An Afghan security official said on Monday Kabul had provided solid evidence to Islamabad about militant training camps in Pakistan and the presence there of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, but Pakistans Foreign Office said the information was outdated.
"Oh, yasss! That was a long time ago, when brontosaurs ruled the world..."
During a recent visit to Pakistan, President Hamid Karzais delegation handed over confessions of 13 Pakistani terrorists arrested in Afghanistan and details of Taliban leaders in Pakistan, including phone numbers, locations and descriptions, the Afghan security official said.It is currently crystal clear ... that terrorists are using Pakistan soil for planning attacks, for masterminding attacks on our soil, he told Reuters.
Thank you for that statement of the blindingly obvious...
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Pakistani intelligence agencies were investigating a list of under 40 suspected Taliban members Kabul suspects are running the insurgency from Pakistani soil. Separately, some information was provided about Mullah Omars whereabouts, she said. Some of that information has already been checked and its not correct. She said Osama did not figure on the list handed over by the Afghan government and rejected speculation that he was hiding in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
22:50 ||
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Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.
Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- sprawled, blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies had their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"After he came back from the evening prayer, the Mahdi Army broke into his house and asked him, 'Are you Khalid the Sunni infidel?' " one man at the morgue said, relating what were the last hours of his cousin, according to other relatives. "He replied 'yes' and then they took him away."
Aides to Sadr denied the allegations, calling them part of a smear campaign by unspecified political rivals.
By Monday, violence between Sunnis and Shiites appeared to have eased. As Iraqi security forces patrolled, American troops offered measured support, in hopes of allowing the Iraqis to take charge and prevent further carnage.
But at the morgue, where the floor was crusted with dried blood, the evidence of the damage already done was clear. Iraqis arrived throughout the day, seeking family members and neighbors among the contorted bodies.
"And they say there is no sectarian war?" demanded one man. "What do you call this?''
The brothers of one missing man arrived, searching for a body. Their hunt ended on the concrete floor, provoking sobs of mourning: "Why did you kill him?" "He was unarmed!" "Oh, my brother! Oh, my brother!"
Morgue officials said they had logged more than 1,300 dead since Wednesday -- the day the Shiites' gold-domed Askariya shrine was bombed -- photographing, numbering, and tagging the bodies as they came in over the nights and days of retaliatory raids.
The Statistics Department of the Iraqi police put the nationwide toll at 1,020 since Wednesday, but that figure was based on paperwork that is sometimes delayed before reaching police headquarters. The majority of the dead had been killed after being taken away by armed men, police said.
The disclosure of the death tolls followed accusations by the U.S. military and later Iraqi officials that the news media had exaggerated the violence between Shiites and Sunnis over the past few days.
The bulk of the previously known deaths were caused by bombings and other large-scale attacks. But the scene at the morgue and accounts related by relatives indicated that most of the bloodletting came at the hands of executioners.
"They killed him just because he was a Sunni," one young man at the morgue said of his 32-year-old neighbor, whose body he was retrieving.
Much of the violence has centered around mosques, many of which were taken over by Shiite gunmen, bombed or burned.
In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, aides to Sadr denied any role in the killings.
"These groups wore black clothes like the Mahdi Army to make the people say that the Shiites kidnapped and killed them," said Riyadh al-Nouri, a close aide to Sadr.
Sahib al-Amiri, another close aide, said, "Some political party accused [Sadr's political party] and the Mahdi Army because they considered us as competitive to them. So they recruited criminals to kill Shiites and Sunnis."
After Wednesday's mosque attack in Samarra, Sadr and other Shiite clerics called on their armed followers to deploy to protect shrines across Iraq.
Clutching rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, the militias rolled out of their Baghdad base of Sadr City. Residents of several neighborhoods reported them on patrol or in control of mosques. U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces did not appear to challenge the militias, which are officially outlawed.
Sunni leaders charged that more than 100 Sunni mosques were burned, fired upon or bombed in the retaliatory violence after the attack on the Samarra mosque.
Iraqi officials, at the urging of Sunni leaders, imposed what became a round-the-clock curfew in Baghdad to try to quell the violence.
Sunnis speaking at the morgue said many of the dead had been taken away at night, when security forces were supposed to have been enforcing the curfew.
By Monday, the reported violence had subsided. Four mortar rounds hit a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, killing four people, news agencies reported. More mortar attacks boomed in other parts of the capital.
Also Monday, Iraq's interim government lifted the round-the-clock curfew in Baghdad. The new curfew ordered residents inside from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Residents rushed out of their homes to refill gas tanks and kitchen shelves. Lines at gas stations stretched for miles and sometimes clogged both sides of highways. One motorist in the line was seen clutching a blanket and pillow, apparently anticipating an overnight wait for gas.
Making their way through the traffic were a few cars with plastic-wrapped corpses in crude wooden coffins strapped to the roofs.
In two hours at the morgue on Monday, families brought in two more victims of the violence to receive death certificates. Other families carried away 10 other dead. Most of the victims were Sunni.
At the blue steel doors of the morgue, dozens of more bloody bodies could be seen on the floor or on gurneys. Two hundred still were unidentified and unclaimed, morgue workers said.
Claiming the dead has become automated. Morgue workers directed families to a barred window in the narrow courtyard outside the main entrance. A computer screen angled to face the window flashed the contorted, staring faces of the dead: men shot in the mouth, men shot in the head, men covered with blood, men with bindings twisted around their necks.
Men and a few women in black abayas pressed up to the window's black bars in the sweet-smelling reek of the bodies inside.
"What neighborhood?'' a morgue worker asked one waiting man.
"Adhamiyah,'' the man said, naming a predominantly Sunni neighborhood.
Tapping at the key board, the morgue worker fast-forwarded through the scores of tortured faces.
"Criminals. How can you kill another human for nothing?" someone clutching the bars asked.
"Good news, we found the body," another man called out. "We found him."
#1
File this under what goes around comes around.
Maybe now the Sunni will not just see but understand the writing on the wall the only way is the US way otherwise its old school Arab style to the above quote.
One side benefit no one has mentioned yet is this little flair up should be a good gauge of the IA and IP on who is loyal to the Iraqi Gov and who is susceptible to Sadr and his bunch. When Phase 4 lights up aka Iran that intel will be real valuable.
...Acting on a tip from residents, members of the Interior Ministry's Wolf Brigade captured al-Farouq with five other followers of al-Zarqawi near Bakr, about 100 miles west of Baghdad, the ministry said.
The Defense Ministry said Iraqi security forces have killed 35 insurgents and arrested 487 in raids across the country since the bombing last Wednesday of the Samarra shrine...
...U.S. helicopters fired on three houses 15 miles west of Samarra and arrested 10 people, Iraqi police said. It was unclear if the raid was linked to the shrine bombing. The U.S. military did not immediately comment.
Interior Ministry commandos fought a three-hour gunbattle with Sunni-led insurgents near Nahrawan, about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, after about 15 Shiite families were driven from their homes in the nearby village of Saidat, police said. At least eight commandos and five insurgents were killed in the fighting, which also injured six commandos and four civilians, police said... I guess a lot of rats came out of their rat holes looking to stimulate a civil war, and instead found only the police and military waiting for them.
Is the War on Drugs taking aim at that morning cup of java? As crazy as it might sound, some activists would hope so - and they have enlisted the help of various mayors to support their cause.
But first, to be more precise, critics aren't specifically after coffee, but rather after caffeine - a "drug" that is included in such products as energy and soft drinks, and some chocolates...
#7
cold day in hell before they get rid or regulate caffeine. Remember the question about the Islamist tipping point? I've got a tipping point right here, it's where the nanny state self-destructed
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2006 22:11
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You'll take my chocolate from me when you pry it from my cold dead fingers ....
Scratch that, I'll be the one doing the prying and you'll be the one with the cold fingers LOL.
Gunmen fired two rockets at a tomb sacred for Shiites south of Baghdad causing damage but no casualties, a Shiite official said. The tomb of Salman Pak, also known as Salman al-Farisi, was attacked after sunset with two rockets, said Jamal al-Saghir, an aide to Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. The tomb is located in the village of Salman Pak, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. The village carries the name of the man. The attack comes two days after a Shiite holy Shrine in the central city of Samarra was heavily damaged by an explosion. Dozens of Sunni mosques were attacked after that throughout Iraq.
Al-Farisi, known as "Salman the Pure," was a 7th centrury Persian convert to Islam and served the barber to the Prophet Muhammad. Although the shrine attracts Muslim pilgrims, it is not considered as venerable as the Askariya mosque in Samarra, whose golden dome was destroyed by two bombs Wednesday. One rocket hit the gate to the tomb while the other exploded a few meters from the structure, al-Saghir said.
Iran Focus has obtained a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The names and details of the training centres were provided by a defector from the IRGC, who has recently left Iran and now lives in hiding in a neighbouring country. Iran Focus agreed to keep his identity secret for obvious security reasons.
The former IRGC officer said the camps and the training centres were under the control of the IRGCs elite Qods Force, the extra-territorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards.
The Qods Force has an extensive network that uses the facilities of Iranian embassies or cultural and economic missions or a number of religious institutions such as the Islamic Communications and Culture Organisation to recruit radical Islamists in Muslim countries or among the Muslims living in the West. After going through preliminary training and security checks in those countries, the recruits are then sent to Iran via third countries and end up in one of the Qods Force training camps, the officer said.
The Imam Ali Garrison has been a long-time training ground for foreign terrorist operatives. Presently, some 50 Islamists from neighbouring Arab countries are receiving training there in five groups of 10, the officer said.
Iraq followed by the Palestinian territories have become the focal point of the Qods Forces activities. Many of the foreign recruits in these camps now come from these two areas, but others come from a wide range of countries, including the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, North Africa and south-east Asia, he said. In most camps, the Sunnis outnumber the Shiites.
The scale and breadth of Qods Force operations in Iraq are far beyond what we did even during the war with Saddam, the officer said, referring to the IRGCs extensive activities in Iraq during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Vast areas of Iraq are under the virtual control of the Qods Force through its Iraqi surrogates. It uses a vast array of charities, companies and other fronts to conduct its activities across Iraq.
We would send our officers into Iraq to operate for months under the cover of a construction company, he said. Kawthar Company operated in Najaf last year to carry out construction work in the area around Imam Ali Shrine, but it was in fact a front company for the Qods Force. Qods officers, disguised as company employees, established contacts with Iraqi operatives and organised underground cells in southern Iraq.
The officer said Qods Force officers also used the Iranian Red Crescent and the state-run television and radio corporation as fronts for their operations in Iraq.
A special branch inside Irans Foreign Ministry is responsible for assisting the Qods Force in bringing in foreign recruits. The recruits first travel to third countries where they are given new passports by Iranian agents to facilitate their entry into Iran. Upon finishing their training course, the new agents leave Iran for third countries from where they use their genuine passports to return to their countries of origin or where missions are planned.
The list of the bases used for training terrorists identified for Iran Focus are as follows:
1) Imam Ali Training Garrison, Tajrish Square, Tehran,
2) Bahonar Garrison, Chalous Street, close to the dam of Karaj,
3) Qoms Ali-Abad Garrison, Tehran-Qom highway,
4) Mostafa Khomeini Garrison, Eshrat-Abad district, Tehran,
5) Crate Camp Garrison, 40 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
6) Fateh Qani-Hosseini Garrison, between Tehran and Qom
7) Qayour Asli Garrison, 30 kilometres from Ahwaz-Khorramshahr highway,
8) Abouzar Garrison, Qaleh-Shahin district, Ahwaz, Khuzestan province
9) Hezbollah Garrison, Varamin, east of Tehran
10) Eezeh Training Garrison
11) Amir-ol-Momenin Garrison, Ban-Roushan, Ilam province
12) Kothar Training Garrison, Dezful Street, Shoushtar, Khuzestan province
13) Imam Sadeq Garrison, Qom
14) Lavizan Training Centre, north-east Tehran
15) Abyek Training Centre, west of Tehran
16) Dervish Training Centre, 18 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
17) Qazanchi Training Centre, Ravansar-Kermanshah-Kamyaran tri-junction,
18) Beit-ol-Moqaddas University, Qom
19) Navab Safavi School, Ahwaz
20) Nahavand Training Centre, 45 kilometres from Nahavand, western Iran
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/27/2006
17:11 ||
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#1
Mebbe they're just "activists" and not "terrorists"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2006 19:30
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Why do we need to be told this? Wouldn't it be better to not have them know what we know? How much less valuable would the WWII broken codes have been had the Japanese and Germans known we had broken them?
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Monday warned the United States against unilateralism in global affairs and hailed the Kremlin's invitation for Hamas to visit Moscow, criticizing the West for trying to shun the organization.
Gorbachev said the United States had failed to use the end of the Cold War for purposes of global development and abused its position as the world's only superpower.
"There is only one superpower now and it doesn't know what to do with its status," Gorbachev said at a meeting with foreign reporters. "As a result, we got Yugoslavia and Iraq, and the situation has only got worse."
Gorbachev also strongly backed Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation to Hamas to visit Moscow, saying that the move offers an opportunity to draw the it into the peace process.
"It offers a chance," Gorbachev said. "It must be supported by common efforts."
Gorbachev criticized the US approach to Hamas' victory, saying that attempts to isolate the group that swept the elections were a manifestation of "double standards.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/27/2006
17:08 ||
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#1
Batting cleanup for the FSU is Mikhail Gorbachev, still trying to hit above the PineTree Line, Gorby brings a lot of fans to the ballpark, but unless Larry King is pitching Gorby's on base average is less than .100.
#4
Actually, it was Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II acting in concert that brought down the Evil Empire. Reagan provided the external pressures, while John Paul supported the internal dissent. The Iron Curtain was hard and brittle, and all those little hammer taps both inside and out shattered it.
#5
As a poster on the Net said yesterday, WE'RE A SOCIALIST NATION MOVING TOWARDS COMMUNISM BUT THE LEFT DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT.
*SAVE CLINTONIAN LEFTSOCIALIST AND COMMIE-MAJORITY AMERIKA FROM BUSH AND THE COMMIES;, SAVE [HATED] FASCIST = [BELOVED]LIMITED COMMIE AMERIKA FROM THE COMMIES; SAVE AMERICA FROM BUSH AND THE COMMIES - VOTE DEMOCRAT, VOTE HILLARY, VOTE FOR THE LEFT!? GOP-CONSERVATIVE FASCIST SOCIALIST MALE BRUTES MUST BE SAVED BY LAISSEZ FAIRE = REGULATOR/ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE COMMMIE SOCIALIST MOTHERS.
Iran on Monday rejected Japan's request to suspend uranium enrichment, although Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it had made its joint-venture uranium enrichment proposal contingent on such a move.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was reported to have denied Tokyo's request to halt uranium enrichment at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.
Mottaki said Iran was only conducting 'research activities' and that suspending such operations was 'impossible,' according to Japan's Kyodo News.
Aso asked Iran to take a 'positive' attitude towards Russia's joint uranium enrichment proposal as a potential 'breakthrough' in the Iranian nuclear crisis, according to a Japanese official.
The meeting between Mottaki and Aso came a day after Iran and Russia announced they had reached a 'basic agreement' on a 'technical and political' package.
The head of Russia's Rosatom nuclear power agency Sergei Kiriyenko and his Iranian counterpart Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh proclaimed the agreement without giving any details on Sunday following talks in the Gulf port of Bushehr in southern Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday in Moscow that Russia's proposed joint-venture agreement was linked to a demand that Iran reinstate its previous voluntary suspension of nuclear research activities.
Russia would continue its dialogue with Iran until a decisive meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on March 6 in Vienna, Lavrov said.
Russia initially proposed to enrich uranium for use in Iran's nuclear energy programme on its own territory, but in talks since the two countries appear to have worked out a more broad-based plan.
Russian negotiators returning from Iran Monday were skeptical about Tehran's supposed concessions.
'It's a difficult question, the negotiations are difficult,' RosAtom's Kiriyenko said.
Another Russian official said Iran's agreement in principle to the Russian proposal represented the only progress so far and that Tehran was still insisting on carrying out enrichment for research purposes at home.
'Under those conditions, Russia cannot establish a joint venture, because it loses all meaning,' the official was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.
The United States and the European Union, in particular, fear that Iran is secretly planning a nuclear weapons programme. Tehran says the programme is aimed only at generating nuclear-powered energy.
Iran resumed its uranium enrichment programme after the (IAEA) reported Tehran to the UN Security Council for not complying with IAEA nuclear safeguards.
Japan is hoping to help resolve the crisis for fear of economic repercussions if sanctions are imposed on Iran.
The two governments signed an agreement two years ago to develop a joint oil project in Azadegan, southern Iran, said to be one of the world's largest oil fields.
Japan acted despite the opposition of the United States, which does not want to see Tokyo secure natural resources in Iran.
Mottaki arrived in Tokyo Monday for three days on his first visit since becoming foreign minister in August. The Iranian minister served as an ambassador to Japan between 1995 and 1999.
Iranian negotiators are also expected to visit Moscow again this week.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/27/2006
17:00 ||
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#1
Japan acted despite the opposition of the United States, which does not want to see Tokyo secure natural resources in Iran.
Does that include oil? Cause I think that horse has left the stable.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me." The former first lady and potential presidential contender was reacting during a radio interview to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president,
"He spends more time thinking about my political future than I do," Clinton said, noting that Rove and other White House aides have met regularly with her possible opponents in November's 2006 Senate race. Man, how do this woman AND her ego fit in the same room?
#2
....."spends a lot of time obsessing about me."
Mr Rove: "Excuse me, but I just threw up a little bit into my mouth......"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/27/2006 20:27
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#3
Karl Rove obsessing about Hitlery. Heh.
Tee-hee-hee-hee.
Chortle.
*Snort*
Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!
Thanks - I needed a good laugh. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/27/2006 21:24
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#4
That's not "obsession", that's "focus" -- like a sniper's.
She should thank her lucky stars that John Bolton is too busy with Kofi to be "obsessing" on her. Karl just undermines her; John would publicly humiliate her.
HEALDSBURG -- An armed man wearing a black, ninja-style mask was shot to death by a Healdsburg man this morning after he attacked the man's wife outside their home and chased her inside, police said. The MSM will be all over this....NOT.
The shooting happened about 7:30 a.m. at the end of Sunset Drive, a semi-rural street on the east side of town. The woman was about to take the couple's two Wheaton terrier dogs for a walk when the masked man jumped her outside her garage, police said. The woman struggled, broke away and ran screaming into the house, with the attacker in pursuit. good for her
Her screams awoke her husband. The man, whom police identified only as a man in his 60s, "grabbed their handgun, probably a .357 ... and fired more than one shot," Police Chief Susan Jones said. .357 sometimes man's best friend
The intruder "had what looked like a firearm in his hand," Jones said. He died at the scene. Good...saves the cost of a trial
His identity has not been released. "The husband is fine. He's uninjured," Jones said. "The wife is being treated for a head injury that she sustained sometime during the struggle, but she's going to be fine." Don't mess with Wine Country
Jones said the intruder may have been hiding behind some garage cans, waiting for someone to emerge from the home. The chief said the incident "is completely out of the blue" for the town. "Actually, our crime has been down this year. This is really unusual," she said. "It's really frightening if this is a random act." The gun control crowd hates stories like this. The guy protected his wife and himself admirably. Hate to thinnk what would have happend if this were in San Francisco instead of just north. I'm sure the perp would still be roaming around just waiting for the gun ban to take effect
#2
I remember one home invader who picked the wrong old man to try to thump and rob. Turns out the victim had been a British infantry veteran from the Burma campaign. According to the newpaper he "stabbed" the home invader.
According to the police, he gutted him like a deer.
#4
even we Californians have home defense capabilities. I'd suggest if ya don't believe me - we can arrange your random date home invasion death :-)
remember, Dirty Harry was here
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2006 21:51
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Don't lump all of California together folks. I agree with Frank, anyone breaks into my home is likely to get a .357, or .40 caliber, or even 7mm Mauser sized hole in their head. Actually probably multiple holes if I still feel threatened after the first magazine.
And I'm probably the least armed of my friends. Hate to see what would happen if someone broke into one of their houses.
The private Israeli firm that provides gasoline to the Palestinian Authority said a check for more than 22 million dollars bounced last week and announced it has stopped deliveries. "A check for 103 million shekels (22.4 million dollars) made out to Dor-Allon was returned unpaid last week and we have stopped deliveries because the Palestinian arrears are accumulating," a Dor-Allon spokesman told AFP Monday.
Amid the threat of a fuel crisis in the Palestinian territories, an Israeli official questioned by AFP said the "government cannot intervene in a matter involving a private contract."
Since the 1994 creation of the Palestinian Authority, Dor-Allon has provided some 600,000 tonnes of fuel and 120,000 tonnes of gas per year to the Palestinian Energy Authority, which acts as the wholesaler in the territories. Sources at the energy authority said their arrears currently stand at about 120 million shekels (26.1 million dollars).
The Palestinian Authority is suffering from a severe cash crisis, which could be exacerbated following the victory of radical Islamist group Hamas in last month's general election. The United States and European Union have threatened to cut off aid unless Hamas renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist and respects previously signed international agreement.
On Monday, however, EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the European Commission had earmarked 120 million euros (142 million dollars) in much-needed funds for the Palestinians. The always cash-strapped Palestinian Authority is desperate for funds since Israel imposed sanctions on the incoming Hamas-led government, including a freeze on paying customs duties, worth around 50 million dollars a month.
They surrounded a house early Monday, Feb. 27 where the terrorists were holed up in the affluent east Riyadh Hamra district. Saudi forces reportedly sustained losses as well as civilians in the battle area. Sounds of gunfire and exploding rockets and grenades rang through the Saudi capital.
The fugitives were said to be tied to al Al Qaidas foiled attack Friday, Feb. 24, on the worlds biggest refinery at Abqaiq in the eastern province of Dammam which processes 7 million barrels of oil a day. Saudi guards shot up at least two suicide cars packed with explosives outside the gates of the complex. Al Qaeda threatens to continue hitting Saudi oil installations.
#3
Goldwater WAS right. But we elected LBJ and it's been all downhill from there. If any of you doubt the saying that God makes great things happen from small things, I urge you to study the Immigration Reform Act of 1965. People today remember LBJ for the Vietnam War. A generation from now people will remember him far more for that Act and Vietnam will be only a footnote. Intended as a throwaway piece of legislation to mollify a potentially restive piece of Johnson's huge post-1964 majority, it changed the country more than anything since the Great Depression and NONE of its authors had the slightest idea of what their actions were really going to do to the country. If they had they certainly wouldn't have done it. I'm sure Johnson is royally pissed to know that he, a proud Anglo Texan, is almost singlehandedly responsible for making Texas a majority minority state. I've never seen a better example of the law of unintended consequences.
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 17:08
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#4
You're absolutely right about that, mac, except that I believe they did have a good idea of what would happen, at least that it would reverse the old preferences for Europeans in favor of their worlders.
I wrote on this topic in grad school at UT. I did a lot of research at the LBJ Library and knew Walt Rostow, LBJ's NSA, quite well. Neither LBJ nor the people around him who crafted the Act really understood what they were doing. Bobby Kennedy is on record, while Attorney General, as saying that there would probably be only 5,000 Asians come to the U.S. in the first year after which "immigration from that source will dry up." Check the Congressional Record for 1965--it's there in the Senate hearings. This Act was to please the urban ethnic pols--Italians, Poles, Greeks, etc. Nobody--except a right wing group whose brochure I found in the LBJ archives--seemed to have a clue about what would really happen. Johnson certainly didn't. You can read The Vantage Point from cover to cover without ever seeing one word LBJ wrote about the Act. It's listed only on the inside cover along with all the other legislation he passed. Like I said before, I've never seen a clearer example of the law of unintended consequences.
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 17:34
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For a true definition of martyrdom, she points to the sacrifice of Riyanto, a young man dispatched with other members of the Nahdlatul Ulama youth militia during Christmas several years ago to guard churches threatened with attacks. When he discovered a bomb outside a church, he tried to throw it out of the way of the crowds and was killed when it blew up. Ms. Wahid and others mark the anniversary of his death every year. "We always tell this message: This is the real case of martyrdom. That's the way to defend religion, not by killing others but by defending others' rights to practice their religion."
This article is a bit too kind, IMHO; in a large part, this was a instrumentalization of this sad case by political/confessional orgs which are trying to get a new virginity regarding antisemitism.
At the parisian demonstration organized "against racism" (remember, in France racism is something that emanates from the Evil French society, as illustrated below) by thoses who enabled themselves the islamization of France (leftists, socialists, "antiracist" orgs, official dhimmi jewish orgs, gaullists, msm, church hierarchy,...), trotskysts attacked the leader of the MPF conservative christian party Philippe de Villiers and he had to be escorted out by police forces.
His thought-crime? Explicitely positioning himself against the accelerated and gvt-enabled islamization of France.
Thus, he's "right wing", and to be demonized as pépé Le Pen (who wisely choose not to go to this PC-fest himself)...
This is awful... this whole "marching on the streets against racism" was an insult to Ilan (his family didn't participate as noted below, and the original all-jewish demonstration that was to be done in the barbarians 's territory at Bagneux, where nobody heard a thing during the 3 weeks of torture, was prevented by the authorities for fear of "provoking violence"), thoses who let the barbarians in are now acting as if they were concerned... and who do they blame?
Well, the National front and the MPF (slandered as "antisemite, which is totally untrue, unlike at least some parts of the NF), of course!
Ilan Halimi was killed by the racism generated by the "rightwingers", not by "youths" soaked in a jihadist/islamist culture, that's what was said (the communists sang their usual anti-NF slogans, "N for nazi, F for fascist").
Note that despite what is written below, it is not the security which has ejected PdV (the Betar and the JDL, in that case, this being initially a jewish demonstration), but pro-immigration leftists (pleonasm), including the Licra (secular leftist jews representating mostly the media elite) and Sos-racisme (socialist proxy).
Video here.
Also, there WAS a National front delegation, represented by Jean-Richard Sulzer, a jewish NF Ile-de-France politician.
Only good news is that the islamo-leftist Mrap "antiracist" dared not to show itself openly, for its members are identified as islamic antisemite enablers even to the left, or to split factions within it (the stalinists vs the islamists).
Rank and file jews are not duped by theses goons anymore, at least that's what I hope.
Some non-PC jewish orgs sent a communique noting how shameful was that incident, especially since they clearly identify the islamic ennemy and can't help notice PdV is the only non islamo-collaborator mainstream pol, and Alain Finkielkraut, noted anti-idiotarian jewish intellectual (not the pitiful buffoon Bernard Henry Lévy!!!) expressed his disgust too.
In 2002, about 20% of french jews voted for Le Pen, even though he is (justly, IMHO) seen as an antisemite... BUT, he was also the only leader to stand up to the colonization of France.
Now, with the national Front turning toward muslims and the antiglobo left (sort of), I wonder if the catholic De Villiers will benefit from that sympathy.
Anyway, 2007 (2006?) presidential elections will be crucial.
Either there is an earthquake and PdV or JMLP is elected (very, very, *very* unlikely), with then much trouble to follow, or France's deathspiral will goes on, only faster, with Nicolas Sarkozy (allowing foreigners to vote, funding mosques with taxpayers money, "updating" the law on State/Church separation to favorize "french islam",...) or Lionel Jospin/Ségolène Royal/Laurent Fabius... (a pure-breed old school tranzi socialist, need I to say more?), or Dominique Galouzeau "de Villepin" (like Yacoub Ben shirak, only able to wax bad grandiloquent poetry),...
Frankly, I believe it's hopeless, and we're getting screwed, and will cease to exist as a functioning Nation circa 2020-2030 (talking heads see an ethnic war à la Yugoslavia circa 2010-2012).
Farewell, France, I'll miss you, not your Elites.
Enlightened since 1789, gaullo-communist since 1945, statist since 1958, progressive since 1968, technocratic since 1974, socialist since 1981, dhimmi since 2002 (and full of pseudo intellectuals who make such recapitulation like this out of their *ss, that would be me).
What an interesting run.
Tens of thousands of people protesting racism and anti-Semitism held marches in France Sunday in memory of a Jewish kidnap victim tortured and killed by a violent extortion gang.
Jewish and anti-racism groups organising the main rally in Paris said up to 200,000 people walked through the east of the capital, from Place de la Repblique to Nation, past the mobile telephone shop on Boulevard Voltaire where the 23-year-old murdered man, Ilan Halimi, worked.
Police put their number at 33,000.
Some lit candles or released white balloons as they passed the shop, while others sang the French national anthem or chanted Jewish prayers.
The Paris demonstration included figures from across the political
spectrum, including interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Socialist party head Francois Hollande and former Prime minister Lionel Jospin, as well as the leaders of rights groups, unions, student bodies, and Jewish and Muslim associations.
Religious personalities, including Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Paris Mosque and chairman of the Council of Muslims in France, and Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, were also present in the forefront of the march.
Notably absent, however, were members of the victims family. Ilan Halimi's mother Ruth and two sisters, Anne-Laure and Yael, announced they wouldn't attend the demonstration but they stressed that they were moved by the marchers' solidarity.
They denied that their decision to stay away from the march was linked to the participation of extreme-right officials. Some of Ilan's friends, who have been working him in the mobile phone shop, also stayed away because, they told French television, of the presence of extreme-right officials.
One far-right politician who attempted to participate, Philippe de Villiers, leader of the Movement for France party, was forcibly expelled by private security guards employed by the organisers, while members of the xeonophobic National Front party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen did not attend, police said, despite vows to do so.
Roger Cukierman, head of the umbrella group of Jewish secular associations in France (CRIF), which organised the marches with two left-wing anti-racism groups, said: "Its important for French society to realise that little anti-Semite and racist prejudices can have terrible consequences."
Silent marches of between 1,000 and 2,000 people also took place in the cities of Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux, Marseille and Strasbourg with demonstrators carrying pictures of Halimi and banners reading "Rest in Peace, Ilan".
In London, a crowd of about 50 sympathisers gathered in front of the French embassy to remember the victim, in what ambassador Gerard Erreta said was "a show of solidarity and vigilance," in the face of anti-semitism.
In Jerusalem several hundred Israelis of French origin demonstrated in solidarity with French Jews following the murder.
"The martyrdom of Ilan reminds us that anti-semitism still kills 60 years after Auschwitz," Rabbi Jacques Gruenwald told the gathering.
Sunday's demonstration in Paris was the largest since 1990 when around 200,000 people took on the streets of the capital four days after Jewish tombstones were desecrated in the cemetery of the southern city of Carpentras.
For the first time since WWII, then Frances President, Francois Mitterrand, and the countrys Prime Minister, Michel Rocard lead the march.
Government spokesman
The French government was wary about drawing too heavy a link between the criminal gang responsible for Halimis murder and anti-Jewish sentiment, however.
Past incidents in which apparently anti-Semitic crimes turned out to be staged or committed for other motives seemed to lie behind its cautious stance.
A government spokesman, Jean-Francois Cope, told French radio that while there were "strong suspicions" of anti-Semitic motives in "this horrible affair", investigators were still getting to the bottom of the case.
"Absolutely everything must be done to know all the details" before conclusions about racism or anti-Semitism were drawn, he said.
Halimis abduction and murder has sent shockwaves through the country, and raised tensions between Frances large Jewish and Muslim communities.
Gang leader to be extradited within a week
Halimi, 23, was kidnapped in January by the gang, which, among other tacticts, apparently used young women as bait to lure men into a trap. According to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot one of these women was a 16-year-old Iranian.
He was held for three weeks while his abductors sent ransom demands to his family.
On February 13, Halimi was discovered, naked, bound and gagged, with horrific burns and stab injuries, alongside a railway track near Paris. He died while being taken to hospital.
Tipped off by one of the "sex-bait" women, police quickly swooped on a number of suspects, which has grown to 17 with recent arrests.
The alleged ringleader, identified by prosecutors as Youssef Fofana, 25, was arrested in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan and France has requested his extradition.
Fofana, a convicted petty criminal of Ivorian origin and with French citizenship, is suspected of being behind two other extortion rackets that involved threatening doctors, businessmen and minor celebrities.
