TOP Indonesian officials have refused to pay tribute to the nine Australians killed last year helping Nias Island's earthquake victims.
As anger mounts over Canberra's granting of visas to West Papuan separatists, a senior Indonesian military spokesman said plans for Sunday's anniversary ceremony had not been approved and it might not take place.
Officials in Jakarta have also delayed signing a $10 million agreement on Australian assistance to fight bird flu and banned Australian Greens senator Kerry Nettle from travelling to West Papua.
Separately, demonstrators have daubed obscenities on the walls of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in protest, as local police stood by in silence.
Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia last Friday in protest at Australia's granting of temporary visas to 43 Papuans who fled in a boat to Cape York in January seeking asylum.
Nationalist Indonesian MPs have since called for diplomatic ties with Australia to be cut, and for their Government to turn a blind eye to illegal immigrants who use Indonesia as a staging point to get to Australia.
The escalating tensions between the two nations come 12 months after the relationship was heralded as reaching new heights in the wake of Australia's aid effort after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and an earthquake last March.
But yesterday, as family members of the Australians killed in the Nias Island helicopter crash prepared to travel to the site for a memorial service, it became clear how far the relationship had deteriorated.
Military and government officials in Jakarta seemed, at best, uninterested in Sunday's service in Tuindrao village, near the west coast of Nias. It was the Australian Defence Force's worst defence loss of life on foreign soil since Vietnam.
And despite the tragedy having last year brought the two countries and their governments close together in grief, Indonesian defence department's chief of international relations Colonel Wahyu Suhendar said last night: "We don't know if we are sending anyone yet."
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last night the Australian Government had no indication from Indonesia about there being a problem with the ceremony.
But in Jakarta, the deputy spokesman for the military, Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki, added that the whole event was still under a cloud.
"At the moment the event has not been cleared," he said. "There is no certainty on whether it's going to be held or not, and that's all I'll say."
Following a massive earthquake on the island on March 28 last year, the ageing navy Sea King helicopter, codenamed Shark 02, was flying a rescue mission with 11 medical personnel and air crew from HMAS Kanimbla when it cartwheeled into the ground and burst into flames.
A crash inquiry has heard a bolt fell out of the helicopter's flight control system. Only two passengers survived, communications specialist Shane Warburton and paramedic Scott Nicholls, who were dragged from the wreckage by villagers.
Still-grieving family members of the victims will travel to the dusty football field where the crash occurred on board an air force C-130 Hercules and HMAS Tobruk, before joining local Indonesian officials in Tuindrao to dedicate a memorial.
Letters requesting senior Indonesian brass to attend were sent several months ago by the Australian Embassy in Jakarta to the chiefs of the navy, air force and army, as well as the foreign ministry.
#2
Indonesia is doing its level best to isolate itself from the rest of the world. They had better think very hard about what they're asking for, or they might get it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 22:12
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#3
Indonesia is doing its level best to isolate itself from the rest of the world. They had better think very hard about what they're asking for, or they might get it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 22:12
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The deployment of federal troops along the U.S.-Mexico border in October netted a 60 percent increase in apprehensions of illegal aliens by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, a congressional report says. The report given this month to the Senate Armed Services Committee says a Texas-based Stryker-armored reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition squadron helped CBP agents capture 2,000 illegal border crossers in New Mexico and Arizona.
You mean guarding the border really works?
The squadron, part of Joint Task Force North (JTF-N), based at Biggs Army Airfield in Fort Bliss, Texas, was used to "detect and report" the movement of "transnational threats" to the U.S. Border Patrol during the 30-day Operation Western Vigilance.
"Transnational Threats" is such a ugly term. I'm sure he meant to say "pre-legal migrants".
Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the committee that the operation also detected three tunnels at the U.S.-Mexico border and one from Canada. "Our homeland defense and civil support plans are the foundation of our ability to deter, prevent and defeat threats to our nation and assist civil authorities when called upon by the president or secretary of defense," Adm. Keating said. JTF-N, a joint service command of active duty and reserve soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Defense Department civilian employees, is a part of NORTHCOM, which is headquartered in Colorado Springs and monitors air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the entire North American continent. The unclassified report noted that unmanned aerial systems and National Guard helicopters were used in addition to the squadron's combat vehicles.
Adm. Keating said NORTHCOM initiated coordination with multiple federal agencies for further development of tunnel detection technology, which will benefit not only JTF-N and its law-enforcement agency partners, but also U.S. Central Command in Southwest Asia. NORTHCOM is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop airspace procedures for unmanned aerial system support to border control lead agencies and disaster response operations, he said.
Stryker squadrons like the one used in Operation Western Vigilance consist of combat vehicles that combine the capacity for rapid deployment with survivability and tactical mobility. They enable combat teams to maneuver in close and urban areas, provide protection in open terrain and transport infantry quickly to critical positions.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
15:33 ||
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#7
I'm guessing that Canadian tunnel was for Hollywood types exiting the fascist state created by Chimpy McHitlerburton.
Posted by: Scott R ||
03/28/2006 17:51
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#8
If this works so well..surprise, surprise..why are we expanding the effort ? This is exactly why Bliss was put there more than 100 years ago. To control the border with Army troops. Let's get back to it. We know it works well.
#9
From 1990 to 1995 I was the TF Commander for the deployment of Active Duty National Guard Troops on the U.S. Mexico Border to conduct counterdrug missions. We supported the US Customs Service at the Ports of Entry doing secondary cargo inspections, and deployed up to ten four-man LP/OP teams conducting clandestine surveillance of trafficking routes to alert the US BP to crossings. We used aircraft and FLIR, and used NVGs and optics to enhance our ability to surveil in stand-off positions. In the latter stages of the operations we were conducted mounted overt patrolling in remote desert areas of the border, as well as overt and clandestine radar surveillance. After five years and literally hundreds of support missions, I can claim a fair understanding of the effect of troops in the border! It works extremely well, especially in a mix of overt and covert operations. The blather that it doesn't comes from people who either have no direct experience, or who have a motive that prefers political expedience to protecting national security.
Posted by: Just About Enough! ||
03/28/2006 20:30
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#10
Thanks for helping keep us safe, Just About Enough. We here appreciate you. :-)
#11
Face it, the citizens of this country have no choice when it comes to accepting illegal immigration. We are absolutely addicted to it and our economy is totally dependent upon it. Business loves the cheap labor, the housing industry loves the increased demand for housing, the retail industy peddles all kinds of goodies to immigrants, policticians salivate over all the campaign contributions from business and votes from immigrant groups. The US is about the only western country that has a positive nonmuslim population growth rate (thanks to immigrants).
I do wonder what will happen if we have a huge recession or the dollar collapses. Will the immigrants merely be marching on Washington if they aren't getting paid, or will they riot (like in LA after R. King)?
Do we want to continue to add people until we have a population the size of India's? Can we stop immigration without causing serious damage to the economy?
#12
SS.. We are absolutely addicted to it and our economy is totally dependent upon it.
thats a lie.
Can we stop immigration without causing serious damage to the economy?
you got that backasswards SS, illegal immigration is causing tremendous damage to the econmy.
Not to mention the respect for our laws, national security, flood of illegal drugs, voting rights, phony ID rackets, or the corrosive nature of a massive invasion of non-citizens on our body politic.
U.S. customs inspectors could be stationed by this fall at the largest seaport in the Bahamas, where the Bush administration is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo, a senior customs official said. Any such agreement will require approval by the Bahamian government. Diplomatic talks are expected to begin soon to put agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the sprawling Freeport Container Port, just 65 miles from Florida's coast.
"We're now looking at going over there to begin discussions," Jayson Ahern, assistant customs commissioner for field operations, told The Associated Press on Monday. "It does require bilateral discussions with another country, but we're cautiously looking at being there by the fall."
A story last week by the AP described a no-bid, $6 million contract the administration is finalizing with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. in the Bahamas, and generated criticism of the arrangement from some U.S. lawmakers and security experts.
It was no-bid because the Bahamian government told the U.S. government to give it to them. That part didn't get much play, I almost missed it last week
The administration has acknowledged the deal represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running sophisticated U.S. radiation-detection equipment at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
Ahern was expected to testify at a Senate oversight hearing Tuesday on radiation detectors in the United States. On the eve of the hearing, Ahern said the Homeland Security Department intended to station U.S. inspectors in the Bahamas by spring under its port-security program, called the Container Security Initiative, but plans were delayed.
Some lawmakers said negotiations were overdue. The senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee said the decision was "absolutely the right thing to do." "If foreign governments and operators do not oppose U.S. security programs, then the Department of Homeland Security should be doing everything it can to deploy teams and secure foreign ports," said Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. "Unfortunately, all I see happening in this administration is feet-dragging and action only after bad decisions have been made public."
More likely it's the Bahamian government dragging it's feet.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. said: "The only thing missing from the advanced security formula in the Bahamas was the presence of U.S. customs agents. Now that it appears they will be added, it will be a large step forward for port security."
The pending diplomatic talks were confirmed by John Meredith, the group managing director for Hutchison's port subsidiary, which runs the Bahamas port.
"They are getting close to fixing up a deal between the Bahamas and the U.S.," Meredith told the AP. "If they want to put American people out there to have a look at it, that's fine. But people should respect also that you've got to have trusted partnerships, both with the private sector and with foreign governments."
The Bahamas contract is close to being finalized by the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department. It has said employees of Hutchison _ the world's largest ports operator _ will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner at the port under the direct supervision of Bahamian customs officials.
That's hardly handing over security to the Chinese, which is why this story died so fast
Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. customs officials working at an anti-terrorism center in northern Virginia. Under the contract, no U.S. officials would be stationed permanently in the Bahamas with the radiation scanner. Separately, there are no U.S. customs agents checking cargo containers in Freeport under the U.S. customs port-security program.
Last week, Thompson said he was concerned there will be inadequate oversight in the Bahamas. Citing the AP story, Thompson sought assurances from the administration over the no-bid contract and asked when U.S. customs inspectors might be sent there permanently.
That would be when the Bahamas sez "OK". After all, it's their country
Hutchison Whampoa is among the shipping industry's most respected companies and was an early adopter of U.S. anti-terror measures. But its billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China's government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
15:03 ||
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#1
Steve: That would be when the Bahamas sez "OK". After all, it's their country
And it's our imports. We could of course, put Bahamas out of business as an entrepot, by embargoing goods that go through there. Which is why they will let our Customs agents in. Or shut down for lack of business.
#2
This is completely a worthless politixal manuver.
There's a whole lot of water between the Bahamas and any US port and absolutely nothing to prevent loading from one ship to another at sea.
We did it in the navy, transshipping goods from one ship to another while far out to sea, there's absolutely no reason to beleve that anything "Inspected" by the Bahamas inspectors is any danger to the US.
And there's the big hole.
It's the stuff you load while in transit, AFTER leaving the Bahamas, and completely uninspected thats the danger.
Think, a ship thoroughly Inspected by this system would not be expected to carry anything harmful, so no furhter inspection delay is needed, (Yeah Right) that's an instant (And Huge) hole in the customs system right there.
Unless you're shipping several customs officials per ship (Each and every ship, with a completely random Customs Inspector "Lottery" to prevent a selected team from joining the crooks) or following each ship by uninterrupted helicopter flights 24/7, then there's effectively no inspection at all.
Lousy, lousy idea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2006 20:40
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#3
Redneck Jim - You always say that. On every story about cargo. Same refrain - and no solution offered.
Every plan has holes in it - except the one I saw here about 2 months ago to shut down all airports and border crossings, build Customs & Immigrations islands offshore with airports and cargo docks where everything and everyone gets inspected, stem to stern, then loaded on barges with a crew of US Marshals or Customs agents riding shotgun to the mainland.
Didn't see anyone comment on it.
Or maybe offer the illegals a one-shot employment deal. Security Specialist. One is sealed up in every container at the foreign ports and check upon arrival to see if the right guy arrives asphyxiated. Think of it as an additional layer of security... Suicide Security and pay their families a cash award, like the Paleostinians get.
Irans Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is dying of cancer. But he is convinced that his legacy will be glorious. He believes that thousands of his Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers effectively control southern Iraq, and that the rest of the country is at his mercy, since we present no challenge to them even along the Iraq/Iran border, where they operate with impunity. They calmly plan their next major assault without having to worry about American retribution. The mullahs have thousands of intelligence officers all over Iraq, as well as a hard core of Hezbollah terrorists including the infamous Imadh Mughniyah, arguably the regions most dangerous killer and they control the major actors, from Zarqawi to Sadr to the Badr Brigades.
Think DOD needs to hire a publistist or media agency? How about Rantburg News Divison
#4
Control is a funny thing. The US has been aware of this infiltration from the get-go. Funny how we have done absolutely nothing about it, even though we have a huge number of SOCOM personnel in country who job it is exactly to do something about situations like this.
That's the problem with the Pentagon, they never plan for things like armed conflict.
Barely two days following accusation of an alleged plan to destabilize the government, three former Generals of the defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia have reportedly been arrested by state security. Although no reason was given for the arrest of the three former NPFL Generals, but family sources believe that the men were picked up based on recent allegation by Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson to the effect that some loyalists of former President Charles Taylor were holding secret meetings to destabilize the government.
This story was printed before Chucky turned up missing.
According to the National Chairman of the Patriotic Conscientiousness Association, Mr. E. Frederick Baye at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Generals Andy Quamie and Alex Toweh and others, of the defunct NPFL and NPP respectively were alleged to have been manhandled and arrested by plain clothes state security agents.
Sounds like that was a good idea
The PACA Executive also alleged that on February 3, 2006, a former General of the NPFL, Edward Tibbie (alias General High Command) was secretly arrested in Ganta, Nimba where he had gone to visit his fiancée who had just given birth. Mr. Blaye said that up to present General Tibbie's family does not know his whereabouts. He alleged that the security men stormed the homes of Generals Quamie and Toweh and massively ransacked and destroyed their personal effects.
It can be recalled that former Bomi County Representative Sando Johnson of the former Government of Liberia and an executive of the NPP, David Norris, Aide Camp to former President Charles Taylor and Madam Emma Smallwood were reportedly held for questioning by the National Security Agency.
Meanwhile, the Government of Liberia through the Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frances Johnson-Morris has confirmed that some supporters and loyalists including ex-fighters of exiled former President Charles Taylor are holding 'secret meetings' in an attempt to prevent Taylor from going to Sierra Leone to be tried by the United Nations backed War Crime Court for crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed during that country's civil war.
Cllr.
Preparing for Chucky's return to power, I'll wager
Morris said that she was informed of the 'secret meeting' early last week but refused to name the loyalists and where the meetings are being held. However, the Justice Minister said that the government is closely monitoring these meetings and is keeping surveillance on those who are holding such meetings.
Better idea would be to bring them in for "questioning"
Cllr. Morris made the disclosure over the weekend at a news conference held at the Justice Ministry.
The Attorney General of Liberia told reporters that in the wake of this, the government has informed the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) about the information gathered and its intelligence surrounding these meetings and those that are involved. Cllr. Morris called on the general public to remain calm, as the government will do everything to ensure their safety and security at all times. She emphasized that while the government is not overlooking current information on efforts by some Liberians to undermine the peace, it encourages people to go about their normal activities as the security forces are closely monitoring the activities of those who may intend to pose threats to the country's security.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
14:43 ||
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TANK, Pakistan, March 28 (Reuters) - Pakistani police arrested three Kashmir militants carrying explosives and ammunition in a northwestern town near a restive tribal region on Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SP), Dar Ali Khattak, said the militants were on their way from South Waziristan tribal agency in a four-wheel-drive vehicle when they were apprehended at a checkpoint in Tank, a town in North West Frontier Province bordering the semi-autonomous tribal area. He said the militants belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, a group engaged in fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, though they were caught some 360 km (225 miles) southwest of the frontier with Indian Kashmir. "We recovered explosives, arms and ammunition, and some manuals for making bombs," Khattak said.
Militancy in Waziristan is more often linked al Qaeda and the Taliban, than groups operating in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of supporting fighters in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Islamabad denies this, saying it offers only diplomatic and moral support. India is still pressing Pakistan to do more to stamp out militancy, although cross-border infiltration into Indian-held Kashmir has tailed off since the two countries began a peace process at the start of 2004. South Asia's nuclear rivals have fought two of their three wars, since their partition in 1947, over Kashmir.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
14:42 ||
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Mar 28, 2006 (DVB) - The spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and avian flu has become worse in Burma due to draconian restrictions by the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), according to a report published by US medical experts on 27 March. The 80-pages report which was jointly researched and written by Dr. Chris Beyer and six other medical experts from John Hopkins Bloomberg Universitys School of Public Health, details the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and bird flu in Burma.
According to the statistics of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2000, one in 29 adults in Burma had HIV, and between 40,000 and 80,000 sufferers had died within the year. But the SPDC Health ministrys list said that only 800 people died from the disease. Moreover, Burma is said to be among 22 countries which have the worse cases of tuberculosis and there are 97,000 new patients each year, and therefore, 40% of Burmas population could be sufferers of the disease. According to the statistics of the junta, in 2005 there were more than 700,000 malaria suffers and many of them are of the high risk group.
While the public health condition is that dire, the restrictions of humanitarian groups by the ruling junta is posing a real threat of the diseases widely spreading into the neighbouring countries, according to Beyer.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
14:07 ||
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#1
That adds up to more people than there even are in burma.
Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on Arab leaders Tuesday to move toward a goal of ''entering the nuclear club'' and making use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Gee, that sounds familar, doesn't it?
The absence of at least 10 heads of state, including President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, raised concerns of a lackluster summit in a year where many had hoped to see serious efforts at dealing with regional troubles.
The 22-member Arab League is contending with complex issues involving Iraq's future and how to deal with a Hamas-led government in the Palestinian territories.
The U.S. State Department has urged Arab leaders to ''be as supportive as possible of the new Iraqi government'' by sending ambassadors and providing economic assistance to Baghdad.
For their part, Arab governments -- already suspicious of non-Arab Iran -- have been irritated by plans for talks on Iraq between Iranian and U.S. officials.
Moussa was particularly emphatic about Iraq in his address.
''Any solution for the Iraqi problem cannot be reached without Arabs, and Arab participation,'' he said. ''Any result of consultations without Arab participation will be considered insufficient and will not lead to a solution.''
Moussa called on Arabs ''to enter into the nuclear club and make use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,'' a plea that comes as the world is wary about nearby Iran's nuclear ambitions.
In his opening speech, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, host of last year's summit, called on Iraqis to close ranks to avoid a sectarian conflict pitting the country's Shiite majority against the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority.
Iraq's neighbors, he said, should ''honestly cooperate with the Iraqi people to preserve the country's integrity and unity.''
The host, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, used his opening speech to praise Palestinian elections and denounce Israel and Western countries that have threatened to cut off aid in response to the victory of the militant Hamas.
''We say no to robbing the Palestinian people of their democratic choice, no to punishing the Palestinian people for exercising their right to choose who rules, and no to succumbing to Israel's violations of all the promises it made,'' he said, winning the applause of the audience of heads of state and delegates.
Hamas' landslide election victory in January has raised fears of a halt in the Mideast peace process. The United States and European Union have threatened to cut direct financial aid vital to keeping the Palestinian Authority running, and Washington has pressed its Arab allies to follow suit.
However, a resolution to be adopted by the leaders meeting in Khartoum will pledge continued Arab funding for the Palestinian Authority.
Al-Bashir also condemned ''terrorism in all its forms'' and called for the use of all means to fight it. But he asked for an international conference to ''agree on an objective definition of terrorism'' -- a long-standing demand by several Arab nations.
Sudan is also hoping to win Arab backing for its position on the conflict in its Darfur region, where it is resisting Western pressure -- and a U.N. resolution -- for the African Union peacekeeping force there to be replaced by a bigger U.N. force.
A long-range Katyusha rocket was for the first time fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Tuesday, raising fears that Palestinian terror groups had obtained additional weaponry that the IDF has yet to face in its war against Gaza-based terror. The Katyusha rocket, the army said, was a "clear escalation" on the Gaza battlefield and demanded a quick and harsh response. Unlike the homemade short-range Kassam rockets frequently launched at Israel, Katyushas have a range of over 20 kilometers and can carry over 20 kilograms of explosives. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the Katyusha, which landed south of Ashkelon.
Since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip this past summer, the defense establishment has raised concerns that Palestinians would succeed in smuggling Katyusha rockets into Gaza from Egypt. The Rafah terminal, officials have said, was left "wide open" by European observers and the Palestinians, allowing for the entry of senior Iranian and Syrian terror suspects. The Katyusha fired Tuesday, military officials estimated, was smuggled into Gaza over the Egyptian border.
Egyptian soldiers have taken up positions along the border since Israel pulled out of the Philadelphia Corridor, but to Israel's dismay they have not clamped down on weapons smuggling into Gaza. "With Global Jihad camps based around the corner in Egypt," one senior officer said, "it was only a matter of time before the Palestinians got their hands on Katyusha rockets and other new weaponry."
The Katyusha fired on Tuesday, the army said, had a 122mm diameter and was larger than the rockets fired by the Hizbullah at communities along the northern border in December. The army first believed the projectile fired Tuesday morning was a Kassam rocket but shortly after inspecting the rocket police sappers determined that it was a Katyusha. Palestinian terror groups have for years tried smuggling Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip. In 2002, several dozen rockets were seized aboard the Karine A weapons ship intercepted by IDF troops as it made its way to Gaza.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
13:31 ||
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#1
On Election Day, even. Way to go Paleos. Another opportunity not missed.
WASHINGTON Caspar Weinberger, the former Secretary of Defense for Ronald Reagan, has died after a brief illness. He was 88. Forbes magazine confirmed Weinberger's death to FOX News. Weinberger served as publisher chairman of the magazine and as a columnist there since 1988. He died at a hospital in Bangor, Maine.
Weinberger was a longtime confidant of Reagan, having served nearly seven years as the 15th defense secretary. Reagan also appointed him to posts on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the National Economic Commission.
Weinberger's death comes almost simultaneously to the death of another longtime Reagan compatriot, Lyn Nofziger, who died Monday at age 81 from cancer.
Weingberger was the engineer that made the winning of the Cold War work as SecDef - he brought the US Military back from the brink of death (where it was under Jimmy Carter), and laid the foundation for the profession capable military we now have 9and had back in 90-91 as well).
#3
We have much to be grateful for. Among many other things, that although we have our fair share of fools and weaklings, we have what seems to be more than our fair share of those who are wise and strong. Go well to your rest, Mr. Weinberger -- you've done well for us all.
#5
I met him once at West Point; I was lucky (and connected) enough to be one of the Cadets to have lunch with him and Ronald Reagan at a table in the mess hall. I recall that he was very nice to us plebes.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/28/2006 19:39
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#6
Caspar Weinberger Jr:
He should be remembered as a world statesman, a great American patriot, the son said. What he did with Reagan really brought down the Soviet Union.
#7
It should not go unremarked that he was one of the leading members of the Churchill Society and had been honorarily knighted by the Queen
Posted by: mac ||
03/28/2006 22:45
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#8
CAP was much more than Reagan's SoD. A brillant business strategist in addition to military. Let's hope there are more like CAP to come, it is sorely needed.
I saw the first and part of the second episode of this series. I only saw part of the second because I couldnt stand the LLL direction it was going. I liked the first show and thought it to be kind of a military version of 24. In the second episode we get a bitter taste of the LLL koolaid when an agent opines: Why do they build churches here where they are not wanted? Also the evangelicals being rescued are more concerned with the church building than their safety. Also the wives of the Unit strong-arm a new recruits wife into accepting base quarters rather than living off post. They also want to force this woman to meet a Senator against her will because she is from her home state. The woman doesnt want to because: I didnt vote for her.
Now I have the deepest respect for SpecOps, I thank God that they are on our side, and those that make it are among the bravest people I have ever met. But with all due respect to the SgtMaj he sounds awfully silly spouting off the LLL talking points in an interview. Granted he may have an opinion contrary to the Presidents but I am sure he can put it is his words and not those of Michael Moore, George Soros, and the MoveOn crowd. Also SgtMaj if you are advising a series how about not portraying EVERY negative stereotype about the military and maybe accentuate A positive aspect. Sorry but this guy sounds like he took a long pull on the LLL koolaid pitcher. Some quotes from the article:
The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated.
For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero.
Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed in which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people.
The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It's about vengeance, it's about revenge, or it's about cover-up.
I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they're starting to see what's happening and the lies that have been told.
#2
I would have dismissed comments like this out of hand from just about any other source, but a guy like this does have a lot more credibility than just about any other source, so I have to pause a minute and question my beliefs. Not change those beliefs, at least not yet, but question them, and look for some similarly credible sources to restore those beliefs.
And I thought the program on rescuing the church kids was amazingly timely, in view of the rescue of the peaceniks from Iraq last week, and their lack of any kind of gratitude.
#4
s I said I respect these men, but I think the SgtMaj does everyone a dis-service by not using his own words and simply parroting the LLL fever swamp. The show had promise but weaving in stereotypes and LLL talking points turn me cold.
#5
Why do they build churches here where they are not wanted?
Here's a clue the writer appaernly did not have.
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28: 19-20).
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine
or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
(Romans 8:35)
#7
This so called SGM is nothing but LLL pissed off peice of SH*T. It sounds just like he has been talking W.Clark.Just another little sawed off PISS ANT!!!!!!!!!!
#8
Why do they build churches here where they are not wanted? Also the evangelicals being rescued are more concerned with the church building than their safety.
Never heard words or comments like that uttered in my time in the community. Have not seen the show yet. Appears it might be a "wave off."
#9
His rhetoric is what gives it away. If these were the private thoughts of a wizened military man -- as portrayed in the story -- the language would be more temperate. But the over the top tone marks it as nothing more than the rantings of another moveon moron.
#10
Glenmore: I would have dismissed comments like this out of hand from just about any other source, but a guy like this does have a lot more credibility than just about any other source, so I have to pause a minute and question my beliefs.
This is a TV show. What happens in a TV show is written by scriptwriters. The people on TV shows are actors reading lines from scripts. If you want to re-examine your beliefs based on what military people say, I think anti-war veteran websites would be a better place to look.
#11
ZF - I disregard what TV show characters say, but the article was referring to what the technical advisor to the TV show, a retired Sgt. Major, was saying.
I don't give a whole lot of weight to NCOs with just 1-2 enlistments, but retired lifers ....
Same thing with officers - with the exception that the political aspirations of senior officership (Col. & above) reduces their credibility.
#12
Glenmore, I would also give the SgtMaj his due if his comments weren't taken directly from the LLL moonbat talking points. Its obvious from the show that they are taking a LLL moonbat path and it also seems apparent that the SgtMaj fits right into that agenda. FYI there is a fair share of LLL moonbat liberals in uniform and retired.
#13
I read Haney's book ("Inside Delta Force") which was pretty interesting. But in the last chapter he describes this bizarre sequence of events in which he hunts down some bad guys in the jungles of central America-- only one of the bad guys turns out to be an American soldier Haney knew, who, ya see, must have been set up by the CIA yada yada yada.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/28/2006 19:33
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Hollywood activist SEAN PENN has a plastic doll of conservative US columnist ANN COULTER that he likes to abuse when angry. The Oscar-winner actor has hated Coulter ever since she blacklisted his director father LEO PENN in her book TREASON. And he takes out his frustrations with Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit, on the Barble-like doll. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Penn reveals, "We violate her. There are cigarette burns in some funny places. She's a pure snake-oil salesman. She doesn't believe a word she says."
I am sure our favorite Apple Annie would like to return the favor.
#6
Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit
And Penn is a dropout, has been, bad actor, and only fame is his marrage to Madonna Has an opinion worth listening to? What he does to dolls spells volumes to his mental state. But hay, I want an An Coulter doll!! I promis I will be nice!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/28/2006 12:17
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#8
If it were revealed that Tom Selleck had a Babra Streisand doll he abused in this way, how long would it take the shrieks from NOW, etc. to burst our eardrums?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 12:46
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#9
"Science does not diminish the fear of the gods."
The ironic part is that Penn is such a doofus, that if Coulter said she had obtained a voodoo doll of him, a *real* voodoo doll, supposedly purchased at great expense from a powerful voodoo priestess, I bet Penn would poop his pants in superstitious fear.
In fact, such is their naivete, that she could get a whole series of Liberal dolls, and have the left in a great superstitious uproar.
(Especially dolls of black politicians in very black districts, who coincidentally are very, very afraid of voodoo and anyone cursed by it.)
#11
Anne Coulter is a succubus who drinks the blood of virgins.
She is an insulting trollop.
Her commentary, though, couched in humor betrays a level of personal elitism not matched since the fabulous forties.
Dhe should be roundly rebuked, doused with holy water, tied securely and thrown into a river somewhere.
However, Sean Penn torturing a plastic model of Coulter isw just anopther example of his own misguided activism and inability to deal.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 15:32
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#13
Naw steve. Methinks jim#6 would like to have Annie tie him down, then she'd dress in leather and crack a whip. Shame on you jim...
Posted by: Tell D Truth ||
03/28/2006 16:02
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#14
No dudes.
I really dislike her .
She is a demagogue.
If you don't agree with her ill though out toss-off insulting comments, you are treasonous.
And she looks like a coke addict too.
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. authorities have arrested a translator working in Iraq, charging him with offering a bribe to entice a police official to buy armored vests and other equipment for $1 million.
Faheem Mousa Salam, 27, of Livonia, Mich., was arrested Thursday at Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia, the Justice Department said. Salam is an employee of the Titan Corp., a government contractor working in Iraq.
He was released from custody after a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington. He is due back in court on April 5.
Salam was charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for offering $60,000 to an Iraqi police official who Salam believed could help arrange the purchase of the goods by a police training organization, according to a criminal complaint. Salam said he wanted to sell the group 1,000 vests and a sophisticated map printer, the court papers said.
Salam, described in court papers as a naturalized U.S. citizen, later made similar offers to an undercover investigator who was posing as a purchasing officer for the police group, the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, the complaint said.
If convicted, Salam faces up to five years in prison and a fine of at least $100,000.
The bribery charge is the latest case to emerge from investigations begun by Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who was appointed to look into Iraqi reconstruction contracts.
At least seven Americans have been implicated in a separate bribery and kickback scheme involving the award of millions of dollars in reconstruction contracts. Robert J. Stein, a former contracting official in Iraq, pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to steal more than $2 million in reconstruction money and steer contracts to a businessman in exchange for more than $1 million in cash, cars and jewelry.
An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death. Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum. Fini was among the first to speak out on the man's behalf. Rahman, 41, was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of Kabul late Monday, Afghan Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish told The Associated Press. "We released him last night because the prosecutors told us to," he said. "His family was there when he was freed, but I don't know where he was taken."
Deputy Attorney-General Mohammed Eshak Aloko said prosecutors had issued a letter calling for Rahman's release because "he was mentally unfit to stand trial." He also said he did not know where Rahman had gone after being released. He said Rahman may be sent overseas for medical treatment.
On Monday, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!" marched through the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to protest the court decision Sunday to dismiss the case. Several Muslim clerics threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die. "Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it," said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. "The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion."
#2
perhaps the Christian Crusader Snipers can send a .50 caliber message to senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed to tone it down? Or at least to his successor
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/28/2006 10:18
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#3
hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!"
There are no real "believers" in Islam. They cannot exist with Islam in its current form.
Because belief cannot be coerced or it ceases to be belief. It must be given willingly and must be a moral choice of the individual. And for a true choice to exist, there must be the ability to choose without threat from artificially imposed consequences. Your immortal soul is at risk, but your physical life should not be at risk unless you do something that is physically risky.
