The interrogation of a 32-year-old engineering dropout, Faisal Sheikh, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)'s western India commander, arrested for his alleged role in the 11/7 blasts, established that the outfit's city module was being funded by its Pakistan-based leadership through hawala channels.
Investigation also revealed links between the LeT's local module, under Faisal's direct command, with the Kashmir based modules of the outfit.
According to Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS)'s chief joint police commissioner K.P. Raghuvanshi, Faisal told his interrogators that he had received 25,000 Rials (Saudi Arabian currency) barely a few days before the 11/7 blasts from Pakistan and 12,000 Rials - through the same channel - just after the blasts. The total sum - 37,000 Rials - is worth Rs. 4.4 lakh.
"The recovery of the money - from Pune and Mumbai - sent to Faisal is an important circumstantial evidence that would help the sleuths zero in on the perpetrators," Raghuvanshi said. The money, according to ATS and Mumbai crime branch officials, was sent to Faisal by LeT's India commander Azam Cheema.
Cheema sent the money through hawala channels to a conduit Rizwan, from Pune. Rizwan befriended Faisal, who also stayed in the city with his family and was pursuing a course in Industrial Electronics at Eklavya College few years ago. Rizwan, in turn, re-routed the money to Faisal. Faisal's brother, Muzammil(22), a software engineer with a global software giant in Bangalore, has also been arrested for his alleged role.
Another brother, computer engineer Rahil is based in UK. Investigations have also revealed that LeT's top commander Raheel Abdul Sheikh, the alleged mastermind of the 11/7 blasts, had visited Kashmir's border towns twice before the blasts. During one such visit, Raheel, said a senior CB officer, had spent "two months" in the border areas, trying to cross over to Pakistan.
The police suspect Raheel was one of the 11/7 plotters along with LeT's Mumbai, Bangladesh and Nepal modules.
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006
20:30 ||
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New Delhi - India's President Abdul Kalam says he has not seen a movie for 50 years because he spends so much time reading scientific literature, a report said on Monday.
"You won't believe it but it's true," Kalam, 74, told Radio Kashmir in a weekend visit to revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, The Hindu newspaper reported.
Kalam, father of India's nuclear missile programme who was named president in 2002, said he had not watched a movie in the past 50 years because he was literally wedded to his scientific research, according to the newspaper.
Kalam was nicknamed "missile man" for leading the scientific team who developed missiles to deliver India's atomic warheads.
The bachelor teetotaller, son of an illiterate boatman, is a staunch advocate of homegrown technology as a cure for many of India's problems
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006
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#1
A.P.J.Abdul Kalam
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006 20:14
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#2
"I haven't seen a movie for 50 years"
You ain't missed much, honey.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/31/2006 20:46
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#3
looks like Chief Dan Georges' younger sister
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2006 21:32
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Israel approved plans to widen its ground offensive against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon early Tuesday. The country's Security Cabinet also rejected calls for a cease-fire until an international peacekeeping force, preferably headed by NATO, was in place.
A participant, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon would resume "in full force" after the 48-hour suspension expires in another day.
Meanwile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday the offensive in southern Lebanon would continue "in the air, at sea and on land."
Olmert addressed a group of Israeli mayors after Israeli planes carried out two "protective" airstrikes Monday on Hezbollah targets just hours after declaring the respite in air attacks on southern Lebanon.
"The fighting will continue," Olmert said. "There will be no cease-fire, and there will not be any cease-fire in the coming days."
Olmert said that the fighting in southern Lebanon would end only with the return of the two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah guerrillas three weeks ago.
Until then, the prime minister said Israel would "destroy the infrastructure of terror there," pledging to go after the arms supply routes Hezbollah uses along the Lebanese-Syrian border. "This is an almost one-time opportunity to change the rules of the game in Lebanon," he said.
Monday's airstrikes hit targets in Tyre and near the town of Taibeh where three Israeli soldiers were injured after Hezbollah guerrillas attacked a tank, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told FOX News.
Later Monday, Hezbollah claimed successful missile strikes upon an Israeli warship in the Mediterranean Sea. The IDF denied the attack took place and FOX News reporters in Tyre, Lebanon, did not witness any explosions off the coast.
The attack on Tyre hit a car carrying Lebanese Army troops, killing one. The IDF expressed regret over the incident, but said it believed a Hezbollah official was inside the vehicle. Lebanese officials said the car was hit by a rocket from a pilotless drone aircraft.
Officials in Jerusalem and Washington told FOX News Monday that the IDF will expand ground operations in Lebanon over the next 48 hours and hope to conclude the war effort "by the end of next week."
The airstrikes Monday broke a brief respite in 20 days of fighting, called so officials could investigate a Sunday airstrike on Qana, Lebanon, which killed at least 56 people, including 34 children. The incident prompted rioting in Beirut and global criticism of Israel.
Olmert again expressed regret Monday for the civilian deaths in that airstrike. "I deeply regret the civilian adults and children that were killed in Qana," he said. "We had no intention of hurting them; we did not want their deaths."
Television footage from Taibeh showed two Israeli tanks side by side, with flames suddenly covering one of them. Soldiers soon emerged from one tank and did not appear to be badly hurt.
Despite the break in air attacks, Israeli artillery continued ground offensives in Lebanon, as troops tried to secure a mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone along the northern border.
Before the fighting resumed, pickup trucks and cars loaded with people streamed north as thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon's war zone for three weeks took advantage of the brief lull to escape.
Israel had said, in announcing the halt to airstrikes earlier Monday, that it would suspend that pledge to end airstrikes for 48-hours depending on "operational developments" in Lebanon.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel plans to "expand and strengthen" its attack on Hezbollah, diminishing hopes that the 48-hour halt in air strikes could be turned into a longer term cease-fire.
President Hosni Mubarak, whose Arab country was the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel, warned that the entire Middle East peace could collapse because of Israel's fighting in Lebanon.
"Egypt, which triggered the peace process, warns of the consequences of its collapse," Mubarak said in a nationwide televised statement. "The Israeli aggression undermines the opportunities to continue it and its success."
Fighting was heavy in the northeast corner of south Lebanon around Taibeh and other border villages. Constant Israeli artillery blasts â not covered under the air halt â shook the hills.
Hezbollah guerrillas in the area fired a volley of rockets at the nearby Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, their first since Israel's suspension began. No casualties were reported.
In many border areas, Israeli pilotless aircraft also were heard buzzing â though it was not clear whether they were over Lebanese territory.
Still, the suspension of the air campaign brought relative quiet to much of southern Lebanon.
Israel called the 48-hour halt under U.S. pressure amid worldwide outrage over the Qana strike. It was the deadliest single strike in the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon, aimed at reining in the Hezbollah guerrillas who sparked the conflict July 12 by snatching two Israeli soldiers. Some 519 people have been confirmed killed by Lebanon's Health Ministry since the fighting began.
The pause meant the first relative relief for thousands of Lebanese who have been hiding in their homes, in schools or hospitals in the dozens of villages that dot the mountainous south. While huge numbers had fled already, those who remained were mostly the old, the sick and those too afraid of intense Israeli bombardment on the roads to risk the drive.
Early Monday, hours after Israel called the pause, few southerners took to the roads, likely wary over whether the news was true. But by early afternoon, the roads from villages into the port city of Tyre, then from Tyre heading north along the coast were packed.
The stunning bloodshed in Qana increased international pressure on Washington to back an immediate end to the fighting and prompted U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cut short her Mideast mission to return home Monday.
In a nationally televised speech before leaving Israel, Rice said she would seek international consensus for a cease-fire and a "lasting settlement" in the conflict between Lebanon and Israel through a U.N. Security Council resolution this week.
"I am convinced that only by achieving both will the Lebanese people be able to control their country and their future, and the people of Israel finally be able to live free of attack from terrorist groups in Lebanon," Rice said.
But Peretz made clear in a speech to parliament that Israel would not agree to an immediate cease-fire and had plans to expand its operation in Lebanon.
"It's forbidden to agree to an immediate cease-fire," Peretz told parliament, as several Arab legislators heckled him and demanded an immediate cessation. "Israel will expand and strengthen its activities against the Hezbollah."
Israel's top ministers also were to discuss expanding the army's ground operation at a meeting later Monday, while thousands of reserve soldiers trained for the possibility that they will be sent into Lebanon.
It was unclear whether the senior ministers would approve a broader ground assault at their meeting, defense officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Olmert told Rice over the weekend that Israel would need 10 to 14 more days to finish its offensive, and Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio on Monday that he did not think the fighting was yet over.
"I'm convinced that we won't finish this war until it's clear that Hezbollah has no more abilities to attack Israel from south Lebanon. This is what we are striving for," Ramon said.
#2
Bush certainly gave his full support today not changing a thing from what he said over a week ago. He quashed the spin we've seen about a cease-fire - and dismissed Qana as a reason for any change. There's absolutely no pressure from the US to hold back.
#6
"Israeli planes carried out two "protective" airstrikes Monday on Hezbollah targets just hours after declaring the respite in air attacks on southern Lebanon."
I had to rub my eyes a couple of times to make sure I was reading this right. Has Israel learned something from the terrorists, getting on top of the PR game? Hamas and PLF have been calling cease fire and attacking Israel in the middle of the cease fire, for years. It's about time that Israel started out terrorizing the terrorists. Way to go IDF!
#10
Before the fighting resumed, pickup trucks and cars loaded with people streamed north as thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon's war zone for three weeks took advantage of the brief lull to escape.
I suspect that this was the real reason. I bet they wanted to let as many people out as they could. From what's transpired so far, I'm guessing that they are going to push in hard. Wouldn't be surprised if they push all the way to Damascus.
With Iran going nuclear, they really have few other choices but to conduct all out war, that is if they intend to survive.
#11
Clerert Uneamp2772 - You just can't get happy, can you.
Yesterday you're declaring defeat. Today you're pissed cuz they tell the world what everyone would know in, oh, about 5 minutes anyway cuz there are reporters with cellphones all over Lebanon.
#12
hehe maybe i am your ex-wife. Kidding :)
But you are seeing my critic wrongly. I would have loved that after cabinet public decided to not expand ground offensive 2-3 days ago Israel would attack by surprise. Unfortunately operational decisions of IDF go to the street minutes after being reached.
I suspect IDF generals squezed Olmert and Peretz balls or implanted new ones. Not forget that for now it is just talking, "expanding" can be only another brigade for incursions.
#13
LOL. You're right, you could be my ex, heh. Never know with these names...
From what Bush said today in a speech and in an interview on Fox with Cavuto, there is no doubt at all that he's behind whatever Israel decides. And after the cabinet meeting, Olmert is serious about using the next 2 weeks to make a much deeper buffer - killing as many Hezb's, capturing caches, destroying bunkers, taking out launchers, etc. as he possibly can. From what one of the Generals said, it looks like they're aiming for the Litani, but not sure. He said they'd gone 6 miles in (average?) already and were holding 7 or 8 towns right now.
As for balls, I don't doubt that the military people shared with the politicians - that's what they should do. The pols ask, what can you do and what do you need - and the mil guys give their best estimates. What's certain is that they have decided to get serious.
Bush is behind them all the way. He pulled no punches and made no excuses. Ignore the reporting on what Rice may say - I don't think she's on the same page as Bush - and The Prez Sez. It was clear he wants Israel to decide for themselves what they need - no Band Aid BS this time.
The famous Sulzberger dynasty is quietly tightening its financial grip on the New York Times and the Boston Globe, a new analysis shows. And its using shareholders cash, instead of its own, to do it.
A Herald examination of Times financial filings shows that since Arthur Pinch Sulzberger Jr. took over as chairman in 1997, The New York Times Co. has bought up almost one-third of the stock held by outsiders. Meanwhile the Sulzbergers themselves have basically held their shares, says company spokeswoman Catherine Mathis.
And so, without spending a dime, the storied newspaper dynasty has raised its stake to about 20 percent.
If you keep doing that over a period of years, at some point theres only one shareholder left standing, says Putnam fund manager Rich Cervone.
Its a slow process of going private, adds Lee Forker, president of New England Research & Management in Boston.
The Times has spent $3 billion so far buying out shareholders.
Total net income from 1997 through 2005: $2.85 billion...
#4
don't know enough about stocks - but could it be that they've been buying their own stock to prevent shareholders from seeing that the value has been dropping for some time?
If you own lots of stock and it's worth is starting to slip- wouldn't there be a benefit - to a point - of buying back your own stock to prevent the value from sliding further? Especially if you can use the stockholders own money to do it, as they claim in this article?
I also wonder if this is article is just pure spin and whitewash. Rather than say that the stock has fallen dramatically in value, and would have fallen much further if Pinch hadn't bought so much of it back - they are making up this "going private" excuse so any remaining shareholders don't panic and create a fire sale.
If their income is slipping, their shareholders are bailing, where will they get the money to run their operations?
I'd suggest that the lesson here is that stockholders should bail while they still can.
#6
If you're secure enough to hang on to your job, one strategy would be to drive the stock down and then take it private at the bottom for short money.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the Syrian military on Monday to raise its readiness, pledging not to abandon support for Lebanese resistance against Israel.
"We are facing international circumstances and regional challenges that require caution, alert, readiness and preparedness," Assad said.
"The barbaric war of annihilation the Israeli aggression is waging on our people in Lebanon and Palestine is increasing in ferocity," Assad said in a written address on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the foundation of the Syria Arab Army.
Diplomats in Damascus say the Syrian army has been on alert since the Israeli onslaught on Lebanon began on July 12 after Hizbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation. They have been on readiness alert for almost three weeks now. That would take a toll on a well disciplined, well armed military. If they have already been deployed out of barracks to forward positions, then they will already be facing degradation.
#9
Foxnews just reported a minute ago that the Iranian ambassodor flew to Damascus met with Assad then flew to Beruit today (Assad declared high alert last night or today?) met with the Lebonese government and is reported right now 7-31-2006 7:30 eastern according to Fox to be in meeting with the French delegation in Lebonon.
#10
Yep; its in a crisis where all the beasts of all the land and sea, reveal thier true colors. French Socialism in service to the International communist party will sell out the French people, and align with the new communist move. Religion for assad and achtuneminnnidad, are appendeges, of thier respect need for useful idiots, like the french, thier servce is to elitist international subversion via socialism. NO the players for what they are...
Israel is facing a strategic threat and therefore must end the war in Lebanon with a strategic victory, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday at the Knesset, responding to international pressures to end the fighting.
Turning his attention to the air raid on the village of Qana in southern Lebanon that left dozens of civilians dead, Netanyahu said: "Here in Israel, there's genuine regret over the killing of children."
Bibi warned that a missile war can commence at any moment and characterized the prospect as a strategic threat. "A third of the country is paralyzed because of this. Who knows whether this will include other citizens as well," he said. "This is a strategic threat that requires a strategic victory. Those were the objectives set out by the government, justly, wisely, and boldly. They were presented to the security cabinet on the 13th of this month." Netanyahu also stressed that Israelis will continue to back the government as long as it continues to fight Hizbullah.
"I know there's immense unification in order to achieve the objectives," he said. "It comes from all parts of the country because people know we're facing a different threat. This isn't merely a militia. In order to remove this threat, we recieved support from our greatest friend, the US, which rightfully said: We must do something, because if we don't, what have we done?"
Bibi aroused the anger of Arab Knesset Members after arguing "this is a war with a justified objective. No objective is more justified. None. The difference between us and the terrorists is that we hit (civilians) by mistake, and they do it with malice. This is the difference between a legitimate war and war crimes." "This is the difference between us and them. We genuinely attempt to minimize the harm to civilians," he said.
"The journey of war is like any other journey. It starts easily but midway there's a difficult junction where we must decide whether we continue to climb the mountain or stop, and I call on the government: Don't stop midway. Complete the job."
Turning to Arab MKs who earlier referred to the Qana air raid, Netanyahu said: "When missiles were falling, when an (Israeli) grandmother and her granddaughter were murdered, I didn't hear you "
#2
The fact that he's willing to stick up for the government is one of the few rays of hope I see. I sure hope I live long enough to read a book about what really went on in this war.
#3
If anything, this phase of conflict needs to be sustained long enough so that Iran finally steps on its own d!ck via proven arms shipments or other outright logistical support to Hezbollah. It'll be just one more excellent reason to bomb the living snot out of Iran in the months to come.
#5
Mr. Netanyahu is a thorn in the side of the MSM and their minions amongst all the appeasers. He just tells it like it is, and everone gets "offended" because they don't like to hear the truth...
#7
I agree, I don't want them to stop until they have achieved a decisive victory.
Where I come from, if you cannot keep your dog on a leash and it bites your neighbor, the dog gets put down and you get taken to court. The same analogy holds true here. Lebanon either internally "liquidates" it's pooch Hizzyebola or they suffer the consequences. Plausible deniability only extends so far.
#8
this phase of conflict needs to be sustained long enough so that Iran finally steps on its own d!ck
Now there's a positive outcome I hadn't thought about. That got the black dawgs moving.
LUCKNOW: As the tally of polio cases reported from 15 districts rises to 106 highest in the country and also in the state during the past four years the government machinery goes into a huddle.
The big jump in the graph, as against 29 cases identified last year, has made Government of India convene an emergency meeting to "rethink and beef up the strategy to tackle the virus circulation in Uttar Pradesh".
The meeting is slated for July 28 just two days before the state takes up its 6th round of pulse polio immunisation drive this year.
Although senior officials attribute the spurt to the predictable four-year cycle (cases reported in 1998-900, and 2002-1242), what is bothering them, however, is an obviously well-calculated strategy to derail the drive.
There are reports of a systematic misinformation campaign being carried out in the western belt, particularly in the worst-affected Moradabad division which is leading to a stiff minority resistance to the polio vaccine.
Just before a vaccination drive, mysterious posters and handbill appear out of nothing with malicious propaganda in the affected pockets, confided official sources on Tuesday.
The mischief started in May 2005 when an Urdu newspaper carried a highly inflammatory write up and things have never been the same again ever since.
The write up penned by one Monis Bushra Abidi and titled "These drops of poison" made its appearance on May 27, 2005. Portions of the cleverly written piece are being quoted in posters or whisper campaigns, warning Muslins against the government-sponsored drive and save their progenies from ruination.
Polio this year is confined largely to the Muslim-dominated areas in the western UP. Significantly, out of the 106 cases reported so far, 69 cases are are from Moradabad division comprising Moradabad, Rampur, Bijnor and Jytoba Phule Nagar.
According to official records, "the virus has affected 74 per cent Muslims this year as against 26 per cent Hindus."
As indicated by the special monitoring by a WHO team in June, Moradabad division was found to be "inadequately immunised".
Incidentally, the report card of September, October and November 2005 drive, reveal records, was found to be particularly wanting.
However, "by June 2006, the number of missing houses has come down from ten to seven per cent," claimed principal secretary, health, Arun Kumar Mishra, on Wednesday. The department, he added, targets to further lower it down to five per cent by July 30.
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006
16:35 ||
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#1
The mischief started in May 2005...
Mischief? TP-ing trees is mischief, this is vile and evil. May the perpetrators burn in Hell.
/My brother and sister both contracted polio in India in the 1950s. My sister's case was very mild with minimal permanent damage, but my brother nearly died and was left with a useless arm.
#2
Hey, if the Izzies want to refuse the Polio vaccine and all die from it, that solves a lot of problems India has with them and not have to play the Bad Guy.
#4
No, Machiavellian would be if someone started a rumor that any kind of vaccination causes muslim infertility (brain damage wouldn't work as that is done by thorough indoctrination in any case).
#6
someone started a rumor that any kind of vaccination causes muslim infertility
IIRC, this is what the Holy Men(Tm) already said in Nigeria, and might be saying in India... why they don't want their children to be vaccinated is beyond me... to further the "us vs them" mentality, IE muslims as a separate entity that cannot receive anything good from its neighbours (except eventually submission)???
#7
Ignorant. Ignorant. The people that oppose war with the islamofascists apparently want to jump into the 7th century with them. No polio shots. Burkas. Repression. No rights for women. No tolerance of other religions. No free speech. Bowing to mecca. No freedom.
#8
It's projection. The vaccine infertility rumors are indicative of what muslims would do to infidels if they had the technology to cause infertility.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006 18:32
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#9
someone started a rumor that any kind of vaccination causes muslim infertility
WASHINGTON -- The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons, Pentagon reports say.
Incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press indicate Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by "cocktails" of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.
They've been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small "bean holes" used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate.
The detainee "reached under the face mask of an IRF (Initial Reaction Force) team member's helmet and scratched his face, attempting to gouge his eyes," states a May 27, 2005, report on an effort to remove a recalcitrant prisoner from his cell.
"The IRF team member received scratches to his face and eye socket area," the report said.
Since its creation in early 2002, the U.S. detention camp on Cuba's coast has been a controversial symbol of the Bush administration's war on terror, bringing allegations of prisoner mistreatment, debates over civil rights and a landmark legal battle to win rights for the detainees.
At one point, more than 600 foreign men captured in the war on terror were kept there. Many have been released to their home countries, reducing the current population to about 450. Ten detainees have been accused of war crimes, but no one has been tried.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the men are entitled to lawyers and access to the courts and that the administration's original plan to give them justice through military tribunals was illegal.
Guards currently stationed at Guantanamo describe a tense atmosphere in which prisoners often orchestrate violence in hopes of unnerving their captors, especially with attacks using bodily fluids.
"I mean, seeing a human being act that way, it's terrifying. ... You are constantly watching before you take your next step to see if something is about to happen," Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Mack D. Keen told AP in an interview from Guantanamo.
"You see little signs. They kind of show their hand every once in a while. They'll take their Quran and they'll cover it up," he said. "When you see a group of detainees taking their Quran and putting it away, you know something is about to happen."
Moazamm Begg, 38, a prisoner for more than two years at Guantanamo before being released to Great Britain, said he was suspicious of the Pentagon's description of incidents, especially allegations that Muslim men tore their Qurans or used sperm in attacks. The Pentagon continues to publicly question Begg's claim of innocence. But, the WaPo would never question a detainee's motivation.
"This just doesn't make sense _ especially since for Muslims this would be something that was disgusting, something that just wouldn't be done," he said. He added that some detainees told him they had mixed toothpaste and spit in the cocktails to make it look like semen. mooslimbs would never do anything like that! After all, we are members of the 'religion of pieces'.
Begg, who has written a book and spoken frequently about his experience, said most incidents he witnessed were spontaneous reactions "when word spread" among prisoners that a guard had done something wrong.
"I rarely saw lone prisoners acting out on their own for no reason except if they had some sort of mental illness or if they were on medication," he said.
Nonetheless, the incident reports released under the Freedom of Information Act and reviewed by AP, provide a rare chronicle of events inside the prison from the guards' perspective.
Entire wings of prisoners were reported to become riotous after complaints emerged that guards mishandled a Quran or mistreated prisoners. On two occasions, however, prisoners themselves were reported to have destroyed their Muslim holy books, the reports state.
"Detainee residing in cell (redacted) block tore his Quran into small pieces," a guard reported in May 2003. A month later, a prisoner "did intentionally destroy his Quran and throw (it) out of his cell," another report stated.
The reports detail more than 440 incidents between guards and prisoners from December 2002 through summer 2005 that resulted in recommendations of discipline, an average of about three per week. The names of guards and prisoners as well as the final discipline were blacked out by the Pentagon.
Often, guards went weeks without reporting problems; other times incidents were bunched together during times of frustration and tension.
For instance, nearly a quarter of the incidents occurred in July 2005, the month dozens of detainees started an extended hunger strike.
Tensions likewise flared during Christmas week 2004, with inmates frequently spitting on guards. On Christmas Eve, a prisoner who was angry that he couldn't finish his meal was said to have used a plastic fork-spoon utensil _ called a spork _ to attack a guard collecting his tray.
"Detainee stabbed the MP guard ... in the hand with his spork from chow meal," the report said, adding the prisoner later "made a slicing motion across his neck" and vowed to kill the guard.
With many nearing five years in U.S. captivity, the prisoners "have a Ph.D. in being a detainee" and "know our procedures and they try to turn them against us and try to make us question what we are doing," said Army Lt. Col. Michael J. Nicolucci, the prison's executive officer.
"They'll take the smallest things, be it a piece of rust," he said. "They told us they are going to take that piece of rust and they are going for the jugular, they are going for the eye. They know what our vulnerabilities are, anatomically speaking."
Meal plates, shower flip-flops, cleaning brushes and other items deemed harmless in civilian life also are commonly turned into weapons, the reports said. For instance:
_"Detainee in cell (redacted) grabbed the radio from an MP and then threw the radio at the MP. The detainee then threw rocks at the MP," a Dec. 23, 2003, incident report stated.
_A detainee "reached out of his bean hole and attacked MP (name redacted) with a piece of metal foot pad from toilet striking him on the left hip area," a July 15, 2005, report said.
_"Detainee broke off the top of his sink, subsequently broke out the window then began throwing the sink and pieces of pipes at the Block Guard," a March 25, 2005, report said.
One of the most unusual incidents detailed in the four-inch stack of incident reports occurred when a detainee in the prison recreation yard assaulted a guard with a bloody tail torn from a lizard.
The detainee "caught the iguana by the tail at which time the tail detached," the May 2005 report described. When the guard turned to talk to a commanding officer, "he felt something strike him in the lower right back" and then "saw the tail on the ground at his feet and blood was in the same area of his uniform." The detainee said he was "just playing."
Nicolucci said one of the most serious incidents occurred this May, too recent to be recorded in the Pentagon's released reports. A prisoner staged an apparent suicide attempt while his inmates slicked the floors with human waste, seeking to overpower guards when they slipped, he said.
"We provide fans in order to keep them cool," Nicolucci recalled. "And they were using the basket, or the grate of the fan as a shield, the blades as machetes, the pole as a battering ram."
That disturbance was turned back in a few minutes with some guards and prisoners sustaining minor injuries, he said.
The Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group that fought to force the Pentagon to release the reports under the Freedom of Information Act, said it hopes the information brings balance to the Guantanamo debate.
"Lawyers for the detainees have done a great job painting their clients as innocent victims of U.S. abuse when the fact is that these detainees, as a group, are barbaric and extremely dangerous," Landmark President Mark Levin said. "They are using their terrorist training on the battlefield to abuse our guards and manipulate our Congress and our court system."
Though all detainees are foreigners, many are clearly Americanized when it comes to their insults and gestures. Male guards are frequently derided as "donkeys" while female guards are routinely called "bitches" or harassed by references to their breasts or genitalia, the reports said. Respecting women is a key part of Islam, no?
In all, nearly a quarter of incidents involved female guards, the reports show.
"They absolutely target female guards," Nicolucci said. "They have a lot of cultural biases about females, and we let them know in our culture that females do everything males do in a professional job environment, and we just hold firm."
James A. Gondles Jr., executive director of the American Correctional Association that sets standards for U.S. prisons, said much behavior inside Guantanamo mirrors that of civilian prisons though the attacks with bodily fluids seem more numerous.
"It happens from time to time at facilities here, but it seems the majority of ... assaults at Gitmo were either spitting, or bodily fluids being thrown on the guards," said Gondles, who has visited Guantanamo twice at the Pentagon's invitation and reviewed the reports at AP's request.
The bodily fluid attacks are so numerous that guards now frequently wear specialized shields to protect their faces.
The incident reports show waves of orchestrated behavior.
For instance, prisoners repeatedly grabbed their guards' whistles over a five-day period in June 2004. In July 2005, guards reported several instances of rock throwing, spitting and flip-flop hitting. Rocks were hidden under shower mats, the reports said.
The incident reports also are noteworthy for information that is missing. With redacted names, it is impossible to tell whether bad behavior is widespread or the work of a few repeat offenders. Likewise, the documents don't tell whether certain guards are prone to confrontation.
Prisoners' hunger strikes, suicide attempts and threats to injure themselves aren't considered disciplinary matters and thus aren't recorded in the incident reports. Yet the Pentagon acknowledges there have been scores of such incidents.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a prisoner of war during Vietnam, said the treatment of the guards has been overshadowed by the legal and political debates surrounding the detainees, but he has been impressed with the guards' professionalism.
"Our personnel there have perhaps the most difficult task you can have in the military outside of being in a combat zone. ... These are bad guys and some of the most hardened of hardened criminals. And some I think will need to be kept permanently," he said.
McCain said the detainees' behavior and the likelihood of permanent confinement only hastens the need for the administration and Congress to finalize detention and trial policies consistent with the Supreme Court's direction.
While Washington addresses those questions, the guards look to stay one step ahead of the detainees.
"Yes, you do get upset but you get somebody to take your place," Keen said in explaining how he survives the tensions of the cell block. "You go outside. You walk it off and you come back and (say) I want to be back in the fight." The lesson is: Never take prisoners.
An explosion in Pakistan's major arms manufacturing factory has caused partial damage to some buildings, but no one was hurt, a spokesman for the factory said Monday.
Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), located at the town of Wah, some 25 km northwest of Islamabad, are the premier defence industries in the country, producing a wide range of conventional defensive munitions to international standards.
"An explosion occurred in one of the explosive magazine of filling section of Pakistan Ordnance Factories at about 1:30 am on Monday. By the grace of Almighty Allah, there was not human loss or damage to plant and machinery, only some buildings have been partially damaged," the factory spokesman said in a statement.
Chairman of POF Board has constituted a high level committee to ascertain the reasons of the explosion, the statement said.
Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told a private TV channel that the explosion seems to be an accident and investigation has been ordered.
According to the POF website, the factory is producing a wide range of munitions systems for ground, air and naval forces.