Questioned by police, he allegedly said the gang targeted Halimi because he was presumed as a Jew to be wealthy, but denied being the killer or that anti-Semitism was the motive.
Police said they had confirmation that four of six other potential kidnap victims tracked by the gang were also Jewish.
"He has shown no remorse, no regret," an investigator said of Fofana, who was expected to be extradited to France within a week.
On Saturday, two of the young women and a male suspect were placed under formal criminal investigation as a precursor to being charged on kidnapping and illegal detention counts.
Although the gang allegedly includes whites, blacks and Arabs, media attention has focused on its Muslim members, stoking animosity between members of Frances 600,000-strong Jewish community and the five-million-strong Muslim population.
#3
didn't realize it was so long, but there was some half-truths and falsehoods in this article I wanted to precise (some very PC, like the "5 millions muslims", official figure is 6 millions, and truth is closer to 8-10 millions, as there is probably about 12 millions+ non-europeans in France, total pop being between 62-63 millions, figure is often put ca. 15% muslims or more).
#4
Of course, A5089. I really like reading your comments, and without your added insight, we would be a lot longer in interpreting the article. And more than likely, wrong.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) The Marine Corps plans to send the troubled Osprey aircraft into combat zones within a year and is activating a squadron of the tilt-rotor planes this week.
``Obviously, due to operational concerns we don't want to tell exactly when they will deploy,'' said spokesman Master Sgt. Phil Mehringer at Marine Corps Air Station New River, where the squadron will be based. ``But it's certainly going to happen in the near future. Definitely, within a year.''
The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, had a troubled start. Four Marines died in a 2000 crash in North Carolina that was caused by a ruptured titanium hydraulic line. Nineteen others were killed in a crash that year in Arizona that investigators blamed on pilot error.
The Pentagon approved full production of the Osprey in a $19 billion program last year, and the Marines have been showing them off. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew aboard one last week.
Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, which will carry the Vietnam-era ``Thunder Chickens'' nickname of the helicopter unit it is replacing, is to be formally activated Friday. There are about 250 people in the squadron and at least a dozen aircraft.
The Ospreys will replace the aging, Vietnam-era fleet of CH-46E twin-rotor helicopters. The newer aircraft can carry more cargo and fly five times farther at speeds around 300 mph.
#1
A Marine Sargeant in our family once told me for this piece of equipment, synchronization of the rotors (especially when in 'vertical flight') is everything. The Chinook "just bucks around a bit" when things are out of whack. The Osprey flips over.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/27/2006 13:58
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#2
The Osprey is the wartime equivalent of a golf handicap. Guess they figured the body count was getting a little one-sided.
#3
The one thing about helicopters is that a lot of things have to go right to keep them airborne and under control. They are a flock of parts flying in perfect formation. Now add more linkages and rotate the whole rotor disc and you will need a whole bunch of things to go right.
But what do I know? Ima fixed wing pilot with a limited amount of piloting helicopters, so I am a bid prejudiced, but in awe of rotary wings.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/27/2006 14:26
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#4
Ditto AP's comments: several years working on choppers and yeah the 46 needs the blades synched up to work right. i still can't understand the added complexity of a) folding props, and b) folding wings even tho' space is precious on board the ships. if the birds stay 'up' then the space isn't needed for maintenance, but i think there is going to be an awful lot of 'stiff-winged' ospreys out there.
just the humbel opinion of a 26 year Navy Fixed and Rotary winged wrench twister.
#5
I wonder if the "fanwing" aircraft will ever get developed as a heavy lift alternative. I can't say I'm very fond of their basic design, which I think would could improve a hundred fold. But there still might be something there.
#7
its the size of the big helos especially an osprey that bothers me - even the worst Jihadi with an ak couldnt miss one of these behemoths trying to fast rope in a team of spec forces or whatever - unless the whole fckin thin g is tottaly 50'cal proof it gonna be a disaster taking them into frontline combat ,i'd rather go in on a fckin parachute then something like a chinook or CH-53 or osprey, simply to big to slow to low, big bullet magnet arghhh
#8
All new X planes have glitches and bugs to work out. And yes of course there is insane number of moving parts in such equipment that must all move and act right.
The bottom line thou is how you use such equipment. The Osprey will not be making vertical landing in hot zones were you may risk sending a helicopter. However from base to base or secured landing zones they would be ideal. We lose a lot of helicopters because they have to fly long low altitude from here to their. The Osprey can take off short takeoff or even vertical go level then fly high altitude safe from ground fire to location (huge improvement in itself then add the multiplied range increase).
#9
Years ago read an article about helos. The author said the most striking thing about his research is that the more any interview subject understood about how they actually worked the less likely they were willing to get in one.
#11
Years ago, I spoke to a Marine Captain chopper pilot at Futenma. He described it thusly: An airplane flies by using the laws of aerodynamics; a helicopter flies by beating the air into submission.
#13
The article is a bit misleading. While it does hold more cargo than the 46, it does so by a limited margin. It can not hold a HMMV internally, like the Army's CH-47, you still can not fast rope from it or perform recovery operation over water without melting the ropes and burning the troops. All of that aside the engineers have yet to fix the aerodynamic issue of pilot unduced settling with power of one set of rotors in a turn. Until the issues get sorted out I don't expect the reports to be good on this one. I do expect the lawyers to be having a feeding frenzy soon.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
02/27/2006 19:20
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According to various Net blogs, the USDOD and US Army have already contracted for the next generation of [post-OSPREY] advanced combat transports, e.g. so-called "quad-rotors", allegedly capable of lifting 1 or 1-2 Abrams-type MBTS, or the equivalent in delivered AFV-Infantry weight. LOOKS LIKE THE USDOD WANTS MORE REAL-TIME TILT-ROTOR COMBAT EXPERIENCE BEFORE THE NEW GENERATIONS, SUCCESSORS TO THE WW2 GLIDER INFANTRY, BRIT AIRLANDING RGTS, VIETNAM AIRMOBILE/AIR CAVALRY, COLD WAR AIR ASSAULT, and now POST-COLD WAR "AIR-MECH", COME ON LINE.
#1
This guys is such a thoughtful person I wish he would come here and live and comment on life. He would be safer. You will never read any commnetary like this in the MSM.
Peeling Tater would toss a wrench into the Religious leaderships plans would it not?
Posted by: SPoD ||
02/27/2006 15:39
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They hate us because we humiliated them, showed up the gross inferiority of their culture. To them we are the other, detested and feared in a way we can barely understand. Things got really bad in the 19th century. When European society achieved industrial lift-off, Europeans were suddenly buzzing all over the world like a swarm of bees. They encountered these other cultures, that had been vegetating in a quiet conviction of their own superiority for centuries (or in the case of the Chinese, millennia). When these encounters occurred, the encountered culture collapsed in a cloud of dust. Some of them, like the Turks, managed to reconstitute themselves as more or less modern nations; others, like the Arabs and the Chinese, are still struggling with the trauma of that encounter. Neither the Arabs nor the Chinese, for example, have yet been able to attain rational, constitutional government.
As I said, time is short. The Hun is at the gate. In the case of most European countries, in fact, the Hun, the hesperophobe, is inside the gate. We can dream on for a while, dream that our cultural superiority, our technological superiority, our political superiority, will preserve us against all assaults. Perhaps we should remember that the Huns were cultural illiterates, technological ignoramuses, and political incompetents. It doesn�t take much in the way of culture, technology, or statecraft to deliver a crippling blow to a weary, sybaritic, over-governed civilization that is near the end of its allotted span and has lost all faith in its own founding values. Time is short.
#3
Nimble, immigration to Europe from elsewhere wouldn't be nearly the problem it is if the institutions there weren't leading purveyors of hesperophobia themselves.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/27/2006 13:57
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Huns were cultural illiterates, technological ignoramuses, and political incompetents.
by Jay Nordlinger, National Review. EFL & emphasis added.
President Bush had exactly the right words for the blowing up of the Golden Mosque: an "evil act." You could hardly have done anything worse in Iraq. This is taking a match to a tinderbox. The terrorists are sowing hatred, distrust, and, of course, violence.
The terrorists obviously want a civil war. Will Iraqis give it to them? I hope not, and I think not.
I noticed some glee last week, when the country was aflame. (I'm talking about some glee in America.) There are principled critics of the war; then there are those who want it to fail simply because they want it to blow up in George Bush's face, and Tony Blair's, and others'.
I also noticed some loose talk, as in "the Sunnis blew up the mosque." No, "the Sunnis" didn't. Some Sunnis did. They probably weren't even Iraqi. Hajim Alhasani, the president of the Iraqi National Assembly, didn't blow up that mosque. Neither did millions of other Sunnis.
The problem in Iraq as in other situations around the world is that a few thousand can control the news, control the atmosphere, in a sense control the country. But when something like this happens, we shouldn't forget the millions who want to live decently the millions we saw braving dangers to go to the polls last year. Three times.
Will the terrorists be allowed to steal the country from these millions?
I wish to quote one Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars. He was furious at Shiite leaders for urging demonstrations against the Golden Mosque attack.
He said according to wire services "They are all fully aware that the Iraqi borders are open, and the streets are penetrated with those who want to create strife among Iraqis."
Exactly so. There are cool heads in Iraq Iraqi ones and we must fervently hope that they will prevail.
Years ago, I used to read about sectarian violence in India Muslims killed Hindus, by the hundreds, etc., etc., etc. I didn't see how India could survive, as a country. It seemed too unnatural a country: all those religions, all those ethnicities, all those languages. Two Gandhis were assassinated by ethnic extremists.
Today, India is acknowledged as maybe the great juggernaut of the world. No one questions its legitimacy as a country, or its staying-power.
And for years, I would ask Indians whether they felt Indian or Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, or whatever. Not a single one ever answered anything other than "Indian." Some seemed affronted by the question.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 14:33
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#3
Ahmadenijad (spelling?) of Iran blamed it on the Americans and the Zionists right away. We've an article here, somewhere, quoting his latest rantings.
The only thing rising faster than China is the hype about China. In January, the People's Republic's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded that of Britain and France, making China the world's fourth-largest economy. In December, it was announced that China replaced the United States as the world's largest exporter of technology goods. Many experts predict that the Chinese economy will be second only to the United States by 2020, and possibly surpass it by 2050.
Upon close examination, China's record loses some of its luster. China's economic performance since 1979, for example, is actually less impressive than that of its East Asian neighbors, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, during comparable periods of growth. Its banking system, which costs Beijing about 30 percent of annual GDP in bailouts, is saddled with nonperforming loans and is probably the most fragile in Asia. The comparison with India is especially striking. In six major industrial sectors (ranging from autos to telecom), from 1999 to 2003, Indian companies delivered rates of return on investment that were 80 to 200 percent higher than their Chinese counterparts. The often breathless conventional wisdom on China's economic reform overlooks major flaws that render many predictions about China's trajectory misleading, if not downright hazardous.
The Chinese economy is not merely inefficient; it has also fallen victim to crony capitalism with Chinese characteristicsthe marriage between unchecked power and illicit wealth. And corruption is worst where the hand of the state is strongest. The most corrupt sectors in China, such as power generation, tobacco, banking, financial services, and infrastructure, are all state-controlled monopolies. None of that is unprecedented, of course. Tycoons in Russia, after all, have looted the state's natural resources. China, at least, boasts genuine private entrepreneurs who have built prosperous companies. But China's politically connected tycoons have cashed in on China's real estate boom; nearly half of Forbes' list of the 100 richest individuals in China in 2004 were real estate developers.
Various indicators, pieced together from official sources, suggest endemic graft within the state. The number of "large-sum cases" (those involving monetary amounts greater than $6,000) nearly doubled between 1992 and 2002, indicating that more wealth is being looted by corrupt officials. The rot appears to be spreading up the ranks, as more and more senior officials have been ensnared. The number of officials at the county level and above prosecuted by the government rose from 1,386 in 1992 to 2,925 in 2002.
An optimist might believe that these figures reveal stronger enforcement rather than metastasizing corruption, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Dishonest officials today face little risk of serious punishment. On average, 140,000 party officials and members were caught in corruption scandals each year in the 1990s, and 5.6 percent of these were criminally prosecuted. In 2004, 170,850 party officials and members were implicated, but only 4,915 (or 2.9 percent) were subject to criminal prosecution. The culture of official impunity is thriving in China.
What's worse, corruption is now assuming forms normally associated with regime decay. Corruption involving large numbers of officials used to be rare. Now it's rampant. Regional data suggest that large-scale corruption rings account for 30 to 60 percent of all the cases of graft uncovered by authorities. In some of the worst instances, entire provincial, municipal, and county governments were found to be tainted.
As ominous as the corruption itself is what these scandals are beginning to reveal about the government's legitimacy. In their confessions, corrupt officials often blame their misdeeds on a loss of faith in communism. There is anecdotal evidence that senior party officials have taken to consulting fortune-tellers about their political careers. The ruling elite in China, it appears, is drifting and insecure. Fearful about what the future may hold, some officials do not want to wait even a few years to turn their power into wealth. In 2002, almost 20 percent of the officials prosecuted for bribery and nearly 30 percent of those punished for abuse of power were younger than 35. In Henan Province in 2003, 43 percent of local party bosses caught up in corruption were between 40 and 50 years old (as compared with 32 percent older than 50). China has seen its future leaders, and a disproportionate number of them are on the take.
#1
The only thing rising faster than China is the hype about China.
Truer words were never spoken.
Regional data suggest that large-scale corruption rings account for 30 to 60 percent of all the cases of graft uncovered by authorities. In some of the worst instances, entire provincial, municipal, and county governments were found to be tainted.
I wouldn't let that fool me. Anyone remember JFK's electoral victories in Illinois and Texas in 1960? Entire state, municpal, and county governments were on the take in the United States well into the 70s, and that didn't seem to affect us much.
#2
It didn't effect us as much since we have a free market. Monopolies held by the state are very suseptible to corruption (see Oil-for-Food). The Soviet Union had a very similar problem in the 70s and along with a crumbling infastructure helped their downfall. China has a decent infastructure in the cities, but a pathetic one in the rual areas. Farmers are revolting from being screwed by government companies polluting their farms and then real estate groups pushing them out. The only thing really holding China together is the people in the cities and their easy access to lots and lots of capitalistic goods. With the 30% GDP being spent on bad loans, this is not a sustainable crutch as soon taxes will rise above what city people will be willing to pay and they start protesting too. The government will either try to run over them with tanks or cut back on loans to appease them. Both are roads to communist disaster. Once the buisnesses are cut off, they will crumble and the cities will be awash with civil unrest. China is in deep doo-doo and they may see a militaristic jont the salve to keep the country together while painful reforms are enacted.
#3
Its banking system, which costs Beijing about 30 percent of annual GDP in bailouts, is saddled with nonperforming loans and is probably the most fragile in Asia.
Some estimates regarding their bad debt range from 500 billion to a whopping one trillion dollars.
In Henan Province in 2003, 43 percent of local party bosses caught up in corruption were between 40 and 50 years old (as compared with 32 percent older than 50).
Henan province. Does that name ring a bell? Home to the world's largest medically caused AIDS crisis, the Henan 'bloodheads' have yet to be visibly prosecuted.
When first publicized by activist Wan Yanhai, the state's first response was to arrest him. Slow reaction and coverup mentality allowed many of the infected plasma donors to migrate into the major urban hubs without any awareness of their infection.
China is faced with a monumental AIDS crisis the like of which only Africa has been cursed with, to date. Combined with staggering bad bank debt, shabby infrastructure (the Three Gorges Dam face is already exhibiting cracks) and a potential AIDS pandemic, China remains the pissh0le it has always been. A micron thick coating of glossy lacquer changes nothing.
Under no circumstances must China be allowed to appropriate Taiwan's fabulous wealth in order to prop up this tottering Everest of dung.
Several hundred young people, some with faces masked and heads covered (wearing helmets?), gathered Sunday afternoon at the Place de la Nation, in Paris. The demonstrators protested racism and anti-semitism, shouting "Fofana, bastard, the Jews will have your skin!", "Hang Fofana!" and "Revenge for Ilan". T
Some troublemakers along the edge of the march, at which several tens of thousands of people marched calmly between the Place de la Republic and the Place de la Nation, tried to manhandle a young man from northern Africa. Dozens of plainclothes policemen, armed with batons, immediately intervened to protect the young man. Helmeted CRS and members of the anti-riot police were positioned in the Place de la Nation where the situation continued to be tense on Sunday evening.
My translation - any corrections by better French speakers / readers would be welcome as I'm doing this without a grammar or dictionary to hand.
#1
Something that nobody has mentioned, is that it is rare that Jews have been so oppressed they turn to terrorism. But if one or more Euro governments take the side of Moslems against the Jews, they might create a terrorist nightmare 100 times worse than anything the Moslems might do.
Granted, most of the terrorism would be directed at the Moslems...
But, as the expression goes, they ain't seen nothing yet.
#3
Translation is quite correct (yup, they were helmeted, full motorbike helmet is a staple of organized street demonstraters here, as they both conceal identity and protect), your french must certainly be better than my own broken english.
#4
The French non-muslims should read carefully the truthful account of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, and ponder. You don't want to get the Jews that stirred up again, even the ones in Israel. Nations could disappear if things get too far out of hand. While the Jews don't go out of their way to pick a fight, if you hound them enough, they will turn like a pack of rabid wolves. What happens after that isn't pretty for anybody.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 14:48
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#5
There are about 500,000 Jews in France. Somewhat over half are Sephardic Jews, who fled North Africa after 1948. While they are generally of more Gallicized background than those who went from North Africa to Israel, they are still strong in their identiy and relatively "tough" IIUC. Most of the Ashkenazic (European background) Jews in France are highly assimilated, and I doubt anyone is particularly scared of them. Of course since they are wealthier, its easier for them to avoid muslim and other immigrant areas than it is for the sephardim.
#6
Nimble Spemble asks the musical question: King David Hotel?
which I assume is in reply to Anonymoose's assertion that: ...it is rare that Jews have been so oppressed they turn to terrorism.
He said it was rare, not unknown. You know, it's pretty funny, whenever people mention Arab terrorism, there's always some joker who pipes up with "King David Hotel!"
What about the Sbarro bombing? King David Hotel!
And the Seder? King David Hotel!
Disco? King David Hotel!
Grocery store? King David Hotel!
Any number of buses? King David Hotel!
I'll let someone else handle the Baruch Goldstein version of this classic routine.
A posting by psychologist-blogger Pat Santy ("Dr. Sanity"); EFL'd to get to the good part. I think she's nailed it here.
. . . From the beginning (was it only 5 years ago?) the Democrats and the left have been hysterically screaming about quagmires and civil wars with their usual generalized defeatism; and more recently we have heard the growing uneasiness on the part of Republicans and neocons that the Bush policies are moving too slowly.
Both the excessive hysteria and the niggling uneasiness come from the same psychological source -- a need to have everything resolved by the 2006 elections; or at the latest by the 2008 elections. The Democrats would like Bush's policies to unambiguously fail; while the Republicans are hoping for unambiguous success.
Too bad both desires will be frustrated.
The kind of major shift in US foreign policy that Bush has initiated may actually take decades to play out; and the repercussions of what has happened in the last 5 years may ripple for half a century or more. That is to say, there will be no instant gratification and no instant and universal successful outcome or failure --i.e., the kind that can win votes and influence money flow in time for the 2006 elections; nor probably for the 2008 ones either.
We are new parents who uneasily hold the tiny crying infant in our large bumbling hands. As we look at this small creature we have created, we have many thoughts and fears.
We might anxiously wonder what the future will bring for him and for us? Will this child grow up to be a doctor? Or a mass murderer? We have no way of knowing at the moment, and can only commit ourselves to providing the nurture and care necessary for optimal personality development.
Initially, the task is messy and rather smelly; but at some point, that small infant will be fully capable of making his own decisions and going forward on his own. For a human infant, that happy day generally occurs somewhere in the teen years.
I have no idea how long it takes for a liberal democracy; but expecting it to mature in 3-5 years requires a excessive degree of fantasy and self-delusion.
Personally, I think we have done all that it is possible to do for the last few years to give the Middle East a chance to grow in freedom and prosperity. We don't have to be perfect parents in this. Winnicutt's concept of the "good enough" parent is applicable here. We are only human, after all. It is simply not possible to sieze every opportunity and optimize every intervention. We have also done quite a bit to ensure the best possible hope for our own future and the continuation of values and freedoms we hold dear. And, we have done amazingly well no matter what the skeptics say.
Life will certainly be interesting in the next 25 years as we watch what has been set into motion and as we deal with other more immediate treats and situations that arise.
And, if we refrain from the reflex need for instant gratification and the demand that everything be exactly as we wish it right now, this very minute--many of us may live to see a positive transformation in a part of the world that now breeds an implaccable enemy of freedom, individuality and humanity.
Does anyone out there have a better idea?
Posted by: Mike ||
02/27/2006
11:59 ||
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#1
This is a breath of true sanity.
Humans are flawed creatures; all of their creations are also flawed. Conservatives seem to inherently know this much more so than leftists, but even they at times forget.
W said that this would be a long haul with setbacks, and that it might outlast our lifetimes. He put our struggles against Islamofascism into terms that anyone who gets humanity's flawed nature should understand.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/27/2006 14:49
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Not that I've heard. Certainly nothing from the Dhimmidonks or Moonbats or LLL that serves the interests of the US or of freedom in general.
This is, indeed, a whisper of sanity in a shitstorm of partisan whoring, Islamofascist spew and Shari'a misogyny, the gurgling cries of beheaded innocents, 10-faced Olde Europe dissembling and duplicity, Russkie and ChiCom pimpery and merc proxy misanthropy, MultiCulti Tranzi carping and scheming and thievery, UN bowing and scraping before tinpot dictators, Paleo Hate Machine diatribe, and that instant of total silence after a boomer detonates - before the screams...
My last request: Hold a séance and let me know how it turns out.
Sunni Arabs are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new Iraqi government if rival Shiites return mosques seized in last week's sectarian attacks and meet other unspecified demands, a top Sunni figure said Monday.
Meanwhile,Iraq's interior minister told ABC News that he believes American journalist Jill Carroll is alive and will be released, even though the Sunday deadline set by her kidnappers had passed.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr also said he knew who abducted the 28-year-old journalist last month.
"We know his name and address, and we are following up on him as well as the Americans," he said. "I think she is still alive."
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" Monday that he spoke with Jabr about Carroll's plight.
"We are doing all that we can to help bring about a release and will persist with that," Khalilzad said.
Carroll, a freelancer working for the Christian Science Monitor, was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad and was last seen on a videotape broadcast Feb. 10 by a Kuwaiti television station, Al-Rai. The station said the kidnappers threatened to kill her unless the United States met unspecified demands by Sunday.
In Germany, the government denied a New York Times report that its intelligence service had passed information about
Saddam Hussein's plans for defending Baghdad to the United States a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Times said a German intelligence officer supplied the information to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in February 2003.
"This account is wrong," German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said. "The Federal Intelligence Service and, therefore, also the government, had until now no knowledge of such a plan."
In continuing violence, four mortar rounds exploded Monday in a Shiite neighborhood, killing four and wounding 16, police Maj. Moussa Abdul Karim said. U.S. helicopters fired on three houses 15 miles west of Samarra and arrested 10 people, Iraqi police said.
It was unclear whether the raid was linked to Wednesday's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, triggering the wave of reprisal attacks that shook the nation last week.
The Sunnis boycotted the talks Thursday after the Askariya shrine bombing sparked attacks against Sunni mosques in Baghdad, Basra and elsewhere. The walkout and Sunni-Shiite clashes threatened U.S. plans to establish a unity government capable of luring Sunnis away from the insurgency and raised doubts about U.S. plans to begin withdrawing some of its 138,000 soldiers this year.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, whose Iraqi Accordance Front spearheaded the Sunni boycott, said the Sunnis have not decided to return to the talks but are "intent on participating" in a new government.
"The situation is tense and within the next two days, we expect the situation to improve and then we will have talks," he told The Associated Press. "We haven't ended our suspension completely but we are on the way to end it."
He said there were "some conditions" that must be met first, chief among them the return of mosques still occupied by Shiite militants in Baghdad and Salman Pak. Al-Dulaimi did not mention the other demands, but some Sunni politicians have insisted on replacing Shiite police with Sunni soldiers in heavily Sunni areas.
Four people were killed Monday when several shells exploded near the Nasir Market in the mostly Shiite Shula area of western Baghdad, police said.
Otherwise, the city was generally peaceful Monday â the first day without extended curfews or a ban on private vehicles since the crisis erupted, pushing the nation to the brink of civil war.
Four bodies â blindfolded and handcuffed â were found Monday in Dora, a Baghdad neighborhood where a mortar barrage the night before killed 16 people and wounded 53. Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in an ambush Monday in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of the capital, officials said.
The U.S. military said an American soldier had died from non-combat related injuries suffered Friday north of Baghdad. The statement did not elaborate. Three soldiers were killed Sunday in combat in the capital.
Their deaths brought to at least 2,291 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.
Four people were killed in a pair of shootings Monday in Baqouba, the Diyala provincial capital. The day before, gunmen killed two youths playing soccer in Baqouba and wounded five.
Although sectarian violence has receded since the attacks last week, tensions remain high between majority Shiites and the minority Sunnis. Shiites dominate ranks of the government security forces and most of the insurgents are Sunnis.
More than 60 Shiite families fled their homes in predominantly Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad after receiving threats, said Shiite legislator Jalaladin al-Saghir and Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Jalil Khallaf.
Sunni and Shiite religious leaders have called for unity and an end to attacks on each other's mosques.
#1
In an all-out Sunni-Shi'a civil war, the Sunnis lose--the Shi'a have them outnumbered, the Kurds would either be neutral or side with the Shi'a, and there's no big power willing to intervene to save them. The attack on the Golden Mosque has supposedly brought Iraq to the bring of civil war--like most conventional wisdom dispensed by the MSM, that's probably 'way wrong, but no matter. The threat of imminent execution concentrates the mind wonderfully.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/27/2006 12:08
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#2
While I think everyone welcomes the news that Sunnis are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new Iraqi governement, certain "unspecified demands" not withstanding, I think the more symbolic, and positive, news here (assuming it is true) is that American journalist Jill Carroll is alive and will be released.
The fact that the kidnappers have not carried through on their stated intentions, despite their demands not being met, is further evidence that the terrorists and other thugs of their ilk are being further marginalized by the political process and the Iraqi people in general. I think after so many years of utterly senseless violence, the Iraqis may have finally had enough. It's time to get on with the business of building better lives for themselves.
So while sectarian violence has flared up recently and sparked fears of an all out civil war, thus far indications are that the Iraqi governement, military and police forces have been able to keep things in check for the time being. They have also made considerable efforts to communicate with the Iraqi people concerning what is really at stake here: The future of their country, the future for their children. Do you want a better, brighter future or do you want to see your children grow up in a living hell? You must choose now.
Add all of this up and one may start to think that the tipping point in Iraq is upon us. And the scales are finally beginning to tip in the favor of the US: Democracy taking hold, radical muslims being further marginalized, and Iraq taking its first real steps to becoming a model for the rest of the ME.
#3
I mean, think about it: Iraq is struggling to achieve some kind of parliamentary democracy only a few years after a muderous, tyranically dictator was removed from power. He had almost 2 generations to force his brand of abusive government and perverted values upon the Iraqis.
In the meantime, Iraq has become a focus of radical Islamic nutcases like Zarq and the M2s of Iran, plus lackeys like Tater doing everything in their power to prevent the government from happening.
I want immediate gratification NOW like everyone else, but we must keep the above in perspective. The talk of civil war is just MSM Tranzi crap wishful thinking. We need to be in for the long haul. It means training the Iraqi Army to take greater charge of their country. It means more people will continue to rat out the terrorists and murderers, and less people will harbor them. The tide is turning, but it does not turn immediately, except in Homer, Alaska.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/27/2006 15:37
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An Australian man convicted of receiving funds from Al Qaida has said Osama bin Laden does not like to be kissed and described himself as a reluctant Muslim who loved beer. Joseph Terrence Thomas said he had been seeking spiritual fulfilment as he went from a Christian upbringing in suburban Australia to becoming a Muslim convert training at an Al Qaida camp in Afghanistan. "I never really thought I'd be a Muslim," Thomas said on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Four Corners" program on Monday. "I'd say, 'Oh look, you know, I really love your religion but I really love my beer'," he said.
Thomas, also known as Jack, on Sunday became the first Australian convicted under tough new anti-terrorism laws. The 32-year-old father of three was found guilty in Victoria state's Supreme Court of receiving $3,500 and a plane ticket from senior al Qaeda agent Khaled bin Attash after training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in 2001. A jury of nine women and three men on Sunday also found him guilty of possessing a false passport. Sentencing proceedings will begin on Thursday and Thomas's lawyers have said he plans to appeal against the convictions. Thomas was found not guilty of two charges that he had intentionally provided support and resources to bin Laden's militant network between July 2002 and January 2003.
While he was at the Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, Thomas said he saw bin Laden three times, once shaking hands with him. "Very polite and humble and shy. He didn't like too many kisses ... he didn't mind being hugged but kisses he didn't like and he just seemed to float .. across the floor," Thomas told Four Corners in interviews recorded a month ago.
While admitting he trained at the camp and met bin Laden, Thomas has said in several interviews that he never had any intention of accepting Attash's offer of becoming a "sleeper" agent in Australia. "I might be naive and I might be an idealist, but I am not a dickhead who will help to hurt innocent people, which those people have shown is their tactic," he told The Age newspaper in interviews recorded about four weeks ago and published on Monday.
Thomas was a pantomime performer as a child and said he started ballet classes so he could meet girls. Disappointed when he was rejected by a Victorian dance school for being too stocky, he instead joined his brothers' punk rock band, The Lobotomy Scars.
Thomas, a short, baby-faced man with a thin beard, walked to court each day of his week-long trial in Melbourne with his parents Ian, a retired technical school teacher, and his mother Patsy, an aged-care nurse, by his side. His family described him as an idealist with a great social conscience who was driven by injustice. He worked in a soup kitchen and took up sky diving and scuba diving and dabbled in Buddhism and the occult before a Muslim friend took him to a mosque. After his conversion to Islam, he chose the name "Jihad". He wanted a Muslim wife and married Maryati, an Indonesian policeman's daughter, after flying to South Africa to meet her on a friend's recommendation.
Thomas told the ABC he met Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir in Malaysia in 2000 on his way back from his haj pilgrimage to Mecca. Bashir was jailed for 30 months for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. "My wife had gone to school with his wife," Thomas said.
He said he went to Afghanistan seeking an Islamic utopia but didn't find it. He was detained in Pakistan in January 2003. "The Taliban had their traditions but many of them were not Islamic," he told The Age, referring to Afghanistan's fundamentalist Islamic rulers who were driven from power in late 2001 after they refused to hand over bin Laden.
Jim Geraghty, blogging from Turkey, wonders if we're seeing a tipping point in Western attitudes toward Islam. Geraghty collects a lot of quotes, and writes of "my sense that in recent weeks, a large chunk of Americans just decided that they no longer have any faith in the good sense or non-hostile nature of the Muslim world."
What's interesting -- and what supports Geraghty's point -- is that Democratic politicians who have generally opposed "racial profiling" are nonetheless opposing the ports deal because, basically, the company involved is an Arab company. It's funny that it's the Bush Administration that has -- not least because it's traditionally been too friendly to the Saudis -- been very careful not to cast the current war as a war against Muslims or Arabs. (It was forever before Bush even admitted that his war against terror was actually a war against fundamentalist Islamic terror.) Obviously, however, the Democrats, and judging by the polls, a lot of other people, feel otherwise.
I think that's unfortunate. Osama and the Islamists want to see an all-out war between Islam and the West. If this happens, Islam will rapidly become a tiny remnant of its current self. You can worry about port security if you want (I did, though I feel better about the port deal now -- though in part because it appears that port security in general is so very bad that this deal can't make much of a difference) but casting this in terms that suggest that we're at war with all Arabs, or all Muslims, just buys into the Islamists' apocalyptic scenario. I don't like to see people in America, by pandering to stereotypes, doing that.
