#1
I am not so pessimistic--I see an evolution from the superb Bremer policies into the next phase of what Iraq needs. Bremer set up a "top down" economy, creating a grand engine to power Iraq in the future. Things such as triple-A banking, financial and stock markets, with a dominant currency to insure that Iraq can be a powerhouse in the future. But now these models need to seek a lower level in the economy. Mid-sized and small business, decentralization into federalism and regional authority, the reorganization of government to also serve the people, not just the economy. In this way, they are evolving from idealism to realism on the ground. And this is inherently a more difficult, longer process, and yet one that both connects the government to the people, and turns the people into a nation.
"All Evidence Proves that Al-Zarqawi Works for America"
"All the evidence proves that Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi is working for America, because his victims are Iraqis and not [members of] the coalition forces under the command of the American occupation forces in Iraq. Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi's official title is 'leader of Al-Qa'ida's faction in Iraq.' Osama bin Laden is the commander of the Al-Qa'ida organization, and this proves that [Al-Zarqawi's commander,] bin Laden, has [also] been an American agent ever since he operated against the USSR forces in Afghanistan in favor of the Americans!
"Let's read the statement issued two days ago on behalf of Al-Zarqawi in Iraq after he killed and wounded dozens of people from among the Interior Ministry and Iraqi army forces, by means of booby-trapped cars in a number of cities in Iraq!
"Raising a few questions is unavoidable in order to clarify the situation and [to understand] who this Al-Zarqawi with Jordanian nationality is.
"One of the questions is: which of the two should Al-Zarqawi oppose — the American occupation army and the foreign coalition forces, or the Iraqi military and police forces?! The statement issued by Al-Zarqawi and his organization says that they struck and killed dozens of [members of] the Interior Ministry and Iraqi army forces, whereas there was no mention of Al-Zarqawi targeting the American occupation forces and the coalition forces of the various nationalities. [In fact,] the statement did not even mention the occupation army in Iraq!"
The Massacre of the Iraqi People is Aimed at Strengthening the U.S. Occupation in a Region Vital to American Interests
"Another question [to be raised] is whether the world is so naive as to believe the American statements, which claim that Washington has allocated $25 million for Al-Zarqawi's arrest or for information leading to his arrest. [After all,] why arrest Al-Zarqawi and allocate all these millions while he is working for America?
"In addition, why is Al-Zarqawi massacring innocent Iraqi citizens and [members of] the Iraqi National Guard, the Iraqi army and the Iraqi Interior Ministry? Al-Zarqawi undeniably aims to harm the Iraqi people and members of the Iraqi forces, who undergo training to protect [their] homeland in the future. This massacre of the Iraqi forces and the Iraqi people is meant to strengthen the American occupation of the region [that is known to be] the main route to Central Asia, formerly under USSR control, [and that is] rich in oil wells, and surrounds Iran and the Caspian Sea..."
Posted by: Scott R ||
06/16/2005 20:34
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#2
This theory is quite compelling ... to those lacking all logic and even minimal intellect. Here are some examples of flaws in reasoning that dive off the top of my head with the athleticism of an Alcapulco cliffdiver:
1. We conquered Iraq militarily. If we wanted to blow up some civilians for our jollies, we could do so without Zarqawi's help.
2. While Zarqawi is killing Iraqis, for the most part, they are often police officer candidates that we are expending assets to find, recruit and train.
3. His continued activity clearly demonstrates our inability to capture or kill him. Demonstrating effectiveness and competence is normally the sought after result of military action.
4. If Zarqawi is an American agent, then why are all the anti-American crowd (even in the US) lionizing him as a freedom-fighter or minuteman?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/16/2005 20:49
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#3
I, for one, would love a rumor on the Iraqi street that Zarqawi is a Joo. Maybe even some pictures of him dressed as a Rabbi. Imagine how with an ego like his, he would just go bananas.
#4
The LLL say MEMRI is a front for Mossad,if this true does this mean he ain't a US agent. Are they just saying this because He is an agent and they want us to believe he ain't an agent?
Being a moonbat must be tough, got to remember which is more important to buy today more of that killer weed or more reynolds wrap.
Posted by: bruce ||
06/16/2005 21:21
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#6
Do these people understand, that we could of wiped Iraq (except for the oil fields) off the face of the earth, and not had to put up with the constant attacks at us like Gitmo and Abu Garib. If we wanted to kill Iraq's it would of been easier, and we could could of shown the UN how many Nuclear weapons we got rid of, to make the world safer. Or is this the Middle East version of Scrabble face?
#10
Well, if the Z-Man is just another pawn of America (BWAHAHAHAHA), that makes him an infidel, right? And killing infidels is good, right? So everyone get busy and whack the Big Z for Allan.
Frankly, I don't see a downside to this story except maybe another pebble added to the mountain of evidence that islamic fundamentalists are fundamentally and completely insane.
Warning:"Performance Artist" at work.
Kerry Skarbakka does not fall to his death - he just pretends.
Skarbakka is a "performance photographer" who was inspired by the nightmare of 9/11 to don a business suit and mimic the desperate plunges of those who went out the windows of the doomed World Trade Center on that awful day. "It was such a tragic event for me," he said. "I was in Chicago and I watched it all on television." For his next project, maybe he can have a building collapse on him and vaporize himself.
Tuesday he put on a harness and had himself dropped, again and again, from the roof of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, tipped head-down and pinwheeling his arms for added effect while confederates snapped pictures that sell - he says - for thousands of dollars. "I can't afford the work I make," he quipped. Anybody seen PT Barnum around?
For Skarbakka, 34, who now lives in Brooklyn, the event is only one facet in a schtick of photographing himself falling under various circumstances - down staircases, over railings. We'll call this "Spaz Art".
"Falling is such a metaphor for life in general," he sighed, forgetting that falling was, for some people, not a metaphor at all but a cruel and pitiless reality that ended their lives and condemned their loved ones to a hell of grief. It kicks me in the gut to think about the still-grieving family members of those who faced that awful decision - death by fire or a fatal leap - who now have to see their personal tragedy converted into cheap street theater by a posturing poseur. Kerry don't use the harness next time. And go off of the Sears Tower. Really get into the experience.
I asked him what he had to say to those family members who might not appreciate his art as much as he does. Skarbakka quickly deflected the subject. "I have to be prepared for that," he said, and then talked about himself some more. "I had to express what I was feeling. I saw the people leaping from the building, felt so much admiration and a desire to understand how and what it would take to do that at that last moment ...." I speak "performance art" so I can translate. "Screw them. This is about ME! Look at ME! I'm an ARTISTE! ME! ME! ME!"
He went on, mentioning existentialism and Bush and the war, but you get the idea. Skarbakka was tired Wednesday after his ordeal of miming the tragedies of others. "Oh man, I'm emotionally bereft," he said. "I'm so spent from yesterday's giving of myself. It was really hard." Will somebody in Chicago please, PLEASE, go kick this guy's ass!
To be frank, that people will naturally be aghast at his artwork isn't what I find really gross about Skarbakka. I can't do what I do and condemn a guy for offending the public, no matter how cavalierly. What really astounds me is the falseness of what he claims to be doing. "The work is about control and lack of control," he said. Which is where we find the sickening lie. Because Skarbakka never loses control of the situation the way the 9/11 victims did. Just the opposite, he is creating a charade and passing it off as something genuine. A stock in trade of your "performance artist". That, and not getting a real job...
It is like putting on pale makeup and a hospital gown and pretending that you've touched upon the essence of being gravely ill. Not only does it not approach the reality of being sick, it misses by so much it ends up mocking those who are. Skarbakka aping something that is all too real for too many would be bad if he did it without any artistic pretense. But by pretending he is capturing a higher truth, he ridicules the fallen. Were he sincere, he'd go off the roof without a harness.But he isn't. Which also adds to the offense to those who think and feel for others. That's why performance art is invariably so lousy - it spits in the face of honest human reaction, all those trust fund frauds locking themselves in a bathroom and claiming it is in solidarity with actual prisoners who don't have Guggenheim fellowships. ...or NEA grants.
If Skarbakka is so confident, I wanted to know, would he restage his spectacle in New York City? "No, no," he said. "I don't think it would be in my best interest." It's really hard to do my "art" with a caved in face.
That being the case, I'm tempted to jump into the performance art world myself. I'm in the conceptual stages of a piece tentatively called "The Wrath of the Caring Human Being." It's still sketchy, but I know it will involve a performance artist -I'm holding out for Kerry Skarbakka - stripped to the waist and chained to a ring set in the sidewalk in front of the Daily News on W. 33rd St., while I stand over him with a cat o'nine tails, delivering a suitably symbolic number of lashes.
That, I believe, would be a piece of performance artwork that the average New Yorker could appreciate this morning. Sounds good. Set it up and I'll be there. I'll make a point of it to be there.
#3
His art gives me greater appreciation for the efforts of the famed Monkey Nut Nudger.
Now that he is finished with his latest opus, he can return to trying to ram Lindsey Lohan's vehicle. I, personally, am against legalizing drugs, but give this guy whatever he wants. With enough of a ready stash, I'm sure he will return to doping himself into somnabulance in his parents' basement where he belongs. Nobody affected by 9-11 should have to deal with any follow-on project from Kerry. Give him a hefty bag full of weed and don't spare the paraquat.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/16/2005 21:01
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#4
i'm not in chicago but if my airfare is payed for would gladly kick the shit out of him
FREED Australian hostage Douglas Wood flew to a secret Middle East location last night as his relieved family prepared to make a $100,000-plus donation to Iraqi charities.
Now that's nice, and an upstanding thing to do.
The 63-year-old engineer was recovering in hospital, but doctors said he was in surprisingly good shape after his 47-day ordeal. As his family celebrated his release, details emerged of the physical and mental degradation he suffered while held in various Baghdad locations. Mr Wood, who was kidnapped on the way to work on April 30, was handcuffed and bound for much of the time he spent in captivity. His captors also "badly corrupted" information about outside relief efforts, according to Nick Warner, the head of the Government's emergency response team in Baghdad. Mr Wood's elated wife, Yvonne Given, said her husband looked "great" despite his ordeal. Mr Wood had told her: "I'm healthy; when are you going to come and get me?"
"I thought he would be weak and he sounded just up and just my Doug," she said from the couple's home in California.
Looking surprisingly strong and in good spirits, the Australian engineer celebrated the end of his incarceration with a thumbs-up and asked Australian officials in Baghdad for a beer. "God bless America. You don't know how pleased I am to see you," he told his rescuers after a morning raid by Iraqi troops on a house in the northern Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya. As the news of his rescue beamed around the globe, Mr Wood told of the fear he felt in his final moments of captivity. "I wasn't sure what was happening," he recalled. "The first thing is there was a bit of shooting outside, then they came and covered me over with a blanket. And then there was still a lot of yelling and screaming. And then a gun, they actually fired inside the room. "That was a bit scary. I heard my fellow patient -- or whatever he was -- still alive and I'm still alive." Mr Wood even described his treatment as being "pretty fair", although he said he had been kicked in the head soon after being kidnapped enroute to a business meeting in the Iraqi capital on April 30. "I'm extremely happy and relieved to be free again and deeply grateful to all those who worked to bring about my release," he said.
#5
Just heard an Australian government minister say "All the details that can be made public, have been made public." He then went on to make a statement about the 'mufti' that strongly implied Wretchard is close to the truth and the 'mufti' inadvertantly led them to the kidnappers (probably using somekind of high tech surveillance based on what the minister said about the American role). My 2cworth is Wretchard has been told the true story and he is deliberating obfuscating (as he should).
#6
I'm glad he's alive, but now we can all expect to see more people taken so the terrorists can do it again.
Why are all of these un-military types over in Iraq anyway? Shouldn't we ensure that the area is safe before we bring in all of these other folks? We should let the Iraqi people rebuild their own. Use their people and their companies.
I would like to see all of the weapons taken out of the hands of everyone that isn't military. I don't care how lesser of a man it makes them feel.
It's a good thought anyway....
Posted by: Jan ||
06/16/2005 22:13
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Pirates attacked a supertanker anchored close to the Basra oil terminal in Iraq early yesterday morning, a shipping company announced today.
Christer Martensson, the Basra port manager for Gulf Agency Company (GAC) told Times Online the attack occurred between 3 and 3.30 am on Wednesday morning.
Three men armed men were spotted aboard the tanker, but escaped when the alarm was raised. There were no casualties.
"It was one of the night watchmen that saw them," said Mr Martensson, "He saw three men armed with an assault weapon and knives. He also saw a rifle. He managed to alert the bridge and the duty officer. When that happened, the pirates fled the vessel, into a small speedboat I think."
The attempted raid is the latest in a series of attacks on the deep water oil terminal, which exports most of Iraq's crude oil.
Yesterday's boarding comes just two weeks after pirates armed with AK-47 rifles attacked the crew of the Nord Millenium, a supertanker that was waiting to load oil.
Last year the terminal was targetted by a suicide boat attacks apparently launched by al-Qaeda.
Mr Martensson said that coalition troops have been providing increased security around the terminal and that GAC would continue to serve the port.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Wednesday, six US soldiers died in around the troubled city of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed five marines outside Ramadi and a sailor was killed by gunfire inside the town as Shia politicians stepped up their efforts to bring the Sunni region into the political process.
The casualties, announced this morning, brought Wednesday's death toll to 57, making it the bloodiest day of the last month in Iraq.
In the most significant attack, twenty-six new Iraqi soldiers were killed after a suicide bomber wearing a military uniform blew himself up in a mess tent at an army base in Khalis, about 45 miles north of Baghdad. The dead men had been queueing for lunch.
Also yesterday, the Iraqi Special Tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity over the coming months released a second videotape.
The latest tape, which has no sound, shows a judge questioning three senior members of Hussein's former government, including the dictator's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, who was handed over by Syrian authorities in February.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
14:57 ||
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#1
Mr Martensson said that coalition troops have been providing increased security around the terminal and that GAC would continue to serve the port.
Yeah - like snipers. Pick a few of these jackasses off, word will start to get out...
On the eve of Iran's presidential election, President Bush said the voting has been designed to keep power in the hands of a few rulers "through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy."
"The Iranian people deserve a genuinely democratic system in which elections are honest — and in which their leaders answer to them instead of the other way around," Bush said in a statement released by the White House Thursday. "And to the Iranian people, I say: As you stand for your own liberty, the people of America stand with you."
"Iran is ruled by men who suppress liberty at home and spread terror across the world," Bush said. "Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy. The June 17th presidential elections are sadly consistent with this oppressive record."
Some 500 people demonstrated in front of the main radio and television building in Tehran Thursday, calling on Iranians to boycott the polls because the process is unfair. But other reformists have urged against disillusionment, warning that a boycott could pave the way for a totalitarian state and help hard-liners consolidate their grip on power.
Bush said Iranians are heirs to a great civilization and deserve a government that honors their ideals with a free press and economy, freedom of religion and assembly and an independent judiciary.
"Today, the Iranian regime denies all these rights," Bush said. "It brutalizes its people and denies them their liberty."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
14:52 ||
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#1
Good for Bush.
No doubt he will be denouced by the EUrowimps and a few dhimmis.
Senior members of a Shiite-dominated committee drafting Iraq's new constitution reached a compromise Thursday with Sunni Arab groups on the number of representatives the minority will have on the body drafting the charter.
The agreement broke weeks of deadlock between the 55-member committee and Sunni Arabs over the size of their representation.
The stalemate had threatened to derail Iraq's political process as it was about to enter its final stretch, with two key nationwide votes later this year — a constitutional referendum and a general election.
Under the deal, 15 Sunni Arabs would join two members of the minority already on the committee. Another 10 Sunni Arabs would join, but only in an advisory capacity.
News of the deal was announced by two lawmakers who sit on the committee — Shiite Bahaa al-Aaraji and Sunni Arab Adnan al-Janabi. Both have led contacts with the Sunni Arab community over the size of their participation in the constitutional process.
They also attended a meeting Thursday with 70 representatives of the Sunni community over the issue.
The United States and the European Union have called for the inclusion of the Sunni Arabs in the drafting of the constitution to ensure the credibility and success of the process.
Al-Aaraji and al-Janabi said Sunni Arabs would submit a list of their candidates next week, and that parliament would subsequently issue a statement welcoming the expansion of the constitutional committee.
"It was a cordial meeting," al-Aaraji said. "They will set up a five-member committee to draw up a list of 15 candidates which they will submit to us in three days."
Because the 15 Sunni Arabs to be added are not elected members of parliament, they would join the committee's 55 legislators in a parallel body. That 70-member body would make decisions by consensus and pass them back to the 55 lawmakers for ratification.
The 15 new members are two more than what the chairman of the constitutional committee, Shiite cleric Hummam Hammoudi, had proposed Wednesday.
Leaders of the Sunni Arab community had wanted 25 people to join the two legislators already on the committee, but Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers balked at the demand. They argued that such a large number could be taken as a tacit acknowledgment that the minority was larger than estimated.
The compromise would give them two seats less than the Sunni Arabs, whose share of the population is equal to theirs.
Iraq's 275-seat parliament, elected in historic January elections that were boycotted by most Sunni Arabs, has until Aug. 15 to prepare a new constitution that will be put to a nationwide referendum two months later. If approved, it will serve as the basis for a new general election to be held in December.
A Sunni Arab boycott allowed the Shiites and Kurds to win the majority of seats in parliament. There are only 17 Sunni Arabs on the body.
The deadlock over Sunni Arab participation in the constitutional process has stoked sectarian tensions in Iraq and coincided with a marked escalation in the two-year, Sunni-dominated insurgency.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
14:44 ||
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The group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's pointman in Iraq, launched a scathing attack on the Al-Jazeera satellite TV network on Thursday. A message posted to several Islamic websites read: "Al-Jazeera television besmirches the image of the mujahadeen in the eyes of its viewers, using the language of the United States." It is signed by Abu Maysira al-Iraqi.
"We have had enough of al-Jazeera's bias - and of the efforts you make to kowtow to the crusaders and the traitor government (of Iraq). Publicise the fact that you sit on the fence, why your channel is the mouthpiece of the Americans, and that you do not transmit the true words of the mujahadeen," the message continued.
"Your systematic distortion of the image of the mujahadeen is nothing more than an attempt to discredit us. Your brothers at al-Qaeda's information division in Iraq will continue to tell the truth and broadcast it," the message said.
Earlier this year, al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad terror formation posted a similar website message condemning al-Jazeera's rival, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV.
This article starring:
ABU MAISIRA AL IRAQI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
14:44 ||
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#1
...and the paranoia gets a little deeper.
Gonna miss your buddy there, Shieky?
#4
Later when asked about the report Ted Turner commented:
"Hey I got rid of CNN and all of it's worldwide subsidaries long ago. Any internal squabbles they may have need to go through either CNN headquarters, the NYT, or the LA Times. Now beat it, I have to look at myself in the mirror again."
"Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and other Idiots Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee (sic) were conducting a public lynching forum Thursday, prompted by documents that have surfaced from inside the British government about pre-war planning."
After which they will no doubt declare Bush 'Hitler' and pronounce him guilty. The Republicans refused to let Conyers conduct his witch-hunt on Capital Hill so they slithered over to the DNC HQ to do this in public. I wonder if CSPAN or CNN will cover this live?
"Bush should respond to questions raised by the Downing Street memo, says a letter signed by Conyers and over 90 other members of Caucus of Idiots Congress, as well as a half-million Americans LLLs."