In addition to meeting the domestic demand of the defence forces, POF products are in service with over 30 countries.
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006
16:19 ||
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#1
This smells, especially after reading about the munitions train explosion in NY harbor all those long years ago.
So? got a list of who hates Pakistan?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2006 20:45
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German sabotage believed to be cause of deadly explosion
NEW YORK -- The sound of the blast was unearthly, and the tremor was felt 100 miles away in Philadelphia. The night sky over New York Harbor turned orange. People were jolted from bed and windows within 25 miles shattered. The Statue of Liberty, less than a mile away, was damaged by a rain of red-hot shards of steel. Frightened immigrants on Ellis Island were hastily moved to Manhattan.
The epicenter of the blast, a small island called Black Tom, all but disappeared in what was then the largest explosion in the United States, on Sunday, July 30, 1916, at 2:08 a.m. It destroyed about 2,000 tons of munitions parked in freight cars and pierside barges, awaiting transfer to ships and ultimately destined for the World War I battlefields of France.
Evidence pointed to German sabotage, and some historians regard it as the first major terrorist attack on the United States by a foreign party -- 85 years before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Marked today by a plaque in New Jersey's Liberty State Park, the blast site lies less than 2 miles from lower Manhattan and within sight of where the World Trade Center towers stood.
#3
If the Germans did it then it was a legitimate military target except that Germany and the US weren't at war in 1916. Still, I can't blame them since we were helping their enemies.
If Iran's reactors suddenly exploded one night with no apparent cause I'd be laughing so in the grand scheme of things this seems fair game. Act of war for sure, but the US didn't catch them (or didn't want to get sucked in at that time so didn't say anything about it).
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/31/2006 17:04
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#4
WWII was a bit different. After the Normandie fire, the NY FBI went to the heads of organized crime and convinced them to watch the waterfront. Nothing happened after that; a few German agents were rumored to have disapeared; it was pretty quiet after that.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council passed a weakened resolution Monday giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
Iran immediately rejected the council action, saying the resolution would only make negotiations more difficult over a package of incentives offered in June for it to suspend enrichment. "All along it has been the persistence of some to draw arbitrary red lines and deadlines that has closed the door to any compromise," Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, said. "This tendency has singlehandedly blocked success and in most cases killed proposals in their infancy."
"This approach will not lead to any productive outcome and in fact it can only exacerbate the situation," he said.
Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text was watered down from earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. It now essentially requires the council to hold more discussions before it considers sanctions.
And then more discussions, and more resolutions. Remember Iraq: 17 resolutions, and not one enforced until GWB can along.
The resolution passed by a vote of 14-1. Qatar, which represents Arab states on the council and lives next door to the big bad wolf, cast the lone dissenting vote.
Drafted by Britain, France and Germany with U.S. backing, the resolution follows a July 12 agreement -- by the foreign ministers of those four countries, plus Russia and China -- to refer Tehran to the Security Council for not responding to the incentives package. The ministers asked that council members adopt a resolution making Iran's suspension of enrichment activities mandatory. The resolution includes that demand and calls on all states "to exercise vigilance" in preventing the transfer of all goods that could be used for Iran's enrichment and ballistic missile programs.
"If you remember the reason for that resolution is to make the suspension of enrichment and related activities mandatory and then to give Iran a deadline by which it should accept the now mandatory requirement that it suspend its enrichment activities," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on a flight from Jerusalem.
In a lengthy speech after the resolution was adopted, Zarif told the council it had no legal legitimacy to demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing. He repeated Iran's claim that it has every right to pursue nuclear technology and does not want to develop nuclear weapons. Zarif faulted the United States and Britain for supporting a 1953 coup in Iran, and blasted the council for being slow to address Iraq's invasion of Iran in 1980 and its use of chemical weapons against Iranians.
You sorta poisoned that well when you took American embassy personnel hostage, remember?
Tehran said last week it would reply to the Western incentive package on Aug. 22, but the council decided to go ahead with a resolution and not wait for Iran's response.
The resolution calls on the U.N nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, to report back by Aug. 31 on Iran's compliance with the resolution's demands. If Iran does not comply, the council would move to adopt political and economic sanctions, the resolution said.
Diplomats said the threats spelled out in the resolution would be revoked if Iran agrees to the package of incentives. "It does not mean an end to the negotiations and we reaffirm the proposals," France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said. "We appeal to Iran to positively respond to the substantive proposals that we made last month."
Explaining his "no" vote, Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser said that while the demands of the six nations were legitimate, the resolution will only exacerbate tensions in the region and Iran should be given more time to respond because his country doesn't want to get clobbered. "We do not agree with the tabling of this resolution at a time when our region is in flames," Al-Nasser said. "We see no harm in waiting for a few days to exhaust all possible means and in order to identify the real intentions of Iran."
Posted by: Alan C ||
07/31/2006 14:28
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#2
Anybody have any ideas just how long this sick, stupid, senseless charade is going to be allowed to continue before somebody actually does something about the menace of Nuts With Nukes?
Sheesh...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 14:32
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#3
How long to proclaim 17 resolutions, the standard set by Saddam?
#5
I'd dearly love to believe he'd do that, DMFD, but I've given up hope.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 16:15
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#6
un brilliantly extended the deadline from the proclaimed 8/22 to the 31st. This should give Prez Dinnerjacket a few laughs, and since it is pre-rejected, why not stir the pot now with a strongly worded demarche from France and get that out of the way too?
#7
We're going to see economic sanctions, a naval quarantine. and the feared oil weapon. No more gas for Iranians. There may even be some industrial accidents in the few refineries Iran does have. Let the Iranians handle it from there.
#8
Hmmm... Not to start grief, but with the exception of one possibility, I can't see why, Dave D.
Things seem to be shaping up for the sequence of confrontations needed to make the case to the US public and Congress. The Mullahs are being extremely helpful in so many ways, too.
I don't have access to the Bush timeline, and wouldn't say anything at all if I did, but the moment of truth clearly approaches, IMO. Whether it will occur per DMFD's prediction, is well beyond my poor info. That it will occur, however, I have no doubt - unless, and here's that one exception that worries me:
If the Dhimmicrats take control of the House in November. In that case, reality will surely be derailed -- dropping US foreign policy in the shitter. If that happens - we're fucked. Impeachment bullshit, the watered down resolution regards Iran will stand, and the focus will be forcibly shifted to inane domestic partisan bullshit and Tranzi appeasement... all of the stuff that simply doesn't matter if we lose the WoT. It will be a circus of fools running an appeasement festival of Tranzi surrenders and domestic boondoggles sure to make us all paupers. I believe I've read some comments from you that echo my pessimism, in this case.
If the Republicans hold the house, Iran's dead meat.
#9
Heh. Your last two lines sum it up pretty well.
I'm not saying that what we're hoping for regarding Iran won't happen; I'm just saying I don't want to set myself up for a big disappointment.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 17:00
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#10
Ah, I get ya. I'm putting money into a few "key" House campaigns - against Murtha, for example. It seems we agree November will be a true pivotal moment in the history of the US. I admit I am pessimistic to put it at 50-50, so I'm doing what little I can.
#14
IMO the best the Dems can hope to accomplish is to gain a few seats, not enuff to threaten or stifle GOP control or Right-leaning/centric GOP-Dem Moderates. The broad agenda for the DemoLeft is to get America under PC "justified" OWG and overt National Socialism which for the Clintons is Communism. CLINTONISM > America = Socialist Amerika is a SOCIALIST COUNTRY = PRO-SOCIALIST COUNTRY being led by the wrong type or kind of Socialists + wrong type/kind of Socialism. amongst other "straight arrow" = PDeniable, John Wayne = Jimmy Carter, Hitler = Stalin, etc. premises. Wid mediocre to failed domestic electioneering andanti-GOP efforts, the only thing/ace card the DemoLeft has left is "American Hiroshima(s)", i.e decapitation strike = PDeniable reactionary terror attack agz Dubya-GOP. Hillary and Co-POTUSes will rule becuz they weirdly and mysteriously survived the WMD attacks of Radical Islam-Terror as MSM-Leftpert verified caused by Bush-GOP. IFF ONE ACCEPTS THAT THE WOT IS A WAR BY AND FOR SOCIALISM = GLOBALISM, AS WELL AS AGAINST
"ISLAMO-FASCISM", DEMOLEFT > THE ANTITHESIS OF ISLAM-FASCISM IS ISLAMO-COMMUNISM. A WAR AGAINST FASCISM = WAR FOR COMMUNISM. Thus for the DemoLeft and MSM, FASCIST > both Hated Despicable Nazi-Hitlerists + Well-intentioned but defective and unruly imperialist, de-regulated, Limited Totalitarianist-Governmentist LEFTCOMMUNIST, AN ERROR-PRONE LIMITED MARXIST-STALINIST. ONE SIDE = ALL SIDES = NO SIDE(S), EVERYONE = ANYONE = NO ONE. Iff the Cold War=era USSR-Red China, but espec the USSR, were the in charge, Iran or any other nation would already be invaded iff not conquered, even as the diploms were conversing and debating before the People's Global Assembly at the Red Banner UNO. ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER, etal laws, protocols, or courtesies is for America and Western democracies, NOT THE ULTRA-LEFT USSR-RED CHINA. RADICAL ISLAMISTS + SECUALRISTS > WAR MUST OCCUR + USA SUFFER CASUALTY-INTENSIVE ATTACKS IN ORDER FOR ANTI-AMERICAN AMERIKANS-GLOBALISTS, etal ANTI-DEMOCRATIC GOVT-ISTS, CENTRALISTS, AND REGULATORY TOTALITARIANISTS-ABSOLUTISTS, TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE(S), to ensure OWG and that hyperpower America is IRREVOCABLY, PERMANENTLY SUBORNED UNDER SAME. Russia-China & SCO, aka Commie Asia, aka Mackinder's World Island of Eurasia, won't have to worry anout attaining "parity" wid hyperpower America + West circa 2030-2050 iff America + West no longer exists by Year 2015-2020, now won't they!? GORBACHEVISM > IFF THE USSR-COMMIE BLOC-EAST CANNOT SUCCCEED IN ACHIEVING THE POWER, WEALTH, AND STANDARDS OF THE US-WEST, THE US-WEST WILL BE BROUGHT DOWN TO THE LEVELS OF COMMUNISM = the EAST. GORBACHEVISM > INVERSE PARITY TO ACHIEVE SOLE SUPERIORITY-VICTORY, more contemporarily known as "THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA", from FIRST WORLD to THIRD WORLD. FIRST WORLD AMERICA must be "constrained/controlled" by MOSTLY THIRD WORLD WORLD COMMUNITY = UNO. MALE BRUTE FASCISTS > defective lowly Rightist Authoritarians = also well-meaning Limited Totalitarianists, i.e COMMUNIST CAPITALISTS/COMMPITALISTS. America = Amerika's volunterr army is allowed to attack Iran-North Korea, BUT NOT WIN OR PREVAIL AGAINST SAME, UNTIL WASHINGTON COMMUNIZES-STALINIZES EVERYTHING BACK IN CONUS - you know, Lefties telling the Amer people/voter "the Truth" = Propanganda-PCorrectness.
Hizbullah said its guerrillas hit an Israeli warship with rockets off the coast of the south Lebanese port city of Tyre on Monday.
Hizbullah said in a statement the attack was the start of its retaliation for Sunday's bombing of a building in south Lebanon that killed 54 civilians, including 37 children. An Israeli security source said no Israeli vessel had been hit. (Reuters)
#1
Now wouldn't it be interesting if they hit a humanitarian aid ship? Fox's guy in Tyre is reporting seeing no missiles launched and no ships of any sort.
#3
they mustn't be that quick at learning lessons or else they wouldn't be expressing regret for killing women, children and United Nations Peace keepers so often
Israel has been upstaged many times by terrorist propaganda.
Never have they said before an operation that they were fighting terrorists who use human shields, who pretend dead terrorists are dead civilians and who coerce civilians into pretending to support them.
This would be easy to do at the beginning of a conflict where Israel's leader gets some verbatim TV time.
I grant you it wouldn't convince some of the pro appeasement Europeans, but it would help loads with our American version of the same thing.
#5
they mustn't be that quick at learning lessons or else they wouldn't be expressing regret for killing women, children and United Nations Peace keepers so often
What could the Israelis do better? Specifics, not generalizations, please. Not a problem list so much as an answer list, too.
#6
Related topic, an opiniated letter from one of my ML
GO HERE
-----Original Message-----
From: Naomi *** [mailto:*****@*****.net.il]
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 16:13
To: *****@****.ca
Subject: Bombing of Nahariyah hospital
From a listmember:
Dear Mrs. ****:
I did not see in any foreign report, any picture, about the bombing of Nahariyah Hospital and the destruction of its fourth floor and the Department of Eye Diseases, in which Arabs and Jews have been treated, and where Arab and
Jewish interns work.
Israeli propaganda is poor, weak and miserable.
Israeli propaganda even hides the truth.
Israeli propaganda depends mainly on this poor and stammering lady, the speaker of IDF, a nice woman I would not keep employed even to be a phone operator.
Israeli propaganda depends on the arbitrary opinions of unofficial people.
Our defeat in the media is worse than a defeat on the battlefield.
Best regards
Marcos ****,MD
Kibbutz Matzuvah,
Western Galilee
#8
Hey people, even USA didn't do all that well in the propaganda war. So sorry, but you can't disabuse a tranzi from something he/she learned during the brief period their minds were capable of learning.
Lebanon's Ministry of Tourism launched their new website on June 13th, since then thousands of visitors from Israel have been pouring in.
The favorite summer vacation region of the Israeli tourists is Southern Lebanon. The region's rolling hills sloping down to sandy Mediterranean beaches are dotted with Biblical sites, Roman and Phoenician ruins, remnants of the Crusades, and the major Phoenician trading centers of Saida (Sidon) and Sour (Tyre). Now being added are the ruins of Hezbullah.
Please use our Trip Planner to conveniently find your way around. Highly recommended by the IDF, which gives it 4 stars.
#1
Don't believe it. We stayed at one of the "top" resorts recently and were very disappointed. The staff was very rude and spent more time runing around with AK-47's then providing service. In the evenings, there was a great deal of noise, as the staff carried supplies out of the basement and then launched them next to the hotel.
The Roman, Phoenician, and Hezbullah ruins were interesting, but the local roads were very much in disrepair. Fortunately, the local contigent of the UN was busy working with Hezbullah to improve local roads. Unfortunately, they we're working on roads to Syria rather than the beach access routes.
Overall, I'd give the resort a rating of 1 star - it was a (ammo) dump.
#2
I was surprised by the outpouring by the locals and the tradition of looting the local un building. I kind of got caught up in the moment and lets just say that I am in possession of several negotiable oil contacts I found in a safe. The next day I was surprised by a local custom of carrying boxes with the Lebanese flag draped over them. Our guide just shook his head and snarled Ala walah guna wooboo kuskus. According to my pocket translator it loosely translate into Another one bites the dust. Never a dull moment, but it was damn hard to get a cold beer. 1 ½ Crescent moons.
#3
Very funny, where do i buy my ticket for a front seat to a show that will involve the whole of western society and likely bring down the curtain on it at the end-whenever that is. the good guys win! I have read the end of The Book. something which i believe the bad actors havent. but they are getting to see the movie now.
#4
If anyone's interested in seeing the country without actually setting foot within it, I here that the there's several flights daily that enter the country and then leave without landing there.
While US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in the Middle East meeting regional alongside Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, media outlets controlled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party the past few days have been using racist rhetoric in their reports, referring to the American representative as the "black woman," "raven," "colored dark skinned black lady" and "black spinster."
The Palestinian media coverage follows an article last week in which WND reported senior Fatah members staged an anti-American protest outside the main government building in Ramallah while Abbas met with Rice. Most media coverage of last Wednesday's Ramallah protests claimed ralliers were affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
One placard had Rice drinking the blood of dead babies and stating, "I need more blood."
According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, the PA daily Al Hayat detailed Wednesday's Ramallah protests in which Rice was described as a "raven" who "brings only destruction."
Al Hayat featured pictures of ralliers brandishing anti-Rice placards, some reading, "Murderer Rice go to Hell" and "Get out." One placard had Rice drinking the blood of dead babies and stating, "I need more blood."
A cartoon last week in the PA controlled Al Quds depicted Rice pregnant with a monkey. A caption read, "Rice speaks about birth of new Middle East."
In a previous article by Al Hayat, Rice is described three times as the "black woman," and her father, who was an ordained Presbyterian minister, was called the "black clergyman (who filled Rice's head with Bible stories)." The article warned, "Beware of this 'black spinster,' we don't want to say 'the black widow' out of respect for her femininity and her intelligence." White House should be pitching this story to all African American media who may have missed its Israel-oriented source, Ynet
#2
I remember being shocked when visiting a lovely, Egyptian Coptic lady, the wife of one of Mr. Wife's colleagues from the old days in the Middle East, when she described her disgust at seeing a black man kissing a white woman on the Toronto subway. The level of bigotry endemic to the entire society, even by those who suffer from some aspect of it, is appalling to American minds.
#5
Rice needs to put a "Keep seething, I'm reloading" bumpersticker on her limo. She also needs to highlight the Palestinians' incredible bigotry to our precious multi-culti left so they can twist their heads off trying to put a positive spin on it.
#7
With endorsements like that, I'd say that makes Condi a shoe-in for President '08.
BTW, Condi did screw up by not mentioning the release of the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers yesterday when speaking of the rough outline of a ceasefire.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 19:50
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#8
Yup, BigED. "Black Spinster"? BLACK WIDOW more like.
To lighten the thoughts a bit -- from NRO
A leading agricultural show ended in disarray when a young woman performed an impromptu striptease among the cattle lines.
As security officers at the Royal Welsh Show rushed to the scene and tried to restrain her, she was hosed down with water normally used to wash the cattle, preventing them from getting a grip on her. The stripper ended her table-top performance by throwing her thong into the crowd, which was returned on the end of a pitchfork.
The incident happened at a party on Tuesday night held amid cattle lines belonging to breeders from the Welsh Black Cattle Society.
The 102-year-old society, whose patron is the Prince of Wales, said it was outraged at hearing of the "unsavoury" event, and was investigating the claims.
#3
You should see what strippers do with farm animals in Tijuana , unsavory indeed!
Posted by: Gir ||
07/31/2006 15:41
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#4
Hey Gort, don't make fun of the magazine that "made and financed the first 'Cow Census' ever undertaken in the United States".
YJCMTSU
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/31/2006 15:59
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#5
Hrruumph. An ancient Welsh mid-summer ritual conducted to ensure that the beasties would be properly prepared for autumnal fertility rites. They finally got the stiff necked Christians to quit burning the lasses at the stake for these practices, but they still complain. Maybe they can get the Archbishop of Canterbury to oversee the next invocation of the local spirits, unless hes, of course, too busy bowing in Mecca.
Link is in french, but money quote from a beyrouth press conference is "Dans la région, il y a bien sûr un pays comme l'Iran, un grand pays, un grand peuple et une grande civilisation, qui est respecté et qui joue un rôle de stabilisation dans la région"... which gives us : "In the region, there is of course a country like iran, a great country, a great people and a great civilization, which is respected and plays a stabilizing role in the region".
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 13:22
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#2
Thanks for the link; I rapidly checked with google to see if it was mentioned elsewhere, but I settled for just translating the quote, which is mindboggling indeed. French "Arab Policy" at work.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 19:33
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#5
Now, now, people - let's not diss the FM too much.
He's sort of right - he just misspoke (or the translation's a little off). I'm sure what he meant to say is Iran wants to play a stabilizing role in the region, and that's true.
Dead Jews, Christians, Sunnis, Druze, etc., are very stable.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/31/2006 19:47
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#6
I SURRENDER
Based on "I surrender dear" (1938)
Sung by Bing Crosby
With burquas on
They must be loose
Fashions gone
Appeasement truce
We can't help it cuz we're French
We surrender to you,!
Roving gangs;
Religious police,
We say yes sir;
No women loose,
We can't help it cuz we're French
The wine is gone too
They took us over
We didn't care
Iranian mulla
To lead us now,
Amputations
and the stonings,
But I don't care
Cuz I'm French
When they appear
We bow down low,
Cause we have fear
We're all aglow,
To you O Mullah, my life, my all,
I surrender, to you!
Song Page
I Surrender Dear Link
http://gitpicker.com/isurrender.mid
#7
Bravo! bravo! *throws a thornless rose at the author (but clearly not meant for sniper duty, as the aim is off, and it hits the head of the elderly lady sitting just below the box, knocking her little hat askew)*
#8
Well, Captain America, France is supposed to be a country. I am living in France, and I see constantly the French people acting as if France was still a real country. The vast majority of them don't seem to understand that their country is on the way of total marginalization, if it continues like that.
And, gorb, don't forget that the French governments, during the last 39 years (in 1967, De Gaulle created the "french arab politics" after the 6 Days War), believe firmly that they can raise the stature of France in the world by bowing down before all muslim leaders and muslim people.
In France, a lot of people are walking on their heads. Don't laugh at them, thats difficult.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/31/2006 20:42
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#12
leroidavid, please announce to Rantburg when you are ready to be sponsored to come to America (a5089 and JFM have already been invited). Clearly you would be as much an asset as our long-standing foreign correspondents. Between us we have a lot of useful contacts, and will find a way to make it happen.
Barbara, you've been sharpening your scalpels again, dear -- I can always tell.
America is a country I like a lot. The problem is, it's so vast that I don't know in which State I would settle, if I decide to come to America. So, I am planning to visit your big country in detail (traveling from State to State by car), for more than 2 months (if possible), maybe next year. For the moment, I know only Boston, Cambridge, and New York, so I have a lot to discover in reality (I've read a lot of guides and books of course).
#14
"In the region, there is of course a country like Iran, a great country, a great people and a great civilization, which is respected and plays a stabilizing role in the region"
A great country
A great people
A great civilization
No questions. No doubts. These three are true.
However, it is not so much respected. Respect is one thing Iran definitely seeks. Respect and (largely U.S.) recognition.
It definitely plays a stabilizing role in the region. The destabilizers, of course, are Israel and the U.S. Neither are so much respected either; the Jews (but not modern Israel) are a civilization onto themselves but this nation-state incarnation nearly defines the meaning of "destabilizing force"; the US lacks a history (other than brutally violent)to be accorded the status of a great civilization and as to whether it be a great country with great people ... God hopes they are not reading many of the comments here because America - that irascible, irresponsible, immature yet deliciously, lustfully free nation - has so much more to offer than racist hatemongering filth.
#16
We're a mobile peole, leroidavid. Where you start need not be where you end up. You want to look more at career opportunities and contacts, truly. In Cincinnati, Ohio, for instance, one of the nicer, more international suburbs (the secondary school is one of those in the area that awards the International Baccalaureate degree as well as a State diploma, the same as the American School in Paris), celebrates Bastille Day every year in nice style. And Hebrew Union College, the Reform rabbinic school, was established here 1 1/2 centuries ago.
1) Iran seeks definitely respect. Aiming definitely for a new genocide of the Jews is the best way to be respected.
2) Fighting dictatorships and terrorists, as the US and Israel are doing, is destabilizing. Mass graves are much more stable.
3) America is irresponsible and immature. Saving the world during WWII, then during the 50 years of the Cold War, and nowadays in the War on Terror, is clearly irresponsible and immature.
Doggod, confess it: are you the secret assistant of Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French FM?
#19
"So, I am planning to visit your big country in detail (traveling from State to State by car), for more than 2 months (if possible), maybe next year."
By car is definitely the way to go. There's a lot to see, and you get no idea of the size of this place from flying in an airplane. I've driven coast-to-coast several times, and it's great fun.
"For the moment, I know only Boston, Cambridge, and New York, so I have a lot to discover in reality."
If you're ever in Philadelphia, stop by and visit.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 21:47
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#20
LOL, leroidavid. I'll choose a different tack in my response...
Stabilizing role? Iran? Are there two of them?
Great country? Really? In what respects?
Great people? When? Now? LOL. In what...
Great civilization? Same questions.
Evidence, son, let's see the evidence for any of those silly assertions.
Definitely not respected by true democracies peopled by those who think and decide for themselves. Respect? You've got to be kidding - or self-deluded. Iran is a religious dictatorship. It doesn't get any more fucked up than that. Iran has a very bad case of Little Dick Syndrome. Desperate to be a major player -- when it is as backward, brutal, and barbaric as any shithole of the 7th Century.
The history of the US put the history of Persia to shame on its first day. Freedom vs Barbarism. No contest.
The hate-mongering comes from the Iranians, who would wipe a true democracy off the map -- in their dreams. They are so sophomoric and pathetic they paint "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" on their missiles, LOL. That the reverse is far more likely must terrify them. That's some funny shit.
Iran is doomed because they choose to be. You are deluded because you choose to be.
#21
I am aware of that, Trailing Wife, and this is a big difference from France.
What you are telling me about Cincinnati is very interesting. I like to learn such examples of the astonishing American patchwork.
Concerning mobility, my specific material problem is that I have some tons of books to move, so I have to think twice before jumping over the Atlantic.
#22
I agree with you, Supple Whomper9999, when you say that Iran isn't a great civilization nowadays (It's not a civilization at all, just a dictatorship).
But we have to remind that once upon a time, there were great civilizations in Persia: for example, 3000 BC, in what is now the south of Iran, began the civilization of Jiroft, which has been discovered only two years ago, and which was very rich artisticaly speaking; and during the 5th century BC flourished Persepolis, a great civilization (tough immature and very irascible...).
It's a pity to see what this people has became thanks to islamism.
#23
Books are easy to move, so long as the packing boxes are sturdy, unlike crystal or antique ceramics. Easy to store, too, if the first temporary housing situation doesn't have room for all the bookcases needed (I've done it -- I chose "trailing wife" because I followed my husband to Europe 1991-1996 when his corporation needed him there (Bad Soden, Germany near Frankfurt, and Overijse near Brussels). Trailing daughter #1 was born in the US, but trailing daughter #2 was born in Frankfurt, and can never be President.)
Back on topic, Iraq was civilized in the Bronze Age, when Abraham left Ur to go to his promised land in Canaan. Iron Age Persia was a civilized empire, although very different than contemporaneous Greece or Rome. They managed to avoid the worst of the Muslim excesses for a while after being conquered, but eventually succumbed, and clearly never recovered.
#24
#13 leroidavid - make sure you come through Virginia. Drinks are on me.
#12 TW - Meow. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/31/2006 22:26
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Thanks for your invitation, Dave D. I will remember it.
Trailing wife, books are easy to move (with strong movers), but I really have the will to travel by car in the States for a while, before making my choice (a child's dream that a lot of people share in France, even if most are politically anti-American).
And now, for the people who can appreciate the greatness of the French government, a little story: in march 2001, Jacques Chirac welcomed in Paris, with great honors and red carpet, the Zimbabwean dictator Mugabe, who was (and still is) banned by all other countries (including all other EU countries); he cheered him, he cajoled him, and called him a great leader (I can't remember, though, if he spoke of the stabilizing role of Zimbabwe...); and Mugabe, delighted went back to his dictatorship, where he still is, working to destroy completly his (now) poor country.
#27
US Constitution Article 2: No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006 22:57
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#28
It is my understanding, 3dc, that the child of an American citizen is automatically a citizen as well... unless the following obtains: the child of the citizen is not born on American soil or American territory (so a hospital on an American army base counts as American soil), the child's child is also not born on American soil or American territory. Thus td #2's child must be born on American soil or American territory in order to automatically acquire citizenship at birth. This, we were told, was to prevent returnees from creating anchor babies into perpetuity.
This is separate from being President, and when td#2 was born, we were told she could not become President because of the extra-territoriality of her birth. I could, however, have been misinformed -- as she doesn't seem the type to become active in politics, we haven't looked into it further.
#29
3dc is correct. The key phrase is "Natural-born citizen": Who is a natural-born citizen? Who, in other words, is a citizen at birth, such that that person can be a President someday?
The 14th Amendment defines citizenship this way: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." But even this does not get specific enough. As usual, the Constitution provides the framework for the law, but it is the law that fills in the gaps.
Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in those gaps. Section 1401 defines the following as people who are "citizens of the United States at birth:"
* Anyone born inside the United States
* Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe * Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
* Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national
* Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year
* Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21
* Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
* A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.
Anyone falling into these categories is considered natural-born, and is eligible to run for President or Vice President. These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, for example.
George W. Romney, the governor of Michigan who sought the presidency in 1968, was born in Mexico to American parents. John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006 23:27
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Good work, lads. This article is a local paper showing some pride in their citizens' accomplishments.
A series of audacious raids by soldiers from Northamptonshire resulted in the capture of the most wanted terrorist in southern Iraq. Soldiers from C Company, made up of many county-based recruits, some as young as 18, were deployed on to the streets of Basra to search and arrest a notorious militiaman responsible for countless attacks on peace-keeping troops in the country's second city.
Their 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, which recruits from the county, are half-way through a seven-month deployment in Iraq. Nicknamed The Poachers, they are part of 20th Armoured Brigade with some 8,000 British troops stationed in southern Iraq.
In perhaps the greatest breakthrough in recent months, The Poachers led two daring operations, arresting terrorist Sajid Badir, leader of the Shiite-based Mahdi Army, who are loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He was believed to be responsible for a number of terrorist attacks on British troops and had been on their wanted list for a long while. Highlighting the dangers of their work, a colleague from the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment was killed in clashes with gunmen during the operation. And the following day, C Company was scrambled again to an area of the city where terrorists had launched retaliatory mortar attacks. Three people were arrested and more than two tons of weapons and explosives were seized.