Right now, there is no Muslim that can truly say "I choose to be an unbeleiver (an Atheist), I choose to have doubts about wether ther is anything to beleive in (Agnostic), I choose to be a Christian, or a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Zoroastrian", without coming under death threats and Fatwahs - i.e. the ultimate coercion.
They have no freedom to choose, and so cannot freely believe. Islamist's faith is so small as to not survive exposure to any doubts (real or imagined), and their belief is as credible as the confession of a man with a gun to his head.
The Hadiths are the source of this - the writings of Muhammed, not the divinely sanctioned parts of the Qu'ran itsef. They are a perversion of religion, not a true religion based on belief freely given and faith, maintained in the heart, not by the scimitar.
Until Islam changes and allows people to freely LEAVE, and learns co-exist and compete openly and honestly with other beliefs (or no belief at all), it is a cult of the coercer and the coerced. There will exist no REAL believers in Islam, only slaves who are threatened into compliance by threats of physical abuse and death.
All the other major religions of the world allow for this open-ness. All except Islam.
I have come to the opinion that in its current form, Islam is an abomination that must either be reformed or eradicated.
Ironically, the Islamists have a choice on this. But they must be made aware of the consequences of their choice: stay with the coercion and face eradication of their cult and its culture, or reform and join the modern world in the marketplace of ideas.
We in the west will provide the wipeout or the welcome, once enough of us awaken.
#5
Eradicate ! I fear reform will provide a front for the radical element to go underground, only to rise again.
All of their madrasses must be closed and raised to the ground. All of the 'teachers' silenced.
#6
by that definition, OS, there werent any christians in europe from at least 1000 AD or so down to the enlightenment. Converting from Christianity could get you killed too, and the people who converted you. Thats historically why Judaism became so reluctant to accept converts - in Jewish law someone who seeks to convert is supposed to be turned away three times, and can be accepted only if they persist. If they had been less resistant to converts, the Christian authorities would have destroyed them.
#7
Islam has always been a heavy-handed "religion" from the top down. I really do not care what they do, as long as they confine it to their own little sh*tty domains. However, with the phenomenon of large fortunes in oil money into the picture, Islamists can export their psycho-babble system to places where other religions are tolerated. Our toleration is seen as our weakness to be exploited.
I'm with Old Spook, Islam will be reformed or eradicated. They reform it or we will eradicate it. The values of each system are imcompatable with each other.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2006 11:27
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#8
OldSpook,
I've "appropriated" passages from your comment, Thanks.
And in SOME sense, liberalhawk is right as well: Catholicism could not rightly claim to have won converts by virtue of its nature during a time when force was seen as a legitimate way to enforce faith. But in THAT SAME SENSE, every Protestant, by converting from Catholicism, COULD be credited as being a true christian. Care to cite the dates for the Reformation versus the Enlightenment? Care to comment on why you ignore the differences between Catholics and Protestants, other than admitting that acknowledging those differences would shoot gaping holes in your implied argument that the Enlightenment was the Beginning of Truth and Light? (and ignoring the Terror during the French Revolution?)
#10
We are talking about the modern world and Islam, not pre-protestant pre-enlightenment Christianity 1000 years ago. Nice try at changing the context.
Furthermore, it was never dogma that those who left the faith be executed. Show me a Papal proclamation and a biblical passage (with adequate context) to support your claim (and good luck as there really isnt anything like that in the new testament ro Christ's). I can show you Hadiths and Fatwas that show Islam's death threats to be in consonance, with a bit of cursory research on the internet.
#12
I can show you Hadiths and Fatwas that show Islam's death threats to be in consonance, with a bit of cursory research on the internet.
A bit more research would turn up a pattern of executing apostates that runs right back to ol' Mo' himself. Not to mention Mo's habit of ordering the assassination of critics who displeased him.
Hard to make the comparison, though I'm not shocked when people do it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 12:33
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#13
OS-
VERY well put. I have only heard words that genuinely chilling once before - regarding a Certain Politician who kept trying to subvert the will of the people.
Preach it, brother.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2006 12:35
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#14
So what your implying is that because someone wrote something down and it was preserved through time, that makes it a valid reason for murder. Certainly the catholics did persecute and wipe out the cathars but that doesn't mean it's justifiable does it?
#15
yes, Old Spook, you are very correct. All anyone has to do is actually read the Koran and they will find sura upon sura that justifies and actually orders to kill the infidel (the Christian, the Jew, the unbeliever) for these people will face "grievous chastisement". LiberalHawk has brought up a good point however it is trumped by the reforms that Christianity has undergone and the depraved, psychotic state Islam is in today. My advice is to read the Koran and pick out the small amount of verses that focus on peace between the 3 major religions, for example the verse in which it says that if a Muslim meets a Christian or Jew who is faithful to his religion and is not a hypocrite then he is your brother, and when you get into a theological discussion with any Muslim you can point out the positive. And if he doesn't listen to you, then just kill the bastard.
Probably not. Today's CIA (that's Cover Institutional Ass) doesn't give any appearance of giving a rat's ass about Christians. If anything, most of them appear to be Christian- Bush-hating Lefties. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2006 14:05
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#19
There are two major differences between what Islam does and what the Catholic Church did a thousand years ago: one is based on, and firmly rooted in, the faith itself, while the other was an abberation reflecting the growing power of the "divine right of kings", another abomination brought about by the lust for power, not by the words of God.
Great summation, OS! I wrote something similar on my blog a few days ago. The scales are beginning to drop from the eyes of the world, and Islam is getting a very close scrutiny by more and more people. Each day, more intelligent people see it as the blood cult it is, instead of a true "religion".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 14:08
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#20
Ordinarily I find OldSpook to be very clear and as accurate as I have the background to understand. But I'm afraid he overstates the case rather dramaticly here.
In a sense I have a gun to my head, or at any rate a prison cell waiting for me, if I choose to murder somebody. In OldSpook's sense I don't have the freedom to chose that crime. But in reality, I do choose, and I would choose the same whether or not there were a human law about it. And so, I think, would he. The penalty does not interfere with our freedom.
I grant you that it is a subtle point--but it is possible to choose necessity. (I could go further and quote Paul about freedom and being slaves to sin, but that would only be of interest to the Christians.)
The only reason I want to belabor this is because the conclusion you naturally draw from OldSpook's analysis is that nobody would be a Muslim if they weren't threatened to stay. That's not true. There are plenty of reasons for the average Muslim to stay Muslim: he's comfortable with it, it is part of his familiar culture, part of the way his family lives, and so on. And for the devout (who seem a minority in every religion), Islam is a religion teaching the power and glory of God and that He expects men to live rightly. That's a message that resonates now as much as it did when Muhammad (may the Lord have mercy on his miserable soul) taught it to the pagans in Medina.
It won't occur to the average Muslim that there is anything sensible to convert to. He's already got something more sophisticated than paganism, and since preaching anything besides Islam is usually prohibited, all he will know about any other religions is the impressions he gets from the media. And if Brittany Spears and Sean Penn represent the Christian West--he's already got a system of ethics better than theirs. At least to his mind. After all, he's required to give a good-sized chunk of his money to the poor, right? (Magnifying your own virtues and the other guy's vices is always comforting.) We all know that Islam has some deadly problems with it, not least of which is rulings from these schools that claim that apostates have to be killed. I could find quite a list myself, and I'm not an expert on sharia(s). The religion is a mix of appeals to the nobility within us and appeals to greed.
But we fool ourselves if we think that Islam doesn't have serious attractions to hundreds of millions of people who don't really care about the penalties for apostasy. Enforcing a freedom of religon law or dropping Playboys over the villages--it won't make much of a difference. We're not going to change people's minds that easily. Most will still keep on with the religion of their fathers.
Posted by: James ||
03/28/2006 14:14
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#21
Good job of putting words in someone's mouth that never came out of it. Great way to kill a strawman.
#22
So James surrenders, but the rest of us are preparing for the Mother of all Awakenings.
Modern society cannot co-exists with burka wearing, megaphone praying, slave holding, dhimmitude enforcing, 8th century behavior, which defends itself via decapitation, stoning and mutilation.
If you try a little role reversal, you will soon understand how they are able to create such unrest and insecurity within societies in which they are present. When your mind is atuned to the 8th century, all things modern seem frail and unfit for survival. A shovel of dust can stop a machine forever. How great are they ? How stupid are they ? How stupid are we not to put an end to this terror ? We have allowed them to hide under the cover of religion, and now we must perform surgery to save face ? Maybe not.
#23
The example you use of constraint against murder is specious at best. The use of the power of the state to possibly kill you when you commit violence against someone else is not morally equivalent to the initiaion of force to impose a religious belief, and then maintained said "belief" under penalty of violence and execution. To declaim it as a "subtle point" is to expose a glaring error in your grasp of morality and ethics.
Your thought process is foggy at best when it comes to the morality you are discussing, at least from that poorly drawn example you introduced.
I never said there were not people who probably believed truly, but it is also true that they had little, if any, choice in the matter. As opposed to western, and asian, societies; where the freedom to leave or change is well established, except in Islamic nations.
But it is true that for true belief and faith, it best and strongest when tested. For some, they may be able to test it inside the constratints of the threat of physical coercion that currently penultimately binds them to Islam. But have they truly believed? Its impossible to say, compared to Buddhists, Hindus, Protestants, Jews and Cathlics in the free world. They, who are exposed to and must come to terms with other beleif systems, including atheism, must preserve their beleif and faith almost daily.
Yet Islam sees such tests and truths as an attack on their entire religious structure's foundation, and respond as described in their hadiths - with violence and death, rather than passion and faith.
And exposure of Muslims in the controlled countries to the other faiths will result in a fair amount of defections from Islam to the other faiths, and to agnosticism and atheism. Probably a much more significant number than anyone estimates. After all, take a look at what happened during the enlightement and reformation to the Catholic Church, with all its defects and errors, and rampant worldliness - at a minimum it was decimated, and did not fully recover until it did much reformign of the Church and its internal and external activities. The formation of the individual Catholic/Christian involves them makking choices on their own, individually, and the Church as a corrective, not punative entity. Indeed the worst punishment today in Christianity is exclusion - being told not to come back if you are protestant or excommunicated if you are Catholic, or being "shed" from the peopel if of certain orthodos Jewish belief. But no violence initiated against the individual, and they are free to come back without any coercion exerted.
Add to that the deep and long tradition of the study of the Bible and well developed set of hermeneutics in the Catholic church as well as extensive protestant biblican scholarship - and this was built on the long tadtiion of rabbinical study in Judiasm.
Islam is almost the antitheses in that only an Imam is allowed to do this reading or research with any degree of freedom, and even then is not allowed to differ at all from the text.
Islam has no provisions for freedom to change. Islam is not a changeable relgion- the Qu'ran is considered to be the literal word of Allah, which prevents any interpretation other than sheer bloody-minded literallness, down to the last jot and ink blot. Another notable difference is that Islam is very dependant upon the local Imam, and very little an individual can say opposing him and his reading of the Qu'ran.
Such utter dependence upon authority, and utter submission to worldy power as its manifestation is nearly a polar opposite to what open societies require.
The bottom line is that Islam is apparently incapable of reform from within - few Muslims are willing to dispoute the central hadiths of thier beleif in the mandated literal forms. And as evidenced in the world today, Islam as it now exists, when given power, does not allow any dissent nor exposure to such. Check Saudi Arabia as a prime example - try taking your Bible there or wearing a crucifix, or carryign a rosary openly.
As I said in another post, its a sad indictment of Islam that they have so little faith in their "faithful".
#24
Old Spook, you know I adore you, and I always read your posts several times to make sure I got everything. I recently spent several happily frustrated hours trying to find the post you wrote after the contractors were hung from the bridge in Fallujah, when you wrote (#16), Like it or not, there comes a time when you have to have hard men doing hard jobs. It must be done cold, not in the heat of anger. It must be systematic. It must be deliberate. And you cannot flinch. Words I have written on my heart, to keep me strong when I weaken -- as I too often do.
But you are wrong about the history of the religion you have chosen, and to which you are such a credit. From the third century of the Common Era until the Enlightenment, Christianity was as much coerced for those who would have preferred something else as is Islam today. The religious wars that swept across Western Europe -- sometimes local affairs such as the Catholics against the Heugonots in France, or against schismatic/heretic groups in England, in Prague, and elsewhere, ended in the massacres of the dissenters, in most cases, until the time of Martin Luther when, after all of Western Europe was convulsed by decades of religious wars (and in spots German peasants were reduced to cannibalism to survive) it was concluded that the common people were to be compelled to take the religion chosen by the local ruler. Which is why even today there are Catholic and Protestant States in Germany, why the Dutch Netherlands are mainly Protestant and Belgium is Catholic. And for those who clung to a semi-recognized faith, such as the Jews, the dhimmitude, as difficult as under Islam, was real, and legal, and enforced, and sometimes deadly.
Christianity has grown up, thank God. And I would not dream of comparing any of Rantburg's Christians to the beasts of expansionist Islam, whom we are all here are fighting -- some overtly, some just by participating in this forum. Y'all are good people, open to the clash of ideas, and accept that others can believe differently without that making them (and me) evil. But it is important that those of you who are Christian accept that your religion has matured over the centuries, and taken along the way some twists that are not now comfortable to look back upon. It is a credit to Christianity's current believers that this point has been reached; y'all should be proud, not ashamed. But like it or not, and despite being an aberration from Christ's message, Old Patriot, this was a major, even the majority of the history of your religion.
But nowadays those who are Christian are so by choice, and are free to leave at will, and thus know their faith to be true. Islam remains compulsory for those born to it, and chooses by force and dhimmitude to force non-members within its societies toward it; and thus none of its members can be said to believers whose faith they know to be true because it has been tested.
#25
But the discussion moved on while I was still writing, darn it! Old Spook, I agree with every word of your last post -- except that I could not test Saudi Arabia by taking my bible there; as I understand it, it remains illegal for Jews to even so much as enter the country. ;-)
I do hope Mr. Rahman has safely made his escape from Afghanistan, albeit without the children he'd come back for. And I do also hope (hopefully not in vain) that the events of these last few years are the beginning of the end for hermetic Islam, able to violently repel all others, and the beginning of Islam's evolution to a citizen religion of the world. I'm not keen on being forced into a war of complete eradication of the carriers of a faith, although at this point a large number of noisy Muslims seem enthousiastic on forcing the point.
But I am grateful that we have a society strong enough to produce hard men capable and willing to make hard decisions and, coldly, deliberately and unflinchingly follow through.
Christianity spread for its first 400 years through the blood of its martyrs alone.
Islam's first 400 years of expansion was through the blood of those unfortunate to be in its way.
The Early Christian Fathers condemned the execution of non-believers.
Muhammed sanctioned it.
Nuff said.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
03/28/2006 19:47
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#28
Ernest, Christianity spread for the first three hundred years through the force of its ideas and the sure promise of Heaven. Martyrdom isn't attractive to most people, and generally isn't a pursuasive selling point for the unconvinced, which is why Islam spread so quickly by conquest.
I do not equate the two religions, and feel comfortable with religious Christians, which I do not with religious Muslims. Ptah wrote something interesting in a discussion at another site (scroll down) which I think sums things up nicely. Go take a look, if you'd like.
White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten, President Bush announced Tuesday amid growing calls for a White House shakeup and Republican concern about Bush's tumbling poll ratings.
The International Herald Tribune had an approving story yesterday about Laura Bush's staff changes.
Bush announced the changes in an nationally broadcast appearance in the Oval Office. "I have relied on Andy's wise counsel, his calm in crisis, his absolute integrity and his tireless commitment to public service," Bush said. "The next three years will demand much of those who serve our country. We have a global war to fight and win." Card, 58, stood stoically with his hands by his sides as Bush lauded his years of service through the Sept. 11 attacks, war and legislative and economic challenges. Gripping the podium, Card said in his farewell: "You're a good man, Mr. President." Card's eyes were watery. Card said he looks forward to just being Bush's friend. Bush then gave him five quick slaps on the back and the two walked out of the Oval Office together.
The president called Bolten, 51, a man with broad experience, both on Wall Street and in Washington, including the last three years as director of the Office of Management and Budget. "Josh is a creative policy thinker," Bush said. "He is an expert on the budget and our economy. He is a man of candor and humor and directness. No person is better prepared for this important position."
"I'm deeply honored now by the opportunity to succeed Andy Card as White House chief of staff," Bolten responded. "I said, 'Succeed Andy Card, not replace him,' because he cannot be replaced."
The move cames as Bush is buffeted by increasing criticism of the drawn-out war in Iraq and as fellow Republicans have suggested pointedly that the president bring in new aides with fresh ideas and new energy. Card came to Bush recently and suggested that he should step down from the job that he has held from the first day of Bush's presidency, said an administration official earlier. Bush decided during a weekend stay at Camp David, Md., to accept Card's resignation and to name Bolten as his replacement, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to pre-empt the president.
Bolten is widely experienced in Washington, both on Capitol Hill as well as at the White House, where he was deputy chief of staff before becoming director of the Office of Management and Budget. At a White House news conference last week, Bush was asked about rumors that a shake up in the White House staff was in the works. Bush said he was "satisfied with the people I've surrounded myself with. I've got a staff of people that have, first of all, placed their country above their self-interests," he said at the time. "These are good, hard- working, decent people. And we've dealt with a lot. We've dealt with a lot. We've dealt with war. We've dealt with recession. We've dealt with scandal. We've dealt with Katrina. I mean, they've had a lot on their plate. And I appreciate their performance and their hard work and they've got my confidence," he said.
Bush said, "I'm satisfied with the people I've surrounded myself with. We've been a remarkably stable administration, and I think that's good for the country."
A veteran of the administrations of both President Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush, Card was widely respected by his colleagues in the Bush White House. They fondly called him "chief." He usually arrived at work in the West Wing by around 5:30 a.m. and frequently did not leave until 9 or 10 p.m. Card plans to stay on the job until April 14, when the switch with Bolten takes place.
Associates said that Card, who was secretary of Transportation and deputy chief of staff, had wanted to establish himself as the longest serving White House chief of staff. James Steelman, who was President Harry S. Truman's chief of staff, had served for six years and Card's tenure will have gone not much longer than five years. A recent AP-Ipsos Poll found that Bush's job approval has dipped to 37 percent, his lowest rating in that poll. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a six-point jump since February. Bush's job approval among Republicans plummeted from 82 percent in February to 74 percent, a troubling sign for the White House in an election year.
I'm suspect that the reason most illegals have become upset is that they perceive recent efforts in Washington, and maybe with some justification, as "ethnic cleansing wrapped in velvet".
That is, that they can work for a while in the US, but then have to return to Mexico and apply for citizenship there. Except that we are already processing the maximum number of Mexican citizens we are able to process. So that means that MOST of those who leave voluntarily won't ever be able to come back.
This means something along the lines of three to ten million people!
Many of their children were raised in the United States, have never lived in Mexico, and don't even speak Spanish. Would you round up an equal number of caucasian children and dump them in Mexico? Holy crap! These are American kids. All they know is what other American kids know. They are just kids.
I can see why so many people are getting agitated about this.
Building a wall is a sensible idea, it keeps out any additional newcomers. It gives us years to fully integrate and recognize those that are here. Which is basically the situation we are stuck with. They aren't going home, they want to stay here, and for the most part become good citizens.
The alternative, of turning three to ten million people into fugitives overnight is just insane. None of them, except utter idiots, are going to voluntarily return to Mexico, so is the government proposing a massive round-up? To criminalize millions of people who committed a misdemeanor?
Emptying whole neighborhoods, even cities? For what?
I'm more than a little disturbed by some of the overt xenophobia and racism that is really cropping up around the US. It's a warning sign when your typical luser suddenly feels free to spout in public what he really feels. Ironically, the #1 complaint is that Mexicans speak Spanish, and this is somehow rude and inconsiderate of them.
Okay, it may make communications a little more difficult, but seriously, it that a reason to be like Slobadan Milosevic?
Yes, illegal immigration is a problem. And yes, stopping further illegal immigration should be a priority. But I'm as opposed to forcing law-abiding, working, peaceful Mexican people out of the US as I am of doing the same to our 70,000 illegal alien minority, the Irish.
Which President Bush granted an amnesty to, by the way.
Posted by: bk ||
03/28/2006 10:45
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#2
Ethnic cleansing is a politically-loaded term. If we're going to use such terms, let me propose my own - my word for what happens when a distinct people enter a country in large number without permission from the natives is colonization. Thus, when we push Mexican illegal aliens out, what we are accomplishing is "decolonization", not "ethnic cleansing".
Note that no legislator has proposed a wide-ranging guest worker program covering people from all-over the world. The guest worker program covers just Mexico. So all this political rhetoric is merely intended to mask the reality that Congress has apparently decided to legislate Manifest Destiny in reverse - Mexico will now colonize the US instead.
#3
We get a lot of immigrants, legal and illegal, from many countries around the world. Mexicans are the only ones I know that cheer for bin Laden at US-Mexican sporting events.
#4
Once you compare the mexican issue to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina your argument loses it's credibility. I have several questions for you; What is your solution?It's fun to gripe and not have a solution.Democrats are great at it. I think the current bill is a band-aid over a gunshot wound. But I also believe that illegals should be returned to their own country. Whether or not their children have grown up here is no argument, it simply means that they have escaped being prosecuted for a crime. That's the first word there, illegal. I would also ask you why is it that many of the protesters who seem so adament to stay in the states but haven't learned to integrate within our culture by learning the language. This is a situation where I believe we can look at Austria or Switzerland as a model for fixing our problem. Allow them to stay. Give them one year to learn the history and culture, to learn the language, and then test them. If they fail,ship them home. Why would you want to pay for someone when they don't contribute?
#5
Many of their children were raised in the United States, have never lived in Mexico, and don't even speak Spanish. Would you round up an equal number of caucasian children and dump them in Mexico?
#6
As someone who is both more involved with the immigration nightmare than I would wish to be (still waiting on my sweetie's green card, and that's after we have followed through on all the paperwork demanded of us), and a native of a state that is literally getting overrun while the feds screw around (Arizona), allow me my two cents.
The idea that our government is "ethnically cleansing" Mexicans shows just how much this author does not understand what that term really means. I have yet to hear ANYONE state that the way to solve the problem is to "kill 'em all! Let God sort 'em out!" The government from time to time says they will send them back, but everyone knows it's a joke and rarely happens.
Quite frankly, my sweetie is at more risk of getting sent back, which I find ironic and more than a little disgusting, considering we have been following the damn rules from the start. Tell me why my sweetie should worry more about deportation than someone who broke the law to get here should, because it makes no damn sense to me whatsoever.
Misdemeanors are criminal offenses. If you can potentially spend time in jail, which is definitely possible under AZ law in that case, it's a criminal offense. Committing misdemeanors on a repeated basis (forget the sneaking across bit...they almost always were driving without a license, without insurance, without registration, and the list goes on...), is hardly "law-abiding".
As for their kids, most of them grow up speaking some kind of weird pidgin Spanglish. Trust me, I know. I used to translate for police officers in Phoenix....no way was a lot of what I heard regular, everyday Mexican Spanish, or even normal English. And I hate to break it to you, but unless they were born here, or got naturalized, they're not Americans.
As for the Spanish speaking only part, yeah, I admit, I got annoyed about having to come out and translate for someone who had been here ten or more years. My sweetie has been here for a little over three and is fluent in English....what the hell is that lazy troll's excuse, when there are free English classes offered all over Phoenix and other major cities?
The three to ten million you refer to, as much as you may not like to admit it, are breaking the law, are draining the budgets of rural counties along the border for law enforcement and public hospital costs, and aren't all here just to work and send money back to Mexico.
Our Immigration "service" is a pain in the ass, but to imply that it is totally impossible to follow the rules and be here legally is a slap in the face to the millions like me and my sweetie who are doing just that.
#7
I am also opposed to forcing "law-abiding, working, peaceful Mexican people out of the US." Illegal immigrants don't qualify. "Illegal" and "law abiding" are mutually exclusive.
I feel badly for the kids caught in the middle of this, but their parents knowingly created the situation, not those here legally.
Allowing people willing to break the law to the head of the line for legal status seem self-evidently foolish. Perhaps I'm not "nuanced" enough.
#8
DB - I can relate to what you are saying. We just received the Perm. GC for my wife. Its a pain in the ass to deal with the INS. We had background checks, inteviews, medical exams (for her), police checks, and I had to sign a Affadavit of Support (which I am still under and will be until she either becomes a citizen or works for 10 years...).
There is a reason that the process is difficult. One is for security (background checks, interview), Two is for Health (medical), Three is to control the influx of immigrants (limits), Four is for finanical (so they don't end up on welfare or free-medical).
And they want illegal aliens to get in for free? No backgroud checks, no medical, no interview, and proven LAWBREAKERS? Oh and we have to pay for their medical, and schooling, and welfare too....
So that means that MOST of those who leave voluntarily won't ever be able to come back.
I take this to mean that they probable won't be able to pass the medical or interview or background checks...
And why does the guest worker program only apply to Mexicans? Why not Canadians, or Filipinos, or Chinese, or Indians? Why only Mexicans? Isn't that racist?
#9
Tell me why my sweetie should worry more about deportation than someone who broke the law to get here should, because it makes no damn sense to me whatsoever.
Because it isn't about following the rules; it's about power.
Which, frankly, sucks.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 14:59
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#10
Amnesty is probably the biggest point of contention. On the one hand you don't want to reward law breaking. On the other hand it makes little sense to send back a million illegal Mexicans only to replace them with a million legal Mexicans. Ironically, the million illegals are preferable in many ways. They already have jobs, families, and more cultural familiarity (including English skills) than the million who would replace them.
So how about we let them stay -- just as soon as they pay up all their back taxes and go through the entire legal immigration process. That takes away much of the advantage of having come here illegally. It would also provide a great deal of useful information for prosecuting those who have been employing illegals.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
03/28/2006 15:51
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#14
"We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen, we must do something about this immediately!"
Life imitating art. There is absolutely no motivation in any of this for the absolute base corrupt ruling patron political culture to stop in anyway the dumping of even more millions of its unemployed citizenry upon the United States. With double digit unemployment and an economy that sucks because of entrench xenophobic policies, its in the absolute interests of the political structure of Mexico to protect its power by making sure those who would in any other time be motivated for revolutionary reform are sent away. All this does is enable the continuation of the existing underlying causal factors which means once again in another 10 years well have the same problem with 20 million. Fraud, pure and simple.
#15
DB - dont mind the Affadavit - we are commited to each other in ways far beyond financial :).
Iblis - I hear what you are saying but... Well for one the million legal immigrants are law-abiding which, by definition, the illegals aren't. The legals have patiently 'waited their turn' and proven that they really want to immigrate here and contribute to society - the illegals have proven that they don't care about the 'rules' :).
And why should an illegal immigrant alien be allowed to 'cut-in-line' before a law-abiding person who is following the proper procedures and has been patently waiting for (sometimes) years? This would encourage even more illegal aliens -- just as it has in the past.
I don't think its possible to deport all the illegals. But we should discourge them by making (as formally Dan mentioned) it a felony to hire illegals (and make it pierce the corprate veil in some cases), remove 'free' medical' except for life-threatening situations, require proof of citizenship / residence for schools, no instant citizenship for babies born of an illegal alien, and cut funding to 'sainctuary cities'.
#16
Haven't we deported Mexicans all the way down to the Guatemalan border, just to make it farther for them to come back across? I heard that, but I haven't checked it via Snopes, so I could be, you know, wrong.
#17
"Ethnic cleansing wrapped in velvet" seems to have gone by the wayside already, based on what has been done in Washington today. However, the entire argument is secondary to the one big issue:
Preventing additional illegal immigration.
That is, quit messing around and build that wall. If that is done, and the number of Mexican illegals can be slowed to a trickle, the intensity of the problem in the US fades, and fades quickly.
The US absorbed illegal Mexicans for decades at some cost, but we were able to do it. Only when Vincente Fox's forced emigration for the PPP came into effect, with hundreds of thousands forced from their lands and sent North, did the situation really become intolerable.
If slowed to a trickle, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the 1950s, suddenly everything changes. Several things to look forward to:
1) Illegals cannot be left illegal in such vast numbers. Business wants them to remain illegal, because they cannot unionize, or receive any other benefit beyond minimum wage or below. In short order, illegal workers will be in shortage around the country, and they will no longer be willing to be exploited like that. Simple supply and demand.
2) The 2nd generation "Spanglish", who are typically problematic, will be far less so in a strong job market. The chance for advancement and prosperity will neutralize a lot of their "fish out of water" frustrations.
3) The 3rd generation "Amerimex", by dint of a closed border, will disconnect from Mexico even faster than usual.
4) Bloody Mexican civil war. Lots of the people at the border will no longer be economic immigrants, but refugees. Already and by the next Mexican Presidential election, the situation may be out of hand, with leftist radicals coming to power, and possibly Mexico joining the leftist nations of South America.
For this last reason, especially, it is imperitive that the wall be erected ASAP. It may otherwise turn into a situation of refugees running from Mexican machine guns towards American machine guns.
#18
Try making a living in the construction business and you might just take a dim view on illegals. They drive the wage down to that of 7-11 workers and start giving the boss big ideas.
#19
Anonymoose: Business wants them to remain illegal, because they cannot unionize, or receive any other benefit beyond minimum wage or below.
Illegals get much better than minimum wage. In most cases, they get the same pay as other people in the same industry. The way they do it is by getting false papers. Even the ones who don't get false papers get better than minimum wage - day laborers in New York get $10 an hour (documented by none other than the New York Times, which is pro-illegal alien). Employers like having a large number of immigrants around - legal or otherwise - it provides a bigger over pool of labor to hire from, which depresses wages. This glut of labor is why wages in many low-skill service industries that can't be outsourced have declined on an inflation-adjusted basis over the past quarter century.* The reason Bush is conniving with Congress to avoid enforcing immigration laws is to do an end-run around what the electorate feels is already too much legal immigration - 1m people per year.
* As a conservative, I have no compunction about crushing unions - it would be fine with me if unions were outlawed altogether. But conspiring to keep the wages of the bottom segment of society low by encouraging excessive immigration is just dirty pool.
#20
"I'm more than a little disturbed by some of the overt xenophobia and racism that is really cropping up around the US."
It really doesnt matter how many times someone qualifies his or her statements play the race card. It will do nothing to further intelligent discussion but it might persuade others that your opponents motivations are based on an irrational emotion. Besides it is really tedious to actually support your argument with facts.
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.*Though the Mexican government does so regularly through its consulates.
I. Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican associations have the right to obtain ownership of lands, waters, and their accessories, or to obtain mining or ground water concessions.
#22
DepotGuy: Playing the race card applies only when you are falsely accusing people of racism. My point is that while you (someone) may have very strong opinions about an ethnic group, usually you hold your tongue in public, because not to do so is seen as impolite behavior.
However, when people no longer control themselves, when they will state before a stranger their feelings, *and* propose a radical attack on people solely based on their race, then, by god, it is not the "race card", it *is* racism.
I even heard someone jokingly ask why are we going to throw out all the Mexicans? We should start with the "niggers" first, because Mexicans are hard workers. Said in a convenience store, in front of several people, and without hesitation or concern. This is not a good sign.
But as I said, the #1 complaint is that they speak Spanish, instead of English. But that is not a legal-illegal thing. I have known naturalized American citizens who only knew a few words of English after living in the US much of their lives. They mostly relied on their children's proficiency for things they didn't understand.
My bottom line to all of this is to stop any more immigration now, with which I'm sure most of you agree. My argument is that once we do so, most of the problems we see right now will evaporate--no need to do much of anything other than let nature take its course.
#23
Anonymoose: I'm more than a little disturbed by some of the overt xenophobia and racism that is really cropping up around the US.
