BETHPAGE, N.Y., Feb. 21, 2006 -- Representatives from Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and the U.S. Navy gave detailed technical briefings in December about the Hawkeye 2000 battle management and airborne early warning system to officials of the Indian Navy.
The Indian Navy is interested in the export configuration of the Northrop Grumman Hawkeye 2000 as a possible solution for its requirement for an airborne early warning aircraft with extensive surveillance and command-and-control capabilities. The aircraft would be used to patrol India's coastline and support deployments of the Indian fleet.
"The more we talk to India's military leadership, the more we understand the complexity of their airborne early warning requirement and the importance they place on a system that can meet those mission requirements on a continuous basis," said Tim Farrell, vice president and integrated product team leader for airborne early warning programs at Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. "The more we learn about the Indian Navy's requirements, the more we feel confident that no system being offered worldwide can more consistently and reliably meet and exceed those mission parameters, than the E-2C Hawkeye 2000."
The Hawkeye 2000, now in production for the U.S. Navy, is the most advanced airborne early warning and command-and-control system in the world. According to Farrell, while all systems under consideration by the Indian military have sensor capability, only the Hawkeye has proven itself with the U.S. and six other nations as a command-and-control asset that is interoperable with the U.S. Navy. One third of the world's Hawkeye aircraft flying peacetime and wartime missions are operated by nations other than the United States.
"Hawkeye is more than a system that watches the skies," Farrell said. "It fuses data from onboard and off-board sensors from the air, sea surface and littorals to give decision-makers in the aircraft and around the network a single, comprehensive picture of what is occurring.
"Such capabilities enable Hawkeyes to take over management of air and surface rescue operations during a natural disaster, or be immediately able to serve as an airborne command post in threats to homeland security," said Farrell. "Our customers understand its power and are continually finding new ways to use the Hawkeye."
Northrop Grumman and U.S. Navy representatives expect to have additional meetings with the Indian Navy in the coming weeks and months. Northrop Grumman is also continuing discussions with several Indian defense companies about ways in which they can participate in the Hawkeye program, both for U.S. and international customers.
Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems is a premier aerospace and defense systems integration organization. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., it designs, develops, produces and supports network-enabled integrated systems and subsystems optimized for use on networks. For its government and civil customers worldwide, Integrated Systems delivers best-value solutions, products and services that support military and homeland defense missions in the areas of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; space access; battle management command and control; and integrated strike warfare.
Posted by: john ||
02/20/2006
21:27 ||
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United States and Europe threatened to freeze funding for a Hamas-led government.
Brotherhood spokesperson Issam al-Aryan said: "Supporting Hamas is the responsibility of all the peoples of the free world and Arab world and not just the Muslim Brothers because it means supporting the democratic choice of the Palestinian people."
Aryan's comment came just a day after Israel decided to freeze the monthly transfer of millions of dollars in customs duties owed to the Palestinian authority, which amounted to a staggering one-third of the cash-strapped government's budget. He said that contributions were already being collected through "relief committees all over the world and through the Egyptian Red Crescent and the Arab League".
But popular support in itself, "is not enough and governments must shoulder their responsibilities," said Aryan, as Arab League ministers met in Algeria to discuss granting the Palestinian Authority monthly aid of $50m. Here is a nifty link for Hamas contributions.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
#1
I would imagine Aryan is a good name to have in the muslim brotherhood. Stoopid F*&ks don't even get the contempt their kind was held by the original 30's-40's namesakes
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:06
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Former French mercenary Bob Denard has been cleared of assassinating the president of the Comoros Islands. One of 70-year-old Mr Denard's top lieutenants, Dominique Malacrino, was also acquitted of the assassination of President Ahmed Abdallah during what appeared to be a coup staged by the army in 1989.
A number of Comorans in the court protested at the verdict with shouts of "Bob Denard assassin!" while Mr Denard's friends and family cheered the verdict at the Paris trial.
Mr Denard and Mr Malacrino were accused of assassinating President Abdallah in the presidential palace in Moroni, capital of the Indian Ocean nation. Mr Denard was instrumental in restoring President Abdallah to power in a coup in 1978 after he had been deposed in a coup following the country's independence from France in 1975.
For 10 years he headed the 500-strong presidential guard and had enormous influence and flourishing business interests.
President Abdallah was killed during a third coup in 1989, because - the prosecution alleged - he was about to remove Mr Denard as head of the presidential guard. Mr Denard, who headed the powerful presidential guard at the time, admitted to being with the president when he was shot dead, but claims he did not pull the trigger. According to Mr Denard, President Abdallah's bodyguard, Abdallah Jaffar, burst into the room and fired at him, but the bullets accidentally hit the president. Mr Jaffar was in turn shot dead by Mr Denard.
Mr Denard said he was a close friend of President Abdallah. "I was a soldier. I was never a killer," he told the court in a final plea on Wednesday.
Mr Denard's lawyer, Jean-Marc Varaut, said: "He is a dog man of war. He is not a killer. This act is unlike him. This crime cannot be his."
The trial drew out another side of father-of-eight Mr Denard, who sobbed in court after being described by Marie-Elise, the most recent of his seven wives or companions, as "a protector and a good family man".
A third accused, Jean-Paul "Captain Siam" Guerrier, failed to surrender for the trial.
Since 1961, Mr Denard, whose real name is Gilbert Bourgeaud, has led uprisings in the Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Angola and Yemen. He fled to South Africa shortly after the president's death, but six years later he led a mercenary invasion force to overthrow the then President, Mohamed Said Djohar. He was then arrested by a French expeditionary force, and spent 10 months in a Paris jail.
EFL. I wanted the Dancing Girls, but couldn't find which file it is.
You want it, you got it.
Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus early Monday shot and killed Islamic Jihad's top commander in the region, the militant group said.
Lt. Col. Benjamin Shick, an Israeli commander, said his forces caught a group of militants, including Ahmed Abu Sharik, 30, off guard on the second day of a raid in Nablus. "We found a group of people we have been seeking for a while and we went for them," he said. "We know every street and alley, where they are and where they hide."
Military officials said Abu Sharik had been involved in numerous attacks on Israeli soldiers, and he helped plan a recent suicide attack in Tel Aviv. The army also arrested 15 militants overnight throughout the West Bank.
#1
The entire Muslim world is outraged by this crime. We demand the UN revoke the existence of Israel or Allan will be very angry, and we will rocket Zionist kindergartens!
Officer records are reviewed by promotion boards. Those selected for promotion go on an ordered list, which is made public. They are actually promoted as slots come available.
As soon as my transfer to PayPal goes through, I'll have to send the IDF some celebratory pizza. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 21:46
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#10
Sharik sleeps with the Sharks, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 22:06
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#11
Nice shooting, IDF.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/20/2006 22:19
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#12
so I'm trying to follow. does this mean they declare death to denmark, burn the estonian flag and rampage against the lithuanian embassy?
Only on the fourth Wednesday of a month containing more than two new moons. Otherwise, one inverts the order with Sharon being burnt in effigy after chanting of death to Norway preceded by a rampage against the Andoran embassy, but only if it is before tea time during a month ending in "R". If any of the exceptions still apply you must refer to Hoyle's rules of Fizzbin for clarification of whether the situation demands playing a shralk or the finesse of a kronk.
In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun.
This means high electricity bills and frequent power failures could soon be a thing of the past.
The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies.
The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house.
The new technology should be available in South Africa within a year and through a special converter, energy can be fed directly into the wiring of existing houses. New powerful storage units will allow energy storage to meet demands even in winter. The panels are so efficient they can operate through a Cape Town winter. while direct sunlight is ideal for high-energy generation, other daytime light also generates energy via the panels.
A team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) scientist Professor Vivian Alberts achieved the breakthrough after 10 years of research. The South African technology has now been patented across the world.
One of the world leaders in solar energy, German company IFE Solar Systems, has invested more than R500-million in the South African invention and is set to manufacture 500,000 of the panels before the end of the year at a new plant in Germany.
Production will start next month and the factory will run 24 hours a day, producing more than 1,000 panels a day to meet expected demand.
Another large German solar company is negotiating with the South African inventors for rights to the technology, while a South African consortium of businesses are keen to build local factories.
The new, highly efficient and cheap alloy solar panel is much more efficient than the costly old silicone solar panels.
International experts have admitted that nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the South African invention.
The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications.
Alberts said the new panels are approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) while the older silicon panels are 350 microns thick. the cost of the South African technology is a fraction of the less effective silicone solar panels.
Alberts said in Switzerland it was already compulsory for all new houses to include solar technology to lessen energy demands on national grids.
"And that was the older, less effective technology. With our hours of sunlight, we will on average generate twice as much energy than, for instance, European countries."
While South African scientists developed and patented the new, super-effective alloy solar panels, other companies have developed new, super-efficient storage batteries and special converters to change the energy into the power source of a particular country (220 volts in South Africa).
#1
From a more technical site, the big innovation here was that the SAs have figured out how to make panels cheaply. It works out to about $85 for a 50-Watt panel.
#6
for now. Kojo Annan just began work for Sol, inc. and do they have a UN proposal for you!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 20:26
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#7
A promising development to be sure, but I must warn you that university professors have a tendency to overstate the commercial values and timetables for new developments. When the German manugacturing engineers speak just as glowingly, I'll be convinced.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:34
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#11
#10 Frank - we do, don't we?
Ain't Rantburg grand? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 22:14
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#12
I try, Barbara...it's retaining that new info that I have problems with..... :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 22:21
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#13
A few things here seem to be left out.
1. How do you enplace such thin panels without breaking them.
2. How does such a thin panel perform over time.
3. For that matter, it seems the panels are so thin that the wires that would have to go through it would stress the material just by the normal expansion and compression during diurnal heating and cooling.
If you produce stuff cheaply that can't be installed cheaply and won't function for more than a few months under normal stress, its really not much of a breakthrough.
A U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq today, and coalition and Iraqi forces detained 42 suspected terrorists and discovered weapons caches, officials in Iraq reported today.
The soldier was killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb while conducting a combat patrol southeast of Karbala.
The soldier's name is being withheld until the family is notified. This incident is under investigation.
Elsewhere in Iraq, coalition and Iraqi forces detained 42 suspected terrorists and seized several weapons caches in operations during the last two days.
Iraqi security and coalition forces successfully identified and removed three roadside bombs, uncovered two weapons caches and detained three suspects in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division's area of operations, officials said.
The caches consisted of hand grenades, grenade fuses, rocket-propelled grenades, RPG propellers, 7.62 mm rounds, two AK-47 assault rifles, AK-47 magazines, 7.62 mm AK-47 rounds, 7.62 mm NATO rounds, a Iraqi protective mask, a bolt action rifle, 100 mm rounds and a 130 mm round.
Elements of 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, working with 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, both of 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, identified three roadside bombs near Iskandariyah while conducting combat patrols in the area.
Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, disrupted a terrorist staging area yesterday morning southwest of Baghdad.
The soldiers, acting on intelligence that the insurgent cell had been stocking munitions and weapons to prepare for future attacks, air assaulted into the village of Owesat under the cover of darkness.
More than 39 detainees were seized, including five suspects considered to be high-value targets.
Be interesting to learn who they got.
The soldiers also found several caches in and around the village containing 155 mm artillery rounds, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, RPG rounds, hand grenades, blasting caps, rolls of detonation cord, a mortar, a heavy machinegun, explosive powder and several hundred rounds of machinegun rounds.
"This was a well-planned and -executed mission," said Army Col. Jeffrey Snow, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, and the air assault commander for the mission. "We believe, as a result (of the mission), we have thwarted a significant attack that the insurgents had been preparing for."
The success of the mission reinforces the importance of people coming forward and reporting insurgent activity, Snow said. The regular use of the word "suspects" instead of "terrorists" or "insurgents" denotes the migration of the Iraq conflict from a military to criminal action. This is a good thing, though it seems to be calling a spade something other than a spade.
#1
Two days ago DOD announced that during an operation in a rural area approximately 30 miles northeast of Ramadi Feb. 11, a document was discovered that identified plans to attack and kill Al-Nimr tribal members.
Today we learn "More than 39 detainees were seized, including five suspects considered to be high-value targets." Right on time.
Keep up the good work.
Interesting emphasis on foreign oil. A subtle boxing in of Congress, I think, over ANWR etc.
The United States must reduce its dependence on oil from foreign countries that can hold it hostage, President George W. Bush said on Monday as he tried to revive an agenda obscured by controversy over Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident.
"Some of the nations we rely on for oil have unstable governments or fundamental differences with the United States," Bush said in a speech at the start a two-day swing through Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado.
blinding glimpse of the obvious, but Congress acts as if they're blind to it
"These countries know we need their oil and that reduces influence. It creates a national security issue when we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us," he added, without naming the countries.
Drawn-out publicity over Cheney's accidental shooting of a quail-hunting partner during a trip to Texas cost Bush valuable time last week in trying to push his agenda. His efforts to promote health care proposals were drowned out by the focus on Cheney, who delayed commenting publicly for four days.
Disputes over a domestic eavesdropping program and the response to Hurricane Katrina have also thrown Bush's administration off stride.
Bush toured a Johnson Controls Inc. battery development center and looked at two hybrid SUVs before making a speech at company headquarters in Milwaukee.
Bush said he envisioned a future in which a plug-in hybrid car could drive 40 miles on a lithium-ion battery, then stop at a filling station for ethanol, a fuel usually made from corn.
"We're close to having this vision realized in America," Bush said. The trip could be conducted without consuming a drop of oil, he said.
Bush in his State of the Union address last month said the United States must break an addiction to Middle East oil. He has called for improving alternative-fuel technology to reduce U.S. oil imports from the region by 75 percent by 2025.
He has promoted alternative fuels such as ethanol, and research into producing fuel from wood chips or grasses.
Frank Verrastro, director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last week he did not understand why Bush was singling out the Middle East when Saudi Arabia was a reliable oil supplier, compared with Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria.
Bush, a former oilman, said "I know it came as a shock to some to hear a Texan stand up there in front of the country and say, 'We got a real problem. America is addicted to oil.' But I meant it because it's a true fact and we've got to do something about it now."
"Less than half the crude oil used in our refineries is produced here at home. Sixty percent comes from foreign countries," he said.
High gasoline prices have weighed on Bush's popularity as the midterm election year gets under way with control of Congress up for grabs.
Government figures show the national average price for regular unleaded gasoline last week was $2.28 per gallon, up about 39 cents from a year ago. That was down from the all-time high of $3.07 a gallon set in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina disrupted Gulf Coast refineries.
Bush reiterated his call for building more U.S. nuclear power plants as an energy alternative to expensive natural gas. "I think it makes sense to do so," he said.
What's needed is a widespread public awareness of the costs involved in our current dependency on foreign oil. That will give political cover to the smart politicians and undercut those who oppose doing anything real to end that dependency, such as drilling more here or building nuclear power plants.
That's why it caught my eye to have Bush making the clear connection between dependence on foreign oil and our economic vulnerability to nuts like the MMs.
#4
This administration needs to have a realistic and specific as possible energy plan. They need to show the sources as they exist and where the new ones will come from. I see some bar graphs, pie charts, simple and direct communications to the public. Straight forward stuff so the average american can see what the real story is without people in congress and enviro-nuts laying a big emotional handwaving trip (shuck and jive act) on us. There are too many people on both sides of the fence that have vested interests in their sources or proposed sources.
We need to know:
1. Our present energy demand by sector.
2. Present sources of energy by type and location.
3. What will we need in the next decade, 20 years, 50 years.
4. Possible sources and locations of sources.
5. What we can really expect from conservation.
I see something like Ross Perot presentations of simple charts and graphs, with simple explanations.
Someone has to lead the way, and it won't be congress. They are hopeless. Whoever does it, it must be done.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 22:43
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I've been saying for a week or more that the protests in Pakistan are aimed at bringing down Musharraf
The leader of Pakistan's main Islamic alliance has said there will no let up in protests against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leader of six-party MMA, made the comments after being released from house arrest. In a separate incident 23 people were arrested after two churches were burned down by a mob.
The cartoons, first published in Denmark in September, have angered Muslims across the world. Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of Allah or the Prophet.
not so WRT Mohammed, BBC dhimmis (ptui be upon you)
Several people have died in protests, including five in Pakistan.
Qazi Hussain said his group will carry out a series of rallies in the run-up to US President George W Bush's visit to Pakistan next month.
"Our protests will continue. The European countries should realise the sentiments of Muslims. They should apologise to the Muslim world," another senior MMA leader, Liaqat Baluch, is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
Qazi Hussain also called for a nationwide strike on Friday and said his campaign was also aimed at President Pervez Musharraf for his "pro-western policies".
well, it's overt now isn't it
On Monday, protests took place in more than a dozen Pakistan towns and cities. In another incident, police in the city of Sukkur in the southern province of Sindh, police arrested 23 people after two churches were burned down by a mob apparently enraged by reports that a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, had been desecrated.
Troops were called in to assist the police in restoring order after the incident which took place on Sunday.
"We have asked religious leaders to keep people under control and exercise tolerance," Sindh Inspector General of Police Jahangir Mirza told the BBC.
Correspondents say the protests led by Islamist opposition groups in Pakistan against the cartoons have recently broadened into an attack on President Musharraf.
Took you long enough to figure this out. But then BBC correspondents aren't known for being all that smart on these sorts of things.
Gen Musharraf has condemned the cartoons, which include one portraying the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
#2
While the Pakistanis are burning their country to the ground because of those cartoons, India is slowly becoming World's third-largest economy. Next time those two countries go to war, this is what could happen...
Posted by: Sonia Belle ||
02/20/2006 17:05
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#3
Ummmm, I think I'll be going back to Sonia's blog a lot ... for the articles.
In December, Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors (Akron, OH) received a contract to build a prototype of the High Altitude Airship (HAA) that has been in the planning stages for several years. The $149.2-million award by the US Missile Defense Agency marks the beginning of the program's third phase, which is to culminate in the prototypes delivery and flight in 2009.
The unmanned, near-space (planned operational altitude of 60,000-70,000 feet) HAA is intended to be part of the US domestic anti-missile and anti-air defense structure, filling the altitude gap between airplanes and satellites. Employing both advanced fuel cell and solar power array technology to produce power, it will also be able to provide enhanced weather and high-altitude imagery information to a variety of users. Its potential use in telecommunications as sort of a very low altitude satellite is almost unlimited.
At altitude, the HAA would command a view of an area nearly 600 miles in diameter. According to the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, HAA is to have an endurance of one month at 65,000 feet, carry a payload of at least 500 pounds, provide at least 3 Kw of continuous power, have a cruise speed of 25 knots, and station-keeping accuracy of less than 2 kilometers 50% of the time and less than 150 kilometers 95% of the time.
In September, 2003, the Missile Defense Agency had awarded Lockheed Martin a $40-million design and risk- reduction contract at the beginning of Phase 2 of the HAA development. The prototype design concept at the time was larger than what is now being built, 500 feet long and with a volume of 5.2 million cubic feet vs. the current prototype size of 400 feet in length and a volume of 3.7 million cubic feet.
Lockheed Martin had previously received one of three $2 M contracts from the MDA for HAA Phase 1, which was to develop an airship that could stay aloft for 30 days while providing 10 KW of power to a 4,000-pound payload. Once built, it was to demonstrate launch and recovery, station-keeping, and flight-control capabilities with different mission payloads. Phase 2 was conducted by Lockheed Martin and concluded with the Critical Design review in late 2004. It included fabric and propulsion testing, hull design, and manufacturing procedures testing.
According to Katharine Dunlap, spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin Communications & Public Affairs, the final step in Phase 2 was the construction and successful testing of a 12,000 cubic foot volume aerostat. During Phase 2, over 40 fabrics were designed, produced, and tested to determine the airships best skin. An airship being lighter than air and containing buoyant gas must be both light enough and strong enough to fly in a variety of weather conditions.
In addition to fabrics, the propulsion, power, pressurization, and envelope components have been designed and tested, and are ready for prototype build. Subcontracting for the program is StratCom International LLC (Keedysville, MD).
Dunlap noted that the City of Akron, The Summit County Port Authority, and the State of Ohio are active supporters of the program to rebuild and update the Airdock, a historical building built in 1929 and measuring 1,175 feet long, 325 feet wide, and 211 feet high. Last used to assemble the US Navys ill-fated airships of the 1930s, it has been a long time since it was involved with any vehicle of this size.
Lockheed Martin is now acquiring subsystem elements which are being staged in the Airdock for assembly into the prototype. The hardware and the airships envelope are under construction, with first inflation set for mid-2007 and first testing in 2009. Under the current contract, said Dunlap, one HAA prototype will be built.
After Phase 3 testing has been completed, the Missile Defense Agency has the option to conduct an Extended User Evaluation Period Phase 4 for up to a year to continue its evaluation of the HAA as a military vehicle. The price tag for the HAA program has not yet been established.
While DOD has not yet indicated the total potential number of airships it will want, The North American Aerospace Defense Command has projected that 10-11 airships could provide surveillance coverage of the continental US coastlines and southern border. Lockheed Martins expectation is that a fleet of 10 to 15 would represent an initial production quantity, according to Dunlap. Coastline I can understand, but southern border? You would think it would be more useful at forward deployed locations in SE Asia or the Middle East.
#3
Voice Over: Meanwhile for Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the year 1908 was a year of triumph. Cut to interior of a zeppelin. A party. Expensively dressed guests. Champagne. A palm court orchestra playing. Some guests looking out of the windows in wonderment. Von Bülow: (approaching Zeppelin) Herr Zeppelin - it's wonderful! It's put ballooning right back on the map. Zeppelin goes instantly berserk with anger. Zeppelin: It's not a balloon! D'you hear?... It's not a balloon ... It's an airship ... an airship ... d'you hear? He hits him very hard on the top of the head with the underside of his fist. Von Bülow Well, it's very nice anyway. Tirpitz: (to Zeppelin) Tell me, what is the principle of these balloons? Zeppelin: It's not a balloon! You stupid little thick-headed Saxon git! It's not a balloon! Balloons is for kiddy-winkies. If you want to play with balloons, get outside. Drags Tirpitz over to the door, opens it and flings him out into the clouds. Tirpitz: Aaaaaaaaaghhh!
#5
Eventually CONUS will become CORSICA/CORSICANT lite. The airships in LR will ultimately be impervious to anything except a direct hit by suicide airliner/spaceplane or ICBM warhead(s).
It was a simple plaque, the sort handed out every day on Capitol Hill by interest groups showing their appreciation for a legislator's efforts on behalf of their cause.
In this case, it was the Military Order of the Purple Heart organization that presented an award to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., last Thursday.
The nonprofit group honored Clinton for her stewardship of measures calling for a commemorative Purple Heart postage stamp and the establishment of Aug. 7 as Purple Heart Recognition Day, as well as her advocacy for veterans' health care.
But a story on the conservative media outlet NewsMax.com left the impression among some readers that Clinton had been awarded a Purple Heart medal itself by the group.
While the article described her award as "symbolic," its opening sentence implied otherwise. "New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has put in for a Purple Heart award _ and she received the decoration yesterday," the Friday story said.
Angry veterans erupted in protest.
No fans of Clinton to begin with, the upset vets pilloried the Purple Heart group, which is made up of recipients of the military's heart-shaped award to those wounded or killed in combat.
"Of all people, is Jane Fonda next?" retired Marine John Cooney of Jacksonville, N.C., wrote via e-mail to the Purple Heart group after the NewsMax.com story appeared.
Others were outraged that a sacred decoration would be bestowed on someone who sacrificed no blood in war.
"What's next, a Purple Heart for (Texas lawyer) Harry Whittington for being shot by (Vice President) Dick Cheney?" e-mailed Jesse Metheny, who describes himself as an Army infantry veteran.
The Purple Heart group, which calls itself the "keepers of the medal," couldn't agree more.
Ray Funderburk, national public-relations director and a two-time Purple Heart recipient in the Vietnam War, said he shares outrage at the notion that his organization would be complicit in awarding the hallowed medal to anyone unqualified for it.
"The only way any person, including the (nation's) commander in chief, can be given a Purple Heart is if he or she is wounded in combat by an instrument of war inflicted by the enemy," Funderburk said. "To think anyone would believe this organization would belittle or demean the sanctity of the Purple Heart by giving it to a civilian is totally unacceptable."
Clinton was the 15th recipient of the group's "inspirational leadership award." Though aware of the enmity felt by many on the right toward Clinton, the organization decided she deserved recognition, not the least for her efforts since 2002 to get the U.S. Postal Service to issue a Purple Heart stamp and her recent successful push for the service to re-issue it when rates increased this year.
"Each year, Sen. Clinton has introduced legislation that recognizes August 7th as Purple Heart Recognition Day and encourages citizens to learn of the history and importance of America's oldest military award," the group said in announcing the small Capitol Hill ceremony held for her Thursday at which she received the small wooden plaque.
Clinton's office could not be reached for comment Monday. In a statement issued last Thursday, she said she appreciated the honor.
"I consider it a privilege and duty to work on behalf of combat-wounded active-duty service members and veterans, and I will continue to make them one of my top priorities," the statement said.
Funderburk criticized the NewsMax.com article for misrepresenting what the group had done. But NewsMax.com writer Carl Limbacher, who wrote the story, had no apologies and said reader reaction to his story "has been slim to none."
"My guess is that any controversy generated by my report was prompted more by the decision to give Hillary the award than by my coverage per se," Limbacher wrote in an e-mail.
February 20, 2006: A German court ruled that a hijacked aircraft could not be shot down to prevent it from crashing into a stadium full of people. The court said that the rights of the passengers on the hijacked aircraft took priority over attempts to prevent greater loss of life in the stadium. The ruling came as Germany was organizing security for the soccer world cup. There will be a no-fly zone over the stadiums, but because of this ruling, the fighter jets patrolling the air space will not be allowed to shoot down aircraft threatening the thousands of people in a stadium. The games will be played, in twelve different stadiums, between June 9 and July 9. Germany will try to come up with another way to stop a hijacked aircraft, or seek another legal solution to the prohibition on shooting down attacking aircraft. Do the arithmetic, Fritz
#1
This is what happens when you fixate on one aspect of a terrorist action (peoples' lives on the plane) and you refuse to look at the big picture (everyone's lives on the ground).
The government refuses to deal with the problem of a hijacked aircraft, so they will let the terrorists solve the problem for them by crashing it into a full stadium of people.
This is madness, because:
(1) The terrorists achieve all of their goals.
(2) The government winds up protecting nobody but the terrorists, and looks like impotent dhimmis dummies.
It is a perfect lose-lose solution. TGA, are you out there? Do you have a connection to the top people to get their heads out of their collective a$$es?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 18:05
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#2
The Germans better hope Jack Bauer is flying the F-104 when the order comes from the ocurt to stand down.
#4
PERFECT example of the difference between western values and muslim values.
trust me. there'd be no such debate if the shoe was on the other foot. and there'd be no way that shoe ever would change feet.
our problem is we apply western values to muslim issues. unfortunately, compassion is seen as weakness. compromise is seen as the first steps to submission. and on and on.
so we anguish over shooting down a plane. muslims laugh.
Iran and China have been discussing a major energy deal that would involve the swap of oil for technology.
Western diplomatic sources said the two countries have been examining an agreement that would make Iran the leading oil supplier to China. The sources said the long-term deal was valued at $100 billion.
Over the weekend, Iran and China discussed cooperation in oil, natural gas and petrochemicals. The official Iranian news agency Irna said the conference, held in Kish Island, was attended by officials and experts from both countries.
Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, managing director of Iran's Petropars, said China has been a major developer of Iran's energy reserves and called for the transfer of Chinese technology. Manouchehri also cited China's growing demand for oil.
"We intend to create new opportunities by making optimum use of the facilities of both countries in the mentioned fields," Manouchehri said.
Me thinks you intend to China to somehow shield Iran from the US via the Security Council...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/20/2006
14:29 ||
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#1
The only technology Iran is interested in comes from Norinco.
#2
I guess they figured out a way of pumping that crude out of the ground, after their oil infastructure is blown straight to hell! Even the US isn't stupid enough not to realize that if it can't reap the benefits of the black gold, China and others won't either!!
#8
OTOH, More Oil = More Chinese-specific
"modernization" = MORE LOCAL CHINESE + OFFICIALS WANTING PRIVATE WEALTH-INFLUENCE + LESS GOVT. INTERFERENCES = greater risk that the CCP will "implode" on its own.
#7
All this doesn't matter, By US Presidential Decree, he's wanted Dead OR Alive; UBL's destiny is written and the silver platter is still there! The only thing UBL has to think about is whether his trigger is quicker than the US's!
#8
Ideal scenario is we take him alive; suck his brain dry of information and break his spirit by various and divers means falling under the rubric of "stress interrogation," then string him up in a pig-leather noose. Of course, a "leaked" video of the execution surfaces shortly thereafter, in which Osama is heard to profanely curse Allah for forsaking him a moment before the trap door opens.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/20/2006 14:56
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#9
Looks like OBL is getting outside help
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
02/20/2006 15:03
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#10
Give him a sex-change operation followed by a white wedding to Guy the Gorilla.
#12
Find him, milk him for information like the last cow on the farm, publically try him and execute him upon a finding of guilt. Distribute video records of the trial and execution throughout all Islamic countries.
#13
Sorry Zenster, UBL isn't worth a penny of tax payers money 'to try'. I hope he detonates himself (if he can beat out a late night cruise missile) or swallow that cynanide capsule he purportedly carries in the roof of his mouth. His soul goes to GOD, but his ass belongs to Bush!!
#14
If we are able to capture bin Laden, we are obliged to ourselves to try him according to American legal or military jurisprudence. It would be best for these proceedings to be transparent (save for sensitive issues of national security), and his execution to be recorded for general distribution.
A clear message must be sent to our enemies that attacking America dramatically foreshortens your lifespan. No amount of diligence should be spared in ensuring that perpetrators of such attacks are apprehended and executed for their crimes.
#15
I could be satisfied with a video of him being dragged out of his spider hole after the grenade goes off. We don't need any more Saddam-type trial theater.
From Water and Wastewater Digest
Black & Veatch, a global engineering, construction and consulting company, has been selected to review the physical condition and hydraulic adequacy of the water supply system in Baghdad, Iraq. As part of its review, the company will recommend solutions to restore the water supply system to full working order with consequent improvements in health and living conditions in the Iraqi capital.
Black & Veatch was awarded the contract following international competitive bidding based upon both technical and financial proposals. The company's previous success in designing and supervising the construction of facilities in the country also was considered by the Mayoralty of Baghdad in awarding this contract.
Mike Johnson, Black & Veatch project manager, said, "By applying our global resources and drawing from our experience on projects in Iraq and many countries around the world, we can design and implement a solution to provide a safe, reliable and efficient water supply well into the future."
Black & Veatch will be working in close collaboration with the Technical Mayor of Baghdad together with his project management team to improve the quality of life in the area. The report is to be submitted within five months, enabling a start to be made on construction in the near future.
[*snip*]
The Mayoralty of Baghdad is aiming to rehabilitate, upgrade and extend plants at Al-Karkh, Al-Rasheed, Abu Nuwas and Sharq Dijla, as well as the cross-river link that delivers water to the Rassafa (East side) of the River Tigris.
The main Treatment Works at Al-Karkh is one of the largest water treatment works in the world with a capacity 1,365 Mega liters per day. That's 361 million gpd, big plantDuring the past 15 years, the treatment process has depended on locally obtained chemicals that have a very high percentage of impurities, resulting in damage to the infrastructure of the facility, and many parts of the system have suffered badly from looting over the past 18 months. Improper chemicals, wonder how the kids are doing....
The project is part of a $65M World Bank Trust Fund loan aimed at improving economic conditions and increasing the quantity, quality and availability of potable water in Baghdad.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006
13:28 ||
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#1
I recomend you put the intake upstream of the sewer outfall. I'm expert, but I'd say the sewer treatment plant could use a little upgrading also.
#3
Good idea, bigjim-ky. Good common sense, only thing is, I would imagine the Tigris is just a big sewage outfall, so where do you put the intake then?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 18:52
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#1
..and then marched to Miami's Freedom Tower to protest a proposed federal law that immigrant groups say would criminalise the nation's 11 million undocumented workers.
Seems to me that someone who is "undocumented" is already a criminal.
#2
Actually, it seems to me that people who have illegally entered this country should be considered terrorists and treated as such. We're at war, so either this invasion is either an act of war on the part of their home countries, or if they disavow them, then they are terrorists. So any remittances they try to send should be seized and they should be deported immediately with extreme vigor.
After months of trying unsuccessfully to develop a common message on the war in Iraq, Democratic Party leaders are beginning to coalesce around a broad plan to begin a quick withdrawal of US troops and install them elsewhere in the region, where they could respond to emergencies in Iraq and help fight terrorism in other countries.
The concept, dubbed ''strategic redeployment," is outlined in a slim, nine-page report coauthored by a former Reagan administration assistant Defense secretary, Lawrence J. Korb, in the fall. It sets a goal of a phased troop withdrawal that would take nearly all US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2007, although many Democrats disagree on whether troop draw-downs should be tied to a timeline.
Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, has endorsed Korb's paper and begun mentioning it in meetings with local Democratic groups. In addition, the study's concepts have been touted by the senator assigned to bring Democrats together on Iraq -- Jack Reed of Rhode Island -- and the report has been circulated among all senators by Senator Dianne Feinstein, an influential moderate Democrat from California.
The party remains divided on some points, including how much detail to include in a party-produced document, fearful of giving too much fodder for attacks by Republicans.
But in its broad outlines, many leading Democrats say the Korb plan represents an answer to Republicans' oft-repeated charge that Democrats aren't offering a way forward on Iraq -- and to do so in a way that is neither defeatist nor blindly loyal to the president.
''We're not going to cut and run -- that's just Republican propaganda," Dean said in a speech Feb. 10 in Boston. ''But we are going to redeploy our troops so they don't have targets on their backs, and they're not breaking down doors and putting themselves in the line of fire all the time. . . . It's a sensible plan. It's a thoughtful plan. I think Democrats can coalesce around it."
Reed, an Army veteran and former paratrooper who has been charged with developing a party strategy on the war, said the plan is attractive to many Democrats because it rejects what he calls the ''false dichotomy" suggested by President Bush: that the only options in Iraq are ''stay the course" or ''cut and run."
''It's important to note that it's not withdrawal -- it's redeployment," Reed said. ''We need to pursue a strategy that is going to accomplish the reasonable objectives, and allow us to have strategic flexibility. Not only is it a message, but it's a method to improve the security there and around the globe."
The idea of a phased deployment of troops out of Iraq recognizes that a huge US military presence in the country is straining the armed services as well as feeding the insurgency, Reed said. He added that many military commanders agree that the nation should be moving toward taking American troops out of Iraq, to better equip the military to respond to threats around the world and give the Iraqi government a greater incentive to handle its own security.
Under Korb's outline, all reservists and National Guard members would come home this year. Most of the other troops would be redeployed to other key areas -- Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, and the Horn of Africa -- with large, quick-strike forces placed in Kuwait, where they could respond to crises in neighboring Iraq.
Korb said in an interview that setting dates for troop withdrawal would send a message to the Iraqi people that the United States does not intend to set up permanent military bases in Iraq. Starting the redeployment quickly will ensure that the Army does not wear out before the insurgents do, he said.
''The Iraqis want us to go," said Korb, who has opposed Bush's decision to invade Iraq from the start. ''If you're out by the end of 2007, we'll have been there almost five years. That's not cutting and running."
But some strategists say the goal of a near-total withdrawal within two years is overly optimistic. US troops that are a plane ride away won't be an effective deterrent, and Iraqi security forces appear unlikely to be able to handle the violence on their own in the near future, said Michael O'Hanlon, a centrist defense specialist who is a lecturer at Princeton University.
''You're demanding that the political system produces a miracle," O'Hanlon said. ''Any plan that envisions complete American withdrawal in such a period of time is still a prescription for strategic defeat."
The war has been a source of long-running tension among Democrats. Twenty-nine Democratic senators and 81 House Democrats voted to authorize the president to invade Iraq, and while most are now critical of Bush's handling of the war, some -- notably Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut -- remain staunch supporters.
Although ''strategic redeployment" could draw a large portion of Democrats into the same fold, Reed and other Democrats disagree with setting a timeline for troop withdrawal, saying that such decisions should be dictated by commanders on the ground.
Still, Reed noted that the Bush administration has begun modest troop withdrawals. The Senate in November overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for 2006 to be ''a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty," and on Friday, the White House issued a statement reiterating its position: ''In 2006, it is anticipated that the Iraqi military will take more of the lead for security throughout Iraq."
