We are not aware of any complaints (over that period,) he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2006
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There is a downside, though. Look up agunah on the net.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/18/2006 9:20
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How is an agunah different from a Catholic woman granted a divorce and not able to re-marry in a Catholic church? Instead of changing arcane and disputable doctrine about divorce, they cynically provide annulments and pretend the marriage, even with children, never existed. Fooey.
The problem here is not either Jewish or Catholic law, it is one of intransigence on the part of Jewish and Catholic leaders trying to retain silly and stupid uncertain edicts with no real foundation, but plenty of precedent, in Talmudic or Canon Law.
Using the excuse "It's not in the Pentatuch," or "It's not in the New Testament,", "but we've been doing it for so long that we don't feel like changing it", is just stupidly cruel.
Islam, of course, is the winner hands down in the stupid, arcane, and unsubstantiated adherence to whimsical additions to their doctrines. Such as interpreting "women should dress and act modestly", as meaning that they have to be covered from head to toe, never go outside without escort, never drive or go to school.
A New Jersey man was sentenced to two years probation on Friday after he pleaded guilty to interfering with pilots of an aircraft by shining a hand-held laser into the cockpit of a private jet. David Banach, 39, had originally blamed the prank on his 7-year-old daughter before pleading guilt to the charge of interference with pilots of a passenger aircraft -- a Patriot Act offense that carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Banach, a married father of three young daughters, aimed a green laser beam at a chartered Cessna jet carrying six passengers from Boca Raton, Fla., to New Jersey's Teterboro Airport on December 29, 2004. The laser flashes distracted the pilot and co-pilot, causing a temporary loss of vision, according to prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said he had not opposed the defense's request for a sentence that did not include prison time. "At no time did we believe that Mr. Banach was involved in terrorism or that he should face a maximum penalty of 20 years in a federal prison," Christie said in a statement. But 19 years? Well...
"Nonetheless, his conduct posed an immediate threat to innocent lives on an aircraft landing at Teterboro Airport."
Two days after the incident, the pilot of the plane joined law enforcement agents in a helicopter to identify the general location of the laser incident. While circling the area, the helicopter was struck with a laser beam similar to the one in the first incident. Agents turned a power spotlight onto the house where the laser beam emanated from and law enforcement officers on the ground moved in on Banach's house.
At first he blamed his daughter but after a lie detector test and further questioning, Banach admitted he had directed the laser at both the helicopter and the plane.
#1
This guy needs to get 20 years. He could have caused the deaths of everyone on the aircraft, as well as a number of people on the ground. We cannot play games with people that do this. Mr. Banach does not have to be a terrorist to cause a disaster by being a dumbsh*t.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2006 1:06
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what about the Detroit incidents? No Islamic influence there huh? This mook should do hard tim eto set the standard
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 2:04
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Someone is finally putting conventional warheads on an ICBM. The U.S. Navy is moving forward on this, after decades of it being talked about in several countries. This is part of a new strategy by the United States to be able to respond within hours to a threat, or opportunity, anywhere on the planet. The navy is taking the three ton warhead of the Trident D-5 SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) and fitting it with non-nuclear weapons. This could be anything from a dozen or so SDBs (250 pound GPS guided smart bombs), to a single bunker busting weapon.
One major design obstacle is the high re-entry speed of the Trident warhead (over 20,000 kilometers an hour). For sub-munitions (like the SDB), you have to get them slowed down enough so their guidance systems can work. Normally, SDBs are dropped from an aircraft traveling at less than a thousand kilometers an hour. For a bunker buster type bomb, you could use the high speed to advantage (in smashing through the roof of the bunker.) In any event, this type of weapon will be expensive. Currently, Trident D-5 SLBMs cost $66 million each. This is brilliant. What was not mentioned is that these missiles are destined for the scrap heap, anyway, as they have been eliminated by treaty. However, if they are *used* before the deadline, that is not a problem. Given, of course, that we notify the other nuclear powers of a launch before the fact, so they don't collectively poop themselves.