In what is thought to have been the largest seizure since British troops have been based in southern Iraq, the haul included a range of deadly weapons.
Special forces soldiers had blasted a hole in the wall for the Royal Anglians to enter the building and make the arrests. The sheer scale of the cache took the soldiers by surprise. The weapons were made safe and catalogued, which meant the raid ran into dangerous daylight hours. Once word got round in Basra, The Poachers came under attack themselves. The Royal Anglians received incoming fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and small arms as they dealt with suspects and the explosives. Once The Poachers returned fire supported by Warrior armoured personnel carriers, they returned to base. As one soldier put it: "When The Warriors (armoured personnel carriers] opened up with their chain guns, there wasn't much left of the building from where they were firing at us from."
The haul included home-made rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, pistols, hand grenades, mortars, fuses, rockets, timers, charges, mines and mobile phone detonators, as well as important intelligence documents. There was also a number of IEDs improvised explosive devices made to look like rocks which are left by the roads patrolled by British troops. An attack with one of these weapons, claimed the lives of two members of C Company early on in their tour of Basra. Privates Adam Morris, 19, from Leicester, and Joseva Lewaicei, 25, from Fiji, died on May 13 when a device exploded near their armoured Land Rover while they were on a routine patrol outside Basra. The riflemen, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, died from their injuries in the blast from what was thought to be a roadside IED.
Despite the dangers and being on constant 30-minute alert to move, the recruits of C Company still believe they have what could be considered one of the best jobs in Basra. As reserve company for 20th Armoured Brigade, they are frequently called upon to arrest and search for terrorist cells. Lt Colonel Des O'Driscoll, aged 42, is the commanding officers of the five companies and up to 600 recruits of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who are currently working with forces from the multi-national division. He said: "We've had some important successes. I'm delighted for them as it's great they have one of the key jobs in the battalion. "They are one of the main companies involved in dedicated operations to search and arrest anti-Iraqi forces and terrorists in Basra."
The operation's success was sadly marred by the death of Corporal John Johnston Cosby, 27, of the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry. He had been working alongside the Royal Anglians to "apprehend the key terrorist leader and accomplice" when he was shot dead. His death brought the total of British soldiers killed to 114. Basra is Iraq's second city, predominantly Sunni, and is vital to rebuilding the country due to its oil reserves and deep water port at Um Quasar.
#1
Article: An attack with one of these weapons, claimed the lives of two members of C Company early on in their tour of Basra. Privates Adam Morris, 19, from Leicester, and Joseva Lewaicei, 25, from Fiji, died on May 13 when a device exploded near their armoured Land Rover while they were on a routine patrol outside Basra. The riflemen, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, died from their injuries in the blast from what was thought to be a roadside IED.
I sure hope they were wearing body armor and helmets instead of just berets when they were hit.
#3
I don't read British newspapers often, but it seems when their doing 1st hand accounts of their squadies the coverage is always positive (if a wee bit breathless).
#4
Good work, but shouldn't have taken him prisoner. An unfortunate work accident should've taken place. I'm waiting on somebody at the civilian leadership to grow some big ones and make the call to "off," Moqtada "Crest Whitestrips" al-Sadr.
KASHMIR: Inside the sanctum sanctorum of the historic Maharani temple here, a diminutive-looking priest recites holy verses loudly. At first glance, he looks like any other Hindu priest, but in reality he is a devout Muslim. Thirty-year old Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh is the caretaker and priest of the 91-year old temple, which houses a Shiv Lingam and idol of Goddess Parvati.
A lingam, for those not familiar, is a doinker...
He has been the priest of this Hindu temple for the last 14 years. Interestingly, he is well-versed in both the Gita and the Quran. He offers Namaaz regularly and also performs aarti at the temple. When everyone left the valley, I was the only person who took care of this temple. Since then I am performing pujas regularly at this temple. And my antecedents have never been questioned. People respect me more when I tell them that I am Muslim, said Sheikh.
Sounds like someone out of Kipling's India...
The Maharani temple also known as Mohineshwari Shivalalaya was built by Mohini Bai Sisodhia, the wife of erstwhile ruler of Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh, in 1915. The temple had a regular priest until the onset of militancy in the area. After the migration of the pandits, Sheikhs uncle became its priest and caretaker. Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh took over 14 years ago. Since then, he has donned the mantle of priest of this historic temple. The temple remains open everyday from 6am to 9pm. Aarti is performed twice a day for devotees, mostly the tourists. After performing aarti, I offer namaaz, said Sheikh.
Parvati, Shiva, and Allah presumably don't mind as much as the local turbans...
The custodians of the Maharani temple are paying him a paltry sum of Rs 1600 monthly to sustain his family. I have no other income. But the devotees who come to know about my religion sometimes offer some money as a token of gratitude, he said.
Sheikh however, rues that the government has not done anything for him despite the fact he has kept the flame of secularism alive in tough times. My residential quarter suffered damages during the October 8 quake. But not a single penny came my way. The pseudo secularists are being felicitated and Im not even been recognised, he lamented.
Hindu devotees are grateful to him for setting a precedent of Hindu-Muslim unity. All religions preach brotherhood. God is one and he does not discriminate. It makes no difference for us who leads our prayers, said Asha Sadhu Dimri of Pune. Sheikh has also brought another Muslim relative to serve the temple. We consider it our duty to serve the people no matter which religion caste or creed you belong to, said Manzoor Ahmad, a gardener at the temple.
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006
12:22 ||
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#1
Pity this is an exception, like the "mench" in Seattle.
July 31, 2006: The Hizbollah tactic of firing rockets from residential areas, and forcing civilians to stick around when the rockets are fired, has paid off. One rocket launching site in a large building in southern Lebanon, for which Israel released video of rockets being launched, before bombing the building, turned out to contain over fifty women and children. The civilians know that the Israelis bomb any place where rockets are fired from, but Hizbollah gunmen will force the civilians to stay. This has caused many Lebanese, even Shia in the south, to turn against Hizbollah. Some journalists have even been able to get out of Lebanon with pictures of this, but most of the world media prefers to call Israeli response to Hizbollah attacks a war crime and leave it at that. This is going to be one of those situations where, down the road, historians are going to wonder just what the world was thinking during all this.
#2
The blood of innocents cover Hezbollah, and Iran/Syria. Only genuinely evil people would force their own women and children to take a bullet for them. It only confirms in my mind that we need to close Gitmo, and take no islamofascist prisoners.
#3
Assuming the histories aren't being written in Arabic.
That's what I'm worried about. One side puts everything it has in the fight and doesn't play by the rules (he subverts them instead, very successfully), while the other half-heartedly struggle back for one part, and actively collaborate for the other.
Really, if this goes forth like that, I'm not betting on us, especially for old Europe which will probably end up part of the muslim world much earlier than its Enlightened Elites hope.
#4
Re #2: Only genuinely evil people would force their own women and children to take a bullet for them.
What makes you think it's their women and children? It certainly could be Christian, Druse, or even Jewish folk, yes?
Or -
"Hey, Mahmoud! Ya wanna git ridda your first wife and kids? Put 'em in the 'safe house' over there."
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2006 13:18
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#5
I've been reading that volume of ancient inscrutable Western wisdom, known as Aesop's Fables, lately. The fable of the tortoise and the hare comes to mind in this instance.
#8
Sad as it may seem, Hezbollah may just as well be doing all of us a favor. Assuming that they are not launching out of Christian or Druze neighborhoods, they are then merely chlorinating the Shia gene pool with their irresponsible launchings. As always, the faster these maggots expunge themselves and all their kin from the face of this earth, the better.
Sen. John Kerry on Monday will propose requiring all Americans to have health insurance by 2012, "with the federal government guaranteeing they have the means to afford it."
The Massachusetts Democrat, whose name is figuring prominently in 2008 White House speculation, will repeat his 2004 presidential campaign call for expanding the federal Medicaid program to cover children.
Keep talking John, Mr. Rove wants you to keep talking ...
In a speech scheduled for midday Monday at Faneuil Hall in Boston, he will advocate creating a program to cover catastrophic cases so an employer providing insurance doesn't have to pass the cost to his other workers, and offering Americans the ability to buy into the same insurance program used by federal workers, such as members of Congress.
Kerry will propose to pay for the program by repealing tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration that benefit those earning over $200,000 annually. He is not expected to immediately elaborate on how he would get his insurance mandate enacted into law. "One of my biggest regrets is that fear talk trumped the health care talk, and that we are less safe abroad and less healthy at home because of that," Kerry will say according to the prepared text of remarks he planned to deliver.
Never mind the collapsing WTC towers, the dead Americans, the 50 million people liberated from fascism, and the Mad Mullahs.
ISLAMABAD: A Chinese defence delegation will soon visit Pakistan to showcase their countrys Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) following Islamabads recent announcement to purchase a similar Swedish system, sources have said.
The AWACS is believed to be the most cost effective and powerful system for early warning, and command and control missions. According to sources, Pakistan needs a surveillance device to ensure the security of its borders and underwater communication system
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006
11:07 ||
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Might be interesting to see if the Paks can even fly one right. If they do (with chinese "Advisers") it will be even more interesting to see how well the Chinese AWACS work.
Despite the cover-ups, the spinning, and the outright lies by government officials and the liberal press, a full-blown Islamic jihad has come to America. If we are to survive the Muslim onslaught, we must see past the politically correct rhetoric fed to us by the mainstream media and even by those who are sworn to protect us. With 86 percent of Americans identifying themselves as Christians, the Muslim barbarians realize that they will never convert us and as directed by the Quran--have now decided to kill us. However, you will never hear that painful truth from the mouths of network anchors nor from our gutless politicians (Nor from the rather apparently emasculated FBI!).
The recent deadly attack by a Muslim gunman upon the Seattle Jewish Federation is only the latest act of Islamic terrorism on American soil. Naveel Afzad Haq forced his way into the Jewish Federation building and shot six people, killing one. This brave Muslim warrior attacked only women, one of them being pregnant. Once surrounded by a SWAT team, this coward surrendered.
Jewish Federation employee Marla Meislin Dietrich told reporters that as Haq walked the halls firing at defenseless women, he shouted: "I'm Muslim-American" and "I'm angry at Israel." It should be noted that the terrorist Haq's father is a founder of a Seattle area mosque.
While this was clearly an act of Muslim terrorism, the authorities refuse to classify it as such. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels instead said: "This is a crime of hate." Seattle's FBI counter terrorism chief David Gomez characterized the attack by saying Haq was: "acting out antagonism toward this particular organization."
Almost laughable was the announcement of Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, when he told reporters: "We are protecting mosques because there is always concern about retaliatory activity."
How many mosques have been attacked by Jews?...I'm guessing none! Chief Kerlikowske's politically correct comment was an obvious attempt to equate unprovoked Muslim violence with a Jew's or Christian's justifiable need for self-defense.
This past March, a young Muslim man named Mohammed Reva Taheri-azar rented an SUV and drove into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina. The Iranian native told police that he decided to carry out the attack due to "the treatment of Muslims around the world." The attack left nine people injured.
Despite lively student protests, UNC Chancellor James Moeser refused to characterize the attack as terrorism.
In October, 2005, a 21 year old Muslim student attending the University of Oklahoma accidentally exploded his backpack bomb outside of a sold-out football game at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. According to eyewitnesses, Joel Henry Hinrichs was sitting on a park bench about 100 yards from the stadium and fiddling with his backpack, when the bomb detonated. He was apparently arming the bomb which was to be carried into the stadium crowded with 84,000 fans.
Hinrichs was a Muslim and attended a local mosque with his Pakistani roommate. Police searched their apartment and discovered it to be filled with bomb-making materials as well as anti-Semitic, anti-American Islamic literature. Though the FBI would claim that Hinrichs was simply a "troubled" young man without any connection to terrorist organizations.
Oklahoma FBI agent Salvador Hernandez said that Hinrichs had simply decided to commit suicide "near a packed football stadium using an explosive attached to his body." Despite the government white washing, it is obvious that the Muslim Hinrichs simply made a mistake and prematurely discharged his bomb. If he had successfully armed the device and entered the stadium, several people would have been killed and more seriously wounded. The story would have also been given more than five minutes worth of coverage. However, the feds would have still undoubtedly danced around the fact that it was Muslim terrorism.
On July 4, 2002, Egyptian national Hesham Mohamed Hadayet walked into Los Angeles International Airport and shot and killed El Al stewardess Vicky Chen and L.A. resident Yaakev Aminov. Hadayet also stabbed an El Al security guard (Haim Safir), who in turn fatally shot the terrorist.
El Al being the official Israeli airline, the nature of this attack was correctly described...at least by the Israelis.
Israeli L.A. consul general Yuval Rotem said: "The way (the attack) was conducted is very much similar to previous attacks throughout the years at El Al counters. Therefore, unfortunately, given this history, we presume that it may and would appear to be a terrorist attack."
Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres said: "The terrorists deliberately chose the Fourth of July to carry out their crime on the soil of the United States."
In stark contrast, FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin told reporters: "There is no indication of any terrorism connection in this matter." Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn said: It appears this was an isolated incident."
All of the aforementioned terrorist attacks disappeared from the nation's newsrooms, just as quickly as they appeared. Many of you have no doubt either forgotten or never heard of these Muslim attacks. That is exactly the effect which our government and liberal press wants to achieve.
Even during the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks, the feds continued to play down the possibility of Muslim terrorism. The ATF even announced that they believed the sniper to be a 33 year old white-supremacist named Robert Gene Baker!
Of course, the snipers turned out to be two black Muslims (one was an illegal alien). Despite the fact that one of them admitted to targeting "as many white people" as they could kill, neither Lee Boyd Malvo, nor John Allen Muhammed was characterized as a terrorist nor charged with a 'hate crime.' The pair killed 20 innocent people before their reign of Islamic terror ended.
Who could forget the disgusting image of President George W. Bush standing in his stocking feet inside a D.C. area mosque and proclaiming Islam to be " a religion of peace"? He made that ridiculous comment while the ruins of the World Trade Center were still smoldering. While Bush may be willing to submit to Islam...I am not!
It is clear that our political leaders still do not understand the threat that the Muslim world represents. Our politicians and law enforcement officials seem to believe that the policy of appeasement will work with these savages. They are mistaken and if we do not wake them up to this fact...We will have no nation left to defend!
There are currently 300,000 Muslims living in the Dearborn, MI area. There is also a large population of converted Muslims inside this nation's prison system. The potential for recruitment for terrorist attacks within the United States, is overwhelming. We cannot afford to sit back and watch our government allow our citizens to be murdered by Muslim terrorists. We must demand action now!
We can do very little about the subversive left-wingers who deliver the news. However, we can direct our politicians to defend this nation...Remember, they work for us, not the other way around! Let us take to the streets in peaceful (though loud) protest, let us fill Congressional offices, and let us cast our votes this fall.
We must demand our enemy be named at every turn and terror must be brought to our Muslim enemy, the way they have brought it to us!
Dave Gibson is a freelance writer and part-time political consultant living in Norfolk, Va. He is also a longtime volunteer with several animal welfare groups.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/31/2006
10:16 ||
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A friend who lives in Seattle, just down the street from the Jewish center that was shot up by the angry Muslim on Friday, writes that he took a walk in the neighborhood this afternoon. This is what he saw:
A little old man was standing a couple doors down from the Jewish Center, holding a sign which read, "I am a Muslim but today I am a Jew."
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2006
10:14 ||
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way back in the day, 600-1000
years ago, jews and muslims liked each other
Posted by: bk ||
07/31/2006 11:53
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bk, I think you left out the words "to kill" after "liked".
p.s.: The muslims still do.
Posted by: Scott R ||
07/31/2006 13:14
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If true, it's a great act of courage. God bless him.
The trial court found Abd-AL-Rahman Shakh Ru Dinor guilty of illegal border crossing, in violation of Article 24 of the Foreigner Resident Law, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Coalition forces apprehended the defendant after he illegally entered Iraq from Iran.
The trial court found Hussein Awadh Hussein Awwad guilty of illegal border crossing, in violation of Article 10 of the Iraqi Passport Laws, and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment. Coalition forces apprehended the Libyan national after it was discovered he did not have a passport. They take their immigration violations seriously!
The trial court found Mohammed Hamdan Hussein guilty of possession of illegal weapons, in violation of Coalition Provisional Authority Order 3, and sentenced him to six years imprisonment. Coalition forces apprehended the defendant after a search of his house revealed two AK-47s, one RPG launcher and several RPG rockets. On the other hand, maybe they could learn something from our BATF.
#1
To date, the CCCI has held 1,318 trials of insurgents suspected of anti-Iraqi and anti-Coalition activities threatening the security of Iraq and targeting Multi-National Force-Iraq. These proceedings have resulted in 1,128 individual convictions with sentences ranging up to death.
Mebbe this should be a regular feature?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2006 11:24
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If a drunken Mel Gibson did indeed call out, "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," then there can be only one possible place for a man who believes such things: as the next Secretary General of the United Nations.
--David Frum, National Review
Sad to say, but this is absolutely true.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2006
09:53 ||
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Hell, if anyone does a movie about William Wallace, they could cast Mel as Edward I.
Posted by: Phil ||
07/31/2006 10:50
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Here we go again. This time, it's a fatal shooting at a Jewish organization in Seattle, but to the authorities it's yet another inexplicable incident characterized every which way except as what it is: freelance jihadism. My radio pal Hugh Hewitt has a great summation here . One is surprised only that this time the cops didn't redeploy the Mounties' line from Toronto the other week and describe the killer as representing the "broad strata" of society. The notion that a fellow isn't a terrorist unless he's got a machine-readable al-Qaeda membership card is pathetic: The fact that you don't need deep sleepers controlled by hierarchical structures is one of the principal characteristics of Islamism. Here's what I had to say about one of the first of these incidents post-9/11, from just over four years ago. This excerpt is from The Face Of The Tiger :
July 8th 2002
IM A DEAD WHITE male, as you can tell from the picture accompanying this column. Suppose on Martin Luther King Day I went to the offices of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and shot the receptionists. How many nano-seconds do you think it would take before the attack was being characterized as racially motivated? Your top Olympic hotshot could ingest every steroid on the planet and he couldnt beat that time.
Suppose it was Judy Garlands birthday and I went to my local gay bathhouse and opened fire on the fetching young men handing out the towels. How many minutes would tick by before the word homophobia was heard?
Or suppose it was the anniversary of Roe v Wade, and me and my semi-automatic swung by the abortion clinic
Well, you get the idea. On the Fourth of July (hint) a guy went to the airport in Los Angeles, sauntered up to the ticket counter of El Al (hint) and fatally shot two people and wounded three. How many folks hearing the news on a quickie radio update honestly expected it to be anyone other than a Muslim male?
Obviously, Underperformin Norman Mineta, the scrupulously sensitivity-trained US Transportation Secretary, would have been wary of jumping to conclusions. Were he running the LAPD, hed have pulled in a couple of elderly spinsters from the Baptist Missionary Society and Kelli-Sue, a trainee hairdresser from Cleveland.
But, fortunately for the final death toll, El Al has its own security and so the suspect, after firing ten rounds, was himself killed. And whaddaya know? He wasnt an elderly spinster but a 41-year old Egyptian male! His name wasnt Kellie-Sue, it was Hesham Mohamed Hadayet!
Mohamed! What are the odds on that?
This stunning development seems to have completely disoriented the FBI. I quote from the New York Times headline: Officials Puzzled About Motive Of Airport Gunman.
Hmm. Egyptian Muslim kills Jews on American national holiday. Best not to jump to conclusions. Denial really is a river in Egypt. It appears he went there with the intention of killing people, said Richard Garcia, the Bureaus agent in charge. Why he did that we are still trying to determine.
CNN and the Associated Press all but stampeded to report a witness who described the shooter as a fat white guy in a ponytail who kept yelling Artie took my job. But, alas, this promising account proved to be a prank. Saudi Arabias popular Arab News suggested that Mr Hadayet had made the mistake of doing business with El Al and that the Israeli airline had been late in paying for two limousine rentals from the Egyptian immigrants company. If a couple of late cheques were a motive for murder, Conrad Blacks head would now be stuffed and mounted in my trophy room. But, sadly, this cautionary tale about the Jew bloodsuckers commercial wiles proved also to be false.
That left the police with no leads. Nothing to go on. The trails stone cold. All the FBI has is an Egyptian male, whod complained to his apartment managers after his neighbours post-9/11 began displaying the American flag; whod posted a banner saying READ KORAN on his own front door; who told his employees that he hated Israel, that the two biggest drug dealers in New York were Israelis, and that Israel was trying to wipe out the Egyptian population by flooding the country with Aids-infected Jewess prostitutes.
Could even the most expert psychological profiler make sense of such confusing and contradictory signs? Beats me, Sherlock. But, as Agent Garcia says, theres no indication of anti-Israel views or any other type of racial views. Orange Countys Muslim Public Affairs Council has praised Agent Garcia for his exceptionally advanced levels of sensitivity. Any moment now, theyll be demanding to know why Governor Davis has failed to visit a mosque to reassure Muslims...
Lets take the Feds at their word when they insist theres no connection between the LAX killer and any terrorist organizations. In its way, thats even more disturbing. Mr Hadayet doesnt fit the poverty-breeds-desperation-breeds-resentment routine: he lived in prosperous suburbia and ran his own business. America had been good to him, at least when compared with the economic basket-case he emigrated from. On July 4th, he had plenty of reasons to get out the bunting and firecrackers. Instead, he went Jew-killing.
Osama and al-Qaeda are a small problem, which since September 11th has been managed about as well as can be expected. But the broader culture of intolerance in certain unassimilated communities is a potentially much bigger problem. You win wars not just by bombing but by argument, too: Churchill understood this; he characterized the enemy as evil, because they were and because it was important for the British people to understand this if they were to muster the will to see the war through. In Vietnam, the US lost the rhetorical ground to Jane Fonda and co, and wound up losing the war, too. Its critical that the same thing does not happen here. The organizations which purport to represent Muslims in North America and Europe have their own excuses for soft-pedaling the torrent of hate from respectable sources within the Muslim world mosques, media, government. Theres no reason why the FBI and other US agencies should sign on to their fictions.
In the meantime, spare a thought for Thursdays victims, Victoria Hen, 25, and Yaakov Aminov, 46. Mr Hadayet successfully orphaned eight children and a ninth on the way. Congratulations to another heroic Islamist martyr!
But, in the midst of so much regrettably predictable behaviour, this column is pleased to inaugurate the David Atkin Muslim Balls Award. As readers may recall, the other week, David Atkin of Windsor wrote to say that I dont have the balls to write anything positive about Muslims. So let me salute those Muslim Pakistani police currently searching for three men wanted for carrying out the gang-rape to which an 18-year old girl was sentenced by a Punjabi tribal council. Let me also salute the many Muslim Pakistanis said to be outraged by the girls treatment: she was punished by the council because her brother had been seen unchaperoned with a woman from a higher social class; her father was made to witness the multiple rape. Let me salute, too, Muslim strongman General Musharraf who is ordering compensation of US$8,000 to be paid. Its not a lot indeed, it would be insulting in a western court but at least he recognizes somethings wrong. Thats a start. Returning his country to English Common Law would be even better.
from The Face Of The Tiger
Posted by: Steve ||
07/31/2006
09:28 ||
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COLOMBO - Sri Lankas four-year ceasefire is now void and the islands two-decade civil war is back on, a top Tamil Tiger rebel told Reuters on Monday as the guerrillas and the military entered a sixth straight day of fighting.
S. Elilan, head of the Tigers political wing in the restive eastern district of Trincomalee, said army troops had resumed a bid to advance towards land they control in the east and had fired artillery and mortars at their territory in the north.
The ceasefire agreement has become null and void at the moment, Elilan said by telephone from Trincomalee, adding government troops were continuing an advance towards their forward defence line in the east in a water supply dispute. The war is on and we are ready, added Elilan. The war has begun. It is the government which has started the war ... Militarily, we have decided to fight back if the Sri Lankan army enters our area. Elilan is not the Tigers main spokesman, but he is one of their top officials and their political head in Trincomalee. He has repeatedly warned of a return to war.
The rebels, angry at President Mahinda Rajapakses outright rejection of their demand for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east, have pulled out of peace talks indefinitely and have been cranking up the rhetoric for months.
The Tigers say Sri Lankas air force killed 15 rebels in five days of aerial bombing in the east and injured several others. The military said the death toll was much higher. The army says it has sustained no new casualties, despite becoming bogged down in a minefield on Sunday as they tried to reach a sluice they accuse the Tigers of blocking to choke water supplies to Sinhalese farmers in government territory. The government says troops are still trying to clear the mines in their first open advance on rebel-held areas since the 2002 ceasefire, and face intermittent firesights. They say they have purely humanitarian goals but that the Tigers have simply gone too far.
Under international law, denial of water is a crime and people have gone to the gallows for less, said head of the government peace secretariat Palitha Kohona. The government says categorically that it is totally committed to the ceasefire. But the most important thing is to provide water for 50,000 people.
The head of the islands Nordic truce monitoring mission said on Saturday the truce was dead in all but name after fresh violence killed more than 800 people so far this year. But he said he expected low intensity fighting rather than a full-blown return to a conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people. Janes Defence Weekly analyst Iqbal Athas fears the clashes could soon spread elsewhere across the island.
Many diplomats fear Black Tiger suicide bombers, blamed for a failed assassination attack on the army commander, could bring the war to Colombo, further hammering investor confidence in the $23-billion economy. I think right now theyre at war, Athas said. If you look at the (army) operation that has started now, it is becoming clear that the confrontation has begun.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/31/2006
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JALALABAD, Afghanistan - A car bomb killed at least six people and wounded 16 outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, but the apparent target, a provincial governor, was unhurt. The blast took place in the city of Jalalabad where thousands of people, including the governor of Ningarhar, Gul Afgha Sherzai, were gathered in front of the mosque. Sherzai escaped unhurt. I was the target and it was the work of Afghanistans enemies, he told Reuters, referring to a term usually used by Afghan officials for describing Taleban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies.
The people had gathered in the mosque to attend a prayer ceremony for Maulvi Younis Khalis, a mujahideen commander who died last week. The car followed Sherzais convoy as he was returning after the ceremony. His four guards and two men in the car in police uniforms were killed in the blast, security officials said. However, it was not immediately clear whether it was suicide attack or the car bomb was triggered remotely.
There was no immediate comment from the Taleban who have stepped up attacks against the Afghan government and foreign forces in recent months, mostly in southern and eastern Afghanistan. The blast took place hours after NATO forces took charge of security from U.S.-led coalition forces in the volatile south.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/31/2006
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Israeli air force Monday bombs Hizballah battery at Taibe, NW of Metulah shortly after it fired 2 Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shemona. No casualties
This was the first air strike since 0200 when Israels 48-hour suspension of air strikes went into force. Exception was made for targets posing any immediate threat or transporting weapons supplies. Kiryat Shemona sustained a record 100 hits Sunday. Taibe is one of the three villages where 6 Israeli soldiers were injured, 4 Hizballah killed, in a ground operation to destroy Hizballah firing positions.
Aircraft and helicopter cover was also provided Israeli ground forces fighting Hizballah in those three villages. Another contingent of Israeli armored infantry and tanks is heading into the Eastern Sector of south Lebanon along the road from Metullah to al Khiam.
(IsraelNN.com) Israel Air Force fighter pilots have been prevented from carrying out air strikes on Hizbullah terror targets in Lebanon for the next two days, but that has not stopped them from providing air cover for Israeli ground operations. IAF warplanes fired warning shots on Tuesday as IDF ground forces continued to operate in the village of Tayibeh, another HIzbullah stronghold. IAF aircraft will continue to provide cover for IDF forces as they continue their mission to end rocket attacks on northern Israeli communities from south Lebanese territory.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/31/2006
08:39 ||
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#1
Exception was made for targets posing any immediate threat or transporting weapons supplies.
That little tidbit seems to have gotten dropped from most media reports about the 'air-strike halt'.
#2
In other words, it's a "halt" that isn't a halt. In fact, one might call it a minor change in the rules of engagement.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2006 9:45
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#3
Now that's interesting! I was just reflecting that a "cease-fire" in that region means Israel is ceasing fire. You always see headlines like, "Hezbollah attack threatens fragile cease-fire." Not breaks -- threatens. The cease-fire is only broken when Israel hits back. I'm surprised the media has missed this opportunity.
#7
You wonder if the IDF is taking a page from the Iranians. They keep this up and we'll start having to use the 'minuet' and 'groundhog day' graphics when talking about Israeli 'ceasefires'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2006 11:00
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#8
I hope the Israelis are learning the Principals of Counterbattery fire without the use of air.
On July 29, 2006, the London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published a detailed article on assistance extended to Hizbullah by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as reported by a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards officer who had trained Hizbullah naval units. According to the officer, Hizbullah has a diver unit and a naval commando unit. He further claims that Revolutionary Guards officers assisted Hizbullah in the July 14, 2006 firing of a C802 missile at an Israeli Navy ship, and had also helped Hizbullah construct underground facilities including command and control rooms which are being operated by Revolutionary Guards officers along with Hizbullah fighters.
In addition, Iranian news agencies have published a number of reports about groups of Iranian volunteers sent to Lebanon to aid Hizbullah in its fight against Israel. The following are excerpts from these reports on Iranian assistance to Hizbullah. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006
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#1
In english, Iran vehemently denied the accusation.
