A Navy diver submerged 2,000 feet, setting a record using the new Atmospheric Diving System (ADS) suit, off the coast of La Jolla, Calif., Aug. 1.
Chief Navy Diver (DSW/SS) Daniel P. Jackson of Navy Reserve Deep Submergence Unit (DSU) was randomly selected to certify the ADS suit for use by the Navy.
I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, said Jackson. I am honored and privileged to be the first diver to go down to that depth.
The certification was the culmination of 11 years of planning, designing and testing by multiple agencies to develop the ADS suit, also known as the Hardsuit 2000.
This is the biggest piece of teamwork that I have ever seen in the Navy, said Cmdr. Keith W. Lehnhardt, the officer in charge of the project.
Lehnhardt said the project was a collaboration of so many different organizations, such as DSU, Submarine Squadron 5 and Diving Systems Support Detachment.
Jackson said, I was just a guy tied to a rope. It was the ADS team that made it all possible. They were incredible.
Developed by OceanWorks International from Vancouver, British Columbia, the Hardsuit 2000 was designed to withstand underwater pressure at 2,000 feet. Current models have only been able to go down as far as 1,200 feet.
The suit worked incredibly, said Jackson. It did everything it was intended to do. I always heard that around 1,300 feet, the joints of the Hardsuit 2000 would work even better, and it worked exactly the way they said it would.
Meeting the Navys high safety requirements, the ADS suit was designed and acquired by the Navy to support submarine rescue.
Its specific purpose is to be part of the advance assessment system during a submarine rescue operation, said Lehnhardt. The diver in the suit will see what the damage to the sub is and find out where the survivors might be.
At 2,000 feet, I had topside turn off all the lights, and it was like a star show. The phosphorescence that was naturally in the water and in most of the sea life down there started to glow," Jackson said. "When I started to travel back up, all the lights looked like a shower of stars going down as I was coming up. It was the best ride in the world.
A court in Bangladesh trying suspected Islamic militants was thrown into panic when five live bombs were produced as exhibits during the hearing of a case.
The discovery prompted the presiding judge to order a hasty adjournment as the court was evacuated.
A security force officer said that he got the "shock of his life" when he realised that the bombs were live.
Officials blame police for not defusing the devices before coming to court. The police say they were not asked to.
The incident happened during the trial of five suspected members of the banned Islamist organisation, Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
The JMB is accused of carrying out a string of bomb attacks across Bangladesh at the end of last year.
They were alleged to have been caught in possession of the explosives in December 2005, and the devices were brought to the court as evidence.
The BBC's Qadir Kallol in Dhaka says that the only trouble was that police forgot to defuse them.
When Captain Tareq Rahman Khan of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) saw the Public Prosecutor, Shahidul Islam, uncovering the explosives in front of the judge, he admitted suffering temporary heart failure.
"I got the shock of my life," he was quoted as saying in the New Age newspaper.
Captain Khan warned the prosecutor that the bombs could go off at any moment and cause carnage in the crowded courtroom.
RAB officials say that they asked the police to defuse the bombs after they were seized.
But the police said they had not received any such communication.
Later on Wednesday, police did eventually take the bombs away, but with the utmost caution.
"It was fortunate we were not all blown to smithereens," one officer was reported as saying.
Posted by: john ||
08/04/2006
19:13 ||
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#1
But you must admit it's a good way for the Public Prosecuter to get his point across to a jury...
#2
why not have the defendants handle them from a "secure" remote location (like a firing range)?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 19:22
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#3
Crossboom.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 19:32
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"Officials blame police for not defusing the devices before coming to court. The police say they were not asked to."
It's official - they're all phucking NUTS.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2006 20:33
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"The police say they were not asked to."
(1)Are they stupid?
(2)Are they unable to consider the consequences of their inaction?
(3)Are they so jaded by death that it matters little?
(4)All of the above
#6
Hey, they were taught by the best British colonial bureaucrats. "It is not my job to defuse bombs." That office is down the hall, over the hills and far away.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2006 22:30
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court showed no mercy to a man who allegedly planted a bomb in a bus in 1997 during the serial blasts which shocked the Capital. The high court sentenced the man to death, upholding the verdict of a lower court.
In a strongly worded judgment, Mohammad Hussain's plea to set him free was struck down by a Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin for "satisfying the conscience of society", as the accused was a "menace to society" and did not "deserve to exist on this earth".
"Showing any mercy to people like the appellant (Hussain) would be a mockery of justice... whenever some person is found guilty of this kind of gruesome act and ghastly murder, the penalty of death sentence is the only appropriate punishment and there is no alternative to it," the judges observed.
Referring to a Supreme Court judgment, the court bracketed the case under the rarest of rare category, which is the ground for death penalty for those found guilty of murder.
Subscribing to the view of the trial court and giving it their consideration, the judges termed Hussain's act of creating circumstances causing the death of four people as heinous.
"Our country has been a victim of many such incidents of bomb blasts for some years now at the hands of the terrorists and innocent lives have been lost."
Posted by: john ||
08/04/2006
18:16 ||
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cool - hope it's sharp drop
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 19:01
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Iran has set up a fund to compensate the families of Hezbollah fighters killed or wounded in the conflict with Israel, Lebanese security officials have disclosed.
Iran's Shaheed Foundation is making initial payments of $1,000 to relatives, in a program that was originally set up in the 1980s to compensate the families of Iranian soldiers killed during the country's eight-year war with Iraq.
Tehran is believed to have set aside $2 million for its Lebanon compensation fund, and further payments will be made to bereaved families when Iranian officials have assessed their needs.
Although Hezbollah has refused to make public the extent of the casualties it has suffered, Lebanese officials estimate that up to 500 fighters have been killed in the past three weeks of hostilities with Israel, and another 1,500 injured.
Lebanese officials have also disclosed that many of Hezbollah's wounded are being treated in hospitals in Syria to conceal the true extent of the casualties.They are said to have been taken through al-Arissa border crossing with the help of Syrian security forces.
Iran's compensation payments offer further proof of its close ties with Lebanon's radical Shiite Muslim militia.
Although Tehran has denied having any direct involvement in the hostilities in southern Lebanon, Lebanese security officials say the Shaheed Foundation has sent a number of representatives from Iran to set up temporary offices in local schools and kindergartens closed for the summer holidays to assist with the payments. An estimated 20 commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps are already based in Lebanon, helping Hezbollah with the Iranian-made rockets being fired into Israel.
Iran has previously paid compensation to the families of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who have hit Israeli targets.
Hezbollah's operational council has drawn up casualty lists that have been passed to the Shaheed Foundation. Copies have been seen by the Daily Telegraph and have also been obtained by Lebanese newspapers, which have been pressured by Hezbollah not to publish them.
"Hezbollah is desperate to conceal its casualties because it wants to give the impression that it is winning its war," a senior security official said. "People might reach a very different conclusion if they knew the true extent of Hezbollah's casualties."
The Bush administration has imposed sanctions against seven foreign companies, including two from India and two from Russia, for business dealings with Iran involving sensitive technology, according to an announcement Friday. Also subject to sanctions were two companies from North Korea and one from Cuba. All seven were found to be in violation of the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000.
The announcement in the Federal Register, which reports on official actions by the U.S. government, said the two Indian companies were Balaji Amines Ltd. and Prachi Poly Products Ltd., both chemical manufacturers. The Russian companies were Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi. Also sanctioned were Korean Mining and Industrial Development Corp. and Korea Pugang Trading Corp., both North Korean. The Cuban company was the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Under the sanctions, U.S. government dealings with any of the seven are prohibited.
Y'all have been warned. Best to cut ties immediately!
#1
Iran and Syria are just bound and determined to get nuked, aren't they? We should oblige them - let the Israelis keep their nukes while we use BIG ones.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 21:00
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Iran is racing to resupply Hezbollah across the Syrian border ahead of a possible cease-fire being ironed out this week at the United Nations. Meanwhile, Israeli jets have begun a new bombardment of Beirut's suburbs and Hezbollah is threatening to launch a missile attack on Tel Aviv. Israeli military and intelligence officials here say Iranian technicians were aboard a flight to Damascus on Monday with the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. The Israel Defense Forces also says it has not been able to seal the border between Syria and Lebanon, making it possible to ferry men, small rockets, and other materiel to Hezbollah through the back roads and smuggling routes in the Bekaa Valley.
And an interesting bit of analysis: The Iranians this week began a double game in Lebanon best summed up by President Ahmadinejad's message to Muslim nations yesterday in Malaysia: "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented."
This approach of seeking both Israel's destruction and a temporary ceasefire is evident in signals from Iran's Foreign Ministry to European countries. Mr. Mottaki met with his French counterpart Monday at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. The French are supporting an immediate cease-fire and have pledged to contribute troops to an international force for southern Lebanon. The meeting was significant because the French in the past year have been supportive of efforts to censure, if not sanction, Iran for its nuclear program at the United Nations, and have pressured Syria to remove its forces from Lebanon in 2005 as part of resolution 1559.
As Hezbollah was the only major political party in Lebanon to oppose the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, the French meeting with Iran preceded by French praise for the "constructive" role Iran is playing in the region signals that Paris is willing to keep Hezbollah armed for now.
But the diplomatic game for Iran is only part of their role in the war, Israeli officials say. One intelligence analyst pointed to statements this week from an Iranian member of parliament and former ambassador to Syria, Mohtashemi Pur. Mr. Pur, who was one of the founders of Hezbollah in the early 1980s, told the Iranian reformist newspaper Sharq that Hezbollah had the Zelzal-2 missile, with a range of 160 miles and the "courage to use them." This analyst interpreted this as "a green light from Iran to use the Zelzals at their own discretion and without permission." If such a decision was made, then it would partly explain Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's threat to Israel yesterday on Al-Manar television. He said, "If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity," he said. "We will bomb Tel Aviv."
A retired colonel in Israel's military intelligence, Reuven Erlich, said yesterday that there were gaps between the Syrian-Lebanese border that could be exploited by Iran. "Of course there are gaps. The Syrian-Lebanese border is a long border. It is very difficult to close such a border hermetically if the Syrian regime does not cooperate, and this is not the case. I guess the IDF are doing their best to decrease the amount of supply, but I don't think it can be stopped."
Israel Severs Lebanon Road Link to Syria
Israeli attacks on the four bridges on the main north-south coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria severed the only remaining major road link between Lebanon and Syria. The 90-minute drive to the Syrian border takes at least double the time on the small coastal road that remains open. Border crossings in the east have been shut by airstrikes. Israel has imposed a naval blockade and has hit the international airport to seal off Lebanon's sea and airspace.
"This is Lebanon's umbilical cord," Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program told The Associated Press. "This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in."
#1
berlin air lift come to mind? Not very helpful for missile launchers/weapons resupply, but that's the point, isn't it, dimwit. Nobody can read the "GTFO" memos dropped all over south lebanon?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 18:01
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#2
If the Lebanese are smart, they won't rebuild the Leb-Sryia roads. Ever.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 18:27
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Big "if," ed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2006 18:41
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It appears they've cut them off. Now finish them.
Not stated in the article, but one of the suspects used to work for the City's Aviation Department until...well....today.....
Authorities arrested two suspects in connection with a series of fatal shootings that have terrorized Phoenix area residents for more than a year, Phoenixs police chief said Friday.
The men apprehended at a gated apartment complex in Mesa late Thursday are believed to be responsible for the crimes in the Serial Shooter case one of two serial predators whom authorities say have been operating in the Phoenix area, said police Chief Jack Harris.
Authorities identified the two as Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman, and said the arrests were made following numerous tips from the public. Harris said the two will be booked later Friday each on multiple counts of murder and aggravated assault.
These are the two monsters we have been hunting, and I promise you and our colleagues promise you, we are not finished, added Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.
Police said authorities identified the pair, whom they say are friends, on Monday and that the arrests occurred Thursday night after the pair "presented themselves," allowing tactical units from Phoenix and Mesa police to take them down. "I assure you, these are the right guys," said Phoenix Assistant Police Chief Bill Louis, who headed up the investigation for months as a commander before his recent promotion. "The hunt is over but the work has just begun."
Authorities said they have also linked Hausner and Dieteman to two arson fires at two Wal-Mart stores on June 8 that caused an estimated $7 million in damage. The fires were set about 45 minutes apart in the plastic-flower aisles in the back of the 24-hour stores at 5605 W. Northern Ave. and 5010 N. 95th Ave. The arson suspects were believed to be captured on surveillance camera.
The series of shootings has held the Valley in a grip of fear for more than a year, with six people killed and 18 wounded. The shootings began in May 2005.
The latest incident was Sunday night when a 22-year-old woman was shot to death while walking on Gilbert Road near Grandview Street in Mesa.
#3
US: we knew that. Now you must understand when Israel is done with the Hez you are next!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 17:47
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I think the IDF took out the long range stuff early and that is why Iran won't give the supposed go ahead. Its a face saving deal.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/04/2006 17:56
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#5
We supplied Israel with Tomahawks. Real sorry about the exploding Iranian refineries.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 18:57
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#6
Israel has missile defense at the ready, Patriot-3 and Arrow, likely Iran will wait till its guard is down.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 20:21
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#7
Is there anybody here that thinks Iran's misdeeds will go unpunished? No? I thought not. Israel is doing the prudent thing by taking on its tasks in manageable stages. Iran's punishment is coming, but not until after her local neighborhood is cleaned up. Faster, please.
Strategy Page article--no permalink. Edited for brevity.
Counterfeit American hundred dollar bills have become, in practice, legal tender in North Korea. Everyone knows they're fake, but they are such good fakes that merchants call them "$70 bills," and often use them at full face value.
North Korea has, for nearly two decades, financed it's defense establishment via illegal activities. These included producing and exporting illegal drugs and counterfeit U.S. currency. Of particular concern to the United States, the fake hundred dollar bills were of such high quality that, in some respects, they were superior to the real thing.
North Korea has access to the special materials and printing equipment for producing currency. Much of this stuff is only sold to governments. However, since North Korea is a government, they get the quality materials and gear needed to make what American Treasury officials call "supernotes." These counterfeits can be detected, but with difficulty. As a result, thousands, if not millions, of them are in circulation, largely outside of the United States.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/04/2006
16:52 ||
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So produce a new hundred and tell everybody the old ones are no longer valid. Complaints? See Kimmie.
#2
Gee, I can't imagine why we don't get along with these 'patriots'. They're even helping us reduce the printing costs of our $100 bills. Sounds like the basis for bilateral talks to me.
Do you like my brooch? It's a gold replica of Ned Beatty from "Deliverance" it's meant to signify strength in my negotiations with Kim Jong Il. He loved it the last time we met. We danced and drank champagne....he caressed my back fat....
Periodically, as a form of psychological warfare, the Israelis hack into Lebanese television and play this video, which expresses disdain--to put it mildly--for Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah:
Video at the link. Catchy tune. I love the chorus:
Yalla ya Nasrallah
We'll screw you inshallah We'll send you back to Allah
With all of the Hezbollah
Dear IDF:
Can you make a free MP3 download available?
--a fan
Posted by: Mike ||
08/04/2006
16:17 ||
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Note the IDF / IAF women pictured as contributing to the attacks on Hezb'Allah. Cold!
#3
It was on YouTube for a while. Now YouTube makes you log in because it's so controversial and has so much filthy language, and so they need to know that you're adult enough to watch it. How lame.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/04/2006 17:40
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I say they hack into the Minarets. I'd pay to hear Homer Simpson's voice over a Minaret, "Doohh!!"
#5
Mac - Can you imagine Bart's prank call to Moe's over the Minaret loudspeaker: "I'm looking for Homer Sexual... Moe: "is there a homer sexual here?""
and all the male faithful raising their hands? D'oh! would be right
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 17:51
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this song is catchy. and the arab side has their propaganda songs too. they should have an american idol style square-off. i have the name already:
"False Idol"
CAIRO (AFP) - Arab foreign ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting Monday in Beirut to support Lebanon, Arab League number two Ahmed Ben Helli told AFP.
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"The meeting of Arab foreign ministers will take place next Monday in Beirut, it will be a follow-up of the session which took place in Cairo on July 15," the deputy secretary general of the pan-Arab body said Friday.
Israeli warplanes pounded areas north and south of Beirut on Friday, killing at least 28 people, as part of the military offensive against Lebanon launched following the July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah militia.
"We are holding this meeting in Beirut to express solidarity with Lebanon," the official added.
Ben Helli said Arab League chief Amr Mussa was expected in Beirut on Sunday to prepare the meeting and hold talks with Lebanese officials on the crisis.
In the meeting they held three days after the start of the military confrontation, Arab foreign ministers had admitted their impotence and Mussa had declared the Middle East peace process "dead".
The idea of holding an extraordinary meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in the war-torn country was initially floated by Saudi Arabia.
Permanent representatives at the Cairo-based organisation have been discussing the possibility of holding an extraordinary summit at the level of heads of state but the 22 members have so far failed to reach an agreement.
Arab countries have been divided on the stand to take since
Israel launched its onslaught, with the more moderate regimes refusing to rally behind the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement despite vocal criticism of Israel's assault.
According to Lebanese officials, more than 900 people have been killed, mainly civilians, in Israel's devastating land, sea and air offensive.
France and the United States were still locked in intense negotiations Friday over the wording of a United Nations Security Council resolution for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.
Islamic values and Arabic language education are now in the mainstream of Philippine education. As mandated by Department of Education Order No. 51, the two subjects are now taught in public schools around Mindanao and in some parts of the country that have at least 30 enrollees who are Muslims.
According to the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM), which partnered with DepEd in three Mindanao regions to implement a Muslim education roadmap, there is a plan to institutionalize madrasah education, contextualize aspects of DepEd's Revised Basic Education Curriculum (RBEC), provide alternative learning system for Muslim out-of-school youth, to create a special fund for the madaris (Islamic schools, plural for madrasah), among others. Islamic values and Arabic, taught only in the madaris before, is now offered as the Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (or ALIVE curriculum) in public schools, said Noor Saada, BEAM Muslim education coordinator. Classes started in school year 2005-2006 in pilot schools in select areas, according to Wallina Tambuang Motiva, DepEd Muslim education and madaris coordinator in Southeastern Mindanao. BEAM announced that ALIVE is now taught in at least 1,010 classes in Southeastern Mindanao, Southwestern Mindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Saada could not provide figures for other parts of Mindanao and the Philippines, but said the classes are now held nationwide in public schools that have at least 30 Muslim pupils. ALIVE, part of an integration of the Islamic values and Arabic language in the basic education curriculum for Muslim students studying in public schools in the country, is among the key actions provided in DepEd's Muslim education roadmap. DepEd Order No. 51 series of 2004 provided for a "Standard or unified Madrasah Curriculum" for private madaris seeking government recognition. It also provided for the ALIVE curriculum in public schools, which was developed by a group of Ulama representing Muslim communities, Saada said.
In the ALIVE curriculum, Saada said, Muslim students in public schools still take RBEC subjects such as English, Math, Science, Filipino, and Makabayan. In addition, he said, they will also take four Islamic studies subjects: the Qur'an; Seerah (Life story of the Prophet) and Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet); Aqueeda (Conduct) and Fiqh (Jurisprudence) and Arabic. Saada clarified that the extent of the subjects covered varies from one grade level to another. He said Islamic studies focus on values education for the Muslim children. Non-Muslim students could take the ALIVE curriculum as an elective, but only with their parents' consent. This development will reportedly help Muslim children studying in public schools because they do not have to go to school seven days a week. He said at present, Muslim students attend Monday to Friday classes in public schools and Saturday to Sunday classes in madaris.
An ustadz (or a Muslim mentor), who shall become a regular teacher of the public schools, will handle the Islamic and Arabic subjects. Around 1,000 asatidz (plural of ustadz), Saada said, are expected to finish the accelerated teacher education program in six Mindanao universities in 2008 so DepEd could hire them as regular teachers. The non-Muslim teachers will handle the RBEC subjects but asatidz could also be tapped. The asatidz attended a 23-day Language Enhancement Program before teaching. The program serves as their orientation to the Philippine educational system.
Muslim education in public schools has gained headway in Southeastern Mindanao, Motiva said. From 36 public schools that offered ALIVE in 2005, the number has now almost doubled at 70. She said with 210 asatidz, they have an enrolment of approximately 15,000 in Davao City, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Tagum City, Compostela Valley, Panabo City, Samal Island, Digos City, and Davao del Sur. Saada said the integration of the subjects in the RBEC curriculum promises to help build "bridges of dialogue" between Muslims and non-Muslim students.
Teaching Arabic, Islamic jurisprudence and the Hadiths will bring all the peoples of the Philippines together. Kumbayah, Allah, kumbayah.
But among the big concerns facing the teaching of Islamic and Arabic in public schools is budget for salaries of the asatidz. Saada said local government school boards shoulder salary expenses.
Ask the Soddies for some loose change. I just bought gas this morning.
"Not much in big local government units, but the problem is in smaller LGUs that do not have funds for an ustadz. Hopefully, DepEd could release funds for salaries starting school year 2007-2006," Motiva said. Government recognition of private madrasah is also another strategy to increase the access of Muslim students to education in Mindanao, Saada said. He said work is ongoing for the standardization of a madrasah curriculum and in processing recognition of private madaris that could operate like the private schools in the country. Together with this, Saada said, are the contextualization and indigenization of instructional materials. The roadmap, Saada said, is based on the Philippines Medium Term Development Plan, the 1996 GRP-Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) peace agreement, Republic Act 9054 or the Expanded ARMM Organic Act, and the salient advocacies of the GRP -- Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace process.
#1
Bottom line is they do not have the fuds to run the schools normal classes. The areas are so dangerouse that the teachers will not report to the class room. Not to worry here, they will never get it on line.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 17:52
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#2
funds not fuds oops!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 17:53
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BRIDGEPORT, Ind. - Gamblers raked in nearly half a million dollars over two days on a slot machine that multiplied by 10 the amount of money that players put in, a newspaper reported.
Caesars Indiana lost $487,000 before a player notified officials of the problem with the machine, The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., reported Friday. What a friggin idiot! If the casino was screwing you, which they pretty much are every day, do you think they'd let you in on it?
Kathryn Ford of Louisville, Ky., realized something was wrong July 23 when she and her husband sat down at two of the machines, called Extra Money. When she put in a $20 bill, the machine registered it as $200. She tried another $20 bill and the same thing happened, she said. Ford said she put eight $20 bills in the machine and received vouchers that could be redeemed for $1,600 in cash without even playing. I would've sold my car in the parking lot and headed back in to feed the thing...
Other gamblers noticed. Oh, I'll bet...
"There was even a young woman who jumped in while I was sitting there. She ... reached across me, popped a hundred in, popped out a thousand and then she took off," Ford said. Outta the way, granny!
Ford and her husband reported the problem to a security officer and casino officials determined the machine had a switch set for use in the Philippines instead of the U.S. instructing it to multiply credits by 10. So next time you're in Vegas, look for the Filipino slot machines...