#1
When the Russians detect a launch, how much time do their systems take before they know it is not targeted in a first strike capable profile. Will they wait?
#2
...What is making me smile about this is that Jim Dunnigan - who runs StrategyPage - was advocating this 20+ years ago.
One other thought - is it possible that under the treaty, the missiles can be retained if they don't have nuclear warheads? After all, WE play by the rules and would probably be more than willing to let Official Inspectors(TM) have a look.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2006 9:16
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TS8159 -
Russian early warning systems are...adequate. We would almost have to give them some kind of warning, however. A Trident strike against Iran would most likely come out of the IO, and that would look an awful lot like a first strike.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2006 9:18
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Mike:
Under the treaty, the delivery vehicles must be destroyed. The INF treaty of 1987 was the same thing. We couldn't convert the Pershings and cruise missiles to conventional; they had to be crushed.
Ironically, the warheads didn't need to be destroyed.
#10
I would imagine most of the vehicle is destroyed by atmospheric heating, leaving only that portion of the missile protected by a heat shield to engage the target.
Security personnel and Bugti tribesmen exchanged heavy fire on Friday, but no causalities were reported. Kazim Bugti, Dera Bugti nazim, said security personnel started shelling Bugti positions around 11:00am, adding that Bugti tribesmen might have fired back at the security personnel. Reports indicated that tribesmen had fired rockets in the Bekar area, but Kazim Bugti said he did not know about any such incident. He said security personnel and Bugti tribesmen had clashed in the Barzain Wadh area and two security personnel were killed.
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02/18/2006
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Fox News is saying at least 1800 dead, an entire village...
A rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated in an unstoppable wall of mud Friday, burying hundreds of houses and an elementary school in the eastern Philippines. Red Cross officials estimated 200 people were dead and 1,500 others missing. "It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled," survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. "I could not see any house standing anymore."
The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 670 kilometers (420 miles) southeast of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show that the community of some 2,500 people ever existed. Two other villages also were affected, and about 3,000 evacuees were at a municipal hall. "We did not find injured people," said Ricky Estela, a crewman on a helicopter that flew a politician to the scene. "Most of them are dead and beneath the mud."
The mud was so deep, up to 10 meters (30 feet) in some places, and unstable that rescue workers had difficulty approaching the school. Education officials said 200 students, six teachers and the principal were believed to have been there. Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, issued the casualty estimates and made an international appeal for aid. The provincial governor asked for people to dig by hand, saying the mud was too soft for heavy equipment.
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#1
Unfortunately, I think it's none missing, thousands dead. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/18/2006 1:15
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This is a tragedy. It was also inevitable. Spain's hundreds of years of dysfunctional rule (albeit probably no worse than native rule, pre-Spain) did not leave the Philippines equipped for self-rule. Incidents like this have their roots in America's abandonment of the Filipino people to their avaricious and incompetent (but eloquent) native elites in 1946, at which point the Philippines was perhaps the richest country in Southeast Asia, thanks to roughly fifty years of American rule.
Iran is ready to ask its parliament to ratify an accord allowing UN inspectors to resume snap checks of its nuclear facilities on certain conditions, Iran's embassy in Paris said on Friday. The Iranian statement, which came the day after France accused Iran of pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, sketched out a three-stage process to end a standoff with the international community over Iran's nuclear programme. Ratification of the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives the UN nuclear watchdog greater powers to inspect suspected nuclear facilities, has been a key demand made of Tehran by Western nations.
Iran, which began implementing the protocol in 2003, but has never presented it to lawmakers for ratification, stopped applying it this month after the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to report Tehran to the UN Security Council. The embassy statement linked the new offer to the West accepting its use of "modern centrifuges, proposed by some US and British scientists, which permit only limited enrichment. "If such guarantees were accepted, Iran would agree to submit to parliament for ratification the additional protocol," it said.
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#1
They set the terms and we set the coordinates for the nuclear checks.
