The US Senate expressed its support of Israel by adopting a resolution condemning Hizbullah, Hamas, Syria and Iran.
"The Senate has spoken loud and clear: Israel has the right to defend itself against aggression. While I urge the Israeli government to act carefully, there should be no doubt as to where we stand in this conflict," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. (AFP)
#2
The Senate also supports amnesty and open border. It doesn't make any sense to support open border, foreign port sales and come against Hizbullah, Hamas, Syria, and Iran. The definition of hypocrite comes to mind. The Senate, as usual, is testing the intelligence of the American people and talking out of the both sides of their mouth.
Dantewada, July 18: The survivors of yesterdays Maoist massacre in Chhattisgarh turned violent, lynching three alleged Maoist sympathisers, stoning the state home ministers helicopter and insulting the leader of the Opposition.
The three people, from a neighbouring village, had come to the Errabore relief camp to place kafans (white cloth) on the 26 dead last evening when they were beaten to death in front of police officers and political leaders.
Yesterday, Maoists had attacked the state-sponsored safe camp of some 4,000 villagers opposed to them, killing 26 and kidnapping 50.
Inmates of the camp alleged that Maoist sympathisers from nearby villages also took part in the carnage. The three lynched persons were victims of this suspicion.
Bodies of six of the 50 abducted people were found in the nearby forest this morning, taking the toll in the camp raid to 32. The rest of the hostages were freed.
At Errabore, the camp inmates fury didnt spare leader of the Opposition Mahendra Karma when he leant over to place a kafan on a body.
You just look at the bodies. Well cover them with the kafan, a villager told the Congress leader who heads the Salwa Judum, a state-managed peoples campaign against the Maoists.
When home minister Ramvichar Netam arrived, he was surrounded by the inmates who lost their temper when he suggested they could leave the camp and return home.
As Netams chopper took off, a hail of stones forced it to land again. The minister climbed out only to face another round of outburst till the police broke up the mob.
The government had set up the relief camps after thousands of villagers began fleeing their homes from a Maoist backlash against suspected Salwa Judum participants. The 27 camps now shelter about 50,000 people.
It was one such camp in Errabore in Dantewada district, about 500 km south of capital Raipur, that the Maoists had attacked in the small hours of Monday.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006
19:48 ||
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#2
I got a real bad feeling that India and China both are going to blow up, and that it will resolve itself by their going to war with each other. A bloody, infantry and artillery war.
A senior Israel Defense Forces officer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that IDF troops had leveled land inside Lebanese territory extending up to one kilometer from Israel's northern frontier.
The objective is to prevent the reestablishment of Hezbollah guerilla posts along Israel's border.
Earlier Monday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel intends to create an unmanned buffer zone in south Lebanon, from where Hezbollah has been pounding Israel with rockets for the past six days.
"One of the aims of the [military] operation is to establish a security area in Lebanon, without the presence of IDF soldiers," Peretz said.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told the committee that Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has been in an underground bunker since the start of Israeli air strikes targeting the group's stronghold in Beirut.
"Sheikh Nasrallah is hiding in a bunker in Beirut beneath the ruins of the of the Shi'ite neighborhood. He and his aides have not seen sunlight since the start of Israel Air Force strikes last Thursday," he said.
Halutz added that since Sunday, "the IDF has been operating in a far more aggressive manner and is firing intensively in response to all of the rockets that are being launched at Israel."
It will take time before the military will be able to assess the effectiveness of operations in Lebanon, Halutz said, as "we have only been operating for about 100 hours."
The IDF chief reiterated that the IDF has no plans to send ground troops into Lebanon, and expressed the hope that this would not change.
"The Home Front must be patient," he said.
A Military Intelligence official who also addressed the committee said that the Palestinians had smuggled suicide bombers through the Philadelphi Route on the Gaza-Egypt border in order to send them into Israel to carry out attacks.
Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi said at the start of the meeting that the IDF is "facing a challenge we haven't known for many years.
"The operation in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip is becoming more complicated in light of the fact that there are abducted soldiers on two fronts. We must display sophistication, creativity and patience."
#1
About an hour and a half ago, Israel just dropped two ordinances that rusulted in larger than "normal" explosion, in Beruit. According Nic at CNN, he's is pretty sure they were bunker busters because of delayed secondary explosions for each of the ordinances. Nic is reporting that the explosions are close to the Beruit Intl Airport.
Here is the question, why would Israel drop bunker busters at or very close to an airport? Maybe Israeli AWACS found Nasarallah. I don't think Nasarallah can avoid using electronic communication, if he is in a bunker. If I was a betting man, I believe he is in a bunker under the airport. There is still power at the airport. I think we can pretty much assume that he is watching television because he is able to react via speeches, from the television coverage. Israel already suspects that Nasrallah is getting intelligence information from the television coverage.
I didn't mean that he was sitting on explosives. Secondary explosions meaning, the time delay on the bunker buster. Timers are adjustable on bunker busters depending penetration material such as, runway quality conctrete. Personally, I think a bunker under the passenger terminal is the perfect place for him to hide.
#6
ya know, buried in a concrete box under 40' of concrete rubble - might be kinda claustrophobic...especially if the electricity, air and water to it are shut off....
heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 21:56
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#7
In the dark, how will they know which way is Mecca?
HEADLINE:
"THE IDF RESTRICTS HEZBOLLAH LEADER'S ABILITY TO PRAY!!"
Oh, the Humanity....
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/18/2006 22:28
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#8
I don't about Nasrallah, but here are some Muslim Nazis praying in 1943.
The last line says it all: ''We were rulers here for 800 years. Inshaallah, we shall return to power here once again''
Using a rostrum overlooking the majestic Red Fort, the Shahi Imam of Delhi's grand old Jama Masjid today hit out at the principal political rivals of the United Democratic Front (UDF) he has floated ahead of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh while challenging the charge that Islam breeds terrorists.
''I can say with authority that it is not any Muslim but the Shiv Sena, the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who are responsible for the serial blasts in Mumbai,'' Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari told a gathering inside the historic mosque.
He cited the recent Sena backlash against the defilement of a statue of the late wife of the party chief as evidence that the Saffron forces were desperate to politically revive themselves in Maharashtra.
The Imam was of the opinion that Muslim men were being blamed for ''every'' terrorist outrage as part of a deep rooted conspiracy.
Community members were being harassed by law enforcing agencies in Mumbai in the wake of the serial blasts even though they had ''no role in the anti-Islamic outrages'', he said, slamming the Congress Governments in Maharashtra and at the Centre.
''Why is it that security forces blame the Lashkar-e-Toiba within ten minutes of a blast. If they already know who did it, why don't they go ahead and arrest the culprits well before the crime is done,'' he asked.
He said he was willing to visit Pakistan and ''talk'' to the LeT commanders if he was given proof of its involvement in terrorist incidents in India. ''If they are responsible then we will talk to them, tell them that they do more harm to the cause of Islam and to Muslims in India through their actions''.
Imam Bukhari said he was worried that while real culprits went scot free and trigerred more blasts, ordinary Muslims were becoming terror suspects in the eyes of the people and the police. ''Every bearded man becomes a suspect'', he said.
Charging the security forces with perpetrating excesses on Muslims, he said terrorism could not be wiped out in such a manner.
''If you want to end terrorism, then you would also have to end State terrorism''.
''The Government should handle the issue of terrorism tactfully.
We want equality before the law'', he said, alleging that the ''yardstick'' was different when it concerned violence perpetrated by Maoists and insurgent groups in the North-East.
He hit out at the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, saying these ''so-called secular parties'' were to blame for all the ills afflicting Muslims today.
''When Muslims get targeted under these so called secular parties, it is time we teach them a lesson. It is time Shias, Sunnis, Ansaris, Saifis, Barelvis, Qureshis and all else stand up as one -- as Muslims -- and snatch back our collective rights and dignity,'' the Imam said, asking the community to stand up to the political challenge.
''We were rulers here for 800 years. Inshaallah, we shall return to power here once again'', he said to loud approval by the nearly 200 assembled men.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006
18:05 ||
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#2
Imam Bukhari said he was worried that while real culprits went scot free and trigerred more blasts, ordinary Muslims were becoming terror suspects in the eyes of the people and the police. ''Every bearded man becomes a suspect'', he said.
Widowed mother Judith Pfeif unsuccessfully sued the Durango Herald newspaper in small claims court Thursday for allegedly failing to report the truth about the U.S. government's role in causing the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Magistrate Doug Walker said the First Amendment was clear.
"I can't tell (the Herald) what to publish any more than I can tell you what to write on the Internet," Walker said.
Pfeif began making her case by introducing herself, with a quavering voice, as a widowed mother of four children who learned to use the Internet to read about Sept. 11 last September.
"My purpose is to raise the standard of reports from negligence to responsible reports and stories about 9/11 and the 9/11 coverup," Pfeif said. "Millions are asking questions not answered by the 9/11 commission. We need more objective reporting of real news beyond spoon- fed propaganda."
Her 22-year-old daughter, Ceara, might not be enlisted in the Army, awaiting deployment to Iraq, if she had been able to learn what she needed to know about the disasters at the World Trade Center and Pentagon from her community newspaper, Pfeif said.
On March 20, Pfeif and her group, Caring for Our Community, shared their research with Herald publisher Richard Ballantine and the editorial board. The group also presented a petition with 193 signatures asking for expanded coverage and then demonstrated in front of the Herald's Main Avenue building. But Ballantine declined to publish their material.
"I don't believe this court has the power to tell Mr. Ballantine to do that," Magistrate Walker said. "And this court can't tell Mr. Ballantine to write more about the Denver Broncos, Iraq or East Timor."
Almost five years after the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, conspiracy theories have proliferated - from the view that the Pentagon was hit not by a plane, but by a cruise missile fired by U.S. or Israeli military, to the assertion that airliners could not have brought down the World Trade Center if the towers had not been rigged with explosives.
Media consultants, psychologists and columnists say that conspiracy theories are popular because people would rather believe that the government was powerful and evil rather than accept it is not in control. University of Utah history professor Bob Goldberg says in his book, "Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America," that conspiracies provide some sense of order and purpose to a chaotic world.
Pfeif claimed in court documents that the defendants owed her $7,500 for forcing upon her group "the arduous job of trying to report the story of the 9/11 coverup, thus costing the plaintiff massive amounts of cash monies for DVDs, paper copying of reports, lost wages, loss of personal time to pursue work, gas money, loss of reputation. ..."
Ballantine said his newspaper tries to select stories that are of interest to all its readers.
"We're interested in (Caring for Our Community's) efforts, but the decision about what to print and when to print is best left to the editors of the newspaper," Ballantine told the court. "It is a freedom we jealously guard."
Pfeif has 15 days to file an appeal, and she was still considering Thursday what to do next.
United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.
God Juanita GRIER, Plaintiff,
v.
Pres. Ronald REAGAN, Mrs. Nancy Reagan, U.S. States Government and Congress, Citizen of U.S. & Foreign Countries, Defendants.
Civ. A. No. 86-0724.
April 1, 1986.
God Juanita Grier, in pro. per.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
FULLAM, District Judge.
*1 Plaintiff has filed a pro se 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 civil rights complaint accompanied by a request to proceed in forma pauperis. Since it appears plaintiff is unable to prepay the cost for commencement of this suit, leave to proceed in forma pauperis will be granted.
Plaintiff names as defendants President and Mrs. Reagan, the United States Government, Congress, and the citizens of the United States and foreign countries. Her complaint is lengthy, rambling, and at times incomprehensible. It seems that plaintiff's basic claims are that she is god of the Universe and that the citizens of the Universe, former Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, and President Reagan have perpetrated crimes against her through the use of an electronic eavesdropping device. The majority of her complaint is composed of a request for relief in which she asks that the court award her items ranging from a size sixteen mink coat and diamond jewelry to a three bedroom home in the suburbs and a catered party at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.
. . . After reviewing the instant complaint, it is clear that the complaint is frivolous under 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(d) and dismissal is appropriate.
#2
Her 22-year-old daughter, Ceara, might not be enlisted in the Army, awaiting deployment to Iraq, if she had been able to learn what she needed to know about the disasters at the World Trade Center and Pentagon from her community newspaper, Pfeif said.
Oh jeebus, another Mother Cindy.
Your daughter's all growed up, sweetie. Deal with it.
Owen Tomkinson was a British soldier who died of cholera in the northern Indian state of Bihar in 1906.
Nothing unusual about that, but people of Ekbalnagar in Gaya town where Mr Tomkinson is buried, believe that his ghost stops residents and passers-by and demands tea and cake.
So much so that to placate the dead soldier's ghost, they offer tea, biscuits and home-baked cakes at Mr Owen's grave at a two-acre burial ground, where he lies buried with hundreds of other Britons who died in the area.
Most of the graves are of children, aged between three months to eight years, and who died between 1833 and 1877.
Mr Tomkinson was among the last people to have been buried here - 'In loving memory of Owen, The dearly loved husband of Annie Tomkinson who died at Gaya (sic) on 19 September 1906, aged at 47 years', reads the epitaph.
But 100 years after his death, locals of this Muslim-dominated neighbourhood still say that the "angrez bhoot" (English ghost) is a restless soul who can be only pacified with tea and cakes.
Gaya is rife with stories about how Mr Tomkinson's ghost "stops people" and "asks for tea and cakes".
"When darkness falls, the English ghost appears. He is dressed in a very English suit and boots. He stands in the middle of the road demanding tea and biscuit," says local school teacher Mohammad Zamiuddin.
Mehmood Ali, caretaker of the 'European' graveyard where the Englishman lies buried, is not sure of Mr Tomkinson's ghost, but says there is a "ghost in the area who likes tea and biscuits" .
"I have never met the English ghost. But I believe there must be some restless soul roaming around the area with his penchant of tea and biscuit," he says.
Sexagenarian Mohammad Basir says he had an encounter with the ghost some five years ago early one morning.
"He stopped me but after shaking my hand became invisible," says Mohammed Basir, a small time businessman.
There are even stories of how the ghost was "tamed" by a local resident few years ago by "chaining" it to a pillar in the graveyard.
"He tied him with some divine chains and fixed him to iron pillars near the grave," says resident Mohammed Zamiuddin.
But Mr Tomkinson's spirit was free again after the chain was stolen from the graveyard, says caretaker, Mohammed Ali.
The oldest English resident of Gaya town, Arthur Wakefield, is appalled by the ghost stories surrounding Mr Tomkinson.
"This story about his ghost demanding tea and biscuits is just hogwash and part of the local superstition," he says.
But residents of Ekbalnagar - the most backward neighbourhood in Gaya town - still keep queuing up at Mr Tomkinson's grave to offer tea and cakes.
Faiyaz Ahmed, a local resident, says it is a small price to pay to keep the Englishman's ghost happy.
"He is quite unlike other ghosts. He is harmless. Even if you do not serve tea and biscuit, he leaves you if you promise to get it any other day," he says.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006
18:00 ||
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I agree. I believe the U.S. don't want Israel to do it because if Israel takes out Hizballah, Hamas, PLO, Syria and Iran, Israel will get all the glory. Israel will look more competent at fighting terror because Israel is not into spreading Democracy, winning hearts and minds, or nation building. Just destroying the terrorists. I don't think the egos at the U.S. Govt. could handle someone else getting that kind of glory.
#3
Wow. I'd say that case of heartburn is terminal, Poison Reverse. You don't actually BELIEVE your shit, do you?
Are you really this poisoned against everyone in the US Government?
That's just fucking stupid.
Godammit, you've just hit a nerve with your blanket bullshit. WHO the fuck are you?
There are millions of Americans who work hard to keep us safe, who work overtime without thanks, who serve in the military, who aren't the egotistical morons you've just painted them ALL to be. They're not perfect and they're not infallible, they're no different from most of us, in fact. Hell, they ARE us. I have ZERO doubt they, and I, would happily bitchslap you into another time zone for that blatantly stupid statement.
Again, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? You're the one with the ego problem. Grow up. Then apologize and beg them, and us, for forgiveness. Then fuck off. You've negated other posts which (maybe) contained good sense. Asshole. You've regressed to Poison Retard, again. Yeah, I know about your early days here. Fuck you.
#4
No, tell us what you really think, flyover! Good thing you didn't include a graphic.
Poison, maybe you should figure out what your "kernel of truth" is and restate it more diplomatically, keeping in mind that we are supposed to avoid going nuclear because of all the political and radioactive fallout!
When I say that "Israel will look more competent", it was not a knock at the best military in the world (U.S.) When I say U.S. Govt. I don't mean the U.S. Military. My problem is that the U.S Military is not given enough freedom to fight the war on terror. I blame the Leftists, MSM and Democrats for the restraint. I never was into nation building or winning hearts and minds, or spreading Democracy in the Islamic world, just the destruction of the terrorists, decisively. I am very familiar with the Islamic mind set, and flowers and candy won't work, only absolute fear. I hope that explains things, if not, sounds like a personal problem. You are more than welcome to go ballistic, burst a vessel, nuclear, plagarize .com or what ever makes you happy.
BTW, what was it that I exactly posted in the past that was EVER anti-US Military. Trust me, I know who's military keeps me safe.
#8
Poison Reverse, perhaps it would help if you explained whence came your understanding. Everyone knows that my husband travelled and worked around the world, and that the I lived for five years with him in Germany and Belgium, that .com spent the better part of two decades working in Saudi Arabia, that 49Pan and Jarhead are active military, that Oldspook is retired Special Forces now doing things to support the guys Over There, that JFM and dear anonymous5089 are French, etc. Where have you been and what have you done to shape your understanding? Some bits of that kind of information will allow others to better understand the information and postions you bring to the table.
From the blog In From the Cold. Interesting information unlikely to be made available elsewhere for a while.
Like your humble correspondent, the Israeli source is now retired (he spent more than twenty years in the IAF), but has a large number of contacts in Israel's military and intelligence establishment.
"We screwed up," is his blunt assessment of the attack on the Israeli vessel. He tells me that Hizballah operated the surveillance radar associated with the C802 for more than 24 hours before the missile was launched. The radar's signal was detected by Israeli SIGINT platforms, but somehow, the information was never relayed to the ships enforcing the blockade off the Lebanese coast. The corvette's anti-missile defenses were active as it patrolled off Beirut, but my source questioned whether the crew was fully prepared for the missile strike. "They weren't in the proper frame of mind for an attack," he complained. You can draw your own inferences about the ship's readiness posture from his statement.
A retired U.S. naval intel specialist believes the corvette had "up to 15 seconds of warning" between the time the missile was fired, and the moment it impacted the ship. That may not sound like much, but in an era of automated missile defenses, the crew still had a shot. Officially, the Israelis haven't revealed if the ship launched chaff, maneuvered, or attempted to engage the missile with its CIWS. From what I'm told, the missile struck a glancing blow to the large "helicopter" barn on the ship's stern, and bounced off, detonating in water nearby. The barn area was thoroughly scorched by a subsequent fire, and this is the area of the ship where the four crew members died. As we've noted previously, the ship was lucky that it didn't take a direct hit from the C802; the missile is more than capable of sinking much larger vessels.
The impact in the ship's helicopter "barn" is also signficant, since its rectangular shape provides the largest (and best) return for the missile's targeting radar.
and that raises another question: did the Hizballah gunners time their launch carefully, to coincide with a turn (when the barn would be most visible), or was the ship's captain attempting to maneuver after his missile warning system sounded, and inadvertently exposed the helicopter hangar, faciliting missile lock-on. If the terrorist gunners timed their launch for a predicted turn, then the corvette was probably being too predictable in its maneuvers. Additionally, there is also the possibility that the ship's position may have masked its Close-In Weapons System (CIWS), which can engage anti-ship missiles at ranges out to one mile. One more lesson learned the hard way.
#1
the missile struck a glancing blow to the large "helicopter" barn on the ship's stern, and bounced off, detonating in water nearby
Interesting... I had been thinking that C-802's missile's warhead had failed to detonate (otherwise such a small ship would have been blown out of the water). I believe the Exocet that hit the USS Stark failed to go off as well as the one that hit the UK's Sheffield in the Falkland War. (If somebody knows better feel free to correct me).
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/18/2006 17:43
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#2
Lets keep the Iwo Jima out of range, I was impressed by the plan to use landing craft instead of bringing the ship in close. The boobs AKA hizballah will try and strike. We can no longer afford complacency......
"is his blunt assessment of the attack on the Israeli vessel. He tells me that Hizballah operated the surveillance radar associated with the C802 for more than 24 hours before the missile was launched. The radar's signal was detected by Israeli SIGINT platforms, but somehow, the information was never relayed to the ships enforcing the blockade off the Lebanese coast"
That's crap. Any israeli combat ship has an ESM to detect radars.
"The corvette's anti-missile defenses were active as it patrolled off Beirut, but my source questioned whether the crew was fully prepared for the missile strike"
More crap, the system can work fully automated.
Laurence. The Stark took 2 one exploded the other didnt. I think the sheffield one exploded but i am not sure.
#5
looks like it didn't detonate. The CSS-N-8 is fast and though old has anti spoofing measures the one that was fired which hit that Egyption hulk didn't explode either
#7
True, Israeli surface vessels have ESM; but the systems do little good if you ignore the signals--and it does happen. There are scores of emitters that will trigger a radar warning system; for example, some types of microwave towers emit signals that are in the same bands as certain SAM radars, and will produce the same type of RWR indication. I'm guessing the Israelis ignored the surveillance radar signal because their spooks had no indication that Hizballah had the C802 surveillance radar, and dismissed it as some sort of spurious signal--until the missile struck the corvette.
Also, as you indicate, the system can work in a full automatic mode. But if the system is masked by the ship's maneuvers (or the presence of another vessel), it won't operate. As I recall, the CIWS on a Saar-5 is atop the forward superstructure; the missile impacted from dead astern, into the helo barn. With the rear superstructure between the CIWS and the missile azimuth, its possible the defensive system was obscured by the rear superstructure, and unable to engage.
#9
did the Hizballah gunners time their launch carefully, to coincide with a turn (when the barn would be most visible), or was the ship's captain attempting to maneuver after his missile warning system sounded, and inadvertently exposed the helicopter hangar, faciliting missile lock-on.
Entire sumrise is ludicrous, tho the second is more likely (standard USN tactic is to put the ship's stern to the missile, presenting a much smaller target). Presenting the hangar isn't 'inadvertent'; the whole ship turns together.
Additionally, there is also the possibility that the ship's position may have masked its Close-In Weapons System (CIWS), which can engage anti-ship missiles at ranges out to one mile.
That's a problem when one mounts the CIWS forward.
Masking will happen when one attempts to turn away from a missile. Sheer folly to turn into it.
#10
From what I'm told, the missile struck a glancing blow to the large "helicopter" barn on the ship's stern, and bounced off, detonating in water nearby. The barn area was thoroughly scorched by a subsequent fire, and this is the area of the ship where the four crew members died.
If true, the maneuver to present the stern appeared to have worked.
The C-802 is an Exocet derivative. They don't kill a ship solely by detonation. Excess fuel is deliberately included in the missile; kinetic energy and the warhead are only part of it. The excess fuel does the rest.
Guess the story will come out in the investigation.
So, she hasn't packed her makeup yet!
.....
Elsewhere in Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said any cease-fire in Mideast fighting ought to be based on fundamental changes that could lead to a lasting impact.
"We all want a cessation of violence. We all want the protection of civilians. We have to make certain that anything that we do is going to be of lasting value," Rice said.
"We all agree that [a cease-fire] should happen as soon as possible, when conditions are conducive to do so.
But Rice said there should be a "conducive environment" for a cease-fire. That, she said, would involve implementation of a standing U.N. Security Council resolution and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the borders as well as the introduction of a strong peacekeeping operation.
The Council resolution in 2004 led to withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. But its call for disarming militant guerrillas has not been heeded.
Rice, at a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, also indicated she would not be going to the troubled region immediately. She said she was primed to take the trip when it will be "helpful and necessary."
EFL
PROVINCETOWN -- Town leaders here are holding a public meeting today to air concerns about slurs and bigoted behavior. And this time, they say, it's gay people who are displaying intolerance. Police say they logged numerous complaints of straight people being called ``breeders" by gays over the July Fourth holiday weekend. Jamaican workers reported being the target of racial slurs. And a woman was verbally accosted after signing a petition that opposed same-sex marriage, they said.
The town, which prizes its reputation for openness and tolerance, is taking the concerns seriously, though police say they do not consider the incidents hate crimes. ``Hate language is usually the early-warning signal that could lead to hate-motivated violence," Town Manager Keith Bergman said. ``And before that happens, we try to nip it in the bud."
Gays have coexisted fairly peacefully alongside other residents in this community on Cape Cod's tip, home to a long-established Portuguese fishing colony. Provincetown was recently re-certified for its ``No Place for Hate" designation by the AntiDefamation League, which worked with the town on tolerance issues in the 1990s after gays experienced some problems. But the town's ``No Place for Hate" group, set up to address incidents of bigotry, hasn't met in years. ``We have not had problems in a long time," police Staff Sergeant Warren Tobias said. ``I don't necessarily view this as a big problem, but it's certainly a blip on our radar screen."
Along the main shopping street and the wharf, residents of this 3,400-person town -- which swells to some 30,000 over the summer -- say tensions are rising in part because of strong feelings about same-sex marriage. ``I've been here for eight years, and I think in that time the population has changed a bit and there is a little less tolerance," said Simply Silver store owner Bill Mitchell, 53, who said he is gay. ``There has been a little more tension."
Meanwhile, Jamaicans say the intensifying debate over immigration is making racial issues worse. Winsome Karr, 45, originally from Jamaica, has worked in town since 2002. Lately, she said, the off-color comments stem from gay visitors who mistakenly believe that all Jamaicans share the views of an island religious sect that disagrees with homosexuality. Karr's strong accent reveals her Jamaican roots. ``After a while people from here get used to you, and it changes," said Karr, who works at a Tedeschi Food Shop not far from Commercial Street. ``It's just because of the image that gay people have of Jamaicans. People -- no matter who they are -- get defensive of their lifestyle."
On same-sex marriage, the clashes have occurred as the state Legislature grapples with whether the electorate should vote on a measure to limit marriage to heterosexuals. A group that supports gay marriage, knowthyneighbor, has created a website displaying the names of more than 100,000 signers of a petition that calls for the state Constitution to be amended to prohibit same-sex marriage. Knowthyneighbor's tactics are controversial, with critics alleging that knowthyneighbor is making the names of same-sex marriage opponents public in an effort to expose or intimidate them. The group's founders say they are simply promoting civic discourse.
The names of 43 Provincetown residents are listed on the website. Most of the petition signers attend St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, which serves the Portuguese community and others in town. The Catholic Church has helped lead the fight against same-sex marriage. One St. Peter's parishioner, Yvonne Cabral, was verbally accosted last Friday by Provincetown Magazine publisher Rick Hines after Hines learned that Cabral signed the petition, according to police.
Police Chief Ted Meyer plans to seek charges of disorderly conduct against Hines, who saw Cabral shopping and loudly called her a ``bigot," according to both Hines and Meyer. Other people who signed the petition -- and subsequently had their names posted on the same website -- said manure has been spread on their properties in recent months, Meyer added.
Run away, Brave Jihadi Bitches!
KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of Afghan and coalition soldiers reclaimed one southern town from the Taliban without incident Tuesday and were planning to recapture another, an Afghan official said.
The troops descended on Naway-i-Barakzayi, taking back the town after Taliban fighters fled, said Amir Mohammed Akhunzada, the deputy governor of Helmand province. Insurgents torched a police compound, a health clinic and a school before leaving, he said.
"The Afghan flag has been raised back over the compound," Akhunzada said.
The troops were planning to move onto Garmser, a town of several thousand that was captured by militants Sunday, Akhunzada said. He did not say when operations there would begin.
U.S.-led forces declared earlier Tuesday that the towns would be taken back in "decisive operations." They declined to comment on Akhunzada's report.
Afghan officials said a small group of police had holed up in a concrete compound in Garmser for 16 days before they were defeated by scores of Taliban fighters, including some who had apparently crossed from Pakistan. Yes, ummmmmmmmm...apparently???
Large numbers of militants chased police from the town of Naway-i-Barakzay after a brief clash the next day, officials said.
An official with the International Organization for Migration said about 4,000 Afghans have fled fighting between Taliban and coalition forces in southern Helmand province in recent days.
It was not clear how many, if any, were escaping the two towns taken by the Taliban.
Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Malik Sidiqi accused Pakistan-based Islamic groups Lashkar-e-Tayyaba an outlawed militant organization and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a pro-Taliban political party, of aiding the Garmser takeover.
"They burned the Afghan flag and raised the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam flag," Sidiqi told reporters, saying the government "technically and temporarily left Garmser ... to prevent casualties to civilian people."
In the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, Jamiat spokesman Riaz Durrani dismissed Afghan claims that his group's members were involved in the Helmand fighting.
"We are not helping any militant group in Afghanistan against (President) Hamid Karzai's government, but the fact is that he has failed to restore order," Durrani told The Associated Press. He just restored it in Naway-i-Barakzayi.
A Lashkar-e-Tayyaba spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Must've dropped his cellphone running away.
#2
The only way to recapture a town like that is to encircle it, first, so that when the baddies come skipping out, you can hose them away from the civvies.
#3
During the conflict in Central America, Communist terrorists would occupy a non-defended village for a few hours, then proclaim a great military victory.
The IDF has found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out.
#6
The Lions of Islam TM are desparately trying to retain the women and children to hide behind. They know they will get the living sh** kicked out of them by the Joooooooooooooos. Bunch of pussies.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Federal agents conducting a sweep aimed at illegal immigrants detained 58 civilian workers Tuesday as they tried to enter Fort Bragg with suspected false or fraudulently obtained identification, officials said.
Almost all of them were construction workers, officials said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, U.S. marshals and FBI agents worked with the military on the sweep, which was conducted between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. when most of the thousands of soldiers and civilian workers who live off the post enter the gates.
"Today's operation was part of our ongoing force protection measures," said post spokesman Tom McCollum. "There were no incidents or accidents."
Some of the people detained were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said.
Four people were arrested for drug possession, McCollum said.
People trying to enter Fort Bragg with false IDs can be charged with criminal trespass and presenting false identification, McCollum said. The garrison commander also can prevent contractors who knowingly hire such people from working at the base.
In the past year, more than 150 people have been detained as they tried to enter Fort Bragg without proper ID, McCollum said. The base is home to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the 82nd Airborne Division. Is that a federal rap?
#1
"Almost all of them were construction workers the rest did yard maintenance"
Well, I for one am just shocked!
Hooda thunk it?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 17:42
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#2
Well Barb, I worked in construction for 12 years. And if you ask their employers they will give you some line of shit about not being able get Americans to do the job, or not being able to pay more than minimum wage, or some other cock and bull story for why they hire wetbacks. The real reason is that they can pay them $10 an hour less than an American carpenter, stiff them on unemployment insurance and social security, and screw them on workers comp. They employers are every bit as culpable as the illegals, maybe more since they are the ones making all the money on the scheme.
#3
"The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 is a United States federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on public works projects. All federal government construction contracts, and most contracts for federally assisted construction over $2,000, must include provisions for paying workers on-site no less than the locally prevailing wages and benefits paid on similar projects."
The contractors should be fully investigated and, if among other things they are in violation of this act, their contract should be terminated and the firm barred from ever bidding on a federal contract again. Can you spell "bankrupty".
#7
It would be interesting to learn the backgrounds of the laborers who built the Pentagon 65 years or so ago. My guess is that it was 95% or more Americans - thankful simply to have a job following the depression decade.
Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.
"We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli, speaking by telephone from the central seminary city of Qom.
"They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.
Iranian religious organisations have made great public show of recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent years, usually threatening U.S. interests in case of any attack against the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
But there is no record of an Iranian volunteer from these recruitment campaigns taking part in an attack.
Iran's Hizbollah (Party of God) says it is spiritually bound to Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas in Lebanon but its command structure and funding are unclear.
Despite Iranian Hizbollah's insistence that it takes orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, government ministries say Hizbollah does not implement official policy. Iran's government has said it hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
While Iran did fund and support Lebanese Hizbollah during the 1980s, Tehran says it has not contributed troops or weapons in the latest violence. Israel says Iranian armaments have been fired against it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006
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#4
How many B2s do we possess? The inhibition to use nukes may subside soon, especially if we're hit really hard by the Persians.
