The constitution does not apply to the Baloch because a majority of Baloch leaders refrained from endorsing the document when parliament approved it in 1973, said Nawab Akbar Bugti, chief of the Bugti tribe, on Monday. Talking to a private television channel, Nawab Bugti said only two of the five members from Balochistan signed the constitution, which was passed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government. He said, "We (the Baloch) are not a signatory to the constitution. We neither voted for it nor we signed it and therefore it does not apply to us." Denying links between the JWP (his party) and the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), he said the BLF came into being during Zulfikar Bhutto's era, but it was not alone and the BLA and People's Liberation Front were also active.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
9:34:37 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
*hic*
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 22:05
Comments ||
Top||
"...To assault the meatpacking industry," Churchill writes, "is to mount a challenge to the mentality that allowed well over a million dehumanized humans to be systematically slaughtered by the SS einsatzgruppen in eastern Europe during the early 1940s, and the nazis' simultaneous development of truly industrial killing techniques in places like Auschwitz, Sobibor and Treblinka..."
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
02/07/2005
8:53:25 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why am I NOT surprised to see this clown is active in the "animal rights" movement?
One of the absolutely worst "instructors" I ever had at college was an English graduate student who was an "animal rights" freak. Heaven help you if you didn't toe her party line.
Fortunately by the time I ran into this idjit I was a graduating senior. I made a point of wearing leather shoes and eating (gag) McDonald's hamburgers in class. Got a D on my final paper because I argued that if I had to kill a few lab animals to save someone I loved from a horrible disease, well.....at least I'd give the animals some painkillers first.
#2
lovely, Ward. Free speech has consequences as does resume padding, Mr. Non-Indian. Soon-to-be-unemployed Churchill will be shreiking about censorship when he's given his pink slip. Maybe an Air America spot available?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 9:44
Comments ||
Top||
#3
well over a million dehumanized humans to be systematically slaughtered by the SS einsatzgruppen in eastern Europe
How romantic, but then history is a good deal more mundane that the perfesser's 'facts.'
The SS einsatzgruppen I doubt killed more than a few thousand in the first six months of the war. No question there were other pogroms but once the German High Command came to grips with the folly Barbarossa was, SS units that could actually fight were sent to the front lines.
In this I am not saying the progrom ended in 1942; chances are they continued, but using precious fuel and ammunition, inevitable casualties arising from this sort of activity, coupled with vehicle breakdowns and other logistical failures and the successful NKVD partisan 'movement' the mission for the non Waffen SS changed quite a bit.
The perfesser is referring to how large units of SS 'troops' were divided into much small groups and sent to urban areas in thew wake of the adavance of German troops during the first six months of the war against the Soviet Union
#4
Notice how these Marxist always use Nazi images, though it was the National German Workers Socialist Party. The Nazis were second rankers compared to the brutality of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, not to mention the Kim family. Now there are real butchers.
#5
Each of the 4 einsatzgruppen had around 500 to 750 men each, and they had a complement of 150 to 200 vehicles. 3000 men and 800 vehicles were a drop in the Barbarossa bucket.
Total estimated killings by them number around 1.2 million (see Ohlendorf's testimony).
A true horror, A bit worse than you think Badanov.
#7
''Although I'm best known by my colonial name, Ward Churchill, the name I prefer is Kenis, an Ojibwe name bestowed by my wife's uncle.''
I would prefer to call him by his new name "Penis" bestowed upon him by millions of Americans. I would love this dick to be "out of existence altogether".
Posted by: Gir ||
02/07/2005 10:49
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Then I stand corrected. Sources that I read however said the Eisensatz were in fact much small groups; there were a lot of company sized units doing this kind of activity.
I don't doubt what Germany did to Jews et al during WWII, but my understanding was these particular units were not responsible for most of the murders on the Eastern Front.
#9
He won't get the pink slip for what he said, nor should he. He has tenure.
Basically, this means his university screwed up -- the man has thin scholarship and little teaching ability. But having made the decision, they now get to live with it. Break tenure and you really begin to screw with freedom of speech.
No, I don't have tenure myself, wish I did.
JerseyMike, thanks for the history lesson. Rantburg U. shines again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005 13:26
Comments ||
Top||
#12
kenis means.... He who takes penis up his butt.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
02/07/2005 16:03
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Huh. I just got off work, and haven't checked the earlier thread, but I think I rest my case. It's ridiculous that we're shoving our tax dollars into a fifth-column of ivory tower activists that desire preach the necessity of our Nation's destruction---and can't seem to pull the plug that keeps them spewing.
Oh, well, I'm sure Churchill would still spew, but taking away the backing of a State institution might make a little difference.
#14
Churchill will be canned - not for speech, but for fraud. He is NOT an Amerind, and the AIM (a left oriented Indian organzation!) has disowned him.
The guy lied on his resume - therefore he comitted fraud. That is an offense that can and should (in this case, since it established his bonafides) result in his termination for cause.
#15
We are at war and in a war, boyz, for the very life, existence, identity, and continuance of democracy, liberty, America and Westernism as we know it. We either fight and win, or we will be suborned or destroyed - the US and democracy is the sleepy, imperfect town or city suddenly faced with a invading horde(s) out to take our identity, our sovereignty, our freedoms, our wealth, our resources, our lands, our women and our pet dogs BY FORCE, AND BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. IF WE GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT, THEY "MIGHT" OR "MAY" DECIDE NOT TO KILL US AFTER WE SURRENDER - after all, the Left> slavers, raiders, bandits, marauders, mafiacrats, and war profiteer, ......etal. armies are people too, who need to be hugged while they steal and kill you! As was said on VH1, lets all call up our Hollywood agents and demand they do their jobs by making us all into nothings, ala "I want to be a star, d*** you, I want to be nothing. I demand you make me into a nothing"!? Let's all sing "IN THE GHETTO", "RESPECT", and of course Hitler's
"PANZER LIED" as we wave the battle banners of Stalin and Marx, like good, proper Clintonian Amerikans of the USSA, from Amerika's sacred, sancosant, Communist- and Left-Socialist majority, "Fascist" heartland!?
#16
Churchill will be canned - not for speech, but for fraud. He is NOT an Amerind, and the AIM (a left oriented Indian organzation!) has disowned him.
The guy lied on his resume - therefore he comitted fraud. That is an offense that can and should (in this case, since it established his bonafides) result in his termination for cause.
#17
Churchill will be canned - not for speech, but for fraud. He is NOT an Amerind, and the AIM (a left oriented Indian organzation!) has disowned him.
The guy lied on his resume - therefore he comitted fraud. That is an offense that can and should (in this case, since it established his bonafides) result in his termination for cause.
Umm Ali says militants killed her son last month for the most unlikely of reasons: He trims men's beards.
In Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, residents say Sunni Muslim extremists have made barbers the new hunted, accusing them of violating a strict reading of Islamic teachings that say men should keep their beards long.
Some extremists also consider Western-style haircuts an offensive symbol of the hated, secularized culture of Europe and the United States.
To them, sporting a clipped beard or a modern haircut is an infraction worthy of death.
Black banners mourning the dead were strung up in the neighborhood as the unwitting violators fell one after another to the militants' harsh brand of justice. In one month alone, five barbers were shot dead, residents said.
"He was a haircutter. He only cuts hair," Umm Ali said of her son, Sadiq Abdul Hussein. "He was handsome," she said, gazing at a photo of him.
Abdul Hussein was killed after he shrugged off a threat to stop shaving men's beards or lose his life.
A black mourning banner said only that he died due to a "regrettable incident."
Dora's streets are a battleground for rebels fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces. Drive-by shootings targeting government officials are frequent. It's a symbol of the chaos that has followed Saddam Hussein's ouster nearly two years ago.
Masked, gun-totting militants freely roam its streets, issuing orders and threats and meting out punishment to those who challenge them.
Among the many offenses that run afoul of Dora's new extremist gangs are men with long hair, goatees and even sideburns.
Wesam Noori, a 19-year-old art student, is careful to keep his long hair tucked under a hat.
"We are trying to hide our hair under baseball caps or ski hats," he said...
Islamic militants have also publicly flogged and killed women's hairdressers in several places throughout Iraq.
On Jan. 27, Sadiq Abdul Hussein was cutting a customer's hair when a tall man with a scarf wrapped around his face walked through the door. He opened fire with an assault rifle, killing Abdul Hussein and wounding his customer, Imad Hammad, a 26-year-old engineer.
"I saw the flash from the gun's muzzle and after that I passed out," said Imad, who was shot in the belly.
Imad's father, Hamad al-Dulaimi blamed foreigners for the killings and said they sought to create turmoil here.
"Those Arab extremists are butchering our sons simply to create a disturbance," he said. "We will not be stopped by this sedition."
As if to illustrate his promise that life here couldn't be stopped by violence, a tranquil street scene unfolded on a recent afternoon. Barefoot children kicked around a dented Pepsi can. Mothers sat on front stoops, chatting and gesturing with hands decorated with traditional green tattoos.
But Ali Hussein, a 25-year-old barber who owns a salon in Dora, says the threat is real enough to threaten his livelihood.
Like other barbers, he's gotten the flyers from militants bearing their instructions for how to cut hair and promising death for those who violate the rules.
"They are even forbidding us to hang posters showing the most recent haircuts," Hussein said.
He now cuts customers' hair in secret inside his house.
"I don't want to be killed, but I don't want to be broke either," he said. It's time for Iraqis to start using "old West" rules. The instant somebody threatens you, you automatically start beating the hell out of them. The instant anybody sees a man don a mask, start screaming and assemble a mob to attack them.
Today Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will launch a sweeping effort at reforming California, a campaign almost as audacious and ambitious as his 2003 race for governor. Signature gatherers are fanning out over the Golden State to collect 600,000 names on petitions on a redistricting initiative, the first of four measures the governor has submitted to the Democratic Legislature and promises to put before the voters this fall if the lawmakers spurn him, as they almost certainly will.
The battle may be even more expensive and contentious than the recall campaign. Mr. Schwarzenegger showed up at the tony Pacific Club in Newport Beach Wednesday to tell potential donors he planned a nationwide drive to raise $50 million to pass his reform package. One of them would allow merit pay for state teachers and tighten tenure laws. Another mirrors President Bush's Social Security plan by steering state employees into 401(k)-like personal pension plans. A third would allow the governor to make across-the-board budget cuts if the Legislature stalemates on passing a budget. The centerpiece is a measure that would do away with gerrymandering, the process by which politicians draw uncompetitive districts to ensure partisan advantage and, most of all, incumbents' survival... Jeepers. He is something else.
#1
Yeehaaaaa! Ride 'em, cowboy! I'm going to make lots of popcorn for this one -- win or lose, Ahnold is going to make them try to justify the status quo, and it cannot be done. *sigh* my hero...
#2
John Burton has to be wondering how Gray could screw him so bad without ever droppin trou.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 20:02
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Mrs. Davis, for a man who could screw all 35,484,453 citizens of the State of California without breaking a sweat, screwing John Burton is no challenge. Who would have thought that starting each day with a tofu shake could give Grey Davis such stamina. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the best thing to happen to California politics since the golden era of Ronald Reagan. The next best thing would be to put "none of the above" on the ballot.
An engraving thought to be 10,000 years old has been uncovered in a cave, British researchers said Monday.
The series of inscribed crosses — found on the wall of the Aveline's Hole cave in Somerset, southwest England — are believed to date from the early Mesolithic period just after the Ice Age.
Jill Cook from the British Museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe said the discovery gave an insight into an early form of communication.
"The few lines that form this panel are a signature from the period right at the end of the last Ice Age when the present period of warm climate was beginning," Cook said.
"The pattern is comparable with others known from Northern France, Germany and Denmark, giving a wider context for the finds of this time and a rare glimpse of what may have been a rather special means of communication."
The discovery of the engraved crosses at Aveline's Hole_ the site of the earliest known cemetery in the British Isles_ follows the discovery of 12,000-year-old Ice Age engravings at Creswell Caves in Nottinghamshire, central England, two years ago.
Graham Mullan and Linda Wilson of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society, who conducted the search of Aveline's Hole following the Nottinghamshire find, believe more engravings could be found in other caves in southern Britain.
For generations, leftist activists have fought the Institutional Revolutionary Party in the southern state of Guerrero through the ballot box and the rifle. After skirmishes, massacres and hundreds of martyrs, they were celebrating victory Monday with dancing and the honking of horns in the state's famous resort, Acapulco.
Official state election results showed former Acapulco Mayor Zeferino Torreblanca with a stunning victory, 55 to 42 percent, over the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has run Guerrero for 76 years.
"After nearly 50 years of social struggle, we have achieved the miracle of the vote," said Arturo Martinez, a former political prisoner and Communist Party activist.
Guerrero's spectacular coastline is dotted with resorts — including Acapulco and nearby Zihuatanejo — that are famed playgrounds for Mexico's elite.
But the state's rugged mountains are rife with impoverished, inaccessible communities dominated by violent political bosses allied with the PRI.
Many of the battles in Mexico's long struggle for democracy, which led to the election of President Vicente Fox in 2000, were fought in this sweltering state.
Sunday's election, too, could help shape next year's presidential campaign.
"It gives us a strong push for 2006, without doubt," said Leonel Godoy, president of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which finished third in the past two presidential elections.
PRD national councilman Cuauhtemoc Sandoval called the victory "a big breath of oxygen" for the party, which won only one of 14 elections in 2004.
The vote was a blow to the PRI and the presidential aspirations of its leader, Roberto Madrazo, who has built a reputation on a series of state-level victories during Fox's term. The wins helped the party recover from its loss of the national presidency nearly five years ago.
The PRI had single-handedly governed Mexico since 1929 before being booted out of office by Fox's National Action Party.
While Guerrero has a well-earned reputation for guerrilla activity, Martinez argued the militants turned to battle only after facing bloody crackdowns on peaceful efforts to challenge authorities.
"The principal guerrilla groups in Guerrero were never alienated from electoral activity," he said in an interview. "On the contrary, violence against the people and election fraud led to formation of the guerrillas."
A state police massacre of students in 1960 prompted the federal government to throw out the state's officials and call a new election in 1962. Repression of leftist activists in that campaign was so intense, some fled into armed revolt.
Guerrero-based rebel leaders including Lucio Cabanas and Genaro Vasquez began as local reformers who were attacked by an often-violent army when they threatened powerful interests.
Martinez himself spent three years in prison after a 1968 massacre of student demonstrators in Mexico City's Tlatelolco square and a subsequent crackdown on leftists.
The federal government's human rights office says that hundreds of suspected leftists vanished after being detained, often illegally, by government forces. Many were apparently tortured and killed.
Torreblanca, Guerrero's newly elected governor, has little in common — beyond a distaste for the PRI — with the gun-toting rural schoolteachers who rebelled in the 1960s.
Torreblanca is a businessman with interests in Acapulco-area supermarkets whose father made prescient investments in property in the growing port.
He attracted so much of the conservative, business-oriented vote that Fox's National Action Party managed to win only 1 percent of the vote in Sunday's election.
With extremely rare exceptions, elections nationwide were the exclusive property of the PRI until well into the 1980s. Those who challenged the party's victories tended to be ignored, bought off — or crushed.
Opportunities for challenges opened as the government grew more eager for international respectability.
In 1988, breakaway PRI Gov. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas forged an alliance with the left that nearly toppled the ruling party. Anger over alleged fraud in that vote led to election reforms that eventually paved the way for Fox and, on Sunday, for Torreblanca. This place has long been ripe for disaster, with starving peasants on one side of the fence, and wealthy Eurotrash on the other side, enjoying themselves at expensive resorts.
#1
Its a start. Good for Mexico! Hopefully Mexico's leftists will mature as they handle actual elective power, and look for pragmatic solutions to Guerrero's problems.
Insurgents struck Iraq's security forces Monday with suicide bombs and mortar fire, killing more than 30 people as violence escalated after last week's election...
Monday's deadliest attack occurred in Baqouba, where a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle outside the gates of a provincial police headquarters, killing 15 people and wounding 17, police Col. Mudhahar al-Jubouri said. Many victims were looking for jobs as policemen, al-Jubouri said.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, a suicide bomber wandered into a crowd of security personnel at a hospital and blew himself up, killing 12 people and wounding seven, U.S. officials said.
Insurgents shelled a police station in Mosul with more than a dozen mortar rounds Monday, killing three civilians, police said. And one Iraqi was killed and four others wounded when mortar shells exploded near the City Council building in Samarra, hospital officials said.
In Ramadi, an insurgent center west of Baghdad, the body of an Iraqi National Guardsman was found on a city street. Witnesses said he has been shot.
Separate postings on a Web site claimed responsibility for the Baqouba and Mosul attacks in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq, the group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The claims could not be verified...
From the Beeb. If true, it should be interesting to see how Hamas and IJ react, let alone Hizbollah.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders will sign a truce on Tuesday to end four years of fighting, reports say. The deal will be agreed when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for talks in Egypt on Tuesday, sources say. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said a mutual truce would follow the summit, the highest-level talks between the two sides since the intifada began in 2000. An unnamed Israeli official confirmed the statement.
#4
So let me get this straight. Bush overthrows the Taliban and they now have a democratically elected government. Bush overthrows Hussein and the Iraqis will soon have a democratically elected government. Bush refuses to deal with Arafat, who then croaks, and now the Palestinians have a democratically elected government and, for the first time, a legitimate shot at achieving peace with Israel and their own state. Bush gives a SOTU address that calls on other tyrannical regimes, including two of our best "friends" in the region, to introduce democratic reforms, giving hope to millions for the first time. The Arab street hates us why? The left in this country and Europe calls Bush a Nazi and war-monger why? The SOTU and the Inaugural address were preachy and over-the-top why? Am I missing something? If the Arab world ever had a Mount Rushmore, they would be carving President Bush's mug on there in about 50 years.
Posted by: Tibor ||
02/07/2005 18:54
Comments ||
Top||
#5
These guys need to knock off this truce talk and start discussing a permanent cessation of hostilities. A "truce" is generally considered to be a temporary thing.
The Spanish government is starting a process of granting legal amnesty to up to 800,000 undocumented immigrants. The new rules apply to people living in Spain without legal residency or working papers. The move is an attempt by Spain's Socialist government to manage the country's illegal immigration problem. The move is designed to ease Spain's illegal immigration problem. It will also bring in millions of euros of tax revenue up until now lost in the black market. It is estimated that more than one million people live and work in Spain illegally.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/07/2005
4:54:44 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds like Zapatero is looking to lock up electoral majorities for his party by increasing the Muslim vote. This is how Europe is going to become majority Muslim - through politicians who gradually increase Muslim immigration in order to win elections. If the British Labor Party can do it, any party on the continent will do it.
#7
...and the poor tobacco farmer lit his clay pipe and eased his tired bones down into his favorite chair, thinking all the while, how in the blue blazes am I going to compete with my neighbors this season. Then it slowly dawned on him as he drew long pulls of soothing smoke into his lungs, he realized, in order to compete with all the growers in my county I'm going to take the plunge and just do it.
After all is said and done he thought, I just have to look out for my family first and foremost.
The next morning as he drove to market he was nervous, all the money they had saved together for the last 10 years was in his purse. Added to that was some extra money borrowed from his wife's parents. They now had enough. Before noon that day our clay pipe smoker purchased and owned his first slave.
200 hundred years later....My borders,language,culture, security and country will have to sort out the details for itself again !!! After all We need the status-less-illegal-immigrants because we need them in them in the construction, fabric, home keepers / Nanny's, restaurant, auto / mechanic / body / upholster, growers, farms / ranching / grape / wine, etc. industries
BECAUSE we can't get Americans to the work !! WE JUST CAN'T COMPETE !!!
At tough times in my life, with the landlord tossing my clothes and record collection out on to the street, I could have used an aunt like Benon Sevan's. Asked to account for the appearance in his bank account of a certain $160,000, Mr Sevan, executive director of the UN Oil-for-Food programme, said it was a gift from his aunt. Lucky Sevan, eh? None of my aunts ever had that much of the folding stuff on tap.
And nor, it seems, did Mr Sevan's. She lived in a modest two-room flat back in Cyprus and her own bank accounts gave no indication of spare six-figure sums. Nonetheless, if a respected UN diplomat says he got 160,000 bucks from Auntie, we'll just have to take his word for it. Paul Volcker's committee of investigation did plan to ask the old lady to confirm her nephew's version of events, but, before they could, she fell down an elevator shaft and died.
...
At least 17 people including eight children lost their lives and more than 500 injured while celebrating Basant or kites flying festival Sunday in Lahore, capital of eastern Punjab province, taking the death toll to 20 as three people were killed on Basant night, The Nation reported Monday. Seven persons were crushed to death while trying to catch stray kites, six others died after falling from rooftop of their houses, two teenage boys died after being hit by stray bullets in two different incidents, while a 7-years old boy was electrocuted and a four years-old girl was killed when a stray string slit open herthroat.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/07/2005
4:43:29 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
.....and these are the cave dwelling bastards that are in charge of nuclear weapons?
BTW, I thought Benjamin Franklin already tried this experiment. Oh! that's right, they only allow the Moronic Koranic(TM) into their schools.
#2
"Rescue officials said they picked up at least 24 patients whose throats were cut by twine at different roads and shifted them to hospitals."
Whoa! Thanks for posting that one, Bulldog. I've flown kites many times and was totally unaware of the throat-cutting risk. Of course I've never used my wife's and kids' necks to tie off either...
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 8:11
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Tom, I wonder whether the Pakistani 'kites flying fest' is the same sort of thing the Chinese (used to?) get up to, being more like kite warfare than innocent aerobatics. Competing kites had sharp material embedded in the twine and the objective was, or became, severing your opponents' line. Not things you want to be downwind of.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 8:30
Comments ||
Top||
#5
It's as Bulldog described, but improved with gun sex. The throat cutting "twine" is steel wire to prevent being but by razor blades. Makes a wonderful conductor.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 8:39
Comments ||
Top||
#6
How can you be "crushed" by "trying to catch stray kites"?
#9
During the riots in Berkeley in the 60s, hippies and rabble rousers flew hundreds of kites all over Berkeley and the campus to serve as the equivalent of barrage balloons to keep the choppers away. Nobody got hurt by a kite. And these were druggies and anarchists. This Pak show is something else. Work accidents from kites. Sheesh!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 17:10
Comments ||
Top||
The Christian Science Monitor is impressed
When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster. Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland. "If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence." The prisoners eagerly agreed. Now, two years later, not only have those prisoners been released, but a relative peace reigns in Yemen. And the same Western experts who doubted this experiment are courting Hitar, eager to hear how his "theological dialogues" with captured Islamic militants have helped pacify this wild and mountainous country, previously seen by the US as a failed state, like Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Since December 2002, when the first round of the dialogues ended, there have been no terrorist attacks here, even though many people thought that Yemen would become terror's capital," says Hitar, eyes glinting shrewdly from beneath his emerald-green turban. "Three hundred and sixty-four young men have been released after going through the dialogues and none of these have left Yemen to fight anywhere else." To be sure, the prisoner-release program is not solely responsible for the absence of attacks in Yemen. The government has undertaken a range of measures to combat terrorism from closing down extreme madrassahs, the Islamic schools sometimes accused of breeding hate, to deporting foreign militants.
Seated amid stacks of Korans and religious texts, Hitar explains that his system is simple. He invites militants to use the Koran to justify attacks on innocent civilians and when they cannot, he shows them numerous passages commanding Muslims not to attack civilians, to respect other religions, and fight only in self-defense. If, after weeks of debate, the prisoners renounce violence they are released and offered vocational training courses and help to find jobs. Hitar's belief that hardened militants trained by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan could change their stripes was initially dismissed by US diplomats in Sanaa as dangerously naive, but the methods of the scholarly cleric have little in common with the other methods of fighting extremism. Instead of lecturing or threatening the battle-hardened militants, he listens to them. Only after winning the militants' trust does Hitar gradually begin to correct their beliefs. He says that most militants are ordinary people who have been led astray. Just as they were taught Al Qaeda's doctrines, he says, so too can they be taught more- moderate ideas. Yet despite the apparent success in Yemen, some US diplomats have criticized it for apparently letting Islamic militants off the hook with little guarantee that they won't revert to their old ways once released from prison
..US diplomats have also approached the cleric to see if his methods can be applied in Iraq, says Hitar. "Before the dialogues began, there was only one way to fight terrorism, and that was through force," he says. "Now there is another way: dialogue."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/07/2005
4:41:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
An extremely significant article that needs wider dissemination. It shows that the Islamist terrorist grunts are motivated by religion, while the upper echelons are merely using religion to motivate the grunts. It's the promise of Paradise if one dies in Jihad that's the main motivator. Take that away, by showing that terrorism is not conducting Jihad in the proper manner, and the grunts lose interest.
The job-skills training program has been shown to reduce recividism (sp?) world-over, and shows a relatively enlightened attitude on the part of the Sudanese. The skepticism of the US diplos is very understandable: some of the methods used to reform prisoners seem counterintuitive, if not downright coddling of prisoners, but the statistics speak for themselves. Use what works and discard what doesn't: Only idiotarians insist on using methods that don't show REAL results.
This methodology will NOT work in the United States: The ACLU has sworn they'll sue any government that uses faith-based methods to rehabilitate prisoners, despite the stellar record racked up in other countries using them that are not afflicted by similar legal "watchdogs".
Hitar's the moderate Muslim we should be looking for, supporting, and protecting bodily.
#3
The Anti-Christian Lawyer's Union has proven that it's one of many groups that are a domestic enemy to the US Constitution, and need to be treated as such. I demand that every judge who hears one of their cases where they attempt to restrict the "free exercise thereof" of religion put them in jail for about 20 years. It's time, da$$it, to quit playing games, and get tough against our enemies, or we won't be a nation much longer - just a bunch of blind idiots guiding other blind idiots into disaster. Maybe it's even time for a second revolution against the "secularists" - better known as socialists, communists, and just plain idiots (Howard Dean, Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, and ??????).
We can't fight our foreign enemies effectively if we continue to allow domestic enemies to sabotage us from within. That goes for a lot of LLL judges, too.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2005 16:36
Comments ||
Top||
Unidentified hostage-takers have seized the Spanish consulate in the Swiss capital, Berne, police said. The affluent area around the consulate has been sealed off. The kidnappers are believed to have taken at least one person hostage, but it was not immediately clear if they were armed.
More to follow...
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
02/07/2005
4:18:52 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
from AP at 5:35 EFL
Bern City Police spokeswoman Franziska Frey told The Associated Press that officers sealed off part of the Kirchenfeld neighborhood after they were alerted shortly after 8 a.m.
Federal Police Office spokeswoman Daniele Bersier said federal authorities had mobilized a special unit that deals with hostage situations.
There have been a handful of previous security crises at foreign embassies and consulates in Switzerland, notably in 1999.
#4
Just heard on Fox that the Swiss authorities think it was a robbery attempt. That's right, a robbery. Either we have very dumb criminals or a very lame cover-up.
