EFL
An extraordinary family who walk on all fours are being hailed as the breakthrough discovery which could shed light on the moment Man first stood upright. Scientists believe that the five brothers and sisters found in Turkey could hold unique insights into human evolution.
The Kurdish siblings, aged between 18 and 34 and from the rural south, 'bear crawl' on their feet and palms. Study of the five has shown the astonishing behaviour is not a hoax and they are largely unable to walk otherwise.
Researchers have found a genetic condition which accounts for their extraordinary movement. And it could provide invaluable information on how humans evolved from a four-legged hominid into a creature walking on two feet. Two of the daughters and a son have only ever walked on two palms and two feet, but another son and daughter sometimes manage to walk upright. The five can stand upright, but only for a short time, with both knees and head flexed.
Professor Nicholas Humphrey, evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, visited the family twice. He said: "It's amazing as an example of a strange, strange aberration of human development. But their interest is how they can live in the modern world." The five are all mentally retarded. Their mother and father, who are closely related are believed to have handed down a unique combination of genes which result in the behaviour.
Some researchers argue the genetic fault has caused the brothers and sisters to regress to a form of 'backward evolution'. Others believe it has led to brain damage which has allowed them to develop the walk. Rather than walking on their knuckles, like gorillas or chimpanzees, they walk on the palms of their hands, with their fingers spread upwards. Scientists believe this may be the way hominids moved to protect their fingers for more delicate movements.
Prof Humphrey said he thought the family had reverted to an instinctive form of behaviour encoded deep in the brain but abandoned during evolution. He said: "I do not think they were destined to be quadrupeds by their genes, but their unique genetic make-up allowed them to be. "It has produced an extraordinary window on our past. It is physically possible, which no one would have guessed from the modern human skeleton."
The five siblings spend most of their time sitting outside the family's basic rural home. However, one brother travels to the local village where he engages in basic interactions with people.
#1
Given the inbreeding that occurred before this close inbreeding, the group is severly retarded. And, given the remote location and acceptable freakiness of the family, I doubt there is much to interest geneticists, just psychiatrists.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/07/2006 21:37
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#4
Genetics is so wide open that geneticists always find at least something interesting. If nothing else, situations of extended inbreeding are fairly rare, but may have been more common and contributed much to human evolution.
That is, small clusters of dispered people would tend to interbreed, unless they were nomadic and met other small clusters. And once an inbred cluster had become too large, it would have to break apart, doubling their chances for genetic diversity. Other variables, I'm sure.
This would mean periods of reinforced traits and periods of diversity.
In a white-clapboard town hall, circa 1832, voters gathered Tuesday to conduct their community's business and to call for the impeachment of President Bush. "In the U.S. presently there are only a few places where citizens can act in this fashion and have a say in our nation," said select board member Dan DeWalt, who drafted the impeachment article that was placed on the warning -- or official agenda -- for the annual town meeting, a proud Yankee tradition in New England. "It absolutely affects us locally," Dewalt said. "It's our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, who are dying" in the war in Iraq.
The article, approved 121-29 in balloting by paper, calls on Vermont's lone member of the House, socialist independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against the president, alleging that Bush misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.
The impeachment item came at the end of a roughly four-hour meeting that was devoted mostly to the local affairs of the town of 1,600. Among the other items discussed was whether the town should fix some of the 100-year-old sidewalks in the village. The impeachment discussion took up almost half an hour, reflecting the intense interest in the topic and something of a division over whether the town meeting was the appropriate place to debate it.
Ann Landenberger argued that it was appropriate. "As a indoctrinator teacher I can't say to my kids that what happens on the national level doesn't affect us at the local level," she said. "Would that we could all be in a cocoon, but that is not the case."
Greg Record, a justice of the peace, said in an interview after the meeting that the town is made up of people from the "far-left," and he criticized the amount of time and attention such advisory votes get. "We spend more time on these things than on a million-dollar budget item," he complained.
The president did have his supporters during the debate. Lenore Salzbrun defended Bush, saying she had close friends who died in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I am so grateful that our president didn't just put his head in the sand ... and did go out and fight," she said.
Sanders issued a statement saying that although the Bush administration "has been a disaster for our country, and a number of actions that he has taken may very well not have been legal," given the reality that the Republicans control the House and the Senate, "it would be impractical to talk about impeachment."
#1
Newfane, VT. And I just moved to Vermont, too. It's still better than Massachusetts (the moved-from place). Cuts the commute down by a lot, anyway.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/07/2006 20:58
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#2
Send them one of those "Constitution Thingys For Dummies". They'll need someone to read it for them. And someone to explain. Take Pampers and Ensure. And Handi-Wipes. Lots of those.
#3
According to the NYT, Vermont is hemmoraging young people because it's too expensive to live there and there are fewer jobs. The vote is an indicator of what people will be left there.
EFL
If the Netherlands becomes the first European country to ban the burqa and other Muslim face veils this month, Hope says she'll resort to wearing a surgical mask to dress in accordance with her religious beliefs. "I'll wear one of those things they wore during the SARS epidemic if I my owner says I have to," said the Dutch-born Muslim, one of about 50 women in the Netherlands who wear the head-to-toe burqa or the niqab, a face veil that conceals everything but the eyes. "I'm very practical," the 22-year-old added.
Last December, parliament voted to forbid women from wearing the burqa or any Muslim face coverings in public, justifying the move in part as a security measure.
The cabinet is awaiting the results of a study into the legality of such a ban under European cultural suicide human rights laws, before making its final decision. The results are expected in the second half of this month. "This is an enormous victory for traditional Dutch decency," said Geert Wilders, the populist member of parliament who first proposed the burqa ban, after hearing parliament had backed it. "The burqa is hostile to women, and medieval. For a woman to walk around on the streets completely covered is an insult to everyone who believes in equal rights."
The Dutch may have been among the first to legalize cannabis, prostitution and euthanasia -- earning them a reputation for tolerance -- but they are now in the process of imposing some of Europe's toughest entry and integration laws. Social and religious tensions have escalated in recent years, exacerbated by the murder of columnist and director Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-Moroccan terrorist militant in 2004 after he made a film documenting accusing Islam of condoning violence against women. His murder, and that of anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn two years earlier, deeply unsettled the country and provoked an anti-Muslim backlash, as well as much soul-searching about the make-up and cohesion of Dutch society.
Famile Arslan, a Dutch-Muslim lawyer, believes a ban would only reinforce today's polarized climate, and prompt more women to wear the niqab as a form of protest. "We are very scared that what starts with a ban on the burqa will end with a ban on the hijab," she said, referring to the Muslim headscarf worn by thousands in the Netherlands. "A country once known for its tolerance is now becoming known for its ignorance," she added, stressing public opinion of the Netherlands' 1 million Muslims had hit an all-time low. About a third of the country's Muslims have Moroccan ancestry, while Dutch-Turks form another sizable community.
The Netherlands would be the first European state to impose a countrywide ban on Islamic face coverings, though other countries have already outlawed them in specific places.
#1
Given all the kidnappings for the sex trade around that part of the world, banning face coverings is a wise law enforcement decision. Remember that 16-year old who was kidnapped in Colorado (?) a few years ago, and forcibly married to that polygamist? He walked around town with both of his "wives" in white burqa-type garb, and got away with it for about a year.
#2
Once again, louder. Its your intolerance that isnt being tolerated Its either ban the burqa or ban the sects of the muslim religion that subjugate women to the extent of eliminating them from view and existence. The denial of individually and basic human rights, The ban of the brainwashing that makes these women believe that this is acceptable treatment; that this is their choice. Choose not to wear the coverings one day and leave your homes alone to stroll the streets uncovered and enter shops. Choose that for one day. Cant, can you? Youll be punished. If its not a choice, then its a dangerous intolerance. At the very least. It may well be a crime. So STFU.
#3
IMHO, covering your face in public is a hostile act. It should be a misdemeanor, on par with enciting panic.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/07/2006 21:29
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#4
A sane reaction to the chauvinism of islam. Islam doesn't want to have you just tolerate it's culture and morals. It seeks to replace your's with it's own. This is the correct response but it's only a begining. Much of the EU elite will have to be removed from their jobs as they see islam as good for the EU.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/07/2006 22:05
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#5
It wasn't all that long ago women got the vote, in this country.
Historical perspective is everything, and someone here remarked Bush understands that, and will save us all....
Lincoln was put in office by far less than half his countrymen, and not very popular even after the civil war ended. Honest Abe was dead over 50 years before we built a monument to him.
Remember Abe? Saved the Union, freed the slaves (though saving the Union was paramount to him), limited Freedom of the Press, suspended Habeaus Corpus, and otherwise abused presidential powers...
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 22:05
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#6
Amen, RC. Veils/abbayas/burkhas are symbols that sanction subhuman status and violent mistreatment. They are kin to the Star of David patches in Nazi Germany.
Long treated as the step-child among the armed forces, the Coast Guard now wants to grow, and grow fast.
It has sought a manifold increase in its strength to effectively tackle growing operational challenges and maritime threats in the coming years.
Sources say Coast Guard has projected force-levels of as many as 268 ships (which includes 173 small patrol crafts), 113 aircraft, 18 'Nishant' UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and a couple of Aerostat and OTH (over-the-horizon) radars each by 2017.
These force-levels include around 60 helicopters, 35 Dorniers for coastal surveillance, 11 medium-range reconnaissance aircraft, over 40 interceptor boats and six deep-sea patrol vessels, among others.
India has a 5,422-km coastline touching 12 states and Union territories, apart from 1,197 islands and a vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)of 2.01 million sq km, which will go up to almost 3 million sq km after delimitation of the continental shelf.
The Rs 2,427-crore Sethusamudram ship canal project, underway off Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu to build a maritime shortcut between the country's east and west coasts, will also add to Coast Guard's problems.
"With this project, ship traffic in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay will grow immensely. The force will have to be equipped to tackle piracy and terrorist attacks, pollution and search-and-rescue operations," said sources.
Coast Guard is also slated to progressively play a role as the "lead intelligence agency", apart from taking over two crucial tasks Operation Tasha and Operation Swan performed by the much-larger Navy at present.
Operation Tasha pertains to patrolling conducted in the Palk Bay along the Tamil Nadu coast for over a decade now due to the interlinked problems of terrorist activities, smuggling, gun-running and influx of refugees.
Operation Swan, in turn, was initiated after the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts to enhance coastal security and patrolling on the west coast against "suspicious" movement of "hostile" ships.
"The present Coast Guard manpower strength of around 1,000 officers and 5,200 other personnel will also need to be doubled to around 15,000," say sources.
Coast Guard, at present, makes do with around 60 ships and 45 aircraft. Its 2002-2017 Perspective Plan had chalked out a requirement of 169 ships, including a dozen hovercraft and 99 aircraft.
But additional force-levels are now being requested since its charter of duties is rapidly expanding.
There is a need, for instance, to strengthen the security of coastal areas and territorial waters to prevent piracy, smuggling and terrorism, including clandestine shipments of weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006
19:24 ||
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More than 150 police recruits and a company's worth of Iraqi soldiers graduated from training in Iraq in recent days.
A graduation ceremony was held for Iraqi soldiers of the newly formed Headquarters and Support Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, at the Al Kindi military compound in Mosul, Iraq, March 5. The company is made up of three specialized platoons. The scout platoon, the medical platoon and the maintenance platoon were individually tasked to complete their specific skills training, U.S. officials in Mosul said.
U.S. soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, conducted the training, which began Feb. 14... While combat units are the edge of the blade, combat support units are the heft of the blade, and combat service support are the hilt of the blade.
#2
Wonderful! And these are skills that can be transferred to civilian life, later, beyond the attitude of professionalism (as compared to the usual 3rd World bully boy soldiers) these Western-trained troops have been learning.
We're told that West Point helped make America what it is -- and now Afghanistan has its West Point (East), and Iraq is also on its way with these specialized platoons. Truly a ray of sunshine!
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, captured two terrorists in Abu Ghraib Feb. 26.
Soldiers from the battalions Company B were conducting a routine inspection of vehicles in western Abu Ghraib. Prompted by his previous experiences in Iraq, 1st Lt. Scott Treadwell, Co. B, ordered his Soldiers to search a suspicious vehicle.
Treadwells men discovered two known murderers of Iraqi civilians. The two men were carrying rifles and contracts for the murder of other Iraqis.
A day prior, Soldiers from the battalions Co. C found a large weapon cache after days of diligent searching.
No longer willing to tolerate terrorists in their neighborhoods, Iraqis provided the Soldiers with the caches location.
The Soldiers quickly verified the location and discovered weapons buried in an empty field a few miles west of Baghdads heart.
The Soldiers unearthed a significant cache. Along with bomb-making equipment, the cache held five rocket propelled grenade launchers, 19 rocket-propelled grenades, 20 mortars, eight rockets, 21 grenades and some explosives.
To ensure public safety and deny these weapons to the terrorists, the Soldiers called for explosives experts to destroy the cache.
Soldiers from Special Troops Battalion, 1st BCT, 10th Mtn. Div., responded and destroyed the weapons in a controlled explosion.
#2
The important thing is that they were called "murderers", clearly civilian business. As you move from military hostilities to peace, more and more the terminology changes with the tactics.
At first it grates on the soldiers--it takes a while for it to sink in that peace is good, that it's not cheating them in some way.
Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette has been following this is you need additional info
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. A sheriff's deputy who was videotaped shooting an unarmed Iraq War veteran after a car chase will be charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter, authorities said Tuesday.
The decision to charge Deputy Ivory J. Webb, 45, was announced by San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos.
Sheriff Gary Penrod said Webb will remain on paid administrative leave during the investigation into the shooting of Air Force Senior Airman Elio Carrion, 21.
"I respect the decision of the district attorney's office," Penrod said.
It is the first time the county's prosecutors have filed charges against a lawman for an on-duty shooting.
Webb's arraignment was set for Wednesday. If convicted, he could face up to 18 1/2 years in prison.
The charge includes the special allegations of infliction of great bodily injury and use of a firearm, Ramos said at a news conference. In California, such enhancements can result in extra prison time.
An attempted-murder charge was not filed because there was no finding of malice, Ramos said.
Carrion, an Air Force security officer just back from Iraq, was a passenger in a Corvette that police chased at high speed on the night of Jan. 29 until the Corvette crashed into a wall in Chino, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles.
A grainy videotape shot by a bystander showed Carrion on the ground next to the car with Webb standing and pointing at gun at him.
A voice appears to order Carrion to rise, but when the airman appears to begin complying, the deputy shoots him three times. Carrion was shot in the chest, shoulder and thigh and was hospitalized for several days.
Authorities found no weapons on Carrion or the driver, Luis Escobedo.
Prosecutors announced they were charging Escobedo with a felony of attempting to evade a peace officer while driving recklessly and misdemeanor driving under the influence. He was expected to surrender Wednesday. The maximum penalty if convicted would be 3 1/2 years in prison.
Webb has made no public comment since the incident.
Carrion's sister, Monique Carrion, 22, was surprised by Tuesday's announcement.
"We've just been trying to stay strong and help my brother get better," she said in a telephone interview. "Just give him support, which is what he needs right now."
The FBI is investigating possible civil rights violations. The sheriff's department conducted its own probe and gave the results to the district attorney's office.
At the time, the sheriff said the videotape "arouses a lot of suspicion," but he pointed out that it is fuzzy and contains gaps.
Ramos assigned two top attorneys to review the shooting and requested an FBI enhancement of the videotape.
Charging Webb was a "difficult decision," Ramos said, but enhancing the videotape "made our decision easier."
This is the text of the document titled "Implementation of the India-United States Joint Statement of July 18, 2005: India's Separation Plan" tabled in Parliament on March 7, 2006:
"The resumption of full civilian nuclear energy cooperation between India and the United States arose in the context of India's requirement for adequate and affordable energy supplies to sustain its accelerating economic growth rate and as recognition of its growing technological prowess. It was preceded by discussions between the two Governments, particularly between President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, of the global energy scenario and the long-term implications of increasing pressure on hydrocarbon resources and rising oil prices. These developments led to the announcement in April 2005 of an Indo-US Energy Dialogue that encompassed the entire spectrum of energy options ranging from oil and gas to coal, alternative fuels and civilian nuclear energy. Through the initiation of a sustained dialogue to address energy security concerns, the two countries sought to promote stable, efficient, predictable and cost effective solutions for India's growing requirements. At the same time, they also agreed on the need to develop and deploy cleaner, more efficient, affordable and diversified energy technologies to deal with the environmental implications of energy consumption. India had developed proven and wide-ranging capabilities in the nuclear sector, including over the entire nuclear fuel cycle. It is internationally recognized that India has unique contributions to make to international efforts towards meeting these objectives. India has become a full partner in ITER, with the full support of the US and other partners. India also accepted the US invitation to join the initiative on Clean Development Partnership.
U.S. undertaking
"2. Noting the centrality of civilian nuclear energy to the twin challenges of energy security and safeguarding the environment, the two Governments agreed on 18 July 2005 to undertake reciprocal commitments and responsibilities that would create a framework for the resumption of full cooperation in this field. On its part, the United States undertook to:
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# Seek agreement from the Congress to adjust US laws and policies to achieve full civil nuclear energy cooperation.
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# Work with friends and allies to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India, including but not limited to expeditious consideration of fuel supplies for safeguarded nuclear reactors at Tarapur.
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# In the meantime, encourage its partners to consider fuel supply to Tarapur expeditiously.
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# To consult with its partners to consider India's participation in ITER.
"
# To consult with other participants in the Generation-IV International Forum with a view towards India's inclusion.
"3. India had conveyed its readiness to assume the same responsibilities and practices and acquire the same benefits and advantages as other leading countries with advanced nuclear technology, such as the United States. Accordingly, India for its part undertook the following commitments:
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# Identifying and separating civilian and military nuclear facilities and programmes in a phased manner.
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# Filing a declaration regarding its civilian facilities with the IAEA.
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# Taking a decision to place voluntarily its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards, and
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# Signing and adhering to an Additional Protocol with respect to civilian nuclear facilities.
#
"4. Other commitments undertaken by India have already been fulfilled in the last year. Among them are:
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# India's responsible non-proliferation record, recognized by the US, continues and is reflected in its policies and actions.
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# The harmonization of India's export controls with NSG [Nuclear Suppliers' Group] and MTCR [Missile Technology Control Regime] Guidelines even though India is not a member of either group. These guidelines and control lists have been notified and are being implemented.
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# A significant upgrading of India's non-proliferation regulations and export controls has taken place as a result of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of May 2005. Inter-Ministerial consultations are ongoing to examine and amend other relevant Acts as well as framing appropriate rules and regulations.
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# Refrain from transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to states that do not have them and supporting international efforts to limit their spread. This has guided our policy on non-proliferation.
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# Continued unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing, and
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# Willingness to work with the United States for the conclusion of a multilateral Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty.
"5. The Joint Statement of July 18, 2005, recognized that India is ready to assume the same responsibilities and practices as other leading countries with advanced nuclear technology, such as the United States. India has an impeccable record in non-proliferation. The Joint Statement acknowledges that India's nuclear programme has both a military and a civilian component. Both sides had agreed that the purpose was not to constrain India's strategic programme but to enable resumption of full civil nuclear energy cooperation in order to enhance global energy and environmental security. Such cooperation was predicated on the assumption that any international civil nuclear energy cooperation (including by the U.S.) offered to India in the civilian sector should, firstly, not be diverted away from civilian purposes, and secondly, should not be transferred from India to third countries without safeguards. These concepts will be reflected in the Safeguards Agreement to be negotiated by India with IAEA.
"6. India's nuclear programme is unique as it is the only state with nuclear weapons not to have begun with a dedicated military programme. It must be appreciated that the strategic programme is an offshoot of research on nuclear power programme and consequently, it is embedded in a larger undifferentiated programme. Identification of purely civilian facilities and programmes that have no strategic implications poses a particular challenge. Therefore, facilities identified as civilian in the Separation Plan will be offered for safeguards in phases to be decided by India. The nature of the facility concerned, the activities undertaken in it, the national security significance of materials and the location of the facilities are factors taken into account in undertaking the separation process. This is solely an Indian determination.
Three-stage programme
"7.The nuclear establishment in India not only built nuclear reactors but promoted the growth of a national industrial infrastructure. Nuclear power generation was envisaged as a three-stage programme with PHWRs [pressurised heavy water reactors] chosen for deployment in the first stage. As indigenous reactors were set up, several innovative design improvements were carried out based on Indian R&D and a standardized design was evolved. The research and technology development spanned the entire spectrum of the nuclear fuel cycle including the front end and the back end. Success in the technologies for the back end of the fuel cycle allowed us to launch the second stage of the programme by constructing a Fast Breeder Test Reactor. This reactor has operated for 20 years based on a unique carbide fuel and has achieved all technology objectives. We have now proceeded further and are constructing a 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor. Simultaneously, we have launched design and development of reactors aimed at thorium utilization and incorporating inherent safety features.
"8.Concepts such as grid connectivity are not relevant to the separation exercise. Issues related to fuel resource sustainability, technical design and economic viability, as well as smooth operation of reactors are relevant factors. This would necessitate grid connectivity irrespective of whether the reactor concerned is civilian or not civilian.
"9.It must be recognized that the Indian nuclear programme still has a relatively narrow base and cannot be expected to adopt solutions that might be deemed viable by much larger programmes. A comparison of the number of reactors and the total installed capacity between India and the P-5 brings this out graphically [see table].
"10. Another factor to be taken into account is the small capacity of the reactors produced indigenously by India, some of which would remain outside safeguards. Therefore, in assessing the extent of safeguards coverage, it would be important to look at both the number of reactors and the percentage of installed capacity covered. An average Indian reactor is of 220 MW and its output is significantly smaller than the standards reactor in a P-5 economy [see table].
"11. The complexity of the separation process is further enhanced by the limited resources that India has devoted to its nuclear programme as compared to P-5 nations. Moreover, as India expands international cooperation, the percentage of its thermal power reactor installed capacity under safeguards would rise significantly as fresh capacity is added through such cooperation.
"12. India's approach to the separation of its civilian nuclear facilities is guided by the following principles:
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# Credible, feasible and implementable in a transparent manner;
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# Consistent with the understandings of the 18 July Statement;
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# Consistent with India's national security and R&D requirements as well as not prejudicial to the three-stage nuclear programme in India;
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# Must be cost effective in its implementation; and
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# Must be acceptable to Parliament and public opinion.
"13. Based on these principles, India will:
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# Include in the civilian list only those facilities offered for safeguards that, after separation, will no longer be engaged in activities of strategic significance.
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# The overarching criterion would be a judgment whether subjecting a facility to IAEA safeguards would impact adversely on India's national security.
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# However, a facility will be excluded from the civilian list if it is located in a larger hub of strategic significance, notwithstanding the fact that it may not be normally engaged in activities of strategic significance.
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# A civilian facility would, therefore, be one that India has determined not to be relevant to its strategic programme.
"14. Taking the above into account, India, on the basis of reciprocal actions by the US, will adopt the following approach:
"(i) Thermal Power Reactors: India will identify and offer for safeguards 14 thermal power reactors between 2006 and 2014. This will include the 4 presently safeguarded reactors (TAPS 1&2, RAPS 1&2) and in addition KK 1&2 that are under construction. 8 other PHWRs, each of a capacity of 220 MW, will also be offered. Phasing of specific thermal power reactors, being offered for safeguards would be indicated separately by India. Such an offer would, in effect, cover 14 out of the 22 thermal power reactors in operation or currently under construction to be placed under safeguards, and would raise the total installed Thermal Power capacity by MWs under safeguards from the present 19% to 65% by 2014.
"(ii) Fast Breeder Reactors: India is not in a position to accept safeguards on the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) and the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), both located at Kalpakkam. The Fast Breeder Programme is at the R&D stage and its technology will take time to mature and reach an advanced stage of development.
"(iii) Future Reactors: India has decided to place under safeguards all future civilian thermal power reactors and civilian breeder reactors, and the Government of India retains the sole right to determine such reactors as civilian.
"(iv) Research Reactors: India will permanently shut down the CIRUS reactor, in 2010. It will also be prepared to shift the fuel core of the APSARA reactor that was purchased from France outside BARC [Bhabha Atomic Research Centre] and make the fuel core available to be placed under safeguards in 2010.
"(v) Upstream facilities: The following upstream facilities would be identified and separated as civilian:
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# List of those specific facilities in the Nuclear Fuel Complex, which will be offered for safeguards by 2008 will be indicated separately.
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# The Heavy Water Production plants at Thal, Tuticorin and Hazira are proposed to be designated for civilian use between 2006-2009. We do not consider these plants as relevant for safeguards purposes.
"(vi) Downstream facilities: The following downstream facilities would be identified and separated as civilian:
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# India is willing to accept safeguards in the `campaign' mode after 2010 in respect of the Tarapur Power Reactor Fuel Reprocessing Plant.
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# The Tarapur and Rajasthan `Away From Reactors' spent fuel storage pools would be made available for safeguards with appropriate phasing between 2006-2009.
"(vii) Research Facilities: India will declare the following facilities as civilian:
"(a) Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
"(b) Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre
"(c) Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
"(d) Institute for Plasma Research
"(e) Institute of Mathematics Sciences
"(f) Institute of Physics
"(g) Tata Memorial Centre
"(h) Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology
"(i) Harish Chandra Research Institute
"These facilities are safeguards-irrelevant. It is our expectation that they will play a prominent role in international cooperation.
15. Safeguards:
"(a) The United States has conveyed its commitment to the reliable supply of fuel to India. Consistent with the July 18, 2005, Joint Statement, the United States has also reaffirmed its assurance to create the necessary conditions for India to have assured and full access to fuel for its reactors. As part of its implementation of the July 18, 2005, Joint Statement the United States is committed to seeking agreement from the U.S. Congress to amend its domestic laws and to work with friends and allies to adjust the practices of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to create the necessary conditions for India to obtain full access to the international fuel market, including reliable, uninterrupted and continual access to fuel supplies from firms in several nations.
"(b) To further guard against any disruption of fuel supplies, the United States is prepared to take the following additional steps:
"(i) The United States is willing to incorporate assurances regarding fuel supply in the bilateral U.S.-India agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy under Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which would be submitted to the U.S. Congress.
"(ii) The United States will join India in seeking to negotiate with the IAEA an India-specific fuel supply agreement.
"(iii) The United States will support an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of India's reactors.
"(iv) If despite these arrangements, a disruption of fuel supplies to India occurs, the United States and India would jointly convene a group of friendly supplier countries to include countries such as Russia, France and the United Kingdom to pursue such measures as would restore fuel supply to India.
"(c) In light of the above understandings with the United States, an India-specific safeguards agreement will be negotiated between India and the IAEA providing for safeguards to guard against withdrawal of safeguarded nuclear material from civilian use at any time as well as providing for corrective measures that India may take to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies. Taking this into account, India will place its civilian nuclear facilities under India-specific safeguards in perpetuity and negotiate an appropriate safeguards agreement to this end with the IAEA.
"16. This plan is in conformity with the commitments made to Parliament by the Government."
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006
16:54 ||
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#1
. An average Indian reactor is of 220 MW
Wow! Home grown or French Navy?
#2
Home grown.
The ones under construction now are 540 MW.
They have designed 700 MW ones though and future reactors will be this size.
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 17:45
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#3
The fast breeders are 500 MW.
The Indian Naval reactor is rumored to be 190 MW
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 17:46
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#4
Reuters - India will open 14 of its 22 nuclear plants for international inspections by 2014 as part of a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the United States, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.
Here are some key facts about India's plan to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities:
- 14 thermal reactors that generate about 65 percent of atomic power will be placed on the civilian list between 2006 and 2014 and opened to inspections. India has 15 nuclear power plants in operation, with an installed generating capacity of 3,310 megawatts (MW). Seven more plants with a capacity of 3,420 MW are under construction and scheduled for completion by 2009.
- Four nuclear power plants in operation (capacity 620 MW) and two under construction (capacity 2000 MW) are currently under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
- The experimental fast-breeder reactor (FBR) programme, the subject of hard bargaining during the negotiations, will fall outside the ambit of safeguards. This leaves out the fast breeder test reactor, which was completed in 1985, and the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, scheduled for completion by 2010. The FBRs, which use spent fuel from existing heavy water reactors to process plutonium, are intended as the mainstay of the country's nuclear power programme.
- India has decided to place under safeguards all future civilian thermal power reactors and civilian breeder reactors with the caveat that it will determine which ones fall in the civilian list. India has plans to increase the installed capacity of its nuclear power reactors to 20,000 MW by 2020.
- Reprocessing, enrichment and other facilities associated with the fuel cycle for the strategic programme have been kept out of the separation plan.
- The Canadian-built CIRUS research reactor, which has been used to produce weapons-grade plutonium, will be shut down by 2010. India has said it is ready to shift another research reactor, "Apsara," out of a high-security atomic research centre in Mumbai and place it under safeguards.
- The safeguards will apply in "perpetuity" but only as long as foreign fuel supplies remain uninterrupted. This will require safeguards and fuel supply agreements with the IAEA applicable only to India.
Sources: Reuters, Indian Atomic Energy Commission (www.aec.gov.in), IAEA (www.iaea.org)
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 17:49
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#5
btw, "home grown" means CANDU derivative.
The heavy water reactors are based on Canadian designs.
The fast breeders and the other research reactors - such as Kamini the only U233 reactor in the world, and the (still to be built) thorium reactor are of purely Indian design.
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 17:53
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#6
India operates more Candu derived units than any country outside Canada itself.
These are heavy water reactors that use natural uranium fuel. No enrichment is needed.
When used in low burnup mode, significant amounts of weapons grade plutonium are available in the spent fuel rods. Power output is quite low in this mode though.
The recycling of the heavy water causes a build up of Tritium.
Both Canada and India have developed (independently) the technology for detritiating heavy water. This gives a low cost source of large amounts of Tritium (used to boost the yield of a nuclear weapon primary).
Canada recently shut down two CANDU units prematurely becuse it was too expensive to fix their corroded coolant pipes.
In contrast, India has managed to fix (and essentially refurbish) the coolant pipes of its CANDU units quite cheaply, extending their life by decades.
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 18:23
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#7
Some background info on the Indian nuclear program
As the US Congress debates the Indo-US agreement on nuclear cooperation, a key aspect from the American viewpoint is that India has certain inherent strengths in the area of nuclear technology, which would enable India to forge ahead, albeit slowly, even without US cooperation.
Central to this argument is the availability of huge reserves of thorium in India. Thorium reserves have been estimated to be between 3,60,000 and 5,18,000 tonnes. The US estimates the economically extractable reserves to be 2,90,000 tonnes, one of the largest in the world. Our uranium reserves, by contrast, are estimated to be at a maximum of around 70,000 tonnes.
India currently has 15 commercial power reactors in operation, most of which are pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) which use natural uranium. Two Tarapur reactors are boiling water reactors (BWR) which need enriched uranium, which has to be imported.
Together they generate about 3300 MWe (Mega Watt Electrical) of power, about 4 per cent of that generated from all sources. Another six PHWRs are in construction, and along with the two VVER Russian built 1000 MWe reactors which use enriched uranium, they would add about 3960 MWe by 2008. The goal is to reach at least 20,000 MWe by 2020.
India's uranium reserves are low. Obtaining enriched uranium for the two Tarapur reactors and VVER type reactors requires the consent of the Nuclear Suppliers Groups countries, including Russia. This is where the agreement with the US is expected to be beneficial to India.
Also central to India's success in achieving these goals, is the harnessing of thorium, for which India has developed a three-stage nuclear programme. India has already developed and tested the technologies needed to extract energy from Thorium, but large scale execution has not yet been possible, mainly because of limited availability of Plutonium.
Stage one is the use of PHWRs. Natural uranium is the primary fuel. Heavy water (deuterium oxide, D2O) is used as moderator and coolant. The composition of natural uranium is 0.7 percent U-235, which is fissile, and the rest is U-238. This low fissile component explains why certain other types of reactors require the uranium to be enriched i.e. the fissile component increased.
In the second stage, the spent fuel from stage one is reprocessed in a reprocessing facility, where Plutonium-239 is separated. Plutonium, of course, is a weapons material, which goes towards creating Indias nuclear deterrent.
Pu-239 then becomes the main fissile element, the fuel core, in what are known as fast breeder reactors (FBR). A test FBR is in operation in Kalpakkam, and the construction for a 500 MWe prototype FBR was launched recently by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
These are known as breeder reactors because the U-238 blanket surrounding the fuel core will undergo nuclear transmutation to produce more PU-239, which in turn will be used to create energy.
The stage also envisages the use of Thorium (Th-232) as another blanket. Th-232 also undergoes neutron capture reactions, creating another uranium isotope, U-233. It is this isotope which will be used in the third stage of the programme. Thorium by itself is not a fissile material, and cannot be used directly to produce nuclear energy. The Kamini 40 MWe reactor at Kalpakkam which became critical in Sept 1996, using U-233 fuel, has demonstrated some of these technologies.
India is currently developing a prototype advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) of 300 MWe capacity. The AHWRs, which use plutonium based fuel, are to be used to shorten the period of reaching full scale utilisation of our thorium reserves. The AHWR is thus the first element of the third stage. AHWR design is complete but further R and D work is required, especially on safety. It is expected to be unveiled soon and construction launched.
In the third phase, in addition to the U-233 created from the second phase, breeder reactors fuelled by U-233, with Th-232 blankets, will be used to generate more U-233.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has estimated that India's thorium reserves can amount to a staggering 3,58,000 GWe-yr (Giga Watt Electrical - Year) of energy, enough for the next century and beyond
BARC scientists are also looking at other designs, like an advanced thorium breeder reactor (ATBR) which requires plutonium only as a seed to start off the reaction, and then use only thorium and U-233. Here the plutonium is completely consumed and this reactor is thus considered proliferation resistant. A Compact High Temperature Reactor also under development at BARC . This reactor is designed to work in closed spaces and remote locations.
Success in harnessing thoriums potential is thus critical for the Indias future energy security.
India has put in place mechanisms for ensuring safety and security of nuclear facilities. The regulatory and safety systems ensure that equipment at India's nuclear facilities are designed to operate safely and even in the unlikely event of any failure or accident, mechanisms like plant and site emergency response plans are in place to ensure that the public is not affected in any manner. In addition, detailed plans, which involve the local public authorities, are also in place to respond if the consequences were to spill into the public domain. The emergency response system is also in a position to handle any other radiation emergency in the public domain that may occur at locations, which do not even have any nuclear facility.
Regulatory and safety functions of Atomic Energy in India are carried out by an independent body, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). The AERB was constituted on November 15, 1983 by the President of India under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to carry out certain regulatory and safety functions under the Act. The regulatory authority of AERB is derived from the rules and notifications promulgated under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986. The mission of the Board is to ensure that the use of ionizing radiation and nuclear energy in India does not cause undue risk to health and the environment.
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 20:02
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"They [US] should be ready for worse times coming ... we have substitutes and they know why I went there [China] before his [Bush's] visit,"
KARACHI - President General Pervez Musharraf's observation that Pakistan is strategically situated in an "arc of turmoil" from Afghanistan through Iran to the Middle East is aimed at promoting Islamabad's influence in this region.
At the same time, Pakistan itself is caught in a vicious arc of turmoil that all but ties the hands of the Pakistani leader, for whichever way he turns, he is looking down a double-barreled shotgun: domestic wrath that could bring him down, and alienation of his increasingly disgruntled partner in the "war on terror", the United States.
The American barrel
Despite President George W Bush's flying visit to Pakistan on Saturday, the two sides are aware that their alliance now borders on the realm of living in a fool's paradise.
The US and Pakistan are meant to be major allies, yet this marriage of convenience, forged in the tumultuous days following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US and the ouster of the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001, appears headed for the rocks.
When Bush and Musharraf met in Islamabad, they didn't even have a clear-cut agenda to discuss, unlike Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had met earlier and agreed on a number of important issues, including a civilian nuclear accord.
What Bush did want from Pakistan, according to officials familiar with the meeting who spoke to Asia Times Online, was for Abdul Qadeer Khan to be made available for interrogation.
The US wants to grill Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program and self-confessed proliferator, including with Iran, so that it can build a case against Iran at the United Nations Security Council. The US argues that Tehran is bent on building the bomb. The issue of Iran's nuclear program is currently before the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. It is expected to make a decision on referral to the Security Council soon.
Pakistan has outright denied any direct access to Khan, who is under virtual house arrest in Pakistan, although it has agreed to hand over a scientist, named only as Dr Farooq, and a Pakistani businessmen, named only as Mr Jafery, who were allegedly involved in smuggling nuclear components on the international market.
To the Americans, this is only a half-measure, and until direct access is provided to Khan, they believe they will not be able to draw a full picture of Iran's nuclear program and its possible capacity to develop atomic weapons.
