GENEVA - A UN human rights body told Washington on Friday that any secret detention centres the United States was operating abroad violated international law and should be shut immediately.
Saying it had credible and uncontested reports of such jails, the Human Rights Committee said the United States appeared to have been detaining people secretly and in secret places for months and years. The state party should immediately abolish all secret detention, it said, echoing a similar demand in May by the UN Committee Against Torture.
What secret detention? Oh, that secret detention? No problem, it's closed! Hokay boys, close Guantanamo and open up Ice Station Zebra, quick!
In its findings on US observance of the UNs main political rights treaty, the committee said that the International Committee of the Red Cross must be given access to anybody held during armed conflict.
It could not accept Washingtons argument that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not apply to anyone not held on US soil, it added.
It doesn't accept anything we say, and why should they? It's not like they're accountable to anyone.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, plane hijackings, the United States has been accused by human rights groups of operating secret detention centres in its so-called war on terrorism.
All based on the reports of terrorists, but if you can't trust an al-Qaeda dope on torture, who can you trust?
A report last month for the Council of Europe, the European human rights watchdog said more than 20 European states had colluded in a web of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of terrorism suspects from Asia to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
He didn't have any proof, but he's sure it happened.
In an initial reply to the committees 39-paragraph report, Washington stuck to its view about territorial limits and said the committee had spent too much time on the United States. The recent committee conclusions on North Korea were about half the length of that on the United States, the US mission to the United Nations in Geneva said in a statement.
And they're embarrassed about how much time they spent on the NKors.
The state party (the United States) should review its approach and interpret the covenant in good faith, said the committee, in its first US review for 11 years. The US report to the committee, submitted in October, was seven years late.
Good.
We consider that the major violations were to do with the fight against terrorism, said French magistrate Christine Chanet, who chairs the committee which is made up of 18 internationally recognised independent experts.
The committee asked the United States to respond to its comments within a year. Asked what would happen if Washington took no notice, Chanet, speaking in French, said: There is a strong chance that they will ignore many of the recommendations. They are so certain about their position (but) we can always hope for a change of attitude. The next US review is not due until 2010.
And we shouldn't respond until 2017.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2006
23:10 ||
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Well, this is just really disappointing. I'm afraid the Israeli politicians have that "deer in the headlights: look. Opportunity missed. Had hope Bush was sending Condi back to stiffen them up and get the job done. But this? World will force them to accept.
(KUNA) A bomb exploded inside the office building of government Department for Social Welfare in Pakistani tribal district, destroying it but there was no life loss, said officials Friday. Bomb went off on late Thursday in the social welfare office in Tank district, over 50 kilometers from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan tribal agency, a security official told KUNA on the condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
20:10 ||
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SEATTLE - At least five people were wounded by gunshots Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and one person was arrested, police said. A SWAT team was searching the building, looking for any other victims, anyone hiding or any other possible shooters, police spokesman Rich Pruitt said.
Seattle Fire Department medics told The Seattle Times that the victims include two women. One woman was shot in the abdomen. The other woman is described as 17 weeks pregnant and was shot in an arm. They were taken to Harborview Medical Center. Three other victims have also been seen arriving Harborview. Police say they've arrested one person and could be looking for another alleged suspect who may be on a nearby rooftop. Police blocked off several city blocks to investigate.
Patti Simon was at work at the federation's newspaper on the first floor when she heard screaming, shots and what sounded like furniture crashing on the floor above. "We heard this horrible screaming on the floor above us and shots," said Simon, 52, who sells advertising at the paper. "We didn't know what was happening."
Simon called up to her co-workers on the second floor, but got no answer, so she called the police and fled the building. "People got shot, some of our co-workers," Simon said, her voice shaking. "I just got back from Israel and made it out of there a half hour before the rockets started." Simon said the federation has security in the building. "Somebody must have lied there way in," Simon said.
One witness, who declined to give her name, said a man walked into the Jewish Federation building with a gun, said he was upset about what was going on in Israel, then opened fire. After the shootings, the man said to call 911, the witness said.
#13
"To delve into the mind of a clearly troubled and disturbed person is impossible," Weiner said. "It is heartbreaking to think of what is transpiring."
Somehow, I think the perp is going to let us know what he was thinking about.
But he was no doubt a victim of his environment and should be treated tenderly no matter what he says, poor guy.
In the United States, key legislators are joining in the growing call for smaller, cheaper carriers, and the use of armed UAVs sooner, rather than later. This debate is hot right now because design work is currently underway for the next generation of American carriers.
The first ship of new CVN 21 class, is expected to cost nearly $14 billion. About 40 percent of that is for designing the first ship of the class, so the actual cost of first ship (CVN 21) itself will be some $9 billion.
Against this, the navy expects to reduce the carriers lifetime operating expenses by several billion dollars because of greatly reduced crew size. Compared to the current Nimitz class carriers (which cost over $5 billion each to built), the CVN 21s will feel, well, kind of empty. Lots more automation, computer networking and robots.
CVN 21 doesn't start building until 2008, and won't go to sea until about 2014. By that time, many of the warplanes operating off the carrier will be robotic. By 2014, even more of the crew will be replaced by robots. The CVN 21 will be about the same size as current carriers, but will about half as many sailors on board. The last of the current Nimitz class carriers entered service three years ago.
There have been calls for smaller carriers before, but the large size of jet aircraft created a strong case for large (90-100,000 ton) carriers. That trend, however, is now going into reverse.
The next generation of aircraft will include the vertical take-off version of the F-35, the 25 ton F-35B, and several, smaller, UAV designs. The carrier based UAVs are no fantasy. Work on flight control software for carrier operations is well underway. Combat UAVs (UCAVs) weight about 20 percent less than manned aircraft, and cost 20-30 percent less. They use less fuel as well.
While the navy would prefer to design and build the first generation UCAVs for use on existing carriers, these smaller and cheaper aircraft go together well with smaller and cheaper carriers. That's because UCAVs mean you can get more aircraft on a carrier, and that creates a traffic jam type situation.
Moreover, the widespread use of smart bombs means you need fewer bombers over the target. A 50-60,000 ton carrier, with three dozen F-35Bs, UCAVs, UAVs and support aircraft, can be as effective as a Nimitz with 70 F-18s and support aircraft.
#2
Another concept, not yet considered, would hearken back to the WWII-era Japanese idea of submarines capable of carrying and launching aircraft.
The idea is to create what amounts to high survivability submarine-carriers that could penetrate deeply into hostile waters, quickly launch their pre-programmed drone aircraft, then submerge and depart the AO.
A wing of heavily armed drone aircraft appearing without warning in the middle of enemy waters could severely disrupt enemy naval operations.
#4
Don't count on that. These will be big powerful ships that will be able to defend themselves. Plenty of lasers on board. Plenty of sensors in the air.
Khaibar, BTW, was where Mohammed killed a lot of Jews.
Hizbollah fired scores of rockets into Israel on Friday, including at least one that the Lebanese guerrilla group said was a new long-range missile, wounding at least 13 people, police and the army said. The longer-range rocket landed in an open area near the town of Afula, about 50 km (30 miles) from the Lebanese border. It matched the furthest distance that Hizbollah rockets had landed inside Israel since the conflict began on July 12. Hizbollah said it had fired a volley of "Khaibar 1" rockets at Afula, apparently a new type of armament. An army spokeswoman said seven rockets landed in the Afula area, two of which had landed inside the town. The other five landed in open areas near Afula, which is about 35 km (22 miles) southeast of Israel's third largest city, Haifa. Commenting on one of the rockets that landed in an open area, a police spokesman said: "Based on the damage at the site, police can confirm one rocket had around 100 kg of explosives."
#2
guess this seems too say they where right when they said hezbollah is still being armed by iran and syria since this is the first time in 2 weeks that they have fired these
#4
Pretty sick, huh, Xbalanke? Can you imagine the Russians naming a rocket the Pogrom 2, or the Germans calling a tank the Auschwitz IV? Only a few eccentrics at sites like this get it. 99.9% of the rest don't even have a clue.
#6
Understood, Le Roi. My point is that by calling them Khaibar missiles, Hizb is calling them "Jew-Killer" missiles. And the press is blindly repeating the slur.
#7
In France, the 3 most popular newspapers have said nothing, since the Hezbollah's attack of July the 12th, about the genocidal aim of this terrorist organization. It's the same concerning the Hamas. Only a satirical weekly (Charlie Hebdo) did publish, after the palestinian "elections", important excerpts of the Hamas charter, particularly article number 7 calling for the death of the Jews.
French media and most of "old Europe" media need to negate the genocidal aim of those terrorist groups, in order to continue their accusations and slanders against Israel.
Similarly, those moraly crooked journalists are playing down the genocidal aim of al-Qaeda and islamists, in order to continue their accusations and slanders against the US and the War on Terror.
After being plugged relentlessly by the New York Times and other "objective" media outlets, the ratings for Air America continue to drop. Brian Maloney has the details:
Like an ice cream cone left in the hot July sun, Air America Radio's ratings are melting in some key (read: liberal) regions of the country.
Based on fresh ratings data released Thursday evening, the "progressive" radio network has lost strength in three cities where it had previously found the most listener support: Portland, Seattle and Denver.
Representing the spring 2006 Arbitron reporting period, these results provide one of the two most important report cards for the entire year.
#1
In AA's case, I think it's imperative to define "popular."
I don't think it means what "popular" usually means.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 19:07
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When I hear Air America, I think of the play, The Producers. Dim-witted but rich liberals, send us a check! Send big money help NOW to fight the evil George Bush!! They hire people with zero talent and then they gather tons and tons of money to "keep them on the air". It goes off the air, but not before lots of its organizers pad their bank accounts with money from Barbara S. and Sean Penn and any other liberal fool with money but no sense.
#3
This is working out really well. It's sucking up lefty cash and energy, while reaching zero audience. Having their own radio presence has become a status thing. So they don't care that it's counterproductive and a waste of resources. What's not to like?
#5
AirUnamerican is testing thier strength in the markeplace of ideas...opps, they have certain hurdles to overcome thier record , Pol potty, mao , lenin, castro, hitler, saddam, lil kim and a burgeoning group of new but nothing different folks like hubobo and achtungminijad.
access to easy money is the essence of the cliche, more money than brains to them that sponsors this group of functioning miscreants.
gbal Asghar reached across the counter at Super Halal Meat market and passed two butchered chickens to the man with the familiar face. Then he ducked into the walk-in freezer to fetch the customer's second order, goat meat.
When the butcher stepped out seconds later, the customer's severed left hand lay on the floor by the meat saw, Asghar said. The customer ran down the Springfield store's center aisle and into the front parking lot, leaving a trail of blood and yelling repeatedly that he was "not a terrorist." Outside, another witness said, the man announced that he had used the meat saw to cut off his hand "for Allah."
Rescue workers arrived minutes after the incident Saturday evening and took the man -- and his detached hand -- to Inova Fairfax Hospital. Fairfax County police declined to comment or release the man's name yesterday, saying no charges would be filed. Those who saw the action unfold remained jarred.
Asghar said the man's son told him that evening that his father was on medication for mental problems. Dan Schmidt, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, said authorities believe the man had mental health problems. Schmidt said he did not know whether doctors planned to try to re-attach the man's hand.
"I don't know what happened to that guy," Asghar, 45, said as he leaned yesterday against a stack of Pakistan Link newspapers at the small strip mall store in the Franconia area, which caters to customers from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. "We are shaking still when we are talking about it."
Nothing seemed amiss when the man approached the meat counter with his teenage son, Asghar said. The butcher said he recognized the man, whose name he did not know, as a fellow Pakistani. The man chatted on a cellphone as Asghar cut his chicken.
Suddenly, the man was racing toward the front of the store, past jars of turmeric powder and boxes of date-filled cookies. Manager Sohail Afzal, 28, who was helping a customer, grabbed the phone and called police.
With his son following, the man went into the parking lot, where Vikas Sinsunwal, 18, was hanging out with a group of friends in front of his parents' store, Niralla Sweets. The young men were admiring a friend's new motorcycle, Sinsunwal said, when the man walked coolly toward them. The man was holding aloft his bleeding left arm -- sliced several inches above the wrist -- and using his right hand to hold up a photo identification badge that hung around his neck.
"We thought it was fake," Sinsunwal said of the limb. Then they heard the man mumbling calmly but angrily in a mixture of English and Urdu about working in the area and his children attending school here.
"He said, 'I did this for Allah' -- God," Sinsunwal said.
Startled, the friends rushed inside Niralla Sweets, which sells pastel treats adorned with almond slices. The man followed.
As his son tried to calm him, the man stood outside the store's large windows, holding the badge and showing no sign of pain, Sinsunwal said. His sister, Shivani Sinsunwal, 20, called police as frightened customers begged her not to let the man inside.
Rest at link
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006
17:38 ||
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Mobile phone traders in Pakistan have moved to dispel concerns that Indian made Nokia handsets could end up being sold in the country. Pakistan has a limit on the items which can be traded with India, and mobile phones are not on the permitted list.
An executive of one of the largest mobile phone distribution companies (authorised distributor of Nokia handsets), who asked not to be named, told the local Dawn newspaper that the government of Pakistan had not allowed the entry of the Indian-made mobile phones and it may not allow it in future.
Most distributors in Pakistan order their handsets via Nokia Middle East Africa, importing handsets manufactured in Finland, Hungary, Germany and China.
Chief Operating Officer of United Mobile, Azad Lalani said "I do not see future of the Indian-made Nokia phones in Pakistan because the Chinese-made Nokia phones have started arriving," adding that the Indian-made cell phones might be cheaper in terms of lower transportation cost, cheaper raw materials etc but the Pakistani customers had already developed a taste for handsets made elsewhere owing to their quality and reliability.
Nokia recently started manufacturing low-end handsets at a facility at Sriperumbudur, India. Due to the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan, trade between the two countries is heavily restricted.
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006
17:35 ||
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#1
Nokia India has started exporting mobile handsets from its plant at Sriperumbudur, about 50 km west of Chennai. The company now produces 10 different models at the plant and has started exports of some to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Nokia India employs about 2,700 people, 80 per cent of them involved in production. At the end of 2006, the plant is likely to employ more than 3,000. The Chennai plant, Mr Lehtela said, was close to becoming on par with any other Nokia facility in other parts of the world, in terms of key performance indicators.
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006 17:49
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Maybe they could just put little Israeli flag stickers over the "Made in India" label...
A Pakistan Army officer was among three persons killed when troops recently foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said on Friday.
Mohammad Hyder Turkey alias Abu Bilal, a serving Major in Nine Baloch Battalion of the Pakistan Army, was killed with two Pakistani terrorists on July 25 in Nanital forest in Gurez sector, Lt Col VK Batra said in Srinagar.
He said Turkey was a resident of Gujranwala in Pakistan and the incident has clearly established the Pakistan Army's involvement in infiltration.
"The killing of the officer in the infiltration bid is clear evidence that the Pakistan Army is actively involved in pushing terrorists into the Kashmir valley from across the Line of Control," Batra said.
He identified the other two terrorists killed in the operation as Mohammad Qasim Khan alias Abu Usman and Mohammad Ayub Khan alias Islam, both residents of Pakistan's Punjab province.
Three AK assault rifles, 11 hand-grenades, 13 magazines, two under barrel grenade launchers, two wireless sets and three improvised explosive devices were recovered from the site of the gunbattle.
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006
16:08 ||
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#1
They're running out of madrassa graduates?
Or was he particularly infused with the spirit of jihad?
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006 16:15
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Instapundit is reporting a Paki muslim gunman shot and killed one and wounded four at a Jewish Center in Seattle. FBI thinks the guy acted alone and isn't involved in any "organization". I guess that's true if you don't consider islam an organization.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
07/28/2006 22:02
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Partially posted at http://counterterrorismblog.org/ and there is a name here, that is referenced above, Imad Mughniah
By Olivier Guitta
In the past few weeks, Hassan Nasrallah (which means in Arabic "God's victory"), the secretary general of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah (the Party of God), has almost become a household name.
Even though Nasrallah has become "famous" for starting this new Hezbollah-Israel war and declaring Israel as Hezbollah's mortal enemy, one should not forget that the "big Satan" remains the United States. And that's why Iraq is where Nasrallah's influence can also be felt.
Nasrallah's biography explains how he got close to prominent clerics in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, in particular the Sadr family. In 1975, when he was only 15, Nasrallah joined the ranks of the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Amal - which Hezbollah broke from after its creation in 1982 - led by Musa al-Sadr.
From 1976 to 1978 he was sent to study in Najaf, Iraq, at the famed Shi'ite seminary the Hawze. There he met most of his mentors, starting with Iranian ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979) and also his tutor, ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr (Muqtada al-Sadr's father). He also was in close contact with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (the leading Shi'ite spiritual force in Iraq today).
And finally, he was groomed by future Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi, whom he succeeded after Musawi was killed by the Israelis in 1992. Those two years in Najaf definitely left a huge imprint on Nasrallah's psyche.
And that's why, when it was time to help his Shi'ite brothers in Iraq after the US intervention in 2003, and especially Muqtada, Nasrallah responded. Nasrallah, using the 1982 model of what had worked in Lebanon to kick out the multinational force, adapted some of his tactics in Iraq.
Indeed, Iraq in 2006 looks a lot like the Lebanon of 1983. For example, the Iranian man in charge of this whole operation is Hassan Qommi, who had the exact same job ... in Beirut in 1982. Qommi helped Hezbollah instructors get to Iraq to train Muqtada's Mehdi Army, which has staged several high-profile confrontations with US forces, notably at Fallujah.
Starting in 2003, Hezbollah began building up organizational and military apparatuses in Iraq. For instance, that April, Hezbollah opened two offices in the Iraqi cities of Basra and Safwan. The campaign, targeting moderate Iraqi Shi'ite clerics willing to work with the US, was most likely orchestrated by Muqtada and Hezbollah.
Keep in mind that even though Nasrallah greatly respects Sistani, he is totally at odds with him when it comes to fighting the US presence.
Also in 2003-04, Imad Mughniah, the top Hezbollah operative wanted by most Western secret services for his role in most of the attacks perpetrated by Hezbollah, including the bombings of the US Embassy and the US and French barracks in Beirut in 1983, was sighted in Iraq. Syria had most probably facilitated his entry on to Iraqi soil.
Hezbollah also had a specialty in Lebanon in the 1980s, which was kidnapping foreign citizens. Is it a coincidence that it was happening on a daily basis in 2004 in Iraq?
Knowing that Nasrallah called for suicide bombings against the US forces in Iraq, it was just a matter of time until Hezbollah was ready to strike. The connection with Muqtada is total. For proof of Hezbollah's active participation in the insurgency there are the arrests made in February 2005 by Iraqi authorities of 18 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters taking part in the insurgency.
In a July 11 speech that was really focused on the situation with Israel, Nasrallah made a point of again talking about Iraq. He specifically called for Iraqis to step up their resistance against the US invader. In response, Muqtada offered to send members of his militia to south Lebanon to fight Israel. This is not surprising, since Muqtada declared in 2004 that he was "the striking arm for Hezbollah".
Obviously, Hezbollah as a multinational group cannot be simply reduced to Lebanon and Israel. Its expansion into Iraq fits strategically very well in the plans of its two sponsors: Syria and Iran.
Richard Armitage, former US deputy secretary of state, has said that the United States had a blood debt with Nasrallah's organization. In light of the fact that Hezbollah was, prior to the September 11 attacks of 2001, the organization that had killed the most Americans, and the likelihood of additional killings of US soldiers in Iraq, now would be a good time to repay the debt.
Olivier Guitta is a foreign-affairs and counter-terrorism consultant in Washington, DC.
For the second time this week, a large plane arrived in the Islamists-controlled Somali capital of Mogadishu Friday, carrying an unknown cargo. But many people believe it contains weapons from Eritrea, which the Islamist leadership in Somalia denies. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu in Mogadishu says, reports of military activity by rivals Eritrea and Ethiopia in Somalia are fueling fears of a proxy war. A Russian-made Illuyshin-76 cargo plane touched down early Friday morning at the recently reopened Mogadishu airport. It had the same Kazakhstan Airways markings as a plane that landed Wednesday.
In both cases, there was extraordinary security. Islamic militiamen sealed off all roads and prevented curious on-lookers from gathering near the facility. But some eyewitnesses said that they saw several large trucks leaving the airport in a convoy a short while after the plane landed.
The arrival of the two planes this week is fueling speculation among Somalis that neighboring Eritrea is helping to arm Somali Islamists, who are facing a possible showdown with Ethiopian troops, believed to be protecting the countrys secular and highly vulnerable interim government, which has its headquarters 250 kilometers away in the town of Baidoa. In May, a United Nations report said that Eritrea had violated a long-standing arms embargo on Somalia by funneling weapons to Islamists.
Deputy Interim Prime Minister Ismail Hurreh in Baidoa tells VOA that his government is receiving intelligence that Eritrea is not only supplying Islamists with arms, but has also sent troops to back up the Islamic militias.Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody war from 1998 to 2000, and both countries have a history of backing rebel groups in the region to destabilize each other.
We are getting highly reliable information that a vessel has unloaded 500 Eritrean fighters along the Somali coast, and they are going to join with forces in Mogadishu, said Hurreh. For Eritrea to simply come to Somalia to fight a proxy war against Ethiopia will fuel trouble in the whole region.
In Mogadishu, a spokesman for the Supreme Islamic Council that controls the capital and much of the south of the country dismissed unconfirmed reports that Eritreans are in Mogadishu and in other parts of Islamists-controlled areas of southern Somalia. The spokesman, Abdurahim Ali Mudi, also denies that the Islamists are accepting weapons shipments from Eritrea. Mudi says there are enough weapons in Somalia, and the aim of his group is to make the country secure by taking them off the streets, not bring more weapons into the country.
For weeks, top interim government leaders in Baidoa denied that Ethiopian troops were in Somalia to protect the government. But on Thursday, 18 Cabinet ministers resigned, protesting, among other things, what they said was the Ethiopian troop presence in the country. The May U.N. report, which criticized Eritrea, also criticized Ethiopia for giving support to secular factional leaders, who fought against Islamic militias for control of Mogadishu. Islamic leaders - some with alleged ties to al-Qaida - took control of most of the capital in early June, alarming largely Christian Ethiopia, the United States and other western countries.
The United States has urged Somalis to seek a dialogue, aimed at creating a unity government, and has called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to avoid any actions, which could hamper that effort.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
14:48 ||
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#1
Then we should back Ethiopia and give them all sorts of kewl little toys.
#2
The United States has urged Somalis to seek a dialogue
Oh, yes, dialogue, the cure for all ills
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 16:22
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#3
We could just lone the Ethiopia a carrrier for a month or couple weeks along with some SOF which I think have already rumored of being deployed helping the Ethiopian's anyway. Let the Ehiopian troops do the fighting like the Northern Alliance and wipe the Islamist out. Entirea if they lose some more territory for their support of Jihadi's all the better to make the point.
The Islamic Radicals have enemies small and large all over the world. With our help of some air support and some SOF to coordinate we could force the Islamic Radicals into a multi front long term war at minor risk and cost to our own forces. The Jihadis would be spread out trying to Jihad all over the world against multiple enemies.
KABUL -- Police arrested 13 suspected Taliban militants on Friday as a top American general said the resurgent hardline militia were a tactical problem for the U.S.-led coalition, but would not rule Afghanistan again.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his comments on a visit ahead of NATO's imminent takeover of security operations in southern provinces, where Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces. The Taliban "may be a day-to-day tactical problem for us, but we are a long-term strategic problem for them," Pace was quoted as saying Thursday by the Department of Defence website. "They can pick and choose some battles, but they cannot take over this country again."
Pace also travelled to neighbouring Pakistan on Friday to discuss security cooperation with anti-terror ally, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a Pakistani military statement said. He was expected back in Kabul later Friday. No further details were available. The U.S. military is trying to bolster security co-operation between neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of doing too little to stop militants using Pakistani soil to stage attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies such claims.
Police surrounded two vehicles on Friday in volatile southern Helmand province's Garmser district and arrested 13 suspected Taliban militants without a bullet being fired, area police chief Ghulam Rasool said. Police also confiscated 13 AK-47 assault rifles, heavy machine guns and eight rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the cars, Rasool said. Garmser was one of two Helmand towns briefly overrun by Taliban militants earlier this month before being reclaimed by coalition and Afghan troops.
Two coalition soldiers were wounded during a clash with Taliban rebels Thursday in southern Helmand province's troublesome Sangin district, the coalition said. The soldiers' nationalities were not released. Coalition troops also used artillery to kill three suspected Taliban rebels Thursday holed up in a house following a failed ambush on a military convoy in southern Kandahar province, the coalition said.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
14:41 ||
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University of Arizona computer scientists say they have quietly assembled the world's largest digital library of intelligence on extremist and terrorist organizations culled from the Web.
Researchers hope the project, dubbed the "Dark Web," will give them insight into the evolution of terror activity on the Internet – a problem recognized long ago in international intelligence circles and by the U.S. government, but one that has become increasingly difficult to track.
Many terror and extremist groups, foreign and domestic, have made the Web a primary source of communication by using sophisticated homepages and other online tools to spread their messages and lure new recruits. Three years ago, UA's Artificial Intelligence Lab created a virtual library that uses supercomputers to store of millions of Web pages, capture chatter on terrorist forums and copy videos showing gruesome attacks and executions.
Although this is typically the domain of federal law enforcement, university researchers say their main goal is to perform long-term academic studies on terrorist and extremist groups to better understand their activity on the Web. The lab's director, Dr. Hsinchun Chen, said researchers have shared their data with the U.S. government, but he would not say which federal agencies were involved. "Even the people we talk to in the federal agencies are hampered by the amount of information that's being collected. They don't know how to analyze it," Chen said. "It's a new virtual battleground."
The UA project is unique, Chen said, not only because of the volume of data, but also because of the different tools they use for analysis, including programs that find links between terror groups and similarities in writing styles in postings in chat rooms.
The researchers, working with about 15 advanced UA students, analyze the linkage between Web sites using social network analysis. They also perform Web matrix analysis to measure the sophistication of terror sites, which often keep an Internet address for a short time, and then move to avoid detection.
Chen said much of the research tries to answer these central questions: How are terror or extremist groups using the Web sites and for what purposes? Are they recruiting, fundraising or spreading their ideology?
The UA computer scientists do not investigate specific terror groups, do not try to crack encoded messages or do any other contract work for the government that requires classified security clearances, he said. Instead, they focus on creating cutting-edge computer programming to make sense of the longer-term trends. "We provide the tools so the good guys get to do the right thing," he said. "It's very difficult to do this kind of research. They (the terrorists) are hiding. They're hiding in the dark side of the Web." See how much of this can be incorporated in Rantburg.
#7
Every time I've been to Tucson, it's been 110 degrees. In my motel room.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 16:49
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#8
Best news I've seen all day. If this comes to fruition, it turns off most of thier com net. We've already swept up all their verbal diatribes. Guess they're back to 7th century on com now. Notes on carrier pigeons. Just hope the pigeons come thru and shit all over everything.
#10
Tucson's Arizona Daily Star, features a guest editorial this morning by an 18 year old Arab-American high school student. He praises Hezbullah to the heavens, while condemning the Israelis as pure evil. :((
#13
Sea, I could arrange for travel to Tucson (though this isn't the best time) in exchange for a furniture slip hat. [wag]
Seriously, My favorite (New) Mexican place is Poco and Mom's, but they are only open for breakfast and lunch, not dinner. They are definitely New Mexican rather than Sonoran or other "old" Mexican.
I've been to Cattleman's a couple times and found the quality varies. Each time, I orderd the same drink, but one came in a glass twice the size of the other (it was full, too). I ordered the same cut of steak, but one was much tougher and gristlier than the other. This was only about 2 months apart.
