The Sudanese government continues to be complicit in genocidal attacks against its own citizens in Darfur. African Union peacekeepers having proven ineffective, due to poor training, poor equipment, poor leadership, and restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement). So the Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, has asked the U.S. and other NATO powers to undertake a U.N. authorized peacekeeping mission. Rightly fearing that the NATO forces will be more effective, the government of Sudan has initiated a disinformation campaign. The centerpiece of this campaign was revealed when the government ordered the U.S. Charge d'Affairs out of the country. The U.S. diplomat was accused of making hostile remarks about Mohammed and a host of the other "bigoted" statements. While totally bogus, the assertions are likely to play well among Sudan's largely Moslem population. But another, perhaps more important, audience is to be found in the populations, and leaders, of other Moslem countries. These nations have been embarrassed at what is going on in Sudan, where the bloodshed is clearly Moslems attacking Moslems. Initially, the Moslem world lined up in support of Sudan, against accusations from foreign infidels. But that is wearing thin, as is Moslem support of Sudan in the UN. So the new disinformation campaign is meant to gather votes to stop the UN from calling on NATO to stop the killing in Darfur.
Posted by: ed ||
03/08/2006
20:33 ||
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THE commander of Australian forces in the Middle East claims coalition troops are turning the tables on al-Qaeda in Iraq, with insurgents' ability to mount effective attacks steadily diminishing.
Brigadier Paul Symon said that while Iraq was going through an "awkward period" during the transition to a new government, the US-led coalition remained confident that the country would not descend into civil war.
Despite daily images from Iraq of carnage from suicide and roadside bombs, Brigadier Symon said military operations against al-Qaeda and its affiliates were proving to be "very effective".
He said in Baghdad that the organisation led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was sustaining significant losses. He said it was now less agile and relying on much less seasoned fighters.
"We are seeing an insurgency that is diminishing in effectiveness in its tactics and techniques. It's trending that way. I think they have lost some of their better people," he said.
The figures on insurgents were tightly held, but military officials said Zarqawi forces had lost hundreds of fighters this year.
On a lightning tour of Baghdad, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said the anecdotal evidence from Australian forces stationed in the capital was that the security situation had improved despite the surge in violence following the bombing of the Golden Mosque at Samarra last month. The bombing of the Shia mosque has been interpreted as an attempt by the largely Sunni insurgents to trigger civil war.
"The security detachment in Baghdad - the soldiers to whom I spoke - certainly feel that in the six months they had been there that things had improved a great deal," Dr Nelson said.
But Hugh White, head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, said there was no evidence that the Iraq insurgency was in decline.
"I don't think it's correct to describe the insurgency as primarily al-Qaeda-motivated. I think there's very little evidence to suggest that the insurgency is being defeated," said Mr White, a former Defence Department deputy secretary. "Most of the trends that measure the scale of the insurgency suggest that the insurgency remains a very serious challenge."
Dr Nelson visited Baghdad to meet Australian forces stationed there and to hold talks with his Iraqi counterpart, Sadoun Dulime, General George Casey, the senior US commander in Iraq, and US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.
Dr Nelson, accompanied by Chief of Defence Forces Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, flew in a US Black Hawk helicopter into the city's international zone from Camp Victory, the big US base near the international airport.
In central Baghdad, Dr Nelson's party was met by ambassador Howard Brown and toured the new Australian embassy as well as the headquarters of the security detachment, which provides protection for Australian officials.
Dr Nelson said Dr Sadoun had expressed hope that Australian soldiers would continue to train the new Iraqi army. In al-Muthanna, Australian advisers have nearly completed training of the army's second brigade, which will eventually comprise about 1700 men.
In a brief talk to troops at the Secdet HQ, Dr Nelson pledged to work for the wellbeing of the defence force and strongly defended the current system of military justice. "We don't ever want to have a military justice system that is contaminated by the same nonsense that goes on in the civil courts," he said.
Dr Nelson said Australian troops "had made a difference" to Iraq and it was important to stand up and assist people in other parts of the world who were "being pushed around".
"When the history of this country (Iraq) is written there's going to be a special place for what Australia has done. In the end we have made a difference in Iraq."
Brigadier Symon said the timetable for a phased troop withdrawal depended on the emergence of a stable government in the country and could be carried out province by province. Late 2007 was the "right aiming point" for a withdrawal of coalition forces, he said.
Since her 13-year-old daughter vanished Monday, Stella Browne says she has been getting text messages from the girl saying that someone followed her and that she woke up in a dark basement. "Help. I'm scared. I don't know where I am," one of the text messages that Natasha Browne sent her mother said, Stella Browne told The Jersey Journal of Jersey City for Wednesday's newspapers. The message went on to say: "Someone was following me and I just don't remember what happened. I just woke up in a basement. I'm scared."
Jersey City police have classified Browne's disappearance as suspicious. They planned to hold a 3 p.m. news conference to discuss their investigation. Browne went missing Monday morning after leaving home for school. Her mother said she's only received text messages from her daughter, and that she has not called nor is she answering her cell phone. "At this point, because of the circumstances surrounding this case, we are strongly and actively pursuing all means to find this young lady," said police Lt. Joseph Connors.
Okay--a couples things about this article bother me:
If this girl has been abducted, why has it been released to the public that the adductor overlooked a way for her to communicate? Isn't this just telling the guy to go back to where he stashed her to take it away from her or, worse yet, eliminate her and dump the body?
OTOH, these messages seem rather verbose and grammatically correct for a lost/abducted 13YO, if they're being quoted verbatim. It seems one would need to be able to see well enough to type these out--or that the text-messaging unit would need to have a backlit LCD display which would provide some illumination. I've used cell phones as make-shift flashlights in this fashion to navigate through the house at night.
In any case, something doesn't seem right here... That's my 2¢.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/08/2006
18:31 ||
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#1
My exact thought. The media doing the message says shes in a basement so they must have stopped and the report said the police have narrowed the call to a neighborhood. So WTF is the media doing telling us this? So the kidnapper knows to move pronto. Have the media become this stupid or this blindly greedy for a scoop above all else even some poor girls well being?
It could be a hoax by the girl and are trying to scare the girl out but still I dont know how they could know for sure until. Even so if this is the case there is no way the police can know this for sure and what a gamble to take, what if they are wrong?
THE Howard Government has called for Muslim clerics to preach in English in mosques.
Attorney General Philip Ruddock, in London for anti-terrorism talks, was told by Islamic leaders moderate Muslims had complained about fiery UK clerics using Arabic to incite followers against the West.
He said a key aspect in preventing radicalisation and home-grown terrorism was education and improving understanding between imams and the communities they worked in.
"To surmise that you would only speak in Arabic or Urdu leaves others who are entitled to worship at the mosque disenfranchised," Mr Ruddock said.
The Islamic Reference Group in the UK is promoting English as the language of the mosque.
"As a sign of respect to the broad faith, which I think was a very interesting proposition, I would support the advocacy of that approach by Islamic leaders (in Australia)," Mr Ruddock said.
Melbourne's leading imam, Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he supported Mr Ruddock's call for English to be the language of choice in Australian mosques.
"I agree with Mr Ruddock 100 per cent. I have no problem," Sheik Fehmi said.
"I always do my sermons in English. I do say some Arabic but English has to follow."
Sheik Fehmi called on other mosques to either have translators present or deliver prayers and lectures in English.
Sheik Fehmi said English was more important than Arabic for a range of reasons, from interacting with the wider community to employment opportunities.
Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad said it was rare for mosques to use Arabic alone and there were no security concerns or hidden messages in sermons.
Mr Trad claimed the government's latest call for Muslims to conform to an Australian way of life was a ploy to distract from the AWB controversy.
"I'm afraid Philip Ruddock has engaged in more dog whistling," Mr Trad said.
Australian Arabic Council chairman Roland Jabbour also criticised Mr Ruddock, saying diversity in language reflected a multicultural community.
"I wasn't aware there are languages we are not permitted to use," Mr Jabbour said.
"The language of the Koran is Arabic ... things are getting out of context, (the Government) is overreacting."
GERMAINE Greer wants Australian women to be more outspoken, reject bad female role models, take control of their future and demonstrate modern feminism through pacifism, socialism and environmentalism.
And while they're at it, Australian women should also trash Holden dealerships in protest over the company's new ad campaign.
Departing from her planned speaking points at an International Women's Day lunch on the Gold Coast, the expatriate Australian author and academic launched a wide-ranging tirade against all things anti-woman, including some of the world's most well-known women and elements of the feminist movement itself.
Greer became one the standard bearers for the feminist movement with the 1970 publication of her book The Female Eunuch. Officially retired, she lives in Britain.
Greer, who would like to "shoot" 4WD drivers, began her speech by attacking Holden over ads for the new Rodeo ute, in which a woman asks a man what his ultimate fantasy is, only to have him imagine driving off-road with a younger, slimmer and "entirely servile" woman.
"My question to you women is, why have you allowed this to happen?" Greer said. "Why haven't plate-glass windows on Holden showrooms been exploding all over Australia? How much humiliation are you up for? I promise you, they wouldn't dare do it in Europe. They would not dare."
Greer, who said Holden would have based the ad on market research, said it demonstrated the problem of Australians, regardless of sex, not speaking out.
"Australians are naturally egalitarian, direct, honest, not eaten out by envy, but lazy and too slow to anger," Greer told a crowd of 300 women at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.
"Please get annoyed about this (Holden ad) because it shames us all."
A Holden spokesman last night said the ad had been tested among several groups, including women, and the company had not sought to humiliate anyone.
Greer also appeared to have departed from her pledge in 2000 not to set foot on Australian soil until traditional Aboriginal owners allowed her in.
Gold Coast Native Title Group committee member Wesley Aird said Greer had not contacted his group to seek permission to enter its land.
In her speech, Greer criticised some women in leadership roles, saying feminists would have a bittersweet victory if the next US president was female: Condoleezza Rice's best asset was her relationship with George W. Bush, while Hillary Clinton's was her marriage to Bill Clinton.
She said government leaders should not have to "lug along a receptive female" as proof of their manliness and women should not let them, particularly British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie, whose public appearances made her look hideous and demented and led her to be hated by the British public.
"Here we have our own dear Prime Minister - this big man inside a tiny man struggling to get out - who's been walking around India with his elbows out, just to prove he's really big; 'I really am a silverback, I might look like a chimp, but I am really a silverback'," Greer told the lunch.
"And there is his wife (Janette Howard), following on in case he should be overcome with conjugal passion. He might need her right there, you know, within six feet: 'Come here my dear'."
#4
According to "The Adversary Culture" (The perverse anti-Westernism of the cultural elite) by Keith Windschuttle, Ms. Greer is having quite the bout of cognitive dissonance.
Feminists once denounced the surgical removal of the clitoris of Muslim women as female genital mutilation. Lately, the procedure has been redefined as genital cutting, which the literary and art critic Germaine Greer now argues should be recognized as an authentic manifestation of the culture of the Muslim women concerned.
With all due respect, it is difficult to find a direct quote of hers to substantiate this, but it is entirely symptomatic of the moral relativism so beloved by irrational liberals. To be sure my search did not turn up any repudiation by her regarding this.
Ergo, I'd write this paticular person off as entirely useless to the cause of intelligent life on earth.
#5
Zenster, she's gone beyond that. Apparently the dumb broad (yeah, I know....but I'm a chick, so I can call her that...) actually thinks that women would choose to do that.
Not that she would actually give it a go herself, considering how it's usually done (piece of glass, no anesthesia, no medically trained personnel and no sanitary procedures followed). But it's perfectly ok for little brown and black women, however. It's part of their "culture", after all.
#6
Thank you so very much for the substantiating link, Desert Blondie. I owe you one, big time. Now please pardon me while I go puke. It is almost impossible to imagine a deeper betrayal of one's own gender. Greer and her irrational liberal ilk are exactly why the democratic party is rightfully foundering. However misguided (Christian) fundamentalist morality can be at times, it much less frequently assumes such a completely insane and hypocritical stance. Greer is unworthy of any more media coverage. This sort of betrayal should pre-empt all further right to air time.
Beijing - China has sentenced a top rocket designer to life in prison after convicting him of corruption and embezzling 160 million yuan (19.9 million dollars) from public funds, state media said on Wednesday.
Li Jianzhong, who worked on Long March carrier rockets for China's Shenzhou manned space programme, was sentenced on Tuesday by a court in Beijing, the Beijing News said.
Li is the former head of the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, which developed the rockets for the Shenzhou and satellite programmes.
The court also sentenced Zhang Lingying, the former chief finance officer at the academy...
...But the loss of funds had not affected the quality of carrier rockets developed by the academy, the reports said.
Can anyone here speculate about the accuracy of the allegations or the charges here? I haven't been following the Chinese Space Program much lately.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/08/2006
16:24 ||
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Pakistan and the US Wednesday furthered cooperation, inter alia, in the field of intelligence sharing against terrorists, although difference of opinion persisted regarding management of Pak-Afghan border in the war on terror, The Nation learnt.
Visiting Commander US Central Command General John P. Abizaid called on President Pervez Musharraf and exchanged views chiefly on the performance of trilateral commission in addition to underlining furtherance of Pak-US defence ties, well-placed officials told The Nation on condition of anonymity.
General John P Abizaid is currently on a two-day official visit to Pakistan. It, however, is not a scheduled visit, as Abizaid has rushed to Pakistan on the orders of US President George Bush. As CENTCOM chief, Abizaid is the most senior uniformed commander of the American forces in Afghanistan. These forces have been trying in line with the Afghan forces to block the border.
The Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) stated that President Musharraf has told the US General that anti-terror efforts on the Pak-Afghan border need enhanced coordination and most importantly, there was a need to bolster security measures on the Afghan side of the border, it added.
According to the sources, two sides could hardly reach a unanimous position over the issue of latest accusations about infiltration and existence of terrorists by Afghanistan and Pakistans response in terms of indicating problems in the Afghan defence intelligence mechanism.
Although the US side was not to accept Pakistani position in an outright manner, President Musharraf has made it clear that any operation within its territories would be carried out by the Pakistani forces alone, the sources added.
Meanwhile, the official media reported that during the meeting, the President discussed with the CENTCOM chief the situation on the western borders, cooperation between Pakistan and United States in the ongoing war against terrorism and matters pertaining to intelligence sharing, ways to further intensify efforts in intelligence sharing and speedy exchange of information.
Recently, there has been an exchange of statements between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Musharraf over intelligence sharing. Musharraf slammed Karzai in an interview with CNN on Sunday, saying he was oblivious to events in his own country and blasting intelligence provided by Kabul about the presence of Taliban leaders in Pakistan as nonsense.
Referring to the successes Pakistan has achieved in anti-terror war, President Musharraf said that over 80,000 troops deployed in the countrys border with Afghanistan have effectively checked cross-border infiltration and destroyed several sanctuaries through targeted operations against militants.
Stressing the need to bolstering security measures on the Afghan side of the border, the President called for greater coordination and sharing of actionable intelligence in real time to achieve the desired objectives.
The US CENTCOM chief said that Pakistan, which is the frontline state in the war on terror, has done more than any other country in combating terrorism and referred to the sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani security forces in operation against terrorists in the border region.
He said Pakistan is playing a critical role to fight against terrorism and promote peace in the region and the world at large in weeding out the menace of terror.
Earlier, the US CENTCOM chief visited the General Headquarters and met with the Vice Chief of Army Staff, General Ahsan Hayat and discussed with him matters of professional interest. They also discussed ways and means to further increase cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries.
Later on President Musharraf told the representatives from the tribal areas that foreign militants would not be allowed to stay on countrys soil and locals harbouring these extremist elements would also face the music.
A 16-member delegation of tribal elders from FATA who called on the President along NWFP governor while the President urged them to come up to their national responsibility to ensure that foreign elements did not take refuge in their areas.
President also told the tribal elders that he has made it clear to all other allies that only Pakistani troops were responsible for carrying out operation against terrorists on the countrys soil, officials told The Nation.
According to the officials, the tribal leaders appeared to be in full confidence and compliance to the governments policies and assured their fullest cooperation in ridding the region of foreign militants and terrorists. They also assured the President that people of the tribal region are peace loving and desired progress and development of their areas.
President General Pervez Musharraf expressed firm commitment to the overall development of the tribal areas and said the government was considering setting up reconstruction opportunities zones aimed at generating commercial activities for the socio-economic uplift of its people.
The President also said the government would make available additional funds to set the tribal areas on the track fast paced development and bring them at par with the other developed parts of the country.
The President referred to an elaborate reconstruction and development plan for the tribal region that envisages boosting agriculture, irrigation, livestock and industry.
About the establishment of reconstruction opportunities, the President said the factories would be exempted from the duties and the traders would be facilitated to export their products.
Posted by: john ||
03/08/2006
16:23 ||
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#1
so "The Nation" magazine is anti-american, regardless of where and who publishes it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/08/2006 19:03
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#2
Sure sounds like it. Might be worth holding off just a bit to make sure, though.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/08/2006 20:41
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#3
Nay, this is the portrayal Mushie needs to appease the savage homies. By "standing up to Abizaid", he is envisioned as a steel spined leader who doesn't take shit from the U.S.
In some twisted way, this is probably good for the WoT.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/08/2006 21:27
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#4
I think Bushie must have jacked Pervert up pretty good. Then told Abizaid to follow up. Perverts time is drawing very short , me thinks. We just need to make certain their nukes don't walk off.
#5
The timing is no accident. As for steel-spined, that is definitely for local consumption. I would think Abizaid was there to tell Musharraf of US hot pursuit and timely intel response policy which demand immediate response - something that the Pakistani Army is obviously incapable of performing. No doubt this was not a friendly meeting, but all business.
I get a kick out hearing/reading Rumsfeld speak. His style of nuanced bluntness should be taught at all levels of government and society.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran Tuesday of sending Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces into Iraq, and warned Tehran it was "an error in judgement. They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq, and we know it, and it is something that they will look back on as having been an error in judgement."
Pressed to elaborate, Rumsfeld said the Iranians were putting "Quds force-type people," or Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, into Iraq. "I don't think we could consider them religious pilgrims," Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld charges come amid heightened sectarian tension inside Iraq that have raised fears of civil war. At the same time, Washington is engaged in a sharpening diplomatic confrontation with Iran over suspicions it is developing nuclear weapons.
Many Iraqi Shiite leaders, who are now locked in struggle with Sunnis and Kurds over the formation of a new government, have ties with Iran's ruling Shiite clergy that were forged in exile.
But Rumsfeld said he believed the Shia see themselves as Iraqis first. "I think they are not going to be enamored of having help from across their border," he said. "So it is clearly a problem. Is it a threat to their security? Is it possible some more Iraqis will be killed? Sure," he said.
General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said some improvised explosive devices and other weapons have been traced back to Iran. "The most recent reports have to do with individuals crossing the border into Iraq," he told reporters. Pace said he did not know whether the infiltrators had the backing of the Iranian government, nor could he say whether the flow of infiltrations is on the rise.
But Rumsfeld said that "of course" the Iranian government was behind them. "The Iranian Revolutionary Guard doesn't go milling around willy-nilly, one would think," he said.
Rumsfeld spoke at a Pentagon press conference in which he played down the risk of a full-blown civil war but accused the media of exaggerating the violence that followed the bombing of a revered Shiite mosque February 22. "The steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq," he said.
When pressed on whether he believed the media had fallen for a disinformation campaign, Rumsfeld said, "Oh, I can't go into people's minds. All I'm doing is reporting on what we've seen." However, the United States will wait and see before deciding on any further reductions in US forces in Iraq, which now number 132,000, he said. "We'll let this settle down and we see where we are," Rumsfeld said.
General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, was expected to make recommendations on force levels this month. He was scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush later this week. "I think that these things go in bursts, and the burst has passed. And it's been handled pretty well," Rumsfeld said. "And there will be another burst at some point down the road, simply because that's the nature of that part of the world and the situation."
Posted by: ed ||
03/08/2006
16:23 ||
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#3
The trouble with jihadis is: martyr ideology makes them fight like Hollywood's version of Indian Warriors. And from what I read from al-Sadrites on the Forums, they are not aware that US Iraq-theater troops have the capacity to push Sadrite terrorists into pocket-traps, and make turkey-shoot war.
#5
She's only allowed to start a war with Sonora. Let's see if the National Guard deploys their supply of concertina wire on the border.
Posted by: ed ||
03/08/2006 16:34
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#6
Uppity New Mexicans. Heck, she doesn't need the Guard. The govenor could do more damage to NM by telling the California economic refugees to keep heading east to destroy her neighbors state by driving up land prices and implementing another social welfare state rather than in her own.
#7
PR - nice photo op. What about publicly pressuring McCain to drop his bill with Kennedy allowing amnesty? Not up to that, is she? McCain is sooooo wrong on this. Kyl's the man
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/08/2006 19:06
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#8
Ha Ha Ha..a couple years ago she beat feet to Mexico City telling Fox she wanted Arizona to be the lead state in the Guest Worker Program...
#10
When asked on FoxNews, an AZ congresscritter JD (something) (R-Reality) said that he talked to the AZ Nat'l Guard Commander today and was told that the drama is bogus - they would not be doing one single thing differently than before this PR stunt.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski began a state visit to Germany on Wednesday by bluntly spotlighting "fundamental problems" in ties between both nations which he hoped could be resolved.
Kaczynski set the tone for his two-day trip by underlining rows between Berlin and Warsaw over a Russian-German Baltic Sea gas pipeline and a planned museum in Berlin documenting the expulsion of millions of ethnic Germans from Poland after World War II.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kaczynski held a press conference before a working lunch but after making statements no questions were allowed. Merkel predicted ties with Poland would be "close and cooperative" while Kaczynski countered that "open talks were needed over problems."
"I come here 61 years after the war," said the Polish leader, adding that it was now time for "closure" on certain issues.
Nazi Germany began World War II by attacking Poland in 1939. By the end of the war in 1945 some 6 million Poles - including 3 million Jews - were dead and cities like Warsaw had been razed to the ground.
"Let's not fool around," said Kaczynski in earlier remarks to the Frankfurter Allgemeine paper. "The problem (with the expulsion museum) exists, and along with the German-Russian gas pipeline is one of the fundamental problems between our countries."
Polish leaders bitterly oppose the gas pipeline because of its routing through the Baltic Sea in order to avoid crossing Polish territory. The pipeline deal between Russia's state gas giant, Gazprom, and private German energy companies was signed last September at a ceremony presided over by then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Schroeder, after losing Germany's general election a few weeks later, was named head of the supervisory board of the company building the pipeline. This move further angered leaders in Poland and the Baltic states.
Merkel says she backs the pipeline.
Kaczynski said Russia's cut-off of gas supplies to Ukraine last January showed dangers posed to his country by the Baltic pipeline which is due to begin operating in 2010. Kiev, the Polish leader noted, had been able to undermine Moscow's gas embargo by diverting gas transiting through Ukrainian pipelines to western Europe.
"If we have the Baltic pipeline, Poland could be cut off from gas deliveries without posing any danger to gas deliveries to Germany and the West," he said, adding: "Does this correspond with the European spirit everybody keeps hearing about?"
Kaczynski repeated calls for the European Union and NATO to play a role in guaranteeing energy supplies for all member states.
Turning to the expulsion museum, due to open its first exhibit at a former Prussian palace in Berlin later this year, the Polish leader underlined his country's disquiet over the project. Called the Centre Against Expulsion, the museum's biggest backer is Erika Steinbach, a conservative member of the German parliament who heads the Federation of Expellees which is a lobby group for the up to 15 million Germans expelled from central and eastern Europe after Nazi Germany's defeat.
Under terms of the 1990 German reunification, Germany formally dropped any claims to territories such as East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia lost to Poland. But some members of the Federation of Expellees have called for the return of properties in Poland to ethnic Germans who were forced out over 60 years ago.
"Just imagine if one day there is a knock at the door of the Polish family Kowalski by members of the German family Schmidt who say: 'This house is our property'," said Kaczynski.
The Polish president said he wanted to improve Polish-German ties but that Warsaw was determined to prevent property claims being aimed at its citizens in one-third of the country.
Turning to the EU, where the new Polish government has taken a stronger Euro-sceptic stance, Kaczynski said the 25-nation bloc's constitution was "no longer up to date" after its rejection earlier this year by voters in French and Dutch referendums.
"I don't rule out that a new basic treaty is needed for Europe ... we have to start at the beginning," he said.
Kaczynski said the rejected draft went too far in creating a semi-federal European state "for which the time is not ripe." He also complained there was no reference to God in the draft constitution and firmly rejected plans for an EU foreign minister.
"The many bilateral problems between Poland and Germany show that it is perhaps too early for such a thing," concluded Kaczynski.
#3
"The main problem is this nationalistic polish president punching over its weight" ? Eh?
Poland can and has shown it will deploy it's military in force. Something Germany is grudging to do. Besides Afghanistan and the Balkans token deployments, Germany talk over way over it's weight.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/08/2006 17:16
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#4
Them Poles just best not be going around messing with any German radio stations is all.
Posted by: kelly ||
03/08/2006 17:24
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#5
The EU is going to pay for its support of the 'right of return' of Palestinians. Either it is a principle that applies in both cases or one that can not stand. Make the Paleos happy and get fundamental fissures in the Union, or preserve the Union and undermine the Paleos. Now I know the Euros are not known for consistency or integrity but this is one big uh-oh waiting to eat their lunch.
#8
I think Poland is being honest and moderate in their views (an impossibility for the Germs). They have been a good and consistent friend to us in the states. I hope they push the envelope as far as they need to get what they have comming. After all, when you lose a war you may lose territory. Would you expect Israel to give back the Golan Heights, or the Gaza Strip. Oh, wait....
#9
If I recall my history, at the end of the second world war Russia moved Poland west by moving both the Russian/Polish border and the Polish/German Border. Poland didn't net any territory, Russia did.
If Germany wants its land back they should start by talking Putin into giving back what Russia took. That way Poland doesn't get screwed (again).
The former chief of the Belgian security service VS-SE was run through the mill by a Senate commission on Tuesday as the fallout from the escape of Turkish militant Fehriye Erdal continued.
The intelligence service's supervisory body, Committee I, subsequently demanded and won promises from the VS-SE that it would be given insight into more documents relating to Erdal's disappearance.
The promise came after the committee's Senate commission had earlier temporarily suspended its meeting out of dissatisfaction about the documents the VS-SE had already released.
The security service subsequently promised to release more documents over the surveillance of
Erdal. The documents date back to the start of this year.
The Committee I will therefore be able to investigate how Erdal managed to disappear while under surveillance by the security service. However, the committee will still not be supplied with every document.
Liberal VLD Senator Paul Wille and Socialist SP.A politician Ludwig Vandenhove said former VS-SE boss Koen Dassen wants to only release documents which will not place security service agents in danger.
But opposition Christian Democrat CD&V Senator Hugo Vandenberghe said this was not sufficient, demanding that every document declassified.
"It would be unacceptable if they would be kept hidden from the Parliament. That would be more like a police state, something that [Interior Minister Patrick] Dewael wants to combat," he said.
"I can, of course, not reconcile myself with methods that are those of a police state, namely; that dossiers are covered up because they might be adverse for the government."
Earlier, Dassen had read allowed to the commission documents that indicated the security service had warned Dewael three times that Erdal might try and escape. The VS-SE also proposed alternative measures to prevent her escape.
The commission will discuss the escape of Erdal again on Wednesday.
The fire broke out Tuesday night near Ahvaz, where violent clashes and bombing attacks staged by ethnic Arabs have taken place over the past year in Irans main oil region. The pipelines carry crude oil to the refinery city of Abadan in the southwest, but there was no disruption to supplies, the Iranians said.
Via Western Resistance
Spain has said it would work with Pakistan in drafting a resolution at the United Nations against the defamation of religions and religious symbols and supported Islamabads offer to host a meeting of the Alliance of Civilizations Initiative, of which Spain is a co-sponsor with Turkey. The assurance was given by the visiting Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos during his meeting here with Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri.
Addressing a joint press conference after the talks, Kasuri said the two sides had agreed that there was a need to work together for promoting inter-faith harmony. He said his Spanish counterpart had responded positively to his request for supporting Pakistans idea of a resolution against defamation of religions at the UN. He has agreed that Spain would work with Pakistan on the text of the resolution, said Kasuri. In other words, Pakistan and Spain will cosponsor an antiblasphemy resolution at the UN. Somehow I don't think the mullahs will be hanged when the Jews are called the Sons of Monkeys and Pigs or call for Death to America. In all, by the next generation, La Vida Loca will be replaced by La Vida Shariat in Andalusia. Party hard while you can Jose. You get what you tolerate. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
03/08/2006
15:07 ||
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#1
Guess Spain didn't get enough of the inquisition last time.
#2
You want "Inter-faith Harmony"? Here's how to get it. Make all arriving imams pledge, with deportation being the default, that they are committed to peaceful coexistence with all other religions. Those who refuse to make such a pledge are immediately rejected for immigration purposes.
Works for me, RC. Both of yez, as a matter of fact. Just trying to keep it down to a dull roar these days. You know how hard I'm trying to rehabilitate my "kill 'em all" reputation hereabouts.
#6
All joking aside, I find it pretty disturbing to see how afraid much of the Western world is to confront these primitive, violent savages and their bloody murder cult.
I wonder how bad it will get before people wake up to the menace. Or whether they WILL wake up...
#7
I wonder how bad it will get before people wake up to the menace.
Minimum one, probably two nuclear or biochem terrorist attacks before the glass installation begins.
Just as another 9-11 happens every day, with 3,000 more people dead from famine, deprivation, AIDS or other preventable disasters that could have been averted with the money we flush down the toilet fighting terrorism, so it will likely be with the tipping point.
The scales will only tip once a nuke or two is detonated. This will throw back America or the world's economy a minimum of ten years, have an immediate loss of hundreds of thousands or millions of lives with a downstream loss of life, as portrayed above, ranking in the millions or tens of millions of lives.
Until people can wrap their mind around the daily 9-11 that continues to happen, any such future catastrophe will be meaningless to them. This is why I invented the daily 9-11 model so that the financial impact of fighting terrorism can be put into concrete terms.
The world will wake up. It is only a matter of whether or not the entire Middle East will become a nuclear wasteland and all Muslims will die in their own holocaust.
Any of you who have not read "The Three Conjectures", please do so immediately. It was one of the first to discuss the tipping point in excruciatingly clear detail. This superb article should be mandatory reading for all politicians and Muslims alike.
#8
Please be sure to scroll down to the Friday, September 19, 2003 entry at The Belmont Club's web site. You will not regret taking the time to read this.
#9
Sorry, Zenster. Your pledge thingy will not work. The Imams will agree to anything, because lying to infidels is, well kosher, heh. Then if they violate their pledges, then you have to go through a morass of legal procedures to boot them out. The camel's nose is in the tent. You are too late.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/08/2006 18:22
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#10
Sadly, you are right, Alaska Paul. The takiyeh thingy is too strong of a motivation to misrepresent themselves and pretty well nullifies any concept of trust.
This is why I advocate illegalizing Islam as a seditious political ideology and giving all Islamic dominated countries some five years months to begin full freedom of religious practice, whereafter, if they do not comply, begin to tear down all mosques in countries that do permit freedom of worship. Those who want to practice Islam are free to return to their sh!tholes countries of origin and thereby be clustered up for the final glassing-over phase they are sure to bring upon themselves. But enough of pandering to my realistic cynical side.