Against this background, the US will definitely not provide Pakistan with any cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy, as it did with India. Bush clearly drew a line during his press conference in Islamabad in response to a question on whether his country would deal equally with India and Pakistan. He said Pakistan and India had a different history of nuclear development and requirements.
Between the lines, he clearly outlined the fact that India had developed its nuclear program indigenously and had never been involved in proliferation, while Pakistan had obtained its program clandestinely and then sold on secrets.
Bush raising the issue of democracy in Pakistan and of Musharraf's insistence on wearing a uniform also irked the Pakistani leader, who seized power in a coup in 1999.
Further, in calculated remarks ahead of Bush's visit, Afghanistan lashed out at Pakistan for failing to deal with Taliban bases and their activities on Pakistani territory.
This prompted Musharraf to pay a fruitful strategic visit to China, during which he not only struck a deal for fighter aircraft with an advanced delivery system, but also for nuclear plants. This was a clear message to the United States that Pakistan had options.
"They [US] should be ready for worse times coming ... we have substitutes and they know why I went there [China] before his [Bush's] visit," Musharraf said at a press conference in Islamabad, which was repeatedly broadcast on all private and state-run media.
From the Pakistani perspective, it now sees the US is committed to squeezing Islamabad until it produces on the "war on terror" shopping list, starting with Osama bin Laden, his deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and resistance figures Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Much as the US would like to add Khan to this list, Pakistan sees him as non-negotiable.
The Taliban thorn
The Taliban are geared for their spring offensive in Afghanistan, having regrouped in their thousands and established bases in the country, on the border areas with Pakistan and within Pakistan itself, in North Waziristan. They are complemented by al-Qaeda-linked jihadis who have helped train the Taliban in urban guerrilla warfare.
On Monday, after several days of fighting between Taliban and Pakistani forces in North Waziristan, relative calm returned to the area, and the two sides have begun talks. The major demand of the Taliban is a guarantee of free movement over the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At present, militants use footpaths in the Shawal region to cross into Afghanistan. This hampers their logistical ability and makes supply lines very difficult to maintain. The Taliban are demanding access from Ghulam Khan Mountain, which would allow vehicles to pass so they could fuel the insurgency at the highest possible level.
If they get this, and with more advanced weapons, they could significantly raise the level of the insurgency.
The US, though, by carrying out various attacks within Pakistan, the latest being a drone attack on suspected militants last month, clearly could never accept such a Pakistani deal with the Taliban.
The domestic barrel
Rallies sponsored by the establishment against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in European countries have turned into ones related to Tehrik-i-Nizam-i-Mustafa, in essence the call for the introduction of sharia (Islamic) law.
Now angry mobs want to destroy all icons of pro-Americanism, including the leaders sitting in Islamabad. Opposition parties have said they will not let Musharraf salute an important parade on March 23.
Musharraf has a stark and unenviable choice. He could go along with the Taliban plan for easy access into Afghanistan. That would mean risking complete alienation from the US, whatever that might entail, but it would take the fire out of the domestic campaign to unseat him.
Alternatively, he could refuse the Taliban, attempt to play ball with the US, and try to defuse the mounting movement against him.
The nucleus of whatever Musharraf decides to do will be North Waziristan. One clear swing toward either of the choices would set off an unprecedented reaction
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006
16:51 ||
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#1
Bush: PakiWakiLand should be ready for worse times coming
Being substantially responsible for the "arc of turmoil" is damned obvious. Pervy got paid 50x what his support in the WoT was worth... and that doesn't factor in the destabilization efforts in Afghanistan and the other aspects of their perfidy. That he doesn't control the ISI simply means that he's not a worthy partner in the WoT. Sucks, but...
US/Inda vs China/PakiWaki huh? Izzat where he really wants to go?
#2
Mine/block all the passes, including the donkey paths. If Musharref wants to put Pakistan on a war footing with the U.S. and its ally Afghanistan, then we must do our bit to accomodate him, but always with the highest efficiency. Perhaps send a couple of snipers up there as well, to welcome those who get through. ....Actually, this seems like really good training for some of the more accomplished Afghani troops...
Bring him back to the interrogation room. I've got the Weber fired up.
Posted by: Jack Bauer ||
03/07/2006 17:43
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#4
When all is said and done, Perv really only needs to do one thing to get out of this okay. Hang tight with George.
Perv is already doing a lot of things that were unthinkable not too long ago, advantaging not only him and Pakland, but the US as well. By staying with us, he makes himself stronger.
He might even win big if he plays his cards right and gives whatever support is requested in the US-Iran fight. That is, he could get resource wealthy Iranian Baluchistan given to his country when the shooting is over.
So far, he has partially double-crossed China, and in favor of the US, over the Gwadar port deal. So I am willing to cut him some slack.
#5
I'm amazed at his gall.
Pakistan has gotten BILLIONS in aid since 9/11 and sophisticated military hardware to use against India.
And he has the nerve to say this on TV.
W needs to pay another visit, and plant a second cowboy boot on Perv's behind.
Posted by: john ||
03/07/2006 17:47
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#6
Perv is working both sides of the street like a crackwhore jonesing for another huff. If it weren't for the prospect of Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Islamist radicals, his worth would be less than zero.
#13
Kind of reminds me of a socket wrench with a crack you can't see in it. Any time you put some tourque on it, it slips and will not do it's job. WakiPak to a tee.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/07/2006 19:17
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#14
Another chapter in USA's quest for Muslem allies.
#17
BTW, everybody has to learn their own lessons - at least until it has become a tenet of the collective "truth" a society subscribes to...
Just cuz A hit the chuckhole and "gets it" doesn't mean B will take the hint and avoid it. People have always been this way. Yeah, it sucks.
But here at the 'Burg, we're all smart, good-looking, slender, rich, and (other than Fred) have a full hear of luxurious hair. Mine's in a ponytail. We can, thus, sneer and heckle. Lol.
It's been long known that Pakistan has ALWAYS been part of the problem. In my mind, Pakistan has been placed on hold while we deal with more pressing concerns; Iraq, Iran, Syria... If we're working Iran, it would be preferable to have Pakistan under control.
Who can replace Muush? Another "General"? ISI? Anyone from their population of crazy Jihadis?
They have been forced to confront Al-Qaeda, though not nearly as much as we would like. So I recommend some more "constructive criticism" of the sort we saw with Bush's most recent visit. Perhaps if Karzai came to the UN to complain about Pakistan support for Taliban terrorist attacks, might get some action in Wazi-land?
#19
You all don't have much faith in George. Remember that George is not in the habit of backing the duplicitous, or losers for that matter. If George dumps him, that will be the end of it. But until then, I will give benefit to doubt.
#20
Ok
Saudis have ICBMs with something on top. Saudis funded the Pakis making the bomb. BCCI was one of the funding tools and BinLaden lost lots of money in BCCI setting off his terror career.....
So Saudi-Pak-Bin triangle makes an interesting nut.
When Iran is taken care off and before cleaning up its children Hezbolla and Syria - I predict this triangle will become solid. (Whatever in hell that means...)
Iran needs to be calculated into the whole game plan with Prev and friends....
Add on that Chavez, drug lords, Central Am gangs and it is so much more complicated....
If your playing a game and it gets that complicated you wipe a bunch of players off the board....
#21
PakLand is a failed state that is held up only by massive infusions of capital from the Soddies, Chicoms, and the US. Otherwise they would be a simple backwater sh*thole. We need them for access to Afghanistan, so they are presently a strategic simple backwater sh*thole. The adjectives change, but the noun remains the same.
One way or another, the sanctuaries of the NWFP need to be destroyed by Pak or the US. They are festering jihadi Petri dishes. The other part of the equation is our friends the Soddies. They bring the money to make the madarassas that create the jihadis that destroy the civilization that Jack built.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 22:35
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After two years of disastrous dialogue, and more of the same in recent days, we can conclude that no diplomatic initiative can stop Iran from getting the bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency meets again this week to discuss the mullahs' nuclear ambitions, while Russia floats a plan to get Iran to enrich uranium on its soil. But before we got to this point, we had the Europeans in the starring role. The foreign ministers of the leading European Union countries--Britain, France and Germany--did try for years to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, most recently at Friday's meeting in Vienna that ended up in yet another failure. But Iran knew all along that this threesome, formally the "Troika," had no real negotiating authority and would never resort to serious measures.
And yet Britain's Jack Straw, France's Philippe Douste-Blazy (and his predecessor, Dominique de Villepin) and Germany's Joschka Fischer (and his successor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier) talked on, clinging to a postmodern European belief in a world where any conflict can be resolved with enough reason and mutual understanding. The Troika offered the mullahs economic carrots and alternative sources of nuclear power--as if energy had anything to do with it--while Iran did what any football team does when it's ahead: It played for time. This it used very well to push ahead with its clandestine nuclear program.
Did the Troika know that Iran knew that Europe was weak? Of course. Europe's posturing was empty from the start. The only weapon that the EU was willing to consider, as a last result, was an economic boycott that would harm Europe's commercial interests more than Iran's.
The mullahs also knew that the Troika couldn't back up its threat of an economic boycott with the threat of military action. If the EU couldn't muster the will to fight in its own backyard in the Balkans without America leading the way, it surely wouldn't put any lives at risk beyond the frontiers of the Continent.
By contrast, Iran, ostensibly a democracy but in reality a religious tyranny, possesses a character trait that is almost nonexistent in modern Europe: Iranians, almost exclusively Shiite, are willing to suffer. This quality is deeply rooted in their religion. Ashura, one of the central Shiite rituals that marks the death of Imam Hussain at the Battle of Karbala in 680, celebrates flagellation, blood, pain. As Steven Vincent, the remarkable American journalist who tragically was murdered last August in Iraq, observed in his book "In the Red Zone": "Eight-foot long white silk flags depicting crossed sword, the blades oozing with blood . . . pictures of severed hands, severed heads, . . a fountain in front of Meshed Ali spraying geysers of blood-red liquid. . . . bloody swords flashing over the heads of milling crowds . . . men with blood-soaked bandages wrapped around their heads to stanch the bleeding from self-inflicted wounds . . . endless posters of the slaughtered innocents. This is an orgy of death imagery, I thought."
Can Europe grasp this commitment to voluntary suffering? For casualties to be acceptable on the battlefield, people need collective ideals and values that transform their society into a sacred entity. In European eyes, Shiites have ritualized this to the point of absurdity, with most Westerners finding it bizarre. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2006
16:45 ||
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#1
Excellent piece, but nothing terribly surprising. Just a clean, concise, accurate indictment of the absurd concept known as soft power. And a glimpse of the decline of those that have chosen it, in lock-step with socialism.
The little graphic in the piece is excellent!
Quibble with next-to-last sentence...
"It will continue to operate on the diplomatic field and cling to soft power even though this is the path of certain defeat when confronted with power players burning with geopolitical and religious ambitions."
Change "religious" to "ideological" and I'd say the article is essentially letter-perfect.
Thx for the link, ed - I'll forward this one on, heh.
Lyndon LaRouche addressed an international webcast on behalf of the LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) on Feb. 23, 2006. His opening remarks were published in EIR last week, and we continue here with the transcript of the question and answers session. His spokeswoman, Debra Hanania Freeman, chaired the event. The full webcast is archived at www.larouchepac.com.
Lyn, the first question comes actually from a Democrat who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And he says:
"Mr. LaRouche, in early February, you indicated that a military confrontation with Iran, no matter how limited, would detonate a bomb, that would in fact, serve to blow out the entire financial and monetary system. My question to you is really a very simple one: Are Cheney and Co. ignorant of this? Or is this, in fact, the intention of the policy?"
LaRouche: Well, Cheney's intention is a very interesting question. It's like speaking of George Bush's intentionI don't know if he knows what the teleprompter means.
Cheney is a stooge. The administration we're dealing with is a creation, nominally, of George Shultz; who, with Condoleezza Rice and the whole pack of them, created this administration around a guy who's not mentally capable of any other kind of job, except President of the United States. And he doesn't have to do that job, because Cheney does it for him.
So, therefore, the question of intention, and reality, in terms of this administration, is a very tricky question. What was Cheney aiming at, for example? Hmm?
So, in the Iran case: The intention does not come from the United States. It comes from the participation of some people in the United States, in the institutions, influential institutions, but not from the United States: It comes from London. The orchestration of this policy comes from the British foreign intelligence organization, centered in the British Arab Bureau. Now, the British Arab Bureau is an offshoot of the British East India Company office, back in the time when the Empire started. Before the King Georges got to know they were emperors, long before that, there was already a British Empire: It was the empire of the British East India Company, which was actually running the Empire. Lord Shelburne, in particular, who was running the Empire, back in the 1770s and 1780s; he was the kingmaker. And the British King was actually a flunky for these financier interests, who actually ran the place.
So, at that point, the British Intelligence Service started, formally, in this form in many ways, as a Freemasonic organization, essentially; for example, the French Revolution was run through what Shelburne created as the British Foreign Office, in 1782, and the key figure of the Foreign Office who ran the secret committee, was Jeremy Bentham. And Jeremy Bentham, in a sense "begat" Lord Shelburneand they created the British Intelligence Service. Which was created out of the East India Company.
So, in the process, they took a guy called al-Afghani, for examplewho was a crazy-man, but the British picked him and used himto create the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a key orchestration factor in Middle East politics. And they build up things against that, too.
The key operation that defines this whole area, is the British agreement with the Russians, with Nicholas II, on the partition of the spheres of influence in Iran, where the British took the southern part, and the Russians took the northern part: 1907.
Now, in this process, since then, the British have orchestrated the operations in the whole area, and controlled them. They have a fellow in the United States [Bernard Lewis], who was formerly head of the administrative section of the British Arab Bureau, and he is the key advisor to Henry Kissinger and others. Now, it's his office, which has shaped this particular aspect of policy, which is running it.
So, this is a British game. And they're using all kinds of things. For example, the British are orchestrating this Iran crisisnot the United States, the British are orchestrating it. Jack Straw, the Foreign Minister of Great Britain, is a key orchestrator of this operation.
So, this is what we're dealing with. And the problem with Americans, especially in public office, is, they refuse to recognize history: the history of the U.S.-British conflict. And the complication that is not taken into account, is the fact that you have a section in the United States which is more close to the British than they are to the Americans. You look at the entire history of U.S.-British relations, the conflict from the beginning, from after 1763 on, and it's always of this same character. Americans refuse to recognize, that the British are not intrinsically our allies. They're intrinsically our enemies.
But it's not simply shoot-em-up enemy relations. The British realized, after Lincoln's victory over the Confederacy, which was a British operationthe Confederacythe British realized they could never take the United States by force after that. So therefore, they used indirect methods, including subversion and economic operations. And a sense, they're allies, in which the people who are married are the worst enemies of each other. And they refuse to recognize that they're enemies. They're each trying to kill each other, or get each other killed, and they're pretending to be happily married in between time, when company comes. So, it's this kind of situation.
So, the problem among American politicians, is they refuse to face the fact, that the British oligarchy is generally the source of the enemy, the important enemy of the United States in every operation, including this Iran operation. Once you recognize that fact, then it becomes very easy to understand what's going on.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
16:17 ||
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#3
I'm very confused,... I thought this was a NWO conspiracy ran by the illuminati bloodlines, themselves a front for shapeshifting ultradimensional reptilian overlords, who casted a psychic net over the earth to prevent humanity from achieving higher consciousness and keep on sucking off our collective psychic energy while maintaining us in the matrix...
#8
I've always been fond of LaRouche, not because I admire him - the man is flat out nuts - but because I feel our political system needs a little wackyness. Of course lately, alGore and Howard Dean have been cutting in on his act.
#9
Ala PORTS-GATE, Bill and Hillary Clinton didn't know what the other was doing vv DUBAI and will still sell the other for big bucks, ergo by this article their marriage will stay strong??? Good thing for MOther/Saint Hillary hubby Bill is the Male Brute of Male Brute Republicans-for-anti-Republicanism!?
David J. Seeger, a Buffalo environmental attorney well-know to Allegany County nuke dump fighters, attended the meeting representing Community First, a group bent on busting Wal-Marts Allegany expansion plans. Seeger brought with him information on a tiny salamander that may or may not exist in the Allegheny River in which, water from 2-Mile Creek is deposited.
[snip]
Sexually mature adult hellbenders range in size from 12-29 inches (30-74 cm)
Now there's a critter you don't want to have swim by you.
This case broke a few weeks ago. FBI agents are tight-lipped about it.
Well-known Anchorage charter flight company, Security Aviation, and one of their employees are facing federal charges tonight of possessing a destructive device. That is, at least, what federal officials are telling us tonight. All this seems to go back to recent Security Aviation raids a few weeks ago when a slew of federal and local agencies, including the FBI, raided Security Aviation's Steven's International hub.
The fed's say as a result of that raid, and grand jury investigation, Security Aviation employee Robert Kane ordered certain Security Aviation employees to buy four rocket pod launchers, which the indictment alleges, are capable of carrying and firing 16 rockets. Rocket launcher pods, ya say? To go on a jet, ya say?
Just getting ready for moose season. They grow um big up thar
Now, the indictment goes further to say Security Aviation allegedly received two launchers and moved them to their Palmer hanger.
You'll recall Security Aviation was in the news back in January when an L-39 military style jet crashed in Ketchikan, killing pilot Steven Freeman.
That plane belonged to Illinois company, Red Air. At the time of the crash, Security Aviation officials were reportedly trying to buy L-39's from Red Air. And what, pray tell, does Security Aviation need L-39s for?
While Security Aviation officials maintain they eventually called off the deal because the jets were unsafe, Red Air officials reportedly told officials Security Aviation had not paid their bills. Apparently, when the jet crashed, Red Air officials maintain they were repossessing the jet from Security Aviation. A repo job gone bad. Instrument approaches into Ketchikan are very tight. You get lined up from the north and go down to your decision point. Missed approach, you CLIMB and maintain a tight heading. There are mountains on both sides. You do not mess with Ketchikan approaches. [*snip*]
When the raid occurred, federal officials say the eight L-39's, including the one that crashed in Ketchikan, were designed to carry various types of weapons, including the rocket pod launchers mentioned in the indictment. If convicted on the charges, Security Aviation faces half a million dollars in fines. Their employee, Kane, could face 20 years in prison, and 750 thousand dollars in fines for his alleged role. We have called Security Aviation officials, but they have yet to return our call. Buzz off---we have nothing to say.
When they were raided by the FBI, the company's president issued a statement saying they had done nothing wrong. Lies, all lies.
In past statements, they have stood behind their accused employee Kane. [*snip*]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006
14:20 ||
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#1
Sounds like mercenary work ? L-39's, rocket pods ? Africa ?
#5
steve, are you sure that isn't the People's Front of the Yukon... or the Yukon Popular People's Front ('cause god knows we wouldn't want to be part of the Unpopular People's Front -- why they're not fit to be seen with!)?
The L-39, built by the Czech aerospace company Aero Vodochody, was selected as the standard jet trainer in 1972 for the Soviet Union and most other Warsaw Pact countries. Designed as a single engine, tandem two seat subsonic trainer, the L-39 made its first flight on November 4, 1968. The aircraft's primary mission was basic and advanced training, with external armament stores that would enable it to provide operational training in ground attack roles. Almost 3,000 L-39's were built, and the Albatross has been exported to 16 countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, India, and Vietnam. Reliability of the L-39 is said to be very high at 99.6%, and the proven airframe service life is 6,000 hours. The Albatross was flown by different aerobatic teams, among them the Russian Knights, their equivalent of the American Thunderbirds. More in the photo gallery
Techinical Specs: L-39 At A Glance
Length: 12.1 m / 39.8 ft
Wingspan: 9.5 m / 31 ft
Take-Off Weight: 4.7 t / 10,360 lbs
Speed: Mach 0.8 / 560 mph
At Sea Level: 700 km/h / 435 mph
Load Factor: + 8 g / - 4 g
Engines: UP Ivchenko AI-25 turbofan engine
Thrust: 1,722 kg / 3,792 lbs
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 20:45
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Siberia getting ready to seceed and need an airforce?
A series of explosions rocked the ancient city of Varanasi on Tuesday evening.
According to initial reports, 20 people were killed and at least 60 people were injured, 10 of them seriously. The Government has appealed to all citizens to maintain peace. The Home Ministry has convened an emergency meeting.
The first blast took place inside famous Sankatmochan temple adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath temple when it was teeming with devotees at the evening aarti time killing four persons on the spot. Minutes later, another blast took place at the holding area of platform number one of the Varanasi Cantonment railway station when Delhi-bound Shivaganga Express was stationary. The temple has been closed and all entry and exit points of Varanasi have been sealed.
Bombs have been recovered from the Godaulia market area of the city too.The injured have been rushed to the SS Hospital of Benaras Hindu University.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has denounced the incident and expressed condolences to the families of the victims. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will be visiting the holy city to assess the situation there. High alert has been sounded across all public places and major religious institutions across the nation.
While police initially attributed the explosion to a cylinder blast, intelligence sources later said advanced explosive devices were used in both the blasts. The sources have also said that the hand of Lashkar-e-Taiba was suspected behind the blasts.
Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has announced ex gratia relief for the victims and appealed to the people to maintain peace and order. In a statement issue, Yadav condemned the incident and appealed to the people exercise restraint and said the culprits will not be spared "Stern action will be initiated against all those found involved in the incident," he said.
Yadav announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to those killed in the blasts, Rs 1 lakh to those seriously injured and Rs 50,000 to those with minor injuries.
A red alert has been sounded throughout Uttar Pradesh in view of Varanasi incidents, an official release said. Patrolling has been intensified throughout the state specially in sensitive areas including those in the state capital where communal clashes had taken place on Friday last. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has called for a bandh on Wednesday.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
14:17 ||
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Well calculated to cause maximum offence to Hindus.
It's beginning to look like Clinton and some of his buds, have had a hand in this from the beginning, and looking for ways to make money. Given Bush's "friendship" with Clinton, I do hope he doesn't invite Clinton into this.
New York Congressman Peter King, who first raised concerns last month over a White House-approved plan to have a Dubai company run some operations at U.S. ports, said Monday that ex-President Clinton could play a constructive role in brokering a solution to the controversy.
King told WABC Radio's John Gambling that the best way to break the impasse was to have an American firm take over operations for U.S. terminals purchased by Dubai Ports World.
"If we can separate out the American aspect of the contract completely and have that assigned to an American company with no input whatsoever from Dubai Ports World," King said, "then, to me, that is something that could satisfy both the requirement of port security and also the requirement of trying to maintain a stronger relationship with the United Arab Emirates."
The New York Republican suggested that Mr. Clinton would be the ideal intermediary to persuade Dubai officials to go along with such an arrangement.
Noting that the former president "does have a very close relationship with the United Arab Emirates," King said: "Listen, maybe he can sell them."
"That would be great if he could give them the advice to unload the contract - to sell it to another company, ideally an American company.
"That would be a great contribution by President Clinton," he added.
Dubai officials have funded Mr. Clinton with at least $1.6 million in donations to his presidential library and in speaking fees. During his presidency, Clinton secured a controversial contract to sell the United Arab Emirates 80 F-16 jet fighters.
He remains close to UAE defense minister, Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Rep. King called on Democrats to stop trying to make political hay over the ports controversy, saying Mr. Clinton's Dubai connections meant that "there's probably enough here where we can damage all sides."
#1
Best suggestion I've read about all of this is from JPod at National Review......
Clearly, a new corporation will have to be formed to run the ports -- managed by an executive with experience in these sorts of huge logistical corporate challenges. One man presents himself. One perfect man. A CEO with unparalleled experience. Dick Cheney. Then Bush can pick Condi to replace him as Veep, Hillary can run against Condi...There will be op-eds and blog entries on this. Oh yes, there will. Ohhhh yes.
At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman.
Desertion records are kept by fiscal year, so there are no figures from the beginning of the war in March 2003 until that fall.
Some lawyers who represent deserters say the war in Iraq is driving more soldiers to question their service and that the Pentagon is cracking down on deserters to discourage anti-war sentiment.
The last thing (Pentagon officials) want is for people to think that this is like Vietnam, says Tod Ensign, head of Citizen Soldier, an anti-war group that offers legal aid to deserters.
Desertion numbers have dropped since 9/11. The Army, Navy and Air Force reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, compared with 3,456 in 2005. The Marines showed 1,603 deserters in 2001. That declined by 148 in 2005.
The desertion rate was much higher during the Vietnam era. The Army saw a high of 33,094 deserters in 1971 3.4% of the Army force. But there was a draft and the active-duty force was 2.7 million.
Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.
Opposition to the war prompts a small fraction of desertions, says Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins. People always desert, and most do it because they don't adapt well to the military, she says. The majority of desertions happen inside the USA, Robbins says. There is only one known case of desertion in Iraq.
Most deserters return without coercion. Commander Randy Lescault, spokesman for the Naval Personnel Command, says that between 2001 and 2005, 58% of Navy deserters walked back in. Of the rest, most are apprehended during traffic stops.
Penalties range from other-than-honorable discharges to death for desertion during wartime.
#1
There is only one known case of desertion in Iraq.
...Well, where the HELL are you going to go?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/07/2006 13:19
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That was muslim Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun who deserted to Lebanon, faked his death in a jihadi snuff video, returned to US custody, and deserted back to Lebanon where he is married to his first cousin like a good boy. I can only conclude that he wasn't sentenced to 20 years in the Quantico brig because of multicultural pollution of the government and military made muslims untouchable.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2006 13:29
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Of course, the USA Today headline on yahoo News had a slightly different spin -
8,000 Desert During Iraq war
The a sentence near the end put it in perspective, in case anyone read that far - Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.
Mainstream Media/Mad Mullas -is there a difference? Isn't Mainstream one word?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 14:28
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Back in peacetime, I knew an ex-swab who had deserted, and been so *good* at it, that he worked as a bartender on his naval base. He was even shown his own picture by NIS (I think it was, I was Army), a time or two.
Finally, they let him indirectly know that were only after him for administrative reasons (peacetime again), but after hearing his stories of successful E&E, they offered him a promotion and a job on the spot--tracking down other deserters and AWOLs.
For the first time in the Navy, it was a job he really, really liked. And he soon became their #1 tracker. On ETS, they even hired him for a few weeks to train some of the other trackers, at a lot more than military pay.
#5
"That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us."
Iran will not be allowed to have nuclear weapons and faces "meaningful consequences" if it persists in defying the international community, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Tuesday.
Cheney, speaking to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, also reaffirmed that the United States was keeping all options on the table -- including military force -- in its determination to prevent Iran from developing nuclear arms.
"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course the international community is prepared to impose meaningful consequences," Cheney said.
Cheney spoke as the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency governing board was meeting in Vienna to decide its next steps on Iran.
"For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the table. ... We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," Cheney said.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said late on Monday that Washington would seek to have European allies and others, possibly including Russia and China, join it in imposing travel and financial sanctions on Iran if it refused to halt nuclear uranium enrichment.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had dinner on Monday night with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and was to hold further meetings on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON - Key provisions of the Senate's main immigration bill would create a "gold card" program for illegal immigrants who entered the United States before Jan. 4, 2004, and create a guest worker program to bring in more foreign laborers, according to Senate Judiciary Committee staff members. And also PISS ON all the law-abiding people who are patiently waiting to enter LEGALLY.
The committee is to begin debating the measure Wednesday under a three-week timetable aimed at producing a final version for the full Senate by March 27.
Sponsored by the committee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the legislation is designed to strike a middle course between a bill passed by the House that calls for tougher immigration enforcement and the wishes of pro-immigration advocates who call for permanent legal status -- and eventual citizenship -- for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. These aren't immigration advocates - they are illegal alien advocates. Most legal immigrants oppose illegal aliens because it brings down the job market with slave labor.
President Bush, defying objections from conservatives, has called for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws and the creation of a temporary guest worker program to ensure a steady source of labor for U.S. businesses. Under Bush's plan, qualified workers, including residents now living here illegally, could stay in jobs for up to six years, then would be required to return home.
Committee staff members, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said applicants for the gold card would undergo a background check by the Homeland Security Department, then be eligible for two-year work visas that could be renewed indefinitely. The workers wouldn't participate in the Social Security system but would contribute to future savings via investment accounts.
One top committee staffer described the "gold-card" proposal as "a reasonable compromise" in dealing with illegal immigrants, many of whom have lived here for decades. The undesirable alternative, he said, would be an unworkable massive roundup, which administration officials have said would cost billions of dollars. I call Bullshit! Just require proof of citizenship or legal residence for public schools and non-critical medical.
Under the separate guest worker program, which would be based on U.S. labor needs, foreign applicants could work for three years, then apply to work for another three years before returning home. They'd be required to remain in their home country for a year before reapplying. So law-abiding guest workers who come here legally will be required to (leave their job and) return home for a year every 6 years while illegal alien lawbreakers (who, in case you forgot, are here in violation of federal laws) could stay here permanently. Tell me again how this does not reward breaking the law?
Advocates on both sides of the immigration debate criticized Specter's proposal as an inadequate attempt to placate opposing groups.
"Some people are going to say it's amnesty, and others are going to say it creates a second-class caste of workers," Both True.
said Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based think tank that leans right. "It's a non-starter for both sides."
DHAKA: Abdur Rahman had his arms training and mastered the art of bomb-making while fighting against the former Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan and himself trained up the top-level leaders of outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The militant kingpin yesterday also admitted before interrogators that his men smuggled the explosives they used in bomb attacks across the country from neighbouring India.
Fourth day into his arrest at East Shaplabagh in Sylhet, the infamous militant supremo was undergoing interrogation by the Task Force Intelligence (TIF) at Rab-1 office in Uttara.
"The Number 7 truncheon, please"
Meantime, Rahmans younger brother Ataur Rahman Sunny, military commander of JMB, and son-in-law Abdul Awal were brought face to face with him before the TFI interrogators yesterday.
Although the interrogators are quizzing Rahman, Sunny and Awal in separate rooms, they brought the three in the same room when they gave contradictory replies to a question. "Everyone is being asked the same set of questions. When the answer is contradictory or different, they are put together and being asked again to clear the enigma," said a source.
Don't these guys watch Law & Order? You never put the bad guys together to get their stories straight. Unless they're brought in to watch one of them being worked over, that is
Earlier on Saturday night, law enforcers brought Sunny and Awal, both members of JMBs Majlish-e-Shura, to the capital from Barisal jail amidst tight security. Detectives yesterday took them to a court seeking seven days remand in a case filed in connection with a blast near Dhaka Sheraton Hotel on August 17 last year.
The Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka granted the remand after the two were hauled before it in helmets and bullet-proof vests. They were awarded 40 years rigorous imprisonment on February 9 in a bomb blast case filed with Jhalakathi Sadar Police Station on November 14. The suicide bombing killed two judges the same day.
Rahman told the interrogators yesterday he received training in making bombs, handling explosives and operating sophisticated firearms in Afghanistan while fighting for the Mujahideens. According to him, he visited some other countries including Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.
Saudi, huh?
"According to Rahman, he received training in bomb-making and operating different kinds of firearms there," said a source involved in the investigation. "I myself have given practical training to all Shura committee members on how to make bombs," the source quoted Rahman as saying.
During interrogation earlier, Sunny told investigators Rahman and Shura member Khaled Saifullah taught him how to make bombs. Sources said Khaled, who was a leader of Harkatul Jihad al Islami before joining the JMB, learnt bomb making in Afghanistan when he visited the country during Taliban regime. Rahman disclosed some names including Sunny and Awal, who were assigned for smuggling in the explosives from the neighbouring country.
Since the August 17 blasts, Rahman switched hideouts four times before he was captured at an east Shaplabagh house in Sylhet Thursday. He had been staying at a house in Banasree adjacent to Rampura after the countrywide blasts. As the law enforcers sensed his position there, he shifted to Pallabi. His younger brother Sunny, who was in charge of JMB operations in Dhaka and Tangail, had found the place for him and his family.
After Rab arrested Sunny in Tejgaon, Rahman moved to a house in Tangail, which too had been arranged by Sunny. But after Sunnys arrest, Reza was tasked with coordinating the militant outfits work in Dhaka region and looking after the JMB supremo. As the law enforcers began raiding different places, following up the leads provided by Sunny, Rahman found it risky to be in Tangail and moved to Sylhet on suggestion of Salahuddin, the Shura member in command of the banned organisation in Sylhet-Mymensingh region.
As of last night, Rahman has not told the interrogators how many JMB operatives are working across the country. Though he had told The Daily Star in May 2004 that the outfit has 10,000 full-time and over one lakh part-time cadres active, Rahman did not disclose any figure in this regard before the interrogators.
"He just said the activists are operating under different area commanders and the number varies with region. Up to 1,000 activists may be working at one place while 200 or 400 in other places," said an interrogator.
The JMB boss kept silent when asked about their links with other groups at home and abroad. He also did not say anything about having funds inflow from foreign sources. Sources said he would receive money from different organisations in the name of constructing mosques and madrasas.
Explains the Saudi trip
Rahman had told The Daily Star in May 2004 that he set up a mosque and a madrasa in Jamalpur with financial assistance from Islamic NGOs Rabeta e Islam and another Islamic organisation Islamic Oytijjho Sangstha
In grilling Rahman, the interrogators are concentrating on information regarding the possible stockpile of bombs and explosives, whereabouts of other Shura members and leaders of different lower tiers. "Were now mainly trying to extract from him information about the JMB leaders who have managed to be outside the dragnet so far and may make further attacks," said the interrogator. Without saying anything specific about explosives, Rahman told the interrogators that Salahuddin and some others still at large might be in possession of some explosives.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:59 ||
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The militant kingpin yesterday also admitted before interrogators that his men smuggled the explosives they used in bomb attacks across the country from neighbouring India. Well, well, isn't that convenient?
From India ya say?
No Pakist...ow, ow!
Did you say Pakistan or India?
Pak ...ow! Ow!! India?
Correct! Quick someone call the Pak Times and make sure that his confession is in the lead.
March 7, 2006: The release of the names of over 500 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, after the Department of Defense complied with a Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press was ordered by a federal judge, is yet another blow to American intelligence efforts. In essence, the Department of Defense 's efforts to protect the families of detainees, who cooperate, from retaliation, has been set back. In addition to that, as the names get named, it will become much easier for al Qaeda to figure out what the United States probably knows, giving the terrorist organization a huge counter-intelligence coup.
In the war on terror, interrogations are going to provide a lot of the valuable intelligence often providing details about the structure of al Qaeda (for instance, such interrogations have shown how al Qaeda compartmentalizes information). Often, people cooperate as long as assurances can be given about the safety of their family. Al Qaeda also will now be willing to tell potential members that if captured, their families could be subject to reprisals, allowing it to enforce a version of the Mafia's code of omerta.
The other effect of the names of who the United States has in custody being released is that it will make damage assessment easier for the terrorist organization. One of the crucial aspects of counter-intelligence is figuring out just what the other side knows (or could know) about your capabilities and intentions. This is what enables you to avoid getting caught by surprise (the way the Japanese carrier force was at the Battle of Midway in 1942). The revelation of who the United States of America is holding will permit al Qaeda to have a very good idea of what the United States potentially knows.
The magnitude of this counter-intelligence coup is staggering considering some of the high-level al Qaeda personnel the United States is known to have in custody. The revelations forced by the Associated Press's FOIA request could be compared with the Japanese knowing about American code breaking efforts in 1942, or if Germany knew of the similar code-breaking efforts during the Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted from 1939 to 1945. This is knowledge that is crucial to the war on terrorism, and now al Qaeda knows the United States has that information. This will lead to counter-measures on the part of the terrorist group and the United States will face increased vulnerability to attacks as a result.
The released names will also result in a flurry of lawfare as media outlets and human rights groups begin to demand more information, while the human rights groups will also solicit plaintiffs and have the threat of friendly judges that they can turn to. These groups will also have the benefit of potentially strained relations between the Justice Department (which controls the appellate lawyers), and the Department of Defense (which is focused on getting actionable intelligence to protect the country, usually by making lots of terrorists good terrorists).
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:43 ||
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There are two very good reasons why the Pentagon did not resist this very much. First and foremost, Gitmo is only used for the least important of these detainees, because Gitmo is a Potempkin village, a facade designed to attract criticism while the real work is done elsewhere.
Second, and now more important, is that the detainees there are utterly worthless. All we are accomplishing by keeping them there is giving them three squares a day and full medical care. Better welfare than they would get in Sweden.
Of course, when we release them, they will head to parts unknown and will brag about the hideous and inhuman thing we did to them there. And that is what we are hoping they will do--very demoralizing to the baddies.