This dovetails nicely into the latest screed that equates our troops at gitmo as Nazi SS, Pol Pots killers, and the KGB. Someone should ask the Dems: "Do you really want to run on that platform?" I can't see how this will prove to be a winning strategy for them. The only people who will even pay attention to this are:
1) Rantburgers who love to make fun of them
2) Kool Aid drinkers
3) The Tin Foil Hat squad
4) Phrance
#1
Conyers is in the running for biggest traitor in Congress. Unlike, say, McKinney, he doesn't believe most of the far-out stuff. He just uses it to destroy the USA.
Since I am in the Ninth Circuit, which says death threats to the President are protected speech, is it OK to call for Conyer's death? Or is the server located in a different circuit? Wouldn't want to cause Fred any trouble.
Man, when will these guys (like the UN) stop lollygagging around about Hamas "Political wing" vs. it's "Miltary wing"? And note that US Diplomats stated there's a softening on our position w/ Hamas, but the White House says there's been no change. Condi needs to clean house and quick!
Posted by: BA ||
06/16/2005
13:54 ||
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#1
I forget...
What was Britain's position on the Sinn Fein, IRA "political wing"
#2
Yeah talkings with Nazi political wing was supposed to teach something. But History is the most negleted discipline here in Europe. Worst blind is that dont want see.
A strain of bird flu infecting poultry in North Korea is different from that which killed scores of people in other parts of Asia, a UN expert has said. Hans Wagner, an official for the Food and Agriculture Organization, said the birds were infected with the H7 strain. The strain that has decimated poultry stocks and caused recent human deaths in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam is the more virulent H5N1 strain. North Korea has culled 219,000 birds to tackle the outbreak, Mr Wagner said.
"We have a new situation, because H7 has so far not occurred in Asia," he told reporters. We don't know where the virus came from," he said, adding that UN experts would now try to trace the source of the infection, to prevent future outbreaks. H7 can cause illness in humans, but outbreaks of the strain have not been as severe as those caused by H5N1. H5N1 has killed almost 50 people since its resurgence in South East Asia in December 2003. When North Korea first announced that three of its farms had been infected with bird flu last month, analysts warned that the virus could wipe out the poverty-stricken country's chicken industry. Poultry production is one of the few growing sectors in North Korea, which has relied on foreign aid to feed its people since the mid-1990s.
An Indonesian poultry worker has tested positive for bird flu, in the country's first human case of the disease that has so far killed 54 people in Southeast Asia, health officials said Thursday. The worker on the island of Sulawesi is showing no symptoms of the disease, but blood tests show he was exposed to the H5N1 strain of the disease and has produced antibodies to it, said Hariadi Wibisono, director for the eradication of diseases transmitted by animals at the health ministry. "This is the first case found," said Dr. Georg Petersen, WHO's representative in Indonesia. The bird virus has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of East and Southeast Asia. Tens of millions of chickens have either died or been slaughtered, while 38 people have died in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four from Cambodia since late 2003.
#2
There are persistent rumours of bird flu in humans in China. Once a pandemic starts it will spread astonishingly quickly. Far more quickly than we can respond.
#3
hhmmmmmm - what's the price of gauze masks ? Buy!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2005 19:18
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"The worker... is showing no symptoms of the disease, but blood tests show he was exposed to the H5N1 strain of the disease and has produced antibodies to it..."
If I had a nickel for everything I have produced antibodies to...
Right now I rank this somewhere between global warming and another Kerry run in 2008.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/16/2005 19:33
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#5
Tom? Between chicken little and chicken shit?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2005 19:53
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#6
BINGO!
Posted by: Tom ||
06/16/2005 20:11
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#7
Sorry lads, they've been expecting it since the 1980s. They know it's coming, and they know it will kill people in impressive numbers. They have been spending millions just trying to track the SOB. Even the Norks get reasonable on the subject. Right now they are watching it happen, and are powerless to stop it. Prepare for 1-1/2 to 2 years of scary.
Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq gave the U.S.-backed government another 72 hours to free women prisoners, threatening to kill 36 Iraqi soldiers it holds hostage if it does not comply, according to an Internet statement on Thursday.
"We, the al Qaeda Organisation in Iraq, announce extending the deadline to kill the 36 soldiers from the infidel guards to the next 72 hours," the group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.
"Release the helpless Muslim women from the Interior Ministry prisons and other jails," it added.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the statement, which was signed off with a name that usually accompanies the group's official announcements.
The Sunni Muslim group, which has often abducted and killed officials and soldiers, said a high-ranking officer was among the 36 troops it was holding.
The group said in an Internet posting on June 9 that it was holding the soldiers, and gave the Iraqi government 24 hours to release all women prisoners. It later extended the deadline by 72 hours and said it was interrogating the soldiers.
Iraqi police said on June 8 that 22 Iraqi soldiers from the mainly Shi'ite Muslim south had been kidnapped after leaving their base in the town of Qaim, a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim insurgency near the Syrian border in western Iraq.
Two days later, witnesses said the bodies of 16 people killed execution-style had been found dead in western Iraq, but it was not clear if the victims, who were in civilian clothes, were the soldiers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
13:22 ||
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Start executing one "female prisoner" (aka Dr. Death and Mrs. Germ) a day until the hostages are released.
Rooters Dudes: see, there was this election back in January, -- you remember the thing with all the purple fingers? -- so how about we change that phrase to "popularly backed government" or "elected government." Otherwise, people might think you were suggesting it was a puppet regime, and I'm sure you don't mean that.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/16/2005 14:28
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Russian prosecutors have determined that a former separatist Chechen official who was the subject of a book by U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov ordered his murder, a spokesman said Thursday, announcing the resolution of one of the highest-profile killings in Russia in a decade.
Vasiliy Lushchenko, a spokesman for prosecutor general's office, identified the suspected mastermind as Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev.
He said a total of four people are suspected of involvement in the killing; two are in police custody and two are still at large.
Klebnikov, a 41-year-old American of Russian descent who was editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, was gunned down last July outside the magazine's Moscow offices.
Alexander Gordeyev, a colleague from the Russian edition of Newsweek who came to Klebnikov's aid, told The Associated Press then that the dying journalist couldn't say who could have been behind the attack.
At the time, speculation was rife about a connection with Klebnikov's work at Forbes, which two months earlier had published a list of Russia's 100 wealthiest people that was said to have annoyed many in the nation's secretive business elite.
But there was also ample speculation on Klebnikov's book, "Conversations With a Barbarian," which cast Nukhayev and other Chechen rebels in a sharply negative light. The book was based on his interviews with Nukhayev, a former deputy prime minister in the Chechen separatist government.
"From the point of view of logic, the most obvious trail is the Chechen trail," said business commentator Yulia Latynina, who theorized that the book was seen by Nukhayev's circle as a stain on his honor.
But Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center of Journalism in Extreme Situations, cast doubt on the likelihood that Nukhayev was behind Klebnikov's killings. "My main argument is that there have been lots of bad books written about Chechens," Panfilov said. "Why go after Klebnikov?"
He suggested that prosecutors had announced a resolution to the case in hopes of heading off pressure from the U.S. authorities, who have been pushing Moscow to investigate the case thoroughly. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists is planning a conference in Moscow in July to focus on journalists who have been killed on the job, which Panfilov said could have provided another impetus to prosecutors to close the case.
Authorities have said two Chechens, Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev, were in custody. Investigators revealed last week that the two were also believed to have been involved in the slaying in Moscow last year of Yan Sergunin, a former official in Chechnya's Moscow-backed government.
Klebnikov also was widely known for a book about controversial tycoon Boris Berezovsky. After Klebnikov wrote a profile of Berezovsky for Forbes in 1996, Berezovsky filed a libel suit against the magazine in Britain. He withdrew the suit in 2003 after the publication acknowledged it was wrong to allege he was involved in the murder of television personality Vladislav Listyev.
This article starring:
Chechnya
KAZBEK DUKUZOV
Chechnya
KHOZH AKHMED NUKHAIEV
Chechnya
MUSA VAKHAIEV
Chechnya
Paul Klebnikov
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
13:19 ||
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#3
To say that stars aren't good role models is, I think, painting with too broad a brush. Sure, sure, Betelgeuse is red and bloated, and Alpha Centauri lives in some sort of group marriage arrangement. But our own sun is the perfect example of a modest, unassuming, and useful star. Oh, not glamorous, of course. Perhaps by being there for us, every day, we tend to forget how...
Damn! I got a dentist appointment that day! Damn!
SAN FRANCISCO, June 15 - Organizers of a celebration here to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations had expressed concern for weeks that the Bush administration would shun the event as a snub to the world body. Damn! The dog ate my plane tickets! Damn!
On Wednesday, organizers learned that big-name invitees - among them, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - would not attend. Yeah, sorry about that. We're...ummmmmmmmmmmmm...washing our hair. Give our 15 course meals to some homeless guys...
In their place, said Nancy L. Peterson, president of the United Nations Association of San Francisco, the administration indicated that it would send Ambassador Sichan Siv, the United States representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Guess the White House Dog Shit Picker Upper Guy had another commitment or else he'd be going.
"I am just reading into this that the administration is taking a very dubious stance symbolically toward the importance of the United Nations to the American people," she said. That's very perceptive of you, Nancy.
A State Department spokesman confirmed that Mr. Siv would attend the event, which will be held on June 25 and 26, citing scheduling conflicts for Ms. Rice and for Robert B. Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state. "Secretary Rice and Deputy Secretary Zoellick have numerous commitments and invitations," the spokesman, Noel Clay, said. "At times, they will conflict, but it is not a slight whatsoever." Noooooooooooo! Certainly not! We love you thieving, anti-American bastards over there at Turtle Bay!
Posted by: Tommy Hook: Whistle Blower ||
06/16/2005
12:48 ||
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"I'm sorry you're all a bunch of worthless douchebags."
#5
How the LLL and MSM must be twisting off at this news. Bush should give Bolton a recess appointment and then send him there with instructions to look mean.
...or something like that.
Korea Times:
Dong-A to Challenge Multinationals in Anti-Impotence Drug Market And that's some stiff competition, I'm guessin'...
A top aide to Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, the US military revealed.
Mohammed Khalaf Shakar, also known as Abu Talha, is "Zarqawi's most trusted operations agent in all of Iraq," a military statement said Thursday.
"This is a major defeat for the Al-Qaeda's terrorist organisation in Iraq. Zarqawi's leader in Mosul is out of business," said US Air Force Brigadier General Donald Alston.
According to the military statement, he surrendered to US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday without a fight in "a quiet neighbourhood in Mosul" after they were led to his whereabouts by "multiple intelligence sources."
"According to former Talha associates, Talha never stayed more than one night at any one residence," the statement added. Alston, the new top military spokesman, told reporters in Baghdad: "Numerous reports indicated he wore a suicide vest 24 hours a day and stated he would never surrender. Instead Talha gave up without a fight."
Iraqi authorities said recently they had captured one of Abu Talha's most trusted aides and his financial manager, Motleq Mahmud Motleq Abdullah, also known as Abu Raed, in Mosul on May 28. They had also announced the arrest of another Zarqawi aide in Mosul known as Mullah Mehdi.
Abu Talha is accused of masterminding some of the deadliest attacks against US and Iraqi forces in Mosul. Iraq's third-largest city, it has been a major front for the insurgency since November. "Talha fell like so many others fall, and that is through a combination of factors that ultimately catch up to him," Alston said. "In his case like so many others along the way, civilians helped us get closer to him."
The Iraqi government said in early March that 11 of Zarqawi's top aides were captured and seven killed and that Abu Talha was the most significant man in the network left standing. In a diagram of the network released at the time Abu Talha is shown mustachioed with a full head of hair and appears to be in his 30s.
This article starring:
ABU RAED
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU TALHA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Brigadier General Donald Alston
MOHAMED KHALAF SHAKAR
al-Qaeda in Iraq
MOTLEQ MAHMUD MOTLEQ ABDULLAH
al-Qaeda in Iraq
MULLAH MEHDI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
12:29 ||
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#1
I heard he was singing like a canary. We can only hope that this cockraoch will help turn over more rocks...and more cockroaches will die or sing like canaries.
#2
A top aide to Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured...
They're all top aides and lieutenants. Who'd admit to being the 'gofor' or 'second backup to the third in line suicide candidate'? They're all there for glory [of killing women and children at the market place] and their 72 virgins.
Board members of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency approved a deal Thursday that exempts Saudi Arabia from nuclear inspections, despite serious misgivings about the arrangement in an era of heightened proliferation fears.
Although the Saudis resisted Western pressure to compromise and allow some form of monitoring, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency had no choice but to allow it to sign on to the agreement.
Called the small quantities protocol, the deal allows countries whose nuclear equipment or activities are thought to be below a minimum threshold to submit a declaration instead of undergoing inspection.
IF the polls and pundits can be believed, Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will move a step closer to regaining the presidency of Iran in tomorrow's national elections. And while the Iranian people will view the results with a mixture of resignation and boredom (turnout is unlikely to top 30 percent), Mr. Rafsanjani's rehabilitation will be welcomed in Paris, London, Berlin and, most unfortunately, Washington.
The Western powers are betting that Mr. Rafsanjani, a billionaire businessman who was Iran's president from 1989 to 1997, will either win an outright majority tomorrow or be elected in a two-candidate runoff on July 1. They feel that he - _unlike the current, "reformist" president, Mohammed Khatami - may cut a deal to give up Iran's nuclear weapons program. Such hopes are profoundly misplaced.
Ever since the trans-Atlantic meltdown over the American-led invasion of Iraq, European leaders have been eager to prove the value of so-called soft power: that supposedly magic mixture of diplomacy, economic incentives and cultural coercion. So for more than a year Britain, France and Germany have been negotiating with Iran, trying to get the mullahs to stop producing enriched uranium and dismantle their illicit nuclear program.
Unsurprisingly, the Iranians have toyed with the Europeans, making agreements, breaking them, making more and then threatening to break those, too. By this spring it was all too clear that the regime didn't take the process seriously. Then Mr. Rafsanjani came back on the scene, offering the Europeans a lifeline.
"I believe the main solution is to gain the trust of Europe and America and to remove their concerns over the peaceful nature of our nuclear industry," he told reporters upon announcing his candidacy in May. European diplomats quickly let it be known that negotiations were on hold until their man was back in office.
Washington sipped the Rafsanjani Kool-Aid more warily, but so far it has offered no better way forward. President Bush was right to induct Iran into the axis of evil in 2002, but he has yet to come up with a coherent policy. There has been no real outreach to the opposition; no plan to contain Iran's regional designs. The Europeans' game is the only game; and if they like Mr. Rafsanjani, so do we, apparently.
The Iranian people, however, are less easily had. In his first tour as president, Mr. Rafsanjani cemented a reputation as a corrupt and power-hungry wheeler-dealer. He crushed personal freedoms and presided over a sharp economic downturn. He ushered in a particularly aggressive phase of Iranian sponsorship of terrorism - including alleged roles in the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed more than 80, and in the assassinations of several Iranian exiles, including former Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar in 1991.
Few in Iran lamented the end of his tenure in 1997, and in 2000 a thinly disguised account of his regime's brutality became a best seller. That year he was humiliated in parliamentary elections, finishing 30th in his district, and his political career seemed over.
His comeback is due not to popular demand, but to the machinations of the mullahs. Of the thousand-plus registered candidates for the presidential election, all but eight were disqualified by the unelected Guardian Council. A spokesman for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remarked that with a Rafsanjani victory, "We will finally be able to have for ourselves the atomic bomb to fairly stand up to Israeli weapons." And we expect to catch a break from this man?
Let's face it: scheming to make deals with the mullah of the moment is not policymaking. Yes, Iran is a thorny problem. But it is best tackled through a robust program to support the rights of the Iranian people, including imprisoned journalists and beleaguered women; of diplomatic isolation for Iran's dictators; of zero tolerance for the sponsorship of terrorism (even if this means freezing bank accounts, closing off borders and denying visas); and of more aggressive efforts to cut off the shipments of missile and nuclear technology and hardware into Iran.
Such policies may rub our allies the wrong way, but they have more potential value than the empty promises and false charm of the man known in Iran as "the Shark."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/16/2005
12:28 ||
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#1
apparently Rafsanjani is especially disliked by the merchantile class because he and his minions have skimmed off a lot of the businesses for his own pockets
the nickname 'shark' would correspond to 'babyface' since the term came about because of Raf's sparse facial hair.
#2
Years ago, "Spy" magazine ran a 'separated at birth' series showing him looking much like Peter Sellers, as Inspector Clouseau in disguise with a bulbous speckled nose.
From a former intel operative who still has more than a few contacts 'in country'.
Two US citizens, Ebrahim Yazdi and Houshang AmirAhmadi, have registered as candidates in the June 17, 2005, Presidential election in Iran. They have, however, about the same chance of approval to be on the ballot as the low level factory guard, Abolghassem Khaki, from a remote desert town of Mehbod, or Ebrahim Sarraf (name means moneychanger...
{article summarizes just about everyone from monarchists to the MEK to the Islamists to the psuedo reformers]
SAMANA, Patiala, India, June 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) — The sleepy north Indian town of Samana, 28 kilometers from Patiala in the north state of Punjab, could become a major pilgrimage center for Shiites in the Indo-Pak Subcontinent following the discovery of a tomb said to belong to a son of Imam Ali Rada, the eighth descendant of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The tomb was discovered by chance during the visit of Lahore High Court Judge, Shabbar Rizvi, to Samana about three months ago, when the stone at the shrine was cleared.
Just "happened" to find it, huh?
Rizvi, whose family emigrated from Samana at the time of Partition, told the local administration that a great saint lies buried at the place and asked them to clear the place. Upon clearing it the inscription emerged. The tomb is located in a large compound which is about four kilometers outside Samana town. It has an impressive Mughal style gate but the structures inside are in need of urgent repair. A number of graves are found all over the place.
The Persian epitaph planted in the wall facing the grave seems to be recent and made by a novice, according to IslamOnline.net's correspondent.
Recently carved, huh? Why, then it must be true.
It reads: "Tomb of Hazrat Imam Mash-had Ali son of Imam Ali Moosa Rada. Built by Ajruddin Khan Mughal son of Bakhsh Allah Khan in the month of Blessed Ramadan 967 Hijri corresponding to Year 4 of Emperor Akbar."
The Chief Minister of the Indian state of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh, has ordered the concerned authorities to start working on the site immediately so that it could be declared a tourist atraction sacred place.
Since its discovery, the tomb has been thronged by a host of important Shiite dignitaries, including scholars from Lucknow and diplomats from the Iranian embassy in Delhi. They are now working on plans for its restoration and renovation and the Punjab State Waqf Board has appointed a caretaker to stay at Samana to take care of the tomb.
Some scholars say Imam Sayyid Mash-had Ali was buried here about 1200 years ago and the town of Samana also takes its name from his mother, according to IOL's correspondent. Facts related to this have been confirmed with old religious books, sources argued.
Translated by equally old religious scholars
Our correspondent says he did not find Mash-had as one of the sons of Imam Ali Rada who, according to historical sources, had only two sons: Ali (the ninth Shiite Imam) and Moosa. According to some sources, he also had a third son called Yahya.
But why let facts get in the way of a new holy site of Islam
A team comprising Indian Shiite scholar Maulana Kalbe Jawwad and two functionaries of the Iranian Embassy in Delhi accompanied by Dr Nasir Naqvi, a teacher of Punjabi University, visited the tomb a few days ago.
Jawwad told IOl that while visiting Delhi recently he was told that there existed a tomb of a "saint" who is said to be from the pedigree of the Eighth or the Ninth Imam of the Shiites. He added that the tomb exists from the time of Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbär, who was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from the time of his accession in 1556 until 1605. During his visit to the place, the Shiite scholar was told that Sayyids [ the title often given to descendants of Prophet Muhammad] were living at the place but after Partition it was ruined as the Muslim inhabitants emigrated to Pakistan.