Today, March 8, marks what the United Nations designates "International Women's Day." I'm thinking about an 18-year-old Iranian girl named Nazanin. Instead of letting activists waste the day denouncing George W. Bush and other protecters of human rights and freedom, the United Nations ought to use its bullhorn to insist that Nazanin become a household name.
Nazanin and her 16-year-old niece were about to be raped last year when the older girl stabbed two of their three attackers, killing one.
You go, girl!
Nazanin reportedly told a criminal court that "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." But she was sentenced to death earlier this year for her crime. Her (insane) sentence is subject to higher court review.
International Women's Day this year should be Save Nazanin Day. It's not only this one young woman's life who might be saved, but countless unknowns in similar situations. . . .
At a time when the world is on fire literally when you look at, say, the Danish embassy in Syria burned down by protesters, for instance, over lame cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper and now around the world rallying to Nazanin's cause represents more than saving one woman's life. Shedding a much-needed light on inhumane sharia punishments and so-called honor killings would be an important step in calling Islamic regimes to account for their wrongdoing and encourage moderate Muslims the world over to reclaim their religion.
This should be a top priority for Western feminists (some, to their credit, have raised the topic and their outrage). On International Women's Day, they should stand with moderate Muslim women and women like Amina Lawal and call for an end to the terrorizing of women like her and Nazanin. And all those women whose names we'll never know.
Instead of naive hysterics about wage gaps and Gitmo, someone ought to break out the smelling salts and get an army of feminists and human-rights groups occupying a room at the United Nations to use their public voices to fight for those who can't. I'll never see eye to eye with some of these folks on the whole of their agendas (so long as feminists insist protecting the right to destroy an unborn life is sacred, their bill of goods is fatally tainted), but where we can stand together basic human rights for even women we should. I'd like Nazanin to one day be thankful that we rallied to save her life.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/08/2006
14:25 ||
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#1
what is the point in commenting on something that is already so understood and accepted as being common knowledge?
Women's groups like NOW, Code Pink, hmmm... forgot the names of the irrelelvant others ... are just strong(wo)men for Democrat politicians.
Crap. I've already used all the hysterical panic graphics.
Scott Dallimore is not about to push the panic button. But the federal permafrost specialist says methane, one of the most potent gases associated with global warming, is bubbling out of mud volcanoes on the floor of the Beaufort Sea.
He and his colleagues at the Geological Survey of Canada have been sizing them up from ships. They have sent down remotely operated vehicles for a closer look. And they have been peering into holes in the sea ice created as the gas bubbles to the surface.
"They are fantastic things," Mr. Dallimore says of the "pingo-like features," or mud volcanoes, that are one of the wilder cards in the global warming equation.
Along with the methane bubbling out of the metres-high mounds on the sea floor, Mr. Dallimore says the gas is seeping out of permafrost in some areas. Scientists do not know how much gas is being released, if the rate of release is increasing or what the impact will be on the atmosphere.
"It is a huge gap in our scientific understanding," says Mr. Dallimore, echoing international reports that point to escaping methane as one of the ominous unknowns associated with the profound change underway at the top of the planet.
While there may still be debate about the cause of the change, there is little doubt the Arctic is being radically redefined. And leading researchers say it is time to get serious about not only reducing pollution linked to the warming, but to filling in the important blanks in knowledge and figuring out how to adapt to the change.
Polar ice has been shrinking at a rate of about 74,000 square kilometres annually for the last 30 years, according to David Barber, an ice specialist at the University of Manitoba. That means enough ice to cover Lake Superior vanishes each year.
Mr. Barber predicts the fabled Northwest Passage could be open for summer shipping within decades. The Arctic ice is withdrawing so fast, he and some of his colleagues predict that by 2050 it may be non-existent in summer. "It could be as early as 2020, or it could be 2050," Mr. Barber says. "This is not an insignificant thing, this is a very major change in how the Arctic system functions. We're talking about a change over 50 years, 80 years at the outside, which we haven't seen on the planet Earth for at least a million years. This is very rapid."
Greenland's ice sheet is also on the move, sliding into the sea at about 12 kilometres a year, dumping icebergs and meltwater at twice the rate it did a decade ago. "In the next 10 years, it wouldn't surprise me if the rate doubled again," Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said after publishing the findings in the journal Science last month.
Low-lying coastal communities are already feeling the impact of increased wave action and erosion that comes with more open water and some may have to relocate to more solid ground. Building foundations and airport runways are buckling as permafrost melts, prompting civil engineers in Nunavut and Northern Quebec to start drawing up remediation plans.
But there is little anyone can do for the animals and other life forms that will be stranded as temperatures climb and the Arctic's icy cloak lifts.
"If you live on the sea ice like the polar bear, you are in big trouble -- your habitat is disappearing," says biologist John Smol of Queen's University, who is documenting the transformation underway in freshwater lakes in Nunavut.
He, like many Arctic researchers, stresses the need for the public and politicians to wake up to the profound nature of the change.
"People have still not caught on to how serious it is," says Mr. Smol, the current holder of the country's top science prize: the Herzberg gold medal. "I believe climactic warming is by far the most serious issue we should be thinking about, over terrorism and over all the other things that make headlines."
Some see benefits to the receding ice, such as summer shipping and easier access to Arctic riches of oil, gas, minerals and diamonds.
But Mr. Smol and Mr. Barber caution that any opportunities -- "and I hesitate to call them opportunities," says Mr. Smol -- will be offset by challenges.
Salmon showing up in the Arctic waters might lead to new fisheries, but other species will be displaced. Increased shipping is sure to be associated with accidents. And while permafrost is expected to give way to more forest and agriculture, the big melt could create havoc for pipelines, runways and roads designed to sit on, or in, frozen ground.
Then there is the vast store of carbon and frozen methane gas, known as gas hydrates, that have been locked in permafrost and Arctic seabeds for millennia.
Energy companies and scientists like Mr. Dallimore are exploring the possibility of exploiting the frozen gas hydrates as a new source of energy. But there is concern hydrates may escape as temperatures rise and permafrost melts.
Methane is 20 times more efficient as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide that is produced by burning fossil fuels and associated with global warming.
No one knows how much of the Arctic gas will escape as temperatures rise. Mr. Dallimore and his colleagues hope to get a better read on the potential threat as part of a project -- planned for the International Polar Year in 2007-8 -- to assess the methane bubbling out of the sea and ground in Canada's North.
"Whether the gas is from degrading permafrost or whether it is from deep gas hydrates, we don't know at this point," Mr. Dallimore says. "But we need to find out."
The danger here is in the boldfaced sentence above. IIUC current models for warming don't include this methane source. If I'm wrong about that, a link would be great ....
#2
Someone speculated that a way to tackle these underwater methane ice deposits was to robotically mine the ice, which is then piped to the surface to be combusted.
The energy produced could both provide commercial amounts, and be used to cool the primary waste product, CO2 into dry ice, which is then piped back down.
The dry ice performs several functions: it cools the mine, reducing the chance for a gigantic methane eruption; it prevents combustion of any methane gas in the mine; it prevents mine flooding by freezing any water; and when combined with water replaces the missing methane ice.
It has to be done almost entirely robotically, because of the poisonous methane and CO2 gases, but it does provide a lot of energy while reducing a seriously dangerous hazard.
#3
I have seen methane coming out from under the lake ice in places in the arctic for 25 years. Climate is changing. There is not a hell of a lot we can do about it. We are already factoring these things into our water and sewer designs. Low lying coastan villages in areas of the lower Kuskokwim river may have to be abandoned in a few decades or less, due to increasing storms and storm surges of the Bering sea.
But make no bones about it, terrorism is the no. 1 issue. Climate change in the north is serious, but it is something that we will have to adjust to intelligently. So cut all the doom and gloom crap and rewire your brain for analytical thinking and not hysteria, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/08/2006 15:23
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The Japanese are working on mining undersea methane hydrates. Incidentally, hydrates are an energy resource bigger than all the oil, NG and coal combined.
#6
So those nasty Islamist invaders will take over the Netherlands, only to find themselves drowned by the rising seas. Where's the downside, again? ;-)
#10
I've got LOTS of methane. % horses, a 500 pound hog and a registered Belchin Farter Dog. It's really amazing how much horses fart. Sounds like someone playing a tuba.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/08/2006 18:46
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#11
And the dome in Yosemite is now 25 miles wide.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/08/2006 20:19
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#13
If we'd drain the refried bean deposits, this wouldn't be happening.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 20:29
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#14
Well, the park rangers at Yosemite are resigned to the Mono Volcanos West of the park going kaflooie eventually, an event which may not be good for Vegas, which I think is sorta in the downwind area.
Their action plan? Bug out. Would be a great view from the top of El Capitan, though.
Yesterdays municipal elections in the Netherlands were won by the Left. The Labour Party (PvdA) gained more than 500 town hall seats, an increase of 50 per cent compared with 2002, while the far-left Socialist Party (SP) doubled its number of seats. The Christian-Democrat CDA of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and his government coalition partner, the free-market Liberal VVD, suffered heavy losses. Yesterdays result does not bode well for the Right in next years general elections. If the result in 2007 is the same as yesterdays the PvdA will gain 49 of the 150 parliamentary seats, while the CDA currently the largest party will lose 13 of its 44 seats. A government of Labour, the SP and the extreme-left Groen Links (Green Left) Party could replace the current center-right government, leaving the Netherlands with a radical-left coalition similar to that of Norway today.
Today the center-left newspaper De Volkskrant writes that the immigrant vote has tipped the balance in favour of the Left. This should not come as a surprise. All across Europe, immigrants tend to vote for the Left. The Left is perceived to be the welfare states Santa Claus. Most of the immigrants who came to Europe during the past decades were attracted by the generous welfare benefits which Western Europe lavishly bestows on the underprivileged. Today, owing to their demographic growth, the immigrant vote is increasing as more and more young immigrants reach voting age. In many countries the Left has begun to cater for the immigrants, aware that the immigrants guarantee their power.
According to the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies of the University of Amsterdam 80% of the non-indigenous electorate voted for Labour. This explains why cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Breda and Arnhem succumbed to the Left. 84% of the Turks voted for the PvdA; 81% of the Antillians/Surinamese did likewise. Of the Moroccans 78% voted Labour and 12% voted Green Left.
The center-right VVD, the party of famous Dutch policians such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Frits Bolkestein, received only 1% of the immigrant vote. The CDA got 3%, the SP 5% and Green Left 7%.
According to De Telegraaf, the largest paper in the country, immigrant voters have become a power block.
The effects of the immigrant vote will soon be visible. The Amsterdam borough of De Baarsjes has already decided to remove a white cross which serves as a memorial to the Second World War. The cross is situated not far from the place where a mosque is being built. According to the authorities Muslims and Jews take offense at the cross as a war memorial. We told them that it is a Dutch tradition to refer to the dead with a cross. However, the cross is seen as a reference to Christianity. I can understand this, the local (Christian-Democrat) councillor, Jan Voetberg, said.
#2
In France, after the ramadan riots, the leftists has pushed the "youths" to register for the coming 2007 (2006, given Shiraq's decrepit state?) elections.
Also, according to some newsletters, it seems like both the Ps (socialists) and the Ump (supposedly "conservatives") will put muslim candidates at the forefront, especially in higly islamized areas, so muslims will enjoy representation.
At local level, many pols already have made deals with the muslim community to get their votes, such as men/wimmen segregated swimming pools, no more pork on school menus, mosques sprouting everywhere on a *daily* basis, often with illegal public funding (trick is to fund only the "cultural" part of the mosque),...
This is a losing deal : muslims are now a tipping point voting block, voting mostly for the left, true (IIRC, in last german elections, 86% of the turks who could vote did so for the spd), but as they will assert their own power, they will present and vote for *muslim* candidates, or for dhimmi non-muslim candidates.
The social-democrats sweet dream of perpetual stay in power by manufacturing a captive electorate (this is what was done in Belgium, for example) made up of client migrant populations depending on them for social benefit, and the leftist utopia of outsourcing the Revolution(tm) to theses same populations (Herbert Marcuse, Tony Negri) are bound to backfire!
Muslims are not a mindless politico-social engineering tool, they WILL take action. The conquest of Europe will be made mostly by democratic and legal way, as population shifts occur.
This is only the beginning.
#3
Can you spell surrender ?
The leftists have so little love and respect for their own families and ancestors that they willingly, joyfully sell out their country.
And foolishly sell out their country to the religion of hate and death.
You assume that muslim immigrants will stay more or less fundie muslim. To the extent that they secularize, but fail to assimilate, they become simply a ghetto vote, and would probably stay left (and would be less inclined to make problems for the extreme social liberals on the euro left) Of course that would go against what some here assume about european muslims.
Note also - when a vote is close, EVERYONE is the swing vote. Gays, nuke haters, nuke lovers, muslims - everyone.
#5
Any fool who doesn't realize that the muzzies will stab everyone else in the back as soon as the lights go out isn't dealing with a full deck.
In today's world, everywhere they go, they force themselves upon the natives and begin the decline of all other groups so they can take control. It's not a secret any more. Today Mindinao and Nigeria, tomorrow, Spain, Lebanon, France ?
I say push back with gusto. Fight this cancer.
#6
You assume that muslim immigrants will stay more or less fundie muslim.
Safe assumption. They either are that way or will become that way. There is no evidence of liberalization on Muslim communities in the West. The opposite, in fact.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 16:28
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Agree with RB.
" . . . the immigrant vote has tipped the balance in favour of the Left"
This is to be taken seriously, since jihad strategy favors overpowering the West through infiltration, and assumption of powers once controlled by the "infidels."
It is slso outrageous that the Dutch are removing a WWII symbol because it is "offensive" to Jews (?--WTF?) and Moslems (no surprise there), but that they would actually cave to that, now that's shocking. (and I thought the ban on pig collections in England was bad . . . ) To allow another religion (Islam) to force itself on those who do not hold to that religion (Islam) is proof that the Dutch are willing to become the slaves of Islam, and to obey its tenets.
Via Samizdata:
A group of conservative European politicians is on a mission to resurrect the moribund EU Constitution, according to a German weekly. Angela Merkel is reportedly among them...... Doomed, DOOMED I tell you!
Japan and the United States will test-fire an interceptor missile off Hawaii this week a step in developing a joint ballistic missile defense system, Japans defense agency said Tuesday.
The test, to be conducted at a Navy missile range, is aimed at examining a prototype nose cone developed by Japan for an upgraded version of the Standard Missile-3, or SM-3, interceptor, a Defense Agency spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
The spokesman said the test would be conducted this week but refused to specify the day.
The SM-3 will be deployed on vessels equipped with advanced Aegis radar to defend against incoming ballistic missiles. The test would be the first using Japanese-developed missile parts, the Defense Agency spokesman said.
Under a bilateral agreement in December, Japan is responsible for building nose cones and rocket engines for the SM-3 interceptors, and paying about one-third of the US$3 billion (euro2.5 billion) total cost of the project.
The two countries are also finalizing plans to deploy a high resolution X-band radar system at a Japanese air force base in northern Japan to detect and intercept ballistic missiles.
Tokyo became one of the most enthusiastic backers of missile defense after North Korea test-launched a long-range missile over its main island in 1998.
Also this week, Japanese and U.S. officials plan to gather in Honolulu for five-day talks beginning Wednesday to discuss the planned realignment of American troops based in Japan. The plan, agreed to in October, would reduce the U.S. military presence on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa and give Tokyo greater responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region.
#2
Under a bilateral agreement in December, Japan is responsible for building nose cones and rocket engines for the SM-3 interceptors, and paying about one-third of the US$3 billion (euro2.5 billion) total cost of the project.
This strikes me as very, very hardcore.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Shouting "Down, Down USA", thousands of Sudanese protested in Khartoum on Wednesday against any deployment of U.N. troops in the western Darfur region.
"Get out all foreigners, we don't want you here," shouted 21-year-old student Zeinab Kheir el-Sir.
"Darfur will be the grave of the conquerors," said banners carried by the demonstrators. T-shirts available through Cafe Press
African Union foreign ministers are due to decide on Friday whether to ask the United Nations to take control of their 7,000-strong mission monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Darfur.
U.N. officials have sought NATO and EU support to bolster the AU force, which lacks funds and equipment, triggering alarm in Sudan which opposes intervention by non-African troops.
Ahead of the AU meeting, senior western officials held talks in Brussels with Sudanese leaders aiming to persuade them to agree to the deployment of a robust U.N. mission in Darfur. Belgium has always played such a constructive role in Africa.
But after a government-led media campaign against U.N. intervention, nationalist sentiment in Sudan is running high.
The pro-government al-Intibaha newspaper has announced the formation of two new Islamist movements threatening to target foreign interests in Darfur, called the Darfur Limb Hacking Society Jihad Organization and the Rabid Moonbats Blood Brigades.
The protestors handed a statement to U.N. offices demanding the immediate decapitation eviction of the top U.N. envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk. Sudanese women wearing Cindy Sheehan T-shirts bearing kalashnikovs joined the march, declaring their readiness to fight foreign troops.
The defense minister also rallied troops against intervention at a military demonstration in Khartoum.
"Jihad, victory, martyrdom," the soldiers chanted. "Our martyrs are in the dirt heaven, and we are ready," said Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein.
Hussein last week threw out all foreign press from a news conference, accusing them of fabricating the Darfur conflict, which Washington calls genocide.
Khartoum denies genocide in the arid west, but tens of thousands have been killed and 2 million herded into camps by three years of rape, looting and killing. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes there.
Among the crowd of demonstrators, one brave woman quietly said she supported intervention in her place of origin, Darfur ,before being torn to pieces .
"I don't think the government can solve the problem, nor can the African Union," student Maha Mekki said. "I want America to come in," she said.
CHANGE OF COMMAND?
The United Nations is currently deploying about 10,000 troops to Sudan's south to oversee a separate peace deal signed last year to end more than two decades of civil war there.
But the government and opposition parties have all said they do not want this U.N. force to be extended to Darfur as well.
"In the south they are there to help, but in Darfur this will just be a front for Israel and America to come in to get our kalashnikov toting beauties oil," said demonstrator Amal Jaafar.
Sudan produces roughly 330,000 barrels per day of crude, mostly from fields in the south.
U.N. sources say any U.N. force in Sudan's west is likely to keep the same AU forces on the ground, but change the command over to a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha to step up pressure on Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers.
"Taha is a key player in the Sudanese government ... We hope he hears the message," an EU official said
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, due to join the talks during the day, said he would push for a U.N. mission.
"We believe that, to the maximum extent possible, the AU forces in Darfur should be incorporated into the U.N. mission in which Africans should play a key leadership role," Zoellick said in a statement before leaving Washington.
#2
No need to conquer Sudan, just nuke Khartoum with a BIG one. There isn't much anywhere else. The surviving militants would be hard-pressed to feed themselves, much less do any raiding.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/08/2006 23:04
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Pattani Fear and chaos gripped Thailand's restive south Monday as some 30 Islamists armed men raided a Buddhist village in Yaring district and torched two houses and shot dead three villagers, while in two other nearby districts two young men were shot dead at close range, police said.
Superintendent of Yaring district, Pol Colonel Suthon Disyabutr, said 50 police officers and two fire trucks were mobilised to Che Orh village, a small Buddhist community, where gunmen shot dead three villagers.
The body of Sa-ngeam Kaeowprasert, 70, one of the three victims, was found riddled with bullets and burnt beyond recognisable in his house that had been totalled by the fire early Monday morning.
His wife, Thanom, appeared to have escaped the burning house but did not survived the gunshot wounds.
The body of fellow villager, Somphit Putrarat, 35, was riddled with machine gun bullets. Authorities said his wife and four-year-old child were weeping next to his body in the yard.
Sunthon blamed Islamists insurgents for the attacks, which he said was aimed at making the area ungovernable for the authorities and trying to establish an Islamic state instigate a sectarian violence in the region.
The attack on the village community appeared to have marked a shift in strategy, from point-blank assassination to attacking soft target belonging to Buddhist community, Sunthon said.
In two more separate incidents, an Islamist a gunmen shot dead a young manMarading Mache, 25, in Khok Po district, while in Panare district, Kermor Yakoh, 49, was shot dead at the crack of dawn when out herding his cattle.
Meanwhile, in Nong Chik district's Tu Yong village, an elementary public school was torched but damages was minimum as residents quickly put out the fire.
Meanwhile, in nearby Narathiwat, Deputy Gov. Wichit Chartpaisit and provincial commissioner, Pol Lt. General Yongyuth Charoenwanit, and deputy commander of the Army's Task Force 3, Colonel Somphol Pankul, paraded 31 "seething Islamists" "misguided individuals" who they claimed to have been brainwashed misguided by Parti Islam SeMalaysia insurgents bent on carving out a separate caliphate homeland for the Islamist extremists ethnic Malays in the three southernmost provinces.
#1
Expell all the muslims into the country Malaysia where they can "live in peace" and seal the border. Do it and be done with it. Shoot anyone that attempts to come back across the sealed border.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/08/2006 15:21
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Lefty Air America talker Al Franken may soon be replaced on New York City's airwaves by firebrand Rev. Al Sharpton, according to reports today suggesting that his network's Big Apple lease is about to be canceled.
The New York Post's John Mainelli says that "Air America is close to losing its New York flagship station - knocking Al Franken and his liberal colleagues off the air on their second anniversary."
Since 2004, when Franken and Co. launched their bid to become the liberal antidote to Rush Limbaugh, Air America has been headquatered at Manhattan's WLIB.
But Radio blogger Brian Maloney reported over the weekend that WLIB was on the verge of evicting Air America some time soon. Maloney's credibility is bolstered by the fact that he broke the story last year that the lefty network had obtained a suspicious loan from a New York City Boys & Girls Club.
Mainelli says that the leading contenders to take over the WLIB lease are former Clear Channel exec Randy Michaels, who syndicates the new Radio One black-focused talk network that includes Rev. Al Sharpton.
Before Franken and Co. took over, WLIB was New York City's preeminent black talk station.
And while an Air America spokesperson says everthing is fine, the New York Sun reports that Franken's network "is refusing to address reports that it will be dropped by its New York flagship."
Also citing Maloney's coverage, the Sun says that litigation is likely between WLIB and Air America over the existing airtime lease - and notes that lefty network has recently lost affiliates in Phoenix, Ariz. and Missoula, Montana.
Air America was equally tightlipped over the rumored trouble when the Post checked in, with a spokeswoman saying only, "It's business as usual."
#1
Hey George Soros, I have a really great marketing idea. I'm going to get a mime, a book of fart jokes and Al Gore. Do you think you could get together a group of other overly rich, out-of-touch, pot-heads to form a conglomerate and send a few hundred mil?
actually Missoula, MT is a liberal bastion - many hippie shops around the U of Mont at Missoula also a lot of hobby ranches nearby owned by southern californian
#6
Thanx, mhw! Now that I know there's a college in town, that explains a LOT. Still doesn't surprise me that outside that small narrow group, MT probably won't put up with that crap!
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 15:32
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#7
(Some time in 2007): AIR AMERICA: available in two places - on KALX (UC Berkeley) AND streaming on the Internet!!
The U.S. Army has handed over the security of a major part of Baghdad to Iraq's military.
In what was termed one of the largest transfers of operations, the U.S.-led coalition handed over security responsibility for several parts of Baghdad to the Iraq Army. The areas where Iraqi authorities would assume responsibility were identified as western Baghdad and eastern Abu Ghraib.
The handover was conducted by the U.S. Army's 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. In a ceremony on March 2, the Iraq Army's Sixth Division, 3rd Brigade, assumed security responsibility, Middle East Newsline reported.
"We are comrades," Iraqi Brig. Gen. Aziz Noor, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, said. "The Iraqi army and the American forces are brothers. We bleed together. We shed tears over the same fallen comrades."
Officials said the transfer of security responsibility was one of the largest since 2004. They said western Baghdad and Abu Ghraib contained key facilities and marked a major test of the Iraqi security forces.
"The American forces are giving freedom back to the people of Iraq, just as they did in Japan, Germany and Korea," Aziz said. "We are receiving this area of responsibility and the job to protect it. God willing, we will be able to do so."
The Iraqi and U.S. brigades have been patroling Baghdad since mid-2005. The U.S. 1st Brigade helped train and mentor the Iraqi 3rd Brigade.
"Never have I seen a group of soldiers learn so quickly and advance so efficiently," U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey Snow, 1st BCT commander, said. Remember to mention it just loudly enough so that the MSM won't.
#1
no, it's a quagmire. sectarian violennce has overrun the city. civil war has broken out. the military is no more competent to fight than girl scout troop.
#2
seems to me in recent weeks Anbar has continued to get quieter, but Baghdad, which had been becoming quieter in the fall and early winter, has become worse. Good to see the transfer moving ahead on schedule, despite the murder of the Iraqi commander in Baghdad. But it would be a mistake to ignore what a difficult task these Iraqi army units have on their platter. It will be interesting to see how well they do.
#5
So this would be a example of the "good news" coming out of Iraq, that so many Bush supporters
in the GWOT, claim that the so called MSM DOESNT
report or ignores.
The question then arises, that if more "good news" of progress was being reported by the
MSM in balance with the "bad news" of daily violence, casualties and deaths of U.S. military/coalition forces and Iraqi civilians, by a stubborn growing insurgency and potential civil war, would U.S. public support for the Iraq War and President Bush stop its negative nosedive in the polls and return to former positive majority status?
Posted by: Just Curious ||
03/08/2006 11:17
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JC, given the continued US casualties, and continued obstacle to progress, support for the war would probably have declined under any circumstances. However it might have declined more slowly. Given the importance of timing - the fact that what Iraq needs most is time for the train and equip process, especially - this might well be significant to the ultimate outcome.
#9
I have seen much good news reported from Iraq. I dont understand why it's said its not reported
by Bush supporters. I have also seen the bad news coming out of Iraq. I think the american public is intelligent enough to come to their own conclusions as to support the war or not.
Posted by: Just Curious ||
03/08/2006 16:16
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A shrine blows up, and it's Civil War. After a few hours of battle, it's a quagmire (both in Afghanstan and Iraq). All I want the press to do is, say the Shrine blew up. And the particulars on the explosion. Or that the troops have halted. Not thier opinion of it's future ramifications. That's not thier job. If they do, than that's opinion, not news. It's not so much the news, just the obvious direction they are atempting to lead us in. It's also why they are having a hard time money wise.
#11
#9 Yes, JC, I have drawn my own conclusions. Your son in the war, JC? Ready to go again, is he? Delighted to have been there helping with last January's elections? Happy to have made a "difference", JC?
I am delighted to have furthered my sense of 'spin' at Rantburg, and even - from time to time - have pointed out spin. Somebody (.com?) once said, "Good catch, Bobby".
Meant a lot to me, JC, but I've been coming here for 18 months. Mebbe you'll still be here a year from now? With the same name?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/08/2006 21:54
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And some of us have thanked you, Bobby, for fathering such a son, and for sharing him with us all. And we're awfully glad you know where to get real news, so you know when you don't have to worry about him as much.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced several additions to its Most Wanted Terrorists and Seeking Information - War on Terrorism lists in a report to the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Individuals on these lists are being sought for their alleged involvement in various terrorist attacks or planned attacks around the world.
Shallah and Awda have been indicted for their alleged involvement in racketeering activities for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group headquartered in Syria.
Janjalani, Hapilon and Sali are allegedly part of the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf Group, which is responsible for the kidnapping and murder of foreign nationals in and around the Republic of the Philippines.
Hamadei has been indicted in the United States for his involvement in the June 14, 1985, hijacking of TWA flight 847, during which United States Navy Diver Robert Stethem was brutally tortured and murdered.
Added to the Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list are Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Noordin Mohammad Top. Al-Zarqawi is sought in connection with numerous terrorist attacks and threats in Iraq. Nabhan is wanted for questioning for attacks in Kenya in 2002. Top is allegedly a member of the Jemaah Islamiah group which was involved in bombings in Indonesia between 2002 and 2004.
All 26 of the individuals on the Most Wanted Terrorists list have been indicted by federal grand juries in various jurisdictions throughout the United States. The ten individuals on the Seeking Information War on Terrorism list are being sought in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States. Director Robert S. Mueller, III, said, We will continue to bring all necessary resources to bear to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. The combined strength of law enforcement at home and abroad, with a vigilant and engaged public, will ensure success.
The Rewards For Justice Program, sponsored by the United States Department of State, offers rewards ranging from $5 million to $25 million for many of the terrorists. Information on this program can be found at www.rewardsforjustice.net.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
09:27 ||
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Worth reading. This is a great series written by a young man of Pakistani background who's also lived for several years in the Saudi kingdom, went to high school here in the States, college in Canada (because it was more affordable). He has turned away from Islam and considers himself an American. His comments on 9/11 are worth reading alone, but they have more punch if you read the whole account.
May there be many more like him - although his account makes clear the barriers to that.
#1
A good point, many Moslems are afraid that if they just quit Islam, their lives are in danger. But if they convert to Christianity, they have some greater degree of protection. This is why conversions seem to be a zero-sum game.
Terror killed in encounter with RAB
KHULNA, Mar 7: A top terror was killed in an encounter between his cohorts and the members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at Chapalimurali Bagan area in Kaliganj upazila of Jhenidah district early Tuesday, reports UNB.
The deceased was identified as M Abbas Ali alias "Killer Abbas", 30, a top leader of banned outfit Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML Janajuddha).
RAB sources said Abbas, son of M Bahar Ali of Masterpara of Kaliganj, was wanted in a dozen of cases, including murder, arms looting, smuggling, drug dealing and rape.
Now, the story, exactly as published.
Members of RAB-6 nabbed Abbas from Kaliganj on Monday evening.
Acting on his statement, they took Abbas to Chapalimurali Bagan area at about 4am Tuesday to arrest his accomplices and seize hidden arms.
As soon as the elite force along with Abbas reached the spot, his cohorts opened fire, triggering a gun battle.
Abbas was caught in the "crossfire" and killed on the spot, said a spot account of RAB.
RAB recovered the body and sent it to Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.
A homemade double-barreled gun and three bullets were recovered from the scene.
I tell you, it's a macro.
Where's the shutter gun?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
09:11 ||
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March 8, 2006: The intelligence people are picking up chatter regarding a major al Qaeda attack in Iraq, coordinating a large number of fighters to pull something off like the Abu Greib operation last year, possible against Parliament or the U.S. Embassy. It doesn't have to succeed, just make a big splash in the media. Overall, al Qaeda attacks are way down, and the terrorist organization is taking a beating. All they can hope for now is some media victories.
Many Department of Defense and CENTCOM analysts are putting the chances of an Iraqi "civil war" at 60-70 percent. However, this civil war would be more like Bosnia in the early 1990s. That is, the majority of Iraqis (Kurds and Shia Arabs) trying to kill or drive out the minority (Sunni Arabs). The Sunni Arabs are well aware of this, and more of them are openly lining up with the government. An example is the recent open declaration of war against al Qaeda by several major Sunni Arab tribes. The al Nuaim, Ibrahim al Nuaimi, Jubur tribes have all declared war on al Qaeda, and they all did so because al Qaeda recently assassinated leaders of those tribes. Al Qaeda has seen its relations with the Sunni Arab tribes go downhill over the last two years. Killing tribal leaders is the last, desperate, attempt to terrorize the tribes. This has failed.
