KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Military investigators are looking into whether negligence was a factor in the shooting death of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan. Investigators stressed Thursday they hadn't yet determined whether Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh's death was purely accidental or the result of a negligent act.
But whenever a shot is fired by a soldier, someone has to be held to account, said Capt. Mark Giles, spokesman for the military's National Investigation Service. "Ultimately, whenever a weapon is discharged, either intentionally or unintentionally - as appears to be the case in this situation - someone is responsible," he said. "The question for our investigators is who is responsible, and whether or not the actions taken or not taken should result in charges."
Foul play and suicide, as well as enemy action, had been ruled out Thursday as reasons for Walsh's death.
Walsh, a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Shilo, Man., was shot Wednesday when a group of soldiers was either entering or driving in a Canadian Forces G-Wagon west of Kandahar. Walsh had been in Kandahar for just six days as part of a new rotation of soldiers beginning a six-month tour of duty in southern Afghanistan.
Officials refused again on Thursday to say whether Walsh was shot by another soldier, although military sources had said that's what happened.
Two NIS investigators have been interviewing witnesses and collecting information. Another two investigators on their way to Afghanistan as part of the troop rotation were also expected to join the probe. Three weapons have been seized, with two of them believed to be C7 rifles that are standard issue for Canadian soldiers. An autopsy will be conducted on Walsh's body in Canada, likely within a week. As well, the seized weapons are being sent to an RCMP lab for analysis.
So far, the military will only call the incident an "unintentional discharge of a Canadian Forces weapon," being careful not to reveal too much information that could hamper the investigation or a potential court case. "We are looking at all possibilities within this realm," said Giles, "including safe weapons handling and weapons maintenance aspects."
Investigators also have to look at the possibility that the weapon somehow discharged on its own, and whether the confined cabin space of the G-wagon or other equipment played a role. "They had lots of equipment, lots of kit. So we have to take that into consideration."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
22:59 ||
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LONDON - The operator of key British airports said it had received the green light on Thursday to resume shorthaul flights to and from Londons Heathrow airport after a security alert over a foiled bomb plot. The British Airports Authority (BAA), which runs Heathrow and six other airports, said the restriction imposed in the morning was lifted in the afternoon by Britains National Air Traffic Services. The restriction that was in place has been lifted, a BAA spokeswoman said.
However, British Airways earlier cancelled all its remaining short-haul flights due Thursday between Heathrow and other British and European cities, as well as the Libyan capital Tripoli. The decision was taken because of severe congestion due to heightened security measures, BAA said.
No-frills airline easyJet cancelled all its remaining flights due to depart Thursday from three airports bordering London, comprising Gatwick, Luton and Stansted.
In total, 302 arrival flights and 309 departures were cancelled at Heathrow as of 16:00pm local time (1500 GMT), the BAA spokeswoman added. In an average day, Heathrow has a total of 1,250 flights, inbound and outbound, longhaul and shorthaul, according to BAA statistics. Some 190,000 passengers land or take off from Heathrow each day.
British Airways said in a statement that it expected to operate around 60 percent of its scheduled 400 shorthaul and domestic flights to and from Heathrow on Friday. It said it had cancelled around 400 flights, mainly domestic and shorthaul, from both Heathrow and London Gatwick on Thursday. It flies about 820 flights out of these two airports on a typical August day.
BAA said there were also cancellations and delays at Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport, Glasgow Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Aberdeen Airport. There were delays also at Southampton Airport, but no cancellations. The spokeswoman added that there were no restrictions on longhaul flights, although passengers should be prepared for long delays.
BA said it expected to operate around 75 percent of its scheduled 150 longhaul flights to and from Heathrow on Friday, meaning that all countries except the United States will be served. It expected to operate around 80 percent of its scheduled 210 shorthaul and domestic flights to and from Gatwick on Friday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
22:27 ||
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Monitoring of wild migratory birds to prevent a deadly bird flu virus is expanding to cover the entire nation and U.S. territories in the Pacific.
The stepped-up testing will be done by scientists in the lower 48 states, Hawaii and other Pacific islands. They will begin keeping an eye out for the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu that has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia.
In Alaska, where the first migratory birds began arriving, monitoring started just before summer.
"This move to test thousands more wild birds throughout the country will help us to quickly identify, respond and control the virus if it arrives in the United States," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Wednesday. "Because we cannot control wild birds, our best protection is an early warning system."
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said more coordinated monitoring by federal agencies, states and universities "will be important this fall as birds now nesting in Alaska and Canada begin their migration south through the continental United States."
The Agriculture and Interior departments are providing $4 million to state agencies to collect samples from specific species of migratory birds winging along four major U.S. migratory bird flyways. Congress budgeted $29 million for monitoring for the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu.
Feces or tissue samples from 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds will be collected, along with 50,000 samples of the water and ground that birds come into contact with. Locations where the samples will be collected will vary depending on weather and habitat conditions.
Likely sites include national and state wildlife refuges and parks, city ponds and parks, and private lands where owners have given approval.
Typically, the virus is spread by direct contact with contaminated birds. Scientists fear the virus could mutate and pass from person to person, leading to a pandemic. Best bets are to stock up on hand sanitizer, both thin surgical style and thick butyl rubber gloves, and ear loop masks. Get a few pair of clear shop glasses, too. When the stuff does hit, these things will disappear overnight.
The booms of Katyusha rockets continued; another day of what has become routine in the North. But the IDF was holding position, waiting for orders that did not come. After 30 days of fighting, the war with Hizbullah seemed to be nearing its conclusion Thursday.
Just a day earlier, the situation had looked drastically different. The security cabinet had approved the army's request to send thousands of troops up to the Litani River and beyond in an effort to destroy Hizbullah's infrastructure and to stop the Katyusha attacks. After the cabinet meeting, one division actually began moving north from Metulla. Its goal - to clear out al-Khiam and Marjayoun and to reach the Litani.
But then, under pressure from the US, Defense Minister Amir Peretz made a frantic call to Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz and ordered him to stop the division in its tracks. "We need to give the diplomatic process one last chance," Peretz told Halutz. The orders trickled down the chain of command and by the time they reached 366, it had already reached Marjayoun, a stone's throw from the Litani.
Continued on Page 49
#2
Don't feel so bad. Just think what the USA could have accomplished by Sept. 2002 if our leaders acknowledged the ideological foundations of islam and went all sharia, starting with Arabia and Iran.
Posted by: ed ||
08/10/2006 21:15
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#3
Ed, for once, I would like to be not pissed off so much. Guess I am for a long wait.
Brian Ross Reports:
Three of the alleged ringleaders of the foiled airplane bomb plot have been identified by Western intelligence agencies involved in unraveling the plot. Two of them are believed to have recently traveled to Pakistan and were later in receipt of money wired to them from Pakistan, reportedly to purchase tickets for the suicide bombers.
Sources identify the three, who are now in custody, as:
Every time the terrorists try a new method for murder, the rest of us have new restrictions.
First no fingernail clippers
Then we have to take off our shoes
Now no liquids or electronics
What is going to happen when the terrorists take it to the next level and start surgically implanting IEDs within their bodies???
#7
Some dork talking on the BBC (admitedly this morning when information was sparse) was talking about full body-cavity searches GO3907, so some people are already thinking of it...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 19:48
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#8
"talking about full body-cavity searches"
That might cover "up there with the ham sandwich", but what about the NEXT level: Full surgical implantation?
#10
full body-cavity searches
The 2 Chechen women who blew up Russian airliners were purported to have smuggled the explosive just that way. Or it could be the Russians covering up for shoddy security. Either way, I'm surprised a Mohammedan hasn't tried to blow up a western airliner with just this method.
Posted by: ed ||
08/10/2006 20:33
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#11
"Two of them are believed to have recently traveled to Pakistan and were later in receipt of money wired to them from Pakistan, reportedly to purchase tickets for the suicide bombers."
I wonder if this information was gathered before or after the MSM blew the cover off the $WIFT info tracking program.
Posted by: Tibor ||
08/10/2006 20:46
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#12
#10 full body-cavity searches...
A stick of dynamite, properly lubricated...very effective, veerrry effective!
Posted by: Janos Hunyadi ||
08/10/2006 20:56
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#13
Just saw over on Times Online
That the key element in breaking this plot was provided by - wait for it - Pakistani Intelligence. Now I really wonder if the whole thing is a fake just meant to hassle us.
#16
Would anyone in Britain be so bold as to propose the restoration of capital punishment for such heinous acts?
Just one newspaper, even a tabloid, to have an editorial calling for hanging for attempted or successful mass murder as a terrorist act. Just to see what the British people have to say about it.
I find it hard to believe that Fleet Street has become so timid.
#17
These are the names of 19 suspects reportedly being held by the police after the foiled plot and whose assets the Treasury has sought to have frozen.
Umir Hussain, 24, London E14
Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17
Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17
Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17
Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe
Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17
Cossor Ali, 24, London E17
Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham
Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17
Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17
Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington
Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17
Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe
Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10
Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe
Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe
Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17
Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5
Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest
A martyrdom video, apparently recorded by a would-be suicide bomber, was found at one of the raided addresses, government sources said. Some of those detained had been under investigation before for extremist activity
Posted by: john ||
08/10/2006 21:37
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#18
The days of the Commonwealth certainly set the UK up for a tough time ahead... for all of us.
"ONE suspect arrested yesterday was a British Christian who converted to Islam when his new religion just clicked.
Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, changed his name to Abdul Waheed and grew a bushy beard, said his neighbours.
Last night it was believed he was the son of Doug Stewart-Whyte, a Tory party agent who died nine years ago.
Stewart-Whyte, who recently married, was one of at least four people held in High Wycombe, Bucks, as cops foiled a mass plot to down transatlantic jets.
Others held in the town included a close pal of his and a young lad who had just returned from Pakistan.
One of those arrested in High Wycombe was named last night as convert Umar Islam, 28 who had been formerly known as Brian Young."
Relations between the country's political and military leadership are at the lowest point in the country's history, on the verge of a crisis. In addition, there is a growing lack of confidence between Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, the first CoS to hail from the air force, and many of his general staff colleagues from the ground forces, who say he and his "blue clique" [blue being the color of the air force uniform-ed] do not fully appreciate the nature of ground warfare.
According to informed sources, there is an almost total breakdown in trust and confidence between the General Staff and the PM's office. They have described the situation as "even worse than the crises that followed Ben Gurion's decision to disband the Palmach, and Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan's cynical decision to place all the blame for the Yom Kippur fiasco on the IDF's shoulders.
Senior IDF officers have been saying that the PM bears sole responsibility for the current unfavorable military situation, with Hezbollah still holding out after almost a month of fighting.
According to these officers, Olmert was presented with an assiduously prepared and detailed operational plan for the defeat and destruction of Hezbollah within 10-14 days, which the IDF has been formulating for the past 2-3 years.
This plan was supposed to have begun with a surprise air onslaught against the Hezbollah high command in Beirut, before they would have had time to relocate to their underground bunkers. This was to have been followed immediately by large scale airborne and seaborne landing operations, in order to get several divisions on the Litani River line, enabling them to outflank Hezbollah's "Maginot line" in southern Lebanon. This would have surprised Hezbollah, which would have had to come out of its fortifications and confront the IDF in the open, in order to avoid being isolated, hunted down and eventually starved into a humiliating submission.
This was exactly what the IDF senior command wanted, as Israeli military doctrine, based on the Wehrmacht's blitzkrieg doctrine, has traditionally been one of rapid mobile warfare, designed to surprise and outflank an enemy.
According to senior military sources, who have been extensively quoted in both the Hebrew media and online publications with close ties to the country's defense establishment, Olmert nixed the second half of the plan, and authorized only air strikes on southern Lebanon, not initially on Beirut.
Although the Premier has yet to admit his decision, let alone provide a satisfactory explanation, it seems that he hoped futilely for a limited war. A prominent wheeler-dealer attorney-negotiator prior to entering politics, he may have thought that he could succeed by the military option of filing a lawsuit as a negotiating ploy, very useful when you represent the rich and powerful, as he always had. Another motive may have been his desire to limit the economic damage by projecting a limited rather than total war to the international financial powers that be.
Whatever his reasons, the bottom line, according to these military sources, is that he castrated the campaign during the crucial first days. The decision to not bomb Beirut immediately enabled Nasrallah to escape, first to his bunker, subsequently to the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
The decision to cancel the landings on the Litani River and authorize a very limited call up of reserves forced the ground forces to fight under very adverse conditions. Instead of outflanking a heavily fortified area with overwhelming forcers, they had to attack from the direction most expected, with insufficient forces. The result, high casualties and modest achievements.
This is the background of yesterday's surprise effective dismissal of OC northern Command Maj. General Udi Adam. According to various media sources, Olmert was incensed at Adam's remarks that he had not been allowed to fight the war that had been planned. Adam allegedly made these remarks in response to criticism against his running of the war, and the results so far achieved.
Olmert's responsibility for inaction goes much further. The US administration had given Israel the green light to attack Syria. A senior military source has confirmed to Israel Insider that Israel did indeed receive a green light from Washington in this regard, but Olmert nixed it.
The scenario was that Syria, no military match for Israel, would face a rapid defeat, forcing it to run to Iran, with which it has a defense pact, to come to aid.
Iran, which would be significantly contained by the defeat of its sole ally in the region, would have found itself maneuvered between a rock and a hard place. If it chose to honor its commitment to Syria, it would face a war with Israel and the US, both with military capabilities far superior to Iran's. If Teheran opted to default on its commitment to Damascus, it would be construed by the entire region, including the restless Iranian population, as a conspicuous show of weakness by the regime. Fascist regimes such as that of the ayatollahs cannot easily afford to show that kind of weakness.
As previously mentioned, Iran's military capabilities are no match for Israel's. Bottom line, all Iran could do is to launch missiles at and hit Israel's cities, and try and carry out terror attacks. If there is one thing history has shown, it is that such methods do not win wars. Israel would undoubtedly suffer both civilian casualties and economic damage, but these would not be that much more than what we are already experiencing. We have already irreversibly lost an entire tourist season. Any Iranian and Syrian missile offensives would be relatively short, as they are further form Israel, and therefore would have to be carried out by longer range missiles. These, by their very nature are much bigger and more complex weapons than Katyushas. They cannot be hidden underground, and require longer launch preparations, increasing their vulnerability to air operations. In addition it is precisely for such kinds of missiles that the Arrow system was developed.
The end result would be some additional economic damage, and probably around 500 civilian casualties. It may sound cold blooded, but Israel can afford such casualties, which would be less than those sustained in previous wars (for the record, in 1948 Israel lost 6,000, 1% of the entire population, and in 1967 and 1973 we lost respectively 1,000 and 3,000 casualties).
The gains, however, would be significant. The Iranian nuclear threat, the most dangerous existential threat Israel has faced since 1948, would be eliminated. It would also change the momentum, which over the past two decades as been with the ayatollahs. This could also have a major impact on the PA, hastening the demise of the Islamist Hamas administration.
Instead, according to military sources, Israel finds itself getting bogged down by a manifestly inferior enemy, due to the limitations placed on the IDF by the political leadership. This has been construed by the enemy as a clear sign that Israel is in the hands of a leadership not up to the task, lacking the required experience, guts and willpower. In the Middle East this is an invitation to court disaster, as witness by Iran's and Syria's increased boldness in significantly upping the ante of their involvement in the war.
Some senior officers have been mentioning the C-word in private conversations. They have been saying that a coup d'etat might be the only way to prevent an outcome in Lebanon that could embolden the Arab world to join forces with Syria and Iran in an all out assault on Israel, given the fact that such a development would be spurred entirely by the Arab and Moslem world's perception of Israel's leadership as weak, craven and vacillating, and therefore ripe for intimidation.
Seeing the once invincible IDF being stalemated by Hezbollah's 3,000 troops is a sure way to radiate an aura of weakness that in the Middle East could precipitate attacks by sharks smelling blood.
#2
from NRO
more on the potential deal [Rich Lowry]
From JPost:
Among the ideas being discussed was a "substantially beefed up UNIFIL" force to be made up of German, Italian, Spanish and Australian troops that would move south to the border with the Lebanese Army and deploy where the IDF moves out. Another idea was for a French force to accompany the Lebanese Army.
Senior sources in Jerusalem said, however, that there has been a major shift in the French position over the last week, with French President Jacques Chirac hesitant about committing French troops after seeing the difficulty Israel has had with Hizbullah over the last month. France was initially the major force working for deployment of an international force.
More (lets hope this deal is worth it):
The security cabinet's decision to widen the operation Wednesday, dependent on a final okay from Olmert and Peretz, led the US to publicly disagree with Israel for the first time since the war broke out.
Following the decision, White House spokesman Tony Snow said that moving deeper into Lebanon did not correspond with American policy.
"We want an end to violence and we do not want escalations," Snow told reports at President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
According to diplomatic officials in Israel and in Washington, the US was concerned that a widespread military offensive on behalf of Israel could undermine attempts to reach a new agreement between the US and France over a UN resolution.
#5
Very interesting. Somebody in Israel has blown it big time. It will be interesting to find out who. Halutz and Olmert seem like the front runners.
And if we gave them the green light on Syria and they didn't go, well that could have real repercussions in the future. The survival of Israel is not a necessary condition to the survival of the US.
#6
As posted in another thread...if the Israeli Govt cannot / will not defend it's population, then is the state itself even necessary? It's population may be better off finding protection under other governments.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/10/2006 18:35
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#7
The Frogs probably figured Israel would squash Hezb'Allah and all they would have to do was mop up. Now there's a real force in Hezb (or at least so the Hezbos now think) and no real force in Israel. Being inbetween those would be a very dangerous place.
Since the beginning of this war, I was wondering why the IAF hadn't immediatly bombed the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut, which was an obvious military decision.
It's very clear Olmert is a bad leader. He was an attorney before entering politics, and he can't understand that you can't negociate with people who want to exterminate you.
And not only has he been jeopardizing Israel with his awful handling of this war, but he is working to tie the hands of Israel for the future. When there will be an international force in South Lebanon, Israel will no more be able to fight Hezbollah, but Hezbollah will still fire rockets on Israel.
The implications are enormous. Oh what could have been. Iran's reaction to Syria being bitch slaped would have been very interesting.
How many military personel do we currently have in Germany, Korea & Japan?
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/10/2006 18:52
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#10
Olmert you dumbass, the US wanted an excuse to take out Iran and all they needed was you to blowup Syria, so Iran would come to its aid and we would have taken the nuke threat away. Now we are going to have to do it the hard way, no wonder Condi trying for a cease fire he don't want to fight.
#11
Good grief, this is grim to read. Is webinsider a reliable source? - I'm just hoping that this is DEBKA-esque, or that this is more disinformation.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 19:02
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#12
If true, Olmert is disgraced and should resign immediately
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 19:15
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#13
If this is or not true is not really relevant to think that Olmert is an incompetent. After 1 week air power that was already clear. New war in 1 year and i am being optimist.
#14
acknowledged there's more to lay at his feet, but overtly changing governments in the middle of a war isn't to be done lightly, IMHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 19:44
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#15
Yeah, but the next war is gonna be a blood bath. That's what was supposed to be avoided by taking out Hiz-B now.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/10/2006 19:46
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#16
Cleret I think you are right, but even before that you will have a new Israeli PM. Bibi will be back in the chair before you know it. The US backing of Israel looks pretty foolish if they won't fight. The second time this happens (open war between Hezb and Israel) there will be no warning and no holding back. Amazing.
#18
If the info here is credible, then Olmert will find a unique place in Israeli history.
Many ways to skin a cat. You hate to see a prime opportunity squandered by fluke chance - Ari's bad health leading to Olmert's emergence at a pivotal moment. This has been brewing for a long time...
I am grieved most because of the huge political advantages and opportunities lost - imagine what bold Israeli action would have done to open the door for the US to get directly involved without further domestic poltical meandering and bullshit.
Iran will fall. Syria will implode. Hezbollah will disintegrate into the usual Paleo-style twinks.
Now much better than later. Later better than never.
#19
Although the Premier has yet to admit his decision, let alone provide a satisfactory explanation, it seems that he hoped futilely for a limited war. A prominent wheeler-dealer attorney-negotiator prior to entering politics, he may have thought that he could succeed by the military option of filing a lawsuit as a negotiating ploy, very useful when you represent the rich and powerful, as he always had. Another motive may have been his desire to limit the economic damage by projecting a limited rather than total war to the international financial powers that be.
Will someone please tell this f&ckwit that there is no way to fight a conventional "limited war" against an enemy that is hell bent on religiously motivated genocide.
The only "limited war" against terrorist Islam will involve a "limited" number of nuclear weapons. Something that looks more likely with each new atrocity passing day.
But who made it possible for him to become Prime Minister, based on pie-in-the-sky notions of Israeli detente and land-for-peace deals with the Palestinians? The electorate. They are now paying the price for their foolishness.
#21
Flatten the Iranian Embassy in Beirut - take out the entire grid square. Iran doesn't recognize the sanctity of other nation's Embassies, so theirs should be fair game. Then, after it is a smoldering crater, Israel should apologize mildly. Oops, we thought we were attacking a combattant command and control HQ. Our apologies.
#22
Sound like the IDF had a good plan. A successful flanking maneuver is the beginning, middle, and end of any battle. It's a real shame Olmert was too stupid to follow the plan.
#24
Hell fire, if Olmert did not know how to attack an embassy, all he had to do is to call Slick Willie and he (for a nominal fee) will tell how he did it in Serbia back in the Monica dayz.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006 21:17
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#25
surprise air onslaught against the Hezbollah high command in Beirut, before they would have had time to relocate to their underground bunkers. ... followed immediately by large scale airborne and seaborne landing operations, in order to get several divisions on the Litani River line, enabling them to outflank Hezbollah's "Maginot line" in southern Lebanon. This would have surprised Hezbollah, which would have had to come out of its fortifications and confront the IDF in the open, in order to avoid being isolated, hunted down and eventually starved into a humiliating submission.
Thos look like an awfully familiar plan with familiar words.
Damn shame their guys couldn't sell it to the pacifist idiot leftists who have put their national survival (and our attempts at regional stability) in the sh*tter.
LESSON:
DO NOT PUT PACIFIST LIBERALS IN COMMAND DURING WAR.
PERIOD.
Got that America? Or we end up learning the same lessons, writ much larger, with an order of magnitude more deaths.
I say this, if the pacifists take power and manage to get us clobbered, they will be exterminated politically in the US. Kos, that means you and your nutroots. Remember, in an anarchy, the anarchists are always the first ones against the wall.
#33
This is so ironic everytime Israel would fight the US told them to back off. Now the US is telling Israel to fight and their leadership wants to back off.
#35
Not sure if this article is real but it confirms exactly what has had me fuming the last couple days when it became obvious Olmert didnt have the sack.
We need a Causi Belli to bomb the brakes of the Iranian military and nuke program to buy US enough time to get Iraq together and RR our forces. Israel needed Causi Belli to devastate the Paleo terrorist headquarters in Damascus. It was perfect Hezbos jumped gave it to US. The LLL lites Hilary, CNN, ect were on board hell even the SUNNI governments were on board at first Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabias head Imam issued a Fatah that Hezbollah was EVIL.
The situation was unheard able in history perfect ripe for the taken. Now its totally upside down I dont know who screwed the pooch Olmert seems high on the list I dont know but its FUBAR big time.
Of course the Radicals are well known for making insane suicidal decisions due to underestimating their enemies. They may instead of accepting believe the hype and go for broke which will put Olmert into either risk being Impeached Removed by popular sentiment or give the green light.
Who knows the next week will tell.
And give me a break on the Causi Belli thing its late and I just cant remember how the hell its written so it may or may not be right dont look right thats for sure.
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
SEOUL North Korea is turning to a niche bank in Singapore as the conduit for financial transactions, including the circulation of U.S. $100 supernotes fresh off its Swiss-made printing press in Pyongyang.
Press reports here and in Tokyo about North Korea's turn to Singapore spread as North Korea Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun visited Singapore immediately before and after a regional meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur in late July.
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun, left, shakes hands with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Aug. 1, in Singapore. AP/Wong Maye-E
Paek has reportedly visited Singapore twice, finalizing arrangements for use of the bank. North Korean officials have been in regular touch with the bank for years but decided to upgrade its role in their financial scheming after the U.S. Treasury Department banned dealings by U.S. companies with the Banco Delta Asia in Macao. Banco Delta Asia promptly froze North Korean accounts, creating enormous problems for North Korea, especially for ruler Kim Jong-Il, who reportedly used the bank for his personal financial dealings.
North Korea's reliance on Singapore is nothing new. South Korean officials made a mysterious trip to Singapore prior to the historic June 2000 inter-Korean summit, when Kim Jong-Il received Kim Dae-Jung, then South Korea's president. The purpose of the visit was reportedly to transfer some of the $500 million later revealed as having been secretly given to North Korea as a payoff for the summit.
South Korean officials vigorously denied the initial report of the transfer in the International Tribune, but much of the money was later revealed to have gone to Pyongyang through Hyundai Asan, the Hyundai group unit responsible for developing the Mount Kumgang tourist complex and the special economic zone at Kaesong. Hyundai Asan Chairman Chung Mong-Hun committed suicide in August 2003 as prosecutors zeroed in on his financial dealings. "They're hot on my trail, I'm outta here.
The use of the Singapore bank for North Korean supernotes surfaced in reports in Yomiuri Shimbun, the huge Japanese national daily, and in Dong A Ilbo, a respected newspaper here that is often critical of South Korean government policy, particularly towards North Korea.
DongA-Ilbo quoted a source in Washington as having said that North Korea had "attempted to change its bank to Singapore." The same source said "the new haven is known as a small bank referred to as O Bank" so far the only name that has emerged for the bank.
"O Bank is a problem bank," the source told DongA-Ilbo, adding that the bank was "on the list of banks related to North Korea, which the U.S. government keeps a close eye on." The source confirmed that Singapore, as an international finance center, had become one of the "safe havens" for North Korea's money dealings.
Paek reportedly spent two days in Singapore before arriving in Pyongyang on July 27 and then stopped off again for three days, from August 1 to 3, after the ASEAN regional forum. A South Korean official said the reason for the stopover was kidney dialysis an explanation that failed to explain where he received dialysis while spending most of his time in Pyongyang.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006
17:56 ||
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#1
I used to work for a Singapore bank. Offshore banking is big business there, but there are no 'small' local banks. All the small banks are foreign banks (branch operations).
#2
shut em off and cut financial ties to any bank, financial center or company doing business with them. Time to review our trade, military cooperation, and commerce agreements with Singapore
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 19:24
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#3
We seem to know where the printing pressis, it's in the headlines, so why does it, and the surrounding buildings still exist?
Counterfiting, especialy on a Nation scale is surely an act of war.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/10/2006 19:40
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#4
Send China the bill for all the counterfeit frogskins. If they reneg, tell them to back off while we bomb the crap outta North Korea. China has bred up this miscreant, either they put paid to its continued misconduct or they sit still while we bounce some rubble in their back yard. No alternatives.
#5
PS: The Swiss need to be asked some very hard and pointed questions about why exceptionally advanced currency-grade printing presses were released onto the open market without concrete end-user information.
Israel has ordered the Gaza-Egypt border crossing closed just hours after it was partially opened for the first time in weeks, EU and Palestinian officials said Thursday. Israel informed European monitors that the crossing had to shut because it had a high security alert, officials said. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
17:52 ||
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#1
If for no other reason than to maintain a constant level of seething...it actually saves energy in the long run.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 20:54
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#4
Would you expect anything less from a panther lovin, nation of islam supporter, liberal democrat? Wait, she is supposed to be a liberal? How does that racism come from a democrat? I thought they and the ACLU fought for the minority rights. Oh, thats right the JOOOOS own everything and have all the land in the middle east. They aren't a minority.
HON. CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY of Georgia in the House of Representatives Monday, September 30, 2002
Ms. McKINNEY . Mr. Speaker, as you know, I recently suffered a setback in my bid for reelection. I am beginning to get over the disappointment that I will no longer be able to serve the people of Georgia in the next Congress. I will miss serving.
However, there were some alarming things about the campaign to defeat me that I think my colleagues of both parties should look out for. I am not talking about the Republicans who crossed over to vote for my opponent, but the heavy involvement of Indians in the primary. I am one of the Members of Congress who has tried to get out the truth about South Asia, and I am proud of that. Earlier this year, I was one of 42 Members of Congress who wrote to President Bush to urge the release of Sikh and other political prisoners in India.
Apparently, this irritated the Indians because the newspaper article I am inserting in the Record along with this statement shows that they admitted that they invested heavily in the effort to defeat me. To my colleagues of both parties who have also been involved in the effort to expose India's brutal record, I say: Watch out; they are coming after you, too.
India has a record of illegal interference in U.S. elections. Former Ambassador S.S. Ray publicly urged the reelection of former Senator Larry Pressler and in opposition to now Senator Robert Torricelli. An Indian American immigration lawyer named Lalit Gadhia funneled money from the Indian Embassy to Congressional candidates, according to the Baltimore Sun. Most of the candidates were of my party, people I am proud to have had as my colleagues during my service in Congress. But it is still illegal and wrong for India to funnel Embassy money to these Members' campaigns.
Now I have become the latest political officeholder in India's cross hairs. I won't be the last unless their activities are exposed. Mr. Speaker, whether I am in office or not, I don't intend to let a foreign power determine the results of American elections if I can help it.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the article showing Indian involvement in my primary into the Record to help expose their activities.
Posted by: john ||
08/10/2006 18:13
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#6
I'm sure the media will cover this with the same vigilance that they covered the Mel Gibson slurs. Oh, wait, she's a LLLib ...
David A. Burtt II, director of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, the Defense Department's newest intelligence agency whose contracts based on congressional earmarks are under investigation by the Pentagon and federal prosecutors, told his staff yesterday that he and his deputy director will resign at the end of the month.
In an internal message, Burtt said, "I do not make this decision without trepidation, but the time is right to move on to the next phase of my career." He said he had been privileged to serve as CIFA director and was "especially proud of all of you and what you have accomplished for the CI [counterintelligence] community and for the overall CI mission." Clearly they want to spend more quality time with their families.
Joseph Hefferon "has also decided to retire, after over 31 years of federal service," according to Burtt's message. A Pentagon spokesman yesterday confirmed they were leaving and said it was "a personal decision that they both made together." That way the office will only have to chip in for one Wish you the Best ice-cream cake.
Burtt, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defense for counterintelligence at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, developed the concept for CIFA. It was established in September 2002, originally to coordinate policy and oversee the counterintelligence activities of units within the armed services and Pentagon agencies.
Over the past three years, it has grown to become an analytic and operation organization with nine directorates and widening authority focused primarily on protecting defense facilities and personnel from terrorist attacks. CIFA's size and budget are classified, but according to congressional sources the agency has spent more than $1 billion over the past four years, mostly for outsourced services. One counterintelligence official yesterday estimated that CIFA had 400 full-time employees and 800 to 900 contractors working for it.
The agency was criticized in December after it was revealed that a database managed by CIFA contained unverified, raw threat information on Americans who were peacefully protesting the war in Iraq at defense facilities, including recruiting offices. Did the NYT let that nugget out too?
Last March, as a result of the continuing federal investigations arising out of charges against former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), prosecutors said they were reviewing CIFA contracts that went to MZM Inc., a company run by Mitchell J. Wade, who had pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to bribe Cunningham. Cunningham, now serving an eight-year prison term, in January 2004 sought about $16.5 million to be added to the defense authorization bill for a CIFA "collaboration center." A month later, he wrote Burtt a thank-you note about the center, adding, according to prosecutors' documents: "I wish to endorse and support MZM, Inc.'s work."
One of the consultants to Burtt, when he was formulating CIFA in 2002, was retired Lt. Gen. James C. King, then an MZM senior vice president who had recently retired as director of the Pentagon-based National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
In late 2002, Cunningham, who received campaign contributions from Wade and other MZM officials, made contracts for Wade's company one of "his top priorities," according to prosecutors' documents. One result, according to prosecutors' documents, was $6 million spent for a data storage system, supposedly for CIFA, that included almost $5.4 million in profit for MZM and a subcontractor. That might explain Burtts next phase of my career line.
Following disclosures in Cunningham's case, Undersecretary of Defense Stephen A. Cambone last March ordered an internal study of how funding earmarked in defense bills led to CIFA contracts for MZM. The Defense Information Systems Agency, which has been given responsibility for the inquiry, said in a statement yesterday that "the investigation is still ongoing."
And there it is! As we knew it would be...
LONDON - News of a thwarted plot to down trans-Atlantic airliners sent a shiver of anxiety through Britain's Muslim community Thursday. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
Muslim men accustomed to nervous looks from passers-by after last year's transit bombings noticed they were attracting them again. Some said they worried about a spike in hate crimes and job discrimination. I worry about being blown to shit when I fly next month. And not by the Amish...
There was no confirmed word about the religious or ethnic background of those arrested, although a top French official described them as originating from predominantly Muslim Pakistan. Police said only that they were working with Britain's large South Asian community. Call it a "hunch"...
Three of the four suicide bombers who struck London's transit system in July 2005 were Britons of Pakistani origin, and many Muslims feared their community would be held responsible this time.
Monirul Sardar, 33, said that after the transit bombings and the Sept. 11 attacks on America, a neighbor left duck droppings on his parked car."Tonight I've got to watch out," he said.
Sardar, a Briton of Bangladeshi origin who runs an east London travel agency, said he'd noticed his bushy beard drawing stares after every major terror attack in recent years.
"It's started up again," he said. "People are afraid of me, mostly. ... If it's an old man, a lady in a hijab, they'll pick on them."
Harris Bokhari, a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said the group was asking mosques to urge worshippers to report any racial attacks.
But he said Muslims had demonstrated after the Sept. 11 attacks and the London bombings that they would not let such trouble stop them from participating in British life.
The Muslim community's relationship with police has been fraught in recent months, and some said they were waiting to see what evidence police would produce of the alleged bomb plot.
"They've arrested people, but let's see what they find from them," said Maj Ali, 27, who works at a northeast London restaurant near a home police were searching as part of their terror investigation.
"They didn't find nothing," he recalled of a June raid in which officers shot a man in the shoulder in his east London home during a search for the makings of a chemical bomb.
The man and his brother were arrested but later freed without charge. That raid and the fatal subway shooting last year of an innocent Brazilian man mistaken for a terrorist infuriated many Muslims. The sun rising infuriates many Muslims...
"Was this (airline bomb plot) information really accurate or not from the police in terms of its intelligence?" Bokhari asked. "We need to be aware how these people were arrested."
Near the East London Mosque in the capital's Whitechapel neighborhood, home to a large Muslim population, several people said they feared the terror plot allegations might spark fresh antagonism against them. "People forget things really easily," Sardar said. "This brings it all back again." You can call these in like clockwork...
#1
a neighbor left duck droppings on his parked car. Tonight I've got to watch out.
Are you worried about scores of innocent civilians being savagely blown up Monirul? Ohhh..I see...your concerned about more duck shit on your car. Gotcha!
#2
The problem in the past is that these guys get a pass. Psychopathic behavior has to have consequences. The consequences have to be harsh, massive and overwhelming so that the behaviors are not repeated.