Iran and HeadsforAllan are playing with fire. And it is really stupid on their part. Why? Because if they're careful and patient, they would let the American Left undermine this country, await the victory of the Dems in November (a scarey possibility) and then, whalla! The USA is de-balled and primed for the killing! Put the libs and Hildebeast in power and its all over.
#5
2,000 volunteers, most of whom don't speak English, have never been outside Tehran, and fall into the Idiot or Moron IQ range. Yeah, they'll be landing at JFK International wearing their suicide belts any day now.
#6
#5 2,000 volunteers, most of whom don't speak English, have never been outside Tehran, and fall into the Idiot or Moron IQ range. Yeah, they'll be landing at JFK International wearing their suicide belts any day now.
Yup. Except see what these "morons" did in Argentina a few years back. Plenty of US targets outside of JFK. These Persian pigs can make a mess of things. Tis why the sooner we ... well, I'll wait till they make their first and hopefully, fatal mistake.
#7
All of you have it all wrong. We have to try to win the hearts and minds of them. They don't want to fight, they are just culturally different. Rathern than kill them as our enemies, I say try to truly understand and love them as our friends.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
07/18/2006 16:56
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#8
ROFL, #7 Yosemite.
Good one. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 17:18
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#9
Personally, Yosemite Sam, I like them like brothers.
#10
Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week - be sure to try the veal and be sure to tip your waitress!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
07/18/2006 17:21
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#11
BTW, Fred - another killer graphic! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 17:25
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#12
"We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.
Ok, its official. Mullah sez: This is World War III not World War IV.
I hope Supereme Leader gives the green light during the Bush Admin. If the green light is given, then Rep. Murtha have to keep his mouth shut because Bush will do what Murtha wanted, asset re-deployment, on top of Iran.
#15
This is another data point proving (to me) that the Islamofascists are an aberration, a fluke of history. It's black comedy, in fact. A Perfect Storm of competing Darwinian paradigms.
Makes me feel like summarizing, more or less, what I've read and learned here at Rantburg. Pardon me while I steal, liberally LOL, from many here... I plagiarize .com in particular. I dare him to drop in and eviscerate me. The big pussy. Or is that pussy-chaser? C'mon big boy, come and get some, LOL.
We have an ancient ideology of hate and subjugation, sharing most of the traits of a virulent disease, masquerading as a religion, which succeeded and prospered through violence, rapid and rabid reproduction, threatening death to apostates, enshrining misogyny, taking by force what they could not create, sucking subjected hosts dry, surviving by parasitism. They are conquerors not inventors, despoilers not producers, barbarians and reprobates not liberals, dogmatic and dictatorial not tolerant, the ultimate hive mind of humanity's worst traits. They are brutality and xenophobia and aggression institutionalized. They occupy, for the most part, the desolate wastelands of the world. A festering cluster of boils on Gaia's ass.
We have an open liberal and prosperous technological West which has based much of its industrial base on hydrocarbons. Domestic sources are plundered. Industry flourishes. Demand rises exponentially. The ever-growing search for fuel sources eventually takes us to the (otherwise) worthless stretches of sand and wasteland. Eureka!
Convergence.
Thus an ideology that was once relegated to the planet's shitholes and cesspools finds itself sitting on an economic bonanza, thanks to the West. And the West has the wealth, thanks to that same industrial base, to make this ancient ideology fabulously wealthy. For hydrocarbons we kow-tow and grovel and cater and flatter and enrich beyond Ali Baba's wildest imagining those who hate us beyond our own wildest imagining. We save that which does not deserve saving. We relieve them of Darwin's death sentence of obscurity and well-earned demise.
Thus that which would have ever remained the most despicable backwater of humanity imaginable now has new life and begins its campaign to resume its spread and subjugation, to destroy and despoil precisely those who empower it.
And the liberal West, living in its PC-saturated self-replicating circle-jerk cocoon of liberalism, has emasculated itself to the point that it now demurs and shrinks from acting to save itself. It has become pussified. It has embraced nihilism. The simple and obvious answer, slap the ancient bitch down so hard it fears its own shadow and take what is needed, is anti-liberal, anti-PC, antithetical, and thus unthinkable.
While it dithers and pontificates, while its elites and intellectuals finger-wag and invent absurd nobility for the long-ignored remaining savages, while its pundits debate and revise history to create legitimacy and grievances, the ancient ideology learns to use the West's own institutions against it, swallows whole all of the technology the West has produced, particularly weaponry, with the clear and obvious intent to kill it from within and without.
Now that's black comedy worthy of Twain or O'Rourke.
YJCMTSU. Fry them up. Fry US up. Let's get it ON. Let's ROLL, already.
I know my education is incomplete, though. I've spent so much time here lately that I'm seriously neglecting the other sites I used to visit everyday. LOL. Nothing compares to Rantburg and I echo comments I've seen about RB University. Amazing, in fact. But I'm just summarizing you fine people.
All that I read here builds up within me, in a way that no other site generates, and I occasionally can't stop the urge to summarize - and nothing solidifies the mental picture like writing it down and reading it to see if it's coherent and is backed up by the facts. I readily admit it might seem a bit narcissistic to post it, but I don't mean for it to come out that way.
Please point out what I'm missing, LOL. I apologize for the bandwidth and for the blatant plagiarizing - and teasing .com. Please, please, consider it a compliment to all of you, as that is my true intent.
This place is addictive - and yes, Nimble, I'm hooked, LOL.
I'll be MIA for awhile, maybe longer, as I have to let the medicos have their way with me starting tomorrow. If everything goes well, I'll be back to burn more bandwidth telling you what you already know, LOL. I assure you I'll miss reading RB as much as the midnight raids for my beloved Kinbgburgers - especially since the end-game seems to have begun. :)
#19
flyover, this place calls for the occasional summation. I've done more than my fair share, in fact. ;-) (I'd point them out to you if I had the slightest idea how to find things in the archives, but I don't.) If you feel guilty enough, feel free to put a little something in Fred's tipjar.
#20
Re: tip jar -- I have, tw, but more is called for, LOL.
As for searching, I discovered that when you are within an article page (You'll see 'poparticle,php' in the URL) at the bottom is a Google search link - that searches solely within the Rantburg.com domain. That's where I've discovered the old posts by Dave D, Frank G, Alaska Paul, 11A5S, Zenster, Lex, .com, True German Ally, Atomic Conspiracy, and (forgive me for naming everyone) so many others I can't begin to name them all. Even the complete idiots such as Not Mike Moore - and the slapdowns that made .com a favorite search target, LOL. His "You suck so much that sucking objects orbit you." post to NMM was the loudest LOL I've ever had! Every successful search thread reveals more posters who gave quite brilliant insights. I don't use Google, anymore, for anything else - but their search engine seems to be much better for this purpose. Try it and you'll agree, I think.
Thanks, NS. They call it "experimental". That's classic CYA, isn't it? The rich pricks. LOL. We'll see. :)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 22:55
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#26
Flyover,
Praise from TW is high praise indeed. You've contributed a good deal to RB in your short time here. Good luck with the "experimental" process and come back ASAP. Good adjunct profs are hard to find, even at Rantburg U.
Posted by: mac ||
07/18/2006 23:09
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#27
The fact that Israel is saving its anti-missile system for strategic rather than tactical use, suggests that only a major attack on Tel Aviv, from north Lebanon will be defended by both missile defenses and disabling counter-attack. As Hizbollah is using mobile missiles, the only effective counter would be by area destruction. Now what could do that? And, if Iranian rhetoric is matchable by deeds, that could happen soon.
Does anyone here care if this conflict escalates? The US has both petroleum reserves and domestic and close neighbor producers who are producing under capacity. Assuming - and this is unlikely - that all Iranian wells were destroyed, if these areas were seized by Anglo-American forces (with others) deep wells could be tapped within days and the crude could pump quickly. (Quicker if we didn't do x-ray testing of pipelines for leaks. Sabotage problems in Iraq were caused by the fact that it is deemed expedient to allow locals to live near the oil patch. No locals; no terror.
Since 9-11 everyone should have learned: Muslims recognize the sovereignty of secular states only on a provisional basis. They don't recognize our sovereignty; why on earth should we recognize their Koran based claims?
#28
give us a reason to take the oil from Chavez? heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 23:25
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#29
FoxNews was reporting that almost all of the 1000 of the rockets Hizb'Allah shot off in the last few days are hitting empty fields, whereas whatever thingy they showed the Israelis shooting from some sort of ground array thingy (yes, I know nothing of these technical details -- sorry) are hitting their targets well enough to cause the soldiers to dance and sing most picturesquely.
Buffeted by questions about his honesty and investigations into his wife's multimillion-dollar stock options, DFL endorsee Matt Entenza dropped out of the race for state attorney general Tuesday.
With wife Lois Quam, a top executive of UnitedHealth Group, at his side, Entenza stood on the steps of the State Capitol and said he was withdrawing despite his confidence that he still could win the election to succeed Attorney General Mike Hatch, the DFL endorsee for governor.
"But with so little time and so many attacks, from anonymous faxes to attacks on my family, it is impossible to fight these attacks and win this race without it taking a serious toll on the people and the party we care about the most," he said.
Entenza, who recently stepped down as minority leader to concentrate on his campaign, has been under heavy fire for almost a week.
His troubles began with the revelation that he had hired a Chicago opposition-research firm that investigated fellow DFLer Mike Hatch, the current attorney general who is the party's endorsee for governor.
The hail of criticism has been directed not so much at Entenza's original action but at explanations and defenses that his critics are saying are distortions or lies.
Entenza issued a statement Monday, saying that "over the last few days my opponents have tried to land a few hits, but it is nothing compared to the hits the people of Minnesota have taken every day under this Republican administration."
State Rep. Jeff Johnson, R-Plymouth, the Republican candidate for attorney general, bluntly accused Entenza not only of changing his story as details emerged, but of outright lying. "I think he lied probably several times this last week," Johnson said Monday.
Johnson said Entenza initially didn't tell the truth when he told reporters more than a year ago that there was no truth to rumors that he was doing opposition research on Hatch.
Johnson also said Entenza has tried to deceive the public on the motive for his research, the extent of the digging and the cost.
Meanwhile, a St. Paul attorney with a familiar surname in DFL Party history became the first to file a primary challenge. She is Jennifer Mattson, granddaughter of former Attorney General Robert Mattson Sr. and daughter of former State Auditor and state Treasurer Robert Mattson Jr.
Mattson said she saw an "irreconcilable conflict" in Entenza's pursuit of the attorney general's office, which under Hatch is investigating $30 million in stock options granted to UnitedHealth Group, where Entenza's wife, Lois Quam, is a top executive.
In a letter to Entenza, Mattson said his handling of the Hatch inquest and the conflict of interest posed by his wife's income "are now the dominant issues."
"Not only is your own election highly questionable, but you are endangering the entire DFL ticket," she wrote.
Entenza's campaign counterattacked with a statement accusing Mattson of "viciously attacking Matt's wife," who is being "dragged through the mud simply because of where she works."
Mattson's inexperience also was addressed. Entenza's campaign manager, John Van Hecke, cited Entenza's 20-year record as a white-collar criminal prosecutor, an assistant attorney general and as a consumer advocate while in the Legislature.
An anonymous attack against Entenza on Monday came in the form of a packet of documents, including photocopies of campaign records and cancelled checks from Quam and Entenza's joint account, that were faxed to several Capitol reporters. Entenza's name was blacked out on the checks.
The person who faxed the documents claimed that they demonstrate that Entenza didn't tell the truth when he told reporters in December 2004 that he and his wife contributed about $600,000 to Democratic campaigns and liberal groups.
The mystery attacker's documents indicate that Quam gave at least $55,000 more to Democratic committees in South Dakota, which then sent the money back to Minnesota and to the DFL House caucus, which was led at the time by Entenza.
DFL Party chair Brian Melendez said the information in the attack appeared to be accurate but that nothing illegal was done.
In his written statement Entenza said, "We have a lot of Democratic friends in a lot of places, and we are always happy to help them."
Meanwhile, the names of several high-profile DFLers have been circulating as possible alternative candidates to Entenza, with indications that some party insiders are seeking recruits.
The deadline for filing for office is the end of the workday today. DFL==Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, is the MN Democrat Party.
#1
Aw, geez - and here my Sympathy Meter™ is out for repairs.
Too bad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 15:56
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#2
This is the party that's "taking back Congress?"
On the one hand, you have Vermont's Democrats actively pushing aside legit Democrat candidates to ensure Bernie Sanders (S-Manhattan), an overt card-carrying Socialist, is elected to the Senate. There's no longer any pretense that they are anything but soft-core marxists.
You have other Democrats in other states running as far to the right as possible, even getting candidates from the hated military, to run to shore up the credibility gap in redder states about defense.
The "culture of corruption" thing has blown up in their faces with Jefferson and McKinney others being caught red-handed abusing power and money.
I'm sure I'm leaving out plenty of other things. The point is, this kind of disarray doesn't indicate sweeping purpose and victory.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/18/2006 16:38
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#3
They should turn to Daily Kos for help. I'm sure they'll be back up and running in no time. *snicker*
Four senators in trouble, Lieberman; Cantwell in WA who is not even campaigning, hated by moonbats; Sanders vs three democrats in VT; MN is an open seat with lots of contenders, so this party trouble could really hurt.
Democrat edge in Senate and House races is slimming.
#5
Maryland could be a contest, too. That is really painful for the donks. They shouldn't have to work to keep a senate seat in MD. It's going to be interesting.
#6
Around here we still have some of the old "Yellar dawg Democrats". For those of you unfamiliar with Southern terminology that means someone who is as mean as a yeller dawg when it comes to attacks on the US. Seems to me we need some more of them. This mulitcultural bullshit peddeled by the "elitists" is absolute crap. The US, in a LOT of areas, is still a melting pot, it's just not "newsworthy" to report it. I have a friend in suburb Atlanta whose neighbors on a cul-de-sac (French for bottom of the sack) are from India, Taiwan, Bulgaria, and Black America. All these people get along with NO problem. The common denominator is they are all middle class, have worked HARD for their position in life, abandoned "victomhood", and want the same for their children. The Democratis seem to still want "Seperate but equal". Horsehockey!! We are all Americans and there should be no "Separate".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/18/2006 19:25
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#7
I have a friend in suburb Atlanta whose neighbors on a cul-de-sac (French for bottom of the sack) are from India, Taiwan, Bulgaria, and Black America. All these people get along with NO problem.
God bless America! So much of America is that way. Too bad our snotty elite media never report that feel good story and instead focus on everytime some Muslim woman gets a mean look or that a immigrant murderer didn't get read his Miranda rights.
Americans really do celebrate diversity - just not the way thos stupid university professors want us to.
Lebanon mother names newborn after Raad rocket
18 July 2006
BEIRUT - Raad is born -- not the long-range missile which Hezbollah is firing at Israel but a Lebanese baby boy whose mother wants to honor the Shia militant groups showdown with the Jewish state.
After a difficult Caesarean delivery, Kawkab Al Akli gave birth to a boy at the Labib medical hospital in the southern coastal city of Sidon, her husband Mohammed Al Khaled told AFP.
We had sought refuge at a school in Sidon after running away from our village of Marwahine in the south because a lot of people were killed in Israeli attacks, he said.
This morning, my wife gave birth to a boy. She wanted to name him Raad to honor the resistance, Hezbollah and (its leader) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, he said.
Still in pain, his wife, a mother of seven already, added: I will also bring Raad 2 and Raad 3.
Hezbollah has since last week for the first time fired Iranian-made Raad missiles, extending the reach of the militant group up to the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
The missile attacks come amid a fierce Israeli aerial assault on Lebanon triggered by Hezbollahs capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12. The battle has so far cost 230 lives in Lebanon, all but some two dozen of them civilians.
Hezbollahs relentless barrage of rocket fire on northern Israel has killed 12 civilians and wounded dozens more.
I suppose Raad is better than...... "Lance."
Israeli officials said Tuesday their offensive in Lebanon could last several more weeks and involve large numbers of ground forces, casting doubt on diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a visiting U.N. delegation that "Israel will continue to combat Hezbollah and will continue to strike targets of the group" until captured Israeli soldiers are released and Israeli citizens are safe from attacks.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said diplomatic efforts were under way, but a cease-fire would be impossible unless the captured soldiers are returned unharmed and Lebanese troops are deployed along the countries' border, with a guarantee that the Hezbollah militia would be disarmed.
Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, the head of the Israeli army's northern command, said the offensive against Hezbollah, which has mostly been limited to Israel's air force and navy, would continue.
"I think that we should assume that it will take a few more weeks," he told Israel's Army Radio.
The army's deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, told Israel Radio that Israel has not ruled out deploying "massive ground forces into Lebanon."
"We certainly won't reach months and I hope it also won't be many more weeks, but we still need time to complete the operation's very clear objectives," Kaplinsky said.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Israel may consider a prisoner swap with Lebanon to win the release of two soldiers captured by Hezbollah, but only after its military operation is complete.
"If one of the ways to bring home the soldiers will be negotiations on the possibility of releasing Lebanese prisoners, I think the day will come when we will also have to consider this," Dichter told Army Radio.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon raised the death toll in that country to at least 226.
Israelis strongly support the military operation against Hezbollah, according a to poll in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. It said 86 percent of Israelis believe the operation is justified, 81 percent want it to continue and 58 percent say it should last until Hezbollah is destroyed. The poll had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.
Nevertheless, Livni said, "We are beginning a diplomatic process alongside the military operation that will continue."
"The diplomatic process is not meant to shorten the window of time of the army's operation, but rather is meant to be an extension of it and to prevent a need for future military operations," she told reporters.
Clarifying the JPost article from this morning. Thank goodness.
#2
They know the kidnapped soldiers won't be freed till after the fighting stops. So it's a safe offer for now. Palliates the MSM but doesn't interrupt operations.
#3
he's also demanded Hezb disarm and withdraw from the border in favor of Leb Army units, something Hezb will never allow - it takes away their entire excuse for existence as a militia. This is a political posturing proposal to disarm critics.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 16:47
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#4
When you've got the pimp hand, ask for the moon.
It's not like the Hizb boyos can comply, and it looks nice to the chattering classes.
#8
Sure, Darrell. But there's no demand for vegetable patient technology like in the States.
Posted by: the Levant ||
07/18/2006 17:37
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#9
Words and a few WMD are all Syria has.
It's truly tragic - and pathetic - that with so many billions of dollars from oil all the Arab world has achieved is terrorism and boasts.
Levant - people die. But no matter who dies, the reality won't change. Israel is a thriving democracy that has contributed advanced medicine, engineering and other achievements to the whole world.
The Arab world has exported oil - including to your little country - along with seething, cowardly terror violence and some weaponry, mostly copied from the West by people who studied among us. Pathetic.
Y'all might do a little better if you focused your energy on education, representative government, economic development and getting your shit together.
#10
But there's no demand for vegetable patient technology like in the States.
People don't live that long. Nor it would appear does your world value lives enough to go to that much trouble, although the previous head of the Sauds was an exception.
#11
It is telling that in an election year, during a decade of tumultuous politics, the US Senate has passed a resolution condemning Hezb'Allah.
Democrat as well as Republican senators are on TV saying Syria and Iran will be held accountable for this violence.
If you want a sign as to which way the winds are blowing in the US, that's one worth paying attention to. Ahmadinajad may think he wants chaos to hasten the coming of the Mahdi. Let Syria be warned -- if Hezb'Allah or its own army use the aging WMD they were given by others, or their own chemical weapons, 'chaos' is not the word for what will result.
The patience of moderate Americans is wearing thin. When this country swings towards reprisals, it may be hard indeed to keep from destroying both Iran and Syria. If millions of people die in those countries, the responsibility will lie squarely with their leaders.
#12
Very true, lotp. None of the players now have an interest in seeing this go much further relative to the potential downsides. Nor do they have sufficient interest in seeing it end prematurely. So Iran and Syria will very wisely leave Hisb' Allan to twist slowly, slowly in the wind.
#14
It's up to Assad Jr. whether he wsnts to put his pencilneck in the noose. Somehow I doubt it. Israel should be happy to eliminate Hisb' Allan and there it ends. It had potential to spiral out of control but I think too many saw this and pulled back from their normal anti-Israel stance.
But Israel's reprieve won't last long. It needs to focus its devastation on the iniverally condemned Hisb' Allan and wait till next time for the rest.
(IsraelNN.com) An IDF source said Tuesday night that Syria is smuggling weapons into Lebanon for the Hizbullah terrorists engaged in the Re-engagement War with Israel.
Nonetheless, said the unnamed source quoted by Reuters news service, Israel does not plan to attack Syria.
#5
Probably not doing anything about it because they can't do what it takes. Smashing Asshead won't accomplish much in the long run. Some other Jooo hater will replace him. They would have to take Syria. Not sure they have the economy it takes to support that dumpster. Look how well the U.S. did in getting Iraqi oil to pay for rebuilding Iraq.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/18/2006 14:52
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#6
Bullshit: Israel crossed and captured the Sinai Peninsula and now, Egypt leaves them alone. The same should be done to Syria. Neighbors like Jordan and Egypt have kept peace with Israel although they were once at war. Sucessful war does establish certain parameters. Syria has been like a rat sneeking in the night working through Hezbollah and Lebenon. Always doing the dirt, always taking a cheap shot at Israel.
Burn them. Burn them so they never forget it.
#7
When young Master Assad leaves office, the infighting will be amusing only to those not caught in the crossfire... and the interference by outsiders (Sunni, Shiite, etc. and so forth) will only make things worse, and extend the process for years. Assad's fellow Alawites may be in control now, but they are small in number and universally hated for their heresy as well as their myriad cruelties over the decades of Assad rule.
#8
Attacking Syria probably wouldn't degrade their ability to smuggle arms to Hezbollah much. If you took out every Syrian tank and plane, it wouldn't stop the smuggling.
I would have to wonder how many additional arms Hezbollah would need. I would expect their numbers to be decreasing resulting in what arms already exist becoming more abundant for the remaining fighters. The only useful import would be expendibles such as ammunition, explosives, grenades, and mines. You can smuggle those things in easy enough using the busses that are being used to transport refugees out. Take a busload of refugees to Damascus and a load of greades back to the border.
Better to watch where the weapons are being stockpiled. The hills between Lebanon and Syria are also full of tunnels and bunkers. There are plenty of ways across that aren't obvious on maps.
#9
Israel and Syria are both playing the international media game. They are doing everything they can to fight each other while at the same time looking innocent.
Keep in mind that every time Israel goes to war it has to stop before it can finish due to international pressure. Right now they have a relatively free hand. Why spoil the opportunity by striking Syria? Instead just keep pounding on Hizballan until either its destroyed or Syria is forced to come in and save them.
In the alternative, Israel could hold on on Syria until the international community starts to call for a cease fire, then do a blitz on Syria and the Bekaa valley. Nothing to lose at that point.
#10
I'm with you James. I personally think it should be official Israeli policy to take whatever land they are attacked from. I think this is probably the best way to reduce rocket attacks. The nations that Israel takes land from will quickly prevent more attacks from happening.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/18/2006 15:22
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#11
Would that neo-impewrialist theft be followed by ethnic cleansing? /MSM
#13
Right now Israel can reasonably control the number of fronts. There's no reason to engage Syria and Iran until the Hizbullah rocket attacks are ended. After that is done, some punishment for Syria and some neutralizing of Iranian nuclear facilities is a reasonable bet. As for this article, unnamed sources quoted by Reuters bore me.
#16
#14 but what about the non-existant wmd's in the bekaa valley??? Nobody is talking about them, but we rantburg readers know that they are there.
Posted by: 2b 2006-07-18 15:38
#17
NS, no. If the Jooos do it, it's called genocide.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/18/2006 16:19
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#18
Mike N. is looking at Syria the way it should be looked at, like who cares. Acually I think we should act like Syria is of no consequence in the region. Man, that would hurt thier manhood. Maybe fluster them into something stupid.
#21
That's why any place in the Becka where dirt has been dug before GW2 should be hit hard with bunkerbusters. Then any WMD that might escape just screws up Becka.
#22
Like you don't think that satellite and air reccon isn't focused upon potential WMD deposits? That any movement in or around the area will not be monitored? That the US is not sharing near real time info with the Israelis [particularly since DoD gained theater control over assets from the CIA]? That even the appearance of such movement wouldn't be an invitation to preemption?
#4
All that's required to be called a media "legend" , at least among the media, is to spew your vitriolic America hating BS, and to do it for a long time. Time to break out the walker.
#6
are all the pages colored in, or did she leave a few as "homework" for her fervent fans?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 15:24
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#7
I watched that presser. Tony is great! He finally cut one guy off with saying, "Good try, but you're still wrong," and pointed his finger toward another person.
Perhaps, but H. is equally obnoxious and belligerent on all topics over too long a time span.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 18:48
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Thanks for the tip on the video, CF.
What I love best about Snow is the way he kept his sense of humor in dealing with the old bat, which is the only way to do it. He kept smiling and laughing at her while trying to explain what was going on, and why a ceasefire wouldn't work. That can't be easy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006 19:01
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#12
Great vid. Snow is light years ahead of of the last press sec. or another that I can think of. Great command of facts, sense of humor, wicked wit and a stilleto aimed at the press' pomposity. The new paradigm, press secretaries as court jesters to the news media royalty.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 23:37
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For those of us who sometimes find ourselves having doubts about our President, here is an excellent piece worth every minute it takes to read it.
This is from a man, Bruce Vincent, from Montana who received an award from the President.
He writes: I've written the following narrative to chronicle the day of the award ceremony in DC. I'm still working on a press release but the White House press corps has yet to provide a photo to go with it. When the photo comes I'll ship it out. When you get done reading this you'll understand the dilemma I face in telling this story beyond my circle of close friends.
The moment with the President in the Oval Office was incredible. I want to protect the memory because it was an intensely private moment between two men. At the same time I'd like to share it on a broader scale because I'd like others to know what I know about the man sitting at the desk in the Oval Office. For now, I'll just tell it to you folks.
(AP) Rochester, Minn. America's Mattress co-owner Jim Sather is left puzzled after a rustler stole Serta Mattresses' inflatable 14-foot sheep from their store here. "I can't figure out what someone would do with a 14-foot sheep," Sather said. "It can't go in your basement and if it's in your back yard, your neighbor will notice. If it's target practice, it only lasts once."
All the thief or thieves left was a handwritten note at the scene of the crime that read: "For the sheep, bring peace to the earth."
Sather said their mascot is missed. "He's the granddaddy of all sheep and there's a whole flock that will miss him," Sather said. The sheep is labeled with a No. 1 and is worth an estimated $3,500.
I'd look for a really tall, really lonely Saudi
Gee Steve, OBL fits that description ...
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
13:17 ||
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Defense Minister Amir Peretz approved Monday night the draft of three reserve battalions infantry and engineers. The forces will be drafted starting Tuesday morning and will replace regular forces in Judea and Samaria. The regular forces will help in the northern array.
As of today, infantry and engineer corps are operating to destroy Hizbullah outposts in the line of fire. Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, revealed, in a Monday press conference at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, that in recent days, forces were operating in a ground offensive against Hizbullah outposts in Rajar village. More at link in the general news variety
! Link (title and below) to .pdf (6 pages).
by Claude MONIQUET, President of the ESISC
Peace still seems a long way off for the Middle East. Three factors have combined to place the region in the middle of a military crisis which seems destined to last for at least another few days, if not two to three weeks. Two of these reasons are purely circumstantial, while the other is strategic.
As far as the circumstances are concerned, it is clear that there has been no compliance with the two conditions imposed by the Israelis (as well as by the G8 and most of the western nations, even though some countries continue to criticize what they see as a "disproportionate" Israeli response) for the cessation of hostilities. These two conditions are clear, distinct and non-negotiable: the Hezbollah must release the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers safe and sound and suspend its rocket attacks on Israel... To read more Claude Moniquet is a belgian journalist who graduated from terror specialist to private analyst; his views are always measured, sound and interesting, and on top of that he's "liberal" (european sense, IE free-markets, small gvt,... his first synthesis notes were published online at the belgian Hayek Institute) and non-idiotarian.
A refreshing change from "big" think tanks like the ifri!
From the Rantburg Weather Center
Tropical Storm Public Advisory
Statement as of 11:00 am EDT on July 18, 2006
at 11 am EDT...1500 UTC...a tropical storm watch has been issued for the eastern coast of North Carolina from north of Cape Lookout northward to south of Currituck Beach Light.
At 1100 am EDT...1500z...the center of Tropical Depression Two was located near latitude 32.5 north...longitude 73.4 west or about 220 miles...355 km...south-southeast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina. The depression is moving toward the north near 5 mph. A slow turn toward the north-northwest or northwest is expected to occur later tonight or Wednesday.
Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph...55 km/hr...with higher gusts. Some strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours and the depression could become a tropical storm later today or
tonight. Oh Joy.
The estimated minimum central pressure is 1011 mb...29.85 inches.
Forecast track here. If it doesn't turn, it'll go right up the Chesapeake to DC.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
12:25 ||
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A top criminal of the city was killed during a "shootout" between the members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his cohorts at C & B road early morning.
The deceased, Ratan Mridha, 40, was the second-in-command of notorious "Tera Shajahan" gang. He was wanted in nine cases including two for murder.
Another job opening for "Number 2", apply at Monster.com.
Rab sources said they arrested Ratan and two other criminals--Ripon and Dulal--at Hotel Metropolitan at Gulistan in the capital on Saturday and took them to Barisal the following day for quizzing.
"I'll take "Things that are Painful" for $500, Alex"
On the statements of the arrestees,
"Ratan did it!"
"Yeah, he's responsible, Dulal and me are just innocent bystanders"
a RAB team took Ratan to C & B road area of Barisal city at around 3:30am yesterday to arrest his accomplices and recover the hidden firearms.
Say goodbye, Rat
Sensing the presence of the Rab team, Ratan's cohorts opened fire, forcing the law enforcers to retaliate.
"Hark! I smell doughnuts, it's da law! Open fire or we're dun for!"
According to Rab, Ratan received bullets during the "shootout" and died on the spot.
"Ouch..ouch..rosebud.."
One gun and two cartridges were recovered from the spot.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
11:31 ||
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#1
Tera Shajahan's Number 3 is going to have to train a new supervisor again, poor man. And he did so badly with the last one, too.
July 18, 2006: The leader of Hizbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is being declared another Nasser (the Egyptian leader that took the Arab world into several wars with Israel). This comparison is not seen as flattering. In retrospect, Nasser's pugnaciousness is seen as a disaster for the Arab world. The last war Nasser participated in, was in 1967. It lasted six days, and the armed forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan were shattered by the Israelis. It's called the Six Day War because six days was all Israel needed to accomplish this. Arabs blame Nasser for this disaster, and many now believe that Nasrallah is playing the same game. It has become conventional wisdom that Israel will only be defeated in the long term. It will take generations, perhaps over a century to overwhelm Israel.
Nasrallah sounds like a brave, bold and heroic figure now, as Hizbollah fires rockets into Israel. But at the same time, Israeli bombs, missiles and shells destroy Lebanon, inflicting far more damage on Arabs than Hisbollah on Israel. Worse yet, Nasrallah is doing the bidding of Iran, a radical, and too most Moslems, heretical, nation that has never looked after the best interests of Arabs. Thus when an Arab calls Hassan Nasrallah, "another Nasser," there's good reason why this is done without a smile.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
11:29 ||
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#1
The Law of Diminishing Returns.
Careful, Naz. You could end up laid out like Zark and it won't even necessarily be the Israeli's that do the deed. Might even be your butt buddies in Iran that give you up.
#3
Nasser was a fool. I believe he could easily have taken over Sudan and/or Libya and gotten oil revenue to support further adventures. Hell he probably would have gotten credit from the world if he'd conquered Sudan, but intead he went for the one state in the region with a real military.
#6
It has become conventional wisdom that Israel will only be defeated in the long term. It will take generations, perhaps over a century to overwhelm Israel.
They mistakenly liken Israel to the Crusader kingdoms that lasted a hundred years and were then overwhelmed.
In their view Israel is an alien entity that survives by local military superiority that will eventually degrade.
Gynnne Dyer and other UK reporters have written on this.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006 19:21
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Mr. Wife told of seeing Egyptian soldiers standing guard in Cairo, their sandles and guns both held together by duct tape and hope. This was about 1987. They haven't fought a war since, and the economy is sinking as fast as the hope of Mubarek ever giving over his emergency controls -- what odds either sandles or weapons are in better shape now?