#2
Also, when we release them to *ahem* certain countries, those countries will show them hospitality and treatment that will make the Gitmo Guyz crying a river to get back into Gitmo.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 13:40
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Despite a promise made to Washington last November to drop its economic boycott of Israel, Saudi Arabia plans to host a major international conference next week aimed at promoting a continued trade embargo on the Jewish state, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The Post also found that the kingdom continues to prohibit entry to products made in Israel or to foreign-made goods containing Israeli components, in violation of pledges made by senior Saudi officials to the Bush administration last year.
"Next week, we will hold the ninth annual meeting for the boycott of Israel here in Jidda," Ambassador Salem el-Honi, high commissioner of the Organization for the Islamic Conference's (OIC) Islamic Office for the Boycott of Israel, said in a telephone interview. "All 57 OIC member states will attend, and we will discuss coordination among the various offices to strengthen the boycott," he said, noting that the meeting is held every March. The OIC, consisting of 57 Muslim countries, is based in Jidda, as is its boycott office.
Honi, a former Saudi diplomat, has headed the boycott office for the past four years. The scheduled gathering is listed on the OIC's official Web site in a section entitled "Provisional Calendar of Meetings." Hamed Salah a-Din, of the OIC General Secretariat, confirmed in a telephone interview that the conference would take place from March 13 to 15, describing it as "our regular annual meeting about the boycott."
The Saudi decision to host the parley appears to run counter to assurances that Riyadh gave the Bush administration when Saudi Arabia was seeking entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). On November 11, the WTO's ruling general council voted to grant Saudi Arabia entry into the prestigious group, which aims to promote international free trade, after it agreed to scrap restrictions on doing business with Israel.
Christin Baker, the assistant US trade representative for public and media affairs, told the Post via e-mail that the US had "ensured that Saudi Arabia in its recent accession to the WTO has taken on all rights and obligations with respect to all WTO members, including Israel." "Saudi Arabia," she said, "did not invoke the non-application provisions of the WTO agreement with respect to any member," meaning that it must treat all members equally, "including Israel." Likewise, in hearings last month before the US Senate Finance Committee, US trade representative Rob Portman insisted that the Saudis "have a responsibility to treat Israel as any other member of the WTO." "We've received assurances from Saudi Arabia," Portman said in separate testimony before the US House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee. "They will abide by their WTO commitments."
Nonetheless, the Post has found, Saudi customs officials continue to enforce the boycott, asserting that no Israeli-made goods be allowed into the country. "Absolutely not - if it is from Israel it is not allowed," Hamad Abdul Aziz of the Saudi Customs Department at Jidda's Islamic seaport said by phone. "I checked with my manager, and he said it is completely forbidden."
Similarly, a Saudi customs official at King Abdul Aziz Airport outside Jidda also said that Israeli goods were not allowed into the kingdom. "It is prohibited," he said. "It is not allowed to bring any goods made in Israel, whether the whole item or only part of it was made there. That is the rule."
In December, just weeks after being allowed into the WTO, Saudi officials were quoted in the Arab press as insisting that the boycott of Israel would continue. This has raised concerns in Washington that the Saudis are not planning to live up to their commitment. Baker revealed to the Post that "a team of anti-boycott experts from the US departments of Commerce and State has been visiting the region to discuss efforts to eliminate the boycott."
She added that later this month, "a senior USTR official plans to visit Saudi Arabia and will again seek assurances that Saudi Arabia understands and remains committed to its WTO obligations."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:35 ||
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#1
I'm sure that the Saudis will provide the WTO and US State dept. with all the Taqiya they desire.
#4
If we ever develop a cure for cancer or AIDS, let's give Israel exclusive production rights.
It almost makes me glad that so many of the Middle Eastern countries are so incredibly corrupt. Once the West unhooks itself from the oil teat, none of the gigantic profits taken during OPEC's glory days will have trickled down to all these twisted genocidal masses. They can revert to their nomadic hunter-gatherer ways and, once again, be the marginal insignificant cultures they once were before petroleum made its debut.
#5
What makes you think Israel won't do it themselves, Zenster?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/07/2006 16:45
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Well, given the fact that the biotechnology and computational models required for such sophisticated antiviral and antimutagenic development was essentially invented and built here in America, it sorta gives us a mile long head start in the race. Not that Israel is bereft of talent or anything. More than anything, I just want such profound breakthroughs placed in exclusively Israeli hands so the Saudis and their boycotting anti-Semitic ilk can all FOAD.
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - Azerbaijani and Armenian forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars at several points along their border in the most serious fighting in months. Azerbaijan said one of its soldiers was killed and one seriously wounded in the fighting late Monday and early Tuesday. Armenian forces said several of their troops were wounded.
The two countries remain at odds over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. A cease-fire agreement was reached in 1994 after six years of fighting, and the enclave is now under the control of ethnic Armenians, whose troops face Azerbaijani forces across a half-mile-wide no man's land. Sporadic clashes, however, break out along the Nagorno-Karabakh border and land mines continue to kill people every year. The conflict has held up development of the entire Caucasus region.
Talks to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh's status broke down last month. Since then, the violence has spiked and the countries' presidents have traded increasingly bellicose statements.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:24 ||
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BERLIN (AP) - German police on Tuesday staged nationwide raids on alleged supporters of a banned far-right group, seizing a number of weapons as well as propaganda material. Twenty-seven people were detained briefly in the operation aimed at supporters of the Blood and Honor group. They were released after questioning, police said. Investigators in Bavaria said they seized a pistol and a hand grenade during raids on homes in the southern state. Police also confiscated T-shirts, compact discs, posters, videos and other material related to the group, which the German government banned in 2000.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:21 ||
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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A third blast struck the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday, exploding outside the gate of a hotel and tourism training center, a Reuters witness said. No one was injured in the blast, which damaged a small guard shack at the gate. It followed two other explosions earlier in the city. One outside a restaurant injured four people, while another in a market caused no injuries. Additional: ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Three explosions shook the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday, injuring at least four people, in what police called an attempt by unknown culprits to "disrupt the peace and tranquility of the nation".
One blast hit the Lalibela restaurant in the southern part of the city, extensively damaging the structure. Restaurant manager Asnketch Makaonnen said the explosion was caused by a bomb planted in a flower pot outside. "I was in my office when I heard the explosion. I came to the restaurant and I found it filled with smoke. We tried to lead the clients through the back door," Makaonnen said. "Luckily none of the restaurant staff were injured except four pedestrians," she added.
Another explosion struck a market, also in the south of the city, damaging a bookstore and auto parts shop. Police said the device was hidden in a rubbish bin. There were no injuries. A third, later blast occurred outside the gate of a hotel and tourism training center in the city center, damaging a cafeteria inside. No one was injured in the blast, which also damaged a small guard shack at the gate. Police surrounded all three sites and investigators sifted through the debris.
Ethiopia has been hit by a series of violent protests in which more than 80 people have died since elections in May, which the opposition says were rigged.
Top opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leaders were among 131 people charged with treason and planning to commit genocide stemming from those protests.
In January, several public buildings and hotels in Addis Ababa were damaged by explosive devices planted by unknown people. One of the four people injured in the restaurant blast was released from hospital. Two others were admitted with shrapnel wounds to their legs and faces. The fourth was being treated for head injuries.
A statement released by Addis Ababa police and read on state radio described the explosions as the work of "anti-peace elements to disrupt the peace and tranquility of the country". The statement appealed to the nation to cooperate with the investigation but offered no hint as to who might be behind the attacks.
Last month the Federal Police Anti-Terrorism Taskforce issued a statement saying it had foiled a plot to "unleash armed urban terrorism" in the capital by a group linked to the CUD. The statement said authorities seized a cache of dynamite, bombs and small arms.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:18 ||
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Just a few days ago, the Baron at Gates of Vienna noted that Ethiopia had heretofore avoided "Islam's Bloody Borders." He may need to revisit his map.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Dozens of people were hurt in at least two separate explosions on Tuesday in the north Indian pilgrimage town of Varanasi, an official said. One explosion was reported in a packed Hindu temple and another occurred in the railway station, a federal interior ministry official told Reuters. Temple-studded Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh state, is one of the holiest cities for India's majority Hindu population.
Additional: At least 15 people have been killed and 60 wounded by three suspected terrorist explosions in the Indian Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi.
Navneet Sikera, senior superintendent of police for Varanasi said: "Fifteen people have died and about 60 are injured. "The blasts were pretty big, and I do not rule out a terrorist hand behind it." Three blasts happened 45 minutes apart. One explosion was reported in a packed Hindu temple and another occurred in the railway station. A fourth bomb was also recovered from a residential area and was being defused.
Temple-studded Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh state, is one of the holiest cities for India's majority Hindu population. Most previous attacks on Hindu temples in India have been blamed on Islamic militants.
"I cannot say which outfit was responsible for the ghastly attack but since one of the places of attack is a temple it has a potential of creating suspicion and tension among different communities," said the Interior Ministry.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
09:15 ||
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I wonder who could have done such a horrible, blasphemous thing?
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - About 200 Sudanese students demonstrated on Tuesday urging the United Nations to leave their country and calling it a colonial force, days ahead of a decision to deploy U.N. troops to the violent Darfur region. Tuesday's protest outside the U.S. embassy in Khartoum followed unconfirmed reports in a pro-government newspaper of new Islamist groups threatening U.N. and U.S. interests in Sudan, and rejecting the presence of any U.N. soldiers in Darfur.
"This is our message to you Jan Pronk: Get out of our country, leave immediately," head of the Sudanese students union, Mohamed Abdallah Sheikh Idriss, told the chanting crowd. Pronk is the top U.N. envoy in Sudan.
And Mohamed Idriss would be the Sudanese government's top envoy in the student union
One boy held a picture of Pronk with a knife and blood dripping from the blade, warning: "Be prepared."
Pronk defended the U.N.'s role in Sudan, saying the body had not asked to deploy troops in Darfur, and that it would only intervene if asked to do so by the African Union. He also said the U.N. should not be confused with the U.S.
"Quite a number of people in Sudan are mixing up United Nations with has happened in other countries, like Iraq and Afghanistan," Pronk told Reuters during a visit to Cairo.
"There is no intervention. There is no colonial approach. The U.N. is not the U.S., they (the protestors) should understand that ... The United Nations is a safeguard against intervention," he said.
"I mean, it's not like the U.N. will really do anything"
About 7,000 African Union troops are monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Sudan's west where 2 million people have been driven from their homes by a campaign of rape, killing and looting, called genocide by Washington.
Khartoum denies genocide, but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the remote region bordering Chad. On Friday African foreign ministers are expected to request the United Nations take over their force in Darfur.
But Sudan rejects U.N. forces in the region, and has warned Pronk that al Qaeda militants may target troops if they enter the country, especially if they include U.S. soldiers.
"Those al Qaeda militants are all over the place, we can't control them, so don't blame us."
The newly established al-Intibaha newspaper last week announced a new Islamist movement against foreign intervention in Darfur, called the Darfur Jihad Organization. "The group vows to fight any foreign intervention in Darfur through all legitimate religious means," a statement received by the paper said.
Which means killing all infidels
On Monday the paper reported the formation of another group, the "Blood Brigades," which it said offered a reward of $40,000 for anyone who killed the U.S. charge d'affaires in Khartoum.
Last week a Sudanese Islamist paper quoted anonymous businessmen saying the U.S. charge Cameron Hume had insulted the Prophet Mohammad. The U.S. embassy denied the statement. But Tuesday's demonstration was held outside the U.S. embassy because, demonstrators said, Hume had insulted Islam. "The U.S. embassy is proof of occupation and colonization of our country," said Ahmed Malik of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan. "They (the United States) have declared a war against Muslims".
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
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SRINAGAR, India - Indian troops killed a top commander of a hardline rebel group in revolt-hit Kashmir in a gunbattle early Tuesday, the army said. The commander belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of several hardline rebel groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, the army said.
A top Lashkar commander Mohammed Sultan, alias Khalid, was killed in an operation in Chithargul village of (southern) Anantnag district, army spokesman Colonel Hemant Juneja said.
The fighting erupted when soldiers raided a rebel hideout on a tip-off that militants were meeting there, Juneja said. Troops were combing the area to see if more militants were hiding in the area, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
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EFL: MIR ALI, Pakistan- Pakistani troops Tuesday searched for two pro-Taleban clerics accused of instigating the worst fighting near the Afghan border since the start of the war on terror, officials said.
The local administration has called tribal elders to hold talks on opening the main market and ending the violence, but one tribesman said few were willing to risk reprisals from the Taleban by acting as go-betweens with the government. We cannot negotiate because we cannot speak on behalf of anyone, said Malik Inamullah, one of the elders. The government wants us to take responsibility that Taleban will not attack, how can we take this responsibility? So there is a deadlock. The fear of the Taleban is still strong among the tribal elders. They fear reprisals if they cooperate with the government, Inamullah said.
A provincial government official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, Sikander Qayyum, told the BBC that 140 militants have been killed in the three days of clashes that started Saturday during a visit to Islamabad by US President George W. Bush. Security forces said they arrested seven suspects in overnight raids in Miranshah.
We are desperately searching for the two main culprits, Maulvi Abdul Khaleq and Maulvi Sadiq Noor, but we still do not have any information about their whereabouts a senior security official told AFP. Khaleq, who runs a major madrassa, or Islamic boarding school in Miranshah, had called for a holy war against the army after troops last week destroyedan Al Qaeda training center in nearby Saidgai village, officials said. Khaleqs brother was among some 40 militants killed in the raid last Wednesday, they added. Troops were destroying living quarters at Khaleqs seminary on Tuesday, residents said.
Noor, who also runs a preaching center and a madrassa near Miranshah, joined forces with Khaleq and on Saturday hundreds of armed Islamic students occupied the main buildings in Miranshah and attacked military posts from several directions, the officials said.
Officials said Noor and Khaleq have been trying to impose strict Islamic laws in Miranshah and are closely linked to the Taleban, the fundamentalist regime ousted from Afghanistan in a US-led invasion in late 2001. Government forces late last year raided cleric Noors seminary following intelligence that he was providing shelter to Al Qaeda and Taleban fugitives. However there were no arrests.
Arrests would be good. Killing would be better
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
08:48 ||
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seminary is now a cockroah cemetary. rot in hell...islamists.
Mortars were louder than reason in Baghdad today...
We woke up this morning to the sounds of many explosions in Baghdad and since we are familiar with those sounds we recognized that these were no doubt mortar shelling but not like the usual which is one or two rounds fired by some terrorists in a hit and run manner; this time fire was exchanged between two or more groups and lasted for more than an hour.
he goes on to relate a discussion with his father who is very pessimistic
#1
I thought his father was pessimistic, but realistic and right in many ways. Sadly, his father is right about what may be Iraq's biggest problem, People find solutions only if they wanted to and I think many of the political players do not want a solution
On the bright side, this causes the people of Iraq - just like the people in Palestine - to ask the question they need to be asking; what kind of leadership is it that we want? Is it Sharia we want? Because if we get it, we are destined to not become a modern and free society.
I thought his Dad was a wise man. The question to ask is, if his father is right, what can we do to prevent ambitious politicians to corrupt the power process. The answer in Iraq will be the same as it is in America; a balance of power. Only a balance of power will allow it to work. Our founding fathers understood that when they set up our republic and thats what makes it work today. It pits the ambitious against the ambitious and allows them to assure that no one gets ultimate control. What compounds the problem in the middle east is they are still living in an era where religion has too many trump cards.
#2
This is one for the Iraqi philosphers, literally. An Iraqi equivalent of Thomas Paine or James Madison, who speaks to reason, who persuades against passion and superstition.
Arabic translaters and modernizers of 'The Rights of Man', 'The Wealth of Nations', and 'The Federalist Papers'. It would also not hurt them to have the dialogues of Abraham Lincoln from his debates with Douglas.
#3
This is one for the Iraqi philosphers, literally. An Iraqi equivalent of Thomas Paine or James Madison, who speaks to reason, who persuades against passion and superstition.
Arabic translaters and modernizers of 'The Rights of Man', 'The Wealth of Nations', and 'The Federalist Papers'. It would also not hurt them to have the dialogues of Abraham Lincoln from his debates with Douglas.
#4
interesting. One last thought, his father has good points, but the question that the younger generation must ask is ...if what you say is true...then how do we fix it for ourselves and for our grandchildren.
#5
His father is a realist and a wise man. The solution (if there is one) will come from the Iraqi people. The politicians are not following the will of the people. The questions is - what will the people do about it.
#6
Is Iraq the model the Sunni? If so I can understand pessimism. I see two possible futures for Iraq. (1) Shia do a Rwanda on Sunni and the civil war ends (2) Sunni join the nation, stop dreams of control, stop helping Al Queda, and the civil war ends.
Just a matter of time and I think the mosque bombing of last week tipped things so a resolution will happen sooner rather than later and i think the fact that the Sunni aren't toes up already shows that option 2 is more likely right now despite the wishes of the MSM.
#7
The real problem is the election gave the Religious Shia parties the largest share of the votes but not enough to rule single handed. The other parties can come out ahead, but ONLY if they all agree to ally themselves against the religious shia. That is what is taking so damn long. Plus they'd like to split some of the moderate shia from their front.
Hard work. especially in a civil war.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/07/2006 19:08
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What civil war?
The current festivities are killing no more Iraqis than the alQ asshats did. Or the Sunnis / Baathists did. The main difference is who's doing the killing and who's getting killed.
Civil War is a LOT bigger and bloodier and mindless than this. This is payback by a few intentionally and disingenuously inflated and misreported by those who wish Iraq to fail.
DUBAI Dubai Police nabbed a four-member Mexican gang on February 26.
Mexican gang? In Dubai? WTF?
Julian Garzone, Robin Landen, Jesuis Ramses and Alkhandro Villa allegedly stole valuable electronic items and jewellery from a number of villas in Dubai.
Villa the villa thief
Juan Robie, el Gato?
Several complaints were filed at different police stations by people who found their villas burgled on returning from overseas travel.
Cary Grant did it better, y'know...
The police found part of the stolen jewellery with the thieves.
It was a setup, though. It was really l'cute young chique, even though Grace Kelly thought it was him...
The rest of the jewellery had been shipped by the gang to one of the Asian countries, where the wife of one of the gang members lives and owns a jewellery shop. The Criminal Investigation Department is contacting the Asian country in a bid to bring back the jewellery.
"M. le Inspecteur! How good to hear from you again... Jewel thieves, is it?... Cat burglars?... Have you been keeping an eye on l'cute young chique?"
The CID had set up a team after it received seven theft complaints filed at different police stations in Dubai. The police laid traps
"My cape, Legume! We shall lay a clever trap for these thieves!"
and managed to arrest the thieves
"Hands up, Juan Robie el Gato!... But wait! You are not Juan Robie! You are... une chique?"
and found in their car a number of electronic items, which were stolen from a villa. One of the thieves was also found wearing a watch that was reported missing at the Bur Dubai police station. Police raided their houses and the tools used to carry out the thefts were found hidden in a house in Muraqabat.
"Ahah! What have we here? A crowbar? A stethoscope? Two sticks of dynamite?"
Khamis Mattar Al Mazina, Head of General Directorate of CID, praised the efforts exerted by the CID Police staff. He said that the Dubai Police earlier launched the housing security service, which monitors the houses of the people who travel outside the country. He said that the people who plan to travel should contact the police stations directly or they can send emails to the police departments from wherever they are. Al Mazina called upon the people to put their precious and valuable items in bank lockers instead of leaving them at home when they travel overseas.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
08:36 ||
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Fresh from their triumphal visit to Moscow, Damascus-based leaders of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal and Musa Abu Marzuk have recorded another success. Their protégés, Salem Felaikhat and Jamil Abu Bakr, were elected in secret ballots chief and deputy leader, respectively, of Jordans Muslim Brotherhood. They displaced the General Guide of the movements Shura Council, Abdel Majid Zenaibet. This development places the Muslim Brotherhoods Palestinian branch, namely Hamas, in control of the Jordanian group. In particular, the hardline Meshaal will be in a position to run both MB-Jordan and Hamas-Gaza from his Damascus politburo office.
DEBKAfiles counter-terror sources note that this development is causing deep concern in Jordanian and Israeli security quarters alike. Control of the two wings of the extremist movement by a single extremist hand will facilitate the synchronization of its hostile operations on both sides of the River Jordan border which divide the Hashemite kingdom from the West Bank and Israel.
While the MBs new Jordanian leaders are seen as pragmatic moderates in some respects, they are staunchly hostile to Israel and any peace moves, and will take their lead on Palestine from their Damascus masters. Meshaal & Co. have therefore won added clout and maneuverability in the conduct of their new domains in Gaza and the West Bank.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
08:28 ||
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Remember that though they are a minority in their own country, the Jordanians are in essence bedouins, who despise Paleos as peasants. The Hashemites, in past have turned to the bedouins to purge the Paleos whenever they became a pest. They are long overdue for another such purge.
California marches backward on health care
Ronald Bailey
A plan to outlaw private health insurance in California has been proposed by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles). Senator Kuehl's bill, SB840, proposes to create the California Health Insurance Agency, a state government run single payer system for financing the health care of all Californians. Her bill, if enacted, would abolish all private health insurance in the Golden State. So putting thousands of health insurance providers out of business and therefore doing away with their employee's jobs is a good thing?
Her legislation essentially aims to replicate the system of socialized medicine in Canada which, until a recent court ruling in Quebec, made all private health care illegal. Her health care proposal is more authoritarian than the health care systems in the United Kingdom or Germany in which citizens can buy private insurance if they so choose.
Remarkably, Kuehl's proposal to socialize California's health care is being made just at the time when the Canadian system it resembles is falling apart at the seams. For instance, Canada's single payer system is projected to absorb more than half the budgets of most Canadian provinces. In addition, the amount of time a Canadian patient must wait before receiving medical care is notorious. "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years," said Dr. Brian Day in a recent New York Times article on Canada's health care crisis.
Kuehl flatly denies that her plan is "government-run health care." She prefers to style it as "a publicly administered finance system." Of course, as the old saying goes: "He who pays the piper, calls the tune." In this case, the new California Health Insurance Agency (CHIA) will be paying, and thus every health care provider and patient in the state would have to dance to its tune. I found this insanity over at Reason. This is one reason why the Democrats are having such a hard time, in my opinion. They are more and more openly Socialist. "Tax the Rich to feed the Poor until there are no Rich no more".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/07/2006
08:08 ||
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And this is why the Dems will fail nation wide at the voting booth. Socialism doesn't work. We know that. Most dems know that. They just use it to solidify their power since their people will control it.
#3
It would be interesting to see how many folks in nieghboring states would be willing to get residenecy in California for the duration of their treatment.
If I lived in Nevada or Arizona and had a bad back I'd consider renting a place in California for such a purpose. On the other hand when the health insurance providers leave California you might find the best and brightest in Nevada and Arizona so I guess it depends upon your income level and health needs.
13 Injured in Grenade Blast Following Quarrel
A quarrel between two families that started with a childrens fight ended with a grenade blast that left 13 wounded. The quarrel took place between two families in theChechen village of Gekhi. A family came to their neighbors house after a scuffle between their children, a source in the Chechen Interior Ministry said, according to Kavkaz.Memo.Ru. During a squabble, the people started to shoot in the air and then someone blew up a grenade.
Normally, you only see this kind of behavior at weddings
Interior Ministry officials found out that one of the people who fired a shot was a court bailiff. A hand grenade was found in the house where the incident took place. Police are still investigating the incident.
Thieves Break Into Missile Silo to Find it Filled With Money
A team of thieves that broke into an abandoned missile silo not far from the Russian city of Kostroma in search of nonferrous metals was shocked to find the shaft packed with Soviet money bills, Regnum news agency reported on Tuesday.
The incident would have remained secret, had the wind not blown hundreds of banknotes all over the countryside.
I hate it when that happens
Four men from Nizhny Novgorod found the silo that had had missiles dismantled and put on maintenance decades ago in accordance with the Soviet disarmament program. They targeted the metals inside and said they had had no idea about the money hidden in the shaft.
The men opened up the silo, neglecting the possible danger of ripping open a high radiation and toxins level enclosure. The site has been inspected by the police and environmental services, and proved to have normal radiation level.
At the moment excavation works at the silo have been frozen. Local authorities are considering measures to bring the four men to responsibility.
And the cash? Hello? Anyone?
Smoking is really hazardous to your health
A pack of cigarettes exploded in a mans hands in the Russian city of Cheboksary. The man seized the pack at a bar, went out in the street and opened it. After that, a major explosion tore his hand and another persons finger apart, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.
"Hey, give me one of those smokes!'
"Wait till I get the pack.....KABOOM....open"
The man identified as Borzov (no first name given) sustained numerous facial injuries. A policeman living in a neighboring house called an ambulance and his colleagues and started to bandage the victims hands.
Police found no trace of any explosives at the scene. No reason of this incident has been detected yet. The paper citing physicians and policemen wrote that a similar incident took place in Cheboksary several years ago.
Mechanics Remove Grenade From Gas Tank
A man from Moscow was driving his Audi for the whole day on Tuesday before mechanics removed a grenade installed in his car near the gasoline tank, Interfax news agency reported. In the evening he drove to a service center and complained that his car was rattling. Workers began examining the vehicle and to their surprise found a grenade on a tripwire, which was broken and twisted around a wheel. Fortunately, this failure prevented the blast.
The 42-year-old driver told policemen he had car trouble since he got into it that morning which suggests the grenade was installed on the previous night. A local prosecutors office has already launched a criminal case. If the plotters are found, they will face charges of murderous assault.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
08:06 ||
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I thought you were supposed to use duct tape on the grenade-in-the-gastank, with the gasoline dissolving the tape and releasing the spoon.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/07/2006 10:22
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I thought you were supposed to use duct tape on the grenade-in-the-gastank
I favor tucking them under the dashboard with the wire going to the brake pedal......er, or so I've been told....
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006 10:31
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Soviet banknotes? Well, you could wipe your ass with them, I suppose...
With conflict rife in Sudans troubled Darfur, and peace still tenuous in the south, another of Sudans marginalized regions could be set to erupt. Eastern Sudan ostensibly exhibits many of the same traits that led to war in Darfur since 2003 and in southern Sudan from 1983-2005. Claims of marginalization exacerbated by national and local ethnic differences and clashes over natural resources has contributed to the conflicts southern Sudan and Darfur. The same dynamics are in place in eastern Sudan.
On 24 January 2005, three weeks after the Sudanese government and the southern-based Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the Sudanese army opened fire on a demonstration in the eastern city of Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast. At least 20 people were killed. This incident plus the ongoing government clampdown, tensions both generated and exacerbated by the signing of the CPA, and the potent example of government tactics in Darfur all contributed to the formation of the Eastern Front in February 2005. The newly formed and relatively unexamined movement promises to forcibly resist Khartoums likely attempt to retake the Hameshkoreb enclave in eastern Sudan, near the Eritrean border, once the former SPLM/A withdraws. Much, much more at the link.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
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Doha, 7 March. (AKI) - A videotape purporting to show three peace activists who were taken hostage in Iraq in November has been broadcast by Arab television station Al Jazeera. Briton Norman Kember, 74, who was seized in Baghdad with two Canadians and an American in November, appears on the tape which was broadcast without audio. The four captives - who belong to the group Christian Peacemaker - were last seen in a video clip dated 21 January, also aired by Al Jazeera.
The tape broadcast on Monday showed the three men sitting in chairs and speaking, although there was no sound. It was not immediately clear which of the four hostages - James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both from Canada, Tom Fox, 54, an American national, and Norman Kember from London - was not in the video. News reports say that one of those on the tape - believed to be Norman Kember - had white hair and a slight beard, while the two others had dark hair and full beards and all appeared in good health. The four were kidnapped in Baghdad more than three months ago, on 26 November.
A previously unknown group - the Swords of Truth Brigade - claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and has on several occasions threatened to kill them unless all detainees in US and Iraqi prisons are released.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
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They're about to have peace. A long peace. Sleep well children.
Jerusalem, 7 March (AKI) - Israel could target Hamas leaders, including Palestinian prime minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh, should the militant group renew attacks in the Jewish state, Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz said on Tuesday. "No one there is immune, not just Ismail Haniyeh," Mofaz told Army Radio, answering a question on whether Israel considered him a potential target for assassination. "The moment Hamas chooses the path of terror, there is no question here of political or non-political [leadership]," Mofaz said. The remarks come three weeks before Israel's 28 March general election. Interim prime minister Ehud Olmert, who heads the centrist Kadima party to which Mofaz belongs, has also been taking a tough line on security as the elections approach.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/07/2006
07:50 ||
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#2
Delightful. Hamas is getting exactly what they have so ardently wished for. Proclaim your terrorist intentions and be treated as such. Mr. Cause, permit me to introduce you to Mr. Effect.
#5
Iff Radical Islamist Mullahs [e.g. Iran] are going to issue FAITH-WIDE "FATWAS" inferring that any individual or organz terror attacks ags JudeoChristian -Western interests is akin to a State act, the same becomes akin to a de facto ACT(S) OF WAR by said supp State or Governing Authority against another world sovereign State. HAMAS, the PA and the Pales. people have put themselves in a dileeemmmmaaaa.
Cindy Sheehan, who drew her fifteen minutes of infamy international attention when she camped outside President Bush's ranch to protest the Iraq war, was arrested Monday along with three other women during a demonstration demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The march to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations by about a dozen U.S. and Iraqi anti-war activists followed a news conference at U.N. headquarters, where Iraqi women described daily killings and ambulance bombings as part of the escalating violence that keeps women in their homes.
Women Say No to War, which helped organize the news conference and march, said Sheehan and three other women were arrested while trying to deliver a petition to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with more than 60,000 signatures urging the "withdrawal all troops and all foreign fighters from Iraq." Police said they were arrested for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. Richard Grenell, the spokesman for the U.S. Mission, said in response to Sheehan's arrest: "We invited her in to discuss her concerns with a U.S. Mission employee. She chose not to come in but to lay down in front of the building and block the entrance. It was clearly designed to be a media stunt, not aimed at rational discussion," Grenell said. "Rational" and "Sheehan" don't mix.
At the news conference, Sheehan said when her 24-year-old son – a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq – died in April 2004, "the morgues were filled with innocent men, women and children."
Entessa Mohammed, a pharmicist who works at a hospital in Baghdad, became tearful when recalling the deaths and injuries she said she has witnessed daily. She estimated that 1,600 Iraqis are killed in Baghdad every month, with a greater number injured. "Thanks for the liberation from Saddam" Hussein, Mohammed said, addressing the Bush administration, "now please go out."
#4
I am more impressed with the 60k signatures! There are more people living in Berkley or Marin County which is supposed to be the most liberal people in the world. Is this movement growing? I think not.
#5
Cindy needs a new agent - her shtick isn't working anymore. She started out with some sympathy (as in: avert-your-eyes-she's-hurting), moved on to annoyingly pathetic, progressed to a running-gag laughingstock, and is now just pathetically annoying.
Oh, that I had more time to comment this morning!
News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats' hopes of winning control of Congress this fall. But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.
Democratic leaders had set a goal of issuing their legislative manifesto by November 2005 to give voters a full year to digest their proposals. But some Democrats protested that the release date was too early, so they put it off until January. The new date slipped twice again, and now House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) says the document will be unveiled in "a matter of weeks."
Some Democrats fear that the hesitant handling is symbolic of larger problems facing the party in trying to seize control of the House and Senate after more than a decade of almost unbroken minority status. Lawmakers and strategists have complained about erratic or uncertain leadership and repeated delays in resolving important issues.
The conflict goes well beyond Capitol Hill. The failure of congressional leaders to deliver a clear message has left some Democratic governors deeply frustrated and at odds with Washington Democrats over strategy.
Party leaders, for example, have yet to decide whether Democrats should focus on a sharply negative campaign against President Bush and the Republicans, by jumping on debacles such as the administration's handling of the Dubai port deal -- or stress their own priorities and values.
There is no agreement on whether to try to nationalize the congressional campaign with a blueprint or "contract" with voters, as the Republicans did successfully in 1994, or to keep the races more local in tone. And the party is still divided over the war in Iraq: Some Democrats, including Pelosi, call for a phased withdrawal; many others back a longer-term military and economic commitment.
"It could be a great year for Democrats," said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), but the party must present a more moderate face and distinguish itself more clearly from the GOP on issues such as ethics. "The comment I hear is 'I'd really like to vote for you guys, but I can't stand the folks I see on TV,' " Cooper said in a telephone interview from Nashville.
On issues such as explaining that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff's work "was a 110 percent Republican operation," Cooper said, "we're not making nearly as much headway as we should." Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a corruption scandal.
The Democratic leaders in Congress -- Pelosi and Sen. Harry M. Reid (Nev.) -- are the party's chief strategists and architects of the agenda, which they view as a way to market party ideas on energy, health care, education and other issues. They have held countless meetings to construct the right list, consulting with governors, mayors and just about every Democratic adviser in town.
"By the time the election rolls around, people are going to know where Democrats stand," Reid said.
But many in the party have their doubts. On Feb. 27, Reid and Pelosi appeared before the Democratic Governors Association. At one point in the conversation, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, noting that the two leaders had talked about a variety of themes and ideas, asked for help. Could they reduce the message to just two or three core ideas that governors could echo in the states?
According to multiple accounts from those in the room, Reid said they had narrowed the list to six and proceeded to talk about them. Pelosi then offered her six -- not all the same as Reid's. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said later: "One of the other governors said 'What do you think?' and I said 'You know what I think? I don't think we have a message.' "
Others, including Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) -- who head the Senate and House campaign efforts -- believe the November election will turn mainly on how voters view Republicans. Schumer is leading the Democratic attack on the port deal, excoriating the administration for jeopardizing national security -- a realm in which Republicans have held the advantage with voters.
He and Emanuel have sought to delay the agenda's release to allow Democratic attacks to hold the stage with minimum distraction. "When you're in the opposition, you both propose and oppose," Emanuel said. "But fundamentally, this is going to be a referendum on [Republican] stewardship."
Also dividing Democratic strategists is the question of what lessons to take from the Republican landslide of 1994, when the GOP won the Senate and picked up 54 House seats, wiping out 40 years of Democratic rule. Some Democrats associate that breakthrough with the House Republicans' "Contract With America," a list of proposals on policy and government.
"We should take a page from their book" and have "an overarching theme" similar to the 1994 contract, said Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.).
Many of his colleagues agree, but not Reid. "We're not going to do a 'Contract With America,' " Reid said in an interview. He noted that the GOP document received scant attention when it was presented a few weeks before the 1994 election, and political historians say it played a minor role in the outcome. "There's a great mythology about the contract," Reid said.
Even the party's five-word 2006 motto has preoccupied congressional Democrats for months. "We had meetings where senators offered suggestions," Reid said. "We had focus groups. We worked hard on that. . . . It's a long, slow, arduous process."
That slogan -- "Together, America Can Do Better" -- was revived from the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry. It was the last line of Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's response to President Bush's State of the Union address, and Reid, Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have used it in speeches. But there is an effort afoot to drop the word "together." It tests well in focus groups and audiences, Democratic sources said, but it makes the syntax incorrect.
Governors privately scoff at the slogan. They also say the message coming from congressional leaders has been too relentlessly negative. "They want to coordinate. They want to collaborate. That's all good," said one Democratic governor who declined to be identified in order to talk candidly about a closed-door meeting. "The question is: Coordinate or collaborate on what? People need to know not just what we're against but what we're for. That's the kind of message the governors are interested in developing at the national level."
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said congressional Democrats have spent the past year redefining the debates over terrorism and Iraq and have prepared the ground for a shift to a more positive message that will focus on energy, health care and homeland security, all areas in which the governors would concur, he predicted. "We've had an unprecedented level of cooperation," he said.
Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly added: "At the end of the day, I think everyone will be on board."
Perhaps the Democrats' greatest dilemma is how to respond to the Iraq war. It looms as the biggest question mark over Bush's administration and the Republican lawmakers who have backed him on the conflict almost without question.
Congressional Democrats have been split over the war since 2002, when many voted to authorize military action. The ground shifted last November when Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), a leading Democratic voice on military matters, called for U.S. troops to be withdrawn as soon as possible. Two weeks later, Pelosi endorsed his stance.
Although Pelosi said she was not speaking for her caucus, some colleagues complained that she was handing Republicans a gift by enabling them to tag Democrats as soft on terrorism and forcing Democratic candidates to explain whether they agreed with their House leader.
There is little question that the political landscape looks promising for Democrats. A Feb. 9 poll by the Pew Research Center found that Democrats lead Republicans 50 to 41 percent in a generic ballot.
But congressional Democrats have some key deficiencies. For instance, they lack the hard-charging, charismatic figurehead that Gingrich represented for the House GOP in 1994. But the Democrats have an abundance of presidential hopefuls, and their agendas sometimes differ from those of Reid, Schumer, Pelosi and Emanuel.
