Iraqi and coalition forces are pursuing extremist leaders in Iraqs remote areas in coordinated quick strikes that launched this week, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq told Pentagon reporters today.
Operation Phantom Strike is a series of joint operations that extend from Operation Phantom Thunder, a corps-level offensive that began in June targeting al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents and Shiia extremists in, near and around Baghdad, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno.
With the elimination of safe havens and support zones due to Phantom Thunder, al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have been forced into ever-shrinking areas. It is my intent to pursue and disrupt their operations, Odierno said.
Over the coming weeks, the general said, combined forces will conduct quick-strike raids against extremist sanctuaries and staging areas. Using precision-targeting operations, troops will target terrorist leaders and members of lethal improvised-explosive-device and car-bomb networks, he said.
We will continue to hunt down the leadership, deny them safe haven, disrupt their supply lines and significantly reduce their capability to operate in Iraq, Odierno added.
In the first 24 hours of one quick-strike raid, Multinational Division North soldiers captured and killed several enemies and seized weapons caches in the Diyala River Valley. Called Operation Lightning Hammer, this operation targeted extremists as they tried to re-establish sanctuaries, the general said.
Odierno highlighted some successes of Operation Phantom Thunder, which launched June 15. In 142 battalion-level joint operations, Iraqi and coalition forces detained 6,702 suspects, killed 1,196 enemies and wounded 419 others. Combined forces also killed or captured 382 high-value targets, he said.
Troops also cleared 1,113 weapons caches and scores of IEDs and car bombs. The number of found and cleared IEDs, (car bombs) and caches are approximately 50 percent higher than the same period last year due, in large part, to effective tips provided by concerned Iraqi citizens, the general added.
Odierno warned that high-profile attacks may rise as two important dates approach. In the early weeks of September, Ramadan, Islams holiest month, begins. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, is slated to present an anticipated report to Congress around the same time.
Our enemy is ruthless and will no doubt attempt to exploit the upcoming Ramadan season, as well as influence political opinions in the coming weeks by increasing attacks with particular emphasis on high-profile terror attacks, he said.
But extremists efforts are increasingly hampered by civilians who cooperate with coalition forces as troops ramp-up raids around the country, Odierno said.
Al Qaeda and other extremist elements will have to contend with an Iraqi population that no longer welcomes them, he said, as well as quick-hitting offensive operations by coalition and Iraqi forces. In the past two months we have annihilated the equivalent of a heavy brigade of enemy.
#2
Odierno highlighted some successes of Operation Phantom Thunder, which launched June 15. In 142 battalion-level joint operations, Iraqi and coalition forces detained 6,702 suspects, killed 1,196 enemies and wounded 419 others. Combined forces also killed or captured 382 high-value targets, he said.
This is the kind of info the American people should have been hearing from Sept 12, 2001. Instead we get the picture and bio of every American killed on the Evening news. Wonder how WWII would have turned out if the evening news or papers were devoted to the 200 killed each and every day.
Posted by: ed ||
08/17/2007 22:15
Comments ||
Top||
The U.S. military has reported the capture of a senior officer of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps stationed in Baghdad.
U.S. forces, which are taking aim at key Iranian officers based in Iraq, conducted a raid that nabbed the officer of the IRGC's Quds Force and killed three of his aides.
"Coalition troops continue to target terrorists who bring weapons and explosives, especially explosively formed penetrators, and other aid into Iraq," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said. "Coalition forces will continue their focused operations against unhelpful Iranian influence interfering in Iraq."
Officials said IRGC has become a major U.S. target, particularly in the Baghdad area.
"The captured high-priority individual was responsible for smuggling explosively formed penetrators, Katyusha rockets and other weapons from Iran into Iraq," an official said. "The target was also responsible for distributing those weapons to special groups and extremist militants operating throughout Baghdad. The weapons smuggler had direct ties to senior militant leaders and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force."
A military statement said nine gunmen were killed in a series of raids in Iraq. The statement said the detained IRGC officer facilitated the flow of weapons from Iran to Iraq and their distribution to Shi'ite and other militias.