#3
Perhaps they would feel more comfortable in Pakistan.
Perhaps they would no longer get hostile stares if they stood up enmass and pointed out the terrorists in their midst instead of hiding them with their silence or actively supporting them.
#4
Sardar, a Briton of Bangladeshi origin who runs an east London travel agency, said he'd noticed his bushy beard drawing stares after every major terror attack in recent years.
"It's started up again," he said. "People are afraid of me, mostly. ... If it's an old man, a lady in a hijab, they'll pick on them."
Hint: lose the beard, better still, lose the 'religion'.
And I have never seen anyone give a hard time to 'an old man' or 'a lady in a hijab'.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 17:19
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#5
So they get all bent out of shape because the public is wary?
Instead of being indignant, perhaps if they:
1. protested Islamic violence
2. began a process of self criticism
3. monitored themselves actively, bringing to light and shaming those who engage in such behavior
We'd have a modicum of respect for these asswipes.
In my uniformed youth I, and like-minded young gents, lashed out at shit that made me anxious. I found that ambushing and killing my adversaries worked fairly well. Zero recurrence from those sources. Zero.
You were saying, you whiny-assed symp-network bitch?
#7
Instead of being indignant, perhaps if they:
1. protested Islamic violence
2. began a process of self criticism
3. monitored themselves actively, bringing to light and shaming those who engage in such behavior
This presumes both a modicum of rationality and at least minor contamination by the notion of Cause & Effect. Not bloody likely with Muslims.
The shaming part involves either the accusor or the accused being declared apostate (i.e., death sentence). This simple fact induces a near monolithic and paralyzing restraint amongst Muslims when it comes to reporting on the jihadis whithin their midst. It is also a major reason why Islam will probably meet with nuclear extinction. Muslims will need to reform or die, no other options apply.
Turkey plans to cut its armed forces by up to 30% in the next few years, the country's top general has said. Gen Yasar Buyukanit, who takes over as military chief later this month, said the army would be smaller but "more modern and effective". Gen Buykanit's comments came in an interview with Turkey's Defence and Aerospace magazine.
Turkey has some 800,000 personnel in its armed forces - the second largest army in Nato after the US. "The land forces will contract by 20% to 30%, spread over the years," Gen Buyukanit said. "The aim is to downsize by increasing the effectiveness of the land forces without reducing its power.
"It will be equipped with modern war mechanisms and equipment and have brigades with high war capabilities."
The cuts are part of an eight-year plan of reforms, Gen Buyukanit said. He is due to take over from Gen Hilmi Ozkok at the end of August. The powerful army regards itself as the guardian of a secular, united, Turkish state. Yasa, yesir...."high war." More with less, reforms transformation, etc. Very Rumsfelian, and the "high war" equipment, undoubtedly Rumsfelian as well.
President Bush said on Thursday a plot foiled by Britain to blow up flights to the United States was a "stark reminder" that the United States is "at war with Islamic fascists."
#3
U.N. Cease Fire Draft: Embargo on Hizbullah But No Disarmament
21:14 Aug 10, '06 / 16 Av 5766
(IsraelNN.com) A revised draft for a United Nations Security Council resolution calls for an embargo on arms for Hizbullah terrorists but does not provide for disarming them, according to an Israeli government source.
The new draft also calls for an effective international force to patrol southern Lebanon. United States State Department Middle East envoy Robert Welch is in Jerusalem and has met with government officials on the revised draft drawn up by France and the United States
#6
Is this the first time he's said it? I heard him on the radio and he was halting, like he knew if he said it he was going to get creamed. But at least he said it.
#9
An effective international force to patrol southern Lebanon, ya say? One is crazier 'n a sh*thouse rat to bite that bait again. Hizb'Allah does not need to be disarmed. It needs to be destroyed, and everyone of its members needs a dirt nap. The UN never protected anybody, gonna bet yer life on the UN? Hopefully this cease fire crap is a stalling tactic to let the IDF get its job done. Though I worry that Omert and Co. believe this cease fire crap. This is the beginning of total war.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006 15:05
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#10
Hopefully this cease fire crap is a stalling tactic Posted by Alaska Paul 2006-08-10 15:05|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
"Cease fire crap"....aka strategic pause. Takes time to low-boy all those D9 Cats and bring them forward.
#11
Thank goodness he has finally identified the enemy. Right after 9/11 every time he would say "war on terror" I would cringe. We are not good at wars that don't have a defined enemy (war on poverty, war on drugs, etc.) Perhaps now we can better focus our efforts. For starters we can stop patting down grandma at the airport. And leave the retarded child in a wheelchair alone. Profile for the enemy please.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 15:22
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#13
Why, oh why, are these incremental escalations in identifying Islamism as being Nazi-like in its pursuit of Global Cultural Genocide taking so ridiculously long? The current administration has a very limited time in which to establish its case with sufficiently convincing terms whereby the American public will comprehend why it is so important to neutralize Iran and continue exterminating terrorists wherever they are found.
If the executive branch could just bring themselves to abandon such misdirectional twaddle as the supposed issues of gay marriage and flag burning they would retain a lot more credibility and moral capital to be used in the truly vital fight against terrorism.
#14
Agree, Zen; but that only shows how out of touch with the mainstream we are. Remember, Kerry almost won.
Bush is in as difficult a position as FDR in 1940. To a certain extent that is due to the government's success in preventing another 9/11. Even today's events will go into the memory hole within a week. And the MSM is out to make him the enemy, not the Islamo-fascists. Bush could talk about this every other day, but the MSM would not cover it and if they did, it would be contemptuously.
#15
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini personally recruited the "Handzar [Scimitar] Division" of the Nazi's Waffen SS.
On Mar. 19, 1942, the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem spoke to the Arab world by Rome radio and said: If, God forbid, America and her allies are victorious in this war . . . then the world will become hell, God forbid. But Allah is too just and merciful to grant such murderous violators any victory.
To a certain extent that is due to the government's success in preventing another 9/11.
How is it possible for the American public to indulge itself in any sort of complacency when the dire threat of something like a nuclear-armed Iran still looms on the horizon?
I realize that typical American trans-oceanic awareness usually extends about as far as Hawaii, but as I mentioned before, this administration should be shouting to the rafters about Iran, its pursuit of atomic weapons and their intimate ties to Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda and international terrorism. The MSM be d@mned, our government has enough other channels outside of primetime news whereby it can bring these issues in front of the American public.
#18
How can Bush says that "this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation", and at the same time, put pressure on Israel to delay its offensive, and plan an awful deal at the UN rewarding the Islamic fascists of the Hezbollah ?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/10/2006 16:04
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#20
How can Bush says that "this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation", and at the same time, put pressure on Israel to delay its offensive, and plan an awful deal at the UN rewarding the Islamic fascists of the Hezbollah ?
#21
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
~ Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
This is what the Looney Liberal Left are accusing the Bush administration of doing. The absolutely do not believe we are in a fight for the survival of our way of life. To them it's just a Rovian Plot. Just look at the comments at DU on the break-up of the recent potential airliner bombers in England. The will not face reality, it scares them too much. They'd rather believe in a fantasy.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/10/2006 16:26
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#22
comin' up on FIVE YEARS since 9/11...and we FINALLY get the CinC to call a spade a spade an Islamic Fascist and Islamic Fascist!
#25
FINALLY get the CinC to call a spade a spade an Islamic Fascist and Islamic Fascist!
oh well...it DOES represent progress!!! *sigh*
Posted by Justrand
* Note to self: Dust off GWB framed picture in family room tonight.
#26
I hope we don't get forced into a civil war as an interlude in world war III.
Bush does need to pound on this everyday and outside the normal MSM channels as well. The entire government and people should be mobilized.
Should be mobilized but we are not.
The Democrat party is complicit with the islamofascists. What you read from DU and KOS is the current leadership position of the Democrat party. According to them there is no conflict or struggle. It's invented out of whole cloth. If we treat them nice they will leave us alone.
What can one do against such ignorance much of it willful?
Bush needs to get his goofy ass together and hammer on this issue every day, over and over with conviction and the government needs to follow suit. The Republican party is failing on this issue, utterly failing by playing the MSM and Democrats games and not their own.
Islamic Fascists are the problem. Wiping them off the face of the earth is the only solution.
#27
Bush needs to get his goofy ass together and hammer on this issue every day, over and over with conviction and the government needs to follow suit. The Republican party is failing on this issue, utterly failing by playing the MSM and Democrats games and not their own.
Islamic Fascists are the problem. Wiping them off the face of the earth is the only solution.
#28
Islamofacism and dealing with it is the number one danger and problem faced by the U.S. The rest of the issues such as flag burning, gay marriage, cut and run, etc. are just sideshows that dilute our efforts in this very dangerous war. We need to match the singularity of purpose of the islamofacists with the same kind of singularity of purpose--that is the destruction of those who are trying to destroy us.
"Many American Muslims, who say they have felt singled out for discrimination since the September 11 attacks, reject the term and say it unfairly links their faith to notions of dictatorship, oppression and racism."
It WAS unfair!! They should have been linked to misogynism too!! And that's just for starters.
#30
The President used the term "Islamofascist" during his October 6, 2005 speech to the National Endowment for Democracy (according to Wikipedia, and I saw and heard the relevant excerpt).
#31
Here is the excerpt of Bush's speech to the National Endowment for Democracy:
The images and experience of September the 11th are unique for Americans. Yet the evil of that morning has reappeared on other days, in other places -- in Mombasa, and Casablanca, and Riyadh, and Jakarta, and Istanbul, and Madrid, and Beslan, and Taba, and Netanya, and Baghdad, and elsewhere. In the past few months, we've seen a new terror offensive with attacks on London, and Sharm el-Sheikh, and a deadly bombing in Bali once again. All these separate images of destruction and suffering that we see on the news can seem like random and isolated acts of madness; innocent men and women and children have died simply because they boarded the wrong train, or worked in the wrong building, or checked into the wrong hotel. Yet while the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane.
Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom. These extremists distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus -- and also against Muslims from other traditions, who they regard as heretics.
This speech was good in many aspects, but is nevertheless truffled with some PC ideas:
These extremists distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus
In fact, the very idea of jihad is the extermination of all non-Muslims.
National Cathedral Speech, President Bush, Sept. 14, 2001
...Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history, but our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.
War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.
This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing.
-----------------------------
I always thought that remark was cryptic. "hour of our choosing." When?
#36
I'm sort of begining to be somewhat concerned about 8-22-06. And I don't really know why.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/10/2006 19:08
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#37
RJB, I'm just sorta gettin concerned. I sure hope that this is Bush the poker player we are seeing here. I'm not seeing the strength we need to take on Iraq and solve it, I'm seeing the administration put the brakes on the Israelis, I'm seeing us cozy up to the French in a big way and I'm seeing (ok, not surprise here), Mike Wallace get on his knees - he actually may have had to do it lying down - wrapping his lips around Dinner Jacket's wiener. What the hell??!! We almost saw about 4,000 people killed. When are we going to get serious and put a stop to this shit.
KCBS' Mike Colgan reported that Muslims say they're worried and offended by President Bush's characterization of those arrested in London's alleged airline terror plot as "Islamic fascists."
"The name of Islam itself is something that is dear to every Muslim because it signifies the peaceful religion itself and whenever someone tries to link the word Islam with something as horrific as the word fascism, it is extremely offensive to all Muslims," Akloush said.
Don't cave on this, GW. No matter how much seething they do, don't cave...
#40
remoteman:
You are not seeing everything. If Ahmadinejad is heard threatening the life of the US President on national television, there will be consequences at the "hour of our choosing." And that clock is ticking.
When was the last time a Buddhist flew an aircraft into a building for his religion?
When was the last time a Hindu hijacked an aircraft for his religion?
When was the last time a Lutheran/Methodist/Baptist/Catholic/Presbyterian slaughtered schoolchildren and their parents to promote their religion?
When was the last time Wiccans exploded a suicide bomb in a crowded market for religious purposes?
When was the last time Shinto worshipers machine-gunned down people from a passing car because it was acceptable to their religion?
When was the last time animists drove a VBIED into a religious gathering because it wasn't THEIR religion?
Only one religion does these things. Only Islam believes killing innocents is acceptable behavior. Islam needs to be treated for what it is - a pathological suicide cult that needs to be restricted to a few sandy wastes. The sooner the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 21:59
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#43
OP - that's profiling
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 22:06
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#44
CAIR will be in contact shortly...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 22:08
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#45
#43: "OP - that's profiling"
Damn straight it is - and we need more of it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 22:19
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New York police reported a major outage of cellular phone service in the borough of Queens on Thursday.
"It's just an FYI. It has nothing to do with anything else. It's not criminal," a police spokesman said.
Two of New York's major airports -- JFK and LaGuardia -- are in the borough of Queens. Airport security was intensified after British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up several aircraft flying between Britain and the United States.
#5
Chuck: it occurs to me that an EA-6B or equivalent could probably do it.
Posted by: Phil ||
08/10/2006 16:53
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#6
Chuck: it occurs to me that an EA-6B or equivalent could probably do it.
They don't call it "The Christmas Tree" for nothing. An old sweetheart of mine used to work at Addington Laboratories before they were gobbled up by Eaton. The EA-6B can illuminate just about every portion of the non-ionizing electromagnetic spectrum you would care to name.
An Ethiopian Army general says he has defected to join the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a rebel group backed by neighbouring Eritrea. Brig Gen Kemal Geltu told the BBC he had crossed the border into Eritrea with more than 100 soldiers.
He said would fight the Ethiopian government because force was the only language it understood. He said his hopes of peace had been dashed after last year's turmoil that followed disputed elections.
Gen Kemal previously commanded Ethiopia's 18th army division. Reliable sources say he was accompanied by a colonel and 150 troops. "It's a big force in hundreds. I don't want to mention the number. It will continue, I can confirm this. There are other soldiers in other areas in big numbers," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme through a translator.
Gen Kemal, who was speaking from Eritrea's capital, Asmara, said his intention was not "to give [military] secrets to the Eritrean government".
Ethiopian television said Gen Kemal had asked for further promotion soon after being promoted to the rank of brigadier general, but after this was rejected in engaged in "divisive activities". "Although his colleagues repeatedly tried to correct the commander from his anti-government and inappropriate activities, the commander was not willing to change," the television report said. But the general said reports that he feared military reforms were "lies, pure lies".
"Our first hope was to bring about a change in Ethiopia to bring about peace and for the peoples to live in equality, including the Oromo people, but the last year's experience is war, not peace. Our hopes were dashed and that's why we went out," he said. "The language they (the Ethiopian government) understand is force and we're going to challenge them by force."
The OLF which was at first a secessionist movement says it is fighting for more rights for the Oromo people in Ethiopia. The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, comprising about half of its 70m people.
Demonstrations after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was re-elected in May 2005 led to a crackdown on many Oromo and other opposition organisations. Ethiopia and Eritrea ended a border war in 2002, but Ethiopia has not withdrawn troops from the town of Badme which arbitrators awarded to Eritrea, and tensions between the two countries remain high.
Three men have been burned to death by vigilantes in the Kabokweni area near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga police said on Thursday.
We have no idea where that is.
Superintendent Benjamin Mtsholi Bhembe said police received an anonymous call early on Wednesday morning that three men had been killed in the area. "We found them lying next to each other with their hands tied behind their backs with wire and rope. It appears they were assaulted before they were burned as there was a lot of blood around them."
Police on the scene found a fridge which had been stolen in July, and a shutter gun 9mm pistol with six live rounds of bullet. The dead men N Frans Maluka, Eric Sambo and Patrick Sigudla - were allegedly linked to criminal activities around the area. They were all under the age of 30.
Police were tracing the people involved and three counts of murder would be investigated someday. "People think the wheels of justice are moving slowly. Justice takes time and we plead with people to not take the law into their own hands," Bhembe said, upon waking from his nap.
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday that he was in good health, and denied suggestions in the Internet-based media that he had left the country at the weekend to seek medical treatment.
State television said Mugabe returned home after a three-day private visit to Malaysia to join his wife, who had accompanied a group of local students to a university there. Zimbabwe Television showed a jovial-looking Mugabe bounding down the steps of a plane at Harare International Airport. Asked to comment on speculation that he was ill, Mugabe said: "Tell them I am dead. I am now a ghost that has come back!"
Couldn't somone have waxed the first step?
He said he was fit enough to box, and was ready to commemorate the dead heroes of Zimbabwe's bloody liberation war next week "in a grand style".
The health of Mugabe, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, has been the subject of constant local and foreign media speculation over the past decade or so. He has dismissed talk that it is failing. Last year Mugabe's spokesperson denied rumours the veteran leader had succumbed to heart failure, describing him as "fit as a teenager".
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is presiding over an economic meltdown critics blame on his misrule, but which he says has resulted from a sabotage campaign by local and foreign opponents of his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for blacks. Thank you Robert. Good news is always so comforting.
Health authorities have recovered scores of aborted female foetuses from a well in northern India, media reported on Thursday. The site was discovered by police in the city of Patiala in Punjab state, which has one of the worst gender ratios in the country, newspapers reported. The well was on a vacant plot next to a clinic run by a husband and wife, who had been illegally involved in abortions for years.
While abortions are not illegal in India, only a limited number of medical institutions are authorised to perform them. The couple charged anywhere from 8 000 rupees to 15 000 rupees ($174 to $326) per abortion, the reports said.
Because the foetuses were so decomposed, investigators were unable to say exactly how many were recovered from the well but estimates ranged from 35 to 100.
The investigators also raided an ultrasound scanning centre that was allegedly carrying out pre-natal sex determination tests and then directing pregnant women carrying girls to the clinic for abortion. Indian doctors are banned by law from carrying out sex-determination tests if female foetuses will be aborted as a result.
But many couples still have such tests and then pay shady operators for abortions if the baby is female. Girls are considered a liability as parents have to put away large sums of money to be paid as dowry at the time of their marriages. Centuries of tradition also demand that couples produce at least one male child to carry on the family name.
With only 798 girls for every thousand boys under the age of six, Punjab has the lowest gender ratio in India, where the average figure is 927 -- still well below the worldwide average of 1 050 female babies. A study by British medical journal the Lancet said this year that India may have lost 10-million unborn girls in the past 20 years, but Indian experts say the figure is not more than five million. Awaiting the sure-to-come femi-nazi outrage.
For anyone who has hoped and believed, as I have, that the British way of integrating Muslim citizens is more promising than the French one, the last year has been discouraging. Following the shock of the July 7 London bombings, perpetrated by young Muslims born and educated here, we now have the results of two recent opinion polls, an excellent TV documentary by Channel 4's Jon Snow, and the sombre warnings of Britain's most senior Muslim policeman. All convey the same message. Not only do many young British Muslims feel more alienated from the country they live in than their parents did - that's true of Muslims from immigrant families right across Europe - but the sense of not belonging seems to be even more acute in Britain than in France.
In a poll conducted for the Channel 4 documentary, only half the British Muslims questioned said they thought of Britain as "my country", whereas nearly a quarter said they thought of it as "their country" - meaning someone else's. The younger respondents were, the greater the alienation. Shockingly, one in three British Muslims aged between 18 and 24 said they would rather live under Sharia law than under British law. In a Pew poll of Muslims worldwide, a gob-smacking 81% of British Muslims said they thought of themselves as a Muslim first and a citizen of their country only second. This is a higher proportion than in Jordan, Egypt or Turkey, and exceeded only by that in Pakistan (87%). By contrast, only 46% of French Muslims said they were Muslims first, compared with 42% who felt themselves first and foremost citizens
#1
Articulate British Muslims, as encountered on Jon Snow's Channel 4 documentary and in magazines such as Q-News and Emel, are not merely telling us non-Muslim Brits a lot about themselves. They are also telling us something about ourselves.
#2
The answer seems pretty clear. The left in France loves France. The left in Britain hates the British. Should we be surprised if that extra level of bile comes out in Muslim opinion polls?
#3
I have no qualms with anyone living as they wish, as long as they don't try to force their way upon the rest of us. Once that happens, we need to beat the heads in of those that want to do the forcing, and either convince them their ideas will not be accepted, or evict them from our nation by force. That applies to the US, to Britain, and to all the world. Either live and let live in peace, or die by the sword. No exceptions allowed, including "religion".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 15:01
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#4
The left in France loves France? Why wasn't I told?
#6
Speaking of the need to beat some heads in... it seems the Belgian government is trying to shut down The Brussels Journal for "internet racism," i.e., criticising Islam. (scroll down to get to the article)
Some people are DAMN determined to be dhimmi.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/10/2006 16:24
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#7
The left in France hates France, exactly as the Left in America hates America.
#8
The left in France loves France? Why wasn't I told?
Okay, perhaps I'm wrong. Would you say the left in France has a more positive image of French culture or British culture? If you answer British my point is still correct.
#10
A lot of Muslim women want the Sharia laws to be imposed, too. Islamist fascism is rooted in the mind of a lot of Muslim women, as it is in the mind of a lot of Muslim men.
In his excellent book "The third Reich from rise to fall", William Shirer describes hordes of German women fanatically applauding nazi speeches.
#12
Is there something about the particular religiosity of Kashmiri, Pakistani and more broadly south Asian Islam, and the way it develops in interraction with a European host culture, as opposed to the Islam of the Maghreb, from which most French Muslims come?
Yes.
ONLY in the Indian subcontinent did islam become preoccupied with the dilema of living among a kafir majority population.
There are numerous fatwas on dealing with the kafir majority culture.
According to one imam who justified the creation of Pakistan, a good muslim suffers takleef when on the way to mosque, he encounters a dirty hindu.
Best to live apart.
The Indian muslim system of handling life among a majority non-muslim population is THE template for muslim communities. Saudis know nothing of this. The Pakistanis know.
Posted by: john ||
08/10/2006 19:19
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#13
90% of British muzzies say their allegiance is to Islam first, not their country. Take them at their word. Make every British citizen of muzzie origin swear an oath of allegiance to the United Kingdom. Deport all non-citizen muzzies and all citizen muzzies who refuse to take the oath. Problem solved, or at least greatly alleviated.
Via AP: "This should serve as the latest, most serious evidence that we are in a war against a brutal enemy that intends to attack us over and over again in the most indiscriminate way." Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. Short and to the point. BTW isn't LaMont a FRENCH name?
The government's decision comes late, very late, but not too late.
Destroying Hizbullah's fighting capacity and missile arsenal remains the objective that Israel must achieve. Clearly, air power alone cannot do so and a major ground offensive is necessary. While this should have been done considerably earlier, it nevertheless should be done today.
Firstly, on the military front, our goal should be victory over Hizbullah, a proxy military force for Iran.
Secondly, on the hasbara (public relations) front, we have to fend off the attacks and vilification of Israel in order to gain time for the military objective.
And thirdly, on the civilian front, the government must immediately declare a state of emergency. This is a war that, for the civilians, is worse than previous wars - longer and more costly in lives and property.
These are the objectives that I will support.
In war, you must achieve your objectives. It is painful, but it will be much more painful for the country - in lives lost, cities paralyzed and security imperiled - if we have to face future rounds because we did not win this one.
#1
I assume this was written before the Cabinet's latest hold-off decision. I also assume Bibi was not apprised of that decision until it was a done deal.
#2
This OPINION was presented under why Olmert (Israel) cannot win. Not my hope but this summation is to the point:
Israeli Bolshevik dictator Ehud Smolmert and his "Defense" Minister Amir Peretz Stalin have made it clear that their goal in the current war is to get an international force to guard Israel's northern border. Smolmert and Peretz Stalin are begging NATO to become the new international force.
This proposal is an unmitigated catastrophe for Israel. A NATO international force will be even worse than the current UN international force on the northern border of the Jewish state.
In 1982, after decades of murderous Arab Muslim Nazi terrorist attacks against northern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) went into Lebanon to crush the PLO and other Islamic terrorist gangs.
However, then as now, Israel tied the hands of her soldiers, ordering them not to fire on Arab Muslim Nazi civilians, even though all of Lebanon's Muslim "civilians" fully support the Islamic terrorists.
The Islamic terrorists were able to massacre over 1,000 Israeli Jewish soldiers, who were ambushed thousands of times by Muslim "civilians."
At the end of the disastrous 1982 Lebanese war, the Israeli army decided to hold on to a buffer zone in southern Lebanon in order to prevent further Muslim terrorist rocket attacks.
From 1982 until 2000, the Israeli army remained in the south Lebanon buffer zone.
But Israel did not expel the local Arab Muslim Nazi population in south Lebanon, and so murderous Islamic terrorist attacks continued to take a heavy toll on Israeli soldiers throughout the 18-year period in which the IDF remained in the buffer zone.
Instead of finally expelling the Arab Muslim "civilian" mass murderers, Israel decided to retreat from the south Lebanon buffer zone in 2000.
In 2000, Israel retreated from south Lebanon in panic. Israeli soldiers were being fired upon by the arrogant Hezballah Muslim terrorists even as the soldiers literally fled to the Israeli border.
Israeli soldiers left behind valuable equipment, weaponry, and religious articles in their desperate and cowardly dash out of southern Lebanon.
The full-scale panic in the 2000 south Lebanon retreat was one of the most shameful moments in Israeli history.
In exchange for Israel's complete retreat, the United Nations agreed to send an international force to the northern border "to keep the peace." The UN force is called UNIFIL.
Hezballah leader Hassan Nasrallah met in April 2002 with a UNIFIL commander - a Pakistani Muslim, by the look of him.
But the UN force did not "keep the peace."
On the contrary, the UN force has consistently helped the Hezballah Muslim terrorists carry out their murderous attacks against Israeli Jews.
A United Nations ambulance was used as a cover by Hamas Muslim terrorists to ship Qassam rockets in the Gaza District (October 2004) - The long object in the surveillance video is a rocket
In October 2000, Hezballah Muslim terrorists drove a UN-marked vehicle up to the border and then ambushed three Israeli soldiers. The soldiers were kidnapped and subsequently tortured to death by the Islamic terrorists.
The UN never complained about the use of its vehicle by Hezballah Muslim terrorists, and it was clear that UN "peacekeeping" soldiers willingly gave the vehicle to Hezballah to carry out the brutal atrocity.
In 2004, Israel filmed Hezballah Muslim murderers loading a Qassam terrorist rocket into the back of a UN ambulance for safe transport.
In the current war, UN "peacekeeping" soldiers openly shield Hezballah Muslim terrorists. Hezballah sets up their Islamic terrorist nests right next to UN positions, and the UN protects them from Israeli retaliation.
The recent killing of four UN soldiers occurred when Hezballah used the UN position to fire missiles into northern Israel. When the Israeli army returned fire, the UN soldiers tried to shield the Hezballah terrorists.
The UN did not complain about Hezballah using their positions to fire missiles into Israel. Instead the UN condemned Israel for defending herself against Hezballah terrorist attacks.
America-hating, Jew-hating UN Secretary General Kof Annan accused Israel of deliberately killing the UN soldiers.
Indeed, even before this incident, Kof Annan always fully supported the Muslim terrorist war to destroy little Israel.
On the very first day of the current war, when Hezballah murdered and kidnapped Israeli soldiers, and started firing hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, Kof Annan accused Israel of engaging in "terror."
After so many nightmarish experiences with international "peacekeeping" forces, one would think that Israel would finally learn her lesson.
But instead, Israel's traitor leaders are proposing making a bad situation even worse.
Smolmert now wants NATO to become the new UN-mandated international force on Israel's northern border.
NATO is infinitely worse than UNIFIL.
UNIFIL has many soldiers from Third World countries who are not very bright, which is better for Israel. It is always better to have enemies who are not bright, and any international force will be an enemy of Israel.
On the other hand, NATO is comprised of soldiers from European and Western countries. Therefore, NATO soldiers are much smarter and much more dangerous for Israel.
There is no difference in terms of the degree of Jew-hatred that exists in NATO and in UNIFIL. Europe hates Israel and the Jewish people just as much as the Third World does.
General Wesley Clark of the U.S. Army, later a Democrat White House hopeful, was supreme NATO commander during the Traitor-in-Chief Bill Clinton's war crimes in the Balkans - A Belgrade television station was bombed on April 23, 1999; on May 7, 1999, an American cluster bomb landed in a residential area, murdering 19 civilians.
Also Israel will be much more reluctant to defend herself if NATO troops are stationed in Lebanon and are shielding the Hezballah Muslim terrorists. Israel foolishly is always afraid of offending the European Nazis.
Moreover, America is deeply involved with NATO. So Israel will not want to do anything that might antagonize America.
NATO decried attacks on mosques but had no problem invading a Serbian church in search of a Bosnian Serb "war criminal" - The invasion took place in April 2004 and resulted in the shooting of an Orthodox priest and his son, both of whom were critically wounded.
This decision to rely on international forces raises the question of why we even need a Jewish state. If Jews can no longer defend themselves, if the Jewish army is no longer the defender of Israeli Jews, then what is the point of having an independent Jewish nation?
Israel came into being in part to defend the Jewish people after the horrors of the Holocaust, when we saw that the "international community" never lifts a finger to save Jewish lives. Now are we going back to the days of depending upon the "good graces" of the Jew-hating world to protect millions of Jews whose lives are in mortal danger?
jtf.or . . .
Talk about your bad timing...
STRASBOURG (AFP) - Europe's leading human rights body has criticised Britain over the conditions in which terrorist suspects are arrested and held. ...or that they're held at all.
Delegations from the Council of Europe's committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading punishment (CPT) made two visits, in July and November 2005, to a number of detention centre including Paddington Green police station in London (CPT) where suspects are often held.
The first visit came a few days after the July 7 bombings on public transport in which 56 people, including the suspected bombers, died.
They heard no complaints of ill-treatment at the station but reported that one person arrested in July 2005 "alleged that when he was arrested on the street, the police officers concerned threw him on the ground and inflicted a number of kicks to his head and body." Examined three days after the arrest he showed signs of bruising and lacerations on the face of body. Other detainees also showed marks of violence.
"The CPT recognises that the arrest of a suspect is often a hazardous task, in particular if the person concerned resists and/or is someone the police have good reason to believe may be armed or dangerous." the CPT report said. Yes, I'm sure plenty of CPT members have taken down suspects on the street before. Or at least it looked dangerous on "Starsky and Hutch"...
"However no more force than is strictly necessary should be used when effecting an arrest. Furthermore, once arrested persons have been brought under control, there can be no justification for their being struck by police officers."
The CPT called for better documentation of the physical conditions of suspects and allegations of mistreatment.
On the holding of suspects the committee reported that "the present conditions at Paddington Green High Security Police Station are not adequate for ... prolonged periods of detention."
The delegations also regretted that suspects did not always appear physically before a judge when police sought an extension of custody.
Inspections were carried out at a number of high security centres and the effects of immigration and terrorism legislation examined, finding that conditions for a disabled detainee were not adequate and that the Full Sutton and Long Lartin jails were prepared to receive detainees.
The British government has published a 23-page response to the two reports. A 23 page response? I could've given them a two word one.
It came from Strasbourg, French Islamic Republic... Shoulda Known
Delegations from the "Council of Europe's committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading punishment"
Blowing up planes people knowing they are going to die if they survived the initial explosion and get ready to hit the ocean at terminal velocity? - That's not degrading?
Am I missing someting?
LOBOTOMIES for everyone in that "committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading punishment" group... They may hurt themselves, otherwise.
INDONESIA has complained to Australia that its travel warning system is harming its economy, deterring new investment and forcing language students to other countries.
Australia promised Indonesia it would review its advisory system but Jakarta could be left sorely disappointed by the outcome, with the Government saying its citizens will always be its top priority.
Jakarta has long been critical of the travel advisory system run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), which warns Australians to think twice about travelling to Indonesia. Indonesia blames it for a significant drop in tourism in the wake of bombings in Bali in 2002 and 2005. It has also been unhappy that Australia has not been so harsh in its warnings for the United States and Britain, which have suffered similar terrorist attacks.
No difference between us and Indonesia in that regards, is there?
Indonesia is hoping that a review Australia agreed to during a ministerial forum in Bali may help address the issue.
Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu again raised the matter during meetings in Canberra today. "The Australian side has promised to review it. We hope that the review process will continue," she said.
However, DFAT indicated that the safety of Australians would always be its top priority. "All travel advisories are kept under constant review," a DFAT spokesman said. "Our primary concern is to ensure the safety and security of Australians."
While economic relations between Australia and Indonesia were seen as a cornerstone of the bilateral relationship, Dr Pangestu indicated the travel advisories could be economically damaging to Indonesia. "The travel warnings affect tourism, ... business travel and most importantly education exchange," Dr Pangestu said. "There needs to be a greater understanding of each others situation, our differences and an understanding of each other's internal processes."
"So some stuff blows up and people die, so what?"
Indonesian businesses have told the government that the warning system is deterring new investment. "On education exchange, it means students who are studying Indonesian, teachers who are teaching Indonesian, (are having problems) with insurance coverage," Dr Pangestu said. "We know that some of them are going to Malaysia."
#4
Australians weren't the targets of terrorism in the US or the UK, whereas the Muslim fanatics in Indonesia wanted to kill Australians. There is a reason why the opposing force in Australian wargames always looks remarkably like Indonesia.
#8
INDONESIA has complained to Australia that its travel warning system is harming its economy, deterring new investment and forcing language students to other countries.
- tap, tap, tap -, nope, nothing there.
Why is it the Islamic world has such a hard time with cause and effect?
"We know that some of them are going to Malaysia."
Out of the frying pan...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 14:29
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#9
Indonesia says Australian travel warnings hurting economy
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair, on holidays in Barbados, praised the enormous of amount of cooperation between Britain and the United States in thwarting an alleged airline bomb plot.
Mr Blair's office issued his remarks, after the Prime Minister received his latest briefing on how London's Metropolitan Police foiled the alleged plot to blow up US-bound flights from Britain. I would like to pay tribute to the immense effort made by the police and security services who for a long period of time have tracked this situation and been involved in an extraordinary amount of hard work, Mr Blair said.
I thank them for the great job they are doing in protecting our country, Blair said, according to the statement. There has been an enormous amount of cooperation with the US authorities which has been of great value and underlines the threat we face and our determination to counter it, he said.
A spokeswoman said Mr Blair had been in constant contact with the Government over the plot. Asked whether there were any plans for him to return to Britain, she said: We're not going to say anything more.
#3
Wrong leroidavid, just plain wrong. The Scots are the weak link and always have been. Get the Scots (Labor) out of power and England will be a much stronger ally. The Act of Union should be repealed.
#4
Hmmm some rambling thoughts,
1) Blair is a Socialist
2) Blair has tried to sow a 'middle way' between Old Labour (nationalisation, tax and spend) and conservatives (free market lite) by creating NULabour (now called Labour), but the leftists in the Labour party have been spoiling his progress all the way through his premiership.
3) Prescott (the Deputy Premier) is a national joke. He is supposed to be in charge of the country while Blair is away, but noone trusts him!