Folks at Rantburg are a lot more informed than the average Joe, so much of this isn't news to us. But I also sense a change here as reflected in the, shall we say, more kinetic nature of comments and the mods increased use of the sink trap indicate. The cartoons episode has shaken a lot of Americans confidence that our current strategy of fighting terrorism while avoiding outright confrontation with Islam can prevail. Comments by the Vatican over the weekend indicate that Benedict has limits on the number of cheeks to be turned also. Perhaps this is a tipping point of sorts on the way to the confrontation the Muslim world sure seems to be asking for.
#1
Comments by the Vatican over the weekend indicate that Benedict has limits on the number of cheeks to be turned also.
Each of us is only born with four apiece and Muslims are amongst the most slap-happy breed on earth. Go figure.
As has been said here before, by myself and others, if the cost of coexisting with Muslims outweighs the cost of exterminating them, guess what happens?
#2
I tend to place a lot of weight on the things they actually say and do, so I was ready to write off the whole stinkin' lot of them right from the git-go. Once you get past thinking that "they can't really mean those hateful things", the logical course of action is pretty clear.
#3
Since I am living and fighting with these guys...this is my opinion. Nobody here is happy with the bombing and I believe this may in the long run be a strategic victory for our side. None of those I work with give a civil war breaking out a chance of happening and if the government can remain committed to being firm and follow the rule of law we may have broken the back of Islamofascism as the President has said. If my folks are any indication of the future we have indeed tipped in our favor
#4
I agree the bombing was a defeat for the terrorists and rejectionist Sunnis. The Shiite riots and destruction of Sunni mosques clearly showed to the Sunnis that they are at the mercy/forbearance of the Shiites, that Sunnis are not the majority and that the "insurgents" can't do jack to protect them from the Shiites. The Sunnis were left naked and they know it.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 12:49
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#5
the "insurgents" can't do jack to protect them from the Shiites.
Good point, ed. I think Zarq's gang just lost a bunch of street cred.
#6
I've noticed this as well. I said the same the other day. A corner has indeed been turned. It has real potential to turn ugly and I respect George Bush for doing a good job to keep the tensions down as low as possible, while still fighting the war.
As for this port deal - I think too much is being made of the "racist" aspect of this. I think in general, many Americans, like me, just don't think it's a great idea to grant control of our running our ports to foreign countries with a potentially hostile interest; be it Russia, China or an Islamic country. I don't really care if its a good idea or a bad one. I would just feel better if our ports were run by American companies instead. Telling me I'm racist because of it is just a way to stop the discussion without having to really examine what this may or may not mean to our security.
#7
I think that's unfortunate. Osama and the Islamists want to see an all-out war between Islam and the West.
No. They want to continue with the current asymmetric warfare. An all out war, benefits the West.
If this happens, Islam will rapidly become a tiny remnant of its current self.
I can live with that. In fact, I could live with that ever since I did some reading on the history of Islam after my first month of reserve service in Intifada-I.
#8
No. They want to continue with the current asymmetric warfare. An all out war, benefits the West.
More precisely, they want all of Islam fighting while the West continues to sleep.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 14:33
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#9
TopMac,
Thanks for the "boots on the ground" intel. Sounds promising and is consistent with some other things I've read.
We still need to deal with the exporters of terror and unrest. These are Iran, Pakistan (territories) and Saudi Arabia (Wahhabism). KSA is key because Wahhabism is at the root of Islamist terror cycle.
#10
For some reason I thought about what would happen if the West used Moabs on selected Mosques during Friday prayers. Better than hitting Mecca or using nukes. Yeah its still a tremendous death toll and would hit innocents as well but when you get down to it, if we could sort out which Mosques were spreading the bile, and the cost of compromise exceeded the cost of extermination.
Well its a bit like Mike Corleoni taking out his enemies at one time. Do we have enough planes though?
From the Dept. of In Case You Didn't Already Have Enough To Worry About This Morning:
Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian scrapped an advisory council on unifying the island with China, a move that Beijing has warned would set off a serious crisis in the region. The decision to shut down the National Unification Council (NUC) and to scrap symbolic guidelines on possible reunification with mainland China came despite pressure against the move from Taiwan's close ally Washington. "The National Unification Council will cease functioning and the budget no longer be appropriated," said the pro-independence Chen, an outspoken critic of Beijing's claim of sovereignty over the island.
"The National Unification Guidelines will also cease to apply," Chen told reporters after a meeting of Taiwan's top security agency, the National Security Council. Chen said the decision had been prompted by "China's persistent military threat and its attempts to use non-peaceful means to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait."
Opposition lawmakers Monday threatened to launch massive protests if Chen went ahead and scrapped the council.
"This is a dangerous sign of the escalation of activities by Taiwan separatists," China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Chen Yunlin, director of the mainland's cabinet-level Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying last week. In a statement on its website, the office said that Chen's move "will certainly trigger a serious crisis across the Taiwan Straits and destroy peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region." It added: "We must sternly ask Chen Shui-bian to immediately stop his plan, which will bury the win-win prospects between the two sides of the (Taiwan) Strait."
#3
Chen Shui-bian should be applauded for doing what no one in Washington D.C. has the stones or ovaries to do. Namely, tell China to piss up a rope. Is anyone here satisfied with the fate of Hong Kong?
[crickets]
Then why in he|| should any of us be happy with the pending rape of Taiwan? China's Mandarins must have wet dreams over absorbing all the sub-micron silicon foundries operated by the world's eighteenth largest economy. This must not be allowed to happen to one of Asia's few democratic governments.
#4
"Gee, guys, you have a repressive one-party dictatorship that runs over its dissidents with main battle tanks. You have a one-child-per-family policy that leads to forced abortion and infanticide. Your government's finances are a mess. And you want us to trade a prosperous multipart democracy for the chance to be your wholly-owned subsidiary. You're kidding, right? . . . You're being really, really ironic, eh? . . . You mean you're serious????"
Posted by: Mike ||
02/27/2006 13:50
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#5
I smell some Chinese naval and missle saber-rattlingexercises coming up.
#6
If I was the president I would recognize the Taiwanese government as the true government of all of China. I wonder what the commies would think of that?
Posted by: Bob ||
02/27/2006 16:59
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#7
Chen is building the global case for Taiwanese independence by giving the mainland two choices - mutually destructive war, even iff the PRC "wins"; or for the PRC to accept=consider de facto Taiwan independence. A war right now will divert funds the PRC badly needs for domestic modernization - PRC and PLA will not only have to tolerate likely prohibitive PLA casualties in taking the island, but also the effects on the mainland of any WMDS the Chicoms may use in their attempt to subdue Taiwan andor lower the PLA's likely rates of casualties. Taiwan is also one of the several Asian nations that have asked Dubya to participate in US-led GMD. Most US analysts accept that Chinese/Chicom ambitions for East Asian and Pacific hegemony will NOT succeed unless both Taiwan and Japan, etal Asian dmeocracies, are defeated and suborned. Any Inter-Chinese costly regional war will also likely delay or hold back the PRC's oft-reported timelines of 2025-30 or 2050, when the PRC believes it will match, iff not exceed, the USA in global power. towards the latter decades. THE CHICOMS WILL TAKE THE WHOLE OF THE PACRIM IFF THEY COULD - THEIR DEFENSE WHITE PAPER ALREADY DESCRIBES ONE-HALF, MORE OR LESS, LIKELY MORE, OF CONUS AS FUTURE CHINESE TERRITORY, AND THAT WAR AGS THE USA "MUST COME/OCCUR"!?
European Union foreign ministers are in full finger-wagging mode and will warn Serbia that its EU aspirations could be in doubt, but will not set any deadline for it to hand over top war crimes suspects to the UN tribunal.
"This time, you're really gonna get it. Or not. We'll see."
The ministers will endorse a report by EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn noting that Serbia is not fully cooperating with the UN war crimes court in The Hague, and say this could delay Belgrade's rapprochement talks with the EU. They will examine whether the negotiations "could be disrupted when full cooperation is not forthcoming as we require," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he arrived for the meeting in Brussels. "There is no ultimatum on the agenda for the moment," he noted. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn added: "I don't think that an ultimatum is the right path to take."
How very...European of you.
You mean, "y'rup-peon".
During their talks in Brussels, the ministers will also thrash out how best to keep the Palestinian government afloat in the face of Israeli sanctions. As they gathered, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, announced that it was prepared to provide 120 million euros (142 million dollars) to the Palestinians to help them stock up on ammo pay government salaries and energy suppliers. "Today, I will annonce (to EU foreign ministers) a very substantial package of assistance to meet the basic needs" of the Palestinians, EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said ahead of the meeting. The EU is the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians, but it has faced a quandry since the militant group Hamas won last month's elections, as the organisation figures on its terrorist blacklist. Israel's sanctions, announced after the Hamas victory, deprive the Palestinians of about 60 million dollars a month in taxes and duties, and the EU wants to help the impoverished Palestinian territories meet the shortfall.
Gah.
The ministers are not expected to take a clear position on Hamas until the new government is formed and its position on recognising Israel, renouncing violence and working peacefully for a two-state solution is made clear.
I prescribe getting Europe's collective ears checked for wax buildup. Obviously they can't hear very well right now.
In a busy day of talks, the ministers will also take stock of Iran's nuclear ambitions just a week ahead of a key meeting of the board of the US International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
five gets you seven that they make it all the way through the "My esteemed colleagues'" and the "Your Excellencies'" and then break for lunch and 'consultations'.
#1
European Commission, the EU's executive arm, announced that it was prepared to provide 120 million euros (142 million dollars) to the Palestinians to help them
Who said that euro involment in Holocaust is over?
#3
Hamas' position is very clear. It hasn't changed. One can only suppose that the EU supports another go at extermination with such funding being offered.
Terrified that the locals might riot again if they refuse I assume. Been down the appeasment road before, haven't they?
Iraqi Interior Ministry forces have captured a senior aide to al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi state television said on Monday. Iraqiya television named the man as Abu Farouq and said he was captured with five others in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital.
#4
hopefully that was a couple days ago and we've wrung him dry...
Hello, Mahmoud. This is your brain. This is our Black & Decker HandiVacDirt Devilten-pound Orrick XLHoover upright big honkin' Kirby vacuum cleaner with the hose attachment. We have some questions for you. . . ."
Posted by: Mike ||
02/27/2006 10:30
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#5
I saw on another news site that it was an Iraqi unit known as the Wolf Brigade that caught him. Go Iraq! The building up of their forces really seems to be working.
#6
Sherry
From what I heard, they recognized him but he offered them a $6 million bribe and promesed to let their families live. The cops released him and then fled the country. It's called an offer they couldn't refuse.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/27/2006 11:03
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PS Love the Pic!
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/27/2006 11:04
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#9
The Wolf Brigade is essentially the only native force of any effectiveness in Iraq. Any other Iraqi force would have been infiltrated and tipped off the suspect, or simply bungled the raid.
#13
I would get excited yet. Farouq may be a smaller fish than the ministry says. Or he may be a recently fired senior aid who little knowledge of current ops.
#14
What happened to the picture of the pliers and other good tools case ect.... it fits this picture 100%.
Even better the Iraqi Wolf Brigade made the capture gloves off for real. These are the same guys that have the show every night of the captures confessing every horrible sin possible from selling the sister to killing innocents to hell heresy ect...
The next couple weeks are going to be fun to watch the ripples from this hit here in the AQ rank in file.
Never has an article made me blink with astonishment as much as when I read in yesterday's New York Times magazine that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa. This is taking the obsession that U.S. universities have with promoting diversity a bit too far.
"In some ways," Mr. Rahmatullah told the New York Times. "I'm the luckiest person in the world. I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Instead I ended up at Yale." One of the courses he has taken is called Terrorism-Past, Present and Future.
Many foreign readers of the Times will no doubt snicker at the revelation that naive Yale administrators scrambled to admit Mr. Rahmatullah. The Times reported that Yale "had another foreigner of Rahmatullah's caliber apply for special-student status." Richard Shaw, Yale's dean of undergraduate admissions, told the Times that "we lost him to Harvard," and "I didn't want that to happen again."
There is something to be said for the instinct to reach out to one's former enemies. America's postwar reconciliation with the Japanese and Germans has paid great dividends. But there are limits.
During a trip to Germany I once ran into a relative of Hans Fritsche, the top deputy to Josef Goebbels, whom the Guardian, a British newspaper, once described as "the Nazi Propaganda Minister's leading radio spokesman [whose] commentaries were among the main items of German home and foreign broadcasting." After the war he was tried as a war criminal at Nuremberg, but because he had only given hate-filled speeches, he was acquitted of all charges in 1946. In the early 1950s, he applied for a visa to visit the U.S. and explain his regret at having served an evil regime. He was turned down, to the everlasting regret of the relative with whom I spoke. She noted that Albert Speer, Hitler's former architect, was also turned down for a U.S. visa even after he had completed a 20-year prison sentence and had written a best-selling book detailing Hitler's madness.
I don't believe Mr. Rahmatullah had direct knowledge of the 9/11 plot, and I don't think he has ever killed anyone. I can appreciate that he is trying to rebuild his life. But he willingly and cheerfully served an evil regime in a manner that would have made Goebbels proud. That he was 22 at the time is little of an excuse. There are many poor, bright students--American and foreign alike--who would jump at the opportunity to attend Yale. Why should Mr. Rahmatullah go to the line ahead of all of them? That's a question Yale alumni should ask when their alma mater comes looking for contributions.
President Bush, who already has a well-known disdain for Yale elitism from his student days there, may also have some questions. In the wake of his being blindsided by his own administration over the Dubai port deal, he should be interested in finding out exactly who at the State Department approved Mr. Rahmatullah's application for a student visa.
#1
I presume he'll be going for free. What am I saying? Of course he will. I'll cherish that thought every time a mail a payment on my $40,000 worth of student loans.
#3
The Times reported that Yale "had another foreigner of Rahmatullah's caliber apply for special-student status." Richard Shaw, Yale's dean of undergraduate admissions, told the Times that "we lost him to Harvard," and "I didn't want that to happen again."
Yes, they really do live in their own little world, don't they?
A standoff between security forces and hundreds of rioting inmates at Afghanistan's main jail dragged into a second day, with the army threatening to storm a seized cell block if negotiations failed.
There were believed to be about four dead bodies among the nearly 1,300 prisoners, who had not been given food since the riot erupted late Saturday at the dilapidated Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of the capital Kabul. The rioters had also refused to hand over their wounded, believed to number up to 30 people, to ambulances waiting outside the sprawling complex, officials said. There were calls from inside the building for food and medicine, they said. Security forces had closed the gate into the complex to hold back prisoners who appeared to have armed themselves with makeshift weapons including steel bedposts and shards of glass, witnesses inside the jail said.
Negotiations between the prisoners -- including about 300 Taliban and Al-Qaeda members -- and government officials opened early Monday. "The negotiations are still ongoing but if it doesn't work, we will intervene militarily. We will carry out an operation," an Afghan army official said on condition of anonymity. About 200 extra soldiers took up positions at the compound where hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police reinforcements arrived Sunday. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006
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#1
Let Dostum deal with it. He has experience.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006 9:28
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Think Islamic fanaticism arises from material want? Think again.
by Bruce Thornton
Coming hard upon the heels of the cartoon riots and the election of the Hamas terrorists, the destruction of the Shiite mosque of the Golden Dome in Samarra by Sunni jihadists, and the subsequent Shiite bloody retaliation, should put to rest Western delusions about the true nature of Islam. But dont hold your breath. Such displays of Islams violent intolerance have been coming thick and fast the last few decades, and can be found on every page of history going back to the 7th century, when Islam began its expansion with the blood of several hundred decapitated Jews.
Yet still some Westerners, enthralled to their own materialist assumptions and multicultural we are the world sentimentalism, wave away this evidence and reduce this destructive behavior to any and every cause except the one that counts: spiritual belief. So we hear that the violence is caused by a lack of jobs, or a lack of liberal-democratic institutions, or frustration and insecurity about the dismal backwardness of most Muslim states, or wounded pride in the face of Western success, or resentment of Western imperialist and colonialist sins, or oppressive autocrats, or . . . take your pick. The same therapeutic mentality that thinks destructive behavior in teens results from a lack of self-esteem reduces the religious values of Muslims to mere epiphenomena, as the Marxists see it, symptoms of some underlying condition rooted in material deprivation, political impotence, or psychological trauma.
The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. This is a faith fanatically certain of its truth and righteousness, the culminating vision of Gods relations with humanity, the ultimate meaning of human existence on every level, including the social and political. ...
Meanwhile, all our attempts to bolster Muslim self-esteem, our desperate protestations of respect for their wonderful religion, our groveling apologies for exercising our own rights and values, our donning of the hair-shirt of racist, colonialist, or imperialist guilt, do nothing more than convince the jihadist that his spiritual superiority is justified. He looks at our appeasement, our fear, our rationalizations, our self-doubt, our unwillingness to defend the values we preach to the world, and sees the craven inferiority of the dhimmi, the conquered infidel who must acknowledge by his public actions the superiority of Islam, and who must pay the jizya, the poll tax that purchases his trembling security. Only we call the poll tax foreign aid or welfare payments, and the gestures of submission respect for diversity. We think our submission buys us affection and gratitude and respect for our interests, but in fact it purchases nothing except more contempt for our spiritual bankruptcy, more scorn for our belief that money and material comfort trump spiritual truth.
The true measure of our failure adequately to respect spiritual motives can be taken from the Bush administrations steadfast refusal to put the crisis with Islam in these terms. The materialist left, of course, has been taught by Freud and Marx that religion is an illusion, so obviously we cant expect them to grasp how powerfully spiritual imperatives can move people. But when a self-proclaimed born-again Christian either cant or wont see the clash of spiritual goods underlying the conflict, then we know how thoroughly the materialists have done their work of marginalizing religion in the West. Go and read the whole article.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006
07:45 ||
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The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much.
A link between the Mullahs and the NEA. I'm not surprised.
#5
Perhaps the best example of this contempt for our spiritual foundations came when the President apologized for using the word Crusade.
So true. I've been taught from school that the Crusades were 'evil'. Funny there was not a peep of the 'Convert-or-Die' bloody Islamic expansion which preceeded it. I shudder to think what appears in todays history books - if the how 'The Crusades' on the Oh-we-in-the-west-are-so-evil History channel is any indication.
#9
Radical Islam = Leftism-Socialism = the solution for their failed/dying -ism, short of self-reform or power-sharing, is to go GLOBAL, i.e. more Leftism, more Socialism, more Islam, NOT STAY LOCAL OR REGIONAL. MARX, STALIN, and MULLAHS are NOT wrong - its the lazy Capitalist Democratic anti-Regulation anti-OWG Infidel Dogs and future Global Slaves-Peons whom aren't working hard enough, or being worked hard enough, so that Local-National-Regional-Global Gummermint can take more. Remember, its incompetent, dishonest, Rapist Molester Abuser, Robber Baron, Imperialist Male Brute Fascist = Limited Communist
"WASHINGTON WHOM ISN'T GIVING ENOUGH". TO CALIFORNIA, TO FEMA/NOLA, DETROIT, WEST VIRGINIA MINE SAFETY, and .................@now PORT-GATE.
POOR CLINTONIAN AMERIKA, A BLOG POSTER > WE'RE A SOCIALIST NATION-WORLD MOVING TOWARDS COMMUNISM AND THE LEFT DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT!?
The image of Ariel Sharon lying comatose in an Israeli hospital has a haunting quality.
Especially since Hank and Arik are about the same age.
There is the poignancy of the warrior who fought -- occasionally ruthlessly -- in all of Israel's wars, incapacitated when he was on the verge of proclaiming a dramatic reappraisal of Israel's approach to peace. And, there is the prospect that this combative general has transcended his implacable past to show both sides the sacrifice needed for a serious peace process.
A serious peace process assumes a reciprocal willingness to compromise. But traditional diplomacy works most effectively when there is a general agreement on goals; a minimum condition is that both sides accept each other's legitimacy, that the right of the parties to exist is taken for granted.
Such a reciprocal commitment has been lacking between Israel and the Palestinians. Until the Oslo agreement of 1993, Israel refused to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization because its charter required the elimination of Israel and its policies included frequent recourse to terrorism. After Oslo, Israel was prepared to negotiate with the PLO, but only over autonomy of the occupied territories, not sovereignty. After Ariel Sharon became prime minister in 2001, he unexpectedly came to accept the emergence of a Palestinian state, first as a necessity, ultimately as an Israeli strategic requirement. At the moment of his illness, he was preparing to create the objective conditions for such an outcome through unilateral Israeli actions, including withdrawals from Gaza and major portions of the West Bank.
The Palestinians have yet to make a comparable adjustment. Even relatively conciliatory Arab statements, such as the Beirut summit declaration of 2003, reject Israel's legitimacy as inherent in its sovereignty; they require the fulfillment of certain prior conditions. Almost all official and semi-official Arab and Palestinian media and schoolbooks present Israel as an illegitimate, imperialist interloper in the region. The emergence of Hamas as the dominant faction in Palestine should not be treated as a radical departure. Hamas represents the mind-set that prevented the full recognition of Israel's legitimacy by the PLO for all these decades, kept Yasser Arafat from accepting partition of Palestine at Camp David in 2000, produced two intifadas and consistently supported terrorism. Far too much of the debate within the Palestinian camp has been over whether Israel should be destroyed immediately by permanent confrontation or in stages in which occasional negotiations serve as periodic armistices. The reaction of the PLO's Fatah to the Hamas electoral victory has been an attempt to outflank Hamas on the radical side. Only a small number of moderates have accepted genuine and permanent coexistence.
This is why, heretofore, even seeming compromises were attainable only by verbal gymnastics using adjectives that kept the content capable of incompatible interpretations. The treatment of the refugee issue in the "road map" is a good example. It calls for an "agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution." To the Palestinians, "fair and just" signifies a return of refugees to all parts of former Palestine, including the current territory of Israel, thereby swamping it. To the Israelis, the phrase implies that returning refugees should settle on Palestinian territory only. Peace through superior wordsmithing.
The advent of Hamas brings us to a point where the peace process must be brought into some conformity with conditions on the ground. The old game plan that Palestinian elections would produce a moderate secular partner cannot be implemented with Hamas in the near future. What would be needed from Hamas is an evolution comparable to Sharon's. The magnitude of that change is rarely adequately recognized. For most of his career, Sharon's strategic goal was the incorporation of the West Bank into Israel by a settlement policy designed to prevent Palestinian self-government over significant contiguous territory. In his indefatigable pursuit of this objective, Sharon became a familiar figure on his frequent visits to America, with maps of his strategic concept rolled up under his arms to brief his interlocutors.
Late in life, Sharon, together with a growing number of his compatriots, concluded that ruling the West Bank would deform Israel's historic objective. Instead of creating a Jewish homeland, the Jewish population would, in time, become a minority. The coexistence of two states in Palestinian territory had become imperative. Under Sharon, Israel seemed prepared to withdraw from close to 95 percent of West Bank territory, to abandon a significant percentage of the settlements -- many of them placed there by Sharon -- involving the movement of tens of thousands of settlers into pre-1967 Israel, and to compensate Palestinians for the retained territory by some equivalent portions of Israeli territory. Significant percentages of Israelis are prepared to add the Arab part of Jerusalem to such a settlement as the possible capital of a Palestinian state.
Progress has been prevented in large measure by the rigid insistence on the 1967 frontiers and the refugee issue -- both unfulfillable preconditions. The 1967 lines were established as demarcation lines of the 1948 cease-fire. Not a single Arab state accepted Israel as legitimate within these lines or was prepared to treat the dividing lines as an international border at that time. A return to the 1967 lines and the abandonment of the settlements near Jerusalem would be such a psychological trauma for Israel as to endanger its survival.
The most logical outcome would be to trade Israeli settlement blocs around Jerusalem -- a demand President Bush has all but endorsed -- for some equivalent territories in present-day Israel with significant Arab populations. The rejection of such an approach, or alternative available concepts, which would contribute greatly to stability and to demographic balance, reflects a determination to keep incendiary issues permanently open.
So far Hamas has left no ambiguity about its intentions, and it will clearly form the next government in the territories. A serious, comprehensive negotiation is therefore impossible unless Hamas crosses the same conceptual Rubicon Sharon did. And, as with Sharon, this may not happen until Hamas is convinced there is no alternative strategy -- a much harder task since the Sharon view is, in its essence, secular, while the Hamas view is fueled by religious conviction.
Hamas may in time accept institutionalized coexistence because Israel is in a position to bring about unilaterally much of the outcome described here. In principle, there would be much to be said for a comprehensive negotiation, especially if the United States plays a leading role and if other members of the "quartet" -- the United Nations, Europe and Russia -- that drafted the road map appreciate the outer limits of flexibility. It requires above all a Palestinian leadership going beyond anything heretofore shown and a willingness by moderate Arabs to face down their radical wing and make themselves responsible for a moderate, secular solution.
The danger of a final-status negotiation is that absent a firm prior agreement among the quartet, it might shade into an incendiary effort to impose terms on Israel incompatible with its long-term security and inconsistent with the parameters established by President Bill Clinton at Camp David and in his speech of January 2001 and by President Bush in his letter to Sharon in April 2004. Final-status negotiations in present conditions would probably founder on the underlying challenge described earlier: Do the parties view this as a step toward coexistence or as a stage toward final victory?
Does this mean the end of all diplomacy? Whatever happens, whoever governs Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the parties will be impelled by their closeness to one another to interact on a range of issues including crossing points, work permits and water usage. These de facto relationships might be shaped into some agreed international framework, in the process testing Hamas's claims of a willingness to discuss a truce. Truce? I thought we understood the "cooexistence or pause on the road to extinction" choice?
A possible outcome of such an effort could be an interim agreement of indefinite duration. A 'pause' of infinite duration? Now that's a concept!
Both sides would suspend some of their most intractable claims on permanent borders, on refugees and perhaps on the final status of the Arab part of Jerusalem. Israel would withdraw to lines based on the various formulas evolved since Camp David and endorsed by American presidents. It would dismantle settlements beyond the established dividing line. The Hamas-controlled government would be obliged to renounce violence. But only after the Jooos do everything else, right? It would also need to agree to adhere to agreements previously reached by the PLO. A security system limiting military forces on the soil of the emerging Palestinian state would be established. State-sponsored propaganda to undermine the adversary would cease.
Such a long-term interim understanding would build on the precedent of the Israeli-Syrian disengagement agreement, which has regulated the deployment of forces in the Golan Heights since 1974 amid disputes on a variety of other issues and Syria's failure to recognize Israel.
Whether Hamas can be brought to such an outcome or any negotiated outcome depends on unity among the quartet oops. Remember, the 'quartet' includes the UN, EU, and Russia
and, crucially, on the moderate Arab world. Sigh. Where are those moderates?
It also remains to be seen whether the Israeli government emerging from the March 28 elections will have Sharon's prestige and authority to preserve Sharon's strategy, to which the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has committed himself. A diplomatic framework is needed within which Israel can carry out those parts of the road map capable of unilateral implementation, and the world community can strive for an international status that ends violence while leaving open the prospect of further progress toward permanent peace. Nice words, Henry. It'll be a long time coming.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/27/2006
07:37 ||
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Everybody knows that's best for Israel better than the Israelis.
The war on terror has led to some subtle tactics that are not much noticed. For example, in the Islamic world, media is seen as a tool, not an independent institution dedicated to finding and reporting the truth. Most news media (print and electronic) in the Islamic world cannot survive on advertising revenue. There just isn't enough of it. But there are plenty of "patrons" available to pay for favorable coverage, or a good dig at a rival. In other words, you pay the editors to get your message into circulation. The CIA has been aware of this since World War II, and has played game quietly ever since then. On a slow news day, American media will jump on this and score some points over how un-American it all is. Meanwhile, the media war overseas goes on as it always has.
Since September 11, 2001, American cash has been increasingly deployed to use Islamic media to hurt al Qaeda, and Islamic terrorism in general. But exactly where the money goes, and to precisely what end, has depended a lot on what has been obtained from interrogations of captured terrorists. Their motivations are then compared to attitudes of similar people back home who did not join al Qaeda. That produces a list of items that could be exploited in the media to discourage people from joining or supporting Islamic terrorists.
While the invasion of Iraq provided a media boost for the terrorists (foreign infidels invade a Moslem country), it was an even bigger negative for them. The terrorists were soon setting off their bombs among Moslems, and the images of dead Moslem women and children proved disastrous for al Qaeda recruiting and fund raising.
This illustrates another al Qaeda weakness; money. The blowback from the Iraqi invasion, particularly the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, encouraged the Saudi government to come down really hard on the Islamic charities, and deep-pocket Arabs, who had been providing so much money to al Qaeda. This went largely unnoticed in the Western media, but al Qaeda has been going broke over the past few years. With less cash coming out of Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf States, more Islamic terrorists were seen operating on the cheap. The cash crunch has even shown up in Iraq, where many of Saddam fat-cat henchmen had been funding the terrorism there. Seeing that they were not getting sufficient bang-for-the-buck, and that more police and intelligence agencies were looking for them, and their money, much of this cash was shipped off to safer locations
The paid-for media reports take advantage of things like tight al Qaeda budgets and disappearing donors. To get your money's worth, you seek out journalists who can be subtle. It's not like none of their readers know that Moslem journalists can be bought, but readers do want to be entertained, and fed news that makes them feel good. So if you are going to prattle on about all those Iraqi civilians al Qaeda is blowing up, make sure you insist that the ultimate blame belongs on the Americans or the Jooos. That's nothing new, but all that coverage of Islamic terrorists killing lots of Moslems (and not many Americans), does not help al Qaeda recruiting at all. Moslem journalists would rather not report on all those dead Iraqi children, but with the right financial motivation, they can be encouraged to do the right thing.
The CIA also generates story hooks that will embarrass and humiliate al Qaeda members and supporters. In effect, make it "uncool" to be down with al Qaeda. Raw material for this comes from opinion surveys in the Moslem world, as well as interrogations of a growing number of captured terrorists. Even dead terrorists are useful. Much effort goes into identifying dead terrorists, then more effort, and money, goes into investigating the backgrounds of the late jihadis. This not only yields important information on terrorist contacts, but also on motivations. That, in turn, is fodder for new stories that can discourage likeminded fellows who are tempted to join.
The full story of this media campaign won't be told for many years, just as we did not find out a lot of similar secrets about World War II until the 1970s, 80s and later.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006
07:21 ||
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#1
Terrorists are their own worst enemy. They can't kill Americans in high numbers anymore and they can't take on American troops without dying in large numbers. They are so nuts they have to kill something so they kill the very people that could help them.
#3
And this is different from our main stream media exactly how?
Muslim media doesn't try to bring down their government. Instead they will say/do anything to protect their sultan, just like during the Clinton administration.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 13:02
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Al Qaeda is having increasing problems with ethnic frictions. There was always a problem with the Arabs, who founded, and largely run, al Qaeda, being disdainful of non-Arab recruits, and non-Arab members. The Arabs tend to have an attitude problem. Not only do they feel that Arabs are superior, in general, to everyone else, but they also project a "more-Islamic-than-thou" vibe that really irritates non-Arabs. This has always been a problem, even though the senior al Qaeda Arabs tried to make every recruit feel welcome.
The current problem comes from the fact that all of the original al Qaeda senior leadership is either dead, arrested or in hiding. Dealing with new recruits is left to middle management. These fellows are nearly all Arabs, and often recent replacements for more experienced operators who are dead or arrested. The people dealing with new recruits often have to do it under stressful conditions, and this does not make the experience very welcoming for the new guys. It quickly becomes obvious that new Arab, particularly Saudi, recruits are seen as more promising than the others, especially the non-Arab others. The recruits are usually young men, and the Arab recruits take the cue and begin razzing the non-Arabs. Often, this induces the non-Arabs to just leave. The misbehaving Arab recruits are rarely punished, although the most abusive of them may be encouraged to undertake a "martyrdom" (suicide) mission. Office politics in al Qaeda can get rough.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006
07:19 ||
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Oh, no! Don't tell me we have to go to that friggin Sensitivity Training!
