Palestinian militants fired light arms and rocket-propelled grenades at Israelis near an army post on the Gaza-Egypt border on Sunday, wounding three Israelis, the army said. One militant was killed in the attack. Two of the Israelis were hurt badly, and one was in moderate condition, the army said. The violence began when the militants shot at soldiers and civilians doing engineering work near the post, the army said. Militants later fired two grenades at the post, it said. The soldiers returned fire, killing one of the attackers. A second attacker escaped, the army said. Islamic Jihad said the attack was a joint operation between its militants and militants affiliated with the Fatah movement. The attack came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Israeli officials to help coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
"Welcome to Paleostine, Madame Secretary!"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2005
22:40 ||
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Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been secretly operating a base in the Philippines to help the country fight terrorists.
It is the first time the AFP have operated a foreign-based squad, News Ltd newspapers reported.
Officers have helped confirm the fire on a Manila Bay ferry which killed 118 people last year was caused by a terrorist bomb and planted by members of terrorist group Abu Sayyaf and Rajas Sulaiman.
They were also investigated a series of bombings in Manila earlier this year and the secret terrorist training camps of Jemaah Islamiah around Mindanao and other parts of the Philippines.
Officers also reported on new links between local terrorist groups and assisted in uncovering a bomb plot on the Manila train system.
I've added Opinion as Page 4, rather than keeping opinion pieces in a separate table. I'll import the existing opinion pieces as I get time. Let me know where I've missed a spot and I'll fix it.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2005
17:24 ||
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#1
Search and a lot of the sidebar links seemed to be nonfunctional earlier today. Search worked again the last time I tried it, but I haven't checked the sidebar links.
Also, isn't there an RSS feed somewhere around here?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 17:58
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There used to be an external RSS feed, but it works through ASP. The reason search sometimes doesn't work is because it's in ASP, too, and I haven't rewritten it in PHP yet.
There's still a lot I have to do behind the scenes yet, so I apologize for all the stuff that doesn't work quite right. I'll move the search page up on my to do list...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2005 18:14
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Good Lord, Fred, don't apologize!
You do so much already - anything more you do is just icing on the best cake around.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/19/2005 20:24
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What Barbara said. What you've given us is already wonderful, even if the mechanics are unfathomable to me. Please debug only when you have extra free time -- we don't want you to start feeling down again. ;-)
DOUGLAS Wood said this morning it was "bloody good" to be home after arriving in Melbourne to be reunited with his family after spending 47 days in captivity as a hostage in Iraq. The engineer said he had some physical ailments after the ordeal but was not feeling "especially" fragile. He said it was tough readjusting after his hostage ordeal "but we'll get there". He avoided speaking in detail about his time in captivity during a news conference which he entered humming "Waltzing Matilda". Mr Wood said he apologised to Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W. Bush for the comments he made on a tape as a hostage in which he called for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq. He said he was "proof positive" that the policy of having US troops training Iraqi was successful, as he was rescued by the newly-trained troops.
Mr Wood called his captors "a... holes" and said he did not know what group they were associated with. He said there were times during his ordeal that he thought he would be killed. But he said he tried to remain upbeat and "keep laughing".
"I love my family, and I knew that they would be doing everything they could," he said, his American wife Yvonne Given and his brothers Vernon and Malcolm and their wives by his side. Mr Wood arrived on an Emirates flight from Dubai landed at 5.43am (AEST) today, about 15 minutes late. Mr Wood was reunited with the brothers who worked so hard to save his life after insurgents took him hostage in Iraq.
The engineer's return comes as questions continue to be asked about the exact circumstances of his rescue by Iraqi and US forces on Wednesday - 47 days after he was taken hostage in Baghdad. The Government is backing away from its claims that intelligence played a crucial part in his recovery, which is at odds with the position of Iraqi and US troops who put it mainly down to good luck. But the Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, who spent more than a month in the Middle East trying to help secure Mr Wood's release, is sticking with another version of events.
Asked about Sheik Hilaly, Mr Wood said he "never heard of him". The sheik says he struck a deal with Mr Wood's captors to release him on the Wednesday and that the captors were unarmed when troops raided the house in which they and their hostage were found. Defence Minister Robert Hill said it was highly likely specific intelligence - though not necessarily about Mr Wood - prompted the search which eventually led to the Australian's discovery. "All searches have an intelligence base to them," he said on Channel 9. "But whether the Iraqis had specific intelligence that the Australian, Mr Wood, was believed to be in that area is still unclear. It may be clarified in due course or there may always be an element of doubt."
Mr Wood's brother Vernon, from Melbourne, said he was delighted his sibling was arriving be back in Australia. Mr Wood's other brother Malcolm, who lives in Canberra, was expected to travel to Melbourne for the homecoming. Vernon Wood said one of their priorities was for their brother to meet Prime Minister John Howard to thank the Government for all it had done to get him released. "We'd like to get Doug to meet with Prime Minister Howard and (Foreign Minister) Alexander Downer as soon as possible," he said. "We would like to give thanks in several areas where it's due and we want to respect the prime minister and the good will of the government." No meeting has yet been scheduled between Mr Howard and Mr Wood, but the Prime Minister's office has not ruled it out.
THE overloaded UN-backed tribunal trying key figures in the 1994 Rwandan genocide has asked for co-operation from the US Government to help it accomplish its mission.
Erik Mose and Hassan Bubacar Jallow, the president and chief prosecutor of the tribunal, have appealed directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They "re-emphasised the need for sufficient resources to implement the ICTR's (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) completion strategy".
"And keep Carla del Ponte the hell away from us!"
The independent news agency Hirondelle, which covers the court's proceedings, said the two officials also requested US co-operation on several matters where the tribunal needed help from national governments to accomplish its mission.
The ICTR is due to wind up all trials - excluding appeal hearings - by the end of 2008. It is investigating people suspected of key roles in the organised killing of at least 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a 100-day killing spree unleashed in April 1994.
During a US visit, the ICTR officials also held talks with senators and house of representative members, as well as with Pierre-Richard Prosper, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues.
Since its founding by the UN in 1994, the ICTR has tried 25 people including former ministers, members of the Rwandan former army and a Catholic priest for their roles in the genocide before the Hutu army and killer militias were driven out by rebels.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Fighting raged across southern
Afghanistan on Sunday as the U.S. military pounded suspected Taliban positions with airstrikes that killed as many as 20 militants along a narrow mountain footpath. That's raging?
Sure seemed like it from the hotel bar ...
A Taliban spokesman, meanwhile, claimed his fighters had assassinated a kidnapped Afghan police chief and five of his men for collaborating with the U.S.-led coalition. If you kidnap someone, and you later kill them, isn't that murder? I thought assassinations took place in the open.
U.S. aircraft opened fire on a group of suspected Taliban along a narrow footpath in the high mountains northwest of Gereshk, in southern Helmand province, after rebels had pinned down a coalition ground patrol with rocket and small-arms fire. "Initial battle-damage assessments indicate 15 to 20 enemies died and an enemy vehicle was destroyed," the army said in a statement. No Americans were injured.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara added a warning to the insurgents. "When these criminals engage coalition forces, they do so at considerable risk," he said. "We are not going to let up on them. There is not going to be a safe haven in Afghanistan." O'Hara told The Associated Press that additional U.S. and Afghan forces had been sent to the scene and the numbers of rebel dead could rise.
Three months of bloodshed across the south and east has left hundreds dead and sparked fears that the Afghan war is widening, rather than winding down. Whose fears? Y'all been making those "sparks" for quite a while, now!
Sure seemed fearful from the hotel bar ...
Afghan and American officials have warned they expect more bloodshed ahead of key parliamentary elections in September.
Will the MSM be disappointed if that doesn't happen?
In other violence Sunday, three rockets smashed into the southern city of Kandahar, jolting residents but causing no casualties. One of the rockets hit an empty lot near the former home of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, which now houses U.S. special forces troops, said Gen. Salim Khan, the deputy police chief."The one rocket hit right next to Mullah Omar's home, and two other rockets hit fields in Kandahar city," said Khan. "The Taliban did this. Nobody else would do such a thing."
Elsewhere in Helmand, gunmen shot to death three men — a judge, an intelligence worker and an employee of the provincial education department, said Haji Mohammed Wali, a spokesman for the governor. He said it was not clear whether the Taliban or some other armed group was behind the Saturday night attack. Which means it's not clear whether it should be in this article, or somewhere else.
In a victory for Afghan forces and the coalition, national army troops captured Hazrat Ali, the former Taliban intelligence and information chief in central Ghazni province, said Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Murat. No soldiers were injured in the operation Friday in Gelam district, Murat said.
Nice catch.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/19/2005
14:13 ||
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#1
In a victory for Afghan forces and the coalition, national army troops captured Hazrat Ali, the former Taliban intelligence and information chief in central Ghazni province, said Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Murat. No soldiers were injured in the operation Friday in Gelam district, Murat said.
I take it this guy has dibs on being the "Good" Murat?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 16:51
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So, a 20/0 casualty ratio. That's like infinity, right? Not good odds for the bad guys.
Israel has publicly apologised to the US over a deal to sell military technology to China. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he was sorry if Israel had acted in a way which was not acceptable to the Americans. But, speaking ahead of talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he said Israel had acted in good faith. The sales have angered Washington which fears its own technology may could be used against Taiwan. "If things were done that were not acceptable to the Americans then we are sorry but these things were done with the utmost innocence," said Mr Shalom on Israel Radio. Israel has supplied China with Harpy Killer unmanned attack drones, designed to target radar systems.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
13:54 ||
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#1
They're not sorry. And we'd better stop doing technology transfers to them, carrying out joint research projects with them or even selling advanced weapons systems to them, because as night follows day, these technologies will show up in Chinese weaponry. Let them buy their weapons systems from other countries - if these other countries will risk angering the Muslim world.
#2
I agree, ZF. Israel's been caught red handed and their actions are indefensible. So their only option is to pull out these phony crocodile tear apologies. he said Israel had acted in good faith.these things were done with the utmost innocence," said Mr Shalom on Israel Radio.
#4
I must admit, they're playing a very dangerous (and stupid) game here...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
06/19/2005 17:19
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Nothing new here folks. Israel has had an active US technology/intelligence collection effort for as long as I can remember. When I was dealing with such things in the Air Force int he 70's, there were some officers that were informally excluded from sensitive information because it was an open secret that they were a conduit to the Israelis. No reason to expect that the Israelis have anybody's interest at heart but their own.
WHEN WILL WE GET OSAMA BIN LADEN? That is a question that goes far deeper than you know. In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice. We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play. We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community.
IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA OF WHERE HE IS. WHERE? I have an excellent idea of where he is. What's the next question?
The article continues
Sounds like Binny is in Pakland and PAK forces loyal to AQ are protecting him.
#1
It's also consistent with him being in Iran, though it would seem to rule out the idea that he's hiding out in Somalia, Bangladesh, or a similar failed state.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/19/2005 15:01
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One thing is for sure: Mr Goss is clearign a lto of dead wood - and that has lit a fire under some previously very complacent asses.
I tried to search, to see if this had come up here before, but the search function wasn't working. Anyway, yet another fake memo story, courtesy of the USS Neverdock:
Stage one (quoted excerpt from AP):
...Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.
The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material. Ah, fake but accurate.
And notice that the 'senior British official' doesn't have a name, and didn't specifically cross-check the assumed copies with originals, to which he may or may not have had access.
"I first photocopied them to ensure they were on our paper and returned the originals, which were on government paper and therefore government property, to the source," he added. [...]
"It was these photocopies that I worked on, destroying them shortly before we went to press on Sept 17, 2004," he added. "Before we destroyed them the legal desk secretary typed the text up on an old fashioned typewriter."
Smith appears to be tripping up here. He says he returned the originals because they were on government paper and therefore government property. So, photocopying a page out of a book makes the words no longer the property of the author? They're getting to be as bad as the Rapid Action Battalion, only not as productive.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005
11:04 ||
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Zenger, John Peter (zĕng'ər) , 1697â1746, American journalist, b. Germany. He emigrated to America in 1710 and was trained as a printer by William Bradford (1663â1752). Zenger began publication of the New York Weekly Journal in 1733, an opposition paper to Bradford's New York Gazette and to the policies of Gov. William Cosby. Zenger's newspaper, backed by several prominent lawyers and merchants, truculently attacked the administration. Although most of the articles were written by Zenger's backers, Zenger was legally responsible and was arrested on libel charges and imprisoned (1734). In the celebrated trial that followed (1735) Zenger was defended by Andrew Hamilton, who established truth as a defense in cases of libel. The trial, which resulted in the publisher's acquittal, helped to establish freedom of the press in America. Zenger later became public printer for the colonies of New York (1737) and New Jersey (1738).
Freedom of the Press was established upon the concept of TRUTHZ. Maybe it is time to return to the foundation of the right and remove any protections, in the form of libel, for 'jounalism' if it can not or will not validate their material. Time to enforce the 14th Admendment of equal protection before the law, and remove the different standards of proof by public personalities. MSM want to speculate? Fine, make it prominent that what is being presented is fiction or conjecture without basis in fact or pay the piper.
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/19/2005 13:16
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I followed the Raw Story links to the 6 documents.(re-typed, photocopied, whatever)and read all of them. The contents are not flattering to the WH.
If the real documents exist and and the reporter can be forced to produce them, this could present impeachable grounds - purposely deceiving Congress.
If the documents can be proven to be just more Rathergate phony material, then the 2006 election is the GOP's across the board. The American public will not tolerate another Rathergate if it's proven the contents of the docs are made up lies.