#14
Every time I've been to Tucson, it's been 110 degrees. In my motel room.
Heh. Steve, yer a wuss! Seriously, try coming between mid-October to mid-April. Tucson has five seasons: a short fall, short winter (which no northerner would call winter), short spring, Blast Furnace (May-June) and Sauna (July-Sept.). BF & S may interleave.
NAIROBI, July 28 (Reuters) - Ethiopia accused its neighbour and foe Eritrea on Friday of "actively supporting" al Qaeda, in its strongest attack yet on Asmara over the escalating crisis in neighbouring Somalia. Diplomats believe Ethiopia and Eritrea -- who went to war in 1998-2000 and still wrangle over their border -- are using the standoff between Somalia's interim government and newly powerful Islamists as a proxy conflict for their own feud. Addis Ababa has sent troops into Somalia to protect the government, according to witnesses, while Asmara is believed by regional diplomats to be arming the Islamists who took Mogadishu and other southern towns from U.S.-backed warlords last month.
Addis Ababa regards the Islamists as terrorists linked to both al Qaeda and the Somali radical group al-Itihaad al-Islaami, which was all but obliterated by Ethiopian forces in the 1990s. "The Eritrean government is actively supporting the al-Itihaad and al Qaeda extremist leaders who oppose the widely accepted and recognized transitional government," an Ethiopian Ministry of Information statement said. "If there is anyone who is reluctant to support peace and stability in Somalia, it is only the Eritrean government that is trying to disturb the region by allying itself with extremist elements," the statement added.
Addis Ababa denies its troops are in Somalia, while Asmara denies funnelling military aid to the Islamists.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
14:14 ||
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CHITTAGONG, July 27 (BDNEWS): An alleged terrorist was killed early Thursday in 'crossfire' between the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and a group of terrorists in Uttar Kattali area under Pahartoli thana in Chittagong.
The dead was identified as Arman Hossain alias Mamun. The RAB said, acting on a tip off, the members of RAB conducted a raid in Uttar Kattali area and arrested him.
That's it? No trip to the slammer, no 'confession', no moonlight drive looking for arms?
Where is the suspense?
Where is the drama?
Where is the shutter gun and 2 round of bullet?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
13:57 ||
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#1
The copier down at the stationhouse broke again...
KUALA LUMPUR: US top diplomat Condoleezza Rice won rave reviews yesterday for her musical performance at Asian security talks, despite skipping the traditional rowdy skits in favour of a sombre piano recital.
With North Korea firing off missiles, carnage in Lebanon, rockets raining on Israel and killings convulsing Iraq, Rice was in no mood for the kind of frivolity staged in previous years.
In keeping with her serious mood the Secretary of State performed two pieces from the brooding repertoire of Johannes Brahms a solo Intermezzo number two, and Brahms Sonata for violin and piano, opus 108, with a Malaysian guest soloist.
She arrived at the Istana hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur for the annual gala dinner wearing a glamorous red dress and red jacket made of traditional Malaysian batik material.
Rices decision to take the stage alone was a relief to some of her entourage. Karen Hughes, former spin doctor for President George W Bush, now czar of US public diplomacy, admitted she had been let off the hook.
I cant even hum, she confessed on the eve of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) gala.
Last year, Rice rumpled Asean feathers by skipping the foreign ministers meeting and sending her then deputy Robert Zoellick.
#3
A video of the performance was leaked. From what I saw, Condi performed rather well. It would have been better if she wore her patented black boots.
As for the snide remark on Karen Hughes, I can't defend her. In the fifties, the CIA funded erudite culture warriors as the Congress on Cultural Freedom. Current US public diplomacy is an embarassment.
What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security?
What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities -- every one designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians -- and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?
To hear the world pass judgment on the Israel-Hezbollah war as it unfolds is to live in an Orwellian moral universe. With a few significant exceptions (the leadership of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and a very few others), the world -- governments, the media, U.N. bureaucrats -- has completely lost its moral bearings.
The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate," as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response."
When the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, it did not respond with a parallel "proportionate" attack on a Japanese naval base. It launched a four-year campaign that killed millions of Japanese, reduced Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cinders, and turned the Japanese home islands into rubble and ruin.
Disproportionate? No. When one is wantonly attacked by an aggressor, one has every right -- legal and moral -- to carry the fight until the aggressor is disarmed and so disabled that it cannot threaten one's security again. That's what it took with Japan.
Britain was never invaded by Germany in World War II. Did it respond to the Blitz and V-1 and V-2 rockets with "proportionate" aerial bombardment of Germany? Of course not. Churchill orchestrated the greatest air campaign and land invasion in history, which flattened and utterly destroyed Germany, killing untold innocent German women and children in the process.
The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides.
In perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the London Blitz, Hezbollah is raining rockets on Israeli cities and villages. These rockets are packed with ball bearings that can penetrate automobiles and shred human flesh. They are meant to kill and maim. And they do.
But it is a dual campaign. Israeli innocents must die in order for Israel to be terrorized. But Lebanese innocents must also die in order for Israel to be demonized, which is why Hezbollah hides its fighters, its rockets, its launchers, its entire infrastructure among civilians. Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a Hezbollah specialty.
On Wednesday CNN cameras showed destruction in Tyre. What does Israel have against Tyre and its inhabitants? Nothing. But the long-range Hezbollah rockets that have been raining terror on Haifa are based in Tyre. What is Israel to do? Leave untouched the launch sites that are deliberately placed in built-up areas?
Had Israel wanted to destroy Lebanese civilian infrastructure, it would have turned out the lights in Beirut in the first hour of the war, destroying the billion-dollar power grid and setting back Lebanon 20 years. It did not do that. Instead it attacked dual-use infrastructure -- bridges, roads, airport runways -- and blockaded Lebanon's ports to prevent the reinforcement and resupply of Hezbollah. Ten thousand Katyusha rockets are enough. Israel was not going to allow Hezbollah 10,000 more.
Israel's response to Hezbollah has been to use the most precise weaponry and targeting it can. It has no interest, no desire to kill Lebanese civilians. Does anyone imagine that it could not have leveled south Lebanon, to say nothing of Beirut? Instead, in the bitter fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, it has repeatedly dropped leaflets, issued warnings, sent messages by radio and even phone text to Lebanese villagers to evacuate so that they would not be harmed.
Israel knows that these leaflets and warnings give the Hezbollah fighters time to escape and regroup. The advance notification as to where the next attack is coming has allowed Hezbollah to set up elaborate ambushes. The result? Unexpectedly high Israeli infantry casualties. Moral scrupulousness paid in blood. Israeli soldiers die so that Lebanese civilians will not, and who does the international community condemn for disregarding civilian life?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
13:40 ||
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FRANKFURT/CHICAGO Wal-Mart (WMT), the world's biggest retailer, is selling its underperforming German stores to the country's leading retail chain Metro, marking a major retreat that will cost it about $1 billion.
The U.S. retail giant has struggled to capture market share ever since entering the cut-throat German retail arena eight years ago, frustrated by razor-thin margins and tight labor and trade laws in a country still marked by tepid consumer spending.
The exit from Germany marks the second time in two months that Wal-Mart has pulled out of one country to focus on more promising opportunities elsewhere -- such as in China, South and Central America, or India.
"It has become increasingly clear that in Germany's business environment it would be difficult for us to obtain the scale and results we desire," said Wal-Mart's vice chairman Michael Duke.
Wal-Mart, which operates 85 hypermarkets across Germany, said on Friday it would incur a roughly $1 billion pretax loss on the deal in the second quarter of its fiscal 2007 year.
"Wal-Mart just couldn't make it any more," a source close to the deal told Reuters. "They had to get out."
Germany has proved tough for Wal-Mart since day one, and the Bentonville, Arkansas-based group has acknowledged that it misunderstood German regulations, shopping habits and tastes. It has already closed several of its stores in Germany, where it had 2 billion euros ($2.55 billion) in sales last year.
Metro Chief Executive Hans-Joachim Koerber, who has been eager to find ways to boost Metro's underperforming Real food store chain, said Wal-Mart had been "keen" to sell and did so at less than asset value.
Buying Wal-Mart's operation will give Metro a total of over 670 food stores and hypermarkets in Germany's roughly 130-billion euro food market, which is dominated by privately held Rewe, Aldi, Lidl, as well as Metro and others. Metro's Real food division garnered sales of 9.9 billion euros in 2005.
An industry source close to the deal said the U.S. chain had failed to realize that it could not compete on price alone, and anyway did not have the scale in Germany to do so effectively.
"Consumers here are used to having the best price. And price was Wal-Mart's only offer to customers," he said. "At the beginning, they had people who would greet customers, pack their shopping in the bags and the American customer service. The Germans did not buy that."
A REAL MOVE
Koerber said the positive impact on Metro's earnings from the deal was likely to be in the two-digit millions of euros, but declined to be more specific when pressed by reporters. He added that performance at Metro's Real unit was expected to improve over the medium term on the back of the Wal-Mart deal.
Metro's shares rose 2.5 percent to 44.91 euros at 1435 GMT, compared to a slightly weaker German blue-chip index. Wal-Mart shares were up 0.8 percent at $43.91.
"We believe that the acquisition could make sense from a strategic point of view," said Nils Lesser, analyst at Merck Finck, in a note.
Ironically, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, ruminating on the company's difficulties in Germany at a retail conference in 2004, had noted Metro found the going a lot easier.
"We have to take off our hats to Koerber and Metro, because they know how to make money in Germany," he said at the time.
Wal-Mart's exit from Germany comes about two months after it sold its stores in South Korea, where it also failed to gain traction in a notoriously tough market for foreign retailers.
Wal-Mart denied that it had any plans to bail out of Britain, where it acquired supermarket chain Asda with some 320 stores and 140,000 employees in 1999.
"Asda is right on track. We've made some significant changes in Asda over the past year, and we're seeing some positive changes there and positive results," a spokeswoman said.
Wal-Mart has invested heavily in other regions in the past year, buying a majority stake in Japan's Seiyu, completing its acquisition of Sonae in Brazil, and expanding into new markets including Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
The U.S. retailer has plans to open 220 to 230 international stores this year. Its international operations generated $62.7 billion in sales in the fiscal year to end-January, accounting for about 20 percent of the company's total annual sales.
Wal-Mart operates more than 6,600 retail outlets around the globe, with sales of $312 billion last year.
Analysts on average are expecting Wal-Mart to report fiscal second-quarter net earnings of about $2.95 billion, excluding the roughly $1 billion charge, up from $2.8 billion a year ago, according to Reuters Estimates.
The international business has become increasingly important as Wal-Mart faces slowing sales growth and mounting opposition to its expansion at home.
#2
I understand that German law prevents stores from being open late at night. It supposedly protects the Kultur. What's convenient for the shoppers doesn't come into play at all. Not the Wal-Mart way of operation.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/28/2006 17:42
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Eric, I doubt it's changed too much since I lived in (West) Germany in the 1970's. Regular stores had to close by 6 pm, IIRC, but could stay open until 9 just before Christmas (just the department stores did that in practice, at least in Frankfurt am Main). Closed all day Sunday, Saturday by (I think) 2. Bakeries could be open in the early morning only 7 days a week for obvious reasons; flower shops could be open midday Sundays for cemetary visitors to pick up something.
You also couldn't wash your car or hang up washing (outside) on Sundays - Sunday was an enforced day of no work a day of rest, but the Germans weren't/aren't religious.
Also I couldn't take a shower in my apartment building (or anyone else's, AFAIK) after 10 pm or before 6 am. (Of course, that wasn't really a problem, since the hot water was cut off then anyway.)
We followed their laws, since it was their country, and didn't bitch to them about it, but we always thought they were a little nuts in that regard.
As Wal-Mart must have been to think they would do well with their business model in that economic venue.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 19:20
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#4
A retailer can compete on price, quality, or service. In the US, Wal-mart competes solely on price. Apparently that doesn't work in Germany.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 20:49
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#8
#6
I live in Virginia, so I know the Maryland situation. A judge overturned the Wal-Mart law, by the way.
I just saw a story on Davids Medienkritik that quoted the New York Times. According to the NYT, Wal-Mart displeased its German customers because its cashiers offered to bad groceries and because they smiled too much.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/28/2006 22:06
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#9
The Euros tag any US company with the "globalization" smear. They don't know what it means, but they hate it.
I recall being tossed out of a Swiss restaurant because staff were about to take their one-hour meal break. Flexibility doesn't translate well.
33 TERRORISTS KILLED IN DAYLONG BATTLE WITH ISF, MND-B SOLDIERS FOB KALSU
Iraq Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers engaged in a heated firefight with terrorists in Musayyib July 23. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, along with Iraqi army soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, Musayyib police officers, and members of Hillah SWAT, killed 33 terrorists during the day-long battle.
We received reports of small skirmishes between IPs and terrorists erupting at a police station, including the seizing of IP vehicles and weapons in the main downtown circle, which includes the Husseniya, said Donahoe. Soldiers from Company D, 1-67 AR, were in the area to investigate reports of death squads making a presence in the area and surprised the terrorists when they arrived on the scene so quickly. The combined force cordoned off the city from all directions, keeping the fight to a scaled area and making sure innocent civilians were not harmed. Combat Aviation elements soon arrived on the scene and witnessed and filmed armed individuals entering numerous buildings around the city.
Terrorists fired on the combined forces from a building. A 2nd BCT M1A2 Abrams tank crew eliminated the threat when it fired its 120mm gun, killing the six terrorists inside, said Oliver. Terrorist RPG teams set up positions throughout the area and continued attacking. "The IA soldiers fought right along side us, and I was honored to have them as part of our team. They proved that they are more than ready to provide security in the province, he added.
#9
Good lord, Allan must be busy with contacting the local "escort services" for all those raisins he needs. I do have to wonder what those freaks' faces looked like when they saw a 120-mil Abrams aimin' for 'em.
Plus, I really do like the term "Combat Aviation elements". Has a nice "ring" to it, especially when they "drop stuff."
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2006 15:31
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#10
Allen has run out of goats and is putting chickens in for all these idiots going out and wanting their 72 virgins!
#14
JHC, I love this. There was a video clip circulating the net similar to this a couple of years ago where some shitbag with a rifle fires on a tank from about 1 block away. Fires,then ducks behind a building. You see turret rotate and main gun fire. Building obliterated. I laughed for an hour. Expensive, but so effective.
PARIS - A Lebanese minister on Friday called the fighting in Lebanon a proxy for the broader conflict between Iran and the United States.
Just noticed that, did you?
Speaking to the French language television channel TV5, Lebanons Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade said: We have the impression that for the last two weeks we have been taking part in the start of an Iran-US conflict, but its Lebanon, its the Lebanese people, its the Lebanese state that will ultimately pay. He said the game of massacre had to stop and attention should be given to assembling all the ingredients of a ceasefire which would enable Lebanon to stop being the ground on which the big conflicts of the Middle East take place.
His reference to an Iran-US conflict stems from the support given by Iran to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the position of Israel as a close ally of the United States.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
12:58 ||
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#5
If the Lebanese have no control of their territory that war can launched from it, then the Lebs don't deserve to keep it. If war was launched with the acquiescence of the Lebanese, then let them suffer the consequences.
Posted by: ed ||
07/28/2006 13:45
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Maybe the millions of rallies and speeches Nasralla Hezbo leader gave with in the background pictures of the AYATOLLA could maybe just maybe been a sign that Hezbollah was not Lebanese but Iranian allies.
I was watching CNN the other day they were driving down the road speaking of picture flags on every light post one side had a martyr the other a resistance leader photo. The first post was Nasralla/myrtr then Unknown/Martyr then AYATOLLA/Martyr. The CNN guy was like stumbling on his words when the Ayatollah went buy and he recovers with uhh unknown martyr. My ass that was Ayatollah,
Proxy for now but not much longer. Iran's constant sponsorship of international terrorism must eventually shift them into the crosshairs. It is inevitable that they will finally facilitate an atrocity so heinous that nothing short of obliteration will be the answer. The Iranian quest for nuclear weapons gaurantees this.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 14:31
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#10
Remember the date old Ahmadinejad keeps pushing - August 22. He thinks he is the next coming of the Shia messiah: the lost 12th iman. He's pushing for a showdown on, or about that date.
#13
Now the Lebanese Enviromental Minister is complaining of the oil spill disaster on the beaches...can't clean it up until the fighting stops. Oh the inhumanity!
NEW DELHI - Two more people have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts, the police said on Friday. Faizal Sheikh and his brother Muzammil Sheikh were arrested on Thursday night, an official of the police anti-terrorist squad said. So far eight people have been arrested in connection with the July 11 serial blasts, which killed 182 people. All the arrested are Indian Muslims. They include a software professional and a doctor.
Faizal Sheikh and his brother were suspected of being motivators of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), PTI news agency reported quoting Mumbai police officials. Pakistan banned the LET in 2003. Sheikh was also suspected of transferring large amounts of money into India through illegal channels, the sources said. Investigations were on to find how the funds were used.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
12:55 ||
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TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israeli military intelligence has assessed that Hizbullah's intelligence chief could have been killed in a massive air strike on the movement's headquarters in Lebanon.
Here's hoping, though it probably won't be confirmed for 20 years...
Israeli sources said Imad Mughniyeh was believed to have been seriously injured or killed in a July 19 strike on Hizbullah headquarters in Beirut. The sources said Mughniyeh was in Hizbullah's command and control bunker during an Israeli air bombing that damaged the facility.
Pray for sepsis.
"There are things we know and things we don't know," an Israeli source said. "We know their top people are out of commission." The sources said about 12 senior members of Hizbullah attended a meeting at its command headquarters in Beirut's Dahya neighborhood on July 19. They said Israeli F-15I fighters dropped 23 tons of munition that damaged but did not destroy the underground bunker, concealed under a mosque and constructed by Iran.
#3
From the JPost:
"Shalhov was hit by IAF missiles while traveling in a car in the Bekaa Valley, and a number of other Hizbullah operatives were also killed in the attack. The car was packed with missiles when it was hit."
Israeli intel may still be pretty good, if they are picking out individual cars back in the Bekaa to blast. Reminds me of the situation a year or so back where every few days some Hamas target got picked off by a missile - they had to be getting pretty nervous about even leaving their bunkers, and probably suspicious of everyone around them. Similar situation in HezbAlland should be making Nasry nervous - and Mugsy too, if he's not dead yet.
#4
There are things we know and things we don't know," an Israeli source said.
And unknown things we know about and known things that are uncertain. I would advise the unknown source to be careful in his remarks, unless it's me, which would be unhelpful.
Posted by: Donald R ||
07/28/2006 13:59
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#5
#4. LOL!
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/28/2006 14:36
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QUETTA, Pakistan - A bomb believed rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a bank in southwestern Pakistan and wounded 21 people on Friday, one critically, a medical official said. It was unclear who was behind the bombing outside a branch of the state-owned Allied Bank Ltd., which was open at the time, in Quetta, the capital of insurgency-wracked Baluchistan. So far I can only confirm that the bomb was planted outside the bank, but we dont know who carried out this attack, said Zahid Afaq, Quettas deputy police superintendent.
Twenty-one people were wounded in the blast, one critically, said Anwar Kamal, a physician at the Quetta Government Hospital where the victims were brought. The bomb also smashed windows at the bank and destroyed three cars. Police investigating the cause of the blast believe it may have been a bomb tied to a motorcycle parked near the bank, Afaq said.
Likely protesting those high ATM fees
Baluchistan has witnessed scores of bomb and rocket attacks, most blamed on renegade tribesmen waging a violent campaign for increased government royalties for resources _ such as natural gas _ extracted from the province. Although authorities claim they have quelled the insurgency, the continuing violence has raised fears of a repeat of military operations conducted in the 1970s that killed hundreds of tribesmen.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
12:50 ||
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Update:
After she was arrested for keeping a severed hand and six skulls in her South Plainfield home, exotic dancer Linda Kay asked her father and a friend to put up their homes to help secure her $100,000 bail.
Now her father and friend face the prospect of losing their houses after the 31-year-old Kay missed a court hearing yesterday, forfeiting the bail she posted after her arrest Friday on charges of improper disposition of human remains. Please dad? Please? Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!
South Plainfield Municipal Court Judge John Leonard yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Kay, charging her with contempt of court, and setting bail on that charge at another $100,000.
Kay's father, Robert Kay, said his Scotch Plains house had been used to secure the original bail bond. "I'm sweating ... I had to put my house up," the father said. He said the South Plainfield house owned by Linda Kay and her childhood friend, Sean McDonough -- where the body parts were discovered -- also was used to secure the bond, along with a third house belonging to a friend. Damn. If ya can't trust Gothmo strippers who collect body parts, who can you trust?
"I have no clue where she is. I really wish she had gone to court today. I am the last to know anything," Robert Kay said. "She's scared to death. Her friends are, too. They are all together, and I think they all ran away." If I was you, pops, I'd be a helluva lot more scared then her...
Polina Nickulina, 26, also was arrested at the house Friday on a warrant charging her with failing to appear in court for a weapons possession charge involving a prior incident at the house. Nickulina was released on bail.
Also a dancer at Hott 22, Nickulina performed a stage act with Kay at Hott 22. Known as Zilla, Kay had dark, Goth-style outfits, complete with black eyeliner, piercings and tattoos. Nickulina wore fancy gowns and went by the stage name Ada. Oh. A classy stripper.
Robert Kay yesterday said police previously had seen the hand in the house. Officers have been to the home at least six times in the last year, mostly for neighbors' noise complaints about loud parties. "The whole thing is totally bogus. It's harassment by the police. They knew about the hand three months ago," the father said yesterday. Yeah, blame the cops. He's an idiot and mom let's her do whatever she wants as we found out the other day.
One resident of the Diana Drive home said Kay got the hand from someone who worked at a medical examiner's office, while a former friend who stayed at the house earlier this year said Kay got the hand from a Hott 22 customer who was a medical student and has since moved to California. She'll really like me if I give her this severed human hand...
Both said Kay had named the hand "Freddy." Well isn't that nice...
Leonard issued the contempt-of-court warrant at 10 a.m. yesterday after Kay failed to appear for the 9 a.m. court hearing.
Shortly after 11 a.m., Mountainside attorney Donald DiGioia arrived at the court, saying he had been contacted by another person requesting the attorney to appear for Kay. DiGioia told court officials he had represented Kay in an unrelated matter. DiGioia said he was trying to locate Kay. DiGioia asked if the new bail could be waived if Kay arrived in court yesterday, but Leonard rejected the request.
After his court appearance, DiGioia went to Kay's home on Diana Drive, where he was met by a nearly a dozen news reporters and photographers. Not much happening in South Plainfield, NJ...
The lawyer said he would have more information later in the day, then he asked members of the media, "Could you do me a favor? Could you tell me which house is hers (Kay's)?" Gothmo body part collecting strippers have the best lawyers...
The lawyer then went to the house, knocked on the door, placed a card under the door and left. He did not return calls made to his office later in the day.
Daniel Russo, owner of Hott 22, said reports about Kay have been good for business. "We've gotten a lot of calls. Guys are asking if the skull girl is dancing tonight," Russo said. "It's too much. It's pretty funny." It's fockin hilarious, I tell youse...
#3
Isn't there a Wings song "Hand on the Run"? :-P
Looks like raising this spoiled exhibitionist under the "do what you want if it feels good" theme worked really well! Now she's gone, your home could be forfeited, and the charges against her are piling up, but -- hey! As long as she feels good about herself, what the hell!
Posted by: Dar ||
07/28/2006 16:46
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#5
I have a good friend who is a bounty hunter. He says this kind of thing is not uncommon. People in trouble with the law don't have any respect for the law or even their own parents. If he finds a fugitive who has jumped bail after their folks have put up their houses he feels he's done the parents a service. Some people just cannot be trusted.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/28/2006 20:48
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#6
#5 DB - I went several time with a friend of mine several years ago tracing/picking up skips here in the area (no out-of-town stuff). He needed a female with him whenever he was chasing a female (though we looked for males too).
One girl we picked up - who had gotten busted for really stupid (on her part) reasons - told us as we were taking her, handcuffed, back to jail that she didn't have any problem with us (we were just doing a job), but she had (and I quote) "no respect for the law." (Imagine "law" not so much spoken as spit out.)
My buddy almost drove the car off the road trying to keep from laughing, and I bit my tongue to keep from telling her maybe that's why she was on her way to jail again - and we weren't.
Since we found her and took her back pretty quickly, I don't think the friend who put up her car title to bail this idiot out lost her car.
There's a whole 'nother world out there....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 21:06
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#7
Ahmen to that Barbara. When they finally caught this one guy my friend asked him why he put his Father at risk of losing his home. The answer, "Hey, it's not MY home". He said the guy got a black eye and a few bruises while attempting to escape. LOL!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/28/2006 21:13
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#8
"Hey, it's not MY home".
DB - that pretty much sums it up for these losers, in my opinion.
Everything is all about them.
This world would be a lot better off with a hell of a lot less self-esteem.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 21:41
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July 28, 2006: European counter-terror efforts continue in high gear, although without much publicity. In the last week. Italian police rounded up at least ten Algerian members of the GSPC. This Islamic terrorist organization was run out of Algeria after it's policy of slaughtering large numbers of civilians, made it too unpopular, and informed on, to survive there. Apparently the reputation of the GSPC in the Algerian expatriate community was not so great. The Islamic terrorists who flee to Europe usually bring their brutal methods with them. While these guys can be warm and fuzzy with like minded Moslems, they tend to be nasty with Moslems who disagree with them, or their methods. Worse, there are a lot more cell phones in Europe, and cell phones are definitely not the Islamic terrorists friend.
The GSPC cell that the Italians broke up was sustaining itself via the manufacture and sale of false documents for illegal immigrants. Most of these crooks tend to be Moslem, and many of them are fleeing Islamic terror in their home countries. Europe is one of the few places Islamic terrorists can flee to for refuge. But Europe is not a risk-free haven.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
12:22 ||
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#1
Keep rounding them up. Don't take them back. Your fishing fleets need fresh cut bait.
July 28, 2006: China has sent three more battalions of infantry to the North Korean border, where problems with North Korean refugees, and aggressive North Korean border guards, continue. Over the last three years, China has added 30,000 troops to border security duty along the Yalu River, which separates the two countries. In that part of northern China, ethnic Koreans have long been a significant minority. But since the famines of the 1990s, over a million North Koreans are believed to have slipped across the border and sought refuge with the local Korean community. The Korean refugees work cheap, and many have moved on to other parts of China. An increasing number have made their way to South Korea. North Korean border guards have become less disciplined, and more active in robbing North Koreans and Chinese.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
12:20 ||
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#7
tu, I don't imagine the Chinese put up with crap from the likes of AI/HRW/ACLU/etc. Need I say more. I guess it would be one of the "benefits" of communism, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2006 15:20
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The small group of Ghanaian soldiers manning UNIFIL Position 6-52, to the west of the village of Maroun a-Ras, less than a kilometer from the border, hasn't left its base in the last two weeks.
"Those are the orders of our superior officers," explains one of them who presents himself as commander of the post, but refuses to give his name. "We have been visited by our officers three times since the fighting began and a supply truck arrives here every three or four days."
On the wall nearest to the gate of the white-washed building is an "Alert State" board with the arrow pointed to black. But none of their information on the current situation has come from their own sources. "We know what's going on from the television," says the commander.
Even the deaths of four UNTSO members on Tuesday night in an IAF bombardment, at a base not so far away, wasn't communicated to them from headquarters. That, too, they learned from TV.
The current contingent from Ghana has been in Lebanon for three months. The soldiers at the post are charged with patrolling and monitoring, with their single jeep, the area where the heaviest fighting has been going on for the last 10 days. The fact that Hizbullah has been well entrenched in the area ever since Israel's withdrawal six years ago - with hundreds of fighters, well stocked ammunition depots and extensive fortifications - seemed to have escape the Ghanaians notice. "I have never seen one of them," says the soldier. "You cannot easily identify them in the population."