Jawwad said that he would be leaving for Iran on 11 July to track the history of the tomb and if proved it would be the greatest religious site of Shiite Muslims in the Subcontinent as there is no proof that any descendant of the Prophet is buried in South Asia.
Like I said, why let a little thing like proof get in the way
He is thinking of facilitating the transfer of about 5000 Shiite families to Samana in order to inhabit the place and take care of the tomb.
The Iran Cultural House in Delhi is planning to hold a seminar on this discovery in Chandigarh.
First a holy site, then a Shiite community then a demand for a seperate state
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
11:49 ||
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#9
"The Persian epitaph planted in the wall facing the grave seems to be recent and made by a novice"
LOL -- Where's your "handwriting on the wall" graphic, Fred?
Posted by: Tom ||
06/16/2005 20:10
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#10
Lets ensure those pedigrees are validated... another saint might be hidden in there too!
A top French court jailed three men for terrorist conspiracy on Thursday after finding them guilty of helping "shoebomber" Richard Reid, who narrowly failed to destroy a U.S. airliner over the Atlantic. The court found they had helped Reid during his stay in Paris ahead of his abortive attempt to destroy a Paris-Miami American Airlines flight mid-Atlantic in December 2001 with a bomb hidden inside one of his shoes. Jacqueline Rebeyrotte, presiding judge at the main Paris criminal court, sentenced Ghulam Rama to five years in prison and expulsion from France once his sentence was served. Rama, 67, a Pakistani with joint British nationality, has already spent three years in jail awaiting trial. It was not immediately clear if he would appeal.
His co-accused, Frenchmen Hakim Mokhfi and Hassan El Cheguer, both aged 31, were each jailed for four years, one year suspended. The court ordered them released as they have been in preventive detention since June 2002. All three men had pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, the court heard that according to French intelligence, Rama had used trips to Britain, New York, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia between 2001 and 2002 as cover while he organized terrorist attacks. A French probe on Reid's activities in France revealed he had used a Paris cyber cafe to contact Pakistan, a trail that led them to Rama, president of the Straight Path Muslim charity. Rama told police he saw Mokhfi and Cheguer with Reid. His lawyer said before the trial began that Rama was sick and confused when police first asked him if he recognized a photograph of Reid. The French pair deny ever meeting Reid. On the first day of the trial, Rebeyrotte read out a French intelligence report that said Rama met several people thought to be close to al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and other known Islamic extremists.
Fellow passengers overpowered Reid as he tried to detonate the custom-made device on the airliner. The British national was jailed for life by a U.S. court in January 2003.
This article starring:
GHULAM RAMA
al-Qaeda
HAKIM MOKHFI
al-Qaeda
HASAN EL CHEGUER
al-Qaeda
Jacqueline Rebeyrotte
RICHARD REID
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
11:43 ||
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Another "jihadi hero". So stupid, he couldn't even light a match...
HEREFORD, England, June 16 (UPI) -- The world's oldest married man, Percy Arrowsmith, who said marital happiness was based on the words "Yes, Dear," died in England at the age of 105.
Yup, that's how mine works
Percy Arrowsmith died peacefully at his home with his wife Florence, 100, at his side Wednesday morning, the BBC reported. The couple celebrated their 80th anniversary June 1, earning them a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's longest-married couple.
I remember going to my grandparents 50th when I was a little boy. They almost made 60 before Grampa Joe passed away.
Speaking to reporters at their home in Hereford at the time, the couple said their success was based on still being in love and not going to bed angry.
Arrowsmith is survived by his wife, three children, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Rest easy, Percy.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
11:27 ||
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Lingering in the icy hand of Thanatos, waiting for the sweet release of death/His prayer finally answered, his pain relieved, that blissful freedom of annihilation/Comes none too swift, but in coming, without cruel delay or trepidation, steals.
#3
They also got a note from the queen on their 80th. Prince Chuck sent instructions for them not to tell their secret to mom, The one whose mom lived to 101.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/16/2005 15:41
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#4
Olde Joke
Outline:
Reporter: What do you attribute your 105 yr life.
Old Man: Clean living
WHAM!
Repoter: What in the hell was that?
Old Man: Nothin, Mum just hit Pop with a fry pan for coming home drunk at mid morn again.
I guess Bush should have backed Katherine Harris, after all. Sen. Mel Martinez, the Senate candidate Bush backed instead of Harris, has become the first Republican to call for shutting down Guantanamo. Martinez hasn't said where the 500 or so suspected al-Qaida operatives currently at Gitmo should be transferred to, but I understand the Neverland Ranch might soon be available. Maybe Sen. Arlen Specter — the liberal Republican Bush backed instead of conservative Pat Toomey, which still didn't help Bush in Pennsylvania — will step forward to defend the Bush administration. That Karl Rove is a genius.
Martinez explained his nonsensical call for the closing of Guantanamo by asking: "Is it serving all the purposes you thought it would serve when initially you began it, or can this be done some other way a little better?"
There are Arabs locked up at Guantanamo, no? Admittedly, not enough. (And not under what any frequent flier would describe as "harsh conditions.") Still and all, Arabs are locked up there. That is what we call a "purpose."
By becoming a focus of evil for human-rights groups, Martinez suggested, Guantanamo has become a recruiting tool for al-Qaida: "It's become an icon for bad stories," Martinez said, "and at some point you wonder the cost-benefit ratio." (I've been wondering the same thing about Mel Martinez.) This is preposterous. NBC's "The West Wing" is an icon for bad stories; Gitmo is a place where we keep an eye on evil, dangerous people who want to kill us.
Martinez was borrowing a point from Sen. Joe Biden — which is always a dangerous gambit because you never know who said it originally. The "Biden" version was: "I think more Americans are in jeopardy as a consequence of the perception that exists worldwide with its existence than if there were no Gitmo." So if people around the world believe that if they try to kill Americans they might go to a bad, scary place called Guantanamo, that will make them more likely to kill Americans? How about doing a cost-benefit ratio on that analysis?
Let's also pause to ponder the image of the middle-of-the-road, "centrist" jihadist who could be "recruited" to jihad by reports about abuse at Guantanamo. You know — the kind of guy who just watches al-Jazeera for the sports and hits the "mute" button whenever they start in about the Jews again, already. Liberals want us to believe such a person exists and that he is perusing newspaper articles about Guantanamo trying to decide whether to finish his coffee and head off to work or to place a backpack filled with dynamite near a preschool.
Note to liberals: That doesn't happen.
What happens is this: There are thousands of Muslim extremists literally dying to slaughter Americans, and only three proven ways to stop them: (1) Kill them (the recommended method), (2) capture them and keep them locked up, or (3) convince them that their cause is lost. Guantanamo is useless for No. 1, but really pulls ahead on No. 2 and No. 3 (i.e., a "purpose"). Let's just hope aspiring jihadists are not reading past the headlines and discovering that what Amnesty International means by "the gulag of our time" is: No Twinkie rewards for detainees!
That's not a joke. As described in infuriating detail by Heather MacDonald in the Winter, 2005, City Journal, interrogators at Guantanamo are not allowed to:
yell at the detainees, except in extreme circumstances and only after alerting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — and never in the ears;
serve the detainees cold meals, except in extreme circumstances;
poke the detainees in the chest or engage in "light pushing" without careful monitoring and approval from the commander of the U.S. Southern Central Command in Miami;
reward detainees (for example, for not throwing feces at the guards that day) with a Twinkie or a McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwich in the absence of express approval from the secretary of defense. (I suppose it goes without saying, "supersizing" their order is strictly forbidden under any circumstances.)
Without careful monitoring, interrogators aren't even allowed to subject the detainees to temperature changes, unpleasant odors or sleep cycle disruptions. But on the bright side, they are allowed to play Christina Aguilera music and feed the savages the same food our soldiers eat rather than their usual orange-glazed chicken. That isn't sarcasm; these are the rules.
No cold meals, sleep deprivation or uncomfortable positions? Obviously, what we need to do is get the U.S. Army to serve drinks on commercial airlines and get the airlines to start supervising the detainees in Guantanamo. American soldiers make do with C-rations. Dinner on an America West flight from New York to Las Vegas consists of one small bag of peanuts. Meanwhile, one recent menu for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo consisted of orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit crepe, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf.
Sounds like the sort of thing you'd get at Windows on the World — if it still existed.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
10:53 ||
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"Sounds like the sort of thing you'd get at Windows on the World â if it still existed." Ouch!
But Ann - what about the FBI guy who saw the freezing and roasting guys chained in the fetal position? That made me feel bad. Now the orange-glazed chicken - that sort of takes the edge off.... But I bet the peas slopped over into the rice pilaf. I hate that!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/16/2005 11:15
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#2
No, I like my peas mixed with the rice. But you can have all my mushrooms...I'm allergic to them.
#4
I can only eat peas if the are mixed with a starch and I HATE fungus on my plate. I probably wouldn't touch the fresh fruit crepe because it sounds phrench to me and I don't eat phrench phood. One thing I can say after 20 years in the service is that the Air Force has the best food of the three.
Interrogators are now authorized to use the following phrases:
1)"Pretty please"
2)"Pretty, pretty please"
3)"Pretty, pretty, pretty, please"
3)"Would you like the non-alcohlic Martini
shaken, not stirred?"
Note: Authorization to hold a cute puppy dog next to your face while you say it only authorized if it has been determiuned that the detainee does not have and never has had allergic reactions to dogs of any type. Also, said dog requires a Top Secret clearance, a mandatory debrief, and After Action Review session after every interrogation.
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been taken to hospital with a heart problem, the government said on Thursday. Doctors have suggested that Dr Khan undergo angioplasty within a few days, a private news channel reported. Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Dr Khan had been provided all necessary medical facilities and was under the continuous observation of doctors. "He has had some heart pressure ... and he may have angioplasty surgery in the next two or three days," Reuters quoted Sheikh Rashid Ahmed as saying.
Khan was taken from his Islamabad home to a military hospital in Rawalpindi after developing heart problems on Wednesday, according to an official source, who wished to remain anonymous. The scientist had been suffering from stress and was receiving treatment for hypertension, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
10:46:44 PM ||
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If he's under stress, that's good for us, right?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/16/2005 23:43
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PARIS IN JUNE OR RAMALLAH IN JUNE? HA! A TOUGH CALL!
Suha Arafat, the widow of Yasser Arafat, has been invited to visit Ramallah to identify personal items belonging to her late husband. Palestinian Authority (PA) officials want to positively identify items believed to have belonged to the late terrorist leader as preparations continue for a Ramallah museum in his memory. YES! THAT'S HIS OXYGEN HOSE! I RECOGNIZE THE GUCCI FOOTPRINT ON IT! CAN I GO THROUGH THE OLD UNIFORMS! THERE MIGHT BE SOME CHANGE IN THE POCKETS I MISSED!
If Arafat's widow does accept the invitation, it will be her first visit to the area since her husband died in a French hospital over six months ago. I'VE BEEN... BUSY! SETTING UP MY NEW...EMAIL BUSINESS VENTURES! I'M A GRIEVING WIDOW WITH A CHILD TO SUPPORT! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
Mrs. Arafat may not accept the invitation, fearing legal action by the PA since she has been accused of making off with tens of millions of dollars of PA funds, much from donor nations — that made its way to private Arafat bank accounts. JUST TRY, YOU BASTARDS! I'LL HAVE HIM DUG UP AND STUFFED AND PUT HIM IN MY OWN MUSEUM! AND CHARGE DOUBLE WHAT YOU DO! BASTARDS!
AND WHERE'S THE DAMNED KRUGGERRANDS!!
Watch out for the "crossfire"
Posted by: K. Annan ||
06/16/2005
10:27 ||
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...fearing legal action by the PA since she has been accused of making off with tens of millions of dollars of PA funds, much from donor nations â that made its way to private Arafat bank accounts.
Gotta love that part. The thieves are pissed she ripped off the boodle that the Head Thief stole.
#2
I doubt that it's "legal action" she's worried about. I suspect it's more the thought of being worked over by a team of Hamas interrogators using pliers and a rubber hose that's on her mind.
Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces captured the leader of Al-Qaida in the Mosul region June 14. Muhammad Khalaf Shakar, also known as Abu Talha, is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's most trusted operations agent in all of Iraq. He was captured without incident. Multiple intelligence sources led Coalition forces to Abu Talha's location in a quiet neighborhood in Mosul. According to former Talha associates, Talha never stayed more than one night at any one residence, and always wore a suicide vest, saying he would never surrender. Talha gave up peacefully to Coalition forces and supporting Iraqi Security Forces, and is fully cooperating with Coalition and Iraqi officials.
#6
Most of all I like the "he gave up peacefully and is fully cooperating". People will see high ranking Al Quaida as just a bunch of coards. And those he knew will get nervous. Of course many jihadists will refuse to believe about his cowardice
#9
"Typical Jihadi pussy." Yup that is typical of the leadership that always claim that they will never be taken alive, but somehow the great Satin (with it's Zionists cohorts) manage to trick them all into surrendering. At least the Hussein brother put up a fight before they were killed.
#12
Chicken shit.....just like the rest of them. Convincing others to blow themselves to bits then raising the white flag when their life is in danger of ending.
#13
#!/usr/bin/perl -killjihadis
use WEAPON::Simple;
$muslim = shift @MuslimTerrorSuspect
my $tolerance = 0;
$brainwave = 1;
while ($muslim) {
if ($muslim == "jihadis"){
$muslim .. "is a big freakin pussy";
while ($brainwave) {
my $useweapon = new WEAPON::SIMPLE::Basballbat(); # use == side of head...sent to allan
}
$brainwave = 1;}
$muslim = shift @MuslimTerrorSuspect;
}
#18
Always use eq to compare strings, anymouse. Dan, Perl isn't French. It can be made into Latin, however.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/16/2005 21:47
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#19
Abu Raad (Talha's consiglierie) was arrested 2 weeks ago. Guess he decided to rat out his boss in record time. Here hoping Talha rats out Zman. Break out the Panties of Doom.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2005 22:41
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#20
"Now appearing for at Mosul's Detention Club - Christina Aguilera"!
Outlaw killed in 'crossfire'
A cadre of underground Purba Banglar Communist Party's Janajuddha faction was killed in 'crossfire' between police and outlaws in Harinakundu upazila in Jhenidah in the early hours yesterday.
I wish they'd throw in a few twists to these stories. Oh, well, let's get this over with. Step One:
Police arrested Younus, 42, son of Amzad Hossain of Rotidanga village in Harinakundu, from his village on Tuesday afternoon.
Step Two:
Following his statement at Harinakundu Police Station,
Step Three:
the law-enforcers took him to Charpara to seize his firearms, the police said.
Step Four:
They said Younus died in 'crossfire' when outlaws opened fire on them...
Step Five:
and they (police) returned fire...
Step Six:
at around 12:30am.
Optional Step Seven:
Constables Motiar Rahman, Mamun Khondoker and Abdul Matin were wounded during the 'shootout', the police claimed.
Step Eight:
They seized one shutter gun and two bullets from the spot.
With the death of Younus,
Step Nine:
accused of five murders, 27 people were killed in 'crossfire' or 'encounters' with the law-enforcers in Jhenidah since November last year.
Let's see what else is going on in beautiful Bangladesh:
Husband kills wife in Comilla
COMILLA, June 15:—A housewife was poisoned to death allegedly by her husband for dowry at Alekharchar, on the outskirts of the town, on Monday, reports UNB. Police and locals said Shahjahan Saju beat up his wife Nasima mercilessly and poured poison into her mouth for refusing to bring dowry from her parents.
This type of crime happens on a weekly basis. Very sad.
Nasima, mother of a child, was rushed to Sadar hospital where she died later. Family sources said Saju, who married Nasima five years back, used to torture her for dowry. A case was filed.
Son kills father in Sirajganj over dirt
SIRAJGANJ, June 15:—A son killed his father in village Swaruppur in Shahzadpur upazila today. The deceased was identified as Abu Bokr (70). Eyewitnesses and police said that the son Hafizur Rahman (35) killed his father over land dispute. Hafizur was removing earth from a land owned by his father. The father Abu Bokr asked Hafizur not to remove earth from his land Hafizur got aggrieved and blew a spade blow to his father. Abu Bokr was admitted to Sirajganj Sadar Hosital where he succumbed to injuries today. A case was lodged with Shahzatpur police. Hafizur went on hiding.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
09:20 ||
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#1
Wonder if Hafizur has one of those "I ♠ my father" bumper stickers?
Posted by: Dar ||
06/16/2005 10:29
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#3
We saw earlier this week what happens when you deviate from RAB procedure #745: there are witnesses. Very bad. Stick to proper documented procedures and the RAB will achieve ISO-9000 certification and CMM Level 4 status in no time.
#5
A quick google reveals that a shutter gun is a paintball gun
I looked that up too, but we're talking Bangladeshi speak here. There may be a paintball gun called a Shutter Gun, but I don't think paintball guns are shutter guns. Unless they convert them to fire real ammo like the kids used to convert cap pistols into zip-guns.
Amen, not that I know anything about that.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005 13:54
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I good portion of RBs' translation budget is devoted to cracking the mystery of the shutter gun.
Hummm.... maybe with RBs clout with the BangaNews maybe someone should write a letter to Abu Action Line and just ask.
Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan on Tuesday said 67 Bangladeshi troops including 63 army personnel and four police personnel were martyred while they were in various peacekeeping missions of the United Nations, reports BSS.
No dates mentioned, but seems to be for last FY.
Responding to a question raised by BNP lawmaker Shamsul Alam Pramanik (Naugaon-4) in the Jatiya sangsad, he said Bangladesh so far earned more than US dollar 16 crore from the peacekeeping missions during the outgoing fiscal year(2004-05). (A Crore equates to 10 million.)
In reply to another question from treasury bench member Shahidul Islam (Kustia-2), the foreign minister said Bangladeshi peacekeepers have been now working in 12 countries including Afghanistan under the UN supervision. Other countries are Burundi, Peoples Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, East Timur, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Georgia, Kosovo, Liberia, Sierra- Leone, Sudan and West Shahara.
Much like Fiji, Bangladesh troops are an export crop.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
09:08 ||
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June 16, 2005: Car bombs have, over the past two years, become the favorite weapon of terrorists in Iraq. Since July 2003, when the first one was used, there have been (as of June 5th) 278 such attacks. These caused 9,167 casualties (2,818 people dead, 6,349 wounded.) That's an average of 33 casualties per car bomb. Not all were suicide car bombs, 42 percent were set off by remote control. Nearly all the drivers of the suicide car bombs have been foreign Arabs, mainly from Saudi Arabia. The worst month ever for car bombs was May, 2005, with 32 attacks and 1,300 casualties. This was not the largest number of attacks (that was in September, 2004, with 34), but it was the largest number of casualties. The Sunni Arabs preferred the roadside bomb, 20-30 a day being used against coalition and Iraqi forces. Currently, only about a quarter of those bombs actually do any damage to American and Iraqi troops, the rest are discovered first.
Car bombs really got going in early 2004, when Iraqi terrorists (Sunni Arabs, particularly former Saddam thugs) joined forces with al Qaeda. The Sunni Arabs had the money and the connections (with Sunni Arab tribal and religious leaders) to build lots of car bombs. All that was required was money (the Saddam crowd had lots of that), and explosives (Iraq was overflowing with the stuff). Pay the money to a garage owned by Sunni Arabs and you get a car bomb, and some Sunni Arabs grateful for the work. Building car bombs paid well, up to $20,000 per job (usually using a stolen car). If the car bomb could not be parked, and then set off by remote control or timer, al Qaeda could provide a suicide volunteer, willing to drive the car, and detonate the explosives at the most appropriate place.