#5
I can see the motivational seminar posters from al-Mahkinsay Consulting (or would it be Da'hil al-Carnegie? The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Caliphs?) now:
"Sharpen the scimitar"
"Begin with Jihad in mind."
"There is no 'I' in 'Allah.'"
Posted by: Mike ||
02/27/2006 12:14
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#6
report them to Sub-Human Resources Dept
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2006 12:20
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This Saturday, about 2,000 protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square. The march, which was planned several weeks in advance, was intended as a "stop the war" protest and followed protests the previous two Saturdays against the Danish cartoons.
However, following the Askari shrine bombing, the theme of the protests was overwhelmingly focussed against Sunni based terrorism. The march started from Hyde Park, proceeded along Picadilly, into Trafalgar Square. Unlike previous weeks, at least half of the protesters were female and mostly Shia Muslims.
Although there was a slight variation in the speeches given by the various Imams, the overriding consensus was that Sunni extremists were undoubtedly responsible for the attacks, with the main target of ire being the Wahhabi ideology which drives them, which suggested an implicit although unvoiced condemnation of the Saudi regime which promote its proliferation. Famous moderate Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the MCB appeared extremely nervous whilst giving his speech to a hostile crowd amid chants of "Death to Wahhabis & Takfiris" and chants eulogising Hussein and the Shia Imams. Whilst condemning the attacks as against Islam, he suggested that "Allah knows best the identity of the attackers." Yup - he knows everyfink, does Al.
He also appealed for unity and peaceful dialogue between the two sects. Imam Sayyid Mussawi, whilst following the predominantly anti-Wahhabist stance, said that the Wahhabis were actually Joooos, and not to forget that Joooos were behind everything. Another point that he made was that as UK/US were the occupying forces, they held responsibility for the security failures and should therefore leave Iraq, to allow the people to defend their sacred right to "Kill them wherever you find them" themselves.
Although there were one or two slogans against the cartoons, the majority of people in attendance were against the politicisation of the cartoon issue. Most of the posters depicted scenes of the destruction of the Askari mosque. There were a number of banners from the AhlulBayt society of London University. The chanted slogans were "Death to Wahhabism/Takfirism/Bin Laden/Zarqawi." Slightly disappointed not to make the shortlist...
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar ||
02/27/2006
06:36 ||
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Imam Sayyid Mussawi, whilst following the predominantly anti-Wahhabist stance, said that the Wahhabis were actually Joooos, and not to forget that Joooos were behind everything.
Think about how twisted a mind must be to hold that thought.
Or: Wahabis = Jews because they have oil money.
/Brains of the Barbarians
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 9:35
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#2
I've come to expect it from these guys.
Cognitive dissonance does not seem to be an impediment to the reasoning process, once you've mastered the art of read-repeat-memorize-believe as celebrated by our holy men of the RoP.
Something bad happens => its the Jooos. Any other information, no matter how conflicting or counterintuitive, can then be used to support this theory.
#6
. . . the overriding consensus was that Sunni extremists were undoubtedly responsible for the attacks, with the main target of ire being the Wahhabi ideology which drives them, which suggested an implicit although unvoiced condemnation of the Saudi regime which promote its proliferation . . .
Hey, kids, pay attention! A lot of Rantburgers keep asking, "where are the moderate muslims?'" Right here in front of you! You have a gathering openly condemning the House of Sa'ud and Wahabbi Islamofascism, and booing down the jerks who want to blame it all on Israel and the US and get foamed about the Motoons. It would've been nice to see this a few years ago, yeah--but we're seeing it now, and that's a good thing.
This isn't a case where you pop popcorn and watch the bad guys beat on each other. That crowd is a crowd booing the radical imam is a crowd of friendlies, or at least of people we can do business with.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/27/2006 10:37
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I have to disagree Mike. The crowd were mostly Shiites. They were denouncing Sunni extemists for attacking a Shia symbol. That doesn't they don't support Shia supremists. They weren't shouting Death to Sadr or the Ayatollahs or even Up With Moderation.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 10:46
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#8
You have a gathering openly condemning the House of Sa'ud and Wahabbi Islamofascism, and booing down the jerks who want to blame it all on Israel and the US and get foamed about the Motoons.
Where's the bit about booing the jerks who blamed it all on Joooooos? No link to a full story, and there's no mention in this excerpt.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 11:08
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"Up With Moderation."
ROFL. Im trying to think the last time I saw a demo of any kind saying "up with moderation". much though Id approve of it :)
#10
m trying to think the last time I saw a demo of any kind saying "up with moderation".
I remember in eighth grade we had an assembly with a show by Up with People and they sang a song about up with Moderation right after their Up with Co-op-er-a -tion number.
#11
it was definately a sweet moment watching Sacranie cringe, as there was a definate amount of heckling going on, but I never said that the crowd were booing Imam Massawis accusations.
To generalize, the people that I spoke to were calmer and more polite than the cartoon loons of previous weeks. It has to be remembered that taqeya is more widely practiced under shiism, which complicates things.
As for bad guys beating up on each other, I prefer to look at it as the guys that beat themselves with swords vs the guys that use their kiddies as bombs. I know which I prefer.
Spring is only a month away, and preparations for Nauroz (the Persian new year) are well under way. In Iran this year, however, Nauroz was due to come with a deadly dimension: the start of a new phase of a broad-based anti-US resistance movement stretching from Afghanistan to Jerusalem.
Wednesday's attack on a revered shrine in Iraq could change all this.
The presence in Iran of the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic
Jihad, as well as members of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan, is well known, as is the presence of other controversial figures related to the "war on terror", such as al-Qaeda members. Security contacts have told Asia Times Online that several al-Qaeda members have been moved from detention centers to safe houses run by Iranian intelligence near Tehran.
The aim of these people in Iran is to establish a chain of anti-US resistance groups that will take the offensive before the West makes its expected move against Tehran.
Iran has been referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program, which the US and others say is geared towards developing nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency is due to present a final report to the Security Council next month, after which the council will consider imposing sanctions against Tehran. Many believe that the US is planning preemptive military action against Iran.
With Wednesday's attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra in Iraq, home to a revered Shi'ite shrine, the dynamics have changed overnight.
Armed men detonated explosives inside the mosque, blowing off the domed roof of the building. Iraqi leaders are trying to contain the angry reaction of Shi'ites, amid rising fears that the country is on the brink of civil war. At least 20 Sunnis have been killed already in retaliatory attacks, and nearly 30 Sunni mosques have been attacked across the country.
The potentially bloody polarization in the Shi'ite-Sunni world now threatens to unravel the links that have been established between Shi'ite-dominated Iran and radical Sunni groups from Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Two of the 12 Shi'ite imams - Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in AD 868, and his son, Imam Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874 - are buried at the mosque. The complex also contains the shrine of the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, who is said to have gone into hiding through a cellar in the complex in 878, and is expected to return on Judgment Day.
Nevertheless, the sanctity of the tombs is of equal importance to Sunnis. Like the tombs of the Prophet Mohammed, Imam Ali and Imam Hussain, no self-respecting Muslim, whether Shi'ite or Sunni, would ever think of attacking such a place.
Further, the custodians of the shrine in Samarra have for many centuries been the descendants of Imam Naqi, called Naqvis, and they believe in Sunni Islam, as does the vast majority of the population of Samarra.
The present custodian is Syed Riyadh al-Kilidar, whom this correspondent met before the US attacked Iraq. Riyadh was arrested by US troops after Iraq was invaded, but released after brief detention.
The same is true of the Mosa Kazim Shrine in Baghdad, where the custodians have for many centuries been descendents of Imam Mosa Kazim. They are called Mosavis, and are Sunni Muslim. The previous custodian was Sayed Sabah bin Ibrahim al-Mosavi, whom this correspondent also met before the US invasion. He was a member of the Iraqi parliament during Saddam Hussein's era. After the US invasion he moved to Pakistan. Now the shrine is managed by Najaf Ashraf (al-Hoza).
Both the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Mujahideen Shura Council - an alliance that includes Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda-affiliated group - are suspected of perpetrating the attack. Both groups have insurgents operating in Samarra, and have claimed responsibility for attacks against US and Iraqi forces there in recent weeks. No group has claimed responsibility for the Samarra attack.
Given that the sensibilities of both Shi'ites and Sunnis have been violated by the attack, the foreign factor in the Iraqi resistance could be curtailed.
At the same time, escalating sectarian strife will hamper the national resistance movement in cities such as Basra in the south and Baghdad, which have strong Shi'ite populations. People in these areas could quickly turn against what is perceived as a largely Sunni-led resistance, with a strong al-Qaeda link.
Leaders have scrambled to limit the damage. Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani immediately called for seven days of mourning following the attack, and urged Shi'ites to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations. The cleric, who rarely appears in public, could be seen on Iraqi state television in a meeting with other leading ayatollahs.
Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who was in Lebanon as part of a regional tour, headed back to Iraq to join his supporters, who were already out in full force. Speaking to al-Jazeera television on Wednesday, Muqtada blamed all parties in the ongoing Iraq conflict for the attack. "It was not the Sunnis who attacked the shrine of Imam al-Hadi ... but rather the occupation; the Takfiris [those who accuse other Muslims of being infidels], al-Nawasib [a derogatory reference to those who declare hostilities against others] ... and the Ba'athists," he said. "We should not attack Sunni mosques. I ordered the [Imam] al-Mehdi Army to protect the Shi'ite and Sunni shrines and to show a high sense of responsibility, something they actually did."
The violence comes at a time that Iraqi leaders are trying to form a new coalition government that will bring Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds together. This process, like the resistance, is now also in jeopardy, as calls for separate, quasi-independent regions are bound to intensify.
The anti-US resistance movement had wanted to use Shi'ite Iran as the final base to link the resistance groups of this whole region. If the current volatile situation results in Shi'ites sitting on one side, and Sunnis and al-Qaeda-linked groups on the other, this is unlikely to happen.
Instead, Iraq could become a new battlefield, not only against US-led forces, but between different factions. Iran, meanwhile, would be left to deal with the West on its own.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:20 ||
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"The complex also contains the shrine of the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, who is said to have gone into hiding through a cellar in the complex in 878, and is expected to return on Judgment Day."
Oh, no wonder it is taking 1128 years to find the 12th imam. He is hiding in or around the cellar. Who would think to look there?
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
02/27/2006 6:36
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#2
I ordered the [Imam] al-Mehdi Army to protect the Shi'ite and Sunni shrines and to show a high sense of responsibility, something they actually did."
You surprised they actually did something you 'ordered', Tater, or that they did something useful?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/27/2006 7:18
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#3
The complex also contains the shrine of the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, who is said to have gone into hiding through a cellar in the complex in 878, and is expected to return on Judgment Day.
Voo-Doo !
I tell ya, this religion begs to be outlawed in a modern, civil society. When will the masses awaken ? When we have daytime shows like "Beheading for Dollars" ?
#5
I'm thinking the 12th Imam emerged from the cellar wearing one of those turban bombs that you see in Viking cartoons and just popped his cork prematurely.
#6
Doc, donuts to dollars that is the case. Whatever Iran leadership does, needs to be seen through the prism of their idea of hastening mahdi return. Strife and mayhem's good, in their view, and if they can pitch sunni vs shia, they would do whatever's necessary to make it happen.
#7
I suspect this article may be on to something. Tater boy is nothing if not a stooge for Iran. Since the demo job, he has been frantically trying to make peace.
Now, if I was of a suspicious character, it would almost seem that this mosque job very conveniently screwed up a major mischief campaign from Iran.
And thus, efforts at peace would be an attempt to salvage their operation.
Finally, damage to the mosque was both expertly orchestrated and essentially cosmetic. Hmmm.
#10
The potentially bloody polarization in the Shi'ite-Sunni world now threatens to unravel the links that have been established between Shi'ite-dominated Iran and radical Sunni groups from Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The shrine bombing reeks of Zarqawi's handiwork. Civil war best suits al Qaeda's interests. Nice to see that Iran's sheltering of these scumbags has come back to bite them on the bum in a big way.
Two of the 12 Shi'ite imams - Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in AD 868, and his son, Imam Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874 - are buried at the mosque. The complex also contains the shrine of the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, who is said to have gone into hiding through a cellar in the complex in 878, and is expected to return on Judgment Day.
And this celler is connected to that well over in Qom into which copies of the koran are being hefted. Makes perfect sense ... if you're Islamic.
Nevertheless, the sanctity of the tombs is of equal importance to Sunnis. Like the tombs of the Prophet Mohammed, Imam Ali and Imam Hussain, no self-respecting Muslim, whether Shi'ite or Sunni, would ever think of attacking such a place.
"[N]o self-respecting Muslim", sort of gets straight to the heart of it. When you "submit" to the absolute authority and whim of a theocratic hierarchy, you tend to abandon self-respect at the door. This promotes all sorts of outrages, not just on the infidels either, much to Islam's surprise.
I tell ya, this religion begs to be outlawed in a modern, civil society.
You know what, wxjames? I came to that same conclusion this weekend. The Vatican is on the right track by demanding reciprocity with respect to freedom of religious practice in Islamic dominated countries.
I'll be submitting an opinion piece on this strategy in another day or so:
Islam should be temporarily banned in all countries that practice freedom of religion until Islamic dominated countries grant freedom of religious practice in their countries. Until such a point, Islam must be recognized as an anti-religious political force, much like communism, and undergo legal prohibition.
For a temporary period, every mosque in countries with freedom of religion should be shut down and closed to all public access. If, during that period (e.g., five years), Islamic countries cannot decide to grant freedom of religious practice within their borders, then all of the closed mosques should be demolished as symbols of religious oppression.
I'm sure many of you are thinking this to be the utmost in hypocrisy. It is not. The time has come for Islam to be redefined as a political ideology and acted upon as such. Properly practiced religion has an underlaying foundation of tolerance for all humanity and especially those people of faith, be they of similar or different belief.
Any putative belief system that seeks the destruction of all other faiths cannot, ipso facto, be a true religion and therefore must be removed from those societies that grant freedom of worship.
It is time for Islam to pay the piper. The sooner we start, the less likely we are to reach the tipping point. If we do not give Islam a shot across the bow, it will only accelerate the process whereby the cost of coexisting with Muslims will far exceed the cost of exterminating them. The measures I suggest are meant to reform Islam, not obliterate it. Should Muslims be unable to renounce their intentions of global domination, it will prove their intolerance of religious freedom and pass sentence upon themselves.
Should Islamic dominated countries refuse to grant freedom of worship, all countries with such freedom should ban any further practicing of the Muslim faith. Muslims should be encouraged to return to those countries which permit free worship of Allah.
This would at least achieve containment. Should terrorist atrocities against the Kufir world continue, Muslims would be concentrated where collective retribution could be exercised cleanly and with clear demonstration of consequence to those who promote violent jihad.
We in the West are already subject to collective punishment via atrocities committed by Islamist terrorists. I have now passed the point where there is any valid arguement against collective punishment of those countries which openly advocate violent jihad.
Either Islam actively seeks to deter arrival at the tipping point or they shall only speed its occurence. Islam has yet to aggressively thin its ranks of violent jihadists. This only serves to lever the tipping point against themselves. The West is not obliged, in the least, to stop Islam from disqualifying itself from existence. It is up to Islam and Islam alone. If Muslims refuse to assertively counterbalance the way Islamist terrorism weighs against them, they invite their own destruction. The West, out of simple self-preservation, is forced to oblige Islam's death wish should they prove unable or unwilling to abandon their cult of martyrdom.
The myth of the hidden/sleeping great leader who will return is a powerful one in many cultures. King Arthur and 7 key knights are said to be sleeping beneath a certain lake in Wales and will return once again to protect Britain against the dark forces that threaten to overwhem her, as they did in the historic Arthur's time.
Not saying I particularly appreciate Ahmadinajad's take on things - expecially the cultivation of chaos and death, just the opposite of the things that the great King stands for. Just noting that the idea isn't a unique or totally unattractive one for many people including some westerners who are quite clear it's mythical.
I will not go near any parallels to the 2nd coming of Christ.
#13
...the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, who is said to have gone into hiding through a cellar in the complex in 878, and is expected to return on Judgment Day.
If the Mahdi comes out of his cellar and sees his shadow does that mean 6 more years of bloodshed?
#14
islam is a death cult - even their "leaders" acknowledge they "worship" death. It needs to be banned because it IS a cult, and one that breeds contempt of organized, peaceful society. If there's no other way to contain it within the bounds of the Arab peninsula, it should be destroyed, beginning with Mecca, the moon-god headquarters.
Islam is the expression of the anti-Christ. Read its precepts and compare them with Judaism - they're polar opposites. The destruction of Islam is the destruction of the forces of organized evil. All this "religion of peace" is horseapples - the religion of pieces is more apt.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 15:12
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The 14th Mahdi (the Mahdi in the Attic) is the one to fear.
The bombing and bloodshed that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war have propelled anti-American firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr to the forefront of Iraqi politics. The young Shiite cleric who twice defied America in 2004 now has emerged as a major threat to U.S. plans for Iraq.
Al-Sadr had already managed to carve out a strong position in Iraqi politics. His followers won 30 of the 275 parliament seats in the December elections, and his support enabled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to win the nomination of the Shiite bloc for a second term as prime minister. But the outbreak of Shiite-Sunni violence presented al-Sadr with an opportunity that he was quick the exploit.
Through skillful use of intimidation, first, and then concessions, al-Sadr, 31, has profited more than any other Iraqi figure from the unrest that swept the country after the Wednesday bombing of a Shiite shrine, which triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics. Many of those reprisal attacks were believed to be the work of al-Sadr's own Mahdi Army militia, which operates in the Shiite slum of Sadr City and in Shiite strongholds throughout the country. But al-Sadr, who was in Lebanon when the bombing occurred, denied any role in the violence. He quickly joined moderate Shiite clerics in public appeals to halt the attacks.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:19 ||
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"In effect, al-Sadr's followers stirred up trouble, and then took credit for stopping it."
Surprisingly accurate statement from AP. Sadr's moves are classic - and hard to counter. I am skeptical that he is clever enough to come up with this on his own: somewhere there are puppet strings to Teheran - it would be great if we could find and expose them.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir warned Darfur would become a "graveyard" for any foreign military contingent entering the region against Khartoum's will, newspapers reported Sunday. "We are strongly opposed to any foreign intervention in Sudan and Darfur will be a graveyard for any foreign troops venturing to enter," he was quoted as saying Saturday.
Sounds like a threat to me. They sure don't like visitors to those Islamic paradises, do they?
His comments came amid stepped-up efforts by the international community to send UN peacekeeping forces to war-torn Darfur in place of African Union troops, which have failed to quell the three-year-old bloodshed.
He doesn't mind having incompetently led troops there. He's afraid real soldiers would give him a problem.
Bashir, who regularly accuses the United States and its allies of fomenting a conspiracy to plunder his country's resources, again accused the West of seeking to use the western region of Darfur as a launch pad to spread its interests in Sudan.
Too bad Omar wasn't bright enough to counter that conspiracy, eh? Maybe the Sudanese should kill him and get themselves another dictator?
The United States, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, saw its hopes of clinching a resolution for a UN mandate in Darfur by the end of the month dashed but vowed to continue its efforts.
"Duh. Nope. Never occurred to us that Omar might not like the idea. Nope. Nope."
The transition is expected to be discussed during an AU Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa on March 3.
They have 5-star catering in Adis Ababa? Who knew?
Bashir was also dismissive of the AU, which has hinted it would not oppose its own replacement by a UN contingent. "The African Union forces can leave the country if they believe that they have failed to carry out their duties," Bashir said.
"We'll take it from here!"
There has been increased speculation that NATO would step in to operate the transition between AU and UN peacekeepers, an option supported by Darfur rebels but implacably opposed by Khartoum.
"Little or no way, Jose!"
Bashir even found support for his resistance to a Western deployment among members of the opposition. "We firmly reject any foreign intervention, particularly by the Americans, in Sudan," Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a communist MP, said Sunday at a Parliament meeting.
"Eeeew! Imperialists! Ucky cooties!"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:17 ||
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#1
We reserve the right to slaughter our people however and whenever we desire. So, mind your own business.
#3
He better watch himself, or Koffee will be forced to send a strongly worded letter(tm)! When I hear two-bit dictators talk trash like this, I always think back to my childhood:
"Oh yeah, you and what army?"
Posted by: BA ||
02/27/2006 9:53
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#4
Plan A: Wait for a full legislative session in Khartoum and lob in several dozen cruise missiles. Then demand substantive action against the Darfur genocide.
If those cruise missiles are nuclear tipped, you won't have to rinse and repeat. Saves a lot of time and bother. Let the southern Animists and the western black arabs take over their local areas, and watch the rest of Sudan slowly sink into the (radioactive) sand.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 14:43
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If those cruise missiles are nuclear tipped ...
As much as I appreciate the sentiment, Old Patriot, America simply cannot be responsible for first use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances. If the United States undergoes any form of NBC (Nuclear, Biological or Chemical) attack, then all bets are off. We have conventional weapons that can attain +90% of a nuclear weapon's effect. It would only open the door to immediate terrorist nuclear attack if we were to initate their use.
If you have a cogent arguement against what I have written here, please put it forth. Otherwise, I will ask that you carefully reconsider your position.
Russias lower house of parliament approved Sunday a sweeping new anti-terrorism law defining terms under which the military may shoot down hijacked passenger planes, strike at suspected terrorist targets and intercept communications for security reasons.
The law entitled On Counter-terrorist Action was approved in a final reading with 423 votes in favour, one against and eight abstentions. It will be passed to the upper house of parliament and then President Vladimir Putin for final approval both of which are considered a formality.
This law is very much needed . . . It defines what terrorism is. Without it, it was difficult to carry out the struggle against terrorism by lawful means, said a deputy with the pro-Kremlin United Russian Party, Nikolai Kovalyov.
The head of the Duma lower houses legislation committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, described the law as strict.
In working out the law we studied the sad experience of terror acts in Madrid, the United States, Beslan and elsewhere, Krasheninnikov told journalists.
The lengthy text approved Sunday sets out a range of procedures for anti-terrorist operations and also covers operations outside Russian territory.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:13 ||
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The sales of weapons to Iran don't go through Duma.
Iraqi newspapers inciting violence will be suspended and their journalists arrested, Defence Minister Saadun Al Dulaimi said yesterday, unveiling a new security plan for the violence-wracked country. "This is a warning to media working in Iraq," he said in a press conference.
Dulaimi also slammed the media for exaggerating violence since the blowing up of the Al Askariya shrine in Samarra on Wednesday which sparked days of sectarian violence, saying the official death toll was 119 civilians. "After verification on the ground, 119 civilians were killed since Wednesday, not 183 as reported in the media," he said. "The government calls on them (media) to assume full responsibility and play a role in reinforcing unity and to reject anything promoting violence or sedition," he said. "We will take disciplinary action against any publication inciting violence or terrorism and its journalists will be arrested."
Dulaimi said that only one mosque had been completely destroyed in the violence and six partially damaged, while one was temporarily occupied and 21 others were lightly damaged.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:02 ||
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OK, now let's do the same thing to the New York Slimes and the Washington exPostitnote.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 14:59
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Leaders of the main Sunni Arab political bloc have decided to return to suspended talks over the formation of a new government, the top Sunni negotiator said Sunday. The step could help defuse the sectarian tensions that threatened to spiral into open civil war last week after the bombing of a Shiite shrine and the killings of Sunnis in reprisal.
That bloodletting has amounted to the worst sectarian violence since the American invasion nearly three years ago, and the possibility of Iraqis killing one another on an even greater scale appears to have helped drive Sunni Arab politicians back to moderation, after they angrily withdrew from negotiations last Thursday.
The Bush administration has pegged its hopes for dampening the Sunni-led insurgency, and withdrawing some of the 130,000 American troops here, to Sunni Arab participation in the political process.
While the Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Consensus Front, has not publicly announced its decision and could still reverse course, Iraqi officials say the talks may resume as early as this week, depending on the level of tension in the streets.
Sectarian violence appeared to be ebbing across Iraq on Sunday, with more people venturing outside for the first time in days. Nonetheless, Shiite militiamen retained control of some Sunni mosques they had raided, and scattered mayhem left at least 14 people dead, including three American soldiers. At least 227 people have been killed since the shrine bombing.
The young spiritual leader of the Shiite militiamen, Moktada al-Sadr, made his first appearance in Iraq since the paroxysm of violence. He arrived in the southern port city of Basra from a trip to Iran, and, in a rare public speech, called for unity between Shiites and Sunnis while demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces.
Blaming the American military for the recent violence, he told Iraqis to "cut off the head of the snake." Thousands of followers, some waving Kalashnikov rifles, cheered in the streets.
The return to talks of the Sunni Arab bloc would be a crucial step in keeping on track the formation of a permanent government, which was mired in troubled negotiations even before the attack last Wednesday. The Sunni negotiator, Mahmoud al-Mashhadany, said Sunni politicians now recognize the need to form a widely inclusive government as quickly as possible to succeed the current interim government, dominated by religious Shiites and Kurds.
"We've canceled our withdrawal from the talks," Mr. Mashhadany said in a telephone interview. "We should hurry up and form a national unity government, to change this hopeless government. In the new government, everyone will handle responsibility."
The Bush administration has been pressuring the majority Shiites and the Kurds to allow significant Sunni Arab representation in the coming four-year government, in hopes of politically engaging the Sunni-led insurgency. The Sunni Arabs are severely underrepresented in the current government because they boycotted elections in January 2005.
The mediation efforts of the American ambassador here, Zalmay Khalilzad, were dealt a serious blow last Thursday, when the leaders of the Iraqi Consensus Front, which is religiously conservative, said they were boycotting talks on forming a government out of anger at the sectarian violence, organized mostly by Mr. Sadr's militiamen after the bombing of the golden-domed Askariya Shrine in Samarra.
The Sunni Arabs presented a list of demands to the Shiite-dominated government, including repairing the damaged mosques and honoring the memory of Sunnis who were killed. On Saturday night, at an emergency meeting of political leaders, the Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said the demands were valid.
Mr. Mashhadany said Sunday that the Sunni Arabs would remain vigilant for any broken promises from the Shiites. "We don't need words on paper," he said. "We need them to implement these changes."
But he generally struck a conciliatory tone, saying "there's a desire to accelerate the formation of the cabinet" and adding, "This is from the leadership of all the groups the Sunnis, the Shia and the Kurds."
In the past several days, Iraqi officials have put aside the negotiations to deal immediately with the sectarian violence. If the streets remain calm on Monday, they say, that could prompt leaders to restart the talks.
The Iraqi government announced that on Monday it would lift an extraordinary day curfew it had imposed on Baghdad since Friday.
"We're not yet talking about forming the government," said Sheik Jalaladeen al-Sagheir, a senior Shiite politician. "We want to make sure the air is clear first."
In the past several days, American diplomats have conferred with Iraqi leaders to try to bring all the parties together. The Americans approached several Iraqi officials, particularly Sunni Arabs, requesting their presence at the emergency meeting called by Mr. Jaafari on Saturday night.
"We strongly felt Sunni Arabs had to be there and accept the invitation," one diplomat said.
At the meeting, dozens of politicians formed an advisory council to look into reducing the sectarian tensions. All sides still have major concerns: Some Sunni Arab leaders, for instance, are demanding that the Shiite-dominated police, accused of running death squads and torture chambers, release Sunnis who were arrested during the wave of violence.
Attacks that took place Sunday were, for the most part, less intense than the recent violence. Eight mortar rounds landed near two Shiite mosques in the troubled Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, killing at least 8 and wounding at least 32.
In Baquba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen fired on boys playing soccer, killing two and wounding at least five. A roadside bomb around Baghdad killed at least one Iraqi commando officer in a convoy. A bomb exploded in a Shiite mosque in Basra, causing minor injuries.
The American military said two soldiers had been killed early Sunday in Baghdad by a roadside bomb. Another soldier died from small-arms fire in the evening.
No word emerged on Sunday of the fate of Jill Carroll, the 28-year-old American journalist abducted in early January. Her captors issued a statement through a Kuwaiti television station this month demanding that the Americans and Iraqis release all imprisoned women by Sunday, or Ms. Carroll would be killed. The Americans have said they do not negotiate with militants.
Though the streets of Iraq remained mostly quiet throughout the day, a general atmosphere of anxiety still blanketed the country. The police intensified patrols and checkpoints on the outskirts of Najaf, the southern city that is home to Shiite Islam's holiest shrine and its most revered cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Zaiyuna, militants who had engaged in firefights by a Sunni mosque in the past two days seemed to have disappeared.
"Today, it's tense but quiet," said Ansam al-Abaiyachi, a women's rights advocate.
Members of the Mahdi Army, Mr. Sadr's militia, still kept control of some Sunni mosques they had stormed last week. They stood guard around the buildings with Kalashnikovs, but many had doffed their black uniforms, on orders from senior Sadr officials. In some instances, they tried to persuade Sunni worshipers that the Shiites had a right to keep the mosque.
That was the case at one mosque on Palestine Street in Baghdad, near Sadr City, the militia's enclave. The Sadr followers occupying it told neighborhood Sunnis that it had been a Shiite mosque before Saddam Hussein's government converted it into a Sunni house of worship. Last week, the militiamen expelled the imam and renamed the building the Ali Mosque, after the martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, revered by Shiites.
The militiamen had also set up a checkpoint near the mosque. Policemen tried futilely to persuade them to take it down.
"They're like the Baathists from before," one police officer said, making the comparison with members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. "You can't talk to them. You can't say anything to them."
The leader of the Mahdi Army, Mr. Sadr, preached calm in his speech in Basra. He was visiting leaders throughout the Middle East when the violence erupted last week.
His last stop was Tehran, Iran. The Shiites and Sunnis, he said, must "be brothers, and love each other, so that our Iraq can be safe, stable, independent, and free of the occupation."
As the crowd of thousands roared, Mr. Sadr called for a peaceful demonstration to be held against the American-led forces. "We got rid of the accursed Saddam only to be replaced by another dictatorship, the dictatorship of Britain, America and Israel," he said.
In northern Baghdad, in the Sunni stronghold of Adhamiya, young men with Kalashnikovs guarded mosques, still fearful of Shiite assaults. Police officers, generally distrusted by Sunni Arabs, remained at checkpoints on the outskirts of the neighborhood. Makeshift barricades of bricks and stones blocked some roads.
There were signs, though, of normal life seeping back in. Children frolicked in the blazing sun. People wandered around with buckets of fuel or kerosene, carting them home after days spent hunkered down indoors.
The main mosque in Adhamiya, Abu Hanifa, was the scene of a televised joint prayer service on Saturday between Sadr clerics and conservative Sunni imams.
"I think the meetings between Shia and Sunni clerics have helped defuse the situation," said Salam Suhail, who sells automotive spare parts. "Any sectarian war would be a catastrophe for us. We'd rather have a tsunami than a war between Shia and Sunni."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:01 ||
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#1
"We got rid of the accursed Saddam only to be replaced by another dictatorship, the dictatorship of Britain, America and Israel," he said.
...YOU got rid of him??
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/27/2006 12:36
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#2
"Any sectarian war would be a catastrophe for us. We'd rather have a tsunami than a war between Shia and Sunni."
Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia used two tonnes of explosives in their foiled attack on the world's largest oil processing plant, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. A ministry statement said each of the two pick-up trucks used in Friday's attack carried one tonne of an explosive made with ammonium nitrate. There were also unspecified quantities of other explosives including nitroglycerine and RDX.
Betcha they didn't slam the doors real hard when they got in the trucks...
Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia vowed more attacks after the foiled raid which caused a massive explosion at the gate of the site in eastern Saudi Arabia, where most of the oil resources of the world's biggest crude oil producer are located. The ministry statement said DNA tests showed that the two suicide attackers who died in the blast were Mohammed al-Ghaith and Abdullah al-Tweijri - both on a list of the top wanted al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants. Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia had identified the two men already on Saturday and said in an internet statement that the attack came in response to a call by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to target oil installations.