This being in Europe I don't know which...
Posted by: Charles ||
02/07/2005 9:06
Comments ||
Top||
#5
According to Europa Press they were after Spanish passports and visa seals .
And yes, Swiss chocolate is very good!
According to AP the robbery theory is from the Spanish Foreign Ministry, but the Swiss police being very discreet you may never know never. BTW Switzerland in not part of the EU
It's still in Europe, isn't it? Or did the Helvetian Navy finally get enough towboats to move them?
I'm betting on it being terrorists who wanted a buttload of passports and visa seals. That way the robbery story isn't REALLY a lie, but the terrorist threat can be downplayed.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2005 10:09
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Swiss Special Ops may not garner a great deal of publicity but they are quite... er... efficient. In a dealy sort of way. And, unfortunately for the terrs, the Swiss still adhear to the Napoleonic Code where they throw you in jail until you prove your innocence.
Louisiana National Guard holds nation's first Carnival parade
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - Louisiana soldiers donned purple, green and gold and climbed onto Army trucks transformed into floats for an early Mardi Gras celebration Sunday, parading through this base west of Baghdad and pelting troops with colorful beads, coins and candies in true New Orleans style.
Their parade ended at the mess hall, where they danced to Zydeco music and were served chicken and sausage gumbo, red beans and rice and their first cold beer in four months. The beer, donated by Anheuser Busch Companies, was for Super Bowl parties, but commanders decided to combine the celebrations.
The climax of the New Orleans Mardi Gras celebrations usually falls on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras in French means "Fat Tuesday." Many soldiers in Iraq get Sundays off, if their duties allow, so it made sense to hold the parade early.
Uniform regulations were suspended for a few hours as soldiers donned jester caps, feathered masks, capes and lots and lots of beads.
"You can't have all war and no play. You have to live for another day," Col. John Angelloz, the deputy commander of the 256th Brigade, rhymed in his Louisiana accent.
As the parade of 10 military vehicles, covered in streamers and posters, snaked its way through the base, stunned soldiers from other units couldn't help but smile as they were showered in bright, shiny beads, plastic cups and candy.
Krewe of Bonaparte, which organizes one of the main parades in Lafayette, La., collected or donated more than 300 boxes of beads, masks and decorations after one the soldiers' relatives, Kim Clay, made an appeal on a Louisiana radio station, said Command Sgt. Major Homer Stelly.
Clay's employer, High Pressure Integrity Inc. of Broussard, La., agreed to pay the postage to mail it all to Iraq.
But from the costumes on hand Sunday, it was clear that many of the soldiers had brought their Mardi Gras best with them when they were deployed.
"You can take the brigade out of Louisiana," said Maj. John-Michael Wells, 36, of New Orleans. "But you can't take Louisiana out of the brigade."
#1
Sherry, as a New Orleanian I thank you for the post. The sombre side is that the 256th has lost 18 men in the last 60 days, including five young men from Houma, a relatively small town south of New Orleans. (They were part of the crew of the Bradley that was catastrophically destroyed by a very large IED.)
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 16:01
Comments ||
Top||
#2
And tomorrow we're gonna throw one helluva party in their honor.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 16:24
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Well, Matt -- then I'll be with you at that party!! Tip one for me in their honor -- I've caught a few beads in my lifetime. I know of Houma and growing up in a small town, know of the deep hurt this does to a community.
I'm always so amazed at the creativity of this younger generation. Throughout the years, there have always been talk, "would these kids stand up if they had to?" Not only are they standing up, but they are standing tall, and deserve all the fun they can conjure.
#4
Agreed. One of the really positive stories of the war that doesn't get much press is that another generation of young Americans has been tested, and has passed that test literally with flying colors. They're not only incredibly brave; they're incredibly competent.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 16:38
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Many of these kids are MTV brats, raised by TV and video games... and they have performed so courageously and with so much focus it is stunning to me.
And I wholeheartly agree this has been completely under reported by the media too preoccupied with covering Teddy "swim for it" Kennedy
#6
I thought the five soldiers were from Thibodeaux and not Houma.
Anyway, the reports I've read are that the 256th has been doing a stand-up job over there, especially in the Mosul/Kirkuk area.
BTW, for those who don't know, I live in Lafayette and work in Broussard; thanks for posting this article.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/07/2005 17:51
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Phil, my recollection is Houma, but I may be wrong. How about we compromise on "the Houma-Thibodeaux area"? The Times Picayune has had a good series of article on the 256th.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 18:25
Comments ||
Top||
#8
You mean the Times-Picayune has actually written something interesting?
I'm not used to the idea of a worthwhile newspaper in this state...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/07/2005 19:53
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Normally the TP for national and international news just reprints articles from the NYT, the LA Times and the Washington Post, which chaps me no end, but they actually sent a live person over to cover the 256th.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 22:29
Comments ||
Top||
#10
They're doing actual reporting?
I'll have to check it out.
(BTW, this isn't just a complaint I have about the T-P; there seems to be a severe shortage of decent investigative reporting these days, when it should be in a golden age...)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/07/2005 23:05
Comments ||
Top||
A report by Doctors for Reform says much of the money has been spent on creating new posts for bureaucrats.
The think tank made up of 900 doctors and consultants said patients are worse off now than they were five years ago and the £2bn invested in NHS cancer services in those years has offered poor value for money.
Director Andrew Haldenby said: "Cancer patients often live in poor health unnecessarily for long periods of time due to a lack of co-ordination of their care by overstretched treatment services."
One consultant, Professor Karol Sikora of Hammersmith Hospital, said: "In theory you could get the best treatment available in the world from the NHS - it just depends how lucky you are and where you live."
He said the two key failings were in the wait for scans, x-rays and radiotherapy, which could be up to six months.
Prof Sikora added: "We are falling behind the rest of Europe and it seems to be because the resources are not being directed where they are needed and not being used effectively."
He said cancer care is being stifled by too many agencies and cash is being wasted on appointing several hundred new administrative staff who are unable to improve the service because of shortages in frontline staff.
Mike Richards, the Department of Health's national director for Cancer, said there have been difficulties in reducing waiting times for radiotherapy because demand has increased in recent years.
And Health Secretary John Reid added: "Literally thousands of people are alive today thanks to the extra money and resources this government has invested in tackling cancer. Mortality rate from cancer has fallen by 12% in the last six years.
"This has not happened by accident. We have invested £570m in cancer services. There are 1,182 extra cancer consultants and 1,100 new pieces of equipment such as scanners since 1997." ...and the radical drop in the number of cigarette smokers has *nothing* to do with it.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld blasted NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert on Sunday for selectively editing an exchange he had in December with a National Guardsman who complained that his unit's vehicles weren't armored.
"That was unfair and it was selectively taking out two sentences from a long exchange," the Pentagon chief complained. "And when you suggested that that's how I answered that question, that is factually wrong."
Russert had just aired a clip of the now infamous exchange between his guest and National Guardsman Specialist Thomas Wilson, where Wilson asked during a town hall meeting in Kuwait why "we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?"
In footage aired by Russert, Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
"And if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."
After the clip had ended, the irked Defense Secretary said, "That is not how I answered that question.
"But Mr. Secretary," replied Russert somewhat sheepishly, "it clearly represents the exchange and ... "
"It does not," Rumsfeld shot back.
Prepared with a full transcript, the Defense chief overode the NBC host and proceeded to read his full answer:
"I talked to the general coming out here about the pace at which the vehicles are being armored," Rumsfeld began in response to Wilson.
"They have been brought from all over the world, wherever they're not needed, to places where they are needed. I'm told they are being — the Army is — I think it's something like 400 a month are being done now.
"And it's essentially a matter of physics. It's not a matter of money. It isn't a matter on the part of the Army's desire. It's a matter of production and capability of doing it. As you know, you go to the war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
"Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce armor necessary at a rate that they believe — it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that can be accomplished.
"I can assure you that General Schumacher and the leadership of the Army and certainly General Whitcomb are sensitive to the fact that not every vehicle has the degree of armor that would be desirable to have, but that they're working at it at a good clip.
"It's interesting. I've talked a great deal about this with a team of people who've been working hard at the Pentagon. And if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and the tank could still be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up.
"And you can go down and the vehicle — the goal we have is to have as many of those vehicles as is humanly possible with the appropriate level of armor available for the troops. And that's what the Army's been working on." [END OF RUMSFELD'S ANSWER TO WILSON].
After finishing the transcript, the defense chief told Russert:
"Now, that answer is totally different from picking out two lines. And I think it's an unfair representation and it's exactly what some of the newspapers around the country did."
Rumsfeld said that thanks to a program begun last year, every vehicle in Iraq carrying U.S. troops in combat zones would be fully armored by Feb. 15.
#4
C-Span showed the whole thing back at the time it happened. I noticed even fox had cut some parts. You need to see the whole thing on Rummy's answer to have an appreciation for the situation. I'm not always a big Rummy fan but his vilifaction was way over the top imho on this issue. I understood where he was coming from. Glad he took Russert (who I usually like) to task on it.
#9
No, Jarhead, you do not "suck." Everybody's keyboard is illiterate once in a while. If I were using a typewriter instead of a keyboard, stock in White Out would go up ten points. And I direct the Home School Regional Spelling Bee!
Forget about all that trans-Atlantic talk of kiss-and-make-up following the "Freedom Fries"-era disagreements between France and the United States. There's a new tabloid on Paris newsstands offering an alternate take: "L'Anti-Americain."
The cheeky newspaper's editor-in-chief says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can have a free issue of the satirical monthly when she's in Paris next week. Y'know, in case she needs to wrap some fish or line a birdcage.
She'll need to have left her brain at home packed her sense of humor. This month's issue features an entry in a bogus George W. Bush diary that reads: "Ask the CIA: Where's China?" Isn't that one of France's new best customers, now that Saddam's Visa debit card got eaten by the ATM?
Rice and her French counterparts hope to rebuild ties bruised by disagreements over the U.S.-led war in Iraq. In Paris, a stop on her swing through Europe and the Middle East, she'll give a major speech in which she's expected to lay out her vision for American diplomacy. Sure hope it goes something like "Jacques, STFU!"
But on French and American streets, mutual distrust still simmers. Well, on our side, it's more like disgust & contempt.
On the day Bush won re-election in November, unemployed idjit freelance journalist Frederic Royer decided to tap into the French superiority complex the zeitgeist and start "L'Anti-Americain."
The French-language paper offers an unflattering, if tongue-in-cheek, look at America's perceived shortcomings — from fast food to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Y'know, all the usual top-10 whines & bitches they have been screaming about for the past few years in the pages of "Le Monde".
Cartoons and editorials featuring comparisons of Americans to the Nazis the French still wish were in charge sharp-edged critiques of American politicians — mostly Bush — are a fixture of mainstream French dailies. Royer's monthly strives to pack more punch. But he insists it's good-natured ribbing.
"We're so invaded by American culture, we can't resist," he said. "C'est vrai! We have not put up a fight against any invader for centuries!!
The first edition in December sold 7,500 copies, advertised only by word-of-mouth and its eye-catching cover, Royer said.
Its Bush re-election headline read: "France offers political asylum to Americans!" Paging Alec Baldwin!
The cover of January's issue features a voluptuous blonde clad only in an American flag beside a doctored photo of Bush as a paperboy, proudly pointing to his presidential seal. I'm sure it's much more funny than the description. At least I hope so, but, then again, they DO think Jerry Lewis is a comedy genius.
"The name is 'anti-American' for laughs, but it's really anti-Bush," said Royer. Why didn't he call it "Anti-Bush", then? Obviously, I don't get the nuances involved in this sophisticated thinking.
By ordering troops into Iraq without French permission, in triplicate over European protest and refusing to back international efforts to curb global warming, Bush looks to some Europeans like a cowboy thumbing his nose at the world. You just knew they had to throw that "cowboy" in there somewhere.
Conversely, some Americans see France as ungrateful for U.S. help during World War II. Now where would we get that idea??
"These grudges will probably last a long time. Yup. They go deep beyond the White House and Washington, and out to Middle America," said political scientist Steven Ekovich of the American University of Paris. At least there's one thing red & blue America can agree on....France bites.
Royer acknowledges the success of "L'Anti-Americain" rests on Bush providing good material. "The danger is to do something too basic, too stupidly anti-American, in other words, too French" Royer said. But he expects success "because of the ambient air — maybe what I think a lot of French people are feeling right now."
#3
The French apparently want to develop fullblown hatred between the US and France. Despite Pres. Bush and Sec. Rice trying to repair relations between the two nations, this animosity goes much deeper than the Bush administration-it is a disdain and hatred of Americans, despite the couching of it in humorous statements, that may well push repair beyond the reach of the administration. There is an undercurrent in parts of America right now of deep antipathy for the French. So keep it up France-no doubt you'll reap huge benefits!
#4
I smell a hoax. This paper came out a few months ago and I read about it in some of the European blogs. One or two of them went into the articles and came away with the sense that the publisher is 1) trying to make cash of excessive anti-Americanism, and 2) secretly mocking the same people who would buy such a tabloid.
The anti-Americanism here is different from the real burning anti-Americanism you see from the Euro-lefites. There is no humor in the Guardian, because they are true believers. This stuff comes with a wink from the editor, as if they were trying to discredit anti-Americanism by being so excessive and silly. Maybe I'm wrong. We shall see.
Posted by: Prince Abdullah ||
02/07/2005 17:43
Comments ||
Top||
#5
It does claim to be satirical. The question is, does the tone cover deeply held feeling, or are the writers, as His Majesty Prince Abdullah suggests, really poking fun at the French true believers?
Certainly, the whole enterprise is in bad taste. But let it not be said that the French are incapable of such things!
This has been going on in San Francisco for quite a while....
MANILA (Reuters) - Two communist rebels in the Philippines truly became brothers in arms when the men were married in a jungle camp, a newspaper has reported. Incestuous, too, eh? Al-Reuters apparently wants to get in all the progressive social values it can.
Draped in a red flag with hammer and sickle in gold sequins, they exchanged vows, walked under an archway of assault rifles and were serenaded with revolutionary love songs by a choir of New People's Army comrades. Gold sequins?
Ka Andres and Ka Jose, who both use the word for "brother" before their names, each held a bullet during the ceremony on the southern island of Mindanao to show their "commitment to the armed struggle", the Philippine Daily Inquirer said. A bullet, such graphic symbolism....
"What we have to do now -- with the help of the party -- is to work on our marriage and to be strong while serving the people," said Jose, who at 21 is 33 years younger than Andres. May/December too?
Homosexuality is a largely taboo topic in the Philippines, with stereotypes of flamboyantly effeminate men reinforced in the media. Tsk tsk. Does Al-Reuters have no sensitivity to the values of other cultures? Only if they're Islamos or commies, it seems.
The communist movement -- waging a violent insurgency in poor, rural areas since the late 1960s -- has been more progressive, adding same-sex relationships and marriage to its guiding policy in 1998. No editorializing there.
Still, Jose and Andres said they ran into the "patriarchal" culture of the Philippines when they decided to marry. Being a commie rebel swine might also put one at odds with society, but Al-Reuters must always highlight oppression.
"We conducted painstaking discussions to make comrades understand gay relations and gay rights," Andres said. "After a honeymoon trip to France, the couple will take up new positions as tenured professors of Peace and Ethnic Oppression Studies at the University of California."
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
02/07/2005
3:01:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ka Jose: Andres, does camouflage make me look fat?
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 9:07
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Nice campy touch with the sequined hammer and sickle, though.
Wonder if they'll be starring in "Queer Eye for the Rebel Guy"?
U.S. 'in for a shock'
In early election results, Shiite cleric's alliance trouncing Washington's favorite
- Borzou Daragahi, Chronicle (San Francisco) Foreign Service
Friday, February 4, 2005
Frankly, if I had my way, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Pashto-Garbagistan/Waziristan, Karbala, Najaf and Qom would have looked like the Moon, by about September 18, 2001. And US-UK flags would be flying over the entire Red Sea and Persian Gulf to Kirkuk oil-patches, as US taxpayers would have enjoyed huge budget surpluses, without having to worry about over 1500 holes in their family trees. Still the shiny-happy majority think that "freedom" is served by propping proto-Islamofascists in the Afghan and Iraq gutter entities. It might take a year, but you will be educated by the school-of-hard-knocks-to-fat-heads.
Baghdad -- Partial results from Sunday's election suggest that U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's coalition is being roundly defeated by a list with the backing of Iraq's senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, diminishing Allawi's chances of retaining his post in the next government. That is: the Iranian born cleric, Sistani.
Sharif Ali bin Hussein, head of the Constitutional Monarchy Party, likened the vote outcome to a "Sistani tsunami" that would shake the nation.
"Americans are in for a shock," he said, adding that one day they would realize, "We've got 150,000 troops here protecting a country that's extremely friendly to Iran, and training their troops." Golly!
The partial totals so far show the Iraqi List headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite and onetime CIA protege, trailed far behind with only 18 percent of the votes, despite an aggressive television ad campaign waged with U.S. aid. A lopsided majority of votes, 72 percent, went to the United Iraqi Alliance list, topped by a Shiite cleric who lived in Iran for many years and whose Sciri party has close ties to Iran's clerical regime. More than a third of the alliance's vote came from Baghdad, the cosmopolitan capital where Allawi had been expected to fare well.
Although the results are only from Baghdad and five southern provinces where the Shiite parties were expected to score strongly, and from only 10 percent of the country's 5,216 polling stations, the scale of the alliance's vote underscored the probability of a historic shift in the Shiites' favor from decades of Sunni minority rule in Iraq.
Safwat Rashid, a member of Iraq's Independent Election Commission, and international election officials warned observers not to read too much into the early numbers, which did not include tallies in the country's Sunni or Kurdish provinces.
Rashid said the Baghdad numbers came from "mixed" -- meaning Sunni and Shiite -- neighborhoods in the city where Allawi was expected to perform well. Hussein said Allawi had also performed poorly in Babil province, a relatively urbanized, mixed Shiite-Sunni area south of Baghdad.
He said the vote total and the total turnout numbers wouldn't be known for another 10 days.
Already, Western officials in Baghdad appeared to be downplaying worries about the possible victory by the alliance, topped by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a cleric who spent years exiled in Iran.
The alliance "is a very diverse group of people, from Westernized independents to Sunni sheikhs to people who really believe in an Islamic state, " one Western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said of the alliance on Wednesday. "It will be hard to maintain unity."
The election commission also released final vote tallies from overseas voters in eight countries, the United States, Britain, France, Iran, Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Australia. The alliance won of 44 percent of the 170,000 votes cast in those countries, the Kurds 18 percent and Allawi's list 12 percent. In U.S. voting, Allawi garnered just 5 percent of the vote, less than the Communist Party total... So US Iraqis say Eff US. Ergo...?
Anyone have a cure for Denial-Fever?
Posted by: IToldYouSo ||
02/07/2005
2:54:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Make a seat for them next to the French, but we'll finish the job we set out to do first.
#2
Iraqis had no obligation to vote for Allawi, we came to give them freedom, NOT to put one man in charge. Sistani doesnt want Iraq subordinated to Iran, and he and the parties alligned with him have been acting reasonably. They DONT want US troops to leave any time soon.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 9:26
Comments ||
Top||
#4
LH: Iraqis had no obligation to vote for Allawi, we came to give them freedom, NOT to put one man in charge.
We did not go in to give them freedom - we went in to issue a warning to other Muslim regimes about covertly sponsoring terrorism and building WMD's.
LH: Sistani doesnt want Iraq subordinated to Iran, and he and the parties alligned with him have been acting reasonably. They DONT want US troops to leave any time soon.
Only Allah knows what Sistani thinks. But his administrative incompetence ensures that he will always need Uncle Sam around to protect him from Sadr - or any militarily-competent challenger. Unless he wants to become Sadr's puppet.
#5
Article: Although the results are only from Baghdad and five southern provinces where the Shiite parties were expected to score strongly, and from only 10 percent of the countryâs 5,216 polling stations
This is a really huge "although". If I were to assess GWB's chances of winning the 2004 elections by looking at the New England area (20% of the population), I would have predicted a landslide for John Kerry.
#6
Sistani has written extensively on various subjects. Of those writings which we have obtained so far, he seems to be basically anti Iranian and pro secularist. Of course we don't have everything and many things were written under Saddam so who they may not represent what he thinks.
#7
The other thing notable about the invasion is that we have destroyed Iraq's military. The Sunnis and the Shiites are basically evenly-balanced. If this election installs a Shiite-priest dominated government that demands our departure, we will leave these guys to a civil war that will kill hundreds of thousands of Muslims on both sides. Each of the Arab regional powers (Sunnis) and the Iranians (Shiites) will get involved to ensure the other side doesn't win. Millions of Muslims could die. And it will happen without Uncle Sam having to deal with the political fallout from having dropped an A-bomb. Thus, even from a purely Machiavellian perspective, the Iraqi invasion does work.
#8
Another important aspect of this situation is that if the Shiites commit to theocracy, Uncle Sam can decide to partition Iraq. The Sunnis and the Kurds would certainly fight for their own states. All we have to do is arm them.
#9
Democracy carries with it the right of the majority to screw up. (We elected Jimmuh not that long ago-- what were we thinking?) And screwups can have consequences. But I have to say that all those people streaming to the polls on January 30 didn't look to me to have a second Taleban in mind.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 11:17
Comments ||
Top||
#11
This is troubling, but then again, we did bring them democracy. It's their choice what they do with it - but I highly doubt that the first bunch of elected guys is going to ask us to leave. Hell, we allowed them to get into power in the first place, and they don't yet have the infrastructure to deal with the loonies by themselves.
While I wouldn't want to ignore this if it's true, the cynic in me wonders whether this is the latest attempt to minimize all the good we did there, to put a nasty spin on a wonderful thing.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/07/2005 11:37
Comments ||
Top||
#12
Iraq the Model says this:
Anyway, back to the main subject and the alleged statement; I chose to wait until the next news hour and of course until I chill out a little bit after the disturbing news and then I heard this update on the story "Haider Al-Khaffaf, a senior Sistani's aide says that no such statement was released".
And going back to Friday's news, another senior aide of Sistani said from Kuwait that "the future constitution of the country is an issue that is left for the National Assembly to deal with".
Belmont Club also has a post up on it, which in turn quotes Parapundit (negative) and an article in the Weekly Standard by Marc Gerecht (positive.)
So color me shiny-happy. (Or is that a color?)
And speaking of the spin aspect, if Allawi were ahead, the MSM take would be "US Puppet Leads Iraq Vote" with extensive commentary on how the whole thing was a sham. The far left just hasn't figured out how to cope with the election.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 11:46
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Amen Matt, we (the side of Democracy) are not allowed to win. Sistani is aware of the score and he knows that he cannot install a theocracy because they other factions would rise up against it. He also sees what is happening in Iran (notice he is now in Kuwait) and that theocracy is heading for a big fall in a very short time. He doesn't want to be "the next late Islamic leader."
#14
To add to Matt's comments, Sistani is in a sweet position: he has most (if not all) of the power he needs, and relatively little responsibility. Unlike the mullahs next door, he doesn't get the blame when there are no jobs, no freedoms, and no prosperity. Let Allawi or the Kurd-du-jour take the rap for the economy, the continuing fight against terrorism, and the fact that cousin Mahmoud couldn't get a cushy gummint job.
Sistani is a very smart man. Things are going his way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005 13:31
Comments ||
Top||
#15
yup, when clerics are openly part of the guvvimint, religion gets the blame for every lil ol thing. So keepen em seperate can actually be GOOD for religion. I do recall reading that somewhere before. Some Frog named Alexis something, I think ;)
#16
I'm gonna try to be as kind as I can when I say you people freaking out about Sistani's party getting a lot of votes are both clueless about the Iraqi people and clueless about what it means for Sistani's chosen party to have the majority.
I can't believe some of you are falling for this newest leftwing attack on our role in succesfully spreading democracy.
1) Democracy will being moderation in the population and the gov't.
2) Iraqis HATE Iran (not the people the Iranian gov't), especially with the Iranians funding terrorism in Iraq being so well known, and will not be "friendly" with Iran until it's theocracy is overthrown.
3) The fact that the shiites won is a good thing. The sunnis are the one's killing our troops... or have you all forgotten that because some leftwing windbag wrote a few words?
#17
DPA: I'm gonna try to be as kind as I can when I say you people freaking out about Sistani's party getting a lot of votes are both clueless about the Iraqi people and clueless about what it means for Sistani's chosen party to have the majority. I can't believe some of you are falling for this newest leftwing attack on our role in succesfully spreading democracy.
I don't think democracy is the right form of government for everyone, but I do think that it is right for Iraq, because we smashed the previous government and need to replace it with something else. Having said that, let me reiterate that we may not get the people we want in power. Iraqis have been bombarded for decades with anti-American propaganda. Combine that with the slick Hollywood movies they watch that show highly-idealized portrayals of the typical American lifestyle, and you have Iraqis talking about how Americans are in a conspiracy to keep them down. It wouldn't surprise me if many Iraqis voted against Allawi. It wouldn't surprise me if many Iraqis are anti-American, but hide it in order to get reconstruction goodies from Uncle Sam. Only time will tell whether this is the beginning of a new friendship.
#18
Of course we are concerned about the possible direction the new Iraqi government will turn out. We have 1400+ dead and a whole bunch of wounded that we have given to this fight.
Sistani is a smart, slippery guy. But he will bargain. He does not have the power to blow away the opposition. He has to work with the Kurds, and to a lesser degree, the Sunnis. They will either horse trade, have a civil war, or partition. I will assume that Sistani understands this concept (unlike that moron Tater) and will work it out. It will be painful and there will be problems, serious problems, but the alternatives are worse. Everyone knows this except the Association of Stupid Sunni Clerics and they are shiite outa luck because they boycotted the show.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 17:04
Comments ||
Top||
#19
My 2c worth is people who think Iraq is on its way to an Iranian aligned theocracy are about as clueless as they come. The Iraqi shiias know that just across the border (in Iran) there are a couple of million Arab shiias and the Persians don't treat them very well. They will also be a source of conflict in the future.
#20
If the statistical voting spread bears out, then it makes it all the more important that we keep building our relationship with the Kurds. I think Zhang Fei makes some good points in 17.
#21
ZF does have good points, Jules. Allawi probably used up his political chips getting ass kicked when it needed kicking. After all, Iraq was in a collapse mode after Sammy was brought down. Allawi brought Iraq this far, and now others have to shoulder the load from here.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 17:14
Comments ||
Top||
Two communist rebels in the Philippines truly became brothers in arms when the men were married in a jungle camp, a newspaper has reported.
Oh, take me, Comrade!