Better yet, it didn't take a lot of organization to carry out a terrorist campaign with car bombs. Once the Sunni Arab and al Qaeda leaders agreed on what types of targets to go after, the bagmen were dispatched to deliver the money to the bomb builders. When the car bombs were ready, "delivery teams" picked it up and "delivered" it. This meant parking the car as close to the target as possible, getting out of the way, and setting it off. The suicide car bombs were used for the more difficult targets, like those that did not allow just anyone to park a car in the area. Suicide car bombs were also preferred for use against moving targets (military or police patrols or convoys.)
Your average car bomb had several hundred pounds of explosives, either in the form of artillery or mortar shells, or bulk explosives. Detonators on the shells, or stuck into the blocks of explosives, were connected to a electromechanical switch, a wireless device or a timer. The quality of the car bombs kept improving until about a year ago, then it began to decline, as more and more garage owners and mechanics backed away from the car bomb business. Hundreds of these guys were getting busted, and any property or tools they owned taken or destroyed. Baath raised the rates, but this wasn't worth the loss of property, or freedom (and months or years in jail.) So more amateurs got involved. This led to more duds and accidents (premature detonations.) Actually, it appears that some 500 car bombs have been built so far, with over 200 being seized, or destroyed, before they could be used. Several dozen such car bombs were taken, or bombed, in the November battle of Fallujah.
Security around American military bases was always tight, and the car bombers were rarely able to even get close. In the last year, Iraqi government and police locations became just a difficult to get near. So the car bombs more frequently went off among civilians. This made the car bombers, and the people behind them, increasingly unpopular. That became a growing problem. It was harder to keep car bomb building, and the activities of the "delivery teams," secret. Most Iraqis wanted nothing to do with the car bombers, now that just about anyone could become a victim. Many Iraqis began reporting suspicious activity, that might involve car bombs. The result has been less well constructed car bombs, and less reliable delivery teams. The operation is more dependent on al Qaeda supplied suicide drivers. Even the quality of these volunteers has declined, with several later identified as retarded, and apparently convinced to do something the "martyrs" could not really understand.
One thing that's made it easier for the car bombers has been the explosive growth in car ownership in the last year. The Iraqi economy is booming, and that means lots more vehicles on the roads. Thus it's easier for the car bombs to just get lost in the traffic. It also means many exasperated, or nervous, suicide bombers setting off their explosives while stuck in a traffic jam. Traffic is becoming a more important factor for terrorists, as much of the car bomb construction has been moved to rural areas, to avoid the attention of police informants. Thus the car bomb has to be moved longer distances, exposing it to greater chance of detection, or breakdown.
The car bomb campaign will continue until nearly all Sunni Arabs refuse to support it. Al Qaeda cannot carry out many of these attacks on its own, because nearly all al Qaeda members in Iraq are foreigners. These people stand out in Iraq, and if known to be dangerous, turned in, or otherwise "taken care of."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
09:06 ||
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#1
...easier for the car bombers has been the explosive growth in car ownership...
June 16, 2005: After more than three years of development, an American firm (Ionatron) is shipping, to Iraq, ray guns, for detonating roadside bombs. The million dollar devices, called JIN (Joint IED Neutralizer) use "artificial lightning" to cause the detonators in enemy bombs, especially IEDs (roadside bombs), to go off. The JIN is mounted on a remotely controlled vehicle, as the range of JIN is not sufficient to have troops use it directly. The remotely controlled vehicle gets within JIN range, and then zaps the suspected IED. If it is an explosive device, JINs "directed electrical discharge" will cause the detonator, which is normally set off with an electrical signal, to go off, thus causing the explosives to, well, explode. The JIN and the robot it rides on are expected to survive most of these explosions with little or no damage.
Since IEDs come in a wide range of sizes, you never know how big it is until it goes off. JIN will be a big help to the combat engineers who take care of IEDs that are discovered. Most IEDs are found before they can be used. However, the engineers (either American, Iraqi, or foreign contractors) have to dispose of the device. IEDs are often controlled by wireless devices (cell phones, garage door openers, Etc.), but sometimes they are rigged with timers, or to an electrical wire (going back to someone who can set it off.) Until JIN came along, engineers had to use a robot to investigate suspected bombs. Often, if it was a bomb, the enemy would set it off to destroy the robot. Sometimes the terrorists would set the bomb off if they thought the investigating soldiers or police were close enough. Sometimes the bomb was detonated if curious civilians came across it and gathered around. Engineers had electronic jammers that could block detonation signals, at least long enough for the robot to place an explosive charge next to the bomb, so that the IED could be destroyed. With JIN, identifying and destroying IEDs will be a lot faster and safer. Each JIN costs about one million dollars. The official name, JIN, is a clever play on words, as it sounds like the Arabic word for "genie", a legendary spirit creature with magical powers.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
09:03 ||
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#1
Wouldn't and incendiary rifle rounds or shotgun slugs be longer ranged, cheaper, more effective and just a whole lot more fun to use?
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2005 9:17
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#2
During the Algeria war, the French managed to have the rebels "get" a batch of grenades who detonated prematurely. It would be nice if the same tactic were used in Irak.
#3
JFM,
The special forces did something like that in Vietnam. They would take the rounds out of the AK-47s and replace the powder in two or three of them with C4. They would then reload the magazine with the "modified" rounds 5 or 6 places deep and leave the AKs for the VietCong to find. Then, in the middle of a firefight, BOOM! Takes off their hands and they can't fight anymore.
BRUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
June 16, 2005: Kidnapping has long been a favorite weapon of terrorists. Killing people is one thing, but when you kidnap them, the terrorizing effect lasts much longer. In Iraq, over 200 foreigners have been kidnapped so far (as of the first week of June). Of those, 17 percent were killed, 47 percent released (with, or without, ransom), three percent escaped or were rescued, a quarter are still held, while the fate of the rest is unknown.
Most of the Iraq kidnappings were by Iraqi gangs of Sunni Arabs. These guys eventually lost interest in nabbing foreigners, mainly because it was easier, and safer, to go after Iraqis. Over 90 percent of total kidnap victims in Iraq were Iraqis. Grabbing Iraqis was not risk free either. Most Iraqis belong one of the hundred or so tribes that define Iraqi society. If you kidnap someone who is particularly well connected in tribal circles, you are in big trouble. Al Qaeda learned this the hard way when, in late 2004, they began kidnapping tribal leaders as a way to maintain tribal support for terror operations. This tactic backfired, as the tribes saw red and came after al Qaeda. Caught between deadly American troops and angry Iraqi tribesmen, grabbing foreigners suddenly seemed less important. Aside from the long shot chance that taking a foreigner might get some foreign troops removed, it's just too much trouble and too risky. This is especially true as there are more Iraqi police out there. Take a foreigner, and word tends to get out on the street. If the Americans pick up your scent, it can get real ugly, real fast. Thus the vast majority of kidnap victims are Iraqis.
The kidnappers have a new problem; Iraqi police. The kidnapping is, like suicide bombers, very unpopular among Iraqis. With more police in service, there is more opportunity for Iraqis to tip off the cops about where kidnap victims might be held. Increasingly, police raids are finding and rescuing kidnapped Iraqis, and, recently, a kidnapped Australian as well.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
08:55 ||
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#1
maybe the un can start a work training program so these guys can find other work?
And there's plenty of work for all of the jihadis, as each can test a rope only once. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/16/2005 13:33
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#3
Whoa, Barbara! Cutting not just to the bone, but through the bone, as usual. I do enjoy your comments -- and the sheer envy your words inspire, darn it!
ALGIERS, Algeria, June 16 (UPI) -- Algerian security forces rounded up 42 people on charges of backing and providing logistic support to armed Islamic groups, reports said Thursday. French-language daily Le Soir D'Algerie quoted a security source as saying the arrests took place Tuesday in Hassassina and Tamesnas some 250 miles west of Algiers.
The detainees were accused of offering shelter and providing food and medicine to Islamic gunmen in the region. The source said the suspects also were accused of laundering money they got from selling cattle seized by gunmen in operations against farmers.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
08:53 ||
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TEL AVIV, Israel, June 16 (UPI) -- Israeli troops arrested two Palestinians belonging to the militant Islamic Jihad in the West Bank on suspicion of planning attacks against Israel. Radio Israel said Thursday, quoting military sources, that the suspects were rounded up in the village of Harithiya near Jenin, north of the West Bank, for "planning to carry out an attack in the next few days." The army and Israel's internal security agency, the Shabak, said Wednesday that another group of Palestinian activists were arrested earlier under suspicion of planning a suicide attack inside Israel.
Shabak said the group comprised eight Palestinian youth between 15 and 16 years of age from the camps of Askar and Balata in the West Bank. It said they belonged to the Fatah militant group and their purported suicide operation was financed by Lebanon's Shiite militant group, Hezbollah.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
08:52 ||
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Highly-organised and sophisticated hackers are being blamed for "industrial-strength" attacks on vital computer networks aimed at stealing commercially and economically sensitive information.
Nearly 300 UK government departments and businesses, considered part of the country's critical national infrastructure, have been bombarded with a sophisticated electronic attack for several months, the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre has revealed.
The infrastructure includes communications, energy, finance, health, transport and government sectors.
Similar attacks have been reported in other countries, including the US.
"We have never seen anything like this in terms of the industrial scale of this series of attacks," said Roger Cumming, director of NISCC, which protects critical infrastructure from electronic threats.
"This is not a few hackers sitting in their bedrooms trying to steal bank account details from individuals. This is aimed at organisations, targeted at gaining information and is extremely well organised and well structured."
The NISCC will on Thursday issue a warning to business to be on alert for the hackers, the first time the secretive organisation has made such a high-profile announcement, highlighting the severity of its concerns.
Many of the attacks appear to be coming through internet addresses located in Asia, Mr Cumming said, although he declined to specify which countries. The NISCC and National Hi-Tech Crime Unit are working with the authorities in those countries to track and close down these addresses.
The attacks have come via unsolicited e-mails that contain a "Trojan", or malicious computer code contained inside an apparently harmless file. When opened, the code secretly installs itself on to the user's computer, allowing a remote attacker to gain control of the system.
Mr Cumming said the attacks were unrelated to the industrial espionage network discovered last month in Israel, which was also using Trojan virus software.
The NISCC believes no significant information has been stolen from the critical national infrastructure organisations. However, there is concern the attacks may spread to the wider business community. In particular, banks, insurers and other financial institutions could be affected.
Mr Cumming is urging all businesses to monitor their IT systems and tighten security. The hackers have focused on individuals whose jobs involve dealing with sensitive information, and have tried to collect user names and passwords and upload data from the infected computers.
The NISCC warns that bogus e-mails are difficult to spot. The subject lines have been tailored to refer to news articles that would specifically interest the recipient and the e-mails have been "spoofed" to make it appear they come from trusted contacts.
Cyberwarfare and cyber industrial espionage has been growing exponentially in the last few years. Bringing down our economy was one motive for the 9/11 attacks on Manhattan. Bringing down the nets accomplishes the same thing.
Posted by: too true ||
06/16/2005
08:48 ||
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#1
I finger it as Indonesia and China.
Indonesia has prior history of web attacks: against Malaysia and against the Corby websites.
It has a well-trained computer warfare military wing - it just doesn't advertise it.
#4
DoD has the capability to 'counter-attack', but the lawyers [you know like the ones that had to be asked 'mother may I' when the CIA had a potential Predator shot shot at him and were told 'wait' during the early stages of the Afghan campaign] say 'no'. We might harm some poor third party who's too damn lazy to monitor their servers for routing highjackers.
BAGHDAD, June 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. army said Thursday it launched a major security operation in central and southern Iraq to stem mounting violence. A statement by the army said an estimated 1,000 U.S. troops carried an all-out security operation dubbed "White Shield" involving raids and searches of houses and suspected insurgent hideouts in Hulla.
It said at least seven gunmen were arrested and arms, including ammunition, weapons and 10 kilograms (more than 20 pounds) of explosives, were seized.
In a separate statement the U.S. military command said five Marines were killed in an explosion that cut through their convoy in the region of Haklaniya, near the city of Ramadi in western Iraq Wednesday. In the meantime, witnesses said a car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol in the region of Salikh north of Baghdad, wounding six soldiers. More than 40 Iraqis have been killed and dozens wounded in separate bombing attacks in Iraq Wednesday.
In another incident, police arrested a would-be suicide bomber who tried to detonate himself near the commander of a brigade affiliated with the interior ministry.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005
08:28 ||
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Its encouraging that they could begin another major operation so soon after the previous one.
On the other hand, its discouraging that another operation is so sorely needed.
The list of demands indicates to me this is local bandits, so I didn't put under WOT. Reclassify if necessary. Reg required. One child has been killed before dozens of others were freed during a hostage crisis at an international school in Cambodia. British, Australian and Japanese kindergarten children had been among the hostages being held by six armed men. The nationality of the dead child has not been disclosed. (Now being reported as a Canadian boy) Gunshots had been heard at the school in the northwest of the country near a popular tourist area. It is believed the hostage crisis came to an end after men stormed the minibus being used by the kidnappers to get away. It is unclear who had fired the shots.
The hostage-takers had been demanding that authorities give them money, weapons and a vehicle, the government and police said. The attackers' motives were not immediately clear. The school is in Siem Reap, a tourist area near Cambodia's famed Angkor temples and home to several expatriates. The men had taken about 70 people hostage but had later released 30, Khieu Kanharith, information minister, said. Three of the hostages had been teachers, police added.
The attackers, armed with shotguns, stormed the school about 9:30 am, demanding $1,000, six AK-47 assault rifles, six shotguns, B-40 grenade launchers, hand grenades and a car. Authorities had communicated with the hostage-takers by mobile phone. Additional: It was unclear whether the child was deliberately killed by the gunmen, or killed in an exchange of gunfire between Cambodian authorities and the hostage-takers. But Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, quoting the deputy national police chief, said the gunmen killed the child when authorities refused to meet all of their demands. Reports about the child's age varied from two to five. He said the hostage-takers then threatened to kill the children one by one.
Around 1:30 p.m local time, police apparently agreed to some of the gunmen's demands, handing over $30,000 U.S. and a 12-seater minivan.
When the gunmen took no action, a counter-terrorism unit approached the building, and the police began shouting that they had the school surrounded. At that point, the hostage-takers said they would leave.
But when the gunmen tried to escape with some children and teachers in the van, police opened fire and rushed the vehicle, smashing its windows.
There were conflicting reports about the fate of the four hostage-takers. Some reports said two had been killed, while others said they were all arrested alive. Police said the men were criminals aged 22 to 25 from the southeastern province of Kandal.
I don't think we have to worry too much about what the Cambodians will do to these thugs.
#1
Don't think for a moment this is an energy saver. Compared to a 50cc motorcycle which have been around for many years, it will require 2 to 5 times as much energy due to the large inefficiences of the 'hydrogen economy'.
#4
Natural gas powered vehicles are common here in Western Australia. Pretty much every taxi in town uses it. Phil F is right, it makes no sense to turn NG into electricity, distribute it, store in fuel cells before using it to power a vehicle (and lose 80% of the energy) when you just as easily power the vehicle directly from NG. More Kyoto inspired lunacy.
#5
How explosive is Natural Gas? How explosive is hydrogen?
I think the crew of the shuttle Challenger can answer the second question and I haven't seen anyone talking about making it safer when rammed into cars. Oh, and there is the freezing aspect to your gas tank when you're using liquid hydrogen. Don't slip forward on your seat. Ouch.
#6
Hydrogen can be explosive (but usually just burns), but NG is really nasty stuff. Empty NG tanks have exploded, causing huge fires and killing firemen.
Car and Driver has an article on a hydrogen-powered car. The fuel is stored as a room-temperature gas (under very high pressure), not as a liquid.
Hydrogen can a pretty decent fuel, if generated by water dissociation powered by nuclear plants.
Still, right now, nothing is as convient and powerful as gasoline, though diesel comes close.
#7
How explosive is Natural Gas? How explosive is hydrogen?
I think the crew of the shuttle Challenger can answer the second question and I haven't seen anyone talking about making it safer when rammed into cars. Oh, and there is the freezing aspect to your gas tank when you're using liquid hydrogen. Don't slip forward on your seat. Ouch.
There is a common misconception that the loss of the Challenger was due to the launch stack exploding. Thsi as been fostered by the media IMO simply because they saw a large cloud generated at the time of the accident. What really led to the Challenger's loss was when the SRB suffered the exhaust gas plume at the field joint where the SRB segments were joined it happend at one of the worst possible places. At the rear attachment strut holding the SRB to the External Tank. The gasses playing on the strt either weakened it to the failure point or cut it. When the strut failed the SRB was able to rotate outward at the rear causing the whole launch stack to Jaw severly to one side. This placed stresses on the orbiter and External tank that they were not designed to take and as a consequence they came apart like a cheap suit. The large cloud was simply the LH2 and LO2 being released into the atmosphere. If the LH2 and LO2 had combined chemically in an explosion I doubt that they would of been able to recover pieces of wreckage the size they did. Of course the real culprit IMO in the loss of Challenger was a Congress that forced NASA to accept the bid from Morton Thiokol for the SRB because they were the cheapest when they had the worst design offered for the SRB. But we didn't hear a word about that did we.
#8
How explosive is Natural Gas? Yesterday, the local news had some spectacular footage of a Liquid NG powered car blowing up when the driver lit a cigarette. However, the driver survived with only moderate burns. Unlike petrol, NG doesn't stick to the skin.
#9
Cheddarhead pretty much has the situation nailed; the shuttle Challenger broke apart because it exceeded the maximum safe angle of attack for its speed and broke up.
Well, except for the part about the SRB's being the worst possible design. The worst possible design for a large SRB is "any."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/16/2005 18:26
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Amen.
So let's take the perfected SRBs and put a Taxi on it! Yes! It'll be fun.
Dramatic video footage emerged yesterday showing violent clashes between Chinese farmers trying to protect their land from hundreds of men armed with shotguns, clubs and pipes, allegedly sent by the state to evict them. The typical modus operandus when these things occur. We need a new term for this, like Car Swarm or Crossfire.
How about 'revolution'?
Six farmers were reported killed and as many as 100 others were seriously injured in one of China's deadliest incidents of rural unrest in years. In an unedited version of the three-minute video, seen by The Scotsman, swarms of young men dressed in fatigues and wearing helmets led a dawn raid against a line of trenches and makeshift tents, which the farmers had built as part of a two-year campaign against a local- government plan to persuade them to sell their land to a nearby power station. Armed with clubs and metal bars, the attackers can be seen fighting hand-to-hand with the farmers, who are wielding pitchforks and shovels. Of course, the Scotsman will not be showing the video to us, it's too difficult for the peons to understand.
The battle took place last Saturday in the village of Shengyou, 100 miles outside of Beijing. It has since been reported that the villagers have overrun the local headquarters of the Communist Party in protest. Although it is not unusual for rural protests to turn violent, they rarely end in so many deaths. Nor are protests usually resolved using hired hands. It is also rare for the fighting to be caught on camera.
Initial negotiations over the land in question had proved inconclusive. "We're the Party, and we can make the best use of this land. Plus, we're going to make a fortune on graft. So get off."