July 18, 2006: In a clever "info ops" move, the Somali Council of Islamic Courts has made a public appeal for international aid in providing humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, and "retraining" for demobilized warlord militias. The appeal comes with a promise of "complete freedom of movement" and protection for anyone who is helping provide assistance to Somalia.
In reality, not all of the warlord militias have surrendered to the Islamic Courts, and the UN is still having trouble obtaining security for its aid convoys. The UN is quietly trying to get a peacekeeping force into Somalia, something the Transitional Government would like. But the Islamic Courts, and Islamic nations, are opposed to peacekeepers, unless they are from Moslem countries. But no Moslem country, or any other country for that matter, wants to send peacekeepers to Somalia. That's because, despite the recent string of victories by the Islamic Courts militias, there is still no law & order throughout the country. There are still many clan based militias that oppose the Islamic Courts, and have the clout and firepower to make that opposition work.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Courts are trying to pitch themselves as a worthy recipient of foreign aid. That won't last long, even if the current information war campaigns attracts some donors. Many of the Islamic Courts leaders are simply warlords that got religion, and not much religion according to the way some of them are acting. Any foreign aid going through the Islamic Courts will get pilfered before it gets to the "suffering Somalis" it was intended for.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
11:27 ||
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...I swear I have often though that IF I were President I'd issue an Executive Order cutting foreign aid completely for 1 year (with very few exceptions - Israel, UK, Japan, Australia, for example). There'd be an announcement about this that'd go something like "Okay, kiddies, you're all cut off - Oh, Kofi, that includes you too - for one full year. By the end of that year, an evaluation will be made as to who deserves American taxpayers dollars more than Americans do. If the United States is not happy with your performance during the year, no foreign aid will be issued for at least one more year. The cutoff will continue on a yearly basis until the point at which you are either no longer a problem or we are satisfied with your behavior. Thank you, have a nice year."
I know somebody else around here said essentially the same thing not too long ago. I just wish the US could really do it and follow through.
None of these idiots deserves the amounts of money we end up sending to them.
July 18, 2006: Chinese C-802 ("Silkworm") anti-ship missiles were fired at an Israeli Saar class corvette off the Lebanese coast recently. Four of the crew were killed after the 20 foot long, 360mm, 1,500 pound missile hit the rear of the ship, destroying the helicopter pad, and starting a fire that took hours to extinguish. The C-802 has a 360 pound warhead, which must have been defective or detonated prematurely. That's because the Saars displace only 1,100 tons, are 281 feet long and have a crew of 61. The Saar carries dozens of missiles, and lots of fuel for its turbine engine, so it is unlikely that the S-802 scored a direct hit. This would have destroyed a ship the size of a Saar 5.
The Saar 5s carry a 20mm Phalanx auto cannon for knocking down anti-ship missiles, and, in this case, the Phalanx may have only been partially successful. A second C-802, fired at the same time, locked onto a near by Egyptian freighter, and sank it. Both ships were about 60 kilometers off the coast. The C-820 has a max range of 120 kilometers, and moves along at about 250 meters a second. Phalanx is supposed to be turned on whenever the ship is likely to have an anti-ship missile fired at it. The radar can spot incoming missiles out to about 5,000 meters, and the 20mm cannon is effective out to about 2,000 meters. With incoming missiles moving a 250 meters a second, you can see why Phalanx is set to automatic. There's not much time for human intervention. The Israelis are not releasing any information about how their defenses (including the electronic ones) handled the incoming C-802s.
Iran bought 150 C-802s from China in the early 1990s, but shipments were halted in 1995 because of diplomatic pressure from the United States. Iran is believed to be building its own version of the C-802, which is 30 year old technology. Several years ago, it was reported that C-802s had been shipped to Hizbollah. The C-802 needs a radar to spot the target at long distance, and guide the C-802 to the general vicinity of the target. In this case, the Lebanese government coastal radar apparently was used. As a result, Israel destroyed the Lebanese coastal radars after the use of these two C-802 missiles.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
11:25 ||
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#1
One would imagine that the Israeli Navy has an institutional memory concerning anti-ship missiles. So the idea that the ship's captain wasn't using his defense systems onboard is to me unimaginable. Whether the systems worked is another matter. But note the second part of the story. The Eqyptian flagged freighter that was sunk may of just been in the wrong place at the wrong time but to Hizbollah it doesn't matter one bit.
#2
I think the Phalanx was used, but did not completely destroy the warhead before slamming into the Saar 5 (1200 tons). Or the warhead did not penetrate the hull and detonate properly. Compare this to the damage (and hole size) caused by the Exocets against the frigate USS Stark (3600 tons) or the HMS Sheffield (5300 tons).
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 13:07
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Report I saw said systems were shut down for dear of friendly fire. Probably a lot of disinformation being put out.
July 18, 2006: It's been no secret that, for years, Iran has been shipping, through Syria, thousands of unguided rockets to Hizbollah in Lebanon. As far back as 2001, there were reports of 240mm Fadjr rockets arriving in Hizbollah controlled territory in southern Lebanon. Both 240mm and 333mm Fadjr rockets are normally mounted on modified Mercedes-Benz 2624 15 ton trucks (10 wheels on 6 axles). There are either twelve 240mm (900 pound) rockets or four 333mm (one ton) rockets. About a third of the weight of rockets like this are the explosive charge in the warhead. The 240mm rocket has a range of 43 kilometers, the 333mm one, 75 kilometers. The Fadjr rockets brought into Lebanon are believed to have come individually, to be fired from locally built launchers. If enough care were taken in the construction of these launchers, the Fadjrs stood a good chance of hitting large urban areas within Israel.
It the last five years, constant reports of Iranian rocket deliveries to Hizbollah indicate that over 10,000 such missiles were brought into southern Lebanon. Most of these rockers are the smaller 107mm and 122mm models. The B-12 is a 107mm, 42 pound, 107mm, 33 inch long, Russian designed rocket that is very popular with terrorists. This rocket has a range of about six kilometers and three pounds of explosives in its warhead. Normally fired, from a launcher, in salvoes of dozens at a time, when used individually, it is more accurate the closer it is to the target. This 107mm design has been copied by many nations, and is very popular with guerillas and terrorists because of its small size and portability.
The 122mm BM-21s weigh 150 pounds and are nine feet long. These have 45 pound warheads, but not much better accuracy than the 107mm model. However, these larger rockets have a maximum range of 20 kilometers. Again, because they are unguided, they are only effective if fired in salvos, or at large targets (like cities, or large military bases or industrial complexes.)
It is believed that fewer than a hundred of the 240mm or 333mm rockets arrived in Lebanon. There may be more of intermediate caliber weapons (160mm), but little has been said about those. Thus it appears that the majority of Hizbollah rockets are the smaller ones. This is important because Hizbollah has to hide these rockets from constant Israeli aerial and satellite surveillance. Moreover, once hostilities begin (as they have now), it's going to be difficult to move large rockets around. Even the 122mm rockets are nine feet long, and not easy to conceal.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
11:20 ||
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With the situation of war-by-proxy heating up in Lebanon and Gaza, DID thought our readers might be interested in some of the military technologies being featured. Indeed we are. Good article with many, many links, look about half way down the page.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
10:56 ||
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Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel's past experience with international peacekeeping missions in Lebanon has been unsatisfactory, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Tuesday. However, she did not rule out a peacekeeping force as part of the solution to the current crisis with Lebanon.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair want to send an international force to southern Lebanon to prevent Hizballah from rebuilding its forces there. The United Nations already has a force of some 2,000 international troops deployed in southern Lebanon. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was sent there in 1978 as a result of a U.N. Security Council resolution. "Past experience with UNIFIL was not satisfactory," Livni said on Tuesday following a meeting with a United Nations team.
But Annan said on Tuesday that he envisioned a much larger and more powerful international force to "stabilize the situation" in Lebanon. "Details will have to be worked out, including the concept and the size. I would expect a force, which is considerably larger than the 2,000 force that is there," Annan said after a meeting with European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. But Livni said that Israel would decide what would work for them. "We shall examine what solutions are suitable for us. The criteria are: the implementation of [U.N. Resolution] 1559 and the Lebanese Army deployed in the South," Livni said.
Among other things, Resolution 1559, passed in 2004, calls for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" (a veiled reference to Hizballah), and it supports "the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory." The question many people are asking is whether the Lebanese government is strong enough or even willing to deploy its army in place of Hizballah, which has the backing of Syria and Iran.
According to UNIFIL's 1978 mandate, the U.N. interim force went to southern Lebanon "for the purpose of confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring international peace and security, and assisting the Government of Lebanon." In May 2000, Hizballah filled the vacuum created by Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the buffer zone it had maintained in southern Lebanon for 18 years. Hizballah claimed victory when Israel decided to withdraw.
UNIFIL failed to prevent Hizballah's rise to power in southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese government never deployed its army there, as it was supposed to do. In fact, Hizballah -- a Lebanese Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization - established outposts next to UNIFIL installations near the Israeli border after Israel withdrew. In October 2000, a UNIFIL spokesman told Cybercast News Service that his soldiers had watched as Hizballah carried out a cross-border attack and snatched three Israeli soldiers. Their bodies were returned (along with one live Israeli businessman) in January 2004 -- in exchange for 435 "security prisoners" held in Israeli prisons.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
10:50 ||
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What nation is going to send its troops to Lebanon, to stand between those shooting off missiles and their targets? Utter madness.
U.S.-led forces will launch 'decisive operations' to reclaim two southern towns captured in recent days by the Taliban, the military said Tuesday. Scores of Taliban militants chased police out of two southern Helmand districts near the Pakistani border.
'The Taliban extremists have taken control of the areas of Garmser and Naway-i-Barakzayi, however, coalition forces do have them under observation,' military spokesman Col. Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul. 'Decisive operations will begin soon,' he added without saying when.
That's the problem with 'taking control' of a town. You've just announced where you are located, putting a big "Kick Me" sign on your back.
Additional: KABUL, Afghanistan Afghan troops on Tuesday prepared to deploy to a town in southern Afghanistan that one official said had been overrun by Pakistani militants. Between 300 and 400 Afghan soldiers were heading to the southern town of Garmser, near the Pakistani border, said Amir Mohammed Akhunzada, the deputy governor of Helmand province. Our soldiers are going to Garmser with the support of the coalition to take it back from the Taliban, he said.
In Kabul, Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Malik Sidiqi accused Pakistan-based Islamic groups Lashkar-e-Tayyaba an outlawed militant organization and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam a pro-Taliban political party of taking over Garmser.
Sidiqi said a second Helmand town that had been overrun by militants Naway-i-Barakzayi was reclaimed by government forces late Monday. They burned the Afghan flag and raised the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam flag in the district, Sidiqi told reporters.
While Taliban militants have long operated freely in former southern stronghold provinces, their capture of a town highlights the weakness of Afghanistan's police forces in remote areas and the challenge ahead of U.S.-coalition troops to restore order in the country. Afghan officials have said scores of Taliban fighters, many crossing into Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan, fought Garmser's small contingent of policemen holed up in a concrete compound for 16 days before the police were forced to withdraw Sunday.
The government of Afghanistan has technically and temporarily left Garmser, Sidiqi said. We did so to prevent casualties to civilian people.
Helmand is one of Afghanistan's most volatile regions, where Taliban extremists and heavily armed opium farmers have long operated freely. But stepped up coalition-led military operations in the province since June have pitted foreign troops and Islamic extremists against each other in some of Afghanistan's deadliest fighting since the Taliban's 2001 ouster. About 4,000 NATO-led British soldiers are deploying to Helmand to take over security control from U.S. forces at the end of the month.
Sidiqi said a large group of Taliban that had stormed Naway-i-Barakzayi, to the north of Garmser, and briefly took control there Monday were turned back later in the day. Coalition military officials confirmed enemy activity in the areas but declined to comment further, saying only they were looking into the reports.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
10:37 ||
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taleban militants vowed on Tuesday to intensify their insurgency with fresh attacks and suicide bombings, saying they would shortly take control of southern Afghanistan. During these operations which will begin today or tomorrow, well take most of the districts in southern and south-central Afghanistan, purported Taleban spokesman Mohammad Hanif told AFP.
Since we've been invited to attend, I think it's only polite to take them up on it.
The threat came as the Afghan government confirmed that the rebels had forced government forces out of at least one district in the troubled southern province of Helmand late Monday. The new offensive would include lots of suicide bombings, roadside explosions and hit-and-run attacks on government and coalition targets, Hanif said. We will increase our attacks. We will carry out lots of suicide attacks, we will carry out bombings and we will engage the infidel troops in guerrilla battles, the spokesman said by telephone from an unknown location.
Likely a safe house in Pakistan
Taleban spokesman often call the media to issue statements, often about clashes with security forces in which their versions can differ wildly from those issued by the security forces. The coalition would not immediately respond to the latest threat.
The Taleban has been waging a growing insurgency since being toppled from government in 2001 by a US-led coalition. This year the rebels -- believed to have support from other Islamic outfits like Al-Qaeda -- have been able to mount large-scale, organised attacks on security forces while maintaining a deadly guerrilla campaign of suicide and other attacks.
And getting themselves killed in large numbers
In response coalition and Afghan troops launched in mid-May their biggest operation yet against the rebels, confronting them in strongholds that previously saw little government authority.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
10:29 ||
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Taleban threatens major offensive in Afghanistan
Good plan! Since the last one was such a smashing success.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/18/2006 14:33
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We're getting closer and closer to where a Buff with a full load of conventional weapons would be an asset. Get one staged over Afghanistan, identify an infiltration route being used, and let 'er go. There is nothing quite as impressive as having about 55,000 pounds of high explosives go off in one continuing rumble. I'm especially sure it would "impress" those in the target zone.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/18/2006 15:21
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#7
Heh...one town already retaken.."without incident". The Tallies ran like school girls.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/18/2006 16:13
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#8
Get one whiff of those talipussies, that's offensive.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 17:58
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SEOUL, South Korea - The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise arrived in South Korea Tuesday for a routine port call, officials said, amid heightened tensions in the region over North Korea's missile launches. The Carrier Strike Group 12 led by the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier arrived at the southern port of Busan, the U.S. Navy in South Korea said in a statement. The vessel's visit "has been previously scheduled and it is not in response to any specific event," the statement said.
No, no, certainly not ...
It wasn't clear how long the vessel will stay at the port. It is the first time in 17 years for the Norfolk, Virginia-based Enterprise to travel to Pacific waters. The carrier's deployment to the Asia-Pacific region is "part of a regular rotation of vessels in support of U.S. commitments to around the world," the Navy said. Nothing to see here. Yet...
First, the Big E isn't that exposed, because there's a couple of Ticos and/or Burkes with her, and I'd bet the rent one of them is ABM capable. Secondly, Kimmie knows that Enterprise is Atlantic Fleet, and probably figures we don't move CVs around without a reason. (We do it all the time, but what the hell, let him worry.) Third - and quite possibly most important of all - is the psychological effect. Even the 40-year old Enterprise is one BIG ship, and the spies that are on the waterfront there are getting that punch up close and personal. I saw the effect the JFK had on some visiting Soviet sailors in the late 80s, and those guys looked like they'd been poleaxed. In addition, this is the Enterprise, one of the most legendary names in USN history. That is getting their attention too.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/18/2006 12:23
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#5
In real terms, carriers also have a very real defensive "bubble" around them of a minimum of 200 miles, maximum ?, and it doesn't matter if land is part of that bubble.
So, in effect, they make an excellent temporary ABM shield for southern Korea. By running one of their guided missile ships up either coast, they could provide effective coverage for most US forces in the South.
I would propose that this means that our layered long-range missile defenses from Nork are complete, so we are able to commit temporary ABM support for the South. This means that they can't hit the US, or Japan, or now US forces in Skor.
Forty to fifty percent of Hizbullah's military capability has been destroyed in the six days of the IDF counter-attack following last Wednesday's Hizbullah raid in northern Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The IDF, it is understood, believes it needs another week or so minimum to achieve its military goals in terms of alleviating Hizbullah's capacity to threaten Israel.
Earlier, Deputy IDF Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky said in an interview to Army Radio that the offensive against Hizbullah would reach its completion "in a matter of weeks."
Kaplinsky said a massive ground incursion was not necessary at the moment.
"At this stage we do not think we have to activate massive ground forces into Lebanon but if we have to do this, we will. We are not ruling it out," Kaplinski told Israel Radio.
These guys seem to have drunk the RMA koolaid even more than Rummy's worst assistant. How can they possibly estimate that forty to fifty percent of Hizbullah's military capability has been destroyed when they haven't put a boot on the ground? 40-50% of their targets may no longer exist where they did, but that does not mean they are destroyed.
It also demonstrates a shocking misunderstanding of what constitutes military capability. A weapons warehouse is not a capability, a man with a stone is. In no sense have the Israelis, based on the limited information available to us, destroyed or defeated the human capability of HesbAllan. Israel needs to kill lots of Hesb members. LOTS. They have to make sure that the ones who survive know they have been defeated and know they never want to experience something like it again. Make them go home and tell the young boys, "It's not worth it, let's learn to live in peace." Until that time comes, it's just apply, wash, rinse, repeat.
#2
NS presumes to tell the IDF what they have accomplished. He does, after all, have PRESS reports to rely on in doing this!!
IDF only has intel assets in Lebanon, plus classified info. And G*d knows they don't understand what constitutes military capability!! Why there are DECADES of them domonstrating no knowledge of this subject whatsoever.
Pitiful, no?
Moreover, NS has years of observing from a distance, whereas the Israelis only have decades of making hard existential tradeoffs up close and personal.
They're lucky they have your advice, NS.
Of course, what you might mean is that you fear they are not aiming to wipe out Hizbullah as a whole, just to create some breathing space and a cordon sanitaire until they can force the international community to actually back up UN resolutions. Maybe they even think that a little country cannot do this themselves against oil-funded groups without bankrupting their economy and that in any case those who wish to benefit from the demise of terror groups should also chip in rather than just letting Israel do the hard and dangerous work and take the blame.
Just a theory .....
(and yea, that's sarcastic but it's been a hot day and while it's one thing to be worried, it's another thing to suggest Isreal doesn't get it about terrorism. Pfeh.)
#3
I hope this is just feel good quotes for domestic consumption, and not an operating assumption.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/18/2006 10:27
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#4
Hizbullah has to run out of rockets sooner or later, even if Israel doesn't take them out. The worst possible thing right now would be for Hizbullah to stop the rocket attacks and return the hostages. Israel would be pressured to leave them alone with much of their arsenal intact.
#7
There's plenty more rockets in Iran for HesbAllan.
True, but the delivery may be a problem. Not all of the border access with Syria has been taken a care off, I suppose, but the major routes are blocked. Speaking of which, does anyobe remember when the 72 hours ultimatum expires?
#9
Move 10 miles into Leb and 98% of the threat is out of range. Level every building and burn the trees before leaving. Any one trying to move back in can be shelled.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 11:23
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#10
They have already sent D-9's in for the first kilometer.
#11
Damascus is a short tank ride from the Golan Heights. Wink, wink.
Oh, and take as long as you like. We of the peace keeper forces are still making lunch arrangements.
#12
#9 Move 10 miles into Leb and 98% of the threat is out of range. Level every building and burn the trees before leaving. Any one trying to move back in can be shelled.
Hope they use the US made Howitzers we gave them. Would give me such a warm feeling to know something US made is pounding Hezballah into dust.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/18/2006 11:41
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#13
If Israel sends tanks and troops to Lebanon, I hope we reposition a bunch of troops on the West of Iraq. Just to keep them guessing.
#14
A little heat coming from the western Iraqi desert would be a nice thing, If ya know what I mean.
Just daydreaming, folks. Move along now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/18/2006 12:16
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#15
Can't get at the article right now. However, the TV reporting is that the IDF says it has destroyed about 40% of the rockets and other infrastructure in the south of Lebanon.
That's a claim that can reasonably be based on intel, I think.
#16
If HisbAllan is hiding the rockets in and among houses, it would certainly be interesting to know how Israel destroyed 4-5,000 of the 10-13,000 rockets without killing a lot more civilians. If photo reconnaisance is so good, how come we had so much trouble with getting it right on Iraq? Sure, it's a smaller space and Israel has had a lot more time and humint. But I'd still want to put some boots on the ground to confirm that estimate. Especially after that C-802.
#17
No kidding. Esp good to check on the ground in case these jerks have been digging things up in the Bekka recently.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/18/2006 13:03
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#18
Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, on the Israeli general staff, said, We have damaged Hezbollah but they still have significant operational capacity. He noted the decline in rockets launched into Israel in the last two days an average of 40 a day, down from initial highs of 150 and said it was a testament to the damage caused by the Israelis.
It will take time, its more than a matter of days on the military side, he said. We aim to change the situation and not go back to where we are"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 13:09
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#19
I thought I remember Israel saying that they wanted to destroy what was valuable to Hezballah, like their weapons and infrastructure, not to necessarily take out the fighters themselves. To me, that seems about the best anyone could hope for from the air. All they have to do is to shame Iran for not putting thier own butts at risk and the whole thing may well go away, at least in the present form! :-)
I really only watch FOXNews, but I can tell you they always have lots of pics of M109A6 155mm loadin' and firin'. It is something the media can show well without any real risk.
I heard a report that the M109 battery shown last night was a new battery to the area. I hope it wa sincremental and not replacement.
#22
Nimble,
They are probably talking about the number of launchers , of which there probably are a finite number. They probably know how many there are and where they are located.
AL
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/18/2006 14:31
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#23
Iran gives the Arabs, just enough in weapons and money to cause trouble and die for Iran. They kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Arab's die when they fight the Jew's with inferior weapons, and they get other Arab fanatics rise up against the Jews to die for them. Someday, the Arabs will realize that.
#24
Has anyone heard anything about these launchers being remotely controlled? If so, does that mean that a guy could be sitting in his living room drinking tea when the missile in his garage starts to beep then launch, or does it mean they run about 100 feet of wire and run away when they push the button, or does it mean they can call the guy and he pushes the button when the family is out of the way?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 15:33
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#26
I read reports where they have found houses that have special rooms to house some kinds of missiles. Disturbing, but easy to deal with if you know they are there.
#27
"Israel needs to kill lots of Hesb members. LOTS. They have to make sure that the ones who survive know they have been defeated and know they never want to experience something like it again."--Nimble Spemble
A good time to strike would be when HeadsforAllan holds one of those massive parades with hundreds of black-clad, goose-stepping Islamo-Nazis marching and Nass-asshole in the viewing stands.
About two dozen cluster bombs followed by napalm should do the job.
#29
#4 Hizbullah has to run out of rockets sooner or later, even if Israel doesn't take them out. The worst possible thing right now would be for Hizbullah to stop the rocket attacks and return the hostages. Israel would be pressured to leave them alone with much of their arsenal intact.
Ummm, they have about 13,000 missiles and rockets of various sizes, shapes, and flavors.
According to most accounts, HeadsforAllan has fired off less 1,200 so far. They're not running out anytime soons, especially if Syria can slip a few in now and then.
#31
Hezbollah doesn't really need a large arsenal. A score of deadly hits with Zilzaal 1 and Raad 1,2 on Haifa and Tel-Aviv and the Zionist Jews will all be afflicted with shock, heart attack or cardio-vascular failure. I wonder why they have such a high propensity for this? Any ideas? You should thank Muslims that we haven't hit the petro-chemical plants in Haifa...yet. But that may change. I do hope occupied Palestine has excellent heart transplant facilities.
Posted by: the Levant ||
07/18/2006 16:58
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#32
LOL - Paleo medical talent? Didn't you know hospitals are to base Paleo snipers in? Jeebus....
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 17:02
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#33
Re #29: It's not just the missiles they've fired that count. There are also destroyed missiles and destroyed missile crews. Personally I doubt that Syria can deliver many new missiles under these conditions anyway.
#34
Does Hezbollah have excellent testicle transplant facilities, Levant? Yhey might want to start making use of them, as the current membership seems quite lacking in that department.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
07/18/2006 17:12
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#36
I was ignoring his reality :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 17:13
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#37
levant has a serious case of envy re: Israeli medical capabilities. S/he ought to. The Muslim world has added bupkis - nothing - to humanity's achievements in medicine, science, engineering or anything else for the last 1000 years or so.
Whereas the Jews consistently contribute well beyond their numbers.
#38
It seems to me that it would be fair for Israel to tack on the requirement that the remainder of those missiles are destroyed within one week by UN "forces" or no deal.
As for the heart transplant idea, Israeli doctors have all the necessary talent even if the people occupying the area of Israel that they like to call "Palestine" don't. If Hezballah does manage to hit the refinery, it won't be long before Israel makes sure there are lots of spare parts laying around to perform all kinds of transplants.
#42
#37: "The Muslim world has added bupkis - nothing - to humanity's achievements in medicine, science, engineering or anything else for the last 1000 years or so."
Now, now - don't be nasty.
The moslem Arabs have contributed the homicide bomb belt - and the buzzing prayer rug.
In light of these stellar inventions, aren't you ashamed of yourself for dissing them?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 17:29
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#43
Levant is in Syria? Cool. What are your opinions on all the happenings over there? How did your opinions on all this stuff get formed?
#47
Re #31: Actually, the heart attack rate is a lot higher in Syria than in Israel. Must be all that seething.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/h/heart_attack/stats-country.htm
WASHINGTON - Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday Hezbollahs attacks on Israel with imprecise rockets in civilian areas violated international humanitarian law and most likely constituted war crimes. The attacks Sunday and Monday were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians, the New York-based group said in a statement. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes, it said.
Ok, my surprise meter is working after all.
Some of the rockets launched against Haifa contain hundreds of metal ball bearings and were of little military use but could cause serious harm to civilians, the group wrote. Attacking civilian areas indiscriminately is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime, said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the groups Middle East and North Africa division. Hezbollahs use of warheads that have limited military use and cause grievous suffering to the victims only makes the crime worse.
International humanitarian law prohibits warring parties using weapons in civilian areas that are so inaccurate that they cannot be directed at military targets without a substantial risk of causing harm to civilians, Human Rights Watch said. The group has urged both Hezbollah and Israel to respect the prohibition against targeting civilians or conducting indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas. Human Rights Watch on Monday called on the Israeli government to divulge details about a bombing over the weekend that reportedly killed 16 civilians in a convoy near the village of Marwahin.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
09:34 ||
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#1
Hezbollah: "We didn't fire any rockets, the Jooooos shoot them straight up in the air and they come down on their own cities so they can blame us".
#4
It's not like it's the first time ball bearings have been used. Is that getting big negative media play? It's almost as though a bit flipped for a lot of folks with this last set of attacks, even the Saudis. I can believe the Saudis see the hand of Iranian Shiites and want to stop them. But what moved HRW?
#8
A serious violation of human rights, ya say? I'm gonna report you to the govamint. What a bunch of delusional loons the HRW are. Hizb'Allah is a serious human rights violation themselves. HRW, wacha gonna do, wacha gonna do when they come for you? Who ya gonna call, the ACLU?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/18/2006 12:07
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#9
Dr. Seuss's ABC We read that to trailing daughter#1 from Frankfurt to Prague and back again in 1991. My still-unmarried girlfriend who accompanied us on that trip can recite the whole thing from memory even yet. ;-)
#12
How come I never heard this said about explosive vests packed with nails?
Dipped in rat poison, to slow coagulation and intensify bleeding, a practice common enough for israeli ER to deal with that on a regular basis... IIRC, there was also an attempt at blowing bags of aids-tainted blood along with shrapnels... didn't work, but the intent was there. Of course, Lotp is right. Freedom fighters(Tm).
#14
You recall correctly, a5089. Brer Rabbit, the formerly great New York Times and CNN never bother to mention such little trifles, however much the perpetrators boast about it... and it doesn't change the raw casualty numbers, just the quality of life of the wounded. Rat poison on the nails and ball bearings packed in the boom vests has been standing operating procedure for years and years and years.
#15
International humanitarian law prohibits warring parties using weapons in civilian areas that are so inaccurate that they cannot be directed at military targets without a substantial risk of causing harm to civilians.
So much for that ARCLIGHT strike, I guess. Unless we fill the 40 BUFF's up with 500-lb JDAMs?
#18
You weren't born yesterday planetdan, were you? Rockets, bombs, nails etc. hitting OCCUPIERS are not considered war crimes by the civilized world. But rockets hitting the OCCUPIED are!
Posted by: the Levant ||
07/18/2006 17:14
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#19
hee hee.... a Paleo Joe M
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 17:15
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#20
And how many years (and subsequent deaths) have this Hezy bombs been going?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 18:23
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#21
JOE is coherent and funny, not like levintine.
#22
Poor Mr. Levant is behind the times. Human Rights Watch just denounced Hizb'Allah's actions as war crimes, and I misdoubt Hamas will be far behind. The tides of History have passed your people by, Mr. Levant, and the world has no sympathy for losers, no matter what pride Mr. Levant may take in such barbaric behaviour.
The first attempt by Alun Menai Williams, who has died aged 93, to join the International Brigade and fight fascism in the Spanish civil war ended when the trawler he was travelling on was turned back by a gunboat. Then, a passage by ship from Marseilles to Barcelona was aborted. The third attempt, though successful, nearly cost Williams his life; his Barcelona-bound steamer was torpedoed by an Italian submarine, and he was rescued by a Spanish fishing boat. Williams was one of the last survivors of the 2,400 British volunteers in Spain; 526 died during the conflict and fewer than 20 are still alive. Once again, nobody writes an obituary like the british
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006
09:27 ||
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#1
Only problem is that it was not a choice between freedom and fascism but between a stalinist dictatorship (1) and Franco's. The difference being that except in the immediate post-war Franco killed few people. A lot fewerf than your average communist dictator
(1) the "republican" government sent all of Spain's gold to Stalin. After the war Spaniards starved because quite simply Spain had zero gold or foreign currency and could buy neither food or industrial products.
The man said to be responsible for killing and mutilating two U-S soldiers in Iraq last month has been killed. Iraq's national security adviser today announced the death of Jordanian Diyar Ismail Mahmoud in a clash with Iraqi security forces. He's not commenting on the clash or the evidence that Mahmoud was involved in killing the Americans. The Iraqi official does says Mahmoud was a top lieutenant of al-Qaida-in-Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U-S airstrike in early June. The national security adviser also says Iraqi security forces have detained the leaders of the Omar Brigade group. That's a wing of al-Qaida-in-Iraq that had claimed to have carried out many deadly attacks in Iraq.
An Iraqi top security official said Tuesday that four key al-Qaida leaders, who are responsible for major bombings and sectarian bloodshed in the country, have been captured in Baghdad. Iraq's National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie made the government announcement in a televised news conference. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops captured the four al-Qaida leaders and killed the fifth, a Jordanian who slaughtered last month two U.S. soldiers in Yousifiyah town, about 20 km south of Baghdad, al-Rubaie told the reporters. Rubaie identified the detained four as Abu Uthman, Abu Aisha, Abu Eyhab and Mahmoud Abu Islam, all are leaders of al-Qaida's Omer Brigade.
Abu Aisha, with real name of Sabah Ali Badran Kahdum, is a key leader responsible for financing the brigade and head of about thousand fighters in Baghdad.
Abu Eyhab, with real name of Zamil, is a military leader responsible for recruiting and arming the brigade.
Mahmoud Abu Islam, leader of several cells in south of Baghdad, is responsible for religious verdicts that usually lead to execution or assassination of rivals, Rubaie elaborated.
They snagged the Mastermind, a money man, an ops guy and the holy head honcho. Huzzah!
Rubaie revealed that another al-Qaida leader known as Abu al-Afghani, a Jordanian with real name of Diyar Esmail Mahmoud, was wounded in the arrest operation and died hours later.
In terrible great pain, and after singing like an effing canary...
#5
A month or so ago, a Shiite terrorist group kidnapped and murdered a large group of Sunnis, all of who had a first name of Omar.
It may have been in revenge for the work of the Omar Brigade (at the time I assumed that it was in revenge for the work of a long ago Omar who became a sunni caliph)
This is what passes for brilliant analysis from Richard Cohen,the sage of the WaPo. I wonder how soon we'll see outright anti-semitism on the op-ed.
The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. No, the greatest mistake would be not to eliminate HezbAllan while they have the chance. Only someone who has converted to Islam could say Israel is a mistake.