The UNIFIL soldiers have "zero contact" with the Lebanese living in the surrounding towns and villages. All their supplies are brought by UNIFIL, and they never go out for recreation, aside from periods of leave in Beirut.
The supply of "peacekeeping" troops to the various blue-helmet forces of the UN is a major source of income for Ghana's army; they have soldiers in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Congo. The troops operate in rotations of six months. Those currently serving on the border profess to have never heard of the accusations that the force has cooperated with Hizbullah in the past and allowed the organization to build its posts next to UNIFIL bases.
However, they are aware of the ongoing debate over the force's future and the growing support for a new multinational force to replace UNIFIL.
"The problem is not UNIFIL," says the soldier at the gate. "It's the mandate we have from the UN. That is what decides our job. In my personal opinion, if UNIFIL's mandate was changed and the force increased, it would be more efficient."
At the beginning of the fighting, a number of bombs exploded around the UNIFIL post, including one 150 meters from the gate. Two weeks later, the area around the post is quiet, except for the distant thud of artillery fire. Hizbullah has been banished from this small part of Lebanon. IDF Merkava tanks roar through a nearby opening in the border fence. There isn't even a guard at the border and Israeli and foreign journalists pass in and out unhindered.
The Ghanaian soldiers weren't even aware of the breach in the fence they are supposed to monitor, by mandate of the United Nations.
July 28, 2006: Apparently the Taliban has lost some 1000-1200 fighters killed in Afghanistan over the past 8-10 weeks. Despite this, there's only been a slight dip in the number of attacks, mainly because there's so much money being offered for those willing to fight. Apparently the Taliban recruited a lot of folks over the winter. Many Pakistani Pushtuns have been identified among the dead. Several hundred of these Taliban fighters have been captured as well, and some report that morale is getting shaky as the string of Taliban defeats continues.
The most discouraging thing for these Pakistani Taliban is the hostile reception they often get from Afghans. Some remote villages show fresh graves indicating a recent firefight, as villagers who don't want their school burned down, or daughters kept from learning how to read, will resist with force if they think they can muster sufficient numbers. Some of the tribes have agreed to tell the Taliban to stay away, or take on the entire tribe or clan. Since the Taliban have to operate in smaller groups (to avoid being detected by UAVs or Afghan army scouts), there are many more instances of local tribesmen mustering sufficient force to scare the Taliban away.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
12:08 ||
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"there are many more instances of local tribesmen mustering sufficient force to scare the Taliban away"
Boo!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 14:15
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Question: Whats the difference between the Arab League and the academic Left that despises Israel? Answer: Only the Arab League is willing to condemn Hezbollah.
The surreal politics of this war finds Saudi Arabia attributing full responsibility to Hezbollah and calling on the terrorists to alone shoulder the crisis they have created; it finds Kuwaiti journalists lauding the operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon [that] are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community, even as hundreds of American professors rush to denounce Israel for firing back at genocidal killers sworn to her destruction.
More than 1,000 such professors have signed a petition that is currently circulating on American college campuses. Written in the name of academics who condemn Israel's aggression against Lebanon and Gaza, the petition waxes indignant about Israels alleged crimes, including a brutal bombing and invasion of Gaza, and acts of Israeli state terrorism in Lebanon.
By MAE GENTRY , ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/28/06
The day a poll showed her trailing in a 4th Congressional District runoff race, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney rallied Atlanta ministers, including former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, to her cause.
Young's endorsement Thursday could help in McKinney's uphill battle to keep her office. A close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an ordained minister, Young also endorsed Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor earlier this year, helping him win the Democratic nomination for governor by appealing to black voters.
Campaign manager John Evans (in white T-shirt) escorts U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney after her news conference Thursday at Elegance restaurant in Decatur.
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, flanked by members of the local clergy, speaks at a news conference she held Thursday to announce former Atlanta Mayor Andrew YoungÕs endorsement of her. Her opponent, former DeKalb Commissioner Hank Johnson, dismissed the endorsement.
"Congress needs controversy," Young said in his endorsement, a recording of which was played at the news conference. "The last thing we need in a democracy is people who don't think for themselves. ... I don't always agree with Cynthia McKinney, but I always agree with her right to express her opinions because that creates a dialogue that makes democracy work."
On Thursday, McKinney was surrounded by pastors from DeKalb County churches at a news conference, her first since the July 18 primary election, in which she garnered 47 percent of the vote, compared with former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson's 44 percent. Because neither got a majority, the two will face each other in an Aug. 8 runoff.
Johnson dismissed Young's endorsement, saying, "Nothing that Andy Young does surprises me anymore. The ultimate endorsement will come from the voters on Aug. 8."
A little more than an hour after McKinney's news conference, Johnson held one of his own and responded to the assertion that low voter turnout was the reason McKinney found herself in a runoff. "That is always an excuse from someone who took the voters for granted," Johnson said.
Johnson's hastily called press conference was starkly different from McKinney's. Only his wife, Mereda, stood beside him; campaign workers and his fund-raising team hovered in the background. Johnson said he was working to get some endorsements of his own.
At her news conference, McKinney talked about what she had done for the district, which covers DeKalb and parts of Rockdale and Gwinnett counties, and her positions on voter disenfranchisement, unemployment among African-Americans and the war in Iraq.
"Our tax dollars are being spent to prosecute a war abroad," she said. "Our tax dollars are being spent to deceive the American people at home. "
She cast herself as the "true Democrat" in the race and said Republicans are trying to influence the outcome by crossing over and voting for Johnson.
"That is ludicrous and preposterous. It is only meant to polarize and divide," Johnson said. "But it is in keeping with Cynthia McKinney's conduct as a congresswoman. That is why she needs to come home and be replaced."
A new poll by InsiderAdvantage shows Johnson leading McKinney 46 percent to 21 percent, with one-third of voters undecided. The survey recorded the responses of 480 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
An analysis of primary election results showed McKinney's support eroding slightly in predominantly black south DeKalb County, her traditional base. Johnson won more votes than McKinney in predominantly white north DeKalb, Rockdale and Gwinnett, according to the analysis.
InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery said his poll detected some interest among Republicans in the race, which would also work against McKinney. In last week's primary, many Republicans stuck to their own races, headlined by the confrontation between Christian Coalition leader-turned-lobbyist Ralph Reed and state Sen. Casey Cagle in the GOP race for lieutenant governor. A poll released by InsiderAdvantage four days before that race showed Reed and Cagle in a dead heat, but Cagle got 56 percent of the vote.
McKinney's campaign spokesman, John Evans, dismissed Thursday's poll results.
"I'm sure that one is skewed," Evans said, adding that Towery is a Republican. "You don't know who they polled, and so what can you do?"
Johnson also discounted the poll results. "I can't put too much credence on that poll," he said. "I am hearing on the streets that we are neck and neck. She is spending a lot of money with radio ads, and she picked up a key endorsement today [Young], so this is certainly a whole lot closer than that poll would indicate."
At Thursday's news conference, McKinney told reporters her altercation with a Capitol police officer in March had no effect on the primary election results and said the fallout was created by people who had a political agenda. "One of the things that the press was a party to was the ... spiraling of an incident," she said.
McKinney likened her response she allegedly struck an officer after he grabbed her from behind to that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who threw up her fists when President Bush unexpectedly massaged her neck at the recent G8 Summit.
"This woman, who was touched from behind, had a reaction," McKinney said.
A grand jury declined to indict McKinney in the incident. Still, the national Fraternal Order of Police's political action committee wrote her opponent a check for $1,000 last week.
Young, who does not live in the 4th District and was not at the news conference, later said in a telephone interview that that was another reason he endorsed McKinney. "I thought it was scandalous that the police would send a check down here against her," the former mayor said. "Their job is to protect her."
Staff writers Jim Galloway and Sonji Jacobs contributed to this article.
#4
Greetings Earthlings, this Martian was also touched from behind to the extent my #5 palp shimmered with the green happiness. I propose a trade - Beagle for the Babe.
Posted by: Octo ||
07/28/2006 14:35
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"I thought it was scandalous that the police would send a check down here against her," the former mayor said. "Their job is to protect her."
What a farkin' scandalous thing to say. So the coppers are there to protect you elites, but when the going gets tough (and some elite punches you), you have no right to endorse an opponent? Free speech for me, but not for thee! No wonder he was so in love with the UN. I half think we need to send all these nincompoops to the middle of Africa (Congo) or heck, let's shoot for Somalia or Sudan WITHOUT body guards and watch 'em defend themselves.
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2006 15:14
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#6
black voters deserve so much better. It's time they demand something other than this lunatic crook to represent them.
#7
Just a reminder: immediately after the Khomeini Coup in Iran, Young said that the Ayatollah was a "saint." A few months later, the "saint" backed terrorists who seized US diplomatic hostages. And Young's boss, Dhimmi Carter, did nothing when Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and Cubans intervened in Namibia. It took 2 Reagan terms to clean up the Carter mess.
#9
Okay, you win. Beagle, 2 metamorphic rocks, 1 ounce limestone for the babe.
Posted by: Octo ||
07/28/2006 20:06
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#10
The face of the Democrat party. They cannot deny it; this is who they run. The only time they abandoned her was immediately after her ass-kissing a Jew-hating Saudi in the wake of 9/11. Now that the heat's died down, they're back to her.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2006 21:14
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Jimmy Carter stood by while Irans Shah asked for American support to defend his government against Islamic extremism. After his overthrow, Carter stood by while American hostages withstood 444 days of imprisonment and torture under the Khomeini regime.
This fecklessness emboldened Iran, which took its cue from Carters weakness and began its reign as undisputed terror paymaster of the world. Carter himself has found few dictators that he hasnt coddled and supported: Arafat, Castro, Ortega, Chavez and a large cast of other rogues.
What has escaped much attention is that Carter protégés have also played roles after their time on the world stage has ended. One of these figures is Ed Peck, who has emerged as a major critic of American policies, a foe of Israel, and a promoter of anti-Semitic myths. Peck served as chief of the U.S. Mission to Iraq under Carter and now has continued his outreach towards Arab fanatics.
A few months ago , he wrote an op-ed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that defended the paper written by Professors Walt and Mearsheimer on the Israel Lobby. The paper was roundly condemned on academic grounds; furthermore, many critics across the political spectrum openly declared that the paper was anti-Semitic (see, for example, the Washington Post op-ed: It is Anti-Semitic.)
Peck praised the paper and did not deal with any of the substantive criticisms of the work. Instead, he used his op-ed instead to blame Israel for anti-Semitism in the world, stating
Israeli actions also generate anti-Semitism, the very label the lobby uses to bludgeon into silence anyone in America who questions relations with Israel and its expansionist policies (as noted by James Taranto in his Best of the Web column)
Now Peck is back. In an appearance on Fox News Channel, he absolutely denied that Hezbollah is a terror organization and compared their fighters to American soldiers in World War 2. He went on to say equate Hezbollahs actions against Israel to Israels actions in Lebanon. He says acts of terrorism that Hezbollah commits are the same type of actions others commit but America doesnt call those acts terrorism because they are committed by friends. When he was asked if Hezbollah was a terror group, he deflected the question by this cliché: A terrorist organization is in the eye of the beholder and he went on that
America is opposed to a cease-fire because we want to give Israel a chance to kill as many people as we can.
Yet, he goes on to proudly call himself a diplomat. Some diplomat.
Hezbollah has murdered many Americans, French, Lebanese and others over the years. The group kidnapped more than 200 foreign nationals in Lebanon, most of them Americans or Western Europeans. Hezbollah also organized suicide attacks against U.S. and French targets, killing almost 1000 people, including 241 U.S. Marines and 56 French paratroopers sent to Lebanon to enforce peace. Hezbollah blew up a Jewish community center in Argentina, killing over 80 people. The group hijacked TWA Flight 847 in 1985, beating to death a US Navy diver and dumping his body on the tarmac. The group blew up the Israeli Embassy and cultural center in Argentina, killing over 30.
According to Peck, these acts are comparable to US soldiers fighting in World War Two-because, after all, they are not trerrorists.
#1
As a former delusional Carter fan, the best I can say about Jimmuh is that he's a dangerously deluded fool. Unfortunately I think in reality he's much worse.
#6
Carter signed the home-brew legislation. Just goes to show ya' even the worst people have the potential to do onesomething right.
Posted by: Gir ||
07/28/2006 15:10
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#7
Where's the senile old fart himself been during all this? I figured he'd be sporting wood for a chance to spout his usual gibberish on the current situation.
Hard to believe he is actually going after the Demos! Let's hope they don't listen to him.
By Peter Beinart
Friday, July 28, 2006; Page A25
After years of struggling to define their own approach to post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, Democrats seem finally to have hit on one. It's called pandering. In those rare cases when George W. Bush shows genuine sensitivity to America's allies and propounds a broader, more enlightened view of the national interest, Democrats will make him pay. It's jingoism with a liberal face.
The latest example came this week when Democratic senators and House members demanded that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki either retract his criticisms of Israel or forfeit his chance to address Congress. Great idea. Maliki -- who runs a government propped up by U.S. troops -- is desperate to show Iraqis that he is not Washington's puppet. And the United States desperately needs him to succeed because, unless he gains political credibility at home, his government will have no hope of surviving on its own.
Maliki took a small step in that direction this week when he articulated a view of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict quite different from that of the Bush administration. His views were hardly surprising: Iraq is not only a majority-Arab country; it is a majority-Shiite Arab country. And in a democracy, leaders usually reflect public opinion. Maliki's forthright disagreement with the United States was a sign of political strength, one the Bush administration wisely indulged.
But not congressional Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid demanded that Maliki eat his words or be disinvited from addressing Congress. "Your failure to condemn Hezbollah's aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raise serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East," wrote Reid and fellow Democratic Sens. Richard J. Durbin and Charles E. Schumer on July 24.
How, exactly, publicly humiliating Maliki and making him look like an American and Israeli stooge would enhance his "leadership" was never explained in the missive. But of course Reid's letter wasn't really about strengthening the Iraqi government at all; that's George W. Bush's problem. It was about appearing more pro-Israel than the White House and thus pandering to Jewish voters.
Reid's letter is not an anomaly; it is part of a pattern. In February Democrats (and some Republicans) slammed the Bush administration for allowing a company from the United Arab Emirates to take over operation, though not management, of several U.S. ports. Democrats insisted that they were standing up for homeland security, but in fact homeland security experts overwhelmingly said the move did not represent a security risk. The principle animating the Democrats' attack was not security, it was politics. The Bush administration, playing against type, argued that America's long-term security required treating Arab countries with fairness and respect, especially countries, such as the UAE, that assist us in the struggle against jihadist terrorism. One might have thought that the Democrats, after spending years denouncing the Bush administration for alienating world opinion and thus leaving America isolated and weak, would find such logic compelling. But what they found more compelling was a political cheap shot -- their very own Panama Canal moment -- in which they proved they could be just as nativist as the GOP.
Then, in June, the media reported that the Iraqi government was considering an amnesty for insurgents, perhaps including insurgents who had killed U.S. troops. Obviously the prospect was hard for Americans to stomach. But the larger context was equally obvious: Unless Maliki's government gave local Sunni insurgents an incentive to lay down their arms and break with al-Qaeda-style jihadists, Iraq's violence would never end. Democrats, however, rather than giving Maliki the freedom to carry out his extremely difficult and enormously important negotiations, made amnesty an issue in every congressional race they could, thus tying the prime minister's hands. Once again, Democrats congratulated themselves for having gotten to President Bush's right, unperturbed by the fact that they may have undermined the chances for Iraqi peace in the process.
Privately, some Democrats, while admitting that they haven't exactly been taking the high road, say they have no choice, that in a competition with Karl Rove, nice guys finish last. But even politically, that's probably wrong. The Democratic Party's single biggest foreign policy liability is not that Americans think Democrats are soft. It is that Americans think Democrats stand for nothing, that they have no principles beyond political expedience. And given the party's behavior over the past several months, it is not hard to understand why.
The writer, a monthly columnist for The Post, is editor-at-large of the New Republic and author of "The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again."
#1
"The Democratic Party's single biggest foreign policy liability is not that Americans think Democrats are soft. It is that Americans think Democrats stand for nothing, that they have no principles beyond political expedience. And given the party's behavior over the past several months, it is not hard to understand why."
Make that "over the last 8 years" and you've got a deal.
There's a theory that says the purpose of the Clinton impeachment was not to "get" Bill Clinton; it was to drive the Democrats hopelessly insane.
Don't know whether that's true or not; but if it is, it worked.
This has been going on for quite some time. One thing the author misses is that the upgrades to the infastructure of Cheynene Mountain would have been staggering. The NORTHCOM project is not only an upgrade, but merges several agencies into one HQ. It is really quite Kewl and is working out great (so far).
Colorado Springs - The military is relegating its newly renovated airspace and missile defense complex in Cheyenne Mountain to standby status - clouding the future of a Cold War nerve center touted as the most secure spot in America.
The green-jumpsuited sentries who electronically scan the skies from deep inside this granite cocoon southwest of Colorado Springs - built in the 1960s to withstand Soviet nuclear blasts - now are to blend into broader homeland defense operations under prairie skies at nearby Peterson Air Force Base.
"I can't be in two places at one time," said Adm. Tim Keating, commander of both U.S. Northern Command, set up in 2002 to fight terrorism, and North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Both NORAD and Northcom have their headquarters at Peterson.
U.S. strategists created the mountain complex to prevent nuclear missile and bomber attacks. But today the government's best intelligence "leads us to believe a missile attack from China or Russia is very unlikely," Keating said in an interview this week. The emergence of varied terrorist threats such as suicide bombers "is what recommends to us that we don't need to maintain Cheyenne Mountain in a 24/7 status. We can put it on 'warm standby,"' Keating said.
#1
I used to live near Norad in Fountain/Fort Carson area way back when the cold war was going on. Always knew that if World War III went hot I would have been flash fried in 20 min or so. Yea upgrading Norad would be rather expensive, but it is really a cool place.
Intelligence reports indicate the leader of Hezbollah is hiding in a foreign mission in Beirut, possibly the Iranian Embassy, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
Israeli military and intelligence forces are continuing to hunt for Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary-general, who fled his headquarters in Beirut shortly before Israeli jets bombed the building last week. "We think he is in an embassy," said one U.S. official with access to the intelligence reports, while Israeli intelligence speculates Sheik Nasrallah is hiding in the Iranian Embassy.
If confirmed, the reports could lead to an Israeli air strike on the embassy, possibly leading to a widening of the conflict, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Foreign embassies are sovereign territory and an attack on an embassy could be considered an act of war.Though invading it and taking the staff hostage is fine. Continued on Page 49
#2
If some Kaytush's from "somewhere" were to like accidently hit it... why since Israel doesn't use them it would be like just an "INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT".
#3
Coming from a major outlet, the Washington Times, this is excellent stuff! The linkages (Hezbollah, Syria, Iran) are transparent to Rantburgers and those not willfully blinded, but are studiously ignored in "international" and political circles. Such reporting is tearing the cover off and exposing it in a way that will make the farce impossible to maintain, not to mention giving credence to Bush's statements. That must make some moonbats dizzy and nauseous, LOL.
What in the world would Nasrallah, a Lebanese "citizen", in civilian clothes, be doing riding around in a Syrian Intelligence Agency car meeting with Syria's leader and an Iranian NSC official?
LOL. Wonderful stuff! The most foolish dolts in the US Senate will have to take notice and vote accordingly on the stymied resolution regards Iran! There's no cover remaining. Ya gotta love it. Eventually, as more and more comes in, even tools such as the BBC will find it difficult to maintain pretenses.
It would be "nice", although not necessary (Thanks, GWB!), if more people in the world took their Israeli and US hatred down a notch or three by hearing some truth without the usual agenda varnish. This is the sort of information that makes that possible.
#4
Foreign embassies are sovereign territory and an attack on an embassy could be considered an act of war
I think Iran gave up any Embassy protections in 1979. I think as long as the Israeli pilots are all 'students' it should be ok to drop a dozen or so bunker-busters on it.
What can the Iranian president say? He is the one who opened that partucular can of worms.
#8
Well, if the Israelis do blow up the Iranian embassy, I hope they do a good enough job of it to leave a deep crater, and only a deep crater. If a half-block in all directions is also leveled, it should be fair warning to anyone who even wants to be *near* Iran in the future.
DEBKAfile reports a war council opened in Damascus Thursday chaired by Syrian president Bashar Assad, attended by Hizballahs Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian official Ali Larijani. Irans state news agency confirmed Nasrallahs presence in the Syrian capital for consultations. DEBKAfiles military sources note that Nasrallah crossed over despite the heavy Israeli air bombardment of Lebanese-Syrian border regions. The war conference is attended also by Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal and Mussa Abu Marzouk as well as the Palestinian Jihad Islami chief Abdallah Ramadan Shelah. The Palestinian terrorist leaders were invited in their capacity as commanders of the second front against Israel in Gaza.
This anti-Israel coalition will no doubt decide on the two fronts next steps in their war against the Zionist enemy. The fact that Assad is there and the consultation is taking place in his capital indicates that he and the other participants feel confident enough to decide on a further escalation of the violence.
Starting to believe their own propaganda that they're winning?
The conference began hours after the Israeli cabinet decided against broadening the campaign against Hizballah or attacking Syria indicating that Tehran, Damascus, Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorists sensed a weakening of Israels resolve to fight back. This sort of soft talk from Jerusalem is not taken on trust but makes the Syrians suspect that Israel is playing a double game. Their response will be to redouble their hostilities in the very near future.
Maybe the Israeli game is to get them to redouble their attacks?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
09:27 ||
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#1
We can only pray that the lensmen to foil their evil plans!
#2
I have decidedly mixed feelings about old Uncle Walt. He's a moonbat now, and he's always been an ideological opponent of much I hold dear, and less than honest about his biases . . . but some of my fondest childhood memories are of watching the early space program on live TV, and Uncle Walt was the narrator.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006 10:39
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#3
I think you might want to ask about 2 million Vietmanese (killed or placed in 'reeducation camps' after the war) and 10 million [mostly dead] Cambodians about that.
Uncle Walt was very much involved in undermining American public opinion of the Vietnam War. Including showcasing the Tet offensive as an 'american disaster' when it was anything but. After that the North Vietmanese were on the verge of talking a peace treaty -- until they saw 'Uncle Walt' calling the offensive a 'disaster' for the south and americans.
Back then there were no blogs or internet to call Walt a liar or question his 'news' like they did with Rather's National Guard story.
Uncle Walt has a lot of blood on his hands.
I too had good feeling about him when I was growing up - and the MSM had a monopoly on news. But after learning the truth about what 'really' happened back then I changed my mind.
#4
The interesting thing about Walt and Tet was that Walt had covered WWII in Europe and witnessed the Battle of the Bulge unfold. In both cases the American command had been singing the song that everything was well in hand and in both cases they were surprised. The casualty figures in comparison with Tet were far greater. An entire American division was basically destroyed in the German offense and several were rendered spent. Not the case in Tet. The Germans like the NVA/VC ended up with no more than they started with. Walt classified the Bulge as a victory [watch on old '20th Century' documentary he voiced over]. As for the million plus Cambodians [iirc the entire population wasnt more than 4 or 5 million], being a lefty means you never have to say you are sorry.
#5
Walt's real problem, like many others today, is that he extrapolated the entire state of the war from a VERY limited set of observations. He saw one or two villages all shot up, some VC caused destruction in the city, and talked to a few very tired troops and decided then and there that TET was the breaking point of the American effort.
As a "newsman" he knew better. Nothing so sad as a fact read wrong. He didn't see the mass graves of the Hue citizenry (brought to you courtesy of the NVA thank you very much) and couldn't have known, and probably didn't care, about the complete destruction of a significant number of NVA/VC outfits. During TET Giap committed everything he had, men, material, intelligence everything - he completely shot his wad. And failed miserably.
But no, Walty decided that since he was there, he had a far clearer vision than that our command.
Pompass fool - shoulda stuck to the space program.
BAIDOA, Somalia A Somali legislator was fatally shot outside a mosque Friday, the latest blow to a virtually powerless administration that has watched helplessly as Islamic militants have taken over much of the country. Abdallah Isaaq Deerow, Somalia's minister for constitutional and federal affairs, was shot by an unidentified gunmen, who then escaped, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Mr. Deerow was not among 18 key ministers who resigned Thursday, saying the government has failed to bring peace to this chaotic African nation. Government officials were not immediately available for comment. Police said they were investigating.
UPDATE: BAIDOA, Somalia Hundreds of people rioted Friday near the headquarters of Somalia's weak government after a Cabinet minister was fatally shot outside a mosque. People began streaming into the streets and setting fires just hours after the killing of Abdallah Isaaq Deerow, Somalia's minister for constitutional and federal affairs. A gunman shot Deerow several times in the chest, then escaped. A 35-year-old man was later arrested, said Baidoa police chief Aadin Biid.
"We condemn this wicked action, and the government will chase the murderers and treat them with an iron hand," said the government's information minister, Mohamed Abdi Hayir.
The shooting was the second this week of a lawmaker in Baidoa, the only town controlled by the fragile administration. Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed, chairman of the parliamentary committee for constitutional affairs, was wounded Wednesday night. It was not clear whether the shootings were connected or related to politics in this chaotic Horn of Africa nation.
Additional: MOGADISHU, July 28 (Reuters) - Mogadishu's Islamist rulers denied on Friday they were behind the assassination of a government minister, saying Ethiopia was responsible for the killing to destabilise its neighbour.
"We are not involved in that kind of assassination," a top Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, told reporters. "Ethiopia is behind the killing because its trained militia killed the minister," added Ahmed, who is chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts of Somalia.
Earlier, gunmen shot dead Somalia's Constitution and Federalism Minister Abdallah Deerow Isaq outside a mosque at the fragile interim government's provincial base, Baidoa, in what a cabinet colleague called a "terrorist action". One suspect was later arrested, but the government has not said who it believes was behind the killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
09:20 ||
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DEBKAfile Exclusive: Israeli intelligence ups estimate of Hizballah stock of Zelzal-2 missiles whose 250km range covers Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israeli army chiefs fear that Hassan Nasrallah, having received the nod from Tehran Wednesday, will start firing them at central Israel over the weekend.
Although the Israeli air force has destroyed some of these missiles which carry a 600 kilo payload, several dozen still remain. Thursday night and Friday morning, July 28, Israeli bombers struck Hizballah locations in the northern Beqaa Valley where the Zelzal-2 missiles are stored.
Beqaa Valley, suspected location of smuggled Iraqi WMDs
DEBKAfiles military sources add: The Israeli army discovered the 3.5-on, 8.46 meters long missiles were stored in buildings with strengthened floors and walls to carry their weight, their roofs removed and replaced with makeshift coverings such as branches and twigs. These coverings are dense enough to block the missiles from the view of Israeli aircraft but are easily removable to enable the rapid launch of the Zelzal from inside the building where it is stored.
Should be able to "see" through these maksshift roofs with IR sensors
The warning by Israels generals about the Zelzals deployment also applies to the Mohajer-4, a pilotless aircraft packed with explosives. In November 2004 and April 2005, this Iranian drone penetrated Israeli airspace undetected.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
09:19 ||
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#1
Badanov, which FROG is this? 600 kilo payload
?
#3
It's not listed at the GlobalSecurity site. Perhaps it has just been renamed by the Hezbollah terrs and is either a Naze'at (FROG variants), Mushak, or Zelzal.
The city Hezbollah claims to have hit is Afoula. Fox is now not actually confirming the missile or the hit, contrary to the first reports.
#5
Perhaps it has just been renamed by the Hezbollah terrs and is either a Naze'at (FROG variants), Mushak, or Zelzal.