For instance, Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) tried to filibuster the renewal of the USA Patriot Act, a move opposed by most of his Senate colleagues, including Reid. Kerry (Mass.) led an unsuccessful filibuster attempt against Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s confirmation as a Supreme Court justice. The best-known Democrat is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), whose plans for a 2008 presidential bid leave many of her colleagues wary of how her famous but divisive presence might affect them.
"There are lots of skeptics," Schumer conceded. But the polls look better and better, he stressed. "There may be some inside-the-Beltway babble, but it's not affecting the voters," said Schumer, who wants the agenda delayed again -- until summer.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006
04:54 ||
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#1
On issues such as explaining that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff's work "was a 110 percent Republican operation," Cooper said, "we're not making nearly as much headway as we should." Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a corruption scandal.
Hard to do that when 50% of the senators involved were Democrats, including Reid himself.
#4
News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats' hopes of winning control of Congress this fall. But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.
But wait, this is the Democrats message and their agenda- get the press to ignore Dem failures and lay all blame for everything, every storm, every death, every single person who hasn't got a jet in their garage, on the GOP. They just don't understand why it isn't working.
#5
"By the time the election rolls around, people are going to know where Democrats stand."
We can only hope. Of course, it's too much to ask that that awareness will lead to treason trials, isn't it?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/07/2006 9:34
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#6
If these dingalings actually believed in anything-- other than wanting to be back in power, that is-- they wouldn't have to hold all these strategy meetings to decide what they should pretend to believe in.
#7
"We will be issuing a comprehensive statement of our beliefs just as soon as we have the focus group results telling us what polls well."
Posted by: Mike ||
03/07/2006 11:08
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#8
I'm still waiting for Kos' manifesto, too. Maybe I'm just missing the nuances, but I don't understand how recycling a loser's Presidential campaign slogan is such a bright idea, either.
#12
Its a riot to watch them in ?action?. They cant decide to be anti-Bush or pro something else (whatever that might be). IMHO the Dems are too wishy-washy to write anything down in stone and stick to it. Doing so would not allow them any wiggle room if circumstances change. As such they are not about to commit on removing troops from Iraq if there is a chance that democracy, they dont want to be pro Gay marriage if the country clearly isnt, and they dont want to be anti business while the economy is humming along. In essence the Dems have painted themselves in a corner as only the Not Bush party but few doubt that will be enough to nationalize the congressional elections. They have to: Show Us the Money or the midterms will simply be an arranging of deck chairs with no power changing hands.
#13
Schumer as national security pointman? Must be a TV camera nearby. The GOP is truly lucky their opponents are Democrats. God forbid they were faced with a serious political party. Gonna get those platform planks out a week or two before the election, Chuck?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2006 13:38
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#14
No prob - just dust off the ol' Communist Manifesto and use that. The Dems have no message or imagination beyond Marx.
#15
#13 Frank G: "The GOP is truly lucky their opponents are Democrats. God forbid they were faced with a serious political party."
ROFL, Frank! Truer words were never spoken.
I have a modest proposal to solve our energy problems, at least in the electricity department:
1. Require the Dems to keep acting like they are (which they will, since it's natural for them).
2. Figure out how to hook up dynamos to Harry Truman's, Hubert Humphrey's, and JFK's graves, and their grave-spinning will power the entire country for years to come.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2006 14:33
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#16
I read on a liberal blog how the Dems wont roll out their message too early because the bushhitlerrovecheney cabal will undermine it before the elections. If their message is so fragile that it cant stand criticism then they are doomed by November. But then their MO lately has been the ole bait and switch. They voted for the war but sorry they had to depose a tyrant like Saddam. They are for ending dependency of foreign oil, but they are against drilling at ANWR. They want to punish terrorists, but lets extend civil right to them, make sure we only ask them questions nicely, and make there stay in prison as comfortable as possible. They are against those people running ports but we are not profiling like the mean spirited GOPBUSHHITLER crowd. I wonder how they can make their contract appealing to middle America and their LLL moonbat fringe element? Maybe they will send them to the closet until after election like the gays?
#17
'I'd really like to vote for you guys, but I can't stand the folks I see on TV,
There is the problem. I'd be happy to vote for them if they weren't mostly all insane and apparently willing to sacrifice the security of my country for political advantage. The Democratic problem is not staying on message, it is making sense.
#19
"WISHY WASHY" - yep, and ergo which is why they believe any and all US Lefties will automat have a place on the future USSA Amerikan Politburo and Presidium, as opposed to the more realistic and HISTORICALLT CORRECT being gulagged iff not exterminated wid all the rest of the American people iff America loses the GWOT. "Wishy Washy" means the Nazis-for-Stalinism Russians and tradit Stalinist/Maoist Chicoms will want them on their team.
This is an hit piece, but it has some good points.By Lowell Ponte
No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. It is a clandestine Iranian military nuclear program, French Foreign Affairs Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy aka le Mickey d'Orsay said on government-run France 2 Television on February 15.
The international community has sent a very firm message in telling the Iranians to return to reason and suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment and conversion of uranium, he continued. But they arent listening to us.
France should be applauded for its belated resolve in opposing the deceitful grab for nuclear weapons by Irans terrorist-supporting apocalyptic Muslim theocracy.
France might be on the side of sanity (for a change) when, this week, the superpowers take sides over bringing the issue of Irans Russian-supplied nuclear facilities before the United Nations Security Council for action.
But what of that other nation that poses a serious risk of deliberately or inadvertently providing nuclear weapons to Islamo-fascist terrorists?
This other nation was willing to give atomic weapons potential to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
This other nation has both a large Muslim population and its own arsenal of at least 350 nuclear weapons.
This other nation that may beget a world of atom-wielding Ayatollahs is France itself.
At least three paths could lead to the French arming Islamists with nuclear weapons.
The first path to this doomsday nightmare came to public attention in June 1981, when Israeli warplanes destroyed a nuclear reactor 18 miles south of Baghdad.
This Osirak dubbed Ochirac due to the close relationship between the then prime minister and Saddam reactor was being built by the French for Saddam Hussein, who had already used nerve gas on his own people and on Iranians. Hussein had already described himself as the reincarnation of the ancient Babylonian king and mass murderer Nebuchadnezzer II who destroyed Jerusalem around 586 BCE.
Had Israel not carried out this preemptive act of Assertive Disarmament weeks before the reactor became operational, Hussein could have fabricated nuclear weapons from this reactors radioactive output by the time he invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990. The threat that Hussein could then unleash radioactive devastation on nearby Iranian and Saudi Arabian oil facilities might have made him too dangerous to attack. Btw, IIRC(?) one french technician was killed in the attack, and I've read he actually was killed after having planted a beacon for guided israeli bombs. also, France is supposed to have given access to the plant blueprints to the israelis.
(The world likely soon must decide whether, likewise, to preempt Irans incipient atom bomb factories to destroy this deadly serpent before it hatches.)
France is among the world's leading sellers of nuclear reactors and reprocessors and sellers of radioactive reactor fuel. Days after President George W. Bush struck a nuclear power deal last week between the U.S. and India, for example, a high member of France's National Assembly on Sunday quietly dropped the news to Reuters that France has agreed to help develop a "peaceful" nuclear power program for oil-rich Libya's dictator and longtime terrorism backer Col. Mohammar Qaddafi.
Amid the controversies over whether Saddam Hussein attempted to procure radioactive material in Africa, few bothered to note that the country at the center of this discussion is a former French colony, Niger.
One of the biggest uranium mine owners and dealers in processed uranium in Niger is COGEMA, historically 82 percent owned by the French Atomic Energy Commission and now a subsidiary of the French-controlled French-German consortium Areva, a major worldwide nuclear reactor manufacturer and seller.
Areva says that it abides by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation from the reactors it sells and fuels.
But, as nuclear scholar Henry Sokolski reported in 2004, the French firm Areva, like its international reactor-marketing competitors, has been so eager to sell China nuclear-power plants that they and their governments are turning a blind eye to a Chinese deal to sell Islamabad (Pakistan) a large reactor.
Pakistan, the one Islamic nation that already has atomic weapons, has refused to sign the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Pakistans chief atomic weapons scientist secretly provided nuclear materials and nuclear bomb-making information to other Muslim states, but after brief imprisonment for this crime he was recently set free by his government.
The French government not only approved selling its Osirak reactor and ample radioactive fuel to Saddam Hussein but also threatened to use its veto as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to prevent Husseins overthrow.
It later came to light that several of French President Jacques Chiracs closest political allies were being given millions of dollars worth of oil certificates by Hussein under the United Nations Oil-for-Food program that controlled Iraqi oil sales.
Was there also a secret deal with Hussein involving COGEMA, Areva, the French Government and Niger?
Can a French Government that was willing to put nuclear weapons ingredients into the hands of Saddam Hussein be trusted to keep such materials out of the hands of oil-rich Islamist fanatics? Is France again willing to sell doomsday weapon capability if the price is right?
(If the world were sane, of course, France would have forfeited its nuclear weapons and materials after the Osirak reactor it was building was destroyed. France has shown that it lacks both the morality and maturity to be trusted with these dangerous tools the U.S. and Britain gave it along with a permanent seat on the Security Council following the French complicity with Hitler during World War II.)
The second path by which France might deliberately or inadvertently provide nuclear weapons to Islamofascists is not surprisingly for France sexual.
Shortly after the year 700 Islamic armies from Moorish-ruled Spain began to invade France. Toulouse narrowly survived a Muslim siege in 721. These Saracens occupied the major French Mediterranean seaport city of Narbonne for 40 years, from 719 until 759 when the last Islamic troops retreated back across the Pyrenees.
The Christian hold on France was secured in year 732, when the knight Charles Martel, The Hammer, crushed the main Moorish army at Poitiers. Martels army turned back the Islamic tide that at its height ruled not only part of the French Riviera but also Spain, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily.
But by the cosmology that fills Islamist minds, any land ruled by Muslims remains Muslim forever. This ideology divides our planet into two realms Dar al Islam, the House of Surrender to the will of Allah, and Dar al Harb, the House of War destined to be conquered by Islam.
Radical Islamists regard France, like Spain, as a place where the once-and-future rule of Islam is to be restored.
(If Christians held this same kind of cosmology, then every land the Muslims took in the Middle East from Christian Byzantium, in North Africa from Christian Rome and Christian Europe, in Indonesia from the Christian Dutch and so forth must be restored to Christian rule. Indeed, a radical Christian might argue that the Crusades and the era of colonialism were merely legitimate efforts to restore Christianity to lands temporarily colonized by Muslim crusaders.)
The Muslim conquest of France, many believe, is now underway. Muslims are winning by making love, not war. Demographics reveal that the average traditional French couple is giving birth to less than 1.4 children, far short of the 2.1 needed merely to sustain their numbers. The average Muslim husband and wife in France, by contrast, are giving birth to almost 3.6 children.
In France now the most Islamic of Western European nations Muslims comprise up to 13 percent or more of the population I've actually read 16-17% is the most likely number, about 1/3rd of the births occur from muslim parents (publication of births listings is now prevented by law, since the proportion of muslim names was shocking, and the Establishment/Sarko IIRC didn't like that...), "youths" make up about 25% of the youth, up to 50% in most large urban centers. This proportion is rapidly increasing and by 2030 less than 25 years from today could make France 25 percent Muslim, easily enough to hold the balance of power in national elections. According to JP Gourévitch, a non-PC Africa specialist, in 2060, about 2/3rd of the french population will be muslim if the 90's trends continue (they do, and they actually have accelerated).
France is committed to maintaining its nuclear arsenal in perpetuity. In the not-too-distant future it will be a majority Muslim nation. Therefore, if present trends continue, France itself is destined to transform into a nuclear-armed Muslim nation.
The third path by which France might deliberately or inadvertently provide nuclear weapons to Islamist terrorists follows from the second path, and from the fact that France prides itself on its egalite, its purportedly non-discriminatory belief in equality.
The French population today is approximately 13 percent Muslim. The French military attracting recruits disproportionately from the lower socioeconomic classes as many other democratic nations do is by one estimate 15 percent Muslim, nearly one of every six people in the French armed forces nope, numbers are more like 20% overall, 28% in army, up to 40% in shock troops like paratroopers... and this is deliberate, the Shirak gvt has actually been using the now professional army as a social engineering tool to "integrate" the "youths", much to the chagrin of the military brass (an internal survey found that only 1 in 10 muslim recruits would "fight for France"! And that most wouldn't gfight against "their" country, IE Algeria, Morocco,...). Anyway, french army is bankrupt and mostly not operational anymore, except for a few highly trained and effective expeditionary corps (SF, FFL and marines).
The United States military welcomes Muslim recruits, almost all of whom serve with honor as loyal and patriotic soldiers. American forces include Muslim chaplains. But early in the latest Iraq war, several U.S. soldiers were killed or wounded when a Muslim recruit rolled a hand grenade into their tent. This Muslim had been brainwashed into betraying his fellow U.S. soldiers by Islamist propaganda.
Israel has many Arab citizens, but Israeli policy has apparently long been to restrict Muslim access to the highest levels of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and certain militarily sensitive companies and research facilities. One rationale for this is that the possibility, however tiny, of a Muslim IDF officer becoming a turncoat is a risk too great to take.
The French nuclear weapons program is shrouded in secrecy. Experts estimate that today France possesses approximately 350 nuclear weapons, but the number and type is uncertain. France has no tactical nuclear weapons, but only because French military doctrine defines all its atomic weapons, regardless of size and type, as strategic.
In a speech on January 19, 2006, President Chirac declared that France was prepared to use its nuclear weapons not only against invaders of its territory but also to safeguard our vital interests, implying that these weapons could be used against terrorists and others who threaten French vital supplies and enterprises. Chirac also suggested that the French nuclear arsenal should be regarded as the nuclear deterrent of Europe.
What France now needs to tell its own citizens and the world is whether French Muslims hold positions of trust with access to nuclear weapons or materials in the French military, French nuclear weapons fabrication and fuel reprocessing facilities, nuclear laboratories, sensitive corporate entities such as COGEMA and Areva, and French nuclear reactor sites.
How many Muslims hold such sensitive positions in France? Where? Who?
What precautions are being taken to protect French nuclear weapons and radioactive materials from theft or terrorist detonation by Muslims in positions of trust or power?
What security checks has France taken to find out if French Muslims in such high-risk positions have been exposed to Islamist propaganda? Regularly associate with radicals? Or might become potential converts to the Osama bin Laden-like radical utopian vision that the whole world should be brought under the theocratic dictatorship of a single Muslim Caliph.
France, of course, officially does not even count people as Muslims in its census. It therefore cannot officially say whether the French Muslim population is 10 percent or 20 percent bull, the pols knows the actual figure perfectly well, that's why they are so afraid... but it's not a bug, it's a feature (Eurabia). France officially does not define people by race or ethnicity for purposes of quotas, set-asides, privileges, racial profiling or job exclusions false, affirmative action geared toward muslims is in the way since the november 2005 ramadan riots, starting with 20 000 civil servants posts. Officially, France does not discriminate against Muslims.
But when France in the 1960s abandoned its terror-torn colony Algeria after defining that North African land as a department of France itself, the official French policy was to leave behind as many as 400,000 Harkis (from the Arabic word haraka, movement), native Algerian French citizens who fought and worked on the side of the French. As many as 150,000 of these abandoned Harkis were killed, many by torture, by the radical Algerian FLN (National Liberation Front) that took control of the country after they had been disarmed by the gaullist traitors... to be frank, ten of thousands of pieds-noirs (french algerians) were killed in abominable ways too, french women and girls as young as 12 were captured and later held in FLN brothels (algerian military men boasted of that to their french counterparts),... french army didn't hesitate to shoot crowds and bomb pieds noirs areas to force them to surrender their country.... The surrendering of Algeria to the national-islamist FLN was a shame, and IMHO the start of this whole "3rd jihad" thingie.
(During World War II the German-aligned Vichy government in France used its national railroad to transport 76,000 French Jews to their doom in Nazi death camps. Virulent anti-Semitism is one of the ideologies many French share with their former Nazi overlords and Islamofascists. French treachery has not been limited to its Arab citizens.) Nope, antisemitism is not a french trait IMHO, french jews are real well assimilated and patriotic; the Enlightened Elites are much anti-Israel, true, the quai d'Orsay (french State Department) has a long history of antisemitism, but french are not rabid antisemites, I'm sorry.
IIRC, polls found more antisemite feeling in the USA, especially among the blacks, than in France (this needs to be confirmed). Only 7% of the latest wave of antisemite violence came from the rightwingers, according to police intelligence, the rest being the work of the "youths"...
After World War II during the prosperous 30 glorious years the French remember nostalgically as les Trentes Glorieuses, workers were brought in large numbers from Algeria, Tunisia and other French African colonies to do the menial work no surviving Frenchman wanted to do total bull, the actual population shift occured after the 1976 Eurabia "family reunion law" promulgated by Chirac (who else,) and the über tranzi/globalist VGE (the father of the abortive EU constitution), which turned a muslim/african population of a few hundred of thousands workers mostly employed in the industry (menial and hard labor works were still done by *french* and/or *europeans*, italians, spanish and portugueses mostly) into a settlement population of 10-13 millions in just 30 years. This is not immigration, this is colonization. Neither they nor the Harkis who fled to France were treated as equals. As Georgetown University Professor Soner Cagaptay observed last July, Muslims comprise more than 10 percent of Frances population but not a single Muslim sits as a member of the French Parliament. (On the other hand, the 2006 designer shows in Paris introduced a surprising new Muslim-ization of French fashion, another level of cultural surrender to the soon-to-be-dominant Islamic culture.)
Children born in France to these North African immigrants were among the rioters burning thousands of automobiles in cities across France last fall. Their rage was not cooled by successful French government efforts to restore a measure of European Union funding for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in February 2006.
These French Muslims have been described as a ticking time bomb. The question the world now must consider is whether that time bomb might be nuclear.
American politicians now feel pressure to review whether the United Arab Emirate nation of Dubai can be trusted to run shipping facilities in American seaports.
Surely the French Republic can and should feel similar political pressure to explain to its citizens and the world what, if any, steps it has taken to keep clandestine Islamists out of key nuclear positions. These are positions from which an evildoer could steal either French nuclear weapons or divert radioactive materials that terrorists could use to make atomic bombs.
#1
Old Lowell cant seem to break the habit of twisting statistics. Hell, he wrote a book full of false stats to support his theory of an impending ice age that was to occur in 2000. Not exactly positive but I don't think he was correct on that one.
#3
to be frank, ten of thousands of pieds-noirs (french algerians) were killed in abominable ways too, french women and girls as young as 12 were captured and later held in FLN brothels (algerian military men boasted of that to their french counterparts),
It seems it wasn't just the women and girls. FrontPage Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman During the Algerian independence war the freedom fighters used to publicly sodomize French officers in order to achieve the enemy's maximum degradation.
The Symposium link is an informative, though at time tedious, read.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2006 13:12
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Hundreds of Maoist rebels raided a town in eastern Nepal, bombing government buildings and freeing dozens of prisoners from a local jail, officials said yesterday.
At least eight people -- three Maoists, two civilians, two police officers and a soldier -- were killed in the overnight attack in Ilam, a tea-growing area bordering India, about 600km east of Kathmandu, they said.
The guerrillas, who specialise in hit-and-run attacks, drove into Ilam in buses and trucks, attacking government buildings and shooting at security posts, residents said.
"The Maoists also stormed the local jail and freed more than 100 prisoners including some Maoists," a police officer said.
He said the rebels, who are fighting to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy, bombed or set fire to the district administration office building, the revenue office and the local municipal council office.
"We spent the night in terror," Ilam housewife Kamala Bhattarai told Reuters. "We could hear gun shots and explosions for several hours."
More than a dozen security troops were wounded in the fighting.
The rebels also set ablaze the home of the mayor who was elected in last month's municipal elections opposed by the Maoists, journalist Rohit Chandra Bhattarai said.
He said the fighting continued until dawn when an army helicopter was seen and the rebels sped away in buses. "Many buildings in Ilam are burned out and riddled with bullet holes," said another resident.
The Maoists, fighting since 1996 for a communist state, have stepped up attacks since they ended their unilateral truce in January after the royalist government failed to reciprocate.
Nepal's seven main political parties on Monday appealed to the Maoists to call off plans for a blockade of Kathmandu next week and a nationwide strike later, saying it would hurt ordinary people.
The political parties, who have struck a loose alliance with the Maoists after King Gyanendra seized power last year, said they would start a new round of protests in April in their campaign for restoration of democracy.
The Maoists have threatened an indefinite blockade of the hill-ringed capital from March 14 and a general strike next month to increase the pressure on the king.
In November mainstream opposition parties formed a loose alliance with the rebels, which still holds despite the return to violence.
Independent local media reported Monday that two leaders from one of the mainstream parties, the Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist Leninist), had gone to New Delhi to hold talks with Maoist leaders living in exile.
More than 13,000 people have been killed in the revolt that has shattered Nepal's aid dependent economy, one of the world's 10 poorest.
Low intensity terrorism, fits with the "jihad as an individual duty" of the modern ROP scholars, follow the same trend of "friction with the infidel society" as car arsons, gangrapes, motiveless assaults,... in Europe, though is one is more clearly religious-motivated.
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (AP) -- A University of North Carolina graduate from Iran, accused of running down nine people on campus to avenge the treatment of Muslims, said at a hearing Monday that he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah." Police Chief Derek Poarch said Taheri-azar told investigators he intentionally hit people to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world." Taheri-azar appeared in Orange County District Court in nearby Hillsborough. He was assigned a public defender, but said after the hearing: "The truth is my lawyer."
At about the same time, UNC students held what they called an "anti-terrorism" rally on the Chapel Hill campus. The school's chapter of the College Republicans helped organize Monday's campus rally against terrorism. "We don't want terrorism here, and we're not gonna stand for that where we live and where we go to school," said Kris Wampler, a student at UNC and member group.
Student Staci Griner said the incident was unsettling for UNC students. "You feel kind of removed from the bigger attacks, like 9/11, because they're not in your immediate town. We walk around and meet people and never think it's one of our own," said Griner, 21. "I feel like the whole world is falling apart."
#3
He's a goner, attempted murder, and a confession to cops on the 911 call.
Heard it myself, broadcast last night on TV.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/07/2006 8:16
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#4
rj - after his televised confession how will the prosecution find a jury that doesn't know? Won't they have to dismiss the case and let him go because they can't find a 'fair' jury?
I think it was at the start of the fall 2002 semester that UNC required all incoming freshmen to read a book on the Koran, or rather, just the 'peace and love' parts. So this is how Allan and his followers repay those infidels who partially submit to dhimmitude. It's 'all or nothing,' people. Neutralility is not an option.
#5
He's a goner, attempted murder, and a confession to cops on the 911 call.
Out in five years. Everyone will agree he was just an excitable boy.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/07/2006 9:32
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#6
There was this kind of terr attack---using a car against a crowd --- in Israel a few years ago. The terr (a Paleo born USA citizen) was shot dead by one of the bystanders.
#12
Old Kojak quote, "And when you do get out, there'll be a little old man with a shotgun to meet you at the prison gates.
I repeat, he's a goner
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/07/2006 14:19
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#13
No, no--that's a typo. He said he wanted to spread the grill of Allah.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/07/2006 14:25
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#14
Frequent marijuana smoker
After speaking with someone who knew Taheri-Azar, a little bit more interesting details come into view. The guy I spoke with said Taheri-azar pledged his fraternity, Sig Ep, and that the frat "blackballed" him, meaning kicked him out because he was such a recluse and antisocial. They referred to him as "Mo." Sig Ep is a typical fraternity, fairly popular, and while "Animal House" would be an exagerration, it's a site of frequent parties. And while all frats do some form of community service, Sig Ep isn't your co-ed service fraternity that exists soley for that function.
The Sig Ep brother said that Taheri-azar was from a wealthy family, a frequent marijuana smoker and "most always high" and that he drank heavily as well. So much for being religiously pious. Though, it is reported that in the past year he turned away from these habits and became more religious.
My first conclusions were that it's highly unlikely he's related to any type of "cell." First of all, his actions show that he's a complete novice, that he had no operational funding, and that the attack was not well planned (although he did rent the Jeep from Enterprise). Further information continues to corroborate this.
There's lot more here from a personal story of being on campus and asking questions. SO is Iranian. Interesting read...
http://www.terrorismunveiled.com/athena/
Scroll down to March 6 Background on Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.... Includes pictures
Also at the link: UNC-CH senior Dave Van Atta, who shared a dormitory suite his freshman year with Taheri-azar, described him as a serious student, a hospital volunteer and a Muslim who became deeply committed to his religion relatively recently. The two met up again for lunch in Durham last spring and talked about religion for two hours after Van Atta expressed his own atheism. "He was pretty devout," Van Atta recalled. "It was as if he had just found religion," Van Atta said. Taheri-azar had studied the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and knew it well. "He was really at peace with himself when I talked with him last."
...
Inside the unlocked and empty apartment Saturday, a GoArmy packet with enlistment information lay on the bed in a front bedroom thought to be Taheri-azar's. A packet, "Questionnaire for National Security Positions," had been marked with a highlighter and included questions such as, "What is your nationality?"
A blank photocopy of a "Reference Form" for a handgun permit with the Orange County Sheriff's Office was in the trash. Among the books lined up against the wall on the floor were the Quran, books by Nelson Mandela and Cornel West and "Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror."
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2006 19:53
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Tv footage of orbs (live and stills) at link, in the sidebar of the article.
I'm worried about me... if this trend goes on, soon enough I'll post the werewolf or guardian angel pics from Coast to coast, or the True Tales(tm) from my favorites anomalist websites...
#2
I'm not typing very well today but a) while I think this has a physical as opposed to a paranormal explanation, for a similar phenomenon I had looked at a long time ago (ball lightning) I'm unconvinced that the model currently being accepted by the mainstream scientists is unlikely.
(Yes, I know orbs are something different.)
I guess it's a step up from not saying it happens at all...
Posted by: Phil ||
03/07/2006 9:48
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#3
Oh please, not the werewolves again! Every time they move into another neighborhood the crime rate goes up, the property values go down... they're just a bunch of juvenile delinquent publicity hounds trying to make it with all the goth chicks, just like the vampires. They're both as bad as rock musicians. They come in, disrupt the area, but then leave right before the mob of peasants is marching down _my_ street, with pitchforks and torches, screaming "KILL ALL THE MONSTERS!" and I'M the one who always has to talk them down.
#7
Ok, you asked for it, remember?... Introducing... the werewolf!!! (the photgrapher sez "bigfoot", but it looks more like a Lon Cheney werewolf to me).
Details at http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page1281.html.
Kill thepics if this screw up formating, btw...
Opinion piece by an european collaborator of Faith Freedom who has interesting texts on his blog.
I have stated before that we in the West need to face down our internal enemies, the twin trolls of Denial and Defeatism, before we can have any chance of dealing with Islam. Yes, the Islamic threat is very real and could lead to a cataclysmic world war unless stopped. No, its not too late to win this. Not yet. Writer Mark Steyn does a good job at devouring the former troll, but insists on feeding the latter. As Lawrence Auster demonstrates, Steyn continues to claim that we have in fact already lost, and must settle for "a Muslim majority world. He talks as if he is the Churchill of our age, yet displays a resigned defeatism that would have made even Neville Chamberlain blush. Contrary to the views expressed by many, the madness of the Muhammad cartoons issue can in hindsight turn out to have been a blessing in disguise. Eurabias legions of spin doctors were quite successful in placing the blame for 9/11, the Madrid and the London bombings on US and Israeli foreign policies. These attacks may actually have strengthened Eurabia. Not so this time. The first cracks in this wall came with the murder of Theo van Gogh. With the Danish cartoon case, these cracks have now grown into a chasm.
The Phony War was a phase in early WW2 marked by few military operations in Continental Europe, in the months following the German invasion of Poland. What we have witnessed during these past few months is the end of the Phony War against Islamic Jihad. The election of hard-line president Ahmadinejad in Iran and of Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, the Muslim riots in France and the international unrest triggered by the Muhammad cartoons case mark a watershed in this battle. After having carefully, and one must admit skilfully, built up the mythology of Islamic tolerance for decades, Muslims now blew their own cover. This is end of taqiyya, and from the Muslim point of view, it probably came too soon. It is indeed possible for Muslims to win this, but it would have made more sense for them to lay low for another couple of decades, and quietly continue the demographic Jihad through migration conquest. Of course, being Muslims, they have to boast and brag all the time, and havent got the patience to wait that long. This critical character flaw, more than infidel strength, is why they will most likely lose. Just like the Japanese during WW2, who hailed the attack on Pearl Harbor as a great victory, the sheer arrogance of their creed blinds them from realizing when they make huge mistakes that could eventually cost them victory. There is now a critical mass of Europeans who see clearly that Islam and Muslim immigration constitute a mortal danger to their freedom and their civilization. They feel confused and scared, but first of all angry. If this is the true face of Islam, doesnt that mean that our academic elites, our media and our political leaders have lied to us systematically for decades? Muslims misunderstand the mentality and potential response from the infidels because they see mainly the appeasement of the political class. What they dont see is the simmering defiance that is growing at the grassroots level.
What we need now is not another column by Mark Steyn telling us that all I lost and we might as well surrender pre-emptively. What we need now is anger. Anger gives you energy, instead of the resigned passivity bred by defeatism. However, we should be careful not direct this anger towards that favorite Eurabian boogeyman, the USA and Israel, nor should we resort to the time-tested European tradition of targeting random foreigners. It wasnt the Americans or the Israelis who brought us into this mess, and it certainly wasnt the Indian dentist or the Chinese shopkeeper down the corner. It was in fact our very own EU elites.
Americans tend to consider the EU as a joke. Its not, because its not funny. Apart from a few vague statements, the EU has largely abandoned Denmark during the cartoon incident. European unity only exists whenever Brussels wants to subvert the democratic process in individual member states and force more Islam down our throats, selling us out behind our backs through the intricate networks of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. The Danish embassies had hardly burnt down before Javier Solana, the Foreign Minister of the European Union, promised his real masters the Saudis that the EU would henceforth work to limit freedom of speech for half a billion people. And he cant be held responsible for this by the European public, since he doesnt answer to any democratically elected government. The EU is not a joke, the EU is evil, destroying freedom across an entire continent and spreading instability far beyond the borders of Europe. The Cold War was won when Ronal Reagan publicly labelled the Soviet Union the Evil Empire. A generation later, we are witnessing the rise of another Evil Empire. Not the Soviet Union, but the European Union. Its time to bring this one down, too. The European Union, not the USA and definitely not Israel, is the greatest threat to world peace today. It is appeasement by the EU that has emboldened the Islamic Jihad, and not just in the West. The EU is an increasingly totalitarian entity that is post-democratic and neo-feudalist. The buildings of the European Commission should be turned into a museum of the history of dhimmitude and Jihad across the world. Parts of it could be torn down and displayed next to pieces of the Berlin Wall, symbols of past tyranny and oppression and the ultimate triumph of freedom. Javier Solana, Chris Patten and their ilk should be tried for treason in public trials to reveal the full scale of the Eurabian project.
There is a growing estrangement between the peoples of Europe and their elites. People sense that they are not being told the truth, and feel betrayed. Somebody needs to show them just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Publish Bat Yeors book Eurabia online, both in the full version and in abridged versions of 50 and 5 pages. Pay the author whatever she wants for the copyrights, and encourage the translation of the book into multiple European languages. Store it online on websites such as Faith Freedom International and Jihad Watch, as well as major blogs based outside of Eurabian jurisdiction, and encourage visitors to download the text or display it on their own websites. This principle could be repeated with a number of books critical of Islam, creating a flood of information bypassing politically correct media and official censorship. Such an operation could receive clandestine support of the Bush administration. It would cost a fraction of the war in Iraq, and achieve a lot more, both in the West and in the world in general.
Perhaps in stead of pinning our hopes on an Islamic Reformation that will probably never materialize, Westerners should rather focus on an Enlightenment and a new Renaissance. Not in the Islamic world, but in Europe and the West. Wishful thinking, you say? Well, although the situation is now very serious, it is in fact not impossible to imagine such an outcome. Moreover, it is important that somebody formulates an alternative, positive vision to rival that of Islam and Eurabia, or the only alternatives ordinary Europeans will be stuck with are extremist political movements. And then we will end up with a Clash of Fascisms and the death of European democracy. Hope is important. Without formulating a positive vision of hope we can never win this.
Muslims always claim that the West owes much to Islam, and that Islamic influences triggered the Renaissance. Thats not true. But maybe it will be this time. It is true that the West in general and Europe in particular has lost its way at the beginning of the 21st century. Perhaps this life-and-death struggle with Islam is precisely the slap in the face that we need to regroup and revitalize our civilization. Europe will now be forced to rethink her culture and the entire basis of Western civilization, if she is going to cure the weaknesses that are currently making her vulnerable to Islamic infiltration. We need to rebuild a stronger sense of Western unity, much fractured by the Eurabian Union and the anti-Western, pre-Enlightenment ideology of Multiculturalism. If so, Islam would indeed be responsible for triggering a Western Renaissance, the Second Renaissance. Ironically, Islam itself would be critically, perhaps mortally wounded by this struggle, and Bernard Lewis would be proved wrong. Europe, or at least most of Europe, will not be Islamic by the end of his century. It is more likely that Islam itself will have ceased to be a global force of any significance by that point. But it is important to realize that such a result will not come by itself. It will require Europeans, Westerners and infidels in general to grow some backbone, end appeasement and openly confront the very real Islamic threat we are now facing. If we do so, I remain confident that we will prevail. We just have to listen a bit less to the defeatist siren song of Mark Steyn.
#1
Americans tend to consider the EU as a joke. Its not, because its not funny.
I disagree with him here, but otherwise that's a fine essay.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/07/2006 8:52
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#2
The European political elites will never stop appeasing the Islamists because they have invested too much to change now. However they can be voted out of office, and THAT would be a European revolution.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/07/2006 9:10
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#3
It would have been a great piece if his bone picking with Mark Steyn wasn't so personal and ridiculously trivial.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 11:57
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#5
I don't really think there is a personal bone picking here, since they really aren't on the same level (one is a somewhat obscure freelance blogger, the other a widely diffused op-editorialist, come on, I don't think WB is that egomaniac, or so I hope), but rather a fundamental disagreement.
What is really needed is a radio station to broadcast 'news of the Islamic world' to the Islamic world in the languages of the Islamic world with that station having music, sports, etc. with an Islamic bent but also including a few hours a week of apostate points of view and well as a few hours a week of sermons from mainstream imans.
The vast bulk of people in the Islamic world are hungry for non-govt news about Islam and most people have access to a radio through personnal ownership or clan rights (TV is much less available).
#7
Many people quite knowledgeable about the significance of the Islamic fascist threat are plainly afraid to discuss what they know, unlike authors like Bat Ye'or. Opening an information front against Islam as suggested in this essay would really heat things up, and would make the Cartoon Jihad look like the joke it is.
#11
I'm tired of the barefoot and breed em' argument. It's just another example of "somebody else" needs to get busy and fix the problem. Maybe we should require that people get a license before we allow them to have kids and they can't have them them unless they show they have the ability to care for them financially and emotionally.
I'm just saying that my second argument is no less stupid than the first.
U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.
They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.
What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.
"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."
U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces in Iraq have become much more deadly as more and more of the Iran-designed and Iran-produced bombs have been smuggled in from the country since last October.
"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."
U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is using the bombs as a way to drive up U.S. casualties in Iraq but without provoking a direct confrontation.
John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Februrary 2, saying, "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack it."
The U.S. Army has embarked on a crash effort to find ways to stop the bombs, according to an unclassified report issued last month. The devices are easily hidden and detonated by motion detectors like those used in garden security lights that cannot be jammed.
When exploded, the copper disc becomes a molten liquid bullet that can penetrate the thickest armor the United States has.
"They penetrate the armor of an M1 Abrams tank," Clarke says. "They're shape charges. They go through anything, and they are very lethal."
There is currently no real defense against the weapons, he says.
"The Pentagon has a major crash study underway to figure out how to stop them," Clarke says, "but they haven't figured it out yet."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
02:07 ||
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#1
unfortuantly we will just keep letting them do it too! There will be a strongly worded letter perhaps or a weak threat by us to do something about it but once again the Iranians are playing us for fools. I have lost all faith in ever dealing with Iran and to be perfectly honest i think they getting the better of us every single day. I give up on anyone to sort those fckers out because everyone is just to damn gutless including Britain and the US. what next eh crate loads of chemical munitions being shipped into Iraq for use with the Iranians knowing perfectly well we are to fckin gutless to strike back!