#2
you wanna step up the pressure? Evacuate all foreigners, embassies or declare their lives null and void if taken as human shields....exciting month or two
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2006 1:54
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Iran is ready to ask its parliament to ratify an accord allowing UN inspectors to resume snap checks of its nuclear facilities on certain conditions, Iran's embassy in Paris said on Friday.
Which nuclear facilities are those? The known ones, or the secret ones?
The British Foreign Office has denied media reports that its diplomats have been encouraged to establish ties with Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood. The New Statesman weekly on Thursday gave details of a leaked 17 January Foreign office memo which recommends forging closer ties with the Brotherhood, the oldest Islamic group in the world, and Egypt's biggest opposition force. A Foreign Office spokesman said Friday the only direct contact his government had was with independent parliament members, without denying that these could include Brotherhood sympathisers. "We are never going to comment on a leaked document," the spokesman said on Friday. "But we do not talk directly to the Muslim Brotherhood."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
not directly, eh? That's about as subtle as a big zit on your date's nose during prom night. Oh, I didn't even see it.
#2
The elected UK government and civil service members and leadership just don't get it. All islamo-fascists are evil. You can't talk with them, deal with them or trust them.
SYDNEY - Jose Ramos Horta, the former Nobel Peace Prize winner and East Timor foreign minister, has ruled himself out as a candidate to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Australian media reported on Saturday. I am not a candidate. I didnt lobby, Australian Associated Press quoted Ramos Horta as saying.
Ramos Horta, who won the Nobel prize with East Timor Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo in 1996, has long experience with the United Nations, which mandated an Australian-led peace enforcement mission into the former Indonesian territory in 1999. Australia sent troops to restore order in September 1999 after Timorese voted for independence from Jakarta. The mission was replaced several months later by a U.N.-led administration.
Annans second five-year term ends on Dec. 31 and U.N tradition calls for a rotation of the post to a certain region. Many countries recognise it is Asias turn.
Ramos Horta did not completely rule out becoming a candidate to take over from Annan. In politics one should not say never. Thats all I can say, he said on the sidelines of a meeting between Indonesian and East Timor leaders in Bali.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, one of the few declared candidates to succeed Annan, said this week he would seek the post. Ban, 61, has been foreign minister since January 2004 and has also served as ambassador to the United Nations. Among other likely candidates are former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2006
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Dhimmi Carter (another Nobel Peace Prize winner) is available for the job. And he's been campaigning for it too!
ISLAMABAD: A delegation of Norwegian Muslims and Christians condemned the publication of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PTUI pbuh), during a discussion hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). The delegation consisted of representatives from the Norwegian Church Aid, Church of Norway and Islamic Council of Norway.
"Look, Maudette! It's the marshmallow people!"
Arne Saeveraas of the Norwegian Church Aid said that Norwegian Christians condemned the blasphemous cartoons and their government had apologised for their publication in the Norwegian newspaper. We felt the same pain as Muslims and our forum has protested this blasphemous act, said Saeveraas. Commenting on harmony between the Norwegian Muslims and Christians, he said, the Norwegians had set an example for the rest of the world to follow.
Senaid Kobilica, the vice president of the Islamic Council of Norway, said that Muslims have complete freedom in Norway and the Church supports them. We have had regular meetings with the Church on the issue of caricatures and together we condemn such blasphemous acts, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A joint mission in Diyala province between U.S. Special Forces and an Iraqi army unit resulted in two suspected insurgents killed and 102 others arrested, U.S. military officials said Thursday. One Iraqi soldier was slightly wounded by small-arms fire during the mission, officials said.
The raids were conducted in two locations chosen because intelligence indicated specific locations of individuals wanted for planning and facilitating insurgent activities, according to a release from the U.S. special operations command in Iraq. The assaults were combined cordon-and-search missions designed to capture key insurgents and to disrupt multiple insurgent cell operations especially improvised explosive device production. Of the 102 people arrested, 25 were on Iraqi most wanted lists, officials said. The special forces command did not delineate how many suspects were arrested at each target site.