Think you're right, Whuck
Hezbollah announced it used a new rocket, the Khaibar-1 named after a famed battle between Islams prophet Muhammad and Jewish tribes in the Arabian peninsula to strike at the Israeli town of Afula, its deepest yet into Israel.
Just slapped a new name on an old missile
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 11:49
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#7
In the time of Muhammad, Khaibar was a fertile oasis in the Arabian desert. It was populated by Jews, who maintained its irrigation systems and lived off its produce. When Muhammad conquered the oasis in 628, the Jews who lived there managed to negotiate a surrender. The conditions of their surrender were that some of them could remain to tend the date palms and gardens, but in return they had to pay 50% of their harvest to the Muslims. The land itself would henceforth belong to the Muslim community. The Jews of Khaibar were also granted permission to keep practising their faith. Soon after, the Arab Christians of Najran were forced to accept the same conditions.
The right of the Jews of Khaibar to stay on their former lands was a temporary concession, withdrawn in 640 by Umar, in obedience to Muhammads dying wish: Two religions shall not remain together in the peninsula of the Arabs. In this same year the whole of Arabia was cleansed of non-Muslims.
#10
The larger missiles could be hit, this appears to be just a bigger rocket:
Last month, the London Sunday Times reported that Iran has deployed Zelzal-2 "ballistic missiles" in Lebanon, capable of "carrying half a ton of chemical or conventional warheads as far as Tel Aviv."9 However, the paper's sensationalist reporting on Mideast military topics does not have a very accurate track record, particularly when it cites unnamed defense sources.
The Zelzal-2, in any case, is not a missile, but a 610mm heavy artillery rocket with a 1323 lb (600 kg) payload and range of 130 miles (210 km). The rocket wouldn't quite be able to hit Tel Aviv unless launched from easily-detectable positions straddling the border, but would nevertheless pose an enormous threat to Israeli population centers.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 13:13
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From Wikipedia: Zelzal-2
Type short-range ballistic rocket
Range 210 km (120 miles)
Warheads one
Propulsion Solid
Guidance system none
Length 16 m
Diameter 0.61 m
Weight 3,545 kg
Payload 600 kg
Manufacturer Iran
In service 1993
States Iran
Zelzal-2 ("Earthquake-2") is a short-range ballistic rocket developed by Iran. It is apparently unguided or possessed of only a rudimentary guidance system. It is apparently an Iranian version of the Soviet Luna-M missile (NATO name: FROG-7) whose launcher is based on the MB LA-911 truck. The development program apparently began in the early 1990s.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 13:17
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#12
pay 50% of their harvest to the Muslims
The origin of jizya.
Patriots are short range. While they can protect a base or important cities like Tel Aviv, Haifa or Jerusalem, the Israelis don't have enough to cover the whole of the opulation. Besides, from Desert Storm, it was determined the missiles did little damage, much less than the $3 million each PAC-3 missile costs. So protect strategic and economic assets like refineries and $2 billion semiconductor fabs. The rest have to take their chances. It's up to the Israeli military has to go on the offensive to destroy those missiles and retaliate against those who support or tolerate these missile attacks.
Posted by: ed ||
07/28/2006 13:20
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Just for information, the FROG-7 has an over-short record of about 3km, and a CEP of 2km. I'm not sure what an Iranian missile would do. It could be aimed at Tel Aviv and hit Damascus, for all I know...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/28/2006 14:35
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" Just for information, the FROG-7 has an over-short record of about 3km, and a CEP of 2km. I'm not sure what an Iranian missile would do. It could be aimed at Tel Aviv and hit Damascus, for all I know..."
Not a chance .
Like i said in beginning i was pessimist of Israel capabilities (Will and Quality of it's Political/Military establishement upper echelons) . I mantain my judgement.
Russia has published a list of 17 groups it regards as "terrorist organisations", including al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taleban. The list does not include the Palestinian group Hamas or the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, both of which the US views as "terrorist".
They fall under the title of "Client"
Several of the groups named are linked to separatist militants in Russia's North Caucasus or Central Asia.
A Russian secret service boss said the 17 groups threatened the Russian state.
Yuri Sapunov, head of anti-terrorism at Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said Hamas and Hezbollah were not regarded as "terrorist" groups worldwide. But Russia took account of international lists of "terrorist" groups when exchanging intelligence with other secret services, he added.
Among those on the Russian list is Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Muslim group which wants an Islamic Caliphate across Central Asia and the Middle East. It is also targeted by the authorities in Uzbekistan. The list also includes: the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Party of Turkestan, the Congress of the Nations of Ichkeria and Dagestan, Jamaa al-Islamiya and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Mr Sapunov said the main reasons for inclusion on the list were:
Activities aimed at changing Russia's constitutional order through violence, including terrorist methods
Links to illegal armed groups and other extremist organisations operating in the North Caucasus
Association with, or links to, organisations regarded as terrorists by the international community.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
09:12 ||
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Three Australian men who escaped from prison ended up back in jail after flagging down an unmarked police car to hitch a ride.
"Hey, thanks for the ride mate.......ah shit!"
The three men, aged 19, 20 and 27, escaped from the Warakirri Correctional Facility in New South Wales on Wednesday night. Police began searching for them after prison staff realised the men were missing and raised the alarm. The men were over 200km (120 miles) from the jail when recaptured. They were taken to a nearby police station and charged with escape and attempt to escape lawful custody. They have been refused bail and are due to appear in court on Friday.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
09:09 ||
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#1
Doh!
Posted by: Homer Simpson ||
07/28/2006 10:30
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(IsraelNN.com) Defense personnel are examining the remnants of a kind of five longer-range rockets that Hizbullah terrorists fired on Afula Friday afternoon. Authorities said the weapons have not been used since Hizbullah initiated its attacks on Israel more than two weeks ago. They landed in open areas without causing damage or injuries. Afula is located a few miles north of central Samaria and is between the Mediterranean Coast and the northern Jordan Valley.
Hizbullah attacked Israel with more than 40 rockets in the hours before the beginning of the Sabbath, knocking out electricity in one area and striking a Magen David facility in Tzfat, where no one was injured. More than 20 other missiles exploded in the morning and early afternoon hours of the day.
UPDATE: After a number of Katyusha barrages hit northern Israel over the course of the morning, an Iranian-made Fajr-5 missile landed near Afula shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday. This was the first time a missile of this type has been fired at Israel by Hizbullah. Police in the North said in an official statement that the missile, which landed near Afula, contained 100 kg. of explosives - an amount that could have caused extensive damage and casualties had it struck a building.
No one was wounded in the attack, and the Home Front Command instructed residents of the city to remain indoors. The attack caused a fire, and a helicopter was scrambled to help firefighters contain the blaze. In a statement released by Hizbullah, the group called the attack an "implementation of the promise and decision and in response to the brutal aggression (by Israel)."
Shortly after the attack, IAF jets destroyed the launcher.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
09:08 ||
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#1
Oops, Fred is way ahead of me!
The missile (I use that because of range, not accuracy, as they didn't hit anything) was called a Khaibar-1 by Hezbollah - but I can find nothing on it anywhere, so it's probably just another Iranian mid-range POS renamed for the usual imaginary PR purposes.
#5
(IsraelNN.com) Israeli Air Force planes have bombed Hizbullah position in southern Lebanon villages, including one where the longer-range rockets were fired on Afula Friday afternoon, according to Army Radio. The IAF also struck buildings and weapons storage depots belonging to Hizbullah terrorists as well as access routes in the village of Habush, north of the Israeli border.
Military spokesmen revealed that the army on Thursday killed a senior Hizbullah terrorist who was responsible for transporting longer range missile from Syria. His car was targeted while he was moving the weapons, and other terrorists in his vehicle also were killed.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 12:50
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Earlier Friday, the IDF confirmed that Nur Shalhov, a senior Hizbullah official who was responsible for smuggling weapons into Lebanon, including the long-range missile array the organization possesses that can reach deep into Israel, was killed Thursday in an IAF strike.
Shalhov was hit by IAF missiles while traveling in a car in the Bekaa Valley, and a number of other Hizbullah operatives were also killed in the attack. The car was packed with missiles when it was hit. Shalhov was the second high-ranking Hizbullah official that the army has confirmed dead since the beginning of the conflict.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 13:30
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I recommend a simple force-multiplying formula that swiftly responds to new incoming range and payload parameters with a concomitant tenfold increase in returned throw-weight.
#9
The IDF is crawling because they know what I know: this conflict will have to escalate because Israelis know that the enemy is capable of devising an effective missile threat, beyond this conflict. When Tel Aviv is struck with long range missiles, the nukes will fly. Israel can do it without immediate White House support, because they know that they have Congressional and public support.
Hiroshima...Nagasaki...Qom
Teheran will be spared, because after day one, the Ayatollahs will be swung from lampposts.
In another development, a second cargo plane has landed in Mogadishu, fuelling allegations that the Islamic forces who control the city are receiving arms.
The arrival of a second flight at Mogadishu airport amid strict security has fuelled speculation that the Islamists are receiving weapons in violation of a UN arms embargo.
According to witnesses, the aircraft that touched down in Mogadishu was an Iluyshin-76 - a massive transport plane capable of carrying more than 50 tons of cargo. Troops loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts in control of the capital chased away onlookers, although at least six trucks were seen loading cargo from the aircraft. The plane is the same one that touched down in Mogadishu on Wednesday and credible sources said that flight originated in Eritrea carrying anti-aircraft guns, uniforms, AK47s and several senior Eritrean officers.
Sounds like they chartered one transport and it's shuttling stuff in.
Both Eritrea and the Mogadishu authorities have denied the claim.
The flights have raised fears amongst security sources and diplomats that the rivals in Somalia are now preparing for open conflict, the BBC's Peter Greste reports from Nairobi. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have been warned not to interfere in neighbouring Somalia by the United Nations and United States.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006
09:02 ||
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#1
While 100 tons sounds like a lot of arms, if used in combat it really isn't that much. if the Ethiopians decide to go in, the airport runways will be cratered.
The Wapo gives this fellow space but to be fair, the WaPo's editorial page does not share his opinion
By Warren Christopher
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just-concluded trip to Lebanon, Israel and Rome was an exercise in grace, bravery and, to my regret, wrongly focused diplomacy. Especially disappointing is the fact that she resisted all suggestions that the first order of business should be negotiation of an immediate cease-fire between the warring parties.... Secretary Christopher goes on to extol himself for his work in 93 and 96
#7
"Until three weeks ago, that agreement had succeeded for 10 years in preventing a wholesale resumption of hostilities."
In other words; The last decade has been just a few isolated incidences of rockets, ambushes, and suicide bombs. All is well..right Mr. Secretary?. Warren and his ilk must be seething to see a State Department that isnt tethered to the Doctrine of Status Quo.
#13
In response to post #6, Christopher. At least Maddie Halfbright could always pick out the appropriate brooch for the occasion. Christopher never learned to accessorize.
Of course, neither one of them looked as good as Condi in her boots, either.
Rich Lowry, posting at National Review's "The Corner"
The statement by the Hezbollah official the other day that they didn't expect Israel's response raises a pointassuming he's telling the truthabout the limits of deterrence. Advocates of deterrence and containment sometimes seem to think they are magical forces that always work. In fact, if someone is deterrable, it doesn't mean he will always be successfully deterred. Deterrence depends on everyone knowing the rules and not miscalculating. Hezbollah thought it knew the rulesthat border skirmishes would result only in some tit-for-tat fighting. It wasn't that Hezbollah was absolutely undeterrable. It was deterrable in the sense that it cared what the Israeli response would be and was modulatingso it thoughtit actions accordingly. All this should be kept in mind when people say Iran is deterrable. Perhaps it is. But are we willing to tolerate the consequences if deterrence fails, as it did two weeks ago?
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006
07:53 ||
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I'm reminded of an old cartoon where one Air Force general says "The goal of our program is deterrence - we must retain the ability to deter the enemy." A second general then chimes in "Deter 'em to Kingdom Come if necessary..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/28/2006 11:23
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - A Salvadoran soldier was killed in Iraq on Thursday, the second soldier from this Central American nation to be killed in the conflict in eight days. The deaths come as Salvadoran President Tony Saca was preparing to ask the nation's congress to approve sending a seventh contingent of 380 troops to replace those now in Iraq.
Deputy Sgt. Donald Alberto Ramirez died from head injuries after the ambulance he was driving was hit with an explosive device on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniya, Salvadoran Defense Minister Otto Romero said. Ya wuzn't supposed to BLOW IT UP! Now how we gonna use it to carry the boys and their bombs downtown!
Last week, Deputy Sgt. Jose Miguel Perdomo died in a Baghdad hospital from injuries caused by a roadside bomb.
A close U.S. ally, El Salvador is the only country in Latin America with forces still in Iraq. Serving in Iraq since 2003, the soldiers carry out mostly peacekeeping and humanitarian work including rebuilding schools. With Thursday's death, a total of four Salvadorans have been killed in the Iraqi conflict. Tough soldiers too. Godspeed.
Melodramatic images of war are now televised all day long. The images out of Israel this week have produced something new for war-soaked living-room audiences. One might call it Katyusha World.
The all-too-visible reality for the inhabitants of Katyusha World is that there is no defense against incoming rocket barrages other than hiding and hoping. The Hezbollah militia has decided to use unguided artillery Katyusha rockets like bullets. They fired more than 1,500 of them this week at Israeli population centers. Hezbollah is believed to possess longer-range missiles made in Syria and Iran for which Israel also has no defense. They would simply land and explode.
It was only a few weeks ago that all of us were learning how to pronounce "Taepodong," a long-range ballistic missile that North Korea periodically lobs as a "test" in the direction of the unprotected population of Japan. After this week it is getting hard to pretend that the threat of missiles is something we don't have to think about.
Up to now Israel has regarded Iran's long-range guided missiles as the primary threat of this sort, and in the 1990s developed the Arrow ballistic missile-defense system. Uri Rubin, former head of the Arrow project, told me in an interview from Israel this week that the relatively poor accuracy of the cheap Katyushas has been an argument against investing in an expensive anti-Katyusha defense system. This cost-comparison calculus was one reason Israel shelved plans to deploy Northrop Grumman's THEL system, whose lasers routinely have shot down Katyushas at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Speaking this week about the earlier decision, Mr. Rubin said, "You also have to compare the cost of no defense"--for lives or infrastructure.
Mr. Rubin shared with me an unpublished paper he wrote with Dan Hazanovsky on "The Emerging Threat of Very Short-Range Ballistic Missiles," or VSBMs. In times past, the world worried about huge, Soviet-style missiles. Mr. Rubin says smaller, free-flying rockets are now evolving into relatively sophisticated and accurate ballistic missiles, "thanks to the steep decline in the cost of accuracy--the falling prices of onboard inertial and satellite navigation systems, the availability of cheap, commercial grade, high-speed computing power and low-cost control systems." That is, the same dynamic that makes cheap, fast electronic products available to consumers will do the same to electronic missile weaponry. . . .
Historically the Democratic Party has committed itself to suppressing the development of anti-missile technologies. This opposition dates to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. During the Cold War, when the enemy was the Soviet Union, opponents of missile defense opted for the policy known as mutual assured destruction, or MAD. Sens. Biden, Levin, Kerry and Kennedy all in recent times have spoken out against missile defense. The party's platform in 2000 opposed "an ill-conceived missile defense system that would plunge us into a new arms race." But closing off missile-defense technologies today means we default again to MAD, or a kind of MAD Jr.
This was made explicit last Jan. 19 when French President Jacques Chirac threatened a nuclear strike to deter terrorist attacks on France. "Against a regional power, our choice is not between inaction and destruction," he said. "All of our nuclear forces have been configured in this spirit." In a similar vein, it is generally believed that Japan could--and probably would if necessary--assemble several nuclear devices within 30 days. Whatever the argument in the Cold War years for protecting populations with a strategy of mutual assured destruction, it makes no sense now when negotiating partners such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong Il represent the antithesis of any known concept of good faith. Also, in the case of an enemy like Hezbollah and al-Qaida, which hides itself among civillians, the MAD "deterrent" means you threaten to destroy a whole bunch of innocent people for whom the bad guys have no concern in the first place. Is it even possible that could be moral?
As Robert Kaplan pointed out in the Journal last week in his review of "Terrorists, Insurgents and Militias," the biggest strategic problem today isn't past notions of big-power miscalculation but new rogue regimes whose ideology means they "cannot be gratified through negotiations." Absent any in-place protection against the missiles described here, "defense" means either an Israel-type counteroffensive, nuclear retaliation or--the Democratic preference--open-ended diplomacy, cease-fires and negotiation. None of these suffice. Widely available tables showing the proliferation of missiles listed by nation boggle the mind. Put simply, in terms of post-launch, we are behind the curve.
We are heading toward two election cycles amid a world unsettled by missile threats--in the air or on the brink. To the specter of North Korea and Iran delivering WMD by long-range missiles, now add Katyusha-like strikes from very small rockets and missiles. Come 2008, we may see a Republican candidate who understands these issues running against a militarily ambivalent Democrat who has to learn them, like an unguided rocket, on the fly.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006
07:37 ||
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#1
Also, in the case of an enemy like Hezbollah and al-Qaida, which hides itself among civillians, the MAD "deterrent" means you threaten to destroy a whole bunch of innocent people for whom the bad guys have no concern in the first place. Is it even possible that could be moral?
Exactly the process the Allies used in bombing the Axis in WWII. Was it moral? The enemy at Shanghai, Warsaw, Rotterdam, and elsewhere demonstrated it didn't give a fig about civilians anymore than the terrorists. It got back in compound interests what it played out. Notice how the older generation of Germans and Japanese never had stomach for further military adventures. Three generations later, they still make only tentative steps in deploying their security forces beyond their borders. Cause -> Effect.
Part of the problem is that all human beings do not think the same. The vast efforts in the West to minimize collateral damage and raise the value of human shields, to include those who contribute to the ability of the terrorist to operate among them, has only created the 'moral' issue. If the technology was still at the WWII 'dumb' bomb level, would we even be concerned? Not as we are today. In effect, we have created the problem by being too concerned about civilian casualties which have been part of the very definition of war to begin with, by developing these capabilities. The overblown emotions of the MSM, which ignores the absolute low numbers of American casualties in the Iraq operation when compared to any other major historical conflict, also demonstrates its ignorance in the number of Frenchmen and Italians [after they switched sides] who died in Allied bombing and ground campaign in WWII. In order to accomplish the goal of ending the original Axis of Evil, you had to fight your way through the geography and population. That's life and death. Hasn't changed much since the Eygptians and Hittites faced off over 4,000 year ago.
#2
It's not necessarily killing that does it. Sherman accomplished the same result as WWII without, relatively, a lot of killing. But the enemy must believe they've been utterly defeated and scream to surrender. We have not so utterly defeated an enemy, with the possible exception of Grenada, since WWII. Israel has not so defeated an enemy since 1973.
Israel's problem here is that it has defined the enemy incorrectly. It's enemy is not so much Hezb'Allah as the Lebanese who choose to support them. Not so much Syria as Iran who is paying the bills and calling the shots. Until Israel finds a way to utterly defeat its real enemies, it will continue to be dejavu all over again.
#3
There is a peculiar philosophy of the give-and-take of short range rockets and artillery.
Optimally, someday, there will be a small laser that can pop them mid-flight at little cost. But in the final analysis, this only treats the symptom, not the disease.
Granted, for a military unit engaged in combat operations against a terrorist enemy that keeps throwing such things, the laser is a fine idea. This is because the military unit is otherwise engaged in hunting down and eliminating the terrorists.
But a civilian population should not have to live under a protective umbrella, without seeking to end the cause of their complaint. This is because no defense is perfect.
Sooner or later a lucky shot, or some fix, will let those rockets or mortars get through.
For this reason, there is not just justification, but a compelling reason to go after those individuals who launch or fire such weaponry. Until they are eliminated, the disease will remain.
#4
I don't mean to hurt the feelings of any red legs, but the days of tube artillery are numbered. A sergeant and a PFC in five-ton truck can do the job of an artillery battery now. Cheap guidance, fire direction computers, and GPS means you get better accuracy than guns and eliminate the FDC, survey section, met section, etc.
#5
Won't the Excalibre shell do most of that at a lower cost per shot? Also isn't there some multi/programmable fuse system that will reduce the number of shells the artillery carries?
#6
Excalibur costs $50K (per strategy page) a pop plus you still have the overhead of the gun crews.
I can't find a number for a GPS guided katyusha, but a JDAM kit costs $18K. The difference in cost is mostly due to acceleration. An artillery shell experiences 12K G's going through the tube. A rocket, only 10-20. You don't need special components for those kinds of accelerations.
#8
I dunno. Tolerances are lower for rockets and they don't weigh as much. I always thought that the reason the Soviets adopted the katyusha is that if you just want to take out a grid square, it's cheaper than arty. And in a world of precision engagements, a GPS guided rocket will always be cheaper than a GPS guided shell and the cost curve should be steeper as well for the rockets. Bulk seems to be the biggest problem to me since the rocket propellant will take up more space than a propellant charge bag(s). Anyway, those are the tradeoffs I see.
Overall I think that the dynamics are very simillar to going to CAT3 and CAT5 cabling for 10baseT and 100 TX ethernet. With 10base2 and 10base5 we used a real quiet, predictable medium (coaxial cable) to move bits. From 10baseT and on, we used a really cheap crappy medium (phone wire) and then used the power of the silicon to make up for the inherent crappiness since silicon was cheaper than coax. My guess is that we will find it cheaper to put sophisticated electronics and solid state IMUs on crappy rockets than try to put them on shells turned on a lathe. The accuracy is the same. The cost and overhead is lower for the rockets.
I'm guessing that within five years there will be a cheap RPG seeker out there that can hit the thinly armored engine deck of a tank 80-90% of the time. Abdul points, pulls the trigger, runs like hell and -- boom -- mobility kill.
Eight troops from Golani's 51st Battalion lost their lives on Wednesday during heavy fighting with Hizbullah operatives in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbail. Another officer was killed in a clash at Maron a-Ras.
Maj. Roi Klein, 31, from Eli, was the deputy commander of Golani's 51st battalion. Ro'i was about to celebrate his 31st birthday. He began his army service in the brigade's elite "Egoz" unit, and then advanced to the post of company commander. He was scheduled to be promoted to battalion commander. Ro'i led his soldiers into the battle at Bint Jbail on Wednesday. He was caught in the ambush and killed in the heavy firefight with Hizbullah.
Roi's served in special units of both the Paratroop and Golani brigades. He took part in another IDF offensive in Bint Jbail six years ago. His friends remember him as a quiet and modest man who strove for excellence in everything he did. In addition to his career as an army officer, Roi studied Torah at a beit midrash. Ro'i would have been 31 years old on Thursday. He is survived by a wife and two young children.
Cpl. Ohad Klausner, 20, from Beit Horon, called his parents last Sunday and told them he was going into Lebanon. The family tried to reach Ohad by telephone after they heard about Wednesday's hard-fought battle in Bint Jbail, but got no answer. IDF representatives arrived with the tragic news that evening. "Already last night I felt something bad was happening," Ohad's mother said Wednesday. "The last time Ohad was home was two weeks ago. This Sunday he told us he was going into Lebanon."
Ohad's uncle described the tense hours before the IDF sent the news of his fate: "We tried all day to reach him, called his friends, the hospitals - they told us there was nothing and he wasn't on the lists. Then they told us the wounded were from the 51st Golani battalion and this really worried us." Ohad is survived by his parents, a sister and a brother.
Lt. Alex Schwarzman, 23, from Acre, had already registered for studies at Haifa University. "Alex always took care of his mother and grandmother," friends said Wednesday. Alex immigrated to Israel with his mother at the age of eight from Ukraine. Friends said he was dedicated to his family and did everything possible to take care of his mother and grandmother.
A deputy company commander, Alex loved the army and planned to continue serving as a career officer. Alex is survived by his mother and sister.
Lt. Amihai Merhavia, 24, from Eli, was the Golani platoon commander. On Wednesday morning Amihai's father, Moshe Merhavia, was still on reserve duty. When he returned home, he learned that his son was among the soldiers killed in the battle with Hizbullah. Amihai wanted to serve in battalion 51 in order to follow in the footsteps of his friend, Shmuel Weiss, who was killed in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield.
Moshe told Army Radio Thursday morning: "We were lucky to have such a wonderful son. He had a good heart. He was a fighter, a dreamer, and a believer - and a lover of Eretz Yisrael. Amihai knew very well what he was fighting for. He knew who the enemy was and he was never confused about this. This is what he taught his soldiers, whom he loved." Amihai's father, Moshe, received the news of his son's death while on reserve duty, after being called up because of the situation in Lebanon. He said he took comfort in the fact that his son had accomplished so much in his 24 years.
#1
Interesting mix of ranks: 1 major, 3 lieutenants, 2 staff sergeants, 1 sergeant, and 1 coporal. Looks as if an Hq company was ambushed. In any event, Godspeed.
#1
Oh, how quaint! However, they are evading the oath to "God and country." The live for Allah and Caliphate.
I don't advocate forced dogma in the form of the Soviet style, "party-line." But we have to do something about the pathological ignorance of the true nature of the Muslim beast, and the stupidity that paints a benign face on that wild animal.
#2
"It's pretty good. We get to play outside a lot," he said. "We have snack time, and we get to learn stuff from the Red Cross like if firemen come, don't be afraid." .... then we have exploding vest training, Kalashnakov assemply/disassembly, sniper 101, demo training, ie, cutting charges, crimping caps, time fuse, vehiclular emplacement, etc.
#5
Okay, kids, I'm an active adult leader in Scouting, so I know from whence I speak.
In order to be a Scout, a boy has to give an oath to do his duty to God and country. The BSA does not claim to be able to define what God is, so Scouts can be of any faith as long as they have a belief in a supreme being. There are Moslem Scouts, Jewish Scouts, Bhuddist Scouts, Sikhs, Baptists, Methodists, Mormons, Unitarians, and even a few of those darned Catholics like me. (Take a look at this page, which is the list of religious emblems established for Cub Scouts of particular denominations. There are denominations on the list you probably never heard of.)
I may be asking for a flaming by saying this, but not all Moslems are Wahabbists* or CAIR activists (but I repeat myself). There are lots of Moslem friendlies out there, people who are more than willing to put their lives on the line to take out the same bad guys you and I want taken out. If the Islamic Center in Florida wants to form a Scout unit and have the boys learn to say the Pledge of Allegiance and salute and fold the flag correctly and do their duty to God and the United States, I'm happy to have 'em.
*A Wahabbi Islamist, by definition, is committed to a restoration of the Caliphate, and so cannot therefore honestly pledge to do his duty to country, since he seeks the overthrow of the US Government. That person, then, cannot be a Scout--just as an atheist cannot be a Scout because he cannot honestly pledge to do his duty to God.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006 8:25
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#6
Thanks, Mike. The question is, are we going to make a place for the Muslims who want to be Americans and assimilate them or are we going to kill them all? I suppose the third alternative is to keep on as we have been, but I like that least of all. As the Constitution provides for freedom of religion, we're going to have to make some legal changes if we want to go the kill them all route. And we won't be the same country after we do. Getting them in the BSA is a lot better than having them go to the KSA.
#7
I may be asking for a flaming by saying this, but not all Moslems are Wahabbists* or CAIR activists (but I repeat myself).
Naw. They just tolerate the Wahabbists running their mosques, and the Wahabbist literature in their mosques, and they pump cash into jihadi-front "charities".
They're passive supporters of jihad, not active supporters. Still supporters, though.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2006 9:02
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#8
Not all, Robert.
I know some who don't, and who do speak out against the crazies.
Mike's right. Let's encourage good citizens - even as we bitch-slap the bad ones.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 9:20
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#9
So, what do you propose we do with the passive supporters, Robert?
#11
I know some who don't, and who do speak out against the crazies.
Certainly there are some. Pity they're vastly outnumbered.