#4
"I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."
Is it really a forgone conclusion the Iranian government is providing ordinances in the Iraq conflict? Is it possible the bomb factory with the "tell-tale manufacturing signatures" is operated without the knowledge or complicity of the goverment? Look, I'm not saying it isn't plausible or even likely but I have a feeling the headline and assertions would read quite differently if simmilar shipments were intercepted from...oh..say...SA.
"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops ...
"I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."
U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is using the bombs as a way to drive up U.S. casualties in Iraq but without provoking a direct confrontation.
"Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack it."
This has causus belli written all over it.
Is it really a forgone conclusion the Iranian government is providing ordinances in the Iraq conflict?
That's an honest question, DG. The honest answer? Yes. Iran's government so tightly controls much of what goes on within its borders that it is nearly unimaginable that they are unaware, much less, fully participatory in the export of these items. The design factors alone (e.g., shaped charges), reek of a military design laboratory. You don't just shop these little puppies out of your handy-dandy Sears catalog.
Iran must have its @ss kicked out of sheer principal. Their sponsorship of terrorism and meddling in Iraq has passed the point of no return. Ahmadinejad's hostile rhetoric alone is sufficient reason to incapacitate the mullahs and their dreams of regional dominance. I just wish our government had the courage to perform a swift decapitation of Iran's majlis and nuclear facilities so that the Persian people might have a shot at building their own state for once. This has gone on for far too long.
#7
"...," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "..."
Wonderful.
I can't believe this guy has any sort of a job. Or rather any credibility in the Intel field. What was it again, Richard? Our greatest threat in the 21st Century was cyberterrorism?
#8
"You don't just shop these little puppies out of your handy-dandy Sears catalog."
Agreed Zenster, but because they also dont come with a Made in Iran label the experts are left to speculate as to their origin. Then Based on Geo-Political considerations other experts make assumptions and insinuate motives. (Ill let you decide if Richard Clarke is an expert.) Armed with enough anecdotal evidence, these experts (usually civilian) feel free to speak with an air of confidence. Conversely when Tony Blair was recently asked pointed questions regarding his confident Iran/IED statement he was forced to a much more circumspect response.
Im uneasy how these matter of fact statements get recycled as addendums to related stories when in reality they are just speculation.
#9
DG, you do well to question, it's a healthy habit. I think that a quick examination of how tightly Iran controls its own borders and internal affairs are sufficient evidence of the likelihood that it is actively producing and smuggling these IEDs to Iraq.
Iraq's shiites must eventually recognize the foolhardiness of allying themselves with Tehran's mullahs. Regardless, America must bring down Iran for the nuclear reason alone and hope that this chokes off the flow of these IEDs as well.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/07/2006 20:04
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#12
Lol, CA. I've worked very hard to resist posting on this thread. Just mentioning Dickie's name is like Ralph's threat to send Alice to the moon, lol.
Muslim rebels waging a decades-old separatist campaign in the Philippines expect peace talks with Manila to resume soon after a delay due to an alleged coup plot, a senior rebel official has said.
The two sides were set to meet in Malaysia last month, but the talks were called off as President Gloria Arroyo declared a state of national emergency and cracked down on the opposition 10 days ago to deal with the coup plotters.
Kuala Lumpur rescheduled the talks to an unspecified date on grounds that "officials of the Manila government had been busy," Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar said.
He told DZRH radio here by telephone that the delay was not caused by any major problems in the negotiations, adding that "the talks are expected to resume anytime."
Arroyo lifted the state of emergency on Friday, saying the plot to oust her by military "adventurists" and communist guerrillas had unravelled.
Manila has said it expects to sign a peace agreement this year with the 12,000-member MILF, which was left out of a political settlement reached by the Philippines and the rival Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996.
The Philippines and the MILF announced in Kuala Lumpur early last month that they had reached a preliminary deal on the controversial issue of ancestral lands -- communal farms that came under state control when the Southeast Asian nation became a Spanish colony in the 17th century.
The proposed peace agreement with the MILF is expected to spell out an arrangement between the government and the Muslim communities to share the proceeds from the economic use of these lands.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:50 ||
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Britain plans to pull out nearly all its soldiers from Iraq by the summer of 2008, with the first withdrawals within weeks, a top military commander said in an interview on Tuesday.
Lieutenant General Nick Houghton, Britain's most senior officer in Iraq, outlined a phased two-year withdrawal plan in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"There is a fine line between staying too long and leaving too soon," he was quoted as saying. "A military transition over two years has a reasonable chance of avoiding the pitfalls of overstaying our welcome but gives us the best opportunity of consolidating the Iraqi security forces."
Britain has given no firm timetable for the withdrawal of its 8,000 troops in Iraq, based in and around the southern port of Basra.
Last Sunday, the U.S. military in Iraq said media reports that America and Britain planned to pull out all their troops by the spring of 2007 were "completely false" and reiterated there was no timetable for withdrawal.
Two British newspapers reported in their Sunday editions the pull-out plan followed an acceptance by the two governments that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq was now a large obstacle to securing peace.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been under pressure to give more details of a pullout. Many Britons opposed their deployment to join the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Relations with Iraqi officials and people have soured. Houghton said a gradual withdrawal needed to begin soon to make it clear to the Iraqi people that British troops had no intention of staying forever.
He said the timeline would work only if Iraqi politicians elected in the December general election formed a national unity government and sectarian tensions did not worsen.
He said the proposals had been agreed with U.S. military chiefs, but were not set in stone.
"It is reversible to an extent as there will be residual coalition forces present who can maintain a very low profile," he said. "There may be a need to go back in somewhere."
British commanders have said the area they patrol has become more dangerous over the past 8-9 months as guerrillas develope deadlier forms of roadside bombs.
Last month, two British soldiers were killed in an attack on a patrol in Amara, 360 km (230 miles) southeast of Baghdad. It took the British death toll in Iraq to more than 100.
Houghton repeated the long-held position in Washington and London that his forces would only leave once security can be handed over to Iraqi forces.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman in London said it was aware of the interview, but stressed no timetable had been finalised.
"The general was commenting on recent speculation on the timing of handover," he said. "The key point is that no decisions on timing or future force levels have been taken."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:49 ||
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#1
Relations with Iraqi officials and people have soured.
The MSM doesn't have to convince EVERYONE of their lies, obvously. Just the guys in power....
#2
And the US will withdraw to Kuwait and a few of the other small Gulf States, so that they can be on 24 hour call for the Government of Iraq. Like if sommut terrible happens, as in say Iran wants to invade Iraq.
Other than than that, let them at it.
#3
YOu don't think the Kurds would be thrilled to have a base in their part of the country? And what odds, in another year or two, that the Sunnis don't also offer a plot of land for an American base?
#4
The birth of a meme. Various "news" organizations logrolling each others' stories - per the agenda they share.
Far more likely is the obvious: they'll reduce numbers / withdraw when their presence doesn't contribute to a worthwhile end. Duh.
Certainly there will be a US base in Kurdistan. Maybe 2 or 3, lol.
Anbar is, in the main, unused. If Iraq partitions, or whatever, they'll need the income, heh.
Gawd I hate 99% of the so-called "news" orgs. I look forward to either their demise or rehabilitation. I volunteer to run one of the re-education camps for those deemed salvageable.
#5
Excellent. We'll add your name to the executive-candidates list for when we build Phase II of the Alec Baldwin-Mojave Federal Celebrity Retention and Training Center [MFCRT].
#6
Ooooh! Celebs? Waay cool! Alec won't be among the salvageable, however, lol. He'll have to be satisfied with the memorial reference. We'll tell him after the blindfold is in place. I'll hire Kim Bassinger to run the, uh, "presentation" of this honor, lol. Then she can be my "aide".
I'll find Mucky and give him his long-suffering, long-delayed, shot at Jeanine Garafalo, lol.
Iran vowed on Monday to be a "killing field" for any attackers, responding to a US warning of "painful consequences" if it failed to curb its atomic plans. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said on Sunday his country had been "beefing up defensive measures" to thwart Irans nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a quest for atomic bombs, not just nuclear-generated electricity.
Gholamali Rashid, deputy head of the armed forces, said the US did not understand how to operate in the Gulf region. "Irans armed forces, through their experience of war ...will turn this land into a killing field for any aggressor," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:46 ||
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#1
Road trip to Cambodia? Oh, I see, nevermind.
Iranian experience. Right. 8 year stalemate with Saddam. Est. 450,000-950,000 casualties. Resorted to human wave attacks and using fanatics to clear minefields by exploration. Ended 18 yrs ago.
We rolled him up in 3 weeks. Counting dust storm stops.
What am I missing here? ROFL. Fuckwits. Persian and Arab penchant for insane hyperbole and endless babble match perfectly. Must be something in the M.E. water.
#4
Iran has never rolled anyone up ever. They think that "asymmetric warfare" will work. Here is news for the M². I will not work when Europe and China need your oil output. You will not last that long. Oil production feeds people. They will not go hungry to satisfy your weird fixations. The M² are believing their own press clippings. That is always dangerous.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/07/2006 4:03
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#5
I'm more worried about the world coercing the US into 'nation building' after all the s*** hits the fan, due to quick butt kicking they will receive. Remember the sorrow after the 'BullDozed Trenches' manuever or 'Highway Of Death' action after the first Gulf War!!
#6
The unstated presumption/assumption in almost all the debate about Iran is that it is a cohesive entity. Its not, ethnic Persians are a minority in Iran. Although which fracture lines will give under what pressure is obviously speculation. The clear ones are in the Kurdish north west and the Arab south west, although there are 5 or 6 others I could identify.
History says multi-ethnic states hold themselves together by a combination of an ideology that over-rides ethnicity and repression. Once either breaks down the state will fracture. All thats needed is the right event to trigger the fracture.
The Kurds and Arabs in Iran will be looking across the border and seeing their fellows in Iraq in charge. Once Iraq overcomes the Sunni insurgency, which it will, attention will shift across the border to the depradations on their fellow Arabs and Kurds which will increase as the Teheran government tries to keep these populations under control.
My prediction is that in less than two years Iraq will 'liberate' Kurdish and Arab areas of Iran and there is bugger all the Iranians can do to stop the modern trained Iraqi army (bar a nuclear weapon of course).
#7
The Mad Mullahs and Chavez are on the same page: scare the folks into the bunker mentality, and "give me more power so I can protect you from the Great Satan/Imperialist."
With Chavez we can watch the death spiral, but the Mullahs are on a different schedule.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 7:19
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#8
And remember how the Slovenes stopped the Yugoslav armoured columns in narrow valleys. Now go check a topographic map of Iran.
#11
I suspect that the Iranians are quietly building a "defense in depth" approach to a land invasion from Iraq. It works great unless your enemy operates in the 3rd dimension.
Just look at the status of forces right now. Iran has a heavy corps the length of its border. The US has airborne and air assault forces that could jump such DID, and also just happens to have a heavy armor brigade in Kuwait in case the Iranians try a snatch grab of southern Iraq.
#12
phil_b, er....respectfully have to disagree with you a bit on the Slovenian analogy.
The Slovenians had other things besides topography in their favor. Keep in mind that all of the former Yugoslavia is mountainous....all the nationalities there know how to deal with that terrain.
The Slovenians managed to keep their territorial defense force (men and materiel) from YNA control. The Yugoslav government thought that their repeal of Tito's policy (each republic had their own small force) had been carried out and were surprised to find out that it had not been there.
Slobo and his generals also decided that he would rather hold on to Croatia because it had a sizable Serb population, as opposed to Slovenia, which did not. The reinforcements that were supposed to be sent from Belgrade never arrived (official reason was mechanical breakdown, but they somehow managed to make it to the Croat region of Slavonia....and just in time to help the YNA offensive. Maybe the Serbs just got a bit confused about the similar names.)
#13
# 6, phil_b, its called divide and conquer.
It's always been the best strategy. The Brits built an empire on it, before they started going multicultural, and lost the lot.
#14
If the lunatics insist...
Isaiah 14:
Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate:
Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?
All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain,with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will not join them in burial,for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again.
#15
Irans conventional military is undoubtedly stronger than Iraqs was in March 2003. And the terrain is harder. OTOH a conventional war should be winnable by US forces. We'll need more than 4 divisions and three weeks, but thats not insuperable obstacle. So it take 6 divisions and 8 weeks, we still win.
The problem though is what to do next? Leave Iran to its own devices, while the mad mullah supporters, the left, the pro democrats, and the ethnic minorities, fight it out? I wouldnt count on the prodemocrats coming out on top. I wouldnt count on the Iraqi military to act for us. And i sure as hell wouldnt count on the Euros to do anything effective in a situation like this. So we've destroyed their nuclear program - theyre still a country of tens of millions, with lots of educated people. And after a US invasion most everyone there will be supporting a new nuke program, and most will be hostile to the US - at least all the Farsi speakers and most of those speaking closely related languages.
Im not sure net - net, youve really made a huge long term gain.
So if you dont have the stomach for "nation building" in Iran, I think you need to take a long hard look at what a "go in and get out" war actually accomplishes.
No I dont know when the regime will fall to internal dissidents. Waiting, even helping, is not a perfect option. But going in and getting out isnt either, and going in to nation build isnt. So its a choice among bad options.
#17
Chthus, the article you link to was already posted here days ago.
The problem though is what to do next?
LH, I don't see where we have many options. Boots on the ground simply is not one of them. I think the best we can hope for is to decapitate the Iranian majlis, mullahs and all, wipe out their nuclear facilities, then sit back and wait for the dust to settle. We should make it clear that Iran must construct itself along the same democratic lines as Iraq or be prepared for an endless cycle of "rinse and repeat." That's about all I can see our thinly-spread forces being able to do as of now.
As to nation building, however nice it sounds in theory, I think that Iran should be made an example of in terms of crippling them and letting them do all the rebuilding themselves. Yes, it risks them installing another anti-American government. All that represents is another decapitation raid until they get it straight.
Iran has been so hostile and counterproductive that a little suffering would do them a world of good. I think it would serve Iran perfectly to watch from amid the ruins as Iraq gains regional ascendancy while they are forced to dig themselves out. It isn't merely a matter of revenge, so much as demonstrating to the world what awaits those countries who refuse to reform themselves. The global war on terrorism has just begun. We cannot reconstruct every single nation participating in terrorism. At some point we must simply disassemble those that are recalcitrant and continue to move forward against those that remain.
#18
Points in no particular order:
--Iran will not reform itself. The dictatorship of the Mullas has too firm a grip, and too much local support. What Iranian resistance to the Mullocracy there is, is nowhere near vicious enough. They remind me of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who was too high-minded to blow himself up with Hitler, and who paid for his high standards by missing his target and being tortured to death besides.
-- Iran is not a house of cards. The death throes of the terror regime there will be painful for many, and there is no way to escape that, whether the rest of us do anything or not.
-- Foreign boots on Iranian ground is definitely not an option. So much territory. So few boots.
-- Take out anything resembling Iranian nuclear facilities, turn off the Iranian electrical grids, make as much of Iran a no-fly zone as possible. The object would not be to kill Iranians, but to break things and interfere to the largest degree possible with the ability of the Iranian terror masters to cause trouble outside their country, especially with nukes.
-- If local non-Iranian oil facilities are subject to Iranian attack, take out all Iranian oil import and export facilities. At some point the West will have to endure the pains of oil withdrawal syndrome.
-- Will this be a "huge, long-term" gain"? I doubt it. The perfect is the enemy of the practical. Huge long-term gains will only come from huge long-term efforts, such as the Cold War (aka WW III) was with respect to the Evil Empire. Doing nothing will give Islamic terrorists a new nuclear deterrent, which would threaten to put Persian Gulf oil facilities off-line for decades, checkmating Iraqi civilization-building efforts, and providing al Qaeda a refuge the West won't be able to touch, not to mention providing yet another opportunity for Islamic fascists to inflict a massive suicide attack on the west.
-- "Oil production feeds people." This statement needs to be repeated over and over again. Even Amish agriculture needs petroleum products. Oil production also keeps various parts of the US from freezing to death in the winter or dying of heat stroke in the summer.
#19
if you do the rinse and repeat option without boots on the ground, you increase the chances that some of the nuke program is left over, for the next govt (likely very hostile) to build on. I doubt all our enemies are in the majlis - I suspect most are out in the Rev Guards leadership, etc. Certainly once youve done this once they wont all be in one place again - you cant repeat at least that aspect. Basically you get something like Taliban run Afghanistan, except larger. I suspect you'll get terror attacks, etc galore from them. (I would suggest that the rinsing and repeating will harm our relations with friendly govs around the world - who may not like Iran, but are gonna have difficulties with this policy)
The alternative is, as Phil B implies, to work hard on bringing down the house of cards. Dot com seems skeptical it will fall without a conventional attack, at least any time soon. Im certainly in no position to deny that, but I still think that that course(together with pursuing whatever sanctions we can get) is the best of some bad options - and that a conventional attack should not be implemented until things are more "imminent". (which doesnt mean we shouldnt rattle the sabres from time to time - the fear of the consequences of a US attack is a big part of the motivation for everyone else to go along at the UNSC)
#20
"Points in no particular order:
--Iran will not reform itself. The dictatorship of the Mullas has too firm a grip, and too much local support."
I dont know how firm their grip really is. I think its clear at least some of the ethnic minorities are deeply alienated. Im virtually certain that the middle and upper classes of Teheran are alienated. I dont know how solid the support is beyond that, esp if the economy goes down the tubes.
"What Iranian resistance to the Mullocracy there is, is nowhere near vicious enough."
I know im in the minority here, but im not convinced vicious always translates into effective, whether in opposition or in power.
" They remind me of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who was too high-minded to blow himself up with Hitler, and who paid for his high standards by missing his target and being tortured to death besides."
Iran is not Nazi Germany. Heck, its not Saddamite Iraq. While its a dictatorship, there seems to be more space for opposition to exist than in a totalitarian regime.
"-- Iran is not a house of cards. The death throes of the terror regime there will be painful for many, and there is no way to escape that, whether the rest of us do anything or not. "
I dont know if Phil B meant to imply that an Iranian implosion would be bloodless. I certainly dont think it would be.
"-- Take out anything resembling Iranian nuclear facilities, turn off the Iranian electrical grids, make as much of Iran a no-fly zone as possible. The object would not be to kill Iranians, but to break things and interfere to the largest degree possible with the ability of the Iranian terror masters to cause trouble outside their country, especially with nukes. "
I think we know by know that turning off the electric grid means lots of civilians will die, whether we intend it or not. If we're gonna do that we need to be prepared to live with the consequences, from the reaction of those Iranians who used to support us, to world opinion.
"-- Will this be a "huge, long-term" gain"? I doubt it. The perfect is the enemy of the practical. Huge long-term gains will only come from huge long-term efforts, such as the Cold War (aka WW III) was with respect to the Evil Empire. Doing nothing will give Islamic terrorists a new nuclear deterrent, which would threaten to put Persian Gulf oil facilities off-line for decades, checkmating Iraqi civilization-building efforts, and providing al Qaeda a refuge the West won't be able to touch, not to mention providing yet another opportunity for Islamic fascists to inflict a massive suicide attack on the west."
Until the Iranians are on the point of actually having at least one working nuke, this is a net loss scenario, im quite sure. Definitely inferior to the diplomacy/sanction/subversion/revolution approach. When they ARE on the point of nukes, the two approaches need to be compared again.
#21
Wow - they've figured out how to manufacture a "killing field" at 20,000 feet? Or even 1,000 feet?
This I gotta see....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2006 14:09
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#22
liberalhawk, in how many places will we have to put boots on the ground? The list is endless. At some point we will have to resort to aerial attack and simply "break things" without fixing them afterwards.
I advocate a phased attack that pre-empts their nuclear program without snuffing the entire oil production network. If continued resistance is offered, then we go in and choke off Kharg Island and cripple Iran's economy.
I'd prefer this to be accompanied by eliminating as much of the leadership as possible. Whether they cluster up for us or not, we need to locate and terminate them wherever possible. I really don't see a lot of other options. Iran is just one of numerous targets. It is only their nuclear program that gives them any special status or priority.
#23
"liberalhawk, in how many places will we have to put boots on the ground? The list is endless. "
which is why i advocate 1. doing more with soft power, diplomacy, economics, and NOT overrelying on military force 2. Using subversion/revolution rather than relying on conventional war 3. Being smart politically and diplomatically (and yeah, chilling on the antimuslim stuff) so we can use more locals and not need so many boots when we nation build 4. Being "multilateralist" so we can include more foreigners, to stretch our available forces 5. expand our ground forces.
All that said, I agree there will be times and places when going in to break things on a large scale will be the best strategy. I just dont see that being the case in Iran, at least not yet.
#25
"Collapse the state" is a good term and Iran is uniquely vulnerable in that respect, because almost the entire country is mountainous and is therefore critically dependent on infrastructure at key points to hold it together. The US won't invade Iran. What it may well do is punitive strikes against infrastructure. The Slovene lesson is that the Slovenes attacked and took control of dozens of Yugoslav Army facilities and the Yugoslavs found helicopter and armoured forces sent to relieve them were stopped by lightly armed forces. The Yugoslavs then (as DB points out) decided to use their forces to defend Serb populated areas. Will Iran do the same over Kurdistan? I find the parallels are strong and the differences heavily stacked against Iran; longer distances, hostile states on its borders with populations sympathetic to Iran's minorities, lack of a capable airforce.
#26
LH - A worthy hope, but soft power is no power at all in the face of their determined effort to obtain nuclear weapons. Better to break things now, put boots on the ground ONLY to ensure that the right things are well and truely broken, and then get out and let the Iranians sort it out.
If we wait, we will end up killing hugh numbers of people throughout the ME in retaliation. Just my thoughts.
#27
Diplomatic channels are for long duration political processes. What is happening in Iran is no such thing. Islamism represents such an overarching threat, especially in terms of sneaking through a single nuclear terrorist attack upon American soil, that much shorter term solutions must be found. Crippling and otherwise incapacitating the various centers of Islamist terrorism is critical to our agenda of self-defense. Our open borders and low security ports cannot be sufficiently tightened in a short enough amount of time to intercept such a dire, yet difficult to detect, threat.
We must go out to where the threat is being grown and cripple it in situ. Iran is merely the most prominent and vocal of these hazards. Many more exist than we have the military to spare for.
#28
Zenster said: "Chthus, the article you link to was already posted here days ago."
So what, Zenster. Don't be such a snob. I didn't get a chance to see it. So-- thanks chthus, for an informative link, which I've copied to my files.
From the article:
"The defector, Hamid Reza Zakeri, warned the CIA in July 2001 that Iran was preparing a massive attack on America using Arab terrorists flying airplanes, which he said was planned for Sept. 11, 2001. The CIA dismissed his claims and called him a fabricator."
I've never heard of the IRANIAN link -- i.e., Iranians USING Arabs to do the big stuff. Anyone else?
#29
they use Paleos and other Arabs as the Basij - the forces that keep down the University protests and street riots. The goons are less liable to turn on their masters, and more likely to be ruthless with the sheeple
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2006 16:36
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#30
I figured the link may have been played before, but some things deserve repeat if only for vetting purposes. Here's the link from last week.
Obviously, Hamid Reza Zakeri, deserves a shake or two as a source. I recall him being discussed here after his testimony was used in the german 9/11 trial. Captain's Quarters has some good treatment of the subject here and here.
Long and short, CIA calls him a serial fabricator, and Timmerman a dupe. Timmerman is unable to get answers why.
#31
Heh. Something's totally wrong with this discussion...
We'll put boots on the ground in very FEW places.
There, that's better.
We don't wanna own it, we wanna break it*.
* = The Nuke Program and the MM regime.
A few points:
1) Time won't allow for a thorough and comprehensive coordination with the people living in Iran who want the Mullahs gone. That sucks, but averaging out all the timelines bandied about and the unknowns of the quality and tenacity of resistance make it extremely unlikely.
2) It seems that a fair-sized chunk of those who do want the MMs gone, still want the nukes. That's a non-starter. DOA.
3) What boots we employ will be most likely used to keep certain infrastructure bits, the tough to replace bits, intact. That would include Kharg Island, key refineries, key distribution junctions, etc.
4) Killing off / neutralizing the regime and the elements that maintain it in power is not as tough as some seem to be thinking - for reasons others have pointed out (eg isolating them, No C&C, No Air, disabling important goodies, such as electricity and water) and can be done via air.
5) Stopping the nuke program dead in its tracks, first, is accomplished the same way. Remove required resources (water, elec) and seal up every rathole we can find. Then, once the chain is broken, then reduce at will. What's to stop us bombing the same deeply buried facility 10x? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Stop the processes, and pound them into tombs or rubble.
6) The naval exploits they seem to be planning, closing off Hormuz, attacking US naval assets, etc. most likely come down to who is prepared first and who shoots first. If we know what they have, where it is, have a solid warplan with a high % of success, and we pull the trigger first, then they've been wanking for nothing. If they pull the trigger first, then the question is: Are our naval assets that vulnerable? Can a WW-II era military with just a few bits of semi-current tech reduce the US Navy to smoking hulks? If so, then there should be a LOT of Admirals dangling from DC lampposts. And it won't stop us from doing everything else on the US warplan that wasn't dependent upon the Navy. Which easily ends the regime and the nuke program.
7) What about attacks on Iraq? Whatever warplan is profferred will have targets identified - missile launch positions, near-border troop concentrations, and a laundry list of other similar Iranian mil assets. I won't pretend to know the minutia, but I certainly trust we have those who do right in the middle of the planning. WIll they create some grief? Yeah. They've been doing it since Day One, in fact. Dropping the hammer on Iran will actually remove a serious impediment to Iraq's development. Let's get it fucking done.
8) Diplomacy and soft power. LOL. A negotiation requires two participants. There never was, nor will there ever be, two sincere parties at the diplodinkywinky table. The EU3 may have been serious (who the fuck knows with all the disingenuous duplicity afoot in that venue?), but the MMs never were. Wotta total fucking idea suggestion - and this has been clear as day for YEARS. Sheesh. Talk about a stuck on stupid notion...
Taking down Iran will cause oil supply grief for awhile, but it will do soooo much that's positive in the WoT, from Israel to Lebanon to Syria to Iraq - the payoff is huge. And it will sure as shit put the Saudis on notice that ending terror support is something we're damned serious about...
In addition to correcting mistakes in my take, there's lots more that people who are more current on mil options and planning can speak to.
#33
"Time won't allow for a thorough and comprehensive coordination with the people living in Iran who want the Mullahs gone. That sucks, but averaging out all the timelines bandied about"
I dont know what the timeline to an Iranian bomb is. I hope the admin knows better than I do. Trent Telenko said a month ago that the Iranians would test one by spring. Im waiting.
"2) It seems that a fair-sized chunk of those who do want the MMs gone, still want the nukes. That's a non-starter. DOA."
well im not sure about that - we can live with an Indian bomb, and a Paki bomb. Whats so special about Iran, once the loons are gone?
Second, assuming a general improvement in US-Iran relations, and the whole ME with the MMs gone, i think the motivation for nukes goes down alot.
"4) Killing off / neutralizing the regime and the elements that maintain it in power is not as tough as some seem to be thinking - for reasons others have pointed out (eg isolating them, No C&C, No Air, disabling important goodies, such as electricity and water) and can be done via air."
Like I said, turning off the electric and water has consequences. Big consequences. We need to think through them.
"5) Stopping the nuke program dead in its tracks, first, is accomplished the same way. Remove required resources (water, elec) and seal up every rathole we can find. Then, once the chain is broken, then reduce at will. What's to stop us bombing the same deeply buried facility 10x? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Stop the processes, and pound them into tombs or rubble."
Some very serious people say this is not so easy to do from the air. Im not inclined to wave this off. I hope there smart people in the Pentagon thinking about how to do this. If they say it can be done, this is something the President can consider. If they say it cant be done, I would hope the President doesnt decide to do it anyway.
") Diplomacy and soft power. LOL. A negotiation requires two participants. There never was, nor will there ever be, two sincere parties at the diplodinkywinky table. The EU3 may have been serious (who the fuck knows with all the disingenuous duplicity afoot in that venue?), but the MMs never were. Wotta total fucking idea suggestion - and this has been clear as day for YEARS. Sheesh. Talk about a stuck on stupid notion..."
My suggestion about soft power was more general, in reply to Zensters comment about the many places troops are needed. I cannot say whether, pushed to the wall, by sanctions that bit, the MMS would cut a deal. For the sake of argument, lets assume they wont. In this case diplomacy and soft power means herding the cats at the UN to get sanctions, so that we "attack" the regime on multiple fronts - at the same time we're subverting them, the sanctions are hitting their economy. Everyone poopoohing the chance of revolution is basing it on the political situation NOW - Iran needs loads of new jobs every month to keep the unemployment rate from soaring. What does the political situation look like when the urban poor, Ahmadinajeds base, is facing high and rising unemployment? Due to sanctions that (as our new Farsi TV will tell them every day) could easily have been avoided? Fun times in Teheran.
"Taking down Iran will cause oil supply grief for awhile, but it will do soooo much that's positive in the WoT, from Israel to Lebanon to Syria to Iraq - the payoff is huge. And it will sure as shit put the Saudis on notice that ending terror support is something we're damned serious about..."
Id be very cautious about claiming what it would do. It could do lots of good things we cant predict. It could do lots of bad things we cant predict. IMHO taking them down by subversion, rather than air attack, would do more of the good things, and less of the bad things. The only reason I can think of for doing the air attack is IF we are convinced they are about to get a working nuke. And like I said, even then the military aspects require review.
In addition to correcting mistakes in my take, there's lots more that people who are more current on mil options and planning can speak to.
#34
"Dropping the hammer on Iran will actually remove a serious impediment to Iraq's development. Let's get it fucking done."
Bingo. That, right there, is (to me, anyway) the second biggest reason to whack Ahmamadnutjob and his cronies-- a very close second, right behind breaking all his expensive and dangerous toys. To the extent that turning Iraq into some semblance of a peaceful, productive state has been a difficult task, much of that difficulty has been due to Iran's interference.
#35
LH, were you finished? You're remarks end with .com's.
The timing for an operation, if we initiate it, is the next 15 months. My reasons for this are driven by the political calendar.
If we initiate attack absent Iranian attack, Bush needs Congressional approval. His only chance for that is to squeeze the critters by making them vote prior to the November '06 elections. Bush will do this, if he can, because he doesn't want to leave Iran for the next guy or, especially, gal.
But if he gets approval but hasn't done it by June of '07, he's now into the NH primary campaign season and policy become a political football for every wacko running, including Mother Sheehan, JFK and the Deaniac, not to mention McCain's opportunity to get even for past slights. Absent an attack, Bush will not be able to strike with any hope of an appearance of national unity under such circumstances.
So, I think he has to get permission by October and act by May. Otherwise, the Iranians will be the big tester of the next President's cojones.
#36
lh - You raise "issues" which are at least as much "tissues" (read: Kleenex) as substantive. I see very little actual substance in your response.
Timeline - we will go when we think they are ready to go. Every minute more is to our advantage - both in planning and in building up relationships with those who are not part of or sympathetic to the MMs. Somebody will take over, maybe the whole, maybe in part, what is now called Iran after the regime is toppled. We will want the best possible relationship with them that is possible. The oil must resume flowing as soon as possible to minimize the economic effects.
"Whats so special about Iran, once the loons are gone?"
Think about this one much before you posted? Consider the effects this would have regards the GCC. "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup! Shhh - everyone will want one!" In the primary oil-producing region of the world... Um, this is an incredibly naive view. This is, also, Persia and Arabia we're talking about. This is Shi'aLand and SunniLand. This is an incredibly bad idea. Think about it.
"turning off the electric and water has consequences"
So does a demonstrably insane bunch getting a nuke. Life is hard. It's a LOT harder if you're stupid and dangerous. The consequences are trivial compared to the threat - and every avenue must be used to advantage in removing it. Period.
"Some very serious people say this is not so easy to do from the air."
Some "very serious people" say other things, too, which are based upon personal finances, self-promotion, partisan political considerations, and other less than honest, less than rational motives. You have presented no argument here, just restated the doubts to make your view seem reasonable.
"In this case diplomacy and soft power means herding the cats at the UN to get sanctions, so that we "attack" the regime on multiple fronts - at the same time we're subverting them, the sanctions are hitting their economy."
Sanctions. Sheesh. Right. The MMs are pissing themselves -- with laughter. Pure tissue paper. They have massive oil income to steal, disburse and subvert, and buy off. Do you really think they can't keep their population in check, save the occasional "Hit Me!" guys, with it? C'mon, you're not being realistic.
"Id be very cautious about claiming what it would do."
Okay. Be cautious. Cool. Do you really doubt that pulling the money source for Hezbollah, just for example, wouldn't have a major effect in Israel, Leb, and Syria? Just that one thing?
Cheney, today, reiterated the crystal-clear message: The Iranians will not have nukes. This indicates, to me, anyway, that the heavy-lifting is already well underway and there is a fair level of confidence. Is it misplaced? Should they be taking their cues from you or others who counsel far more caution? There is absolutely nothing to indicate they aren't being careful.
You can bet the military people are being very very careful regards what they are promising. No matter what happens, they, and the ones they made promises to, will still be around after it's over... so they aren't putting their careers on the line in some macho display.
It's also becoming clearer that Bush means to do what he has to do, with or without the US Congress's specific approval.
The latitude a President has, regards National Security, is vary much an open question. He could easily be impeached for acting without specific approval. But that is no more than being indicted in a political court. Conviction in said impeachment hearings is where the rubber meets the road.
That won't happen.
Most of what impedes the US is partisan political pandering and whoring. Impeach away. It will speed the day that the traitors will be dealt with.
#39
"It's also becoming clearer that Bush means to do what he has to do, with or without the US Congress's specific approval."
My hunch: Bush will take out the Mad Mullahs and wreck their nuclear toys, even if it means almost certain impeachment AND conviction. What with all the bullshit that's been slung by the Dhimmicrats (and by a number of squishyish Republicans) during the course of this war, I suspect Bush has largely let go of the need for contemporary approval and resigned himself to letting history be his ultimate judge.
The MMs have been a major thorn in our side, and a steadily growing menace, for more than a quarter-century. Whoever gets rid of them, will be long remembered for having done A Very Good Thing.
#40
I cannot say whether, pushed to the wall, by sanctions that bit, the MMS would cut a deal.
You'll feel a whole lot better once you rid yourself of the pesky notion that Iran's mullahs are either rational or ethical. There is no negotiating with Iran. There is stalling, deception, prestidigitation and every other sort of diplomatic deceit imaginable, but you have to be deluding yourself if you think that any sort of substantive progress can be made through negotiations with Iran.
The mullahs have one object in mind, and that is to further entrench themselves in power with respect to Iran and the Middle East. Only one thing will do that, namely, nuclear weapons. There is no other diplomatic or political alternative which will achieve those ends. Therefore, Iran will do whatever it takes to keep up the ruse of cooperating with the outside world while it unabatedly pursues development of nuclear weapons. To think that anything else is going on requires smoking immense amounts of rope.
Iran's people can suffer now to a much more limited extent, or they can possibly all die at once when Iran is glassed over in retaliation for them passing out atom bombs like party favors. I'll go with the less catastrophic alternative, and especially the one that disallows for America getting one of its major metropolitan areas flattened.
#41
It's also becoming clearer that Bush means to do what he has to do, with or without the US Congress's specific approval.
That would place the Chm JCS and CentCom commander in a very delicate position. Bush might get SOCOM to quietly provoke an Iranian action that would demand an un-approved response, but that's mostly for novels. I doubt Bush moves without Congress.
My great concern is that Bush is doing so little to prep the American people for this.
#42
The MMs have been a major thorn in our side, and a steadily growing menace, for more than a quarter-century. Whoever gets rid of them, will be long remembered for having done A Very Good Thing.
Absolutely. My dislike for Bush is well known hereabouts, but this I vow. I will oppose any impeachment attempt based upon Bush attacking Iran, with or without congressional approval. I will demonstrate in the street and employ whatever speaking skills I have to persuade everyone I know with respect to this vital issue. America at large continues to be relatively blind regarding the threat we are confronted with. If Bush can summon the wisdom to unilaterally dismantle Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program, he will have my full support and defense from any repercussions in any way I can.
As I have said many times before, Iran obtaining nuclear weapons would go down in history as one of the most catastrophic events of this new century.
#43
It's a sad situation, TT. Our public institutions, particularly the Press, Education, and two party system, are nearly totally dysfunctional.
I agree with you regards Bush, I think.
Much has been made about him not jumping on every issue and pounding away from the Bully Pulpit. I've heard and read much, both in the news, blogs, and here on the 'Burg. I don't pretend to know what's in his head, but things may be worse than we think - he may already be hog-tied into near-catatonic lameduck status because he's been informed, unambiguously, that he hasn't the legislative support to do much of anything.