But the president has strongly rejected issuing any time frames, arguing that they would be exploited by insurgents who would strike as soon as troops leave Iraq. Democrats who have suggested time frames for withdrawal have faced harsh attacks from Republicans, who paint them as offering a strategy of defeat.
In November, Representative John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, shook much of Washington with his call for an immediate withdrawal of troops, and his estimate that all troops could be out of Iraq within six months. The generally hawkish Vietnam veteran also called for quick strike forces to remain close to Iraq -- similar to the Korb plan -- but that was largely overlooked in the barrage from Republicans.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Murtha plan amounted to ''surrender to the terrorists."
Representative Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio, delivered a blistering speech on the House floor aimed at Murtha, who spent 37 years in the Marine Corps: ''Cowards cut and run, Marines never do," Schmidt said, in remarks she later withdrew from the Congressional Record.
The attacks on Murtha demonstrated the political peril that could face Democrats who offer plans involving troop withdrawals.
Although Murtha has 99 House cosponsors for his plan, some Democrats remain skittish about offering a plan that they know would be attacked harshly -- and, they say, almost certainly misconstrued -- by political opponents.
Still, Dean, Reed, and others in the party are trying to develop a united Democratic vision for Iraq, based in part on the calculation that the war will be a big factor in many 2006 congressional campaigns.
Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat who voted in favor of the war and now supports the Murtha plan, said that while the war remains Bush's responsibility, Democrats should be able to tell voters what they would do differently.
''There are a lot of different views, but I personally believe that putting forward specifics about how to move forward in Iraq is important to do," said Meehan, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. ''I would like to see Democrats coalesce around a strategy like Korb's strategy."
This fall, in elections that Democrats hope will bring them back to power in Congress, more than 50 military veterans are running in congressional races as Democrats.
Those candidates are asked about Iraq all the time, and the idea of strategic redeployment is appealing to many of them, said Eric Massa, who is challenging an incumbent Republican in upstate New York and is helping to organize strategy for the veterans who are running.
''You can't stand in front of people and say, 'We want your vote,' and not tell people what it is they're voting for," said Massa, a former Navy officer. ''We all know that staying the course is not a strategy that's going to work."
#4
The idea of a phased deployment of troops out of Iraq recognizes that a huge US military presence in the country is straining the armed services as well as feeding the insurgency, Reed said.
Just wait and see what a successful nuclear terrorist attack on American soil will do towards "straining the armed services as well as feeding the insurgency". If this is the Democratic "vision" for our country's future, they have no business leading it.
#5
But, but they all have to come home and, uh, um, drill n' march around inside their bases n' stuff. They didn't join up to go fight in wars! What kind of twisted logic is that? Sheesh.
/channeling the Best-Intentioned of the Dhimmidonks
Others can cover the other end of the scale. Me? I'm becoming, like, y'know: kinder and gentler and stuff.
#10
I don't have adequate words to describe my complete and total contempt for the cowardly traitors of the Democratic Party. Warren Harding would be a VAST improvement over their current leadership. Last but certainly not least, I hate them for having made America a one-party state. I often disagree with the Republican stance on issues but after carefully listening to the Democrats (and parsing their words a la Slick Willie), I don't think I could vote donkey and still look at myself in the mirror every day. This is one man's vote that is lost to those Democrat criminals forever. It would be nice to have legitimate options other than the pachyderms; unfortunately, all the donkeys offer is cravenly abject surrender to our nation's enemies and THAT IS NOT AN OPTION.
Posted by: mac ||
02/20/2006 12:29
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#11
It looks to me like the Dems are going to demand what was pretty close to what is already 'planned' (if not announced), so they can claim credit for causing it to happen. There may or may not be a rigid timeline attached to the Dem demand, and there is no ANNOUONCED timeline attached to current ops, but you have to know that there are some internal planning timelines, and my guess is they are not too far off of one that is 'essentially out by the end of 2007'. (In fact, I bet those internal planning timelines are known to Dem leadership.) Even if military circumstances don't quite line up that way, domestic politics will.
#13
Rumsfeld and teh Generals have already said almost all daily peacekeeping will be done by Iraqi army by the end of the year. The Donks are trying to take credit for a plan already in place, just like Hamas kicked the Israelis out of Gaza.... (*snort*)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 12:43
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#14
Dean and his fellow loons are adopting the "a bad Democratic Party plan is better than no Democratic Plan plan" strategy." I guess that's the best you can hope for considering the psychological diversity of the mentally challenged who are involved.
"a slim, nine-page report coauthored by a former Reagan administration assistant Defense secretary"
No doubt a secret agent for Karl Rove.
#15
I had no idea that Senator Dianne Feinstein was a moderate. Guess I'm behind the times. I also guess that makes Kerry, Ted "Glub, glub" Kennedy, and Reid moderates too(?)
Just in time for the election season, the Donks are eager to demonstrate their cowardness.
I'm Karl Rove, and I approve this plan (he-he)
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/20/2006 13:09
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#17
Don't laugh, at least now the al Dems have a plan, and they might not need much. Now that the State of the Union is delivered, Bush is getting ready for his yearly 6 month hibernation. Before he starts his long nap, he'll nail down security at our ports with an Islamic nite crew, and take a strong stand on this cartoon business - oops, he slipped off to sleep before he could tend to that last matter. At this rate, the Dems will have Congress back and will be looking for peace with honor.
#19
"Not only is it a message, but it's a method "
Bullshit! Its not a plan. Theyre just floating around their new slogan.
Do you really think Rummys gonna say Heyyyy didja hear what some Democrat wordsmith came up with? They call it "strategic redeployment". Thats just crazy enough ta work. Why didnt we think of that? Pace I want plans on my desk by the end of the week!
#20
My fellow Minnesotans at Powerlineblog.com have been tracking the idiot Chairman of the Donks Party in Minnesota.
A pair of brillant TV commericals have been running in Minnesota, featuring brave soldiers who served in Iraq. The second commercial features several Gold Star parents who explain why their loved ones lost their lives in Iraq.
The Donk chairman says the commercial is "un-American, untruthful, and a lie."
The commercial is here: http://www.midwestheroes.com/
The Donks just never lose an opportunity to demonstrate their cowardness.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/20/2006 15:51
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#21
They're digging deep in to the old play book, 1864 deep!
Copperheads (Peace Democrats)
Although the Democratic party had broken apart in 1860, during the secession crisis Democrats in the North were generally more conciliatory toward the South than were Republicans. They called themselves Peace Democrats; their opponents called them Copperheads because some wore copper pennies as identifying badges.
A majority of Peace Democrats supported war to save the Union, but a strong and active minority asserted that the Republicans had provoked the South into secession; that the Republicans were waging the war in order to establish their own domination, suppress civil and states rights, and impose "racial equality"; and that military means had failed and would never restore the Union.
Peace Democrats were most numerous in the Midwest, a region that had traditionally distrusted the Northeast, where the Republican party was strongest, and that had economic and cultural ties with the South. The Lincoln administration's arbitrary treatment of dissenters caused great bitterness there. Above all, anti-abolitionist Midwesterners feared that emancipation would result in a great migration of blacks into their states.
As was true of the Democratic party as a whole, the influence of Peace Democrats varied with the fortunes of war. When things were going badly for the Union on the battlefield, larger numbers of people were willing to entertain the notion of making peace with the Confederacy. When things were going well, Peace Democrats could more easily be dismissed as defeatists. But no matter how the war progressed, Peace Democrats constantly had to defend themselves against charges of disloyalty. Revelations that a few had ties with secret organizations such as the Knights of the Golden Circle helped smear the rest.
The most prominent Copperhead leader was Clement L. Valladigham of Ohio, who headed the secret antiwar organization known as the Sons of Liberty. At the Democratic convention of 1864, where the influence of Peace Democrats reached its high point, Vallandigham persuaded the party to adopt a platform branding the war a failure, and some extreme Copperheads plotted armed uprisings. However, the Democratic presidential candidate, George B. McClellan, repudiated the Vallandigham platform, victories by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Phillip H. Sheridan assured Lincoln's reelection, and the plots came to nothing.
With the conclusion of the war in 1865 the Peace Democrats were thoroughly discredited. Most Northerners believed, not without reason, that Peace Democrats had prolonged war by encouraging the South to continue fighting in the hope thatthe North would abandon the struggle.
Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust
#22
By September of 1864 Atlanta was burned and Yankee victory was assured. It was just a matter of time. The '64 election was not close, and within six months the war was over. The current conflict is still largely a war of ideas, a clash of cultures in which an evil side, fanatically committed, battles the good side, ambivalent about whether it is truly good and the other merely misunderstood, for control of the 21st Century. Where is Sherman when you need him?
#23
Angaith Grerens9024, my thoughts exactly. I hope President Bush deals with the 21st century Copperheads as effectively as President Lincoln dealt with the 19th century ones starting with plugging the leaks in government by imprisoning both the traitors who leak classified information and the scum who publish it.
#24
If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.
- William Tecumseh Sherman
I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.
- - William Tecumseh Sherman
#26
"[W]e made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and all our best generals to edit the newspapers."
R.E. Lee
#31
"STRATEGIC DEFEAT" - which of course will eventually be spun into "LOCAL/TACTICAL/
BATTLEFIELD DEFEAT", as the MSM did with Vietnam.
Strategic Defeat > "proves" for the Dems that GOP-COnservative = Fascist-led America is too unreliable, defective, incompetent, and dishonest even for its own alleged warmongering imperialist Male Brute rapist abuser molester pants, or at least compared to our cookie-loving national Motherly Commies-Regulators-Totalitarians, ANARCHY = MOM + APPLE PIE, etal.
#34
For those who confuse moral relativism for wisdom, who travel to foreign lands to undermine this campaign against terror, who compare American troops to our enemies, Franklin Roosevelt answers with a sharp reply: "As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed...The best way of dealing with the few slackers or trouble makers in our midst is, first, to shame them by patriotic example."
I pulled this quote from the Officers Club blog great site.
http://officersclub.blogspot.com/
Officers Club has also got some editorial cartoons from WW2 Cat in the Hat that apply to today as much as yesterday. I found interesting the fact that the major papers of the same big US cities are the root of the problem. Self hatred
It clearly shows how such people as the student council should be treated. Unfortunatley our current leadership is just either too nice or weak to question their patriotism the result being that everyday it grows in strength and more and more insane. Shame is a powerfull tool and in some cases the better choice than debate. Debate with a retarded ignorance only dillutes your own standing while gaining nothing.
#35
Dr Seuss (Ted Geissel) made terrific pro-US propaganda cartoons. Today, Ted Rall, Doonesbury, et al would be calling him a W-tool. Do you think anyone will know who Ted Rall was in 20 years?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 20:54
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#36
Frank---Ted Who? [.....rimshot]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 23:38
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#1
Hamas isn't even trying to say that they will moderate. They are saying that since the last pullout by Israel, their system obviously works and now they are going to pour it on. I don't know where Carter gets this "moderation" stuff from.
#2
I lived in Atlanta when Carter was Governor. Remember Lester Maddox, the pickaxe-handle-swinging restaraunt owner who didn't want to seat blacks in his place?
Maddox accused Carter of using the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to spy on him. Carter carried on an argument with Lester for a long time, in the press. I lost a lot of respect for him then. Except now he doesn't argue with crackpots - he agrees with them!
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/20/2006 17:40
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#3
Worse than that, Bobby - IIRC, Maddox relented in his later years (don't know if he really changed his mind, or just saw the handwriting on the wall).
So Maddox was more mature - and in the end less bigoted - than Cahtuh. Having lived through those times, I can say that's truly pathetic.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 22:24
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Political signals are never easy to read in Beijing. But it sure looks like big news that highly placed editors and intellectuals have dared to protest against the Chinese government's recent crackdown on a newspaper for publishing a critical essay.
The drama started with an essay published January 11 in Freezing Point, a weekly supplement to the China Youth Daily newspaper. Dryly titled "Modernization and Historical Textbooks," the article by Zhongshan University professor Yuan Weishi suggested that Qing Dynasty mismanagement had encouraged foreign invasions -- a stark contrast to official textbook versions of the history.
What might have aroused the censors was the implication of a parallel with today's corrupt Communist Party. Mr. Yuan's conclusion -- an indictment of the Party's historical fictions -- probably didn't digest well, either. In a country of 1.3 billion people, Beijing's select leadership circle seeks to retain control through its tight grip on information and historical accounts. So the cadres did what they do best: They shut the offending journal and reshuffled the management.
Unlike past cases of censorship, this time intellectuals rebelled. On Tuesday, 13 retired government officials, journalists, and academics issued an extraordinary open letter protesting the closure. "The Communist Party's Propaganda Department has perverted 'propaganda' into 'control,'" they warned. "This constitutes a violation of the constitution." Signatories included a former associate of Mao Zedong and former heads of the party propaganda department and its arm, the Xinhua News Agency.
While this could be something of an intramural battle within the party, it might also be a serious crack in the Communist great wall. The willingness of the protesters to stand up at least reflects a lack of fear, and perhaps a real yearning for more freedom of expression.
In December, the staff of Beijing News, a hard-hitting weekly publication, staged a walkout after the top editor was fired for criticizing the government. Freezing Point's editor, Li Datong, posted a scathing public protest letter when he was relieved of his duties. The Public Interest Times' editor was sacked earlier this month for publishing an article critical of the central government's newly launched Web site. He posted an angry parting shot on the Internet and was a guest on the American National Public Radio program, "All Things Considered," where he chatted about his experience.
This rebelliousness is a new development in a broader trend. Officially, rural "incidents" (a euphemism for "violent protests") numbered well over 70,000 last year. The unofficial number is likely much greater than that. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao's recent efforts to damp down rural protests by slashing agricultural taxes and posing for photo shoots with peasants are evidence that they're aware of the unhappiness.
There is a sharp disconnect in China between the new generation of ambitious, well-educated people and the party's ham-fisted methods of maintaining control. Take Tuesday's defense of Internet monitoring at a Beijing press conference: China's censorship is "completely consistent with international practices," an official claimed. The fascinating thing is that the government felt obliged to defend itself, as if it realizes that the criticism of Chinese Internet controls expressed at a U.S. Congressional hearing on Wednesday will surely make it back to the mainland.
The Communist Party will find it increasingly harder to control the many channels through which China's middle class interacts with free nations. Whether it's through business, or access to even limited international news via the Internet, the Chinese people are starting to understand that they're not enjoying all of the fruits of their labor. As for Freezing Point, by the end of the week the propaganda mandarins in Beijing had backed down a bit, saying they will allow it to reopen next month but with new editors.
That's certainly progress of a kind for a Communist system that once brooked no dissent at all. China's commissars may have to accommodate more such openness far sooner than they imagine.
#1
I've been saying for a few years now that we won't have to deal with an "out of control China". It's own people are going to do that from the inside. Same as the Soviet Union did to itself. Looking back over the last year, in retrospect, I can see the first signs of it hatching.
Frustrated by the slow pace of China's appreciation of its currency, the Bush administration is sending signals that it is ready to take a harder line with Beijing.
The shift comes as U.S. data show its trade deficit with China ballooned last year to $202 billion, more than one-quarter of the total U.S. deficit. That has added to political pressure on the administration from members of Congress, who say American jobs are being lost to the tide of inexpensive Chinese imports and the flight of manufacturing to China.
Last week, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman announced a task force to take up complaints about unfair Chinese trade practices. U.S. politicians allege that China deliberately keeps its currency weak to make its exports cheaper in dollar terms and U.S. imports more expensive.
Now, the U.S. Treasury, which has so far sought to avoid confrontation with Beijing over the currency issue, is preparing the ground for a possible decision to label China a "currency manipulator," in a regular review scheduled for April, although the semiannual report often is issued well after the scheduled release date. The Treasury has been sounding out Wall Street investors about such a move, which would require the U.S. to open formal talks with China on the issue.
All this comes ahead of a visit to the U.S. in April by Chinese President Hu Jintao. The visit gives the Bush administration some leverage to extract concessions from Beijing, which will be anxious for Mr. Hu's trip to go as smoothly as possible.
In testimony to the U.S. Congress last week, new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sought to play down what many consider a grave risk in any trade confrontation with Beijing that China may decide to sell its huge holdings of U.S. Treasury bills. That could force up U.S. interest rates and add to the cost of borrowing by consumers and businesses. He said U.S. capital markets are "sufficiently large and liquid that the impact of such changes would be mostly transitory and could be managed."
But Mr. Bernanke advised caution when asked about pending legislation that would impose a 27.5% across-the-board tariff on Chinese imports if Beijing fails to do more to strengthen its currency. "It's not a good idea to break down some of the gains we've made in terms of freeing trade in the world economy," he said.
Also, Mr. Bernanke made clear he saw no quick fix to the U.S. deficits, saying it could take a decade to shrink them to more sustainable levels.
U.S. Treasury officials had hoped to avoid a battle with Beijing, believing that the threat of a protectionist backlash in Congress might be enough to persuade Beijing to pick up the pace of currency appreciation. They showed sympathy with Beijing's arguments that it needed time to put in place more sophisticated trading systems and to expand domestic consumption to wean the economy off exports.
However, the Treasury has little to show for its patience. After a 2.1% appreciation of the yuan against the U.S. dollar in July last year, China's currency has since strengthened by less than 1%. It closed Friday at 8.048 against the dollar.
But as the Bush administration struggles to fend off protectionist legislation, it has to weigh any aggressive action against Beijing carefully, and it is far from clear that the U.S. Treasury will raise the stakes by labeling China a currency manipulator.
The Treasury, as evidenced by recent decisions to avoid citing China for manipulating its currency, has substantial leeway in what to say in its next report, and the decision is largely one of tactics and political judgment. A determination that China is manipulating its currency doesn't have any immediate tangible effect, but is supposed to trigger talks between Washington and Beijing -- and such talks have been underway for sometime, anyway. It is too early to tell whether the talk of citing China in the next round is jawboning to put pressure on Chinese leaders before Mr. Hu's visit in April and to calm China-fearing members of the U.S. Congress or a sign of Bush administration frustration with China.
Wall Street represents a spectrum of opinion on the currency issue. Retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. would face severe disruption if a trade war cut off supplies of Chinese products that fill its shelves. Trade friction also could rebound on many U.S. multinationals, which see the huge Chinese market as among their most attractive investment opportunities.
Nor is it obvious that forcing China to appreciate its currency would result in the return of U.S. manufacturing jobs from a country where factory hands often work six days a week in return for less than $100 a month and a dormitory bed.
Many economists say that if Congress choked off imports from China, low-end manufacturing would simply migrate to countries like Mexico or Vietnam, and the net effect on the U.S. deficit would be insignificant.
Still, currency appreciation fits in with China's strategic goal of making its economy less dependent on exports. So while Chinese leaders remain adamant they will move on the currency at their own pace, they have laid the groundwork for a possible change of tempo.
Mr. Bernanke offered few alternatives for prodding China to change, other than persuasion and technical assistance.
Also last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the U.S. isn't satisfied with the progress China made after the initial revaluation last year. "It's time for more movement," he told Bloomberg television. "We will hold them to their commitments."
#1
Also, Mr. Bernanke made clear he saw no quick fix to the U.S. deficits, saying it could take a decade to shrink them to more sustainable levels.
You'd be amazed at what your could accomplish if you really tried. Like start drilling yesterday in Alaska and off the coast of California and Florida, start building more capacity in refining, and tell Walmart et al that they'd better be generation a new source of cheap supply if they don't want to find themselves out of market chain when the hammer comes down on China. Its a matter of political will. Previous administrations and this one, don't have that.
#2
Those need doing, but if the currency situation isn't addressed we will still have to deal with the huge dollar reserves China is holding. With the renimbi artificially low against the dollar, we are due to repay them a good deal of real economic value -- more than we got from them when they bought the bonds or accepted payment for goods.
That's the difficult balancing act facing the feds on this issue.
That wad of dollars China is holding is China's problem, not ours. If they start dumping dollars, that will drop the value of the dollar and the value of the whole stash. So they get to sit on thier pile of dollars.
What is really going on here is the power of monopsony. Yeah, the same game Wal*Mart plays. Since we're China's main customer, we're asking for a discount. No discount? No more purchases.
While these numbers are huge, lots of it flows right out of China because China is only performing the low value add final assembly. They have to pay someone else for the parts assembled. The higher value add work is being done elsewhere to design and make those parts.
Bottom line? China's getting the screws put to it.
#5
Maybe we can sell them Rockefeller Center. We always make money on that deal. Or perhaps they'd like to invest in General Motors. I suppose they could just flush their dollars down a toilet but that sure would upset their bottom lines. Who knows? I'm still running a huge ass defecit with Publix, I can't figure out what to do except work and continue to make 20 times what I owe them. But hey.... who knows. I lived through 3 Great Depressions and Crashes. What was that suckers name? Some Indian gent. The Great Crash of INSERT YEAR HERE. However, I'm on the ground floor of peak oil and the coming era of low gravity.
#6
"a visit to the U.S. in April by Chinese President Hu Jintao. The visit gives the Bush administration some leverage to extract concessions from Beijing, which will be anxious for Mr. Hu's trip to go as smoothly as possible."
I'm predicting an April no-show -- Mr. Hu isn't going to want photos with the guy who smacked Iran hard.
#11
It's almost too late for the value of the dollar to have a big impact on the election.
Besides, the effect of a shutoff of the American market would do a lot more damage to the Chinese regime than the American one. China is no economic powerhouse. It is just able to steal a little money from a whole lot of people. As opposed to America where the government steals a lot of money from everybody.
#13
6 is saying that China's pile of greenbacks is their problem and that the usual economik fear mongers are at work. Buying things too cheap is not a problem for the consumer. That said, 6 is right on with the coming era of low gravity. The effects on just damn near everything will be profound. Drugs, guns and whiskey will be your friends and fishhooks.... don't forget fish hooks.
Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.
The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words "Homeland Security." The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.
After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user's choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library's work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men.
They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County's Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings -- but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.
In the post-9/11 era, even suburban counties have homeland security departments. Montgomery County will not specify how many officers are in the department's security division, citing security reasons. Its annual budget, including salaries, is $3.6 million.
Later that afternoon, Montgomery County's chief administrative officer, Bruce Romer, issued a statement calling the incident "unfortunate" and "regrettable" -- two words that bureaucrats often deploy when things have gone awry. He said the officers had been reassigned to other duties.
Romer said the officers believed they were enforcing the county's sexual harassment policy but "overstepped their authority" and had to be reminded that Montgomery "supports the rights of patrons to view the materials of their choice."
The sexual harassment policy forbids the "display of offensive or obscene printed or visual material." But in a library, which is both a public arena and a county workplace, the U.S. Constitution trumps Montgomery's rules.
At most public libraries in the Washington area, an adult can view pornography on a library computer more or less unfettered. Montgomery asks customers to be considerate of others when viewing Web sites. If others are put off, librarians will provide the viewer of the offending material with a "privacy screen."
Fairfax County forbids library use of the Internet to view child pornography or obscene materials or to engage in gambling or fraud. But Fairfax library spokeswoman Lois Kirkpatrick said, "Librarians are not legally empowered to determine obscenity."
D.C. library spokeswoman Monica Lewis said the system is working on guidelines for Internet use, but she added that recessed computer screens generally ensure patrons their privacy.
Although many library systems in the United States use filtering software, the D.C. and Fairfax systems do not, and Montgomery uses such software only on computers available to children. Leslie Burger, president-elect of the American Library Association, said the reality is that "libraries are not the hotbed of looking at porn sites."
Still, Montgomery plans to train its homeland security officers "so they fully understand library policy and its consistency with residents' First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution," Romer said in his statement.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 12:35
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#4
They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County's Homeland Security Department
Which means these are just local Yahoos [in the original Swiftian definition] and not some federal action. Wonder if they got the same employment deal as the former head of New Jersey's HS office got from the former New Jersey governor?
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq warned Iraqi politicians Monday they risk a loss of American support if they do not establish a genuine national unity government, saying the United States will not invest its resources in institutions run by sectarians. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spoke at a rare press conference after Iraqi politicians said talks on a new government following the December elections were not going well because of sharp differences among the country's Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political parties.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2006
08:32 ||
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#1
YES!!!!
Time for some clarification...
Same rules as with the Paleos -- if you vote for chaos and division and the insanity of the past, then that's what you get - we have zero obligation to continue support from that moment on.
It is not a failure of US policy that democracy in either place has yet to yield a liberal democracy. This is their chance to choose. That's the essence of freedom - not some rubber stamp. We had to try - and we did - and they are on the verge of failing, not us.
If they chuck it, as the Paleos did, then they have chosen the past, not the future. If the Shi'a don't figure it out... then they can duke it out with the Sunnis - it is not something we can prevent - nor should we be involved, so we'll step out of the lower 2/3 thirds of the farcial confabulated entity called Iraq.
Iran, very shortly, will cease to be the Big Worry that made this a concensus bad move up until recently - at their insistence.
#3
Agreed, .com. I'd hate to lose those airbases in the northwest Iraqi desert, tho. And it would be ... annoying ... to lose the oil production not only in the non-Kurdistan parts of Iraq but also in Iran and SA when they take each other on directly in a few years.
That said, it may not be something we can or are willing to prevent.
#4
You forsee a war, or something similar, between SA and Iran down the road?
Hmmm. That must presume the Iranian Govt isn't decapitated? Or?
I'm not sure I can see it. I cannot picture the Saudis doing anything outside their borders. Anything beyond shopping and getting drunk, anyway. They may have their PakiWaki proxies do it for them, of course, but the entire GCC would be equally likely to farm out any actual conflict, IMHO.
I see Iran as a non-player by the end of 2007 or sooner. Possibly dismembered / partitioned once the Govt control is stripped away by MM suicide.
I expect the House of Saud to implode, more or less, by the end of the decade or sooner. The demographics are incredibly bad. And maybe, just maybe, sooner than that the smoke of PCism will clear enough for people to realize that with a single stroke we could remove the funding of a very large number of the components of Islamic terror. PakiWakiLand would implode rather quickly, I believe. The Republic of Eastern Arabia...
You've boggled me, lol. If you have a moment to sketch it out a bit, I'd appreciate it.
#5
Not predicting it, quite, but it's a possibility IMO. And yes, it might well be done via proxies and sabotage rather than "force on force" conflict.
Suppose Iran owns southern Iraq, openly or de facto. The next thing that happens is pressure on the smaller Arab oil states around the Gulf.
The House of Saud is corrupt and lazy, but they are also venal and yes - they have massive demographic problems looming. A good way to bleed some of that off is to turn a blind eye to large numbers of jihadis leaving the Kingdom to sabotage the MM control of oil resources and of shipping in the Gulf.
#7
If Iran is decapped and defanged, besides the obvious benefit of pulling the plug on Muzzy Viagara in the hands of people even more insane than the PakiWakis...
1) the much-dreaded Iranian Winter Qom Mullah defacto control of Southern Iraq goes *poof*
2) who would the Saudis contend with, beyond the usual ancient antipathy between Sunnis & Shi'a?
The Sauds are laying a gigantic egg - probably an explosive shitstorm. Many ways for it to play out. Only one has the element of economic stability sans terror - taking it away and managing the output in some manner - JFM suggested a "trust". I dunno. It will affect so many different things that it's bigger than my brain, lol. I did some speculation way back - the fallout will be all over the map.
#8
Islam is inherently peaceful and nothing beligerent can come out of that noble faith. The American people support the uniting of the Iraqi people under an Islamic Constitution, which will ensure that Iraq is governed according to the principles of the noble faith. If a tiny minority of extremists choses to attempt to hijack the noble faith, then the people of the United States will support the government of Iraq, as long as they don't adopt the Taliban policies that forced Americans to shell out some $400 billion in support of the noble faith.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:22
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#11
Lol - isn't there a severe penalty available for trolls who drone total BS on multiple threads - each indistinguishable from the other? The verbiage varies, but the substance, none, doesn't, lol.
#1
The measure, part of a wider equal opportunities law, is meant to encourage businesses to take on young workers by relaxing rules under which they can be sacked during the first two years.
Seems to me that they're already facing a backlash because they're trying to reform their job market.
#3
Good. Nothing should be made to serve in quelling this irrational and hyper-reactive Muslim sensitivity to what the rest of the world views as a good laugh. Islam can screw, blue and tatto itself before I'll ever apologize for making fun of it.
#4
Why would anyone expect a Danish apology to quell Muslim anger? The Danish cartoons are clearly just a pathetic excuse to riot. Is there anyone in the world who truly believes that burning down a MacDonalds in Pakistan or storming a U.S. embassy in Indonesia or killing a bunch of rioters in Afghanistan or Nigeria -- all in February -- has any true basis in 12 cartoons published in Denmark in September?
The whole affair simply lends credence to the implication of the bomb-in-the-turban cartoon.
A soldier wounded in Afghanistan and the widow of his slain comrade were awarded a $102.6 million judgment from the estate of a suspected al-Qaida financier.
U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said the lawsuit may be the first filed by an American soldier against terrorists under the Patriot Act.
But Sgt. Layne Morris, of West Jordan, and the family of medic Christopher Speer, could have a difficult time collecting their award, because the assets of the suspected financier are unknown.
Other soldiers have difficulty identifying their attackers, making it difficult to hold individuals responsible.
Morris cited news reports including interviews with his attacker's immediate family indicating that Omar Khadr, then 15, had wounded him and killed Speer. The ruling, released Friday, cited similar evidence that the boy's father, suspected financier Ahmad Sa'id Khadr, was linked to al-Qaida and trained his son to attack American targets.
Morris and Speer, who served with the 19th Special Forces, were attacked with grenades and automatic weapons in a remote Afghanistan village. Shrapnel severed the optic nerve in Morris' right eye, blinding him.
Soldiers arrested the boy, who is being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The Canadian government has protested the boy's imprisonment, because he is a minor.
In November, the U.S. government charged the boy with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy.
The ruling said the younger Khadr was 4 years old when his family moved from Canada to Pakistan, where his father co-founded a humanitarian relief organization that supported al-Qaida terrorist training camps. The boy returned to Canada in 1994, where he attended school for a year while his father was imprisoned in Pakistan on charges of funding the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, the court said.
The next year the family allegedly traveled throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, meeting al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden. It is believed the father was killed in a firefight in Pakistan.
#1
As much as this seems nice, I object to the judiciary getting into any aspect on the conduct of war. Its the incorrect forum. It also opens up the US and others to be likewise 'sued' in foreign courts for conducts which are the proper venue of the legislative and executive branches. Just keep in mind the recent actions of some Spanish courts.
#2
The people of the United States support this type of lawsuit, as long as the Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not subject to claims. Should that occur, we will again file an Amicus brief on behalf of our Saudi friends, as we did in the 9-11 lawsuit. Our friends can do no wrong, therefore we let them alone.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:25
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David Irving, the British historian, is expected to plead guilty to a charge of denying the Holocaust at his trial in Austria today.
Irving's lawyer said his client would admit the accusation when he goes on trial in Vienna. Irving was arrested in Austria on November 11 last year when he arrived to give a lecture to students, and has remained in custody. Austrian laws states that Holocaust denial is a crime.
The charges stemmed from speeches Irving delivered in 1989 in the Austrian capital Vienna and in the southern town of Leoben.
Irving has in the past faced allegations of spreading anti-Semitic and racist ideas. He is the author of nearly 30 books, including Hitler's War, which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.
He once insisted that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about the systematic slaughter of six million Jews, and reportedly said there was "not one shred of evidence" that the Nazis carried out their Final Solution on such a scale.
He has also questioned the use of large-scale gas chambers to exterminate the Jews, and has claimed that the numbers of those who perished are far lower than those generally accepted.
But the BBC reported that Irving wrote a letter from his prison cell claiming that some of his views on gas chambers had changed.
let's see if he uses the trial to grandstand and stir up trouble
#1
doesn't sound like there will be a trial. sounds like he's throwing himself on the mercy of the court. the real question is, what sort of punisment he will receive. supposedly, the crime carries as much as a 10-year sentence.
#2
Remember now Hate Crimes are not Thought Crimes.
Its just when you publicly state your opinions about certain issues in some places is when it can get tricky.
#8
Depot Guy, the Holocaust ranks as one of the most searing examples of man's inhumanity to man. Those who seek to downplay its enormity or palliate its historical existence exhibit a wish to reduce the vital lesson that we, as a people, must carry away from this ugly episode of our past. It is tantamount to a crime against humanity to willfully participate in minimizing or de-emphasizing any aspect of this brutal slaughter. Attempts to do so are essentially an act of condoning genocide. To condone effectively is to advocate and advocating genocide is a heinous act.
#9
Zenster:
Sincerely, your comment in #5 is the most concise and succinct viewpoints regarding this issue Ive ever read. I just happen to respectfully disagree. Like it or not, ranking the importance of events is subjective. Therefore assigning motives based on an arbitrary degree of significance is presumptuous. Indifference doesnt necessarily imply endorsement. And anyway you slice it; denial is not the same approval. I personally dont believe some of the facts stated by the 9-11 Commission. That doesnt mean I condone mass-murder or that Im anti-American. And Im thankful that I live in a country that doesnt consider it a crime for publicly stating my opinion.
#10
War is a bitch, world war is even more brutal. People get whacked, sometimes boatloads of em. Somewhere around 200 million Russians never made it through WWII. Not minimizing genocide, but I too am happy NOT to live in a country where one's opinion or belief lands you in jail.
#11
Reference for that figure on Soviet deaths during WWII, Besoeker?
IIRC the official casualties for the USSR are usually given as less then 26 million soldiers and civilians killed and approx. 14 million soldier wounded. If you add the 32 million or so who were starved by Stalin in the forced collectivization of farms in the runup to the war you still don't get anywhere near 200 million ....
I'd be interested in any citations for the higher figure, if you have one. My father's family is Ukrainian and we had family still there during that war.
#13
This week has shown us that free speech is not served by restrictions based on offensiveness. Ensuring that the holocaust is remembered and never repeated is best served by allowing people to speak and proving the liars wrong. When ranting haters speak, they reveal and discredit themselves in the eyes of all except a handful of nutters. This is inevitable and just because it is sickening and offensive does not mean that it can be legislated away. Jailing crack-pots gives them more importance and status than they deserve.
The only exceptions to free speech should be slander and incitement to murder, such as preaching jihad in a time of war. I guess that Austria and Germany may have a case for extending such exceptions to cover outlawing denial but these exceptions create problems, such as we're seeing now. Irving is deliberately trying to paint himself as a free speech martyr instead of as demented pseudo-historian fantasist. Unfortunately he'll have some success. I think he should not be jailed and they should allow him to go to Tehran to participate in Holocaust Denial conventions Ahmadinejad. I am not so cynical as to believe that the majority of the world's people, even the Islamic ones, will be pesuaded to believe the lies of such a group of raving loonies. Give them the rope to hang themselves rhetorically and politically.
#14
What if holocust denial was made into a Cartoon Z? Maybe then? Or does than bring the fear of consistent hobgoblins?
If the cartoon is satirical of Holocaust denial, I'm all for it. I'll readily admit that I have strong feelings about the subject. My mother survived the Nazi occupation of Denmark and made d@mn sure we kids understood what the Nazis were about, to the tune of taking all three of her children to see a screening of "Night and Fog" when we were very young.
If you have never seen "Night and Fog", I suggest that you rent a copy and view it. Just not after a full meal.
Finally, I concur that we should all be glad to live in a country where we can agree to disagree, and that none of our arguments can be used to land us in jail.
#8
The ultimate nightmare of the deep is to encounter a pack of Humboldt squid and then face being devoured in a series of softball-chunk sized bites as they compete for each scrap.
Maybe this is payback for catching their little brethren years ago. Every June/July there used to be awesome squid spawning runs in Monterey right off one of the piers, and it wasn't unusual for people to leave with bucketfuls of the creatures.
Bill Clinton called them "totally outrageous" and an "appalling example" of stereotyping. He was talking about the Danish cartoons that sparked the rioting and killings throughout the Islamic world. Similarly, Sen. John Kerry was appalled by the cartoon depictions of Mohammed -- one, for example, showing the prophet in a turban shaped as a bomb. "Inflammatory images deserve our scorn," he said.
French President Jacques Chirac, likewise, urged caution in regard to upsetting anyone's apple cart, especially if it's a faith-based cart: "Anything liable to rub the wrong way the beliefs of others, particularly the religious beliefs, must be avoided."
Fighting the same rub, the Vatican said that no one has "the right" to hurt anyone's feelings when it comes to religious commentary. We can think it, declared the Vatican, but we can't say it, write it or draw it, lest some overly delicate believer might take umbrage. From the Vatican's statement on the Danish cartoon fallout: "The right to freedom of thought and expression cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers."