Indian police on Monday arrested a journalist over his alleged ties to an outlawed Islamic group suspected of taking part in the Mumbai train bombings. However, investigator KP Raghuvanshi cautioned that the reporter, Danish Sheikh, who works for the Urdu Times, an Urdu language newspaper, is not suspected of playing any direct role in the July 11 bombings that hit Mumbai's crowded commuter rail network, killing at least 207 people.
Rather, Raghuvanshi said he is suspected of assisting Students Islamic Movement of India, a banned Islamic group that authorities say may have played a role in the series of seven bomb blasts, along with militants based in Pakistan. Documents linking Sheikh with SIMI, as the group is known, were allegedly seized from his home, Raghuvanshi said.
Sheikh was scheduled to appear in a Mumbai court later on Monday.
#2
Every terrorist group has: a "millitary" wing, a political wing, and a propaganda wing. Though, usually, members of the propaganda wing work for MSM and not directly for the terrs.
#3
Amusingly, when Mr. Wife was doing plant start-ups in India, he shocked the locals exceedingly when he he casually read shop signs and such written in Urdu -- being as he is American and all. Urdu is written in the Arabic alphabet, and he'd just spent several years developing products for the Arab-speaking world. I haven't bothered telling him about Mike the oilman's little ideas -- while he thoroughly enjoyed the Egyptians he worked with when he was there (so long as he didn't require them to actually accomplish much of anything beyond promises) and the charm and knowledge of the Moroccans, he came back from his first trip to Saudia Arabia convinced he'd been in the world's worst fascist regime, and he had/has no patience with those whose moral discrimination is stopped by receipt of Saudi blood-dripping gold.
The trial of Uzbek Muslim cleric Rukhiddin Fakhrutdinov is scheduled to start in Tashkent city court today. Fakhrutdinov faces a number of charges, including terrorism and religious extremism.
Fakhrutdinov fled Uzbekistan after a series of bombings in Tashkent and Bukhara in 2004 that were blamed by authorities on religious extremists. He was detained in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, last year and forcibly returned to Uzbekistan.
In a statement released on July 28, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Fakhrutdinov had been abducted by Kazakh security agents, who "have yet to acknowledge any role in Fakhrutdinov's transfer to Uzbekistan." HRW also expressed concern about Fakhrutdinov's right to a fair trial. The group says Fakhrutdinov was denied access to his attorney of choice for two months after his return to Uzbekistan and that he had indicated to his lawyer that he had been beaten while in Uzbek custody.
HRW says Fakhrutdinov is one of about 80 Uzbek nationals who fled to Kazakhstan to escape religious persecution. It says they have faced harassment, surveillance, and the threat of forced return.
Assessing Sen. Arlen Specter's proposed and administration-blessed deal to authorize the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program is no easy matter. On the plus side, the bill would signal that Congress and the president are in accord on the key aspect of the global war against terrorist organizations. It might, but probably wouldn't, resolve the more strident objections from civil libertarians, who sometimes seem to think that privacy must always outweigh all other public-policy imperatives, including national security.
Another positive feature of the Specter proposal is that it would curb the rapidly proliferating legal challenges to the Terrorist Surveillance Program and centralize judicial review in the special court known as FISA; without such limitations, we would soon have a wave of anti-NSA lawsuits rivaling anti-tobacco and anti-asbestos litigation. The legislation acknowledges the president's inherent constitutional powers to collect intelligence. To be sure, this is an entirely unexceptional acknowledgement; the fact that it has been greeted with outrage by its critics only underscores how warped the debate about presidential powers has become.
Unfortunately, these benefits come at a high -- and, to us, unacceptable -- cost. The quid pro quo, exacted by Mr. Specter, is that the executive would have to submit the Terrorist Surveillance Program for review to the FISA court. There is, of course, nothing wrong with judicial review in appropriate circumstances. However, having the FISA court, comprised of Article III judges, do so in this instance, seems to us constitutionally dubious and could produce lasting adverse consequences. While it might surprise some of the Bush administration critics, who seem to think that the Constitution only constrains the power of the executive, that document properly restrains all of the government's three branches, including Congress and the courts.
Specifically, the Constitution decrees that judicial power, formidable as it may be, can only be exercised in a narrow range of circumstances, where a specific case or controversy has arisen and there are specific parties who have "standing" to bring the legal challenge. The federal courts, established under Article III of the Constitution, are not meant to render advisory opinions, passing judgment on the probity of a particular executive action. Yet, this is precisely what Mr. Specter's bill seems to envision, with the FISA court rendering an advisory opinion on the constitutionality of the NSA's Terrorist Surveillance Program. A great deal is at stake here.
As David Rivkin and Lee Casey point out in National Review, while the battles between the executive and Congress are not new, the new congressional assault on executive power features precisely the tendency to assign to the judiciary the responsibility to oversee the exercise of discretionary power by the executive. In this way, Congress seeks to check the president, while operating without any political accountability and incurring no political price. The problem with the Specter compromise is that the Bush administration, once it seeks an advisory opinion from the FISA court, even voluntarily, would weaken the ability of future presidents to effectively oppose congressional efforts to require such judiciary permissions again and again. The losers would be both the American people and the Constitution.
#2
I'm not sure that spying on Americans without warrants is a "key aspect of the global war against terrorist organizations". More of a colossal waste of time checking up on every teenager who says "da bomb", coupled with a chance for a president to abuse the system to spy on the political opposition.
9/11 didn't happen because the FBI didn't have enough _data_, it happened because they sat on their thumbs.
#3
Well if they didn't want the President to have the power Congress should not have given him the power when they voted for the damn war. Specter lost and he knows it no court going to take away the executive power and give it to Congess.
#4
I'm not sure that spying on Americans without warrants is a "key aspect of the global war against terrorist organizations"
Your right, listening in on every teenager with a little angst is a waste of time. Listening to conversations that originate in Afghanistan then to Florida is. Then picking up the trail and links to find the next sleeper cel is no ones waste of time. It is foolish to think AQ and Hez do not have operatives here in America, just go to the UN and watch them enjoy coffee at the nearest starbucks. It is also foolish and a bit fear mongering to think the FBI has the interest in anything but finding terrorists with this program.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 11:56
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You're right, but that's also stuff we could get a warrant for.
Doing away with warrants in our surveillance doesn't help the feds - they were drowning in data even before 9/11. But it does invite abuse.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin who is a man welcomed on Monday Israel's pledge to suspend air strikes in neighbouring Lebanon for 48 hours, but said it was not enough.
"It is, for France, a first step, but an insufficient step given the current stakes," he told reporters at Mantes-la-Jolie, a suburb west of Paris, at his regular monthly press conference. "We must all together redouble our efforts to achieve the immediate cessation of hostilities requested by the president," de Villepin added.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy is due to hold meetings with Lebanese government officials in Beirut on Monday.
#4
Old Europe looses its kahoonas at the sight of war. How many friendly fire casualties have occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq? Hell, this is war and as Sherman said "War is Hell." Politicians need to quit pissing their pants and get on with WWIII. The Islamofacists already view it as occurring.
#11
Who really cares what France has to say? Certainly not Israel, we let France rant in our press, but at the end of the day no one really cares. Britton will always be with us, despite their BBC and our CNNs best efforts. Israel cares about Israel and the preservation of their state, nothing more and as it should be. If Israel is halting their attack for 48 hours they are doing it for tactical reasons, not political ones, no matter what they say in the press.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 8:24
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#13
I'm really looking forward to the French led Multi-National Force that is going to separate the Israelis from the Hezb. I wonder how soon Hezb's fuel problem will translate to short flight rockets.
#14
What a truly simplistic and pitiful bastard. If...and I am quite certain it will never happen...Israel were to be destroyed who do the French think would be the very next target for destruction ?
#15
SOP, Israel need not be destroyed for France to fall. The Islamifacation of europe will have little to do with Israel. My guess is France is the #1 western European targeted nation by Islamic radicals. Villepin is such an idiot, but then the French have a wonderful history of political suiside.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 12:03
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#17
Puts in mind the ceasefire Hitler invoked with France while it shifted its military from Poland to France.
Some things just never change
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 19:35
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To De Villepin: FOAD.
To RB'ers; As you all know, the enemy in France is not 'the French', it is the 'French elite'. 'The French' can be (and are often) annoying, but are most certainly not of a mind with their ruling class.
Just saying.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/31/2006 20:13
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EFL
University professors in the Netherlands are not allowed to voice "unscientific" opinions that are too critical of Islam. One such opinion is the statement of Pieter W. van der Horst that the Nazis' irrational hatred of the Jews has been adopted in the contemporary Islamic world. At a meeting today in Amsterdam a large majority of the chancellors of the Dutch universities agreed that academic freedom at universities should be limited. Only two of them, Frans Zwarts of Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and Taede Sminia of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said that a retiring professor should be allowed to express a personal opinion in his valedictory lecture.
Last month Pieter W. van der Horst, the retiring professor of Early Christian History and Judaism at Utrecht University, (the alma mater of James Boswell, Lord Hailes, the Earl of Sunderland, Wilhelm Rntgen, Hugh Williamson, and others) wanted to argue in his valedictory lecture that the islamisation of European antisemitism is one of the most frightening developments of the past decades.
... the lecture was unscientific and incited different population groups against each other...
However, his university's chancellor, the rector magnificus, Prof. Willem H. Gispen, prevented him from doing so by censoring the lecture in advance. According to Gispen the lecture was unscientific and incited different population groups against each other. Van der Horst says Gispen had also told him that Islamic students might disrupt the lecture, in which case the university would not be able to guarantee van der Horst's safety.
I guess van Gogh's been dead long enough that they've forgotten, at least until the next Dutchman's slaughtered like a sheep in broad daylight. Then they'll be good for another six months or so.
#2
More of this. What in hell is wrong with a person like Gispen ? He is simply a traitor to his country and enables its eventual fall. Prof. van der Horst was completely correct and trying to approach this from an historical perspective which is usually very accurate. All their society needs to be alerted to action against the invaders. Perhaps the problem is that there is no real society anymore. Society being a group that has common interests, promotes common ideals, and projects norms of behavior. Maybe this crucial fabric has fallen away.
#6
Btw, rewriting History to be muslim-friendly and muslim-oriented, plus setting specific rules for treating islam, is part and parcel of the Eurabia strategy. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
#8
Coward ! Cowards all. The EU is becoming spineless. First the government, next the universities. Will the police be next to cower ?
Will their courts submit to sharia ?
Remember, this is the same Europe which has numerous muzzies camped out in Catholic churchs.
They have gone to hell. There's nothing left to loose except their pathetic EU liberal lives.
Europe's honor died in the 1940s. Survivors include appeasment, dhimmitude, and pointless leftist bloviation. Cowards all.
#9
Again, sorry to rant, but it's a feature, not a bug.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but between the internal rot set by the various shades of post/neo/paleo/marxists, the deliberate and planned (since the 1920's) killing of national identities by the EU, and Eurabia, what's happening is not the results of blind historical forces. Sure, they set the stage, starting with WWI which was the death of Europe, really, though the spiral started with the french revolution, but ideas are carried by people.
And there is an actual political will to change european societies into what the European Enlightened Elites wish them to be.
It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
And remember, you've got the same people at home, with basically the same agenda. Only thing that's helping you is a deeper sense of identity (religious and national), and a more healthy political "genetic memory" (but the new left came back from your shores).
#10
#9 anon - the 1st and 2nd Amendments don't hurt either.
Every day I wake up I'm grateful my ancestors got on those boats. And I'm really glad Jefferson's ancestors did, too.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/31/2006 19:40
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#11
I have to wonder, the next time Europe needs a savior, someone to liberate them from murdurous scum.
Will we give a damn?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2006 19:58
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#12
We have to, Redneck Jim. Otherwise Europe becomes a reservoir to poison the rest of the world. We may have to choose to rebuild themselves next time though, if only to keep them busy and out of trouble, after the way it turned out last time.
I do apologise, all. I'm not thinking very logically about this right now. My mother just called to let me know that the genteman who'd hidden her during the war just chose to be euthanized, and was buried on Friday. He was 91, in continual pain after a series of debilitating strokes, and decided it was time. He died in the love of his family, including some of his (nine?) children and grandchildren. When I heard, my first thought was that at least he will avoid what is about to come to his little country. His memory is for a blessing, and in Israel he and his wife are listed amongst the Righteous Gentiles.
Negotiations Must Go Beyond the Nuclear Threat to Broader Issues
By Henry A. Kissinger
The world's attention is focused on the fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, but the context leads inevitably back to Iran. Unfortunately, the diplomacy dealing with that issue is constantly outstripped by events. While explosives are raining on Lebanese and Israeli towns and Israel reclaims portions of Gaza, the proposal to Iran in May by the so-called Six (the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China) for negotiations on its nuclear weapons program still awaits an answer. It's possible that Tehran reads the almost pleading tone of some communications addressed to it as a sign of weakness and irresolution. Or perhaps the violence in Lebanon has produced second thoughts among the mullahs about the risks of courting and triggering crisis.
Continued on Page 49
#1
This HK article takes me back to the Nixon administration, where nobody accused the President of "irresolution." The Carter years had Cubans fighting in Africa. Then the Reagan Presidency yielded 8 good years. Wish he was still here.
#3
And then what? There was still a Soviet Union then and defeating them was more important at that time. Now that they're gone, everybody's got more latitude, especially Hezb'Allah. So now we need to respond.
#4
And then what? There was still a Soviet Union then and defeating them was more important at that time. Now that they're gone, everybody's got more latitude, especially Hezb'Allah. So now we need to respond.
Exactly. Sometimes, you have no choice but to deal with one menace at time. We had to ally with Stalin to beat Hitler, and we allied with Mao to defeat the USSR.
Sometimes the only reward for successfully dealing with one menace is to have the opportunity to deal with a new one.
Of course this all points to another moonbat contradiction. The same people who are urging us to "reach out" and be multilateralist also like to moan and groan about "blowback".
Never mind that the "blowback" was the result of previous "multilateralism".
Never mind that present day "multilateralism" could lead to future "blowback".
The ongoing violence in Lebanon and northern Israel, engendered by Hezbollahs toxic amalgam of jihad and Jew hatred, reached Seattle, Washington this past Friday July, 28, 2006, just after 4 PM, local time. Naveed Afzal Haq, a Pakistani Muslim, hiding in the foyer of the entrance to the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, seized a 13-year old girl hostage. With a gun pointed to the young girls head, Haq forced his way through the buildings security door, and then opened fire with two semi-automatic pistols, killing a 58 year old woman, and wounding five other women, three of whom were wounded seriously. Haq reportedly exclaimed: I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel ...These are Jews and I'm tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.
Earlier the same day, a triumphal pronouncement from Hezbollah accompanied the launching of so-called Khaybar-1 rockets, five of which reached Afula, south of Haifa, and 30 miles from the Israeli-Lebanese border. A Hezbollah statement proclaimed, With this, the Islamic Resistance begins a new stage of fighting, challenge and confrontation with a strong determination and full belief in God's victory. Throughout the preceding week, Al-Manar television and Al-Nur radioHezbollah-controlled media outlets which disseminate its propagandablared out in sonorous tones, Nastarjiu KhaybarWe will return to Khaybar.
These disparate events, occurring thousands of miles apartthe attack upon Jews in Seattle, and the firing of Khaybar-1 rockets at Afulareflect and celebrate the predatory relationshipMuslims preying upon Jewsestablished by Islams prophet Muhammad, and his earliest Muslim followers. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006
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THE LEBANESE MEDIA are the best in the Arab Middle East, and perhaps the freest, not because of any noble principles but because they are so competitive. Every Lebanese media outlet represents a political interest, sometimes several political interests, and all the major political parties own TV stations. (In this regard, Hezbollah really is just like every other political party, though no one else does "martyr kitsch" like the Party of God.) And the people of Lebanon take their cue from the media. Insofar as rumors are also a medium, they, too, represent political interests. My friend Fawaz called last week from Lebanon with reports of a rumor.
"There are lots of stories going around Beirut that Hezbollah M.P. Mohammed Raad is dead," says Fawaz. "And get this--more than 500 Hezbollah fighters have been killed and are lying around area hospitals. That's a lot of virgins on call."
Whether or not such rumors are true, they indicate something about the state of affairs right now in Lebanon. There are many Lebanese imagining, fantasizing, hoping against hope that Hezbollah will be wiped from the face of the earth. Some are even joking about it.
"The new one," Fawaz says, "is that they're going to play the next World Cup in the Daheyh [the Shiite neighborhood]--the whole thing's been leveled nice and flat."
This narrative, including the morbid jokes at the expense of the heavily Shiite southern suburbs and the spectacular number of Hezbollah dead, runs against the current Western news narrative. It seems that U.S.
and Western press outfits are determined to claim that the Israelis have driven all of Lebanon, Shiite or not, Islamist or not, pro-Hezbollah or not, into the waiting arms of the Islamic resistance. It is not clear why Western journalists believe this is so, though it seems to comport nicely with the idea that the Israelis are killing too many civilians--a cynical storyline, given that the Israelis are fighting against a militia and without the benefit of weapons capable of targeting only the bad guys. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006
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#1
Rumors of War
Isn't there a prophecy that we'd have times like these: rumors and wars of rumors?
Yoni Tidi is an IDF veteran, security expert and regular guest on the Hugh Hewitt show. From his blog:
It is now over. We have failed due to weak leadership and Israel once again caves to the world. Israel is going to stop the air war for 48 hours, the knees are weak and the back of the government is bending.
Rockets still fall on Israel and we are going to stop using our airpower. If we replace the air power with 30,000 troops and 400 tanks then maybe all is not lost. But a suspension of the air war while rockets still fall shows how weak we are.
The fact that Olmert came to this decision in a meeting with Sec. State Condi Rice show that America has said enough. This shows how weak America and Israel really are. Iran, Syria and Hizballah have played the west for fools. I now fear for the future of the west and the long term ramifications of Qana on the war on Islamic terror.
#3
I think the Fall Congressional sessions will create cause for optimism. US influence is collapsing not only in Europe and the Middle East, but in Latin America as well. That has to change, and it will change. Enemy life must be devalued.
#4
How do you figure there's reason for optimism? God knows I could use some; but I see lots of opportunity for things to go to hell in a handbasket this Fall, and little opportunity for much change for the better.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 8:43
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#5
The air war is not exactly suspended. It goes on in the north. It goes on with a few limits in the south. It will resume in full force if necessary.
I'm not sure I believe the doom and gloom is as bad as depicted here by Yoni Tidi. Olmert is not a military man. He needs to listen to his military more than the international press.
The U.S. needs to hold firm regarding 1559 and disarming the Hezs. This problem will come back to haunt us again if we don't. It is in our best interests to be tough here!
#6
It seems like the air war is "suspended" rather than suspended.... I heard it still continues on todays news...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
07/31/2006 9:39
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#7
WW3 does not depend on how we vote. It has started and it will continue until it's conclusion. Just when Iraq starts to resemble a quagmire, Hesbollah attacks Israel and kidnaps a couple of soldiers launching another front. This will happen again. Iran, Syria, and the various terror units will spill blood and we will jump in with both feet. I wonder if and when other European nations will do the same.
The time comes when you've got to shoulder arms. How about now ?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that she believes she has achieved general agreement on terms to end almost three weeks of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and that she expects a cease-fire to take hold this week.
"This morning as I head back to Washington, ... Take along vacation Condi
... I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent cease-fire and a lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week," Rice said at a small press conference for reporters traveling with her. No mention of returning the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006
06:01 ||
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#2
Anyone know how long this NATO expansion was planned and if we are reducing our troop count there? Timing of this seems interesting as we approach Iran's nuclear announcemnt.
Israel will "expand and strengthen" its attack on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the defense minister said Monday, while the army honored a 48-hour halt in aerial strikes.
Israel's top ministers will discuss expanding the army's ground operation at a meeting later Monday, while thousands of reserve soldiers train for the possibility that they will be sent into Lebanon to participate in the battle, senior defense officials said. "Israel will expand and strengthen its activities against the Hezbollah," Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Israel's parliament, while Arab lawmakers repeatedly interrupted him with calls for an immediate cease-fire.
Israel was pressured to call a 48-hour suspension of its airstrikes after nearly 60 civilians were killed in the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday. However, the army has made clear that the cessation does not include a halt in artillery fire or limited ground operations.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006
05:45 ||
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#1
2 days to smuggle in more missles from Syria and deploy the one in the Beka valley. This is really a dumb move.
#2
SPoD, yes and no. Depends. If the data from UAVs and other means are utilized, that may help pinpoint some Hezbully locations that have been thus far obscured. I hope that monitoring teams are working overtime on that.
#3
2X4,
Debka has an interesting article about the Syrian Anti aircraft ambush downing one of our reconnaisance UAVs flying over lebanese/syrian border region just in time of increased activity of Syrian/Iranian Ammo convoys trying to cross the border into lebanon.
I expect to see some strong IAF presence in this region very soon.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/31/2006 10:10
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#4
EoZ, at what point will the Israeli people/knesset become sufficiently dissatisfied with the way this war is being prosecuted to throw Olmert/Peretz out? Or is everybody over there please with the way things are going?
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006
05:14 ||
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#1
It's a heart rendening shame adults put children in such a situations this could happen to them.
No bagging on the blog that exposed the exploitation of this horror however It's even more revolting when their deaths are used to further someone elses sick agendas. There is no dignity for them, dignity which they deserve in death, in these images being shown to further the agendas of adults.
I keep saying these 'press' people who demonstrate they are on the other side should be treated accordingly. What would you have done to Joseph Goebbels and his helpers if you could have laid hands upon him?
#3
the IDF needs too have an eye open for this "civil defence worker" since IMO he is probably hezbollah himself. But i'm glad that someone pointed out how long this man paraded the bodies of the 2 children around for the benefit of the cameras
#4
Is it me or is anyone else disturbed about this 'worker' and the media molesting the bodies of these children for hours after they were dead in order to stage this scene?
#5
#2 "What would you have done to Joseph Goebbels and his helpers if you could have laid hands upon him?"
The Allied Powers did get their hands on one of his helpers - Hans Fritzsche.
"Fritzsche was taken prisoner by Soviet soldiers in Berlin on May 2, 1945. He was tried before the International Military Tribunal. In place of the deceased Goebbels, he was charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was one of only three Nazi figures to be acquitted at Nuremberg, but he was soon charged with other crimes and was eventually sentenced to nine years. He was released in September 1950 and died of cancer soon afterwards." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Fritzsche
#2
Not much in the way of new details here. Hezs are using civilians as pawns in their propaganda war. They don't give a fig for the civilian population they put in harms way. They are cowardly and perpetuating war crimes. By association, Iran and Syria are also perpetuating war crimes.
#3
Notice the man in the pic carrying the child? There is an interesting "sequence" of pictures of this man with other children, and with this child at http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/milking-it.html
I guess "timing" is everything. Photographs do lie in this case.
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is to publicly hang five men convicted of carrying out bombings in the southwestern oil city of Ahvaz as well as a militant convicted of involvement in a massacre in the southeast.
Mohammad Ali Surai, Yahya Naseri, Nazem Barihi, Abdolemam Zaeri and Abdolzahra Helichi, were all sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in Ahvaz, the hardline Kayhan newspaper quoted a judiciary official as saying on Sunday.
The paper said the convictions and sentencing were upheld by the Supreme Court.
It did not say when the executions would be carried out, nor which specific bombings the group were linked to. Two Arab separatists have already been hanged over attacks in October 2005, although a further attack took place in January.
Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province and home to a large community of ethnic minority Arabs, has been plagued by a wave of unrest over the past year.
Another man will be publicly hanged for involvement in the killing of 21 people on a highway in Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad told the ISNA news agency.
Regime officials had put the blame for the Khuzestan unrest on Britain and its troops based just across the border in southern Iraq. They have also pointed the finger at foreign involvement in the Sistan-Baluchestan unrest.
#3
gorb...Not entirely correct. Though they have extensive oil reserves and pumping capacity...Iran has limited gasoline refining capability. My recollection is they import almost 70% of the refined gasoline (from their own crude). Hence, 100 or so well targeted TLAMs (or SOF) would take out all of the Iranian gasoline refining capacity, and all of the gas import terminals. It would leave the mad mullahs completely paralized.
Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state sprocket medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community, while Chavez urged the world to rise up and defeat the U.S., state-run media in both countries reported.
"Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said.
The leftist Venezuelan leader also condemned Israel for what he called the "terrorism" and "madness" of its attacks in Lebanon, Venezuelan state television reported. "Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said. "This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented Chavez with the Islamic Republic Medal in a ceremony at Tehran University. The award was to show Iran's gratitude for his "support for Iran's stance on the international scene, especially its opposition to a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Iranian state-run television said. "He is the one who has resisted imperialism for years and has defended the interests of his and other Latin American countries," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
In February, Venezuela opposed an IAEA decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its disputed nuclear program.
WASHINGTON -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove said Saturday that journalists often criticize political professionals because they want to draw attention away from the "corrosive role" their own coverage plays in politics and government.
"Some decry the professional role of politics, they would like to see it disappear," Rove told graduating students at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "Some argue political professionals are ruining American politics _ trapping candidates in daily competition for the news cycle instead of long-term strategic thinking in the best interest of the country."
But Rove turned that criticism on journalists.
"It's odd to me that most of these critics are journalists and columnists," he said. "Perhaps they don't like sharing the field of play. Perhaps they want to draw attention away from the corrosive role their coverage has played focusing attention on process and not substance."
Rove told about 100 graduates trained to be political operatives that they should respect the instincts of the American voter.
"There are some in politics who hold that voters are dumb, ill informed and easily misled, that voters can be manipulated by a clever ad or a smart line," said Rove, who is credited with President Bush's victories in the 2000 and 2004 elections. "I've seen this cynicism over the years from political professionals and journalists. American people are not policy wonks, but they have great instincts and try to do the right thing."
Rove said it is "wrong to underestimate the intelligence of the American voter, but easy to overestimate their interest. Much tugs at their attention."
But he said voters are able to watch campaigns and candidates closely and "this messy and imperfect process has produced great leaders."
#1
I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (Reuters) - Michael Moore -- gadfly filmmaker, liberal activist and political lightning rod -- says he finds himself being hugged by a lot of Republicans these days. Don't get all excited, Michael. They're just expressing their gratitude that you're a member of the Democratic party is all.
On the streets of Traverse City, where Moore is working on last-minute preparations for a bigger-and-better sequel to the film festival he launched last year in his home state, the Oscar-winning director says he is approached all the time by conservatives ready to make peace. "If you were to hang out with me here it won't be five or 10 minutes before you see a Republican hug me. That is almost as entertaining as some of the films," Moore said in an interview. Almost, Michael. But given that your films are not entertaining, that isn't saying much.
Moore has not budged from the central claim of his 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- that the Bush administration misled the American public about the reasons for war in Iraq -- but he says that more people have come around to his view. "That's the shift that I'm seeing in the past year or so in the country, and as it relates to me," he said. There are pills that can help with those delusions, Michael.
Some in solidly Republican northern Michigan and elsewhere now believe that they made a "colossal mistake" in initially supporting the war in Iraq, Moore said, and they have let him know it in chance encounters on the streets of Traverse City, a resort town where he has relocated from New York.
Used to traveling with security and encountering a barrage of hostility, Moore said he finds people now more accepting, even to the point Republicans are spontaneously hugging him. Looks like you can do away with the security now.
"Look up the definition of liberal. We hug trees. We hug each other. We hug people of the same sex and want to marry each other," Moore said. "It's the other side that we need to get to hold their arms out a little bit and coochey-coo." Keep talking Michael, and you're going to get more hugs from Republicans.
The success of the second annual Traverse City Film Festival, which runs from Monday to Sunday, has also won over some of Moore's political foes -- or at least sidelined them.
This year's slate features 68 films selected by Moore. Festival organizers expect over 75,000 to attend. That would mark a 50-percent gain over the inaugural event, which drew some of the controversy that has become the 52-year-old director's calling card.
In 2005, critics attempted to upstage the Traverse City film festival with a parallel event nearby intended to hammer the message that Moore was out of touch with the mainstream. Moore said the effort failed to draw crowds and fizzled.
AT WORK ON 'SICKO'
Moore says he intends the festival to be "nonpartisan," even as it takes on charged topics with films like "The Road to Guantanamo." Moore calls that film about three British men jailed without charges in the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a look at "a disgraceful moment in our history we're still living through."
Moore is mostly done shooting his own film "Sicko." The movie examines America's health care system and Moore describes it as "a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth." The film is due out in 2007. How many people didn't have health care in 2000?
For now, he seems pleased with the outbreak of relative goodwill toward him after a depressing period when he thought he might not be able to work again in Hollywood.
Moore was booed and escorted from the Kodak Theater by security when he used his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech for documentary "Bowling for Columbine" to lash out at President George W. Bush. "I remember going back to my hotel room that night, where they had all the pundits on post-Oscar and they were all like, 'That's the end of Michael Moore. That's the last we'll see of him.' By the end of the night, I believed it," he said. It was one of Karl Rove's plots that saved you, you know.
#3
So he's a big deal in Michigan. Anybody returning his calls in Hollywood? Didn't think so.
BTW, Mikey, I *think* they're hugging you out of gratitude for saving Bush's bacon in the 2004 election. But go ahead and have your Sally Field moment if it makes you happy.
#4
have your Sally Field moment if it makes you happy LOL!!!
I was in Mesa two weeks ago doin 85 with my hands on fire. Thought of you, DB and your advise to wear oven mits.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 14:47
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#5
49 pan, ah, yes, I remember those days. (But I usually grew my nails during the summer and drove with two of 'em touching the steering wheel. ;) I know, not really an option for the men, or those who have manual transmissions.)