That the Dhimmidonks have succeeded in their campaign to derail the US Govt until they can regain power probably has worked, in the derail part, anyway. Knocking off DeLay was pretty big - no doubt that Earle down in Austin is now a "made man".
Dunno who gets the credit for Frist and the slew of RINO assholes. Maybe they were bought off one at a time. Maybe they were always assholes with no guts, no vision, and cowering cowards.
Bush has only fought hard for WoT issues and the SCOTUS nominees, recently. I thank him for those. I think he will stop the MMs - and thank him for his efforts toward that end. I wonder at the rest.
Payback to the Dhimmidonks will come. Hard. It will be ugly, methinks.
#44
Thanks for #42, Zen. He's going to need every friend he can get - because I disagree with NS: he can order the military to act. I haven't a bunch of historical links to offer, but you know this has been done, before. Congress has attempted, over the last few decades, to limit Presidential powers. Their attempts haven't been challenged in court, so no one can say whether they've over-stepped or not. But the is ample precedent for Presidents unilaterally acting where National Security is at stake. After the fact is where the second-guessers and partisans get their moment in infamy recorded.
Certainly the US has opted for the high ground in almost all cases - we waited to be attacked before acting.
#45
.com, I'm not definitive about the President's power to order it, but it should be considered that the bombing campaign would take many days. If W did not have the critters on record, the Schumer, Kennedy, Boxers would head right for the microphones to denounce his unilateral action and to introduce legislation to condemn the bombing. The Snowes, Collins, Chaffees and Specters would demand a lot not to vote with the donks. Perhaps more than a lame duck can afford to pay. It would be a two front war with out an Iranian attack or a prior approval. A lot of Generals would get messages about how thier pet projects would fare in a Donk congress if they went along with "illegal" orders. A mess easily avoided.
Yep - and the process has begun. Bush. Cheney. Rice. Bolton. All have made statements in the last 3 days. Today, Bush pushed it up a notch to say, after meeting with the asshole Lavrov playing the Russian triangulation card, that Iran should not be allowed to enrich Uranium - EVER.
#47
I hate to say it, liberalhawk, but Iran will never be on the receiving end of sanctions with teeth, no more than Saddam Hussein was. Less even, because the world went through that once before, and the cheaters noticed that they gained more from subverting the sanctions than they lost by being caught in the Oil for Food revelations. And Iran has recently signed lucrative contracts/bribes with China, Russia and France, and is trying for Germany.
Ahmadenijad doesn't even care if Iran is attacked, so long as he can destroy Israel first -- like bin Laden, he believes this violence will bring Allah (or perhaps the 12th Mullah) to fight at the side of his legions.
Finally, I don't think we can live with a post-Mullacracy Iran having nuclear weapons. There are plenty of crazies there outside of the Mullahs who would be happy to use what they see as a bigger hand grenade in their internecine quarrels, not to mention thoe who want to play their own Great Game against Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, Iraq, and other places I'm not imaginative enough to think of, let alone against the Evil West. Not all those marching against the Danish cartoons were "tools or fools". There are still plenty who believe the Caliphate is coming, with or without the Mad Mullahs, and they want to be the ones wearing that golden turban.
I was glad of the details in lotp's link yesterday about the lockdown of Pakistan's nukes. I'm not as sanguine, in my greater ignorance, because it appears to me that the precautions listed only ensure that the nukes cannot be used without the agreement of the Pakistani head of State, not that their use is prevented altogether.
#48
"I don't pretend to know what's in his head, but things may be worse than we think - he may already be hog-tied into near-catatonic lameduck status because he's been informed, unambiguously, that he hasn't the legislative support to do much of anything."
Consider: given the political grief Bush has taken for his democratization campaign in Iraq, what is the probability that either he or any future President is going to repeat that strategy anywhere else? My guess is the probability is zip-point-shit.
Thanks to the Dummycrats, the response to the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil (pray there is none) will be all or nothing: either Euro-style, craven self-abasement, or we'll nuke the sonsabitches.
"Dunno who gets the credit for Frist and the slew of RINO assholes. Maybe they were bought off one at a time. Maybe they were always assholes with no guts, no vision, and cowering cowards."
Someone here, in the last day or two, commented that the Republicans are damn lucky they don't have a real political party opposing them. Whoever it was, I think he/she was right.
"Payback to the Dhimmidonks will come. Hard. It will be ugly, methinks."
The current trajectory, if it continues indefinitely, will sooner or later lead to civil war. God help us if it does.
#50
Ahmadenijad doesn't even care if Iran is attacked, so long as he can destroy Israel first -- like bin Laden, he believes this violence will bring Allah (or perhaps the 12th Mullah) to fight at the side of his legions.
The above tells the entire story. I don't know why anyone believes that anything can be "negotiated" at this stage when its quite apparent that Iran has played a "stall-for-time-to-complete" game from the outset.
#51
Certainly the US has opted for the high ground in almost all cases - we waited to be attacked before acting.
Those days ended with nukes and biowarfare.
Yup, .com. We're in a whole 'nuther ballgame. Now it's for keeps and gets real, real messy if even one ball goes foul. America must shift to a pre-emptive strategy and pursue its opponents on foreign soil wherever possible.
I also think that Bush is rightfully empowered to determine that Iran is a direct threat to national security and order action taken without congressional approval. Iran has already done enough things to constitute a declaration of war on their own part. We would merely be returning the favor.
Ahmadenijad doesn't even care if Iran is attacked, so long as he can destroy Israel first -- like bin Laden, he believes this violence will bring Allah (or perhaps the 12th Mullah) to fight at the side of his legions.
Iran regards nuclear weapons as merely a bigger and better sort of bomb vest. From all indications, they intend to annihilate Israel even if it comes at the cost of Iran's immolation. It is my firm belief that by attacking Iran we are quite easily saving it from a much more dreadful consequence of its insane leadership. The mullahs and Ahmadinejad are apocalyptic madmen who have told themselves the big lie so many times that it is now truth to them. The sooner they are all dead, the safer this world is.
#53
"Iran regards nuclear weapons as merely a bigger and better sort of bomb vest. [...] The mullahs and Ahmadinejad are apocalyptic madmen who have told themselves the big lie so many times that it is now truth to them. The sooner they are all dead, the safer this world is."
Dang. If nothing else makes this thread a Keeper™, that paragraph does. Sums it all up, nice and compact-like...
No thanks needed, .com. Some issues simply transcend all partisan and ideological boundaries. Iran's possession of nuclear weapons is one of them and so is the global war on terrorism. While some might debate the criticality of Iraq's invasion, it is a done deal and must be given proper follow-through. If anything, Iraq has been a stalking horse to out Islam's real intentions and methods. These are now clear and only fools can pretend that Islam is a religion of peace.
The democratic party's irrational opposition to all things Bush has blinded it to the critical issue of our national security. That their naked greed for power allows them to disregard what should be a unanimous position by all and sundry with respect to fighting terrorism has appropriately marginalized them and their rudderless platform.
Both sides of the aisle continue to sip at the Kool-Aid of moral relativism. Witness how Democratic liberals and Republican fundamentalists alike have moronically thrown over our freedom of speech regarding the cartoon issue. Everyone and their mother should instantly have seen how corrosive to global liberty is Islam's insistence upon preferential censorship solely for their religion. It is the camel's nose in the tent and once the whole critter is inside all that remains is for it to evacuate its bowels upon us. This is what awaits and only fools and drooling idiots can possibly ignore it.
#55
your Joe six-pack, that mythical American, is already to go from 1979. W and forces are building the public case and diplo case for action. I do not think our CIA's estimates are reliable enough, but what else do you go on. I firmly believe W has no intention of passing this problem on to his succesor - timeline accordingly
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2006 20:37
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#57
I'm afraid the only thing to galvanize the folks in the old USA will be a nuclear detonation in the old USA. And I live 15 miles from the White House.
Not enough people take the threat seriously. Some don't care, if they can make a few points for their personal point of view.
BUT - it'll all work out in the end.
Or not.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 21:50
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#58
Whatever happens, when it happens, if Qom is not removed along with the MMs ....
It will repeat forever.
That's why I mention non-traditional methods in other posts. orgies in the streets would go a long way toward removing any respect in Qom
#59
Iran will have to be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons. They have threatened the US and they have threatened Israel. They have threatened the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, a strategic waterway supplying a huge amount of the world's oil needs. This would affect the economies of the Chicoms, Japan, Europe, a whole load of countries. Iran is also meddling in Iraq, trying to destroy some semblance of government. Iran is funding client states and orgs like Syria, Hamas, Hizb'allah and others.
But the big issue is nuclear. Uranium, well, they can eventually make a gun-type U235 bomb. The biggest bottleneck is concentration. That is not insurmountable. They will not get Plutonium 239 without Bushehr on line, so they will have to get it from the Norks. A plutonium bomb will be the light enough device that is needed to fit on a Shahab-3 vehicle, which will be aimed at Israel. Or maybe they could sneak one with a proxy in Israel's neighborhood.
Condi is publicly talking the State line--UNSC, IAEA, blah blah blah. That is her job. The President, VP Chaney, Rumsfeld, and a few others have said little about things, except that the M²s will not get nuclear weapons. I will take them at their word.
There does not seem to be much in the line of troop movements. Prepositioning stocks can be quietly done. That could be already wrapped up. Diego Garcia is still there with the same BUFFs, B-2s are at DG or Whiteman AFB, like they usually are. The Reagan is mucking about in the WestPac, but maybe wandering toward the Persian Gulf. I'm sure that we have air assets already in Iraq who can deal with Iranian and Syrian mischief across the border. This show will happen and it's going to be an airpower and special ops show.
I hope that the M² leadership and their assets are taken out in a overwhelming and massive attack. The ferocity of the attack will send a message to others that the M² behaviors will not be tolerated. The Donks better be behind this one, because if we are attacked, especially with WMD, there is going to be cry to have them treated like the traitors that they are, and we are not talking the nicities of a courtroom with time for lunch.
Diplomacy will now be a cover for the real operaton. Diplomacy will accomplish nothing with the M²s. They truly believe that they are in the catbird seat.
In the matter of nation building, it is our hope that some groups in Iran could take the lead in getting the country away from its destructive, extremist bent. I am not real optimistic about that. The country has too many factions. It will require an authoritarian govt to do this. The first step will be to take the power away from the clerics, and they are not going to go down without a fight. That seems to me one of the reasons why the Shah fell. Civil law trumped Sharia. M²s don't like civil law. It cramps their style. So it all comes down to decapitating the M² leadership. All else follows from that.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 22:19
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#60
The Rogues want People's War, among other things, becuz it draws America's volunteer/peacetime armed forces into regions away from the other "silent" battlefield, the NORTHERN PACIFIC and ALCAN/CANUSA, and TAIWAN. Wid Chinese moving into Russia's Far East, Japan is finding herself steadily surrounded, and despite Kimmie beating the NorKor-specific war drums its the Chicom PLAAF thats been busy buzzin Japanese airspace. China espec is heavily modernizing her Airborne forces [wid Russian help], as is Russia herself, WITH BOTH NATIONS ADHERING TO THE "LOCAL/WAR/
BATTLE ZONE" ANTI-US STRATEGEM, more popularly known as "SEIZE-AND-HOLD/RESTRAIN" ags the US ENEMY where local CONUS-NORAM areas are immed NUCLEARIZED and Russo-Sino milfors, vv fast air- and sealift suppor, engage in PC [nuclearized]active defense or [nuclearized]passive LOCAL defense. POLITICAL VICTORY/DIPLOMACY, i.e. the Clintons and Anti-American Americanists, have priority over per se battlefield/military victory. Waht more iff you have personages like MOTHER CINDY calling for the liberation, by local violence andor foreign intervention, of "occupied" NOLA and other American areas from Clintonian "Fascists are merely misguided defective imperfect Limited Communists/Socialists"
Fascist Dubya and Male Brute/Monster = Male Dolt/Moron, Limited Commie GOP-Conservatives!? Arrogant =Incompetent Male Brute GOP Fascists whom don't want to be saved by Motherly Commies will be assimilated, or be exterminated.
#61
Well, you got into it pretty heavy at the end there, Joe. But I do agree that the Chicoms could use this coming battle with Iran to their advantage. It could also backfire in their faces. They have a long tenuous sealink with Iranian oil that they require to keep their economic engine alive. Stop Iran and 30% of their supply dries up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 22:39
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First they killed the chief of the Naim tribe and his son. Then they killed a top tribal sheik who headed the Fallujah city council. Then they assassinated the leader of the al-Jubur tribe.
And now the reported killers of all these men -- al-Qaeda in Iraq, the insurgent group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- have a powerful new enemy.
Tribal chiefs in Iraq's western Anbar province and in an area near the northern city of Kirkuk, two regions teeming with insurgents, are vowing to strike back at al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni Arab-led group that is waging war against Sunni tribal leaders who are cooperating with the Iraqi government and the U.S. military. Anbar tribes have formed a militia that has killed 20 insurgents from al-Qaeda in Iraq, leaders said.
Separately, more than 300 tribal chiefs, politicians, clerics, security officials and other community leaders met last week in Hawijah, about 35 miles southwest of Kirkuk, and "declared war" on al-Qaeda in Iraq. In a communique, the participants vowed "the shedding of blood" of anyone involved in "sabotage, killings, kidnappings, targeting police and army, attacking the oil and gas pipelines and their transporters, assassinating the religious and tribal figures, technicians, and doctors."
"Hawijah was never a hideout for terrorists and fugitives," the statement added. "Anyone who provides refuge to terrorists will be considered and dealt with like a criminal and terrorist."
Last month at a briefing in Baghdad, Maj. Gen Rick Lynch, a U.S. military spokesman, said Zarqawi "finds these tribal leaders who have opted to embrace the democratic process . . . and he works to assassinate" them.
"What we're finding is indeed the people of al-Anbar -- Fallujah and Ramadi, specifically -- have decided to turn against terrorists and foreign fighters," he said. "The tribal leaders, if you will, said, 'Okay, that's enough, let's take out Zarqawi and his network and get them out of our cities.' " Lynch said "local insurgents" had killed six Zarqawi deputies in Ramadi since September.
Anbar province is a center of the insurgency and the deadliest region of the country outside of Baghdad for Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces. Tribal chiefs there said their militia, the al-Anbar Revolutionaries, has killed 20 foreign fighters from al-Qaeda in Iraq and 33 Iraqi sympathizers who aided the insurgents with arms and money in the past two months.
"Forming the group did not come from nothing," said Khalaf al-Fahdawi, a leader of the Sunni Albu Fahd tribe in Anbar. "It came from a need to destroy al-Qaeda, which we thought the Marines might have been able to do. We were wrong, since these armed men became stronger and raped other cities."
Leaders in Anbar and south of Kirkuk said they opposed both Zarqawi and the American military occupation of Iraq, describing them as feeding off each other to the detriment of the country.
"We are a group of the Anbar people who want to get rid of Zarqawi . . . because this is the only way to make the Americans withdraw from Ramadi or Iraq in general," said Ahmed Abu Ilaf, 30, a welder and member of the new Anbar militia from Ramadi, about 60 miles west of the capital.
"We are against Zarqawi and his followers because they aim to extend the presence of the occupation and hurt our forces to make them weak," said Hussein Ali al-Jubouri, a Sunni tribal leader and Hawijah city council member.
Hawijah leaders said they, too, wanted to create a militia to enforce their threats, but that U.S. military officials were opposed to the idea. For the time being, they said, they would intensify their cooperation with Iraqi military and police units.
Members of the Anbar militia said the group comprised about 100 people who have had relatives slain by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group is led by Ahmed Ftaikhan, a former Iraqi intelligence officer from the now-disbanded Iraqi army who lives in Ramadi.
Fahdawi, the sheik from the Albu Fahd tribe, said the militia was forged in a series of secret meetings among tribal leaders, each of whom was asked to help form the group. Some contributed men, some money, Fahdawi said. U.S. military officers attended some of the meetings, he said, and helped "with "all kinds of financial support."
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, denied that American forces were funding the militia.
"All military activity is conducted through the legitimate structures of the Iraqi government and security forces," he said in an e-mail. "We are working hard to ensure these structures function properly, and funding a program such as this would only undermine that process."
A fighter in Zarqawi's group, calling himself Abu Azzam, said the al-Anbar Revolutionaries "are collaborators and dogs for America. They kill the mujaheddin to get money from the American crusaders. They are cowards and we have killed a lot of them. . . . All the people here support us and our jihad against the Americans and their followers."
Fahdawi said, "I cannot say that all the people in Ramadi support us, but I can say 80 percent of them do."
Ilaf, the militia member and welder from Ramadi, said the group has had real success.
"We have killed a number of the Arabs, including Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Kuwaitis, Syrians and Jordanians," he said. "We were also able to foil an attack by Zarqawi's men who were trying to attack an oil pipeline outside Ramadi. We killed four Iraqis trying to plant the bomb under the pipeline."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:40 ||
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#1
"Anyone who provides refuge to terrorists will be considered and dealt with like a criminal and terrorist."
That sounds familiar. Now where have I heard that before? It wasn't Jimmy Carter; let's see, hmmm. Jacques Chirac? No, no. Who would be able to make an idea like that influential in the Mid-east? Whoever it was must be very popular with his own constituents; after all, anyone who can make terrorism anathema to Muslims in the Middle East must be a person of courage, vision and intellectual acuity.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
03/07/2006 15:44
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Anti-terrorist police are believed to have smashed a radical Muslim cell operating in West Yorkshire home of the July 7 suicide bombers. Details emerged today of arrests by the Metropolitan Police Anti Terrorist Squad at a university halls of residence in Bradford. The arrests came just three days after a man walked into a central London police station to be arrested under the Terrorism Act. Police confirmed today that Anti-Terrorist branch officers, assisted by West Yorkshire Police, swooped on a hall of residence behind Bradford University and arrested three men aged 18 and 19 late last Thursday.
The three were taken to London, where they were being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. A fourth man, aged 19, was arrested nearby, early last Friday. He was today still being held in West Yorkshire. It is understood the men were arrested after concerns were raised about a group expressing extremist Muslim views. Those arrested are all understood to be British-born students from Pakistani families. They are not believed to originate from West Yorkshire. Officers seized a number of computers during the raids. Unconfirmed reports suggested one man had run up a bill of £10,000 by buying "specialist equipment" off the internet.
Scotland Yard said in a statement today: "The arrests are in connection with an investigation separate from the continuing inquiries into the events in London during July 2005." A spokeswoman added: "Three men two men aged 18 and one aged 19 were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000. "They are in custody at central London police stations. A fourth man aged 19 was arrested later nearby in the Bradford area and is in custody in West Yorkshire. He is also being questioned on suspicion of the same offences." Scotland Yard said the arrests followed the arrest of an 18-year-old man from east London who voluntarily attended a central London police station by appointment last Monday.
The teenager was then arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:37 ||
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A most-wanted Noordin M. Top-led terror group may have collected money from a religious alms and an international Al-Qaeda terrorists network to launch terror bombs in the country, a report said.
An information obtained from intelligence officials here Monday said that the Indonesian Police and other security apparatus have been continuously hunting for the Malaysian terrorist.
The report said the police have been trying to disclose financial supporters for Noordin`s terror group and to identify couriers who have transported money from the financial supporters and from Al-Qaeda group.
"The police and security apparatus have continued hunting for the terror group," the intelligence report said in response to Singapore International radio station which quoted Indonesian Police Headquarters` Cyber Crime Department head Senior Commissioner Petrus Reinhard Golose`s statement.
In a recent international seminar on anti-terrorism drive which was held in Jakarta, Petrus said Noordin M Top`s terror group which was nurtured by Malaysian terrorist late Azahari has deployed its operatives in West Java and Central Java.
The terror group has been affiliated to disbanded Indonesian Islamic Country (NII) that has long dreamt for the setting up of an Islamic republic in the country, he said.
Al-Qaeda`s supporter Khalid Muhammad who initiated the September 11 terror bombs in New York financed a series of bomb blasts in Indonesia including in the first Bali bomb attack in 2002 and the second one in 2005, Petrus said.
"A courier named Ismail who was arrested in Sumatra transported the money to Noordin M Top`s terror network to detonate bombs outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003. The remaining of the fund was also used to launch bomb attacks outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and Bali again in 2005," he was quoted as saying.
Petrus also said besides using Al-Qaeda`s money, the terror group also utilized fund from regional Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and earned money from robbery and drug trafficking as well as selling cellular phone`s card and collecting religious alms.
He said Wawan was a JI member who was almost captured by Indonesian police after he smuggled illicit drugs to China.
Meanwhile East Java military command`s spokesman Lt Col Bambang Sulistyono said here Monday all village security apparatus across East Java have been ordered to trace Noordin`s whereabouts.
"East Java military commander chief Maj Gen Syamsul Mappareppa has asked all security forces in the province to step up security after the provincial police anti-terror team arrested Ahmad Bashir on March 3," he said.
Ahmad who was wanted by the police was apprehended not far from his house in Surabaya for his alleged activities as Noordin M Top-led terror group`s operative, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:31 ||
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Police from an elite East Java counterterror squad arrested two men on Friday for their alleged connection with Jemaah Islamiyah leaders Noordin M. Top and the late Azahari Husin. National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bahrul Alam said police from the Detachment 88 squad apprehended Ahmad Basir in Surabaya on Friday. Basir was believed to have harbored the JI leaders in a safe house, Anton said. He could also be charged with arranging for another man, Kholili, a suspect in detention for the 2005 Bali bombings, to attend military-style training in Solo. Another suspect, Ahmad Arif Hermansyah, was taken into custody a day after Basir's arrest. He is suspected of supplying Noordin's group with the TNT used in 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy. Anton said police were continuing to question the two men.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:30 ||
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Authorities imposed a curfew in this tribal region's main town Monday as thousands of people fled a third day of clashes between Pakistani security forces and al-Qaida and Taliban supporters. An official said at least 100 militants may have been killed.
Clerics tried to mediate a cease-fire to the fighting, most of which has been in Miran Shah. Security forces conducted mop-up operations Monday after artillery and helicopter gunships targeted militant strongholds in the town.
More than 100 militants might have died, based on intelligence reports and questioning of injured and arrested fighters, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. Security forces had yet to regain control of all compounds in Miran Shah, so he could not give an exact toll. Journalists were barred from the town.
The fighting in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions along the Afghan border is the bloodiest in more than two years and marks an escalation in President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's campaign to crack down on al-Qaida and Taliban militants and their local sympathizers.
It also underscored Islamabad's failure to establish governmental control in the rugged region -- a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri -- where fiercely independent Pashtun tribesmen have resisted outside authority and influence for centuries.
The trigger of the unrest was a Pakistani army strike against a suspected al-Qaida camp in the border village of Saidgi last week that authorities said killed 45 people, including foreign militants. It was launched two days before a visit by President Bush, fueling speculation Pakistan was flexing its military muscle in the border regions to signal its commitment to the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Pro-Taliban tribesmen claimed locals were killed in the assault and, according to officials, ambushed the vehicles of security forces Saturday and opened fire on the main Frontiers Corps base in Miran Shah. The army responded with artillery and fire from helicopter gunships.
Dil Nawaz, 45, a resident of Miran Shah, said he had been stranded with his weeping family in their home for a day as guns boomed around them and bullets ricocheted off the walls. He finally fled on foot with his wife and five children during a lull in the fighting Sunday.
"We saw destruction in the main bazaar. We saw damaged homes. We just kept walking and hours later reached Mir Ali," he said.
About 10,000 people have fled the violence. Vehicles were not allowed in or out of Miran Shah, so people had to walk 10 miles to a security checkpoint. Many have ended up in Mir Ali, 15 miles west of Miran Shah, where the situation has stabilized after at least 21 people died in violence Saturday.
A full curfew was declared in Miran Shah except for three afternoon hours for residents to buy provisions, said Sikandar Qayyum, a security official for Pakistan's tribal areas. It would last as long as "the security situation requires."
Fighting rumbled on Monday. A militant rocket attack on a residential area for government officials in Miran Shah killed one official's 17-year-old daughter, Qayyum said.
Qayyum confirmed that army helicopter gunships fired on militant positions around Miran Shah on Monday, while militants attacked security checkpoints around Mir Ali and the nearby town of Razmak but caused no casualties.
Musharraf on Monday defended the army's operations, saying hundreds of foreign militants were hiding in North and neighboring South Waziristan.
"They include Uzbeks, Chechens, Middle Easterners, and even some Chinese," he told reporters. "Foreigners are also present in Miran Shah."
But opposition lawmaker Imran Khan condemned the government for "the massacre of our citizens in the tribal areas by the use of indiscriminate force."
Khan was released Sunday from two days of house arrest in Islamabad for trying to organize an anti-U.S. protest during Bush's visit.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:27 ||
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An Afghan elder is disputing the Canadian militarys claim that a man with an axe who seriously wounded a Canadian soldier Saturday was a Taliban operative, but Haji Mohammed Eisahs assertion only underlines the murky world of political affiliations in southern Afghanistan.
Eisah says the axe-wielding attacker was Abdul Karim, a 16-year-old boy who was upset by the U.S.-led coalitions heavy-handed tactics and insensitivity to tribal traditions. Eisah said the boy had no Taliban connections.
Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, head of the Canadian contingent of 2,200 troops in Afghanistan, said in no uncertain terms Sunday that the attacker was an operative of the Taliban.
A source at Canadian headquarters, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senior military leaders have a healthy skepticism of Mr. Eisahs version of Karims affiliations.
The source said the military cannot disclose the evidence leading to the conclusion that the attacker worked for the Taliban, the ultraconservative militant group that allegedly harboured Osama bin Ladens Al Qaeda organization when it was in power in Afghanistan.
The Taliban regime was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2002 after Al Qaedas Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Remnants of the Taliban are still active in Afghanistan, attacking coalition forces and intimidating local populations.
Eisah said Karim was the son of a poor shoe repairman in Kondalan Schinkai. Senior military sources confirmed the identity of the attacker on Monday, but said Karims exact age is impossible to establish.
The town was the scene of the attack Saturday where Karim struck Capt. Trevor Greene of Vancouver in the head with an axe. Karim was shot dead by three Canadian soldiers moments after he struck Greene.
Eisah says the boy was one of many local people who are angry at coalition and Afghan army tactics, such as operations where they search and occupy the homes of villagers.
They come to our village and search our homes and our women, Eisah in an interview by satellite telephone. This guy was very angry about these kinds of operations.
Meanwhile, Greenes condition improved somewhat after surgery Monday at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
His condition somewhat destabilized this morning, Maj. Nick Withers, a Canadian medical officer at the hospital, told CBC-TV News.
Withers said Greenes surgery went extremely well and that he was in intensive care in a medically induced coma.
His condition has stabilized but he remains in critical condition, but were much happier than we were eight hours ago, Withers told CBC.
Events on Saturday indicated a degree of co-ordination beyond the act of a single teenager or an angry mob. Moments after the attack, insurgents shot at Canadian and Afghan troops, and someone tossed a hand grenade.
Eisah denied that anyone in the village knew the attack was coming. Canadian soldiers on the scene say children were quietly rounded up and moved away moments before the ambush.
Eisah was part of a delegation of conservative rural tribal elders from the heart of Taliban country who travelled to Kandahar city a couple weeks ago to complain about house-to-house searches.
The elders said coalition troops break down doors and search randomly after attacks, sending women out of the house and outraging community members.
Afghan troops often follow up by occupying houses and stealing their meat, the elders complained.
Coalition forces come and search the homes, Afghan forces stay the night and we have to take our women to another home, Eisah said.
Within hours of the attack, Eisah contacted Afghans who work for international media organizations by satellite phone to dispute claims that Karim had a Taliban connection.
Canadian officials could not confirm Eisahs claim that three local Afghans, including two children, were injured in the firefight that followed the axe attack.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:22 ||
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Eisah should be arrested as a Taliban supporter, which he obviously is.
The Mujahideen Shura Council issued five communiqués amongst several today, March 6, 2006, in which they claim responsibility for a series of bombings targeting Crusader forces in Baghdad, Tal Afar, al-Mosul, and Tikrit. The group states that on Saturday, March 4, they launched an organized attack on the Crusaders in the village of al-Naaemya in the area of Zobaa, west of Baghdad, in which the mujahideen detonated several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and attacked the barracks with automatic weapons and rockets. On Sunday, the group detonated IEDs on several vehicles, killing or injuring those soldiers inside.
The Mujahideen Shura Council is composed of seven insurgency groups in Iraq: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, the Army of al-Sunnah Wal Jamaa, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the unbelievers gathering with different sides and defend Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:21 ||
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Pakistani forces used helicopter gunships yesterday to tackle sporadic resistance by pro-Taliban militants, two days after battles in a remote tribal area killed 55 people, officials said.
The clashes came as President Pervez Musharraf stepped up a war of words with Afghanistan, deriding accusations the Taliban leader was in Pakistan as nonsense and questioning the Afghan government's leadership.
Top military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said that the army had seized control of the main markets in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan region, and were patrolling the streets to ensure order.
"Late yesterday and overnight there was an exchange of fire with militants but we are establishing the government writ," he said, adding that troops had taken back all government buildings in the embattled town.
Troops shelled and destroyed two buildings overnight, a madrassah (school) and an Islamic preaching center, which officials said were used by insurgents as sanctuaries. It was not known if there were any casualties.
As troops clamped down in Miranshah, militants fired a rocket into the residential quarters of government employees, killing the daughter of a utility service official, officials said.
Early yesterday, US-built Cobra gunships pounded a small hamlet near Miranshah market after rockets were fired at the army positions, apparently from one of the houses, an official said.
The fighting broke out on Saturday when hundreds of tribal rebels seized government buildings in revenge for an army raid three days earlier targeting an al-Qaeda training camp, killing 40 militants, including foreigners.
Meanwhile, in in an interview with CNN late on Sunday, President Musharraf said relations with Afghanistan were growing tense and Afghan President Hamid Karzai was "totally oblivious" to efforts by elements in his government to malign Pakistan.
Afghanistan is facing an increasingly vicious insurgency by the Taliban, who have been fighting since they were ousted shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the US.
Although Pakistan officially ended its support, many Afghans are convinced the Taliban could not survive and fight without the benefit of Pakistani refuges from where they plot and launch attacks into Afghanistan.
Pakistan, however, has long rejected such accusations.
Karzai visited Pakistan last month and handed over what Afghan officials said was detailed information about Taliban members and activities in Pakistan, including telephone numbers and the location of supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
But Musharraf said much of the data was old and useless.
"Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing," he said.
He said he believed there was a conspiracy against his country within Afghanistan's Defense Ministry and intelligence agencies.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:18 ||
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Pervez Musharraf I am calling BS. Pakistan is has to keep the region unstable so it can keep up the game. This is the reality.
Pakistani security forces battled pro-Taliban rebels holding out in a town near the Afghan border on Monday, killing 19 of them as the toll from three days of clashes rose to more than 120, the military said.
The rebels launched attacks on government positions in Miran Shah on Saturday as President Bush met Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in the capital. The fighting has raged since.
"Helicopter gunships have been pounding militant positions around Miran Shah," said a resident of the town that serves as the administrative capital of North Waziristan, a tribal region. "The situation is very tense."
The semiautonomous ethnic Pashtun lands along the Afghan border are Pakistan's front line in the war on terrorism.
After U.S. and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, many al-Qaeda militants fled to the area, which was awash in weapons. Taliban supporters among the Pashtun clans offered al-Qaeda a refuge.
Hundreds of people have been killed since late 2004 as Pakistani forces have been trying to clear foreign militants from the border area and subdue their Pakistani allies.
Government forces faced stiff resistance as they tried to remove the last of the rebels from Miran Shah on Monday, said a military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.
Militants launched attacks and seized government buildings Saturday in Miran Shah in revenge for a government attack Wednesday that killed 45 fighters.
The toll from the first day of fighting rose from 46 to more than 100 militants as more detailed reports arrived, Sultan said. Two militants were killed Sunday.
Five troops were killed and two wounded over the three days, he said.
Thousands had left Miran Shah since last week's violence and the exodus was continuing Monday, said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Violence targeting the U.S.-backed Afghan government and foreign troops has strained relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. On Sunday, Musharraf derided Afghan accusations that the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar, was in Pakistan.
A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan welcomed the Pakistani action in Waziristan.
"We see this as a very positive move," Col. Jim Yonts said. "This issue in Waziristan is an example that they are fighting the war on terrorism."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:10 ||
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Algeria on Monday released a leader of a banned Islamic party. Ali Belhadj, former deputy leader of the Islamic Salvation Front, had been barred from political or charitable activity and from making public statements when he was released in 2003 after serving a 12-year term for threatening national security. He was arrested again after he praised the Iraqi insurgency last July on the Arab television network Al-Jazeera and condoned the kidnapping in Iraq of two Algerian diplomats, who were later killed.
The Salvation Front rose to power in Algeria's first multiparty national elections in December 1991, prompting the army to cancel the second round voting. Beheadings and massacres by Islamic extremists followed, and tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Government security forces were accused of playing at least a passive role in some of the bloodshed, which largely ended with a cease-fire in 1997.
As part of national reconciliation efforts approved in a referendum last year, jails around the country started releasing prisoners this weekend. The plan foresees pardons for people convicted of crimes that did not involve massacres, rape or explosions in public places. Critics say the plan seeks to whitewash years of agony and that releasing extremists and allowing them home from exile could plant the seeds for future violence.
For the better part of the last several years, there has been an ongoing debate over the detainees held by the United States as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Members of the administration, including Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, have described those being held there as being "the worst of the worst," while critics have argued that the detainees constitute minimal intelligence value. Now, thanks to several thousand pages of documents released by the Pentagon, it can be safely said that the truth about Guantanamo is somewhere in between. Still, it remains difficult to determine the accuracy of critics' charges that the United States continues to hold individuals of minimal intelligence value because the documents themselves do not state whether such individuals were released or are still detained at the facility.
The first set of documents helps to illustrate this point. Some detainees profess ignorance when confronted with unclassified U.S. allegations concerning their involvement or association with terrorism. Others attempt to explain away such evidence. Since the majority of the documents consist primarily of U.S. allegations against the detainees and the responses of the detainees, there is no way for the reader to determine whether the detainees' answers are credible or not. Still, there are indications that there is much more to some detainees than first meets the eye.
Take for instance this account from a detainee who is the son of a Saudi diplomat and was captured not in Afghanistan, but in Indonesia:
. . . I got introduced to terrorists in Indonesia . . . The third person's name is Habib Rizq. Habib Rizq is the President of an organization, IDF, like, Islamic Defense Front. It is said about him that he has connections with Usama bin Laden. Telephone connections. Habib Rizq and bin Laden talks through the telephone. Habib Rizq is also the guardian of the al Qaida organization in Indonesia.
It is precisely this type of information that is of value to U.S. intelligence. The Front Pembela Islam, usually rendered Islamic Defenders Front or FPI in English, is an Indonesian vigilante group founded in 1998 by Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Husein Syihab, the "Habib Rizq" referenced by the detainee above. The FPI has actively campaigned for the implementation of sharia in Indonesia and remains active there to this day, most recently organizing protests in response to the cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten in Denmark. If the detainee's claims about FPI and its leader's ties to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden are true, then its continued activities in Indonesia would be a matter of grave concern for the U.S. government.
Other statements by the same detainee, such as the following, indicate further cause for his continued detention at Guantanamo:
To show I was a such a big person, I talked about Osama bin Laden and they asked me, did I see Osama bin Laden and I told them yes, when I was coming from Pakistan, I heard one of his announcements, in which he announced that the Muslims should not travel on non-Muslim airlines. If Muslims were to travel on non-Muslim airlines, then al Qaida and Osama bin Laden are not responsible for their lives.
These are by no means the only interesting or disturbing claims made by the Guantanamo detainees, they are simply among the most interesting in the first of more than fifty-three different sets of documents. Even the most virulent critics of Guantanamo must acknowledge that information of this nature is of great value to the United States in pursuing the war against al Qaeda and its allies. And those individuals who possess such knowledge may be too valuable to repatriate or release.
Dan Darling is a counterterrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
01:03 ||
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Even the most virulent critics of Guantanamo must acknowledge that information of this nature is of great value to the United States in pursuing the war against al Qaeda and its allies.
Huh? the most virulent critics are just as much an enemy as those held in Gitmo. They're not going to admit any justification for actions against their allies in their war against America.
#3
I heard one of his announcements, in which he announced that the Muslims should not travel on non-Muslim airlines. If Muslims were to travel on non-Muslim airlines, then al Qaida and Osama bin Laden are not responsible for their lives.
Grant for a second that this is true.