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/04/2006 15:36
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#8
Let me know when all of Beirut looks like our Marine barracks in 1983. Although heartwarming, these developments, much like the proverbial 70 lawyers in a bus at the bottom of a lake, are merely a good start.
#15
Looks like we've come a long way since the vaunted Norden bombsight. Works for me!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/04/2006 16:27
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#16
Much as I detest the NYT, they have a very nice interactive page for these pictures that also includes labels. Click the buttons at top to toggle before/after pix and labels.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/04/2006 16:41
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#17
The lighting angle between the two photographs is different. This seems to give the "before" picture much higher contrast than the "after" one.
Posted by: Phil ||
08/04/2006 16:44
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#18
The lighting angle between the two photographs is different. This seems to give the "before" picture much higher contrast than the "after" one.
because the "camera was sad" at the destruction spawned by the evil Jooooos
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 16:51
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#19
Contrast on 'flat' is less, Phil, because all the flatness is humilliating.
#20
It's too bad Moses is dead. Robert Moses, that is. I'm waiting for the Beirut SimCity scenario.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/04/2006 17:57
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#21
EJ, you bring up a great point. Moses probably would have been the only modern who could have understood and worked the Middle Eastern web of corruption to his advantage.
If a camper taking a leak in the woods falls off a cliff, and his buddies are too drunk to hear him, does he make a sound?
Here's a tip for campers on the go: Or on the go to go...
Bring a flashlight when wandering in the woods. Nah, that's okay. I know this place like the back of my...
Jerry Mersereau, 23, learned that lesson the hard way when he trekked out in the dark to relieve himself and fell off a cliff in the Mt. Hood National Forest. Hey, anybody seen Jerry? He's got the opener.
Tucked into his lawsuit (Jerry Mersereau v. United States of America) is this succinct description of his misadventure: "While finding a place to relieve himself, plaintiff walked off the unguarded and unprotected cliff falling approximately 20 to 30 feet to the creek bed below." Pissing in a National Forest. What would Smokey the Bear say? Friggin Communist, serves you right.
Now Mersereau wants the U.S. government to pay for his injuries and the "mental anguish" his fall has caused. He says the government should have known the cliff posed a danger to campers. Especially the stupid ones...
#11
The pain and suffering were caused by Bambi mocking his genitalia.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/04/2006 20:26
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#12
"While finding a place to relieve himself, plaintiff walked off the unguarded and unprotected cliff falling approximately 20 to 30 feet to the creek bed below."
Something about environmental and impact laws and rules disturbing the natural splendor of the place means you got to adapt [or perish].
Just because it's nice to know!
Eleven New York firefighters put their lives on hold this week and paid their way to Jerusalem, where they have been volunteering in a number of understaffed stations.
Because of rocket-caused fires in the North, fire stations elsewhere started sending units to help, leaving places like Jerusalem in need of more personnel.
"It's a good feeling to know somebody's thinking about you," said Arik Nisimov, a firefighter at the Giva station. "That here are guys that will come and help, no matter how far we are between countries."
Nathan Rothschild, commissioner of the Monsey fire district in New York's Rockland County, who planned the whole trip, said 22 more firemen would be coming to Israel next week to replace firemen in other parts of the country.
He said that his relationship with the Fire and Rescue Services began when it contacted him several years ago with a request to find cheap fire trucks. He managed to get what was needed for about 20 percent of the cost.
When he heard about the Katyusha attacks on the North, he correctly assumed that fire departments throughout the country would come under severe strain. He then had the idea to gather volunteers to help, immediately got the approval of Shimon Romach, the Fire and Rescue Services commissioner, and three days later they arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport with a warm welcome and a minibus that said "New York Firefighters."
The New Yorkers have been getting to know their local counterparts while helping them respond to calls since Monday.
"We learned that Israeli 'chick-chak,'" Rothschild said. "It's amazing to see they can successfully do it as firefighters as well."
"Firefighting is the same job no matter where you go," said Evan Humphrey, one of the volunteers. "It's one big brotherhood like everybody says."
As well as working hard, the New Yorkers pray three times a day and visited the Western Wall for Tisha Be'av.
For Jacob Strauss spirituality was paramount in his decision to come and help Israel. "Religion played a big part," he said. "We mention Yerushalayim all the time in our daily prayers. To talk is one thing, but to actually act and to actually help is another."
Eli Sabo, who is also an undergraduate at Yeshiva University, agrees that there was a very Jewish feeling of duty. "We all feel a strong connection," he said. "As opposed to just sitting there watching what's going on, we wanted to help out."
The Israeli firemen interviewed, as well Ofer Shefer, the instructor officer of the fire department, were extremely grateful that the New Yorkers came to help.
"I think it's unbelievable," Ofer said. "They're full of Zionism, they're full of wanting to help. Excellent people, and we enjoy them very much - first of all because they're all professionals. They are very well trained. Secondly, they're very nice people."
"It makes us all feel very good," said Doron Moshe, a fireman at the Giva station. "It's like a big brother over there watching us. Knowing that when you need him he will come makes you feel peaceful. In Israel, at this time, the general mood is about going and helping. They have a Thanksgiving once a year, we have a war. Everybody's together helping each other."
#1
Of course they did! The NYC Firemen know right from wrong and are inclined to act. Hats off to them. Israel is really the only nation to unquestionably support America during this war. We must now help them at every turn. I think the NYC Firemen realize this also. Good on um!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 14:49
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#2
"They have a Thanksgiving once a year, we have a war. Everybody's together helping each other."
Bloody Israeli humour! Thanks for the post, Sherry. :-)
#3
New York State, not New York City. I think the NYC firefighters can't really spare anybody for this. Face it, the NYC FD expects to be the targets again sometime.
Rockland Co. is northwest of NYC; take the George Washington Bridge West to NJ, and take the Palisades Interstate Parkway about 15 miles North. As you can guess, some of the towns there are mostly Jewish. The NYC FD is mostly Irish.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/04/2006 18:08
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#4
awwww the INFAMOUS Irish Jooooos
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 18:50
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Santeria followers sacrifice doves for Cuba, Fidel
Fri Aug 4, 2006 8:56am ET
By Jeff Franks
MIAMI (Reuters) - The white dove looks warily at shopkeeper Oscar Osorio as he pulls it from a cage and holds it in his hands.
"I don't think he trusts me," Osorio says while he gently rubs the dove's feathers and spreads its wings for a visitor to admire. "I think he knows what's coming."
and PETA is too far away
The bird has reason to be nervous, because the illness of Cuban leader Fidel Castro has moved adherents of Santeria to appeal for divine help in hastening either Castro's demise or his recovery, depending on which side of the Florida Straits they live.
What happens to all of Fidel's body doubles?
Santeria is the voodooish Afro-Cuban religion that uses animal sacrifice to communicate with the gods, which makes these tough times for favorite sacrificial creatures such as chickens, goats and, in this case, doves.
As many as 3 million people in Cuba and 60,000 people in Florida are believed to be involved in Santeria, according to religious experts.
Osorio said about 20 people a day are coming into his "botanica" in Miami's Little Havana section to buy birds, powders and jewelry for rituals in which they ask the gods to please finish off Castro so they can return home....
#1
That's pretty ironical, considering that el dealer maximo, after having expelled all christian missionaries a few years back, actively promoted santeria as a way to counter catholic influence.
#1
Maybe the Sunnis can send in a half dozen splodedopes to get this civil war thing started.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/04/2006 13:50
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#2
The important thing in the article seems to be later. With the withdrawl of US forces from Mosul to Baghdad, the insurgents tried a Tet Offensive in Mosul and it just petered out.
"...The violence erupted as 3,500 U.S. troops were being moved from the Mosul area to Baghdad to help bolster security in the capital.
Fighting raged in at least eight neighborhoods in Mosul, the largest city in Iraq's northern tier about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
At least 80 insurgents drove vehicles into several neighborhoods and attacked police patrols and checkpoints, police said.
Two car bombs also went off. In one of the attacks, Col. Jassim Mohammed Bilal, a police battalion commander, and two other police officers were slain when attackers targeted his convoy in the eastern Noor neighborhood, said Nineveh province Gov. Duraid Kashmoula.
Police and civilians were wounded in the blast. The bodies of an unknown number of insurgents were strewn on the ground across the city."
#6
To be honest I wouldnt want to see Sadr/Badgr take over Iraq but the idea of the Shia wiping the Sunni out just doesnt make me feel much pitty or regret at all.
I was one who early on actually had high hopes for the Sunnis who I considered wise and westernized enough to see that in a capitalist democracy their huge head start in education and experience of leadership would easily allow them to become the ruling elite of the economic, military along with ranking positions in the government due to experience. The US would have been willing to help them short the hardcore Sadamites but instead of participating they chose to gamble all and they have now lost on the edge of losing all. The Shia/Kurd has taken those places the Sunnis could have filled in both the military, government and quickly in the economic (hence Iraq operation taking almost 4yrs to get moving right instead of the earlier optimistic estimates). The Sunni if they are not driven out or slaughtered when we leave will never again be the ruling class in Iraq. They did it to themselves.
Killing women and children at the market for no reason but the 15second blip on the Western media does little but play to the pansies heart strings of uncontrollable fiasco cry babying but does nothing to the military balance and has drastic consequences for the future of the Sunnis in Iraq. With the Shia/Kurd no longer needing the Sunni expertise in the government and military the Sunni will soon be nothing more than a liability and in the Arab world liabilities are dealt harshly wish.
It make work out all nice and pretty in the end but I think we should prepare for the worst and not be discouraged of our end goal if along the way the Sunni are liquidated. They made their bed its theirs to sleep in. We should concentrate on making sure Sadr/Badgr and Iran dont take over because our PC warfare rules say we cant support them if they do certain things.
#7
Killing women and children at the market for no reason but the 15 second blip on the Western media does little but play to the pansies heart strings of uncontrollable fiasco cry babying but does nothing to the military balance and has drastic consequences for the future of the Sunnis in Iraq.
And such rationality fits in exactly where with a Sunni universe which, to this day, remains entirely uncontaminated by even the remotest comprehension of Cause & Effect? [/snark]
Stanford University's Joel Beinin is used to criticism for his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but when a conservative commentator put the professor's photo on the cover of a booklet titled "Campus Support for Terrorism,'' it started a whole new war.
Beinin, a prominent Middle Eastern scholar, filed suit in March -- turning his ideological clash with FrontPageMag.com Editor in Chief David Horowitz into a legal one.
Horowitz removed the photo from later printings, but Beinin said the harm had already been done and is demanding unspecified damages. With the United States at war in Iraq, Beinin said, it's a scary time to be labeled a supporter of terrorism.
"Horowitz is -- if not a coordinated part -- part of a broader attack against people who speak out against Bush's Middle Eastern policies," said Beinin, past president of the Middle Eastern Studies Association. "If you don't fight back and allow the Horowitzes to do and say what they want, it pollutes the political environment to the point where you can't have intelligent discussions about what we do in the world."
While he believes what Horowitz did was libelous, Beinin isn't suing on those grounds. Instead, he selected a more clear-cut legal challenge -- copyright infringement for unauthorized use of his photo.
Horowitz, who said he didn't know the photo was copyrighted, argues he's the victim in the dispute.
"It's an abuse of the courts to chill my free speech," Horowitz said of Beinin's lawsuit. "If he wants a debate, I will come to Stanford and debate him."
Both men are Jewish, but they stand on opposite sides of a deep fault line of opinion on Israel and its actions in the Middle East. Beinin believes Horowitz's antipathy toward him stems in part from the fact that he is Jewish -- Horowitz calls Beinin a "self-hating Jew" -- and that he has criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and called for a Palestinian state.
Horowitz, who is frequently seen on cable television programs such as "The O'Reilly Factor," is a 1960s radical turned conservative who founded the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. The center has since been renamed the David Horowitz Freedom Center and is publisher of the online magazine Front Page. His books include "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left."
He calls Beinin an "apologist for terror" and not only published Beinin's photo on the cover of "Campus Support for Terrorism" but featured him in his subsequent book, "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America."
He accuses Beinin, among other things, of saying the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shouldn't be considered a terrorist but should be respected as the Palestinian Authority's elected president.
Beinin called that a typical Horowitz distortion.
"He gets everything wrong," Beinin said. "His mode of operation is to distort and misquote and confuse people by piecing things together that don't belong together."
Arafat, Beinin agrees, was responsible for many acts of terror but as president of the Palestinian Authority needed to be dealt with internationally as a statesman.
Beinin's lawsuit reads in part, "Mr. Horowitz's most recent 'campaign' has been to attack the integrity, scholarship and patriotism of academics who question American foreign policy in an overt attempt to intimidate and silence them for fear of being labeled as Islamic terrorists or collaborators."
He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages in federal court.
Beinin was one of the nation's first Middle Eastern scholars fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic. He spent a year on the Kibbutz Lahav in Israel before earning a master's degree at Harvard. Briefly disillusioned with academia, he made doors for Dodge trucks in Detroit, where he helped Arab autoworkers understand their rights.
Talking about Israel and the Palestinians has always been difficult in the United States, he said, and during his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, he followed his thesis supervisor's advice not to write about the subject if he wanted a job in academia. Stanford hired him in 1983 to teach Middle Eastern studies.
The Beinin-Horowitz controversy is just one example of how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seeped into academia here and abroad. In Britain, the largest association of higher education instructors voted in May to ask its members to consider boycotting their Israeli academic counterparts who don't publicly dissociate themselves from Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.
In the United States, the activist group Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, held a conference at San Francisco State University in July and called on Palestinians to protest at the Israeli consulate, while the Philadelphia-based organization Campus Watch began asking students in 2002 to monitor their professors for perceived anti-Israel bias.
In recent years, Middle Eastern studies in the United States have come under scrutiny by Horowitz and others who believe faculty are too sympathetic to Palestinian issues and unreasonably hostile to Israeli policies, said Jonathan Knight, who directs the program in academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors in Washington.
"As long as faculty are free to question accepted ideas and notions, there will always be those disturbed by their questioning, and there will always be those who will call for restraints on freedom," he said.
Knight cited Columbia University, where the administration formed an ad hoc committee in 2005 to investigate the classroom behavior of Middle Eastern studies Professor Joseph Massad after student complaints. Knight fears such censure is having a chilling affect on academia.
Campus Watch -- a project by the Middle East Forum -- has encouraged students to monitor professors for perceived anti-Israel bias and report their findings. The Campus Watch Web site has many articles about Beinin.
To stop professors from discussing their political opinions in the classroom, Horowitz has shopped his "Academic Bill of Rights" around the country and has succeeded in getting legislation to that effect introduced in 16 states, although no legislature has passed it. Still, Horowitz said he believes his bill has influenced debate.
"My model for academia is the Columbia I went to in the 1950s -- I want to see it depoliticized," he said. "I never heard a teacher one time express a political opinion. That's what I want. There's massive abuse going on."
He is incensed that in 2003 Beinin held a class lecture at a "teach-in" against the Iraq war in Stanford's quad.
The lecture that day on the Gulf War happened to be relevant, Beinin said, but was "definitely an act of solidarity with the teach-in."
"This is as close to the line of putting politics in the classroom that I've ever done," he said. "I don't hide my opinion."
#1
As usual, the commie Chronicle couches the facts with a leftist slant. Beinin is a supporter of terror. Horowitz called him on it. Beinin didn't like Horowitz' free speech. simple as that.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/04/2006 14:03
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#4
Let the lawyer games begin.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2006 14:37
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#5
Horowitz isn't just a former leftwing radical, but a genuine "Red Diaper Baby." His parents were active Communist Party apparchiks through the 1950s, I believe.
I've been tracking the schools the trailing daughters express interest in through Mr. Horowitz's site, and the evidence I find there is one of the factors that will help us make the final choice. Duke, for instance, had been off our list ever since their Provost (or whatever they call the Dean of Students these days) organized that PLO conference a few years, and justified it to *me* on the grounds that his dear old, Holocaust-survivor father didn't object -- the blind, self-hating ass! Of course, where they go depends on their capabilities, interests, and scholarship money, but I still have a little longer to discover where that will lead us! ;-)
This is a battle that needs to be fought, and David Horowitz is uniquely qualified to do so. I look forward to seeing it play out.
#6
Whatever 'sins' he committed in the past, David Horowitz has long since atoned for them. He should get a medal. He's been assaulted, beaten, egged, pied, spit on, cursed and had just about every vile thing imaginable thrown at him---human excrement, you name it -- by American students, in American Universities. Why? For daring to express a different view than the moonbat professors. TW, I already scratched off more than 80% of the schools my daughter was considering because of their vile anti-Americanism.
RC, maybe Beinin actually suffers from the psychosis Horowitz alleges? I dont know enough about Beinin or the affliction commonly referred to as a Self-hating Jew to say one way or the other. But its pretty much a given that anybody that Horowitz debates will arrogantly be branded as anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew. (Even when simply discussing policy issues.) Besides, I think most of his writing is filled with adolescent innuendos and speculation stated as fact supported by sloppy research. Just my opinion.
#8
DG - I disagree. He would be a pariah and broke if his statements were unprovable slander.
Just as we Christians (and my own Catholic Churches'Jesuit branches are a good example, particularly the "social justice" concerns) have self-loathing "progressives" that defy all tenets of their religion, there are "self-hating Jews" who despise all methods and manners by which Israeli Jews try to postpone their violent deaths at the hands of hateful Arabs, Islamists, NeoNazis, etc.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 17:30
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#9
DG - I disagree. He would be a pariah and broke if his statements were unprovable slander.
Damn didnt think a little pot-shot across the bow would illicit this banter. But let me clear. I agree with some of Horowitzs opinions but I dont care for his style. He has a habit of refuting an opposing opinion by attacking the messenger and not the message. One particular tactic he seems fond of is alleging guilt by omission and then drawing conclusions based on speculation of motives. He then he assigns a label to his opponent based on said speculation. It works great on the talk-shows where everybody shouts to be heard, but in reality, its simply another hollow argument. Again, just my opinion but Im sure Horowitz would dismiss it as the rant of another bigot.
#10
DepotGuy is right. No matter how much I may agree with the guy, I've heard Horowitz on the radio debating various commies and he comes off as a loudmouthed, bullying idiot. Our side could do a lot better. Hell, our side NEEDS to do a lot better on the PR front. Thats no joke.
Last night, al-Arabia TV (Dubai) reported that a new Sunni Jihadi front has been established in Lebanon, named The Islamic Action Front (Jabhat al-Amal al-Islami). According to Muslim World News (MWN), Fathi Yakan, a follower of Sayyid Qutb, is believed to be the main establisher of the new Front, which brings together major Sunni organizations from all parts of Lebanon (which altogether include several thousand members), aiming to fill an existing gap and create an authoritative body for the Sunnis in Lebanon, that will work in co-operation with the other authoritative bodies. Yakan further stated the Fronts commitment to all aspects of Jihad, including its military side, and its willingness to fight alongside Hizbullah.
In addition, Ibrahim al-Masri, Deputy Head of the Jamaa Islamiyya (the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, also according to al-Arabia), said in a seperate interview their fighters stand shoulder-to-shoulder fighting with Hizbullah. Al-Masri dated the military co-operation of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizbullah back to the 1980s. He said their fighters are stationed in villages on the Lebanon-Israel border strip (including Shabaa and Shuba); they are assisted, he affirmed, by the Jamaas infrastructure of (civilian) institutions and have their own ammunition and stocks.
Today, Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawis website, Islam Online published an article that quotes Masri as stating The Sunni Islamic Group in Lebanon fighters are defending southern Lebanon hand-in-hand with Hizbullah. He further states that we have military combatant groups in the border areas to defend villages there. This is probably one of the first times Muslim Brotherhood has admitted to having a military combatant group.
It is also clear that Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood are rejecting the fatwa issued last week by Saudi prominent clergymen which prohibited support of Hizbullah due to its Shiite background.
On July 30th, Qaradawis official webpage published an interview the Sheikh gave to the official paper of the nationalist liberal al-Wafd party in Egypt on July 27. MWN analysis highlights the following points the Sheikh raised:
Qaradawi states that the Lebanese resistance is a lawful (shari) Jihad, which, alongside its Palestinian sister represents the noblest form of resistance. Currently, says the Sheikh, when our Nation is in a situation of lack of vividness and disgrace, the only proof the Nation is still alive is the resistance we see in Palestine and Lebanon. There is no dignity, says the Sheikh, in any other acts, and all the Arab organizations are surrounded by submission. Qaradawi now sees Jihad as a religious individual commandment (faradh ayn) which is obligatory to women even without the consent of their husbands, to children even without the consent of their parents and servants even without the consent of their masters.
In the Sheikhs opinion, the Arab organizations think Israel is an unbeatable force, in a similar way to how the Mongols were thought of (in the 13th century). He calls upon them to start acting and stop talking. The Sheikh adds that the problem with achieving Jihad is the lack of freedom inside the Nation, and if there had been freedom in our countries, millions would have volunteered to join Jihad and help resistance in all the Arab and Muslim countries to win.
Sheikh Qaradawi stresses the Lebanese resistance should not be perceived Shiite but as part of the Muslim Nation (ummah). The ground for his statement is (the Shiites) agree with (the Sunnis) on most of the main principles (of Islam) and (only) differentiate over part of the branches. Furthermore, says the Sheikh, the Shiites in Iraq should be condemned for their radical approach. He calls them to abandon their hostility towards their Sunni Muslim brothers and stand together against the daily massacres, from which the only ones to gain are the American occupation and the Zionist entity.
Sheikh Qaradawi praises the Lebanese resistance, which succeeded in cleansing the Muslim land from the Israeli filth, except for the Shabaa farms, that, with Allahs will be released soon. He says one of the noblest achievements of the Lebanese resistance is the capture of Israeli soldiers, after the prisoners were only from our side, and thousands of our sons are in the occupation prisons. The Sheikh further praises the Lebanese resistance which succeeded in bombarding with missiles the Israeli valley, made the Zionists hide in shelters, made Israel for the first time acknowledge its (civilian) casualties by Hizbullahs bombardments and caused it (financial) damages in millions.
Sheikh Qaradawi says the US hopes to change the map to create a new Middle East, in which Israel is the only ruling power and is able to force its wills over everyone. He proves it by saying that while all the world calls for a cease fire, Rice granted Israel a green light to complete the destruction of all essentials of life, and (Israel) started it by destroying houses, killings of innocents and turning civilians into refugees.
#1
which succeeded in cleansing the Muslim land from the Israeli filth,
Are'nt there, like, 15,000 of them there now, that were'nt there a month ago?
I would be fired fom my job if I was that successful.
#3
If this is serious, it represents several things.
First, the MB is huge, and international. Unless this is just a local faction of the MB, this is a major game change.
Second, the US has never declared the MB to be a terrorist org, even though it has spun off dozens of recognized terror orgs.
Third, if this includes the Egyptian branch of the MB, it is in open revolt against Egypts official and clear statement of neutrality, and may be a de factor declaration of civil war.