During the first raid, officials said, an Iraqi assault team searched a house and was met with heavy small-arms fire. The Iraqi troops fired back, withdrew from the house, then re-entered. One of the Iraqi teams sergeants stayed in the house during the firefight, killing one insurgent and wounding two others before falling back with the rest of his unit, officials said. One of the injured suspects later died. The combined forces also found one rocket, two artillery rounds, five mortar rounds, three rocket-propelled grenades and assorted bomb-making materials.
U.S. officials say Diyala province, in central Iraq, is used by insurgents to regroup, rearm and refit. The Iraqi soldiers on the raid were from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division.
#1
During the first raid, officials said, an Iraqi assault team searched a house and was met with heavy small-arms fire. The Iraqi troops fired back, withdrew from the house, then re-entered. One of the Iraqi teams sergeants stayed in the house during the firefight, killing one insurgent and wounding two others before falling back with the rest of his unit, officials said.
I'd like to know this guy's name and origin, but that would make his family targets. Bravo and good work!
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Friday that his three-day visit to Pakistan was "successful". "I found 'this time' Pakistani leaders sincere and my visit achieved the desired results," he told reporters. Karzai visited Wali Bagh to condole the death of Khan Abdul Wali Khan.
I don't think I'd bet my next paycheck on that, Hamid.
There's a word in the Afghan language for 'sincere'? Who knew?
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
There's a word in the Afghan language for 'sincere'?
It's listed in the dictionary as "Humor."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2006 8:42
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WASHINGTON The United States will allocate $5 million to finance the Syrian opposition, the State Department said yesterday, two days after announcing a similar initiative for the Iranian opposition.
The State Department said in a statement that it will give the money to accelerate the work of reformers in Syria. The money would come from the departments Middle East Partnership Initiative, it said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States wants to strengthen its sanctions against Syria and is trying to convince other nations to follow suit. We intend to use the Syrian Accountability Act and use it to its fullest, the top US diplomat told Congress, referring to a 2003 law that allows the US administration to impose sanctions against Syria. The law, which provides for a series of six diplomatic, economic and financial sanctions, was partially applied in May 2004 by President George W. Bush, but some sanctions have yet to be used.
The Syrian Accountability Act is a very important tool, Rice told the House of Representatives International Relations Committee. Weve used a great deal of it, she recalled.
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The Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, who inspired the terrorists that carried out the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings killing 202 people, will be released on 1 June, says his lawyer, Wirawan Adnan. In an interview with the Australian Associated Press, Adnan said that he fears that the Australian government might put pressure on Indonesian authorities to keep Bashir in jail. Bashir is serving 30 months in jails for his involvement in the bombings. Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the attacks, blame the Jemaah Islamiyah for the bombings and accuse Bashir of being its spiritual head. Bashir has always denied his involvement in the bombings and in August, to commemorate Indonesia's independence day, he had one month cut off his sentence. "By June 1 he will have served his full 29 months so he will be a free man," Adnan said.
Both Australia and the United States have labelled Bashir a dangerous terror threat. After the 2002 bombings, Bashir was arrested and put on trial in 2003. However the terrorism charges were eventually thrown out and he was instead charged on immigration violations. When he had finished serving that sentence, fresh evidence was produced and he was rearrested and sentenced last year for his involvement in the Bali bombings.
In the interview, Adnan said that the Indonesian government should not attempt to try the same tactics again just before Bashir's release and that the Australian government also should not put pressure on Jakarta to keep him in jail. "Trying to keep him locked up would be ridiculous," the lawyer said adding that it would only make Australia look "foolish" in the eyes of most Indonesians.
Adnan said that his client had told him that "he will forgive the Indonesian government and the Australian government for doing this to him. He will not try to sue the government or anything. He just accepts this is coming from God as part of his struggle. I have faith in him that he is harmless."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
He should be shot dead the day he walks the street a free man. He has not paid his huge moral debt to the world at large. His freedom is our peril.