That worked well.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said oil and gas output was unaffected by the "terrorist attempt" on the plant - the first direct strike on a Saudi energy target since al Qaeda launched attacks aimed at toppling the US-allied monarchy in 2003. Oil prices jumped $US2 a barrel on news of the attack in the world's largest oil exporter, which came about a year after bin Laden urged his supporters to hit Gulf oil targets. It was the first major strike by militants opposed to the Saudi royals since suicide bombers tried to storm the Interior Ministry in Riyadh in December 2004. A most wanted list issued by Saudi authorities in June gave Ghaith's age as 23 and said Tweijri was 21 years old.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
03:00 ||
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As George W. Bush looks out on an unfriendly world, where can he find new allies to support America's tarnished foreign policy? Step forward Jacques Chirac, who in his final year in office acts as though he wants to be as good a friend to Washington as Tony Blair. After five years of trying to build an anti-U.S. front with Germanysplitting Europe down the middlethe French president is reaching into his diplomatic toolbox and coming up with initiatives that are increasingly in tune with America's global agenda.
So, as the U.S. president arrives in New Delhi with the aim of building up India as a 21st-century regional superpower capable of rivaling China, Bush will find that his path and message have been smoothed by Chirac. Just returned from India himself, the French president struck a blow for the U.S. administration's strategy by strongly supporting a rapid buildup of India's nuclear-energy ambitions. He signed an agreement to export French nuclear know-how, giving India the chance to obtain nonpolluting energy for its accelerating industrial and domestic needs and reduce its dependence on imported oil. The U.S. Congress has yet to lift its ban on nuke exports to India. But if Washington is as serious about assisting India's nuclear option as it seems, then France's willingness to partner in the effort looks like welcome news indeed.
But Chirac has gone further. In a little-noticed speech on French nuclear doctrine earlier this year, he announced that France's nuclear-weapons capability should be reckoned with by states tempted to sponsor terrorism on French soil. Although wrapped up in Gaullist tropes, this amounts to something akin to a pre-emptive-strike doctrine for Europe, not far removed from the U.S. policy that caused such a flap after 9/11. Belated or not, it echoes Washington's determination to tell terrorists and their state sponsors that there are lines not to be crossed.
In the Middle East, France and America are working intimately on Lebanon. They are pointing a collective finger at Syria and forcing U.N. resolutions demanding that it stop trying to control its neighbor. Chirac was a close friend of the murdered Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, who kept a good chunk of his $6 billion fortune in France. Furious Hizbullah leaders in Beirut, supported by Damascus, denounce the French president as a poodle of Washington. Even more significant is the new joint front on Iran. Chirac has led Europe's condemnations of Tehran's threats against Israel and has been instrumental in referring its nuclear challenge to the Security Council.
Little of this is reflected in the French press, which cleaves to its diet of America-bashing pur et dur. But Chirac understands that posturing over Iraq has not protected France from Islamofascism. Militant Islamist preachers are active among the nation's 5 million Muslim citizens, many of whom willingly believe that all their problems will get better if they follow Sharia and reject French secularism. Chirac also reacted swiftly when a French Jew was recently tortured to death after being kidnapped by a thuggish gang who believed that, because he was Jewish, his family by definition was rich enough to pay a massive ransom. This vestige of the very worst anti-Semitism shocked France and may serve to wake up intellectuals blinded to the excesses of radical Islamists by their own anti-Americanism.
And Chirac has his own Abu Ghraib. France's elite antiterrorist police face accusations of torturing Arab detainees suspected of terrorist links. A top general has been suspended after an enemy combatant held by his soldiers was murdered in the Ivory Coast, where young French troops, as frightened and far from home as American troops in Iraq, are all that is preventing a descent into anarchic bloodshed. Anti-U.S. politicians in Switzerland and Strasbourg may paint America as a nation of bloody torturers, but Chirac knows that in the fight against terrorism both soldiers and security agencies make mistakes. He is not joining in the U.S.-bashing on this front.
Thus, France in 2006 is a very different country in terms of foreign policy from the France that wanted to lead Europe, and much of the world, against America in 2003. Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, does not share the keenness of her predecessor, Gerhard Schroder, for selling arms to China or turning a blind eye to the erosion of democracy in Russiaprompting France to follow suit. Meanwhile, other EU nations like Britain and Spain are economic success stories in part because they have embraced U.S.-style free markets. After investing so heavily in anti-Americanism, leading nowhere, Chirac finally appears to be cutting his losses. Perhaps it's time to put french fries back on the menu in Washington.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
02:58 ||
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But Chirac is on his way out. Who comes after Chirac and what will his policy toward the US be?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/27/2006 7:26
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#2
Yeah. Let's trust Chirac. That's a grand idea.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 7:30
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#3
In a little-noticed speech on French nuclear doctrine
?
#5
No thanks. Relations with France should be at arms length with the other hand pinching our nose. In 20-30 years, the French will be in a very nasty civil war. The last thing America needs is for the French to think, yet again, they have a right to Americans to come and pull their nuts out of the fire. The smartest thing we could do is to raise tariffs on French goods so that industrial infrastructure will be encouraged to migrate out of France and out of harm's way. The best the French can hope for is that the Germans will come and occupy them permanently.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 8:13
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#9
It doesn't matter who's in charge. The French will not be our allies regardless of appearances. They are interested in building a Francophonie alternative to les anglo-saxons with the Arabs, Chinese and any third world thugs who would like to join them. They are an enemy who is unable to fight with us but happy to provide a second would veneer to those who can.
#10
i doubt very much that the arabs (other than the Lebanese Maronites and a handful of secular Algerians) and the Chinese are interested in building a francophonie.
I think this is a tribute to among other things A. Good, if unheralded, diplomacy by the Bush admin, esp Rice. B. The fact that the extreme alienation between the US and France was over Iraq, and now that Iraq is moving to self rule, its simply not the same kind of issue. C. Putin going a bit too far, making him a more difficult ally for Chirac. D. The elections in UK and German - Chirac is stuck with Blair, and has lost Schroeder. E. The actions of our adversaries - from Iran, to Hamas, to the cartoon riots - our enemies are pressing us together.
#11
The fact that the extreme alienation between the US and France was over Iraq
You make it sound like the extreme alienation started with the war on Iraq. In fact it is the Iraq war that has forced the anti-American drum bangers like Chirac to get real as their citizens demand they do something, besides blaming the US to deal with their terrorist threats, which are far more severe than our own.
To some of us, his oil for food scams, bribes, coddling dictators, the fact he'd be in jail if he had lost the election, and that his blame America stance is no different than the Muslim blame the Jews stance, created alienation long before the Iraq war. Not all of us thought he was cool just because he blamed America.
#12
The French have never really been our friends. Imperial France occasionally helped us against their blood enemies, the British. But since the French Revolution, never. We bailed them out twice in WWI and WWII, but that was only because they were allied with the British. That help was always resented by the elites. France dropped out of NATO. In 1966, France withdrew its military from NATO and demanded that all non-French NATO troops leave France (relocating NATO HQ to Brussels). During the Cold War, France was always cozier with the Russians than the West. When I was in the AF, France was one of the countries with whom we could not share information because it was assumed that what was in Paris today would be in Moscow tomorrow.
With his approval rating hovering around 20%, Chirac has decided to become our friend only because he has lost all support internally.
#15
2B - I used "extreme" deliberately - meaning more overt, more widespread in society etc.
"To some of us, his oil for food scams, bribes, coddling dictators, the fact he'd be in jail if he had lost the election, and that his blame America stance is no different than the Muslim blame the Jews stance, created alienation long before the Iraq war. Not all of us thought he was cool just because he blamed America"
Number 1, I was focusing on state to state relations, not individuals. Second, I was focusing on French hostility to the US, not the other way around. Since the posted article is about a(purported) change in FRENCH attitudes and policies, I would have thought that was clear. Sorry if my prose was imprecise.
#16
"One difference between French appeasement and American appeasement is that France pays ransom in cash and gets its hostages back while the United States pays ransom in arms and gets additional hostages taken."-William Saffire
#17
"Never will I believe that the soul of France is dead! Never will I believe that her place amongst the greatest nations of the world has been lost forever." Winston Churchill
I would suggest that the Iraq war forced the French to finally see that their anti-West bias is nothing more than politicians distracting from their own failures, in exactly the same way that Muslims leaders use Jews.
I understand your point, but I do not believe that the Iraq war caused the extreme alienation between the French and Americans as the French already completely secure in their sense of superiority. Though I will grant that it did cause extreme alienation between the Americans towards the French.
Rather, I think that American response to the war on terror v/s the abject failure of the French governments supposedly superior diplomatic handling of the Iraq crisis forced the French to see their own government in a brand new light.
#21
As we sit here and bash the French, in my opinion most deservingly so, we all bitched that the French need to dot this or that. Now they are turning to try to work together, should we give them a big "No thanks"? Are we just venting or stupid? The French are weak, cowards, and not trustworthy, but they are a nation that has the capability to sell Nuclear technology and biotech capabilities to our enemies. We must pinch our noses and deal with them, bring them on to the teamm, or at least to the table, and try to keep them from becoming a muzzie state in europe with full up nuke capabilities.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
02/27/2006 19:32
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#23
but watch your backs at all times. Every move, declaration has to be scrutinized. Jacques, this is not necessary among allies. I trust Aussie PM Howard to say what he thinks and does. France has a lot to make up for....backstabbing lies costing American lives among them. If there's a sea change, then welcome, and don't begrudge us our worst suspicions for the next couple decades, eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2006 21:34
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The world has long looked upon the Dutch as the very model of a modern, multicultural society. Open and liberal, the tiny seagoing nation that invented the globalized economy in the 1600s prided itself on a history of taking in all comers, be they Indonesian or Turkish, African or Chinese.
How different things look today. Dutch borders have been virtually shut. New immigration is down to a trickle. The great cosmopolitan port city of Rotterdam just published a code of conduct requiring Dutch be spoken in public. Parliament recently legislated a countrywide ban on wearing the burqa in public. And listen to a prominent Dutch establishment figure describe the new Dutch Way with immigrants. "We demand a new social contract," says Jan Wolter Wabeke, High Court Judge in The Hague. "We no longer accept that people don't learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments."
What's going on here? Weren't the Dutch supposed to be the nicest people on earth, the most tolerant nation in Europe, a melting pot for minorities and immigrants since the Renaissance? No longer, and in this the Dutch are once again at the forefront of changes in Europe. This time, the Dutch model for Europe is one of multiculturalism besieged, if not plain defunct.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
02:55 ||
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#1
The Germans had the best system, because until recently they didn't give 'Guest Workers' citizenship and therefore could send them back to their home country.
#2
"All the burden of change is placed on the immigrant." Damn straight. That's where it always should have been. Why should those who already live someplace have to change their standards and lifestyles to accommodate unwanted interlopers? If what it takes to get this across to the Muslims is deporting most of them from Europe, so be it. That's better than some of the 20th Century's other alternatives.
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 7:37
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#3
Nobody is being forced to immigrate to Europe with a gun to their head. It's a privilege, not a right, and there most certainly should be rules. Same in the US, our biggest advantage is that we don't let them group up like in europe.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 9:17
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#6
It is a start.
Both HJ and CE have valid points. Some immigrants tend to bunch up when they get over here, since familiarity is wanted. But, unlike Europe, they do get out of the hoods to work and go to school and mix with the general population. Further generations are americanized and move away.
#9
It seems to me ending multiculturalism is the first step to recovery for Europe. It's certainly more than I expected of them, and a step in the right direction.
Immigrants take 3 generations to become Americans. The Euros problem is they don't know how to produce second and third generation immigrants because their nationhood is based on blood not brains as in the U. S.
#12
But make no mistake: they're no longer willing to tolerate a European melting pota broadly multicultural societywhere different cultures live by widely different norms.
#13
Immigrants take 3 generations to become Americans.
Oh really? How do you define "American" then? You gotta be careful about broad generalizations. Some cultures assimilate faster than others. I am an example.
The Germans had the best system, because until recently they didn't give 'Guest Workers' citizenship and therefore could send them back to their home country.
Germans didn't allow dual citizenships (and still don't I would imagine). If you decided to take German citizenship, you had to give up the other one. You'd be surprised how many people chose not to give up their original citizenship because presumably they had too much to lose.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 13:10
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#14
Ending multiculturalism and the immigration problem are only a part of Europe's crisis. A big part, but only part, nontheless.
Before they can be considered to be on the road to recovery, they have to cure themselves of the cradle to grave socialism that infects them. This system - which removes essentially all risk and stress from life for most people and has replaced the family as the essential organizational unit of society - has resulted in birthrates which are effectively suicidal.
The US is partly to blame - by footing the lion's share of the Cold War we enabled Euroland to spend large amounts of their GDP on socialist programs they would NEVER have been able to afford if we had insisted they had spent more what it took to defend themselves from the Soviet Empire.
Now they're addicted (literally so) to a life where as long as you do some minimum in life and don't commit a mojor felony the government does basically everything for you and you have little or no risk in life. Never have to worry about health care, never have to worry about education, take 7 years to get out of college, never (once hired to your 35 hour a week functionary job) have to worry about getting let go, retire at 55 and live 25 more years with a hefty pension and without working so you don't have to depend on your family (and therefore don't need to have one) - these are not things that will be given up without street rioting, as we have seen. But you cannot sustain a society which spend 25 years in its youth travelling and bumming around as a student, 25 years working in a half-assed fashion, and 25 years in old age not working and attempting to be pretend-rich on other people's money. Such a society actively discourages people from breeding.
Dealing with the immigration thing is vitally important to Europe's survival. But if they don't soon jettison a socialist model which goes to absurd lengths to eliminate risk and stress and move to a more capitalist American style one which puts more emphasis onto family and individual effort and incorporates risk as a part of decision making, all of the immigration laws in the world won't stop them from having a demographic collapse with 50-75 years.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/27/2006 15:07
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#15
Now they're addicted (literally so) to a life where as long as you do some minimum in life and don't commit a mojor felony the government does basically everything for you and you have little or no risk in life.
If all they're doing is the minimum in life, and with the GDP of western Europe almost equal to that of the US, that sort of tells you something doesn't it?
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 15:53
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#23
I have come to think that the sound of crickets is Western-style seething.
Either that or it's the sound of someone desperately cherry-picking links to make an obscure or inane point.
Rafael - initially I meant no overt disrespect, just piqued curiosity - since the number of articles I've read over the last year or so, including from the EU themselves, indicates they are in deep kimchi trouble - and it's getting worse at an accelerating rate - especially the economic anchor of the EU, Germany.
A quick sampling from RB - which means it's only skimming what posters thought would be interesting to the 'Burg:
#24
BTW - I don't want Europe to fail, I want the EU bureaucracy to stop being power-snarfing anti-democratic morons who legislate their member states into poverty via idiotic regressive regs and for the member states to stop their asinine devolution into socialistsic Nana-State oblivion.
#26
initially I meant no overt disrespect, just piqued curiosity
Well, okay. I'll assume you're being honest here.
My criticism was aimed at no mo uro's analysis. The simple fact is, someone, somewhere, must be doing something productive in Europe, seeing how their GDP is 7/9ths that of the US (that's excluding Switzerland and eastern Europe). If they're doing this while at the same time behaving like no mo uro described, then that actually makes them look good: doing a half-assed job and almost equalling the world's best economy. Either that, or - if I was an anti-American loon - I could claim that it's the US who is well below its potential (to put it nicely).
So you see, criticize Europeans if you want, but do it fairly and backed up by numbers and with a sense of perspective.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 17:35
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#27
That's why it takes three generations. You have to learn how to say what you mean and mean what you say.
Suddenly, a large chunk of 4th generation Americans (and beyond) just lost their American citizenship.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 17:43
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#28
Hey, Rafe!
Does it take more of them over there to make that 7/9ths of U.S. GDP?
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 18:19
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#29
About 60 million more. But they're doing a half-ass job, only working 25 years, remember? That's still pretty good.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 18:47
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#30
Summary stats don't quite capture the reality, Rafael. Our workforce is, proportionally, younger. That means a lower average level of experience (which is somewhat correlated to productivity) but greater projected productivity in the future.
Europe's workforce is overwhelmingly older, nearer retirement and a smaller percentage of what young people they do have are actually well educated and ready to contribute to the future economies there.
#31
One other point, Rafael. You equate lower working hours with leisure. While it is true the Europeans have a lot more vacation time and holidays -- all of which they scrupulously tend to take, based on my experience -- a good deal of that non-working time has been shown to be invested in other daily chores for which Americans often have automation or services. That was one of the conclusions of the famous Timbro study comparing the EU and US economies.
By the way, re: GDP per capita, the Timbro report synopsis states:
If the European Union were a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states. France, Italy, Great Britain and Germany have lower GDP per capita than all but four of the states in the United States. In fact, GDP per capita is lower in the vast majority of the EU-countries (EU 15) than in most of the individual American states. This puts Europeans at a level of prosperity on par with states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. Only the miniscule country of Luxembourg has higher per capita GDP than the average state in the USA. The results of the new study represent a grave critique of European economic policy.
#33
"My criticism was aimed at no mo uro's analysis."
I know - and I thought you were dead wrong on first, second, and third reads, but wasn't sure so I asked. What you're saying is all about nuanced POV, I'd say, and a general slap (ineffectually, IMHO) at the Great Satan Moron US.
The key (IMHO) is that increasingly we have less and less in common with Europe. They are on a fast-track to irrelevancy and implosion - on all fronts - and damned proud of it. We ain't going there. Period. Whatever that takes.
Perhaps Qanucks are beginning to wake up, given the recent elections, perhaps not. Your uber-sensitivity and contrarian posts, something approaching a reflexive habit these days, I'd say, make me wonder. I'll leave it at that.
Per capita private consumption is far higher in the USA than in most European countries. American private consumption is 29 per cent higher than in Luxembourg, the country with the highest private consumption in Europe. Compared with the average (EU 15) the difference in consumption is very great. In the USA the average person spends about 9,700 more on consumption annually, a difference of 77 per cent. The average American, in other words, spends nearly twice as much (77 per cent more) on consumption as the average EU citizen.
This is due to a higher level of GDP but also to taxation policy. Allowance for tax differences would reduce these big differences somewhat, but American consumption would still far outweigh its European counterpart ...
Clearly, then, there are very big differences between the American and European economies. A long period of high growth has made the USA far and away the worlds richest region. For several centuries Europe led the world in terms of prosperity and progress.
As little as a hundred years ago, much of the American continent was virgin wilderness. Today, a hundred years later, the USA has completely overtaken Europe to become the unrivalled leader of the world economy. Most Americans have a standard of living which the majority of Europeans will never come any where near. The really prosperous
American regions have nearly twice the affluence of Europe ...
one often hears it said that, high as the level of the US economy may be, many people there are very poor. As we shall see, however, the poverty concept is a very relative one, and poverty in the USA is associated with a surprisingly high material standard of living.
I won't type in all the figures from the tables, but they are eye-opening.
#36
Factor in our military spending for the rest of the world, too. Our military spending is 335.7 billion. Top ten spenders spend 584.5 billion. Japan is the nearest to us at 46.7 billion. Check out the map HERE
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/27/2006 22:32
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#37
Kinda hard to see where France and Germany are getting value for the numbers.
#38
Immigrants take 3 generations to become Americans.
Not really - many folks come here because the place where they came from sucked. Listen to callers on talk radio - some of the most openly patriotic pro-American callers are first generation immigrants.
#39
What you're saying is all about nuanced POV, I'd say, and a general slap (ineffectually, IMHO) at the Great Satan Moron US.
The slap was at the moronic description provided by no mo uro, disproven by facts no less. You've aligned yourself with him or her, it seems, because, well, as long as it's bashing Europe, it must be okay. Sorry, but I don't subscribe to herd mentality. For the short amount of time I've spent living under communism, I've developed a very sensitive bullshit detector.
As for the study, this statement alone convinced me it's not worth investigating further (well, okay, I might): Most Americans have a standard of living which the majority of Europeans will never come any where near.
Most Americans? Majority of Europeans? Someone's exaggerating just a little bit.
I'd stay away from per capita measurements anyway. Just as an example, I'd venture that there are more women in the American workforce, versus the European workforce. That means that there is a considerable segment of the population not working. But does this mean that the overall standard of living is therefore lower? Not necessarily.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 23:23
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#40
I take back what I said about the Timbro study. Anybody who acknowledges the shortcomings of using GDP as a measure of prosperity, knows what they're talking about. Thanks for the link, lotp.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 23:33
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#41
You disproved nothing - you've just taken a pointless position. As for bashing Euros, I "bash" stupid self-defeating behavior, no more.
I'd certainly like them to succeed - and that can only be accomplished if they rid themselves of failed ideologies and crushing bureaucracy. The EU is a disaster.
I believe TGA was the most eloquent - and knowledgable - on the topic and miss his insights immensely.
One trend to be noted here that of course won't be by the press is that the trend has been heading steadily downwards since the initial reaction to the Askariyah bombing ...
Violence killed at least 29 people Sunday, including three American soldiers, and mortar fire rumbled through the heart of Baghdad after sundown despite stringent security measures imposed after an explosion of sectarian violence.
A ban on driving in Baghdad and its suburbs helped prevent major attacks during daylight Sunday, but after nightfall explosions thundered through the city as mortar shells slammed into a Shiite quarter in southwestern Baghdad, killing 16 people and wounding 53, police said.
Mortar fire also hit a Shiite area on the capital's east side, killing three people and injuring six, police reported.
Nevertheless, officials announced they would let vehicles back on the streets at 6 a.m. Monday in part because shops were running out of food and other basics. Gasoline stations were closed, and people were unable to go to work Sunday, a work day in this Muslim country.
The vehicle ban, which followed a curfew that kept everyone in the Baghdad region inside for two days, was part of emergency measures imposed after Wednesday's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra triggered a wave of reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques and clerics, pushing
Iraq to the brink of civil war.
With the relaxation of emergency measures, officials said that Monday would present a major test of whether the worst of the crisis had passed. As dawn approached, the roar of U.S. jet aircraft could be heard patrolling the skies over this tense city.
Iraqi police said they had found no trace of abducted American journalist Jill Carroll as the deadline set by her kidnappers for killing her passed at midnight Sunday with no word on her fate.
The freelance writer, who was doing work for the Christian Science Monitor, was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad. She was last seen on a videotape broadcast Feb. 10 by a Kuwaiti television station, which said the kidnappers threatened to kill her unless the United States met unspecified demands by Sunday.
An Interior Ministry official said Sunday that authorities had stepped up their search for the 28-year-old woman but made no progress.
"Our forces raided some suspected places, but she was not there," Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. "We are watching the situation closely."
Although mosque attacks have declined sharply, sectarian violence went unabated Sunday.
A bomb exploded at a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Basra, injuring at least two people, police said.
More than 60 Shiite families fled their homes in predominantly Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad after receiving threats, said Shiite legislator Jalaladin al-Saghir and Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Jalil Khallaf.
North of the capital, gunmen stepped from a car and fired on teenagers playing soccer in a Shiite-Sunni mixed neighborhood of Baqouba, killing two of the youths and wounding five, police said.
In other violence, two American soldiers died when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said. A third U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire in central Baghdad late Sunday, the military said.
Their deaths brought to at least 2,290 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
A roadside bomb also exploded near a police patrol in Madain south of Baghdad, killing one officer and injuring two, police said.
To the west, gunmen killed an ex-general in
Saddam Hussein's army as he drove his car in Ramadi, a relative said. Former Brig. Gen. Musaab Manfi al-Rawi was rumored to be under consideration to be military commander in the town, an insurgent hotbed, said his cousin, Ahmed al-Rawi.
Gunmen in a speeding car also seriously wounded an Iraqi journalist, Nabila Ibrahim, in Kut, southeast of Baghdad.
The sectarian crisis threatened U.S. plans for a government drawing in the country's major ethnic and religious parties, considered essential to win the trust of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority that forms the backbone of the insurgency.
With a broad-based government in place, the Bush administration hopes to begin withdrawing some of its 138,000 soldiers this year.
A former British ambassador to Iraq predicted Sunday that increasing sectarian bloodshed would require the U.S.-led foreign military coalition stay for some time to help keep peace among rival ethnic and religious groups.
"One could almost call it a low-level civil war already," Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who Britain's envoy in Baghdad until 2004, told British television channel ITV1.
During a meeting at Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's residence, representatives of the main political parties agreed late Saturday to renew efforts to form an inclusive government.
But Sunni politician Nasir al-Ani said Sunday that his side was looking for some tangible steps before ending their boycott of government talks.
Sunni and Shiite religious leaders have also called for unity and an end to attacks on each other's mosques.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose own militia was blamed for many of the attacks on Sunnis, repeated the appeal Sunday when he addressed followers in the southern Shiite stronghold of Basra upon his return from neighboring
Iran.
He accused Americans and their coalition partners of stirring up sectarian unrest and demanded their withdrawal.
Also Sunday, the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera satellite channel broadcast a tape it received from the family of Canadian hostage James Loney appealing for his release and that of three colleagues from the Christian Peacemaker Teams abducted with him in Baghdad on Nov. 26.
"James is a loving, compassionate, selfless man," said a woman relative who appeared on the tape. She did not say what her relation to Loney was, but may have been his sister-in-law since she said her husband and his relatives were scared for their brother.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
02:53 ||
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#1
"...gunmen stepped from a car and fired on teenagers playing soccer "
I knew American Little League baseballe and British soccer fans could be rabid, but it looks like the Iraqis are worse.
SAUDI security forces today killed five men believed to be linked to a bid to blow up the world's largest oil-processing plant, a police officer at the site said. "Five armed wanted men were killed today," in the clashes in a residential Riyadh suburb, the police officer on the scene told AFP.
He said large quantities of arms and explosives as well as material destined to prepare car bombs have been seized in the house where the suspects were holed up. He said the suspects used grenades in their bid to flee authorities.
GERMAN intelligence agents in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein's plan to defend the Iraqi capital, which was passed on to US commanders a month before the 2003 invasion, The New York Times has reported.
In providing the Iraqi document, German intelligence officials offered more significant assistance to the US than their government has publicly acknowledged, the newspaper said on its website.
The plan gave the American military an extraordinary window into Iraq's top-level deliberations, including where and how Saddam planned to deploy his most loyal troops, the Times said.
An account of the German role in acquiring a copy of the Iraqi plan is contained in an American military study, which focuses on Iraq's military strategy and was prepared in 2005 by the US Joint Forces Command, it said.
The German government was an especially vociferous critic of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. While the German government has said that it had intelligence agents in Baghdad during the war, it has insisted it provided only limited help to the US-led coalition.
After the German agents obtained the Iraqi plan, they sent it up their chain of command, the paper said, citing the study.
In February 2003, a German intelligence officer in Qatar provided a copy to an official from the US Defence Intelligence Agency who worked at the wartime headquarters of General Tommy Franks, according to the American military study.
The Iraqi plan called for massing troops along several defensive rings near Baghdad, including a "red line" that Republican Guard troops would hold to the end, the paper said.
Ulrich Wilhelm, the chief spokesman for the German government, would not comment on the report, the Times said.
#2
A "plan" that was utterly useless, both to the defenders and to the attackers.
Re-read "Thunder Run". No one expected Baghdad to fall as quickly as it did, and the drive to the center of Baghdad was an impromptu affair, put together after the swing to the airport demonstrated that enough firepower would let an armored column operate in urban (or suburban) territory. If there was a secret plan, it was as full of bluff and bluster as Fisk's reporting.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 7:28
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#3
How did the Germans find the information? From the briefcase of a dead Iraqi courier washed up on the banks of the Euphrates? Sorta makes you wonder if Saddam was disappointed the Germans gave the information to the Americans.
#4
The thing about plans is they never survive contact with the enemy. The plans the Germans gave us could very well have been perfectly valid. Until the poorly paid, poorly trained Iraqi troops (and lets me realistic even the republican guards sucked) were faced with utter annihilation at the hands of a vastly superior force.
#5
There are still a lot of German soldats who hold the US military in high esteem, and would be more than willing to do their "Ami comeraden" a favor or two.
#7
I suspect the Germans will conclude the same thing about hthe U. S. Another nice move to undermine U. S. intelligence capabilities by the NYT (New York Traitors).
#8
We (the US military) knew the Soviet War Plan for any attack against US forces in Europe called for the use of overwhelming numbers - more tanks, more aircraft, more APCs, more people. The United States has been working on a battle capability to combat overwhelming numbers since at LEAST 1975. The Iraqis used basically the same war plan the Soviets created, and we destroyed them accordingly, because we've been more or less successful in defeating overwhelming numbers with speed, intelligence, innovation, tactical surprise, coordinated maneuver, and superior technology. The Iraqis were nowhere as capable as the Soviets. By preparing to fight the best that could be brought against us, taking on fourth or fifth (or 70th) best was more or less a cake-walk. It didn't matter if we had their plans - we were capable of defeating them in depth because of OUR plan.
Never, Never, NEVER underestimate the US military.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 19:38
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When we set up the Alliance of Civilizations last year, we said that it was "intended to respond to the need for a committed effort by the international community â both at the institutional and civil society levels â to bridge divides and overcome prejudice, misconceptions and polarization". We should all be grateful to the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey for being prescient in anticipating a vital issue in today's world.
We also said that the Alliance would "aim to address emerging threats emanating from hostile perceptions that foment violence"; and we specifically mentioned "the sense of a widening gap and lack of mutual understanding between Islamic and Western societies".
The passions aroused by the recent publication of insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and the reaction to it, show only too clearly that such threats are real, and that the need for a committed effort by the international community is acute.
Iran said yesterday that it had struck an agreement with Russia on its nuclear programme but Moscow insisted the fundamental dispute over Tehran's nuclear plans had yet to be resolved.
Western diplomats also argued that any Russian-Iranian deal was probably a technical one and had still failed to resolve the basic issue of whether Iran would desist from all controversial nuclear activities, as international agencies demand.
The Tehran announcement came just days before the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, is due to produce a comprehensive report on Iran's nuclear activities - a document that will be forwarded to the UN Security Council.
Russia has been spearheading international attempts to strike a deal before the issue reaches the more confrontational atmosphere of the Security Council. But so far Moscow has failed to make a breakthrough while US and European diplomats have stepped up claims that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapon capabilities. Tehran insists its purposes are purely peaceful.
Speaking yesterday after negotiations with a visiting Russian team, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said the two sides had reached a "basic agreement" on a joint venture to enrich uranium - the process that can create weapons-grade material. He added: "In order for this package to be completed, negotiations will be continued in Russia in the coming days."
Sergei Kiriyenko, Mr Aghazadeh's counterpart and head of the Russian delegation, said "mutual trust will increase" if Moscow's proposal to carry out enrichment on Russian soil were implemented.
"I think today we have almost no problem with building this [enrichment] company, whether it be an organisational problem or a financial one," he added. "But Russia's proposal for creating such a joint venture is only one element of a complex approach. Work needs to be done on this."
European diplomats suggested that any agreement between Russia and Iran had been relatively minor and technical since Iran had not yet agreed to the IAEA's call for a moratorium on uranium enrichment on its own soil. "The key point for the international community is whether Iran is prepared to address the IAEA's board requests," said a UK Foreign Office spokeswoman. "We've seen nothing to indicate that at the moment."
The 35-nation IAEA board is set to debate Tehran's nuclear programme at a meeting beginning on March 6, after which the IAEA report, drawn up by Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general, will be forwarded to the Security Council.
"There are ways to solve Iran's nuclear issue within the agency," said Mr Kiri-yenko, who underlined the two sides' co-operation over Bushehr, a nuclear plant Russia is building for Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
00:23 ||
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#1
"Nyet, nyet! Ees nothing! Honest! Would I lie to you?"
#3
Iff you believe PRAVDA, the Russians invented everything or are discovering things which will save the world. DON'T TELL THE NORKIES - they think they invented everything or are saving the world.
Shortly before the American-led invasion of Iraq, Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, warned that the attack would "open the gates of hell." Now, three years later, there is a sense in the Middle East that what was once viewed as quintessential regional hyperbole may instead have been darkly prescient.
Even before the bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Samarra set off sectarian fighting last Wednesday, the chaos in Iraq helped elevate Iran's regional influence a great concern to many of the Sunni led governments here while also giving Al Qaeda sympathizers a new a foothold in the region.