It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. No one is culpable? Not even George Bush?
Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself. Israel, always launching rockets that land and explode in its own cities.
This is why the Israeli-Arab war, now transformed into the Israeli-Muslim war (Iran is not an Arab state), persists and widens. It's the mistake's fault!
It is why the conflict mutates and festers. It has nothing to do with co-dependents like the UN, EU and SA, who help the Paleostinians live forever in the past nursing the grudge of their grandfathers.
It is why Israel is now fighting an organization, Hezbollah, that did not exist 30 years ago and why Hezbollah is being supported by a nation, Iran, that was once a tacit ally of Israel's. Israel created HezbAllan? Who knew? The underlying, subterranean hatred of the Jewish state in the Islamic world just keeps bubbling to the surface. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and some other Arab countries may condemn Hezbollah, but I doubt the proverbial man in their street shares that view. So let's listent to the ignorant man in the street who cannot figure out what even his dimwitted leaders have begun to understand.
There is no point in condemning Hezbollah. The WaPo wouldn't carry the story anyway.
Zealots are not amenable to reason. Look at Pinch.
And there's not much point, either, in condemning Hamas. Nope. Wouldn't run that either.
It is a fetid, anti-Semitic outfit whose organizing principle is hatred of Israel. I thought that was the UN.
There is, though, a point in cautioning Israel to exercise restraint -- not for the sake of its enemies but for itself. Whatever happens, Israel must not use its military might to win back what it has already chosen to lose: the buffer zone in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip itself. Right. Israelis, stop resisting. Accept the rockets red glare with good cheer.
It is also true, as some critics warned, that Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon was seen by its enemies -- and claimed by Hezbollah -- as a defeat for the mighty Jewish state. Hezbollah took credit for this, as well it should. We were rooting for it all the time.
Its persistent attacks bled Israel. In the end, Israel got out and the United Nations promised it a secure border. The Lebanese army would see to that. (And the check is in the mail.) What's with the intrusion of sanity?
But worse than what is happening now would be a retaking of those territories. That would put Israel smack back to where it was, subjugating a restless, angry population and having the world look on as it committed the inevitable sins of an occupying power. The smart choice is to pull back to defensible -- but hardly impervious -- borders. That includes getting out of most of the West Bank -- and waiting (and hoping) that history will get distracted and move on to something else. LALALALALALALA I can't hear you. That's always proven to be a successful tactic.
This will take some time, and in the meantime terrorism and rocket attacks will continue and lots of Israelis will die. Another gifted British historian, Tony Judt, wraps up his recent book "Postwar" with an epilogue on how the sine qua non of the modern civilized state is recognition of the Holocaust. Much of the Islamic world, notably Iran under its Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stands outside that circle, refusing to make even a little space for the Jews of Europe and, later, those from the Islamic world. They see Israel not as a mistake but as a crime. Until they change their view, the longest war of the 20th century will persist deep into the 21st. It is best for Israel to hunker down. Israel, just turn the other cheek one more time. Hunker down while Iran nukes up. A-friggin-stounding!
#1
Yeah, 100 rockets a month isn't really a reason to retaliate or anything.
Assholes like this guy think there is never a reason for war no matter what the circumstances. That's a very dangerous way of thinking. Our isolationism and pacifism during the 1st and 2nd world wars nearly resulted in disaster both times.
Curious that the left has chosen the path of isolation and anti-globalization by default, since the Right chose an open and pro-active economy and foreign relations policy.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 10:15
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It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now.
He just can't bring himself to do it. To follow this line of thinking to its logical end. Yes, he believes Israel must be wiped from the map. But, also, I'd question that didn't the U.N. "create" Israel? Nope, can't blame them, now can we? And WTF with the snide comment on Christians in the area? Can anyone point me to the last time a Christian (or Christian group) launched rockets, strapped on a bomb, or, heck, even is quoted as saying the Jooooos must be killed?
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:16
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#7
Even when the Church of the Nativity was fouled? I can't think of a condemnation, let alone a violent act.
#12
"It is why Israel is now fighting an organization, Hezbollah, that did not exist 30 years ago and why Hezbollah is being supported by a nation, Iran, that was once a tacit ally of Israel's."
Mr. Cohen's next piece:
9-11 Was An Inside Job; Bush Administration Suspected
#13
I'm increasingly concerned that a large portion of our population is headed for Alzheimer's Disease. I conclude this because only scrambled brains full of plaques and tangles can account for some of the "liberal" crap that I see on-line each day. Even the mentally retarded have a better grasp of common sense and cause and effect than these people.
#16
Apparently this leftover douchebag has missed most of the last thirty years of news including the start of the Global Jihad .
Too busy trying to get a hummer in the office to even read the AP or something.
This guy needs a slapburger.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
07/18/2006 15:47
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#17
It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now
So when is the idiot going to back his bags and go back to the European source of his genes? Wasn't America basically a bunch of Europeans in an area of North American aboriginals about two hundred years ago? Oh, that's right again, key principle of elitism, one set of rules for us and another set of rules for everyone else.
#19
It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of English and Europeans in an area of Heathen Indians (and some Animists) produced two and a half centuries of warfare and terrorism of the sort we saw end at Wounded Knee.
#22
Richard Cohen has a long history of these type of articles. I come to the conclusion that he has a psychological problem with a combination of sociological. I can come up with one that qualifies as a physchological and sociological, it's called Inferiority Complex but, in Mr. Cohen's case (based on his previous articles), I would call it Jewish Inferiority Complex.
For example concerning Europe, he believes that Jews showed up in Europe after the modernization. His base premise is that Jews should be subservient no matter where they live or whatever situation they are stuck in because "Jews showed up later in the game." The truth is that Jews were scattered and "showed up first" in every modern civilized country that exist today. Also, one of his previous articles includes his rational for eliminating Algebra from schools. (Algebra! Why do they hate us?)
"If a person is subject to humiliation from another person and made to feel inferior, the person thinks that it is the inferiority complex that is aroused in him."
The above explains why he feels Jews need to submit whereever they live.
"If he is bottom of the class in some subject that he does not like, he will not develop an inferiority complex (for that subject). Instead, he is likely to focus on his need for social approval by getting a name for himself, even if it is only as a trouble-maker."
The above explains why he also has a sociological problem.
#23
So He has a psychological problem stemming from having a Jewish-type name and being taken for a Jew so many times that he has developed a pathology around this subject ?
He shoulld have gone the other way. Hardly anybody realizes I'm a Jew . And I get to hear what they really think.
It can really open up your pores.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
07/18/2006 17:08
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. plans to narrow the size of its flagship newspaper and close a printing plant, resulting in the loss of 250 jobs, the company said in a story posted on its Web site late on Monday. I guess we'll need to get smaller birdcages.
#10
It was long ago pointed out that newspapers in NYC are incapable of publishing local news that doesn't solely revolve around the editors tight clique of cocktail party friends that nobody else cares about.
After the last major newspaper folded, a panel interview with four of their top reporters had them all agreeing that their readers just didn't appreciate what they published, that all the hoi polloi cared about were their own mundane little lives, not the lives and opinions of those that mattered in the city.
Even after five minutes of listening to those arrogant SOBs, you wanted to slap them across the face.
#12
Since I wouldn't knowingly shake the hand of anyone who worked for the NYT (anymore than I would anyone who worked for the Democratic Party), as far as I'm concerned the sooner they go under the better. Sympathy meter needle welded on zero.
Posted by: mac ||
07/18/2006 10:23
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#13
So, with a smaller paper they will have fewer ads? Less news? Less Opinions? or just smaller print?
#16
I'm looking forward to reading the front-page expose of how closing the printing plant will destroy the lives of those 250 employees, leaving children unfed, retirements in ruins, a community in ashes, and a mob demanding that legislators "do something," while a cabal of capitalist pigs counts their gold in a polished boardroom overlooking Central Park.
I do not doubt that there is such a thing as xenophobia, though it is a very different thing from racism. Etymologically the term means fear of (and therefore aversion towards) the foreigner. Its very use implies a distinction between the one who belongs and the one who doesn't, and in inviting us to jettison our xenophobia politicians are inviting us to extend a welcome to people other than ourselves - a welcome predicated on a recognition of their otherness. Now it is easy for an educated member of the liberal ,lite to discard his xenophobia: for the most part his contacts with foreigners help him to amplify his power, extend his knowledge and polish his social expertise. . . .
. . . Members of our liberal ,lite may be immune to xenophobia, but there is an equal fault which they exhibit in abundance, which is the repudiation of, and aversion to, home. Each country exhibits this vice in its own domestic version. Nobody brought up in post-war England can fail to be aware of the educated derision that has been directed at our national loyalty by those whose freedom to criticize would have been extinguished years ago, had the English not been prepared to die for their country. The loyalty that people need in their daily lives, and which they affirm in their unconsidered and spontaneous social actions, is now habitually ridiculed or even demonized by the dominant media and the education system. National history is taught as a tale of shame and degradation. The art, literature and religion of our nation have been more or less excised from the curriculum, and folkways, local traditions and national ceremonies are routinely rubbished.
This repudiation of the national idea is the result of a peculiar frame of mind that has arisen throughout the Western world since the Second World War, and which is particularly prevalent among the intellectual and political elites. No adequate word exists for this attitude, though its symptoms are instantly recognized: namely, the disposition, in any conflict, to side with `them' against `us', and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably `ours'. I call the attitude oikophobia - the aversion to home - by way of emphasizing its deep relation to xenophobia, of which it is the mirror image. Oikophobia is a stage through which the adolescent mind normally passes. But it is a stage in which intellectuals tend to become arrested. As George Orwell pointed out, intellectuals on the Left are especially prone to it, and this has often made them willing agents of foreign powers. . . .
Nor is oikophobia a specifically English, still less specifically British tendency. When Sartre and Foucault draw their picture of the `bourgeois' mentality, the mentality of the Other in his Otherness, they are describing the ordinary decent Frenchman, and expressing their contempt for his national culture. A chronic form of oikophobia has spread through the American universities, in the guise of political correctness, and loudly surfaced in the aftermath of September 11th, to pour scorn on the culture that allegedly provoked the attacks, and to side by implication with the terrorists. . . .
Oikophobia. That's the word for the day. Be sure to use it on the next moonbat you encounter; it'll confuse the dickens out of 'em.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2006
07:41 ||
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#1
Oikophobia - from W. S. Gilbert's, The Mikado:
"And the idiot who praises with enthusiastic tones,
All centuries but this and every country but his own."
Posted by: Duke of Plaza-Toro ||
07/18/2006 8:42
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#2
ah heck, I should have posted my long rant about the liberal superiority/inferiorty complex under this article instead.
#3
An another word popular at least in some circles is "ethnomasochism"; it was coined by ultra-rightwing writer Guillaume Faye, and has a similar meaning, only with a racial connotation rather than cultural.
#4
I do not doubt that there is such a thing as xenophobia, though it is a very different thing from racism.
While we're at it, time to come up with a new 'ism' for those with a blind hatred of military people along the lines of racism, sexism, etc. Another fine condition of the left, or is that an implied subset of the Left[tm] cause I know the traditional left had no problems with using uniform people to kill those they perceived as a threat [i.e. Stalin, Mao, etc].
In an incident in Rusafa, after having dropped off two passengers, a taxi driver found a plastic bag in the back seat of his taxi. Inside the bag, the driver found an anti-armor mine with wires attached. He then cut the wires and called the Iraqi police. Just how did he know which wires to cut, and why was he carrying wire cutters, and is he stupid, courageous or what? I think I'd like to ask him a few questions.
Iraqi police disarmed the bomb and removed it from the area.
There were no injuries or damages.
#1
glenmore: Just how did he know which wires to cut, and why was he carrying wire cutters, and is he stupid, courageous or what? I think I'd like to ask him a few questions.
If that was his taxi, I can see why he cut the wires. It's a big risk, but in Iraq, a car is several years' salary. Terrorism insurance for cars, if it exists, is probably prohibitively expensive.* Maybe he did not want the Iraqi police blowing it up.
* I can't even imagine it exists. Think about the possibility for fraud, by both terrorists and non-terrorists.
#2
Our family Marine says that almost every driver carries an assortment of tools (including wire cutters) to fix their vehicles. Not many repair shops, I guess.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/18/2006 8:45
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#8
Zhang, actually I think I read somewhere that insurance had become available in Iraq about a year ago. Can't remember where I saw it; I think it covered kidnapping. I read it as a positive sign, that the market at least read probabilities to be lower than the MSM does.
#9
Doesn't everyone carry a basic toolkit in their car for emergencies, along with a first aid kit? Even I do, and I never so much as held a screwdriver until I went to college.
by Mohammed Fadil, "Iraq the Model"
Reprinted in the Wall Street Journal
In spite of what we are facing here every day I find myself, just like many others, so attached to following what's going on between Israel and Lebanon and that's mostly because of the close resemblance between the two cases.
In both cases we see a weak government suffering to control a powerful militia that is challenging the will of the rest of the country and engaging in a proxy war making the people suffer the results of regional conflicts that in no way can benefit their country.
The other reason why I'm closely following this ongoing crisis is that the powers involved in this conflict between Lebanon and Israel are closely connected to the powers fighting in Iraq and we here believe that the battle over there will have an impact on the situation here in one way or another.
It's still very difficult for people here to predict how this crisis is going to end especially that politics mix with ideology in a complex way in this region, however there's a general sense that the fires of war are going to spread to the rest of the region but still no one here can see the way this bigger war is going to end. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2006
07:32 ||
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#1
Hezbollah has 1/6 of the parliment. That would indiacate a public mandate to me. 1 MP would be enough to set the precedent. They elected Hezbollah to their government, same as the paleos elected Hamas. Now enjoy the blessings of liberty!
On the night of 10 November 2004 Third Platoon, A Company, Task Force 2-2 IN near OBJ Wolf in Fallujah, Iraq, was ordered to attack to destroy six to eight Anti Iraqi Forces (AIF). 1LT Edward Iwan, the A Company Executive Officer, had identified six to eight AIF who had entered a block of twelve buildings. These AIF had engaged A55 and tanks from Team Tank with automatic weapons and rocket fire. Having a 25 mm cannon malfunction, 1LT Edward Iwan cordoned off the area and called Third Platoon to enter and clear all buildings until the AIF were killed or captured. . . .
When they came to the tenth home, SSG Colin Fitts, 1st Squad Leader, led his squad of soldiers into the house, with four soldiers from SSG Bellavias 2nd Squad. SGT Hugh Hall, 1st Squad, B Team Leader and SGT Warren Misa 1st Squad, A Team Leader, established a quick foothold in the interior of the house. When SGT Misa attempted to clear the second room he encountered heavy enemy fire. Two AIF were under a stairwell, well covered behind a three-foot barrier, engaging SGT Misa and SPC Lance Ohle as they attempted to move into the room. At that point, multiple bursts of automatic and semi-automatic gunfire were exchanged from extremely close quarters. As rounds impacted near the entry point of the house, nine Third Platoon soldiers became fixed inside the house. At that moment, fire erupted from a kitchen ground floor window onto the inner cordon in th e carport of the house. At one point, gun fire was being exchanged inside and outside of the house, as a total of three dismounted squads from Third Platoon were in contact.
SSG Bellavia quickly requested a M240B machine gun and a M249 SAW to suppress the AIF under the stairs in an effort to break contact and consolidate the platoon. Rounds from the insurgent side of the wall began impacting through the poorly made plaster. Multiple soldiers were bleeding from the face from flying debris. Two soldiers had glass and metal shards in their face, one soldier had been grazed on the side of his stomach underneath his vest and at least six others were bleeding from some cut or scrape from the point blank fire they were receiving. As two soldiers answered the request for support, it became apparent that the entrance to the building was extremely dangerous from ricocheting rounds.
Rather than place his soldier at risk, SSG Bellavia moved quickly to come to the aid of the squad. . . .
Go read it all. No further coment is really necessary.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2006
07:27 ||
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#1
Thank you Sargeant Bellavfias. I suspect there's been a lot more of this going on than even we at the burg realize. The word needs to get out and the thanks of the nation needs to be made clear to all.
#4
Definitely a great story. I am also impressed with the considerable stones on Michael Ware. He's a bit of a negative nancy, but you can't accuse him of hiding out in the Green Zone.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/18/2006 11:11
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#5
Unless there's a heck of a coincidence in names, here's Sergeant Bellavia leveling an M240 keyboard at Congressman Murtha to lethal effect.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/18/2006 13:12
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#6
Great story. Swat work in Hell, only this time the bad guys are not hicks in meth labs, but heavily armed Krazed Killers ready to lay down their lives for allan. This Bellavia guy is real-life Sergant Rock material.
#7
From the FrontPage link: David Bellavia is a former Army Staff Sergeant who served in the First Infantry Division for six years. He has been recommended for the Medal of Honor by his leadership, and has been nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross. He has received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York states highest combat valor award) and was recently inducted into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame. His Task Force 2-2 Infantry has fought on such battlefields as Al Muqdadiyah, An Najaf, Al Fallujah, Mosul, and Baqubah. His actions in Fallujah, Iraq were documented in the November 22, 2004 cover story Into the Hot Zone by award winning journalist Michael Ware. He is 30 years old.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 13:32
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#8
"We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."
#10
He and others have set up an organization http://www.vetsforfreedom.org/blog/
Just returned from a trip to Iraq with another soldier (on their own). Great writeups on the blog about their trip.
I'm not sure whether it was David or his buddy I saw on Fox, but he was an extremely articulate guy, full of words about "we are winning" and praise for the Iraqi Army.
And this article about the embed with the Iraqi Army in Weekly Standard. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/443zhpmy.asp
Good reads, if you haven't been following them.
I've been following them but had no idea of this!
(Mods, sorry about the long linky thing, the Link button never works for me)
Thai caretaker Cabinet on Tuesday approved the extension of state of emergency imposed on the three southern border provinces for another three months. Chitchai Wannasathit, the caretaker deputy prime minister, said on Tuesday that since the security situation in the south is still tense, the government has to extend the emergency state.
The state of emergency on three Thai southernmost provinces -- Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani -- was first imposed in July last year and must be renewed every three months. Emergency rule allows the government to impose curfews, prohibit public gatherings, censor and ban publications, detain suspects without charge, confiscate property and tap telephones. It also affords officials legal immunity for acts carried out under its provisions.
Suspected Muslim guerrillas Tuesday opened fire on police on a southern Philippine island, killing one officer, wounding three and leaving two others missing, police said.
Police officer Ali Akmad, who was slightly wounded, said the attackers stopped him and his colleagues on a road to a village outside Maimbung town on Jolo island, about 940 kilometers (580 miles) south of Manila. He said he had thought the attackers were soldiers manning a checkpoint. One officer was killed, two others, in addition to Akmad, were hurt and two were missing in the attack, Akmad told reporters from a hospital.
The island is a stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, notorious for ransom kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, including a February 2004 attack that gutted a ferry ship and killed 116 people in one of Southeast Asia's worst terrorist attacks. US troops maintain a presence on Jolo island as part of counterterrorism training, focusing on humanitarian missions including building schools, fixing roads and improving water supply.
Elusive Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani and a number of Indonesian militants belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian-based group also linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, have been sighted on Jolo in recent months, military officials said. Janjalani's presence has raised concerns that Abu Sayyaf may be plotting attacks against Philippine and US troops, officials said.
#1
When you click on the link, the magazine logo on the top of the left rail kinda tells you all you need to know about George Galloway and his admirers. It's made up of a hammer, sickle, and fascine bundle.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2006 7:36
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#8
Well, until Fred starts putting the occasional bit of vintage beefcake into the front page, this may be as good as it gets for the straight female and gay male demographic, here at the 'Burg.
Tis a sad thing, a wartime shortage such as this, but we all have to make sacrifices.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of laborers gathered across the street from a major Shiite shrine in southern Iraq Tuesday, killing at least 53 people and wounding 105, officials and witnesses said.
The attacker drove a minivan to where Shiite laborers gather daily to look for work in Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad. He offered them jobs, loaded the minivan with volunteers and then detonated the vehicle, Najaf Gov. Asaad Abu Kalal told a Shiite television station.
The blast occurred about 7:30 a.m. across the street from Kufa's gold-domed mosque, police Capt. Nafie Mohammed said. The shrine, located in a congested area of the city, marks the place where Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was mortally wounded.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, condemned the attack and promised to track down and punish those who planned it.
Kufa is a stronghold of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement controls the mosque. It appeared the blast was aimed at undermining al-Sadr's position in Iraq's sectarian struggle, much of which has been blamed on al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Now for the doom and gloom. In the first 17 days of July, at least 617 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, at least 527 civilians and 90 police and security forces, according to an AP count. In the nearly two months since the unity government took office on May 20, more than 1,850 Iraqis have been killed, including at least 1,585 civilians and 267 security forces. The figures do not include insurgents.
The July figure represents a marked increase over the same period last year when an AP count showed at least 450 Iraqis killed, at least 306 civilians and 144 police and security forces. The 617 killed so far this July, not including Tuesday's suicide attack, is already near the total killed in all July last year: 714.
The Shiite television station Al-Forat broadcast strident quotes from Shiites who blamed the attack on Sunni religious extremists. They expressed outrage that Sunni politicians could not rein in the militants.
The main Sunni bloc in parliament said the attack may have been retaliation for the kidnapping of seven Sunnis whose bodies were found Sunday in Mahmoudiya. The bloc accused Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces of failing to control the situation.
The events also raised doubts about the effectiveness of the U.S. strategy of handing over large areas of the country to Iraqi control, while keeping U.S. troops in reserve. Of course it does! Everything does!
U.S. troops of the 101st Airborne Division reported hearing detonations and gunfire, the U.S. command said. But Iraqi troops are responsible for security in Mahmoudiya, and American soldiers do not intervene unless asked by the Iraqis.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/18/2006
06:37 ||
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Task forces are being sent into primary schools to tackle the rise of inappropriate sexual behaviour in young pupils. Teachers are growing increasingly concerned that children as young as seven are interacting in a "sexualised" manner with each other, with old-fashioned games such as kiss and chase no longer being deemed innocent enough not to set alarm bells ringing. Now Birmingham council's inappropriate sexual behaviour unit has set up eight teams of experts that are being dispatched to schools across the city.
Stephane Breton, a social worker at the unit, said an increasing number of primary and secondary schools believed that they had a problem. He said: "Sometimes you have a whole school where all the kids are very flirty. They are seven and eight and they are flirtatious. We go with them and address the issue to make sure they know what they are talking about. We have been to at least eight schools. That is on request from the schools. At the end of the session there is an evaluation."
Mr Breton said some boys believed that girls wore short skirts to get attention because they wanted to be touched. In other cases, youngsters flirted because they had low self-esteem or to get rid of their anger. He said children were being ever more exposed to sexual images and messages through television, magazines and the internet, which they then copied and thought were acceptable. They were therefore becoming aware of sex at a much younger age.
Birmingham's sexual health charity, the Brook Advisory Clinic, also expressed concerns over children being exposed to sexual material. "I feel we do live in a very sexualised society," said Penny Barber, the charity's chief executive. "Both young men and women are subject to enormous pressure to be sexually attractive early on. They are bombarded with images when they're young. What they don't have is a counterbalance to that which is access to information and confidential advice."
#5
If 8 year old girls are flaunting their bodies "because they had low self-esteem" there is a problem.
My wife is a kindergarten teacher and sees this type of thing a lot. The girls come to school in outfits that you would expect on the backup singers of a gangsta rap video as young as second grade. We live in one of the most conservative areas of a bright blue state.
I do have a serious question for all the people in RB of the female persuasion. To the statement " girls wore short skirts to get attention " exactly what type of attention are these girls expecting? When teens or 20 somethings wear "attractive" clothes of the body revealing kind, what do these women think they will attract? What do they WANT to attract?
#7
Take cover, Alan, but I agree with you. Often times "the apple falls not far from the tree." Mom probably dresses the same way. I'm completely aghast at what the stores sell nowadays (especially to girls) as "clothes." Listen, I'm no puritan, but good grief. However, the free market side of me says, "Well they must be selling that stuff like hotcakes." So, I pin it on the parents. Often, the parents model that behavior themselves OR buy the crap. I mean, no 2nd grader is buying clothes by themselves if the parents really have any interest in their child's well being. Teenage years may be different, because the child has a job, makes $, and buys the clothes him/herself. But, 2nd graders (and I second your point about the younger kids...my wife taught kindergarten too, and saw this in some of her 5 year olds). Of course, long story short, she found out one of her girl's mom was a single-mom stripper who freakin' took her 5 year old to the club while she "worked."
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:23
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#8
(social progressive)
We can't stop them from acting like pole dancers. We'll just have to teach them poletrick safety, that's all.
(/social progressive)
#10
One Principle in Washington DC experimented. He arranged the class schedule so that the coed school had single-sex classes. Grades improved all around. Girls no longer were afraid of looking too smart in front of the guys. Guys were no longer afraid of looking foolish in front of the girls. Grades increased.
I think schools should be trying this sort of thing more-often. Perhaps entire districts could get into the game and make specific schools all boys and all girls if things work out.
BTW, the single sex class thing almost always gets shut down by the courts.
Some schools are taking this seriously. I was waiting in the admin office to speak at a high school a couple of years ago. There was a scantily clad maiden there whose mom showed up with a bag of more appropriate clothes so she could return to class.
#13
Lileks had a piece a few years back with a similar theme. He wrote something like, maybe I do think I'm a better parent than you when you allow your teenage daughter walks down the aisle in the airplane with "sexy butt" (or something like that!) plastered across the backside of her short, shorts.
#14
Are the fashions really more revealing than in the 1970s and 1980s? Truly? Because I remember wearing short skirts and cutoff tops, dance leotards and tight jeans, with never more thought than that it was fashionable and comfortable (I took a lot of dance classes). Granted, I was (and likely still am) naive and more than somewhat oblivious, so if I was garnering the wrong kind of attention nobody bothered to tell me. And certainly all the boys and young men I knew were perfect gentlemen always.
When I was young all the girls (except my sister and I) had Barbie dolls, each of which had a large wardrobe of fashionable and seductive clothing, often enough made by the girl's mother. Now they have Bratz dolls, ditto, but the girls (if the trailing daughters are anything to go by) get them at a younger age and get tired of them younger -- and think of the clothes only as "dress up" items without noting the skimpiness thereof.
I have seen very young girls dressed as if they are 18...or 25. That results from inappropriate parental or grandparental choices -- the girls like the colour, or the fancy trims, or the texture of the fabric, or that they are gifts, and have no thought of boyish (or manly) response because they aren't thinking in those terms yet. I've seen boys that age dressed inappropriatedly, too -- generally shorts and a t-shirt with no coat all through the winter due to similar mis-parenting... not a class or income-based thing as far as I can tell, but busy parents who don't want to fight with their kids in the morning. And the boys continue such nonsense all the way through high school -- I can't imagine what the district spends on heating to keep the buildings warm enough in winter, but they do.
Parents who want their children to be in single-sex situations generally send them to private schools. Which is great education-wise, but doesn't give them the opportunity to function comfortably in the presence of the opposite sex. (Think of the stereotype of the wild Catholic schoolgirl -- real enough, sadly.) Certainly I was shy enough as a child that if I'd been in that situation I wouldn't have known that males are people rather than sexual/romantic objects. So I'm grateful my parents didn't choose that for me.
#16
Which is great education-wise, but doesn't give them the opportunity to function comfortably in the presence of the opposite sex.
That's a bit of a canard. Two daughters through girls' school. They are two different people. The shy one is still shy. But at least she hasn't had to deal with 15 year old boys, which would probably have made her shier. The other one played only with boys when young and doesn't have trouble finding them now.
Based on my experience as a teen and parent, most guys 13-18 are jerks a large percentage of the time. It's a period we have to go through but that doesn't make it nice. Most girls that age will get competitive in their efforts to gain the boys' attention. Even at an all girls school.
Kids get plenty of time to see the opposite sex if they want to. religious groups, service groups, dances, etc. They never seem to have trouble finding each other.
But best to keep them seperated at that age as much as possible in the class room, in my opinion. They've got plenty of time for remedial education.
#19
What about dirty old men ? Nobody ever cares if we are drooling at young girls or our lip went to sleep. Where are all these girls, huh ?
Where's my glasses ?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 15:11
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#25
Wow, twenty more responces and there's been no incoming. I took cover for nuttin'.
I definitely agree with BA. The stores sell the stuff cause it sells and it's the parents buying it.
As a father of 3 "boys", 35, 24, 20, I paid particular attention to this and as I'm sure you all know, teenaged boys would find a full length burlap sack on a teenage girl sexy. So, it's obvious that the girls aren't dressing to attract the boys; so what ARE they doing it for?
And, more to the point, what are their PARENTS doing it for, in the case of the little ones?
#26
hopes their daughter will get a part in the next Roman Polanski film?
*ducks*
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 15:27
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#27
what are their PARENTS doing it for, in the case of the little ones?
Training. That's how mom got dad and she's got to teach the little one early. That's what dad found attractive in mom, so why would he suddenly object?
#28
What else is not being said is that it isn't that the stores are selling....that's ALL they are selling. Just try to buy jeans for a 10-13 yr old girl that aren't hipsters. It's almost impossible. We had to resort to buying jeans from Jrs dept and then getting them altered. That is truly sad commentary.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/18/2006 15:50
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#29
Very true, Rex. It seems that's ALL they sell. Probably some very heavily-invested agenda pushers up in corporate. Heck, I'm not that old (parent to 2 kids under 2), but I'm appaled at what's being displayed in Old Navy, Gap, and don't even get me started on the others like A&F. Heck, I still try to shop there for myself, but can't find any options. Seems to be the guys are headin' toward longer stuff (think about all the longer shorts you see now), while the girls stuff is getting shorter & tighter. Not any options.
Of course, I wore parachute pants back in the day, and some of them were tight :>)
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 16:12
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#30
BA, Rex Mundi, the trailing daughters (ages 14 and 16) wear the long boy shorts as often as they wear the tiny girl ones, and the baggy, multi-pocketed boy pants as often as the hiphuggers. Their friends dress the same -- they prefer not carrying purses for the cell phone, etc when they are out and about.
#32
Sounds like we're mostly discussing dress and swagger. Where I works the dress is poor but the behavior is more than outrageous. Raise your hand if you've dealt with a preganant 5th grader.
#34
Keep the girls home, and they are gotten pregnant at home, Muhammed Hupinerong Clegum1377. Isn't that why there are so many honour killings in Pakistan?
#35
Luckily...the Li'l Rexette is into Jr sizes where there's more choice. She still won't be caught dead in anything remotely associated with boy or hip hop. True about the cell phone thing. Refuses purse and case. Now, if I can just get her into camo (the real stuff) that would really increase our choices.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/18/2006 18:49
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#36
Ever seen a Bratz doll? Ever watch TV with your kid and truly let them pick the channel? Seen the magazine covers at the checkout stand? Listened to their friends talk? Watched even some Disney movies? Sometimes even looked in the mirror or listened to your own words? Duh. It's all right there in front of you. Kids go out and bring this stuff to their classmates, just like this blog goes out and brings back all the cool news, where they amplify it and try to take it to the next level. You're thinking too hard when you start believing in this low self-esteem crap. It's a way to put the blame on something completely out of your control, instead of putting it partially within your control, and partially within society's control.
#37
Got ya beat Rex: our youngin', a young teen, is into horses. Horses all day and all night. Horses seven days a week. She doesn't have time to a) go to the mall b) talk to boys c) hang out with the other mall rats etc, because she's always at the barn.
And the teen-aged yuppie slut clothes do not work at a barn. It's a T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and barn boots.
All the parents at our barn agree on this, and we're pleased as punch to pay through the nose to keep our girls there with their horses.
And I must say, if I were a 16 year old lad and looking for a chance to meet girls with no competition from other guys, I'd learn to ride a horse.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006 19:09
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#38
If you really want to get scared - go look and see what they are writing online.
As a youngen (20's) my wife ran her own small riding stable. That damn thing attracted girls the way the manure pile attracted flies! She "raised" more than a few teens (starting at about 10) whose parents had gone awol from their duties.
When she was away at college she used to get panic stricken calls from Mom or Dad asking how to deal with the little angel.
Oh yeah, on the boy front? The two that were "at the barn" were outnumbered about 8 to 1.