#7
The guys over at PowerLine - no LLL symps they - have posted an interesting comment to the effect that they believe the repro'd memos to be legit. Their argument goes that the memos don't volunteer any CONCLUSIVE evidence as to what happened, whereas (for instance) the CBS memos provided the exact evidence the Left needed but couldn't find. This one may be a toughie...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/19/2005 14:35
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Well, given that the memos seek to prove that the US had made up its mind one way or another about the war but another ten months or so of screwing around with the UN security council then proceeded to take place, then the case they're trying to build doesn't seem to have very much internal logic.
Just like the case the press has tried to build relies on literal news blackouts of certain stories that would prove them wrong, like the attempted mass casualty attack in Jordan last year.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 14:47
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ALSO... it's only the press that's decided that WMD were the _only_ reason to go to war with Iraq, and has ignored/whitewashed/pretended to explain away any subsequent WMD evidence.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 14:57
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#10
Phil - you posted the article with the links in the body, so I assume you read some or all of the 6 reproduced memos. The memos don't deal merely with the WMD reason for invading Iraq, which btw, the Brits are shown to be sceptical about from the get go. The Brits also say there's no recent evidence of Saddam supporting AQ terrorists. That's why the Brits suggest that the US and UK gov't would do better to use Saddam's breaking UN sanctions as a more solid invasion reason. The Brits even suggest ways to provoke Saddam to defy the UN. The Brits also worry that the US Admin were somewhat clued out about post-war occupation planning/ nation building. Hopefully, the contents of these memos can be proven to be false.
#11
Phil - you posted the article with the links in the body, so I assume you read some or all of the 6 reproduced memos.
I have them downloaded but I've only skimmed a couple... I'm having mild computer problems now.
The memos don't deal merely with the WMD reason for invading Iraq, which btw, the Brits are shown to be sceptical about from the get go. The Brits also say there's no recent evidence of Saddam supporting AQ terrorists. That's why the Brits suggest that the US and UK gov't would do better to use Saddam's breaking UN sanctions as a more solid invasion reason.
Well, for a regime that wasn't cooperating with Al Qaeda, they seemed to have a whole lot of Al Qaeda people on hand at the time of the US attack. Including Zarqawi, who was there for about a year beforehand...
That's why the Brits suggest that the US and UK gov't would do better to use Saddam's breaking UN sanctions as a more solid invasion reason. The Brits even suggest ways to provoke Saddam to defy the UN. The Brits also worry that the US Admin were somewhat clued out about post-war occupation planning/ nation building.
Well, we're doing a damn bit better than the British ever did with their "we'll just make the Sunnis the owners of the plantation" strategy that brought us two wars with the place during my lifetime, never mind the ethnic cleansing of Shi'ites and Kurds that took place...
Hopefully, the contents of these memos can be proven to be false.
Proven to not be memos, or proven to be wrong?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 16:38
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#12
I followed the Raw Story links to the 6 documents.(re-typed, photocopied, whatever)and read all of them. The contents are not flattering to the WH.
Are you out of your f*cking mind?? If what I have read so far means anything it BOLSTERS the case for the Iraq war.
#13
Only a complete moron would deliberately obfuscate the origins of the documents and then destroy the only evidence they are genuine. The only plausible explanation is that he is a liar.
What I find interesting is this has the lesson of RatherGate learned, written all over it even to the point of using a manual typewriter. When was the last time you saw a manual typewriter in an office? The lesson of RatherGate was - make sure no one can prove documents are a fake. And how do you do this? By retyping, obscuring any evidence of their origin and then claiming to have destroyed the 'originals'. I'm really surprised any of you think these are genuine.
#14
Proven to not be memos, or proven to be wrong?
Proven never to have existed in the first place. Proven to have been made up by the reporter or by his source(s).
Are you out of your f*cking mind?? If what I have read so far means anything it BOLSTERS the case for the Iraq war.
You can't be serious. I doubt you've read any of the memos.
If the originals are produced or if the source(s) volunteer to come forward to attest to the accuracy of the reproductions, there's no question that the contents are very damaging to the WH. Blair and his underlings don't look like Boy Scouts either, but they are not cast in a Keystone Cops or worse damning light. The Brits at least are questioning and even dismissing as inaccurate or unrealiable some of the reasons/assessments provided to them by their US counterparts, initially dragging their feet, even getting second opinions from their legal staff.
Actually, the Democrats might not want to pursue this thing. It make them look bad too for being such a compliant "loyal opposition."
Go back to fellating Kos.
A predictable knee jerk flame from someone who can't be bothered to read the memo reproductions. FYI, if the contents are true of these reproduced memos, anyone who isn't a complete mindless "Bush, Rice, and GOP are saints" idealogue would want gov't officials brought to account for deliberately deceiving the American people and Congress that the Iraq War was necessary and unaviodable.
As I said earlier, these memos could be another example of a Rathergate type of bogus information and that would pretty much guarantee the GOP winning a resounding victory in the 2006 mid term elections. But you'd need to be blind or dumb not to see that, IF THE MEMOS ARE TRUE, this may pose very serious questions about the WH and so it should.
#15
As I said earlier, these memos could be another example of a Rathergate type of bogus information and that would pretty much guarantee the GOP winning a resounding victory in the 2006 mid term elections. But you'd need to be blind or dumb not to see that, IF THE MEMOS ARE TRUE, this may pose very serious questions about the WH and so it should.
Having looked at them more closely, I remain unconvinced this is the case.
Especially in light about what the blind and stupid press has lied and obfucated to us about WMD.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 18:29
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WMD ...sanctions....none of it matters as I see it. Saddam's actions in llight of his agreements ending GW1, and his failure to abide by any of the provisions contained therein gvie the US all the justification necessary. Hell, even if we had or do find massive stockpiles of WMD in the desert, there's many a democrat congressperson on recored as saying even that would not provide justification. It's all political window dressing. We had the right, we exercised it. Stop the circle jerk!!!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/19/2005 19:11
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#17
A predictable knee jerk flame from someone who can't be bothered to read the memo reproductions. FYI, if the contents are true of these reproduced memos, anyone who isn't a complete mindless "Bush, Rice, and GOP are saints" idealogue would want gov't officials brought to account for deliberately deceiving the American people and Congress that the Iraq War was necessary and unaviodable.
The only cause for trouble for the White House is if they deliberately deceived Congess about the cause for war. I recall that the call for regime change came in July 2002. I knew at the point we were going to war and if the White House made a decision to gather the information necessary to bolster that case then that means they did what was neccessary to win political support for the war.
The only way those "memos" could damage Bush is if they state that they knew there were no WMDs and that case had to be ginned up for political support. Well, I have seen nor heard anyting that states that flatly, and commentary from our fifth column press doesn't count anymore.
What we do have here is a situational wedge, for lack of a better term. The left wants to attack a conservative lame duck administration in 2005 to develop wedge issues for a 2006 election, one which the left must win in order to have any chance at 2008.
It worked in 1973, in Nixon's second term for an actual scandal, it worked in 1987 with Iran-Contra, but the left falls well short this time, and it does so because whatever scandal these "memos" reveal are the commentary written by a press which would rather see dead Americans than to give Dubya credit for anything.
#18
I don't see how anyone could have been "deceived" by Bush regarding the necessity of ousting Saddam. President Clinton had already laid out the case for doing so, very convincingly, in his February 17, 1998 address to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And Congress did, as well, in the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
Bush's only innovation was to add the courage to act.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/19/2005 20:26
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#19
The left wants to attack a conservative lame duck administration in 2005 to develop wedge issues for a 2006 election, one which the left must win in order to have any chance at 2008.
Actually you're wrong. At this point, the usual suspects representing the official left - ie Democrat politicians and MSM - have been fairly quiet about the memos this weekend, or at least I haven't seen much printed in newspapers or heard any Democrats interviewed. So far there's only chatter on blogs ( actually the first I read of these memos surfacing was phil's posted article) and yahoo has it as a lead political story today.
BTW: You finished fellating Kos?
BTW: have you ever thought about catching some internet posting manners?
#20
Then, I apologize for my lack of manners, but this is a non-story. That the left isn't jumping through their ass about it yet doesn't mean they won't.
#21
The DemoLeft > the GOP-Right has to verify and find out the truth for the DemoLeft whilst not questioning the DemoLeft's motives or credibility. For Me the cause for war pre-9-11 came when Clinton made regime change in Iraq de facto US policy, not to mention that Clinty himself reportedly believed that Al-Qaeda was behind 9-11 and being supp by Saddam. Kerry and the Dems are achieving nothing, moreso iff they're trying to hide behind a Bill Clinton whose own comments against his own achievements and movement are as destructive to the US Demoleft in general as anything Dubya and the GOP does.Pretty much the only thing(s) that can save Hillary's ambition now is either Bill-style elex fraud, new 9-11/WMD attack which takes out Dubya and Washington, and or de facto US milfor battlefield defeat overseas. The last one is unlikely without extens foreign intervention, while with the first Bill was lucky to have people cut him off at the pass - the second scenario explains why the LeftMedia, Inc. is acting like a Democratic Party while the Dems per se are "delinked" and quietly surreally working both for and against GOP policies. "Downing Street Memo" aside, and with the North Korea and Iran sitreps coming to a head, the Dems are becoming more PC "quiet" than ever. Hope no war or new 9-11 per se occurs, but iff Hillary expects to serve two full terms as POTUS of PC geopol quiet, prim-and-proper tenures like Bill did, then something's gotta give!? The Clinton Name and Legacy means nothing now thanx to Bill himself, so Hillary has to depend on something, anything, else for her power - I can imgaine the brouhaha in the Clinton household once Hillary realizes she might have to settle for being a one-termer!
#22
I don't see how anyone could have been "deceived" by Bush regarding the necessity of ousting Saddam. President Clinton had already laid out the case for doing so, very convincingly, in his February 17, 1998 address to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And Congress did, as well, in the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
Then the President should have made his case about enforcing the 1998 Act to Congress and to the American public. The Act was never brought up by the President in any speeches to my knowledge. The WH probably realized that acting on some obscure act passed five years ago is a bit of a reach.
There's no question that Saddam was a tyrant to his people, but heck, 2/3 of the world's nations are led by tyrants. That's life in Third World countries. Our President and his advisors can't go off half cocked and invade other countries because they want to get rid of tyrants. If Smith's memos are based on for real documents, then what occurred prior to the Iraq invasion was a small oligarchy playing fast and loose with facts on the ground and re-packaging them to be something they weren't. That's unconstitutional, an abuse of public trust. These memos reflect very poorly on US high profile personalities particularly like Rice and others, that's what makes the memos seem bogus to me - Rice is portrayed as an empty skirt, an airhead, and she's has not revealed herself to that way outside these memos. Actually everyone in the US admin. comes across like irresponsible buffoons according to the Brits, seeming quite glib about wading into war, not thinking too deeply about putting our soldiers in danger for reasons other than defending our country's security, not being too terribly concerned about how or by whom Iraq would be governed post invasion, or even recognizing it would take gobs of taxpayer money to take on this nation building venture over a period of many years to come. Various Brits in seem worried about their American counterparts' understanding the gravity of war and post war issues. One Brit mocks Wolfowitz's naive belief that the Republican Guard "would fall in a heap," that he's stuck on Chalabi for unfathomable reasons, because the Brits knew Chalabi was a lying huckster even before the invasion. In another memo a Brit official worries that the US officials are so out to lunch about consequences of regime change that the Brits may end up carrying the brunt of the follow through after the invasion.
The veracity of the memos need to be addressed formally, otherwise the GOP will suffer in 2006. This will not fade away on its own. The memos are false or they are true. There's no way to rationalize the contents.
#23
Then the President should have made his case about enforcing the 1998 Act to Congress and to the American public. The Act was never brought up by the President in any speeches to my knowledge. The WH probably realized that acting on some obscure act passed five years ago is a bit of a reach.
Well, a quick google search showed a speech from shortly before the campaign (I refuse to say it was the "start" of the war, anymore than invading Italy was the "start" of WW2) where he talked about the need to end a dictatorship, and bring freedom to the Iraqis. You can read it here.
There's no question that Saddam was a tyrant to his people, but heck, 2/3 of the world's nations are led by tyrants. That's life in Third World countries.
He was a particularly bad one.
Our President and his advisors can't go off half cocked and invade other countries because they want to get rid of tyrants.
Actually, I think it was important that they do so, especially when the tyrants in question have histories of funding terror networks and _have_ used chemical weapons in the past.
If Smith's memos are based on for real documents, then what occurred prior to the Iraq invasion was a small oligarchy playing fast and loose with facts on the ground and re-packaging them to be something they weren't. That's unconstitutional, an abuse of public trust.
Bullshit. As I said before, Bush was stating a variety of rationales for the invasion.
And with what we know today, we can add some more:
* France and Russia were working to undermine the sanctions regime and to rearm Iraq.
* Since the invasion of Iraq, evidence has come to light of a vast black market in isotope enrichment gear. It is unlikely that this would have come to light if we hadn't invaded Iraq, which not only produced a large intelligence haul, but made others (like Libya) feel threatened enough to start sharing intelligence with us. There's a strong chance that if we'd left Saddam in power like some sort of sacred King, we wouldn't know what we know now about the AQ Khan network.
These memos reflect very poorly on US high profile personalities particularly like Rice and others, that's what makes the memos seem bogus to me - Rice is portrayed as an empty skirt, an airhead, and she's has not revealed herself to that way outside these memos. Actually everyone in the US admin. comes across like irresponsible buffoons according to the Brits, seeming quite glib about wading into war, not thinking too deeply about putting our soldiers in danger for reasons other than defending our country's security, not being too terribly concerned about how or by whom Iraq would be governed post invasion, or even recognizing it would take gobs of taxpayer money to take on this nation building venture over a period of many years to come. Various Brits in seem worried about their American counterparts' understanding the gravity of war and post war issues. One Brit mocks Wolfowitz's naive belief that the Republican Guard "would fall in a heap," that he's stuck on Chalabi for unfathomable reasons, because the Brits knew Chalabi was a lying huckster even before the invasion. In another memo a Brit official worries that the US officials are so out to lunch about consequences of regime change that the Brits may end up carrying the brunt of the follow through after the invasion.