But the bombing, and the prospect of a full-blown civil war driven by sectarian divisions, is even more ominous for the Middle East. Nine Middle Eastern countries have sizable populations of Shiites living side by side with Sunnis, and there is concern in many of them that a split in Iraq could lead to divided allegiances and, perhaps, conflict at home.
"The spillover of this is of concern for everybody in the region," said Ali Shukri, a retired Jordanian general who for 23 years served as an adviser to King Hussein. "When you take western Iraq, Anbar Province borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia; the southern part of Iraq borders Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. If there is a conflict, a surge in violence, it becomes contagious in the region."
The rising tensions in Iraq are also happening at a time when two other powerful dynamics are at work: the rise of Islamic political parties, like Hamas in Gaza and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the effort of the Iran's leadership to once again try to spread its ideas around the region. How all these forces combine and ultimately influence each other has become a source of deep worry.
In addition, should fighting increase, local leaders are also bracing for a new influx of refugees and damage to the regional economy. Both factors would have serious consequences for Middle Eastern states that have little or no oil and are already suffering from stagnant economies, including Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Yemen.
The tiny Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan absorbed about a million Iraqis after Saddam Hussein's government fell, and now, faced with serious economic problems, its leaders worry about another flood of refugees rushing across the border. In Saudi Arabia, officials face the dual threat of a restive Shiite population at home and the increased power of the Iraq-based group that calls itself Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which has already stated its desire to take down the Saudi monarchy.
The Qaeda group in Iraq has already claimed responsibility for a triple bombing in Amman last year, and several political analysts said they believed that the attempted suicide bombing of a Saudi oil refinery on Friday had its roots in Iraq.
With Egyptians making up a large portion of the foreign fighters in Iraq, and earlier in Afghanistan, some analysts have asked, "If Al Qaeda aligned forces are successful in breaking apart Iraq, will they try to strike in Egypt?" Many have expressed concerns about the regional economy, and, if nothing else, have noted that increased violence will undermine efforts to lift a region stung by high unemployment and economic stagnation.
"Iraq has been like hell for the last three years," said Hesham Youssef, Mr. Moussa's chief of staff in Cairo. "I think it would surpass any expectation if a civil war erupts. This will go even into a much worse scenario, not only for Iraq, but for the region as well."
The most pressing fear in the region remains that civil war would aggravate the split that tore Islam into two major groups centuries ago, Sunnis and Shiites. While the original division was caused by a dispute over who would take over as leader, or caliph, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, Shiites and Sunnis have developed distinctly different social, political and religious practices over the centuries and have often viewed each other with suspicion.
While Sunnis are a majority in the region, there are large Shiite populations in Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. In some places, Shiites are discriminated against.
But in weighing the regional impact of the Iraq war, and the potential for intra-Muslim conflict, Iran, the only Shiite-led government in the world, clearly looms largest. By many accounts, the shifting dynamics in Iraq have served to strengthen Iran's hand at a time when it is defying Europe and the United States by moving forward with a nuclear program. Iran says it wants to develop nuclear energy; the West says it suspects Iran is trying to build weapons and has had the International Atomic Energy Agency refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council.
The Iranian leadership has condemned the blast as the work of the Israelis, the Americans and the British, leveling a charge that aims to rally all Muslims behind it; it has also called for calm in Iraq, thereby winning grudging appreciation of regional leaders, and it still has the chaos in Iraq as a foil to deflect American attention from Iran's own nuclear program, analysts in the region said.
"It is true that the elements involved in the explosion were a couple of misled and radical Sunnis, but everyone knows that these people are the puppets of the occupying forces, who incur heavy costs, design very accurate plans and encourage such weak persons to do whatever they want," read an editorial in the Iranian paper Jomhuri-ye Eslami. "During the past years, these elements have been trained with the budget of America and England in order to have an anti-American face but to be the agents of America. They are in fact the children of the Satan that has occupied Iraq at the moment."
Under almost any chain of events, from the development of a democratically elected government in Iraq to the fracturing of the country into ethic zones, Iran faces the prospect of emerging as a far more influential power regionally in the near future than at anytime since the 1979 revolution, political analysts said.
"There was always a balance between Iraq and Iran," said Abdel Raouf El Reedy, a former ambassador to the United States who now serves as chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, an independent research center in Cairo. "Now, if Iraq disintegrates and there is sectarian division between the Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis, then Iran will become the dominant power in the region."
But it is difficult to determine Iran's immediate intentions in Iraq, whether it is a force for calm, an agitator for destabilization or a bit of both. With the election in June of an ideologically hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran had abandoned any conciliatory approach to the West, moving forward with its nuclear program.
In taking such a confrontational approach, Iran has tried to reach out to the Arab world. By calling for Israel to be wiped off the map and calling the Holocaust a myth, Mr. Ahmadinejad has tried to unite Muslims Sunni and Shiite under a pan-Islamic umbrella controlled by Iran.
While that oratory has left Iran more isolated from the West, it has increasingly found a degree of unity and support in the region. The recent outrage over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which set off more than a month of protests, also helped unite Muslims in opposition to a common perceived enemy.
That unity, and the prospect of Iran spreading its revolutionary ideas among Sunnis, could be undermined if there is a fevered civil war pitting Iraq's Sunnis against its Shiite majority.
"If it does start to divide them, then everybody will clinch to power like hell and they will be at each other necks like crazy because nobody will want to lose," said Mr. Shukri, the retired Jordanian general.
So far, Iran has stuck to its script and has tried to transform the attack on a Shiite shrine, which it condemned, into another point to rally all Muslims. But there are many people around the region who question Iran's sincerity, and who see in the chaos in Iraq a hand from Tehran.
"I know the Iranian government does not want to have a stable area," said Muhammad al-Zulfa, a member of the Shoura Council of Saudi Arabia, a consultative assembly appointed by the king. "So I'm afraid they want to keep the Americans busy in Iraq or somewhere else, in Syria, or Lebanon. Maybe the Iranian government wants to have a hand in all these areas."
At the moment, if there is any hint of the possibility for direct confrontation between Shiites and Sunnis, it was offered in Lebanon, by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. He blamed America and militant Sunnis, like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, for the chaos in Iraq. He singled out a practice among some extremists known as takfir, in which one Muslim declares another an apostate, and then kills him.
"Let's not blame each other," he said at a rally last week. "We shouldn't give them that opportunity. We should limit the accusations to the American occupation, its agents and the takfiri murderers. Toward those our rage should be directed."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
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#1
That unity, and the prospect of Iran spreading its revolutionary ideas among Sunnis, could be undermined if there is a fevered civil war pitting Iraq's Sunnis against its Shiite majority.
#2
There is so much here that is twaddle that it would have been amazing a mere 10 years ago. Today I expect no more than this from the terminally BDS-ridden PC-addled Tranzi NYT. I want to focus on the core fantasies being peddled, as I see them.
The M.E. is a swamp of despicable, vile, barbaric, despotic shitholes. It is the primary host of the most dangerous human pathogen on the planet. The oft-mentioned "stability" of this swamp, in reverent tones, is purest black comedy. That's one of the memes in play now that 2 of the worst regimes have been toppled. Seems to me that "worried" is a reasonable response for the others, though not for the reasons tossed out in the article. They have to be worried that the ideological dominion and kleptocracy games are about to end.
I love the Sunnis and Shi'a living side by side BS - it's an idiot's illusion, a farcical view by a fuckwit. In all cases, one dominates the other - and the downtrodden is in no doubt regards who is Master and who is serf.
The alQ breeding-ground bit is quite precious, too. Caliphatists were breeding in the M.E. - in Afghanistan, for example, long before the US took out the Taleban trash. Saddam and his hideous offspring were terror incarnate - long before the US came calling, greased the kiddies, and pulled that freak out of his hole.
The fixation on alQ is specious and dangerous - the presence or absence of an "official" alQ connection misses the point: the security of the USA and our allies, such as they are. One thing that makes me proud to be an American is that, when we have a President with some vision and the stones to pursue it, we tend to see to it that bad shit happens to bad people. Melike. Slackman's a tool - a shallow werdsmythe and peddler of asinine NYT agenda fantasies which focus on the BDS aspect and spin accordingly.
If Iraq disintegrates, then so be it. They have their chance, courtesy of the US - UK - Oz - and the other coalition members, and they have their infection, courtesy of Islam and Arab Tribalism. Whichever prevails, whichever they choose, so be it. Western logic presumed they'd choose freedom, given the choice. Heh. Does not apply. So the question remains open.
To be honest, only the fate of the Kurds garners any of my attention or interest. In the end, they will prosper - only a twisted dictator with many times their power could keep them down - and that's well and good, IMHO. They are the brightest spot in this episode of As the World Turns.
Additionally, Arab Iraq has been rendered toothless outside its borders - the terrorists still living are amateurs compared to Saddam, including Zarqi. Removing this dictator was a Good Thing.
A swamp. Of shitholes. To neutralize the threat of the pathogen, we must drain it. We must drain them all. All in their turn. 2 down, and what - 20 to go? Many of those will fold under their own weight and demographics after one or two more are removed.
Iran seems to be demanding to be next. Works for me. Make it so.
#3
Many of the Net blogs are NOT detecting any signs of civil war in IRAQ - in America, though, UNITED FORPEACE.org is calling for various Lefty groups/orgs to storm the White House on March 15th, and for Dubya, etal and aligned Corporatists to stand before the UNO Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes ags humanity.
#4
I hate being destablized, ever since Suez I've felt that things have just going so wrong for me. The Jews, the endless heat, inbred camels, sand everwhere, The Jews, I long for the days of wholesome peace and contentment. Instead we get The Jews and freaking kids everywhere. I'm depressed and unstable.
Posted by: The Middle East ||
02/27/2006 17:20
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HUNDREDS of rioting prisoners led by al-Qaeda and Taleban militants were locked in a stand-off with security forces last night after seizing control of a wing of Afghanistans main high-security prison. As night fell the prison, on the eastern edge of Kabul, was ringed by soldiers and police, backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers, to prevent a break-out. Seven people were killed in the uprising at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison, according to one police officer at the scene. Prison officials said that 30 had been wounded in clashes between inmates and police.
The huge, run-down, Soviet-style prison was built in the 1970s, and thousands of Afghans who opposed communist rule were killed and tortured there in the 1980s. It now holds 2,000 inmates, including about 350 Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters. Rioting began in the prisons Block Two on Saturday night. Muhammad Qasim Hashimzai, Afghanistans Deputy Justice Minister, said that prisoners led by al-Qaeda and Taleban militants had taken two female guards hostage during a row over a new prison rule forcing inmates to wear blue uniforms. The uniforms were intended to prevent a repeat of a break-out last month, when seven Taleban suspects escaped by disguising themselves as visitors.
General Mahboub Amiri, head of Kabuls Rapid Reaction Police Force, said that the violence began when Taleban members tried to escape. Prison officials said that inmates had been seen trying to climb the walls, but that none had escaped. Hundreds of prisoners armed with makeshift weapons then barricaded themselves inside the block. Gunfire rang out during the day. Smoke rose from windows as inmates burned mattresses and bedding.
The block was divided into three sections, with one each for political prisoners, ordinary criminals and women. Mr Hashimzai said that prisoners had broken through the divisions, and that there were fears that some female prisoners could have been raped. Four prisoners were wounded while trying to escape, but other injured prisoners were still being held by rioters, Mr Hashimzai said. They have control of the wounded prisoners and they are not giving them to us so that we can treat them. We have doctors and ambulances ready here, he said.
Timur Shah, a gang leader who helped to kidnap Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni last year, was involved in starting the riot, according to one of the negotiators, Nader Nadeery, of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Mr Hashimzai said last night that negotiations with the prisoners had foundered. Unfortunately, the prisoners have no unity and have different demands. Theres no one leader who can talk to us, he said. He said that prisoners were chanting: Death to (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai, Death to Bush and Death to America.
Wotta coincidence. I'm sitting here chanting "Death to the nasty bastards!"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/27/2006
00:13 ||
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"forcing inmates to wear blue uniforms"
Authorities should drop this requirement offer the prisoners freedom of choice - a specified uniform or no clothes.
American prison policy seems to be in force here - I suspect in past Afghan administrations rioting prisoners would have just been killed outright. Might be a good time to return to local custom.
#4
I remember camping years ago in one of Utah's National Parks, and there was a "work crew" from the local county jail doing some major clean up of the campground. The locals had dressed them in tee shirts and big poofy clown pants (either w/large stripes or dots, I forget which) and the cons were glaring at all the campers, daring them to laugh or say something. (We did, but under our breath.)
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
02/27/2006 13:01
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Prayer leaders in Islamabad's registered mosques urged the people not to allow politicians to exploit their sentiments over the publication of caricatures of the Holy Prophet (May his drip clear up pbuh).
During their Friday sermons, imams from mosques around the capital expressed their reservations on the MMA's claim that their protests would continue till the ouster of President Musharraf. "Politicising the issue is wrong. They (the MMA leaders) should have said that their protests would continue until the publishers of the caricatures are punished," observed the imam of a mosque in sector G-9/3. He said that every Muslim was hurt by the publication of the caricatures, but it was not justified to use the people's religious sentiments to further a political agenda.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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He said that every Muslim was hurt by the publication of the caricatures ...
Sure enough, especially those hostile saps who got their beturbaned @sses trampled flat during the protests. More cartoons, more tramplings, more economy crippling demonstrations. Faster, please.
The FBI determined a powdery substance found in a roll of quarters at a University of Texas dormitory was not ricin after initial state tests had indicated it was the potentially deadly poison, a spokesman said Sunday.
The FBI tests did not identify the substance, but they came back negative for the poison that is extracted from castor beans, said San Antonio FBI spokesman Rene Salinas. ``There were no proteins in there to indicate it was in fact ricin,'' Salinas said. He said was unlikely further testing would be done. Texas health officials did ``just a quick test and they don't check for the proteins in ricin,'' Salinas said.
Salinas said it was unclear whether the FBI would continue its investigation into how the substance ended up with the coins. If it was put there as a joke, Salinas said ``it was an extremely bad joke.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2006
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Ah, is that what that was? I wondered why my hometown was on Chinese TV yesterday.
LAHORE: People who resorted to violence during protests against the publication of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (may his slippers never uncurl pbuh) in European newspapers have damaged the cause of Muslims, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told legislators from Jhelum and Attock during a meeting in Rawalpindi on Sunday. Elahi said the caricatures offended Muslims all over the world. He also said the PML was capable of coping with all challenges effectively and urged MPAs to accelerate development work and the PML reorganisation campaign in their areas. He said the opposition was trying to damage national assets during protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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If Islamophobia is a growing problem, who is responsible for spreading negative stereotypes of Muslims? You know: the stereotype that muslims are violent extremists who want to impose their beliefs on everyone around them. Where on earth could people ever get such an idea? Maybe they're just bigotted and closed minded. How else would they make such an absurd connection?
BERLIN, Feb 25 (Reuters) - German authorities have jailed two men suspected of buying weapons and missile technology on behalf of Iranian intelligence services, a German government official said on Saturday. The two men, identified as a 59-year-old German citizen named Joseph Edward G. and a 41-year-old foreigner named Yousef P., were jailed pending completion of the prosecutors' investigation of possible espionage activities.
"They were brought before the investigating judge at the district court in Karlsruhe on Friday, who decided to detain them on suspicion of acting as agents for an intelligence service," the Federal Prosecutors Office said in a statement.
A German government official familiar with some aspects of the case told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to its sensitivity they were suspected of acting on behalf of Iran. "This has to do with Iran again," he said.
Oh reeeeally? Bet that's never happened before.
The prosecutors office said the two men "were occupied in recent months with shopping for control components for projectiles, equipment for the production of European Ariane IV launch vehicle rockets, military radio and night-vision equipment" and other items.
And Germany is a one-stop shopping mall for good high tech gear.
Although customs officials were able to stop one shipment of items out of Germany, authorities are investigating whether other shipments could have successfully left Germany, it said.
German police and customs officials investigating the case raided 12 premises across four states on Thursday and arrested the two men. The raids were in the western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland. "The accused are suspected of attempting, in the service of a foreign intelligence agency, to obtain parts for delivery systems and conventional weaponry for armed forces," the office said shortly after the raids. Germany has strict rules against the sale of arms and sensitive dual-use technology to Iran and a number of other countries.
Yousef P. appears to be an intelligence agent and Joseph Edward G. was "one of his most significant contacts in Germany" who had connections with a number of other people in Germany whom he -- the middleman -- involved in his procurement efforts, the prosecutors said.
Last month, German federal prosecutors formally charged two German citizens with espionage in a separate case for helping an unidentified foreign intelligence agency acquire dual-use missile technology. A German official familiar with the case said the country involved was Iran.
Guess the strict rules aren't strict enough.
The prosecutors are also in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna as they investigate German involvement in a nuclear black market that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea with uranium enrichment technology that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons. Some of the men who helped Iran get uranium enrichment technology could be charged with treason, EU diplomats familiar with the investigation told Reuters earlier this month.
But to charge them with treason, you have to believe they betrayed the German state, not aided it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2006
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BAGHDAD - At least eight people were killed and 32 wounded on Sunday when mortars fell on two Shia neighbourhoods in southern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. Eight mortars fell on two Shia neighbourhoods, two on a vegetable market in Al-Saidiya and the rest landed on houses in Abuchir district in southern Baghdad, the official added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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British forces in one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan face their first potential threat from farmers whose poppy fields are due to be destroyed from this week. The government of President Hamid Karzai is determined to carry out large-scale eradication of opium crops in Helmand province, where the first members of a British task force of 5,700 are being deployed. British commanders here have stressed that their troops will not take part in the highly controversial programme. But both Afghan and British officials have acknowledged that they are likely to suffer a backlash in this largely rural community if farmers lose their livelihood with no adequate compensation.
British troops are already preparing for expected attacks from a resurgent Taliban and their al-Qa'ida allies. Islamist fighters have carried out waves of suicide and roadside bombings, murdered aid workers, burnt schools and beheaded teachers for offering to teach girls.
British soldiers may also have to disarm the grandiosely titled Afghan Security Force - in effect former mujahedin hired by US forces to guard their bases. They are accused by local people of lawlessness and involvement in extortion.
President Karzai is under intense pressure from the US and Britain to curb Afghanistan's production of heroin. Helmand, which accounts for 25 per cent of the opium crop, will be used as a public show of the government's determination. But neighbouring regions where warlords are said to have links with the government are not facing any significant eradication programme, further fuelling anger in Helmand.
The US is said to favour a robust eradication campaign. But while British ministers have said repeatedly that one of the troops' primary tasks would be to help halt Afghan opium production - the largest in the world and responsible for 90 per cent of the drug on Britain's streets - they also say soldiers will simply be providing "security" rather than taking part in eradication or counter-terrorist operations.
The statements have created confusion over the precise mission of the force, which includes paratroopers and Royal Marines, and is larger than the one sent during the 2001 war.
Col Gordon Messenger, commander of the British forces being deployed in Helmand, said his force would not destroy poppy crops or provide security for Afghan forces doing so. Another senior officer said: "We should not even be in the same area where the eradication is taking place. The problem is that we shall have to be back there in the future with Afghan forces."
Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, head of the anti-narcotics department in the province, said: "They have doubled the area of the land growing poppy in Helmand. We have told them to stop, and they have not listened. We have even taken people to Kabul and told them, to show how serious we are about cutting the crop."
Afghan forces themselves are concerned, however. "It will be a big mistake to cut the crop this year," said Abdul Shakur, police commandant in Helmand's provincial capital, Lashkar Gar. "The people have nothing else and they will get angry."
Lt Shabaz Ali, of the 3rd Battalion of the Afghan army, said: "If I am ordered to destroy the crop, then I shall have to do so, [but] we should leave them alone this year and then give them compensation next year before cutting the crop.
"The farmers will turn against us and the British. They have guns and they can fight."
At Sharabak, an Afghan army headquarters next to Camp Bastion, the massive British military base under construction, Sgt Sardar Khan added: "This will cause big problems. It will be difficult for the British to say they are not involved. In here, for example, they are in the next camp to us."
#1
I read an article in the past few months that there's medicinal use for poppies once the narcotic ingredient is removed - they were making hybrid poppies.
I thought at that time why don't our drug companies just pay them the going rate and have them grow the safe poppies.
#4
But both Afghan and British officials have acknowledged that they are likely to suffer a backlash in this largely rural community if farmers lose their livelihood with no adequate compensation.
First it was "Opium growing is out of control and [insert political leader name] isn't doing anything about it". Now we have "Oh, the poor famers will get mad and [insert national force name] will face a backlash".
I wish they'd make up their frigging minds which line they want to parrot.
#5
Napalm will take care of an opium poppy field in jig time - also the growers and the "protectors". Time to fire up the production line and get moving. It also works great on coca plantations. We're fighting the "war on drugs" with the wrong tools. A little napalm would do the trick. Who knows, maybe some people even understand cause and effect enough to stop growing what we don't like.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 14:39
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Saudi security forces clashed with suspected militants in a suburb of Riyadh early on Monday, security sources said, just days after al Qaeda militants tried to storm a major Saudi oil facility. They said security forces had surrounded the men in the affluent al-Hamra district of east Riyadh. No more details were available.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is "not relevant" because of the victory of the Islamic Hamas in last month's elections and its takeover of the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet, Israel's acting foreign minister said Sunday. Tzipi Livni spoke after meeting US envoy David Welch, where they discussed how to relate to Abbas, the Fateh leader who is president of the Palestinian Authority, in light of the landslide Hamas victory over Fateh. Last week, Abbas picked Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh to form a new Cabinet.
Livni's harsh statement reflected an apparent difference in approach between Israel and the US. Israel Radio reported that Welch put forward a policy in which the US would work with Abbas instead of the Hamas-led government, but Israel rejected that. Livni told Israel Radio that Abbas "can't be a fig leaf for a terrorist authority. Abu Mazen can't be a pretty face for ugly terror that hides behind it." She said the Hamas government must decide about Israel's demands for recognition and renunciation of terror, and Abbas "in this regard is not relevant." Without referring to the radio report, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman of the US consulate in East Jerusalem, said: "In terms of Abu Mazen [Abbas], we remain fully committed and supportive of him."
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called Livni's remarks "totally unacceptable." Erekat, from Fateh, said: "The Israelis are trying to undermine the Palestinian people in general because they don't differentiate between one Palestinian and the other." Israel and the US both consider Hamas a terror group.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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Were we supposed to believe that he was relevant BEFORE the election?
#2
The Israelis are trying to undermine the Palestinian people in general because they don't differentiate between one Palestinian and the other."
There is no need to distinguish one Paleo from the other. The majority, overwhelmingly, voted for terrorists. This is the face they have chosen to represent all of them.
The government you elected rejects terror and acknowledges israel or you all are treated as the terrorists you embraced and legally chose to represent you.
More than 1,000 demonstrators chanting anti-FBI slogans and carrying Puerto Rican flags marched through the capital of this U.S. island territory on Sunday. Demonstrators chanted "Respect Puerto Rico!" and "FBI get out!"
Many of the marchers favor independence for the island and accuse the FBI of persecuting the movement. They also accuse the FBI of letting Filiberto Ojeda Rios the fugitive leader of a pro-independence militant group bleed to death during an FBI raid in September.
Federal agents have said they shot Ojeda Rios after he fired on them, but his widow said the FBI fired first. Ojeda Rios was wanted for the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo armored truck depot. Marchers Sunday later accused an onlooker of being a federal agent. Confronting the man, demonstrators began shouting "murderer, murderer." After several minutes the man fled in an automobile and protesters banged on the car windows, cracking the glass, witnesses said. Many of the marchers said the man had been taking photographs of the demonstration. Several witnesses said the man had been carrying a firearm. More at the link.
#1
Local newspaper reports that a special Fed-sanctioned study has recommended that the PR be given three options - status quo, full indpendence, or full statehood.
#2
Get these fools out of America. Make Puerto Rico fend for itself as an independent country. Its territorial status is a leftover from the Spanish-American War, and it's about time that it was resolved.
#3
I agree. We need PR like we need more Muslims in America. Both groups bring little and cost much and the country would be better off without them and the baggage they bring. The only reason we haven't gotten rid of them before is that the NY Congressional delegation desperately fights to keep that issue off the radarscope any time it begins to arise. They know that if PR were to be made independent, half of Puerto Ricans would become New York Ricans before the wall went up. NY doesn't want that kind of exponential increase in its welfare costs. Therefore they do whatever they can to keep the status quo ante. My breaking point with them came over Vieques. If those characters can't see fit to let a sixty-year old naval gunnery range continue to be used, they don't deserve to be part of the United States. Cut 'em loose, and pronto. Let them see how they like being on their own. Adios, muchachos.
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 7:49
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#4
Since the Puerto Ricans won't vote for independence, how about an American referendum to force independence. Let's get that on the California ballot pronto and give my regards to Hugo.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 9:10
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#5
Please don't call these idiots "Puerto Ricans" as if they represent all Puerto Ricans. There are more more Puerto Ricans serving in Iraq today than there were demonstrators at that rally.
These people are as representative of youraverage Puerto Rican as Code Pink is of your average American.
In the 20+ years I lived there, I never saw the Independence movement get more than 6% of the vote.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/27/2006 11:19
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#6
Then PR should become a state then, it should choose state or independance.
#7
I agree with AL. I work with Puerto Ricans and I was married to one. Good decent people. The first time I went into New England very few people would believe I wasn't and never had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Their impression was EVERYONE from Alabama or the deep South was a member when the reality was the Klansmen were a very small fraction of the citizens. This is just a bunch of fringe nutjobs. Having said that, I do think the Puerto Ricans need to decide just what it is they want.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/27/2006 12:14
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#8
I do think the Puerto Ricans need to decide just what it is they want.
Why should they? They've got the best of both worlds.
#9
Yep. Statehood or independence. Choose, otherwise Americans should force independence. That also goes for other territories (e.g. Guam). Combine with Hawaii or go independent.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 12:56
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#10
+1 to Al and Deacon. The Puerto Ricans I have known during my time in PR are fiercely proud to be Americans (born as citizens...they get justifiable upset when mainlanders don't realize that). All of the friends I have living there are U.S. army veterans as well.
The 'Independence' movement was getting some press the last time I was in PR as well. But ask yourself this...does the AP want to write stories about the 99% of Puerto Ricans that want remain Americans? Or do they want to write about the 1% that doesn't?
Yes, PR should have to choose to become the 51st state or independence. But if you never had to pay a federal income tax where you live, would you want to start now?
Now, if you find yourself in PR in the future and see a group of Puerto Ricans with Big Orange T's on the front of their baseball caps, buy 'em a glass of Gentleman Jack and tell 'em the Psycho Hillbilly says hello.
#11
I've worked with several PR physicians in my life. Damned good and damned decent people, every one.
PR can remain a commonwealth if it wants -- why should I care? Puerto Ricans consider themselves American, and that's good enough for me. They serve in our armed forces, they work hard, and they are NOT welfare layabouts.
Criminy, people, these folks are our countrymen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2006 13:47
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#12
It is pretty clear we are going to admit no new states. I believe this is a bad thing. Would we be better off adding territory and citizens via PR style relationships or having them be independent countries? Cuba? Alberta? Northern Mexico? I think we should be looking at ways to draw more of the world's people closer to us.
#13
I have nothing agaisn't PR, but if they are our countrymen then they should ask to be a state, I am sorry I pay frderal taxes and if they want all the good things so should they.
#14
No one on this thread has addressed Vieques yet except me. If PR is so patriotic, where did the idiots protesting the Navy's use of that range come from? Who elected the idiot now governor of PR who supported the idiots against Vieques? Sorry, guys, I know how much the Navy wanted to keep Vieques. It hurt bad when they lost it. They closed down Roosevelt Roads simply to spite PR for having been such a bunch of damned jerks. We don't ask them to pay taxes, they don't have to serve in the military, and they live off the fat of the U.S. taxpayer. If they couldn't even muster enough patriotism to let a gunnery range that will NEVER be cleaned up enough for any other purpose continue to be used, to hell with them. Kick them out from underneath Uncle Sam's umbrella and let them see how they like being independent. We'll be better off without them. If any good ones want to immigrate after that, maybe we'll consider it. They can get in line behind the Filipinos.
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 16:57
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#15
Let me point out again that the protestors called "pro-independence" in that article and others are the Macheteros. They're Communists.
Newspapers can't seem to bring themselves to print the "C" word these days.
The last referendum I'm aware of the vote was something like 48% for statehood, 48% for status quo and 2% for "independence".
On Vieques, the Viequenses are happy the Navy stopped bombing, and tourism there is way up, but the majority of Big Islanders are pissed that a few pinko radicals and Hollyhood types killed the cash cow that was Rosey Roads.
If you'd like to vist a beautiful part of PR off the beaten path I can recommend Nelson's Country Home. Nelson's a Marine and was serving in Bosnia when we were there a couple of years ago. Support our troops by renting their vacation properties!
#18
where did the idiots protesting the Navy's use of that range come from?
Cindy Sheehan's hometown?
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 17:56
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#19
I'm sorry but you're getting your dander up about 1,000 demonstrators when you have a far greater problem in the 48 contiguous states. Might as well ask every major urban center to separate.
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/27/2006 18:00
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#20
6--it's been more than 30 years since anyone got drafted. No, they don't have to serve in the military and neither does anyone else. Volunteers, right? Second, for Rafael, CS doesn't represent California and plenty of Californians will be quick to tell you that. When the idiots on Vieques did their protesting I don't remember hearing anything from anyone else in PR except loud agreement. If there were any patriotic PRs against those jerks, they were damned quiet about it.
Posted by: mac ||
02/27/2006 18:15
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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on influential world figures to fight extremism and bridge the divide between East and West at the opening of a conference of Muslim and European leaders. "Lofty ideas alone are not enough ... We need to develop sobering, but equally compelling counter-narratives of our own," Annan told delegates at the second gathering of the UN-sponsored Alliance of Civilizations.
The UN chief drew attention to the violent demonstrations across the Muslim world over the satiric cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Europe as symptoms of a greater global sickness. "At the heart of this crisis is a trend towards extremism in many societies," Annan told the gathering Sunday. "I very much hope that you can come up with specific, concrete suggestions for ways of carrying dialogue forward so that it can really catch the popular imagination; so that we are not just a nice group of people agreeing with each other, but people with a message that can echo around the world."
He said world figures, especially artists, entertainers and sports champions, must promote the ideology of tolerance and understanding between cultures among youth before they are swayed by extremists. "It is very important to reach young people before their ideas and attitudes have fully crystallised," he said.
The Alliance of Civilizations initiative, launched in November 2005 by Spain and Turkey, has created a "high-level group" of some 20 members including Iran's former president Mohammed Khatami, former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the wife of Qatar's emir Sheikha Mozah. The group, which had its first meeting in Palma de Mallorca in Spain in November and will have two more meetings after Doha, is expected to come up with concrete steps for promoting dialogue between cultures that will be presented to the UN, other international organisations and world governments in the autumn.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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#3
We need to develop sobering, but equally compelling counter-narratives of our own
It's always about "narratives" and "framing" with these people, isn't it? I guess that's easier than actually doing anything.
And then there's this gem:
He said world figures, especially artists, entertainers and sports champions, must promote the ideology of tolerance and understanding between cultures among youth before they are swayed by extremists
I've witnessed gobs of preaching by artists and entertainers about the "ideology of tolerance".
I don't sense that it's made any difference with practitioners of the Religion of Peace.
Posted by: Hans Blix ||
02/27/2006 10:16
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Hans, you don't need a menu if you're dining with Kofi. The chef will prepare anything you want and John Bolton will pick up the check, albeit extremely reluctantly.
#7
He said world figures, especially artists, entertainers and sports champions, must promote the ideology of tolerance and understanding between cultures among youth before they are swayed by extremists.
Gee, aren't the artists, entertainers, etc the one's being slaughtered in muslim countries when they do speak out. The one's lingering in prison and/or in hiding with fatwas against them.
Are these the artists you have in mid Kofi?
Or are ya just in the mood for another Bono concert?