4) Blair has a pact with Gordon Brown (chancellor) that he will give up leadership of the Labour party in favour of Brown 'sometime before the next election' (2009)
6) The leftists in the Labour party are constantly haranguing Blair to go in favour of Brown
7) That will make Brown Prime Minister
8) Brown is old school Labour, a thief of a chancellor, well known for 'stealth taxes' and doesn't really like business
9) There is a real Scots-grouping in the Labour party, and it is really starting to piss off a lot of people in England (where all the money is created)
I don't think Brown will be as pro-US as Blair has been. He's certainly not as charismatic. I would not be surprised to hear of a timetable for an Iraq pullout reasonably soon after he takes power.
The Conservatives are trying to be more centrist than the master-centrist, Blair. Don't rely on them to be in power for a while yet (they need to reconnect with the British people - specifically, they should focus on the English, but they aren't called the 'Conservative and Unionist Party' for nothing - oh well).
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 18:50
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#6
Nimble Spemble, I wanted to say "the British people is weak", not "the English people". My mistake.
Concerning the Scots, I am aware that the Scottish Labor is far-leftist, and that there is a lot of anti-Israel hatred in Scotland. But even Tony Blair recently acknowledged, in his recent Speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council that a lot of British people were turning anti-Israel (and, so, anti-Ameridan too, as it is usually the case).
PASSENGERS and stewards onboard a Qatar Airways plane heading to Qatar from Jordan overpowered an Eritrean passenger who tried to force his way into the cockpit, an airline spokeswoman said. She told Al Jazeera television that the Eritrean man, 21, was carrying a box containing an unknown substance, prompting the captain to return to Jordan immediately after the incident.
It might not have been a hijack attempt ... he might have been psychologically ill...
The captain declared an emergency onboard and landed in Amman, where the passenger was handed over to Jordanian security. Now the plane is about to take off for Doha with the remaining passengers, she said, adding that all the passengers were unharmed.
Earlier, a passenger had described the scene to Al Jazeera. Just after take-off, one of the passengers moved towards the cockpit and, when one of the flight attendants stood in his way, he hit him (the attendant), Samir Samri, said. It might not have been a hijack attempt ... he might have been psychologically ill, he said.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006 13:26
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#4
turns out he wanted to go to the bathroom, and those Qatari flight attendants are REALLY serious about not getting up when the "fasten seat belts" light is on. And Mr Eritrean seemed to think he could appeal to the pilot about his gastrointestinal needs. The substance seems to have been a medicine of some kind - presumably not a laxative.
#5
Exactly what is an Eritrean? Are they Mormons? The area used to be an Italian protectorate I think and part of Ethiopia. Now, whenever the MSM refers to Eritrea, no mention is made towards any religious issues. However, given the violent civil war which resulted in its seperation from what used to be predominantly Coptic Christian Ethiopia, one would have to assume Islam troubles.
Australia's lower house of parliament has passed a controversial bill to process all future asylum seekers arriving by boat in off-shore camps. Three members of the ruling party joined the opposition to vote against the proposal, but it still passed by 78 to 62. The bill now goes to the Senate.
The vote constituted the most serious challenge to the prime minister's authority during his 10 years in power. Critics accuse John Howard was using the bill to heal rifts with Indonesia.
A recent decision to accept about 40 Papuan asylum seekers angered Jakarta, which said that by giving the group refugee visas, the Australians were showing tacit support for Papuan independence. Papua was granted self-rule by its Dutch colonists in 1961, but was then annexed by Indonesia. A low-level insurgency has been going on in the province ever since.
The bill has sparked considerable debate in Australian and led to the biggest parliamentary revolt of Mr Howard's decade in power. During Thursday's parliamentary session, Liberal backbenchers Petro Georgiou, Russell Broadbent and Judi Moylan crossed the floor to vote with Labor against the controversial legislation. Another ruling party lawmaker abstained. But the governing coalition has a comfortable majority in the lower house, so the bill still passed relatively easily.
It faces a more difficult challenge in the Senate, where the government only has a majority of one. One Liberal Party senator, Judith Troeth, has indicated she may oppose the bill, describing speeches by party rebels as "outstanding", Australian radio reported.
The parliamentary debate triggered a clash between opposition party leader Kim Beazley and Liberal lawmaker William Tuckey. Mr Tuckey asked why Labor was keen to "kill off legislation that the Australian people want" and Mr Beazley responded by calling the law a "weak, worthless piece of legislation". He then urged Mr Tuckey to take his "weak, worthless self" off, prompting Mr Tuckey to call him a "big fat so and so".
Under current law, only people who arrive on outlying islands or are intercepted at sea have their claims for Australian asylum processed off-shore. Those arriving on the mainland have their cases handled inside the country, under the Australian legal process.
The new legislation means that all arrivals by boat will be sent off-shore, mainly to the island state of Nauru. Even if their claims for refugee status are accepted, it is unlikely that any of the boat people would be allowed to settle in Australia, the BBC's Phil Mercer says. Basically Howard is using the rift with Indonesia as a cover to stop the "boat people", most of whom are Muslims from countries like Pakistan, and are organised by people smuggling terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. It's a multi Billion dollar industry, or at least it was until Howard put a stop to it.
He has the backing of most Australians, so the opposition will try and concentrate on the "children in detention" aspect of the Islamic invasion.
#2
Indonesia needs to "lose" Papua to the Papua New Guinea (Aussie-supported) government of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. They never should have been allowed to impose their rule by force in the first place. Papua is one of several locations used to export islamonazis to Australia and the Philippines. The "low level insurgency" has claimed the lives of about 40,000 people since 1961.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 15:18
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#3
Oh, those Aussies! - geddin lads!!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 15:37
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#4
Seems to me I recall a famous Island processing point, now closed, something called "Ellis"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/10/2006 19:37
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This is actually getting to be PITIFULL
JERUSALEM Israel will hold back on its new ground offensive in Lebanon until the weekend to give cease-fire efforts another chance, senior officials said Thursday, a day after the government approved a major expansion of the monthlong war. But prospects for a quick cease-fire resolution by the U.N. Security Council were uncertain, with the United States and France still divided over a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
The deeper push into Lebanon was approved Wednesday by Israel's Security Cabinet, but a senior government official said Thursday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to delay the offensive until the weekend. The campaign could begin earlier if Hezbollah launches a major attack on Israel, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the issue with reporters. What like launching hundreds of rockets into Israeli population centers forcing citizens into either bomb shelters or tent cities in the south? Like they did yesterday the day before the day before that the day before that and I got $20 says it will be today too
Cabinet minister Rafi Eitan confirmed the government's decision to wait. "There are diplomatic considerations," he told Israel Radio, when asked about a planned delay. "There is still a chance that an international force will arrive in the area. We have no interest in being in south Lebanon. We have an interest in peace on our borders."
Everyone now together Can't we just give peace a chanceeee lalalalalal give peace a chanceeee lalalala cooombiayaaa cooombiayaaaa give peace a channceee
The government's conduct of the war was coming under growing criticism at home. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported an angry exchange between Defense Minister Amir Peretz and his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz, in the Security Cabinet meeting. When Mofaz criticized plans for the new offensive, Peretz reportedly shot back: "Where were you when Hezbollah built up this array (of weapons)?"
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called during the meeting, officials said, and Olmert told ministers after his half-hour conversation with her that the offensive would be accompanied by a new diplomatic push.
Under the army plan, Israeli forces would move to the Litani River, some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. At the moment, more than 10,000 troops are engaged in house-to-house battles against Hezbollah fighters in a strip less than half that size. Hezbollah headquarters is the Beeka Valley. The Israeli army and leadership of past bygone would have not worried or been discouraged about killing everyone of the Hezbollah soldgiers in a certain area something that is impossible unless scorched earth is approved, but instead would have gone to shame Hezbollah and destroy their forces that were willing to come out and fight. A push to the Litani then a armoured thrust north into the Bekaa and back to the Litani would have shown Hezbollah nothing more than useless people who cant stop the Israeli army but just hide in his mommas house and take pot shots here and their but not stop anything.
Now we got a Hezbollah that will even if disarmed (very doubtfull) will be seen as doing what no other Arab army could do HOLD THE LINE. They will come out proven as the defender of Lebanon protecting the North with their blood in the South. Diplo speak that
Even in the current war zone, Israeli troops have had trouble taking control of towns and villages. Security officials say the guerrillas' bunkers, well equipped with food, weapons and electricity, are a reason for Hezbollah's stamina. During lulls in the fighting, gunmen emerge and set up new ambushes for troops.
The U.N.'s top humanitarian official criticized Israel and Hezbollah for hindering aid agencies' access to trapped civilians in southern Lebanon. "The Hezbollah and the Israelis could give us access in a heartbeat," Jan Egeland said in Geneva. "Then we could help 120,000 people in southern Lebanon. I don't think that any military advantage has been gained in these last days or will be gained in the next few hours." The NYT the other day had photos with caption of the Red Cross helping Hezbollah wounded across a log bridge some caring IV bags that I would imagine came from the Red Cross.
And who would know more about military advantage than General Egeland?
The Israeli government's decision came two days after Lebanon offered to send 15,000 soldiers to patrol the border region, a key Israeli demand intended to prevent future attacks on Israel. The current fighting began when Hezbollah fighters raided Israel July 12, killed three soldiers and captured two others.
In a major shift, Nasrallah said Hezbollah supported an army deployment, after a cease-fire is declared and Israel leaves. Israeli officials remained skeptical of the Lebanese offer and were not convinced Lebanon's army would take concrete action to stop future Hezbollah attacks.
"It is important that the Lebanese army will be accompanied by an international force that will enable it to reach the south in an organized manner, and to leave the place clean of Hezbollah," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said. I dont mean to sound like a fire breather but this whole situation is just very demoralizing. Israel is humiliating US big time. When this is over Iran is going to come out proven as the Muslim Defender that can defeat Israel. Were Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria together failed they will have succeded in holding the line against a Israeli Army. Hezbollahs whole doctrine is that they are the defender of Lebanon the only ones that can hold Israel and so far it is proven fact.
If this ends right now even with a International force that will disarm Hezbollah in the south no one is talking all of Hezbollah disarmed, I bet Lebanon will be fully controlled by Hezbollah and Syrian puppets in a matter of months with the army purged of the weak cedar revolutions and replaced with proven Hezbollah.
A opportunity to shame/cripple/show impotent Hezbollah has been turned into a opportunity now for Hezbollah to do such to Israel
#2
And the radio just quoted Bolton saying there would be a vote on a cease-fire in the UNSC tomorrow. Israel blew it and their tranzis are to blame. Al in all, this was not a good week for the tranzis, between Olmert/Peretz and Lamont. Unfortunately, all of us will have to pay the price for a while.
Link goes to a Youtube video showing 'Green Helmet' guy placing a civilian child in an ambulance. Then, not being satisfied, he goes and gets his helmet, and they pull the girl's body back out of the ambulance and uncover her so that the video can get a better shot.
I've been an avid reader of Rantburg for several years now and have noticed a trend going from informative, insightful, and educated comments to plain and simple crap. Yes, occasionally there are comments under the posts from dependable Rantburgers but allot of them have nothing to do with the articles and are nothing more then lame wise cracks.
Is there any way to reverse this trend and get back to the quality of comments that made Rantburg what it was?
Thanks,
Yosemite Sam
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
08/10/2006
10:23 ||
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#1
The wise cracks are part of the reason I like Rantburg so much, why I've been coming here for three or four years now: the hard news mixed with opinion, extra knowledge, and wit.
However, I do know what you mean - before I took a long lurking spell, I remember all sorts of interesting discussions. I see a few of those, but often the article is far more informative than the things that have been said. Even the number of comments seems to be a fraction of what it once was.
And I miss .com's entertaining takes; whatever happened to him?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/10/2006 10:50
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#2
I agree and miss .com, the uber commentator here for several years.
YS is right. If you have information to add then do so, but there is way too much (self-)ego massaging here these days.
Try to stick to facts, analysis and considered opinion. Some people here can be clever, ironic and funny, but most of us are not that good at it.
#3
I agree about the trend. Part of it is events. I have noticed that the quality of comments declines when little is going on in the world. Participants also change and not beneficially. This is not exclusive to RB, either. Another is the broadening of the articles accepted. Articles are accepted now that would have been booted years ago when the focus was much more narrow. I sense a Ph.D. thesis on the phenomenon of decline in blog comment quality.
#5
Does that mean no more 'Good Morning' articles? Those threads consist of mostly 'lame wisecracks' about towels and stuff...
I do agree that the quality of some of the comments are declining. (and yes, I have made my own contribution to that trend - I will try to do better. :)
On the other paw some of the 'classics' threads have been great stress relievers :). I enjoy some of the better wisecracks - others (even my own) have been plain dumb.
I guess the ultimate judge would be Fred and the moderators.
#6
I'm not one of the oldtimers but even I've been around long enough to miss Dan Darling's comments which had tons of useful information and analysis.
#11
So, now RB is an exclusive club? I had hoped that RB would be receptive of others that have a common interest in current events. If someone makes a comment that is not of your high intellect, maybe you should look at it as a different approach to a streesful subject. Some people deal with stress through humor. When I started reading RB I told myself "here are people of a same mind set that can help me understand and provide insight to the events going on today", but now I feel like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddishack. We will try to not disturb your sense of intellect Judge Smells, and we'll make sure to hold our pinkies up when we drink from our "whine" glasses.
#17
Should I dump page 5? Page 3? The bloid? The Opinion page? I'm open to suggestions.
When I started out, the 'Burg was pretty compact. August 10,2002 we had 14 posts. August 10, 2003 we had 25 posts. The same day in 2004 we had 100 and last year about the same. It's harder to keep up with that number -- even to understand all that's going on. There are more news sources, and there's more going on that the public hears about.
We've lost some best-loved commenters: .com, TGA, Lucky, Not Mike Moore, Mark Espinola, Tom Roberts and others have moved on for one reason or another. Dan's moved on to a new job that keeps him away from blogging. Chuck Simmins, Mike Calderon, Old Patriot, Phil F. and others are occupied with their own blogs and don't comment as much.
Luckily we're a movable feast. When things heat up or we get Instalanched we pick up new readers and commenters, and some stay, with one or two joining the core of the community. AP and Frank G and Pappy and the rest are always here, as are JFM, A5089, phil_b, tw, liberalhawk, and a host of others.
There are times when I get tired, and then my in-line comments are fewer and further between. A lot of times I'll let the picture or the sidebar make the comment for me. All the mods go through periods where they slack off from the 'Burg to enjoy their lives or to concentrate on their jobs.
I'm going to take a couple weeks off myself soon -- I've been five years without a break, and there are times I'm afraid I've run out of things to say. I work 10-hour days tracking the personal effects of the killed and wounded and then I work on the 'Burg when I get home. I want to read a novel, play with the granchild, and go fishing, all things I don't do now.
The comments and the wisecracks go up and down, in quantity and in quality. Some are consistently good, though. You're just not thinking of them when you comment on the occasinal flipness.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006 12:17
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#18
Thanks Fred. In addition to what I said above, I should have said, it's still the best
#19
Fred, the Burg is great just the way it is; I wouldn't change a thing. Thanks for all you do.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/10/2006 12:22
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#20
Don't change nuthin' Fred. Take a break.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/10/2006 12:24
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#21
Sometimes I feel compelled to snark just to show I'm there.
anyway . THANK YOU FRED !
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/10/2006 12:28
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#22
Fred, you take your vacation - if anyone deserves it, it's you.
I think this sort of thing is cyclical - and does have something to do with the events that can be commented on, and the personal lives of the "regular" commenters. So please don't change a thing.
I do miss .com and TGA, especially. If y'all are lurking, please give us a sign you're OK.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 12:30
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#23
It's the middle of the summer, too...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
08/10/2006 12:59
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#24
So, now RB is an exclusive club? I had hoped that RB would be receptive of others that have a common interest in current events. If someone makes a comment that is not of your high intellect, maybe you should look at it as a different approach to a streesful subject. Some people deal with stress through humor. When I started reading RB I told myself "here are people of a same mind set that can help me understand and provide insight to the events going on today", but now I feel like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddishack. We will try to not disturb your sense of intellect Judge Smells, and we'll make sure to hold our pinkies up when we drink from our "whine" glasses.
Hey, I don't think that's the problem at all. It isn't the humor, and it doesn't have anything to do with anybody being a snob. It's more that in the past many articles had a lot of people making jokes and adding in useful commentary: we had computer techs, engineers, housewives, pilots, lawyers, etc., and they all had their own take and information to share, which made combing through the comments as much of a learning experience as a couple of minutes on Wikipedia. There just seems to be less of that lately.
The reason you said you came here is, as I previously noted, one of the reasons I keep coming back. Smart-ass humor has, for several years, been one of Rantburg's coolest features, and I for one hope it sticks around. You should, too, because your initial impression was probably fairly accurate. And it's still possible - look at the discussion this article has prompted!
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/10/2006 13:10
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#25
Here ya go, Yosemite..
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Marcus Aurelius
#26
Fred, we appreciate all you do here, even if we don't always say it out loud. If you wnat to take some time off, please do; the Army of Steves are certainly equal to the task of covering for you.
Sam, I'm not sure there's been any overall decline in the quality of the conversation. Some threads just kinda lay there and don't do much, some get trollificated or suffer from topic drift, and some really rock (like this one). Sometimes the snark and smartassery add to the experience; other times not.
The 'Burg is still one of my favorite hangouts--small enough to feel like a close-knit family; big enough to contain an impressive breadth of expertise and experience; enough bad attitude to delaminate and neuter a DU troll at thirty paces, but with a big enough heart to take care of our own and the sense of humorto not take ourselvestoo seriously. The best mix of geopolitical analysis and vintage pinups the world will ever see.
I noticed that TGA dropped off the radar about the time that Angela Merkel came to power, and I just kind of assumed he had an official position in the new government. Anyone know different?
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006 13:24
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#27
I think Fred's words sum the situation up quite well YS. The 'burg has grown much bigger over the last few years, example;
today: rants 80, comments 356 (and the day is not over yet), whereas three years ago it was 25 rants and 111 comments. There has also been a big turnover in regular commenters, but that's to be expected, people want to move on and we don't want to get stale!
These are troubling times, and some of us are just trying to make sense of a world that seems to have gone mad. You look at the MSM and think "that's not right, surely", and then you find a place like this, where people with exceptional knowledge spare the time to frame a complex situation, which on the MSM is given a paragraph or 15 seconds of tube-time, in a way that allows ordinary folk to make sense of it, and that helps immensely. I think it's hardly surprising that when you do find a resource like the 'burg, it's entirely likely new posters will react with a "me too! - I agree with that" post to try and get some of the spleen vented. I know when I started posting here it helped me - a lot.
And I totally echo the calls for Fred to have a vacation!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 13:25
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#28
I have been around a long time and I love this site it is the first thing I read when I get up in the morning and the last before I go to bed. Thanks Fred keep up the good work.
#30
The insightful comments are still around, just not as much at the moment. Like somebody said, I think it's tied to events in the world. We seem to be in a lull at the moment (the non-full strength cleaning operation still counts as a lull in my eyes, they need to get serious and get on with it).
When events spike back up so will the insightful comments. Mixed in with snark, though. Just as Gawd intended. :)
Fred, take that vacation! The mods will keep this lot in line. :)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/10/2006 13:29
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#31
the non-full strength Israeli cleaning operation
Preview is my friend, preview is my friend, preview is my friend...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/10/2006 13:31
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#32
Mike,
Those are some excellent finds from the archives!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 13:36
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#33
I'd also add that anonymous2u, #12 comment is particularly insightful.
To my mind, there's a horrible sense of inevitability as we watch events unfold. 11A5S posted yesterday that Wretchard's Golden Moment may well have passed, and the final comment in that thread from OP should be enough to give anyone the willies. In short, it may well be the calm before the storm...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 13:56
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#34
I thought .com had switched aliases (as I, for one, have)?
I remember wishing years ago that there would ALSO be a Rantburg for more peripherally WOT stuff. Now there is, which is good -- though more work for Fred et al. (thanks Fred!). I don't think the main product is getting too diluted however.
#36
I agree with all the above about Fred taking a well deserved vacation. I've been here long enough (with more frequent hiatuses than Fred) to recognize it's basically due to turnover. By that I mean, .com/TGA/et al have moved on to greener pastures. While I do miss the days of .com ripping the trolls a new one, I come here more for the technical insight, the logical thinking, and most of all, links to news that I know in my heart is going on, but the MSM hides it from us. I sum it up this way...I used to surf multiple news sites daily (newsmax, worldnetdaily, boortz, rush, hannity, opinionjournal, michelle malkin, ann coulter, etc.), but now I can get the "headlines" from ALL of those sites (plus international sites) that are related to the WoT all in one spot, with snark, smart-assedry and female pics in one site. Sorry to be so long winded, but I've learned to cut down on which articles to read, and RB has truly opened my eyes to the interconnectedness of the Islamo-fascist movement with the Int'l news links too. An unbelievable resource. thanks, Fred and mods for all you do!
Posted by: BA ||
08/10/2006 14:23
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#37
I found Rantburg late. I've made a few contributions, but mostly, I've found people of like mind. I have become aware of the writing on the walls. I know what to expect from my fellow man. I am frustrated, I am depressed, I am aware of what lies ahead, I am ready to face it. There is nothing left to say. The field has been frammed, the only thing left is the battle itself.
As I wait, sometimes I'll read or laugh or cry or curse. None of that matters.
#38
I've been lurking or posting or both since about February 2003, and I think the board is as good or better than ever -- which is to say, it's the best site of its kind on the web. I do miss .com, TGA etc., but other people have picked up the slack. Tony, for example, has really been on a roll, and Dave D. is the god of my idolatry. And the resource value of the site has increased as a result of Fred's tireless efforts.
What I most appreciate is the humor (Belmont Club is consistently insightful, but it's not exactly a barrel of laughs) and the near-absolute lack of pretentiousness: comments get cheered or jeered on their merits and with no respect for the asserted expertise of the commenter. (MSM comments, in contrast, are frequently mere bombast preceded by a recitation that the commenter was the second assistant secretary to our embassy in Botswana during the Clinton administration.)
I've also had the chance to meet some of the regulars in person, and they make me proud to be an American.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/10/2006 14:45
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#39
Damn. I thought a lack of recent Hyper schlocommentary would have raised the "Comments" IQ sufficiently...
Regardless of the level Snarkism vs Informed .Commentary, Rantburg is still the greatest clearing house of WoT information I've found.
#40
I may not be able achieve such standards. It my inate dumbing down characteristic. Some say it is a familt trait. I will try to limit my snarky comments and provide pithy (not pissy), insightful, erudite editorial comments--however, this is difficult for underachievers in our family.
#41
Well, hell--I just gave up drinking and posting--what more do you want from me?!
Seriously, I've been visiting Rantburg regularly for over 3 years now, and I've noticed as well we get periods where comments and posts get rather lame (and I admittedly contribute some of that!). I think it's just the price to pay as long as Rantburg's audience grows, and of course there are times that the news isn't so dramatic and we get a lot of "filler".
Fortunately we're not as big as LGF and we still have some sense of community and regulars! I hope that many of the more savvy commenters we've had are still lurking though and will give us their insights when they are so motivated.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/10/2006 15:45
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#42
I can't imagine keeping tabs on the GWOT without Rantburg. It is an indispensible resource. Nothing else on the net comes close to the breadth of coverage and depth of insight. Oh, and humor too!
Sure, the quality of comments waxes and wanes, and some of the best posters have gone by the wayside, but these are natural cycles. I've one thing to say on the topic: most places I go I'm usually the one with the penetrating insights and profound observations. At Rantburg, I generally don't have much to add that hasn't already been said earlier and better.
Thank you moderators for the great work. Fred, have a great vacation when you can. (Maybe sneak in a few days before the 22nd.)
#45
Fred, I'm still around, I'm just not commenting _as much_ either here or on my 'blog because I've been busy with work and had some bad health problems earlier this year. Things are slowly getting better, and I HOPE things will start getting caught up when I get the new CNC mill in here.
If we _are_ going to discuss The Grand Future Direction of Rantburg, I do have a question: Will you be doing something kinda-sorta like an RSS feed soon (or again? I think you'd worked on something like that earlier?)
Alternatively, could there be something like "the bloid" tied up into a single image file with a persistent image url pointing towards the current one?
So that we could put something like
(img src="http://rantburg.com/todaysbloid.png") in our sidebars?
When I get more free time again (hahahaha!) I want to experiment more with aggregator-type stuff.
And I gotta run, I need to track down some material that was supposed to be here already.
Posted by: Phil ||
08/10/2006 16:32
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#46
I don't comment as often as I used to, mostly because I don't have anything to say I haven't already said. If I come up with something new, I say it, otherwise I sit here and read, read, read. That includes the "snarky" comments. I do pass over some of the articles because they're duplicates (from different sources, usually), and some of the comments, because they AREN'T worth reading. I do agree that Rantburg is the BEST site on the web, and the first place I go to every day.
Fred, if you come to Colorado, I'll take you fishing. I know a few good spots. It's been a lot cooler here than it has been in the DC area. We all appreciate both the job you do for a living and the one you do with Rantburg. God bless you and keep you strong!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 16:33
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#47
Y-Sam, perhaps you have the wrong website.
Rant: a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion
Personally, I find the long-winded comments something I don't spend much time on because reading off the computer is less enjoyable than skimming over some words.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/10/2006 16:34
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#48
Oh, One More Thing:
("Our two main weapons are fear, suprise, and an almost fanatical devotion... maybe I should come in again?")
OK, seriously, maybe the main reason there hasn't been the sort of quality analysis Yosemite Sam wants is that there hasn't been much movement in the strategic situation of late?
Things could change a lot tomorrow, or maybe even later today, but we're still following a "slow and steady" attrition-style counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, and despite all the news headlines, the Israelis aren't exactly fighting All-Out Total War in Lebanon. Hizbollah has launched a lot of rockets, but they haven't accomplished much with them, at least compared to what those same rockets could do with western or even modern ex-soviet command and control guiding them.
We're in what basically amounts to the "sitzkreig" phase of WW2. When we look back from the future we'll probably wish we'd done things differently, or maybe not. All we can do is muddle through now with imperfect vision. But given the path the US has chosen much of the victories we accomplish today, if we do, are only going to be obvious in hindsight many years from now, if at all. Or they're going to be classified. Or some combination of the two.
Now there was some good news today. In fact, some excellent news. A major terrorist plot was foiled in Britian. Doesn't mean there won't be successful ones in the future, but I believe the failure of this one to be a good sign.
Posted by: Phil ||
08/10/2006 16:47
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#49
At Rantburg, I generally don't have much to add that hasn't already been said earlier and better.
I'll dissent from that CL. Your comments are excellent.
#50
I promise to resist any dumbing down of my comments, even if it makes me all the more abrasive. This place has way too much vital information to be fettered with PC or "sensitivity" related constraints. Now as to the occasional humorous anti-Islamist filked song, you'll have to pry those out of my cold dead hard drive.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 16:58
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#52
I should also add that Rantburg is the first place I go to in the morning and almost always the last place I go to at night. It's a terrific resource and I've learnt a shedload here from experts in many fields.
Thanks heaps for the site Fred, it is greatly appreciated!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 17:03
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#53
I, for one, applaud the Dumbing Down of Rantburg. I had a hard time understanding stuff back then. Now I don't.
#54
And don't forget, we also have Rantburg Junior as a backup in case of Atomic Attack. It is the email equivalent of a party line composed of tin can telephones.
As far as .com (PD) goes, no joy there. We have emailed and faxed him. He has gone completely off the radar screen, as far as we can tell. No other details, sad to say.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006 17:12
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#55
Rantburg is a good information blog. The articles and links are usually well selected.
#56
Suggestion: Allow one funny off topic post per day. Even if there were few comments on the "Giant Crab" post, I bet a high percentage opened that page. And AOL should be trashed at least once per month.
#57
I don't understand the title's premise...Fred does a great job along with the mods to produce a top-quality product, even in the face of my best efforts to drag it down to my level. Hey....wait a minute...damn :-(
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 18:58
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#58
Rantburg's the last thing I read before I start my day, figure it'll put me in the right mood to deal w/disgruntled employees and managers... Glad I wandered by many moons ago and never left!
#59
I've been a reader and lurker for many years and only recently started posting. And I miss several of the mentioned departed posters.
RB is without doubt the best news aggregator on the 'net for WoT stuff - these news bits warrant serious "rant".
But it also has a lot of posts regarding other issues and philosophy - as well as just plain weird and humorous stories.
It's the latter, IMO that evokes some of the snarkiness and perhaps dumbness.
If my own posts are part of what is considered the "dumbing down", then all I can say is that there was no intent to offend, and that some of the guys/gals here are just plain smarter and more informed than me.
I do the best I can.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/10/2006 19:27
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#60
LOL Dreadnought!!
I don't have a problem with funny posts, most of the Crossfire Gazette ones are hilarious, as long as the main focus is the WoT, or will it be renamed WoI - War on Islamofascism?
One concern I have is for the mods. and whether they have the time for the quantity of posts that flow through the 'burg.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 19:32
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#61
No way no mo uro - there's been several comments of yours recently that I've found very informative.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 19:37
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#62
I've been completely incommunicado in Hospital Hell for some time - got home today.
First thing I did: Read Rantburg. Not even eating real non-hospital food came close. I'll order a pizza with extra sausage - later.
I love Rantburg. It's that simple. I missed it more than anything else, and that's one helluva long list. Hooked for life.
#63
Rantburg is my favorite spot on the web. I can't tell you how much I learn here every single day. Fred, what you do is simply outstanding and is an incredible resource for anyone with an open mind willing to learn.
I've read many positive kudos for various posters in this thread, all well deserved. I'd like to add that Trailing Wife writes some of the clearest, most incisive comments I've read anywhere. Truly impressive stuff. Thanks to you all. I think we are going to need one another a whole lot more in the future.
#64
Much love to all my Rantburg homies, both posting and lurking. It's a privilege to spend time with all of you. I think we will need each other *that much more* in the coming months/years...the road ahead looks rocky indeed, and possibly mined. Everyone go read some Homer or Shakespeare, 'k? Go listen to a symphony, or spend some time with the works of Vincent Van Gogh. We *must* bear witness to the goodness, the greatness, of our heritage and our legacy. We can't let the darkness overtake us.
#70
Do not underestimate the effort that goes into a good lame wisecrack. My lame wisecrack production process is as follows:
1) First draft of lame wisecrack.
2) Review of lame wisecrack by lame editorial committee.
3) Analysis of lame wisecrack by lame wisecrack Artificial Intelligence engine to compute Lameness Coefficient. Insufficiently lame wisecracks are rejected at this point.
4) Speelling error insertion.
5) Error grammatical insertion.
6) Final review by senior editorial committee.
7) Comment typed into Rantburg by my pet ferret.
8) Posting for enjoyment by RB readers throughout the civilized world.
9) Post posting analysis and continuous process improvement.
#71
RD :) I missed ya, bro. I have this frickin' huge shiny new zipper running from my navel to my sternum, LOL. And several other "randomly placed" holes, as well, LOL. Bastards love their scalpels and toys. I guess I'm now a work of art... My Doc would bring others by to show off his carving skills - no shit. Sent me home with a pile of expensive pain killer dope, which I won't take - and told them ahead of time, the pricks. Wasted $.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 21:40
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#73
Its this war on terror thing, these Muslims fellows just don't seem to be actling like the reasonable chaps we beleive them to be; they refuse to take a holiday, no matter how much we try to be diplomatic with them and talk them into taking some time off. Quite puzzling.
(Still around, but work has been eating my life - very little brain or time left for posting - and when one is tired one is seldom funny. Short staffed - half our people are reservists or guard, so about 1/4 the office seem to be prepping for, recovering from, or out on, a deployment. Thigs are easing a bit now, so I hope to get back to posting and being snarky and informative)
#76
Dumbed down? I don't see it. And I've been here for awhile. I've seen dumb people here occasionally, but they aren't here for long. Or they don't stay dumb for long. On the contrary, most of the folks here are a helluva lot more aware of what's happening in the world then a majority of the population, probably a vast majority. I've read folks here that have written dissertations on a subject and other folks that can sum it up in one line on every subject from the Grand Jirga to lesbian supermodel bounty hunter movies that can crack you up, make you cry or make you want to learn more about a certain subject . It's a microcosm of modern day life here. They oughta put it in a time capsule for fity years down the road. And we owe it all to Fred.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006 22:04
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#78
I don't comment as much because there is so much TO Rantburg now: In recent days, it's been the ONLY blog I've visited.
Keep up the good work, fred, and enjoy that vacation. In fact, if I were you, I'd take up OP's offer: a worthy man who sounds competent, both with regard to work and to relaxation.
#80
YS, I have to disagree. Rantburg simply reflects a broad spectrum of commentary. Just as there are the less educated and less informed in the general public, so it is here -- of course, to a much lesser extent because an interest in the body politic and world events is a given for Rantburgers.
Personally, I enjoy the smart ass remarks and third rate wisecracks intermingled with the more serious and informed pieces. I can't count how many times I've laughed my ass off as I seriously read through a thread and suddenly come upon a smart alek remark. And, I'm not averse to offering a few myself.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 23:07
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#83
Let's just blame Frank G in post #57 for Yose Sam's observation of plain and (funnier than hell)simple crap (for not reading the iron clad DMFD formula of success in post #70) and my mia culpa of lurking without a license. Best site on the net. Take a vacation, recharge the batteries, Fred. Be back before 8/22... :)
EFL The creators of The Muppets and Sesame Street are staging a puppet show that is strictly for adults only. Miss Piggy would blush over the antics in "Jim Henson's Puppet Improv" which spearheads a renaissance of puppet shows for grown-ups at this year's Edinburgh Fringe arts festival.
Every afternoon at the Fringe, an anarchic troupe of puppeteers led by the late Jim Henson's son Brian do an improvisational show for kids. Every evening the air turns blue as the show takes off into surreal flights of fancy dictated by the audience.
"It is lovely to do a show where you can go wherever your brain takes you," said Henson, after that night's audience asked the puppeteers to play half a dozen hot dog puppets auditioning to be Ricky Martin's backup singers.
Henson, who has performed the improvisation show in Aspen and Hollywood, would like to develop it into a TV show. Two other projects he is working on are also just for adults. Henson applauded the success on stage in New York and London of "Avenue Q" and the hit movie "Team America:World Police" which satirizes President George W. Bush's "war on terror." Yes, that's all the movie satirizes, Dumya Hitlerburton and his islamophobic genocide against the religion of peace and fluffy bunnies.
"Avenue Q was very, very clever. They are specifically parodying Sesame Street with an adult twist. Team America is a more unique choice as they decided to do it with marionettes." Anyone else reminded of the puppeteering-related scenes in Being John Malkovich?
#1
Perhaps her religion of Body Modification should open up their own hospital.
I'd be curious if St Mary's has issues with Satanic symbols or hiring Druids and such. It would seem that a Catholic Hospital would sort of expect to project an image compatible with the Catholic religion.
#7
I'm thinking of starting the 'Church of Imbibing of Alcoholic Bevervages'. Anyone else want to be in the congregation? Beer and pretzels for communion!
The lesson of the Reuters photo fakery scandal is nothing any hapless once-bitten carnival mark couldnt have warned them about.