#4
Sheikh Qaradawi praises the Lebanese resistance, which succeeded in cleansing the Muslim land from the Israeli filth, except for the Shabaa farms, that, with Allahs will be released soon.
Does anyone still believe that Qaradawi is a "moderate" Muslim. It astounds me that this psychopath f&ckwit is still stealing oxygen.
A Department of Homeland Security plan to require port workers to carry tamperproof photo ID cards has numerous security problems that threaten to delay it, investigators said. In an audit, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said his review of prototype systems at participating U.S. ports identified vulnerabilities in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, known as TWIC. The weaknesses, some of which were deemed high risk, included instances of false positives in detecting which workers might pose a security risk as well as cases in which the system inadvertently disclosed sensitive personal information inappropriately. Wha does Fat Tony whackin dose two scumbags back in da 80s have ta do wit Port Security anyhow. Dey had it cumin anyways fahgedaboudit.
Portions of the report were redacted to prevent public disclosure of specific weaknesses. Its a Union thing you wouldnt understand anyway.
No problem, I'll just read the NYT on Sunday for the details.
In written responses, the Transportation Security Administration, which runs TWIC, said that it had expected to encounter some problems with its test program, appreciated the input and was now addressing concerns. "It was acknowledged in discussions with (Skinner) that a prototype system will always need further enhancements and additional work to ready it for production," wrote TSA deputy assistant secretary Robert Jamison. Congress ordered the administration to develop the card as part of port security legislation passed in 2002. Under the plan, the TSA would collect biographical information including fingerprints, name, birthdate, address and phone number, alien registration number if applicable, photo, employer and job title. Hmmm it appears theyre asking for the same requirements that Flight Attendants must submit before employment. They should ask the TSA how that works. Oh thats right they are the TSA. Nevermind.
#4
It looks to me as if a lot of these women are playing for the other team. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I wonder if they would let me watch.
Rantburg's house doc is on assignment vacation this week, so here is a link to informed speculation as to El Commandante's condicion. The comments are worth reading too, here is an interesting one:
CAROL HERMAN wrote:
Don't forget that Chavez (of Venezuela, got to Cuba, to see the last of Castro, walking. When he toured Che's old abode.
Then, Chavez ran to Tehran. And, Damascus.
I'll bet America has a large enough Navy, that we have ships in the Meditterainian. Ships in the Red Sea. Ships in the Straits of Hormuz. And, our Coast Guard around Cuba.
Meanwhile, Chavez thinks he's bought Cuba, all on his own. Since Venezualan oil money has been propping up Castro's bogus regime, since the Soviets bellied up.
Actually, I'm not a doctor. But a Star Trek fan. And, "He's dead, Jim," comes to mind. No wonder Castro's not walking! Nor is he conscious. So one reason he's in bed, not walking, is that you don't shake coma patients awake, so they can take a toodle. Or have their legs drapped over the side of the bed.
Perhaps, we need to hear from a forensic specialist?
And I'd like to note as well that August 22 is drawing closer. Also see this. I also had a post within the past few months that the Shi'a community in Cuba was pushing for a official mosque. They claimed about 70 members, which I calculated could be a pretty good nucleus for an effective terror cell.
#1
Here's an interesting article on how the death of dictators through history have been announced or not announced.
Is Castro Dead?
Mojitos all around! And brace for the hangover.
By Mario Loyola
In Communist societies, the fall of a dictator is often marked by a public statement about the dictators failing health that (a) doesnt make sense, and (b) is not delivered by the dictator himself. Thats what we saw on Monday night, when Cuban dictator Fidel Castro issued a letter to the people in which he explains that he had suffered intestinal bleeding due to stress, needed an operation, and would be in bed for several weeks. The missive was coldly Orwellian in how little it said about Castro and in how much detail it gave about those who were now temporarily assuming power.
The next day another Cuban official read a more entertaining letter in which Castro purports to explain (again in pure Newspeak) that because of the imminent threat from the United States, the details of his health are now a state secret. But theres only one detail about Castros health that could possibly be a state secret: that hes dead.
Continue reading here
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGY1ODlhY2FjOWFlMWNiMjk0ZWE3N2ViYjAyMjBlN2U=
#3
Carol's comments, while entertaining, are slightly unhinged - see other blogs - Capt'ns Quarters and Ace's HQ (IIRC)in particular. Think JM on meds
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 16:21
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#4
that said - Sea's right, there's nothing right or normal in how this Castro situation (R or F) is being handled. I'm in for the dead pool. Can't figure what's up with Raul tho'....standard procedure in the Dictator Governmental Transition Manual is a public appearance and calling out the troops to maintain order....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 16:24
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#5
I think Castro has pulled off A Weekend at Bernies. That is what is right.
[A] Trident submarine was damaged after snagging a tow line in the Strait of Juan de Fuca [in Washington state], and the Coast Guard is investigating, Navy officials said. The USS Nevada was submerged when it caught and severed a 500-foot line between the tugboat Phyllis Dunlap and one of two barges being towed from Honolulu to Seattle with a load of empty containers late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Navy Lt. H.K. Sweeney said. A second tugboat was sent to retrieve the barge, Coast Guard Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski said.
Members of the sub's crew felt the impact, and damage was found in a fiberglass part of the sail after the vessel returned to its base on Hood Canal, Sweeney said. The sail is a structure on top of the sub once known as the conning tower. Tow lines commonly dip below the surface of the water, Roszkowski said. "They use the weight of the tow line to help them tow," he said. "You don't want the tow line taut."
Posted by: Dar ||
08/04/2006
11:42 ||
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#1
Well, there's one more Captain and command staff who are taking up turkey farming. The rule is that if *anything* bad happens, for *any* reason, it is a career ender.
Damned unfair. But them's the breaks. Too many contenders waiting in the wings for their jobs.
#2
when it caught and severed a 500-foot line between the tugboat Phyllis Dunlap and one of two barges ........Tow lines commonly dip below the surface of the water
Ok, if the line is 500 feet long, then if the tug and tow were right next to each other, the maximum depth the line could reach would be 250 feet. Figure under way it could be a parabolic curve of maybe 100 - 125 feet max? The sub might expect a fishing trawler to have a net that deep, but would they think a tow line would be? Any sub guys reading today?
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006 14:45
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#3
interesting that i have to read the 'burg to find out what happened right out my back door....
#5
When this happened more than likely both the tug and the barge weren't moving. No motion, no noise. Subs only use active (i.e. pinging) very rarely (under ice, in minefields) plus being in the Sound (no pun intended) probably was a high background noise day. The line was slack enough to hang down to snag the sail at below periscope depth. This would not be a career ender for certain unless the review board found that there was dereliction of duty or just plain sloppiness allowed by the Captain to creep into ship's operations.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
08/04/2006 21:01
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PALESTINIAN gunmen dressed in police uniforms broke into a prison in the West Bank city of Jericho today and shot dead six Palestinian inmates, security sources said.
Four of the dead had been accused of killing two officials within President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in the West Bank city of Nablus last year. The four were in prison awaiting trial. The other two victims were cell mates.
Tawifiq Tirawi, the deputy head of intelligence in the West Bank and Gaza, said Palestinian authorities believed the attack was carried out by relatives of the two dead Fatah officials from a village near Nablus.
"Those who committed this crime will be brought to justice," Tirawi told reporters in Jericho, where a state of emergency was declared.
The attack occurred at a Jericho prison run by Abbas's intelligence service.
Earlier this year, Israeli forces used tanks and bulldozers to tear apart the same prison to grab a militant leader accused by Israel of overseeing the 2001 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.
Tirawi said the damage caused by the Israeli raid made it harder for prison guards to protect the facility against the Palestinian gunmen.
There have been a series of armed clashes in Gaza between members of Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas, which won elections in January and took control of the Palestinian government.
Venezuela will install an advanced air-defense system with anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down approaching enemy warplanes, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.
Chavez, who has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him, said the missiles would help defend the oil-rich country against any "aggression."
"We're going to acquire the most modern anti-aircraft defense system," Chavez said during a televised speech in the coastal state of Falcon, where military planes and newly purchased Russian helicopters swooped overhead during a military parade. "We're going to armor Venezuela."
He said the air defense system would protect Venezuela from its Caribbean coast to its Amazon border with Brazil. He suggested he saw components that Venezuela will buy in visits to Russia, Belarus and Iran over the past week.
"The modern systems that we saw in Russia, Belarus and Tehran detect the target at 125 miles. They come with missiles that go direct, guided by the heat of the planes that come," Chavez said. "Venezuela will be armored to defend ourselves against any aggression."
Flush with booming oil profits, Chavez has been spending heavily on Venezuela's military while warning the country must be prepared in case U.S. troops one day attempt an invasion. American officials dismiss the suggestions as preposterous, though President Bush has called Chavez a threat to democracy in the region.
Chavez sealed a deal last week in Russia to buy 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets and 53 helicopters. Venezuelan Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel has said those new deals, plus the installation of factories to produce Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition, will cost about $3 billion. Anything to keep those brain eating bats away from el Supremo.
#1
Flush with booming oil profits, Chavez has been spending heavily on Venezuela's military while warning the country must be prepared in case U.S. troops one day attempt an invasion.
Make him spend every dime of those booming oil profits. Make him so paranoid, that he thinks Delta Force is under his bed at night.
#5
I saw his convoy, in Panama, about 6 or 7 weeks ago. There was one shitty looking helicopter flying over all the rooftops, checking for snipers, two tiny coast guard vessels patrolling the Pacific coast, and about a dozen or so police cars. The entire convoy got stuck in a traffic jam on Via Israel Ave, for like 2 minutes. There he was sitting in his limo, ripe for the plucking.
I figured after the 2000 Castro assasination attempt, in Panama, he would have more security, but that didn't appear to be the case at all. If someone wants to kill this guy, I don't think it will be too difficult to get to him.
#8
He thinks heat-seeking AA missiles are "high tech and cutting edge" (especially from Russia, Belarus and Iran)? Pshaw. This could be easier than previously thought if we REALLY wanted to take him out.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 12:36
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#9
Shorter Chavez: "We have always been at war with Oceania."
#10
All those SAMs won't stop a Tomahawk, won't shoot down an F-117, and won't stop some angry peon from plunking your idiot head with an AK-47 YOU supplied him, or someone slipping poison in your food, hugo. They're just fun toys that dictators love because it makes them feel big, instead of the tiny little weasels they are. Even Paraguay can whip your wimpy little a$$. What a waste of protoplasm.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 15:29
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#11
Sounds like Hugo is talking about shoulder fired SAMs. I don't think he has really figured out how high the US Air Force flies.
P.S. Build the B-747 with a 100 ton bomb load.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 17:36
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#12
Hugo, helpful hint make sure you tell the russkis you want SURFACE TO AIRCRAFT missles, not their standard SURFACE TO AIR missiles.
Posted by: bruce ||
08/04/2006 17:59
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#13
Actually, US SF is much closer than Hugo realizes and has been since '03
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 20:34
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North Korea has been building new underground missile bases along its east coast, targeting Japan and US military facilities in Japan, a report said Thursday. Some 200 Rodong missiles with a range of up to 2,200 kilometers (1,360 miles) and 50 SSN-6 missiles with ranges of 2,500 to 4,000 kilometers are at the new bases, the state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) said in the report carried by Yonhap news agency.
"The new bases clustered along the east coastal line are for medium- and long-range missiles targeting Japan and US military bases in Japan," read the report by Yun Deok-Min, an IFANS arms control expert.
"Combined with its nuclear weapons, North Korea's ballistic missiles provides it with a powerful deterrent."
North Korea has also constructed new underground missile bases deep in mountains near its border with China, to avoid outside attacks, it said.
The communist nation set off new alarm bells in the region with its July 5 test-firing of seven ballistic missiles which splashed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In 1998, it test-launched a missile over Japan.
The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the latest missile tests and adopted a resolution imposing weapons-related sanctions on Pyongyang.
North Korea is said to have a large stockpile of short-range Scuds and medium-range Rodong missiles. It has also tested long-range Taepodong missiles which are in theory capable of hitting US soil.
Sales of missiles and missile technology were believed to be a main source of hard currency for impoverished North Korea, the report said.
North Korea has earned 150 million dollars a year from its missile business, according to the report which cited no sources.
Pyongyang has allegedly sold a total of 500 Scuds to Iran, Libya, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen; a small number of Scuds also to Vietnam and Sudan; and 50-100 Rodong missiles to Iran, Pakistan and Libya, it added.
A Scud missile is said to sell for two million dollars, a Rodong for four million dollars, and a Taepodong-2, the most advanced type, is expected to sell at around 20 million dollars, it said.
Nort Korea is locked in a standoff with the United States and its allies over its nuclear weapons development which Pyongyang says is for self-defense.
Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Thursday warned against Japan's recent US-backed military buildup which it said "is aimed to mount a preemptive attack" on North Korea.
"The Japanese reactionaries had better behave with discretion, bearing in mind that reinvasion of Korea is as foolish an act as jumping into fire with (a) faggot on one's back," Rodong said.
Japan invaded Korea in 1910 and occupied it until the end of World War II in 1945.
#2
Missile manufacture has been keeping the country functioning. This is exactly the type news Japan needs. This is why they've put up a second much more capable recon satellite documneting these locations and other critical points. I suspect Japan is moving much more quickly in a quiet fashion than anyone realizes. This time I don't think they'll occupy, just destroy and be done with it. Too bad, your populace has already suffered considerably.
#3
You'd think that North Korea's principal sponsor, those ever-lovin' Chinese Mardarins, would have reined in this sort of bellicose activity. How fitting that their lack of restraint will most likely lead to a nuclear-armed Japan. Few things could be more fitting.
#4
Three mag-lev launchers on the moon could take out the entire country of North Korea without a single nuke warhead being used. We really, REALLY need to go back to the moon, and stay there. Both China and NK would be totally screwed, and both the house of Saud and the sh$%%y bunch of mullahs in Iran would see hundreds of heads explode.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 15:34
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#5
So right OP.
High ground.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/04/2006 15:37
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#6
A permanent moon base is justified solely by the critical need to counteract an unexpected asteroid strike's adverse consequences upon humanity's continuation. The military benefits are just so much exceptionally tasty and ultra-delicious icing on the cake.
#7
I like Zen's ideas too.
But also once a real prescence is established and indutry and infrastructure put in place, further launches become cheaper and easier.
You could launch any damn thing from the moon with very little fuel.
Maybe come back with a big hunk of Nickel or something else useful.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/04/2006 15:52
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#8
It is just about time to pull Kim Jong-Mentally_ill's chain permanently. He has chewed through the restraining straps.
The Pentagon plans to give South Korea wartime operational control over U.S. troops within three years and will keep U.S. troop levels at more than 20,000 over the next several years, defense officials said yesterday.
"Things are changing in Korea," said a defense official involved in the changes being drawn up in talks called the Security Policy Initiative.
Following the latest round of U.S.-South Korea talks July 13 and 14, the Pentagon and South Korean military and defense officials agreed to draw up the command transfer plan that will shift combat authority from the U.S.-led combined forces command to a new structure led by South Korean military commanders and supported by U.S. forces.
The goal is to complete the transfer of authority by 2009, but some changes could take five years.
"We are responding to the new realities on the peninsula," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Those realities include growing South Korean military capabilities, Seoul's pro-engagement policies toward the communist North, and anti-American sentiments among South Korean leaders.
The shift of operational control of South Korean forces "means that they would take the lead in a conventional war on the Korean Peninsula in deterring and defeating" North Korean forces, the official said.
As for troop levels, officials said there are no plans for major U.S. troop cuts beyond plans to have 25,000 troops by 2008. The Pentagon plans to keep 20,000 to 25,000 troops in the country for the foreseeable future, the official said, noting that the fighting power of both U.S. and South Korean forces will remain constant or increase as new weapons are deployed.
A recent statement by a South Korean defense official that the latest talks did not include discussions of U.S. troops in a future reunified Korea triggered inaccurate press reports that the U.S. planned to pull troops out of Korea, the officials said.
"We're not going away," the senior official said. "We're going to stay and we're going to stay with increased capabilities."
Future forces there will shift from the current force of large ground combat troop units to forces emphasizing air and naval power, the official said. That shift would take place only after the new command structure is set up. The reorganization would abolish current U.S.-led combined forces command structure, set up in 1978 to replace the United Nations command that dated back to the Korean War in the 1950s.
As part of the talks, U.S. and South Korean officials recently completed a comprehensive security assessment of the region and are working on a "joint vision study" that will examine the future of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.
The study will focus on alliance changes stemming from South Korea's evolving relationship with North Korea, including the prospect of a formal peace agreement to replace the armistice that has been the basis for the half-century-old U.S.-South Korea defense alliance.
"We are trying to anticipate all these stages of evolution that might eventually end up in unification, but may not," the official said. "We may end up in a permanent situation where the two Koreas are de-conflicted, they have a peace treaty, and they're interacting between one another and the alliance will have to be fundamentally restructured."
#1
Those realities include growing South Korean military capabilities, Seoul's pro-engagement policies toward the communist North, and anti-American sentiments among South Korean leaders.
How about we just very quietly ruck-up and get the PHUECH out? Sixty sum years, should be long enough.
#3
Don't expect the press to get it right. Control by law [U.S.C. Title 10] is an unbroken line in the chain of command between the President and the lowest level ranker. We coordinate, we cooperate with allies, but by law we can not subordinate.
#4
We need to leave. Our Troops are not a merc force.
Deploy them where they are needed elsewhere.
The South has the wish to reunite. The North wants to on it's terms and under a communist government. We are not going to stop the morons in the south who wish to reunite under any cost. So lets get out and get it over with and arm Japan to the teeth.
#6
Note that these Air and Naval units that will make up our 20000 can be redeployed very quickly to other regions vs the current troops on the border that are locked into place by being on the front line.
#7
the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity
This is suspect. We will never give any nation control of our soldiers. I believe we would have to rewrite some laws to make it possible and that would never get through congress. This is an emotional hot button for most in uniform and for our law makers. I wonder why a story like this would be leaked out at this time.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 12:45
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#8
I heard awhile back some U.S. Soldier refusing to don the 'blue helmet' of the U.N. for some peacekeeping duty somewhere. This was under Clinton.
Yeah, CF, the soldier is Michael New. His website is mikenew.com. He's still fighting his dismissal for refusing to wear the UN uniform. Basic stance of course was that he swore to defend the US, not the UN. He was willing to serve in the mission assigned to him, just not in a UN uniform. He's lost every round so far (since 1995) but to his credit he keeps on fighting.
#9
I would hope that no one would make such an idiotic decision. Bad move to cede authority to anyone for our troops. This is asking for all kinds of trouble.
The little intricacies of 'military justice'. While the law says he wouldn't be under UN control, the uniform is something prescribed by his command authority. If the command authority proscribes a specific uniform, that is the uniform the troop wears. So refusing to be in the proscribed uniform is in fact a disobedience of a lawful order. Yes, we understand his intent, but the issue shifts from obeying the Secretary General of the UN which is non-applicable since the American law does not permit it, to an issues of disobedience which means hes unlikely to get relief from anyone inside the Pentagon and only possible by Congress or the President. No one said life is fair.
More than 200 Islamic militants from Southeast Asia have
been sent on missions to bomb Israel's "vital interests" and countries that support the Jewish state, their leader said on Friday.
The militants have been trained to carry out suicide bombings to avenge Israel's military strikes on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, said Suaib Didu, chairman of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Muslim Youth Movement.
"We will limit our targets to Israel's vital interests and those that support Israel's aggression in Palestine and Lebanon," Didu said. "We will not carry out attacks indiscriminately."
Hardline militant groups in Indonesia have made claims in the past of sending volunteers to participate in conflicts overseas that have sometimes proved exaggerated.
Western countries such as the United States and Britain, as well as businesses, could be targeted unless they cease supporting Israel, he said.
Didu said the group was watching Australia's position on the Middle East conflict.
"If John Howard makes a statement in support of Israel, he will be a target," Didu said.
More than 3,000 people have signed up for the mission, and 217 people from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore have been dispatched abroad so far, he said.
A "show of force" of the more than 3,000 volunteers will be held on Saturday in Pontianak in West Kalimantan province on Borneo island, Didu said, adding that many of the 200-plus militants had fought with Afghanistan against the Soviets.
Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the moderate Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, said Thursday that threats by radical Muslim groups to send volunteers to fight Israel were just "symbolic gestures" to show solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese.
"There are too many obstacles for these people to travel there. It is too costly and the Israeli army is no match for them," he told reporters.
But in Canberra, Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said Friday the government was not shrugging off reports of the plans to carry out suicide bombings.
"The minister for foreign affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs are investigating what is reported in the papers today and we are treating it very, very seriously," Hockey told Australian television.
#2
This type of action helps to paint targets on all Muslims. Moderate Muslims (hopefully not a mythological being)must purge themselves of the splodeydopes or suffer the consequences at some point.
#4
"We will not carry out attacks indiscriminately."
If organizations have to distinguish their future plans from their past actions in this manner, it should confirm that the term Youth Movement has opposite connotations in different parts of the world.
#7
We need to build a new bomber - one that can carry hundreds of dumb, iron bombs inside its bomb bay, fly around the world twice without refueling, and penetrate just about any airspace in the world with impunity. Every time one of these splodeydopes goes "boom", his home town should be visited by ten or twelve of these new bombers, during the wee hours of the morning. Sooner or later the splodeydopes will learn not to target US or allied interests, or there won't be anyone left alive to be a splodeydope. That seems to be the only message they really understand, so we should send it to them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 14:13
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#8
We used to have the basic capacity OS; it was called the CVA or Attack Aircraft Carrier. And while far from supersonic speeds and mass distances, it mere presence would cause the bad guys to rethink what was happening. And the aircraft then carried had a range AND capacity for many miles and many pounds of bombs. Think Intruders and a dark stormy night, low level and 15K worth of dumb bombs hung on each one. Toss in a couple of KA-6D tankers and they had the legs and ability to go in low and deliver a nasty wake up call to whoever deserved it. The Lawn Darts just don't have the legs or capacity for that many bombs and with IFR now the province of the USAF (and a couple of S-3As and/ or Lawn Darts with a buddy store), we are reduced to hitting the beach and that's about all. No more far inland flights. Yeah the A-6 was about as stealthy as a barn door and nowhere near as sexy as the Lawn Dart or anything the AF has, but for pure boom/ pound, only the BUFF beat it. (I am not a fan of the Hornet, can ya tell?)
#9
More than 200 Islamic militants from Southeast Asia have
been sent on missions to bomb Israel's "vital interests" and countries that support the Jewish state, their leader said on Friday.
Won't these splodadopes sort of stand out in Israel?
#11
Israel guards its borders pretty well. I can't imagine they'd be permitted off the airplanes or through the border crossings. They're just engaging in histrionics for the girls back home.