According to the Washington Post, villagers had refused an earlier cash offer from the power station, which, since 2003, has been negotiating with farmers to convert the land into a coal-storing facility. Look, shiny pennies!
Local governments can choose to exercise their right to seize the land, usually paying minimal compensation, if it is deemed to be in the "public interest" - a loosely phrased term that critics have complained is regularly abused. In this case, it appears the local government gave the green light to the power station to remove the farmers. Both the local mayor and Communist Party leader have reportedly since been fired. Scapegoats. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
In April this year, pitched battles between 20,000 villagers in the eastern Zhejiang province and police proved inconclusive after villagers began protesting over a nearby industrial park, saying that it was polluting their land. In this incident in Zhejiang, the local Party officials bused in a bunch of guys, gave them shields and sticks, and told them they were riot police. They didn't want to be there, morale was low. And when one of the officials ran over an old lady who was blocking the roadway by lying down, the peasants went berserk. You don't mess with old people in China. The "riot police" ran away.
Despite the attack, the farmers remained defiant, and in control of the area of disputed land. Fight the good fight, boys.
#2
In an unedited version of the three-minute video, seen by The Scotsman, swarms of young men dressed in fatigues and wearing helmets led a dawn raid against a line of trenches and makeshift tents
People's Army? Local goon squad? Who are we dealing with here? Or is this another one of those "business disputes"?
Wait till the goons debus their transportation and move up. That's when a good petro bomb into the bus will shut their quick escape route. Then follow the thugs at a distance, picking off stragglers, take cheap shots. See how far the city folk can walk and then run. Some farmers up in Massachusetts played that game a long time ago.
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - The salmon-hued structure housing the city police headquarters appeared tranquil in the afternoon heat, guarded by white columns and swaying palms. On an archway, the last governor's bold exhortation to fight corruption was displayed in 2-foot-high letters.
But few among the hundreds of blue-uniformed city police officers gathered in an open-air courtyard felt much like battling crime Tuesday. They seemed angry, resentful and bored. Their weapons had been taken away, their patrol cars locked up. Many were wondering whether they still had jobs.
Their new chief was assassinated June 8, hours after he took the oath of office. And 41 of their fellow officers were detained Saturday and flown to Mexico City for questioning after they had stopped a convoy of plainclothes federal investigators and wounded an agent. A presidential spokesman accused the police force of being in the pocket of two powerful drug cartels fighting to control the smuggling routes that run from this city of 500,000 into Dallas and beyond...
Since the Saturday confrontation with the agents of the Federal Investigative Agency, or AFI, the city's 750-member police force has been disarmed, forced to undergo drug tests and ordered to remain at headquarters. State police, federal agents and army troops performed law enforcement duties in Nuevo Laredo on Tuesday.
While their personnel files were examined and drug-testing samples analyzed at headquarters, many of the officers spent the day reading newspapers, consuming cold drinks and waiting for the word to go back to work. Many, such as Lt. Florencio Flores Guzman, 60, expressed sadness over the federal crackdown. But he also looked for a silver lining in it. A purge of corrupt officers, he said, may help restore public confidence in the force. Officer Martha Evelia Rivera, who was standing next to Flores, agreed. Salaries of police average just $600 a month, a wage that has not increased in several years, she said.
"The pay is very low, and it should be higher," she said. "That's the reason police ask for money — the salary." Still, she thinks the federal investigation is necessary "so the bad ones will go." And how many of the 750 police are bad?
"Five hundred," she replied.
As the police officers remained inside headquarters or at smaller satellite stations around town, state police investigated two new homicides, including a 29-year-old bus driver shot five times. The body of another man was found in a car that had been set afire.
Local newspapers reported that the two homicides were the latest of the nearly 70 reported since the beginning of the year. The violence was sparked by a turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel.
Laredo has been spared much of the violence. Still, U.S. agents working the international bridges connecting the two cities have heightened security. At Bridge No. 1 in downtown Laredo, all U.S. Customs officers on duty wore blue body armor over their uniforms. One agent said they had been ordered to wear the bulletproof vests until the situation in Nuevo Laredo stabilizes.
#2
The microcosm which is reflective of all of Mexico.
Until they have a [violent or peaceful] revolution, Mexico will never meet the expectations of a great nation and will continue to unload the resultant unemployment and dissatification on the US. The people themselves hide this abject failure behind a false honor which further impedes the reform that is necessary if real reform is to come. The only alternative for the US is to build a wall like Israel along the border to end the dumping which burdens America's own hospitals, schools, and justice systems.
#4
They seemed angry, resentful and bored. Their weapons had been taken away, their patrol cars locked up. Many were wondering whether they still had jobs.
This is what happens when corruption isn't dealt with decisively.
#8
I don't doubt it. Mordida is an expected payroll supplement in Police hiring/workers....and that was BEFORE the Narcotraficantes with their millions
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2005 19:58
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Popcorn alert. You may also want to get a lawn chair and a refreshing beverage.
The Bush administration moved on Wednesday to confront the Republican leadership in the House by opposing a bill that would withhold half the American dues to the United Nations unless it enacted several budget and management changes. State Department officials formally conveyed the administration's opposition to withholding dues to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, one day ahead of a scheduled House vote on the measure, which is popular among conservatives. The bill, backed by the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, is considered likely to pass but its prospects are less certain in the Senate in light of outright administration opposition. The administration had previously indicated only its uneasiness with the bill's position on withholding dues, which total about $400 million a year, hoping to get the provision quietly deleted. In an interview, R. Nicholas Burns under secretary of state for political affairs, said: "We are the founder of the U.N. We're the host country of the U.N. We're the leading contributor to the U.N. We don't want to put ourselves in a position where the United States is withholding 50 percent of the American contributions to the U.N. system." Representative Henry J. Hyde, an Illinois Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said that he was not surprised by the administration's opposition but that he was not persuaded. "The Constitution gives to Congress the power of the purse, and we intend to exercise it in pursuit of meaningful U.N. reform," a spokesman quoted him as saying.
Heh. UN forgot to make nicey-nice with Congress...more at the link.
#1
Representative Henry J. Hyde, an Illinois Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said that he was not surprised by the administration's opposition but that he was not persuaded. "The Constitution gives to Congress the power of the purse, and we intend to exercise it in pursuit of meaningful U.N. reform," a spokesman quoted him as saying.
I guess that means moving the UN and its enviro-wankers ansd terror supporters to Paris is out of the question.
#3
"C'mon Hank, you're not following The Plan."
"Plan? What plan?"
"The Secret Rovian Plan, of course."
"Never seen it."
"That's cuz it's secret!"
"When do I get to see this Secret Plan?"
"When Bolton's approved, of course. He was gonna brief you guys."
#5
I wish they would cut funds to the UN!
Yes, I agree.
to be restored only when
You lost me. Why should my taxpayer dollars continue to be be given to countries I could care less about? Foreign aid, the UN is all a recent loopy socialist way of revenue re-distribution and I'm sick and tired of the assumption that it's always been this way and it should always stay this way. No. Individuals can give away all their money to every Third World cesspool they want, but don't assume I want my $ given away. Where was the UN when Western nations were settled and people starved due to inhospitable conditions? Where was the UN when wars were fought for independence, when people toiled day and night to make a living? Give me a frigging break. If Africans and Southeast Asians can't figure out out to raise themselves out of the backwaters of their own creation, I might add, and win their own "human rights" and build their "own future", then maybe we should let Darwin's Law proceed. The UN should be dismantled. Foreign aid should end as of yesterday.
#6
I'm not picking on you anon1, but a lot of people have drunk the koolaid pushed by the MSM and many others and can not see the UN for what it is. To use a somewhat crude analogy they are like a bunch of losers from the wrong end of town let loose with someone else credit card, and told 'don't worry, someone else will pick up the tab.' The so called reforms do not address any of the real issues with the UN. The UN is simply unreformable. It needs to be swept away and replaced by a body where democracies are represented on a weighted basis by population and economy. Non-democracies may be represented but on a lesser basis.
Democracy may not be perfect, but its the best system we have. Under a democratic system elected representatives decide and bureacrats execute. The UN has reversed that and that is why the UN as a decision making body has to go.
#9
Hear, hear, Gromgoru! Personally, I'm to the point where we cut the UN off completely, kick 'em out, withdraw all hostile countries' foreign aid and man our Southern (and probably even the Northern) border w/ military.
Posted by: BA ||
06/16/2005 7:56
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#10
trailing wife: Yes.
(It just depends on who is observing.)
I guess Bush really WAS concerned about the credibility of the UN during the run-walk- crawl-up to the start of action in the Iraq Theater.
#12
I don't know if this is 'good cop bad cop' (if so, the President really is a risk-taker -- I thought he simply raised the stakes high, but if not then he's gambling that we'll put up until the UN caves) or if the opposition is real ...
Thotch, maybe it's not too high a price to pay for "having an ear in the enemy's den"? :P
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/16/2005 11:02
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#13
Brer Rabbit: Oh, Brer Bear! Please, please don't throw me into that UN-dues-withholding briar patch.
#14
"Thotch, maybe it's not too high a price to pay for "having an ear in the enemy's den"?"
That's a belief that some people have to justify foreign aid. It sure hasn't help the US, if that is a motivating factor. Look at N.Korea, Taliban, Pakistan, Central and South America, Africa to name a few hot spots in the world re: terrorists in the making, or who grew and needed to be put down. There's lots of resentment and hatred focused on America from the very countries who benefit from our foreign aid. It's like the resentment one would feel if one was beholden to a rich aunt who tells you what to do because she feels she "owns" you. It's a lose/lose situation for both parties.
I think foreign grew out of the Marshall Plan and it does more harm than good for our nation. The poor countries get tyrants permanently installed due to foreign aid ( not just from us but from all the rich Western countries). Foreign aid has become politicized in some cases, like US foreign aid to Israel vs doing the same by Egypt, Jordan, Palestinians. Israel is now an affluent country - it should not get money from us. And if Israel needs investment, there would certainly be no shortage of private comporate investors or for that matter rich Jewish private philanthropists who would pour money into Israel. Egypt and Jordan might actually do something positive with their countries if they did not have royalty and strongmen in charge who siphon the lion's share out of foreign aid money. Not too long ago I recall reading that we were sending money to Saudi Arabia. That's probably been discontinued, but how stupid for that to have even taken place. Foreign aid is nothing more than guilt tax that our politicians take out of our pockets and merrily give to "poor" countries to make themselves feel "generous." Lots of anti-American NGO's would die out over night if we stopped UN dues and foreign aid, which in itself would be wonderful.
I think it's much more reasonable to give "aid" on an emergency basis like for the Tsunami earthquake victims but to be collecting an ongoing tithe from Western countries to give to none Westernized countries is harmful to recipients and unfair to "voiceless" taxpayers.
One of the most notorious murder weapons in modern history, the ice-pick that killed Leon Trotsky, appears to have been found, 65 years after it was apparently stolen from the Mexican police. The daughter of a former secret service agent claims she has the steel mountaineering instrument, which is stained with the blood of the Russian revolutionary.
Exiled by Joseph Stalin, Trotsky lived a relatively settled life in a leafy suburb of Mexico City until his death in 1940. Trotsky was always fearful of assassination attempts organised by Stalin. He was finally caught off guard by Ramon Mercader, who on August 20 1940 got access to him on the pretext of needing help. Once in the study, Mercader struck the creator of the Red Army in the head from behind with the shortened pick he had hidden under his clothes. Murderer and ice-pick were taken into custody but the weapon later disappeared.
Now Ana Alicia Salas says her father, Commander Alfredo Salas, stole the pick because he wanted to preserve it for posterity.
Trotsky's grandson Seva Volkov, who lived with his grandfather at the time and still lives in Mexico, is willing to provide samples for a DNA test against the blood on the handle only if Salas donates the pick to the museum in the house where the murder took place.
But she said: "I am looking for some financial benefit. I think something as historically important at this should be worth something, no?"
Good old capitalism. Trotsky is rotating rapidly ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2005
00:30 ||
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I could put it to good use.....in my capacity as a geologist, that is.
Even Stalin, loathesome mass-murdering monster though he was, could sometimes get something right, like driving Hitler to suicide, initiating the Soviet Space Program, and having an icepick inserted into Trotsky's skull.
#10
AC-
My kid (probably the only punk rocker in captivity who's registered Republican)says just go with Trotsky's Icepick. Has a nice ring to it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/16/2005 7:25
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#11
says her father, Commander Alfredo Salas, stole the pick because he wanted to preserve it for posterity.
Well then, I'd wager it still belongs to the Mexican police. Since it seems to be worth money, as well as a historic artifact, I'm thinking they will be having a chat with her.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005 8:28
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#12
Give you a couple hundred bucks for it. Give you a thousand if you can change the name to the "Ice-pick That Killed Trotsky and Il-Jung".
#13
But she said: "I am looking for some financial benefit..."
And there's the rub. Dad absconds with the murder weapon, time passes (and hopefully the item's value increases), then the offspring tries to profit from its return. Somehow, I'm not in the least bit surprised that this is happening in Mexico.
Yes, it was an ice ax with the shaft sawed-off so that it could be conealed under a coat. Also, Mercader used the broad "adze" end of the ice ax, not the pointy "pick" end.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Two more Los Alamos National Laboratory employees are suspected of fraudulent purchasing activities, just months after two former employees were sentenced in a purchasing scandal, the nuclear weapons lab said Wednesday.
One of the employees is accused of misusing credit cards meant to purchase gasoline for lab vehicles. Officials at the northern New Mexico lab said the employee admitted to buying about $3,000 worth of gas for acquaintances in exchange for money. Another employee is accused of operating what appears to be a fraudulent purchasing scheme in which payments were collected for purchases.
Earlier this year, two former Los Alamos employees accused of being part of a purchasing scandal that rocked the lab in 2002 were sentenced to prison for conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Peter Bussolini and Scott Alexander were accused of putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable purchases on the lab's account, including television sets, barbecues and hunting gear.
Since then, the lab has changes its policies and added computer software to track purchases as well as manage payroll and vacation time.
Worked well, huh.
Los Alamos spokesman James Rickman said the lab is cooperating with law enforcement but he declined to release further details Wednesday about the investigation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2005
00:26 ||
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#1
Isn't it true that the lab is actually run by the University of California? If that is true, it would explain a lot of the troubles the lab is having.
#3
The national laboratories are contracted out because they wouldn't be able to attract 'top' talent on Civil Service pay scales. Up until recently one of the California universities had the contract which no one bothered to contest cause of costs/benefits issues and political influence. With the numerous problems identified at LANL, a real request for bids is now out and a Texas university is very interested in the contract. Actually, most of the work can be distributed among the other labs, Livermore, Sandia, Oak Ridge, and Argonne. We're still operating the same number of laboratories as when we had a far larger defense establishment 70-80s, than we have today. No need now. The only function LANL is as a holding site for medium and high level radioactive materials, which are awaiting the Nevada storage site to be completed for transfer.
#7
About 17 percent of Plano residents are foreign-born, and roughly 30 percent identify themselves as a racial or ethnic minority, according to the 2000 census. Area Ismailis hail largely from East Africa, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I don't know much about Ismailis but they must have heck of a lot of funding to afford a complex worth $6.5 Million, and this is not the first such structure. Also I had no idea that Plano, TX had such a high influx of foreign born residents (outside Hispanics,of course.
Ismailis are quite simply the descendents of the arch-heretic sect of the Assassins. They have calmed since the Crusades. They are a branch of shiism and if my memory is any good, they don't turn toward Mecca for prying and dont pry 5 times a day. I also think their women have a liberty unheard in Islam and they aren't against alcohol.
They are headed by the Agha Khan, a millionaire who is a prominent figure in horse races.
The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday admitted for full hearing a writ petition challenging the appointment of a brother of the leader of the opposition Maulana Fazlur Rehman as project director in the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees (CAR). A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Ejaz Afzal ordered that the writ petition should be fixed for final hearing within a fortnight. The bench also issued notices to the respondents including the Ministry of State and Frontier and Region and the provincial government.
The petition has been filed by Major (Retd) Fayyaz Durrani, who was replaced as project director (Repatriation), CAR, by Mr Ziaur Rehman, brother of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The petitioner has stated that the appointment of Mr Zia was politically motivated. The ministry of Safron has already conceded in its comments that the appointment of Mr Zia was against the prescribed rules and regulations. The ministry admitted that it had not given any approval for replacement of the petitioner. The petitioner has challenged the March 28 order issued by the NWFP chief secretary whereby Mr Zia was appointed as project director (Repatriation), a lucrative post in the commissionerate.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
00:14 ||
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The Government has admitted it has made a massive miscalculation in the cost of the Kyoto Protocol. Original estimates were that New Zealand would have a surplus of 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide credits between 2008 and 2012, worth around $450 million. Climate Change Minister Pete Hodgson says new estimates put it at a deficit of 36.2 million tonnes. That will cost New Zealand $543 million, and it will have to be borne by the taxpayer. Mr Hodgson says it is largely due to huge growth in energy and industrial process emissions. He claims the Government would still have ratified Kyoto if it knew of the deficit risks. New Zealand will now have to cut its emissions, or buy carbon credits on the international market to the tune of $543 million. Mr Hodgson rejects accusations the first estimates were a gross miscalculation. He says the error is a change in assumptions, which will always be the case in energy issues. The New Zealand economy is small. You have to multiply these numbers by at least 100 to get the equivalent effect on the US economy (by 8 or 9 for Australia). Combine this with the recent news on forest being cut down as a direct result of Kyoto and steep increases in the cost of energy to consumers and the Kyoto lunacy would have given the USA a 100 billion budget hole after cutting down upwards of 5 million acres of forest, combined with a sharp increase in inflation, and for something that even if it were a good idea (and its not) just isn't working.
#2
Original estimates were that New Zealand would have a surplus of 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide credits between 2008 and 2012, worth around $450 million
Happens to me all the time when I reverse the sales tax payments and liabilities. Throws the books all out of balance until I do it right. ;o)
The left never is very good with accounting. That is why Bush got hammered for the dotcom bust when it was said that the old ways of doing business (profits, acountability ) are gone. It is also why I call Kyoto voodoo environmentalism.
Theyll never get it.
And a $1 trillion difference is quite a bit, all joking aside.
#5
Kyoto is a crock of shit. By the UN's own figures, if implemented fully and at its highest and best, Kyoto would only slow climate change down by about 3 months over 100 years (quoting from memory).
Now explain to me why that is worth wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on?
A couple of months of difference.
There is no logic in it whatsoever. We might as well spend billions building a giant umbrella to sheild the earth from solar radiation or any other crackpot idea as Kyoto.
Of course if the world were smart and didn't think that pouring billions after a mere symbolic gesture (and Bono was so persuasive!) then we would instead divert a few of those billions preparing ourselves for the inevitable climate change.
Building water purification/pipelines/desalination plants for example.
Converting car engines to run on ethanol: it works and there's already the infrastructure of oil distribution that can be converted to ethanol distribution.
Or just nothing at all and keep the cash! Anything is better than throwing billions down the Kyoto void.
I'm sad because I really like New Zealand, it's a great country. What a shame they signed that stupid protocol.
#6
Check this out, written in 1998 by Glenn Woiceshyn:
To convince countries to support the Protocol a counterfeit "scientific consensus" was concocted by UN bureaucrats. First came a 1995 UN scientific report which explicitly claimed no discernible manmade global warming. Then, a policymakers' summary was prepared from the report and stressed the opposite conclusion -- one based solely on computer models which don't match historical data and which incorporate assumptions that grossly exaggerate the warming effect of carbon dioxide. To eliminate the contradiction, the politically undesirable statements in the science report were quietly removed, yet the authors' names were retained.