Discredited photographer Adnan Hajj was employing the oldest and worst-kept secret in any con artists bag of tricks: People will see what they want to see. They will believe what they want to believe.
Hajj used Adobe Photoshop to make smoke from an Israeli airstrike on Beirut bigger. He did it in very clumsy, obvious fashion ... like something youd see on a stage set that is stylized and intended to be suggestive of more smoke. Maybe he did it just to make his photo more dramatic. Maybe, as a number of bloggers whove scrutinized his work suggest, he did it for ideological reasons, to denigrate the hated Israelis and give heroic Jew-killing Hezbollah a boost.
Photo editors need big drama, wreckage, emotional faces, things that will carry a sense of urgency and attract the eye of readers. Freelancers like Hajj are paid per picture, and need money. Those factors may explain why, as noted by bloggers such as www.freedomszone.com, www.littlegreenfootballs.com, www.hotair.com, www.riehlworldview.com, photos of the same easily identifiable Lebanese wreckage were posted by Reuters and the Associated Press weeks apart, sometimes with the same people in them, with no suggestion that it was anything but new wreckage. It would explain why Hajjs photos of a bridge strike showed the same individuals running in one direction, then in the other, with great urgency, but with greatly divergent damage in frames of the same area, and no smoke, though an airstrike is said to have just occured. Hajj and others may have figured out how to chisel more money out of the gullible western news agencies. Perhaps with the side benefit of adding to global outrage over the suffering of the Lebanese people.
Hezbollah also knows that people see what they want to see. That would explain why, as these blogs and others have pointed out, different news photographers who arrived at Qana hours apart, have similar photos of the same bodies being carried out of the wreckage and loaded onto ambulances. Photos of the dead are important. People around the world need to know about the realities of war, no matter how they feel about the justification of a particular war. In America, police, medics and firefighters usually shield the dead from the view of news cameras whenever possible. But it would appear that Hezbollah, or worse, Lebanese rescue workers, decided the best use of a dead child was to be dragged around for propaganda purposes.
Now the bloggers have noted that several New York Times photos appear to show the same man walking into some wreckage who is later shown as a bombing victim being carried out. The bloggers were drawn to this because they noticed that, unlike anyone and anything that has been subjected to an urban bombing, the "body" was clean. It wasnt covered with dust ... except on the hands, where the "victim" may have been rumaging around in the rubble. Thats when the facial similarity with the perfectly healthy, similarly shirtless man was noticed.
Rank or perhaps willful ignorance of the realities of warfare is also demonstrated by photos such as a car allegedly hit by an Israeli airstrike that looks like its been in a bad fender bender, with no sign of the kind of blast damage a car hit by a missile or bomb would have sustained. Youd think after handling three years of war photos out of Iraq, not to mention the many wars of preceding decades, photo editors might be more conversant with the particulars of the subject.
The question is, why would photo editors who presumeably are looking at a chronological series of photos from any given scene, fall for tricks that have been uncovered by amateurs? Because people see what they want to see. Magicians and scammers have known this since the time of the pharoahs. Psychological studies have confirmed it is true.
In Lebanon, where Hezbollah has made widespread use of human shields, firing missiles on Israel from positions dug in next to UN observer posts and within inhabited villages, what the international press has wanted to see and has reported is evidence of Israeli war crimes. Until now, Hezbollah and photographers like Hajj have been able to ensure that they will.
Everyone in the news business gets taken for a ride sooner or later. Its an occupational hazard. What is surprising is the scale of it in Lebanon. And what is tragic about this is, as a Boston Herald photo editor noted, editors everywhere can no longer trust the pictures from Lebanon. The public cannot know what is staged and what is real. They cannot know the true scope of the devastation that Hezbollahs aggression against Israel and its cynical tactics have brought on the Lebanese people. The con artists have shafted themselves and their own people with their cheap tricks.
Uzbek authorities said Thursday they arrested two Kazakh citizens who possessed extremist literature of a banned Islamic group. The Uzbek Customs Committee said on a government-run Web site that the two had been traveling on a train in western Uzbekistan and had books, magazines and leaflets propagating ideas of the banned radical group Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The committee said they also had DVDs in Arabic, Uzbek and Kazakh that contained extremist propaganda.
"They're nuts, Jim"
"Have to keep the Sheep Afraid."
"What "plot"? Has Jerkoff provided any evidence of the plot? Or would that jeopardize "security" and "embolden the terrorists."
"Yeah...it's sad, but my first reaction is "it's a sham" I mean...they could have legitimate concerns for my wife's legitimate safety (she's taking off out of Hartsfield-Jackson literally as we speak), but my gut reaction is that it's all a PR attempt to prop up the chimp's numbers"
"It is reminding me of V for Vendetta, the TV station blasting all of the terra alerts over and over."
"a thought here....all the carry ons..add weight to a flight ..more weight.. more fuel consumed..now with BP oil shut down..could Blair being holding back fuel for the british airlines..and US carriers..in preperation for a air strike on Iran? i believe Blair shut down the oil fields of BP to reserve oil..in case of a oil shortage in the event of air strikes on Iran! think about it..its a self imposed reserve of oil..."
"Exactly, Why NOW Why is this major disruption being discussed NOW. What else is going on? This sounds lke another Bush diversion tactic...Get the media to discuss terror, because there is something else that they don't want us discussing. Bait & Switch technique."
"its needed to keep the Lamont win out of the headlines. otherwise, all we would hear about today is how Lamont swept the floor with Lieberman's butt. Cant have good headlines for Dems. Rove plan A."
"Terror alert increases in summer in an election year...Okay, let's check and see who won the "When will the government start using the terror rainbow to scare people into voting Republican?" office pool...I don't doubt the attack attempt was real, BTW. I do wonder if they pulled a Zarquawi on the public, where they could have stopped the plot earlier but let it develop until foiling it would occur at a politically-favorable time."
"9/11 was an inside job... anyone who believes the next will be any more legit is kinda livin in la la land. As was said above: terrah, terrah, terrah.....be very afraid. Humans are really pathetic. And Amerika has a greater proportion of sheeple (fat, lazy, TV addicted, uncritical sheeple) than any other locale on earth."
"Why NOW? We know why...This Terror Alert is totally necessary... coz freaking Leibermann lost his senatorial bid..... and The Left Wing candidate got a toe in the door. Every time there's a criticizm of the Bush Embargo on Freedom, every times there's an election that might change the writing on the wall... they haul out another sinister 'plot.' Every time.... it's been ages since they had to play the "Color Alert" on us.. but now... when its obvious to the rest of the world that the Emperor and all his courtiers have no clothes (metaphorically speaking)... they trump us again. When I heard this, I was livid! Why in LOndon? Well, don't we all agree that Tony Blair is bush's bitch..? What's next? I have had it."
"Very Well Timed Indeed At dinner last night, I was commenting that there would be an elevated terror alert soon. Elections are coming. A BIG primary just happened and BushCo needs cover. My BULLSHIT detector is going off. WAY OFF.
Naturally, the media will spin this for Boosh. How awesome would it be if his poll numbers went DOWN as a result of this?"
Now excuse me. I have to wipe my hard drive and go shower.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
09:38 ||
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#1
Cheese. Called that one, didn't I?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006 10:39
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#2
Thank God I'm no longer a Democrat.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/10/2006 10:52
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#3
I sometimes think DU is the lefty version of The Dozens, with one nutbag trying to come up with an even more bizarre theory then the previous loon who is then tried to be topped by the next one. I think there's a secret panel of judges and they award swell prizes...
#4
I love the comparison to V for Vendetta in there. V for Vendetta was an idiot directors attack on Bush so using it as an example of Bush's evils is just naval gazing to infinity.
#5
What amazes me is I never been to DU or Daily KOS I just listen to you guys and wonder if it just some machine that pushes this out whenever sometning about terror comes up.
#6
djohn66, you should go there - just once though.
The mindset that some of those people have is surreal.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 15:01
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TOny, it will remain surreal until the dear members of the ROP drag the DU/KOS kids from their beds and put a bullet in their heads. I think even then that they will believe it is Bush's storm troopers doing the draggin/shootin.
Militant groups fighting for independence for the Muslim-majority southern provinces have not ruled out the possibility of spreading insurgency to capital Bangkok and tourist heaven Phuket. The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) told the Nation daily that such a move would be possible if the government continued with their oppressive tactics against the local community who were mostly Malay-speaking.
Pulo's foreign affairs chief Kasturi Mahkuta told the paper from an undisclosed location in Sweden that it was not entirely out of the question that any of the "Malay liberation groups" could be thinking about hitting targets outside the region. Kasturi said Pulo had a significant number of officials and armed troops in southern Thailand but declined to go into detail or take credit for any of the attacks in the region.
"This is something we won't confirm or deny. I can't go into specifics," said Kasturi when asked which major attacks or incidents Pulo was involved. Pulo emerged in the 1970s during the armed struggle by ethnic Malays in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat seeking independence from Thailand.
Peace was restored in the last decade but more than 1,300 people had died since separatists launched a campaign of bombings and shootings in January, 2004. But despite that, Kasturi told the paper that Pulo was willing to enter into talks with the government to discuss "solutions other than a total breakaway".
He said Pulo leadership was concerned with the violence in the region and the high number of casualties, adding that there was tendency to blame all the attacks on Malay liberation groups. Security agencies have said that several new anti-Bangkok groups have emerged in the south and largely to be blamed for the violence.
Kasturi said Pulo had a significant number of officials and armed troops in southern Thailand but declined to go into detail or take credit for any of the attacks in the region.
"This is something we won't confirm or deny. I can't go into specifics," said Kasturi when asked which major attacks or incidents Pulo was involved.
Am I the only one that thinks this guy's full of shit?
I'll bet the freedom fighter personae impresses the hell out of Swedish babes. Probably beats the hell outta "dishwasher in a Thai restaurant".
"In October 1966 Company D, 1st Special Forces Group [Airborne], 1st Special Forces, which was organized 15 April 1966 at Fort Bragg, arrived in Thailand. The 46th Special Forces Company, 1st Special Forces was activated 15 April 1967 in Thailand using assets of Company D, 1st Special Forces Group. In 1968 the 46th Special Forces Company was headquartered at Camp Pawai near Lopburi and had three subordinate B-Detachments at Sakon Nakhon, at Camp Nong Takoo (Pak Chong) and at Ban Kachon. On March 31 1972 its assets were used to form HHD, 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group [Airborne], 1st Special Forces. However for security reasons it was known locally simply as U.S. Army Special Forces, Thailand." Other A-Detachments were located for various periods during the war at: Camp Carrow (Trang), Chonburi, Kokethiem, Saraburi, Ratburi, Fort Narai (Lopburi), Kanchanaburi, Hua Hin, Bangkok, Udorn, Ubon, Nakhon Phanom, Mai Rem, Songkhia, Pranburi, Phitsanulok, Nam Phong. Chieng Kham, Ban Nong Saeng, Ban Haui Khu, Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Nan, Ban Haui Sai Tai, Muang Loi and Samae San.
#4
I'm sure an attack on Phuket, Bangkok, Pattia Beach, Chang Mai, or any of the other resort areas in Thailand would not be in the best interest of any muslims living in Thailand. It might even rile a few of the locals to get downright NASTY, especially if it were Japanese, American, or Australian tourists that were injured. I'm sure some of the N'ong or Hmong tribesmen that fled Laos for Thailand would be willing to lend a hand, which would NOT be pleasant for the malays in south Thailand.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 16:02
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MANILA, Philippines - Two homemade bombs and a grenade exploded in separate attacks on Thursday in the southern Philippines, killing a policeman and wounding five others, including a police ordnance expert, police said. An unidentified man riding on a motorcycle lobbed a grenade at the guardhouse of a government compound in southern Cotabato city, killing a policeman and seriously wounding three others, police said. A police investigation was underway to identify the attackers. The ARMM governs an autonomous, predominantly Muslim, region consisting of five impoverished provinces and a city.
Almost simultaneously, two bombs went off in Kidapawan city in North Cotabato province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Cotabato city, wounding passers-by and a police ordnance expert, police said. There was no evidence linking the grenade attack to the bombs, according to police.
A small bomb went off on a roadside near a hotel in Kidapawan, but caused no injuries or damage, security officials said.
Another bomb, made of a mortar shell, was discovered shortly afterward by passers-by near a busy road in Kidapawan, prompting the deployment of a police ordnance team, police said. As they were preparing to approach the bomb, it exploded, injuring one policeman and a civilian, provincial police chief Federico Dulay said. Army troops and police had cleared the area of people before the explosion, preventing a possible larger number of casualties, Dulay said.
No one claimed responsibility for the Kidapawan blasts. Dulay speculated that terror groups may have been involved because the attackers placed the explosives in usually crowded areas and the bombs appeared to be different from those used by extortion gangs. They were aimed at bringing about a deterioration in the security, Dulay told The Associated Press by telephone.
Dulay placed Kidapawans 70-member police force on high alert and ordered road checkpoints and intensified street patrols.
Col. Ruperto Pabustan, commander of the 602nd Infantry Brigade in North Cotabato, said he suspected involvement by two al-Qaeda-linked groups _ the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent Filipino extremist group, and the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah _ based on the explosives design and their location in busy areas. Troops and marines are waging offensives against the Abu Sayyaf and suspected Indonesian militants on nearby Jolo island. Communist and Muslim guerrillas have a presence in Kidapawan, about 920 kilometers (570 miles) south of Manila. The city has had several bomb attacks in recent years.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
09:34 ||
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One man died and 13 people were injured after a series of blasts ripped through a home of a local prosecutor in Nazran, Ingushetia, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the RIA-Novosti news agency reports. The prosecutor himself was not hurt in the attack, but his brother Adam was killed, the republican Interior Ministry said. According to preliminary information, the criminals planted two explosive devices by the house where the prosecutor of Nazran District, Gerikhan Khazbiyev, lives, the source in the ministry told the agency.
Russia TV said in a morning news bulletin that as many as 13 people were injured in the blast. Investigation into the attack has been launched. The blasts had apparently been triggered by two hand-made explosive devices planted near the house, a Rossia TV correspondent said. Investigators believe that the terrorists threw four more hand grenades across the fence into the interior yard.
The victims are mainly Khazbiyevs neighbors. After the first explosion, people went out into the street to see what was happening, and at that moment, witnesses say, another bomb went off. Interior Ministry officers and investigators from the prosecutors office are working at the scene.
After more than 30 years of working where money is made, David C. Faison decided to make some of it work for him, law enforcement officials say.
He devised an elaborate moneymaking scheme involving a pair of scissors, 10 sheets of partially printed $100 bills from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and a three-state gambling spree, according to documents charging him with theft of government property.
Investigators say Faison, 56, of Largo stole the sheets of $100 bills from the bureau's printing facility in the District, cut them and passed at least 145 of the bills through slot machines in casinos in Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia.
Yesterday Faison, a widower who lives with his brother, Daniel, declined to comment."What do I get out of it?" Faison said in response to a request for an interview.
Faison worked as a stock control recorder at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, distributing paper stock throughout the plant -- a job that gave him access to the plant's printing section.
Rich Delmar, counsel to the inspector general for the Treasury Department, which is working on the Faison case with the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the scheme was "pretty rare. To my knowledge, I don't believe we've gotten any other reports of an incident like this," Delmar said.
During a two-month period, Faison allegedly used the partially printed bills at Midway Slots, Dover Downs Hotel & Casino and Delaware Park in Delaware, at Bally's and Trump Plaza in New Jersey and at Charles Town Races & Slots in West Virginia. Within 19 seconds one day last month, Faison allegedly inserted three $100 bills into machines at Midway Slots in Harrington, Del. He later received a cash ticket for $290. Delmar said officials at a couple of casinos realized that some of the partially printed bills had passed through their slot machines, and they contacted the Secret Service.
According to the charging documents, Faison took the sheets before they had gone through the full manufacturing process. The bills looked finished, but they had not been stamped with serial numbers or the Treasury seal. Each sheet contained 32 uncut bills, or $3,200.
Law enforcement officials searched through trash from the curb outside Faison's home last month, finding what appeared to be scraps from the cut bills. Investigators later confirmed that the "scraps of paper were scraps of specialized currency paper" used during the production process. Last week, investigators found some of the stolen sheets of bills hidden in wrapping paper in Faison's closet, according to the affidavit.
Peter Bradley, the general manager of slot operations at Dover Downs, said the casino received a tip from the Treasury Department that Faison might show up at the casino. "They gave us a description, and one day one of our surveillance folks picked him up," Bradley said. The casino made certain that the surveillance videotape of Faison was enough of a close-up to show that one of the $100 bills that Faison inserted into a slot machine did not have serial numbers or the Treasury seal, officials said. Dover Downs security later verified that Faison gambled with $400 that day and that all of the bills were partially printed."We were able to trace it back to him," Bradley said. "It was real good work on our folks' part, working with the Treasury Department. Just a good team effort."
Boy, that'll show him ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities have put the founder and former head of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group under house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore, a spokesman for the Islamic charity he now runs said on Thursday. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed resigned almost five years ago from Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group suspected of involvement in the Indian rail blasts of July 11 that killed over 180 people, to become head of a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, regarded as its sister organisation. The United States has designated both as terrorist organisations.
They informed us last night that Hafiz could not leave his residence and this restriction is for one month, Yahya Mujahid, Jamaat-ud-Dawas spokesman told Reuters. He said police had been stationed at Saeeds residence and police had also cancelled permission for Jamaat-ud-Dawa to hold a rally in Lahore on August 12. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters authorities detained Saeed, fearing his activities could create a law and order situation. He was put under house arrest under the Maintainance of Public Order, Sherpao said, referring to a law under which authorities can detain a person upto 90 days.
After joining a US-led global war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan put the leaders of several militant organisations under house arrest. Saeed has been put under house arrest several times before but was released later. The dreaded "Stay at Home and Release" program.
Pakistans reluctance to act more strongly against these groups probably stems from the military Inter-Services Intelligence agencys history of support for their activities, according to analysts. India has called for Pakistan to act more forcefully to shut down militant groups in the wake of the Mumbai blasts, and New Delhis suspicions of Pakistani links to the attacks have jeopardised a 2 year-old peace process.
There was no immediate official reaction from India, but foreign ministry officials in New Delhi expressed a mixture of surprise and scepticism. Pakistan is probably trying to give the impression that they are doing something about these groups. Such house arrests have taken place in the past as well and these leaders end up living in luxury, one official, who requested anonymity, said. Lashkar-e-Taiba was one of the groups implicated in December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, which brought the two countries to the brink of their fourth war.
The group was banned by Pakistan, and its members say it only operates out of Indian Kashmir these days, although members of Lashkar have been arrested in the United States. Jamaat-ud-Dawa was added to a US State Department terrorist list earlier this year. Pakistan has put it on a watchlist but has not banned it. In a report issued last year, the State Department said Lashkar used the charity to gather funds and maintain ties with religious militant groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya.
Jamaat ud-Dawa has been prominent in providing relief after an earthquake killed over 73,000 people and left around three million destitute in Kashmir and northwest Pakistan in October.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
09:24 ||
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Is this the 'dye your beard red for it pleases Mohammad' look?
Colombo, 10 August (AKI) - Heavy fighting resumed on Thursday in the northeast of Sri Lanka between the army and the separatist rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). According to the pro-rebel website, Tamilnet, at least 45 civilains were killed and several others injured when the Sri Lankan army launched aerial and artillery attacks in Kathiraveli and surrounding villages in the north-east as thousands of civilians continue to flee the area. The military has denied the claim by the Tamil Tigers. Both sides have given conflicting reports of the latest violence.
The Sri Lankan government began on offensive last month to gain control of the Maavilaru waterway after the Tamil Tigers cut the water supply to villages. This latest fighting is the worst between the two sides since a ceasefire was siged four years ago. In a bid to re-open the waterway, the Sri Lankan army deployed 2,000 soldiers to the area.
Last week the government accused the rebels of ethnic cleansing as closing the waterway deprived thousands of farmers and tens of thousands of civilians - mainly ethnic Sinhalese and Muslims - of water. Most of the violence has been in the town of Muttur, some 70 kilometres south of the waterway. Thousands of the town's residents, who are mainly Muslims, have fled the area. Reports say almost 800 people have been killed in the fighting in recent months.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
09:21 ||
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Basra, 10 August (AKI) - Armed assailants in four-wheel drive vehicles on Thursday attacked the office of Ayatollah al-Sayyid Mahmud al-Hasani in Basra Governorate in southern Iraq, a source from the office told the Iraqi TV network al-Sharqiyah. Al-Hasani's supporters confronted the armed men who used around 30 vehicles laden with heavy weapons, al-Sharqiyah reported. Many of the attackers were killed and a number of al-Hasani's supporters were injured in the clashes, which occurred infront of British forces in Basra, the source said.
The source blamed the attack on the Basra governor and members of the Shiite Islamic Virtue Party of which the governor is a member, as well as some policemen and Iraq's Major Crimes Directorate, all of whom reportedly want to close Al-Sayyid al-Hasani's office in Basra.
Britain, which has 7,000 troops in southern Iraq, with its command located in Basra, last month handed over security in neighbouring Muthanna province to Iraqi forces, the first such handover since the country was invaded in 2003. It is hoped the Muthanna handover will provide a blueprint for further handovers.
The Islamic Virtue Party is one of over 20 groups in Iraq's Shiite dominated United Iraqi Alliance that holds 128 out of 275 seats in the parliament.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
09:17 ||
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Islamic Virtue, also called Fadhila, is a party of followers of Taters late father, who follow the Sadr familys Khomeinist ideology, but are not personally loyal to young Tater. They have been under pressure from coalition forces in Basra in recent months. I assume Hasani is a SCIRI type.
Birmingham, 10 August (AKI) - Most of the 21 people arrested overnight in connection with a failed plot to blow up numerous commercial aircraft mid-flight between Britain and the United States are "understood" to be British citizens of Pakistani origin, the local Birmingham Mail daily reported on Thursday. "Sources indicated that the majority if not all of those arrested were British... the majoirty of those arrested were understood to be of Pakistani origin," the Birmingham Mail said. Police have not yet confirmed the identities of any of the suspects arrested and have said they believe other suspects may still be at large.
Most of the bomb plot suspects were arrested in the British capital, London, but some were detained in the central UK city of Birmingham and others in the Thames Valley area in southern Britain, police said. Police searches of homes and business in these areas were reported to be continuing on Thursday.
On 7 July 2005, three British-born youths of Pakistani origin and one Jamaican-born Muslim convert blew themselves up on central London's transport system killing 52 people and injuring 1,000 in co-ordinated blasts. The UK authorities have arrested 1,000 people since 2000 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Of those, 154 have been charged and 60 are awaiting trial, Britain's interior minister, John Reid said in a speech on Wednesday. Reid added that the country is facing its most sustained period of threat since World War II.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
09:07 ||
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#1
I'm shocked and amazed! I would have almost bet the farm that Wiccans were behind this evil plot.
#5
More than 20 suspected terrorists were arrested in England by early Thursday morning, in an operation that involved British intelligence, Scotland Yard and assistance by a number of other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including those in Pakistan.
ABC News has learned that two "significant arrests" in Pakistan in recent days may have significantly accelerated the pace of the investigation. Many of the alleged terror plotters appeared to be of Pakistani descent. It appears that they were probably "homegrown" terrorists with strong links to al Qaeda and Pakistani operatives. This new generation of terrorists have figured significantly in plots in the U.S., London and Canada in recent months.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006 12:24
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"Muslims Are Persecuted Victims" Story in 5...4...3...
Hypocrisy alert! Juicy....
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."
Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.
For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.
Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.
Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.
Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.
The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.
Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006
08:30 ||
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#1
The good 'ol "Do as I say, not as I do" motto of the democratic party.
WASHINGTON The U.S. government issued its highest terrorism alert ever for commercial flights from Britain to the United States early Thursday after a terror plot was disrupted in London, with a specific concern for tourist-filled flights to major U.S. cities. Terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines, two U.S. counterterrorism officials said.
"The plot was to board international flights, potentially headed to the U.S., with bombs fashioned in a way that they would be in carry-ons, and blow them up in midair," one intelligence official said. This official said the terrorists had hoped to target flights to major airports in New York, Washington and California, all major summer tourist destinations.
In addition to the highest alert for flights from Britain, the alert for all flights coming or going from the United States was also raised slightly, to orange. The government banned beverages, hair gels and lotions from flights, explaining only that liquids emerged as an explosive risk from the investigation in Britain. Hastily printed signs were posted at major airports warning passengers in red capital letters, "No liquid or gels permitted beyond security."
Multiple flights to multiple American cities were put on alert. Specifically, these airlines included United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., the two counterterrorism officials said. American and United flights were turned into terrorist weapons on Sept. 11, 2001, when they were hijacked and crashed.
It is the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied. Homeland Security defines the red alert as designating a "severe risk of terrorist attacks." One intelligence official said the first-ever red alert signaled extreme concern within the government. "We are concerned enough to put the highest wall up we can," this official said. Officials said the government has been aware of the nature of the threat for several days, and President Bush was fully briefed.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff issued a statement overnight.
"We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted," Chertoff said in announcing that the threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest "severe or red" level. A statement issued by Chertoff said "currently, there is no indication ... of plotting within the United States."
A U.S. law enforcement official said there have been no arrests in the United States connected to the plot. A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people were involved or connected to the overseas plot that was unraveled Wednesday evening. The plan "had a footprint to al-Qaida back to it," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
It was not believed to be connected to the Egyptian students who disappeared in the United States more than a week ago before reaching a college they were supposed to attend in Montana. Three of the 11 have since been found and the FBI has said neither they nor the still-missing eight are believed to be a threat.
The plan involved airline passengers hiding masked explosives in carry-on luggage, the official said. "They were not yet sitting on an airplane," but were very close to traveling, the official said, calling the plot "the real deal." U.S. intelligence has been working closely with the British on the investigation, which has been ongoing for months, the second official said.
The metal detector and X-ray machines at airport security checkpoints cannot detect explosives. At many, but not all airport checkpoints, the TSA has deployed walkthrough "sniffer" or "puffer" machines that can detect explosives residue. As part of the foiled Bojinka Plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1990s, terrorist mastermind Ramzi Youssef planned to put together an improvised bomb using liquid in a contact lens solution container.
Likely one of those pint bottles.
At U.S. Northern Command, the military headquarters established in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination of the defense of U.S. territory, spokesman Sean Kelly said it would be inappropriate to discuss military operations.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
08:18 ||
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#1
I wonder how long it will take for the New York Times to step up with an article that will aid the terrorists in their future efforts.
#3
Carry-ons are no longer permitted on domestic or overseas flights, but small children weighing less that 35lbs are now permitted in the overheads. Thank you for flying Delta Airlines.
#4
Romney said the Guard would begin arriving at the airport immediately to help with patrols, and then, after training, to help with surveillance and checkpoint assignments -- particularly secondary screenings at departure gates to ensure passengers did not buy any liquids such as coffee or shampoo after a checkpoint and then attempt to bring them on aircraft.
Looks like Starbucks will be out of business at Logan...what a bunch of Maroons! "Intellegent official" indeed.
Everyone has heard of the Homeland Security Advisory System by now and its rainbow of colors, but most are confused of exactly what it means to them about how they should act and live when it is at its different levels of alert. That's why I've decided to create this guide make things clearer to the people.
First, here is what the alert levels mean in general:
*Green (Low): All evil had been destroyed. The world is now a peaceful utopia.
*Blue (Guarded): There's still the occasional pickpocket, so show a little caution.
*Yellow (Elevated): Terror lurks in the shadows; be wary.
*Orange (High): The terrorists are out there and they are coming for YOU!
*Red (Severe): The world is exploding around you. The only law is your own gun.
To be more specific, here is how you should you act in different situations based on the alert levels.
How should I store my firearms?
*Green: Throw them in the fire. There is no more need for weapons.
*Blue: Wrap them in some rags and store them in the attic somewhere in case you need them one day.
*Yellow: Keep both your guns and ammo readily accessible.
*Orange: Load your gun and carry it on you at all times, even around the house.
*Red: The gun should be in your hand, pointed in front of you with your finger resting on the trigger.
I see a stranger outside.
*Green: Maybe he could give your kids a ride to school.
*Blue: He might be lost; ask him what he's doing here.
*Yellow: Stay in your house and avoid him. Strangers bad.
*Orange: Run outside and pistol-whip him while questioning his involvement with terrorism.
*Red: Kill him; no questions asked.
I hear a noise at night.
*Green: That's just the house settling; go back to sleep.
*Blue: Probably nothing, but you better check it out.
*Yellow: Grab your gun and call 911.
*Orange: No time for police; run through your house shooting anything that moves.
*Red: Initiate the house's auto-destruct sequence; leap out window.
You see a hippy.
*Green: Punch him.
*Blue: Kick him.
*Yellow: Punch him then kick him.
*Orange: Punch him then kick him and then stomp on him.
*Red: Strangle him.
You receive a strange envelope in the mail with no return address.
*Green: Rip it open; who knows what fun lies inside!
*Blue: Open it carefully just in case.
*Yellow: Don't touch it and call the police.
*Orange: Can't wait for the authorities; toss it out the window and then unload a gun into it.
*Red: For the love of God, immediately flee from the envelope. Hunt down and kill the mailman.
You see some movement in a nearby tree.
*Green: It's probably a squirrel. Hello squirrel.
*Blue: Better check out what it is to be on the safe side.
*Yellow: Might be the escaped monkey from the zoo. Better contact the authorities.
*Orange: It's a ninja! Fire indiscriminately into the treetops.
*Red: Set fire to the tree and all trees around it. No safe haven for ninjas!
You see a strange van parked nearby.
*Green: It must be an ice cream truck. Let's get ice cream.
*Blue: Check to make sure it's legally parked.
*Yellow: Better call the FBI to check this one out.
*Orange: Politely knock on the van door. Kill everyone inside.
*Red: Shoot the van with a rocket propelled grenade. Kill anyone who protests; they're terrorists too.
You realize the person you are talking to is a Communist.
*Green: Kill him.
*Blue: Kill him.
*Yellow: Kill him.
*Orange: Kill him.
*Red: Kill him and burn his body.
You see a stray dog.
*Green: Go pet the cute little puppy.
*Blue: Better check if he has a dog tag so you can get him back to his owner.
*Yellow: Call animal control.
*Orange: It's some sort of terrorist trick. Shoot the dog with a sniper rifle.
*Red: Destroy the dog with a thermite charge and then kill all witnesses.
I hope that cleared things up on the alert levels. Remember, terrorism can only be stopped by your vigilance and your actions.
Three Egyptian students who were being sought for failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University were taken into custody Wednesday, more than a week after they arrived in the United States. One student was arrested in Minnesota, and two others surrendered to authorities in New Jersey. They were among 11 students being sought by law enforcement after they failed to attend a monthlong program on the English language and U.S. history and culture in Bozeman, Mont., the FBI said.
Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, was taken into custody in Minneapolis on an immigration violation. Two other students - Mohamed Ragab Mohamed Abd Alla and Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa Abdou, both 22 - surrendered to police in Manville, N.J., after hearing media reports that they were wanted, FBI spokesman Steven Siegal said.
Eight students remain at large. They arrived in New York on July 29 as part of a group of 17 students. Six students reported to Bozeman on time.
Hamvi Kassab, a Minneapolis grocer who said he is El-Dessouki's uncle, told television station KSTP that his nephew was in town to visit relatives and to inquire about attending the University of Minnesota.
Which had nothing to do with going to Montana. Care to provide us another alibi, Uncle?
#2
Hamvi Kassab, a Minneapolis grocer who said he is El-Dessouki's uncle, told television station KSTP that his nephew was in town to visit relatives and to inquire about attending the University of Minnesota. And what else was he doing here? Come on, come clean. Are you certain he wasn't here to take flying lessons?
#7
What the hell are 22 yr old males doing studying english in the US? Isn't 22 yr olds getting out of shcool at this time (except for the professional students - pass the bong dude). Is it just me, or does this not scream why are 20, 21 and 22 year old men doing in our country "studying"?
#8
Any Islamic MAM (Military Age Male) should be closley scrutinized before entry and forced to wear a monitoring device during his hopefully very brief stay.
1. IBRAHIM, EL SAYED AHMED ELSAYED;
DOB OF 4/29/1986, PASSPORT 954757
2. EL DESSOUKI, ESLAM IBRAHIM MOHAMED;
DOB OF 02/21/1985, PASSPORT 1002756
3. EL BAHNASAWI, ALAA ABD EL FATTAH ALI;
DOB OF 04/02/1986, PASSPORT 934679
4. ABD ALLA, MOHAMED RAGAB MOHAMED;
DOB OF 02/15/1984, PASSPORT 860972
5. EL LAKET, AHMED REFAAT SAAD EL MOGHAZI;
DOB OF 09/01/1986, PASSPORT 943306
6. EL ELA, AHMED MOHAMED MOHAMED ABOU;
DOB OF 02/02/1985, PASSPORT 595081
7. EL MOGHAZY, MOHAMED IBRAHIM ELSAYED;
DOB OF 08/08/1986, PASSPORT 861073
8. ABDOU, EBRAHIM MABROUK MOUSTAFA;
DOB OF 02/25/1984, PASSPORT 828682
9. EL GAFARY, MOUSTAFA WAGDY MOUSTAFA;
DOB OF 07/01/1988, PASSPORT 861673
10. MARAY, MOHAMED SALEH AHMED;
DOB OF 09/12/1985, PASSPORT 862634
11. EL SHENAWY, MOHAMED IBRAHIM FOUAAD;
DOB OF 08/12/1988, PASSPORT 862534
#12
Does anyone else notice that no one is smiling? Ya, go ahead let them in, they just want an education. More like on the job training as a terrorist.
#13
Kstp coverage of the story is a joke. This is the same station that took PR money from the Sauds after 9-1 and ran pro Arabia commercials. Do not trust these scum.
The one post brings up a good point, I'd put the uncle in jail and sweat the diaper off his head. Minneapolis is full of Muslim terrorist sympathizers, I forget how many have been arrested here. We even had a van load of Muslims on 9-12 casing out one of our nuclear plants. This crap is scary and nether the MSM or the FBI come clean on this information.
Because it would make the other followers of the Peophile for Profit look bad.
#14
Wait a sec - I think yesterday on TV, when they described how the two captured got separated at the airport, the guy who brought them to police said they don't speak English?
Why then they were enlisted to go to a summer course in English literature? What language that course is in?
Posted by: Tat ||
08/10/2006 12:16
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#15
My policeman son informs me that often they don't speak English until they're told they're going to jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006 12:26
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#16
The real question is why are we still giving out student visas? On Sept 12 that program should have been put on hiatus for the duration (along with the Saudi fast-past visa program and a dozen others).
#20
I just looked at the Box Score and it obvious to me that these poor lads are VICTIMS!! America is a BIG PLACE. Imagine landing in New York, asking someone: Hey, wheres Montana??. They give ya a funny look and point generally West.
#22
The most likely innocent explanation is illegal immigration. Get in on a student visa and disappear. Many thousands do it every year, from all third-world countries.