Then all we have to do is sieze each and every "Muslim" aircraft as it lands, and they cannot travel.
BBWAHHHHHhhaha, (I can't breathe, gasp)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/07/2006 14:54
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EXECUTING al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui over his role in the September 11 attacks would only make him a "hero" and draw young Muslims into extremist groups, his lawyers said in a US court today.
Defence and prosecution counsel started an impassioned debate on the first day of the sentencing trial for the 37-year-old Frenchman, who is the only person to have been charged for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Moussaoui was detained in August 2001 and was in jail when the al-Qaeda hijackers struck.
Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui deserves the death penalty because he knew about the attacks and could have prevented them if he had not lied to investigators.
Moussaoui has rejected his court-appointed defence team and listened with barely a reaction as one of his lawyers said that execution would turn the avowed al-Qaeda follower into a martyr.
Lawyer Edward MacMahon pleaded with the jury not to order a death sentence so that Moussaoui would "live on as some smiling face in a recruiting poster for Osama bin Laden".
"Please don't make him a hero. He just doesn't deserve it," Mr MacMahon said.
The lawyer said jurors should not use Moussaoui as "revenge" for the horror of September 11 or to make up for the "bureaucratic infighting and outright blunders", which he said were made by the US authorities before the attacks.
Mr MacMahon rejected prosecution claims that Moussaoui was an integral part of the plot. The lawyer portrayed Moussaoui as "a strange Muslim loner" who had "failed miserably" in attempts to learn to fly.
"He couldn't fly at all. Any plan that involved Moussaoui as a pilot was destined to fail," said Moussaoui's lawyer.
Mr MacMahon said the Government had no evidence to prove that Moussaoui's failure to tell FBI investigators about September 11 had caused a single death.
"What the Government wants you to believe is only a dream. Its most seductive quality is that we all wish it could have come true."
Moussaoui's mother, Aicha El Wafi, watched events from an overflow courtroom in the complex and buried her face in her hands when she saw her son on a television screen.
Prosecutors started their case by saying that Moussaoui had been an integral part of the September 11 plot.
"One of the conspirators is among us, that man is the defendant," said prosecutor Robert Spencer. "... He lied so the plot could proceed. He lied and nearly 3000 people perished."
Mr Spencer said that September 11 had been "a defining moment for a generation" in the US.
"It started as an utterly normal day, which soon became a day of abject horror... within a few hours out of that clear blue sky came terror, pain, misery and death."
Mr Spencer said the prosecution would prove to jurors "why Moussaoui lied and what effects those lies had".
Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit attacks with al-Qaeda, though he has argued that he was not meant to be part of September 11 and that he was to take part in a second wave of attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
00:59 ||
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#7
I wuz of the "martyr" pursuasion, so I thought he oughta get life - with the general population, whixh'd be pretty short.
But when the press found out he'd been wacked in the pen - or heaven forbid, had underwear put on his head, I'd have to turn the television off for a year or two.
Can't put him in soliatry, 'cuz that's be cruel and unusual, and the ACLU would get him sprung.
His lawyer, meanwhile, is saying, "the Government had no evidence to prove that Moussaoui's failure to tell FBI investigators about September 11 had caused a single death."
Meaning he's really innocent as a baby duck/bunny.
So what is the federal method of execution? Can it be televised on Al Jizz? I've never seen a hanging....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 12:47
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der needle - same as for McVeigh
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2006 13:10
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A TERRORIST conspirator who studied in London must be executed for causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 people by failing to tell what he knew of the 11 September attacks, prosecutors in the United States argued yesterday.
As Zacarias Moussaoui stroked his beard on the opening day of his sentencing trial, and families of the 11 September victims watched on closed-circuit television, prosecutor Rob Spencer described the horror of the 2001 attacks and laid blame on the only man charged over them.
"He lied so the plot could proceed unimpeded," Mr Spencer charged.
"With that lie, he caused the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. He rejoiced in the death and destruction. Had Mr Moussaoui just told the truth, it would all have been different."
Moussaoui's defence countered that his dreams of being a terrorist were far removed from anything he could actually do, and that he had no part in the attacks.
"That is Zacarias Moussaoui in a nutshell," said his court-appointed lawyer Edward MacMahon. "Sound and fury signifying nothing."
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema had 18 jurors and substitutes sworn in over a 90-minute period yesterday. One who appeared upset at being chosen was excused, meaning the trial will proceed with 12 jurors and five substitutes instead of six.
Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen, has acknowledged his loyalty to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and his intent to commit acts of terrorism, but denies any prior knowledge of the 11 September plot.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaeda to hijack planes and commit other crimes. The trial will determine Moussaoui's punishment and only two options are available: death or life in prison.
The jury included a high school maths teacher who has travelled widely in the Middle East, a Sunni Muslim woman who was born in Iran and a man who served as a Navy lieutenant in the Gulf during the Desert Storm war against Iraq in 1990-91.
Two prospective jurors with some loose connection to the September 11 attacks made it on to the final panel of 17.
One was a woman whose brother-in-law works for the New York City Police Department and helped with rescue work at the World Trade Centre.
The maths teacher had a more remote connection - the fathers of two of her pupils are firefighters who responded to the September 11 crash at the Pentagon. She helped students make a quilt to give to the fire department.
In his opening statement, Mr MacMahon appealed to jurors to judge his client fairly, not "as a substitute for Osama bin Laden".
He scoffed at the idea Moussaoui had any part in the plot. "Moussaoui certainly wasn't sent over here to tell a lie, ladies and gentlemen."
Frequently ejected from the courtroom earlier because of his outbursts against his court-appointed attorneys, Moussaoui sat quietly through the opening of his trial, often gazing at the jurors or the gallery.
At the end of the morning hearing, he spoke to one member of his defence team: "Just to let you know, you're not my lawyer, thanks a lot."
His mother, Aicha el-Wafi, spoke up for her son in a television interview. "All they can have against him is the things that he said, the words that he has used," she said, "but actual acts that he committed, there aren't any."
Hamilton Peterson, who lost his father Donald and stepmother Jean on hijacked Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, came to witness the trial.
Standing in the hallway outside the courtroom, talking to reporters, he declared: "I want accountability. I would like to have accountability after a fair trial for the world to see.
"I believe Moussaoui is an excellent candidate for the death penalty. He is nothing less than a mass murderer."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
00:58 ||
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An eight-minute video issued by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and titled: The Rule of Allah, featuring several executions of men accused of being collaborators with American forces, was recently distributed amongst jihadist forums. Produced by Labik, an al-Qaeda production company in Afghanistan, each of the clips opens with a short text detailing the accusations, footage of confessions by the accused men, and the execution via beheading or gunshot. Of these scenes, one in particular was issued separately in December 2005, showing the beheading of Saeed Allah Khan , who allegedly sought to blow up Islamic schools in Waziristan on orders from Americans.
Another clip shows Akbar Khan, seated with his identification cards pinned to his shirt, then attached to a blindfold over his eyes. Khan, purported to be one of the biggest spies who abetted Americans in capturing the mujahideen, is shot to death as he is bound on the floor. The subsequent clip depicts Janat Meer, who allegedly ran a spy cell against the mujahideen, and his gunshot execution from close to zero range.
The final clip concerns a captured group of highway robbers who used to terrify Muslim believers allegedly at the request of Americans and the apostates. Two of the men are shown being beheaded and held skywards by the mujahideen. The video then shows the destruction of the mens stronghold and subtitles states that the citizens of the area celebrated for days after its removal. Citizens and children are indeed seen trying to take the place apart, as well as armed mujahideen standing smiling around the hanged and mutilated bodies of the remaining robbers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
00:57 ||
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New snuff movies? No doubt many jihadi wannabe all around the world will get severely aroused watching them. Who need prOn when you get snuff movies?
"The Rule of Allah" = gruesome executions, desecration and mutilation of bodies, paranoia flowing all around, hard boyz having gun sex.
#2
I doubt these victims are anything but poor slobs they've kidnapped off the street for their "home videos"-- so they can "prove" how tough they are (and also to desensitize potential Islamofacist fighters gangsters.
Yemeni forces have recaptured three al Qaeda inmates who were part of a group that tunnelled out of jail in the Arab country last month, a government official said on Monday. "Authorities arrested three of the al Qaeda escapees in Sanaa on Sunday," the official told Reuters. He gave no further detail of their identities. Last month, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said three other al Qaeda militants -- part of a group of 23 inmates who broke out of jail -- had surrendered to authorities. Saleh had told al-Hayat newspaper that security forces were also in contact with other fugitives among the group of 23 militants that escaped from a Sanaa jail in February.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/07/2006
00:56 ||
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KARACHI: Two bomb threats, one at the Italian Consulate and the other at DHA Girls College, spread panic throughout the city on Monday. The administration of the Italian Consulate informed the police that they received an unidentified telephone call in which the caller threatened to attack the consulate. The police and the bomb disposal squad rushed to the consulate near Clifton's Teen Talwar and conducted a search following which the threat was declared a fake.
Another bomb threat was received at DHA Girls College just a few minutes before. The police scanned the area and building but nothing was discovered there either.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
00:17 ||
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One of the highest ranking generals in Iraq's new US-trained army was shot dead in Baghdad on Monday, the US military and Iraqi police said. Major General Mubdar Hatim al-Dulaimi, commander of all Iraqi army forces in the capital, was killed by a sniper, police sources said. He was shot as he drove through western Baghdad.
As the commander of the 6th Division, among the first and biggest of Iraq's new Army divisions formed by US forces as part of their plans for eventual withdrawal, Maj Gen Dulaimi was among the most prominent officers in Iraq's security forces. His troops have been in the front line of efforts for the past two weeks to prevent further sectarian bloodshed in the wake of an attack on a major Shiite shrine.
The US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, said in a statement: "This tragic incident will neither impede the 6th Iraqi Army Division from continuing its mission of securing Baghdad nor derail the formation of the government of Iraq." The US military said in a statement: "Mubdar had been visiting his soldiers in Kadimiyah and was returning to his headquarters when his convoy came under small arms fire attack."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
00:16 ||
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And exactly HOW did that round penetrate his bullet proof glass??? I guess he had to take a leak!
KARACHI: The Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan (Noorani) (JUP-N) has started negotiating with Barelvi (generally called Ahle Sunnat) parties to forge a grand alliance, a top JUP-N leader said. "Our party has established a three-member committee to hold talks," Hashim Siddiqui, a central JUP-N leader, told Daily Times. The committee comprises Mufti Jamil Naeemi, MNA Sahibzada Abul Khair Zubair and Pir Ejaz Hashmi and so far it has contacted the Sunni Tehreek and some people in Sindh and the Punjab. The JUP-N's Shoora formed this committee at a recent meeting in Karachi.
There was a general feeling that the JUP-N was upset with the dominance of two Deobandi parties, the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (Fazlur Rehman) and Jamaat-e-Islami, in the six-party religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The JUP-N had a distinguished role in the MMA while its leader, the late Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani was alive as the founding president of the religious alliance. But after his death, over two years ago, the JUP-N took a backseat and the JUI-F and JI virtually dominated the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
00:15 ||
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US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Monday that United States is "certainly" not going to act as a mediator between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, but "hopes for progress" on the issue. "It is our firm hope that the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan is going to be successful and that those two countries are going to be able to work out some of the bilateral differences in Indo-Pak relations as well as differences over Kashmir that have been so much at the centre of troubles of South Asia for so many decades," Burns said.
"And as President Bush said repeatedly during his trip, we Americans don't see ourselves as mediators between India and Pakistan on their bilateral differences, and certainly not on the issue of Kashmir %u2026 but we do hope for progress in Kashmir.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
00:12 ||
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US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Monday that United States is "certainly" not going to act as a mediator between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, but "hopes for progress" on the issue.
#3
If you want a true quagmire, look no farther than Kashmir. Let's hope that Perv is so hamstrung with internal threats that he loses his grip on beleaguered Kashmir.
Mar 6: Five Kuwaitis freed from U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay were released on bail on Sunday in Kuwait after denying that they had joined Al-Qaida, collected "donations" for it or fought with the Taliban.
The men returned from the Cuban detention centre in November. Kuwaiti prosecutors allege they have endangered their country's "political standing" and its ties with friendly nations. They were released on the equivalent of $1,720 bail. "God willing, (the release) was a good start," Mubarak al-Shimmiri, their lawyer, told The Associated Press.
Depends on what happens to them next.
Four of the men were accused of joining Al-Qaida, and one of fighting alongside Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. Three of the five face charges of working for an Afghan charity the U.S. military says helped finance Al-Qaida.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
00:12 ||
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#1
It appears to be painfully quite obvious that terrorism, similar to pedifilia has a remarkably high rate of recidivism. The current programe of "catch and release" should re-examined for Gods sake. Terrorists are not signatores of the Geneva Convention and when captured, should be interrogated and promptly executed.
BAQUBA: Three car bombs killed nine people in Baquba and Bghdad on Monday. A car bomb exploded in a busy market in Baquba northeast of Baghdad on Monday, killing six people, including two girls under four, and wounding 20, police said, adding most of the casualties were children. The bomb went off after police arrived in the market to check on a separate incident in which one person had been killed. Five policemen were wounded, police said. The blast destroyed food stalls and shops in the market, which was busy with women and children. Police and firefighters rushed to the scene.
The religiously mixed city of Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad, has been the scene of several sectarian attacks since a bomb destroyed a Shia shrine on February 22 in Samarra, sparking violence that has killed hundreds across Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
00:10 ||
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The prime suspect in the shocking kidnapping, torture and murder of a young Frenchman insisted on the weekend that money, not anti-Semitism, was the only motive in the crime, according to investigators Sunday. But the statements made by Youssouf Fofana, a 25-year-old French Muslim, after his extradition Saturday from Ivory Coast, did little to dispel a widespread perception in France that he was part of a gang that targeted the victim because he was Jewish. Yet investigators determined to present the most watertight case possible are being extremely careful in their handling of the affair. They are hesitant to label the crime as principally anti-Semitic before fully questioning the suspects and their motives. He allegedly confessed -- as he already had while in custody in Abidjan -- that he had participated in the kidnapping of Halimi, but denied having killed him. He blamed other suspects not yet in custody for the death.
Several of the arrested suspects, however, have allegedly described Fofana as the leader of the gang, which called itself "the gang of barbarians". At least one was said to have accused Fofana of having fatally knifed Halimi because the victim managed to lift a blindfold and saw Fofana's face. Fofana also allegedly had the idea -- taken from US crime television shows -- to douse Halimi with acid to erase any fingerprints or DNA. Fofana allegedly said when questioned in Abidjan that Halimi was abducted because it was thought that, being Jewish, his family could pay the initial 450,000-euro ransom demanded. But he also said in a television interview conducted while awaiting extradition that Halimi's kidnapping was carried out "for financial reasons". A source close to the case said Fofana was being held in an unidentified prison outside the Paris area to avoid any communication with the other suspects in the case.
#1
Yeah, I guess that's why the 'Barbarians' chanted anti-jewish koran verses (as acknowledged by the police during phone intercepts) while letting Ilan's family hear him being tortured on the phone... money, that's the ticket!
And that's why 80% of their attempted kidnappings targeted jews, or why the physicians they racketed in a separate case were located in a jewish neighbourhood too.
No antisemitism... I feel so relieved!
#3
Clearly a different definition of antisemitism: to them, if it doesn't involve shipping Jews en masse to the gas chambers, it's perfectly understandable dislike of the Other.
KARACHI: The FBI has acquired the medico legal records and postmortem reports of the four bodies of the victims of the March 2 bomb blast at the US Consulate, Daily Times learnt on Monday. Members of the FBI team discussed the postmortem details with two local doctors, who are the medico legal officers in the case. While only the upper half of US diplomat David Foy's body was retrieved from the scene of the crime and has one arm missing, the postmortem has yielded some results. Foy's left foot has been discovered also. Foy's remains were flown home where it is believed that a second postmortem will be conducted.
The FBI made an unexpected discovery, however, from the parts of Foy's body that were retrieved. According to the local postmortem, they were embedded with small wires. Only Foy's body bears this evidence. These wires are normally found in car tires but this has yet to be confirmed.
The FBI also discussed the remains of the suicide bomber. It is believed that his scalp was found in two parts with both ears attached. However, as the measurements of the two ears differ by 0.5 cm the doctors have yet to confirm that they belonged to one person. The parts of the suicide bomber's body are not in a condition that makes it easy for them to be identified. The prints of one finger, which the police believe belonged to the attacker, have been badly damaged which is why NADRA faces an uphill task identifying it. The finger is being forensically treated so that prints can be lifted. "We are 100 percent sure that the finger belongs to the attacker but up till now we have not been able to ascertain whether it belonged to his left or right hand," said CCPO Niaz Siddiqui while talking to Daily Times on Monday. "But we are waiting for NADRA's final report but it did admit that lifting the prints was proving difficult."
Almost all parts of the driver Iftikhar Ahmed's body have been recovered and identified except for his head. Rangers sepoy Zafar's body has been the least affected by the blast but has been burnt more than the others.
Sources said that the CC camera footage has revealed that a white Toyota Corolla, the same at the attacker's car, was also reportedly part of the operation. This second car was traveling in front of Foy's vehicle before it turned into the Marriott road. However, it slowed down deliberately, thereby forcing Iftikhar to slow down also, which apparently gave the suicide bomber enough time to put his car in reverse and remain ready for the diplomat's vehicle.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
00:08 ||
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Well and truly blown up. Rest well, Mr. Foy, and thank you for your service to your country. My condolences and a sad salute to your family.
And to our Congress and Administration and intel agencies, policy makers and publicity flacks...faster, please.
A court here yesterday awarded life imprisonment to a top JMB leader for his involvement in August 17 serial bombings across the country. Faruq alias Baset Saifullah alias Amjad, a member of the Majlis-e-Shura and chief of Dhaka and Barisal divisions of the outlawed militant outfit, was tried in absentia. Saifullah, hails from Kaukhali upazila of the district, was also fined Tk 50,000. In default, he will have to serve five years more in jail.
Life plus five!
According to the prosecution, the convict exploded bombs at separate places, including Pirojpur Bar Association building, with the help of his associates. After examining the records and witnesses, Additional District and Sessions Judge Md Sadiqul Islam Talukdar pronounced the verdict.
The convict also carries 40 years imprisonment along with JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman, operations commander of JMJB Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
00:07 ||
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Life plus five, or until Eid-al-fitr, whichever comes first.
MULTAN: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat and Tehreek-e-Insaf staged demonstrations to protest against the caricatures of the Holy Prophet (ptui pbuh) in European newspapers. The PML-N organised a big rally in Vehari, 100 kilometre south-east of Multan. More than 1,000 activists of the PML and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal chanted slogans against the US, Israel and Denmark. The protesters torched the effigy of US President George Bush and flags of Israel, Denmark and the US.
Addressing the rally, MNA Tehmina Daultana called the removal of rulers imperative because of increasing lawlessness, inflation and the flawed foreign policy. She said any US attack on Iran would be an attack on the Muslim world and that such a move would be resisted. She said that grave situation in Balochistan and Waziristan was a conspiracy to divide the country to facilitate Washington. She said the troika of the US-India-Israel was a move against China, Iran and Pakistan. The PML-N leader claimed that days of President Pervez Musharraf were numbered. Haji Tufail Waraich of the MMA said that by holding 100 percent strike on March 3, the people of Pakistan had demonstrated against the policies of George Bush and President Pervez Musharraf.
By striking 100% of Outer Waziristan, Musharraf has demonstrated he's not quite ready to leave office yet, Haji. Heh.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
00:06 ||
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She said any US attack on Iran would be an attack on the Muslim world and that such a move would be resisted.
Just breathing is "an attack on the Muslim world". The muslim world is attacking non-muslims on a striking scale. The muslim world is striking other muslims for not being the "right sort of muslim" on a global scale.
What is happening from our point of view, is not an "attack" on the muslim world, but a defence against the incoming violence and barbarity and ignorance.
Gad, these people are dumb. Has it occurred to her that the Chinese are not muslims? Seems real keen on their new partner, doesn't she? Does China know they are to become muslims now?
I've had it with PakiWaki Land. I'd like to see this trough of squalour, violence, hatred and stupidity (lo, doen't forget the hubris - such amazing unwaranted hubris)eliminated and redivided. If any survive what's coming down their road.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called neighboring President Hamid Karzai oblivious to events in Afghanistan, stepping up a war of words between the two US allies in the war on terror.
Musharraf renewed a months-long row with Afghanistan over cooperation in the search for Osama bin Laden and remnant Taleban and Al Qaeda militants, just days after US President George W. Bush visited both countries. He said that a list which Afghan officials gave to Islamabad containing details of Taleban militants allegedly in Pakistan, including the regimes fugitive leader Mullah Omar, was nonsense.
"Pshaw! You call that a list! I got lists of enemies longer than that!"
There is a very, very deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan by some (Afghani) agents, and president Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country, Musharraf told CNNs Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer on Sunday.
"They're insulting our dignity! We'll burn their embassy! You watch us seethe!"
Afghanistans foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah last week told AFP of his concern that Islamabad was not following up on a list of Taleban rebels, which was handed over when Karzai visited Pakistan last month.
But military ruler Musharraf, who abandoned Pakistans support for the Taleban after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, said he was totally disappointed by the intelligence the Afghans had provided. Weve already gone through it, this list. Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing, Musharraf said. What there was, the telephone numbers that they are talking of, two-thirds of them are dead numbers, and even the CIA knows about it, because we are sharing all this information with them.
And the other third?
The location that they are talking of Mullah Omar is nonsense. Theres nobody there.
"We called and asked. The guy said nobody was there! So stop complaining!"
Musharraf also complained of a conspiracy against Pakistan within Karzais defence and intelligence departments, adding: He better set that right.
Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Taleban training facilities on Pakistani soil and also alleged that some circles in Pakistan support and finance Islamic radicals behind the insurgency in Afghanistan. We have had it up to our turbans ears with this campaign to malign Pakistan, a senior Pakistani official close to Musharraf told AFP on condition of anonymity. We have provided sufficient evidence to President Bush what certain Afghan officials are doing to fund and supply arms to militants in Pakistan, the official said.
Oh yeah, just what Karzai wants to do with an unstable, fractious country with an insurgency: go next door and cause trouble. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense. Maybe sense in an Islamic way.
One Afghan commander in Jalalabad is sending arms into Pakistani areas, for example. As a result our soldiers are dying and their soldiers are dying too.
That's because the Taliban are on both sides of the border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
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Aaaarrgh Perv! I just, so... want to bitch-slap him.
Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, the 22-year-old former UNC student charged with trying to run down other students at the University of North Carolina on Friday, thanked the judge Monday during his first appearance for the opportunity tell people about Allah.
"I'm thankful you're here to give me this trial to learn more about the will of Allah, the creator and the merciful," Taheri-azar said to the judge during the short hearing in Orange County District Criminal Court.
Taheri-Azar, wearing the typical orange jumpsuit of jail inmates, was escorted into the crowded courtroom under tight security by the Orange County Sheriff's Office and was immediately seated in the defendant's chair.
Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall told Judge Pat DeVine that Taheri-Azar had been charged with nine counts of attempted murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. He then read through each of the 18 warrants, naming each of the nine victims.
Taheri-Azar sat quietly, only glancing once to his right at the phalanx of deputies who stood nearby. He answered each of DeVine's questions politely as she explained his rights and the procedures. Susan Seahorn, an assistant public defender, stood behind his chair.
When DeVine asked Taheri-Azar if he wanted to hire his own attorney or have one appointed for him, he answered, "I am representing myself."
Taheri-Azar spoke softly and it was difficult to hear exactly what he said. Woodall, who was standing near him during the first appearance, later said Seahorn spoke to Taheri-azar as he was sitting in the defendant's chair. "She whispered in his ear to stop talking, and he said he would decide when to stop talking," Woodall said.
Although Taheri-Azar said he would represent himself, DeVine still appointed the Public Defender's office to represent him "out of an abundance of caution," she said.
DeVine told Taheri-Azar that his bond would remain at $5.5 million and that he would remain in custody under a safekeeping order at Central Prison in Raleigh.
After speaking briefly in a backroom with two representatives of the Public Defender's office, deputies escorted Taheri-Azar to a sheriff's car that was waiting to transport him back to the prison. As news reporters shouted questions at him about representing himself, Taheri-Azar replied, "Allah is my lawyer."
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2006
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Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, dmv lion of islam
hokay mighty Mo, Allah is your fo sur lawyer, and Mr. Bubba here be happy to have a new cellmate.
#5
I am waiting for a good torte lawyer to represent the real victims and sue the living daylights out of members of the MSM for feeding the lad an unending spew of lies, distortions and misrepresentations causing him to act in such a manner as to harm his clients. Won't be hard to demonstrate that the MSM has not been 'unbiased' and 'neutral', and that their willful actions done with reckless abandon were the basis for pain and suffering of his clients.
#6
Where did this lunatic get the motivation to run over people ?, a mosque ?
This is it folks. This is the proof that any muzzie can and will go bananas out of the blue to kill the infidels. This is the proof we need to outlaw Islam.
All in favor ?
AYE !
#9
Here's hoping his new "room mates" are already sharpening some toothbrush handles to celebrate his arrival. Maximum sentence on all counts, if the judge has a brain.
INNSBRUCK, Austria - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer ruled out on Monday sending troops from the western military alliance to Sudans strife-torn Darfur province. De Hoop Scheffer said he believed that NATO could help in the region during the transition phase from an African Union operation to one led by the United Nations but only with a clear UN mandate. Then we can discuss a NATO role, which I do see in the enabling sphere and not the boots of troops on the ground, he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers in Innsbruck, Austria.
I'm a bit unclear on the military concept of an 'enabling sphere'.
The United States has been lobbying for a new UN-led force, backed by NATO and probably double the AU deployment, to take over peacekeeping. Last week, the US Senate called on President George W. Bush to ask for NATO troops to be sent to Darfur.
Guess that isn't going to happen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
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"The United States has been lobbying for a new UN-led force, backed by NATO and probably double the AU deployment "
Further proof of Bushs "go-it alone" cowboy mentality.
Libya on Sunday named a new prime minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi, as part of a major Cabinet reshuffle, Libyan state television reported. Mahmudi replaces former premier Shukri Ghanem, who had held the post since 2003. Ghanem is no longer part of the Cabinet but will head the state-owned Libya National Oil Company, television said.
The announcement came as Libya's Cabinet underwent a significant reorganisation with the creation of seven new ministries. A General People's Congress, or parliament, source had earlier told AFP that four new posts were to be named, but did not elaborate on why the reshuffle in the oil-and-gas rich north African country was taking place. The new ministries include agriculture, transportation, higher education, health, housing, social affairs, and industry and electricity which replaces the former energy ministry.
Among the key changes, Finance Minister Mohammed Hwij had been named to the post of deputy prime minister, previously held by Mahmudi. Economy and Trade Minister Abdel Kader Kheir is to be replaced by Taeb Al Safi, and a woman, Huda Aamr, was named as social affairs minister.
The last such cabinet reshuffle was in 2004. Ghanem had held the premier's job since June 2003. Ghanem, who studied in the United States, had tried to move the socialist economy towards a free market model, but his policies were roundly criticised by Libya's local People's Committees, which implement government policy. The committees had previously attacked Ghanem's plans for privatising state companies, freezing salaries and getting rid of subsidies on essential products. Ghanem's successor Mahmudi is a 60-year-old former doctor, who has previously served as health minister. He comes from the western Libyan town of Sorman.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
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WASHINGTON (AP) -Thorny issues involving the changing role of the National Guard and Reserves and friction between federal and state officials over who controls the citizen soldiers must be addressed, members of a newly formed independent commission said Monday.
Members of the panel, many of them retired military, said they will begin rolling out initial recommendations by June. They cautioned, however, that state officials should not look to the commission to overturn unpopular base closure decisions approved by Congress last year.
Instead, the 13-member panel, chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. Arnold L. Punaro, will do a yearlong review of how the nation should be using the National Guard and Reserves, and whether the units are properly trained and equipped for their changing roles on the home front and the front lines abroad.
Punaro said Monday that the panel is planning to release a preliminary report around June 1, dealing with key issues - including possible funding recommendations for re-equipping the Guard - that Congress may be working on.
The commission, Punaro said, will look at ``what are the threats, what are the requirements and where are the gaps.'' And, he said, the panel is not going to be reluctant to come out with recommendations that differ from those made within the Pentagon. ``We're not going to dodge any of the tough issues,'' he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
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First you got to make the National Guard Bureau subject to either the President or the Secretary of Defense rather than operating as a rogue political-paramilitary lobbying organization.
The governors for internal needs require military police, transportation, communication, medical, and the like services. Very few states need armor or artillery. However, that is exactly how it is set up now with the National Guard mainly infantry, armor, artillery units and the [federal] Reserves organized in the combat support and service support roles. That is how the NGB wants it. That's what you got.
Back when the regular Army was being gutted from 750K to 480K, the central planners wanted to downsize the Reserve and National Guard structure as well because the budget was being cut just as deeply. The NGB and the governors lobbied their Congressional reps and were protected, so the active force took an even larger hit in operational budgets. Go back an review the latter years of the Clinton Administration and see the problems with active duty training and readiness. Unfortunately, this is far more about protecting their piece of the pie and not functional military needs.
Bangla Bhai, the tyrant who once spread Islamic militancy with the administration's protection, was captured wounded yesterday from a remote Mymensingh hideout after skirmishes with the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).
Wounded is good. Maimed would be better...
As the splinter-hit and explosive-burned militant top gun was carted along the rutted roads of Rampur village in Muktagachha, the curtain dropped on his reign of terror in the northern Bangladesh where he killed and tortured scores amid the government's denial about his existence.
Oh, that was the best part...
Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai was flown to Dhaka by a helicopter and admitted to BDR Hospital after treatment at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. Despite having splinter wounds in the abdomen and burns almost all over his body, his condition is now stable, the state minister for home said.
"Splinter wounds in the abdomen"? Is that like gutshot? There is a God...
Bangla Bhai's arrest came four days after the dramatic surrender of JMB supremo Shaekh Abdur Rahman.
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
"Yer surrounded, Shaekh! Come out witcher hands up!"
"Hokay."
Five months ago the government announced Tk 50 lakh bounty on the head of Bangla Bhai, the operations commander of banned Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB).
OPERATION MUKTAGACHHA The Rab intelligence team and Rab-9 rushed to Mymensingh in the early hours yesterday and captured Bangla Bhai's wife Fahima and minor son Saad from a house on RK Mission Road in the town at about 5:00am.
Can't tell for sure with the veil and all, but Fahima looks like a toothsome lass of maybe 14 or 15...
Acting on her information, the Rab men led by its intelligence wing chief Lt Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed encircled the house of a village doctor Umed Ali at Rampur in Muktagachha, 30 kilometres off Mymensingh, at about 7:00am and started searching for Bangla Bhai. As Rab Sergeant Rafiq, who was posted in an adjacent tin-roofed house, tried to peep into the room to see who were inside, Bangla Bhai shot him once in the head with a submachine carbine. The Rab men then took the wounded sergeant away to safety.
"Sergeant Rafiq! Shinny up on that roof and see if it's him!"
"Yessir!"
[shinny shinny shinny]
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Owwwwwwww!... [Thud!]... I think it's him, sir!"
"When Bangla Bhai hit Sergeant Rafiq, our runner Sattar identified him [Bangla Bhai] and raised an alarm," Commander Mahsuk Hasan, Rab media wing chief, told reporters at Mymensingh.
"ALARM! ALARM!"
At this point Rab intelligence wing chief Lt Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed asked Bangla Bhai on a loudhailer to surrender saying that Rab has encircled the whole area. "Bangla Bhai, you have no way to escape. It will be better for you to surrender," Gulzar said.
"Throw down the hardware and come out witcher hands up, Bangla!"
A couple of minutes after Bangla Bhai attacked Sergeant Rafiq, a powerful bomb went off inside the tin-roofed room where Bangla Bhai was staying.
[KABOOM!]
The explosion destroyed the roof and a corner of the room caught fire.
"Fire! Holy shit! Allahu akbar! I'm on fire!"
"While the room was burning, we saw Bangla Bhai at the windows," Lt Col Gulzar told reporters. "Then I again asked him to surrender... I told him that we'll be forced to open fire since he has injured our man."
"Hang it up, Bangla! You shot our guy and we'll be forced to shoot back! Besides, you're on fire!"
As the injured militant leader asked Rab to douse the fire,
"Help! Help! I'm on fire!"
the Rab men told him to come out first. "We put pressure on him to surrender and he had no other alternative," said Gulzar. "We told him to throw away his firearm."
"Drop the rosco an' come out witcher hands up!"
"Aaaargh! I'm on fire!"
Finally Bangla Bhai, in trousers and black T-shirt, came out of the house at around 7:30am and the Rab men took him into their custody.
"Stick 'em up, Bangla!"
Injury marks were seen in his left hand and lower abdomen. His beard and hair were burned.
"I don't feel so good..."
"You look a mess."
Bangla Bhai's bodyguard Masud was found lying badly injured in the explosion.
"Who's that?"
"Just my bodyguard, Masud. Just ignore him."
"Is he dead?"
"I dunno."
"Cheeze. He looks like he's been fried!"
The whole house was burned and only the pillars were standing amidst the debris. "The bomb exploded inside the house, but we cannot say whether he tried to commit suicide," Gulzar told The Daily Star.
"It's the cops, boss! I'll fix them! Throw me that bomb!... NO! Don't... [KABOOM!]"
After the operation, the Rab men extinguished the fire with the help of locals.
"Another bucket over here, I think..."
Injured Rab Sergeant Rafiq was in the meantime flown in the capital by a helicopter and admitted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
The Rab men recovered a sub-machine carbine, its magazine, one foreign-made pistol, one machete, a knife, four batteries, torchlight and a cellphone set from the burned house. They also seized two locally-made revolvers, six bullets, four knives, two rifle bullets, one live bomb and two machetes from a hole adjacent to the house.
"Send Sergeant Rafiq to retrieve the weapons cache!"
"Sir! He's being evacuated!"
"Then send that other guy, the one with the pretty wife!"
"Yessir. Corporal Uriah! Front and center!"
Sources said JMB Shura member Salahuddin, now absconding, had arranged the Muktagachha house for Bangla Bhai.
There goes his security deposit...
Rab sources said they would file three cases -- one under Arms Act, another under Explosives Substance Act and the third for assaulting the law enforcers.
How about one for being the head of a terror network?
That bill is still stalled in committee. Senator Mahmoud keeps insisting that 'terrorist' is spelled with a 'Z'.
POST-OPERATION SCENARIO
The Rab men handcuffed the militant leader and took him to Muktagachha Hospital where he was given first aid. Then Bangla Bhai and Masud were taken away from the spot by a rickshaw-van. The Rab vehicles were waiting at Battola, five kilometres off Rampur. The two injured militants were taken in a Rab car to the MMCH where doctors operated on Bangla Bhai at 11:30am. His bodyguard Masud with a severely burned arm and injuries all over the body was treated at the same hospital.
"Don't put him there! We just changed those sheets yesterday, dammit!"
While the infamous militant leader was undergoing operation, the Rab men took his wife to the hospital. And she identified her husband.
"Is that your husband, madam?"
"Yes. I'd know that turban anywhere."
The doctors after checking his pulse and blood pressure said his health condition is stable. "At one stage, he started telling his past at the operation theatre," Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui, who operated on him there, told reporters at the hospital.
"Yersh... Lemme tell ya about ma operation..."
"More anesthetic! Quick!"
After the surgery, Bangla Bhai was taken to Mymensingh Circuit House. A helicopter of Air Force came from the capital and left for Dhaka with Bangla Bhai and others at 1:15pm.
AMANULLAH'S TIPS LED TO CAPTURE
The Rab men were on a manhunt on information extracted from Abdur Rahman, his brother Ataur Rahman Sunny and son-in-law Abdul Awal, who are now being quizzed together by Task Force Intelligence in Dhaka.
"Hand me that truncheon, wouldja Mahmoud?... Thanks."
Besides, they got important clues from Bangla Bhai's close aide Amanullah who was arrested by Rab-9 in Sylhet Sunday night.
Lt Col Gulzar told The Daily Star that Hanif, who was arrested with Rahman on Thursday in Sylhet, had told them that Amanullah had vital information about Bangla Bhai's whereabouts.
"Oh, he does, does he? Where the hell are my vise grips?"
"Here they are, sir!"
As they found Amanullah's information substantiated those extracted from others, the Rab intelligence wing became certain about Bangla Bhai's wife's location in Mymensingh and probable location of the militant leader in Muktagachha.
"Mookta-gotcha, is it? Mahmoud! Bring the armored car around!"