Draped in a red flag with hammer and sickle in gold sequins, they exchanged vows, walked under an archway of assault rifles and were serenaded with revolutionary love songs by a choir of New People's Army comrades. Ka Andres and Ka Jose, who both use the word for "brother" before their names, each held a bullet during the ceremony on the southern island of Mindanao to show their "commitment to the armed struggle", the Philippine Daily Inquirer said. "What we have to do now -- with the help of the party -- is to work on our marriage and to be strong while serving the people," said Jose, who at 21 is 33 years younger than Andres.
Homosexuality is a largely taboo topic in the Philippines, with stereotypes of flamboyantly effeminate men reinforced in the media. The communist movement -- waging a violent insurgency in poor, rural areas since the late 1960s -- has been more progressive, adding same-sex relationships and marriage to its guiding policy in 1998. Still, Jose and Andres said they ran into the "patriarchal" culture of the Philippines when they decided to marry. "We conducted painstaking discussions to make comrades understand gay relations and gay rights," Andres said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
2:38:30 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ahhhhh! So MILF actually stands for "Man I'd like to..."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 9:50
Comments ||
Top||
#2
What ever happened to all the jolly Communists?
#3
Draped in a red flag with hammer and sickle in gold sequins, they exchanged vows, walked under an archway of assault rifles and were serenaded with revolutionary love songs by a choir of New Peopleâs Army comrades . . .
The description just buggers the imagination.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/07/2005 10:57
Comments ||
Top||
#4
All the NPA are Ka-this and Ka-that, unless thay have rank and are called Kumander-this or that. Its the Filipino equivalent of "comrade".
#9
"I will tell you a Joke about Jewel and Mary
It is neither a Joke nor a Story
For Rubin and Charles has married two girls
But Billy has married a boy
The girlies he had tried on every Side
But none could he get to agree
All was in vain he went home again
And since that is married to Natty"
#12
Lighten up, Mike S.! All silliness is appropriate in Short Attention Span stuff.
It sounds like a British pub song, Aris -- am I right? (No googling for me today, I'm afraid. I'm struggling with my higher cognitive functions -- and don't appear to be winning.)
#13
Lighten up, Mike S.! All silliness is appropriate in Short Attention Span stuff.
It sounds like a British pub song, Aris -- am I right? (No googling for me today, I'm afraid. I'm struggling with my higher cognitive functions -- and don't appear to be winning.)
#16
How delightful! I had no idea our Homely Abraham had his bawdy moments -- the result of a sheltered childhood, I'm afraid. You've given me something to search out tomorrow, Aris. Thanks!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 20:44
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Its just more anti-American, anti-Dubya, and anti-GOP/Western PC - the Commies are doing it to score points. SOcialist-Communist prioritized deficit depending will put a quick end to the honeymoon, and that's presuming the various International Lefts-LeftProgressives supp the Gay-Lesbian agenda to begin with, instead of lip service for politics. They'll be gulagged, exiled, forced to divorce, andor quietly executed once the Party realizes the milk cow of feel-good propaganda/info control o'er the unsuspecting masses is gone!
#19
I promise to be alone, Mrs. D, so the company will be unmixed. As you so subtly point out, the reputation of a lady must be jealously protected. ;-)
The Sri Lankan military accused a relief group today of trying to smuggle bomb-making materials hidden in goods probably sent from Britain intended for tsunami survivors in areas controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels. Port authorities found thousands of small steel balls hidden in water pots in a shipping container that consigned to the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation, the army reported. Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought a two decade civil war against the government, are known for loading suicide bombs with metal balls to cause maximum damage.
The rebels control a large area in the ethnic Tamil-majority north and have authorised the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation to co-ordinate tsunami relief work there. The military website said the balls "could be used for production of bombs or explosives." The report said the pots, believed to have been shipped from Britain, are being held for investigation. A spokesman for the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation said it would comment only after seeing the military's report.
More than 65,000 people have been killed since Tamil Tigers began an armed insurrection in 1983 to carve out a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. Fighting ended with a Norway-brokered cease-fire signed in February 2002. Peace talks however, broke down a year later when the rebels withdrew, demanding more autonomy in the north-east.
The Boxing Day 26 Asian tsunami killed more than 30,000 people in Sri Lanka and left nearly 4,700 missing.
This article starring:
Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation
Tamil Tiger
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005
2:13:40 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
EFL One of the robbers who carried out the Rs2.2 million robbery at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Swat has told investigators that the robbery was carried out with the aim of acquiring money to buy necessary military hardware required to attack army troops in Malakand Agency. He also revealed that suspects in the robbery case were affiliated with banned militant organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad and included veterans of the Afghan and Kashmir jihad as well as newly-trained militants. The armed robbery took place on December 3, 2004 but Malakand police chased the militants and killed and arrested several after a pitched battle on the border between Swat and Dir districts. Investigators probing the robbery case have revealed that one of the arrested militants told the joint investigation team that the robbery was carried out to raise money to buy horses so that military equipment could be easily moved around the region. "Our amir [the militant did not name him] told us that every possible effort should be made to involve the army in Malakand so that a situation similar to South Waziristan would be created and we would be able to launch an attack on the army," a police investigator quoted an arrested militant. "We are not at war with the Pakistani people and the police; our war is against the Pakistan army that is fighting the mujahideen on behalf of the United States. We will finish it [the army] before it finishes us."
Investigators told TFT that the arrested militants had revealed that they selected Malakand for their operation because of its difficult terrain and poor communication-system. "Had the money not been recovered and the militants killed and arrested, I think we would have been in serious trouble," an anti-terrorist investigator told TFT. "The militants would have unleashed terrorist activities and the police would not have been able to do much about it. After that, the army would have jumped into the fray in the manner in which it always does, as a 'last resort'." Investigators say the militants have revealed that banned religious group, Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi, was providing the ground for the militants readying to launch an operation in Malakand.
The investigators also revealed details about the militants who killed two Aga Khan Foundation Health Service officers in Chitral on December 27, 2004. "The killers first met in Pule-Charkhi jail Kabul after being arrested by anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces in 2001," said an investigator. "After being released, they planned to attack the office to drive the foundation out of Chitral. We are looking for Maulana Muhammad Khalid, the chief of the militants and his son, who are still at large," he added. A senior police official in Mingora city told TFT that Swat district had recently seen a "great concentration" of militants. "This was expected to happen because Swat is the old transit route for Afghan and Kashmir mujahideen who receive training in Mansehra and Balakot camps," he said. Intelligence agencies' suspicions about the relocation of militants fleeing military operations in South Waziristan Agency to non-tribal areas are growing and a source said Malakand Agency, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir districts were becoming a homeland for militants.
This article starring:
MAULANA MUHAMAD KHALID
Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/07/2005
2:06:47 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Looks like time to conjure up Winston Almighty Churchill and revive the Malakand Field Force.
The car bombs that go off in Baghdad are manufactured in the relative quiet of an arc of Sunni tribal lands around the capital. That is the true heartland of the resistance, where it draws on massive weapons depots secreted in river valleys and deserts. The nationalist fighters who control the area supply Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's networks with the ammo they use for their deadly operations, according to U.S. military intelligence.
Backed by Bradley fighting vehicles, the American soldiers of Coldsteel Company swarm into a clutch of farmhouses as a platoon of Estonian infantry closes from the rear. The Americans are part of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment's operation to seal off a stretch of villages hugging the Euphrates in the Jafr Sakhr region, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad. "Go round 'em up," a U.S. officer hollers, and male villagers of military age--one with his crying 3-year-old clinging to his neck--are sifted out. A humvee approaches and stops in front of the lined-up Iraqis. From within, a passenger, face masked, raises or lowers a thumb as each man is singled out. It isn't clear who the masked man is, perhaps an intelligence source or an informer. Those given the thumbs-up are seated. Others, who get the thumbs-down, are separated and detained. In the meantime, the village mosque is secured. Its imam and congregation are known to be hostile to U.S. forces.
The raid's focus shifts to a building marked as House 69 on the soldiers' maps. The night before, a source, possibly a cell member who turned during questioning, gave up the names and locations of six suspected cell members. Among them are two brothers thought to be central players in nationalist attacks on U.S. soldiers. Also on the list is the leader of their Islamic Army outfit, a man known as Abu Ayesha. The brothers are found in their family compound in a nearby village. Abu Ayesha is a different story. One of the homes near House 69 is said to be his. But although spotters have been positioned to catch anyone running from the battalion's advance, Abu Ayesha is not to be found.
Adjacent to House 69, in a small palm grove, the Estonians uncover a weapons cache: rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and an AK-47, its ammo hastily buried nearby. The weapon's magazines are wrapped in plastic and sealed in a tin ammunition box. "There's gotta be stuff all over the place," says 2-12 battalion commander Lieut. Colonel Tim Ryan. Two days later, one of the detainees would break during interrogation and betray the site of Abu Ayesha's main arsenal, which supplied the al-Zarqawi, Ansar al-Sunnah and nationalist cells blasting away at the U.S.-led coalition and the fledgling Iraqi government's security forces. The 2-12 spent a day digging into berms gouged from the flat desert, retrieving one of the largest weapons caches found in Iraq in the past year, including two suspected Scud-missile warheads. Says Ryan: "The member of the cell who gave up the information said that this is untouched, that it is a place where they've drawn their supplies from ever since the fall of the Saddam regime, and from which they're supplying activities in this part of the country, from southwest Baghdad over toward Fallujah and then down to Musayyab."
The weapons seizure underlines the diverse and fractured nature of the Iraqi insurgency. Al-Zarqawi's cells, mostly directed by non-Iraqi jihadis, often don't know where the arms caches are and so cannot function without the support of the Iraqi nationalists, mostly former military officers, who do. The proliferation of car bombs doesn't indicate a formal alliance between the two groups. But the ideological divide is bridged by tribal commerce. Within a single tribe, there can be a diversity of Islamist and nationalist strains--and genealogy can usually produce a cousin able to provide arms to a distant relative, perhaps via another distant relative. Insurgents from the Karghouli tribe, for instance, are principally led by a figure dubbed the Strawberry Sheik. One of his relatives, Abu Mustafa, heads a self-titled military "company" of the nationalist Islamic Army. Another of the sheik's kinsmen, Amara Adnan Hamza, is a fundamentalist Muslim. Known locally as Little Zarqawi, he commands a network loyal to the more famous al-Zarqawi that has prepared car bombs destined for Baghdad. According to American as well as insurgent sources, both Little Zarqawi and his nationalist relative Abu Mustafa have drawn weapons from their senior relative, the Strawberry Sheik. Ryan's battalion disrupted Little Zarqawi's cell and found two tons of explosives at its disposal.
So far, in an offensive that began in late December, the 2-12 has cracked an al-Zarqawi bombmaking cell and an Ansar al-Sunnah stronghold, and severely disrupted a nest of nationalist cells composed of former Republican Guard officers and Baathists upon whom the other organizations rely. That has led the insurgents to attack the 2-12 directly. At one point during the Jafr Sakhr operation, a report comes in from 2-12's headquarters. Insurgents are lobbing mortars on the bridge over the Euphrates where Ryan has positioned his tanks. He isn't dismayed. "I was waiting to see how long it would take the enemy to get mad enough about us being on the bridge before he started shooting mortars at us. If he's shooting at us here, he isn't attacking toward Baghdad. We have the bridge cut off, so now the bad guys on the east side of the bridge can't connect with the bad guys on the west side of the bridge." He adds, "The more [the enemy] has to turn and divert his attention to us here in his supply lines, in his safe havens, the less time he's devoted to attacking people in Baghdad." As a result, the car bombs made in the Jafr Sakhr area must now pass through Fallujah to the north or Musayyab to the south, running a gauntlet of U.S. checkpoints before they can reach the capital.
Ryan and his men already have recorded a chilling inventory of what has been available to the enemy. In House 71, for example, they find an array of weapons-- a crank-handle detonator, spools of detonation cord, dozens of mortars, thousands of rounds of 12.7-mm ammo, a sackful of yellow grenades and other bombmaking materials--buried in pits all over a yard in which a herd of sheep and goats graze. A pocket notebook inside the ramshackle dwelling proves to be a huge intelligence boon, listing weapons and the cell leaders to whom they were distributed. An Arabic-speaking Army specialist, born to Palestinian and Puerto Rican parents, scans the pages. "He's written everything here--who he gave what to. He's very stupid," the soldier says with a smile. The pages connect a lot of dots to insurgent bosses Ryan has been tracking. At the 2-12's approach, the owner of House 71 had run to a neighbor's home and attempted to mix in with other civilians, disguising himself by adopting someone else's name. Ryan saw through it. "Take Mr. Turban here," he orders, referring to the scarf around the suspect's head. "All that s___ was right behind his house--he knows something," he says. Under interrogation the man identifies himself as the weapons dealer working under Abu Ayesha and supplying arms to a host of divergent guerrilla and terrorist cells.
Ryan decides to send a message, a "show of force," as he calls it. He instructs his engineers to pile the weapons caches in the front yard of House 71. "We got all this stuff in his house, I don't see any reason why we can't blow it up," Ryan says. His Estonian counterpart chuckles. "I don't mind; it's not my house," he says. By day's end, the message has been delivered repeatedly. Coalition troops destroy two vehicles and another house in acts of retaliation. At nightfall the battalion returns to its base, having uprooted a large number of insurgent weapons sites. It has produced a staggering array of antiaircraft guns, TNT, RPG warheads and launchers, machine guns, plastic explosive, grenades and bombs. Surveying the booty, Ryan tells a subordinate, "We're just scratching the surface."
This article starring:
ABU AIESHA
Islamic Army
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSTAFA
Ansar al-Sunnah
AMARA ADNAN HAMZA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Ansar al-Sunnah
Islamic Army
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/07/2005
2:04:46 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A few unrelated points:
* Hard to believe that this sort of operation, but expanded in scope and intensity in select areas and including large-scale preventive detention/screening operations and draconian restrictions on road movement, would not have greatly reduced the death toll to friendlies in the past 1.5 years. Why any road in relevant parts west of Baghdad and in al-Anbar was not intensely controlled since the outset, and why any military-age male in areas of concern wasn't biometrically ID'd/swabbed for explosives/polygraphed/held for interrogation/bribed/cajoled (varying with individual and circumstance) -- long ago -- remains a mystery to me.
* Time's misuse of the word "nationalist" is both ludicrous and offensive. How is it "nationalist" to blow up economic infrastructure and murder large numbers of innocents or government officials in your own country? Why is the term "nationalist" applied to a minority of ruthless criminals whose community is stained with decades of genocide, tyranny, and international lawlessness on a scale not seen since Nazi Germany? Do "nationalists" murder and destroy in a desperate bid to prevent their country from establishing accountable and open government that doesn't squander the national patrimony on the debauchery and megalomaniacal insanity of absolute despots? What exactly is, in any way, "nationalist" about the efforts of a morally leprous and rightly unseated minority to regain their previous position of blood-soaked tyranny and corruption?
Were the SS "nationalists" in any informative sense of the word? As usual, it's hard to know whether Time's failure here stems from intellectual dullness or moral imbecility.
#2
Good comments, Verlaine. You probably have a better feel for the geography, but I can't imagine that the road traffic between Baghdad and parts west is so heavy that you couldn't a) ban all non-essential traffic b) inspect ALL vehicles at checkpoints with bomb-sniffing dogs. Whatever manpower it takes, do it. Maybe a lot of that is already being done, I don't know. In a similar vein, I wonder whether they are exploiting every possible technological approach to detecting/jamming roadside bombs. I know about the RF jammers that they are using. But I wonder whether there are also technologies for wired bombs and UAV aerial surveillance and video surveillance methods that could detect the bombs or the bomb planters.
First of all thank you so very much for your sacrifices my wife and 4 children owe you a debt which we could never possibly repay. My second family is my fire crew. We had one of our boys serving with you in 2004 and he's now home. Being firefighters we feel as though we have a special stake in the greater War on Terror. I've been trying to point out the successes that we are having aka successful elections in Afghanistan and Iraq 45/55 bad guys on the deck of cards. The problem lies herein: The MSM is where these guys get their info. All we here about is 1,450 dead American soldiers and 16,000 dead iraqi civilians and police. I'm constantly telling them don't worry were getting the bad guys. They turn around and say that yes we capture them but eventually like the guys in Gtmo will get released and be back to fight again another day. Do you have any idea how many enemy kia's? I'm trying to feed these guys something anything that says it's ok boys we are winning and yes we've taken alot of bad guys off the map with our sacrifices. We lost 357 brothers on 9/11 and another 1,022 have since retired or left the profession due to stress and anguish. There alot of broken men and women who would love nothing more than revenge. The shitty press makes us feel like we are losing and I hate them for it. Can you provide a link or any stats on enemy killed or foreign fighters killed or both.
Any tidbits would be appreciated.
#5
"Take Mr. Turban here," he orders, referring to the scarf around the suspectâs head. "All that s was right behind his house--he knows something," he says.
Great quote! He must be a closet Rantburger.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 11:16
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Too bad the ACLU will be all over this guy for saying that alaska paul
#7
Neat article. Hey seems Iran is spiraling out of control. Kinda scary, man they will have to be brutal! Still shaken folks but man what a deal. Sorry I havn't been active.
U.S. forces stormed a house to free four Egyptian telecommunications engineers kidnapped in Iraq, the head of their Egyptian parent company told Egyptian television on Monday. Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, said the four Egyptians were safe and the company had contacted their families to inform them that they were free. He was speaking from Algeria to an Egyptian state television program.
A U.S. military spokesman said he was unable immediately to confirm the report, but the military had heard media reports and were making checks. The men were employed by a unit of the Egyptian telecoms firm Orascom, which has several contracts in Iraq, including running the Iraqna mobile phone service in Baghdad. They were working on a contract to install transmission towers around Baghdad, a company official said. Scores of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year. Some have been released -- often after payment of ransoms -- but several have been killed by militant groups. Many more Iraqis have been kidnapped, usually for ransom.
#6
When you have some good news, why do they have to finish their articles with that type of "litany":
Scores of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year. Some have been released -- often after payment of ransoms -- but several have been killed by militant groups. Many more Iraqis.have been kidnapped, usually for ransom.
#2
Your wish is granted:
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/29/906/400/bush_mud.jpg
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 14:26
Comments ||
Top||
#3
the National Guard member is VERY lucky to only be DEMOTED...I thought she would be thrown out of the service. Again military court martial process.
Andrea
Posted by: andrea jackson ||
02/07/2005 14:34
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Just some folks ready to go home and who had seen too many episodes of MASH. No big deal.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 15:33
Comments ||
Top||
#6
THAT WAS SOOOO WRONG TOM! Almost lost something there. Naw Andrea they probably gave her a suspended demotion for exposing boobs. It's conduct unbecoming but it's not like she was showing them to prisoners "Oh my icky boobs!" I wouldn't want my daughter to do this but come on people they were having a going away party and things got out of hand. The bigger question here is who won the mud wrestling compe TIT ion?
#8
I dunno bro's, looks like this one might be a bullshitter. For instance, I don't remember seeing three females in the same unit look quite that good. Then again, I am in the Corps.
#9
On second look, I guess I'm wrong. I had faith that no one was stupid enough to take pix of "questionable conduct" & leak it to the press after abu much ado. Stupid me.
#10
I am so glad that I have the only copy of a pic of me, after a round in the dunk tank, at a base 4th of July bash. Tee-shirt, over bikini, since you ask. All garmets and self very wet
I also had faith that pics of stupid military blowing off steam would not be leaked to a tab.
#12
You can bet the Muslim holy warriors will be going on and on about GI's defiling Muslim soil. Even as Muslims do whatever they want on American soil.
With a hero who gave his life for the elections, a revived national anthem blaring from car stereos and a greater willingness to help police, the public mood appears to be moving more clearly against the insurgency in Iraq, political and security officials say.
In the week since national elections, police and Iraqi National Guardsmen say that they have received more tips from the public, resulting in more arrests and greater effectiveness in their efforts to weaken the violent insurgency rocking the country.
None of the officials said they believed the violence was over. An attack Sunday on a police station in Mahawil, 50 miles south of Baghdad, left 22 policemen and National Guardsmen and 14 attackers dead, the Associated Press reported. The incident was a bloody end to a day in which at least nine other Iraqis were reported slain, and a U.S. soldier was killed and two others were wounded north of the capital. Four Egyptian engineers were kidnapped and two insurgent groups issued statements threatening to kill an Italian journalist who was taken hostage on Friday.
But officials in Baghdad said a relative lull in violence in the capital has fueled the sense that something has fundamentally changed since the vote. A change of attitudes in Baghdad could make a crucial difference in the battle against the insurgency, and a buoyed sense of civic pride is already beginning to change the way the public treats the police, authorities say. "They saw what we did for them in the election by providing safety, and now they understand this is their army and their sons," said Sgt. Haider Abudl Heidi, a National Guardsman wearing a flak jacket at a checkpoint in Baghdad.
Reports from Iraqis reflect a similar shift in attitudes in large areas of the north and south, although authorities acknowledged that in some parts of the country, people remain hostile to the emerging Iraqi authority and supportive, to varying degrees, of the insurgents.
The insurgency began to emerge soon after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, on a tide of anger over the U.S. occupation. But in interviews over the past week, officials and Baghdad residents cited what they called a renewed nationalist pride since the elections that they said may be dampening anti-American sentiment, and may be starting to dispel Iraqi tolerance and support for the insurgents. "I feel very optimistic that things will change for the better because of the strong turnout in the elections. That reinforced our faith and gave us a sense of change for the better," said Ali Jassem, 32, the manager of a bakery in Baghdad.
"You can feel the situation has changed," said Haider Abdul Hussein, 30, a pharmacy owner. "People seem to linger on the street longer. You can feel the momentum, the sense of optimism."
Part of that mood change is credited to Abdul Amir, Iraq's newest national hero. On election day, Amir, 30, a policeman in Baghdad, noticed a man walking toward a polling station who appeared to be carrying something heavy under his coat. Amir wrapped his arms around the man and dragged him away from the crowd. A belt of explosives wrapped around the man blew both men to shreds.
Members of Iraq's interim cabinet have touted Amir as a symbol of national pride. Newspapers have been filled with stories about him. A statue is being planned, and the elementary school that served as the polling station where he died may change its name to honor him. "It's too simple to say what he did was heroic," said Najat Abdul Sattar, the headmistress of the school, where bright-eyed children study in dim concrete classrooms just yards from where Amir was killed. "What more honor could we give the man?"
"When people saw what he did, they said we will not let those violent people intimidate us, and they went to vote in even greater numbers. Where there were three or four in line, after the blast there were 30 or 40," said Mohammed Hadithi, who lives near the school.
The change has also been evident in the recent popularity of "My Homeland," a mournful song that was banned by Hussein but has been revived as a national anthem. Iraqis sing along to the paean to Iraqi glory and nationalism as it blares from radios and from speakers propped up outside storefronts in the capital.
Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister and a powerful figure in the Shiite-led coalition expected to dominate Iraq's new National Assembly, contends that the elections created a sense of solidarity that helped dissolve an Iraqi aversion to trusting neighbors, a habit ingrained during the Hussein era. "People know their neighbors now. They know they are on the same front as their neighbors -- they all went out and voted," he said in an interview Saturday. "I think this has uncovered the terrorists and insurgents. They are less legitimate now."
The elections also appear to have renewed public confidence in Iraqi security forces, who were on the front lines of a largely successful effort to protect 5,000 polling centers from violence. In the weeks before and since the Jan. 30 elections, Iraqi forces have claimed increasing success in arresting ringleaders of the insurgency.
Security forces announced Sunday that they were holding a former Iraqi general who they said helped finance insurgent bombings and plotted attacks. The general, Khamis Masin Farhan Ugaydi, 51, was captured Dec. 20 in the town of Baiji, about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the Associated Press reported. Officials did not explain the delay in announcing the arrest. "We are arresting more terrorists than ever before," said Iraqi National Guard Sgt. Kathem Hanish in Baghdad. "The people are coming to us with information. They are cooperating."
At the station where Amir had worked in the Yarmouk neighborhood of Baghdad, policemen said they were encouraged by the reaction to their colleague's heroism. "It was a turning point," Capt. Muthana Latif said. "People saw that there weren't any Americans or foreigners there. Only policemen. The suicide bomber was just after Iraqis."
"Policemen did not have a role in this country," police Col. Katham Abbas Hamza said. "Now we are considered number one guardians of the country."
Insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi security forces, branding them traitors for working with the Americans and propping up the U.S.-backed government. At least 1,300 have been killed in the last six months, according to U.S. officials.
On a board at the Yarmouk police station, the daily shift notices are penciled in next to a handwritten list of funerals: Patrolman Bilal Jassim, shot; Patrolman Mushtaq Talib, ambushed in patrol car; Patrolman Luay Ubaid, killed by roadside bomb. The list has now grown to nine names, including Amir's. "But if we opened up the recruiting right now, we would be swamped," Latif said.
In Baiji, Iraqi forces arrested 10 people in a raid on Sunday, without triggering an angry public reaction. "Even though he was taking my son away, he was so nice," an 80-year-old woman who identified herself as Um Younis said about a hooded Iraqi security officer.
"We were surprised because they had very good manners, so polite, and respected everybody," said Anwar Zuhair Khalaf, 38, whose 21-year-old brother was among those arrested. "They asked me, 'Where are the women's rooms?' and when we pointed at their rooms, they did not enter these rooms even though we have a AK-47 in one of these rooms."
This article starring:
KHAMIS MASIN FARHAN UGAIDI
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:57:08 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
very interesting.
and kudos to the WaPo for its close and subtle coverage.
Posted by: Mac Suirtain ||
02/07/2005 11:47
Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Where are the womenâs rooms?â and when we pointed at their rooms, they did not enter these rooms even though we have a AK-47 in one of these rooms."
LOL ! I'd gladly take that schmoe's AK-47 and thus lose his (temporary!) gratitude to us for showing good manners. A good trade, in my opinion.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
02/07/2005 12:11
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Funny thing - freedom. Too bad the Dems don't understand it. Maybe, because many of em don't actually believe in it (for us small fry anyway).
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/07/2005 12:29
Comments ||
Top||
#5
So much for the idea that Arabs don't "get" democracy, civil rights, etc.
#6
The WaPo is optimistic today and its been optimistic a few other times. In between the optimistic reports are pessimistic reports (yesterday's WaPo report was 'Islamism is baaaack').
The WaPo doesn't seem to realize that the 'feel' of the news is utterly dependant on which team is doing the report.
3 outlaws killed in gunfight
Three outlaws belonging to two rival extremists' organizations active in the region were killed in armed clashes over maintaining supremacy at Ataikula and Faridpur here Saturday night, police said. The dead were identified as Abdus Salam, 45, of Ataikula thana, Nazrul, 35, of Faridpur upazila and Naser alias Nashu, 30, of Chatmohar upazila of the district.
Police said a gunfight took place between members of the Sharks and the Jets two outlawed organizations at Hadal Kalikapur playground in Faridpur upazila. Being informed, police reached the spot but sensing their presence the extremists opened fire on them and they returned the fire.
Hummm, I do believe exactly the same thing happened last week. Guess this is the alternative to "crossfire".