Now, there may be additional information on this bunch that raises concern.
#25
2 apparently.
The evidence that this is not coincidence is uh everywhere.
MANVILLE.
Cheez
IF you were stuck at tghe airport and spoke only Arabic you'd end up in Jersey City not MAnville.
But if you were proceeding to targets, then you're only 15 minutes from the heart of the Pharmaceutical industry, or going the other way, 15 minutes from BAyway. Largest petroleum facility west of SAudi.
ew Jerseys extensive chemical and petroleum facilities are widely recognized as potential targets for terrorist groups. Indeed, some experts refer to the two-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike directly west of New York as the most dangerous two miles in America. The close proximity of some of the states chemical plants and refineries to the regions airports, seaports, and major population centers are a major security concern. Similarly, a significant accident at one of the areas chemical facilities could impact more than a million people within the region.
Posted by: j. D. Lux ||
08/10/2006 15:03
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#26
Oh I want to makke it clear that the second part of my previous post is a quote. My thoughts are rarely that organized.
You will be pleased to note that as I sallied forth, there were lot's of Black Crown Vics w/ antennas and cars w/ Fed license plates cruising about.
Posted by: j. D. Lux ||
08/10/2006 15:06
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#27
Int'resting. And Dundalk (pronounced "Dun-dawk") is the residential section of the Port of Baltimore.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006 15:37
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#28
There needs to be some sort of credible deterrent with respect to individuals from suspect countries violating the terms of their visa.
For instance, if we are still going to be so blindingly stupid as to permit these budding young terrorists into our country, we had better make them check in with authorities on a weekly basis using a fixed and traced landline to corroborate their reported geographical location.
Or impose a substantial penalty for non-reporting or overstay, such as felony conviction and prolonged imprisonment.
Better yet, a blanket prohibition of any future short term or immigration visas for themselves, all immediate family and even the most distant relations. This might have at least some deterrent value in that those who are honorably seeking to better their life would be held responsible for exactly which of their kin sets foot on our shores.
I welcome any other suggestions from fellow Rantburgers regarding how to discourage these visa violations. Short of the logical solution of banning visitors from terrorist sponsoring or harboring countries, we must put in place better protections for the American people.
#29
Montana is middle America. Who the hell in their right mind at that school would let this camel turds into their program?
How to keep them out... No answer. We are way to PC and they Muslims are taking full advantage of it. Whoever let them in to the Montana school should be fired. Fired.
Some of you may remember this. After 9-11 14 Kuwaities (sp) disapeared from a Wisconsin university. The FBI showed up and the whole story was squashed. I happened to know because my aunt was working there in the personal office. She was told to keep hush about the whole story.
So we have to ask, if Nazis were caught trying to get into the country during WWII would that be a downplayed story? No. Our Media is bent on seeing us all burn under a Muslim nuclear bomb. It's just a matter of time.
#30
Who the hell in their right mind at that school would let this camel turds into their program?
All the schools, with exceptions you can count on one hand, are run and staffed by anti-American Tranzis who cater to the cash cow of foreigners. There are big, big bucks made there. And they are bigger whores than the oil companies when it comes to tuition. Just try to make visa processing rational and see who screams the loudest.
#31
Hmm, anyone else notice that in two cases they were found in pairs? Two in Dundalk, two in NJ ...
Wonder if there is another one someplace in Chi and one in Mpls that haven't been located yet. Odd to me that they should be keeping together in cells, uhm, I mean pairs.
#35
Just a comment, didn't these guys vanish about the time it's reported that the Brits made the first arrests that led to the arrests of the Pakistani would-be airplane bombers?
In other words, they vanished right around the same time that the arrests first occured.
I'd be turning over the rocky mountains right about now looking for these guys, the timing is fishy as hell.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/10/2006 19:21
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The arrests related to the terror threat to UK flights stretched across London, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands. Twenty-one people are being held in London after raids during the night. Searches are under way at a number of businesses and homes after an "unprecedented" level of surveillance.
Two of those arrested under the Terrorism Act came from the Birmingham area, West Midlands police have said.
Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said the investigation had involved "unprecedented" surveillance and had involved police forces in the UK and internationally. He said it was just the "very early stage" of the evidence-gathering over an alleged plot which had "global dimensions". "We have been looking at meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people."
Houses were sealed off in Belchers Lane, in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham. Around 20 officers, including forensic teams were at the scene.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: "This morning two men were arrested under the Terrorism Act in Birmingham. "The arrests were part of a nationwide counter-terrorism operation co-ordinated by the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorist Branch." The spokesman said no firearms had been involved and the men were still in custody.
In High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, an address in Walton Drive was among those raided and at least one person was arrested. The majority of arrests were in London, but the location of these has not been specified.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2006
08:11 ||
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MARIETTA, Ohio - Two men were charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism after authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information on airport security checkpoints in their car.
Deputies stopped Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of Dearborn, Mich., on a traffic violation Tuesday. They found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in the car, said Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks. damn presbyterians
Prosecutor Susan Vessels declined to say how the phones, cash or flight information involved terrorism. "I can say no more. Put it together yourselves, geniuses in the media"
Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted buying about 600 phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio, said sheriff's Maj. John Winstanley. The men said they sold the phones to someone in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb.
Do they want the phones or the SIM cards?
Investigators going through the car after the pair were pulled over in Marietta, about 90 miles southeast of Columbus, also found a map that showed locations of Wal-Mart stores from Ohio through Kentucky, Tennessee and into North and South Carolina, Vessels said. FBI spokesman Mike Brooks in Cincinnati said his office was notified about the arrests and an agent was investigating.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday evening with Ray Smith, a public defender who represents Abulhassan. Houssaiky did not yet have an attorney, Vessels said.
Abulhassan and Houssaiky did not speak at a hearing Wednesday in Marietta Municipal Court in which a judge set their bond at $200,000, Vessels said. Another bond hearing was set for Thursday. The charges allege the two laundered between $5,000 and $25,000, Vessels said. A conviction carries a maximum 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006
07:56 ||
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#1
Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted buying about 600 phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio, said sheriff's Maj. John Winstanley. The men said they sold the phones to someone in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb.
Waaaa, 600 cell phones. Find out who is using them. Terrorism are getting into the hinterlands of Ohio.
#5
I have worked in that area at times. Osama and Ali would tend attract attention. Local law enforcement would probably be more alert to "strangers" than say the Feds.
#6
What's with the Wal*Mart maps? Wal*Mart customers in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina should be told to be on the lookout for furners with funny accents. They'll know what to do.
#7
Right after the NSA tracing of phone calls placed to suspected overseas terrorist numbers was exposed by the New York Times, there were reports of muslim men buying dozens of prepaid cell phones at a time. This was probably the time before prepaid cell phones had to be registered. Now that cell phones have to have a name in order to work, I wonder why no one did a computer match to discover so many phones under their names.
maximum 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine
That is sure deter the little jihadis.
Posted by: ed ||
08/10/2006 8:36
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#8
The judge agreed to let them go on a $200K bond??????? WTF? Someone send that Judge's name over O'Riley and let him explain that one!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/10/2006 8:48
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#9
Marietta College has a decently well-known petroleum engineering department that attracts a number of students from the ME. These guys may not have raised an eyebrow among the locals, especially since classes will be starting shortly. That said, 600 phones would be enough to make even the locals say, "but don't y'all have a phone in your room?"
#13
I know the area well. Live and let live folk, very private. They won't appreciate plotters against America in their backyard. If these scum avoid conviction and escape without buckshot in their rears, they can consider themselves lucky. If they end up in jail, it will have all the markings of a circus act: bearded ladies, three-legged jugglers, and money-laundering terrorists. Quite the spectacle for locals.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
08/10/2006 10:25
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#14
This Dearborn enclave is a real and growing menace. I know authorities monitor these bastards as best they can, but I think this operation ought to be shutdown. Tell them to deport themselves or face detention in large desert camps. They're desert lovers anyway aren't they. Michigan is a totally foreign environment and we ought to help them correct it.
#1
What happens when liberals get in power. They present a danger to the world by their inaction and ineptness. These people are like the appeasement crowd during early WW II. Appeasement just fuels the fantasies of would-be dictators and wannabee rulers of the world. I don't care whether the cause is Nazism or religious theocracy foisted upon the rest of the world by force.
#2
This is the background of yesterday's surprise effective dismissal of OC northern Command Maj. General Udi Adam. According to various media sources, Olmert was incensed at Adam's remarks that he had not been allowed to fight the war that had been planned. Adam allegedly made these remarks in response to criticism against his running of the war, and the results so far achieved.
That shocks me. Why there isn't a no-confidence vote scheduled is beyond me. This is the most fubar clusterfugh since Mog. I'm shocked the Paks aren't involved.
#3
Hezbos in part tipped their hand by indicating they were more than willing to fight from entrenched positions near Israel-Lebanon border.
If they want to die that way, it is Israel that has to oblige them. So far, she hasn't. 10,000 to 12,000 troops fighting against a well-entrenched, light infantry division is insufficent. What's needed is a hammer and anvil strike, pushing from both north and south of these hilltop positions, and in order to do that, the IDF will need between 30,000 to 40,000 troops.
There are two ways to take out Hezbollah. (1) Hard and fast and bloody. Get the job done with ground troops before world opinion changes. (2) Slow and methodical. Get the job done using airpower to cut off and soften the enemy to minimize Israeli casualties.
Option 2, if carried to completion is the far better option but there is serious doubt if the plans can be carried to completion against growing world pressure. Many in the military don't think the PM will see things through.
#6
There is only one legitimate way to fight a war - use the maximum amount of force possible to kill and destroy as much of the enemy's force structure (personnel, equipment, supply lines, rear staging areas, etc.) as possible in the shortest amount of time. Anything else is playing at war. The United States hasn't fought a serious war since World War II. It's about time we started, or we're going to lose another one. Israel is in the same boat vs the hezbollocks and Lebanon/Syria/Iran.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 19:25
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#7
Ahmen OP. The US needs to go on a war footing. NOW, not after thousands more of our civilians are killed. We need to cut non-defense spending to the frickin bone and increase the size of our military. We are playing around while the enemy probes and looks for weaknesses. If Western Europe won't wake up, we have to. The Brits have some serious soul searching to do.
h/t Drudge. The National Enquirer reported Wednesday that comedian Robin Williams has entered an alcohol rehab on July 11 to try and conquer a three-year battle with booze that's threatening to destroy his marriage. Though we certainly wish Williams well, it does seem rather odd that twelve days before he checked into the Hazelden Springbrook rehab facility in Newberg, Oregon, he was on the Tonight Show making disparaging remarks about radio host Rush Limbaughs problems with painkillers. Pot. Kettle. Black.
Glass house. Ballistic object.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006
07:03 ||
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#1
In another time, ye old court jester was a fool [an actual job description] who was allowed to mock the king in his own court. It was to keep the king humble in a Christian sense. However, the jester got access to all the benefits of the court just as the king did. So, from the view of the peasants, while the jester may at times get to say things out loud theyd like to say every now under their breath , in essence the jester was exploiting the lower class just as much as the king. Sort of a medieval 3 degrees of separation.
#2
Robin Williams (Cronauer): I just want to begin by saying to Roosevelt E. Roosevelt, what it is, what it shall be, what it was. The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut.
#3
Robin was funny when he was on coke. I don't know when he cleaned up but my guess would be somewhere after Good Morning Vietnam and Doubtfire when his movies stopped being funny.
God only knows what will happen after he's clean and sober totally.
An old frail man snaps awake, and stares: theres a stranger seated next to the bed, a long, unlit cigar in one hand. He leans back and smiles.
Dont be alarmed, says the stranger. Its just me, the Angel of History. I like to have a chat with men of your stature at times like this. Good run, old chap; dying in bed. Well played! A little advice? Pretend to die just as youre telling them the secret Swiss bank account numbers. Drives them mad, and its most amusing to watch. Mind if I smoke?
The old mans eyes are wide and frantic; the uninvited guest leans forward. Whats that? Right, right, your funeral. You want to know. Oh, next week, next month, hard to say. Theres the usual jostling for power right now. Odd, really: in this democratic, egalitarian nation, the only man you saw fit to follow happened to be your brother. What are the chances of that, eh? Most people in America dont know a thing about him. Another Castro? the Americans think. They had a spare?
When it all shakes out, and enough people have been put against a wall, youll get a funeral. Second-tier diplomats will attend, mostly Europeans who will privately complain that you didnt have the dignity to die in a cooler season. The show will be stolen by Chavez, of course. Hes rather like you, without the iconic facial hair and rhetoric that was stale when Woody Allen was funny. He has money, too. Good suits. I have my eye on that one. But we were talking about your funeral, werent we? The general consensus will be simple: at least it wasnt as long as one of your speeches.
After that? Ah. Well. You know how it goes. . . . "
Go read it all.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006
06:46 ||
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Christopher Hitchens coined the term, "Islamo-Fascism" in 2001. Unless I am mistaken, the President never used the term until last Monday. Joseph Farah has been saying that this enemy is worse than any other that we have faced.
.......................
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the people who should get really frustrated are the Israelis and the Lebanese. They ought to be the ones who are frustrated, because 1559 clearly laid a way forward for there to be a strong democracy in Lebanon, which will more likely yield the peace. And there is a level of frustration around the world with organizations that will take innocent life to achieve political objectives. And our job is to remind people that this isn't a moment, this is a movement, and that we must deal with this movement. We must deal with this movement with strong security measures, we must bring justice to those who would attack us, and at the same time, defeat their ideology by the spread of liberty.
And it takes a lot of work. This is the beginning of a long struggle against an ideology that is real and profound. It's Islamo-fascism. It comes in different forms. They share the same tactics, which is to destroy people and things in order to create chaos in the hopes that their vision of the world become predominant in the Middle East...
#1
Christopher Hitchens coined the term, "Islamo-Fascism" in 2001. Unless I am mistaken, the President never used the term until last Monday. Joseph Farah has been saying that this enemy is worse than any other that we have faced.
Correct. He called the modern Wahhabi and Shia versions of fascistic jihad "Islam with a fascist face" in 2001.
President Bush was too quick to listen to Wahhabi-sympathizing groups like CAIR and their Saudi sponsors, remember Prince Bandar? He should have gone after the Mordors of radical Islam, i.e., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran right from the start after 9-11. Now he is a dollar short and nearly five years too late.
#2
He said "America is at war with islamic fascists" in his remarks on the runway in Wisconsin this morning. And he didn't bother to qualify it with any ROP bullscrit afterward...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/10/2006 14:27
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#3
I should think that adding Fascists to the term Islamo modifies it enough to give him a bit of wiggle-room. "I didn't mean the peaceful Muslim, I meant the other ones. The fascist ones).
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 15:42
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#7
"nihilistic Islamic absolutism (NIA)" works for me just as well, but could some kindly Rantburgers share their knowledge of fascism? In the most recent examples of fascism, what are the primary traits? How did religion play a role in fascism in WWII Italy, Germany, Romania...?
Definition of fascism from answers.com. Now who does this sound like:
fas·cism (f?sh'?z'?m)
n.
often Fascism
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
Oppressive, dictatorial control.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
08/10/2006 17:00
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#8
How did religion play a role in fascism in WWII Italy, Germany, Romania...?
Google up: Haj Amin el Husseini (Grant Mufti of Jerusalem), or Waffen-SS Handsar Division which he personall recruited. He was "rad" way before then, but it's a start.
#9
Right-wing radio is heaping praise on the President for linking this enemy, with that of WW2. Kudos to them! But, the White House link reveals that they are 4 days late in heaping praise.
Quick! What percent of Muslim "allies" have stabbed Bush in the back? Karzai? Maliki? Musharaf? CAIR/ISNA/AMC? Is it 100%? I think so.
Maybe the President has had enough. And, CBS might be playing a Mike Wallace interview, tonight, in which Iran's Ahmadinejad threatens the life of the President (if Drudge is right). You have heard of 9-11, 3-11, 7-7. How about 8-11: tomorrow should be the day when the gloves come off and we stop trying to democraticise the enemy and start slaughtering them. There are enough Secular elements in Pakistan and Iraq to suppress the clerics, if we put Islamofascist backs to the wall. As for CAIR-ISNA-AMC: ban them as terror support groups.
#11
Fascism? Ask Mussolini: "...Fascism reasserts the right of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. And if liberty is to be the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism stands for liberty, and for the only liberty worth having, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State. The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State - a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values - interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people...it is the purest form of democracy if the nation be considered -as it should be - from the point of view of quality rather than quantity, as an idea...expressing itself in a people, as the conscience and will of the few, if not, indeed, of one..." Benito Mussolini, 1932.
#12
Sounds like Islamism to me. The state and the spiritual are simply different facets of the supreme entity. The fascists approach it from the state and the Islamists approach it from the spiritual; but they both end up in the smae place, totalitarian tyranny.
#5
Don't underestimate this - more cheap aircraft to train suicide pilots.
Private aircraft are numerous, not guarded, easy to steal/fly /hide and can carry enough to pack a sufficient bang. It is a logical choice as the next airborne weapon for jihadists.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
08/10/2006 10:23
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#6
Exactly, 175 knots is plenty fast when you are flying "nap of the earth". Better get your AWACS tuned to eliminate ground noise boys and girls.
Washington (CNA) -- Recent reports indicate that Hezbollah is using Christian villages to shield its attacks against Israel.
According to Christian Solidarity International, Hezbollah is hiding among civilian populations, mostly in southern Lebanese towns, such as Ain Ebel, Rmeish, Alma Alshaab.
Launching attacks behind human shields is in violation of the Geneva Convention's provision for the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, which prohibits the use of civilians as military shields.
This is not a new strategy for Hezbollah. Col. Charbel Barka, a former South Lebanese Army commander, says Hezbollah is repeating what it did in attacks against Israel in 1996.
A Christian from the village of Ain Ebel, who requested to remain nameless for fear of a reprisal from Hezbollah, reported that he found Hezbollah fighters setting up a launcher on his rooftop. Hezbollah fighters ignored his pleas to stop and fired the missiles. He immediately gathered his family and fled his home, which was bombed 15 minutes later by an Israeli air strike.
Hezbollah has also attempted to stop Christians from fleeing their villages. According to Christian Solidarity International, on July 28, Hezbollah fighters fired upon several Christians fleeing Rmeish with their families, wounding two.
Sami El-Khoury, president of the World Maronite Union, adds that media reports about Christian support for Hezbollah are inaccurate.
"Contrary to Western press reports, indicating high percentages of Christian support for Hezbollah, 90 percent of Christians, 80 percent of Sunni and 40 percent of Shiites in Lebanon oppose Hezbollah," El-Khoury told Christian Solidarity International.
Christian Solidarity International has called for the United Nations to establish a politically independent commission to investigate Hezbollah's contravention of international law. The group has also urged the UN Security Council to deploy immediately an international force in Lebanon to facilitate a ceasefire, to stop the flow of arms from Syria to Hezbollah, and to assist the Lebanese government in fulfilling its obligation to disarm Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has been the ruling power in the south since Israel withdrew from Lebanon six years ago. Christian villages suffer from extensive neglect of infrastructure under Hezbollah rule. Once the majority, the Christian population in Lebanon has declined to under 40 percent due to pressures by Islamic militias supported by Iran and Syria.
#1
Article: "Contrary to Western press reports, indicating high percentages of Christian support for Hezbollah, 90 percent of Christians, 80 percent of Sunni and 40 percent of Shiites in Lebanon oppose Hezbollah," El-Khoury told Christian Solidarity International.
This makes sense. If Western pollsters hire people who might be sympathetic to Hezbollah, it's not surprising that they would rig the polls. Or that respondents might not answer poll questions honestly because they value their personal well-being - which might suddenly come under threat from Hezbollah thugs - more than some blip on a foreign.
#5
If the Israelis capture some Iranian bodies, they ought to loudly say to Iran, identify them by name, rank and serial number, or else we will have to assume that they were Christian civilians killed in the fighting and give them a Christian burial.
I'm sure the Iranian RG and military would be thrilled to hear that.
Lawmakers in the Senate on Wednesday criticised the ugly role of the United States as sole world power in backing Israel to massacre the people of Lebanon and to destroy peace in the whole region.
Speaking on a point of order Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the MMA condemned the US for claiming itself to be the champion of human rights, democracy and nuclear non-proliferation after it dropped nuclear and hydrogen bombs on Japan and then transferred nuclear technology to Britain and France when the former Soviet Union attained it within three years after World War II. Then the US continuously attempted to block any efforts by Muslim countries, including Pakistan, and now Iran to seek nuclear civil technology for civil purposes while it was supplying weapons of mass destruction to Israel to kill thousands of people in the Middle East.
The US, he recollected, spared white Germany despite Hitler committing unprecedented war crimes and selected Hiroshima for dropping uranium bombs on August 6 and Nagasaki for dropping hydrogen-laden bombs to kill 200,000 people and injuring 0.8 to 1 million people on Aug 9. Since World War II the US tried its best to keep nuclear technology away from others while continuing to make its own nuclear power more sophisticated and lethal as it exploded 70-times more powerful bombs and used daisy cutters in Afghanistan. Prof Ahmed said that world peace could never be established as long as the US was in control of everything. I used to just hate reading sh*t like this . . . until I discovered Rantburg.
#1
Why, yes of course. Didn't you read the President's speech after 9/11...terrorists and those countries which aid terrorists. Given that a heck of a lot of connecting dots link terrorists with muslim countries, even you should be able to do the math.
#3
Why, quite right dear Prof. And the very next place we may demonstrate our ruthlessness ? Yes, of course. Pakland. Two primary designated nuclear test zones are Iran & Pakland. Start digging your spider hole Prof.
#1
I don't think that a giant crab invasion is really what Norwegians should be worried about, the other invasion--entirely differrent story--while crabs may deplete the fish stock, the other invaders may deplete the Norwegians.
#2
Species are on the move everywhere. Giant Sunfish are being caught off the UK. Tuna schools are approaching Alaska. One degree of global warming doesn't explain all this.
#1
This is pure bullshot.
They need a few days to train up those just called up. The tanks are already rolling, but everything is not yet ready for a full attack.
#3
nope - the cabinet is divided. Peretz wanted a straight ahead ground offensive to roll up Hezb all the way to the Litani. Everyone knows that will take a month or more, will cost heavy IDF casualties, and will be costly diplomatically. Olmert got Mofaz, the ex-Def Minister, to propose a sweep to the Litani, without clearing out Hezb, so they could proclaim victory. Rice apparently said shes close to a deal, and Lipni, the Foreign Minister, says she wont support an offensive without giving Rice a couple of days to do the deal.
AFAICT, Peretz, the socialist union boss, is the one most pushing for an aggressive strategy, and its the pro-capitalist types from Kadima who are holding back. Whether thats cause of Peretz's own deep rooted beliefs, or its a political thing to make him look tough enough to be PM someday, I dont know.
#4
Big mistake, a truly huge mistake. After so many decades of UN inspired hobbling of Israel and concomitant promotion of her foes, the IDF must slip the leash of world opinion and finally inflict sufficiently fatal blows to her enemies. Even the slightest hudna lull only adds up to more IDF casualties. Enough already. Advocates of terror must be handed their lead-infused heads on a platter.
#5
Yes, Israel has to go on and fight the war that needs to be fought.
An Israeli minister said that Israel should totally bomb all Lebanese cities south of Lebanon. That's obvious. So, what are they waiting for ? And why are the US putting pressure on Israel ? And where has gone Bush's resolve to fight terrorism ?
A major terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage, with flights from the UK to the US being targeted. During the night, police arrested a number of people in London after a counter-terrorist operation they said had lasted several months. Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected.
Also all airports in the US. The media are now breathlessly reporting on super extra ginormous security line backups at BWI and Dulles. Speculation about this being "overkill" in 5... 4... 3... 2...
Somebody check Daily Kos. Betcha there's at least one post that reads roughly: "You have to question the timing of this, coming as it does on the heels of Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut..."
The Department for Transport set out the details of the security measures at UK airports.
THREAT LEVEL
The current threat level is assessed as critical as of 10th August 2006 - this means that an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK
MI5 statement
Passengers will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said.
Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags.
"We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only," the statement said.
BBC journalist Joe Lynam encountered the increased security measures at Gatwick airport.
"I was handed a piece of paper saying that pretty much nothing could be taken on board the plane," he said.
"Everything had to be checked in and that includes mobile phones, ipods, wallets - even spectacle cases had to be checked in."
David Learmount from Flight International Magazine said he expected passengers to be searched much more carefully.
He added: "This is the first time this measure has actually been taken. Certainly I've never seen hand luggage banned."
Something else to thank the RoP for.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 2:39
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#4
Only a matter of time before some Muzzi plot succeeds.
#11
Probably under nourished, impoverished lads who are simply wanting to be heard
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/10/2006 6:30
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#12
Ship ALL Muzzies back to their country of origin, quarantine them there. No flights in, no flight out of Muslim land. Let them stew in their own hate.
Cut all economic aid, seize all foreign assets, seize their oil fields. They want the 7th century, then let us impose it on them. We will have to gut these cultures like a catfish, they're truly failed societies.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 7:50
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#15
The Brits news conference was so politically correct and careful not to offend any group. They did say that most were of Pakistani origins. The West has to get over the tip toeing around and walking on egg shells. We need to quit worrying about hurting some group's feeling that is trying to destroy us. What a crock of sh*t.
#17
Sometimes I wonder if the plot is actually to blow up the planes, or just to create the threat so as to make air travel even more of a hassle than it already is. The latter scenario has an awfully high 'benefit/cost' ratio (from enemy perspective.)
#18
AQ has wanted to blow up a number of aircraft in flight, international. The plan has failed on a number of tries, looks like this is the latest. One thing I gotta give them is AQ is persistant. The West must remain vigilant.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/10/2006 8:01
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#19
Disruption is disruption whether the planes go down or not. Glenmore, The cost benefit ratio has to be very low and the enemy probably knows this. Rumors and plots don't cost much.
A significant # of British Muslims have said they will not cooperate with the police. A smaller, but also troubling # agree with the aims of al qaeda. I believe part of the reason for this is because a portion of nonmuslim British society creates a fertile environment for this.
There's a strong belief among the useful idiot Left that suicide bombers are desperate; that these people resort to such tactics because they are downtrodden and oppressed. Help me understand how 21 "Brits" from the suburbs are suffering? Here's a clue: they're not. The Left, supported by Galloway, al-guardian, the BBC and others truly fail to see this. Instead, I'm sure they believe they're more savvy than the rest of us. In fact, I'm sure they feel they can see what we're blind to -- that it's Western Imperialism and Israel that has caused all of this turmoil.
But clearly, that's not the case. In fact, their apologist stance provides the fuel that makes this all possible. They've created a culture that excuses, allows -- or worse -- promotes jihadi thinking and actions. Instead of condemning ANY atrocities wherever they occur, they allow Israel and the USA to be scapegoats and implicitly enable these horrors to perpetuate.
#27
"We are invested on this small island of ours.In London 1 in 3 are non white!"
Even if one thought it was ok to generalize to all muslims from that portion that support this sort of thing, whats the logic to identifying Hindu Indians, Christian West Indians, etc as part of the problem?
BRITISH police foiled a plot to blow up aircraft mid-flight between Britain and the United States in what Washington said might have been an attempted al-Qaeda operation.
We are confident we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction, said London police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson. Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.
Terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines, two US counter-terrorism officials said.
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said: This operation is in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot, but because the investigation is still under way, we cannot yet form a definitive conclusion. While this operation was centred in Great Britain, it was sophisticated, it had a lot of members and it was international in scope.
While British police sources did not rule out an al-Qaeda link, they played down the idea of direct involvement by the global militant group.
Britain and the United States both stepped up security, causing severe delays at airports following the announcement of the plot, which a police source said was believed to involve a liquid chemical device.
Unconfirmed media reports said anywhere from six to 10 airliners had been targeted in the plot.
The US Department of Homeland Security raised the threat level for passenger aircraft to red, its highest level, for the first time. US authorities banned liquids, including drinks, hair gels and lotions, from US commercial flights.
Britain's security services upped the threat level in the country to critical from severe, the highest of its five ratings, which means an attack is expected imminently.
Interior Minister John Reid said police were confident the main players had been detained in raids overnight. Twenty-one people had been arrested.
The head of London's counter-terrorist police, Peter Clarke, said the plot had global dimensions and Stephenson said British authorities were cooperating with foreign agencies.
The security alert comes 13 months after four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured about 700 on London's transport network.
Authorities declined to give the nationalities of those arrested. A police source said some were British.
Arrests were made in the capital London, the southeast of England and Britain's second biggest city Birmingham.
Last month, al-Qaeda called on Muslims to fight those who backed Israel's attacks on Lebanon and warned of more attacks unless US and British forces pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda hijacked passenger aircraft in September 2001 to destroy the World Trade Centre in New York, and Briton Richard Reid was arrested in December 2001 for trying to blow up a plane headed to the United States.
This liquid explosive type of attack is particularly worrying. Planes remain vulnerable and in the coming weeks terrorists will be thinking of something else to do that we have no idea about, Peter Neumann, director of the Centre for Defence Studies at London's King's College university, said.
If this had worked out it would have been beyond any doubt the biggest terrorist plot in the UK.
The British Airports Authority BAA said it had asked all European carriers to suspend flights to London's main Heathrow airport, where tighter security measures caused severe delays.
Airlines said no hand baggage would be let on planes leaving British airports, banning electrical or battery powered items. Passengers had to hand over all liquids, including contact lens solutions, on flights to the United States.
The plot appeared similar to a 1995 plan to blow up 11 planes using nitroglycerine mixed in contact lens solution and a battery-powered detonator.
#36
Question. I know it would be satisfying to have the authorities say these were Muslim males between 16-and-32 or whatever but does it really make a difference? Do you think there is a single person in the Western world that doesn't think that anyway when these reports come out. Yeah the multi-cultural filters might apply on some so they would never say it out loud but I'm pretty sure the non-retarded folk out there have sensed the pattern long ago and I hope the authorities do some behavioral profiling to match even if they are very careful about it and grab little old white ladies from time to time for cover.
I would go so far as to say it might be advantageious for two reasons: (1) It provides the Islamic nuts a false sense of security. They are not gonna change their minds either way, they are nuts, but if they have a false sense of security they might be sloppy and easier to catch (2) It may keep some of the silent majority of Muslims on our side. Someone is reporting these guys from time to time. Perhaps its not spoken of (for fear of their lives no doubt) but I think there are a few Muslims out there ratting out the nut-balls so the authorities know who to intercept. If you start labelling all Muslims you might lose some of those folks or even drive them into the arms of the nutbags.
And lastly I'm a hopelessly optimistic fellow, I realize that. Hopelessly optimistic until proven wrong and then I'm all for the Carthage solution.
#37
Henceforth all airline passengers shall only fly drugged and naked. Please specify your drug of choice one week in advance. Please have respect and sympathy for our screeners - their job was already hard enough without having to look at most of you naked.
Posted by: Department of Homeland Security ||
08/10/2006 11:03
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#38
ScrappleFace:
UK Panel Asks: Why Do They Hate Airplanes?
by Scott Ott
(2006-08-10) â The British Parliament, in a rapid response to a terror plot foiled by Scotland Yard yesterday, announced formation of a study panel today to determine why some Muslims hate airplanes.
Early reports indicate 21 men have been taken into custody in connection with a plan to take down an unknown number of U.S.-bound passenger jets originating in Great Britain.
The expert panel will examine various theories about why airplanes engender such hatred among devoted followers of a peaceful religion.
âIs it the horrendous noise? The speed? The condensation trails?â said one unnamed source close to the panel, listing some of the areas of inquiry the experts plan to pursue. âBecause if itâs any of those things, we can get to work on engineering changes to make airplanes more tolerable to our Muslim brothers.â
#39
They can for a few thousand, cost us millions. We need to start doing things to them that cost them millions. They are going to do things that run the price of oil to us up to over $100.00. That's thier goal. So as someone else said on this site said, just blow up Iran's oil terminals, and don't let them fix them. If oil goes to $100.00 , at least they won't be able to profit from it. They won't have any money to give to terrorist either.
#40
Of coures right on queue the moonbats at DU are writhing and gnashing teeth over Chimpy McBushhitlerburton's most recent plot to spread fear and disinformation to keep the sheeple in line.
No need for a link, just go to DU and choose any of several topics in the general forum.
#43
Well, the interrogation methods of the British authorities are more, ummmm, errrr, "primitive" in these cases. One hopes these 21 will be "aided" in spilling the beans on the other 2100 who must have been involved.
"Don't worry, at least you will save money on manicures..." Or, "Didn't you always want to be over 6-feet tall, just like your hero Osama?"
Heh heh heh
Besides we still have 8 Egyptian "students" to locate here in the USA! There is coincidental timing...
#47
When the civilized world is or is perceived as weak, the Islamists will keep probing. We do not have enough treasure to protect ourselves against the terrorists, from a defensive point of view.
One goal of the terrorists is to bankrupt the civilized world through some act of terrorism in a key place, like air transportation. They are continually probing, just like cancer.
Bottom line, the civilized world will not end the terrorist threat until it goes on the offensive. That means taking out Hizb'Alla, neutralizing Syria, eliminating the MMs of Iran and Dinner Jacket, Saudi Prince financiers, Binny's Boyz in Wazoo, Tater, et al.
If the civilized world does not grasp this basic truth, then the terrorists WILL succeed in some big show in the near future. And then, Wrechard's Three Conjectures will kick in.
The UK is greatly infiltrated with Islamic Terrorists, the US has them, too, only not as much. Both governments do not have the leadership needed to face the threats. That has to change, or we will lose this WoT.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006 11:54
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#49
The UK is greatly infiltrated with Islamic Terrorists, the US has them, too, only not as much. Both governments do not have the leadership needed to face the threats. That has to change, or we will lose this WoT.
I think the sober governments in the MidEast, even the ones who facilitate some nonsense, are scared to s**t of something like this. If something bad were to happen? Can you say President Tom "Bomb Mecca" Tancredo???
#51
plainslow, a better plan is to build a bunch of nuclear reactors to take the power-grid off of oil dependency then push for bio-diesel hybrids to take the SUVs and small cars off of oil dependency. The one-two-punch would collapse the price of oil if we did it properly.
#52
These politically minded bombers feel that a successful incident would cause England to go spainish. When perhaps it will happen anyway after gutsy Tony Blair is out of power,
#54
rjschwarz- If you could do it fast enough, I agree. Your solution would also hurt Chavez. Just don't think we can do it quick enough. But we should start anyway.
#55
Word from Dale Dye on KFI this morning that British source says plan was to explode only after planes reache CONUS. What about August 22nd? Can't these people get their party plans coordinated?
#57
Nimble, that's good news because it means less nuke plants need to be built to get the thing rolling.
Fact is a regular diesel engine can run on biodiesel without much modification and SUVs being truck like beasts would work well on diesel if they weren't designed to avoid government restrictions on trucks. The gov should tinker with some rules to push for diesel engine SUVs with a hint and a nod to include engine warmers for the day biodiesel comes. With that in place we could then switch over the fuel at any time we have enough.