Well, as I said, the Brits have done very badly in reconstructing Iraq before. We are going against their conventional wisdom by not leaving the Sunnis in charge of their Shi'ite and Kurd "property" and treating the Shi'ites and Kurds as if they're humans instead of serfs.
The veracity of the memos need to be addressed formally, otherwise the GOP will suffer in 2006. This will not fade away on its own. The memos are false or they are true. There's no way to rationalize the contents.
Well, Bush has been speaking of trying to democratize or stabilize the Arab world since even before the invasion, and people did re-elect him anyway.
These reasons (and others) may not make sense to you but they do make sense to many other people.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 22:25
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Question of the day: Did FDR deserve to be impeached for lying to Congress and the American people when he said the bombers that attacked Tokyo came from a secret American base in "Shangri-La?"
(For that matter, what about when he authorized military action against Germany and Japan before Pearl Harbor? Or when the details of this military incident were kept secret at the time?)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 22:45
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phil - you and I have differing views on what constitutes transparancy in gov't or what legitimate reasons should cause our country to go to war. Arbitary regime change of tyrants who do not pose credible threats to our national security does not pass muster with me or many other Americans, I'd wager. In fact, I doubt the President could get Congress or the American public to give him the go ahead to start a war in Iraq based on the concept of "regime change." These memos better be bogus.
#26
A bit of perspective, TG. We didn't sell helium to Germany, hence the Hindenberg.
We cut off American oil to Japan in 1941, to try to influence thier actions, hence Pearl Harbor. If OPEC cut off our oil today, wouldn't WE consider it an act of war?
We were escorting convoys to Britian in 1940, but the Rueben James wasn't actually sunk until the fall of 1941 - well before Pearl harbor.
Should Roosevelt have been impeached, TG?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/19/2005 23:28
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Well, we don't have to worry about a resurgent German army any time soon. But it doesn't bode well for German resolve to deal with any tough issues in the GWOT or at home.
GI Joe's buzz used to be troop standard, as officers meticulously monitored the length of soldiers' hair. Now even ponytails are allowed in the German army after a few shaggy men demanded equal treatment with the women.
Demi Moore might have shaved off her luxurious mane to prove she was just as tough as her male colleagues. But these days in Germany, soldiers are looking more enviously towards GI Jane's long hair and demanding equal treatment.
Equal treatment for all — those were the arguments German women used to gain entry into the army. Now the men are doing an about-face and learning to apply the same terms to push gender neutrality. After all, why shouldn't men also enjoy the same pleasures of coming through their long locks?
That's what an 18-year-old recruit argued, when his commanding officer demanded he cut off his 25-centimeter long ponytail. When he refused to do so, he was imprisoned for subordination and fined 150 euros. Only after he was faced with up to three weeks arrest, did the young man agree to sacrifice his tresses.
At the same time he sought legal council and demanded the repeal of the so-called "hair and beard regulation," which enforces strict -- and specifically short -- standards of hairdressing for men ("closely cut so that it lies flat on the head; it must not cover the ears or eyes of the soldier), while allowing longer coiffures for women.
The fact that female soldiers could get away with wearing a wider range of hairdos as long as they didn't interfere with the correct placement of the hat was unfair, the soldier argued. It meant he didn't have the same freedom to develop his personality as the women.
A military court in Bavaria was convinced. It said the dual standard violated the armed forces guidelines on equal rights and ruled that the hair regulation was unconstitutional. Requiring male soldiers to cut off their hair was an infringement of the basic right to freedom of expression.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
09:58 ||
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Since, unlike our military, any women in the German army would probably never get close enough to a battle to be part of any fighting, this works for me.
With long hair, the idiot male members of the German Army won't be able to get their gas masks to fit right, and.... (fill in the blank yourself). Darwinism in action.
Not that I think the German Army will actually be in combat anytime soon. Except maybe in their own country against islamofascists. (Or maybe not, if they've been hanging around the appeasing Phrogs too long.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/19/2005 12:31
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The one thing to keep in mind is the German army is mostly made up of draftees and will probably remain so for the near and at least mid future. Hence the focus on 'rights' and 'personality development'.
If they ever get serious about having an effective army again, this sort of thing will change in a hurry, I suspect.
#3
This reminds me of someone (jokingly) describing the 19th century British Army as "a social institution prepared for any emergency save that of war."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/19/2005 12:47
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I'm not so sure about the combat thing. Germany's defense mninister did announce recently that the Bundeswehr will participate in more international missions, is likely to be involved in combat and should be prepared for casualties.
That said I can't remember having met a soldier with long hair yet so I guess it's pretty much a non issue.
Those guys will probably peel potatos for the rest of their draft time.
#5
Not to mention ABSALOM's long hair getting caught in a thicket and giving his position away. Ask CROMWELL and America's civil war Armies, North and South, how many men suffered serious or debilitating head and upper body rashes due to pervasive head sweat and lice, ... all the way to Vietnam and Desert Storm.
In WOT Background due to their report on deaths in Iraq
By Mark Henderson
Nobel prizewinners in the Royal Society attack on editor over publication of flawed research
BRITAIN'S premier medical journal is endangering public health by publishing unfounded scare stories, 30 of the country's leading scientists say today.
Poor editorial judgment at The Lancet has fuelled panic over issues such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, hormone replacement therapy and genetically modified (GM) crops, the eminent medical researchers charge in a letter that the journal has refused to publish.
The signatories, thirty fellows of the Royal Society, two of whom are Nobel laureates, accuse it of favouring "desperate headline-seeking" over sound science, to the detriment of public health. "Under the editorship of Richard Horton, the publication of badly conducted and poorly refereed scare stories has had devastating consequences for individual and public health, in the UK and abroad, and carried a high economic cost," they say.
The letter, seen by The Times, responds to a Lancet editorial last month that criticised the Royal Society as a "shrill and superficial cheerleader for British science" that no longer makes major contributions to medicine.
Fellows of the national science academy were outraged by the attack, which they saw as a cheap shot from a journal with a record of publishing research with serious flaws. Last year, The Lancet partially retracted the 1998 study led by Andrew Wakefield that triggered the MMR vaccine scare. Dr Horton admitted the study was "entirely flawed". Many scientists believe the paper should have been rejected by the journal's referees.
It has also been criticised for publishing research by Arpad Pusztai that claimed to show that GM potatoes produced worrying biological changes in rats. A Royal Society committee found it was based on poorly conducted experiments.
The letter suggests that the decision to publish such research stemmed from a desire to attract headlines and not from balanced assessment of the best evidence. "The remarkably poor editorial judgment responsible for this policy is reflected again in the present egregious, error-strewn and wholly unwarranted attack on the Royal Society," it said.
Professor Mark Pepys, of the Royal Free Hospital, London, who drafted the letter, said: "The Pusztai and MMR papers are the two most serious examples. The MMR study was not well reviewed — it was a disgracefully bad piece of work and the decision to publish it was clearly scaremongering.
"It has had terrible effects: children have died of measles, mumps is now out there, it has ruined the vaccination programme for MMR and cost the British taxpayer millions to repair the damage." Other signatories include Sir Paul Nurse and Sir Aaron Klug, who have won Nobel prizes for their work, Sir Walter Bodmer, one of the world's leading geneticists, and the neuroscientist Dame Nancy Rothwell.
Sir Walter said: "At the very least, people in glass houses should not throw stones. I have given up taking The Lancet, which I used to read regularly."
Dr Horton said the journal had decided not to publish the letter as it had accepted similar ones from Lord May of Oxford, the President of the Royal Society, and Professor David Weatherall, chairman of a committee named in the editorial.
He said that it was part of The Lancet's job to scrutinise institutions such as the Royal Society, and defended his journal's record and integrity. "I can't see why trying to generate a debate about the role of the Royal Society should have been received with such outright hostility," he said.
"I can't believe the people who have signed this letter have looked into the contribution of The Lancet to public health in any detail, or appreciate the breadth of what we have achieved. I find these suggestions insulting to those scientists around the world who have chosen to publish in the journal."
The MMR and GM papers have not been the only sources of controversy during Dr Horton's eight-year editorship of The Lancet. In 2003 Professor David Purdie, of Hull-York Medical School, a leading authority on HRT, criticised a Lancet study suggesting that the treatment could double the risk of breast cancer as "unbalanced and inflammatory".
An accompanying editorial that urged women to stop taking HRT in light of evidence about its health risks caused further outrage among doctors, who said that it would dissuade thousands from taking a medication with proven benefits.
Later that year Dr Horton called on the Government to ban all tobacco smoking, a move ridiculed by the Royal College of Physicians and even by the anti-smoking group ASH. They felt the extreme tone would undermine efforts to secure a ban in public places, which has wide support in the medical community.
The journal was also criticised last year for, on the eve of the US presidential election, publishing a statistical study estimating the death toll from the Iraq war at 100,000. Using highly flawed statistical estimation techniques
Dr Horton has been praised widely, however, for the high profile his journal has given to health issues in the developing world, particularly those concerning children.
He has also won plaudits for his scrutiny of the pharmaceutical industry, though his stance has made enemies. The Lancet has been fiercely critical of drug companies that cover up tests revealing side-effects or sponsor doctors' attendances at conferences
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
09:55 ||
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A classic example of a once-respected institution which has succumbed to leftist/idiotarian rot.
#2
I used to subscribe to Lancet the same as I do the New England Journal of Medicine. I gave up the former precisely because of the editorial drift -- they couldn't decide if they were going to be a serious medical journal or the medical World Weekly News. They still have some useful information, and I check up on them on the net occasionally to see if I've missed anything, but ordinarily I don't bother with them anymore. Ditto with JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) -- I gave them up for the same reason. If I want political news, I come to the web, not to JAMA.
That's what happens when you squander a reputation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/19/2005 10:45
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Don't forget the Lancet is also the Home of the 100,000 Iraqi DeadTM.
This rolls back a key, if limited, economic reform unless they do something else to pay for it.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's supporters voted a law through on Friday to restore more generous jobless benefits to older unemployed people in Germany, less than a year after pushing through the cuts in the face of demonstrations.
Centre-right opposition parties who are forecast to win power at a likely general election in September rejected the changes. Those parties have the power to delay the legislation in the Bundesrat upper house so that it expires when the election is called.
In the Bundestag lower house, Schroeder's Social Democrats justified their about-face as a response to continuing high unemployment in Germany.
The legislation postpones by two
years, from 2006 to 2008, a reform that will shorten the duration of pay-linked benefits for unemployed people over 45. Currently a person aged 57 or older when losing a job can claim a benefit for as long as 32 months.
Leftist groups organised big demonstrations last summer against the benefit cuts.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
07:58 ||
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Trying to make Merkel's life difficult after he loses the upcoming election?
#2
Everything the Bundestag does now is just desperate Red/Green window dressing and rather irrelevant.
Last polls give the CDU/CSU 49% of the votes and an absolute majority by seats. Merkel has already climbed to be the second most popular polititician (after President Köhler). Schröder is plummeting, his SPD now also faces opposition by a new Leftist Alliance.
We'll see the major political swing Germany ever had.
#3
TGA i afraid you will have the problem that Durão Barroso had here in Portugal. After being elected to fix the Socialist disaster by Guterres, with Media(most is Left or far Left) completely against him, after 3 months of reformist drive all ended with nothing more than some cosmetic changes. The deficit stoped to hike like at socialist levels but nothing strutural was made to stop it. Then when he got the EC invite he just run away. Note that his governement with Popular Party had Parliament majority. The Media and protests stopped any possibility helped by some ineptitude by Durão Barroso himself and his governement that at first big protest just give up.
If the political discurse in Germany is at left then there will be no chances.
#5
I don't think so. The German public may hate the reforms but they know they are necessary. If anything positive can be said about Schröder is that he paved the way.
If the Conservatives fail to enact working reforms the Left will be back in 4 years.
#7
I hope you're right, TGA, but in light of the IG Metall newsletter, I have My doubts. That such hateful propaganda would be put out by an organization with a lot of members and support is troubling.
Italian newspapers Friday laid into France's President Jacques Chirac, labelling him an obstacle to the course of the European Union and calling on Italy to swing over to Britain's vision of the future of the bloc. The economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore, in a hard-hitting front-page editorial, called the French leader "the enemy of the EU," while Confindustria, organ of the Italian employers' federation, said Chirac should take the first step to get Europe out of its current deadlock, by resigning and vanishing from the political stage.
The left-wing La Repubblica said Chirac, who has failed to bounce back since French voters shocked him by rejecting the EU constitution in a March 29 referendum he had called, was a beaten man. "His weakness in France makes him a lame duck in Europe," the paper said, contrasting him with the right's rising star, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Renato Brunetta, an economic adviser to Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, told La Stampa daily that the French-German axis within Europe was now dead, adding, "Italy must support Tony Blair, the only one able to exercise leadership at present." Other newspapers agreed, with Il Corriere della Sera saying that while France's interest in sustaining the Common Agricultural Policy was well known, "we, who are losing competitiveness in the markets, have other interests, other priorities to assert." Berlusconi, media mogul as well as Italian PM
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
07:56 ||
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sniff, sniff... what's that smell, is it... blood?
Hey chiracy, might want to get out of the water while you are still in one piece.