During the gunfight, Nazrul and Naser sustained bullet injuries and died on way to Pabna General Hospital. Police said the two were accused in 11 cases, including murders. Eight policemen, including officer-in-charge of Faridpur thana Prajit Kumar, were also injured in the hour-long gunfight. Police recovered three local made guns, seven bullets, two empty bullets and four lethal weapons from the scene.
On the other hand, a team of police from Ataikula thana arrested Abdus Salam, a listed terrorist, from Lakshmipur village here last night. Following information extracted from him, police took him to Koijuri graveyard in the locality to retrieve illegal firearms and ammunition......
Dark, deserted graveyard, cops looking to recover hidden arms, cohorts lurking in the shadows, handcuffed suspect franticly looking for a way out..then a shot rang out!
but his accomplices opened fire on them. Police fired shots into Salam's back in self-defense. Salam was caught in the crossfire and died on way to Pabna General Hospital. Police said Salam was accused in nine cases, including six murder cases. Police recovered one shutter gun, 14 live and empty bullets and a sharp weapon from the place of occurrence.
Barisal Rab nabs three 'criminals'
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested alleged criminals Kalu Khan and Sobhan Khan from Nayakandi Loharpole area in the city on Friday and handed over them to police after primary interrogation. Barisal Kotwali police said there are four cases against Kalu and 13 including three murder cases against Sobhan.
Sobhan is a fourth class employee of Begum Tofazzal Hossain Manik Mia Mohila College. Police said they were involved with the notorious gang in the city, led earlier by Tera Shahjahan. Later Tera Shahjahan was killed by rivals.
In another haul, police nabbed Kawsar Ahmed from Islam Para area in Sagordi with six kilograms of hemp on Saturday from the house of drug lord Sultan. But Sultan escaped. During preliminary interrogation, Kawsar confessed that he was a resident of Kushtia district and supplied narcotics to Sultan-Shahjahan gang.
Two more JMJB men held
Police yesterday morning arrested two more operatives of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) in Bagmara upazila. Acting on information coughed up by a group of JMJB men arrested earlier, police nabbed Abu Zafar Sardar, 28, and Masud Hasan, 28, at their homes in Ramrama village. They were shown arrested in a case for an assault on police on January 24.
Police said they have squeezed out many important information from the JMJB Bagmara chief Abdus Sattar Master and 24 other JMJB men while they were on a nine-day remand and are now scrutinising and verifying those.
And when they say "squeezed out", they mean it.
But, Sources said, Mustafizur Rahman Mustaque, reportedly the second in command of the Islamist terrorist outfit, though was also remanded in police custody, is yet to disclose any information. They said it is so because police have not been interrogating Mustaque as per an order of a top police official. But Bagmara Police Station Officer in-Charge ABM Golam Kibria denied the allegation.
Meanwhile, Forman Ali, the leader of the 12 Islamist militants arrested in Natore, told police that a middle aged bearded man named Abdul Quaiyum used to be Natore regional leader of Jama'atul Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB). But Ali could not give any more details about Quaiyum and said he used to meet them only when he thought it to be necessary.
Ah yes, a mysterious bearded man in the shadows. Tell me, was he wearing a turban and speaking with a saudi accent?
"Our party (JMB) is active in almost all areas in Natore and we do nothing but study the holy Qur'an and Hadith and call people to jihad follow us," a police official quoted Ali as saying. Ali also told police that they hate NGOs, as "they are spoiling our women and plotting to control our country. We should all resist them."
"Them furriners come sniffing after out wimmen folk, plotting to steal our...., er, stuff. We must kill em all!"
Posted by: Steve ||
02/07/2005
12:38:19 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You'r late today. Usually we have this treat just after breakfast. ;) (That's supposed to be a wink with a smile, but I'm not sure I got it right)
An international terror suspect who has been held under house arrest for more than nine months will today be accused of breaching his bail conditions.
A special tribunal will decide whether the Algerian, known only as G, should be returned to Belmarsh prison.
G is the only man held under the government's controversial anti-terror powers to so far be subjected to house arrest instead of jail.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) hearing could prove embarrassing for Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
House arrest is a crucial part of his proposed new system of "control orders" to deal with foreign and British terror suspects.
G is not allowed to meet anybody apart from his family, lawyers or doctors and is forbidden from using the telephone or a computer to prevent him associating with terrorists.
A hearing was told last week that two men visited his home without permission despite the property being under 24-hour surveillance.
Last July, Siac concluded that even though on bail G was still a threat to national security and that the bail conditions were "essential".
A Home Office spokesman said: "It is down to the court to consider the case. However, it could lead to the detainee's return to detention. We believe it shows that breaches of bail will be dealt with appropriately."
The 35-year-old, who is partially paralysed due to childhood polio, was let out of jail last April after his lawyers persuaded Siac that his mental health was being damaged by his imprisonment.
Last Monday, Siac approved the release of another detainee, Abu Rideh, because of mental health fears. His bail conditions are yet to be agreed. The following day, the Home Secretary ordered the release of another detainee, known as C, but refused to explain the reasons behind his decision.
G was born in Djelfa in central Algeria in March 1969. In a previous statement to Siac, he said he developed polio at the age of two which left him with a permanently weak and paralysed right leg so that he limps and has to wear a support.
He arrived in the UK in August 1995 and claimed asylum a claim which was rejected in September 1997. An appeal was dismissed in 1999. He married a French national, with whom he had a daughter in 2000. The couple applied for a residence permit in November 2000 because G's wife is an European national, and they were eventually granted a six month permit from June 2001.
G was certified as an international terrorist by former Home Secretary David Blunkett on December 19, 2001, and detained. The certificate said G was a member of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), a banned organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, which has links to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
It also said his activities on behalf of the group and of extremist fighters in Chechnya included sponsoring young Muslims in the United Kingdom to go to Afghanistan to train for jihad. Siac concluded in October 2003: "The closed material confirms our view that there is indeed reasonable suspicion that (G) is an international terrorist ... and reasonable belief that his presence in the United Kingdom is a risk to national security. "We have no doubt that he has been involved in the production of false documentation, has facilitated young Muslims to travel to Afghanistan to train for jihad and has actively assisted terrorists who have links with al Qaida. We are satisfied too that he has actively assisted the GSPC."
Siac allowed G to be released on bail on April 22, 2004, on strict conditions. But the panel said in July last year: "In granting bail, the commission did not revise its view as to the strength of the grounds for believing that he was an international terrorist and a threat to national security. The threat could be managed proportionately in his case in view of his severe mental illness. There might be circumstances in which he breaches the terms of his bail or for other reasons it was necessary to revoke it.
"A number of his contacts remain at large including some who are regarded as actively involved in terrorist planning. There is nothing to suggest that his mental illness has diminished his commitment to the extremist Islamic cause; he has the experience and capacity to involve himself once more in extremist activity. The bail restraints on him are essential."
This article starring:
ABU RIDEH
Salafist Group for Call and Combat
Salafist Group for Call and Combat
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:31:35 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Officials said the man, known only as "G", broke bail conditions by having two unauthorised visitors to his home. But Mr Justice Collins ruled that Charles Clarke had not proved "to the necessary standard" that there had been a breach.
Just the neighbours popping round for a welcoming sherry?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/07/2005 9:22
Comments ||
Top||
An alleged Abu Sayyaf leader reportedly slipped from the assault of a marine and navy unit but was believed to be wounded during an encounter in an island near Zamboanga City, reports said Sunday.
Ustadz Abdulwahid Ibrahim escaped, but two of his wounded followers were captured during the Saturday dawn operation in Sacol Island, Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said.
Braganza said the two have been given medical treatment while under security.
The marine and navy unit under the Special Warfare Group was approaching the temporary camp of the Abu Sayyaf when they were fired upon. A 15-minute gunfight followed.
This article starring:
USTADZ ABDULWAHID IBRAHIM
Abu Sayyaf
Abu Sayyaf
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:29:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Rebels in Chechnya have not attacked federal forces in the three days since the rebels' fugitive leader ordered a cease-fire, a source in the republic's pro-Moscow police said Sunday. An end to near-daily rebel attacks would come as an unwelcome surprise to Russian politicians who rebuff foreign suggestions of peace talks by saying separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov is a spent force without control over the rebel ranks. Maskhadov's order for a monthlong cease-fire, which he said was a sign of his willingness to enter peace talks, was published on rebel web sites late Wednesday.
Russian politicians immediately dismissed the order as meaningless, even though it was the first peace bid for years to be backed by radical warlord Shamil Basayev, but the Chechen police source said it was being obeyed. "In the last three days, there have been no attacks from the fighters," the source said. The military command in the North Caucasus backed up his comments, although without specifics.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:26:47 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Not long ago, Abdul Qadeer Khan used to walk into a wooded park across the street from his mansion in Pakistan's capital city and feed the monkeys who lived there. That was when he was a national hero and a multimillionaire, owner of a fleet of vintage cars and properties from Dubai to Timbuktu. But Khan, 68, no longer crosses the street to feed the monkeys. These days he is almost never seen outside. His house, which lies just over a grassy hillside from Islamabad's King Faisal Mosque, is modern, squat and dark, its facade concealed behind a vine-covered wall. To the casual observer, the house provides just one clue to its owner's sinister profession. At the end of his driveway sits a large jasmine bush, trimmed into an odd but unmistakable shape: that of a mushroom cloud.
When President George W. Bush identified the main threats to global security in his State of the Union address last week, the name A.Q. Khan was not on the list. In some respects, that's not surprising. Khan is under house arrest, his every move monitored by Pakistani government agents. He is said to be in failing health, and will probably live out his days a recluse. And yet one year after Khan appeared on Pakistani television and confessed to selling some of that country's most prized secrets, the world is only beginning to uncover the extent of his treachery--and comprehend how one man did more to destabilize the planet than did many of the world's worst regimes.
For more than a decade, Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, masterminded a vast, clandestine and hugely profitable enterprise whose mission boiled down to this: selling to a rogues' gallery of nations the technology and equipment to make nuclear weapons. Among Khan's customers were Iran and North Korea--two countries identified by Bush as members of the "axis of evil," whose nuclear ambitions present the U.S. with two of its biggest foreign policy quandaries. At a moment when the international community is focused on a potential showdown with Iran, a TIME investigation has revealed that Khan's network played a bigger role in helping Tehran and Pyongyang than had been previously disclosed. U.S. intelligence officials believe Khan sold North Korea much of the material needed to build a bomb, including high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium and the equipment required to manufacture more of them. Officials are worried--but have not yet seen proof--that Khan gave those countries rudimentary but effective designs for nuclear warheads. Officials in Washington and at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna say they suspect that Iran may have bought the same set of goods--centrifuges and possibly weapons designs--from Khan in the mid-1990s. Although the IAEA says so far it has not found definitive proof that Iran has a weapons program, its investigators told TIME that Tehran has privately confirmed at least 13 meetings from 1994 to 1999 with representatives of Khan's network.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:25:15 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"But Pakistani sources close to Khan say Musharraf backed away from arresting the scientist out of fear that Khan would finger senior members of the Pakistani military and security services as having been complicit in nuclear trafficking. "Everyone got a cut," says a Khan acquaintance, referring to high-ranking military officers connected with the nuclear program."
And is a president/general a senior member of the Pakistani military services? Perhaps there isn't "room at the top," just an opening for a new salesman.
Posted by: James ||
02/07/2005 1:44
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Exactly James. As I've always said, Khan was selling at the behest of the ISI and Pak army - he was just feeding the monkeys.
#3
At a time of high tensions with India over the disputed region of Kashmir, the event turned Khan into a national hero.
Khan equipped Pakistan with nuclear weapons, which came very close to making Pakistan a nuclear wasteland during periods of tension with India. Some hero.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 10:44
Comments ||
Top||
#4
made mass martyrdom possible, AP
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 10:58
Comments ||
Top||
VANCOUVER, British Columbia Christopher Key knows exactly what he would be giving up if he left Bellingham, Washington. "It's the sort of place Norman Rockwell would paint, where everyone watches out for everyone else and we have block parties every year," said Key, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran and former magazine editor who lists Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner," among his ancestors.
But leave it he intends to do, and as soon as he can. His house is on the market, and he is busily seeking work across the border in Canada. For him, the re-election of George W. Bush was the last straw. "I love the United States," he said as he stood on the Vancouver waterfront, staring toward the Coastal Range, which was lost in a gray shroud. "I fought for it in Vietnam. It's a wrenching decision to think about leaving. But America is turning into a country very different from the one I grew up believing in."
In the Niagara of liberal angst just after Bush's victory on Nov. 2, the Canadian government's immigration Web site reported a surge in inquiries from the United States, to about 115,000 a day from 20,000.
After three months, memories of the election have begun to recede. There has been an inauguration, even a State of the Union address. Yet immigration lawyers say that Americans are not just making inquiries and that more are pursuing a move above the 49th parallel, fed up with a country they see drifting persistently to the right and abandoning the principles of tolerance, compassion and peaceful idealism they felt once defined the nation.
Nope, nope, no New York Times slant there, nope.
America is in no danger of emptying out. But even a small loss of population, many from a deep sense of political despair, is a significant event in the life of a nation that thinks of itself as a place to escape to. Firm numbers on potential immigrants are elusive.
So it may not be a small loss after all, and less of a loss if they do leave.
"The number of U.S. citizens who are actually submitting Canadian immigration papers and making concrete plans is about three or four times higher than normal," said Linda Mark, an immigration lawyer in Vancouver.
Other immigration lawyers in Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, Nova Scotia, said they had noticed a similar uptick, though most put the rise at closer to threefold. "We're still not talking about a huge movement of people," said David Cohen, an immigration lawyer in Montreal. "In 2003, the last year where full statistics are available, there were something like 6,000 U.S. citizens who received permanent resident status in Canada. So even if we do go up threefold this year, we're only talking about 18,000 people."
Still, that is more than double the population of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "For every one who reacts to the Bush victory by moving to a new country, how many others are there still in America, feeling similarly disaffected but not quite willing to take such a drastic step?" Cohen asked.
More importantly, who the fuck cares? If Kerry had won, I'd be rather disaffected, but the NYT sure as hell wouldn't be writing a sympathetic article about me.
Melanie Redman, 30, assistant director of the Epilepsy Foundation in Seattle, said she had put her Volvo up for sale and hopes to be living in Toronto by the summer. She and her Canadian boyfriend, a Web site designer for Canadian nonprofit companies, had been planning to move to New York, but after Nov.2, they decided on Canada instead. "I'm doing it," she said. "I don't want to participate in what this administration is doing here and around the world. Under Bush, the U.S. seems to be leading the pack as the world spirals down."
See ya Melanie, and don't bothe coming back.
Redman intends to apply for a conjugal visa, which can be easier to get than the skilled worker visa that most Americans require. To do so, she must prove she and her boyfriend have had a relationship for at least a year, so she has collected supporting paperwork, like love letters, to present to the Canadian government. "I'm originally from a poor, lead-mining town in Missouri, and I know a lot of the people there don't understand why I'm doing this," she said. "Even my family is pretty disappointed. And the fact is, it makes me pretty sad, too. But I just can't bear to pay taxes in the United States right now."
Compared with the other potential immigrants interviewed, Redman was far along in planning. Mike Aves, 40, a financial planner in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been active in the Young Democrats, said he was finding it almost impossible from that distance to land a job in Canada. "I've told my wife, I'd be willing to take a step down, socioeconomically, to move from white-collar work to a blue-collar job, if it would get us to Canada," he said.
Many of those interviewed said the idea of moving to Canada had been simmering in the backs of their minds for years, partly as a reaction to what they saw as a rightward drift in the United States and partly as a desire to live in a place they see as more tolerant, pacific and, yes, liberal. But for all, the re-election of Bush was decisive. "Not everybody is prepared to live their political values, but these are people who are," said Jason Mogus, an Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver whose communicopia.net offers marketing services for progressive companies and nonprofit groups, and whose canadianalternative.com is often the first stop for Americans eager to learn about moving north.
"Immigration to Canada is not like packing your family in a car and moving across the state line," Mogus said. "It's a long process. It can take 18 months or even longer sometimes. And if you hire a lawyer to help you, it can cost thousands of dollars."
So Mogus said the response to the Web site, from all over the United States, had amazed him. Some are drawn by Canada's more tolerant attitude toward same-sex unions, he said, and there are a surprising number of middle-aged professionals. "My wife and I have talked for a long time about perhaps retiring to a condo in downtown Vancouver," said Frederick Newmeyer, 61, a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle. "But the election was the tipping point."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005
12:24:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Repost - this was here a while back.
1) His "War veteran" status is in question
2) His ancestry is in question likewise.
But the main thing is for all these people:
Who cares?
If they are such moral cowards as to cut and run when things don't go their way, and so lazy that they will not put forth the effort to workand change things, then we not only don't need that type, we dont WANT that type.
Let Canada have these complacent cowardly lazy losers.
#2
This will amount to .00000001% of the population. Most of them will return when they find out they will work much harder for much less in Canada. What ever skills they take with them will be quickly replaced. For those that take this route good luck. The US gains population from Canada every year at a much higher rate. I for one will not miss you.
#3
Yeah, compassionate Canada, where the Premier of British Columbia (equivalent to State Governor) laughed during his mugshot snapping, after being arrested for DUI in Hawaii.
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n05ja04a.htm
And where 6 blue pigs (AKA: cops) were convicted for taking 3 street persons to a secluded park and beating them to a pulp, with batons.
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2004/00/p04_0001.htm
I would rather live in Alabama, circa 1961, as a negro.
#5
Maybe we start a charity like Save the Moonbats where we can sponsor them to move to foreign countries. For only 39¢ a day, you too can sponsor an Ethnic Studies professor in Botswana.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 8:48
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Seems like ol' Melanie was busy eating the dirt in her "poor lead-mining town in Missouri". Wait till she gets her Canadian tax bill.
#8
talk's cheap. Interviews should be held only after they actually move (if ever)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 9:48
Comments ||
Top||
#9
"The number of U.S. citizens who are actually submitting Canadian immigration papers and making concrete plans is about three or four times higher than normal," said Linda Mark, an immigration lawyer in Vancouver.
#10
Mojo, it's over a 3-1 exchange in favor of the U.S. Seems more of our Northern cousins would rather live in this "hellhole of a nation" than Americans that like the idea of heading north.
#12
You know, I feel a duty as a conservative to display more principle than what the left does, and so normally I wouldn't want to celebrate this kind of thing, but I'd love to wave these guys off. They hate this country that much, then they can go. No one's keeping them here. And at least they're going somewhere else instead of continuing to make life difficult for the rest of us.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/07/2005 11:40
Comments ||
Top||
#13
These people bore me. Good bye, good luck. Please turn out the lights and leave your passport on the dresser when you leave.
#14
Be nice to Canada, they may become part of the US someday.
I imagine the homoginization of the EU will cause many French and English to emmigrate and I'm not sure fragile Canada has a chance. If Canada splits I think it's likely that some provinces will join up with the US. I'd be happy to have them even if that shifted our political spectrum leftwards.
#15
I think Jarhead hits the nail on the head with the passport issue. Do these folks intend to have dual US/Canadian citizenship, so that they can come back when they have a tough time in Canda or if the US political scene becomes more to their liking (e.g., the emergence of the Communist Party as a major factor in US politics)? Or do they really intend to stand by their principles?
In either event, buh-bye at least for now. Mind the door.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 14:35
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Not only the passport, are they going full bore and paying the highre tax rate the Canadian are obliged. I also believe there is way too much ink and bandwidth wasted on these sore losers. Face it they don't have the American spirit! Americans learn to adapt and overcome setbacks, not run and hide. "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pear Harbor?" (From Animal House) Enjoy Canada losers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/07/2005 16:21
Comments ||
Top||
#19
Wait till she gets her Canadian tax bill.
Doubt it. With dual citizenships (or permanent resident status), they will opt to pay the lower US taxes instead...and probably stay in touch with their doctor in the US, y'know, just in case they have to wait a year for a medical procedure.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/07/2005 18:07
Comments ||
Top||
#20
Be nice to Canada, they may become part of the US someday.
I can probably live with that.
Mexico, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter....
#22
Hey, it's a big country. At any given time you'll find a few people considering moving to Canada. Some of them might even be feeling alienated because of their political views. Who cares?
#24
The Yukon will round out the shape of Alaska. Only trouble we will have to deal with the moonbat bureaucrats that that moved to Whitehorse from the Soouth....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 23:52
Comments ||
Top||
If they are such moral cowards as to cut and run when things don't go their way, and so lazy that they will not put forth the effort to workand change things, then we not only don't need that type, we dont WANT that type.
Let Canada have these complacent cowardly lazy losers.
If they are such moral cowards as to cut and run when things don't go their way, and so lazy that they will not put forth the effort to workand change things, then we not only don't need that type, we dont WANT that type.
Let Canada have these complacent cowardly lazy losers.
A budding romance between a Jordanian man and woman turned into an ugly public divorce when the couple found out that they were in fact man and wife, state media reported yesterday.
Dang, I hate when that happens.
Didn't Richard Strauss write an opera about this?
Separated for several months, boredom and chance briefly re-united Bakr Melhem and his wife Sanaa in an Internet chat room, the official Petra news agency said. Bakr, who passed himself off as Adnan, fell head over heels for Sanaa, who signed off as Jamila (beautiful) and described herself as a cultured, unmarried woman - a devout Muslim whose hobby was reading long walks in the woods, Italian cooking and bodacious sex, Petra said. Cyber love blossomed between the pair for three months and soon they were making wedding plans. To pledge their troth in person, they agreed to meet in the flesh near a bus depot in the town of Zarqa, northeast of Amman.
Yup, just where I'd meet my beloved, a bus depot.
... in Zarqawiburg.
The shock of finding out their true identities was too much for the pair. Upon seeing Sanaa-alias-Jamila, Bakr-alias-Adnan turned white and screamed at the top of his lungs: "You are divorced, divorced, divorced" - the traditional manner of officially ending a marriage in Islam.
Which means, now they can get married!
"You are a liar," Sanaa retorted before fainting, the agency said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005
12:20:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is the way the Pina Colada song ends in an Islamic country.
#5
Ah, yes. The Pina Colada song. So, they were cheating on each other....with each other.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/07/2005 12:03
Comments ||
Top||
#6
This has got to be a good urban legend in the making.
No self respecting muslim girl would be caught dead on the internet. And if she was on the internet her brother would kill her shortly thereafter for defaming the family honor (ie: knowing more than he does).
Posted by: Michael ||
02/07/2005 17:33
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Michael-True, they are hypocrites that way--premarital sex is only for unmarried men (but then, who are THEY having sex with)?
I could just imagine this nutcase saying he was going to bring her home to introduce her to the old bag as his new second wife. That would have been fun.
MANAMA: Plans to build a railroad linking the Arabian Gulf to the Red Sea were revealed at a Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) investors briefing yesterday. The Landbridge rail project aims to link Saudi Arabia's three largest ports, from Jeddah Islamic Port in the west through Riyadh's Dry Port and reaching Dammam's King Abdul Aziz Port in the east.
The project involves the construction of a new 950km railway line between Riyadh and Jeddah; another 115km line between Jubail and Dammam; the upgrade of existing lines between Riyadh and Dammam; and integrating new lines with Jeddah Islamic Port, King Abdul Aziz Port and Dammam and Riyadh Dry Ports.
Project financing is expected to comprise investor equity and loans from the Saudi Arabian and international bank markets. The land required for the projects will be provided by Saudi Arabia. UBS Investment Bank, Saudi's National Commercial Bank (NCB) and SNCF International of France are providing financial and technical advisory services for the project.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005
12:16:29 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When he pulled up that Dry Port hill,
He whistled for the camels with an awful shrill;
The gunnies knew by the engine's moan
That the man at the throttle was abu Jones.
He looked at his water and his water was low;
Insallah!
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow;
sotto: My Iman gimme this watch,
He turned to his fireman and this is what he said,
"Infidel, we're going to reach Diammam, but we'll all be dead."
Posted by: 668 Next Door Neighbor of the Beast ||
02/07/2005 10:04
Comments ||
Top||
Among U.S. counterterrorism officials, it is the ultimate nightmare scenario: al-Qaeda detonating a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city. Osama bin Laden says it is a religious duty to obtain a bomb, and most experts believe that if al-Qaeda were to succeed, the group wouldn't hesitate to use it. Though building even a crude nuclear weapon is time consuming, the wide availability of raw material and scientific expertise means that it is plausible for terrorists someday to get their hands on one. "The simplest nuclear bomb," says Ivan Oelrich, director of the security project at the Federation of American Scientists, "is very simple indeed."
The biggest hurdle is getting the material that causes the nuclear explosion. For a basic nuclear weapon, terrorists would need about 100 lbs. of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium (HEU).
Fortunately, manufacturing HEU is extremely difficult. Refining it requires vast industrial facilities, top-flight engineers and the kinds of resources available to a government but not to rogue terrorist groups. Unfortunately, many states have already done the hard work, creating 1,800 tons of HEU that is housed at research facilities, weapons depots and other storage sites in as many as 24 countries, according to William Potter, director of nonproliferation studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Of greatest concern is the more than 300 tons of HEU in the former Soviet Union. Some of the material may have already gone missing: since 1991, there have been seven attempted thefts reported of small amounts of bomb-grade material and more than 700 reported thefts of unrefined nuclear material. In Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 1998, Russian intelligence uncovered a plot by employees at a nuclear facility in the region to smuggle out 40 lbs. of HEU for sale on the black market.
With sufficient fissile material in hand, a trained engineer could build a crude device without too much difficulty. The most basic design is that of the Hiroshima bomb, which fired two pieces of HEU at each other from opposite ends of an artillery tube. The bomb could be assembled at a basic machine shop and would fit in the back of a truck. If smuggled into the U.S. and detonated in a major metropolitan area, such a weapon could kill hundreds of thousands.
Not everyone believes the danger is imminent. Last August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov dismissed concerns about the security of Russian HEU as "just a myth." However big the threat, critics say President Bush has yet to tackle it head-on.
"The Bush Administration has failed to declare war on nuclear terrorism," says nuclear expert Graham Allison, a former Clinton official. The Bush Administration is expected to earmark about $400 million this year for securing nuclear material in the former Soviet Union. Over the past two and a half years, international teams of nuclear experts have retrieved more than 230 lbs. of bomb-grade uranium from such countries as Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Romania, Libya and the Czech Republic. But at its current pace, Allison charges, the effort to secure all Russian nuclear weapons and fissile material will not be complete until 2020. Critics of the Administration say the U.S. should pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to get more aggressive about securing nuclear material in his country. "We're in a race between cooperation and catastrophe," says former Senator Sam Nunn, who helped create the 13-year-old U.S.-Russian program to destroy Russia's surplus HEU before it falls into the wrong hands.