#6
Actually, I'm more of a political maverick than most of those usually termed "right wing"--- I even voted for Anderson when he ran as an independent, for Clinton at least once, and in 2000 I honestly couldn't see much to choose between the two, so flipped a coin and voted for Gore--- but the thought of hugging Michael Moore makes me go all nauseous, and want to scour myself all over with about a quart of betadine.
I demand independent documentary evidence of that fat B*****D being hugged by Republicans, including a notarized copy of their voting registration record, and picture ID.
#7
Moore thinks he's some sort of modern day svengalli or p.t. barnum. I tend to think he was separated from Momma Cass at birth. Where's a ham on rye when you need one.
#1
It is amazing that regular Chinese tests of their DF-31 ICBM provoke no such headlines in the media yet a single Taiwanese test of a SRBM is labelled "troublesome".
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006 11:03
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#2
Think that's troublesome - wait till Taiwan tests a nuke.
#3
In the past Taiwan has pointed out that when the NPT was written, IT, not the PRC was the legitimate government of China and holder of the UNSC seat.
As such, they consider themselves a legitimate Nuclear Weapons State, albeit one without nuclear weapons, with the right to develop such weapons.
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006 11:39
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#4
Missiles, nuclear weapons ... it's all good. Taiwan is a delightful thumb in the politburo's eye.
Click on the title to follow the link to the full article if you want to view the videos and other links, but in any case check out my hopefully not nutcase theory highlighted below.
(VIDEO) IDF continuing to check difficult incident at Qana village, and attempting to account for strange gap between time of the strike on the building midnight and eight in the morning, when the building collapsed - Hanan Greenberg
VIDEO - An IDF investigation has found that the building in Qana struck by the Air Force fell around eight hours after being hit by the IDF.
"The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear," Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters told journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the incidents at Qana.
Rockets being fired from Qana village (Video: IDF Spokesperson Unit)
Eshel and the head of the IDF's Operational Branch, Major General Gadi Eisnkot said the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning.
The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse.
Another possibility is that the rickety building remained standing for a few hours, but eventually collapsed. "It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said.
Rescue operations in Qana (Photo: Reuters)
"I'm saying this very carefully, because at this time I don't have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap," he added.
Meanwhile in Lebanon it is being reported that the number of those killed in the collapse of the structure climbed to 60.
My ideas:
The building didn't look all that damaged and people reentered it either to go about their lives or because they wanted to use it for shelter against the nearby attacks. Two things could have then happened:
1) Nearby attacks may have collapsed the already weakened buiding.
2) Hezb'Allah collapsed the building once people were inside.
Under normal circumstances, there should have been witnesses who would have seen any obvious activity by Hezb'Allah to collapse the building. In this case, people may have been too busy sheltering, or Hezb'Allah pre-wired the building before firing rockets from nearby hoping for just such an incident to develop. Any demolition explosions could be accounted for in the minds of residents by blaming Israeli bombing. In any case, if witnesses said an explosion coincided with the collapse of the building at a time other than when the IAF was dropping bombs, that may well explain the whole thing as a Hezb'Allah setup. If there was an Israeli attack just 30 minutes prior to the building collapsing, the timing would be about right for Hezb'Allah to pull this off. Even if people wanted to leave the building, they could just tell them to stay inside a little longer because another attack was imminent, then level the building.
Or it could be that Israel just bombed the building with a bunch of civilians inside.
In both cases, residents must have been aware of the rockets firing from behind the building. Not much sympathy for Hezb'Allah or the locals if this is the case.
I haven't yet seen much in the way of the details on how this unfolded, but it will be interesting if it fits the theory that Hezb'Allah dunnit.
Please post details that could confirm or deny this!
This could be devastating to Hezb'Allah if seems that they did it.
All targets struck accurately
Eshel said that an additional attack took place at 7:30 in the morning, but added that other buildings were targeted. "This was an attack on three buildings 460 meters away from the structure we are talking about. Four bombs were dropped and all of them are documented by the planes' cameras. They all struck their targets. In addition, we carried out a filming sortie that photographed the village during the afternoon showing that the three targeted buildings we struck. We have verification of strikes on the building and that the bombs reached their targets," Eshel said.
"An attack that took place at two in the morning struck two targets, both of them 400 meters away from the building (that collapsed). They were also destroyed. The attack between 12 and 1 a.m. struck the area of the affected house, and there were accurate strikes on the target. We are asking the question what happened between 1 in the morning and 8 in the morning we understand this building was attacked between 12 and 1 in the morning, seven hours before it was seriously damaged," he said.
Brigadier General Eshel explained that "since the start of fighting in Lebanon 150 rockets from a very high number of rocket launchers have been fired from the village and its surrounding areas, at a number of sites in the State of Israel. Within the village itself we have located a diverse range of activities connected to firing of rockets, beginning from forces commanding this operation because such an operation needs ongoing command to direct it and logistical sites that serve this end."
"From this village rockets are fired almost every day across Israel. The operation carried out overnight is an extension of operations that didn't start last night but before, and during this night we struck a number of targets in the village. All of the targets are being meticulously sifted," Eshel added.
#1
Why focus on this one incident? The Shiite-Sunni battles in Iraq are costing thousands of lives each month. What are the Eurabians saying about that? Other than blaming the US for internal social divisions.
#5
It's very possible that the bomb hits weakened the building, and it just collapsed later. It's still Hezbollah's fault for setting up a battery in a civillian area.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2006 10:00
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Their faces were ashen gray. While medical examination clearly is called for to arrive at a definitive dating and cause of their deaths, they do not appear to have died hours before. The bodies looked like they had been dead for days.
I'm no expert on dead bodies, but that was my reaction as well. Looks like the whole thing was staged.
#9
I wondered about the stiffness of some of the bodies, so looked up Rigor Mortis.
Assuming mild temperatures, rigour usually sets in about 3-4 hours after clinical death, with full rigour being in effect at about 12 hours, and eventually subsiding to relaxation at about 36 hours. Times for the onset of rigour mortis can vary from a few minutes to several hours depending on the temperature of the environment in which the body is found.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/31/2006 16:21
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#10
OK, we've got our own resident physician. Dr. White, any observations about the photographs of the bodies on display? Some do look rather grayer and stiffer than others.
EU Referendum also has some archival shots of Mr. Green Helmet at the scene of an attack on children in 1996 by the evil Joooos.
#11
Merely another button on the coat. The IDF needs to concentrate on one thing only, namely wasting Hezbollah so regularly you can set your watch by it.
#12
I didn't see a lot of blood on the bodies, sheets, ground, or rescuers. As a layman, I expect the bodies to have visible signs of being crushed to death. What I see are whole, uncrushed bodies, that may well have been killed by a concussion at another location. Before I was thinking they collapsed the building on live people. Now I'm beginning to think they stocked the building with bodies and demolished it, which would be much more "palatable" to the terrorists and their supporters. I didn't see any signs of maggots or decomposition, but I'm just looking at pictures. That would suggest these deaths are recent or, unlikely, the bodies were refrigerated. The whole thing, from beginning to end, just has the markings of a what may well have been a trap. And they've been know to have done this kind of thing before almost exactly with that incident involving the "beach shelling" in Israel. Except there they used live terrorists to play the dead bodies.
If all this turns out to be an act, I wouldn't be surprised if half of the point of this would be to pass their hate down to their children to validate their stupid ideology. That would be desperate.
It would be interesting to match families who claimed to lose relatives to DNA of the bodies. We already know it's OK to exhume the bodies to move them from the statements made at the mass gravesites in Beirut . . . .
#13
But by then it will be way too late to make a difference. The MSM, the UN etc. have already bought this hook line and sinker, because it's what they want to believe. Even if there were conclusive proof it was faked, not only would they not retract what they have said, they would carry on saying, because for them belief is more important than facts or the truth, and they believe Israel is culpable.
Rule #1 in war: never apologise for collateral damage until you are both certain that your side did it, and that the enemy didn't set up collaterals for slaughter. Read this screed from a despicable anti-American pig-pen, in context of the reported 8 hour delay in the Qana building collapse, and the Persian looking "rescue worker" who was caught posing with the same dead infant,over a 2 hour period. Qana lies have to be refuted, and by the highest authorities in the credible world. The BBC should be picketed for intentional deceit, and their paid liars must be terminated. The West cannot afford to let stupidity prosper. Saving grace: fence-sitters - including the oily Leb PM - turned to weeds on this issue. They are now targets.
'I Renounce America and Her New Middle East'
In this emotional op-ed article from Lebanon's Arabic-language El-Shark, the author explains why the 'accidental' killing of almost 60 civilians including 37 children in an Israeli air attack has turned him against, 'America and her New Middle East, which is soaked in the blood of children.'
...I am renouncing humanity democracy peace all the lies that they keep hammering us with around the clock, only to practice the opposite.
I am renouncing America and revolting against her New Middle East, which is soaked in the blood of the children of Qana, Palestine and Iraq.
I am renouncing the United Nations, its Security Council and its decisions; I am revolting against the entire international community which is plotting against us.
I am renouncing all those Arab governments which shamefully abide by the will of their masters in Washington, and I am revolting against all the Arab populations who demonstrate only to make themselves feel good and who cower rather than bringing their governments to account. Those governments are smeared in the shame of surrender, being followers of the present-day Hulagu [Bush] who is in Washington. [Hulagu was the brutal grandson of Genghis Khan ].
I only believe in Qana, in the blood of our children, which has watered the soil of the South with the very essence of martyrdom. Out of their blood flowers the wild red poppy, which reminds us of the crimes of Dracula, who always thirsts for the blood of innocent children.
I only believe in the covenant of July in the covenant of sacrifice until martyrdom, so we can achieve the victory and the right to protect the lives of the children and the people of the south.
I am fighting a guerilla war against all of this, because only a guerilla resistance can achieve victory, in spite of America and the Arabs and non-Arabs that support them.
The children of Qana and all Lebanon are the faith and promise of a revolution against oppression, all oppression.
I am revolting against all of the world's infidels, because I believe that only those who revolt for dignity and against the killing of children deserve life...
After repeated Israeli efforts to destroy Hizbullah's al-Manar television station have failed, an IDF intelligence unit succeeded this week in hacking the station's live broadcasts, planting Israeli PR messages in the transmissions..
The al-Manar channel regularly airs juicy propaganda against Israel, including reports of "heroic" and "successful" operations by Hizbullah fighters against IDF special forces.
However, this weekend the IDF prepared a surprise for the Lebanese and Arab viewers of the channel: The broadcast was interrupted and caricatures of Nasrallah appeared on the screen, accompanied by captions reading: "Your days are numbered" and "Nasrallah, your time is up. Soon you won't be with us anymore."
Additionally, Hizbullah and al-Manar internet sites also received "special treatment" by Israeli technical specialists, and several were erased from the internet.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2006 9:46
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#2
Kinda like our guys during the invasion of Iraq. They put false data in the Iraqis computers. So bagdahd Bob might have truely believed they were winning.
#7
What's not to like? They need to inject footage of Hezbollah deploying their anti-aircraft and rocket launchers in civilian neighborhoods, with before and after shots (as it were).
#8
Stupid waste of a good opportunity. So the Israeli's hacked al-Manar and then only used it to toss a few childish insults. They should have taken advantage to show the viewers the nasty crap Hezbulllah is doing to their own people. Shouldn't be hard to use Nasrullah's own word against him, point out some of the hypocrisy. But no, missed it again.
...During a large-scale attack on Easter Sunday, Wilson says, he spotted six gunmen on a rooftop about 400 yards away. In about 8 seconds he squeezed off five rounds hitting five gunmen in the head. The sixth man dived off a 3-story building just as Wilson got him in his sights, and counts as a probable death...
Technically, Wilson is not a sniper he's an infantryman who also patrols through the span of destroyed buildings that make up downtown Ramadi. But as his unit's designated marksman, he has a sniper rifle.
Does that mean he didn't do the formal Marine sniper training, but he's still the designated marksman because he's a dead-eye? Is that a distinction without a difference?
#8
Last haji dived off the building to avoid being Martyred(Tm), after watching the heads of his buddies being punctured in rapid succession leading to him?
But... I thought they loved death more than we love life?!?!? That's so confusing!
Obviously, you just can't please some people, even if you try your best.
#9
Mark E, I'm a Carlos Hathcock fan myself. Great read and I could live with a fictional version (hint to good writers). A sniper has to have the patience to wait for days while bugs bite him, and rain, sun, and every possible inconvenience nibble at his endurance. And, even after that, he has to outthink his target. Focus, focus, focus.
Hathcock was great because he loved to 'play' soldier, and also because he held the marine corps in the highest regard and each marines life in high esteem.
#10
Indeed.... his story is so good as to make for bad cinema; sniping guy at 2500 yards with a 50 cal with a scope on it, sniping the guy through the other guy's scope, the NVA general, scope zeroed at 700 yrds, his amazing drive and patriotism, etc.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
07/31/2006 14:00
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#11
He's not using a .50 Cal. Most likely an M-14 with a scope. The M-14 is still one of the best sniping rifles you can use for "common" units.
Most sniper teams use 30.6 Remingtons. Only Special OPS and EOD teams use the Barret .50 Cal.
The reason I bring this difference up is that it highlights this Marines' skill. Hitting a target with an M-14 at that range is worth acolades.
#13
X, a lot of Marine grunt battalions usually come w/a sniper platoon located either in the H&S company or in the Weapons Company - they are usually called STA Platoon (Surveillance & Target Acquisition pronounced "Stay"). "Scout Snipers" (their full name) are at a premium and a lot of times the regular line companies will cross train their own riflemen in sniping tactics. A lot of these grunts are not "school trained" snipers per se, although the resident battalion snipers will teach the regular line grunts some things. I had the good fortune to do some minor training w/our battalion snipers a long time ago. Talk about fun. Anyways the "scout" part is often more important as they are normally the eyes and ears forward for the battalion commander. BTW - Hathcock was one bad mofo. Some of his exploits were copied in the movie "Sniper" w/Tom Berrenger.
#14
"As a result of his skill Sergeant Hathcock was twice recruited for covert assignments. One of the them was to kill a Frenchman who was working for the North Vietnamese as an interrogator. This individual was torturing American airmen who had been shot down and captured. One round from Carlos' modified Winchester Model 70 ended the Frenchman's career. On another occasion Sergeant Hathcock accepted an assignment for which he was plainly told that his odds for survival were slim. A North Vietnamese general was the target, and the man died when a bullet fired by Carlos struck him from a range of 800 yards. Hathcock returned to Hill 55 unscathed. In one incredible incident an enemy sniper was killed after a prolonged game of "cat and mouse" between Carlos, with his spotter, and the NVA sniper. The fatal round, fired at 500 yards by Hathcock, passed directly through the NVA sniper's rifle scope, striking him in the eye.
Hathcock would eventually be credited with 93 enemy confirmed killed, including one Viet Cong shot dead by a round fired from a scope-mounted Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine gun at the unbelievable range of 2500 yards."
If you are like me, you're wondering why Lebanon failed to implement 1559. Well, here is some insight into the reason.
Incidentially, prominent pro-democracy figures in Lebanon have been assassinated since the Cedar Revolution of 2004: Samir Kassir, Edmond Naim (died of "old age"), and Gebran Tuemi.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch has criticized the meeting between Gen. Michel Aoun and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying it could delay the implementation of an international decision that calls on Hizbullah to disarm.
Speaking at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Welch said the U.S. viewed the meeting between Aoun and Nasrallah as a discussion between two political currents, and not a government discussion. But when asked if he believed that the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1559 has been undermined by the statement of cooperation between Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement, Welch said: "We are concerned about any understandings, whatever their status, that would appear to postpone such a decision."
Earlier this week, Hizbullah and the FPM issued a 10-point joint statement of cooperation stating that holding arms was an honorable and sacred way for a resistance group to defend its occupied land. The two parties also said that the Lebanese should take responsibility for protecting Lebanon especially that Israel occupies the Shabaa Farms, detains Lebanese resistance fighters and threatens the country.
Welch reiterated Washington's position on Hizbullah, saying the Shiite party is considered "terrorist" under American law. "It receives foreign funding and it tends to respond to foreign guidance," he said.
The U.S. official said Washington objected to comments by some Lebanese politicians that have justified Hizbullah's "terrorist actions" committed in the past, such as the taking of hostages. Asked if he was referring to Aoun, Welch said, "yes." Aoun reportedly had said that Hizbullah and the FPM were the only two parties in Lebanon who were not involved in mass murders during the country's 1975-1990 year civil war.
"American citizens have suffered at the hands of this organization (Hizbullah) and that's why we consider it a terrorist organization, and there is no reason in our view why there should be any excuse or any loophole for them to change their behavior and disarm, as according to the rules of the international community as expressed in 1559," said Welch.
Welch, who visited Lebanon last month, said Washington deals with the established institutions of the government. "And we ask them to respect the will of the international community." He said the U.S. administration understands the need for the Lebanese to have a dialogue with Hizbullah, but he stressed that such a dialogue should be directed toward the implementation of UN Resolution 1559.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006
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#1
Gen Michel Aoun, back in the day, was anti-Syrian. He exiled to France and came back after the Cedar Revolution as a complete Syrian tool.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 1:09
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Just remember, Lebies, Syrians, Non-Iranian Shias and Sunnis, etal. any defeat or destruction of Israel does NOT mean [post-Israel]Radical Iran = Radical Shias in Radic Iran will treat youse as equals, brothers, or fairly. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOUSE ASK = FIGHT FOR, BECUZ YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT.
#4
We should have responded back in 1983 when a suicide bomber (taking direction from Iran) murdered 241 Marines in Beirut. Should have gotten payback. Hizballah needs to be disarmed (UN Resolution 1559) or destroyed. They are a danger to the world. If Iran builds an A-Bomb, Hizballah will even become more dangerous. Anything short of disarming or destruction will be viewed as some kind of victory in the weird world of islamofacists.
A majority of Lebanese, like a majority of Palestinians, back terrorist violence under a shield of terminology, "resistance". While Hezbollah politicians are active in Lebanese government, Hezbollah militants are launching missiles into Israel, intentionally killing Israeli civilians. The Lebanese people put Hezbollah reps in positions of government power to best represent their desires.
The government of Lebanon is responsible for its actions as the one government of the people of Lebanon. Resolution 1559 requires that the government of Lebanon disarm armed militias, including Hezbollah. The Lebanese government has not disarmed them. The Lebanese government is shielded from responsibility for launching a war against Israeli civilians through the division of Hezbollah into militant and political wings.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
07/31/2006 9:56
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#6
Have we heard anything about/from this guy lately?
(1) There is no democratic Lebanese government separate and apart from Hezbo, and
(2) The Lebanese PM and other elected officals govern with a Hezbo gun to their heads.
President Bush and Condi continue to clinge to not wanting to damage the Lebanese government. But the Lebanese government per se doesn't exist anymore.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 12:36
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Kofi -- this is what a deliberate attempt at targeting a UN facility looks like.
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian protesters stormed the main U.N. compound in Gaza City on Sunday during a demonstration against Israel's bombing of southern Lebanon that killed around 60 civilians, witnesses and U.N. staff said.
Hundreds of members of the Islamic Jihad militant group, some rolling their eyes throwing stones and others having gun sex firing assault rifles, attacked the compound at the end of a rally, witnesses said. At least five people were wounded, police said.
U.N. staff were inside the compound at the time, but managed to escape after U.N. guards let off tear gas canisters. A U.N. official said the compound, which includes scores of buildings, was ransacked and eight vehicles damaged.
Just deduct it from the next aid check, right Kofi?
Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's special guard arrived shortly after the assault began and managed to disperse the crowd by having more spirited gun sex firing into the air.
Witnesses in Gaza said extensive damage had been caused to the U.N. compound, from where the world body directs its relief and aid operations for the Gaza Strip's 1.4 million people. The attack came hours after thousands of Lebanese demonstrators deliberately attacked the U.N. headquarters in Beirut, smashing windows and ransacking offices.
Several thousand people massed outside the building in the center of the capital chanting "Death to Israel, death to America. We sacrifice our blood and souls for Lebanon."
Uh-huh, sure, you guys can't even defend Gaza.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2006
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by William Kristol
Every time neocon warmongers like me get exasperated by the Bush administration (and we've had increasingly good reasons for exasperation in the last year or so, I might add), someone like first-term Clinton secretary of state Warren Christopher pops up. Maybe "pops up" isn't quite right, conveying as it does an implication of activity and even energy. So let's just say that Warren Christopher presented his credentials to the Washington Post op-ed page Friday, criticizing the Bush administration, more in sorrow than in anger. Bush, you see, had "resisted all suggestions that the first order of business should be negotiation of an immediate cease-fire between the warring parties," i.e., between the state of Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Christopher's piece needs to be read to be believed. It needs to be read as an example of the fatuousness of liberal elite opinion about the world we live in. That opinion is dominant in the Democratic party--and, unfortunately, has penetrated the Bush State Department more than one would wish. Still, Christopher's op-ed is such a convenient reminder of how much worse things could be that one wonders whether he's on Karl Rove's payroll.
Iran denied Sunday it was helping Hizbullah in its fight against Israel in Lebanon. "We haven't deployed any forces there (Lebanon)," said Hamid Reza Asefi, spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry. "We don't send weapons to the resistance. We don't support them militarily. "If we choose to give them future military support, we will announce it. We have no fear of Mr. Bush and company."
Iran is a vocal backer of Hizbullah, which is battling Israel in its southern Lebanese strongholds after its guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others on July 12.
Posted by: Fred ||
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That old diplomatic standard, the unbelieved denial.
Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin told the cabinet in Sunday's meeting that efforts to rescue kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit were not succeeding. However, Diskin said, it was "extremely likely that Shalit is alive and well in the Gaza Strip." Noam Shalit, Gilad's father, said on Sunday that he wasn't aware of attempts to secure his son's release other than those of Egypt. Noam Shalit said that the family had not received any new information from the government regarding their son's condition.
That probably accounts for the yo-yo operations in Gaza...
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The captives are probably being held in Teheran. This is an Iranian operation. Ahmadinejad was threatening something well before the Hizbollah provocation. This conflict is Iran v America. That is why a status quo ceasefire would be a catastrophe. The Iranian tyrants have to be eliminated by any necessary means.
Magen David Adom reported that it treated 69 victims of Katyusha attacks today. Four of the victims were moderately wounded, 18 were lightly wounded and the rest were treated for shock.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
And how many Eurabian mediasnots will express Qana outrage over Hizbollah's use of scrapnel for urban impact?
Europe is lost for the truth concerning the War on Terror and the barbarous crimes of islamism.
In France, we have more than 5 million Muslims, and the government is afraid of them, fearing that they could resume their destructions of suburbs as they did in last November. The criminality of Muslims in France is 30 times higher than the one of non-Muslims. 30 years ago, there were 100 mosques in France; now there are more than 1700; and licences for the construction of 2200 more mosques are currently 'studied' by the authorities (that means that they will say 'amen' to all of them).
#3
Leroi David,
I agree with you.
anyone who has listned to the french rhetoric in the last couple of days including the vile statements about "Irans major stabilizing role in ther middle east" cannot avoid noticing the strong smell of French fear in the air.
I think that the IDF would continue airstrikes and ground attack until we purify the south of lebanon from the Shiite scum I cannot wait to see the "good moslems" of Sarcelle and other French islamo getto towns ignite Paris in a new racial and religious war the like of which France has not experienced yet.
I am sorry to be such a pig but every dead antisemitic halfwitted neo-multiculturalist Frenchmen will give me immense joy.
I am even willing to be tolerant about "Seething of Arab Masses"TM provided it occurs in Paris.
By the time the Islamist get done with the impotent French France would be a very useful addition to the IAF target Bank.
I have already stopped buying French wines and buying French merchandise, I think it may indeed be time to take some more active steps in teaching them a lesson.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/31/2006 9:51
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#4
Since Leroidavid has commented on this already, perhaps he would elaborate. I must tell you part of my family originated south of Strasburg, and I can see that Al-Shirag has been in bed with Arabs for years. Why do the french citizens tolerate this. Why don't they overturn the government. Why do they not massively respond when the youths take the street ? Just a few hundred deceased youths would cause pause for the remainder. Can you not expell these scumbags ? I'm sure most arrived illegally and now you have literal bunker towns within your territory. Why is there no will to address these very serious issues ?
#6
For those not familiar with the German language, "Kein Juden" means "no Jews".
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2006 13:31
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#7
SOP35/Rat : just a few ideas at random...
because we're hammered by an oligarchy which brainwashes us in permanence (technocrats/civil servants + leftist gramscists) to feed us multiculturalism and transnational progressism. It works;
because France is deadlocked on its "social model" elaborated after WWII and won't change until after it's bankrupted... everybody knows that, so everybody's afraid and won't dare to move until it's too late;
because the historical narratives set up right after WWII are false (left = resistance, right = collaboration, while it was historically pretty much the reverse) and designated to validate the oligarchy (and explain why there is no real conservative movement in France);
because after Robert Paxton, this WWII narratives turned the whole french people into accessories to the Shoah (which we weren't), and that guilt is perpetuated by the Oligarchy to justify its existence ("it's either us, or the nazi/pépé Le Pen/Bushitler/Sharon/...") and erase our identity (anything "french" is bad and sucks, it is nazi-like, so just die old white male, and embrace diversity);
because after the 60's counterculture apotheose, men are devirilized and feminized (triumph of the "soft", "feminine" "hedonistical" values), and thus unable to cope with the violent "hypervirility" of the migrants and their traditional society values (manhood, honor, conflict, tribalism);
because "ethnic french" are individualistical, unorganized, have small families... while Youths come in force, in group, can call on "cousins" from extended families at will (Youths weaponry most feared by the police? Cellphone, which enable to bring in instant reinforcement and drive back any police intervention short of a full force riot unit);
because Europe has been struck with the (american made) "Shoah bigbang" (the expression was made by jewish conservative William Goldnadel, a remarkable guy), along with the 60's attack on its core value... thus any legitimate use of force is "nazi", while any persons resisting the State's monopoly on violence are "WWII jews" (by the way, this is why the israelis are "nazified" and why the paleos can take the mantle of the "persecuted jew" so easily);
because since the 30's, gun ownership is more and more restricted in Europe, so the only people who owns guns do it illegally;
because self-defense is frowned upon by the Oligarchy, which really fears more a french reaction than migrant crime (which in fact helps subjugate the rival middle class), and so anyone who defends himself is asking for trouble (true story : one froggie in a train comes to the rescue of a mugged man; he faces the Youth armed with a knife, and subdue him with a bludgeon, sustaining several cuts in the process... what happens? He ends up sued by the mrap islamo-communist "antiracist" org, subsisized byt he french gvt, for excessive use of force and being a racist, and he pays 7000 euros/$9000 in fine);
etc, etc...
Endline : France is a socialist country ruled by a nomenklatura which knows the collapse is nearing (80's quote by late socialist president Mitterrand, "we are partying on a plane about to crash") and is scared stiff of its people (they would probably ask the army to shoot french citizens like de gaulle did, to protect Youths if push came to shove), and so neuters him very successfully to keep that cash coming as long as possible.
Add the transnationalist Europe/EURSS, and the Eurabia suicide pact, and you've got a winner.
#8
Thanks 5089. It's worse than I even imagined. I've never visited and probably won't even though I have a desire to. That's why I'm a LIfe Member of NRA and will never consent to a disarming of the American people.
#9
Bear in mind I'm not the most qualified person to talk about the Real World(Tm), since I'm carefully avoiding it, these are just my thoughts and are probably over-the-top gross generalizations, truth is more complex I'd say...
For example there is a substantial pocket of gun ownership in France, mostly hunters and a few security men, sportive shooters, businessmen under threat,... though it is specialized and increasingly regulated (last hardening of the law was after the 2002 urban council shooting by a psycho, prompting the socialist gvt to further restrict access to guns)... IIRC, to become a legal owner of a sporting handgun, a would-be recreational shooter must wait one year, gun has to be registered and kept in a safe, it cannot be transported freely, ammo is counted, etc, etc... hunting weapons are more available and less restricted, and can include quite serious weapons, like Ye Olde 12 ga pump shotgun (I remember when they were on sale at supermarket back in the late 80's, now capacity is restricted and they're harder to buy without a "legitimate" hunting purpose, though it remains a popular self defense weapon) or .35, .308, 7mm,... rifles. Target carbines like .22 or .222 are also somewhat available, with fixed/limited magazine, and no semi-auto allowed from what I know (through a few hunters in my entourage).
Anyway, it's far from (most of) the USA or neighbouring Switzerland, but less restricted than the UK. Ironically, the gang firepower has increased tremendously since the 90's, with eastern assault rifles, handguns, the occasional rpg, flowing from albania and kosovo. (Hand)Gun toting was once reserved for "beau mecs", IE organized crime gangsters, now it is very common in the underworld, with an increased forepower. It is in France that prisons had been breached with Akm, rpg-7 and plastic, not in the USA.
JFM would be more qualified to answer your initial question, but, still, IMHO, the general idea is there, broadly speaking.
#10
Well, if you want to see Europe as you thought it would be, see it now. I have been living here since 1999 and the Muslim growth has been exponential.
I liken it to cancer when you smoke; you know its bad, it will kill you sooner or later but right now it gives you pleasure. That pleasure is the Euros belief that multi-culturalism will prevail.
There are already shirts worn by young Muslim men in Sweden that say "in 2030, we take over". They are refering to the exponetial rate of reproduction Muslim families are effecting the democraphic.