The main cause of this rift was the al Qaeda obsession with causing a "war" between the Sunni Arabs and the majority of Iraqis (Shia Arabs and Kurds). The problem here is that the al Qaeda strategy is based on several myths. The biggest myth, which many Iraqi Sunni Arabs believe, is that Sunni Arabs are actually the majority of the population in Iraq. Most Sunni Arab leaders know better, but these leaders also believe that it would be best for Iraq if the Sunni Arabs were back in control. This is what al Qaeda has always believed. But the reality is that the Sunni Arabs are only 20 percent of the population, and the majority Shia Arabs and Kurds now have more guns, and they have the American soldiers backing them. The Sunni Arab tribal leaders believe the al Qaeda leadership is insane, and willing to lead the Iraqi Sunni Arabs into a suicidal battle. Shia Arabs and Kurds make no secret of their belief that Iraq would be a better place if all the Sunni Arabs were gone.
The popular (with American generals) commander of the Iraqi 6th Infantry Division was apparently assassinated on March 6th. While out, with his considerable bodyguard, to investigate a situation, he was shot once in the head as he was getting out of his armored vehicle and putting his helmet on. Major General Mubdar Hatim Hazya al Duleimi was a Sunni Arab, who got his job despite the resistance of the Shia Arabs who run the Defense Ministry. The Shia Arabs wanted a Shia Arab to command the 6th division, while the Americans wanted the most competent officer (al Duleimi) in charge. The Shia Arabs are thinking in terms of politics (as in the traditional Iraqi preference for military coups), while the Americans wanted a general who would bring peace to the Baghdad neighborhoods the 6th division was responsible for. Al Duleimi's death is under investigation.
Shia Iran has made no secret of its support for the Shia Arabs in Iran. This support includes money, advisors and, apparently, armed members of Iranian religious militias (the Revolutionary Guards). Iran would also like to expel the Sunni Arabs from Iraq. What bothers the other Arab nations in the Persian Gulf is that Iran could get away with this, if the Americans were not in the way. It's been over a thousand years since an Arab army defeated an Iranian one. Saddam's ability to fight the Iranians to a standstill (and a draw) in the 1980s, is considered a great Arab victory. But this victory was only accomplished with an enormous amount of financial aid, and some assistance from Western nations (especially France and Germany) that wanted to safeguard their oil supplies. Without that continued support, the Persian Gulf would be entirely Persian (as the Iranians used to call themselves until the 1930s).
Iran cannot openly confront their neighbors now, but if they have nuclear weapons they can. Such a threat may not work, but when nukes are involved, people get a lot more cautious. With, or without, nukes, Iran is always a threat to the region, because Iran has, for thousands of years, been the dominant power. That is no longer the case, and has not been since the Turks came in four centuries ago. In the last century, the West has replaced the Turks. But the Iranians still remember the good old days fondly, and many want to restore former glory. Nuclear weapons could do that, Arabs in general, and Sunni Arabs in particular, are terrified of that happening.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
09:00 ||
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#1
This is my argument, that Iran cannot continue to exist as a unified state, without inherently threatening the whole region. In a way, it was like the Soviet Union was to Europe. Only when the empire was busted up could Europe even conceive of treating Russia as a peer.
But, with its oil-producing Arab region given to Iraq, its Kurdish region given to Kurdistan, its resourch-rich Baluch region given to Pakistan, and perhaps even its Azeri region given to Azerbaijan, Persia would finally be able to be, not a dominating threat, but a peer.
A reduced Persia still has all the ingredients to be an independent state, only stripped of its minorities that it neither appreciates nor respects.
What must first occur is that their military, and their Revolutionary Guard, must be annihilated, and their mullahtocracy government decapitated.
I fear this will not be done in the precision manner of the past, but only in response to an anticipated, and thwarted use of nuclear weapons. Only this would give the US the 'carte blanche' to do to Iran what it desired.
Only if they launched one or more nuclear missiles which could be shown as such to the other powers, who would known by their own satellites and intelligence, both what the trajectories were, and their contents, even when intercepted; would the US be able to slaughter the hundreds of thousands it would have to kill, without opposition.
Because this is the bottom line. The only real crime in the world that merits such a response is first use. All the powers admit that killing even hundreds of thousands is still less than the use of a bomb, each of which could kill millions.
We can but pray that none of their weapons makes it through our defenses, that peace is not finally achieved at the cost of millions of lives.
MADRID, Spain (AP) - A bomb exploded outside the offices of a right-wing political party in northern Spain on Wednesday, slightly injuring one person and shattering windows, the Interior Ministry said. A man claiming to speak for the Basque separatist group ETA claimed responsibility in a warning call shortly before the explosion.
The device detonated at 8 a.m. (2 a.m. EST) in the seaside town of Santona, outside the offices of the Falange party, the remnants of longtime Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco's political apparatus.
Less than an hour earlier, emergency services had received the warning call from a man speaking in Basque, ministry official Agustin Ibanez said. It was impossible to independently verify the man's link to ETA, but the style of the bombing was in keeping with a series of recent attacks by the armed separatist group. The blast would be the seventh carried out by ETA in just over two weeks.
Police found a bag with a sign reading "Danger bomb" in the doorway outside the Falange offices and cordoned off the area before the device exploded. The bomb had contained between 7-11 pounds of explosives, said Puerto Gallego, Mayor of Santona. "Today is a bad day for Santona," said Gallego. The offices, situated within the old quarter of the historic fishing town, suffered considerable damage, with window panes shattered and glass strewn over a large area, Ibanez said. One person received a slight cut to an eyebrow from the flying glass, Ibanez said.
Two smaller homemade devices exploded outside banks just before midnight in the Basque port of Plentzia, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Bilbao, causing some damage, the ministry said.
On Saturday several hundred supporters of ETA clashed violently with riot police in the northern town of Portugalete following the death in prison of two of its members. Following the clashes in Portugalete, Basque separatist leader Joseba Permach said that the suppression of a pro-ETA demonstration would "have repercussions."
ETA, which has for years relied on extortion as a fundraising tool, has upped the menacing tone of its threats by sending business leaders letters with photos of their families and documents detailing their daily routines and car license plates. An explosion targeting a political organization instead of business changes the direction of ETA's recent violent activities. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero offered to negotiate with ETA in May 2005 if it renounced violence, but the militant group has kept up a campaign of low-level violence, setting off dozens of explosions.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:58 ||
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#1
ETA's jealous of all the cartoon violence.
Also, as al Andalusia is restored to the Caliphate, they want to make sure Basqueland isn't included.
#3
Plainslow, that's just what is going to happen. Catalonia is going to pull out of Spain in the next couple of years: they'll call it something, but in the end the Catalans are going to have their own, sovereign nation. Zappie doesn't have the guts to stop it, and the Socialists don't have a political or intellectual argument to keep Spain as a united country. When this happens, there's no remaining reason to keep the Basques in Spain. They'll go their own way, and then start agitating to get the northern Basque lands (also known as southwestern France) added to their state.
Spain is done for. Zappie will see to it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/08/2006 10:51
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Gee, Steve - that's a shame.
(Now where'd I put that nanoviolin?)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/08/2006 23:12
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China's foreign minister has urged the US, Taiwan's biggest arms provider, to take "concrete measures" against any Taiwanese bids for independence.
Li Zhaoxing, speaking on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session, said Taiwan was the most important issue facing China-US relations.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to visit Washington next month.
Beijing has been angered by Taiwan's recent decision to scrap a council on reunification with the mainland.
"We hope that the US side... recognises the dangerous nature of Taiwan independence secessionist forces and takes concrete measures to oppose Taiwan independence forces," Mr Li told journalists... I wish that every time China spouts over Taiwan that the US response it to say something like, "And WE hope that the Chinese side...recognizes the dangerous nature of bellicose and bullying remarks in DELAYING the eventual reunification of China and Taiwan, that each such transparent effort by INDIVIDUALS to gain petty political points sets back by weeks or months what could have been peacefully accomplished years ago." That would sting.
#1
"China's foreign minister has urged the US, Taiwan's biggest arms provider, to take 'concrete measures' against any Taiwanese bids for independence."
Time to very-publicly issue Taiwan some more missiles.
"Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to visit Washington next month."
We need John Bolton waiting it the side room of the Oval Office just in case Hu Jintao so much as breathes the word "Taiwan."
#6
Doesn't China realize that wid an independent Taiwan, there can not only be full-fledged trade relations with Taiwan and the West, but the impetus will now be on the USA to prevent the PRC from being invaded, imploded or otherwise destabilized. The USA will protect the PRC from Taiwan - the PRC can NOT have nor survive both Communism/Stalinism-Maoism, and Capitalism-based wealth.
TOKYO (AP) - North Korea fired two surface-to-air missiles near its border with China on Wednesday, a Japanese news agency reported, citing security sources.
Kyodo News agency initially said the missiles were fired by mistake in the direction of China during a military drill, citing an "Asian security source."
But the agency later cited a "Western military source" as saying the short-range missiles were test-fired in an eastern direction from the North's eastern coast, toward the Sea of Japan. The agency said it could not immediately reconcile the conflicting reports.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:54 ||
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...You just KNOW this will not reflect well on some NKOR Lt's performance report.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/08/2006 18:31
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Will say again NorKor-specific regional belligerency = NorKor-desired National/Party Suicide, as the Norkies know they have no manifest destiny as an alleged sovereign,
"independent", Commie State except to be a PC/PDeniable un-annexed slave state/province of the PRC. NorKors beat the unilater war drums ergo the Chicom PLAFF begins buzzing Japan, AND STILL DOES!?
I don't agree with Millière's ideas on several points, but IMHO, since I've discovered him in the french weekly "Les 4 vérités", his diagnosis of France has mostly been spot on.
By Guy Millière
How many Jews are still living in France today? Around 500,000. The number is going down year after year. Those who leave go mostly to Israel. Some of them move to Canada or to the United States. The larger part of those who stay in France are frightened and anxious. They feel they need to make escape plans for the future. "France is not safe for us anymore," one of them said on a TV show a few weeks ago.
And this was before the murder of Ilan Halimi.
This young Parisian Jew was kidnapped by a gang of thugs on January 21st and held captive for three weeks. On February 13th, early in the morning, he was found on the edge of a railway station, naked and handcuffed, his body covered with burn marks from acid and cigarettes. He had been savagely tortured and stabbed in the neck. He was not dead yet when discovered, but he died a few minutes later.
Little by little, information emerged about the crime. There were at least fifteen thugs, maybe more. They had used a girl to seduce Halimi into the trap where he was captured. They knew he was a Jew and they had chosen him for that reason. In his pocket they found the phone number of a rabbi and he was the first person they called, telling him: "We have a Jew. The family has to pay. If the family cannot pay, it will be the synagogue." In succeeding days, they called the rabbi again, howling sentences full of hatred. Later, they called the family, asking for $600,000, before lowering the price to $5,000. They spoke to the mother, to Halimis sisters, uncle, and father. When they were not asking for money, they were reciting suras from the Quran. In some of the conversations it was possible to hear Halimi screaming in the background. The thugs sent a videotape showing the young man naked, humiliated, handcuffed, just like on a Zarqawi videos from Iraq.
They called many times, but the police, stating later that "technical problems" kept them from tracing the calls, told the family to stop answering the phone and to stop negotiations with the kidnappers. The police also claimed that there was "no anti-Semitism involved." When the judge learned almost all the details about the case, he did not speak about anti semitism either. But as the case became news all over France, the motive became really obvious to deny any longer and the judge finally declared, "anti-Semitism is involved." Some politicians started using the word too. A ceremony was organized in the main Paris synagogue and deputies and ministers came. Jacques Chirac, who only three years ago had insisted that "anti-Semitism does not exist in France" even showed up. A protest against the hideous crime was organized a few days later, but political correctness had already won out: the protest was mostly against racism in general, not the specific pathology that had claimed Halimis life. "It's necessary to avoid tensions between communities," declared one of the organizers. There were some Muslims at the protest--fifteen, maybe twenty out of 30,000.
In the days since the dying Halimi was discovered, some journalists have been making ugly discoveries. The gang of thugs (they called themselves "the Barbarians") had sequestered the young man in an apartment that had been rented by the doorman of the building. The doorman knew what had been happening but did nothing. Many other residents in the building had heard a man screaming, but had decided to mind their own business instead of calling for help, even anonymously. "When you live here, you think about yourself and only about yourself," one of them said.
The screams must have been loud because the torture was especially atrocious: the thugs cut bits off the flesh of the young man, they cut his fingers and ears, they burned him with acid, and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him on fire.
The head of the gang, Fofana, was arrested in a brothel in Abijan, Ivory Coast. He had been able to leave France freely, without being stopped at the border. He spoke to a French TV channel while in Abijan. He was smiling at the camera and eating a good lunch. He said he was not anti-Semitic; he just wanted money (and, he added, "Jews have money.") He insisted that he had not killed anyone; to torture and to burn is not to kill. Had he any remorse? No. He was only disappointed: he had not been successful and he had not gotten any money. The future? "If the guillotine were still in use, he smiled, somebody would suggest that for me."
Fofana will be judged and sentenced. He will spend 10 or 15 years in jail, maybe less. Then, he will be released. He knows France's laws. He has been sent to jail 12 times (the previous time for attacking a bank and leaving a clerk severely injured), and he has been released 12 times. Before deciding not to take case, his French lawyer had started to state to the media that Fofana is a nice guy, not "capable of violence," and not a racist: "It must have been a collective moment of crazy behavior." added the lawyer. If a judge agrees that it has just been "a collective moment of crazy behavior," Fofana and the rest of the gang will not even go to jail: they will head for an insane asylum where they will be cured after a few months. Already, a number of columnists and intellectuals, in the typical French way, are starting to say the real victims of this crime are the thugs and their families.
During the last ten weeks, the people who tortured and killed Ilan Halimi had tried unsuccessfully to kidnap four other Jews in Paris. The police had descriptions of these people. They knew where these people were operating. They did nothing.
A little more than two years ago another Jew named Sebastien Sellam, was savagely killed in the eastern part of Paris. The murderer cut off his head and took out his eye globes with a fork. He came home a few minutes later saying to his family: "Now, I can go to paradise. I killed my Jew." He was a Muslim, just like most of the gang that killed Ilan Halimi. He was sent to jail, then to an insane asylum. He has been declared cured and will be out in April.
During the last couple of years, several Jewish doctors have been blackmailed and threatened in France. Some have been killed, but the "official reason" for the murders never made a connection between the fact that the victims were Jews and the killers were Muslims. During the same years, many tombs in Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated and covered with Nazi slogans. Jewish children in a number of high schools have been harassed by Muslim children, but in the end, the troublemakers have been able to stay in the high school and the only the Jewish kids have had to leave and to go study elsewhere.
This week, a teacher in Paris was brought to justice because he had told a Jewish student that he would have to be sent to "the oven" after the class (his colleagues immediately protested that the teacher is a good man and did not deserve punishment). A nurse in Strasbourg was mugged, attacked with a knife and covered with swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans because her agressors thoughtincorrectly--that she was a Jew. A dozen Jewish students were mugged by supporters of the Palestinian cause on the campus of one of the main French universities. ("They looked Jewish," explained one of the muggers). Nobody has been arrested. In Sarcelles, a small town in the north of Paris, three Jews were mugged last Saturday on their way to the synagogue. Two of them are still at the hospital.
I am sad to have to say so, but it's impossible to rely on the French government to protect the Jews of France: the government has too many interests in Muslim countries. It's impossible to rely on the police because the police in France are not independent and have to do what the government asks. For the same reason, it's impossible to rely on the judicial system. It's impossible to rely on journalists to tell the whole truth because the media are infected with chic leftism.
Radical Islam is at war with civilization. A few days ago, Caroline Glick wrote in The Jerusalem Post that now every Jew is on the frontline of this war. She was right. The question now is not only whether the Middle East will belong to Hamas, to Al Qaida, and Ahmadinejad, but whether France and Europe will belong to the people who murdered savagely Ilan Halimi.
Guy Millière is a French writer who lives in Paris.
#2
The Euros don't care - the Islamists can kill as many Jews as they wish and the Euros won't lift a finger. Anti-semitism never left Europe, it just hid for a little while.
Dubai sees future as ally, entrepôt and playground
By William Wallis
Published: March 7 2006 20:06 | Last updated: March 7 2006 20:06
Inhabitants of rival Gulf states scent hubris in the way Dubai has risen from the desert and grabbed the worlds attention with its futuristic tourism developments, proliferating skyscrapers and liberal use of superlatives to market each project.
Some doubtless relish the hostile scrutiny to which the emirates ambitions are being subjected in the US and particularly on Capitol Hill. But confronted by an American populist backlash against the prospect of Dubai Ports World (DPW) running US container terminals as part of its $6.9bn (£4bn, 5.8bn) acquisition of the UK-based P&O, the more common sentiment among Arab businessmen and officials is indignation.
Suspicions of Islamophobia aside, seen from the Middle East it is as if Dubai is being treated as an upstart long after much of the world has acknowledged that the city is a phenomenon to be reckoned with.
Among officials of the United Arab Emirates who run foreign policy for the federation of which Dubai is a part, there is also a sense of betrayal. As they watch US politicians cite a past decision to recognise Afghanistans Taliban regime as one cause for mistrust, they recall how the Clinton administration encouraged them, for its own purposes, to develop just such relations.
More than any Gulf state, the city has promoted itself as a natural home to multinationals and pragmatic ally of the west capable, in its pursuit of global status, of shrugging off vexed issues that have turned other parts of the region into cauldrons of anti-western sentiment. At a time when tackling the Middle Easts volatile mix of oil, authoritarianism and religious extremism is a priority for western policymakers, the Dubai emirate has provided a compelling example of an Arab city embracing modernity.
In four decades it has gone from being a pearl fishing and trading outpost to a regional centre for commerce, transport, tourism and increasingly finance. City officials like to compare Dubai today to New York a century ago a melting pot of creative endeavour.
The emirate has seen its economy double in size in real terms within the last 10 years while its population, which by some estimates has reached 1.5m, is being boosted by immigration. Dubais allure is founded on a paradoxical blend of laisser-faire and rigid authoritarianism. Thus the ruling Maktoum family has brooked no dissent when it comes to enforcing the central principle that has distinguished it from its peers: allowing people to get on with it in a region otherwise intensely regulated.
But the frantic pace of the citys development which has accelerated exponentially since 1993, when Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum became de facto ruler has exposed a host of other contradictions.
Dubai is one of seven emirates that, in a loose federation, make up the UAE. Brokered by the British at independence in 1971, the federation has been held together in large part by Abu Dhabis vast oil wealth. However, unlike the poorer emirates dependant on Abu Dhabi largesse, Dubai struck out early on its own path, playing the entrepreneur to Abu Dhabis oil baron, albeit with consent and substantial subsidies from its richer neighbour. Dubais own oil production now hovers somewhere below 200,000 barrels a day and, according to analysts, that will peter out after 2010.
Ever since Sheikh Rashid, the former emir, initiated plans in 1979 to build the worlds largest man-made harbour at Jebel Ali, the city has attracted sceptics. Yet city officials have developed a knack for generating substance from the hype.
The Jebel Ali port, from which DP World originated, is itself at the heart of the greatest irony in Americans concern about a state-owned Dubai company running their container terminals. Security at Jebel Ali is state of the art as you would expect for the port outside the US that is most often visited by the US Navy.
In evidence to the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, Gordon England, deputy secretary of defence, noted that the port at Jebel Ali is managed by Dubai Ports, so we rely on them, frankly, for the security of our forces there. There were 75 coalition partner ships there [last year].
The economic logic behind Dubais transformation into an icon of urban capitalism lies in its abundant land, cheap energy and location in a region full of frustrated capital and labour. It needed a raison dêtre as well as a revenue stream for when its own oil runs out. From south Asia it has hauled in a mass of indentured labourers to do the grunt work. Meanwhile a growing army of young professionals in search of career breaks from South Africa to Turkey and the Levant are joining the trail.
City officials argue that none of this would have been possible without the rapid-fire decision-making process that comes with autocratic rule.
Dubais system of government is in many ways unique among the Gulfs dynastic autocracies. While state and ruling-family assets are at least as much entangled as elsewhere in the region, the bureaucracy is leaner and in general businessmen say government is far more efficient.
People refer to our crown prince as the chief executive officer of Dubai. Its because genuinely he runs government as a private business, Saeed al-Muntafiq, head of the Dubai Development and Investment Authority, said in an interview before Sheikh Mohamed became emir following his brothers death last year.
Recognising that the overall business of Dubai Inc has become too big for any one man to manage, Sheikh Mohamed has endowed loyal lieutenants with land and, to varying degrees, capital and mandated them to realise a vision of which, he says, only 10 per cent has so far been achieved.
The more publicity-grabbing and iconic real estate projects, and those that have established Dubai as a brand, have mostly been devised by his three most powerful subordinates. Their role has been to push with state backing the boundaries of what is possible, in turn encouraging the private sector to be more ambitious and competitive.
They have already built the worlds largest shopping mall, its most unlikely artificial ski resort (chilled under a glass dome in the desert) and on artificial islands fashioned offshore into a map of the world a playground for the super-rich. Now they plan to add the worlds tallest building.
In an interview last year, Mohamed Alabbar, who heads Emaar, the citys biggest property developer, said the fate of big ventures is often determined by a mobile phone call among the big shots. What matters is that you are equipped to participate with good decisions, he said.
The Dubai phenomenon has proved infectious, stirring more cautious regimes in the neighbourhood to be more innovative. When Dubai announces a new project or adapts an old one to new tastes, others in the Gulf tend to feign scepticism, before finding a way to adapt and follow suit. Thus Bahrain, which never had much oil of its own, has had to promote its own more established financial sector with a new and flashy property development, while gas-rich Qatar has launched a rival to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
The DIFC and associated DIFX exchange were conceived to provide a global financial market to match those of Singapore or Hong Kong, bridging geographic and time zones between Europe and Asia.
As the projects have grown in ambition, so have the contrasts between conspicuous consumption and the grim conditions of the immigrant labourers who, for tiny wages and from miserable work camps out of sight in the baking desert, make it possible. As Dubai has developed aspirations to world-class status, so the cracks in the system have become more exposed.
To date, each time Sheikh Mohamed has run up against restrictive federal laws that conflict with Dubais international aspirations, his tactic has been to hive off a new free zone. The empty desert has provided a tabula rasa on which he has drawn a slew of these, for health, media, education, technology, flower markets and many other sectors. The free zones are designed as a ready-made circuit board into which multinationals can plug in their regional operations. But they also reveal a certain schizophrenic character to Dubai.
Bankers and businessmen acknowledge that insider trading is rife on the local stock exchange, that some money laundering is an unavoidable by- product of a tax-free system and that there are still no effective commercial arbitration methods in Dubai. International banks are nevertheless encouraged to trust that the same standards that regulate the London or Hong Kong stock exchanges will be rigorously applied in the DIFX.
When western visitors commend the city for its liberal attitudes, they are often talking about its striking tolerance of drinking, prostitution and bare midriffs in a region otherwise more obedient to Islams strictures. They are not referring to government attitudes to free speech.
Outside Media City, a district of air- conditioned offices with all services provided, where the regional press corps has been encouraged to make its base, journalists working for local newspapers are constrained by self- censorship and archaic federal laws. Surrounded as they are by an all- pervasive public relations machine, it is tough for journalists, and even to an extent investment banks, to provide the critical analysis that more developed international markets require.
Nor have UAE attempts at political reform matched even the timid efforts initiated in recent years by some other Gulf countries. Its response to outside pressure for change makes even Saudi Arabias limited experiment last year with municipal elections look progressive. In the UAE, royally enfranchised appointees will elect from among themselves members of an assembly with no real powers.
Theres no one to say No. I think that is the principal Achilles heel of Dubai. These projects are so huge it could go wrong, says a well-connected state employee.
At the same time, the Dubai leadership knows that if it invited more participation from the local population in decisions, many of the projects would not be happening at all. Dubai nationals are already feeling encroached on by so many immigrants.
Bankers believe that when the oil runs out and demands for more services grow, Dubai will begin to face budget deficits. With them, and the possible need for more conventional borrowing, demands for more transparent government and even eventually reconsideration of the citys tax-free status may grow.
Such issues are beginning to come under greater international scrutiny as the citys own companies, like DP World, expand aggressively around the globe.
But the concerns of the local Emirati population have remained barely audible. Many of the well-to-do are happy to wander among the many worlds on their doorstep. But others worry that their privileged place in a Dubai society that provides jobs, homes and welfare for life will eventually dissolve in the melting pot around them.
Emiratis now make up less than 10 per cent of Dubais population. At 110,000, there are now almost as many British. Local ambivalence is encapsulated by an Emirati university professor, who says: There are few success stories in the Arab world and we are proud that Dubai is one of them. But many of us feel that success is coming at too high a price.
When addressing a clientele outside the region, the citys image launderers like to promote the idea that it has outgrown its turbulent neighbourhood and now lies somewhere beyond. Thus Dubai has doubled up as a Costa del Sol for the British package holidaymaker, a seven-star destination for the super-rich global jet set and a parachute for Iranians and Saudis hedging against future turmoil in their own countries.
The same facilities the banks, trading and tax-free status that make Dubai an obvious regional base for the global business executive also make it convenient for the Mumbai gangster, Russian oligarch, African smuggler and international terrorist.
In this context, the DP World saga has been a rude reminder for Dubai of how difficult it is to be all things to all people and nowhere more so than in the charged atmosphere of the Middle East.
Additional reporting by Steve Negus
Openness creates a difficult risk to manage
The US national commission that investigated the September 11 2001 attacks found that in the months leading up to the onslaught, the United Arab Emirates was both a valued counterterrorism ally of the United States and a persistent counterterrorism problem, write Edward Alden and Steve Negus.
That image, of a friend in the Arab world with an uncomfortably close association with Americas enemies, has been difficult for the UAE to shake off in spite of what US officials say has been an extraordinary level of co-operation between the two governments since the attacks.
The issue has come to the fore this year over Dubai Ports Worlds acquisition of the UKs P&O, which operates terminals at five US ports, with some lawmakers arguing that the US should not trust a country that was exploited so easily by the al-Qaeda operatives who planned and executed the attacks. It is still a large financial centre that is open to commerce from all parts of the world and that creates an inherent risk, acknowledges a senior US official. Its a difficult risk to manage.
Since US officials began tracking the financing of terrorism following a deadly al-Qaeda attack on US embassies in Africa in 1998, Washington has pressed the UAE to crack down on the problem. US officials who travelled to the UAE at the time found flimsy financial regulation and no control over charities that were suspected of financing al-Qaeda, according to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, senior White House officials in the Clinton administration.
In preparing for the September 11 attacks, several of the hijackers were able to move freely through the UAE, while Dubai-based banks were used to funnel money to them once in the US.
But the UAE was far from alone in its failure to recognise the al-Qaeda threat and has made strides since. The worst that could be said [of the period before 9/11] is that the government did not realise the danger and didnt have the systems to control it, says a long-time foreign resident of Dubai. Since then, they have put in place means to track investment flows.
Since the attacks, say current and former US officials, few countries have worked as determinedly to shut off financing for al-Qaeda. When you look at the UAE compared to the Saudis, the Saudis would always talk about doing things but didnt follow through. The UAE was the direct opposite, says Dennis Lormel, former head of the terror financing unit at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and now senior vice-president at Corporate Risk International, a security consultancy.
According to the 9/11 commission, the UAE central bank did everything that US investigative teams requested following the attacks, opening millions of pages of bank records and allowing tens of thousands of pages to be copied and sent to the US for examination. The emirates made a decision, I think in large part due to their own commercial interests as well as their geopolitical interests, that they needed to be as open and transparent with us as they could be, says the senior US official.
The authorities also acted to keep tighter control over money flows through Dubai. The government tracks withdrawals of cash above a low threshold and requires banks to investigate their customers before opening accounts and report suspicious transactions in line with standards set by the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Dubai has also acted to regulate the informal hawala sector, which is used by many foreign workers to transfer money inexpensively to their families but has also been exploited by terrorists to move funds without leaving a paper trail. While individual transactions may still be untraceable, Dubai has required all hawala operators to take out licences. The UAE has also taken a larger role, drawing up the first set of principles for regulating hawalas.
Experts say Dubai faces a delicate task in curbing abuses while maintaining the light regulatory hand that has allowed it to prosper. If you regulate it too hard, the whole thing might dry up and blow away, says Patrick Jost, a terror finance expert with Risc Global, the UK consultancy
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwans ruling party said on Wednesday it would stage a mass protest against rival China to mark the first anniversary of a Chinese law codifying the use of military force against the island if it moves toward formal independence. Leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party and its allies said they hoped the March 18 demonstration in Taipei would draw up to 100,000 people to protest Chinas anti-secession law. Taiwans government on Wednesday declared March 14 - the anniversary of the laws passage - an annual Anti-Invasion Day. However, it will not be a public holiday.
Should we send a card?
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing has maintained claims of sovereignty over the self-ruled island, threatening force if it moves toward formalizing its de facto independence. The opposition Nationalist Party plans to hold its own rally on March 12 to criticize President Chen Shui-bian for allegedly mishandling relations with the mainland.
A decision last week by Chen to terminate the government committee responsible for unification with China elicited a hostile reaction from Beijing, including condemnations from President Hu Jintao. The ruling partys chairman, Yu Shyi-kun, said Taiwan could not remain silent as China pressed its claims over the island. If we speak out, Taiwan will win respect from the whole world, Yu said. After the passage of the anti-secession law last year, about a million people marched through Taipei in one of the largest demonstrations the island had ever seen.
The March 18 Democratic Progressive Party protest will also coincide with the 10th anniversary of China firing missiles at targets close to the island, just weeks ahead of the islands first-ever direct presidential elections. One of Chinas aims at the time was to warn voters against backing President Lee Teng-hui, because Beijing saw him as a secret independence supporter. Lee won the election with a large majority. Taiwans military said on Tuesday that China now has 784 missiles pointed at the island, and that the number is increasing by 75 to 100 a year.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:49 ||
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MIR ALI, Pakistan - Militants ambushed the vehicles of the top officials in a Pakistani tribal zone where fierce battles raged at the weekend, killing a guard and injuring two others, officials said on Wednesday. The administrator of volatile North Waziristan district, Zaheer Islam, and his deputy Fida Mohammad Khan escaped unhurt in the attack late Tuesday in Norak village near the town of Mir Ali, a security official told AFP.
Insurgents launched rockets and fired bullets at their vehicles as the officials were heading to the northwestern city of Peshawar to attend a meeting with tribal elders at the governors residence, he said. One of the security guards was killed and two others were injured in the attack, he said.
The region has been gripped by violent clashes between pro-Taliban militants and security forces since the weekend, in which about 140 rebels and five soldiers died. Authorities have imposed a curfew on Miranshah, the main town in the region, and troops are searching for two pro-Taliban clerics accused of instigating the fighting, the worst in the tribal belt near the Afghan border since 2001. Thousands of residents have fled Miranshah for the relative safety of Mir Ali.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:45 ||
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#5
Well, there is no "headstone", but just left and below the yellow flowers there is what looks like one of those small ground level markers. Plus, comments on other blogs say this doesn't look like the same area of cemetary where Cindy posed for pictures on her son'e grave. Course, we don't know that one wasn't staged either.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006 12:03
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#6
Doesn't the government supply markers of Vermont granite to those killed in action? I know some of my relatives from earlier wars have received replacement stones from the government.