"We first captured his wife from Mymensingh town. Talking with her, we became sure that Bangla Bhai is staying at Rampur in Muktagachha," said Gulzar.
"Yeah. He's there in Mookta-gotcha! An' when you find him, remind him about the child support!"
Rab had nabbed Amanullah Rimon, 19, hailing from Trishal in Mymensingh, from a house at Srirampur in Sylhet Sadar uapzial at about 3:30am.
MYSTERIOUS HOUSE
It was a dark and stormy night...
One Chan Mia is the owner of the Muktagachha house where Bangla Bhai was staying.
He's a shifty-looking character with a wen in one eye...
Rab officials said Bangla Bhai shifted there immediately after Abdur Rahman's arrest. They said Fahima, Bangla Bhai's wife, had been staying in RK Mission Road house for about three months. The house is a hideout of absconding JMB Shura member Salahuddin.
It was the last place anyone would have thought of looking...
Fahima told interrogators that she did not meet Bangla Bhai for about one month.
"Nah! I ain't laid eyes on the lazy bum! An' me widda baby to take care of!"
THE TYRANNY OF BANGLA BHAI
Bangla Bhai, who used to introduce himself as Azizur Rahman and Omar Ali Litu
... or as Charles D. Sweeney, or as Liam O'Reilly, or as Sven Svensson, and once as Harriet Cudgel...
while conducting militant operations in the northern region in the name of outlaw cleansing, started his activities openly with direct patronage from local administration, police and some ruling party lawmakers and ministers in April 2004.
"We gotta get some law'n'order goin' around these parts!"
"We need a new sheriff!"
"No. We need... Bangla Bhai!"
Bangla Bhai and his men killed 22 people and maimed and tortured over 300 in its vigilante operation in the northern region from April to July 2004. He went into hiding on May 23, a week after the government ordered his arrest. But he continued to lead his militant organisation from his house hideouts. Although newspapers published series of reports on JMJB killing and torture, the government denied the reports and blamed newspapers for 'creating a fictitious character'. National and international human rights bodies strongly decried the government inertia in taking action against Bangla Bhai and other JMJB leaders. Even the government top brass denied the existence of Bangla Bhai. Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami accused newspapers of having links with Bangla Bhai, questioning how could newspapers publish his exclusive interviews without having any relations with him.
CROWDS REJOICE As the information of Bangla Bhai's capture spread, hundreds of people from nearby villages rushed to Rampur. The cheerful crowd stood on the rooftops of houses, trees and both sides of the road as the militant leader was being taken away from the spot. In Mymensingh town, hundreds of people came out of their houses, offices and shops to have a glimpse of notorious criminal Bangla Bhai and kept on clapping as the Rab men were taking him to the MMCH in a motorcade. Defying law enforcers' barricade, curious people forced into the MMCH when Bangla Bhai and his bodyguard were taken to the hospital. Rab men, reporters, photographers and cameramen of local and national newspapers and electronic media even entered the operating theatre.
"Here, you! Get that camera out of here! And your cat, too!"
Sure wish I had the goats-n-sweetmeats concession in that upazilla...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
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The Rab men recovered a sub-machine carbine, its magazine, one foreign-made pistol, one machete, a knife, four batteries, torchlight and a cellphone set from the burned house.
How long until the sub-machine gun and the "foreign-made pistol" show up in a late-night crossfire?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/07/2006 7:25
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#7
No shutter gun. I'm not sure whether to be disappointed at it's absence, or pleased because it's presence would have been suspicious: in this day and age, one can be forgiven for wondering if the RAB is too good to be true...
#9
And the bounced bullets usually then hit the suspect who's leading them to the cache...
Why they don't put some sort of kevlar on these cooperative suspects I don't know.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/07/2006 14:32
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#10
"Send Sergeant Rafiq to retrieve the weapons cache!"
"Sir! He's being evacuated!"
"Then send that other guy, the one with the pretty wife!"
"Yessir. Corporal Uriah! Front and center!"
#13
Fred---this story, and your additional comments, well....the whole is greater than the sum of the parts! THIS------is a Rantburg Classic.
"Sergeant Rafiq! Shinny up on that roof and see if it's him!"
"Yessir!"
[shinny shinny shinny]
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Owwwwwwww!... [Thud!]... I think it's him, sir!"
I salute Fred and the RAB. *british salute, palm exposed*
A job well done!!!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 23:51
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Security forces have killed 19 more pro-Taliban militants in clashes in North Waziristan, bringing the toll from three days of clashes in the tribal region to around 140. The authorities imposed a curfew on Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, as thousands of residents continued to flee the area. Helicopter gunships have been pounding militant positions around Miranshah, a resident told Reuters. There were exchanges of fire throughout the night, he said. The firing went on intermittently with both sides using rocket-propelled grenades and missiles.
Sikandar Qayyum, additional secretary for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, told reporters in Peshawar that 140 militants had been killed, including five foreigners. Five paramilitary soldiers have also been killed. One hundred militants were killed in Miranshah, 21 in the Zarmila area in Mir Ali on March 4 and 19 on Sunday, he said. Forces killed 19 people at the top of a hotel where a person was also captured in wounded condition. He confessed that five of those killed at the scene were foreigners, Qayyum said.
Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP that it was difficult to give an exact count because some compounds in Miranshah were not yet in the control of security forces. Sultan earlier said that the 19 militants were killed when troops tried to take control of a telephone exchange in Miranshah. Qayyum said the militants also damaged five checks posts each of the Khasadar force in Razmak and Mir Ali on Sunday. He said the curfew would be round-the-clock except for three hours from 1pm to 4pm to enable residents to buy provisions and would last as long as the security situation requires.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press sued the Justice Department on Monday for access to American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh's petitions to have his 20-year federal prison sentence shortened.
The federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, said the government has improperly refused to turn over Lindh's pleas to have his sentence reduced on the grounds that doing so would be an unwarranted invasion of his privacy. AP's lawyers, in letters to the Justice Department and the lawsuit, however, said Lindh ``is a 'high-profile public figure' whose 'privacy interest in his petition is low to nonexistent.'''
Lindh's lawyer, James Brosnahan, also has told the news cooperative that he would have turned over the documents himself, but he can't under the terms of Lindh's imprisonment.
He was sentenced as part of a plea-bargin. Didn't the lawyer read the fine print?
The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
Lindh, 25, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 in the U.S.-led effort to topple the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks. Prosecutors charged him with conspiring to kill Americans and supporting terrorists. He pleaded guilty to lesser offenses in 2002, including carrying weapons against U.S. forces. He avoided a potential life sentence and agreed to withdraw claims that he had been abused or tortured in U.S. custody.
The AP said it believes Lindh ``contends in his petition that he was prosecuted and convicted unfairly in the immediate wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and that he was not, in fact, knowingly fighting the United States in Afghanistan.''
He says that now, but he pleaded guilty. Sounds like the usual prison con.
Lindh, who is held at the medium security federal penitentiary in Victorville, Calif., first applied for clemency in September 2004, following up on his request 15 months later. Justice officials told him it would be at least a year before any decision is made.
AP first sought the records on Jan. 4. Nine days later, the department replied it could only release the documents with Lindh's written consent, according to the lawsuit. But Lindh is barred from making any public comment on the matter, including consenting to the release, under the terms of his plea agreement, the suit said.
Told ya. It's his tough luck.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
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#1
Lindh, who is held at the medium security federal penitentiary in Victorville, Calif
Unbelievable, medium security pen. Had he been executed like traitors and spys used to be, none of this would be an issue.
We are not asking for a pardon but for a reduction in the sentence. He was really in the wrong place at the wrong time.
#2
Interesting, does the AP think there is a big groundswell of support for terrorits in prison? I would not lose any sleep if Johnny Jihad had a bad fall on his way to the yard one day.
#4
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Brosnahan Jihad Johnny's lawyer when he signed the damn document in the first place?
And now he's trying to get it put aside because it was "too harsh"? Talk about chutzpah.
The only thing that would make it more perfect is if Brosnahan argues that Johnny's sentence should be reduced because of his own legal malpractice. (Maybe that's the real reason he doesn't wanna talk about it??? ;) )
#5
CS - I hope has trouble falling every waking hour - and while he's asleep as wll
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2006 12:48
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AP (associated press, not me, heh) must have the need for filler material in their stories. Clue: look to Iran, there are lots of stories ready to be written, but you have to get your fat a$$es off the bar stool and get out in the field to get some protein in your stories. Pfeh. A pox--a proliterian pox on your house.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/07/2006 13:44
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#7
99% of the group know as "reporters" are on the other side if anyone had not noticed. (I know most of you have.) Why do we not treat them as enemies?
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/07/2006 14:20
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#8
He was armed and active on the OTHER SIDE. I'd have shot his worthless ass on the spot, and slept well that night.
#9
SPoD, 'cause it's more fun to watch them make up stories about their bravery than to actually give them even the slightest bit of evidence to back up their martyr complexes.
The villagers of Rampur, some 150 kilometres from the capital, remained clueless about Bangla Bhai's presence among them although he had been visiting the local Imam for more than a year. Chan Miah is the Imam of the small local mosque in the village, known as Panjakhana. He sheltered the man with a Tk 50 lakh bounty on his head, not only risking his own life but also by keeping himself aloof from his family and the community. Law enforcers could not arrest Chan Miah as he had beat feet supposedly gone to his in-laws' house on Friday to take care of his wife Rina.
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail me now!"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
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Two small nuggets from Arabia today on the incremental march of personal liberty. This is one of them.
MANAMA In order to maintain transparency of its functioning, the Chamber of Deputies approved a draft law, facilitating the questioning of ministers and officials during its sessions, and not in camera. The Chamber agreed that there was a need to enhance transparency and make the public witness to the interrogation of ministers and officials during open sessions.
The quizzing is carried out by parliamentary committees during their meetings while the rest of the deputies only know about it from a report that is discussed in the Chamber session.
The questioning of ministers in Chamber sessions would help ascertain deputies accusations and the ministers defence, said Deputy Dr Saadi Mohammed. However, Deputy Dr Isa Mutawa, said quizzing by parliamentary committees was more organised and would help prevent the spread of misinformation. Deputy Mohammed Khalid disagreed and alleged that ministers did not take MPs seriously during in-camera sessions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2006
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The International Atomic Energy Agency chief said on Monday he hoped a deal to defuse a standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions could be reached soon, as the IAEA board met in a possible prelude to UN Security Council action. Mohammad Baradei cited a surge of diplomacy involving Russia and EU powers in which Iran has offered not to pursue industrial-scale uranium enrichment for up to two years. But its insistence on doing sensitive research is a key sticking point. "I am still very much hopeful that in the next week or so an agreement could be reached," Baradei said, while acknowledging that Russia's proposal to enrich uranium for Iran had snagged on Tehran's determination to purify nuclear fuel itself.
Javad Vaeedi, deputy secretary of Iran's national security council, highlighted that obstacle when he told Reuters that enrichment "research and development" in Iran was irreversible. Iran seems to be counting on divisions in the Security Council over whether to resort to sanctions mooted by the United States. Wielding vetoes in the council, Russia and China could block sanctions that would disrupt their trade ties to Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
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#1
This is what I like about Elbaradei. He sucks and is proud to swallow. Asks for seconds. *gulp* Lol.
#2
The "deal" being that the Iranian pretend to agree to stop and the Euros agree to stop bugging them about it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/07/2006 7:22
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#3
Ya can't have a "standoff" when you got no cards to play, no guns, and no guts.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/07/2006 7:23
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#4
We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will. I cannot believe that such a program would be rejected by the people of this country, even if it does mean the establishment of personal contact with the dictators.
I believe it is peace for our time . . . peace with honour.
#5
ElBaradei is useless. Relying upon him is like hoping gravity will fail. It is far more likely that he is in collusion with his fellow Muslims than he is searching for a truly effective solution. To have awarded this limp d!ck the Nobel peace prize was ridiculous in the extreme.
#7
Given enough radiation, snakes could indeed grow legs. ;-) Just like hens have been occasionally known to grow teeth. Of course, them that gets 'em won't be happy about the situation...
#8
ElBaradei is stiff at the idea of an islamic nuke that might actually get used. He's got his money and influence on the return of the Mahdi as well.
Britain is ready to help Pakistan overcome real difficulties in tackling cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday as he welcomed Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Downing Street. Over the past few years, cooperation in the fight against terrorism - and all the issues to do with cross border infiltration, that cooperation has been a lot deeper than ever before, Blair told reporters. Look, there are certainly real difficulties that Pakistan faces. Now obviously we want to work with Pakistan to overcome those differences.
Referring to clashes between security forces and militants in North Waziristan, Blair said: We have a mutual interest, the two countries, in making sure that that (mission) works, as of course does Afghanistan itself, said Blair with Aziz at his side. Aziz said Pakistan was committed to ensuring an environment that is peaceful in the world and in our region.
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#1
Then Aziz rocked leftward and farted. Get out of there Blair, before he kills ya!
Pssst... Aziz! We know what taqiyya means. You, however, do not know dry British wit. Or the growing sense of impatience. Aziz, this is the other big guy tapping you on the shoulder and telling you to hurry up.
Kuwait's parliament on Monday passed a new press law banning the imprisonment of journalists without a final court ruling and allowing new newspapers to publish for the first time in three decades. All 53 MPs present at a session of the house, including Cabinet ministers, voted in favour of the legislation, which was described by lawmakers as a key reform measure.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Editors who publish "blasphemy" get decapitated, instead of being burned alive?
#2
In the Arabias, the overriding principal is conservatism. That is, they want the better mousetrap, but they are scared of it. They are convinced that the next step of liberalism, whatever it is, could be great, or it could be their last.
This is why, for things like women voting, it takes a peculiar form: after much contention, just the merest of women voting is allowed. Then, almost invariably, they are amazed when the sky doesn't fall in. After that they are convinced, at least until someone suggests they should vote for seats in a higher office.
Then the conservatism and fear kicks in again.
It's a process. But it's important to remember that it's not just their leaders who are this way. The leaders just reflect their national mood of conservatism.
BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) sought again on Monday to calm the row over Prophet Muhammad (PTUI PBUH) cartoons, reiterating the need for free speech to be tempered by religious respect in talks with a Pakistani minister.
If it's tempered, it ain't free.
But Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner, speaking after talks with Ijazul Haq, the visiting religious affairs minister, also repeated criticism of violent protests including in Pakistan. I would like to stress that freedom of expression is a fundamental right, but it comes with responsibilities and should be exercised with respect for all religious beliefs and cultures, she said. But she added: Violent acts cannot be justified under any circumstances.
"If you have to watch every word you say for fear of setting somebody off, the somebody is probably a lunatic."
Ferrero-Waldner welcomed the Pakistani ministers visit, accompanied by a delegation of lawmakers, as a chance to bridge the communications gap between the two sides in the dispute. Pakistan is an important partner of the EU and the EU is keen to advance its relations with Pakistan and the EU and its member states will actively promote dialogue, mutual understanding and respect. Together with our partners in the Muslim world we need to look into possibilities of education on human rights. We will work...to foster tolerance as well as respect for religious beliefs and cultures.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2006
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#1
This is what I like about the EU. They suck, yes, but claim they don't swallow. *spit* Lol.
#4
Europe's attempts to neuter a critical and fundamental constitutional right like free speech shows just how committed they are to fascism socialism. I dread to think what sort of death-throe the continent will have to undergo in order to shake off their fascination with what is clearly unworkable. It will probably make the French revolution and the Holocaust look like picnics.
#5
I would like to stress that freedom of expression is a fundamental right, but it comes with responsibilities and should be exercised with respect for all religious beliefs and cultures, she said. But she added: those cultures and countries that do not permit freedom of expression have every right to continue to demand the genocide of all people of all religions that are different from theirs. Therefore, all muslims are absolved from any need to excercise any sort of respect or tolerance for others.
KARACHI - A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday handed down fresh death sentences to two members of an Al Qaeda-linked group for an attack on a paramilitary vehicle, which killed two people, lawyers said.
Attaur Rehman and Shahzad Bajwa, both members of Jund Allah or Army of God, were condemned to death for the attack in March 2004 near the road to the airport in Karachi, public prosecutor Maula Bux Bhatti told reporters. The court found both guilty for carrying out the fatal attack, he said.
They're so guilty they'll be hung twice.
The two, along with nine others, were last month sentenced to death for a 2004 attack on an army general in Karachi, which killed 11 people.
A Pakistani official has said Jund Allah was suspected of being behind a suicide car bomb attack that killed a US diplomat outside the US consulate in Karachi on Thursday, the day before President George W. Bush visited Pakistan. Police say members of Jund Allah were trained in camps run by Al-Qaeda in the rugged tribal area of South Waziristan near the Afghan border, where Pakistans military is engaged in an ongoing hunt for militants.
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LAHORE: Pakistan is the most important country for the US, Europe, China and Japan and any distinction against Pakistan will cost the countries considerably, said Dr Mubashir Hasan, former federal finance minister and noted human rights activist, while talking to Daily Times about American President George Bushs recent visit to South Asia, especially Pakistan.
Another one suffering from delusions of adequacy...
Dr Hasan, who is also a founding member of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) and the Punjab Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) president, said Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Bushs meeting in Islamabad was a success.
Yeah. Both parties got out alive, for different reasons...
Giving quite a different view than other people on the American presidents visit, Hasan said Bush had taken a great risk by visiting Pakistan and it showed that Pakistan was important to the US.
Since all the turbans for miles around wanted to kill him, I'd say that's an accurate statement...
The American president took a great risk, although Washington had declared Pakistan a high-risk area and this shows Pakistans importance not only to Bush, but also his wife Laura Bush.
"Laura, what are you doing?"
"I'm thinking about Pakland, George. It's so important to me!"
"Go to sleep! It's 3 a.m.!"
I am glad that Bush made no announcements like the ones he made in India and this is because he understands that Pakistanis dislike America, he said.
Kinda hard to miss the fact, isn't it? I'm still trying to figure why so many of them come here.
The more Bush praises Pakistan, the more people would dislike Musharraf.
Ohoh. So that's why he wasn't oozing with kind words. It wasn't that he can't stand the place, or even the idea of the place, but had to go since he was going to be in both Afghanistan and India...
The more publicly the US announces assistance to the Pakistani government, the people of Pakistan would think that the government was a friend of the US, a country that people are against politically.
So we should cut off all aid, just to make them happy? It's a sacrifice, but I, for one, am willing to make it.
Musharraf and Bushs joint message contained all the points that Pakistan had raised at the meeting, but the question is how and when will the US government remove sanctions on the sale of weapons and restrictions on Pakistani experts, the doctor said, As far as Americas generosity to India is concerned, the results are yet to come.
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#1
One can note that Bush had the balls to visit that viper den - WHERE-AS - BINNY HIDES behind his wives Chadors in a chicken farm somewhere in Pak-land and doesn't dare to answer the door.
French President Jacques Chirac wrapped up a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia Monday without clinching a defense deal as oil giant Total eyed a contract to build a refinery in the oil-rich kingdom. "Saudi Arabia is actively pursuing a detailed study of different solutions" proposed to Riyadh in terms of cooperation in defense and security, Chirac told a news conference. "All this is taking place in an excellent climate," he said.
At stake is the sale of French Rafale fighters and a border monitoring system to Saudi Arabia, which a French presidential spokesman had cautioned would not be finalized during the trip, Chirac's fourth to the Gulf country. French aerospace group Dassault Aviation confirmed last April that talks had taken place on the purchase of the Rafale. The French daily Les Echos said at the time the discussions focused on the purchase of 48 fighters with an option for 48 more in a deal valued at six billion euros (7.2 billion dollars). The fourth-generation Rafale, a multi-role combat jet which can carry out interception and reconnaissance missions as well as nuclear strikes, has yet to find an export market.
The other potential deal involves the Miksa electronic border monitoring system, under which electronic defense manufacturer Thales would supply 225 radars to Saudi Arabia over a period of 12 years for seven billion euros (8.4 billion dollars). The sale of the Miksa -- acronym for Ministry of Interior Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -- would also include a telecommunications network, reconnaissance aircraft and about 20 helicopters.
Chirac, whose visit came some two months after it was announced that Saudi Arabia would buy Typhoon Eurofighter jets from Britain, said he was pleased by the contacts established between more than a dozen French businessmen and industrialists accompanying him and Saudi counterparts. Total's chairman Thierry Demarest meanwhile said he hoped to conclude a deal to build a five-billion-dollar oil refinery in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province within months. The refinery, with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), would be built in Jubail on the Gulf coast. Although he did not give a specific figure, Demarest said such ventures usually do not cost less than five billion dollars.
Chirac, who on Sunday became the first foreign leader to address the Saudi-appointed Shura (consultative) Council, took advantage of his presence in the kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites, to advocate tolerance and mutual respect at a time when Muslims across the world have been infuriated by the publication of cartoons deemed blasphemous to Prophet Mohammed. "We have always condemned what some call the clash of civilizations, and which I call the clash of ignorances," he told reporters. Chirac also said he "respected" Saudi Arabia's decision to oppose a reduction of OPEC's output so as not to push oil prices further up when the cartel meets in Vienna on Wednesday.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) has retained its majority in the Senate by winning 18 seats from the four provinces in the Senate elections on Monday. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) won 10 seats in the elections. Earlier, 16 senators of the PML and 11 of the MMA were among 50 retired from the Upper House through balloting. The ruling party added two seats to its strength in the Senate while the MMA lost one.
The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) managed to secure five seats as opposed to seven retired senators. The PML-Nawaz retained its only seat from Punjab. The PPP-Sherpao and the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) increased their strength in the Senate by one seat each.
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One of the Palestinian groups which retains bases in Lebanon said Monday that it would only discuss laying down its weapons once the country's 380,000 Palestinian refugees have been accorded basic civic rights. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) a hardline pro-Syrian group demanded that a weeklong national dialogue conference under way in Beirut tackle the plight of the refugees and not simply the question of weapons. The Palestinian question in Lebanon should not be discussed exclusively from the security point of view. We're asking the dialogue conference... to decide on concrete steps as far as the humanitarian, civic and political rights of the Palestinians, PFLP-GC spokesman Anwar Rajab told reporters. If that's done, the weapons question will not be a problem.
Resolution 1559, adopted by the UN Security Council in 2004, requires the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon, including the Shiite group Hizbollah as well as Palestinian groups. Implementation of the resolution is one of the key issues on the agenda of the national dialogue conference which opened Thursday. The PFLP-GC spokesman called for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to have the right to work and housing, including the right to own property, as well as the right to engage in political activities in defence of the Palestinian cause.
We have to establish an atmosphere of confidence between Lebanese and Palestinians, he said, recalling that in 1982, after the withdrawal of Palestinians in the face of Israel's march on Beirut, hundreds of refugees had been killed in the Beirut camps of Sabra and Chatila. Rajab accused the Lebanese authorities of trying to get rid of the Palestinian community by stealth by denying them their residence rights. Any Palestinian refugee, even one recognised by the United Nations as resident in Lebanon, can only return home if he gets hold of a visa and they're virtually impossible to get hold of, the spokesman said. The result is that some 100,000 Palestinians registered in Lebanon are unable to return after leaving to work in the Gulf or elsewhere.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
It's long past time (by a good two generations) that the situation of the Palestinians who left in 1948 be regularized. These people have, for the most part, been trapped in refugee camps that over time morphed into settled communities. However, they remain officially stateless, generally without the ability to work or own property, taught to hate and seethe by their leaders and by the U.N. commission that takes care of them. I realize it would be hard on countries like Lebanon and Jordan to suddenly make these communities of trained psychopaths into full-fledged citizens but, like so much else these days, the status quo will not serve.
#2
TW: the truth about the Paleos? NOBODY WANTS THEM. Is it any wonder? The negative influence and sick death cult reinforces itself every day. Every day they prove they have no concept of cause and effect nor will they look past the existence of Israel to try and form a real state that serves the interests of the Paleo peoples. F*&K 'em - I'm sick of their game
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2006 13:57
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I'm highly aware of that, Frank. My father was there, then, although he never told any stories -- that "Loose lips sink ships" habit too deeply ingrained, I imagine. Nonetheless, the Palestinians are there, and the longer the situation remains unresolved, the more pathological they will become... and the more of a threat to their host countries because they won't be able to get at Israel. Nor can they realistically move to the Palestinian territories -- with no real kin ties they would not be welcomed, and anyway there really isn't enough room.
/yes, this is definitely an "Imagine there's no heaven" moment.
#4
This is a very interesting request, And long overdue. The source surprises me and puzzles. it's a realistic demand and challenging to pick this scab. This could be very good, for unexpected reasons - a hero is born? Someone sees a little less throught the fog of the brainwashing?
Curious minds will follow this.
But why? Someone wants to actually create Palestine, knowing repatriation isn't a possibility and moving to fix? Who's Rajab? Can someone fill me in?
The home ministry yesterday said Bangla Bhai is out of danger despite having injuries throughout his body.
Pray for sepsis...
The condition of the dreaded militant, now undergoing treatment at Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Hospital at Pilkhana, is stable, doctors at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) said after dressing his wounds at around noon. Immediately after the capture, he and his bodyguard Masud were taken to Muktagaccha Upazila Health Complex for first aid at around 10:45am. Both were injured in an explosion during the raid. Bangla Bhai was still conscious when he was brought to the health complex. As doctors asked him about his condition, he replied: "I'm feeling pain in my hands." Bangla Bhai was taken to the MMCH at 11:30am. "He did not seem worried then," Prof Mohammad Ali Siddiquy told reporters.
"Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Me mout'piece'll get me off!"
Sergeant Rafiq, who was shot in the head by Bangla Bhai, survived narrowly as a bullet went past barely touching his skull, said a doctor of the health complex.
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Iraq's president said Monday he would convene parliament for the first time on March 12, but failed to get one of his two vice presidents to agree threatening to further delay formation of a new government and raising questions about whether the political process could withstand the unrelenting violence. In a bid to force a showdown in the dispute over the second-term candidacy of the Shiite prime minister, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, announced he would order parliament to convene Sunday for the first time since December elections and ratification of results on February 12. That would have started a 60-day countdown for the legislators to elect a new president and approve the nomination of Ibrahim Jaafari as prime minister and sign off on his Cabinet.
Talabani was mistakenly counting on the signature of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, who lost his own bid for the prime minister's nomination by one vote to Jaafari. Talabani had in hand a power of attorney from the other vice president, Ghazi Yawer, a Sunni, who was out of the country. The Shiite bloc closed ranks and Abdul-Mahdi declined to sign, for the time being at least. In an emergency meeting with Talabani Monday, seven Shiite leaders rejected Talabani's demand for them to abandon Jaafari's nomination.
It remained unclear when parliament might now convene, despite the constitutional directive that set Sunday as the deadline. Nor was it clear how the impasse over Jaafri might be settled. The president had first issued the challenge Wednesday in concert with Sunni Arab and some secular politicians. The oust-Jaafari coalition labelled him a divisive figure in the country's already tattered political landscape. "We want a prime minister who can gather all the political blocs around him, so that the government would be one of national unity," he told reporters in Baghdad around midday Monday.
The Sunni Arab minority blames Jaafari for failing to control the Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the February 22 shrine bombing in Samarra. Kurds are angry because they believe Jaafari is holding up resolution of their claims to control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Leaders of all Iraq's major political factions scheduled a meeting Tuesday evening in an attempt to untangle the religious and sectarian differences behind the crisis deeply compounded by continuing violence.
The attacks have served to underscore the dangerous leadership vacuum and the fresh political infighting that has led to the disintegration of many tenuous political bonds that were tethering the country's many religious and ethnic factions. There also were increasing signs of a split in the once united Shiite factions, even though they managed to come together Monday night to reject the move to dump Jaafari.
Nevertheless, anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose backing had insured Jaafari's nomination at the Shiite caucus last month, predicted a "quick solution" on approving a government. There were reports that Sadr had threatened to order parliamentarians loyal to him to boycott a Sunday session if Abdul-Mahdi, the Shiite vice president, had signed the Talabani order to convene the legislature. "All obstacles to forming a national unity government soon will be resolved," Sadr said after meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and acting Oil Minister Ahmad Chalabi in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SRINAGAR, India - Indian troops killed a top commander of a hardline rebel group in revolt-hit Kashmir in a gunbattle early Tuesday, the army said. The commander belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of several hardline rebel groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, the army said.
DUBAI Dubai Police nabbed a four-member Mexican gang on February 26. 
Fresh from their triumphal visit to Moscow, Damascus-based leaders of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal and Musa Abu Marzuk have recorded another success. Their protégés, Salem Felaikhat and Jamil Abu Bakr, were elected in secret ballots chief and deputy leader, respectively, of Jordans Muslim Brotherhood. They displaced the General Guide of the movements Shura Council, Abdel Majid Zenaibet. This development places the Muslim Brotherhoods Palestinian branch, namely Hamas, in control of the Jordanian group. In particular, the hardline Meshaal will be in a position to run both MB-Jordan and Hamas-Gaza from his Damascus politburo office. 
Jerusalem, 7 March (AKI) - Israel could target Hamas leaders, including Palestinian prime minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh, should the militant group renew attacks in the Jewish state, Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz said on Tuesday. "No one there is immune, not just Ismail Haniyeh," Mofaz told Army Radio, answering a question on whether Israel considered him a potential target for assassination. "The moment Hamas chooses the path of terror, there is no question here of political or non-political [leadership]," Mofaz said. The remarks come three weeks before Israel's 28 March general election. Interim prime minister Ehud Olmert, who heads the centrist Kadima party to which Mofaz belongs, has also been taking a tough line on security as the elections approach.
Anti-terrorist police are believed to have smashed a radical Muslim cell operating in West Yorkshire home of the July 7 suicide bombers. Details emerged today of arrests by the Metropolitan Police Anti Terrorist Squad at a university halls of residence in Bradford. The arrests came just three days after a man walked into a central London police station to be arrested under the Terrorism Act. Police confirmed today that Anti-Terrorist branch officers, assisted by West Yorkshire Police, swooped on a hall of residence behind Bradford University and arrested three men aged 18 and 19 late last Thursday.
Police from an elite East Java counterterror squad arrested two men on Friday for their alleged connection with Jemaah Islamiyah leaders 
Algeria on Monday released a leader of a banned Islamic party. Ali Belhadj, former deputy leader of the 
Yemeni forces have recaptured three al Qaeda inmates who were part of a group that tunnelled out of jail in the Arab country last month, a government official said on Monday. "Authorities arrested three of the al Qaeda escapees in Sanaa on Sunday," the official told Reuters. He gave no further detail of their identities. Last month, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said three other al Qaeda militants -- part of a group of 23 inmates who broke out of jail -- had surrendered to authorities. Saleh had told al-Hayat newspaper that security forces were also in contact with other fugitives among the group of 23 militants that escaped from a Sanaa jail in February.
KARACHI: Two bomb threats, one at the Italian Consulate and the other at DHA Girls College, spread panic throughout the city on Monday. The administration of the Italian Consulate informed the police that they received an unidentified telephone call in which the caller threatened to attack the consulate. The police and the bomb disposal squad rushed to the consulate near Clifton's Teen Talwar and conducted a search following which the threat was declared a fake.
US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Monday that United States is "certainly" not going to act as a mediator between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, but "hopes for progress" on the issue. "It is our firm hope that the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan is going to be successful and that those two countries are going to be able to work out some of the bilateral differences in Indo-Pak relations as well as differences over Kashmir that have been so much at the centre of troubles of South Asia for so many decades," Burns said. 
Mar 6: Five Kuwaitis freed from U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay were released on bail on Sunday in Kuwait after denying that they had joined Al-Qaida, collected "donations" for it or fought with the Taliban.
BAQUBA: Three car bombs killed nine people in Baquba and Bghdad on Monday. A car bomb exploded in a busy market in Baquba northeast of Baghdad on Monday, killing six people, including two girls under four, and wounding 20, police said, adding most of the casualties were children. The bomb went off after police arrived in the market to check on a separate incident in which one person had been killed. Five policemen were wounded, police said. The blast destroyed food stalls and shops in the market, which was busy with women and children. Police and firefighters rushed to the scene. 
KARACHI: The FBI has acquired the medico legal records and postmortem reports of the four bodies of the victims of the March 2 bomb blast at the US Consulate, Daily Times learnt on Monday. Members of the FBI team discussed the postmortem details with two local doctors, who are the medico legal officers in the case. While only the upper half of US diplomat David Foy's body was retrieved from the scene of the crime and has one arm missing, the postmortem has yielded some results. Foy's left foot has been discovered also. Foy's remains were flown home where it is believed that a second postmortem will be conducted.
A court here yesterday awarded life imprisonment to a top JMB leader for his involvement in August 17 serial bombings across the country. Faruq alias Baset Saifullah alias Amjad, a member of the Majlis-e-Shura and chief of Dhaka and Barisal divisions of the outlawed militant outfit, was tried in absentia. Saifullah, hails from Kaukhali upazila of the district, was also fined Tk 50,000. In default, he will have to serve five years more in jail.
MULTAN: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat and Tehreek-e-Insaf staged demonstrations to protest against the caricatures of the Holy Prophet (
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President 
INNSBRUCK, Austria - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer ruled out on Monday sending troops from the western military alliance to Sudans strife-torn Darfur province. 
Libya on Sunday named a new prime minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi, as part of a major Cabinet reshuffle, Libyan state television reported. Mahmudi replaces former premier Shukri Ghanem, who had held the post since 2003. Ghanem is no longer part of the Cabinet but will head the state-owned Libya National Oil Company, television said. 
As the splinter-hit and explosive-burned militant top gun was carted along the rutted roads of Rampur village in Muktagachha, the curtain dropped on his reign of terror in the northern Bangladesh where he killed and tortured scores amid the government's denial about his existence. 
The Rab intelligence team and Rab-9 rushed to Mymensingh in the early hours yesterday and captured Bangla Bhai's wife Fahima and minor son Saad from a house on RK Mission Road in the town at about 5:00am.
"When Bangla Bhai hit Sergeant Rafiq, our runner Sattar identified him [Bangla Bhai] and raised an alarm," Commander Mahsuk Hasan, Rab media wing chief, told reporters at Mymensingh.
Bangla Bhai's bodyguard Masud was found lying badly injured in the explosion.
As the information of Bangla Bhai's capture spread, hundreds of people from nearby villages rushed to Rampur. The cheerful crowd stood on the rooftops of houses, trees and both sides of the road as the militant leader was being taken away from the spot. In Mymensingh town, hundreds of people came out of their houses, offices and shops to have a glimpse of notorious criminal Bangla Bhai and kept on clapping as the Rab men were taking him to the MMCH in a motorcade. Defying law enforcers' barricade, curious people forced into the MMCH when Bangla Bhai and his bodyguard were taken to the hospital. Rab men, reporters, photographers and cameramen of local and national newspapers and electronic media even entered the operating theatre.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press sued the Justice Department on Monday for access to American-born Taliban soldier 
The villagers of Rampur, some 150 kilometres from the capital, remained clueless about Bangla Bhai's presence among them although he had been visiting the local Imam for more than a year. Chan Miah is the Imam of the small local mosque in the village, known as Panjakhana. He sheltered the man with a Tk 50 lakh bounty on his head, not only risking his own life but also by keeping himself aloof from his family and the community. Law enforcers could not arrest Chan Miah as he had 
The International Atomic Energy Agency chief said on Monday he hoped a deal to defuse a standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions could be reached soon, as the IAEA board met in a possible prelude to UN Security Council action. 
Britain is ready to help Pakistan overcome real difficulties in tackling cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday as he welcomed Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Downing Street. Over the past few years, cooperation in the fight against terrorism - and all the issues to do with cross border infiltration, that cooperation has been a lot deeper than ever before, Blair told reporters. Look, there are certainly real difficulties that Pakistan faces. Now obviously we want to work with Pakistan to overcome those differences.
BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) sought again on Monday to calm the row over Prophet Muhammad (
KARACHI - A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday handed down fresh death sentences to two members of an Al Qaeda-linked group for an attack on a paramilitary vehicle, which killed two people, lawyers said.
French President Jacques Chirac wrapped up a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia Monday without clinching a defense deal as oil giant Total eyed a contract to build a refinery in the oil-rich kingdom. "Saudi Arabia is actively pursuing a detailed study of different solutions" proposed to Riyadh in terms of cooperation in defense and security, Chirac told a news conference. "All this is taking place in an excellent climate," he said.
The home ministry yesterday said Bangla Bhai is out of danger despite having injuries throughout his body.
Iraq's president said Monday he would convene parliament for the first time on March 12, but failed to get one of his two vice presidents to agree threatening to further delay formation of a new government and raising questions about whether the political process could withstand the unrelenting violence. In a bid to force a showdown in the dispute over the second-term candidacy of the Shiite prime minister, President 