#2
2b, nah, not going to happen. Isn't there some goofy law protecting him from getting arrested while he's in charge? Some corruption charges are hanging over his head, I think.
The bell from a British troopship sunk in World War II with more than 5,000 people on board exactly 65 years ago has turned up in a military cemetery in France, an association of survivors and descendants from those on the vessel said.
The heavy bell of the Lancastria, a Cunard Line cruise ship converted to military transport, was discovered by 90 members of the British association in the Pornichet cemetery in western France on Thursday with an anonymous note by the person who left it there.
In the message, the author said he had kept the bell - which is inscribed with the former name of the cruise ship, Tyrrhena - for the past 30 years after raising it from the wreck.
He said he now wanted to donate it to the Lancastria association.
The HMT Lancastria was sunk on June 17, 1940 after taking on board between 5,000 and 9,000 British troops and civilians being evacuated from France following that country's defeat to the invading Germans.
Luftwaffe planes caught the ship exposed off France's Atlantic coast and bombed it, causing it to roll over and sink within 20 minutes as lit fuel set the surrounding sea ablaze. There were 2,477 survivors.
It was Britain's worst maritime disaster in history, and then British prime minister Winston Churchill ordered news of the ship's sinking be suppressed. Official records have been sealed to 2040.
The wreck has been designated a protected war grave.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
07:51 ||
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This restores our perspective a little. The Lancastria sinking was worse than 9-11, yet it is just a footnote in most World War 2 histories.
It wasn't even the war's worst maritime disaster, that was the German liner Wilhelm Gustlof, sunk by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic during the final days of the war. More than 7000 people perished in that one, yet it, too, is relatively little-known against the backdrop of that immense struggle.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said developed countries have an obligation to prevent bribery in Africa by Western firms. Wolfowitz also praised South African President Thabo Mbeki for sacking his deputy, Jacob Zuma, after he was implicated, but not charged, in a corruption scandal.
That almost deserves our 'jaw drop' picture.
A corruption trial jailed Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik for 15 years and found there had been a "generally corrupt relationship" between the two. The case against Shaik hinged on payments made to Zuma solicited from a French arms company in return for protection from investigation into a multi-million-dollar arms deal.
"As an outsider it would suggest that the President of this country takes the issue of corruption seriously and is prepared to take it on and that is only to be applauded," Wolfowitz told Reuters late on Saturday at the end of his first tour of Africa. "I think for every corruptee there is a corrupter and some of those corrupters are in developed countries and I think developed countries have an obligation to tackle corruption on their end."
Excellent. Simple words, simply phrased, very powerful. The US can certainly lead this fight.
Wolfowitz praised "new leadership" on the continent for fighting corruption that had held back African development in the past.
In a television interview on Saturday, Zuma said his conscience was clear and he had not resigned because it might set a precedent that anyone accused of wrongdoing would be forced to quit.
Mbeki has yet to announce a replacement for Zuma, who is the deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), but some young ANC members have expressed anger over the dismissal. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel stood in for Mbeki on Sunday, with the South African leader at a meeting in Nigeria, but officials told reporters not to read anything into that.
South African newspapers were mixed in their approach to Zuma's dismissal on Sunday, with some praising Mbeki but others worrying he had been fired to pander to international investors. "We cannot, as a country, sacrifice great values at the altar of populism," said the Sunday Independent, backing Mbeki.
If you don't think he's dirty, why not publish all the evidence and do an analysis? You're a newspaper.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
07:48 ||
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Right after GM, Ford, etc stop offering rebates :)
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/19/2005 8:54
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Say what???
There's a rather big difference between open sales incentives to consumers spending their own money OTOH and hidden bribes to a government official for a multimillion dollar deal done on behalf of the government with other peoples' tax monies OTOH.
Helicopter gunships and fighter jets streaked across the desert sky Saturday as American and Iraqi forces battled insurgents near the Syrian border, killing at least 50 militants in two massive offensives to stanch the flow of foreign fighters from Iraq's western neighbor.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of two American soldiers, killed north of Baghdad during an attack as they were taking a captive to jail.
Intelligence officials believe Iraq's western Anbar province is the main entry point used by extremist groups, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, to smuggle in foreign fighters. Syria is under intense pressure from Washington and Baghdad to tighten control of its porous 380-mile border with Iraq.
On Thursday, a U.S. general called Syria's border the "worst problem" in terms of stemming the flow of foreign fighters.
The next day, about 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by battle tanks launched Operation Spear in the desert wastes around Karabilah and Qaim. The offensive entered its second day Saturday in Karabilah, a dusty, blistering hot town about 200 miles west of Baghdad, is considered an insurgent hub.
About 50 insurgents have been killed since the operation began, Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool said from Ramadi, the provincial capital. Three U.S. troops have been wounded and about 100 insurgents have been captured, the military said.
Dozens of buildings in Karabilah were destroyed after airstrikes and shelling, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
"The goal is not to seize territory," said Marine Col. Stephen Davis, of New Rochelle, N.Y. "This is about going in and finding the insurgents."
Karabilah's streets were empty, and the military said about 100 people fled the town. At one home, a family gathered on their porch, hanging a white flag from the roof to signal U.S. jets not to bomb their home.
Troops searching the town found four Iraqi hostages beaten, handcuffed and chained to a wall in a bunker, Davis said.
Some of the men were believed to be Iraqi border guards. Troops searching the bunker found nooses, electrical wire and a bathtub filled with water for electric shocks and mock drownings, Davis said.
Later, Marines and Iraqi soldiers took fire outside a mosque and a small band of insurgents fled inside, Pool said. Three militants were killed.
The U.S. military also reported incidents of insurgents breaking into homes and using families as human shields, resulting in injuries to 10 civilians.
U.S. and Iraqi forces also found a bomb-making factory in the town, Pool said. It contained blasting caps, cell phones and other materials to make roadside and car bombs, he said. Troops also found sniper rifles, ammunition and a mortar system.
A nearby schoolhouse believed to be used for training terrorists had instructions for making roadside bombs written on a chalkboard, Davis said.
A second offensive of similar size, Operation Dagger, was launched Saturday, targeting the marshy shores of a lake north of Baghdad. About 1,000 Marines and Iraqi troops, backed by fighter jets and tanks, took part.
Operation Dagger seeks insurgent training camps and weapons caches in the Lake Tharthar area, 53 miles northwest of Baghdad.
On March 23, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed about 85 militants at a suspected training camp along Lake Tharthar and discovered booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents.
The insurgents captured then included Iraqis, Filipinos, Algerians, Moroccans, Afghans and Arabs from neighboring countries, officials said.
The western region has been flush with militant fighters in recent weeks. Marines carried out June 11 airstrikes that killed about 40 of them after a nearly five-hour gunfight on the outskirts of Karabilah.
Insurgents in the area also killed 21 people believed to be missing Iraqi soldiers. The bodies, including three that were beheaded, were found June 10.
Marines carried out two major operations near Qaim last month, killing 125 insurgents in Operation Matador and 14 in Operation New Market. Eleven Marines were killed in those actions, which targeted insurgents using the road from Damascus, Syria, to Baghdad.
Iraqi troops did not participate in the earlier offensives. This time, they fought alongside the Americans and used their language skills and local knowledge to spot foreign fighters, said Col. Bob Chase, chief of operations for the Second Marine Division.
Separately, the U.S. military said Saturday that two soldiers were killed and one was wounded after fighting with insurgents late Friday while transporting a detainee near Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad. A civilian and the detainee also were killed, and five Iraqi police officers were wounded.
At least 1,718 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In other violence, a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi military checkpoint in Tikrit on Sunday, killing two soldiers and one civilian, officials said. Thirteen others were wounded.
Separately, gunmen killed two Iraqi police officers in western Baghdad as they headed to work Sunday morning, an official said. The policemen were on their way to Diyala Bridge police station in the capital when the shooting occurred, Iraqi army Capt. Usama Adnan said.
A second band of gunmen killed an electrical engineer who was on his way to work at the Dora oil refinery in southern Baghdad Sunday, said Dr. Muhanden Jawad of the capital's Al-Yarmouk hospital.
On Saturday, insurgents also killed at least four people in Baghdad, including two Iraqi soldiers and a 10-year-old girl, hospital and police officials said. Twenty-one people — including an Iraqi journalist — were wounded in the suicide bombings and shootings.
The girl was killed and two people were wounded when a roadside bomb missed a passing American military convoy, said Dr. Muhand Jawad of Baghdad's Al-Yarmouk hospital.
A suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi army convoy in the Yarmouk neighborhood, killing two soldiers and wounding six near dangerous road leading from downtown to the airport, police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
Also, a farmer found seven corpses in a field in eastern Baghdad, police said. The men, wearing civilian clothes, were shot in the back of the head and had their hands bound.
The body of a Sunni tribal leader also was found Saturday outside Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Sheikh Arkan Shaalan Jassim al-Edwan, who had been shot, was sprawled on a fallen roadside portrait of Saddam Hussein, police Lt. Adnan Abdullah said.
More than 1,100 people have been killed since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Shiite-led government was announced April 28.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005
06:46 ||
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"Sunday" news that includes Friday and Saturday events, just in case there wasn't enough mayhem for press time Sunday.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/19/2005 9:04
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We'll see what kind of senior military leaders we have soon. Undoubtedly, we are picking up intel on the staging areas in Syria from which these terrorist [cause they ain't Iraqis in any number]are coming from. Either the OIC is going to play 'yes sir, yes, sir three bags sir' and let this continue or he's going to put his career and pension on the line and follow the example of the Army commanders on the Mexican border who tired of chasing the Apache to the Rio Grande and stopping. The Army launched cross border assaults against known Apache villages from which raids where initiated from without informing the State Department. Of course this created a big diplomatic flurry with loud protests from the Mexican government, but it also disrupted the Apache raids as well. The fruitlessness of conducting unending defensive operations while granting the enemy a protected environment will start to destroy the troops morale. If the leadership is going to ask the soldier to be willing to give up his life then they had better damn well be ready to give up their nice retirement as well.
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/19/2005 9:09
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Sounds like that Sunni Sheik met up with the mythical "Phoenix".
#4
At one home, a family gathered on their porch, hanging a white flag from the roof to signal U.S. jets not to bomb their home
Lucky it wasn't bomded anyway -- your buddies the terrorist destroyed the sainctuary of the white flag.
Some of the men were believed to be Iraqi border guards. Troops searching the bunker found nooses, electrical wire and a bathtub filled with water for electric shocks and mock drownings, Davis said.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/19/2005 12:51
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If Bush really has stone cojones, he'll put out the word that the capital of any nation that continues to allow its citizens to "participate" in the "holy war" in Iraq will be radioactive slag the next time we capture any of them. I'm sure the "source" will immediately dry up, while the leaders of 26 Muslim nations scream how "cruel" the United States is.
BTW, the message from "Sluge" yesterday was mine. I put in my information, but I guess Fred's software is smarter than I am...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/19/2005 13:59
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US aid dollars at work : more conspiracy theory from the peace-loving, pious, rationnal people of muslimland. Franckly, I prefere David Icke's reptilian shapeshifting illuminati, they are much more fun.
Leading Egyptian Government Daily Al-Akhbar: "Al-Zarqawi is an American Agent"
In a June 15, 2005 editorial titled "All the Evidence Proves that Al-Zarqawi is an American Agent," a leading Egyptian government daily Al-Akhbar's states that Al-Zarqawi is working for the U.S. and is massacring Iraqis in an effort to extend the occupation in Iraq. [1] The following are excerpts from the article:
"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..."
#1
Of course, last week he was the heroic resistance... the fact that he's a loser must be clear now even to them, hence their sudden need to recast him as an American/Zionist agent.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 10:38
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#2
reptilian shapeshifting illuminati
Man, if that doesn't cover all the bases...
Just thinking - remember OBL's 'strong horse' theory? Al-Z may be turning into a theorem that it works.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/19/2005 14:22
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The president's choice is exactly what the U.N. needs.
By Ion Mihai Pacepa
I know the United Nations like the back of my hand. And I have good reasons to believe we badly need a tough guy like John Bolton to handle the rudderless bureaucracy that has turned against the very country that wrote the logo of its Charter: "We the People of the United Nations."
I spent two decades of my other life as a Communist spy chief, struggling to transform the U.N. into a kind of international socialist republic. The Communist bloc threw millions of dollars and thousands of people into that gigantic project. According to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, all employees from Eastern Bloc nations were involved in espionage. The task of this espionage army was not to steal secrets but to use the U.N. to convert the historical Arab and Islamic hatred of the Jews into a new hatred for Israel's main supporter, the United States. The U.N. became our petri dish, in which we nurtured a virulent strain of hatred for America, grown from the bacteria of Communism, anti-Semitism, nationalism, jingoism, and victimology.
During the years I was Nicolae Ceausescu's national-security adviser I learned that petty tyrants cannot be handled with kid gloves. You need an iron fist.
John Bolton not only acts forcefully, he also gets results. He singlehandedly brought about the repeal of U.N. Resolution 3379 of 1975, which stigmatized Zionism as "a form of racism and racial discrimination." That resolution was the Soviet bloc's first major "victory" at the U.N. Soon after it was adopted, the Communists unleashed a vitriolic disinformation campaign portraying the U.S. as a rapacious Zionist country run by a greedy "Council of the Elders of Zion" (a derisive epithet for the U.S. Congress) that was plotting to transform the rest of the world into a Jewish fiefdom.
U.N. Resolution 3379 lasted 16 years — until Bolton came along. In December 1991, this unknown undersecretary of State had the guts to tell the General Assembly of the U.N. that it had been manipulated by the Communists, and to ask its members to wake up. Bolton was so well-armed with documentation, so bold, and so straightforward that he forced the U.N. to repeal its own resolution by the great margin of 111 to 25. Even my native Romania, until then the epitome of Communism, voted with Bolton.