Following this blatant act of politicizing science, more than 140 climate scientists (including several TV meteorologists) rebelled and signed the Leipzig Declaration, which states that "there does not exist today a general scientific consensus about the importance of greenhouse warming from rising levels of carbon dioxide ... actual observations from weather satellites show no global warming whatsoever -- in direct contradiction to computer models."
...
Troubled by this blatant assault on objectivity in science, more than 17,000 basic and applied scientists have, to date, signed a petition against the Kyoto Protocol, spearheaded by Frederick Seitz, a former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. A scientific article accompanying this petition -- in addition to debunking the theory that rising carbon dioxide levels are causing global warming and catastrophic weather -- demonstrates that the extra man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere actually creates a greener planet, the alleged goal of environmentalists.
According to the article: "Mankind is moving the carbon in coal, oil, and natural gas from below ground to the atmosphere and surface, where it is available for conversion into living things. We are living in an increasingly lush environment of plants and animals as a result of the CO2 increase. Our children will enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal life as that with which we now are blessed. This is a wonderful and unexpected gift from the Industrial Revolution."
So what explains the environmentalists zeal to push a socialistic Kyoto Protocol in the name of creating a greener planet? Decades ago, when it became apparent to people that Marxism ... yielded poverty and murderous dictatorships, not prosperity as promised, many leftists switched to environmentalism. ... In essence, the reds merely painted themselves green.
(And i would add that they merely use Kyoto as a punishing stick to beat the 'rich' industrial nations as the 3rd world polluters China, Indonesia and India don't have to reduce any emissions at all. Instead of stealing from the wealthy class to give to the poor within one nation now they want to steal from the rich nations and give to the poor nations.)
#15
AP is right. This charade will collapse once the bills start coming in. It's good clean tranzi fun only as long as it feels like they are playing with other people's money.
#16
If the enviros and nimbys (and admittedly, some sloppiness on the part of the industry)hadn't sabotaged the US nuclear power program we would probably be emitting about 5% less CO2 today (assuming we'd have about triple the nuclear energy).
#17
Hodgson rejects accusations the first estimates were a gross miscalculation. He says the error is a change in assumptions
Doesn't that suggest that their assumptions were made in error, even if the calculations were correct? I mean, clearly there's an error here somewhere.
#18
Poor Papua New Zealand. As if they don't have enough problems, now they have to come up with 543 million smackeroos, all on the output of a tribal, subsistence economy.
Someone call Sally Struthers.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
06/16/2005 12:28
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#19
"See, we assumed that 1 + 1 = 11. It seemed logical enough, and besides, mathematics is just sooo fascist."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/16/2005 13:49
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Two people were gunned down on M.A. Jinnah Road near Radio Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday in what is believed to be part of the ongoing confrontation between the Sunni Tehrik and the Muttahida Quami Movement. Police said Faizul Hasan Butt and Mohammad Ashraf, both in their early thirties and office-bearers of the Sunni Tehrik, were riding on a bike when armed assailants, travelling in a car, sprayed them with bullets. The victims were taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi in an Edhi ambulance where one of them was declared dead on arrival. The other victim died a little later. Police said the assassinations seemed to be part of the current rivalry between the two parties.
This article starring:
FAIZUL HASAN BUTT
Sunni Tehrik
MOHAMAD ASHRAF
Sunni Tehrik
Sunni Tehrik
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
00:11 ||
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FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A lawyer for imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier argued Wednesday for his release, saying the federal government did not have the right to try him for crimes that occurred on a South Dakota reservation.
Peltier, 60, is serving life in prison for the killing of two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was convicted in 1977 and has filed numerous pointless, unsuccessful appeals.
Peltier's lawyer claims the sentence is illegal because the federal court had no jurisdiction on the reservation. He claims the United States only has authority to regulate interstate commerce in Indian country. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Schneider said the claim is frivolous. ``The law applies everywhere to everyone, regardless of the site,'' Schneider said.
Peltier was convicted of killing Ronald Williams and Jack Coler during a standoff on the reservation and received two consecutive life sentences. The agents were shot in the head at close range and their bodies were left on a dirt road.
Rat bastard.
His dippy, foolish anti-American socialist knucklehead pinhead Supporters have said Peltier was treated unfairly because of his political activism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2005
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#1
Well, they have a helluva point. I mean killing a couple of measly Fibbies vs. being "treated unfairly". Sheesh. That's pretty clear cut. Give him his freedom! And an Appaloosa pony, too!
How pathetic and shameful, assuming those who support him have the capacity for shame. He sounds like a whining gutless jihadi. He got off easy - and he's an enduring embarrassment to native Americans for every day he draws breath. They should've fried this asshole.
#2
Every crime commited on a reservation is a Federal crime.The only people who have law enforcement authority on the Res are Tribal police and the Feds.State,county or city have no authority there.
A federal jury in Chicago has convicted Mohammad Azam Hussain, a sector in-charge of the MQM Haqiqi for lying to US immigration officials of concealing his membership of the MQM that prosecutors say has a violent history. He was convicted of concealing his membership of the Haqiqi faction of the Mohajir Quami Movement in Pakistan while trying to become a naturalized US citizen in 2003. Mr Azam Hussain, 37, faces up to 10 years in prison, but prosecutors said his sentence would likely be substantially less. He has been in custody since September last year.
Before he came to the United States in 1994, Azam Hussain was "a sector in-charge" for the Haqiqi faction, described by prosecutors as a mid-level post in which he was in charge of a neighbourhood in Karachi. He has admitted he was close to Afaq Ahmad, founder and leader of the Haqiqi faction, who was arrested last year in Pakistan, US authorities said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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#1
Good. And when he's served his sentence, deport him with emptied bank accounts. Why should he go home to live as if he were a success?
LOS ANGELES - A US military jet carrying four 225 kilogram (500-pound) bombs Wednesday crashed into a residential suburb in Arizona, forcing the evacuation of 1,300 homes, authorities said.
The US Marine Corps Harrier jump jet ploughed into a garden of a house in the city of Yuma, injuring one civilian on the ground, but the pilot walked away for the crash site, military spokesmen told AFP. "A Harrier crashed in residential central Yuma," Marine Corps Private First Class Robert Botkin told AFP. "The pilot ejected safely and walked away."
But the spokesman for the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma said: "They are evacuating a one-mile (1.6 kilometer) radius around the crash site as the jet was carrying live ordnance." Emergency officials from Yuma county said that 1,300 homes and a small shopping center had been evacuated as the wreckage was cleared and the bombs made safe.
The aircraft, which is capable of vertical take-offs and landings but which has had a spotty safety record, was also carrying 300 round of 20 millimeter ammunition in addition to its cargo of large bombs.
The Marine base's emergency operations center confirmed the plane was carrying ordnance and that an evacuation of residents was underway and that those displaced were being put up in a nearby high school gymnasium.
Marine Corps spokesman Major Nat Fahy said in Washington that the British designed AV-8B Harrier was on a training mission when it crashed at around 2:30 pm local time (2230) GMT. He said the pilot was taken to hospital but his condition was not immediately known and that a civilian had also been injured in the crash. "I am told it was near a residential area and there is one injury confirmed, and that civilian is on the way to the hospital as well," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2005
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#1
All four bombs have been recovered, according to local Yuma media.
#4
In the dawn of my years, I lived in Burbank, CA. This was the late 1950s, and there were still pilots doing training exercises out of Edwards AFB at Lancaster. One day there was a midair colision. One pilot's plane exploded, and he was killed instantly. The other pilot ejected, and came floating down into the backyard of the house right behind ours. We were prompted to go outside becasue we heard the collision. I remember my dad holding my hand in our backyard as we looked up watching him come down, and my dad talking to my mom through an open kitchen window as she was talking to the police on the phone. I heard sirens, and that is all I remember. After all I was only 4 at the time...
Iran has admitted to processing plutonium, a potential material for atomic bombs, more recently than it originally reported, according to the draft of a report to be made to the UN nuclear agency and obtained by AFP yesterday. The International Atomic Energy Agency "has been pursuing with Iran the dates of its plutonium separation experiments" and Iran has admitted to purifying plutonium in 1998, the text said. This was a revision of Iran's previous statement "that the experiments were completed in 1993," according to the draft for a speech to be delivered to the IAEA's board of governors today by deputy director for safeguards Pierre Goldschmidt. A diplomat close to the IAEA said the agency therefore "wants to know whether Iran is still processing plutonium."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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#1
*snicker*
The IAEA investigates! W00t!
Batten down the hatches, mates, I feel a stern letter coming on.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/16/2005 2:03
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#3
I've been out for a while, but this reminds me of what I heard on Medved yesterday. He had Kenneth Timmerman on his show (he's written a new book...something like "Countdown to crisis") and Ken said that he had a source from the Iranian Army that's since come out and told his story. This source was head of security for the Iranian gov't and told Ken that Top dogs of Iran met w/ Al Qaeda in Jan/Feb of 2001 to discuss a hit on the US homeland (even made it sound like he knew an approximate date). This guy heard it, left, went to Azerbijan to the U.S. Embassy, told the CIA Station Chief about this meeting and he didn't do anything w/ the info. 8-9 months later, we saw the effect of this meeting. Source now claims that bin Laden is in Iran w/ gov't approval. So, not only are they the only gov't in the world who opens each session of their "congress" w/ shouts of "Death to America", this Army source says each day before training they burned a cross and a US flag. One footnote: Sean Penn is now in Iran reporting for the SF Gate/Chronicle (whichever) and has been quoted as saying he understands why the mullahs shout "Death to America" (and that they don't mean it literally). The MSM and Hollyweirdos in bed w/ the mad mullahs. Final take (Ken's take): It's only a matter of months now before Israel takes out Iran (if we don't move first). Overall, pretty interesting interview. I'm sure some RB'ers have heard the Iran/AQ connection story, but it was a first for me (at least a first that proved the connection).
Posted by: BA ||
06/16/2005 8:04
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A government plan to share tsunami relief aid with Sri Lanka's separatist rebels drove a Marxist party from the government Thursday, a move that could threaten the ruling party's hold on power. The Marxists said they would leave the government if President Chandrika Kumaratunga did not back down on the plan to share the disaster aid with the Tamil Tiger insurgents, who have been waging a separatist war for two decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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Are the Tigers Trotskyites or something, that the Marxists reject them so harshly?
#2
Well, for real doctrinaire Marxists, everything is based on the Class Struggle™, on economic classes. People organizating on racial or religious grounds are showing a false conciousness. Mainstream Democrats follow many of the precepts of Marxism, too, as in the recent book What's the Matter with Kansas.
#3
The Marxists are more like National Socialists, in that they are made up strictly of Sinhalese, and are ultra-nationalists who will accept no accomadation with the Tamil Tigers. The JVP were responsible for most of the anti-Tamil pograms during the seventies.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/16/2005 17:38
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In that case, they're not really Marxists, then. A true Marxist will murder people regardless of race, sex, color, or religion.
National Socialist sounds right, though. They tend to put "race" (in some weird definition of "race" that works to their advantage) one step above economic class.
CANBERRA - Australia is considering sending troops back to Afghanistan by early next year to help stabilise the country and continue the war on terrorism, the Australian newspaper reported on Thursday. The paper said the government was considering the new troop deployment, which could be a force of between 250 and 700, along with more civil aid for Afghanistan's reconstruction. A decision would be made in July.
Prime Minister John Howard's office had no comment on the report, but the centre-left Labor opposition party said it would support a new troop deployment. "The opposition is prepared to engage in a discussion with the government on this matter, if the government wants to have it," Labor leader Kim Beazley told reporters.
A new analysis of Australian views on international security, from the influential Australian Strategic Policy Institute, has found 58 percent of Australians supported military assistance to the war on terrorism, while only 14 percent disagreed.
The deployment would come at a busy time for Australia's defence forces, which have about 1,700 personnel deployed an overseas operations, including about 1,400 in and around Iraq.
They just ended the East Timor deployment which helps. Thank you Australia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2005
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A round of Foster's for the lot of 'em.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/16/2005 2:08
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I don't think we could afford to buy Aussies all the beer they can drink;)
#3
âThe opposition is prepared to engage in a discussion with the government on this matter, if the government wants to have it,â Labor leader Kim Beazley told reporters.
Blimey! It sounds like their opposition party is polite and accommodating! Can we trade Beasley for a Dean, a Kennedy, two Clintons, and a player to be named later?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/16/2005 12:11
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he would name a vice president after the September presidential election for the first time in his 24-year rule. Soliman Awad, the presidential spokesman, said Mubarak is keen on carrying out this plan and this is an indication of Mubarak's intention for true political reforms. Egyptian expert Muhammad Al-Sayyed Said of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies said the recent announcement is an indication that Mubarak will run for a new term in office. "It also shows that Mubarak plans for the succession after his new terms ends," he told Arab News.
The president's son, Gamal Mubarak, denied all rumors that he will succeed his father in office. "I am absolutely clear in my mind and the president's mind that this story of father and son has nothing to do with reality," he told British journalists. "There are much more important things that we are discussing." He said the question of dynastic succession should finally be "put to bed" by his father's decision to open up this year's presidential elections to opposition candidates. The upper house of the Egyptian Parliament, the Shoura Council, approved the draft law regulating the country's first multi-candidate presidential elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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"Just as soon as I can find a suc...er, um, suitable candidate."
#2
this is an indication of Mubarakâs intention for true political reforms...The presidentâs son, Gamal Mubarak, denied all rumors that he will succeed his father in office
Quite frankly I'd rather not have "political reform" in Egypt just yet. Who would be elected - unpredictable wackjob jihadists? I think Mubarak's strongman son would be a perfectly A-okay successor, thank you very much.
The executive who wrote an e-mail memo suggesting that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known about a U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son denies that he, personally, ever discussed the firm's bid with the U.N. chief, his lawyers said Wednesday. The memo written by Michael Wilson describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection S.A. discussed the company's bid for the contract with the secretary-general "and his entourage" during a summit of French-speaking nations in Paris in late 1998. The London law firm Schillings issued a brief statement on behalf of Wilson, who was a vice president of Cotecna at the time and is a friend of both the secretary-general and his son, Kojo. "Mr. Wilson never met or had any discussion with the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on the issue of the bid for the U.N. contract by Cotecna at the Francophone Summit, during the bidding process, or at any time prior to the award of the contract," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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#1
steal BILLIONS from the mouth of destitute women and babes.. who me???
#3
So gee whiz, who do we believe? The fucking memo by Wilson himself back in the good old days of unfetterd graft, or the new, improved "memory", [in your best WC Fields] "I remember it clearly, yes. It was back in '98, a mere 7 years ago, a late summer's day as pretty as a picture, yes. We were having fondue down on the beach... I preferred the bread cubes in chocolate while Kofi had a weakness for young native boys strawberries, yes."
C'mon, let's get this over with. It's a dead rat on the kitchen floor. Sweep it out, already.
#4
The DemoLeftft > is just ever-more proof upon proofs of lying, unreliable,................... Americans and America, and why Washington must Must MUST M-U-S-T-T-T defer all matters and polices to the new OWG and Socialist order, BY FORCE IF NEED BE. * "The world just can't allow America to be governed by Americans, D *** YOU"
WE AMERICANS NEED TO BE ATTACKED AND WIPED OUT LIKE SO MANY ALIENS ON "BABYLON FIVE", BUT ONLY AFTER AMERICA FIRST MODERNIZES AND PAYS FOR EVERYONE, EVERY -ISM, AND THE WORLD COMMUNITY, ESPEC RUSSIA-CHINA!
Giving itself a year to stamp out militancy in Kashmir, the army on Wednesday said it will have to tackle the threats of fresh infiltrations and the terrorist infrastructure across the border for the return of peace in the Valley. Northern Command General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Lt Gen Hari Prasad said about 60 per cent of militancy has already been wiped out and its top leadership eliminated.
Syed Salahuddin's still in business. Qazi's still in business. Hafiz Saeed's still in business. If they wipe out terrorism in Kashmir in a year, you'll see that my hair's grown back, thick and wavy, and my gut's disappeared, to be replaced by a rippling six-pack...
Mebbe they're sending Qazi a message ...
He, however, said there is "no let up in the attempts to infiltrate into J&K from across the border.
Bingo. Even if the Paks were to try and crack down in really good faith, Hafiz Saeed wouldn't. They'd keep running business as usually, just without gummint support. The fundos within Pakland are too powerful to screw with, so there wouldn't be anything effectively done to stop them.
General Prasad said the militants, whose top commanders have been eliminated during the past year, are frustrated and are now targeting innocents -- children, women and the elderly.
Basically the same people they've been bumping off all along...
There's a reason why we have the 'Kashmir Korpse Kount' ...
He was referring to the Tuesday's car bomb attack outside a school in Pulwama that left 15 dead. "No religion targets innocents. Targetting of civilians is a sign of cowardice," he added.
Spanish police arrested 16 suspected militants yesterday, including followers of Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi and men preparing to become suicide bombers in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. It was the second European swoop in two days against suspected backers of the Iraqi insurgency, following Germany's arrest of three Iraqis on Tuesday. Eleven of the suspects in Spain were followers of Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. "Many of them expressed their will to become martyrs for Islam, demonstrating they are extremely radical and dangerous," the ministry said in a statement. It said they belonged to "an established network in our country, tied to the terrorist organization Ansar Al-Islam/Zarqawi network".
The other five were suspected of aiding the cell that carried out the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,900 three days before a general election. One Madrid train bombing suspect who escaped police is believed already to have carried out a suicide attack in Iraq some time between May 12-19, the ministry said. He was named as Mohamed Afalah, who police say fled the scene when seven prime suspects for the train bombing blew themselves up on April 3, 2004 after being surrounded by police in a suburban Madrid apartment. The blast also killed a special police agent.
Police and intelligence sources say Iraqi militants have recruited fighters in several European countries to join the insurgency against the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition supporting it. Investigations in Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden suggest Ansar Al-Islam a group with which the United States linked Zarqawi before the Iraq war has emerged as the most prominent militant group engaged in fundraising and recruitment. A French intelligence chief said last month that five young men from a single Paris district had already died in Iraq, one in a suicide attack. The ministry statement said potential suicide bombers in Spain were linked to a central operation in Syria dedicated to "recruiting holy warriors (using the Internet) and sending them to Iraq with the goal of committing suicide attacks against the coalition forces". It said the two main recruiters, both Moroccans, were arrested by Syria in May 2004 and sent back to Morocco.
This article starring:
Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi
MOHAMED AFALAH
Ansar Al-Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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I wonder how much of the terrorist fundraising is originally welfare payments to immigrants.
Pakistan on Wednesday lifted a travel ban on a well-known rape victim, a government spokesman said, days after her name was placed on a list of people barred from leaving the country. The decision came one day after Mukhtar Mai, 36, appealed to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to remove her name from the exit control list, a government roster of people barred from leaving the country. "Yes, I confirm that the government has deleted Mukhtar Mai's name from the ECL (exit control list), and she can travel abroad, if she wants," said Javed Akhtar, the spokesman for Aziz. He gave no other details, and the government has not said why she appeared on the list in the first place.
Why the hell do you think she was on the list?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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Now if she'd meekly say something about wanting to attend a Conference for Penitent Pets or something, and then seek asylum somewhere in the West...
#5
Need to get her out of Pakistan ASAP, before she gets killed. I'd like to see her on Oprah, telling the truth about how the ROP treats women.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005 8:18
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Washington, Jun 16 (PTI) The US has invited gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai to visit the country after Pakistan government lifted travel restrictions imposed on the woman, whose plight has sparked off worldwide condemnation.