Because if they were in the majority, the Wahabbists wouldn't be running the mosques, the hate pamphlets wouldn't be in the mosques, and the jihadi-front charities wouldn't be able to raise a dime before getting exposed.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2006 10:00
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#12
Sorry Mike we can get a little snarky around here. I like the idea of muslims joining boy scouts at least these muslims want to be part of America.
Is this going to cause the aclu internal conflict?
Posted by: kelly ||
07/28/2006 11:12
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#14
Yes, but becoming part of something and then destroying it from within has been an Islamic practice. Where do you think splodydopes come from ? Years of being allowed to mingle within Israel and cross borders daily have led to some strapping on explosive belts and vests and going after the 72 virgins.
Part of their takeover philosophy is to join and wait for the opportune moment. I say, since we can't trust all of them, trust none of them. You want to be a scout ? Denounce Islam. It sucks anyway.
#15
Yes, I too remember how scouting includes all varieties of religious direction.
Good point however about having them salute the flag and say the pledge of allegiance.
This should be done by everyone that lives here! Might be a good way to weed out the guys who don't want to assimilate. Or at best get rid of the death to america types that live in our front yards.
Look, at least they're trying to assimilate. They aren't going to some summer camp where they are going to learn how to build bombs, unless the Jamborees have really, really changed. Who knows, they might run into some Jewish scouts and find out that they don't have horns and aren't dripping with evil.
These kids are pretty much in my backyard (I'm in a county just to the north of them). I'd rather they grow up to be citizens instead of jihadis. Maybe this will keep some of them from doing it. We won't know unless you give them a chance.
BTW, I remember hearing stories from my parents about how Catholics couldn't be loyal citizens because they owe their allegiance to the Pope. Thank God Kennedy destroyed that lie once and for all. Let's not start blanketing all Muslims like that, especially if some are trying to just be normal Americans. They need our encouragement, not derision.
#17
Naw. They just tolerate the Wahabbists running their mosques, and the Wahabbist literature in their mosques, and they pump cash into jihadi-front "charities".
They're passive supporters of jihad, not active supporters. Still supporters, though.
Word, RC. The mythical "Moderate Muslims" are so few and so ineffectual as to be nearly irrelevant. The Muslim practice of Takiya makes any supposed integration suspect at best. Until mobs of outraged Muslims take back the mosques from their Wahabbist usurpers, all of their protestations should fall upon deaf ears.
Islam is only being hijacked by its radicals if the final destination is one truly unwanted by the fellow passengers. The lack of outcry and silent (or outright) approbation that terrorism so often evokes in mainstream Islam is far too damning to be ignored.
Only Mulims that virulently protest the perversion of their religion should be construed as assimilating in any way shape or form. And still, there's that Takiya thingy.
#23
Thanks, Mike, for answering the questions that this article brings to mind for those who don't have a good overview of how Scouting works today. The fact that they want to become Scouts seems to imply that they want to make an effort to become good citizens and, therefore, should be encouraged. It's the Bush doctrine applied at the local community level.
If an extremist Islamic group wanted to infiltrate the Scouts for sinister purposes, it would almost certainly start to ring some alarm bells within the hierarchy at some point. It would probably be much easier for them to form a youth organization with no oversight by the Scouts.
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006 17:32
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#25
Are you telling me that a group sponsored by a Christian organization would refuse children from a Jewish organization or vice versa?
Scout units need to have a sponsoring organization that provides a place to meet and some outside involvement in the unit. Usually the adult members of the sponsor provide the core of the leadership and members of the troop. Typically it is a religious institution, though it can also bee a service organization such as Kiwanis etc.
When I was a scout, 40 years ago, my troop was sponsored by a Baptist Church and had Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. But there were some troops that were sponsored by Catholic churches that were pretty Catholic troops. Same for Mormons and Jews. That also reflected where people lived and what was convenient. No one was ever refused membership in a troop because of their religion. But people got to involved in a troop with which they were comfortable, for whatever reason. There were also troops that were blue blood and a troop at the military base. I see nothing odd in a Mosque sponsoring a troop any more than a church, synagogue, stake or bhuddist temple. It's how we assimilate.
#28
2b: Just to add to Nimble's response, while Scout units tend to reflect the demographics of the chartering organization, any boy can join any unit, with, I think, the possible exception of LDS church units, and that's only because the LDS church uses Scouting as its in-house youth ministry. (I don't have too much contact with LDS units, so I could be wrong about that.) My bous are in units chartered to our parish, but we have a few kids who are not Catholic in our bunch, and some have even gotten their denomination's religious emblems.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006 21:29
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Muslim militants abducted a bakery owner and her son on a remote southern Philippine island, a police official said on Friday, warning of a possible resurgence of kidnappings by notorious rebel group Abu Sayyaf. The Philippine military, with help from the United States, has spent the past year combing the remote island of Jolo for members of Abu Sayyaf, who work and train with Jemaah Islamiah, Al Qaeda's franchise in Asia.
"We have reasons to suspect the Abu Sayyaf group was behind the latest kidnapping on Jolo island," Ahirum Ajirum, the police chief in Sulu province, told reporters, a day after masked gunmen took away the mother and son who owned a bakery and a pawnshop.
"We heard the gunmen were demanding at least 10 million pesos in exchange for the freedom of Jackylyn and Jeffrey Silbin."
Ajirum said it was the second case of kidnap-for-ransom of local traders on Jolo this year. The last high-profile abduction of foreign and local tourists in the south happened in May 2001, when Abu Sayyaf beheaded one of three American tourists.
#1
The risk is that a violent, confrontational version of Islam finds resonance in a population alienated from mainstream values and progress. If the French government fails to take effective measures to promote the practice of a moderate form of Islam in prisons, it runs the risk of breeding a new generation of terrorists.
#2
The Ffrench government has not to encourage moderate islam but to discourage islam altogether on the guise of sacrosaint laicite (who is sternely enforced agiant anyone else). Actually people from Algerian origin who fought against Islam have been fired from left-controlled cities for "racism". The cities who did this should be struck with such heavy fines they would no longer be tempted to do it anew.
#3
In 2004, the Islamic Society of North America discussed "prison dawah (indoctrination)" as the main topic of its annual convention. They want: minority recruitment to Islam; majority indulgence of jihadism. And they are getting it.
Peaches Geldof is to move in with a devout Moroccan Muslim girl for a new TV series about religion. She is to present Channel 4 documentary A Beginners Guide to Islam.
The 17-year-old travels to Morocco to learn more about the faith. She will live with a devout 18-year-old girl in her family home, attend a taking the veil party and be invited to witness the sacrifice of a sheep. Geldof sets out to prove that Islam does not deserve its bad reputation.
The hour-long programme will find out what the Islamic world makes of this precocious London party girl, according to Channel 4. The three-part series will also feature ex-EastEnder Paul Nicholls exploring Hinduism in India and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli investigating Scientology.
#2
tu - I dont think it can be discussed in a 'family forum'.....
Of course this will prove that Islam means 'Peace' and they only want to co-exist with us and kill a few jooos and infidels.
Just like Star Trek 'proved' that transporters work and warp drive and replicators. I guess its the Evil Oil Companies(tm) who are suppressing it. Damn Haliburton!
#6
Depot Guy: I don't think "taking the veil" means what you think it means, lol! Of course, where's PETA when ya need them? Sacrificing sheep and stuff...true signs of a "peaceful" religion.
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2006 10:49
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Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who represents Northern Ohio's Ninth Congressional District, is currently serving her twelfth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the senior-most Democratic woman in Congress and is one of only 82 women out of 535 members of the 109th Congress. Her mentality is best referred to as: equilateralism. In her warped mind, Hizbollah's bloody fanaticism is no different from Israeli security preparations in face of 300 million hostile Arab Muslims.
HON. MARCY KAPTUR OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2006
...The situation is worsening. War is an abandonment of reason,
No, it's not, Congresswoman Marcy. One can abandon reason in the course of war, but that's dependant on one's grasp on reason. War itself is conflict, whether in pursuit of national goals or in defense against someone else's pursuit of national goals. In some rare cases it's conflict for the fun of it like the Iraquois and Algonquins used to engage in or a continuing grinding violence out of societal habit, like we see in Paleostine. Rational states engage in conflict for rational goals.
and it is critical for Members of Congress to stand for a path to peace,
Certain of our founding fathers pointed out that there are some things more important than Peace, to include life, liberty, and sacred honor.
especially at a time that we witness and the world witnesses more killing, more death, more carnage escalating around us, escalating around those directly involved in the Middle East.
The killing, death, and carnage originate in a few distinct areas, from a few distinct mindsets within a particular religion for the most part. The violence is being carried out as a matter of national policy (see the above description if you've forgotten already) in the pursuit of a specific goal. That goal, to whit, the Islamization of the entire world, happens to be inimical to our national interest.
It is especially essential to be a voice for peace when others believe that escalating the military option without serious and equal emphasis on political and diplomatic efforts will yield calm and resolution.
Why? Isn't it possible that one side is right and the other wrong? I know we live in a postmodern world of shades of gray, where there is no right and wrong, but some shades are markedly darker than others, and some are considerably lighter than others. Hezbollah, for instance, has a long history of warlike truculence, beginning prior to the killing of 242 Marines in Beirut and continuing to the present day. In the current situation, they've formed a state within Lebanon that's out of the control of the Leb government, and acting in a manner that's opposed to the interests of Lebanon. They're busy carrying out acts of war against a sovreign state not through some loss of reason, but in pursuit of goals established in Teheran. The sovreign state that was attacked is acting quite reasonably, holding Lebanon responsible for the actions of major state actors within the country, just as you would be held responsible if your dog bit someone.
Ghandi instructed us that an eye for an eye will leave the world blind,
I just did a quick count and I've got two eyes. If one's gouged out, that leaves me only one. If the other's gouged out, that leaves me, personally, blind. If one is gouged out, then I'll be particularly assiduous in defense of the remaining eye. Being averse to pain, I prefer to be assiduous in my defense of both of them, thank you. You, Congresswoman Marcy, can give up one or both, if you prefer. It's no skin off my fore. But my eyes are my personal concern, not yours. So piss off.
and physics reminds us that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I think in this latest conflagration between Lebanon and Israel there will be more than an equal and opposite reaction...
The Muddle East has grown a situation in which action and reaction is pretty continuous. Everybody's riding around on cycles of violence. The single clear thread running through it all has been the abhorrence for personal liberty among the Arabs in particular and the Muslim world in general, coupled with their desire to export their ways to the rest of us. Lebanon has a parliamentary system, with elections, though its actual government is an oligarchy made up of hereditary pols and business interests. After its civil war it's been an economic success story, marred by Syrian occupation and the growth of Hezbollah. Hezbollah represents the "impoverished Shiites" of Leb yet it's obvious spent a hell of a lot of money on weaponry and military training that didn't go toward developing the Shiite areas like the Sunni, Christian and Druze areas have been developed.
But the unnecessary slaughter of innocents, whether by Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, American forces in Iraq or the Israeli defense forces, is always wrong, and should never be tolerated.
Of course we should tolerate it. All corpses may smell the same, but they don't get in that condition in the same manner. There's a false equivalence between Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda on the one hand, and American forces in Iraq and the Israeli defense forces. The former is in the habit of using innocents both as shields and as targets. The rockets raining on Haifa aren't targeted at military formations or military targets; they're aimed at the city in general, with no concern for who might be standing under them. Hamas has in the past boomed bar mitzvahs and discos and pizza parlors, none of which is by any stretch of the imagination a military target. One of the Islamic Heroes Hezbollah wants released in return for the men it's kidnapped killed a father and his 4-year-old after invading their apartment as they were watching the teevee. Those are matters of policy. The U.S. and the IDF take a different tack, trying to root out the very sort of men making up Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda and kill them. There is no mark on a map that sez "Hezbollah be here!" They hide among the populace Mao's dictum on guerrilla war is "the guerrilla is the fish, the people are the sea." In the present case, Hezbollah is holding the entire country hostage. We consciously try to avoid killing innocents, sometimes erring on the side of caution, other times not.
So civilized people cannot in good conscience stand by and silently watch as hundreds of innocents are killed and thousands more threatened by the spasm of destruction unleashed by Israel in Lebanon...
#3
Marcy, I know you don't actually read, but only spew the daily DNC talking points, but nonetheless, I profer the following from English Philosopher and Economist John Stuart Mill:
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
And yes, Marcy, I am calling Dems 'miserable creatures'.
#4
Previous Deep Thoughts From Marcy have included...
"One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown," Miss Kaptur said.
and, after being bagged for that one...
"You have heard much about my earlier statements on terrorism, and I just wanted you all to know that due to the political nature of what happened with my original statements, if my remarks have hurt anyone, I'm sorry," Miss Kaptur said. "Let me also say to each of you tonight [that] I am one member of Congress who will never make politics of war. It is too deadly serious."
#5
But the unnecessary slaughter of innocents, whether by Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, American forces in Iraq or the Israeli defense forces, is always wrong, and should never be tolerated.
Thanks, Marcy, for the gratuitous slap at our armed forces by lumping them in with Hezbollah and Hamas.
WTF is in the water in Ohio, anyway? (Kucinich -- may bees pee upon him, this ol' bat, etc.) I mean, I know they had a river catch on fire once, but didn't they clean that crap up??
You're going to love this one.
The United States should increase its efforts to ensure that the rights of poor people and blacks are respected in relief and reconstruction efforts, a UN rights body said Friday, noting its concern that both were "disadvantaged" after Hurricane Katrina.
"In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it should increase its efforts to ensure that the rights of poor people, and in particular African-Americans, are fully taken into consideration in the reconstruction plans with regard to access to housing, education and health care," the UN Human Rights Committee said. Now about those 8 poor blacks the UN shot dead in Haiti a couple of days ago. OK, I understand poor blacks murdered by the UN is just fine. Do what the UN says, not what we do.
#2
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it should increase its efforts to ensure that the rights of poor people, and in particular African-Americans, are fully taken into consideration in the reconstruction plans with regard to access to housing, education and health care, 40 acres, mule.
UN please send in troops! It's totally out of control here in New Orleans, whahahahaha.
#4
The Specter of Poverty in America
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
By Robert Rector
Last month, the Census Bureau released annual poverty figures showing that the percentage of Americans who are poor rose from 12.1 percent in 2002 to 12.5 percent in 2003.
It's important to recognize that these figures are a year old. They cover 2003, not the current year. Given current economic conditions, it is extremely likely that poverty fell during 2004, although the official figures won't be available until the fall of next year.
Poverty is a lagging economic indicator. Formal recessions (when the whole economy is shrinking) usually last less than a year. But the poverty rate almost always continues to rise for several years after the recession ends. The last recession officially ended in November 2001, but the poverty rate continued to rise in 2002 and 2003. This is a normal economic pattern that has occurred in most prior recessions.
Compared to prior recessions, the recent recession was mild and had a limited impact on poverty. Overall, the increase in poverty resulting from the recent downturn has been half the increase that occurred in the two last recessions that hit the economy in the early 1980s and early 1990s.
Still, the Census Bureau reports that 35.9 million persons "lived in poverty" in 2003, a number that should cause concern to all. But to really understand poverty in America, it's important to look behind these numbers to the actual living conditions of the individuals the government deems poor.
For most Americans, the word "poverty" suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing and reasonable shelter. But only a small number of the million persons classified as "poor" by the Census Bureau fit that description. Real material hardship certainly does occur, but it's limited in scope and severity. Most of America's "poor" live in material conditions that would be judged as comfortable or well-off just a few generations ago.
The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:
Forty-six percent of all poor households own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and porch or patio.
Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other European cities. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television. Over half own two or more color televisions.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Seventy-three percent own a microwave oven, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family isn't hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, activists and politicians.
Even better news is that remaining poverty can readily be reduced, especially among children. Child poverty in the U.S. is caused largely by low levels of parental work and by the absence of fathers from the home. While work and two-parent families are the surest ladders out of poverty, the welfare system continues to reward idleness while failing to provide support to keep families in tact.
To further reduce poverty, welfare should be overhauled: All able-bodied welfare recipients should be required to work or prepare for work in exchange for the aid they receive. Also, new parents in low-income communities who express interest in marriage (and research tells us there are many) should be equipped with the skills they need to create a healthy marriage, rather than be penalized when they do get married.
Robert Rector is a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
#8
Our rights are equal opportunity, and no preferential treatment for the poor, rich, black, green, or purple should be shown. It's what you do with what you've been given. Our tights are only guaranteed by the Constitution and not the UN, but Kofi is "disadvantaged" in the brains department. Good stats.
#11
The UN will get right on it as soon as the Oil for Food Scandle is fully investigated and charges brought. Make me laugh. UNready, UNwilling, and UNable.
#13
Ah, yes. The UN Human Rights Committee. One of the "reforms", right?
Looks like it's working out just great. The credibility just washes over you like a tidal wave...
Lebanese leader says Tehran trying out its weapons, intel in Hizbullah conflict
Aaron Klein, WND
Tehran is using Hizbullah's confrontation with the Jewish state to test the abilities of Iranian weapons and to observe Israeli military capabilities, Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt charged in a WorldNetDaily interview yesterday.
Jumblatt also said he fears Syria will take advantage of the growing crisis in Lebanon to reassert its influence in the country and convince the international community Syrian domination of Lebanon is crucial to the stability of the Middle East.
He warned Damascus might initiate a wave of terror in Lebanon following Israel's military campaign there to further destabilize the country, including by assassinating the Lebanese prime minister.
"Iran is bringing in (to Lebanon) sophisticated weaponry," said Jumblatt who is head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party and is largely considered the most prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese politician. "The Iranians are actually experimenting with different kinds of missiles in Lebanon by shooting them at the Israelis. Iran is using this violence to test certain of (Israel's) abilities,"
Iran is accused of supplying Hezbollah was thousands of rockets the terror group has launched the past three weeks into northern Israeli population centers, including Haifa, the country's third largest city. Many of the fired rockets have been Katyushas he says were upgraded by Iran. Hizbullah is also in possession of Iranian Zelzal missiles, with a range of about 125 miles, making Tel Aviv vulnerable.
Earlier this month, an Iranian Silkworm C-802 radar-guided anti-ship cruise missile struck an Israeli naval vessel, killing four soldiers. It was the first time the missile had been introduced in the battle with Israel. Military officials here say the Israeli ship's radar system was not calibrated to detect the Silkworm, which is equipped with an advanced anti-tracking system.
The Syrian connection
Jumblatt said he is worried Syria might try to gain more control of Lebanon following Israel's military campaign.
"Syria will likely try to tell the world, 'Look, see, since we left Lebanon the Cedar Revolution and the forces in Lebanon that got our military out through popular support, those forces are not able to control Lebanon. While we (the Syrians) were in control, Lebanon was a safe place. Now it's not. We need to come back in,'" said Jumblatt.
"I would not be surprised if they even try to wiggle their way into a deal by convincing the Americans that Syrian influence in Lebanon will stabilize the region," Jumblatt said.
Syria originally sent forces into Lebanon in 1976 during the Lebanese Civil War. It militarily occupied the country until Syrian troops withdrew last year under intense international pressure following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, for which Damascus was widely blamed.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, led by Jumblatt and other anti-Syrian politicians, had staged a "Cedar Revolution" of popular protests demanding freedom from Damascus.
Jumblatt predicted Syria will attempt to further destabilize Lebanon to advance the argument of asserting its influence in the country.
"I would not be surprised if the Syrians try to overthrow our government and assassinate Siniora. Assad made comments last month about al-Qaida infiltrating Lebanon. Now Assad can send into our country the same extremists he has been sending into Iraq to blow themselves up and wreak havoc here and blame it on al-Qaida. No one can prevent him from doing this."
Asked if he feared another full-scale Syrian military occupation of Lebanon, Jumblatt replied, "Another? In truth the Syrians never left Lebanon. They triggered this war through their proxy Hizbullah. They continue to hold us hostage."
#3
During the Israeli occupation and subsequent withdrawal of Lebanon in 1982 and 1983, Jumblatt's militia, backed by Soviet weaponry from Syria and possibly with the aid of Palestinian guerillas, overran sixty Maronite villages, killing thousands, as a retaliation for Maronite hostilities that occurred earlier in the war. Maronite hostilities included forced evacuations and a systematic burning of Druze villages and shrines in addition to thousands of killings and imprisonments that attempted to ethnically cleanse Mount Lebanon of its Druze inhabitants. [citation needed] He secured a Druze victory and solidified his position as leader of the Druze.
The BBC describes Jumblatt as "being seen by many as the country's political weathervane." He has a successful record of changing allegiances to ensure that the sectarian interests of the Druze emerge on the winning side of the political issues and conflicts shaping Lebanon, from the turmoil of the 1975-1990 civil war to Lebanon's reconstruction. Like several other sectarian leaders, he was a supporter of the Syrian military presence (described as an occupation by anti-Syrian elements) in Lebanon after the civil war, but since the death of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 2000, he has campaigned for the end of Syrian influence in Lebanon. This has pitted him against President Emile Lahoud and the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah, both strong supporters of Syria. It has also been argued that his previous support for Syrian intervention was compelled.
#4
All in effort to allow Syrian forces to re-enter Lebanon, Hence to infect it again. NO. Lebanon will beome clean. Nothing like treating Israel as a gunnea pig to test weapons on no matter who may be hurt. If this evil intent is not seen, what is it worth pleading a case? Stand down Iran. Stand down Syria. Damascus looks good today, but it may not tomarrow and it is a beautiful city.
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. - Town officials have nixed an idea for a jailhouse bar. The Select Board, acting as the town liquor board, rejected an inmate's application to sell liquor from the state prison. Damn. And he had a hell of a marketing campaign ready, too....."Get Hammered at the Slammer!"
Paul Murphy of Worcester, Mass., is serving time at the Southern State Correctional Facility for aggravated assault, escape and passing bad checks. But, other than that, he's a good boy....
He said in an application for a first- and second-class liquor license that he wanted to sell liquor from his home, which he listed as 700 Charlestown Road. That also happens to be the address of the state prison just east of downtown Springfield. Regardless of the bid to have liquor delivered to a prison, town officials say many portions of the application were left blank. Probably the parts about the prospective proprietor's criminal history, I bet.
Oh ye of suspicious mind.
"We determined that the application was incomplete," said Town Manager Robert Forguites.
Springfield officials were surprised to receive the application. They assumed prison officials would have caught it before it was sent and they believed the state Liquor Control Department also would have stopped it.
Not if there was a fifty dollar bill stapled to it.
Prison officials say they review incoming mail in the presence of an inmate to ensure it doesn't contain contraband. But they don't look at mail sent by prisoners. And Liquor Control Department officials say they had not received the application. They said they don't conduct a background check on an applicant until town officials have approved. If they'd received Murphy's, they said, it would have been rejected.
#1
Where is it in the constitution that says prison inmates should be denied the right to be served alcohol in prison cafes! I ask you, your honor, where is it! These are men, not animals!
#4
Quite a lively bunch over at YouTube.
Love the cartoon. Especially the end with the droopy Uncle Sam.
Definitely going to give RugRats a run for the money.
Ooops sorry. There's Jews in RugRats.
No RugRats for you.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
07/28/2006 17:30
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#4
Could've been stolen. Did the UN Report one of its' vehicles missing?
Or mebbe they just loaned it to someone?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2006 6:00
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#5
It's pretty plain those are not 'blue helments' This is SOP for terrorists. It's shocking that is is available at all on TV/ It will not convince the TRANZIs and EUropeans just how wrong headed they are for supporting these scumb as 'freedom fighters'. The State of Israel has full rights to attack or arrest all UN personel and destroy all UN instalations and equipment with my full belssings. This crap is sickening. The UN must pay.
#7
Bobby, That's 2 ambulances in the video. Both stolen? Yea, right.
UN usually employs locals for some of its "services". Am pretty sure that UN knows what is going on, and either it sees no evil, or tacitly condones it.
If you noticed the segment where the more remote ambulance "tries" to make an N-degree turn... it looks kinda fishy. It looks more like it is trying to block the street, to function as a shield.
#9
No, I don't think they were stolen, or even borrowed. They could've been copied, however. That fits, yes?
COnsioder, from the UNIFIL report posted elsewhere, that - As at 30 June 2006, UNIFIL comprised 1,990 troops, from China (187), France (209), Ghana (648), India (673), Ireland ( 5 ) , Italy (53), Poland (214) and Ukraine (1).
Since the establishment of UNIFIL, 246 members of the Force have lost their lives, 79 as a result of firings or bomb explosions, 105 as a result of accidents and 62 from other causes. Firings or mine explosions wounded a total of 345. (The report says they've been clearing minefields.)
I suspect a lot of the blue helmets are just trying to do their jobs. It's just that their jobs are so ..........
Ahh, I'm not trying to make excuses, just trying to see another point of view. I'm glad my kid went to Iraq as a Marine, and not to Lebanon as a UN "Peacekeeper"!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2006 6:42
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#10
Isn't the use of protected facilities and equipment, like, say, f'instance, hospitals and ambulances, for military purposes a war crime?
Oh, I forgot, this is Hezbollah. They can't commit war crimes.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006 7:33
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#11
The UN could care phueching less about uniformed casualties, they never have. I'm surprised the statistics are even available. No surprises, the UN is accountable to no one.
We chewed on this bone earlier in the week, but here's more details...
Bulgaria seems an unlikely country to deserve the world's gratitude. But it appears we can thank the alertness and professionalism of the Bulgarian customs authorities for saving us -- and not for the first time -- from the consequences of the incredible, almost treasonous, ineptitude, dysfunctionalism and general lack of joined-up-thinking that appears to pervade every aspect of the governance of New Labour's Britain.
Bulgarian border guards recently seized a British truck carrying radioactive material -- to the Iranian military -- that could have been used to make a "dirty" nuclear bomb.
Smuggling? Not a bit of it! The material was being sent to Mr. Ahmadinejad quite legally and with the blessing of the British government.
After a scanner showed it had radiation levels 200 times normal, the truck was found to be carrying ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. Inside each was a soil-testing device containing radioactive caesium 137 and americum-beryllium. (Soil-testing is usually the province of agriculture, not defense, ministries.)
The head of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (who knew until now that Bulgaria had a Nuclear Regulatory Agency?), Nikolai Todorov, said he was shocked that devices containing so much nuclear material could be sold so easily: "The devices are highly radioactive -- if you had another 90 of them you would be able to make an effective dirty bomb." That meant if nine similar loads got through.
According to the Daily Mail, Bulgarian customs official confirmed: "The documentation listed the shipment as destined for the Ministry of Transport in Tehran, although the final delivery address was the Iranian Ministry of Defence."
Radioactive material going to the Iranian Ministry of Defense? Could there possible be something a little, er, suspicious about this? Dr. Frank Barnaby of the Oxford Research Group (a well-credentialed think tank) said: "You would need a few of these devices to harvest material for a dirty bomb. Americum-beryllium is an extremely effective element for the construction of a dirty bomb as it has a very long half-life....It is found mainly in spent reactor-fuel elements and it is not at all easy to get hold of. I find it hard to believe it is so easily available ..."
British Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: "The Prime Minister has accused the Iranian Government of sponsoring International terrorism, yet his officials are doing nothing to prevent radioactive material which has an obvious dual use being sold to their military." MacKinlay, interestingly, was subsequently attacked by the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency as having allegedly expressed support for a terrorist group.
If this was a one-off incident, it would be a bad enough indictment of the present British Government. In fact it is only the latest of a series.
On August 31, 2005, a truck carrying 1,000 kg of zirconium silicate was stopped by Bulgarian authorities at the border with Turkey. The Bulgarians, detecting unusual radioactivity levels, discovered the truck was owned by a British firm, and alerted the British Embassy, which informed London on September 7. Although the trade in zirconium is meant to be tightly controlled, the truck had traveled through Britain, Germany and Romania without being stopped. The British authorities maintained there was nothing illegal about the shipment, and it was eventually allowed to proceed.