Here we go again with politically-loaded terms. If there is any xenophobia and racism, it's against illegal aliens who are *not* Mexican. If we're going to have an open borders policy with Mexico, why not also have an open borders policy with respect to the rest of the world? Why discriminate in favor of Mexico? If we're going to have an amnesty, let's have one that does not discriminate in favor of Mexicans - let's have a quota of 40,000 Mexicans, 40,000 Poles, 40,000 Taiwanese, etc. Or does Bush think Poles or Taiwanese won't work as hard as Mexicans?
#24
Uh, no, Anonymoose. Cut off the illegal immigration. Don't punish the ones playing by the rules because a bunch refuse to.
America was built by immigrants and their children. It's part of what has made this country great. The difference between people like my grandparents and my sweetie and the illegals are that the first category doesn't treat America like a giant ATM. They actually want to build lives here and contribute, sometimes even creating jobs and building companies. The illegals just make some cash, send it all home, don't learn the language, and leave after they make their pile.
Please cut the crap about everyone who thinks that there should be penalties for being here illegally are racists. That's as stupid as basing your entire argument on one moron's idiotic comments in a 7-11.
#25
Personally I think Anonymoose lost the arguement with the title about ethnic cleansing since nobody has ever, for a second, discussed tossing out US citizens of Mexican decent. Choosing an overly charged word normally associated with death camps, and then misusing it, is to create a strawman the size of king kong.
In America we look at this debate backwards. We look at the tiny number of poor Mexicans that come to the US and forget about the hundreds of millions who stayed behind in poverty because the safety-valve of illegal immigration prevented political and economic reform.
#26
rjschwarz: We look at the tiny number of poor Mexicans that come to the US and forget about the hundreds of millions who stayed behind in poverty because the safety-valve of illegal immigration prevented political and economic reform.
#27
Zhang Fei and Desert Blondie: A fence is to keep out illegal aliens, not legal immigrants. The racism I have seen is solely directed at Mexicans. It is on the street, not a matter of government policy, at least not yet. The government has long had *official* policies of racism towards many countries and peoples, but that is another matter.
And rjschwarz: how many dozens of misdemeanors have you committed in your life without real punishment?
I mean the petty stuff like traffic offenses, jaywalking, etc. Would you think it fair to be taken from your home, lose all equity in it, have your children taken out of school, and the lot of you sent to a third-world country because of an offense you committed 10 years ago? Not a serious felony, mind you, but a misdemeanor?
And yet, that is de facto what was being considered for between 3-10 million people living in the US.
What in hell do you call deporting that many people other than "ethnic cleansing?" "Asking them to leave nicely?" That's all the Serbians initially tried to do--force out the people they didn't want. The killing part only came when they didn't want to leave.
Actually, Hitler just wanted to deport the Jews, too. He tried a bunch of ways just to send them out of Germany as undesireables.
"But they are *criminals*!" I keep hearing that argument. That is nonsensical. They have paid for any criminal acts committed against this country many times over by being horribly abused by employers, and shunned from any legal recourse because they were "illegal".
What price do you put on being denied justice? Of not being able to stand up against abuse without being deported as a "troublemaker" or "unionist." Of not being able to secure a loan even with 100% collateral. No insurance. No medical care except in an emergency room or free clinic. No driver's license. Being denied credit. Etc.
When that wall is erected, the US is almost going to have to increase the number of legal immigrant applications, and do so quickly. Shortly thereafter, it will probably have to relax many of the requirements for legal immigrants, too.
But I see no real problem with any immigrants, legal or not, already in the US staying here, except for violent criminals and the insane or diseased. Good for the legal immigrants--they have gone through the process, so they should get the perks of citizenship quickly. The illegals will have to wait a good long time for theirs.
Once things have settled down, including the murderous massacres down in Mexico proper, maybe they will someday get a government competant and honest enough so their people will want to live there.
#28
Anonymoose: The racism I have seen is solely directed at Mexicans.
Mexicans are being targeted because they are the largest group of illegal, unassimilated immigrants around. How many Polish radio stations are there? How many Chinese? And how many Spanish? Only Mexican immigrants have the potential to change the nature of this country because of their raw numbers - to turn the United States into Mexico. Nobody thinks Polish or Chinese immigrants are going to turn the US into Poland or China - because there just aren't that many of them. But the tens of millions of unassimilated Mexican immigrants have the potential to turn this country into just another United Mexican State.
But the bottom line concerns fairness. How is it fair that Mexicans, who cheer for bin Laden at US-Mexico sporting events, get a special place in front of the line? Just because you encounter racism against Mexicans doesn't make it fair that Mexicans get preferential treatment to enter this country. I'm sure that after 9/11, a lot of Muslims encounter prejudice as well - should we also start importing millions of Muslims from around to world to atone for our lack of sensitivity? Asians are extremely prejudiced against blacks - should we pressure Asian countries to take in millions of African immigrants?
#29
Yeah, it's definitely about fairness. And it's not fair to the average American. My credit-union ATM greets me with the option of Ingles or Espanol.
No, goddamnit, not "English," it really does say "Ingles."
The civil service exam in my county grants 1 fifth more preference to people demonstrating competency in Spanish. The legal, Hispanic-descent population here is less than 1%.
Why all this? It doesn't matter that the Hispanic kids learn some kind of Spanglish, because they don't have to use it. La Raza is colonizing NA slowly but surely, and the appeasing bootlickers will be ground under its heel just like the rest of us if we don't cleanse this place of illegals FAST.
Posted by: Some Dude ||
03/28/2006 23:14
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To me this is all a no brainer. RANT ON: First, build the wall - make that fucker nice and high and anchored way deep into old terra firma. Second, plug any gaps w/combined federal law/border control and U.S. military. Next, round up all illegals and deport - I know this will be hard and unpopular - I could give a shit - these folks made a conscious decision to disrespect our laws as well as our sovereingty. They go to the end of the legal immigration line as well - no negotiation. Also, make it a federal offense to employ illegals, help illegals into the country, or coming into the country illegally. If any big U.S. city refuses to work w/the feds on this then pull their fed funding immediately. For every illegal we catch or have to deport we charge that parent country or deduct $2,000.00 for each case out of their respective aid packages - too bad vicente, keep your house in order or we will do it for you, just like you do on your own southern border - you fucking hypocrite. Including the 70,000 Irish - and I'm about as Irish in ancestry as you get. Next, a child born by illegals on U.S. soil will no longer be given automatic citizenship status - what a stupid out dated law. Finally, reduce legal immigration to the educated or professional workers from other countries. Further, this doesn't include their extended family especially their over 60 yrs old family members who immediately jump on a social security system they never paid a dime into.
We also don't need anymore cabbies or a population the size of india or china. Yes folks, Americans will do these jobs. Don't believe the b.s. that only illegals will do this type of work. We may pay a little more for legal American labor but I guarantee someone will do that job. The market always finds a way to fix itself - it just doesn't let a gap or opportunity to make money go unfilled - supply and demand, right? Or, people can get reaquainted w/mowing their own fucking lawns, staying home for a meal, or doing their own landscaping - I know too many fellow Americans who are fat asses and could prolly use the exercise anyhow (but that's another rant).
Now, if our politicians are so swayed by big business to keep their illegal addiction or if the libz want to pander for illegal votes then what the fuck did I go to Iraq for? To come back and see some illegal alien or even a naturalized citizen in my country waving the mexican/honduran/& or guatamalan flag and holding up traffic in L.A.? To see people who should not even be here protest lawful American laws and whine like little babies because we are actually going to enforce a lawful standard? I hate to say it but we've got some real pussies in office at all levels. I find it hard to believe there is even a debate about what to do. If our elected officials were truly patriots they would do the hard and unpopular things to uphold our laws and sovereingty instead of making us mexico's half-way house (who btw are the sole benficiaries of geography while every other hopeful wannabe *legal immigrant* is fucked by not being parked right south of the U.S.) and the flop house for all illegal aliens. I will not even qualify any of this with saying how much I like hispanics or how I have nothing against mexicans or whatever it is that every rino feels the need to say so that the left doesn't call them the R word - that's so lame. Our country is at a crossroads, do we follow the rule of law or the rule of man? I love my country dearly but am afraid that our elected goverment officials have become too morally weak to do the right thing in this case. RANT OFF.
March 28, 2006: The Russian air force is buying 24 new Su-34 fighter bombers. This is the latest variant of the Su-27. The Su-34 is somewhat like the American F-15E, a high performance fighter modified to act as a very effective bomber. Aside from it's similarity to the F-15E, the Su-34 has one very distinguishing characteristic. The cockpit for the two man crew not only allows for tandem (side-by-side) seating, but is spacious enough for the pilots to stand up and, standing behind their seats, stretch a bit. There is also a toilet and cooking facilities back there as well. The cockpit itself is protected with 17mm lightweight armor. The canopy does not open, as the pilots enter via a hatch near the front landing gear. The cockpit is pressurized for operations under 33,000 feet (above that, they have to wear the usual flight gear). Although the Su-34 looks like a fighter, it's as heavy as a bomber (44 tons max) and can carry up to eight tons of weapons. It's 77 feet long, with a wingspan of 48 feet. By comparison, the F-15E is 36 tons, 64 feet long and with a 43 foot wingspan.
F-111 is 73 feet, 6 inches (22.0 meters) lond with a wingspan of 63 feet (19 meters) full forward; 31 feet, 11 1/2 inches (11.9 meters) full aft.
An even more lavishly equipped (with sensors) version is in development, to replace the Su-24 (for long range precision bombing.)
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
09:17 ||
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#1
The Russians need to build an economy, not an air force. They still have the wrong people in charge.
#2
The cockpit for the two man crew not only allows for tandem (side-by-side) seating, but is spacious enough for the pilots to stand up and, standing behind their seats, stretch a bit. There is also a toilet and cooking facilities back there as well. The cockpit itself is protected with 17mm lightweight armor. The canopy does not open..
which means the Ruskies can't use the kitchen sink as a in a fight. engineers, can't trust 'em!
#5
The Russians need to build an economy, not an air force.
It seems sometimes they try to do both at the same time: a few years ago a local airshow I attend was scheduled to host a Russian demo team flying Su-27's (I believe). At the last minute the the show's sponser dropped the Russians, announcing in a very angry letter how they will never again even attempt to host a Russian team. Apparently the Russians were trying to extortnegotiate more and more money from the sponser as the date got closer.
#7
Wonder if the plane will someday be featured on a very special episode of Pimp Your Ride.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/28/2006 13:07
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#8
Probably the same thing we'd come up with if we wanted to make a modern-day mediuum bomber like the 'vark. IIRC the Aussies still fly the F-111s. Great aircraft.
#9
" . . . and can carry up to eight tons of weapons."
That doesn't sound like much for a plane that big. Here's what www.fas.org has for the F-111 (a similar-sized plane):
"Up to four nuclear bombs on four pivoting wing pylons, and two in internal weapons bay. Wing pylons carry total external load of 25,000 pounds (11,250 kilograms) of bombs, rockets, missiles, or fuel tanks."
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/28/2006 14:52
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#10
Real fighters don't need toilets or cooktops, that is more for long endurance flights ( Like a P-3 maybe), but bombers could, this whole airplane is a compromise and if you could lose that widow's hump, it might just be a pretty airplane, but IMHO, it's Fugly. Side by side seating is bomber stuff, also (think Intruders or BUFFS). I think anything the US has could wax it in a dogfight.
#11
Real fighters don't need toilets or cooktops, that is more for long endurance flights ( Like a P-3 maybe), but bombers could, this whole airplane is a compromise and if you could lose that widow's hump, it might just be a pretty airplane, but IMHO, it's Fugly. Side by side seating is bomber stuff, also (think Intruders or BUFFS). I think anything the US has could wax it in a dogfight.
Well if you try to perform some violent maneuvers like high G turns or loopings in a plane equipped with toilets you are going to understand the full meaning of "being in deep shit"
March 28, 2006: The U.S. Navy's new computer network is so unfriendly that many sailors and marines are communicating via commercial email accounts. How can this be?
The navy has spent over $8 billion to connect nearly 400,000 PCs into one large, and secure (all data is encrypted) Internet like network. This will provide high speed, hassle free communications for everyone involved. At least in theory. This effort is called the NMCI (Navy Marine Corps Intranet) project. After six years of effort, users have a growing list of complaints. For example, because the navy found that there were over 100,000 different bits of (previously unknown) software being used on navy PCs, making the new network function at all proved much more difficult than anticipated.. Some of these 100,000 program were created by sailors to make their work easier, but the navy never really knew about this home brew stuff. At least not until they tried to get all navy PCs to communicate as a form of super-Internet. Initially, all the disruption caused by standardizing PC operating systems and software upset a lot of users. In late 2003, some 50 percent of navy PC users were unhappy with NMCI. But by early 2004, 60 percent were satisfied, and as of June, 2004, 80 percent were satisfied. However, the improvement was not all it appeared to be. Users were asked to rank their satisfaction on a 1 (not) to 10 (very) scale. Anyone who comes in at 5.5 or higher, on average, was considered "satisfied." In reality, most users are not happy with NMCI. Users don't like the idea that they have lost some control over their PC (which now has a lot of network standards to conform to), and that their computers are slower now because of all the network software.
Ultimately, the Department of Defense wants all the services to be able to communicate with each other quickly, easily and at high speed via a special military Internet. But first, each service has to get all of its own people working together. In the navy, this is not working. This failure has been something of a dirty little secret. No sailors or marines wanted to risk their careers by going public about it. That is, except for a navy reservist who happens to be a member of Congress. That would be Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois. He's a reserve officer, and he made public the "user unfriendly" nature of NMCI, and how sailors and marines use civilian Internet resources to avoid having to use the new navy network. Over the next three years, the navy plans to spend some $3.2 billion on NMCI. The navy says it will make NMCI more user friendly. Eventually.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
08:49 ||
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Fred can start the Navy project just as soon as he gets the FBI systems whipped into shape.
#2
In computing, networking and decentralization have two different functions. The function of networking is communications, the function of decentralization is individual efficiency and security.
In truth you cannot have the best of both worlds, and for a logical reason. People can either focus on the task at hand, or they can focus on communicating something with other people.
You can either bake a cake, or argue with a hundred people about *how* you should bake a cake. Reaching agreements, consensus, approvals, and going through the rest of the "process". This shoots the heck out of efficiency and security.
Invariably, people will know a "better way" of doing something than what is available on the network, and individually efficient, they will use that to give themselves better results. But that will conflict with the network.
In other words, this system is doomed to less-than-satisfactory results.
However, the article is wrong on one point. When you are in NMCI, you cannot use a commercial e-mail account like Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail; the system blocks it. If you want to do that, you'll have to step outside the building and find an Internet cafe.
#4
Wow! You mean that if you encrypt every bit, the processing efficiency goes down? Who would have thought of that? ;)
That's why I have a love/hate relationship with firewalls, or as I call them, LIDs (Latency Introduction Devices).
Anonymoose, if you are talking about bureaucratic process, then I'm in agreement. But if you're talking about technology/communications, I've got to disagree at bit. Decentralization increases processing power and efficiency, but as a network scales upward, standardization is critical to network efficiency. Otherwise, you spend all your resources on maintaining a patchwork quilt of a network trying to accommodate a million one-offs.
Pyscho Hillbilly Network Design Engineer
Slayer of Routing Loops
Buyer of Doughnuts on Fridays
Not just the bureaucratic process, but as you said, "standardization is critical to network efficiency."
But that is network efficiency, not individual efficiency.
I see it as like the old argument of speed vs. maneuverability in aircraft. The more stadardized you make the network, the less diverse it becomes, almost by definition.
Remember when corporations used to inspect for employees who would bring their Macintosh to work, because they could do their job so much better on it, than on a networked IBM? They *wanted* to do a better job than the network would allow.
Even today, many corporations routinely confiscate "non-standard hardware" used by people to do their job better, but that is not compatible with the business hardware and software they use. It is a Dilbert-esque nightmare.
So, in the final analysis, network standardization is great for the people upstairs, who work with a limited number of variables to produce similar outcomes. The people down the chain end up having to be forced to "make it fit", even when it is clearly inefficient and inappropriate. And they know a better way.
#6
Anonymoose sayeth: "Remember when corporations used to inspect for employees who would bring their Macintosh to work, because they could do their job so much better on it, than on a networked IBM?"
Oh, you bet I remember. I'm the guy that took 'em out back and shot 'em. Do you know how easy it was to kill a network with Apple Talk!? :) Same thing with IPX on Netware. Notice how they both utilize IP now?
You make some good points and I don't totally disagree with you. Individual initiative and innovation should be encouraged and rewarded for sure and an oppressive bureaucratic process shouldn't stifle it. But you take the winning innovations and adapt them to be compatible with the network as a whole. If the greatest thing since sliced bread kills the network, nobody gets any bread. How efficient is that? Dicking around with a very large scale network, even on a localized level, can set off a catastrophic event cascade. Believe me. I've been there, done that and got the burnt comm gear to prove it.
March 28, 2006: When American troops found themselves fighting Iraqi terrorists in towns and cities, pundits predicted that Americans would suffer the same dismal fate of the Russian army, which got beat up real bad by Chechen irregulars in the 1994-6. But there was no replay of the Russian disaster in Iraq. The Americans proved very effective at street fighting. And one of the reasons was the U.S. Marine Corps project to interview Chechens who had fought the Russians in the early 1990s. The marines conducted their interviews in 1998, and modified their urban combat tactics to deal with the Chechen methods that had tripped up the Russians so badly. The U.S. Army also got in on this, with the result that, even though the Iraqis tried to use some of the Chechen tactics, they quickly found out that the Americans were not reacting like the Russians.
In 1994, the major problem the Russians had was not the clever tactics of the Chechens, but that the Russian troops were poorly trained and led. That was not the case with U.S. forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the Chechen tactics were well thought out, and implemented skillfully, and to great effect. The Chechens were more efficient, and led, than most Iraqis U.S. forces encountered. In fact, Chechens have served as mercenaries for Middle Eastern leaders for centuries. American troops have encountered Chechen fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and killed them.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
08:47 ||
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Got to love it.
Side note: Chechen fighters are often outsider muslims from other countries. We wish the Russians good luck.
March 28, 2006: Since the late 1990s, there have been rumors of North Korea operating a uranium mining operation in the Congo. Attempts to find out exactly what it happening have been unsuccessful. The main problem is that there is no government in the southern Congo, or at least not much government. Those government officials that do exist, are mostly interested in bribes and kickbacks. Same with the few police and soldiers to be found. As a result, there are outlaw operations everywhere. Bribes and gunmen have allowed outlaw mining and smuggling operations to extract thousands of tons of valuable materials. Cobalt ore is currently going for over $50,000 a ton, if you can get it out of the country without paying any taxes. UN peacekeepers can't touch these operations, as they are an "internal matter."
What is known is that the North Koreans have been in the Congo for over thirty years, mainly to provide technical assistance, and military training for former dictator Mobutu. The North Korean troops were soon joined by technical experts and traders, who eventually replaced the troops. Many believed that all this was just another effort by North Korea to raise hard currency any way it could. The CIA was able to keep an eye on the North Koreans, at least until the Congo sank into chaos and civil war in the late 1990s.
Which brings us to the Shinkolobwe mines, that produce very high grade uranium. In fact, America's first nuclear weapons used uranium from Shinkolobwe. But these mines were closed in 1960 (having been open since 1915). Then, in 1999, North Korean mining engineers showed up in the Congo, and stories spread that uranium mining was resuming at Shinkolobwe. If the North Koreans were there to help pull more uranium out of Shinkolobwe, it wasn't so that North Korea could build atomic bombs. North Korea had its own uranium mines. But the outlaw mining in Congo was very lucrative, and the North Koreans favored these shady operations. The area around the former Shinkolobwe uranium mines were already being worked by thousands of freelance miners. Whatever they pulled out of the ground, was sold to illegal brokers (usually Lebanese), and then smuggled out of the country. Local warlords took a cut, and provided security (from other gangsters, as well as the media, and any kind of law enforcement.)
There isn't a large black market for uranium, especially the unrefined ore. Counter-terrorist agencies from many nations are always on the lookout for any uranium trafficking. But there are Middle Eastern customers for uranium. Iranian merchants and government officials have been seen in Congo for over a decade. And the Middle Eastern connections of many of the ore brokers in the Congo gives counter-terrorist experts the willies.
If anyone really knows what's going on with the outlaw mining operations in the Congo, they aren't talking. Probably to protect their sources, and maintain some flow of information from the original "Heart of Darkness."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
08:44 ||
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And the Middle Eastern connections of many of the ore brokers in the Congo gives counter-terrorist experts the willies.
Gives me the willies too. Any way we can contract with Halliburton for a quick, massive earthquake in the vicinity of those mines?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/28/2006 9:29
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Cobalt ore is currently going for over $50,000 a ton
?
More on the issue we reported yesterday:
March 28, 2006: The new, heavier, body armor arriving in Iraq is creating a potential public relations problem. Many of the troops don't want to wear the new stuff. Why? Because the heavier new armor could get them killed. The new protective vests includes side armor.
Side armor, which adds about ten pounds to the 16 pound weight of the Interceptor Protective Vest, has been available since 2003 (when 250 sets were sent to Iraq.) About a thousand sets were delivered in 2004, and more last year. Side armor is obviously not new, but its availability has not been widespread. While the side armor provided useful protection, the added weight (for a trooper already carrying over fifty pounds), and material, restricts movement. The new armor is most popular with those guarding convoys. These troops spend most of their time sitting down, and the side armor provides additional protection from roadside bombs, which throw out a lot of fragments, at troops sitting facing forward. The bombs are often accompanied by an ambush force armed with machine-guns and assault rifles. Sometimes, the troops have to get out of their vehicles and battle the ambushers. This is often intense and disorganized combat, with fire coming from all directions. Again, the side armor can be very useful. But the troops won't be running around so long that the additional weight and movement restriction will become a major problem. For the same reason, combat troops that are spending most of their time in their vehicles, don't mind the disadvantages of the side armor. But infantry that are out running around most of the time, going up stairs, through windows and battling the enemy in an urban environment, nimbleness is more important. Some of these guys have been known to leave the back plate, or even the front plate, out, just to save a few pounds. Not being able to scramble through a window in time can get you killed, as can many battlefield maneuvers that put a premium on speed and maneuverability. American commandoes, including Special Forces, often go into action without the body armor, because the consider mobility more important.
These different attitudes towards how much armor to wear are similar to those found in police forces. That's why the police have both lightweight armor (worn by most cops, most of the time) and heavier rigs for SWAT teams or anyone out on a raid, and even heavier getup for bomb disposal personnel.
The senior commanders are under a lot of pressure to "protect the troops." Many people back home have invested a lot of themselves in efforts to get better armor for the troops. Hearing that the troops value lightness and speed, over armor and more weight, will upset some politicians and pundits. But if the opinions of the troops counts for anything, weight matters, often more than anything else.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
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let those who do the fightin' and dyin' do the final decidin'
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/28/2006 9:16
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The fight goes to the swift when it comes to infantry.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/28/2006 11:09
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A family brewery in the Czech Republic has opened the worlds first beer health centre in its cellar. The Chodovar Family brewery in Chodova Plana offers beer baths, beer massages and beer cosmetics.
To quote the great sage Homer Simpson, Beer! Is there anything it can't do?
The cellar has seven huge Victorian style baths where visitors can swim in beer while enjoying a pint poured at a bathside bar.
I think my brother had a dream like that once...
"Beer can treat a range of conditions, particularly skin conditions, and the health centre should appeal to men who are put off by 'posh' traditional spas. I have heard of some places in other countries where people can swim in beer but it's just a gimmick. We believe in the healing properties of beer and we offer the full range of treatments. We are a fully-fledged beer spa," Ananova quoted Jiri Plevka, the owner as saying.
The guests are charged 80 pounds for weekend packages, and can indulge in a range of health treatments including beer wraps, starting at 12 pounds per session.
#6
This could have potential if they do not Americanize it ... and serve the beer in the baths at 40 degrees. I'm finally seeing a good case for warm beer here ...
ABUJA, Nigeria -- Liberian warlord and former President Charles Taylor has disappeared from his haven in Nigeria, just as he was to have been handed over to stand trial on war crimes charges, Nigerian officials said Tuesday.
"I mean, one minute he was there, then 'poof!", he was gone!"
Taylor vanished Monday night from his villa in the southern town of Calabar, the government said.
"We are just so surprised! I mean, who'da ever expected that?"
Last week, Nigeria's government agreed reluctantly to surrender him to stand before a U.N. tribunal on charges related to civil war in his homeland and its neighbor Sierra Leone. A government statement said that President Olusegun Obasanjo was creating a panel to investigate Taylor's disappearance on Monday night. The statement raised the possibility he might have been abducted, but did not elaborate.
Or he might have tossed what cash he had in a bag and set off to subvert Liberia again. What's he got to lose? That sounds a lot more likely than being kidnapped, probably by the CIA or space aliens.
A presidential spokeswoman said members of Taylor's Nigerian security detail had been arrested.
For letting him escape, for letting him be kidnapped or just for show?
The presidential statement offered no details on how Taylor's disappearance was discovered or whether he was being hunted.
"We can say no more"
Nigeria's Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that dozens of people who had been living with Taylor in the villa in a walled government compound had left Monday and were flying to Lagos en route to an unknown destination.
Gee, ya think maybe they know where Chucky went?
They left "Monday," and Chuck "disappeared" Monday night. Y'think the unknown destination might be the bush in Liberia?
Obasanjo offered Taylor refuge under an agreement that helped end Liberia's civil war in 2003. Since then, though, the United States, the United Nations and others have called for Taylor to be handed over to an international war crimes tribunal. Taylor is accused of starting civil wars in Liberia and its neighbor, Sierra Leone, that killed some 3 million people, and of harboring al-Qaida suicide bombers who attacked the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing 12 Americans and more than 200 Africans.
And Ollie's perfectly happy to let the festivities start back up again.
Obasanjo initially resisted calls to surrender Taylor. But Saturday, after Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf asked that Taylor be handed over for trial, Obasanjo agreed. African leaders have been reluctant to see the continent's former presidents or dictators brought to justice, apparently fearful they would be the next to be accused of human rights abuses or other crimes.
Since there seems to be a shortage of clean hands...
Since agreeing Saturday to hand Taylor over, Obasanjo had been under pressure to ensure Taylor was sent to the U.N. tribunal sitting in Sierra Leone. Taylor had escaped from a U.S. penitentiary in Boston to launch Liberia's war. On Monday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States has told Obasanjo that it was Nigeria's responsibility to "see that he is able to be conveyed and face justice."
I think Chucky read the tea leaves and put into action a long planned "get out of Dodge" operation. It would be nice if he suddenly showed up, bound and gagged on the steps of the Siera Leone court house, but that's just wishful thinking
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006
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Can't say I blame him, he's promised amnesty, not amnesty until we decide to jug you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2006 8:29
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he's promised amnesty
Nigeria offered him "refuge", not amnesty. No one country can give you a "get out of jail free card" from a international war crimes charge.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 9:17
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How much he owes. Where to now, chucky? Brazil?
#6
The "unknown destination" is probably several different places, mostly not in the bush. Family to France or some such, of course; but he'll be wanting ammo and drug supplies again, so his agents will be spreading out. I wonder if he owns his own supply plane, or if he just hired one.
Posted by: James ||
03/28/2006 13:03
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The "unknown destination" is probably several different places, pieces...
Um how about looking some preditory animal droppings as a place to search for matching gold teeth?
Or is that too much to ask for...
I guess PETA would object to the poisoning of lions...
Graphics at link.
From the desk of Martin De Vlieghere
This article was written by Martin De Vlieghere and Paul Vreymans of the Flemish think tank Work for All.
On 23 and 24 March the European Council is meeting to discuss the future of Europes social model. The very essence of the welfare state is at stake. Europes present social model is unable to tackle the modern challenges of globalization, and has left Europe with gigantic problems: an unsurmountable public debt, a rapidly ageing population, 19 million unemployed, and an overall youth unemployment rate of 18%. The unemployment figures may easily be doubled to account for hidden unemployment. The untold reality is that Europes real unemployment stands at the level of the 1932 Depression.
A man-made Disaster
Europes social disaster is unfolding while the rest of the world is booming at its fastest rate in three decades. 2004 and 2005 were record years for China and India, which have double-digit growth rates, and for the USA, which fully enjoys the benefits of globalization. The worlds economy is booming at an average rate of over 4%, but Europes growth has stagnated at an inflated 1.5%.
Why is Europe performing so poorly? Europes deficient performance is incompatible with its huge potential as the worlds largest single consumer market. Its slow growth contradicts its unequalled industrial productivity and infrastructure, its outstanding education level and labour ethics, its favourable climate, fair business morality, and not in the least its tremendous potential provided by the opening of the iron curtain. Obviously Europes fairy-tale is not materializing. Nor are the inflated expectations prognosticated by Europes political elite at the launch of the Common Currency and the Lisbon Agenda.
Deficit Spending & Threatening Debt Crisis
The reality of Europes ailing economy contrasts sharply with its economic potential and with the massive resources employed to cure its ailing growth. The whole arsenal of Keynesian remedies has now been tried and has failed one by one. Massive deficit spending throughout the eighties and nineties has left Europe with a public debt unequalled in history. The size of Europe's monumental public debt is only surpassed by the hidden liabilities accumulated in Europes shortsighted pay-as-you-go public pension schemes.
Unfunded pension liabilities now average some 285% of GDP [pdf], more than 4 times the officially published public debt figures. Total public liabilities now exceed assets in most EU countries, and are causing runaway debt service. Richard Disney calculates [pdf] that if social policies are kept unchanged, tax hikes of as much as 5 to 15 percentage points will be necessary over the next couple of decades merely to avoid the rate of indebtedness increasing any further.
Unfortunately, this will just kill growth completely. Europes present social model is unsustainable because it is based on robbery of future generations. Keeping the system in place would jeopardize the next generations future with an unbearable and uncompressible tax burden, and would seriously add to the risk of a total collapse of Europe. Moreover these expansionary social policies have not worked so far. In spite of the largest debt buildup in history Europes growth has remained weak anyway. Europes social model is built largely on credit to be paid back by its own children.
ECB Money Printing & Runaway Asset Inflation
The ECBs expansionary monetary policy has failed as well. M3 money growth has been exceeding the real economic growth rate by an average 5% ever since the Euro was launched. Real Euro interest rates have been negative for several years now. The only obvious effect has been run-away asset inflation and an unprecedented speculative bubble. Today Europes bond prices have reached historical highs, and Euro-stocks earning ratios are at historical lows. Prices of building plots in Belgium have doubled and even tripled in some areas. In Brussels apartment prices rose by 50% over the last 12 months, driving many native Belgians out of their hometown because living in Brussels has progressively become an exclusivity affordable only for Europes privileged bureaucrats.
Obviously the Keynesian expansionary strategies are not working and the ECBs money printing is only making things worse. Present policies are leading to an Argentinean-style debt crisis. The challenges of globalization and Europes rapidly ageing population call for an urgent fundamental policy change. The 19 million unemployed (that is the official figure, but 38 million is closer to the truth) no longer believe Europes social fairy tales and can no longer wait.
Faked Public Debate
In an effort to keep the dancing on the Titanic going, Europes catastrophic situation is systematically hidden from public opinion. Official unemployment data, debt figures, and poor growth performance are systematically and grossly underestimated. Thus the public debate and the whole democratic decision making process is being falsified by lies and wishful thinking. Even the best policy makers are making the wrong diagnosis based on the wrong statistics, and as a consequence prescribe the wrong remedies. Having accumulated such monumental debt through years of over-consumption, Europe can indeed no longer blame its ailing growth on slow consumer sales. It is the supply side that is failing. Policies aimed at boosting Europe's economy should therefore no longer be aimed at stimulating consumption but at stimulating the defaulting creation of wealth.