Bolton's success did not last long. Although the Cold War was pronounced "kaput," it did not end with a formal act of surrender, like other wars, or with the defeated enemy throwing down his weapons.
Ten years after Communism collapsed, an operation identical to the one the Communists had plotted in 1975 made its appearance at the United Nations. On August 31, 2001, a U.N. World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance opened in Durban, South Africa, to approve ostensibly pre-formulated Arab League declarations asserting that Zionism was a brutal form of racism, and that the United States was its main supporter.
The September 11 terrorist attacks came eight days after the United States had withdrawn its delegation from Durban, stating that this U.N. conference would "stand self-condemned for yielding to extremists."
It is significant that today's horrific terrorism has reenergized the Soviet bloc's former agitators around the world. Antonio Negri, a professor at the University of Padua who considered the brains of the Italian Red Brigades (a terrorist group financed by the Communists) and who served time in jail for his involvement in kidnapping Prime Minister Aldo Moro, is just one example. Negri coauthored a virulently anti-American book entitled Empire, in which he justifies Islamist terrorism as being a spearhead of "postmodern revolution" against American globalization, the new "empire" he claims is breaking up nation states and creating huge unemployment. The New York Times called this modern-day Communist Manifesto "the hot, smart book of the moment."
This is a familiar theme. For 27 years of my other life I was involved in creating various Antonio Negris throughout Western Europe and using them to spread the seductive theory of economic determinism that still defines the mindset of Europe's Left. I helped write the lyrics to the siren song according to which America, symbolizing the world's rich, is to blame for all the evils of the world. I was steeped in its rhetoric. To me today, these Cold War agitators revived by Kofi Annan's U.N. are even more disturbing than the terrorists' Kalashnikovs now aimed at us.
Nowadays it is considered bad manners to point a finger at Communist sources of anti-Americanism, but the truth is that the Soviet bloc's old U.N. bag of dirty tricks continues to bear fruit. In 2003, the U.N. expelled the U.S. from the Commission on Human Rights by the overwhelming vote of 33 to 3. By that time the United Nations General Assembly had already passed 408 resolutions condemning Israel, the only U.N. member prohibited from holding a seat on the Security Council. The cumulative number of votes cast against Israel since 1967? 55,642.
Now Annan wants to "reform" this U.N. with help from the same Communists who deformed it. On December 2, 2004, for example, he vigorously endorsed the 101 proposals of the "High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change." One of the main members of this blue-ribbon panel is an old friend of mine, Yevgeny Primakov, a former Soviet intelligence adviser to Saddam Hussein. This is the same Primakov who rose to head Russia's espionage service for a time, and to sing opera ditties with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright while secretly running the infamous Aldrich Ames spy case behind her back. Another prominent member is Qian Qichen, a former Red China spy who worked under diplomatic cover abroad, belonged to the Central Committee of the Communist party when it ordered the bloody Tiananmen Square repression in 1989, rose to the Politburo afterward, and later became vice-chairman of China's State Council. And then there is Amre Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League (and a former KGB puppet), who misses the balance of power provided by the Soviet Union and is still unable to condemn — to say nothing about prevent — terrorism.
This panel recommended that the U.N. be transformed into a Communist-style welfare organization geared to eradicate the world's poverty and its main diseases. For that, the panel concluded that the U.N.'s bureaucracy should be significantly increased, and the treasuries of its member countries additionally raided. In 1946 the U.N. budget was $21.5 million. This year it is approaching $10 billion. If Annan has his way, it will grow to over $30 billion next year, as the blue-ribbon commission wants the U.N. members to "donate" an additional $10 billion annually to fight AIDS and 0.7 percent of their GNP to reduce the debt of poor countries.
The U.N. Charter, signed in 1945, states that the purposes of the organization is to "maintain international peace," encourage "respect for human rights," and promote "freedom for all." Sixty years later the world looks quite different, but, according to Freedom House, some 2.4 billion people "are denied most basic political rights and civil liberties."
Nazism, the Holocaust, and Communism were not defeated by international organizations or by blue-ribbon commissions. They were defeated by the military actions of the United States, which is now working on crushing the evil of terrorism. The U.S., not the U.N., initiated freedom's current domino effect in the Middle East, a movement that now is even reaching into Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet republics, while the U.N. is busy encouraging the growing anti-American barrage.
The U.S. is the only force on earth that has the moral authority, the experience, and the capability to reform the U.N. It is high time for Washington to take the initiative again, as it did when World War II ended.
President Bush has made clear he is interested in U.N. reform. In September 2003, he told the U.N. General Assembly, "As an original signer of the U.N. Charter, the United States of America is committed to the United Nations. And we show that commitment by working to fulfill the U.N.'s stated purposes, and give meaning to its ideals." The nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador is a step toward achieving this goal. Bolton is an impatient doer. If he had been U.S. ambassador to the U.N. any earlier we might not have seen the crazily tyrannical government of Libya chairing the Commission on Human Rights, for one thing.
Bolton has said that, if the glass zoo on the East River that quarters the United Nations "lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." Some argue that this remark makes him unfit to be ambassador at the U.N. I strongly disagree. He gets it, and the U.N. will be all the better with an Ambassador Bolton there.
This may be an historic turning point for the EU. Either Blair succeeds in injecting Anglosphere ideas of democracy into the EU or relations will turn so acrimonious that the UK will be on its way out. I'm no fan of Tony Blair but the guy is willing to roll the dice and for that I give hime credit.
Unrepentant over the collapse of Friday's EU summit, Tony Blair will embark on a campaign this week to appeal to European opinion over the heads of Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder and other leaders of "old Europe".
The Prime Minister flew home yesterday with the recriminations of half of Europe ringing in his ears. Most other European leaders blamed the failure of the summit on his refusal to make concessions on Britain's EU budget rebate unless they were linked to reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.
But Mr Blair believes that the European public supports his ideas for modernising the EU, an argument he intends to pursue during Britain's six-month presidency, which begins next week.
The Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the talks as the current holder of the presidency, was so angry when the summit ended, according to British officials, that his country is threatening to refuse to co-operate when it hands over to Britain. Mr Juncker warned that the EU is now "in deep crisis".
Mr Blair's crusade will begin with a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, when he will tell European MPs not to confuse his stance with that taken by Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Blair is expected to insist that he believes in a strong "social model" for Europe, rather than an unfettered free market. He will claim that this is proved by his record as the Prime Minister who signed the UK up to the social chapter of the Maastricht treaty, and oversaw the introduction of a national minimum wage.
British officials admitted yesterday that Mr Blair is facing a bad start to his six months at the head of the EU, with other European leaders holding him responsible for what the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, described yesterday as "one of the worst political crises Europe has ever seen". But Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, insisted that the crisis could be turned into an opportunity to rethink the EU's future.
"If people are caught up for 36 hours in a soulless building in Brussels, tempers are going to fray,'" Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It is in many ways a sad day for Europe. But out of this ... there is an opportunity to reconnect. This will be seen as something of a turning point for the European Union. Sometimes to secure a turn in democracies, there has to be a shock."
Mr Straw added: "It is essentially a division between whether you want a European Union that is able to cope with the future or a European Union that is trapped in the past."
The EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, also said some good could come out of the crisis. "There will be many of us working hard to make sure that there's a proper debate and that Europe and its budget emerges, not unscathed, but in a better, improved form," he said.
The budget talks reached an impasse between Mr Blair's refusal to accept any cut in the British rebate and the refusal of President Jacques Chirac's refusal to discuss the Common Agricultural Policy, which mainly benefits French farmers.
Mr Juncker had offered what was intended as a compromise, but the British claimed that it would have meant a cut of between a quarter and a third of the rebate without any concession from the French.
#1
Time to start talking up Churchill's 'Union of English Speaking Peoples' as a replacement for the UN, NATO, etc.
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/19/2005 8:53
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#2
"one of the worst political crises Europe has ever seen"
LOL!
Why this is worse than the summer of '14!
Hey! Who turned out the lights?
Posted by: Wilson ||
06/19/2005 9:45
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#3
Such an astounding notion, that somebody actually has to work and earn money to pay the largesse to those who don't! Perhaps they should set up some kind of European-wide government works project that offers tents, worker's uniforms, food, medical care and minimum wage to the millions in exchange for their improving large areas of Wales and Scotland for agricultural and other uses. In fact, there are hundreds of sites all over Europe that could be significantly improved with massive amounts of hand labor.
#4
#1 Time to start talking up Churchill's 'Union of English Speaking Peoples' as a replacement for the UN, NATO, etc.
Unfortunately that would include the Dhimmi Republic of Canada, and would not include Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan, Italy, and other countries that actually value freedom.
#5
I made the deuced "lights" comment. Not that bloody Wilson you keep referring to. Get your history straight!
Ahem. Let me just straighten my collar and stiffen my upper lip. There. Sorry about the outburst, but sometimes a gentleman has to protect his legacy.
Posted by: Lord Grey of Fallodon ||
06/19/2005 13:37
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#6
Don't need to be English-speaking, just need to have the same values. NATO took a potentially fatal hit when the US called in it's IOU's on Article 5 "an attack on one, is an attack on all" and was (I believe) genuinely shocked when other NATO countries said "err, not sure about that". You find out who your friends are in situations like that. Much better to have bi-lateral arrangements!
Blair is a funny one - he *is* a socialist, so be careful about lionising him just because he's supporting the WoT (contrast with what support the US would have if Thatcher were in power) - he was in CND and is a fully signed up member of the 'social model' of Europe. He's always wanted a legacy, and with the recent election is mainly a busted flush in this country - so he can't do much here, as his leftwing backbenchers will stop all but the most ineffectual reforms. It's understood he always wanted to be the first President of Europe, but that's not going to happen now, so he may try and, well, 'save' Europe. 49% of the EU budget going on Agricultural subsidies and a further 16% spent on moving the entire parliament between Strasbourg and Brussels on a regular basis is *not* a recipe for future prosperity!
Interesting times ahead ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
06/19/2005 15:26
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#7
Yeah! You're right! It was Grey, not I can remember who Wilson was.... Ambassador to France?
#2
Where's the elan, the sophstication, the vaunted savoir faire?
*poof*
Bickering, strutting, posturing, artless dissembling, faithless perfidy, greed and treachery - a mere schoolyard fraud. These assclowns are no one's betters.
If the EU breaks up. France will be over at our place at 2 a.m. shouting to the neighbors about wearing her panties on our head ( not true ) and throwing up on a neighbor's dog after that bender Memorial Day ( true, but she didn't have to tell them that ), then threatening to go get a VPO if you don't at least 'talk' to her.
#5
Should the EU break up,France is up the proverbial merde creek w/out a boat. No subsidies to French farmers,no funding for Space program,no funding for AirBust,no subsidies to French arms companies to help them compete against the Russians in the "affordable" arms market,all the gazillion ways France leeches money from the EU-gone. France will struggle to the very end and beyond to keep some sort of EU alive-she has to!
Posted by: Stephen ||
06/19/2005 14:26
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Blair never ceases to surprise me. If this article is correct then he appears to be aligning himself with the Bush administrations position on energy. The way to reduce carbon emissions is to reduce oil dependence. A position even I a long time Kyoto critic would support. SHARKS were not on Sir Bob Geldolf's radar when he invited the world to Scotland for the G8 summit. But they are swimming north anyway, we learnt last week, as refugees from the global warming which makes England's water too hot.
The 65% increase in Scottish sightings of basking sharks was taken to prove a key G8 theme: that climate change is real, nature is already being contorted and we're all slowly heading to a watery Armageddon.
At the G8 summit next month, Tony Blair will act. But, to his credit, the 'Gleneagles Declaration' he is putting together on climate change is shaping up to be a sensible response to a complex situation. It could well be a Kyoto for grown-ups.
Since world leaders signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the debate around climate change has taken enormous strides, producing both heat and light, but very little consensus.
The experts agree on a few key facts. In the last million years, the Earth has been through seven glacial cycles, the last of which - named the Holocene - began 10,000 years ago. We are living in it still.
Between 900AD and 1100AD, the planet was warmer than today - then chilled during the 'little ice age' from 1400 to 1900. In the century just passed, the world has grown about 0.6°C hotter - the sharpest rise for a millennium.
Sea levels rose between 10cm and 25cm over the last century (civilisation somehow coped) and estimates for the next range from 9cm to 80cm - a lot more, but hardly enough to submerge Big Ben.
So how much of this is due to man? Most of it, argue most Kyoto signatories: it's time for each country to cut back its emission of greenhouse gases, and if this means slower economic growth, then so be it.
George W Bush's administration emphatically disagrees, describing Kyoto as "flawed logic" and a recipe for destroying jobs. Soon after his election, the President tore up Kyoto - saying the science was not right.
There are now thousands of facts backing up either side, but one political constant remains. Climate change is a politically-charged cause, close to the heart of anyone who dislikes free markets or the United States of America.
There is, however, another America which confounds this stereotype. President Bush has pledged to reduce US greenhouse gas intensities by 18% within 10 years - a tougher target than Kyoto-signing Britain, which has set a target of 12%.
Bush's White House is pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 500 tonnes over a decade - a bigger saving than the rest of Europe put together, albeit a smaller one than Kyoto's signatories envisaged.
Where America comes into its own is spending. The US federal government is devoting $3bn each year to climate change technology, and this is where Blair comes in.
His Gleneagles Declaration acknowledges that America will never sign Kyoto - but that it is playing every bit as valid a part in the climate change battle by scientific leadership. The draft text mentions some of his projects by name.