#7
It's possible that there's no marker because they're afraid someone will deface it. They might be right. Cindy has pissed off a lot of people, and all it takes is one idiot -- and not necessarily one who disagrees with her -- to make a very sad spectacle.
#8
"Benefit
VA provides headstones and markers for the graves of veterans anywhere in the world and for eligible dependents of veterans buried in national, state veteran or federal cemeteries. Flat bronze, flat granite, flat marble and upright marble types are available to mark the grave of a veteran or dependent in the style consistent with existing monuments at the place of burial. Niche markers also are available to mark columbaria used for the inurnment of cremated remains.
Headstones and markers are inscribed with the name of the deceased, the years of birth and death, and branch of service. Optional items that also may be inscribed at VA expense are: military grade, rank or rate; war service (such as "World War II"); months and days of birth and death; an emblem reflecting one's beliefs; valor awards received; and the Purple Heart. Additional items may be inscribed at private expense.
When burial is in a national cemetery, military post or state veterans cemetery, the headstone or marker is ordered through the cemetery, which will place it on the grave. Information regarding style, inscription, shipping and placement can be obtained from the cemetery.
When burial occurs in a cemetery other than a national cemetery or a state veterans cemetery, the headstone or marker must be applied for from VA. It is shipped at government expense to the consignee designated on the application. VA, however, does not pay the cost of placing the headstone or marker on the grave."
Posted since today is the international wimmen's day, and I'm gallant or something (and very dignified too)... Text at link, this being a family blog, or so I'm told.
This is so UNFAIR! Compare to this...! I feel so cheated! Yeah, if I could, I would sue!
#4
Someone pointed out that March 14th is "anti-Valentine's Day", officially known as "Steak and blowjob Day". Unofficially known as "Hit your husband on the head with a heavy object after having read what the day is officially called Day".
#7
"...his office at the Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute of Los Angeles, where in addition to the G-Shot, he performs a variety of "designer vagina" services."
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Shin Beit rounds up a Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades gang on the point of a mortar blitz on southern Jerusalem. The Fatah gang was 12 strong; it had deployed in Bethlehem 8 mortars, 0.3 mm machine guns and a stock of shells and ammo. DEBKAfiles counter-terror sources report that Israeli security forces stepped in to foil the attack in the nick of time; the hardware was already in position for a coordinated shelling and shooting bombardments of the Gilo and Har Homa districts of the capital which abut on Bethlehem.
On Feb. 22, Shin Beit director Yuval Diskin briefed the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee on the inquiry he launched after a single mortar was found poised to shell Jerusalem from neighboring Beit Jalla. The probe uncovered a large network armed with a variety of heavy weaponry including high trajectory arms. Eight of the mortars turned out to be home-made improvisations. The discovery that Fatah was manufacturing mortar-type weapons on the West Bank was alarming.
The attacks commander was the al Aqsa Brigades Bethlehem chief Jabar Fuaz Eid Akhras. The plan was for the Beit Jalla mortar to shell Gilo first, then fire off the other seven from Bethlehem, when Israeli security and rescue forces has gathered at the scene. Har Homa was to have been the primary target of a massive blitz.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:31 ||
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#1
Now they get fed on my tax shekel for 20 years.
#2
Directions: Place all 12 flex-cuffed lads, 8 mortars, 0.3 mm machine guns and a stock of shells and ammo in a CONEX container. Strap the entire box tightly. Find the Rachel Correy memorial D-9 Cat. Dig a big hole and stick the box in it, cover it over, and lose the grid.
#3
I'm sure some people like that 0.3mm machine gun because it has a high rate of fire, but I'd bet it doesn't do much damage. Now a 30mm machine gun, on the other hand, would be something to worry about.
Thats the "secret weapon" that was going to be used in place of the suicide bomb campaign and the rockets, that would get past the Israeli wall. I recall some promises of new weapons some weeks ago, I guess this is it.
Rome, 8 March. (AKI) - Internet forums close to the al-Qaeda network have claimed responsibility for guerilla operations against foreign oil companies in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. In an apparent link between international jihadi groups and the ongoing unrest in the oil-rich African nation, the websites have published photos of nine employees of the US petrol company Willbros, kidnapped on 18 February. Their captors are guerillas fighting to force foreign oil companies to abandon the area and ensure the income from the industry is detinated to the local Ijaw ethnic group.
"Photos of the Lions of Nigeria after having taken prisoner some Americans" runs the headline, with the following text: "Allah supports you oh Lions of Nigeria! These are the photos of the mujahadeen in Nigeria after the seizure of nine hostages from the US oil companies who rob the wealth of Muslim Nigeria and of the world. Subsequently six of them were freed and they are Muslims while the American pigs remain in their hands."
The message refers to the liberation on 1 March of six of the hostages. The first to be freed was an elderly American, Macon Hawkins, who suffers from diabetes and was freed on his 69th birthday. After that two Egyptians, two Thais and a Philippino worker were also released. Two American citizens and one Briton are still being held.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:29 ||
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#1
Rather than sit back like a giant audiance and watch this well organized covert attempt to push Nigeria back into the dark ages, just this once, can we overreact and attack and annihilate the Nigerian muzzies ? Just this once, can we reverse the trend toward a decline in muzzies ? Just this once, can we push the muzzie/Christian line ever northward until it is beyond the limits of Nigeria ?
There is no other way to reverse this growing trend. We must take action now. Not wait till the muzzie is at the gate.
#2
The Lions of Nigeria are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lions of Islam, I think.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/08/2006 10:44
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"The Ijaw are the indigenous ethnic group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The group has a distinctive language. Group members are either Christian or animist. While the Ijaw do no face any significant cultural discrimination, they do experience high levels of economic and political exclusion (ECDIS01-03 = 4; POLDIS01-03 = 4). "
Theyre not even muslim. This is just muslim internet stupidity, taking credit for what they have nothing to do with.
#4
It is true that the Niger Delta is a mostly Christian area, but a few months ago I read an article about a Christian convert to Islam, who was leading a Delta rebellion. It is impossible to conceive of Christians rebelling in the totalitarian North.
Iran has enough uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which, if enriched, would allow it to manufacture ten atomic bombs, the US permanent representative to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday. Gregory Schulte adressed a meeting in Vienna of the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warning that "Iran is pursuing in a very determined way its [uranium] enrichment programme." Schulte added in his speech that it was time the UN Security Council intervened in the international crisis over Iran's nuclear plan, unless Tehran started cooperating with the IAEA.
"Iran has informed the Agency that it means to install the first 3,000 P-1 centrifuges [needed for erichment] in Natanz next autumn," said Schulte. According to the US official, the Islamic Republic "has a stock of 85 tons of UF6 which, if enriched, can produce enough material for approximately 10 nuclear weapons."
The time has come for the Security Council to take action, Schulte also said, and Iran must be warned of the "consequences" of its behaviour if it doesn't respect its obligations on the nuclear issue. The ongoing IAEA meeting is expected to pave the way to Security Council action against Iran. Sources say the Security Council could discuss Iran as early as next week. The council has the power to impose sanctions, although it is not clear that all key members would agree to do so.
"The United States believe the involvement of the Security Council should strengthen the role and investigations of the Agency," Schulte said. The official added that "Iran's actions will obviously influence the way in which the issue is discussed by the Security Council."
Meanwhile Iran's top negotiator in Vienna, Javad Vaodi, said on Wednesday that his country at the moment did not mean to use oil as a weapon in negotiations but would consider doing so in the future if forced by the West. The IAEA wants Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Western powers believe Iran wants to develop nuclear arms, a claim denied by Tehran which says it wants to develop its nuclear sector only to produce energy for civilian purposes. Three years of negotiations between Iran and the EU have brought no significant result, and Iran resumed enrichment in January after a two-year moratorium.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006
08:25 ||
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#1
Things are warming up. I expect that gas will either be liberated or entombed sometime in the next couple of months.
#2
I'm no expert, but it seems to be that the current weak link in Iran's scheme is 1) the location of the yellowcake and 2) the centrifuges to purify the yellowcake. If something really unfortunate happened to those, they'd be set back for a few years at least. We don't need a MOAB or cruise missiles to do that, some sort of major work accident is all that's required. Just need to scale up the 'red-wire/green-wire' scenario to the appropriate size.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/08/2006 10:58
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I'm hoping someone here has a link to the mention I saw of how Iran's UF6 supply has proven to be tainted by impurities resulting from poor refining and gasification processes. Considering that Iran has limited experience in operating the high speed centrifuges as well, this could point to a substantial bottleneck in their ability to enrich the supplies of UF6 that they have.
Regardless, this is just one more button on the coat of why intervention breaking things over there is so important. Whatever time there once was has been squandered by the IAEA and Europe's insistence upon utilizing diplomacy where it is simply was not called for.
Negotiating with Iran brings to mind the old Mark Twain quote:
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig.
#4
The time has come for the Security Council to take action...
Why am I reminded of this poem?
'The time has come,' the UNWalrus said,
'To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings.'
#5
Apparently the IAEA today officially referred Iran to the UNSC. (Id be very curious as to the vote at the IAEA)
The next step is for the UNSC to ask nicely for the Iranians to stop enrichment. When they dont, the next step is to order them. The next step after that is to vote sanctions. IIUC Bolton is hoping to get the first resolution passed within a week.
#6
On occasion, I monitor Iran's official "Islamic Republic" news agency for content of Teheran University's Friday Prayers. As far as I know, the "Death to ____" list includes: America; Israel; Denmark; France; Germany; England. Except for Denmark and Germany (which are NATO allies), the other States are nuclear powers. Someone has a problem with fact absorption.
No, not quite. I believe that the first step would be a UNSC resolution condemning Israel for, oh, any number of things.
Posted by: kelly ||
03/08/2006 17:30
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Apparently the IAEA today officially referred Iran to the UNSC.
Did they actually refer the issue to the UNSC or did they merely vote to report their findings and the current state of affairs? Big difference (not in reality but in diplo-speak) as the former formally dumps the entire problem on the UNSC who is then obligated to formally wring their hands about it while the latter allows the UNSC to merely listen intently and nod with no formal hand-wringing required.
That's terrible news, I'm very light-skinned, I don't tan, I sizzle... Next sunspot cycle may disrupt power, communications
Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer An 11-year epoch of increasingly severe solar storms that could fry power grids, disrupt cell-phone calls, knock satellites back to Earth, endanger astronauts in space, and force commercial airliners to change their routes to protect their radio communications and to avoid deadly solar radiation could begin as soon as this fall, scientists announced Monday.
"We're all gonna die!"
When the solar cycle reaches its peak in 2012, it will hurl at Earth mammoth solar storms with intense radiation and clouds of high-speed subatomic particles millions of miles across, the scientists said.
Ohmigawd! Not subatomic particles millions of miles across!
A storm of that magnitude could short-circuit a world increasingly dependent on giant utilities and satellite communications networks. Such a storm in 1989 caused power grids to collapse, causing a five-hour blackout in Quebec.
It's gonna be worse than when all the electronix in the entire world shut down because of the Y2K bug!
Monday's forecast was announced by scientists from agencies including NASA and the National Science Foundation, based on research centered at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. There is disagreement on exactly when the new cycle will begin -- one key researcher predicted the cycle will start in late 2007 or early 2008, and another said it could begin either late this year or in early 2007. But they did agree that the most severe storms won't begin popping on the solar surface for several years, but when they do, they'll be huge.
"HUGE, I tell yez!"
The solar storms in the past have knocked out huge power grids and screwed up global electronics and data communications, but "the next sunspot cycle will be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last one," the scientists said in Monday's statement. Reaching that 50 percent threshold would make it the most intense solar cycle since the late 1950s and the second worst since the early 1700s, Peter Gilman, one of the researchers, said in a phone interview.
By the time the storm blew itself out in the early 1700s there were no working electronix in the entire world!
Astronomers will monitor the sun daily in the coming months to see how it's doing. Early warning signs will be the formation of large groups of sunspots, which are clusters of solar magnetic fields that are cooler than the rest of the sun.
"As soon as they start to form, we're gonna... ummm..."
"I look (at telescopic images of the sun) almost every day, thinking, 'It could be today,' " said David Hathaway, solar physics team leader at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. He compared it to "waiting for the first sparrow of spring."
"Only a sparrow that's millions of miles across and radioactive!"
Solar storms can happen at any time during an 11-year solar cycle. However, by far the worst storms are likeliest to occur during the period known as "solar maximum," or solar max for short. The last solar max was in 2001.
And you know what happened then!
The scientists are confident of their forecast for 2012 because they've successfully used a new computer model to "forecast" the past.
It takes a Super-Cray to add 11 to 2001?
That is, they used records of old solar cycles to figure out how the sun should have behaved during eight past cycles, as far back as the early 20th century. They "forecast" the sun's past behavior -- "hindcasting," they call it -- "with more than 98 percent accuracy" the scientists said.
My hindcasts approach 100 percent accuracy, too.
"I'm really excited about this (discovery)," said NASA's Hathaway. "It's based on sound physical principles, and it finally answers the 150-year-old question: What causes the sunspot cycle?"
"Hmmm... Professor Sperk? Could you have a look at this?"
"What? What?... Hmmm... By Gad, Ferguson! You've discovered the Secret of the Sunspot Cycle!"
The cycle's victims could include space satellites. The coming storms could heat the upper levels of Earth's atmosphere, causing it to expand and exert drag on low-flying satellites -- perhaps enough drag to tug some of them back to Earth.
"The satellites are falling! Run! Run!"
Solar storms have been blamed for the U.S. Skylab space station's premature fall back to Earth in 1979.
And remember how devastating that was!
Air travelers could be affected, too. Since the end of the Cold War, to avoid headwinds, airlines have increasingly flown subpolar routes to get between the United States and other Northern Hemisphere continents quickly and cheaply. But during solar storms, they must avoid the poles and fly more southerly routes.
"Fogarty! What are you doing? You're flying directly toward the North Pole! We'll all be killed!"
They do so partly in order to avoid having their radio communications disrupted over dangerous polar terrain and partly to avoid exposing passengers -- especially pregnant women -- to the increased radiation, said solar-storm expert Joseph Kunches, chief of the forecast and analysis branch of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo.
"Captain? Is something wrong? All the pregnant women on board are growing gill slits!"
"It's... ummm... just temporary, Brandy! Tell them not to worry!"
The northern and northeastern portions of North America are historically more vulnerable to system outages caused by solar storms than California and most of the Western states, said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator.
Greater New Yawk is toast! They're all goners! Philadelphia? Gone! Baltimore? Gone! Washington? Gone!
That's possibly because among other things, he said, there's a higher iron and mineral content in the North and Northeast that conducts the ground current more easily and allows for more of an impact during solar storms. E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com.
#3
If Bush had garnered more multiplanetary support for solar friendly policies instead of unilaterally pursuing the anti-solar agenda of his fossil fuel friends at Halliburton we wouldn't be in this mess.
#6
2012...
That's the end of the 13th "Long Count" on the Mayan Calendar. The doom-heads have declared December 21st of that year to be The End of The World (cuz the Mayan's said so).
On the other hand, maybe the Mayan's understood sunspots in some way?
The Sun is a variable star. Its output is not constant and there are multiple phase cycles of which the 11 year cycle is just one. Kick in the probability that as we revolve around this arm of the Milky Way galaxy, the interstellar dust/debris we plow into most likely also effects/filters what originates from the Sun and finally reaches here to varying degrees as well.
The Gorians always skip over this fundamental fact when they're out there preaching manmade Global Warming[tm]. A couple degrees of variance in the Sun's output reaching the earth will have far greater impact than anything man could ever do.
#10
The northern and northeastern portions of North America are historically more vulnerable to system outages caused by solar storms than California and most of the Western states, said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator.
Good gawd...this is more dire than I thought. All blue states will be wiped off the map and the reign of Chimpy McBushitler will begin! Good thing we'll all die with global warming, I guess.
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 11:28
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"As soon as they start to form, we're gonna... ummm..." "I look (at telescopic images of the sun) almost every day, thinking, 'It could be today,' " said David Hathaway, solar physics team leader at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. He compared it to "waiting for the first sparrow of spring."
#17
Egads. Glowing ion storms from the Sun. Great gobs of methane gas being glurked up from the seafloor. Muzzies running around frantically, screaming about their friggin' Profit...
#19
IOW, the Sun's gonna get hotter and hotter, the sky and world brighter and brighter - thats what happens when humans try to both control God or proclaim on the MSM that God is fake or doesn't exist. GOD CALLS MANKIND'S BLUFF AS TO WHOM MADE WHOM IN WHOSE IMAGE, AND WHOM HOLDS THE POWER IN THIS OR ANY UNIVERSE OR DIMENS OF REALITY. Try to kill Madonna's, etal babes Daddy by poison so that this heart clogs/closes - next thing you know the Universe and Earth's Solar System got sunspots and solar flares. Godzilla's = Nostradamus' "hideous beast seen near Orgon" big toe took out the bow of the USS SAN FRANCISCO submarine while Gizzy was sleeping near Guam.
"Representative" euro muslim orgs are part and parcel of the effort to subvert european societies. They're part of the problem, and yet the pols continue to blindly think they can "deal" with their growing muslim minorities by outsourcing them to theses "holy men" and bowing to PC.
On the other hand, in the USA you've got Cair, so you're being owned too, that's some kind of consolation, in a perverse way.
#2
Today, the group had only its second meeting, and this descended into disagreement and acrimony. The source of this contention was a document which was presented to the group by member Souad Sbai, president of the Confederation of Italy's Moroccans.
The document stated that the Consulta Islamica should condemn terrorism, religious fundamentalism and should be in favour of religious freedoms in the Islamic world.
Whoa Nelly! Sound a little too reasonable to me. Let's see what their Islamic counterparts say.
Only 9 members were prepared to sign the document, while 7 refused. Mohammed Nour Dachan (pictured), president of the Community of Islamic Organisations in Italy, or UCOII, which is the largest Muslim group in Italy, refused to sign, saying that "the role of the Consulta should be to advise the minister on specific problems and not to approve documents of this kind." The UCOII represents about 800,000 Muslims in Italy.
That's more like it. Of course, condemning terrorism should never be on any significant Islamic agenda. Why, that would require adopting a reasonable stance and abandoning the Islamist wet-dream of suicide-by-nuke global sharia.
Another refusenik was Amadia Rachid, an imam from Salerno, southern Italy.
Deport his @ss along with the others who refused. Maybe even their entire congregations. After all, the imam speaks for them, no?
Nour Dachan prefers the Consulta Islamica to deal with issues like mosque construction, according to a memorandum he submitted. He also said the group should not just deal with problems concerning Muslim immigrants.
[snip]
The Consulta Islamica today proposed that Arab language courses should take place in Italian state schools.
Creeping domination, I thought I smelled something.
The fact that almost half of these Muslim representatives refused to sign a document condemning terrorism only shows that it is pointless for governments to give any credence to these groups.
I don't see France or Spain proclaiming how their respective nations' religions should be immune to satire or lampooning. Creeping domination is a hallmark of the Islam's subversive nature. So long as they subscribe to such a policy, any intrusion of their culture into compulsory education, mass media and public dialogue needs to be met with a strong sense of skepticism until Islam shows some sort of genuine determination to actually coexist with other religions.
Right now, were are confronted with a political ideology masquerading as a religion and demanding exclusive preferential treatment at every turn while excluding all other religions from wherever they predominate. If that doesn't set off your suspicion meter, you're probably brain dead. Then again, I suppose anything's possible for someone who actually believes that there can be productive negotiations with Iran vis halting their nuclear weapons program.
Long FrontPageMag symposium about the "sexual jihad", hat tip Ed in a comment yesterday.
Chokefull of freudian stuff I find a bit heavy (though myself have many "issues", ahem!), but very interesting nonetheless, and one participant acknowledges the purely racist aspect of theses often collective rapes of infidel women by muslims.
This is not a petty matter, according to what I've read many moons ago by a correctional officer writing in a forum, about 85% of meals served in Paris area prisons, in the sectors reserved for convicted rapists, are muslim meals; even if this is not exact, an official survey about "tournantes" (horrid "youths"/msm novlang to name gangrapes) found that 75% of perps are from african/north african background (and thus muslim, in their vast majority), while a similar study in Holland found a figure of 2/3rd... and there is a rape epidemic in northern Europe too, Fjordman wrote about it, not to mention the australian cases or the UK "grooming".
Note ethnicity of the perps vary a lot from country to country (arabs, kurds, somalis, pakistanis,...), but the cultural-religious background stays the same
Most of the victims are often very young (teens or pre-teens), either western women, motive being there purely racist and sexist (western women are "sluts", western men are "unmanly" and unable to satisfy them, so the über muslim men step in), or "overly westernized" muslim women (sexual predation thus used as a normative enforcement tool).
#1
The bit in there about the families of the rapists not understanding why their little Mohammed has been arrested was particularly chilling.
Moderates? No, not really. Just quiet.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 8:02
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#2
While some UN organizations keep on complaining about this, the Western feminists keep silent because they are not interested in the general problem but rather concentrate on clutching to their few elitarian privileges, mainly in business.
I wish this was said louder, and more often. NOW and company are a disgrace to women everywhere.
#4
The best solution for chronic rape is to teach women self-defense. It's a percentages thing. If a significant number of women resist at all, the "degree of difficulty" for the rapist jumps considerably.
Even though only a tiny percentage of the women who resist can do so effectively, the very act of resisting at all is what makes the difference.
An analogy is a door lock. It will not keep out a burglar for a long time, but it will delay him and make his job harder. It is just easier to look for an unlocked door. If the burglar has to look too much to find an unlocked door, they leave the neighborhood to look for a less guarded neighborhood.
But rape defense is even better. Because those women who can defend themselves effectively are like the one, random door, that is wired with anti-burglar explosives.
That one woman out of two dozen that could stick a knife in the rapist severely cuts down on the number of rapists. It just becomes too damn dangerous to rape.
#5
Didn't bother to read the story, did you, 'moose?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 11:05
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#6
This exchange was interesting and had some good points, but it seems to me to overcomplicate the problem. It's overintellectualized. This quote seemed to capture the essence:
"These Muslim rapists are...completely emasculated. They cannot control themselves sexually and they are sexually confused as well. Power, aggression, rage and sex yield a near lethal mix arising out of bizarre family dynamics which they experienced growing up."
They want what they want and will take it violently (just like other desires in the Muslim world are so often taken by violence).
They are sexually frustrated and humiliated about it.
They consider women sexual bedpans.
That about covers it.
The part about parents kissing their baby boys' genitals after circumcision about made me toss up breakfast. What a disgusting (incestuous) tradition.
#7
Jules, there is also a real desire to "destroy" the victim.
Samira Bellil, a westernized muslim girl who was a repeated victim of "tournantes" (recreative gangrapes), and who died of cancer last year IIRC (with muslim forum making such nice comments on her death, see the sc at link, if you speak french...), wrote a book about her ordeal, and spoke freely about the mysoginist islamic culture the "youths" live in (I think she was an apostate, she had very harsh words for islam in a tv debate I saw), and its focus on woman-denying.
She told of the use of objects, or even the participations of *dogs*, to further humiliate the girl raped.
Also, there is a feature commonly found in such rapes, and not often discussed openly, but the victims are frequently urinated upon afterward.
Can't get any clearer, can it?
#8
What you say is true, 5089. Sexual repression and humiliation, doctrinal license for Islamic men to assault women (and girls) because they are women, and the equation of women with dirt, resulting in defecation and urination on victims, or other forms of dehumanizing and defiling them...these are all part and parcel of destroying women in Islam-body, spirit and soul. I was merely pointing out that pages and pages to describe what's happening isn't really necessary.
And I do speak French and downloaded the article. Thanks-it will give me a chance to brush up on my skills and gain more insight into this sick condition called "equal rights for women under Islam".
#9
Jules, I'm not worthy, but thanks anyway, this soothes my fragile ego.
As for the ebook, it's from an interesting site on anti-white racism; judging from forums flame wars between people who actually knew its author, where actual racists and white supremacists fend off with plain "islamophobes" (that would be my type) or "angry white males", I'm pretty sure the man behind that site is NOT a racist.
anyway, he's honest enough to sign with his real name and assume the consequences (he's been actually arrested for that).
The ebook is ca. 4 years old, a bit dated perhaps, I'd say, and is not the work of a professional writer, but a compilation and synthesis of past articles, I hope you won't be too disappointed.
#11
Robert Crawford: A female friend of mine was bicycling when she observed a rape in progress. The perp had his pants around his knees and was beating the woman with a piece of pipe about the face in an alley.
My female friend got off her bike, broke both of the perp's kneecaps, shattered his jaw, broke his neck and crushed his left hand and wrist.
She was a Kenpo black belt. A thin woman of average height.
#13
My female friend got off her bike, broke both of the perp's kneecaps, shattered his jaw, broke his neck and crushed his left hand and wrist.
My kinda gal. Bet the perp didn't brag about that one. Needs to happen more often. This situation goes well beyond rape as sexual victimization or aggression. It turns sex into a weapon of spiritual death. It is difficult to imagine that any woman who has been gang raped ever regains a healthy attitude about sex. To use what is a truly sacramental act between two individuals who are deeply in love as a method of destroying enjoyment of same goes beyond criminal.
Castration with a dull, rusty butter knife barely begins to address the issue. Think wide aperture crosscut paper shredder with a extremely slow feed mechanism.
In the late spring of 1942, the world learned the name Lidice. Czech resistance had assassinated deputy SS chief Reinhard Heydrich in Prague, and Adolf Hitler ordered Heydrich's successor to "wade through blood" to find the killers. Nearly 2,000 innocent civilians were murdered by the Nazis without turning up the culprits. So the decision was made to obliterate an entire village, so that the world would know the price of Nazi blood.
On the evening of June 10, German troops sealed off the Czech mining village of Lidice, chosen because two of its native sons were serving in Britain's Royal Air Force. They gunned down Lidice's 173 men in groups of 10, shipped the women to the Ravensbruck concentration camp and deported some of the remaining children to Germany.
Next the Germans had the village razed, its graves dug up and its rubble buried. Finally, they proudly broadcast the details of what they had done. The world got the message. "If future generations ask us what we are fighting for," said U.S. Navy Secretary Frank Knox, "we shall tell them the story of Lidice."
Fast forward 40 years and to another village, this one called Dujail, in Iraq. In July 1982, Saddam Hussein was nearly killed there when gunmen opened fire on his motorcade. The dictator's reprisal came swiftly: That night, security forces arrested 350 villagers, including 15-year-old Ahmad Hassan Mohammad. . . . Of Mr. Mohammad's 10 brothers, seven were murdered by Saddam's henchmen, along with 141 others from Dujail.
As with Lidice, Dujail was razed and its orchards bulldozed. Also like Lidice, the purpose of the massacre was not to dispense justice but to make an example of the villagers. "You people of Dujail, we have disciplined Iraq through you," Mr. Mohammad recalled one of the torturers saying.
Now come to the present. Last week, Saddam acknowledged in court that he had ordered the summary trial that led to the execution of the villagers and the destruction of their farmland. "Where is the crime?" he asked, claiming that as president of Iraq all his actions were lawful. Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg trial famously adopted a similar defense. . . .
. . . We tend to forget that, for all of Iraq's current troubles, the U.S. and its allies deposed a dictator whose methods and purposes were eerily similar to those of the Nazis, even when it came to a comparatively small massacre such as the one in Dujail. That's something in which Americans can take justifiable pride, as much as the World War II generation did in defeating the Nazis. And it's something to which critics of the war, at least those who profess sincere concern with human rights, ought to give some thought. . . .
The John Murthas and John Kerrys and Cindy Sheehansand Pat Buchanans need to be repeatedly reminded of this--whatever your intentions in opposing the war, you are as a matter of objective fact approving and enabling (in the pop psychology sense of being Saddam's "enabler") the massacare of Dujail.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/08/2006
06:23 ||
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On the Hitler/Saddam parralel : normally I hate the reductio ad hitlerum, but in this case I'll make an exception, since the baas party's actual translated name was "pan-arabic national-socialist party".
The baas is a *nazi* party, not in the msm sense ("you oppose gay marriage, you're a nazi"), but in the actual, national-socialist, Hitler-inspired sense... and yet, you had all thoses euro pols, whose legitimation is their guilt-inducing sacralization of their "opposition" to nazism ("it's either us, or the nzai wolf will come back and bring us to the darkest hours of our history"), who not only supported and had ties with Saddam, but sometimes were his personal friends (like Shiraq)... and now, they complain about the removal of the only "secular", "western-friendly" leader in the ME, and long for the goold old days... what a bunch of phonies abnd hypocrits!
The links between national-arabism, or national-islamism, as you would call it, and historical nazism are many, and still manifest not only in ideological stances, but also in "details", like the *nazi salute* still used by the hezbollah, the baas, and the hamas.
On an unrelated note, I'd really recommand this site about nazism, since the (false) idea that fascism and nazism were RIGHTwing was the greatest achievement of post-WWII communist propaganda, and still explains a lot the incredible shift to the left of the ueuropean political landscape. Hitler was a leftist.
A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.
The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.
Harold Ickes, an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the man behind the Democrats' venture.
Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front. "The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march," said Ickes, whose political technology venture is being backed by financier George Soros. "It's unclear what the DNC is doing. Is it going to be kept up to date?" Ickes asked, adding that out-of-date voter information is "worse than having no database at all."
Ickes's effort is drawing particular notice among Washington operatives who know about it because of speculation that he is acting to build a campaign resource for a possible 2008 presidential run by Hillary Clinton. She has long been concerned, advisers say, that Democrats and liberals lack the political infrastructure of Republicans and their conservative allies. Ickes said his new venture, Data Warehouse, will at first seek to sell its targeting information to politically active unions and liberal interest groups, rather than campaigns.
As it stands now, the DNC and Data Warehouse, created by Ickes and Democratic operative Laura Quinn, will separately try to build vast and detailed voter lists -- each effort requiring sophisticated expertise and costing well over $10 million.
"From an institutional standpoint, this is one of the most important things the DNC can and should do. Building this voter file is part of our job," Communications Director Karen Finney said. "We believe this is something we have to do at the DNC. Our job is to build the infrastructure of the party."
In the 2003-2004 election cycle, the DNC began building a national voter file, and it proved highly effective in raising money. Because of many technical problems, however, it was not useful to state and local organizations trying to get out the vote. The pressure on Democrats to begin more aggressive "data mining" in the hunt for votes began after the 2002 midterm elections and intensified after the 2004 presidential contest, when the GOP harnessed data technology to powerful effect.
In 2002, for the first time in recent memory, Republicans ran better get-out-the-vote programs than Democrats. When well done, such drives typically raise a candidate's Election Day performance by two to four percentage points. Democrats have become increasingly fearful that the GOP is capitalizing on high-speed computers and the growing volume of data available from government files and consumer marketing firms -- as well as the party's own surveys -- to better target potential supporters.
The Republican database has allowed the party and its candidates to tailor messages to individual voters and households, using information about the kind of magazines they receive, whether they own guns, the churches they attend, their incomes, their charitable contributions and their voting histories.