"She is a courageous woman who is a victim of a horrendous crime. Mai is welcome to travel to the US at any time. We have also advised Pakistani officials that she was invited to the US by a Pakistani organisation based in the US", State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said at a press briefing yesterday. He said Mai met with US Embassy officials yesterday in Islamabad.
"We have had a conversation with Mai -- our Embassy officials have. I'm not at liberty to get into the content to those discussions, but we have met with her", he said.
"We were confronted with, what I can only say, was an outrageous situation where her attackers were ordered to be freed while she had restrictions on her travel placed on her. We conveyed our views about these restrictions to the senior levels of the Pakistani Government", he said.
Asked whether Pakistan had given any explanation for Mai's reported detention over the last couple of days, McCormack said "I'm not aware of the exact content of the conversations between our Embassy and Pakistani officials and Assistant Secretary Rocca and the Pakistani Ambassador here in the United States". Pakistan yesterday lifted travel restrictions on Mai who was repeatedly raped in 2002 on the orders of a tribal jury in Meerwala town as punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a rival clan. PTI
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005 9:55
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Former Pakistani Army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg yesterday confirmed that the country's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, ran a training camp for militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir. "I was the army chief in 1991 when Sheikh Rashid used to run the camp for Kashmiri militants, some 16 km from Islamabad," Beg said here.
Kinda throws a bit of doubt of the ol' Sheikh's statement that it wasn't him, doesn't it?
"Lies! All lies!"
The controversy surrounding Sheikh Rashid, who plans to travel to Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, on June 30, erupted following a statement by the Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik here last Monday. Yasin, who heads his own faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and currently is visiting Pakistan, said Sheikh Rashid used to run a training camp in the initial days of the Kashmir movement and about 3,500 boys were accommodated at his farm house for the purpose.
Brief, sternly suppressed vision of jihadis sleeping 300 to a bed... Naked...
Yasin said they came to Pakistan for military training in 1988 and Sheikh Rashid used to take them to the Northwestern Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan for various assignments. Sheikh Rashid's intended Kashmir visit may be jeopardized following Yasin's statement.
Oh, gosh! Y'think?
Sources in Delhi said yesterday the authorities had decided not to allow Sheikh Rashid to travel to Kashmir on the June 30 Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus. Though Sheikh Rashid had tried damage control by saying Tuesday "there were many Sheikhs in Rawalpindi", the Indian authorities aren't satisfied. The External Affairs Ministry has already expressed concern on the issue.
Aslam Beg, another loose cannon, isn't going to help matters...
Yasin, through his statements, has been attracting a lot of media attention ever since he landed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir June 2. Immediately after crossing the Line of Control (LoC), Malik had "thanked the people of Azad Kashmir" by calling every house in Pakistan-administered Kashmir a "base camp for the pro-independence JKLF". Known for bold and unreserved comments, Yasin is seen in Kashmir as the "pro-active separatist leader who is a hardliner among the moderates".
You don't see statements making that kind of sense every day, do you?
Meanwhile, the Dawn daily reported yesterday Yasin has been advised complete rest after he collapsed due to fatigue.
"Shut him up! Somebody shut him up!"
"Mahmoud! The needle!"
"What? Hey! Ow! That hurt!" [Groan! Thud!]
The nine-member delegation of separatist leaders from Jammu and Kashmir on a two-week visit to Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan were attending a lunch hosted here Tuesday by the Senate Foreign Relations committee when Yasin collapsed. The doctor who attended Yasin blamed the illness on fatigue due to the hectic schedule of the Kashmiri leaders who arrived in Pakistan-administered Kashmir June 2.
"Yasss... He's very fatigued. We're giving him the needle every two hours now. Just ignore anything else he says. He's delerious..."
Mohammad Rafiq Dar, secretary general of the JKLF faction in Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan, said Yasin was likely to cancel yesterday's trip to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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300 naked jihadi boys to a bed? They'd be so busy pinching and poking one another and giggling about it, they'd never get any sleep! ;-)
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/16/2005 3:18
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There are reports that Yasin Malik suffered a stroke. Whether or not it was ISI induced was not stated.
Posted by: john ||
06/16/2005 6:44
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Rashid had Jihad links: Ex-ISI man
Former ISI (Inter-State Intelligence) functionary Khawaja Khalid has corroborated Yasin Malik and Mirza Aslam Baigâs assertions that Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed ran militant training camps near Islamabad from 1989 to 1991. "Sheikh Rashid is a mujahid and played a great role in jihad. I would like to meet him and ask him why he is denying his involvement in training mujahideen. I had personally visited Rashidâs camp," he said.
Posted by: john ||
06/16/2005 7:06
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#5
Glad I'm not the one who has to wash the sheets.
#3
I almost crapped myself when I saw this - I have Jorge Posada on my baseball rotisserie team, and good catchers are hard to come by! Fortunately this has nothing to do with baseball.
South Korea urged North Korea to help end their Cold War as the two sides glossed over an international nuclear dispute Wednesday to celebrate a landmark 2000 summit that warmed ties but failed to bring them much closer to reunification. Since North Korea's Kim Jong Il met then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung _ the only such talks since the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire _ Seoul and Pyongyang have boosted trade, staged reunions of 10,000 separated family members, and launched the construction of railways and roads connecting the Koreas. But five years on, North Korea menacingly boasts that it has nuclear bombs, the border remains one of the world's most heavily armed, and Kim Jong Il has failed to visit Seoul as promised.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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Maybe they should bring up Madam Halfbright!
Kimmie-boy-the-baby-killer really likes Halfbright - he was really taken in by her broach! I'm sure she can arrange an agreement which Kimmie-boy will honor -- there won't even be any need for verification. (for about 10 minutes...)
If S. Korea thinks they can trust anything Kimmie says they probably deserve what they get.
#2
Iranian minister reportedly claims that Iran halted its plutonium-based nuke devprogs/research in 1998, 5 years after first claiming it'd stopped in 1993. On the other hand, Vlad Putin unilater announced that Russia is not like Africa in that Russia has no tradition of eating its enemies, prob due to hints in the Russian Net that hunger [and homelessness] is spreading fast in Communist-controlled, alleged "Rightist/
Fascist" Russia, despite the efforts of Putin-babe and Moscow to increase state-wide food supplies. The Net is also reporting lowered total internat investments and capital flight as the State continues to exert more Cold War-style controls and demands. GETTIN' TIME FOR THE SUPER-LEFTIES AND ANTI-US AGENDISTS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HAVING A SHARP SWORD IN COMPETITION WITH THE USA, OR THEIR MASSES EATING THREE SQUARES-OR-LESS A DAY, BETWEEN DESTABILIZING AND SUBORNING THE USA UNTO SOCIALISM VERSUS JUST SIMPLY BEING ABLE TO EAT, ANYTHING!? Iff the Failed Left wants America and the Western world to justify everything and every -ism and modernize the world, for them, but at our time, our costs, and our warriors'/ civ blood, at least have the decency or self-worth to stop whining and conspiring and perverting and subverting, and get the hell out of our way so that we can do for your own people what they in reality want us to do which Socialism can't!
JERUSALEM - Israel and Egypt have agreed in principle to deploy Egyptian soldiers on the Gaza border in the framework of Israel's pullout from the Palestinian territory this summer, an Israeli official said on Wednesday. "Israel and Egypt have agreed in principle that an Egyptian force would deploy along the border with Gaza, but a certain number of details still need to be ironed out," said the senior official.
"Israel agreed for Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to control the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in the future, but on condition that they prove their efficiency in the fight against arms smuggling," he added.
The Paleos will interpret 'efficiency' as digging a double-wide tunnel.
The source said Israel would sanction the deployment of only 750 Egyptian guards because a larger build-up would have to modify the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty that declares the entire Sinai peninsula a demilitarised zone.
Israel would leave Gaza but initially keep forces in the so-called Philadelphi corridor between the Palestinian territory and Egypt, paving the way for joint Egyptian-Israeli control of the border, the official said. The Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, had said talks were focusing on a 750-strong contingent to man the 15-kilometre (10-mile) long corridor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2005
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The European Union risks "permanent crisis and paralysis" unless it can persuade member nations to adopt a constitution, the bloc's top official warned Wednesday on the eve of a crucial summit.
Maybe you should try a different constitution?
Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president, also said the EU must honor its commitments to Turkey and other nations regarding their future membership in the bloc despite public concern about the expansion plans. That concern has been cited as a contributing factor to the recent French and Dutch "no" votes on the proposed EU charter. Leaders of the EU's 25 member nations begin their two-day summit in Brussels on Thursday. The gathering has been billed as an opportunity to stoke new confidence in the EU, which rarely has looked more divided.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Henny Penny
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/16/2005 1:00
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They'll try again and again until they get their final election.
#3
I think the light is starting to dawn in many quarters in Europe that a constitution is actually a fairly important thing. Something best not left to simpletons who believe themselves elite.
DOHA - Syria insisted on Wednesday it had fully withdrawn from Lebanon despite US accusations that intelligence agents remained in the country. "I assure you that we don't have any ... security individuals, or military individuals. We have Syrians who are visiting Lebanon because 30 percent of the families of those countries are related," Moalem told Reuters on the sidelines of a Group of 77 summit of developing countries in Qatar.
"And they're all members of the, um, Syrian-Lebanese friendship society. Yeah, that's it."
"Now, if you consider pressure or not, we fulfilled what was concerning Syria on Security Council Resolution 1559. Because we need to give a message to the Security Council, to the U.N., that only through fulfilling Security Council resolutions can stability in the region be achieved," he said.
The United Nations is checking reports Syria may still have intelligence agents in Lebanon.
Oh boy, do we assign Hans Blix or Carla del Ponte to this one?
Asked if Syria believed it could satisfy Washington's demands, Moalem said: "It's up to them, nobody can predict what they want ... We have no dialogue with them -- they have their own policies, we have our own.
"And ours aren't looking so good right now!"
"What we say is the only civilised way is to tackle this gulf that exists between Syria and the United States through dialogue between two equal states and for mutual interest."
The United States has kept up pressure on Damascus since Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon. "We are ready, but you need two to dance," Moalem said, commenting on whether Damascus was prepared to boost ties with Washington.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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But we're not equal states, mouthpiece. That's kinda the point.
Saudi security authorities said they arrested five Chadians belonging to the "deviant group", the term used to describe Al-Qaeda militants, yesterday. The Chadians confessed to murdering a French national and also committing several armed robberies in Jeddah last year. An Interior Ministry statement said the five formed a "criminal gang based on misleading fatwas (religious rulings) that justified to them the committing of murder and armed robbery" to finance their operations.
Frenchman Laurent Barbot, an engineer who worked for a defense electronics company, was shot in his car in September 2004 as he left a supermarket in Jeddah. The statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said three of the Chadians rented a car using fake identification and tailed the Frenchman, and when he stopped at a neighborhood one of them opened fire with a machine gun, killing him.
Foreigners, and particularly Westerners working in the Kingdom, have been the targets of attacks by militants over the past two years in different parts of the country. Several people, including civilians as well as members of the security forces, have been killed in the attacks. The arrests of the five indicate that security forces have got the militants on the run with their sustained offensive. Normalcy has returned to the streets of the Kingdom with more and more Westerners seen shopping and enjoying leisure activities.
The statement said the five also confessed to carrying a series of armed robberies last year at several sites including the offices of British Airways as well as a number of supermarkets. "Finding no employees in the airline's main office which was closed at the time, they (the five Chadians) went to the back office and surrounded seven employees and threatened them with automatic weapons. They then forced them to open the safe and then took what was inside. One employee managed to trigger the alarm prompting the attackers to leave in a hurry," said the statement. The five also attacked two supermarkets where they held the employees at gunpoint before robbing the safes and taking a number of pre-paid telephone cards. One of the arrested men tried to kill an expatriate by firing at him, while the foreigner was near a bank in Jeddah. The expatriate was not hurt in the incident. Security forces also seized the weapons and other material used in the attacks. "Despite the precautions taken by these individuals who seek to spread corruption on earth and their attempts to remain in hiding, the security forces succeeded in arresting the five men and seizing the weapons and tools used in the crimes. The five confessed to committing the crimes and they would be refered them to the Shariah court", the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The French engineer working for a defense company in Saudi Arabia wouldn't be sharing expertise in their "nonexistent" nuclear program, would he? Our "allies" are our worst enemy in the WoT. The French supplied the nuclear know-how for the plant Israel took out and a leading arms supplier to Iraq years ago.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/16/2005 7:28
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Unwilling to address their genuine problems, Europeans Democrats become more reflexively critical of America Republicans. This gives the impression that they're active on the world national stage, even as they're quietly acquiescing in their own decline.
Yeah, that works!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/16/2005 8:42
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2b notes one lie. I think this is another, and more telling of the author's mindset:
"This is the classic dilemma of democracy: Too many people benefit from the status quo to change it; but the status quo isn't sustainable."
Classic dilemma of democracy? Not from where I am standing.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/16/2005 9:01
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"Classic dilemma" isn't quite what the author meant, I think. "Famous pitfall" would be better. And it is a problem, here and abroad. Too many people want their industries protected, their jobs secured by law, and so on. But it isn't sustainable. Why aren't we moving on immigration control? Too many people benefit from the status quo.
Does " 'democratic behavior' mean(s) the behavior that democracies like or the behavior that will preserve a democracy"? (Screwtape)
Posted by: James ||
06/16/2005 10:31
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#8
"...A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury..." -- Alexander Tyler. One of the reasons that the US is so successful is because it understands the value of the republican-democracy. Democracy balanced in several ways by "the concerned minority". For example, the more democratic House is balanced against the less democratic Senate. The more democratic Congress is balanced by the less democratic Presidency, and the undemocratic Judiciary. The President is not popularly elected, but elected by the Electoral College. This means that "populists" will rarely be able to ride the tide of public emotion to real power. Even to some extent, there is a balance between State and federal power. All told, it is very difficult to muster the illusion of government control, which is craved by all governments, unless you both consider what the majority want *and* what the "concerned minority" want.
I have to agree with the writer. The EU Constitution wasn't radical in the sense that it merely got all of the idiocy going on in Europe stuffed into one (very large) sock. The EU Constitution did not invent onerous regulations, economic micro-management, stifling freedom of expression, ridiculous politically correct platitudes, utopian environmental rules and a codification of sloth, indifference and laziness on the part of the citizenry.
#11
TGA, Europe's cutting it pretty close with that birth rate thing.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/16/2005 17:45
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#12
TGA
You obviously don't know the old russian joke: tIn the yearly parade of the Red Army on the Red Place. Everything is in it: missiles, artillery tanks, planes, infantry. And suddenly appaers a cohort of people in plain clothes, with beer bellies, quite aged, with no visible weapons. A westerner diplomat asks: "Who are those people?" His neighbour answers: "these are the apparatchiks. You have no idea of their capacity of destruction."
#13
Mrs Davis, have a look at Japan's birthrates. Or, funny enough, those of Mexico.
We'll probably need more immigration, just not from Muslim countries. And Europe will remain attractive enough for those immigrants. Life ain't bad here.
The future has many unknowns. And the bureaucrats just reveived their first warning from "we the people".
Sorry, for someone who has seen Europe in ruins and survived on a few hundred calories a day, doom is not around the corner just yet.
We can make it.
#15
TGA, Japan can prosper for many years with a declining birth rate precisely becuase it doesn't have significant immigration or emigration. In contrast Europe is losing a significant proportion of its scientists and professionals to emigration (especially from the UK) and replacing them with largely unemployable immigrants. I realize Germany has not gone as far down this path as other European countries, but I am still astonished you think this a recipe for anything other than disaster.
#16
And, the argument a declining population is somehow a serious problem that has to be fixed through immigration is nonsense. A declining population usually leads to greater material wealth and an improved quality of life (Check out Upstate New York or Tasmania). The declining workforce in relation to the retired and non-working population is easily fixed by delaying retirement.
#17
phil_b, the immigration of young skilled people is the "quick fix".
Of course fixing the economy leads to optimism and optimism leads to more kids. Creating a kid friendly environment, investing in education etc helps, too.
#18
TGA, Gotta love that perspective and optomism!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/16/2005 20:44
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#19
Yet another one of these tedious 'death of europe' articles based on highly selective and misleading data. Amazing that a country so in love with the idea of a self sustaining, self correcting market should produce so many journalists who fear any and all competition (the EU, China, India), alternating wildly between macho sabre rattling and sneering condemnations. Anyway to take just one example from this mess of an article
But Europe's economy is already faltering. In the 1970s annual growth for the 12 countries now using the euro averaged almost 3 percent; from 2001 to 2004 the annual average was 1.2 percent.
well perhaps so, but this merely reflects a global trend and is not solely applicable to the 12 eurozone countries. The IMFs May 2000 report 'The World Economy in the 20th Century' highlights the fact that the period 1950 to 1973 was by far the most successful of the 20th century. During that time global per capita real GDP growth was 2.9%, precisely double what its been since then; in Latin America and the caribbean per person GDP growth averaged 75% between 1960 and 1980 but fell to only 7% between 1980 and 2000, sub-saharan africa grew 34% between 1960 and 80 but fell 15% in the next 20 years, even in south east asias Tiger years average groth was half what it was in the previous 20 years.
#20
SC, it helps growth to start from a small base. Perhaps we should have another World War so we can eliminate, say, 1/3 the world'sÃÂ industrial capacity so we can get great percentage growth numbers again. Oh, and let's have the U. S. be a petroleum exporter again too. Oh, and funny how robust American and British growth have been since 1980.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/16/2005 20:54
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#21
SC, I suggest you check out some more recent data. The world economy has grown faster in the last 10 years than at any time in history. Overall economic growth is around 4.5%pa. The stand out exception has been Europe which up until 1995 was moreorless pacing world economic growth, since then it has fallen badly behind as the USA/UK/Australia have kept pace and Asia, especially China has surged ahead. This year in Europe growth will be lucky to exceed 1%. In contrast the USA and Australia will achieve at least 4%.
A brutal paramilitary warlord who made a fortune in Colombia's drug trade demobilized more than 400 of his fighters at a ceremony Wednesday under a peace deal critics say could let him get away with murder. Under the command of former underworld assassin Diego Murillo, members of the "Heroes of Tolova" faction of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces, or AUC, sang the national anthem before laying down their weapons, including assault rifles and grenade launchers. "Only a peaceful and constructive dialogue will make it possible to build a harmonious and prosperous country," Murillo told the ceremony at a soccer stadium in this tiny cattle-ranching hamlet 280 miles northwest of the capital, Bogota. He called on his leftist rebel foes to follow suit and enter peace talks. The disarmament plan, however, has drawn criticism from the United Nations, U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups, who warn it may bring neither peace nor justice.
Yeah. Most things draw criticism from the same bunch, don't they?
Under an amnesty bill pushed by President Alvaro Uribe, Murillo and some of his men may escape any meaningful punishment. The Heroes of Tolova have been blamed for numerous atrocities in northwestern Colombia, and the United States has described Murillo as "the top leader of one of the world's largest cocaine cartels."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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Muslims in Andhra Pradesh may enjoy five percent reservations in education and jobs from this year as the Backward Classes Commission has supported such a move in its report.
Now, that kind of pragmatism fair takes my breath away. Talk about calling a spade a spade...
The commission headed by Justice D. Subrahmaniam submitted the report to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Though the commission refused to divulge the contents of the report, it is understood that it recommended reservations for Muslims. The government had in July last year issued an order declaring Muslims a backward community and providing five percent reservations to them in education and jobs.