The first is 'carbon capture' technology, which stores carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuels rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. Such gases can be kept under ground and used to improve oil recovery.
Next comes the Methane to Markets scheme, which attempts to capture waste methane, a key greenhouse gas, and use it as a clean energy source. The US has now signed up a 15-strong 'coalition of the willing' on the same project.
The White House's motivation could not be further removed from that of Greenpeace. The administration wants to ditch America's reliance on Arab oil, and is mesmerised by the 670 trillion cubic feet of methane in reserves, there to be mined.
If such methane can be turned into energy, argue American neoconservatives, there would be less need for Arab oil - making Saudi Arabia a far easier place to invade.
The latest US government estimates suggest that by 2015, the Methane to Markets programme will have removed 1% of all greenhouse gases emitted by humans into the atmosphere.
This is the environmental equivalent of closing down England's entire road network, or shutting down 50 coal-fired power stations. And unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the methane project would oil the world economy, spreading prosperity.
There are several other examples of climate technology, mostly pursued by American politicians who want to cut reliance on Arab sources of energy, or businesses seeking more profit by making fuel more efficient.
The free market is in a headlong rush to find green solutions: whosoever discovers the next source of energy will be rich indeed. Blair is accepting this common interest, and producing a document everyone can agree on.
It gets better with every draft. It started out proclaiming that climate charge is an "urgent" problem, echoing the implausible claims made around the time that Kyoto was in fashion that it was the single biggest emergency facing man.
The Americans are toning it down, reluctant to have their energy policy decided by outsiders. This is enough to earn criticism from those who believe President Bush is a cowboy reneging on his duties to the international community.
But to cast him as the number one enemy to the environment requires a long hard look at what he's planning, what he's paying for and the targets he has set his own administration without any pressure.
This is why the Gleneagles Declaration will, literally, not have one word which goes beyond the US position. But its emphasis on investment, technology and clean fuels may serve to push the focus on to a new era for environmentalism.
When the world community is presented with a genuine and proven threat, as it was with the emission of CFCs in the 1980s, it has shown itself more than capable of responding. CFC emissions are now back to 1950s levels.
The hole in the ozone layer will be repaired in about 50 years as a result. The more developed a country becomes, the more careful it is with its energy: this is a natural law of economics that needs no treaty to ratify it.
Kyoto only came alive last February after Russia signed up, making the requisite number of signatories. Yet four months on it is already looking out of date. A good piece of fuel research could be worth a decade-worth of the economic restraint it would impose.
It will pain the environmentalists to admit this, but President Bush and his profit-hungry energy firms may be their best hope for cutting greenhouse gases. It will be a test of the maturity of both sides to see if they can agree at Gleneagles.
#1
It bears repeating: Kyoto if all nations including US and Australia both signed and complied, would ONLY REDUCE GLOBAL TEMPERATURES BY 2/10ths of a DEGREE CELCIUS OVER 50 YEARS
Thus slowing global warming by a couple of months.
The earth is warming and cutting carbon emissions is NOT repeat NOT going to make it stop.
meanwhile there is no reason to believe that global warming is a bad thing. In past centuries it is the mini ice-ages that impacted civilisations and biodiversity hardest and the warming periods that had an explosion of life.
It is a myth that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. It is a benign gas necessary for plant growth. We all exhale it.
It is a myth that eating red meat is bad for the environment (hence McDonalds is terrible) due to the methane produced by the cows. There is no evidence to suggest the total amount of large herbivores is any greater now than in centuries past: cows simply replaced bison/buffalo etc that used to graze the plains.
In fact atmospheric levels of methane are actually falling: scientists don't know why.
It is FUTILE to try to cut carbon dioxide and there is no real reason to try. It is not a dangerous pollutant in fact it leads to better plant growth.
Kyoto is just a stick to beat "rich" countries to hold back their development so the "poor" third world countries who don't have to sign can catch up. Marxism wearing a green coat.
Which really annoys me because I really am an environmentalist. I love nature and want to minimise species destruction probably more than the idiots from Greenpeace who piss member's donations up the Kyoto/global warming flagpole.
I think you haven't understood: Kyoto was NEVER designed to transfer funds between rich and poor countries (the idea didn't came from Cameroon). It was designed to transfer funds from countries with buoyant economies and growing populations to other rich countries whose economies are stagnating whose working hours are well below 40 hours (1) a week and whose people have been unwilling to spend their money in raising children (all things being equal or near equal the stagnat will pollute less than the buoyant) so now they face BIG problems for financing retirements.
There are some cosmetic measures in order to get the votes of poor countries but who will have little effect (specially after the local tyrant has taken his share and deposited it in his account in Europe)
(1) Please no easy jokes about the French: if my memory is any good the average number of worked hours in Germany is still lower than in France.
#4
Phil_b writes: The way to reduce carbon emissions is to reduce oil dependence. A position even I a long time Kyoto critic would support.
Actually, I think we'd go a lot farther replacing coal fired power plants with nuclear power plants. The problem being the proliferation problem for third world countries building nuclear plants that would use the civilian programs as covers for bomb programs.
Thanks to Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran, we now know a lot more about how that would be done.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/19/2005 13:25
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#5
Proliferation can be countered by technology. For instance by developping reactors working with thorium instead of uranium. Uranium nuclear reactions produce plutonium, a fissile (ie who can be made unto a bomb) material who can be separated by purely chemical (ie relatively easy and cheap). But thorium reactions don't produce plutonium or other fissile isotopes so no bomb, at least no affordable bomb (enrichichment costs gazillions)
#11
Phil F, while I don't under-estimate the proliferation problem. In large part it stems from (France excepted) there has been no technological advancement in reactor design and build for at least 40 years, because almost none have been built in the developed world. What is needed is safe off-the-shelf designs or kits for nuclear power stations. Not only does this make nuclear power affordable, it takes away the rational for developing your own and hence the opportunity to use it to develop nuclear weapons. Any country like Iran that doesn't buy the kits and spends vastly more to develop their own design would come under immediate suspicion.
TGA and other lurkers from Deutschland, Rantburg has an assignment for you. Find out why Germany has a Department for Dialogue with the Islamic World and then figger out a way to make it disappear, ideally in the Schroeder/Merkle crossfire period. You could get the Dept. to 'confess' and then call the RAB. We'll supply the abandoned warehouse, the cadre, and the shutter gun.
"We want to find out more about the role of Islam in different Muslim societies, how Muslims see the future, and the root causes of malaise and frustration in these societies," said Dr. Gunter Mulack, commissioner for the Department for Dialogue with the Islamic World at the German Foreign Ministry during a recent visit to Jeddah and Riyadh which was his second to the Kingdom.
Hey Gunter, did you meet with your Soddy counterpart, the commisioner for the Department for Dialogue with the Dar el-Harb?
No?
Hmmm. You may wish to ponder on why that is, Herr Doktor.
The department was set up three years ago as a task force for inter-cultural dialogue with the Muslim world. "On both sides there are negative ideas which have become stronger. We see each other as threats and not as partners or friends," Dr. Mulack said. He wants to establish a German Cultural Institute in the Gulf because it would be difficult to do in Saudi Arabia.
Another item for you to ponder, Gunter. Why is it that Soddy doesn't want its purity defiled by infidel cultural institutes? Not even Aryan ones...
He is also thinking of establishing a student advisory office concerning educational opportunities in Germany especially since meetings with officials were so positive on the topic.
"We've heard your universities in Hamburg are especially welcoming to eager Muslim students..."
"We're interested in having a dialogue and being partners, not only with government-to-government but also with NGOs and parts of civil society such as universities and different organizations, with the requisite busy conference schedule. Good dialog happens best in Sun City, or even Lausanne," said Dr. Mulack. During its relatively short existence the department has increased the flow of German money for cultural cooperation with the Muslim world, more money for programs of the Goethe Institute by 60 percent, increased the number of scholarships for Muslim students, increased the number of partnerships with universities including the establishment of a German University in Cairo in 2002 and they are hoping to open others in Jordan and Syria. There is also the department's website, Qantara. "It is difficult to have huge exchange programs so we hold lots of conferences and workshops on specific topics such as the role of women in the Muslim world," he said. The department also proposes to have training programs for Muslim teachers in Muslim countries and training programs for young diplomats. "We have had groups of students from Afghanistan and other countries visiting Germany," he added.
Where are the classes flowing in the other direction, taking young Moose limbs and teaching them about the role of wimmin in the Western world? What?
Oh.
In Afghanistan the department is involved in reestablishing schools and universities and reviving intellectual and scientific life there. It is not enough, said Dr. Mulack, to reach out to the Muslim world without involving the rest of the Western world, especially Europe. He explained, "We should not only have official contact but people-to-people so we can know each other better. Dialogue should be with all political groups and not only those considered favorable to Westerners such as secular groups — provided the groups are peaceful and not terrorist." Dr. Mulack admitted that these efforts were late but not too late. He explained that in Germany people were more concerned with the country's unification and in Europe in general was preoccupied with the issue of eastern Europe. "There was neglect," said Dr. Mulack about Muslims in Europe. "There was not a growing problem between Muslims and Europeans because they were like parallel societies, no real mixing or integration and assimilation."
It takes two to un-tango.
He said the shock of 9/11 was that "we found out that some of the hijackers were living and studying in our country. We had never discovered them and we had to try to understand what had gone wrong and why they were angry with us."
Hint: you are asking the wrong questions.
Life for Muslims in Europe is difficult, says Dr. Mulack, especially since many of them are from poor uneducated families. As a result they isloate themselves from society. "We have to do more. Islam has become a European religion. We have 50 million Muslims living in the European Union, which is roughly 12 percent of the population and the numbers are increasing. We have to live with Islam and engage in dialogue and cooperation with Muslims and help them adjust." At the same time, in the Muslim governments need to improve the educational systems and develop their human resources, including women. "There is a total lack of research, development, ingenuity and good standards and these are all mentioned in the human development reports. This is bad for us too because the unequal distribution of wealth creates resentment and hatred. With no social justice, people try to wage war against their own rulers and there are many indications of this. We are concerned since we are all in the same neighborhood," said Dr. Mulack. "It is important that we work together to develop education, economy and create jobs, develop facilities and research. We need world citizens," he added. As for future plans for the Department for Dialogue, he said it was planning to have a conference or workshop on Muslim youth. "We want to know how they are thinking, what their plans are and how they see the Western world. We conduct studies but here it is difficult to know the mindset. Are they really condemning terrorists? Why are they frustrated and what do they want to achieve? These are big issues and we are all affected. We are talking about youth, women and Islam, but we are not talking with them so we don't know their agenda and their ways of thinking."
#1
They want our wealth, they want our country, and they want us dead. That about does it, Dr. Mudlark.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/19/2005 2:29
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Dr Mulack, so quick to throw the rights of women, jews, gays and any other minority oppressed by muslims away just to oil the squeaky wheel of radical islamism....
#3
Remember that a widowed or divorced woman is in a terrible way, literally facing starvation. $200 a month in Iraq goes a long way to having a roof and food. Remember also that if she is an official wife, she gets a full cut of everything the first wife gets--few men can afford that. So it impresses that this is a "happy medium" for women who are otherwise un- or under-educated, who really can't fend for themselves having lost the support of both their family and their husband's family. "Intimacy" uses up very little time, so she has a lot left over to improve her condition. Last but not least, Iraq is full of war-widows, most of whom share the same economic rung of the ladder. So the fewer of them in competition for the few jobs, the better.
#4
Now some Iraqi clerics and women's rights activists are complaining that the contracts have become less a mechanism for taking care of widows than an outlet for male sexual desires.
And how go these folks figure that out? Is it 49% widows and 51% desires? Should we stop the process at that point? Who decides when the "complaint" is valid? And then what? Mandate a social program, with US funds, tell the Iraqis they have to have "social security", or just whine about it?
I, too, would like to see them adopt some western values, but it is their country.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/19/2005 11:32
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I imagine they'll be able to have social security when the Saudis stop blowing up their oil pipelines.
(Gee, you'd almost think they were doing it just to cut down on the competition...)
Gunmen shot dead a senior Saudi security officer outside his house in Makkah yesterday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said unidentified gunmen shot the security officer just after he stepped out of his house. An informed source identified the murdered officer as Lt. Col. Mubarak Al-Sawat from the General Investigation Department. The source said the officer, in his 40s, received more than 10 gunshots, adding that police were investigating the drive-by shooting. Police have put up a number of checkpoints all over Makkah and are engaged in a massive manhunt to track down the criminals. Security sources did not confirm or deny whether the shooting was related to any terror attack.
AUCKLAND: Pakistan and India can overcome obstacles to a solution of the Kashmir dispute if they are brave and determined, President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Saturday.
I wonder if he's able to make this sort of speech back home?
"I see light at the end of the tunnel because I think there is desire on both sides to address the issue," the president said in an address to the Pakistani community in New Zealand. "We are moving in this direction; both sides will have to show sincerity, flexibility and courage for final settlement of the dispute." He felt that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had the desire and courage to address the issue. "The two sides can overcome obstacles with courage and determination." "The people of the two countries have overtaken the leadership in their desire for peace," he said, adding that peace can help economic and trade cooperation in South Asia to the benefit of all nations. He said the leadership of the two countries had a critical responsibility to grasp the peace opportunity. "Otherwise, future generations will not forgive us," he said. The president reiterated Islamabad's commitment to eliminating extremism and terrorism. "We will crush and eliminate terrorism with force; we will not allow any terrorist to pursue his agenda on the Pakistani soil," he said.
Then perhaps you'll dismantle those terr training camps in Rawalpindi and kick all the dirty generals out of your cabinet?