The world may not have much time. In the months before Sept. 11, bin Laden and associates met in Afghanistan with a Pakistani nuclear scientist, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmoud. At one meeting, according to an account made public by the White House, a bin Laden associate indicated he had nuclear material and wanted to know how to use it to make a weapon. Mahmoud provided information about nuclear-weapons programs, the White House said. In an interview with the Associated Press, Mahmoud's son said his father had rebuffed bin Laden. The bad news is that he is surely still trying.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:12:07 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The Bush Administration has failed to declare war on nuclear terrorism," says nuclear expert Graham Allison, a former Clinton official.
Yeah, sure Graham. When Slick Willie was on the job our nation sure was safe. Uh-huh.
Two Egyptian men suspected of involvement in bombing three Red Sea resorts last year were killed yesterday after five days of gun battles with police in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, security sources said. Police have fought since Tuesday with Bedouin, who were believed to be hiding several bomb suspects, in the Ras Sudr area of central Sinai, 150 km east of Cairo.
The sources said two suspects, Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel and Hammad Gumaa, were killed after several hours of shooting yesterday. Investigators found bullet casings, automatic weapons and hand grenades in the area, they said. The Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the report. The ministry previously said another bomb suspect, Mohamed Abdel Rahman Badawi, also Egyptian, was killed on Tuesday in an earlier gun battle with police in the same region of the Sinai Peninsula.
Security sources said that four policemen were wounded in clashes on Friday. They said one died of his wounds overnight. Two other suspected bombers were killed in the Taba attack when their bomb went off early. Egypt has said they were not part of a wider network or linked to Al-Qaeda. Police said in October they had arrested five Sinai Bedouin as accomplices in the bombings. Most of them were from the north coast town of El Arish, near the Israeli border.
Human rights groups have said the authorities detained up to 2,500 people for questioning after the bombings, subjecting many to torture. Egyptian officials deny the torture. Security sources said the authorities had freed 90 Sinai residents, but they did not say how many remained in custody.
This article starring:
HAMAD GUMAA
Tawhid wal Jihad
MOHAMED ABDEL RAHMAN BADAWI
Tawhid wal Jihad
MOHAMED AHMED SALEH FULAIFEL
Tawhid wal Jihad
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005
12:10:45 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Five days of gun battles?!? How much in the way of weaponry have these people been hiding in the desert?
#2
doubt its a continuing gun battle. I would guess skirmishes and escapes - even aside from the Arab difficulties "surrounding" people, thats some pretty wild terrain.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005
12:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The problem with making "Bush Is Wrong" the sole plank of your party platform is that it leaves you ill-equipped to deal with those occasions on which Bush turns out to have been incontrovertibly, demonstrably right. I could imagine Nancy Pelosi's thought process about the Iraqi elections going something like this:
"We're really gonna slam Bush when the elections turn out to be a bloody mess and none of the Iraqis turn out to vote because they're terrified. The guys at the NYT have already shown me the articles. OK, let's get some popcorn and turn on CNN. First reports of light turnout, good, good. Oh shit! Oh shit!They're coming out. They're walking miles and carrying their crippled relatives to vote. They're bringing their kids with them. Where's Zarqawi when you need him, damn it! What's with this blue finger thing? Quick, run a focus group on the blue fingers! Whaddya mean, all the members of the focus group are up on their feet cheering? Don't they know that Bush is wrong?...."
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 15:35
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Man, it really is like watching a prizefighter punch himself in the face, over and over and over again...
#3
This is one of a number of articles lately that really are making a point about the "message" of the Democratic Party. Just what is that message? The monied energy and the true believers of the party are hopelessly mired in the politics of the last century and the world view of the century before last. The party has morphed into a party of extreme leftist intellectuals who still see themselves in their old role as subverters of American efforts in the Cold War. The bulk of the rank and file Democratic voters are certain minority groups, victim groups like the feminists & the homosexuals, atheistic zealots, unions, and a few knee-jerk old-time liberals. The party is hopelessly extreme, and they know it. That is why they must try to fool voters to get their votes and that explains why they try to assume a different identity when it is time for the Democratic National Convention - and presto - you have Kerry saluting, reporting for duty and rambling about hunting down the terorists like dogs and killing them. In truth, they have no ideas. They are modern day reactionaries - "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good ole days."
This country needs two strong parties. It needs a competition of ideas. But it is time for new ideas, and one of the parties wouldn't know a new idea hit them in their collective noses.
Does that sound like a call for the Pelosis, Kennedys, Kerrys, and Deans to step forward? I don't think so.
Posted by: Sam ||
02/07/2005 17:27
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"They are modern day reactionaries - "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good ole days."
And then FDR said we have nuttin to fear but fear itself. And then he set up the WPA, the CCC, the Tennesssee Valley Authority, and Social Security. And then LBJ came along, and we had the War on Poverty, and there was welfare, Head Start, more welfare, and 70% tax rates. And then Nixon won, but we had the Congress, and we had free sex, drug orgies, protesters, and demonstrations, and campus riots, and we won - er - I mean the communists won the Vietnam War, and we put the military and the CIA zealots in place. And then Carter noticed a malaise in the people, and this actor became president, and it has mostly been down hill since.
#5
The problem for the dems is that they really have nothing that they really stand for. They are for everything that Bush is against. How can you capture the imaginations of voters and especially young people with these incessant rants and monologues from tired old leftists. A great person has the ability to step outside oneself and look back at what he is doing and where he is going. Lincoln comes to mind. There is nobody in the dem party that has the ability to do it. Nobody with the ability and charisma to lead. They're like the Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 22:47
Comments ||
Top||
WASHINGTON (AP) - Dick Cheney says he won't be running for anything after finishing his term as vice president, except maybe to the river with his grandchildren. ``I've got my plans laid out,'' Cheney said Sunday. ``I'm going to serve this president for the next four years and then I'm out of here.''
Cheney said he made it clear when he became George W. Bush's running mate that he would never run for president and nothing could change his mind. Cheney tried to put the question to rest in the starkest terms possible. ``Not only no, but hell no,'' Cheney told ``Fox News Sunday.'' He quoted Civil War Gen. William Sherman, who answered similar queries in 1884 by saying, ``If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.''
``By 2009, I'll be 68 years old,'' Cheney said. ``And I've still got a lot of rivers I'd like to fish and time I'd like to spend with my grandkids, and so this is my last tour.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005
12:03:55 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
oooh I can see the dem's going into overdrive now trying to nail down who's going to be the repub nominee for 08 and trying to start a smear campaign early.
I think a just-lit light bulb would be a good pic for this story.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A powerful Saudi charity under scrutiny for alleged terrorist financing is expanding operations in tsunami-ravaged areas of Indonesia, importing a hard-line religious message that the West fears could spread extremist Islam in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The presence of the International Islamic Relief Organization could complicate relief efforts in Indonesia, which is desperate for help but also under pressure to contain Islamic militants after suffering attacks blamed on militants in the past three years that killed more than 200 people.
It also offers a high-profile test of Saudi promises to closely monitor its major aid societies. Many have faced probes as possible back channels for Islamic terrorist groups and vanguards for the kingdom's strict interpretation of Sunni Islam called Wahhabism. The terrorism money trail is a central topic at an international counterterrorism conference wrapping up on Tuesday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Delegates from more than 50 nations are expected, including the United States, Iran, many Arab nations and Indonesia.
The International Islamic Relief Organization, or IIRO - one of Saudi Arabia's biggest benevolent groups - has been cleared of any possible terror links by Saudi investigators are still studying possible IIRO connections to the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah - blamed for the Bali nightclub blasts in 2002 that killed 202 people and the bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 that killed 12 people.
Comras urged careful oversight to ensure tsunami aid doesn't drift into radical hands. "I'm sure their motivations are to help guns, ammo and explosives," he said of the IIRO relief work in Indonesia. "But their fundamental purpose is to spread this version of Islam and one of the unintended consequences is the growth and spread of terrorism."
An envoy for the IIRO rejected any terrorist links. He described the main work in the tsunami zone as purely humanitarian: providing food, caring for orphans and rebuilding mosques - drawing parallels with other faith-based aid groups such as Christian groups.
"Of course, those guys we have to kill, but otherwise we act just like them!"
The group said there was no plans to bring in Islamic clerics from Saudi Arabia, but didn't rule out offering religious assistance in the future. "At this time, they need relief not religion," Fahd Al Harbi told AP as he waited for the arrival of a top delegation from the Saudi Red Crescent Society in Banda Aceh, a hub for international aid groups. "In the future, if they need (religious-related help) we will provide it."
"And if they don't, we'll still provide it."
Al Harbi also insisted terrorism was deplored by the IIRO, which has been active in Indonesia since 1993 and spends about US$1 million a year. "(Critics) always accuse us of being a terrorist organization. But there is no evidence of this," Al Harbi said. "They will not find anything. We've never given money for anything but orphanages and for mosques."
And for what's inside the mosques.
At least one other Saudi-based charity, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, is active in Indonesia's devastated Ache province. The group has been accused by Israel of alleged financial links to Hamas. US Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called for a similar probe of the assembly's US branch, which was once run by bin Laden's nephew Abdullah. The group denies any support for terrorist groups.
Cheez, is there any major Muslim 'charity' that hasn't been linked to terror?
Terrorism probes around the world have increasingly examined the possible interplay between militant cells and Muslim charities. In New York, prosecutors suggested an Islamic charity was used as a conduit for money and logistics for the twin 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which claimed 224 lives. Four men were convicted in May 2001 for roles in the attack and given life sentences.
US-based investigators temporarily froze assets of dozens of Muslim charity groups following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A US$1 trillion (Ã777 billion) lawsuit filed by relatives of the Sept. 11 victims listed several charities among the defendants, including the Muslim World League and the IIRO Saudi organization. Both groups denied any links to the plotters.
"Lies! All lies!"
US authorities have been cautious to avoid stepping too hard on Saudi Arabia, one of the key allies in the region. Instead, Saudi leaders have been allowed to announce their own reforms - including tighter controls on benevolent groups and statements against Islamic extremists.
But there's much less sway on curbing Saudi promotion of Wahhabism - named after an 18th century scholar, Muhammad ibn Abdel-Wahhab, who encouraged a return to a "purified" form of the faith based on its original principles. Radical Muslims have reinterpreted Wahhabism to justify hard-line beliefs and violence against perceived enemies of Islam. With Wahhabi Islam "you're basically teaching theology that is very close to jihad theology," said former U.N. investigator Comras. "There is a line that has been crossed and many have crossed that line."
This article starring:
FAHD AL HARBI
International Islamic Relief Organization
International Islamic Relief Organization
Jemaah Islamiyah
Muslim World League
World Assembly of Muslim Youth
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005
12:00:25 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think a just-lit light bulb would be a good pic for this story.
How about a baseball player swinging for the fence with the word "CLUE" burned into the front of the bat?
... The partial results, from some polling centers in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, showed that the Shi'ite alliance had around 2.3 million votes, with the Kurds winning around 1.1 million and a bloc led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on around 620,000. ...
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005
11:56:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Heh.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 13:10
Comments ||
Top||
Kurds are List #130
Sistani Shi'ite List is #169
PM Allawi List is #285
Assyrian Christians are #204
Commies are #324
and the Constitutional Monarchists are #133
#6
I forget who he's spying for this week? DOD, Iran, Kurds, ?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 14:15
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Hard to say, but you'd better keep one hand on your wallet when you're around him.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 14:17
Comments ||
Top||
#8
So, was the trashing him (Chalabi} a ruse, or was it real? Fred... You know we could place bets on this one... Better point spread than the superbowl!!! {SNICKER}
#10
Chalabi has a reputation for financial trickery and, its true that in Iraq a lot of people give him the nicknam 'the thief'
however,
1. Chalabi's financial reputation is based largely on his conviction of fraud by a Jordanian court. We don't know if the conviction is for a real crime or for just doing business as normal in Jordanian prior to Saddam paying the Jordanians to convict him (this latter is Chalabi's story)
2. In Iraq, being called a thief is not all bad -- some people use it as a term of endearment see this site for the story of the maid and the thief
http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/5242/120.html
#11
i dont think hes got a real chance of becoming PM - Finance minister Mehdi, Dawa leader Jafari, and Sistanis pal Sharistani are all angling for that spot. Might get into the cabinet though.
#12
WHO GIVE A SHIITE ABBOUT IRAK POLITX SCCREEEEEW YOU BASTARD INDIANNNNS OR RUSSKY JEWS. GO BACK TO YOUR MASTURBATE YOUR COUSIN PASTORAL LANDS .........................IF YOU ARE NOT IN USA ARMY YOUR C0MMENTS ARE IRRELEVANT
Sorry, Slovo, but points have to be deducted for:
1) being unable to unlock the caps key
2) using the spelling "Irak"
3) being unclear as to what you mean by "Indians"...the Native Americans, or inhabitants of the subcontinent
4) what the hell is a "cousin pastoral land", anyway?
5) repeated use of the word "Jew" in a slur
6) inability to spell the word "wheelchair"
Now, realizing that Slovo may be from a particularily illiterate part of Greater Serbia, I am impressed that he managed to spell "masturbate" correctly. I'm sure it's a word very important to him.
WE WILL MAKE YOU CUT YOUR HAIR, FIND A NICE GIRL, BUY A CAR AND THEN A HOUSE, SETTLE DOWN, RAISE A CHILD OR TWO, AND PLAN A RETIREMENT WITH MERRIL LYNCH.
COMMENTS ARE IRRELEVENT. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED...
You can thank Robert Rubin, Clinton's overrated Treasury Secretary, for this - his indifference to Soros's machinations in the currency markets led to Suharto's collapse. Now we have Islamism rearing its ugly head in Indonesia.
Was that his first billion or his second? I can never remember ...
Adulterers, cohabiting unmarried couples and those who kiss in public could all become criminals if a new Indonesian criminal code is approved.
A long awaited draft revision of the Indonesian criminal code proposes harsh fines and prison terms for those who flout the rules. Many say the existing code inherited from Dutch rule is liberal flawed and Western outdated, but some activists are deeply unhappy with the new proposals.
Under the proposed draft, offenders caught kissing in the open could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined as much as 300 million rupiah (A$42,590), reports the Jakarta Post. Unmarried couples living together could be penalised with up to two years in jail. It would also give police and officials the power to raid houses of all those they suspected of living together.
Justice ministry official Abdul Gani Abdullah said the law would only apply if others complained. "Kissing in public is a crime if the people around are not happy and lodge a complaint. But if they think it's all right, then no action will be taken," he told the AFP news agency. "The same goes with cohabitation. If neighbours think the presence of an unmarried couple living together is a nuisance, they can report to police."
And every neighborhood will have a cranky holy man ready to complain.
Law expert and women's rights activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana told the Jakarta Post the morality articles were excessive and infringed on the "rights of the body".
Legal expert Andi Hamzah asked "What about tourists? Will we hunt them down too?"
What tourists?
The code is expected to be debated over a two-year period. If passed it would bring Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, into line with many other Muslim states.
Posted by: Zhang Fei ||
02/07/2005
11:52:45 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Indonesia: Poster child of moderate islam.
Isn't this country supposed to be proof of how tolerant islam can be? Isn't it supposed to be an example that muslim countries can be just as modern as any others? Isn't it supposed to be proof that we dont have to worry about moderate islam? Isn't Indonesia supposed to somehow prove that moderate islam is the answer to islamism?
Sounds like they are caving in to me which is what always happens whenever a liberal form of religion meets a more assertive conservative form. It isnt a matter of simply encouraging moderation in practice and teaching, it does matter what the source is.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Moderate islam can't hold up to islamism. Its a pipe dream to think it can. Just wait and see as Indonesia only gets more strict and conservative. Just watch as it begins to stagnate culturally and economically in direct proporation to how seriously it takes islamic law.
Yes I would love to see how they deal with the tension between Western tourists and this new law. You can't have morality laws for natives while Western tourists cavort around and dress as they please and you can't force western tourists to obey the morality laws and expect them to keep coming for vacation.
You'd think the answer would be a no-brainer but I don't doubt that if given a choice between tourist income and stricter islam that the indonesians will choose stricter islam. We all know the muslim penchant for shooting themselves in the foot in order to impress Allan.
#2
This may be more of a local cultural issue than a Muslim issue.
I went to graduate school with a young man from Red China during the late â70s. He was never comfortable with public displays of affection. In his home culture, holding hands was a no-no and a public kiss would be obscene.
Before Japan hosted the Olympics the government ran a public education campaign to encourage people not to urinate on public streets. The government knew that this common and accepted local behavior would offend European and American visitors.
When should individual freedom be constrained by public consensus? In oneâs own home a person should be able to do what they wish without interference. But should a person be allowed to play a boom box at full volume on a public street? Should a nudist be allowed to practice his lifestyle choice in the local public park? My right to free choice and expression can run up against another personâs right not to be assaulted by my behavior.
In practice such issues are resolved through animalistic social behavior ranging from public displays of disgust to physical attacks. Local law formalizes local consensus.
A UN panel investigating corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme wants to interrogate one of Saddam Hussein's jailed right-hand men, Tareq Aziz, his lawyer told AFP. Badie Aref Izzat said he expected to visit the former Iraqi deputy prime minister in the coming days and would advise him to demand he be questioned in a foreign country, possibly France. Oh sure. Iraq will let him go to France. Get real.
"I have received many messages over the past 10 days from the head of the panel, Paul Volcker, asking me if Tareq Aziz would accept to be interrogated on the oil-for-food programme," Aref said.
A damning interim report by Volcker's panel released on Thursday found Benon Sevan, who headed the programme, repeatedly asked for oil allocations from Saddam's regime. Aziz denies any wrongdoing under the oil-for-food programme, but is believed to be ready to name names in a scandal that now threatens UN chief Kofi Annan, as well as several leading figures and companies in France, Russia and other countries. Why was it you wanted to get him to France again?
"He is a political man, he is very clever, he holds a lot of information on this issue and he will assess the benefits that can be derived," Aref said. "But I believe that his moral sense will prevail on his political instinct." Why his moral sense never kicked in before?
That's quite a good joke, mixing "Tareq Aziz" and "moral sense" in the same sentence. Not many can pull that off.
Aziz, 68, was the left nostril face of Iraq under Saddam's regime. He surrendered in April 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq and has since made only one brief appearance in court in July 2004.
Aref said he believed he would be able to meet Aziz this week to pitch the idea of a meeting with UN investigators. "My client has four options. He can refuse to answer the questions. He can wait for the prosecution to decide on a release. He can demand the meeting be transferred to another country or he may decide to answer all the questions without conditions.
"I think the best solution is to have this meeting in another country, like Diego Garcia France, Leavenworth Germany, Mauritania Switzerland or Guantanamo Sweden. You can't reach the truth inside a jail. And these countries will be too embarrassed to refuse," the lawyer said. I am sure he would love to get out of jail and travel to any one of those countries to beat the death sentence he will get in Iraq. It's not happening.
"I think France would be the most suitable place, as it was opposed to the invasion and it was also against the embargo," Aref explained. Why does France keep popping up again?
Frenchies would have to pop him on day one, not a chance in hell that they'd ever let him sing.
However, he has not yet made any proposal to a foreign country for a transfer, that would also require a green light from the Iraqi judiciary.
The only time he was allowed to see his client so far was for a six-hour meeting on December 23. Aref said Aziz had ruled out testifying against the former president then and would probably not change his mind. "He is not faithful to Saddam Hussein, he is just faithful to Iraq and for the moment his country is under occupation. All he told me was: 'When I am free, I will write a book about Saddam Hussein'," the lawyer said.
Aref also said Aziz had urged him to plead for the release of Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a woman captured in May 2003 and accused of being a leader of Saddam's alleged biological warfare programme. The scientist is dying of breast cancer, Aref said, warning the US and Iraqi governments that her case was now a "humanitarian emergency".
Remind what kind of emergency it was when the Kurds were gassed?
#1
His lawyer clearly thinks France is better for his client. Aziz must think he can trade his silence for a villa in the south of France. No way the Iraqis will let him go though.
#2
Makes more sense to question Benon Sevan in Iraq.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 1:45
Comments ||
Top||
#3
He's warming up for the "Ted Bundy" dodge, the one where you see the hangmans noose and then start "remembering" all sorts of helpful stuff trying to delay the inevitable.
I'd like my Aziz fried until he's well done please.
#4
I think we should move Tareq Aziz to Gitmo and allow Volcker to question him there, but only if Volcker brings Benon Sevan along, if you catch my drift.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 8:05
Comments ||
Top||
Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- The participants in the meeting for the general march of the Songun revolution saw a performance given by the State Merited Chorus of the Korean People's Army (KPA) at the April 25 House of Culture on Friday. Put on the stage of the performance which began with the immortal revolutionary paean "Song of General Kim Jong Il" were chorus songs including "Our General Is the Best," "Song of a Truck Driver," "Long Journey for the Songun Revolution," "They Will Tell the Story of Soldier's Love," "We Will Never Forget Those Days," "Blue Sky above My Country," "Song of Comradeship," "Let's Advance Faster for Higher Goal" and "Let's Continue Our Revolution under the Banner of Songun." The performers highly praised the undying revolutionary feats of leader Kim Jong Il who has pursued the unique Songun politics noteworthy in history of the Songun revolution and trained the KPA and the Korean people to passionate fighters of the Songun revolution and patriots united in one mind around the Workers' Party of Korea, creating a heroic epic in the struggle to defend socialism and build a great prosperous powerful nation.
The DVD version should be out soon on JucheRecords
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005
1:12:35 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And who could forget that stirring performance of "We Eat the Bark off the Trees in Homage to the Great Leader and His Wise Army First Policy, Whatever the Hell That Is."
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/07/2005 13:57
Comments ||
Top||
#2
And Pink Kim performing "The Korean Wall": "We ain't got no stinkin' miss-iles, Those are Songun es-cape pods...All in all we are all just bricks in the wall."
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 14:10
Comments ||
Top||
Emily Katrencik is eating the wall that separates the gallery's exhibition space from the bedroom of its director, Louky Keijsers. How is that wall, Emily? Kinda dry? Yep...Probably why they call it "drywall"...
Five days a week, Ms. Katrencik consumes a section of wall 1.956 inches square and three sheets of drywall thick, for a total of about 8.5 cubic inches of drywall; she rests on Sundays and Mondays. Each meal takes about half an hour. She began on Jan. 1, to ensure that there would be a sizable hole before the opening on Jan. 28, and will keep it up until the exhibition closes on Feb. 27, at which time she calculates the hole will be large enough to stick your head through. She usually gnaws directly on the wall, working away at a sizable, eye-level hole, and avoids eating when the public is present. Video of her ingestion is included in the exhibition; she also removes some of the plaster and bakes it into loaves of bread, which are available for gallery visitors to sample. "Part of it is that I'm really broke," she said, "so this is a way to get the gallery to cover my food costs." Things are worse than I thought.
Posted by: mojo ||
02/07/2005
11:22:55 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Either the NYT really respects 'art' or it's trying to behave itself. No political-spin in the article.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 13:04
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Is it bad that I hope she chokes on it?
I mean, who else is sick and tired of the glut of "artists" we have? When people thinking eating dry wall is somehow "artistic", or are just trying to get noticed, then maybe we're letting too many people into "art" schools.
If they were actually CREATIVE and TALENTED they wouldn't need stunts to get noticed.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2005 14:22
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Mental illness, possibly brought on by eating lead paint chips as a toddler.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 14:31
Comments ||
Top||
#5
When people thinking eating dry wall is somehow "artistic", or are just trying to get noticed, then maybe we're letting too many people into "art" schools.
Not so fast, there: if these idiots are turned away from "art" schools, they're going to end up in "journalism" schools. And we all know where THAT leads...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/07/2005 14:33
Comments ||
Top||
#6
We used to have the geek show at the circus.... that's no longer a career option.
#8
Not so fast, there: if these idiots are turned away from "art" schools, they're going to end up in "journalism" schools. And we all know where THAT leads...
Well, yes, but if we'd enforce the Constitutional definition of -- and penalty for -- treason, we'd have a lot fewer journalists.
And, for God's sake, can't some of these people go into something CONSTRUCTIVE, like bathroom attendant?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2005 15:34
Comments ||
Top||
#9
well as dice clay used ta say "if she could eat a dozen apples and shit a fruit salad, now that would be somethin'"
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005
11:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is the typical case of chickens coming home to roost. They all knew that those websites were there but it was not until their wellbeing was threatened that they decided it was necessary to block them.
By FAWAZ A. GERGES
Jan. 30, 2005 — If President Bush wanted to conjure up someone from central casting to act as a foil to his inauguration call for worldwide freedom, he couldn't ask for a villain more fitting than the terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, who, on the eve of Iraqi elections, denounced democracy as an "evil principle."
He's not the first Islamist "thinker" who's done so, only the most recent.
In a widely disseminated Internet audiotape, Zarqawi didn't merely say that he opposed the mechanics or timing of the U.S.-run elections being held today in Iraq to choose a 275-member assembly and transitional government. And he didn't say he thought Iraqis should wait and vote after U.S. occupation forces depart. No, Zarqawi said that he opposes any elections under any circumstances. In doing so, he sets up a clash with more at stake than the outcome of the elections in Iraq.
Fawaz, we're already in the clash. Didn't you get the memo?
In the audiotape, which surfaced last Sunday, Zarqawi, the most feared and wanted militant in Iraq, declared a "fierce war" against all those "apostates" who take part in the elections. He called candidates running in the elections "demi-idols" and the people who plan to vote for them "infidels." And he railed against democracy because he said it supplants the rule of God with that of a popular majority. This wicked system, he said disapprovingly, is based on "freedom of religion and belief" and "freedom of speech" and on "separation of religion and politics." Democracy, he added, is "heresy itself."
To a proper Salafist, there's nothing unusual in those statements. The desired state is a caliphate, with the fat guy with the jeweled turban running things in accordance with the dictates of holy men.
The questions Zarqawi raises go way beyond the elections in Iraq to the whole issue of modernization of the Arab world. Is democracy un-Islamic? Is there a fundamental clash between the principles of representative government and the principles of Islam?
There certainly is with the principles of Salafism, isn't there?
Increasingly, Muslims themselves are saying no. A small but influential group of Islamic intellectuals is saying that Muslims should see democracy as compatible with Islam. Islamic political parties and movements across North Africa and the Middle East are deciding with greater frequency to take part in elections whenever possible.
That's kind of a vague statement. Some are, but many — especially the ones that expect to lose — have the habit of boycotting elections.
In the Palestinian Authority balloting, the radical Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, has entered candidates in races for local offices. In Egypt, Islamic political activists are urging President Hosni Mubarak to retire and permit free elections. And in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the revered Shiite cleric, issued an edict saying participation in the balloting today was a "religious duty." That explains, in part, the recent increase in violence in Iraq. Zarqawi and other foes of democracy cannot rely on public sentiment to keep people away from the polls. Instead they must turn to fear, instilled by suicide bombings and brutal attacks. Hardly a day has gone by without insurgents threatening to "wash the streets of Baghdad with the voters' blood."