Bureaucracy & A Crippling Tax Burden
Europes production is failing because of bureaucracy and a paralytic tax burden. The reality on Europes work floor is that the workforce is demotivated, and that Europes personnel and managers are increasingly rebelling against the persistent confiscation of over 50% of the fruit of their labour. The excessive tax burden leaves Europes workforce too little to lead the standard of living they earn. Businesses are deprived of the resources needed to finance their innovative projects and to compete in the global markets, if foreign entities have not yet bought their assets.
Europes well-intentioned model is not working because it does not pay to work after the taxman has taken his share. Europe is not innovating because it does not pay to innovate after the huge costs of complying with all the prescriptions, limitations and restrictions in all Europe's overabundant licences and autorisations. Demoralization is the real cause of Europes stagnation. Europes workforce is tired of being incessantly hindered in its task of producing wealth. Demoralization is the reasen why ever more engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs flee Europes tax misery. Paradoxically, the Old Europe of the West must now learn from the New Europe of the East, where after years of disastrous socialism, low and simple flat taxes are being introduced, luring investors from all over the world.
Scientific Evidence
In his research into the causes of growth differences between OECD economies the American economist James Gwartney irrefutably demonstrated [pdf] the direct relation between tax burden and economic growth. The higher the level of taxation, the lower the growth rate. The explanation is as logical as it is simple. The higher the tax level, the lower the incentives to make productive contributions to society. The higher the fiscal burden, the more resources flow from the productive sector to the ever more inefficient government apparatus.
Gwartneys findings provide the final explanation why continental European economies, such as Belgium, no longer grow. The Belgian tax burden is 20% above the optimal tax level burden as calculated by Primo Pevcin [pdf]. It is 9 %-points above the OECD average and 15 %-points higher than the tax level in the US and Japan.
WorkForAlls empirical study analyzing 25 plausible causes of economic growth in a comprehensive regression arrives at the same conclusions. The best way to spur growth is by reducing the tax burden and Europes languishing government sector, and by shifting taxes from income to consumption.
Adapting Europes Tax Structure for Globalization
With an excess proportion of direct taxes, Europes tax structure is totally unadapted to globalization. Direct taxes on profits, wages and capital increase the cost of domestic production, and in doing so have exactly the opposite effect of import duties. Direct taxes roughly double the cost of Europes domestic production, making Europes produce uncompetitive both in the home market and in global markets. Just as import duties cause protectionist distortions in world trade, direct taxes do the same, but in the absurd opposite sense. Globalisation therefore necessitates more urgently than ever a shift of the tax burden from production to consumption.
It is, indeed, a direct result of the trade distortions caused by direct taxation that is causing Western Europe to losing ever more rapidly its semi labour-intensive sectors to countries where productivity is lower than in Western Europe. This relocation from countries with high productivity to low productivity countries is a pure waste. It is not only disastrous for Western Europes employment. It is also harming worldwide development as Europes highly productive production apparatus and infrastructure are left idle. With Europes potential not being used to capacity, the direct-tax distortions are leading to less than optimal global labour division and wealth creation.
The success-story of the Irish alternative
Europe will only be able to maintain its prosperity and generous social system if it succeeds in generating a growth rate of 4 to 5% over the next couple of decades. This is not impossible. Ireland has shown us how to do it. The Irish economy has been booming at an annual growth rate of over 5.6% for over 20 years now. In barely 18 years Ireland has made the unbelievable jump from the 22nd to the 4th place in the OECD prosperity ranking.
Ireland thanks its success to its clear-cut different tax policy. With 33%, the Irish overall tax burden is the most moderate of Europe. Ireland also has a unique fair-flat-tax structure, which fairly and evenly spreads the weight of the tax burden over profits, labour and consumption. This unique tax structure is the key to Irelands success. Contrary to the rest of Europes demoralizing tax structure, the Irish tax model provides a positive stimulus to participation, saving, investment and enterprise: the crucial factors which the rest of Europe lacks.
For 20 years now, the Irish social model has proven its effectiveness not only in creating wealth and jobs, but also in providing Irish authorities with ample resources for their wide range of cultural, environmental and social initiatives, as well as for the costs of ageing. The unequalled Irish success story proves that their alternative policies are reliable and realistically feasible within the current European framework.
Scandinavian Myths
Despite the overwhelming success of the Irish alternative, adepts of large state interference continue to plead in favor of a Scandinavian model. Nonetheless the outdated Scandinavian policies have proved to be particularly inefficient. The Scandinavian countries have gone through a long period of steady decline with poor growth and job creation. In 1970, Swedens level of prosperity was one quarter above Belgiums. By 2003 Sweden had fallen to 14th place from 5th in the prosperity index, two places behind Belgium. According to OECD figures, Denmark was the 3rd most prosperous economy in the world in 1970, immediately after Switzerland and the United States. In 2003, Denmark was 7th. Finland did badly as well. From 1989 to 2003, while Ireland rose from 21st to 4th place, Finland fell from 9th to 15th place.
Together with Italy, the Scandinavian countries are the worst performing economies in the entire European Union. Rather than taking them as an example, Europes politicians should shun the Scandinavian big-government recipes. If there is anything to be learnt from the Scandinavian experience it is that Scandinavia succeeds in making a more efficient use of public resources, through investment and innovation. Nevertheless even their most restrictive unemployment policies will never result in higher growth so long as they keep their Keynesian policies and excessive government in place. The best proof of the failure of the Scandinavian model may be that the Scandinavian countries themselves are increaslingly abandoning it.
EU Tax Harmonization
Europes many high-tax and very-high-tax regimes view Irelands success with envy. They fear that less greedy and more efficient governments will develop Irish style reconstruction initiatives. Such a trend could lead to tax competition which would force them to improve their own public efficiency. In contradiction of all EU-Treaties guaranteeing full autonomy in fiscal affairs to the member-states, Europes high-tax regimes are now trying to prevent Irish-type reconstruction initiatives from developing in other countries. Fearing competition from less greedy and more efficient governments they are trying to impose their high-tax-regimes on other EU-members through a new directive.
In the same sneaky way as the EUs devastating savings directive was introduced, a tax-base harmonization scheme is now being proposed, obviously as a first step toward imposing a back-door harmonization for corporate tax rates also. Despite the severity of Europes high-tax disaster Europes high-tax-regimes obviously still refuse to see the unsustainability of their high-spending high-debt high-tax policies. These Keynesian policies have failed.
Curing the symptoms no longer helps. It is time to tackle the real and ultimate cause of Europes stagnation, namely the total discouragement of Europes work force. It is time to free Europe from its bureaucracy and its crippling tax burden. Failing this Europe will continue to lag behind ever further and its current relative impoverishment will soon turn into absolute pauperization, ultimately resulting not only in economic, but also in cultural and moral decline. If the economy is sick, it is because democracy is ill as well.
#1
Failing this Europe will continue to lag behind ever further and its current relative impoverishment will soon turn into absolute pauperization, ultimately resulting not only in economic, but also in cultural and moral decline.
The author doesn't mention demographic decline directly. While the economic thing is certainly the major factor in Euroland's decline, one cannot ignore the corrosive effects of post-modernism and aggressive, even evangelical, secularism and hostility towards religion and the heritage of the West in general as playing a key role in both the economic AND demographic decline in Europe.
Repeat after me - NO HEAVEN ON EARTH.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/28/2006 5:55
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A5089, good article, up to your usual standard. I've worked in Ireland in recent years and lived there many years ago. Despite their protestations to the contrary, they are Anglos and that explains their success (stories about the old days excised).
Fate conspires to remind us what this war is really about: civilizational confidence. And so history repeats itself: first the farce of the Danish cartoons, and now the tragedy -- a man on trial for his life in post-Taliban Afghanistan because he has committed the crime of converting to Christianity.
The cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were deeply offensive to Muslims, and so thousands protested around the world in the usual restrained manner: rioting, torching, killing, etc.
The impending execution of Abdul Rahman for embracing Christianity is, of course, offensive to Westerners, and so around the world we reacted equally violently by issuing blood-curdling threats like that made by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack: "Freedom of worship is an important element of any democracy," he said. "And these are issues as Afghan democracy matures that they are going to have to deal with increasingly."
The immediate problem for Rahman is whether he'll get the chance to "mature" along with Afghan democracy. The president, the Canadian prime minister and the Australian prime minister have all made statements of concern about his fate, and it seems clear that Afghanistan's dapper leader Hamid Karzai would like to resolve this issue before his fledgling democracy gets a reputation as just another barbarous Islamist sewer state. There's talk of various artful compromises, such as Rahman being declared unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity on the grounds that (I'm no Islamic jurist so I'm paraphrasing here) anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity must ipso facto be out of his tree.
On the other hand, this "moderate" compromise solution is being rejected by leading theologians. Let this guy Rahman cop an insanity plea and there goes the neighborhood. "We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," says Abdul Raoulf of the nation's principal Muslim body, the Afghan Ulama Council. "Cut off his head! We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left." Needless to say, Imam Raoulf is one of Afghanistan's leading "moderate" clerics.
For what it's worth, I'm with the Afghan Ulama Council in objecting to the insanity defense. It's not enough for Rahman to get off on a technicality. Afghanistan is supposed to be "the good war," the one even the French supported, albeit notionally and mostly retrospectively. Karzai is kept alive by a bodyguard of foreigners. The fragile Afghan state is protected by American, British, Canadian, Australian, Italian, German and other troops, hundreds of whom have died. You cannot ask Americans or Britons to expend blood and treasure to build a society in which a man can be executed for his choice of religion. You cannot tell a serving member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Kandahar that he, as a Christian, must sacrifice his life to create a Muslim state in which his faith is a capital offense.
As always, we come back to the words of Osama bin Laden: ''When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.'' That's really the only issue: the Islamists know our side has tanks and planes, but they have will and faith, and they reckon in a long struggle that's the better bet. Most prominent Western leaders sound way too eager to climb into the weak-horse suit and audition to play the rear end. Consider, for example, the words of the Prince of Wales, speaking a few days ago at al-Azhar University in Cairo. This is "the world's oldest university," though what they learn there makes the average Ivy League nuthouse look like a beacon of sanity. Anyway, this is what His Royal Highness had to say to 800 Islamic "scholars":
"The recent ghastly strife and anger over the Danish cartoons shows the danger that comes of our failure to listen and to respect what is precious and sacred to others. In my view, the true mark of a civilized society is the respect it pays to minorities and to strangers."
That's correct. But the reality is our society pays enormous respect to minorities -- President Bush holds a monthlong Ramadan-a-ding-dong at the White House every year; the immediate reaction to the slaughter of 9/11 by the president, the prince, the prime ministers of Britain, Canada and everywhere else was to visit a mosque to demonstrate their great respect for Islam. One party to this dispute is respectful to a fault: after all, to describe the violence perpetrated by Muslims over the Danish cartoons as the "recent ghastly strife" barely passes muster as effete Brit toff understatement.
Unfortunately, what's "precious and sacred" to Islam is its institutional contempt for others. In his book Islam And The West, Bernard Lewis writes, "The primary duty of the Muslim as set forth not once but many times in the Koran is 'to command good and forbid evil.' It is not enough to do good and refrain from evil as a personal choice. It is incumbent upon Muslims also to command and forbid."
Or as the shrewd Canadian columnist David Warren put it: "We take it for granted that it is wrong to kill someone for his religious beliefs. Whereas Islam holds it is wrong not to kill him." In that sense, those blood-curdling imams are right, and Karzai's attempts to finesse the issue are, sharia-wise, wrong.
I can understand why the president and the secretary of state would rather deal with this through back-channels, private assurances from their Afghan counterparts, etc. But the public rhetoric is critical, too. At some point we have to face down a culture in which not only the mob in the street but the highest judges and academics talk like crazies.
Rahman embodies the question at the heart of this struggle: If Islam is a religion one can only convert to not from, then in the long run it is a threat to every free person on the planet. What can we do? Should governments with troops in Afghanistan pass joint emergency legislation conferring their citizenship on this poor man and declaring him, as much as Karzai, under their protection?
In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" -- the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural:
''You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows.You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
India today is better off without suttee. If we shrink from the logic of that, then in Afghanistan and many places far closer to home the implications are, as the Prince of Wales would say, "ghastly."
#1
Rahman embodies the question at the heart of this struggle: If Islam is a religion one can only convert to not from, then in the long run it is a threat to every free person on the planet. What can we do? Should governments with troops in Afghanistan pass joint emergency legislation conferring their citizenship on this poor man and declaring him, as much as Karzai, under their protection?
If we must. ABSOLUTELY!
In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" -- the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural:
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows.You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
Let's get very impeccably multicultural with EXPECIALLY THAT PROCECUTOR WHO THOUGHT UP THIS MESS!
#6
99.9% of everything people do is mind-numbingly dull and repetitive. This leads to something called the "prognosticator's paradox."
When asked what the future looked like, the fortune teller responded, "What does the present look like?"
In other words, just by looking at a person, what can you tell about them *right now*. It's not like they have their biography *and* their autobiography stapled to their chest, so you can see what is going on in their life from theirs and other people's point of view. Sherlock Holmes might figure out something, but hey.
Okay, so you are looking at someone *right now*.
What do you see? "They are fat and ugly." Okay, so what do you see in their future? "They continue to be fat and ugly. Eventually they die."
But you didn't really need to be a fortune teller to know that.
Uh, but will I win the lottery and stuff? Oh, yeah. Heck yeah. Win the lottery, highly unlikely. By looking at a person, *right now*, even if you see that an "event" is taking place, what the hell is it?
Some lady over there starts jumping up and down, obviously very happy. What has just happened to her. Damned if I know.
Okay, now on to the *boring* part. Imagine that you can look at a person's future as if it was on a 50,000 hour VHS tape. But you don't have a fast-forward button that works while the tape is running. So you jump forward a minute and take a peek: they are still fat and ugly and sitting on a toilet. Another minute: they are still fat and ugly watching teevee. Another minute: spending about 1/3rd of their life sleeping.
Finally, after doing this a *lot*, you come to a scene where it looks like they have lost 30 pounds. But there is nothing to say *why* they have lost 30 pounds. So now they are less fat, but still ugly. After another minute or two they gain the weight back. Eventually the tape ends when they die. Oh, and no handy calendars to say "On September 27th, 2021". And you probably see their death from their point of view, which is something like "What the f---?" followed by blackness. LOTS of information there, you betcha.
Last but not least, the irony of fortune telling is that people do not really go to a fortune teller to find out what their future *is*. They want the fortune teller to *change* their future.
That is, I want you to make me slender and pretty.
"Lady, I'm a fortune teller, not a plastic surgeon."
An interview in french, subtitled in adequate english (though a couple of parts are not translated correctly, IE "many muslims in France" become 8 millions, "o%" becomes 10% for German iranian oil), of an iranian opposition leader; this comes from an israeli teevee.
IIRC, he's the founder of the website http://www.iran-resist.org/.
Interesting bits about the euro-iranian oil links, but I don't knwow what knowledgeable people here will do of his view of Amadi as a simple frontman, or on regime change.
Iran appears to favor the "Made in Germany" brand in its controversial quest for a nuclear program. Customs officers are probing suspected illegal exports of specialized German equipment to Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr via Russia.
German prosecutors said on Monday they had uncovered a procurement network that has been illegally supplying equipment to Iran's nuclear industry via Russia.
The state prosecutor's office in Potsdam near Berlin said customs officers had raided 41 firms across Germany, one of which was under suspicion of having knowingly delivered material to Iran in contravention of German export restrictions. No arrests have been made.
"Five or six firms delivered goods to Iran. We suspect that one of the companies knew where the equipment was headed," Potsdam prosecutor Benedikt Welfens told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The other firms thought the equipment they were supplying was destined for Russia, for which no export restrictions apply."
Welfens declined to name the firms but said they were all small to medium-sized rather than multinational. He said the only company accused of breaking the law was based near Frankfurt in western Germany.
The West suspects Iran is covertly seeking to build an atomic weapon. Iran denies this, saying it is pursuing nuclear programs purely for civilian use.
Russia, which has a $1 billion stake in Iran's Bushehr nuclear-reactor project, has put up the toughest resistance among major powers to the US-led push for the United Nations Security Council to order Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activity that could produce fuel for an atomic bomb.
Welfens said the investigation had been underway since September 2004 but that customs authorities had only recently received information that material shipments had arrived in Iran. The goods were supplied to the Bushehr reactor, he said.
Peripheral materials, Russian middlemen
The German firms delivered so-called "dual use" equipment -- material with both civilian and military applications -- such as pumps, electronic components, transformers and steel cables.
"The material was not of crucial significance for the nuclear industry, it was peripheral rather than core. It did not include centrifuges," the prosecutor said.
Welfens said goods worth a total of 3 million are believed to have been exported illegally. Apart from specialized cable, no equipment has been confiscated. "We have been following a paper trail," he said.
He said a front company based in Berlin and staffed by seven people, mainly Russians, had contacted firms throughout Germany in their search for equipment. The material was transported overland to Russia via the German-Polish border town of Frankfurt/Oder and then shipped to Iran over the Caspian Sea. The company no longer exists.
"There are no signs that the Russian authorities knew anything about this," said Welfens. "We can't rule out that the Iranians approached Russian middlemen directly. It doesn't appear to have been handled very professionally. The middlemen would go around offering cash." None of the men is in custody.
Welfens said he hoped the raids would act as a deterrent to firms. Last month German authorities jailed two men suspected of buying weapons and missile technology on behalf of Iranian intelligence services.
Prosecutors said the two men had been shopping for control components for projectiles, equipment for the production of European Ariane IV launch vehicle rockets, military radio and night-vision equipment.
Although customs officials were able to stop one shipment of items out of Germany, authorities are investigating whether other shipments could have successfully left the country.
German 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.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/28/2006 9:18
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Why is this such a common thing from Germany?
Seems to me its like asking the question; Why are Belgium front companies always breaking arms embargos? Location, location, location. Much of the contraband material itself is manufactured in certain European countries. Those countries have, or are in close proximity to other countries, with less then rigid transit requirements. Inability, or in some cases refusal, to enforce laws necessary to mitigate the flow of contraband make these attractive transit hubs. By design, nefarious groups such as the Russian syndicate have set up shop in close proximity to these hubs. Governments should be held accountable for enforcement, but make no mistake, these soulless Profiteers have no sincere allegiance to any god or government.
#4
Not the first time. Iran has gotten Dutch night vision equipment, Swedish patrol craft, Italian munitions, US computers, medical gear, jet parts, and other equipment. Lots of places to get stuff. Lots of folks liking to make a buck.
#1
Wait until millions of angry Iranian workers protest the mullah swine this May Day. Transport workers helped bring down the evolving Allende tyranny in Chile. History repeats.
#2
"The most popular regime in the contemporary history of the world."
These people are all lunatics.
Just say no to nukes.
Bomb now, bomb often, bomb till they spit of Allan. faster please.
A militant coalition led by Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch claimed it was begin attack against an Iraqi army center Monday that killed at least 40 people and said the suicide bomber was a Saudi, according to an Internet statement.
"A brother... from Mohammed's Peninsula (Saudi Arabia)... wearing an explosives belt plunged this morning into the crusaders' base northeast of Tal Afar and infiltrated among hundreds of recruits before blowing himself up," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Consultative Council.
"The blessed operation left hundreds killed or wounded," according to the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
At least 40 people were killed and 20 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people waiting at an army recruitment center near Tal Afar.
The Mujahedeen Consultative Council, established in January, groups seven Sunni Muslim armed factions and is dominated by Al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Saudi Arabia itself has been battling Al-Qaeda militants, and an undetermined number of Saudis are among Arab fighters taking part in the insurgency against US-led and local government forces in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
02:26 ||
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#1
Why do people say that when AQ blows up a bunch of people it makes the people fearful and cooperative, but when the US kills a bunch of AQ it makes the people angry and more likely to join the jihad?
#2
you really got to hand it to this new Iraqi Army though. When they get killed, it's always 20 at a time, 40 at a time. Numbers like that would have the average American citizen's panties in a knot.
#3
Call me disjointed, but is there a contradiction in this?:
"Saudi Arabia itself has been battling Al-Qaeda militants, and an undetermined number of Saudis are among Arab fighters taking part in the insurgency against US-led and local government forces in Iraq."
Seems to me the way the Soddies have been "fighting" these Wahhabi-home grown Islamist terrorists militants is by letting them slipped across the ol' Soddy-Iraq border into Iraq itself.
The world's key powers will seek this week to reach agreement on a strategy that will build up pressure on Iran.
This could lead to sanctions being imposed by the summer unless Teheran halts the most dangerous parts of its nuclear programme.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, along with foreign ministers from the United States, France, Germany, Russia, and China will meet in Berlin on Thursday at a gathering designed to finalise a United Nations call on Iran to comply with international demands, and to agree the steps that will follow if Teheran refuses.
Russia has been the main obstacle to western attempts to isolate the regime, as Moscow fears that the crisis could escalate and endanger its large commercial interests in Iran.
But senior diplomats said western countries would try to exploit Russia's desire to host a successful G8 summit in St Petersburg in July to secure support from Moscow.
"It is very important for Vladimir Putin to show achievement at the summit. The G8 is an obvious moment to exert pressure," said one senior western source. "If we get the Russians' agreement, the Chinese will probably follow their lead."
Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely "peaceful", and says it only wants to build facilities to enrich uranium in order to make fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. But the west believes that this technology will be used to make fissile material for bombs.
Teheran has defiantly restarted its enrichment programme, and is quickly perfecting the techniques needed to make enriched uranium.
After weeks of frustrating talks in New York, western officials are careful not to predict success in Berlin. But it is unlikely that foreign ministers would have been summoned to Berlin unless there was a good chance of an agreement.
The US and Israel have refused to rule out the use of force to try to stop Iran's nuclear programme. But Mr Straw is convinced that the most powerful tool against Iran is "maintaining international consensus".
The first step could be a non-binding "presidential statement" from the UN Security Council.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
02:08 ||
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#1
About as effective as Ted Kennedy's "immigration reform".
#2
Don't get me started on that, FG9048! I read what the Judiciary Committee did in the Senate yesterday. Ima still seething.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2006 11:44
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most powerful tool against Iran is "maintaining international consensus".
I must have missed something - have the mullah's begun to give a shit what anyone else thinks?
Military strikes against Iran's nuclear sites would not destroy the Islamic republic's uranium enrichment activities, which could be easily moved and restarted, a senior Iranian official said on Monday.
"You know very well ... we can enrich uranium anywhere in the country, with a vast country of more than 1 million 600 square kilometers," said Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
"Enrichment can be done anywhere in Iran," he told a panel discussion on the possible use of military force to destroy what the West fears is Iran's atomic bomb program.
Soltaniyeh said that after Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear power plant at Osirak in 1981, then Iraqi-leader Saddam Hussein bombed Iran's Bushehr plant.
The Security Council then passed a resolution condemning the attacks and making it illegal for countries to strike nuclear facilities.
But Soltaniyeh said those U.N. documents were "just pieces of paper" today to the United States and Israel.
Soltaniyeh said Iran was hiding nothing from the world and that all of its nuclear fuel facilities were known to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. But he hinted that threats of possible military action against Tehran could change that.
"Any threat or potential threat will create a very complicated situation," he said, adding that Iran would never give up its enrichment program.
A retired U.S. Air Force colonel and well-known war gaming expert told the conference the United States was under increasing pressure to use military force to destroy Iran's atomic sites and would make a decision on this option soon.
Iran has completed a 164-machine "cascade" of centrifuges to enrich uranium at its Natanz plant and is expected to begin testing it soon, diplomats in Vienna say. Operating such a cascade would not enable it to fuel any atomic weapons but would enable Iran to master the difficult art of uranium enrichment.
"I think we may be looking at a (U.S.) decision in six to nine months," said Sam Gardiner, a military strategy expert who has taught at the U.S. Army's National War College.
"I say before the November elections there will be a serious decision made in the United States," he said.
Gardiner said that while Washington supported European and Russian efforts to use diplomacy to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program, U.S. officials were skeptical about the efficacy of sanctions or other diplomatic weapons.
Washington also believes the U.N. Security Council will fail to agree on a course of action against Tehran, he said.
Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at the peaceful generation of electricity. However, it hid its uranium enrichment program, which could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons, from U.N. inspectors for nearly two decades.
Gardiner said a U.S. operation aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear facilities would take less than a week and would not use any of the forces currently stationed in Iraq.
"This is an operation that would not take more than five evenings to do," he said, adding that it would probably use Stealth bombers to bomb the facilities.
But Gardiner said all his war-gaming and analysis had led him to the conclusion that Ambassador Soltaniyeh was right and the military solution would not destroy Iran's nuclear program as the know-how would remain.
"I don't think U.S. policymakers understand that the military option won't work," he said, adding that continued diplomacy was the only way to resolve the issue.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
02:07 ||
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#1
"...a vast country of more than 1 million 600 square kilometers..."
We'll have to do something about that. How about if it was reduced in size to say, 100 square kilometers, and was renamed "Persia"?
Ummm, No.
You require a pretty big building, (Or many small ones near each other) electricity, heavy equipment (Transport trucks, forklifts, lead shielding, etc) good roads to deliver all the equipment, Air conditioning (Needed for quality control) Large quantities of pure water, and some pretty airtight seals to prevent "Accidents".
Try running your Nuclear program in tents in the desert, we'll allow that (And laugh while we watch)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2006 21:13
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#5
I don't care whether we destroy the program or not, just so long as we set it back. I'm willing to keep hitting it periodically until all 1 million 600 square kilometers are pounded to dust. But that's just me, a small ember of The Great Satan.
BOMBERS are being paid hard cash to launch attacks on British troops in southern Iraq, according to military commanders.
Officers say British soldiers are facing a new wave of roadside bomb attacks as a result of the financial incentives.
Yesterday, the commanding officer of the Royal Scots, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Bruce, said soldiers in and around Basra were facing an increasing danger from roadside bombings.
He said high levels of unemployment meant that the offer of cash from insurgents to mount attacks was proving attractive to some parts of the population.
"For the people who are planting the bombs there may be a not insignificant financial motivation," he said. "There is a fair amount of dissatisfaction, there is an awful lot of unemployment and if an individual is offered money to plant a device, and perhaps even more money if the device is successful, then I think that is a motivation."
He said financial motives were likely to be behind the filming of some attacks. "I think that is why so many of these attacks are videotaped, because if it ends up in the international media, it proves the attack has been successful and the financial rewards will be even greater."
Lt-Col Bruce would not put a price on the bombings, but other officers have suggested that payments begin at about $50 (£29) for a successful attack, a huge sum in a country where the average wage before the war started was barely £11 a month.
The Royal Scots, who are based in Edinburgh, are on a six-month tour of duty in Iraq and are expected to return in May. They are mainly involved in escort duties and force protection, escorting convoys in and around Basra and providing protection for senior officers in Baghdad.
Ministers have insisted that British troops will only leave Iraq when Iraqi security forces are capable of taking over responsibility for maintaining order, but there appears to be little sign of an easing in the security situation.
Although there have been no deaths from enemy action this month, Lt-Col Bruce said British troops still faced dangers.
"It is busy at the moment," he said. "It is pretty consistently busy. There is a steady threat, mainly coming from roadside bombs and that is certainly what keeps us on our toes."
Speaking from his base south of Basra, he said the nature of the attacks was unpredictable.
The focus of the insurgency moved around, with Al Amarah - where British forces have faced some of the fiercest opposition - now quiet in comparison to Basra.
"The emphasis tends to shift," he said. "We see the frequency and concentration of attacks shifting. I don't know whether they have become more intense down south or if they have just moved around."
He said it was hard to judge how much success British forces were having. "There is a basic background level [of violence] and it would be nice if we could say we were making inroads, but what we are really trying to do is to work with the Iraqis to make inroads into it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
01:37 ||
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American intelligence agencies and presidential commissions long ago concluded that Saddam Hussein had no unconventional weapons and no substantive ties to Al Qaeda before the 2003 invasion.
But now, an unusual experiment in public access is giving anyone with a computer a chance to play intelligence analyst and second-guess the government.
Under pressure from Congressional Republicans, the director of national intelligence has begun a yearlong process of posting on the Web 48,000 boxes of Arabic-language Iraqi documents captured by American troops.
Less than two weeks into the project, and with only 600 out of possibly a million documents and video and audio files posted, some conservative bloggers are already asserting that the material undermines the official view.
On his blog last week, Ray Robison, a former Army officer from Alabama, quoted a document reporting a supposed scheme to put anthrax into American leaflets dropped in Iraq and declared: "Saddam's W.M.D. and terrorist connections all proven in one document!!!"
Not so, American intelligence officials say. "Our view is there's nothing in here that changes what we know today," said a senior intelligence official, who would discuss the program only on condition of anonymity because the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, directed his staff to avoid public debates over the documents. "There is no smoking gun on W.M.D., Al Qaeda, those kinds of issues."
All the documents, which are available on fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm, have received at least a quick review by Arabic linguists and do not alter the government's official stance, officials say. On some tapes already released, in fact, Mr. Hussein expressed frustration that he did not have unconventional weapons.
Intelligence officials had serious concerns about turning loose an army of amateurs on a warehouse full of raw documents that include hearsay, disinformation and forgery. Mr. Negroponte's office attached a disclaimer to the documents, only a few of which have been translated into English, saying the government did not vouch for their authenticity.
Another administration official described the political logic: "If anyone in the intelligence community thought there was valid information in those documents that supported either of those questions W.M.D. or Al Qaeda they would have shouted them from the rooftops."
But Representative Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and who led the campaign to get the documents released, does not believe they have received adequate scrutiny. Mr. Hoekstra said he wanted to "unleash the power of the Net" to do translation and analysis that might take the government decades.
"People today ought to be able to have a closer look inside Saddam's regime," he said.
Mr. Hoekstra said intelligence officials had resisted posting the documents, which he overcame by appealing to President Bush and by proposing legislation to force the release.
The timing gives the documents a potent political charge. Public doubts about the war have driven Mr. Bush's approval rating to new lows. A renewed debate over Saddam Hussein's weapons and terrorist ties could raise the president's standing.
"As an historian, I'm glad to have the material out there," said John Prados, who has written books on national security, including one that accuses the administration of distorting prewar intelligence. He said the records were likely to shed new light on the Iraqi dictatorship. Some of the documents, also included in a new study by the United States military, already have caused a stir by suggesting that Russian officials passed American war plans to Mr. Hussein's government as the invasion began.
But Mr. Prados said the document release "can't be divorced from the political context."
"The administration is under fire for going to war when there was no threat so the idea here must be to say there was a threat," he said.
That is already the assertion of a growing crowd of bloggers and translators, almost exclusively on the right. So far they have highlighted documents that refer to a meeting between Osama bin Laden and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Sudan in 1995; a plan to train Arab militants as suicide bombers; and a 1997 document discussing the use of "special ammunition," chemical weapons, against the Kurds.
But the anthrax document that intrigued Mr. Robison, the Alabama blogger, does not seem to prove much. It is a message from the Quds Army, a regional militia created by Mr. Hussein, to Iraqi military intelligence that passes on reports picked up by troops, possibly from the radio, since the information is labeled "open source" and "impaired broadcast." No anthrax was found in Iraq by American search teams.
"No offense, but the mainstream media tells people what they want them to know," said Mr. Robison, who worked in Qatar for the Iraq Survey Group, which did an exhaustive search for weapons in Iraq.