#13
It this isn't an invitation for Muslim Youth Movement leaders and members to go boom in their homes while sleeping, then I don't know what is.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 17:56
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#14
It looks like an invitation to leave their sisters and girl friends in the hands of the chairman. You see, he had to stay home because 72 wasn't enough for him.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she called "failed policy" in Iraq. "I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation."
"The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people," she said. "It's time for him to step down and be replaced by someone who can develop an effective strategy and communicate it effectively to the American people and to the world." Asked about Clinton's comments, Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said, "We don't discuss politics."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
09:03 ||
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#1
The "lake of fire" must have finally frozen over! I find myself agreeing with this wench.
#8
There she goes again, not taking her meds. I think the photo need to be sink trapped. He She give me nightmares!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 12:48
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#9
I feel that "The Beast" looked at Lieberman's and her own poll numbers (with regard to 'war support') and is trying to figure out a way to "flip-flop" on the war without looking ridiculous right before the elections. She's setting up the populace with this "Rumsfeld Statement" so that, in a month or so, she can come back and oppose the war ("because nothing's changed") without looking like a 'J Fn Kerry'.
It's not a dumb move on her part.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/04/2006 12:52
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#10
Indeed a haunting photo! That face could have easily been a camp supervisor at Ravensbruck near Furstenberg.
#12
Waah? Rummy boinked an intern and committed purgery?
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/04/2006 13:35
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#13
The Hilldabeast is just trying to throw a bone to the far-left wing of her party. She's been watching what's happening to Joe Lieberman. Over in DU they've figured her out:
"If Hillary does something like this 100 more times, she'll start making up for the 1,000 times she should have done it but didn't."
"Hillary makes a sudden sharp left in the face of possible Lieberman political sudden death.
She's simply playing politics and has sensed a quick change of direction is in order. Otherwise, why did she not join in Al Gore's call for Rumsfeld's resignation -- what was it, two years ago?"
"Hillary's sudden courage is a joke and is almost more unpalatable than her hawkishness...the woman is incapable of doing something without calculation. Where was this spunk a few months ago, ie before it was clear that war-mongering wouldn't fly with Dems?"
"... and the fact that it had to get to this point with Lieberman before she got a clue does not speak well for her (hugely overrated) "political instincts". Everyone who thought Lieberman would have an easy ride ought to go sit in the corner and try to figure out why they are so out of touch with the mood of the country. Turning off cable news would be a good start."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006 14:28
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#14
Resign Rumsfeld or I shall crush your skull between my massive thighs!!!
Posted by: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ||
08/04/2006 18:55
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#15
Rummy's head will be a nice change vs. Janet Reno's head that is usually there.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 19:00
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#16
This was all very predictable and contrived. Billary whined because Rummy had originally planned to speak in to senators in a private setting rather than on C-SPAN.
She sent Rummy a letter asking him to appear for the public hearing. When he, being a decent person, changed his plans and appeared for the public hearing, she got her sound bites.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 21:01
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CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier is on the mend after being blown up in Iraq:
On July 17, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier was moved from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda to Kernan Hospital, "a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility in the Baltimore area." In an e-mail this morning, CBS said "she was released yesterday and will continue her rehabilitation on an outpatient basis." Dozier has released this statement:
"Folks, I'm leaving hospitals behind, ahead of the deadline, or at least ahead of schedule. I've had a couple setbacks, and I still face a couple minor surgeries, but overall, the prognosis is far better than the docs had hoped just after I'd reached Germany. The teams at Balad, Landstuhl, and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. worked overtime -- something like a dozen surgeries at least, including one that lasted 11 hours.
Just a few weeks later, I'm up on crutches and can even manage with a cane. It's not pretty, but I'm walking on my own -- and that, I also owe, to some hard-driving therapists at Kernan Hospital in Maryland, who kept saying, 'Now try this...'
The next step: continued outpatient rehab to get my body used to being in motion full-time.
Thanks to CBS, my family and friends have been close by throughout. That, together with all the amazing cards and e-mails from across the country, has really pulled me through. I've told friends it's been like having 10,000 guardian angels on my shoulders.
I've learned slowly how close I came to joining my friends, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, both killed by the blast. I owe my life to the quick actions of the 4th Infantry Division's Sgt. Mootoosamy -- who took charge of the scene, with his commander down and many of his men injured -- and medic Spc. Flores, who patched me up. Even with a car bomb cooking off, sending shrapnel through the air just a couple dozen feet from us, Spc. Flores just kept calmly speaking to me and working on my legs -- no wavering, no pause.
Not a day goes by without thinking of Paul and James -- two of the most remarkable characters I've ever known. My heart goes out to their families, and I know no words to stop their grief. The last I saw Paul and James, they were rushing from their humvee to 'get the shot' of a young U.S. Army Captain, James Funkhouser, Jr., greeting Iraqi locals at a streetside tea stand. The bomb hit all three of them, together with an Iraqi liaison officer, and took all four lives.
I choose to remember them from the instant before the blast -- each one of them consummate pros doing a job they loved to support the families back home they loved even more."
#1
Even with a car bomb cooking off, sending shrapnel through the air just a couple dozen feet from us, Spc. Flores just kept calmly speaking to me and working on my legs -- no wavering, no pause.
Courage will be when you speak up the next time you over hear your 'friends' in the MSM who mouth or write the stereotypical garbage about the servicemembers as losers who couldn't get a job in the 'real' world and who are a bunch of uneducated redneck reactionaries to rationalize their own need to feel morally superior.
By Victor Davis Hanson When I used to read about the 1930s the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.
Of course, the trauma of the Great War was all too fresh, and the utopian hopes for the League of Nations were not yet dashed. The Great Depression made the thought of rearmament seem absurd. The connivances of Stalin with Hitler both satanic, yet sometimes in alliance, sometimes not could confuse political judgments.
#4
Nothing less than the eradication of every single radical muzzie will end this conflict. They will fight to the death, because Allan wants it. We should accomodate them. Anything that doesn't grasp this harsh reality is truly madness. We don't need a genocide, but rather, an ideologicide.
#5
Something that should re-enter the public lexicon is to start calling the anti-war crowd what they used to be called: "Copperheads".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperheads
Not ironically, as repugnant as Copperheads were back then, they were proud of their label. And if the moonbat anti-war crowd were called Copperheads today, even if they understood what they meant, they would still be proud of the label.
The old Copperheads were apologists for slavery. The new ones are apologists for socialism and communism.
IAF fighter jets attacked at least 15 targets around Beirut on Friday - three bridges linking Beirut with north Lebanon and a bridge linking Beirut to the south. It was the first time Israel struck a major Christian population center to the north of the Lebanese capital. Four civilians were killed and ten wounded in the strike, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. The IAF also attacked a power station in the southern Bekaa Valley, causing a blackout in the area of Kiraoun. Four bridges on the main north-south coastal highway were hit. The road links Beirut to Syria. Three more bridges, linking Beirut to northern Lebanon were also destroyed. The bridges were located in Maameltain, Madfoun and Halat.
South of Beirut, a Lebanese soldier was killed in an air strike on an army base near the airport. Three were also killed as warplanes targeted a building, a 'safe house' and an office used by Hizbullah terrorists in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in south Beirut. The IAF also flew 15 sorties over the neighborhood of Ouzai, another Hizbullah stronghold. The highway to the south begins in the southern Beirut neighborhood.
The attacks come in the wake of a threat by Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, who warned on Thursday that Tel Aviv would become the next target if Beirut was attacked. If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity, he said. We will bomb Tel Aviv. The White City, as Tel Aviv is known, remains untouched thus far.
Also, in news briefs:
(IsraelNN.com) 120 Katyusha rockets have landed in northern communities since Friday morning.
(IsraelNN.com) A woman sustained moderate-to-serious injuries in a rocket attack near Maalot.
(IsraelNN.com) IDF Homefront Command officials report that sirens did sound in Zichron and Binyamina, but there were no rocket attacks in those areas. Military officials stated with certainty that the sirens in those areas were false alarms.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006
08:29 ||
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#1
Nasrallah, the capital of Israel is Jerusalem. Idiot.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/04/2006 8:50
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#2
No wonder they hit the Gaza strip the other day then!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/04/2006 9:26
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#3
Time for this piece of human kak to join his predessor Sheikh Musawi, who, thanks to the forward thinking IDF, left this troubled world and joined his heavenly virgins in 1992.
#7
Well the hezbos must be taking an ass kicking, it appears their strategy for relief is to report large numners of civilian casualties ... see jerusalem post reports.
And the US still doesn't have its embassy in Jerusalem either. We're idiots too.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/04/2006 13:57
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#9
OT, but I am wondering why I have not seen/heard of any Apaches or other attack helicopters participating in the Israeli actions. Can anyone educate me? I would think that they would be very handy in close air support and targeting the Katyusha launchers.
BERLIN - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would welcome the participation of German soldiers in a stabilisation force in South Lebanon, he said in an interview with a German newspaper on Friday. I have informed (German) Chancellor Angela Merkel that we have absolutely no problem having German troops in South Lebanon, Olmert told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
There is no other nation that Israel considers more of a friend that Germany ... I would be very happy if Germany participated, he said.
The German government has not ruled out sending troops to the Middle East but many citizens are uneasy about sending soldiers to the region some 60 years after the Holocaust.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006
08:27 ||
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#1
There is no other nation that Israel considers more of a friend that Germany ... I would be very happy if Germany participated, he said.
#3
What does Olmert have against Germany? Uh, never mind.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 9:27
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It would be fitting for Germany to send 15,000 real soldiers to South Lebanon, fighting soldiers, who would have to battle Hizb'Allah and sometimes die while protecting Israel. Give them a 50-year UN "mandate" to hunt down and kill Islamofascists in Lebanon.
#8
It would be fitting for Germany to send 15,000 real soldiers to South Lebanon, fighting soldiers, who would have to battle Hizb'Allah and sometimes die while protecting Israel.
You're talkin' some serious poetic justice there, Kalle. Bravo.
#9
Kalle pegged it. twobyfour, Chancellor Merkel has at least some ideas about backbones, and sometimes employs it appropriately. The next election in Germany should be interesting -- as I recall the Conservatives barely won last time, which really limited what Merkel could accomplish; the next election will reveal what the Germans really want to have done.
Chiraq, on the other hand, combines all the worst stereotypes of the French is one smarmy package.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will deploy 1,000 troops as part of a UN peacecekeeping force for southern Lebanon once a ceasefire is in place, state news agency Bernama quoted the countrys military chief as saying on Friday. The move comes a day after the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) endorsed a request from Lebanon to beef up the world bodys peacekeeping efforts.
We will send our troops according to the countrys requirements, Malaysian Armed Forces Chief Mohamad Anwar Mohamad Nor said. We are finalising preparations for the departure. The troops will be backed by armoured vehicles, he said, adding that an advanced party would leave for Lebanon soon to plan for the assignment.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi chaired a special emergency session of select OIC members on Thursday and said Indonesia and Brunei had also agreed to send peacekeepers. Israeli offensive, now in its fourth week, has killed at least 686 people in Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006
08:23 ||
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They're getting a little ahead of themselves--they haven't been invited yet.
Afghan and US-led coalition forces have killed 25 Taleban militants in an operation in the southern province of Helmand, the coalition says. A coalition statement said that Afghan and coalition forces were conducting a search operation in the Nahr Surkh district of Helmand when they come under fire from militants. The security forces retaliated and killed 25 militants, the coalition said.
"The combined force took precise precautions in preventing harm of Afghan civilians during the mission, and no reports indicate injuries to civilians," the statement said. There has been no independent verification of the fighting.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006
08:20 ||
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There has been no independent verification of the fighting.
So what ? Do you need to score each encounter ? This is war for Christ's sakes, when one side is wiped out, the other side will declare victory, and the war will be over.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his government has been conducting "military sweeps" against rebels in Ethiopia's Somali region.
The push against Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels came after Somali elders had gone to Europe and the US to meet them, he said. Mr Meles said he endorsed the meetings to try to resolve the conflict in the region, but that the talks had failed. He said the offensive was requested by elders after they returned to Ethiopia.
"I am not aware of innocent civilians being killed by our forces. I am aware of Somali people being killed by the ONLF because they are accused of supporting the government," he said.
Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region shares a long and porous border with Somalia, and most of its people are of the Somali ethnic group. Mr Meles has also denied reports that Ethiopian soldiers have been sent into Somalia recently, in support of the fragile transitional government based in Baidoa.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006
08:10 ||
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Cotabato City, 4 August (AKI) - A Filipino Muslim cleric was detained over alleged links with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization, police and military officials told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Friday. Senior Inspector Samson Obatay, the city's police spokesperson, confirmed that Hussain Abedin was a suspected member of the group Abu Sofia and was arrested at 7.00 pm at the terminal of Weena Buss Company in Cotabato City, in Mindanao, southern Philippines on Thursday. "He had existing arrest warrants and we have been looking for him," Obatay said.
Known for its kidnapping and ransom activities, Abu Sofia often provides sanctuary to members of the militant Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf and both organisations have been involved in terrorism.
Obatay said Abedin's arrest came 10 days after three other suspected Abu Sofia bandits were nabbed while holding meetings with their recruits in the village of Bulalo, in Sultan Kudarat town, Mindanao. The three named Alo, Talip and Manan and all surnamed Binago - were involved in the abduction of Korean Jae Kwon Yoon and his Filipino partner Belonio, in February 2004. Yoon and Belonio were snatched by heavily armed men in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat province, while surveying sites there for treasure hunting. The victims were released after relatives paid ransom.
Colonel Julieto Ando, the army's Sixth Infantry Division spokesperson, said that Abedin was also a renowned bomb-maker. "He is also involved in bomb making. The suspect was detained at a military prison facility located in Pedro Colina Hill," Ando told AKI.
However, the arrest of the cleric has upset local Muslim militant organizations that have staged protests. Amirah Lidasan, head of Suara Bangsamoro group, denounced Abedin's arrest, saying the victim is a Muslim cleric who belongs to United Youth Bangsamoro for Peace and Development, a non-government organization based in Maguindanao. "We demand his immediate release. We denounce the use of Uztads (religious teachers) as fall guys of [Filipino] President Arroyo's renewed campaign against Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah in Mindanao," Lidasan told AKI in a telephone interview.
Demanding the release of Abedin is also Eid Kabalu, spokesperson for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who confirmed that the cleric belongs to their organization. "But he is not a member of any Abu Sayyaf group or kidnap gangs. He was a victim of mistaken identity," Kabalu said. The MILF, which is engaged in peace talks with Manila, repeatedly denies links with Abu Sayyaf militants.
The Abu Sayyaf Group is a home grown terrorist organisation in the Philippines which in the early 1990s received financial support from the al-Qaeda terrorist network via Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, Saudi Arabian businessman Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, who at that time headed a network of Islamic charities and universities in Zamboanga City, Mindanao.
The group gained international notoriety with the kidnapping for ransom and murder of foreigners and Christian clerics. Since its inception the group has also carried out bombings, assassinations and extortion in its fight for an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006
08:04 ||
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United Youth Bangsamoro for Peace and Development, a non-government organization based in Maguindanao
This is an NGO sponsored by the middle east and Nur Misuari's family. Nothing more than a terrorist from to pass money to groups like the ASG and MILF. No wonder Lipless Eid is bitching, the hand that feeds him is telling him to.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 13:27
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Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/04/2006
07:56 ||
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The snipers actual toll is probably higher than 39 but the Talibans tendency to reclaim bodies makes deaths difficult to confirm.
yep - 40 is the acknowledged standard toll. Not necessarily by a single guy tho'. They've culled the herd and now 20 is the daily goal
like this part too:
In 2003 Royal Marines sniper Corporal Matt Hughes killed an Iraqi gunman from 900 yards with a wonder shot in which he aimed 56ft to the left and 35ft high to allow for wind. The bullets trajectory was calculated by his spotter after he studied the movement of dust in the breeze
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 8:18
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Carlos Hathcock called that a SWAG, scientific wild ass guess.
With wind strong enough to blow a bullet 56 feet as it travels 900 yards...that's a wonder shot alright.
With snipers, we fight at a more advanced level than the terrorists. We own the night, we own the sky, we own the field. All they have going for them is that they hide among civilians.
"Earlier this year it was revealed that the Army is creating an elite force of almost 700 snipers, with all 38 infantry battalions required to have an 18-man platoon of sharpshooters by 2008. It will be the first time formal sniper platoons will have existed since the end of the First World War in 1918."
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/04/2006 9:13
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"Killing" isn't that important. Killing the right people is what counts. I want to see a sniper that takes out the leaders while they're giving the cannon fodder their pep talk. THEN I'll listen to some bragging (and I don't care if it's an A-10 or an AC-130 that does the hosing, as long as it gets the job done).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 13:34
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#10
The guys that wacks armanutjob while giving speech on Iranian TV gets my vote for bragging rights.
IT IS DIFFICULT, maybe even impossible, to render critical judgment on a movie such as World Trade Center. The normal aspects of appraisal are meaningless. It would be absurd to measure the film by its pacing or its cinematography. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether or not it feels right, and even that nebulous criterion probably has more to do with the viewer than the movie.
All of that said, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center is a solid piece of filmmaking. WTC is an important movie. There were three stories from 9/11 which needed to be told. The first, about the doomed heroics of Flight 93, was brought to the screen by Paul Greengrass earlier this spring. The second, about the FAA's struggle to clear the skies and land 4,452 planes in 180 minutes, has yet to be made.
But Stone has picked the most dramatically satisfying part of the triptych: The story of Will Jimeno, John McLoughlin, Dave Karnes, and Charles Sereika (see this fantastic Rebecca Liss piece for the full tale).
Jimeno (played by Michael Peña) and McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) were Port Authority officers who went into the Trade Center to help with the evacuation. When the first building collapsed, they were pinned down and buried in an elevator shaft.
Karnes (Michael Shannon) was a retired Marine working as an accountant in Connecticut. When he saw the news on the television at his office, he left, went to a barber for a buzzcut, put on his old uniform, and drove straight to Ground Zero, where he headed out onto the pile, searching for survivors. Authorities were calling the official workers back because night was falling and the area was unsafe.
Amidst the carnage, Karnes hooked up with another man, Sgt. Jason Thomas (William Mapother), and the two roamed Ground Zero, shouting, over and over, "United States Marines, if you can hear us, yell or tap!" After an hour, they heard something: Jimeno and McLoughlin, still alive under 20 feet of rubble.
Thomas went for backup, which arrived in the form of Charles Sereika (Frank Whaley), a recovering alcoholic and a former paramedic, who had also put on an old uniform and come to the crater to help. Sereika, Karnes, and then others, dug for hours to rescue Jimeno and McLoughlin.
Stone tells the story with confidence and an astonishing degree of empathy. . . . if anything, the only criticism which Stone could be open to with WTC is that he's too sentimental, that he feels the material too deeply. He lacks the clinical dispassion Greengrass brought to United 93. Some audiences may see this as a failing; I suspect most will not.
That Stone was able to make a steady, emotionally fulfilling movie from this amazing source material should come as little surprise to those familiar with his work. But what is surprising--astonishing, even--is that Stone has made a full-blown Jesus movie. World Trade Center is filled with Christianity. Karnes goes to church to pray before heading to Manhattan and Stone focuses for long stretches of this scene on the cross above the altar. There are crucifixes and rosaries everywhere. McLoughlin's emergence from the pit is shot as though it were the resurrection. Christ even appears in the film, twice. And all of this is handled not with condescension or even with a distant respectfulness, but with actual reverence.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/04/2006
07:40 ||
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#1
I will reserve judgment until after I've seen the film. However, most of the reviews thus far say that Stone has avoided his penchant for conspiracy tropes and instead has delivered a fine film. We'll see.
#2
Sounds like one I've gotta see, reading most of the reviews. While I can't stand Stone's politics, we should be the first to support him, if this film is as truly politically neutral as many say it is.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 10:41
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#3
From what I've gleaned, it IS a good film, about people doing the right thing, about heroism, about sacrifice, about helping your fellow man.
However, at the risk of being the lone voice of dissent, I have to say that a film about 9/11 that isn't political misses the point. True, 9/11 did bring out the best in people, and particularly, the best in New Yorkers. But the same could be said about American heroes down through the decades, who, when faced with horror and tragedy, rose above it and acted with the highest nobility and courage.
9/11 was about Islamofascist terror. It was about a paradigm shift. It was about a new and harsh reality in the world, that there are ragheads who want the death of every American and every Jew, and who actively seek to kill them. Of course, this reality wasn't new on 9/11, but the magnitude of the event brought the issue into focus. The WTC film should deal with that as well as the heroes. How do you de-politicize an inherently political and world-changing event?
In many ways, you do a disservice to those who died by de-politicizing the events of that day, because it is only in the context of why they died that their deaths have meaning.
#5
Once the fight starts its not about politics and Islam. It's about survival at the lowest level. I'm sure there will be many movies covering the politics of this war and their strike on 9/11, a time I am not wanting to arrive. The stories of the folks at the WTC and their heroics transcend the politics that lead up to it. This is such an emotional issue; I'm relieved to hear the director left all the politics out when telling these heroic stories. The last thing I needed to hear was Stone's political views during a story this important.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 14:45
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#6
Agreed, 49 Pan--- I've already heard his political views and have no desire to hear them again. I'm not saying Stone should have politicized the film, but that a film that clearly delineates what happened, without the BDS or hate America content, needs to be made. In the end though, for what this film is, it's sounding good. My criticisms dealt with what it is not.
#7
M1 I would like to see a movie from a pro US perspective on the politics and struggle we have with the EU cowards, the French apologists, Russia and China stabbing us in the back and Iran, the Soddies all in their true colors. But then there is no one in hollywood that would even concider it!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 17:45
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"Where is the press? Where is the media to see this massacre? Count our dead. Count our body parts." The man complaining this week about the media's inadequate coverage of the Lebanon conflict was a village mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, whose words and the loss of his son in an Israeli strike were quoted by Associated Press reporter Hussein Dakroub. Later that day, another AP reporter, Hamza Hendawi, filed a graphic description of the funeral: "Weeping as he walked in a funeral procession hours later, Jamaleddin pulled at the limbs of the dead, carried to a cemetery in the bucket of a yellow front-loader."
Writing on this page about Lebanon last week, Riz Khan, the host of a program on Al Jazeera's forthcoming English-language TV channel and a former anchor for CNN International, described "the American media's sanitization of the conflict," and "those observing war from the safety of their living rooms."
Indeed, "those observing war from the safety of their living rooms" have become the most important political force engaged today in modern warfare. There is now a belief, held for different reasons by pacifists and propagandists, that if the media forces the people in America or Europe to see and read the bloody details of these conflicts, then public opinion will force their leaders, as Kofi Annan would put it, to stop the fighting. . . .