#40
Trailing daughter #1 has a pair of real camo pants, from the Army Surplus store. These are so popular here that each of the local high schools has its own preferred colour ways, I was told there -- the td's schoolmates wear red/white/black, but td#1 preferred the look of the blue/grey/black pair. (They come in pink, too, for that girl soldier look I guess.) I found the Army Surplus store in the Yellow Pages, Rex Mundi.
I had a reading student who'd had her first child, suddenly, when she was 15, and her first grandchild by the time she was thirty, but you've got be beat by a long shot, 6. That kind of thing is really dangerous for the child/mother; her parents ought to be jailed for endangerment, and the sperm donor castrated, in my gentle opinion.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair want to send an international force to separate Israel from Hizballah terrorists in Lebanon. Mr. Blair said a UN force should be sent to, "...stop the bombardment coming over into Israel and therefore gives Israel a reason to stop its attacks on Hezbollah." Kofi Annan said such a force could, "...pursue the idea of stabilization." But their idea assumes first, that a cease-fire would protect those worthy of protection, and second that restoring the region's ante bellum "stability" would promote long-term peace. Both assumptions are utterly false.
Hizballah is not some small, ragged band scattered around Lebanon. It is a huge terrorist structure, built over decades, that includes thousands of men, weapons, positions, offices and everything that enables it to control southern Lebanon. Israel is now destroying that infrastructure. A cease-fire would benefit Hizballah and threaten Israel. It would protect both Hizballah and the nations that support it - Syria and Iran - as well as the Lebanese that have accepted the terrorist organization as a legitimate part of their government. A cease-fire would allow Hizballah to rebuild its power base and enable it to resume its attacks whenever Damascus and Tehran desired. For Israel, a UN force would create no security whatever against future attacks. The UN's years-long record on the Israel-Lebanon border makes mockery of the term "peacekeeping." On page 155 of my book, "Inside the Asylum," is a picture of a UN outpost on that border. The UN flag and the Hizballah flag fly side-by-side. Observers told me the UN and Hizballah personnel share water, telephones and that the UN presence serves as a shield against Israeli strikes against the terrorists.
The Israeli response to the attack by Lebanon-based Hizballah terrorists was much more violent and effective than Hizballah, Iran or Syria expected. The Olmert government failed to make any significant response to previous raids from Gaza and Lebanon, which encouraged both terrorist regimes. The Syrian and Iranian regimes practice brinksmanship as their foreign policy. They attack as often as they can in as aggressive manner as they believe will not trigger a decisive response. Iran wanted to distract the G-8 summit from agreeing to do anything about its nuclear weapons program, so it apparently told its Hizballah surrogates in Lebanon that the time was ripe to begin a major offensive.
The Hizballah attacks began about two weeks after Israel suffered the usual international condemnations for its response to the Gaza-based Hamas kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Even after the Gaza incursion - emboldened by international condemnation of Israel's "disproportionate" response -- Iran and Syria were convinced that Israel would do no more than make token raids into Lebanon. For the first time, Israel has acted in accordance with what used to be George Bush's theory: that a government which contains, supports or harbors terrorists is responsible for their actions. Israel is now demonstrating that there is a price to be exacted from nations who collaborate with terrorists. The reason Israel must not agree to a cease-fire now, and why a UN force must be rejected is the fact that the Arab nations may be starting to open their eyes.
An emergency Cairo meeting of the 18 Arab League nations' foreign ministers last weekend produced the most significant event in the region since Saddam fell from power. These meetings are routine, held in crises or for political posturing and on every occasion before last weekend have resulted in condemnation of Israel and (or) the United States. This meeting began with the Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh proposing a resolution condemning Israel's military action, supporting Lebanon's "right to resist occupation by all legitimate means" (which even the AP report characterized as "language frequently used by Hizballah to justify its guerillas' presence in south Lebanon.") The Lebanese draft also called on Israel to release all Lebanese prisoners and supported Lebanon's right to "liberate them by all legitimate means." The "Lebanese prisoners" are virtually all Hizballah members and "legitimate means" translates to terrorism. The Syrian foreign minister, Walid Moallem, strongly supported Lebanon and Hizballah. But an historic obstacle was raised that blocked the Lebanese endorsement of terrorism.
The Saudi foreign minister, al-Faisal, led a triumvirate including Egypt and Jordan that, according to the AP report, was "...criticizing the guerilla group's actions, calling them 'unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts.'" Faisal said, "These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we simply cannot accept them." These are the rumblings that precede a political earthquake. The Arab leaders are frightened that the acts of the terrorists they have coddled for decades might have consequences for them. And they are very frightened of what Iran may do next. We must reinforce those fears because they provide the first big lever with which those nations can be moved.
The Arab foreign ministers apparently have the glimmerings of a lesson dawning in their minds. The US veto of a UN resolution condemning Israeli action makes clear that if Israel imposes consequences for support of terror, the US will not stand in the way. Punishing Lebanon for its government's acceptance of Hizballah is one step. The next logical step would be punishing Syria and then Iran. If President Bush means to implement the policy he has pronounced, he wouldn't merely get out of Israel's way. He would lead. Instead of criticizing Kofi Annan and asking him to call Bashar Assad to pressure Syria to "cut this s*#t out," he should find a more reliable messenger. The name of Peter Pace comes to mind.
The Iranians and Syrians are apparently urging Hizballah to intensify this battle in the coming days. Many more missiles and suicide bombers will be used against Israel. And the Israelis will continue their attacks in Lebanon and Gaza. If we pressure the Israelis to call a halt to action prematurely, the hope that rose from the Arab ministers' meeting will be dashed and the lesson taught that there is still no penalty for supporting, succoring and ordering terrorists to do their work. If we continue to reject a ceasefire, and openly encourage Israel to deal a decisive blow to Hizballah, then Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will understand the lesson is quite the opposite. For Syria and Iran, the lesson will have to be applied directly.
Jed Babbin was a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration. He is a contributing editor to The American Spectator.
#2
On page 155 of my book, "Inside the Asylum," is a picture of a UN outpost on that border. The UN flag and the Hizballah flag fly side-by-side. Observers told me the UN and Hizballah personnel share water, telephones and that the UN presence serves as a shield against Israeli strikes against the terrorists.
This is no surpries. They're de facto allies, the UN and Hizballah.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2006 6:55
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#3
Pure class. Babbin is in my Top 5 favorites for interviews or comments. Woolsey, Eagleberger, McInerny, and Coulter (for sheer chutzpah and lampooning) are the other straight-shooters who never pull a punch and which I always enjoy for facts and perspective. Sadly, when you want an hour of them on a serious issue, you get 1:37 and they're gone. 100 words or less "journalism". Sucks. So we buy their books, LOL.
#4
I can just see the UN troops(prolly Italians) elbow their way in between the Israelis and Hezbollah. Acting as a human shield wilst rockets dash out of Lebanon overhead and continue to crash into Israel.
But Jews arent supposed to fight back, they are just supposed to die I guess.
How do you alienate a Muslim? Show him the part of the Koran that says "Do not take Jews and Christians as friends."
UK Muslims blame Islamophobia on the portrayal of their religion in the media, a survey has revealed. The research found that 40% of Muslims blamed anti-Islamic feelings on the media, while 74% of non-Muslims blamed Islamophobia on the 9/11 bombings. The internet survey of 1,360 people was carried out by Global Market Insite, Muslim Voice UK, Queens University in Belfast and the University of Liverpool.
The report by Shaista Gohir, from online forum Muslim Voice UK, stated: "The Muslim-West relations have become increasingly strained due to a string of events such as the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Afghanistan war in 2002, the Iraq war, the London bombings in 2005 and the Danish cartoon row. In this current climate, it is essential to gauge Muslim and non-Muslim attitudes with a view to resolving differences."
The research found that both sides agree that Muslims and non-Muslims "don't understand each other" but have different concerns about the cause of the culture clash. She sets out recommendations including action by the Muslim community and police; breaking down barriers to integration and misunderstandings; tackling discrimination and Islamophobia; measures to deal with extremism; reviewing foreign policy; protecting human rights and more responsible reporting by the media.
She said: "It was striking that Muslims feel more strongly about international issues than say, their treatment by police or discrimination in the UK. "It also appears that Islamophobia, Western foreign policy and human rights abuses of Muslims are contributing substantially to the alienation of UK Muslims...
#1
"It also appears that Islamophobia, Western foreign policy and human rights abuses of Muslims are contributing substantially to the alienation of UK Muslims... "
I am truly stunned. *Sniffles* Profound empathy.
Perhaps the failure as well as unwillingness of largely Pakistani Muslims of rural backgrounds to assimilate to their "adopted" homeland explains the problems they face more so than paranoid persecution delusions.
#3
The British are exactly the same way about violent criminals. Call it "violentcriminalophobia", in which when confronted by a violent criminal armed with a weapon, they irrationally want to attack the violent criminal back, though the authorities strongly discourage them from doing so, and even prosecute them for their anti-social defensive behavior.
After all, it is oppressive to the culture of violent criminals to ask them to quit behaving as their beliefs demand of them and try to integrate into society.
#5
In a strange way the muzzies are correct. The media has contributed to islamophobia, just not in the way muzzies think it has. Merely by reading sites like RB, LGF, MEMRI, JW/DW on the internet (a form of media) et al since Sept., 2001, sites which report objectively on muzzie activity/actions and muzzie speech/ideology ( in the muzzie's own words and scripture) throughout the world, I've come to know the enemy. I didn't pay attention to the enemy before Sept. 2001. I do now. Read the true history of muslim relations with the world at large since the mid 600's. It make me wonder: why has this ideology pretending to be a religion been permitted to exist so long?
Posted by: Mark Z ||
07/18/2006 10:34
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#6
No, muzzies' accurately described actions are the cause of islamophobia. If the muzzies are really looking for the reason everyone else hates and despises them, they can find the answer by a)looking into their Koran, and b)looking into the nearest mirror.
Posted by: mac ||
07/18/2006 10:48
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#7
Muzzies are victims. Victims of inherent stupidity. Victims of psychotic hatred. Victims of belief in gun-sex moon god death cults. Let's add the category "victims of well placed shots".
"We will get them all in the end," Capt. A, one of the pilots who bombed Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's underground bunker Sunday night, declared on Monday, minutes before boarding an F-16I fighter jet on his way to another sortie over Lebanon.
On Saturday night, the IAF bombed and destroyed Nasrallah's home and office in the neighborhood of Dahiya in southern Beirut. Dahiya, a high-ranking IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Monday, was a Hizbullah stronghold and only terrorists affiliated with Hizbullah were allowed in and out. On Monday, the IAF continued to strike an underground bunker in Dahiya which was believed to be Nasrallah's current hideout.
"It is a closed-in terror capital," the officer said of Dahiya. "Only card-carrying Hizbullah operatives are allowed inside after passing through an armed checkpoint."
Nasrallah, the officer said, had been holed up in the bunker ever since the IAF began bombing Beirut last week. "He has not seen the light of day," a senior Military Intelligence officer told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
IAF fighter jets from Squadron 101 have been running daily bomb raids on the bunker, the main Hizbullah nerve center. Since two soldiers were kidnapped in a Hizbullah attack along the northern border last Wednesday, the squadron has bombed hundreds of targets from the Hizbullah bunker to bridges, Katyusha rocket launchers and weapons warehouses. The IAF has been using bunker-busting missiles in its air raids on the Hizbullah bunker.
"The public should know that the air force is working hard and achieving the goals it has set for itself even though Katyusha rockets are falling in Israel," Capt. A. said. "The public should be calm... we will get them all [Hizbullah leaders] in the end, wherever they may be, since no terrorist has immunity
#2
seal em up.... some day in the far future, archeologists will wonder why a turd in a turban was entombed and decide we worshipped feces
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 9:24
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#3
Don't know anything about Tuaus. It's a somewhat curious comment - with it's implication of flying monkeys. I bet that's really popular with all of the anti-semites that seem to be ozzing up from all the world's dark and gooey places lately. Funny though. I'll give it that.
#8
You are sweet, Nimble Spemble. But Daddy did cancer research for 25 years, and Mr. Wife for 4 years before realizing he was meant by nature to be a chemical engineer, and we didn't have a television when I was growing up. The loci of my ignorance of the common culture are humungeous, independent of my age. Why, I don't even know why she was called Miss Kitty!
#1
Rantburg bloggers have been talking about WWW III for sometime. Newt Gingrich used the phrase yesterday. Hopefully, the rest of the country will wake up to the danger of the islamofacists.
#2
Al-Jazeera began cheer-leading Taliban/al-Qaeda the second the Afghan liberation began. Muslims in general, and Arabs in particular have treated post 9-11 as final-jihad. I would have banned CAIR, ISNA, ICNA and the AMC as terrorist organizations the second they started to agitate against any and all US response to the 9-11 terrorism. Since that disgusting date, Christians and Jews have been almost cleared out of Muslim majority states, while we have been allowing massive Muslim immigration. It is highly likely that the next generation will deny pensions to us, given the fact that we shifted an unnecessary danger onto the backs of our children. We are in World War 3; let's stop fighting ourselves and start killing the enemy.
#4
I'm with NS on this one. We're in WWIV (with WWIII being the Cold War). And, I believe we all know the answer to the question he poses. If allowed, the jihadis will definitely make this an all-out clash of civilizations (actually, I refuse to call it that because 1 side is NOT "civilized") rush to the bottom. I'd also add that this war has been "hot" (in U.S. terms) since 1979 in Iran, we just haven't recognized it's a war until we were hit hard on 9/11.
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 9:43
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#5
It will have to be more like the Roman conquests.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 9:48
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#6
All I know is that on 9/11 i started hearing the Andrews Sisters in my head.
And I often wonder what's wrong with people who don't get it.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
07/18/2006 9:58
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#7
James Woolsey coined this war nearly four years ago as W.W. IV; the Cold War was W.W. III:
World War IV
By R. James Woolsey
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 22, 2002
#8
As an American it is easy for me to slide into thinking WWII started on December 7, 1941, but the conflict had been going on some years before that.
With that in mind I'll say that WWIV has been going on since AT LEAST the seizing of the Iranian Embassy in 1979. Israel's been at war with them since their inception.
(And Biblically speaking, for thousands of years going back to Jacob and Esau.)
I believe you got your history wrong. When Ariel Sharon (tank commander) had Arafat in his sights in the verge of taking over Beruit, President Reagan stopped him. But, there is a caveat to President Reagan stopping Sharon, history likes to blame Reagan but the truth of the matter is that it was Colin Powell, James Baker, and Brent Scowcoft that strongly twisted Reagan's arm. President Reagan regretted that decision til his dying day.
Limbaugh is wrong. It's been World War III since 1979. Admitting the truth will hurt the egos so many of the former U.S. policy makers. These former government officials likes tour around the TV talk circuit, explaining away how brilliant they are, but people like me who don't forget the disasterous mistakes they have made 30-40 years ago, are not the least bit fooled.
Don't forget that Arafat is a Egyptian terrorist that was kicked out of Egypt and Jordan. This is how he ended up in Beruit in the first place.
Just like the Paleo's, the Arab world knew that Arafat was a trouble maker so the Saudi's threw him and the rotten scum Paleo's, to the Jews. If you fast forward time, to today, you are witnessing with your very eyes, the failure of decades past.
Just because some asshole changed the Cold War name which we who lived through all 40 years of it and called it The Cold War.
Besides which my genius friends, the Cold War was not fought all over the world.
Finally, I'll bet the jerk who wants WW3 to be the Cold War is a liberal, and therefore illegitimate as a war namer.
#16
Besides which my genius friends, the Cold War was not fought all over the world.
The "Cold War" was a war against communist expansionism fought by the USSR and Red China against the US and it's allies by various proxies.
The Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Malaysian insurgency, Cuban missile crisis, Nigaragua, Grenada, etc, etc were battles in that war. Looks pretty world-wide to me, and still simmering in a few places. I'd say it would qualify as WWIII.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 14:58
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#17
Surely the Soviets and the Red Chinese thought of the Cold War as a world-wide fight over which philosophy would win (Totalitarian "Communism" or Individual-rights Classic Western Liberalism), with proxy hot wars fought over the issue in various third world countries while the suborned or seduced fought for US/European hearts and minds. Should we not believe those who set themselves to fight against us, and name it the World War they believed it to be, hence the 3rd of that type.
NAACP Wants African-Americans To Stay Away From Target
Even companies that make an effort to work with minority-owned businesses typically spend barely 5 percent of their contracting dollars with them, the NAACP president said Monday as his group released report cards on several industries.
Blacks shouldn't spend money with companies that don't hire them or advertise in their communities, NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon said. "If corporations spend their money on us, we'll spend our money with those corporations," he said. "It's real simple."
Gordon's comments were part of his first keynote convention speech as head of the civil rights group; he took over as president last August. More than 4,000 people are attending the 97th annual meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which runs through Thursday.
The NAACP has graded corporations since 1997 on how well they work with blacks in employment, charitable giving, advertising, contracting and community service. This year, the civil rights group looked at the telecommunications, lodging, finance, retail and auto industries.
Most companies did best on charitable giving and community service, and worst on hiring and contracting. Gordon said the contracting numbers were "totally unacceptable."
A former division president at Verizon, Gordon said directing black consumer dollars will push companies to be more responsive. "I have a pretty unique perspective - 35 years working for a corporation with a purchasing budget in the billions and billions of dollars, and a chance to observe internally how the procurement process works," he said.
Telecommunications companies scored best with an overall B-minus grade.
For the second straight year, Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. received the highest grade of any company - a 3.5 out of a possible 4.0. The company pushes its managers to look for vendors and employees who are black, said Valencia I. Adams, a BellSouth vice president. "They take it to heart and really work hard on it," she said.
Wachovia Corp. and SunTrust Banks were the highest-ranked banks with a 3.17 score. Wachovia got a perfect score on community relations. The company pays all employees to donate four hours a month to local charities, and employees volunteered for 650,000 hours in 2005, said G. Dewey Norwood Jr., an assistant vice president.
Of the 50 companies contacted by the NAACP, five ignored the survey, including four retailers: Dillard's Inc.; Kohl's Corp.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; and Target Corp. All were given Fs for not answering. The other company that failed to answer was Excel, a telecommunications company; it also received an F.
Gordon called on blacks to stop shopping at Target, in particular, until they answer the NAACP's questions - though he stopped short of calling the action a boycott. "They didn't even care to respond to our survey," he said. "Stay out of their stores."
The NAACP focused on Target because they're one of the nation's most prominent national retailers, said John C. White, NAACP spokesman. However, the group does not plan to picket or leaflet Target, but will rely on word of mouth, he said.
A Target spokeswoman said via e-mail that the company opted out of the survey "because Target views diversity as being inclusive of all people from all different backgrounds, not just one group." The NAACP survey asks only about blacks. She added that minorities make up 40 percent of Target employees and 23 percent of all officials and managers.
During his keynote address, Gordon said black Americans should end their "victim-like thinking" and seize opportunities to help close gaps between the nation's rich and poor. "We may not have all the power that we want, but we have all the power that we need," Gordon said. "All we have to do is believe it and use it."
#2
No, the turf's been divided. Jesse gets Wal*Mart and NAACP gets Target. Regional players are to be fought out (figuratively of course) on a market by market basis.
#3
A Target spokeswoman said via e-mail that the company opted out of the survey "because Target views diversity as being inclusive of all people from all different backgrounds, not just one group."
Looks like I'm going to be doing more shopping at Target.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/18/2006 9:14
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#4
I'm beginning to think we're turning the tide on these shakedown artists. Heck, my own middle-class cul-de-sac shows more REAL diversity than you could shake a stick at...my two immediate neighbors are black and Mexican, both married couples with 1 kid each. Across the cul-de-sac we have a married Asian (Chinese) couple with 3 girls. On the other side of my immediate neighbor, we have 2 married couples from Bosnia who've just moved in with 2 boys.
And, what do I see during the week? ALL of these kids playing together. And, this is in the "deep South" outside of Atlanta. As all of these "groups" move up the economic ladder into the middle class, they're shedding their "groupthink" mindset of being the constant victim and making things work day to day. They all have the same concerns I do...cost of gas, keeping the good job they have, cutting the yard, going to Target/Wal-Mart, etc.
Maybe, I'm being optimistic, but as this true melting pot continues to happen, I can't help but think they'll sway more toward the Republicans. We'll know more after November, but my County alone is now majority-minority (not just blacks, but huge groups of Bosnians, Hispanics, Asians, etc.) and yet, we appear to ALL shop at Target. And, seeing as how only 4,000 showed up to the NAACP Nat'l Convention, that gives me hope too (the MSM may have inflated that # too).
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:07
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#5
wooops, meant to mention that my County swayed for GW Bush in 2004 by largest % of any GA county, and that includes the other very conservative county of Cobb (home of Bob Barr and Newt Gengrich).
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:08
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#6
there goes the huge fan base for the NASCAR Target race car....damn
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 10:26
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#7
lol, Frank, I need to purchase some screen cleaning spray after that one. Ah well, guess I'll go to Target after work to pick it up.
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:36
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#8
The UN and the NAACP are two organizations that have long outlived their usefulness, assuming they ever had any use in the first place. I mean, really, isn't "colored people" just a bit passe in the age of "rap niggaz?"
Posted by: mac ||
07/18/2006 10:42
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#9
Seething, angry, and biting the hands that feed.....
Metropolitan Atlanta Chapter
Corporate Communications
1955 Monroe Drive
Atlanta, Georgia 30324
404-876-3302
FAX: 404-575-3082
"FRIENDS" EVENTS PLANNED TO PROMOTE $1 MILLION NATIONAL CONTRIBUTION FROM TARGET IN CONNECTION WITH ITS "FRIENDS PARTY PACK"
ATLANTA The national American Red Cross has received a $1 million contribution from Target Stores in connection with the new Warner Home Video Friends Party Pack, available exclusively in Target stores nationwide to helps Friends fans across the country celebrate the May 6th series finale on NBC.
#10
I simply cannot fathom people whose sense of identity is entirely focused on the color of their skin. This is the antithesis of MLK's dream that men would not be "judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Yet these clowns persist. I also find it laughable that they preached against "victim-like thinking" and in the same breath claimed to be victims.
#11
FWIT: the local area Target stores refuse to allow the USMCR Toys for Tots collection and Salvation Army to set up at Christmas. I only visit the stores when I feel the need for a rest stop.
#12
Oh, and their name. What kind of response would whitey get if he referred to his fellow citizens as 'colored' these days? Could you imaging if the article had been typed up with 'colored' instead of 'black' in the narrative? Yet they still haven't gotten around to changing the very name they call themselves. Another, one set of rules for us and ...
#13
Gordon called on blacks to stop shopping at Target, in particular, until they answer the NAACP's questions - though he stopped short of calling the action a boycott. "They didn't even care to respond to our survey," he said. "Stay out of their stores."
Shoplift somewhere else.
By Rowan Scarborough
Israel is in the best position militarily in its history to mount air strikes against Iran, after a decade of buying U.S.-produced long-range aircraft, penetrating bombs and aerial refueling tankers.
Tel Aviv has ratcheted up the volume in attacking the hard-line Islamic regime as it fights the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In the past, Israeli politicians have talked openly of attacking Iranian nuclear sites to prevent the U.S.-designated terror state from building atomic warheads.
Israel has purchased 25 $84 million F-15I (I for Israel) Ra'am, a special version of the U.S. F-15E long-range interdiction bomber. It also is buying 102 of another long-range tactical jet, the $45 million F-16I Sufa. About 60 have been delivered.
The Jewish state also is buying 500 U.S. BLU-109 "bunker buster" bombs that could penetrate the concrete protection around some of Iran's underground facilities, such as the uranium enrichment site at Natanz. The final piece of the enterprise is a fleet of B-707 air-to-air refuelers that could nurse strike aircraft as they made the 900-mile-plus trip inside Iran, dropped their bombs and returned to Israel.
"They have the capability to strike Iran," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney, a former fighter pilot who has trained with Israelis. "It would be limited, though. They could do 30 to 40 'aim points' in the array. I'm not worried about them hitting the targets. They will suffer losses, but they are capable of doing it." He said Israeli fighter pilots are "the best in the world. I've flown against them. They train better. They get more flying time."
Perhaps just as important as weapon systems is airspace.
The most direct route would be through Jordanian and Iraqi airspace. Two Israeli pilots showed that they could navigate both without being shot down in 1981, when they flew the 600 miles to the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad, dropped their bombs and returned over Jordan to an air base in southern Israel.
Today, the United States, not Saddam Hussein, controls Iraq's vast airspace. Military analysts suggest the United States might approve the mission passively by letting the jets fly both ways unencumbered.
Gen. McInerney said the United States must grant airspace rights. "They really can't do this without us," he said. "I wouldn't have them do it. We can do it much more aggressively and more decisively. We shouldn't force the Israelis to do it when we should do it." The retired pilot called Iran's air defenses "1960s vintage" and not as good as the Iraqi defenses that Israeli pilots avoided in 1981.
Vice President Dick Cheney last year revealed Bush administration suspicions that Israel may take pre-emptive action. "One of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked, that if, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards," he said on the "Imus in the Morning" radio show.
In the Osirak strike, both F-16s made the round trip without aerial refueling, but targets in Iran are at least 300 miles farther away. Although the F-15Is and F-16Is have a combat radius of more than 1,000 miles, the numbers would indicate that the mission might require aerial refueling, thus complicating an already daunting operation.
However, the Web site GlobalSecurity.org says the F-15Is and F-16Is "extended flight range reportedly allows Israeli forces to attack targets well within Iran without having to refuel."
[link to above]
Israeli political leaders have pressed the Bush administration to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program. At the same time, some have publicly stated that Israel will take unilateral action to destroy Iranian facilities if Washington fails to stop it.
#2
buying up those "barely used" Russian GPS jammers from Baathists?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 10:31
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#3
Russia's selling Iran about thirty phased array radars. Once those are in place and active only the US' stealthed missiles and aircraft could get in unseen/safely.
Of course, there are also HARM's for taking out those phased array radars.
Personally, this stuff about getting in without being seen seems silly. Let 'em see the armada coming. They'll light up their stuff, and see it all get flattened before the MMs have time to get away with the loot.
HARMs for the radars and AA sites, JDAMs and bunker busters, cruise missiles and tacnukes for everything else.
#4
Iranian AD sucks. The only medium/long range AA missiles are the ancient I-Hawks and SA-5s (60's and 70's tech). The SA-15s they are receiving from Russia are short range (20,000 ft). Israel or the US will come in at high altitude and the Iranians won't be able to do much but watch.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 13:18
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#5
One thing we're seeing now in Lebanon (and seen in Serbia), you don't have to hit specific sites. Just wipe out the infrastructure.
#8
Agreed. This is reserved for US flyboys, many of whom are salivating of the possibility.
Where is the US in terms of EMP?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 18:29
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#9
That's classified. But it's commonly known that DOD has been working on hardened systems since the 80s.
I would venture to say that our civilian infrastructure is quite vulnerable but our military capabilities rather less so. How MUCH less so is unknown, to me at least.
#11
"But it's commonly known that DOD has been working on hardened systems since the 80s."
One of those rather obscure reasons that some of the military's gear, compared to off the shelf stuff, is so damned expensive.
Anginens Threreng8133 - I believe Bush when he says he's not telling Israel what to do militarily, but that doesn't mean he's not making clear what actions he'll back or not. Given today's Senate vote, I believe many of the questions about the political costs he'd face have been answered - and given him very public ammunition to support Israel.
I believe we have a green light for almost everything short of nukes regarding Syria and Iran, for very heavily supporting any resistance within Iran that's showing promise, for pushing the obvious conclusion that this will never end without decisive actions. Stop-gap and half measures lead to more "cycles of violence" (an LGF joke, LOL) - it's got to stop... and the only solution is to go after the sources.
I hope I'm reading the political tea leaves correctly, anyway.
BTW, I have really enjoyed your posts, please keep it up!
Brigitte, a blond, big-bosomed prostitute with a heart of gold, has been plying her trade on the streets of Koblenz for 47 years. She's so well known now she even had a role in a promotional film for the region.
Come pouring rain, bitter cold, baking sun and everything in between, Brigitte -- no last names please -- has been practicing the world's oldest profession and everyone in Koblenz knows her.
"I still have fun doing it," said Brigitte, who, like many ladies of a certain age, declines to reveal the exact year of her birth, although she'll admit she's somewhere in her mid-sixties.
She's become such a fixture in the city, that recently she had a role in an ironic film about the region, entitled "You Are Koblenz" along with other local celebrities.
"Hello you Koblenz people, this is your Brigittchen," she says on camera. She need say no more.
When she was younger, Brigitte trained to be a hairdresser, then worked in a police academy cafeteria and the hotel business. Finally, she decided to pursue a more horizontally oriented profession. She's keeping mum about why.
Brigitte has become such a fixture in the town that tour guide Manfred Gniffke often takes visitor groups by her favorite spot.
After almost half a century, Brigitte still has her energy, although she says after about another decade she might decide to finally call it a night. She doesn't appear to be worried about getting lonely after she stops seeing clients, even though she's single. In fact, Brigitte says she's never wanted a husband.
"Rather than having a man to myself, I'd rather have a new one every ten minutes," she said.
#5
I imagine most of her clientele are older gentlemen who buy her drinks and dinner to hang out, and she tickles them under the chin and calls them "handsome", maybe with a warm bear hug and a peck on the cheek.
And they feel they really get their money's worth.
The mullahs reply to Condi Rice's nuclear olive branch.
The war between Hezbollah and Israel is a tragedy for its victims, but it could also be a clarifying moment if the world draws the proper lessons. To wit, this is a preview of what the Middle East will look like if Iran succeeds in going nuclear.
The threat of a nuclear Iran isn't primarily that the mullahs might actually use such a weapon if they got one. The more immediate threat is that Iran would use the weapon as a shield to pursue its hegemonic ambitions throughout the Middle East, promoting terrorist attacks on its enemies and intimidating anyone with the nerve to fight back. The Hamas-Hezbollah double assault on Israel is a portent of things to come unless the world gets serious about Iran's radicalism.
#1
Iran is testing the world right now.
And the world will come up short until someone loses a city. Its a shame there are tens of thousands of people alive today who need to die in order for the Mullahs to be treated as the threat they are.
Israel's army has refused to rule out a massive ground invasion of Lebanon as part of an offensive to force Hezbollah guerrillas to free two Israeli soldiers and stop firing rockets at the Jewish state.
"The army has many possibilities for action," Moshe Kaplinsky, Israel's deputy army chief, told Israel Radio when asked if the military would rule out a massive land incursion.
"At this stage we do not think we have to activate massive ground forces into Lebanon but if we have to do this, we will. We are not ruling it out."
His statement coincides with an opinion poll suggesting a huge majority of Israelis support the air offensive against Hezbollah.
Israel has been massing troops, tanks and artillery pieces near its northern border with Lebanon. It has also called up thousands of reserve soldiers.
Three Israeli tanks briefly crossed a few hundred metres into southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon, a UN source said, following a similar earlier incursion in which Israel said Hezbollah positions were destroyed.
The Israeli bombardment has killed 215 people, all but 14 of them civilians, and inflicted the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for two decades, with attacks targeting ports, roads, bridges, factories and petrol stations.
Hezbollah has attacked a naval vessel off Beirut and fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel, killing 24 people, 12 of them civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday his country would pursue its offensive until the two soldiers were returned and the Lebanese army controlled all of south Lebanon.
An Israeli Government source has said Israel may step up attacks in coming days, mindful that its chief ally, the United States, might not resist indefinitely international pressure for a cease-fire. Washington has backed Israel's right to self-defence.
Poll
A vast majority of Israelis support the country's offensive in Lebanon aimed at crippling Hezbollah and many also believe the militant group's leader should be assassinated, a poll has suggested.
The survey in the mass circulation Yedioth Ahronoth daily showed 86 per cent of Israelis believed the army's attacks on Lebanon were justified.
It said 8 per cent of Israelis believed the offensive should continue until the army killed Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Only 17 per cent said Israel should stop fighting and start negotiations.
The survey gave Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert high marks for his leadership, saying 78 per cent believed his handling of the crisis was good or very good.
Even Defence Minister Amir Peretz, a former trade union chief with little government experience who had previously been under heavy criticism for his performance, was praised. Some 72 per cent said his handling of the campaign was good or very good.