The document release may help the president, he said, but that is not the point. "It's not about politics," Mr. Robison said. "It's about the truth."
The truth about prewar Iraq has proven elusive. The February 2003 presentation Colin L. Powell, the secretary of state at the time, to the United Nations appeared to provide incontrovertible proof of Iraqi weapons, but the claims in the speech have since been discredited.
Given that track record, some intelligence analysts are horrified at exactly the idea that excites Mr. Hoekstra and the bloggers: that anyone will now be able to interpret the documents.
"There's no quality control," said Michael Scheuer, a former Central Intelligence Agency specialist on terrorism. "You'll have guys out there with a smattering of Arabic drawing all kinds of crazy conclusions. Rush Limbaugh will cherry-pick from the right, and Al Franken will cherry-pick from the left."
Conservative publications have pushed for months to have the documents made public. In November, Mr. Hoekstra and Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked Mr. Negroponte to post the material.
When that request stalled, Mr. Hoekstra introduced a bill on March 3 that would have forced the posting. Mr. Negroponte began the release two weeks later.
Under the program, documents are withheld only if they include information like the names of Iraqis raped by the secret police, instructions for using explosives, intelligence sources or "diplomatically sensitive" material.
In addition, the intelligence official said, known forgeries are not posted. He said the database included "a fair amount of forgeries," sold by Iraqi hustlers or concocted by Iraqis opposed to Mr. Hussein.
In previous Internet projects, volunteers have tested software, scanned chemical compounds for useful drugs and even searched radiotelescope data for signals from extraterrestrial life.
The same volunteer spirit, though with a distinct political twist, motivates the Arabic speakers who are posting English versions of the Iraqi documents.
"I'm trying to pick up documents that shed light on the political debate," said Joseph G. Shahda, 34, a Lebanese-born engineer who lives in a Boston suburb and is spending hours every evening on translations for the conservative Free Republic site. "I think we prematurely concluded there was no W.M.D. and no ties to Al Qaeda."
Mr. Shahda said he was proud he could help make the documents public. "I live in this great country, and it's a time of war," he said. "This is the least I can do."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
01:14 ||
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#1
This is the same NYT that did such a bang-up job informing us of Stalin's terror.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 7:39
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#2
Noo... Saddam had no unconventional weapons...
Then what did he gas the Kurds with?
And what beginning with V and ending with X did the UN arms inspectors say they found once years ago before they were expelled by Saddam (thus breaching the terms of the Ceasefire of Gulf War 1 and providing a window for the US to declare war perfectly legitimately)
#3
Technically, the US didn't need to issue a new declaration of war. Saddam's action invalidated the ceasefire he agreed to, thus rendering the state of war once again in to effect.
#4
its correct that there has already been cherry picking by both sides. But those tidbits can then be analyzed and put in context. Im skeptical of all the first reports, but I think over the long run this enterprise will be very informative.
#9
"NYT pooh-poohs layman's efforts on Iraqi documents"
Then the "layman's efforts" must be doing a damn fine job to have the NYT running scared like this.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2006 14:10
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#10
Anything with John Prados name on it in terms of political context can and should be taken with a large grain of salt.
He has been on an anti-secrecy/CIA tear in all his writings. Prados (whom I know from back when he was a wargame designer) begins with the premise that the CIA/Intel is always up to no good, and that secrecy is bad. On top of that he appears to be a victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome.
From there its pretty easy to see why his opinion is questionable - he's borderline tinfoil hat in his conspiracy assumptions of the motives of others.
#11
... an anti-secrecy/CIA tear in all his writings.
... begins with the premise that the CIA/Intel is always up to no good, and that secrecy is bad.
... Bush Derangement Syndrome.
... borderline tinfoil hat in his conspiracy assumptions of the motives of others.
Sounds like great bullet points on a resume for a NYT columnist.
Algerian government forces found a large weapons cache in an area that saw repeated massacres of civilians during rebel attacks in strife that lasted more than a decade, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The find in Ain Defla province, 150 km (93 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers, was found on Saturday, three weeks after the launch of an amnesty for rebels aimed at ending a conflict that cost the lives of 200,000 people since 1992.
The hiding place of weapons contained a significant quantity of ammunition, Kalashnikov rifles, some 30 rockets, automatic guns, more than 30 detonators and about 100 home-made bombs, said El Watan, which is well-informed on security matters.
Government soldiers also seized huge quantities of medical drugs and electricity cables, the newspaper added, citing a security source.
Officials were not immediately available for comment. They rarely comment on security-linked questions.
The newspaper said it believed the arms cache belonged to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has been on a U.S. list of terrorist organisations.
Hundreds of people were massacred in attacks in Ain Defla by Islamist militants between 1994 and 1998.
The latest security sweep in Ain Defla is part of an offensive on rebel strongholds throughout the country. Government soldiers shot dead a bombmaker for GSPC on Thursday in Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) east of Algiers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
01:11 ||
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Government soldiers also seized huge quantities of medical drugs and electricity cables
Curious. What benfit would terrorists get from cables? Surely not to sell them for scrap to raise funds. I assume the drugs are to heal the wounded... or create the modern version of Assassin dreams...
'Tain't Sinktrap material, RD. It will soon be disappeared.
#3
The electric cables could either be to control detonators or stolen from poles. Depends on the size; big stuff would be sold for "salvage" to finance their jihad.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 7:38
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The military on Tuesday blamed the Abu Sayyaf Group for the latest bombing in Jolo, Sulu, which killed at least five people and injured 17.
Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado, Armed Forces spokesman, said the bombing is consistent with previous Abu Sayyaf attacks.
He said five people were confirmed killed in the blast with 17 more injured. Wires reports earlier counted nine people killed and more than 20 injured.
Tho bomb blast occurred at around 1:15 p.m., Monday, at the two-story Sulu Consumers Cooperative near the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo Town Plaza. Authorities said the bomb was planted on the ground floor of the building.
Initial military reports suggested that the bomb was made from a combination of chemicals, possibly ammonium nitrate and shrapnel.
"It was probably ammonium nitrate, but we are still investigating the blast," Army Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo said.
Air Force Maj. Gamal Hayudini, a spokesman for the Southern Command, said troops sent to the blast site searched the area for explosives but so far have found nothing. "The situation is under control and authorities have tightened security in Jolo," Hayudini said in a separate interview.
Two weeks ago in Jolo, Abu Sayyaf weapons courier Julkaram Hadjail was captured, and several militants killed in a separate clash.
Security forces also recovered early this month a cache of Abu Sayyaf explosives and homemade bombs near a highway in Indanan, Jolo, where troops regularly pass.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
01:09 ||
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Since his ouster in the bloodless Rose Revolution in November 2003, Georgias former president, Eduard Shevardnadze, has lived in old-fashioned elegance in the diplomatic quarter above Tbilisi. One recent morning, his house bathed in shadows, he talked to me about his life, reaching back through the murky events of Georgias recent past to his role as a reformer during the last years of the Soviet Union.
The estate house was totally silent, except for the low murmur of two women chatting in a far-off room as they set a table for lunch. Apart from his security guards and three housemaids of a certain age, Shevardnadze lives alone. Nanuli, his wife of 54 years, died in October 2004 and is buried in the garden. We sit by a low table set with liquor and fruit in a large living room whose walls are covered with paintings by modern Georgian artists. When I ask about them he stares vaguely at the pictures. I dont know much about them, he explains. My wife did the collecting.
I remember a very different Shevardnadze in the late 1980s a mischievous member of the Soviet elite, jokingly interrupting U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlocks welcoming speech during one reception, then making the rounds of Western journalists who until then considered themselves lucky to see a Kremlin leader at 100 paces. On one such occasion, he leaned unexpectedly into our faces and asked cheekily if we had any questions on the most delicate international issue of the moment Afghanistan.
He, of course, was the man who masterminded the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1989, the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and sweeping disarmament treaties. In December 1990 he broke with Mikhail Gorbachev, warning of an impending coup and chiding his erstwhile friend for his passivity. During our conversation, he glided over his less glorious post-Soviet career: president of an independent Georgia that slipped into civil war and corruption, a man who was the target of three bloody assassination attempts and who, according to most enemies and some admirers, was by the end unable to control even his own familys rapacity.
These days, at the age of 78, the former leader is more subdued. He occasionally tripped over dates, then caught himself, but flashes of wit remained. He told me how he and Gorbachev had already been friends for more than 20 years when, shortly after coming to power in 1985, the Soviet leader summoned him from Tbilisi to be foreign minister. I was mind-blown, Shevardnadze recalled, pouring a cognac. I had been abroad three times in my life: Portugal, India and somewhere else. I told them, I dont even know where the ministry is. (Gorbachev sent a driver who knew the way.)
The new foreign ministers contacts with the United States were rocky: Ronald Reagan made it clear that he was talking to the Soviets out of duty, not pleasure. The relationship warmed, though, as Shevardnadze a raconteur himself grew fascinated by the U.S. presidents endless store of jokes. So at our last meeting before he left office, I asked him where he got them all from, Shevardnadze related. Reagan went very quiet, serious, and I thought, What have I said wrong? Finally he answered: You know, something is happening with my mind. I can remember things 30 years ago, but I cant for the life of me recall what happened yesterday.
A couple of years later, Shevardnadze paid a courtesy call on Reagan in California: He came out looking fit and healthy, but his eyes were empty, Shevardnadze recalled. He doesnt recognize you, Nancy said. `Dont be offended: He doesnt recognize anyone except me.
The most vicious battles were fought at home, as Gorbachev and his team struggled to transform the Soviet Union economically and politically, and Shevardnadze engineered the withdrawal from Afghanistan. When I announced to the generals that we were leaving, there was a tomb-like silence, he said. Ordinary soldiers wanted out, but not the generals. They had become millionaires trading in drugs and diamonds. The generals never forgave him, he said.
In December 1990, Shevardnadze stunned the world by abruptly resigning, warning of an impending counterrevolution. He offered no proof at the time, but he had it, he told me. Generals former Afghan commanders were assembling tanks and troops 100 kilometers from Moscow. Asked how he knew this, he answered indulgently. I had between 5,000 and 6,000 people working for me in the Foreign Ministry system, he said. A third of them were KGB. I was very well informed. Gorbachev, however, remained in denial, and just before the real coup was launched in August 1991 he went on vacation. We all knew they would try something, but he went on vacation, Shevardnadze said.
During the abortive putsch Shevardnadze supported Boris Yeltsin, but their alliance quickly crumbled. Back in Georgia, Shevardnadze was sympathetic toward the Chechen war of independence, and remembers the Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov killed in March 2005 as a modest, calm man, someone you could come to an agreement with. Aides have long linked all three assassination attempts on Shevardnadze to Moscows anger at his independent policies. The third attempt was the best prepared, he remarked almost appreciatively. The attackers were pro-Russian Chechens trained for the job in a Russian base in Chechnya, he added. Surely that means that Yeltsin was behind the attack, I asked. He smiled, and moved on.
Turning to the present and the young ministers who overthrew him in 2003, Shevardnadze remembered fondly Zurab Zhvania, prime minister under the new dispensation, who died unexpectedly a year ago. Zhvania used to call from time to time to ask advice, he said. He dismissed the official government account that Zhvania was accidentally poisoned by a faulty gas heater. He was murdered, he said, adding that he does not know by whom. I asked if President Mikheil Saakashvili ever calls, and the former president seemed not to hear. A final toast indicated that time was up. He said he has just finished a 700-page volume of memoirs. It will be published in Germany, France and possibly the United States. The translation from Georgian to Russian will take time, he adds: Some rather frank formulations will need to be smoothed a little.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
01:06 ||
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The estate house was totally silent, except for the low murmur of two women chatting in a far-off room as they set a table for lunch. Apart from his security guards and three housemaids of a certain age, Shevardnadze lives alone.
You just have to wonder why someone like Shevardnadze would tolerate a pompous, self-righteous reporter like this one. Ah, I see Shevardnadze is willing to do it because he is hawking a book.
#3
When I announced to the generals that we were leaving, there was a tomb-like silence, he said. Ordinary soldiers wanted out, but not the generals. They had become millionaires trading in drugs and diamonds. The generals never forgave him, he said.
#4
So at our last meeting before he left office, I asked him where he got them all from, Shevardnadze related. Reagan went very quiet, serious, and I thought, What have I said wrong? Finally he answered: You know, something is happening with my mind. I can remember things 30 years ago, but I cant for the life of me recall what happened yesterday.
A couple of years later, Shevardnadze paid a courtesy call on Reagan in California: He came out looking fit and healthy, but his eyes were empty, Shevardnadze recalled. He doesnt recognize you, Nancy said. `Dont be offended: He doesnt recognize anyone except me.
Ranjit Kumar Gupta was police commissioner of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and then inspector general of police, West Bengal, from 1971 to 1977. He is credited with wiping out the Naxal terror from the state in the '70s. In 2004, he published his book The Crimson Agenda: Maoist Protest and Terror, on the spread of leftwing extremism in the country. Gupta, now 85, tells Sumanta Ray Chowdhury how the ideology and strategy of the Maoists have changed through the years.
What is the strategic significance of the recent attacks?
Considering the progress the Maoists have made in different states in recent times, incidents like these were bound to happen. I had predicted such incidents in my book.
How different are today's Maoists from the Naxalites you combated during your tenure?
The changes are many. The followers of Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal were not trained in sophisticated guerrilla warfare, which the present day Maoists are. The Naxals I faced used rudimentary country-made weapons, but today the Maoists have access to all kinds of modern weapons and explosives. Most importantly, today they are better organised.
Has there been any major ideological shifts among the Maoists over the years?
The basic tactic remains the same, which is capturing power in the cities from bases in villages. But although they call themselves Maoists, in reality they are following the tactics of Che Guevara. Probably, they call themselves Maoists because Mao Zedong succeeded and Guevara failed. A new feature is the introduction of caste politics. Even in my times they used to play the caste card in certain pockets, but it failed in West Bengal. But now the caste strategy is far more effective and is working in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Has the Maoist movement in India gradually transformed itself from a typically urban phenomenon to a strong rural movement?
Not really. Maoists still have a strong urban presence, but they are underground. They will surface once they become fully successful in establishing firm bases in the villages.
Will the Maoists in India establish tie-ups with terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed?
An ideological link-up will never take place as groups like Al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed are fundamentalist organisations whereas the Maoists have social and economic agenda. It is possible when it comes to arms, but even here, considering the type of explosives and weapons the Maoists use and their method of guerrilla warfare, it is evident that they are in touch with the LTTE and the Maoists in Nepal. In northeastern India, they are largely involved in the narcotics-against-arms business via Myanmar.
What is the solution to the problem?
There should not be a military solution to the problem. Neither is banning the organisations a solution. The government should identify villages where the Maoists are yet to firm up their bases. The government should go for full-fledged economic and social development in these areas. By these steps the Maoists will be isolated from the public. Only then should police action against the Maoists follow.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
01:01 ||
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Iff memory correctly serves, me remembers Mao himself instructed his Marxism-Leninist cadres that the poor and uneducated are prime for Communism and Socialism becuz they are "blanks".
AUSTRALIAN troops heading for Afghanistan later this year will face one of the most hostile environments yet because of a growing insurgency by Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, a report has warned.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said the 200 members of the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) heading for the Oruzgan province of south-central Afghanistan could encounter attacks by the insurgents, plus suicide and roadside bombings.
ASPI analyst Dr Elsina Wainwright warned in the report released today that there would be considerable risk.
"This PRT deployment is altogether different from Australia's involvement in Afghanistan until now and it is one of most serious threat environments into which Australian non-Special Forces personnel have been deployed in recent years,'' she said.
"Australian troops will face an insurgency that could target international forces and there could be Australian casualties.''
Australia has a special forces task group comprising 300 Special Air Service Regiment, Commando and support troops in Oruzgan province, an area of considerable anti-government activity.
The Australian PRT, one of almost two dozen international PRTs working on reconstruction tasks throughout Afghanistan, will operate in the same province with a combined Dutch PRT and task group numbering some 1400.
The mission comes as the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) expands into Afghanistan's south, an area previously only lightly touched by coalition forces or the central government.
Dr Wainwright said the Australian PRT would have to deal with a conservative Pashtun population traditionally resentful of outside influences.
She said the insurgency remained a complex mix of Taliban remnants, some Pashtun tribesmen alongside al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters, some based in the Pakistan frontier provinces.
Insurgent activity has substantially increased over the past year with a fourfold increase in suicide attacks, doubling of use of improvised explosive devices and greater concentration on soft targets.
Dr Wainwright said successful US-led counterinsurgency operations seemed in part to have caused the insurgency's recent change in tactics, adopted from the Iraq insurgency.
She said the Dutch-Australian PRT would need a significant security emphasis.
"More robust mandates, rules of engagement and equipment will be required than in the north and west,'' she said.
"The PRT deployment also presents Australia with a number of operational challenges.
"Australian troops have not in the past been closely interoperable with Dutch forces and will likely be working more closely with them than with the Japanese in Al Muthanna in Iraq.''
``It will be essential for the Netherlands to have very robust rules of engagement to meet Australian needs. This will require tough decisions of the Dutch government.''
Dr Wainwright said all Dutch parliamentarians well remembered Srebrenica in Bosnia where Dutch peacekeepers with a limited mandate evacuated in the face of a Bosnian Serb advance, resulting in the massacre of 8000 Muslim men and boys.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:59 ||
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ISLAMIST terrorists wanted to trick young Muslims into attacking Britain, by training them to fight in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda and then telling them that the country was inaccessible, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
The British extremists allegedly intended to set up a private terrorist training camp in Pakistan, teaching hijacking and use of explosives and firearms. One also discussed poisoning water supplies with ricin. Another said that Britain needed to be targeted in the same way as America had been in the September 11 attacks.
The claims were made by Mohammed Babar, an American terrorist turned supergrass who is giving evidence against the men that he claims were his former accomplices. The seven defendants, all from southeast England, are charged with conspiring to bomb a British target, such as a shopping centre, nightclub or train. Six allegedly attended training camps in Pakistan.
Babar said that he discussed setting up a camp with Waheed Mahmood, 34, of Crawley, who insisted that those who attended had to be prepared to fight jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan. He attempted to recruit through British contacts.
But the key prosecution witness added: From conversations I had with them [the group] I dont think they had any intention of sending people into Afghanistan. They would tell [those at camps] later that it was difficult to go and would then give the only other option: working for them on operations in the UK and Pakistan.
While living in Pakistan, Babar offered to set up a camp for the group. He was also involved in storing bomb ingredients; at one stage he held detonators, ammonium nitrate, aluminium powder, other explosives paraphernalia and ricin in his flat in Lahore. The castor beans, from which ricin is made, were allegedly brought from Islamabad by Omar Khyam, 24, also from Crawley.
Babar said: He said it was a poison [and talked] about poisoning water supplies or people. He went into detail how to make it.
He said that the detonators were sourced by Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, with the help of a man who worked for Abdul Hadi, No 3 in command for al-Qaeda. Mr Amin argued with Mr Khyam because he allegedly asked Mr Amin to transport the detonators to Europe or Britain.
The court was told that the men had ordered survival equipment for the training camp from outdoor shops in Britain, and had special clothing made. These included shalwar kameez with zippered pockets for ammunition. A British relative of one defendant posted hiking boots, sleeping bags and solar panels to the men while they were in Pakistan.
They posed as Western tourists to travel within Pakistan and collect thousands of pounds from contacts, to fund the camp. Mr Mahmoods brother-in-law allegedly gave about £4,000 and another contact provided £3,500, which was sent to him from Britain.
When asked for the source of the rest of the money, Babar said that each of the defendants who travelled to Pakistan months earlier had brought between £5,000 and £7,000 and entrusted this to Mr Khyam.
During discussions, some of the defendants allegedly said that they disliked al-Muhajiroun, the radical group that the Government wanted to ban, because it was all talk.
Some of the defendants also had leadership squabbles with other British Muslims in Pakistan when offering to provide training in exchange for Mr Khyam and Mr Mahmood becoming the emirs of another group. This offer was rejected.
Mr Amin, Mr Mahmood, Mr Khyam, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 18, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 24, from Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey; all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004.
Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny possessing 600kg of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also for the purposes of terrorism. The trial continues.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:55 ||
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Al-Qaeda or Ci-Cada? I am confused. They are both types of insects.
The U.S. government is making public a huge trove of documents seized during the invasion of Iraq, posting them on the Internet in a step that is at once a nod to the Web's power and an admission that U.S. intelligence resources are overloaded.
Republican leaders in Congress pushed for the release, which was first proposed by conservative commentators and bloggers hoping to find evidence about the fate of Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, or possible links to terror groups.
The Web surfers have begun posting translations and comments, digging through the documents with gusto.
"Let's unleash the power of the Internet on these documents," said House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Michigan. "I don't know if there's a smoking gun on WMD or not. But it will give us a better understanding of what was going on in Iraq before the war."
The documents' value is uncertain -- intelligence officials say that they are giving each one a quick review to remove anything sensitive. Skeptics of the war, suspicious of the Bush administration, believe that means the postings are either useless or cherry-picked to bolster arguments for the war.
The documents -- Iraqi memos, training guides, reports, transcripts of conversations, audiotapes and videotapes -- have spurred a flurry of news reports. The Associated Press, for instance, reported on memos from Saddam Hussein in 1987 ordering plans for a chemical attack on Kurds and comments from Hussein and his aides in the 1990s, searching for ways to prove they didn't have weapons.
Hoekstra said it took months of arguing with intelligence officials before he and John Negroponte, the new Director of National Intelligence, agreed to make the documents public. None contain current information about the Iraqi insurgency, and U.S. intelligence officials say they are focusing their limited resources on learning about what's happening on the ground now.
There are up to 55,000 boxes, with possibly millions of pages. The documents are being posted a few at a time -- so far, about 600 -- on a Pentagon Web site, often in Arabic with an English summary.
Regardless of what they reveal, open-government advocates like the decision to make them available.
It's a "radical notion," said Steve Aftergood at the Federation of American Scientists government secrecy project, which tracks work by U.S. intelligence agencies. That "members of the public could contribute to the intelligence analysis process. ... That is a bold innovation."
Champions of the Internet as a "citizen's media" embraced the step, too.
"The secret of the 21st century is attract a lot of smart people to focus on problems that you think are important," said Glenn Reynolds, the conservative blogger at Instapundit.com and author of "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths."
"It's kind of like a swarm. It's a lot of individual minds looking at it from different angles. The stuff that's most interesting tends to bubble to the top," he said.
A self-described Iraqi blogger translated one of the documents for the American blog pajamasmedia.com -- a September 15, 2001, memo from the Iraqi intelligence service that reported about an Afghan source who had been told that a group from Osama bin Laden and the Taliban had visited Iraq.
Some remain doubtful, suspecting that the administration only releases information that puts President Bush and his arguments for war in a good light. The Iraq Survey Group found no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction after the war, and the September 11 commission reported it found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
"I would bet that the materials that they chose to post were the ones that were suggestive of a threat," said John Prados, author of the book, "Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War."
Prados, an analyst with the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute, dismissed the documents: "The collection is good material for somebody who wants to do a biography of Saddam Hussein, but in terms of saying one thing or the other about weapons of mass destruction, it's not there."
One of several conservative blogs devoting attention to the release, Powerline.com, set up a separate page to catalog its findings and news reports on what the documents reveal.
"These documents are going to shed a lot of light on a regime that was quite successful in maintaining secrecy," said John Hinderaker, one of three men who run the site. "Before the first Gulf War, Saddam was perilously close to getting nuclear weapons and people didn't know it. The evils of the regime will be reflected."
But he also cautioned the optimistic. "When you're dealing with millions of pages of documents," he said, "it's a big mistake to think you can pull out one page or sentence out of a document and say 'Eureka, this is it.'"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:54 ||
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IRAQ'S ruling parties have demanded US forces cede control of security as the government investigated a raid on a Shiite mosque complex that ministers said involved "cold blooded" killings by US-led troops.
US commanders rejected the charges and said their accusers faked evidence by moving bodies of gunmen killed fighting Iraqi troops in an office compound. It was not a mosque, they said.
As Shiite militiamen fulminated over Sunday's deaths of at least 16 people in Baghdad, an al-Qaeda led group said it staged one of the bloodiest Sunni insurgent attacks in months. A suicide bomber killed 40 Iraqi army recruits in northern Iraq.
The Iraqi Defence Ministry said a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt also wounded 30 at a base near Mosul.
After 24 hours of limited communication, US commanders mounted a media offensive to deny Shiite accounts of a mosque massacre and portray instead a bold and disciplined operation by US-trained Iraqi special forces that killed 16 fighters and freed a hapless Iraqi hostage being held to ransom for $US20,000 ($28,400).
Three gunmen were wounded and 18 people detained.
"After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli said of footage aired extensively on state television showing the bodies of apparently unarmed civilians in a mosque.
"There's been huge misinformation," he said. He insisted he did not know the religious affiliation of the group targeted, although the raid was the fruit of lengthy intelligence work.
He did not spell out his criticism of the Shiite political groups who made the massacre accusations.
Confrontation between the Iranian-linked Shiite leaders and US forces comes at a sensitive time when Washington is pressing them to forge a unity government with minority Sunnis to avert civil war.
Iraq's security minister accused US and Iraqi forces of killing 37 unarmed civilians in the mosque after tying them up.
Residents and police, who put the death toll among the troops' opponents about 20, spoke of a fierce battle between the soldiers and gunmen from the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers ran the mosque.
Though Lt Gen Chiarelli stressed his forces did not view the site targeted as a mosque, neighbours and clerics insisted it was.
It was not, however, a typical religious building but a compound of former Baath party offices converted by Sadr followers.
Despite confusions, one thing was certain: Shiite leaders are up in arms against the US forces who brought them to power by ousting Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baathist regime.
"The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior spokesman of the Shiite Islamist Alliance and ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told a news conference.
The US handed over formal sovereignty in 2004 but 133,000 troops in the country give it the main say in security.
Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said he would halt all co-operation with US forces.
Aides to Sadr denied any Mehdi Army fighters were present.
But witnesses spoke of a lengthy gun battle: "The shooting lasted for more than an hour," shopkeeper Ali Abdul Jabbar said.
The fiery young cleric's militia was ordered to disband after US forces crushed uprisings in 2004. But it remains a force in southern Iraq and eastern Baghdad, and is accused by US officials of some of the violence that killed hundreds of Sunnis after last month's bombing of a Shiite shrine.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, at the centre of urgent US efforts to stem violence by creating a unity government, has said in recent days that the militias must be brought to heel and accused Iran of funding and training some armed groups. He said militias were now killing more Iraqis than the insurgents.
Mr Khalilzad plans ground-breaking talks with Iran to try to break the deadlock over the formation of a unity government.
Iranian backing seems to have been critical in pushing Sadr to kingmaker status within the Alliance and to securing the nomination of Dawa party leader Jaafari to a second term. Sunni and Kurdish opposition to Mr Jaafari is blocking a government deal.
Alliance leaders stayed away from the daily round of talks on the government, saying the mosque incident kept them busy.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, who has been hosting the negotiations said: "We have to know the truth about what happened, and we must not be driven by rumours. This is a very dangerous incident which we must investigate."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:51 ||
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#1
Tater and the Iranians need a message. A dead Tater would be a good one.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/28/2006 3:11
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#2
What would you expect, given that the prime minister was hand-picked by Sadr?
#4
really ZF? I know SCIRI voted against Jaafari, Dawa and and the Sadrists voted in favor. I hadnt heard that Sistani had his hand on the scales. Any source?
#5
Sadr (as might be expected from a student of Ayatollah Haeri) is opposed to Sistani on numerous points of theology as well as politics. The latter has endorsed the UIA, but that's a Shi'ite bloc with like 118 parties of which Dawaa and SCIRI are the largest. SCIRI breaking with Jaafari is one of the reasons why he is increasingly dependent on Sadr and his supporters to stay in power and is thus under enormous pressure to tow their line.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 12:11
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Zacarias Moussaoui was an Al Qaeda operative who had numerous problems within the terrorist organization but was supported by Osama Bin Laden despite numerous concerns of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, according to testimony Monday at his death penalty trial.
Monday afternoon, the jury heard a summary witness report from information that was provided by Khalid Sheik Mohammed. The summary witness substitution was read to the jury since Shaikh Mohammed is in detention and not able to appear in court.
The report, which was agreed to by both the defense and the prosecutor, was filled with additional details about Shaikh Mohammed 's planning for the 9/11 attacks which included the revelation that 34 men knew about the 9/11 or "planes operation" before the strikes.
According to statements from Shaikh Mohammed, provided to interrogators, Shaikh Mohammed acknowledged that Moussaoui was to be part of a second wave of attacks after the initial 9/11 operation. "Moussaoui was recruited as part of a second wave of attacks," a member of the federal public defender read to the jury.
Moussaoui during his nearly 3 hours of testimony detailed how he had "personality problems," with Al Qaeda members. According to the report, Shaikh Mohammed said Moussaoui had "a problematic personality" and was "a problem from the start."
The report from Shaikh Mohammed contradicted testimony provided by Moussaoui earlier Monday that he was to fly a plane into the White House as part of the 9/11 operation.
According to the statement Shaikh Mohammed said that the original 9/11 plan called for the use of Arab operatives and the second wave of attacks was to include Al Qaeda members with French, Malaysian and Canadian passports so they would draw less scrutiny.
Potential targets for the second wave of attacks included hitting the tallest building in California and potentially the Sears Tower, as well as a subway attack and a strike against a nuclear powerplant.
Shaikh Mohammed said planning for the second wave was difficult because he was surprised by the security response of the U.S. officials after the attacks.
He further realized the use of Malaysians would be more difficult since the home address and true name of a Malaysian national, "Yazid Sufaat" was found in Moussaoui's possession when Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001.
Sufaat provided a letter to Moussaoui saying that he was an employee of Infocus Tech.
The report said that the 9/11 mastermind was frustrated that Moussaoui called senior al Qaeda planners over the phone numerous times in August of 2001 and that he also sent Shaikh Mohammed a detailed email about how his flight training was going.
This included eight calls to Ramzi Binalshibh in Germany who lived with several of the 9/11 hijackers in Hamburg, Germany and wired money to Moussaoui in Oklahoma.
Moussaoui's problems with Shaikh Mohammed began in 2000 on a three-week trip he took to Malaysia. During this trip, he met several members of the southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, a group linked to Al Qaeda and mentioned to one of their members, Faiz Bafana, that he wanted to fly a plane into the White House. When Shaikh Mohammed and Mohamed Atef, Al Qaeda's military chief found out that Moussaoui told Bafana about this, they were upset.
Moussaoui further outraged Shaikh Mohammed since he was freelancing operations in trying to secure four tons of ammonium nitrate for Jemaah Islamiah. Moussaoui told the jury that after a "review" by senior Al Qaeda members he was recalled to Afghanistan and ended up in an Al Qaeda school in Pakistan, "Then I was approved." he said.
"At that point Bin Laden put you back in as the pilot of the fifth plane?" lead prosecutor Robert Spencer asked Moussaoui. "That's correct." Moussaoui responded.
Asked by defense Attorney Gerald Zerkin if he was in contact with other members of his crew for the operation Moussaoui said: "Because of what happened in Malaysia, I lost a lot of time I was in a hurry."
Intelligence summaries and depositions from some Al Qaeda members have shown that Moussaoui acted strangely.
Hambali, a Jemaah Islamiah leader met Moussaoui in Malaysia and "concluded that based on his conduct Moussaoui was crazy. "Cuckoo," a defense brief filed in 2003 and read to the jury noted.
During the Malaysia trip, Moussaoui sought $10,000 for flight training from Hambali and Faiz Bafana. Both men are currently in detention overseas. The two men eventually decided to give Moussaoui $2,000 so he would leave the country.
"I discussed with Hambali, and Hambali said, 'Just give him $2,000 And let him leave Malaysia,'" Bafana mentioned in a deposition which was showed to the jury in the first week of the trial.
Shortly after he left Malaysia, Moussaoui began to make plans to head to the U.S., despite this according to Shaikh Mohammed, Moussaoui "would never have been a replacement [for 9/11] even if one of the hijackers had pulled out of the operation."
Although he was arrested three weeks before 9/11 Moussaoui did practice secrecy which prosecutors say led to the 9/11 attacks.
The prosecution is contending that if Moussaoui had not lied to the FBI the attacks may have been prevented. A line in the 9/11 Commission report concluded of Moussaoui, "Moussaoui can be seen as an al Qaeda mistake and a missed opportunity."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:49 ||
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#1
Shaikh Mohammed said planning for the second wave was difficult because he was surprised by the security response of the U.S. officials after the attacks.
...They were surprised? Sheesh, these guys were dumber than we thought.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2006 20:15
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In the troubled region surrounding Iraq, a frequent question posed to the top U.S. military officer visiting the area was not when his troops will pull out of Iraq, but how long they will stay.
From the glittery king's palace in Saudi Arabia to the devastated slopes of the Pakistani mountainside and a staid Turkish symposium, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought last week to ease concerns about whether opposition to the war at home could pressure U.S. forces to leave Iraq before it is stable.
"I think it's fair to say that in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, there is a clear desire for the U.S. to stay with it until the job is done -- which, coincidentally, is how we look at it," Gen. Pace said Sunday as he left Istanbul for Washington.
On his first diplomatic-oriented trip since the fall, Gen. Pace traveled to three countries whose leaders are worried about the U.S. commitment to the Iraq war and the global war on terror. Failure to secure Iraq could inspire insurgencies in their countries and instability in the region, where terrorism is a familiar threat.
"I told them that from the U.S. military's viewpoint, we would stay with the mission until we got the job done," Gen. Pace said.
Those interests also at times conflict with strong anti-American sentiment in these Muslim countries, including Pakistan, where thousands protested the war during a recent visit by President Bush. Protesters were not evident during Gen. Pace's visit, but he often faced blunt questions about U.S. Middle East policies and progress in Iraq from both officials and the local press.
Gen. Pace said people in the countries wanted to know what the United States' plans are for Iraq and Afghanistan, for dealing with Iran's nuclear program and for aiding the fight against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and Turkey.
Turks worry that if U.S. troops leave Iraq too soon, the country could crumble and allow Kurdish rebels in the north to create an independent state along the Turkish border.
The Saudis, meanwhile, are concerned that sectarian violence in Iraq will expand into Saudi Arabia, and that a weakened Iraq will allow Iran to gain a foothold there, said Rachel Bronson, a Middle East specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In Pakistan, there are ongoing efforts to ferret out terrorists traveling back and forth across the mountainous Afghan border, where some think Osama bin Laden may be hiding and directing his al Qaeda network.
"These are three countries where it is easy to have misunderstandings just because of cultural differences ... language and interpretations of what is being said," Gen. Pace said. "So, I was really pleased to have the opportunity to go face to face with my counterparts."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:42 ||
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Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld delivered harsh words to war critics yesterday, saying some view al Qaeda operatives as victims, not the enemy that has killed Americans repeatedly.
In a speech to military officers at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., he also criticized previous administrations -- without naming them -- for failing to take on Islamic terrorists despite a series of attacks, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
"Before September 11, 2001, there was somewhat of a misunderstanding in America about terrorists, and in some circles, I suppose, there really is today," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Even today, some folks view terrorists as criminals, not as combatants. Some even consider them victims."
He said that during the 1980s and '90s, "the West was ambivalent how to counter extremist ideology and that type of aggression, and as a result, terrorists became increasingly emboldened. We should have learned the timeless truth that weakness is provocative."
Mr. Rumsfeld then listed the history of terrorist attacks on Americans, most occurring during the Clinton administration. The report submitted by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States chronicled deep disagreements among the CIA, White House and Pentagon on how to deal with al Qaeda.
The Clinton national security team never agreed on any attack plan, and not one military operation was initiated against al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden, the commission said. The Pentagon's updated defense strategy paper, released a few weeks before Mr. Bush took office, did not list al Qaeda as a stand-alone threat. It lumped terrorism into a group of threats along with illegal drugs and piracy.
In President Bush's first eight months in office before September 11, Mr. Rumsfeld focused on organizing his staff and transforming the armed forces. The administration had no immediate plan to attack al Qaeda. During Mr. Rumsfeld's Senate confirmation hearing, neither al Qaeda nor Afghanistan was mentioned.
Without naming the Bush administration's political critics, the defense secretary said some blame the United States for terrorists' atrocities.
"From time to time, one hears the claim that terrorist acts are reactions to particular American policies. That's not so," he said. "Their violence preceded by many years' operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their violence will not stop until their ideology is confronted."
Filmmaker Michael Moore is among the more prominent critics on the Left who said al Qaeda's September 11 attacks were the result of past U.S. actions around the world. Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Marine war veteran who is the most prominent Democrat to call for an immediate troop pullout from Iraq, has said the U.S. presence there is "fueling terrorism, not eliminating it."
Mr. Rumsfeld told the war college audience, "They say that a retreat from Iraq would provide an American escape from the violence. However, we know that any reprieve would be short-lived. ... The war that the terrorists began would continue, and free people would continue to be their targets."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:41 ||
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#1
What we now call "terrorism" started prior to the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. It's involved large numbers of Muslims, a few Germans, both blacks and whites in Africa, and Communists around the globe dating back to the early '20's. Carter's timidity against the Iranian "revolution" gave the impression that the United States was weak, unwilling to fight against terrorism, and an easy target. Until 2001, the terrorists were right.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 16:40
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The United States is faring poorly in its effort to counter ideological support for terrorism, in part because the government does not communicate effectively, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.
Rumsfeld made the remark in response to a question from a member of his audience at the Army War College, where he delivered a speech on the challenges facing the country in fighting a global war on terrorism.
"If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a `D' or a `D-plus' as a country as to how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place in the world today," Rumsfeld told his questioner. "I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country" for countering the extremists' message.
Rumsfeld's audience consisted of more than 300 war college students and faculty members.
He said the Al Qaeda terrorist network and affiliated Islamic extremists are the most brutal enemies the United States has ever seen.
Rumsfeld cited several examples of vicious terrorist assaults, including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and warned that unless the terrorists are stopped they will continue to seek the means to launch even deadlier attacks on the West in the years ahead.
"The enemy we face may be the most brutal in our history," Rumsfeld said. "They currently lack only the means not the desire to kill, murder millions of innocent people with weapons vastly more powerful than boarding passes and box cutters," he added, referring to the terrorists who hijacked the airliners Sept. 11.
It was Rumsfeld's first visit to the war college in his more than five years as secretary of defense.
Earlier in the day he stopped at Shanksville, Pa., to see for the first time the place where hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field on Sept. 11, killing all 40 passengers and crew shortly after hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The government's Sept. 11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to take control of the cockpit.
On a walking tour of the site among rolling hills and meadows, Rumsfeld paused in front of several rows of angel-shaped figures on rods that bear the names of the passengers and crew who died aboard the airliner. In brief remarks, Rumsfeld said he wanted to pay his respects at "the place where America really started to fight back."
At the spot where Flight 93 plowed into the earth, Rumsfeld laid a wreath and bowed his head for a moment.
In his speech at the war college , Rumsfeld described the Shanksville site as a place where "a group of ordinary airline passengers gave their lives in extraordinary defiance of foreign hijackers and in defense of our country's capital."
Rumsfeld said progress is being made in the global War on Terror, particularly in making it more difficult for terrorist groups to recruit, train, raise money, establish sanctuaries and acquire weapons. But he stressed that more needs to be done.
"The strategy must do a great deal more to reduce the lure of the extremist ideology by standing with those moderate Muslims advocating peaceful change, freedom and tolerance," he said.
Rumsfeld noted that his audience included an Afghan military officer and one from Iraq.
"We welcome you and are proud to stand with you in the cause of freedom," the defense secretary said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
00:40 ||
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#2
"They currently lack only the means - not the desire - to kill, murder millions of innocent people": ergo the DemoLeft wants Washington to take over everything and anything vv deficit-happy SOCIALISM, while failing overseas. Americans can fight and die for newfound global empire, just NOT govern nor control either itself as a country nor its own new Empire. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, iff Bill was himself, he wouldn't believe himself nor trust himself ERGO VOTE/LISTEN TO HIM!?
#3
But the US did very well against Soviet aggression. Why? Because Communism was accepted as a moral evil. Islamism - which is the essence of Islam - is treated as an instrument for democraticization.
Question: what's wrong with the Muslim world? Answer: a handful of extremists are attempting to hijack the noble faith. If you believe otherwise - as I do - then you are very much in the minority.
Look, Wizard, Islam isn't treated as an instrument for democratization - that's manufactured bullshit you crafted out of whole fantasy cloth so you can make your asinine self-aggrandizing argument. It's simplistic tripe worthy only of a grasping simpleton trying to sound self-important.
The effort to democratize would've been made regardless of what brand of barbarity existed. It's the American way. That Islam has held sway in the shitholes of the world for centuries where the current grief is centered is one of the obstacles we are trying to overcome.
It's simple. Try to stay with me... An effort is being made to divide Islam, to give those who would choose peace from those who choose war, rather than having to fight the whole 1.2 billion, or whatever the number is, at once. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won't. It's certainly worth a shot. Any part of that elude you? You don't like it? Tough, fuck off.
You have no answers, just pontification and severe mental and gastric indigestion.
You are a pretentious ass. That certainly diminishes whatever you might, otherwise, contribute.
#6
Because Communism was accepted as a moral evil.
That's too simplistic a description of what happened and doesn't do justice on the ideological war being waged: On the ideological level you were confronting communism with capitalism and collectivism with calls for freedom, even if you sometimes pretended you didn't see what allies of yours were doing. You may have been hypocritical quite often, but ideologically atleast you were clear.
But modern-day America seems unwilling to confront religious fascism with a true and clear embrace of its opposite, which is secularism, unwilling to battle faith-driven murderers with humanistic reason. Even today you get to hear American conservatives insult secularism and humanism, dismiss separation of church and state, insult Europe for being supposedly "over-secular" (whatever the hell that means). A natural disaster happens, and your president calls for "A Day of Prayer".
Prayer to what god? A prayer to Poseidon of the angry seas, a prayer to Allah who punished America for its infidel ways, or a prayer to a Yahwe that simply repeated its Sodom and Gomorrah example? Which one of these you think is gonna help you in your war?
Even in Afghanistan and Iraq you failed to insist that the new constitutions should contain an iron wall of separation between mosque and state, that the new constitutions should *enshrine* secularism as a fundamental characteristic of the state. You merely made do with weak and ineffective calls at "religious freedom" -- ones that are meaningless when put alongside other constitutional passages that name Sharia as a source of law.
The Iraqi constitution is even less secular than it was under Saddam. Can you imagine invading a country during the Cold War, and having the regime you install use an even more communist constitution than the one it had previously? No? And yet that's exactly analogous to what occured in Iraq.
Arguing whether Islam is merciful or violent is utterly irrelevant. Why should we choose interpretation of Islamic scripture as our battlefield? The various Mullahs and Imams are gonna end up on top if we choose such a battlefield.
I don't give a damn whether Islam is peaceful or not -- either way it doesn't have the slightest bit of right to impose upon my life, any more than any other theistic fairy tale does. The "peaceful" Christianity doesn't have any right to try and limit my reading habits any more than the "violent" Islam does.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 5:16
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#9
With arguments such as yours, Robert, how can I do aught but hang my head in humble acknowledgement of an intellectual and moral defeat in your hands?
#10
Aris- you free from National Service yet matey? Any more pics??
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/28/2006 5:33
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#11
Not yet but soon. Early May. And I do have some photos from my time in Samos that I've not posted. Will get around to posting them in my livejournal eventually I'm sure, but I'm not in any hurry.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/28/2006 6:17
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#13
Just a thought... If the enemy is using the 24-hour news cycle to his advantage, wouldn't it make sense for us to have 24-hour press offices in the White House, DoS, and DoD? Instead of one press conference a day, have three? Have guys in the press center 24/7 that can give substantive answers to questions , not just deflect questions until the first team comes on duty at 8:30 AM?
I think that at least if we did that, we could get up from a D- to a C.
#14
I'm used to barracking for the other side of an Aris attack but this time Katsaris, I gotta hand it you, you make sense.
All of what you just said is spot on.
We should be sticking up for secularism against fascist religion.
But we're not.
Why? Multiculturalism is one reason. We have a fifth column who use our legal system and internal political fault lines against us and it has worked to limit the range and expression of foreign policy.
We have imported the enemy within.
Another reason is if we are too forwardly secular we might alienate the moderates and yes we'd have to fight the whole 1.2 billion at once: a fight which could only end one way. Glowing craters.
Meanwhile, #4 that was unnecessarily harsh response. Make your point but you don't need such an ad hominem attack to go with it. Logic and facts are enough.
#15
What gets me is that Father Superior keeps coming back, calling us all barbarians, vowing never to return, then repeats the cycle.
Yeah, we Americans refuse to kick religious people in the face; we actually acknowledge that people have faith, and don't treat it as a disease. How horrible!
Europe has no room to lecture us. Europe's rabid secularism has done how much to protect it from radical Islam? Where, exactly, are people putting forward blasphemy laws? Where, exactly, are their ghettoes effectively run under sharia?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 7:36
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#16
#4 sounds like someone with a history. Someone who's been spending time with the ladies. Someone who's away from home.
#17
Part of the problem is the old guard in your own services don't understand the media. From the Mudville Gazette -
What do you think the future holds for milblogging?
The Navy has a great approach to blogging, can't cite chapter and verse but essentially a simple disclaimer on the site regarding "views expressed are those of the author", no OPSEC or Privacy Act violations, and off you go. If the Army adopts a similar policy (they won't, if for no other reason then it's the Navy policy, and thus reeks of sea air) they will benefit from the best possible PR they could ever hope for (or pay big bucks to civilian PA firms for! - but that's another miserable failure story for another day...) If not, see "more from bitter extremists" comment above.
Maybe if you apply a 2x4 on the side of the CoSA, you can get him to pay attention to one of your more effective means of communications with the people in this war.
#18
15# (snigger) I've noticed that pattern too :)
It has been recurring for years now. Europe is no example to hold up - their Islamist problem is worse than the US though not worse than Britain.
Still, we should really be sticking secularism up their craw, it's their weak point. Absence of science rationality and logic are their weak point.
Getting them to admit you cannot prove or disprove metaphysical theories (ie religion) and thus while free to have personal faith have no right to impose that belief system on others... that would win the war overnight. When they accept that all else flows from that. Then sharia as a legal system evaporates as does the need to colonise.
But we're never going to get them to understand this so better just nuke em I reckon! and stop buying their oil. Gas, methanol/ethanol, non-ME oil is the way to go. Brazilian cars run on methanol no reason ours can't.
#19
Hey! We all have to agree with broadcaster Dennis Prager, that Islamism is a greater threat than Nazism and Communism ever were. Get that Texas school marm airhead, Karen Hughes, out of public diplomacy, and put Dennis in charge.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/dennisprager/2006/03/28/191502.html
#20
I wonder how Verlain in Iraq's press conference went yesterday -- he mentioned they were discussing opnely correcting the more egregious errors of fact promulgated by the local and international news media.
#21
Still, we should really be sticking secularism up their craw, it's their weak point. Absence of science rationality and logic are their weak point.
You're assuming they care. The reality is, they don't. Rationality and logic are tools to ferret out answers; they already have all the answers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 9:12
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#24
Good point RC. From the Islamist point of view our weaknesses are our spiritual vacuum (especially in Europe), societal division (stemming from years of multiculti and all that implies), and lack of political will (probably closely related to the first two). Why does he need science, rationality, and logic? His own people are conditioned from milennia of tyranny to respond meekly to his threats. His analysis consists solely of finding the cracks in our social and political structures that he can exploit to drive wedges and pry bars into and wrench the whole thing apart. After that, he doesn't give a crap. Agriculture? Infrastructure? Education? Infant mortality? None of that matters as long as everyone faces the qibla once a day and prostrates himself to Allah.
The legacy of Islam can be seen across North Africa, through the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia and to the Indus valley before 1900. Desertfication. Starvation. Depopulation. Only Western techniques reversed the trend. But that's just a thin overlay. The same process is occurring in the Sahel right now as the Muslims consolidate their hold. What's going on in sub-Saharan Africa is what happens to the whole world if they win.
#25
The "peaceful" Christianity doesn't have any right to try and limit my reading habits any more than the "violent" Islam does.
Nice diatribe of a pro-EU guy. EU the place where politically incorrect blogs get closed, where there is legislation restricting free speech, wherte the failed constitution (the one Aris was partisans of) allowed to legislate against free speech and where there are propositions of law afor banning critics agsint Islam.
So Chruistianism doesn't ahev the right to restrict Aris speech but he through the EU wants to have the rifght to restrict other people's thoughts.
#26
Amongst all the major religions, Islam is the only one that does not allow anyone to leave it freely.
It is a cult of the coercers and the coerced.
Islam must be reformed or eradicated.
Its that simple.
Mainstream Christianity faced this same choice in many smaller waves, and reformed from within, and later from the outside.
Islam, with its access to the destructive powers of modern weaponsry will not be allowed the same slow timetable, and has no mechanism for internal reform. The only hope lies in external pressures.
The west, both secular and religious, will either fight Islam, forcing its destruction or reform, or succumb to its coercion.
Time to choose is coming, for Islam and for the West.
#27
1. During the cold war, we clearly identified communism as the enemy - NOT anything that wasnt free market capitalism. In fact we worked closely, sometimes publicly, sometimes not, with a range of non-Communist leftists, including Social Democrats, Christian Socialists, etc. And we certainly didnt decide to make our own society less collectivist at the time - in fact that was a time when organized labor was particulalry strong, and when the new deal welfare state was widely accepted. By analogy, theres no reason we should not work with moderate muslims, and no reason to become more secularist at home - at least no WOT reason.
Prager - ive met him, at a Jewish Community event where he was speaker. He didnt impress me all that much, though hes a clever speaker.
I suspect we did well against Communism partly cause the situation was different - we could play on historical eastern european hatred of the Russians. And cause we had enough in common culturally to understand. And cause we were willing to put pretty serious resources into it.
#28
" Islam is the only one that does not allow anyone to leave it freely."
"I. Laws of Constantine the Great, October 18, 315: Concerning Jews, Heaven-Worshippers,* And Samaritans
We wish to make it known to the Jews and their elders and their patriarchs that if, after the enactment of this law, any one of them dares to attack with stones or some other manifestation of anger another who has fled their dangerous sect and attached himself to the worship of God [Christianity], he must speedily be given to the flames and burn~ together with all his accomplices.
Moreover, if any one of the population should join their abominable sect and attend their meetings, he will bear with them the deserved penalties."
#30
I would like to challenge your argument on a number of points, Aris.
But modern-day America seems unwilling to confront religious fascism with a true and clear embrace of its opposite, which is secularism, unwilling to battle faith-driven murderers with humanistic reason. Even today you get to hear American conservatives insult secularism and humanism, dismiss separation of church and state, insult Europe for being supposedly "over-secular" (whatever the hell that means). A natural disaster happens, and your president calls for "A Day of Prayer".
Prayer to what god? A prayer to Poseidon of the angry seas, a prayer to Allah who punished America for its infidel ways, or a prayer to a Yahwe that simply repeated its Sodom and Gomorrah example? Which one of these you think is gonna help you in your war?
First of all, secularism has two meanings: hostility to religion and neutrality in religion. The vast majority of American conservatives embrace the latter if not the former - regardless of what you may believe, no one is calling for the imposition of a theocracy in the United States. Indeed, the very type of conservative coalition that currently exists in the US would render such a system impossible - if a theocracy were set up in the US, which religion would be the state church? As far as far as calling for a day of prayer in the wake of a natural disaster, this is part of a long tradition of civic religion (also termed ceremonial Deism) in the US that has been an element of American culture for over 200 years. It isn't going away any time soon and the vast majority of Americans seem to support it, so if you see it as being every bit as oppressive as a Salafist theocracy I would suggest you reevaluate your sense of perspective here.
As far as fighting religious fascism with "humanistic reason," if as you admit such things have proven thoroughly unimpressive here in the West, why do you see it working out so well in the Islamic world? Or what basis? I am always extremely suspicious of arguments that the US must remove openly religious conservatives from the public sphere in order to best win the war on terrorism, it sounds too much like a sleight-of-hand for those for whom Christian conservatives protesting against abortion in the US will always be more of a threat than the Islamists in London planning to do far more than just protest to implement their political agenda.
Even in Afghanistan and Iraq you failed to insist that the new constitutions should contain an iron wall of separation between mosque and state, that the new constitutions should *enshrine* secularism as a fundamental characteristic of the state. You merely made do with weak and ineffective calls at "religious freedom" -- ones that are meaningless when put alongside other constitutional passages that name Sharia as a source of law.
Except that the US didn't write the constitutions for either Iraq or Afghanistan, the people of both nations with our input. This is kind of a key difference Aris. Contrary to all the self-styled "anti-imperialists," the US doesn't think of its own society as being a utopia (I certainly don't) and we aren't going to force people of Iraq or Afghanistan to conform to what we think is best for them. It's their countries now and they're free to be as stupid and uncivilized as they want to be - that's the risk you take with a democracy and if you want things to be run perfectly all the time, then you want a dictatorship that'll make sure that the dumb rabble will never make any mistakes. We can advise, we can lobby, and we can push, but at the end of the day unless you want a real good old-fashioned empire the US is going to have to defer to the will of the people in both Afghanistan and Iraq as far as what they want their countries to look like.
The Iraqi constitution is even less secular than it was under Saddam. Can you imagine invading a country during the Cold War, and having the regime you install use an even more communist constitution than the one it had previously? No? And yet that's exactly analogous to what occured in Iraq.
Except that "religious" or "Islamic" isn't synonymous with what "communist" meant during the Cold War in this current conflict anywhere except online. As I've noted before, the administration has a far more charitable view of Islam than many of its supporters one encounters online in that they believe that since the Middle East and much of the Islamic world has been the Weimar Republic for the last 80 years and subject to a Saudi-sponsored totalitarian indoctrination campaign for at least the last 30 allows for some mitigating circumstances as far as just how crazy their political, religious, and social views are. A lot of people disagree with this, including many Rantburgers, but those aren't the presuppositions that the administration is working under because they believe at the end of the day that Islam is compatible with democracy and that bin Laden isn't correct when it comes to the Koran.
Arguing whether Islam is merciful or violent is utterly irrelevant. Why should we choose interpretation of Islamic scripture as our battlefield? The various Mullahs and Imams are gonna end up on top if we choose such a battlefield.
I don't give a damn whether Islam is peaceful or not -- either way it doesn't have the slightest bit of right to impose upon my life, any more than any other theistic fairy tale does. The "peaceful" Christianity doesn't have any right to try and limit my reading habits any more than the "violent" Islam does.
If reading habits are all you're worried about, I would seriously doubt you understand what is at stake here. As far as choosing the interpretation of Islamic scripture as our battlefield, from a purely tactical perspective doesn't it make more sense to engage the most dangerous aspects of Islam (Salafism, Khomeinism) rather than declaring war on the religion as a whole (in the name of secular humanism no less! I can't wait to see the support that idea is going to generate ...) and more or less vindicating everything that bin Laden has said. I'm not nearly bloodthirsty enough to want to go to war with a billion people all at once, particularly when so many of them have shown such an amazing willingness and bravery to fight and die alongside our own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan against al-Qaeda. Are we going to force all of the Kurds to adopt secular humanism or die too?
Bottom line is even if you think that Islam as a whole is irredeemable and has to be gotten rid of, there are excellent tactical reasons if nothing else than not declaring a general religious war that would force the vast majority of Muslims to openly side with bin Laden, including a not-inconsiderable number of governments. Believing that Islam as a whole is the enemy means that we're outnumbered by over 600,000,000 (even more than that in the case of Greece) and whenever one is outnumbered it stands to reason that strategy and tactics should always be a major consideration before extending resources or widening the field of battle, particularly widening it as far as some people seem to want it to in pursuit of what I think will be an extremely dubious cause.
As to the substantive point of the article, the US is losing the propaganda war because most of the national press corps can't separate national security from domestic politics with their all-encompassing desire to go after Bushitler and most of planetary press corps believes that the US (and Israel) are the source of most of the world's problems and the administration has done everything it can to insulate rather than explain the war to the general public in our country, let alone internationally. Most people still aren't making the connections between Basayev and Abdur Rehman (assuming they even know who either is) and al-Qaeda so they can't even begin to conceive of the threat, let alone the slow but steady progress we are making against it. As a result of this status quo, why the hell is it remotely surprising that the Osamanauts, who are quite adept at getting their message out through means fair and foul, are winning the PR war?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 11:58
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#31
Well, I for one have come to the realization that NO religion is correct. Every one is a manmade attempt at control of the people. Therefore, in order to allow more people to find the right path, assuming there is such a path, the spread of all religions should be prohibited. Mostly, religions only aggrandize those considered pious. They also provide a platform for accumulating funds which can be misused, thus making for a higher standard of living for some. Religions also provide a community among believers in which various activities can flourish. Beyond that, religions are practically useless. They do, however allow one to close his mind forever.
Not something I'd aspire to.
#32
Liberalhawk:
Old Spook is correct. Medieval Scholasticists as Aquinas advocated extermination of abandoners, but did so without textual sanction. Old Spook didn't use the connective "was," because he was referring to the present. The Muslim extermination edict is in the Bukhari Hadith, and is a direct quote from the phony "prophet" Muhammad. If the West was out of the way, all Islamic capital punishment laws (Had) would be enforced in earnest.
Western governments need to consider the life and liberty of willing members of Western Civilization, and use any and all means to neutralize Muslim aggression.
LH:
Tell me something. What prevents you from setting aside a few hours to read the Bukhari Hadith? It has been posted at the MSA's USC website since 1999. If you want a basic understanding of the second most important text in Islam, then read only parts: 52,57,81,82,83,84. If you had posted the above on Sept. 12, 2001, then I would have understood your ignorance. Not today. Jump hoops!
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/
#34
Aris, calling people's religions "theistic fairy tales" is hardly the kind of tolerance we're looking for in the Middle East or elsewhere. It seems that your idea of secular is to be disdainful of all religions. Secular does not mean athiestic, Aris.
#35
Dan Darling:
I have read most of your published articles. I am as aware as you that the founders of Constitutional Secularism were: Catholics and Protestants. There was a bloody period in the 16th C that has been referred to as "The Age of Wars of Religion." In the interests of universal peace, it was agreed that no single religion should dominate a State. Secularism was a compromise among competing faiths that actually constitutionalized State protection of religions.
The following should also be said. On the separationist' (church-state integration) charges against GWB's "faith based initiatives," the White House is supporting public goals - feeding the poor, etc - by using willing church enterprises. Even the Geldof group has admitted that church charities are better as getting aid to Africa's poor, and he has used them. Southern Baptists should be the first to complain about Muslim jihad-zakats (terror-aid). Our Muslim's overseas"charities" are anti-religion (especially Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism) and terror-based, and directed at feeding and arming jihadis. That warrants State intervention.
#36
I'm going to be blunt for all the islam is a religion of peace morons.
No other religion calls for the murder of anyone that leaves it. You can quote past history of misguided rules but the bottom line is, no other book demands this. None. And if you don't know what century muhamhead was born in or a surah from a hadith keep this in mind, your opinion is just that.
The bloody history of muhamhead's desert cult was formed in murderous blackmail and his only peaceful time, tolerance, was when he was out manned in mecca before they threw his ass out.
Both Buddha and Christ were firm in their calls for peace. muhamhead on the other hand required his followers to murder.
"Time to choose is coming, for Islam and for the West."
#37
As can be seen later on the Church did correct these (the Scholastics) - and call them out as "Errors", marking them as unacceptable. They are counter to the New Testament and have been identified as such. Long ago. Christianity (Catholicism) has corrective mechanisms built-in. Ever read up on the many Councils the Church has called - the 3 most notable were the Council of Nicea, the Council of Trent and the second Vatican council ("Vatican II").
On top of that there are many societal and governmental limitiation upon religion in general that preclude such things from being done int the west. Not so in Islamic nations.
Here's a good example: The Council of Trent (19th council) happened almost 500 years ago to reform the inner life of the Church in response to the protestant movments and various heresies. Did the Church behead all who left it? No. Here's something I bet you didn't know: a safe-conduct was issued for Protestants who desired to come to the council.
Could you imagine such a thing EVER happening in Islam as it stands today?
Where is the process for such a thing in Islam?
Thats the central isssue: not what Christianity has done in the past - its not a threat to behead those who leave, not now nor much any time since the reformation.
The issues - issues that you do NOT address, that you keep changing the subject away from - are:
Islam officially sanctions the routine killing of unbelievers and apostates, its in their accepted canon (the Hadiths). Can Islam reform or must it be eradicated?
The case for reform is not good - and hope for reform is slim. There are NO internal mechanisms in Islam to allow reform - its a religion that at its core has an immutable "exact word of Allah" at its core - i.e. God wrote the Qu'ran and nobody is allowed to change it.
This is contrasted by the "inspired" texts of Christianity, or the Traditions and Torah of Judiasm that admit to God's inspiriation in the writing but that they were written by men. All other texts are anciallry and open to doubt and error (especially ones that you quote, which were civil laws, not Church dogma).
So Islam has no solid internal source for reform. Leaving only external pressures.
And thats where my stance comes from. the West will impose reform on Islam or it will succumb to it. Islam seems structurally incapable for being reformed from within.
Its up to the Islamists to decide: do they force the West to eradicate them or do they change under pressure from the West.
And under the blade (or nuclear warhead) of a would-be Saladin, wether or not you are secular or Christian is of little distinction or import. you either submit to their coercion and convert (and there's no going back) or you die.
#38
Bah, accidentallly hit send before I checked it with preview - typos and blew the em close tag. Sorry for the formatting and any unreadability (dyslexia).
#39
Style accepted, comments clear and worthy.
This debate should be going on in Congress or the UN, but the nature of politics is to remain atop at any cost. Bird shit floats too.
#40
Its time for some blame-Clinton info, if we are talking about rising Muslim jihad expectations. It was his government that ignored Muslim-Bosnia's oppression of Christian Serbs and Croats, causing the reaction to that ethnic-cleansing. Please read the following article from 2000. Yes, the author is the same CAIR leader who is now a jailed terrorist. Notice how the terrorist celebrates the "Islamization of Muslims" which meant non-Muslims had to accept Islamic public education in Bosnia, or leave. I had already strongly opposed the intervention in Kosovo, but reading this article caused me to adopt a war on Islam posture:
http://www.youngmuslimscanada.org/biographies/display.asp?ID=2
Note-Most Westerners have been brainwashed into believing that Euro-Muslims were happy with Clinton-NATO's obscene protection of the Islamofascist entities of Bosnia and Kosovo. This link should remove all doubt concerning the aggressive ends of Islamofascism. Tragically, the percentage of Euro-Muslims has doubled since this article was written. In large sections of France, over half of all babies are born to Muslim parents. Do the math. Once Muslims reach 20% of any European State, in context of delusionary dhimmism and indulgence of immigration invasion, that country is finished. In the case of France, Muslims will be in control of that country's strategic rocket forces. Then, Europe is over.