Today, print and electronic media are integrated as a force depicting war's carnage and cost. Mere reportage as in WWII has been succeeded by an implicit journalistic moral obligation to delegitimize the use of armed force, "the killing," for political goals. On July 21 as the fighting began, the New York Times's front page published a photograph of a dead person in a black plastic body bag over the headline, "In Tyre, the Dead Wait for the Bombings to End." In the days since, the paper's front-page photographs have been not so much standard journalism as Goya-like compositions on the disasters of this war. If Riz Khan believes the American press is offering a "sanitized" version of Lebanon, I would say he is overreaching.
The way war arrives in living rooms nowadays has an effect, and the effect often is revulsion. How could it not be? The thousands of replayings in 2004 of photos from the prison at Abu Ghraib had a political effect. The published photographs and videos of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's humiliations and beheadings of Western captives also had a political effect. One's emotions and politics are routinely jerked now from revulsion to hatred and back. . . .
Earlier images of human carnage had already brought calls for a cease-fire. At Qana, Israel's bombs purportedly killed more than 20 children, and this reality of course took the form of pictures transmitted globally and continuously of small dead bodies held aloft, often by the same Lebanese rescue worker, for cameramen and photographers. A New York Post headline over a dead-child's photo said: "Enough." Calls for a cease-fire went up from France, Spain and the U.N.; Israel, in the face of what was reported as "international outrage," declared a sudden, 48-hour cessation. It appeared that the modern means to make palpable the horrors of war had trumped politics to simply "stop the fighting."
But then, against this new political reality, Israel resumed military operations. Unlike in the U.S., where Abu Ghraib's photographs quickly sent segments of the political class into active opposition, Israel's political class refocused on the means necessary to achieve its strategic objective--defeating Hezbollah (with U.S. support crucial). A belated ground invasion began this week. Also unlike in the U.S., Israel's population centers were under constant military attack, rather than for one morning. Thus, preventing national extinction remains the more potent moral argument.
Images of war serve diverse purposes today. At Qana, the images' intent is to elicit a moral indictment of Israel's tactics and of war generally; at Abu Ghraib, to refute President Bush's stated nobleness of purpose in Iraq. Zarqawi's camcorder inside his house abattoir was meant to dispirit his American opposition "in the safety of their living rooms."
But whatever the purpose, a world in which people get fed streams of awful images to drive political conclusions produces a familiar effect: They eventually become inured to the images. Human wells of moral outrage are deep, but not bottomless. If emotional outrage is the basis on which they are expected to make judgments about politically complicated events like Lebanon, many will turn away, rather than subject themselves to a gratuitous, confusing numbing of their sensibilities. This is not progress.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/04/2006
07:19 ||
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#1
"those observing war from the safety of their living rooms" have become the most important political force engaged today in modern warfare. There is now a belief, held for different reasons by pacifists and propagandists, that if the media forces the people in America or Europe to see and read the bloody details of these conflicts, then public opinion will force their leaders, as Kofi Annan would put it, to stop the fighting. . . .
Suspect their assessment is a bit off. An accurate analogy might be, we're all Cowboy's fans and we're watching Drew Henson trounce New England in the Superbowl. More popcorn please.
#2
Israel is a small country. The unrelenting years of muslim terrorism has effected every family. They all have been first person witnesses to the barbarity of the enemy. They've played the game of land for peace and they still have no peace. They now know that there can be no 'reason', no 'compromise'. Those are the ground rules established by the enemy. The Israelis have learned that no matter what they do, the 'moral outrage' is reserved for them and not the barbarians. They may have finally realized that their safety depends upon ignoring those so 'outraged'.
Even though most Americans witnessed by distant media the destruction of 9/11 they still in large part have not been touched directly by the terrorist. They are inured of the danager by the fifth column which distracts the attention from the real threat and projects all the blame on a closer target to serve their short term domestic interests of power. We have yet to come to the understanding that the Israelis as a people have now achieved.
#3
"Even though most Americans witnessed by distant media the destruction of 9/11 they still in large part have not been touched directly by the terrorist."
I think that will soon be coming to an end. I would expect that we will begin to see more and more repeats of the Islam inspired murder in Seattle. And it will get worse.
When we have Jihad's detonating themselves on school buses and in malls...etc. We will come to know our enemies as well as the Israeli's. Then, and only then will we be able to do the things necessary to eradicate Islam.
"We have yet to come to the understanding that the Israelis as a people have now achieved."
#4
Where was the moral outrage in Rhuainda? Iraqi when Saddam was killing everyone? Sudan? Israel dead to suicide bombing in the 90s?
The thing is, the "moral outrage" only shows up when it benifits the MSM to show in on the news and fits their political needs. Otherwise, it gets ignored.
So don't talk to me about "moral outrage". Mine is fine, and is pointed at Islam. The rest of you MSM idiots can go fuck yourselves.
#5
I have a feeling that Mr. Henninger is right. Unfortunately, the average American will just tune out and put his/her ipod back on, at least UNTIL what Manolo describes happens here in the States. Sad, but true. I, for one, as well as most here, recognize the threat and would prefer to exterminate it BEFORE it can touch Israeli or US soil.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 10:38
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#6
"Weeping as he walked in a funeral procession hours later, Jamaleddin pulled at the limbs of the dead, carried to a cemetery in the bucket of a yellow front-loader."
Dang it, I knew I missed that opportunity to invest in Caterpillar. They even have 'em in Lebanon now? D90's!
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 10:50
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#7
They blow up a school bus here or school and the sh*t will hit the fan so deep them muzzy assholes will forever fear the Great Satan. I guarantee the first MSM asshole that sez disproportinate response gets hung from the nearest tree.
Maybe they can use that Plutonium production reactor as a schoolroom. At least the Kaushab facility has buildings, a fence, a compound, toilets, running water and electricty, something pak "schools" do not
ISLAMABAD: More than half of the state-owned schools in the country lack proper buildings, electricity, water and sanitation facilities, or boundary walls, according to statistics presented by the Education Ministry to the Senate Standing Committee on Education.
Posted by: john ||
08/04/2006
06:35 ||
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ISLAMABAD: More than half of the state-owned schools in the country lack proper buildings, electricity, water and sanitation facilities, or boundary walls, ..... and many students must walk or ride goats two-four miles uphill both ways!
#2
I wonder is all the hand wringing apologists who bitch about electricity in Iraq will pay attention to this? Nah, nothing here, move along. So what is the situation is better in Iraq, that's not the point, its about bitching at the slightest thing as long as they suffer from BDS.
#4
They have 200,000 schools? What's the official population of Paki-waki? Divide in 2 (assuming 50% of the population is school age), and then divide that again by 2 (assume 50% live in muzzie villages where "education" is frowned upon, or they're forced into the madrassas). Something tells me, these #s are skewed.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:03
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Hook up a rotary generator to the kids bobbing their heads in the madrassas...they could export power to the grid
WASHINGTON -- Israel's war with Hezbollah is a war to secure its northern border, to defeat a terrorist militia bent on Israel's destruction, to restore Israeli deterrence in the age of the missile. But even more is at stake. Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous a military failure in Lebanon would be to its relationship with America, Israel's most vital lifeline.
#1
If you believe that paragraph, you show me one politican of substance that will run an 'time to leave Israel fend for itself' platform this fall, other than the usual suspects.
#2
Another in a series of tiresome, downbeat analyses that seem to be the latest fad. And this comes just as reports are airing of some 500 dead Hezbos and Israeli troops clearing out Hezbo terrs from 20 Lebanese towns.
Also, Fox News reports that the IDF is engaged in a pincer movement against Hezbos in border-area towns and villages. As IDF ground troops slam into these fortified positions from the south, other IDF troops are slowing moving in from the north. That translates into move $1,000 payments from Syria to Hezbo families that have had one of their own sent to the heavenly hothouse.
As IDF ground troops slam into these fortified positions from the south, other IDF troops are *slowly* moving in from the north. That translates into *more* $1,000 payments from Syria to Hezbo families that have had one of their own sent to the heavenly hothouse.
Most people are familiar with the quick-strike IDF type of victory (think Six Day War, Lebanon invasion 1982) or recovery from near defeat as what happened in 1973. This is not that kind of war. It is a slow, methodical, plodding effort against a formidable, professional terrorist army.
Galileo originated as a Euro-nationalist response to the success of Americas GPS. As the program developed, some in Europe sought to use it as a way to limit and control US military power. This was the heart of the transatlantic frequency overlay dispute that ended with the EU backing down.
The Europeans had registered certain frequencies with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), that were dangerously close to the ones the US planned to use for the future military GPS 3 signal. They were hoping that the Pentagon would have to accept that the use of this signal would be regulated by a joint US-EU committee in which the EU, particularly France, would have a veto power over US satellite navigation warfare.
In essence, the European goal was to insure that if the US went to war against the will of the EU, it would do so without the advantages that its GPS system has given it.
Continued on Page 49
#1
This is also the program that the EU wanted to sell to the ChiComs last year, until the US was able to convince them otherwise.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:59
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And as far behind the Chinese are to the Americans in space flight, you'd think they'd grasp, we could intercept and destroy their product if and when necessary. As a broadcasting target, closing won't be a problem.
A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed Wednesday morning in an industrial zone in Ashkelon, lightly wounding one person. The wounded man was hit by shrapnel and evacuated to the Barzilai Medical Center for treatment. Another Qassam landed in a community in the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage. A salvo of five Qassam rockets were fired early Tuesday from both the northern and southern Gaza Strip at Sderot and the western Negev, causing damage but no injuries.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
00:00 ||
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An Italian resort plans to create all-female beach sections for Muslim women wishing to shed their headscarves and long robes to enjoy the sun in privacy, officials said Thursday. Riccione, a resort town on Italy's eastern coast, will let hotels set up partitions on the shoreline to satisfy requests from growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists. "Our beaches are big enough to answer this need," said Loretta Villa, Riccione's councilwoman. "We live on tourism and we can't survive if we don't satisfy the requests of our customers." By making some areas off-limits to men, observant Muslim women will be able to ease up on religious restrictions to cover up if men are present, Villa said. The reserved beaches would be waited on by by waitresses and watched over by women lifeguards. The partitions will not reach into the sea as a section, Villa said. To allow Muslim women to swim without covering up in robes and headscarves, Riccione would consider building reserved seaside swimming pools, she said.
#2
Er, so if one of the Lions of Islam parks his ass out in the water adjacent to the chick beach (since the partition doesn't go out that far), does everyone have to cover up again?
#4
lol, Besoeker. Of course, I've never thought of this before (because i use logic), but do muzzie wummins have to cover up if the guy is NOT muzzie? I mean if Hef walks by, do they have to cover up?
And, just who's gonna pay for all these partitions (and future muzzie separate swimming pools), Ms. Villa? Oh yeah, you and I. Another notch toward dimmhitude.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 10:29
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#5
Meant to add, GREAT graphic too, Sea/Fred.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 10:29
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#6
Burkas and Riptides? Probably not a good combo.
Not to mention, if it's true that sharks get confused between surfboards and seals this really has Blockbuster written all over it.
If your religious beliefs require such fantastically elaborate measures just so you can enjoy a beach, then that is a clue in that your beliefs are the PROBLEM!!!
ARGGGGHHHHH!
Ok. I am done now.
And I will not go anywhere that has these kinds of partions either.
Saluting the citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for their participation in historic, largely peaceful elections on Sunday, the Security Council today appealed to them to maintain the "same spirit of civic responsibility" while they await the results. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the sole authority permitted to release the vote count, has said a provisional tally will not be available before 20 August.
"The Security Council urges all political actors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to continue to work to ensure that the electoral process proceeds in a free, transparent and peaceful manner, in accordance with the agreed timetable," said the statement, issued by the Council's current President, Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng of Ghana. "The Council calls on political leaders to refrain from making inflammatory speeches." The statement comes one day after the Secretary-General's Special Representative to the DRC, William Lacy Swing, called on candidates not to proclaim victory before the vote count is complete.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
00:00 ||
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Yep. That oughta take care of the problem. Why didn't we think of that before?
Expressing deep concern about increasing violence in Sri Lanka, particularly the escalation caused by a water dispute in the northeast, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to cease hostilities immediately, allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to those affected and resume peace talks.
Referring to the water dispute, Mr. Annan said in a statement issued by his spokesman that he is "disturbed by reports that there have been many civilian victims, including children, as well as large displacements of people." Noting the continued efforts by Norway to resolve the conflict, he called on the parties "to cease hostilities immediately to create a conducive climate for negotiations over the water issue," and reiterated his appeal to both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resume peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Kofi always starts his comments with "I am deeping concerned....."
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:53
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A water dispute in Sri Lanka? Doesnt it rain like 350 days of the year there?
Are the Saudis and Yemen going to have a sand dispute next?
#3
A fun and interesting fact about Saudi Arabia : they have to import all of the sand used for construction in the country. The sand in SA is such crap that it cannot be safely used in concrete or construction.
#4
Well it used to rain 350 days a year Oldcat, but then the UN set up a 'rain redistribution system' and now most of it ends up in a Swiss bank account.
Still, it gives Kofi a chance to 'express deep concern' so that's ok then.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/04/2006 5:35
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If Bush had only signed on to the Aquato Treaty...
#8
Wait a minute, I thought all this global warming climate change stuff would increase rainfall because it's hotter and, thus, causes more evaporation to "seed" clouds, especially in coastal areas like Sri Lanka. Ah, well, I'm so confused, and I'm not enlightened, so whadda I know?
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:07
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QUETTA: A powerful bomb exploded outside the office of the Noshaki district coordination officer on Thursday, but there were no casualties. "The blast was so powerful that it broke the windowpanes of the office and was heard in the far-off areas of the district," local journalist Shah Nazar Badani told Daily Times. Badani said the blast took place in a store owned by some Afghan refugees.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Tarek Fatah, the outspoken liberal communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), has resigned, citing concerns for his personal safety and that of his family. He said he would also resign from the MCCs board, severing all official ties with the organisation he helped found. Its not just for me. Its for my wife and my daughters, he said in an interview to the Globe and Mail, Canadas leading liberal newspaper. Part of it is also to get out of the limelight.
The report noted that Pakistan-born Fatahs socially liberal views have always been controversial within the Muslim community, and in the past month he has been the subject of an e-mail campaign aimed at the Canadian news media. In his resignation letter to the board, Fatah wrote that he wanted to step down because of an increasing heavy load of work. He said he would stay on in his current capacity until the MCC finds a replacement. Along with his resignation, Fatah has filed a report with Toronto Police detailing what he says are a number of threats he has received since 2003. A police investigation is under way. In his resignation letter, he wrote, This has been a particularly stressful three months and I have tried to do my best and times I have succeeded and at other times messed up.
The report said Fatah had always carried a high profile, both with the Muslim Canadian Congress - known for its liberal interpretations of Islam, including its support of homosexuality - and as the host of Muslim Chronicle, a CTS TV current-affairs show that focuses on the Muslim community. But in recent months, he said, he has been coming under increasing fire. There was the e-mail campaign against him and he is more worried than ever about threats after the arrests of 17 terrorism suspects in Toronto in early June. Fatahs unpopularity among conservative segments of the Muslim community flows from his being a strong advocate of gay rights for Muslims and the inclusion of secular voices in the Muslim community. He publicly and vehemently opposed the adoption of Sharia law in Canada. Recently, many Muslims were angered by his very vocal campaign against British imam Sheik Riyadh ul Haq, who was ultimately refused a visa to attend a conference in Toronto. Haqs address was transmitted live by satellite instead. Many of his Muslim critics have also accused Fatah of hogging the media spotlight.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Got your Muzzie brothers seething, eh ? Now they've repeatedly threatened to murder you and the family ? Situation normal. Turn them in to the Mounties.
"No! It's more than that! Make that a billion! That's right! There's a billion Israelis hiding from Hezbollah's rocketry! Maybe more!"
(BNA) News from north of Israel indicate that around 300,000 Israelis had left their homes and around one million others were still in underground bunkers due to missile attacks that hit their areas. Head of the internal front said that Hizbollah still had long distance missiles and was trying to fire them at Al Afoola and Beit Shan. He also stressed that war against Hizbollah will take a very long time if it did not stop attacking civilians and crippling economic facilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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News for jubilation in the muzzie world; reason to fire up the troops in the civilized world
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:51
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SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent a get-well note to Cuba's Fidel Castro, who has undergone stomach surgery, the North's KCNA news agency said on Thursday. Castro, who has lead Cuba for 47 years and is the world's longest-ruling head of government, has not been seen in public since temporarily relinquishing power to his brother this week. "I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery to your health so that you can excellently continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and the great mandate given to you by the people of Cuba," Kim said in a telegram to Castro dated Aug. 2, KCNA said. Kim, known as the "Dear Leader" at home, has ruled the North since the 1994 death of his father and the founder of the communist state, Kim Il-sung. North Korea's official media often writes articles expressing solidarity with the Castro government.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Israeli aircraft dropped on Thursday thousands of flyers over Gaza City to incite the Palestinians' discontent with politburo chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khaled Mashaal, Palestinian witnesses said. They said that the A4-size flyers showed a cartoon image for Mashaal as a gambler who bet on Palestinian towns in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, Khan Younis, Gaza City, Jabalya, Biet Lahia and Biet Hanoun.
"Mashaal gambles on the future of Palestine and brings you destruction, failure and despair," read a text beyond the cartoon, which was showing Mashaal holding three playing cards with the word of future, safety and development on it respectively. Israel has been using the airborne propaganda to foment the discontent with the Palestinian militant groups among the Gaza residents since it finished a major withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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More simply...
How do you say, "Khaled Mashaal is a d**khead, and has sold you out." , in Arabic...
Israel Air Force aircraft on Wednesday bombed a house in central Gaza used by Hamas militants to store weapons, the Israel Defense Forces said. Palestinian security sources said the house was owned by a Hamas militant and was largely destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the air strike.
A Palestinian teenager and a woman were killed, and four other people were wounded, in an Israel Air Force strike in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. The two victims of the strike were named as Araf Abu Qaida, 16, and Marvat Abu Sharkh, 24, were killed by shrapnel from a missile that eye-witnesses said landed close to a moving vehicle. The four people inside the car were wounded in the strike. The Israel Defense Forces said that troops were targeting a group of armed men who planned to fire a Qassam rocket at Israel.
IDF forces were operating in the Dahaniyeh area in the southern Strip on Tuesday. The operation was described as part of the wider effort to counter terrorist activity stemming from the area.
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip remained closed on Tuesday despite Israel's pledge to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice it would open to traffic. European Union observers told Haaretz they received a message from Israel at 7:30 A.M. that the crossing was to remain shut. Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Monday promised Rice the crossing would open for a 48-hour period to allow civilians and foreigners to cross from the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Palestinian sources said that Palestinian students, businessmen and humanitarian workers would also be allowed to leave the Strip. Israel placed a general closure on Palestinian Authority territories Monday, following a dramatic increase in alerts of planned terrorists attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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At least 25 suspected Islamic militants were arrested after Bangladesh's crack security force raided their hideout in a forest north of the capital, officials said on Thursday. The militants were training in the hideout close to a madrassa near Bhaluka town, north of Dhaka, when they were arrested late on Wednesday, according to Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) commander Colonel Nurul Momen. "We found bomb-making materials, fuses, wires in the hideout," Momen said.
The raid was the biggest by Bangladesh security agencies in recent months. It came in the wake of intelligence reports that Islamic militants were regrouping in the countryside. The arrested militants were led by 35-year-old Maolana Abdur Rouf who is "wanted in several blast cases and is an Afghan war veteran," Momen said. The other men arrested were aged between 20 and 25. The official BSS news agency said the militants gave up without a fight. Momen said it was not immediately known whether the militants belonged to the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen, Bangladesh (JMB) or another clandestine group. "We are interrogating them," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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At least 44 people were killed in sporadic violence in Iraq on Thursday. Ten people were killed on Thursday in a roadside bomb in Al-Amin, an eastern district of Baghdad, a police source said. A further 14 were wounded. The casualties appeared to be civilians, rather than members of the security forces, the police source said.
Iraqi police came under attack and fought intense battles with gunmen overnight in the southern outskirts of Baghdad, at the end of a bloody day in which at least 44 people were killed across Iraq. In the first clash, 30 kilometres south of the capital, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint killing 14 people, including six policemen, Kut police said on Thursday. A second battle erupted nearby between a joint military and police force and insurgents, the prime minister's office announced. Iraqi forces chased the insurgents through a rural area 40 kilometres southwest of the capital and killed 15 of them, the statement said, adding that two policemen had also died.
Police in Kut also reported finding 18 bodies in the Tigris river showing signs of torture. They had all been shot. In Baghdad, police said the death toll from Wednesday's twin bomb attack on a soccer pitch where children were playing in west Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Amil had risen to 16. Further attacks around the country brought the days death toll to 44.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Okay, I'm going to say it....
Put Saddam back in power! I am really now believing he was an asshole for a very good reason. Give the Kurds their own country, and let the rest of these farks squabble amongst themselves. They have shown me nothing except that they deserved a Saddam in the first place.
#2
Actually, they should shoot Saddam as soon as possible. As long as he is processing oxygen and Doritos, the Baathist have hope that he can somehow survive to return to power. Eliminate Saddam, and the oath of loyalty of many of those insurgents dissolves.
#3
And do you think once he's dead they are all just going to drop their arms and quit? I don't think so. I think it will just be an excuse to ratchet shiat up a notch.
#5
Thoth, I agree. On one hand, I don't think rape rooms, wood chippers, and gassing whole villages are necessary under any circumstances. But our experience in Iraq certainly has revealed why Islamic countries tend to be ruled by jack-booted dictators: they have to be, to keep the splodeydopes from destroying everything. You'd think Muslim rulers would start realizing that Islam is the problem -- the reason their countries are shitholes, the reason they lose wars, the source itself of Muslim "humiliation." As long as there is Islam, there will be brutal dictatorships.
Posted by: ST ||
08/04/2006 2:14
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The Saddam loyalists might. But what you have in Baghdad is basically the Iraqi equivalent of Hamas and Hezbollah (Sunni and Shiite armed groups) fighting each other for control. It isn't really so much a civil war where you have the people against the government so much as it is a Crips vs. Bloods gang war on a larger scale.
They aren't going to get anywhere until they decide to start shooting armed militia members on both sides. At some point the people are going to have enough of it and start shooting at the militias. That will be the end of the game.
#7
They aren't going to get anywhere until they decide to start shooting armed militia members on both sides.
Sorry, I don't see it. We have those rare instances now and then where some regular folk go and disarm a jihadi, but they are rare and far between. Let's not kid ourselves here. This is really pissing me off. These assholes want nothing but to kill each other and we're the jack asses cuaght in the middle of the mess. This was a monster created by the French and the British, and it should be their problem to fix, not ours.
#8
#5 Thoth, I agree. On one hand, I don't think rape rooms, wood chippers, and gassing whole villages are necessary under any circumstances.
I used to think the same thing, but now I'm thinking it was the kind of crap that was necessary to keep animals in line.