#1
Boggle. Someone asked, not too long ago, for suggestions of who should be the first against the wall - that was the gist of it, anyway - and nominated Soros. I thought that was a pretty good choice and couldn't think of anyone else to offer at that moment, but this reminds me who I should've suggested.
These people are as described in the article -- and dangerous. I nominate them to be against the wall with Soros in the first wave.
My mother, Queen Mollie, once told me when I was a kid: There are four words I want you to take out of the English language. Those are ought, should, fair, and equitable, because, Darlin, life isnt always the way it oughta or shoulda be. For sure, it's rarely fair or equitable.
I first noticed this when I was in Beirut as a journalist in June of 82 with the Israel Defense Force. I went over there as a typical naïve American thinking that we would see some fighting. However, it did not take me long to realize that the Islamic mentality with which we were dealing was founded on terror. The Islamic version of fighting was sniper warfare and bombing. It goes along with the Islamic mentality that I was told is based in the Koran, that the way to defeat an enemy (and let there be no mistake, this barbaric mentality lives by the attitude that the death of everyone who is not one of them is necessary) is to strike, one slice at a time. One slice may not harm their quarry, but after 2,000 slices, they leave victorious.
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#2
Actually, it's a coherent strategy. The problem is the UN/EU/etc/etc would go nuts.
I've written at length about this in the past, but note the Two State Solution requires Jews leave the Palestinian State but makes no mention of Arabs leaving the Jewish State.
#1
The longer this goes on, the more likely Iran is the big loser in this. The comments coming out Europe may indicate they also want Iran to get a bloody nose.
I'd say it's 50-50 as to whether Iran miscalculates (or someone in the IRG believes their rhetoric and acts) and Iran gets attacked.
#2
That was actually a pretty rational piece right up to the point where he said, "However, the unacknowledged object of Israels campaign is none of the highly rational goals outlined by officials. It is to satisfy Washington that Tehran has been given a bloody nose and is ready to pull back from its deepening political, military and intelligence interference in Iraq." The idea that Israel's primary goal is to keep the US happy seems quite a stretch to me.
Are there any independent sources for the bit about The Abu al Fadal al Abas Brigades being an Iranian sleeper outfit?
#4
Everybody wants Hez to get a bloody nose. Even the Soddies and Egyptians. Unlike the western media, they know Hez is a creature of Iran and don't like them projecting power to the Med any more than the Israelis do. Israel needs to get on with it. They need to decapitate and humiliate Hez at minimum. I think a lot of us here would prefer they open up on Syria too. That would further humiliate Iran and probably compel them to do something foolish in response.
Of course, Iran can hurt us pretty bad in Iraq right now, so settling for banging Nasrallah and decimating Hez while Syria pretends to be neutral will be a pretty good ending for July.
#5
Even the Arab League has hung those assholes out to dry. Nobody wants their country torn apart by Israel over those cockroaches. Arab loyalties seem to be a complex jungle of paybacks,bet hedging secular issues, and enlightened self-interest.
#6
Call it "mutual interest". Remember that we are both in a delicate balancing act with Iran, in which Israel has to protect its tactical interests, but the US does not want them to use their nukes in their strategic conflict.
As long as Israel whups Syria in a proxy war, they won't be inclined to use their nukes, and the US is there to beat seven bells out of Iran if they try to attack Israel in the process.
If Iran does attack Israel with anything short of nukes, the US owns them. They will have started an "aggressive war" in the worst possible way, and about the only thing they can do is launch missiles that have to pass through both US and Israeli defenses.
Russia, France and China would all have to back off, by pre-existing rules, and we could make Iran squeal like a pig.
#7
I'm with AzCat on this one. I thought the Joooos ran the U.S., not the other way around? I'm so confused.
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:43
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#8
Cute, a bloody nose. Let's get real. The proper pursuit for the USA now is to force Iran to play their hand, and engage them to the death.
That's right, Bushy, pounce on Iran and rip them apart with proper furosity.
Let's roll, damnit !
The new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opened this week; it handles 430,000 bbl/day now and 1 million bbl/day in the future. Putin ain't happy; it pulls the whole region towards the West and away from Russia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006
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#1
We're not merely "forgetful." We've constructed a fantasy past in which primitive societies lived in peace and security with nary a fear that their crops would be stolen or their children enslaved. War has been the natural condition of mankind for thousands of years, and our civilization is a very fragile exception to that. What does it say about us that so many of our elites believe exactly the opposite -- that we are a monstrous violent rupture with our primitive pacifist ancestors? It's never a good idea to put reality up for grabs. You can bet your highest-denomination axe on that.
Amen. Kool Aid is de rigeur in so many circles. The more effete the elite, the more charming and blameless the barbarian.
#4
It is often the poisonous notion of those who are not self-made successes in an American thread enlightenment society that because they did not succeed by the "bootstrap" method, the method and the society that spawned it are the problem, and that a return to some imagined past when everyone was magically happy would solve all of their problems.
This leads to two equally poisonous conclusions. For the much of the idle or inherited wealthy limousine type liberals, transnationalism and socialism and distrust of entrepreneurship. For those who lack the intellect/skills/work ethic to advance, redistribution of wealth and government guaranteed income security for all, and distrust of entrepreneurship.
The latter would also include much of our education industry, professors who see as unjust any society that would reward a shoe store manager with more money (and therefore status, in a capitalist society) than a "lofty" professor who is so very, very smart and has spent so many years at study.
ITHO, the problem can never be within themselves. It can't be that they missed the zeitgeist of market economics, or simply have no skills to reach the apex in a capitalist society, or that, knowing the pay scale going in, they are foolish enough to think it will magically change once there. No, it must ALWAYS be the fault of others, and, ultimately, our very system of economics and governance itself.
The paradox is that in any stone or early bronze technological society this type of grousing would probably get them killed, possibly eaten.
We should never forget the Tasaday hoax, where an invented gentle group of gentle primitives made it all the way to the cover of National Geographic before it was discovered that the "professors" who "discovered" them had made their very existence up in order to say,"See, see, this is what humanity is REALLY like without nasty evil Western civilization. These clowns later admitted that they did this because they couldn't find any examples of people living with that level of technology who weren't violent and that this didn't sit well with their cherished ideas about the "noble savage."
All very pathological.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/18/2006 5:56
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#6
...If you can, find the book 'War' by Canadian writer Gwynne Dyer. Dyer is just shy of a barking moonbat, and his conclusions can be summed up by saying, "Only the UN can save us" - but he does an incredible job in showing how we've been at war with each other for a few millenia and damned little is going to change that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/18/2006 6:31
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#8
I've said it before -- I'm amazed at how deeply this myth has sunk into our culture. My own dad thought the Brits introduced scalping into North America -- and he probably still does, despite my pointing out skulls from the 1300s, found in North Dakota, that show signs of being scalped.
Those skulls, by the way, were found in a mass grave containing everyone from a village except the young girls.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/18/2006 7:45
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#9
I read Spengler's review of Wade's book a week ago. I immediately thought of the trolls who come here to accuse the average Rantburger of being genocidal fantasists. It is only the attitude of us and those like us that keeps civilization from sinking into genocidal savagery. It has a cost, but so does everything. (I'd much rather pay that cost than sacrificing my family and friends to the suicidal pacifist nightmare.) And that goes back to my contention that the reason most liberals are liberals is because they cannot understand mathematical concepts like trade-off analysis, standard deviation, and compound interest. Everything gets grouped into poles (war bad, peace good) and a narrative gets constructed to explain it all. Very much in line with no more uro's excellent analysis.
RC: For better or worse I don't read much Sci Fi these days, but years before 9/11, there was a short story in the Man-Kzin War series that postulated a great conspiracy to purge the historical record of all reference to war. By the time of the story (200 years in the future?), the narrative was that all major war had ended by the time of the Rennaissance, the V-2 rockets were weather rockets, and the United Nations had abolished all residual violence. Researchers who uncovered the truth were lablelled "military fantasists," brainwashed and sent off to labor camps as part of a Mars terraforming porject.
#10
The Apache threat thus loomed on the northern Piman horizon at the same time that Jesuit missionaries reached them from the south. When Father Kino set up shop at Cosari in 1687 hostile Apache hosts were already just over the horizon. During the 1690's the experienced warriors of the Piman Sobaipuri groups living along the eastern frontiers of northern Pimería handily defeated the first Apache probes (Bolton 1948:I:179-181). The first Athapascans came into Pima borderlands as reinforcements of Jano, Jócome and Suma war parties. These were relatively small Indian groups inhabiting the territory between the New Mexico trail in Chihuahua and the Spanish settlements in Sonora (Wyllys 1931:138 and Bolton 1943:I:181). They may have been Opata in language or they may 172have been Lagunero or a southwestward extension of the very small language groups of Texas. They were almost certainly not Athapascan speaking Indians. They fought their northern Piman enemies in the aboriginal style as late as 1698 (Bolton 1948:I:179-180). That is, they came openly and challenged the Sobaipuris to battle. The Sobaipuris chose ten men to oppose a picked ten composed partly of Jócomes, partly of Janos and partly of Apaches-probably true southern Athapascans. These ten picked men on each side fought and when the Pimans won the enemy broke and with the victors in hot pursuit. That was apparently the last battle the Apaches fought according to aboriginal Jócome-Jano-Suna rules. Thereafter, the battle conditioned southern Athapascans seem to have taken over direction of even combined war parties, and changed tactics from the aboriginal style of warfare they had been forced to abandon generations earlier in order to survive. After 1698 the Apaches, deprived of their Jano and Jócome and Suma allies, resorted to ambushes, sneak attacks, raids on fields and horse herds, and kidnapping, avoiding frontal assault or defense whenever possible.
http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/tubac/cpt6-D2.htm
Not a lot of 'white men' involved in these things. The 'white man' guilt program brought to you by the usual suspects. Why didn't the plains indians take advantage of the American Civil War to push back the white man? Because they were too busy hammering each other. Remember though, for the [neo-marxist] lefties, its not about facts, its about feelings.
#11
the reason most liberals are liberals is because they cannot understand mathematical concepts like trade-off analysis, standard deviation, and compound interest. Everything gets grouped into poles (war bad, peace good) and a narrative gets constructed to explain it all. Very much in line with no more uro's excellent analysis.
Excellent comments all! It's a subject I'm fascinated with. One thought .... I know from personal experience that it is not that they "can not understand" but simply they group into poles and construct a narrative and refuse to understand.
For most of the rabid liberals I know, they are perfectly capable of understanding compound interest etc. Most are very intelligent. It's that once the narrative is constructed, they are unwilling to to understand those principals and they use their wit to come up with word games to explain them away.
I'd go further - and I have a pretty good sample group to choose from - that for the Koskiddie types and the University types and the aging liberal types and the rabid liberal types are expressing an an insecurity/superiority complex that carried forward from childhood. Ask them (but not outright of course, you need to go in the back door on this) and they will tell you. The cheerleaders were mean to them, they were horribly teased as children because of glasses or some physical deformity - or any other issue that causes children to be teased, too short, too tall, too fat, etc. But the difference is that they are smart - not stupid - and they know they are just as good as... nay better.. than those teasing them. So they know they are smarter or somehow better than those bullying them, but they don't have the social skills to deal with the teasing so they feel angry and helpless throughout their childhood. This carries to adulthood and so they latch onto the liberal narrative that they are superior by accepting a set of beliefs. They are better and smarter than you, ya see, because the media says so. The powers that control our culture say so. These same people would change their beliefs on a dime tomorrow if suddenly the powers that be told them that the cool, smart people believe in X and all of the "other stupid people" believe in Y. Bascially they are scared cowards who hide behind bullies to make themselves feel ok.
#12
Very true, 2b. The worst of the lot aren't the ones who hide behind the bullies. The very worst are the ones like Krugman or Chomsky, who once free of the violence of the schoolground, become intellectual bullies themselves. In the context of a civilization, when there is no longer any threat of barbarians burning your crops or killing you and enslaving your kids, they often rise to power. Somewhere along the way, they become so enamored of their own words, so convinced of the power of their "narrative," that they become convinced that their cleverness can defeat bararians with swords. Sometimes they do. But in the end the barbarian always wins.
I have come to learn that the healthy skepticism that Americans have for intellectuals is well founded. Some would call it anti-intellectualism. I consider it to be a very useful check that prevents America from being run by ENArques.
I think that I had the potential once to become a Krugman or a Chomsky. Due to some choices I made and the strong hand of the Salesian order, I went in a different direction. But I understand the dynamic of which you write very well.
#13
That's too complex. Most liberals (esp. the social libs) are physical cowards. They flinched as children to bullies, as young adults to those more agressive, and in the present against evil. And they expect you to do the same.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 11:57
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#14
And I also see physical cowardice in much of the upper class, whether Democrat or Republican. It's a consequence of leading sheltered lives and as young adults, not ever having to put their comfort or safety on the line.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 12:02
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#15
well said, 115AS! Better than I could have ever hoped to express it myself.
And they expect you to do the same. You are right too ed, but instead of physical intimidation, Krugman and Co. learned that they could use their words as clubs. They bully with their ability to swing words and make people duck. That's why they revere Chomsky so much.
#16
It's a consequence of leading sheltered lives and as young adults, not ever having to put their comfort or safety on the line.
That's what makes them feel comfortable to make such stupid, self-destructive bullying statements. As soon as they truly feel threatened they will be the first to demand that the military remove all constraints and immediately defend them without any regard to moral equivalence or any other such nonsense.
#17
If you've been to a high school reunion, did it strike you that the smartest kids had gotten the Ph.D.'s and college teaching positions? Not at mine. They went to the professional schools and the next rung on the intellectual ladder went the academic route. I think that's a reflection of their intellectual insecurity.
#18
Except for two, the top kids in my high school class (1979 woo hoo!) went into teaching, mostly as professors. Of those two, he became a CPA at one of the Big 7 firms after dropping out of Harvard Law, and she became a housewife and museum docent (putting that Masters in anthropology to good use). Of course, a lot of us were the children of university professors, which may have had something to do with it. A bunch of our top quartile went into medicine or became professional classic musicians.
And for the record, I am under 5' tall, got braces and glasses the same week at the beginning of fourth grade (which in my innocence I took as proof that my parents loved me), and have been sheltered from hardship and mean people my entire life (or perhaps I just didn't notice)... yet I was drawn to Rantburg. Environment is not destiny, thank goodness.
#19
lol! TW I'm sure you bloomed later in life :-)
The point is not that they have some sort of insecurity or that the cheerleaders are mean to them, everyone has a THEY WERE MEAN TO ME story and insecurities about their physical condition - no matter how good they look. But what separates them was their inability to handle it socially and/or get over it later in life. You look back at your time with braces and glasses time with humor and fondness - they look back with lingering pain.
Try it sometime. Like I said, don't ask directly, but if you get to know a rabid liberal, eventually they will share with your their tale of childhood injustice and they will still be nursing the anger and hurt.
#20
One of the problems is the savages tend to have no written history while the civilized states have lots and lots of documents about their wars. Makes it easier to fill the void with bull$hit.
#21
Re: degrees, I think it's a mistake to overgeneralize on this, from the boomers onward. Lots of people are changing fields and/or taking degrees throughout life and sometimes changing careers along the way.
A good example is my friend Ann. After her Navy Commander / PhD husband settled in a 4 yr assignment for once and her kids were all in school, she went back for her master's and PhD. This was in the late 80s, early 90s when everyone was focused on making money and many people yawned at her dissertation topic: Just War theory in the Arab tradition and its modern use.
Looks rather relevant since 9/11. She's a professor now back in their home state.
Now I don't know Ann's class ranking in high school, but I think it was rather high. Her husband was at the top of his class pretty much all the way through school.
Just sayin' .....
Posted by: no name, just sheepskins ||
07/18/2006 16:35
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#22
This could use a picture of the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. As the wiz said,"You don't need a brain, you need a diploma".
(KCNA) -- The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued today the following statement vehemently denouncing and totally refuting the "resolution" of the UN Security Council against the DPRK, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward it: The vicious hostile policy of the United States towards the DPRK and the irresponsibility of the UN Security Council have created an extremely dangerous situation on the Korean Peninsula where the sovereignty of the Korean nation and the security of the state have been seriously infringed.
The U.S. has recently kicked up much row after bringing the issue of the missile launches conducted by our army as part of the routine military training for self-defence to the UN under the motto of reacting to it in one voice. It was against this backdrop that the U.S. forced the UN to adopt a UN Security Council resolution taking a serious note of our exercise of its right to self-defence on July 15. The U.S. sponsored "resolution" called for an international pressure for disarming the DPRK and stifling it, terming the missile launches pertaining to its right to self-defence "a threat to international peace and security". By doing so the U.S. sought to describe the issue between the DPRK and the U.S. as an issue between the DPRK and the UN and form an international alliance against the DPRK.
This has brought such serious consequences as gravely violating the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and driving the situation to an extreme pitch of tension, thereby seriously disturbing peace and security on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia. It was an entirely unreasonable and brigandish act that the U.S. brought to the UN the DPRK's missile launches nothing contradictory to any international law after branding them as a violation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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#5
What, no mention of juche? I'm disappointed. I give it a 2 out of 5 stars.
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:40
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#6
Sigh... look, it isn't a geometrical proof. You can't "refute" the resolution of a deliberative body. You can denounce it, defy it, rebuke the deliberative body, threaten it, ignore it, or defecate upon its decision. But you can't define it out of existence by refutation. You can't make it not happen, not so long as you haven't control over the history books.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/18/2006 12:52
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#7
Wonder what they'll say after Vandenburg torches one off tomorrow morning (scheduled for between 1am and 7am PDT) in a test that's reportedly been scheduled for more than a month?
A land mine exploded on Monday at a roadside, killing a soldier as he fetched water to take to his mountainside base, police said. The blast happened in the Dera Bugti district. The mine detonated as Frontier Corps soldier Nazim Shah collected a drum of water to carry back to his mountainside base, said Raja Shabbir Ahmed, the district police superintendent.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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Hundreds of people, many of them holding Lebanese flags, marched Monday night in Rome to protest the escalation of fighting in the Middle East, while a few blocks away, a rally near the capital's main synagogue was organized to show support for Israel. Shortly after sunset, the marchers set out from near Piazza Venezia and lit candles as they headed toward the Colosseum. Italian communist parties, pacifist groups and other organizations participated in the march. "It is a complicated situation," said Otello Coccia, a 21-year-old university student in the march. "I think the solution would be to help the Palestinian people and favor coexistence between the Israeli people and Palestinians."
Hezbollah's not a Paleostinian organization. It's Lebanese, owned and operated by the Medes and Persians. Otello's right on top of things, isn't he?
Well sure, he's our intellectual and moral better. He's a Y'urp-peon progressive.
Wrapped in a U.S. flag was marcher Patrick Boylan, a Los Angeles native who teaches English in Rome. "We want to stop all the aggression and all the retaliation," Boylan said. "I would not get into who started this, but they need to stop the conflict."
Yeah, peace, dude.
A five-minute stroll away from Piazza Venezia was the gathering point for a rally later Monday night along the Tiber, outside the synagogue, organized by the tiny Jewish community in Italy to show solidarity for Israel. "What we must hope for is that the causes of this conflict are eliminated," Renzo Gattegna, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, told Sky TG24 news in an interview. "The events of these days are very painful, also because they involve civilian populations in a heavy way." He said the gathering was called to rally Italian and European opinion in favor of "guaranteeing the security of Israel."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006
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#1
While listening to radio yesterday, I heard an invitation to send money for helping the victims of the shellings in this crisis. Frankly, I'd be very surprized if that aid was intended at helping *israeli* victims as well...
Btw, french teevee is in full eurabian mode, counting only the 200 so far civilian lebanese casualties, and totally (and willingly) passing any mention of the effect of the strikes on the hezbollah. That's because joooos bombs are powerless against the Lions Of Islam, and only kill innocents, y'know.
#2
I'm on the mailing list for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Today I received an email about the goings-on in Europe. The key quote for me was this:
Jewish communities are especially apprehensive at the dangers awaiting the post-summer vacations and their security for the forthcoming High Holiday worship. Even the most assimilated Jews are realizing that the old mantra of "keeping the Middle East out of Europe" is a non-starter.
The Middle East is very much in Europe. A dramatic expression - born in France two years ago - is gaining currency among Jews in Europe: "la valise ou le cercueil" - "the suitcase or the coffin."
European antisemites may soon enough get their desire: their continent to be Judenfrei... although with a surfeit of other Semites.
BISHKEK: Police have stepped up security in southern Kyrgyzstan amid fears of retaliation by Islamic radicals for the deaths of five alleged religious extremists, officials said on Monday. The alleged extremists, killed in a shootout with law enforcement authorities on Friday, had been suspected of fatally shooting a police officer and wounding three other people in the southern city of Jalal-Abad. Police have been on heightened alert and border control has been tightened in the Central Asian nation's south to guard against possible attacks by supporters of the alleged extremists, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Aida Bakirova said.
Authorities said the five, two citizens of Uzbekistan and three of Kyrgyzstan, were also suspects in terror attacks over the past few years in both countries and were allegedly planning attacks and other actions aimed at igniting ethnic conflict in the volatile Fergana Valley, which Kyrgyzstan shares with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. All three are former Soviet republics.
Over the past week, Kyrgyz police arrested 20 alleged members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and another banned Islamic group, Hizbut Tahrir, as part of their search for the assailants. Meanwhile, Tajik Interior Minister Khomiddin Sharifov said that 10 men, including three Uzbek citizens, had been arrested in Tajikistan over the past month for trying to recruit new terrorists.
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Can somebody please get these folks some vowels?
(KUNA) -- Up to 60 Iraqis were killed and 45 others injured after coming under fire in the town of Mahmoudieh, which is some 20 kilometers south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday. The victims included a large number of women and children, a source in the ministry told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). "The attack was preceded by a car bomb explosion as well as a mortar attack. When the town's people came to the scene to take a look, armed gunmen opened fire on them killing 60 and injuring 45 including first aid people who came to provide assistance to the initial victims," the source said.
The gunmen had roamed the streets of the town and opened fire at random against passers-by before they finally came to the scene of the massacre, the source said. MPs loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr had walked out of proceedings at the National Assembly in protest at Monday's massacre in Mahmoudieh.
Meanwhile, the multi-national force in Iraq said two of the Mahmoudieh attackers had been apprehended and a quantity of arms and ammunition confiscated with them. In a related development, a member of the multi-national force died from injuries he sustained in an attack west of the capital. The injuries took place in a place west of the capital, the multi-national force said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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I guess Zarquawi was one of the moderates, and helped restrain the more extreme elements of the 'insurgency.'
#2
I'm for putting a Roman Coliseum near the (former) Saddam square, and inviting these assclowns to do mortal combat in the ring till the last one drops.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 18:19
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The rebel Ugandan Lords Resistance Army (LRA) has demanded the dissolution of the national army at peace talks to halt nearly two decades of fighting, but the government flatly refused the call and instead demanded the insurgents give up all their weapons. The LRA position paper, presented to southern Sudan mediators at talks here aimed at ending a 19-year-old insurgency in northern Uganda, said there was an urgent need of "reorganising of the army and other forces" as well as the signing of a comprehensive ceasefire agreement with the government.
"The present army, the Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF), does not reflect a national character. It is ethnic, partisan and pledges its loyalty to President Yoweri Museveni personally and not to the nation," said the rebel position paper, obtained by AFP. "We demand its total disbandment so that an internationally supervised recruitment is done taking into account regional balance and integration of those in the LRA and other armed oppositions who have the qualification or are trainable and wish to join the army," it added.
In addition, the insurgents demanded the disbandment of camps in northern Uganda housing around two million people, respect for human dignity, protection of their land and compensation from the government, the document indicated.
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Posted by: Fred ||
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Fyi, some pretty damn sharp Ugandan infantrymen in Viet era jungle fatiques, kevlars, and M-16's are manning guard posts in and around the Victory Base complex Iraq. Thank you Ugandan Army, I appreciate your service!
(KUNA) -- Jordanian Interior Minister Eid Al-Fayez urged on Monday boosting regional and international efforts to battle money laundering as a source for funding terrorism. At the opening of a forum regarding money laundering and terrorism's financial sources, Al-Fayez said money laundering jeopardized the world economy, social norms and security, noting that money laundering was part of organized crime that aimed legitimizing money that was obtained through illegal means.
People involved in money laundering are not interested in building an economy or maintaining its growth, they simply want to achieve personal benefits at the expense of others, he said. He said there have been many technological breakthroughs that have made discovering money laundering operations quite difficult, that means productive counter measures, as well as proper legislations and accords, have to be developed.
The first of its kind four-day forum will include discussing global cooperation in battling money laundering, probing this form of crime and how to train money laundering investigators.
Posted by: Fred ||
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This will be followed by seemingly endless hours of backslapping, commenting on the totally obvious, drafting resolutions that will never be enforced, posturing for the cameras, and the worlds slowest buffet line that will stretch clear around the corner.
#2
Jim, I hope you are wrong, and I further hope that Jordan is correctly focused on controls that can channge their world toward an honest existence with high moral standards. I know this can be boring, but it's the opposite karma of the more common splodydope mentality prevalent in the Middle east.
Thought it might be useful to link to one of the better resources on the web, the University of Texas Libraries Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Some maps of interest:
#7
Look at he Gaza Land Use map. The fields are green on the Israeli side of the line, and bare dirt on the Paleo side. Dead, just like the spirit and intellectual awareness of it's populace.
(KUNA) -- An Israeli army spokesman said Monday that three Israeli soldiers were injured by Palestinian gunfire in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip. The spokesman told the Radio that the soldiers were participating in a military operation in Beit Hanoun when Palestinian activists launched a rocket towards them. Izzuddine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in Beit Hanoun. Meanwhile, a local radio station said that an Israeli fighter Jet fired missiles on Palestinian activists responsible for the rocket attacks on the Sderot settlement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Just wait and he'll speak out of the other side of his mouth; he's trained that way ...
Iran called on Monday for a ceasefire followed by a prisoner exchange to end the confrontation between its Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla allies and Israel. "A reasonable and just solution must be found to end this crisis. A ceasefire and then a swap is achievable," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said after meetings with senior Syrian officials in Damascus.
Hezbollah wants to exchange two Israeli soldiers it captured on Wednesday in a cross-border raid for several Lebanese prisoners of war Israel has held for years and a number of the estimated 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Iran's foreign minister arrived in Syria for talks with its government Monday on the crisis in neighboring Lebanon. Mottaki did not speak to reporters on arrival in Damascus, but went headed straight for talks with President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006
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Which part of "Put up or Die" did you fail to understand?
(KUNA) -- As many as forty-nine Indians were Monday evacuated from Beirut and an Indian soldier with the UN peacekeeping force was injured following tensions in Lebanon. There were no plans to move out the 600 Indian troops by India as the UN would have to take this decision, Indian Foreign Ministry officials told reporters Monday in Delhi. The Indians were taken in two buses to Damascus, the officials said.
Nearly 12,000 Indians living in Lebanon have been advised to contact the Indian embassy in Beirut so that arrangements can be made to move them to safety, the officials added. Indian Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi convened a meeting of senior officials Monday evening in Delhi to discuss contingency plans to ensure the safety of Indians living in Lebanon.
The Indian soldier had minor injuries, the officials said. "The Indian soldiers are under the UN flag. Any decision on whether they stay, should be re-deployed or should be pulled out will be taken at the UN headquarters based on the assessment of the UN commander on the ground," the officials added.
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Okay -- let me get this right. We got members of the Indian army, under UN, in Lebanon. There are UN flags next to Hezbollah flags at the Lebanon border, and the UN, Russia and Blair, want to send in more UN troops? What have the ones that are there not doing, that more just won't do? But, I do know a few Marines who would gladly take the job.
#2
UN "buffer force" there are just *observers*. Basically, they count the number of shots, rockets,... and get an hefty pay at the end of the month, nothing else. They have no power whatsoever, and are not allowed to do anything at all excepting keeping track.
#5
NEW DELHI: The Government has sent four naval ships to Lebanon for evacuating Indians from the country, where the Hizbollah militant groups are under Israeli attack.
The ships will be in the vicinity of the Lebanon coast on Wednesday. In view of the naval blockade by Israel, the Government is in touch with Tel Aviv to ensure safe passage to Indian citizens in the event of the situation deteriorating further.
Army sources said there was no move to evacuate the troops stationed in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel. which is the scene of hostilities between the Israeli Defence Forces and Hizbollah militant group. Part of the United Nations mission, the troops have been mandated to confirm and monitor the withdrawal of the Israeli forces after they withdrew from the area in the late eighties.
The troops are currently taking shelter in bunkers and underground shelters, as is the case when clashes take place between the two sides.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006 19:42
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(KUNA) -- Ezzideen Al-Qassam brigades, Military wing of Hamas, bombarded Kfar Saad settlement in eastern Gaza and an electricity power station in occupied Asqalan with two Qassam rockets on Monday. "The shelling came coinciding with a Zionist incursion into Beit Hanoun which aims at halting launch of rockets at Israeli targets," the brigade's statement said. The bombardment came in retaliation of the Israeli crimes against Palestinians and a way to fight back, the brigades said.
Palestinian eyewitnesses said Israeli incursion into Beit Hanoun have become wide in scale. A number of Israeli tanks and machinery have entered the northern and the western outskirts of Beit Hanoun. Israeli troops controlled several buildings and snipers stationed themselves on the rooftops to shoot Palestinian citizens, eyewitnesses added. Israeli bulldozers also entered areas in Beit Hanoun the Israeli army claims are used for launching missiles on Israel.
An Israeli army spokesman said a Palestinian missile struck Monday morning a ranch in Nahl Oz settlement eastern Gaza. Another missile hit a house in the same settlement. The house was damaged and a number of its residents were in state of shock. A mortar shell blew up in a parking lot and several vehicles were damaged. The spokesman admitted a Palestinian missile struck a location near a strategic facility in Asqalan city southern Israel. However, there was no direct hit and the spokesman did not report whether it was a military target.
Posted by: Fred ||
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This writer for the Kuwait News Service openly considers Askalon, which is well on the Israeli side of the green line to be 'occupied'and has created an entity called 'east Gaza' which is also well on the Israeli side of the Green line.
RAIPUR, India - Hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed a government relief camp in central India on Monday and killed at least 25 people, including members of a state-backed, anti-Maoist group, police said. More than 50 were wounded, and at least 100 people living at the camp housing the Salwa Judum (Campaign For Peace) were missing after the rebels, many armed with automatic weapons, launched the raid in the insurgency hit Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
They also set at least 20 houses on fire. The death toll has reached 25 with the recovery of eight charred bodies from debris of burnt houses, Dantewada police chief Om Prakash Pal told Reuters by phone. He said three children and three women were among the dead.
Any reason to let a Maosist with a weapon live?
Another police officer said the rebels first attacked armed police guarding the camp and then stormed the camp itself, mostly inhabited by tribals.
The camp is at Arabore village in Dantewada, around 510 km (320 miles) south of Raipur, the state capital. Many of the seriously wounded have been taken by road to the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh for treatment. Police said the majority of those killed belonged to the Salwa Judum group, an anti-Maoist movement set up by the state government and often the target of the rebels. It draws members from local tribes, and activists are usually armed only with bows and arrows.
Hundreds of extra state and federal police have been sent to the heavily forested area to search for the rebels and those missing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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For the love of God, if you are going to setup CIDGs to fight the commies, at least give them bolt-action Mausers and some Brens in the same caliber. CIDGs (Civilian Irregular Defense Groups) and VDGs (Village Defense Groups) are just sitting ducks without firearms. Heck, if the Brens are too scary an idea, how about issuing like 3 semi-auto shotguns per 8 rifles?
Investigators are looking for a Seraiki-speaking family they believe had a possible hand in last Friday's suicide killing of Shia scholar, Allama Hasan Turabi. Police officials are on the hunt for this family, which they say has been missing since after the attack.
On Monday, a high-level investigation team, which included a senior army officer, visited Turabi's residence to collect evidence of Friday's attack. Turabi family sources said that the main suspect is the Seraiki family, which they said was living in the house right in front of Turrabi's residence. They also helped police point out several other Southern Punjab-based families and individuals they believe might have had a hand in the deadly plot. Police visited the houses of these families and took facsimile copies of their ID cards for any future investigations.
However, the main suspect remains Turabi's neighbours who were living in front of his house. Family sources also said that police found an unexploded hand grenade in front of the main gate of this house. They also said that the main gate of the house was found unusually open on the day of the attack. They said that the family usually used the small gate, hardly opening the big one.