Police on Friday arrested hundreds of activists of opposition parties and religious organisations, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Khwaja Saad Rafique, as protests against caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PTUI peace be upon him) continued throughout the country. MNA Rafique and his partys Punjab secretary general Zaim Qadri were arrested by plainclothes policemen in a restaurant in Blue Area when both were having lunch after participating in a rally, PML-N officials said. However, police authorities denied the arrest. I didnt send any cops to arrest Saad Rafique, Rawalpindi District Police Officer Saud Aziz told Daily Times.
The PML-N officials said both were arrested on charges of instigating a mob during a violent rally in Lahore on February 14. Islamabad SSP Sikander Hayat also denied the arrests, saying he had not been contacted by Rawalpindi Police for assistance to arrest a member of the National Assembly. Sources said about 300 senior workers of the ARD and MMA had been arrested in Lahore alone in the last 24 hours. They said several hundreds were arrested in other Punjab cities and police were still raiding locations to arrest people allegedly involved in instigating the protesters in Lahore.
Jamaat ud-Daawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was detained at his house. Hafiz Saeed has been detained at his Johar Town residence and a heavy contingent of police has surrounded his house and is not allowing him to come out even for the Friday sermon, Jamaatu Daawa Information Secretary Habibullah Salfi told Daily Times. He said Saeed was due to address a conference in Faisalabad. Jamiat Mushaikh Pakistan President Pir Fazale Haq has also been arrested.
PPP Punjab spokesman Naveed Chaudhry claimed that more than 600 workers of his party had been arrested in Lahore, Faisalabad and other cities. He warned of a massive protest against the government if opposition workers were not released in 24 hours. Protests continued on Friday throughout the country. About 44 protesters, including a union council nazim, were held in Sheikhupura for looting, aerial firing and damaging public and private property during a protest. Police tear-gassed and baton charged thousands of protesters in Kasur. In Karachi, police arrested 70 after firing tear gas to disperse about 2,000 people who had blocked the Super Highway. About 7,000 people protested in Rawalpindi. Police detained about 35 members of the Shabab-e-Milli who tried to stage a violent rally in Multan. About 1,000 demonstrated in Peshawar and thousands gathered in Quetta in a peaceful rally.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Six Congolese soldiers have died of hunger in an army training camp that ran out of food in the east of the country, UN and government officials say.
Tell me again why they're better off now than when they were a colony...
No pygmies about?
The camp, located in Kamina in southeastern Katanga province, houses ex-militiamen and former rebel fighters now being retrained to serve in a unified army. Defence Ministry spokesman Delion Kimbu said at least a thousand soldiers arrived at the training camp this week to find insufficient food rations there. "Many soldiers had walked large distances to reach Kamina, they were fatigued and hungry," Kimbu said, adding that the dead soldiers had once belonged to traditional Mayi-Mayi militia units once active in the region during a 1998-2002 war that drew in the armies of half a dozen African nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Protests in Pakistan have been large and violent and many have taken on a distinctly anti-US tone. Demonstrators, in addition to burning Danish flags, have attacked US fast-food outlets and burned US President George W. Bush in effigy. Islamist parties have called for a nationwide strike on March 3, around the time President George W. Bush is expected to visit Pakistan, despite the unrest. 
Chirac was more blunt. "I am appalled by what happened as a result of the publications of these cartoons," Chirac told India Today news magazine which published an interview with him on Friday. "I am, of course, in favor of the freedom of the press, which is a pillar of democracy. But I am equally for respecting everyone's sensibilities... So I deplore the situation," said Chirac, who visits India next week. 
GALLUP Someone shattered The Independent's glass entrance doors late Wednesday. At about 10 p.m., an unknown individual threw a pair of fist-sized rocks at the doors, which caused the glass to shatter but not break. The rocks were covered in black marker with the phrases "public apology or else?" "think twice" and "repent, condemn or else?" 
So far, the violent riots that have erupted throughout the Muslim world over the Mohammed cartoons have not been repeated here in the U.S. 
A Yuma Border Patrol agent fired a shot at a group of illegal aliens near the Colorado River Friday morning after being struck in the face by a rock thrown by one of the aliens.