I'm kind of a sink-or-swim kind of guy myself, but simply admitting that turbans are generically backward has to take guts.
This sparked off a controversy with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu right-wing groups challenging the move in the high court.
Ummm... VHP members might need their own reservations, I'd think...
On Sept. 21, a five-judge bench of the high court quashed the order. The high court directed the state government to reconstitute the commission in three months and seek the body's opinion for the inclusion of the Muslim community into the list of backward classes. The four-member commission, set up in November, studied the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims, met people from all walks of life and visited several places in the state.
Then they decided they could ride the National Short Bus.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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#1
Next thing you know, they are gonna open casinos and sell cut rate cigarettes and booze.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2005 8:51
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#2
I'm wondering what the "Backward Classes Commission" can do for me and my people.
The old shaman can shake his feathers and rattle his bones at us all he wants, but the net is here to stay. EFL.
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has criticised the new web-based media for "paranoid fantasy, self-indulgent nonsense and dangerous bigotry". None of which, obviously, are found in the traditional media.
He described the atmosphere on the world wide web as a free-for-all that was "close to that of unpoliced conversation". "Unpoliced conversation"? The horror! Isn't that how the evil, world-destroying USA got started? This statement highlights another point of agreement between the religious left and its ally in the campaign to roll back the Enlightenment, militant Islam.
Thou shalt have only proper conversations.
In a lecture to media professionals, politicians and church leaders at Lambeth Palace in London last night, Dr Williams wondered whether a balance could be struck between the professionalism of the classical media and the relative disorder of online communication. Online professionalism is the answer, and this is enforced by massive and immediate feedback. This can give the online journalist an inherent advantage in credibility, as can the multiplicity of search and checking options.
Dr Williams also extended his wide-ranging critique of journalistic practice to the traditional media, arguing that there are "embarrassingly low levels of trust" in the profession and that claims about what is in the public interest need closer scrutiny. The net is doing exactly that, holding to the MSM to account for the first time in their history and changing the world in the process.
He called for a "more realistic, less fevered" approach to stories by journalists and added: "There is a difference between exposing deceptions that sustain injustice and attacking confidentialities or privacies that in some sense protect the vulnerable."
"So leave me and my pecadillos alone, you hear me?" he added in a soft voice.
He attacked the "high levels of adversarial and suspicious probing" that send the clear message that any kind of concealment means "guilty until proved innocent", and he challenged journalists and broadcasters to attempt to regain lost public confidence. That is impossible, the institutional media are collapsing because their malfeasance is finally being exposed, and this malfeasance is now recognized as inherent in the nature of centralized activist media themselves. They cannot reform, even if their pathological hubris would permit it.
#2
In a lecture to media professionals, politicians and church leaders at Lambeth Palace in London last night, Dr Williams wondered whether a balance could be struck between the professionalism of the classical media and the relative disorder of online communication.
There is already a balance. And the media are about 20 year overdue with facts. So we are calling them up and demanding facts instead of agenda, and they are late. (Can you tell I do some collections? ;o) )
There is also a balance as well. The media beats us over the head with agenda, and we beat them with facts. Someone is going to lose this fight in a public marketplace of ideas.
Just a hint: It ain't this dhimmi and his dhimmettes in the BBC.
#4
muck - he's probably talking about Instapundit or Michelle Malkin. If he were ever to read Rantburg, his eyes would jump out of their sockets and burst into flames...
The institutional media's business model is collapsing. They are losing ad revenues and serious news consumers in droves. The agenda peddling and malfeasance merely accelerates the process.
#6
âclose to that of unpoliced conversationâ
Lol, what do you mean "close"? The net IS "unpoliced conversation", and more the better for it. Who the hell wants "policed conversation"?
#8
I just spent the last month listening to the "Democratic" Party tell us how eeevil Christians are. So obviously I'm not going to listen to you, Chuckles.
#9
God help him and his church! LOL Concealment as a virtue of sorts? For snipers, submarines, vunerable animals and insects, fraudsters and criminals surely it is needed. Concealment is no virtue to uphold in the public realm although it is a necessary evil in some contexts. To be tolerated but not applauded. Concealment is very often a telling sign of guilt. Journalists are not disliked generally for failing to practice concealment. Quite the opposite, they are roundly criticized for concealing the identity of nonexistent, extremely biased, or misconstrued sources. They are roundly criticized for concealing inconvenient facts that are material to what they are reporting but not consistent with the tenor, opinion or bias of that reporting.
#10
I guess since the good Archbishop can't figure out how to keep butts in the pews at the creaky COE, he thought it was good time to start burnishing his credentials as media critic.
Give the man credit, though: you have to really work hard to develop an ear that tone-deaf.
#11
Look, the guy's a druid, but not a good one since the Druids have not had a single wickerman full of criminals burned since he took office.
This guy's a fake, a pretender, a fool who played one too many games of Dungeons and Dragons and lost his grip. Idiot, Odin, Thor and their Norse berserkers could kick the crap out of your panzy Celtic gods. If you're gonna worship mythology at least find an ass-kicking pantheon you losers.
#15
I go to an Episcopal church (and I disavow any org higher than my parish), and we pray for this guy every week. However, my prayer is always that this guy gets a clue.
#16
Yeah, well the Internet denounces YOU, Mr. Archdruid guy. How do you like them apples?
Posted by: The Internet ||
06/16/2005 14:38
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#17
Blair Broadcasting Company (BBC) can not blame people for not listening anymore, thatâs what eventually happens when someone keeps telling lies and the trouble is once someone gets a name like that it becomes very hard to shake it off
#18
"Er, um, Mr. Schwarz, one of the problems in Britain is all the people who follow a violent mythology. I don't think we need any more of those"
Um, no. If you act submissive you encourage the strong to make you their b1tch. If you act strong they will look elsewhere. Nobody would call the worshipers of Odin submissive.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2005 23:52
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#22
Barb
My family (dad's side) were the keepers of Thor's holy grove. The whole bunch were excommunicated from the Church for 100 years before even converting...
#23
I believe the Druids disappeared for centuries after the great Roman ass whooping and then they reemerged (I could be wrong but I think about the same time as D&D was invented).
Why could the Odin worshipers not reappear, it's all mythology and self-dillusion anyway.
Authorities in the border city of Tijuana deported a Pakistani man who is under investigation by U.S. authorities for alleged weapons trafficking, and U.S. police took him into custody Wednesday. A man identified as Pakistani citizen Arif Durrani, a former legal U.S. resident who was deported from the United States in the late 1990s, was sent by Mexico on a flight to his native Pakistan. But he was taken into U.S. custody during a layover in Los Angeles, said U.S. consulate spokeswoman Liza Davis. Another U.S. official speaking on customary condition of anonymity confirmed that Durrani was the target of an ongoing arms trafficking investigation. However, she and other officials refused to divulge specific details of the investigation, or confirm if Durrani was the man who was convicted in 1987 for selling missile parts to Iran, and who claimed he had been part of the Iran-Contra scandal.
Mexican authorities had also said earlier the Pakistani was wanted in a weapons trafficking probe. He was detained earlier this week along with three Afghan-born men and a Syrian, all of whom apparently entered Tijuana from the United States. All five men were detained at a Tijuana hotel with hookers; none had a Mexican tourist visa, and all were considered to be in the country without permission. The five were picked up as federal police and soldiers were deployed over the weekend to reinforce local police struggling against a surge in violence linked to drug gangs along the Mexico side of the U.S. border. The Afghans and the Syrian are all U.S. citizens or residents and all were deported to the United States Wednesday; none of them faces any charges or apparently any ongoing investigation there.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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#1
He was detained earlier this week along with three Afghan-born men and a Syrian, all of whom apparently entered Tijuana from the United States.
goddam sandbaks! who in gaurdin tijawana! tryin rooin teh goddam donkee shows. timen start em menudo mens.
#3
Ask Mexico about extraditing the cop-killer back to Denver. An illegal alien who shot 2 police officers, killing one -- 2 shots to the back of the head, left a widow and 2 kids. All because they wouldnt let his drunk ass into an ex girlfriend's wedding (and on top of it he is married and has a kid with someone else).
Been hearing noises (Congressman Tancredo supposedly) that Mexico is saying they will decided *IF* they are going to extradite him in 1 to 3 YEARS. And in order to get that out of the Mexicans, they had to take the death penalty and life-without-parole off the table.
Mexico is NOT our friend. This was likely just an accident on their part.
#4
I believe FOX reported the two cops were guards at a baptism, which makes me wonder why they felt the need to have police there. Weddings are popular in terrorist circles as the families gain political and business advantages. I agree about Mexico not being our friend and I think there is more to the story here. Denver is a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, just inviting trouble.
#5
Durrani, a former U.S. resident, was convicted in the United States in 1987 of selling missile parts to Iran and served five years in prison. He was deported from the United States in 1998 and apparently has lived in Mexico since then.
It was unclear whether the current investigation was related to Durrani's prior conviction.
I'd say no, he most likely has been up to his old tricks again.
He had claimed to have acted as part of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, in which arms were sold to Iran to finance Nicaraguan rebels when the U.S. Congress had barred such aid. In 2003, Durrani petitioned a U.S. court to have his conviction overturned and asked to review more government documents to try to prove he sold the parts at the behest of former Lt. Col. Oliver North and other U.S. officials.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/16/2005 13:01
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One of four hard-line candidates withdrew Wednesday from Iran's upcoming presidential election, heeding a call by religious leaders that too many conservatives in the race might hurt their chances, state television reported. Mohsen Rezaei, the former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, became the first hard-liner to drop out of the race ahead of Friday's election. "Based on the opinions of senior religious leaders, I'm withdrawing from the race to avoid diversity of votes," the television quoted Rezaei as saying in a statement. Rezaei had little chance of winning, and other hard-line candidates have said they do not intend to withdraw. Those remaining are former radio and television chief Ali Larijani, former national police chief Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hard-line strategists appear to favor Ali Larijani.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2005
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#1
Lol! I love these guys. Transparent as PPG float plate glass. You'd think this "election" actually meant something - if you're as gullible and sympy as the MSM, that is.
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.
"Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and other 
A strain of bird flu infecting poultry in North Korea is different from that which killed scores of people in other parts of Asia, a UN expert has said. Hans Wagner, an official for the Food and Agriculture Organization, said the birds were infected with the H7 strain. The strain that has decimated poultry stocks and caused recent human deaths in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam is the more virulent H5N1 strain. North Korea has culled 219,000 birds to tackle the outbreak, Mr Wagner said. 
An Indonesian poultry worker has tested positive for bird flu, in the country's first human case of the disease that has so far killed 54 people in Southeast Asia, health officials said Thursday. The worker on the island of Sulawesi is showing no symptoms of the disease, but blood tests show he was exposed to the H5N1 strain of the disease and has produced antibodies to it, said Hariadi Wibisono, director for the eradication of diseases transmitted by animals at the health ministry. "This is the first case found," said Dr. Georg Petersen, WHO's representative in Indonesia. The bird virus has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of East and Southeast Asia. Tens of millions of chickens have either died or been slaughtered, while 38 people have died in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four from Cambodia since late 2003.
Board members of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency approved a deal Thursday that exempts Saudi Arabia from nuclear inspections, despite serious misgivings about the arrangement in an era of heightened proliferation fears.
I guess Bush should have backed Katherine Harris, after all. Sen. Mel Martinez, the Senate candidate Bush backed instead of Harris, has become the first Republican to call for shutting down Guantanamo. Martinez hasn't said where the 500 or so suspected al-Qaida operatives currently at Gitmo should be transferred to, but I understand the Neverland Ranch might soon be available. Maybe Sen. Arlen Specter — the liberal Republican Bush backed instead of conservative Pat Toomey, which still didn't help Bush in Pennsylvania — will step forward to defend the Bush administration. That Karl Rove is a genius. 
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been taken to hospital with a heart problem, the government said on Thursday. Doctors have suggested that Dr Khan undergo angioplasty within a few days, a private news channel reported. Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Dr Khan had been provided all necessary medical facilities and was under the continuous observation of doctors. "He has had some heart pressure ... and he may have angioplasty surgery in the next two or three days," Reuters quoted Sheikh Rashid Ahmed as saying. 
Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces captured the leader of Al-Qaida in the Mosul region June 14. 
Outlaw killed in 'crossfire'
Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan on Tuesday said 67 Bangladeshi troops including 63 army personnel and four police personnel were martyred while they were in various peacekeeping missions of the United Nations, reports BSS. 
ALGIERS, Algeria, June 16 (UPI) -- Algerian security forces rounded up 42 people on charges of backing and providing logistic support to armed Islamic groups, reports said Thursday. French-language daily Le Soir D'Algerie quoted a security source as saying the arrests took place Tuesday in Hassassina and Tamesnas some 250 miles west of Algiers.
Highly-organised and sophisticated hackers are being blamed for "industrial-strength" attacks on vital computer networks aimed at stealing commercially and economically sensitive information.
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - The salmon-hued structure housing the city police headquarters appeared tranquil in the afternoon heat, guarded by white columns and swaying palms. On an archway, the last governor's bold exhortation to fight corruption was displayed in 2-foot-high letters.
One of the most notorious murder weapons in modern history, the ice-pick that killed Leon Trotsky, appears to have been found, 65 years after it was apparently stolen from the Mexican police. The daughter of a former secret service agent claims she has the steel mountaineering instrument, which is stained with the blood of the Russian revolutionary.
The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday admitted for full hearing a writ petition challenging the appointment of a brother of the leader of the opposition Maulana 
The Government has admitted it has made a massive miscalculation in the cost of the Kyoto Protocol. Original estimates were that New Zealand would have a surplus of 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide credits between 2008 and 2012, worth around $450 million. Climate Change Minister Pete Hodgson says new estimates put it at a deficit of 36.2 million tonnes. That will cost New Zealand $543 million, and it will have to be borne by the taxpayer. Mr Hodgson says it is largely due to huge growth in energy and industrial process emissions. He claims the Government would still have ratified Kyoto if it knew of the deficit risks. New Zealand will now have to cut its emissions, or buy carbon credits on the international market to the tune of $543 million. Mr Hodgson rejects accusations the first estimates were a gross miscalculation. He says the error is a change in assumptions, which will always be the case in energy issues.
Two people were gunned down on M.A. Jinnah Road near Radio Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday in what is believed to be part of the ongoing confrontation between the Sunni Tehrik and the 
A federal jury in Chicago has convicted Mohammad Azam Hussain, a sector in-charge of the MQM Haqiqi for lying to US immigration officials of concealing his membership of the MQM that prosecutors say has a violent history. He was convicted of concealing his membership of the Haqiqi faction of the Mohajir Quami Movement in Pakistan while trying to become a naturalized US citizen in 2003. Mr Azam Hussain, 37, faces up to 10 years in prison, but prosecutors said his sentence would likely be substantially less. He has been in custody since September last year.
A government plan to share tsunami relief aid with Sri Lanka's separatist rebels drove a Marxist party from the government Thursday, a move that could threaten the ruling party's hold on power. The Marxists said they would leave the government if President Chandrika Kumaratunga did not back down on the plan to share the disaster aid with the Tamil Tiger insurgents, who have been waging a separatist war for two decades.
CANBERRA - Australia is considering sending troops back to Afghanistan by early next year to help stabilise the country and continue the war on terrorism, the Australian newspaper reported on Thursday. The paper said the government was considering the new troop deployment, which could be a force of between 250 and 700, along with more civil aid for Afghanistan's reconstruction. A decision would be made in July.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he would name a vice president after the September presidential election for the first time in his 24-year rule. Soliman Awad, the presidential spokesman, said Mubarak is keen on carrying out this plan and this is an indication of Mubarak's intention for true political reforms. Egyptian expert Muhammad Al-Sayyed Said of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies said the recent announcement is an indication that Mubarak will run for a new term in office. "It also shows that Mubarak plans for the succession after his new terms ends," he told Arab News.
The executive who wrote an e-mail memo suggesting that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known about a U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son denies that he, personally, ever discussed the firm's bid with the U.N. chief, his lawyers said Wednesday. The memo written by Michael Wilson describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection S.A. discussed the company's bid for the contract with the secretary-general "and his entourage" during a summit of French-speaking nations in Paris in late 1998. The London law firm Schillings issued a brief statement on behalf of Wilson, who was a vice president of Cotecna at the time and is a friend of both the secretary-general and his son, Kojo. "Mr. Wilson never met or had any discussion with the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on the issue of the bid for the U.N. contract by Cotecna at the Francophone Summit, during the bidding process, or at any time prior to the award of the contract," the statement said.
Spanish police arrested 16 suspected militants yesterday, including followers of 
Pakistan on Wednesday lifted a travel ban on a well-known rape victim, a government spokesman said, days after her name was placed on a list of people barred from leaving the country. The decision came one day after 
Former Pakistani Army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg yesterday confirmed that the country's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, ran a training camp for militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir. "I was the army chief in 1991 when Sheikh Rashid used to run the camp for Kashmiri militants, some 16 km from Islamabad," Beg said here.
South Korea urged North Korea to help end their Cold War as the two sides glossed over an international nuclear dispute Wednesday to celebrate a landmark 2000 summit that warmed ties but failed to bring them much closer to reunification. Since North Korea's Kim Jong Il met then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung _ the only such talks since the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire _ Seoul and Pyongyang have boosted trade, staged reunions of 10,000 separated family members, and launched the construction of railways and roads connecting the Koreas. But five years on, North Korea menacingly boasts that it has nuclear bombs, the border remains one of the world's most heavily armed, and Kim Jong Il has failed to visit Seoul as promised.
The European Union risks "permanent crisis and paralysis" unless it can persuade member nations to adopt a constitution, the bloc's top official warned Wednesday on the eve of a crucial summit. 
DOHA - Syria insisted on Wednesday it had fully withdrawn from Lebanon despite US accusations that intelligence agents remained in the country. "I assure you that we don't have any ... security individuals, or military individuals. We have Syrians who are visiting Lebanon because 30 percent of the families of those countries are related," Moalem told Reuters on the sidelines of a Group of 77 summit of developing countries in Qatar.
A brutal paramilitary warlord who made a fortune in Colombia's drug trade demobilized more than 400 of his fighters at a ceremony Wednesday under a peace deal critics say could let him get away with murder. Under the command of former underworld assassin Diego Murillo, members of the "Heroes of Tolova" faction of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces, or AUC, sang the national anthem before laying down their weapons, including assault rifles and grenade launchers. "Only a peaceful and constructive dialogue will make it possible to build a harmonious and prosperous country," Murillo told the ceremony at a soccer stadium in this tiny cattle-ranching hamlet 280 miles northwest of the capital, Bogota. He called on his leftist rebel foes to follow suit and enter peace talks. The disarmament plan, however, has drawn criticism from the United Nations, U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups, who warn it may bring neither peace nor justice.
Authorities in the border city of Tijuana deported a Pakistani man who is under investigation by U.S. authorities for alleged weapons trafficking, and U.S. police took him into custody Wednesday. A man identified as Pakistani citizen Arif Durrani, a former legal U.S. resident who was deported from the United States in the late 1990s, was sent by Mexico on a flight to his native Pakistan. But he was taken into U.S. custody during a layover in Los Angeles, said U.S. consulate spokeswoman Liza Davis. Another U.S. official speaking on customary condition of anonymity confirmed that Durrani was the target of an ongoing arms trafficking investigation. However, she and other officials refused to divulge specific details of the investigation, or confirm if Durrani was the man who was convicted in 1987 for selling missile parts to Iran, and who claimed he had been part of the Iran-Contra scandal.