John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, said: "It is not a very sophisticated process to extract the zirconium from such material. Even though this cargo does not fall within international control, I would still be concerned. Zirconium is used for two purposes: for cladding nuclear fuel rods inside a reactor and as material for a nuclear weapon."
Questions were asked by MacKinlay (why the Tories apparently failed yet again to challenge Labour here is unknown) under the Freedom of Information legislation in January 2006. A gobbledygook answer from the government included the information that zirconium silicate did not require an export license but "may be controlled under the UK Weapons of Mass Destruction programme end-use control, which is assessed on a case by case basis." Mr. MacKinley then asked what definition of "end-user" and "expected end-user" the government used and received the answer that:
While there is no written definition of end-user or end-use information, the end-user is the entity for which the goods are ultimately destined, and the end-use is the use to which the goods will be put. Applicants are required to declare that the contents of their application and the supporting documentation are, to the best of their knowledge, accurate.
With that informative and reassuring reply Mr. MacKinley had to be content.
The bottom line was that a British firm had been allowed to sell highly-dangerous radioactive material to Iran without scrutiny by the British authorities, and then within a few months something very similar happened again, either in bizarre obeisance to some bureaucratic legalism ("it's not on the list"), or because no one cared. Of course, lethal respect for legalisms of this sort has some tradition behind it: during the Zulu War, a large British force was wiped out when attacked because the quartermasters would not issue ammunition without forms.
Previously, in May 1999, Bulgarian customs officers trained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered highly-enriched Uranium U-235 concealed in an air-compressor in the trunk of a car at a border-crossing checkpoint. It was believed this was a sample to show prospective buyers.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006
02:14 ||
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#2
Yes, thaks to the Bulgarians, but this is also a real hatchet job on Labour - incredible, almost treasonous, ineptitude, dysfunctionalism and general lack of joined-up-thinking that appears to pervade every aspect of the governance of New Labour's Britain.
Yeah, that's fair and balanced!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2006 6:45
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#3
Damn fair and balanced I'd say.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/28/2006 8:23
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The head of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (who knew until now that Bulgaria had a Nuclear Regulatory Agency?), Nikolai Todorov, said he was shocked that devices containing so much nuclear material could be sold so easily: "The devices are highly radioactive -- if you had another 90 of them you would be able to make an effective dirty bomb." That meant if nine similar loads got through"
The monster question is how many of those nine loads got through by OTHER ROUTES? Ahmadisnutz won't try Bulgaria again. They are onto him...
#2
I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the mosque that will be discussing this.
We need to get some rules on the books quick how we as americans need to show our alligiance and love of country to America.
Just because the Israeli's have less folks killed because they actually warn their people, verses the Hizbollah crowd that likes seeing the high numbers killed, having not warned their people, instead hiding in and amongst them.
Intern them hell, have them sign oaths to support our country, and love our credo or get out. Or possibly have this be something that has to be done to be able to have a rally.
More on the shelling of the UN outpost. This is the push-back from the other side by the BBC. Curiously, no mention is made about how Hezbollah built many of their bunkers right next to UNIFIL sites.
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says. The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say.
The four unarmed UN observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, died after their UN post in the town of Khiam was hit by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday.
The UN report says each time the UN contacted Israeli forces, they were assured the firing would stop.
A senior Irish soldier working for the UN forces had warned the Israelis six times that their bombardment was endangering the lives of UN staff, Ireland's foreign ministry said. Had Israel responded to the requests, "rather than deliberately ignoring them", the observers would still be alive, a diplomat familiar with the report said.
Israel is conducting an investigation into the incident. It has rejected accusations made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the targeting of the UN position was "apparently deliberate".
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2006
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Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 8:44
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#8
They've debated on whether or not to allow Al Jazeera in the US, but from what I've heard lately, it's got alot of opposition because it's nothing but a propaganda tool for terrorists. The BBC is no different, and should be banned on the same basis.
#9
Hmm. If I was somewhere out in Sh@tsville, after having allowed Hezbullah to build fortifications right next to my "observation post" and getting bombed, I would bug out if they weren't receiving my requests to stop.
But then again, I have a few functioning brain cells left over after my college partying days. Sometimes stupidity does have a death penalty, and deservedly so.
#12
Actually he/she/it is from Los Angeles, CA. He/She/It is in general proximity to the intersection of W. Washington Blvd. and South Hoover St. North of I-10 and West of I-110.
Israel insists it has been given the green light from the world to press on with its deadly assault on Lebanon and called up more troops, after suffering its biggest single-day military loss in the conflict. But Israel says it will limit its ground offensives after the killing of nine troops, including an Australian, in pitched battles with Hezbollah guerrillas yesterday.
"Yesterday in Rome we in effect obtained the authorisation to continue our operations until Hezbollah is no longer present in southern Lebanon," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio. He was referring to a 15-nation conference in the Italian capital on Wednesday.
World powers remain at odds over how to end the conflict, despite the mounting death toll and warnings that Lebanon is facing a humanitarian catastrophe. Much of Lebanon's infrastructure is in ruins, hundreds of thousands have fled their homes and there are increasing shortages of food and medicines.
The US, Israel's closest ally, infuriated Arab opinion by blocking calls at the Rome meeting for an immediate cease-fire and instead calling for efforts to reach a "sustainable" truce. US President George W Bush says he is "troubled" by the destruction Israeli strikes have left in Lebanon but rejects any "fake peace" that does not tackle the conflict's root causes.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit say Arab countries are disappointed that the Rome conference has "failed to meet Arab demands" for an immediate truce.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insists there has been agreement in Rome on the need for a multinational UN-mandated force for Lebanon and says the world body plans to hold a meeting this week or next.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday the bloc would be willing to contribute peacekeeping forces to Lebanon if a UN resolution allowed it.
A diplomatic source in Paris says France is to propose to its UN Security Council partners a resolution that would see the creation of a buffer zone on both sides of the border as part of a strategy to end the conflict.
That won't fly -- Israel will never allow 'peacekeepers' on their side of the border.
Israel is already planning a buffer zone in Lebanon to protect its border, while insisting there is no question of another occupation - memories of the quagmire that resulted from its 1982 invasion are still raw.
The US also prevented adoption of a UN Security Council draft resolution critical of Israel after its warplanes killed four UN observers in a raid in a south Lebanon town that UN chief Kofi Annan said was "apparently deliberate".
Mr Ramon says Israel no longer regards the border town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah military stronghold where the nine soldiers were killed, as a civilian area after ordering people to leave. "Everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hezbollah, we have called on all who are there to leave," he said.
#1
I am always amazed by Israel politicians ineptitude. That is the kind of things that you know but you dont say unless you want to sabotage the whole mlitary operation and want a reaction.
#3
Kudos to GWB for sticking to the no ceasefire without a sustainable solution position.
Not that I think we will get one, but it will at least get the appeasers to propose alternatives rather than just call for a ceasefire. We will see how laughable some of those alternatives are.
#4
Israel insists it has been given the green light from the world to press on with its deadly assault on Lebanon and called up more troops,
LOL! Could there be a more perfect example of the MSM's miguided opinion of themselves? Ah, yes, ABC, they can't proceed without a green light from you. Being that you are so mighty with your pens. Problem is than in a real war, where there is an army (good or evil) that chooses to act without your approval, the pen actually is NOT mighter than the sword.
The light has been 'green' for so long the bulb has rusted solid into its socket. About the only real upside to recent events is the near-obligatory Arab stupidity of finally unmasking the extent of how entrenched their government authorized anti-Semitic terrorism actually is. The Palestinian election of Hamas epitomizes this to perfection. All that remains is for Israel to force-feed them unlimited quantities of cordite-laced sand.
#7
Well, let the "World" know that this action by the army of Satan (Hezbollah) Must FOREVER be quelled. Srew the world. The light is greener than ever and Bekaa is next.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz declared on Thurday that the IDF was to establish a "special security zone" in southern Lebanon in order to keep Hizbullah from approaching the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The decision - reminiscent of the 40 kilometer security zone established during the 1982 Lebanon War - was reached in order to "create a territory that is clean of Hizbullah outposts."
"They will no be able to return," Peretz asserted in a joint press conference with Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, adding "we will not agree to the raising of the Hizbullah flag over Israel's [border]."
The defense minister stated that when the two soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, were kidnapped, Israel decided to launch the offensive.
"No longer will a terrorist organization threaten the State of Israel," he insisted, "No longer will there be such a threat without a determined response."
Peretz expressed great appreciation at the northern residents, whose daily lives have been disrupted, but, as the defense minister said, even from the bomb shelters and secured rooms they call upon the State to continue the fighting. "Do not relent, do not stop until you have change the situation," he quoted the northern residents as saying.
He turned to both the Lebanese and Palestinian public, assuring them that Israel's attack was not directed at them, but at the terrorist organizations operating from their midst. He told them extremist elements in the region were using them in a completely irresponsible manner to serve Iranian interests.
Halutz summarized the bloody battle in Bint Jbail on Wednesday in which eight soldiers were killed, saying that Israel had paid a heavy price, but the Hizbullah paid more dearly.
The chief of staff asserted that the IDF knew of hundreds of Hizbullah operatives - including senior officers - who were killed by the Israeli offensive, though he would not mention any names.
#3
Reality dictates: in order for Israel to survive, the missile threat has to end for all time. And that can only happen if Iran is wiped out. Any status quo peace will only permit revamped missile preparations, and new missiles will be advanced.
The Sunni majority states who were hoping for the crushing of Shiite power, are now venting at Israel after Iraq's Shiite controlled leader was allowed to present himself to the US Congress as a champion of counter-terror. And he did that after his Parliament praised Hizbollah.
#4
Griper - how apropos. Was that just frustration speaking? If so, fine. Dumb and foolish, implies everyone else is an idiot if they don't agree, but fine. I hope you feel better, now. Please ignore the rest of this comment.
If not, then you must have a personally gratifying plan and schedule, right? Nuke Qom? When, President Griper? Today, before lunch? Sure thing - you can get that knee examined in the afternoon.
You blather about reality, yet you ignore it utterly.
The Iranians aren't getting away with anything. In fact, they've miscalculated on a scale that's quite impressive. Even the MSM tools are openly acknowledging the puppet status of Hezbollah and Syria - pointing the finger directly at Iran. I'd say this is helping us immeasurably in resolving the political necessities to take them down.
If Maliki's not completely different from every other muslim in the world he's just shit, is he? How idiotic. You don't know much about Islam, either. If you claim to, you're a liar, pure and simple.
Such witlessness and lack of appreciation for the efforts, sacrifice and achievements of so many so far is both disgusting and disheartening. As for future US actions, thank God it will receive precisely the attention it merits.
#7
Jons. Calm down, have some dip. Griper did not say that everything done in the WoT so far is meaningless. Get off your horse. What he does say is that effort so far are not extreme enough. If something isn't done about Iran, these smaller battles will continue, and continue, and continue... He advocates dealing with Iran via the technology they so much wish to have, so what? How about disagreeing in a civil manner? Do you wonder why Dems have a reputation for not being able to debate ideas in a civil manner?
SPoD. NS. I'm with you there.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/28/2006 11:15
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yeah!! that coming from an idiot that functionaly helped the terrorist getting the upper hand.
Even the MSM tools are openly acknowledging the puppet status of Hezbollah and Syria - pointing the finger directly at Iran. I'd say this is helping us immeasurably in resolving the political necessities to take them down.
Bingo. Problem is, Israel has to win this one, too, or Iran's tools/apologists will also be emboldened.
Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian UNTSO peacekeeper killed in Lebanon overnight Tuesday by an IAF missile strike on his post, wrote in an email to his former commander in the Canadian army six days before he was killed that Hizbullah was using the UN post as a human shield.
Kruedener added in the email that IAF strikes near the UN post prior to his death were "necessary" and that the IDF fire was not intentionally targeting the post.
Maj.-Gen. Louis Mackenzie, Kruedener's ex-commander, told a Canadian radio station about the email letter in an interview.
Kruedener's wife demanded Thursday to know why IAF missiles struck the UN site where her husband was stationed, despite repeated pleas by observers there to halt the firing.
Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener told reporters in Kingston, Ontario, that she believes the attack, which involved precision guided missiles, was intentional.
Hess-von Kruedener said her husband told her that the UN site had been fired upon for weeks, despite the fact that their vehicles and buildings were clearly marked.
#3
Hezbollah vs HIzbollah > whetehr Secualr Lefty or God-based Lefty, the Great Satan remains in the lettering - you know, why US DEMOLEFT > Universal Regulation = Universal Governmentism = Universal Laissez Faire = Universal Libertarianism. Why America can war for empire but not allowed to govern its own said same empire, but we are however allowed to give up our freedoms, sovereignty, form of government, and endowments-advantages, etc. voluntarily = forcibly!?
#4
This is finally getting coverage outside of the blogs and "Jewish" papers - Melbourne Herald Sun.
Annan should be directly put on the spot to abjectly apologize to Israel for his outrageous bias and explain why the UNIFIL posts, even NOW, are still manned in the middle of a hot war.
Worthless yet amazingly expensive to maintain, they are the perfect symbol of the feckless UN and the duplicitous Annan.
#7
Seems that I read somewheres else that these outposts contained UN-armed soldiers. Hate that the Canuks lost appearantly a good soldier, but if these guys were unarmed, they should've been pulled out 2 weeks ago. More blood on Kofi's hands.
And, oh yeah, Kofi, how's that Sudan "peace deal" goin?
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2006 11:31
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Two rocket barrages fired by Hizbullah landed Thursday morning in open areas near the community of Ma'alot and near Shlomi.
No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.
A short while later, rockets hit near Safed and caused a brush fire to break out. Two firefighter teams and two light airplanes are working to contain the fire and to prevent it from spreading to the nearby forest. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Earlier the residents of the Carmiel region, the Western Galilee, Safed and Rosh Pina were ordered into shelters and protected area.
Since the onset of the fighting in Israel's north, 1,402 rockets landed in the country's territory, 19 civilians were killed and 1,262
people have been wounded. Some 46 injured are still hospitalized in hospitals across the north, spokesperson for the police's Northern District reported. Many of the injured were treated for shock.
The rocket attacks on Israel continued throughout Wednesday. Police reported that 98 rockets were fired at Israel. one person was seriously wounded by a direct rocket hit in the Krayot area, fiver people sustained moderate injuries, 25 were lightly injured and 24 suffered from shock.
On Wednesday afternoon, 17 people who were staying at a bomb shelter in Kiryat Shmona were hurt by inhaling smoke caused by a rocket that landed nearby.
#8
Back to the subject. 1,402 rockets spent to kill how many Israelis ?
At this rate, all the rocket technicians in Islamland can't make enough rockets to keep up with the reproduction rates of ten Israeli families. Time to consider the bottom line here.
In addition to just blowing off ordinance uselessly, I heard that some mighty lions of Islam have sought rear echelon work after just one live fire encounter. Desertion, folks, desertion.
The lions of Islam have developed hit and run warfare. No uniforms, no formations, no corps markings, no rank markings, no rules, just blood.
Let's fucking massacre them and make that day a great holiday with feasts and parades and singing and dancing and laughing forever.
#10
He/she/it is from Los Angeles, CA. He/She/It is in general proximity to the intersection of W. Washington Blvd. and South Hoover St. North of I-10 and West of I-110.
Carl Brashear, the US Navy diver whose life story inspired the blockbuster movie Men of Honor, has died aged 75. Born in 1931 to a sharecropper family in Kentucky, Brashear joined the American Navy aged 17, in 1948 and battled institutional racism to become the first African-American US Navy diver.
On 17 January, 1966, he suffered an accident while attempting to recover a lost hydrogen bomb off the coast of Spain after two US Air Force planes collided. A line used for towing broke lose, causing a pipe to strike Brashear's left leg below the knee, nearly shearing it off. Following persistent infections and necrosis, the determined Brashear convinced his doctors to amputate the lower portion of his leg.
The Navy was set to retire Brashear from active duty, following his accident, but he began a gruelling regime to beat his disability. After battling with his fitness and use of only one leg, he broke US Navy records again by becoming the first amputee to be restored to full active duty.
In 1970 Brashear was promoted to the highest-ranking Navy diver position of master diver after completing dives deeper than 300m while being evaluated for five weeks at the Experimental Diving Unit in Washington.
He eventually retired from the US Navy in 1979 as a master chief petty officer and master diver.
The 75-year-old died of respiratory and heart failure at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, US on July 25. No funeral arrangements have yet been made.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2006
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#1
A true American hero.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 2:10
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That was one of the oddest military movies that's ever been made. It is like part one of a trilogy, but the other two parts are still classified.
I suppose it's an inherent problem to making a distinguished career into a movie--professionals may be in dramatic circumstances, but they retain their professionalism and avoid drama--they are too busy.
In the military, this ends up paradoxically with only small and unimportant things being used for drama; but when push comes to shove, everybody does their job with as little nonsense as possible. Which doesn't lend itself to moviemaking.
Another top aide to the Islamist militant Siddqul Islam 'Bangla Bhai', this time Bagmara upazila chief advisor to Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh (JMJB), was arrested yesterday by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in a raid at Shikdari Bazar in Bagmara.
After the August 17 serial bomb blasts last year, Abdus Sattar Master's name along with Prof Lutfar, Mahtab Khamaru and Abul Member were included in the list of 300 suspects compiled by the law enforcing agencies; but later, the names of the ones mentioned above were erased from the list following directives from the home ministry.
Sattar Master was one of the masterminds of JMJB killing missions in 2004 as well. In the last week of June, 2004, five JMJB men led by Sattar Master abducted Yasin, son of Ismail, hung him from a tree near Kodapara madrasa and beat him to death.
Lieutenant Colonel Quazi Shamsuzzaman Khan, commander of Rajshahi Rab unit, confirmed Sattar Master's arrest and said he is a close associate of 'Bangla Bhai' and has been regrouping the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen, Bangladesh (JMB) militants on the run.
Rab members also apprehended several other JMB activists from Hamirkutsa, Sakoa, Goalkandi, Udpara, Polashi and Khatalbaria while Sattar Master's brother, another suspect, managed to flee.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Captain Ed has been hammering the recent release of a UNIFIL report for 2006 that describes (as one example) how the Hezbies have been building their positions right next to the UNIFIL stations. Interesting nuggets in here.
To get this, hit the link and put 'UNIFIL' in the extended search text box. The report is dated '20-07-06'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#2
Some Hizbollah positions remained in close proximity to United Nations positions,
especially in the Hula area, posing a significant security risk to United Nations
personnel and equipment, as demonstrated during the heavy exchanges of fire on 28 May. In letters to the Foreign Minister, dated 23 March, 27 June and 5 July 2006, the Force Commander, General Pellegrini, expressed grave concern about the Hizbollah construction works in close proximity to United Nations positions and requested that the Government of Lebanon take necessary actions to rectify the
situation. However, the situation remained unchanged despite repeated objections
addressed by UNIFIL to the Lebanese authorities.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2006 6:18
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Then there is this, near the end -
41. The hostilities between Hizbollah and Israel since 12 July have radically changed the context in which UNIFIL is operating. In the current environment, circumstances conducive to United Nations peacekeeping do not exist. Facing a situation where the Force is restricted from carrying out even basic activities, such
as the ability to resupply its positions and to conduct search and rescue operations on behalf of its personnel, how can it fulfil its mandate under Security Council resolution 425 (1978)?
So their basic function is to resupply themselves and perform search and rescue?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2006 6:26
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UNIFIL: United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon.
Interim? 28 years? Good thing it wasn't permanent.
According to Security Council resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978) of 19 March 1978, UNIFIL was established to:
Confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon;
Restore international peace and security;
Assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.
Most recently the mandate of UNIFIL was extended until 31 July 2006 by Security Council resolution 1655 (2006) of 31 January 2006.
So it looks as if the interim forces' mandate ends next Monday. Wonder if that means they're going to get the hell out of the way?
Latvia Pride a disaster BANNED MARCH CHANGED VENUES, BUT ANTI-GAY MOB TRASHED PARTICIPANTS, THROWING HUMAN EXCREMENT
The second effort to stage a gay pride parade in Riga, Latvia, was an unmitigated disaster July 22. The City Council and a court banned the parade, claiming police wouldn't be able to protect marchers from marauding homophobic mobs. So, activists instead staged a religious service at a church and meetings at a hotel. But the homophobes were not deterred by the change in plans.
Scores of anti-gay protesters gathered outside the Anglican church and flung human excrement, eggs and rotten food at gays and lesbians as they left the building. "I was hit with a bag full of shit and had to go wash up," said the Rev. Maris Sants.
"Protesters threw human excrement on us," said the Rev. Juris Calitis. "I was covered with it from head to foot. It was quite smelly."
"Worshippers were pelted with shit and rotten fruit," said British participant Peter Tatchell. "Despite previously requesting police protection, no police were present to protect the congregation."
Activist meetings later in the day at the four-star Reval Hotel met a similar fate, attracting hundreds of anti-gay demonstrators. "[We were] under siege all day by protesters from the antigay 'No Pride' movement - a highly organized alliance of Christian fundamentalists, ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis," said Tatchell. "They roamed the streets outside the hotel looking for gays and lesbians to attack. Anyone who looked gay was liable to abuse and assault, even passing tourists. The police seemed to stand back and let them terrorize people with impunity."
#1
You know, it doesn't seem like such a tough equation to understand: keep your foul, disgusting habits out of other people's faces and, in return, they won't throw bags of feces, rotten eggs, and other unpleasant things at you. There was an old saying they used to have down in Texas when I was a boy: "Don't start no #### and there won't be no ####!" It's a lot of years later but that still seems like pretty solid advice.
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07/28/2006 0:58
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But...but...but its their RIGHT to ram it down in your face and up your ass. And it you don't like it and don't accept their lifestyle or disagree with it your obviously 'Homophobic'.
"Despite previously requesting police protection, no police were present to protect the congregation."
Maybe because the march was BANNED Pete. What do you think?
#3
Peter Tatchell - the name rang a bell. He's a long time lefty gay agitator and a one time Labour MP. It pisses me off when the MSM try to portray these long term agitators as just ordinary participants.
#7
"I was hit with a bag full of shit and had to go wash up," said the Rev. Maris Sants.
Nice language, there "Rev." Did you get your title at the Je$$e Jackson School of Titles? I imagine that God's laughing at this one Himself. Tried to "hole up" in His Church and then you get crap flung at ya? Not to hard to imagine why. Count me in the camp of "homophobes," although I disagree with the term, because I'm not irrationally scared of ya.
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2006 10:47
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Sounds like the shit really hit the fans. (of deviant behavior)
Two roadside bombs went off in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, killing a newspaper vendor and wounding a soldier and a civilian, the military said. Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe blamed the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the consecutive blasts in Jaffna Peninsula, a predominantly Tamil area. Samarasinghe said the target of the bombs were a Sri Lankan military patrol, but that the first one killed a newspaper vendor. The second one wounded one soldier and one civilian, he said.
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How about:
Arabs want their Lebanese "brothers" to get the short end of the stick again for some reason known only to Arabs, and use the Rome meeting to make Washington the scapegoat.
Police suspect that a settler missing since Thursday morning from the northern West Bank was killed by Palestinians, who then burned and dismembered his body. The missing man was a resident of the settlement of Yakir in the northern West Bank, east of Qalqilyah. His scorched body was discovered in the trunk of a burnt car with Israeli license plates, near the Palestinian village of Kafr Abbus in the northern West Bank. The car belonged to the father of the settler, who apparently had been driving the vehicle at the time of his disappearance.
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I recommend beating on Hamas until either they get the settler back alive or Hamas is utterly destroyed. :-(
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2006 8:42
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Fuck off, little troll.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006 9:02
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#2 - you misspelled your name. Here, let me fix that for you:
genetic eradication LOSER
No need to thank me - accuracy is very important.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 9:58
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Moderation sucks, eh troll? Tell you what, you pathetic piece of shit: The Jewish people have existed for around FIVE THOUSAND YEARS, and they will still exist and thrive long after the Islamic world lies on the dung heap of history. Deal.
#7
Actually he/she/it is from Los Angeles, CA. He/She/It is in general proximity to the intersection of W. Washington Blvd. and South Hoover St. North of I-10 and West of I-110.
(KUNA) -- The Iraqi Army announced Wednesday that its soldiers were able to arrest eight people suspected of being fighters in Tal Afar west of Mosul, in Northern Iraq. Official in charge of operations in the Iraqi Army's second Corps Colonel Lokman Khurshid said in a press statement that the soldiers of the Iraqi army had arrested eight persons in the neighbourhood of Al Muthanna during a raid in Tal Afar. He pointed out that different weapons were seized in Valley Muthanna, adding that caves were discovered in the area.
Khurshid said that the search was still under way in the region and that the weapons seized were three mortars, three detonators of explosive devicess and a locally manufactured rocket launcher, four hand grenades and four Kalashnikov rifles in addition to the quantities of the bullets.
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Police arrested software engineer Muzammil Shaikh and his brother, Faisal Shaikh, on Thursday and claimed that the latter was the "western India Lashkar-e-Taiba commander". TOI first reported, in the edition dated July 26, that investigators probing the Terror Tuesday conspiracy were zeroing in on the chief LeT operative in western India. Police had then claimed that he was a businessman operating from Mumbai.
TOI learnt on Thursday that the 30-year-old Faisal, a resident of Mira Road, had an "export-import" business. But crime branch officials, who picked him up, said that "small business" was only a front for routing hawala money that was channelled into terror causes. "We have come to know that he received hawala-routed money that was used to recruit youth for their visions of 'jihad'," a crime branch unit-II official said on Thursday night. Both Faisal and now-Bangalore based software engineer Muzammil will be produced in court on Friday.
Officials, however, were not "totally sure" about their role in 7/11. "We are interrogating them to ascertain their exact role on July 11," an official said. Faisal visited Pakistan twice in 2004, 2005 for weapons training and stayed there for six months each time. He also met key ISI operative Azam Chima, officials claimed.
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(KUNA) -- As many as 21 people, including five security personnel, were injured in three grenade explosions in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir Thursday on the eve of Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam's two-day visit to the state.
Guerrillas hurled a grenade at an Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) patrol in south Kashmir's Anantnag district late Thursday evening, news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported. "The grenade exploded on the road injuring two CRPF troopers, one policeman and eight civilians," the news agency reported.
In another incident, guerrillas attacked a road opening party of the Indian army in south Kashmir's Pulwama district with a powerful hand grenade injuring four people including two armymen Thursday. In another incident, six people were injured in a grenade blast in Sopore town in Indian-administered Kashmir, the news agency reported.
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Three Palestinians, including a 75-year-old woman, were killed in Israeli gunfire in Gaza yesterday, a day after the coastal strip suffered one of the deadliest days since the start of a massive Israeli offensive a month ago. The woman was killed when an artillery shell slammed into her home near the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. In addition, a 16-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man were killed east of Gaza City. Nineteen other Palestinians were wounded. On Wednesday, the Israeli military killed 24 Palestinians.
In Rome, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that the release of an Israeli soldier captured in Gaza could be imminent.
With regard to the issue of the captured Israeli soldier, I have reiterated that there are ongoing efforts that lead us to believe in an imminent solution, Abbas said after a meeting with Italian Premier Romano Prodi. However, sources close to the Hamas-led government denied that the release was imminent.
An Israeli Army spokesman said Israeli air and ground forces have been operating over the past two days in the neighborhood of Sejaiya in eastern Gaza City to search for what he called terror infrastructure. Palestinian security forces said that Israeli tanks had entered areas east of the densely-populated Jabaliya refugee camp and were also spotted some 1,500 meters inside the territory and Sejaiya.