In 1970, a bizarre gardening accident embedded a small nail deep inside Guy "Bud" Hart's body. More than 35 years later, the nail made an unexpected return, much to Hart's surprise.
Eleven people were killed and an Italian consulate was burned in Libya on Friday night during protests to denounce the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, sources in Libya said. There also was a "high number" of injuries, said an official with the Italian Embassy in Tripoli.
A Nigerian militant commander in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta has told the BBC his group is declaring "total war" on all foreign oil interests. The 
A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers offered rewards amounting to more than $1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide.
One of the wealthiest bankers in Iraq has been kidnapped during an audacious raid that left his five bodyguards dead, murdered by single gunshots to the head in the garden of a rented villa in western Baghdad. 
Denmark temporarily shut its embassy in Islamabad and Pakistan recalled its envoy from Copenhagen on Friday, as violent protests against caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) sparked a diplomatic row. Copenhagen said its embassy staff would remain in Pakistan, but not in the embassy and denied that diplomatic ties were affected. We decided on Friday to shut our embassy for security reasons, because we believe it is not responsible to keep it open at the moment, Lars Thuesen, head of the Danish Foreign Ministrys crisis centre, said. Diplomatic relations have not been severed.
The supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and All Pakistan Islamic Students Federation (APISF) almost came to blows on Friday when APISF supporters started chanting sectarian slogans at a rally held to condemn the publication of blasphemous caricatures in various Western newspapers. 
The Iranian government is a "central banker" for global terrorism and working with Syria to destablise the Middle East, the US Secretary of State has said. Speaking in testimony to the US Senate on Thursday, Condoleeza Rice signaled the US intention to step up the diplomatic offensive against Iran, saying the threat it posed went beyond its controversial nuclear programme. "It's not just Iran's nuclear programme but also their support for terrorism around the world. They are, in effect, the central banker for terrorism," she told the Senate Budget Committee. 
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian parliament will be sworn in on Saturday with Hamas as its majority bloc, paving the way for the Islamist group to form a cabinet despite calls by major world powers to boycott it. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Hamas, whose charter calls for Israels destruction, to ensure its government recognise interim peace negotiations with Israel and aim to halt violence, Palestinian officials said.
Pakistan wants to act as a trade corridor for Chinese exports to the rest of the world and is also interested in setting up an energy corridor for China, if it is technically feasible, said President Pervez Musharraf. Speaking to a group of Chinese journalists, he said China was helping Pakistan with several development projects that were integral for the country's progress. The development projects would sustain economic activity in the country, alleviate poverty, end unemployment and help fight extremism, he said. He said Pakistan would be extremely happy if the Chinese came into the country for joint ventures, trade and investment.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Friday vowed to continue the Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat movement till the government's ouster and said that religious organisations would take out a peaceful Shan-e-Mustafa rally on February 19. Delivering Friday sermon at Mansoorah, Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the religious parties did not want to create a law and order situation but warned that the government would be responsible for any such situation if it tried to sabotage the Shan-e-Mustafa rally. The JI leader condemned the arrest and detention of religious workers and common people taking part in rallies.
The White House has rejected a call from the United Nations for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, insisting detainees held there are "dangerous terrorists". A 54-page report published on Thursday detailed the findings of five UN experts who had sought to interview detainees at the detention centre but were refused by American authorities. It recommended the US "close down the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
WANA: At least six Punjab regiment soldiers were injured on Friday when their vehicle hit a landmine in Tanai, near Wana. The vehicle was part of a convoy of 20, headed to Jandola from Wana. Two critically-injured soldiers were taken to Peshawar by helicopter, sources said. Meanwhile, another landmine explosion damaged an army vehicle near the border town of Angoor Ada. However, no one was hurt in the blast.
A team of experts has located the ferry that sank this month in the Red Sea, killing about 1,000 people, a Transportation Ministry spokesman said on Friday. Mohammed Amin said the team, which includes experts from France and Britain, found the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 on Thursday about 56 miles from the Egyptian port of Safaga at a depth of about 800 meters (2,625 feet). The team will use a robot in an attempt to recover the data recorder, equivalent to the black box on an airplane, that could explain what caused the tragedy, Amin said.