We're back to the basic principles of fascism here: Fearless Leader's will is to be imposed by cracking heads, or in this case by cutting them off...
The intimidation campaign is relentless. "Oh people, be careful. Be careful not to be near the centers of blasphemy and vice, the polling centers. ⊠Don't blame us but blame yourselves" if you are harmed, a Web statement issued in the group's name last week said.
"We bear no responsibility for our own actions. The responsibility accrues to the group."
Zarqawi's diatribe against democracy echoed the views of Osama bin Laden who, in an audiotape broadcast in December, endorsed Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of the Iraqi elections. "In the balance of Islam, this constitution is heresy, and therefore everyone who participates in this election will be considered infidels," bin Laden said.
That's kind of the essence of the War on Terror, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
11:16:19 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A small but influential group of Islamic intellectuals is saying that Muslims should see democracy as compatible with Islam.
The truth is that Zarquawi is right and the intellectuals are wrong: Islam is incompatible with democracy. Just think in the status given to women and minorities, or in the Koranic (not in the haddith, in the Koran) penalties on aposthasy or in the Koranic calls to ethnic cleansing of the Arabic peninsula. Real progress will have be made when people will dare to say: "Fuck Koran. It has only brought us misery" and survive after having said it.
#2
JFM
Well here we go with a little problem with the variations of Islam.
In pre Khomeini Shiite Islam, the rule was that no Mullah could be part of the govt until the coming of their messiah (the 12th Iman) - so in that version of Islam, democracy would be compatible.
Granted that Khomeini changed things so Iran has become an 'islamic paradise'.
Even under the Sunni Caliph, there were times when all the Imans considered government to be too worldly and sat outside the government.
#3
Zarqawi does make about as good a villian as can be imagined. A foreign villian who indiscriminately murders Iraqi men, women, and children; declares all voters to be infidels (them's fighting words); and is such a "hands on" leader he insists on doing the beheading himself. Its like he is a cartoon character of a villian. In comparison, Bush looks like an American Dudley Doright. We already know who's going to win - we've seen it before.
You didn't pay attention. You are talking about government BY the Mullahs. That is not the problem. The problem is that even when governement is in hands of a non-mullah it is supposed to act exactly like it would act if ruled by a Mullah: like make war for spreading Islam, enforcing Shariah or treating non-Muslims
as subhumans. For instance Shariah says that non-Muslims shouldn't be in positions of authority so whenever a sultan or emir tried to put a Christian or Jew in a position of responsability the Mullahs provoked such riots he was forced to abandon the idea. At times, Sultans asked the dhimmi to feign conversion before taking charge. But it meant his children or grand-children would be raised and brainwashed as Muslims.
A nice analogy was Czechoslovaquia during the Stalinist purges: the President, the Party Chief (ie the guy who was supposed to rule Czechoslowaquia) and the Chief of the Secret Services were, along with many others, told to be traitors and executed. In a "normal" state this cannot happen since these guys had all the powers needed to block any investigation (don't mention Watergate, Nixon had not the powers these guys had) and do away with the accusers. But while they gave the orders the fact is that at any moment these orders could be overruled by orders coming from Stalin and that the Czech police, secret service, military would obey the orders coming from Moscow not those from their nominaml bosses.
As I said Islam is incompatible with Democracy: the discriminations I talked about are in the Koran (read it please) and you need to know what the Koran is supposed to be: a book who wasn't created by Allah but who existed alongside with it for all eternity, a book who is supposed to have been given to Muhammad and having being kept completely unaltered (not a single comma added or removed) and who cannot be altered. So when the Koran says: treat the women like this, the dhimmis like that and "remove Christians and Jews from the Arabic pensinula" there is nothing you can say against it, nothing if you are a real Muslim. And if you aren't then you are an apostate and you will be killed
Posted by: Mike ||
02/07/2005 12:56
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Oh my God. I missed this when it ran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2005 13:23
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Heard on Rush, from a Marine father, that 300 Marines in NC, stood and cheered!!! His voice kinda had a little ??? catch in it as he told his story! I do believe this one commercial will make the rounds through the military, and will do much to convincing them, "we do support you!" I knew there was a reason my Marine was a Bud man!
#7
Oh, and I also read somewhere over the weekend, that Busch gave to 50 military folks, either coming from Iraq or Afgran or going, $600 - $700 tickets for the game!
#8
The reason the ad is so effective is because it reflects how so many of us actually feel. I always want to cheer when I see members of the military, especially when it is in airports and you sense that they are coming from the front. I will buy Bud now.
#11
I teared up reading about the ad on the ESPN site. Good for Bud, I might actually have to buy a case to show my support even though I don't like the stuff (Karl Strauss is the beer man in San Diego)
#12
Next week they're going to show the follow-on commercial of Ted Kennedy walking through an airport, to show the aerodynamic properties of a can of Bud.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 16:41
Comments ||
Top||
#13
I saw this at a party in a bar. Once it was over, everyone in the bar applauded as well.
DHAKA: The Bangladesh government has provided armed security to 50 leading citizens, police said on Monday amid a spate of deadly bombings. "We received an order from the Special Branch of police yesterday to provide full-time trained gunmen to 50 of the country's leading intellectuals, lawyers, civil society leaders and politicians," said a Dhaka police spokesman.
"Police gave me a full-time armed guard from Sunday. It will be with me when I leave my home," the country's leading intellectual, Mohammad Anisuzzaman, told AFP. The move extends armed security protection from political VIPs (Very Important Persons) to civilian society, the spokesman explained, without giving any reasons. However, it follows a series of attacks and the refusal of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attend a regional summit in Dhaka for security reasons.
On January 27, a grenade attack on an opposition Awami League rally, killed four persons including a former finance minister. A bomb attack on a press club in southern city Khulna on Saturday blew the hand off a journalist and injured three others. Grenades thrown at an opposition really last year killed more than 20. The Awami League said its leader Sheikh Hasina had escaped an attempt on her life.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
10:52:03 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Dar ||
02/07/2005 15:05
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Good article. Good general. The mainstream media gets its collective jammys bunched about a lot of things. The arrogance of the MSM is usually irresponsible and always appalling.
#5
Echo all of the above. Ralph can sometimes swing the hammer with the best ever:
"Everyone on our panel had opinions about war, but that no-nonsense Marine knew more about it than the rest of us combined."
And this from a military man on the panel.
Just imagine infinity. That's how much more he knows about war, life, and even love than all of those who are busily vilifying him combined. Spielberg & Co occasionally get the image and the anguish, but they do not now and will always utterly miss the point - the hardcore guts it takes to engage, fight, and follow through to the bloody bitter end. Sucking it up, canning the complaints, and getting the job done using what you have, lamenting and mourning those who fell in the same effort, is so far beyond their ken it approaches infinity.
Let no one criticize this man who has not worn his shoes, borne his burdens, and accomplished what he has - without complaint. Fug'em all. I honor everything about this man.
A professor who likened World Trade Center victims to a notorious Nazi suggested to a magazine that more terror attacks may be necessary to radicalize Americans to fight the misuse of U.S. power. In an interview Ward Churchill gave with Satya magazine,
... one of the biggies...
he was asked about the effectiveness of protests of U.S. policies and the Iraq war, and responded: "One of the things I've suggested is that it may be that more 9/11s are necessary."
Another thing that might be necessary is to round up all the people like Ward Churchill and shoot them. But that'll probably come two or three 9-11s down the road...
The interview prompted Gov. Bill Owens to renew his call for Churchill's firing. "It's amazing that the more we look at Ward Churchill, the more outrageous, treasonous statements we hear from Churchill," Owens said.
We're not discussing an internationally recognized intellect here.
"I don't believe I owe an apology," Churchill said Friday on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" program — his first public comments since the University of Colorado began a review that could lead to his dismissal.
"I'm an arrogant twit, but for some reason the only time people pay attention to me is when I say things that are patently stoopid..."
Meanwhile, Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., and Eastern Washington University canceled plans for Churchill to speak on campus, citing public safety concerns. Stephen Jordan, president of Eastern Washington University, declined Friday to say whether specific threats had been made. Churchill defended the essay in which he compared those killed in the Sept. 11 attack to "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate European Jews. He said the victims were akin to U.S. military operations' collateral damage — or innocent civilians mistakenly killed by soldiers.
He means they were people of no consequence, nobody he knew or even that his friends knew...
"I don't know if the people of 9-11 specifically wanted to kill everybody that was killed," he told Zahn. "It was just worth it to them in order to do whatever it was they decided it was necessary to do that bystanders be killed. And that essentially is the same mentality, the same rubric."
Actually it's not, since the Bad Guyz were specifically targeting large numbers of civilians and military operations don't do that.
In an interview published Saturday in the Rocky Mountain News, Churchill added, "This was a gut response opinion speech written in about four hours. It's not completely reasoned and thought through."
"In fact, it's not reasoned at all. It's just a mish-mash that fell out of my head and somebody was dumb enough to give me money for writing it."
Churchill said his speech had been misinterpreted. "I never called for the deaths of millions of Americans," he said.
"I just gloated over the deaths of thousands of them."
The furor over Churchill's essay erupted last month after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. The speech was later canceled. Churchill, who recently resigned as chairman of the ethnic studies department but remains a tenured professor, said he would sue if he were dismissed.
"They can't do that to me! I'm much, much too important!"
Satya identifies Churchill as a Cherokee and a longtime native rights activist. The magazine's Web site says, "One of Churchill's areas of expertise is the history of the U.S. government's genocide of Native Americans—the chronic violation of treaties and systematic extermination of North American indigenous populations."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
10:38:23 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I am trying out how this idiot manages to remember to breathe, and I'm failing. His "arguments," if one would wish to call them that, are a mix between a holy man's wet dream and treacherous, mind-boggling stupidity. I'm all for freedom of speech - but there's a fine line between expressing a dissenting opinion, and treason, and this idiot crossed it.
By the way, last time I checked, there were still Indians around; apparently we suck at genocide.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/07/2005 0:24
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Actually, if this guy keeps it up, the Indians might remove him for us. Apparently he's irritated them quite a bit by what he's saying and the fact he claims association with them. They want no part of him.
#3
"One of the things I've suggested is that it may be that more 9/11s are necessary."
He wants us to believe this pronouncement has the force of an order for an attack. It is the kind of statement that resonate with many leftwingers; it helps them push their political agenda.
The prof knows he damages us and our resolve to fight and win the WoT with irresponsible statements like this; I suspect CBS and AP know this as well.
#4
This guy has no Amerind blood in him at all. I have more in my little finger. He has lots of Red,White and Blue Amerinds very angry with him. I suggest he stay out of New York. Word has it some Mohawks are very angry with him. You know how iron workers can be the meeting might not be peaceful.
I am betting they had specific security threats of the âI am going to burn your *&^ing school down after I kill this clown and you.â variety. When someone is bad news like this fool people quickly see the error of their ways and make strategic cancellations.
The best thing the media can do is ignore this ass. They won't but they should.
#6
The bit I love is how the colleges defend his right to "freedom of speech" or expression, at the very least. Even his own college will denounce him, but won't condemn his speech.
Well, lets see. We could talk about the necessity of killing those slant-eyed buggers, or the dirtskins, or any number of other direct parallels to Churchill's example, and that wouldn't be OK, would it? But if Churchill wants to talk about how Whitey deserves to die, that's all right. Strange, somehow.
For my last thesis I HAD to write papers on the works of Arundhati Roy and Edward Said. In the rough draft I basically ripped them up. I was then informed that I WOULD fail if I continued in that vein. It was "unacceptable" for me to attack the authors' positions as "fact;" instead I was informed I would have to discuss my own feelings and my inadequacy in understanding their position.
A few well-placed footnotes to FIRE regarding academic freedom, freedom of expression, and freedom of religious belief allowed me to pull a B+ out of the ashes.
But isn't there any way to shut down publicly-funded purveyors of Churchill's kind of obscenity? Shouldn't some such method exist?
#7
But isn't there any way to shut down publicly-funded purveyors of Churchill's kind of obscenity? Shouldn't some such method exist?
No there isn't an no it shouldn't. This nation as a whole has done an exceptional job over the last two centuries of filtering the BS out of the background noise before falling prey to it. That can only happen if asshats like this and their half-baked nonsense are continually exposed to the bright light of day. No censorship, no academic martyrdom, no witch hunts, nothing of the sort.
For those of us that would like to see a balance restored to debate in the academy, morons like Churchill are a godsend as is the fact that they actually get significant press. This sort of thing will spur change 100x faster than any pressure that could be mounted by the 55% or so of the population lives to the right of center.
#8
I can just imagine if Ward Churchill had been British PM in WWIIâ¦
"We have brought this on ourselves. The women and children killed by the blitzkrieg were all little Bonapartes. Hitler needs to win." And Parliament holds a vote of no confidence in him but the damage is done.
#10
You figure a couple more taxpayer funded Holocaust deniers might even the playing field a little more, AzCat? Maybe my local university should sponsor a few seminars on white supremacy, or just go the other route and open a La Raza club. (Oh, wait, they aleady have that.)
I figure publicly funded hate speech, and incitement to violence, is a questionably legal use of taxpayer's money for very good reason. I don't see how Churchill helps the mix by saying Americans deserve to die, if not that they should be killed.
#11
I don't give a damn what they say in private colleges and universities. However, any operation of the body of the people had better be subject to some standards. We can start by making all these people working in the "welfare for intellects" classification civil servants. They can have CS status for job protection, but be accountable like any other public employee for bad behaviors. It's not like there is a shortage of applicants for the jobs. The existing tenure system ensures institutional entropy.
#12
"Another thing that might be necessary is to round up all the people like Ward Churchill and shoot them."
Agreed.
"But that'll probably come two or three 9-11s down the road..."
Screw that. Far as I'm concerned, we can get started first thing in the morning.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/07/2005 9:10
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Isn't adocating the cold-blooded targetting and murder of thousands of innocent people (that is what Ward is doing) illegal? Why hasn't he been arrested as a terrorist?
#15
That's it. I'm cancelling my subscription to Satya magazine.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 10:06
Comments ||
Top||
#16
in an interview with STFU magazine....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 10:12
Comments ||
Top||
#17
NYC voted 4 to 1 for John Kerry in the 2004 elections. That's a 60% victory margin for Kerry. I wonder if another 9/11 would change the percentages for the 2008 elections. Nah - wouldn't change a thing.
#18
Michael Moore criticized the jihadis for attacking NYC, which is infested with liberals. In Moore's view, they should have targeted Republican areas. He could not understand why NYC was hit. But Moore misunderstands why the terrorists attacked NYC - they just wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. The terrorists are as out of sync with liberals and their worldview of easy morals and gay marriage as they are with the conservative worldview of a muscular, national interest-oriented foreign policy. The reality is that the target-rich environments in America are its urban centers, which are almost always hotbeds of liberalism. If Churchill's hopes and wishes come true, a lot of liberals are going to die, and the vast majority of them are going to be liberals (NYC's ratio was 8 to 2).
#19
If Churchill's hopes and wishes come true, a lot of liberals urban-dwellers are going to die, and the vast majority of them are going to be liberals (NYC's ratio was 8 to 2).
#21
Isn't adocating the cold-blooded targetting and murder of thousands of innocent people (that is what Ward is doing) illegal? Why hasn't he been arrested as a terrorist?
CF, it is undeniably stupid and ignorant. Hateful, yes. However, until someone actually kills another human being and states that Churchill's verbal vomit riled him up to the point that he had to carry it out, nope, nothing criminal here.
Since your average jihadi knows he's not going to get his 72 raisins of clarity until he kills for Allah, it is highly unlikely anyone is going to say this Indian-wannabe inspired them to attempt another 9/11.
Now, if someone, say, who had a relative die in 9/11 were to pop his ass, he might, and I repeat might be able to say that Churchill's ignorant mewlings pushed them over the edge. (The ol' "fighting words" defense) They might get reduced charges/sentence, but even that wouldn't get them off scot free.
#25
DB: anonymous2u - That is a lame attempt at sarcasm, right?
He's saying we won't wake up until it's too late. Our politically-correct overtures to the UN and to Islam are the political equivalent of hitting the snooze button.
#26
Saw the Governor of Colorado and, I think, the Chairman of the University Board of Regents on one of the Sunday news shows and they said that Churchill was being investigated and by the end of the month, after due process had been observed, they hoped that he would be fired.
#27
His just desserts for saying such a hateful thing have just begun. He will be vilified by millions of Americans for his hateful blame of our beautiful country, and his life at the U, tenured or not, will never be the same.
#29
The guy's an asshole, a fraud, and a self-loathing little prick worthy of LLL super star status. Yet, I believe he has a right to say stupid moronic blather in the same way any other moron in this great country can. Our country and the ideals it was founded are bigger then this one "wannabe" injun. As someone who defends these ideals daily w/real blood I don't respect this pompous ass one bit, he's never put himself on the line, however, I don't want to stifle someone's first amendment rights because I think they personally suck as a human being or say un-intelligent shit. The free market will usually make them pay for their shortcomings.
If your worried about your tax money going to public institutions that employ a schmuck such as this then write them a letter or make a call to the dean *or* you can censure him by ignoring him (what a narcsisist like this wants most is spotlight; see William Jefferson Clinton or Michael Moore for reference), or not buying his books or boycotting his irrelevant seminars - which seems to be what most of these schools are doing. He has already been given too much publicity imho for his non-sensical bomb-throwing.
#32
I have an odd question. How often does a death threat actually turn into an attempt? If I really wanted to kill someone the last thing I'd do is send a warning out first. Odds are a death threat is a way to scare the tar out of someone without actually having to get close and do the deed.
#33
Asedwich you're missing my point entirely. Churchillâs statements are obviously deplorable and beneath contempt but that doesn't mean that the best course of action in attempting to improve the quality of debate in the academy is to go after individuals like Churchill.
He isn't the problem in higher education he's a symptom of a system that's very ill. But before the larger systemic issues can be corrected they must first be publicized and, let's face it, start talking about crazy college professors, academic freedom, and free speech rights in the academy and 99% of the population will be asleep before the end of your second sentence.
Asshats like Churchill shouldn't be silenced, they should be given megaphones so that the entire population of this nation can clearly see for themselves the dire state of professoriate in our institutions of higher learning. Firing him is like putting a Band-Aid on each new patch of leprosy as it crops up, it might appear to be something of a good idea but in the end it's merely a pointless exercise that will make us feel better but wonât do a darned thing about the real problem.
#34
Heh, I think I understand all of your points, guys, but for my part I live in Washington. When Churchill's ilk speak such things here it isn't really something we can write our state representative about: 55% of the state are already on the side of lunacy, and such words egg them on more than they disgust.
I do understand your point, AzCat, about Churchill being an example of the illness in our academia, but my contention is that it's a matter of magnitude. Public education at the university level is currently about 70% LLL, give or take a few asshats, and although people whine about it it's a testament to our American commitment to freedom that we don't legislate against the preferential hiring, suppression of conservative speech, institution of biased "public speech codes," or ethnic discrimination against the "non-ethnic" white student bodies.
But what do we do when tenured faculty start advocating the destruction of the United States, the annilation of Anglos, and using University property and publishing presses to carry the message? As you say, we could give them megaphones, but I figure that the people inclined to be swayed will be all the more inclined and widely reached, and the people on the other side (you and me) will do what? Hang tight, and wait for an anguished tide of outrage that will also hang tight and do nothing against the like of Churchill?
My point is that I feel academic freedom for educators can be an end run around all the limitations and checks and balances that prevent political and religious campaigning by state or federal employees on public property, on the public dime, and in violation of the public good. Perhaps it's not a question of limiting academic freedom, or freedom of speech, but of limiting the realm of the possible to a more egalitarian exchange of views, with freedom for opposing views.
We seem to already have enough academic asshats vilifying Republicans, western religions, and heterosexuals---it doesn't look like adding the destruction of American civilization will add any more weight to their side of a very slanted scale. Heck, they might win.
#35
BTW, regards his claim to be a Cherokee, they have "adopted" many tribes who are too small or survive in too few numbers to have a political voice, inflating theirs.
Were it not for the statement that AIM has spurned him, I might even buy Cherokee membership - they've hoovered up everyone they can. I was offered "citizenship" in the "Cherokee Nation" - and told them, "No thanks - I'm an American, can you compete with that?" The response was a litany of advantages, mainly of the Federal Affirmative Action type. I found it to be as unAmerican as this assclown. I hope he pays heavily in the real world, since we all know he'll be picked up by some MoonBat Foundation and catapulted to celebrity status in their fevered circles.
#36
On the subject of popping people: threatening a person with bodily harm or death without cause is Assault in the 4th degree. I had a one of my employees years ago call around saying that he was going over to kill me. He then called me, stating that fact. I said, "come on over." Then called the cops. They arrested him and he went to jail for a while. He apologized to me and said that he was drunk at the time. I told him that I was sitting in my apartment with a loaded shotgun. We came to an understanding and parted on friendly terms.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 22:35
Comments ||
Top||
#37
IOWAHAWK has a very good (and funny) posting on this guy based on Chutch an old ABC 'superhippie' (as in Billy Jack) show.... GO SEE IT!
Britain has released a leader of Egypt's leading Islamic insurgency group. Officials said British authorities released an Egyptian national said to have been leader of Jihad. The Egyptian, who was not identified, was arrested three years ago and held without trial under Britain's anti-terrorism law. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke identified the Egyptian as "C." Clarke said in a statement on Feb. 1 that authorities did not have sufficient evidence to keep the insurgent in jail. "I concluded that the weight of evidence in relation to 'C' at the current time does not justify the continuance of [his detention]," Clarke said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
10:30:00 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
The article is discussing the possibility that there are other factors in changing the earth's climate besides CO2, such as the known solar activity cycles.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/07/2005 9:23
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'd like to increase the sunshine 'round these parts. I've had enough of winter already.
#4
Too late for this. It's already been decided that global warming is Bush's fault. No right of appeal. Kyoto's the only way to go, and besides, we'd all feel real good about it.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 12:01
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Phil F, I find the absence of evidence that CO2 levels affect climate striking. A great deal of research has occured and no one has come up with compelling evidence for a causal link.
#7
An Engineer I worked with in Oak Ridge once asked me, when he saw I was reading "Design for a Limited Planet", "What caused the last Ice Age"? I said, "It got cold". He wouldn't talk to me for a week.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/07/2005 18:48
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Deacon, you may want to read about "Milankovitch cycles," among other things.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/07/2005 19:10
Comments ||
Top||
#9
PF - too hard to blame solar cycles on Halliburton and Bush, so they won't do....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2005 19:16
Comments ||
Top||
#1
The sad fact that those who perpetrated this atrocity are still walking the streets is a timely reminder of the difficulties of bringing terrorists to justice and perhaps shows that there should be a more hardline manner of dealing with them. ie. the 'Death on the Rock' model would be wholly appropriate here.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/07/2005 5:26
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Frustrated at the slow pace of the investigation, relatives of some of the victims are suing five men who they blame for the attack in a landmark civil action."
Ok, maybe they'll give them pills instead of joints, but interesting from a medical marijuana point of view.... An army statement said the military medical corps and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem would begin treating victims of post-traumatic stress - commonly known as shell shock - with THC, the active ingredient in the cannabis plant. It said the treatment would begin on an experimental basis. "The use of THC as part of the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was approved by military and civilian committees relevant to the subject," the statement said.
An IDF spokesman said treatment would be given to both conscript soldiers and reservists. Since September 2000, the Israeli military has been conducting day to day operations against the Palestinian terror infrastructure in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During that time many soldiers have been treated for combat stress following service at military checkpoints and in military operations. The IDF continues to ban the use of all drugs on a leisure basis, including cannabis derivatives marijuana and hashish.
Posted by: Desert Blondie ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We Baptist always have a strong ice tea with extra lemon.
SULAIBIYA, Kuwait: Police and troops in armored personnel carriers raided a house in this run-down town Saturday, capturing five suspected terrorists holed up inside. The men surrendered after police sealed off the neighborhood and used explosives to blast their way into the primitive concrete block home in Sulaibiya, a mainly Bedouin area about 20 kilometers west of Kuwait City. The Interior Ministry said two of the five men captured are citizens of Saudi Arabia. Three are Jordanians. All were wanted by Kuwaiti authorities. No one was injured in the operation. Sporadic small arms gunfire and a large explosion broke the night air as a police helicopter hovered overhead, shining a spotlight onto the scene. Police said the blast came from a charge troops used to demolish a door leading into the house.
Police on the scene said authorities were combing the area to ensure nobody escaped. Crowds of men wearing traditional long robes gathered on street corners watching the operation. Police and Interior Ministry special forces troops in black ski masks and camouflage uniforms could be seen poised outside a row of dilapidated concrete block houses, with Humvees and armored personnel carriers parked nearby. Officials described the operation as a success but warned that they were seeking other extremists still at large. Saturday's raid was the fifth confrontation this year between police and al-Qaeda-influenced Muslim fundamentalists accused of planning to attack Americans and Kuwaiti security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
As investigators continued their probe into the scandal-tainted U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, the Associated Press learned on Sunday that at least two Swiss trading companies paid kickbacks to secure contracts to buy oil from Saddam Hussein. According to documents obtained by AP, a Geneva-based firm paid a $60,000 illegal surcharge to the Iraqi oil ministry in 2001. The firm, Lakia Sarl, paid the money to an Iraqi-controlled bank account in Jordan in order to obtain a contract for the Iraqi oil. The company is run by Gazi Luguev, a Russian. When Iraq failed to fulfill the contract, Luguev complained to the Iraqi Oil Marketing Organization, or SOMO, and demanded the kickback be returned, copying the correspondence to the United Nations. That correspondence was obtained by the AP.
The chief of the U.N. program, Benon Sevan — who investigators say solicited oil allocations from Saddam's regime and opened himself to the appearance of conflicts of interest — then asked SOMO for its comment before reporting the bribe to the U.N. committee which oversaw the program. Sevan's correspondence also was seen by the AP. "Due to your attitude, it is necessary for us to ask the immediate reimbursement of the sum of $60,000 — which was sent to you from us on your request for a so-called 'necessary' advance payment," Luguev said in a fax to SOMO, dated October 2002. The price set for Lakia to pay for Iraqi oil was significantly lower than the market at that time. When contacted by the AP for comment, Luguev said to "call back in 10 minutes." Phones at Lakia's Geneva offices then rang unanswered later Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How delightfully Swiss. Not only demanding their bribe back for nonperformance, but copying the governing authorities to ensure compliance!
#2
You've got to do it right, trailing wife. The kickback business isn't something for amateurs. No, taking kickbacks properly is like making love to a beautiful woman...
Posted by: Swiss Tony ||
02/07/2005 10:17
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Darn it! Swiss Tony, you've removed another one off my list of things to learn.