Unidentified masked men shot and wounded a suspected "spy" while his driver and cousin were gunned down in the same attack in broad daylight in Wana bazaar, witnesses said. Abdur Rehman, 45, was seriously wounded and immediately taken to a private hospital in Wana, regional headquarters of South Waziristan, for treatment, witnesses said. "Their pick-up was attacked by masked gunmen around 1pm in Wana bazaar. The man's driver and cousin, however, died instantly," they said. The attack took place just when thousands of tribesmen gathered in Azam Warsak to observe the death anniversary of Nek Muhammad.
"It's Nek's death anniversary, may Allan keep him. Let's go kill us some spies!"
A tribal elder told Daily Times that Rehman was an "undercover agent" for a security agency, and suspected that militants were behind the attack. Three months ago, Rehman's brother was killed in North Waziristan while another brother was killed in Paktika for having alleged links with US forces in Machadad Kot base.
Two Afghan businessmen were wounded when a bomb planted in their car exploded in the northwestern tribal region of Pakistan on Saturday, an official said. The bomb went off shortly after the men, who are brothers, entered the car outside their home on the outskirts of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said Ghulam Khan, a government official in the region. He said it was not clear who targeted the men, who were being treated at a hospital in Peshawar. Miran Shah is located near the Afghan border, where a number of Afghan refugees have been living since fleeing their homeland during a quarter century of war starting with the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Many later settled in Pakistan.
A police station in Khanqah Dogran was torched on Saturday after police clashed with protestors angry at the inclusion of their town in the recently upgraded Nankana Sahib district. The protestors and police accused each other of setting fire to the police station, whose main gate and portico was burnt. The protestors later stormed the police station and destroyed furniture and equipment...Police said they had asked the protestors to disperse peacefully but they refused, after which they fired warning shots to scare them away. However, the police action angered the protestors further and they started throwing stones at the policemen. According to protestors, some policemen rushed into a mosque with their shoes on and fired volleys of tear gas shells at them. Soon after, flames were seen rising from the police station.
DUBAI - Gunmen shot and seriously wounded Al Arabiya's senior correspondent in Iraq during an apparent kidnapping attempt in Baghdad on Saturday, the Arabic satellite channel said.
We'll be blamed, of course.
Nabil al-Khatib, executive editor of the Dubai-based channel, said the correspondent, Jawad Kadhem, was shot in the neck and was undergoing treatment at a Baghdad hospital. He said two gunmen approached Kadhem, apparently trying to kidnap him. Iraqi policemen at the scene fired at the gunmen, who returned fire wounding Kadhem. "He is in serious condition," Khatib said, adding that their motive was not clear.
Eight Al Arabiya employees have died in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, including three killed by US forces, and five who died in a car bombing by suspected militants of its Baghdad office in October last year.
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Article: Gunmen shot and seriously wounded Al Arabiyaâs senior correspondent in Iraq during an apparent kidnapping attempt in Baghdad on Saturday, the Arabic satellite channel said.
Gunmen need to improve their aim. Maybe we can give them lessons.
GAZA - Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian terrorist gunman who attacked a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Islamic Jihad group said, claiming responsibility for the assault.
The attack on the settlement of Kfar Darom coincided with a visit to Israel and the West Bank by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who earlier told reporters Palestinians must keep to a truce ahead of a planned Israeli pullout from Gaza.
Worked well, didn't it?
Islamic Jihad said one of its terrorists gunmen, along with a terrorist fighter from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, fired at Kfar Darom in retaliation for recent Israeli raids against militants in the West Bank.
Israeli fire killed the Islamic Jihad terrorist gunman, the group said, basing its information on a confession an account given by the surviving terrorist attacker. The Israeli army did not immediately confirm the death but said terrorist gunmen had fired at a Kfar Darom watchtower.
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RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's ailing King Fahd may soon leave the hospital where he has been for two and a half weeks, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Saturday.
Hearse entrance is around back.
"Medical reports show that the health of King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz is reassuring. He is as stable as he's been these last few years fine," Prince Saud told a press conference. "The doctors who are treating him are the ones to decide the date of his discharge from hospital, and their reports indicate that he will leave soon," he said. Officials in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporting country, have repeatedly made positive statements about the health of the monarch since he was admitted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh on May 27. But they have not released medical reports about his condition.
I'll settle for the autopsy.
A medical source told AFP three days after Fahd was hospitalized that the king, who is believed to be 84, was recovering from pneumonia. Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said the next day that Fahd was recovering from an infection and would leave hospital soon.
"As soon as we gas up the, um...limo."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Bed ridden comatose octogenarians don't, as a rule, recover well from pnumonia. Dead as a doornail inside a month.
KUWAIT - Insurgents from Iraq may cross into Kuwait to carry out attacks in a bid to harm ties between the two neighbours, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in remarks published on Saturday. "I fear and expect that there will be infiltration attempts in the other direction," Zebari told the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas.
"This means that insurgents from Iraq would sneak into Kuwait to carry out terrorist acts with the objective to harm the good relations between the two countries," Zebari added in a telephone interview with the leading newspaper.
But he said Iraq's borders with Kuwait are more secure than those with other neighbours. Iraq has borders also with Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. "Our borders with many countries are still breached and this is a reason for the escalation in violence in various regions of Iraq," Zebari added.
And he named all the right borders to be concerned about.
His remarks came as Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari starts a two-day visit to Kuwait. Relations between the two neighbours improved since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, whose forces invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Could hardly get worse.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Surprise! The recruits are young, poor, illiterate cannon fodder well-educated, upwardly mobile men in their mid-to-late twenties ... with European passports who find it easier to travel ...
#4
I was thinking the same thing, Brer.
After 4 years, the boys in Saudi and Egypt and elsewhere in the ummah have finally noticed that the jihadist heroes who go off to fight the Americans never seem to come back.
Naively arrogant Euro-trash are unlikely to be so perceptive.
#5
How long before they begin a similar effort in the United States?
Will Durbinite Moonbats show the courage of their convictions and join up?
Durbinite jihadi to GIs in Iraq:
"Hey, there, poverty-draft ghetto/trailer trash Bush-tools! You can't shoot me, I have a trust fund, my old man is a lawyer, I made an A in ethnic studies, I----"
#6
AC, I am willing to bet that they are already trying to recruit in the U.S. But I doubt any of those 'militant' students that attend Berkley or other LLL schools will give up their ivory towers for a belt bomb in a shithole in the middle east. They have a beter odds with recent immigrants like the ones in Lodi. God help them if the next attack apears to be domestically spawned.
#7
How long before a Donk Moonbat jurisdiction tries to declare a "sanctuary" for Michael Moore Minuteman recruiters, similar to those they have set up for illegal immigrants?
Some of the latter may be terrorist recruiters, come to think of it.
I'm not sure it's a bad idea. Give them space on college campuses, at job fairs and such, with free passage in and out, and a free pass out of the country for any trustafarians or Mumia-cong who sign up.
Attention Progressive students and workers!
The Michael Moore Minutemen offer the last opportunity of a lifetime!
Show your conviction and commitment!
See the world, Paris and Damascus and Baghdad!
Adventure! Glamour! Media bytes! Free hash! All the dumb Swedish chicks you can handle! BJs like your mom gave Oliver Stone!
Lots of Saudi dough!
Weapons training! Avenge Guantanamo and Che and your cousin's drug conviction!
Your very own Volvo and a chance to strike back at low-class ChimpyMcHelliburton tools!
#8
Add in the nearly total misrepresentation by the MSM, particularly in Europe, of the war in Iraq and the successes the Coalition and Iraq forces are having against these foreigners, the real 'cannon fodder' is headed to their just ends. The recruiting is being tolerated because the Europeans have seen that the Mexican model of dumping their potential problems on the US results in no negative consequence.
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/19/2005 13:08
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ISLAMABAD - Thousands of Pakistani tribesmen on Saturday vowed to fight US forces as they marked the first death anniversary of a slain militant leader in a tribal region near Afghanistan. Witnesses said up to 3,000 people, some brandishing assault rifles and some masked, turned up in the remote district of Azam Warsak, in South Waziristan tribal region, to offer prayers at the grave of militant leader Nek Mohammad.
I really don't care how much they miss him, just as long as he stays dead.
Mohammad, a former Taleban commander, was killed in June last year after leading a bloody resistance to the Pakistan army's largest-ever offensive to drive-out Al Qaeda linked militants in South Waziristan. Pakistan's military said it killed the militant. "We will complete the mission of our commander Nek Mohammad and we will continue our jihad (holy war) against the US forces in the region," militant leader Maulvi Abdul Aziz told the gathering amid shouts of "Allah-o-Akbar".
"Hey Maulvi, how'd ya like to end up like Nek?"
"Um, perhaps I could learn to drive a taxi in Houston."
This article starring:
MAULVI ABDUL AZIZ
Wazir Taliban
NEK MOHAMAD
Wazir Taliban
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06/19/2005
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MULTAN, Pakistan - A Pakistani woman who captured international attention for her bravery after suffering a gang rape three years ago said on Saturday she wouldn't allow anyone to use her name to tarnish the image of her country.
Don't you worry Mai, there's no need to use your name to tarnish the image of Pakiwakiland.
Mukhtar Mai's comments came a day after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told reporters in New Zealand that he ordered a recent travel ban on her because foreign private groups wanted to take her to America "to bad-mouth Pakistan" over the "terrible state" of the nation's women.
"Pakistan is my country, and how can I allow anyone to bring (a) bad name to Pakistan," Mai, 36, told The Associated Press from Meerwala, a village in eastern Punjab province where she was raped in June 2002 to punish her family for her brother's alleged affair with a woman from another family.
On Saturday Mai said she had no plans to settle abroad. "I will live and die here, and I assure the president that I would never do anything against Pakistan," she said.
"There. I said it. Please don't kill me!"
Mai added, however, that she would continue to demand punishment for her attackers.
She has expressed worries about the safety of her family since June 10, when a court in the eastern city of Lahore ordered the release of a dozen men detained in connection with her rape. Mai is from the Gujar clan while her alleged attackers were from a clan considered socially higher, called Mastoi.
At what point does a clan rise high enough to be considered 'upper Paleolithic'?
She has denied that her 13-year-old brother had sexual relations with the Mastoi woman, and said a council of villagers ordered her rape to cover up a sexual assault on the boy by Mastoi men.
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It says clan but more accurately they would be called castes.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/19/2005 0:22
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Three criminals were killed in "crossfire" with police in two incidents in Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia and Chandina upazila in Comilla district yesterday. Pakhi Mollah, 28, and Hasmot Ali alias Hasu, 30, were killed in "crossfire" between police and their accomplices at village Selimpur in Daulatpur upazila early yesterday.
Daulatpur police arrested four alleged criminals including Pakhi and Hasu from Sihala village on Friday morning, police said, adding that Pakhi and Hasu admitted to possessing arms at various locations in the upazila.
"Ouch! Ooooch! I confess! Put that down!"
A police team led by the officer-in-charge of Daulatpur Police Station started for Sihala village with Pakhi and Hasu at about 3:30am torecover the firearms.
"Youse comin' wit us, you two."
"But it's 3 am!"
"The sun hurts our eyes. Shuddup and move!"
When they reached Selimpur field, cohorts of Pakhi and Hasu attacked the police, prompting them to retaliate.
Can't expect the police not to 'retaliate', can you?
The two criminals, trying to escape from the police van during the hour-long gunfight, got caught in the "crossfire" and died on the spot, police said.
No need for the Chittagong Medical School ER, a real cost savings.
Pakhi was accused in six cases on various charges including murder, abduction, rape and robbery, while Hasu in five cases, of them two for murder, police said.
Such good boys.
UNB adds from Comilla:
The highway robber, who was arrested during a gunfight between police and robbers on Friday, was killed in an "encounter" between police and his cohorts at Tirchar in Chandina upazila early yesterday.
An 'encounter' is almost as good as a 'crossfire'.
Five highway robbers were killed during Friday's gunfight with police at Kalamura Bridge in Brahmanpara Upazila. Sagar, 28, arrested from the spot during the gunfight, gave some important information about his accomplices as he was interrogated, police said.
As per police instructions, he called his four accomplices -- Alamgir, Akbar, Hridoy and Asad -- over telephone and asked them to come to Tirchar with Tk 20,000 to secure his release from the police.
"Boys! Ya gotta come down to the secret rendevous and spring me!"
When police along with Sagar went to the spot at about 2:45pm, his accomplices opened fire on them, forcing the law enforcers to fire back.
"We don't want him, we'll keep the money!"
Trying to flee, Sagar was critically injured during the gunfight, police said, adding that two sub-inspectors and three constables were also hurt in the incident.
Cut filling out the paperwork.
Sagar was rushed to Chandina Upazila Health Complex where doctors declared him dead.
If only they'd gotten him to the Chittagong Medical School ER ...
A Romanian nun has died after being bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room in a convent, Romanian police have said. Members of the convent in north-west Romania claim Maricica Irina Cornici was possessed and that the crucifixion had been part of an exorcism ritual. Not all the religious crackpots are Moslem...
Cornici was found dead on the cross on Wednesday after fellow nuns called an ambulance, according to police. On Saturday a priest and four nuns were charged in connection with her death. Police say the 23-year-old nun, who was denied food and drink throughout her ordeal, had been tied and chained to the cross and a towel pushed into her mouth to smother any sounds. A post-mortem is to be carried out, although initial reports say that Cornici died from asphyxiation. Local media reports that the young woman had arrived at the remote convent three months before, having initially gone there to visit a friend and opted to stay. Mediafax news agency said Cornici suffered from schizophrenia and the symptoms of her condition caused the priest at the convent and other nuns to believe she was possessed by the devil. "They all said she was possessed and they were trying to cast out the evil spirits," police spokeswoman Michaela Straub said. Father Daniel who is accused of orchestrating the crime is said to be unrepentant. "God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil," AFP quoted the priest as saying. "I don't understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this. Exorcism is a common practise in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests," Father Daniel added. If found guilty of killing Cornici, Father Daniel and the accused nuns could face 20 years in jail. Kill a poor nun who was Schizophrenic, and only get 20 years... I just love "European justice"!