Really? What if you're an agnostic Inca who thinks the tossing of virgins into the mouth of a volcano won't produce a better crop? You shouldn't say anything for fear of offending the true believers? Where's the morality in that, particularly from the virgin's point of view?
What about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and Lutheran pastor who became involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler? An avowed pacifist, Bonhoeffer nonetheless came to believe that killing Hitler was less evil than doing nothing and watching the trains go off to Dachau and Auschwitz.
Should Bonhoeffer have done nothing, said nothing, written nothing, so as not to ruffle the religious feathers of his neighbors in Nazi-occupied Europe who obediently and piously rounded up and loaded millions of Jews, "race-mixers," gays and other "undesirables" into the trains, seeing their task as particularly pleasing to God? Should Bonhoeffer have said nothing when Lutheran theologian Paul Althaus called Hitler's rise to power "a gift and miracle from God"? Should he have muzzled himself when swastika flags began to decorate the altars of German churches?
So as not to make his fellow churchmen uneasy, should he have kept quiet when they said nothing about the arrests of Jews and the trashing of their storefronts during Kristallnacht, the "Night of the Broken Glass"?
On April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer, at age 39, was hanged at Flossenburg concentration camp by his Nazi captors, 11 days before Allied troops liberated the camp.
Today in Denmark, armed guards protect Carsten Juste, the editor of Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that originally published the Mohammed caricatures. His wrap up of the entire episode: "My guess is that no one will draw the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark in the next generation -- and therefore I must say with deep shame that they have won."
In New York City, former Mayor Ed Koch echoes a similar concern, noting that only a handful of major newspapers in the United States have reprinted the Danish cartoons, even though the caricatures are a key part of their front-page stories.
Washington Post executive editor Len Downie says he won't publish the cartoons because of "general good taste." The New York Times, which daily trumpets "All the News That's Fit to Print" on its front page, finds the cartoons unfit to print because they're "so easy to describe in words."
Koch sees a replay of Neville Chamberlain: "When the greatest, most important institutions in the land -- the free press -- get frightened and surrender, as the German press did under similar assault in Hitler's Germany in the 1930s, I worry about the final outcome."
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has condemned the cartoons as "insensitive." Franco Frattini, the European Union's justice and security commissioner, says the EU is setting up a "media code" to encourage "sensitivity."
In France, from Chirac: "I condemn all obvious provocations which could dangerously fuel passions." And what if a woman's bare arms "fuel passions"? What if a man is viewed as offensive if he's flying a kite or humming a tune? Do we cover ourselves, muzzle ourselves, to avoid offending, to keep the peace?
At the Al-Omari mosque in Gaza, a cleric laid out the bottom line regarding the cartoons and retribution: "We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible."
#1
The hypocrisy and weaseliness is just breathtaking. Just imagining Slick Willie or Skeery claiming they're "appalled" is hysterically funny - and completely absurd on its face.
Any sense of provocation is in the mind of the "offended". A few ink lines, or words, have only that meaning which we assign to them - and that is the sole responsibility of the viewer / listener. Letting someone else push your buttons is an individual's choice. The "sensitivity" claims are obvious intimidation plays upon the gutless and cash in the bank for mealy-mouthed opportunists. Worms.
That this entire wave of idiocy is manufactured bogus bullshit - and everyone of the gutless turds baring their bellies in apology knows it - makes this one of the most astounding examples of cowardice in modern times. Fuck them and fuck the faux-offended.
The only benefit is the exposure of Islam for what it is - implacable and incompatible. I hope regular folks are getting pissed off - and seeing clearly the cowardice of these so-called leaders.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday called for an end to violent protests over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad which have swept the Muslim world after the images were published in several European newspapers. "We should try to cool down the situation. We do not support any violence," Mottaki said, But nuking the Jews and Christians is halal. adding that freedom of expression must be exercised with sensitivity and people's and nations' values and beliefs fully respected. As long as the kufr respects islam's authoritah, and don't you, kufr, dare expect any respect in return. They finally realized the Motoon (hattip Tim Blair) riots have backfired and woke up the infidels. Time to shut up and allow the western PC and press elites to lull the kufr back to sleep.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2006
07:10 ||
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#1
Worse than that, there great "Islamic conference to condemn the cartoons" was a complete and utter disaster and embarassment. So, now that the car has driven off the cliff and crashed on the rocks below, the Iranian driver is saying "I meant to do that!"
#2
I think this is more of a call to end the way that Muslims are perishing in droves while not a single cartoonist has had a hair turned. More cartoons, please.
#3
The American people condemn in the strongest possible terms, the ridicule of the beloved Prophet of the noble faith of Islam, and we specifically condemn the heretic, Zenster for his serial insolence. As we are ending our 70 year strong-man policy in the Middle East, and delivering those lands to Islamist movements, we accept all blame for the brutalization of Islamists since the demise of Khalifa in 1924, and agree to pay compensation for our misguided policies, which are the result of Secular governments that have ruined America and promoted abortion.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:42
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#4
More from our troll on the left coast of Canada.
#7
Heh, 6 - you'd know about schticks. If you become monotonous and post such dense pointless tripe, I'll ask for your ass, too. S'only fair. ;-)
I suggest once per year, sorta like a memorial to Rex, Mikey, Aris, IToldYouSo, Mr Write, Cloon, and all of the other agenda wanks. Think it will ever hit Fred's tip jar any pay the freight? Me neither.
#8
The American people condemn in the strongest possible terms, the ridicule of the beloved Prophet of the noble faith of Islam, and we specifically condemn the heretic, Zenster for his serial insolence.
The American people DO NOT condemn the ridicule of Islam's prophet or God. Many of us are still laughing at the cartoons today and will continue to do so tomorrow. Islam's inability to laugh at itself is a genuine symptom of its unworthiness as a religion.
As to me being a heretic, feh! I've been called worse by legitimate participants right here at this very web site. Bah and to he|| with your pro-terrorist scribbling, State Department.
Rescuers pulled 50 survivors from a school in the central Philippines on Monday, three days after their village was buried in a mudslide, an interior ministry official said on television. U.S. marines recovered about 50 people from under the rubble at the school in Guinsaugon village, Marius Corpus, an undersecretary of the interior and local government department, told ABS-CBN.
#2
Looks like it was a false report: Hopes were raised and then dashed on Monday that 50 survivors had been pulled from a Philippine school three days after they had been buried in a landslide that has obliterated their village. "We have yet to recover any survivor," Captain Burrell Parmer, a spokesman for U.S. Marines taking part in the desperate rescue operation, told the ABS-CBN television channel.
Parmer contradicted an earlier report from a Philippine government official who told ABS-CBN that U.S. forces had unearthed about 50 people from the rubble at a school in Guinsaugon, a remote farming community about 675 km (420 miles) southeast of Manila with a population of about 1,800. ... So far, 84 bodies have been recovered from the village. Relatives have reported 1,371 villagers still missing.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2006 8:24
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#3
Eds right, false report, too bad. The unregulated logging is the cause here. Happens every year when the rains come. Wherever they clear cut the forest, the following rainy season comes the mudslides.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
02/20/2006 18:09
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The 100-mph car chase ended in a blaze of gunfire at the Peace Arch, the graceful marble monument that straddles the U.S.-Canada border here and proclaims the two nations to be "Children of a Common Mother."
As two murder suspects from California blew past the U.S. Customs station and raced north for the border, a deputy sheriff managed to ram their vehicle with his squad car, spinning it down an embankment and across a broad lawn between the two border stations before it came to a stop. The suspects fled on foot, and in the ensuing gunbattle one was wounded; in the end, they were captured.
While the Jan. 24 episode was by far the most dramatic encounter between fugitives and law-enforcement officers at the border in recent months, the reaction on the Canadian side unfolded along a standard if contentious script: The Canadian border guards walked off their posts.
Roughly a dozen times in the past four months, Canadian border guards, who unlike their U.S. counterparts are unarmed, have left their posts in response to reports of dangerous suspects heading north.
The walk-offs, spanning the border at posts from here to New York, have closed the crossings for periods ranging from a few minutes to several hours. In the most recent incident Feb. 10, traffic heading from Blaine into British Columbia was backed up for three hours after Canadian guards left their posts in response to a report that a murder suspect from the Seattle area might be headed their way. The alleged killer never materialized.
The tie-ups have been a source of major aggravation for motorists and minor diplomatic headaches. They became an issue in Canada's recent national elections, with the victorious Conservative government promising it would support arming the border guards, an idea backed by the union that represents them.
"Primarily this has been an image thing. We're a peaceful nation, with Canadians being proud of the fact that we don't greet people at the border crossings with someone who's armed," said Ron Moran, the union's president.
"But the reality is that we don't live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood anymore," added Moran, whose 10,500-member, Ottawa-based group is officially known by its English-French bilingual name, the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise. "The reality is that our officers should be armed."
Whether the border officers should carry guns has been debated for years.
Officials of the Liberal Party, which was in charge until recently, generally opposed the idea. As then-Revenue Minister Martin Cauchon put it a few years ago: "Side arms would not reflect our image."
"I mean, here we are perfecting our Dhimmi profile and you want to go and ruin it?"
But Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed during his campaign to give "our customs and border guards the training and equipment they need, including side arms." Harper also said he would address guards' concerns about the solo shifts that some of them work at remote border crossings. U.S. border stations have two or more guards.
On Jan. 31, a guard with the Canada Border Service Agency refused to man his post in remote Roosville, B.C., after hearing reports about an armed and dangerous suspect who had evaded Montana authorities near Lone Pine State Park, about 60 miles south of the border.
Authorities in Flathead County, Mont., issued a bulletin saying the suspect possibly was heading north and had warned authorities that he wouldn't be captured alive. He was apprehended two days later, hiding in the bushes at a park in Kalispell, Mont.
The Canadian border post was reopened after a few hours when a nonunion management official took over. The location was so remote that only four trucks and one car were lined up on the U.S. side.
Management has stepped in during walk-offs by guards but not always with enough manpower to prevent tie-ups, as was the case in Blaine earlier this month. At that busy crossing, traffic was proceeding smoothly the other day. Canadian border guards on duty politely referred questions about the walk-offs to Paula Shore, a spokeswoman for the border services agency.
Shore said there had been "a bit of a slowdown" because of the ongoing dispute over whether guards should be armed. She said the guards, who are issued bulletproof vests and pepper spray, were exercising a legal right under Canadian law to leave a workplace they considered unsafe.
While the U.S. and Canada differ when it comes to side arms at the border, she said, "We all want the same thing: safety and security for our countries and their citizens."
I want a pony too.
No Canadian guard has been killed or shot in recent years by a fugitive crossing the border, Moran said. But several have had guns or knives pointed at them, and have had to follow Canadian procedure: Let the suspected criminals go by without confrontation, then call the Canadian Royal Mounted Police to give chase.
Also, don't forget to roll over and show your belly. Avert your head and don't look at the big guy - it might provoke him. or her. or them.
In the incident involving the California murder suspects, at least two Canadian guards left their posts after learning the fugitives were headed their way.
After Whatcom County sheriff's Deputy Stuart Smith spotted the suspects' car at a rest stop about five miles south of Blaine and attempted to arrest them, the pair sped off. Smith followed them to the end of Interstate 5, witnesses said.
"It was like something out of a movie," said Miguel Ramos, the owner of Paso del Norte, a Mexican restaurant a block or so from the U.S. border station. "These cars came screeching through here, there was a big crash" Smith ramming the suspects' vehicle "and then they ran off toward the Canadian side."
The shots that stopped them were fired by U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors, said Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo. Elfo, a former Blaine police chief, said the incident was the most sensational border apprehension he could recall.
"You know they're not armed at the station across the border," Elfo said. "That's always a consideration" for U.S. law-enforcement personnel when they are deciding on a course of action during a pursuit.
Moran said members of his union were responding appropriately to the risk by walking off their posts until danger had passed.
"It's normal human behavior," he said. "It is strictly a question of these men and women wanting to make sure they get back to their families at the end of their shift."
No 'duty, honor, country' kinds of considerations, I guess. Sigh. Who doesn't want to get home safely to the family? But it truly isn't Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood at the moment and if Canada isn't part of the solution she's going to become more and more a part of the problem.
#1
Well, I suspect that if the guards were armed and one of them did shoot a crook, he'd find himself on trial for "excessive force" or some such. In that case, why bother?
#4
Its like other aspects of the English language employed by the various former colonies of the Mother tongue. We south of the border often refer to people who perform the job of 'guard' as someone usually armed. On the other hand we refer to someone not armed at a point of transit as an 'observer' or a 'ticker puncher'.
#5
exercising a legal right under Canadian law to leave a workplace they considered unsafe
I don't understand why you had to put that in bold. Why is that law so strange? All it means is that if an employee finds his work conditions unsafe, then the employer can't fire the worker for refusing to work if indeed the work conditions turn out to be unsafe (by law, common sense, or whatever). Don't you have protections like this in the US? You mean that a power line worker in the US can be fired for refusing to climb a pole in a lightning storm??? Now that's weird.
And please don't mention firemen,policemen etc, because that's not what that law is about.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 21:04
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#6
well, I would say a "guard" who leaves his post when things get dangerous is actually an overdressed "receptionist"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:16
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#7
No 'duty, honor, country' kinds of considerations, I guess. Sigh. Who doesn't want to get home safely to the family? But it truly isn't Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood at the moment and if Canada isn't part of the solution she's going to become more and more a part of the problem.
Typical American overreaction. Misses the point completely. Armed guards won't do much for border security, or your security for that matter.
Sorry, I have to vent because that "No 'duty, honor, country' kinds of considerations" is kinda over the top. I guess by the same reasoning the London Bobbies don't have a sense of duty, honor, and country kinds of considerations. What bile.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 21:18
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#8
And you, Frank, would do what? Throw yourself in front of the car?
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 21:20
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#9
"You know they're not armed at the station across the border," Elfo said. "That's always a consideration" for U.S. law-enforcement personnel when they are deciding on a course of action during a pursuit.
It's always refreshing to see someone's got more than an ounce of common sense.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 21:23
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#10
I wouldn't take a job that required me to throw myself in front of a car...but that's just me, I guess...If you want a professional job that requires policing actions, don't take it without the tools of teh job: handcuffs, spike strips, a gun, bullets, a badge that means something....
jeebus, we issue thatand more to our highway patrol officers. Don't ask someone to be a guard when you equip them like a f&*king turnstile!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:25
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#11
"Canadians being proud of the fact that we don't greet people at the border crossings with someone who's armed"
Yep, overdressed receptionists. But it's not the "guards" fault -- it's their pathetic government.
#12
We south of the border often refer to people who perform the job of 'guard' as someone usually armed. On the other hand we refer to someone not armed at a point of transit as an 'observer' or a 'ticker puncher'.
That's because every Tom, Dick and Harry in your country can have a gun. I'm not knocking that but it'd be kind of stupid if a guard in your country didn't have a weapon of some sort with that kind of saturation of guns. Canada is still in the situation where we can get away with the average mall security guard not requiring a gun (though we are getting close to the breaking point).
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 21:34
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#13
mall security here does not carry guns in almost ALL cases. Mace, yes, radio, yes. It's not the prevalence of guns...it's the authority attitude
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:36
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#14
Okay, but what if they hold passports from 12 countries? The guards, I mean. I'm just askin...
#15
And please don't mention firemen,policemen etc, because that's not what that law is about.
Agreed - however I find it strange that you consider your border guards NOT to be in the same category as law enforcement and firemen.
I understand your sensitivity on this issue. I wonder if you understand the frustration many of us have with what sometimes appears to be rather ... casual ... concern for the border and who comes across it (in either direction).
Perhaps my comments in the article were unfair. But the image of (admittedly ill-equipped) guards leaving their posts rather than serving with courage is a better fit than I would like for what seems to be Canada's stance these last few years with regard to wider threats.
#18
above and beyond, Raphael (your ill-humor/sarcasm is beneath you). They are on extended patrols without backup nearby, and can count only on their own skills/equipment. Rather than be sarcastic, perhaps you should lobby your own to adopt that stance, which is safer for the guards, and likely safer to crossers
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:55
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#19
Rafael - I can't speak for every state, but in most U.S. states, the highway patrol (state police) officers usually are considered more that just "regular" cops. They patrol isolated highways alone, with any backup quite a distance away in case of trouble. (Unlike local cops, who have backup a few streets away.) And if a local police department has a problem or possible conflict of interest, the highway patrol/state police investigates. In most cases, they are (at least considered) supercops.
Think Texas Rangers - "one riot, one ranger."
State cops in the U.S. are comparable to the RCMP as we perceive the Mounties - I don't pretend to really know how the Mounties operate.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 22:05
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#20
Agreed - however I find it strange that you consider your border guards NOT to be in the same category as law enforcement and firemen.
You would seriously put them in the same category? I'd say police officers and fire fighters have an nth degree more dangerous job than a guard at a border crossing, who generally doesn't need to worry about not coming home one day. I guess I find it equally perplexing that you seem to think that not having a gun means being completely devoid of authority, but that's the heart of our differences, I guess.
I understand your sensitivity on this issue. I wonder if you understand the frustration many of us have with what sometimes appears to be rather ... casual ... concern for the border and who comes across it (in either direction).
That's because there isn't a problem at our common border. I don't understand your concern. Who do you think comes across our common border? Illegal Mexicans? Chinese? Cubans? The vast majority are Canadian and US citizens. If it happens that someone has false identity papers, then that's not really a border guard issue is it? Your concerns are misplaced.
Perhaps my comments in the article were unfair. But the image of (admittedly ill-equipped) guards leaving their posts rather than serving with courage is a better fit than I would like for what seems to be Canada's stance these last few years with regard to wider threats.
First of all, that was done as a protest. Secondly, you can only claim bravado because your guards are armed. Thirdly, your image of a Canada without courage seems to contradict facts, given that our comparatively ill-equipped troops are at this very moment serving in Afghanistan alongside your top-of-the-line military.
I suspect what you were really after is just another excuse at good old fashioned Canada bashing. The least you could do is to be honest about it.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 22:36
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#21
State cops in the U.S. are comparable to the RCMP as we perceive the Mounties - I don't pretend to really know how the Mounties operate.
Canada also has the provincial police, which I think is more comparable to your state police than the RCMP. The RCMP is more like your FBI. In addition to the railway cops who do carry guns (CN Police). In other words, we're more alike than you seem to think.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 22:49
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#22
Rather than be sarcastic, perhaps you should lobby your own to adopt that stance, which is safer for the guards, and likely safer to crossers
I didn't vote Conservative on a whim. I hope they do get guns, for their sake, and particularly because they asked for them. But my contention has always been that this will not have any impact whatsoever on border security, perceived border security, expression of authority, or what have you.
BTW, it used to be, even before 9-11, that upon arrival at Toronto's international airport, on an overseas flight, that I always saw a Canadian soldier standing guard at the airport's border crossing. This shouldn't be, if American perceptions of Canadian border policies are correct.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 23:10
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#23
fair enough - remember, Raphael - we are not your enemies. Carping relatives, yes, but even they have constructive suggestions sometimes .....
I would prefer that there be no need for armed guards in either direction at the US Canada border, but that's another 120 count thread :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 23:16
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#24
That I haven't forgotten Frank. I've always been pro-American and I suspect I always will be. And so will my family. A somewhat funny story... my father, whom I look after, is disabled and has trouble communicating due to aphasia. The morning of 9-11 he had no trouble communicating his anger at those assholes flying the planes into the buildings. Took me a while to convince him that the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan were on our side.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/20/2006 23:54
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The French police arrested late Thursday night most of the members of the gang that abducted, tortured and murdered Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jew from Paris.
Hundreds of SWAT officers raided apartments in Bagneux and arrested 12 people. Another suspect was arrested in Belgium.
"They acted with indescribable cruelty," the judiciary police chief leading the investigation said. "They kept him naked and tied up for weeks. They cut him and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight."
While the citizens of France were shocked by the unbridled violence of the gang, Halimi's family claims that the murder was motivated by anti-Semitism.
"We think there is anti-Semitism in this affair," Rafi Halimi, Ilan's uncle, told the press.
"First, because the killers tried to kidnap at least two other Jews, and second, because of what they said on the phone," Rafi Halimi added. "When we said we didn't have 500,000 euros to give them they told us to go to the synagogue and get it," Rafi said. "They also recited verses from the Koran."
But the Paris public prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, told Parisian Jewish radio on Thursday that "no element of the current investigation could link this murder to an anti-Semitic declaration or action."
nope, didn't happen and you can't prove it and why don't you just ... go on a vacation or something.
The umbrella group of French Jewish secular organizations, CRIF, issued a statement Friday calling on the Jewish community "to keep calm, cautious and wait for developments in the investigation."
Ilan Halimi's family points to the behavior of the kidnappers in their ransom negotiations, which began a few days after Ilan disappeared. Halimi was abducted on January 21 after a woman came into the mobile phone store where he worked and charmed him into a dinner date. The woman had been sent by the gang, which calls itself "The Barbarians." A police source said the gang is a group of childhood friends who grew up in Bagneux, a suburb south of Paris. The gang includes Muslims of North African descent and is headed by Youssef Fofana, who has escaped police capture so far. According to Marin, the gang had made six similar abduction attempts in the past.
After overpowering Halimi, the gang brought him to an apartment in a high-rise in Bagneux. They contacted Halimi's family and over the next three weeks demanded ransoms ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 euros. According to reports, at one point they agreed upon a deal and set a meeting place but the kidnappers backed out and eventually ended contact.
A source in the Jewish community said the gang's behavior suggested that the motive behind the kidnapping was violence for its own sake, particularly against Jews.
"Why didn't they release him when the realized the family couldn't pay ransom?" asked Sami Gazlan, who is responsible for security in the Jewish community.
Last Monday, a few days after the kidnappers ended contact with the family, Ilan was found near a suburban train station south of Paris, naked, handcuffed and gagged, with burns covering 80 percent of his body. He died on the way to the hospital.
The first break in the case came on Thursday after the police released an Identikit image of the woman suspected of "baiting" Halimi. The woman turned herself in out of fears that neighbors would identify her, and identified the apartment where Halimi had been kept.
The store where Halimi had worked was closed Saturday. Several shops in the area, the 11th arondissement, were closed on Friday, with signs explaining that it was a gesture of sympathy for Halimi's family.
good
Many of the shopkeepers were among the 1,000 or so people who attended Ilan Halimi's funeral in the Pantin cemetery.
Dozens of family members returned home, in the 12th arondissement, to begin sitting shiva after the funeral. Walking back, accompanied by police officers, relatives expressed their shock at the murder.
"We are in total shock," a close friend of Ilan's said Saturday. "All of us, Ilan's mother especially, have not yet begun to comprehend what happened."
The French are going to have to decide - RIGHT NOW - whether they will tolerate kidnapping and torture of French citizens on French soil. If the national authorities do not crack down right now, hard, they truly are lost.
I wish I could say I was betting they would stand up to this barbaric shit, but I'm not optimistic at this point. I think the car-b-ques have them cowering along the Champs Elysee.
#2
Instapundit has a link to more on this story by an Israeli blogger. An interesting bit she dropped was, "I heard about it several days ago, only because my in-laws are French, and the affair has understandably shaken the French Jewish community to the core. We had a large wave of French Jews immigrating to Israel last summer. Something tells me that this summer we're going to have another one."
I'm very happy to see the Jews of France aren't as head-in-the-sand as we'd feared.
#3
Thinking further, it will be interesting to see how the Rothschilds respond to all this. A goodly portion of them converted to Catholicism at one time or another, I understand, but the family still retains strong ties to Judaism and even Israel -- I think they sponsor a kosher winery there, amongst other endeavors (long before Zionism the family supported colonies of scholars in Hebron and such).
#4
If the upshot is all those dirtly little people go back to their sh!++y little country, the French would not be at all averse to letting the muzzies take credit the blame for it. Then they crack down on the muzzies. Sort of. If they ever do it to a real Frenchman.
"I'm very happy to see the Jews of France aren't as head-in-the-sand as we'd feared."
Reminds me of an old joke..
A preacher made his way one Sunday to dinner as a guest of an old farmer who didnt get out to church much anymore. The farmer and his brood welcomed the preacher and he took his seat next to the farmer at the table. The familys old hound, Dog, sat beneath the table, near his master as always.
Shortly after the soup was served an awful smell permeated the room. No sound, just the horrid smell. The farmer eyes shot down beneath the table. Dog, he said sternly. The Preacher muttered no harm done. It was passing the potatoes that that the farmer froze, having encountered a wall of putrid, eye-tearing fumes of hell bad smell. His family froze as well. The farmer sat, leaned beneath the table and hissed, Dog. The Preacher leaned over and touched the Farmer on the shoulder. No harm done, he soothed.
The gravy for the mashed potatoes had just been placed before the Farmer, when the smell came once again, a silent tsunami of sulpher and rotting meat. The farmer coughed, glanced at the Preacher and pushed back his chair. Leaning under the table, he commanded, Dog. Get the hell out from under there before the Preacher damn suffocates you.
It may be wise for the Jews of France to seek other countries for haven for a while.
By Brigitte Gabriel [Editor's Note: Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC, Saturday February 18, 2006].
We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2006
06:50 ||
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#1
"Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise."
#2
I wish I could - life is indeed to short. Unfortunately, I have a number of art studenty / left right on friends, and I cant stand being cornered by the argument, which I use myself with regards cartoons, etc:
"Why dont you watch the film before you judge it."
Momentum is building within the Air Force to sell the service's prized F-22A Raptor -- which is loaded with super-secret systems -- to trusted U.S. allies, with Japan viewed as the most likely buyer, service and industry officials tell Inside the Air Force. A Lockheed Martin official heavily involved in the Raptor program told ITAF Feb. 14 that a proposal to alter course and sell the Raptor to Japan is working its way through the Air Force. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2006
06:47 ||
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#1
I don't know - I'm not a fan of sharing our #1, tip-top, absolute best technology with anyone. Except maybe England, and even maybe not, these days.
#5
I seriously think this is a bad idea. There is no telling what kind of spies may exist in other countries, especially Japan with it being so close to China/North Korea. Maybe 15years down the road when we've made HUGE improvements sell them the old ones, but not now.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/20/2006 10:21
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#6
I remember when th US sold F-14s to Iran. I mean the Shah wasn't going anyplace, right?
#7
Just one more reason to believe our civilization is doomed! Whether we do the Politicians first or the Muzzies, remains to be seen. Maybe we could do them both at the same time.
#8
these export versions should have the secret code writen into the software that allows us to shut down any or all parts tht appear menacing. imagine the fun at 20 thousand fet when the fans go quiet and all you hear is the starter whining away. and AAA won't make house calls; at least not in time anyway...
#9
This is probably not something the brass is eager to do, but they are willing to do to keep the production lines open and amortize the per unit cost a little.
#10
Thanks for the leak; this needs to be aired out in the domain of PO! I don't see other nations flying around in one of our stealth fighters, or B2s. Like Charles (#5) indicated head on, let others watch in awe for a few years and then throw out the scraps for the wolves!
#11
At a guess - and that's all it is - the brass feel then need a new human piloted fighter despite the very high expense.
Don't forget, however, that technologies like UCAVs are maturing quickly. By the time this is sold and delivered, if it is, it may well represent an important but NOT the most advanced capability we have in the air.
#12
Export versions are always a bit detuned, and they don't always get the latest upgrades. I'm not concerned about giving the good stuff to Japan or the UK; Germany's still on probation, though.
The Shah's F-14s didn't fly much after the revolution. It seems the Grumman maintenance techies did something nasty to the black boxes on the way out the door, and there was always the problem of spare parts . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
02/20/2006 17:54
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#13
It seems the Grumman maintenance techies did something nasty to the black boxes on the way out the door
Jeez Mike, I'd hate be the one to find that out
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 18:01
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#14
Australia? The UK? Japan? Israel? Hell yes! We'll also be able to buy more. Maybe even Canada.
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar ||
02/20/2006
06:05 ||
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#1
Your very own Admiral was there - quite saddened to the dearth of fellow compatriots in attendance. You'll just have to take my word that I did a good job of
1) Decreasing the eye-rolling / devoted Profit eulogising quotient, and
2) Increasing the eyes glazed / silent seething sectors
COME ON UK - INCREASE DA PEACE, CRITICIZE A PHONY PROFIT TODAY!!!
I am worried that I might have a slight obsession with turning peaceful Islamic devotees into seething, fulminating, demon eyed moonbats, by criticizing their highly suspect Profit Mohammed (ham salami wa'gravy) / Holey books Am I a pervert?
#3
Um, are you talking to me? [Insert DeNiro routine here...]
If so, well, I have to ask if you're doing this intentionally?
More to the point: Are you, like, breathing and stuff?
That'd do it, alrightee...
About the pervert / prevert thingy, well heh, you'd be better served by asking someone else, lol. I'm pretty sure that some prejudicial folks would put me in that pigeonhole -- *sniff* / *LOL* -- I'm thinking it's jealousy, but...
;-)
I'm hoping that muzzy-baiting will catch on as a kind of high-brow / intellectuals adrenaline sport.
There's a whole raft of untapped talent out there with loads of spare neurons going round, looking for direction, now that self-flaggelation seems to be going out of fashion in the free world. (OK, maybe I'm being optimistic here...)
Whilst I tend to agree with your espousals of the good old fashioned rhetoric of "argumentum ad baculum" I have to say that even the most addled hafiz can be silenced or caused to chase their tails in increasingly ridiculous ever decreasing circular arguments using good old fashioned logic. Taqeya is a real challenge, but all you need to remember is:
1) Keep it real - often massive substantiation is required, references, etc - tedious, but necessary.
2) Make em laugh - often tricky, but glazed eyes / seething is usually a good indicator you are making your mark / reaching the limits. I find the Koran / Hadeeth / Sunnah quite hilarious in parts (sickening in others, but those bits are the deal closers...)
3) Never trust em. Even with your name. Ever.
I gather from your previous posts you used to work in Sow-di? Any good stories for us
I have to disagree - and refer you to my first post. There is a marked visible difference between ones that are in a semi-trancendent adoration of their profit (beans, peas upon him) / eulogising the koran and the later, which seems to be accompanied by a kind of ecstatic cheek flushing and rolling of the eyes, as compared to the post AAA assault; evil / glazed eyes and seething.
Not only is it extremely satisfying, but the seething is far less attractive to any potential recruits.
Christians do it, cuz they're not afraid of death & believe in an afterlife, and also have some ahl al-Kitab covenant type fallback. I do it because theyre a bunch of pussies.
#7
A real treat is if you catch a newly converted one. The way they teach the seething thing is by telling them that good muslims must pray to god for self control when the profit (smelly lavhoo sp'spam) is being insulted. So they try to act out as if they are actually trying really hard to restrain their over-exaggerated anger.
My personal favourite is when they actually start to stamp their feet. Especially when in full garb / tea towel.
Playing it by their rules is a bit sickening, admittedly, but its worth it - this stuff really lifts my spirits...
Yes, lol, I worked in Saudi - and I've already bored everyone with my stories. I don't do it much, anymore as I sympathize with those who don't care for repetition, lol.
The "intentionally" was tongue in cheek, as the next sentence should have made clear. Did I fail there? ;-)
As for "argumentum ad baculum" - that is a logical fallacy you're accusing me of, lol. I protest! My advocacy of action, rather hardcore action, is based upon knowing the Saudis, in particular, and other Muzzies (Arab and Other) who worked at Aramco, in general, well enough to recognize that most of our carefully crafted Western logic, while laudable in a debating venue, isn't worth warm spit to either an Arab or a Muzzy. What they both recognize at face value and respect is ...[insert drum roll]... power. Unapologetic, unvarnished raw power. It is so now and has always been so. Fallujah I was a disaster - we allowed politicians into the mix and they promptly fucked the whole thing up. Fallujah II was a rousing success because we killed shitloads of the asshats and they learned that fucking with the Military was, literally, suicide. So, with typical Arab / Muzzy logic, they went after civilians, mainly, thereafter, being Lions of Islam and all that rot. So I protesteth the assertion that I am using a logical fallacy by advocating the use of power - I assert that I'm dead solid perfect right-the-fuck-on with it. Heh, of course if I didn't think that, I'd say something else, lol...
As for baiting them, lol, sounds like fun if you have the time and are in range. I don't see too many of 'em in my daily life anymore, living in Sin City. :-)
I did, while in Saudi, have the very pointless, yet eye-opening, experience of having one (who had spent several years in the US) try to convert me. It was nuance and subtlety all the way.
Note: you could, once upon a time when they didn't covet every position in Aramco, be utterly incompetent at your "job" and survive for decades as an expat contractor, especially if you would suck up to 'em -- but screw up socially, by talking to the ninjas or dissing Islam or dissing a powerful Saudi with beaucoup wasta (this last reason is very common within Aramco) and you are on a plane in 24 hrs. Full stop. Now, with their demographics turning to total shit, they're replacing every expat they think they can get away with without ruining their oil production, in addition to the reasons stated above which have since sharpened dramatically, so areas like IT are where non-Muzzies are often forfeit on a whim.
Anyway, since I didn't want to get thrown out of the country, I listened politely and simply played tit-for-tat. Don't recall all of the specifics of the main long conversation, but I do recall that he was extremely frustrated because each argument was parried without effort. I did "tease" him a bit about their treatment of females as "pets" - at the good end of the scale - as it was an area in which I could needle him without much danger of being shot out of the saddle. We didn't seem to ever get to female castration and honor killing at the other end of the scale... Funny thing is, after failing, and knowing he failed, he didn't speak to me again. Go figure, huh? Lol.
To be honest, there were many like him who had spent time in the West, some even born here, and while they were lonely for conversation with us infidels (I was often accosted, lol), they were completely unwilling to give up their role in SaoodiLand as "Master" - even if circumscribed to their household. They all, every one I ever met, reverted to the Saudi norm upon return and were never to be counted as friends. They'd drop you in the hot grease without a second thought, if it served them. The old saw is, "You can be their friend, but never ever forget that they will never be your friend."
Some say the Saudis aren't the norm and yadda³ about how I'm unfair to non-Saudi Arabs n' Muzzies. Funny thing is, it's the Saudi money which does the barking and holds sway. That is where the Muzzy in the West is, and will continue, to gravitate - until the funding is cut off, at least. When a jihadi taps a passive on the shoulder and demands support - in whatever form - they comply. This is what the evidence clearly demonstrates. I will happily eat these words when the 101st Moderate Muzzy Brigade starts hanging jihadis and imams from the lampposts. I hold zero hope of ever "reforming" any, or encountering any "self-reformed", Muzzies - with "reform" meaning tolerance so they can live alongside another ideology or religion without attempting to foment violence and conversion. Zero.
#11
Prevert, .com? It's the fluorinated water, you know.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/20/2006 13:00
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#12
The American people welcome the exercise of freedom of conscience by adherents of the noble faith of Islam in the UK, and we again express regret at having supported polices that oppressed Islamists and inhibited their full participation in national life in the Middle East. We accept your blame, and express supreme guilt. Please accept both our apology and our copious aid to Islamist movements and governments.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:57
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.com, you bring up a very important point. Logical fallacies may be verboten in the debating world, but they happen all the time in the real world.
Slippery slopes do exist and the camel is forever poking his nose under the tent flap.
ISLAMIC leaders are disturbed Prime Minister John Howard has singled out the Muslim community as extremist and unwilling to becoming part of mainstream Australia.
Mr Howard believes some Muslims migrating to Australia are bringing problems such as jihadist views and conservative attitudes to women not encountered with other immigrant groups.
The Prime Minister's views, contained in a book to be published later this month, have drawn fire from Islamic leaders, who say every community has its bad elements.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has stressed it is a tiny minority of the Islamic community that is a concern. "(Those) who have shown sympathy for, or enthusiasm for, the jihadism movement and obviously ... they have been a preoccupation and a concern for us," he said.
Mr Howard today stood by his comments, first made in December and before the Cronulla riot.
"There is a small section of the Islamic population in Australia that, because of its remarks about jihad, remarks which indicate an extremist view, that is a problem," he said. "It is not a problem that we have ever faced with other immigrant communities who become easily absorbed by Australia's mainstream."
Mr Howard said the community at large wanted newcomers to adopt Australian ways. "We don't ask them to forget the countries of their birth, we respect all religious points of views ... but there are certainly things that are not part of the Australian mainstream," he said.
The Prime Minister also expressed concern about Muslim attitudes to women. "There is within some sections of the Islamic community an attitude towards women which is out of line with mainstream Australian society," he said.