#12
I listened to a Democrat Congressman on MSNBC yesterday state catagorically that the rockets being fired by the Hezzies are "little more than firecrackers." That's funny because I remember friends being killed by those rockets in Quang Tri in '69. Kinda went all PTSD and lucky for the Congressman, he was not there in person. We are losing the Media WOT with the help of idiots like that.
QUETTA: Three soldiers were killed and another two were seriously injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in the tense Marri tribal area of Kahan on Sunday. Sources said that the soldiers were travelling in Karmu Wad in Kahan when their vehicle hit a landmine, killing three of them instantly. The injured soldiers were admitted to a hospital. No militant group has accepted responsibility as yet.
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Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, alongside various anti-war and Muslim groups, announced plans this week for a "National Emergency March on Washington" to stop what he said was U.S. funding of the "Israeli war machine." Clark claimed that U.S. funding to Israel, which is battling Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon, is grounds for impeaching President Bush.
Isn't everything?
"If we'd acted on impeachment before now, Lebanon wouldn't be subjected to this misery," said Clark at the National Press Club Thursday. "If we fail to act now, who is next?"
Syria, I'd guess. Could be Iran or North Korea. I doubt if it'll be Sudan.
If we'd acted on impeachment before now, Lebanon wouldn't be subjected to this misery...
The National Council of Arab-Americans, Partnership for Civil Justice, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, and the ANSWER Coalition are partnering to show their dissent of U.S.-Israeli policy in a march planned near the White House on Aug. 12. "It is important to let the people of Lebanon and the people of Palestine know that even though the Bush administration speaks in our name -- spending our tax dollars to fund and finance these wars both in Iraq and in Lebanon -- it does so without the consent of the American people," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition.
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#1
Clark was AG in the mid-sixties when LBJ wanted a liberal to advance the Civil Rights legislation. Clark was a one-trick pony, whose public career was unimpressive. I recall his humiliation when Dean Rusk presented him with photos of NVA anti-aircraft placements, positioned by the irrigation dikes that Clark accused the USAF of bombing, to force starvation. Once a liar, always a liar.
#5
Good democrat, good boy.
(what an asshole)
I wonder how many Jews will still be democrats after this march bullsheet ?
The left can't seem to read the signs of the times. As their cause looses momentum and the few good, well meaning lefties fall by the wayside, may we welcome them into the 21st century. It's great to shake off the yoke of stupid dogma in favor of facts and actions.
#9
Clark was AG in the mid-sixties when LBJ wanted a liberal to advance the Civil Rights legislation.
Actually (and the phone tapes of this were released recently - fascinating stuff - LBJ was a true political animal) what LBJ wanted was not Ramsey Clark.
He wanted a black Supreme Court Justice - Thurgood Marshall.
There were no upcoming vacancies but Ramsey's father, a former AG, was a justice.
LBJ schemed with his cronies, thinking of ways to get a supreme Court vacancy. Finally he saw a way - Ramsey.
He called Ramsey several times on the phone:
"Clark, you're a good man, I really want you in my administration"
"Clark, I've been thinking, you would make a good attorney General"
"Clark, one problem, if you're arguing cases before the supreme Court, folk are gonna attack your daddy, saying his little boy is before him and there is a conflict of interest and I appointed you because of that, trying to influence your daddy."
Clark Senior retired from the Bench to allow his son to take up the job of AG.
LBJ got his black supreme court justice
Posted by: john ||
07/31/2006 11:50
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#10
John, that is a great story for a couple of reasons. First, LBJ was a known ego tripper. he really thought he was great. He was legacy building when president as egomaniacs are want to do. Wouldn't his legacy look great with a black Supreme ? Wow, you go LBJ.
What a jerk. How do we remember this dog abuser ? He faked the start of the Vietnam war, then he sent millions of Americans to fight with one arm tied behind their backs.
LBJ's legacy: dirty politician who may have had something to do with the murder of JFK, started a war for his own uses, picked up his dog by it's ears, and held briefings with staff members while he was taking a dump to belittle his staff.
No lie, folks, this jerk was the turning point for the democrap party. Did Billy Clinton fall far from the tree ?
Second, the democraps still use the LBJ playbook.
They still have no use for honesty, honor, God, private property, our military, and dogs.
IDF forces arrested a Palestian man in Hebron on Sunday evening after a routine search revealed that he was carrying a nine-centimeter knife. The man was transferred to security forces for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I carry a 7 cm folding pocketknife around all the time. I will stay away from Hebron.
Four Kassam rockets landed in the western Negev shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon. No one was wounded in the attack, although a building was reportedly damaged in the attack. Earlier, a woman was moderately wounded by a Kassam rocket that landed near Sderot.
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QUETTA: NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq has said that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) will continue its struggle for the enforcement of Islamic law, Sharia, in the country as it is the only remedy to Pakistans existing problems.
"That's right! We need more shariah!"
Addressing a congregation organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) at Quettas Ayub Stadium, Siraj said General Musharraf had failed to meet public expectations. He accused the president of snubbing public demand.
...the very existence of Islam was in danger and an alien culture was being introduced in the country under the umbrella of enlightened moderation...
The people of Pakistan want a system that provides them immediate relief and swift justice. Gen Musharrafs government has caused more problems than solving problems, he said.
Siraj criticised the present governments foreign policy and condemned its silence towards the latest developments in Middle East. He said that Pakistan was desperately in need of courts that provided justice according to Quranic teachings. The present regime, he alleged, was acting on the directives of its Western masters, particularly the US. Due to the policies of the present government, the very existence of Islam was in danger and an alien culture was being introduced in the country under the umbrella of enlightened moderation, he said. Pakistan needs the Islamic system and the MMA will thwart all plans to hinder its enforcement, he said. He said that if Gen Musharraf did not doff his uniform, he would ultimately face a humiliating fate.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Remember sharia rhymes with diarrhea...and has about the same effect.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Sunday night and discussed the IAF attack that killed at least 60 civilians in southern Lebanon and conditions for a cease-fire, including the proposed deployment of an international force there, an official said.
During the meeting, Olmert's military secretary, Gadi Shamni, briefed Rice about the Qana attack and explained that Hizbullah had used the town to fire rockets at Israel, the official said on condition of anonymity because the two-hour Olmert-Rice talks in Jerusalem were private. The official provided no details about the conditions for a cease-fire or the deployment of a peacekeeping force that were discussed. The official and Olmert's office both said the fate of the disputed Shaba Farms territory was not talked about.
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Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry on Saturday challenged Democrats to take back statehouses and governor's mansions across the nation in November, saying the country has become less secure under Republican control. "The fact is, the United States of America is less secure today than we were five years ago," he said. "Less secure because North Korea has four or five times more weapons .... Iran is running amok, the Middle East -- the wheels are coming off, and Iraq is a quagmire."
North Korea has four or five times more weapons .... Iran is running amok, the Middle East -- the wheels are coming off, and Iraq is a quagmire.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, said "there's a better course for America," and that begins with electing Democrats in 2006. "Who you chose for your local races is going to have a profound impact on the country as a whole," said Kerry, who was making his fourth trip to Iowa since the state's leadoff caucuses in January 2004.
He has been helping state-level candidates around the nation, and was in Story City for a $30-a-head brunch for Democrat Rich Olive, who is running for the Iowa Senate District 5 seat. Kerry said he's focused on helping other Democrats such as Olive win in 2006, and not on a potential run for president in 2008. "I'm here because '06, not '08, is really important," said Kerry, who has raised and given $10 million to Democratic candidates and committees through his own political action committee.
Kerry took some time to explain what's happened since his defeat by President Bush. "When you run for president of the United States ... and you come as close as we did and you get knocked on your butt, you have to dust yourself off and pick yourself up," he said. "It's a good time to take stock about what life is about, what our country is about and what our challenges are."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
While he's dusting and taking stock and so forth, he might eventually notice that he's a joke.
#2
DEMOLEFT > USA = AATTTTTAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKK THE ENEMY, D *** IT, but SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH don't actually hurt, fight, or destroy your enemy whom is trying to kill and destroy you and your country. Becuz you and all America = Amerika deserve to be destroyed and under OWG without having to be explained or told why!? America = Amerika, USA = USSA = USR, etc is a LEFTIST-SOCIALIST + COMMUNIST COUNTRY THAT IS BEING LED BY THE WRONG KIND OR TYPE OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM + WRONG TYPE OR KIND OF SOCIALISTS. America and Americans can fight, die and war for global empire andor OWG, but just not govern or rule said empire or OWG. Americans = Amerikans can, however, unilaterally = forcibly give up our sovereignty. freedoms, form of government, economy, and other endowments-advantages. HATED DESPICABLE HITLERISTS-NAZIS = MALICIOUS ARROGANT SELFISH COMMUNISTS-STALINISTS, DON'T YA KNOW. Defective Rightist Fascists = Well-meaning De-Regulated Hitlerists-Nazis, i.e. "GOOD HITLERS/NAZIS", DON'T YA KNOW! You know, why America/Amerika = Russia-Commie Asia but Russia-Commie Asia is not = America/Amerika ergo is superior. MSM > COMMIES-MAOISTS SUPPORT RADICAL ISLAMISTS + INTERN TERROR BEFORE = AFTER 9-11, ERGO AMERICA IS THE ONE AND ONLY ONE WHOM MUST BE "CONTAINED/CONTRAINED" AND "CONTROLLED"!?
#3
DEMS > America = Amerika will be secure when America is defeated, suborned, isolated, contained, andor destroyed, etal. As honest injun as anti-sovereign OWG and National Communism-Totalitarianism = the "status quo" i.e. NUTHIN WILL CHANGE FOR ORDINARY OR MAINSTREAM AMERICA = AMERIKA AND AMER SACRED NATIONAL LEFTISM-SOCIALISM-COMMUNISM. Utopian America = Amerika must be saved from those defective, De-regulatory, Pro-Competition, Limited Totalitarianist-Governmentists known as Fascists and Righist Socialists, D *** it!? How can National-Global Utopianism be achieved without UNIVERSAL PERMANENT DEFICITISM, i.e PROGRESS = REGRESSIONISM!?
#5
"Who you chose for your local races is going to have a profound impact on the country as a whole."
Well, he's got that right, at least.
Want a quick, easy, sure-fire way to convince the entire world we've descended into utter, blind, drooling idiocy? Looking for that "magic bullet" that'll tell friend and foe alike that we've completely lost our nerve? Desperately seeking a way to signal one and all that we haven't the slightest fucking idea what we're doing-- or how to do it?
Then put the Democrats back in power.
And hunker down against the firestorm that follows.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/31/2006 7:20
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Why are all these Democrats such blithering idiots?
#7
Only blithering idiots would wallow in the corruption of the democrat party and not want to make some honest changes, therefore, only blithering idiots remain democrats. The rest become independent or republican.
The head democrat is nothing but a stain maker.
The IAF struck the road leading to Damascus from Lebanon near the Syrian border, eyewitnesses reported Sunday evening. It was reported that the attack occurred in the same place as on Saturday, by the Lebanese and Syrian migration offices on the Lebanese side of the border. The Syria-Lebanon border was open on Sunday; however, those coming and going were asked to leave their vehicles and cross on foot.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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I wish they were thinking about the broader strategic goal of ending Hezbollah permanently. The whack-a-mole game, no matter how satisfying or entertaining, will never, ever, end.
Perhaps the Iranians, being such brilliant foreign policy wonks and wizards, will soon provide the clear opportunity. Jumping the shark seems to be a specialty of both twisted branches of Islam.
QUETTA: Three more commanders of tribal chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti on Sunday surrendered to the government, vowing to cooperate with Islamabad until the Nawab's ouster from Dera Bugti and the establishment of government writ in the area, government sources said.
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KIRKUK: Insurgents detonated a car bomb on Sunday in a protected enclave housing the US and British consulates in Iraqs oil city of Kirkuk in the latest in a string of deadly blasts, security sources said. City leaders described the two-month-old bombing campaign as the work of Islamist extremists bent on terrorising the population and fomenting civil strife in the ethnically and religiously mixed city.
The blast, which killed two and wounded six, came overnight beside a row of shops in the previously untouched Arafa Naftiya area, a predominantly Christian neighbourhood containing the headquarters of the Northern Oil Company and foreign consulates. The terrorists are no longer targeting police, army, US forces, or political leaders, but are now going after gatherings of civilians to spread fear and hatred in the souls of the innocent, Rizgar Ali, chairman of the provincial council, told AFP. We are studying measures to control the deteriorating security situation with local elected leaders, said Ali.
Kirkuk police chief Major General Shirku Shakr Hakim told AFP the Sunni extremist Ansar al-Sunna and Al Qaeda in Iraq organisations were believed to be mainly responsible for the attacks. Kirkuk is being targeted because of its oil and its mix of ethnicities and religions that have been living in peace for dozens of years, he said. In other violence around the country, a police patrol in Hilla, 120 kilometres south of Baghdad, was targeted by a roadside bomb that killed two civilians and wounded 10 others.
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Superb but very long article from WaPo on the potential use of genetic engineering to create virulent organisms to attack society. Recommended reading.
Eckard Wimmer knows of a shortcut terrorists could someday use to get their hands on the lethal viruses that cause Ebola and smallpox. He knows it exceptionally well, because he discovered it himself. In 2002, the German-born molecular geneticist startled the scientific world by creating the first live, fully artificial virus in the lab. It was a variation of the bug that causes polio, yet different from any virus known to nature. And Wimmer built it from scratch.
The virus was made wholly from nonliving parts, using equipment and chemicals on hand in Wimmer's small laboratory at the State University of New York here on Long Island. The most crucial part, the genetic code, was picked up for free on the Internet. Hundreds of tiny bits of viral DNA were purchased online, with final assembly in the lab.
With the single lab a couple colleagues and I share, with the equipment in place, we could probably do the same. The technology isn't hard. The ability to insert a single gene into a plasmid, phage, virus or bacterium is simple enough that now it's in kit form.
Wimmer intended to sound a warning, to show that science had crossed a threshold into an era in which genetically altered and made-from-scratch germ weapons were feasible. But in the four years since, other scientists have made advances faster than Wimmer imagined possible. Government officials, and scientists such as Wimmer, are only beginning to grasp the implications.
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#1
And this is probably how man, or at least most of mankind, will end. We truly appreciate all those who are diligently serving this market with the wherewithal to bring it about. Sadly, that new Mercedes and the summer house will do them no good when their efforts are finaly realized. I will probably be one of the survivors because I don't really care. But I promise I'll take good care of the car and the house...
#2
I worry about this kind of tech in the hands of eco-terrorists much more than Islamo-terrorists.
BTW, the article doesn't mention that engineered infectious agents could be used as a extremely effective weapon in a state to state war, if you had a vaccine.
#3
I wonder how hard it would be to create a defense? Distributed labs (and believe me, would want more than one, some out in the open, others with deep cover) that could quickly find, sequence, replicate and crank out vaccines for new, engineered viruses. You would have to constantly be monitoring the blood supply, looking for viruses like small pox that had a long incubation period, so you would want some sort of field presence at major hospitals and bloodbanks. Then you would need a super-robust distribution system.
#4
Airborne diseases will spread faster than a virus can be sequenced, analyzed, vaccine synthesized, distributed, administered, and immunity built up.
That said. Microbial warfare is not something a certain religion wants to engage in. The US is the leader in genetic engineering and with our low population density, redundant infrastructure, diverse racial profile, and world leading medical facilities, will come out of any such war in better shape than any other society.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006 7:09
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I remember a period (around the time of the 2003 invasion, I think) when there were intense discussions about the risks of bio and chem warfare here at Rantburg. The conclusion at the time, as I understood it, was that the most virulent diseases burn out quickly because too large a proportion of the hosts die off before spreading the disease very far, and the ones the spread most effectively are perforce much less deadly -- hence giving time to isolate carriers and develop innoculations and cures -- but that nonetheless I should keep my pantry stocked with a good month's worth of survival rations, and ensure Mr. Wife and the trailing daughters can work from home at need. Oh, and because of our suburban, large-pantry-ed lifestyle, the US is best situated of the advanced countries to survive epidemics and pandemics, whether natural or man-made.
#8
I'm with you TW, a large well stocked Pantry is a Southern Standard.
We might miss things like fresh veggies and Milk, but we could live off our own pantry a good month or so.
And to ensure we get to enjoy that well stocked Pantry, we also have another Southern Tradition, the well stocked Gun Cabinet.
One each provides wonderful peace of mind, even if never used in emergencies.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2006 20:26
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The battle for Minnesota's open U.S. Senate seat is turning into one of the closer races of the 2006 election season in a state once ruled by Democrats but trending Republican in recent years. Even Minnesota's Democratic state chairman, Brian Melendez, told The Washington Times that "this state is about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. It has become more conservative-leaning in recent years. It's not a state that either party can take for granted."
A little more than three months before Election Day, independent voter polls show Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy trailing Democratic Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar by five percentage points in a contest for the seat held by retiring Sen. Mark Dayton, a Democrat. Mr. Kennedy calls Mr. Dayton "a fringe liberal who got nothing done and wasted the Senate seat for six years." A SurveyUSA election poll of 700 Minnesotans showed Ms. Klobuchar leading Mr. Kennedy 47 percent to 42 percent. Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald, who could be the spoiler in the race, drew 8 percent. The poll, conducted last week for several statewide television stations, has a margin of error of four percentage points.
Earlier this month, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published its Minnesota Poll showing Ms. Klobuchar with a 19-point lead. The Kennedy campaign said the poll has a notorious history of being "skewed against Republicans." Mr. Kennedy, who is in his third term in the House, is attacking Ms. Klobuchar as someone far to the left of Minnesota's political mainstream. He said he will be an independent voice in the Senate, citing his vote against President Bush's proposal to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and his opposition to the president's No Child Left Behind education act.
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Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I question if these states have become "more" conservative. I doubt that is true. They may have become more "republican" - but that probably has less to do with changing attitudes than it does with the fact that the Democratic party is run by a bunch of wacked out moonbats with ideas that sound like they came from the insane asylum. Whipping up your base to hate Bush is not a party platform.
#3
A single program can cost billons. So maybe with housing values (property values) increasing and he wacked a few billion dollar line items - it's not that hard to believe. If you remove the corrupt fingers out of medicare, roads, govt, education, etc. contracts - it could easily save billions.
On July 29, 2006, the London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published a detailed article on assistance extended to Hizbullah by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as reported by a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards officer who had trained Hizbullah naval units. According to the officer, Hizbullah has a diver unit and a naval commando unit.
He further claims that Revolutionary Guards officers assisted Hizbullah in the July 14, 2006 firing of a C802 missile at an Israeli Navy ship, and had also helped Hizbullah construct underground facilities including command and control rooms which are being operated by Revolutionary Guards officers along with Hizbullah fighters.
In addition, Iranian news agencies have published a number of reports about groups of Iranian volunteers sent to Lebanon to aid Hizbullah in its fight against Israel.
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#1
The Great Satan remains in the lettering = spelling. And now you know why American parents buy so much Campbell's "Alphabet Soup" for the kiddies - Iff you don't know your alphabet or speelling, you'll end up a terrorist and camel-kaze".
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Sunday called for an immediate cease-fire following the IAF airstrike on Qana. "I have expressed to [Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora] my profound dismay and deep sorrow at the death of innocent civilians in Qana," Solana said in a statement, reiterating his call for a cease-fire. "Nothing can justify this."
Which means that any terrorist organization can stop the Euros cold by putting some human shields in front of whatever they do. Eurabia here we come.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's commissioner for external relations, called the Israeli attack an "unjustifiable" escalation at a time when the international community is working to find an end to the violence between IDF troops and Hizbullah guerrillas. "Immediate cessation of violence and hostilities is now more important than ever. The killings of innocent people, particularly of children, must stop now," she said in a statement.
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#1
Let's see how Solana feels about it when some of his relatives are killed by raghead terrorists. I suspect the answer will be more than slightly different. "Nothing can justify" having a pusillanimous bastard like that speak for any respectable organization...oh wait, I forgot we're talking about that bunch of feckless wankers, the EU. They've got an ugly end ahead of them and they've fully earned every bit of it.
Posted by: mac ||
07/31/2006 0:27
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So you are going to stop Hizballah firing thousands of missiles at Israeli civilins. Oh, I forgot you had years to do that and were backed up by your beloved UN and you did exactly nothing. (I'll ignore that the IAF says it wasn't them and they are far more credible than the MSM complicit in Arab staged managed atrocities. For all I know, they collected some bodies put them in a building and blew it up. It would be consistent with past behaviour)
#7
When is ANYONE going to look at the law and correctly say that Heb'Allah is responsible for these deaths as they fired rockets using these civilians as cover?
#8
So exactly what are Arabs and the UN doing to help end the Shiite-Sunni proxy war in Iraq? Nothing. Only when Israeli soldiers accidently take innocent life, does civilian deaths become a serious matter.
#10
Solana clearly looks at Israel as non human, rockets blasting Israel raised not one complaint. But god help us when they hurt one Lebanese that was either willingly or unwillingly acting as a human shield. The EU is not going to fall to Islam, it is siding with them.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 12:33
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#11
Solana clearly looks at Israel as non human, rockets blasting Israel raised not one complaint. But god help us when they hurt one Lebanese that was either willingly or unwillingly acting as a human shield. The EU is not going to fall to Islam, it is siding with them.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 12:33
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#12
It's a good thing the Allies felt differently 60-odd years ago, or the EU would be an Aryan only outfit headquarted in Berlin.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
07/31/2006 14:48
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Solana: 'Nothing can justify' civilian deaths
Tell that to the effing terrorists you smarmy @sshole. Oh, wait, that might require the slightest degree of testicular endowment, by which Solana is obviously entirely uncontaminated.
Those who knew Naveed Haq said Saturday that to them he was an enigma, a puzzle that they wish they could have solved before his deadly rampage in a Seattle Jewish center. Stunned and saddened by the news, some of Haq's acquaintances recounted many of what they saw as the contradictions of his life. He held a degree in electrical engineering and was the son of a successful engineer, yet he couldn't keep a regular job. He was smart, creative and skilled as a writer. He recently won an essay contest for a U.S. Institute of Peace scholarship.
Yet Haq was frustrated at his lack of friends and female companionship.
No nooky, huh?
He told friends he felt alienated from his own family, in part because his career had disappointed his father and also because he had disavowed Islam last year, converting to Christianity. Haq had begun studying the Bible, attending weekly men's spiritual group meetings, only to stop coming a few months after his baptism.
That seems to have worked well, too. We're on a roll here...
He had told the group's leader that he seen too much anger in Islam and that he wanted to find a new beginning in Christianity. Yet in the midst of his shooting spree in Seattle Friday, he declared himself an angry Muslim.
In the deadliest attack since Israel started its offensive against Hizbullah 19 days ago, 57 civilians - most of them children - were killed on Sunday in a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kafr Kana, apparently as a result of an IAF missile strike. While the entire Israeli political echelon expressed regret for the results of the strike, Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel said Sunday night that the three-story building had been struck by the missiles a little after midnight and that it only collapsed seven hours later, at close to 7 a.m.
Eshel refrained from specifying what had caused the structure to collapse seven hours after it was hit
Eshel refrained from specifying what had caused the structure to collapse seven hours after it was hit, but senior IAF officers said Sunday night that the explosion could have been caused by an unexploded missile or by a Hizbullah-planted explosive device. "It could be that there was something in the building that caused the explosion," Eshel said.
Eshel said that close to 150 Katyusha rockets had been fired from the Lebanese village over the past 20 days. Hizbullah had hidden rocket launchers, Eshel said, in civilian buildings in the village. Video footage he presented at a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday night showed rocket launchers being driven into the village following attacks on northern Israel. The dead were old people, women and children from four families whom residents said had gathered to spend the night on the ground floor, where they felt they were safe from Israeli attacks. The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defense official at the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Not that the truth matters anymore, but I buy the General's version simply because it has the ring of truth to it.
As for the children, the truth is harsh: It sucks to be stupid and captive to people who have been steeped in stupidity for their entire lives. Those are the parents. The got the outrageously PC leaflet drops telling them to get out. They ignored them. That's stupidity. The children would've grown up to be just like them.
Qana is a target for good reason and they were hit accordingly. This brouhaha is bullshit and propaganda for the witless - and absolutely nothing more.
A US plane launched an air strike Sunday against a building used by al-Qaida in Iraq, killing two operatives, the US military said. Four suspects were detained after the air attack, which took place southwest of Baghdad against extremists who had been staging mortar attacks on civilians, a US statement said. US troops tracked the operatives to a building and "coalition aircraft successfully executed the strike," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Mass killings of up to 300,000 chickens are underway in tambon Ban Klang in Nakhon Phanom's Muang district after a laboratory test confirmed the area had been hit by the bird flu outbreak. The province has mobilised 1,500 health officials to carry out the cull on 70 farms.
The Public Health Ministry yesterday put the number of patients suspected of having bird flu at 80, from 19 provinces nationwide. The number has fallen from the 113 suspected cases reported on Saturday.
This will be the second cull in Nakhon Phanom in as many days. Late last week, 40,000 chickens were slaughtered as a precautionary measure, after poultry died mysteriously.
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#1
Thus far, it appears that those humans whom had gotten sick or died from bird flu did so after cooking andor eating already dead birds, i.e. ate CARRION = ROAD KILL?; or it has NOT yet been absolutely determined iff they did or didn't eat same, at least by current reports.
#4
There have been several H2H confirmed transmissions, and an entire family wiped out, except, oddly enough, two spouses of family members who didn't get sick, implying that the family was unusually sensitive.
The reason is that avian flu, unlike typical flu, is concentrated in the lower trachea, instead of the upper trachea and sinuses. Thus it is harder to spread through coughing and sneezing. This minor difference is the only thing keeping it from becoming easily H2H.
Other oddities include its maintaining an unusually high mortality rate, around 60%, which is three times deadlier than the Spanish flu. It is also much easier to transmit than typical flu, needing only a fraction of the normal amount of contagion (in ppb) to establish a foothold in a new host.
This is why even third and fourth world nations have been stimulated by their own medical communities to take it as serious as war.
Unofficial estimates of worldwide mortality, all else being equal, range from 300M to 1B, with perhaps that number again suffering from severe permanent lung damage. The plague could last from 1-3 years.
BAGHDAD, July 30 -- Gunmen killed at least 23 Iraqis on Sunday on a highway south of Baghdad, commandeering three minibuses and herding their occupants into nearby palm groves, where they were lined up and shot, according to police and a witness.
The ambush occurred about 10 miles south of Baghdad where two major highways intersect near the town of al-Rasheed. The witness, Mohammed Mohan al-Janabi, said at least 15 masked gunmen positioned themselves Sunday morning on both sides of the expressway that links western and southern Iraq. "We knew they wanted to kidnap or kill someone or even hit the American convoys that come to this part of the road, because it is really bumpy and drivers have to slow down" to about 12 mph, said Janabi, 43, a teacher.
...the attackers took their identification cards and lined them up against the palm trees and shot them all...
The gunmen stopped three minibuses that were traveling together, Janabi said. The passengers and drivers were taken into one of the groves of palm trees lining the highway, where the attackers took their identification cards "and lined them up against the palm trees and shot them all," said Janabi, who lives about 500 yards from the expressway.
I thought most men in Iraq were armed. Even if the pilgrims didn't bring the family AK on vacation, shouldn't the drivers be packing heat? If a bunch of gunmen try to stop and off-load a bus, that should the time to put the pedal to the metal and whip out a rod.
The three Kia minibuses were carrying pilgrims to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, said police Capt. Nadhim Jassim, who is in charge of Interior Ministry checkpoints around nearby Mahmudiyah.
The bodies of 23 victims of the ambush have been counted so far, according to a hospital worker in Mahmudiyah, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that there may be more. Other victims may have been taken to hospitals in Baghdad, the source said.
The roads connecting Baghdad with Najaf and two other Shiite holy cities, Karbala and Kut, traverse a region known as the Triangle of Death, where kidnappings, killings and robberies have been rampant for about two years. The area is populated by a volatile mix of Shiites and Sunnis, and sectarian tensions are invariably high, but the violence there has been blamed as much on criminal gangs as on religious or political factions.
Sounds like a job for an Iraqi police unit to fix once and for all.
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Lions of IslamTM attacking unarmed civilians...again. The only people these wankers can handle without a car bomb or homicide explosive vest.
#2
Me thinks the "Lions of Islam" are a bunch of limp weenied sissie boys afraid of real battle and real conflict.
I thought you had to die in battle or kill in battle to be heaven bound in their sphere of theology?
I guess not.
Seems wanton rape, murder and indiscriminate blood shed are acceptable ways to earn eternal life.
I tend to think some parts of the Quran are being interpreted by a bunch of woman hating pedophiles who get off on killing the innocent.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Sunday many Taliban fighters are crossing from Pakistan to stage attacks inside Afghanistan. Alliot-Marie said the NATO-led force assuming command in insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan from Monday would need better cooperation from Pakistan. "We need real cooperation from Pakistan, but it seems very difficult for them. The border is a very difficult region and we ask Pakistan to make some more effort to control it," she told reporters in Kabul. "We think a lot of Taliban fighters are coming from Pakistan to Afghanistan."
On Monday, the 18,000-strong NATO formally takes command in the volatile south of the country from a US-led anti-terror coalition. About 8,000 mostly British, Canadian and Dutch troops have deployed there in recent months. The Taliban have stepped up attacks this year, and hundreds of insurgents have been killed in fighting with the international forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Western troops aren't too vulnerable in Afghan cities. The war is in the countryside. As soon as Taliban concentrates they are wiped out. Unfortunately, the fact that Afghan mosques are allowed to incite jihad terror, is causing large recruitment. Most dead are Afghans who were trained in Pakistan. The Musharaf is playing both the MMA and the US.