And I will use that line again. The people that are pulling this crap day in and day out have lost the right to call themselves human beings in my opinion. They are animals,...no lower than animals...and deserve to be treated as such.
#10
"Elsewhere today, Iraqi soldiers arrested four terrorists involved in a drive-by shooting early this morning in northeastern Baghdad. The terrorists were arrested after exchanging small-arms fire with an Iraqi civilian in his home. One terrorist was seriously wounded."
#11
Bottom line is that the armed political militias need to be disarmed and disbanded. Either voluntarilly or by force. Nobody has the guts to do that at this point.
#12
Halting the sectarian murders is the responsibility of the Iraq government. The US-UK role should be supportive. If the Shiite dominated Parliament choses to do nothing about the Mahdi Army's ethnic cleansing by murder policies, then they can take the blame.
It is interesting that death tolls from deliberate religious murder that number 100 per day, do not shock the world while the Israeli Air Force's accidental killing of collaterals at Qana has been treated as the worst crime in history.
#13
I think we're still on the same page, Thoth. What I meant was that Saddam's brutality went too far and cast too wide a net. Gassing Kurdish children and Uday's rape sprees served no tangible security interest.
But my main point was that keeping the jihadis under control does require a certain level of brutality. For example, I don't know precisely what happens to suspected jihadis in, say, Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, or Pakistani prisons, but I bet ain't nice, and whatever it is, I betcha I wouldn't have a problem with it.
Posted by: ST ||
08/04/2006 4:38
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#14
Those who are hoping for the US to fail in Iraq ought to be careful what they wish for. We've given nearly three thousand of our best people, dead, thousands more wounded, billions of dollars, immeasurable grief among service families.
We've facilitated elections under the worst circumstances.
If they can't make it go, it will demonstrate that Arab societies are violent, destructive, mindless, and primitive.
Which might make a difference on how the WOT is seen.
If it doesn't work, it will be harder to say, "They're just like us." Or, as the multi-cultis would say, "They're just like us, only 'way better."
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/04/2006 6:54
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#15
They wouldn't have jihadis if they didn't carefully rear and train them. They wouldn't have Sunni and Shiite armed militias if Saddam Hussein hadn't allowed and encouraged and suborned such things over the decades of his vicious rule. And they wouldn't be nearly as effective if Saddam's Baathist agents weren't running and financing things in counterpart with Al Qaeda, exactly as Saddam set it up just before the invasion in 2003.
Iraq, and the Arab world, are at a nexus point: either they choose the way of civilization and put down what was so carefully grown, or we will have to wipe the slate completely clean, perhaps planting our own 12 million illegal aliens as seed stock for the empty lands.
Those are our choices, Thoth. Putting Saddam Hussein back, or another strongman who will end up like him (or like Bashir al Assad if he is not as effectively vicious), starts the whole thing all over... only worse and faster, because Saddam's interim successes have been observed and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have progressed further down the path of evil in the meantime. Israel fought the Intifadas against not only the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all, but against the funding, training and arms of Iraq at a distance. Would you condemn her to fighting against that again, plus Iran's donations, with real WMD in the mix? Because that's exactly what will happen if we let them slither off to the old, comfortable ways. Not to mention what our boys and girls will come up against the next time they have to invade to clean out the rat's nest that threatens us all.
This is a test. Either Iraq and Afghanistan can become safe to allow amongst us, or they are proven an incalcitrant threat that must be completely erased, along with the rest of their fellow-thinkers. There is no in-between, because the in-between metastasizes, and the world is too small, and the weaponry and connections too destructive, to share the planet with.
#16
This is a test. Either Iraq and Afghanistan can become safe to allow amongst us, or they are proven an incalcitrant threat that must be completely erased, along with the rest of their fellow-thinkers. There is no in-between, because the in-between metastasizes, and the world is too small, and the weaponry and connections too destructive, to share the planet with.
Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-04 07:49
Setting the applause machine on 10! Excellent assessment TW.
What the US has been doing is fighting a "rich man's war", which I think was first coined by Wretchard or Steven Den Beste. The US can afford to drop $20,000 bombs on a house to kill just the people inside and limit collateral damage. There are even concrete bombs being dropped to further limit shrapnel damage - the idea of a $50 million jet dropping a lump of concrete just boggles the mind...
It's not just the weapons though. There have been elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, massively supported by the US, there is the rebuilding process going on as well, again at almost the exclusive expense of the US.
This won't go on forever, sooner or later the US is going to require these governments to be looking after themselves. The signs are not encouraging; Afghanistan bringing back the morality police, death squads roaming Iraq and some recent statements from Iraqi politicians haven't been that good either.
I'm just one guy who had the scales lifted on 9/11, so much so that when 7/7 happened, I was furious of course, but I knew that it was a matter of time before we got hit (we'll get hit again, I'm certain of that), and I know there are many many more people like me that are looking over at events in the Middle East and the Islamic world in general and wondering how much longer we keep spending vast amounts of money and having our people killed just for trying to drag them into the 21st century. Me? I'm fed up now, so how the US has managed to keep trying this long is beyond me.
TW's last para is the crux of the matter. This is a test. Iraqi's and Afghani's are dissimilar enough for us to discount ethnic ties, their political systems (such as they are) are different too. So what's the one thing that both these countries have in common?
The sands of time are running low and these morons are rattling the hourglass!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/04/2006 8:36
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#18
Food for thought:
When you look at numbers raw you see only the barbarism. That's why I've taken to using the Orc images to describe the daily carnage.
When you look at concentrations, which is what the intel guys are looking at (or should be), you see a military campaign that's being carried out in three centers: Baghdad and environs, Mosul and Kirkuk, with a sideshow in Basra.
Looking at the picture, we're not seeing the symptoms of a society that's incapable of living in the civilized world. We're seeing Sammy's Baathists determined to make the country uninhabitable and Tater's idiots trying to either make the country an Iranian colony or to make it uninhabitable.
The carnage in the north is the Baathists and their Qaeda allies. The idiocy in Basra is Tater. Baghdad is where the two meet and try and outdo each other in brutality. Our losses in Anbar are incurred cutting supply lines.
The rest of the country is where the normal people live.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 9:29
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#19
Nice density plots Fred. Wish they represented down-wind drift however.
Outstanding picture and analysis. Baghdad as the convergence point for the Barbarians! What irony, the most learned, cultural center in Islam history now reduced to this.
#22
It's a test they've failed. However, we were totally incorrect in our initial approach. We should have eliminated much more of their populace during initial advances. This idiot idea of a war with no casualties is completely incorrect. Massive suffering changes minds. Since we didn't do it, they're doing it themselves. Fine. What really sets me off is sending our troops back into the middle ? Why ? Many will get killed for no reason. We need to retreat completely to the perimeter and let the mayhem unfold. Send Al-Jizz right to the front so the whole world sees how Muzzies function when left to their own devices.
#23
Excellent analysis, TW. However, many is this country will see a failure as just that - another failure, and reason to become uninvolved again. I fear we'll (well, not us Rantburgers, but the general populace) learn the wrong lesson - "we never should've gotten involved, and should pursue diplomatic methods via the UN."
John Kerry gets to say he told us so.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2006 11:42
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#24
Oh, and Fred - GREAT map!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2006 11:42
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#25
Thank you for your generous comments. A lot of my thinking is based on things I've read here over time, and especially on the analysis of our options by Rantburg's own Dave D., engineer extraordinaire.
Thoth, I'm sorry if I came on to strong -- you know I respect you enormously -- but I really don't see walking away as effectively different than surrendering; it might give us as much as half a decade before we follow France into the abyss, again because the path to get there is already well laid out. History iscontingent and mono-directional, and there is no reset button. Buwaya got back from Japan yesterday, and last night posted his observations on some of the threads -- well worth checking out -- but the key thing I took away was that people and countries are making sacrifices to fight this war, and if the US walks away now, they won't be there next time because the pressure won't be worth it.
Fred, a very, very helpful map. You do have a knack. ;-)
#26
Thanks, but it's not my work. Somebody gave it to me. I should be keeping one each for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 13:55
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#27
I don't think you came on too strong. I just wish we could wall all the orcs pulling these stunts in, and let them kill each other off. Let everyone else be in peace.
I felt hopeful about Iraq after Saddams statue fell. I felt hopeful after those 1st elections, but to me it looks like it has went into a tailspin that it can't pull out of till theres a crash. I feel hopefull about Afghanistan, I don't with Iraq. I'll try to muster what little faith I have left with the Iraqis and keep my fingers crossed though.
#28
I wish we could too, Thoth. But they actively export the insanity, and Saddam Hussein was a big player in that export. The Arab Strongman is proven to create and increase the danger, not be the cork in the bottle -- we're seeing that continue to play out in Pakistan, after all, where on the one hand Musharref drinks scotch with Western ambassadors, and on the other his ISI runs the Taliban as a wholly owned subsidiary, while he shelters A.Q.Khan from the consequences of exporting Pakistan's nuclear weapons technology (on government orders perhaps, but certainly with government connivance). This is one we are just going to have to fight to the finish -- either now or at a greater price later.
#29
I think the map gives false hope -- the attacks are "limited" to where the Shiites and Sunni are -- the non-conflict areas are mostly desert. The idea of bringing civilization to this region was a nice one, but not practical. Going forward, we need to support a free and productive Kurdistan and look at the rest of Iraq as our military base for operations against Iran.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/04/2006 15:32
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#30
I'm not ready to write Iraq off as a loss yet. Things would certainly be a lot better there if Iran were not constantly stirring up shit; and they would be better still if our own cut-and-run, "responsible redeployment" crowd weren't giving aid and comfort to the jihadis by conveying the impression, with every breath they take, that America is weak, impatient, and is on the verge of giving up and going home any minute now.
Get rid of the Mad Mullahs and our seditious Left, and this endeavor has a pretty good chance of succeeding.
Oh, goody. We have an "Iraq expert". Maybe you should team up with SOP35, since he is the military genius. You two would make quite a duo. We would have World War Three won in days.
Israel resumed air strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut Thursday. Israel's prime minister says his government is close to accomplishing its goals in Lebanon, and a cease-fire could take effect next week. At least 646 Lebanese and 56 Israelis have died so far in the conflict. Israeli war planes carried out strikes on southern Beirut as well as against targets in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, and on roads near the Syrian border Thursday.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was close to achieving its objective of carving out a six-to-seven kilometer wide security zone in southern Lebanon. He also said he believed the United Nations will vote on a cease-fire next week. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that she believes Israel and the international community share the same goals in Lebanon. "The idea is to disarm Hezbollah and to assist the Lebanese government exercise its sovereignty on the entire Lebanon. This is not a simple task but I believe the international community will stick to its goal," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Wat u see Ben? Nothing yet, just some smoke from what appears to be a goat BBQ, resume firing please.
LANDIKOTAL: The Khyber Agency political administration raided a house on Thursday, seizing stolen US radar equipment and arresting three suspects.
A jirga tried to negotiate with the suspects but they responded with fire...
The radar, which was meant for the US forces stationed at the Bagram airbase, was stolen during transit to Afghanistan. A jirga tried to negotiate with the suspects but they responded with fire. Later, the Khyber Rifles and Khasadar Force besieged the house of one Mairajuddin in the Zarga Khel area of Landikotal, seized the radar and arrested Daud, Gul Khair and Nahid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Maybe they were trying to make a microwave oven?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2006 6:02
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#2
"I tell you, Daud, you have to rub the thing to get the djinn out, and he will grant you three wishes!"
GROZNY: Five Russian soldiers were killed on Thursday in the war-torn republic of Chechnya, while two police officers from the interior ministry's forces were killed in neighbouring Ingushetia, police said.
The soldiers were burned alive when the vehicle they were travelling in exploded in Chechnya's second biggest town, Gudermes. The vehicle veered off the road, crashed into an electricity pole, overturned and caught fire, the interior ministry's press service said.
Apparently their ammunition exploded," the ministry said...
"There were then explosions. Apparently their ammunition exploded," the ministry said. It did not say why the vehicle came off the road in the first place. An inquiry has been launched.
Separately, local police said two officers from the interior ministry forces were shot in the unstable North Caucasian republic of Ingushetia on the road to its capital Nazran. Their car was sprayed with bullets by gunmen in a passing car. A third police officer escaped.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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A SCHOOL teacher accused of terrorist activities will face a committal hearing in Brisbane in November. John Howard Amundsen, 40, of Aspley in Brisbane's north, is facing charges of using false documents to obtain explosives and preparing to commit an act of terrorism. He also is charged with using telecommunications to make a threat and a hoax threat, as well as possessing a foreign passport without reasonable excuse, making counterfeit money or counterfeit securities and fraud.
It is alleged Amundsen was found with 53kg of explosives when police raided his home earlier this year, and he is the first Queenslander to be charged under the new national terrorism laws. Today in a review of the case in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, Chief Magistrate Marshall Irwin set the committal hearing down for three weeks, beginning November 13. Commonwealth prosecutor Clive Porritt said federal police had already compiled 195 witness statements and there were more than 25 still to come. Mr Porritt said the brief of evidence would be available in four weeks.
Amundsen's solicitor Brendan Ryan said his client was preoccupied with being in jail, and that a bail application may be pending at some stage in the Supreme Court. "I know my client's in custody, he reminds me of that fact often," Mr Ryan said. "But I can't do anything about that situation until I'm better armed with the police brief, then I might be able to do something about his requests." Mr Irwin set down a further brief review for August 18 and said they would try to do it by video link to save Amundsen being brought in.
(BNA) Jordanian Monarch, King Abdullah II, held a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, during which he discussed the developments in Lebanon and the Israeli aggression against. King Abdullah also affirmed the importance of an immediate cease-fire to pave the way for a political solution and called for the exerting of more efforts towards stopping the destruction and the retaining of security and stability in the region. He also hailed the call by Prodi for a cease-fire highlighting the importance of international support for the Lebanese government to overcome the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Burundi voiced alarm today at reports that there has been an attempted coup in recent days in the African country and that some political figures have since been arrested. The UN Operation in Burundi, known by its French acronym ONUB, warned in a communiqué to the press issued in Bujumbura,
... these events constitute a threat to the "commendable achievements of the peace process" in Burundi...
the capital, that these events constitute a threat to the "commendable achievements of the peace process" in Burundi.
Expressing concern about allegations of torture, ONUB said it has asked the Burundian authorities to allow access to the detainees and called on the Government to make available any information about the events to the international community. Last month, citing "factors of instability," the Security Council extended ONUB's mandate through the end of the year. The mission was established in May 2004 as Burundi emerged out of 12 years of civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Alarmed at 'reports'? Aren't they supposed to be out in the field, detecting and stopping such breaches of the peace before they can lead to a coup?
(BNA) Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa asserted that the Arab nation refused calls of disagreements among Arab nation toward Lebanon as well as Palestine. Moussa in interview with Turkish daily affirmed that reactions of Arab peoples shows their support to Lebanon and Palestine. He added that Israel aims at destroying Lebanese infrastructure and not killing Hizbullaa and they enjoying US support in doing that.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Will these retards ever learn "CAUSE & EFFECT"?
#4
"Will these retards ever learn "CAUSE & EFFECT"?"
No. They're genetically (inbreeding) incapable of seeing themselves as anything other than the center of the universe. Why should they change? Don't we understand that their Arabness and Islamic beliefs make them superior to us? Why can't we just accept their obvious superiority?
Militant attacks killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded 10 Thursday while 21 Afghan civilians died from a suicide car bombing - the latest barrage of violence that has accompanied NATO's new security mission in southern Afghanistan. Suspected Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades from a school killed three soldiers and wounded six involved in a security operation with Afghan troops near the village of Pashmul, west of Kandahar city, a NATO statement said. It said NATO and Afghan troops "inflicted severe casualties on the insurgents and disrupted their leadership in the Pashmul area," but gave no details.
Hours earlier, two bombs hidden along a highway, also near Kandahar, killed one soldier and wounded four, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for the Canadian military. The bombings occurred three hours apart.
In Ottawa, authorities confirmed all the dead and wounded served with the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. It was Canada's worst loss since April 22, when four of its soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb, also in the south. Seven NATO soldiers have now been killed since the alliance took over command Sunday in southern Afghanistan from a U.S.-led coalition, beginning the toughest combat mission in NATO's 57-year history.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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My condolences to the families and friends. Harper and his soldiers have stepped up, into the breech - and are sticking up for the modern, civilized way of life. They are paying a grim price, but such is the cost of defending civilization. RIP, soldiers.
The University of Liberia student leadership says it believes that the July 26 fire disaster at the Executive Mansion was an assassination attempt on the life of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The Acting President of the University of Liberia Student Union (ULSU), Martin S. Kollah said their doubts would only be cleared if a speedy investigation into the incident were conducted to establish the fact.
"We wish to express surprise for the unfortunate situation that visited the Executive Mansion during the celebration of our Independence Day on July 26," he said. The UL Student Leader said it was unfortunate and grossly confusing to note that fire gutted the Executive Mansion at the time when the President and some foreign guests had converged for a reception.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Seems an awkward way of trying to assassinate somebody, but she ashcanned her national security minister and her presidential affairs minister; so I guess she takes it seriously.
Dukuly (the presidential affairs minister) was affiliated with Ulimo-K (Alhaji Kromah), but if he was involved I'd suspect it was for personal financial reasons instead of factionalism.
When I was there (long ago!) a lack of careful planning or attention to detail was ubiquitous. A fire that didn't hurt anybody might really have been a murder try.
Posted by: James ||
08/04/2006 1:13
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Ten years ago, in a preview of the current Middle East crisis, Hezbollah guerrillas fired hundreds of Katyusha rockets into Israel. The attacks prompted President Bill Clinton and the Israeli prime minister, Shimon Peres, to agree to develop a futuristic laser meant to destroy the rockets in flight.
But last September, after spending more than $300 million, the United States and Israel quietly shelved the experimental weapon, mainly because of its bulkiness, high costs and poor anticipated results on the battlefield.
Frankly, its performance was not great, said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. Under certain conditions you can make it work. But under salvo or cloudy conditions, youve got problems. In northern Israel, about 30 percent of the time, youve got a cloud deck.
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#7
Typical whining from the New York Times. Robert Fulton was unable to get his newly-invented submarine to sink ships during trials. So submarines can't sink ships, right? Tell it to the crew of the Lusitania.
#9
The NYT commenting on weapons systems is like an imam commenting on Judaism.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/04/2006 8:07
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Frankly, its performance was not great, said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. Under certain conditions you can make it work. But under salvo or cloudy conditions, youve got problems. In northern Israel, about 30 percent of the time, youve got a cloud deck.
I get nervous when someone named Penrose Albright works in the Pentagon, much less makes comments to the NYT about this program. What a freakin' un-military name. And, note that he says it wouldn't work 30% of the time (his inference)...so protecting Israel (a country the size of a postage stamp surrounded by Fed Ex box size countries that hate them) 70% of the time is not "worth it"? PSHAW!
He and other military experts say the aborted project is a case study in the challenges of building antimissile weapons and the consequences of failure. Today, northern Israel remains defenseless against the Katyushas and other small rockets.
While I'd be the first to scrap any system which doesn't seem to work and/or is wasting taxpayer's money, this one sounds like it lives on in other programs, thank goodness. I praise Allan that the Hezzies are such bad shots with the Keytushas that Israel IS probably better off not wasting money on this, and instead further investing in the IAF, lol.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:36
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Dr. Penrose "Parney" Albright...former DARPA weenie and longtime beltway insider.
#13
Even if it was a given that DEWs (Directed Energy Weapons) would not work, which is not at all true, I'd still like to hear about the efficacy of high rep-rate rail guns. Microwave radar can penetrate cloud cover and provide fire control just fine. There's no reason a linear accelerator (or cluster of them) can't spew huge quantities of ultra-high velocity slugs.
Plenty of research has already been done into using alternate format energy beams to perform "atmospheric boring" in order to create a (less perturbated) clear-path for conventional DEWs. Any uncertainty arising from this announcement is most likely due to non-release of classified information than any overall failure of this methodology.
#14
"Frankly, its performance was not great, said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. Under certain conditions you can make it work."
I think the same could be said of the Wright Flyer in 1903. it took them until 1908 to publicly show a practical flying machine.
300 mil over 10 years sounds like alot, but it isnt.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
08/04/2006 15:55
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#15
I was recently reading about a mobile version of THEL. Can't recall the link
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 21:06
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General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said that fighting in Baghdad is at its highest level and threatens to push Iraq into civil war. ``The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular,'' Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington. ``If not stopped, Iraq could slide into civil war.''
Members of the panel shared his fear. Committee Chairman John Warner of Virginia said he is ``gravely concerned'' by the spike in violence, sectarian attacks and instability in the Iraq's capital. ``The situation is very fragile,'' Warner, a Republican, said. ``Baghdad could literally tilt this thing if it fails.''
Abizaid said he decided to move 3,500 American troops, including a Stryker brigade from Mosul, to Baghdad to attack and kill the ``militia death squads that we are seeing operate now in Baghdad with a degree of freedom.'' The redeployment follows the failure of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plan to pacify the capital. The United Nations said last month that more than 14,000 Iraqis were killed this year through June.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Screw it. Encircle the city, seal it off, and let civil war run its course. There is nothing inherrently bad or evil about civil war - it si simply a manifestation of two incompatible political/belief systems contesting the same space. Let the "best men" win.
Then, if the winners are radical Islamacists, carpet bomb the city - it now has nothing but bad guys left. Then let the Kurds come in and pick up the pieces.
Nobody needed outside "do gooders" setting up out in the wheatfield betwen the Union and Confederate lines at Gettysburg. Some issues just need to be settled the old fashioned way - with cold steel.
(BNA) The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) wants a role in peace building in war torn Lebanon after a ceasefire has been enforced, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday. Abdullah, who is also OIC chairman, said every member country in the 57-member organisation must play a proactive role in the Israel- Lebanon conflict and be prepared to contribute troops for peacekeeping operations under the United Nations (UN) banner.
The meeting is expected to demand the inclusion of OIC member states should the United Nations decide to send a peacekeeping force to Lebanon...
The one-day conference, attended by several heads of state and government and foreign ministers of 18 member countries, is expected to issue a declaration condemning Israeli offensive in Lebanon and call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. The meeting is also expected to demand the inclusion of OIC member states should the United Nations decide to send a peacekeeping force to Lebanon. It is also expected to urge the UN and the international community to ensure a proper coordination of humanitarian assistance from OIC member states to Lebanon and Palestine.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Yet another reason to tell the UN to buzz off
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:49
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As long as their positions are well marked and visible from the air.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 1:04
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The OIC wants Muslim troops aiding and abetting Hizbollah terrorists.
Muslim "peace" resolutions are jihad by other means.
A leading human rights group in Russia has reported a big drop in the number of people killed or disappeared in Chechnya last year. In its annual report, Memorial (Pamyat) recorded 192 deaths - a 38% decrease compared with the previous 12 months. But it says a climate of fear still exists and that Chechens may be too scared to report missing relatives. Memorial points the finger of suspicion towards Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and his local security forces. Although it only monitors some 30% of Chechen territory, Memorial has recorded far fewer murders and disappearances compared with recent years.