Posted by: Fred ||
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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Monday for a "cessation of hostilities" between Israel and Hezbollah in order to buy valuable "time and space" to put a well-armed "stabilisation force" along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Too bad they couldn't get one in there before Hezbollah went nutz... Oh. I forgot. There used to be one there, made up of Frenchies and U.S. Marines. Hezbollah blew them up.
There's another one there now called UNIFIL. It's working well, huh?
"We need to get the parties to agree as soon as practicable to a cessation of hostilities to give us time and space to work" on the multinational force, said Annan after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 summit. Referring at least twice to "a stabilisation force", he said the UN needs "time and space ... to make sure we have the troops well-trained, well-equipped troops to go in quite quickly."
That'd be Americans, Brits, and Frenchies. Hassan must be licking his chops.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is opposed to the deployment of international forces in Lebanon in an effort to end bloodshed in the region, senior officials said, countering a call by Britain and the UN.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Man, that's cold. "Stabilizing" an entire country like that. Ol' Yasser's gonna be pissed.
#8
Boy, this calling for all parties to be calm and trying to initiate a cease fire sure builds up an appetite! Who's catering lunch, and where do we go?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/18/2006 2:01
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#14
C'mon, Kofi still rests easy after Rwanda. He honestly thinks there was nothing the UN could do, even though the UN commander there was begging him (literally) to allow him to do something to save people who were later slaughtered.
What makes you think that more dead Africans would bother him one damn bit?
#15
TW - that was pretty damn funny - now a monitor cleaning is in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 10:18
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#16
Well, this here Protestant says a thorough house cleaning is in order if'n Kofi's a protestant. None of the Protestants I'm aware of would back Hezbollah (or the janjaweed in Darfur, for that matter), except the ones infiltrated by the LLL moonbats (think: the Methodists who called for repeal of all funding sources from Israel).
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:33
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#17
Hey, I've got a time-saving idea. Just name the IDF the UN's pacification force! They are ready to go in any day now!
#18
UN Planning means that a pre-meeting may be organized to study the need to plan a meeting with the conference room scheduler to see if suitible space needs could be arranged so that they can meet with the audio visual staff to see if they can requisition the use of the InFocus projector that the head of the North Korean delegation "borrowed" last month for use at a non UN commissioned stag party...
#21
So Kofi wants a "robust" UN force. Har. What does that mean, slingshots instead of peashooters? They're only watchdogs. We all know what will happen if they somehow manage to get in the way of Iran reorganizing its "war-by-proxy" efforts. They're just an excuse for the faint of heart to sit on their thumbs and say "See, we're doing something! We have the United Nations involved! What more could any reasonable person ask for?"
What, they don't have enough children to pimp and rape in the other places they've inflicted themselves on?
Anyway, there's already a "UN force" in Lebanon. What they hell good have they done except for helping the terrorists?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 15:10
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#23
AP - ROFL! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 15:12
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#24
Kofi wants... Kofi Wants.... sickening. The bovine kak meister. Sergio Vieria de Mello wants a US guard force at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad. Oooops, a bit too late on that one.
An Israeli air strike flattened the 8-storey Palestinian foreign ministry building in Gaza City today, part of a campaign against the Hamas militant group and the government it controls. The foreign ministry building, which was badly damaged in a previous Israeli air strike, was completely destroyed by the early morning blast, which tore into nearby homes, shops and offices, witnesses said. At least nine Palestinians were injured, most of them children. No deaths were reported.
Ummm... Why store the kiddies in the bombed-out foreign ministry?
A separate air strike gutted the offices of a Hamas-led security force in the Islamist stronghold of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said.
How many fluffy bunnies were killed in that one?
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after militants, some from Hamas, captured an Israeli soldier - Corporal Gilad Shalit - in a cross-border raid on June 25. The Israeli military has since killed more than 85 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them militants. A gunman shot by troops in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun on Sunday died of his wounds, medics said.
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#1
I think of the most mean, hateful people that I have ever met in my entire life and I can't imagine anyone who would place cute, curly headed children in a place where they know they will be bombed. Are these Islamists really human? Has anyone checked to be sure?
#2
They were forewarned several days ago that further urban renewal operations would be occurring there. Can't take a hint ? Too dumb to move ? Or simply matyrs ?
#3
The kiddies are useful tools to the propaganda machine of the Paleos. It is a tool of war that is available to them. I hope that Israel is flattening all phone exchanges, cell towers, tin can telephone lines, satellite earth stations, fiber optic links, radio and TV transmitters, and last but not least, Al Jazeera news crews. They should have taken out the AJ crew in Haifa when the IDF found them doing a live feed when they were told not to do it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/18/2006 1:52
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#4
Human shields.
I can't think of any other explanation but Human shields.
Its dispicable enough to use hostages or strangers as human shields. How much worse is it to use your own children?
#5
Remember this, the "Palestinians" ancestors used to burn their children alive as sacrifices for Moloch. Different name for the same god and practices, it seems.
#8
Ok, not defending the Palis, but maybe the kids were in the adjoining "homes, shops & businesses"? It doesn't say they were in the Foreign Ministry, guys, just that they were in the area. It's a bit too soon to call them human shields.
A programmed from birth with Muzzie Death Cult propaganda, and destined to be the next wave of terrorists. Save your pity for those that deserve it.
prop a gan da n. 1.The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
#11
Swamp,
Chances are you're right, but it really doesn't change the story. You have to be either cruel or have incredibly poor judgement to keep your children that close to an announced target after a week of intense bombing. And that description pretty much sums up the whole subject population, doesn't it.
#12
Swamp, Ok, that might explain their presence. But as glenmore mentioned - you have to be either pretty damn stupid or uncaring to have your kids close to a desinated target.
OR the kids were planted there after the strike a-la Pallywood.
#14
In the latest Mark Steyn column Steyn notes in passing that the medium age of Gaza residents is just under 16 yrs. old. Per Steyn they're unemployed, uneducated, and inculcated since birth in the muslim death cult. The future is not very bright on so many levels. Depressing.
#15
Doesn't anyone realize that this is the children destiny. They house them close to the targets, let the Israelis bomb the target, call AL-JIZ, report the innocents have died, stir up the supporters, then have funerals for the martyers. Cildren are born, educated, and used for "suicide" missions.
#16
glenmore & CF, the bleeding heart lib in me (getting more disgusted by the day, ok, but she's still there) would like to think that maybe their parents had nowhere else to go. We don't know all the circumstances. Maybe those psychopaths running their government threatened them and made them stay? I wouldn't put it past them. We sure wouldn't hear about it from the MSM, not with their romanticization of terrorists as "militants" or "freedom fighters". Hamas would sink to any level of depravity you can imagine. That's not too extreme for them at all.
I'm sure they were thinking that little Abdul and Fatima would be good Jr. Shahids/propaganda fodder if it came down to it. Knowing how the Palis act, that's a definite, sick possibility. I don't understand their mentality at all.
I put the blame for these childrens' injuries on Hamas more than on the parents, until we get more info on this.
(But yeah, if I was living there, I'd get my kids out of the area somehow if I thought the Israelis were going to blow it up. Fark anyone who would try to make my kids stay. I'm crazy, not stupid.)
#18
A Cynic? No, just excellent pattern recognition.
With Sab Erekat or any other Paleo mouthpiece, I think it's probably a safe bet that every word out of their mouths is a lie, including "and" and "the".
When I need an easy giggle, I imagine Sab Erekat as a used car salesman....
#19
Allan and Darwin are camped out in the outer reaches. Allan complains that these cavemen are doing all this killing in his name. Darwin suggests that Allan give the cavemen the idea to hide behind their children. That way, Darwin explains, the killing will stop within one generation. They laugh and gather virgins about them. All's well that ends well.
According to a source close to a high-ranking official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Teheran has supplied Hezbollah with approximately 11,500 missiles and projectiles. The source said more than 3,000 Hezbollah members have undergone training in Iran, which included guerilla warfare, firing missiles and artillery, operating unmanned drones, marine warfare and conventional war operations. He said they have also trained 50 pilots for the past two years. According to the source, Hezbollah currently possesses four types of surface-to-surface missiles, some of which extend to a distance of 150 kilometers.
Katyusha missiles hit Tiberias, on the Lake of Galilee, for the first time on Saturday, while today Hezbollah fired rockets, which killed eight people in the Israeli city of Haifa, and bombs shook Beirut as Israel pursued a five-day-old assault in Lebanon aimed at crippling the Shi'ite Muslim group. It was Hezbollah's deadliest rocket strike on Israel in at least 10 years and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it would have "far-reaching" consequences for Lebanon. Hezbollah said the attack was retaliation for Israel's killing of civilians and destruction of Lebanese infrastructure.
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Thanks to the anonymous source who is able to confirm what everyone else already knew.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 1:18
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#2
News yes. Scoop, no.
CIA Confident Iran Behind Jet Bombing
By David B. Ottaway and Laura Parker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 11, 1989; Page A01
A Central Intelligence Agency assessment of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing has concluded that Iran hired a Damascus-based radical Palestinian faction to carry out the operation. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation does not have sufficient evidence to seek an indictment, according to sources.
The sources also said the FBI is investigating the possiblity that one of two female American college students who had Arab boyfriends may have unwittingly carried the bomb aboard the flight. The Dec. 21 explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland killed 270 people.
A State Department official said the CIA is "confident" of its assessment that Iran in effect "hired" elements belonging to Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command to carry out the bombing. But, officials said, they do not have sufficient evidence to even brief other governments on their findings. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.
Jibril and senior aides had at least one meeting with Iranian officials in Tehran last fall and possibly an earlier one immediately after the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian Airbus over the Persian Gulf last July 3, according to these sources.
"They're fairly confident of their information," said one U.S. official familar with the interagency deliberations over the bombing.
"But they apparently don't have enough information to satisfy everybody inside the administration," he added. "The FBI has to deal with evidence they can present in court."
"Intelligence work and criminal work are two different things. You have to be able to present evidence to a grand jury for an indictment," explained one FBI official. "We're not at that stage now."
The West German magazine Quick reported Monday that Iran's Ayatolloh Ruhollah Khomeini had met with his advisers last July after the downing of the Airbus, which resulted in the death of 290 people, to plot revenge. Quick gave no indication which of the many rival Iranian factions attended the alleged meeting, or whether Iran's powerful Parliament speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was present.
The magazine, which said it had obtained secret minutes of that meeting, said Iran had paid $1.3 million to Jibril to carry out the bombing of an American airliner.
A State Department official said "we don't have anything hard on that." But he added that Iran was always "in the background" of various assumptions and assessments of which country might have been responsible for the Pan Am bombing.
"Everybody is pretty much convinced it was the PFLP, but they don't have the definitive proof about it," the official added.
Quick magazine also quoted Oliver B. Revell, deputy FBI director, as saying that "our investigating officials believe the explosive came into the plane in Frankfurt." Revell added, "That does not mean that the bomb could not have been on a connecting flight to Frankfurt."
FBI spokesman William Carter confirmed that this was "the gist" of what Revell had said during an interview about Western efforts to combat terrorism.
In the interview, Revell also said: "I am quite sure that in the end we will know for sure how the bomb got onto the plane and who put it there and we can start criminal proceedings against them."
The two American college students being studied as possible unwitting couriers had been attending a university "in a neutral country," one source said, and were headed home for the Christmas holidays.
On Dec. 21, the students traveled to Frankfurt where they boarded Flight 103 for its first leg to London. In previous bombings and bombing attempts, terrorists have sought out Western women to serve as unsuspecting carriers. Often, the woman becomes romantically involved and then is used by her boyfriend to carry a bomb without being aware of it. Investigators now think the Pan Am bomb weighed 1 1/2 pounds.
The 1986 apprehension of an Irish woman traveling alone to Tel Aviv on El Al, the Israeli airline, has become a classic case. She had become pregnant by a Jordanian-born Palestinian and was flying to Tel Aviv purportedly to meet his family. Her suitcase had been lined with plastic explosives.
#3
Ghadaffi paid damages and accepted responsibility to the PanAm 103 families as part of his get out of jail deal. I can't believe he was taking a fall for Iran, Syria and Hesb.
Up to eight militants were arrested by the US army in two separate incidents in northern Baghdad. A statement for the US army said Monday that an Al-Qaeda member and four of his aides were arrested during a raid in Al-Yousifiyah town in southern Baghdad. The statement added that the US soldiers also arrested three militants at a US army checkpoint in Al-Doura area in south Baghdad, where different kinds of ammunition was found in their vehicle.
Meanwhile, a statement for the Iraqi Defense Ministry said that 25 militants were killed and 151 others were arrested by Iraqi soldiers during the last 24 hours. It added that an Iraqi army force killed 21 gunmen and arrested 25 others in Baghdad within the framework of a security plan. Another two militants were killed and 47 others were arrested, and an explosive device was defused in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Three terrorists were also arrested and a booby-trapped vehicle was defused in Al-Khaldiya area in the western Iraqi Anbar province.
In northern Baghdad, 35 militants were arrested and an explosive device was defused, whereas 31 militants were also arrested in the Iraqi city of Basra, and another four were arrested with the participation of the Multi-National Forces. The related statement indicated that two militants were killed and six others were wounded during a series of attacks against terorrist hideouts in Al-Azamiyah area, where six motorbikes loaded with light weapons were confiscated.
In other developments, an Iraqi police source said five persons were killed, including three women, and 10 others were wounded yesterday in a car explosion targeting a joint Iraqi army and US forces patrol in Mosul. The Iraqi police said that unidentified gunmen kidnapped director of the North Oil Company near the Oil Ministry in the northern district of Baghdad. The Multi National Forces declared in a statement that one of its soldiers was killed in an explosion that occurred near his patrol in southern Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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This sounds like progress. What happens to arrestees ? I hope they're not on the catch & release program.
C'mon, children can't protect themselves so it is up to the state. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (UPI) -- A bid to force the banning of a pro-pedophile political party in the Netherlands has been struck down by a court at The Hague.
The PNVD party was formed this year by three admitted pedophiles, and was immediately challenged by the Soelaas foundation, which investigates cases of pedophilia in the country, Expatica and the ANP news agency reported. Soelaas argued a legal ban was needed to protect children from the group, but Judge H.F. Hofhuis ruled that the PNVD has the same right to exist as any other political party. 'They (Soelaas) only want to give expression to their moral concerns. That is far from being sufficient to outlaw a party,' Hofhuis ruled.
The PNVD group advocates lowering the age of consent from 16 to 12, and also seeks to allow teenagers older than 16 to act in pornographic movies, as long as the participation is voluntary.
Three people were killed on Monday in a dispute over the distribution of earthquake relief money in the NWFP quake-affected areas, witnesses said. Four people from the Tarand union council in Batgram district were also injured. A fire exchange erupted over the reconstruction of a house that was destroyed in the October 8 earthquake.
Such disputes between the owners and tenants of houses in the area had taken place for a sometime, both parties claiming they deserved the aid. A house owner and his son were among the three people killed in the dispute. Witnesses said that the tenants fled after the incident and police have not yet made any arrests. Acting Mayor of Batgram Niaz Muhammad Khan said the government's Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority and federal and provincial governments were to blame for their defective policies.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I'm sure Jimmuh can sort this out. Send him in, pronto!
Taliban commanders have warned the South Waziristan administration against collecting import tax. "Taliban commanders visited the Jandola office of the political administration a few days ago, stopping them from collecting import tax from the tribesmen," a senior administration official, asking not to be named, told Daily Times. He said the Taliban considered the tax collection "un-Islamic" and told the tax collectors that they would face "serious consequences" if they did not stop immediately.
Authorities collect thousands of rupees in taxes on goods imported into and exported from South Waziristan at more than 20 check posts every day and the money goes to the political agent's 'Agency Development Fund' for meeting the administration's expenses. The official said that senior administration officials had called senior "jihadi commanders," a reference to the Taliban commanders in South Waziristan, to a meeting in Wana to discuss the issue. "The jihadi commanders met South Waziristan Chief Administrator Munir Azam to sort out the differences over the collection of import and export tax," the source added.
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The Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), the two major components of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), have failed to reach agreement on the issue of mass resignations from parliament.
The matter was discussed in an MMA Supreme Council meeting chaired by MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who is also chief of the JI, at Markaz-e-Islami on Monday. "Every effort by the JI and JUI to convince each other over the issue failed," sources said. JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman reportedly opposed Qazi Hussain's stance on the mass resignation on opposition parliamentarians, saying this was not an "appropriate time".
Posted by: Fred ||
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(KUNA) -- A Turkish policeman was killed Monday by the Kurdistan Working Party (PKK) in the eastern Turkish governorate of Van. Turkish Ihlas News Agency cited security sources as saying that the attack took place in Ozlap town near the Turkish-Iranian border, noting that clash with PKK members was ongoing. The source added that another policeman was wounded in an attack by PKK members in the Bingol governorate. At least 23 Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK this month in different parts of Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(KUNA) -- More than 60 people were killed Monday after tribal clashes erupted in Al Buhayrat state in southern Sudan. Sudan News Agency (SUNA) said fighting amongst Al-Denka tribe members began since last week. SUNA added that local forces stopped the violence between the tribe members and stated that the state's governor is dealing with the matter now.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Send Manute Bol as a mediator!
______________________________he couldn't shoot free throws but perhaps he can mediate!
(KUNA) -- Pakistani security forces have arrested a wanted former Taliban commander from Southwestern Baluchistan province, bordering Afghanistan, said security officials Monday. Taliban commander, Maulavi Hamdullah, was arrested in a raid in Nawann Kuli area of Quetta few days back, the provincial capital, officials told KUNA. They added that he has been shifted to undisclosed location and is under interrogation. During Taliban regime Maulavi Hamdullah had served as the Repatriation Attache at the Taliban Consulate General in Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Is he arrested because of the 'former' part of his description, or the 'Taliban' part? In Pakiland one never knows.
LAHORE: A full bench of the Supreme Court, consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, justices Tasadduq Hussain Jillani and Karamat Nazir Bhindari, on Monday granted bail to a couple and observed that if a non-Muslim embraces Islam his or her previous marriage stands invalid. The bench observed further that if a man and a woman declared themselves as husband and wife in society, the provisions of the (Zina) Hudood law couldn't be applied on them. The chief justice, while taking suo moto notice of the detention of Tanvir Ahmad and Rehana from Kohat, had summoned the record of the case against them. Tanvir was a Hindu before converting to Islam and his name was Tanvir Gill while his wife Rehana was a Christian. Both married after accepting Islam and they had a child. A member from Rehana's family had lodged a Hudood case against them and police arrested them on March 25, 2006 and they were sent to jail with their ten-month-old child.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Okay, not sure what is the story about, but it seems that:
A) If you are not a muslim, you can easily go to jail
B) If you convert to Islam, you can easily go to jail too
Iran has said that it was still counting on support from Russia and China over its disputed nuclear programme, and warned the referral of the issue back to the UN Security Council would derail any possible negotiations.
"If the case goes to the United Nations Security Council, regardless of the kind of resolution adopted, the negotiations will be derailed," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday. "The Security Council path is not constructive," he added. "We expect Russia and China to defend our legitimate stances. Defending the rights of the Islamic republic means backing up international treaties and the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
Asefi said Iran was also awaiting the outcome of a G8 summit in Russia, where the mounting nuclear crisis is set to be discussed. "We hope the G8 chooses the reasonable path. In this case, the Islamic republic is ready for any cooperation and negotiation," he said. Last week Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States decided to send Iran's case back to the Security Council after Tehran failed to respond to demands it freeze sensitive uranium enrichment work.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Mullahs must be wondering if Russia and China will stay bought.
Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has promulgated a new anti-terror law that expands the scope of crimes punishable as "terrorist" acts and introduces restrictions on the media, his office said. Sezer nevertheless deferred the controversial bill to the constitutional court in order to cancel several clauses, the brief statement said without specifying which measures would be removed.
Turkey's parliament approved the law on June 29 despite objections from human rights and press groups. They have accused the government of back-tracking on democracy reforms that were introduced in recent years, including measures that eased restrictions on the press, in a bid to boost Turkey's European Union membership bid.
The legislation was proposed following a sharp increase in violence over the past two years by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community. The amendments make a wide range of criminal offences -- from drug- and human-trafficking to hijacking of transport vehicles and forgery -- punishable as terrorist acts if they are committed with the aim of supporting terrorism.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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There is already a de facto state of emergency (OHAL) imposed on Kurdistan, the same as it was in the 1990's. The good thing about approving this law is that we can use it against the Europeans. They were the originators of fascism anyway.
If anyone understands anything about Turkish law and how it is interpreted, then you will understand exactly what I mean.
HPG already sees this signing as an act of war, while Turkey is getting ready to invade South Kurdistan--which is very good news. They still haven't figured out how to read a map, so they still don't realize how far Qandîl is from the Turkish border.
And you can only get there on foot.
The Turks didn't learn how hard it was for them when they invaded South Kurdistan in the 1990s. PKK/HPG dogged them, tearing little pieces out of their front and flanks the whole time.
This time, if TSK and Ozel Timler murder Southern Kurds along the route, like they did last time, I feel pretty certain that KDP is going to encourage reprisals in gerîla style.
If Ankara thought last week was bad, let them wait. It will be really good to see a LOT of dead Turks again.
Posted by: Azad ||
07/18/2006 15:16
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Europe doesn't want or need turkey, its just a group of half million desperate, welfare grasping, parasitic, ignorant, arrogant, muslim, barbarians whose realpolitik value died at the end of the cold war.
A nation of trailer park economists and egotistical don quixote's. The kurds in turkey are fucked! the concept of ethnic cleansing does not have to be CNN explained to their children.
Indian troops on Monday shot dead two suspected Islamist militants during an ongoing battle in Indian-held Kashmir, while a policeman died in a separate attack, the army said. "Our troops have shot dead two militants in the Arin village," army spokesman Vijay Batra said.
Arin is part of northern Bandipora district and is considered a hotbed of Islamist insurgency. "The fighting is continuing," Batra said, adding that the gunbattle erupted after troops raided a militant hideout. The identity of the killed militants was not immediately known. Jammu and Kashmir army chief, General SS Dhillon, last week said that Indian troops were conducting operations in Bandipora after having received reports that militants had increased their presence in the mountainous district.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The State Department has hired the cruise ship Orient Queen to evacuate U.S. citizens from Beirut starting Tuesday, according to the Pentagon. The Orient Queen can carry about 750 passengers for the approximate five-hour crossing from Beirut to Cyprus, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. An American Navy destroyer, the USS Gonzales will escort the ship for security reasons.
At least 8,000 of the estimated 25,000 American citizens in Lebanon registered with the American embassy prior to the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah. Several hundred have expressed interest in being evacuated.
USS Gonzalez is named after Medal of Honor winner Marine Sergeant Freddy Gonzalez. Here are links to photos of the cruise ship. Note the helicopter pad on the ship.
#2
Because the US has a very large and wealthy Lebanese Christian population. Example, Danny and Marlo Thomas. Also, most of those 25 thousand have dual American and Lebanese citizenship - sort of like all of the Hong Kong Chinese who were smart had Canadian citizenship as backup. When Lebanon gets too bad, they can flash the US passport and have the US Marines pull their collective butts out of the trap.
Ali Khreiss, a 46-year-old man said he wished to stay behind and fight alongside Hezbollah but his wife was begging to leave.
"I want to be part of this. This is the first time an Arab country bombs Haifa," he said, referring to the Israel's third-largest city targeted by Hezbollah rockets for the first time this week.
"I will drop them off in Sweden and return," he added.
I have a feeling there are a lot of Ali's among the 40,000 Lebanese-Canadians we're supposed to collect as well. Free shuttle service for the fighters' families. Might want to do some ID checks on the departing ex-pats as well for the same reason.
#7
Wife heard that the US will be charging for the evac. (heh) Something about putting yourself in a danger zone. Hope its in the $25K+ range for the little trip.
#10
Can anyone tell me why in hell there are 25,000 US citizens in this shithole to begin with ?
Well first, it wasn't always a shithole. In fact, it was the garden spot of the Middle East until Syria took over, bring their gun-sexing death cultists with them. Now the Iranian Hezzies are doing their dead level best to meet their shit deposit quota as well. Answer: Annihilation of the Hezzies. Airstrikes on Syria, eliminating the few remaining old and broken down MIG's they have left. And then, as Ironic as it sounds, helping the democratically elected Christian Lebanese government rebuild their country, and military capability. Oh, and I wouldn't mind the US mixing in a few airstrikes on Iran as well.
Lebanon's government should play a role to bring peace to the nation which has been crippled by violence between Israel and Hezbollah, said the chief of a United Nations delegation in Beirut on Monday. The head of the delegation, Vijay Nambier, spoke with Lebanon's parliament speaker and prime minister, and said more diplomacy is needed to come up with a solution to the conflict, which has entered its sixth day.
The Lebanese government was marginalized by the Hezbollah decision to unilaterally begin this latest round in the conflict. And many fear that any Lebanese government effort to stop Hezbollah would result in the Lebanese military splintering, bringing another Lebanese Civil War. So, with these comments, the UN is apparently trying to give the Lebanese government a place at the table.
Nambier issued assurances that strides have been made to address the hostilities, where the number of dead in Lebanon and Israel is approaching 200 -- 165 in Lebanon and 24 in Israel. "We have made many efforts to improve the situation, and our teams have discussed these issues with the Lebanese government, and we will continue to discuss these suggestions and ideas, and we will come back to Lebanon to develop and explore these ideas further," Nambier said.
Continued on Page 49
Hezbollah fighters fired rockets at nine Israeli settlements, Al-Manar television reported. The station, the mouthpiece of Hezbollah, said the attack targeted the Israeli military command headquarters in the northern Safad town.
Posted by: Fred ||
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What is Hezbollah going to do when they run out of rockets? There are sea, land, and air blockades, they have blown some caches, some prolly don't work after storage, some prolly blow up right on the pad.
I'm sure they are smuggling some into the country, but not enough to form a supply line. So what are they going to do when they are gone?
#2
I've seen reports they had between 10 and 14 thousand rockets on hand. Even with attrition, you could fire a 100 a day for three months.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 10:14
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I've seen reports they had between 10 and 14 thousand rockets on hand. Even with attrition, you could fire a 100 a day for three months.
The rockets themselves yes. The platforms and launchers are MUCH more limited I would guess. And the personel who can use them I would assume are getting roasted by IDF missles. Though I doubt anyone on any network would mention that with Baby ducks getting hurt.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/18/2006 11:37
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Airlift from Iran into Damascus, truck to Bekaa.
Palestinians fired at IDF troops near Beit Furik, near Nablus, in the West Bank on Monday night. No one was wounded in the attack. In a separate incident, a Molotov Cocktail was thrown at an Israeli car traveling near Pisgat Ze'ev. No one was wounded in that attack, either.
Posted by: Fred ||
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yup. sounds like the paleos are asking for a ceasefire.
#3
Nobody is taking any notice of them; they begin to realise that they have been and continue to be a convenience for a succession of cynical Arab governments, used to distract murmuring populations from their own civil rights, they are a sop for Western sensitivities and restrained guilt-complexes for the perceived ill-treatment of the Oriental. They look into a mirror and see nothing but death, or the promise of death-they have no future.
Their only goal is to live their tawdry lives in the hope of killing as many as they can in an orgasmic convulsion of destruction.
Pathetic.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/18/2006 18:18
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Spot on, Tony. Well said. Their only claim to fame is perfecting the Nazi Hate Machine.
A new barrage of rockets fired by guerrillas in southern Lebanon hit northern Israel late Monday, Israeli security officials said. Security officials said one rocket hit a hospital in the northern town of Safed, but the army later said the rocket hit near it. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Other rockets hit the northern city of Haifa, where a three-story apartment building was destroyed by a rocket earlier in the day, and the border town of Kiryat Shemona, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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What about those non-existant WMDs in the Bekaa Valley? Can Hezbollah access them?
#2
Based on their seeming freedom to move about the country it would seem they clearly should have access to them (Bekaa WMD). Have they not used them out of some kind of civilized or self-preservational instinct (not generally detected in this sub-species), or because they have not gotten desperate enough/decided the time was right, or because the weapons are not there/not functional, or maybe because the Syrians/Iranians ultimately have control of those weapons and won't let Hezballah have them (yet)?
#3
If the WMD weapons are there, and Syria letz Hiz use them, Syria would have made itself a BIG target for pounding. I do not think that the Syrians are THAT stupid. But I have been shown that I was in error before.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/18/2006 12:20
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Assumes the WMD in the Bekaa Valley are under Syrian control and that the control can be maintained. If Hisb starts to go Tango Uniform, it could be their Samson option.
Some unidentified people attacked a leader of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), Sanaullah Baloch, while he was speaking at a seminar in London Sunday, According to a BNP spokesperson Monday.
Abdul Hammed Baloch, who is a spokesperson of the BNP, told Daily Times, "Sanaullah Baloch was speaking at a seminar Sunday when some unidentified people attacked him with a glass bottle filled with poisonous gas. The bottle exploded on his body that could have destroyed his face, specially his eyes." The seminar on "Third World Solidarity" was organized by the Baloch community. The spokesperson said that eggs and tomatoes were also thrown at Sanaullah, Dr Ishaq Baloch as well as other Baloch politicians.
Posted by: Fred ||
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He must have made some very offensive statements, which obviously greatly pissed off the members of the audience.
Speaking at a large demonstration in support of Israel in Manhattan on Monday, United States Senator Hillary Clinton expressed unreserved support for Israel and commended President George Bush for his stance in the present crisis.
Clinton said on Monday that all Americans, whether Democrats or Republicans, stood behind Israel at this time. The demonstration, which drew an estimated 5,000 people, was described as one of the largest Jewish events in recent years.
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel also spoke at the gathering, which ended in a call to free the captured soldiers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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I look forward to your flip-flop quotes after November elections, biiiatch!!
#3
oh - you mean the demonstration that I would not have heard about if I did not read the internet. And I also don't think we'll be seeing/hearing any of those clips of Hillary being booed either.
#4
Supporting the troops + good fight, while demanding [the GOP-Right.] to be attacked, and "occupied" America = Amerikka "liberated' ala Mother Cindy.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/18/2006 6:48
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except a lot of Americans are either:
- ANSWER type jihad apologists
- real Jihadists
- deranged leftists of the Chomsky variety
- empty headed moonbats of the Sheehan variety
- sophisticated jihad enablers of the Juan Cole variety
#8
Hillary was elected in good part with the support of the large, tight Chasidic Jewish community at Kiryas Joel, plus the secular jewish community in NYC. She's quite sincere in her support of whatever they want to reelect her.
#9
Many of the moonbats over at DU are not happy with Hillary or any one else supporting Israel:
"Why defend Israels actions? Completely disproportionate response...this is the beginning of a back-door war against Syria and Iran, and ANYONE that stands up and defends this bullshit had better be prepared to get called to account when it all goes pear-shaped..."
"I'm sick to death of the undying support our government has given the Israeli goverment. A terrorist organization with the same resume as Hezbollah and Hamas. Only a higher body count."
"I bitched about Feingold and I'll bitch about her. Holding Israel blameless is as asinine as holding the repugs blameless for the war. I won't go to the poles for her."
"I will never vote for Hillary,I had to hold my nose when voting for Kerry,it will not happen again."
"Hillary's so full of it. It's all about triangulation with Hillary--everything that comes out of her mouth. I can't believe people fall for the crap Hillary spews."
"So, what is her reward? Jewish voters to vote for her in her bid for the presidency? Or the reasonable assumption that she is allied with the neo-cons and fully believes the US is on the right course outlined by the PNAC? I believe she is fully on course with the notion that the United States of America is so powerful that invading and occupying and killing and slaughtering children and other innocents, is the way for the US to go. I fully believe she is on the side of the neo-cons and is so because her politics are indiciative of her beliefs that pre-emption, war and killing is a way to establish and empire. She has been playing this game, beginning with her war vote. She will NOT listen to her base, but instead hires Peter Daou to tell her how to seduce the base. She has turned her coat or at the least in this stage of the game, revealed the lining of her coat.
I will never ever vote for Hillary Clinton should she run. Hear that Peter? You will lose one vote and I am not alone."
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 9:07
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Steve, you *did* shower before you came back here, right?
#11
I think shes sincere, as much about this as about anything.