Islamic leaders are concerned by the Prime Minister's comments. Islamic Council of NSW spokesman Ali Roude questioned whether Mr Howard was changing Australia's policy of multiculturalism to one of assimilation. "If the PM has a personal preference for assimilation rather than the strategy of multiculturalism which has been the strong bipartisan position in Australia since the days of the Fraser government, that is his personal right and he is entitled to it," Mr Roude said.
"However, if the PM is suggesting a major revision or redirection of policy ... then this is a much more serious matter and one which the entire Australian community need to consider together."
Mr Roude was also concerned that Mr Howard was singling out Muslims as holding extremist views. "To suggest that Muslims alone are extremists in our society or that anyone except the smallest minority of Muslims in Australia act in this manner, or that Muslims as a group cannot adapt and embrace Australia's ways, is as invalid an argument as it is offensive and ignorant," he said.
Lebanese Muslims Association spokesman Keysar Trad said Mr Howard was pandering to the "Islamaphobia" in the community. "I'm extremely disappointed that the PM would again single out the Muslim community still reeling from the spin out of the Cronulla riots," Mr Trad said. Mr Trad also said Mr Howard had been wrong to criticise Islamic attitudes towards women, saying Mohammed had given women equal rights long before they became acceptable in 20th century western society.
And then ... his lips fell off.
The comments are contained in a new book to mark the 10th anniversary of Mr Howard's rise to power. Written by journalists and commentators from The Australian, The Howard Factor - A decade that changed the nation will be published on February 27 and launched by the Prime Minister on March 2.
#3
ISLAMIC leaders are disturbed Prime Minister John Howard has singled out the Muslim community as extremist and unwilling to becoming part of mainstream Australia.
#5
Assimilate. No multi-culti for allenists. No "seperate" communities. Don't allow them to "getto" themselves up to become any kind of political force at all.
It's the religion. It's not compatable with the 21st century or western civilization.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari's nomination to continue for four more years as Iraq's prime minister is already in trouble, according to Iraqi sources.
"I doubt he will be confirmed," said a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shia political coalition that last week nominated al-Jaafari.
The nomination by the UIA, the largest political group in the new Iraqi Council of Representatives, or parliament, was supposed to make confirmation a formality.
But al-Jaafari is unpopular with the Kurds, the second largest bloc in the council. And his most powerful backer, anti-American Shia militant Muqtada al-Sadr, is anathema to another bloc, led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which the Kurds insist must be part of the new government.
At the same time, al-Jaafari is having trouble holding together his own coalition, which nominated him by a majority of just one vote. One party in the Shia bloc - the Virtue Party, which voted against him - is publicly threatening to pull out. At the same time, sources in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which fielded the losing candidate, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said they have not given up hope that Abdul Mahdi will get the job.
According to sources who provided for the first time a precise breakdown of the secret vote, al-Jaafari won with support from his own Dawa Party, which, including a splinter group, gave him 25 votes, as well as 29 votes from al-Sadr's faction (one member was absent), and 10 votes from independents. The Supreme Council, Virtue and the rest of the independents voted for Abdul Mahdi. There are 275 members of parliament.
On Thursday, Iraqi President and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, during a provocative meeting with the defeated Abdul Mahdi, warned that al-Jaafari's nomination does not mean appointment, according to an Iraqi television report. He has also insisted that the new government must include Allawi, who tried to put al-Sadr in prison when Allawi was prime minister.
Talabani is still expected in the next few weeks to give al-Jaafari the opportunity to draw up a cabinet. But under the Iraqi constitution, if he fails to win endorsement for his cabinet from a majority in the Council of Representatives, al-Jaafari will have to give the opportunity to someone else.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:53 ||
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Since Ibrahim al-Jaafari became prime minister, terrorist attacks have diminished (albeit slightly), Al-Sadr have joined the democratic process, and the Sunnis stopped boycotting the elections.
Even if the American withdrew all their forces now, the democratic government in Baghdad would most likely survive.
With Jaafari or without him...
Posted by: Sonia Belle ||
02/20/2006 16:00
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Only the point about al Sadr had much of anything to do with Jaafari - and that just blew up in his face.
SENIOR Israeli and Palestinian representatives have held secret talks in America to discuss ways of sidelining Hamas, the Islamic militant group that took power for the first time in the Palestinian territories yesterday after emerging as the surprise victor in elections last month.
Senior figures linked to the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government took part in two days of talks in Texas. The meeting was chaired by Edward Djerejian, 65, a former US ambassador to Israel and Syria, who was briefed by the US State Department before it began.
News of the contacts between the Israelis and supporters of the Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, emerged as the new Palestinian parliament, dominated by Hamas, was sworn in yesterday in Ramallah, on the West Bank. Abbas then asked Hamas to form a government.
Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel, immediately rejected calls by Abbas to open negotiations with the Jewish state. Abdel Aziz Duaik, who was elected speaker, said Hamas would try to live up to its rightful duty to resist occupation.
A participant in the US talks, held on February 8 and 9 at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston, said those present had discussed how to sideline Hamas, whose parliamentary victory has been seen as a serious obstacle to any peace settlement.
Jibril Rajoub, 50, national security adviser to Abbas who led the Palestinian delegation, confirmed yesterday that the meeting had been backed by Washington. I believe that the State Department has a great interest that our talks should succeed, Rajoub said.
They know that Hamas cant deliver and the most important issue now is to strengthen the position of the president. He said that Abbas had been informed of the results of the meeting and was encouraged and approved the understanding achieved between the two sides.
Djerejian met senior State Department officials the day before the meeting and updated them by telephone during the sessions. The source said the most urgent issue under discussion had been how to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territories if the United States and other western countries went ahead with a threat to cut aid in response to Hamass victory.
One of the proposals discussed was to channel western aid to the Palestinians through governors who were members of Fatah rather than through a Hamas government. What happened last month (Hamass victory) was a political accident that can still be reversed, Rajoub is said to have told the meeting.
It should all be done in a democratic and legal way. Money should not only continue to flow but even to increase, so long as it does not end up in Hamass hands.
Rajoub is understood to have claimed that Hamass natural support stands at no more than 15%. I believe that we can turn the clock back and new parliamentary elections are not ruled out in due course, he is said to have added.
The talks appear to have opened a new channel of communication between Abbas, Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli prime minister, and the Americans, which is expected to be used again in coming months.
The source said the meetings findings had been reported to both leaders and also to Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, who is travelling to the Middle East this week.
Each side had four representatives. The Israeli side included General Uri Sagui, 60, a former head of military intelligence.
Djerejian is believed to have been planning the talks since the beginning of this year with the aim of promoting the Middle East peace process. His proposal took on a new dimension after Hamass victory.
Most of the principal breakthroughs in the Middle East have been the result of negotiations that began in secret. These included a peace agreement concluded in 1979 between Israel and Egypt and the so-called Oslo peace accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians, signed in Washington in September 1993. One of the architects of the Oslo agreement, Dr Yair Hirschfeld of Haifa University, was also a participant in the Houston talks.
Although Hamas has 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament, Abbas retains considerable power as president, controlling foreign affairs, security and peace negotiations. In his speech to parliament he demanded that the militants recognise existing peace deals and back his moderate policies including negotiations with Israel as the sole strategic choice of the Palestinians.
After the session, both Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamass choice for prime minister, said that they would try to resolve their deep differences through dialogue. Haniyeh was prevented by Israeli security controls from travelling from Gaza to Ramallah and was forced to follow the proceedings on a video link.
Sami Abu Zahra, a Hamas spokesman, said there was a clear political divide between the two sides, especially over negotiations with Israel. But he added: This difference will not lead to a clash between the government and the presidency as the political process is already blocked by the Israeli occupation which does not recognise any peace agreements. After leaving parliament, Abbas told reporters: Why assume that there will be a crisis? Let us resort to dialogue. Everything comes through dialogue.
The Israeli cabinet is due to vote today on imposing sanctions against the Palestinians, including sealing Gaza and keeping out thousands of Palestinian workers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:52 ||
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#1
You weaken them like you weaken the terrorists in Iraq. The same methodology that Israel has used for years. We can start by exchanging IFF codes for the airspace over the West Bank and Iran.
#3
One way to "actively weaken" Hamas is to make d@mn sure that we don't backtrack on withholding the money we said we would. Not a plug nickle for these bloodsuckers.
#4
Money should not only continue to flow but even to increase, so long as it does not end up in Hamass hands.
We've got plenty of people here in the U.S. who could use that aid and would be grateful for it and productive with it. Support democracy and natural selection: let the Palestinians live with their choices.
I wonder if a valid census has ever been done of who really is now in the West Bank. With all the settlements and the like in the last thirty years, can anyone say with certainty that the Israelis may not be in fact the bigger part of the population. With Gaza out of the picture, just who then is the occupier on the West Bank?
#10
I wonder if a valid census has ever been done of who really is now in the West Bank.
I posted a link on just that question recently on p.4, if you want to go look for it. To sum up, the population numbers listed by the Palestinian Authority are high by at least 1 million (lots of double and triple counting), the Palestinian birth rate is only 3.something (PA women love their educations and their birth control pills), the Israeli birth rate is 2.something because the non-Euro Jews have lots of babies, and supposedly the Jewish population in Israel plus the West Bank is 67% of the total. Also, lots of quiet emigration of Palestinians from the PA as there appears to be no end to the chaos and violence under successive "governments."
The United States is seeking to build an international coalition of nuclear powers to provide safe fuel and stop sensitive technology reaching rogue states, officials said.
Robert Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said the programme aims to prevent future Iran - a reference to the increasingly tense standoff over suspicions that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
The United States wants to stop countries which seek to acquire sensitive technology associated with enrichment and reprocessing with real purposes other than nuclear energy, Joseph said late Thursday.
The United States will work with other advanced nuclear nations to develop a fuel services programmeme that would provide nuclear fuel and recycling services to nations in return for their commitment to refrain from developing enrichment and recycling technologies.
US officials have visited a number of world capitals and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in recent weeks to press the case for action against Iran and for the safe energy coalition.
They went to London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo. We found agreement with potential partners, said Clay Sell, the deputy energy secretary.
We want a large international partnership in terms of developing and sharing the fruit of this initiative, because in that way it will become truly a win-win for all of us in terms of energy security, environmental objectives, and of course in terms of non-proliferation, said Joseph.
President George W Bush said on Saturday he hoped to promote greater use of nuclear power both at home and abroad, and said he saw promise in new technology aimed at reducing nuclear waste.
Bush has asked the US Congress for $250 million to fund research to restart a controversial programme that would reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
The initiative would also involve working with other countries like Russia, France, Japan and Britain to establish an infrastructure to supply nuclear fuel to other nations.
Together, we will develop and deploy innovative, advanced reactors and new methods to recycle spent nuclear fuel, Bush said in his weekly radio address.
This will allow us to produce more energy, while dramatically reducing the amount of nuclear waste and eliminating the nuclear byproducts that unstable regimes or terrorists could use to make weapons, he added.
Bush said the programme, known as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, would eventually be expanded to help emerging economies develop nuclear fuel supplies.
In exchange, these countries would agree to use nuclear power only for civilian purposes and forego uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:50 ||
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Efforts to form a government of national unity in Iraq are floundering amid concerns from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secularists at the "undue influence" within the ruling Shia alliance of the militant anti-western cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The 33-year old firebrand - whose support was crucial to last week's controversial re-nomination of the prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari - threw the nascent talks into disarray at the weekend, saying he opposed Iraq's new federal constitution and repeating calls for the swift withdrawal of US and other foreign forces.
"I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all," he told al-Jazeera television in a rare interview, conducted in Jordan. He added that the withdrawal of foreign forces "should be the priority of the future Iraqi government."
The tortuous negotiations over policies and posts in the new government begin in earnest this week, but most say it will take weeks if not months until Iraqis see the first full-term administration since the fall of Saddam. Mr Sadr's supporters also ruled out the inclusion of the former prime minister Ayad Allawi in any future government.
"[Allawi's] participation in government is a red line for the Sadr stream," said Fatah al-Sheikh, a pro-Sadr member of the national assembly. Mr Sadr's followers say they cannot forgive Mr Allawi for the bloody assault during his term in office on the al Mahdi army in the sacred Shia city of Najaf.
The blunt statements by Mr Sadr are at odds with his partners and rivals in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), as well as with the powerful Kurdish bloc - the UIA's junior coalition allies. Both Sciri and the Kurds back the constitution and rule out a firm date for troop withdrawal. The Kurds say they will not join any administration unless it includes Mr Allawi's list. "We believe there will be no political stability until all the Iraqi constituencies are included," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Kurdish negotiating committee. "That's why the Kurdish alliance are working on a government that includes the the Sunni Arabs as well as Allawi."
Iraq's leading non-Shia parties are also mounting a last-minute bid to block the reappointment of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister, citing his previous ineffectiveness in office and his new "political debt" to Mr Sadr.
"The al-Sadr stream is now very powerful within the United Iraqi Alliance and is now flexing its muscles, trying to have things their way," said an aide to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. "They were the only ones apart from Dawa [Jaafari's party] who supported his candidature. And Jaafari owes them a lot."
After launching two failed uprisings against the Americans in Baghdad and cities across southern Iraq in 2004, Mr Sadr and his al-Mahdi militia, who are popular among the young urban Shia poor, have regrouped and joined the political process. That decision more than paid off in December's elections, which saw Sadrists emerge as the largest single party within the UIA. His followers won 32 of 128 seats gained by the UIA and as a reward for supporting a Jaafari premiership they are expected to get five cabinet posts in the next government.
But the young cleric's apparently inexorable rise within the Shia group has sent shockwaves through the country's non-Shia political establishment.
Although most agree it is better to have the unpredictable Mr Sadr within the political mainstream, his extreme religious views and nationalist rhetoric - designed in part to reach out to disaffected Sunnis - are likely to do little to heal the country's gaping ethnic and sectarian wounds.
Khaled Salih, an Iraq analyst at the University of Denmark, said: "It is fruitless to search for a unifying figure in Iraq. All you can hope for is that the various centres of power that are emerging - Kurds, Shia, Sunnis - can find a relatively peaceful way to share that power. Democracy will come later."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:48 ||
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Efforts to form a government of national unity in Iraq are floundering amid concerns from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secularists at the "undue influence" within the ruling Shia alliance of the militant anti-western cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Please, someone drop a JDAM on Sadr's house in the middle of the night. Barring that, a Hellfire attack from a Predator drone would be the next best thing.
Syria has condemned America for funding opposition groups, just as Condoleezza Rice begins a Middle East tour to push efforts to spread democracy and counter Iran's aggressive nuclear policy.
The American authorities said last week that they had allocated £3 million to "democratic reformers in Syria". The money is part of £180 million in Washington funding to promote reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
The US has also condemned Syria's alleged role in the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, a year ago.
"It is interference in our internal affairs. We reject it totally," said Walid al-Moualem, Syria's foreign minister.
The American secretary of state arrives in Cairo today to meet Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president. Last week, Miss Rice said she was "disappointed" that the president had postponed municipal elections, planned to begin in April, for two years.
Egypt is one of America's chief targets for its scheme to promote democracy in the Middle East.
"The message that I will take to Egypt is that Egypt needs to stay on the democratic course," Miss Rice said.
She will also ask Egypt to refuse finance to the prospective new Hamas government in Palestine as long as it fails to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Egypt is one of the few Arab countries to have signed a peace deal with Israel.
Miss Rice will then travel to Saudi Arabia, continuing her appeal for regional leaders to be tougher with Iran, which last week she called "the central banker to terrorism and a strategic challenge to the United States, to the world, and a destabilising influence in the Middle East."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:47 ||
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#1
The American authorities said last week that they had allocated £3 million to "democratic reformers in Syria".
Is that Khaddam's Muslim Brotherhood buddies or some other variety of reformer?
#2
In light of the recent alliance between the former Vice President of Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood, the people of the United States are proud to finance this democratic opposition to Baathist Secularism. If yet another Islamist government forms under US subsidy, Americans will respect the will of the Syrian people. As President Bush said on Sept. 16, 2001, "Islam is peace." War cannot come out of Islam, a noble faith that gives comfort to over one billion people. Americans will fund the Muslim Brotherhood government of Syria and, in the process, extend freedom in the World. If the Muslim Brotherhood choses to finance terror and threaten Israel, then we will rely on our infinite resolve to...Let me get back to you on that.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:17
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Nepal's King Gyanendra made his first formal approach to the country's estranged political parties yesterday, urging them to join talks and try to put democracy back on track a year after he seized absolute power and fired the government.
"We, therefore, call on all willing political parties to come forth to fully activate, at the earliest, the stalled democratic process in the greater interest of the nation," King Gyanendra said in a national democracy day statement.
The king also urged anti-monarchy Maoist rebels to shun violence and rejoin the mainstream.
There was no immediate response from the rebels, who had called on Saturday for an indefinite nationwide strike against the king from April 3.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:45 ||
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The whole wold knows that the communism is bad. Yet India, USA and Britain have policies which are hard on the King of Nepal and help the comunist. Folks, think straight.
The crisis over Iran's atomic agenda is deepening, but the world's nuclear watchdog chief has warned there may be no choice but to accept limited uranium enrichment by Tehran, diplomats say.
For a mistrustful West, the quid pro quo would be to give U.N. inspectors more intrusive powers via a Security Council resolution to prevent suspected atomic bomb projects.
Tehran in turn would have to pledge no industrial-scale enrichment of uranium.
Countries on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have called for the Iranian controversy to be referred to the U.N. Security Council by March 6.
Iran hit back by breaking a moratorium on enrichment, the process of making fuel for atomic plants or, potentially, bombs.
The board vote has driven Iran into a corner under a banner of national pride and risks paralyzing the Council given that veto-holding Russia and China reject sanctions on Tehran mooted by Washington, IAEA veterans say.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will make no recommendations in a broad report on three years of probes in Iran he is to give to board members on February 27, a week before they convene to weigh whether to urge a course of action by the Security Council.
But he has already suggested in diplomatic circles that a compromise may lie in accepting small-scale enrichment in Iran in exchange for guarantees of no full nuclear fuel production that could enable diversions into bomb-making, diplomats say.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said ElBaradei was still advocating publicly and privately that Iran take steps to earn international confidence by shelving enrichment-related work and cooperating fully with agency investigations.
"He has also told diplomats that Natanz (pilot enrichment plant) is Iran's bottom line, a sovereignty issue, a reality we may have to deal with," a diplomat close to the IAEA, who asked for anonymity due to the subject's sensitivity, said.
"Nothing of consequence will happen in the Security Council because the Russians and Chinese will block sanctions," the diplomat said of the two non-Western big powers determined to protect massive energy investments and trade with Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has welcomed ElBaradei's idea as a potential way to dispel Western suspicions Tehran seeks atomic bombs, while retaining its "irrefutable right to acquire nuclear technology" for electricity generation.
As an incentive for Iran to renounce its goal of industrial enrichment, Russia has offered to provide it purified uranium under a joint venture. This could prevent development of fissile fuel on Iranian soil that might be siphoned into warheads.
Iran agreed to negotiations on the idea in Moscow this week but its Atomic Energy Organization chief warned Iran would accept no deal excluding enrichment at home.
"We are a nuclear country. The (West) knows it has no other choice but to negotiate," Gholamreza Aghazadeh told state television, adding that Iran had invited Western countries to invest in Natanz and be present on site.
"There is no greater objective guarantee (against bomb-building) we can provide to the world," he said.
Last week Iran resumed test-feeding of uranium UF6 gas into a few centrifuges, which spin at supersonic speeds to yield fuel for nuclear plants or, if enriched to high levels, for warheads.
Analysts believe it may take Iran months to revive a cascade of 164 centrifuges corroded by disuse, and considerably longer to hurdle technological barriers to running the minimum 1,000 that would be needed to make fuel for a single crude bomb.
But U.S. and EU leaders, citing Tehran's past record of hiding nuclear work from the IAEA, object that to give Iran any leeway to ramp up UF6 production will hand it the know-how to "break out" with a nuclear arsenal whenever it so chooses.
Then it will be too late to prevent Iran endangering world peace, they say, pointing to the Islamic Republic's calls for
Israel's destruction and alleged support for Muslim militants.
"ElBaradei's suggestion seems naive ... If the Iranians get the compromise he's raised, they're likely to demand more concessions, especially operating more centrifuges," said David Albright, a former IAEA inspector in
Iraq and director of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.
Iran cites a right to develop civilian nuclear energy as a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Toughening the NPT may be the only viable way out of the crisis given Security Council deadlock over sanctions and Iran's promise to enrich under IAEA monitoring, some analysts say.
"There's talk of the Council passing a resolution giving the IAEA much more intrusive powers applicable to all NPT states, so Iran can't claim discrimination as it does now. It's an imperfect compromise, but maybe the only one the West can get."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:43 ||
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I suppose ElBaradei Wormtongue still is trying to convince us that Iran just wants peace - dispite Iran's open calls to destroy Israel and the west.....
"The Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire ... for a safe and secure society!
Snip, duplicate. And Dan gets 7 comments so far, and I get only 2. Hmmmph. Work my fingers to the bone, I do, and I get no respect, maybe don't deserve none, grumble grumble natter natter ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:41 ||
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#2
Chavez last year opposed a move by one of his allies to end term limits, insisting he did not have any intention of remaining in the presidency permanently.
Just until he dies.
The former soldier, who led a failed coup attempt in 1992, has won the support of millions who have benefited from a multi-billion dollar social investment campaign that has provided basic services like free health care and education.
a. I guess everyone has their price
b. Who let him out of jail?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/20/2006 7:43
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Everywhere on the left they say Bush will have a third term and how much they admire Chavez.
#7
"I might sign a decree calling for a popular referendum -- do you agree that Chavez should run for a third term in 2013?" Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast.
Ahhh, the reference to oneself in the third person, the surest sign of a raging egomaniac. Who does he think he is, a pro athlete?
#8
Please note that one of the primary reasons this guy is running roughshod all over the place is because his opposition is utterly worthless.
Why the very idea of good government is so anethema in Central and South America is just mystifying. Often as not, is it eerily like Woody Allen's "Bananas".
Just an endless line of banditos waiting for the last one to fail so that they can take over. Government indistinguishable from a criminal gang.
#13
His opposition has been jailed, harrassed and protested peacefully.
Earlier, of course, there was the coup attempt against him.
And before that, he had two coup attempts of his own against the government.
AND, the coup attempt against him happened shortly after people protesting against him were shot by his partisans.
I suspect the coup attempt was just a means for him to distract people from his crimes; he got a lot of the opposition to put their necks on the line when they had no real chance of success, and got a lot of the leftists here, there, and everywhere to talk about what a victim he was while he was having people shot.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 12:26
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..has won the support of millions who have benefited from a multi-billion dollar social investment campaign that has provided basic services like free health care and education.
The free gravy train won't last. And by the time things go into the toilet, it probably won't be possible to remove the guy without the loss of quite a bit of blood.
#24
Sure, glad you asked. I figure there are six kinds of sex...
1) with self
2) with myns
3) with wymyns
4) with other species
5) with Space Aliens (they only seem to dig Greek)
6) that Tantric stuff... which is like mixing sex & ADD
Posted by: Jan ||
02/20/2006 23:16
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#33
I get the impression that shiny objects might distract Cindy "Peace Mom" to where she forgets everything she might have had to say. They keep sprockets, mirrors, and bird seed away from her...
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 23:19
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#34
Lol. Lawzy, I'm in a good mood. Time to get dressed and run off to Ruth's Chris for our 9:00 reservation, heh. :-)
The British, French and German ambassadors to Washington said that the United States must close its Guantanamo "war on terror" detention camp which the French envoy called "an embarrassment."
The ambassadors stepped up international pressure on US authorities after a report by UN human rights experts called for the camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be shut as soon as possible.
"Guantanamo is an embarrassment, and so it has to be solved one way or the other," French ambassador Jean-David Levitte during an appearance by the three envoys on CNN television.
The German ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger was equally outspoken.
"The sooner it is closed the better it will be for the image of the United States, not only as a military and political (power) but also as a moral leader in the world," Ischinger said.
British ambassador Sir David Manning reaffirmed Prime Tony Blair's comment this week that the US camp for detainees seized in the global offensive launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks was "an anomaly".
"We understand the context. You've lost a lot of people," said Manning.
"It's difficult to find the right line to draw between your duties as a government for security and safeguarding liberty, but it is clearly an anomaly and it needs to be dealt with".
Guantanamo, which has about 500 inmates most of whom have never been charged, has again been in an international spotlight this week.
After the report by UN human rights experts which said some practices at the camp were tantamount to torture, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "sooner or later" Guantanamo will have to be closed.
The United States has has rejected calls for the camp to be shut and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Annan was "flat wrong" to call for its closure.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:40 ||
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#1
Oh, we'll eventually shut it down, but on OUR schedule and after considering OUR interests and concerns. If there is any embarassment, its because our "allies" are telling us to do something, and we're not doing it. Whining and seething to follow.
#2
Still waiting for you all's note on the condition of those other prisons in Cuba. You know the ones with real political prisoners in them. Not the people taken from a battlefield.
#3
We should announce a policy to summarily shoot illegal combatants in the field - and cite the specific articles in the GC which allows such actions.
After all we can't get any usefull intel out of them while waiting on them hand-and-foot in a UN approved summer resort prison....
Irans foreign minister meets with European officials Monday amid new diplomatic efforts to end the standoff with the West over Irans nuclear program.
Manouchehr Mottakis talks in Brussels coincide with a visit to Moscow by Iranian negotiators to discuss Russias offer to host uranium enrichment for Iran in an effort to ensure that the Islamic republics nuclear program cannot be used to develop atomic weapons.
In an interview with a French radio station Thursday, Irans chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, floated the prospect of renewing contacts with European negotiators and reopening nuclear facilities to snap international inspections.
Mottaki meets with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who joined the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in a now stalled diplomatic drive to persuade Iran to accept international controls to prevent weapons development.
The Iranian minister will hold talks with Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, who is also chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is expected to conclude the visit with an address to the European Parliaments foreign affairs committee.
A spokesman for the committee, Thomas Bickel, said the idea for the visit came from Iran and showed a readiness in Tehran to return to a dialogue with Europe.
The EU and the United States have supported the Russian initiative, but Iranian officials have given mixed signals about Moscows offer.
Irans official news agency Sunday quoted Mottaki as saying that Iran would consider a Russian proposal on uranium enrichment if certain provisions were met.
If the Russian plan, with supplementary indicators, leads to a comprehensive proposal, then we could say it will have Irans interest, IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying. The partners in the plan, the duration of the project, location of enrichment and consensus of all related parties would be significant to Iran.
The Russian plan is seen as a last chance for Iran to address international concerns before a March 6 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which could start a process leading to sanctions from the UN Security Council.
European relations with Iran have nose-dived in recent months over the stalled nuclear talks, outrage over remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for Israels destruction and questioning the Holocaust, and Tehrans decision to suspend trade with Denmark over the cartoons representing the Prophet Muhammad.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:39 ||
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Nigerian militants who have kidnapped nine foreign oil workers said they had blown up a military houseboat and an oil pipeline manifold on Monday, the latest attacks in a campaign that has cut exports by a fifth.
Military ... houseboat?
In an e-mail, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also threatened to attack any vessel trying to use Royal Dutch Shell's 340,000 barrel-per-day Forcados oil export platform, which the group bombed on Saturday. "Patrol units ... carried out attacks on one houseboat belonging to the Nigerian army and the Shell Ughelli Odidi-Escravos manifold. Both were destroyed with explosives," the militants said, adding that the soldiers in the houseboat fled before it was destroyed.
The militants said that Shell was planning to use one manifold on the Forcados export platformwhich was not damaged in Saturday's attack to export oil. "Regardless of whatever security arrangements they depend on and time of the day, we will attack this vessel and execute everyone on board. It is needless to say what will happen to the surviving manifold in the next few hours," they said.
The government says the militant movement is a cover for thieves siphoning crude oil on a commercial scale from pipelines across the vast wetlands region of southern Nigeria.
The militants accused Nigerian military and security commanders in the area of being responsible for the theft. "Oil is not like diamonds and requires ships to come in unhindered. This is facilitated by the heads of these security organisations who are paid a standard fee for every vessel loaded," they said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:38 ||
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#1
Military ... houseboat?
Maybe it's too swampy for a structure on the solid ground (No solid ground)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/20/2006 13:00
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Either that, or the river is too shallow for deep draft ships, and you need small barges to get around.
Thousands of people flocked to southern Egypt on Monday to seek blessing from a calf that they believe was born as God's reply to the publication in Europe of cartoons depicting the Prophet, police said.
Some 20,000 thousand people had gathered in front of Mohammed Abu Dif's house in the village of Tunis to see the holy mammal, whose skin folds when he was born reportedly formed the words "There is no God but Allah", a police official said on condition of anonymity.
He said that the villagers flocked from all over the southern governorate of Sohag to the farmer's house and had to be dispersed by police, who feared that the gathering could get out of control.
Witnesses said that they believed that the calf was "Allah's response to current attacks against Islam", the official said.
He was referring to the publication in a Danish daily five months ago of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which is banned in Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:36 ||
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Jeez, Madonna wears a dress with quotes from the Q*Ri'anne and muslims go ballistic. Why isn't this calf being stoned to death?
Hundreds of angry Muslims set a church on fire in southern Pakistan on Sunday during a protest over the burning of pages from the Muslim holy book the Koran, but no casualties were reported, police said.
They said that around 400 people also attacked and damaged a school run by a local convent in the city of Sukkur in the southern Sindh province, some 480 km (300 miles) north of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city.
"Some pages of the Koran were burnt by a man named Arif, who had converted to Islam from Christianity a few years back," local police chief Akbar Arain told Reuters, adding the police had already arrested the accused after registering a case.
"The issue seemed resolved, but some groups of angry youth first came to the police station demanding the custody of Irfan and later attacked and burnt a church," he told Reuters.
Some of the protestors were arrested but Arain did not say how many.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:36 ||
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#4
Hundreds of angry Muslims set a church on fire in southern Pakistan on Sunday during a protest over the burning of pages from the Muslim holy book the Koran, but no casualties were reported, police said.
Oh, there's casualties all right, just not the kind that involves the counting of dead bodies.
#5
How do you report on a "Church burned down" story without ever mentioning the religious affiliation of the church? Was it Catholic (convent reference) or what?
How utterly PC.
A MINISTER in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has offered a £6m reward to anyone who beheads one of the Danish cartoonists who outraged Muslims by depicting the prophet Muhammad.
Yaqoob Qureshi, minister of minority welfare, said the killer would also receive his weight in gold. He made the offer during a rally in his constituency in Meerut, northeast of Delhi. Protesters then burnt an effigy of a cartoonist and some Danish flags.
A Pakistani cleric has also offered a $1m reward and a car as a prize to anyone who kills one of the cartoonists. Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi made his announcement after Friday prayers in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
The rewards were offered as it emerged that 11 people had been killed in riots outside the Italian consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi in protests linked to the controversy over the cartoons.
The protesters were said to have been angered by reports that Roberto Calderoli, an Italian minister, had appeared in public in a T-shirt with one of the images on it. Calderoli, the reforms minister, resigned yesterday to stop the shameful exploitation directed against me.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:35 ||
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#1
Well, here we go again. This stupid politacian in India is acting as if India is a Islamic country when only about 15% of the population is muslims.
#2
It has been reported that the Indian IB (Intelligence Bureau - responsible for internal security) believes the Chief Minister of UP to be in the employ of the ISI. These UP muslim politicians have also recieved funding from Saudi.
Given that law and order is primarily a state matter, this minister is unlikely to lose his job unless the Federal goverenment steps in.
Posted by: john ||
02/20/2006 6:22
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I've long thought that turn around is fair play.
You issue a death warrant, one will be issued against you.
The problem is that it can't be a government initiative. What need to be done is to somehow set up an anonymous group, who can't be traced, but that donations can be made to, and then the bounty hunters can do their business.
I'm sure that that after a few of the issuers of death fatwas are deaded, the inclination to issue more by mad mullahs or government officials will cease.
#4
Time to press charges for solicitation of murder and murder for hire against this nuck fugget. If India's federal government cannot do this, then they're not much of a power.
Wouldn't it be nice if Qureshi et al mysteriously turned up dead with cartoons jammed in various orifices?
#5
There are muslims ministers in the Indian Federal Cabinet on multiple charges of attempted murder, rape, banditry, coorruption, theft.
The ruling coaltion includes some truly revolting characters - unreconstructed marxists (some with allegiance to China), so called secualrists (who are really just anti-american liberals) and common criminals.
The Indian PM has issued a memo that ministers can send their civil service officials to cabinet meetings instead of attending themselves. He simply doesn't want to be in the same room with some of them.
Communal politics, and the need to remain in power, will dictate the federal response to this.
Unless pressure continues to build, nothing will happen to the UP government.
Ideally they can dismiss the lot of them and impose Presidential rule but that is very unlikely.
Posted by: john ||
02/20/2006 14:28
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#6
What tipper and zenster said.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 15:10
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American officials have been quietly probing whether Georgia, situated just northwest of Iran, will be willing to allow Washington to use its military bases and airfields in the event of a military conflict with Teheran, The Jerusalem Post has been told.
The Americans have been putting out feelers, a high-ranking Georgian government foreign affairs official told the Post, in advance of a possible military strike to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.
American reports in recent months, speculating about the possibility of a campaign against Iran because of the failure of diplomatic efforts to thwart a potential nuclear weapons program, have suggested that sustained military action, rather than a single strike, may be required given the number of Iranian nuclear facilities, their divergent locations and Iranian defenses.
Georgian government officials said that Tbilisi fears harsh Iranian military retaliation against the Georgian republic if US forces were to use its territory as a base for strikes against Iran, but nonetheless may feel obligated to accede to such a request, given the country's heavy reliance on US aid and support. The US maintains its own military bases in Georgia.
While the Americans have been testing the waters lately in this direction, the source indicated, no official request of this kind has yet been made.
Georgia is also worried about the possibility of civil unrest, citing the strong opposition by its Muslim minority to the country's participation in the war in Iraq, where there is a limited Georgian military contingent.
Military collaboration with the US would also have "a most negative effect" on relations between Moscow and Tbilisi, which remains strained since the election of Georgia's US-educated president, Mikhail Saakashvili, in 2004.
Saakashvili is considered one of the most consistent US supporters in the post-Soviet bloc and enjoys solid American backing. Indeed, Saakashvili is often accused by Moscow of maintaining an "American outpost in the region."
The Georgian source added that a similar US request might be made to Azerbaijan, an immediate neighbor of Iran and another close American ally.
The close proximity of both countries to Iran makes Tbilisi and Baku desirable partners in a potential alliance against Iran.
Rumors of a possible military alliance between Washington, Tbilisi and Baku first appeared in late 2004, when the Azerbaijani press reported on a meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and senior Pentagon officials, in which the possibility of military cooperation was said to have been discussed.
Both Georgia and Azerbaijan have denied that discussions on such cooperation took place. "We do not hold any negotiations that concern military cooperation with the Americans," Kakha Imnadze, Saakashvili's press secretary, said last May.
Officials in Baku also rejected the reports. Aliyev claimed that he learned of such negotiations from the press. But, it seems, despite the hasty denials, Iran has taken the reports rather seriously.
At the beginning of February, Iranian officials implied that any country that helped the US in military action against it would be subject to harsh retaliation. Neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan possesses sophisticated air defense systems to protect their air space from an Iranian strike, the Georgian government official noted.
While Georgia would allow the US to use its soil for technical support during an attack on Iran, Temuri Yakobashvili, an expert on Georgian strategy, told the Post that Washington had yet to formally ask Tbilisi for assistance in such an attack.
"At this stage there have not been formal requests," said Yakobashvili, head of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi. Georgia, he said, would be more inclined to allow US forces to use its territory in a military offensive if Iran "did something outrageous against Georgia."
Georgia, he said, would most likely be used not as the base for the attack but as a stopover for the US Air Force as well as a transit spot to stock up on fuel and ammunition. "The US is preparing for a variety of scenarios," Yakobashvili said. "Georgia can be used as a transit or for stockpiling ammunition."
US forces, Yakobashvili said could also use Azerbaijan as the launch pad for their attack. Azerbaijan, which is closer to Iran than Georgia and enjoys strong ties with Israel and Washington, is also home to US radar stations which line its border with Iran.
Azeri officials have, however, ruled out the possibility that their land would be used in a military offensive against Iran, warning that their involvement could trigger harsh Iranian military retaliation against Baku.
"We will probably not let the US use Azerbaijan to launch a strike on Iran," Azeri Minister of Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov told the Post last week, adding that an attack on Iran would destabilize the entire region.