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A barrage of Hezbollah rockets slammed into northern Israel on Thursday, killing at least eight Israelis. Four people were killed when a rocket crashed directly into a house near the northern town of Ma'alot, and another four were killed when a rocket exploded near their vehicle in Acre. Four people were seriously wounded and two others sustained moderate wounds in rocket strikes in Acre, Hurfeish and Kiryat Shmona. Another 31 people were also lightly wounded in the attacks. Shimon Zaribi, 44, and Albert ben Abu, 41, both of Acre, were killed in the rocket attack on their hometown. Sinati Sinati, Amir Naeem and Mohammed Fouad, all 17-year-old residents of the village of Tarshiha, were killed in the attack near Ma'alot.
Also Thursday, four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and two others were seriously wounded Thursday in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerillas in south Lebanon.
The Prime Minister's Office said the government would continue to fight the Hezbollah and put an end to the rocket attacks. "The Israeli government, along with the Israeli people are fully determined to break this Hezbollah threat and to restore quiet to Israel's north. We will seek and pursue Hezbollah without relenting and we will put an end to these murderous attacks," said David Baker, an official in the PMO.
A total of 160 rockets were fired by late afternoon Thursday, 130 of which fell between the hours of 4 P.M. and 5 P.M. Hardest hit were the towns of Nahariya, Ma'alot and Kiryat Shmona. Rockets also landed in Haifa, the Golan Heights, Rosh Pina and Safed. More than 2,050 rockets have been fired at Israel from Lebanon during the current conflict, killing 27 civilians. Hezbollah fired at least 30 rockets across the north on Thursday morning, striking Kiryat Shmona, Haifa, the Ma'alot area and the Golan Heights.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Imagine if the US faced the same bombardment, how long would it take to kill every swinging dick lobbing them?
Could you imagine a US president allowing several weeks of this continuous bombing?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 20:11
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(BNA) Israeli forces arrested today one of Hamas's top leaders in Al Bera city in Ramallah in the West Bank. Palestinian sources said that the Israeli army arrested Zayed Abu Diya, from his home located in the centre of the West Bank. The Israeli forces had conducted an arrest campaign in the West Bank last night arresting 31 people from various Palestinian movements.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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trade bait?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 1:07
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#2
Shark bait.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 1:19
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TO most people, soft-spoken, well-educated Tanvir Ahmad Ansari might seem an improbable terrorist. In Mumbai's Mominpura slum, though, there is little surprise. If the practitioner of Unani medicine who was detained on July 24 does turn out to be one of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who executed the serial bombings in Mumbai on July 11, it will have a curious kind of fitness.
Twelve years ago, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had carried out a series of raids just up the road from the one-room tenement in the BIT Chawl where Tanvir Ansari lived with his 70-year-old mother. Jalees Ansari, a government-employed doctor, was arrested then for having executed a series of bombings in 1993 - the Lashkar's first terror strikes outside of Jammu and Kashmir. Azam Ghauri, who helped execute those attacks, managed to escape the CBI net. A third man also vanished.
In late June, Mominpura residents watched the twin stories of that third man, Syed Abdul Karim `Tunda', and Tanvir Ansari unfold in almost fugue-like fashion on their television sets. Neither Karim's strange arrest and bizarre disappearance, nor even the deaths he helped bring about, are the key motifs of this dark composition. Instead, his story, like that of Tanvir Ansari, illustrate the intimate embrace between Islamist terrorism and Hindu fundamentalism - the ways in which communalism feeds communalism.
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he has recalled his country's ambassador to Israel to show his "indignation" over the military offensive in Lebanon. "We have ordered the withdrawal of our ambassador in Israel," Chavez said in a televised speech, calling Israeli attacks in Lebanon "genocide."
Withdrawn your ambassador to Sudan yet, Hugo? Then shuddup.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#9
Serious question on Oldcat's proposal. Wasn't it discussed here some time ago about how Chavez was in between a rock and a hard place? By that, I mean, aren't basically only refineries in the US able to handle Venezuelan oil (not to mention that he'd loose a big market if he actually quit sending us oil and he's used to the "high life" now). I know that Citgo is state owned (even the refineries in the US), but I can't even fathom Chavez trying to invade Louisiana if we just seized said refineries, and he'd be out of biz quickly, right? Or are there other refineries elsewhere that can handle Venezuela's crude?
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:14
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BA, they are out there (provided that modifications take place), but not a large refining capacity.
I'd facilitate Hugo's shooting his own feet, if I had any say.
#11
I can't imagine there is excess refinary capacity anywhere at the moment, BA. It's been mentioned here several times recently that the crude ships are steaming in circles because there isn't even room to unload the stuff.
With global media attention focused on events in Lebanon, United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory today issued a statement sounding alarm about the ongoing fighting there and reminding all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.
Global humanitarian law crosses the border only in one direction, it would seem...
"The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory are deeply alarmed by the impact continuing violence is having on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which has resulted in a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation facing 1.4 million people, more than half of them children," said the joint statement. "We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten." Since 28 June, an estimated 175 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 40 children and eight women, and over 620 injured in the Gaza Strip. One Israeli soldier has been killed and 25 Israelis have been injured, including 11 Israelis injured by home-made rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
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#8
Apparently Abbas wants a international peacekeeping force on the Israeli border, like the Lebanon is supposed to get. Utter idiocy of course -- there'd be no Gaza left for the inhabitants -- but there it is. I s'pose he thinks he'll get a pliable bunch of tourists, like what they've had at the Egypt crosspoints.
#9
mcsegeek: CF nailed it. I was more going off the title, than the text itself. The might UN is just NOW sounding the alarm about violence? Should've done that in 1967 (or if you want to just include the latest attack by the Hezzies, it would be akin to Roosevelt announcing he was worried about the violence at Pearl, oh, say, almost a month after it occurred?). Timing is all I was gettin' at. Who knows, maybe Joe M. slipped some of his meds into the Atlanta drinking water system this morning.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 15:19
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#10
How typical that the UN should swallow terrorist atrocity camels whole whilst choking to death upon the gnats of Israeli defense.
#11
It's more and more obvious that the UN is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Israel needs to tell the UN it has 48 hours to get out of Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. Anyone that's left will be considered a target. Then allow Israel to flatten both Gaza and the West bank until nothing is higher than a man's waist, and nothing human-made exists in one piece.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 17:51
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Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Thursday refused to resign despite a mass exodus of cabinet ministers and mounting criticism over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect his feeble 18-month-old administration. Government spokesman Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said Gedi was instead working to replace the 36 ministers who have quit the 102-member cabinet in the past week calling for Gedi's resignation, even after he escaped a vote of no confidence over the weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
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In March 1918, a British intelligence unit set out to blow up a huge German ammunition dump in western Belgium.
By all accounts, it was an audacious mission, one that involved a Catholic priest who headed up a local spy network and the clandestine use of a German plane for the daylight insertion of a demolition expert.
We would prefer to lose 10,000 men than to lose this munitions site, Belgian air force Commandant Jan Savelkoels said, quoting a World War I German army general who was assigned to the region.
The mission succeeded, insofar as it effectively denied German forces use of that stockpile.
But the saboteurs failed to destroy all the munitions, something a Belgian explosive-ordnance disposal team is now addressing nearly nine decades later.
Savelkoels, the team commander, estimates that the site contains at least 300 tons of munitions, and that roughly 6 percent of it is toxic. The list of undesirable agents ranges from phosgene and diphosgene to chloramine, all of which were used by both sides in the Great War.
As far as Savelkoels knows, the site, near the U.S. air base at Chievres, is the biggest one of its kind from WWI. It alone will account for a normal years worth of recovered munitions.
In the interest of security, Belgian and U.S. officials asked that the exact location of the site not be disclosed.
There are bombs I have never seen before, said Savelkoels, a career EOD officer.
That says a lot, given that the Ypres region is still peppered with all sorts of ordnance, much of it dating to that era. Savelkoels said Belgian explosive-ordnance units annually get at least 3,000 requests.
To see rounds that you studied about in (EOD) school is awesome, said U.S. Army Master Sgt. Thomas Frankhouser, who recently visited the site and would be among those contacted in case of an emergency there. We didnt know it was here.
For years, neither did members of the Belgian military, which lost or misplaced many of the documents pertaining to the ammunition site, Savelkoels said. Local residents brought the issue to the attention of Belgian authorities, but even then the details were sketchy.
The site was initially thought to cover about 130 square meters, Savelkoels said. But when his 12-man team began working the site in late April, they found it was more than four times that size. What was estimated to be a monthlong effort has turned into a six-month project.
With every (passing) year, it is more and more dangerous, Belgian army 1st Sgt. Dirk Gunst said.
After WWI, Belgian authorities began to work the site but lacked the expertise to handle it, so they buried it. A second effort commenced in the 1950s but it, too, was aborted.
Its an extraordinary site, Frankhouser said.
The artillery rounds range in size from 7.7 cm to 25 cm, and the heaviest piece recovered so far checks in at 93 kilograms. Once the materiel is unearthed, it is either destroyed near the site, especially if it is deemed unstable due to leakage, or moved.
Every day, Savelkoels team checks the direction of the wind and other factors in the event an accident occurs and toxins get released into the air. So far, there have been no serious problems, though Savelkoels worries about complacency.
Routine kills, the Belgian officer said. Thats what I fear here.
That concern is negated somewhat by the extraordinary opportunity to get an extended view of a large cache of munitions nearly a century old.
Weve never found very large ammunition dumps from the second World War, only the first World War, Savelkoels said, explaining the front lines were more static in World War I. Its the biggest one Ive seen.
PESHAWAR: The grand tribal jirga will tackle the presence of foreign militants in North Waziristan according to rewaj (tribal tradition) and they will not register with the government, a senior member of the jirga told Daily Times by phone from Miranshah. He said tribal tradition says that elders and clerics would guarantee the foreigners good conduct to the government and added that registration of foreigners was not on the jirgas agenda. What the jirga will decide at the end of the day will be based on tribal tradition, he said.
The tribal elder said the jirga hoped to broker peace in North Waziristan by the end of August. The jirga returned from Miranshah after a weeklong stay in North Waziristan and is scheduled to meet Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday (August 7). We met civil and military officials and shura (council) leaders of the Taliban in Miranshah. Both sides appear willing to reach a negotiated settlement, he said.
He said the armys hesitance to free the remaining militants was worrying the jirga. We have told the government that peace cannot be discussed with the militants while it is holding their men, he added. An official source in Miranshah said the release of the remaining prisoners was delayed because the government did not want to play all its cards before a substantial achievement was made. He said the Taliban also seemed ready to accept the governments most stringent condition stopping cross-border infiltration. I think the US airstrike in Damadola (Bajaur tribal region) was a good lesson for the militants.
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(BNA) Italian Vice Prime Minister, Massimo D'alema, affirmed the right of Syria to regain the occupied Golan heights. D'alema said in statement transmitted by Syria indicated that his country was supportive of Syria's position in defending its interest and to find a solution for this issue. He also affirmed the importance of the participation of Syria and Iran in the efforts aimed at achieving peace and stability in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
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...of course when you sell sights to modernise Syrian tanks you say that...
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/04/2006 7:22
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#6
There's no archeological evidence of that, Oldcat. But under the Hasmoneans (the House of the Maccabees), Israel conquered and converted the Idumeans, in what I think is now Jordan. Will that do? ;-)
#7
My understanding is that Solomon's kingdom was more than double the size of David's, extending well into Syria. The borders of Israel were clearly defined and described in Joshua, but Israel never fully controlled all the areas described. Be that as it may, the Golan Heights are an essential part of Israel's defense. How do you say "piss off" in Italian?
The European Union has enlisted Syria's help to end the fighting in Lebanon as Damascus pledged support to the Lebanese government's plan for a settlement.
EU envoy and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday, Damascus agreed to play a constructive role in settling the conflict by pressing Hizbullah to accept a ceasefire.
"We also agreed on backing the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora as time is ripe for intensifying diplomatic efforts by all parties," Moratinos said.
He said Syria backs Siniora's seven-point plan to end the conflict. "Hizbullah's present stance is unanimous with the government, and Premier Siniora represents all Lebanese parties, including Hizbullah.
"We received Syria's response to be part of the settlement in this complicated region of the world and not be part of the problems."
Moratinos said the EU is complicit in US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's quest for a new Middle East "because the present Middle East is plagued with lots of poverty, violence and misunderstanding.
"We have reached with the Syrian side common stances, basically that the situation in the Middle East is very dangerous and that hope for the region lies in the participation of all parties in finding a settlement."
Syria and Iran are Hizbullah's main foreign backers. Syria's promise to support Siniora is a significant development following more than a year of strained Lebanese-Syrian relations over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
And the killing of several prominent pro-democracy politicos and journalists by Syria
Posted by: Captain America ||
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Hey! I have a great idea!
Lets have Syria occupy Lebanon! Then they will have a stake in it!
Yeah! Thats the ticket!
I dont know which is dumber, Eu-crats or Palieos....
#8
Andalusia, ed? What'ya got against LA (Lower Alabama)? I travel through Andalusia on the way to the Redneck Riviera (otherwise known as the panhandle of FL), lol! In fact, I've often stopped for a bite to eat in Andalusia, AL (only semi-town on that route).
/sarcasm
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:28
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#9
I'm beginning to think the Mongol solution is the only one that can bring PEACE to the Middle East. When they invaded the Persian Empire, they killed 80% of the inhabitants, destroyed the cities, poisoned the wells, etc. "They made a desert and called it peace."
They'd have better luck fighting fires with gasoline. Defying all notions of rational behavior, the EU has somehow moved well beyond stupidity (see below).
"The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein
(BNA) Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, threatened today to fire rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel were to strike Beirut. In a televised speech transmitted by Al Manar television, Sheikh Nasrallah said that the battle which the resistance was conducting along the front line South Lebanon against Israel has become more fierce and wider despite Israel air force raids. Sheikh Nasrallah, also stressed that the fight has taken a new shape as Israel began recalling it reserves and using all the force that it had to achieve success in its battle which it has failed to do so until now. He also affirmed the resistance's solid position in its confrontation against the Israeli force.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Its one thing to fire a rocket at Tel Aviv, its another to hit it.
#2
Shortly after I heard this on the radio last night, I heard the IAF was bombing Beruit again. Called his bluff, did they?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2006 6:09
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#3
We have now dared Nasralla to send rockets to Tel Aviv.
I guess if he swallows bait he will send a few ZilZal missiles on their way to Tel aviv, clearing the way to an Israeli full war declaration on Siria (initially) and on his secret Master Pupeteers TM the vererable Ahmadinagad and the Ayatollas.
This will be the best opportunity we will ever have of sending a few well aimed nukes at the Iranian reactor and Uranium enrichment sites.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/04/2006 6:18
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#4
(SPAN CLASS = channeling Dean)
"And, we'll take them on from Tyre to Beirut to Damascus to Ankara, all the way to Tehran...YYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
(/SPAN)
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:21
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#5
Why is this scumbag still stealing vital oxygen from far more deserving creatures like lice, cockroaches and slime moulds? Somehow, I doubt very much that his speech schedule was pre-announced.
Yes, this is a cheap ploy to get some insight from our French and Euro readers. Have you read the book? Is it any good?
The political musings of presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy have become the surprise summer reading hit for French holidaymakers, with five print-runs and 275,000 copies produced within two weeks of publication, XO Editions publishing house said Wednesday. Precise sales figures for "Temoignage" -- "Testimony" in English -- have yet to appear, but L'Express magazine, which draws up a weekly listing based on data from 150 bookshops, has placed it at the top of its non-fiction best-sellers.
"I thought it would be a success, but this is completely beyond my expectations. It's colossal," XO president Bernard Fixot told Le Figaro newspaper.
Sarkozy, who is both interior minister and president of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), uses the book to set out a loose collection of personal reflections about the problems facing France and how best to solve them. He also speaks about his relationship with wife Cecilia -- with whom he has just been reconciled after a separation of several months -- and pays rare tribute to President Jacques Chirac, who is often seen as his political enemy. Ick. But I s'pose that's politix.
The latest polls show that Sarkozy, 51, leads the race to win the presidency at next April's election, but only by a whisker ahead of the leading Socialist Party (PS) candidate Segolene Royal. "(Sarkozy) has a 50-50 chance of being the next president. People want to get to know him better, to read a personal book, where he explains who he is, how he works. The book isn't a political programme -- more a kind of 'cards on the table,'" said Fixot. Sarkozy himself chose to release the book just before the summer break, on the grounds that "the only time when the French speak about politics inside the family is during the holidays."
#3
That's to prove their intellectual bona fides when they try to pick up hotties on the beach. The French are all intellectuals, dontchaknow! I doubt as many as one in ten will actually read the thing.
Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) began life without a home - conducting business in a Kenyan sports center. Since returning to battle-scarred Somalia in February, it rapidly found itself without a country to govern. By early June, Islamist militias seized the capital, Mogadishu, and took control of wide swaths of central and southern Somalia.
38 ministers and assistant ministers have quit in the past nine days...
Now, the TFG is facing complete collapse after 38 ministers and assistant ministers have quit in the past nine days. "What we need is the prime minister to have a clear policy to deal with moderates in the Islamic courts. As a government we have to have our principles and a strategy to talk with them," says Ibrahim Isaac Yerow, sipping a spiced cup of coffee outside the former grain warehouse where Parliament sits in the dusty provincial town of Baidoa. "We don't have that at the moment." Before resigning Wednesday, Mr. Yerow was the assistant minister of national property. Four more ministers quit Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Damn. I had such high hopes. Sure I did.
Okay. Cue the Ethiopians...
Gunmen clashed with members of the Hamas-led police force in a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday, wounding at least five people, medics and witnesses said. It was the latest round of internal fighting in the Palestinian-ruled coastal territory since Hamas rose to power in March after an upset election victory. In the last two days two members of the rival Fatah movement have been shot and wounded by unknown assailants in Gaza. Earlier on Tuesday, a gunman shot and wounded a Hamas member earlier in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, medics and witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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#1
Blasting away in a hospital? Was there a wedding there or something?
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the army late today to advance into southern Lebanon up to the Litani River after almost 500 rockets fell on Israel in the past two days, killing nine civilians.
The Defense Minster instructed the Israel Defense Forces this evening to prepare for the next stage of the operation...
``The Defense Minster instructed the Israel Defense Forces this evening to prepare for the next stage of the operation,'' a ministry spokeswoman said, speaking anonymously by regulation. ``The objective is to paralyze rocket launching areas of the short range rockets from the international border and up to the Litani.''
A push to the river, which runs across southern Lebanon and in some places is as many as 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Israel's northern border, would give Israel control of a stretch of land about 30 kilometers wide and 30 kilometers deep, and would mark an escalation in the conflict, now in its fourth week, with the militant Islamic group Hezbollah. Israel previously focused on air attacks on Beirut and other places, as well as limited incursions across the border.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Aug. 1 Israel won't stop fighting until a United Nations peacekeeping force great enough to contain Hezbollah is deployed in southern Lebanon. He said in an interview with The Times, London, published today that it would have to be about 15,000-strong. A UN meeting planned for today to discuss the force was canceled.
Cease-Fire Offer Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said from his hidey hole his fighters won't stop attacks until all Israeli soldiers leave Lebanon, while offering a cease-fire if Israeli halts assaults.
When you decide to halt your aggression on our cities, towns, civilians and infrastructure, we will not hit any settlement or town with rockets...
``When you decide to halt your aggression on our cities, towns, civilians and infrastructure, we will not hit any settlement or town with rockets,'' Nasrallah said from a deep, deep, deep bunker and plenty of burly hard boyz guarding the door in a speech broadcast on the group's al-Manar television station late today. Hezbollah seeks to inflict maximum casualties on Israel and is able to launch attacks on any town it chooses, he said, "and as soon as I get out of the swimming pool behind Assad's guesthouse youse are gonna get it!".
The UN has made little progress toward a cease-fire since U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Israel July 31 after failing to broker an agreement. A French resolution calls for an immediate cease-fire. The U.S. has resisted such a halt until a political framework is in place to disarm Hezbollah and bar the group from control of southern Lebanon.
Israeli Air Strikes
Israeli air strikes today targeted missile launchers, Hezbollah offices and a vehicle carrying weapons, the army said. Hezbollah fired 150 rockets into Israel, killing four civilians in Acre and three in Maalot, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. An eighth died in Acre, Israeli medics said, making today the single deadliest day since July 16, when eight people also died.
In Lebanon, two soldiers were killed and two wounded north of Marwaheen, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said, speaking anonymously by regulation. That town is one of several new locations where Israeli forces are operating, said Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the UN Interim Force. Exchanges of fire in the area are ``heavy,'' Strugar said, and soldiers maintained a presence in the villages of Ayta al- Shaab, Maroun al-Ras, Mais al-Jabal and Kfarkila.
In a separate operation, aircraft fired missiles early today near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, killing eight Palestinians, unidentified Palestinian medical officials and witnesses said.
... Israeli forces had created a security zone encompassing 20 villages in Lebanon...
The army declined to comment on reports that Israeli forces had created a security zone encompassing 20 villages in Lebanon. Israel hasn't launched a full-scale military attack on Lebanon or Hezbollah since pulling troops out of an area of southern Lebanon held for 18 years until May 2000.
Israeli jets dropped leaflets at about 6:45 p.m. local time today on two areas in southern Beirut, urging its residents to leave, Lebanon's national news agency reported.
Lebanese Deaths
More than 900 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in a video statement. Sixty-five Israelis have been killed, according to the military and police in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes by Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel and Israeli air raids in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's resisting so forcefully to Israel has raised their popularity...
Lebanon's acting foreign minister said he doubts that his government would agree to invite a European-led peacekeeping force into southern Lebanon because of opposition from Hezbollah and its allies Syria and Iran, the Washington Post reported today, citing an interview with Tareq Mitri in New York. ``Hezbollah's resisting so forcefully to Israel has raised their popularity'' during the current conflict and the group's views on the size and mandate of an international force must be considered, Mitri told the newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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Hezbollah's views on the size and mandate of an international force must be considered, Mitri told the newspaper
Right. And Ben Laden's views on the fate of non-muslims should be considered too. And Ahmadimonkey's views on Israel, of course.
#2
We have now dared Nasralla to send rockets to Tel Aviv.
I guess if he swallows bait he will send a few ZilZal missiles on their way to Tel aviv, clearing the way to an Israeli full war declaration on Siria (initially) and on his secret Master Pupeteers TM the vererable Ahmadinagad and the Ayatollas.
This will be the best opportunity we will ever have of sending a few well aimed nukes at the Iranian reactor and Uranium enrichment sites.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/04/2006 6:15
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#3
ever notice that Hezbollah and the lebanese puppets hold NO cards and yet make demands.