The dilemma is for the nutroots movement. Somebody as smart as Markos Zuniga is, knows that going hard against Israel is a losing proposition, if his goal is to take the commanding heights of the Democratic party. But enough of his base is pure moonbat, to them support for Israel is as bad as support for the war in Iraq. His best bet is too lie low till this blows over, I suspect.
#12
liberalhawk: I don't think that "sincerity" is ever at issue with Hillary. It goes against her utter pragmatism, to hold *anything* as a sincere belief.
It is a bizarre concept, that the purpose of power is to get power and to keep power; but at the same time, indifference to what should be done with that power, except to strive to keep it. Call it "The General Zod" paradox.
Bill was the same way, he never stopped campaigning for office, even after elected. But he loathed paperwork and the actual duties of the office. That is why his accomplishments rate at zero, yet why he still ranks as the guy everyone wants at parties.
But Hillary lacks Bill's joy and elan with campaigning. She does want power, but only so she can force through what she wants. Not with discussion or debate--those are the tools of her enemies. She wants to order, and to have those orders carried out.
#16
Israel - "To all of you standing behind us, thanks for the support. As for Mrs. Clinton, out in front and keep your hands where we can see them..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/18/2006 12:07
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#17
Israel - count the silverware after she's gone
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 12:20
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"All Americans"? What a laughable statement. The vast amjority on the left are silent right now, because their feelings are hurt by big bad Isreal. Once they get their bearings, story after story of the poor suffering Lebanese will bombard us, just as they have been already on CNN. Hillary, are you that unaware of your own party?
#19
Support is a good start. I'd like to see SUPPORT in terms of a carrier group lending a hand. I suspect there are reasons why we don't want to get involved on that level. The Israeli public is at least in some part upset by the fact that we aren't more visibly at their side. Why don't we get involved more?
#20
because Israel is doing fine, contrary to NS's "quagmire". We have sold them the F16I and F15I and sold them the howitzers currently in use as well as the bunker busters they are using on Hezb bunkers. Our entrance would cause the donk caucus to squeal like stuck pigs, and require enforcement of ROE that Israel doesn't want to/have to obey
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 14:58
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#21
Quagmire? I don't think so, Frank. I just think it will take boots on the ground to finish the job. Not to occupy, just to make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed then get out.
#22
What, she took a poll and decided this is her best policy stance? (This week.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/18/2006 15:13
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#23
I don't disagree, I just think the current ops are for encirclement, punishment. disrupt resupply and killing before th ebround ops ever begin. Israel knows they won't be able to do this war on the cheap ($ or lives) and appears to have decided the cost is acceptable when the other alternative is slower death by rockets and infiltration. Give them the time to do the op in the least costly/most successful manner.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 15:22
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#24
Israel seems to be giving civilians plenty of time to bug out while they prepare the battlespace. That will probably help keep civilian casualties minimized, and give them a freer hand to shoot in self-defense when the situation warrants it. Anybody hanging out just to watch the proceedings probably deserves to be removed from the gene pool, anyway.
#25
In another article, we're told Hizb'Allah has blockaded the villagers in, not even allowing the UN troops to evacuate them. Such heros! Such Lions of Islam!
#27
"Somebody as smart as Markos Zuniga is, knows that going hard against Israel is a losing proposition, if his goal is to take the commanding heights of the Democratic party."
Au contraire. Markos Moulitsas lumps both Israel and Hezb'Allah together:
I grew up in a war zone. And there was one clear lesson I learned there will never be peace unless both sides get tired of the fighting and start seeking an alternative...considering that they obviously have no interest in getting over them, were stuck with a war that will not end in any forseable future... And I, for one, sure as heck have no desire to get sucked into that no-win situation. I just hope that war-fatigue sets in at some point.
(KUNA) -- A three-story building collapsed Monday in the northern Israeli city of Haifa after it was hit by a Hezbollah rocket, said Israeli radio. The Israeli radio added that two were wounded and rushed to a nearby hospital, while rescue teams have been searching for more wounded people under the rubble of the collapsed building. Hezbollah continued firing rockets from Southern Lebanon on Israel, wounding six Israelis.
Meanwhile, Israel threatened to completely destroy the utilities network in Lebanon if Hezbollah attacked the petrochemicals facilities in Haifa city. A senior Israeli military official told Israeli radio that Israel avoided targeting Lebanese infrastructure; however, if Hezbollah attacked the petrochemicals plant in the Gulf of Haifa with its long-range rockets, the Israeli army would completely destroy the Lebanese power network.
The Israeli military official, whose name was not disclosed, said that Israeli army's operation in Southern Lebanon focused on Hezbollah's rockets battery locations. Israeli warplanes have executed several raids on Lebanon's power plants since July 12, the last was today as a power plant in Eastern Beirut was bombed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
IDF, you are being too restrained. Go for it. Take their infrastructure down ASAP. At the rate they're flooding Israel with missiles, they are bound to connect every once in a while.
#2
I say the Hezzies are sissies unless they focus all their rockets on the petrochemical facilities. After all, it's obvious the Joooos don't want it to happen, so it must be allen's will....
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/18/2006 6:31
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Seems to me that missiles capable of reaching Haifa are big enough and in the air long enough that Israel ought to be able to get a very precise fix on the launch site. They (IDF) say that's their operational focus. How are they (Hezb) getting away?
#5
They've been showing the Hezbollah Rocket Corp video on all the news networks. They have a truck mounted launcher with what looks like a dozen tubes in one horizontal row. Tubes appear to be 10 - 12 feet long. Truck looks like 10 ton size, easy to shoot and scoot.
Also caught glimpse of a man-portable single tube launcher on a tripod. Could be carried into a building and fired from a window, if you didn't care what happened to the inside of the room.
The rockets seem to be fired as single shots, rather than massed bombardment. That way makes it harder to pin down a launch site.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 10:10
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Six Islamic militants were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Bangladesh's eastern Feni district Monday for series bombings on Aug. 17 last year, which killed three people and wounding hundreds. The court also fined them 5,000 taka (about 71 U.S. dollars) each. The six militants belong to Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which was blamed for a series of bombings in 63 out of 64 districts of Bangladesh on Aug. 17 last year and suicide bomb attacks that killed 28 people and wounded several others.
The JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second-in-command Bangla Bhai were arrested on March 1 and March 6 this year by the security forces. The JMB chief launched the campaign to establish Islamic rule in this Muslim majority country about four years ago. Rahman, Bangla Bhai and other top leaders of JMB were sentenced to death by a court in southern Jhalokati district for killing two judges through suicide bomb attacks. If the death sentences are confirmed by higher courts, the JMB leaders will be executed.
The four-party alliance government is trying to quicken the confirmation of the death sentences by higher courts to earn a credit ahead of the national elections due in January next year. The government will hand over power to caretaker government in October this year, so the government is trying to execute the JMB leaders before ending its term.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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life in a Bangla prison can't be real long or pleasant
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2006 9:38
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Unless, heaven forbid, the prison guards can be bribed.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 9:52
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If their lives get to be too long, Frank, I'd expect that they'll "break out" and be followed in hot pursuit by the RAB. Look for the future episode of the Crossfire Gazette.
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 10:52
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(KUNA) -- An insurgent leader was killed and 12 were injured after two military operations conducted by the Iraqi army, said a US army source Monday. The source told KUNA that the Iraqi army managed to kill a leader of an insurgent cell and to arrest four of his henchmen in southeast of Talafar in northern Iraq.
A different statement by the US army said that the Iraqi forces also managed to arrest another cell leader and six gunmen in Al-Rashid area mosque in southern Baghdad. The source added that the force managed to confiscate the militants weapons and ammunitions after the arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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starred with Ronald Reagan in "King's Row" the movie where Reagan used the line "where's the rest of me". The line was later used as title of a Reagan autobiog
Hundreds of soldiers patrolled three cities in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco in Mexico on Monday to restore security. The soldiers also looked for presumed drug traffickers who engaged in a shootout with police that left two officers dead and seven people injured.
The Army was keeping watch in Cardenas, Cunduacan and part of Villahermosa, the capital, about 400 miles southeast of Mexico City, said Tabasco Gov. Manuel Andrade, who did not reveal the number of troops.
The shootout took place before dawn on Sunday when a group of armed men believed to belong to the Zetas, a group led by ex-military men working for the Gulf drug cartel, killed a police commander and opened fire on others in an attempt to rescue two colleagues who had been detained, police said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/18/2006 1:21
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Tabasco has a rich extreme left revolutionary history circa the 1920's and 30's. Zetas are far from leftists, rather narcoterrorists of the first order. The US has a narco-state on its southern border, which is ignored at our peril.
#4
The only reason they're steamed is because they were on the payroll too. These jackasses killed them anyway. That's enough to raise anyone's dander.
#6
First Tequila had to be "protected" (granted, only by the UN's Historical Preservation groupies) and now Tabasco? What in the world's goin' on down theres?
Posted by: BA ||
07/18/2006 9:56
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"Mexican State Overrun by Sorority" (?!)
the Zetas, a group led by ex-military men working for the Gulf drug cartel
#9
The Zetas were Mexican anti-drug commandos who sold their allegiance to the drug lords. They operate like a miltary force and have killed hundreds in Mexico. Some have set up shop to El Norte. 3 Dallas slayings indicate Mexico's Zetas moved north Not so much immigration, but an invasion.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2006 11:29
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A tsunami triggered by a strong undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Java island on Monday killed at least 105 people, swept away buildings and damaged hundreds of fishing boats, officials and witnesses said. News of the disaster spread panic across a region still recovering from a tsunami less than two years ago in which nearly 230,000 people were killed or reported missing, mostly in Indonesia. But there were no reports of casualties or damage in any other country from Monday's tsunami.
"Our latest data shows 105 people have died while at least 50 are badly injured. The number can climb because many may have been swept away by the waves," Fitri Sidikah, an official at the Indonesian Red Cross disaster centre, told Reuters. "Around 650 fishing boats are damaged," she said. Waves up to five feet high crashed into Pangandaran beach near the town of Ciamis, 270 km southeast of Jakarta, killing 37 people, a local official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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Indonesia seems like a rather dangerous place to live, what with volcanos, earthquakes, tsunamis, Islamist terrorists, tropical diseases, .... In comparison even New Orleans looks safe.
#3
If you are standing on the beach admiring the ocean view and said ocean starts to recede, like a low tide that just keeps going out and out and out, turn your ass around 180 and head for high ground.
If you live by an ocean, you should know this. Particularly after the 2004 experience. Try teaching this in school. Try posting "Watch for signs of tsumani" warnings along beaches and coast roads, stores, etc.
But do not stand on the beach, admiring the view, scratching your ass, thinking "Whoa dude, cool! Where'd the ocean go? Oh look, is that a tuna?"
Officials in the Indonesian capital Jakarta failed to issue a tsunami warning despite receiving data about yesterday's earthquake 20 minutes before the first wave struck the island of Java, the Guardian has learned. The death toll rose to 327 today as rescue teams combed the devastated coastal communities. At least 160 people are missing. One official said they were too busy monitoring the aftershocks of the 7.7-magnitude quake that triggered the tsunami to raise the alarm.
Aerial television footage showed that virtually all wooden buildings, which make up the majority of the beachfront homes and hotels, were swept away, with about half the brick structures. Many of those that remained will have to be destroyed due to the severity of the damage. Buildings up to half a mile inland were damaged.
The Pacific Ocean tsunami warning centre in Hawaii issued a warning about 20 minutes after the main earthquake and 25 minutes before the first wave surged ashore. It was acted upon by people living in Australia's Christmas Island, 140 miles south of the epicentre.
Indonesia's one sensor in the area, near Cilacap, detected the earthquake and sent a report "in real time" to the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency in Jakarta, an official there, Sugun, said. "It was detected about 18 minutes after the earthquake but we were so busy monitoring all the aftershocks."
When asked if that was why they did not issue a tsunami warning to the coastal communities near Cilacap, Sugun said: "I guess it was something like that."
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 9:27
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Question: Why, with a billion dollars aid JUST FROM AUSTRALIA after the first Tsunami, with a western-funded international tsunami warning system up and running and sitting on a seismically active area, why why why weren't hte people warned?
Could it be the Javanese are as corrupt as they are Islamist?
Could it be they divide their time between praying to Allan (who punishes them regularly with volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes and floods) and paying off their family members and promoting incompetents to positions of power with bribes?
Could it be all that western aid money went to help Javanese Indonesian elites keep their hands on power? Perhaps it went towards the brand new fleet of war planes they are buying.
Certainly none of it went to help the peasants, did it?
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that the Hudood Ordinance would not be repealed, but certain provisions of the ordinance, including the section regarding production of four eyewitnesses, would be amended. "The president laid emphasis on amending the existing laws in accordance with the injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah," sources privy to a meeting chaired by Gen Musharraf told Daily Times.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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Farhat Hashmi, founder of the ultra-conservative Al-Huda centres, who moved to Canada nearly two years ago with her family has been told by Canadian immigration officials to leave the country but so far has failed to do so. A letter sent to Hashmi and her family by a Canadian immigration official as far back as 30 September 2005 says, We regret to inform you that we are unable to approve your request. You are required to leave Canada immediately. Failure to depart Canada may result in enforcement action being initiated against you.
"Pack your shit and get out!"
According to an exclusive report in Macleans, a popular Canadian magazine, Days after that stern letter, which has yet to be followed up by a removal order that would permit the federal government to force her from Canada, Lorne Waldman, a high-profile Toronto immigration lawyer ... filed an application for leave and for judicial review on Hashmis behalf. That application, should it succeed, would lead to a review of the case. Yet the legal gambit does not supersede the officials request that Hashmi and her family leave Canada, where she continues to live and to teach. Hashmi is operating classes attended by upscale, generally idle and mostly affluent Pakistani women and impressionable teenagers. Her reactionary teachings, which many see as bordering on retrogressive interpretations of Islam, have set a challenge to liberal sections in the Muslim Canadian community in Toronto, which is already trying to cope with increasing difficulties triggered by the recent arrest of 17 youngsters, almost all Pakistanis, on terrorism charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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#1
She's dangerous. Get off the dime and gather her & the crack pot attorney and give them a free ride out of the country, no tickees require. By the way, isn't this the bitch who has been robbing banks in Toronto and surrounding areas ?
What is wrong with you? Why are we blaming someone for something without proof. Where's the proof the Dr. Hashmi is teaching terrorism or extremism? Where is it? She is only teaching the Word of God, revealed as is. We should at least think for ourselves once in a while and not be deceived by the media.
Better yet, we should all go and for once read the Message the God ourselves to really see what is it that God wants from us and what is in the Message of His that makes people terrorists. Does God really want mischief in the land? Does God really command bloodshed? We should ask ourselves, "How honest have we been to ourselves?"
I urge everyone reading this to go and read the Qur'aan for once at least and see what is it that God really says, for it is only that what Dr. Hashmi teaches.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has urged India to keep intact a two-year-old peace process between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. His comments underlined concern in Islamabad at being drawn in to the political fallout from Mumbai train blasts. Indian leaders have said the attacks were led by bombers who had support from people operating inside Pakistan. "We should carry on," Aziz told Financial Times. Aziz said India had not responded to Pakistan's offer of co-operation with the investigations into the blasts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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" We see no undue cause for concern. Certainly not to the point of disrupting important peace talks. We find it normal that people explode in Mooselimb areas. It happens frequently."
Well-written review piece. If you're new to the Burg and want to understand why Somalia is important, this article will help.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006
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I've debunked this nonsense before. Somalia is a country the United Nations made up (invented). It has now devolved back into it's constituent parts. Two thirds is stable but poor (Puntland and Somaliland). The other third is a basketcase, not least because various parties are fighting over the goodies that come from international recognition.
The rational response is to recognize Puntland and Somaliland and ignore the southern third, rather than the current focus on the southern third and ignoring of P+Sland.
It won't happen any time, becuase it would mean recognizing the UN made another monumental f@@kup resulting in thousands of corpses.
The Balochistan government claimed on Monday that another commander of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, along with several other tribal militants, had decided to surrender before the government and support the government in its campaign against the Nawab. "Wadera Ghulam Mohammad Jujrani, a commander of Nawab Bugti's militia, has given up arms and decided to support the government along with twenty of his armed men," Abdul Samad Lasi, district coordination officer (DCO) of Dera Bugti, told reporters.
He said Nawab Bugti's supporters of Bugti were gradually changing sides because they realised that the present government was striving for their welfare and the Nawab had been exploiting them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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Mickey Spillane, the macho mystery writer who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Tuesday. He was 88.
I parked the Studebaker in the lot behind Eddie's fruit stand. Two sulky boys with hair that looked like it had been mayonnaised gave me the eye. I knew they were Corelli's muscle, so I ignored them. That made them sulkier.
I stopped into Mable's. It was a seedy place, but I'm a seedy kind of guy. I like a beer joint that smells of ancient beer.
"Hey, Fred!" Doris called. The place was still called Mabel's, but Sally Hannity had bought it from the old girl back in '59, and Doris bought it from Sally in '88.
"Long time no see!" she greeted me.
Patty the Aged Hooker slumbered at the far end of the bar. She was in the same condition, position, and outfit as the last time I'd seen her, four years before. The withered haunch protruding from her miniskirt was dusty. Aside from Patty and Doris the place was empty.
I put my hat on the bar and sat down, keeping an eye on the front door. Doris poured me a beer.
"Did you hear Mickey Spillane died?" she asked, cautiously.
I cracked her across the chops with my .45.
She spat blood, her eyes flaring, reaching for her gat. Then she froze as I trained the .45 on her ample belly.
"I guess you did," she said, raising her hands and baring broken, lipstick-stained teeth in a friendly grimace.
Spillane's death was confirmed by Brad Stephens of Goldfinch Funeral Home in his hometown of Murrells Inlet. Details about his death were not immediately available.
"Look, Doll Face," I told her, "he was 88 years old. I'm not surprised."
"I'm surprised they got his stiff into someplace called Goldfinch Funeral Home," she observed.
After starting out in comic books Spillane wrote his first Mike Hammer novel, "I, the Jury," in 1946. Twelve more followed, with sales topping 100 million. Notable titles included "The Killing Man," "The Girl Hunters" and "One Lonely Night." Many of these books were made into movies, including the classic film noir "Kiss Me, Deadly" and "The Girl Hunters," in which Spillane himself starred.
Doris wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand, then leaned thick arms on the counter, looking me in the eye. "He was a better writer than he was an actor, you know," she observed, wistfully.
Hammer stories were also featured on television in the series "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" and in made-for-TV movies.
"Yeah," Doris said. "I remember them. Had some good scenes, just like Mickey used to write. But then that numbnutz they had playing Hammer got arrested for being a cokey."
"And Mike Hammer didn't have a moustache," I agreed.
In the 1980s, Spillane appeared in a string of Miller Lite beer commercials.
"I liked some of those better than I liked his last few novels," I said, reaching for my hat. "Sorry for the busted teeth, Doris."
"I get off at 2," she told my departing back.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2006
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For many years, the Bulwar-Lytton Bad Writing Contest has had a special award specifically for bad detective novels. One of my faves:
"Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word 'fear,' a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death--in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies."
#5
*Raises a glass in honor of Mr. Spillane*
Definitely one of a kind.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/18/2006 6:27
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#6
A worthy tribute, Fred.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2006 7:26
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#7
I feel like putting Sinatra on the jukebox, lighting up a cigarette, and knocking back a shot and a beer. Here's to you, Mike.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2006 10:20
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#8
Steve--I second the motion, and I haven't had a drink in 20 years. No doubt about it, the Mick was part of a very select crew including Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett (and maybe honorable mention of John D. MacDonald). Here's to them all!
Posted by: mac ||
07/18/2006 10:31
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#9
I feel like putting Sinatra on the jukebox
If my memory is any good, Sinatra lured Marilyn into a trap so his Don could rape her. Miked Hammer would have forced Sinatra to eat his own balls.
Prafull Goradia analyses why India is soft towards Islamist terror, while Israel leaves no stone unturned to retaliate against jihadi violence
Having arrived in Mumbai from London on July 5, 2006, Isaac Armstrong, professionally a computer expert, flew into Delhi on the night of the terrorist carnage on Western Railway. We happened to meet on the following day. Being half Jewish, he had interest in Islamic affairs and got talking without my posing many questions. The way to handle them is shown by Israel. In order to recover one abducted soldier, eight ministers and 20 legislators, including the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister have been captured.
For the Lebanese seizing two soldiers, Israel has invaded their country. But for the strong will of its rulers, a small country like Israel could not have survived on the huge Arabian landmass. Mr Armstrong confessed that had they possessed the same will power earlier, the Nazis could not have slaughtered six million jews.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006
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The struggle is on to turn India into a dar-ul Islam where the writ of the sharia' would run. That would have happened earlier had there been no Partition. Undivided India would be already 40 per cent Muslim. Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah spoilt it all. By now a popularly elected sultan would have been ruling in Delhi.
VS Naipaul likened the partition of India to the amputation of a gangrene infected limb. He said that all Indian cities would now look like Kararchi, were it not for partition.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006 6:11
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Despite amputation, a festering sore is still present, and I somehow hope one day it will be cauterized one way or an another.
#3
Of course, when the terrorist supporting state has half a million men in its army, a modern airforce and navy, PLUS nuclear armed cruise and ballistic missiles, the reaction of the victim state will be constrained.
Nukes provide Pakistan with the strategic space within which it can use jihadi terror.
Posted by: john ||
07/18/2006 17:26
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TOKYO - The last batch of Japanese troops touched down in Kuwait from southern Iraq on Monday, winding down Japans biggest and most dangerous overseas mission since World War II. About 220 troops arrived at Kuwaits Ali Al Salem Air Base from Samawah, the provincial capital of Muthanna, on C-130 transport air planes, the Defense Agency said in a statement. The contingent was the last of about 600 non-combat soldiers previously stationed in Samawah to distribute water and assist in other humanitarian tasks.
Our ground forces have bravely completed their mission and have now safely withdrawn to Kuwait, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters at the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. We carried out our humanitarian and reconstruction tasks without firing a single shot -- in fact, without pointing a gun at anyone, Koizumi said. Our mission was very highly rated by the Iraqi people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2006
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Domo arrigato and sayonara. Catch ya on the flip side.
#2
Those of us hoping for a banzai charge or two were a bit disappointed...one presumes the Japanese realize that North Koreans might necessitate a bit more militaristic stance. "Our mission was very highly rated..." sounds either like Nielson TV polling or LBJ style wartime pollstering.
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.
Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.
A top criminal of the city was killed during a "shootout" between the members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his cohorts at C & B road early morning.
WASHINGTON - Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday Hezbollahs attacks on Israel with imprecise rockets in civilian areas violated international humanitarian law and most likely constituted war crimes. The attacks Sunday and Monday were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians, the New York-based group said in a statement. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes, it said. 
The man said to be responsible for killing and mutilating two U-S soldiers in Iraq last month has been killed. Iraq's national security adviser today announced the death of Jordanian 
An Iraqi top security official said Tuesday that four key al-Qaida leaders, who are responsible for major bombings and sectarian bloodshed in the country, have been captured in Baghdad. Iraq's National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie made the government announcement in a televised news conference. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops captured the four al-Qaida leaders and killed the fifth, a Jordanian who slaughtered last month two U.S. soldiers in Yousifiyah town, about 20 km south of Baghdad, al-Rubaie told the reporters. Rubaie identified the detained four as 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. plans to narrow the size of its flagship newspaper and close a printing plant, resulting in the loss of 250 jobs, the company said in a story posted on its Web site late on Monday.
Brigitte, a blond, big-bosomed prostitute with a heart of gold, has been plying her trade on the streets of Koblenz for 47 years. She's so well known now she even had a role in a promotional film for the region. 
(KCNA) -- The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued today the following statement vehemently denouncing and totally refuting the "resolution" of the UN Security Council against the DPRK, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward it: The vicious hostile policy of the United States towards the DPRK and the irresponsibility of the UN Security Council have created an extremely dangerous situation on the Korean Peninsula where the sovereignty of the Korean nation and the security of the state have been seriously infringed.
BISHKEK: Police have stepped up security in southern Kyrgyzstan amid fears of retaliation by Islamic radicals for the deaths of five alleged religious extremists, officials said on Monday. The alleged extremists, killed in a shootout with law enforcement authorities on Friday, had been suspected of fatally shooting a police officer and wounding three other people in the southern city of Jalal-Abad. Police have been on heightened alert and border control has been tightened in the Central Asian nation's south to guard against possible attacks by supporters of the alleged extremists, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Aida Bakirova said. 
(KUNA) -- Up to 60 Iraqis were killed and 45 others injured after coming under fire in the town of Mahmoudieh, which is some 20 kilometers south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday. The victims included a large number of women and children, a source in the ministry told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). "The attack was preceded by a car bomb explosion as well as a mortar attack. When the town's people came to the scene to take a look, armed gunmen opened fire on them killing 60 and injuring 45 including first aid people who came to provide assistance to the initial victims," the source said. 
(KUNA) -- Jordanian Interior Minister Eid Al-Fayez urged on Monday boosting regional and international efforts to battle money laundering as a source for funding terrorism. At the opening of a forum regarding money laundering and terrorism's financial sources, Al-Fayez said money laundering jeopardized the world economy, social norms and security, noting that money laundering was part of organized crime that aimed legitimizing money that was obtained through illegal means.
(KUNA) -- An Israeli army spokesman said Monday that three Israeli soldiers were injured by Palestinian gunfire in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip. The spokesman told the Radio that the soldiers were participating in a military operation in Beit Hanoun when Palestinian activists launched a rocket towards them. Izzuddine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in Beit Hanoun. Meanwhile, a local radio station said that an Israeli fighter Jet fired missiles on Palestinian activists responsible for the rocket attacks on the Sderot settlement.
(KUNA) -- Ezzideen Al-Qassam brigades, Military wing of Hamas, bombarded Kfar Saad settlement in eastern Gaza and an electricity power station in occupied Asqalan with two Qassam rockets on Monday. "The shelling came coinciding with a Zionist incursion into Beit Hanoun which aims at halting launch of rockets at Israeli targets," the brigade's statement said. The bombardment came in retaliation of the Israeli crimes against Palestinians and a way to fight back, the brigades said.
RAIPUR, India - Hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed a government relief camp in central India on Monday and killed at least 25 people, including members of a state-backed, anti-Maoist group, police said. More than 50 were wounded, and at least 100 people living at the camp housing the Salwa Judum (Campaign For Peace) were missing after the rebels, many armed with automatic weapons, launched the raid in the insurgency hit Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
Investigators are looking for a Seraiki-speaking family they believe had a possible hand in last Friday's suicide killing of Shia scholar, Allama Hasan Turabi. Police officials are on the hunt for this family, which they say has been missing since after the attack.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Monday for a "cessation of hostilities" between Israel and Hezbollah in order to buy valuable "time and space" to put a well-armed "stabilisation force" along the Lebanon-Israel border.
An Israeli air strike flattened the 8-storey Palestinian foreign ministry building in Gaza City today, part of a campaign against the Hamas militant group and the government it controls. The foreign ministry building, which was badly damaged in a previous Israeli air strike, was completely destroyed by the early morning blast, which tore into nearby homes, shops and offices, witnesses said. At least nine Palestinians were injured, most of them children. No deaths were reported.
According to a source close to a high-ranking official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Teheran has supplied Hezbollah with approximately 11,500 missiles and projectiles. The source said more than 3,000 Hezbollah members have undergone training in Iran, which included guerilla warfare, firing missiles and artillery, operating unmanned drones, marine warfare and conventional war operations. He said they have also trained 50 pilots for the past two years. According to the source, Hezbollah currently possesses four types of surface-to-surface missiles, some of which extend to a distance of 150 kilometers.
Up to eight militants were arrested by the US army in two separate incidents in northern Baghdad. A statement for the US army said Monday that an Al-Qaeda member and four of his aides were arrested during a raid in Al-Yousifiyah town in southern Baghdad. The statement added that the US soldiers also arrested three militants at a US army checkpoint in Al-Doura area in south Baghdad, where different kinds of ammunition was found in their vehicle.
Three people were killed on Monday in a dispute over the distribution of earthquake relief money in the NWFP quake-affected areas, witnesses said. Four people from the Tarand union council in Batgram district were also injured. A fire exchange erupted over the reconstruction of a house that was destroyed in the October 8 earthquake. 
Taliban commanders have warned the South Waziristan administration against collecting import tax. "Taliban commanders visited the Jandola office of the political administration a few days ago, stopping them from collecting import tax from the tribesmen," a senior administration official, asking not to be named, told Daily Times. He said the Taliban considered the tax collection "un-Islamic" and told the tax collectors that they would face "serious consequences" if they did not stop immediately. 
The Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), the two major components of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), have failed to reach agreement on the issue of mass resignations from parliament. 
(KUNA) -- A Turkish policeman was killed Monday by the Kurdistan Working Party (PKK) in the eastern Turkish governorate of Van. Turkish Ihlas News Agency cited security sources as saying that the attack took place in Ozlap town near the Turkish-Iranian border, noting that clash with PKK members was ongoing. The source added that another policeman was wounded in an attack by PKK members in the Bingol governorate. At least 23 Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK this month in different parts of Turkey.
(KUNA) -- More than 60 people were killed Monday after tribal clashes erupted in Al Buhayrat state in southern Sudan. Sudan News Agency (SUNA) said fighting amongst Al-Denka tribe members began since last week. SUNA added that local forces stopped the violence between the tribe members and stated that the state's governor is dealing with the matter now.
(KUNA) -- Pakistani security forces have arrested a wanted former Taliban commander from Southwestern Baluchistan province, bordering Afghanistan, said security officials Monday. Taliban commander, Maulavi Hamdullah, was arrested in a raid in Nawann Kuli area of Quetta few days back, the provincial capital, officials told KUNA. They added that he has been shifted to undisclosed location and is under interrogation. During Taliban regime Maulavi Hamdullah had served as the Repatriation Attache at the Taliban Consulate General in Quetta.
Turkey's President 
A new barrage of rockets fired by guerrillas in southern Lebanon hit northern Israel late Monday, Israeli security officials said. Security officials said one rocket hit a hospital in the northern town of Safed, but the army later said the rocket hit near it. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Other rockets hit the northern city of Haifa, where a three-story apartment building was destroyed by a rocket earlier in the day, and the border town of Kiryat Shemona, officials said.
Speaking at a large demonstration in support of Israel in Manhattan on Monday, United States Senator Hillary Clinton expressed unreserved support for Israel and commended President George Bush for his stance in the present crisis. 
Six Islamic militants were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Bangladesh's eastern Feni district Monday for series bombings on Aug. 17 last year, which killed three people and wounding hundreds. The court also fined them 5,000 taka (about 71 U.S. dollars) each. The six militants belong to Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which was blamed for a series of bombings in 63 out of 64 districts of Bangladesh on Aug. 17 last year and suicide bomb attacks that killed 28 people and wounded several others. 
(KUNA) -- An insurgent leader was killed and 12 were injured after two military operations conducted by the Iraqi army, said a US army source Monday. The source told KUNA that the Iraqi army managed to kill a leader of an insurgent cell and to arrest four of his henchmen in southeast of Talafar in northern Iraq.
Hundreds of soldiers patrolled three cities in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco in Mexico on Monday to restore security. The soldiers also looked for presumed drug traffickers who engaged in a shootout with police that left two officers dead and seven people injured.
A tsunami triggered by a strong undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Java island on Monday killed at least 105 people, swept away buildings and damaged hundreds of fishing boats, officials and witnesses said. News of the disaster spread panic across a region still recovering from a tsunami less than two years ago in which nearly 230,000 people were killed or reported missing, mostly in Indonesia. But there were no reports of casualties or damage in any other country from Monday's tsunami. 
The Balochistan government claimed on Monday that another commander of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, along with several other tribal militants, had decided to surrender before the government and support the government in its campaign against the Nawab. "Wadera Ghulam Mohammad Jujrani, a commander of Nawab Bugti's militia, has given up arms and decided to support the government along with twenty of his armed men," Abdul Samad Lasi, district coordination officer (DCO) of Dera Bugti, told reporters.
I parked the Studebaker in the lot behind Eddie's fruit stand. Two sulky boys with hair that looked like it had been mayonnaised gave me the eye. I knew they were Corelli's muscle, so I ignored them. That made them sulkier. 