Terrorists must be completely isolated by the global community, believes the Russian President's special envoy on issues of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational crime, Anatoly Safonov. "The global community must completely isolate terrorists, blocking their access to financing and human resources and preventing their use of media to disseminate radical ideas," Mr. Safonov stated during the Riyadh international conference on the fight against terrorism. In an interview with RIA Novosti, he announced that the Russian delegation proposed introducing this notion in the final document of the conference, "emphasizing the importance of anti-terror education of the young generation."
"We must use all resources of society in order to accomplish this task. Education, culture, traditions, religions in various countries may differ, but the attitude toward terrorism and the approach toward fighting this evil must be the same. In other words, we are talking about the fight for the minds of our youth, for our future," Mr. Safonov emphasized. It is especially important, he stressed, to liberate the international cooperation in the sphere of the fight against terrorism from the double-standard policies. "We must clearly realize that there are no 'good' or 'bad' terrorists. The use of double standards, in particular toward Russia, toward events in Chechnya, interferes with Russia's efforts to fight terrorism effectively," Mr. Safonov underlined. "Both Russia and the West must assume a common position on the events in Chechnya," he stressed. "Receiving terrorist emissaries and giving them the opportunity to disseminate their ideas, as it happened recently with a statement of terrorist Basayev on the international wanted list on the British TV, is an authentic example of encouraging terrorist activities. Only by consolidating our efforts on the basis of common strategy and uniform standards will we be able to gain a decisive victory over terrorism," the Russian president's special envoy concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I completely agree with these beautifully glittering generalities uttered in the passive voice.
#3
"Receiving terrorist emissaries and giving them the opportunity to disseminate their ideas, as it happened recently with a statement of terrorist Basayev on the international wanted list on the British TV, is an authentic example of encouraging terrorist activities.
Just change 'terrorist emissaries' to 'Imams' and 'British TV' to 'American mosques' and you have it made!
The use of double standards, in particular toward Russia, toward events in Chechnya, interferes with Russia's efforts to fight terrorism effectively," Mr. Safonov underlined.
Makes me want to sob. Sigh! Double standards eh?
Why not discuss the double standard applied to terrorism against Israelis?
How does Mr. Safonov square trading with Syria and Iran?
#5
Terrorists must be completely isolated by the global community, believes the Russian President's special envoy on issues of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational crime, Anatoly Safonov...
Why? If there is no such thing as good and evil (meaning that is just a quaint American notion), then why would you need to isolate them? Oh, so you DO think there are such things as good and evil, but only you sophisticates in the Euro-centric international community can identify them and pronounce how to fight them? Bite me. What you have named here--"The global community must completely isolate terrorists, blocking their access to financing and human resources and preventing their use of media to disseminate radical ideas,"--is exactly what the US has been pushing for for months, YEARS since 9/11, while its "allies" have let it swing in the wind. The folks overseas are truly becoming ridiculous.
#6
Putin indir means the USA - among other reasons, the failed and failing INternational Lefts need numbers to effectively counter still-growing US hyperpower and espec its Battlespace/MilTech Dominance, i.e. the USA runs of Bullets before its enemies run out of cannon-fodder Bodies. Its no accident that Russia-China are holding combined MILEXS at a time when Iran and NOrth Korea are all but daring the USA to invade them ala "NEW VIETNAMS", where both Iran and NK, etc. are basing their primary national defense strategies on bogging down US/Allied milfors in ARMY-BASED/LED,PC, NUCLEARIZED PROTRACTED
"PEOPLE'S WAR", where anti-American professional armies and counterops = Media-correct "armed civilians only"! Rest assured that Russia-China have no problem bombing America as they would also their own Radical Islam mercenaries-proxies!
#7
As for any bonafide, dedicated assassin or medieval ninja, the Commies "ASSASSIN'S MACE" strategem works best when the target [America] does not suspect, or in the alt is placed in a sitch where he cannot escape complete or undeniable destruction. As good dialecticists and alternatists, the PC anti-US Lefts as a class is likely using both modes, etal., known and unknown,legal and illegal, possible and impossible, ags America - ONCE THE TARGET IS DOWN OR DESTROYED, IT IS MEANT TO STAY DOWN, TO BE DEAD OR FOREVER DOMINATED, IDEALLY NEVER TO RISE OR THREATEN OR COMPETE AGAIN!
Saudi Arabia has been successful in changing the idological thinking of more than 250 Al-Qaeda sympathizers, the Kingdom's Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Asheikh said yesterday.
I dropped three inches from my waistline by drinking lite beer today...
"We have reached out to them and have succeeded in convincing more than 250 to change their ways," he said, speaking of his ministry's counterterrorism program conducted over the Internet. The program includes direct counseling as well as a hotline for families who are worried that their sons may be drawn toward the Al-Qaeda terror network.
And I've got to get a new brush, 'cuz all my hair's growing back. I'm thinking of doing it in dreds...
"We conducted a dialogue with 800 of them and more than a quarter were convinced. We are continuing our efforts with the rest," he told delegates attending an international counterterrorism conference. "The Internet is a fertile field. We have used many Islamic and cultural sites to increase awareness of the dangers of terrorism."
I knew how to waltz when I got up this morning, and this afternoon I learned the polonnaise. It just came to me...
Since a triple suicide bombing in Riyadh in May 2003, the Kingdom has cracked down on Al-Qaeda militants and the religious scholars who have publicly supported them.
They haven't cut anybody's head off yet, but I'm sure they will...
It has also waged a media campaign to turn Saudis against violence and to persuade parents to be more aware of signs that their sons are being drawn to militants, either in Saudi Arabia or in Iraq. Militants have also made extensive use of the Internet and there are at least two Al-Qaeda-affiliated web magazines which have prompted alarm among some security experts who say militants are turning the web into a virtual classroom.
But they're nothing to worry about, 'cuz Prince Nayef is on the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It sounds to me as though this actually pretty canny on the part of the princes, since it keeps the hard boyz from wandering off the reservation the way they did in 2003 and redirects their attention away from the House of Saud and up towards the north.
That said, if the Saudis really want to know how to fight terrorism they should be looking to the northeast.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005 0:05
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Jeepers, guys--I go outta town for a coupla days, and you haven't solved the War on Terror yet?
Grumble.
Fred, keep the cap on my hiliter, I'll be back to posting soon!
#5
What were the stats on the Iraq election day bombers? 6 Saudis, 1 Sudanese, and 1 retarded Iraqi man-child. Even the man-child knew something was wrong and foiled the terrorists plans. Can't say as much for the Saudis.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 9:00
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Since a triple suicide bombing in Riyadh in May 2003, the Kingdom has cracked down on Al-Qaeda militants and the religious scholars who have publicly supported them.
"Not us, you eedeeyots! The infidels! THE INFIDELS!!!"
#7
I think we should celebrate with a few fireworks - 10Mt on Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Dahran, Jedda, and whatever other camel-crossings we can find. I'm sure that will go a long way in "helping the Saudis solve the terrorism problem".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2005 17:42
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Fred, OP, etc., I think y'all are being way too cynical.
I personally find it funny that there are Saudis trying, in however deficient a manner, to change the ideology of the terrorists, because too many people, in both Western Europe and the US, have given up on the idea, which kinda sorta gives the impression that we either think it's right or wrong but too powerful to fight.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/07/2005 17:57
Comments ||
Top||
Three-quarters of police officers in the city of Falluja are to lose their jobs in a purge of resistance sympathisers, an Iraqi commander has said. The commander of Iraqi security forces in the western city, General Madhi Hashim, said not all policemen would be reincorporated "The force had some 2000 policemen but we will rehire only 500," he said. "They will be picked for their integrity and on condition they never took part in terrorist operations."
Hashim said the city's old police force had been disbanded on 4 November, four days before a devastating US-led offensive on the city was launched. He said the new police chief would be General Shaaban al-Janabi. "The Interior Ministry has appointed General Shaaban, but he will not have full control over decision-making. If he proves able after a month, he will take full and official responsibility," Hashim said. Al-Janabi, a former officer in Saddam Hussein's army, had been the first choice of Falluja's tribal leaders, Hashim said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Jeez this guy's the Beast's enforcer?
Revelations not so scary now.
Posted by: 668 Next Door Neighbor of the Beast ||
02/07/2005 9:37
Comments ||
Top||
Al-Qaeda-linked militants who over the past month fought four bloody gunbattles with Kuwaiti security forces had plotted to kidnap and execute US soldiers and Westerners, a newspaper reported Saturday. Nasser Khlaif Al-Enezi, a senior member of the group who was killed on Jan 30, "plotted to kidnap US soldiers and Western civilians and execute them and film the process," his brother Amer, the alleged leader of the group, told interrogators, Al-Qabas daily said. Amer said that his brother received training on such operations while he was in Iraq fighting against US-led coalition troops, the paper said, quoting sources close to the investigation. Nasser also received instructions from "armed terrorist groups" in Iraq to attack US military convoys on their way to Iraq from bases in Kuwait in a bid to obstruct supplies headed for Baghdad. The alleged executions were supposed to have taken place at a house in Umm Al-Haiman, south of the capital, which is close to the largest US military base at Arifjan and also near US supply lines. Security forces raided the house on Jan 15, killing a Saudi militant and arresting three other militants while an unspecified number fled. The government told parliament in a closed-door session Tuesday that documents seized from the group show the militants plotted attacks on US military convoys, Western civilian targets and the headquarters of the State Security Agency.
This article starring:
NASER KHLAIF AL ENEZI
Peninsula Lions
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I have thought it might be cost effective to pay Sony or some of the Japanese video camera producers to produce a few milllion cameras that put GPS location info covertly onto tapes made in them. The info could be in a form such that any copy of the tape would reproduce the info. Flood Pakistan and the Mid-East with these cameras at irresistable prices. Any propaganda film would then locate the site of filming. Worst case, they would fear to film and the propaganda flow would be reduced.
Posted by: DO ||
02/07/2005 10:22
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Uh, DO, the terrorists do their murders indoors.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said here yesterday that the Saudi school curriculum has been reviewed and revised according to the needs of Saudi society and its development. Answering a question at a press conference on the link between terrorism in Saudi Arabia and what is taught in Saudi schools, Prince Saud said: "The Kingdom had long ago started working on reviewing and revising as well as developing its curriculum to meet the demands of Saudi society. It was improved to conform to the needs of today's generation and to upgrade the student's knowledge and logic based on human causes and motives required of the new generation. We tried to eliminate any flaws or what might hinder progress and we tried to ensure that the new curriculum focuses more on understanding, humanity, and tolerance. The media are now addressing and appreciating the positive changes that have already taken place."
Well, that was certainly a waffle, wasn't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
"Well, we have all the buzzwords and trite phrases out to the MSM infidel press, so that doggie bone should give them something to chew on for a while. Maybe they will leave us alone for 6 months."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2005 11:01
Comments ||
Top||
Seventeen people, including four children, were killed and more than 600 injured during the annual kite-flying festival of Basant in Lahore on Sunday.
Pakistan's the only country I've ever heard of that has a corpse count associated with playing with toys...
The two-day festival marking the start of spring began on Saturday evening with thousands of revellers perched on rooftops. The dead or injured fell victim to a variety of accidents. Some fell from rooftops, while others were electrocuted by metal wire they used to fly kites, hit by stray bullets and run over by vehicles while trying to catch stray kites. City police chief Aftab Ahmad Cheema had warned that police would take "stern action" against using metal kite strings and having gun sex firing in the air. However, the bursting of firecrackers and firing in the air continued late into the night. Lahoris danced with joy as rival kites went down amid chants of "Bo Kata." Loud drumbeats and music could be heard late into the evening. Police detained 103 people for various offences. Over the past 24 hours 600 people were admitted to hospital with a variety of injuries. Some had severe head injuries. Others had broken bones. Seventy one people were admitted to Children Hospital, 39 to Services Hospital, 65 to Mayo Hospital, 32 to General Hospital, 18 to Jinnah Hospital, 17 to Sheikh Zayed Hospital, 23 to Suriya Azeem Hospital, 43 to Ganga Ram Hospital, 26 to Ittefaq Hospital, 47 to Shalimar Hospital, 58 to Mian Munshi Hospital, and Adil Hospital and 15 to Doctors Hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I thought they banned kite flying/fighting last year? These are some wicked fighting kites complete with razor blades, one reason for the metal wire in place of normal kite string. A total lack of sanity about this sport in Pakland.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement has reissued a call for a mutual ceasefire with Israel. "We are ready for a total ceasefire in the occupied territories and in Israel, in line with the roadmap [peace plan]," the group's 129-member revolutionary council said in a statement on Sunday. But Fatah also stressed "the Palestinians' right to self defence against attacks by the Israeli army", and their "right to resist the occupation, settlement and the construction" by Israel of a West Bank separation barrier.
Violence has dropped in recent weeks in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza amid Abbas' efforts to bring various Palestinian groups into a truce they say must be reciprocated by the Israeli army. Israel and the Palestinians have said they hoped to declare a formal halt to more than four years of violence at the summit in Sharm al-Shaikh. Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abd Allah are expected to convene the summit.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"We are ready for a total ceasefire in the occupied territories and in Israel, in line with the roadmap [peace plan],"
Which is an admission that they weren't adhering to the Road Map in the first place, voiding all bitching at Israel for not doing their part when the Paleos were not doing theirs.
#2
Sorry, but a "ceasefire" (and all that it implies) doen't cut it. As long as Armed Struggle&trade is left on the table, there's not a hell of a lot to discuss with regard to a permanent settlement.
Iraq's leading Sunni religious authority has made its participation in the upcoming constitution-drafting process conditional on the announcement of a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops. The Association of Muslim Scholars' (AMS) spokesman, Umar Raghib, was speaking on Saturday after the assocation's chairman, Harith al-Dari, met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi. "Qazi asked the committee to take part in drafting the constitution. We told him that we had conditions and that we would discuss them with the parties that boycotted the polls and would put forward a common stance," he said. "These demands focus on reaching a consensus with all political parties on a withdrawal of foreign forces," Raghib said. The spokesman of the organisation, which is also known as the Ulama Committee and was one of the leading forces that opposed last Sunday's general election, hinted that the influential grouping of clerics could then press fighters to end the bloodshed that has marred Iraq's reconstruction. "Then, the country's elders will tell the resistance: 'No need to spill more blood'," Raghib said.
That's kind of a public admission that the blood's being spilled at the Muslim Scholar's instigation, isn't it?
Qazi desribed his meeting with the AMS as very positive. According to many observers, much of the success of the post-election period, during which parliament will have to draft a permanent constitution for the country, will depend on the level of involvement of the Sunni community. Turnout in the 30 January elections was lowest in Iraq's Sunni areas, either out of fear of reprisals from resistance groups or because of calls by the AMS and other organisations for a boycott.
This article starring:
HARITH AL DARI
Association of Muslim Scholars
OMAR RAGHIB
Association of Muslim Scholars
Association of Muslim Scholars
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Start jailing them for sedition if they don't start getting with the program and helping shut down any Sunni "resistance."
#3
In typical U.N. bureaucratic fashion, Qazi's way out of line here. He's not entitled to invite anyone into the process other than those elected.
Conditions? Where do these AMS Saddam-era-leftover scholar-clowns ever get the notion that they can set conditions. They aren't even rightfully in the process. And as for calling off the resistance, if they are capable of doing that and they have not already done it, then they should go directly to jail.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 13:50
Comments ||
Top||
This is one of those thing you kinda sorta know — if it's not now in operation, then it will be as soon as the world's attention is turned. The worms in that can are big and fat and slimy: Perv will be totally discredited because there's no way he wouldn't know about it and there's no way it could proceed with his approval after A.Q. was publicly busted last year. We go from assuming there's no alternative to Perv to realizing that Perv is part of the Bad Guys, playing a particularly dirty game. That leads to the perfectly reasonable assumption that no Pak government can be trusted, certainly not with nukes, but also not with Balochistan and NWFP. Or Punjab. Or Sind. He's actually gambling is entire country on the ummah, a poor bet at best. The only hole card he's got is Hafiz Saeed and the nukes, and the nukes wouldn't last long. If he actually managed to get them off, the consequences would be horrific.
While the world is focused on a possible showdown over the Iranian nuclear programme, a recent investigation has revealed that Pakistan's AQ Khan network played a larger role in helping Tehran and Pyongyang than had been previously disclosed, TIME magazine reported on Sunday. According to US intelligence officials, the magazine said, Dr Khan sold North Korea much of the necessary material to build a nuclear bomb, including high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium and the equipment required to manufacture more of them. They, along with officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also believe that Iran may have bought the same set of goods — centrifuges and possibly weapons designs — from Khan in the mid-1990s. Although the IAEA says it has so far not found any definitive proof of an Iranian weapons programme, its investigators have revealed that Tehran privately confirmed at least 13 meetings (from 1994 to 1999) with representatives of the Khan network. Many fear that these disclosures represent the tip of the iceberg, given that the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb travelled the world for more than a decade, visiting countries in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.
US officials are currently investigating the possibility that Khan's network sold nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, the magazine quotes a Pakistani defence official as saying. He also confirmed that the US has submitted questions to Khan on whether North Korea and Iran sold such equipment to third parties. The report said that although Washington has no concrete evidence that any of Khan's clients have passed along nuclear technology and expertise to terrorist groups, they cannot rule out the possibility that Khan did business with Osama Bin Laden's Qaeda network. US officials point to the fact that several members of Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment, which worked closely with Khan in his role as the government's top nuclear scientist, are known to sympathise with the Qaeda group.
This fear is compounded by the fact that colleagues close to Khan claim he was driven by a devout faith and a burning belief that a nexus existed between returning Islam to its former glory and Muslim nations acquiring nuclear capability. The report goes on to say that if Washington discovers that Khan sold nuclear warhead blueprints to Iran, as he did with Libya, it find immediate justification to ratchet up its charges that Tehran's nuclear research has a military purpose.
Indeed, such a US move might even gain acceptance in the international community given that sources close to the Khan Research Laboratories in Islamabad have claimed that Khan's illicit network of suppliers and middlemen is still operational, the magazine reported. "Nothing has changed," TIME quoted one of Khan's former aides as saying. "The hardware is still available, and the network hasn't stopped". Sources close to the lab have also revealed that 16 cylinders of uranium hexafluoride gas, a critical ingredient for uranium enrichment, are missing from the lab.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Dangerous thoughts, Fred. The same could be said of Matathir. Wasn't the son (?) of his successor part of the network? He had to be part of it as well.
I never thought that the network was shut down. As I posted last year, it probably is at somewhere between 10 and 25% of its former effectiveness. It was lucrative for Pakistan and serves the goals of many in Dar al Islam from Malaysia to Mauritania. There are people right now working hard to make it bigger and better than before.
#2
The way I see things;
Pakistan was created as the world's only Islamic Republic, a nation whose people formed a nation simply because they were Muslim. The motto of the Pakistani Army is "Jihad in the way of Allah", and since the Army has been the most dominate member of the oligarchy that rules Pakistan, they have done everything they can to assist the Ummah.
After the Soviets left Afghanistan, the Paks and Saudis simply redirected the entire infrastructure of training camps, madrassas and armed Jihadi militias that had been set up for the Afghan Jihad, to other fields of battle, most notably Kashmir. The ISI proxies like Lashkar-e-Taiba trained Jihadis from all over the world, while madrassas like Binori indoctrinated students who then went back home to form the leadership cadre of the various Jihadi and Islamist groups working towards the Caliphate.
The Taliban were assisted in taking over Afghanistan with Saudi money and Pakistani forces, providing a glimpse of what the Khalifah would like like. While this was going on, nuclear technology was sold to brotherly Muslim nations, and traded with North Korea in exhange for long range missiles like the No-Dong, which was rebranded as the Ghauri (A Muslim warlord who invaded India a thousand years ago and brought Islam to the sub-continent).
While Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have problems with Salafist-Jihadists who fight against the state, the raison d'être of the two states is to unify and strengthen the Ummah into a super-power.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/07/2005 2:41
Comments ||
Top||
#3
The question that needs to be raised, then, is what do we do about it? And where exactly do other friendly components of the Ummah we've seen over the years like Iran and bin Laden fit into this equation? Are they part of the plan, temporary allies, enemies, or what? And once we determine that, what do we do about it?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2005 3:32
Comments ||
Top||
#4
I think of Iran, Al Qaeda (Salafist-Jihadists), and the Pak/Saudi axis as akin to different mafia families. They do business together and think alike, but they all picture themselves wearing the Jewelled Turban and being surrounded by dancing girls and learned holy men.
As for what should be done, it's questions like that that make me glad i'm not in charge! I would not have chosen to attack Iraq, but now that America and the UK and Australia are there, we will need to concentrate on that for at least a few years.
Using my crude analogy, it looks like America is going to tackle the 'former Soviet client states' mafia (Iran, Syria, North Korea), while going easy on the 'cold war allies' mafia of Riyadh and Islamabad.
It isn't practical to take both on at the same time, so I think the latter will be safe to continue their current activities, as long as they make a few cosmetic reforms and speak some comforting rhetoric.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/07/2005 4:19
Comments ||
Top||
#5
We could do it multilaterally, Israel/Syria, India/Pakistan and US/MK.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 7:34
Comments ||
Top||
#6
My 2 cents is that CIA, MI6 or whoever (you know, the guys with the Death Ray) should throw a monkey wrench into the works by sabotaging shipments, providinging false bomb plans, causing "work accidents", and so on all in an effort to raise the cost of the programs to unsustainable levels.
#7
Pakistan was created as the world's only Islamic Republic, a nation whose people formed a nation simply because they were Muslim. The motto of the Pakistani Army is "Jihad in the way of Allah", and since the Army has been the most dominate member of the oligarchy that rules Pakistan, they have done everything they can to assist the Ummah.
Let's not forget the conceit of taking the name "Land of the Pure".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2005 9:33
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Pakistan was created as the world's only Islamic Republic
Pakistan was founded by whiskey drinking secularist Jinnah as a refuge for the Muslims of India, of whatever degree of religiosity. Unifiying the Ummah was emphatically NOT Pakistans Raison d'tre, at least not at the beginning, for the best of its leadership. Maybe that dream has failed, and its too late for Pakistan to survive as anything else, but lets NOT make such a huge decision on the basis of anything less than a complete view of the subcontinents history, and with a full view of Pakistani society, (yes, nuggets are fun, but theyre not the best nutrition).
I wouldnt "trust" Perv farther than I can watch him, but our policy in general should not be based on trust, not even for folks we like.
For now the best thing seems to be to hold Perv accountable for specific behavior. Whether democracy is a reasonable strategy i dont know - it has a lot to do with whether the old secular "left" in Pakistan has anything to offer besides corruption - even RB hasnt made that clear, and RB (thanks Paul, Fred, Dan) has the best coverage of Pakistan ive seen anywhere.
And I dont know that anyone has an alternative. If anyone thinks Rummys "Army youve got" can manage occupying even a significant part of Pakistan theire loonier than any of the nutballs we read about in the Urdu press. The occupation army of choice seems to be India's, and I dont really think theyre very interested in the job assigned to them. It would be a horrible mess even for them - they would have few friends on the ground in Pakistan, even among the secularists. It would in all likelihood shake the Indian state to its foundations - I cant see them doing it short of the most profound existential threat, which simply isnt there yet. And probably wont be. Despite the Khan network, the Pakistani state has NOT gotten on well with Iran - the Afghan civil war was largely fought between Paki proxies on one side and Iran/Russia/India proxies on the other. Without support from IRan, Pakland is isolated from the Muslim heartland (esp now with a US ally in power in Kabul - the secularist-authoritarian-russophile leaders of central asia have no love for Pakistan. A regime change in Iran would leave Pakistan even further isolated. That would, youd think, be an argument for India to support us on Iran. That they dont (have they?) is another sign that they dont take "Pakistan as sword arm of the Ummah" very seriously.
#9
Note also - Pakland has supported the jihadis in Afghanistan, and then in Kashmir - dominance in the Afghan hinterland, and the situation in Kashmir are strategic priorities for ANY Pakistani state, whether Salafist, sufist, whiskey drinking or whatever. That KSA has funded that shows KSAs religious motivation, NOT Paklands. Arguably it looks more like the Pakis have used religion to scam money out of KSA for local Paki interests.
Im not denying that there has been serious Salafist penetration of the ISI, the Pak army, and other parts of Pak society, but to argue that Paki is a Salafist state based on their quests for Kashmir and their goal of dominance in Afghanistan, this worldly strategic objectives, is to make ANY Pakistani leadership appear jihadi.
#10
The FIRST thing that has to happen is that we Christians have to stop apologizing to the muslims - or anyone else for that matter - about our beliefs. We should not necessarily be "in your face" antagonistic, but we should NEVER apologize. It makes us look weak and encourages the muslims to treat us with contempt. Secondly, we need to get serious about our own religion. You don't find that much in churches these days - it's all more a club that people belong to rather than a serious religious experience with Almighty God. After that, nature will take its course. Islamofascism is its own worst enemy - everything is based upon hate, and that can only go so far. The arabs are not creative, only adaptive. Once we quit apologizing, they'll be left in the dust, the world's third-class citizens, by their own behavior. We may need their oil, but we don't need, nor should we accept, their sh$$.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2005 16:27
Comments ||
Top||
#11
My understanding or the Pakistan political situation is that there are three power centers: The Army/ISI, the Feudals (who own most of the arable land), and the Islamists. It would make sense for the Islamists to infiltrate the Army and ISI, because then the Feudals position would become untenable. The Feudals probably control 90% plus of the capital in the country, so they can bribe the Army/ISI and Islamists and play them off against each other. Of course the Army and ISI infiltrate and use the Islamists to their own ends. Sounds like a Mexican standoff to me.
#14
Very interesting analyses. But Liberalhawk, do you possibly mean deobandis instead of salafis? I seem to recall that Salafi=Wahabbi=Saudi heresy, whereas Deobandi=Pakistani heresy.
I'd buy that analysis if Pakistan were a closed system. When you toss in the fact that the madrassas that are brainwashing the Paks' youth are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Saudi oil tick monarchy the picture becomes significantly murkier. I'd wager heavily that purchasing control of Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal is a top priority of the jihadi arm of the Saudi royal family.
The situation's laregely hopeless. Jihadis whether in the form of a state or a state-backed group will gain possession of nuclear weapons and in all liklihood use them. Best we can do is slow them down while trying like heck to avoid kicking off WW III. That'll happen soon enough of its own accord.
#17
trailing wife;
There isn't a great deal of difference between Deobandis and Salafists, except the former grew out of the Hanbali school of thought while the latter rejects all other schools of thought. It is an important point though.
Nevertheless, the Taliban were Deobandis and they had the full support of the Saudis, Bin Ladin, Hawali and other Salafis.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/07/2005 21:35
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Point taken 11A5S but "standoff" implies some sort of stasis whereas the situation inside Pakistan to me looks a lot more like a steadily growing hardline Islamist influence.