Worried about an excess of flesh visible on the banks of the River Seine, Paris city hall has banned thong bikinis, topless sunbathing and nudity at the summer sand-in-the-city event known as Paris Beaches, reported Le Parisien newspaper on Saturday.
Alright. Now they've gone too far...
Violators will be fined $48, said the report. Thongs and "monokinis" - or bottom-only bikinis - are common sights on France's Mediterrannean and Atlantic shores. Paris was pushed to forbid "indecent attire" because it could "provoke temptation and dangerous behaviour along the bank of a river," said Pascal Cherki, mayoral aide in charge of sports.
There's nothing indecent about skin. How it's displayed can be indecent, we'll admit. I've been on a few beaches with some fairly magnificent titties on display and never noticed any "dangerous behavior." But then, there weren't any Muslims around that I knew of. Among most of the rest of us there's a difference between sweet tempatation and forcible indulgence...
City officials responsible for Paris Beaches could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
Something about fleeing from an angry mob of Frenchmen, complete with pitchforks and tumbrels...
... it could "provoke temptation and dangerous behaviour along the bank of a river..."
It was unclear why the ban was only imposed this year, the fifth year of the event.
Done a turban count lately?
Mayor Bertand Delanoe inaugurated Paris Plages in 2002, filling sections of the left and right banks of the Seine with sand and installing spray misters, hammocks, parasols and other beach-style accoutrements. The month-long event attracted 3.8 million people last year, and this year has pulled in many seeking relief from record heat.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I first saw this headline earlier when we were putting the Scimitar to bed and thought, "cheez, Paris Hilton has pulled a Madonna on us and found, er, religion. Or something. Thank goodness I was wrong."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2006 0:04
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Paris bans nude tanning
Among most of the rest of us there's a difference between sweet tempatation and forcible indulgence
gotta watch out for dem girlz who trips you then beats youse to the floor..
#5
In France, some people (I am one of them) are outraged by this PC decision. Paris mayor did ban nudity and monokinis on the banks of the River Seine, but he didnt ban muslim veils, although a lot of them have been seen on the same banks during this Paris-Beaches event.
For people who read french, here is a good article on this subject:
It's interesting, too, to notice that Delanoe, Paris mayor, who is openly gay, hasn't forbidden homosexual men to kiss each other publicly in this event (a friend of mine says he saw that).
#7
Il y a un million d'histoires dans la ville nue . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2006 9:50
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#8
Next step is the mandatory wearing of the "Islamokini" TMby all Phrench Wemeen.
The Islamokini is comprised of a light impervious ugly brown burka covering said Womeen from head to toe + a betourbaned Islamic Chastity Guard accompanying the Womeen everywhere she goes.
Long Live the French Sharia (Sharia Ver. 2.0.12.4)
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/31/2006 10:20
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#9
No, EoZ, this is the Isalmokini:
See? Oh ye of little faith ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2006 10:52
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#10
What a hussy! Where are her brothers, cousins, and nephews!!!!
#18
Pure pandering to the Mooslims. I for one welcome the freedoms of topless sun bathing. I spent many hours in Greece sipping wine on the beach and taking in the magnificent sites. Unless youre a mooslim bare boobies wont hurt you.
A massive crowd marched through Mexico City on Sunday to back a leftist who claims he was robbed of victory in a fiercely contested presidential election and is demanding a vote-by-vote recount. At least 100,000 protesters swarmed toward the central Zocalo, one of the world's largest squares, where Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was to rally his supporters for a campaign of civil disobedience.
Lopez Obrador, hold on, the people are rising up!
"Lopez Obrador, hold on, the people are rising up," supporters chanted on Sunday, many dressed in the bright yellow of his leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.
Mexico was plunged into a political crisis by the close July 2 election, which saw ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon beat Lopez Obrador by just around 244,000 votes out of 41 million cast. Lopez Obrador, an austere former mayor of Mexico City who campaigned on promises to help Mexico's poor with ambitious welfare and infrastructure programs, claims the result was rigged against him.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
"The peasants are revolting!"
"You said it. They stink on ice!"
#3
Thank you, Al Gore. See what you started? We all knew this was going to happen after the stunt you pulled. But then, maybe there will be a revolution south of us, and all those illegals will stay to "fight for my country."
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared victory on Saturday after Israel announced it was withdrawing its forces from the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbail where Israeli troops found unexpected difficulty in dislodging the guerrilla group from its strongholds.
The Israelis are ready to halt the aggression because they are afraid of the unknown...
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev defended the decision to pull troops from Bint Jbeil, saying Israel had never intended to occupy the town, but Nasrallah's quick declaration of victory underscored the propaganda gains Hezbollah is reaping across the Muslim world as it battles Israel to a stalemate. "The Israelis are ready to halt the aggression because they are afraid of the unknown," Nasrallah said in a speech in which he also expressed measured support for the Lebanese government's efforts to reach a peace agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Give 'em 24 to move back in, then wipe the place.
#2
Hezbollah will declare victory no matter what happens. The question is how seriously people take them. Unfortunately, many of our fellow Westerners, who are normally smart and skeptical people, who pride themselves on being able to see through transparent spin of their own ruling parties, suddenly become susceptible, credulous fools who will swallow any piece of Jihadi propaganda, no matter how ridiculous.
#3
It's an Arab tradition to claim credit for just about everything, no matter how absurd. It's a human tradition for the moonbats and morons and symps and Arabs to believe what suits their fantasies.
You can't fix stupid, you can only tolerate it or kill it.
#6
French msm have already declared the hizbillies the victors of all this...
No doubt -- the press, by uncritically accepting and repeating the Hezbollah lies, helped them win. The press has a major victory on their hands in this one. I'm sure they feel it makes up for their loss during Rathergate.
Reporters are, by and large, scum. They're traitors to civilization.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/31/2006 7:19
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If there ain't no more hizbillies, there ain't no more rockets on Israel. There ain't no more war on the border. There ain't no kind of victory. You can't make a victory out of abject defeat. Israel needs to accelerate through the green light and get it done. World opinion usually goes with the winner.
#11
Well, as long as they don't start worshiping Great Cthulhu, I'm okay with that... but of course, since old mo' actually was a power-hungry fool deluded by one of the masks of Nyarlathotep, it's practically the same thing, isn't it?
#12
Dump Olmert !
What do they intend to do, go back home for a week and then fight and die for the same piece of dirt again ?
Israel, wake up and attack.Take ground, kill every hezby there and drive the people into refugee camps. Repeat until you run out of hezbies or Lebanon. At that point, replace Lebanon with Syria and repeat the process. Anything else is smoke and baseless rhetoric.
And when the EU comes knockin at your door with a stop action decree, ask them who among them will stop you. France ? Ha, keep attacking.
Polls show Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in a position to win Nicaragua's presidency and return to the office he once took by force... It's not that ''El Comandante'' is particularly popular, but that the opposition is fractured, said Victor Borge of the Costa Rica-based polling firm Borge y Asociados. ''Daniel is no stronger than he has been in the past, and the anti-Sandinista vote remains firm,'' Borge said. ``The new phenomenon here is that we no longer have a two-party race. That's unprecedented.''
In the past, Ortega's foes have lined up behind the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, or PLC. But Montealegre and the emergence of the center-left Sandinista Renovation Movement, known as MRS, have splintered the antiOrtega vote. To complicate the scenario even further, MRS presidential candidate Herty Lewites died of a heart attack July 2. The folksy former mayor of Managua was a Sandinista dissident and vocal critic of Ortega, but he also was seen as the primary suitor for some of Ortega's core left-leaning supporters. Now, it's unclear where those orphaned voters will end up.
None of the major polling firms has released results since Lewites' death. One pollster privately predicted that about two-thirds of MRS supporters would eventually drift back to the Ortega camp. But others expect that many will stick with Lewites' less charismatic but highly respected vice-presidential candidate, Edmundo Jarquín, now the MRS' presidential hopeful, or even jump to Montealegre's camp. ''For [MRS voters] to head back to the Sandinista Front would be a betrayal of everything Herty stood for,'' said Manuel Orozco, Central America director for the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. ``If anything, they are closer to Montealegre's position than Ortega's.''
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Much of Latin America is returning to leftism. Ortega has some baggage that will come out: while Lider Principal, he used a New York trip as an excuse to buy his wife thousands of dollars worth of expensive glasses, etc; when he left office his daughter accused him of sexual molestation.
#3
You see what happens/happened, Moriarty, when Violet Blue's Daddy is ordered not to kill Ortega and Castro, etal - now the whole world has to go thru the motions and do it the hard way. Are you happy now, Moriarty, you see what ya did wid 'em negative waves so early in the morning!?
#4
You see what happens/happened, Moriarty, when Violet Blue's Daddy is ordered not to kill Ortega and Castro, etal - now the whole world has to go thru the motions and do it the hard way. Are you happy now, Moriarty, you see what ya did wid 'em negative waves so early in the morning!?
Hamas claimed responsibility for the Kassam rockets that were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday. One woman was moderately wounded when a rocket landed in Sderot and had to be evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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An Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana which killed 51 people on Sunday, including 25 children, drew a barrage of fierce condemnation in the Middle East. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa issued a statement in which he "strongly condemned Israel's ongoing barbaric attacks on Lebanon, the latest of which is the attack on the village of Qana". He called for "an international investigation into this massacre and others of Israeli war crimes committed in Lebanon".
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has been involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called Israel's attack "irresponsible" and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
I take it from this that the Hizzies are gettin' their asses kicked.
#3
Also see: http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/milking-it.html and http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-this-man.html but they've just been mentioned on the Rush Limbaugh show, so the site might be getting a hammering...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/31/2006 15:06
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And here we thought we'd be safe as long as we avoid making Muhammad cartoons...
BOMBS destined to be used by Israel are being flown via Scotland only because the Irish government refused to allow them to land on its soil. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that after the conflict in Lebanon began three weeks ago, Ireland turned down a United States request for planes carrying 600lb so-called bunker busters to refuel at Shannon airport in Co Clare. As a result, cargo planes carrying the bombs, which the Israeli army is using in its offensive against the Hezbollah, are being flown via Prestwick airport in Ayrshire.
The use of Prestwick triggered a furious diplomatic row last week after it emerged that the US had broken aviation rules by failing to notify Britain about the flights. That row is intensifying this weekend as two further American planes carrying 'hazardous' material to Tel Aviv land at the airport.
In another controversial development, Scotland on Sunday has learned that Prestwick is negotiating to allow planeloads of US military personnel on their way to Iraq to stop there. A well-placed source close to the negotiations said it was bidding to take flights away from Shannon, which is currently used as a stopover for the bulk of the 900 American soldiers who travel from the US to the Middle East every day.
The American airlines which transport the troops through Shannon are understood to be reviewing their use of the airport, following protests in Ireland which have resulted in some of the planes being vandalised. The source said: "It could soon be the case that the Irish will say that they don't want these flights and, as a consequence, then we will look to get them."
The latest revelations are set to crush hopes among British diplomats that the row over Prestwick would die down following President George Bush's apology to Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday.
One Irish official said that the bombs would never have been allowed on Irish soil. The source said: "There is absolutely no way that we would allow munitions or weapons to be shipped through Shannon to a location where there is an actual war going on. We would not allow it. It is correct that we allow the US to transport troops to Shannon, but sending bombs to Israel is another matter and completely out of the question for us."
Opposition critics last night seized on the situation. Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said: "It is highly significant that Shannon put its foot down and drew back from allowing the transport of bunker busters, which could become the tinder to escalate dramatically the Middle East conflict." He added: "It is absolutely appalling that we should allow Prestwick to become a stopover to death and destruction."
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the fact that more flights were now landing in Scotland was "adding insult to injury". He said: "What price the president's apology now?
To think that the Scots used to be warriors.
The British government should be pursuing an active policy of denying weapons of any kind to anyone in the Middle East who may be assisting the conflict in any way."
However, speaking from America, Blair defended the use of Prestwick: "We should just apply the rules in the appropriate way, which is what we are doing. What happens at Prestwick airport is not going to determine whether we get a ceasefire in the Lebanon.
"If what people are saying is that we should impose an arms embargo on Israel, or indeed on the US, I think that would be very curious indeed."
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the authorities had approved an 'exemption' allowing the two new flights to land at Prestwick. The first, a Boeing 747 from Texas, landed at about 1pm yesterday for refuelling. A second flight is due to arrive today. More at link, also read comments
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006 5:32
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#3
It's the press making a story and politicians talking out their asses. The SNP are full blown communists for all I can tell and your typical leftist jew haters. The Liberal Democrats follow closely behind.
Someone will take the planes and Prestwick is licensed for hazardous material cargoes. They are happy to have the business if Ireland isn't.
#4
Seems to me that in flight refueling is the logical answer: no bombs on any foreign soil, just some KC-135s or KC-10s topping off and departing for parts unknown. Redevous w/ the cargo jets and all is well.
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan troops moving to secure a Tamil Tiger rebel-held water supply came under fire on Sunday and found themselves in a minefield, the military said, as they launched the first deliberate advance since a 2002 truce. The closing of a water channel from an eastern rebel-held area to goverment-held farms prompted a surge in violence in recent days including air and artillery strikes.
On Sunday, ground forces were sent in to secure irrigation for the ethnic majority Sinhalese farms in the area, south of the northeastern port of Trincomalee. A clash erupted shortly after but there was no word on casualties. They are so close to the sluice gate but there seems to be a confrontationa firefight, said a military spokesman, referring to the troops. There are also mines all over the place. They are clearing them now.
Both the government and the Tigers claim control over the site of the reservoir, which lies in an area where the border between the foes is ill-defined. However the ground reality is that the Tigers control the area, military sources said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2006
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this is the BBC coverage of the recent Mel Gibson event. Notice, NOT ONE reference to his Jew spew. Was that part not important? Not newsworthy? If that's not proof of BBC censorship and bias WHAT IS!?!?! It astounds me that every household in the UK has to pay a license fee to fund these asswipes.
Hollywood actor and director Mel Gibson has said he is "ashamed" of the actions that led to his arrest for drink-driving early on Friday morning. The Oscar-winner, 50, was stopped after driving at 87mph in a 45mph zone in Malibu, California. He failed a breath test, was charged with drink-driving and freed on bail.
Gibson also said sorry for "despicable" statements he made during the arrest and for his "horrific relapse", after battling alcoholism all his adult life. "The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person," he said. Gibson said he "acted like a person completely out of control" when he was arrested and said things "that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable".
NOTE: The BBC story linked to was published on Friday, it may have been written before Mel Gibsons drunken remarks were known. Today the BBC does cover the story:
Gibson 'outburst' under spotlight
Police in Los Angeles are beginning an investigation into an incident in which filmmaker Mel Gibson is alleged to have made anti-Semitic comments. Mr Gibson, 50, was alleged to have made the comments after being arrested for drink-driving in Malibu, California. He later apologised for his outburt, admitting saying things "that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable", but did not give details. His apology was "unremorseful and insufficient", campaigners have said.
On the Anti-Defamation League's website, national director Abraham Foxman said the statement released by Mr Gibson did not constitute "a proper apology".
The New South Wales Board of Jewish Deputies, in Australia, said about Mr Gibson's alleged outburst that "one can only shake one's head in dismay and think where does that come from".
Mr Gibson was stopped by police at about 0235 local time (0935 GMT) on Friday after allegedly driving at 87mph in a 45mph zone. The star was charged with drink-driving and freed on bail. However, Entertainment website tmz.com links to what it says is a copy of a suppressed police report which notes a series of anti-Semitic comments from the actor during the arrest.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is to begin investigating the incident. The Office of Independent Review, a Sheriff's Department watchdog panel, is investigating whether officers covered up the alleged outburst, chief attorney Mike Gennaco told the Associated Press news agency.
Continued on Page 49
#2
I remember hearing, on the BBC radio (Channel 4), one BBC Journalist asking (with a very gentle Oxford accent) Steven Emerson (the well-known islamism expert), the day after al-Arian was sentenced in Florida for supporting terrorism, "Don't you think that some people may say that this condemnation is the proof of Israel directing the US justice system"...
#6
NOTE: The BBC story linked to was published on Friday, it may have been written before Mel Gibsons drunken remarks were known. Today the BBC does cover the story
I will grant that it was written on Friday night. However, I searched the entire site. It was the only story on the bbc website referring to gibson as of late Sunday night, eastern time (US), after other major news outlets ran the story that included his rant.
Of course, at the same time, their home page ran a story about Israeli atrocities.
#5
The Slimes in action. This paper needs a complete gutting. New York needs to close the UN. Start daily harassment with fire code checks, sanitary issues. Anything to cause daily grief. Impound vehicles when fines not paid. Get this reeking pile of garbage off American soil.
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards called on his troops on Sunday to "prepare themselves to get even" with Israel and the United States, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and Basij should prepare themselves to get even with Zionists and Americans," General Yahya Rahim Safavi was quoted as saying. "The fearless supreme leader will announce the time for this," he said, referring to Iran's top cleric and commander-in-chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
We have to keep this sacred hatred of the enemies of Islam alive in our hearts until the time of revenge comes
It was not clear if the comments represented an order for the Revolutionary Guards and its Basij militia, a volunteer force, to actually mobilise for conflict. "We have to keep this sacred hatred of the enemies of Islam alive in our hearts until the time of revenge comes," the general was quoted as saying. "I hope our nation can one day avenge the blood of innocent people in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said, adding: "I ask God to arouse the dignity of Muslims and destroy America, Israel and their associates. I hope the clerical leaders in the Islamic world clarify the duty of Muslims against Israel."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
We already have the pre-emptive war talk, let's do the walk. Current projections are that Iran's genocidal Ayatollahs will have an extra $60,000,000,000 in oil cash to play with. Screw waiting for the November elections; Iranians can play the pre-emption card with all that extra money. Nuke Qom, the nuclear installations and bases on the Straits of Hormuz, and Iranians will topple the Ayatollah rule. Tokyo fire-bombing: 200,000 dead. Hiroshima/Nagasaki: 180,000 dead. We did that, and our ancestors are rolling in their graves over the current Neo-Moron, we-don't-do-that vomit. Iran can be taken, with only 250,000 dead on their side, and zero on ours. Ahmadinejad provided the pretext; let's provide the war.
#4
We don't need to use nukes. At least not yet. We can take down Iran conventionally - and permanently as a threat when it splinters into its natural states. The payoff for doing so compounds everyday.
We should, indeed, accommodate their desire for a decisive conflict. Now, please.
#5
You know....it's time to change the image associated with Islam. No longer shall we say "The Lions of Islam." No, there is a far more apt symbol for them.
The Donkeys of Islam.
Because like the Democrats, all they do is bray bray bray.
#9
On first glance I thought those were lightning bolts on his collar tabs, but looking closer I guess not. If they had class, they'd more closely model themselves on the Nazis - their heroes - who had the game down pat. It's probably some moronic Arab graphic nonsense like a torch or something equally unfrightening and silly.
Lightning bolts, twits. You wanna be cool? Scary cool? Lightning bolts. Poseurs. Wimps.
#11
This is his moment of glory. Like a drunk in a bar trying to start a fight. Eventually we will get tired of this shit or he will actually strike and we will clean him out. Hope he's enjoying himself.
I agree that we could destroy them in a few good nights of bombings but the world needs to understand with total clairity that we are done with this Islamic Jihad crap. Use conventional weapons on Teheran to eliminate their economic capabilities and nuke their military, oil, and weapons sites. Then we can be done with this crap before my son is of age and has to go fight the war we did not finish.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/31/2006 14:43
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#12
We don't need to use nukes.
Quite right, SW9999. Glad to see another voice of reason hereabouts. No need to justify terrorist nuclear retaliation upon American soil. JDAMs and MOABS will do quite fine. They are merely long overdue. Like, since 1979.
Remember how elastic our economy was following the 9/11 event? We've lost trillions of dollars. Lots of guys lost their businesses, their homes, their families. Not just the guys in the towers, little guys in towns, large and small, across the country. The big companies get the headlines, but the losses in a micro sense were brutal and amazing.
And here, five years later, our national accounts are in the best shape they've been in for years. (If you don't know "current v. real dollar" analysis, please don't comment.) Trillions of lost dollars. Let us do some numbers:
Per capita GDP for Iran...2392.15.
Syria...1253.89
Lebanon...5689.49
Egypt... 969.58
Israel..18726.78
USA..39452.74
So why are these numbers important? The resultant post-9/11 losses were shared among 296-million people. We all suffered loss. Being middle- or upper-class economically means you may have felt it less...but not necessarily. Lots o' guys who made more money than you do had to start over.
All the terrorists did was take down two towers, put a hole in the Pentagon and put a hole in Pennsylvania. The horror of possibly having lost tens of thousands of innocents galvanized the nation. The horror of losing three-thousand still motivates a lot of us. (Not to forget the thousands of military we've asked to work for us in this current war.)
Here's the point. The uncertainty introduced into the political/economic system by the 9/11 event still reverberates through those systems. It's a thing called "risk". So far, through the post-9/11 period, several nations have responded to risk. 38 nations, including the USA, responded to the need to invade Iraq. There are 192 member nations in the U.N. One-fifth of the world's nations allied to invade Iraq. Britain, Poland, Japan, South Korea, effing Mongolia! These are people who understand risk. What you don't do is as important as what you do do. ( I said do-do.) (Lighten up...it's a blog)
So view risk as the crucible of choice. What have we done to introduce risk into the current situation with Syria and Iran?
We're a risk aversive people. That's common sense. But we're also an entrepreneurial nation. We're risk takers. We're Yankee Traders. We're Maverick. We temper the pussy risk aversive ness with common sense that with great risks come great rewards. If you've ever served on a Chamber of Commerce committee...you know about risk aversive ness. If you've ever run a company, you know about taking risks.
But what risks do nations like Syria and Iran take? There are no outcomes for their behaviour. There are for Israel. Hell, they're civilized. Nobody loves being hated. Even the Jews, who have had more practice than any other race on the earth.
What about Iran? Syria?
Go back to the table on per capita GDP. National risk is shared risk. We lost trillions following 9/11. Where is the 9/11 for Iran and Syria? What risk are they facing?
The fact that our economy rebounded as well as it does redounds to our credit. Most of what we do encourages risk taking and profit making. Is that true in Iran and Syria? What proportion of GDP is held by the upper 1-10 percent of their population? What proportion of risk will be felt by their autocrats?
Unless, and until, we re-introduce risk into the current regimes of Syria and Iran we're simply a paper tiger.
How much damage to the infrastructure of Syria and Iran would need to be perpetrated to reduce their economies by 10-20 percent? Given a twenty percent reduction in GDP in Iran...how much international mischief making could they afford? Have you looked at the cheap suits Bashar Assad wears?
#14
all I'm asking for is 24 hr notice so I can pull my pension funds from Janus Overseas fund and put it into a low-risk S&P 500 mutual fund - is that too much to ask?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2006 22:58
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This morning, July 30, 2006, the IAF attacked missile launch sites in the area of the village of Qana, an area from which hundreds of missiles were launched towards the city of Nahariya and the communities in the western Galilee.
The IDF will defend the citizens of Israel from attacks by the Hizbullah and the responsibility for any civilian casualties rests with the Hizbullah who have turned the suburbs of Lebanon into a war front by firing missiles from within civilian areas.
Residents in this region and specifically the residents of Qana were warned several days in advance to leave the village. Eighteen Israeli civilians have been killed and over 400 have been wounded by these rocket attacks which have disrupted the lives of tens of thousands of Israeli citizens.
The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians, but this is the result of Hizbullah terrorist organization's contemptible use of Lebanese civilians as human shields.
IDF warns Lebanese citizens to evacuate villages (July 25):
"To all citizens south of the Litani River
Due to the terror activities being carried out against the State of Israel from within your villages and homes, the IDF is forced to respond immediately against these activities, even within your villages. For your safety! We call upon you to evacuate your villages and move north of the Litani River."
#6
Take off the gloves and kill all of Allan's people now. The world was a safer place when they were on caravan in the desert, only stopping to have sex with their animals once a week.
Come on, human race, wake up.
Four soldiers were lightly wounded on Sunday evening in fighting in the south Lebanese village of Taibe. According to reports, the soldiers were wounded when their vehicle was hit by an anti-tank rocket.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
Sent an order in to PizzaIDF.org tonight. I really hate the way the world treats Israel. If someone in Mexico was launching rockets at the US, you know we'd be hammering them flat and telling the world to screw itself.
#3
I don't think you need to, gromgoru - Bush just gave a speech about 40 min ago in Miami and reiterated full support for Israel being allowed to defend herself, to not be forced into an unsustainable ceasefire, that the Lebanese must be sovereign over their own territory and that can't happen with an armed Hezbollah. He paid lip-service to Qana, deploring the incident, but said it does not change the situation or the support of the US for Israel. I was surprised how he dismissed Qana. I'm sure the MSM will go bonkers over it and that pleases me immensely.
When I hear him speak directly, with no MSM filters applied, the message is very different from what we're seeing here. We're being subjected to endless editorial spin and selective quotes. Hearing it from George directly was very encouraging and puts the lie to all of the back-peddling articles we've seen over the last few days.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/31/2006 11:14
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#5
Cleash Uniger9103.
I should've added, and USA can't/doesn't want to tell the reat of the World (especially friend Tony)[1] to go fuck themselves.
[1] Are you happy with how the WOT is going?
#7
gromgoru - LOL. Is anyone ever happy with the progress of anything run by a government?
I try, very very hard, not to be an idiot regards bitching about the government not meeting my personal schedule. That's a foolish position to take. Instead, if events are leading where I'd like to see them go, I take the positive signs from that fact. It's hard, LOL, but I try to keep reality in mind when composing my comments.
I have few illusions about the "root causes" of terrorism: Iran and Saudi Arabia.
I am happy that, increasingly, Iran is taking a front-burner position - and they're doing it to themselves. The "wipe Israel off the map" comments, the nuke program and obvious stalling - making fools of the EU3, the Hezbollah attacks and supplied weapons, etc - they are making some serious mistakes unless they can deliver a nuke - and I mean now.
Bush made a clear point today in that speech that Iran is behind the current situation. I don't know how such things are taken in the Israeli press, but here that is a very good signal that Bush is educating the public - preparing the ground for what's to come. Fast enough to make me "happy"? LOL. Never quite.
Does that answer your question? I am amused by the knee-jerk crowd who're not satisfied unless their personal wishes are immediately adopted and executed, which never has and never will occur, except by a fluke of history.
Iran is center-stage and the spotlight is getting brighter every day. They will fall. That will produce several orphans who can then be dealt with much more directly.
#9
I think even Iran is smart enough not to use a nuke. I almost wish they would, it would make the current ME situation evolve much more rapidly then we've seen to date. Many, Many people will die, it is only a question of the exact number on each side and the rate at which it happens and by what means. Hard not to be depressed about it but that is the way I see it.
#11
What you don't know 6 is that everyone else here is an AI (Artifical Intelegence) unit running on a bunch (ok... several thousand) of old Commodore 64 computers. This is just an elabrate Turing Test to see if anyone can figure it out. So far noone has.
The hardest part was getting the spelling mistakes *just*right*. And then there's Joe M....
In a few precincts of American politics, voters still applaud the utterly futile gesture of defiance, the confrontational rhetoric that pleases only true believers, the fist shaken in the face of an opponent who neither notices nor cares. Apparently, such empty gestures signs of impotence, really have come to be seen as "speaking truth to power." That helps to explain the remaining, if faltering, appeal of U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), whose supporters are nothing if not naïve. They have turned Theodore Roosevelt's maxim "Speak softly and carry a big stick" upside down.
McKinney speaks loudly but has accomplished little in her 12 years in Congress. That's because her outrageous rhetoric and loopy antics distance her not only from the Republican majority, but even from many of her Democratic colleagues. She has few allies. That number grew yet smaller after her most recent controversy, a very public imbroglio prompted by a March skirmish with a Capitol police officer. He says he didn't recognize her; she was wearing a new hairstyle but was without the lapel pin usually worn by members of Congress. When he stopped her, the officer said, she slugged him with her cellphone. She denounced him for alleged racial profiling and "the inappropriate touching and stopping of me a female, black congresswoman."
While the regrettable episode further endeared her to that dwindling population which sees such incidents as proof of her cojones, it reminded many colleagues and constituents that she is a public official who tends more toward cheap theatrics than common sense. It's no wonder she finds herself struggling to retain her 4th District seat, consigned to an Aug. 8 runoff with former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
Have any of you ever wondered why we've got so many truly stupid/ignorant/evil women in Congress? When I see the likes of McKinney, Feinstein, Boxer, Clinton, Pelosi, Kaptur, Waters, Murray etc., etc., I begin to think we might well have made a mistake by giving women the vote. Granted there are a few decent female elected officials out there (Kay Bailey Hutchinson comes to mind), and the brilliantly shining example of Margaret Thatcher stands out like the Eddystone Light, but by and large it appears they, as a group, have more damned fools than the men do. Anybody got an answer for that?
Posted by: mac ||
07/31/2006 0:39
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#2
"Voters Can See Through McKinney"
Don't care much for the graphic language
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 1:06
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#3
Do you often display such wisdom as this, mac dear?