#3
Many Christians believe in exorcisms these days... we just had a travelling preacher Bob Larson star on a TV show here: John Safran Vs God (where journalist John Safran road tested religions).
The last episode showed Safran being exorcised and he did indeed scream and perform on camera.
However I saw no difference between the techniques of the preacher and those of a stage hypnotist I once saw at university.
Clearly Safran has a suggestible personality (in an earlier episode he pretended he saw the earth in his clenched fist to an indian Fakir because he felt pressured to) and also Bob Larson has a powerful and charismatic personality that at close quarters can be quite alarming.
It is not harmless fun to make people believe gobbledygook when totally natural and explainable forces are at work.
#4
The problem here was one of diagnosis: was the problem psychological (meaning that mental healing, not exorcism, was required), physical (physical healing required), or demonic (exorcism required). Jesus did all three.
However, Jesus never required that the unfortunate victims be bound, crucified, gagged, and left alone to die. Didn't need to. Didn't need all the trappings or bargainings that the priest in The Exorcist. Paul didn't either. In fact, he got in trouble for SUCCEEDING, not FAILING like these losers.
I was once oppressed (not possessed, but oppressed) by a demon who got its foothold in me via my experimentation in ESP while indulging in "scientific psychic research". Stupidest thing I ever did. I attended a meeting of a former witch turned Christian Exorcist who looked like (and acted like) my mother. I stood in line, and felt my belly start shaking the moment she got within two people of me, and got worse the closer she got. I was not freaked out, just puzzled: why the hell was I scared of a lady who could have passed as my Aunt? She got to me, touched me on the forehead, and (I am NOT kidding, and I was NOT emotional) I felt like a damned freight train ran through my belly button. I went down on the floor like a sack of potatos, and THAT didn't happen when I got filled with the Spirit. Dismissing me as "suggestible" puts you in the same class as Lefties who assert, on similar grounds, that someone is racist or that Bush is a Nazi: less a statement of truth than an exercise in paradigm protection at someone else's expense.
When asked whether the nun was mentally ill and in need of medical help instead of exorcism, he responded: "You can't take the devil out of people with pills."
Posted by: john ||
06/19/2005 21:12
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Saturday that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and many people asked in polls to start bringing U.S. troops home.
``The terrorists and insurgents are trying to get us to retreat. Their goal is to get us to leave before Iraqis have had a chance to show the region what a government that is elected and truly accountable to its citizens can do for its people,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address.
``We will settle for nothing less than victory'' over terrorists there, he said later.
Bush acknowledged discontent over his decisions but signaled no shift in policy or timing for the American presence in Iraq. ``Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror,'' he said. ``This mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight.''
The administration insists no timetable can be set for bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq until enough Iraqi forces have been sufficiently trained to take over the fight against the insurgency. Anything else, the administration argues, would only embolden the insurgency.
Bush also paid tribute to progress seen in Iraq this week. Iraq's Shiite-led parliament and leaders of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency, agreed on a process for drafting Iraq's constitution. ``Time and again, the Iraqi people have defied the skeptics who claim they are not up to the job of building a free society,'' he said. ``I am confident that Iraqis will continue to defy the skeptics as they build a new Iraq that represents the diversity of their nation and assumes greater responsibility for their own security. And when they do, our troops can come home with the honor they have earned.''
After elections in January, writing a constitution is Iraq's next milestone in its fits-and-starts transition to democracy. Later this year, the document is to put up for a vote in a public referendum and then a new government is to be elected.
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This is what I like about Dubya. He is a rock. I disagree with him on immigration and his big government policies. But I like this guy anyway. He fights.
#2
Amen, he can take the heat. I think we should squeak the wheels as hard as we can(call and write letters) to move the admin on immigration reform (shut the f*cking borders) and big spending.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/19/2005 0:24
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#3
Heh. No wet finger in the wind for Dubya. He knows where he needs to go and just pushes on. Fuck the memers and screamers and lamers and tools.
#4
Absolutely. Thats why he is such a great president. He has conviction and courage, what a leader of this country needs in these times. Just thank God, John Kerry is not president right now.
#5
I love it when the Dems quote poll numbers to argue for a certain policy change. It's really comical whenthey try to pursuade Bush with poll numbers. The man knows what is right and doesn't need a poll to determine a course of action. Good Job 'W' NEVER GIVE IN!
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Deputies cleared the way on Saturday for the holding of legislative elections when they approved proposals by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas for a new electoral system. The speaker of parliament said that he now expected fresh elections to be held early next year although a final decision on a date will be made by Abbas. The parliament in Ramallah backed the new electoral law by a 43-14 majority which will see the number of deputies increase from 88 to 132.
Fun for everyone!
Half the deputies will be elected by proportional representation and the other half by HamasPIJFatahPrince Nayef constituencies. Differences over the voting system had led to the postponement of elections earlier this month which had been slated to take place on July 17. MPs had previously approved a new system to increase the number of MPs, but two-thirds would continue to be elected by constituencies with the remainder by proportional representation. Abbas vetoed the law, partly because he had previously assured the radical Islamist movement Hamas that the new chamber would be elected on a 50-50 split.
Guaranteeing a Fatah:Hamas split and civil war.
Parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh said that it was not in the legislative council's remit to set the date for new elections. "That is the job of Abu Mazen (Abbbas) but I expect that the date for the new elections will be on January 20 next year," he told reporters. The only previous legislative elections were held on January 20, 1996. "We approved the law today for Abu Mazen," he added.
"For me? You shouldn't have!"
No, really. You shouldn't have.
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..At the rate they're going, in about three years, every adult member of the population will be a member of the parliament.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/19/2005 4:12
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#2
If that's what it takes to keep them from shooting each other and blowing themselves up, they should be encouraged in that direction, Mike. Let them become experts in rhetoric instead, in a fully participative, Athens-style democracy. ;-)
Musharraf is committed to eradicating al-Qaida and is convinced he speaks the truth when he assures his U.S. allies there is no such thing as a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. But if he were serious about eliminating militancy that is borderline terrorism he would have ordered Dhamial closed. Instead, it has been allowed to train jihadis with impunity, both before and since Sept. 11. Thus, deep denial became policy.
Posted by: john ||
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#1
no linky.. or is that my friken ie noware.
Posted by: Red Dod ||
06/19/2005 0:35
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I use Maxthon which uses IE engine in tabs - opened fine UPI / Wash Times.
Pervy saying there are no terr training camps in PakiWakiLand is simply the stupidest statement ever made by anyone posing as a public official.
BERLIN - German Defence Minister Peter Struck cancelled a trip to the United States, originally planned for next week, after being "snubbed" by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to a German report on Saturday.
The cancellation came on Thursday after Struck was informed that Rumsfeld had penciled in only 45 minutes for a meeting with him, and that other senior Pentagon and White House officials had signalled no interest at all in meeting with the German cabinet minister, said the report in Der Spiegel news magazine.
Why bother meeting him? It's not like he's going to be around much longer, as the article goes on to note.
The magazine attributed the "snub" to the perception in Washington that the fragile centre-left coalition of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a lame duck government. Schroeder's Social Democrats face an uphill battle for re-election in Germany's general election, likely to be held in September.
Informed of Rumsfeld's schedule, Struck reportedly told an aide, "I generally allow three hours for a meeting with another defence minister." He ordered Berlin's ambassador to Washington Wolfgang Ischinger to appeal to Rumsfeld for a longer meeting, saying, "If that cannot be arranged, then we'll turn around on the runway and head back for home," Der Spiegel quoted Struck as having said.
Adding insult to injury, Struck was also informed that a planned meeting in New York with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would also have to be cancelled.
When Kofi can snub you, it's a clear signal that Euro visions of "soft power" have failed.
At that point, according to Der Spiegel, Struck decided to call off the US visit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/19/2005
00:00 ||
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#1
That's our Rummy...
No time for ducks, lame ducks, Peking ducks or any other waterfowl either...
#4
I'd say that 45 minutes with the SecDef of a country seriously fighting the WoT, running jihadi flypaper campaigns in 2 countries, supporting those 2 countries while they take their first steps under a new form of government, and redesigning the global force structure of the US is fairly generous. Given this is someone from a Govt with Shroeder's record and who's on his way out - what's there to talk about? Struck should've been less huffy and full of himself and gone shopping to burn some of those Euros while they're still so overvalued.
Posted by: too true ||
06/19/2005 11:01
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#8
And the US (including Rumsfeld) are supposed to be worried about this because....?
Take your ball and stay home, ya' little brat.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/19/2005 12:41
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#9
Well maybe don't be too hard on him. He has just announced to send more German troops to Afghanistan, bringing the number up to 3000.
But of course, in September we'll have a new defense minister, probabably Michael Glos, a ranking CSU guy (boss of the CSU in the Bundestag). I know him personally and I guess he'll get along very well with Rummy (and brings the better beer).
#15
While Schroeder has been a weasel, we must not forget the slightly less than 50% of Germans who are not anti-American. I hope that the relationship can be rebuilt. Phrance on the other hand...
I wish to say thank you to TGA for his reasoned discourse and support for America.
#16
The german defense minister....? How many divisions does he have?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
06/19/2005 19:51
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#17
Germany hosts two major airbases and, even after troop drawdowns, provides an important staging site for military equipment and troops. Whatever you think about this minister - who distinctly underwhelms me personally - or about future alternatives, for now the value of those bases to us should not be underestimated.
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Palestinian militants fired light arms and rocket-propelled grenades at Israelis near an army post on the Gaza-Egypt border on Sunday, wounding three Israelis, the army said. One militant was killed in the attack. Two of the Israelis were hurt badly, and one was in moderate condition, the army said. The violence began when the militants shot at soldiers and civilians doing engineering work near the post, the army said. Militants later fired two grenades at the post, it said. The soldiers returned fire, killing one of the attackers. A second attacker escaped, the army said. Islamic Jihad said the attack was a joint operation between its militants and militants affiliated with the Fatah movement. The attack came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Israeli officials to help coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Italian newspapers Friday laid into France's President Jacques Chirac, labelling him an obstacle to the course of the European Union and calling on Italy to swing over to Britain's vision of the future of the bloc. The economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore, in a hard-hitting front-page editorial, called the French leader "the enemy of the EU," while Confindustria, organ of the Italian employers' federation, said Chirac should take the first step to get Europe out of its current deadlock, by resigning and vanishing from the political stage. 
AUCKLAND: Pakistan and India can overcome obstacles to a solution of the Kashmir dispute if they are brave and determined, President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Saturday. 
Unidentified masked men shot and wounded a suspected "spy" while his driver and cousin were gunned down in the same attack in broad daylight in Wana bazaar, witnesses said. Abdur Rehman, 45, was seriously wounded and immediately taken to a private hospital in Wana, regional headquarters of South Waziristan, for treatment, witnesses said. "Their pick-up was attacked by masked gunmen around 1pm in Wana bazaar. The man's driver and cousin, however, died instantly," they said. The attack took place just when thousands of tribesmen gathered in Azam Warsak to observe the death anniversary of Nek Muhammad. 
Two Afghan businessmen were wounded when a bomb planted in their car exploded in the northwestern tribal region of Pakistan on Saturday, an official said. The bomb went off shortly after the men, who are brothers, entered the car outside their home on the outskirts of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said Ghulam Khan, a government official in the region. He said it was not clear who targeted the men, who were being treated at a hospital in Peshawar. Miran Shah is located near the Afghan border, where a number of Afghan refugees have been living since fleeing their homeland during a quarter century of war starting with the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Many later settled in Pakistan.
A police station in Khanqah Dogran was torched on Saturday after police clashed with protestors angry at the inclusion of their town in the recently upgraded Nankana Sahib district. The protestors and police accused each other of setting fire to the police station, whose main gate and portico was burnt. The protestors later stormed the police station and destroyed furniture and equipment...Police said they had asked the protestors to disperse peacefully but they refused, after which they fired warning shots to scare them away. However, the police action angered the protestors further and they started throwing stones at the policemen. According to protestors, some policemen rushed into a mosque with their shoes on and fired volleys of tear gas shells at them. Soon after, flames were seen rising from the police station.
GAZA - Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian 
RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's ailing King Fahd may soon leave the hospital where he has been for two and a half weeks, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Saturday.
MULTAN, Pakistan - A Pakistani woman who captured international attention for her bravery after suffering a gang rape three years ago said on Saturday she wouldn't allow anyone to use her name to tarnish the image of her country.
Three criminals were killed in "crossfire" with police in two incidents in Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia and Chandina upazila in Comilla district yesterday. Pakhi Mollah, 28, and Hasmot Ali alias Hasu, 30, were killed in "crossfire" between police and their accomplices at village Selimpur in Daulatpur upazila early yesterday.
A Romanian nun has died after being bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room in a convent, Romanian police have said. Members of the convent in north-west Romania claim Maricica Irina Cornici was possessed and that the crucifixion had been part of an exorcism ritual. 
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Deputies cleared the way on Saturday for the holding of legislative elections when they approved proposals by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas for a new electoral system. The speaker of parliament said that he now expected fresh elections to be held early next year although a final decision on a date will be made by Abbas. The parliament in Ramallah backed the new electoral law by a 43-14 majority which will see the number of deputies increase from 88 to 132. 