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Until Israel clears and annexes parts of the Gaza, there will be constant turmoil and warfare in the region. After the third or fourth time Israel pushes the northern border south a few klicks, the Palestinians will get the message. If they don't, the new Israeli western border may be the Suez Canal.
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(KUNA) -- Four people were injured in a mortar shell attack targeting Al-Doura, a Baghdad suburb, Thursday, reported Iraqi police.
In other news, an American military statement said, a young Iraqi girl was taken to a U.S. Army hospital via chopper after she was hurt in an accident in her home in western Iraq. The girl's family asked an Iraqi police officer for help, when he called for medical assistance from the marines nearby. The girl was severely injured when their house's gate fell on her.
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(KUNA) -- The death toll of the series of explosions that rocked Al-Karrada district in Baghdad early Thursday was put at 25 and the number of wounded at 67. An interior ministry source told KUNA that two of the explosions were the result of two booby-trapped vehicles whereas the rest of the explosions were the result of bombs, missile and mortar shell attacks. The source indicated that the death toll is expected to rise as paramedics are trying to recover the bodies of the victims.
According to the police, the explosions occurred behind a leather workshop in Al-Jadiriya, one in Al-Attar Road, another in Al-Orzadi Road and one near a gasoline station. Strict security measures have been imposed following the attacks and checkpoints were set.
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Early Friday, Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of northern Gaza, residents said, after a bloody two-day sweep.
"I dunno about you, Avi, but I feel like a yo-yo."
"Don't talk so loud, Moshe. I'm dizzy."
In southern Gaza, an Israel Air Force aircraft hit a metal workshop in the city of Khan Younis early Friday, wounding nine people, including two children, hospital officials said.
Yasss. The fabled child metalworkers of Gaza...
Nearby buildings were also damaged, and rescue workers were searching through the rubble. The military said the target was a weapons storehouse.
A candidate to be governor in Nigeria's main city of Lagos has been killed in what police said on Thursday could be a political assassination, the latest sign of rising violence ahead of general elections next year. Funso Williams of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) was killed on Wednesday night at his Lagos home, police said. "He was strangled in his study by unknown persons last night," federal police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Four policemen guarding the residence have been arrested.
Col. Mustard, in the study, with a rope!
"We are not ruling out any possibilities, we are not looking only at political assassination, we are looking at all strands," Iwendi said by telephone from the capital Abuja.
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GOOD MORNING. I AM THE WIFE OF FUNSO WILLIAMS, THE CANIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF LAGOS WHO DIED UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANTS. HE LEFT ME WITHOUT MEANS OF SUPPORT EXCEPT FOR 105 MILLION DOLLARS IN A EUROPEAN BANK......
Posted by: Steve ||
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(KUNA) -- Iraqi government said on Thursday Al Qaeda leader was killed and eight insurgents were arrested. The statement did not report the leader's identity or nationality. The detainees have connections with insurgency leaders. They are also involved in killing policemen and destroying police stations. They are suspected of killing more than 20 members of the National guards, the statement added. Security forces seized great amounts of substances used in manufacturing RPGs and explosive devices.
The US army declared today it killed Al Qaeda member in Baghdad. It is uncertain yet whether he is the same man mentioned in the government's statement. Multi-National Forces information center did not give any details of the raid in which he was killed.
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North Korea Thursday refused to rejoin nuclear talks until the United States drops financial sanctions, dimming hopes of reviving the stalled discussions at a security meeting here. The communist state's announcement comes despite days of hectic diplomacy aimed at dragging Pyongyang back to the negotiating table on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.
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#1
Not a problem. Go ahead and starve. Nobody out here cares--in fact, we hope it happens sooner. Start any trouble, however, and you'll be a charcoal briquette in a major-league hurry.
Posted by: mac ||
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Meanwhile, CHINA is a'stillin repos or concentrating mil units down TAIWAN, VIETNAM, THAILAND and PHILIPINES wayz, SE ASIA + WESTPAC!? Looks like MOther Cindy's + Mother Hillary's Commie Airborne hopes to "liberate" several sovereign Asian nations at one time.
The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is backed by foreign money, terror networks and fighters coming over the border from Pakistan, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan said on Wednesday. But Tom Koenigs, the special UN representative, said the Pakistan government was not backing the Taliban, as it once did, because the militant Islamists were a threat to its stability as well. "We face a Taliban movement, which has apparently recovered and has to be answered by a series of measures, political as well as military," he told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council.
Koenigs called the Taliban an insurgency that had taken hold in five Afghan southern provinces rather than just carrying out "some isolated terrorist acts." In the past three months, hundreds of people have been killed in hit-and-run raids and suicide bombings by Taliban guerrillas and their Islamic allies in the most intense period of the insurgency since the Taliban were removed from power in 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden.
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Gee, I bet the UN never saw that coming
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 1:48
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Seems rather an occasion for the "Master of the Obvious" graphic. Where'd he think they were going to return from, Oz?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/28/2006 8:18
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Thanks Tom! Where would we be without timely intelligence updates and assessments from the UN envoy in Afghanistan?
Iranian hardliners have made great public show of recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent years, but there is no record of any of these Iranian volunteers taking part in attacks in Iraq, or against Israel. "The Prophet Mohammad's army is on its way to fight against the Zionists," chanted some 50 volunteers at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, where a large tree-lined area is dedicated to Iran's "martyrs" killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq. "A group of 200 volunteer students will be dispatched to Lebanon via Turkey. We are leaving Tehran today by bus," Amir Jalili, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters.
"200 tickets to Beirut, please. One way only."
"We hope Turkey will let us pass the border and go to Syria. If not we will come back to Tehran."
I hope Turkey lets you pass and the Israelis kill half of you and maim the other half for life.
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#1
Turn these suckers into pig feed or make them vegetables that Levant always refers to. What a bunch of maroons. I really really wish we could bring in the B-52's on these assholes (and the other assholes too of course).
Good for 5 cups of tea at any Starbucks in Beirut or surrounding communities. Can only be redeemed by armed, hardline Iranian student seeking martyrdom. Good for... oh what the hell, it's good for ETERNITY!
#11
...Iranian officials have repeatedly said such groups have no official sanction and say they can operate only "as long as their ideas are limited to theory."
Maybe Rooters thinks this is, theoreticaly, the hardline militant/insurgent negotiating team of fighting volunteer idea debaters. Film at eleven.
#12
Today, we have a new ME word - hard liner.
In baseball, that would be a fast level hit, but in Farsi, it means useful fool. Yes, useful fools will board buses for the fighting in Lebanon.
I do hope they make it there. Kind of like crossing the bridge into Fredricksburg.
The volunteers stressed theirs was a private initiative, not backed by state authorities. The group, calling itself the Justice-Seeking Movement of Students, said they had no military training. Some 50 students boarded buses from Tehran, but more were to join them from other cities at the border, they said.
This may not be entirely true. There are rumors that there may have been some "coercion", as this alleged fragment from an alleged intercept reveals:
(Mad Mullah): Abu, what is the worst fraternity on this campus?
(Abu): Well that would be hard to say, sir. They're each outstanding in their own way.
(Mad Mullah): Cut the horseshit, son. I've got their disciplinary files right here. Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode.
(Abu): You're talking about The Glorious Lions, sir.
...
#20
Ed, I just got sent a photo email of a "virgin" that was so large you could only see the guys ankles with her on top of him, (I wish I had access to my email from here) telling him he only had 71 more to go, pretty funny.
Virgins come in all sizes heh.
The Upper Galilee was hit by a heavy Katyusha barrage on Thursday afternoon, as 25 rockets landed in and around Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon fired over 100 Katyusha rockets at targets in northern Israel on Thursday, landing across the Galilee and Hula Valley. Thirteen people were lightly injured in rocket strikes on Carmiel, Majdal Krum, Kiryat Shmona, and the area of Rosh Pina. Three people were lightly wounded by shrapnel, and 16 went into shock. Buildings, cars, roads and water pipes were badly damaged in the attacks. One Katyusha hit a house, another hit a factory containing chemicals, and a third hit an educational facility. A firefighter was lightly hurt during operations aimed at putting out several fires.
Three rockets hit Yesod Hama'ala, lightly wounding a woman and damaging property. Eleven rockets landed in the Rosh Pina region and eight fell near Safed, but there were no casualties or damage. Four rockets aimed at Tiberias landed in open areas.
Several Katyushas hit empty houses in Carmiel and Majdal Krum. A house in Nahariya was hit, but most of the rockets in the area landed in open spaces. A rocket hit a house in Peki'in, and another hit a water tower in Kfar Vradim.
Rockets also were fired at Ma'alot-Tarshiha and Rosh Hanikra. In Granot, a resident was lightly wounded by shrapnel. Some rockets fell in open areas, causing fires to break out. In Haifa, sirens sounded at 6 P.M. Two rockets landed in the city's suburbs, causing no injuries. By 8 P.M. last night, Magen David Adom had treated 72 casualties from 43 rocket incidents.
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They'll change their minds once the Hezzies, Hizzies, Jihis, Jiglies and Hammies, etal. start firing the bigger, long-distance stuff. Bigger + Longer Distance > higher likelihood of "Dual-use", including but not limited to nukes.
ROME: Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government on Thursday called a parliamentary vote of confidence on measures to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan. The centre-left government called an open roll-call confidence vote in the upper house Senate to push through the measures, which have been contested by far-left pacifists in his coalition who want the troops to return home.
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Sad to see this, though they've stood by us far longer than I thought they would...
Some of the Arab League money recently transferred to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been paid out to Hamas ministers this week, according to PA sources. The United States has been leading a campaign to keep international funds from paying Hamas officials' salaries ever since the Islamic militant group won parliamentary elections this winter.
The freezing of international money to the PA for this end has kept some 165,000 civil servants, about half of them armed thugs police officers, from receiving wages this spring, helping plunge the Palestinian areas into financial crisis. The Arab League raised money to help the Palestinians in March but was unable to transfer it until earlier this month. America has pressured banks not to allow money to flow to the PA, lest they be held in violation of US anti-terror laws, which forbid sending money to organizations that the government has designated terrorist groups, as Hamas has been. At the time of the transfer, the Arab League declined to specify how the $100 million provided by it and Saudi Arabia had reached Abbas.
"Go away."
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At the time of the transfer, the Arab League declined to specify how the $100 million provided by it and Saudi Arabia had reached Abbas.
That's ok. The FBI is really good at tracing ill-advised money flows through the banking system. They should find the results amusing.
Posted in Ops as Islam begins to establish the Caliphate in the paradise formerly known as Somalia...
Somalia's virtually powerless government began unravelling yesterday as a fifth of its cabinet resigned in disgust and the administration's Islamic rivals took over the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu.
Eighteen key ministers in the 102-member cabinet said their government had failed to bring peace to the chaotic African nation as it emerges from 15 years of anarchy. The leadership has no power outside its base in Baidoa, 155 miles from the capital. "We have seen the government cannot carry out national reconciliation and development," said a letter of resignation issued by the parliamentarians, who included the ministers for domestic co-operation, planning and international relations. A motion of no-confidence in the prime minister, Mohammed Ali Gedi, had already been issued and will be debated in parliament tomorrow, the MPs said. Abdirahman Mohamed Dinari, a government spokesman, said Mr Gedi had not decided whether to accept the resignations. The MPs also said they were opposed to troops from neighbouring Ethiopia who were sent into Somalia to protect the government from the Supreme Islamic Courts Council's militia, which has seized control of the capital and much of southern Somalia.
The Islamic militants' increasing power has prompted grave concerns in the United States, which accuses the group of harbouring al-Qaeda leaders responsible for deadly 1998 bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Islamic group's imposition of strict religious courts also has raised fears of an emerging Taleban-style regime. On Thursday, the militia said it was setting up a religious court inside the vast complex in Mogadishu that once served as the country's presidential palace - a highly symbolic move that further marginalised the official administration. "This is the place where Somalia will be ruled from, and we appreciate your co-operation with the courts," Abdirahman Janaqaw, of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council, said.
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COLOMBO - Sri Lankas air force bombed Tamil Tiger territory in the islands northeast for a second day on Thursday, targeting a suspected rebel air strip as ground troops readied for an incursion to end a water supply blockade. There were no immediate details of any casualties.
Send your air force to school in Nevada for a while and I bet their accuracy improves ...
The government accuses the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of blocking water supplies to farmland in the eastern district of Trincomalee, where the government and rebels both control territory.
The Tigers say local Tamil civilians stopped water flowing from a reservoir, demanding that the government build water towers in Tamil areas.
Officials said the Air Force bombed the site of a suspected rebel air strip in the northern district of Mullaithivu, where the Tigers naval wing is based, a day after they bombed Tiger positions near the reservoir in the east. The military discovered the construction of a new airstrip in Mullaithivu ... which affects the sovereignty of the country and territorial integrity and also causes a threat to the region, defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told Reuters.
To achieve the target of distributing water, the government and the defence authorities will do everything possible, he added. Ground troops are moving with engineers to the area. If they call for air suppport, then air support will arrive.
Both the government and the Tigers claim control over the site of the reservoir, which lies in an area where the border between the foes is ill-defined. However the ground reality is that the Tigers control the area, military sources said.
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Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka's Army Commander who was seriously hurt in a failed assassination bid by the Tamil Tigers returned to office Wednesday to resume work in the position, the defense ministry spokesman said. Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told reporters that General Fonseka who was badly hurt in the suicide assassination attempt by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels on April 25 had fully recovered from the near fatal injuries he had received.
A woman suicide squad member of the LTTE jumped at Fonseka's motorcade and blew herself up as the Sri Lankan military commander was being driven to lunch inside the tightly guarded Army headquarters here. At least 11 people were killed while 25 others including the Army Commander were injured in the blast. Samarasinghe said Fonseka had returned to the island Tuesday afternoon having received urgent medical treatment in Singapore. Fonseka, a battle hardened soldier was a key member of the island's military in the height of the separatist war with the LTTE rebels where more than 64,000 people have been killed since the conflict escalated in the mid 1980s.
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Israel's UN ambassador on Thursday ruled out major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation.
Dan Gillerman also said Israel would not allow the United Nations to join in an investigation of an Israeli air strike that demolished a post belonging to the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Four UN observers were killed in the Tuesday strike. "Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don't think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation," Gillerman said.
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hell the UN seems to be working right along side the Hezbollah.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/28/2006 0:31
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They dont seem, they are.
Remember that Peter Hansen, the head of the UNWRA, said, on CBC, in 2004: "I am sure that there are members of the Hamas among our employees, and I dont see any problem with it".
Employing Hamas' terrorists, helping Hezbollah, same dirty job.
#6
Canal Hotel bombing August 19, 2003, and the death of Sergio Vieira de Mello. Notice Kofi blamed no one directly.
United Nations Secretary-General, commented that the bombing would not stop the organization's efforts to rebuild Iraq, and said: "Nothing can excuse this act of unprovoked and murderous violence against men and women who went to Iraq for one purpose only: to help the Iraqi people recover their independence and sovereignty, and to rebuild their country as fast as possible, under leaders of their own choosing."
#7
That bombing was probably the luckiest thing that could have happened for the Americans. Can you imagine if we'd and a UNeuch on every street corner in Fallujah?
The Israel Air Force on Thursday scored a successful direct hit against Hezbollah's missile command center deployed in Tyre, which has been primarily responsible for targeting Haifa and its surroundings. The regional command center was located on the 12th floor of a Tyre building that the IAF destroyed. The IAF bombings continued as Israel Defense Forces artillery pounded townships in the south. According to reports from Lebanon, two women were killed in the attacks, raising the number of Lebanese killed in the fighting to about 400.
The western sector of south Lebanon, which was quiet until recently, was also shelled on Thursday, and residents of more villages were ordered to leave their homes. For instance, residents of the Christian village of Ain Abel, near the border, were ordered to leave, presumably in order to allow the IDF to tighten the blockade on Bint Jbail.
Hezbollah maintains a number of regional command centers in southern Lebanon similar to that destroyed on Thursday. The organization calls them planning units. The unit in Tyre controlled a large number of 220mm rockets manufactured in Syria, which had caused most of the Israeli civilian fatalities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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I hope the Christians from Ain Abel had the good sense to evacuate to Israel.
The US-led coalition used artillery to kill three suspected Taliban militants holed up in a house on Thursday, a coalition statement said. The militants were killed following a failed ambush on a coalition convoy in the Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, according to the statement. There were no coalition or civilian causalities, it said.
"You'll never take us alive, infidels!"
"Hokay. Bring up the artillery, Sergeant Major!"
"Hey! Wait...! [KERBOOM!]"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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Just send in your Chief and surrender
'Tis worse if you fights or you runs,
You may go where you please;
You can skid up the trees
But you don't get away from the guns.
--Rudyard Kipling
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2006 10:42
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Are the talibunnies running out of gunnies? I am worried about the low body count.
Kuwait has demanded that Pakistan take immediate measures to stop the massive heroin smuggling from Pakistani airports into the country as the drug poses a serious threat to its internal security and stability.
"Or at least cut us in on a little of the action."
The Kuwaiti government is concerned that the drug has gained popularity among the rich tribal section of society, according to official documents of the Ministry of Labour and Overseas Pakistanis, seen by Daily Times, that will be discussed by a National Assembly standing committee on Friday.
The Amir of Kuwait, during a recent visit to Pakistan, told a delegation of senators headed by Senate Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro that the Kuwaiti government had restricted the issuance of visas to Pakistani workers because they were smuggling heroin into the country.
Top level sources confirmed that after receiving the reports from Kuwait, President General Pervez Musharraf directed Narcotics Minister Ghous Bux Mehar to rush to Kuwait and meet with the first deputy prime minister to remove their apprehensions. During their discussions, Kuwaits first deputy prime minister told Mr Mehar that drug smuggling from Pakistan had become a major threat to the security and satiability of the state. All the heroin available in Kuwait was coming from Pakistan, he said. Sources said Mr Mehar briefed the Kuwait official on Pakistans efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation and assured him that Pakistan would address Kuwaits concerns.
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006
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But what are the poor Pakistanis expected to export?
How unfair of Kuwait, Ummah OIC member and all that..
Posted by: john ||
07/28/2006 15:55
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No, not *this* militant. Other militants, capische?
The Bangladesh government has put intelligence and security agencies on alert fearing fresh attacks by members of an outlawed Islamic militant group blamed for a spate of fatal bombings last year, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The Home Ministry ordered the alert early this week after receiving intelligence that members of the banned Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh were regrouping, and "might go for further attacks at any place, any time," the English-language Daily Star reported, citing unnamed security sources. The militants want to replace Bangladesh's secular laws with strict Islamic rule and have been held responsible for bombings that killed 26 people and wounded dozens across the country last year.
The government had received reports that group was reforming and wanted to avenge the arrests of several of its top leaders, the newspaper said. In May, a court sentenced seven militants to death, including the group's two top leaders - Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam - for their involvement in the slayings of two judges in a November 14 bomb attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - Attackers who shut down an Agip oil pumping station in southern Nigeria on Tuesday night are still occupying the facility but talks are under way to persuade them to leave, a state official said on Thursday. Agip's parent company, Italy's Eni, earlier said the attack on the Ogbainbiri station in Bayelsa state had resulted in a significant decrease in output. Agip normally exports 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) through its Brass tanker terminal in Bayelsa.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(KUNA) -- A civilian helicopter belonging to a foreign mission was crashed in southeastern Afghanistan Wednesday evening. Coalition forces said all 16 people aboard the plane had been killed. The plane had come down in the mountainous region of the southeastern Paktia province last evening. Cause of the crash was not known.
Earlier, reports suggested that the plane was belonging to an American health NGO and four people were on board when it came down. But spokesman for coalition forces Colonel Tom Collin told journalists they had recovered 12 bodies so far while search was on for the remaining four people, who are also believed to be dead. Without revealing cause of the crash, military sources in Kabul said two American nationals and two Dutch military personnel were among the dead.
The plane crash happened in a region which is infested by Taliban fighters but the militants so far did not issued any statement. In recent months, the insurgents had intensified attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in the southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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BAGHDAD - Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will know on October 16 whether he is to be found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed, the judge said on Thursday on the last day of his trial.
Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman brought a day of turbulent proceedings to a close after court-appointed lawyers completed the defence arguments, saying: The trial will adjourn until October 16 to check over the files of this case.
On Thursday, the last defendant to make his case, Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, had to be physically pushed back into his chair by court bailiffs after the glowering former judge denounced his counsel and tried to defend himself. Rahman told him to shut up and a furious al-Bandar later exclaimed: If you were to execute me, that would be better than what you said to me before.
"Hokay. Where's the rope?"
Bandars stand-in lawyer made a brief statement in his defence, arguing that as a judge in a Saddam-era revolutionary court, his client had only done his duty in signing the Dujail residents death warrants. He was a man applying the law and all the defendants were transferred to the revolutionary court legally, the lawyer said.
Just following orders.
While the verdict in the Dujail case is awaited, attention will turn to Saddams next trial. On August 21, he is due to face prosecution for his role in his regimes bloody Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the early 1980s.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2006
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Let him await his hanging in the spider hole he hid in.
what's the holding facility like that he's in? plush?
Posted by: Jan ||
07/28/2006 0:43
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This crap has dragged on long enough! I don't suppose there's any hope he'll be strung up on October 17? Let's get it over with already!
I will be willing to wait a few more weeks if they'll be using a plastic shredder on him though...
Posted by: Dar ||
07/28/2006 17:12
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The senior official responsible for the Big Dig resigned Thursday, handing a political victory to Gov. Mitt Romney and clearing the way for the governor to have greater control over the gigantic highway project after a woman was killed when tunnel ceiling tiles crushed her car.
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman Matt Amorello announcing his resignation today in Boston's North End neighborhood. Matthew J. Amorello, the chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversees the Big Dig, agreed to resign hours before a hearing at which Governor Romney was expected to fire him. Mr. Romney, who for several years has sought control over the independent Turnpike Authority and called for Mr. Amorello's resignation, had begun a process to remove him after the tunnel accident on July 10, which killed Milena Del Valle, a 38-year-old mother of three.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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#1
How about a manslaughter charge for him in her death?
#2
Fat Matt gets a 6 month severance package (approx. 110K); the state retirement board projects his pension at $55K per year. Not bad for a no-talent hack.
#3
3dc, Fat Matt wasn't involved when that section of the tunnel was done. The oversight was in someone else's hands so I don't think that you can hit him for Manslaughter. There's a whole bunch of people you can line up for that role but, in fairness, Matt wouldn't be one of them.
When the bomb exploded from the plane. I felt I was in hell. Real hell, shouts 31-year-old Ghassan stabbing the air with his finger and straining over the side of his grubby hospital bed. Professing allegiance to Palestinian national security, Ghassan went to Gazas Maghazi refugee camp last week to fight the Israelis during a particularly bloody incursion. I feel chemicals. I feel high heat, I feel high pain, he elaborates in English, both legs heavily bandaged, as patients and visitors brush past in a crowded corridor of Gazas Al-Shifa hospital. They found shrapnel with test written on it, he shouts.
Accusations abound that the Israelis, pressing a nearly five-week offensive in which 130 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, are using a new weapon. Doctors say they have never before seen such specific burn injuries, concentrated so much on the lower body and causing such a high propensity of amputations. The Health Ministry has already called for an independent inquiry.
A French humanitarian group reported unusually severe injuries. One of its doctors reportedly raised the possibility that Israel used cluster bombs. In response to a query about use of a new type of weapon possibly containing chemicals, the army said only that specific claims are being checked.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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#1
Again the same old ridiculous antisemitic slanders. Those Arabs mentionned in this article are still living in the darkest Middle Age. Tiring.
#2
I see opportunity here. The Israelis need to start rumors that their new bombs:
$bull; Cause penises to fall off
$bull; Cause Arab girls to lose their virginity
$bull; Have pages from the Koran mixed in the explosive
$bull; Are full of shrapnel with passages from the Torah printed on them
I wish I could write in Arabic. I would start a website and spew this stuff all day.
#5
High-explosive cause death and pain? Who knew? Btw, the lci channel had the same claim made by a lebanese physician taking care of refugees claiming his two main problems were stress and skin diseases caused by the "strange weapons" Isreal uses; of course, this was given casually and en passant, the usual anti-israeli innuendo by french media.
#7
"They found shrapnel with test written on it"
Do share! I'm sure some neutral doctors would like to see a few of these patients as they come in for themselves!
I'm guessing the Brave Lions of Hezb'Allah are hiding under the bed with their little leggies sticking out.
Another common injury reported is many of them show up missing a thumb. Happens a lot when bombs go off nearby and their mouths reflexivly clamp shut. :-)
#12
All ordinance should be dipped in pig shit prior to using. Oh, and be sure to scratch 'pig shit' on the outside. This little trick overcomes the will to survive among Arab men. Many die after sucessful operations from infections.
#20
Gromgoru, your high esteem of the french will go up YET an another a notch : the liberal-limousine I-télé continous news channel is having a reportage expressing the exact same claims... french propaganda SOP : letting the arab witnesses do the talking about the chemical weapons, the weird wounds, the "old uranium used to enhance bombs",...without any counterbalancing, using NGO sources which have "photographed clusterbombs", saying the Un will investigate,... nothing said at face value, just innuendo.
Of course, this is aired every 30 minutes.
Isn't that nice, when the leftists join the quai d'Orsay in a love embrace?
This astounding new ornance often causes bleeding, dermal burns, over-pressure hemmorhaging, concussion and, quite frequently, enemy deaths. Rather unlike the enemy's weapons.
Egypts Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest Islamist political movements in the Arab world, rejected on Thursday sectarian fatwas by Saudi clerics against supporting Hizbollah in its fight against Israel.
Several Saudi clerics have issued religious opinions or fatwas banning support for the Lebanese guerrilla group. It is not allowed to support this Shia party, to operate under its control or to pray for their victory, one Wahhabi authority, Sheikh Abdullah bin Jabreen, said. Our advice to Sunnis is to have nothing to do with them.
Mohamed Habib, the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is also Sunni but not Wahhabi, told Reuters: This is not the time for it (issuing such fatwas) and this is not the right circumstance. This fatwa gives the impression that there is a Shia danger that threatens the region and introduces division at the level of the Arab and Muslim world.
A statement by Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef on Wednesday referred obliquely to the Saudi fatwas, saying that some people were trying to revive old sectarian divisions. Some governments are trying to disguise their failure to assist the resistance and even support for the Zionist aggression and American arrogance by bringing up matters such as the differences between the Shia and the Sunna and by saying that the Lebanese resistance is working for Iran, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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I'll see your fatwa and raise you one fatwa
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 1:57
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well, duh! if you weren't so f!@#$ing crazy we could deal with you like normal people!
#3
This Sunni turn began the second that Congress let Iraq's Shiite leader present himself to them as a WOT hero after he praised Hizbollah back home. Catastrophic errors like that must not be made. Look before you leap.
A Palestinian youth was shot and killed Thursday by two Border Policemen after he attacked them on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said. The youth apparently opened fire on the policemen, wounding one of them moderately and the other lightly before they returned fire, police and rescue workers said. Police were carrying out searches in the area to see if the youth had any accomplices, a police spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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Darwin award nominee 2006; youth armed with zeal of the perennial victim cult and 'shutter gun' takes on two experienced and tooled-up professionals who a) know how to shoot and b) have bigger calibre guns that shoot straight. Result; mess on the floor and two column inches.
4 out of 10, would have been higher, but no novelty value...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/28/2006 19:20
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"Police were carrying out searches in the area to see if the youth had any accomplices"
In the case of the paleos, wouldn't it be easier to find the only 2 paleos who weren't his accomplices?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2006 19:37
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MIRANSHAH: A soldier was killed and three injured when a remote-controlled roadside bomb hit a military convoy in North Waziristan on Thursday. One of the injured soldiers was stated to be critical.