During the Kosovo insanity, a Serb friend -anti-Slobo - showed me photos of Orthodox Cathedrals and Monasteries in that province. He said that the national interveners (in the armistice, it was agreed that Kosovo was integral to Serbia-Montenegro) were protecting hundreds of years of Orthodox heritage. When the Islamofascists took over, 100% of the holy sites were destroyed. Lesson: if we indulge Muslim aggression by moral retreat, they will take license to advance.
Interpol said the Al Qaeda terrorist group is preparing to engage in biological warfare in urging countries to enact legislation allowing police to investigate scientific activity that can result in the manufacture of a bio-terrorist weapon.
Ronald Noble, secretary-general of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), told a conference in Singapore that captured terrorist suspects have admitted that their groups are plotting potential biological attacks.
There is enough evidence to show that Al Qaeda is preparing to engage in biological warfare, Noble said.
It cant be that we as a world community have to wait for a September 11 type of attack in bio-terrorism before we prepare, Noble told government officials, police and health experts attending the Asian Terrorism Workshop.
Institutions that are engaged in any bioscience need to make sure that the controls they have in place are sure that only legitimate scientific investigative activity is going on, he said.
Police forces worldwide need to be trained, Noble said. They need to know how to investigate bio-terrorism-related cases and how to handle such an attack.
Representatives from 26 Asian countries are attending the three- day conference.
The law enforcement officers were encouraged to coordinate moves aimed at warding off bio-terrorist attacks or days may past prior to the realization that such a calamity has already occurred.
Unlike other forms of terrorist acts where the impact can be felt almost instantaneously in the aftermath, we may not realize that a biological attack has occurred until perhaps days or even weeks later, said Ho Peng Kee, Singapores senior minister of state for law and home affairs.
By that time, the terrorist may already have fled the country or succumbed to the biological agent, and all the valuable investigative leads may have disappeared, Ho noted in a keynote address.
The after-effects of a bio-terrorist attack may be far more widespread in this age of easy air travel, he warned, transcending borders and impacting different continents.
Ho called on countries to reach out to one another and increase their level of cooperation and exchange of information.
Time is of the essence, he said. Networks must be established and strengthened in times of normalcy so that we are resilient enough to confront and overcome crises.
The Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a terrorist group blamed for a spate of attacks and plots throughout Southeast Asia, has relied on bombings, including suicide bombers. A manual discovered in the Philippines in 2003 however indicated interest in acquiring chemical and biological agents.
Singapore passed a law in 2005 carrying a life-imprisonment term for anyone using biological agents for non-peaceful purposes.
As a close ally of the United States, the city-state regards itself as a prime target of terrorists and has uncovered JI plans to attack its infrastructure, transport facilities, the US and Israeli embassies.
The US has been urging Asian countries to enact tougher laws against bio-terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006
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#1
All for the false prophet and the religion of satan.
#2
The Colorado serial bomber used everyday items combined with sophisticated detonators that allowed an aerosol can to spray particles in a large area. This could be devastating with biological or chemical agents in a NCAA arena or any place large groups of people are.
The State Security Specialized Penal Court postponed the trial of 17 suspects accused of forming an armed band and plotting to attack U.S. citizens in Yemen. Last Saturdays session was devoted to final appeals, upon request of the prosecutor, who said he had evidence revealing names of new suspects. The court allowed Prosecution to speak with jail officials concerning prison law application and transferring suspects to the Central Prison. At the session, the prosecutor told the court he has a list of new suspects, which he will show court staff this Saturday after investigating them. He also discussed the courts previous decision to refer two suspects to a legitimate physician and allow their families to visit them.
The prosecutor presented a medical report on health conditions of suspects No. 10 and 13, Ahmad Al-Zahiri and Musaed Al-Berairi, after being transferred to a legitimate physician. He said he allowed suspects families to visit their relatives and denied statements by defense lawyers that they were prevented from meeting their clients.
The defense team asked the court to transfer their clients to the Central Prison and demanded investigating political security officials, alleging they prevented them from meeting their clients. They claimed their clients have been jailed in isolated cells for more than a year, although the law stipulates prisoners must not be kept in detention centers more than 24 hours.
Presenting new evidence, the prosecutor explained that the new suspects will be investigated and referred to the court to try according to Penal Procedure Article 223. The defense team opposed Prosecutions request to adjourn final appeals and prolong case procedures, demanding their clients be released on bail. Abdulmalik Al-Sanabani, the five Saudi suspects defense lawyer, pointed out that three of his clients have been jailed since they arrived in Yemen in 2005 and the other two since 2004. He demanded the court allow the inmates families to visit them and release them on bail.
The father of suspect No. 1 Ali Hayyan Al-Harithi said he handed metals free of explosives to the political security organization chairman and representatives. He pointed out that he signed a paper which he did not know its content, as he is illiterate, while his son was detained at political security. The father of suspect Mohamed Al-Qabsh, a Yemeni expatriate, said, I notified Yemens political security that my son wanted to travel to Iraq for jihad and therefore, he faced a false charge. The defense lawyer for suspects No. 4 and 16 responded to the four-page lawsuit and presented documents stating that his client, suspect No. 16 Mohamed Arafj, has suffered mental disorders for 10 years. He claimed Arafjs health deteriorated much more after entering political security detention and he still is taking medicine.
The 17 suspects, including five Saudi nationals, face charges of forming an armed band in 2004 and 2005 to launch offensives against U.S. citizens in Yemen and senior government officials. The band was accused of belonging to Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawis cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Hundreds of people protested in Afghanistan on Monday against a court's decision to drop a case against a man who converted from Islam to Christianity,
"Whaddya mean, we can't dismember him?"
while an official said discussions were underway to determine when he would be released. Officials said the case was dropped Sunday partially because of concerns that Abdul Rahman is mentally unfit to face trial. The move also followed strong pressure from Western governments.
"The man's obviously unfit to stand trial in a court in a Muslim country! He's perfectly rational!"
Prosecutors have said they want doctors to examine Rahman, but they have not confirmed that he would be released.
"Doctor! Look at this!"
"By Gad, Dr. Mahmoud! Not only is his turban not too tightly wound, but... but... but he doesn't have a turban!"
"Nurse! Quick! Get the salts for Dr. Ahmed!"
Prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said state attorneys were working on the case Monday and an announcement would be made later in the day. An Afghan official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that the 41-year-old would be released, but authorities were debating how and when it would be done.
I'd suggest in the dead of night, under armed guard, on the tarmac, with engines running.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, had earlier said that a decision may be made by Monday and that Rahman would not have to remain in jail while prosecutors investigate whether to bring another case against him to the courts. Rahman is being held at Kabul's notorious high-security Policharki prison. He was moved there Friday after inmates at a police detention facility reportedly threatened him.
Just like the holy men did.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"...after inmates at a police detention facility reportedly threatened him."
Heh inmates in western prisons threaten rapists and pedophiles and hold religious converts in higher esteem. Looks like just the opposite in the ME.
...At the conference, the following five major "hostile forces" were announced:
(1) international anti-China/anti-communist organizations;
(2) international hostile organizations (42 international and regional organizations were named);
(3) Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang separatist forces;
(4) cults and anti-China/anti-communist religious forces; and
(5) hostile forces in exile.
...the intentions of the five major hostile forces:
1. Create "the China threat theory" in the international community, sow discord between neighboring countries and China, thereby containing China's peaceful emergence.
2. Increase activity for Taiwan's independence, challenging our country's territorial integrity, thus affecting the country's working strategy, based on socialism.
3. Instigate support for Tibetan and Xinjiang independence in the international community so as to threaten China's sovereignty and interfere with internal affairs.
4. Deliberately politicize economic problems and internationalize domestic problems.
5. Make use of our open policy to infiltrate domains like politics, economy, education, news, etc.
6. Act as the catalyst for social contradictions, seizing the opportunity to spread rumors and stir up trouble.
7. Use the Internet and telecommunications to spread rumors about our social system and leadership.
8. Intensify social contradictions, which become events that oppose the social system and the government.
9. Plan to establish political organizations in China that aim to subvert the current regime, and engage in hostile political activity under the pretence of religion.
10. Bribe overseas students, scholars and new immigrants, so that they will carry out hostile activities when they return to one's native country to work.
...domestic "internal contradictions" are very "thorny," and could be easily intensified. Also, "external hostile infiltration" would not be difficult to manage, as it could be legally dealt with, and publicly exposed.
#1
Okey dokey, the "first tier" goes through the ALeutians to Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines; the second from more of the Aleuts-Alaska thru Guam, the Marianas and most of Micronesia; whilst the third tier includes parts = all of Alaska, Hawaii, and large parts of North, Central and South Americas, exclusive of course of the Chicoms wanting Americans to believe the mass extermination of Americans is good for America. Any war wid the PRC will be a battle/war to the death, for both America and Asia's democracies, no matter the PC diplo-speak, and no matter any periods of seeming inaction in-between opposing campaigns. America and its Allies either rule the world and future OWG, or they will be destroyed, iff only becuz America's enemies will give neither America nor themselves the same choices.
Local Taliban executed a 25-year-old man for killing a taxi driver in South Waziristan under Islamic law (Sharia), said residents on Monday. The execution is the first case tried under Sharia in the tribal areas.
Hayat Gul was executed on Sunday at an undisclosed location in Ladah sub-division of South Waziristan after a Taliban shura (council) found him guilty. "The accused was buried on Monday," Inayatullah Mehsud, a shopkeeper in Ladah bazaar told Daily Times. "He was a professional car-snatcher - a bad guy."
Gul was accused of killing Bilal, a taxi driver, in Wana a month ago. Bilal's family had appealed to the shura for justice. "Gul pleaded guilty and was allowed to ask for forgiveness from the deceased's family, which rejected his plea," said the shura.
Clerics announced Sharia in South Waziristan on March 10. A NWFP Governor's FATA Secretariat spokesman denied on March 17 that the area had been taken over by the Taliban but added that a peace committee was formed to maintain peace in Waziristan. The execution comes two days after Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao denied the Taliban presence in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sharia - even a stopped clock is right twice a day (or once, depending on format).
#3
Yep. That Tallyban sure is good for getting the trains to run on time.
At least until the Talib Scholars' Association determines that trains are unIslamic and that railway engineers and passengers have humiliated the Profit.
I am not impressed with the Taliban justice system, in any form.
#4
sometimes i wish our justice system worked as fast
I don't. I want every trial to be fair and just, not speedy. At the same time, I think any lawyer that stretched a trial out longer than necessary should get the same sentence as his client. The same goes for those sponsoring constant appeals when there's little or no doubt of the defendant's guilt.
On the other hand, Sharia works too speedily, and there's too much religious bigotry and passioned involvement in what should be a thoughtful, well-reasoned activity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 15:44
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Hasan Khreishi, deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Monday called for Hamas to be removed from the EU list of terrorist organizations and for continued support for the Palestinian Authority.
"Starvation will push the Palestinian people into alliances you do not wish. A hungry man is an angry man," Khreishi told the annual preliminary session of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) which opened in Brussels Monday.
He condemned the "killings, the kidnappings at the checkpoints" by Israel and called for the publication of an EU report on discrimination against Palestinians in Jerusalem and for European companies to boycott projects such as a tram link between Israeli settlements and Jerusalem.
Moroccan parliament Speaker Abdelwahad Radi said that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued to be one of the most important obstacles to better relations between the western and the Muslim world: "We will have to talk to each other in order to achieve good neighbourliness. This conflict does not only hold our region hostage, but the entire world."
Josep Borrell, President of the European Parliament and EMPA, in his opening remarks said that relations between Europe and the Muslim world would pose the most important challenge for Europe in the years to come. On the cartoons furore, Borrell recalled that the EMPA presidium was among the first to deplore them and to call for calm.
Turkish representative Zeynep Uslu said freedom of expression was an essential value, but not a limitless freedom, something the Court of Human Rights had also stated.
"Freedom of expression must be exercised with respect for religions," she said.
With a certain religion getting much more respect than others...
EMPA brings together members of parliament from the 25 EU member states, the ten Euromed partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey) and members of the soon-to-be-League-of-Dhimmis European Parliament.
#2
They don't want to do what's necessary to get removed from the terrorist list, but they want to be removed anyway. The EU should say "NO" quite loudly and publically, and should stick by it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 19:04
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U.N. Security Council powers held out hope on Monday for agreement this week on a statement to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, but a deal still appeared elusive before a forthcoming ministerial meeting.
Russia, backed by China, opposes heavy Security Council involvement on Iran, fearing it would lead to punitive measures. Moscow last week proposed gutting a large part of the draft that asks Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment efforts, which could produce weapons-grade fuel. Tehran says its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes, while the West believes it is a cover for bomb making.
On Thursday, the foreign ministers of the five council powers and Germany are due to meet in Berlin to hammer out strategy and try to break any remaining impasse on the statement.
Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, told reporters: "We need to agree on the text and if possible to have it ready for adoption. If we can finish it before Thursday, we will." But he cautioned that the five were only "edging forward."
"We're looking now at a mix of different comments on basic texts," Jones Parry said. "We've made a bit of progress but we have quite a lot more progress to make."
#1
"We've made a lot of progress" - on the best likely method of surrender, as we want to give the Mullahs their nukes and Regional-Global Empire/Caliphate while pretending they have no intent to threaten us afterwards.
#7
This is why I could never be a diplomat. I'd probably say something like: "Why don't we kick this statement around some more. I need a good show of diplomacy right up until our late-April pre-emptive strike."
Followers of Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were involved in a gunfight in the Sur Dhand area of Bara in Khyber Agency on Monday, in which at least five people were killed and 25 injured. Sources told Daily Times that the gunfight was still underway till the filing of this report. Reports from Bara suggest that the group of Muftis supporters asked Badshah Jee, an Afghan refugee and follower of the Pir, to vacate his house at Sur Dhand and hand over weapons to them. Badshah Jee, however, did not comply and the Mufti Group moved to occupy his house by force. Both the groups used heavy weapons against each other, which led to considerable bloodshed on both sides. Those killed have been identified as Nama Jan, Gul wali, Shango, Rahim and Feroz Khan.
Meanwhile, a press note released from the Governors Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat said that the situation in Bara was normal on Monday after an armed clash between two rival religious groups that left four-five people injured. The clash occurred when followers of Mufti Munir Shakir tried to set Badshahs house in Malik Din Khel on fire. The owner of the house, in retaliation, opened fire on the attackers, who were headed by Mangal Bagh. The political administration exercised maximum restraint, but finally ordered security personnel to open artillery fire to bring the situation under control, the release said.
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#1
From BBC: Hundreds of supporters of Mufti Munir Shakir are reported to have attacked the stronghold of rival Afghan cleric, Pir Saifur Rehman, killing at least 16 people late on Monday, officials say. Mullah Rehman's supporters are said to have retaliated on Tuesday, attacking their opponents in the nearby town of Bara. Our correspondent says Mufti Shakir is said to be a hardline fundamentalist who strongly opposes Mullah Rehman's secular Sufi interpretation of Islam. He says some of the dead are believed to be supporters of the Sufi cleric from Afghanistan.
Bara is the main trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an important town in Khyber agency which borders Afghanistan. The town is also said to be a hub for smuggled goods. Both clerics have been operating illegal FM stations to broadcast their religious beliefs and denounce the rival group as heretics. The two groups have also accused each one another of taking women and children hostage.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 8:30
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I think newspapers are prejudiced. They constantly have articles about Mulim-against-Muslim violence, but never similar reportng about Lutheran, Episcopalian, Catholic, Jewish, or Bhuddist violence. What? Oh, never mind....
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 15:37
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WANA: Six schoolchildren were injured when their bus hit a landmine in Shakai Valley of South Waziristan on Monday, an official and residents said. Two students, between six and nine, were reported in serious condition in hospital, administration officials said in Wana, the regional headquarters of South Waziristan. The incident took place 35 kilometres northwest of Wana in Shakai Valley, which was a stronghold of militants before army operation in June 2004. "The injured students were from a school in Shakai," the officials said. "Two of them are serious," they added.
Meanwhile, militants attacked the airport in North Waziristan causing some damage to runway, security sources in Miranshah said. A rocket landed on the runway at 1.30am on Monday, damaging it mildly.
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I guess a late start is better than no start at all, assuming it's an actual start. I do hope the staff of the Grand Mosque in Mecca will be attending.
Nonsense. They'll be, um....washing their turbans that day.
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs and the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue will organize short courses for imams throughout Saudi Arabia in order to spread a culture of dialogue and forgiveness, sources told Asharq al Awsat. The courses will include lectures by senior ulema in Saudi Arabia, including the Saudi mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al Sheikh and members of the Senior Ulema Commission, aimed at advising imams to spread a culture of dialogue and accept divergent opinions, while shunning extremism.
Good choice. He's the guy that issued the fatwah against Valentine's Day...
This breakthrough step will involve a large numbers of imams and khateebs (those who lead the prayers at mosques) in different regions of the Kingdom. These sessions are part of a wider campaign by King Abdulaziz Center to spread a culture of dialogue, building on the recommendations of the first national dialogue in 2003, which stressed that Islam is a moderate religion that does not accept extremism and distinguishes between extremist attitudes and religious piousness, in addition to understanding that difference and intellectual diversity and sectarian pluralism are a fact of life and natural occurrences that ought to be exploited/used to construct a strategy to deal with others using dialogue and advice.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Israeli authorities have closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque Monday morning, allegedly following warnings by Jewish extremists to attack the holy shrines and disrupt the Israeli elections due on Tuesday. Israeli police warned of more than 70 alerts of planned terror attacks to coincide with this week's elections, reported the Haaretz newspaper.
Israeli Police also alleged that Palestinian militants "are planning to use the politically charged time to cause provocations." Israeli police forces were put on high alert status Sunday, 48 hours before the opening of polling stations. A Police spokesman was quoted by Haaretz as saying 22,000 uniformed and undercover officers would deploy at city entrances and at shopping malls and other public places deemed possible targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
Today is Israel's election day. Who they choose has nothing to do with what will happen next, but everything to do with how Israel responds to what happens next.
Faster please.
Kadima first, with 29 to 32 seats
Labour, 20 to 21 seats.
Israel Beitenu, (a hawkish party largely of Russian immigrants) 12-14 seats (big surprise)
Likud - a disastrous fourth place, 11 to 12 seats.
Shas 10 -11 seats
Pensioners party 6 to 8 seats - huge surprise.
Police searched business premises across Germany in connection with an investigation into the illegal export of equipment for Iran's controversial nuclear programme, prosecutors said Monday. One of the companies searched was believed to be a front for the illegal export of hydraulic pumps and transformer parts, which could be used in nuclear facilities, prosecutor Benedikt Welfens said. German law restricts the sale to Iran of such dual use equipment, which has applications in both military and civilian programmes. Seven persons, most of them of Russian extraction, are under investigation in connection with the illegal exports, which investigations showed reached Iran via Russia. Police seized data, a special cable ready for export and cash during last week's raid of 41 premises in 10 German states. Prosecutors said five or six firms were suspected of having supplied the front company with material, but only one is believed to have known the true destination. No arrests have been made so far in the case.
MANILA: At least nine people were killed and more than 20 seriously wounded Monday in a bomb blast on the restive southern Philippine island of Jolo, police and witnesses said. "As of the moment, we have an initial nine dead on the spot," Jolo provincial police chief Ahiron Ajirin told reporters. The bomb was planted on the ground floor of a two-storey building along a busy street in the centre of Jolo town. Those killed were mostly employees working in a cooperative there, he said.
Police set up road blocks around the town and many businesses closed early following the blast. An AFP reporter said he saw more than 20 people with severe burns taken to Jolo's provincial hospital. Part of the building's facade fell to the ground after the explosion, the second deadly bomb attack to hit the area this year. No group has claimed responsibility. Ajirin said one man had been taken in for questioning but would not say if he was a suspect.
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ISLAMABAD: The United States consulate in Peshawar has been temporarily closed following bomb threats by unidentified militant groups. Sources in the US consulate said that unidentified militants had threatened to blow the consulate up. The consulate administration contacted the police following the threats and increased security in the area. The consulate would be shifted elsewhere in the city, sources said. According to another report, US Consulate General Michele Supernager decided to close the consulate but refused to share information about its shifting the consulate staff.
Guess they were right:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb blast killed at least one man and wounded 15 others in Peshawar on Tuesday hours after the United States said it had temporarily closed its consulate in the northwestern Pakistani city after receiving a threat. The blast was caused by explosives planted on a motorcycle parked in a crowded bazaar in the city center, according to the city's Senior Superintendent of Police Operations, Saeed Wazir.
Earlier on Tuesday, a spokeswoman at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad said its consulate in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, had been temporarily closed after receiving a threat. "They received a specific and credible threat," spokeswoman Nida Emmons told Reuters, without elaborating.
Emmons said the consulate had been closed "until further notice", while U.S. and Pakistani authorities coordinated on security measures.
"They may have received bomb threats, but the threat was not so great for them to take such a drastic step," said Malik Zafar Azam, a Law Minister in the Islamist-led provincial government.
NWFP's provincial government is led by an anti-American Islamist alliance, and anti-American sentiments have been further stirred by the conflict in adjoining tribal regions straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border, where Pakistan, Afghan and U.S. troops are fighting Taliban and al Qaeda-inspired insurgents. The United States has maintained its consulate in Peshawar since the 1950s mainly because of the strategic importance of the region during the Cold War and because it lies on the main overland route to Afghanistan. The consulate was particularly busy during the 1980s when the United States covertly funded a guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006
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#1
So the US has a consulate in Peshawar? Talk about hardship post. That is jihad central. I would offer those who do it, either Bermuda or Bahamas for their next post.
#3
Peshawar must be a haven for intelligence types, or the diplomatic equivalent of Butte, Montana, for the FBI.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2006 11:31
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A bright spot for the posting - maybe you could slide down to the souk and put in an order for 50,000 Kalishnakovs - get back to your computer and watch the futures market.
Four civilians who were sentenced to death by a military court for involvement in an assassination bid on President Gen Pervez Musharraf appealed to the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday. Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Ikhlas Ahmed, who are presently confined in Attock district jail, were arrested in December 2003 and January 2004 for involvement in the assassination attempt on Gen Musharraf on December 25, 2003. Army intelligence authorities investigated them and then presented a joint summary of evidence in October-November 2004. The accused were challaned and jointly tendered for trial before a Field General Court Martial. The trial was conducted from March 29 to July 21, 2005. The court sentenced the four to death while two others, Rana Naveed and Aamir Sohail, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 20 years in jail respectively.
The appeals of the death convicts were rejected by the military court of appeals. Now they have invoked the jurisdiction of the high court. The defence secretary and federal government have been made respondents in the case. The joint petition, filed by advocate Hashmat Habib and Colonel (r) Muhammad Akram, contends that civilians cannot be tried by a military court under the Pakistan Army Act. The accused also contend that the maximum punishment under the framed charges is life imprisonment and not death sentence under the Pakistan Penal Code.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Hamas called on Monday for talks with Western powers to try to reach a just peace in the Middle East but showed no sign of softening its stance on Israel as it presented its government to the Palestinian parliament. Hamas prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, told parliament that the new government, expected to win a vote of confidence on Tuesday or Wednesday, would be ready for a dialogue with the quartet of mediating powers.
The quartet - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - has said Hamas, winner of Palestinian elections in January, must recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements or risk losing vital aid.
The parliament session came on the eve of elections in Israel, where the main issue is a plan by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to withdraw from remote Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank while expanding the largest blocs. The people have the right to struggle against the occupation, Haniyeh said. But he added: Our government will be ready for a dialogue with the quartet ... to look into all ways to end the status of struggle and to achieve calm in the region. Our people are in need more than any other nation on earth for peace, for security and stability. Our government will not spare any effort to achieve a just peace in the region.
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Two Palestinian terrorists spotted crawling near Gaza's Erez Crossing were shot and killed by IDF troops on Monday, as security forces deployed throughout the country to prevent terror groups from launching attacks which could influence the outcome of Tuesday's elections.
Officials raised the level of alert to a state of emergency, and 22,000 policemen, backing up thousands of IDF troops, were set to deploy throughout the country on Tuesday. They were to be deployed with an emphasis on guarding entrances to cities, major entertainment spots and the seam line with the West Bank. On Monday, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) recorded close to 90 terror threats. In light of the increase in terror threats, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided Monday night to bolster the closure on the territories and to close all crossings into Israel from both the West Bank and Gaza. They are due to be reopened Wednesday.
Early Monday, IDF troops from the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion spotted a cell of three armed Palestinians crawling between bushes some 250 meters from the northern Gaza Strip security fence. Backed by tank fire and IAF missiles, the troops opened fire and killed two members of the cell. The third, the army said, was wounded but succeeded in fleeing the scene.
Deputy commander of the battalion Maj. Golan Wach said the army had spotted the same cell in the past trying to test the soldiers' alertness along the border. He said the decision to use tank and air fire in addition to the light weapons was part of a new tactic the army has implemented in countering terror attacks from its positions outside the Gaza Strip. The terrorists were identified as members of Islamic Jihad and the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades - the armed branch of the Fatah movement.
Earlier in the day, the IAF fired two missiles at a car in Gaza City wounding two members of the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades. The army said that the two were on their way to fire Kassam rockets at Israel.
Two Palestinian security personnel were injured Monday morning when an Israeli Army aircraft attacked three members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Palestinian security sources said an Israeli reconnaissance plane unleashed two missiles towards the car transporting Mohammad Hijazi, a leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and two members of the Brigades in the Al-Sheikh Radhwan town in northern Gaza Strip.
The sources added that all three individuals were unharmed; however two security personnel close to the vehicle were injured. Emergency teams arrived at the site shortly afterwards, while explosive experts defused an Israeli missile that landed in the area but didn't explode. Mohammad Hijazi is one of the individuals on the top of the Israeli wanted list accused of masterminding the missile attacks on Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Hijazi previously survived two assassination attempts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006
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#1
"but didn't explode" Are the Israelis having quality control issues with their missiles, or is this an acceptable failure rate?
Posted by: James ||
03/28/2006 0:44
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Isn't that an oxymoron? "Martyrs Brigades leader survives"
I thought martyrs by definition...are, well, martyred? Maybe he should be called Al-Aqsa Cowards Brigades leader.
#3
"Hijazi previously survived two assassination attempts. "
Sounds like he's just extremely lucky.
Mind you to paraprase the IRA, Israel only has to be lucky once.
#4
IIRC, the Israelis disable the warhead and go for a kinetic kill to limit the damage to the occupants of the car. The pilot can divert the missile since he has a live video feed. Most likely they survived because the pilot saw all the baby ducks and puppies and aborted the attack.
Posted by: bruce ||
03/28/2006 6:30
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Sounds like the old joke about the Kamakazi Pilot who flew 37 missions.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2006 8:37
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RJ-
Trouble is, that wasn't a joke. There were more than a few kamikaze who flew several missions - early on in the program they were under orders not to go in unless they could find a target and be sure of destroying it. Many of them literally walked out on the program when it started being no more than throwing bodies at the US Navy.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2006 12:38
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PESHAWAR: An Accountability Court (AC) on Monday sent the two government officials involved in quake relief fund scam to jail on a judicial remand. The NAB arrested Saifur Rehman, a patwari, and Mir Dad Khan, a general councillor, on March 9, 2006. They were accused of releasing money from the President's Relief Fund for earthquake victims to their relatives and acquaintances on fake national identity cards in Namli Maira in Abbottabad district. The officials were presented in the AC after the completion of their 18-day physical remand. The NAB prosecutor told the court that the bureau had completed its investigations and the accused were no longer required for investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The death toll from the suicide attack against an Iraqi army base in the city of Mosul has risen to 40 with 30 more injured, a military source said Monday. It added that the attack, which took place in the "Kisk recruitment center, " was mounted by a "suicide terrorist, who detonated an explosive belt near a crowd of volunteer recruits at the center's gate." The number of dead is likely to rise again, given that several of the injured had sustained grave injuries, the source said.
In December 2004, a similar kamikase attack took place in a tent that was used as a mess for US servicemen in Mosul. The attack left 22 dead, including 14 US soldiers and 4 US civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
If these guys could get over their dislike of dogs, one wonders if this type of event might be less likely.
#2
Why do they still line up at the gates ?
Have these people so little smarts that they can't figure how to spread out to avoid such catsasstrophies ?
Five people, including one Britain soldier and four civilians, were killed and as many wounded in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan on Monday. In the first incident, one British soldier was killed and three others wounded in a head-on collision between their car and a truck in the insurgency-plagued Helmand province. Local officials said the soldiers were driving on the wrong side and this was why the other vehicle collided with it. However, the foreign troopers did not issue any comment. The injured soldiers were rushed to a hospital by their colleagues.
Separately, a civilian vehicle flipped over a roadside landmine in the same province that resulted in killing of four people. Two others wounded in the blast. Spokesman for the provincial governor Mohyuddin said the vehicle was hit by a landmine planted by Taliban. Three days back, one US soldier and six Taliban were killed in a fierce battle in the same province. The Afghan officials believe the recent mine was planted to attack the government forces; however, it hit the civilians. Besides, many areas of Afghanistan are still infested with war-era landmines.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Five Islamic militants were shot dead by Indian troops during gunbattles in revolt-hit Kashmir on Monday, a police spokesman said. He said four were killed in three separate gunbattles in the northern district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir. A key member of hardline Lashkar-e-Taiba was killed in another shootout in the southern Doda district, he said.
Isn't it a little early for the Spring Offensive(tm)? Globalwarming comes to the mountain passes of Kashmir.
Posted by: Fred ||
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Local Taliban have threatened residents of a Dera Ismail Khan village to give up their annual spring fair with a religious group saying it will hold a conference to eulogise Mujahideen in its place, Daily Times has learnt. The fair is an annual event in Shah Alam village in Durabin that begin from April 1. "People compete in games such as archery and kabaddi and young and old alike participate in the three-day fair," one resident said.
However, Taliban have told the people the fair is "un-Islamic". Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat has announced that it would hold "Azmat-e-Muajhid Conference" at the place where the fair is held every year and leaders of Sipah-e-Sahaba have been invited on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
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At least seven people died and 30 others suffered injuries when a three-storey building collapsed in southern sector of the Iraqi capital on Monday, a source of the interior ministry said. The source indicated that it was not yet determined whether the building was hit with shells or was blown up with explosives. Rescuers are sifting through the rubble to try locate survivors.
In the Baghdad suburban region of Al-Sadr, a bomb blew up on a bus killing two civilians and wounding six others, a source of the interior ministry reported. Elsewhere, American troops stormed a building occupied by Iraqi interior ministry personnel and detained 40 of the regulars after locating 17 prisoners in the building, a security source told KUNA. The American troops surrounded the building, located in the center of the capital, at dawn before storming it at noon time.
Police in southern city of Basra said Shatt Al-Arab Hotel, occupied by British troops, was attacked with Katyusha rockets, causing some damage.
Posted by: Fred ||
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LAHORE: About two dozen senior officials of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) have either been fired or removed from the department on corruption charges in the last 18 months, sources told Daily Times on Monday.
Honest to Gawd, we don't make this stuff up. We couldn't do it if we tried...