US officials stationed in the region said they did not need Azerbaijan's or Georgia's cooperation in an attack against Iran. According to the sources, if the US wanted to attack Iran, it could always use Iraq or Afghanistan, where US forces are already heavily deployed, as its base.
Meanwhile, Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehei on Sunday warned that any Israeli attack against it would be "stupidity" and provoke a swift response, state-run television reported.
Israel has said it would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear capability, and has indicated it might take "necessary steps" if negotiations fail to convince Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program. Last month, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Muhammad Najjar said if Israel attacks Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran will respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into "an eternal coma" like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Iran resumed small-scale uranium enrichment earlier this month after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported it to the UN Security Council over its controversial nuclear program.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:31 ||
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#1
There will be no peace in Iraq without very heavy military actions in Iran and Syria by US.
#3
"American officials The Jerusalem Post has been told a high-ranking Georgian government foreign affairs official of a possible American reports speculating about the possibility have suggested may be required Georgian government officials were to use may feel the source indicated is considered often accused The Georgian source added might be made in a potential Rumors of a possible press reported senior Pentagon officials in which the possibility of was said to have been Officials in Baku the reports claimed that he But, it seems the reports Iranian officials implied the Georgian government official noted an expert on Georgian strategy, told the Post would be more inclined if Iran would most likely be could also use Azeri officials have involvement could trigger will probably US officials stationed in the region According to the sources if the US wanted and has indicated it might "
#4
The American people will neither confirm nor deny contacts with the government of Georgia. We do take notice of the extreme leverage held by al-Qaeda terrorists over that government. We ask that the government of Georgia negotiate with al-Qaeda, as are American emissaries negotiating with that terrorist group in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hopefully we can bring misunderstood terrorists into the democratic fold, and have them participate in elections, as has been achieved in Iraq. When Georgian Christians surrender to Muslim agents of the religion of peace, then American peace and security will be advanced.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:30
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#5
"State" is our troll from British Columbia. And he's growing rather tiresome.
It won't be long before he wears out his welcome here and we change the locks on the door.
#8
Georgian government officials said that Tbilisi fears harsh Iranian military retaliation against the Georgian republic if US forces were to use its territory as a base for strikes against Iran
I think the Georgians are much more concerned about Russian retaliation.
#10
At the beginning of February, Iranian officials implied that any country that helped the US in military action against it would be subject to harsh retaliation. Neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan possesses sophisticated air defense systems to protect their air space from an Iranian strike, the Georgian government official noted.
Sounds like the Georgians need "sophisticated air defense systems". I bet that problem can be solved.
An explosion on the grounds of the Philippine presidential palace on Monday was probably caused by chemicals in a trash bin set off by a lit cigarette, not a bomb, the head of security told reporters.
"Nobody was injured," press undersecretary Isabel de Leon told reporters, adding President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was inside the palace at the time.
The army tightened security on Sunday after finding a bomb in its top military academy, one of the alleged targets of a plot to overthrow and possibly kill Arroyo, who survived an impeachment attempt last year over allegations of vote-rigging and graft.
Witnesses said the ground shook and a green rubber trash bin was shredded by the blast, which brought government workers from their offices.
"There are no indications of an explosive. We suspect that some chemicals have been compacted in the garbage can," Delfin Bangit, head of the Presidential Security Group, told reporters.
"It may have been triggered by something like a cigarette butt."
In Manila, police were already on maximum alert over the plot and expectations of large protests planned for February 24, the day before the country marks the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Last week, Reuters reported the plot involved a mass escape of mutineers originally set for January, hostage-taking at last weekend's gathering of military commanders, occupying army camps and removing Arroyo.
On Sunday, the commander of the police's elite force denied rumours his men were planning to storm the main police camp in Manila and hold commanders hostage as part of the plot.
Talk of a plot by some elements of the military has been growing since the escape from an army camp in January of four alleged leaders of a bloodless, one-day mutiny in 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:30 ||
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sounds like the "season" is in full swing over there
Troops killed at least 5 gunmen with links to the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group in fierce clashes Monday in the southern Philippine island of Basilan, officials said.
Military officials said four soldiers were wounded in the fighting that erupted before sunrise in the hinterland village of Semut in Tuburan town. A still undetermined number of gunmen were also killed and wounded in the clashes.
"We have no reports of civilian casualties, but we are closely monitoring the situation in the area," Christopher Puno, a spokesman of Governor Wahab Akbar, said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:28 ||
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more "seasonal" trouble?
Posted by: bk ||
02/20/2006 12:14
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The U.S. military has found documents that detail Al Qaida plans to kill Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq.
U.S. officials said the documents outlined plans to launch rocket strikes against Sunni tribes that support the new Iraqi government. They said other documents detailed plans to sabotage Iraqi telecommunications infrastructure.
The documents were found on Feb. 11 in the Anbar province around 50 kilometers northeast of Ramadi. Officials said the documents outlined plans to strike opponents in such towns as Baghdadi, Haditha and Hit.
Al Qaida planned to kill members of the Albu Nimr tribe, officials said. They said the plan was to have included rocket attacks against and assassinations of Albu Nimr members in Hit.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:25 ||
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Ironic, isn't it? I mean that Sunni tribal leaders now will come crying to U.S. troops for protection.
Right up to the hot August night his apartment exploded, Louai Sakka's neighbors took him for a newlywed. The lanky Syrian was not seen much in the corridors of the high-rise residential complex where he lived in this sunny resort city, but he spent time nuzzling an attractive young brunette and sipping beer beside the pool.
His real identity began to emerge shortly after 3 a.m. on Aug. 4, when the windows of Apt. 1703 blew out, showering the parking lot with the contents of the kitchen and bits and pieces of the massive bomb Sakka had been painstakingly assembling in the living room. Sakka, who escaped the inferno only to be arrested two days later, turned out to be a senior operative for al Qaeda and intimately linked to major terrorist plots in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, where he had worked beside Abu Musab Zarqawi, a longtime confederate.
He showed up in Antalya last summer with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and a face altered by plastic surgery. After his arrest, he told investigators he had planned to die steering a yacht laden with explosives into a cruise ship he believed was filled with U.S. soldiers and which was already approaching across the turquoise Mediterranean.
The attack, just 48 hours away when the chemicals ignited, was intended to crown a wide-ranging career in terrorism. Sakka played a role in the so-called millennium plot to attack hotels in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 31, 1999. Turkish prosecutors also describe him as the planner of the 2003 truck bombings that killed 57 people in Istanbul, financed with $160,000 in al Qaeda funds.
Between attacks, according to his attorney, Sakka provided false passports and other means to help Islamic militants through the web of paths that U.S. military officials call rat lines. The routes crisscross Turkey to and from Afghanistan, Chechnya and, since 2003, Iraq, where Sakka traveled after the Istanbul bombings. Insurgents say Louai al-Turki, as he was known there, played a prominent role in major attacks on U.S. bases and commanded insurgent forces in Fallujah when it served as the militants' headquarters.
"He's been involved in this for 15 years," said the attorney, Osman Karahan.
The significance of Sakka, who was 32 at the time of his arrest, was slow to emerge. But he spoke at length to Turkish interrogators, admitting his role in past plots and describing Iraq as a training ground for terrorists comparable to Chechnya and Bosnia in the past, according to people who have read a summary of his statement. Sakka, who remains in a jail in Istanbul, declined to sign the account, however, on the advice of his controversial attorney.
"Actually, he does not deny his past activities," said Karahan, who subscribes to the same militant vision of Islam as many of his clients. "We are people who work for justice, so we want to tell the truth. Things need to be taken out of the shadows." Investigators have pressed Sakka to provide evidence against Karahan.
The attorney's office candidly declares his beliefs. The waiting room features copies of Kaide magazine, the Turkish spelling of Qaeda, with ads announcing the martyrdom of Turkish volunteers in Iraq. Copies of a paperback titled "Virgins of Paradise: Eyes Like Fawns and Shining Skin" are on sale for $4. Every image of a human face, including the portrait on Karahan's diploma, is covered by a tab of paper. "Angels don't come where faces are pictured," Karahan explained.
The lawyer said he handles almost 80 percent of the criminal cases brought against Islamic militants in Turkey, a practice that increased sharply after Sept. 11, 2001, when Turkey began detaining large numbers of suspects at its borders. In 2000, he secured the release of Sakka's wife and three children, who were taken in an operation that narrowly missed Sakka.
"He called me on the phone from Holland," Karahan said. "He said he was in Istanbul a few days earlier but managed to escape."
Born in Aleppo, in Syria's north, the son of successful factory owner, Sakka forsook a "rich life" for the struggles of radical Islam, the attorney said. He said Sakka worked in Turkey starting in 1998, easing the passage of militants through a country that U.S. and Turkish authorities have long acknowledged is a major logistical hub for terrorists. Karahan said that included preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks, notably in Bursa, a city 60 miles south of Istanbul.
It is unclear when Sakka crossed paths with Zarqawi, but a Jordanian court convicted both men in absentia for plotting to attack an Amman hotel, border crossings and Christian tourist sites during the celebration of the millennium.
By 2003, Turkish prosecutors say, Sakka was in the thick of the planning for the bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul over two days in November that year. Though Karahan said Sakka now denies involvement, an indictment released Feb. 10 charges that he "proposed" the attacks, with specific approval from both Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. Testimony in the mass trial of more than 70 Turks already charged in the case indicated that Sakka provided all the funds for the attacks, with the largest installment delivered in a sock stuffed with euros from Saudi sympathizers, according to the indictment. When the bombs went off, he cheered as he watched satellite television reports with the leading Turkish plotters, all of whom had fled to Aleppo.
Sakka next surfaced in Iraq, infiltrating the border via routes he was known for helping volunteers navigate, insurgents said. A former member of Zarqawi's group, Abu Khalid Dulaimi, 55, said Sakka arrived in Fallujah in March 2004 with seven Turkish men and helped defend the city against the first, aborted Marine offensive in April. Reunited with Zarqawi, he was well known as a key aide to the insurgent leader. Prosecutors say he was involved in the slaying of a Turkish truck driver.
Dulaimi said Sakka provided coordinates for mortar attacks on U.S. bases in Mosul, Samarra, Baghdad and Anbar province. He said Sakka also played a "vivid" role in an attack on Abu Ghraib prison, where the inmates included two organizers of the Istanbul bombings. A third organizer, Habib Akdas, was reported killed in the second, successful Marine offensive on Fallujah in November 2004.
In the aftermath of the fall of Fallujah, foreign fighters in Iraq convened a shura, or council, Karahan said. The meeting authorized 10 separate attacks on Israeli targets. Sakka, who told Turkish interrogators he learned bomb-making in Iraq, volunteered to strike the Israeli cruise ships that regularly call on Turkey's southern coast, Karahan said. The attorney said Sakka believed U.S. soldiers used the vessels for R & R and that his own days were numbered because his surgically altered face had appeared on an insurgent video of a downed American drone in Iraq. Turkish doctors had detected a nose job and scars suggesting Sakka might also have altered his chin and eyebrows.
"He decided it's about time his life ends, because he changed his face but he was still recognized," Karahan said.
In Antalya, Sakka spent lavishly preparing for the attack. Using an alias, he put down $60,000 on a villa in the Beldibi neighborhood, insisting on the unit closest to the beach, with a panoramic view of the resort city and its harbor. "His criterion was it had to be directly on the water, no matter what the price was," said Mehmet Yildirim, the watchman.
The two-bedroom Apt. 1703 was closer to town, in a complex overlooking the marina where Sakka moored a 27-foot yacht, the Tufan. On board was diving equipment and a submersible water scooter, capable of running for 45 minutes at a depth of 75 feet.
Karahan said Sakka spent days chatting with Israeli tourists, who flocked to the Turkish coast in summer, and learned the precise arrival time and route of the ship he planned to attack as it approached Antalya. In a rented Hyundai, he ferried the ingredients for a one-ton bomb -- hydrogen peroxide, aluminum powder, acetone -- from the port city of Mersin. Then he scoured Antalya's industrial zone for a shop that worked with chrome.
Sakka needed someone to build a distiller, a glorified pressure cooker to concentrate the hydrogen.
"He said he wanted to increase the hydrogen peroxide to 70 or 75 percent by extracting the water," said the metalworker who did the job, at the cost of another 2,000 euros, after checking out Sakka's claim that he wanted to use the chemical to bleach wood. The metalworker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety, said his only suspicion was that Sakka might be making drugs. But he said a friend who works with chemicals told him the wood-bleaching purpose made sense, and Sakka named a genuine firm in Syria as his employer.
During the week it took to build the device, Sakka spent time at the shop; one day, the conversation turned to al Qaeda. "God knows how it came up," the metalworker said. "I said, 'Nah, there's no such thing as al Qaeda.' Probably he was thinking, 'Yeah, you'll find out!' "
He did not look the part of an Islamic radical. The metalworker recalled pulling up next to Sakka on a street, rapping on the window and asking him why he wasn't in Syria, where he claimed he was headed the day the distiller was lifted into his trunk. Sakka's reply was a leering nod toward the striking young woman in the passenger seat, apparently the companion neighbors saw him nuzzling by the pool at the apartment complex.
Inside his apartment, the living room became a workshop crowded with plastic vats, gas masks, fire extinguishers and PVC pipes to circulate the water needed to keep stable more than 1,000 pounds of hydrogen. The room held 200 pounds of aluminum powder and 13 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives. Sakka said he intended to finish assembling the bomb on board the Tufan to ensure that no Turks were endangered.
How the fire began is unclear. The metalworker suspects it was sparked by his creation, wired for industrial use at 7,500 watts, enough to melt the wiring in a residential building. Hamid Obysi, a fellow Syrian who was assisting Sakka, told police they were both awakened by the explosion -- a small one, by all accounts, and less damaging than the resulting fire -- and scrambled for their lives, leaving behind a laptop computer, four cell phones, a digital camera and seven fake IDs. They took a taxi to Beldibi, where, after a quick visit to the villa, Sakka gave the guard 2,000 euros and instructions to keep quiet, prosecutors said. The fugitives left town by bus, with Sakka giving Obysi 1,000 euros in getaway money. Obysi was arrested trying to enter Syria.
Sakka proceeded east to Diyarbakir and made plans to double back, booking a domestic flight to Istanbul. He got as far as the police check at the airport, where his attorney said he surrendered to police officers who found his ID suspicious.
"I'm the one you're looking for," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:21 ||
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A New Zealand expert on physical and mental health has stood by findings that US detention camp Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, should be shut down.
Professor Paul Hunt, of both the University of Waikato and the University of Essex, was part of a five-member team appointed by the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate conditions at the "war on terror" detention camp.
The group also included Leila Zerrougui, an expert on arbitrary detention; Leandro Despouy, expert on judicial independence; Manfred Nowak, an expert on torture; and Asma Jahangir, an expert on freedom of religion.
The US is currently holding about 490 men at the camp who are accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taleban regime or the al Qaeda terror group, though only a handful have been charged since January 2001.
The team investigating the detention camp concluded that the United States should bring all prisoners to an independent trial or release them.
The authors did not visit the camp because the US government refused them access to inmates, so their report was based on "credible" accounts of life at Guantanamo Bay.
The Americans agreed that three of the authors could visit the camp but could not speak, either privately or publicly, to detainees.
"That was unacceptable to us," Prof Hunt told National Radio today.
The government did, however, reply to a detailed questionnaire supplied by the report team.
The US government described the report as a "discredit" to the United Nations.
If the camp was not closed, the authors believed that detainees should have the opportunity to test the lawfulness of their incarceration.
Abusive treatment of prisoners should stop, and conditions generally should be improved and UN inspectors should be allowed in, Prof Hunt said.
"It would been a dereliction of duty if we'd closed our eyes to Guantanamo Bay."
The report will be presented to the United Nations in a few weeks' time where decisions will be made on what steps to take next.
The team was appointed by the commission to the three-year project. They worked independently, with expenses covered but receiving no payment from the UN.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:19 ||
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#1
A New Zealand expert on physical and mental health..
Sorry, but we're not particularly concerned with the physical or mental health of the purveyors of terrorism. On the other hand, if the Kiwis are, I'm sure they wouldn't mind taking in Gitmo's "residents"....
..and UN inspectors should be allowed in, Prof Hunt said.
I don't see why. After all, Gitmo isn't a UN-sanctioned facility.
#3
Like the UN regularly inspects the non-combat prisoners in other confinement facilities in Cuba or N.Korea. Right. By the way, how are the confinement conditions for Specialist Matt Maupin?
But they have to go to New Zealand. And they get no travel papers, so they can't leave. AND we implant a gps chip (unbeknownst to them) in each one and zap him if he leaves NZ.
But what they do in NZ (as long as it doesn't involve Americans, Brits, or Aussies) is none of our concern.
Their choice.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 21:53
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Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the U.S. had resorted to the same "repressive" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al-Qaeda leader that was posted Monday on a militant website.
The tape appeared to be a complete version of one that was first broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel, in which bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaeda terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil.
"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," Mr. bin Laden said.
In drawing the comparison to American military behaviour in Iraq to that of Mr. Hussein, the speaker said:
"The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam."
With the implied criticism of Mr. Hussein, Mr. bin Laden appeared to be denying assertions by the United States that the former Iraqi leader had ties to al-Qaeda ties that were given as one rationale for invading Iraq.
In the full tape that was posted Monday, bin Laden engaged in renewed propaganda, mocking President George W. Bush's aircraft carrier declaration in April 2003 that major conflict in Iraq had ended.
Speaking directly to the American people, the speaker said:
"You can rescue whatever you can from this hell. The solution is in your hands, if their (U.S. troops') situation matters to you at all."
The initial excerpts had been the first tape from the al-Qaida leader in more than a year the longest period without a message since the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings in the United States.
The CIA last month authenticated the voice on the initial recording as that of bin Laden, an agency official told The Associated Press at the time. The al-Qaida leader is believed to be hiding in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:18 ||
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#1
"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," Mr. bin Laden said.
This guy is as deluded as Mohammed Atta. Remember him? He wrote a will stipulating that he not be buried with contact with menstruating women. As if someone was going to see to it that his wishes were carried out!
No humiliation, indeed! Sorry Binny, you don't get to pick how you go off.
#6
Works for me, binny. We don't wantcha alive, anyway.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 15:51
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#7
FNC reports that Osama had warned about new plans being made to attack America - will say again that Dubya, his Admin, and the bulk of the GOP Congress, including anti-Clinton Dems as PC "collateral/incidental casualties", are the Burqua Boyz's likely targets. The Clinton-led, OWG and anti-American American Socialist Dems will rule Washington and the NPE becuz they
"survived" any new 9-11's. Furthermore, iff Dubya decides to stop Iran from dev nukes vv mil action, ANY US "DEFEAT/STALEMATE" WILL BE INTERPRETED BY OSAMA AS THE DIVINE HAND OF GOD-ISLAM, THIS EMPOWERING HIS CAUSE. 9-11 and the GWOT > AMERICA EITHER PREVAILS, OR IT WILL BE DESTROYED.
He is a friendly neighbourhood mullah who wants nothing more than to shake hands with a Canadian soldier. And Haji Kari Saeed Ahmed says most Afghans feel the same.
But even Ahmed, an Islamic scholar from Kandahar's Ghus-e-Saqlin Mosque, recognizes the handshake may not come anytime soon. Not until newly arriving Canadian troops get their heads around the rejectionist bombs blocking the way.
"There are two types of scholars in Kandahar. There are the ones like me, who understand the foreigners have come here to help us, to support us, to give us peace," Ahmed, 30, said yesterday. "The other type of scholar tries to poison the ears of people around them, calling the foreigners infidels and telling people to fight them."
The soft-spoken cleric said he expects the newcomers to be jumpy, given the hostility that awaits Canada's security presence in Kandahar province, part of a wider NATO deployment across volatile southern Afghanistan.
"The Americans, when they first came, were afraid. They didn't know anything about Kandahar," said Ahmed.
"The same thing is happening with the Canadians. Right now they look afraid. The Afghans of Kandahar are also afraid. Everyone has a family. Many of us are threatened. We all worry.
"But understand, not everyone is Taliban or Al Qaeda. Most people just want to meet the Canadians to shake their hands."
Ahmed, 30, has endured wars of one kind or another almost continuously since childhood. He sees this month's deployment of nearly 2,200 Canadians as reaffirmation that his native Kandahar may yet emerge as a peaceful city with something to offer its young.
Ahmed was blunt in assessing the size and shape of the growing insurgency and the complex circumstances feeding it. Though "enemies from the neighbouring countries" are actively backing a campaign of attacks on coalition forces and fledgling institutions, Ahmed said the violence would not be possible without substantial support and sympathy within.
The embittered remnants of the ousted Taliban who made Kandahar their capital have used mosques to sow holy war in the minds of locals, Ahmed said, exploiting the Pashtun pride of the largely uneducated and deeply tribal populace. Moderates such as Ahmed risk intimidation and violence when they speak out, urging Afghans to see their situation rationally.
Ahmed believes the struggle for Afghanistan ultimately will tilt against the insurgents because the memory of the regressive Taliban era is simply too fresh for a revival to take hold.
"Our young generation doesn't want the Taliban because they already spent six years in power and nothing happened," he said. "The education system, the economy, the way they made up their own laws there was nothing. Now we have something. The Afghan people want to go forward, not backward."
What price Canadian and other NATO troops will pay in advancing the cause is now a subject of some debate in Afghan security circles. At least one senior government official suggested on the weekend that the recent surge in suicide attacks at least 22 bombings since last September could be aimed specifically at countries such as Canada, which may be seen as weak links in the efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.
"I think the rise of attacks in Afghanistan nowadays is aimed at the weak forces, such as Canada and others, and that is because these countries can easily be threatened," Akbar Ansari, a senior prosecutor in Afghanistan's anti-terrorism courts," told the Los Angeles Times.
"The terrorists want the Americans to be alone in Afghanistan, so that they can deal with them later. Al Qaeda doesn't want to leave its nest in Afghanistan," Ansari said.
Canadian troops traded their first fire in the field yesterday in a minor skirmish at a forward camp 60 kilometres northeast of Kandahar. There were no casualties, but the rocket-propelled grenade attack served as a stark reminder that Project Afghanistan is no longer a theory.
In a final piece of advice, Mullah Ahmed suggested that when the Canadians adjust to the initial shock of deployment, they would do well to take the time to say hello. And perhaps help him explain the NATO presence to other Afghans.
"The Canadians should sit down with the scholars and elders in every village" to explain why they are here, he said. "Some people will still reject it. But the Canadians are a gift to Afghanistan. At least if you explain it, people will realize why you are here."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:16 ||
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Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy yesterday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.
Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a mass demonstration, where they fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.
Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other publications in Europe and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world.
Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church yesterday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Koran, Islam's holy book.
A day earlier, Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 persons. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons in the past three weeks.
In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the prophet."
Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush, and they smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes.
The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery."
A protest organizer said the West, in particular the United States, is attacking Islam. "They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name.
Reuters news agency said the protesters were angered over the depiction of Muhammad in a frieze that adorns the facade of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Pakistan, where protests last week left five persons dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal -- or United Action Forum.
Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five persons.
Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great" and "Any friend of America is a traitor."
#1
Is the muslim world asking for isolation? Demanding Isolation?
Because we can shure give it to them. No more food handouts, cash for their governments, a total ban on business and trade. If that is what they want, maybe
we should think real hard about giving it to them.
ACCUSED terrorist Joseph Terrence Thomas would not have been given a secret al-Qaeda phone number and email address unless he had agreed to be a sleeper agent for them in Australia, a court has been told.
The 32-year-old Werribee man has pleaded not guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to intentionally receiving funds and providing resources to al-Qaeda, and possessing a false passport.
In his closing address today, Crown prosecutor Nicholas Robinson said the jury must decide whether Thomas received funds from al-Qaeda and provided himself as a resource to the organisation.
He said whether or not Thomas pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, or was a member of the organisation, was irrelevant.
Mr Robinson urged the jury to reject Thomas' denial in an Australian Federal Police (AFP) interview in March 2003 that he intended to act as an al-Qaeda sleeper.
He said Thomas' claim that he was on a different "tram track" to al-Qaeda was inconsistent with his actions, such as spending two years as a fugitive in Pakistani safehouses frequented by al-Qaeda members.
"If in fact he thought they were on the wrong tram track, if in fact he didn't hold their views, why did he stay with them?" Mr Robinson said.
Thomas accepted $US3,500 ($A4,740) and a ticket back to Australia from an Osama bin Laden associate called Khaled bin Attash.
He told the AFP that bin Attash said bin Laden needed a "white boy" to work for him in Australia, but he never intended to work for al-Qaeda or use the money for terrorism.
He told police that bin Attash also gave him a secret email address and telephone number to contact upon his return home.
"We say that bin Attash obviously wouldn't have given that number until he knew or had an agreement that the accused would go back (to Australia)," Mr Robinson said.
"It is clear ... that the accused is saying to police that the ticket that was handed over by bin Attash was for the purpose of going back to Australia to carry out a task for al-Qaeda."
During his opening address, defence counsel Lex Lasry, QC, said his client may be "naive" and "stupid" but he definitely was not a terrorist.
Today, Mr Robinson said the evidence suggested Thomas was a trusted al-Qaeda confidant and had sophisticated dealings with senior members of the group.
He said Thomas was so trusted that he was privy to a conversation about a plot to bring down a jet carrying Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf with a rocket launcher.
Mr Robinson said Thomas offered to do work such as obtaining false passports for the group twice and asked one al-Qaeda member for a house.
He said when Thomas met American Yahya Goba, 29, at the al-Qaeda run Al Farooq camp in Afghanistan in 2001, he allowed himself to be introduced as an Irishman and used the pseudonym Abu Khair.
"He is not naive, he is not stupid and these acts were intentional," Mr Robinson said.
Mr Lasry said the defence would not call any evidence.
Mr Robinson will continue his closing address in the trial presided over by Justice Philip Cummins tomorrow.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:15 ||
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Terms for approving an Arab company's takeover of operations at six major American ports, including Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey, are insufficient to guard against terrorist infiltration, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said yesterday.
"I'm aware of the conditions and they relate entirely to how the company carries out its procedures, but it doesn't go to who they hire, or how they hire people," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "They're better than nothing, but to me they don't address the underlying conditions, which is how are they going to guard against things like infiltration by al Qaeda or someone else, how are they going to guard against corruption?" King said.
King spoke in response to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's comments yesterday about conditions of the sale. King said he learned about the government's terms for approving the sale from meetings with senior Bush administration officials.
Chertoff defended the security review of Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates, the company given permission to take over the port operations. Chertoff said the government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements that the company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns." But Chertoff declined to discuss specifics saying that information is classified. "We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint," Chertoff said on ABC's "This Week."
London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., was bought last week by DP World, a state-owned business. Peninsular and Oriental runs major commercial operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
A Miami company, Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc., has filed suit in a Florida court challenging the deal. A subsidiary of Eller & Company Inc., the Miami company maintains in the suit disclosed Saturday evening that it will become an "involuntary partner" with Dubai's government under the sale.
"We are aware of the lawsuit, but cannot comment until our legal teams have a chance to review it," Michael Seymour, president of the North American arm of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, said yesterday in the company's initial response to the lawsuit. He noted that his company "is itself a foreign-owned terminal operator that has long worked with U.S. government officials in charge of security at the ports to meet all U.S. government standards, as do other foreign companies that currently operate ports in the United States."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:14 ||
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#1
"Chertoff said the government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements that the company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns." But Chertoff declined to discuss specifics saying that information is classified. 'We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint.'"
Boy that's a relief. Good to know they have negotiated safeguards. Hope no one shows any cartoons of Muhammad to the nite crew.
Israel branded the Palestinian government a "terrorist authority" yesterday and halted the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money after Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament.
But the Israeli government held off on adopting even more drastic measures recommended by security officials, mindful of possible international reaction.
The sanctions came as the Palestinian militant group worked to consolidate its power and form a government, nominating one of its more pragmatic leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, to be the new prime minister.
Also yesterday, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in two separate incidents.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, was scheduled to meet with Haniyeh in Gaza today and formally ask him to assemble a Cabinet, a task Haniyeh would have five weeks to complete.
The Islamic group, which calls for the destruction of Israel and has carried out scores of deadly suicide bombings against Israelis, trounced Abbas' corruption-riddled Fatah Party in Jan. 25 elections, winning 74 of 132 parliament seats.
Israel and Western countries demanded the group renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist, but Hamas resisted pressure to moderate. The group took control of the Palestinian legislature when the new parliament was sworn in Saturday.
"The PA is - in practice - becoming a terrorist authority," acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet at the beginning of its meeting yesterday. "Israel will not hold contacts with a government in which Hamas takes part."
The Cabinet decided to stop the transfer of the roughly $55 million a month it collects in taxes and tariffs on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The order did not specify when the payments would stop, but government spokesman Asaf Shariv said the next payment, scheduled for early March, "won't take place."
The Palestinian Authority relies on that money to help pay the salaries of roughly 140,000 government employees, including about 57,000 in the security forces.
Should the government, the Palestinians' largest employer, be forced to lay off tens of thousands of workers, it would lead to increased chaos and poverty in Palestinian towns throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
The Cabinet held back from adopting far harsher proposals made by Israeli security officials, including a recommendation to seal off the Gaza Strip from Israel, barring thousands of Palestinian laborers from entering Israel and eliminating all trade with the impoverished area.
Israel's acting foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said the government did not want to worsen the daily lives of Palestinians or cause an international backlash against Israel.
But she warned that "Israel will take a number of additional politically significant steps regarding the Palestinian Authority." She did not elaborate.
Hamas condemned the Cabinet decision and said it was political posturing ahead of Israel's own election on March 28. Haniyeh said he was hopeful his future government would be able to find new sources of funding.
The head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said yesterday that Arab governments were considering providing the money to make up for the frozen transfers from Israel. Arab governments have not been among the top donors to the Palestinian Authority in the past, and some have failed to give pledged funds.
In violence yesterday, military officials said an Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb in the Gaza Strip, near the border fence with Israel. Two militants were killed, Palestinian security officials said.
Later, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Palestinian witnesses said the 17-year-old youths were shot after throwing rocks at soldiers. The army said they were planting a roadside bomb.
Witnesses said the army entered Balata, a militant stronghold, in search of fugitives.
The Treasury Department ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of an Ohio-based group the government claims funnels money to Hamas.
The organization, KindHearts of Toledo, Ohio, was connected with the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation and the al Qaeda-affiliated Global Relief Foundation, the Treasury Department said. The government took similar action against those groups in late 2001.
Under the government action, U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with KindHearts.
KindHearts describes itself on its Web site as a nonprofit, charitable organization administering humanitarian aid to the world's poor. In the past, its officials have denied being connected to any terrorist group or individual.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:13 ||
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#1
Life is hard.
It's a lot harder if you're stupid.
And baby, ain't nobody got the drop on Paleos when it comes to stupid self-defeating shit.
It has been revealed that al-Qaeda had been preparing for a missile attack on Incirlik Air Base putting the base on high alert.
The Air base commander has been setting up security systems to avoid possible attacks and has sought help from the Turkish Police Department and National Intelligence Organization (MIT), reports say. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Porter Goss sent the second crypto about the action plan of al-Qaeda to the Turkish intelligence authorities after his visit to Ankara. The first crypto informed that al-Qaeda was sending radioactive substances to determine locations via cargo companies. The CIA cautioned Turkish intelligence authorities about the action plan against Incirlik Air Base. The message was sent last week via the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The crypto writes al-Qaeda militants are preparing to sabotage the Incirlik Air Base, located in the Southern city of Adana, with a human propelled highly destructive missile.
Ankara, alarmed by the crypto, informed MIT Undersecretary, Gendarmerie Headquarters, and Security General Directorate. The gendarmes, who guard the region, have taken emergency measures around the American base against missile attacks. MIT and police units began multifaceted operations in Adana. The intelligence units had uncovered another action plan of al-Qaeda against Incirlik Air Base. Police intelligence had found out the organization was preparing to attack the base with a hijacked plane.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006
03:11 ||
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#5
My apologies, yes callous, insenitive, and indeed crude. I had just awaken from a nap and obviously wasn't thinking clearly. I've confined myself to quarters and 1/2 ration of black and tan.
The motorcades screech to a halt, lights flashing; burly bodyguards jump out and usher their charges into the conference hall. They have been summoned here from their palaces, their holiday villas, awakened from their beds, rushed here in their private jets. This is THE big meeting of the OIC, the Organization of the Islamic Conference. So are they finally going to resolve the Darfur conflict, the Brown-Muslim-on-Black-Muslim genocide that has already claimed an estimated 300,000 lives?
Well, actually, no.
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, is contacting member states for an emergency meeting of their foreign ministers shortly to discuss major issues including the repercussions of the sacrilegious Danish cartoons.
Silly me, I should have realized. Cartoons are far more important than a "few dead darkies". We already learnt that after the 2006 Makkah Stampede.
Ihsanoglu has already spoken to Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakar Al-Qurbi and Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to fix a date for the meeting, press reports said yesterday quoting diplomatic sources....Professor Ihsanoglu has already informed Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, that the 57-member OIC was seeking the EUs cooperation to end the conflict as quickly as possible.
So the representatives of such enlightened and progressive governments as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Malaysia, are going to give advice to the Europeans on what laws they should pass in their own countries. ...more...
RTWT - TRP gets it on, heh. The Muzzy emoticons alone are worth the visit, lol. (((:~{>
#2
These weak and corrupt oligarchs are once again trying to ride the wave of zealotry and channel the hatred and violence toward the outsiders instead of standing against it. Strategically, I don't know if now is the right time for a full confrontation with these bastards, but it would be mighty satisfying if Rice or someone went there and told them to get a grip. What is it about a face culture that forces them to take actions that are guaranteed to make them lose face?
#5
"Jeebus is that guy legit? A real ex-pat Saudi?"
Quite a bit of debate on that, 6. Two things are certain - he / she has a foot in both worlds, Western and Saudi, and his / her facility with English and Westernisms are almost pitch-perfect. It rings true enough for me.
#6
So nice of the major Islamic powers to give our world a solid glimpse of exactly where their priorities are placed. Let's keep them scurrying trampling. More cartoons, please.
#7
Oh, BTW 6, he's not an expat Saudi, his claim is that he's a Saudi mutawa - literally one of the Religious Police. And in most cases they are rather easily identified - in most case the following apply:
they don't wear a fan belt
the thobe is "too short"
they always wear sandals
they have beards, usually with henna applied
They used to carry little sticks, sorta like riding crops, a Nazi affectation, perhaps, back in the '80s - to whack people who were misbehaving and yes, I saw it done in the al Shula Mall in al Khobar in '92-'93... you saw them in Afghanistan, I'll bet, but I didn't see them on this last tour in SA, so maybe that's gone out of fashion.
#8
Muhammad (((:~{>
Muhammad playing Little Orphan Annie (((8~{>
Muhammad as a pirate (((P~{>
Muhammad on a bad turban day ))):~{>
Muhammad with sand in his eye(((;~{>
Muhammad wearing sunglasses (((B~{>
Muhammad giving the raspberry. (((:~{P>
#9
If TRP is who he says he is--I've no reason to doubt him--then God, or Allah if you prefer, watch over him. He gets busted for his blog, and it's head-chopping time.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/20/2006 18:00
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#10
He's not a Muttawa. he hates the Muttawa. Read the reason for the name at top of the page!
Then read the last month or two. An excellent site.
#11
HC - I've been reading him for well over a year - maybe 18 months - and was led to believe that was his claim by the person who clued me in to his blog. Your post made me curious, so I dug a little and found his FAQ from 4/26/2004... Learn something new everyday, lol.
#12
From the FAQ: The ruling elite would not look kindly upon my efforts. If found out, I would certainly lose my job, as already happens to those who publish critical letters in the press. I might also become a guest of Prince Nayif, until I "got my mind right".
I stand by what I said before: God, or Allah if you prefer, watch over him.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/20/2006 22:16
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BEIJING (AP) - Pakistan's president apologized Monday for the killing of three Chinese engineers by tribal militants in Pakistan, saying the attack brought "shame" on his country and promising the harshest punishment. "The man in the street (in Pakistan) loves the Chinese," President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told China's parliament chief Wu Bangguo during a meeting in Beijing.
"Duuuuh, the Chinese are the good infidels, right Ackmed?"
"That's right, Mahmoud, now shaddup and put the rifle down."
Musharraf, who arrived in neighboring China on Sunday for a five-day visit aimed at increasing business ties - and possibly working on a free trade deal - between the longtime close allies, also expressed Pakistan's "regret and condolences" over the killings. "It is a shame of the country," he said.