#9
East West divide? Japan is in the East. Taiwan is in the East, Australia is in the East (well South and East). Change that to middle east instead of east and you've narrowed down the source of 99% of the worlds problems.
I agree action is required to solve that problem. Action not theft.
LAHORE: A spokesman for the Punjab government has said people proved that they would not approve religion's use for political gains, by staying away from the opposition rally on Sunday.
What if they gave a riot and nobody came?
Opposition parties failed to exploit people's religious sentiments for their political designs, the spokesman said in a statement. He said that opposition parties had not condemned ransacking of public property and burning of Punjab Assembly even after so many days. The spokesman alleged that the opposition was trying to achieve its anti-state agenda with violence during protests. He said the government represented people's sentiments on the caricature issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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Protest Warriors Rule!!
Posted by: N guard ||
02/27/2006 0:23
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Israel will institute a number of comprehensive changes to its defense export arrangements at the insistence of the United States, following the crisis over Israel's export of attack drones to China. The status of several central divisions in the Defense Ministry will be changed, including that of the head of security and the division for assistance and export. A new division will be established in the Defense Ministry, and Foreign Ministry representatives will sit on a supreme advisory council for defense exports. The U.S. administration has been informed of the expected changes.
"The Chinese crisis" caused a rift between Israel and the Pentagon on several levels. A number of contacts were frozen by the Americans, who said Israel could not be trusted in the area of sensitive technological exports, both American and Israeli, which might reach "dangerous addresses." The American delegates expressed their satisfaction with the plans, but said that it remained to be seen how Israel would enact the decisions.
However, Haaretz has learned that the Americans said they expected the Foreign Ministry to have been given a more serious role in supervising Israel's defense exports. The Foreign Ministry, like the Trade, Industry and Labor Ministry, was given a position only on the supreme advisory council that will operate in the new division, and which will deliberate on export to "special" countries like China, Russia, and countries that have any connection to acts of terror. The Americans demanded in the meeting that Venezuela be added to the list of countries Washington considered "problematic" countries and to which defense exports should be limited.
The Foreign Ministry in fact had no part in supervising defense exports, and diplomatic considerations were insufficient. The Foreign Ministry more than once harshly criticized the actions of the Defense Ministry regarding defense exports. A few dozen people will work in the new division, most of whom will come from other divisions. The Public Service Commissioner will be asked to authorize about ten new positions for the new division of defense exports. The division will also be responsible for enforcement of the various regulations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2006
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#1
I like the israelis, and I understand their need to make revenue.
They need to get their head around the fact that we are about the only nation on this planet that is currently willing to support them without a gun held to our head. And modify their behavior accordingly.
Selling arms and tech to people that we will prolly fight sooner or later is not going to make the next round of political / economic / military support any easier.
Posted by: N guard ||
02/27/2006 0:21
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#2
Another time to remember that "nations don't have friends, they have only interests." The US has strongly supported Israel. Without the absolute political and military support of the US, Israel would have been overrun in 1973. But this support is not always reciprocated. Remember the sinking of the Liberty in 1967. Plus our friends have always had an active intelligence operation in the US. The Israelis have always been willing to sell any technology to anyone other than the Arabs. Buying US technology from Israel is cheaper than developing or stealing it. China is a big customer. I seriously worry about coordinating missile defense technology with a country who will sell it to our future enemy.
#3
For what it is worth, I have worked with and like the Israelis. In a previous life, I helped them set up their national EW test facility and even received a holiday card and a book in thanks from the MOD. I like and support them, but there are some technologies that we need to control.
WASHINGTON Iraqi security forces have made strides over the past four months with nearly a third of the armys battalions now assigned to their own battle space, a Pentagon progress report said on Friday.
Delivered to Congress amid an upsurge of sectarian violence, the report said the force has grown to about 230,000. It said 98 Iraqi army and 27 police battalions have been trained and equipped and are now engaged in counter-insurgency operations. Of the army battalions, 53 are capable of leading counter-insurgency operations with US military support and 37 control their own areas.
Both figures represent significant increase from October, when only 19 battalions had their own battle space and 36 were judged capable of leading operations, albeit with US military backing. One of the reasons we want to turn over battle space to Iraqis is precisely so coalition forces can be less visible and less exposed, said Peter Rodman, an assistant secretary of defence who briefed reporters on the report.
The security forces, which in the past have crumbled under insurgent pressure, now face a major test of strength with an explosion of sectarian violence in the wake of the bombing of a Shia mosque this week. This so far seems to be a test that they are standing up to just exactly as we would hope, Lieutenant General Gene Renuart, of the Joint Staff, told reporters here.
With most of the line armys line battalions now trained and equipped, US military trainers are shifting their focus to creating support units that would enable the Iraqi to operate independently of the US military, the report said. Plans call for completing the formation of leaders and basic training for most of those support units by the end of the year, he said.
No Iraqi battalions are currently considered capable of operating fully independently of the US military, Renuart said. In October, there was one, but it has since been downgraded, he said. Once combat support and combat services units have been built up, the general said, then you will begin to see increasing numbers of level-one battalions.
The report said priority also is being given this year to training and equipping police forces, which fall under the Ministry of the Interior and currently number some 82,000. Insurgent infiltration and militia influence remain a concern for the Ministry of the Interior, the report said. Many serving police officers, particularly in the south, have ties to Shia militias.
Recent sectarian attacks on Sunnis have been carried out by Interior Ministry police suspected of having been ties to Shia militias, the report said. Domestication of the militias is a gradual process, Rodman said. But he added that bringing them into the police forces was a way to do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2006
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No Iraqi battalions are currently considered capable of operating fully independently of the US military, Renuart said.
But remember the standard, to operate just like an American battalion. That includes the ability to communicate and coordinate support, air/artillery/etc. By which standard there are probably no other units in the world capable of meeting that standard outside of the US military. Just the ability to link into the electronic communications and net that the Americans use, means that British, German, Japanese, etc are not at the same level. And the entire organizational structure of combat support and services certainly are not there yet. A gun without bullets is just a club. Modern military organizations require that infrastructure to operate. So the ability of the battalion is dependent upon none organizational elements which are beyond the battalion commander's control. However, that factor has to be considered in 'readiness'. Its like an iceberg. 10 percent on the surface [the battalion] and 90 percent under the water [support and integration].
PESHAWAR: Police arrested and charged three men with robbing more than $1 million from a Saudi-owned bank in Pakistan, leaving a note saying they were stealing for Al Qaeda, an official said on Sunday. Police now believe the Al Qaeda link was a ruse, aimed at misleading investigators, said Habibur Rahman, the Peshawar police chief.
Gosh, Sea. You're a genius! Legume! Take Miss Seafarious' cape and saxophone!
One of the suspects, Mohammed Sibtain, was arrested at a roadblock on the outskirts of Peshawar within hours of the daylight robbery on Saturday at the main branch of the Al-Faisal bank, Rahman said. During his interrogation, Sibtain named two accomplices, Mohammed Iqbal and Rafi Ullah who were arrested later that day. Police seized four pistols, four cell phones and $520,000 and Rs 207,500 from Sibtains car, according to Rahman. They have been charged with armed robbery, taking hostages and terrorising people.
Two robbers, dressed as security guards, sneaked into the bank and held staff hostage while they stole $950,000 and Rs 5.3 million rupees, police said. They chanted, Long live Al Qaeda! and Down with America! during the robbery and left a note on a bank vault that said, We are stealing money for Al Qaeda as our financial network has been smashed, according to Wazir. Wazir said there is no evidence to charge the men with any terrorism-related offence, although they would be tried in an anti-terrorism court.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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Take your blood pressure medicine first. Another piece of slimy half-accusations and whining.
While an international debate rages over the future of the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the military has quietly expanded another, less-visible prison in Afghanistan, where it now holds some 500 terror suspects in more primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges.
Pentagon officials have often described the detention site at Bagram, a cavernous former machine shop on an American air base 40 miles north of Kabul, as a screening center. They said most of the detainees were Afghans who might eventually be released under an amnesty program or transferred to an Afghan prison that is to be built with American aid.
But some of the detainees have already been held at Bagram for as long as two or three years. And unlike those at Guantánamo, they have no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them and only rudimentary reviews of their status as "enemy combatants," military officials said.
Because it's an Afghan prison on Afghan soil, and the Afghan government finds it convenient to keep these hoods, and we find it convenient not to argue with them.
Privately, some administration officials acknowledge that the situation at Bagram has increasingly come to resemble the legal void that led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June 2004 affirming the right of prisoners at Guantánamo to challenge their detention in United States courts.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2006
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NYT rivals Pravda according to informed bloggers.
Y'know, life is tough. The NYT aspires to lofty goals - shangra-la on earth. I wish we didn't have to detain terrorists, or criminals in Attica (in New York) and I bet most of those in Attica protest that they are detained incorrectly, improperly, and without the proper facilities - especiially if the NYT would ask them.
Life is tougher if you're stupid, or blindly, hopelessly idealistic.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/27/2006 7:24
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#3
So, let's compare either one to Abu Ghraib during Saddam's reign.
Oh, wait, that's right. Not a single goddamn US paper bothered to print pics from that period. And CNN admitted to covering up the nature of Saddam's reign in exchange for "access".
Is there a course specifically dealing with treason in journalism school, or, like getting your units straight in engineering, is it an underlying theme in all the courses?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 7:30
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#4
I sure hope there's a prison on Diego Garcia I don't know about that is housing all the really bad guys. Where else can jack Bauer interrogate people properly?
#5
Men are held by the dozen in large wire cages, the detainees and military sources said, sleeping on the floor on foam mats and, until about a year ago, often using plastic buckets for latrines. Before recent renovations, they rarely saw daylight except for brief visits to a small exercise yard.
Sounds like a nice camping weekend in Alaska to me. This isn't "harsh" at all, especially if you consider the day-to-day life of Afghans themselves. He!!, if you've read Tommy Franks book, you realize that even the ruling class's digs didn't have indoor plumbing. Great story there of him visiting Karzai, asking for the restroom (for his wife) and finding out in this palatial estate, that the bathroom was a back room where you "did your business" on the floor. I imagine there's hardly ANY indoor plumbing in Afghanistan if even the ruling class's digs don't have it!
And, I know I'm answering my own question, but why the heck run this now, when their own story says that they blocked transfers starting in Sept. 2004, almost a year and a half ago?
Posted by: BA ||
02/27/2006 9:44
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#6
why the heck run this now, when their own story says that they blocked transfers starting in Sept. 2004, almost a year and a half ago?
Because their guy had to write something to justify the expensive travel fees (after all, he had to get kitted out in full "journalist in the wilds" regalia, in Afghan Sand with matching coordinates, for his new staff photo... not to mention his travel costs, and the goat he thought he needed to purchase because you can't just buy a source drinks over there to get him talking). And besides, if they couldn't find a reason to manufacture outrage, they'd have to acknowledge the real improvements over there, and they'd just rather die!
#9
Somebody needs to get to Punch Shulzberger. Somebody needs to tell him he's making an awful lot of Marines VERY unhappy - unhappy enough to take up a collection for the NY Mafia to do a hit on him. Unhappy enough to take out his two-bit propaganda rag like Saddam's "elite" Republican Guard. Unhappy enough to make him drink 40 consecutive bottles of Carlsberg light beer - then wait 24 hours before using the latrine. Unhappy enough to pierce his ears - with a sniper rifle. It's not wise to make Marines unhappy. Unhappy Marines are not nice folks. Punch needs to learn that, first-hand. I'd volunteer to help, but only if I can bring my axehandle.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2006 14:36
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#10
get kitted out in full "journalist in the wilds" regalia, in Afghan Sand
#12
BA, I know it was rhetorical, but I just couldn't stand it. The next-but-one in my tottering to-read pile is a book by a Wall Street Journal reporter who's done 5 rotations in Iraq with one of the Marine units -- a girlfriend of mine was a college friend of his, and he pops round occasionally... Anyway, it was the photo on the back cover I was channelling, but not the stripped down version of a real reporter (local fleas and all), but the glamourpuss version Mr. Rather and the parachuting journalists like the author of this little ignorance-filled diatribe favour.
/no TIM GOLDEN and ERIC SCHMITT do not meet my standards, why do you ask?
#14
I suspect it's not so much an evolution as the careful shedding of reticence, revealing mor of what was always there but hidden. I dated girls like that.
PESHAWAR: Speakers at a conference said that the publication of caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was an international plot designed by imperialist America to weaken the strong Muslim states by driving a wedge between the West and the East. They urged workers, peasants and labourers across the world to unite and stand up to imperialist forces led by the US and prevent them from achieving their nefarious designs.
"Workers and peasants"?
The speakers expressed these views at an Anti-Imperialist Conference organised by Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party at Nishtar Hall, Peshawar. Speaking to peasants and workers who had come from far-flung areas of the province, Ghinwa Bhutto, chairman Pakistan Peoples PartyShaheed Bhutto, said that the publication of cartoons was Americas plot aimed at isolating the people of the East from the West to achieve its objectives. Our real foes are the Americans and the Jewish lobby that controls the US and the western media particularly in Scandinavian countries, said Ms Bhutto, widow of Mir Murtaza Bhutto. She said that the people from the west always sided with the people from the east, particularly on the Iraq war, which the western people opposed, and if both the East and the West united, imperialist America would have no place in the world. The imperialists (Americans) and the Jewish lobby plotted the cartoon drama to isolate us, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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Speakers at a conference said that the publication of caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was an international plot designed by imperialist America to weaken the strong Muslim states by driving a wedge between the West and the East.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has dismissed Iranian overtures to take over funding for the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza if the West slashes financial support.
But he also indicated that attempts last week by Condoleezza Rice, the America's Secretary of State, to persuade Arab countries not to fund the Palestinian Authority could prove counter-productive. "We are asking for support from everyone - from Muslims, from Arabs and all over the world - and if we boycott the Arabs and the rest of the world and all is left is Iran, of course, we are going to lose," he said. "Iran cannot respond to all the needs of the Palestinian people."
Except for guns and ammo. Ask the Lebanese ...
Asked whether Teheran could fill a "foreign aid gap" if Arab countries shunned Hamas, which defeated his Fatah faction in last month's elections but is termed a "terrorist" organisation by the United States and the European Union, Mr Abbas responded with scepticism. "There are two questions to ask before saying yes or no. Can Iran respond to all the demands of the Palestinian people? And the second question: how will the money be channelled to the PA areas?" Mr Abbas was speaking to the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby in an interview to be broadcast on ITV1 today.
"Preferably through me," he added.
The question of how to deal with the Hamas victory, which Mr Abbas conceded was "unexpected", has thrown Western policy in the Middle East into confusion.
Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader who visited Iran and met its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, last week, has reportedly been promised $1 billion (£570 million) from Teheran for Hamas if the group remained both anti-Israeli and anti-Western.
That would cover the loss of US and Euro funding for a year. Has to be tempting to Hamas.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, declared that Iran would "definitely help this government financially in order to resist America's cruelty".
The prospect of strengthened links between Teheran and Hamas is alarming Western capitals. Miss Rice was rebuffed last week when she urged Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two key US allies and regional powers, to end funding for the Palestinian Authority if a Hamas-led cabinet takes control without renouncing violence and accepting Israel's right to exist.
Britain and its European allies fear that such an uncompromising stance could drive the new Palestinian government into the arms of Iran. They are instead looking at whether to make payments directly to the office of Mr Abbas after Hamas takes control.
At which point it will be squandered, given to Fatah (but I repeat myself) and be used to pay for Al-Aqsa Martyr (ibid) splodydopes.
British officials have also suggested that a Hamas government must be gradually encouraged to end terror and accept the existence of Israel rather that being faced with an ultimatum to do so.
Because we all know Hamas responds better to gentle encouragement rather than threats.
About 80 per cent of the Palestinian Authority's £70 million monthly budget is spent on the salaries of a bloated list of 140,000 public employees. But the pay that flows through civil servants keeps many families afloat, and bankruptcy could spark widespread unrest if it results in growing poverty.
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02/27/2006
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Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed appealed for unity Sunday as the transitional parliament opened its first session on home soil since relocating from exile last year.
Somehow, when I think of Somalia, "unity" is not the first thing that pops to mind...
Yusuf lauded the session as historical although powerful warlords controlling Mogadishu skipped the session owing to the tension in the capital. This is a historical opportunity for the Somalia parliament, government and the people, Yusuf told lawmakers gathered in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu. Let us choose between serving our people or being put on the bad list of history as people who promoted confrontation among Somalis and lacked the skills to administer a modern Somalia, he said. Somalis are fed up with hostilities, displacement and endless violence. The people want peace, freedom and to live under the rule of law.
"Modern" and "Somalia" just don't seem to go together.
Officials said the warlords chose to remain in Mogadishu, where tension runs high after clashes between allied warlords and a group known as Islamic Courts Militia claimed at least 33 lives and displaced hundreds last week. The warlords are still overseeing the situation in Mogadishu because the ceasefire with Islamic Courts Militia is not viable enough to let them leave, a parliamentary official told AFP.
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Some of Pakistans embassies abroad are distributing a booklet which contains a map of the Jammu and Kashmir at variance with Pakistans long-held position on the dispute. The map shows the Northern Areas of the state, which have been officially considered an integral part of the former princely state, as a separate entity, identified simply as the Northern Areas. The Line of Control, formerly the Ceasefire Line, has been removed on the map. The entire state, both the Indian-held part and Azad Kashmir, has been shown as one, single, undivided entity, identified as Jammu and Kashmir state with the words disputed territory appearing in very small letters under this appellation.
The map is being handed out in Pakistans diplomatic missions in a few European countries as part of a booklet containing basic information about the country. The Northern Areas, Azad Kashmirs highest court held in 1995, were an integral part of the Jammu and Kashmir state and their administrative control, it directed, should be handed over by Pakistan to the Azad Kashmir government. This has not happened. Azad Kashmir is not a disputed territory, according to Pakistans long-held position. The state position is that areas making up Azad Kashmir were liberated by the local people following an uprising against the Maharajas rule in 1947. Similarly, the Northern Areas territory ceded to China, according to a treaty between the two countries, will be subject to renegotiation in the event of a change in the status of the area at some future date.
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BAGHDAD - A car exploded in a large bus station south of Baghdad on Sunday and dozens were feared killed or wounded, police said. They said the car bomb blew up in the crowded station in Hilla, part of a cluster of towns south of the capital where insurgents are active.
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In response to worldwide protests sparked by the publication of cartoons vilifying the Prophet Mohammad, Arab parliamentarians on Sunday agreed to push for the introduction of an international law prohibiting the vilification of all religions.
Except for Judaism, of course. And the Ahmadis. And the Ba'hais. And the Ismailis...
Speaking on the sidelines of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU) assembly, which met yesterday to thrash out the agenda of the 12th biannual conference that begins today at the Dead Sea, Kuwaiti Parliament Speaker Jasem Khurafi said he hoped the international community would respond positively to the Arab initiative.
I hope the international community responds with a resounding "no." I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed.
Khurafi said Arab parliamentary groups were currently coordinating among themselves in order to drum up international support for the move. During the past few months, the Arab and Muslim worlds have reacted with anger at the publication of cartoons vilifying the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper.
Had somebody depicted Mohammad swimming in a beaker of piss it'd have been art.
The newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, printed the cartoons last September, but since then they have been widely reprinted throughout the world by newspapers to demonstrate that freedom of the press trumps religious prohibitions. The paper published 12 cartoons, one of which portrays the Prophet Mohammad wearing a turban-shaped like a bomb. The Danish government has refused calls to apologise on the grounds that it has no power over the newspaper.
More havarti? Should I crack another couple bottles of Tuborg?
Yesterday, the parliamentary assembly ratified the agenda of the AIPU, which is held under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah. Apart from the cartoon controversy, topics to be discussed include the Arab parliamentary experience in the light of the current developments in Iraq and Palestine, election processes, the right to candidature for parliament, the principle of separation of powers and its effect on democratic practice, water and its strategic role in the Arab world, human rights and the rights of the disabled in Arab countries, among other topics.
How about the personal liberty of Arabs and Muslims to think for themselves and to hold their own opinions, whether somebody else likes them or not?
In the meantime, the AIPU agreed yesterday to hand its presidency for the next two years to Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali. Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has held the post for the past two years. Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit met with Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa, who is participating in the two-day conference. Discussions focused on preparations for the Arab summit to be held in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum at the end of next month, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
Khartoum's certainly the place to go to discuss the Wonderful World of Islam. If anyplace presents the face of Islam to the rest of the world it's Khartoum.
They also discussed developments in the region, Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib attended the meeting. The Damascus-based Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union was established in 1974 with the aim of strengthening contacts and promoting dialogue among Arab parliaments and parliamentarians.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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#1
Note that the proposed law doesn't appear to forbid vilifying people of a certain religion.
This just in from our ace correspondent, D.J. Wu...
QUETTA/MULTAN: The main gas pipeline of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) was blown up in Rajanpur district on Sunday, suspending gas supply to Punjab and NWFP. SNGPL Managing Director Rasheed Loan said that the pipeline in Rajanpur district in Punjab was blown up, adjacent to Dera Bugti in Balochistan. The blast also melted a nearby railway track, causing the suspension of trains on the Multan-Quetta route via Dera Ghazi Khan. We have detained trains at Dera Ghazi Khan and Kashmore. Traffic on the Dera Ghazi Khan-Kashmore section was suspended as the track melted from the heat of the blast, Railway Divisional Superintendent Irfan Gauhar said. Sources said that gas supply to the Muzaffargarh, Multan and Kotadu thermal power stations was also suspended.
Loan said that gas supply from Sui through SNGPL had been suspended, but an alternate gas supply to Punjab and NWFP had continued. Repair work on the gas line will be completed late on Monday, he said. Meanwhile, miscreants blew up a gas line in the Saryab area of Quetta on Sunday night. The gas company GM Muhammad Nawaz said that the blast had suspended gas supply to Killi Shahnawaz and adjacent areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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#1
Must be Bugti's nearby! Or Wazibillies.
Posted by: N guard ||
02/27/2006 0:11
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we hates cylinders of all kinds, no cylinders in books 'ya sees.
Posted by: ima bugti death to pipes ||
02/27/2006 16:46
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WASHINGTON The US will resume talks in March on a free-trade pact with the UAE despite an uproar over Bush administration approval of a deal to allow a UAE company to operate terminals at six US ports, a US trade official said yesterday. UAE remains an important priority for us, Shaun Donnelly, assistant US trade representative for Europe and the Middle East, said.
Its very important in building over time the Middle East free trade area. The US was making good progress in the talks with UAE and hopes to finish relatively soon, Donnelly said.
Negotiators probably will not be able to resolve all the remaining issues in areas ranging from agriculture to investment to services when they hold their fifth round of talks next month, he said.
Two-way trade between the US and the UAE totalled close to $10 billion in 2005, making it the third-largest US trading partner in the Middle East behind Israel and Saudi Arabia. The US enjoyed a $7 billion trade surplus with the UAE last year, helped by $2.1 billion in civilian aircraft sales to the country.
The Bush administration began free-trade talks with the UAE in March 2005. The US already has free-trade pacts with Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain and has concluded one with Oman that is expected to be sent to Congress for approval early this year.
This is one part of how we tie moderate Arab states to us for the long term. Trade, investment (yes, including the ports deal), education, and joint security operations. Their security and standards of living increase, and the religious crazies have less of a wedge.
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02/27/2006
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ALMATY - Scuffles broke out as up to 1,500 protestors demonstrated over the killing of an opposition leader in Kazakhstans largest city Almaty on Sunday. The protestors carried banners, red carnations and photographs of the opposition leader, Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, who was found shot twice through the head on February 13.
Demonstrators scuffled with police as they tried to march from the Academy of Sciences building where the demonstration began to the citys main square. Police eventually let demonstrators assemble on the square.
The killing of Sarsenbaiuly along with two other men his driver and his bodyguard has sparked a political crisis in this Central Asian ex-Soviet republic. Last Wednesday, the head of Kazakhstans state security service announced his resignation after five members of his agency and another man were arrested in connection with the murder of Sarsenbaiuly, a leader of the opposition coalition For a Just Kazakhstan.
On Thursday, police announced the arrest of the head of the parliamentary administration on suspicion of taking part in the murder.
Sarsenbaiuly, a former government minister and one-time ally of Nazarbayev, joined the opposition group For a Just Kazakhstan in 2004 after splitting from the government. President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Tuesday condemned the killing as a challenge to the whole of society and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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Mortar fire killed 15 people and shooting erupted around two Baghdad mosques on Sunday but pleas for unity and a third day of curfew in the city seemed to dampen sectarian violence that has pitched Iraq towards civil war. Five killed in a minibus, teenagers gunned down playing football and two US soldiers were among 30 deaths, a lower toll than other days since a suspected Al Qaeda bomb at a Shiite shrine sparked reprisals on minority Sunnis and the biggest test of Iraq's survival as a unified state since the US invasion. Well over 200 people have been killed since Wednesday and the defence minister has warned of an "endless civil war."
After taking calls from President George W. Bush, who hopes stability can let him start bringing 136,000 US troops home, Iraqi leaders met late on Saturday to issue a televised midnight appeal for calm and renew pledges to form a unity government. Religious leaders, including the fiery young cleric and Shiite militia leader Moqtada Sadr, joined the calls. Sadr, a rising force in the ruling but fractious Shiite alliance, told a rally in the second city of Basra his followers would hold joint prayer services at Sunni mosques damaged in violence. A bomb later caused damage at a Shiite mosque in Basra and gunfire rattled around two Sunni mosques in Baghdad after dark.
"We have passed the danger period. The security situation is now 80 per cent stable," said Ridha Jawad Taqi, a senior official in SCIRI, the biggest of the Shiite Islamist parties, which also runs a 20,000-strong armed wing, the Badr movement. "The situation pushed the different groups to get together." The curfew should end as planned at 6:00am, officials said.
"The violence seems to be diminishing," Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told CBS television. "They've stared into the abyss a bit. I think they've all concluded that further violence ... is not in their interests."
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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will next week grant Total, Shell and Repsol upstream development contracts in the giant South Pars gas field in the Gulf, an Iranian state oil firm said on Saturday.
Iran intends to use phases 11 and 13 of South Pars, which sits on the world's biggest reservoir of natural gas, to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Islamic Republic hopes to export its first LNG shipments in 2009. "The signings will be late this week," said a spokesman for the Pars Oil and Gas Company.
Total is looking to develop phase 11 of South Pars to produce LNG, gas supercooled to liquid for loading onto tankers, in a project called Pars LNG. Shell and Repsol are looking to do the same with phase 13, a project called Persian LNG.
Akbar Torkan, managing director of the Pars Oil and Gas Company, was quoted by the Abrar-e Eqtesadi financial daily saying the contract to develop phase 11 would be worth $1.2-$1.4 billion. The phase 13 deal would be worth $1.5 billion, he added.
Although it sits on the world's second biggest reserves of natural gas, Iran has been very slow to develop exports. Qatar, which draws its gas from the same Gulf reservoir, is a long-established LNG exporter.
Torkan also told the ISNA students news agency that Pars Oil and Gas Company had tendered phases 19-21 of South Pars.
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PESHAWAR: The Peshawar district government has decided to implement a resolution passed by the previous administration to rename roads and chowks in the city after companions of the Prophet Muhammad (may his carbuncles never fester peace be upon him). "The previous district government passed a unanimous resolution calling for changing the names of all chowks and roads after the Sahaba-e-Karam and now we will honour the resolution," Ghluam Ali, the district nazim, told DT. He said that his administration would "give practical shape to the resolution" as soon as possible. However, Ali said they won't change the name of Bacha Khan Chowk. Asked if this meant that all roads and chowks named after political and historical personalities would remain unchanged, he declined to comment. He said the NWFP government would be consulted before any changes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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They name roads and intersections? I have trouble enough navigating with American maps -- over there I would get lost just standing still! (Not actually a joke -- once when lost in Germany, I asked someone to show me where I was on the map, and it was gently pointed out to me that I hadn't been on the map for over half an hour... I'd actually gone two maps over. I ended up being quite late to the wives' coffee.)
#6
Don't ever drive in LA, tw, unless you want to get really confused. Freeways are usually labeled (on the overhead signs) by names, which can change depending on where in the LA basin you are at the moment. Took me weeks to be certain that I was still on I-10 when the sign said the Santa Monica Freeway ... ;-)
#8
lotp, my chief remaining ambition in life is to have a $5,000 car and a chauffeur. Or failing that, two trailing daughters with driver's licences. ;-)
#9
LOL Trailing Wife! I had a similar experience living in Scotland. Objects on the map are much closer than they appear for anyone with American or Canadian driving experience!
Vague directions from a friend as to where they lived, "Och hen, it's a fair drive. Dinnae fash yerself if youwr no up tae it. It's more than an 'oor and a hae, hen." Map in hand, off I went and hit the opposite coast before realizing the "wee village" 40 klicks down the road I spotted setting out was the one I wanted.
Telling me she lived in "Shootmapig" wasn't funny. Took the breeze of the Altantic coast to clear my head and spotted on the map "Killmahog", near where I'd started.
It did explain the strange looks I got asking for "Shootmapig" directions. Very funny people, the Scots.
#10
Same thing goes for Australians. My sister tells stories about running right out of New Zealand. They would map out a days drive, and be finished and wondering what to do by 10.30.
#11
Yup. Lived on the prairies for a while. Could see the dust kicked up by nmy guests coming down the road by 10:30 a.m. And they didn't swing into the driveway until an hour an a half past our dinner invite of 6:30.
The accord was announced Sunday, Feb. 26, by Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Irans Atomic Energy Organization, after two days of talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Kiriyenko at the Bushehr nuclear reactor.
The Russians, by going along with Irans demands, have rescued the Islamic Republic from the threat of a US-European-Israel complaint to the UN Security Council. Referral of Irans nuclear breaches of the NPT was to have taken place after the critical IAEA board session in Vienna March 6.
Now, the Russian delegate will be able to ask for time to work on the details of the Moscow-Tehran accord. The Iranians will thus buy several precious months to continue to process uranium their main objective in engaging in diplomacy in the first place. The hands of Washington, the EU and the UN are meanwhile tied over referral to the Security Council by the shadow of Russian veto hanging over any resolution penalizing Iran.
Moscow has thus delivered a sharp setback to the US-Israeli drive to put spokes in the wheels of Irans nuclear weapons program.
DEBKAfile adds: Kirienko leads a Kremlin faction that advocates breaking ranks with Washington and Europe and striking out for a bilateral Moscow-Tehran deal that under certain conditions releases the brakes on the Islamic republics nuclear program,. President Vladimir Putin would have preferred to go along with the West. He was overruled by the Kirienko faction.
Our military sources report that by pulling off this accord in principle with Iran, Kirienko frees Iran to enrich uranium up to weapons grade. Israel is thus confronted with a potential strategic threat as grave - or graver - than the Hamas rise to power in Palestinian government.
In the space of a month, the two developments have tightened the Iranian noose around the Jewish state.
DEBKAfile reported earlier that the Russian go-it-alone initiative had aroused deep concern in Washington, Jerusalem and Vienna. They feared to that to succeed, Kirienko would bow to a deal that permitted hands-on Iranian involvement in the manufacturing process and decisions on quantities of the joint uranium enrichment venture in Russia. This would remove the safeguards demanded by the US and Europe against the Russian-Iranian enterprise turning out weapons-grade uranium.
According to information reaching Washington and Jerusalem, Kirienko also favors letting Iran continue enrichment at home simultaneously with the Russian-hosted enterprise.
American and Israeli suspicions were first aroused, according to our intelligence sources, by the odd behavior of Gholam Reza Aghazadehs delegation upon its arrival in Moscow Monday, Feb. 20, to discuss the joint plant in Russia. Its maneuvers had the appearance of a decoy operation to mystify and draw attention away from the real action elsewhere. A bulletin at the end of the day reported no progress, followed by a continuation Tuesday, which the Iranians abruptly left without explanation. Then, too, an Iranian official demanded that resumed diplomacy with the European Union take place separately with each government instead of with a joint UK-French-German delegation.