Isn't Nasrallah still in Damascus "for consultations"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 8:29
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#4
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters won't stop attacks until all Israeli soldiers leave Lebanon, while offering a cease-fire if Israeli halts assaults
You mean a cease fire in which you lob rockets, send hit teams across the border, and kidnap Israeli citizens. Hmmmmmmm....NO.
#6
Frank, unfortunately they do have the card of world public opinion with its anti-Israeli and anti-US bias. The more heat that gets put on the US the more likely a brokered cease fire becomes in which some of the demands actually get met. So, Israel has to target the enemy more aggressively in the limited time left. I know the general Rantberg view is that public opinion counts for little, but it does impact elections for good (Germany) or ill (Spain, Italy) and it does make a difference who comes to power.
#9
Notably absent from this article is the fact that the UN has called for the disarmament of Hezbullah and removal of Syrian influence from Lebanon. Funny how when Israel is enforcing UN resolutions, these resolutions go down the memory hole, but when Israel is violating the spirit of ridiculous, unjust UN resolutions it is screamed from the highest mountain that they are in violation of the UN.
#11
true, now the exchange of lebanese prisoners and shabaa farms to Lebanon become the new baseline - totally contradicting prior positions by all involved - message: "kill and kidnap Jooooos, suffer the consequences, and we'll make sure you save face and gain in the end"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 19:33
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#12
A problem
The Israeli tanks dont have real protection against RPGs - their Defence was too cheap to finance a Raphael Trophy anti RPG system :(
Hope they remember Psalm 91
j
Posted by: Jimbo ||
08/04/2006 22:31
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President Viktor Yushchenko reached across the Orange Revolution's barricades Thursday and nominated his arch rival to lead Ukraine's government out of nearly five months of political paralysis. The deal, reached as a constitutional deadline that expired Wednesday night, creates a "grand coalition" between the pro-Western Mr. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine movement and Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which favors closer ties with Russia. Ukraine's parliament, the Supreme Rada, is expected to elect Mr. Yanukovych as prime minister on Friday.
We are putting up our tents in the streets again, and we are going to take this to the people...
Critics suggest the accord has betrayed the Orange Revolution and played into Moscow's hands. Some, including Yushchenko's former ally Yulia Tymoshenko, who heads the second largest party in parliament, say they will boycott the Rada and call their supporters into the streets to protest. "We are putting up our tents in the streets again, and we are going to take this to the people," says Yevgeny Zolotaryov, reached by phone. He's the leader of Pora, a small party allied with Ms. Tymoshenko. "This is farewell to Yushchenko, who failed to be a leader to the nation and, frankly, betrayed his voters. It is the end of the Orange Revolution."
But some experts say the bargain may be the best way for deeply divided Ukraine to muddle through without an open political split between its nationalistic, Ukrainian-speaking west and the industrialized, heavily Russified east. "This was not a victory of one side over the other, but a set of workable compromises," says Oleksander Shushko, an expert with the independent Institute for Euro-Atlantic Integration in Kiev. "Some in Ukraine don't want to see any cooperation with Yanukovych at all, but that would deepen the divisions in the country."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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"This was not a victory of one side over the other, but a set of workable compromises"
But with said, I pledge - on the souls of my grandchildren - that I will not be the one to break the peace that we have made today. Don Vito Corleone
#3
There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the party on the left
Is now the party on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
#4
It's that damned Slavic thing again. A personality split between east and west that tears them apart, over and over again. First they want to be westernized, then they want to be more nationalistic and Asiatic. Then back again.
George Bush called on Cubans yesterday to work for democratic change in their Communist-ruled country, in an overt call for change after Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power because of illness. President Bush's first public statement since the temporary hand-over of power to Fidel's brother, Raul, on Monday was bound to anger Cuba's Communist Party, which has long accused the US of interference in Cuban affairs.
Only the Communist Party... can be the worthy heir of the trust Cubans have placed in their leader...
The US President promised full and unconditional support to those on the Caribbean island seeking democracy, adding: "We have repeatedly said that the Cuban people deserve to live in freedom."
The Communist Party emphasised that it would stay in control no matter what happened to Fidel, but failed to settle doubts over who was in charge of the island. In a typically cryptic message, the main Communist newspaper, Granma, printed part of an old speech by Raul, which said: "Only the Communist Party... can be the worthy heir of the trust Cubans have placed in their leader."
But there was still no sign of Fidel or his brother. "Most people here, after 47 years of Castro's rule, are completely disassociated from the political process and have a fear of change," said one Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified. "That is certainly the message the government gives out to the people. They say, 'look at the plan that Bush has for you'. The government sees everything through the prism of the US."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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But there was still no sign of Fidel or his brother.
Maybe they're waiting for Disney to finish the animatronic replacements...
A massive wave of guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes Thursday, killing eight people hours before Hezbollah's leader offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. With four soldiers killed in Lebanon, it was the deadliest day for Israel in its two-front war.
Israel unleashed airstrikes on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh early Friday, saying its targets were Hezbollah facilities and an office of Hamas, the militant group which runs the Palestinian government. Israeli artillery shells earlier soared into the hills of southern Lebanon, sometimes as many as 15 per minute.
In the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel sent dozens of tanks into the Gaza Strip as aircraft fired at clusters of militants. The heavy clashes killed eight Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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MUMBAI: Faisal Shaikh (30), arrested in connection with the 7/11 blasts, was shown the clippings of atrocities on Muslims across the world. He was willing to go as 'fidayeen' to Lebanon or Iraq but was instructed to take revenge against atrocities on Muslims in India, an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) officer said. Faisal, a class XI drop-out, was arrested last week by the ATS and is aid to be the Lashkar-e-Taiba's western India commander. "We was asked to retaliate the humiliation and killings of his brothers (Muslims)."
The clippings related to Iraq, Lebanon and other cities of Palestine were shown to all the participants in a training camp in Pakistan. Faisal was one of them. Though he offered his 'service' for Lebanon or Iraq, his plea was turned down," an officer from the crime branch unit-II who questioned Faisal said. According to the police, Faisal visited Paksitan's Bulwarah camp twice, first time in 2002 and again in 2004, each time for six months. Faisal would report to LeT's Pakistan commander Azam Chima about new recruits and ensure that he was making good grounds in Mumbai.
The police have seized a cd from Faisal which the police suspect, could provide vital information about LeT's city operations. "The cd has a series of communal riots and atrocities on Muslims." It shows the 9/11 bombing in the US too. Moreover, it also has the clippings of training camps in Pakistan which is shown to other candidates before they leave for training," sources said. The crime branch also seized around 30 cds from Faisal's younger brother, Muzammil Shaikh. The training camp, funded by Lashkar-e-Taiba, is being taken care by one of its hardened commander, Azam Chima.
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Cuba's communist government sent a clear message to its people Thursday: Nothing is going to change. "The revolution will continue" was the mantra chanted on state-run television and displayed in government newspapers three days after Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from surgery.
"¡La Revolución es estable! Viva larga la Revolución!"
The revolution will continue...
The acting president was still nowhere to be seen. Nor was the elder Castro, who turns 80 on Aug. 13. Yet the news media all are run by the state lined up Cubans to express confidence both in Fidel Castro's ability to recover quickly and in Raul Castro's competence to govern in the meantime. "Certain of your rapid recovery, always toward victory!" a graduating class of Interior Ministry cadets chanted in a collective greeting to Fidel Castro, published on the front page of the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde. "Every Cuban trusts Raul, and every one of our leaders," an unnamed woman said on state television's midday broadcast. "We are certain that the revolution will continue."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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"The decadent Americans will utterly fail in their mad imperialist efforts to prevent hams from being imported for our great leader. Your glorious starvation in the name of Socialism goes on, and will be protected by our invincible People's Army. As usual, anyone attempting to eat a full meal without permission of the State is a capitalist traitor.That is all".
#7
Funny thing is, every once in a while I stumble on a Joe-ism that I can actually follow too. Of course, I begin to question myself, and then, he never fails to live up to his old standards and all is restored, lol! Just give him a few hours, as he's in Guam, it'll be a while before he wakes up and starts posting again.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 10:55
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#8
Question is. Is this Joe on his meds or Joe off his meds?
#9
JM's like a Van de Graaff generator. It takes a while to charge up, then, BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAPP!!!! [*ozone smell*]
it goes off, followed by another charging cycle.
Alimentary, dear Watson.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2006 11:15
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#10
"The revolution will continue"
You have to believe that the average Joe Cuban has to be fed up of endlessly hearing that shit.
A federal appeals court ruled that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's name must remain on the Nov. 7 ballot even though he withdrew from the race for his Texas congressional seat. The decision, which affirmed a prior ruling, may force DeLay to either campaign for the Houston-area seat he wanted to abandon or concede it to Democratic candidate Nick Lampson.
``In situations such as the one before this court, a replacement candidate cannot appear on the ballot if the original candidate merely withdraws,'' Judge Fortunato Benavides wrote for the three-judge panel. The ruling is a setback for the Texas Republican Party, which argued that it should be able to replace DeLay because he withdrew from the race and announced he was moving to Virginia after he won the March 7 party primary.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006
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The good people of Texas should inflict high speed pain on 2 judges and one prosecutor. That would send a message from all Americans, to all assholes who would phalk with the election process. Hands off, or die young.
#2
It's just politix, which in Texas is fairly hardball. That's how DeLay was cornered and forced to drop out.
Texans aren't going to take to the streets to tar and feather Benavides and the Publicans will either run DeLay and win or run him and accept the loss as a tradeoff -- they succeeded with the redistricting on balance.
Bumping off judges, even the ones you don't like, is maybe acceptable politix in Baghdad, but it's not here. Let the party handle it.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 9:53
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Well, he should stay on the ballot, since he didn't bother to resign in time. This is the same thing that happened 2 yearz ago with Torricelli and Lautenburg. The difference is that New Joizy, being Democrat, is far more corrupt and will break any law to make sure they keep power.
#4
Didn't DeLay ask to be removed from the ballot because he was an ineligible candidate, having officially 'moved' to Washington? As such, if he was to win re-election would he not be ineligible to serve? I would think he does not even have enough time before the election to re-establish Sugarland as his legal residence. What happens if an ineligible candidate wins? Does the governor appoint a replacement? Do they hold a special election? Does the second-place finisher get the office?
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.
Periodically, as a form of psychological warfare, the Israelis hack into Lebanese television and play this video, which expresses disdain--to put it mildly--for Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah:
Islamic values and Arabic language education are now in the mainstream of Philippine education. As mandated by Department of Education Order No. 51, the two subjects are now taught in public schools around Mindanao and in some parts of the country that have at least 30 enrollees who are Muslims.
A Department of Homeland Security plan to require port workers to carry tamperproof photo ID cards has numerous security problems that threaten to delay it, investigators said. In an audit, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said his review of prototype systems at participating U.S. ports identified vulnerabilities in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, known as TWIC. The weaknesses, some of which were deemed high risk, included instances of false positives in detecting which workers might pose a security risk as well as cases in which the system inadvertently disclosed sensitive personal information inappropriately. 
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she called "failed policy" in Iraq. "I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation." 
"Folks, I'm leaving hospitals behind, ahead of the deadline, or at least ahead of schedule. I've had a couple setbacks, and I still face a couple minor surgeries, but overall, the prognosis is far better than the docs had hoped just after I'd reached Germany. The teams at Balad, Landstuhl, and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. worked overtime -- something like a dozen surgeries at least, including one that lasted 11 hours.
When I used to read about the 1930s the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism. 
Cotabato City, 4 August (AKI) - A Filipino Muslim cleric was detained over alleged links with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization, police and military officials told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Friday. Senior Inspector Samson Obatay, the city's police spokesperson, confirmed that Hussain Abedin was a suspected member of the group Abu Sofia and was arrested at 7.00 pm at the terminal of Weena Buss Company in Cotabato City, in Mindanao, southern Philippines on Thursday. "He had existing arrest warrants and we have been looking for him," Obatay said.
Galileo originated as a Euro-nationalist response to the success of Americas GPS. As the program developed, some in Europe sought to use it as a way to limit and control US military power. This was the heart of the transatlantic frequency overlay dispute that ended with the EU backing down. 
A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed Wednesday morning in an industrial zone in Ashkelon, lightly wounding one person. The wounded man was hit by shrapnel and evacuated to the Barzilai Medical Center for treatment. Another Qassam landed in a community in the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage. A salvo of five Qassam rockets were fired early Tuesday from both the northern and southern Gaza Strip at Sderot and the western Negev, causing damage but no injuries.
An Italian resort plans to create all-female beach sections for Muslim women wishing to shed their headscarves and long robes to enjoy the sun in privacy, officials said Thursday. Riccione, a resort town on Italy's eastern coast, will let hotels set up partitions on the shoreline to satisfy requests from growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists. "Our beaches are big enough to answer this need," said Loretta Villa, Riccione's councilwoman. "We live on tourism and we can't survive if we don't satisfy the requests of our customers." By making some areas off-limits to men, observant Muslim women will be able to ease up on religious restrictions to cover up if men are present, Villa said. The reserved beaches would be waited on by by waitresses and watched over by women lifeguards. The partitions will not reach into the sea as a section, Villa said. To allow Muslim women to swim without covering up in robes and headscarves, Riccione would consider building reserved seaside swimming pools, she said.
Expressing deep concern about increasing violence in Sri Lanka, particularly the escalation caused by a water dispute in the northeast, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to cease hostilities immediately, allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to those affected and resume peace talks.
QUETTA: A powerful bomb exploded outside the office of the Noshaki district coordination officer on Thursday, but there were no casualties. "The blast was so powerful that it broke the windowpanes of the office and was heard in the far-off areas of the district," local journalist Shah Nazar Badani told Daily Times. Badani said the blast took place in a store owned by some Afghan refugees.
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent a get-well note to Cuba's Fidel Castro, who has undergone stomach surgery, the North's KCNA news agency said on Thursday. Castro, who has lead Cuba for 47 years and is the world's longest-ruling head of government, has not been seen in public since temporarily relinquishing power to his brother this week. "I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery to your health so that you can excellently continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and the great mandate given to you by the people of Cuba," Kim said in a telegram to Castro dated Aug. 2, KCNA said. Kim, known as the "Dear Leader" at home, has ruled the North since the 1994 death of his father and the founder of the communist state, Kim Il-sung. North Korea's official media often writes articles expressing solidarity with the Castro government.
Israeli aircraft dropped on Thursday thousands of flyers over Gaza City to incite the Palestinians' discontent with politburo chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khaled Mashaal, Palestinian witnesses said. They said that the A4-size flyers showed a cartoon image for Mashaal as a gambler who bet on Palestinian towns in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, Khan Younis, Gaza City, Jabalya, Biet Lahia and Biet Hanoun. 
Israel Air Force aircraft on Wednesday bombed a house in central Gaza used by Hamas militants to store weapons, the Israel Defense Forces said. Palestinian security sources said the house was owned by a Hamas militant and was largely destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the air strike. 
At least 25 suspected Islamic militants were arrested after Bangladesh's crack security force raided their hideout in a forest north of the capital, officials said on Thursday. The militants were training in the hideout close to a madrassa near Bhaluka town, north of Dhaka, when they were arrested late on Wednesday, according to Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) commander Colonel Nurul Momen. "We found bomb-making materials, fuses, wires in the hideout," Momen said.
At least 44 people were killed in sporadic violence in Iraq on Thursday. Ten people were killed on Thursday in a roadside bomb in Al-Amin, an eastern district of Baghdad, a police source said. A further 14 were wounded. The casualties appeared to be civilians, rather than members of the security forces, the police source said. 
Israel resumed air strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut Thursday. Israel's prime minister says his government is close to accomplishing its goals in Lebanon, and a cease-fire could take effect next week. At least 646 Lebanese and 56 Israelis have died so far in the conflict. Israeli war planes carried out strikes on southern Beirut as well as against targets in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, and on roads near the Syrian border Thursday. 
LANDIKOTAL: The Khyber Agency political administration raided a house on Thursday, seizing stolen US radar equipment and arresting three suspects. 
GROZNY: Five Russian soldiers were killed on Thursday in the war-torn republic of Chechnya, while two police officers from the interior ministry's forces were killed in neighbouring Ingushetia, police said.
A SCHOOL teacher accused of terrorist activities will face a committal hearing in Brisbane in November. 
(BNA) Jordanian Monarch, King Abdullah II, held a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, during which he discussed the developments in Lebanon and the Israeli aggression against. King Abdullah also affirmed the importance of an immediate cease-fire to pave the way for a political solution and called for the exerting of more efforts towards stopping the destruction and the retaining of security and stability in the region. He also hailed the call by Prodi for a cease-fire highlighting the importance of international support for the Lebanese government to overcome the crisis.
(BNA) Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa asserted that the Arab nation refused calls of disagreements among Arab nation toward Lebanon as well as Palestine. Moussa in interview with Turkish daily affirmed that reactions of Arab peoples shows their support to Lebanon and Palestine. He added that Israel aims at destroying Lebanese infrastructure and not killing Hizbullaa and they enjoying US support in doing that.
Militant attacks killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded 10 Thursday while 21 Afghan civilians died from a suicide car bombing - the latest barrage of violence that has accompanied NATO's new security mission in southern Afghanistan. Suspected Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades from a school killed three soldiers and wounded six involved in a security operation with Afghan troops near the village of Pashmul, west of Kandahar city, a NATO statement said. It said NATO and Afghan troops "inflicted severe casualties on the insurgents and disrupted their leadership in the Pashmul area," but gave no details. 
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The Acting President of the University of Liberia Student Union (ULSU), Martin S. Kollah said their doubts would only be cleared if a speedy investigation into the incident were conducted to establish the fact.
General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said that fighting in Baghdad is at its highest level and threatens to push Iraq into civil war. ``The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular,'' Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington. ``If not stopped, Iraq could slide into civil war.'' 
(BNA) The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) wants a role in peace building in war torn Lebanon after a ceasefire has been enforced, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday. Abdullah, who is also OIC chairman, said every member country in the 57-member organisation must play a proactive role in the Israel- Lebanon conflict and be prepared to contribute troops for peacekeeping operations under the United Nations (UN) banner. 
A leading human rights group in Russia has reported a big drop in the number of people killed or disappeared in Chechnya last year. In its annual report, Memorial (Pamyat) recorded 192 deaths - a 38% decrease compared with the previous 12 months. But it says a climate of fear still exists and that Chechens may be too scared to report missing relatives. Memorial points the finger of suspicion towards Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and his local security forces. Although it only monitors some 30% of Chechen territory, Memorial has recorded far fewer murders and disappearances compared with recent years.
A barrage of Hezbollah rockets slammed into northern Israel on Thursday, killing at least eight Israelis. Four people were killed when a rocket crashed directly into a house near the northern town of Ma'alot, and another four were killed when a rocket exploded near their vehicle in Acre. Four people were seriously wounded and two others sustained moderate wounds in rocket strikes in Acre, Hurfeish and Kiryat Shmona. Another 31 people were also lightly wounded in the attacks. Shimon Zaribi, 44, and Albert ben Abu, 41, both of Acre, were killed in the rocket attack on their hometown. Sinati Sinati, Amir Naeem and Mohammed Fouad, all 17-year-old residents of the village of Tarshiha, were killed in the attack near Ma'alot.
(BNA) Israeli forces arrested today one of Hamas's top leaders in Al Bera city in Ramallah in the West Bank. Palestinian sources said that the Israeli army arrested Zayed Abu Diya, from his home located in the centre of the West Bank. The Israeli forces had conducted an arrest campaign in the West Bank last night arresting 31 people from various Palestinian movements.
TO most people, soft-spoken, well-educated 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he has recalled his country's ambassador to Israel to show his "indignation" over the military offensive in Lebanon. "We have ordered the withdrawal of our ambassador in Israel," Chavez said in a televised speech, calling Israeli attacks in Lebanon "genocide."
With global media attention focused on events in Lebanon, United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory today issued a statement sounding alarm about the ongoing fighting there and reminding all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Thursday refused to resign despite a mass exodus of cabinet ministers and mounting criticism over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect his feeble 18-month-old administration. Government spokesman Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said Gedi was instead working to replace the 36 ministers who have quit the 102-member cabinet in the past week calling for Gedi's resignation, even after he escaped a vote of no confidence over the weekend.
PESHAWAR: The grand tribal jirga will tackle the presence of foreign militants in North Waziristan according to rewaj (tribal tradition) and they will not register with the government, a senior member of the jirga told Daily Times by phone from Miranshah. He said tribal tradition says that elders and clerics would guarantee the foreigners good conduct to the government and added that registration of foreigners was not on the jirgas agenda. What the jirga will decide at the end of the day will be based on tribal tradition, he said. 
The European Union has enlisted Syria's help to end the fighting in Lebanon as Damascus pledged support to the Lebanese government's plan for a settlement. 
(BNA) Hizbollah leader, Sheikh 
Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) began life without a home - conducting business in a Kenyan sports center. Since returning to battle-scarred Somalia in February, it rapidly found itself without a country to govern. By early June, Islamist militias seized the capital, Mogadishu, and took control of wide swaths of central and southern Somalia. 
Gunmen clashed with members of the Hamas-led police force in a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday, wounding at least five people, medics and witnesses said. It was the latest round of internal fighting in the Palestinian-ruled coastal territory since Hamas rose to power in March after an upset election victory. In the last two days two members of the rival Fatah movement have been shot and wounded by unknown assailants in Gaza. Earlier on Tuesday, a gunman shot and wounded a Hamas member earlier in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, medics and witnesses said.
President Viktor Yushchenko reached across the Orange Revolution's barricades Thursday and nominated his arch rival to lead Ukraine's government out of nearly five months of political paralysis. The deal, reached as a constitutional deadline that expired Wednesday night, creates a "grand coalition" between the pro-Western Mr. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine movement and Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which favors closer ties with Russia. Ukraine's parliament, the Supreme Rada, is expected to elect Mr. Yanukovych as prime minister on Friday. 
George Bush called on Cubans yesterday to work for democratic change in their Communist-ruled country, in an overt call for change after Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power because of illness. President Bush's first public statement since the temporary hand-over of power to Fidel's brother, Raul, on Monday was bound to anger Cuba's Communist Party, which has long accused the US of interference in Cuban affairs. 
A massive wave of guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes Thursday, killing eight people hours before Hezbollah's leader offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. With four soldiers killed in Lebanon, it was the deadliest day for Israel in its two-front war.
MUMBAI: 
Cuba's communist government sent a clear message to its people Thursday: Nothing is going to change. "The revolution will continue" was the mantra chanted on state-run television and displayed in government newspapers three days after Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from surgery.
A federal appeals court ruled that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's name must remain on the Nov. 7 ballot even though he withdrew from the race for his Texas congressional seat. The decision, which affirmed a prior ruling, may force DeLay to either campaign for the Houston-area seat he wanted to abandon or concede it to Democratic candidate Nick Lampson. 