One among many, in fact.
He earlier promised the "strongest and harshest punishment" for the attackers, said China's official Xinhua News Agency.
A militant tribal group in southwestern Pakistan's Baluchistan province claimed responsibility for last week's drive-by shooting that killed the three Chinese engineers, who were working at a cement factory, and their Pakistani driver. Pakistan has since detained 50 suspects in the attack.
Betcha Amnesty International doesn't say a word about their confinement, either.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
02:19 ||
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BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Glistening in Iraq's barren southern salt plains, a natural gas-driven power station has come on line, generating sorely needed electricity for war-weary Iraqis and demonstrating that much-maligned U.S.-led reconstruction efforts are beginning to bear fruit.
U.S. officials said Sunday that increasing Iraq's electricity generating capacity through facilities such as the 250 megawatt electricity plant near the southern city of Basra is crucial to American efforts to encourage Iraqis to turn their backs on the insurgency. Among the most infuriating problems for Iraqis nearly three years after the U.S.-led invasion remains the lack of regular electricity to run lights and home appliances, including air conditioners during Iraq's summer, when temperatures soar beyond 120 degrees.
Daniel Speckhard, who heads the U.S. reconstruction effort here, said Iraqis had expected instant results after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, which had allow the country's electricity-generating plants and national grid to deteriorate. "They were hoping instantly to have the same kind of things we have in the United States, where you have 24 hours of power," Speckhard said. "What we are looking for by this coming summer is to get so the whole nation has roughly 12 hours of power, which is significantly better than where we have been."
Of 425 electricity-related projects, only 300 are expected to be completed before the $18.6 billion approved by Congress in November 2003 for reconstruction in Iraq runs out, U.S. officials have said. Baghdad is among the country's worst off areas with most streets unlit at night and many of the capital's 7 million people relying on generators.
Iraqis living in Basra, the country's second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, have an average of 12 hours a day of power already, up from much lower prewar levels, as a result of the new plant.
The United States spent $123 million to install two 125 megawatt gas-generated turbines that were bought before the war under the U.N. Oil for Food program. The turbines began operating in late December at the site of a rusting Saddam-era power plant in Khor Az Zubayr, 20 miles south of Basra. The plant is estimated to add electric power equivalent for what is needed for more than 220,000 households.
U.S. authorities have said maintenance of the plants was as important as installing new facilities so a major focus is on giving Iraqi employees proper training to keep them from feeding turbines with the wrong fuel, leading to breakdowns and lost generating capacity and other problems. "I feel confident that the plant will be maintained when we leave. It doesn't take many people to operate and maintenance won't be nearly as much as the old facility was," said Robert Lee Cipsey, a construction representative for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who oversaw the project, which took one year to complete - six months ahead of schedule.
Col. Larry McCallister, the U.S. military official in charge of reconstruction projects in southern Iraq, said giving Iraqis more electricity was crucial to winning local support and defeating the insurgency. McCallister acknowledged that insurgent attacks had reduced the number of projects he and other U.S. officials hoped to bring on line with the $18.4 billion of funds earmarked for reconstruction projects. "We came here with a plan two years ago that we were going to do a lot of projects, but the insecurity increased and our priorities had to shift," McCallister said during a tour of the Khor Az Zubayr site. "We had to suspend some big water projects, but we have continued to push electricity."
Audit reports released recently by Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that guerrilla attacks have forced the cancellation of more than 60 percent of water and sanitation projects in Iraq, in part because American intelligence failed to predict the insurgency. Iraq's incessant insurgency absorbs as much as 22 percent of project costs, more than double the 9 percent originally budgeted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
02:16 ||
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In Minnesota the Democratic Party has undertaken a campaign to suppress two advertisements giving voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war. Brian Melendez is the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party. This past Thursday Melendez called a press conference and condemned the first of the two advertisements -- the one featuring the veterans -- as "un-American, untruthful and a lie." Check it out - multiple links there, including to the ads the Dhimmis are so a-skeered of...
I've seen the ads. Very powerful. Ads like that get into the mainstream, look out.
#4
If you are not a democrat and happen to live in a Midwest Blue State there is a positive angle to this story. This is another example of how the Progressive element has increasingly taken control and has become a detriment to the party. To be sure, the overriding reason why the Midwest has consistently voted democrat is because of Organized Labor. And for that reason the gurus arrogantly believe that their faithful will automatically cast a vote for any of their candidates on the ballot as long as a D follows their name. But ask the rank-and-file, out of earshot of their shop steward, about other issues of concern. How does the democrat platform regarding affirmative action and illegal immigration square with their interpretation of fundamental union by-laws? Listen to what the majority of Blue Collar workers have to say regarding issues like animal rights and gun control legislation. Are they pleased with the Granolas in their party successfully saving a precious ten out of hundreds of thousands of acres even if it eliminates the potential for hundreds of jobs? There are numerous other examples of divisions within the party that currently exist. The shrill voices of the Anti-War-Anywhere segment just may be the tipping point.
#7
I guess if your anti-Democrat your anti-American? I can see where Mr Melendez can get confused: the faces, the Names, Ranks, and Branch of service of the speakers is clearly shown. They can only attribute their ?argument? to unknown or unnamed sources. I wish them "Bon Chance" with their latest campaign. I guess next they will attempt to stop the Military from voting or having their votes counted. Clearly they need to stop these radicals from voting for another neoCon, racists, Hitlerite (ie a Republican).
#8
Looks like the group behind these ads is a worthy place to donate a few bucks. It did wonders for Swift Boats at a similar time in their attempts to get their ads out.
#9
I guess next they will attempt to stop the Military from voting or having their votes counted.
Next? Hell, Al Gore tried to do exactly that as the very first act in contesting the Flordia count. Get as many military absentee ballots thrown out in the count.
Taqiya campaign of utterly bogus prison abuses against women, by us sons of dogs and pigs... here it works like a charm on a love-starved Saudi moron.
Title links to transcript. Video link on this page - play #1037.
Letter: My brothers, the mujahidoon for the sake of Allah, what shall we, your sisters in Abu Ghureib prison tell you? We have been attacked by the sons of apes and pigs. They tore up our Korans, disfigured our bodies, and humiliated us. What have you heard about what we see here every day? By Allah, one of us was raped several times in one day by those apes and pigs.
Are you really unaware of what is happening to us? There are 13 women with me in prison, all unmarried. They are raped for all to see and hear. They prevented us from wearing clothes and from praying. One committed suicide after she was raped by an American dog, and then severely tortured. She began to bang her head against the wall until she died.
I, Fatma, your sister in faith, say to you: Remain faithful to Allah. Leave their tanks and planes, come to us in Abu Ghureib prison, and kill us along with them. Destroy us along with them. Don't leave us to them. Kill us along with them, and then maybe we will have peace.
Fatma
Friday, December 14, 2004 Buy any of that? Well, they do. Know your enemy. Watch the vid.
It's WaPo - Only excerpted here so you may need to visit BugMeNot for a login to read full article. The top editors of the China Youth Daily were meeting in a conference room last August when their cell phones started buzzing quietly with text messages. One after another, they discreetly read the notes. Then they traded nervous glances.
Colleagues were informing them that a senior editor in the room, Li Datong, had done something astonishing. Just before the meeting, Li had posted a blistering letter on the newspaper's computer system attacking the Communist Party's propaganda czars and a plan by the editor in chief to dock reporters' pay if their stories upset party officials.
No one told the editor in chief. For 90 minutes, he ran the meeting, oblivious to the political storm that was brewing. Then Li announced what he had done.
The chief editor stammered and rushed back to his office, witnesses recalled. But by then, Li's memo had leaked and was spreading across the Internet in countless e-mails and instant messages. Copies were posted on China's most popular Web forums, and within hours people across the country were sending Li messages of support.
The government's Internet censors scrambled, ordering one Web site after another to delete the letter. But two days later, in an embarrassing retreat, the party bowed to public outrage and scrapped the editor in chief's plan to muzzle his reporters.
The episode illustrated the profound impact of the Internet on political discourse in China, and the challenge that the Web poses to the Communist Party's ability to control news and shape public opinion, key elements to its hold on power. The incident also set the stage for last month's decision to suspend publication of Freezing Point, the pioneering weekly supplement that Li edited for the state-run China Youth Daily.
Eleven years after young Chinese returning from graduate study in the United States persuaded the party to offer Internet access to the public, China is home to one of the largest, fastest-growing and most active populations of Internet users in the world, according to several surveys. With more than 111 million people connected to the Web, China ranks second to the United States.
Although just a fraction of all Chinese go online -- and most who do play games, download music or gossip with friends -- widespread Internet use in the nation's largest cities and among the educated is changing the way Chinese learn about the world and weakening the Communist Party's monopoly on the media. Studies show China's Internet users spend more time online than they do with television and newspapers, and they are increasingly turning to the Web for news instead of traditional state outlets.
The government has sought to control what people read and write on the Web, employing a bureaucracy of censors and one of the world's most technologically sophisticated system of filters. But the success of those measures has been mixed. As a catalyst that amplifies voices and accelerates events, the Internet presents a formidable challenge to China's authoritarian political system. Again and again, ordinary Chinese have used it to challenge the government, force their opinions to be heard and alter political outcomes.
The influence of the Web has grown over the past two years, even as President Hu Jintao has pursued the country's most severe crackdown on the state media in more than a decade. The party said last week that Freezing Point would resume publishing, but Li and a colleague were fired, making them the latest in a series of editors at state publications to lose their jobs.
With newspapers, magazines and television stations coming under tighter control, journalists and their audiences have sought refuge online. The party's censors have followed, but cyberspace in China remains contested terrain, where the rules are uncertain and an eloquent argument can wield surprising power. ...more...
#3
The party said last week that Freezing Point would resume publishing, but Li and a colleague were fired, making them the latest in a series of editors at state publications to lose their jobs.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2006 7:01
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#4
Soon the only place you'll find Communism is on US college campuses, and, well the Democratic party.
#5
Any society that is so weak that they have to censor internally the smallest dissent, crushing everything with disproportionate police power, is doomed to fall, and quickly. I see China as a Soviet-style power, huge army with obvious weakneses in transport/logistics/modernity. Huge population with high (and increasing) expectations, bound to be unmet. Political clique running the country for their own enrichment. Fall certain (internally) and once again, our CIA will be caught with their thumb buried internally and no answers....IMHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 17:42
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For the past two weeks, Patrick Sookhdeo has been canvassing the opinions of Muslim clerics in Britain on the row over the cartoons featuring images of Mohammed that were first published in Denmark and then reprinted in several other European countries.
"They think they have won the debate," he says with a sigh. "They believe that the British Government has capitulated to them, because it feared the consequences if it did not.
"The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that's a clear victory.
"It's confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call 'adverse consequences' - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent."
Dr Sookhdeo adds that he believes that "in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law.
"It is already starting to happen - and unless the Government changes the way it treats the so-called leaders of the Islamic community, it will continue."
For someone with such strong and uncompromising views, Dr Sookhdeo is a surprisingly gentle and easy-going man. He speaks with authority on Islam, as it was his first faith: he was brought up as a Muslim in Guyana, the only English colony in South America, and attended a madrassa there.
"But Islamic instruction was very different in the 1950s, when I was at school," he says. "There was no talk of suicide bombing or indeed of violence of any kind. Islam was very peaceful."
Dr Sookhdeo's family emigrated to England when he was 10. In his early twenties, when he was at university, he converted to Christianity. "I had simply seen it as the white man's religion, the religion of the colonialists and the oppressors - in a very similar way, in fact, to the way that many Muslims see Christianity today.
"Leaving Islam was not easy. According to the literal interpretation of the Koran, the punishment for apostasy is death - and it actually is punished by death in some Middle Eastern states. "It wasn't quite like that here," he says, "although it was traumatic in some ways."
Dr Sookhdeo continued to study Islam, doing a PhD at London University on the religion. He is currently director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity. He also advises the Army on security issues related to Islam.
Several years ago, Dr Sookhdeo insisted that the next wave of radical Islam in Britain would involve suicide bombings in this country. His prediction was depressingly confirmed on 7/7 last year.
So his claim that, in the next decade, the Muslim community in Britain will not be integrated into mainstream British society, but will isolate itself to a much greater extent, carries weight behind it. Dr Sookhdeo has proved his prescience.
"The Government, and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, are fundamentally deluded about the nature of Islam," he insists. "Tony Blair unintentionally revealed his ignorance when he said, in an effort to conciliate Muslims, that he had 'read through the Koran twice' and that he kept it by his bedside.
"He thought he was saying something which showed how seriously he took Islam. But most Muslims thought it was a joke, if not an insult. Because, of course, every Muslim knows that you cannot read the Koran through from cover to cover and understand it.
The chapters are not written to be read in that way. Indeed, after the first chapter, the chapters of the Koran are ordered according to their length, not according to their content or chronology: the longest chapters are first, the shorter ones are at the end.
"You need to know which passage was revealed at what period and in what time in order to be able to understand it - you cannot simply read it from beginning to end and expect to learn anything at all.
"That is one reason why it takes so long to be able to read and understand the Koran: the meaning of any part of it depends on a knowledge of its context - a context that is not in the Koran itself."
The Prime Minister's ignorance of Islam, Dr Sookhdeo contends, is of a piece with his unsuccessful attempts to conciliate it. And it does indeed seem as if the Government's policy towards radical Islam is based on the hope that if it makes concessions to its leaders, they will reciprocate and relations between fundamentalist Muslims and Tony Blair's Government will then turn into something resembling an ecumenical prayer meeting.
Dr Sookhdeo nods in vigorous agreement with that. "Yes - and it is a very big mistake. Look at what happened in the 1990s. The security services knew about Abu Hamza and the preachers like him. They knew that London was becoming the centre for Islamic terrorists. The police knew. The Government knew. Yet nothing was done.
"The whole approach towards Muslim militants was based on appeasement. 7/7 proved that that approach does not work - yet it is still being followed. For example, there is a book, The Noble Koran: a New Rendering of its Meaning in English, which is openly available in Muslim bookshops.
"It calls for the killing of Jews and Christians, and it sets out a strategy for killing the infidels and for warfare against them. The Government has done nothing whatever to interfere with the sale of that book.
"Why not? Government ministers have promised to punish religious hatred, to criminalise the glorification of terrorism, yet they do nothing about this book, which blatantly does both."
Perhaps the explanation is just that they do not take it seriously. "I fear that is exactly the problem," says Dr Sookhdeo. "The trouble is that Tony Blair and other ministers see Islam through the prism of their own secular outlook.
They simply do not realise how seriously Muslims take their religion. Islamic clerics regard themselves as locked in mortal combat with secularism.
"For example, one of the fundamental notions of a secular society is the moral importance of freedom, of individual choice. But in Islam, choice is not allowable: there cannot be free choice about whether to choose or reject any of the fundamental aspects of the religion, because they are all divinely ordained. God has laid down the law, and man must obey.
'Islamic clerics do not believe in a society in which Islam is one religion among others in a society ruled by basically non-religious laws. They believe it must be the dominant religion - and it is their aim to achieve this.
"That is why they do not believe in integration. In 1980, the Islamic Council of Europe laid out their strategy for the future - and the fundamental rule was never dilute your presence. That is to say, do not integrate.
"Rather, concentrate Muslim presence in a particular area until you are a majority in that area, so that the institutions of the local community come to reflect Islamic structures. The education system will be Islamic, the shops will serve only halal food, there will be no advertisements showing naked or semi-naked women, and so on."
That plan, says Dr Sookhdeo, is being followed in Britain. "That is why you are seeing areas which are now almost totally Muslim. The next step will be pushing the Government to recognise sharia law for Muslim communities - which will be backed up by the claim that it is "racist" or "Islamophobic" or "violating the rights of Muslims" to deny them sharia law.
"There's already a Sharia Law Council for the UK. The Government has already started making concessions: it has changed the law so that there are sharia-compliant mortgages and sharia pensions.
"Some Muslims are now pressing to be allowed four wives: they say it is part of their religion. They claim that not being allowed four wives is a denial of their religious liberty. There are Muslim men in Britain who marry and divorce three women, then marry a fourth time - and stay married, in sharia law, to all four.
"The more fundamentalist clerics think that it is only a matter of time before they will persuade the Government to concede on the issue of sharia law. Given the Government's record of capitulating, you can see why they believe that."
Dr Sookhdeo's vision of a relentless battle between secular and Islamic Britain seems hard to reconcile with the co-operation that seems to mark the vast majority of the interactions between the two communities.
"Well, it isn't me who says Islam is at war with secularisation," he says. "That's how Islamic clerics describe the situation."
But isn't it true that most Muslims who live in theocratic states want to get out of them as quickly as possible and live in a secular country such as Britain or America? And that most Muslims who come to Britain adopt the values of a liberal, democratic, tolerant society, rather than insisting on the inflexible rules of their religion?
"You have to distinguish between ordinary Muslims and their self-appointed leaders," explains Dr Sookhdeo. "I agree that the best hope for our collective future is that the majority of Muslims who have grown up here have accepted the secular nature of the British state and society, the division between religion and politics, and the importance of allowing people to choose freely how they will live.
"But that is not how most of the clerics talk. And, more significantly, it is not how the 'community leaders' whom the Government has decided represent the Muslim community think either.
"Take, for example, Tariq Ramadan, whom the Government has appointed as an adviser because ministers think he is a 'community leader'. Ramadan sounds, in public, very moderate. But in reality, he has some very extreme views. He attacks liberal Muslims as 'Muslims without Islam'. He is affiliated to the violent and uncompromising Muslim Brotherhood.
"He calls the education in the state schools of the West 'aggression against the Islamic personality of the child'. He has said that 'the Muslim respects the laws of the country only if they do not contradict any Islamic principle'. He has added that 'compromising on principles is a sign of fear and weakness'."
So what's the answer? What should the Government be doing? "First, it should try to engage with the real Muslim majority, not with the self-appointed 'community leaders' who don't actually represent anyone: they have not been elected, and the vast majority of ordinary Muslims have nothing to do with them.
"Second, the Government should say no to faith-based schools, because they are a block to integration. There should be no compromise over education, or over English as the language of education. The policy of political multiculturalism should be reversed.
"The hope was that it would to ensure separate communities would soften at the edges and integrate. But the opposite has in fact happened: Islamic communities have hardened. There is much less integration than there was for the generation that arrived when I did. There will be much less in the future if the present trend continues.
"Finally, the Government should make it absolutely clear: we welcome diversity, we welcome different religions - but all of them have to accept the secular basis of British law and society. That is a non-negotiable condition of being here.
"If the Government does not do all of those things then I fear for the future, because Islamic communities within Britain will form a state within a state. Religion will occupy an ever-larger place in our collective political life. And, speaking as a religious man myself, I fear that outcome."
#4
It's amazing to watch the plan for Eurabia unfold with the inevitability of a new ice age descending. The French Muslims have shown the way - the banlieu's are de facto states within a state.
As this situation gets worse, freedom-loving Brits will emigrate, the politicians and dhimmi masses will remain and allow Sharia take hold. For them any solution other than appeasement is unthinkable.
#5
If the majority of Britain's Muslims do not support the clerics, and are amenable to integration into British life, why are they forming ghettoes? A handful of radical clerics cannot keep them from integrating, nor force 40% of them to publicly support imposition of sharia.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/20/2006 9:18
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#6
the secular basis of British law and society.
That is a ridiculous statement given that at the apex of both sits the Defender of the Faith.
#7
The people of the United States welcome the political development of Islamic communities (Ummah) within Western Civilization. They represent the tasty fruit of our multiculturalism, and we welcome all those yearning to be free. Muslim beneficiaries of Secular welfare benefits are best able to populate the West, and restrain racist elements within. In France, 35% of all babies born last year were of either Arabic or African origin. Eventually, a majority of the French will be Muslim, and they will inherit that countries nuclear arms. Similarly, Muslims are breeding like flies in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and elsewhere, bringing the West more adherents of the noble faith. America's cup runneth over with Muslims, and we welcome any future claims to sovereignty in America. If 20% of Americans are loyal to Mecca, then they will balance our still existent Secular constitution, which has allowed our hospitals to transform into abortion factories.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:50
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#8
Had enough? Lol. Prolly got a book of this inane boilerplate with [insert issue here] and [insert target here] points.
As the results of the recent Palestinian elections are implemented, it's important to understand how the transition process works and also how important to it are actions by Israel and the United States.
Although Hamas won 74 of the 132 parliamentary seats, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas retains the right to propose and veto legislation, with 88 votes required to override his veto. With nine of its elected members remaining in prison, Hamas has only 65 votes, plus whatever third-party support it can attract. Abbas also has the power to select and remove the prime minister, to issue decrees with the force of law when parliament is not in session, and to declare a state of emergency. As commander in chief, he also retains ultimate influence over the National Security Force and Palestinian intelligence.
After the first session of the new legislature, which was Saturday, the members will elect a speaker, two deputies and a secretary. These legislative officials are not permitted to hold any position in the executive branch, so top Hamas leaders may choose to concentrate their influence in the parliament and propose moderates or technocrats for prime minister and cabinet posts. Three weeks are allotted for the prime minister to form the cabinet, and a majority vote of the parliament is required for final approval.
The role of the prime minister was greatly strengthened while Abbas and Ahmed Qureia served in that position under Yasser Arafat, and Abbas has announced that he will not choose a prime minister who does not recognize Israel or adhere to the basic principles of the "road map." This could result in a stalemated process, but my conversations with representatives of both sides indicate that they wish to avoid such an imbroglio. The spokesman for Hamas claimed, "We want a peaceful unity government." If this is a truthful statement, it needs to be given a chance.
During this time of fluidity in the formation of the new government, it is important that Israel and the United States play positive roles. Any tacit or formal collusion between the two powers to disrupt the process by punishing the Palestinian people could be counterproductive and have devastating consequences.
Unfortunately, these steps are already underway and are well known throughout the Palestinian territories and the world. Israel moved yesterday to withhold funds (about $50 million per month) that the Palestinians earn from customs and tax revenue. Perhaps a greater aggravation by the Israelis is their decision to hinder movement of elected Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council members through any of more than a hundred Israeli checkpoints around and throughout the Palestinian territories. This will present significant obstacles to a government's functioning effectively. Abbas informed me after the election that the Palestinian Authority was $900 million in debt and that he would be unable to meet payrolls during February. Knowing that Hamas would inherit a bankrupt government, U.S. officials have announced that all funding for the new government will be withheld, including what is needed to pay salaries for schoolteachers, nurses, social workers, police and maintenance personnel. So far they have not agreed to bypass the Hamas-led government and let humanitarian funds be channeled to Palestinians through United Nations agencies responsible for refugees, health and other human services.
This common commitment to eviscerate the government of elected Hamas officials by punishing private citizens may accomplish this narrow purpose, but the likely results will be to alienate the already oppressed and innocent Palestinians, to incite violence, and to increase the domestic influence and international esteem of Hamas. It will certainly not be an inducement to Hamas or other militants to moderate their policies.
The election of Hamas candidates cannot adversely affect genuine peace talks, since such talks have been nonexistent for over five years. A negotiated agreement is the only path to a permanent two-state solution, providing peace for Israel and justice for the Palestinians. In fact, if Israel is willing to include the Palestinians in the process, Abbas can still play this unique negotiating role as the unchallenged leader of the PLO (not the government that includes Hamas).
It was under this umbrella and not the Palestinian Authority that Arafat negotiated with Israeli leaders to conclude the Oslo peace agreement. Abbas has sought peace talks with Israel since his election a year ago, and there is nothing to prevent direct talks with him, even if Hamas does not soon take the ultimately inevitable steps of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel's right to exist.
It would not violate any political principles to at least give the Palestinians their own money; let humanitarian assistance continue through U.N. and private agencies; encourage Russia, Egypt and other nations to exert maximum influence on Hamas to moderate its negative policies; and support President Abbas in his efforts to ease tension, avoid violence and explore steps toward a lasting peace. Well, I guess you CAN make this shit up.
#1
Hey Jimminitude Carter, they VOTED for Hamas, they GET Hamas. Being a democracy means the people are RESPONSIBLE for their Government's actions, which YOUR fellow liberals are so eager to apply to americans, and yet are reluctant to apply to anyone else.
Why should I heed or follow the words of hypocrites?
#2
"With nine of its elected members remaining in prison, Hamas has only 65 votes, plus.."
This has got to be a joke in itself. The paleos elected nine imprisoned individuals?????
Sheesh.
"..even if Hamas does not soon take the ultimately inevitable steps of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel's right to exist."
And this is going to come about because....this guy says so?
There's no guarantee this will come to pass, and there's no guarantee that even if Hamas were to do such a thing that violence would immediately cease. It hasn't so far, despite several "agreements", and it's not likely to.
#5
Bomb-a-rama, at least one of the elected Hamas members is the Mother of two men who have been sucide bombers. She was interviewed and stated that, "Jihad is paramount. I am proud of my martyr sons and hope the other three will go in the ways of Jihad as well". These people are waaaaay past any hope. She's proud her two sons blew themselves up killing Jews.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/20/2006 13:13
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#6
Darwin at work.
Posted by: too true ||
02/20/2006 13:16
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#7
#4 SR-71 - I'd prefer both.
If Jimmuh thinks the paleos are so wonderful, he should go live among them.
Permanently.
With NO Secret Service contingent. (After all, he thinks they're such nice people, right?)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 16:10
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#8
The paleos elected nine imprisoned individuals?????
What's the big deal kids?
Posted by: Adam Clayton ||
02/20/2006 16:45
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#9
Beats me ...
Posted by: Marion Barry ||
02/20/2006 16:47
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#10
"During this time of fluidity..."
I just hate times of fluidity.
Posted by: Monica L. ||
02/20/2006 20:26
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Major political contributors to George W. Bush who have never given a dime to prospective 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain received letters, dated Feb. 8, asking for donations to the senator's Straight Talk America political action committee.
Obviously using President Bush's direct mail list, the letter signed by McCain asks for $1,000 or $1,500 to support candidates agreeing with McCain on "key issues." It specifically lists "limiting federal spending, immigration reform, military readiness, global climate change, Social Security reform, reining-in lobbyists, reducing the power of the special interests and putting an end to wasteful pork barrel spending by Congress."
Each recipient received a card to be filled in for McCain's files. "I'm asking you to update your file card," requests the letter, though the Bush contributors had no previous card in the senator's files.
#2
Hard to tell. Novak seems to imply that someone leaked the list to McCain but it might have been sold -- or it might be that these donors were identified through the public reporting requirements. ???
#3
Being a card recepient, McCain's got no better chance than a fart in a hurricane.
A give him high regard for his Vietnam captivity, but no more than Sam Johsnon and the many other POWs who found it less expedient to leverage their captivity at every turn in their political career.
His demeanor during Senate hearings towards Rummy is disgusting.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/20/2006 22:30
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An Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border fence on Sunday, the army said. Palestinians said two militants were killed.
Palestinian medical officials said the two bodies were recovered in Khouza'a, a border village near the Palestinian city of Khan Younis.
Residents said the two men, ages 18 and 20, were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group that has carried out several deadly bombings on Israeli targets in the past. The group did not immediately comment on the incident.
Influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he rejects the Iraqi constitution backed by his partners in the biggest parliamentary bloc, threatening to reignite one of the country's most explosive issues.
"I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all," he told Al Jazeera television late on Saturday.
Sadr, a rebel leader turned political kingmaker, said the charter was unacceptable, complicating efforts to form a government more than two months after parliamentary elections.
"If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody has the right to call for the establishment of federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south, north, middle or any other part of Iraq," said Sadr.
His stand could give political ammunition to Iraq's Arab Sunnis, who want major amendments to a charter they fear will give Shi'ites and Kurds too much power and control over oil resources.
The young cleric, who led two armed uprisings against U.S. and Iraqi troops, has emerged as a potent force in Iraqi politics, joining the powerful United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won 128 of 275 seats in parliament in December 15 polls.
A swing vote by Sadr's supporters in a UIA ballot on its candidate for prime minister is likely to keep the Dawa party's Ibrahim al-Jaafari in the top job in government.
The Shi'ites, who will have a majority in the new assembly, have already insisted there can be no major changes to the charter, which was approved in October and envisages a federal Iraq with considerable autonomy for the regions.
Iraq's biggest Sunni political bloc has said it is committed to talks with Shi'ites and Kurds to form a government of national unity if its key demand on changing the constitution is met.
A review of the Iraqi constitution is set to start some time after the new government and parliament is formed.
Sadr's rejection of the charter could put him at the heart of one of the most sensitive sectarian issues in Iraq, where he is seen as an unpredictable but popular leader.
Sadr rose to prominence after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 by mobilizing his Mehdi Army militia to fight American troops and by speaking out for poor Shi'ites.
His uprisings against U.S. troops made him one of the few Shi'ite leaders to gain the respect of minority Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and have led the insurgency against U.S. troops and the new Iraqi government.
Although Sadr has said his Mehdi Army was always ready to fight, he has maneuvered through political minefields to a position where he can make or break Iraqi leaders.
The young cleric recently went on a tour of Arab states, projecting a new image of a religious statesman. But Sadr always likes to remind people that his militia stands ready to fight.
"The Mehdi Army will serve the Arab and Muslim countries and will defend them whether in Syria or Iran," he told Al Jazeera.
#9
The people of the United States affirm our support for the choice of al-Sadr to participate in democratic elections. If that means formation of a government that is an enemy of the American people, then we will have to point the blame at our 70 year old strong-man/client state policies in the Middle East. Freedom is our watchword, and it will bring us peace in 50 years or so, after the Arab and Persian peoples decide to abandon Taliban style Islamic Statism. Whatever happens, we will keep up the subsidies, and demonstrate our resolve against all adversity. The American people are prepared to take all casualties, necessary to advance eventual freedom, and bare all expenses.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:37
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#10
Freedom is our watchword, and it will bring us peace in 50 years or so, after the Arab and Persian peoples decide to abandon Taliban style Islamic Statism.
Unless Persian and Arab governments abandon the sponsorship of terrorism a lot sooner than 50 years from now, many of those countries will be glassed over glow-in-the-dark parking lots. I'd say about 50 months (not years) is all they have.
THE PHOENIX is Boston's leading ''alternative" newspaper, the kind of brash, pull-no-punches weekly that might have been expected to print without hesitation the Mohammed cartoons that Islamists have been using to incite rage and riots across the Muslim world. Its willingness to push the envelope was memorably demonstrated in 2002, when it broke with most media to publish a grisly photograph of Daniel Pearl's severed head, and supplied a link on its website to the sickening video of the Wall Street Journal reporter's beheading.
But the Phoenix isn't publishing the Mohammed drawings, and in a brutally candid editorial it explained why. ''Our primary reason," the editors confessed, is ''fear of retaliation from . . . bloodthirsty Islamists who seek to impose their will on those who do not believe as they do . . . Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and . . . could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy. As we feel forced, literally, to bend to maniacal pressure, this may be the darkest moment in our 40-year-publishing history."
The vast majority of US media outlets have shied away from reproducing the drawings, but to my knowledge only the Phoenix has been honest enough to admit that it is capitulating to fear. Many of the others have published high-minded editorials and columns about the importance of ''restraint" and ''sensitivity" and not giving ''offense" to Muslims. Several have claimed they wouldn't print the Danish cartoons for the same reason they wouldn't print overtly racist or anti-Semitic material. The managing editor for news of The Oregonian, for example, told her paper's ombudsman that not running the images is like avoiding the N-word -- readers don't need to see a racial slur spelled out to understand its impact. Yet a Nexis search turns up at least 14 occasions since 1999 when The Oregonian has published the N-word unfiltered. So there are times when it is appropriate to run material that some may find offensive.
Rationalizations notwithstanding, the refusal of the US media to show the images at the heart of one of the most urgent stories of the day is not about restraint and good taste. It's about fear. Editors and publishers are afraid the thugs will target them as they targeted Danny Pearl and Theo van Gogh; afraid the mob will firebomb their newsrooms as it has firebombed Danish embassies. ''We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible," an imam in Gaza preaches. ''Whoever insults a prophet, kill him," reads the sign carried by a demonstrator in London. Those are not figures of speech but deadly threats, and American newspapers and networks are intimidated.
Not everyone has succumbed. The Weekly Standard reproduced the 12 cartoons, and some have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Sun, and even Spare Change News, a Boston biweekly sold by homeless people. But there has been nothing like the defiance shown in Europe, where some two dozen publications in 13 countries have run the cartoons, insisting that they will not allow thugs to decide what a free press can publish.
Journalists can be incredibly brave, but when it comes to covering the Arab and Muslim world, too many news organizations have knuckled under to threats. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, a veteran foreign correspondent, admitted long ago that ''physical intimidation" by the PLO led reporters to skew their coverage of important stories or to ignore them ''out of fear." Similarly, CNN's former news executive, Jordan Eason, acknowledged after the fall of Saddam Hussein that his network had long sanitized its news from Iraq, since reporting the unvarnished truth ''would have jeopardized the lives of . . . our Baghdad staff."
Like the Nazis in the 1930s and the Soviet communists in the Cold War, the Islamofascists are emboldened by appeasement and submissiveness. Give the rampagers and book-burners a veto over artistic and editorial decisions, and you end up not with heightened sensitivity and cultural respect, but with more rampages and more books burned. You betray ideals that generations of Americans have died to defend.
And worse than that: You betray as well the dissidents and reformers within the Islamic world, the Muslim Sakharovs and Sharanskys and Havels who yearn for the free, tolerant, and democratic culture that we in the West take for granted. What they want to see from America is not appeasement and apologies and a dread of giving offense. They want to see us face down the fanatics, be unintimidated by bullies. They want to know that in the global struggle against Islamist extremism, we won't let them down.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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#1
the Muslim Sakharovs and Sharanskys and Havels who yearn for the free, tolerant, and democratic culture
#2
When that execrable website "we're sorry" came up after the election, one of the photos consisted of some leftist woman in Texas holding up a sign that read "Pleeeeeease don't bomb Tarrant county", an enclave which voted Dem.
Other similar evidence of this attitude abound. A couple of months ago an article was published in a British newspaper (I forget which one) regarding British women in their forties who simply wanted to live like college students forever, and one of the interviewees came out and flatly said that she was an atheist and a solipsist and didn't give a damn what happened to humanity after she was gone, that all that mattered was her own happy not-too-stressful existence continue. The article said, or at least implied, that this attitude was becoming mainstream there.
WIth this sort of information being available, it should have been obvious to everyone all along that with very rare exceptions, opposition to the war against the Islamicists and attempts to defeat W in general were not a function of lofty, principaled, intellectually consistent idelologies but rather naked or barely clothed fear of losing one's life as a result of the give and take of a war for to help assure the continuation of our civilization.
When you're part of the postmodern thing, you generally believe that your own life - your na- a-a-a-a-rrative - is the reason for the universe. There is literally nothing (in their minds) in the universe more important than one's own continued existence - not our civilization, not our freedom, nothing. Many of these folks simply don't believe in an afterlife and don't care about humanity and its status after they pass on.
Therefore, anything at all which creates risk to your life must be avoided, at all costs to one's dignity and decency. If eliminating the risk (ie, WoT) rather than avoiding it incurs some additional risk to life and limb, that's unacceptable as well. The concepts of bravery and taking a risk to maintain a noble ideal are looked upon as foolish, backwards, anti-progressive, etc., but all of these adjectives, deep-down, are a smokescreen put forth to cover up cowardice.
The editors of the Phoenix can be reviled for their lack of honor and their foul cowardice, but they do provide a valuable service by giving us a window into the "soul" of the postmodern left and confirming the true motivations therein.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/20/2006 7:01
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#3
Darn no mo uro, you're stirring up my freedom-loving blood. I played my part in the WoT, but am retired now, but sometimes I wish I could just do something!
#4
no mo uro, i took the liberty of reproducing your comment at my website (with attribution of course). A brilliant and insightful commentary on a phenomenon that I have noted, but had problems putting into words. Food for thought.
#5
OT, but I've seen this headline in two places today (here and at jewishworldreview.com), and both times I read it as "When Cows Fear the Media" on the first glance.
Moo.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/20/2006 9:17
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#6
Thanks all for the kind words.
Identifying the fear and naming it is important, in the manner of shining lights on cockroaches. When the true motives are revealed, then and only then will real progress, perhaps even persuasion, be possible.
If we are spared the phony platitudes which cover up the fear, we can get straight to the heart of the problem.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/20/2006 9:38
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#7
This one - particulary no mo uro's comment belong in the 'Classics' section!
Maybe Tater's dentist has memorized the Koran, but I don't think he cracked the books very heavily in dental school.
Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, the king of Jordan, has said he wants to help Iraq to move past its current difficulties to a better future. The king spoke after meeting with Muqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shia cleric who is on a regional tour to promote better relations with neighbouring countries. Abdullah said in a statement issued by the Royal Palace: "It's our duty to protect the future of Iraq and we are always ready to put our best efforts forward to make this a successful outcome."
He affirmed Jordan's desire for a unified Iraq and the guarantee of a better future so that the country could regain its vital role in the region, the statement said. Abdullah added that Iraq's success was as of much interest to Jordan as to Iraq. Al-Sadr said: "I came to Jordan to meet my family and my brothers here and to consolidate co-operation between us."
Al-Sadr also expressed appreciation for Abdullah's efforts in the Arab and international arenas in clarifying the true image of Islam and its prophet, especially during his trip to Washington earlier this month.
I think the true image of Islam and its prophet's become a lot clearer in the past month or so.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2006
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WARRI, Nigeria (AP) - Militants who kidnapped nine foreign oil workers in a flurry of attacks that forced a 20 percent cut in Nigerian crude exports vowed Sunday to escalate the violence, threatening for the first time to fire rockets at international oil tankers.
While the military said tankers in Nigerian waters were safe, the West African nation is reeling from militant attacks that blasted oil and gas pipelines Saturday, damaged a key oil loading terminal and halted the flow of more than 500,000 barrels a day. Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the United States' fifth-largest supplier, usually exporting 2.5 million barrels daily.
Efie Alari, who identified himself as commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, told The Associated Press by telephone Sunday his group was poised to attack foreign oil tankers offshore. We'll use our rockets on the ships to stop them from taking our oil," Alari said. His identity could not be independently verified, but the call came from a number used previously by the group based in the oil region of the Niger River delta.
The military said it would do whatever was necessary to ensure the safety of tankers. "I don't know their capabilities, but we're not leaving anything to chance," said Maj. Said Hammed, a spokesman for the military task force in the delta. "The assurance has been given at the highest level of government that oil tankers are safe in Nigerian waters. That assurance remains."
Since you don't know their capabilities, it's a little early to lay down a promissary note.
Violence and sabotage of the delta's oil operations have been common for 15 years amid demands by the region's impoverished communities for a greater share of oil revenue flowing from their land.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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#1
It's not about liberation or locals. It's all about allen. Just more "global jihad.
#2
I dunno. My understanding was the most of the Muslims were in the north, not the delta. This is a country that has seen a couple of civil wars in its time, so having a bunch of armed thugs running around under a polysyllable name isn't unusual.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006 0:36
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#3
Nigerian Civil War - Essentially Muslim versus Christian and the Muslims won due to support by Europe (primarily.
#4
The group responsible for most of these attacks is the Coalition for Militant Action in the Niger Delta (COMA), aka the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which appears to be the main group active in the region and is led by the now-imprisoned Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, which is almost certainly a pseudonym that was adopted either when he took up Armed Struggle(TM) or converted to Islam, whichever came first. Debka claims that they have contacts with Abu Musab Zarqawi, but God only knows if that's true.
The Ijaw (who call themselves the Izon) are a primarily Catholic ethnic group of about 14,000,000 people who live mostly in the Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states of Nigeria and were one of the first Nigerian ethnic groups to make contact with European missionaries from Spain and Portugal during the 1600s who converted them to Catholicism. Because of their location along the Niger Delta, most of them are fishermen and they are organized into a series of "boat clans" called Houses, members of which elect leaders called House Lords to represent the interests of the House to the Nigerian central government, protect the House's trade interests, and lead them in war.
After oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1958, English, Dutch, Italian, French, and US companies have set up agreements with successive Nigerian governments to operate oil facilities there. Because of the Nigerian government's domination by the country's Muslim minority, many Ijaw believe that they are not receiving a fair share of the oil money being made off resources in their regions and hence have taken to forming groups like the Egbesu Boys, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Movement for Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality (MOSIEN), and the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), of which COMA is an evolutionary descendant of. A lot of these groups, despite their name, seem to be little more than bandit gangs who justify their activities using political rhetoric.
In December 1998, 4,000 members of the Egbesu Boys and the IYC issued a list of demands known as the Kaiama Declaration that called for the creation of "Ijawland" and warned foreign oil companies to cease operations by December 30 and not to do business with the Nigerian government. In response to the Declaration, the Nigeria government sent 2 warships and 10-15,000 to Bayelsa state, placing it under martial law until January 4 and killing at least 20 Ijaw (the government claims these were rebels, the Ijaw claim they were civilians). Helicopter gunships killed 35 additional Ijaw on January 6, 1999 leading to a reimposition of martial law in Bayelsa until January 11. It should be noted that whatever view one takes concerning the Ijaw rebels, their people have been rather badly oppressed by the Nigerian government. For instance, in May 2003 the Nigerian military killed 12 Ijaw House Lords after they announced that their Houses were boycotting the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Moujahid Dokubo-Asari is the leader of COMA and despite being a convert to Islam along with most of his group has the support of a number of powerful House Lords that enables him to operate among the Ijaw with relatively little interference. It seems that ethnicity trumps religion in this regard, since COMA is both the largest and most effective Ijaw group still in active with 10,000 and it protects the House Lords who support it from their traditional enemies, the neighboring Itsekiri, who control the oil facilities around Warri. They don't have any ties that I can determine to either the Nigeria Taliban that came into being in Yobe state back in December 2003 or former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who is alleged by the UN war crimes tribunal to have worked with al-Qaeda and is apparently still planning some kind of comeback in Liberia. Asari is on record as having praised bin Laden after 9/11 and was captured by Nigerian authorities in September 2005 and is now charged with treason.
Interestingly, London police told the Nigerian Independent newspaper that Depriye Alamieyeseigha, the former Bayelsa governor (now on trial for laundering millions of dollars to COMA) was involved with senior al-Qaeda leaders in London as part of an elaborate plot interdict world oil supply by using COMA to attack Nigeria's oil facilities. If true, it seems that Alamieyeseigha was Asari's superior within al-Qaeda and formalized the plan together with Abu Qatada, bin Laden's top representative in Europe.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2006 3:10
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The battle between Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and the forces of March 14 was officially declared Friday, as Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir implied he would not oppose a legal step aimed at ousting the President.
Emile's toast. Probably what's holding things up is the question of who gets to succeed him. I'd guess it'll be a Christian I think it's a requirement, in fact but I'd guess it'll be Wally's Christian. But when the process reaches its full blossom there'll be a Nasrallah Christian to oppose him, and probably a Knobby Berri Christian, and possibly an Aoun and/or Geagea Christian. The ghost of Anna Comnena told me she's getting a headache...
And as the attack on Lahoud continued to gain momentum, Speaker Nabih Berri announced March 2 as a date for the long-awaited Parliamentary dialogue, intended to resolve the country's severe political differences.
Last time I looked, Damascus still owned Knobby. But his lease may have run out by now, given the way the wind's blowing...
Speaking to local daily An-Nahar, Sfeir said that despite the fact he opposed toppling Lahoud through "popular street protests," he did not mind resorting to legal procedures in ending Lahoud's mandate. "Those who want to oust Lahoud should use constitutional means. We are with the law. If the law allows a change [of president] so be it," he said.
Y'got a puppet imposed by Damascus, who occupied you for 30 years. Who's dumb enough to think he's going to finish his term in office. Whose henchmen are in jug for murdering Hariri. I guess you can take your time about it. How's the end of March sound?
Sfeir had initially resisted the March 14 Forces calls to topple Lahoud, but the patriarch has been recently softening his previous stances, and moving closer to accepting an early end to Lahoud's term.
I think he met with Emile and smelled the decomposition. And he's come to the conclusion that the Syrians aren't coming back...
But Sfeir asked politicians demanding that Lahoud be toppled through public consensus to resort to legal and constitutional procedures in their quest instead of resorting to massive public demonstrations. "Toppling the president should not happen this way," he said, adding that the Parliament majority should agree on a new president before ousting Lahoud, and warning that Lebanon was going through a delicate period.
That's what I said. They'll spend a month or so juggling Christians...
Sfeir, who was visited by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun late Friday night as The Daily Star went to press, also regretted the fact that the post of the presidency has become the target of attacks, and said that disputes over the legitimacy of Lahoud are harming the country.
Emile could fix that easily enough. He can't do much of anything else, though...
After the meeting, Aoun did not give a statement, but sources close to the FPM said he had discussed the controversial issues of the presidency and the Baabda-Aley elections. "The current state of the presidency does not honor the Lebanese or the man still holding on to the post," Sfeir said.
That's a hint to Emile. Not very subtle, either...
"I am against the creation of political vacuum," he said. "There should be an agreement on the identity of the new president before agreeing on toppling of the present president."
"But he's gonna be toppled, isn't he?"
In a further effort to round up support from the Patriarch, who is seen as the religious mentor of the presidency, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea met Sfeir in Bkirki on Friday, saying after he emerged that he was "happy with the discussions" over the presidency. "I don't want to reveal what the patriarch said, but I was happy with the course of the discussion ... which mainly revolved over the most important issues right now: ousting Lahoud," Geagea said. He added that the political and public will was ripe right now to topple Lahoud, and called on any political party supporting the president's stay in power "to raise their finger."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2006
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NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians during confrontations with stone throwers in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata on Sunday, witnesses and medics said.
They said soldiers were searching Balata, near the city of Nablus, for suspected militants when they came across stone-throwing youths and opened fire. Two 18-year-olds were killed. A third youth was wounded in the incident, medics said.
"Aww, Avi, you let one get away!"
"Sorry Sarge, but did you see how fast he was running?"
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the incident.
Something more needs to be said?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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The French sure know how to be loved around the world.
Bangladesh says it has imposed a ban on SS Norway, an asbestos-lined French ocean-liner, from being broken up in its ship-breaking yards. Environment Minister Tariqul Islam made the decision after a meeting with officials and environment groups.
The ban comes a day after France ordered another asbestos-lined carrier, the Clemenceau, back from its journey to a ship-breaking yard in India.
Environmental group Greenpeace says the SS Norway is on its toxic ships list. SS Norway, which was launched in 1960 as SS France, has been anchored for months off the Malaysian coast waiting for a buyer.
Mr Islam said that the central bank and the customs department have been ordered not to issue an import order for the ship. The navy and coastguard have also been ordered to keep the ship out of Bangladeshi waters. "We have decided to ban the ship from entering our waters as we have information that it could trigger environmental and health disaster if it is dismantled here," Mr Islam said.
A Bangladeshi scrap merchant, Haji Lokman Hossain, said he had bought the 11-storey ocean-liner for $12m from an Indian buyer. Although Mr Hossain said that he was surprised by the government's ban, he will not be contesting the decision in the courts. "I do not want to fight the government about the ship. But I am surprised and shocked because [you will see] if you visit the scrap yards in Sitakundu [near Chittagong] some asbestos-laden ships are being scrapped there," he told the AFP news agency.
Environmentalists have welcomed the ban. Earlier they had given a legal notice to the government to stop the asbestos-lined ship from being imported. Greenpeace has included SS Norway on a watch-list of 50 ships, which it fears will not be decontaminated before being dismantled. It says the French workers who built the ship say it has 1,250 tonnes of material containing asbestos.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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The Treasury Department on Sunday ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of an Ohio-based group the government claims funnels money to the militant organization Hamas.
The organization, KindHearts of Toledo, Ohio, was connected with the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation and the al-Qaida-affiliated Global Relief Foundation, the Treasury Department said. The government took similar action against those groups in late 2001. Under the government action, U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with KindHearts.
KindHearts describes itself on its Web site as a nonprofit charitable organization administering humanitarian aid to the world's poor. In the past, its officials have denied being connected to any terrorist group or individual. KindHearts board member and Cleveland lawyer Jihad Smaili reiterated that position on Sunday.
"We are absolutely surprised and disappointed in the government's action," he said in a telephone interview. "This conduct by the government is going to be felt immediately by people who need KindHeart's assistance all over the world and in the United States." He estimated the group provided $5 million to $6 million annually in charity assistance.
"This allegation that we support Hamas is unfounded and incredible," he said.
Smaili added that his group understands the current political climate after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and is "hoping the government will play fair and play by the rules even though the rules are made by the government." Citing secrecy surrounding some aspects of investigations involving alleged terrorist connections, he said, "I hope they don't use this unfair weapon against us and prevent us even knowing the reason they are doing this or the evidence they have."
The government claims KindHearts officials have coordinated with Hamas leaders and made contributions to Hamas-affiliated organizations. The United States considers Hamas, now the most powerful political group in the Palestinian parliament, a terrorist group.
"KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the facade of charitable giving," Stuart Levey, treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
A call to the KindHearts office in Toledo was answered by a man who identified himself as a federal officer. "We're padlocking the office," said the man, who did not give his name.
The Palestinian Authority faces a "serious financial crisis" following Israel's slapping economic sanctions on the beleaguered body, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told reporters Sunday night. "The Palestinian Authority has faced a serious financial crisis since the start of the month," Abbas told reporters.
The Israeli Cabinet overwhelmingly approved Sunday the imposition of a range of sanctions against the PA following formation of a government led by Hamas, officials said. The measures, which include a series of economic sanctions, went into force Sunday, a day after the inauguration of a Hamas-dominated Palestinian Parliament, a senior government official said.
The sanctions include a freeze on the monthly transfer of tax duties owed to the PA that are worth some $50 million and constitute around a third of the Palestinian budget. The money represents around 30 percent of the PA's budget and secures salaries of 140,000 government workers, including around 60,000 police and members of security services.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2006
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Call me weird but HAMAS threatening to destroy one of the future Palestinian State's vital sources of revenue and econ development, i.e the hand that feeds the PA, kinda makes people or Govts. reluctant to keep supporting them.
#3
I've never understood why the Israelis continued a policy of feeding, clothing and arming people whose repeatedly sworn desire is to see every Jew in Israel dead or banished. If the Muzzy scumbags want war to the knife, give it them. "When it's time to shoot, shoot. Don't talk!" The election of Hamas means it's time to shoot.
Posted by: mac ||
02/20/2006 8:46
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"The Palestinian Authority has faced a serious financial crisis since the start of the month," Abbas told reporters.
#5
Israeli Cabinet decision puts PA in 'financial crisis'
Any financial impact from the Israeli cabinet's decision is a fart in a windstorm compared to longterm economic damage done by the PA's endemic corruption. Electing Hamas to solve the problem was like putting out a fire with gasoline.
That there would be a "financial crisis" never occurred to the average Paleo. That their "cause", which has always served the Ditatorships and Thugocracies and Monarchies and Mullacracies and Theocracies of the Arab and Muzzy World as the favored "Passion Play" and diversion, wouldn't be fully funded and kept alive is still beyond their ken. Those that didn't top off their Swiss accounts are in for a shock, methinks. The avg Paleo is going to get precisely what they've asked for - and they'll have to live with it - and / or die for it.
Another landslide killed five people in the Philippines barely two days after a collapsed mountainside wiped out an entire community in the central island of Leyte, officials said yesterday. The second landslide hit the gold-rush community of Dipore in the southern town of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur province, about 850 kilometers south of Manila, said the military and police. The remote town's mayor, Mary Ann Cartalla, also told local radio stations that small-scale mining financier Eric Sumundong perished with his two sisters and two other laborers in the landslide that buried three houses at about 7.30 p.m. on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Sunday test fired a short range surface to surface nuclear-capable missile, the military said in a statement. A successful test fire of the indigenously developed short range surface to surface ballistic missile Hatf-II Abdali was conducted today, it said.
The Abdali missile can reach a target of 200 kilometers (120 miles) and can carry nuclear and other types of warheads, the statement said. It said India had been given prior notification of the launch, as agreed last year before all ballistic missile tests are conducted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Saddam Hussein could be executed within months if he is found guilty of ordering the massacre of 140 people from the town of Dujail, the chief prosecutor in the former Iraqi dictator's trial has said. And the ousted Iraqi dictator, who faces 11 other charges, will not be able to cheat the hangman by dragging out legal proceedings in a series of trials.
The prosecutor, Ja'afar Moussawi, said that under a law passed late last year, all death sentences must be carried out within 30 days of an appeal failing, regardless of any other charges. "Once one of the accused on the Dujail case, for example, has been sentenced to death, then he won't be tried on other charges," Mr Moussawi said in an interview. "Other charges will automatically be dropped against that particular defendant, even if the case itself is brought against others."
Mr Moussawi was reluctant to be drawn on how long the Dujail case, which began four months ago against Saddam and seven co-defendants, would take but said it had "passed the 75per cent mark". A panel of nine judges had already been selected to hear any appeal and the process was unlikely to take more than a month, he said. Under Iraqi law, it was not possible for a death sentence imposed on anyone -- including the former president -- to be commuted.
The prosecutor's comments will be welcomed by many Shi'ites and Kurds exasperated by the slow pace of the trial and by its accelerating descent into farce as the accused repeatedly hurl insults at the judges. However, abandoning other trials that might shed light on Saddam's role in atrocities ranging from a poison gas attack that killed 5000 Kurds at Halabja in 1988 to the brutal suppression of a Shia uprising in southern Iraq in 1991 may dismay the relatives of those who died.
According to one Kurdish group that searches for missing people, some women consider themselves still engaged to fiances who vanished decades ago, while many married women cannot accept they have become widows. Prosecutors selected the massacre carried out in the predominantly Shia town of Dujail for the first case against Saddam because it appeared relatively clear-cut anad easier to prove than those involving wider allegations of genocide. According to government officials, retaliation against the villagers was led by Barzan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of Saddam who was head of intelligence, and by Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former vice-president. They are also on trial.
But the case has not proceeded as smoothly as prosecutors hoped. Although 26 witnesses have given heart-wrenching accounts of torture and imprisonment during the crackdown, proving that Saddam was directly responsible has been difficult. Last week, the prosecution produced documents that purported to show the former dictator had ordered the killings, and called two witnesses. Both complained that they had been made to testify and could not provide useful testimony. One, Fadhil al-Azzawi, a former ambassador in Moscow, said he had not even been in Iraq at the time. "I reject being a witness in this case because I do not have information," Mr Azzawi said. "I was forced to come to court." Three other former Saddam loyalists who were compelled to give evidence last week failed to corroborate most of the prosecution claims. Got any new batteries for the Surprise Meter?
The defence claims the judge cannot be impartial because he was born in Halabja, the scene of the gas attack, and some of his relatives died. Just like robbery and rape victims are prejudices against their attackers.
Lawyers also claim he was a member of a Kurdish party opposed to Saddam's regime and that he was convicted in absentia and given a life sentence in one of Saddam's courts in 1977. Several international human rights groups have criticised the handling of the trial and have argued that it should be moved to an international tribunal. Like the one dawdling on the Kmer Rouge?
Note the discussion of French sales of nuclear materials to the Indians.
NEW DELHI - French President Jacques Chirac arrived in India on Sunday for a whistle-stop visit aimed at bolstering trade and civilian nuclear cooperation with the emerging economic powerhouse.
Chirac, whose visit will be followed by the arrival of US President George Bush in early March, has said he will seek to boost slim trade levels with Asias third-largest economy where growth is running at an eight percent clip. The president arrived with five ministers, including his foreign minister, and about 30 top business leaders, keen to help expand bilateral trade.
Fuel-hungry India and France, which relies on nuclear power for its energy needs, will also discuss future civilian nuclear technology cooperation. If we dont help India produce electricity using nuclear power, we would let develop in India a chimney for greenhouse gases, Chirac said Saturday in Bangkok.
The minimum we must do is to let India respond to its energy needs without becoming a major polluting nation, he said. I wish that we could, within the non-proliferation framework and existing agreements, help India respond to this need, he said.
French nuclear companies could be big winners if a landmark Indo-US agreement to supply New Delhi with long-denied civilian nuclear technology is approved by the US Congress.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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So did he pack the knee-pads or the whips n' cuffs?
#2
At least the Indians have proved responsible (to this point) with nukes. They've certainly shown restraint in the face of constant Pak provocations.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 21:49
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Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18 A judge at Tehrans Appellate Court announced on Saturday that the Islamic Republic would continue to issue death verdicts for juvenile delinquents without considering other available options.
Execution sentences will be issued to minors without considering other options, Ahmad Mozaffari told the state-run news agency ILNA.
Mozaffari made the comments after Iranian courts issued execution sentences to a 15 year old and 16 year old, the report said. The judge said one minor was sentenced to execution recently, despite the fact that examination by a government-appointed physician had shown that he was suffering from a psychiatric disorder. State-run press have identified the 15-year-old on death row only by his first name Mohammad.
Cartoons about this Mohammad are okay, apparently.
Peace be upon him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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The American people believe that the execution of minors by the government of Iran, is an internal affair of their State, and we will not interfere. What is unconscionable is the rampart racism at the Rantburg blog. Should those type of comments continue, offenders will be arrested and interred at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where misunderstood Muslims will educate you in the noble faith of Islam.
Posted by: State Department ||
02/20/2006 16:53
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I think less of Britsh Columbia trolls with every run of diarrhea from you, punk
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 17:18
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Chief of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups six Gulf Arab countries, said on Saturday that the bloc did not oppose referring Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council, which might lead to sanctions.
GCC Secretary General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah was cited by the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) as saying that the GCC had no objection to the referral of Iran's nuclear program to the Security Council or any international resolutions regarding this issue.
"Sure, go ahead, just don't miss and hit us instead."
Speaking upon arrival in Kuwait, Al-Attiyah also reiterated the bloc's call for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Cheap talk since Israel won't give up its best guarantee of survival.
But the secretary general also said that Iran had the right to peaceful nuclear technology. "It is a legal right to the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes for Iran and other countries in the region," he said, but stressed the importance of maintaining stability, security and peace.
And we all know that peaceful nuclear energy in Iran means peace and stability.
Al-Attiyah also asserted that the GCC hoped that the Iranian nuclear issue could be solved through dialogues and diplomatic means. Uneasy about Iran's nuclear program, the GCC- grouping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain- has long called for a nuclear-free Mideast, but has cautiously avoided harsh words toward Iran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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DAMASCUS - More than 40 sacked judges held a sit-in demonstration on Sunday near the Rawda presidential palace in the Syrian capital demanding their rehiring, a human rights activist said. About 45 judges gathered this morning near the Rawda palace in order to demand the canceling of the decree issued by President Bashar Al-Assad last October, the activist told AFP on condition of anonymity.
At the time, Assad fired 81 judges and increased wages for the judiciary as part of a programme of intended legal reforms.
'Reform' and 'Assad' just don't seem to go together, do they.
The dismissals were reported in the state-run Ath-Thawra newspaper, but no reason was given. Syrias premier human rights activist and lawyer Anwar Bunni criticised the firing of judges as undermining the independence of the courts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman said Friday the Lebanese should have the right to elect their president according to the Constitution and without any outside meddling. "Our position regarding the presidency is clear since we support UN Resolution 1559 which calls for fair and free presidential elections," Feltman said following a visit to Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Elias Murr. "I believe it is time for the Lebanese to have the right to have free and fair presidential elections according to their constitution and without any outcome forced from outside," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Druze leader Walid Jumblatt stressed the need to elect a president who will "safeguard Lebanon's interests," asserting that President Emile Lahoud "safeguards the interests of the Syrian regime." Jumblatt went on to dispute that Lahoud was a "Lebanese President."
Since Damascus installed him, I wouldn't call him one, despite his sash.
Jumblatt's candid statements came in an interview on Friday with Voice of Lebanon radio, where he said: "Lebanon now has a duty to elect a new president who will safeguard the Constitution and Lebanon's independence and sovereignty." He said that MP Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, is a "democratic figure and is one of the candidates for presidency." Jumblatt said he wished Aoun had participated in demonstrations on February 14 as "he is a basic part of March 14."
I'm still trying to figure Aoun. I liked him better when he was in exile. But my mind's not devious enough to understand the intricacies of Leb politix. I think you have to be born into the oligarchy to really comprehend them.
Commenting on statements made by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah slamming the speeches of leaders of the March 14 Forces during the commemoration for slain former PM Rafik Hariri, Jumblatt said: "We tell Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that his duty is over. There is no need for arms when it concerns the Shebaa Farms. UN Security Council Resolution 425 has been implemented and this is proved by the UN-demarcated Blue Line." The Chouf MP, a strong anti-Syrian figure, said that the solution to the disputed Shebaa Farms "is when the Syrian government acknowledges they are Lebanese territories - then we can resort to the international court that will decide this matter."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18 At least five people were killed and dozens injured or arrested in the course of clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and government forces in Irans Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces, according to a statement emailed to Iran Focus by Kurdish activists.
Iranian Kurds staged several rallies in various towns and cities in the north-western regions of Iran on Thursday and Friday, the report said. There were street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the towns of Maku, Bazargan, and Sardasht, the report added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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Yep. Topple the wankers and this puppy'll shatter like a fake Waterford crystal anniversay bowl, that's the thing for the 15th anniversary y'know, hit with a greasy ball-peen hammer on a dark and stormy night.
HAVANA - President Fidel Castro has offered firm support for Irans right to pursue a nuclear energy program, Cubas state-controlled media reported on Sunday.
Castro met with Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, the speaker of Irans parliament, in the Palace of the Revolution, as the Iranian official on Saturday wrapped a two day visit to the Communist island nation. Castro offered Cubas firm support for Irans right to use nuclear issues for peaceful ends according to a statement published in the Juventud Rebelde and other media.
The meeting underscored the excellent bilateral ties and political dialogue enjoyed by Havana and Teheran, and also allowed the two leaders to explore the broad potential for economic relations, according to the newspaper. Haddad-Adel, reiterated Irans respect, friendship toward Cuba and solidiarity against the (US-led) embarago and acts of imperialist aggression, La Juventud Rebelde wrote.
Birds of a feather.
The Iranian delegation arrived in Cuba from Venezuela, and was set to go on to Uruguay.
Send for the mighty Uruguayans!
Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to come to Cuba in September to attend a summit of non-aligned countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Think maybe they'll get an oil deal out of this?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/20/2006 8:27
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Yep, that's what the olde Beard is after. He already gets more than 5000 bbl/day from I Hugo and is looking for more freebies.
Kwazulu-Natal black farmers on Thursday called on government to speed up the pace of land reform, saying that the time had come for white farmers to give "Caesar what belonged to Caesar". They made the call at the KwaZulu-Natal Agribusiness Conference Durban.
Angry farmers said the process of returning their ancestral land, lost during apartheid, was moving at a terribly slow pace because government was "persuading too much" instead of making it clear that the land needed to be given back to its owners.
Of South Africa's nine provinces, KZN is lagging far behind in terms of finalising land claims. According to the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, there are close to 2,000 outstanding rural claims. Black farmers said the outstanding claims meant that they did not have the land that should be used for farming.
Addressing delegates, the President of the National Black Farmers' Association, Dr Mandla Buthelezi, said it was disgusting that some white farmers were imposing conditions when government approached them for land. "These people did not pay a cent for the land, but they are now demanding exorbitant amounts if government wants to buy it and redistribute it to black people. They lie that they bought the land.
"If what they are saying is true, they should show us receipts to prove that they really bought it. There are a lot of museums that I have visited throughout the country but I have never seen even a single receipt to show that white people bought land," he said.
The slow pace of land restitution is creating a headache for the national government. President Thabo Mbeki recently said the government would review its "willing buyer, willing seller" approach to land restitution, which is largely dictated by market forces. The government has also promised that it will expropriate land from white farmers where talks had dragged on too long.
The project manager of the commission in KZN, Brendan Boyce, said the major land restitution challenges were the high land prices and stiff opposition from land owners. "There is a problem of traditional boundaries being confused with restitution, a lack of co-ordination between departments and inadequate communication to and with stakeholders," he said. He said the commission had set a target to finalise all claims before 2008.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The homeland security chief said on Sunday a deal for a Dubai-based company to manage major U.S. ports would include security safeguards, but a Republican senator urged a probe and called the Bush administration "tone deaf politically" for approving it.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Bush administration had approved the sale of British firm P&O, which manages six U.S. ports including New York, to Dubai Ports World after a classified review and the deal would include safeguards to protect U.S. national security. "You can be assured that before a deal is approved we put safeguards in place, assurances in place, that make everybody comfortable that we are where we need to be from a national security viewpoint," Chertoff said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
But Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said it was a mistake for the administration to approve the sale and called on Congress to investigate it. "It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history, four years after 9/11, to entertain the idea of turning port security over to a company based in the UAE who avows to destroy Israel," Graham said on "Fox News Sunday."
No matter who owns or manages a port, they have to comply with American law. The DHS is going to watch them the same regardless.
Even so, it's good to see that the American public is paying attention, and their elected representatives are addressing some of the questions.
"I don't think now is the time to outsource major port security to a foreign-based company," he said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat sniffing an opportunity to sound 'tough' on national security, said she would support legislation to block foreign companies from buying port facilities. "I'm going to support legislation to say 'No more, No way.' We have to have American companies running our own ports ... Our infrastructure is at risk," she said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Last week, Sens. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York, both Democrats, said they would offer legislation to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations. "No matter what steps the administration claims it has secretly taken, it is an unacceptable risk to turn control of our ports over to a foreign government," Menendez said in a statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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Why do I feel like "Network" is on and I'm Ned Beatty?
Sheesh. Sell 'em the port management rights already. We get to write off a shitload of UAE oil debt, and what are they gonna do - take the New York Harbor home with 'em? Same deal as the Japanese owning the concessions in Yosemite.
Besides - Anything nasty happens, who gets hit? They'll be careful.
#5
This was a left-footed move by Chertoff and crew. Ultimately is renders a black eye on the Bush Administration, and I am a staunch supporter.
First off, there's that PR thingy. From a policial standpoint, the blow back from approving such an agreement gives sleeze ball Schumer a big grandstand.
Chertoff "may" be a good DHS secretary, but, at a minimum, he has a tin ear when it comes to politics.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/20/2006 13:19
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Every week tens of thousands of refugees flow into South Africa, and each week South Africa ships out a few thousand - more than 1,000 to Zimbabwe alone. But United Nations and police officials say trying to stem the tide is like trying to stop a tsunami with a bucket.
Jonathan Martins, programme manager of the UN-funded International Organisation on Migrancy, said South African borders were "incredibly porous". "People from as far away as Ethiopia tend to go to South Africa because there is a perception there are jobs and opportunities (there)."
Imagine what Ethiopia is like to think of a 3,000 mile trip to South Africa.
Police say they have not had a successful prosecution yet against traffickers. People-smuggling rings are cashing in on the situation, particularly from Zimbabwe, as people flee economic meltdown and political repression.
Zimbabwe's The Herald newspaper says syndicates operating at Beit Bridge use South African-registered vehicles to transport people from as far away as Bulawayo to Johannesburg for a fee of R800 to R1 000. They are taken to the Beit Bridge border, where they are guided across the Limpopo and then picked up by taxis on the South African side.
According to Limpopo province police statistics, 753 illegal immigrants were arrested between January 5 and 12, an average of 100 a day. However, this is the rainy season in Limpopo which sees fewer immigrants entering the country as the Limpopo River floods, making the crocodile-infested waters even more hazardous than usual. But even when the river is low it is dangerous.
Jabu Ndebele, a 22-year-old Zimbabwean who goes back and forth across the border carrying items to trade in Zimbabwe, always uses the river route, but recalls that the first time he came with five friends, two were eaten by crocodiles.
Lions in the Kruger Park also regularly attack refugees coming through from Mozambique. United Nations officials and police say human trafficking - the "new slave trade" - is on the increase. Human smuggling is often a choice by people who want to, and will pay to be smuggled into a country.
Martins said someone trafficked to South Africa from a neighbouring state "could be sold for around R500". "Children are more expensive. The price depends on what is considered exotic. We have cases of African women trafficked to Europe for $40 000 (R242 000) and European women trafficked here for R100 000 or R150 000 or more." According to police sources and the International Organisation on Migrancy, women from places like the Democratic Republic of Congo are offered jobs as housekeepers in South Africa, only to have their passports seized and be forced into prostitution.
South Africa is sufficiently concerned about trafficking to have established a task force two years ago and a busy toll free helpline. Police say they have not had a successful prosecution yet against traffickers, hindered by a lack of legislation against the practice in South Africa, in spite of South Africa last year signing the Palermo Protocol, in which nations pledged to fight the scourge.
In South Africa, the Sexual Offences Unit tracks child trafficking, while the Organised Crime Unit attempts to break adult trafficking rings. Police officers complain that, "because there is no legislation, the initiative is on those trafficked to testify, so that we can get a conviction. They may be frightened of the gang or they may want to return to them because they get drugs and are often well treated."
In a major child trafficking case last year involving Johannesburg, Durban and the Eastern Cape, not a single child was prepared to testify. Some ran away and others are back with the Nigerian syndicate leaders who have moved them to the Phalaborwa area, according to a senior source in the National Prosecuting Authority.
The only laws that can be used against traffickers at present include those against sex work, kidnapping, murder or sexual crimes. Criminal investigation authorities say a lack of laws and co-ordination on trafficking between neighbouring countries mean, once a person crosses a border, police in the investigating country are hamstrung.
There are, however, two pieces of legislation pending that include trafficking provisions. The Children's Bill was passed by parliament last year and is waiting to be signed into effect by the president, but the Sexual Offences Bill, which has waited four years to be heard by parliament, is nowhere close to being passed. The SA Law Commission is also working on draft trafficking legislation.
Loren Landau of Forced Migration Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand said, "A lot of people are voluntarily smuggled by syndicates. Many come here with the idea of going to Europe or Canada. They use South Africa as a transit point.
"We have spoken to Home Affairs officials about finding a more humane way of dealing with refugees than very costly forced repatriation. But they are reluctant to recognise asylum seekers, especially from Zimbabwe."
#2
Jabu Ndebele, a 22-year-old Zimbabwean who goes back and forth across the border carrying items to trade in Zimbabwe, always uses the river route, but recalls that the first time he came with five friends, two were eaten by crocodiles.
I hear Florida has too many alligators.
I think I know how to cut illegal immigration by 40%...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/20/2006 10:47
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Is the proposed "land reform" (with readily predictable famines to follow) a clever plan to address illegal immigration by making SA an unattractive destination?
Posted by: James ||
02/20/2006 11:02
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#4
Robert, great point, I wonder if gators and crocs can handle the Rio Grande? If not, there's always Gila monsters ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006 11:52
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The solution might be.... a stronger military and police force (compulsary national service in either the military or law enforcement), tightly controled borders, natinal identity cards, work permits, increased emphasis on education, English and Afrikaans as the two primary spoken languages, deportation of criminals and trouble makers, a return to the "rule of law" and justice. Oh no, the "bad old days" of apartheid.
The general supervisor of the Fatah Movement in Lebanon, Brigadier Munir Maqdah, said that he was "ready to put an end to the armed militants who are causing trouble in the Taamir area by resorting to military options or by peaceful means."
But... but... Don't you have to negotiate for seven or eight years and then get a UN resolution? What's Amnesia International have to say about all that?
Speaking on Sunday to The Daily Star, Maqdah, referring to the Jund al-Sham militia, said "we have many options including a military option provided that peaceful methods are not neglected."
"Being Paleostinians, we prefer the peaceful methods, of course... Mahmoud, that man is snickering. Kill him."
On Friday, the Lebanese Army was on a high state of alert when clashes almost broke out between the Jund al-Sham militia and the army over rumors that a supporter of the militia, Mohammed Shmandour, a Lebanese national, had been beaten to death by the Lebanese Army. Shmandour was arrested last week on rumors that he possessed weapons and ammunition. That caused some 50 Jund al-Sham militants who were armed and masked and members from Shmandour's family to protest by setting car tires on fire.
Most places, that would lead to further arrests. Maybe even in La Belle France.
A Lebanese-Palestinian Follow-Up Committee held an emergency meeting with Sheikh Abu Abeida, an official in Usbat al-Ansar, an outlawed Islamic fundamentalist group.
Where was the meeting held? The Hole in the Wall?
During the emergency meeting, Maqdah said that he needed "a written agreement from Sidon MPs Osama Saad and Bahia Hariri as well as approval from the Lebanese Army and Palestinian factions in order to take the steps. But still there is no answer."
Lemme see, here... An outlawed militant group meets with the gummint side and sez it needs written authorization to take the law into its own hands and wreak carnage on another outlawed militant group in a town that's within Lebanon but not controlled by the Lebs. I think I got that. My head spun around 360 degrees and now my neck hurts, but I got it.
An Ein el-Hilweh resident said "the Lebanese Army had blocked the roads again on Saturday night for more than six hours preventing cars from going inside the camp." Two hand grenades were thrown on Saturday inside the camp in Hay al-Manshiyye and in Khat al-Sikke areas but no casualties or damage were reported. Roads were later reopened on Sunday morning.