#6
mac, does that mean you think brilliant minds like Murtha, Ted Kennedy, Buchanan, Sharpton, John F'n Kerry and Kucinich are representatives of male brainpower? Or just an indication that we shouldn't let Northerners vote? ;)
#9
Seems like 95% of the females in government are morons while only 93% of the males are. Confidence limits would indicate that both groups are morons about the same amount. McKinney rises above moronic; she is a perfect idiot. Very, very rarely is anything perfect.
#10
The first problem is that one gets to be a Congressman not by a display of intelligence, but by name recognition. The reason for this is that as free men and women, we can and will vote. Nobody can convince me that my vote is equal to Jane or John Doe who know nothing about politics and government. I vote with my brain, usually against some party wonk who will dip his fat hand into the money bag as soon as we look away. The search for good men and women to run for office takes a back seat to party power.
Perhaps we're doomed.
#12
Here's the test: go through the female Sens./Reps. and count how many moonbats there are. Then divide by the total number of females. Do the same thing for the males. Compare notes. Maybe I'm way off base but I don't think so. Every one of the women I mentioned in my earlier entry is a certified lefty nutter. Off the top of my head I can think of maybe a few more men who are equally notorious as certified loons but I think the overall percentage is considerably lower. My apologies to Swamp Blondie and particularly Trailing Wife for any ruffled feathers; I'd gladly vote for either of them for any elected position. That said, it still seems to me that the vast majority of the women I know of holding elected positions in U.S. politics are serious moonbats, and at a higher rate than men.
Posted by: mac ||
07/31/2006 8:53
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#13
OK, 13% (11 of 84) of the women in congress are dingbats. I have avoided people whom I simply detest, Sen. Clinton, and those with whom I disagree but who are not dingbats, Sen. Feinstein. Some will disagree. My nominees:
Rep. Jackson Lee, Sheila (DEM-TX-18th)
Rep. McKinney, Cynthia (DEM-GA-4th)
Sen. Mikulski, Barbara (DEM-MD)
Rep. Lee, Barbara (DEM-CA-9th)
Rep. Lofgren, Zoe (DEM-CA-16th)
Sen. Murray, Patty (DEM-WA)
Rep. Waters, Maxine (DEM-CA-35th)
Rep. Woolsey, Lynn (DEM-CA-6th)
Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes (DEM-DC-AL)
Rep. Pelosi, Nancy (DEM-CA-8th)
Sen. Boxer, Barbara (DEM-CA)
What is noteworthy is how many are from California. I think California has a high propensity to send dingbats, male and female, and a high propensity to send women. This creates a disparity with the rest of the country and gives women a bad name when only women from California should have a bad name.
The men? 7% (31 of 454)
Rep. Conyers, John (DEM-MI-14th)
Sen. Hagel, Chuck (REP-NE)
Sen. Durbin, Richard (DEM-IL)
Rep. Hastings, Alcee (DEM-FL-23rd)
Sen. Harkin, Tom (DEM-IA)
Rep. Conyers, John (DEM-MI-14th)
Sen. Hagel, Chuck (REP-NE)
Sen. Durbin, Richard (DEM-IL)
Rep. Hastings, Alcee (DEM-FL-23rd)
Sen. Harkin, Tom (DEM-IA)
Rep. Nadler, Jerrold (DEM-NY-8th)
Sen. Specter, Arlen (REP-PA)
Rep. Sanders, Bernard (IND-VT-AL)
Rep. McDermott, Jim (DEM-WA-7th)
Rep. Stark, Fortney (DEM-CA-13th)
Sen. Dodd, Christopher (DEM-CT)
Sen. Schumer, Charles (DEM-NY)
Sen. Byrd, Robert (DEM-WV)
Rep. Frank, Barney (DEM-MA-4th)
Rep. Markey, Edward (DEM-MA-7th)
Rep. Miller, George (DEM-CA-7th)
Sen. McCain, John (REP-AZ)
Sen. Rockefeller, John (DEM-WV)
Rep. Moran, James (DEM-VA-8th)
Sen. Feingold, Russ (DEM-WI)
Rep. Murtha, John (DEM-PA-12th)
Rep. Rangel, Charles (DEM-NY-15th)
Rep. Kucinich, Dennis (DEM-OH-10th)
Rep. Waxman, Henry (DEM-CA-30th)
Sen. Lautenberg, Frank (DEM-NJ)
Sen. Reid, Harry (DEM-NV)
Sen. Voinovich, George (REP-OH)
Sen. Levin, Carl (DEM-MI)
Rep. Meehan, Marty (DEM-MA-5th)
Rep. Lewis, Jerry (REP-CA-41st)
Sen. Kennedy, Edward (DEM-MA)
Rep. Nadler, Jerrold (DEM-NY-8th)
Sen. Specter, Arlen (REP-PA)
Rep. Sanders, Bernard (IND-VT-AL)
Rep. McDermott, Jim (DEM-WA-7th)
Rep. Stark, Fortney (DEM-CA-13th)
Sen. Dodd, Christopher (DEM-CT)
Sen. Schumer, Charles (DEM-NY)
Sen. Byrd, Robert (DEM-WV)
Rep. Frank, Barney (DEM-MA-4th)
Rep. Markey, Edward (DEM-MA-7th)
Rep. Miller, George (DEM-CA-7th)
Sen. McCain, John (REP-AZ)
Sen. Rockefeller, John (DEM-WV)
Rep. Moran, James (DEM-VA-8th)
Sen. Feingold, Russ (DEM-WI)
Rep. Murtha, John (DEM-PA-12th)
Rep. Rangel, Charles (DEM-NY-15th)
Rep. Kucinich, Dennis (DEM-OH-10th)
Rep. Waxman, Henry (DEM-CA-30th)
Sen. Lautenberg, Frank (DEM-NJ)
Sen. Reid, Harry (DEM-NV)
Sen. Voinovich, George (REP-OH)
Sen. Levin, Carl (DEM-MI)
Rep. Meehan, Marty (DEM-MA-5th)
Rep. Lewis, Jerry (REP-CA-41st)
Here the heavy hitters are from the east, W Va, MI, and MA. I'm sure I'm missing some.
#16
NS, you've listed Nadler and Harkin twice. That inconsequential gaffe made me think of Hedley Lamarr in "Blazing Saddles" interviewing the psycho nutball whose credentials for joining the gang were "rape, murder, arson and rape." Hmmm...
Posted by: mac ||
07/31/2006 11:17
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#17
Actually, It loooks like a paste error because I listed everybody twice in the male column. I've chewed up enough bandwidth with the error, so I'll leave it those wth Excel to resort it themselves unless there's a flood of demand for a correction. The paste error starts after the first Tom Harkin and goes to Sen. Kennedy.
#18
young Nimble plz check arithmetic as you may have missed the sum of House and Senate members and double dipped on a few....
The men? 7% (31 of 454)
btw do not trust my count :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
de HOUSE.. Vacancies (2); total 435
de Senate 100
total 535
your list 61
subtract the double dippage -8
bal, the ratio 53 / 535 =_______
Rep. Hastings, Alcee (DEM-FL-23rd)
Sen. Harkin, Tom (DEM-IA)
Sen. Byrd, Robert (DEM-WV)
Sen. Schumer, Charles (DEM-NY)
Rep. Frank, Barney (DEM-MA-4th)
Rep. Moran, James (DEM-VA-8th)
Sen. Feingold, Russ (DEM-WI)
Rep. Murtha, John (DEM-PA-12th)
Sen. Voinovich, George (REP-OH)
Sen. Reid, Harry (DEM-NV)
#19
Well, you have to look at women's voting patterns too. The female vote elected Bill Clinton twice. Yes, Bill Clinton, philanderer in chief, of all people.
I can't make any good theoretical arguments against women's suffrage, but I can make some pretty compelling practical ones...
#22
Then there's that female governor from Loiusiana, Whatserface. The whole world knows she is incompetant. Christine Todd Whitmann was also a nitwit, Madaline Albright, Janet Reno, they're all over the place.
I don't think it's a sex thing, but they reach such positions for all the wrong reasons.
For example; how many men became company vice president because of their wardrobe, graceful demeanor, or good looks ? NONE !
Sleeping with the boss ? Priceless.
GMP20060729950019 Rabat Annahar al-Maghribiyah in Arabic 29 Jul 06
[Report by Said El Moumni: "Explosives found in the hands of Al-Qaeda organization in Morocco"]
A source close to the investigation into the Al-Qaeda cell in Morocco that was gradually dismantled recently said that the three men from the royal armed forces arrested last Tuesday [25 July] were found in possession of bombs ready for use, scanners, computers, and printing material.
... were found in possession of bombs ready for use, scanners, computers, and printing material...
Our source, however, did not reveal the targets that the men in question planned to attack, and whether the bombs were meant to be used soon against an already chosen target or they were rather stored for use at a later date. Moreover, according to the same source, the police, accompanied by explosives experts, carried out tests on the bombs in question in the region of the town of Bouknadil, and they found that they were indeed ready to be triggered off. As for the electronic equipment found in the hands of the arrested men, it was used for forging documents.
The same source stressed that the police had kept a watch for more than three days on the street where the suspects lived, and when they made sure that their targets were present, a large number of security men surrounded the area and arrested the three men who are suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda organization in Morocco.
The fact that the three arrested men belong to the royal armed forces suggests that the latter may have been infiltrated by these terrorist movements.
The fact that the three arrested men belong to the royal armed forces suggests that the latter may have been infiltrated by these terrorist movements. In this context, the national judiciary police unit, with the assistance of the Beni Mellal royal gendarmerie, had arrested a retired sub-lieutenant in the village of Tagzirt and other elements of the same cell were arrested also in El Youssoufia.
It should be noted also that the Sale police had arrested a terrorist cell composed of 19 members and suspected of putting the last touches to an announcement concerning the setting up of an extremist branch of Al-Qaeda in Morocco, on the lines of the Al-Qaeda organization in Mesopotamia. The Rabat appeal court investigating judge has started investigation of the group in question. The police arrests took place in three working class quarters in Sale, namely Hai Arrahma, Hai Achmaou, and Oued Edhahab. Among the most prominent detainees of the group figures was Hasan El Hattab. The latter had already been prosecuted in terrorism-related cases; he had spent two years in jail and he finished his sentence recently.
Hasan El Hattab had signed a commitment to the police that he would not re-offend and would not resume the activities for which he had been sentenced already...
Before his release, Hasan El Hattab had signed a commitment to the police that he would not re-offend and would not resume the activities for which he had been sentenced already. However, the police kept a watch on El Hattab and began asking questions about his finances because of the signs of wealth he was showing despite the fact that he had no job and he came from a poor family.
I don't think this is the very same Hassan al-Hattab that founded GIA and GSPC in Algeria. This reads like he was sentenced in Morocco.
The police believe that the members of this cell were the authors of the inflammatory statements that excommunicate people and call for violence and terrorism. These statements were signed on behalf of the Moroccan group for unification and combat [al jama'a al maghribia littawhid wal qital], and they contained threats that the blood of several ministers, artists, and intellectuals will be shed. These statements were sent by their authors to the national press through the Internet.
[Description of Source: Rabat Annahar al-Maghribiyah in Arabic -- Moroccan independent daily newspaper]
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday that he needed 10 days to two weeks to finish the offensive in Lebanon, according to a senior Israeli government official.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
Good on you, Olmert.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 0:56
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#2
Agreed.
Go a giant step further, Olmert, baby: tell, don't ask. Tell Rice and Bush to take a deep breath and realize that the US now shares the same situation as Israel:
It no longer matters. If you do right, you'll get no credit. If you do wrong, the blame will be endless, permanent. In fact, regardless of the facts, you will be blamed, just like us. You are Israelis, now.
All of the barbarians, triangulators, thieves, ankle-biters, haters, and even the simple fools of the world would blindly support your destruction.
No matter the great good you do in the world. No matter the millions you've set free and defended. No matter the vast numbers you've saved and sheltered. No matter the great gifts in medicine, technology, crop yields, in almost every field of endeavor. No matter. None.
They're all blinded by their customary hates, institutional lies and stupidity, vaunted traditions, and raw jealousy. You are the victims of your own successes, liberal society, unmatched generosity, and obstinate belief that all mankind shares your desire for freedom. It doesn't.
You are Israelis, now. If you're smart, instead of suicidal, you will realize what this means, the liberating reality: You have nothing left to lose except by continuing to give a high holy shit what anyone else thinks or says.
You are free. Free to fuck your enemies like $2 whores at a global frat party. Free to decimate those who oppose your goals. Free to see for yourselves that only one thing matters in this world, only one thing actually changes anything: unapologetic direct action. Free to see for yourselves that your enemies can only restrain you with your permission. Free to realize your dreams of sanity and peace and fair-play. All you need do is plan well and methodically destroy those who seek to maintain or spread human misery. Yup, go medieval on their asses while you can.
Baby, that's freedom. Get yer game on, America. Or go sit in the corner and tell the world you're really very sorry for existing. Then cease to do so.
We'll hold out as long as we can... then, when the barbarians' breeding rate overwhelms us, we'll take a fucking shitload down with us.
#3
Come back home Condi: Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said he told her not to come (to Lebanon). Take a 6 week vacation on some deserted island without cell phone service.
Posted by: ed ||
07/31/2006 5:43
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#4
BTW, Olmert will be interviewed on Fox at about 12:30 Eastern, for those who wish to hear what he says without media-filtered spin.
Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric on Sunday demanded an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, warning that the Muslim world would "not forgive" nations that stand in the way of a stop to the fighting. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued the call following the IAF airstrike that killed at least 60 Lebanese, mostly women and children, in the village of Qana. "Islamic nations will not forgive the entities that hinder a cease-fire," al-Sistani said, in a clear reference to the United States. "It is not possible to stand helpless in front of this Israeli aggression on Lebanon," he added. "If an immediate cease-fire in this Israeli aggression is not imposed, dire consequences will befall the region."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
No can do, pops
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 0:59
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Aw, how cute. A li'l chinchilla just curled up on his head and went to sleep...
America needs a "new realism" in its foreign policy and a concerted push for energy independence to safeguard national security, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, said Saturday. "What the Bush administration has failed to understand is that while diplomacy without power is weak, power without diplomacy is blind," Richardson said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
"New realism" usually translates into selling your friends down the river and letting your enemies screw you. It's also known as "taking the path of least resistance," or "going with the flow."
Richardson pointed to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants, escalating violence in Iraq, the stalemate with North Korea over its missile and nuclear programs and rising oil prices as evidence that "the world around us in on the verge of spiraling out of control."
Much of the world around us is controlled by men who would qualify for jackets with very long sleeves in a rational world. Bill's making the assumption that because they're spiraling out of control we have an obligation to accomodate them.
"If we would have had a permanent Middle East envoy in the region, we would have been in a better position to disarm Hezbollah and protect Israel, and implement a concurrent cease-fire along with a legitimate, international peacekeeping force on the ground," Richardson said.
If Hezbollah was disarmed then we'd be a lot closer to Muddle East peace. Which is the cause and which is the effect?
He called for direct U.S. talks with North Korea and Iran, objecting that the Bush approach has been to "outsource our diplomacy."
"Outsourcing" is a Democrat bad word. If we were doing it ourselves we'd be guilty of "unilateralism."
"We are Democrats and we stand for diplomacy, not threats; bridges, not walls; alliances, not isolation," he said.
Who'd you have in mind to ally with, Bill? La Belle France? China?
"Bill Richardson - much like Howard Dean - can focus on playing small-ball politics, but President Bush and Republicans will continue to focus on the threats facing our nation and delivering long term solutions that increase our safety," responded Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
Yeah, Bill. Your good offices routine with the Norks really netted some handsome dividends. Back from the slimelight with ye.
#4
So it's ok to be unilateral with North Korea and Iran instead of getting our allies involved with negotiations? I thought unilateral was bad, multilateral good.
I'm so confused. When is it ok to be a cowboy and when do we have to play nice with others?
#5
America needs a "new realism" in its foreign policy and a concerted push for energy independence to safeguard national security...
Of course this is why the Gov signed the papers moving a nice chunk of NM land out of exploration and drilling recently. Bill will make a good vice-presidential nominee for Hillary, they both act alike. Try to pander to two sides at once. On immigration, he calls for more enforcement along the border after issuing a directive to state agencies not to cooperate with ICE.
#7
Thanks for your opinions Bill. Now we know why you're not qualified for any higher office. People like you, Dean, Kerry, etc., just keep talking. The hole is getting deeper.
#8
Interesting that a White House spokesman invokes Howard Dean. They must be getting the sense that Dean does not do well as the symbol of the Democratic party.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
07/31/2006 15:06
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#9
"If we would have had a permanent Middle East envoy in the region, we would have been in a better position to disarm Hezbollah and protect Israel, and implement a concurrent cease-fire along with a legitimate, international peacekeeping force on the ground,"
What you mean "we," Kimosabe?
Are you offering US troops to fight a war with disarm the most powerful, best equipped, and best organized terrorist group in the world, or are you just blowing smoke from your nether regions?
Hezbollah warned on Sunday it would punish Israel for the deaths of at least 51 civilians in Israeli air raids on the village of Qana, saying the Jewish state had to accept the consequences of its "massacre". "This horrible massacre, like the others, will not remain unpunished," the Shiite militant group said in a statement. "The Israeli enemy will assume the consequences of its massacres in Qana and elsewhere, as the Islamic Resistance has promised," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
The difference being, of course, hezbollah would celebrate the deaths of Israeli women and children and try for more.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2006 7:48
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#2
Nice logo, btw. Is that a globe in the background? Wonder about the significance of that......
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2006 7:48
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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday repeated his call for an immediate halt to violence between Israel and Hizbullah, condemning an IAF air strike that killed at least 54 people and telling the UN Security Council he was "deeply disturbed" that his previous calls for cease-fire had gone unheeded.
Annan spoke at an emergency meeting of the council which he convened after that IDF air strike in Qana early Sunday. He said the council had a responsibility to demand an end to the violence. "We meet at a moment of extreme gravity first and foremost for the people of the Middle East but also for the authority of this organization and especially this council," Annan said. "Action is needed now before many more children, women and men become casualties of a conflict over which they have no control."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
F-U Annan!
What a dickhead. He sat around for *years* while Hez fired missle after missle after missle into Israel to kill civilians. Now that Israel decided to do his job for him he cries.
The dead civilians (if that is what they were) are Hezbollah's fault for firing from civilian areas.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/31/2006 1:02
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#3
"Action is needed now before many more children, women and men become casualties of a conflict over which they have no control."
They had control, just as the Paleos. All they needed to do was reject terrorism and terrorists in their government, in their neighborhoods, in their families. They merely needed to choose freedom and sanity over their traditions of blind self-destructive hate. They failed miserably. They chose this situation. This is the obvious just reward for congenital stupidity.
To be the world's "official" apologist for the terminally insane has been a perfect fit for Annan.
#4
More years and decades of new or continuing terror attacks, Radical Islamists becoming de facto part of the local Public Govt and eventually the dominant or absolute force in Public Giovernment. Dozens or scores of rockets RPG's and AK47's became 000's, now 0,000's, now soon enuff in LT to become scores or tens of 000's iff not larger, not to mention also larger-sized, longer-ranged, more accurate and multi-/WMD-capable. OLLIE NORTH > challenged Colmes to name him one "ceasefire" which has resulted in bilateral peace, the cessation of rocket, arty, and suicide attacks agz Israel, or was respected /obeyed by the terror groups in Lebanon. ISRAEL = USA > THE BURDEN IS ON SAME, AND ONLY SAME, TO RESPECT AND FOLLOW UN PROTOCOLS, TREATYS AND INTERNATIONAL LAWS, NOT THEIR ENEMIES OR THE TERROR GROUPS. ISRAEL = USA > can be attacked and harmed at any time, but is simul NOT allowed to retaliate or even get angry about anything. NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO MAKE ANY MISTAKE OR ERROR LEST THE BURDEN FALLS ON SAME FOR EVERYTHING. THE STRONG = SUCCESSFUL MUST BE "PERFECT" IN EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING, THE WEAK = LESS SUCCESSFUL CAN BE UNILATERALLY DECEITFUL, VIOLENT, VENGEFUL AND MURDEROUS AT THE LATTER'S CONVENIENCE. WHats the difference between the Army/Garrison or Occupation brothels of Secular Atheistic Communism-Socialism versus the 72 Virgins-Pleasure Slaves of Radical Islamism; between the "Permanent War/Revolution" of the former versus the "Permanent Jihad" of the latter???
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/31/2006 9:58
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#8
Supple Whomper-yep.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
07/31/2006 12:21
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#9
If Kofi is so concerned about this, why isn't HIS ass over there? Why isn't HE roaming around Lebanon? I'm certain that anything that occurred while he was on the ground would be preferred over him continuing to run his mouth and waste perfectly good oxygen from afar.
#10
He's better than a poet, Elder of Zion. He's one of the Guam Mendiolas. ;-) anonymous5089 recognizes some of dear JosephM's more emphatic phraseologies from some of the more obscure sites he's visited on occasion, but the mere mention of some of their philosophies sounds too complicated for me to master. JosephM's interests are catholic in the extreme, and the glimpses of knowledge he reveals are fascinating to one who's lived as sheltered a life as I.
The leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council says he wants to convert Indonesia into an "Allahcracy," it was reported Sunday. Abu Bakar Bashir, 68, free after serving two years in jail for his role in a bombing of two nightclubs in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, tells the Sunday Times of London that Islamist bombings "are reactions by Muslims to defend themselves."
The democratic system is not the Islamic way. It is forbidden. Democracy is based on people, but the state must be based on God's law.
"The democratic system is not the Islamic way," he says. "It is forbidden. Democracy is based on people, but the state must be based on God's law. I call it Allahcracy."
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, does not embrace Bashir's ideas, the newspaper says. Fundamentalist parties have failed to win significant support and Islamists are trying to advance their agenda by pressuring politicians to adopt elements of Islamic law. "George Bush is trying to rot Islam from within," Bashir said, "and America is attacking Indonesian Muslims -- with ideas. That's why I'm fighting America -- but only with preaching and ideas, of course."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2006
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#1
God's Law.....He forgot to mention who would be responsible for implementation and enforcement. But I guess we can assume that the job ought to be left up to the clerics. Executive, judiciary and legislative power, give it all to the guys shouting, pointing their fingers, rolling their eyes and waving the Koran in the air. And when God fails to materialize and announce His Will on matters not covered in Koran in a booming voice heard by all across the land, then we can leave it up to the clerics to tell us what Allah is thinking.
Accountability....nah. Checks and balances? Pshaw. Qualifications needed to govern? Spend your whole life doing nothing but reading, memorizing and preaching the Koran. Oh yeah, it also helps if you've got a knack for denouncing and threatening crusaders, Jews, moderate Muslims...anyone not as pious as you. A talent for whipping up hatred and inciting violence is a bonus too. The Caliphate...utopia it aint.
Something that more than a few folks around here have been saying for some time now, myself included. Glad to know you're along for the ride, Supple Whomper9999. If such a thing exists, Bashir is d@mn close to evil incarnate.
His "Allahcracy" is just another way of saying that he wants to take a huge chunk of the world's population off-line so that they can be manipulated however @ssholes like him deem fit.
"The democratic system is not the Islamic way,"
I believe that democracy (and elected representation) are a fundamental human right. Rectal cavities like Bashir seek to commit crimes against humanity with their visions of theocratic rule. The time to revoke his oxygen consumption license is long past.
1) You have the right to kill Jews - particularly ones standing behind talking trees.
2) You have the right to kill Christians, Hindus, and other infidels.
3) You have the right to kill atheist / agnostic Western liberals - but do them LAST.
4) You have the right to pray to Mecca at least five times a day.
5) You have the right to have your head separated from you shoulders if you don't do #4.
6) You have the right to kill female relatives who do something 'naughty' - like flash their ankle in public.
7) You have the right to burn American flags.
8) You have the right to blame America for anything and everything that goes wrong.
9) You have the right to own a woman - but only if you agree to keep her in her place.
10) You have the right to do everything your relgious leader tells you, but only when prefaced with 'Allah says ...'.
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.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council passed a weakened resolution Monday giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
Lebanon's Ministry of Tourism launched their 
Sen. John Kerry on Monday will propose requiring all Americans to have health insurance by 2012, "with the federal government guaranteeing they have the means to afford it."
The trial court found Abd-AL-Rahman Shakh Ru Dinor guilty of illegal border crossing, in violation of Article 24 of the Foreigner Resident Law, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Coalition forces apprehended the defendant after he illegally entered Iraq from Iran.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that she believes she has achieved general agreement on terms to end almost three weeks of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and that she expects a cease-fire to take hold this week.
Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state 
Iran denied Sunday it was helping Hizbullah in its fight against Israel in Lebanon. "We haven't deployed any forces there (Lebanon)," said 
QUETTA: Three soldiers were killed and another two were seriously injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in the tense Marri tribal area of Kahan on Sunday. Sources said that the soldiers were travelling in Karmu Wad in Kahan when their vehicle hit a landmine, killing three of them instantly. The injured soldiers were admitted to a hospital. No militant group has accepted responsibility as yet.
Former U.S. Attorney General 
Four Kassam rockets landed in the western Negev shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon. No one was wounded in the attack, although a building was reportedly damaged in the attack. Earlier, a woman was moderately wounded by a Kassam rocket that landed near Sderot.
Prime Minister 
Massachusetts Sen. 
The IAF struck the road leading to Damascus from Lebanon near the Syrian border, eyewitnesses reported Sunday evening. It was reported that the attack occurred in the same place as on Saturday, by the Lebanese and Syrian migration offices on the Lebanese side of the border. The Syria-Lebanon border was open on Sunday; however, those coming and going were asked to leave their vehicles and cross on foot.
QUETTA: Three more commanders of tribal chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti on Sunday surrendered to the government, vowing to cooperate with Islamabad until the Nawab's ouster from Dera Bugti and the establishment of government writ in the area, government sources said.
KIRKUK: Insurgents detonated a car bomb on Sunday in a protected enclave housing the US and British consulates in Iraqs oil city of Kirkuk in the latest in a string of deadly blasts, security sources said. City leaders described the two-month-old bombing campaign as the work of Islamist extremists bent on terrorising the population and fomenting civil strife in the ethnically and religiously mixed city. 
EU foreign policy chief 
Those who knew 
A US plane launched an air strike Sunday against a building used by al-Qaida in Iraq, killing two operatives, the US military said. Four suspects were detained after the air attack, which took place southwest of Baghdad against extremists who had been staging mortar attacks on civilians, a US statement said. US troops tracked the operatives to a building and "coalition aircraft successfully executed the strike," the statement said.
Mass killings of up to 300,000 chickens are underway in tambon Ban Klang in Nakhon Phanom's Muang district after a laboratory test confirmed the area had been hit by the bird flu outbreak. The province has mobilised 1,500 health officials to carry out the cull on 70 farms.
BAGHDAD, July 30 -- Gunmen killed at least 23 Iraqis on Sunday on a highway south of Baghdad, commandeering three minibuses and herding their occupants into nearby palm groves, where they were lined up and shot, according to police and a witness.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Sunday many Taliban fighters are crossing from Pakistan to stage attacks inside Afghanistan. Alliot-Marie said the NATO-led force assuming command in insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan from Monday would need better cooperation from Pakistan. "We need real cooperation from Pakistan, but it seems very difficult for them. The border is a very difficult region and we ask Pakistan to make some more effort to control it," she told reporters in Kabul. "We think a lot of Taliban fighters are coming from Pakistan to Afghanistan."
Worried about an excess of flesh visible on the banks of the River Seine, Paris city hall has banned thong bikinis, topless sunbathing and nudity at the summer sand-in-the-city event known as Paris Beaches, reported Le Parisien newspaper on Saturday. 
Hezbollah leader 
Polls show Sandinista leader 
An Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana which killed 51 people on Sunday, including 25 children, drew a barrage of fierce condemnation in the Middle East. 
BOMBS destined to be used by Israel are being flown via Scotland only because the Irish government refused to allow them to land on its soil. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that after the conflict in Lebanon began three weeks ago, Ireland turned down a United States request for planes carrying 600lb so-called bunker busters to refuel at Shannon airport in Co Clare. As a result, cargo planes carrying the bombs, which the Israeli army is using in its offensive against the Hezbollah, are being flown via Prestwick airport in Ayrshire.
The head of Iran's 
Four soldiers were lightly wounded on Sunday evening in fighting in the south Lebanese village of Taibe. According to reports, the soldiers were wounded when their vehicle was hit by an anti-tank rocket.
In a few precincts of American politics, voters still applaud the utterly futile gesture of defiance, the confrontational rhetoric that pleases only true believers, the fist shaken in the face of an opponent who neither notices nor cares. Apparently, such empty gestures signs of impotence, really have come to be seen as "speaking truth to power." That helps to explain the remaining, if faltering, appeal of U.S. Rep. 
Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric on Sunday demanded an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, warning that the Muslim world would "not forgive" nations that stand in the way of a stop to the fighting. Grand Ayatollah 
Hezbollah warned on Sunday it would punish Israel for the deaths of at least 51 civilians in Israeli air raids on the village of Qana, saying the Jewish state had to accept the consequences of its "massacre". "This horrible massacre, like the others, will not remain unpunished," the Shiite militant group said in a statement. "The Israeli enemy will assume the consequences of its massacres in Qana and elsewhere, as the Islamic Resistance has promised," it said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday repeated his call for an immediate halt to violence between Israel and Hizbullah, condemning an IAF air strike that killed at least 54 people and telling the UN Security Council he was "deeply disturbed" that his previous calls for cease-fire had gone unheeded. 
The leader of the 