A military convoy of around 35 vehicles was heading from Bannu towards Miranshah, regional headquarters of North Waziristan, with reinforcements when a roadside bomb went off, Fida Khan, local official from Mir Ali town, told Daily Times. This is the first such attack on the army since June 25 when local militants, known as Taliban, announced a unilateral ceasefire. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(KUNA) -- Up to seven people were killed and wounded Thursday in two separate attacks in Diyala province in northeast Baghdad, the Iraqi police said. A statement for the joint coordination center said that a booby-trapped vehicle blew up inside a market in Baqouba during which four civilians were wounded. The statement added that unidentified armed men attack a civilian vehicle in Maqdadiya during which three civilians were killed.
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NOTORIOUS gang rapist Bilal Skaf has been jailed for a maximum 31 years over the August 2000 attack on a teenage girl in Sydney's west. Skaf's brother, Mohammed Skaf, who can now be named, has been sentenced to a maximum 15 years over the same pack rape of a 16-year-old girl at Greenacre's Gosling Park.
Be gone with both of them.
Bilal Skaf will not be eligible for parole until February 11, 2033, while his brother must remain in jail until at least July 1, 2019.
Not long enough.
Bilal sat quietly as Acting Justice Jane Mathews told the court he was the leader of a group of men who attacked the girl in the park on August 12, 2000. Bilal had dragged the girl into the park and raped her as his friends were standing around, laughing and talking in their own language, Justice Mathews said.
The 24-year-old, who was already serving a maximum of 28 years for other sex offences, smiled briefly as Justice Mathews sentenced him to the 31 years, part of which will be served concurrently. Mohammed, Bilal's younger brother, who is also in jail for other sex offences, was sentenced to a minimum of seven-and-a-half years for his role in the attack.
The then 17-year-old knew the rape victim and drove her to the park, Justice Mathews said. His involvement in the evening's activities was an absolutely crucial one, she said. Without him, the offences would not have been committed at all.
Outside the court, the victim's mother said she was happy with today's sentence and hoped it would give her daughter some closure. She'll never forget it but hopefully she'll be able to talk about it, she said.
Both men were convicted in April this year over the pack rape, which allegedly involved up to 14 men. Bilal Skaf was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in company, while Mohammed was found guilty of being an accessary before the fact.
It was the second time the two were found guilty, after their initial conviction was quashed in 2004 when it was revealed two jurors conducted their own investigations at the rape scene. The actions of the jurors in the original trial prompted the New South Wales Government to make it illegal for any juror to conduct private investigations outside court. It also led to a law allowing sexual victims to avoid giving evidence at retrials, instead testifying via transcript or video.
In what was believed to be the first time the new evidence laws were used, the gang rape victim was not required to be in court for the Skaf retrial, and her transcript evidence from the previous trial was re-enacted for the jurors.
#1
I would hope that there are some hard time Aussie cons that will serve real justice to these animals. I hope they are somebody's bitch for a real long time. And then they are killed.
#3
Bilal & Mohammed: It won't be long before you'll be far+ing about three octaves lower and drinking protein shakes for a midnight snack. And nobody's going to care except you. And every day for the next 33 years you'll wake up wondering if this day is going to be another "lucky" day! Why is it some people learn so hard? Was it worth it?
Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman Al-Zawahiri vowed yesterday that the network would carry out attacks against Israel and its US backers to avenge the Israeli offensives against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. In a videotape aired by Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera, Osama Bin Ladens right-hand man also called for an alliance of Sunni and Shiite Muslim fighters transcending sectarian animosities and extending from Afghanistan to the Palestinian territories in order to liberate the whole of Palestine.
We cannot watch these rockets raining down their fire on our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and remain inactive and submissive, Zawahiri said in the footage. It was the first reaction by Al-Qaeda to the onslaughts that started in late June in Gaza and on July 12 in Lebanon, triggered by the capture of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah respectively. The rockets and missiles tearing apart the bodies of Muslims in Gaza and Lebanon are not purely Israeli. They come from and are funded by all the countries of the crusader alliance, Zawahiri said in a reference to the United States and Western allies.
Hence, everyone who took part in the crime must pay the price ... The whole world is an open field for us. Like they attack us everywhere, we too attack them everywhere. Zawahiris comments indicated that Al-Qaeda was prepared to help Hezbollah despite differences with the Shiite sect. These events (in Lebanon and Gaza) show the importance of the jihadi fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. All Muslims must assist them so that Americas forces get out of them crippled ... and pay the price of its aggression against Muslims and its support for Israel, he said.
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A fleeing Al Qaida Guerilla, desperate for water, was plodding through the Iraqi desert when he saw something far off in the distance. Hoping to find water, he walked toward the object, only to find a little old Jewish man at a small stand selling neckties. The Arab asked, "Do you have water?" The Jewish man replied, "I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only $5.00. The Arab shouted, "Idiot Jew! Israel should not exist! I do not need an overpriced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I must find water first. "OK", said the old Jew, "it does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie and that you hate me. I will show you that I am bigger than that. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a lovely restaurant. It has all the water you need. Shalom. Muttering, the Arab staggered away over the hill. Several hours later he staggered back, near collapse. "Your brother won't let me in without a tie."
#3
Aww, poor widdle Zawahire baby not gettin' enuff attention lately? Feeling a widdle irrelevant and impotent these days? Do what I do, release yet another false Fatwa for the mindless masses to seethe over or start yet another "immoral conflict" that you like to legitimize using the word "Jihad".
And what is this "inactive and submissive" crapola? Need to drum up some more cannon fodder to legitimize your murderous view on life? Gotta keep things moving or it gets boring!
Attention whore. Crawl back in your cave, draw the camoflage over the opening, take your turn at the goat after Bin Laden is done with it, and dream of what it would be like to take a bath, wear clean clothes, and eat a home-cooked meal with all your kids (even the "martyred" ones) and 13-year old wives. But there's no turning back now, is there?
#4
We cannot watch these rockets raining down their fire on our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and remain inactive and submissive, Zawahiri said in the footage.
How about all those rockets raining down their fire on Israel, launched by your Hamass 'brothers'? Got anything to say about that, asshole?
#6
How the hell is this a "new" policy? AQ has been preaching combat across the whole world for quite a while. Ayman just doesn't want to be forgotten when all the attention is focussed on Lebanon.
#7
Hence, everyone who took part in the crime must pay the price ... The whole world is an open field for us. Like they attack us everywhere, we too attack them everywhere.
Maybe this just another opportunity to boost enlistment or possibly its the AQ old guard feeling irrelevant? But if recent history is a guide, the world cannot be ambivalent to these threats and has no choice but to take these pricks at their word.
Protracted negotiations again held up the completion on Wednesday of a draft resolution on how the UN Security Council demands that Iran halt its uranium enrichment, diplomats said. Ambassadors from the major powers had expressed hope on Tuesday that a text of a resolution would be ready to distribute to all 15 nations on the UN Security Council on Wednesday. But a text that was referred back to the British, Chinese, French, German, Russian and US governments by the ambassadors had still not been fully agreed by late Wednesday, diplomats said.
Many of the ministers involved were at a meeting in Rome on Wednesday on the Lebanon crisis. They have set a new target of Thursday for agreeing a draft, the diplomats said. Ministers from the six powers decided earlier this month to send the Iran nuclear dossier back to the Security Council after Tehran failed to respond to a package of Western security and economic incentives in exchange for suspending its enrichment activities, which many Western capitals believe hides efforts to develop a nuclear bomb.
Posted by: Fred ||
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tick...tick....tick.....tick....K-BOOM!
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 16:44
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QUETTA: Five soldiers and six smugglers were killed in a clash in Bramcha, Dalbandin, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Thursday. "A Frontier Corps (FC) team led by Colonel Shakil Imtiaz raided a house believed to be a smugglers' hideout. The smugglers opened fire on the raiding team and a shootout ensued, lasting several hours," a FC source said. He said that five soldiers and six smugglers were killed while several others from both sides were seriously injured in the crossfire. A journalist from Dalbandin told Daily Times that the injured FC soldiers were moved to Quetta by a helicopter for treatment.
FC spokesman Omer Farooq said the number of casualties on both sides were likely to increase. Farooq did not rule out the involvement of terrorists in the clash, but said it would be premature to blame any particular group.
UPDATE: Quetta, July 28: Pakistani troops and drug traffickers clashed near the Afghan border yesterday and five soldiers and six smugglers were killed, an official said. Another soldier died in a separate roadside bombing.
Maj Mohammed Haroon said the gunbattle took place near Bramcha village in the southwestern Baluchistan province when the troops tried to intercept three sport utility vehicles that entered Pakistan from Afghanistan. The troops had information that the vehicles were carrying drugs and those driving them opened fire after they were ordered to stop for checking, Haroon said. In the ensuing gunbattle between the smugglers and troops, three soldiers were killed at the scene while two others died at a hospital, Haroon said. Two other soldiers were wounded.
Haroon said that six traffickers were also killed and their bodies were taken by their accomplices, who drove back into southwestern Afghanistan. The area where the shooting occurred, about 290 kilometers southwest of Quetta, Baluchistan's capital, lies at a route that traffickers use to smuggle narcotics to Iran from Afghanistan.
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RIYADH - A Saudi television appeal has raised at least 120 million riyals ($32 million) for Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas have been fighting for more than two weeks, state media said on Thursday. The money gathered during the day-long telethon, which lasted until the early hours of Thursday, included 10 million riyals from King Abdullah and 5 million riyals from Crown Prince Sultan, the state news agency SPA said.
Toss a little money in the kitty and the rubes will follow along ...
Saudi Arabia said earlier this week it had placed $1 billion in Lebanons central bank, in an effort to prop up the Lebanese pound, and made a separate donation of $500 million to help rebuild the battered country. The kingdom, the worlds largest oil exporter, last week also donated $50 million for urgent humanitarian aid, taking its total financial help so far to $1.582 billion.
Saudi Arabia has played a key role in supporting the Lebanese economy since 1990 and made clear it wants to maintain that role once the fighting has ended, partly to challenge the influence Iran exerts through its funding of Hezbollah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
$1.582 billion? That's what we're paying at the pump of a gallon of gas.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 1:58
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#2
Anyone heard of a telethon for those Afghans who had been starving due to Taliban and Al Quaida? of a telethon for Darfur? For the victims of the tsunami and of Pakistan's earthquake?
#3
Auhhh yes, our friends the Soodi's again. Interesting how many of the financial matters concerning the GWOT eventually trail back to the majic kingdom.
A commander of the Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and two security personnel were among the eight people killed while ten others, including a militant who threw the grenade were injured in Jammu and Kashmir overnight.
Militants abducted four people while security forces recovered RDX in the state during the period, an official spokesman said on Wednesday. He said a total of four infiltrators were killed by the security forces in the Gurez sector since Tuesday night, with one being killed there on Wednesday. Security forces averted a major tragedy when they recovered a live grenade from a bus at the Narbal crossing on the Srinagar-Baramulla road.
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The armed wing of the Hamas militant group on Thursday dismissed comment from President Mahmoud Abbas, during a visit to Rome, that a solution could be imminent to the case of a captured Israeli soldier. The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades was among three factions that captured Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25 in a cross-border raid from Gaza. Israel rejected demands for a prisoner swap and launched an offensive that has killed 148 Palestinians.
"Nothing has changed in the case of the Israeli soldier," said Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades. "The file remains in the hands of the resistance factions and not in the hands of any politician even if that politician is Abu Mazen," Ubaida said, using Abbas's nickname.
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The Bush administration and GOP leaders on Thursday renewed their push for Senate approval of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador. Democrats maintained he is too brash and ineffective to be confirmed.
The sharp division all but guaranteed that lawmakers were headed toward another partisan showdown in the full Senate, although Democrats would not say whether their opposition would amount to a filibuster, as it did last year. A Senate vote on Bolton could come as early as September, just as election season heats up with Bush's foreign policy a major issue for voters. The United Nations has been at the forefront of international discussions on North Korea's missile tests, Iran's nuclear program and the crisis in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2006
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#1
Boxer doesn't want Bolton, she want's strap-on
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2006 2:00
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#2
If you haven't seen John Bolton Embarrasses a Confused Senator Kerry (Video)
Ambassador John Bolton totally outclassed Senator John F. Kerry in the Senate hearings on Thursday,
Video HERE http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/07/john-bolton-embarrasses-confused.html
#4
To those who still haven't realized the truth: The dems do not care one whit about the welfare of the US. Their sole concern is to score political points, assassinate character, obstruct, obfuscate, attack and divide. It's got nothing to do with a difference of opinion. It has only to do with hatred of what is good and right. At the risk of repeating myself for the umpteenth time, I say it again: These people have no soul.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
GENEVA - A UN human rights body told Washington on Friday that any secret detention centres the United States was operating abroad violated international law and should be shut immediately.
(KUNA) A bomb exploded inside the office building of government Department for Social Welfare in Pakistani tribal district, destroying it but there was no life loss, said officials Friday. Bomb went off on late Thursday in the social welfare office in Tank district, over 50 kilometers from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan tribal agency, a security official told KUNA on the condition of anonymity.
SEATTLE - At least five people were wounded by gunshots Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and one person was arrested, police said. A SWAT team was searching the building, looking for any other victims, anyone hiding or any other possible shooters, police spokesman Rich Pruitt said. 
CHITTAGONG, July 27 (BDNEWS): An alleged terrorist was killed early Thursday in 'crossfire' between the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and a group of terrorists in Uttar Kattali area under Pahartoli thana in Chittagong. 
Reuters
NEW DELHI - Two more people have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts, the police said on Friday. Faizal Sheikh and his brother Muzammil Sheikh were arrested on Thursday night, an official of the police anti-terrorist squad said. So far eight people have been arrested in connection with the July 11 serial blasts, which killed 182 people. All the arrested are Indian Muslims. They include a software professional and a doctor.
TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israeli military intelligence has assessed that Hizbullah's intelligence chief could have been killed in a massive air strike on the movement's headquarters in Lebanon.
July 28, 2006: Apparently the Taliban has lost some 1000-1200 fighters killed in Afghanistan over the past 8-10 weeks. Despite this, there's only been a slight dip in the number of attacks, mainly because there's so much money being offered for those willing to fight. Apparently the Taliban recruited a lot of folks over the winter. Many Pakistani Pushtuns have been identified among the dead. Several hundred of these Taliban fighters have been captured as well, and some report that morale is getting shaky as the string of Taliban defeats continues. 
Question: Whats the difference between the Arab League and the academic Left that despises Israel? Answer: Only the Arab League is willing to condemn Hezbollah.
'Congress needs controversy,' former mayor says 
Intelligence reports indicate the leader of Hezbollah is hiding in a foreign mission in Beirut, possibly the Iranian Embassy, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
DEBKAfile reports a war council opened in Damascus Thursday chaired by Syrian president Bashar Assad, attended by Hizballahs Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian official Ali Larijani. Irans state news agency confirmed Nasrallahs presence in the Syrian capital for consultations. DEBKAfiles military sources note that Nasrallah crossed over despite the heavy Israeli air bombardment of Lebanese-Syrian border regions. The war conference is attended also by Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal and Mussa Abu Marzouk as well as the Palestinian Jihad Islami chief Abdallah Ramadan Shelah. The Palestinian terrorist leaders were invited in their capacity as commanders of the second front against Israel in Gaza. 
BAIDOA, Somalia A Somali legislator was fatally shot outside a mosque Friday, the latest blow to a virtually powerless administration that has watched helplessly as Islamic militants have taken over much of the country. Abdallah Isaaq Deerow, Somalia's minister for constitutional and federal affairs, was shot by an unidentified gunmen, who then escaped, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Mr. Deerow was not among 18 key ministers who resigned Thursday, saying the government has failed to bring peace to this chaotic African nation. Government officials were not immediately available for comment. Police said they were investigating.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Israeli intelligence ups estimate of Hizballah stock of Zelzal-2 missiles whose 250km range covers Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israeli army chiefs fear that Hassan Nasrallah, having received the nod from Tehran Wednesday, will start firing them at central Israel over the weekend. 
...The situation is worsening. War is an abandonment of reason, 
Of course we should tolerate it. All corpses may smell the same, but they don't get in that condition in the same manner. There's a false equivalence between Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda on the one hand, and American forces in Iraq and the Israeli defense forces. The former is in the habit of using innocents both as shields and as targets. The rockets raining on Haifa aren't targeted at military formations or military targets; they're aimed at the city in general, with no concern for who might be standing under them. Hamas has in the past boomed bar mitzvahs and discos and pizza parlors, none of which is by any stretch of the imagination a military target. One of the Islamic Heroes Hezbollah wants released in return for the men it's kidnapped killed a father and his 4-year-old after invading their apartment as they were watching the teevee. Those are matters of policy. The U.S. and the IDF take a different tack, trying to root out the very sort of men making up Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda and kill them. There is no mark on a map that sez "Hezbollah be here!" They hide among the populace Mao's dictum on guerrilla war is "the guerrilla is the fish, the people are the sea." In the present case, Hezbollah is holding the entire country hostage. We consciously try to avoid killing innocents, sometimes erring on the side of caution, other times not. 
Tehran is using Hizbullah's confrontation with the Jewish state to test the abilities of Iranian weapons and to observe Israeli military capabilities, Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt charged in a WorldNetDaily interview yesterday.
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. - Town officials have nixed an idea for a jailhouse bar. The Select Board, acting as the town liquor board, rejected an inmate's application to sell liquor from the state prison.
Another top aide to the Islamist militant Siddqul Islam 'Bangla Bhai', this time Bagmara upazila chief advisor to Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh (JMJB), was arrested yesterday by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in a raid at Shikdari Bazar in Bagmara.
Two roadside bombs went off in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, killing a newspaper vendor and wounding a soldier and a civilian, the military said. Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe blamed the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the consecutive blasts in Jaffna Peninsula, a predominantly Tamil area. Samarasinghe said the target of the bombs were a Sri Lankan military patrol, but that the first one killed a newspaper vendor. The second one wounded one soldier and one civilian, he said.
Police suspect that a settler missing since Thursday morning from the northern West Bank was killed by Palestinians, who then burned and dismembered his body. The missing man was a resident of the settlement of Yakir in the northern West Bank, east of Qalqilyah. His scorched body was discovered in the trunk of a burnt car with Israeli license plates, near the Palestinian village of Kafr Abbus in the northern West Bank. The car belonged to the father of the settler, who apparently had been driving the vehicle at the time of his disappearance.
(KUNA) -- The Iraqi Army announced Wednesday that its soldiers were able to arrest eight people suspected of being fighters in Tal Afar west of Mosul, in Northern Iraq. Official in charge of operations in the Iraqi Army's second Corps Colonel Lokman Khurshid said in a press statement that the soldiers of the Iraqi army had arrested eight persons in the neighbourhood of Al Muthanna during a raid in Tal Afar. He pointed out that different weapons were seized in Valley Muthanna, adding that caves were discovered in the area.
Police arrested software engineer Muzammil Shaikh and his brother, Faisal Shaikh, on Thursday and claimed that the latter was the "western India Lashkar-e-Taiba commander". TOI first reported, in the edition dated July 26, that investigators probing the Terror Tuesday conspiracy were zeroing in on the chief LeT operative in western India. Police had then claimed that he was a businessman operating from Mumbai. 
(KUNA) -- As many as 21 people, including five security personnel, were injured in three grenade explosions in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir Thursday on the eve of Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam's two-day visit to the state.
Three Palestinians, including a 75-year-old woman, were killed in Israeli gunfire in Gaza yesterday, a day after the coastal strip suffered one of the deadliest days since the start of a massive Israeli offensive a month ago. The woman was killed when an artillery shell slammed into her home near the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. In addition, a 16-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man were killed east of Gaza City. Nineteen other Palestinians were wounded. On Wednesday, the Israeli military killed 24 Palestinians.
(KUNA) -- Four people were injured in a mortar shell attack targeting Al-Doura, a Baghdad suburb, Thursday, reported Iraqi police.
(KUNA) -- The death toll of the series of explosions that rocked Al-Karrada district in Baghdad early Thursday was put at 25 and the number of wounded at 67. An interior ministry source told KUNA that two of the explosions were the result of two booby-trapped vehicles whereas the rest of the explosions were the result of bombs, missile and mortar shell attacks. The source indicated that the death toll is expected to rise as paramedics are trying to recover the bodies of the victims.
Early Friday, Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of northern Gaza, residents said, after a bloody two-day sweep.
A candidate to be governor in Nigeria's main city of Lagos has been killed in what police said on Thursday could be a political assassination, the latest sign of rising violence ahead of general elections next year. Funso Williams of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) was killed on Wednesday night at his Lagos home, police said. "He was strangled in his study by unknown persons last night," federal police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Four policemen guarding the residence have been arrested.
(KUNA) -- Iraqi government said on Thursday Al Qaeda leader was killed and eight insurgents were arrested. The statement did not report the leader's identity or nationality. The detainees have connections with insurgency leaders. They are also involved in killing policemen and destroying police stations. They are suspected of killing more than 20 members of the National guards, the statement added. Security forces seized great amounts of substances used in manufacturing RPGs and explosive devices.
North Korea Thursday refused to rejoin nuclear talks until the United States drops financial sanctions, dimming hopes of reviving the stalled discussions at a security meeting here. The communist state's announcement comes despite days of hectic diplomacy aimed at dragging Pyongyang back to the negotiating table on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.
The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is backed by foreign money, terror networks and fighters coming over the border from Pakistan, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan said on Wednesday. But Tom Koenigs, the special UN representative, said the Pakistan government was not backing the Taliban, as it once did, because the militant Islamists were a threat to its stability as well. "We face a Taliban movement, which has apparently recovered and has to be answered by a series of measures, political as well as military," he told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council. 
A group of hardline Iranian students left for Lebanon on Wednesday pledging to help Hizbollah fight Israeli forces there, witnesses said.
The Upper Galilee was hit by a heavy Katyusha barrage on Thursday afternoon, as 25 rockets landed in and around Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon fired over 100 Katyusha rockets at targets in northern Israel on Thursday, landing across the Galilee and Hula Valley. Thirteen people were lightly injured in rocket strikes on Carmiel, Majdal Krum, Kiryat Shmona, and the area of Rosh Pina. Three people were lightly wounded by shrapnel, and 16 went into shock. Buildings, cars, roads and water pipes were badly damaged in the attacks. One Katyusha hit a house, another hit a factory containing chemicals, and a third hit an educational facility. A firefighter was lightly hurt during operations aimed at putting out several fires.
ROME: Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government on Thursday called a parliamentary vote of confidence on measures to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan. The centre-left government called an open roll-call confidence vote in the upper house Senate to push through the measures, which have been contested by far-left pacifists in his coalition who want the troops to return home.
Some of the Arab League money recently transferred to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been paid out to Hamas ministers this week, according to PA sources. The United States has been leading a campaign to keep international funds from paying Hamas officials' salaries ever since the Islamic militant group won parliamentary elections this winter. 
Somalia's virtually powerless government began unravelling yesterday as a fifth of its cabinet resigned in disgust and the administration's Islamic rivals took over the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu. 
COLOMBO - Sri Lankas air force bombed Tamil Tiger territory in the islands northeast for a second day on Thursday, targeting a suspected rebel air strip as ground troops readied for an incursion to end a water supply blockade. There were no immediate details of any casualties.
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka's Army Commander who was seriously hurt in a failed assassination bid by the Tamil Tigers returned to office Wednesday to resume work in the position, the defense ministry spokesman said. Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told reporters that General Fonseka who was badly hurt in the suicide assassination attempt by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels on April 25 had fully recovered from the near fatal injuries he had received. 
The Israel Air Force on Thursday scored a successful direct hit against Hezbollah's missile command center deployed in Tyre, which has been primarily responsible for targeting Haifa and its surroundings. The regional command center was located on the 12th floor of a Tyre building that the IAF destroyed. The IAF bombings continued as Israel Defense Forces artillery pounded townships in the south. According to reports from Lebanon, two women were killed in the attacks, raising the number of Lebanese killed in the fighting to about 400. 
The US-led coalition used artillery to kill three suspected Taliban militants holed up in a house on Thursday, a coalition statement said. The militants were killed following a failed ambush on a coalition convoy in the Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, according to the statement. There were no coalition or civilian causalities, it said.
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - Attackers who shut down an Agip oil pumping station in southern Nigeria on Tuesday night are still occupying the facility but talks are under way to persuade them to leave, a state official said on Thursday. Agip's parent company, Italy's Eni, earlier said the attack on the Ogbainbiri station in Bayelsa state had resulted in a significant decrease in output. Agip normally exports 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) through its Brass tanker terminal in Bayelsa.
BAGHDAD - Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will know on October 16 whether he is to be found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed, the judge said on Thursday on the last day of his trial.
The senior official responsible for the Big Dig resigned Thursday, handing a political victory to Gov. Mitt Romney and clearing the way for the governor to have greater control over the gigantic highway project after a woman was killed when tunnel ceiling tiles crushed her car.
When the bomb exploded from the plane. I felt I was in hell. Real hell, shouts 31-year-old Ghassan stabbing the air with his finger and straining over the side of his grubby hospital bed. Professing allegiance to Palestinian national security, Ghassan went to Gazas Maghazi refugee camp last week to fight the Israelis during a particularly bloody incursion. I feel chemicals. I feel high heat, I feel high pain, he elaborates in English, both legs heavily bandaged, as patients and visitors brush past in a crowded corridor of Gazas Al-Shifa hospital. They found shrapnel with test written on it, he shouts.
Egypts 
A Palestinian youth was shot and killed Thursday by two Border Policemen after he attacked them on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said. The youth apparently opened fire on the policemen, wounding one of them moderately and the other lightly before they returned fire, police and rescue workers said. Police were carrying out searches in the area to see if the youth had any accomplices, a police spokesman said.
(KUNA) -- Up to seven people were killed and wounded Thursday in two separate attacks in Diyala province in northeast Baghdad, the Iraqi police said. A statement for the joint coordination center said that a booby-trapped vehicle blew up inside a market in Baqouba during which four civilians were wounded. The statement added that unidentified armed men attack a civilian vehicle in Maqdadiya during which three civilians were killed.
NOTORIOUS gang rapist 
Al-Qaeda second in command 
Protracted negotiations again held up the completion on Wednesday of a draft resolution on how the UN Security Council demands that Iran halt its uranium enrichment, diplomats said. Ambassadors from the major powers had expressed hope on Tuesday that a text of a resolution would be ready to distribute to all 15 nations on the UN Security Council on Wednesday. But a text that was referred back to the British, Chinese, French, German, Russian and US governments by the ambassadors had still not been fully agreed by late Wednesday, diplomats said.
QUETTA: Five soldiers and six smugglers were killed in a clash in Bramcha, Dalbandin, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Thursday. "A Frontier Corps (FC) team led by Colonel Shakil Imtiaz raided a house believed to be a smugglers' hideout. The smugglers opened fire on the raiding team and a shootout ensued, lasting several hours," a FC source said. He said that five soldiers and six smugglers were killed while several others from both sides were seriously injured in the crossfire. A journalist from Dalbandin told Daily Times that the injured FC soldiers were moved to Quetta by a helicopter for treatment. 
RIYADH - A Saudi television appeal has raised at least 120 million riyals ($32 million) for Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas have been fighting for more than two weeks, state media said on Thursday. The money gathered during the day-long telethon, which lasted until the early hours of Thursday, included 10 million riyals from King Abdullah and 5 million riyals from Crown Prince Sultan, the state news agency SPA said.
The armed wing of the Hamas militant group on Thursday dismissed comment from President Mahmoud Abbas, during a visit to Rome, that a solution could be imminent to the case of a captured Israeli soldier. The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades was among three factions that captured Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25 in a cross-border raid from Gaza. Israel rejected demands for a prisoner swap and launched an offensive that has killed 148 Palestinians.
The Bush administration and GOP leaders on Thursday renewed their push for Senate approval of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador. Democrats maintained he is too brash and ineffective to be confirmed.