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to wait until after Hamas assumes control of the Palestinian parliament to decide on new measures aimed at weakening the militant group, officials said on Friday. Olmert had been poised to announce tougher restrictions on the Palestinians, including a travel ban and a freeze on funding, ahead of Saturday's swearing-in of a Hamas-led parliament. 
Afghan television broadcast Friday what it said was exclusive footage of men murdered, some of them beheaded, in Pakistan because they were against the extremist Taliban and Al Qaeda movements. The images broadcast on the evening news bulletin of private Tolo television station showed the decapitated heads of three men being held up in front of a crowd of onlookers. They also showed several bodies being dragged behind a pick-up truck.
Two US Marine Corps helicopters on a night time training mission have crashed into the waters of the Gulf of Aden, leaving two crew members injured and 10 others missing. The CH-53 helicopters went down around 5.30pm local time on Friday in the waters near Ras Siyuan in northern Djibouti, a US military statement said. "There were a total of 12 crew members aboard at the time of the crash," the statement said. "Djiboutian military members near the impact site responded immediately and were able to rescue two injured crew members," it said.
The Canadian province of Ontario passed legislation this week banning all forms of religious arbitration in family matters, including Shariah law. According to National Post, religious arbitration including the Muslim legal code has been allowed in Ontario since 1991 and the passage of Bill 27 elicited diverse reaction from religious groups when it was passed. 
Security personnel and Bugti tribesmen exchanged heavy fire on Friday, but no causalities were reported. Kazim Bugti, Dera Bugti nazim, said security personnel started shelling Bugti positions around 11:00am, adding that Bugti tribesmen might have fired back at the security personnel. Reports indicated that tribesmen had fired rockets in the Bekar area, but Kazim Bugti said he did not know about any such incident. He said security personnel and Bugti tribesmen had clashed in the Barzain Wadh area and two security personnel were killed.
Iran is ready to ask its parliament to ratify an accord allowing UN inspectors to resume snap checks of its nuclear facilities on certain conditions, Iran's embassy in Paris said on Friday. The Iranian statement, which came the day after France accused Iran of pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, sketched out a three-stage process to end a standoff with the international community over Iran's nuclear programme. Ratification of the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives the UN nuclear watchdog greater powers to inspect suspected nuclear facilities, has been a key demand made of Tehran by Western nations. 
The British Foreign Office has denied media reports that its diplomats have been encouraged to establish ties with Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood. The New Statesman weekly on Thursday gave details of a leaked 17 January Foreign office memo which recommends forging closer ties with the Brotherhood, the oldest Islamic group in the world, and Egypt's biggest opposition force. A Foreign Office spokesman said Friday the only direct contact his government had was with independent parliament members, without denying that these could include Brotherhood sympathisers. "We are never going to comment on a leaked document," the spokesman said on Friday. "But we do not talk directly to the Muslim Brotherhood."
SYDNEY - Jose Ramos Horta, the former Nobel Peace Prize winner and East Timor foreign minister, has ruled himself out as a candidate to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Australian media reported on Saturday. I am not a candidate. I didnt lobby, Australian Associated Press quoted Ramos Horta as saying.
ISLAMABAD: A delegation of Norwegian Muslims and Christians condemned the publication of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (
A joint mission in Diyala province between U.S. Special Forces and an Iraqi army unit resulted in two suspected insurgents killed and 102 others arrested, U.S. military officials said Thursday. One Iraqi soldier was slightly wounded by small-arms fire during the mission, officials said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Friday that his three-day visit to Pakistan was "successful". "I found 'this time' Pakistani leaders sincere and my visit achieved the desired results," he told reporters. Karzai visited Wali Bagh to condole the death of Khan Abdul Wali Khan. 
The Indonesian cleric, 
Police on Friday arrested hundreds of activists of opposition parties and religious organisations, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Khwaja Saad Rafique, as protests against caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (
