Canada has ended all relations with the new Palestinian government, Ottawa announced Wednesday.
Canada has ended any contacts with the members of the Hamas cabinet and is suspending assistance to the Palestinian Authority, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said.
"Not a red cent to Hamas," MacKay said on CBC's Inside Politics. "This is a terrorist organization."
Posted by: john ||
03/29/2006
20:01 ||
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The U.N. Security Council demanded Wednesday that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, the first time the powerful body has directly urged Tehran to clear up suspicions that it is seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran remained defiant, maintaining its right to nuclear power but insisting that it was committed to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and had no intention of seeking weapons of mass destruction.
"Pressure and threats do not work with Iran. Iran is a country that is allergic to pressure and to threats and intimidation," Iranian Ambassador Javad Zarif said. He later added that "Iran insists on its right to have access to nuclear technology for explicitly peaceful purposes. We will not abandon that claim to our legitimate right."
The 15-nation council unanimously approved a statement that will ask the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report back in 30 days on Iran's compliance with demands to stop enriching uranium.
Diplomats portrayed the statement, which is not legally binding, as a first, modest step toward compelling Iran to make clear that its program is for peaceful purposes. The Security Council could eventually impose economic sanctions, though Russia and China say they oppose such tough measures.
"The council is expressing its clear concern and is saying to Iran that it should comply with the wishes of the governing board," France's U.N Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said.
The document was adopted by consensus and without a vote after a flurry of negotiations among the five veto-wielding council members. In the end, Britain, France and the United States made several concessions to China and Russia, Iran's allies, who wanted as mild a statement as possible.
Still, the Western countries said the statement expresses the international community's shared conviction that Iran must comply with the governing board of the IAEA and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Enrichment is a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material for a nuclear warhead.
Members of the council wanted to reach a deal before Thursday, when foreign ministers from the five veto-wielding council members and Germany meet in Berlin to discuss strategy on Iran.
Diplomats would not say exactly what will happen if Iran does not comply with the statement within 30 days, but suggested that would be discussed by the foreign ministers in Berlin.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the statement an "important diplomatic step" that showed the international community's concern about Iran.
"Iran is more isolated now than ever," she said in a statement. "The Security Council's Presidential Statement sends an unmistakable message to Iran that its efforts to conceal its nuclear program and evade its international obligations are unacceptable."
The council has struggled for three weeks to come up with a written rebuke that would urge Iran to comply with several demands from the board of the IAEA to clear up suspicions about its intentions. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
The West believes council action will help isolate Iran and put new pressure on it to clear up suspicions about its intentions. They have proposed an incremental approach, refusing to rule out sanctions.
U.S. officials have said the threat of military action must also remain on the table.
Russia and China, both allies of Iran, oppose sanctions. They wanted any council statement to make explicit that the IAEA, not the Security Council, must take the lead in confronting Iran.
and now why would that be????
The draft circulated to the council calls upon Iran to "resolve outstanding questions, and underlines ... the particular importance of re-establishing full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities."
Still, it removed language that China and Russia opposed.
The text removes language saying that proliferation is a threat to international peace and security. Also gone is a mention that the council is specifically charged under the U.N. charter with addressing such threats.
Russia and China had opposed that language from the start because they wanted nothing in the statement that could automatically trigger council action after 30 days.
"For the time being we have suspicions," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov said. "So from that point of view, it is like a ladder. If you want to climb up, you must step on the first step, and then the second, and not try to leap."
#7
Hrrrmph. Yeah, I knew I was taking a risk of missing something really hilarious (or it would be hilarious if it weren't so disgusting)...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2006 21:01
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#8
Well, let's not be so cynical about this. A lot of people have put in a lot of man-hours in negotiating and drafting up the *ahem* powerful body draft. And also think of the hotel room bills, room service charges and catering costs. This is a big operation, go give appeasement peace a chance.
By the way, how is the full-steam planning coming for Darfur? That operation seems to have been switched to the siding.
Man, with material covering the UN, I could go on and on...........
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2006 22:29
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UN Security Council Passes Statement On Iran
Oh, now that's disgusting...but somehow strangely appropriate...
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum a life sentence for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church, Va. "The facts of this case are still astonishing," prosecutor David Laufman said. "Barely a year after Sept. 11 the defendant joined the organization responsible for 3,000 deaths." But U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said 30 years was sufficient punishment. He compared the Abu Ali case to "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, who received a 20-year sentence.
Abu Ali's actions "did not result in one single actual victim. That fact must be taken into account," the judge said.
Abu Ali, wearing a green prison jumpsuit, declined to speak before his sentence was imposed. Defense lawyers said they plan to appeal. Prosecutors said Abu Ali traveled to Saudi Arabia and joined Al Qaeda out of hatred for the United States. The Saudis arrested Abu Ali in June 2003 as he was taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina. Ali was convicted in November of conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to hijack aircraft and providing support to Al Qaeda, among other crimes. The charges carried a mandatory sentence of at least 20 years behind bars.
Abu Ali gave the Saudis a statement in which he said that he joined Al Qaeda and discussed with some of the most senior Al Qaeda members terror plots, including Bush's assassination, and plans to establish an Al Qaeda terror cell in the U.S. He claimed that the Saudis had extracted a confession from him through torture. Prosecutors denied he was mistreated. Abu Ali said he had the scars on his back that proved he was whipped or beaten by the Saudis. Pictures were taken of his back, and doctors for both the government and the defense examined him, coming to different conclusions.
The jury in the three-week trial saw a videotaped confession Abu Ali gave to the Saudis in which he said he joined Al Qaeda because he hated the United States for its support of Israel. In February, defense lawyers asked for a review of the conviction in light of the disclosure that the Bush administration had eavesdropped on suspected terrorists' conversations without search warrants. Abu Ali's lawyers said they suspected, but had no firm evidence, that Abu Ali had been a target of the surveillance program. The government's response was not made public, but the judge decided to go ahead with the sentencing after receiving it.
#4
Someone suggested, "I just keep thinking of how nasty that bearskin rug is going to be." And, as an afterthought, "And how some sick f*ck would sell it on ebay."
Los Angeles, Alta California - February 8, 2006 - (ACN) It should now be readily apparent that pro-Israel Jews in Europe and the USA are purposely fomenting violence by Muslims against the West. The constant provocations against Islam by Jews has now placed the world in dire danger. These vile instigations by International Zionists is by design and is, in addition, endangering the well being of our Mexican-American population in the Southwest. It is time to speak out against these nefarious Jewish provocateurs before it is too late.
By now our readership should be aware of the current violence, property damage and deaths caused by the desecration of the Islamic faith by Jews when they published sacrilegious cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in their newspapers and other publications. The purpose of these anti-Islamic cartoons are to enrage Muslims against the West and to create animosity between the people of Europe and the USA against Muslims. The Jews are hoping for a reaction by Europeans and Americans against those they perceive to be enemies of Zionist Israel. They have already succeeded in pushing the USA to attack Iraq and are working diligently to do the same against Iran. The Mexican-American and Latino communities in the USA should not fall victims to Jewish dirty tricks.
Here in Los Angeles, the principal talk radio stations are constantly broadcasting extreme hate and insults against Arabs, Muslims and Islamic religious faiths. There are three Jewish radio talk hosts that are particularly venomous. They are Dennis Prager, Bill Handel and Michael Medved. Dennis Prager and Michael Medved are with KRLA and Bill Handel is with KFI. The programming against Islam on KFI is extremely obscene and the radio station has received many complaints from Islamic, Muslim and Arab civil rights organizations and individuals. There are now numerous documented instances in which the Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Koran have been shown ugly disrespect by Jewish talk radio hosts. Bill Handel proposed that the new Iraqi constitution should include the phrase "all civil unions between consenting Iraqi adults and loving camels and goats will be recognized." Another comment said on the radio concerns the "toilet flushing of the Koran" incident at Guantanamo. The comment, "They should have wiped their asses with the pages of the Koran" was broadcast throughout Southern California. KFI also poked dastardly fun at the deaths of Muslims that occurred during the most recent Hajj in Mecca.
There is no question that the Jews are creating great problems in the world, the USA and here in Los Angeles. They want others to strike out against Islam on their behalf as is being done presently against Iraq and possibly soon against Iran. Many more Mexican-American soldiers will die or be maimed for life because of the Jews.
On Saturday the Arab European League posted a cartoon on their website to teach the Jews a lesson. The cartoon shows Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler. Hitler is pictured saying to Anne Frank Write this one in your diary, Anne. The cartoon is published below. The "War of the Cartoons" has begun! It would be great if this war would simply be fought with cartoons but the reality is far more sinister. We are presently witnessing a coming cataclysmic war against Iran ... a war that is primarily being instigated by the Jews!
#3
Oh Ernesto and his act have been here before. I believe he thinks he's the reincarnation of Santa Ana. But it beats working for a living, which I think is a big part of his plan...
#4
This is the same nutty bunch that want to take California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and whatever other piece of the southwest they can lay their grubby paws on and turn it into some Mexican fantasyland called Aztlan.
They call us Nazi's (No, I'm not Jewish, but they probably don't particularly care), but it's their phrase that translates roughly as "For the race, everything, for all others, nothing."
#9
#4 This is the same nutty bunch that want to take California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and whatever other piece of the southwest they can lay their grubby paws on and turn it into some Mexican fantasyland called Aztlan.
Theyre in for a nasty surprise. The native Americans dislike the 'hispanics' more than they dislike anglos in New Mexico. The native are constantly hammering the hispanic community efforts to promote their agenda. They use the same tactics - history, guilt, etc. The statue of the first Spanish governor is often vandalized by the native groups by cutting off the feet in recognition of the penalty he exacted against rebellious natives. The litany of abuse by their occupiers never is permitted to be buried. The native pueblos along the Rio Grande rose in revolt throwing out the Spanish for several decades in the late 17th Century. And certainly the Apache and other tribes in the region never truly acknowledged rule from Madrid or Mexico City. When the racists groups start to talk about 'their land', they're going to find out who's it was first, and it isn't Mexico's.
Today, for the first time in almost 50 years, the United States stands on the verge of attaining nuclear primacy. It will probably soon be possible for the United States to destroy the long-range nuclear arsenals of Russia or China with a first strike. This dramatic shift in the nuclear balance of power stems from a series of improvements in the United States' nuclear systems, the precipitous decline of Russia's arsenal, and the glacial pace of modernization of China's nuclear forces. Unless Washington's policies change or Moscow and Beijing take steps to increase the size and readiness of their forces, Russia and China -- and the rest of the world -- will live in the shadow of U.S. nuclear primacy for many years to come.
Is the United States intentionally pursuing nuclear primacy? Or is primacy an unintended byproduct of intra-Pentagon competition for budget share or of programs designed to counter new threats from terrorists and so-called rogue states? Motivations are always hard to pin down, but the weight of the evidence suggests that Washington is, in fact, deliberately seeking nuclear primacy. For one thing, U.S. leaders have always aspired to this goal. And the nature of the changes to the current arsenal and official rhetoric and policies support this conclusion.
Washington's pursuit of nuclear primacy helps explain its missile-defense strategy, for example. Critics of missile defense argue that a national missile shield, such as the prototype the United States has deployed in Alaska and California, would be easily overwhelmed by a cloud of warheads and decoys launched by Russia or China. They are right: even a multilayered system with land-, air-, sea-, and space-based elements, is highly unlikely to protect the United States from a major nuclear attack. But they are wrong to conclude that such a missile-defense system is therefore worthless -- as are the supporters of missile defense who argue that, for similar reasons, such a system could be of concern only to rogue states and terrorists and not to other major nuclear powers.
What both of these camps overlook is that the sort of missile defenses that the United States might plausibly deploy would be valuable primarily in an offensive context, not a defensive one -- as an adjunct to a U.S. first-strike capability, not as a standalone shield. If the United States launched a nuclear attack against Russia (or China), the targeted country would be left with a tiny surviving arsenal -- if any at all. At that point, even a relatively modest or inefficient missile-defense system might well be enough to protect against any retaliatory strikes, because the devastated enemy would have so few warheads and decoys left.
During the Cold War, Washington relied on its nuclear arsenal not only to deter nuclear strikes by its enemies but also to deter the Warsaw Pact from exploiting its conventional military superiority to attack Western Europe. It was primarily this latter mission that made Washington rule out promises of "no first use" of nuclear weapons. Now that such a mission is obsolete and the United States is beginning to regain nuclear primacy, however, Washington's continued refusal to eschew a first strike and the country's development of a limited missile-defense capability take on a new, and possibly more menacing, look. The most logical conclusions to make are that a nuclear-war-fighting capability remains a key component of the United States' military doctrine and that nuclear primacy remains a goal of the United States.
Ultimately, the wisdom of pursuing nuclear primacy must be evaluated in the context of the United States' foreign policy goals. The United States is now seeking to maintain its global preeminence, which the Bush administration defines as the ability to stave off the emergence of a peer competitor and prevent weaker countries from being able to challenge the United States in critical regions such as the Persian Gulf. If Washington continues to believe such preeminence is necessary for its security, then the benefits of nuclear primacy might exceed the risks. But if the United States adopts a more restrained foreign policy -- for example, one premised on greater skepticism of the wisdom of forcibly exporting democracy, launching military strikes to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and aggressively checking rising challengers -- then the benefits of nuclear primacy will be trumped by the dangers.
#3
Article: But if the United States adopts a more restrained foreign policy -- for example, one premised on greater skepticism of the wisdom of forcibly exporting democracy, launching military strikes to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and aggressively checking rising challengers -- then the benefits of nuclear primacy will be trumped by the dangers.
Let me get this straight - a policy of forcibly exporting democracy, launching military strikes to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and aggressively checking rising challengers is made safer if we have a weaker nuclear force and/or missile defense? But that same nuclear force and missile defense is what we use to deter enemy nuclear attacks - if they hit us with nukes, we will obliterate them. And the thought of nuclear alliances is a little naive - does anyone seriously think China will trade Beijing for DC in Russia's behalf? Heck, China won't even trade Beijing for DC to get Taiwan back. In fact, the disintegration of Russia due to nuclear attack would be an excuse for China get back all the territory it lost to Russia during the 18th and 19th centuries. Radiation eventually goes away - just look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki just a few years after the atomic bombings.
#4
Unless Washington's policies change or Moscow and Beijing take steps to increase the size and readiness of their forces, Russia and China -- and the rest of the world -- will live in the shadow of U.S. nuclear primacy for many years to come.
#5
I agree with the liberals, lets reduce the size of our nuke arsenal. Send a few to NKOR, Iran, Syria,Sudan,Somalia,maybe even a couple to pakiland, just to let them know they arent towing the line. By the time we're done, whammo! hardly any nuclear arsenal left at all.
Eyeing House and Senate elections this fall, Democrats are stepping up their effort to cut into the public perception that Republicans are stronger on national security.
Congressional Democrats vow to provide U.S. agents with the resources to hunt down Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in a national security policy statement House and Senate Democratic leaders were announcing Wednesday.
"We need a new direction on national security, and leaders with policies that are tough and smart. That is what Democrats offer," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday.
His counterpart in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats were providing a fresh strategy _ "one that is strong and smart, which understands the challenges America faces in a post 9/11 world, and one that demonstrates that Democrats are the party of real national security."
Republicans criticized the statement as an election-year stunt.
"I trust in the common sense of the American people to see these efforts for what they are: misguided political attacks that are simply a bob-and-weave effort by those who have no real solutions or proposals of their own," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.
The Democratic statement lacks specific details of a plan to capture bin Laden, the al-Qaida chief who has evaded U.S. forces in the more than four years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But Democrats suggest they will double the number of special forces and add more spies to increase the chances of finding al-Qaida's elusive leader.
Democrats also do not set a deadline for when all of the 132,000 American troops now in Iraq should be withdrawn.
They say: "We will ensure 2006 is a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with the Iraqis assuming primary responsibility for security and governing their country and with the responsible redeployment of U.S. forces."
The latest in a series of party policy statements for 2006, the Democrats' national security platform comes seven months before voters decide who will control the House and Senate.
Bush's job approval ratings are in the mid- to high-30s, and Democrats consistently have about a 10 percentage point lead over Republicans when people are asked who they want to see in control of Congress.
With the public skeptical of the Iraq war and Republicans and Democrats alike questioning Bush's war policies, Democrats aim to force Republicans to distance themselves from the president on Iraq and national security or rubber-stamp what Democrats contend is a failed policy.
Democratic strategists say their polling shows Democrats leading in all other areas _ such as the economy, health care, education and retirement security _ and having closed a gap in polls with Republicans on national security.
Republicans characterized the Democrats' platform as tough election- year talk that isn't backed up by the party's record.
"This is more of the same from the party that opposes this president's effort to keep our country safe," said Tracey Schmitt, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman.
Overall, the Democratic position paper covers party policy positions on homeland security, the war on terror, the military, Iraq and energy security. However, it contains many of the same proposals Democrats have offered over the past year.
For months, House and Senate Democrats have tried to craft a comprehensive position on national security, but they have splintered, primarily over Iraq.
Republicans have sought to use that division to their own political advantage, claiming that Democrats simply attack the president and his fellow Republicans without presenting proposals of their own.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2006
17:19 ||
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#1
"We need a new direction on national security, and leaders with policies that are tough and smart."
Note to Dems: Harry Reid is about the last guy you want spouting stuff like that. He comes across about as tough and smart as a turnip.
Let me guess: what that really means is "withdraw our troops to a safe place where they won't have to fight jihadis."
Am I right? Yup, I thought so. "Tough and smart." Uh-huh...
God have mercy on us if we're so stupid as to ever allow these feckless dingalings back in power. Because one thing is absolutely certain: if we do, the rest of the world won't show us any mercy.
Neither will history.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2006 17:48
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#8
This is what Harry and Nancy are trying to tell Americans:
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2006 19:03
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#9
I just had a vision of Reid drivin' a tank around similar to Dukakis. I'm seein' an extra large helmet pulled down over his brow. With Nancy reading a map upside down. They're serious damnit!! "You got a war face Nancy!!" "Lemme see your war face!!"
Uncle Harry channeling R. Lee Emory.. It'll be the next comercial.
Oh, I just had a vision of Babble Boxer in a Gille suit as a sniper w/ Osama in her sights. Nice!!!
#10
Expect lots of Kerry-style "why haven't we captured bin Laden?, we took our eye off the ball" baloney between now and Nov. Hopefully with electoral results for the Dems similar to those of 2004.
I don't know what it is about libs that causes them to retry the same failed approaches over and over again, but, at least when it comes to politics, I'm sure happy they do.
#18
At least we'd find out how amphibious the tank really is.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/29/2006 22:30
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#19
The Dems remind me of my first attempt at writing a proposal for an engineering contract:
"We have done many fine and wonderful things. We have a great team of top notch specialists. We will develop and implement a sound plan that will meet your needs into the distant future. And because of the above, we are the best people for the job."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2006 22:35
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Famously feisty Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia yesterday denied that he made an obscene gesture Sunday inside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, accusing the Herald staff of watching too many Sopranos episodes.
In a letter to the editor, an almost unheard-of step for a Supreme Court justice, Scalia said a reporter misinterpreted the gesture he made when she asked whether his participation in Sundays special Mass for lawyers might cause some people to question his impartiality in matters of church and state.
Your reporter, an up-and-coming gotcha star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to those people. . ., Scalia wrote to Executive Editor Kenneth A. Chandler. I responded, jocularly, with a gesture that consisted of fanning the fingers of my right hand under my chin. Seeing that she did not understand, I said, Thats Sicilian, and explained its meaning.
In his letter, Scalia goes on to cite Luigi Barzinis book, The Italians: The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means: I couldnt care less. Its no business of mine. Count me out.
From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene - especially when made by an Italian jurist. (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)
Unlike most of his colleagues, Scalia is not shy about taking on the media, and has a penchant for doing so in a way that has caused some critics to question his decorum, if not his maturity.
In 2000, he wrote a letter to the editor of the Legal Times, accusing the Washington weekly of making a mean-spirited attack on his integrity when it reported that he supported allowing federal judges to accept money for speeches.
Scalia called the article Mauronic, an apparent play on the name of Legal Times Supreme Court reporter Tony Mauro.
I was in grade school the last time someone made fun of my name like that, Mauro told the Associated Press at the time.
Write Caterpillars chief executive officer to demand the company immediately stop sales of its D9 bulldozer to the Israeli military. The bulldozer is the militarys primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, shred roads, and turn terrorist loving leftist wackos into pancakes level greenhouses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in violation of the laws of war.
Sample Letter:
James W. Owens
Chair and CEO, Caterpillar, Inc.
100 NE Adams St.
Peoria, IL. 61629-1425
Dear Mr. Owens,
I am writing to urge Caterpillar Inc. to stop all sales of D9 bulldozers, parts and maintenance services to the Israel Defense Force (IDF) so long as the bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes and property in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law.
The D9 is the IDFs main tool to destroy terrorist hideouts civilian homes. Israeli soldiers often give Palestinians no warning before they crash the massive vehicle through the walls of their homes. The rear blade, known as the ripper, tears up roads, pulling up water and sewage pipes. At least three Palestinians have been killed in recent years by the bulldozer and falling debris because they could not flee their homes in time.
Human rights organizations have documented the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) systematic use of the D9 bulldozer in illegal demolitions throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The IDF has demolished over 2,500 Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip alone, most of them without military justification. Nearly two-thirds of those homes were in Rafah, a town and refugee camp on the southern border with Egypt. The Israeli military has used the Caterpillar bulldozer to raze over 10 percent of the town, and plans to demolish up to 20 percent more in connection with the governments Gaza disengagement plan.
The IDF, which regularly comes under fire from Palestinian armed groups in Rafah, claims the destruction is militarily necessary. But human rights groups have documented the extensive destruction of homes and infrastructure that posed no genuine military threat.
I believe Caterpillar has an important obligation to ensure its products are not used to violate human rights. While sales to the IDF continue, Caterpillar is complicit in serious human rights violations against civilians.
Please consider your companys responsibility in the suffering that results. Call on the Israeli military to use your equipment within the confines of the law, and refuse to sell them more bulldozers until you have evidence and assurances that illegal demolitions and destruction will desist.
Sincerely,
[the placemat formerly known as Rachel Corrie YOUR SIGNATURE HERE]
Good Lord, more than that have blown up in work-related accidents! What remarkable restraint on the part of Israeli's and what a great bulldozer - very precise! Increased sales coming your way CAT, what with today's swearing-in and all!
LONDON (Reuters) - The government is set to introduce national identity cards to combat fraud and terrorism from 2008 after the House of Lords agreed a compromise deal with the Labour party on Wednesday. The planned biometric cards, which will carry fingerprint, iris and face recognition technology, are the world's most ambitious, say experts, and could be used as a model for other countries, including the United States.
No thanks
Critics say they are unworkable and costly and argue they infringe civil liberties.
The compromise, over the degree of compulsion, will be a relief to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been dogged by sleaze allegations and questions over his future in the last few weeks. His authority has been waning since he said he would not seek a fourth term at the next election, due by mid-2010.
The House of Lords had repeatedly rejected the government's ID card plans but has now accepted a compromise under which people applying for a new passport will have an opt-out until 2010 although their details will be put on an ID card database.
So they put all your info in, but you don't get a card? Well, that's ok then
"I am delighted that we have been able to give our backing to (this) amendment," said junior interior minister Andy Burnham. He said it ensured that everyone who applied for a passport would have their biometric information placed on the register while it also alleviated the concerns of those who had argued the cards should not yet be compulsory.
Just how does it do that?
Labour has long had plans to introduce ID cards, which it says will help tackle identity theft, abuse of the state benefits system, illegal immigration, organised crime and terrorism, although the measure has hit fierce opposition. In its policy blueprint for last year's election Labour said it was committed to introducing identity cards, initially on a voluntary basis. Since then it sought to link the scheme to passport applications.
It will be the first time Britons have carried ID cards since they were abolished after World War Two. ID cards are used in about a dozen European Union countries but are not always compulsory and do not carry as much data.
The House of Commons, is expected to formally approve the House of Lords decision later on Wednesday.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
16:01 ||
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#1
And remember, they also have a national DNA database, a medical records database, a total vehicle travel database (all vehicles all the time), marketing and god knows how many other databases, that all fit together into a great big fat dossier on Louise Banbridge-Stewart (Mrs.), ret., for some utterly unfathomable reason.
Faced with the threat of nuclear proliferation and the prospect of such weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency has laid out a five-point plan of action ranging from tighter controls and protection of materials to strengthening the Security Council.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei called for placing sensitive nuclear operations such as the enrichment of uranium that can be used for producing both electric energy and an atomic bomb under multinational control.
The five measures I have outlined tightening controls, protecting materials, supporting verification, reinvigorating disarmament and strengthening the Security Council are all necessary and urgent steps, Mr. ElBaradei told a conference of German dentists in Karlsruhe over the weekend, in an address aptly called Putting Teeth in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Regime.
But to return to my opening theme, all of these measures affect each other, and all will fail to protect us if the root causes of insecurity are not addressed. The longer we delay in placing sensitive nuclear operations under multinational control, the more new countries will seek to build such facilities.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2006
15:28 ||
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#1
The head of the IAEA is reduced to making speeches before German dentists?
How pathetic... this is the agency supposed to defang Iran?
Posted by: john ||
03/29/2006 15:43
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#4
They might have been able to explain to ElBaradei what his problem is.
If ever there was a case of acute onset terminal phase rectal-cranial insertion, ElBaradei is the posterboy. The SOB probably can't even swallow without having to blink immediately afterwards.
The United States has ordered its diplomats and contractors not to have any contacts with Palestinian ministries once a Hamas-led government is sworn in on Wednesday, U.S. officials said.
The directive, distributed to U.S. officials in the region by email, bars them from having contacts with Hamas-appointed government ministers, whether they are members of Hamas or not, as well as with those who work for them, U.S. officials said.
The United States hopes to sideline Hamas and pressure it to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by peace accords. Hamas, branded a terrorist organization by Washington, won Palestinian elections in January.
The decision will limit a wide range of U.S. programs, including security coordination through the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Interior.
Contacts will still be permitted with President Mahmoud Abbas, his personal office and non-Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament.
The order takes effect from 6 p.m. on Wednesday, when Abbas is expected to swear in the new Hamas cabinet.
"It takes effect at the moment the new government is sworn in," said a U.S. official familiar with the directive.
The official said the ban on contacts would also apply to independents and technocrats in the new Hamas government because they were "invited to join the government by a Hamas prime minister and are in that position as a virtue of a vote of confidence by a Hamas-led PLC (parliament)."
U.S. law bars the government from providing direct assistance to any group that is on the State Department's list of "banned terrorist organizations."
By Jimmy Carter
Wednesday, March 29, 2006; Page A19
During the past five years the United States has abandoned many of the nuclear arms control agreements negotiated since the administration of Dwight Eisenhower. This change in policies has sent uncertain signals to other countries, including North Korea and Iran, and may encourage technologically capable nations to choose the nuclear option. The proposed nuclear deal with India is just one more step in opening a Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation.
The only substantive commitment among nuclear-weapon states and others is the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), accepted by the five original nuclear powers and 182 other nations. Its key objective is "to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology . . . and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament." At the five-year U.N. review conference in 2005, only Israel, North Korea, India and Pakistan were not participating -- three with proven arsenals.
Our government has abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and spent more than $80 billion on a doubtful effort to intercept and destroy incoming intercontinental missiles, with annual costs of about $9 billion. We have also forgone compliance with the previously binding limitation on testing nuclear weapons and developing new ones, with announced plans for earth-penetrating "bunker busters," some secret new "small" bombs, and a move toward deployment of destructive weapons in space. Another long-standing policy has been publicly reversed by our threatening first use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. These decisions have aroused negative responses from NPT signatories, including China, Russia and even our nuclear allies, whose competitive alternative is to upgrade their own capabilities without regard to arms control agreements.
Last year former defense secretary Robert McNamara summed up his concerns in Foreign Policy magazine: "I would characterize current U.S. nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous."
It must be remembered that there are no detectable efforts being made to seek confirmed reductions of almost 30,000 nuclear weapons worldwide, of which the United States possesses about 12,000, Russia 16,000, China 400, France 350, Israel 200, Britain 185, India and Pakistan 40 each -- and North Korea has sufficient enriched nuclear fuel for a half-dozen. A global holocaust is just as possible now, through mistakes or misjudgments, as it was during the depths of the Cold War.
Knowing for more than three decades of Indian leaders' nuclear ambitions, I and all other presidents included them in a consistent policy: no sales of civilian nuclear technology or uncontrolled fuel to any country that refused to sign the NPT.
There was some fanfare in announcing that India plans to import eight nuclear reactors by 2012, and that U.S. companies might win two of those reactor contracts, but this is a minuscule benefit compared with the potential costs. India may be a special case, but reasonable restraints are necessary. The five original nuclear powers have all stopped producing fissile material for weapons, and India should make the same pledge to cap its stockpile of nuclear bomb ingredients. Instead, the proposal for India would allow enough fissile material for as many as 50 weapons a year, far exceeding what is believed to be its current capacity.
So far India has only rudimentary technology for uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing, and Congress should preclude the sale of such technology to India. Former senator Sam Nunn said that the current agreement "certainly does not curb in any way the proliferation of weapons-grade nuclear material." India should also join other nuclear powers in signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
There is no doubt that condoning avoidance of the NPT encourages the spread of nuclear weaponry. Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Argentina and many other technologically advanced nations have chosen to abide by the NPT to gain access to foreign nuclear technology. Why should they adhere to self-restraint if India rejects the same terms? At the same time, Israel's uncontrolled and unmonitored weapons status entices neighboring leaders in Iran, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other states to seek such armaments, for status or potential use. The world has observed that among the "axis of evil," nonnuclear Iraq was invaded and a perhaps more threatening North Korea has not been attacked.
The global threat of proliferation is real, and the destructive capability of irresponsible nations -- and perhaps even some terrorist groups -- will be enhanced by a lack of leadership among nuclear powers that are not willing to restrain themselves or certain chosen partners. Like it or not, the United States is at the forefront in making these crucial strategic decisions. A world armed with nuclear weapons could be a terrible legacy of the wrong choices.
Former president Carter, a Democrat, is founder of the Carter Center.
Posted by: john ||
03/29/2006
14:37 ||
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#1
Jim-boy... Start your education on this issue here
at Policy Review with the article Getting India Right. Then we can continue the discussion about how you have not been Prez since Reagan and its long past time you realized that factiod and shut up!
#2
You know - I used to be against the deal with India - I just don't trust India. But now that Carter has come out against it, I am starting to come around to the view that this is a good idea. Because if Carter is against it, it probably is in the American interest.
#3
Last year former defense secretary Robert McNamara summed up his concerns in Foreign Policy magazine: "I would characterize current U.S. nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous."
You know, Jimmy, I didn't think it was possible, but you came up with somebody to quote who was an even bigger scumbag then you were. And he was an expert on every charecterization he mentioned in the quote.
#4
So far India has only rudimentary technology for uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing,
Dubious assumption when one considers that India is loading each of its fast breeder reactors with one ton of plutonium and is enriching uranium to medium level (fuel for a nuclear submarine being built in Vizag).
Nothing rudimentary about that.
And India isn't requesting enrichment or reprocressing technology.. what it wants are entire reactors and fuel. The Indian enrichment plants will be on the military side and will receive nothing. Two of the plutonium reprocessing plants will be placed under IAEA safeguards.
A fissile production cap is not on the cards for India.. not for a decade at least.. when it will have accumulated enough plutonium for about 200 warheads.
Posted by: john ||
03/29/2006 19:07
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#5
At the same time, Israel's uncontrolled and unmonitored weapons
Historic 1993 International Blue Bird Orleans Parish Schools Bus #93-97
This New Orleans Public School Bus is a 1993 International Blue Bird with 147,797 miles. The bus was substantially submerged for at least 10 days following Hurricane Katrina, and would require extensive repair to return to full working condition. Please see the photos below. Only 147,797 Original Owner Miles. Buyer is responsible for shipping/delivery. This bus is sold "as is". No warranty or guaranty is expressed or implied. Clear title will be provided. Because the Orleans Parish School District is a public entity, your purchase price less salvage value of the bus may qualify as a charitable contribution! Check with your tax advisor. This is a collector's dream come true.
We will provide a certificate of authenticity attesting that this bus was at the Orleans Parish Schools Almonaster Bus Barn and was flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina! Other buses may be available in future auctions.
Reserve price of $9000, currently only bid up to $5100. Well, it's not like it's a limited edition.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
13:57 ||
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#2
Down side: since many school districts are chronically underfunded, this could end up taking your kids to class; somehow a salt water damaged frame and brake system is something i want my grandkids riding around in. and if there was insurance involved, wouldn't this border on fraud? Oh wait, its N.O. where fraud runs like, like, well, like a ruptured levee..
TEHRAN, March 29 (Reuters) - Three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in a clash with Kurdish separatists in the country's restive western borderlands, Iran's student news agency ISNA said on Wednesday. The Revolutionary Guard "agents" were killed in fighting on Tuesday with a Kurdish group called PJAK. Their bodies were transferred from the border to the nearby city of Salmas, the report said. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. Iran's Revolutionary Guards are an ideologically driven branch of the country's armed forces.
Security experts say PJAK is an Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose separatist struggle regained momentum in southeastern Turkey after it called off a unilateral ceasefire in the summer of 2004.
The PKK Web site said seven Iranian soldiers were killed and 11 injured in a clash with PKK guerrillas. It said Iranian forces launched an operation against the rebels on March 25 in an area it identified as Kelares, near the border between Iran and Turkey. It said there were no PKK casualties. It was not immediately clear if the two reports were referring to the same incident.
Iran's western cities, home of the country's Kurdish minority, have simmered with tension since July when riots erupted in a city in the area. There have been several civilian and police deaths in violence since then. Iranian officials have said the violence was not ethnically motivated but Kurdish leaders say Tehran's discriminatory treatment of their people is stirring unrest. Kurds consist 6 million of Iran's 67 million population, many of whom live in the mountainous northwest bordering Iraq and Turkey, also home of Kurdish minorities.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
13:54 ||
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Suicide Bomber Captured by Nahal Hareidi
The IDF's Nahal Hareidi brigade apprehended an Arab suicide bomber already wearing a bomb-belt Wednesday afternoon. The terrorist was caught at the Beka'ot checkpoint in the Jordan Valley, which is manned by members of the special religious brigade. The eighteenyear-old had traveled from Shechem and was supposed to be picked up by Israeli Arab terrorists and driven to a population center to blow himself up among the maximum number of people he could find. The explosives contained in the belt weighed upwards of 80 pounds, local commander Col. Motti Elmoz told Army Radio. The explosives were detonated by sappers in a controlled explosion.
Attempted Attacks Continue
More than 70 intelligence warnings of planned terror attacks remain in effect across Israel. At the Hawara checkpoint, just south of Shechem, and in Hevron as well, soldiers arrested PA Arabs with large knives suspected of intending to carry out stabbing attacks. Both suspects are being questioned.
At Rachel's Tomb, the burial place of the Jewish Matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem, a terrorist threw an explosive device at a public Israeli bus Wednesday afternoon. Though there were no injuries in the attack, security officials are concerned about the increasing violence targeting the Jewish religious site.
Rockets and New Naval Response
Israel responded to Kassam rocket attacks Wednesday by attacking launching sites in Gaza from the sea for the first time, using naval vessels to fire artillery at the open fields and launch sites favored by terrorists. Five Kassam rockets struck the western Negev Wednesday fired from areas in northern Gaza formerly home to Jewish communities, which were destroyed as part of last summer's unilateral withdrawal. Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad says that the Russian-made Katyusha missile fired toward the city of Ashkelon on Election Day was just a first attempt, and promises to improve its aim and range in future attacks.
While Israelis were going to the polls Tuesday, the Hamas terror group formerly took its place at the head of the Palestinian Authority and vocalized its intentions to create an Islamist regime that would sponsor and encourage terror attacks, "and whose greatest desire is martyrdom for Allah," a senior official told the parliament. He was answered with applause and chants of "Allahu Akbar."
Navy Vessels Again Bombarding Gaza Targets
(IsraelNN.com) Navy vessels began shelling enemy targets in northern Gaza a short time ago. The targets are thought to be the areas from which Arab terrorists have been launching rockets at Israeli targets in recent days, including with Kassams and at least one Katyusha.
The IDF shelling from the sea at this time is the second incidence of the navy taking part in the retaliatory strikes today.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
13:45 ||
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#4
Tuesday, the Hamas terror group formerly took its place at the head of the Palestinian Authority and vocalized its intentions to create an Islamist regime that would sponsor and encourage terror attacks
I presume that EU money is still flowing into the PA. Doesn't that make them complicit in attacks on Irael?
#6
M: I don't think Bitch Slappin' Unicorn and Bunny Farms is the answer...
Whatever crop was being grown in those fields is going to be either charred or filled with bits of shrapnel. It's a message to people who host rocket attacks - do it, and your property is toast.
#7
Last time I checked (5 minutes ago) Israel's surface combatants consisted of patrol boats and the largest bore gun on any of them is a 3" automatic cannon.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/29/2006 17:14
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#8
Mebbe it's time to lend-lease one of our mothballed BBs...
Posted by: DanNY ||
03/29/2006 17:18
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#9
Ooohhh, let it be so. Much fun to watch (off axis).
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/29/2006 19:50
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#10
The missing link here is observation. If the Israelis would just use some method of spotting that would place the firing areas under observation, they could fire first, before the Paleos had set up their rocket. This is especially true since the Paleos are firing from open areas, not from within clusters of buildings.
In past, I've suggested inexpensive tethered balloons with video cameras on them. They could not only spot, but calculate a GPS coordinate for the fire control.
Best of all, the Israelis would have video evidence of the baddies setting up their toys, when next the snivellers complained that they were shelling civilians.
The ruling by the state Court of Appeals Thursday makes Juan Soto a millionaire with $400,000 to spare.
By a 4-to-3 vote, the judges concluded that Soto, who was 18 at the time of the 1997 incident, was "undeniably reckless" for walking near the electrified rails in Queens along the No. 7 line.
He and his pals thought they could outrun the train when they saw it coming. His pals made it; Soto didn't. His legs had to be amputated below the knee.
Soto's lawyers argued that their client could run as fast as 8 mph - an estimate based on how he once ran on a treadmill. Impossible to verify but
Based on that calculation, a Queens jury accepted the argument that the motorman had enough time to stop the train before striking Soto - even though he never should have been on the tracks.
"Individuals who put themselves in this type of position, and suffer injuries as a result, shouldn't be able to seek financial recovery from the public treasury," TA spokesman Charles Seaton said. "It's clear that he had no business on the roadbed."
Soto couldn't be reached for comment.
The TA had claimed that Soto had gone to a Manhattan bar with three pals, consuming six beers and a shot of whisky. BTW- Soto was 18 and the minimum Drinking age in New York at the time was 21.
Soto's lawyer, Brian Isaac, insisted there was no proof that Soto was drunk. Isaac conceded yesterday that his client may have had as many as seven drinks, but they were spread over at least seven hours.
In any case, Isaac said, the train's motorman, who gave inconsistent statements of his observations and actions, should have spotted Soto in time to stop his train, Isaac said. "It's the duty of any motorist to avoid preventable accidents," Isaac said.
According to court documents, Soto and his friends had been waiting for a train at Queensboro Plaza, but became convinced that the trains weren't running. Red tape was strung between platform pillars, suggesting that subway repairs were underway. The young men walked along a narrow path abutting the track called the catwalk. But as they neared the 40th St. station, a train materialized behind them. Hoping to reach the station first and board the train, the teens ran single file. Soto was struck.
A jury initially awarded Soto $1.4 million, finding the TA 75% at fault. An appellate court affirmed the decision by a 3-to-2 vote.
Writing for the majority, Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick indicated that the TA might have been cleared of responsibility if Soto's actions were a bit more egregious. Just to clarify, being drunk under the legal age limit and trying to outrun a train is not egregious behavior in New York. Maybe if he had his pants around his ankles it would be a different story. Ciparick cited a lawsuit filed more than two decades ago against a firecracker salesman. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an injured teenager, who was injured trying to make a pipe bomb with the firecrackers. Another lad with aspirations for the Darwin Achievement Award.
In a minority opinion, Judge Robert Smith asserted that Soto's own conduct was the sole legal cause of his injuries. "I think it is fair to say the plaintiff's injuries were entirely his own fault, even if a nonnegligent motorman might have been able to stop the train in time to avoid the accident," Smith wrote. "Anyone of normal human compassion will sympathize with plaintiff; Tap Tap nope my meter must be broke. he is not the only 18-year-old who ever acted recklessly, and he has paid a much higher price for it than most. "But I do not think it consistent with law or wise policy to hold, as the majority does, that the New York City Transit Authority must compensate him in part for his loss."
The TA wants state legislation that would make it tougher for such lawsuits to succeed, Seaton said.
#1
Make sure Soto is charged the going rate for all of his amputation surgeries and prosthesis fittings. That should suck down a substantial portion of his judgement. Idjit.
#2
In Germany, as poetic justice I suppose, the fine for stepping on the third rail of a streetcar exactly matches the number of amperes that will flow through your body at that moment.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A new common driving licence for the EU was approved by transport ministers on Monday (27 March) in a bid to fight fraud and raise road safety across the 25-member bloc.
The new driving licence is to be implemented by member states by 2012 at the latest, and will replace the 110 EU driving licence systems in place today including one dating from the German Democratic Republic, which reunited with Germany in 1990.
"We needed this new updated system," EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot told reporters.
[..]
The new document will have the form of a credit card with a regularly updated photo and some anti-falsification measures - possibly a microchip.
As part of the new scheme, licenses for mopeds and motorcycles will also be standardised, with licenses for mopeds only available after an obligatory theoretical test.
EU citizens under 24 will not be able to obtain a driving licence for heavy motorcycles unless they have two years of experience on lighter types, while anyone wanting to have a motorcycle licence will have to do so progressively for the more powerful bikes.
[..]
An additional brigade of Iraqi troops has arrived in eastern Ramadi to bolster the forces already in the restive capital of Anbar province, U.S. military officials said Tuesday. The city, about 75 miles west of Baghdad, has long been one of the most violent in the country and U.S. military officials say the city is home to members of Abu Musab al Zarqawis al-Qaida in Iraq network. In Tuesdays announcement, the U.S. command said group members are attempting to gain control of local towns, by using threat and intimidation tactics to enlist support for their terrorist cause. Ramadi has also been characterized as a base for insurgents mounting attacks in Baghdad, Fallujah and other cities along the Euphrates River Valley.
U.S. officials say the introduction of more Iraqi troops will improve the intelligence gathered on the ground. Their ability to gain factual information is paramount to fighting the insurgency, Col. John L. Gronski, commander of the 2/28 Brigade Combat Team, said in a U.S. military news release. These soldiers do not run and hide from the insurgents. Since our arrival here in July 2005, we have seen the IA make tremendous strides towards securing the city of Ramadi.
Before 2005, at least two other Iraqi units were brought into the area with little success. One of those units was disbanded shortly after the January 2005 elections, with another replacing it at camps in the eastern part of the city.
The 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Divisions self-described mission is to protect the people of Ramadi from the black hands of the insurgents that are shedding their blood, a U.S. military press release quoted the unnamed brigade commander as saying.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
13:26 ||
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters Wednesday in a second day of violence sparked by the killing of autonomy-seeking guerrillas in southeastern Turkey.
The pro-Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, claimed two rioters were shot to death in the rioting that began Tuesday and was among the worst in decades. Authorities would not confirm any killing or gunshot injury.
The Turkish army moved combat vehicles to the city's outskirts after clashes broke out Tuesday when thousands of protesters rampaged, hurling firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashing windows at a police station, after funerals for the Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops last week. About 200 rioters took to the streets again on Wednesday, blocking streets with burning car tires and hurling stones at riot police. They also smashed the windows of the local businesses and set a truck on fire before they were dispersed by security forces firing into the air and using a water cannon and tear gas. Paramilitary troops stationed outside the governor's office also quickly repelled a group of stone-throwing protesters.
At least 36 police officers and paramilitary troops and six civilians were injured and 80 people were detained in the two days of violence, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said. Four people with gunshot wounds were rushed to hospitals on Tuesday, hospital officials said. Mayor Osman Baydemir who is from a pro-Kurdish political party claimed that two people were killed and ``several people have been wounded by gunshots as a result of security forces' intervention.'' Authorities were still assessing damage in the city as municipality workers cleaned the wreckage of burned cars and broken glass littering the streets from the previous night.
``The aim of the perpetrators and rioters of this incidents is to destroy the unity of our country and the environment of safety,'' Aksu said. ``Our security forces will find and hand over the perpetrators, collaborators, provocateurs and their affiliates to justice and they will be given the punishment they deserved.''
Authorities boosted security in Diyarbakir. A long convoy of armored personnel carriers rumbled toward a major military base on the outskirts of the city as authorities called in police reinforcements from nearby cities. The slain guerrillas were among 14 killed by soldiers in the province of Mus in a two-day clash that ended Saturday. They belonged to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
Further west in Adana, some 3,000 Kurdish protesters attending the funeral of another slain guerrilla also clashed with police on Tuesday, prompting the officers to detain several people. Tensions have been running high in the southeast, where autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas have escalated attacks recently. The fight for autonomy has killed more than 37,000 people. The Kurdistan Workers Party is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it wants to join, to grant more rights to its sizable Kurdish population that it does recognize as an official minority. But Ankara has ruled out any dialogue with the Kurdish guerrillas whom it regards as terrorists.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan urged Denmark to shut down a Danish-based Kurdish satellite television station, Roj TV, which reportedly encouraged Kurdish rioters during Tuesday's clashes in Diyarbakir. Turkey accuses Roj TV of being a mouthpiece for the PKK. Danish authorities say they are still investigating, while Roj TV insists it has no links to the rebels.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
13:17 ||
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#3
The irony of this kills. If this is how the illegals want to run their campaign, let'em. It only demonstrates and reinforces why they need to leave. Stupid people shouldnt breed. Makes me wonder if the Army didn't deploy me to the wrong theater.
#5
I resubmit my same comments from late last night -
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.
#7
BRAVO!
Well said Broadhead6!
I hope this past weekend's activities will spur more action in getting these illegals dealt with and out of our country. What an eye opener last weekend was, in seeing their protests marching in OUR streets with THEIR flags.
I do think it's gotten to the point of having our military protecting our southern border.
We need to stop all of the free services rendered, they are laughing in our faces regarding how stupid we are giving them everything for free.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/29/2006 18:36
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#8
Here's hoping their out-of-the-closet re-conquistadora strategy will be shoved right up their asses.
#11
here in San Diego - the protestors continue to cut their own throats politically. Give them another day and no politician on a national or state scale will want to be seen as soft on this
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2006 22:34
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#12
Never interrupt your "enemy" when he's busy making a mistake.
I live in Antioch, CA. Yesterday whilst running an errand I had to drive by the local high school (something I try to avoid doing religiously) and there were at least 2-3 groups of kids standing outside the school grounds waving the Mexican flag.
I wanted to stop and go back and stand across the street with an American flag and a bullhorn. The little bastards should be in class learning English - not preaching their racism to me in my own country and town.
Reminds me of the time I wanted to burn the Palestinian flag right after 9-11. Lots of people on a forum that shall remain unnamed accused me of being a hatemonger and a warmonger and having a lust for blood. I quit that particular forum (one of the moderators was even supposed to have been a guard at Gitmo) and abandoned those particular acquaintances.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Burnin' their flag's too good for 'em. Pissin' on it would be a better metaphor.
A passenger jet which was destined for City of Derry Airport has landed at an Army base six miles away by mistake.
The Liverpool to Derry service, operated by Eirjet on behalf of Ryanair, landed at Ballykelly airstrip at 1440 BST.
Ryanair said in a statement it was due to an "error by the Eirjet pilot who mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to City of Derry airport". Begorrah!
March 29, 2006: From the beginning, in September, 2001, Afghanistan was very much a special operations (commando) war. The United States asked all of its allies to contribute their commando forces, and most eagerly obliged. This enthusiasm came from the realization that this part of the world was particularly difficult to operate in. In addition, most nations saw Islamic terrorism as a real threat, and knew that key terrorist leaders were still hiding out in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Even after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which many Western and Middle Eastern nations opposed, they kept sending their commandoes to Afghanistan.
Most of these commando operations have been kept secret. This is typical for commando operations, but in this case, many of the nations involved don't want it known that they are involved. This has especially been the case with Arab nations that have contributed commando units. The only time any information gets into the media is, typically, when a commando contingent returns. In that way, the Norwegian media recently covered the return of their special forces from, as it was described, "another mission" to Afghanistan . Many nations have either sent their commandoes to Afghanistan in shifts, maintaining a near continuous presence, or send some in for a few months, or up to a year, then bring them home for a year or so, before sending them back.
Afghanistan has been called "the Commando Olympics," because so many nations have contingents there. While the different commando organizations aren't competing with each other, they are performing similar missions, using slightly different methods and equipment. Naturally, everyone compares notes and makes changes based on combat experience. That's the draw for commandoes, getting and using "combat experience." Training is great, but there's nothing like operating against an armed and hostile foe. This is all a real big thing, as the participating commandoes are becoming a lot more effective. But you can't get a photograph of this increased capability, and the commandoes aren't talking to the press. So it's all a big story you'll never hear much about, except in history books, many years from now.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:58 ||
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#1
In this case, the more there is to not hear about, the happier I'll be.
#3
Realistic training is relative. Remember that most of these nations do not have any military personnel who are oriented to force projection, only internal security.
Afghanistan itself is a hellacious place, and just for them to be able to function there may be good enough. It is almost as if they were deposited on another planet, where 90% of their task is survival, and anything else they do is just icing on the cake.
Does their equipment work? Can they as soldiers handle the grueling terrain, weather and other conditions? Will they adapt? Then *finally*, how do they handle themselves in a combat situation?
These soldiers then head home to either immediate dismissal, or on the fast track to promotion, after intensive debriefing.
iRobot Corp., maker of those neat little Roomba home vacuuming robots and Scooba mop-replacement robots, recently announced a new contract delivery order to build additional bomb disposal robots for shipment to the U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the terms, iRobot will deliver an additional 213 iRobot PackBot Man Transportable Robotic Systems (MTRS), plus spare parts to repair robots in the field. The new award of $26 million marks the third round of funding by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), bringing the total value of the orders placed to date to more than $43 million.
The US Army is also involved in the MTRS tri-service procurement program, just as the Packbots are one of two robot types approved for use under this program. Foster-Miller, purchased by the British defense research firm QinetiQ in November 2005, also supplies its TALON IV robots to the program, while supporting previous versions in the field like the TALON III. DID covered the entire MTRS program in-depth back in September 2005, including the program structure (which includes the latest iRobot delivery) and the robots involved. A subsequent December 2005 article covered the Bombot, a much smaller and cheaper robot designed as an explicit alternative to MTRS.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:54 ||
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#1
I wonder if they are working on a lettuce picking robot?
Posted by: Mike ||
03/29/2006 16:31
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#7
If Pablo stopped holding wages down, a robotic lettuce picker would be in development, or would have been developed, paving the way for lower cost military robots. Low wage labor hurts the country in many ways.
#8
What they really need is to hold a competition for teenagers with Lego Mindstorms Systems for robots with military applications. I'm sure the kids can come up with something good.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/29/2006 21:55
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SOFIA - Bulgaria, which pulled its troops out of Iraq last year, dispatched Wednesday a new contingent on a peacekeeping and humanitarian mission to guard an Iranian refugee camp north of Baghdad. The 120-troop contingent and 34 supporting military personnel will be in charge of policing and administering the repatriation centre inside the Ashraf camp, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, a defence ministry statement said. They will be equipped with non-lethal arms, such as gas sprays, electroshock guns and light and sound signal grenades, it added.
The camp hosts about 3,500 Iranian refugees, most of whom belong to Irans main opposition movement, the Peoples Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which the European Union and the United States have listed as a terrorist organisation. The US-led coalition in Iraq forced the refugees to disarm and sent them to the Ashraf camp in 2003.
The Bulgarian press has criticised the new mission, with the weekly Capital comparing it to protecting ex-terrorists.
This mission will be less dangerous than those already completed by Bulgarian troops since joining the coalition in Iraq in 2003, Defence Minister Vesselin Bliznakov said during the official sending-off ceremony Wednesday in the central town of Kazanlak. Previous missions included protecting convoys, training Iraqi troops and participating in reconstruction projects in Kerbala and Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. Bulgaria has lost 13 soldiers and six civilians since it began operations in Iraq. It withdrew a 360-strong contingent from Iraq in late December.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:52 ||
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#1
Thanks, Bulgaria. Enjoy your new base! (Or the jobs/cash that come with a US military presence)
TEHERAN - Thousands of Iranian troops will on Friday start a week-long military maneuver in the Gulf to ready armed forces for warding off threats, a senior commander announced on state television. The commander of the navy of Revolutionary Guards Crops, Rear Admiral Mostafa Safari, did not specify the nature of the threat although the maneuver comes amid increasing tensions with the West over Tehrans nuclear programme.
Nice of them to give our intel people warning. Smile for the cameras.
The Revolutionary Guards Crops navy and air force in collaboration with (Irans regular) army, navy, (the volunteer militia) Basij, and the Iranian police will start a maneuver from 31 March until 6 April in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, he said. Iran has two armed forces in which both have their own ground, naval and air force all under the command of Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He added: We hope ... We will gain the necessary and needed readiness to decisively reply to any kind of threats. More than 17,000 soldiers and sailors will be used, along with 1,500 different kind of vessels, in addition to the different sorts of jet fighter planes, choppers and different missiles, he added, but did not say whether Iran will use its ballistic missiles. Iran has medium-range Shahab-3 missiles with the capability of 2,000 kilometers (1,280 miles), able of hitting arch-enemy Israel and US bases across the Middle East.
The exercise will cover an area stretching from the northern tip of the Persian Gulf all the way to the port city of Chah-Bahar in the Sea of Oman extending 40 kilometers into the sea, he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:48 ||
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#1
Black Hats...Keep telling yourself that the US forces are no different than Sadaam's Iraqui conscripts he threw into the meat grider in the 80s.
#7
It is most likely a mine-laying drill, accompanied by a submarine and surface ship exercise. After the "exercise" concludes, we will have to re-map every square inch they covered, looking for magnetic signatures, radioactive materials, cables, nets, and other obstructions and weapons they planted.
Fair is fair, we might even leave a few of our own.
#12
Steve: Nice of them to give our intel people warning.
They kind of have to, don't they? Otherwise, we might think they're gearing up for an invasion of Iraq, and take appropriate counter-measures. Heck, they might be prepping for an invasion, anyway - a surprise attack, on the assumption that US forces are overstretched - politically*, if not militarily. It might even be a good idea, if they can coordinate with Iraqi Shiites to stage a mass insurrection. This would be the equivalent of the Tet Offensive, but unlike in South Vietnam, the ruling government (or at least the Shiite portion) would be anti-American, and participate in the attack against US forces. We might find ourselves allying with Arab Sunnis to push back the Iranians - or fighting both Arab Sunnis and Shiites simultaneously.
* The media's success at destroying home front support for foreign wars is going to embolden Uncle Sam's adversaries across the globe.
#15
Zhang Fei: I would guess that the 17k are in addition to the 1+ or 2 Corps the Iranians have had deployed on the Iraq border for some time.
However, that being said, any push into southern Iraq against the British forces would get snicker-snacked by the US heavy armored brigade currently in Kuwait. Not my first choice of somebody charging up my flank.
#16
Anybody know what we have in the Gulf right now?
Regardless, I'm kinda' half suspecting/half hoping they actually try something against one of our ships over there (purely by accident, of course). I suspect the temptation will be too much for some of the diehards and they'll try somethin'.
I look forward to seeing the oil slick that's left of those 1500 boats afterwards...
A criminal armed group has been killed in a house during an operation in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. During the fire exchange, the house caught fire and burnt entirely down, a source at the republican Interior Ministry was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
The militants, among them Khasavyurt extremist leader Samir Pashayev, suspected of committing a series of crimes against law enforcement officials, were destroyed in a private house, where they were hiding, the source said.
Police reported they had possible found Pashayevs remains in the blockage.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:40 ||
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A plane carrying exiled former Liberian president and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor has arrived in his home country from Nigeria. He was put on a UN helicopter expected to be heading to Sierra Leone, where he is wanted by the war crimes tribunal for his alleged role in the civil war. He was extradited from Nigeria after he was caught trying to escape custody - ending his exile of nearly three years. Nigeria has denied it was negligent in the way it handled Mr Taylor.
The former leader faces 17 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over his alleged role in the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone, where he is accused of backing rebels notorious for mutilating civilians. The tribunal's top prosecutor Desmond de Silva told the BBC he was delighted he had been arrested. Tribunal officials say extra troops are due to arrive in Sierra Leone to reinforce security at the UN-backed court - where a cell is waiting for him, reports the BBC's Mark Doyle in Monrovia.
Mr Taylor had been in exile in Nigeria since 2003 after a deal ending Liberia's civil war. He went missing on Monday from his southern villa after the country announced Liberia was free to detain him.
Mr Taylor was detained earlier by security forces in the town of Gamboru-Ngala, close to the Cameroon border in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno. The former Liberian leader had arrived at the frontier in a Range Rover jeep with diplomatic corps number plates, a trader working at the Gamboru-Ngala border post told AFP news agency. "He was wearing a white flowing robe," said Babagana Alhaji Kata. "He passed through immigration but when he reached customs they were suspicious and they insisted on searching the jeep, where they found a large amount of US dollars. "After a further search they discovered he was Charles Taylor." Nigeria has arrested Mr Taylor's Nigerian guards and has launched an investigation.
News of Mr Taylor's capture came just before Mr Obasanjo left for a visit to the US for talks with President George W Bush. Mr Bush welcomed the capture and said he appreciated Nigeria's work to apprehend him, during their meeting.
For his part, Mr Obasanjo denied Nigeria had been "negligent" in its handling of the suspect, and said earlier he felt "vindicated" by the capture. Those who had suggested Nigeria may have been complicit in Mr Taylor's initial escape were wrong and owed him an apology, he added.
UPDATE: FREETOWN (Reuters) - A U.N. helicopter carrying former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived on Wednesday in Sierra Leone, where he is due to stand trial for war crimes, two Reuters witnesses said. Taylor was flown into the large compound in Freetown housing the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone which has indicted him on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mongolian U.N. guards and Sierra Leonean paramilitary police were protecting the complex, which is surrounded by a barbed wire-topped high wall and watchtowers. He was escorted from the helicopter to a U.N vehicles and driven to a building in the compound, the witnesses said. "A U.N. helicopter carrying Charles Taylor landed at Freetown at 7:06 p.m. local time (0706 GMT). He is now in the custody of the special court for Sierra Leone," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
Taylor was taken into custody earlier by U.N. officials in Liberia after being flown from northern Nigeria, where police had captured him while he was trying to escape over the border into Cameroon.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:29 ||
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#1
Oh, boy. A UN war crimes tribunal.
So what will happen first? He's found guilty or dies of old age?
#2
Maybe he will suddenly die of complications brought on by the medication they give him. I mean, after all, only uncivilized nations have the death penalty.
#6
Turn him over to the Saudis and tell them he ripped up a Koran and used it as toilet paper. The rest of us sit back and watch the spectacle. Popcorn, anyone???
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2006 15:03
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He passed through immigration but when he reached customs they were suspicious and they insisted on searching the jeep, where they found a large amount of US dollars...
"My Dear Friend,
Before his arrest, my brother was President Taylor's personal jeep driver..."
Lockheed Martins Skunk Works, famed for the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes that flew higher than anything else in the world in their day, is trying for a different altitude record: an airplane that starts and ends its mission 150 feet underwater.
The Cormorant, a stealthy, jet-powered, autonomous aircraft that could be outfitted with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment, is designed to launch out of the Trident missile tubes in some of the U.S. Navys gigantic Cold Warera Ohio-class submarines. These formerly nuke-toting subs have become less useful in a military climate evolved to favor surgical strikes over nuclear stalemates, but the Cormorant could use their now-vacant tubes to provide another unmanned option for spying on or destroying targets near the coast.
[..] see artwork at link
#1
...Admiral Nelson and Captain Crane to the Flying Sub, please...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/29/2006 12:38
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UAVs are the *cash-cow of the industry, none/little of the liability risk of human death, which translates into massive savings across the industry. That and no ECS/Enviro systems which in mil terms means more payload.
* Hope that is, everyone in the industry is working on them, but when they really flood the industry it will be interesting to see what happens with Unit/Volumn margins. Nobody really knows now.
#2
I like the thick cut bacon, not the "paper thin" stuff.
Nothing that some serious over-printing can't solve. What I want to know is whether the print head works using "rasher-scan." I'm just like a ham, but I can't be cured.
#3
A while back, one of my kids had some friends over, and I ordered a pizza for them using the local pizza parlor's Internet ordering service. I said to one of the kids,"Not only can you order your pizza by Internet, if we had broadband, we could actually download the pizza."
I expected to get a laugh, but he actually believed me! This was too good an opportunity to pass up, so I took the gag to the next level: "'Course, that would require us to have the special cheese cartridge in the printer." Only then did he realize I was kidding him.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/29/2006 16:35
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#4
Accessing the servers would merit the death penality in Afghanistan.
Karachi, 29 March (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - The leader of one of Pakistan's most feared militant groups, who was also once a close aide to Osama bin Laden, is currently in critical condition in a Rawalpindi hospital after surviving an attempt on his life.
Ah, I love good news
Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the chief of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahadeen, was dumped in front of a mosque in the outskirts of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. "Don't call it an accident," said Harkat-ul-Mujahadeen's official spokesperson Sultan Zia in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). "It was a fully managed episode," he said.
It was a dark and stormy night. A car slows in front of a empty mosque. A broken body is suddenly tossed from the rear door while the vehicle spins it's tires and speeds away into the darkness.
The militant organisation, which was then known as Harkat-ul-Ansar, was blacklisted as a terror group by the US State Department in 1994.
Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf banned the organisation in 2001 and Khalil has kept a low profile ever since.
"Fazlur Rehman Khalil does not have any personal feud against anybody," said Zia. "In the incident it seems that a few people were chasing him and when he reached Tarnol and offered his Magrib prayers on Tuesday evening at a prayer's place (not a proper mosque), around five people kidnapped him and his driver. They beat him mercilessly and suffocated him. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil was unconscious and so they believed that he was dead and left him and his driver with their hands tied with ropes," said Zia. "It was coincidence that people nearby found them and provided first aid so that they survived," Zia maintained.
According to Sultan Zia, the abductors were repeatedly saying that they were after Khalil for quite some time but they did not have a chance to get him.
Fazlur Rehman Khalil was one of the oldest jihadi leaders in Afghanistan, famed for fighting against the Soviets. He founded Harkat after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and fought alongside the mujahadeen forces.
Harkat was respected in jihadi circles for its role in the defeat of the communist Afghan Army of Afghanistan in the south-eastern Afghan province of Khost where the militant group then seized control in 1991. Khost was the first major city which fell to the mujahadeen fighters. The Harkat fighters also fought along side with the fugitive Taliban leader Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani.
When the United States under the administration of Bill Clinton fired cruise missiles to target bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998, Kandahar was attacked in a bid to kill the al-Qaeda leader and Khost was attacked to destroy the bases of the Harkat-ul-Mujahadeen in the province.
After the attacks, bin Laden held a press conference in Afghanistan, while at the same time Khalil held a separate press conference in Pakistan in which he supported bin Laden's statement to attack American interests all over the world. At the press conference, he also asserted that the Harkat-ul-Mujahadeen would take revenge on the US attack on Afghanistan. After the 1998 attacks, Khalil also went on to hold many seminars in Pakistan in favour of bin Laden. The al-Qaeda leader provided him with large sums of money which he is believed to have embezzeled, after which he fell out of favour with bin Laden.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the FBI sought to interrogate him. It is believed they managed to do so and that Khalil was injected with various medicines which eventually affected his mental health. He often complained of physical problems as a result of the FBI interrogation
Sources said that although Khalil reportedly had abandoned all jihadi activities, the Pakistani authorities recently became suspicious about his activities and have interrogated him regarding his alleged ties with the Taliban fighters in the tribal region of Waziristan which borders Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:12 ||
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#1
Paging Dr. Death. Please come to your Islamabad office. Oh, you have a previous committment? Too bad, we could use your talents here.
#7
The al-Qaeda leader provided him with large sums of money which he is believed to have embezzeled, after which he fell out of favour with bin Laden.
Ripped off Osama, eh? Almost makes me feel sorry for the guy. Almost.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/29/2006 14:37
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#8
not like osama hasn't had friends whacked before
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi authorities arrested 40 suspected members of al-Qaida - including some allegedly involved in last month's attempted bombing of a key oil complex - and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday. The agency, quoting an unidentified Interior Ministry official, said security forces carried out simultaneous operations in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and Qassim in the north and Asir in the south. The agency did not say when the arrests were made.
Authorities said 19 of those arrested were suspected of financing terrorist attacks and disseminating "disinformation on the Internet," the official said. They included Saudis and "residents," the official said without elaborating on the others' nationalities.
Eight people connected to the Feb. 24 attack on the Abqaiq complex, the world's largest oil processing facility, also were arrested, he said. Attackers in two explosives-laden vehicles tried to ram through the facility's gates but were stopped by guards, who opened fire on them, detonating the vehicles. Thirteen others influenced by "deviant thoughts" and active in collecting funds to finance suspicious activities also were arrested, the report said. Police seized grenades, rifles and ammunition in the raids, he said.
Also, a Saudi daily newspaper reported that authorities seized two explosives-laden vehicles in Abqaiq. The Riyadh daily said the two vehicles had the logo of Aramco, the Saudi oil company, on them. Officials were not available to comment on the report.
Al-Qaida militants launched a campaign of violence three years ago in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of group leader Osama bin Laden. Saudi security forces have largely had al-Qaida militants on the run for the past year, arresting hundreds of suspects.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:09 ||
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#1
And will most likely dismiss charges against 38 of them.
It being a far greater crime for a woman to drive a car.
Doubt more stealthy. I had an RC heli similar to this (though to the looks a bit smaller). It was a Kalt Baron 50 w/ the Baron 60 engine.
Major hard to fly, esp as I couldn't afford a tail roter gryo and mixer (worked all summer to get it as a teenager, the gyro was almost as much as the heli at the time).
The engine was loud, seriously loud! But it had major lifting / hauling power. I never thought to, but I could have easily mounted a shotgun to the heli (thought of bottle rockets tho, lol)!
They have electrical ones these days that are super quiet, but I doubt they have the meat for a weapon ... tho recon would be awesome.
They say RC helis are one of the hardest things to fly in the world, one of the major reasons being with every 180 degree change the controls reverse.
Electrical + Powerful + Good Flight Software would equal an awesome UAV
ROME (AP) -- Italy granted asylum Wednesday to an Afghan who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity, and Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the man was in the care of the Interior Ministry after arriving in Italy earlier in the day. Abdul Rahman "is already in Italy. I think he arrived overnight," Berlusconi said, declining to release more details.
Made it out alive. Now he'll need to hide from the fatwa that is sure to come
Rahman's jailing in Afghanistan inspired an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and efforts by the United Nations to find a country to take him. Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini had been outspoken about the case from the start, saying Italy had a duty to make clear its "indignation."
Conversion is a crime under Afghanistan's Islamic law. Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible. He was brought to trial last week for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Afghanistan's parliament had demanded earlier Wednesday that the government prevent Rahman from being able to flee the country.
Germany, where Rahman once lived, praised the Italian offer. "This is a humanitarian signal and we welcome it," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi says Italy would be glad to give asylum to the Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity. Anticipating that Italy's Cabinet would approve Rahman's asylum, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Tuesday that such a move would bring "all the forms of protection and assistance" related to recognizing refugee status.
Italy has close ties with Afghanistan, whose former king, Mohammed Zaher Shah, was allowed to live with his family in exile in Rome for 30 years. The former royals returned to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime a few years ago.
Italian troops were sent into Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2001 to help with reconstruction.
Muslim clerics in Afghanistan condemned Rahman's release, saying it was a "betrayal of Islam," and threatened to incite violent protests. Some 500 Muslim leaders, students and others gathered Wednesday in a mosque in southern Qalat town and criticized the government for releasing Rahman, said Abdulrahman Jan, the top cleric in Zabul province. He said the government should either force Rahman to convert back to Islam or kill him. "This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan," he said.
Yes, it is. Just not how you think it is.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/29/2006
12:03 ||
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Islam truly is a scourge. A virulent bacterium in the shitty little petri dish we call the middle east. I'd like to spray it with lysol.
Afghan lawmakers demand that Christian convert not be allowed to leave
KABUL, Afghanistan Afghanistan's parliament demanded Wednesday that the government prevent a man who faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity from being able to flee the country.
Italy granted asylum to Abdul Rahman, 41, and the Foreign Ministry said he would arrive there soon, maybe within the day.
Rahman was released from prison Monday after a court dropped charges of apostasy against him because of a lack of evidence and suspicions he may be mentally ill. President Hamid Karzai had been under heavy international pressure to drop the case.
Rahman was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of the capital late Monday. Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish said Tuesday that Rahman was staying at a safe location in Kabul.
His current whereabouts were unknown.
The Italian government granted asylum to Rahman after Muslim clerics called for his death.
I say that we are very glad to be able to welcome someone who has been so courageous, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said.
Afghan lawmakers debated the issue Wednesday and said Rahman should not be allowed to leave the country. However, they did not take a formal vote on the issue.
We sent a letter and called the Interior Ministry and demanded they not allow Abdul Rahman to leave the country, parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni told reporters on behalf of the entire body. Qanooni ==>
Interior Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Rahman was put on trial last week for converting 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was carrying a Bible when arrested and faced the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws.
The case caused an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Karzai.
Muslim clerics condemned Rahman's release, saying it was a betrayal of Islam, and threatened to incite violent protests.
Some 500 Muslim leaders, students and others gathered Wednesday in a mosque in southern Qalat town and criticized the government for releasing Rahman, said Abdulrahman Jan, the top cleric in Zabul province.
He said the government should either force Rahman to convert back to Islam or kill him.
This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan, he said.
Rahman has appealed to leave Afghanistan, and the United Nations has been working to find a country willing to take him.
Italy has close ties with Afghanistan, whose former king, Mohammed Zaher Shah, was allowed to live in exile in Rome with his family for 30 years. The former royals returned to Kabul after the Taliban fell.
The United States and Germany welcomed Rahman's release from prison.
Obviously it's good news that he has been released, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
Germany, a major donor to Afghanistan that has about 2,000 troops in the NATO security force, also expressed satisfaction.
I think this is a sensible signal to the international community but also for the situation in Afghanistan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Aaah yes the religion of peace desiring a peaceful murder again.
#1
Here's a good but depressing quote from Big Pharoah:
The Christian reformation was bloody and messy, the Islamic reformation will take generations before it bears any fruit. There are 2 reasons why.
First, currently, we are not even in stage one. We are below the zero level. The debate of whether a convert out of islam should be killed or not didn't even commense. If such a simple crystal clear thing, the right to change religion, is still not being discussed, then when do you think will the Islamic world start discussing issues such as women rights, freedom of speech, and the seperation of politics and religion?
Second, Muslims are busy blaming the Jooooooz and America. When you are busy blaming others for your ills, you have no time to look at the mirror.
So ladies and gentlement, we're in this for the long haul. Don't forget to tell that to your grandchildren.
I hope he's wrong
Posted by: Matt ||
03/29/2006 12:53
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This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan,
#3
According to Michelle Malkin, Mr. Rahman has arrived safely in Italy. However, other Afghan Christians are being harassed and arrested, now that attention has been brought to their existence.
(AP) LOS ANGELES The marching orders were clear: Carry American flags and pack the kids, pick up your trash and wear white for peace and for effect.
Many of the 500,000 people who crammed downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest legislation that would make criminals out of illegal immigrants learned where, when and even how to demonstrate from the Spanish-language media.
For English-speaking America, the mass protests in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities over the past few days have been surprising for their size and seeming spontaneity.
But they were organized, promoted or publicized for weeks by Spanish-language radio hosts and TV anchors as a demonstration of Hispanic pride and power.
In Milwaukee, where at least 10,000 people rallied last week, one radio station manager called some employers to ask that they not fire protesters for skipping work. In Chicago, a demonstration that drew 100,000 people received coverage on local television more than a week in advance.
"This was a much bigger story for the Latino media," said Felix Gutierrez, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. "If the mainstream media had been paying better attention, there would not have been the surprise about the turnout."
Adrian Velasco first learned of House legislation to overhaul immigration policy on Los Angeles' Que Buena 105.5 FM. Over two weeks, the 30-year-old illegal immigrant soaked up details about the planned march against the bill from Hispanic TV and radio. On Saturday, he and three friends headed downtown.
"They told all the Hispanic people to go and support these things," Velasco said. "They explained a lot. They said, 'Here's what we're going to do."'
One of those doing the most talking was El Piolin, a syndicated morning show radio host who is broadcast in 20 cities.
El Piolin, whose real name is Eduardo Sotelo and whose nickname means "Tweety Bird," persuaded colleagues from 11 Spanish-language radio stations in Los Angeles to talk up the rally on air.
He said he devised the idea of telling protesters to wear white and carry flags to symbolize their peaceful intent and love of the United States. He also urged parents to bring their children to minimize chances of violence and reminded everyone to bring plenty of water and trash bags.
"I was talking about how we need to be united to demonstrate that we're not bad guys and we're not criminals," said Sotelo, 35, who crossed into the United States as a teenager and became legal in 1996.
In Milwaukee, the Spanish-language station WDDW 104.7 made a point of publicizing the House legislation and the protest against it on its morning and drive-time shows two weeks ahead of time.
Operations manager Armando Ulloa said his goal was at least 10,000 people -- and police estimated that was what the rally attracted. After the march, Ulloa said, he called some employers and asked them to be lenient on protesters who missed their shifts.
In Los Angeles, 10 prime-time Spanish-language news anchors filmed a promotion urging demonstrators to show respect, said Julio Cesar Ortiz, a television reporter who covers immigration.
"The Spanish media said, 'Do it in a proper way. Do it in a way where's there's pride behind it when you're done,"' Ortiz said.
Telemundo Chicago, a Spanish-language TV station, began its coverage blitz 1 1/2 weeks before a recent rally, though there was no urging that viewers attend, said news director Esteban Creste.
"We just told them what was going on," Creste said. "While we were not trying to mobilize people, it might have prompted people to decide to go there."
The protests continued Tuesday in at least four states, with thousands of students leaving school again in California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada.
In Los Angeles, the numbers were far smaller than the tens of thousands who marched Monday. Authorities thwarted efforts to block freeway traffic, rounding up some youngsters and issuing truancy citations.
In Phoenix, students marched to the state Capitol for the second day in a row. In Las Vegas, they rallied near the Strip after being directed away from casinos.
And in Dallas, students crowded in front of City Hall, waving Mexican and Salvadoran flags and shouting "We can do it" in Spanish.
The protests jammed roads. A Dallas school district spokesman said a girl's hand was severed when the sport utility vehicle she was in sped into an intersection and overturned.
#1
The marching orders were clear: Carry American flags ...
But they didn't.
students crowded in front of City Hall, waving Mexican and Salvadoran flags and shouting "We can do it" in Spanish.
Cause they don't want the American Dream[tm] anymore than the Goth or Vandals wanted the Roman Dream. They just wanted territory, power, loot, etc. They don't want to assimilate. La Raza. And the joke is that they call the gringo racist.
BY AMIR TAHERI
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
Hassan Abbasi has a dream--a helicopter doing an arabesque in cloudy skies to avoid being shot at from the ground. On board are the last of the "fleeing Americans," forced out of the Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam) by "the Army of Muhammad." Presented by his friends as "The Dr. Kissinger of Islam," Mr. Abbasi is "professor of strategy" at the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard Corps University and, according to Tehran sources, the principal foreign policy voice in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new radical administration.
For the past several weeks Mr. Abbasi has been addressing crowds of Guard and Baseej Mustadafin (Mobilization of the Dispossessed) officers in Tehran with a simple theme: The U.S. does not have the stomach for a long conflict and will soon revert to its traditional policy of "running away," leaving Afghanistan and Iraq, indeed the whole of the Middle East, to be reshaped by Iran and its regional allies.
To hear Mr. Abbasi tell it the entire recent history of the U.S. could be narrated with the help of the image of "the last helicopter." It was that image in Saigon that concluded the Vietnam War under Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter had five helicopters fleeing from the Iranian desert, leaving behind the charred corpses of eight American soldiers. Under Ronald Reagan the helicopters carried the corpses of 241 Marines murdered in their sleep in a Hezbollah suicide attack. Under the first President Bush, the helicopter flew from Safwan, in southern Iraq, with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf aboard, leaving behind Saddam Hussein's generals, who could not believe why they had been allowed live to fight their domestic foes, and America, another day. Bill Clinton's helicopter was a Black Hawk, downed in Mogadishu and delivering 16 American soldiers into the hands of a murderous crowd.
According to this theory, President George W. Bush is an "aberration," a leader out of sync with his nation's character and no more than a brief nightmare for those who oppose the creation of an "American Middle East." Messrs. Abbasi and Ahmadinejad have concluded that there will be no helicopter as long as George W. Bush is in the White House. But they believe that whoever succeeds him, Democrat or Republican, will revive the helicopter image to extricate the U.S. from a complex situation that few Americans appear to understand.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's defiant rhetoric is based on a strategy known in Middle Eastern capitals as "waiting Bush out." "We are sure the U.S. will return to saner policies," says Manuchehr Motakki, Iran's new Foreign Minister.
Mr. Ahmadinejad believes that the world is heading for a clash of civilizations with the Middle East as the main battlefield. In that clash Iran will lead the Muslim world against the "Crusader-Zionist camp" led by America. Mr. Bush might have led the U.S. into "a brief moment of triumph." But the U.S. is a "sunset" (ofuli) power while Iran is a sunrise (tolu'ee) one and, once Mr. Bush is gone, a future president would admit defeat and order a retreat as all of Mr. Bush's predecessors have done since Jimmy Carter.
Mr. Ahmadinejad also notes that Iran has just "reached the Mediterranean" thanks to its strong presence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. He used that message to convince Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to adopt a defiant position vis-à-vis the U.N. investigation of the murder of Rafiq Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon. His argument was that once Mr. Bush is gone, the U.N., too, will revert to its traditional lethargy. "They can pass resolutions until they are blue in the face," Mr. Ahmadinejad told a gathering of Hezbollah, Hamas and other radical Arab leaders in Tehran last month.
According to sources in Tehran and Damascus, Mr. Assad had pondered the option of "doing a Gadhafi" by toning down his regime's anti-American posture. Since last February, however, he has revived Syria's militant rhetoric and dismissed those who advocated a rapprochement with Washington. Iran has rewarded him with a set of cut-price oil, soft loans and grants totaling $1.2 billion. In response Syria has increased its support for terrorists going to fight in Iraq and revived its network of agents in Lebanon, in a bid to frustrate that country's democratic ambitions.
It is not only in Tehran and Damascus that the game of "waiting Bush out" is played with determination. In recent visits to several regional capitals, this writer was struck by the popularity of this new game from Islamabad to Rabat. The general assumption is that Mr. Bush's plan to help democratize the heartland of Islam is fading under an avalanche of partisan attacks inside the U.S. The effect of this assumption can be witnessed everywhere.
In Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf has shelved his plan, forged under pressure from Washington, to foster a popular front to fight terrorism by lifting restrictions against the country's major political parties and allowing their exiled leaders to return. There is every indication that next year's elections will be choreographed to prevent the emergence of an effective opposition. In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, arguably the most pro-American leader in the region, is cautiously shaping his post-Bush strategy by courting Tehran and playing the Pushtun ethnic card against his rivals.
In Turkey, the "moderate" Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is slowly but surely putting the democratization process into reverse gear. With the post-Bush era in mind, Mr. Erdogan has started a purge of the judiciary and a transfer of religious endowments to sections of the private sector controlled by his party's supporters. There are fears that next year's general election would not take place on a level playing field.
Even in Iraq the sentiment that the U.S. will not remain as committed as it has been under Mr. Bush is producing strange results. While Shiite politicians are rushing to Tehran to seek a reinsurance policy, some Sunni leaders are having second thoughts about their decision to join the democratization process. "What happens after Bush?" demands Salih al-Mutlak, a rising star of Iraqi Sunni leaders. The Iraqi Kurds have clearly decided to slow down all measures that would bind them closer to the Iraqi state. Again, they claim that they have to "take precautions in case the Americans run away."
There are more signs that the initial excitement created by Mr. Bush's democratization project may be on the wane. Saudi Arabia has put its national dialogue program on hold and has decided to focus on economic rather than political reform. In Bahrain, too, the political reform machine has been put into rear-gear, while in Qatar all talk of a new democratic constitution to set up a constitutional monarchy has subsided. In Jordan the security services are making a spectacular comeback, putting an end to a brief moment of hopes for reform. As for Egypt, Hosni Mubarak has decided to indefinitely postpone local elections, a clear sign that the Bush-inspired scenario is in trouble. Tunisia and Morocco, too, have joined the game by stopping much-advertised reform projects while Islamist radicals are regrouping and testing the waters at all levels.
But how valid is the assumption that Mr. Bush is an aberration and that his successor will "run away"? It was to find answers that this writer spent several days in the U.S., especially Washington and New York, meeting ordinary Americans and senior leaders, including potential presidential candidates from both parties. While Mr. Bush's approval ratings, now in free fall, and the increasingly bitter American debate on Iraq may lend some credence to the "helicopter" theory, I found no evidence that anyone in the American leadership elite supported a cut-and-run strategy.
The reason was that almost all realized that the 9/11 attacks have changed the way most Americans see the world and their own place in it. Running away from Saigon, the Iranian desert, Beirut, Safwan and Mogadishu was not hard to sell to the average American, because he was sure that the story would end there; the enemies left behind would not pursue their campaign within the U.S. itself. The enemies that America is now facing in the jihadist archipelago, however, are dedicated to the destruction of the U.S. as the world knows it today.
Those who have based their strategy on waiting Mr. Bush out may find to their cost that they have, once again, misread not only American politics but the realities of a world far more complex than it was even a decade ago. Mr. Bush may be a uniquely decisive, some might say reckless, leader. But a visitor to the U.S. soon finds out that he represents the American mood much more than the polls suggest.
I hope he's right
Mr. Taheri is author of "L'Irak: Le Dessous Des Cartes" (Editions Complexe, 2002).
#1
I don't think you need worry, Sherry. The numbers of those who get it keep rising, and will continue as this round of troops returns from stints in Iraq, Afghanistan, and places more obscure.
(Are you back now, Broadhead6? Or still posting from the Sandbox? You will clean up your language before getting involved in the PTA, right? ;-> )
#2
Yes Ma'am, I am now back in CONUS (2 weeks) and loving life. For the record my language around my little man has been most clean. I'm surprised at my own self discipline as I love to swear. (Actually, I'm even better than my wife!)However, I solenmly promise that my posts on the 'burg will continue to be full of "colorful metaphors."
#4
Glad to hear it, BH6. I imagine all went as it should over there, and look forward to the little tales you can now tell. And I'm thrilled for Mrs. BH6 and the little man, who've been strong for so long. Bless you all!
#5
Thanks Seafarious - it's great to be back. I'm glad I had a chance to do my bit for the country but am so happy to be home in my own house, looking at southern pine trees, green grass, drinking a pabst on my own patio and playing w/my boy and my loyal old dog. (and of course chasing Mrs. BH6 around the house ;)
God Bless America, there is no place better on this mud ball.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/29/2006 18:11
Comments ||
Top||
#7
TW, thanks. Yep, all went fine. Besides effectively executing our mission everybody in my unit came back alive. We had one guy lose a leg below the knee due to an IED but that was it. We were lucky but also well trained.
My family did well (my wife who is not only beautiful is also as solid as a rock) but we're kind of used to doing this. We did save some money during the course of my deployment so I am taking my sweetie to Ireland next month for a week - she's never been there but has always wanted to go. Our little lad will be staying w/his grand parents up in MI. This summer as my training schedule permits we plan on taking a lot of family camping trips around the state parks and such. I can't wait! It's great to be home.
#9
Supposedly from Stratfor - Seen elsewhere salt as needed
Counterplays and Timing
What they did not count on was American flexibility. From the first battle of Al Fallujah onward, the United States engaged in negotiations with the Sunni leadership. The United States had two goals: one, to use the Sunni presence in a new Iraqi government to block Iranian ambitions; and two, to split the Sunnis from the jihadists. It was the very success of this strategy, evident in the December 2005 elections, that caused Iraqi Shia to move away from the Iranians a bit, and, more important, caused the jihadists to launch an anti-Shiite rampage. The jihadists' goal was to force a civil war in Iraq and drive the Sunnis back into an unbreakable alliance with them.
In other words, the war was not going in favor of either the United States or Iran. The Americans were bogged down in a war that could not be won with available manpower, if by "victory" we mean breaking the Sunni-jihadist will to resist. The Iranians envisioned the re-emergence of their former Baathist enemies. Not altogether certain of the political commitments or even the political savvy of their Shiite allies in Iraq, they could now picture their worst nightmare: a coalition government in which the Sunnis, maneuvering with the Kurds and Americans, would dominate an Iraqi government. They saw Tehran's own years of maneuvering as being in jeopardy. Neither side could any longer be certain of the outcome.
In response, each side attempted, first, to rattle the other. Iran's nuclear maneuver was designed to render the Americans more forthcoming; the assumption was that a nuclear Iran would be more frightening, from the American point of view, than a Shiite Iraq. The Americans held off responding and then, a few weeks ago, began letting it be known that not only were airstrikes against Iran possible, but that in fact they were being seriously considered and that deadlines were being drawn up.
This wasn't about nuclear weapons but about Iraq, as both sides made clear when the talks were announced. Both players now have all their cards on the table. Iran bluffed nukes, the United States called the bluff and seemed about to raise. Khalilzad's request for talks was still on the table. The Iranians took it. This was not really done in order to forestall airstrikes -- the Iranians were worried about that only on the margins. What Iran had was a deep concern and an interesting opportunity.
The concern was that the situation in Iraq was spinning out of its control. The United States was no longer predictable, the Sunnis were no longer predictable, and even the Iranians' Shiite allies were not playing their proper role. The Iranians were playing for huge stakes in Iraq and there were suddenly too many moving pieces, too many things that could go wrong.
The Iranians also saw an opportunity. Bush's political position in the United States had deteriorated dramatically. As it deteriorated, his room for maneuver declined. The British had made it clear that they were planning to leave Iraq. Bush had really not been isolated before, as his critics always charged, but now he was becoming isolated -- domestically as well as internationally. Bush needed badly to break out of the political bind he was in. The administration had resisted pressure to withdraw troops under a timetable, but it no longer was clear whether Congress would permit Bush to continue to resist. The president did not want his hands tied by Congress, but it seemed to the Iranians that was exactly what was happening.
From the Iranian point of view, if ever a man has needed a deal, it is Bush. If there are going to be any negotiations, they are to happen now. From Bush's point of view, he does need a deal, but so do the Iranians -- things are ratcheting out of control from Tehran's point of view as well. For domestic Iraqi players, the room to maneuver is increasing, while the room to maneuver for foreign players is decreasing. In other words, the United States and Iran have, for the moment, the unified interest of managing Iraq, rather than seeing a civil war or a purely domestic solution.
The Next Phase of the Game
The Iranians want at least to Finlandize Iraq. During the Cold War, the Soviets did not turn Finland into a satellite, but they did have the right to veto members of its government, to influence the size and composition of its military and to require a neutral foreign policy. The Iranians wanted more, but they will settle for keeping the worst of the Baathists out of the government and for controls over Iraq's international behavior. The Americans want a coalition government within the limits of a Finlandic solution. They do not want a purely Shiite government; they want the Sunnis to deal with the jihadists, in return for guaranteed Sunni rights in Iraq. Finally, the United States wants the right to place a [permanent military] force in Iraq -- aircraft and perhaps 40,000 troops -- outside the urban areas, in the west. The Iranians do not really want U.S. troops so close, so they will probably argue about the number and the type. They do not want to see heavy armored units but can live with lighter units stationed to the west.
Now obviously, in this negotiation, each side will express distrust and indifference. The White House won the raise by expressing doubts as to Tehran's seriousness; the implication was that the Iranians were buying time to work on their nukes. Perhaps. But the fact is that Tehran will work on nukes as and when it wants, and Washington will destroy the nukes as and when it wants. The nukes are non-issues in the real negotiations.
There are three problems now with negotiations. One is Bush's ability to keep his coalition intact while he negotiates with a member of the "axis of evil." Another is Iran's ability to keep its coalition together while it negotiates with the "Great Satan." And third is the ability of either to impose their collective will on an increasingly self-reliant Iraqi polity. The two major powers are now ready to talk. What is not clear is whether, even together, they will be in a position to impose their will on the Iraqis. The coalitions will probably hold, and the Iraqis will probably submit. But those are three "probablies." Not good.
All wars end in negotiations. Clearly, the United States and Iran have been talking quietly for a long time. They now have decided it is time to make their talks public. That decision by itself indicates how seriously they both take these conversations now.
Supposed reprint from Stratfor
Putting Cards on the Table in Iraq
March 21, 2006 22 04 GMT
By George Friedman
The clouds couldn't have been darker last week. Everyone was talking about civil war in Iraq. Smart and informed people were talking about the real possibility of an American airstrike against Iran's nuclear capabilities. The Iranians were hurling defiance in every direction on the compass. U.S. President George W. Bush seemed to be politically on the ropes, unable to control his own party. And then seemingly out of nowhere, the Iranians offered to hold talks with the Americans on Iraq, and only Iraq. With the kind of lightning speed not seen from the White House for a while, the United States accepted. Suddenly, the two countries with the greatest stake in Iraq -- and the deepest hostility toward each other -- had agreed publicly to negotiate on Iraq.
To understand this development, we must understand that Iran and the United States have been holding quiet, secret, back-channel and off-the-record discussions for years -- but the discussions were no less important for all of that. The Iran-Contra affair, for example, could not have taken place had the Reagan administration not been talking to the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini's representatives. There is nothing new about Americans and Iranians talking; they have been doing it for years. Each side, for their own domestic reasons, has tried to hide the talks from public view, even when they were quite public, such as the Geneva discussions over Afghanistan prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.
What is dramatically new is the public nature of these talks now, and the subject matter: Iraq.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the real players in Iraq are now going to sit down and see if they can reach some decisions about the country's future. They are going to do this over the heads of their various clients. Obviously, the needs of those clients will have to be satisfied, but in the end, the Iraq war is at least partly about U.S.-Iranian relations, and it is clear that both sides have now decided that it is time to explore a deal -- not in a quiet Georgetown restaurant, but in full view of the world. In other words, it is time to get serious.
The offer of public talks actually was not made by Iran. The first public proposal for talks came from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, who several months ago reported that he had been authorized by Bush to open two lines of discussion: One was with the non-jihadist Sunni leadership in Iraq; the other was with Iran. Interestingly, Khalilzad had emphasized that he was authorized to speak with the Iranians only about Iraq and not about other subjects. In other words, discussion of Iran's nuclear program was not going to take place. What happened last week was that the Iranians finally gave Khalilzad an answer: yes.
Iran's Slow Play
As we have discussed many times, Iraq has been Iran's obsession. It is an obsession rooted in ancient history; the Bible speaks of the struggle between Babylon and Persia for regional hegemony. It has some of its roots in more recent history as well: Iran lost about 300,000 people, with about 1 million more wounded and captured, in its 1980-88 war with Iraq. That would be the equivalent of more than 1 million dead Americans and an additional 4 million wounded and captured. It is a staggering number. Nothing can be understood about Iran until the impact of this war is understood. The Iranians, then, came out of the war with two things: an utter hatred of Saddam Hussein and his regime, and determination that this sort of devastation should never happen again.
After the United States decided, in Desert Storm, not to move on to Baghdad and overthrow the Hussein regime -- and after the catastrophic failure of the Shiite rising in southern Iraq -- the Iranians established a program of covert operations that was designed to increase their control of the Shiite population in the south. The Iranians were unable to wage war against Hussein but were content, after Desert Storm, that he could not attack Iran. So they focused on increasing their influence in the south and bided their time. They could not take out Hussein, but they still wanted someone to do so. That someone was the Americans.
Iran responded to the 9/11 attacks in a predictable manner. First, Iran was as concerned by al Qaeda as the United States was. The Iranians saw themselves as the vanguard of revolutionary Islam, and they did not want to see their place usurped by Wahhabis, whom they viewed as the tool of another regional rival, Saudi Arabia. Thus, Tehran immediately offered U.S. forces the right to land, at Iranian airbases, aircraft that were damaged during operations in Afghanistan. Far more important, the Iranians used their substantial influence in western and northern Afghanistan to secure allies for the United States. They wanted the Taliban gone. This is not to say that some al Qaeda operatives, having paid or otherwise induced regional Iranian commanders, didn't receive some sanctuary in Iran; the Iranians would have given sanctuary to Osama bin Laden if that would have neutralized him. But Tehran's policy was to oppose al Qaeda and the Taliban, and to quietly support the United States in its war against them. This was no stranger, really, than the Americans giving anti-tank missiles to Khomeini in the 1980s.
But the main chance that Iran saw was getting the Americans to invade Iraq and depose their true enemy, Saddam Hussein. The United States was not led to invade Iraq by the Iranians -- that would be too simple a model. However, the Iranians, with their excellent intelligence network in Iraq, helped to smooth the way for the American decision. Apart from providing useful tactical information, the Iranians led the Americans to believe three things:
1. That Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction programs.
2. That the Iraqis would not resist U.S. operations and would greet the Americans as liberators.
3. By omission, that there would be no postwar resistance in Iraq.
Again, this was not decisive, but it formed an important part of the analytical framework through which the Americans viewed Iraq.
The Iranians wanted the United States to defeat Hussein. They wanted the United States to bear the burden of pacifying the Sunni regions of Iraq. They wanted U.S. forces to bog down in Iraq so that, in due course, the Americans would withdraw -- but only after the Sunnis were broken -- leaving behind a Shiite government that would be heavily influenced by Iran. The Iranians did everything they could to encourage the initial engagement and then stood by as the United States fought the Sunnis. They were getting what they wanted.
#11
Iran may well believe this is the current situation. If so, they do not understand President G.W. Bush. He's been operating on "Never again," since 9/12/01. And he promised the Iraqis self-rule -- not at all the same thing as giving Iran veto power over their choices.
Hollywood's film colony has had a long romance with the Left. Today's Hollywood, with the help of the "mainstream" media, regularly savages those who stand up to America's enemies.
Hollywood's earnest belief appears to be that anyone who attains show-business celebrityactor, producer, or writeris automatically possessed of more political wisdom than the rest of us. Americans have come to resent it. Radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham has written a very good book on the subject titled "Shut Up and Sing." And when no Hollywood parlor politico is within earshot, some liberal politicians have whispered (likely with a smirk) their lack of respect for show business moneybags who open their wallets and purses to the coffers of liberal and pro-Democrat causes. In some insider liberal circles, spending time at a Barbra Streisand soiree in Malibu is necessary to keep the money flowing, but not a source of smart well-thought-out political strategy.
Today's Hollywood Left is more open in its distaste for Middle American values. Michael Moore is a prime example. He is a cruder and more outwardly hateful propagandist than the Hollywood left of earlier eras.
Americans often wonder exactly why so many of Hollywood's self-anointed political sages bash America, bash this country's traditions, bash Christians, bash Western Civilization, bash corporate America, bash traditional marriage, bash anti-communists (of course), and above all bash conservatives of every stripe (including free enterprise economic advocates whose offense seems to be in believing that even people not living in Beverly Hills mansions are entitled to realize the fruits of the American Dream).
Currently, Hollywood denigrates the War on Terror [See "Hollywood Surrenders to Terrorists" by Cliff Kincaid and Roger Aronoff-AIM Report January-B], more or less in the tradition of its previous blindness to the Cold War.
What makes these people tick? Why is Hollywood, for example, so anti-religious? Why is it that films such as "The Passion of the Christ" or TV shows such as "Touched by an Angel" are the exception, not the rule?
For some on-the-ground insight, AIM turned to longtime pop recording and box office star Pat Boone.
Talking To Pat Boone
"I've thought a lot about it," he told me. Of course he moves amongst "all kinds of people who are 180 degrees from me spiritually and politically, and we get along fine." But the "underlying cause for the ultra-liberalism and humanism here is that Hollywood does not want rules. They don't want any restrictions on what they can do to make money or be successful. So obviously any religion embodies some form of rules and expectations for behavior, and even consequences, and they don't want to hear any of that." To the Left that dominates the Hollywood culture, religion "poses a tremendous threat economically, professionally, and socially [even though] it's not meant to be that," Boone explained.
Some Hollywood producers don't mind actually losing money in order to make their anti-religious, anti-patriotic statements. One noted movie critic, Michael Medved, wrote a book several years ago, Hollywood vs. America, wherein he cited movie-makers who produced films they knew were destined to be total flops at the box office, just so they can get across anti-American and anti-religious messages.
Public outrage and threatened boycotts forced NBC to cancel the pro-homosexual show, "The Book of Daniel." Unchastened by the experience, NBC struck back at Christians by scheduling for April 13the night before "Good Friday"an episode of "Will and Grace" where Britney Spears was to appear on a fictional TV network with a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's," to mock Christianity. That, too, was canceled due to public pressure.
As Pat Boone tells us, the Hollywood Left not only rejects religion, "but [actually] there is an antipathy to it. Not just Christianity, but Judeo-Christianity" is seen as a threat in "Tinseltown."
The Hollywood culture is such that known identified religious or political conservatives believe they must try harder to succeed or (perhaps before establishing their celebrity) stay "in the closet" about their beliefs.
Nonetheless, the dominant leftists in Hollywood insist it is they who are the "victims." For 50 years now, they have been wailing at the "evils" of the "blacklist" of the Forties and Fifties. They have produced about a dozen movies peddling the idea that Hollywood was one happy harmonious family-friendly place until those evil ignorant cowboys from the House Committee on Un-American Activities came along and persecuted innocent artists for their "political beliefs."
Communism In Hollywood
Ronald and Allis Radosh explode that myth in their book, Red Star Over Hollywood. What the committee investigated was not anyone's "political belief," but a well-organized plot by the Communist Party to take over the movie industry and place its considerable influence in the service of the Soviet Union which, in those years immediately following World War II, was gobbling up Eastern Europe. Many of our fighting men who had put their lives on the line to save Europe from Nazism found out after they returned here to civilian life that much of the territory that Adolph Hitler had conquered was instead conquered by Joseph Stalin.
Against that background, the congressional committee believed if this nation was to fight the Cold War as effectively as we fought World War II, we should know exactly what our enemy was up to right here on our soil.
Red Star Over Hollywood is fully documented and heavily footnoted. It clearly shows how the highest echelons of the Soviet Union decided as far back as the late 1920s that they would make the then-burgeoning film capital a prime target. They had learned the lesson of history that the way to undermine any society's values was not to try directly to influence its leaders (often impossible), but to convey the message to the masses through those who write its entertainment scripts and its songs.
You may never have heard of Willi Munzenberg. The German native was specifically assigned by the Soviets to plant the seeds of communism in Hollywood. As the Radoshes comment: "What better place for the Russian Revolution's promise of a classless society to take hold than in Hollywood, the capital of dreams?"
This book smashes to smithereens the poignant myth of the brave and unflinching Lillian Hellman (a Stalinist playwright), the persecuted Hollywood Ten, and the supposed contemptible rats who cooperated with the committee.
Red Star Over Hollywood documents chapter and verse the hard cold fact that every single hostile witness in those congressional hearings was either a hard-core member of the Communist Party or at the very least hip-deep in Communist discipline.
Hard-Core Reds
Just so there is no misunderstanding: These were no "parlor pinks." They were true believerspart of a group that advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. They were pivotal in the ongoing effort to insert the propaganda line of a foreign power into the movies seen by millions of us. The 1st Amendment gives them the right to propagandize to their heart's content. The committee's point was that if they were spreading propaganda on behalf of this country's enemies, the movie-goer was entitled to know that he was being lectured on behalf of that agenda. Suppose some Nazi brown-shirts had been found making our movies in those days. Does anyone doubt that Washington would have taken more than a casual interest?
The congressmen initially focused on the infamous Hollywood Ten. Those were witnesses with Communist affiliations and activities as far as the eye could see. They were writers and producers who defied the House committee, refused to answer its questions and spent some time in jail for doing so.
One of them was producer John Howard Lawson, described by the Radosh husband-and-wife team as "the top Hollywood Communist."
According to All Media Guide, Lawson "began writing numerous plays, most of them promoting Marxism." In yet another book, the 1998 volume Hollywood Party, author Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley quotes the producer as saying, "As for myself, I do not hesitate to say that it is my aim to present the Communist position and to do so in a most specific manner."
The Radosh book cites as an example of Lawson's work the 1943 film "Action in the North Atlantic," which the authors describe as "a unique propaganda effort" on behalf of the Communist-run union that represented sailors on the East Coast, Joe Curran's Maritime Union-CIO."
The film also portrays the Soviet Union in a most favorable light. Lawson is described as using the film as an "opportunity" to "show support for the Party," and also it "implies that in every sense the Soviet Union was America's most noble and reliable ally"
Toward the end, Soviet planes arrive on the scene just in time to save an American vessel from Nazi dive-bombers. Then an American says of the Soviet planes, "They're ours!" as a close-up shows the Red-star insignia on the fuselage. The vessel arrives on shore to the cheers of Russian men and women yelling, "Comrade! Comrade!" The American sailor responds in kind.
The Communist Line
The movie followed the twofold Communist Party line of that era. First, make Americans forget that only a short time earlier, the Soviet Union had helped bring on World War II by collaborating with Hitler in the first place. Secondly, soften up Americans for the postwar era when Stalin would make his move to swallow the countries of Eastern Europe and arm the Chinese Communists. Ron and Allis Radosh describe "Action in the North Atlantic" as "unique" in the sense that it is "a perfect representation of the wartime Party line; patriotic and pro-Soviet at the same time."
John Howard Lawson, who beamed that "soft" propaganda into theatres from coast-to-coast, testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on October 27, 1947 (starting on page 290 of the transcript). He was disruptive, shouted defiance at the committee and was ejected from the hearing room. Committee investigator Louis Russell cited 34 instances of Communist activities on Lawson's part, including his Communist party Card No. 47275.
The Hollywood Ten
Similar defiance marked the testimony of the others in the Hollywood Ten. And today it is an article of faith in Hollywood that the most dastardly evil that befell film-land was "the blacklist," i.e., actors and directors who had problems finding work. We are asked to believe that nobody was guilty and those who were exposed were persecuted for their "political beliefs." Even the popular TV series "Touched by an Angel" bought into that line in a 1997 episode. Communism, of course, was not a "political belief," but was in fact a conspiracy aimed at bringing down the United States. Studio moguls did not deny Communists jobs merely because of "political beliefs." They simply realized many Americans did not want to feed America's enemies at the box office. It was a business decision.
The real blacklisttotally mean-spiritedhas been directed against those in Hollywood who cooperated with the Un-American Activities Committee's efforts to root out Communists.
Take producer Elia Kazan, for example. He told the House committee on April 10, 1952 that he had joined the Communist Party in the mid-Thirties, explaining he had been motivated by the threat of Hitler and sympathy for the poor. In his testimony, Kazanby then a fierce anti-Communist named eight others who were in the Party with him and suggested they shared his own humanitarian motivations for joining. This charitable explanation won him no points from the Hollywood Left. He took out an ad in the New York Times urging others who had seen the "conspiracy" from the inside to join him in coming forward. That drove the Hollywood culture over the top. Kazan heard that Communist Party meetings were held to isolate Kazan in the show business community. The Communist Daily Worker accused him of "belly-crawling."
But that did not deter him from producing some widely acclaimed motion pictures, most notably "On the Waterfront," which glorified whistleblowers against the forces of evil.
Ultimately, due to friends he had in Hollywood and despite the many others who had turned their backs on him, Kazan finally received a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award on Oscar night in 1999. Even then, the venom reappeared not only among aging Stalinists, but in the liberal mainstream media. When Kazan died in 2003, Allan H. Ryskind in Human Events cited Maureen Dowd (New York Times), Sharon Waxman (Washington Post), and Robert Koehler (Los Angeles Times) as among those who supported the charge that Kazan had behaved badly.
Other anti-Communists in Hollywood have suffered for their "apostasy," some post-humously. Years after his death, a monument to actor Robert Taylor was removed precisely because he "named names."
Today's Hollywood blacklist targets conservatives. It is not written down anywhere. But it's there. As Pat Boone told AIM in our interview, "[T]here is sort of the unspokenbut very realwish that anybody who subscribes to these ancient Judeo-Christian concepts would get out of Hollywood."
The very fact that, as the entertainer says, "It's not something that somebody has sat down and written out," arguably makes it all the more insidious. He adds, "It's just sort of a collective recognition of certain people that are not 'in'[who] are not welcome in the circles of those who feel that there are no restrictions on their behavior." Those who are "openly committed to and .vocal about moral precepts or conservative political ideas" are considered outsiders.
From other credible sources, I have heardbut for obvious reasons cannot confirmthat Hollywood workers in all parts of the film industry who are political conservatives and/or are religious people meet in private. Nothing formal. No minutes are kept. No one takes any names. There are probably no dues. All they do is meet and offer each other moral support. That reflects a fear of making Hollywood's informal "blacklist."
The Pat Boone Case
Pat Boone believes he has at times been targeted by that informal list. He cites an example:
"Even a movie like Robert Wise's 'Sand Pebbles,' a role that Steve McQueen played, and of course, he did it beautifully. But I was up for that role, and Robert Wise, when I was proposed by a casting directorI was perfect for that role[Wise] said, 'No, I don't want a singer. I want an actor.' Well, I had been in the top ten [at the] box office, and I think I had proven that I could act." Boone saw "a certain disdainful view of me as a singer, a guy with a wife and four kids, and pretty straight-laced if not totally square."
The film capital has tried to use Pat Boone's clean-cut image against him, and to mock traditional values. He says "the last half dozen" roles that he had been offered "would have caused me to portray a Pat Boone-like persona preacher, a husband, a citizen who on the surface lives like I do, and then it comes out that he's a hypocrite, a pedophile, an abuser. In other words, they want me to play those roles because it would have been tremendously effective." Of course, he turned down the roles.
Another point: The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, which restricts citizen groups from advertising their views within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election, benefits Hollywood and the media, which are exempt. Any such ad could incur a stiff fine. The intent of the law is that such advertising should be the exclusive responsibility of the campaign of the candidate supported by the ad. So Pat Boone believes left-tilting propaganda TV shows such as "Commander-in-Chief" and "West Wing" be counted as "in-kind" contributions to the Democratic National Committee.
"'Commander-in-Chief,' recognized by many as free advertising for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, comes off as "suspicious" in that regard, says Boone, though he allows as how the TV show is "beautifully acted, written, and portrayed." That, of course, makes it all the more effective.
From the Cold War era right up to the present terrorist threat, Hollywood has had a curious inclination to soft-pedal the offenses of America's enemies. One can cite the 1975 Academy Awards Night, with its gloating rhetoric about how "in a few days" anti-Communist South Vietnam would be "liberated" by Communist North Vietnam. There was Hollywood's sympathy for the Communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in the Eighties. Actor Ed Asner flew south of the border in 1990 to celebrate the anticipated Sandinista victor in Nicaragua's election. He was to be disappointed. The Nicaraguan people elected the pro-freedom forces. And then today, Michael Moore produces movies that viciously attack America and excuseif not supportour enemies.
To this day, Hollywood still clings to the myth of martyrdom on the Lefta Left that defended Communism and today soft-pedals the terrorist threatas Billingsley put it"while earning, substantial fortunes in the very country they attacked as repressive and fascist." In Hollywood's land of dreams, as author Richard Grenier once said, "Capitalism is evil except for the three-picture deal with Paramount, the Malibu mansion, the swimming pool, the tennis court, and the Mercedes Benz."
To which Billingsley adds, "Or, as Marx himself might have framed it: From each according to his credulity, to each according to his greed."
Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer & broadcast journalist.
#1
When conservatives learn to act, paint, sing, and play musical instruments, then entertainers will be less liberal. And Pat Boone's a great guy, but tell the truth, who's version of Tutti Frutti do you want to hear?
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
African boat people: an ignored story
So far in 2006 about five thousand boat people (all figures are guesses except for the number caught by police) of West African origin, mostly Malians and Senegalese, have left the Mauritanian coast near Nouadibuh for the western Canary Islands, an integral part of Spain and of the EU. Illegal immigrants used to try to cross the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain, or to make the short passage from the southwestern Morocco coast to the eastern Canary Islands. However, there are now so many patrols that such voyages are rarely attempted. Instead, they sail out into the open sea and then hope to catch the current up to the western Canaries, a journey of more than 1000 nautical miles, in primitive wooden Mauritanian open fishing boats. Spanish authorities have caught over 3000 of them, and are now in the process of deporting them back to Africa. Maybe 1000 made the Canaries without getting caught, and took commercial flights from there to the European mainland. At least 1000, and possibly as many as 2000, have died at sea from drowning or exposure or thirst, according to official estimates. So many illegals - almost all from Muslim majority countries - are trying to get to Europe that they have formed mini-cities of inhabitants waiting for the first opportunity. Muslims hate the West, but they want to live here. I guess their Koran says hate at close range is better.
This is a first-class humanitarian tragedy, and the international media is nowhere on it. Give them time and they will point the finger at White racism, for what is the result of Islam's backward way-of-life prescriptions.
And it's only going to get worse, as there are 10-15,000 people, almost all young men, waiting near Nouadibuh for their turn. A lot of these people are going to die... It is a tragedy, but many of these people would end up in jihad-gangs that cause the social upheaval that we saw last Fall in Muslim occupied France.
Posted by: Listen to Dogs ||
03/29/2006
11:52 ||
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#1
Just wait till they discover crack, then they'll really give you something to cry about.
Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip By Ker Than - LiveScience Staff Writer
The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.
The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.
To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size.
They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive.
"They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip," said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy.
The proteins allowed the neuro-chip's electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip's transistors, while the chip's capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.
It could still be decades before the technology is advanced enough to treat neurological disorders or create living computers, the researchers say, but in the nearer term, the chips could provide an advanced method of screening drugs for the pharmaceutical industry.
"Pharmaceutical companies could use the chip to test the effect of drugs on neurons, to quickly discover promising avenues of research," Vassanelli said.
The researchers are now working on ways to avoid damaging the neurons during stimulation. The team is also exploring the possibility of using a neuron's genetic instructions to control the neuro-chip.
I have only one word to say, and this word is : "YUCK!"
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Surgeons operated on a 2-month-old Pakistani girl Tuesday to remove two fetuses that had grown inside her while she was still in her mother's womb, a doctor said.
The infant, who was identified only as Nazia, was in critical condition following the two-hour operation at The Children's Hospital at Pakistan Institute of Medical Science in the capital, Islamabad, said Zaheer Abbasi, head of pediatric surgery at the hospital.
Abbasi, the chief doctor who led the operation, said the case was the first he was aware of in Pakistan of fetus-in-fetu, where a fetus has grown inside another in the womb.
"It is extremely rare to have two fetuses being discovered inside another," Abbasi told The Associated Press, adding that he did not know what caused the medical abnormality. "Basically, it's a case of triplets, but two of the siblings grew in the other."
The baby comes from Abbotabad, about 30 miles north of Islamabad. She is the fifth child of a woman in her 30s, who was at the hospital to be with her daughter. Her father works in the Arabian Gulf.
Abbasi said surgeons removed the two partially grown fetuses, totaling about two pounds, that had died at about 4 months.
Other fetus-in-fetu cases have been reported elsewhere in the world. A report in a June 2000 issue of the U.S. journal Pediatrics called such occurrences rare and estimated their rate at about 1 per 500,000 births.
Insurgents in Afghanistan attacked a military base on Wednesday and an American, a Canadian and at least 12 militants were killed as a Taliban spokesman said a spring offensive had begun. The Taliban said their fighters attacked the foreign forces in the southern province of Helmand.
In another incident, a roadside bomb killed six Afghan soldiers on Tuesday in Helmand's Sangin district, and two policemen were killed in a raid on their post in Kandahar town, also in the volatile south, security officials said.
The U.S. military said one of its soldiers was killed in the attack by a "significant" insurgent force on a forward operating base. A Canadian military spokeswoman said one Canadian was killed and three wounded, though not seriously. "Coalition forces employed a variety of combined arms to include close air support and are believed to have killed at least a dozen enemy insurgents," the U.S. military said in a statement. One Afghan soldier was wounded, it said. Twelve U.S. troops have been killed in fighting this year. Nearly 60 Americans were killed in Afghan fighting last year, the worst for U.S. forces since they invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban.
The Taliban vowed more violence saying their spring offensive had begun. "The weather is warming and Taliban attacks on coalition and Afghan forces have begun," Taliban spokesman Mullah Mohammad Hanif said by telephone from an undisclosed location. Fighting usually picks up in the Afghan spring when snow blocking mountain passes melts.
Despite the rising level of violence, the United States is hoping to trim its force of more than 18,000 troops in Afghanistan by several thousand, while NATO partners, including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are sending about 6,000 more. British troops are based in Helmand but a spokesman for the force said he had no information about Wednesday's fighting.
UPDATE: KANDAHAR - US-led troops killed 20 more Taleban in south Afghanistan on Wednesday, after an attack on a military base in which 12 rebels and a US and a Canadian soldier died, the coalition said. Coalition forces also destroyed two headquarters of Taleban insurgents containing weapons and bomb-making material during several hours of fighting in Helmand province, a statement said.
The 20 enemy casualties were in addition to 12 enemy casualties previously reported as part of an early-morning engagement that continued into daylight hours as coalition forces defeated a large enemy element that was attempting to retreat into sanctuaries, the statement said.
#2
Dear fuckwad, you forgot to mention the word 'quagmire'
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/29/2006 3:55
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#3
roflmao - new chechnya - oh thats just the best one i've heard yet. Whole divisions destroyed, the cities turned to rubble, the sky red with fire, Quagmire!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for providing me such such a good laugh 12234, really thankyou - cheered me up a great deal on this cold morning. Please can you share more of your wisdom with us, we need more 'know nothing armchair generals' like yourself to provide our amusement here at Rantburg.
#4
Dang, it's either the Brutal Afghan Winter(tm), or the Spring Offensive(tm)... what a country... I wonder what's due to happen in the summer and fall.
As for Chechnya, well... Chechnya is an another front where the jihadis got and get their *ss throughouly kicked by a yet out-of-shape russian army (and where the locals suffer way more than in Iraq or Afghanistan, if only through the brutality and corruption of the occupiers); how did this turn into a victory for the Lions Of Islam, I don't know.
#5
Chechnya? No wait ... I thought it was Vietnam. Oh the Humanity! We're in for it now folks! The new new quagmire! The vaunted Taliban "spring offensive." Can't wait to see all those 'antiwar' protesters ... again.
Then Afghanistan wasn't going to be another Iraq, it was going to be the next Vietnam.
Then it was "Iraq won't be another Afghanistan", it was going to be the next Vietnam.
Now, Afghanistan's going to be the next Chechnya?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/29/2006 7:13
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#7
Talking to my SOF buddy now who was in this battle, he says at least 50-60 talibanies whacked. He says all enemy casualtie are always underestimated.
First week of the new spring offensive, and they've already lost 10% of the new trainees? At this rate that Mullah is going to have to cross the border his very own self pretty soon. Well done, gentlemen!
#10
More targets for Our Boys? Happy hunting! (I won't bother to say, "Stay safe," since he certainly doesn't need good advice from me... and he's/they've already got my prayers, for what that's worth.) Very good news, Crater Unerelet3613 -- soonest started, soonest ended for the bad guys.
#11
What? Cancun was booked? The Tali are dying to be offensive this spring.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2006 12:25
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#12
No...It's Viet-nya. (what a maroon). Another LLL-pussy who has never served a day in the military writing from his laptop hiding behind his Mommy's skirt.
#14
The Bush Crime Family do NOT want to win the wars. They want troops in Muslim countries to convert occuped peoples to christianity. They also want the oil companies to rule. if you want to know where I get the truth: I read Noam Chomsky. End the USRaeli war on peace.
#19
Crater, glad to here your buddy is giving out some good info. I'm in fire service and lost alot of friends/brothers on 9/11. The biggest gripe at the house is we have no idea if we are paying back these mf's for the big whole in Manhatten and 3,000 dead. Any word on enemy casualties? I need something for these guys to grab onto. Enemy kia in either Iraq or Afganistan?
enemy KIA's just during one part of OP STEEL CURTAIN near Sedat (syrina border) last Nov - at least 200. There were a lot of body parts so I guess it was hard to get a real accurate count. I hope this cheers up your smoke eating brethren.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/29/2006 20:11
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#29
This guy posts pics of our boys in Afghanistan:
http://stupidrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/
I don't have any more information on KIA, but my buddy says that DoD usually under reports those numbers. Anyway, my buddy told me story about this dog (a picture of her is on that website). This dog is like a mascot at this camp and a couple of weeks ago the taliban mortored the place and the dog got wounded. Apparantly about a dozen Tali's got pretty close. Well anyway some of our boys located them and shot them to hell. He didn't know how many there were, guestimates a dozen. Anyway, they tagged about 6-8 of them. He also said that some of them were so shot up that they were missing limbs. Don't mess with the dog.
It is interesting to note that these Muslim immigrants state quite openly that they are involved in a war, and see participation in crime and harassment of the native population as such. This is completely in line with what I have posited before. The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six times as common today as they were a generation ago. Most other kinds of violent crime have rapidly increased, too. Instability is spreading to most urban and suburban areas. Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. Lawyer Ann Christine Hjelm found that 85 per cent of the convicted rapists were born on foreign soil or from foreign parents.
The phenomenon is not restricted to Sweden. The number of rapes committed by Muslim immigrants in Western nations is so extremely high that it is difficult to view these rapes as merely random acts of individuals. It resembles warfare. This is happening in most Western European countries, as well as in other non muslim countries such as India. European jails are filling up with Muslims imprisoned for robberies and all kinds of violent crimes, and Muslims bomb European civilians. One can see the mainstream media are struggling to make sense of all of this. That is because they cannot, or do not want to, see the obvious: this is exactly how an invading army would behave: rape, pillage and bombing. If many of the Muslim immigrants see themselves as conquerors in a war, it all makes perfect sense. Islam is a supremacist ideology. A Muslim cannot believe in the popular equality of individuals or the sovereign equality of states. That is why the Islamist movement must be totally crushed, prior to the time when proliferation indulgence allows our mortal enemy to wage nuclear-jihad.
Malmö in Sweden, set to become the first Scandinavian city with a Muslim majority within a decade or two, has nine times as many reported robberies per capita as Copenhagen, Denmark. Yet the number one priority for the political class in Sweden during this years national election campaign seems to be demonizing neighboring Denmark for xenophobia and a brutal debate about Muslim immigration... "Plough your women, as fields," says the Koran. Those infidel bodies in those puny bikinis; even a good Muslim can't resist.
Posted by: Listen to Dogs ||
03/29/2006
01:31 ||
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#1
Ummmm ... isn't she on a beach in South Florida? They have bitches beaches like that in Sweden?
#2
A good start would be chemical castration for those convicted of participation in gang rape. Pretty difficult to sow those seeds of Islam when you're shooting blanks.
Free karate self-defense classes for women with special emphasis on groin kicks, elbows and chops might put a damper on things, too.
#4
Free classes in the use of a Sig 239 would be much more effective.
Ever examined the issues of weapons ownership, especially handguns, in socialist countries? We won't even go into the concept of private citizen concealed carry.
#7
Chemical castration is a temporary fix. Make it physical, for gang rapists, and we can talk. For close-in work like this, a stout walking stick is better than a gun, I'd think, and much better than just elbows and fists, when it's one girl against a group of bad guys looking for a bit'o'fun.
#8
"Ever examined the issues of weapons ownership, especially handguns, in socialist countries? We won't even go into the concept of private citizen concealed carry."
Yes, I have. That was partly my point. The .gov robs the people of self defense. Victim Disarmament is the rapists' version of OSHA.
I was an exchange student to Sweden 25 years ago. One of my host 'fathers' owned some pistols. He described a process of mental health checks, sworn affadavits and character references from relatives & colleagues, etc., just to get a permit...
Not to mention a very expensive and mandatory safe to store the weapons that any bank or jeweler would envy...
It would probably be easier to adopt a child than LEGALLY buy a gun in Sweden.
#10
Agreed, psychohillbilly. Is anybody else reminded of the ending of "A Clockwork Orange"? Far too much of our society is having its survival instinct bred out of it. Even sadder is how the fathers, uncles and brothers of these Scandinavian women aren't forming up to take the fight where it belongs.
#11
JDB, my brother lives in Canada. There, you have to go down to the local RCMP station and apply for a permit to transport your weapon to the shooting range. Being caught with a weapon in your car and no such permit is a major no-no. Makes me glad to live in America. As a friend of mine used to say:
#12
If my daughter were a Swedish women, I'd get her trained up on a .48 or whatever. I'd rather have a dead deviate than a scarred daughter (or wife).
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2006 17:36
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#13
If guns are illegal, I suppose that crossbows, tasers, nunchucks, shuriken, swords, and railguns are straight out as well.
#14
If (my) Viking descendants won't defend their women, what have we come to - start to deride the men of thescandinavian world for th equislings they've become. Loose the rules for fighting back (and payback). Time for islamassholes to reap what they've sown. Castration with severe blood loss tends to focus the mind
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2006 21:41
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#15
Many decades ago a friend's sister was raped and beaten up on a date. She was left bleeding in a ditch in Nebraska in a snow storm. My friend was not a nice guy. His contacts spotted the rapist in a bar in Kansas. He, his buddies + the sister sped to the bar and found the guy.
They nutted him right on the pool table and the sister took his balls for safe keeping.
#1
Booze, Drug, Gambling..eveyone has had family or friends who have been DUMB enough to take the header into addiction.
>>>
*Math/Biz entrepreneur Test*
1) Kieth has 2 ounces of cocaine and he sells an 8-ball to Jackson for $320, and 2 grams to Billy for $85 a gram. What is the street value of the remaining cocaine that he doesn't cut?
3) Sponge Bob wants to cut his 1/2 pound of heroin to make 20% more profit. How many ounces of cut will he need to reach his goal?
4)W Houston gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for a Chevy, and $100 for a 4x4. If she steals 2 BMW's and 3 4x4's, how many Chevys will she have to steal to make $800?
>Crack is God's way of telling you that you have too many brain cells.
#2
Iff MADONNA is a bad girl gone Kabbala legit, WHITNEY is a good/legit girl trying to go bad, and ole Bobby isn't helping. Brought to you by 1968, Ollie Stone and JFK, and AEROSMITH SINGING IN A [FUTURE]MOVIE CALLED ARMAGEDDON [Let Justice be Done/Let the Truth be told, or the Heavens fall - see Exploding Moon Year 2030, etal]
#5
Actually, a Crack Ball is broken into 16 units (rocks) which sell at about $10 each. Most Crack addicts can get by with 2 units per day, usually smoked 6-8 hours apart. An addict with unlimited funds could afford double or triple hits, which would make them non-functional. Whitney's family should seek intervention. Even if cops caught her with Crack, she would end up in another diversion.
#6
After deep consideration over the past few days, it finally occurred to me that CAPLOCK JOE is the political mouthpiece for Dr. Bronner. Ever scan the stuff on the side of those peppermint shampoo bottles and bags of organic chips? Reads about the same.
As to Witless Houston; Some people just aren't happy unless they are making a trainwreck out of their life. The woman has one of the finest sets of pipes since Dianah Ross and all she can do is spew mindless pop music drivel while dating total loser boyfriends. With her sort of earnings, she has had every opportunity and then some to turn her life around. She deserves herself.
#8
Maybe that guy who wrote A Million Little Pieces can help her out. I hear he kicked a wicked crack habit [smirk].
I still thank that Joe is an AI that escaped from a secret DoD lab. And here everyone thought that the first AI would try to take over the world. It turns out that all it really wants to do is spout off about politics.
#9
And here everyone thought that the first AI would try to take over the world. It turns out that all it really wants to do is spout off about politics.
I don't know why, but for some reason that is incredibly funny. Good one.
#13
Thanks, Zenster. I have a sick, sardonic sense of humor that I usually keep under wraps since it seems to piss off about as many people as it makes laugh.
I had this whole druggie schtick that used to get me into so much trouble in the military. Your average Kansas farmboy with a high and tight has a hard time discerning between lampooning druggies and being one.
U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.
"After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There's been huge misinformation," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said.
He rejected the accusations of a massacre that prompted the Shi'ite-led government to demand U.S. forces cede control of security but declined to spell out which group he believed moved the bodies.
Government-run television has shown footage of bodies lying without weapons in what Shi'ite ministers say is a mosque compound run by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The security minister accused Iraqi and U.S. troops of killing 37 unarmed men.
Giving the first U.S. military briefing on Sunday's events in Baghdad, Chiarelli said the raid by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by some 25 U.S. "advisers" had been the fruit of long intelligence work. But he said he did not know the religious affiliation of 16 "insurgents" who were killed.
An Iraqi was freed who had been taken hostage that day and threatened with death if he did not pay a $20,000 ransom, he said. Three fighters were wounded and 18 other people detained.
Chiarelli insisted the compound was not a mosque but an office complex. Neighbors and aides to Sadr call it a mosque and say it was once offices for Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
"There was gunfire from every room," he said.
Major General J.D. Thurman, whose division controls Baghdad, said: "If it was a mosque, why are they using it as a place to hold hostages?" He added that weapons, including 34 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found.
ADVISERS
Chiarelli stood by the U.S. account, disputed by Sadr aides and other Shi'ite leaders but which is broadly in line with police reports and some local witnesses who spoke of a fierce gun battle around the site.
He said an Iraqi special forces unit with about 25 U.S. advisers, trainers, medical and bomb disposal crew in support arrived to raid the site at nightfall and were immediately fired on from a number of buildings around the compound.
The troops "cleared the compound," he said, killing or capturing those inside. "It was Iraqi forces who did the fighting," he stressed. Thurman said U.S. helicopters were in the air at the time but only in support of another mission.
All the dead were killed by Iraqi fire, Chiarelli said.
Chiarelli identified the hostage as a dental technician and said: "He was shown a picture of his daughter and told if he didn't pay $20,000 he was going to be dead the next day."
Asked about the apparent surprise, not to say disapproval, of the operation in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance bloc, Chiarelli said: "It was coordinated through military channels. Not every operation we run is coordinated with every politician in Iraq."
Though he declined to be drawn on the possible involvement of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, whose political leaders have led condemnation of the raid, Chiarelli said: "I think the backlash has been caused by the folks who set the scene up."
Both generals praised the unidentified Iraqi unit involved for its record of discipline and minimizing the use of force. Chiarelli said: "They don't go in guns blazing." Not that the truth will make much difference in the Arab world.
#2
It's obvious that both the Sunnis and Shiites have psyops units that can go in immediately after a raid with actors, props, and moulage to re-create the scene and turn a battle into a massacre. There was the case of the border town wedding in either 2003 or 2004. None of the childrens' bodies could be found and the doctors that testified were from a town many miles away and not the obivious choice for emergency medical care. My favorite was the credulous western reporters who were shown fighting trenches (complete with firing steps as was clear in the photos) before the second battle of Fallujah and faithfully parroted the jihadi line that they were "graves." Graves dug so that the poor innocent townpeople could bury their children, fluffy bunnies, and baby ducks after the ruthless infidel assualt.
I'm sure that someone is making finding and destroying those psyops units a high priority, especially after the SECDEF came right out and said what a lousy job we are doing in the information war.
#3
whats interesting is that US troops, with friendly Iraqi forces (reports are the commando unit involved was mainly Kurdish) seem to have turned on Sadr, or at least are sending him a very pointed warning. Roggio and Katzman have more on this, as Strategypage. Speculation is that the US is fed up with the negotiations toward a new Iraqi govt, and wants to get rid of Jaafari entirely. This is a warning to Sadr not to interfere, and the talks with Iran are to warn them to keep hands off.
#5
I don't think this charade is strictly for Arab consumption. Sadr's stupid, but he's not STUPID. He knows the eagerness of our MSM to parrot the most despicable lies about their own military and government, and the eagerness of the deluded left among us to believe them.
Western powers softened a draft U.N. Security Council statement on Tuesday on reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions in hopes of reaching a deal with Russia and China before all their foreign ministers meet this week. Still, the new draft, obtained by Reuters, retains calls on Tehran to suspend uranium-enrichment efforts, a process that can produce fuel necessary for making a nuclear bomb.
The text deletes language on several specific demands. Instead it refers only to the number of the resolution that contained them and was adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency board in Vienna, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Britain and France, authors of the draft backed by the United States, distributed the document, their third revision, to the full 15-nation U.N. Security Council for discussion on Wednesday, three weeks after talks began. The three Western nations hope to convince Russia and China to agree on the document, a day before foreign ministers of the five permanent members and Germany meet in Berlin on Thursday to map out strategy toward Iran.
Ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, permanent council members with veto power, met three times on Tuesday on the Iran research programs, which Tehran says are for peaceful purposes but the West believes are a cover for atomic-bomb making.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said there were still one or two issues outstanding. The main one was a provision that referred to weapons of mass destruction as a threat to international peace and security. Russia believes this could be a prelude to harsher punishment, diplomats said. Another unsolved issue, China said, was the how long the director of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei had to report to the council on whether Iran had complied with its demands. The original text said 14 days while the new text refers to 30 days. Russia had proposed until June. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters the timeline had not been agreed yet.
#1
So soft, the final draft will be written on super soft facial tissue. Very flushable.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/29/2006 2:00
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I think the US has decided to go with the flow in the UNSC and let it logjam as quickly as possible - to check off the box faster, this time. To deal with the chickenshit Senate, you still have to have that tissue for political cover though everyone, and I mean everyone, knows where this will end.
#6
I exaggerate, perhaps. My working assumptions are (1) there is nothing to be gained by military operations against Iranian nuclear infrastructure that leaves any Islamist regime in place; (2) the U.S. currently does not have the political capital necessary to move militarily against Iran whether or not the regime is left in place; (3) in contrast to Iraq, in which a solid majority of the population detested the Baath regime, the support for such regime change among the Iranian people is much softer. Finally, the (4) the U.S. (and perhaps no other country) is not very good at fighting limited war, yet Islamic fascism's success is a function of the West's unwillingness to confront low-damage operations like targeted assassinations of journalists and politicians, blowing up embassies, flying airplanes into buildings, and so on with an all-out assault on those who support such operations both tactically and financially. Effective retaliation is possible only given an attack of sufficient deadliness. The longer that we wait, the stronger and more ensconced Islamic fascism becomes. The best strategy is therefore to encourage an early attack.
The Botswana government is under pressure from some of its MPs to take a tougher stance against President Mugabe, blaming him for the influx of illegal Zimbabwean migrants into their country.
According to media reports from Botswana, the MPs said the deteriorating socio-political and economic situation in Zimbabwe was having a knock-on impact on their country. They said the number of illegal migrants fleeing hunger and political persecution was increasing. They reportedly condemned the victimisation of border jumpers by Botswana's Special Support Group, saying it was Mugabe who deserved to be punished instead. Botswana's state-owned Daily News reported that Chapson Butale, the MP for North-East and other legislators, were putting pressure on President Festus Mogae to denounce Mugabe and urge him to address the crisis in his country.
The MPs expressed their concern during a recent session of Parliament. "We are punishing the victims instead of the man who caused all this," said Butale. "Let us take on the Zimbabwe government because that is where the problem lies." Mompati Merafhe, Botswana's Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Minister, was reported to have reiterated:"We want to be constructively engaged with Zimbabwe because the country is our important neighbour and we believe our interests can be best served if we maintain a healthy dialogue."
The Daily News reported Merafhe was reacting to reports that the United States government was urging Harare's neighbours to mount pressure on Mugabe to pave the way for fresh elections by handing over power to a transitional government. An unnamed US official was quoted by the French news agency, recently as saying: "What we are telling them (Zimbabwe's neighbours) is that there has to be a transitional government in Zimbabwe that will lead to a free and fair internationally supervised elections." President Mugabe has previously dismissed such calls.
Iranian Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday rejected a press report on a statement attributed to the Ministry saying that Iran will set up an international center for uranium enrichment. An Embassy official told IRNA that Iranian Embassy has not released any statement to that effect.
The press reports had said that Iran has put forward a plan to set up an international center to produce fuel in Iran.
#1
DRUDGEREPORT has a promo on PAUL WILLLIAMS, author of the new book THE DUNCES OF DOOMSDAY, which infers that Osama and AQ may already have 20 nuke warheads + 70 other nuke device types includ "suitcase" nukes. ALso an artic from a retired former Israeli Chief claiming that global civilization is on the verge of WW3 wid Radical Islam, and basically implies said WW3 will be a war to the death.
Exit polls projected interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party will win the most parliamentary seats in Israel's election on Tuesday. The surveys, issued after voting ended, gave centrist Kadima 29-32 seats in the 120-member legislature, putting it in a good position to form a coalition government.
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#1
It's official--Jews are not smarter than Gentiles.
#2
The Pals. have gotta know iff Radical-controlled Iran gets its empire, whether regional or global, any so-called Palestinian State will be dead meat, at best a ME version of Iran = Chinese controlled North Korea, etal, i.e. lawfully/
legally un-annexed slave territory.
#4
Send Bibi to France as the new ambassador. That'll bunch up some panties ruffle some feathers (my apologies, I don't know what I was thinking!) over there. ;-)
A physician confessed to killing no less than 35 Iraqi policemen and soldiers with lethal injections and other means as they were treated in one of Kirkuk's hospitals. The confessions of the physician, Dr. Luay Omar Al-Tae, were broadcast by a Kurdish television station. Al-Tae explained that the persons he killed were suffering minor injuries, adding that he used to also cutoff electricity from operation rooms and reopen wounds.
An intelligence official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Al-Tae's cover was blown by a terrorist who was apprehended by security forces, noting that Al-Tae's crimes were first brought up by Britain's The Independent newspaper. Al-Tae, added the official, was driven to commit these crimes by money and "hate for Americans." Al-Tae, who received USD 100 after each killing, was responsible killing Kirkuk's deputy police director, General Ajman Abdullah, through lethal injection.
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Iraqi "Doctor Death" confesses
there are wonderous compounds that would exact a long heinous revenge.
Six Afghan soldiers were killed and as many wounded when the vehicle they were travelling in was blown up by Taliban using a remote-controlled device on Tuesday. The incident happened in the afternoon in the Sangeen district of Afghanistan's insurgency-plague Helmand province.
Hours before, five people, including three Afghans and two foreigners, were killed in a similar attack in the same province. Taliban claimed responsibility for the first blast; however, they did not issue any word on the second explosion. A military commander in the neighbouring Kandahar province Abdul Razaq said the bomb was planted by Taliban. He said more troops had been sent on the site and the area had been encircled to arrest the perpetrators.
Afghanistan's Helmand province is scene to fierce fighting over the past one week. More than 12 people, including Taliban and government soldiers, had been killed in clashes during that period.
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F.P. Report BARA: At least 18 people were killed early in the morning at 03:00 am when Mufti-led group came in 16 pickups along with heavy artillery, when they reached Badshah Khan house, the supporter of Pir Saifur Rehman, so his arm men attacked the Mufti followers and fight broke out between these two groups.
The severe fighting continued till 02:35 am when Pir men run out of bullets and ammunition they surrender to Mufti group. They were led to a near by dried stream (Sor Dand Khowar) and they were shot dead by close range, some eye witnesses told this correspondent when asked.
Other individuals said that when Pir men surrender to FC not to Mufti followers, but we are unable to confirm from the higher authorities as they are not answering our telephone call.
The funerals were held at 09:00 am in Nala Kajoori for three dead men, one was taken to Maiden, Terah, one was buried in Zakha Khel area those were the men of Mufti-led group. We tried to contact Mungal Bagh, the Supreme Commander of Lashkar-i-Islam but he was unavailable to give comments on current situation.
The whole agency was cordoned off and FC personnel were patrolling the area as no one is allowed to use road but they can use other means to reach different parts of the area. Some sources said that government is planning to launch operation. At 10:00 am (Tuesday) a helicopter landed at Qilla Fort Slop Sor Dand. Some rumors were that DG ISPR General Shaukat Sultan visited the area. The helicopter left the area at 04:00 pm.
The 18 dead bodies were taken in a FC truck towards Bara for further investigation. The following is the FATA secretariat spokesmans statement, so far 23 people have been confirmed death in fierce brawls between two rival groups of religious leaders Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman at a tribal area in Tehsil Bara on Monday. An eyewitness said seven persons of one group including Haji Jan, Gull Wali, Haji Ashraf, Naimat Shah, Murad Khan, Noor Gull and Shango while Baseeruddin, Salauddin, Syed Anwar, Subhanallah, Muhammad Din and Azizullah of second group besides 13 unknown Afghans died in violent fights. The Afghans who died as a result of shelling and gun firing could not be identified till the filing of the report. The FATA Secretary Spokesman confirmed death of 23 persons while more than 25 are seriously injured in firing till last reports came in. The clashes erupted Monday and continued till Tuesday morning, it added. Many of those killed in the clashes were Uzbek Afghans, though there was no official confirmation of the deaths. A press release from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) secretariat of the NWFP said that the situation in Bara, the headquarters of the Khyber agency, was normal Monday after an armed clash between two rival religious groups left four to five people injured.
A student of class five was raped allegedly by her school's headmaster in Sundargram in Rajarhat upazila on Monday. Sources said Md Mokhlesur Rahman, headmaster of Sundargram Putika Govt Primary School, called the student in to his office and raped her during class hours. Hearing the news, locals besieged the school, confined the teacher and demanded his stern punishment. Mokhles was however rescued by activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of ruling BNP, before he was handed over to police, witnesses said. The girl was sent to Kurigram General Hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Bet you a dollar that they don't do a damned thing to this guy.
Iraqi police found Tuesday 14 bodies under a bridge in Baghdad in what appeared to be a mass execution by a firing squad. Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), an Interior Ministry source said the police found the bodies piled on each other after being shot in the head. The bodies, added the source, were found under the bridge of Al-Adl suburb in Baghdad.
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Arab leaders reached a summit deal to provide funding for cash-strapped African Union troops in Sudan's Darfur region amid international pressure to accept the dispatch of a UN force. The move came after Sudan pressed fellow members of the Arab League to reject plans for the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, where war, disease and famine have cost up to 300,000 lives in three years. Announcing a deal after a closed-door session at the summit, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told reporters that Arab leaders had also agreed to strengthen the AU force by providing troops from Arab states. Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qidwa confirmed that an agreement had been reached to "finance the AU troops for a period of six months" or until the end of its current mission which was renewed in March. He said Arab leaders had called on Arab African countries to send more troops to join the AU force.
Sorry, people of Darfur. You're screwed.
Leaders of the 22-member Arab League failed however to fill the gap emerging over a threatened Western freeze on aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, appearing set to keep their own aid at existing levels. The Palestinian Authority, soon to be led by the radical Islamic group Hamas, looked set for bad news after Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal urged Arab countries to open their coffers to help stave off a widening financial crisis. Meshaal specifically asked for some 130 170 million dollars a month. But a draft resolution on the Palestinian question, which is expected to be adopted, has suggested keeping the monthly allocation at the 55 million dollars decided at last year's summit in Algeria.
Too bad, so sad.
Beshir urged his counterparts not to succumb to international efforts to isolate Hamas over its refusal to recognise Israel, forswear violence or honor previous agreements with the Jewish state. The summit's agenda was squeezed into one day from the originally planned two days, and some leaders have already left Khartoum. But a final declaration is not expected before Wednesday.
"Wouldja look at the time? So sorry, gotta make like a camel and ship out!"
Two Israelis were killed Tuesday in a Palestinian missile attack on the town of Nahoul Ouz east Gaza. Israeli military spokesman said that Palestinian resistance members launched two missiles towards Nahoul Ouz killing two Israelis, one of whom is an Israeli soldier. The spokesman said that Palestinian resistance members launched three missiles this morning towards an open area in the southern city of Askalon, adding that this attack didn't cause any injuries, casualties, or damage.
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Unidentified criminals shot and wounded a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader while 10 Jubo League activists were injured in a clash between themselves at Pallabi yesterday in the capital. Morshed Khan Ejaz, 26, general secretary of JCD Motijheel thana unit, was having tea at a roadside tea-stall around 11:15am when the criminals sprayed bullets on him, police said.
Ejaz, also an undergraduate student of a private university, received eight bullets in both of his legs and was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Police suspect Ejaz, who claimed he did not know why he was attacked, was assaulted due to a feud inside his group. Meanwhile, hundreds of Jubo League activists gathered in front of Mollah Market at Mirpur section 12 to get information about the formation of their unit committee.
Witnesses said at least 30 Jubo League activists suddenly attacked the other members of the front with sticks and iron rods when their names were not mentioned for the committee. Five of injured were treated at the DMCH yesterday afternoon while the rest in local hospitals.
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EFL Inside Estonia's presidential palace in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a lanky, white-haired man could occasionally be seen bent over a broken coffee maker or light fixture, screwdriver in hand, dutifully making repairs.
The man was President Lennart Meri. Statesman, survivor and sage, Meri was buried Sunday, dead at 76 after a life that encompassed the disasters and triumphs visited upon his tiny Baltic country, from being shipped to Siberia in a cattle train when he was a boy, to leading Estonia out of the shadows of Soviet oppression as president from 1992 to 2001.
His skills as a handyman had a political overtone. The intellectual writer-turned-president was waging war on all vestiges of Soviet-era sloppiness and neglect, and his weapon of choice was the screwdriver he kept in his pocket ready to pounce on the next flawed appliance. "It was the Soviet way that if you saw one light switch that didn't work properly, you'd say, 'Let's plan to fix all the light switches in a month's time and let's form a committee to organize it,'" he explained in one of several interviews with this reporter during his presidency.
Like Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who went on to become president of the Czech Republic, Meri was enlisted to run for president for his cultural pedigree and the moral stature he had won speaking out against the Soviet regime. He displayed encyclopedic knowledge and playful spontaneity, and shunned the blow-dried image of a modern Euro-politician. He liked to break with little warning into discourses on everything from astronomy to Shakespeare.
But he proved to be more than just a man of letters. Meri applied his fix-it-now philosophy to market reforms. He groomed youthful policy makers who speedily privatized state property, slashed subsidies and unilaterally abolished trade tariffs.
It worked; annual growth roared from minus 14 percent in 1992 to plus 11 percent by 1997. He also lobbied hard for Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to join NATO, ensuring the security of the three small, historically vulnerable Baltic states. "Security is like virginity," Meri explained with characteristic wit about why full membership was essential. "You're either a virgin or you're not. You either have security or you don't."
He also scolded Western governments for offering aid to Russia before Estonia's giant neighbor had shown a commitment to democratic reforms. "They thought that by feeding a tiger more and more meat, it would eventually turn into a vegetarian," he said.
Around 400 people were arrested Tuesday across France as more than one million people demonstrated to protest proposed labor reforms, security sources said. The arrests were made after gangs of hooligans infiltrated the corteges in several areas and began looting and attacking passers-by and clashing with riot police. Serious incidents were reported in Paris, Rennes and Grenoble and about 200 people were detained in the French capital, alone. Almost 200 others were arrested elsewhere.
Does arresting them involve catch and release, or do they get knobs thumped on their heads?
As the demonstration in Paris wound down in the early evening, clashes were still continuing in Republic Place, where riot police resorted to tear gas and water canon to quell violence. In Paris, the strike mobilized around 700,000 people, mainly from union and student organizations, and organizers claimed that the protest march was the largest since the mid-1990s, and maybe even in history.
Oh, yasss... Something to be proud of. One of La Belle France's proudest moments, in fact...
Transport, education, postal, tax and other civil services were hardest hit, but there were big disparities between different cities concerning the percentage of strikers. In Paris, urban transport was said to be running at 70 percent, but the figure for Marseille was below 50 percent. Thirty percent of flights at Paris airports were also cancelled and others were delayed. Most major train services were running at 50 percent of normal. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has invited unions to talks on Wednesday but they have declined the invitation, an indication that more social upheaval may be on the cards.
I suggest setting up a Directorate, getting some tumbrels, and lopping people's heads off. Betcha things quiet down then.
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#1
I saw some video on the news at a friend's house this evening and all I saw were rioters doing what they wanted, police water streams making people wet, and riot police running in groups hither and thither.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2006 2:22
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Two suspected Taliban were killed as they failed to detonate explosive devices strapped to their bodies at a set target in the southern Afghanistan Tuesday morning. The two people, officials say, exploded the bombs as soon as police signaled them to stop. Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid told journalists the bombs went off killing the two alleged terrorists. He said police and civilians remained safe in the failed attack. Taliban did not issue any comment on the explosion.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The two people, officials say, exploded the bombs as soon as police signaled them to stop
#2
Looks again like the recent Taleban recruitment drive has drawn strongly from the ranks of the criminally insane and educationally subnormal.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/29/2006 4:34
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#3
educationally subnormal.
Spending one's entire youth memorizing books in a language one doesn't understand, while in realistic fear of being physically and sexually abused, is not training conducive to rational thinking. The poor dears can't help what they've been made into... but rabid dogs don't hold a candle to the danger they've become.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has rejected the appeals of four civilians employees of the Pakistan Air Force convicted of involvement in an assassination attempt on Gen Pervez Musharraf. Justice Mohammad Akhtar Shabbir ruled that under Article 199 (3) of the Constitution, the LHC could not hear appeals against a military courts decision.
I will now approach the Supreme Court against this decision, the convicts counsel Col (r) Malik Akram later told reporters. He gave no further details and only said the prosecution had a very weak case against my clients. I will prove it. Technicians Khalid Mahmood, Nawazish Ali, Niaz Mohammad and Adnan Rashid were convicted and sentenced to death by a military court on October 3, 2005, for involvement in an assassination attempt on Gen Musharraf in Rawalpindi on December 14, 2003. Akram argued on Tuesday that there was no direct evidence against his clients. He said there had been a 131-day delay before the accuseds statements were recorded and they had been forced into making a confession. He also said the convicts were not provided copies of the judgment.
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The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's military wing, Al Quds Brigades, fired on Tuesday a Russian-made missile at the Israeli-occupied Majdal city marking the first such an attack since the start of the Palestinian uprising. The brigades said in a communique that the Grad missile was fired this morning, noting that Israel did not announce the attack to find out more about the missile.
It said that the news were held back until reports of the attack were broadcast by the Israeli television. The Israeli television report said a Katyusha rocket was fired from northern Gaza towards Majdal city and said there were no casualties reported. The Palestinian operation came in retaliation for the ongoing Israeli occupation and Israeli army crimes against the "mojahideen".
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Islamic Jihad fires Russian-made missile at Israel
[LAST DEC.]
Disturbing announcement: Senior al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades figure says group possesses longer range missile that could hit southern Israel communities previously immune to rocket threat
The military wing of the Fatah ruling party, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, claimed Monday it possesses "Grad" missiles with a range of 25 kilometers (about 15 miles.)
If until today Sderot residents have become used to Qassam fire on a daily basis, it seems residents of Ofakim, Netivot and Kiryat Gat will now also be within range of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
.........
I'm sure the concept of bio & chem agents are not lost on the IDF and other security assets in Israel.
#2
DEBKAfile Exclusive:
The first missiles and rocket of Iranian manufacture in Palestinian hands struck targets in Ashkelon Tuesday morning
March 28, 2006, 8:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
Two missiles and a 122mm Katyusha rocket struck the military installation at the Ashkelon oil port and terminal of the Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline, causing damage but no casualties. DEBKAfiles military sources report the weapons were smuggled into the Gaza Strip through Egyptian Sinai following Israels pullout from the territory last year. Israels security authorities kept the attack under close wraps in the course of the days polling for the Knesset.
It was the second time the Palestinians hit a strategic target near Ashkelon after a missile damaged the big power station compound last month.
January 3, 2006, DEBKAfiles exclusive sources revealed that a shipment of Grad missiles supplied by Iran had been secreted into the Gaza Strip through Sinai to substantially upgrade the Palestinian terrorist armory. Their range is 30 km, three times that of the homemade Qassams. It enables them to hit the big Israeli port of Ashdod north of Ashkelon and Kiryat Gath in southern Israel.
The new hardware was delivered to the Fatah-al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
#4
This is serious. A ship load of this stuff was intercepted, what, a couple of years ago ? Now that entry ports in Gaza on the Egyptian border are available, the armaments are being brought in wholesale. I'm with 3dc, let Israel shell this whole goddamn area of Palestine, top to bottom, nonstop until everything is rubble. Only workable solution.
London's moonbat rambunctious mayor, already fighting suspension for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, landed in fresh hot water on Tuesday for likening the U.S. ambassador to a "chiseling little crook." Mayor Ken Livingstone has been quarrelling with the U.S. embassy since last year, when it announced it would not pay the "congestion charge" fee imposed on cars entering the city center.
The embassy says the charge is a tax and that diplomats are immune under treaty. Livingstone says the charge, one of his flagship policies, is a road toll which diplomats have to pay. "It would actually be quite nice if the American ambassador in Britain could pay the charge like everybody else and not skive out of it like some chiseling little crook," the mayor told a television reporter.
Livingstone's pugnacious streak has helped make him one of Britain's most popular politicians, but his big mouth has lately landed him into big trouble. The Standards Board for England, a little known body that hears complaints against local government, ordered him suspended for four weeks last month after he compared a Jewish reporter to a "concentration camp guard" and a "German war criminal." The suspension, due this month, was postponed pending an appeal. Since then, he has already angered Jewish groups again by saying two Indian-born Jewish billionaire property developers should "go back to Iran and try their luck with the Ayatollahs."
Bob Neill, leader of the opposition Conservative Party's group in the Greater London Assembly said the remarks about the U.S. ambassador proved the mayor is "an embarrassment." "This is the latest in a long line of offensive, offhand and irrational remarks," he said in a statement. "Livingstone needs to show respect for the office he holds."
As for the dispute over the charge, embassy spokesman Rick Roberts said the U.S. State Department considers it settled: it won't pay. "It's been thoroughly reviewed by our lawyers in the United States," he said. "It's not just the United States. We weren't even first to object to this tax -- other missions refused to pay it before us. We pay tolls. We pay parking fines. When I take the bridge to Wales I pay the bridge toll. But this is a tax."
Livingstone has blamed the U.S. decision not to pay the charge on the arrival of a new ambassador, Richard Tuttle, a millionaire car dealership owner, Republican fund raiser and Bush family friend. But embassy spokesman Roberts said the decision to stop paying was taken before Tuttle arrived last July. "That's completely wrong. And the mayor knows better. He knows that this was put into effect on July 1 last year and the new ambassador wasn't even sworn in until July 14," he said. "The mayor has a habit of lying out his ass exaggerating a little in his remarks."
#6
The embassy says the charge is a tax and that diplomats are immune under treaty. Livingstone says the charge, one of his flagship policies, is a road toll which diplomats have to pay.
Ha! Maybe we'll move the UN there. Try collecting from them, you Commie Bastard!
Posted by: Michael Bloomberg ||
03/29/2006 13:23
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Two more new battalions of the anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion are likely to start operation next month, a home ministry official said. The decision to form the new two battalions was taken at a home ministry meeting in August last year, the official told the news agency on Monday. A total of 10 RAB battalions are now carrying out their operations and their operation areas will be redistributed when the two new battalions (RAB-11 and RAB-12) join their duties. According to the sources, the main office of RAB-11 will be in Narayanganj and its operational areas will include Munshiganj, Gazipur, Manikganj and Dhaka, while the office of RAB-12 will be in Sirajganj and its operational areas will include Bogra, Pabna, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Tangail and Kushtia.
We love you R-A-B
Oh yes we do
We love you R-A-B
And we'll be true
When you're not busting heads
We're blue!
Oh R-A-B we love you
#8
Well, as long as it's a round of "bullet" and not the whole cartridge they can keep costs down considerably.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/29/2006 14:16
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I've just tried explaining the romantic aspects of the RAB to my wife, but one has to EXPERIENCE these singular press releases to appreciate the role these distinctive units play in the War on Terror.
One day, my Grandkids will be slogging through some tome on the war on terror as yet unwritten, and I will reminisce when they get to the Chapter on the R-A-B.
Impeached Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Tuesday that Britains economy, environmental policy and attempts at modernization were envied in the United States, where comparable policies under President George W. Bush were lacking.
Speaking to a packed audience at Londons Guildhall, Clinton specifically responded to criticisms that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour party were long in the tooth, or at least missing quite a few, or past their prime. If you live where I live in the establishment bubble in Manhattan and you look across the Atlantic, it does not look that way, he said.
Clintons 45-minute speech on progressive politics and globalization, organized by the Smith Institute, a Labour-leaning political think tank, touched on a wide array of topics, including the war in Iraq, job outsourcing, the threat of communicable diseases and even the Danish cartoons that infuriated much of the Muslim world earlier this year.
The 59-year-old former U.S. president, who was introduced by British Treasury chief Gordon Brown, also emphasized the potential impact of global warming, saying that, if it actually existed unchecked, it threatens to destabilize the global economy. This is both the greatest threat and the greatest opportunity of our lifetime, and were not acting like it is, Clinton said.
Clinton briefly spoke about the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq during a question-and-answer session, calling it a delicate issue that, if handled incorrectly, could create a launching pad for terrorist regimes in the Middle East.
About 50 picketers from Britains largest trade unions stood outside the Guildhall during Clintons speech to protest government plans to scrap a key pension rule allowing public sector workers to retire and collect their pension at age 60. Instead, let's lower it, like in France.
#2
Article: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Tuesday that Britains economy, environmental policy and attempts at modernization were envied in the United States, where comparable policies under President George W. Bush were lacking.
OK. It's official. From now on, socialism = modernization.
Thai protesters seeking to oust the prime minister threatened yesterday to paralyse downtown Bangkok with a new demonstration, as a new poll found dwindling support for their movement. The protesters have camped out for two weeks outside Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's princely offices in Bangkok's historic district, calling for him to resign over claims of corruption and abuse of power.
But with just days to go till snap elections on Sunday, protest organizers said they will move their sit-in Wednesday to Siam Paragon, the city's biggest and newest mall, located along one of the most congested streets in a city notorious for its traffic. "If the protest stays there and blocks the road, traffic throughout the capital would be paralysed," traffic police chief Panu Kertlapphol told AFP. The protesters say they will not stage their sit-in on private property but will camp in the street, which Panu said would be grounds to arrest them for blocking traffic.
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Oh no! How will I get to Soy Cowboy!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/29/2006 8:05
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The government is considering calling a "grand jirga" in the tribal areas to work towards peace in the area, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said on Tuesday. The jirga would consist of tribal elders, clerics, local councillors and government officials and its job would be to identify "anti-state elements" and persuade tribesmen not to shelter foreign militants, the minister told reporters.
Sherpao said the government was taking several measures to bring peace to the tribal areas, one of which was to crackdown on foreign militants. "We are committed to establishing complete writ of the government in the tribal areas," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2006
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Members of the special taskforce for interrogation (TFI) cell yesterday started quizzing arrested JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second in command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. The TFI members discontinued interrogation them on March 26 on account of Independence Day and were served special food on the special day, sources said.
"Happy Independence Day, boys! Too bad you're stuck here in Bangla's Bedbug Bonanza. Would you each like another cup of giggle juice?"
"Yessh, pleeesh."
Both Shaikh and Bangla Bhai gave very little information to the TFI members, sources said and added, the TFI members yesterday interrogated them twice. According to sources, Bangla Bhai was more arrogant than Shaikh Abdur Rahman during interrogation by TFI cell. Bangla Bhai had disclosed some names and asked the TFI members to interrogate those persons, and said You (TFI) will get more information from them about militancy. They had disclosed some important clues during their first phase of remand, but now they have become tight-lipped, sources said. Following their confessional statements, the members of the special taskforce for interrogation (TFI) cell were now busy trying to round up the financers of the militant network, sources said.
Got the Head Cheese and the Hard Boy, now they need the money men.
Arrested top leaders of JMB Shaikh, Bangla Bhai, Sunny, Awal and Jewell have given some important clues to the TFI members about the militancy activities and their patrons. According to sources, Bangla Bhai had started his militant activities creating anarchy under the banner of JMJB and killed many people calling them the members of the outlawed political parties. After establishing the JMJB, he started recruitment of members of his party from among the outlawed Sarbahara men through motivation.
He made his mother very proud.
Shaikh has already admitted to his involvement in militant activities and serial bomb blasts across the country in August 17. He also disclosed his militant network, their patrons and sources of fund, arms and explosives, sources said. The JMB kingpin, along with his associates and family members, was captured from a hideout at Tilagarh area in Sylhet town on March 2.
#2
I wonder when they're taking their midnight "rides"?
These people are too important for that. They'll have a show trial, be sentenced to life in prison, and either die under mysterious circumstances, or be released in ten, twelve years max - depending on who's in power at the time.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2006 15:07
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The Pakistani Interior Minister Tuesday said that over 600 militants including some high-profile Al-Qaeda figures have been killed in series of military operations in the tribal belt since last two years. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao talking to newsmen expressed Musharraf-led governments resolve to continue fighting till the last miscreant had been washed out.
Couldn't work a deal with the local holy men, huh?
He said Pakistans soil would [not] be allowed to use for seeding of terrorism, adding, "We are committed to take strict actions against those who are using Islam for their vested interests with linking it with terrorism."
Meanwhile, Pakistan deported more than 13 Afghan nationals, arrested Monday for defying government warning to leave the area. On Monday, about 45 Afghans were deported, arrested for illegal stay in Pakistan. The government has launched campaign to expel foreigners from the lawless tribal region. Most of these foreigners are Afghan refugees who fled US-led invasion at home in late 2001. The military has launched operation in North Waziristan tribal agency to flush out foreign militants. In almost two-week long operation, backed by gunship helicopters, over 100 foreign and local militants have been killed and dozens wounded. The operations also forced local populace to fled to safer places.
Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan Saleem Hyat Tuesday visited Miranshah, main headquarters of North Waziristan agency, where he was briefed in detail about the prevailing situation in the area and planned development works, said a military statement. Situation in the aftermath of these operations was normal, said the statement, adding that public life in the area is picking up pace and usual business is taking place.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2006
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#1
Note to author: Definite and indefinite articles are your friends.
600 - over two years. Probly halve that and divide by two... still not good enough, Pervy.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/29/2006 6:26
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#2
Pakistani minister says over 600 militants killed in military operations
Does that count the ones serving in the Pakistani military, or just their targets?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/29/2006 7:41
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#3
That picture of the turban guy with the bandolier, glasses, and long dark beard----hmmmm. Now THAT would be a good outline on a pistol or sniper marksmanship qualification target!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2006 20:30
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Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, a German magazine reports in its latest edition, citing Western security sources. The German magazine Cicero says that during the Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca in 2003 through 2005, Pakistani scientists posed as pilgrims to come to Saudi Arabia in aircraft laid on by the oil-rich kingdom. Between October 2004 and January 2005, some of them took the opportunity to "disappear" from their hotel rooms, sometimes for up to three weeks, it quoted German security expert Udo Ulfkotte as saying.
According to Western security services, the magazine added, Saudi scientists have been working since the mid-1990s in Pakistan, a nuclear power since 1998 thanks to the work of the now-disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Cicero, which will appear on newstands on Thursday, also quoted a US military analyst, John Pike, as saying that Saudi bar codes can be found on half of Pakistan's nuclear weapons "because it is Saudi Arabia which ultimately co-financed the Pakistani atomic nuclear programme". The magazine also said satellite images prove that Saudi Arabia has set up in Al-Sulaiyil, south of Riyadh, a secret underground city and dozens of underground silos for missiles. According to some Western security services, long-range Ghauri-type missiles of Pakistani-origin are housed inside the silos.
#2
We have to dry up the money. The West, as well as Japan and others are giving their hard earned cash to a bunch of ME psychos, and have it turned into Mosques and Nukes. Saudi Arabia and Iran: the source of the misery, terrorism, and World War. We need a plan to deal with the enemy and they is them. That's what it all boils down to. Them or us. Everything else is symptoms or a sideshow.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2006 2:12
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#3
What AP said. (Which is what we been saying all along too.)
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/29/2006 3:51
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#5
Consider this a formal announcement of my unanimous support for .com's plan to confiscate that narrow strip of (oil rich) land from the Saudis. Let's all just call it reparations for 9-11 and get it over with.
#6
Is there any chance whatsoever that there will be a viable presidential candidate in 2008 who would put an end to our obscene alliance with Saudi Arabia? One who understands that the enemy is not a "handful of extremists" but rather the mainstream Islamic establishment? One who would use our military power not to "build democracy" and improve the economic conditions of those who want to destroy us, but rather to weaken our ememies? One who understands that we cannot "make countries," but that we we can certainly break them to our advantage (that we could, in other words, break off the Persian Gulf Coast from Saudi Arabia, break off oil-rich Khuzistan from Iran, break Darfur and the far south off from Sudan, and so on).
Such a candidate would get my vote. But I suspect that we will have another "left-wing fascist" (a quasi-socialist friend of Islamism) versus another "right-wing liberal" (a semi-aggressive Wilsonian 'democracy builder' like Bush).
#7
pagan infidel, the prospects are pretty d@mn grim. Neither side quite seems to get it about simply breaking things for the bad boys, with the democrats being the most rudderless of the lot.
#8
More reasons why we need our fellow American patriots, union members who blindly vote democrat to join us. Also, more reason to attack and destroy the MSM before they sell us out totally.
Those 2 groups of jerks think it's a struggle to place the next president, while we know it's a struggle for survival of civility.
#9
If the oil producing countries we don't like (which is justifiably almost all of them) were to be suddenly broken, the world economy would equally suddenly go into a major depression. Most of the nations of the world are even more dependent on imported oil than is the US. That sounds like a really good way to lose the Long War on expansionist Islam to me, however satisfying emotionally.
#10
I don't think anyone's talking about an overall dismantling of foreign oil exportation. My mention of "breaking things for the bad boys" involves the Iranian nuclear sites. Should Iran continue to resist once those locations are demolished, then we can talk about crippling Kharg Island.
#11
No need to break the oil infrastructure, or even endanger it. One nuke, about 5Mt,on Riyadh would take care of all of it. Without the House of Saud and the infrastructure they've created to maintain their control, Saudi Arabia becomes a series of crumbs to be swept up by a few special forces. This is for ALL the marbles, boys and girls, and half-steps will only get more people killed and the world even more screwed up than it already is.
As for Europe objecting, the US would have control of the Persian Gulf and its oil. We could tighten control to the point Europe freezes in the winter, or dies from the heat in the summer, with NO viable economy, no tourism, and no prospects of imroving.
It's time to either fish or cut bait, and I'm not holding my breath for Europe to get a clue.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2006 15:27
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#12
At this point I am inclined to say we just announce something along the following:
"Dear World, the USA has decided to become the Evil Imperialist Colonialist nation we are accused of everyday. For the next year we will take your accusations as Doctrine and implement them. Consider yourselves warned"
Then, we go to town ... I am not really kidding either. They'll be begging for the old US after the year. Then we tell them, we could become Evil again at anytime. Behave Children!
Sharon Stone has warned Hillary Rodham Clinton to stay out of the 2008 US presidential race, saying the New York senator and former first lady is too sexy to win back the keys to the White House.
Somehow, I've never thought of Madame Clinton as "sexy." Perhaps I've been missing something?
Stone, 48, who appears naked in a soon-to-be-released sequel to the provocative 1992 sex thriller Basic Instinct, said Senator Clinton had an intimidating sexuality that would cost her votes. "I think Hillary Clinton is fantastic in bed, but I think it is too soon for her to run (for president)," Stone said in the latest edition of Hollywood Life magazine. "A woman should be past her sexuality when she runs. Hillary still has sexual power and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening."
"Madame President! Hu Jin Tao has just threatened to invade Japan!"