I think it wouldn't be long before some enterprising startup started collecting used grease from the fast food places and cleaning it up enough to mix with diesel in any case.
#58
They've started selling biodiesel here in my neighborhood, but I don't know if that's going to be price competitive in the long run. It comes from soy beans, not used grease.
The day, according to She - it muslims, the world will end?
If nothing happens, we should all collect on street corners and laugh as hard as we can at the stupid belief and the stupid believers. Laugh so loud and hard it makes the world news. Let dinner jacket know what we think.
If something does happen, we should nuke Iran in response.
Besoeker, I'll opt for the more appropriate verb ... LIQUIDATE.
Bottom line, the civilized world will not end the terrorist threat until it goes on the offensive. That means taking out Hizb'Alla, neutralizing Syria, eliminating the MMs of Iran and Dinner Jacket, Saudi Prince financiers, Binny's Boyz in Wazoo, Tater, et al.
If the civilized world does not grasp this basic truth, then the terrorists WILL succeed in some big show in the near future. And then, Wrechard's Three Conjectures will kick in.
Word, Alaska Paul. I'm so pissed off right now that I'm beginning to look forward to that day. And remember, I subscribe to the motto of:
Better pissed off than pissed on.
How many people will lose their jobs from whatever brief tourism downturn this causes? How many lives will be ruined? How much more lost productivity will there be due to increased security measures? How many hours of precious vacation time for honest over-stressed and overworked employees will be shot to he||? How much more loss of shareholder value will happen in the affected airlines and associated industries? HOW MANY EXTRA MILLIONS OR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS is this latest round of economic mayhem going to cost the civilized world?
We need to start doing things to them that cost them millions.
#63
Question. I know it would be satisfying to have the authorities say these were Muslim males between 16-and-32 or whatever but does it really make a difference?
You're DAMN right it does. They should be on every TV channel, and in every newspaper, every day, reminding us that MUSLIMS attacked on 9/11, MUSLIMS are fighting Israel, MUSLIMS are behind nearly every terrorist attack in the world for the last several years, and that MUSLIMS want to create a world Islamic state. Words have meaning, and words have power. Constantly reminding the civilized world who these scumbags are can only help wake up some who are sleeping. It may not convince the moonbats (nothing would) but if it changes the thinking of a few fence sitters, it would be well worth it.
#64
I agree: it's very important to tell people, again and again, that those terrorists are Muslims.
In France, since this plot was revealed this morning (French time), most of the media have not said that those terrorists are MUSLIMS, but, rather, have insisted they are "not yet known" or "probably British citizens", and so on.
Bad naming things is adding misfortune to the world.
#65
They've started selling biodiesel here in my neighborhood, but I don't know if that's going to be price competitive in the long run. It comes from soy beans, not used grease.
The kind they sell in your neighborhood might be from soy, it might get better gas mileage or have other advantages, but there are biodiesel vehicles running on used grease as we speak. veggie van and I think its better since we're getting dual use out of it.
The time approaches when an array of profiling, from country of origin, nationality, etc., must become standard procedure for denying access to travel, border crossing, visas, etc. - for access to the West.
Pariah status should be initiated and imposed upon Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, et al.
Shut them out of the system. No more flights originating from or stopping in any of those countries where Islam is endemic and accepted. No more of their nationals allowed access to the West. They can LEAVE, but they may not ENTER.
Forever.
Extradition of the cancerous lumps of non-assimilating "immigrants" should be planned and executed concurrently.
The total isolation of Islam's insanity can and should begin ASAP.
#68
Friggnin Islamonuts. I am seriously hacked off. Finally Bush calls them Islamic facists, but concurrently gets the Israelis to stop their push into Lebanon. I don't get it! When are we going to get serious about this. How many people are going to have to die before we start to fight like there is a real war on?
And this, I think, is what most of us here know viscerally.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/10/2006 19:23
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#70
It isn't OUR last hope, it is THEIRS.
Word, flyover. Now, when is someone going to tattoo this on the forehead of every Muslim leader? Never have I seen a creed rush in such a headlong fashion towards obliteration.
#75
#72 Tony (UK): "Some people in the West will lose their souls (Daily Kos, DU, etc), but who cares about them?"
Don't you have to have something first in order to lose it, Tony?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 21:42
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#76
websites www.dailykos.com and www.democraticunderground.com
wash up with antibiotic soap after visiting
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 21:43
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#77
Daily Kos and Democratic Underground are loony websites, leroidavid.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
08/10/2006 21:44
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#78
Frank G, I just went to Daily Kos and DU, and used afterwards the antibiotic soap you advised.
But, you know, what I have read on those loony websites (as said Jules in the Hinterlands) is what I hear all day long here, in Paris. I am using a lot of bottles of antibiotic soap from morning to evening...
For example, this Thursday, at 7:30 PM, on a French radio that is supposed to be right leaning (RTL), I heard 3 "famous" small French journalists saying, in less than 2 minutes:
- Bin Laden was funded by the US;
- Bin Laden is a CIA employee;
- Israel created the Hezbollah;
- Sharon created the Hamas.
- Fighting terrorism creates terrorists.
They all agreed, and the anchorman too.
This kind of delirium is, in France, common wisdom.
The newspapers, here, are filled with anti-Israeli caricatures so hateful that they are clearly anti-Jewish. For example, the newspaper of the French parisian intelligentsia (Le Monde) published (on August the 2nd) a caricature showing a gigantic nazi boot marked with a David star and crushing Arab bloodstained women and children on the ground. Open any major French newspaper, and you'll see such rubbish.
It's not antibiotic soap we need here to clean this garbage: it's the strongest insecticide.
While siren sounds were being heard across the Kiryat Shmona and Golan Heights regions, IDF forces entered areas north of Metula Wednesday night and started operating near the south Lebanese village of al-Hiyam, an area from which rockets are being launched at the Galilee panhandle on a daily basis. IDF officials said that the incursion represented an expansion of the operation near the border, stressing that in the near future the offensive will be widened in other sectors as well. However, diplomatic sources stated that the current activity did not constitute part of the broadened operation approved by the Security Cabinet Wednesday that may lead the army as deep into Lebanese territory as the Litani River.
The IDF's operations throughout south Lebanon will reach the Litani River in roughly one week...
The IDF's operations throughout south Lebanon will reach the Litani River in roughly one week, a senior IDF officer assessed Wednesday afternoon, in response to the National Security Cabinet decision to boost military activity. In addition, forces will require four to six weeks to attain full ground control, the army official estimated. Against the difficult backdrop of casualties in southern Lebanon, the Security Cabinet approved the widening of operations in Lebanon. Soldiers will now be sent to operate against rocket launchers across the region. The aim to find and destroy rocket launchers used to attack northern Israel . Nine cabinet ministers supported the operation, while three Ophir Pines, Shimon Peres, and Eli Yishai abstained.
In the meantime, the evacuation of soldiers from southern Lebanon and the arenas of the difficult battles continue. Nine soldiers that have been hurt in south Lebanon battles were evacuated to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa so far. Another 21 wounded were evacuated to the Nahariya hospital, four of them are in moderate condition and the others sustained light injuries. Seven troops who were lightly wounded were evacuated to the Ziv Hospital in Safed. Since Wednesday morning IDF forces have been engaged in heavy battles with Hizbullah gunmen, who continue to fire various types of missiles at armored IDF vehicles and structures in which soldiers are staying. Two IDF soldiers were moderately injured near Marj Ayoun. At dawn Paratroopers Brigade troops left Lebanon, but large forces are still operating in dozens of locations, this in addition to elite reserve units operating deep inside Lebanese territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
You KNOW the IDF are shooting back, and with more firepower, including air power. Plus, they get better re-supply and re-enforcement. So with as many casualties as the IDF are taking, one has to wonder how many more they are giving. Nasrallah talks a good fight, but I'd sure rather be on Israel's side if I was Joe Grunt.
#2
One thing you don't hear anything about is how many of these "injured" are returning to their units, and the fight. If they're anything like the US military, 75% return within 48 hours, and 90% return within a week.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 14:29
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A defiant Hizbullah chief vowed on Wednesday to turn south Lebanon into a "graveyard" for invading Israeli troops, hours after the Jewish state ordered an expanded ground offensive. In a televised speech, Hassan Nasrallah said Israeli attacks had not weakened its rocket capabilities and called on the Arab residents of Haifa to quit the Israeli city to avoid being hurt by the guerrilla group's barrages.
We will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the invading Zionists...
"You won't be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we'll force you out," said Nasrallah in a recorded speech shown on Hizbullah's television station. "We will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the invading Zionists."
Israel decided on Wednesday to expand its ground offensive in Lebanon, increasing pressure on major powers struggling to win agreement on a United Nations resolution to end the 29-day-old war.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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Ya' got the graveyard part right, asshole.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 0:11
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Big words from a man cowering in the basement of one of Baby's palaces in Syria.....
#3
He is not in Syria, he is in the basement of the Iranian embassy in Beiruth.
I think the Israelis shall do what the US did in May 1999 in Beograd, when a Tomahawk missile killed there 4 Chinese diplomats in the China embassy, on purpose, because China was helping the Serbs and transferring to them datas about the US warplanes' flights, after which the US just laconically said that it was a mistake...
Lets send a 1000 pounds bomb on the Iranian embassy in Beiruth.
#4
It once again shows that the terror groups are very much engaged in a Media, Propaganda or PR war in face of the low or unlikely prospect of defeating the IDF, or even any US-led milfors. Nasrey wants a body count, NOTSOMUCH MIL VICTORY OVER ISRAEL, to play before the world + US MSM ala "Quagmire/Vietnam Redux".
SRINAGAR, India - Two men identified as Islamic militants were killed Wednesday in separate incidents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said, but protesters alleged one was a civilian waiting for a bus.
A group of paramilitary soldiers from Indias Central Reserve Police Force patrolling the busy Dal Gate area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, shot a man to death who they said was preparing to throw a grenade at them, said Deputy Inspector-General of Police Farooq Ahmed. Ahmed said two grenades were recovered from the body of the man, who was in his 20s. He was identified by police as Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh, from the town of Bandipore about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Srinagar, and a student in an arts college.
Another suspected militant was killed Wednesday in a gunbattle with soldiers in the village of Nildora, 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Srinagar, said police officer Imtiaz Hussain.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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Former MK Issam Mahoul rejects Nasrallah's call to Haifa's Arab population to evacuate city; 'We have nothing to do outside of Haifa, and we refuse to be refugees,' Mahoul asserts. Haifa Mayor: Nasrallah won't succeed in uprooting Arab residents.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
'We have nothing to do outside of Haifa, and we refuse to be refugees
See--they can learn, after all. They just need a spectacularly horrible good, clear example. Cause and effect are not lost on this bunch after all.
Now, to get rid of the holy rollers that keep them from learning.
Posted by: N guard ||
08/10/2006 0:24
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JERUSALEM - Hezbollah guerrillas fired 160 rockets at Israeli towns on Wednesday, including medium- and long-ranged rockets that landed near the West Bank town of Jenin and the Israeli city of Beit Shean, police said. Three people were lightly wounded.
Five of the rockets landed near a Palestinian town in the West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian security officials said. There were no casualties. The rockets landed near the village of Arabani, on the Israel-West Bank frontier, the officials said. Clouds of smoke from the rockets could be seen 20 kilometers (12 miles) away in the town of Jenin, witnesses said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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If they hit Jenin, it will be a massacre. The first massacre to occur there, mind you.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/10/2006 0:33
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#2
I'm waiting for these asses to send a long range rocket into the mosque in Jerusalem so Israel can put up the temple, as per the biblical end time scenario.
#4
TW, the established halacha is that we dont do animal sacrifice TILL we have the third temple, and we dont do the third temple till the moshiach comes. And Rambam, the most important halachist of all time, said that when moshiach comes, moshiach will abolish animal sacrifice. But, AFAIK, the tiny group of people who constitute the Third Temple crowd in Israel, definitely expect to resume animal sacrifice. Im not sure how they deal with Rambam - I guess the prediction about what Moshiach will do is aggadah, not halachah, and so can be contested easily.
If the mosques on the mount blew up, but there were no other signs of moshiach (dead being revived, etc) my sense would be that the Orthodox establishment, backed up by secular Israeli society, would oppose the construction of anything Jewish on the Temple Mount, unhappy as this would make the above mentioned 3rd temple crowd.
OTOH, i think almost every Jewish Israeli would support archaelogical digs on the Mount, in that case.
#7
#5 The Jews don't do Temple worship anymore. If it is rebuilt it will end up being a theme park for the tourists, nothing more. I think this comment would have been more effective in the original german text.
Posted by SamAdamsky 2006-08-10 13:17|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
....with the Horst Wessel playing quietly in the background.
Twenty-seven years after a chilling sit-down with Ayatollah Khomeini that was one of Mike Wallace's most memorable, the veteran CBS television newsman snagged an interview this week with current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Teheran. The 88-year-old Wallace had been pursuing the interview for so long that he had to be reminded by Ahmadinejad when he first asked for it.
A portion of Wallace's interview, conducted Tuesday at a crucial time in the Mideast with Israel fighting the Iranian-backed Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon, will be shown Thursday on the "CBS Evening News." A fuller report will air on Sunday's "60 Minutes" TV news magazine. During the midst of the American hostage crisis in 1979, Wallace interviewed Iranian leader Khomeini, locking eyes with the cleric when he asked for a response to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat calling Khomeini a lunatic.
Additional: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with Mike Wallace in Tehran on Tuesday in a rare, exclusive interview with a Western reporter.
In the wide-ranging interview, the Iranian leader comments on President Bush's foreign policy, the lack of relations between Iran and the United States, Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq.
Speaking about President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter that criticized U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad said, "Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective. We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate. You see that his approval rating is dropping every day. Hatred vis-à-vis the president is increasing every day around the world. For a ruler, this is the worst message that he could receive. Rulers and heads of government at the end of their office must leave the office holding their heads high."
Remember the speculation about the letter being a traditional islamic invitation to submit to Allah? Refusal by Bush to submit being expected, it was Ahmadinejad's declaration of war.
#5
Of Ahmadinejad, Wallace said, "He's an impressive fellow, this guy. He really is. He's obviously smart as hell."
"You'll find him an interesting man," he said. "I expected more of a firebrand. I don't think he has the slightest doubt about how he feels ... about the American administration and the Zionist state. He comes across as more rational than I had expected."
Another shining moment for CBS.
We call it "Israel" over here, Mike, not Zionist state. But you probably forget a lot these days, you senile old fuck...
#6
They're big on wet, sloppy man kisses in the middle east. I wander if Mike and Mahmoud shared a camel as well...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/10/2006 14:28
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Wasn't there a thing where Journalists were asked that, if they knew there was going to be an attack against american forces would they alert the authorities -- and Wallace said he wouldn't?
I wonder if Wallace knows of any major attacks (or Nuke attack on Israel for example) which nutjob has scheduled for Aug 22nd....
Why is America waiting to be attacked by Iran? Why do we sit on the sidelines while Tehran makes war on our ally Israel in order to provoke America to join the fighting, first against Syria and then against Tehran itself? Why do we listen to the European appeasers as they pretend the Lebanon front is a regional conflict, a national liberation contest, when it is demonstrably the prelude to the wider war the Spain 1936 to the continental war of 1939? What is the explanation for America's willful fiction that the United Nations Security Council can engineer an accommodation in Lebanon, when it is vivid to every member state that this is a replay of September 1938, when Europe fed Hitler the Sudetenland as the U.N. now wants to feed the jihadists the sovereignty of Israel?
The most threatening answer is that America waits to be bloodied because it has lost its will to defend itself after five years of chasing rogue-state-sponsored gangsters and after three years of occupation in failed-state Iraq against Tehran- and Damascus-backed agents. A grave possibility is that America is now drained, bowed, ready to surrender to the tyrants of Tehran.
Then again, perhaps America has been here before, and it is part of America's destiny as the New Jerusalem that we rarely start wars but that we are unusually good at finishing them.
At least so far - though the MSM bitched about the end of WW II as well.
My treasured evidence that America knew what was coming is Life Magazine, Volume 11, No. 23, dated December 8, 1941, which means it was printed and distributed a week before Pearl Harbor.
The astonishing 13-page cover photo essay by Clare Boothe on Commander of the Far East General Douglas MacArthur is complete with maps showing America's strategic challenges at Manila, including the daunting air and sea mileage from San Francisco to Manila and from "Tokio" to Manila. "Will the Island of Luzon then become the great theater of war, and General MacArthur the outstanding khaki-clad figure in it?" asks Boothe. "Or will peace descend upon the Pacific while the U.S. plunges into the war across the Atlantic?"
Interesting - I did not know that.
-----
What this all means to me today is that America was expectant of the crisis that fell on December 7, 1941; and yet America remained reluctant to say out loud that war was unavoidable, inevitable, already under way the nation holding back as if the obvious war plans in Berlin and Tokyo were going to vanish like a lightning storm. When the Japanese fleet did maul our Pacific fleet, the Roosevelt administration was rattled and the public was grim. It will be the same for us when this premonitory waiting lifts and the main action begins, both frightful and logical. The Lebanese Front, the Iraqi Front, the Afghan and Kashmir Fronts, or the Haifa blitz will no more solve themselves than did the China-Burma Front, the North African Front, the Atlantic Front, the London blitz of 65 years ago. Who will publish the last magazine before the day of infamy comes again?
Doesn't matter. Unlike that 1941 Life, the present-day one will be lying its ass off right up to the fateful day - and making excuses for the enemy thereafter. (Assuming anyone at the magazine survives the attack, which I quite frankly hope they don't.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006
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Thanks for moving this to the correct category, Fred - got caught up in pasting the story & forgot. Until just after I'd hit the "Post" button.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 0:01
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#2
But at least I included the link! ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 0:02
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#3
We noticed ;-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006 0:20
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#4
MARY MATALIN > the Dems as taken over by [post-Lieberman] MOVEON.org and the FAR/RADICAL LEFT only plan is to run away from everything. We can prob add "Iff we pretend or delude we are = are not, it is". Maybe after a few Amer Hiroshimas, or the Motherly Commie Airborne Peacekeeping = Occupation Army starts rafting across the Colorado River-Mississippi towards Washington DC, the future CPUSA-Amerikan Politburo-United Socialist Republics "MIGHT" DECIDE, "MAYBE",
"COULD" DECIDE TO FIGHT. They swear, they tell ya, LIFE WILL BE BETTER, OR AT LEAST UNCHANGED, ONCE 200 MILYUHN OR MORE DESPICABLE NAZI = WELL-MEANING BUT INCORRECT LIMITED COMMUNIST-STALINIST-TOTALITARIAN, AMERICANS = AMERIKANS ARE PUT TO DEATH, POLITELY-VOLUNTARILY = FORCIBLY-NECESSARY.
#5
Pre-emption is central to US Military Strategy. There is no scenario in which Iran is not attacked in some form. The US played "doble cara" - military-diplomacy - with success in the Central America conflict. History repeats.
#6
At least so far - though the MSM bitched about the end of WW II as well.
Well, not in 1945 it didn't. And it didn't for the 50s and most of the 60s till late in the decade when the radical left started to indoctrinate 'hate America' in the universities and their 'true believers' infiltrated MSM.
As amply demonstrated by the nut case leading Iran today, someone is going to do something stupid. All restraints will be removed and the problem solved. We'll get around to agonizing about it twenty years later in a more civil world. Hopefully, by then well treat the guilt salesmen with the contempt they deserve.
#7
Diplomatically, the decks will be cleared for the US if the Iranians commit a major act of war first. No other nation, by Cold War rules, can even object if they launch a nuclear missile in an aggressive manner at us.
But the US and perhaps Israel, are the only two countries that plan far enough ahead so that they don't *have* to respond with nukes themselves. This is done by setting up the resources to shoot down any nuclear capable missile or missiles that Iran can launch, with layered defense, for extra security.
Ideally, the Iranians will attack first, but in such an ineffective manner that they will be our bitch, as it were. Then we will have carte blanche to respond as we see fit.
#9
Unless the Iranians decide to play an apocalyptic version of Suicide By Cop as we discussed yesterday, there is no reason for them to attack anyone directly when they can operate through proxies like Hezbollah and transnational terrorism. That way, when a container ship blows up in the Houston Ship Channel, everyone can make big innocent eyes while simultaneously gloating and denying any involvement.
#10
TU6878, Were you unaware that U. S. Newspapers told the Japanese that they were setting their torpedoes too deep or that we were reading their secret codes? The MSM has not changed, only our remembrance of it. This book should give you a start on why nothing you will ever read about a war in real time may be relied upon.
#11
#6 TU6878 - You must not have seen the scans of the NYT et al. in the years immediately after WW II with their headlines about how we were "losing the peace."
I think they've always been a bunch of anti-American tools - they just used to hide it better. Nowaways, they don't even bother to try to hide it.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 12:22
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In WWII, the press supported the US forces because the American forces were fighting the Nazis and were allied with Stalin. When we started fighting the Communists in Korea, the bring the boys home drumbeat started.
#13
Does the MSM really want to write what the islamofacists tell them to write after the prophesized takeover (according to the Koran)? Do they want to be a mouthpiece for Al Jazeera? Just think...the precious freedom of the first amendment will no longer be available for protection. The Bill of Rights and constitution will no longer be available in the scheme of the islamofacists. There will be no forum for the arrogance of the MSM. I saw Marvin (?) Kalb, Harvard professor defending the rights of the press to write a story that was a spin article. A young 22 year-old soldier who had fought in Iraq and as a result lost a limb was interviewed (if you can really call it that) by the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe did a hatchet job on him. Kalb defended the reporter and had little to say in defense of the soldier who had been set up. Basically, the writer injected his or her opinions in the article so it made this young man appear to be against the war which he was not. The story became about the reporter and his or her opinions and not the reporting of this fine soldier's experiences and opinions based on his experiences. The press is a very perverse--somewhere close to child molestation in the hierarchy of ethical behavior. What the hell crap are they getting pumped into their skulls in the journalism schools. The MSM is an arrogant bunch of elitest that try to become the story rather than just report the story. They think they should tell the rest of us what to do, think, and feel. Is there no objective reporting anymore. Do they really want to see the U.S. and the Western democracies fail? They are a party to this and are complicit. That makes them traitors in my book. Look at the pro-Hezzballah stance the MSM takes. What as*holes.
#15
Seems to me to be a generational memory flaw in humans.
As soon as those who experienced the true close calls of history, who beat back the [insert foe here], are too old to be heard and seen for the examples they are by the children and young adults, the memory and meaning of the evils they faced and the means that had to be employed to defeat them vanish from the memory pool.
#16
Our schools no longer teach history to save our lives.
Posted by: ed ||
08/10/2006 22:12
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A good point Flyover, and one I've posted about (at the TCP).
I wonder, do things improve as our lifespans increase? Or do gaps form with older and younger that become increasingly wide? Will a point come when it is not just one generation removed but two? Hmmm, interesting topics.
#18
The Band of Brothers "marathon" is about to continue on the History Channel - at which point I go AWOL, heh. This is the sort of honest re-telling, with the brave souls who survived to provide commentary and guidance, which could help. If the education system wasn't thoroughly infiltrated by the losers, perhaps this would be included in the curriculum.
I think we have socially isolated our older, wiser, generations to the point that they have minimal, if any, impact on the young in many (most?) of our households. I sat at my grandfather's feet and watched him like a hawk. He embodied all of the good traits. It was scary - only those nasty damned cigars marred his record, otherwise he was almost a perfect role model. I guess I was lucky to have grown up then, when 3 generations (at least) were commonly or frequently present.
I'm no sociologist - just an observer. I leave to those with the tools and training to analyze.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 22:55
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#20
My 10-year old is watching the BoB marathon. His grandfather was at St. Vith during the Ardennes offensive, and I've told him that the Bastogne episodes are a pretty good representation of what his grandfather saw.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006 23:51
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IDF forces arrested six fugitives throughout the West Bank overnight Wednesday. One Islamic Jihad operative was arrested in the Re'i village south of Jenin. Two Fatah operatives and one Jihad activist were arrested in Nablus. Two Jihad operatives were arrested in Hebron.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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A retired Russian special services colonel has been sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for passing state secrets to MI6, in the latest espionage episode pitting London against Moscow.
The ruling by the Moscow district military court was announced today after a closed trial in which Sergey Skripal, 55, was prosecuted for high treason in the form of espionage. Yevgeny Komissarov, a spokesman for the court, told the Guardian Skripal had "inflicted significant damage on the Russian Federation and its external security".
Russian media, quoting unidentified security sources, said the 55-year-old former officer had disrupted Russia's network of spies in Europe by revealing the names of dozens of agents.
Skripal was arrested in Moscow in December 2004 by the federal security service, although his detention and prosecution were kept secret. Mr Komissarov said Skripal - who pleaded guilty - had become acquainted with British intelligence agents from MI6 (otherwise known as the Secret Intelligence Service or SIS) during a posting to western Europe in the mid-1990s. He retired from the armed forces in 1999 but continued to transfer documents to his handlers at meetings outside Russia until his arrest.
"It is named in the court records that he passed state secrets to the SIS," said Mr Komissarov. "I can't say what data he transferred, but the fact that the special service of another country became familiar with these secrets brought very serious consequences." It is thought that Skripal, a career officer who lived in Moscow, was paid at least £55,000 for the information. The cash was handed over in foreign currency or deposited into a Spanish bank account.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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Remember the good old days, when a chrage of spying for...well, anyone, would quickly get you a bullet. If you were lucky. If you were very lucky. How times have changed.
A flashback to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.(NKVD, in russian.) Brrrr...
Posted by: N guard ||
08/10/2006 0:32
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai, strongly hinted in an interview that he will not run for another term in office.
Zounds. Could he become a true statesman?
Karzai became Afghanistan's transitional leader soon after the Taliban regime's ouster in late 2001, then was chosen as its first democratically elected president in late 2004, with a five-year term. The next election is slated for 2009. "Let other people get a chance to run," Karzai told Fortune magazine in an interview. His spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmed, said Wednesday the article was accurate and properly characterized the president's views.
Karzai, who easily won at the presidential polls nearly two years ago, has seen his popularity decline because of slow progress in reconstructing the war-battered country and poor security - notably an upsurge in Taliban attacks this year in the volatile south.
Despite the violence, he told Fortune that the government controls "the whole country" and that it is mostly secure. He claimed success in building Afghanistan's economy but conceded that corruption was rife, that "lots of people" in his administration profited from the drugs trade and that he had underestimated the task of eradicating opium poppy cultivation.
Karzai said the international community weakened his government by rewarding pro-U.S. warlords for their role in the Taliban's ouster, but insisted no warlords were in his administration. Karzai's Cabinet includes mujahedeen leaders, who fought against Soviet occupation and in the collapse into anarchy that followed.
Karzai said he was proud that incomes had risen during his presidency, but added, "We are still among the poorest in the world. While we have better roads, we are still the worst in the world. While we have improved our supply of electricity, we are still the worst in the world."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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QASMIYE, Lebanon The wounded men moved slowly across the hot patch of cratered earth. Some limped. One used crutches. Two carried their own colostomy intravenous bags. The secret war of shadow militia fighters being waged against the Israeli Army from the mountains of southern Lebanon came into sharp focus Tuesday near a gnarled tree trunk that serves as the only remaining crossing over the Litani River,
Hezbollah fighters, their faces exhausted and drawn, shuffled gingerly toward the crossing, leaving, at least for now, the front lines of a war that has won them broad support among local people here and has frustrated the Israeli military for weeks...
which divides northern Lebanon from the war in the south. Hezbollah fighters, their faces exhausted and drawn, shuffled gingerly toward the crossing, leaving, at least for now, the front lines of a war that has won them broad support among local people here and has frustrated the Israeli military for weeks. "I don't know a thing," said Yusef Rafaai, a local emergency worker helping the men. "I know they're Lebanese. More than that I don't know."
"I know nothing! No-thing! Tell them, Hogan!"
The river and its crossings - all makeshift since the Israelis blew up the last bridge a few days ago - have pushed even the most secret activities into the open, offering an unusual view of this ordinarily hidden guerrilla war. Besides the fighters, bread, canned tuna, sardines and processed cheese - donations from Iran - were being carried across, with help from local Lebanese who support Hezbollah.
The movement showed that the Israeli bombing, which had gouged huge craters out of the area around the river, had not broken supply lines. Despite the bombardments, Hezbollah continues to operate in some areas in open view of Israeli drones, which whine overhead in the brilliant afternoon sky. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., in a large, open dirt field cut with giant craters from Israeli bombs, five ghostly fighters became ordinary, wounded men.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
So every one of them are 100% behind Hezbollah, actively aiding them, and thus suitable targets for killing?!? Wow, nice of this reporter to verify that there are NO "innocent civillians" in ALL of Southern Lebanon. Every single one of 'em is a Hezbollah supporter/helper/booster/member!
#4
If you strafe the river day and night and nothing will cross it. Call it a line of exclusion or a dead zone or anything you like. Drop leaflets warning of the danger of attack after X hours on X date until further notice. Then do it. Give about 30 min warning. Anything on either bank that moves simply stop from moving from then on. REd Cross or no since the Red Cross is being used to support the terrorists it has no protection use it as a target.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Top Democrats on Capitol Hill abandoned Sen. Joe Lieberman one by one Wednesday and threw their support to Ned Lamont, the anti-war challenger who defeated him in the primary. Top Senate Democrats, including John Kerry and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Harry Reid of Nevada, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Chuck Schumer of New York, said they supported Lamont as the duly elected choice of Connecticut's Democratic voters.
Reid and Schumer - the party's Senate leader, and the head of the Democratic Senate campaign committee - said: ``The perception was that (Lieberman) was too close to George Bush and this was, in many respects, a referendum on the president more than anything else. The results bode well for Democratic victories in November and our efforts to take the country in a new direction.''
Because you always look stronger tossing one of your own out of the boat and into the water.
Kennedy called Lamont's victory ``a clarion call for change,'' and a spokeswoman said Kennedy planned to campaign for the nominee.
Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please ...
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated her pledge to back the winner of the primary. She stopped short of calling on Lieberman to quit the race but urged the senator to ``search his conscience and decide what is best for Connecticut and for the Democratic Party.''
Think he's done that, Hilde, that's why he's staying in.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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#1
Damn, I'm getting slow. It just occured to me that I worked with Ned on some campus technolgies projects in the early 1990s. Our company did the general contracting and Ned's company provided the cable television programming. (That tidbit plus four bucks will get you a latte at Starbucks.)
Posted by: Mike ||
08/10/2006 6:38
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#3
If Joe wanted to do what is best for the Democrat party, hew would pull out and make them face what they have done. As it is they get to have their fun protest without any consequences.
#5
Political reality here. If Joe runs, Lamont can't win. Lamont will get anti-war vote. Lamont and Joe will split leftist vote. Joe will get most of that. I think the republican has a chance.
Does anyone have a clue about the republican in this race ? I don't even know his name.
Any right wingers in Conn ?
#7
Lamont probably got all the votes that he is going to get in the Nov. election. There are a lot more votes out there than Lamont's showing. If Lieberman runs as an independent and wins, then that is another nail in the dem's coffin and a warning to republicans to get off their fat asses and lead this country. I personally would like to see more independents in Congress. Both parties have sold their souls out a long time ago.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006 12:29
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Ned Lamont, great-nephew of Corliss Lamont, WASP plutocrat fund-raiser for Stalin. Lamont's main political asset is that he is a walking, breathing argument in favor of a massive inheritance tax. His plan for fighting the terrorists is to enact a single-payer government health plan and universal pre-K education programs. His goal is to unite the "cut" and "run" wings of his party into one glorious coalition.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, black anti-semites bussed into Conn. to finalize the deal.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will wait to see in which direction the diplomatic process is headed before giving the IDF a green light to implement the expanded ground operation the security cabinet approved at the end of a tense, six-hour meeting Wednesday, senior sources in the Prime Minister's Office said.
This is the process known as "dithering."
According to these officials, the waiting period would be "very short."
Yeah. They should be booming Tel Aviv any time now...
The security cabinet, by a vote of 9-0 with three abstentions, approved plans to expand the IDF ground operation to the Litani, which at some points is 30 kilometers from the border, in order to take out the Katyusha launchers that have wreaked havoc on northern Israel over the past month. Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Kadima), Culture and Sport Minister Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor), and Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) cast the abstaining ballots.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
Hez will never stop. Everyone knows this. Freshly armed and on their knees to Iran?
Green Light GO.
If you are a Jump refusal, you will be terminated.
Thier is a big difference between talkin about pulling the trigger and actually pulling a trigger. The guy who usually threaten to hit you wont and is really just trying to get out of having to hit you. The guy you gotta watch out for is the quit guy who dont say nothing just up and bust you upside the head.
Learn to post links, C-Low. You're busting the page. Next time, I wipe 'em
Report: IDF soldiers take up positions on a strategic hill overlooking Litani River
Israeli troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, entered the key south Lebanese town of Marjayoun early Thursday hours after the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to expand a ground offensive in Lebanon, residents said.
After taking Marjayoun, Israeli soldiers moved to the nearby village of Blatt where they took up positions on a strategic hill overlooking the Litani River valley, witnesses said. (AP)
#7
Smells to me like there must have been a call from Rice telling them to delay. I don't think they would do this voluntarily. We (US) are going to screw the pooch yet, just like in Iraq. Anytime we don't apply max force as soon as possible, it's a mistake.
#10
The fact that the Israeli authorities are delaying the attack, or at least say so, is very strange: it's as if there weren't 150 rockets blowing Israeli towns each day!
This is the first war waged by Israel during which at least part of the cabinet is talking as if it hopes an imposed cease-fire agreement will end the war.
But the writing - in blood and fire - is on the wall. Our national future hangs in the balance. It is entirely possible we will not get another chance to defend ourselves.
I pray that my pessimism is mistaken.
In every previous war Israel did its best to fight up to the last moment, up to the cease-fires that were forced on it. That is what David Ben-Gurion did in the War of Independence; what Moshe Dayan as chief of staff did in the Sinai Campaign of 1956; and what Yitzhak Rabin as chief of staff and Dayan as minister of defense did in 1967.
And the strinking conclusion:
I have this to say to the government: If you do not bomb Hizbullah to kingdom come now, you will have lost the right to blame the allies of World War II for not bombing Auschwitz.
#13
Hope you're right, Rex, and that Olmert's Hamlet routine is disinformation. But I think he just doesn't have the stones to do what must be done, and is hoping a cease-fire resolution acceptable to the U.S. will relieve him of the responsibility of a painful decision.
It's a decision the west in general, as well as Israel, faces with respect to Iran: hundreds or thousands of troops perish soon or hundreds of thousands or millions of civilians are slaughtered in our streets later.
#16
I can't understand how the Israeli government works and thinks.
Haaretz is reporting that Shimon Peres, who abstained Wednesday for the vote on a broadened attack, explained that:
"he did not support the move because it has already forfeited the element of surprise, may involve numerous fatalities and would endanger Israel's relations with Arab and Muslim states"
I usually don't swear, but, !#@§*!, what the !&%¤#! is he talking about ?