"Are they done throwing hand grenades, sergeant?"
"I think so, sir!"
"Very well. Reopen the road."
MP Bahia Hariri, after a meeting with a delegation from Taamir, described the situation as a "ticking time bomb." More than seven months ago there were attempts to instigate trouble with the Lebanese Army in Taamir.
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Syria has lashed out at the United States over its plans to allocate $5 million to the Syrian opposition.
Yeah. They need more than that.
Walid Muallem, the Syrian Foreign Minister, told reporters on Sunday: "This is meddling in Syria's internal affairs and we reject it."
Oh, dear! We certainly wouldn't want to meddle in the internal affairs of a bloody-handed dictatorship.
The US State Department said on Friday that it would allocate $5 million to finance the Syrian opposition amidst worsening relations between the two countries. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said on Thursday that the United States wanted to strengthen sanctions against Syria and was trying to convince other nations to follow suit. The Bush administration backs a United Nations probe into the murder a year ago of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, and 20 other people in a Beirut seafront bombing that has been linked to Syria.
They said something about Syria's habit of meddling in the affairs of other countries...
Washington also frequently accuses Syria of failing to stem the flow of foreign fighters across its border with Iraq.
Which'd be... ummm... meddling in Iraq's affairs.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Because you talk shit, we'll send ANOTHER 5 million to your opposition."
#2
Sounds like a little JDAM meddling is in order.
Unless they'd prefer a MOAB?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2006 22:08
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I'm always impressed with the fact that these little zits on the world's ass can respond to most anything with, "We reject it!" and figure it's case closed. Pretty nifty trick. Never worked for me, though...
(2006-02-19) As the global death toll from protests over editorial cartoons rose to 45 yesterday, an Islamic scholar, or Mufti, issued a new fatwa adding a Sixth Pillar to the traditional five requirements of the religion.
The following is the new revised standard version of the pillars of Islam
1. Testifying to Gods one-ness: There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet.
2. Prayer: five times daily
3. Fasting: during daylight in the month of Ramadan
4. Giving charity: 2.5 percent of income to needy Muslims
5. Pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca, for those who are able, or
6. Participation in a violent demonstration to protect Allah from insult
The sixth pillar is technically part of the fifth pillar, the fatwa explains, and it provides a cheap, convenient alternative to the Mecca Hajj that can be performed at an embassy or fast-food establishment near you.
According to a written statement to be read in mosques worldwide this week. This new expression of devotion is simply an acknowledgement of the important place that sacramental rioting has come to hold in the lives of so many Muslims.
The fatwa has been issued, the statement said, to codify the official silence of major Muslim leaders over the bloodshed and property damage caused by our followers as they valiantly try to shelter Allah (the great and powerful) from devastating emotional harm caused by these vicious cartoons.
#3
I am sick and tired of all the radical Islamic bull shits. I am sure; most of the US citizens are feeling the same. Could it be just the matter of time for these Islamists to shape up or get screwed up really bad? I do not think so. The entire politicking of US and the western countries are to kiss the ass of the Islamists. Look at the China. China tolerates the Islamists for a while then China blasts a whole bunch of Islamists. The Islamists in China finally stay in control. The problem with US and the western polices are that they want to have the cake and eat it too. This does not work in societies where power is the God.
I always joked that India exists because no power in the world wants to conquer India even if the politicians there are eager to sell India for a few bucks. Not even China, wants to have a huge headache. In the modern world, you do not want to conquer a country or a population. All you want is to establish your control. Now, look at the world. India can do nothing against the wishes of Islamists when less than only 15% Of India's population is Muslims. Lebanon is no more a Christian country. And no free press in USA ever dared to publish the cartoons of Mohammad as was done in Denmark.
Friends, you will not believe that we already have lost to the Islamists. Now, be ready to protect your grand daughters from a certain rape by the Islamists in your own country in the future. Our own politicians and big business already havev sold you to the Islamists. Thousands of our young men and women in armed forces are being sacrificed for the stupidity of our politicians. Please have the compassion that those thousands of our young men and women killed and injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan are just like your child. Please, never think they are the children of some one else. I do not know about you friends, I simply wish, I will be around to have my double barrel shot gun blazing to any Islamist who ever dared to touch my grand daughter. Will you not? You do not believe me; look what happens in the Islamic world. Most of the non-Muslim daughters and grand daughters are raped by the Islamists in the Muslim countries.
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 An attempt by Irans radical theocratic government to organise an international conference of Islamist parties in Tehran to adopt a unanimous position on the publication of cartoons depicting Islams Prophet Muhammad may have to be put off due to lack of interest from political parties across the Muslim world.
As whupped up as many of the Muslim crazies are, they're Sunni crazies with no desire to go to Iran.
Iran invited a total of 149 various political parties in Muslim countries to take part in its Global Conference of Parties from Islamic States. The event was billed by Irans state-run media as a major international response to the blasphemous, Islamophobic moves of Western governments. A draft resolution prepared by the organisers included references to Irans nuclear stand-off with the West and declared support for the Islamic Republic.
Contrary to their expectation, the organisers have not heard from the vast majority of the invitees. Up until now, only three parties from Algeria have signed up for the conference, despite the extensive advertisement that has been carried out and the huge cost that comes with it.
The event has had to been postponed several times due to lack of interest.
Can't imagine why.
Twelve parties were invited to take part in the conference from Pakistan, eight from Bangladesh, seven from Turkey, five from Indonesia, five from Algeria, four from India, three from Albania, two from Tunisia, two from Kyrgyzstan, two from Sudan, one from Syria, one from Morocco, and 55 from Afghanistan.
Iran has many surrogates among the Islamist political parties in the Muslim world, Naji al-Tufaili, a Lebanese Shiite political commentator said in a telephone interview in Cairo. But this time, the Iranian leaders felt the worldwide row over the cartoons provided an opportunity for them to appeal to Islamist parties that have not been in their sphere of influence. They failed, because these parties could clearly see that Iran was trying to make political capital for itself out of religious sentiments of the Muslims.
Syrian and Turkish parties have said they would be willing to participate if the event was not called an Islamic conference.
There's a poll on how to handle Iran at the link. As we say in Chicago, vote early and often.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2006
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Boy, I'll bet they're really really embarrassed. And pissed. Yeah, pissed too. But mainly really really embarrassed. They prolly forgot to tell everyone that they didn't need to bring a gift.
Feb 19: JMB Chittagong divisional commander Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad was taken on a 5-day police remand Sunday for interrogation on his involvement in blasting bombs in Panchlaish thana area during the August 17 serial bombings across the country. Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Court granted the 5-day remand when he was produced in the court.
RAB arrested Mohammad from Kathtuli area under Pahartali thana in the port city on December 13 and recovered huge amounts of explosive items.
"Say Mohammad, how's about youse taking a walk wit us later tonight?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Three members of Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood were ordered Saturday to stand trial on charges of possessing weapons and provoking violence during parliamentary elections late last year, court officials said. The three were arrested during the violent election season which saw at least 10 people killed in violence mainly blamed on security forces trying to block opposition voters from reaching the polls. Despite the police violence, the Brotherhood made astonishing gains, increasing its seats in parliament sevenfold but still well short of a majority. The group is officially banned but is tolerated to a degree by the government.
Mohammed Imam al-Hut and Abdulal Hasan al-Najjar, both farmers, and university professor Hasan Mahmoud al-Haywan face charges of possessing weapons and plotting to use them during the second phase of Egypt parliamentary elections. The charges emerged from telephone taps on the phones of al-Najjar and al-Haywan, who authorities claimed discussed assembling an arsenal of 400 automatic rifles and preparations to use them against the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2006
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Iran said Sunday it was standing by its "right" to enrich uranium on its own soil, just a day before talks with Russia aimed at finding a compromise on the ultra-sensitive nuclear work. The negotiations on Moscow's offer to carry out ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment work on Russian soil are seen as a last chance for Tehran to avoid being hauled before the UN Security Council for possible punitive action. Having already been reported to the Security Council, Iran is also under pressure to provide greater access to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and return to a full freeze of enrichment work - which can be extended to weapons making.
"The Islamic Republic is not being stubborn or adventurist, but it will not accept the suppression of its nuclear fuel activities," said Javad Vaidi, a member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
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Sunday police found bodies of three men bound, blindfolded and shot execution-style in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. They appeared to be the latest victims of sectarian tit-for-tat killings, which have sharpened religious tensions as Iraqi politicians try to form a national unity government following the December parliamentary elections. The Interior Ministry has announced an investigation into allegations of Shiite death squads in police ranks after U.S. troops arrested 22 policemen preparing to kill a Sunni Arab last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
We keep hearing about these killings, but never WHO the victims really are. They're called 'sectarian tit-for-tat' etc., but is that really all they are? It looks like they are 'executions' - probably people specifically targetted for who they are, what they did, or what job they have, not just random revenge.
Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said Sunday "MP Walid Jumblatt is part of an international conspiracy that aims to put Lebanon under American tutelage, which is trying to hamper the ability to face Israel."
"It's a conspiracy, I tells yez! Hatched in a smoke-filled room, in the dead o' night, by dark men of sinister visage! I seen it! I seen it with me own eyes!"
In an interview with Syrian newspaper Tishreen, Qassem said that the issue of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 "was not over yet but is staggering due to the government's stagnation."
"We are, of course, obstructing as hard as we can..."
"Jumblatt's positions do not fall in line with the building of a stable country," he said.
"Not a stable country like Syria, anyway. Or Iran. Or one o' those other utopias."
The Hizbullah official added that Jumblatt's escalating statements "highlighted his anger at the progress of the situation."
"He can't get angry. Only we can get angry. We make our living being angry. What if he corners the market on anger? What'd happen to us? Our families would starve!"
"However, such statements do not affect our presence in the Cabinet or our relations with the Future Movement. We are comfortable about the progress achieved and we hope that Jumblatt will return to this national path, which serves Lebanon's interests."
"If not, his car's gonna explode and we'll work with somebody else."
Speaking on the issue of the presidency, Qassem said that Hizbullah would not sign the petition which the March 14 MPs are distributing that calls for the removal of President Emile Lahoud.
"We're pretty fond of Emile. We find him... tame."
Qassem said that the Shiite party won't sign the petition because it "is based on a political and not a legal point of view, which Hizbullah does not share." As for the March 14 Forces' claims that allying with Hizbullah is tantamount to allying with Syria and Iran, he said: "We are proud of our relations with Iran and Syria because they have always supported Lebanon and the resistance, asking nothing in return."
"So we can take that as a 'yes'?"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2006
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#1
Hezbollah the other day just endorsed Jumblatt did they not for taking over as pres parliamentary leader whatever.
What did Bady Assad and Adamahmajan call with a WTF.
We got a full court press rolling in the ME their is dissent backdoor dealing crossing double crossing fake crossing ect... all over.
In 30yrs+ when the classified cools off this WOT is going to blow people's minds about the amount being done nobody short the above top secret certified even know parts of.
SYDNEY - Prime Minister John Howard on Monday defended remarks he made to a national newspaper describing some segments of the Islamic community as "utterly antagonistic" to Australian society.
In an interview with The Australian newspaper published Monday, Howard decried the "extreme attitudes" held by some segments of the Islamic community, and said some Muslim immigrants had not integrated into Australian society as well as previous waves of European and Asian migrants. The comments sparked criticism from at least one Muslim community group.
"I stand by those comments that there is a small section of the Islamic population in Australia that, because of its remarks about jihad, remarks which indicate an extremist view, that is a problem," Howard told reporters in Sydney. "It is not a problem that we have ever faced with other immigrant communities who become easily absorbed by Australia's mainstream," he added.
And why is that, anyway?
Howard also expressed concern about Muslim attitudes toward women. "There is within some sections of the Islamic community an attitude towards women which is out of line with mainstream Australian society," he said. "It needs to be dealt with by the broader community, including Islamic Australia."
How many American politicans would be willing to say that?
Ameer Ali, the head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, acknowledged there are some pockets of islamofascism conservatism within Australia's Islamic community, but said he was confident those views would soften in time. "When you have 400,000 people in this country from a certain community there will always be people of different views and opinions and attitudes," he said in a telephone interview. "But those views will change in some time."
Change in which direction?
Ali said Australia should not close its borders to immigrants from Muslim countries, but should enact stricter screening to keep extremists out. "There are people who are coming with some islamofascist conservative ideas ... and they should be kept out of the country for the sake of harmony and peace in Australia," Ali said."We have to screen people much more closely," he added. "If they are troublemakers keep them out."
That's so sensible that it has no chance of being implemented.
The founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad, said he was "quite disappointed" with Howard's remarks. "I think his comments will disappoint many mainstream Muslims because they come out of left field and they will not be seen just as criticism of a minority," Trad said.
Trad acknowledged the existence of islamofascist conservative segments within the Muslim community, but criticized Howard for failing to single out other extremist voices in Australia.
One speech, one group. He'll get to the left in his next speech.
Update: Dan Darling notes this article from The Australian, which is pretty much the same story with a couple different quotes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 Former Iranian President and current chairman of the State Expediency Council Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has no say in the Islamic Republics nuclear policy, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.
Mohsen Rezai, the former Supreme Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told reporters that the expediency council and its chairman had no involvement in Irans nuclear file. Rezai himself has the influential post of secretary general of State Expediency Council. The Supreme National Security Council is the main organ in charge of the nuclear file, and the Expediency Council does not therefore involve itself in this file in any way, but the President and government officials brief it on the countrys nuclear file, Rezai said.
As chair of the SEC, Rafsanjani is in charge of keeping the Mad Mullahs in charge arbitration in disputes between the Guardian Council and Irans Majlis, or parliament.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Guardian Council - Check.
State Expediency Council - Check.
Supreme National Secuiryt Council - Check.
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Council - Check.
Basij Regional HQs - Check.
Majlis - Check.
Qom - Check.
Tehran - Check.
Natanz - Check.
...
#2
And their little dog Ahmadinejad, well who cares. He is just a mouthpiece for the M2IC.
And do not forget the M2's assets (businesses, property owned, etc) on your coordinate list, .com
Maybe they can be taken out first, and let the people string up your list by themselves.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 22:48
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Now wait a sec there, buddy, do you know what an ellipsis means? Huh, do ya?
Any damned thing I want it to! Lol.
Yeah, I was indicating all those goodies I couldn't yank out of the article and grouping them in the sequence and lazily representing them with the ellipsis. Sue me, lol.
As for the folks, those Persians, I read an article somewhere today that really depressed me. It indicated that, independent of their opinion of the Mullahs, that something like 80% of Persians - across all age and other lines - support the nuke pgm. Muzzy Viagra. Fuck. So they might say "Thank ya!" if we offed the MMs for 'em, but they'd be extra pissed if we took away the new toys.
Sucks to be them, then. Life is, indeed, very very hard on stupid people and people with tiny dicks.
#4
I will have to reluctantly agree with you, .com. If the people of Iran were less divided, they would have booted the MMs out by now. Hopefully we have some contacts in-country (rebel groups, some military folks) that can help tip things when we attack. It has to be overwhelming, quick, and deadly. We may not get a second chance on this one to be relatively clean.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2006 23:04
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they do have a dissident middle class, but they really appear to be lazy, huh? I had a better feeling about the next gov't after a decap strike, but am getting (if possible) more cynical. I and AP are really of the opinion that not only do we have to attack those targets you mentioned, .com, but also the personal assets.wealth onf teh MM's. They are less a clerical theocracy than a beturbanned gang with weakass rhetoric. How does a pious man of Allah become a multi-millionaire, anyway?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 23:08
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#6
onf teh ?
Jeebus! - almost bed time - short work week with full week's workload beckons?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2006 23:10
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#7
Agreed. Gotta get it right the first go 'round... while most who directly benefit from the removal of the threat will sit on their hands and, later, criticize how we did it.
CAIRO, Egypt - The head of the Arab League said Sunday that members would meet this week to hammer out a plan for sending millions of dollars a month to the Palestinian Authority, despite U.S. attempts to stop the flow of money to the new Hamas-led government.
Heh. Every euro that goes down the Paleo rat hole is one less Danish flag available to burn in Multan and Jakarta.
Secretary-General Amr Moussa said foreign ministers from several Arab countries were to meet Monday in Algiers to examine a plan to send about $50 million a month to the Palestinian Authority. A final decision is not expected until Arab leaders meet in a summit next month in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
It's ever so annoying when the jizya dries up. Might even have to feed some stupid widows and orphans with Junior Jihadi's ammo allowance...
The money is part of Palestinian funding the Arab League approved last year before Hamas' election victory in January. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have already contributed to the financially strapped Palestinian Authority and more money is on its way, Moussa said. The $50 million monthly stipend, however, only represents what the Arab League initially pledged give the Palestinians during a summit nearly four years ago, and some Palestinians voiced skepticism that their fellow Arabs would come through.
"Since the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002, the Arab governments decided to give the Palestinians $600 million a year. That never materialized. The Arabs made promises, but never delivered," said Samir Ghattas, head of the Palestinian Al-Kuds Research Center. "It the Arabs did not pay Arafat, why should they now pay Hamas?" Ghattas asked. Noting that Hamas had its roots in the radical Muslim Brotherhood, Ghattas asked: "How can the Arabs give money to a Muslim Brotherhood which threatened them in each and every country. Do they have an interest in encouraging a Muslim Brotherhood movement to take over? The answer is no."
A senior Palestinian official, who refused to be identified because he did not wish to embarrass fellow Arabs, agreed with Ghattas' figures. "The maximum that Arab countries have paid is $100 million of the $600 million they agreed to give," he told The Associated Press. He noted what he felt was the irony of a situation in which the United States formerly pushed the Arabs to live up to their funding pledges, while now encouraging them not to send money to a Hamas-led government.
It's not irony, it's justice.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cautioned Iran and other Middle East powers against giving money to a Hamas-led government. She also expressed doubt that the militant Islamic group could raise badly needed international financing unless it changes its policies. Mohammad Sobeih, Moussa's deputy, said the Arab League expects the Arab governments to brush aside the U.S warnings. "This is a summit resolution and no one is expected to ignore it," he said referring to Arab funding of the Palestinian Authority.
Damn. Deep condolences to all families and fellow service-people.
NAIROBI - Ten crew members died when two US military helicopters crashed off the coast of Djibouti on Friday, the US military in the Horn of Africa country said on Sunday. The Department of Defense confirmed the deaths of 10 CH-53E crewmembers as a result of the crash that occurred off the coast of northern Djibouti on Friday, it said.
The two helicopters carried a total of 12 crew when they crashed during a training mission. The military earlier said two crew were rescued on Friday, injured but in a stable condition. Next-of-kin notifications have been made to all family members of the deceased; however, names are being withheld in deference to family members privacy, Sundays statement said.
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he may seek to lift constitutionally mandated presidential term limits if opposition parties boycott the upcoming December presidential elections. "I might sign a decree calling for a popular referendum -- do you agree that Chavez should run for a third term in 2013?" Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "It's not a firm decision, it's something I'm thinking about."
And has been for quite a while.
Chavez was first elected in 1998 and again in 2000 after he led a move to rewrite the country's constitution. He is up for re-election in December, and has accused the opposition and the U.S. government of seeking to disrupt the poll.
Opposition parties boycotted parliamentary elections last December on allegations of electoral authority bias, allowing Chavez's allies to win all the legislature's seats. "If the opposition tries to pull the same stunt of everyone pulling out (of the vote) ... that might strengthen this idea," Chavez said.
Venezuela's fractured opposition parties still have not united behind a possible candidate to face Chavez in December. Many opposition leaders advocated abstention after Chavez won an overwhelming victory in a recall referendum on his rule in 2004. Chavez's critics alleged he won the vote through fraud, an accusation not backed by international election monitors.
After Jimmuah sold them out.
Chavez's critics accuse him of concentrating power and seeking to remain in office indefinitely. The constitutional changes he promoted in 1999 eliminated Venezuela's traditional ban on immediate reelection, and increased the presidential term from five to six years.
Chavez last year opposed a move by one of his allies to end term limits, insisting he did not have any intention of remaining in the presidency permanently. He said the current debate was meant to teach the opposition "a lesson about true politics, so they'll stop being so ridiculous."
And who would know more about being ridiculous in Venezuela?
Posted by: Steve White ||
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That was Fujimori's downfall. And he was a good guy gone bad, drunk on power. What is it about Latin America that makes everyone want to be Presidente for Life?
#4
Venezuela has term limits? Color me surprised. A while back, Hugo was spouting that he would be President longer than Bush. This struck me as funny since Bush can't run again and I figured Hugo had already elected himself President for Life. Apparently, this has been on his mind for some time.
Gunmen ambushed a convoy of trucks carrying construction material Sunday to U.S. military north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi drivers, police said. An police general died in a roadside bombing in northern Iraq. The ambush occurred near Nibaie, about 35 miles north of the capital, police Lt. Khalid al-Obaidi said. The area has been the scene of several ambushes and roadside bombings in the last few days.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Washington's push for Middle East democracy is resulting in across the board victories for militant Islamic movements, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has boasted in an interview. Ahmadinejad also branded Western democracy as a "lie", said Islamic militants would not be disarmed and predicted the defeat of the "myth of an invincible and eternal Zionism" enshrined by the state of Israel.
The comments came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left for a Middle East tour to push efforts to spread democracy and counter what the United States views as an increasingly aggressive Iranian policy. "The American slogan of democracy has had the reverse effect in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and even Palestine. Everywhere in the Islamic world, when there are free and fair elections, the Islamists and groups favouring resistance are winning," the ultra-conservative president told the official news agency IRNA Sunday. "The myth of an invincible and eternal Zionism and its ideal (of a greater Israel) from the Nile to the Euphrates was been given a pounding by the 1979 Islamic revolution and has been in retreat ever since. The retreat of oppression from Iran, Lebanon and even Palestine are important victories. The Palestinian people voted for resistance to continue and the ideal of a Palestine free of occupation, and not politics in the shadow of Zionism," he added, referring to last month's legislative election win by Hamas. This is a first step and other successes will come."
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TEHERAN - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is to visit close ally Iran in the coming days for more high level talks with its leaders, a member of the radical group was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Hamas representative in Iran Abu-Osama Abd-al Moti told the Iran News paper that his Syrian-based chief, who was last in Tehran in December, would also be meeting Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The discussions will cover various political, regional and international issues, he said.
"Money. We need money, boss. Those idiot Euros are showing a spine!"
We strongly oppose any unjust pressure and threats against the Islamic republic. Hamas will convey this message to the Iranian government and stand by Iran in the face of any international pressures, the representative was quoted as saying.
Iran and Hamas are close allies, sharing their refusal to recognise Israel and opposition to the peace process. In December, Meshaal also declared Iran and Hamas formed a united front against Israel. He also said his group would step up its military operations if the Jewish state takes military action against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. We are not prepared to give the Zionist regime another 15 years to play their old and usual games, the Hamas representative told Iran News.
Thus giving the IDF the excuse needed to whack Hamas the day after they whack Iran.
The previous bitter experience of the Palestinian nation and the Palestinian authority in negotiating with them has proven that there is nothing to be gained from the continuation of such discussions.
He also vowed Hamas will force Israel out of Gaza, the West Bank and Qods (Jerusalem).
"Arrrrrrrr!"
We shall remain the same Hamas as before the elections. Of course, our tactics, rhetoric and language might change and we might adopt a political language that is a bit different. However, we wont be dictated to by the US or Israel or succumb to their pressures, he asserted.
"But we sure don't want them to kill us."
Although Iran is a vocal supporter of Hamas and other Islamic militant organisations, the regime denies allegations it finances these groups.
No one other than the looney Left believes them, of course.
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Too bad the U.S. won't be sending a 'high level' observer to those talks. A Predator tipped with Hellfire missiles would be sufficient to emphasize the finer points of state diplomacy.
Iran Focus has obtained a partial list of names of Islamic mystics arrested during a protest in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, earlier this week. Islamic mystics, or Sufis, focus on the direct perception of Truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love. Sufism, common to both Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam, has its roots in Iran. Its followers oppose Irans ruling theocracy on spiritual grounds.
Not being given to brutality, they would...
Police arrested some one thousand Sufis as clashes broke out after the place of worship used by the mystics was demolished Tuesday on government orders. Hundreds were injured during the clashes after police fired teargas and used truncheons to attack the demonstrating Sufis. The partial list of those arrested was provided to Iran Focus from a reliable source in Qom.
A long list of names follow.
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TEHRAN -- A percussion bomb exploded in the restive southwestern Iranian oil city of Ahvaz on Sunday, shattering windows but causing no injuries, the official IRNA news agency reported. IRNA quoted an unnamed security official as saying the bomb exploded at 9:45 pm (6:15 p.m. British time). No other details were immediately available.
It was a kaboom. What're the details of a kaboom?
A similar device blew up in Ahvaz, capital of the predominantly Arab province of Khuzestan, on Jan 29. Khuzestan has simmered with ethnic unrest since April, when five people died in protests ignited by rumours the government was considering settling non-Arabs in southwest Iran to dilute Arab influence there.
Boy oh boy, the Mad Mullahs would have even more to worry about if unrest were to worsen in Khuzestan.
Seven people were killed in bombings in June and six died in a blast in October. Some minor oil facilities were bombed in September. Eight people were killed last month when bombs ripped through a bank and government building.
Terrible. Just terrible. I feel so bad for them. Is there any more of that popcorn?
It's coming, it's coming. Had to make a batch for the Paleo party next door.
About three percent of Iran's 69 million people are Arabs. Authorities are sensitive about protests and discontent in the southwestern Arab territories, home to Iran's biggest oil fields. A preliminary United Nations report has pointed to discrimination against Arabs with regard to basic amenities, resources and legal rights.
But the Mad Mullahs do that to everyone, so why the unrest?
Iran accuses Britain of stirring unrest in Khuzestan, a charge London denies.
Gee, that would indeed be a shame if our cousins were meddling.
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said the Palestinian Authority (PA) is facing a "real financial crisis". He said aid had begun to decrease after last month's Palestinian poll. It was won by Hamas - regarded as a terrorist group by Israel, the US and the EU.
The EU - the biggest donor to the PA - has threatened to stop funding unless Hamas recognises Israel, renounces violence and abides by previous peace accords.
Speaking after the Israeli cabinet announced tough steps against the new Hamas-dominated PA, Mr Abbas said the Palestinians' situation was grave. "Unfortunately, the pressures have begun and the support and the aid started to decrease... therefore we are currently in a real financial crisis," he told reporters in Gaza.
He confirmed that the United States had asked the PA to return $50m following Hamas' victory, but he said talks on the subject were continuing, AFP news agency reported.
I don't think we'll see the $50 million, but it sends a great signal to ask for it back.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Weary rescue teams recovered only bodies Sunday at a Philippine village engulfed by a landslide, fearful of sinking beneath the unstable mud and losing hope in the search for survivors. No one has been found alive since Friday, when a mountain slope collapsed on the farming village of Guinsaugon. Nearly its entire population 1,857 was feared dead.
Officials had said 57 survivors were pulled from the mud Friday, but on Sunday lowered the number to 20, without immediately providing an explanation. At least 72 bodies have been recovered including 14 on Sunday. Volunteers with two sniffer dogs digging around an entombed elementary school found no signs that any of the 250-300 children and teachers inside were alive. The hunt for survivors focused on the school because of unconfirmed reports some inside had sent text messages to loved ones. Teams were also digging around the site of the village hall, where about 300 people had been attending a women's conference.
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In a grisly end to the three-day hunt for a missing German plane, search parties directed to the site by a mountaineer shepherd found the wreckage of a private plane Sunday three days after it disappeared with six people aboard - five of them Germans. There were no survivors, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
directed to the site by a mountaineer shepherd
Spencer Tracy?
South Africa will from next month start large-scale expropriations of land from white farmers after years of compensation negotiations proved unsuccessful, a top official said on Monday. Tozi Gwanya, South Africa's chief land claims commissioner, said the "willing buyer, willing seller" model would no longer apply to land restitution claims as many white farmers wanted more money than the government was prepared to pay.
"There are in excess of 7 000 claims that have been outstanding," he said, referring to efforts by the government to redress apartheid-era land grabs in which many members of the black majority lost ancestral holdings. "We have been negotiating with some white farmers for two or three years especially in four provinces - Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and KwaZulu-Natal - and this has to stop," he said.
#6
The big chat right now is that a government prohibition on foreign land purchasing is coming soon. That would mean that nasty old foreign held property will be first on the chopping block for "expropriation." I can see only 'good things' for South Africa coming from all of this.
#8
Jeez, the ANC really are stupid, aren't they?! They saw what a mess confiscating farms from real farmers made of Zim's food production, and now they are going to follow suit?!? Anyone that has money and/or talent had better flee SA right now, to avoid the flood of refugees in the next 2 years. And to think that Mandela actually fought this kind of crap, when he was President - only smart politco in the whole ANC. This is the onset of economic collapse for SA.
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.
A soldier wounded in Afghanistan and the widow of his slain comrade were awarded a $102.6 million judgment from the estate of a suspected al-Qaida financier. 
David Irving, the British historian, is expected to plead guilty to a charge of denying the Holocaust at his trial in Austria today.
The 100-mph car chase ended in a blaze of gunfire at the Peace Arch, the graceful marble monument that straddles the U.S.-Canada border here and proclaims the two nations to be "Children of a Common Mother."
Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy yesterday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.
BEIJING (AP) - Pakistan's president apologized Monday for the killing of three Chinese engineers by tribal militants in Pakistan, saying the attack brought "shame" on his country and promising the harshest punishment. "The man in the street (in Pakistan) loves the Chinese," President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told China's parliament chief Wu Bangguo during a meeting in Beijing.
In Minnesota the Democratic Party has undertaken a campaign to suppress two advertisements giving voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war. Brian Melendez is the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party. This past Thursday Melendez called a press conference and condemned the first of the two advertisements -- the one featuring the veterans -- as "un-American, untruthful and a lie."
The top editors of the China Youth Daily were meeting in a conference room last August when their cell phones started buzzing quietly with text messages. One after another, they discreetly read the notes. Then they traded nervous glances.
For the past two weeks, Patrick Sookhdeo has been canvassing the opinions of Muslim clerics in Britain on the row over the cartoons featuring images of Mohammed that were first published in Denmark and then reprinted in several other European countries.
"The Government, and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, are fundamentally deluded about the nature of Islam," he insists. "Tony Blair unintentionally revealed his ignorance when he said, in an effort to conciliate Muslims, that he had 'read through the Koran twice' and that he kept it by his bedside.
As the results of the recent Palestinian elections are implemented, it's important to understand how the transition process works and also how important to it are actions by Israel and the United States.
Major political contributors to George W. Bush who have never given a dime to prospective 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain received letters, dated Feb. 8, asking for donations to the senator's Straight Talk America political action committee. 
An Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border fence on Sunday, the army said. Palestinians said two militants were killed.
Influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he rejects the Iraqi constitution backed by his partners in the biggest parliamentary bloc, threatening to reignite one of the country's most explosive issues.
The battle between Lebanese President 
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians during confrontations with stone throwers in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata on Sunday, witnesses and medics said.
The Treasury Department on Sunday ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of an Ohio-based group the government claims funnels money to the militant organization Hamas.
NEW DELHI - French President Jacques Chirac arrived in India on Sunday for a whistle-stop visit aimed at bolstering trade and civilian nuclear cooperation with the emerging economic powerhouse.
Chief of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups six Gulf Arab countries, said on Saturday that the bloc did not oppose referring Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council, which might lead to sanctions. 
DAMASCUS - More than 40 sacked judges held a sit-in demonstration on Sunday near the Rawda presidential palace in the Syrian capital demanding their rehiring, a human rights activist said. About 45 judges gathered this morning near the Rawda palace in order to demand the canceling of the decree issued by President Bashar Al-Assad last October, the activist told AFP on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman said Friday the Lebanese should have the right to elect their president according to the Constitution and without any outside meddling. "Our position regarding the presidency is clear since we support UN Resolution 1559 which calls for fair and free presidential elections," Feltman said following a visit to Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Elias Murr. "I believe it is time for the Lebanese to have the right to have free and fair presidential elections according to their constitution and without any outcome forced from outside," he said.
Druze leader 
HAVANA - President Fidel Castro has offered firm support for Irans right to pursue a nuclear energy program, Cubas state-controlled media reported on Sunday.
Every week tens of thousands of refugees flow into South Africa, and each week South Africa ships out a few thousand - more than 1,000 to Zimbabwe alone. But United Nations and police officials say trying to stem the tide is like trying to stop a tsunami with a bucket.
The general supervisor of the 
Syria has lashed out at the United States over its plans to allocate $5 million to the Syrian opposition. 
Feb 19: JMB Chittagong divisional commander Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad was taken on a 5-day police remand Sunday for interrogation on his involvement in blasting bombs in Panchlaish thana area during the August 17 serial bombings across the country. Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Court granted the 5-day remand when he was produced in the court.
Three members of Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood were ordered Saturday to stand trial on charges of possessing weapons and provoking violence during parliamentary elections late last year, court officials said. The three were arrested during the violent election season which saw at least 10 people killed in violence mainly blamed on security forces trying to block opposition voters from reaching the polls. Despite the police violence, the Brotherhood made astonishing gains, increasing its seats in parliament sevenfold but still well short of a majority. The group is officially banned but is tolerated to a degree by the government.
Iran said Sunday it was standing by its "right" to enrich uranium on its own soil, just a day before talks with Russia aimed at finding a compromise on the ultra-sensitive nuclear work. The negotiations on Moscow's offer to carry out ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment work on Russian soil are seen as a last chance for Tehran to avoid being hauled before the UN Security Council for possible punitive action. Having already been reported to the Security Council, Iran is also under pressure to provide greater access to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and return to a full freeze of enrichment work - which can be extended to weapons making.
Sunday police found bodies of three men bound, blindfolded and shot execution-style in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. They appeared to be the latest victims of sectarian tit-for-tat killings, which have sharpened religious tensions as Iraqi politicians try to form a national unity government following the December parliamentary elections. The Interior Ministry has announced an investigation into allegations of Shiite death squads in police ranks after U.S. troops arrested 22 policemen preparing to kill a Sunni Arab last month.
SYDNEY - Prime Minister John Howard on Monday defended remarks he made to a national newspaper describing some segments of the Islamic community as "utterly antagonistic" to Australian society.
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 Former Iranian President and current chairman of the State Expediency Council Ayatollah 
CAIRO, Egypt - The head of the Arab League said Sunday that members would meet this week to hammer out a plan for sending millions of dollars a month to the Palestinian Authority, despite U.S. attempts to stop the flow of money to the new Hamas-led government. 
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he may seek to lift constitutionally mandated presidential term limits if opposition parties boycott the upcoming December presidential elections. "I might sign a decree calling for a popular referendum -- do you agree that Chavez should run for a third term in 2013?" Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "It's not a firm decision, it's something I'm thinking about."
Gunmen ambushed a convoy of trucks carrying construction material Sunday to U.S. military north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi drivers, police said. An police general died in a roadside bombing in northern Iraq. The ambush occurred near Nibaie, about 35 miles north of the capital, police Lt. Khalid al-Obaidi said. The area has been the scene of several ambushes and roadside bombings in the last few days.
Washington's push for Middle East democracy is resulting in across the board victories for militant Islamic movements, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has boasted in an interview. Ahmadinejad also branded Western democracy as a "lie", said Islamic militants would not be disarmed and predicted the defeat of the "myth of an invincible and eternal Zionism" enshrined by the state of Israel.
TEHERAN - Hamas leader 
Iran Focus has obtained a partial list of names of Islamic mystics arrested during a protest in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, earlier this week. Islamic mystics, or Sufis, focus on the direct perception of Truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love. Sufism, common to both Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam, has its roots in Iran. Its followers oppose Irans ruling theocracy on spiritual grounds.
TEHRAN -- A percussion bomb exploded in the restive southwestern Iranian oil city of Ahvaz on Sunday, shattering windows but causing no injuries, the official IRNA news agency reported. IRNA quoted an unnamed security official as saying the bomb exploded at 9:45 pm (6:15 p.m. British time). No other details were immediately available. 
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said the Palestinian Authority (PA) is facing a "real financial crisis". He said aid had begun to decrease after last month's Palestinian poll. It was won by Hamas - regarded as a terrorist group by Israel, the US and the EU.
In a grisly end to the three-day hunt for a missing German plane, search parties directed to the site by a mountaineer shepherd found the wreckage of a private plane Sunday three days after it disappeared with six people aboard - five of them Germans. There were no survivors, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