Washington took this as a declaration of divorce between the Tehran-Moscow track and Irans dealings with Europe and the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna and a full stop to the international drive for diplomatic action to arrest Irans progress toward a bomb.
#1
From a pure power standpoint, Hamas replacing Fatah in running the Paleo statelet is not 'tightening a noose' or a 'grave strategic threat.' Israel is in a better strategic position than for the last intafada -- largely thanks to the fence -- regardless of which group of exterminationist wackos run the slums.
The Iran situation has been brewing for years and is a real strategic turnfor the worse. However, this is just the latest twist. Not sure how the maneuvers of their diplos in Moscow had the look of a 'decoy operation' though. Debka's basically correct that Iran wants to stall and get nukes and the Kirienko/Putin split theory is interesting but they have a way of being overly dramatic and wierd about things that are actually pretty dramatic and wierd to start with.
If the deal does not include closing the enrichment facility I do not see how it changes anything so there must be more going on.
KATHMANDU - Nepals King Gyanendra reviewed two recently-formed battalions and new military hardware in the capital on Sunday as the army predicted victory against Maoist rebels. Boots were polished and medals were on display as the king, standing on a dias in central Kathmandu, presented the new battalions with their colours.
In return he was saluted with antique cannon, helicopter flypasts and firing displays during a ceremony to mark Army Day and the important Hindu festival of Shivaratri. The army was heading towards the path to victory against the Maoists, the state-run Rising Nepal reported. Our history is testimony to the fact that all crises that have come across the nation since the unification of the Kingdom of Nepal have been resolved through the joint effort of the king, people and the army, the newspaper quoted army chief Pyar Jung Thapa as saying.
Since the Maoists began their peoples war just over a decade ago some 12,500 people have been killed. The conflict has crippled the economy and badly affected tourism, formerly a major money earner for the impoverished Himalayan nation.
Kapil Shrestha, a politics professor and human rights activist, questioned the claim that the Maoists were on the way to military defeat. The fact is the army does not have the capability to win the ongoing insurgency, said Shrestha, a professor at Tribhuvan University.
The Maoists, a small, rag-tag collection of fighters with homemade weapons a decade ago, now effectively control large swathes of the countryside. Analysts have said the army cannot defeat the Maoists militarily in their rural heartland, just as the Maoists cannot take and hold the well-defended capital and surrounding valley.
The army comes under the direct control of the king but should be accountable to government, said Shrestha. The Royal Nepalese Army should be controlled and operated under civilian government. They should be responsible to parliament, he said.
Kapil doesn't realize how short his life will be the moment the Maoists take power.
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More than 1,200 conservative students angered by the destruction of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iraq hurled petrol bombs, stones and eggs at the British embassy in Tehran on Sunday. In a separate demonstration earlier in the day, some 500 protesters had already burned flags and called for the embassy to be shut down. It was not clear whether the second demonstration was entirely composed of fresh protesters.
Iran has accused Western forces in Iraq of orchestrating Wednesday's bombing of the Golden Mosque of Samarra, one of the most venerated buildings in Shi'ite Islam, in order to spark civil war between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Western nations condemned the attack, and Washington suggested the al Qaeda network could have been trying to stir up sectarian bloodshed through the bombing.
A Reuters journalist at the second demonstration said the crowd had thrown six petrol bombs, chanting "Death to the two Satans, Britain and America!" and "Shut down the British Embassy!." A student leader, shouting through a megaphone, vowed that the students would do everything in their power to harm Western political and economic interests in Iran. "The agents of global arrogance should know their security and political and economic interests will be in danger," he bawled. "In particular, the ambassador of this corrupt embassy will not be safe in our streets."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Since our political capital is spent in Iraq, I think there is little Bush can do about Iran. With options limited, I think our best hope is for the regime to hang itself. It's a long shot and I often despair but it's possible that one day they will go too far.
Pushing the official line that the US and Israel blew up the Golden Mosque may be too much for all but the most demented Basijj. Iranians are Shi'ites and they must be pissed off as hell about that bomb, the way I would if they blew up Notre Dame, even though I'm not Catholic. They also must know in their guts that it was Qaidaist terrorists who did it, and the more Ahmadnejad and his fellow clowns rant against Zionists and the Great Satan, the more ticked people are going to get. It's just a question of whether they can bring themselves to discuss it openly or not. Saying "wait a minute, this is crazy..." is difficult to do in a totalitarian society.
#2
I'm not sure what you mean by Iranian regime to "hang itself". If you mean they push the the "world" so far it gangs up and attacks Iran, then there is no chance of that. If you mean they push the Persian Little Guy to fight, that is unlikely. The mullahs control religious doctrine, media, armed forces and money from 3 million barrels/day oil exports (+ gas) that will buy a lot of islam-poisoned thugs. I do do agree with you that the odds of an American attack on Iran are small.
When in Vegas, bet with the odds. The Iranians will get nuclear capability, build it up, and then aggressively push non-muslims out of the middle east and try to take over. Whether the take over stays conventional or goes nuclear is a matter of time and Saudi purchasing power. After that, who knows.
Posted by: ed ||
02/27/2006 8:47
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MOSCOW -- The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Sunday that his country had agreed in principle to set up a joint uranium enrichment project with Russia, a potentially significant breakthrough in efforts to prevent an international confrontation over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Regarding this joint venture, we have reached a basic agreement," said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the country's nuclear chief, speaking at a press conference with his Russian counterpart in Bushehr, where Russia is helping to build a nuclear power plant. "Talks to complete this package will continue in coming days in Russia."
If Iran does agree to shift enrichment to Russia, Iran would cede control of a key element in the nuclear fuel cycle and ease suspicions that it could secretly produce uranium suitable for nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile the centrifuges continue to whir .....
A deal would also head-off a strongly-worded letter punitive action by the U.N. Security Council after a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on March 6. Aghazadeh made it clear, however, that there is still no formal agreement and some issues remain outstanding. "There are different parts that need to be discussed," he said, according to Russian news agencies. "These are not just related to forming a company, there are other elements. There are political issues and the proposal should be seen as a package."
He went on to say that Iran has "set a precondition," which he declined to specify. Russian analysts following the talks said Iran wants security guarantees that it would not be attacked by the United States.
And the Russians want us to oblige.
The announcement followed two days of talks between Aghazadeh and Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's nuclear agency. Negotiations are expected to continue in Moscow in the next two or three days. "I think there remain no organizational, technical or financial problems on the joint venture establishment," said Kiriyenko, but he added that "the international community must have guarantees of security and preservation of the nonproliferation regime."
Kiriyenko provided no specifics, including on key issues such as access to the Russian facility by Iranian scientists and whether or not Iran agreed that it would be permanently based in Russia.
Yup, not a word about the security guarantees we've wanted, not a word about monitoring and safeguards.
An agreement, if in the unlikely event one is reached and backed by the United States and the E.U., would be a significant boon for Russian diplomacy. Russia is chairing meetings of the Group of Eight leading industrial democracies this year, and securing a deal with Iran would be a major boost to the country's desire to be seen as an essential and powerful partner.
Aghazadeh said the decision to establish a uranium enrichment facility in Russia could be taken before the next IAEA meeting. "We believe we can get an outcome that will be satisfying for the March 6 meeting," Aghazadeh said.
Russian officials said Iran would also have to agree to restore a moratorium on enrichment. "The Russia side intends to discuss the issue of setting up a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium only as a package with all other problems concerning the Iranian nuclear dossier," a source in the Russian delegation told the Russian news agency Interfax. "These problems include, among other things, the resumption of an enrichment moratorium by Iran."
To be guaranteed to the international community by the Russians, and if you can't trust the Russians, who can you trust?
Aghazadeh also said Sunday that Iran also planned to add two more power generating units at the Bushehr plant, and was now preparing tender documents. "Russia will certainly be invited to bid in the tender," Aghazadeh said. "We will be waiting for [Russia's] offer."
And there's the pay-off.
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Around 1,600 Tunisian prisoners, including dozens of radical Islamists and people jailed for using the Internet for terrorist purposes, have been freed under a presidential pardon, the official TAP news agency reported Saturday President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali's move led to the full release of 1,298 prisoners, while 359 others were freed on parole, according to TAP. Among those freed were more than 70 radical Islamists, members of the banned Ennahda movement including several leaders such as journalist Hamadi Jebali, according to defence lawyers. They had been convicted and sentenced to long prison terms in the 1990s for membership in the party and attempting to take power by force.
The amnesty, which comes a month after the north African country celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence, was announced after a meeting between Ben Ali and his interior and justice ministers Rafik Belhaj Kacem and Bechir Tekkari. An unspecified number of prisoners also had the length of their sentences reduced, said TAP. It said Ben Ali had asked for measures to be taken to ensure the released prisoners were reintegrated into society and that they did not reoffend.
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"...Ben Ali had asked for measures to be taken to ensure the released prisoners...did not reoffend."
The Scotsman forgot the sneer quotes, so I stuck 'em back in.
Several hundred students threw stones and firebombs at the British embassy in Tehran yesterday in protest at the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Iraq. A number of windows were broken in the embassy and firebombs went off outside its walls during the two-hour protest. Eventually, Iranian police wielding sticks dispersed the demonstrators.
Nearly 1,000 students had gathered outside the embassy and held a peaceful protest, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Britain". They blamed the two countries for Wednesday's bombing of the shrine in the Iraqi town of Samarra. "We hold the occupiers of Iraq responsible," one banner read. They also held signs denouncing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were printed in European papers. The larger demonstration ended without incident, but several hours later, around 400 students returned and attacked the building.
LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will hold protest rallies in all the provincial capitals against the arrival of American President Gorge Bush on March 3, said PTI chief Imran Khan. "I will lead a protest rally from the Rawalpindi Press Club to Islamabad to protest against the American president's dual policy on democracy," Imran Khan said at a press conference on Sunday.
He said that America had always promoted its image as a 'champion' of democracy while on the other hand it was supporting military rule in Pakistan and Burma. The PTI chief said Americans had killed millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of democracy, but America had adopted a totally different policy for Pakistan.
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By Khalid Hasan A Muslim scholar has warned against what he calls a grave threat to Islams moral centre posed by extremists. Prof Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, argues in his book The Great Theft that Muslims should wrest control of the discourse on defining what being a Muslim means in the modern world away from extremists. In a commentary on the book, Emran Qureshi, a fellow at the Labour and Worklife Programme of the Harvard Law School, credits the UCLA professor with retelling the tradition of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a moderate man who avoided extremes.
Qureshi, writing in the Globe and Mail newspaper from Toronto on Saturday, says, Abou El Fadl traces the rise of Islamic extremism to the rise of the Wahabi state, the precursor of modern Saudi Arabia. By now it has become something of a cliché, but here the authors original contribution is actually to explore the ideas of the sects founder, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahab through his writings, and the dislocations they produced. He calls Wahabis puritans and demarcates their ethos and underlying worldview from the moderate centre of Islam. Some critics may consider this to be too reductive. But one needs to ask: Has this interpretation of Islam influenced modern Muslim understanding of their faith, and if so, how?
According to Qureshi, in his teachings, ibn Abd al-Wahab emphasised a puritanical, punitive and literalist interpretation of Islam. He argued that Muslims had gone astray from the one true Islam. He thus sought to rid Islam of those corruptions that had crept into it: mysticism, rationalism, Shia theology and, essentially, all theological innovations other than those he preferred. In essence, he was waging war against Islamic tradition itself. His Islam is a closed, supremacist, metaphysical system. He points out that the Shia theology was denounced by the Wahabis as a heresy, and all Shias and those that sheltered them were declared heretics.
Abd al-Wahab participated in the sacking of Karbala in 1801, in which thousands of Shia Muslims were massacred. A major factor in sectarian violence is the anti-Shia bias within this puritan strain of Islam, and the growing influence of its intolerant interpretation, the latest example being the destruction of the Al-Askariya shrine, he adds. Qureshi writes that Abou El Fadl asserts that Abd al-Wahab was rabidly hostile toward non-Muslims, and insistent that Muslims should not imitate or befriend them. However his real enemies werent Christians or Jews, but Ottoman Turks, whom he labelled a heretical nation. In spite of Wahabi loathing for the West, the Arabs co-operated with the British in fighting the Ottoman Turks. Thus it was the West that helped give birth to the present Saudi state.
He points out that the diffusion of Wahabi ideology began aggressively in the 1970s after the Shah of Irans overthrow and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He argues that contemporary puritans use religious text to regulate life, and use literalist readings of the Quran and the Hadith to shield themselves from criticism. The new puritans feel disempowered by modernity and react militantly and violently to it. Since many Muslim regimes are ruthlessly authoritarian, they contribute to the puritans feeling of powerlessness.
According to Qureshi, Abou El Fadl emphasises that oppression is a great offence against God, thus making a substantive contribution and positing a more humane interpretation of Islam, one consonant with the modern world. He uses the Islamic concept of haqq, which combines the meanings rights/legal entitlement with truth, and thus ties together the requirements for justice with the basis of religious belief. These rights, he shows, are sacrosanct and cannot be voided by the state. Abou El Fadl shows why sovereignty should rest with the polity, while the puritans insist that sovereignty rests with God and his interpreters on earth. Puritans look to an unsullied Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban for their vision of an Islamic utopia on Earth.
The UCLA academic considers morally abhorrent the Saudis aggressive form of patriarchy in which they respond to feelings of political and social defeatism by engaging in symbolic displays of power that are systematically degrading to women. He is afraid that the authority of the moderate centre in Islam has greatly diminished and apprehends that the puritans will be able to redefine Islam.
Muslims, according to Qureshi, perceive the war on terror as a war on Islam. Islamic radicals pose as defenders of Islam. While Muslims have been outraged by the Danish cartoons, the Saudi state and its religious establishment have been silently and systematically destroying Islamic heritage, especially that associated with the Holy Prophet (pbuh). A new magazine called Islamica has chronicled that destruction. The grave of Amina bin Wahb, the Holy Prophets (pbuh) mother, was bulldozed. Latrines have been built on the birthplace of the Holy Prophets (pbuh) first wife, Khadija. It is said that the house where he was born will soon be levelled and turned into a car park. There have been no protests, no convening of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, not a peep from mainstream North American Muslim organisations.
Abou El Fadl suggests that the moderate voice of Islam has few champions within the diasporic Muslim population of the West or in the Muslim heartland. The puritans are well funded and entrenched. He cites the case of the late Dr Fazlur Rahman, a brilliant and deeply pious Muslim. Forced to leave Pakistan, Rahman taught at the University of Chicago, but his voice has been forgotten. Instead, the writings of Maudoodi, his fundamentalist contemporary and nemesis, are widely disseminated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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#1
These "moderate" articles / books are written for the West. In English.
Why? Seeking (publish or perish) tenure? A fresh visa? Taqiya? Sleight of Mouth? "Hey look over here!"
We don't need to hear this, and he's damned late to the party to boot. Gosh, I'm having a crisis of confidence in his sincerity and usefulness. The assholes of Islam who can't tolerate non-Muzzies, who can't co-exist with non-Muzzies, who generally don't read or speak English with enough proficiency to understand WTF he's talking about -- THEY need to hear this, if we are to take him and his like seriously.
Besides, a 10 minute visit by a jihadi would kill his muse, methinks. You can almost picture the "list" of these guys (lol, it'd be a damned short one) kept by the "extremists"... I'll bet the standard question is, "Does he rate a plane ticket?"
#2
Prof Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, argues in his book The Great Theft that Muslims should wrest control of the discourse on defining what being a Muslim means in the modern world away from extremists.
Less talk. More rock.
The supposed majority of moderate Islam has had 200 years to refute al-Wahab. Instead, either the moderates have lost ground or simply been revealed as not that moderate at all.
So stop talking in English and start acting.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/27/2006 7:24
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#3
Behead this Apostate!!!
Only death and subjugation can further the aims of Islam!!!!!!!!!!
#4
this professor visited Qatar a few years ago and went on TV there to 'debate' a Wahabi iman
Rather than debating him, the Wahabi iman ridiculed him, making jest of Prof El Fadl's clothes, his accent, his University affiliation, his presumed Zionist friends, etc.
It would be better for the Prof to leave Islam than to attempt these feeble tries at reform.
KHAR: Clerics announced a Rs 1.5 million reward for the murder of the cartoonist who drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) at a rally organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Anjuman-e-Tajaran trade union of Bajaur Agency here on Sunday. Hundreds of tribesmen carrying banners and placards denouncing Denmark, the United States and the European newspapers that published the cartoons took part in the rally. Trade union and JI leaders addressed the rally and denounced the cartoons as a "terrorist act" and demanded the government cut ties with the countries where the cartoons were published. They also condemned the bombing in Bajaur Agency by US drones and demanded the US compensate the families of the innocent people killed in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2006
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#3
You know, it seems to me to be a logical outgrowth of foreign policy that putting a bounty on a nation's citizen demands of that nation a violent retribution. It almost *has* to be done for that nation to keep its legitimacy, because on a small scale it is tantamount to a declaration of war.
Imagine the effect it would have on such ragheads on future "death fatwas", if several of these individuals offering such bounties were sanctioned by Danish intelligence operatives?
Nothing too grotesque, mind you, just death. But to send a message that those who live by the sword die by the sword.
#4
Even one cartoonist being injured or killed should result in every single mosque in Khar being demolished, preferrably during peak capacity prayers. Enough of this sh!t.
#5
A Euro friend advised me that Danes are not much into such action themselves; however, that being said, Denmark is regarded as a major hub of the international mercenary business. It would be easy and relatively inexpensive for them to put out an almost irresistable "counter-contract" on some of these birds.
Heck, the mercenaries might sub-contract it themselves to some local talent, and spend their time in the local Holiday Inn sipping tea or something in the hotel bar, waiting for the news item on the telly.
#6
Denmark is regarded as a major hub of the international mercenary business.
Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun,
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done.
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day,
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray....
Posted by: Steve ||
02/27/2006 15:35
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#8
The Immigrant Song is so depressing. It has such a great start and such a wimpy ending. Makes you wish that somebody would do an extended version, pursuing the Viking angle, maybe with some gratuitous references to some of the Aesirs.
The Asatru would love it. Especially if it didn't have any annoying white supremacist or neo-Nazi associations in it.
Security forces prevented a rally in Lahore organised by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Sunday, while just 25,000 people protested peacefully in Karachi against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In Lahore, the organisers planned to gather at Nasir Bagh and then march to Faisal Chowk, but security forces blocked all routes to The Mall and arrested around 200 people, including MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MNA Imran Khan and PML-Nawaz leader Pervez Malik. The government also stopped Maulana Fazlur Rehman, opposition leader in the National Assembly, and Amin Fahim, ARD chairman, from entering Punjab, though Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi denied this. JI leader Liaqat Baloch later told a press conference that the MMA, especially its women supporters, would protest today at the governments clampdown on the Lahore rally.
Khan and other leaders were later released, but Ahmed was shifted to Ravi Siphon Rest House in the Wagah area and had not been released when this report was filed, a JI leader said. All entry points to the provincial metropolis were manned by security forces while a small portion of Multan Road around the JI headquarters in Mansura was closed. Some 15,000 policemen and 3,000 Rangers guarded major traffic intersections, government buildings, mosques and foreign consulates.The JI had invited young activists from all over Punjab to Lahore for the rally and arranged accommodation for them, according to intelligence reports. Small clashes between police and youths took place at Regal Chowk, The Mall and Imamia Colony.
Police made the first arrest near Nasir Bagh at around 11:30, when an old man started shouting anti-government slogans. Police arrested him and later several others around Nasir Bagh. At Regal Chowk, around 100 JI youths pelted police with stones. Police retaliated with tear gas and arrested 70. At Shahdara, police tear-gassed and baton-charged a large crowd of MMA activists and arrested 20. Some 25 protestors were arrested at Lohari Gate. Security forces have arrested around 200 people who tried to violate Section 144, Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat told Daily Times.
JI chief Ahmed tried to go to Nasir Bagh at noon but police sent him back inside Mansura. After Zohr prayers, he and hundreds of supporters staged a sit-in outside Mansura and then crossed police barricades. Police and Rangers stopped them near Multan Chungi and charged at them with batons. A group of policemen encircled Ahmed and arrested him. Khan headed a convoy of cars from 14 Zafar Ali Road, but police stopped and arrested them near MAO College. MMA leaders staged a demonstration near Ichra, making fiery speeches and blocking Ferozepur Road. Police baton-charged them but did not arrest the leaders.
In Karachi, 25,000 people attended an anti-cartoon rally organised by the Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwwat, a grouping of Deobandi parties and seminaries. The rally was modest by Karachi standards, which usually attracts at least 50,000. Shia organisations also marched from Old Numaish Roundabout to the overhead bridge near Tibet Centre. Both rallies were peaceful.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An Afghan security official said on Monday Kabul had provided solid evidence to Islamabad about militant training camps in Pakistan and the presence there of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, but Pakistans Foreign Office said the information was outdated.
Gunmen fired two rockets at a tomb sacred for Shiites south of Baghdad causing damage but no casualties, a Shiite official said. The tomb of Salman Pak, also known as Salman al-Farisi, was attacked after sunset with two rockets, said Jamal al-Saghir, an aide to Shiite political leader 
Iran Focus has obtained a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Iran on Monday rejected Japan's request to suspend uranium enrichment, although Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it had made its joint-venture uranium enrichment proposal contingent on such a move. 
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me." The former first lady and potential presidential contender was reacting during a radio interview to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president,
HEALDSBURG -- An armed man wearing a black, ninja-style mask was shot to death by a Healdsburg man this morning after he attacked the man's wife outside their home and chased her inside, police said. 
The private Israeli firm that provides gasoline to the Palestinian Authority said a check for more than 22 million dollars bounced last week and announced it has stopped deliveries. "A check for 103 million shekels (22.4 million dollars) made out to Dor-Allon was returned unpaid last week and we have stopped deliveries because the Palestinian arrears are accumulating," a Dor-Allon spokesman told AFP Monday.
The only thing rising faster than China is the hype about China. In January, the People's Republic's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded that of Britain and France, making China the world's fourth-largest economy. In December, it was announced that China replaced the United States as the world's largest exporter of technology goods. Many experts predict that the Chinese economy will be second only to the United States by 2020, and possibly surpass it by 2050.
Several hundred young people, some with faces masked and heads covered (wearing helmets?), gathered Sunday afternoon at the Place de la Nation, in Paris. The demonstrators protested racism and anti-semitism, shouting "Fofana, bastard, the Jews will have your skin!", "Hang Fofana!" and "Revenge for Ilan". T
An Australian man convicted of receiving funds from Al Qaida has said Osama bin Laden does not like to be kissed and described himself as a reluctant Muslim who loved beer. Joseph Terrence Thomas said he had been seeking spiritual fulfilment as he went from a Christian upbringing in suburban Australia to becoming a Muslim convert training at an Al Qaida camp in Afghanistan. "I never really thought I'd be a Muslim," Thomas said on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Four Corners" program on Monday. "I'd say, 'Oh look, you know, I really love your religion but I really love my beer'," he said.
European Union foreign ministers 
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A standoff between security forces and hundreds of rioting inmates at Afghanistan's main jail dragged into a second day, with the army threatening to storm a seized cell block if negotiations failed.
The image of Ariel Sharon lying comatose in an Israeli hospital has a haunting quality.
This Saturday, about 2,000 protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square. The march, which was planned several weeks in advance, was intended as a "stop the war" protest and followed protests the previous two Saturdays against the Danish cartoons.
The bombing and bloodshed that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war have propelled anti-American firebrand 
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir warned Darfur would become a "graveyard" for any foreign military contingent entering the region against Khartoum's will, newspapers reported Sunday. "We are strongly opposed to any foreign intervention in Sudan and Darfur will be a graveyard for any foreign troops venturing to enter," he was quoted as saying Saturday.
Iraqi newspapers inciting violence will be suspended and their journalists arrested, Defence Minister Saadun Al Dulaimi said yesterday, unveiling a new security plan for the violence-wracked country. "This is a warning to media working in Iraq," he said in a press conference.
Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia used two tonnes of explosives in their foiled attack on the world's largest oil processing plant, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. A ministry statement said each of the two pick-up trucks used in Friday's attack carried one tonne of an explosive made with ammonium nitrate. There were also unspecified quantities of other explosives including nitroglycerine and RDX.
As George W. Bush looks out on an unfriendly world, where can he find new allies to support America's tarnished foreign policy? Step forward Jacques Chirac, who in his final year in office acts as though he wants to be as good a friend to Washington as Tony Blair. After five years of trying to build an anti-U.S. front with Germanysplitting Europe down the middlethe French president is reaching into his diplomatic toolbox and coming up with initiatives that are increasingly in tune with America's global agenda.
SAUDI security forces today killed five men believed to be linked to a bid to blow up the world's largest oil-processing plant, a police officer at the site said. "Five armed wanted men were killed today," in the clashes in a residential Riyadh suburb, the police officer on the scene told AFP.
HUNDREDS of rioting prisoners led by al-Qaeda and Taleban militants were locked in a stand-off with security forces last night after seizing control of a wing of Afghanistans main high-security prison. As night fell the prison, on the eastern edge of Kabul, was ringed by soldiers and police, backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers, to prevent a break-out. Seven people were killed in the uprising at the 
Prayer leaders in Islamabad's registered mosques urged the people not to allow politicians to exploit their sentiments over the publication of caricatures of the Holy Prophet (
The FBI determined a powdery substance found in a roll of quarters at a University of Texas dormitory was not ricin after initial state tests had indicated it was the potentially deadly poison, a spokesman said Sunday.
LAHORE: People who resorted to violence during protests against the publication of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (
BERLIN, Feb 25 (Reuters) - German authorities have jailed two men suspected of buying weapons and missile technology on behalf of Iranian intelligence services, a German government official said on Saturday. The two men, identified as a 59-year-old German citizen named Joseph Edward G. and a 41-year-old foreigner named Yousef P., were jailed pending completion of the prosecutors' investigation of possible espionage activities.
British forces in one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan face their first potential threat from farmers whose poppy fields are due to be destroyed from this week. The government of President Hamid Karzai is determined to carry out large-scale eradication of opium crops in Helmand province, where the first members of a British task force of 5,700 are being deployed. British commanders here have stressed that their troops will not take part in the highly controversial programme. But both Afghan and British officials have acknowledged that they are likely to suffer a backlash in this largely rural community if farmers lose their livelihood with no adequate compensation.
Saudi security forces clashed with suspected militants in a suburb of Riyadh early on Monday, security sources said, just days after al Qaeda militants tried to storm a major Saudi oil facility. They said security forces had surrounded the men in the affluent al-Hamra district of east Riyadh. No more details were available.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is "not relevant" because of the victory of the Islamic Hamas in last month's elections and its takeover of the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet, Israel's acting foreign minister said Sunday. Tzipi Livni spoke after meeting US envoy David Welch, where they discussed how to relate to Abbas, the Fateh leader who is president of the Palestinian Authority, in light of the landslide Hamas victory over Fateh. Last week, Abbas picked Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh to form a new Cabinet. 
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on influential world figures to fight extremism and bridge the divide between East and West at the opening of a conference of Muslim and European leaders. "Lofty ideas alone are not enough ... We need to develop sobering, but equally compelling counter-narratives of our own," Annan told delegates at the second gathering of the UN-sponsored Alliance of Civilizations.
LAHORE: A spokesman for the Punjab government has said people proved that they would not approve religion's use for political gains, by staying away from the opposition rally on Sunday.
WASHINGTON Iraqi security forces have made strides over the past four months with nearly a third of the armys battalions now assigned to their own battle space, a Pentagon progress report said on Friday.
PESHAWAR: Police arrested and charged three men with robbing more than $1 million from a Saudi-owned bank in Pakistan, leaving a note saying they were stealing for Al Qaeda, an official said on Sunday. Police now believe the Al Qaeda link was a ruse, aimed at misleading investigators, said Habibur Rahman, the Peshawar police chief. 
PESHAWAR: Speakers at a conference said that the publication of caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was an international plot designed by imperialist America to weaken the strong Muslim states by driving a wedge between the West and the East. They urged workers, peasants and labourers across the world to unite and stand up to imperialist forces led by the US and prevent them from achieving their nefarious designs. 
Somali President 
Some of Pakistans embassies abroad are distributing a booklet which contains a map of the Jammu and Kashmir at variance with Pakistans long-held position on the dispute. The map shows the Northern Areas of the state, which have been officially considered an integral part of the former princely state, as a separate entity, identified simply as the Northern Areas. The Line of Control, formerly the Ceasefire Line, has been removed on the map. The entire state, both the Indian-held part and Azad Kashmir, has been shown as one, single, undivided entity, identified as Jammu and Kashmir state with the words disputed territory appearing in very small letters under this appellation. 
BAGHDAD - A car exploded in a large bus station south of Baghdad on Sunday and dozens were feared killed or wounded, police said. They said the car bomb blew up in the crowded station in Hilla, part of a cluster of towns south of the capital where insurgents are active.
In response to worldwide protests sparked by the publication of cartoons vilifying the Prophet Mohammad, Arab parliamentarians on Sunday agreed to push for the introduction of an international law prohibiting the vilification of all religions. 
QUETTA/MULTAN: The main gas pipeline of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) was blown up in Rajanpur district on Sunday, suspending gas supply to Punjab and NWFP. SNGPL Managing Director Rasheed Loan said that the pipeline in Rajanpur district in Punjab was blown up, adjacent to Dera Bugti in Balochistan. The blast also melted a nearby railway track, causing the suspension of trains on the Multan-Quetta route via Dera Ghazi Khan. We have detained trains at Dera Ghazi Khan and Kashmore. Traffic on the Dera Ghazi Khan-Kashmore section was suspended as the track melted from the heat of the blast, Railway Divisional Superintendent Irfan Gauhar said. Sources said that gas supply to the Muzaffargarh, Multan and Kotadu thermal power stations was also suspended.
ALMATY - Scuffles broke out as up to 1,500 protestors demonstrated over the killing of an opposition leader in Kazakhstans largest city Almaty on Sunday. The protestors carried banners, red carnations and photographs of the opposition leader, 
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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will next week grant Total, Shell and Repsol upstream development contracts in the giant South Pars gas field in the Gulf, an Iranian state oil firm said on Saturday.
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar district government has decided to implement a resolution passed by the previous administration to rename roads and chowks in the city after companions of the Prophet Muhammad (
The accord was announced Sunday, Feb. 26, by Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Irans Atomic Energy Organization, after two days of talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Kiriyenko at the Bushehr nuclear reactor.
KATHMANDU - Nepals 
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A Muslim scholar has warned against what he calls a grave threat to Islams moral centre posed by extremists. Prof Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, argues in his book The Great Theft that Muslims should wrest control of the discourse on defining what being a Muslim means in the modern world away from extremists. In a commentary on the book, Emran Qureshi, a fellow at the Labour and Worklife Programme of the Harvard Law School, credits the UCLA professor with retelling the tradition of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a moderate man who avoided extremes.
KHAR: Clerics announced a Rs 1.5 million reward for the murder of the cartoonist who drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) at a rally organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Anjuman-e-Tajaran trade union of Bajaur Agency here on Sunday. Hundreds of tribesmen carrying banners and placards denouncing Denmark, the United States and the European newspapers that published the cartoons took part in the rally. Trade union and JI leaders addressed the rally and denounced the cartoons as a "terrorist act" and demanded the government cut ties with the countries where the cartoons were published. They also condemned the bombing in Bajaur Agency by US drones and demanded the US compensate the families of the innocent people killed in the attack.
Security forces prevented a rally in Lahore organised by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Sunday, while just 25,000 people protested peacefully in Karachi against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In Lahore, the organisers planned to gather at Nasir Bagh and then march to Faisal Chowk, but security forces blocked all routes to The Mall and arrested around 200 people, including MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MNA Imran Khan and PML-Nawaz leader Pervez Malik. The government also stopped Maulana Fazlur Rehman, opposition leader in the National Assembly, and Amin Fahim, ARD chairman, from entering Punjab, though Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi denied this. JI leader Liaqat Baloch later told a press conference that the MMA, especially its women supporters, would protest today at the governments clampdown on the Lahore rally.