The Irish Republican Army's political ally Sinn Fein has urged the paramilitary group not to return to violence after its withdrawal of a conditional offer to put its weapons beyond use. Sinn Fein's deputy leader Martin McGuinness told Britain's Sky Television on Sunday that it was totally opposed to any return to conflict between Irish nationalists and the British government. When pressed on whether he would "categorically" tell Republican paramilitaries and the Provisional IRA not to break the ceasefire, McGuinness said he would tell all parties to avoid violence. He urged every side, including the Republican movement, the Loyalist parties, the British army and even "undercover elements" in the British military to resist taking any action's that could jeopardise the peace process.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"You can think about it - but don't you do it..."
#2
Just let the bank robberies and punishment beatings go on as normal tho...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/07/2005 6:25
Comments ||
Top||
#3
'Punishment beatings', Howard? That's so 2003! The Padre Pio's where it's at:
"They call it the âPadre Pioâ, but even by the sinister standards of Belfast punishment beatings it is particularly grotesque. At least three teenagers are known to have fallen victim to the IRAâs latest mutilation technique: with their hands tied together as if in prayer, they are shot through both palms with a single bullet from point-blank range. Named after the stigmata of Christâs wounds from the Cross, the punishment is designed to teach a lesson to youths who dare to stand up and challenge their local IRA leaders."
#4
Oh well, at least they're only terrorising their own community... for the moment. What's a few beatings and an occasional murder amongst friends anyway...?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/07/2005 8:39
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Why don't they just send the IRA lads away on holiday? I understand the eco-tourist resorts in northern Columbia are simply marvelous this time of year....
Kuwait, cracking down on militants behind a surge in al Qaeda-linked violence, approved on Sunday a draft law for the oil-rich Gulf Arab state to formally join a U.N. treaty on curbing terror financing. "The Council of Ministers discussed a draft law to approve the State of Kuwait joining the international treaty to combat terror financing, and the council has decided to approve it," the cabinet said in a statement after its weekly meeting.
The draft was referred to the ruler of the country, Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah for approval, before it is moved to parliament for final ratification. A government official told Reuters the draft refers to an anti-terror financing resolution by the U.N. Security Council after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The measure require U.N. member states to freeze the assets of any person or group suspected of ties to al Qaeda and orders governments to block suspects' movements and bar them from obtaining arms or funds, among other things. Tiny Kuwait recently tightened security nationwide following a number of clashes between police and militants believed linked to al Qaeda planning to launch anti-Western attacks there. Security forces are hunting down the militants since last month and rounded up Kuwaiti, Saudi and other Arab suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
The government has ordered legal action against prayer leaders who criticise President Pervez Musharraf's position as army chief and bring up other political issues in their sermons. The Interior Ministry has directed the home secretaries of the four provinces, the chief secretary of the Northern Areas, and the chief commissioner of the federal capital to compile reports about clerics who discuss politics and make anti-government speeches in their Friday sermons, government sources told Daily Times on Sunday. The reports will be used to make legal cases against the clerics. The Interior Ministry also directed the authorities concerned to particularly identify imams appointed by Auqaf departments and who draw their salary from the government but who still make speeches against the government in their sermons, the sources said. The provinces have been asked to take stringent action, including register criminal cases, against imams who "ruin the sanctity" of mosques and politicise Friday congregations, the sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
An Islamist militant group in Iraq claimed responsibility for kidnapping an Italian journalist and threatened to kill her by Monday, following a kidnap claim from another group, according to an Internet statement. The statement, which was could not be immediately authenticated, was signed by a group calling itself the Jihad Organisation and threatened to kill Giuliana Sgrena by Monday if Italy did not withdraw its troops from Iraq.
A group with a similar name, the Islamic Jihad Organisation, claimed on Friday to have also taken Sgrena and set a 72-hour deadline for Italy to remove its troops, but did not specifically threaten to kill her. "We in the Jihad Organisation ... announce that we will implement God's law (kill) on the Italian prisoner Giuliana Sgrena after 48 hours if the Italian government, headed by the criminal Berlusconi, does not announce it will withdraw (troops) from Iraq," said the statement dated on Saturday. "To the Italian people, it is time for you to know the truth about your criminal government that is still in Iraq," it said. "Your sons' blood is the responsibility of Berlusconi and his gang of Islam's enemies. Your army's continued presence in Iraq will bring about grave consequences and you will not be blessed with security as long as Muslims in Iraq are not living securely," it added.
This article starring:
Islamic Jihad Organisation
Jihad Organisation
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Another unnecesarry visit of an US official, as if somebody believes anymore what US delegates says. The red man said it already 300 years ago, you white man use a split tongue, go fuck yourself.
Posted by: Murat ||
02/07/2005 10:06
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Although this time you used a black face to bring the white mans voice :)
Posted by: Murat ||
02/07/2005 10:07
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Did your little muslim mind blow a fuse when you realized a black woman is more powerful than any Turk poseur? Go back to Central Asia, you little prick.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 10:13
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Murat, you should check yesterday's Behavior post. Enjoy the Phrawnch.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 10:16
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Be very careful Murat you should have seen what happened to Aris the other day.
#7
Nice racist comment there, Murat. It must really burn your ass to see a kufr female in a position of authority.
Happy is the man who calls himself a Kurd, right, Murat?
#8
I'm doubting this Murat just like I doubted the last one who proved to have a Netherlands-based ISP.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 11:55
Comments ||
Top||
#9
DB, wouldn't you just love to hear what all those sophisticated Europeans are saying about Condi's race and gender when they're off-camera?
Posted by: Matt ||
02/07/2005 12:07
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Tom, it looks like this is the phony Murat: IP Location - Netherlands - Overijssel - Enschede - University Twente.
Different IP, same country location, same potty mouth.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/07/2005 12:38
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Well then, DB HAS heard what those "sophisticated" Europeans are saying about Condi's race and gender when they're off-camera, hasn't she! Euro-Murat has made it pretty clear.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 13:54
Comments ||
Top||
#12
Euro-Murat is more fluent in English than the true Murat, but is trying to cover that with misspellings and such.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 14:01
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Well, sort of, in that I have heard what everyday Euros tend to think of blacks, and it's generally not too flattering. For whatever reason, when I go over to Europe they don't think I'm an American (till I open my mouth and the Yankee accent comes out). I don't know why.
Note to Euros....some of us cowboy Americans DO speak more than one language. C'est vrai!
#14
If this Murat is a real Turk, he is very different than the ones I met there a couple of weeks ago. The USA has idiot libs. Turkey has idiots too. This Murat is just one of them. But as I've said on RB before, I did not see or sense any overt Muslim influence, as one would in the ME, no more so than one would see or sense an overt Christian influence in a US city. Ancedotal data, but at least current.
#15
I have found that many in Europe do not consider their countries to be racist because they don't talk about it. Conversely they assume America is racist because we always talk about race in the US.
#16
DB, they didn't use to notice that I was American, either. Even more than how one dresses, its a matter of posture and use of physical space. Generally, American-ness is noticed as one stands in the doorway, even before entering the room. People used to compliment me on my American husband's ability in their language, even as they complimented my facility with English. I was even once complimented on my mastery of the American accent (!!!). The irony is that Mr. Wife's mastery of other languages is significantly better than mine, I just sound local. *shrug*
The Naseerabad Police detained a Hawaldar of the Defence Security Guards (DSG) and five personnel of the Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) at Sui on Sunday for the rape of a lady doctor. Those who have been detained are Mohammed Rafiq, Hawaldar of the DSG, Mohammed Khushhal, Umar Farooq, Usman Ali, Asif and Malik Khan. Sources said the detained men had been taken to an undisclosed location and nobody was being allowed to meet them. The police is questioning the previously arrested PPL officials; Manager Sui Gas Field Pervez Jamula, Dr Usman, Dr Mohammed Ali and Afzal Khan, at Saddar Police Station in Dera Murad Jamali.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Brilliant. And a year before Aristide, Haiti was impoverished. And a year before Papa Doc, Haiti was impoverished. And a year before Toussaint l'Overture, Haiti was impoverished.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Haiti has been a failed state since 1804. When Toussaint threw out the French,nobody knew how to run a country, and the rest of the world refused to recognize or help the new country, out of fear their own slaves would rebel. Take tribalism plus voodoo plus endemic ignorance and you have Haiti.
#2
I suspect it was a failed state as soon as the French got a hold of it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/07/2005 20:42
Comments ||
Top||
#3
They inherited "failed state" status from the French.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2005 20:43
Comments ||
Top||
#4
When Sekou Toure, Marxist leader of Guinea at the time of independence, refused to join the French Community, the departing French trashed the infrastructure, even ripping phones off the walls. The French colonizers have a lot to answer for.
The more I read history, the more convinced I am that France hasn't had a competent government since the days of Henry IV (late 16th-early 17 C). His immediate descendants, Louis XIII and XIV, created the policies that led directly to the French Revolution; and colonization started on their watch and under the direct control of the King of Micromanagement, Louis XIV.
KARACHI: Violence erupted in Mubina Town on Sunday when two groups of students of a religious school fought with each other following a dispute between their two teachers. The police said Maulana Abdul Ghaffar and Maulana Umer, teachers of Madrassa Arabia Islami, had a dispute over some matter that resulted in a fight between their followers. Students pelted vehicles with stones, burnt tyres and blocked traffic. Firing in the air was also reported. The police arrested Maulana Ghaffar and another man. The police registered the case and are investigating.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Just Islamofascist war games, officer, nothing to be concerned about.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 8:43
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I imagine the dispute was over whether a verse in the Koran meant that the Kufr should be killed 'very dead' or just 'quite dead' or something similar.
Turkmen and Arab political parties in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk have accused Kurds of fixing the result of provincial elections held on the 30 January. Official results for the election held on the same day as Iraq's national vote have not yet been released. But Turkmen and Arab parties in the northern city on Sunday said that Kurds from other parts of the country flooded the city on election day to inflate the community's vote. According to local Kurdish media, the Kurdish list expects to get about 63% of the vote for the Tamim provincial council which includes Kirkuk. "The elections lack credibility because of the major violations and the absence of international observers," a Turkmen candidate for the provincial election, Saad al-Din Arkaj, said after a meeting of Turkmen parties in Kirkuk.
Arkaj said the Iraqi election commission should review the whole vote count and investigate the complaints of Arab and Turkmen parties. "The results fixed by the Kurds will cause a catastrophe," he warned. "The Turkmen cannot accept this deep laid plot through which the Kurds want to join Kirkuk to Kurdistan." An Arab candidate for the provincial council also called the election organisation a "plot". Abd al-Rahman Munshid al-Assi said thousands of Kurds had been brought to the city from Sulaimaniya and Arbil provinces on 30 January "to vote a second time in Kirkuk".
"They are aiming to attach Kirkuk to Kurdistan and we Arabs and Turkmen reject this," he said after a meeting of Arab and Turkmen parties on Saturday night. "We are examining all options as we will not have a real presence on the provincial council. Two thirds of the seats will go to Kurds," al-Assi predicted. Kurdish leaders deny any vote fraud. Displaced Kurds "Unfortunately, the Arabs and Turkmen do not understand democracy," Rajkar Ali, a candidate for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) for the election, said. "We are not seeking to wipe out the presence of our Arab and Turkmen friends. We want to win back the rights that were taken from the Kurds," he said. A decision brokered in January by the US selected interim Iraqi government gave tens of thousands of displaced Kurds the right to vote in Kirkuk, effectively tipping the balance to the Kurdish community and drawing the ire of neighbouring Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Whining is better than shooting. Complaining to the Election Commission, thus acknowledging their authority, is best of all. At this moment I am extremely proud to be American.
#2
That last sentence in the post text speaks volumes, but so do two short paragraphs that Fred left out:
"Sunni and Shia Arab parties withdrew from the local election in Tamim province in protest."
"Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is said to have sought to Arabise Kirkuk by moving Kurds away and bringing in Arabs from other parts of the country."
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 8:16
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Love the al Jazeera euphemisms. "sought to Arabise Kirkuk by moving Kurds away" is technically true if the destination were mass graves.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2005 8:54
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"Sunni and Shia Arab parties withdrew from the local election in Tamim province in protest."
Yeah, the vote was "rigged" all right, but not by the Kurds.
TEHRAN: Iran accused the United States Sunday of being the world's main supporter of terrorism through its backing of Israel, and shrugged off fresh criticism from Washington as mere sour grapes. Responding to President George Bush's description of Iran as "the world's primary state sponsor of terror" and his pledge to stand by supporters of democracy in the Islamic republic, Hamid Reza Asefi, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Bush "doesn't have very good advisers".
"America is the biggest supporter of a terrorist regime: Israel. And the one who supports terrorism cannot talk about human rights," he said, also reacting to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's comment that the clerical regime was "something to be loathed". According to Asefi, the recent hardening of the tone from US officials was a case of "bitterness" coinciding with the February 10 anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. "For Iranians, these days are full of nice memories and sweetness," Asefi said. "But for Americans, these days are painful because their days of dominating and bullying Iran were brought to an end." The spokesman said Iran was impervious to remarks by Rice who had accused Tehran's "un-elected mullahs" of a dismal human rights record and covering up attempts to build an atom bomb. "Such threats will not have much effect on the Islamic Republic and we will continue our path of sovereignty, independence and saying no to hegemony," said Asefi.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Iran's ridiculous statements would be even funnier if not for the fact that I await the broadcasting of these "charges" on the MSM . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/07/2005 11:28
Comments ||
Top||
#3
"saying no to hegemony" -- Ideally that would be the people of Iran saying "no" to the influence of their un-elected mullahs. Hopefully some of that will occur on February 10.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 11:52
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Well, they are shaking in their turbans....
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Police are hunting for four men who robbed a major remittance center in Damascus and fled with 43 million Syrian pounds in cash Thursday afternoon, an Interior Ministry official said yesterday. The official pointed out that the four-member gang raided Al-Haram Remittance House at Al-Hijaz Area and held up the company's employees and clients, and forced them to hand over all the cash they had. The four entered the house pretending to be clients who wanted to transfer money. They carried briefcases in which they hid weapons, employees of the remittance house said. "One of the robbers began collecting cash from the booths and clients, while another shot twice in the air to terrify us. Everything was over in just 10 minutes, and the gang members fled with millions," said one of the employees. No one was injured during the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"...the hourly labour rate is only $0.37 in Pakistan, lower than India ($0.58) and China ($0.67)..."
Okay, China is clearly over-priced and you can get your head cut off in Pakistan. I'll take India for sure the next time I want to let greed triumph over patriotism and export more American jobs.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/07/2005 8:41
Comments ||
Top||
The Punjab Government has banned several Shia and Sunni clerics from entering the province and declared 140 imambargahs as sensitive. The chief secretary and the inspector general of police have decided to ban the clerics because of their repute of making sect-hate speeches in public gatherings. The Punjab government has also cancelled the vacations of policemen and women to cope with the security arrangements. Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Jhang, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Darya Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan have been declared as sensitive areas and the district nazims were asked to impose Section 144 of the Maintenance of Public Order allowing the government to use the army in case of serious trouble.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Good. That he did it because he was thinking ahead about potential risks of "sect-hate speeches in public gatherings" makes him a rather unique individual in that part of the world, where most leaders' main agenda seems to be determining whether you have the same God as they do.
Togo's main opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio has criticised the military junta for ignoring the constitution on the death of president Gnassingbe Eyadema, which calls for free elections. Eyadema died on Saturday after 38 years in power and Togo's army chiefs immediately invested his son Faure Gnassingbe as president. The military has suspended the constitution, which stipulates the head of the national assembly should assume power on the death of the president with elections held within 60 days. The influential African Union (AU) condemned the move and its President Alpha Umar Konare called the installing of Gnassingbe's son by the army "a military coup".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Baloch nationalists have rejected the government's talks' offer and have resolved to achieve their rights at all costs, Nawab Khair Bux Marri, Baloch nationalist leader, told BBC on Sunday. He said the Baloch leaders had linked the dialogue process to the withdrawal of troops from the province. He described the armed struggle as the only means to achieve the rights of the people of Balochistan. The Baloch leader said the talks would not yield any results because the government was not sincere in its offer and wanted to gain time. Baloch nationalists Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal have already made clear that that they would not hold talks with the government unless the government pulled out troops from Sui.
Balochistan is in the throes of an intensifying rebellion by tribesmen demanding a bigger share of the region's natural resources. On Saturday, bomb blasts caused major damage to a train track and a gas pipe. The main railway line between Quetta and the Iranian city of Zahidan was severed for the second time in a week. The Balochistan Liberation Army has said it carried out a number of the previous attacks, including rocket strikes on the Sui gas field.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The constitution does not apply to the Baloch because a majority of Baloch leaders refrained from endorsing the document when parliament approved it in 1973, said Nawab 
Unidentified hostage-takers have seized the Spanish consulate in the Swiss capital, Berne, police said. The affluent area around the consulate has been sealed off. The kidnappers are believed to have taken at least one person hostage, but it was not immediately clear if they were armed.
Two communist rebels in the Philippines truly became brothers in arms when the men were married in a jungle camp, a newspaper has reported.
One of the robbers who carried out the Rs2.2 million robbery at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Swat has told investigators that the robbery was carried out with the aim of acquiring money to buy necessary military hardware required to attack army troops in Malakand Agency. He also revealed that suspects in the robbery case were affiliated with banned militant organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad and included veterans of the Afghan and Kashmir jihad as well as newly-trained militants. The armed robbery took place on December 3, 2004 but Malakand police chased the militants and killed and arrested several after a pitched battle on the border between Swat and Dir districts. Investigators probing the robbery case have revealed that one of the arrested militants told the joint investigation team that the robbery was carried out to raise money to buy horses so that military equipment could be easily moved around the region. "Our amir [the militant did not name him] told us that every possible effort should be made to involve the army in Malakand so that a situation similar to South Waziristan would be created and we would be able to launch an attack on the army," a police investigator quoted an arrested militant. "We are not at war with the Pakistani people and the police; our war is against the Pakistan army that is fighting the mujahideen on behalf of the United States. We will finish it [the army] before it finishes us."
U.S. forces stormed a house to free four Egyptian telecommunications engineers kidnapped in Iraq, the head of their Egyptian parent company told Egyptian television on Monday. Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, said the four Egyptians were safe and the company had contacted their families to inform them that they were free. He was speaking from Algeria to an Egyptian state television program.
With a hero who gave his life for the elections, a revived national anthem blaring from car stereos and a greater willingness to help police, the public mood appears to be moving more clearly against the insurgency in Iraq, political and security officials say.
Rebels in Chechnya have not attacked federal forces in the three days since the rebels' fugitive leader ordered a cease-fire, a source in the republic's pro-Moscow police said Sunday. An end to near-daily rebel attacks would come as an unwelcome surprise to Russian politicians who rebuff foreign suggestions of peace talks by saying separatist leader 
Not long ago, Abdul Qadeer Khan used to walk into a wooded park across the street from his mansion in Pakistan's capital city and feed the monkeys who lived there. That was when he was a national hero and a multimillionaire, owner of a fleet of vintage cars and properties from Dubai to Timbuktu. But Khan, 68, no longer crosses the street to feed the monkeys. These days he is almost never seen outside. His house, which lies just over a grassy hillside from Islamabad's King Faisal Mosque, is modern, squat and dark, its facade concealed behind a vine-covered wall. To the casual observer, the house provides just one clue to its owner's sinister profession. At the end of his driveway sits a large jasmine bush, trimmed into an odd but unmistakable shape: that of a mushroom cloud.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Dick Cheney says he won't be running for anything after finishing his term as vice president, except maybe to the river with his grandchildren. ``I've got my plans laid out,'' Cheney said Sunday. ``I'm going to serve this president for the next four years and then I'm out of here.''
A UN panel investigating corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme wants to interrogate one of Saddam Hussein's jailed right-hand men, Tareq Aziz, his lawyer told AFP. Badie Aref Izzat said he expected to visit the former Iraqi deputy prime minister in the coming days and would advise him to demand he be questioned in a foreign country, possibly France.
Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- The participants in the meeting for the general march of the Songun revolution saw a performance given by the State Merited Chorus of the Korean People's Army (KPA) at the April 25 House of Culture on Friday. Put on the stage of the performance which began with the immortal revolutionary paean "Song of General Kim Jong Il" were chorus songs including "Our General Is the Best," "Song of a Truck Driver," "Long Journey for the Songun Revolution," "They Will Tell the Story of Soldier's Love," "We Will Never Forget Those Days," "Blue Sky above My Country," "Song of Comradeship," "Let's Advance Faster for Higher Goal" and "Let's Continue Our Revolution under the Banner of Songun." The performers highly praised the undying revolutionary feats of leader Kim Jong Il who has pursued the unique Songun politics noteworthy in history of the Songun revolution and trained the KPA and the Korean people to passionate fighters of the Songun revolution and patriots united in one mind around the Workers' Party of Korea, creating a heroic epic in the struggle to defend socialism and build a great prosperous powerful nation.
By FAWAZ A. GERGES
A professor who likened World Trade Center victims to a notorious Nazi suggested to a magazine that more terror attacks may be necessary to radicalize Americans to fight the misuse of U.S. power. In an interview Ward Churchill gave with Satya magazine, 
Britain has released a leader of Egypt's leading Islamic insurgency group. Officials said British authorities released an Egyptian national said to have been leader of Jihad. The Egyptian, who was not identified, was arrested three years ago and held without trial under Britain's anti-terrorism law. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke identified the Egyptian as "C." Clarke said in a statement on Feb. 1 that authorities did not have sufficient evidence to keep the insurgent in jail. "I concluded that the weight of evidence in relation to 'C' at the current time does not justify the continuance of [his detention]," Clarke said.
An army statement said the military medical corps and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem would begin treating victims of post-traumatic stress - commonly known as shell shock - with THC, the active ingredient in the cannabis plant. It said the treatment would begin on an experimental basis. "The use of THC as part of the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was approved by military and civilian committees relevant to the subject," the statement said. 
SULAIBIYA, Kuwait: Police and troops in armored personnel carriers raided a house in this run-down town Saturday, capturing five suspected terrorists holed up inside. The men surrendered after police sealed off the neighborhood and used explosives to blast their way into the primitive concrete block home in Sulaibiya, a mainly Bedouin area about 20 kilometers west of Kuwait City. The Interior Ministry said two of the five men captured are citizens of Saudi Arabia. Three are Jordanians. All were wanted by Kuwaiti authorities. No one was injured in the operation. Sporadic small arms gunfire and a large explosion broke the night air as a police helicopter hovered overhead, shining a spotlight onto the scene. Police said the blast came from a charge troops used to demolish a door leading into the house.
As investigators continued their probe into the scandal-tainted U.N. 
Terrorists must be completely isolated by the global community, believes the Russian President's special envoy on issues of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational crime, 
Three-quarters of police officers in the city of Falluja are to lose their jobs in a purge of resistance sympathisers, an Iraqi commander has said. The commander of Iraqi security forces in the western city, General Madhi Hashim, said not all policemen would be reincorporated "The force had some 2000 policemen but we will rehire only 500," he said. "They will be picked for their integrity and on condition they never took part in terrorist operations."
Al-Qaeda-linked militants who over the past month fought four bloody gunbattles with Kuwaiti security forces had plotted to kidnap and execute US soldiers and Westerners, a newspaper reported Saturday. 
Seventeen people, including four children, were killed and more than 600 injured during the annual kite-flying festival of Basant in Lahore on Sunday. 
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement has reissued a call for a mutual ceasefire with Israel. "We are ready for a total ceasefire in the occupied territories and in Israel, in line with the roadmap [peace plan]," the group's 129-member revolutionary council said in a statement on Sunday. But Fatah also stressed "the Palestinians' right to self defence against attacks by the Israeli army", and their "right to resist the occupation, settlement and the construction" by Israel of a West Bank separation barrier.
Iraq's leading Sunni religious authority has made its participation in the upcoming constitution-drafting process conditional on the announcement of a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops. The 
The Irish Republican Army's political ally 
The government has ordered legal action against prayer leaders who criticise President Pervez Musharraf's position as army chief and bring up other political issues in their sermons. The Interior Ministry has directed the home secretaries of the four provinces, the chief secretary of the Northern Areas, and the chief commissioner of the federal capital to compile reports about clerics who discuss politics and make anti-government speeches in their Friday sermons, government sources told Daily Times on Sunday. The reports will be used to make legal cases against the clerics. The Interior Ministry also directed the authorities concerned to particularly identify imams appointed by Auqaf departments and who draw their salary from the government but who still make speeches against the government in their sermons, the sources said. The provinces have been asked to take stringent action, including register criminal cases, against imams who "ruin the sanctity" of mosques and politicise Friday congregations, the sources added.
An Islamist militant group in Iraq claimed responsibility for kidnapping an Italian journalist and threatened to kill her by Monday, following a kidnap claim from another group, according to an Internet statement. The statement, which was could not be immediately authenticated, was signed by a group calling itself the 
KARACHI: Violence erupted in Mubina Town on Sunday when two groups of students of a religious school fought with each other following a dispute between their two teachers. The police said Maulana Abdul Ghaffar and Maulana Umer, teachers of Madrassa Arabia Islami, had a dispute over some matter that resulted in a fight between their followers. Students pelted vehicles with stones, burnt tyres and blocked traffic. Firing in the air was also reported. The police arrested Maulana Ghaffar and another man. The police registered the case and are investigating.
Turkmen and Arab political parties in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk have accused Kurds of fixing the result of provincial elections held on the 30 January. Official results for the election held on the same day as Iraq's national vote have not yet been released. But Turkmen and Arab parties in the northern city on Sunday said that Kurds from other parts of the country flooded the city on election day to inflate the community's vote. According to local Kurdish media, the Kurdish list expects to get about 63% of the vote for the Tamim provincial council which includes Kirkuk. "The elections lack credibility because of the major violations and the absence of international observers," a Turkmen candidate for the provincial election, Saad al-Din Arkaj, said after a meeting of Turkmen parties in Kirkuk.
TEHRAN: Iran accused the United States Sunday of being the world's main supporter of terrorism through its backing of Israel, and shrugged off fresh criticism from Washington as mere sour grapes. Responding to President George Bush's description of Iran as "the world's primary state sponsor of terror" and his pledge to stand by supporters of democracy in the Islamic republic, 
Police are hunting for four men who robbed a major remittance center in Damascus and fled with 43 million Syrian pounds in cash Thursday afternoon, an Interior Ministry official said yesterday. The official pointed out that the four-member gang raided Al-Haram Remittance House at Al-Hijaz Area and held up the company's employees and clients, and forced them to hand over all the cash they had. The four entered the house pretending to be clients who wanted to transfer money. They carried briefcases in which they hid weapons, employees of the remittance house said. "One of the robbers began collecting cash from the booths and clients, while another shot twice in the air to terrify us. Everything was over in just 10 minutes, and the gang members fled with millions," said one of the employees. No one was injured during the incident.
Baloch nationalists have rejected the government's talks' offer and have resolved to achieve their rights at all costs, Nawab 