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Indian Government Monday said it was developing transgenic tomatos which could grow in cold environment of Himalayas, for its soldiers posted at Siachen, world's highest battlefield. "One of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratories at high altitude in Himalayas has undertaken the development of transgenic tomato which can grow in the cold environment of Himalayas to provide fresh vegetable to our soldiers guarding our borders," Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Delhi Monday. He said the country needed a second green revolution to meet the challenges of feeding the growing population not only in India but also at the global level. "This could be achieved by developing transgenic plants through biotechnology procedures and tools which can be accomplished by identifying the plants genes responsible for drought resistance, past resistance, saline tolerance and cold tolerance and then develop genetically engineered transgenic plants for our specific needs," Mr Mukherjee said at a conference on Biotechnology and Nanotechnology in the capital city. In view of limited sources of conventional energy and availability of vast resource of biomass in the country, the Defence Minister said India needed to focus its research and development to commercial extraction of energy from biomass. "Bio fuel using plant sources or ethanol and also the blue green algae, which can produce hydrogen gas for use in fuel cell, can contribute to meet the energy needs," he said. Indian soldiers and their Pakistani counterpart are placed at Siachen under difficult circumstances since 1980s.
#2
The Siachen glacier lies in the extreme north-central part of Jammu and Kashmir near the border of India and Tibet. With a length of about 72-km, Siachen is known as the largest glacier in the world outside the Polar Regions. Located on the north-facing slopes of the Karakoram Range, Siachen feeds the Mutzgah or Shaksgam River that flows parallel to the Karakoram Range before entering into Tibet.
Large tributary glaciers like the Shelkar Chorten and Mamostang open into the main glacier from both sides of its trough. The trunk glacier and its tributaries are in the form of a vast ice field, particularly during the winter season when there is continuous snowfall for several weeks at a stretch
Countries affected by the south Asian tsunami should have a warning system against sea surges in place by July, the UN's top humanitarian official promised Monday at the start of a UN conference here. The early alert system will not cover every community in the vast area that was devastated by killer waves on December 26, 2004, but should function on a national and regional level, UN Under Secretary Jan Egeland told reporters. "I think we will have a warning system operational from July. It does not mean every villager in every community will have a system to warn him or her, but we will have regional and national systems," he said. Egeland was speaking at the start of the Third Conference on Early Warning, a UN gathering designed to improve how alerts about natural disasters are sent out to authorities and the public.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
This almost implies Jan Egeland had something to do with it. And the image conjured, UN - as savior, LOL. Marvelous spin. The actual efficacy of such detection systems ranges from poor to moderate. I note that the article doesn't even bother to identify the type. BPR (Buoy-Bottom Pressure Record) seems to be the most effective available at this point in time, and it's what the US and Japan use. I wonder if Jan Egeland would know a buoy from a boy. Oh, sorry, I forgot I was talking about the UN.
#3
I'm sure it consists of scheduling a luncheon at a 5-star hotel (above the flood area) to discuss the pending wave action - oh and to schedule a conference about the same.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Monday the government aimed to produce more armaments to reduce the dependency on foreign imports, but he was quick to add that it had to be realistic with the nation's capability. He said the government had a dream of creating a defence industry with high capabilities in the weaponry and maintenance sector.
"We must be realistic, in other words, whatever that we wish to do and produce must be based on viability. If for instance, we want to manufacture fighter jets, certainly it is beyond our means and reach. But what we can do is, we must take into account the elements of viability," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) in the Dewan Rakyat, here Monday.
Najib, who is also the Defence Minister, said companies which were capable of producing armaments in the country would be given the opportunity to develop the defence industry more systematically. He said the development of the national defence industry would not be a threat to western nations as the capability of the local defence ministry was currently more geared towards activities of installation, production of basic equipment, supervision, maintenance and overhaul.
"The nation is still dependent on foreign suppliers for military hardware such as submarines and fighter aircraft," he said.
Najib said through the defence industry development plan, several medium and small companies were encouraged to be directly involved or they could take part through the vendor development programme. He also admitted that the involvement in the defence industry would generate income and provide good returns for the economy.
#1
101. Do you admit that Muhammad concocted bis so-called Koran, for the wealth and sex that accompanied his self-appointed "prophet" status, and that sharia is the name for the legal code, cherry picked from Christian, Roman and Jewish doctrine, and was and is used by elites as a means to control servant classes.
#5
Do you promise to drive the Autobahn with such speed, that if you have an accident your remains will be reduced to a couple of handfuls of black dust, which will immediately spread by the wind over neighboring countries, so the German government can pay reparations to them for toxic waste cleanup?
President Robert Mugabe's increasingly paranoid regime has gazetted a new Bill to deal with terrorism and mercenary activity. Named the Suppression of Foreign and International Terrorism Bill (2006), the piece of legislation seeks to curtail foreign and international terrorism, including mercenary activity.
The proposed legislation comes in the wake of the recent discovery of a large arms cache with an assortment of weapons and ammunition in Mutare that was linked to a self-proclaimed, terrorist group Zimbabwe Freedom Movement. Several opposition activists who were picked up in connection with the case have since been released after the High Court ruled that they had been wrongfully arrested.
Under the proposed legislation, it would be an offence to undergo training for foreign or international terrorism, to recruit persons to undergo such training, or to possess weaponry that would be used for the purposes of foreign or international terrorist activity. The maximum penalty under the proposed law for such offences would be life imprisonment.
It would also be an offence to knowingly harbour or conceal a foreign or international terrorist or to fail to report such terrorist within 72 hours of becoming aware of his or her presence in Zimbabwe. The maximum penalties for such offences would be a hefty fine or 10 years imprisonment or both in the case of harbouring or concealing a foreign or international terrorist.
The giant Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed on the orders of Osama Bin Laden, both as an act of provocation and as a "rehearsal" for 9/11, according to Christian Frei, director of the acclaimed Swiss documentary on the two figures carved into the side of a mountain more than 1,500 years ago. He said there was documentary evidence that Mullah Omar and the Afghans who lived in Bamiyan had been opposed to the demolition of the historic figures, described by UNESCO as the heritage of not only Afghans but all mankind.
Mullah Omar wasn't among the Afghans who lived in Bamiyan. They are, I believe, Hazaras, who're mostly Shiite, therefore apostates to the likes of Mullah Omar. Or at least heretics.
The 90-minute documentary 'The Giant Buddhas', was shown to a large and appreciative audience at Washington's National Gallery of Art on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I believe that Taliban and Al-Qaeda formed an integrated entity. Pashto are the most slavishly Arabist peoples in the World. We should look at them as voluntary beasts of burden, for Arabs. Where I live, Arabs compete with Pakis for taxicab jobs. The master race in action.
You know nothing about Pashtouns so shut up. Mullah Omar could have been in awe when he saw an Arab but he was more or less the only one to feel like this.
I have visited Pashtoun sites some of them visited by Islamists and even between them the majority had little esteem for the Arabs. A recurring sentence was: "Pashtouns adopted Islam voluntarily. An Arab invasion would had not gone ten miles in Pashtoun land". In fact during the war against teh Russians most Pashtouns guerrillas would not allow Arabs to fight.
That is for the Islamists, then you have the traditionalists who basically say "We want Pashtunwali and not Shariah. This is Arab" (textual excerpt from a nationalist website).
And then you have Pashtouns who dream about democracy and talk about how the Hadj allows Arabs from Arabia to make Ze Big Bucks.
For the Taliban, these were Pashtoun boys who had been brainwashed since childhood in madrassas in Pakistan (often located out of Pashtoun areas). Even between them there was resentment about Mullah Omar's kneeling in front of Arabs.
BTW: Yesterday you also said stupid things about France's judiciary system. Cound you please turn seven times your tongue, or still better your keyboard, in your mouth before posting? Thank you in advance.
#3
Of course the sample I am basing for my harsh words about "Pashtouns are the most Arabist people in the world" is composed exclusively of Pashtouns with some class of net access and being able to write a minimum of English (even if at times is very broken English and interspersed with some Pashto), so you could argue that my sample is not representative. I agree about that but allow me to be sceptical about Pashtoons being in awe about Arabs.
Oh, while we are at it, while scanning archives I stumbled upon a post of none other than Golbodin Hekmatyar (posted before teh fall of the Taliban).
MIRANSHAH: Sixty-nine Afghans detained in a crackdown against suspected militants in North Waziristan were freed on Monday and returned home, an official said. Authorities detained 150 Afghans in North Waziristan on suspicion of fighting alongside local militants in battles earlier this month against security forces in the region, a local government official said.
Afghans had been ordered to return home or face punishment following the violence, which killed scores of militants and at least eight soldiers. On Monday, the 69 refugees among those arrested were released after they were cleared of involvement in the fighting by the government, the local government official said. They were driven by security forces in several pickup trucks to Ghulam Khan, a border crossing with Afghanistan and released inside Afghan territory, he said. They were told not to return, the Afghan official said. Also on Monday, 13 more Afghans were detained and their shops sealed for disregarding orders to return, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Germany has pledged 250,000 million euros to assist Afghan refugees in Pakistan at a time when the UN refugee agency is facing major budgetary constraints. "We are grateful to the German government for their generous donation," Guenet Guebre-Christos, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Pakistan, said on Monday. "Even though record numbers of Afghans have been repatriated in recent years, there are still about 2.6 million left in Pakistan, most of whom need basic services such as health and sanitation," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
250 billion euros? That is generous. Either that, or the Daily Times needs better proofreaders...
Hamas' only Christian cabinet appointee has declined the invitation to become the Palestinian Tourism Minister, but he didn't say why.
He gave up death-cults for Lent.
Tanas Abu Aitta was tapped to be the token Christian member of the 24-member Islamic government. But the 57-year-old Bethlehem businessman, who ran as an Independent candidate in January elections, has bowed out, a Hamas spokesman said on Sunday. The spokesman was quoted as saying that Hamas would look for a Christian replacement for Abu Aitta.
Abu Attia gave no reason for not joining the Hamas government, but his uncle, former Palestinian Tourism Minister Mitri Abu Aitta, said his nephew had "private reasons" for not accepting the appointment. At first Abu Attia thought Hamas would form a unity government with Fatah, Mitri Abu Aitta in a telephone interview. Later, when Hamas decided to form the government alone and it was clear he would be the only Christian, Tanas Abu Aitta changed his mind, said Mitri Abu Aitta. In the past there were at least two Christians in the parliament, he said. Christians account for less than 10 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the CIA World Fact book. But in Bethlehem - the birthplace of Jesus -- they represent a much higher percentage.
Tourism -- one of Bethlehem's main industries -- dropped off drastically during the first years of the Palestinian uprising, which began in September 2000. But the last year saw an upswing in visitors, officials have said. Hamas officials have said they will introduce strict Islamic law in the Palestinian territories, something that would give Christians and non-Muslims inferior status. But Mitri Abu Aitta said there has been no change in Bethlehem since Hamas' sweeping victory in parliamentary elections. "The Christians here are very important part of the Palestinian community. There is unity [between Christians and Muslims] within the local community," said Mitri Abu Aitta.
Hamas ascendancy to power has complicated the peace process, Mitri Abu Aitta admitted. He is still hoping that P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will be able to resume negotiations with the Israelis toward a final agreement. Hamas has refused to negotiate with Israel, and Israel has said that it will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that does not recognize its existence and abandon terrorism. "Unfortunately we have to wait and see how things are going," Mitri Abu Aitta said. The Palestinians have suffered badly economically, he said. "We hope it will be better."
#1
Tanas Abu Aitta was tapped to be the token Christian member of the 24-member Islamic government. But the 57-year-old Bethlehem businessman, who ran as an Independent candidate in January elections, has bowed out, a Hamas spokesman said on Sunday. The spokesman was quoted as saying that Hamas would look for a Christian replacement for Abu Aitta.
Quotas in "Palestine"? Some of their best friends are Christians? One's just as good as another?
#3
trailing wife : many Palestinian Christians have come here. Unfortunately their cause here has been taken up by wingnutz like David Duke. They can't get a break.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Central Working Committee on Monday formally approved the planned return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif before the next general elections under a 'London Declaration'.
The committee also decided that the issue of party members resigning from parliament would be taken in consensus with the joint opposition. All committee members unanimously agreed the former premier returned to Pakistan before general elections - irrespective of whether the elections were held in 2006 or 2007. Sharif's return date will be announced soon. The committee also issued a 'London Declaration' demanding the establishment of a neutral government 90 days before general elections. President General Pervez Musharraf must not have any role in an interim government, it said. PML-N will not enter any dialogue with the present government, it added.
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Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip. Local radio stations said an Israeli reconnaissance plane unleashed a missile towards a group of Palestinian resistance members killing Housam Abu Ayada (25 years), and two others. The radio stations added that Abu Ayada from Al-Shate' camp is a member of Al-Quds Brigades, adding that the targeted group included members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that launched RPG shells towards an Iraqi jeep in the Gaza border area. The Israeli reconnaissance plane attacked the Palestinian group on their way back after executing their attack on the Israeli jeep.
Furthermore, Israeli army sources said that the attack on a car by army planes and two missiles failed to assassinate four Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members in Al-Sheikh Radhwan town northern Gaza. The Israeli sources said that the two missiles failed to hit the car, however two passers-by were injured, adding that Israeli attacks are targeting leaders of Palestinian factions responsible for daily missile attacks on Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman said that Israeli tanks unleashed several shells and opened fire towards a group of armed Palestinian gunmen near the Irza barrier.
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I've turned the detail page back on for Thugburg. I'll expect us to go down again in the next 24 hours when the site in Germany starts mining it again. When that happens, I'll ban their IP. So, if you're reading, rather than mining, you've been warned. If you're not reading, I don't care.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Are you sure they're data miners and not trying to mount a DDoS attack?
Posted by: Phil ||
03/28/2006 1:06
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Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/28/2006 2:52
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#4
OT : I liked the GWI pages and thought this was a good addition; will the esteemed site boss and owner ever put it back on line, perhaps even taking the time and effort to give us his thoughts on the GWII/removal of the baasist entity, in a similar format?
#8
I'm a spoiled waste of skin, that's my problem. And I would probably have killed the pony sitting on it, anyway.
"Hair Through the Ages", didn't notice that until now, is it a recent feature? And was it carefully crafted by the RB Supremo or an accomplice? It's neat and fun, good job : "let's waste more time on the internet, reading a snarky review of hairdos through History, yeah!"
#11
Sad thing is, I have just nothing to back that egomania, except for the stuff I buy. But, even if I have no qualities, haven't never done anything in my life, and is a black hole of negativity, powerlessness, and bitterness, well, I'm mostly harmless. That's nice, I think.
#12
To continue in the same vein, I've browsed the QRM sites, wasn't aware of them (only remembered the alternate RB url) : Mr. Pruitt, do you still have your pages about the leftists websites, complete with color-codes, snarky comments, and the like?
IIRC, you did this before RB, which has taken precedence over it, I think you quit for following the WOT, but I'm sure people who didn't know that leftist sites guide would enjoy it, even if it's not up to date anymore.
A kind of "discover the network", only sillier and funnier.
#13
a5089, you have a delightful mind. If you can wait long enough, trailing daughter #2 plans to need a trailing husband to handle the homefront and charm guests with his intelligence and obscure knowledge, allowing her career to take the family around the world. Of course she's not yet in high school, but it's always important to have a backup plan. ;-)
(2006-03-27) After a House-passed illegal immigration bill sparked massive protest rallies in Los Angeles and elsewhere over the weekend, Senator Hillary Clinton today introduced legislation that would grant all illegal aliens a new, less judgmental status.
My plan will help pre-legal Americans escape the unfair stigma thats placed on them just because they broke the law, said Sen. Clinton, who last week criticized the House bill which she said would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.
Sen. Clinton, wearing her WWJD? bracelet (the acronym means What Would Jesus Do?), said her bill would make it a felony for employers or border patrol agents to discriminate against people who have not yet been granted immunity or guest worker status.
#4
I've never been a fan of hers, quite the opposite. But this seals her fate. Espousing this shit means the end of her ambition for Prez. Over. Done. Kaput.
#7
shameless, absolutely shameless. I would ask Mrs. Clinton to come down to Southern California and live here for just 3 years and then ask her if she still feels the same way. These greed-infested politicians (Republicans and Democrats) are not going to help the West, not as long as they can achieve power by further allowing it to be raped and plundered. If this problem is to be solved, it will be a grass-roots, Minutemen-styled solution with the help of like-minded Mexican-American cooperation. Bottom line is the Southwest has to solve it's own problems. If D.C. looked like East L.A. then they would tell us it would be "every American's duty" to get involved, but since it doesn't, it's our problem. So, let's deal with it. Are there any Westerners with good ideas?
#8
You don't need to go to California to see illegal aliens.
I live in NEw Jersey.
They are everywhere. Standing on corners providing cheap labor.
We don't need that cheap labor. The jobs these men do are fillable with American Citizens. However citizens expect to be paid a reasonable rate.
Beyond the obvious labor and employment ramifications there is
a major problem here.
As a citizen of New Jersey and a born-here American, I am required by law to carry valid ID at all times. I must carry my drivers license even while walking.
If some part of my auto documentation is off or out of date,
the police take my car away.
Illegal Aliens,by definition do not possess valid ID.
They all have fake ID's and at ;east one county in NEw Jersey had it's county records office closed for selling birth certifcates.
If you were born in Hudson County, your birth certificate is worthless.
Somehow though, enough heads are turned that these illegals are driving cars and owning homes and working with false documents.
This is supposed to make me happy because supposedly they are paying taxes which I will get as Social security payments. That is a laugh.
Their children suck away my child's education by channeling more and more resources to teaching their children english and how to live in a cvilized society , which frankly most claim they are uninterested in and will tell you flat out that they only want to make some money and go home (after 20-30 years at the US teat)
Thus the second largest money making enterprise in Mexico is payments sent in form illegal workers here in the US.
This is an enourmous drain on our economy.
When they get sick they go to a hospital and get treated in an emergency room, the highest priced medical treatment for which the rest of us get the bill.
When found out, they are quite willing to abandon everything and start again in some new location.
Why should I feel sympathy for them?
My ancestors waited in line, came in legally and expressed their LOYALTY to their new nation and their desire to be American citizens.
Their loaylty to our nation runs strong in our immigrant family values.
This is not an attitude promulgated among the ranks of illegal aliens.
Immigrants, migrant workers, and illegal aliens are three different things.
Sneaking in is not immigration.
That your father snuck in , is not an impressive credential.
Meanwhile I need a passport to renew my drivers license.
#9
Very well said 6. The United States offers legal citizenship each year to more immigrants each year than all other countries combined. Why can't we just follow the rules and the law and get'r done.
#10
Non-Mexican migrants 'rent a family' to avoid deportation
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 24, 2006
Migrants sneaking illegally into the United States from countries other than Mexico are renting families -- mostly small children -- to ensure that if they are apprehended, they won't be deported, but released back into the United States, a top immigration official said yesterday.
The "rent-a-family" scheme, said John P. Torres, director of the Office of Detention and Removal at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is being used by alien smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border -- mainly in Texas -- to circumvent a new expedited-removal program for non-Mexican aliens, whose arrest under existing deportation policies had become known as "catch-and-release."
"They are passing themselves off as a family, paying to have children smuggled with them across the border, because the smugglers know we're not going to break up a family for the deportation process," Mr. Torres said. "They're renting babies -- the younger the better -- including those not yet of speaking age.
"They get processed as a family and released together, under the law, pending an immigration hearing," Mr. Torres said.
He said the cost to the migrants for renting a family is in the "thousands of dollars" -- in addition to the $1,500 to $2,000 they are paying per person to be taken across the border.
Mr. Torres said the children are being rented out by families along the border, and authorities are not sure how they are being returned after crossing into the United States. But, he said, some of the children are being rented more than once.
He said immigration authorities also are concerned that as the summer months approach and the temperatures in the border areas climb, the children could be in increased jeopardy.
Because of a lack of detention space, most of the other-than-Mexico migrants, known as OTMs, caught illegally entering the United States are given notices to appear at immigration status hearings and allowed to stay in the country legally until their hearing.
OTMs must be flown back to their home countries, a process that often takes months.
But only about 12 percent of OTMs who receive the notices show up, with U.S. Border Patrol sectors in Texas reporting no-show rates as high as 98 percent. The expedited-removal program, as mandated by Congress, is available for non-Mexican migrants apprehended in this country within 14 days of entry and within 100 miles of the border, providing they have no criminal record.
Mr. Torres described the expedited-removal program as a legal process that allows ICE to remove illegal aliens without a formal hearing before an immigration judge if they have no credible claim to asylum or any other relief from deportation. He said non-Mexican migrants who are detained are placed into streamlined proceedings, allowing the government to deport them in an average of 32 days, nearly three times faster than the previous deportation process.
Illegal aliens from Mexico are usually returned across the border within hours if they have no criminal record, and while U.S. immigration authorities -- facing a flood of illegal aliens -- have not been hesitant to subject individual OTMs to the expedited-removal process, they have been reluctant to break up non-Mexican migrant families because of a lack of detention space to house them as a unit.
"This rent-a-family scheme is simply an effort to defeat the expedited-removal program because it is working," Mr. Torres said.
The numbers of OTMs illegally crossing into the United States has increased steadily in the past several years. More than 160,000 were apprehended last year, Mr. Torres said, compared with 75,000 in 2004. He noted that ICE has about 20,000 detention beds to house the aliens, each costing the government an average of about $95 a day to maintain.
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.
Mar 28, 2006 (DVB) - The spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and avian flu has become worse in Burma due to draconian restrictions by the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), according to a report published by US medical experts on 27 March. The 80-pages report which was jointly researched and written by Dr. Chris Beyer and six other medical experts from John Hopkins Bloomberg Universitys School of Public Health, details the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and bird flu in Burma. 
WASHINGTON Caspar Weinberger, the former Secretary of Defense for Ronald Reagan, has died after a brief illness. He was 88. Forbes magazine confirmed Weinberger's death to FOX News. Weinberger served as publisher chairman of the magazine and as a columnist there since 1988. He died at a hospital in Bangor, Maine.
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. authorities have arrested a translator working in Iraq, charging him with offering a bribe to entice a police official to buy armored vests and other equipment for $1 million.
March 28, 2006: The U.S. Navy's new computer network is so unfriendly that many sailors and marines are communicating via commercial email accounts. How can this be? 
A family brewery in the Czech Republic has opened the worlds first beer health centre in its cellar. The Chodovar Family brewery in Chodova Plana offers beer baths, beer massages and beer cosmetics.
was creating a panel to investigate Taylor's disappearance on Monday night. The statement raised the possibility he might have been abducted, but did not elaborate. 
Since agreeing Saturday to hand Taylor over, Obasanjo had been under pressure to ensure Taylor was sent to the U.N. tribunal sitting in Sierra Leone. Taylor had escaped from a U.S. penitentiary in Boston to launch Liberia's war. On Monday, State Department spokesman 
The State Security Specialized Penal Court postponed the trial of 17 suspects accused of forming an armed band and plotting to attack U.S. citizens in Yemen. Last Saturdays session was devoted to final appeals, upon request of the prosecutor, who said he had evidence revealing names of new suspects. The court allowed Prosecution to speak with jail officials concerning prison law application and transferring suspects to the Central Prison. At the session, the prosecutor told the court he has a list of new suspects, which he will show court staff this Saturday after investigating them. He also discussed the courts previous decision to refer two suspects to a legitimate physician and allow their families to visit them.
Hundreds of people protested in Afghanistan on Monday against a court's decision to drop a case against a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, 
...At the conference, the following five major "hostile forces" were announced: 
Local Taliban executed a 25-year-old man for killing a taxi driver in South Waziristan under Islamic law (Sharia), said residents on Monday. The execution is the first case tried under Sharia in the tribal areas.
Hasan Khreishi, deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Monday called for Hamas to be removed from the EU list of terrorist organizations and for continued support for the Palestinian Authority.
U.N. Security Council powers held out hope on Monday for agreement this week on a statement to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, but a deal still appeared elusive before a forthcoming ministerial meeting.
Followers of Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were involved in a gunfight in the Sur Dhand area of Bara in Khyber Agency on Monday, in which at least five people were killed and 25 injured. Sources told Daily Times that the gunfight was still underway till the filing of this report. Reports from Bara suggest that the group of Muftis supporters asked Badshah Jee, an Afghan refugee and follower of the Pir, to vacate his house at Sur Dhand and hand over weapons to them. Badshah Jee, however, did not comply and the Mufti Group moved to occupy his house by force. Both the groups used heavy weapons against each other, which led to considerable bloodshed on both sides. Those killed have been identified as Nama Jan, Gul wali, Shango, Rahim and Feroz Khan.
WANA: Six schoolchildren were injured when their bus hit a landmine in Shakai Valley of South Waziristan on Monday, an official and residents said. Two students, between six and nine, were reported in serious condition in hospital, administration officials said in Wana, the regional headquarters of South Waziristan. The incident took place 35 kilometres northwest of Wana in Shakai Valley, which was a stronghold of militants before army operation in June 2004. "The injured students were from a school in Shakai," the officials said. "Two of them are serious," they added. 
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs and the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue will organize short courses for imams throughout Saudi Arabia in order to spread a culture of dialogue and forgiveness, sources told Asharq al Awsat. The courses will include lectures by senior ulema in Saudi Arabia, including the Saudi mufti 
Israeli authorities have closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque Monday morning, allegedly following warnings by Jewish extremists to attack the holy shrines and disrupt the Israeli elections due on Tuesday. Israeli police warned of more than 70 alerts of planned terror attacks to coincide with this week's elections, reported the Haaretz newspaper. 
Police searched business premises across Germany in connection with an investigation into the illegal export of equipment for Iran's controversial nuclear programme, prosecutors said Monday. One of the companies searched was believed to be a front for the illegal export of hydraulic pumps and transformer parts, which could be used in nuclear facilities, prosecutor Benedikt Welfens said. German law restricts the sale to Iran of such dual use equipment, which has applications in both military and civilian programmes. Seven persons, most of them of Russian extraction, are under investigation in connection with the illegal exports, which investigations showed reached Iran via Russia. Police seized data, a special cable ready for export and cash during last week's raid of 41 premises in 10 German states. Prosecutors said five or six firms were suspected of having supplied the front company with material, but only one is believed to have known the true destination. No arrests have been made so far in the case. 
MANILA: At least nine people were killed and more than 20 seriously wounded Monday in a bomb blast on the restive southern Philippine island of Jolo, police and witnesses said. "As of the moment, we have an initial nine dead on the spot," Jolo provincial police chief Ahiron Ajirin told reporters. The bomb was planted on the ground floor of a two-storey building along a busy street in the centre of Jolo town. Those killed were mostly employees working in a cooperative there, he said. 
Four civilians who were sentenced to death by a military court for involvement in an assassination bid on President Gen Pervez Musharraf appealed to the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday. Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Ikhlas Ahmed, who are presently confined in Attock district jail, were arrested in December 2003 and January 2004 for involvement in the assassination attempt on Gen Musharraf on December 25, 2003. Army intelligence authorities investigated them and then presented a joint summary of evidence in October-November 2004. The accused were challaned and jointly tendered for trial before a Field General Court Martial. The trial was conducted from March 29 to July 21, 2005. The court sentenced the four to death while two others, Rana Naveed and Aamir Sohail, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 20 years in jail respectively.
Hamas called on Monday for talks with Western powers to try to reach a just peace in the Middle East but showed no sign of softening its stance on Israel as it presented its government to the Palestinian parliament. Hamas prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, told parliament that the new government, expected to win a vote of confidence on Tuesday or Wednesday, would be ready for a dialogue with the quartet of mediating powers. 
Two Palestinian security personnel were injured Monday morning when an Israeli Army aircraft attacked three members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Palestinian security sources said an Israeli reconnaissance plane unleashed two missiles towards the car transporting Mohammad Hijazi, a leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and two members of the Brigades in the Al-Sheikh Radhwan town in northern Gaza Strip.
PESHAWAR: An Accountability Court (AC) on Monday sent the two government officials involved in quake relief fund scam to jail on a judicial remand. The NAB arrested Saifur Rehman, a patwari, and Mir Dad Khan, a general councillor, on March 9, 2006. They were accused of releasing money from the President's Relief Fund for earthquake victims to their relatives and acquaintances on fake national identity cards in Namli Maira in Abbottabad district. The officials were presented in the AC after the completion of their 18-day physical remand. The NAB prosecutor told the court that the bureau had completed its investigations and the accused were no longer required for investigation.
The death toll from the suicide attack against an Iraqi army base in the city of Mosul has risen to 40 with 30 more injured, a military source said Monday. It added that the attack, which took place in the "Kisk recruitment center, " was mounted by a "suicide terrorist, who detonated an explosive belt near a crowd of volunteer recruits at the center's gate." The number of dead is likely to rise again, given that several of the injured had sustained grave injuries, the source said.
Five Islamic militants were shot dead by Indian troops during gunbattles in revolt-hit Kashmir on Monday, a police spokesman said. He said four were killed in three separate gunbattles in the northern district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir. A key member of hardline Lashkar-e-Taiba was killed in another shootout in the southern Doda district, he said.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Local Taliban have threatened residents of a Dera Ismail Khan village to give up their annual spring fair with a religious group saying it will hold a conference to eulogise Mujahideen in its place, Daily Times has learnt. The fair is an annual event in Shah Alam village in Durabin that begin from April 1. "People compete in games such as archery and kabaddi and young and old alike participate in the three-day fair," one resident said. 
LAHORE: About two dozen senior officials of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) have either been fired or removed from the department on corruption charges in the last 18 months, sources told Daily Times on Monday.
The Indian Government Monday said it was developing transgenic tomatos which could grow in cold environment of Himalayas, for its soldiers posted at Siachen, world's highest battlefield. "One of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratories at high altitude in Himalayas has undertaken the development of transgenic tomato which can grow in the cold environment of Himalayas to provide fresh vegetable to our soldiers guarding our borders," Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Delhi Monday. He said the country needed a second green revolution to meet the challenges of feeding the growing population not only in India but also at the global level. "This could be achieved by developing transgenic plants through biotechnology procedures and tools which can be accomplished by identifying the plants genes responsible for drought resistance, past resistance, saline tolerance and cold tolerance and then develop genetically engineered transgenic plants for our specific needs," Mr Mukherjee said at a conference on Biotechnology and Nanotechnology in the capital city. In view of limited sources of conventional energy and availability of vast resource of biomass in the country, the Defence Minister said India needed to focus its research and development to commercial extraction of energy from biomass. "Bio fuel using plant sources or ethanol and also the blue green algae, which can produce hydrogen gas for use in fuel cell, can contribute to meet the energy needs," he said. Indian soldiers and their Pakistani counterpart are 
Countries affected by the south Asian tsunami should have a warning system against sea surges in place by July, the UN's top humanitarian official promised Monday at the start of a UN conference here. The early alert system will not cover every community in the vast area that was devastated by killer waves on December 26, 2004, but should function on a national and regional level, UN Under Secretary Jan Egeland told reporters. "I think we will have a warning system operational from July. It does not mean every villager in every community will have a system to warn him or her, but we will have regional and national systems," he said. Egeland was speaking at the start of the Third Conference on Early Warning, a UN gathering designed to improve how alerts about natural disasters are sent out to authorities and the public.
MIRANSHAH: Sixty-nine Afghans detained in a crackdown against suspected militants in North Waziristan were freed on Monday and returned home, an official said. Authorities detained 150 Afghans in North Waziristan on suspicion of fighting alongside local militants in battles earlier this month against security forces in the region, a local government official said.
Germany has pledged 250,000 million euros to assist Afghan refugees in Pakistan at a time when the UN refugee agency is facing major budgetary constraints. "We are grateful to the German government for their generous donation," Guenet Guebre-Christos, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Pakistan, said on Monday. "Even though record numbers of Afghans have been repatriated in recent years, there are still about 2.6 million left in Pakistan, most of whom need basic services such as health and sanitation," he added.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Central Working Committee on Monday formally approved the planned return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif before the next general elections under a 'London Declaration'.
![PM Manmohan Singh cranks off a few [.51] on Siachen Glacier](http://www.siachen.ch/upload/Immagini/RETRO-16.jpg){kind=link}