This makes it possible to specifically address the issues of voters who, in the case of many GOP supporters, may oppose abortion, support gun rights or be angry about government use of eminent domain to take private property. A personalized pitch can be made during door-knocking, through direct mail and e-mail, and via phone banks.
This approach is designed to complement the broad-brush approach of television and radio advertising, which by its nature must be addressed to large, and often diverse, audiences.
Traditional get-out-the-vote efforts operated crudely, such as by canvassing neighborhoods in which at least 65 percent of residents voted for a particular party. It was often deemed too inefficient to focus on neighborhoods where the partisan tilt was less decisive, and it ran the risk of doing more to turn out the opposition's vote.
The advantage of data-based targeting is that political field operatives can home in on precisely the voters they wish to reach -- the antiabortion parishioners of a traditionally Democratic African American church congregation, for instance.
Consultants working for the Republican National Committee developed strategies to design messages targeting individual voters' "anger points" in the belief that grievance is one of the strongest motivations to get people to turn out on Election Day.
Under the direction of Bush adviser Karl Rove, the RNC and state parties repeatedly tested the voter file and different ways to contact voters to determine which were most effective at boosting turnout. "They were smart. They came into our neighborhoods. They came into Democratic areas with very specific targeted messages to take Democratic voters away from us," then-DNC Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe said after the 2004 contest. "They were much more sophisticated in their message delivery."
Ickes has quietly raised an estimated $7.5 million in start-up money for Data Warehouse. A prospectus said the company will need at least $11.5 million in initial capital.
In addition to Soros's support, Ickes has the financial backing of some of the wealthy participants in a new fundraising group called the Democracy Alliance. He and Quinn, who will be chief executive of Data Warehouse, have hired technology specialists from internet retailer Amazon.com and a Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer project.
Quinn had worked on the voter file program under McAuliffe, but Dean brought in his own people after he took over in early 2005.
These included former Dean presidential campaign workers who formed a company called Blue State Digital, now under contract with the DNC.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/08/2006
06:04 ||
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Ickes said his new venture, Data Warehouse
Err! You can't register descriptive or generic terms. So while you could register a company called Data Warehouse Inc. You can't refer to it as 'Data Warehouse'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/08/2006 7:33
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#5
Gee, will it improve the speed of polling?
Sure! They'll produce the voting records and ballots ahead of time.
The big question is, how long will it take for data they're not supposed to have -- like FBI background data, or tax returns -- to filter into the database?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 8:05
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#6
So this is being done by Harold Ickes, who has a name similar to David Icke, and we're supposed to be OK with this? How do we know it's not really all a lizard plot?
Posted by: Phil ||
03/08/2006 8:56
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#7
Typically, generically named companies are referred to by their initials.
#8
So, you see, this is a case of me being for data mining after being against it.
Posted by: Sen. sKerry ||
03/08/2006 11:20
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#9
Harold Ickes is the grandson of Labour boss Harold Ickes the Older. Ickes is by far the most competent of the Clinton usual gang of suspects. A stone cold Donk organizer raised in the family way.
LUCKNOW, India : Police in India shot dead a man suspected of links to triple bomb attacks that killed 23 people in Hinduism's holiest city and sparked a nationwide terror alert.
Counter-terrorism forces gunned down the suspect just hours after the blasts in Varanasi, which also left 68 people wounded and raised fears of a Hindu backlash.
"Probably he was involved in the Varanasi blasts," police superintendent Rajesh Pandey said after the authorities said they suspected "terrorists", a euphemism for Islamic extremists, were behind the carnage on Tuesday evening.
The suspect was found with 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of explosives after he was shot on the outskirts of the Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow, 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Varanasi.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the man, named by police as Salar, was a suspected member of the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
This is how the youngest bomber spent his last hour:
When three explosions shut down the subway system before Hasib Hussain reached his target on the Northern Line, the 18-year-old wandered in a seeming daze. He ate at a McDonald's. He went into a pharmacy. He repeatedly called his dead coconspirators' cellphones. Finally, he boarded a double-decker bus and blew it up as police sirens approached.
In the eight months since Hussain and three other suicide bombers killed 52 people on the transport system here July 7, police have reconstructed parts of the plot in minute detail. They have found that the multiple attack was cheap as well as simple. It cost less than $5,000, said Det. Supt. Peter Wickstead, the chief of an anti-terrorism finance investigation unit, at a recent conference here.
But anti-terrorism officials say the investigations of the bombings and failed follow-up attacks on July 21 have been slow and difficult. Not only are extremist networks murky and fragmented, but investigators also have run into resistance and radicalization on the street: In a recent poll of British Muslims, almost a quarter of respondents said they felt some sympathy with the motives of the subway bombers.
"The absence of hard data on 7/7 is striking," Shamit Saggar, a political science professor at the University of Sussex, said at the conference at the Royal United Services Institute think tank. "The only way we can explain that is as a significant circle of tacit support existing in that community."
Three of the four dead bombers were middle-class Britons of Pakistani origin from the northern region of Yorkshire. Investigators suspect that they got help and training from an Al Qaeda network in Pakistan that had targeted Britain before. In contrast, the imprisoned would-be bombers who on July 21 tried to blow up three trains and a bus were East African refugees and ex-convicts based in London.
Despite the timing and similarities, police have found no concrete links between the two groups, anti-terrorism officials said.
"July 7 and July 21 seem not to be related," said a British counter-terrorism official, who, like others interviewed, requested anonymity because the cases remained open. "The picture of July 21 is much fuzzier as far as travel, training and network links."
Nonetheless, a July 21 suspect did travel to Pakistan months before the attacks, British and Italian officials said. That increases the likelihood of a link because three July 7 plotters also traveled to Pakistan and are suspected of contact with a terrorism network there. Few details are available about the trip by the July 21 suspect, which was reported last week by the Sunday Times of London.
Because of laws limiting discussion of ongoing court cases, the security forces are reluctant to reveal what they know. But in recent interviews, officials did say investigators had accumulated considerable information about the dead bombers and living suspects and their activities in Britain. The problem has been determining the role of possible masterminds, trainers and other figures, officials said.
The same difficulty has beset cases such as the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, where questions persist about whether Al Qaeda figures outside Spain gave orders to several dozen suspects who are jailed or dead. Home-grown jihadis usually need some outside direction and expertise. In London as in Madrid, however, the possibility exists that there may not be much more to the attacks than meets the eye.
The assault on London's subways culminated a transformation in extremism in recent years: Operatives with British roots replaced foreigners, predominantly North Africans and Gulf Arabs, as the foremost threat here. Police were forced to "change completely our concept of operations," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke of Scotland Yard said in a speech at the two-day conference on politics and terrorism.
Clarke is Britain's top anti-terrorism investigator. During the frenzy ignited by the July attacks, he became the public face of the police response: a bespectacled, low-key detective exuding both determination and restraint. Last week, his assessment of the enduring threat was gloomy. He said the Al Qaeda terrorist network had a 50-year strategy in its war on the West.
"We have achieved a lot in terms of our understanding what we are dealing with," Clarke said. "I think that five to 10 years to get a grip on it is hopelessly optimistic. I don't think we are anywhere near it. It's an evolving threat. It's a changing threat. It's incredibly resilient."
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings in a video featuring its second in command, Ayman Zawahiri, who is thought to be hiding in the Pakistani-Afghan borderlands. Images of Zawahiri appeared in a previous video with the defiant "martyrdom message" of Mohamed Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old former primary school teacher who led the cell.
It has been "clearly established" that Khan got training in Pakistan, which he visited in 2004 and 2005, the counterterrorism official who requested anonymity said. Bombers Shahzad Tanweer and Hussain also visited Pakistan, their families' country of origin. They allegedly were recruited by a Pakistani network that had been involved in a foiled bomb attack in London by Pakistani Britons in 2004.
In fact, Khan became known to security forces during the 2004 case, identified only as Ibrahim, a figure on the edge of the foiled plot, a British security official said. Investigators decided he was not significant enough to keep under surveillance, officials said.
The self-contained nature of Islamic terrorism cells makes it possible that the bombers themselves, most likely Khan, chose the targets and prepared the homemade explosives in an apartment bomb factory.
But questions remain: Why did they leave behind hoards of explosives in a bathtub at the safe house and in the trunk of the car they left parked north of London? Were others, perhaps an expert bomb maker, involved?
"The degree of the training Khan received is questionable," the security official said. "They left a great deal of explosive mixture, and it was so volatile. We don't know whether they had the capacity to make that. Khan was certainly the recruiter: bright, articulate, a good talker."
Whether for technical direction or mere inspiration, the bombers were in contact with Pakistan and elsewhere by phone in the final months. Police must still untangle an Al Qaeda web one involved in previous plots against Britain based in Pakistan, not an easy country for Western agencies to decipher. Moreover, investigators are still examining a trip that Khan made to Israel, possibly a reconnaissance mission, shortly before two Pakistani Britons carried out a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2003.
In the July 21 subway attack in London, police have the great advantage that the five accused would-be bombers are alive and behind bars: the four whose backpack bombs failed to ignite fully and a Ghanaian who allegedly aborted his attempt. Seventeen suspects have been charged, mostly friends and relatives accused of sheltering the fugitives during a manhunt.
But nothing made public substantially alters the account in the confession of Hamdi Issac, an Ethiopian-born suspect captured in Rome and extradited to London. During his interrogation in Rome, Issac described an improvised, low-tech plot in which his group decided to pay tribute to the July 7 bombers and put together their plan and bombs in two weeks, Italian anti-terrorism officials said. Issac named an Eritrean-born exconvict, Muktar Said Ibrahim, as the recruiter and bomb maker, Italian officials said.
There are serious doubts about aspects of the story, particularly the claim that the backpacks contained a nonlethal mix intended to frighten, not kill. Although officials say they have not connected the two plots, that does not necessarily mean the cells weren't directed from afar by the same network.
The trip to Pakistan by one July 21 suspect, whose name has not been revealed, suggests that he could have received orders and instruction there. In the past, Al Qaeda has dispatched selected operatives to lead terrorist cells whose members knew little about contact with the network.
The case "is still very difficult," a former top security official said. "Was it really just emulation?"
A significant development was the arrest in December of Adel Yahya, 23, a North London man captured as he stepped off a plane from his native Ethiopia. Police charged him with conspiring with the five would-be bombers, suggesting a front-line role.
At first, it appeared that the accused bombers, four of whom came from Ethiopia, Somalia or Eritrea as youths, were products of a radical, multiethnic mosque scene in London that has little relation to Islamic networks in their war-torn homelands. Now investigators are reexamining their activities and potential ties to others.
In at least two incidents during the last year, suspected East African militants have been detected conducting reconnaissance of Western embassies in Malaysia, which is not their typical area of operation, the British counter-terrorism official who was interviewed said.
The details may remain secret until after the trial on the July 21 attacks, which could start by September.
As in Madrid, where police have named suspected leaders in court documents but not charged them, some experts believe the July 7 plot, in particular, involved skilled Al Qaeda operatives who traveled to Britain or called shots from abroad.
"I call them mystery men," said Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, which monitors terrorism. "They set up the cell, they facilitate, preparing bombs, they do everything. Then they disappear."
But British officials cautioned against the idea that they had their sights on a fugitive mastermind.
"It's dangerous to credit the plot with too much intellectual rigor," the British security official said. "The [subway] was a natural target, we knew that . And suicide bombers don't need a lot of training."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
03:11 ||
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#1
Investigators suspect that they got help and training from an Al Qaeda network in Pakistan that had targeted Britain before.
It's the 'P' word again... Clue by four for Mr Musharraf please...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/08/2006 3:59
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#2
Zawahiri said the 7/21 bombs were "unauthorized" and I believe him. There is no connection between the 7/7 bombings and 7/21. 7/21 was offered up as a distraction, just as the April 2 train track bomb in Spain was a distraction. Both incidents were staged; the bombs were incorrectly wired so there was minimal danger. I do not mean to argue that the 7/21 bombers were all sweetness and light, nor do I contend that the Leganes apartment boomers were benign. They were terrorist @$$#0le$ who should have been rounded up anyway -- but they were set up.
This is a somewhat disturbing line of thought, I know, but it is neccessary to truly understand the origin of the genuine 7/7 and 3/11 bombings, both claimd by the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades. I believe this information is closely related to another article Dan posted today, the article on telephone calls. Look for the Syrian Brothers. Remember Hama.
#3
It's not just the P word it's the religion too. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan it's actual name. Does anyone think you can shake hands with islam and not have to count your fingers afterwards? Better check the CIA world fact book for the really scary stuff about Pakistan, like their citizens average age.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/08/2006 4:34
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"The absence of hard data on 7/7 is striking," Shamit Saggar, a political science professor at the University of Sussex, said at the conference at the Royal United Services Institute think tank. "The only way we can explain that is as a significant circle of tacit support existing in that community."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 8:18
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Aint it the truth RC! Professional muslims I know always respond with the line that the bombings were tragic but predictable considering our foreign policy. I presume they won't object, therefore, when they are forcibly repatriated due to their community's attempts to intimidate us into changing that policy by bypassing the democratic process and blowing up tube trains. And if these are intelligent professionals, God knows what the pond-life in that community thinks...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/08/2006 8:43
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"The only way we can explain that is as a significant circle of tacit support existing in that community."
#8
and what proportion of the population follow baseball avidly?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/08/2006 8:55
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Re terrorism & Muslems. What fraction of the total USA population are professional baseball players?
And yet we have TV networks, magazines, newspapers, restaurants, and more dedicated to baseball, and enough fans to clog cities before and after games. Those few professionals earn huge salaries, and thousands more earn good livings in jobs supporting those few.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 9:08
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what proportion hate baseball, and what proportion dont really care much either way?
#11
And what proportion of Germans were SS while others were ordinary Nazis. What of the population that were "moderate" or anti-Nazi. I guarantee you it's higher than the muslim population who are anti-islamosupremists. Oh why oh why did those Cowboys and Poms bomb the shit out of Germany and tear up those fine autobahns with tanks? Maybe the ICC can rectify that miscarriage of justice.
Posted by: ed ||
03/08/2006 16:09
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"The only way we can explain that is as a significant circle of tacit support existing in that community."
And so it is that the "moderate Muslim" trundles off to join his other brethern, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus in enduring mythical status.
The military is placing small teams of Special Operations troops in a growing number of American embassies to gather intelligence on terrorists in unstable parts of the world and to prepare for potential missions to disrupt, capture or kill them.
Senior Pentagon officials and military officers say the effort is part of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's two-year drive to give the military a more active intelligence role in the campaign against terrorism. But it has drawn opposition from traditional intelligence agencies like the C.I.A., where some officials have viewed it as a provocative expansion into what has been their turf.
Officials said small groups of Special Operations personnel, sometimes just one or two at a time, have been sent to more than a dozen embassies in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. These are regions where terrorists are thought to be operating, planning attacks, raising money or seeking safe haven.
Their assignment is to gather information to assist in planning counterterrorism missions, and to help local militaries conduct counterterrorism missions of their own, officials said.
The new mission could become a major responsibility for the military's fast-growing Special Operations Command, which was authorized by President Bush in March 2004 to take the lead in military operations against terrorists. Its new task could give the command considerable clout in organizing the nation's overall intelligence efforts.
The Special Operations command reports to Mr. Rumsfeld, and falls outside the orbit controlled by John D. Negroponte, the newly established director of national intelligence, who oversees all the nation's intelligence agencies. An episode that took place early in the effort underscored the danger and sensitivity of the work, even for soldiers trained for secret combat missions.
In Paraguay a year and a half ago, members of one of the first of these "Military Liaison Elements" to be deployed were pulled out of the country after killing a robber armed with a pistol and a club who attacked them as they stepped out of a taxi, officials said. Though the shooting had nothing to do with their mission, the episode embarrassed senior embassy officials, who had not been told the team was operating in the country.
One official who was briefed on the events, but was not authorized to discuss them, said the soldiers were not operating out of the embassy, but out of a hotel.
Now, officials at the Special Operations Command say, no teams may arrive without the approval of the local ambassador, and the soldiers are based in embassies and are trained to avoid high-profile missteps.
Under guidelines established by Mr. Negroponte, the C.I.A. station chief assigned to most American embassies coordinates American intelligence in those countries.
Most embassies also include defense attachés, military personnel who work with foreign armed forces and report to the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. But the new special operations personnel have a more direct military role: to satisfy the military's new counterterrorism responsibilities, officials said.
Special Operations forces include the Army Green Berets and Rangers, the Navy Seals, the Marines and special Air Force crews that carry out the most specialized or secret military missions. Their skills range from quick strikes to long-range reconnaissance in hostile territory, military training and medical care.
The creation of the Military Liaison Elements, and the broader tug-of-war over the Special Operations Command's new role, appear to have exacerbated the disorganization, even distrust, that critics in Congress and the academic world have said permeates the government's counterterrorism efforts.
Officials involved in the debate say the situation may require President Bush and his senior national security and defense advisers to step in as referees, setting boundaries and clarifying the orders of the military and other intelligence agencies.
Many current and former C.I.A. officials view the plans by the Special Operations Command, or Socom, as overreaching.
"The Department of Defense is very eager to step up its involvement in counterterrorism activities, and it has set its sights on traditional C.I.A. operational responsibilities and authorities," said John O. Brennan, a 25-year C.I.A. officer who headed the National Counterterrorism Center before retiring last year. "Quite unfortunately, the C.I.A.'s important lead role in many of these areas is being steadily eroded, and the current militarization of many of the nation's intelligence functions and responsibilities will be viewed as a major mistake in the very near future."
Mr. Brennan, now president of the Analysis Corporation, an intelligence contractor in Virginia, said that if Socom operations were closely coordinated with host countries and American ambassadors, "U.S. interests could be very well served."
But, he added, "if the planned Socom presence in U.S. embassies abroad is an effort to pave the way for unilateral U.S. military operations or to enable defense elements to engage in covert action activities separate from the C.I.A., U.S. problems abroad will be certain to increase significantly."
Paul Gimigliano, a spokesman for the C.I.A., gave a measured response to the program, but emphasized the importance of the agency's station chief in each country.
"There is plenty of work to go around," he said, adding: "One key to success is that intelligence activities in a given country be coordinated, a process in which the chief of station plays a crucial role."
A State Department official said late Tuesday, "We don't have any issue with D.O.D. concerning this," using the initials for Department of Defense. The State Department official said the Military Liaison Element program was set up so that "authority is preserved" for the ambassador or the head of the embassy.
The Special Operations Command has not publicly disclosed the Military Liaison Element mission, and answered questions about the effort only after it was described by officials in other parts of the government who oppose the program.
"M.L.E.'s play a key role in enhancing military, interagency and host nation coordination and planning," said Kenneth S. McGraw, a spokesman for the Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, Fla. The special operations personnel work "with the U.S. ambassador and country team's knowledge to plan and coordinate activities," he added.
Officials involved with the program said its focus is on intelligence and planning and not on conducting combat missions. One official outside the military, who has been briefed on the work but is not authorized to discuss it publicly, said more than 20 teams have been deployed, and that plans call for the effort to be significantly expanded.
In a major shift of the military's center of gravity, the Unified Command Plan signed by President Bush in 2004 says the Special Operations Command now "leads, plans, synchronizes, and as directed, executes global operations against terrorist networks," in addition to its more traditional assignment to train, organize and equip Special Operations forces for missions under regional commanders.
Recently, Gen. Bryan D. Brown, the Socom commander, and his staff have produced a counterterrorism strategy that runs more than 600 pages. It is expected to be presented to Mr. Rumsfeld in the next few weeks for final approval.
According to civilian and military officials who have read or were briefed on the document, it sets forth specific targets, missions and deadlines for action, both immediate and long-term.
One goal of the document is to set the conditions for activity wherever the military may wish to act in the future, to make areas inhospitable to terrorists and to gather the kind of information that the Special Operations Command may need to operate.
The problem is difficult in nations where the American military is not based in large numbers, and in particular where the United States is not at war. Thus, the Military Liaison Elements may not be required in notable hot spots, like parts of the Middle East, where the American military is already deployed in large numbers.
During recent travels abroad, General Brown has sought to explain the program to C.I.A. and F.B.I. officials based at embassies. Joining him for those talks is a political adviser on full-time assignment from the State Department.
Socom also held a conference in Tampa last summer to brief Special Operations commanders from other nations, followed by a session in October for Washington-based personnel from foreign embassies on a range of counterterrorism issues.
One former Special Operations team member said the trick to making the program work is to navigate the bureaucratic rivalries within embassies and back at the command's headquarters. "All you have to do is make the ambassador, the station chief and Socom all think you are working just for them," he said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Lee H. Hamilton, who served as vice chairman of the national commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said that conflict between the C.I.A. and the Defense Department over paramilitary operations has occurred periodically for decades, and that the 9/11 commission had recommended that the Defense Department be given the lead responsibility for such activity.
But he said the embassy program raised a different issue. "If you have two or three D.O.D. guys wandering around a country, it could certainly cause some problems," Mr. Hamilton said. "It raises the question of just who is in charge of intelligence collection."
The cold war presented the military with targets that were easy to find but hard to kill, like a Soviet armored division. The counterterrorism mission presents targets that are hard to find but relatively easy to kill, like a Qaeda leader.
General Brown and the Special Operations Command now work according to a concept that has become the newest Pentagon catchphrase: "find, fix, finish and follow-up" shorthand for locating terrorist leaders, tracking them precisely, capturing or killing them, and then using the information gathered to plan another operation.
"The military is great at fixing enemies, and finishing them off, and exploiting any base of operations that we take," said one Special Operations commander on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. "But the 'find' part remains a primitive art. Socom can't kill or capture the bad guys unless the intel people can find them, and this is just not happening."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
02:51 ||
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I realize I'm being naive, but I just don't see the issue, other than interdepartmental sniping. As I understand it, the CIA is interested in big picture spy stuff: what's the overall military and political situation in this or that country, are they tilting toward us or away, how can the leadership be influenced. The State Dept. needs to speak to the government in the President's voice -- if at all possible charming the locals in the process, process visas and such for the locals, and help U.S. citizens as needed. SOCOM's efforts are narrowly targetted: find a certain type of bad guy -- one who is active in Islamo-fascist terrorism, and capture or kill him/her -- if at all possible without being noticed by the authorities. And given how even countries like Pakistan adamantly deny the presence of such terrorists on their soil, it isn't like they can complain if something should happen to them, so long as U.S. flagged helicopters aren't seen overhead.
It's a pity that Paraguayan criminal got himself killed by his poor choice of victims, but that's the downside risk of engaging in such activities with unknown subjects. He would have been better off sticking to robbing street walkers and drunks... or even getting a proper, salaried job. But I suspect the same would have happened to him had he foolishly attacked a great many of the Rantburg cadre, male or female, regardless how retired from the business some of them are. ;-)
#2
The issue is political. The CIA is a donk dominated agency. It's primary tactics are deception and betrayal. It leaks like a sieve. The DoD is a trunk dominated agency. Its primary tactics are to kill people and break things. It can keep a secret. Which would you use?
The politicization of these agencies, especially the CIA is a great mistake. DOD was not enamoured of Clinton but followed orders. The CIA has actively undermined Bush to the benefit of the nation's enemies. Things are getting fixed. Too bad, Langley.
#3
This is an overblown story. Fact is, there are special opns underway in virtually all of the locations cited.
My take is that it is the NY Slimes that is naive. It believes that their "blockbuster" story will do damage to Rummy and the DoD, their arch enemy.
When in reality, it simply means pulling a few SF people inside, probably at the behest of the countries involved.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/08/2006 8:04
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#4
I don't see what the big deal is. Every embassy has a miltary attache whose job is to gather military intelligence. Looks to me like these SpecOps boys are just more of the same. The CIA is just pissed because it's incompetence is showing.
#7
"Senior Pentagon officials and military officers say where some officials have viewed it Officials said are thought to be officials said could become could give senior embassy officials One official who was briefed on the events, but was not authorized to discuss them, said officials at the Special Operations Command say officials said appear to have critics in Congress and the academic world have said Officials involved in the debate say Many current and former C.I.A. officials view is very eager will be viewed in the very near future could be if the planned A State Department official said The State Department official said by officials in other parts of the government who oppose the program Officials involved with the program said One official outside the military, who has been briefed on the work but is not authorized to discuss it publicly, said It is expected to be According to civilian and military officials may wish to act in the future the kind of information may need may not be a political adviser on full-time assignment from the State Department personnel from foreign embassies One former Special Operations team member he said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly it could certainly cause said one Special Operations commander on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly "
#9
Next up from the NYT....the Pentagon has invasion plans on file for virtually every nation on the planet, even ones we consider friendly!
(Ya think they'll mention that they've done this since, oh, circa WW2? Nah, I didn't think they would either. But I'm sure it would be shocking, shocking, to all the right people in Manhattan.)
#10
I would be mad if they were'nt doing this. The only reason they would'nt would be so papers like the NT times won't report on it. Thank God they don't worry about that.
I'll have more respect for the NYT's and othe MSM outlet's quit printing anything about Osama and his cohorts, until they answer questions, you know, like Bush, Rice and Rumsfield do daily.
#12
Raiding the Icebox
Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 2005; Page C01
Invading Canada won't be like invading Iraq: When we invade Canada, nobody will be able to grumble that we didn't have a plan.
The United States government does have a plan to invade Canada. It's a 94-page document called "Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan -- Red," with the word SECRET stamped on the cover. It's a bold plan, a bodacious plan, a step-by-step plan to invade, seize and annex our neighbor to the north. It goes like this:
First, we send a joint Army-Navy overseas force to capture the port city of Halifax, cutting the Canadians off from their British allies.
Then we seize Canadian power plants near Niagara Falls, so they freeze in the dark.
Then the U.S. Army invades on three fronts -- marching from Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, charging out of North Dakota to grab the railroad center at Winnipeg, and storming out of the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy seizes the Great Lakes and blockades Canada's Atlantic and Pacific ports.
...
It sounds like a joke but it's not. War Plan Red is real. It was drawn up and approved by the War Department in 1930, then updated in 1934 and 1935. It was declassified in 1974 and the word "SECRET" crossed out with a heavy pencil. Now it sits in a little gray box in the National Archives in College Park, available to anybody, even Canadian spies. They can photocopy it for 15 cents a page.
War Plan Red was actually designed for a war with England. In the late 1920s, American military strategists developed plans for a war with Japan (code name Orange), Germany (Black), Mexico (Green) and England (Red). The Americans imagined a conflict between the United States (Blue) and England over international trade: "The war aim of RED in a war with BLUE is conceived to be the definite elimination of BLUE as an important economic and commercial rival."
In the event of war, the American planners figured that England would use Canada (Crimson) -- then a quasi-pseudo-semi-independent British dominion -- as a launching pad for "a direct invasion of BLUE territory." That invasion might come overland, with British and Canadian troops attacking Buffalo, Detroit and Albany. Or it might come by sea, with amphibious landings on various American beaches -- including Rehoboth and Ocean City, both of which were identified by the planners as "excellent" sites for a Brit beachhead.
#13
If these "teams" are the hunter / killer wetwork squads that are so dearly needed, I'm all for them. Blowing their cover did nobody any good except our enemies, but that seems to be a major preoccupation for the MSM of late.
If America's various estates cannot achieve some sort of concensus on just how critical it is to conduct a swift and decisive campaign against terrorism on foreign shores, it will arrive here in at least one or two extremely brutal events (e.g., biochem or nuclear attack).
Once that happens, martial law will be a likely result and those news outlets who have become so accustomed to abetting our enemies may suddenly find themselves answering charges of sedition or treason. One can only hope that the public's response will be to boycott these ink-stained traitors and put them out of business for good. Sadly, our public is so ill informed as to be incapable of doing this now, when it might benefit us better.
#15
We need a pic of Rummy sitting in front of the tube last night, beer in hand, watching "The Unit." Anyone think this was timed with that show last night?
On another front, if the NYT is to be believed, this answers my buddy's prayer after watching "The Unit" last night...."God, I hope we have men like them in real life."
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 12:14
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#16
Rumsfeld knows exactly what he's doing. He's been lied to, deceived, and excluded from worthwhile intelligence by the CIA. He knows he can trust the military to tell him the truth. I only wish the President had the cojones to shut down the CIA completely and rebuild it from the ground up. Maybe once Rumsfeld has the people he wants in place, Bush will do that. Frankly, there are a lot of people in the DC area that need a one-way ticket to the boondocks of Alaska, in their tropical attire, in January. Maybe even delivered from 20,000 feet. I personally know several dozen people there that I would have no qualms something like that happening to them. They need to be totally separated from the US government, and without a retirement check or benefits.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/08/2006 23:30
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#17
Sounds like the Jeopardy answer to "What do we do with Gitmo after the courts force the release of the jihadists?"
North Korea is set to deploy ballistic missiles that could reach Alaska and remains a global security threat despite its failing economy, the head of the U.S. military in South Korea told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
"Reports indicate North Korea is also preparing to field a new intermediate range ballistic missile which could easily reach United States facilities in Okinawa, Guam, and possibly Alaska," Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, told the
Senate Armed Services Committee.
In a prepared statement, the leader of more than 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea included the missiles among North Korean threats such as a huge conventional army, 100,000 special forces and 250 long-range artillery systems that have Seoul, the South's capital, within range.
Despite economic troubles that crimped its budget, "North Korea, through its 'Military First' policy, has continued significant investment in asymmetric capabilities that include nuclear weapons programs, special operations forces, missiles, and weapons of mass destruction," Bell said.
The unconventional weapons include chemical weapons and a biological weapons research program, the general told the committee.
North Korea is working on a three-stage version of its long-range Taepo Dong missile, which could be operational in the next decade and would enable the country "to directly target the continental United States," Bell said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's government remains committed to reunifying the Korean Peninsula under Kim's control, Bell said, but added, "the ultimate goal of the North Korean dictator is self-preservation."
Bell, who took over the South Korea command last month, told the hearing that U.S. ally Seoul was "eager to achieve a more constructive relationship with North Korea" through economic cooperation and other exchanges.
But he added, "We continue to encounter calculated North Korean efforts to divide an alliance that has been the foundation for peace and prosperity in the Northeast Asia region for over half a century."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
02:47 ||
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No mention of how a while back a dummy Nork warhead was allegedly found in Alaska, as reported in a South Korean newspaper. I'll also note that about at that time, US ABM efforts shifted into hyperdrive.
A woman and a 12-year-old boy died and two men were injured in four separate blasts in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya, local law-enforcement agencies said Tuesday.
The woman and the boy were killed and another woman hospitalized when an explosive device went off as they were gathering wild garlic in the Kurchaloi district, about 25 miles east of the republic's capital, Grozny.
An Interior Ministry officer was injured in a land-mine blast in the Shali district, about 12 miles southeast of Grozny, and a local resident received fragmentary wounds when an unidentified device exploded in the Nozhai-Yurt district, about 40 miles southeast of Grozny near the border with Daghestan.
Another two men were injured in a blast while gathering scrap metal in Grozny.
Investigations have been launched into the explosions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:32 ||
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The Sept. 11 hijackers made dozens of telephone calls to Saudi Arabia and Syria in the months before the attacks, according to a classified report from the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to the report, 206 international telephone calls were known to have been made by the leaders of the hijacking plot after they arrived in the United States - including 29 to Germany, 32 to Saudi Arabia and 66 to Syria.