"Oh, he did, did he? Hand me my negligee!"
But while Stone wants the 58-year-old Senator Clinton to wait until her sexuality subsides, singer Madonna is urging her to "go for it" in 2008, even though the timing might not be right for Americans to put their trust in a woman president. "I don't think now is necessarily her time, or the Democrats' time, but she should certainly go for it," Madonna reportedly told Out magazine.
What is this? A Hollywood Battle of Brilliance? Why, the two women's combined IQs must approach dull normal...
"You've got to start somewhere in terms of a woman leading the US. In Europe and Asia and elsewhere, women have ruled over millions. It's not an abstract concept. But in America, men are still afraid.
It's not her gender that frightens me...
"And I don't think women are too comfortable with the idea of a female in charge."
It must be something that's reserved for politix, then. The commander where I work is, as far as I can tell, as female as they come, an Army lieutenant colonel, ordnance branch. Not only do the women working at the place somehow manage to be comfortable with the idea of a female in charge, but the Marines somehow manage, as well. I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea of Condi as president, but the thought of Madame Clinton gives me the cold shivers.
But earlier this month Senator Clinton's standing as a wronged wife cut no ice with actor Susan Sarandon, who said voters should not allow her to return to the White House as America's first female president because she did not vote against the war in Iraq. "I find Hillary to be a great disappointment," Sarandon said. "She's lost her progressive following because of her caution and centrist approach. It bothered me when she voted for the war. There were brave people who didn't. She's not worse than other politicians, but I hoped she would be better. What America is looking for is authentic people." You know, like Hollyweird actors.
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#3
Oh c'mon..the grrrl got some serious junk in that trunk and she know how to work it! Still....wouldn't hurt to keep a liter of Jack handy.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/29/2006 0:44
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#4
Stone's such a skank she thinks the troll under the bridge is a hunk. And she's an equal opportunity skank, to boot. She has to go overboard to get any attention cuz once you've flashed your stuff, it's all downhill.
#6
Wasn't that the lead singer of the 1990's Euro group RIGHT SAID FRED in that new Volkswagon commercial - dare AL BUNDY visit Britain, again, dancing to RSF's theme. In any case, for the Dems in 2008 SURVIVING ANTI-GOP AMER HIROSHIMA(S) = SAVING THE WORLD FROM NUCLEAR WAR/CONFLICT. I still say that iff the **** hits the fan wid Iran and NK-Taiwan, POTUS "I'm inocent becuz I'm a Girl" Hillary will at best be VPOTUS to Gore, Kerry, or "They Call Me Mr. Prez Judith" Madman Dean, most likely GORE!?
Sharon Stone said that Hillary Clinton is too sexy to be president. If that's true, she's also too nice, too friendly, too apolitical, too intelligent, too not evil, too in love with Bill, too thin, too good at throwing ashtrays, and on and on . . . .
Now I've been told, I'm afraid I'll start to regularly dream of her at night... yes, afraid, very afraid... because this would have a name : the old hag syndrom!
And this case, sleep paralysis simply cannot be a rational explanation, when Hillary is involved...
#14
OK so three hollywood actresses with a staggering single digit combined IQ thinks Hillary is TOO Sexy? Typical actors, picking the pres on looks, not abilities. Condi on the other hand is amazingly smart, respected, has a firm grasp on reality and her own looks. Whats going on here is Hollywood, with all its liberal speak would never endorse a Black female for president, hell, it's a rare day when they allow a female of color to lead in a picture.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/29/2006 8:04
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#15
I'm too sexy for my Bill
Too sexy for my Bill
Bill's going to leave me
I'm too sexy for my shirt
Too sexy for my shirt
So sexy it hurts
And I'm too sexy for the Senate
Too sexy for the Senate
The White House, I should be in it
I'm a senator, you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the C-SPAN
Yeah on the C-SPAN on the C-SPAN yeah
I do my little turn on the C-SPAN
And I'm too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
Nominate me at the convention, that'd be smart-y
I'm the next president, you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the C-SPAN
Yeah on the C-SPAN on the C-SPAN yeah
I do my little turn on the C-SPAN . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
03/29/2006 11:44
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#17
Oooh. Sharon Stone, Madonna, and Susan Sarandon debate presidential politics.
Somebody attempt to revive Whitney Houston and let's see what she says...
#22
If the democrats want to run a woman, why don't they find one who is likable, gratious, refined, elegant, appreciated, educated, accomplished, oops, never mind.....democrats.
#23
Sharon Stone used to be hot, but she was never smart. Senator Clinton had an intimidating sexuality that would cost her votes.
I wonder if she meant penis.
The government will not remove the subject of jihad from the school curriculum, Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi said on Tuesday. The minister told reporters after a prize distribution ceremony at a school here that the governments new education policy will be implemented from 2007. Geography and history will be re-introduced in the new education policy that will be implemented in 2007, he said. We will teach Islamiat from class one to twelve. The new syllabus will also include the subject of human rights, he added.
That'd be Islamic human rights, of course...
The minister said a census would be carried out to ascertain the literacy rate in Pakistan. The results of a census regarding the literacy rate in the country will be available in June 2006, he said. He said students will be taught in both English and Urdu. Science, maths and history will be taught in English and the other subjects in Urdu, he said.
Posted by: john ||
03/29/2006
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#1
You can take the Muslim out of jihad, but you can't take jihad out of the Muslim. Therefore, boot the Muslim out of the West.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sent a list of 68 militants to all the commercial banks to find if they have any bank accounts, sources said. The central bank asked the banks to report within April 6 all sorts of transactions in detail if any bank account is found in their names. Sources in the BB said the list, which was sent early this week, bears the addresses of some of the arrested and suspected militants. The central bank gathered the names and addresses from newspaper reports.
The list includes names of banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman, his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal, Obaidur Rahman, Shakil alias Mollah Omar and Hridoy Chowdhury. High officials of a number of banks however pointed out that it will be very difficult to find out if there is any bank account in the name of any militant as the BB could not provide addresses against all the names.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2006
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As many as 11 Iraqi civilians were wounded Tuesday when a car laden with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber exploded near a police station in the southern city of Hilla. A security source said the suicide bomber tried to reach the police station but the guards opened fire and killed him before reaching his target. The car, he added, exploded when it bumped against a small bus, wounding 11 of its passengers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2006
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#1
Channeling BBC/NYT:
The injuries to the bus passengers are the fault of the police, for causing the suicide bomb car to blow up in a place dangerous to civilians.
A Dhaka court yesterday set April 18 for hearing on the charge-framing against the military commander of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Ataur Rahman Sunny and four others in two cases. Judge Mohammad Momin Ullah of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court directed the authorities concerned to produce Sunny and four others before it during the hearing of the cases. The two cases were filed with Sabujbagh Police Station, one under Arms Act and the other under Explosive Substances Act, against Sunny and six others on December 14 last year.
On March 14, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) pressed charges against Sunny and four others. The other accused are Sunny's friend Fariduzzaman Swapan, JMB regional commander of Gazipur Enayet Ullah (Jewel), Kamrul (Sumon, also known as Zahidul) and Alamgir (Bijoy). Sumon and Alamgir are absconding while the others are now in custody. Rab dropped the names of Monir and Abul Khair, landlords of Sunny, from the charge sheet, as evidence leading to their involvement with JMB was inconclusive.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2006
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LAHORE: The son or daughter of a government servant who dies on the job is eligible for a government job in their parents department in scale 1 to 5 if he or she has the required qualifications, Punjab Ombudsman Abdur Rashid Khan said while deciding a complaint by the widow of a patwari.
Hmmm... Yasss... Hereditary gummint jobs. That oughta make things work better.
The widow of Muhammad Yaqoob said that her husband died on July 19, 1987 when he was serving as a patwari in Daska tehsil of Sialkot district. She said that her son Ijaz Mahmood applied for the post of a naib qasid in Sialkot district, adding that authorities told her that her son had got a job in Narowal district. She sought directions to the Sialkot district revenue officer (DRO) to appoint her son to Sialkot district. In reply, the DRO said that the plaintiff was living in Narowal district, therefore her son was given a job there. The ombudsman directed the DRO to give the plaintiffs son a naib qasids job in Sialkot district under Rule 17-A of the Punjab Civil Servants (Appointments and Conditions of Service) Rules 1975, subject to vacancy and qualification.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2006
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#1
I suppose what they'll do next is extend this a bit to public service jobs like President and Prime Minister. Just a little tweaking: the job goes to first-born sons, say; and a regent takes the job until the kid is old enough.
Posted by: James ||
03/29/2006 0:43
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#2
As for those top spots, the Soddies fund the place and lord knows they have Royals to spare...
Hours after the US shut its consulate Tuesday in the capital of North-West Pakistani Frontier Province (NWFP), a bomb exploded, killing at least one person and wounding fifteen others, said police and US consulate. Some unknown terrorists had planted a time-bomb with a motorbike and parked it in a crowded bazaar of Peshawar city, about 250 kilometers north of Islamabad, local senior police official, Saeed Wazir, told KUNA. He said the explosion killed one and wounded 15 others, two of them seriously.
Hours ahead of the explosion, US consulate was temporarily closed owing to some security concerns, said US embassy. It said that the decision was taken following they received specific and credible threat. However, Saeed Wazir ruled out that the explosion was related to the security threats received by the US consulate.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Construction workers cleaning a vacant building near the World Trade Center site have found bone fragments and human remains, officials said on Tuesday. The four fragments will be tested to determine if they are remains of victims of the September 11 attacks, said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner. The remains were found in late January and on March 24 in the Deutsche Bank building, a 41-story neighbor of the twin towers that was severely damaged when the towers collapsed in the 2001 attack, she said. Some remains were discovered on the 38th floor and others were found on the roof. Ten human bone fragments were found on the rooftop in the fall.
The medical examiner's office will determine whether the newest remains are human and then try to match them to existing DNA profiles, Borakove said. The remains were found by crews cleaning the building before construction workers begin dismantling it in June. "If the DNA extracted doesn't have enough points to match to a person, it's a partial identification, but we're doing a lot of things to try to generate new technology to identify people with a partial DNA profile," Borakove said.
Recovering the remains of victims of the attacks has been a slow process, and identifying victims from tiny fragments such as bone shards has not always been possible. Borakove said the medical examiner's office has identified partial remains from 1,595 people of the 2,749 killed. Some 9,720 unidentified bone and tissue fragments have been sealed and stored in case developments in technology make identification possible in the future, officials have said.
Saddam Hussein: "All 'Izzat Al-Douri ever wanted was to address the Iraqis as their leader, even if just for a few short minutes. Everybody remembers that he once addressed the Iraqi Women's Union without my knowledge. Do you know what I did to him?"
Interviewer: "We don't know. Tell us"...
Saddam Hussein: "The first thing I did when they brought him was to spit in his face."
Interviewer: "Why?"
Saddam Hussein: "I said to him: 'You despicable man, I spit on your owl's face. How do you address these glorious women without me knowing about it?'" HEY! I like owls!
"I'm the one who gets the babes around here!"
"The only one who makes speeches in Iraq is the fearless supreme leader - meaning me.
"I am the head cheese around here! You are gorgonzola, at best!"
"At this point 'Izzat Al-Duri pulled out his handkerchief and blubbered cried. I said to him: 'Look 'Izzat, this time I forgive you, but I swear by my honor, and the honor of the history of the Arab nation, that if you ever repeat this mistake I will cut your tongue off.'" My! THEY were certainly close buddies! [/SARCASM]
Wotta sweet guy.
Interviewer: "And now he has repeated this mistake, as you call it, and has published a statement addressed to the [Arab League] summit, as was mentioned on one of the television stations."
Saddam Hussein: "I didn't hear the speech, because I'm in prison." "Noone tells me anything!"
"Even though I am in prison, I don't allow anyone to speak on my behalf, so long as I live. I am still the president." See picture at left.
"They're gonna call him Izzy No-Tongue soon's my hard boyz hear about it!"
"Internet... Whatever... I give speeches without fearing anyone. I give speeches face to face..."
"I ain't a-scared o' nuttin'!"
Interviewer: "You're in prison. How can you give speeches?"
Saddam Hussein: "That's a good question. You watch the court sessions. How many sessions have there been so far? Fifteen sessions?"
Interviewer: "Seventeen."
Saddam Hussein: "I give a speech at every single session. If I don't give speeches, I get heartburn.
"... or maybe it's the chili. I'm not sure..."
"If 'Izzat Al-Duri is alive and he can hear me, I want to address him, through you, and to tell him to beware. Isn't this a disgrace? The leader of the Arabs - 'Izzat Al-Duri speaks on his behalf?! 'Izzat Al-Duri doesn't even know how to stand at attention. He should speak on behalf of Saddam Hussein? Any speech that doesn't receive my signature is unofficial, illegitimate, and illegal... He should beware and shut up. Why does he make speeches and exploit state funds? I left the funds under your responsibility. Billions of dollars... I left you the funds and you should use them properly. He goes and blows up mosques, markets, and schools."
"The man's an absolute loon!... Ummm... Unlike me."
"I know that people who listen to me might think that Saddam Hussein has become apathetic in prison and stopped supporting terrorism. No. I'm not ashamed to tell you that Iraq without Saddam Hussein isn't worth two bits. Therefore, it will make me happy if Iraq turns into dust." Sounding like Hitler in his final days, methinks.
Interviewer: "This reminds me that in one of your speeches, you said that you would leave Iraq a country without a people."
Saddam Hussein: "What is the people worth without Saddam Hussein?! What is it worth? Iraq is entirely Saddam Hussein. 'Long live Iraq' means 'long live Saddam Hussein.' What is Iraq worth without Saddam Hussein?" A great deal.
Interviewer: "You keep on with those slogans? You still cling to them..."
Saddam Hussein: "I was brought up on it. How do you want me to go back on this? Iraqis hear these things about me as soon as they come out of their mothers' wombs. I repeat: Iraq without Saddam Hussein isn't worth two bits. Therefore, it will make me happy if Iraq turns into ashes. I call to punish 'Izzat Al-Duri, because he burned my heart." What, fried the muscle!?
I'm guessing it was the chili.
Interviewer: "Why, because he published a statement without your permission?"
Saddam Hussein: "He gave a speech without me knowing it. The punishment that I want for him is to cut off his tongue and ears." I guess being a control freak comes with the territory when you're a tyrant.
Interviewer: "Why cutting off his tongue and ears?"
Saddam Hussein: "To make him the same as all the renegades whose tongues and ears I cut off. And if 'Izzat Al-Duri continues giving speeches in sign language, like the deaf do, I demand that his hands be cut off. And so on and so forth, until 'Izzat Al-Duri is finished, and we get rid of this degenerate."
Interviewer: "Why cutting off his tongue and ears?"
Saddam Hussein: "To make him the same as all the renegades whose tongues and ears I cut off. And if 'Izzat Al-Duri continues giving speeches in sign language, like the deaf do, I demand that his hands be cut off. And so on and so forth, until 'Izzat Al-Duri is finished, and we get rid of this degenerate."
(unpublished I believe by the MSM for obvious reasons) LOL...
And I have saved every tounge and ear, and when you find that secret vault with a hermetically sealed chamber in one of my palaces, you will see jar upon jar mounted on the wall, with the name of the former owner of those ears and tongues.
Some folks collect butterflies, I collect ears and tongues.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The U.N. Security Council demanded Wednesday that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, the first time the powerful body has directly urged Tehran to clear up suspicions that it is seeking nuclear weapons. 
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum a life sentence for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church, Va. "The facts of this case are still astonishing," prosecutor David Laufman said. "Barely a year after Sept. 11 the defendant joined the organization responsible for 3,000 deaths." But U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said 30 years was sufficient punishment. He compared the Abu Ali case to "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, who received a 20-year sentence.
Republicans are stronger on national security. 
The United States has ordered its diplomats and contractors not to have any contacts with Palestinian ministries once a Hamas-led government is sworn in on Wednesday, U.S. officials said. 
TEHRAN, March 29 (Reuters) - Three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in a clash with Kurdish separatists in the country's restive western borderlands, Iran's student news agency ISNA said on Wednesday. The Revolutionary Guard "agents" were killed in fighting on Tuesday with a Kurdish group called PJAK. Their bodies were transferred from the border to the nearby city of Salmas, the report said. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. Iran's Revolutionary Guards are an ideologically driven branch of the country's armed forces.
The ruling by the state Court of Appeals Thursday makes Juan Soto a millionaire with $400,000 to spare. 
Karachi, 29 March (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - The leader of one of Pakistan's most feared militant groups, who was also once a close aide to Osama bin Laden, is currently in critical condition in a Rawalpindi hospital after surviving an attempt on his life. 
U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.
Western powers softened a draft U.N. Security Council statement on Tuesday on reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions in hopes of reaching a deal with Russia and China before all their foreign ministers meet this week. Still, the new draft, obtained by Reuters, retains calls on Tehran to suspend uranium-enrichment efforts, a process that can produce fuel necessary for making a nuclear bomb.
Iranian Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday rejected a press report on a statement attributed to the Ministry saying that Iran will set up an international center for uranium enrichment. An Embassy official told IRNA that Iranian Embassy has not released any statement to that effect.
Exit polls projected interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party will win the most parliamentary seats in Israel's election on Tuesday. The surveys, issued after voting ended, gave centrist Kadima 29-32 seats in the 120-member legislature, putting it in a good position to form a coalition government.
A physician confessed to killing no less than 35 Iraqi policemen and soldiers with lethal injections and other means as they were treated in one of Kirkuk's hospitals. The confessions of the physician, Dr. Luay Omar Al-Tae, were broadcast by a Kurdish television station. Al-Tae explained that the persons he killed were suffering minor injuries, adding that he used to also cutoff electricity from operation rooms and reopen wounds. 
Six Afghan soldiers were killed and as many wounded when the vehicle they were travelling in was blown up by Taliban using a remote-controlled device on Tuesday. The incident happened in the afternoon in the Sangeen district of Afghanistan's insurgency-plague Helmand province. 
F.P. Report BARA: At least 18 people were killed early in the morning at 03:00 am when Mufti-led group came in 16 pickups along with heavy artillery, when they reached Badshah Khan house, the supporter of Pir Saifur Rehman, so his arm men attacked the Mufti followers and fight broke out between these two groups.
A student of class five was raped allegedly by her school's headmaster in Sundargram in Rajarhat upazila on Monday. Sources said Md Mokhlesur Rahman, headmaster of Sundargram Putika Govt Primary School, called the student in to his office and raped her during class hours. Hearing the news, locals besieged the school, confined the teacher and demanded his stern punishment. Mokhles was however rescued by activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of ruling BNP, before he was handed over to police, witnesses said. The girl was sent to Kurigram General Hospital.
Unidentified criminals shot and wounded a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader while 10 Jubo League activists were injured in a clash between themselves at Pallabi yesterday in the capital. Morshed Khan Ejaz, 26, general secretary of JCD Motijheel thana unit, was having tea at a roadside tea-stall around 11:15am when the criminals sprayed bullets on him, police said. 
Inside Estonia's presidential palace in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a lanky, white-haired man could occasionally be seen bent over a broken coffee maker or light fixture, screwdriver in hand, dutifully making repairs.
Around 400 people were arrested Tuesday across France as more than one million people demonstrated to protest proposed labor reforms, security sources said. The arrests were made after gangs of hooligans infiltrated the corteges in several areas and began looting and attacking passers-by and clashing with riot police. Serious incidents were reported in Paris, Rennes and Grenoble and about 200 people were detained in the French capital, alone. Almost 200 others were arrested elsewhere.
Two suspected Taliban were killed as they failed to detonate explosive devices strapped to their bodies at a set target in the southern Afghanistan Tuesday morning. The two people, officials say, exploded the bombs as soon as police signaled them to stop. Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid told journalists the bombs went off killing the two alleged terrorists. He said police and civilians remained safe in the failed attack. Taliban did not issue any comment on the explosion.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has rejected the appeals of four civilians employees of the Pakistan Air Force convicted of involvement in an assassination attempt on Gen Pervez Musharraf. Justice Mohammad Akhtar Shabbir ruled that under Article 199 (3) of the Constitution, the LHC could not hear appeals against a military courts decision. 
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's military wing, Al Quds Brigades, fired on Tuesday a Russian-made missile at the Israeli-occupied Majdal city marking the first such an attack since the start of the Palestinian uprising. The brigades said in a communique that the Grad missile was fired this morning, noting that Israel did not announce the attack to find out more about the missile.
London's 
Two more new battalions of the anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion are likely to start operation next month, a home ministry official said. The decision to form the new two battalions was taken at a home ministry meeting in August last year, the official told the news agency on Monday. A total of 10 RAB battalions are now carrying out their operations and their operation areas will be redistributed when the two new battalions (RAB-11 and RAB-12) join their duties. According to the sources, the main office of RAB-11 will be in Narayanganj and its operational areas will include Munshiganj, Gazipur, Manikganj and Dhaka, while the office of RAB-12 will be in Sirajganj and its operational areas will include Bogra, Pabna, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Tangail and Kushtia.
Members of the special taskforce for interrogation (TFI) cell yesterday started quizzing arrested JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second in command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. The TFI members discontinued interrogation them on March 26 on account of Independence Day and were served special food on the special day, sources said. 
The Pakistani Interior Minister Tuesday said that over 600 militants including some high-profile Al-Qaeda figures have been killed in series of military operations in the tribal belt since last two years. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao talking to newsmen expressed Musharraf-led governments resolve to continue fighting till the last miscreant had been washed out. 
Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, a German magazine reports in its latest edition, citing Western security sources. The German magazine Cicero says that during the Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca in 2003 through 2005, Pakistani scientists posed as pilgrims to come to Saudi Arabia in aircraft laid on by the oil-rich kingdom. Between October 2004 and January 2005, some of them took the opportunity to "disappear" from their hotel rooms, sometimes for up to three weeks, it quoted German security expert Udo Ulfkotte as saying.
The government will not remove the subject of jihad from the school curriculum, Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi said on Tuesday. The minister told reporters after a prize distribution ceremony at a school here that the governments new education policy will be implemented from 2007. Geography and history will be re-introduced in the new education policy that will be implemented in 2007, he said. We will teach Islamiat from class one to twelve. The new syllabus will also include the subject of human rights, he added. 
As many as 11 Iraqi civilians were wounded Tuesday when a car laden with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber exploded near a police station in the southern city of Hilla. A security source said the suicide bomber tried to reach the police station but the guards opened fire and killed him before reaching his target. The car, he added, exploded when it bumped against a small bus, wounding 11 of its passengers.
A Dhaka court yesterday set April 18 for hearing on the charge-framing against the military commander of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Ataur Rahman Sunny and four others in two cases. Judge Mohammad Momin Ullah of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court directed the authorities concerned to produce Sunny and four others before it during the hearing of the cases. The two cases were filed with Sabujbagh Police Station, one under Arms Act and the other under Explosive Substances Act, against Sunny and six others on December 14 last year.
Hours after the US shut its consulate Tuesday in the capital of North-West Pakistani Frontier Province (NWFP), a bomb exploded, killing at least one person and wounding fifteen others, said police and US consulate. Some unknown terrorists had planted a time-bomb with a motorbike and parked it in a crowded bazaar of Peshawar city, about 250 kilometers north of Islamabad, local senior police official, Saeed Wazir, told KUNA. He said the explosion killed one and wounded 15 others, two of them seriously. 
Saddam Hussein: "All '
"Even though I am in prison, I don't allow anyone to speak on my behalf, so long as I live. I am still the president."
Saddam Hussein: "What is the people worth without Saddam Hussein?! What is it worth? Iraq is entirely Saddam Hussein. 'Long live Iraq' means 'long live Saddam Hussein.' What is Iraq worth without Saddam Hussein?"