Israel is attacked by Arabomuslim genocidal terrorists, and he is concerned about "Israel's relations with Arab and Muslim states" ???
Olmert said, according to the same Haaretz article :
"We must act resolutely, with a strong military force, even at the cost of human life. But if we can achieve our goals through diplomatic moves, it would be irresponsible not to do so"
Goal: eliminate the Hezbonut terrorists.
Diplomatic move: sign a sheet of paper.
So, how can Israel kill the Hezboschmucks with a sheet of paper ?
#18
This is hard to say. I think it's time for the Israeli military to start making the decisions. It is sad to say the current political and democratic method will not peserve Israel. The military is the last defense of that nation.
While Iranian rockets rain down on Israel it's leaders show weakness and vacillation to those who would destroy them every last man woman and child is they were allowed.
I am past words which can describe this stupidity.
#19
US pressure prompts delay of offensive The troops were already rolling late Wednesday when they were ordered to halt. It appears heavy US pressure delayed the offensive to allow diplomacy to run its course.
#21
Peres and Omert dither while innocent Israelis get bombed.
Did Churchill dither while the Germans bombed London?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/10/2006 6:33
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#22
you got it right gromgoru we are the reason they are not moving .... typical bullshit ...more israelis die while we make them wait on the sidelines .. I wish they would tell us to fuck off and get on with it
#23
once again the entire world including us hands the hezbos the victory they could not achieve on their own and terrorisust everywhere INCLUDING iraq are encouraged that if they will just wait long enough we all will cave and play by their rules
#24
I am willing to bet this is the reason we have not seen more troops from the start, we gave them a greenlight for a certain level of activity thinking it would be enough, well not when you give terrorists years to turn an entire country into a damn fortress, and the world, collectively pissing in their silk panties out of fear, did nothing
#25
You guys are so pessimistic. Why all the negative waves? This is exactly the way Olmert and Peretz have fought the whole war. I would not be surprised to find out the reason Adam was relieved in place was because he was getting too agressive.
#26
I don't understand (yes, I do) the 10,000 cabinet meetings for every dog tick military operation. How about coming up with an overall military objective, for example something hypothetical and out of thin air such as "destroying the Hezbollah" and complete the objective? The Israeli civilian crappership is taking "mission creep" to new and unseen horizons.
#28
IsraELI needs to quit pussyfooting around. Hezbzallah and Hamas is trying to destroy you. If the U.S. keeps screwing around, they are going to become no better than the U.N. Negotiation with the islamofacists is a recipe for disaster.
Green light, geen light, GREEN LIGHT (My wife says I am yelling at the computer again)!
#29
Shimon Peres urges to give diplomacy a chance: Fifteen victims a day is a proof of the price we are likely to pay if we dont try to utilize the diploamtic process to the fullest. (Ynet) 04:47 PDT
#30
The delay is just for a chance to train up the new arrivals. Olmert does play the clown to perfection, however. His act seems to mask the real potential of the Israelis to wage war.
Eventually, the clown will tire of all the cartwheels and get serious.
Didnt mean to Bust the thread or anyones balls. They were all related links that added not changed the direction of the post.
I thought thread busting hijacking was say when you posted a link about Military waiting green light to attack and I drop a link in the comments about how Syrker Brigade sent into reinforce IA in Baghdad. Dont add but changes the conversation about the original link.
#32
"Didnt mean to Bust the thread or anyones balls."
C-Low, you were chastized for "busting" the page formatting by posting long links not enclosed by HTML tags. Hence the warning "...learn to post links...".
And while you're at it, try learning to write an intelligible sentence, your posts are gibberish.
#33
C-Low, I think they were referring to using the "a href" tag to post a lin as opposed to pasing the link in as text. It doesn't wrap and so the window gets too wide for people running at a low resolution. If the "a href" tag reference doesn't make sense check into this, particularly here.
#36
Israel cant occupy half of lebanon indefinitely. At some point they have to get out, and if theres nothing left behind, not the Leb army, or an International force, the Iranians will just set up a new Hezb. Rinse and repeat, every couple of years. What have you gained?
OTOH if they can get something useful out of the UNSC, that could be a real gain. Theres no missiles hitting Israel from Jordan, and Jordans just as much populated by muslims, arabs, etc as Leb is - and the Jordan govt is just as cynical. Diff is that Jordan controls its own territory. Rice is promising that she can get a deal that will advance Lebs control of its own territory. Several members of the Israeli cabinet think its worth delaying the attack a couple of days to give her a chance.
Whether shes realistic or not, is not something Im in position to answer.
#37
"I am willing to bet this is the reason we have not seen more troops from the start, we gave them a greenlight for a certain level of activity thinking it would be enough, well not when you give terrorists years to turn an entire country into a damn fortress, and the world, collectively pissing in their silk panties out of fear, did nothing"
Thats pretty much what socialist amir peretz said to Mofaz, who attacked the Peretz plan - what did YOU do when you were DM, and they werent yet as dug in. This govt is dealing with the aftermath of Hezb having 6 years to dig in, and thats left them with some pretty challenging dilemmas.
IDF says no one was held prisoner, they came to a Leb facility, asked the Lebs to "share it" when they refused demanded they surrender the place, the Lebs asked to leave, the IDF then "suggested" it would be too dangerous to take to the road, and that they should stay.
#45
Diplomacy does not work outside the bounds of rational thought. It is imposible to reason with an enemy who's ultimate goal is your inihilation. Islam is not interested in land or money except for that which empowers them toward their ultimate goal, the extermination of the jewish people. A cease fire now only empowers hezb and its supporters time to recover and reorganize.
#49
Manolo - I suspect in your arrogance you don't know that Mr 6 posts those malaprops deliberately. You haven't been here long enough or don't know his previous nym. When faced with an incongruence, choose caution, rather than exhibit behavior other's find objectionable. Was that good enuf 4 U?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 19:48
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#50
Frank, you're a fine one to speak of arrogance. I've been here for over four years, maybe you don't know my previous "nym".
I suspect that you don't realize I post my little digs deliberately as well. My suggestion that C-Low work on bringing his high gibberish factor down, wasn't directed at 6, or you for that matter. Comprende?
MULTAN: Hafiz Shafiqur Rehman of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba was hanged on Wednesday in the Multan Central Jail. It is the fourth time that a culprit involved in sectarian killings was hanged in the country. Rehman had killed Syed Ejaz Shah, the Tehrik-e-Jafria Bhakkar president. Twelve members of Rehmans family, including his brother Atiqur Rehman, received the body. Earlier, Shieikh Shahzad of the banned Sipah-e-Muhammad was hanged after court found him involved in a murder of a Sipah-e-Sahaba activist in Bahawalpur. Mahram Ali, who was involved in a bomb blast that left Ziaur Rehman Farooqi and over a dozen policemen dead, was hanged. Haq Nawaz of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was the third to be hanged. Nawaz had killed Sadiq Ganji, head of an Iranian cultural center.
Rehman joined the Sipah-e-Sahaba in 1988, and then switched over to ultra-terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 1995. Reportedly, he went to Afghanistan with a group of preachers (Tableeghi Jamaat) and fought the Russians alongside Taliban. He also got admission to Burawala Degree College but turned out to be a dropout. Dont show my face and follow my footsteps: A total 83 people, including 13 children, met Rehman on Tuesday. His brother Atiqur Rehman and nephew Habibur Rehman told Daily Time that Shafiq asked them not to show his face to other family members. They said that Rehman had asked them not to meet those who would mourn his death and show rejoice over his death. They said that he told them that he had done the right job. Rehman advised his brother to follow his path too. He advised his brother to set up a seminary after his name in Vehari. He also advised people to always be ready to sacrifice themselves for Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
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must be well hung
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/10/2006 6:31
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OSLO: Shipping company Trico Marine Services said on Wednesday four foreign workers were kidnapped from one of its supply vessels off Nigeria. The head of Trico Marine's Norwegian subsidiary told Reuters that two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were abducted. "We will not come out with more information than that four of our crew were taken from a ship off Nigeria," Managing Director Bjoern Endresen told Reuters.
He said no demands had been made and did not specify where the ship was located expect to say it was in Nigerian territorial waters when the kidnapping occurred. Kidnappings of foreign workers are frequent in Nigeria, especially in the Niger Delta. Militant attacks on western firms are fuelled by widespread feelings of injustice in an oil-rich country where most people live in poverty. Criminal gangs have also been involved in kidnappings for ransom. Hostages are usually released unharmed after a few days when a ransom has been paid, which analysts say fuels the violence. Nigeria is the world's eighth largest oil exporter and the largest in Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
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An IDF force from the Haruv Battalion arrested a Palestinian female suspected of intending to carrying out a suicide bombing in Israel. She was arrested at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus. Shortly afterwards, a second Palestinian female was also arrested, who according to suspicions was meant to drive the bomber to the destination of the intended attack.
...over the past month police and military forces thwarted eight suicide bombing and kidnapping attempts. During that time 396 terror operatives were arrested, among them 12 suicide bombers...
Aside from this incident, over the past month police and military forces thwarted eight suicide bombing and kidnapping attempts. During that time 396 terror operatives were arrested, among them 12 suicide bombers who were nabbed before embarking on their missions.
The foiled bombings planned to target Bnei Brak, Rehovot, Alon Moreh, and Oranit. A planned kidnapped was thwarted in Tel Aviv. While Israeli forces are fighting Hizbullah in south Lebanon, security forces have been investing intense efforts to prevent Palestinian terror groups from carrying out attacks. The security establishment assessed that most of the attacks were orchestrated in cooperation with Hizbullah, in attempt to open up a third front in the West Bank.
Two Islamic Jihad operatives were killed Wednesday morning when an IAF helicopter gunship fired at least one missile towards the house they were occupying in a refugee camp in Jenin. The West Bank air strike was out of the ordinary, as the last air strike on the Palestinian territory was carried out 1.5 years ago. According to Palestinian reports, an Apache helicopter fired a missile at the house, which was occupied by a cell of al-Quds, the Islamic Jihad's military wing. The air strike killed Amjad Ajami, 20, from a village near Tul Karm, and Muhammad Atili, 28, from a village near Jenin. Atili was a leading member of the cell responsible for numerous attacks within Israel. Ajami was a fugitive since May of last year and was hiding in Tul Karm. About a year and a half ago, Ajami was recruited by the Islamic Jihad in northern Samaria to act as one of the two suicide bombers dispatched to carry out a double attack in Jerusalem, which was thwarted by security forces. He was involved in planning additional bombing attacks and recruiting bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
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How about a few televised Body Cavity Searches?
LONDON: International terrorism is posing Britain its most sustained threat since the end of World War Two and can only be tackled with the publics help, Home Secretary John Reid said on Wednesday. In a speech to the think tank Demos in London, Reid said there was not one inch of room for complacency over security. We are probably in the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of World War Two, he said in excerpts released by the Home Office. While I am confident that the security services and police will deliver 100 percent effort and 100 percent dedication, they cannot guarantee 100 percent success.
Reids comments echo those regularly made in recent months by senior police officers and security officials. On the anniversary of the July 7 suicide bombings, Londons police chief Ian Blair said the threat had palpably increased in the year following the attacks on the capital and that further atrocities were being planned. Blair and his senior colleagues have also repeatedly said they needed support and intelligence from Muslim communities if they are able to counter the threat from radical Islamists based in the UK and abroad. Our security forces and the apparatus of the state provide a very necessary condition for defeating terrorism but can never be sufficient to do so on their own, Reid said. Our common security will only be assured by a common effort from all sections of society.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Well at least a couple of public officials 'get it.'
#5
Survey says most British muslims think attacks on the UK are justified. I bet most Scottish Socalists and many Labor party ministers do too.
The islamofascists will attack the UK so they can force the UK to pull a Spain. The BBC is helping them by being a mouth piece and propaganda arm for them.
Joe down at the pub in the UK has no more clue we in the west are in a war of survival anymore than Joe Sixpack does here in the US of A.
#6
Survey says most British muslims think attacks on the UK England are justified. I bet most Scottish Socalists and many Labor party ministers (deleted at request of Deparetment of Redundancies Department) do too.
#8
This is a worse threat than the Nazis were. Britian would have remained British in culture if the Nazis took over.
If the Islamofazies take over, British culture will become extinct.
UMM QASR, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's fledgling navy plans to get 21 new boats over the next two years as it prepares to take over the security of offshore oil terminals, the main gateway for the country's petroleum exports, a senior naval official said Wednesday.
At present, the terminals are guarded by U.S. and Iraqi sailors while British ships provide a cordon of protection. A British Royal Navy team is also training the Iraqi Navy at its base in Umm Qasr.
The Iraqi navy - created after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in March 2003 - has in operation 10 fast aluminum boats and two other boats in operation, said Commodore Thamir Nasser, head of operations for the Iraqi Navy. A two-year equipment acquisition program will result in the purchase of 15 patrol boats, four corvettes and two offshore support vessels, Thamir told journalists touring the Iraqi and British patrol boats. The delivery of the first vessels is expected by 2008, and the purchases would be funded by the government and foreign money, he said without elaborating.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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#1
Save time, send the new vessels to Iran and let them destroy them before delivery to Iraq
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/10/2006 6:53
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#2
These are more for anti-piracy and port security than sea-control.
CHICAGO - A federal judge Wednesday denied prosecutors' request to seat an anonymous jury in the trial of a Bridgeview, Ill., man charged with funneling money to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ruled that prosecutors failed to show Muhammad Salah and his co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of Virginia, are likely to intimidate or harass jurors. "(T)he mere invocation of the word `terrorism,' without more, is insufficient to warrant such an anonymous jury," St. Eve wrote in a ruling released Wednesday.
"We'd need at least one corpse, maybe two..."
Salah's attorney, Michael Deutsch, called the ruling a small but significant step toward a fair trial. "Just because the government invokes the word `terrorism' doesn't mean they are terrorists," he said.
"Hardly anything's blown up lately..."
Deutsch argued that jurors would be unfairly prejudiced against Salah if they knew their names and backgrounds were being kept secret. "It creates the impression in them that there is some danger associated with the defendants," he said.
"It ain't our clients, yer honor! It's their friends..."
In her ruling, St. Eve noted that prosecutors acknowledged Salah and Ashqar aren't dangers to their community at the men's bond hearings. While St. Eve ruled the identity of jurors won't be kept secret from the defense or prosecution, she suggested she may place their names under seal. That likely would prevent the public and press from learning jurors' identities.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
At least until the Saturday edition of the New York Times...
The winds of war blowing through the region are also being felt in Syria, as the country begins checks of its public bomb shelters for the first time since 1973. Syrian media outlets reported Wednesday that while residents of towns on the border with Israel are independently looking after themselves and shelters, the 'civil guard' began checking the state of bomb shelters in Damascus. A senior member or the civil guard in Damascus said the body was "working to make sure the shelters were in good shape as a step to prepare for any future development. This is especially true for shelters who have over the years turned into stores, clubs, and even homes."
Posted by: Fred ||
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We know where L'eunuque Lâche Levant will be posting his bravado drivel from.
NARAY, Afghanistan - US soldiers and warplanes drove off an insurgent attack on a new American base early Wednesday, killing 19 militants in an area where terrorists rebels are trying to resist a push by coalition troops into remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The raid on the US base at Kamdesh in the eastern province of Nuristan -- one of the countrys wildest regions -- was staged by terrorists extremists likely belonging to the Hezb-e-Islami terrorist militant group, who attacked from three directions out of forests using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the US military said.
Several hundred soldiers at the base, which lies in a small town but backs onto a sheer mountain face, returned fire with mortars and small arms before jets dropped four 500-pound bombs, ending the clash that lasted more than two hours.
This is the first large, coordinated attack on our base since we arrived three weeks ago, said Lt. Joel Rees, 26, of Memphis, Tennessee. When light broke, we found large crater holes from the RPG attack throughout the base and several tents had bullet holes.
Maj. Tom Sutton, of the 3rd Battalion, 71st Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, New York, said at least 19 militants were killed in the battle, the most ferocious he said he had witnessed in the area. A coalition statement said two American soldiers were wounded, but returned to duty after treatment.
It was a very severe attack that indicated that US forces are entering areas where militants had long gone without being attacked, Capt. Charles Schwab, 30, of Tionesta, Pennsylvania, said of the assault in Kamdesh. It shows we are making an impact and forcing the enemy to fight to the death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Left their shoes on for the counting, did they?
#3
#2 Body counts are difficult in dry sections of Central Asia. Why? There are so many flesh eating birds, etc that bodies do not last long.
Not to mention the fact that 500lb bombs don't leave a lot of pieces to be re-assembled.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 12:13
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French President Jacques Chirac insisted Wednesday on an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon but admitted the United States had "reservations" over the wording of a UN resolution to end the conflict. Chirac was confident an agreement would be reached on a UN ceasefire resolution. "I cannot imagine that we fail to reach a solution, because that would mean we accept the situation as it is and renounce calls for an immediate ceasefire, which would be the most immoral of solutions," Chirac said. French and US diplomats were working Wednesday on a new draft resolution after Lebanon and Arab nations opposed an earlier text on the grounds that it did not call for Israel to withdraw its troops after a truce.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
France stabs US in the back - again. Film at 11.
#2
Hold your kidneys, this meeting is not dismissed yet. We want to carefully consider your ceasefire. We'll get back to you in 48...err.. we'll talk to you in a week or so.
#3
Jesus H. Christ, Jacques...why don't you just get it over with, turn Notre Dame into a Grand Mosque and move the capital to Vichy?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/10/2006 2:35
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#4
Chirac is one of the most treacherous leader of the West.
And he is famous for having said, before the Irak War II in 2003, that "War is always the worst solution". Problem is, he really thinks that, and during WWII, he would have explained it to Churchill and Roosevelt, and criticized them for not listening to him...
There has been much discussion in recent days regarding the possibility that France might lead an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon after French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy indicated that they were willing to do so, given certain conditions. France has a long historical relationship with Lebanon and maintains a âspecial relationshipâ with its former colony similar to that between the United States and Israel. Yet France boycotted a UN meeting over the issue Wednesday, saying that conditions were âprematureâ for the insertion of an international force into Lebanon. The primary difference between France and the U.S. over the issue is that France, along with the European Union, favors forcing an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hizballah and then introducing troops to strengthen the Lebanese military and disarm Hizballah, while the U.S. insists that the disarmament of Hizballah is a precondition to a sustainable ceasefire.
Perhaps what is most surprising is that France has decided upon a conciliatory strategy with Iran while shunning discussions with Syria. This has created a split with the U.S. as Iran ties cooperation in Lebanon to concessions over its nuclear program, while creating a simultaneous split with the European Union, which insists on negotiating with Syria.
Paris Breaks with Brussels Over Syria While Iran Declares the Cost of Its Cooperation
In a July 31 interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, Douste-Blazy indicated Parisâ diplomatic stance on Lebanon: âIn regard to this matter, it is clear that Iran plays a stabilizing role in the region.â He indicated during the interview that he was traveling to Beirut for discussions with Lebanese officials. He did not mention that he planned to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manusher Mottaki, yet Mottaki emerged from that meeting, according to Le Figaro, âhappy to note that France had called for an âimmediate ceasefireâ in Lebanon.â
The same article contains an insight which may help explain the true reason for the initiation of this most recent conflict between Israel and Hizballah, and the price Tehran seeks to exact in exchange for bringing it to an end (ThreatsWatch translation):
â¦For Tehran, the fact that Paris does not make the disarmament of Hizballah a precondition is âa positive change.â The deployment of an international force to stabilize south Lebanon was also discussed. According to a French diplomat, Mottaki did not express opposition to this proposal. But this opinion was not expressed by others, who emphasize the hostility of Tehran to the deployment of troops with the objective of neutralizing Hizballah along the border with Israel. This Iranian veto would be in any case negotiable, in exchange for Western concessions in regard to the nuclear issue. Tehran has made no secret in practice of its intention to relate the crisis in Lebanon to that arising from its nuclear ambitionsâ¦
French officials have been clear that they have no intention of granting similar graces to Syria. Relations between France and Syria have been cold since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. Syrian officials have been implicated in the murder by the UN-sponsored Mehlis investigation, and many in France and elsewhere believe that culpability for this crime and others goes to the top of Syriaâs political system, ending with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Aside from the longstanding relation between France and Lebanon, Hariri was a personal friend of French President Jacques Chirac. Le Figaro notes that many find it contradictory to negotiate with Iran but not Syria, yet âthe French respond that it is preferable to address the issue with the true decision-maker, more so than its Syrian vassal.â
Franceâs diplomatic strategy is a clear break with the EU, which believes that Syria can be part of the solution. The EUâs High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Javier Salona is quoted in Le Figaro as saying that âEven though I have not visited Damascus recently, I stay in contact with Syrian authorities⦠there is no disconnect.â The article notes that German and British diplomats are of the same mind, believing that Syria is âkey to resolving this conflict,â further noting that Parisâ boycott of Damascus caught Brussels off-guard, causing some to question how France could play a lead role and maintain its current course.
It should be noted that the international Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Wednesday that Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos visited Damascus, meeting with both Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualim and offering âpolitical and economic incentives.â
The UN Diplomatic Dance
Statements made by American and French officials make clear that the difference between the two countries is that France demands an immediate ceasefire and the disarmament of Hizballah by Lebanese forces with international assistance to follow, while the U.S. agrees with Israel that the Hizballah threat must be neutralized prior to the arrival of peacekeepers, being skeptical of the likelihood of a mostly European and Turkish force being willing to use force against Hizballah, as its disarmament would likely require. Despite the boycotting of Wednesdayâs meeting, Le Monde quoted Franceâs UN ambassador as saying that he would participate in ceasefire discussions on Thursday. Le Nouvel Observateur reported, however, that French sources indicated that they would not attend a meeting about the formation of a peacekeeping force, judging the matter still premature. As phrased by Le Nouvel Observateur, France âbelieves that it is necessary to simultaneously push forward political negotiations and discussion of the deployment of a multinational force,â the execution of both of which would be to follow a ceasefire (Washington Post, Nouvel Observateur, Le Monde).
Meanwhile, most of Franceâs political leaders have gone on vacation. It is not clear what, if any, ramifications this might have on Franceâs role in the Lebanon crisis. As reported in LâExpress, this includes the president and prime minister, but not Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and presumably not the foreign minister, although the article is silent on Douste-Blazy. LâExpress notes that this comes at a time when France is expected to take a major diplomatic role in Lebanon, and ministers are quoted as saying that they are ready to be âmobilized at an instant.â This is a time of year when most French take long vacations, but at a minimum this does not send the signal of a government fully engaged.
It seems highly unlikely that there will be a ceasefire soon. According to the most recent report in the Washington Post, the current Lebanese proposal would include Syria and Iran in the negotiations and involve an insertion of multinational troops followed by negotiations between the Lebanese government and Hizballah over disarmament. This will surely be unacceptable to Israel, although it has the support of those Arab governments which initially criticized Hizballah for attacking Israel. With diplomats now looking to next week for the likely earliest agreement on a ceasefire, Israel will press forward with its offensive for now.
That France is calling Iran a force for stablization and the EU encouraging Syria to see this as a chance to extract concessions, leaves little hope in the negotiations now ongoing. The French had been steadfast in demanding Hizballahâs disarmament, but have apparently softened on that. Israel has bloodied Hizballah badly, but the effort has strengthend the position of the terrorist group within the Arab world, and of the Syrian government vis-a-vis both its own population and Europe. Israel will need to cripple Hizballah in order to make this fight pay off.
#9
Once upon a time, there was a great culture called the French. They had cars and trucks, but to keep their cars and trucks running, they needed oil. Another country, Iran was an oil supplier. One day, Iran made the French eat dung to get oil from them. The French did not protest, but ate the dung. Now, all French eat dung for every meal. Now, Iran calls them dhimmi.
Tomorrow's story is how Israel with help from the big meanie, America pulls Iran's head through it's ass while onlookers shuffle nervously.
#10
Chirac doesn't always mind war. He was fine with war when the Hutus were liquidating 700,000 Tutsis in Rwanda. It was only when the Tutsis started winning that Chirac remembered how bad war was and sent in French 'peacekeepers' to prevent the capture of francophone Hutu genocidaires.
#13
Nuking Paris and Brussels would do a great deal toward removing many of the world's social, cultural, economic, and political problems. Not suggesting, just saying...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 16:09
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Well, before nuking Paris and Brussels, just nuke Tehran and Damas.
The evil regimes would be removed, and France and the EU would no more have evil regimes to collaborate with...
Border Guard policemen killed a senior Islamic Jihad official in the Silat al-Khartiyeh near Jenin on Sunday. Palestinians identified the man as Rashed al-Omri, a senior activist in the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad.
The security establishment believes al-Omri was killed in exchanges of fire with troops but residents say he was arrested and executed.
The security establishment believes al-Omri was killed in exchanges of fire with troops but residents say he was arrested and executed.
The heart bleeds... Or maybe it was the chili...
Palestinian sources said Border Guard policemen besieged a house in which al-Omri was hiding for five hours before the arrest. They said al-Omri was arrested alive. Israeli forces remain in the village and Jenin. The Islamic Jihad called on all cells to carry out terror attack against IDF troops in Israel and the territories in support of Hizbullah. Islamic Jihad activists distributed sweets in celebration of the death of 11 Israelis in a rocket attack by Hizbullah.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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The security establishment believes al-Omri was killed in exchanges of fire with troops but residents say he was arrested and executed.
Either way is fine with me. Option #2 means he won't be a martyr I suppose. Allahu akbar!
AN Israeli helicopter gunship fired at least one missile into a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing two gunmen and wounding five other people, witnesses said. They said two children were among the wounded in the strike on Gaza City, both of them in critical condition.
"Wanna come down to the camp and watch us train, beppy?"
The Israeli military, which has frequently attacked armed factions spearheading a five-year-old Palestinian uprising, confirmed the strike, saying it targeted militants who were planning attacks. The dead gunmen were identified as members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant coalition that has played a leading role in cross-border rocket salvoes into Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
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IDF troops killed five Hizbullah terrorists in the village of Rajmin on Wednesday afternoon. Another eight terrorists were killed by the army in the town of Bint Jbil. The IDF have killed a total of 30 Hizbullah members on Wednesday in the Lebanese towns of Rajmin, Bint Jbil, Masjara and Ayta al-Shaab.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#2
Anyone know where I can get a 1:25,000 scale map of south Lebanon? Too many of these small towns aren't on the Unifil map, the Unifil map doesn't show terrain or infrastructure, and it's a piece of crap. Email me or leave a message here.
BTW, Marjayoun, mentioned in an earlier article, is almost on the Litani River in eastern Lebanon, above Metulla. It's about 8km north of the Blue Line, and at the entrance to the Bekaa valley. It seems the attack in that direction may be aimed at cutting off smuggler routes into southern Lebanon from Syria - a good deal, if the IDF can do it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 14:26
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TV satellite dishes are a "germ-filled stew" which receive subversive propaganda, Communist officials told Cubans Wednesday as Washington increased transmissions of its TV channel to the island while Fidel Castro recovers from surgery. The Communist Party daily Granma also alluded to Miami news programs and talk shows that have been filled in recent days with speculation about Castro's health and the island's future. The shows are received on illegal dishes, highly popular here among those who can afford them.
'...a good part of the programming received this way has content that is destabilizing, interventionist, subversive and encourages, more and more, the carrying out of terrorist activities,' Granma said.
"In the case of Cuba, a good part of the programming received this way has content that is destabilizing, interventionist, subversive and encourages, more and more, the carrying out of terrorist activities," Granma said.
The U.S. government this week scaled up transmissions by its TV Marti, which features anti-Castro programming. TV Marti's stated objective is to break Cuba's "information blockade" by offering its own current affairs shows as alternatives to state television programming, the only thing Cubans receive if they don't have TV satellite dishes.
The government's attack on satellite dishes comes as Cubans' uncertainty over the health of the man who has ruled them for 47 years begins to ease. State-run media on Wednesday ran messages of support for Castro, who turns 80 on Sunday. Youth organizations said on the front page of the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde: "We will fight and work harder every day to maintain and cultivate the values that the Revolution has sown in us."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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I'll bet the most popular shows are the MLB games.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/10/2006 0:45
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mmmmm Patti Ann
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 8:24
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Whatever did happen to Patti Ann?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006 9:21
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ScrappleFace:
Former Soviet Leaders to Castro: Ignore Rumors
by Scott Ott
(2006-08-05) â A troika of former Soviet leaders offered words of encouragement today to Fidel Castro as he continues his miraculous recovery from serious abdominal surgery while his brother Raul is so busy running the government he canât make public appearances.
Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstanin Chernenko issued the joint communique urging Mr. Castro to brush off rumors that his condition is worse than officially reported.
âIgnore the idle chatter and grave speculation,â the former Soviet leaders said. âIf we had listened to the voice of the people, we would never be where we are today.â
Indeed, the Cuban dictator apparently felt well enough this morning that his spokesman was able to issue an official statement saying Mr. Castro is making a strong recovery and that his brother Raul is âfully, totally and completely in charge of the government 24/7.â
In related news, the official U.S. News Agency released a brief statement saying President John F. Kennedy is âon the mendâ after a âsmall arms fire incident in Dallasâ and that, in the interim, Secretary of State Alexander Haig is fully in command.
THE British grouse shooting season, which begins this weekend, is contributing to global warming, an ecology specialist told the latest edition of New Scientist magazine today.
So does fox hunting. And fishing. And belching.
Adrian Yallop, from Cranfield University in southeast England, said the problem stemmed from increasing demand for the game birds, which is having a serious impact on the environment.
"Mmmmmm! Grouse!"
Gamekeepers burning vast swathes of moorland vegetation to encourage the growth of heather, a prime habitat for red grouse, threatens to release billions of tonnes of carbon locked in the peat bogs underneath, he said. "In terms of carbon storage, the moors can be thought of as Britain's rainforests. Where burning occurs, the hydrology changes and the peat is open to decomposition and erosion," Mr Yallop told the magazine. "This strips the moor of carbon as surely as setting fire to the Amazon forest."
Posted by: Fred ||
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underground peat fires can burn for years, but they don't equal one belch from a volcano or a Chinese factory
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 8:26
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Open season on ecology specialists
-- J. Grouse
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/10/2006 16:27
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In related news, a FAUX gender neutral, culturally unbiased poll of liberaltree-huggers people on the street showed that the Sun has absolutely no effect on world weather.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
08/10/2006 18:05
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The first Australian accused of training with a terrorist organisation on Wednesday lost his latest bid to have the charges against him dropped.
The applicant's argument that the Commonwealth Parliament has no power to enact legislation proscribing the killing of foreign citizens by members of a foreign organisation on foreign territory must be rejected by this court...
Pakistan-born medical student Izharul Haq was charged with intentionally receiving combat and weapons training from Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan in 2003, a militant group banned under Australia's counter-terrorism laws.
On Wednesday, Izhar lost an appeal before the New South Wales state Court of Criminal Appeal seeking to overturn the charge. He argued that Australia had no authority to pass laws concerning criminal acts committed overseas. "The applicant's argument that the Commonwealth Parliament has no power to enact legislation proscribing the killing of foreign citizens by members of a foreign organisation on foreign territory must be rejected by this court," Justice McClellan said in the court's unanimous 3-0 judgment. "If it is to be reconsidered this must be done in the High Court." A trial date for Izhar will be fixed on Sept 1, but he could still seek leave to appeal this decision in the High Court, Australia's highest judicial body.
Posted by: Fred ||
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How does one "accidentally" receive combat and weapons training? Is this legal-speak?
#2
Let the little ba$$$$$ have a "RAB encounter", and get on with living, Aussie mates. He's not worth the trouble or expense you're going to on his behalf. Then charge Pakiwackiland for housing, feeding, and in the end, shooting him.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 12:38
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Yano Bruce! I gave him the hat with the corks, introduced him to the sheilas, but hed rather run around with his cousins firing his grandpa's AK into the air, than surf or eat prawns.
Yeah steve inow, forighners mate, tisk.
The IDF General Staff postponed the expansion of ground operations in south Lebanon late Wednesday night, after the security cabinet earlier in the day approved a plan for a widened offensive that would take the army to the Litani River, over 20 kilometers from the border, and beyond, in an effort to prevent the incessant Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel. 40,000 IDF troops and reservists were massed along the northern border Wednesday evening in preparation for Israel's largest and deepest ground incursion into southern Lebanon since the beginning of Operation Change of Direction last month.
Some 7,000 IDF troops were operating in southern Lebanon Wednesday, clashing with Hizbullah guerrillas in several villages while holding and maintaining position along a 10-kilometer-deep security zone the IDF had created. A high-ranking IDF officer and member of the General Staff told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that it would take the military at least one week to reach the Litani and beyond, and to set up position and begin taking control of the area. The officer said that it would then take four to six weeks to clear out southern Lebanon, from the Litani river south, of the Hizbullah presence and to destroy the thousands of Katyusha rockets and rocket launchers believed to be in that area.
The IDF estimates that the area between the Litani river and the security zone that military forces are currently maintaining is home to 70 percent of the Katyusha rockets launched at northern Israel. In the plan approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, the IDF was also granted permission to cross the Litani river into areas like Nabatiyeh, from where Hizbullah has been firing rockets at the upper Galilee, as well as Haifa and other coast-lying cities.
Hizbullah's Nasser Unit, in charge of southern Lebanon, was still operational, the high-ranking officer said, and numbered several thousand Hizbullah fighters, including reservists, which the guerrilla group had called up in anticipation of Israel's planned massive ground incursion. Hizbullah, the officer said, still retained its command and control abilities throughout Lebanon and had fighters deployed in between 100-130 villages from the Litani south. North of the river, the officer said, Hizbullah had a smaller presence, but one that still numbered several thousand fighters. In southern Lebanon, within the security zone the IDF had created, soldiers were still battling in two Hizbullah strongholds - Bint Jbail and Ayta a-Shaab, scenes of heavy fighting between IDF troops and Hizbullah gunmen on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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My guess is that those are four or five km grids.
#4
they will never make it in, bush and condi will see to that, US pressure has stopped the offensive expansion, more israelis will die while we kiss nasrallahs ass
FIVE villagers, including a young boy, were killed in western India overnight when they jumped into a dry well to save an injured pigeon that had fallen in, authorities said. The boy was the first to jump in to rescue the bird and the others followed, trying to help him. The tragedy took place in Jhalabordi village, about 90km from Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat state.
But it's mighty close to Dumbassabad...
"Preliminary investigations show the deaths occurred due to suffocation," said DG Jhalawadia, a local government official.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Sorry, I have to call BS on this one. I remember reading this exact same story several years ago in a newspaper. The only difference in that version was that it supposedly happened in Egypt and it was a chicken in the well. Someone is recycling.
HEZBOLLAH today denied Iranian fighters were among its guerillas battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
"Hezbollah categorically denies the lies and claims that the enemy is promoting that Iranian fighters are present in the confrontations with the occupation forces," the pro-Iranian Lebanese guerrilla group said.
Israel's Channel 10 television earlier cited diplomatic sources as saying members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard had been found among Hezbollah guerillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
It said the Iranians were identified by papers found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when.
Iran, like fellow Hezbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shiite guerrilla group is purely moral.