The calls to Germany are not especially surprising because the plot's organizers, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, who moved to Florida to learn to fly passenger jets, had been university students in the northern German city of Hamburg when they were recruited by al-Qaida.
More than four years later, however, the hijackers' connections to Saudi Arabia and Syria are far from fully explained.
The German report contains no information about the timing or recipients of the calls, except that the majority of them were made from a cell phone registered to al-Shehhi, a native of the United Arab Emirates. It said the telephone records were obtained by German intelligence agencies from the FBI.
Within hours of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, German agencies learned that, during their student days, Atta and his co-conspirators had been in close touch with al-Qaida's principal representatives in Hamburg, Mamoun Darkazanli and Mohammed Zammar, both Syrian expatriates who became German citizens.
Spanish authorities later prosecuted several other expatriate Syrians in Madrid with links to Darkazanli and Zammar, most of them members of the Syrian wing of the radical Muslim Brotherhood. One, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was sentenced last year to 27 years in a Spanish prison for providing the hijackers logistical assistance.
The German report submitted last week notes that in the days after Sept. 11, Syria and its intelligence service offered their cooperation to the United States and West European nations, "comprehensively and without any reservation."
A senior U.S. diplomat serving in the American Embassy in Damascus on Sept. 11 recalled that, before the Syrian commitment began to wane, the Syrians provided the Americans intelligence that led to the breakup of a terrorist plot against the United States that was being assembled in Canada.
Later, when the CIA arranged for Mohammed Zammar to be arrested by Moroccan authorities during a visit to Casablanca, the Syrians agreed to take custody of Zammar and locked him in a Damascus prison, where he is believed to remain today.
The report's disclosure that senior officials in the government of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder traveled to Syria to participate in the questioning of Zammar is likely to raise further questions within the parliament over Germany's involvement in the CIA's forced relocation of terrorist suspects to countries like Syria, where many say they have been tortured.
The complicity of European governments in the practice the CIA terms "rendition" also has become a political live wire in several other European countries, with opposition parties demanding inquiries into whether their governments were aware that CIA aircraft used their airports and airspace to transport suspects to Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:30 ||
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"a classified report"
Great. This reminds me of the Cold War.
The Euro fascination on rendition demonstrates, rather pointedly, why they are well and truly fucked. They'll still be holding hearings 10 years from now. Under Shari'a.
Internal Deutschland & EU stuck on stupid parlor games.
******************
The real story is the obvious.
repeating the obvious: Saudis, Syrians and the Mad Mullahs use terrorism and terrorists proxies.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah, Al Quds, Fatah, Syrian-Palestinian Sai'qa, Al Q, etc.
An Example:
This Frontline Link puts a face on real people victimized by Syria and Saudi supported Al Q in Mesopotamia [Iraq].
[skim off any pbs romanticism as needed]
#5
Okay, so who in Syria and Saudi Arabia did they call? Obviously there is a precise answer to this question.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/08/2006 8:08
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#6
They are modern deniable PIRATES. Thugs with letters of marque!
Treat them and their sponsers as such.
I believe keelhauling, walking the plank, the yardarm and drawing and quartering were method that worked with the last bunch of pirates. For the nations supporting pirates other techniques worked quite well.
Yar, and some Captain Morgan Rum to celebrate the taking of the port? Oh and Captain it only takes three years out of view before we make you our vice governer of Jamacia.
With or without extracting the entrails through the anus and burning them in a heap in front of the still conscious criminal whilst reading the excommunication liturgy in preparation of goading the four horses to whom his various appendages are attached?
#10
In December 2001, US Defense released a captured video of bin Laden with Saudi Sheik al-Barak, who presented himself as an emissary and informed terrorist#1 of 2 fatwahs in support of Taliban/al-Qaeda that named Saudi clerics had issued. Shortly after, the Saudis announced that over "900" sheiks had taken "re-education." Subsequent rhetoric suggests they learned to direct their jihad-hate at Israel, in face of the fait accompli in Afghanistan. You can take the Wahabi out of jihad, but you can't take the jihad out of the Wahabi.
The House renewed the USA Patriot Act in a cliffhanger vote Tuesday night, extending a centerpiece of the war on terrorism at President Bush's urging after months of political combat over the balance between privacy rights and the pursuit of potential terrorists.
Bush, forced by filibuster to accept new curbs on law enforcement investigations, is expected to sign the legislation before 16 provisions of the 2001 law expire on Friday.
The vote was 280-138, just two more than needed under special rules that required a two-thirds majority. The close vote caught senior Republican aides in both chambers by surprise.
Nonetheless, the vote marked a political victory for Bush and will allow congressional Republicans facing midterm elections this year to continue touting a tough-on-terror stance. Bush's approval ratings have suffered in recent months after revelations that he had authorized secret, warrantless wiretapping of Americans.
That issue helped fuel a two-month Senate filibuster that forced the White House to accept some new restrictions on information gathered in terrorism probes.
Republicans on Tuesday declared the legislative war won, saying the renewal of the act's 16 provisions along with new curbs on government investigatory power will help law enforcement prevent terrorists from striking.
"Intense congressional and public scrutiny has not produced a single substantiated claim that the Patriot Act has been misused to violate Americans' civil liberties," said
House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "Opponents of the legislation have relied upon exaggeration and hyperbole to distort a demonstrated record of accomplishment and success."
"The president looks forward to signing the bill into law," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
But the debate over the balance between a strong war against terrorists and civil liberties protections is far from over.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the domestic wiretapping program. Additionally, Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chief author of the Patriot Act renewal, has introduced a new measure "to provide extra protections that better comport with my sensitivity of civil rights."
Despite its passage the Patriot Act still has staunch congressional opponents who protested it by voting 'no' even on the part of the bill that would add new civil rights protections. During the Senate's final debate last week, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said he was voting 'no' because the new protections for Americans were so modest they were almost meaningless.
Such objections echoed during the House debate Tuesday, where the measure was supported by 214 Republicans and 66 Democrats and opposed by 13 Republicans, 124 Democrats and one Independent.
"I rise in strong opposition to this legislation because it offers only a superficial reform that will have little if any impact on safeguarding our civil liberties," said Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.
For now, Bush will be signing a package on which members of both chambers of Congress and the president can agree.
The package renews 16 expiring provisions of the original Patriot Act, including one that allows federal officials to obtain "tangible items" like business records, including those from libraries and bookstores, for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.
Other provisions would clarify that foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers should share information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with counterparts in domestic law enforcement agencies.
Forced by Feingold's filibuster, Congress and the White House have agreed to new curbs on the Patriot Act's powers.
These restrictions would:
Give recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.
Eliminate a requirement that an individual provide the
FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by investigators.
Clarify that most libraries are not subject to demands in those letters for information about suspected terrorists.
The legislation also takes aim at the distribution and use of methamphetamine by limiting the supply of a key ingredient found in everyday cold and allergy medicines.
Yet another provision is designed to strengthen port security by imposing strict punishments on crew members who impede or mislead law enforcement officers trying to board their ships.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:28 ||
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Posted by: Mike ||
03/08/2006 6:20
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#3
Bet the moonbats are howling.
From D.U.:
"Does anybody really feel good about the decision of Democratic Senators that voted to renew it? My Senator Maria Cantwell just dug herself deeper by supporting it. Another reason why I am not supporting her. I am very disappointed but that disappointment has been numbed to the fact I am not surprised. Nothing surprises me about the many of the D.C. Democrats anymore. It makes me wonder if these people are going to vote for "Patriot Act II" which will solidify the death of our freedoms in this country. Don't people realize that the Democratic Party is only weakened when our lawmakers pull this crap? It is like watching a slow suicide."
"The people who voted to renew that insane piece of intrusive legislative garbage are not dems. They are republicans in dem clothing."
"90% of that bill is needed and WAS needed long before 9-11 and many solid Dems help craft the anti-terror legislation in the mid90s that was fought by the GOP and then BushInc. when it took office. That legislation was for REAL terror tracking including the tracking of their funds.
We can put a Dem in office in 2009 who will keep the 90% that is needed to fight real terrorism and dump the added onerous 10% of the bill that BushInc put in after 9-11."
"I don't understand how the Democrats in Washington expect to be the opposition party, while agreeing in the end with everything the Repugniks put out. There isn't one thing I can think of where we stood fast against the Repugniks, and did what was right. We have literally folded on every issue, and in November, we can expect that to seriously affect us in the election."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006 7:57
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#4
The senate phone number is
202 - 224 - 3121.
Please call to urge they pass the border control bill passed by the House in December. Also urge them to support the necessary security to fight the WOT on our borders, in our ports, and over the lines of communications.
Idiots like Specter and McCain have their own bullshit plans. IT'S NOT THE TIME FOR SUCH GRANDSTANDING ! There's a war going on. It's time for all Americans to stand together. When this is all over, we'll have a Bush bashing day for all the jerkoffs who need it.
#5
DRUDGERREPORT and other blogs report that Hillary has claimed Dubya is dev a "POLICE STATE" with the renewal of the Patriot Act. So a COMMIE-SOCIALIST is ranting against the very thihg she desires, as how can Hillary proclaim Gummermint will take things away from the Amer people without such a police/militarized, super- or hyper-regulatory State. ONLY RUSSIA CAN EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING RIGHT, BESIDES OF COURSE INVENTING EVERYTHING - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....
When police raided a London mosque three years ago in their pursuit of a radical Islamic preacher, they found forged passports, laminating equipment, and bundles of cash.
The haul, details of which were only recently made public, speaks volumes about a remarkable evolution in the funding of terrorism. What was once a global network financed by elusive donors and administered by Al Qaeda "fund-managers" has now fragmented into a constellation of franchises that sustain themselves primarily through crime.
This, experts say, is partly a result of the vigorous multinational effort since 9/11 to break up the Al Qaeda network and stanch the cash flows that sustained terror attacks. But it's also due to the reduced cost of mounting terror attacks, they say.
Estimates suggest that the 9/11 attacks may have cost as much as $500,000 to stage. By contrast, the Madrid bombings of 2004 are believed to have cost no more than $15,000, and last year's London attacks perhaps $2,000.Four bombs, four rucksacks, some train tickets, a little gasoline, and a few phone calls.
"Terrorist financing is very different today," says Loretta Napoleoni, author of "Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks." "Five years ago, we had large movement of funds which went through the international financial system.
"Now we are just talking about four friends who raise £1,000 to stage an attack," she adds. "The unit cost of terrorist financing has crashed to the floor. They [terrorists] don't need another 9/11. They can do a small thing and create the same hysteria."
But those who track terror financing haven't adjusted their strategies accordingly, says Gus Hosein, an antiterrorism expert at the London School of Economics: "What we are seeing is terror done on the cheap and yet all the regulations to monitor financial transactions and crack down on this are looking for larger sums."
The 9/11 attacks startled the world into action to combat terror finance. More than 130 countries have signed on to a UN convention requiring legislative action and financial supervision to spot the dirty money. Scores of charities and individuals have been blacklisted both by the UN and by individual jurisdictions.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of assets have been frozen. Many countries set up dedicated terrorist finance units to coordinate action, like the US Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Some passed laws to make financing terrorism a specific crime.
Many of the ideas emanated from a set of recommendations issued by the Paris-based think tank Financial Action Task Force [FATF], in October 2001.
Vincent Schmoll, a senior policy analyst at FATF who says the recommendations have taken on a certain "moral authority" with countries that might otherwise drag their heels, lists the main areas where progress has been made: freezing assets, notification of suspicious transactions by financial institutions, and growing efforts to tackle the informal money transfer system, known as hawala, which operates below the official financial system's radar.
But there have been problems with some initiatives. Banks desperate to avoid a black mark for letting suspect money through the net have zealously filed their "suspicious activity reports," resulting in an avalanche of paperwork for overwhelmed financial investigators. Some estimates put the number of filings in the US alone at 13 million a day.
Islamic charities, meanwhile, complain bitterly about being singled out for attention. One London-based charity that helps fund Palestinian social projects, Interpal, protests that it was blacklisted by America even though it had been cleared in Britain. "It means we cannot take any donations in US dollars, which is obviously a major obstacle to getting funds," complains one employee.
While charity forms an important pillar of the Islamic faith, intelligence chiefs have long suspected that alms sometimes end up financing terrorists.
Despite the flurry of activity, however, actual convictions for financing terrorism have been few and far between. Last September, a Spanish court sentenced Imad Yarkas to 27 years for helping fund the 9/11 attacks; two months earlier, Yemeni cleric Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad was sentenced to 75 years in the US for conspiring to provide financial support to Al Qaeda and Hamas.
The reason for the dearth of other convictions may be that the authoritieschoose to "follow the money," rather than haul in suspects, says Bill Tupman, a professor at Exeter University in Britain who has studied terrorism for decades.
While the 9/11 commission said that tracking Al Qaeda financing had proven "a very effective way to locate terrorist operatives and supporters and to disrupt terrorist plots," Professor Tupman explains that intelligence services face a difficult choice of whether to confiscate the money and bring a criminal case, or follow the cash and see where it ends up.
He adds that the lack of criminal convictions may also be due to the fact that terror funding is a complex jigsaw, and no one agency holds all the pieces. Banks may have one piece, counterterrorist units another, but others may be held by partners overseas, requiring better international cooperation. "There is plenty of information," says Tupman, "but then there was plenty of information at the time of 9/11 ... the problem is putting it all together."
If the problem is putting it all together, the solution, according to Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, lies in unified action. Among a series of measures outlined last month was a plan to bring national experts together in a unit that would work at "cracking" terror finance in the same way that wartime mathematicians collaborated in cracking the Nazi Enigma code.
But while international efforts focus on the big money that helped finance 9/11 and establish terror cells in Europe, Al Qaeda has moved on. Experts say terrorists are no longer waiting for Osama bin Laden's moneymen to dole out the cash. Instead they are, according to Professor Wilkinson, "accumulating funds themselves for attacks through petty crime, ID theft, fraud of many sorts, money laundering, and smuggling of money and commodities across porous borders."
Tupman says the metamorphosis mirrors that of groups such as Irish republicans and South American narcoterrorists.
"If you are going to survive, you have to create income streams," he says. "And if you stay in the legal world, it's confiscated, so you end up following the examples of people who run illicit businesses." The alliance between organized crime and terrorists is increasingly profitable, he says. But successful terror cells will always need to launder money to find somewhere safe to park it until it is needed, perhaps buying property for cash or investing in trusts that yield an income.
The trick for the authorities is to snare the dirty money at the point that it tries to enter the legitimate system. Those points should be the frontline in the war on terror, says a UN expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of continued involvement in the affair. "It's where you incorporate companies, it's with the bankers and fiduciary trusts and lawyers that help you mutate these things on a weekly basis, buying assets that are portable, that you can move easily, so you always get money wherever you go."
But for open societies that pride themselves on freewheeling financial centers, snaring the villains without hindering the operations of the innocent can be difficult. Are cities like London, whose easy-come-easy-go attitudes bring boundless international capital, going to sacrifice financial freedom to catch a few money launderers? Napoleoni thinks not.
"After all," she says, "you can open a bank account in Turkey and use a cashpoint anywhere in Europe to withdraw the funds. "How are you going to stop that?"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:26 ||
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"The trick for the authorities is to snare the dirty money at the point that it tries to enter the legitimate system."
True. The states that allow / sponsor terrorism are the easiest way for the terrs. Instant laundering. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, PakiWakiLand, Sudan, NorKiLand, et al.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday rejected demands by Democrats to investigate the controversial National Security Agency domestic spying programme but agreed to legislative proposals to provide more Congressional oversight.
Democrats immediately accused Republicans of capitulating to pressure from the White House, which has lobbied hard against an investigation.
"This committee is basically under control of the White House,'' said Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, after the Republican-led committee decided against an investigation. "It's an unprecedented bout of political pressure from the White House.''
Democrats on the committee had argued for the need to open an investigation into the secret programme, under which the NSA was granted authority to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans suspected of having links with al-Qaeda and affiliated terror groups.
Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the committee, defended the decision, saying an investigation could compromise US national security.
"We should fight the enemy, not fight each other,'' said Mr Roberts.
President George W. Bush has strongly defended the programme since the New York Times in December reported that in 2001 he authorised the NSA to start conducting warrantless eavesdropping of Americans.
The White House argues that Mr Bush has the authority to approve the programme.
But critics have accused him of breaking the law by bypassing the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), which allows eavesdropping after permission has been granted by the secret Fisa court.
Before the intelligence committee voted on Tuesday, Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican senator, said it was important to have "another set of eyes outside the administration" to maintain public support for the programme.
While rejecting calls for an investigation, Senate Republicans did agree to introduce legislation to provide oversight of the programme.
Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican senator, said he would introduce a bill that would require the wiretapping programme to be reviewed every 45 days. Under the proposed legislation, after that period, the administration would either have to seek a warrant from the Fisa court for individual cases, cease the eavesdropping, or explain to Congress why they did not want to ask Fisa for a warrant.
Mr De Wine also said the proposal would give the intelligence committee greater oversight over the programme, and would work by examining wiretappings on a "case by case" basis.
"Today does represent a very significant day from the standpoint that we are reasserting congressional responsibility and oversight with respect to this programme of unwarranted surveillances," said Olympia Snow, a Republican senator from Maine.
"It is no surprise that the Republican-controlled Senate intelligence committee has once again caved in to the wishes of the White House and refused even to open an investigation," said Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. "We cannot effectively legislate on the NSA spying issue if we do not know the facts, and we will not know them if the Republican-controlled intelligence committee persists in refusing to do its job."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:24 ||
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#2
I really wish some of the Dems would read the Constitution and pay attention to the Separation of Powers. NSA is an instrument through which the President (not congress) protects the Country. All Presidents have used this agency for pretty much the same process since it was established in 1947. All of a sudden in 2006 they (Democrats) feel a need to ride roughshod over the day-to-day operations of the military/NSA. Note: Most of NSAs spying is conducted by the Military. Harry Reid is Not the CINC so he can disagree all hw wants but Bush really has no legal mandate to notify Congress at all, keep them in the loop, or go before them and justify operations. Congress can defund those operations or pass laws restricting them, but the Dems dont want that they just want to be in the drivers seat. Note to Harry: When you become President you can play the game your way.
A detailed, lengthy discussion of facts and claims concerning extremism in Islam, allegedly written by Abu Yehia al-Libi, who escaped from the U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, the main prison for Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects in Afghanistan, in July 2005, with three other detainees, was recently distributed to jihadist forums. The document develops a treatise on extremism and its prohibition within Islam by Allah, with the title being branded upon those who deviate from popular and modern views, or even government policy. Providing an example of one whom people have called extremist, Abu Yehia references Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He states that since Zarqawi was in Afghanistan, he was calling the Saudi government infidel and operating in excess to oppose Islamic law; however, Abu Yehia avers: We bear witness to Allah that we know that the Mujahid Commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (may Allah preserve him) is innocent of what they say. Far from the extremism, irresponsibility, haste in takfir, no one like him needs such testimony Abu Musab is known among his brothers as being one of the people of correct guidance and truth, humble among his brothers and strong against his enemies.
Abu Yehia al-Libis argues the notion of extremism within religion, mounting his claims on Quranic verse, the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad and general discourse. Also, he cites the branding of push back jihad by the enemies of Islam as the only form of jihad, which in any other language may be considered legitimate resistance. He states that jihad is an eternal attachment to the Islamic religion and it cannot be stopped or rejected and will continue as long as there is polytheism on earth. Further, he argues that there can be no good that comes from using the extremist label, stating: Do the people looking for the truth know that there is a big difference between saying the truth and exaggeration, which makes everybody lose their temper and be involved in what Allah forbade?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:23 ||
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#1
I wonder how many years before Islamic society produces someone like, oh, Plato.
Each year thousands of tourists are drawn to the beauty of Iguacu Falls in an undeveloped area of South America where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet: the Tri-border region.
But CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that a large, influential Arab population flourishes in the area. Many of them are reaping huge profits in a variety of illegal activities. Members of the American military have charged that the region harbors radical Islamic terrorists, and that the area is a growing threat to U.S. security interests.
Millions of dollars flow through these streets every year and basically nothing is done to stop illegal trade. Paraguay's money-laundering laws are seldom enforced, and there's little interest in knowing where the money ends up.
"There is so much illegal activity from the counterfeiting of all kinds of goods to drugs to weapons to terrorist fund-raising to money laundering," says Walt Purdy of Washington's Terrorism Research Center, who has been tracking activity in the area for years.
So who's down there?
"Everybody from Hezbollah to people who are connected to al Qaeda," he says. "They've used it to raise money; they've used it for a safe haven."
According to U.S. and Israeli intelligence, Ciudad del Este served as the launch pad for the Hezbollah car-bombing attacks on the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992 and the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994. They say that over the last decade, the area increasingly has grown into a terrorist hiding place.
"The idea here is accessibility with no records. Anonymity at all costs," says Tom Cash, who oversaw Latin America for the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 1990s. Cash, now with Kroll Inc., adds that the area is a terrorist's paradise.
"It's not 'Catch Me If You Can'-type territory," he says, "because no one's even looking."
For example: Local authorities did arrest one Tri-border resident, Assad Amad Barakat, a suspected Lebanese terrorist financier. But they didn't nab him on charges that he contributed to terror organizations because in Paraguay, that's legal. Instead, he faced much lesser charges of tax evasion.
An examination of Barakat's bank records have led authorities to believe he wired as much as $50 million to terror groups. He even got a thank-you note: CBS News secured a copy of a handwritten letter from the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrullah, that personally thanked Barakat for his contributions.
Purdy feels it's time that something is done to cut off the money supply or else.
"If we don't take enough aggressive measures to cut off that funding," he says, "maybe the funding and the manufacturing of counterfeit goods in South America will one day finance an attack on us."
Counter-terrorism sources say Hamas, which is set to take over the Palestinian government, is sending delegations to the Tri-border area in an effort to raise money. The concern is that groups like this will work with other terror groups in the region. They've got the money ... and it's an area in which they can move freely.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:22 ||
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US and Philippine soldiers on an aerial reconnaissance mission were met with hostile fires on the island of Jolo, about 950 km south of Manila, a known stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, officials said.
Officials said one of the two Philippine military UH1H choppers was hit, but no serious damage to the aircraft or passenger casualties had been reported.
The two choppers, carrying undetermined number of US and Filipino troops, were conducting aerial reconnaissance flight late Tuesday afternoon, when the aircrafts came under fire over Buanza village on Jolo.
Officials said one chopper had bullet holes on its main rotor blade.
No groups claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the series of terrorism and kidnappings for ransom in the southern Philippines.
Aside from the Abu Sayyaf, renegade members of the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front are also active on the island and are known to attack Filipino security forces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:21 ||
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#1
The unit will probably requisition night Chopper operations, with infrared hot body hunters and toe tags. Guerrilla war ain't what it used to be.
A dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan over intelligence in the war on terror worsened yesterday, with Kabul saying it has provided "very strong and accurate" information on Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives, which Islamabad has dismissed as outdated.
The war of words reflects increasing bitterness between these two key U.S. allies as militant violence escalates on both sides and Islamabad proposed fencing or mining the rugged frontier.
A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, Karim Rahimi, said that Kabul will present Islamabad with further intelligence about the militants' suspected whereabouts inside Pakistan and that it was "hopeful that measures will be taken."
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said, "We will definitely investigate," but he reiterated Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's assertion that the intelligence has been "out of date."
During a visit to Islamabad last month, Mr. Karzai gave a list to Gen. Musharraf of Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives who he said were hiding in Pakistan.
Afghan and Pakistani officials said that the list included Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and top associates, and that Afghanistan also shared the locations of suspected terrorist training camps.
"Afghanistan provided very strong and accurate intelligence," Mr. Rahimi told reporters in response to Gen. Musharraf's assertion in an interview Sunday on CNN that the information was old.
Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of leaking the list to the press because Kabul did not trust Islamabad to act on it.
"I'll make a suggestion to our Afghan brothers: 'Don't talk to us through the media. It doesn't help,'" Mr. Kasuri said in Islamabad.
He said the two nations instead should use diplomatic and intelligence channels.
"When President Karzai was here, he said, 'Pakistan and Afghanistan are like twins,'" Mr. Kasuri said. "The twins should not kick each other."
One of the key disputes between the neighbors involves the flow of militants across the nations' 1,470-mile-long border.
Afghanistan has long demanded that Pakistan do more to crack down on militants based on its side. Islamabad repeatedly has said it's doing all it can, pointing to the 80,000 Pakistani troops in the region.
Mr. Kasuri reiterated a Pakistani proposal that the entire border be fenced or mined to stop the infiltration of militants into either country.
But Afghanistan says that it is not feasible to fence the frontier, which cuts its way through rugged mountains and across a desert, and that mining the area would split families that live on both sides of the unmarked border.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:16 ||
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#1
The ISI's ends are not served by such a reasonable solutions. A functional government in Afghanistan would put Pakistan's sham "demoracy" to shame. So it is not in Pakistan's interests for Afghanistan to be at peace or stable.
Tell those familes to decide which side of the border they are going ot live on and that is that. Put up the fence and instal the mines. (The same goes for the Mexican border here.)
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/08/2006 2:41
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#2
Text of report by Afghan state radio on 6 March
The military ruler of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, has voiced unjustified and baseless criticism of the president of Afghanistan [Hamed Karzai] with the intention of escaping international pressure and covering up his lack of cooperation in the war on terrorism.
This criticism of an elected president was made using the sort of language that even a taxi driver in Islambad would feel ashamed of using.
According to Bakhtar Information Agency, Gen Pervez Musharraf said in a recent CNN interview that the president of Afghanistan was oblivious to what is happening in his own country. Let us judge in view of the situation in Baluchistan, where the Pakistani army has failed to stop a civil conflict, to what extent Gen Musharraf is aware of what is going on in his own country.
Musharraf said that the information President Hamed Karzai gave last month regarding the whereabouts of Mullah Omar and his companions was three months old and contained nothing useful.
Who could be so naive as to believe that the devilish ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] network is unaware of the whereabouts of Usamah bin-Ladin and Mullah Omar, who may be enjoying ISI sanctuary somewhere.
Musharraf asserted that Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence and intelligence services are conspiring to denigrate Pakistan. He rejected claims that his country is not cooperating with Afghanistan in fighting Al-Qa'idah and the Taleban.
Pakistan's conspiracies against Afghanistan are deep-rooted. Pakistan formed seven political parties in a seditious manner to divide the nation during jihad against the former Soviet Union.
Pervez Musharraf also criticized Hamed Karzai for disclosing intelligence information to the media, and questioned why this information was not given to Pakistan in a timely fashion. He also asked if that is how a country's intelligence service should operate.
An apt question! Afghanistan had given credible information to Pakistan. It is the Pakistani army which usually plays childish tricks to steer attention away from the real issue of fighting terrorists to secondary issues.
Gen Musharraf's irresponsible comments come at a time when there is increasing international pressure on him to fight terrorists. At his meeting with Gen Musharraf, President Bush expressed his strong resolve to eliminate Al-Qa'idah and emphasized that Pakistan could play an effective role in this regard.
Pervez Musharraf's remarks were contradictory. He said that the information Afghanistan gave about Mullah Omar was three months old. In other words, he accepts that Mullah Omar was in Pakistan three months ago, but then he denies that Al-Qa'idah and the Taleban are operating from Pakistani territory.
He criticized Hamed Karzai for disclosing information to media. If he says there was nothing of substance in the information, why is he so concerned about this information being publicized and why does it make him say silly things?
Source: Radio Afghanistan, Kabul, in Pashto 1430 gmt 6 Mar 06
Posted by: john ||
03/08/2006 5:45
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Afghan paper sees Pakistan as "cancerous tumour" between India, Afghanistan
Excerpt from editorial titled "Pakistan's policies create obstacles to democracy in the region" published by Afghan state-run newspaper Anis on 5 March
President George Bush, who is on a visit to the region and whose visit is considered to be most valuable according to analysts and political experts, has arrived in Pakistan after holding talks with the Afghan and Indian leadership.
Pakistan is the place which is thought of as the symbol of evildoing and interference in Afghanistan and India. Many people are looking to President Bush to make Pakistan aware so that it stops disrupting security in the neighbouring countries. [passage omitted, historic facts]
As situation in the region changed, especially after 11 September, relations between the US and India improved day by day and US troops were deployed in Afghanistan to uproot terrorism in the country.
Pakistan found itself in a very dangerous position with the new situation and had no option but to join the antiterrorism campaign. But it still continued its conspiracies, hypocritical policies and evildoings.
President of the US, George Bush, who visited Afghanistan first and announced his full support and continued assistance to the country, said that he would ask Musharraf to prevent terrorists from crossing over to Afghanistan. He also officially admitted that Pakistan interferes in domestic affairs of Afghanistan and, indeed, described the denials of President Musharraf to be lies and hypocrisy. This is most crucial for Afghanistan .
The visit of the American president to India and the agreement on nuclear project with India indicate the close relation between the US and with India, which in itself overshadows Pakistan's position and its relations with the US.
Now that Bush is in Pakistan and holding talks with the Pakistani leadership, the Afghan and Indian nations look to President Bush to explain to Pakistan that it should not threaten the greatest democracy in the world and the newly established Afghanistan with the Taleban and Al- Qa'idah criminals.
Much pressure is put on Pakistan during this visit and it should stop the hypocritical policies and either support democracy or terrorism.
The US cannot tolerate this cancerous tumour between two of its friends, Afghanistan and India, with its hypocritical policies any more because it is the American troops who are killed by suicide attacks and explosions every day. The attackers are mobilized, funded and sent to Afghanistan by Pakistan.
It is the Afghan and American troops who are killed as a result of conspiracies planned by Pakistan. The US should warn this centre of violence that it should not drive its neighbourhood into instability. If Pakistan does not give up its policies and continues to support terrorism it will not only pose a threat to the democratic movement in the region but will also create insecurity in the Western world and they will never be prosperous.
Source: Anis, Kabul, in Dari 5 Mar 06
Posted by: john ||
03/08/2006 5:50
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#4
There's some serious bitch-slappin' goin' on in there, john, lol. And it couldn't happen to a more deservin' duplicitous asshole, either, though many make apologies for his limp-dicked half-assed picayune "assistance" after being lavished with honor and trust and arms and cash prizes. Why, when you take a good hard look and toss off the State Dept styled notion of accommodation and convenience, hell - he's not really running much of anything. Got the sash, got some schprockets, and plenty of gall - but not much else. I'm thinking he's not worthy to negotiate or associate with folks who actually keep their word and do the Right Thing.
"The US cannot tolerate this cancerous tumour between two of its friends, Afghanistan and India, with its hypocritical policies any more because it is the American troops who are killed by suicide attacks and explosions every day. The attackers are mobilized, funded and sent to Afghanistan by Pakistan."
Sounds kinda like ol' Pervy's been called a big ol' pus-filled renegade parasitic zit, to me.
#5
The US cannot tolerate this cancerous tumour between two of its friends, Afghanistan and India,
Radiation treatment, stat.
Posted by: House ||
03/08/2006 7:12
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Who could be so naive as to believe that the devilish ISI network is unaware of the whereabouts of Usamah bin-Ladin and Mullah Omar, who may be enjoying ISI sanctuary somewhere. Yep - and probly in downtown Karachi in an ISI penthouse suite. Begs the question if three months is out of date then do they have new intelligence? Is this being actioned? is this what the scrap in Waziristan is about??