Israel says many of the rockets being fired against its civilian and military targets are Iranian made, and that Hezbollah fighters taking on its forces trained in Iran.
Washington also accuses Tehran of actively funding Hezbollah.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards are traditionally very close to fellow Shiite Muslims in Hezbollah and were deployed in south Lebanon in the 1980s.
By Jon Ham RALEIGH The first thing we did when our newsroom got a copy of PhotoShop in 1991 was put a third eye in the middle of Kimberly Bergalis forehead. That memory reminded me once again of the seductive powers of the PhotoShop cloning tool. Ms. Bergalis, if you recall, was a young woman from Ft. Pierce, Fla., who, it was later determined, got AIDS from her dentist. Her photo just happened to be among those moved by AP that day, and we picked it at random to practice on. I remember, as we looked at the manipulated photo, that we suddenly became aware of the power and dangers of photography's new digital age.
...as we looked at the manipulated photo, that we suddenly became aware of the power and dangers of photography's new digital age.
First thing I did was give a flat-chested lady of my acquaintance a magnificent pair of honkers. But I didn't work in a newsroom. At least not that kind.
Prior to digital photography, about the only things you could do to a photo were dodge, burn and crop. As a weekly editor some years before, I had spent many hours in a darkroom doing just that: burning to darken a too-light area, and dodging to lighten a too-dark area, and cropping to eliminate irrelevant areas of an image. Sometimes your negative would get dirty or scratched in processing and youd end up with lines or specks on your print. Thats when youd have to take an art brush to the print to eliminate these blemishes. But thats about it. The level of technology back then was simply inadequate to allow major photo fraud.
Photo fraud required more skill than Photoshop requires. And there are simpler programs that require even less skill. But photo fraud still existed. Weekly World News has been around since pre-Photoshop days.
So has Cosmopolitan, the true geniuses of photo-manipulation. I had the opportunity to see the 'resume' of one of their air brush artists once. He showed, step by step both with the old methods and with Photoshop, just how to give a picture of a supermodel that 'Cosmo' look. Fascinating, and this fellow was as good an artist as any sculptor.
If you really wanted to fake up a photo, youd have to paste things from one photo onto another, like Ted Baxters dressing-room photos on The Mary Tyler Moore show. Then youd have to take a photo of that picture and make another print, a step Ted left out.
But only because he was comic relief...
PhotoShop changed all that. Using PhotoShop you can change a photo pixel by pixel. If youre good at it, the manipulation will be almost impossible for a layman to notice. And it doesnt take years of training to do it well. That third eye on Ms. Bergalis looked like the real thing, and we had just opened the program.
Done right, it's hard for a professional to notice, much less a layman. Even with cheap software, you can get down to the pixel level, and resizing will cover a multitude of imperfections. Not that we'd ever use Photoshopped images on the Burg, of course...
The two photos in question, one showing smoke rising over Beirut and another showing flares being dropped by an Israeli jet, are so clumsily altered that it is hard to believe it was done by anyone who has any knowledge of PhotoShop.
Which is what makes the recent incidents of unethical photo manipulation by a Reuters photographer so puzzling. The two photos in question, one showing smoke rising over Beirut and another showing flares being dropped by an Israeli jet, are so clumsily altered that it is hard to believe it was done by anyone who has any knowledge of PhotoShop.
Hurried work, coupled with a lack of skill at Photoshop, I'd guess, the while coupled with a belief that The Enemy us isn't as smart as True Believers. He knew what he wanted to do, he just wasn't very good at it. And he probably thought he was better at it than he is.
While one is required to consider that the enemy is smart, sometimes he isn't ...
Those photos, and several other egregious examples of staged photos used by major news outlets, have prompted widespread criticism of photojournalists, especially those covering the Middle East. But none of the professional photojournalists Ive worked with over the last 25 years would have been a party to such nonsense.
... none of the professional photojournalists Ive worked with over the last 25 years would have been a party to such nonsense.
"No, no! Certainly not!"... Depends on how serious they are about pushing their political points. If you can lie or distort in a story, you can lie or distort in a photo.
In 1994 my newspaper at the time, The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C., hosted the Electronic Photojournalism Workshop. This was an annual event designed to promote digital photography. The organizers were positively adamant that nothing be done to an image other than tweaking brightness and contrast and cleaning up specks and streaks that were not part of the original image. So insistent were they on this point that, when we published the newspaper containing the stories and photo assignments from the conference, no layout that let type intrude into a photograph was allowed.
One of those organizers was Kenny Irby, who was then with Newsday but is now Visual Journalism Group Leader and Diversity Director at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. Many in the mainstream media have reacted defensively to the blog pressure to expose unethical photo manipulation or staging of photographs. Irby, to his credit, has not succumbed. Some are playing a gotcha game with media outlets, and want to make their point that the editing and fact-finding in a lot of newspapers are flawed and incompetent," Irby told the Christian Science Monitor. "But I've had more conversations with bloggers who just say they want to make sure [the media] projects accurate information. That's a good thing. Media organizations have to be aware that we're not the absolute authority."
That's all very altruistic. In reality, most of us just like an occasional chew toy. Gnawing on Rooters strengthens the intellectual jaws, keeps that yellow calciumy stuff from building up in the mind, and gives us good exercise as we run around the blogosphere, hollering "woof! woof!" We wouldn't be doing it if Rooters hadn't made themselves fair game.
How to explain what has gotten into those photographers covering the Middle East is beyond me.
How to explain what has gotten into those photographers covering the Middle East is beyond me.
That would imply that the writer doesn't know an awful lot about the Muddle East, where lies are generated and consumed often willingly by the bucket. I don't think anyone who's familiar with the ME or with totalitarianism is surprised at the lies, to include the photographic lies. What we still manage to find surprising, despite an accumulation of evidence to the contrary, is that supposedly professional photo editors are willing to suspend disbelief when the product is submitted for their stern-eyed consideration...
To be sure, the widespread use of freelancers who have too-close ties to terrorist groups plays a part.
"I'm not surprised, but..."
But what explains the uncritical approach stateside photo editors have taken to what they send? Why have so many questionable images been accepted by mainstream news organizations?
Because they want to believe. If you already have the belief, and the photo "Pictures don't lie!" confirms that belief, then you're more willing to ignore any little inconsistencies.
Strangely, the journalistic establishment seems largely unconcerned about this. There has been no open letter from journalism school deans condemning manipulated images and the use of staged photos. The top journalism blog, Romenesko at Poynter Online, has barely mentioned it, but it did manage with a headline ("Johnson's critics say his agenda is anti-Muslim, pro-Israel, hateful") to imply that the blogger who exposed the Reuters fraud, Charles Johnson, was anti-Mulsim. Interestingly, the story that headline was linked to had a very different headline: "A blogger shines when news media get it wrong."
Again, we're back to Psych 101: You believe what you're prepared to belief. If something goes against it, then you don't believe it until you're thumped on the head with it. And often not then.
I also visited several other journalism and photojournalism sites and forums in the past few days and found barely a mention of the issue. It is clearly not a hot topic among journalism professionals, as it is with bloggers. They seem to be trying to ride this out in hopes it will just go away. Someone with only two eyes can see that's not likely.
Jon Ham is vice president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of its monthy newspaper Carolina Journal.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"How to explain what has gotten into those photographers covering the Middle East is beyond me."
Try this on for size: They're murderous Jooooo-hating ASSHOLES who know the anti-American, anti-semitic Western media will be happy to be complicit in their lies.
How do they know it, you may ask? From experience.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 0:07
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#2
Unless its a dynamic situation, even on the local level, news photos and television coverage are staged and orchestrated.
#3
Strangely, the journalistic establishment seems largely unconcerned about this.
I honestly believe there was a time when mythical creatures roamed the earth in defense of journalistic integrity. Call it blind faith but even today, every so often, I swear I catch a glimpse of them. Occasionally, a specter will distinguish itself from the shadows reinforcing my hopes that they havent gone the way of the dinosaur. Sadly though, the sightings have become less frequent as of late. I pray all the backslapping and puffery over the narrative known as Katrina wasnt the sound of the Death knell for these Beasts of Burden. But we are living in times when a so-called journalist writes an article based on leaked, classified information dropped in their lap. (The very definition of an agenda driven story) Only to be rewarded by her peers with a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism.
Maybe one day these scarce entities will wander back out of seclusion, if for nothing else, to avoid complete extinction.
#4
That's why the picture from His Girl Friday is so appropriate. After all, few of the reporters in that movie cared about anything but getting a sensational headline. They made up stories, bruited rumors as facts, and generally acted as partisan hacks. Does this seem familiar?
Just imagine Cary Grant's Walter Burns in a moden newsroom. Of course, I can't imagine the character being anti-US or anti-Semitic.
Anyway, it's a great film. The Front Page is much better with Hildy as a woman.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/10/2006 15:46
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#5
I use tint, sharpness, anti-Red Eye, and other utilities on 100% of all pictures I take. Fakery isn't the only use of the new software.
ISRAELI ground troops pushed further into southern Lebanon today as the army suffered 15 casualties in the single worst day of fighting in the four-week war. This new operation falls within the geographical framework already established, army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal said, playing down a media report that an expanded sweep against Hezbollah was under way. Capt Dallal said tanks and troops had crossed into Lebanon in order to quell Hezbollah rocket fire from al-Khiam, a town that has already seen fighting.
The Associated Press reported the military said 15 soldiers had been killed and 38 wounded in battles across south Lebanon. Israel TV said some of the dead and wounded were reservists, and the others were from the standing army. Reports citing diplomatic sources also said members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard had been found among Hezbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Israel's Channel 10 television reported the Iranians were identified by papers found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when.
Earlier in the day, Israel's security cabinet authorised an expanded sweep into southern Lebanon. Witnesses in Lebanon said Israeli ground troops had reached the village of Qlaya, 5km from the border. Israeli troops have carried out frequent incursions into southern Lebanon in the past four weeks.
Witnesses on Israel's northern border said earlier that Israel had begun its expanded offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas as armoured columns moved into southern Lebanon under cover of intensive artillery fire. World powers are divided on a UN resolution to try to end the four-week war which has claimed 1005 lives in Lebanon and killed 101 Israelis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The mayor of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay's hometown said Wednesday he will run as a write-in candidate for his House seat after the scandal-scarred DeLay moved to withdraw from the November ballot. David Wallace, one of the candidates Texas Republicans were considering to replace DeLay, said in a statement that he had the backing of family, grass-roots leaders and friends in his write-in bid. The Democratic nominee is former Rep. Nick Lampson.
"I will be taking the fight to Nick Lampson and his liberal allies every day," said Wallace, the mayor of Sugar Land, Texas.
DeLay announced on Tuesday he was withdrawing from the race after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia rejected attempts by Texas Republicans to replace him on the November ballot. The former congressman who served more than two decades was forced to act after Republicans lost several court fights to remove his name from the ballot in the Houston-area district and replace him with a GOP-chosen nominee.
Wallace has name recognition and money-raising ability - more than $157,000 cash on hand as of June 30 - that party officials need to take on Lampson, who had amassed more than $2 million in his campaign treasury as of June 30 in preparation for a race against DeLay.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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ISRAELI gunboats have shelled a refugee camp in Lebanon, killing two people, as France and the United States hammer out a new draft UN resolution aimed at securing a ceasefire in the four-week war. Five children four puppies, three kittens, two fluffy bunnies and a baby duck were among 15 injured in the strike on the Ein el-Hilweh camp in southern Lebanon, which houses about 50,000 Palestinian refugees and has been opened up to Lebanese fleeing Israeli strikes at Hezbollah targets elsewhere in the country. Two shells fell on the area around the home of Colonel Munir Maqdah, a military chief of the Fatah movement in Lebanon, camp sources said. The victims were pulled out of a house destroyed by the strike as rescue efforts continued to try to find any others trapped inside.
Earlier in southern Lebanon, Israeli air strikes have killed 14 villagers and wounded 23 in Ghaziyeh, rescue workers and hospital officials have said. The bombs fell as mourners elsewhere in the village were burying 15 people killed by a raid there the previous day. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the building hit belonged to a senior Hezbollah member and was not near the funeral. She said all residents had been told in advance to leave.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
Too damn bad we don't have any 16" battleships left on duty. Perfect for them. Nothing like a sustained barage from the big guns to clear the sinuses.
#2
they should shell the hellhole at least twice a week, on general principle
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2006 8:20
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#3
On 8 February 1984, New Jersey fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Syrian positions in the Bekaa valley east of Beirut. Some 30 of these massive projectiles rained down on a Syrian command post, killing the general commanding Syrian forces in Lebanon and several other senior officers. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War.
#4
Unfortunately, even if we reactivated the remaining BBs we have (two, I believe), it would take them two to three years to be ready for service. The CVN/CVA boys need to understand that everything can't be done by aircraft, and there's a role for heavy firepower in the US Navy. I wish we had five or six of these monsters ready to rain havoc on anyone that deserved it. Replace some of the 5" guns on the sides with MLRS launchers, add a PAC-3 launch array and the AEGIS radar, Sea Sparrow, CIWS, and a helicopter deck and you'd have something that would strike fear into the hearts of ANY enemy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/10/2006 14:47
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A peace deal signed three months ago between Sudan's government and the main rebel group in Darfur has failed to halt violence in the region, the United Nations said Wednesday, citing an increase in rape and continued attacks by militias and rebel factions. The global body said the May 5 peace deal, signed in Nigeria, was "doomed to failure" without more support from the Sudanese government, "with the population of Darfur continuing to suffer grave violations of human rights as violence among competing armed groups in Darfur persists."
The 20-page report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights acknowledged that fighting between Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan Liberation Army, the main rebel group, has decreased since the deal. But "attacks by militias and rebel factions continued unabated, mainly in south and north Darfur," the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
Any hint of American/Europeasn/Australian involvement and the cry of COLONIALISM will arise from the "righteous" Arab Sudanese leaders. Amazing how the political leftists drool over Western peacekeepers...yet abhor the very same in Iraq...
Police are investigating reports of severed fingers, after a stabbing in the Uptown area overnight. Police arrived at 31st and Lyndale Aves. S. in Minneapolis around 3 a.m., finding two victims that appeared to have been stabbed with a two-and-a-half foot Samurai-style sword. The two victims were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. Later, two more suspects then showed up at HCMC with stab wounds, and police took those people into custody. The suspects taken into custody were identified as Hossem Chalbi, 18, and Mohammed Khalil, 29.
I did see an EMT coming past with a bag of fingers in their hand saying 'we're going to try and match these up.'
"I saw the first guy rolling down the stairs at me completely on fire with blood," witness Matthew Tellfair told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. "I did see an EMT coming past with a bag of fingers in their hand saying 'we're going to try and match these up.'"
"And there was one guy with a bloody sword...No joke," added witness Martin Knotsmith. "It was over two feet long and of the Samurai-style, slightly curved, very sharp."
According to police reports, two armed men stormed the apartment with a gun, and a scuffle ensued. One of the victims had a Samurai sword in the apartment and the sword somehow became part of the conflict. All people involved have non-life threatening injuries.
#3
IIRC, research by the US police found that a 21 feet gap was necessary for an officer to safely draw his firearm and fire when faced by an opponent with a knife, and this even had been increased.
Less than that, the knifer has a real chance to stab the officer before he can get his weapon out and shoot with effect; of course, the average knife-wielding perp is probably less skilled than the filipino martial artist who helped create the famous "surviving edged weapons" (???) police instructional videotape, but edged/stabbing contact weapons are not to be taken lightly.
In that same ressource material, IIRC, FBI stats are that 5% of people shot with handguns in the USA die from their wounds, against 15% for the ones stabbed, a mortality statistically equal to assault rifles (while serving as a military surgeon there, Martin Fackler estimated mortality rate from ak47 wounds in Viet Nam to 14%).
These two muslim (like in France, yeah, feels like known territory) hoodlums found that out painfully, lol.
#4
The story seems to be a bit convoluted. What is clear the perps are Hossem and Mohamed.
I can imagine it went like this:
Two perps with a gun knock on the door. Once one of the appartment residents opens the door, they rush in.
"Give me the casssssh", says Mohammed, pointing the gun at both residents. Meanwhile, Hossem sees the sword and takes it from the wall. "Looky what we have here, Mohammed", says Hossam.
"Don't touch it!", yells one of the vistims and and he and his room mate try to wrestle the sword from Hossam. They got stabbed in the tussle, but finally the sword owner gets a hold of the sword.
"What does shari'a law says about thieves, you muslums?" utters the sword owner and with a quick action of 4 swooshes, he dis-diggits Mohammed and then Hossem.
#7
Having thought about this a bit, I am guessing that somebody tried to grab the sword blade. On a good quality blade, just the weight of the sword itself is enough to cut into the skin of your hands.
N.B.: I knew a swordmaker who asserted that today they can make samurai swords better, as they can do electron microscopy analysis that shows the classical swordmakers over-folded their steel just a bit.
The absolutely sharpest commercially available today are ceramic blades, which are only made into cooking knives, as they are very brittle.
#9
We had a demo of what a trained knife wielder could do in my defensive handguns class. 21 ft---A good knife man could have you bled out like Jack the Pig before you get your weapon out and firing.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2006 12:35
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#7: "The absolutely sharpest commercially available today are ceramic blades, which are only made into cooking knives, as they are very brittle."
They're also made into scalpels, 'moose.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 12:40
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#11
Correct me if I'm wrong here but wouldn't a 2 foot blade be the Samurai companion blade, the one usually used for abdominal piercing?
#13
How come I'ma having visions of Mo and his companion busting in on 2 guys who grew up in the 80's currently watching the Bruce Lee marathon on Spike? Talk about your bad luck of the draw (on which apartment they decide to raid). Of course, I also find it odd they don't mention names of the 2 "victims." Guess we don't wanna incite any revenge tactics against the muzzies, do we? Also, thanks for the stats A5089. Kinda dispells the whole "gun control" argument, doesn't it? Guess we gotta ban knives/swords first.
Posted by: BA ||
08/10/2006 13:54
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#14
FBI stats are that 5% of people shot with handguns in the USA die from their wounds, against 15% for the ones stabbed,
Reminds me of the old adage, run from a knife, charge a gun.
#16
The assumption of my quote is that you are unarmed and away from cover. You can outrun a knife but as far as I know only Clark Kent can outrun the bullet.
Police have arrested three activists from a banned Islamic group, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), for suspected involvement in the Mumbai train blasts last month, which killed 183 people and injured around 900, said a police spokesman on Tuesday. He said that the men were arrested from various areas of Nagpur in Maharashtra, and they were identified as Shakeel Wasi (32), Shakir Ahmed Naseer (27) and Muhammad Rehan Khan (32).
SIMI advocates the idea of 'India's liberation' by trying to convert the country into an Islamic land, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal website.
The men had been under surveillance since June when police foiled an attack by Islamic militants on the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu group. Fourteen men are now in police custody for suspected involvement in the last month's train bombings. Law enforcement agencies' officials believe that Lashkar-e-Taiba and the SIMI were involved in the bombings, but both groups have denied this. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after the blasts that 'certain quarters' across the border had played a role in the bombings. Pakistan, however, denied the statement and offered help in investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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GAZA - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya on Wednesday urged a debate on the future of the Palestinian Authority, his remarks following earlier comments from a Palestinian official calling for the Authority to be dissolved.
I'd prefer 'demolished' or 'destroyed' myself.
Haneya, a senior member of the Hamas party, was speaking during an urgent session of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to discuss recent developments in the Palestinian Territories including the continued detention by Israel of dozens of Palestinian ministers and lawmakers, among them PLC speaker Aziz Dweik.
The Israelis almost have a quorum in jug.
Calls for the PA to be dismantled have grown louder in recent days, with PLO spokesman Ghassan al-Mani issuing a statement earlier Wednesday which Israeli obstacles for preventing the functioning of the PA.
They were functioning so well before all of the arrests ...
Only 78 members out of 132 were at Wednesdays PLC meeting, with others held in Israeli jails. Most of those detained are senior members of Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel and which is regarded by the Jewish state as a terrorist organization.
But neither the Pals or the journalist writing this piece made the obvious connection.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government also announced Wednesday the mounting of a legal bid to free the lawmakers saying their detention breached international laws.
I thought 'chutzpah' was a Yiddish word!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006
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Lowe's has halted plans for two home-improvement centers in Chicago while Mayor Richard Daley weighs whether he will try to block the city's new "big-box" minimum-wage ordinance, a South Side alderman said Tuesday. The company's concerns about the law caused it to shelve plans for stores at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue and at 79th Street and Cicero Avenue, said Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st). "They changed their mind," said Brookins, whose ward includes the proposed store at 83rd and Stewart. "They now want to wait and see what happens."
Daley opposes the ordinance, which was passed by the City Council on July 26, but he has refused to say whether he would veto it. He has until Sept. 13 to decide whether he will exercise his veto power for the first time in his 17-year tenure as mayor.
David Katz of Northbrook-based A&R Management Inc., which manages the Scottsdale Shopping Center at 79th and Cicero, confirmed that Lowe's officials have postponed closing the deal for a new store there. "They won't sign the lease at this point," Katz said. "They are waiting to see if the mayor will veto the ordinance. Chances are they will pull out" unless the ordinance is vetoed.
Ald. Frank Olivo, whose 13th Ward includes the shopping center, was unavailable for comment. Attempts to reach Lowe's officials in the Chicago area and at the company's North Carolina headquarters were unsuccessful. The moves by Lowe's add fuel to the contentious fight over the ordinance. Labor unions pushed for the ordinance, but critics say it would stunt economic development in parts of Chicago that lack retail stores.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2006
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#1
Cause <-> effect.
New concept for the mafia unions, I know.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/10/2006 0:17
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#2
2 tar-jay stores have also said no thanks.
Doesn't matter if Richard II vetos, the vote was veto-proof.
#3
As a Chicagoan, I can tell you that the City Council was even more stoopid than usual. They've been looking for a way to assert their independence from Daley (they still take his money, of course, and they still need him to win re-election, but you know how the human heart is), saw this as a way to do it in a harmless way.
Plus, they had all the union people (the ones trying to organize Walmart), all the right trendy liberal progressives with their blabber about 'living wages', etc, on them. So they voted this one through without so much as a thought of the consequences.
I shop at a Lowes and a Home Depot at the 'Brickyard' mall in Chicago. I rather imagine those stores will stay for now, but don't look for any more. What the stores will do is what Walmart just did: they just opened a mega-store in a suburb literally across the street from the Chicago city limits. The Chicago resident there get the shopping, the suburb gets the employment and the tax revenues.
Shrewd, alderman, real shrewd.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2006 9:27
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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.
David A. Burtt II, director of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, the Defense Department's newest intelligence agency whose contracts based on congressional earmarks are under investigation by the Pentagon and federal prosecutors, told his staff yesterday that he and his deputy director will resign at the end of the month.
Turkey plans to cut its armed forces by up to 30% in the next few years, the country's top general has said. Gen Yasar Buyukanit, who takes over as military chief later this month, said the army would be smaller but "more modern and effective". Gen Buykanit's comments came in an interview with Turkey's Defence and Aerospace magazine. 
Three men have been burned to death by vigilantes in the Kabokweni area near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga police said on Thursday.
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday that he was in good health, and denied suggestions in the Internet-based media that he had left the country at the weekend to seek medical treatment.
Health authorities have recovered scores of aborted female foetuses from a well in northern India, media reported on Thursday. The site was discovered by police in the city of Patiala in Punjab state, which has one of the worst gender ratios in the country, newspapers reported. The well was on a vacant plot next to a clinic run by a husband and wife, who had been illegally involved in abortions for years.
INDONESIA has complained to Australia that its travel warning system is harming its economy, deterring new investment and forcing language students to other countries.
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair, on holidays in Barbados, praised the enormous of amount of cooperation between Britain and the United States in thwarting an alleged airline bomb plot.
Australia's lower house of parliament has passed a controversial bill to process all future asylum seekers arriving by boat in off-shore camps. Three members of the ruling party joined the opposition to vote against the proposal, but it still passed by 78 to 62. The bill now goes to the Senate.
The creators of The Muppets and Sesame Street are staging a puppet show that is strictly for adults only. Miss Piggy would blush over the antics in "Jim Henson's Puppet Improv" which spearheads a renaissance of puppet shows for grown-ups at this year's Edinburgh Fringe arts festival.
After more than 30 years of working where money is made, David C. Faison decided to make some of it work for him, law enforcement officials say.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities have put the founder and former head of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group under house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore, a spokesman for the Islamic charity he now runs said on Thursday. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed resigned almost five years ago from Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group suspected of involvement in the Indian rail blasts of July 11 that killed over 180 people, to become head of a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, regarded as its sister organisation. The United States has designated both as terrorist organisations.
Birmingham, 10 August (AKI) - Most of the 21 people arrested overnight in connection with a failed plot to blow up numerous commercial aircraft mid-flight between Britain and the United States are "understood" to be British citizens of Pakistani origin, the local Birmingham Mail daily reported on Thursday. "Sources indicated that the majority if not all of those arrested were British... the majoirty of those arrested were understood to be of Pakistani origin," the Birmingham Mail said. Police have not yet confirmed the identities of any of the suspects arrested and have said they believe other suspects may still be at large.
The arrests related to the terror threat to UK flights stretched across London, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands. Twenty-one people are being held in London after raids during the night. Searches are under way at a number of businesses and homes after an "unprecedented" level of surveillance. 
MARIETTA, Ohio - Two men were charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism after authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information on airport security checkpoints in their car. 
The National Enquirer 
An old frail man snaps awake, and stares: theres a stranger seated next to the bed, a long, unlit cigar in one hand. He leans back and smiles.
A major terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage, with flights from the UK to the US being targeted. During the night, police arrested a number of people in London after a counter-terrorist operation they said had lasted several months. Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected.
While siren sounds were being heard across the Kiryat Shmona and Golan Heights regions, IDF forces entered areas north of Metula Wednesday night and started operating near the south Lebanese village of al-Hiyam, an area from which rockets are being launched at the Galilee panhandle on a daily basis. IDF officials said that the incursion represented an expansion of the operation near the border, stressing that in the near future the offensive will be widened in other sectors as well. However, diplomatic sources stated that the current activity did not constitute part of the broadened operation approved by the Security Cabinet Wednesday that may lead the army as deep into Lebanese territory as the Litani River. 
A defiant Hizbullah chief vowed on Wednesday to turn south Lebanon into a "graveyard" for invading Israeli troops, hours after the Jewish state ordered an expanded ground offensive. In a televised speech, Hassan Nasrallah said Israeli attacks had not weakened its rocket capabilities and called on the Arab residents of Haifa to quit the Israeli city to avoid being hurt by the guerrilla group's barrages. 
SRINAGAR, India - Two men identified as Islamic militants were killed Wednesday in separate incidents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said, but protesters alleged one was a civilian waiting for a bus.
JERUSALEM - Hezbollah guerrillas fired 160 rockets at Israeli towns on Wednesday, including medium- and long-ranged rockets that landed near the West Bank town of Jenin and the Israeli city of Beit Shean, police said. Three people were lightly wounded. 
A retired Russian special services colonel has been sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for passing state secrets to MI6, in the latest espionage episode pitting London against Moscow.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai, strongly hinted in an interview that he will not run for another term in office.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Top Democrats on Capitol Hill abandoned Sen. Joe Lieberman one by one Wednesday and threw their support to Ned Lamont, the anti-war challenger who defeated him in the primary. Top Senate Democrats, including John Kerry and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Harry Reid of Nevada, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Chuck Schumer of New York, said they supported Lamont as the duly elected choice of Connecticut's Democratic voters.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will wait to see in which direction the diplomatic process is headed before giving the IDF a green light to implement the expanded ground operation the security cabinet approved at the end of a tense, six-hour meeting Wednesday, senior sources in the Prime Minister's Office said. 
MULTAN: Hafiz Shafiqur Rehman of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba was hanged on Wednesday in the Multan Central Jail. It is the fourth time that a culprit involved in sectarian killings was hanged in the country. Rehman had killed Syed Ejaz Shah, the Tehrik-e-Jafria Bhakkar president. Twelve members of Rehmans family, including his brother Atiqur Rehman, received the body. Earlier, Shieikh Shahzad of the banned Sipah-e-Muhammad was hanged after court found him involved in a murder of a Sipah-e-Sahaba activist in Bahawalpur. Mahram Ali, who was involved in a bomb blast that left Ziaur Rehman Farooqi and over a dozen policemen dead, was hanged. Haq Nawaz of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was the third to be hanged. Nawaz had killed Sadiq Ganji, head of an Iranian cultural center. 
OSLO: Shipping company Trico Marine Services said on Wednesday four foreign workers were kidnapped from one of its supply vessels off Nigeria. The head of Trico Marine's Norwegian subsidiary told Reuters that two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were abducted. "We will not come out with more information than that four of our crew were taken from a ship off Nigeria," Managing Director Bjoern Endresen told Reuters. 
An IDF force from the Haruv Battalion arrested a Palestinian female suspected of intending to carrying out a suicide bombing in Israel. She was arrested at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus. Shortly afterwards, a second Palestinian female was also arrested, who according to suspicions was meant to drive the bomber to the destination of the intended attack. 
LONDON: International terrorism is posing Britain its most sustained threat since the end of World War Two and can only be tackled with the publics help, Home Secretary John Reid said on Wednesday. In a speech to the think tank Demos in London, Reid said there was not one inch of room for complacency over security. We are probably in the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of World War Two, he said in excerpts released by the Home Office. While I am confident that the security services and police will deliver 100 percent effort and 100 percent dedication, they cannot guarantee 100 percent success. 
CHICAGO - A federal judge Wednesday denied prosecutors' request to seat an anonymous jury in the trial of a Bridgeview, Ill., man charged with funneling money to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ruled that prosecutors failed to show Muhammad Salah and his co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of Virginia, are likely to intimidate or harass jurors. "(T)he mere invocation of the word `terrorism,' without more, is insufficient to warrant such an anonymous jury," St. Eve wrote in a ruling released Wednesday.
The winds of war blowing through the region are also being felt in Syria, as the country begins checks of its public bomb shelters for the first time since 1973. Syrian media outlets reported Wednesday that while residents of towns on the border with Israel are independently looking after themselves and shelters, the 'civil guard' began checking the state of bomb shelters in Damascus. A senior member or the civil guard in Damascus said the body was "working to make sure the shelters were in good shape as a step to prepare for any future development. This is especially true for shelters who have over the years turned into stores, clubs, and even homes."
French President Jacques Chirac insisted Wednesday on an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon but admitted the United States had "reservations" over the wording of a UN resolution to end the conflict. Chirac was confident an agreement would be reached on a UN ceasefire resolution. "I cannot imagine that we fail to reach a solution, because that would mean we accept the situation as it is and renounce calls for an immediate ceasefire, which would be the most immoral of solutions," Chirac said. French and US diplomats were working Wednesday on a new draft resolution after Lebanon and Arab nations opposed an earlier text on the grounds that it did not call for Israel to withdraw its troops after a truce.
Border Guard policemen killed a senior Islamic Jihad official in the Silat al-Khartiyeh near Jenin on Sunday. Palestinians identified the man as Rashed al-Omri, a senior activist in the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad. 
AN Israeli helicopter gunship fired at least one missile into a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing two gunmen and wounding five other people, witnesses said. They said two children were among the wounded in the strike on Gaza City, both of them in critical condition.
TV satellite dishes are a "germ-filled stew" which receive subversive propaganda, Communist officials told Cubans Wednesday as Washington increased transmissions of its TV channel to the island while Fidel Castro recovers from surgery. The Communist Party daily Granma also alluded to Miami news programs and talk shows that have been filled in recent days with speculation about Castro's health and the island's future. The shows are received on illegal dishes, highly popular here among those who can afford them. 
THE British grouse shooting season, which begins this weekend, is contributing to global warming, an ecology specialist told the latest edition of New Scientist magazine today.
The IDF General Staff postponed the expansion of ground operations in south Lebanon late Wednesday night, after the security cabinet earlier in the day approved a plan for a widened offensive that would take the army to the Litani River, over 20 kilometers from the border, and beyond, in an effort to prevent the incessant Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel. 40,000 IDF troops and reservists were massed along the northern border Wednesday evening in preparation for Israel's largest and deepest ground incursion into southern Lebanon since the beginning of Operation Change of Direction last month. 
FIVE villagers, including a young boy, were killed in western India overnight when they jumped into a dry well to save an injured pigeon that had fallen in, authorities said. The boy was the first to jump in to rescue the bird and the others followed, trying to help him. The tragedy took place in Jhalabordi village, about 90km from Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat state. 
RALEIGH The first thing we did when our newsroom got a copy of PhotoShop in 1991 was put a third eye in the middle of Kimberly Bergalis forehead. That memory reminded me once again of the seductive powers of the PhotoShop cloning tool. Ms. Bergalis, if you recall, was a young woman from Ft. Pierce, Fla., who, it was later determined, got AIDS from her dentist. Her photo just happened to be among those moved by AP that day, and we picked it at random to practice on. I remember, as we looked at the manipulated photo, that we suddenly became aware of the power and dangers of photography's new digital age.
ISRAELI ground troops pushed further into southern Lebanon today as the army suffered 15 casualties in the single worst day of fighting in the four-week war. This new operation falls within the geographical framework already established, army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal said, playing down a media report that an expanded sweep against Hezbollah was under way. Capt Dallal said tanks and troops had crossed into Lebanon in order to quell Hezbollah rocket fire from al-Khiam, a town that has already seen fighting.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The mayor of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay's hometown said Wednesday he will run as a write-in candidate for his House seat after the scandal-scarred DeLay moved to withdraw from the November ballot. David Wallace, one of the candidates Texas Republicans were considering to replace DeLay, said in a statement that he had the backing of family, grass-roots leaders and friends in his write-in bid. The Democratic nominee is former Rep. Nick Lampson.
ISRAELI gunboats have shelled a refugee camp in Lebanon, killing two people, as France and the United States hammer out a new draft UN resolution aimed at securing a ceasefire in the four-week war. Five children 
Police are investigating reports of severed fingers, after a stabbing in the Uptown area overnight. Police arrived at 31st and Lyndale Aves. S. in Minneapolis around 3 a.m., finding two victims that appeared to have been stabbed with a two-and-a-half foot Samurai-style sword. The two victims were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. Later, two more suspects then showed up at HCMC with stab wounds, and police took those people into custody. The suspects taken into custody were identified as Hossem Chalbi, 18, and Mohammed Khalil, 29.
GAZA - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya on Wednesday urged a debate on the future of the Palestinian Authority, his remarks following earlier comments from a Palestinian official calling for the Authority to be dissolved.
Lowe's has halted plans for two home-improvement centers in Chicago while Mayor Richard Daley weighs whether he will try to block the city's new "big-box" minimum-wage ordinance, a South Side alderman said Tuesday. The company's concerns about the law caused it to shelve plans for stores at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue and at 79th Street and Cicero Avenue, said Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st). "They changed their mind," said Brookins, whose ward includes the proposed store at 83rd and Stewart. "They now want to wait and see what happens."