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/08/2006 8:17
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#7
It appears that Afghanistan has embraced the curriculum of the John Bolton school of diplomacy. Taiwan too. Double their aid.
Anybody up for taking Fred's photo and putting some ribbons and sprockets on the slapee?
#8
Afghanistan says Pakistan dishonest for calling terror data outdated
The Perv Challenge
PBS proudly presents President Pervez Musharraf hiking along the 400 km Peshawer to Quetta trail.
Armed only with Beeb, al Rut, and PBS Video units you get to investigate the friendly collection of foreign and native jehadis as you hike along with Perv from the rocky mountain passes of Tora Bora to the gamey goat herds of Spin Boldak.
#9
It would take between six and ten divisions and about two months to crush the Pakistani armed forces. It would take another two years of napalming the he$$ out of "Pustunistan" - the area along the Pak-Afghan border - to clear out that cesspool. We could supply perhaps two of those divisions, ask the Aussies for a third, and let India supply another six. Start with a heavy raid on Pakistan's nuke weapons storage areas, the government, airfields and madrasses. After that, it's just killing the swarming ants.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/08/2006 23:02
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Lawmakers from both parties say the United Arab Emirates has helped shuttle weapons components around the Middle East, has ties to al Qaeda and shouldn't be trusted to operate terminals in U.S. ports.
The legislators, disputing the Bush administration's contention that the United Arab Emirates has been a loyal ally in the war on terror, are citing findings by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control and the September 11 commission report among their evidence.
According to the Wisconsin Project, an anti-proliferation group, United Arab Emirates officials in 2003 allowed 66 switches used in nuclear weapons to be sent to a Pakistani man. In the mid-1990s, they also allowed representatives of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, to ship technology through Dubai to Iran.
It also says the Iraq Survey Group, which oversaw United Nations sanctions against Iraq, in 2004 listed 20 UAE firms suspected of having acted as intermediaries or front companies for Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and said the United Arab Emirates was a transit area for prohibited goods, such as rocket fuel ingredients, with companies using deceptive trade practices.
"I don't think those are the folks you want running your ports," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, California Republican, said yesterday.
Mr. Hunter said he gave the Wisconsin Project information to top administration officials last week, who were unaware of the details and have begun reviewing them. He said he discussed the issue with President Bush yesterday, and gave White House aides more documentation.
Mr. Hunter also introduced legislation yesterday that would block the $6.8 billion DP World bid to purchase terminal operations in six major U.S. ports and kick out all foreign companies that own port terminals or other U.S. infrastructure.
The initial Bush administration approval of the Dubai-owned company's bid for the operations now privately owned by London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. prompted national security concerns on Capitol Hill. It's now under a 45-day executive review.
Mr. Bush, who along with top security officials and Cabinet members did not find out about the deal until its approval by an interagency panel, has final say over the proposal he continues to support.
"A terrorist will try to exploit every possible means to carry out their evil plans. The fact remains, however, that the United Arab Emirates has been a strong and valuable partner in the global war on terror," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Meanwhile, lawmakers such as Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican, and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat, have pointed to a 1999 incident, detailed in the September 11 commission report, in which the U.S. military refrained from striking an Afghan terrorist camp where Osama bin Laden was located because they didn't want to kill a top official from the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Weldon said the U.S. warned the United Arab Emirates of the coming attack and a week later the camp was gone, which he said means emirate officials "tipped off" the terrorists.
Mr. Dorgan also noted that two of the September 11 hijackers were United Arab Emirates citizens and that the United Arab Emirates functioned as a "crossroads" through which the notorious Dr. Khan moved nuclear material and knowledge to other countries.
"I don't wish to offend the United Arab Emirates, but neither should we be offending common sense," Mr. Dorgan said last week before he too introduced a bill to block the DP World deal.
Both Mr. Weldon and Mr. Dorgan also point to a June 2002 memo from al Qaeda to top officials in the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai. The memo demands the United Arab Emirates stop cooperating with the United States, and states that al Qaeda has "infiltrated" United Arab Emirates' security, monetary and other vital systems, and can easily shut the country down.
Neither Mr. Weldon nor Mr. Dorgan knows whether the memo is credible or not, but Mr. Weldon said when he questioned Bush administration officials during a hearing last week, most didn't know about it.
"To me that's troubling," he said.
Mr. Weldon said he doesn't think the 1999 incident or the al Qaeda memo were given adequate weight by the administration in approving the deal.
"To me, they're both substantive issues that should have been thoroughly reviewed," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:13 ||
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... two of the September 11 hijackers were United Arab Emirates citizens and that the United Arab Emirates functioned as a "crossroads" through which the notorious Dr. Khan moved nuclear material and knowledge to other countries.
Three days of fighting may have killed more than 100 pro-Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in a remote tribal region of Pakistan, the army said, and authorities imposed a curfew in the region's main town.
Thousands of townspeople have fled clashes between the militants and government troops in the North Waziristan region, and journalists have been barred from the administrative capital of Miram Shah, which is under curfew and where most of the fighting took place.
Security forces were mopping up Monday after artillery and helicopter gunships targeted militant redoubts in the town. Local clerics were trying to mediate a cease-fire.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said that based on intelligence reports and questioning of injured and arrested militants, more than 100 guerrillas might have died. He added that security forces had yet to regain control of all compounds in Miram Shah, so he couldn't give an exact toll.
The trigger of the unrest was a Pakistani army air and ground strike against a suspected Al Qaeda camp in the border village of Saidgi last week that authorities said left 45 people dead, including foreign militants.
Local pro-Taliban tribesmen said that civilians were killed in the assault, and according to officials, ambushed security forces' vehicles Saturday and opened fire on a base in Miram Shah. The army responded with artillery and fire from helicopter gunships.
About 10,000 people fled the violence. Many ended up in Mir Ali, 15 miles from Miram Shah.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:12 ||
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#1
These wouldn't happen to be the same holy men who got the locals all excited to begin with?
Pakistan's government says its security forces now control the main town in the tribal region of North Waziristan after days of fierce fighting that left an estimated 100 Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants dead. Islamabad says Miran Shah -- less than 10 kilometers from the Afghan border -- has been placed under an indefinite curfew as Pakistani troops search for militants who may still be hiding. The area is closed to journalists. But correspondents from RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan have been talking to refugees who say the militants still control strategic positions in the mountains near the border with Pakistan.
Pakistani military spokesman Shaukat Sultan says government forces have recaptured the main town in the tribal region of North Waziristan from Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
"From the incident at Miran Shah, the terrorists have fled," he said.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters seized the town -- which is less than 10 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan -- during a fierce battle against Pakistani government forces that began last week.
Residents describe it as the bloodiest fighting in Pakistan's tribal regions in more than two years. The battle marks an escalation in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's campaign against Al-Qaeda fighters, Taliban militants, and their sympathizers.
The battle also highlights Islamabad's failure to establish government control in a mountainous tribal region thought to be a possible hiding place of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Residents of Miran Shah and the nearby village of Mir Ali told correspondents from RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan today that Taliban fighters still control strategic mountain positions nearby.
Sporadic fighting was reported overnight and early today in the mountains that lie between Miran Shah and the Afghan border -- with government forces calling in air strikes by fighter jets and helicopter gunships.
Journalists have been banned from entering Miran Shah and a government curfew was in place today. But a Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent has been interviewing refugees as they cross the border into the Afghan province of Khost.
"[Refugees say] the fighting between the two sides intensified after the Mulawi Abdul Khaliq -- the head of a very large madrasah [in North Waziristan] -- called a meeting of religious scholars in the area and they asked the residents of Miran Shah and Mir Ali to resist the government forces," the correspondent reported. "They used loudspeakers to broadcast this message to people."
A resident of Miran Shah named Abdullah told our correspondent that he fled his home early on March 6 and only managed to cross the Afghan border this morning.
"The situation in Miran Shah [was] extremely bad [when I left]," he said. "The fighting has been going on [for days] and people could not walk around. Fighter jets were flying overhead and dropping bombs. The bazaar of Miran Shah was captured by the Taliban. All routes in and out of the town were closed. People are being killed by air strikes if they leave. And from the ground, the Taliban also does not let people go outside."
Another resident of Miran Shah named Gul arrived at the Afghan border early today. He told RFE/RL that the Taliban had removed defensive fortifications and military equipment from government buildings before leaving the town themselves.
"Further up in the high mountains [between Miran Shah and the Afghan border], the government forces cannot advance," he said. "And the Taliban is in full control. They do not let the villagers come out of their houses -- and if they leave their homes they will be killed. There is no one to collect the bodies or transport the injured to the hospitals. The situation was like this late [Monday] night."
Other refugees who have crossed into Afghanistan say hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting. They also say supplies of water and electricity to Miran Shah have been cut off along with communications, sanitation services, public transportation, and health facilities.
On the Pakistan side of the border, Radio Free Afghanistan's correspondent in Peshawar reports that thousands of villagers from North Waziristan have been trying to flee to other parts of Pakistan. Those who have managed to get out of the battle zone tell RFE/RL they feel lucky to be alive.
Sikandar Qayyum, Pakistan's additional secretary for the federally administered tribal areas, says he can confirm that at least 146 people have been killed since the fighting began.
Officials in Islamabad say they think about 100 of the dead are Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters. Complete information about casualties among government troops is not available. But military officials claim as few as five government soldiers have been killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:10 ||
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The war on terrorism is fought in Yemen in the press and courtrooms as well as in the mountains and deserts. Yemens president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is a veteran political survivor, but a tug-of-war with the U.S. over a leading opposition figure accused of supporting terrorism is threatening the president's delicate web of political alliances.
Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, a veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, was named by the U.S. Treasury Department as a "specially designated global terrorist" in February 2004. The sheikh is accused of obtaining arms and funds for al-Qaeda and acting as a spiritual advisor to Osama bin Laden. He has since been added to the UN Security Council's list of terrorism suspects.
The 56 year-old Islamist is a powerful man in Yemen and enjoys a wide power base. He is the head of the Shura Council of the Islah Party and president of al-Iman University in Sanaa, maintaining a strong presence in both the political and intellectual life of the country. A resolution of the UN Security Council has called for the seizure of the sheikh's assets and a ban on travel to foreign countries. Neither measure has yet been implemented in Yemen; in fact, al-Zindani accompanied Saleh to Mecca for a summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference last year, a mission noted in a recent letter from President Bush to President Saleh (published by a defense department website, 26September.com, March 4).
The letter expressed President Bush's "disappointment" in Salehs handling of the al-Zindani case and expressed doubt in Yemens "commitment to the war on terrorism." According to 26September, the message was followed by a telephone call to President Saleh from a U.S. anti-terrorism official who demanded al-Zindani's arrest. Yemen is asking for more definitive proof of the sheikhs guilt.
Al-Zindani has lately targeted three of Yemen's journalists for offending the Prophet Muhammad by publishing the Danish cartoons. The sheikh is raising money to try the journalists, but has run into an unexpected wall of solidarity from Yemen's journalist community. An embarrassing development was the revelation that copies of the cartoons had been made and distributed at the sheikh's own al-Iman University (NewsYemen, March 3).
There may be deeper reasons for al-Zindani's antagonism toward local media. The sheikh blames his problems with the U.S. on malicious portrayals in the Yemen press, invented for "political reasons." He describes U.S. allegations of ties to terrorism as similar to the charges of Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction in that they lack proof or evidence (NewsYemen, March 3).
Al-Zindani is eager to avoid extradition to the U.S. and, to the surprise of many, has even publicly praised the efforts of his political rival, President Saleh, to remove his name from the U.S. list of terrorism supporters. The sheikh may already be a target of an unknown party, as an investigation has been opened into two recent incidents of alleged interference with al-Zindani's car. In the first, a tire exploded while he was driving, and in the second a tire flew off his vehicle (Yemen Times, March 4).
One member of the Islah Partys Shura Council, Muhammad 'Ali Hasan al-Muayad, is already in U.S. detention after his extradition from Germany in November 2003. Demands for the arrest or extradition of al-Zindani could threaten the fragile balance that keeps President Saleh in power. While Saleh's methods frequently puzzle and exasperate the State Department, he is still regarded as an important ally of the U.S. in the war on terrorism. President Saleh has expressed his reluctance to extradite any citizen of Yemen: "We are not the police of any other country. We are independent and have sovereignty" (Yemen Observer, March 1). It remains now to be seen if the U.S. will press the issue.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
01:07 ||
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13 Heads Roll - none literally - not counting Laser Guided Munition Hit and Gratuitous Mercedescide... figure a Driver, Henchman, and Evil Arms Dealer there, so mebbe 16 Deaders Total.
All Bad Guys Die. All Good Guys Live.
No Breasts.
Gratuitous Interagency Turf Queenery.
Gratuitous Hollyweird Drama Queenery.
Gratuitous Power Abusery, Roguery and Back-Stabbery.
Really Cute Kid Mongery Almost Saves Non-Action Scenery.
Got the Fibbies right, heh. Always wanted one of those spiffy blue windblazers with the BIG yellow lettering, though. Betcha I could crash concerts 'n stuff with one. Stun baton would assist where needed.
Requesting comments on this or any other Hollyweirdery on troops, the military, WoT, Fibbery, whatevery.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
I tried engaging your sorry halfwit ass once. You didn't have the decency to respond to a considered post directed to you - though you were still around afterwards, spouting more of your pointless brain farts. And this time you're an off-topic asshole troll. Fuck off.
#6
Apologies to those who didn't see it... It was a TV show that premiered last night. An article on it ran here last Wednesday... details there explain, I think.
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#8
I thought there was some good stuff in there. I was surprised it got past the CBS censors, what with so many Arabs getting whacked, dialog about MP5's, flaunting of posse comitatus, threatening "fibbies". All very non-PC, anti-legalistic, anti-bureaucratic. Just having Arabs as terrorists is kind of a breakthrough for Hollyweird isn't it?
Posted by: Edgar ||
03/08/2006 7:42
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#10
No Breasts.
Deal breaker. Even "Sleeper Cell" has had breasteses.
OK, it's on a pay cable channel, but...
Watching "Sleeper Cell" is like reading the last few years of Rantburg through a funhouse mirror. One episode was built around a Yemeni imam who worked to teach jihadis the error of their ways, beginning his instruction with them by saying "what is the greatest jihad?" The terrs were so freaked by the guy they killed him up-close-and-personal in the local mosque -- and put their whole plot at risk because of it. The episode ended with another Yemeni imam walking into a prison cell and repeating the "what is the greatest jihad?" question. Message: terrorism really, really is a perversion of Islam, pinky swear, and there are people working against it out there, really.
The week I saw that episode, we learned that the head of the real-world program that inspired their character was in charge of the mosque from which a tunnel was dug into the prison that was holding the jihadis.
The latest episode had the (LA-based) jihadis testing phosgene on a dozen dogs, like the AQ associates in Iraq did.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/08/2006 8:00
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#11
It was a fun and refreshingly non-PC romp. Got some technical details wrong...but those can be easily overlooked because the specwar guys are obviously the good guys. When was the last time you saw something come out of Hollywood where an American character, good guy, caps a jihadi as he screams Allahu Akbar in primetime? Happened last night on CBS. Oh yeah... no anguish over it afterwards.
#12
an American character, good guy, caps a jihadi as he screams Allahu Akbar in primetime. Oh yeah... no anguish over it afterwards.
The mookies should be watching the American living room. If shows like this and 24 draw big audience, the pols will figure out that there is a substantial population prepared to prosecute a much more muscular war on "terrorism".
#13
I saw it and liked it. The bad guy hijackers were obvious middle-eastern types. The good guys whacked 'em. A nice little tale of good and evil right out of the daily news. Refreshingly non-PC for broadcast tv. The murdered passenger falling to the pavement reminded me of the Navy Seal, Robert Stethem, the Paleos killed during one of their hijackings. The *bleep*ers.
Yeah, it could have used some boobage, but what can't? The gratuitous gratuitousness has already been noted by .com. I give it a thumbs up, so far.
#14
A little over the top in some areas, and funny as hell in others to people who "have the T-Shirt".
But suprisingly straight up and saying who the baddies were in that episode, because many times is its that black and white with no grey. Whats more surprising is that its made by those people on the Left Coast.
#15
I enjoyed the show. And a few things impressed me:
> The baddies weren't handled as just stupid zealots ... it appeared they had done their planning, with an on-ground spotting crew, the way the plane was wired, and how they expected to draw as much media attention as possible before blowing things up.
> The soldiers (those from The Unit, and the rangers they recruited on-site) came off as smart, direct, well-trained, and very, very capable.
> I actually liked he scenes about the wives ... a nice vehicle for two things: 1- introduce the viewer (and the "new guy's wife") into understanding a bit more about The Unit itself, and 2- show the impact of these guys' work on the folks who support them
Now, I was a little disappointed that their boss didn't morph into a silvery blob and become other people throughout the show ... but maybe I just watch too many movies!! ;-)
#16
Sort of off-topic but I'm writing a screenplay and have a bunch of questions about how the FBI works on an investigation. If anyone here has such knowledge and would care to exchange a few emails offline I'd be much obliged.
#17
I saw it and completely enjoyed it. During this morning's AWGSG (Angry White Guy Support Group) at my Federal job (non-WoT related), we all discussed and enjoyed it. In fact, one guy (former chopper mechanic in 'Nam) said "God, I pray we have guys like that in real life."
Was good enough to keep my wife involved (she liked the new guy's wife's drama) and she has recently becomed hooked on 24. Good non-P.C. stuff in there. While discussing this morning, we came upon some issues with CBS and the MSM...(1) there's a constant battle there (I'm sure) between there "business dept." who wants to make money and their News-heads, who can't help but put their liberal views into the "news." (2) the business side of the house must be beginning to wake up and win this struggle, with CBS being the home of shows like this one (The Unit), NCIS, formerly JAG and other military shows (in addition to the CSI series), but also their news side being one of the most liberal.
Unlike .com (unless he was being his usual sarcastic self), I for one applaud the lack of gratituitousness. More action, less sex in my book. Of course, they won't be able to keep it out of the story-line completely, but I watch shows like that for the "blow up the baddies" side, not the sex side!
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 10:56
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#18
BTW, mods, my AWGSG comment is our lil' name for our coffee club to get through the P.C./idiocy of the day here at work. Please no sink-trapping.
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 10:57
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#19
The AWGSG is okay as long as your organization maintains the equivalent Angry Colored Guy Support Group, the Angry Hispanic Guys Support Group (the Mildly Irritated Hispanic Guys Support Group does not count!), Native American and/or Esquimeaux Guy Support Group, Asian-Pacific Islander Support Group, and Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered-Hermaphroditic Support Group, and you've filled out the form 768. You did fill out the Form 768, didn't you?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2006 14:46
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#21
Ummm, yeah, Fred, I filled it out. The way I figure, all of those groups already get a "history" MONTH (or PRIDE month in the case of GLBT groupies), so why can't we have just a AWGSG (who, BTW, doesn't even get a month!).
True story...the original founders here of the AWGSG were 2 vets and one very angry German. One of the Vets, who served in Vietnam, just mentioned the term Angry White Guy Support Group when someone NOT in the group was in our break room getting coffee. Next thing he knows, he's being hauled before our Deputy Administrator here in Atlanta to explain this AWGSG and what were it's goals. When he explained it was just a joking term of art (flying in the face of P.C. Idiocy that goes on around here which, BTW, has NOTHING to do with our mission), the Dept. Admins. finally relaxed, LOL!
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 15:29
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#22
And, yes, LH, I'm bummed about Edgar myself, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
03/08/2006 15:30
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#23
Moderators: "Open threadery welcome," would be taken as an invitation for off-topic material. Isn't use of the "F" word be offensive here?
#26
BK:
Okay: no open threads! Now I know, but how do you read Mr.com's invitation: "Open Threadery. Bitchery welcome, heh"? Contrary to his "F" word attack, I have never insulted Mr.com but I apologize anyway to make him feel like...dancing.
#27
have a bunch of questions about how the FBI works on an investigation.
Perhaps you can become the subject of one with your screenplay and you can learn about it first hand. Otherwise you might want to watch the FBI Files on Discovery.
#28
Moderators: "Open threadery welcome," would be taken as an invitation for off-topic material.
'Open threadery' here means feel free to comment on the topic and 'topic drift' is okay. The key word is 'drift' - not "Gee look at this cow!" when the topic is semi-automatic weaponry (unless in reference to cows-with-guns).
Isn't use of the "F" word be offensive here?
Depends.... on the writer, the situation, the topic or lack thereof...
#29
"Requesting comments on this or any other Hollyweirdery on troops, the military, WoT, Fibbery, whatevery."
Seems as though the topic was specifically defined just above your carefully plucked phrase, Doggy. Seems as if it was defined loosely enough to stimulate comparison between this show and other, similar, Hoolywood efforts portraying the military. Since he created the thread, put it on the Opinion page, and did so obviously for an expressed purpose and you chose to ignore it, that you have missed the point.
#30
What about between-the-lines material? JTA News from Israel reports:
"NATO spy planes conducted an exercise in Israel, apparently as a signal to Iran.
Weve had NATO AWACS deployed to do some demonstrations in Israel, and we do have an active dialogue with the Israeli defense force in terms of interoperability, and particularly as it regards the security of the Mediterranean basin at sea, Gen. James Jones, the U.S. general who is the supreme allied commander in Europe, said Tuesday in Senate testimony."
A likely story. I say: after the cartoon jihad, the Euros started hearing Iran's "death to__" chants, decided to to put "organization" back in NATO. NATO's "collective security" provision (article 5) is still operative, in reference to US security interests, post 9-11. Secret diplomacy aimed at a wider interest, is probable. I see: dead people.
Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, has urged people to remain calm after bombings that killed at least 20, according to the Associated Press.
The attacks happened on Tuesday evening in a packed railway station and crowded temple in Hinduism's holiest city, raising fears of communal violence between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.
Hindu groups allied to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party called for a general strike in the state on Wednesday to protest against the blasts.
The first bomb went off in the packed Sankat Mochan temple where hundreds of devotees of the Hindu deity Hanuman had gathered for evening prayers.
The second exploded at the city's cantonment railway station. Police had said on Tuesday that two bombs exploded at the station.
Yashpal Singh, the police chief of Uttar Pradesh state, where Varanasi is located, said he suspected the hand of Pakistan-based jihadi group, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Indian TV channels said two Lashkar fighters were shot dead overnight by police in New Delhi and another Lashkar man was killed in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh's capital, but it was not known if they were connected to the Varanasi blasts.
Armed police mounted vigil at temples and public places across India and authorities said they had shut down schools and colleges as a precaution, but a Reuters reporter said traffic on the streets of the ancient city appeared normal.
Prem Lata, 65-year-old housewife, said: "People are moving around. Puja (worship) is going on in the temples. There is no problem now."
Temple-studded Varanasi, 670km southeast of the capital New Delhi, is on the banks of the holy Ganges river.
Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi, being cremated on the banks of the Ganges and the ashes immersed in the river ensures release from the cycle of rebirth. Many elderly and ill people come to the city if they believe they are close to death.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/08/2006
00:56 ||
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raising fears of communal violence between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.
Between? Only the lame stream media could be that obtuse.
Operations SSP Amir Zulfiqar Khan on Tuesday said the police would register cases under Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against owners of houses if people on their rooftops fire in the air or use chemical coated and sharp string, tandi and metal wire for flying kites. Addressing a special meeting, Khan said the police had arrested 721 people for selling and using prohibited kite flying material besides seizing a huge quantity of illegally material in a special campaign which started on March 5. He directed all divisional superintendents of police (SPs) to form special committees at the residential colony level with the cooperation of union council representatives. The Operations SSP also ordered formation of special teams of policemen in plainclothes at police station level to make videos of kite flying law violators so that these could be used as evidence in court. He said the police had sent the seized prohibited material to the court for permission to destroy it.
Pyongyang will not return to the six-party talks over its nuclear ambitions because of the financial sanctions imposed by the United States, Ri Gun, the director general of the American Affairs Bureau of the North Korean Foreign Ministry said. He is in New York to discuss the sanctions with the United States, but no specific agreement appears to have been reached between the two sides.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2006
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The government of Afghanistan will present Pakistan with more intelligence on militants whereabouts and it is hopeful that measures will be taken, said Karim Rahimi, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzais spokesman, on Tuesday. A rift between Afghanistan and Pakistan deepened as Karzais office said intelligence about Taliban and Al Qaeda fugitives allegedly hiding in Pakistan was very strong and accurate.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are key allies of Washington in its war on terrorism. But relations have deteriorated sharply since Karzai, on a visit to Islamabad last month, gave a list to Musharraf of Taliban and Al Qaeda fugitives he said were hiding in Pakistan. Afghan and Pakistani officials said that the list included Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and top associates, and that Afghanistan also shared the locations of alleged terrorist training camps. Afghanistan provided very strong and accurate intelligence, Rahimi told a press conference Tuesday in response to a claim by Pakistans President General Pervez Musharraf in an interview Sunday on CNN that the information was old.
Rahimi said that even if the intelligence was outdated, It still shows that there are problems and terrorists have freedom of movement in Pakistan. Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of leaking the list to the media because Kabul did not trust Islamabad to act on it. The bad-mouthing against Pakistan is a deliberate, articulated conspiracy, Musharraf was quoted as saying on Monday by the state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan.
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#1
we are hopeful....lol!
We are going to give you another task and we are hopeful that we have to fire on
you if you prove too stoopid to accomplish it.
Government sources indicated that three al Qaeda militants surrendered to the security services and were being questioned. Fawzi al Wajih, Ibrahim al Maqri and Firas al Bihani, who belong to a group headed by Fawaz al Rabei, were amongst 23 al Qaeda convicts who escaped from a high security jail in the Yemeni capital by digging a tunnel into the womens section of a nearby mosque. They were jailed for their role in setting ablaze the French oil tanker Limbourg, in the port of Ash Shihr , at Mukallah, 570 kilometers east of Aden in October 2002.
Security sources predicted that more convicts would surrendered or be captured in the coming weeks and revealed that several al Qaeda militants had established contact with the authorities in order to negotiate their surrender. All fugitives were sill on, Yemeni soil, the sources added.
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The United States would want European and other countries to join in imposing travel and financial sanctions on Iran if Tehran refuses to halt nuclear enrichment, a senior US official said on Monday. Undersecretary of State Nicholas "Monty" Burns, in a television interview late on Monday night, said the world must be tough-minded as diplomacy towards Iran moves into a new phase in the UN Security Council. So in order to get the attention of the Iranians and convince them that theyve got to roll back, you might have to arrange a coalition of countries and I dont know if Russia and China will be part of that that would apply targeted sanctions on the ability of Iranian leaders to travel and use the international financial system, Burns said on Public Televisions The Charlie Rose Show.
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Reuters, the Assoc Press, MISSLEALERT.com, ALERTNEWS.com and others have news reports ascribing that Iran intends to build 90-100 missles a year based on the SHIHAB/SHAHAB-3 IRBM design, and that ultimately Iran intends to have its future arsenal armed wid nuke warheads. I believe Iran's neighbors know that Iran's Mullahs are hell-bent on achieving Iranian EMPIRE based on Radical Islam, and that no curr sovereign regional nation, be it Jewish Israel or Muslim states, allied to the USA, enemy of the USA, or Neutral, will be safe once Tehran devs an organz nuke capability. Even assuming that Iran and Russia-China are not in cahoots, the only pragmatic reason for Iran to work wid infidels Russia andor China is to induce geopol
"brinkmanship", i.e. military confrontation, between the USA and Russia-China, etal., and hopefully an anti-US foreign intervention force in case the USA does invade Iran. ONCE RADICALIST-CONTROLLED IRAN ACQUIRES NUKES, ITS LIKELY MAJOR US ALLIES, OR EVEN RUSSIA-CHINA, WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING UNILATER AGS NUCLEARIZED IRAN UNLESS DONE IN [US-LED?]INTERNATIONAL COALITION, AND NOT UNLESS ANY ARE WILLING TO WAGE REGIONAL OR HIGHER NUKE WAR. The USA either accepts a nuclear Iran or not, to includ a nuclear Iran backed up by Cold War competitors Russia-China, and to includ future Iranian Empire. ALL SIDES?CAMPS IN THIS GWOT, HOWEVER NEUTRAL, ARE IN A "KILL OR BE KILLED", "FIGHT OR DIE", "RULE OR BE SLAVE" SITUATION, whether they know it or not, like it or not - the Lefties don't care becuz they already intend to take the world with them to hell.
#2
"the Lefties don't care becuz they already intend to take the world with them to hell." Never thought of it that way before, but you've hit the nail on the head.
#3
Russia is well within range of the new Iranian missiles. That means the first time they don't do what the iranians want they will be labeled "apostates" and subject to attack as well. Boggles my mind why russia is so happy to help Iran build its nuke program. Is it for the quick money, as a jibe to the U.S., do they even have a plan?
ISLAMABAD: Top US military commander Gen John Abizaid arrived here on Tuesday on a two-day visit to discuss a range of issues, including increasing tensions between Islamabad and Kabul over fugitive militants, officials said. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Abizaid, chief of the US Central Command, will meet with his Pakistani counterpart and other officials.
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Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao has said that the government has credible evidence of foreign financing of militants in North Waziristan and Balochistan. We have obtained credible evidence that a foreign hand is helping the miscreants in North Waziristan and Balochistan the operation will continue till its logical end, he told journalists after chairing a meeting on Tuesday about the operations in Miranshah, Mir Ali and other tribal areas.
Somehow the thought of a "logical" end to anything in Pakland scares me.
The interior minister, accompanied by Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah and National Crisis Management Cell Chairman Brig Javed Iqbal CheemaJaved Iqbal Cheema, vowed to continue the operation in the tribal areas until foreign and local terrorists are flushed out. The meeting was also attended by the NWFP inspector general of police and officials of various intelligence agencies.
All the brass hats in one place, huh? Brilliant.
Sherpao said that the writ of government will be established in the tribal areas at any cost.
Does that include slaughtering holy men?
He said that the meeting had agreed to deploy more Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel in the tribal areas. He said that additional check posts will also be established in North Waziristan. The safety of citizens in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu will be ensured, he said.
No doubt. No doubt.
He confirmed the killing of around 50 militants in recent operations in Mir Ali and Miranshah.
Fifty... a hundred... It was a whole bunch, we're sure...
He said that six security forces personnel had died and 15 were injured. The minister said that after the initial departure of a few residents from the troubled areas, the political administration had moved to ensure calm.
If you kill all the bad guys, and promise to kill any more that come, that'll ensure calm.
He said that Afghanistan must cooperate with Pakistan in the war against terrorism instead of questioning its role. Cooperation should not be unilateral, he said.
Except that the Afghan side of the border is notably freer of wild-eyed turbans than the Pak side...
About the proposed fencing of the Pak-Afghan border or laying landmines along it, he said that fences and mines will not stop terrorist infiltration from Afghanistan.
Maybe it won't stop it, but blowing a few feet off will inhibit it.
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Maybe Doctor Evil is out of freezing, again. Or Teheran is starting a jihad stock market.
Afghanistan has hit back at accusations by neighbouring Pakistan blaming it for several days of fighting in a tribal area near the Afghan border. Pakistani armed forces say 140 militants have been killed during sporadic clashes in north Waziristan. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called on the Afghan Government to do more to stop armed militants crossing the border.
Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah says the criticism is unjustified. "They ask for intelligence. When we provide intelligence, then they claim that the information is weak," he said. "But they acknowledge the existence of the terrorist training camps on their side of the border, but they do not take any action and then this issue comes out in the media."
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The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic ConferenceEkmeleddin Ihsanoglu has appointed Ambassador Ezzat Kamel Mufti from Saudi Arabia, who is the assistant secretary-general for political affairs at the OIC, as his special representative on the Jammu and Kashmir. The appointment is in furtherance to the implementation of the OIC Resolution 7/32-P on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
J & K has only been going on since 1947. They're just getting around to putting their own two cents in?
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The Palestinian parliament has resumed meeting without Fatah lawmakers who boycotted the session. Fatah members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) said they would boycott parliament until the Supreme Court resolved a dispute between Hamas and Fatah. The dispute arose after the new Hamas dominated PLC voted to revoke resolutions passed by the outgoing Fatah dominated PLC in its last session, including those that were to give Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, greater powers.
Al-Tayeb Abd al-Rahim, the director of the president's office, accused Hamas of attempting a coup against Abbas. The leader of Fatah bloc in the PLC said Fatah would take the matter to the Supreme Court. Tuesday's session was the last before the PLC went on recess for two weeks.
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Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, chairman of the Qatar University Sunni Research Center and head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, has announced that a comprehensive Islamic conference will convene in Bahrain on Tuesday 14 March 2006 to discuss the consequences of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet, (PTUI PBUH) and the effective methods to prevent a repetition of the slander of prophets, Divine religions, so that the world would live in love and peace.
In a telephone interview with him by Asharq al-Awsat, Sheikh Al-Qaradawi said: "Many of the Islamic organizations and societies will participate in this conference, including the International Union of Muslim Scholars, the International Campaign to Support Islam, the Permanent Committee to Defend the Seal of the Prophets, and the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami, in addition to Muslim intellectuals and scholars from allover the world. This conference aims at showing the Islamic anger, but in a rational and balanced form to deter from attacking the sacred religious issues and the idolatry beliefs, and to prevent slander of God's messengers and prophets."
"We have not started this battle; it is a battle that surprised us, as there was no tension between the Muslims and Denmark. In my opinion, this battle has no justifications. The Danish newspaper, which printed the cartoons insulting the Prophet, God's prayer and peace be upon him, asked some cartoonists to draw imaginary pictures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, May his drip clear up God's best prayer and peace be upon him; I learned that some of these cartoonists delayed responding to the request of the newspaper, but at the insistence of newspaper's officials some of the cartoonists responded, and these cartoons were published. The cartoons angered the Islamic nation and made it rise to express its anger and denunciation of the insult to the nation's honorable Prophet. In the Beginning the Muslims asked the newspaper and the Danish Government to apologize for this severe insult and unjustified provocation to the feelings of 1.3 billion Muslims. However, the Danish Government and the newspaper concerned refused to apologize, and thus the anger of the Muslims in the four corners of the world was inflamed.
Moreover, a delegation of the Islamic countries' ambassadors to Copenhagen asked to meet the Danish prime minister to convey their protest over the publication of these cartoons that insulted the Muslims, but the prime minister refused to meet the delegation. All this happened on the pretext of the freedom of expression; Denmark stirred up this problem and initiated this precedent of insulting the Muslims on the pretext of the freedom of expression. We did not do anything other than expressing our anger, because the Islamic nation was hit in its most sacred issue. We asked the Islamic nation to show a rational and balanced anger, without burning embassies, consulates, and churches, and without destroying private properties, such as cars and shops." Sheikh Al-Qaradawi added.
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#1
I'm sure they'll also address how the world must respect all religions equally.
#2
The repression and suppression of Muslims by Muslims, for all causes, and which comprises the majority/bulk of "crimes ags Islam", takes absolute undeniable and unconditional second place to HAIR/BOMB-GATE, where Muslims who suppor car bombings and suicide bombings, etc explosions are NOT upset by toons of Mohammed drawn wid devil horns.
#3
Qaradawi is the thinking head of the *preplanned* muslim TAKEOVER of Europe and the real strategist of the MB there, he supports suicide bombings against Us and israeli forces, he's the creator of the "axis of good", an org of muslim charities supporting and funding terror, including hamas,... when asked if Lions of Islam(tm) could murder unborn jewish babies (after that pregnant israeli woman and her 3 infants daughters were shot pointblank in cold blood, with one bullet in the belly to make sure the baby was dead), he said "yes, of course, they will grow up to be soldiers, ya know"...
Of course, he's very popular with the MMM masses (he has his own show on al jezzera), with euro-dhimmis (Red Ken, Prodi,...).
He's an ennemy of western civilization (and Civilization, I'd say), pure and simple, and to read his takkya in this article is just sickening, especially more since this whole cartoon mess was engineered from scratch by him and his pals.
Firing resumed in Mir Ali near Miranshah after unidentified men ambushed local political agent Zaheerul Islams vehicle, killing his Khasadar and injuring another man, ARY television channel reported. The militants fled after the attack, the channel reported. Zaheerul Islam survived the attack.
Shucks. And he was just telling us how things had calmed down.
Posted by: Fred ||
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QUETTA: Unidentified assailants fired 29 rockets at security forces in Dera Bugti and Kohlu on Tuesday, but there were no casualties. According to the reports, armed men fired 29 rockets on security forces in the two districts, but missed them. However, pipelines of the Pirkoh Gas Field were damaged during the exchange of fire between security forces and militants. The militants fled after retaliation from security forces.
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Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of a Spanish national for suspicion of having links with Al Qaeda. Law enforcement agencies have arrested a Spanish national but, off-the-cuff, I cannot give you the details. We can provide you the information later, he told journalists.
"I think his names' Pedro or something like that..."
The issue came under discussion during a meeting between Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in Islamabad.
"Pedro? Pedro? I don't know anybody named... Ummm... Maybe I do."
In a separate press conference, Kasuri was asked by a reporter to explain the arrest of the Spanish national.
"'Splain yourself, Ricky!"
The Spanish foreign minister raised this issue but I had no knowledge of this. I assured him I would find out details about the Spanish national and get back to him, Kasuri told journalists.
"Cheeze. I thought I knew about all the Pedros we got in jug in Pakland... I guess one slipped by me."
Sherpao told journalists that a Belgian national, who was recently arrested from Lahore, had not been repatriated.
"But he's not a Pedro. I don't think he even speaks Spanish. For that matter, I don't know if he speaks Belgian!"
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Interrogation into the militant network and activities is awaiting recovery of Bangla Bhai, who is now undergoing treatment at Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) hospital amidst tight security. He was learnt yesterday to be recovering and out of danger.
Damn.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) men are guarding the cabin round the clock, often keeping it under lock and key, sources said. Masud, bodyguard of Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, yesterday told interrogators that he arranged the Muktagachha house for Bangla Bhai who went there on Friday night after the arrest of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman in Sylhet.
I'm guessing Masud is just Bangla Babu.
Meanwhile, hearing the news of Bangla Bhai's arrest, the JMB chief told the law enforcers that an Islamic revolution in Bangladesh is certain even though he and Bangla Bhai were arrested.
Probably even more competently-led, in fact...
Sources said Bangla Bhai used to frequent Muktagachha over the last year, training his men at different mosques and sugarcane fields in the area. Locals were not allowed to come near the place of training, a local said.
Y'might want to think seriously about shutting down those particular mosques...
Bangla Bhai also had a training camp at Ghoradhap in Jamalpur, 5 km off Muktagachha. Locals of Muktagachha said they thought Bangla Bhai was a pir (a religious leader) busy working on Hadith. Law enforcers, meantime, said the youth who fled during Muktagachha operation used to provide Bangla Bhai with food.
Another small fry...
Sources in the BDR hospital said Bangla Bhai is now taking food and talking although in a very low voice. "But his condition is stable and danger free," a source said. Doctors expected him to regain full consciousness by Tuesday night. Bangla Bhai was kept in cabin No. 1 of the intensive care unit after doctors on Monday conducted several operations on his body for burn and splinter injuries in the face, hands and other parts.
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"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
-Jack E. Leonard
We can hope for a relapse after the remand....
At least 15 people have been killed and several injured in three separate bomb attacks in the holy Hindu city of Varanisi in northern India. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The first explosion took place in one of India's ancient temples, the Sankat Mochan, which is dedicated to Hinduism's monkey god, Hanuman. Schools of devotees had gathered when the bomb went off. Minutes later a second bomb went off at the city's main railway station, followed by a third blast, also at the railway station. Police say that they defused two more bombs elsewhere in the city. Security has been stepped up in the city and all religious sites across the country have been put on high alert.
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The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) yesterday demanded arrest of those ruling-coalition men who are believed to be responsible for the rise of the dreaded militants in the country. Reacting to the government action after capturing the most wanted outlawed JMB kingpins, Shaekh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, SCBA President Mahbubey Alam made the demand at a press briefing. "The godfathers of the militants hiding in the alliance government should be brought to book before trial of the militants for the sake of a fair handling of the matter," he said. "Otherwise, the ongoing drive against militancy will be a futile exercise," the Bar leader told journalists.
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The United Nations secretary-general has outlined a radical overhaul of UN procedures, recruitment and training, prompting protests by staff on proposed outsourcing from its New York headquarters. In a long-awaited report on management reform, Kofi Annan on Tuesday sought more financial oversight, simplified hiring and reporting procedures, staff buyouts and a modern information system. The reforms are estimated to cost $500 million. Annan said the shake-up was necessary because the UN had to cope with 80,000 peacekeepers and civilian staff in the field and its "regulations and rules do not respond to current needs".
His report is a direct result of scandals in the oil-for-food programme in Iraq and fraud in awarding contracts. "Just as this building, after 56 years of ad hoc repair and maintenance, now needs to be fully refurbished from top to bottom, so our organization, after decades of piecemeal reform, now needs a thorough strategic refit," Annan told the 191-member General Assembly in introducing the 33-page report.
The exercise, demanded by world leaders at a UN summit in September, would cost about $510 million: $280 million for improving staff conditions in the field; $120 million for information technology; $10 million for training and a possible $100 million for buyouts. In turn, UN officials believe they can save nearly as much through streamlining contract procurement and farming out projects, but gave few details.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Think how outraged UN staff would be if he stopped their raping, graft and secret support of middle east terrorism.
#2
A new manager moved into his office and found three envelopes with a note which says 'if you get in trouble - open an envelope'.
A few months later the manager found himself in a pickle - he screwed up some important project and was at risk at losing his job. Remembering the envelopes he opened the first one:
Reorganize - the blame will be lost in the shuffle..
#4
Touche', Steve S. And this Kofi scam will only cost $500M...33 pages, few details...how about one page from Bolton saying they have 30 days to pay the parking tickets and get out of town on the next banana boat?
#6
I work at the UN and I am hoping finally something good might come out of this, however I have seen this many times in the past and it probably won't happen, until the UN stops hiring people because of their skin colour or religon and starts to hire qualified people then this is just another Annan fuck up
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03/08/2006 11:46
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$280 million for improving staff conditions in the field
In-house hookers? 5 star field kitchens? Kojo as a motivational speaker?
Or was he covered in the $100 million for "buyouts"?
Pakistan would oppose any military action taken by its ally the United States against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here. Pakistans view is that there should not be any military intervention and we would certainly not be party to any such action, Aziz told BBC television late Monday during a visit to London.
Okay. You've chosen your side. Now shuddup.
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Articles like this one give us a good idea of what is going on behind the scenes right now.
#2
but would they enforce sanctions on their common border.
Oh wait this is pakistan. Change that to - would they kinda sorta enforce sanctions, at least to the point of making the Iranians pay onerous bribes to trade in Baluchistan?
The World Bank says it has approved a $42 million aid package to help keep the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) running until Hamas forms the next government. The money, from an existing trust fund managed by the World Bank, will be used by the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to meet its immediate financing needs and to avoid suspension of basic services, the international lending agency said in a statement. Bank officials said they were awaiting a decision by the quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, the European Union, the UN and Russia - on how any future assistance would be delivered to the Palestinians once a Hamas-led government was formed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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$42M write off, basic rocket research service continues...
#2
Just becuz HAMAS says they don't care and are "not worried" about monies for the PA doesn't mean God-based Lefties/God-based Socialists don't get the mullah $$$.
#5
And while the Palestinians get an endless supply of money (anyone ever saw a Palestinin child who looked undernourished?) the starving victims of Islamism in Sudan get zilch.
First of all JFM, how can one be a victim of the Religion of Peace?
Second, do these---putatively starving---Sudanese contribute anything to solving the Jewish problem?
MIRANSHAH: An uneasy calm prevailed in North Waziristan on Tuesday as government officials with the help of tribal elders tried to pacify pro-Taliban tribesmen after some 140 militants were estimated killed in recent days.
I'll betcha a dose or two of napalm would pacify the crap out of them...
However, a curfew imposed on Monday on Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, remained in force on Tuesday despite no reports of fresh fighting, a senior security official in the region told AP. He said the talks between tribal elders and militants representatives which began on Monday were continuing. There is some progress and we hope things will be OK soon, he said.
Why? Have the bad guyz decided to go back to Arabia? Have the locals begun studying cause and effect?
The curfew is continuing today so the situation can return to normal quickly, Zaheerul Islam, a top political official in Miranshah, told Reuters. Forces are present in the town while jirgas and talks are also going on, he said.
Gonna try and save face all around, huh? Hope it works better than it did with Nek Mohammad.
Islam planned to meet with tribal elders later on Tuesday to persuade shop owners in Miranshah to reopen their doors, said tribal elder Malik Mumtaz Khan, who will be attending the meeting. The government wants the businesses to be ready to trade when the curfew is lifted.
The problem isn't the businesses being closed. The businesses are closed because of the problem.
Meanwhile, troops searched for two clerics accused of instigating the fighting in Miranshah and made seven arrests in overnight raids.
None of them the holy men, I'll betcha...
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.
Have you checked their houses? Have you checked Fazl's guest house?
Security forces used explosives on Tuesday to demolish a madrassa in Miranshah run by Khaleq, another security official said. Officials said Noor and Khaleq have been trying to impose strict Islamic laws in Miranshah and are closely linked to the Taliban. Khaleq, who runs a major madrassa in Miranshah, had called for a holy war against the army after troops last week destroyed an Al Qaeda training centre in nearby Saidgai village, officials said.
Jihad, of course, is the answer to every question...
Khaleqs brother was among some 40 militants killed in the raid on Wednesday, they added.
I hope his departure from the gene pool was suitably painful.
Noor also runs a preaching centre and a madrassa near Miranshah. A senior army official said if the two were captured or killed the resistance in Miransah will die down, the same way it subsided in neighbouring South Waziristan when top militant commander Nek Mohammad was killed in a missile strike in 2004.
That was after about eight months of the jirga nonsense, complete with tribal lashkars led by drummers.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan described Tuesday as quiet, with no reports of fighting. The militants had apparently withdrawn to the hills where a Miranshah resident, Shirin Khan, said security forces were directing their gunfire late on Monday night.
"Chaudry! Shoot that mountain!"
"Yes, sahib!"
[KERBOOM!]
"That should take care of them. What's for dinner?"
The BBC said its correspondent had been detained for a few hours and then expelled from North Wazristan. Haroonur Rashid, the BBCs Urdu correspondent based in Peshawar, and two other Pakistani journalists working for foreign media organisations were not allowed to enter the tribal region on Monday morning, the BBC Urdu website reported. Haroon was not told why he was detained, the BBC website said. He was later set free on the intervention of high officials but was ordered to immediately leave the area.
"Beat it, Harun! And don't come back!"
"But I live here!"
Suspected militants beheaded a teacher in South Wazristan, officials said on Tuesday. Said Badshah, 35, who ran a private school, failed to return home late Monday in Barwan village, near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a local administration official told AFP. His headless body was found in a remote area on Tuesday evening, the official said. Officials suspect that militants were behind Badshahs murder as he had no known enemies in the area and he was the son of a pro-government tribal elder.
Well, never mind. He's dead now, so have another jirga and reach an "understanding" with the guys who killed him. No doubt they were motivated by piety or something.
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These guys ain't tough - none of 'em drive a dual-cab, V-8, dual rear axle pick-up. Send in a few hundred Texas rangers and a bunch of Oklahoma roughnecks and watch the fur fly - along with a few turbans, some with heads still attached.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/08/2006 23:36
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#2
No Comment just changing my cookie
Posted by: DanNY ||
03/08/2006 23:49
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Dr Kamal Hossain has demanded the dismissal of ministers, including the Post and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque, who are accused of providing shelter to JMB militants and instigating militancy. "Suspend and hand over the identified ministers to the police immediately," the Gono Forum and Jatiya Oikya Mancha president asked the prime minister in a written statement at a press conference on "Terrorism, National Security: What needs to be done" at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday.
Citing statistics and information on militant activities of Bangla Bhai, he said the tyrant leader and his men killed 16 people and disabled hundred others during April 2004 to January 2005. He demanded immediate formation of an independent national inquiry commission comprising three retired chief justices and experts for a neutral investigation on militancy and all militant bomb attacks in the country. "Unless the prime minister takes action against the ministers and orders the immediate investigation into the charges which are reportedly confirmed by Abdur Rahman, national security will continue to be in grave danger," he said.
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EFL
The two ports handle millions of tons of cargo, with scores of cruise ships passing through each year. Truckers who transport much of the cargo are issued ID cards, which give them access to all areas of the port. The Department of Homeland Security recently investigated the New York and New Jersey ports, and found stunning gaps in security. About time! But I am glad they got to it.
The new DHS report shows that of the 9,000 truckers checked, nearly half had evidence of criminal records. More than 500 held bogus driver's licenses, leaving officials unsure of their real identities. Truck drivers had been convicted of homicide, assault, weapons charges, sex offenses, arson, drug dealing, identity theft and cargo theft.
According to the report, a review of incident logs involving truck drivers at the Newark Seaport in late 2005 revealed one who was identified as an MS-13 gang member. MS-13 has been described as one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States. The logs also highlighted an incident involving "four cabs without containers [which] exited the terminal without stopping at the red light and ignored verbal commands to stop." When do the guards get guns?
The report also says 33 ID cardholders were identified in narcotics-related offenses, including people arrested for the possession of cocaine and heroin. Others were involved in drug smuggling. In one incident, according to the report, authorities found 13 pounds of cocaine concealed under a truck's sleeper cab. Money laundering and counterfeiting pose other security problems, the report points out. Authorities once seized almost half a million dollars, which was concealed inside a truck's rocker panels. The report concludes port "security gaps" expose "vulnerabilities that could be capitalized by terrorist organizations." It also found similar problems at other major U.S. ports.
Homeland security officials tell ABC News they are trying to improve port security and have recently tested a national program that will vet truckers before they are issued identification cards. Good.
#1
They've tried before to require backround checks on truckers and dock workers, but the unions fought it. Something about a majority of the Longshoreman's Union and the Teamsters not being able to pass due to past criminal records. What a surprise.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/08/2006 8:02
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#2
"They've tried before to require backround checks on truckers and dock workers, but the unions fought it."
The Genovese family isn't crazy about it either. Then again maybe that's just a Difference without Distinction.
#3
I am shocked by these findings. I mean, truck driving is such an intellectually stimulating, clean, pleasant, well-paid occupation, you'd think that they'd be able to hire 2-year college grads for most positions.
#4
I can remember when truckers were categorized as blue collar professionals. They wore special hats with road safety badges, some even wore neckties and gave drivers education lectures at schools. But I guess that was many years ago come to think of it.
#7
I had a high school classmate who paid for his college education driving trucks. Bright boy -- we were in A.P. biology together -- and in the end between his earnings and a bunch of academic and football scholarships he ended up going to a name school. Of course, this was in the late 1970s, so perhaps they're all trash now.
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday stressed the need to promote interfaith harmony. Talking to Spanish Foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, the president said that Pakistan and Spain could play an important role in enhancing understanding between Islam and the West. The Spanish foreign minister regretted the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (may his drip clear up peace be upon him) and said that freedom of expression should not be used irresponsibly.
I'm not sure where Pak gets off telling anyone about "interfaith harmony." It's a religion-based state, unlike, for instance, Spain. I can't recall anyone who's been bumped off in Spain for being a Muslim, though the carnage has in fact gone the other way. In Pakland, not only are Christians slaughtered and exploited, but but Sunnis oppress Shiites even more. If Spain still has blasphemy laws they're not used, unlike the blasphemy laws in Pakland.
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#1
Zapatero's big tranzi/eurabian scheme is the "alliance of civilizations", as opposed of course to the dreaded US "clash of civilizations" (initiated by the evil USA, as everyone knows).
JFM would certainly be more informed than me about theses matters, but I do seem to recall that Zappie has propped up the study of islam in schools (in its eurabia, al andalousia correct version, no doubt), battled against "unPC" historical landmarks, all the while clashing head-on with the Catholic Church on various subjects.
If you add the "conspiratorial" aspects of his coming to power, one could almost suspect he's not a tool, but he knows perfectly what he's doing.
Jamaat Ameer and Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami yesterday denied that he had ever said Bangla Bhai was a creation of the media. In an interview with ATN television Nizami claimed that he had never said anything like that.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
He added, "Rather, I lamented that a terrorist gets 8-column headlines in the press while we don't get coverage even in the inner pages despite being in politics for last 40-45 years."
"Nobody ever pays attention to me! Why pay attention now?"
"If the terrorists are given with banner headlines then hundreds of Bangla Bhais would be created," Nizami recalled his earlier comments. The Jamaat ameer's statement in the wake of Bangla Bhai's capture contrasts sharply with the one on July 22, 2004, where he said, "Bangla Bhai was created by some newspapers."
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Britain has unveiled a tougher immigration system that has been modelled on the points-based Australian scheme. The UK's new system will make it easier for highly skilled, younger workers to enter Britain.
Latest statistics show more than 200,000 people migrated to the UK in 2004, a 50 per cent increase on the previous year. The new system will make it more difficult for low-skilled workers who are not part of the European Union to enter Britain. The scheme also cuts the qualifying time for permanent residency for those in sought after professions.
The thousands of young Australians who travel to the UK for working holidays will not be affected by the changes.
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#2
It does not a thing about the already radical British born persons of Pakistani parents and other "islamics". A day late and several GBP short.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/08/2006 1:03
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#3
It's a necessary first step. Nothing could have been changed without a radical reorientation of public opinion, and the Cartoonifada uproar seems to be doing that. Much like what is happening Stateside.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/08/2006 4:02
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#5
You gotta start somewhere. At least the people they let in from now on will be working instead of drawing a welfare check and bitching endlessly. I don't have any stats to back this up, but I would think educated people are a lot less "clanish" and might be integrated a lot more effectively.
#7
Via Bros. Judd, they're just moving to Scotland:
IMMIGRANTS wishing to settle in Scotland will now have to live here for just two years before being granted residency, after the government halved the qualifying time in an effort to boost the population north of the Border - while making it more difficult to settle in England....
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KING ABDULLAH ON Tuesday said Jordan was coordinating with the Arab League to host a conference of Iraqi religious leaders in Amman to look into means to safeguard their country's unity and stability. The Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted King Abdullah as telling Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari at a meeting in Amman that Jordan was "worried" about recent developments in Iraq, calling on Iraqis to unite against attempt to fuel sectarian tension. The King said Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish powers in Iraq should "work together to calm down the situation," avert sectarian fighting and speed up the formation of a representative government, Petra reported.
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#1
We in academia have a name for the such meetings. HINT: They take place in clusters.
The main political adviser to Hosni Mubarak has said that the Egyptian president would welcome retirement if he could find a replacement. But the Mubarak family are not thinking of putting forward the president's 42-year-old son Gamal as a successor, adviser Osama el-Baz said on Tuesday.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Mubarak is 78 in May and has ruled Egypt since 1981. Baz said: "He will remain, so long as he's able, capable and so on. But if he finds that there is another group of people, another person, who are willing to carry the torch, I have the feeling that he would welcome it. It's not clear yet who can take over. Nobody can say, and definitely the president and his family are not thinking about succession. They don't think of Gamal taking over and he does not give himself more rights than other Egyptians."
"Nope. Nobody could possibly do it like Hosni. When he dies we're gonna hafta have him stuffed and mounted!"
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Massachusetts pols calls this the "nationwide search".
(2006-03-06) Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, in a landmark speech Sunday on the global dynamics of terrorism, said a strong United Nations, working with moderate Muslim leaders could save the world from terrorism if the West stops propping up Arab kingdoms by purchasing oil.
The senator proposed putting the French in charge of U.N. military operations, appointing a member of the Hamas Palestinian government to head the U.N. Human Rights Council, and transitioning the Arab Middle East from an oil economy to an agricultural one, where lush, green acres replace the sand stretching out so far and wide.
Some say that terms like a strong U.N. and moderate Muslim leaders are oxymorons, said Sen. Kerry. But thats what they said about Democrat principles, liberal values and progressive think-tanks.
Mr. Kerry, the presumptive runner-up for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination, proposed that the United States take the lead in funding his Arab agriculture initiative, dubbed Food for Oil, which promises to beat drill bits into plowshares.
#9
Some people who seem normal actually believe this same finger sniffer whould have made a better president than GWB.
Islam would have become the Religion of Peace and Endless Giggling.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The former chief of the Belgian security service VS-SE was run through the mill by a Senate commission on Tuesday as the fallout from the escape of Turkish militant Fehriye Erdal continued. 
The fire broke out Tuesday night near Ahvaz, where violent clashes and bombing attacks staged by ethnic Arabs have taken place over the past year in Irans main oil region. The pipelines carry crude oil to the refinery city of Abadan in the southwest, but there was no disruption to supplies, the Iranians said.
Terror killed in encounter with RAB
TOKYO (AP) - North Korea fired two surface-to-air missiles near its border with China on Wednesday, a Japanese news agency reported, citing security sources. 
An 11-year epoch of increasingly severe solar storms that could fry power grids, disrupt cell-phone calls, knock satellites back to Earth, endanger astronauts in space, and force commercial airliners to change their routes to protect their radio communications and to avoid deadly solar radiation could begin as soon as this fall, scientists announced Monday. 
Monday's forecast was announced by scientists from agencies including NASA and the National Science Foundation, based on research centered at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. There is disagreement on exactly when the new cycle will begin -- one key researcher predicted the cycle will start in late 2007 or early 2008, and another said it could begin either late this year or in early 2007. But they did agree that the most severe storms won't begin popping on the solar surface for several years, but when they do, they'll be huge. 
"I'm really excited about this (discovery)," said NASA's Hathaway. "It's based on sound physical principles, and it finally answers the 150-year-old question: What causes the sunspot cycle?" 
Solar storms have been blamed for the U.S. Skylab space station's premature fall back to Earth in 1979. 
The northern and northeastern portions of North America are historically more vulnerable to system outages caused by solar storms than California and most of the Western states, said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator. 
A dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan over intelligence in the war on terror worsened yesterday, with Kabul saying it has provided "very strong and accurate" information on Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives, which Islamabad has dismissed as outdated.
Saw it.
Got the Fibbies right, heh. Always wanted one of those spiffy blue windblazers with the BIG yellow lettering, though. Betcha I could crash concerts 'n stuff with one. Stun baton would assist where needed.
Pyongyang will not return to the six-party talks over its nuclear ambitions because of the financial sanctions imposed by the United States, Ri Gun, the director general of the American Affairs Bureau of the North Korean Foreign Ministry said. He is in New York to discuss the sanctions with the United States, but no specific agreement appears to have been reached between the two sides.
The government of Afghanistan will present Pakistan with more intelligence on militants whereabouts and it is hopeful that measures will be taken, said 
Government sources indicated that three al Qaeda militants surrendered to the security services and were being questioned. 
The United States would want European and other countries to join in imposing travel and financial sanctions on Iran if Tehran refuses to halt nuclear enrichment, a senior US official said on Monday. Undersecretary of State 
Interior Minister 
Afghanistan has hit back at accusations by neighbouring Pakistan blaming it for several days of fighting in a tribal area near the Afghan border. Pakistani armed forces say 140 militants have been killed during sporadic clashes in north Waziristan. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called on the Afghan Government to do more to stop armed militants crossing the border.
The Palestinian parliament has resumed meeting without Fatah lawmakers who boycotted the session. Fatah members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) said they would boycott parliament until the Supreme Court resolved a dispute between Hamas and Fatah. The dispute arose after the new Hamas dominated PLC voted to revoke resolutions passed by the outgoing Fatah dominated PLC in its last session, including those that were to give Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, greater powers.
"We have not started this battle; it is a battle that surprised us, as there was no tension between the Muslims and Denmark. In my opinion, this battle has no justifications. The Danish newspaper, which printed the cartoons insulting the Prophet, God's prayer and peace be upon him, asked some cartoonists to draw imaginary pictures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, 
Moreover, a delegation of the Islamic countries' ambassadors to Copenhagen asked to meet the Danish prime minister to convey their protest over the publication of these cartoons that insulted the Muslims, but the prime minister refused to meet the delegation. All this happened on the pretext of the freedom of expression; Denmark stirred up this problem and initiated this precedent of insulting the Muslims on the pretext of the freedom of expression. We did not do anything other than expressing our anger, because the Islamic nation was hit in its most sacred issue. We asked the Islamic nation to show a rational and balanced anger, without burning embassies, consulates, and churches, and without destroying private properties, such as cars and shops." Sheikh Al-Qaradawi added.
Firing resumed in 
QUETTA: Unidentified assailants fired 29 rockets at security forces in 
Interior Minister 
Interrogation into the militant network and activities is awaiting recovery of 
The United Nations secretary-general has outlined a radical overhaul of UN procedures, recruitment and training, prompting protests by staff on proposed outsourcing from its New York headquarters. In a long-awaited report on management reform, Kofi Annan on Tuesday sought more financial oversight, simplified hiring and reporting procedures, staff buyouts and a modern information system. The reforms are estimated to cost $500 million. Annan said the shake-up was necessary because the UN had to cope with 80,000 peacekeepers and civilian staff in the field and its "regulations and rules do not respond to current needs". 
The World Bank says it has approved a $42 million aid package to help keep the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) running until Hamas forms the next government. The money, from an existing trust fund managed by the World Bank, will be used by the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to meet its immediate financing needs and to avoid suspension of basic services, the international lending agency said in a statement. Bank officials said they were awaiting a decision by the quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, the European Union, the UN and Russia - on how any future assistance would be delivered to the Palestinians once a Hamas-led government was formed.
MIRANSHAH: An uneasy calm prevailed in 
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday stressed the need to promote interfaith harmony. Talking to Spanish Foreign minister 
KING ABDULLAH ON Tuesday said Jordan was coordinating with the Arab League to host a conference of Iraqi religious leaders in Amman to look into means to safeguard their country's unity and stability. The Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted King Abdullah as telling Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari at a meeting in Amman that Jordan was "worried" about recent developments in Iraq, calling on Iraqis to unite against attempt to fuel sectarian tension. The King said Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish powers in Iraq should "work together to calm down the situation," avert sectarian fighting and speed up the formation of a representative government, Petra reported.
The main political adviser to 