Officials said five others were arrested during the raid. They said Iranian officers were transferring weapons and finances to a range of militias in an effort to force a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.
U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said insurgents have received Iranian 240 mm rockets for attacks against the U.S.-led coalition. Bergner said U.S. forces recovered some of the 240 mm rockets in the Ninveh province on Aug. 14.
"The 240 mm rocket is a large-caliber projectile that has been provided to militia extremists groups in the past along with a range of other weapons from Iranian sources," Bergner said.
The Bush administration plans to designate IRGC a terrorist group. The Quds Force was said to be responsible for liasion with and assistance to a range of Middle East insurgency groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah.
The army also reported the killing of six Al Qaida insurgents and the detention of another 26 fighters in operations east of Balad. U.S. and Iraqi combat units also found a cache of weapons and bombs in an Al Qaida stronghold.
"Terrorists cannot conceal themselves in small villages, disrupting the lives of Iraqi citizens," Garver said. "There was no safe havens for terrorists here, as operations will continue to seek them wherever they hide."
#4
I have no problem with these skirmishes, as long as the US realizes that the Iranians will have to deploy the 'use it or loose it' scenario with their armaments should the 'fat hit the fan'. You want to see a grown man (me) spontaneously combust, than let one of their C-802 missiles get through to hit one of our carriers. I want everything larger than a gnat's ass tracked, before the first button is pushed!!
[Always on the lookout for innovations in the world of science to bring before my readers, I am of course a subscriber to that indispensable compendium of pharmacological data, The Physicians Desk Reference. Combing through the pages of the latest edition of this classic, I note the following new products to emerge from the labs of our pharmaceutical companies the worlds best!]
Ahmadinezam (uranium caliphate)
Description: Mild psychedelic, enhances out-of-body and religious experiences.
Indications and Usage: Ahmadinezam is indicated where attempted transplant of foreign tissue has been rejected. It has also proven effective in the symptomatic relief of excessive rationality.
Contraindications: Ahmadinezam is mildly radioactive (~100kBq/g) and should be handled with care.
Adverse Reactions: The most pronounced adverse reaction, observed in approx. 10 percent of cases on clinical trial, was moderate dwarfism. Also observed at low to medium frequencies (2-5 percent): strabismus, facial rash (resulting, for male subjects, in inability to shave), loss of some highly specific motor functions (e.g. ability to knot necktie).
Barax (obamalic articulate)
Description: Regulates melanin production.
Indications and Usage: Effective with patients suffering from chronic situational dermatochromal anxiety i.e. self-perception as not black enough when among African Americans yet too black when among other groups. Barax induces a chameleon effect increased/decreased melanin production corresponding to perceived average shade of nearby persons.
Contraindications: Barax is contraindicated in patients with non-health-threatening anxiety levels and should not be prescribed for patients with well-established perceptions of their own racial identity.
Adverse Reactions: May cause severe mood swings, from amiable passivity to sudden aggression. What can I say---it's Derb
British Broadcasting Corp. said Friday that its Russian-language FM broadcasts have been taken off the air by its Moscow distributor, which called the programs "foreign propaganda."
The decision by Bolshoye Radio and similar moves by two other radio stations in the past year leaves the BBC's Russian-language services available only on medium- and short-wave broadcasts, the BBC said.
Bolshoye Radio's parent company, financial group Finam, said that its license did not allow it to retransmit BBC's programs and that the station will instead focus on originally produced material.
"It's no secret that the BBC was established as a broadcaster of foreign propaganda," company spokesman Igor Ermachenkov told The Associated Press.
Ermachenkov said management made the decision without outside interference. However, the move comes amid criticism that President Vladimir Putin's government has stifled media freedoms as part of an effort to increase Kremlin control over Russian political life. It also comes as British-Russian relations have soured, in part over the poisoning death of a former KGB agent.
As Russia heads into parliamentary elections in December and a presidential election in March, observers say government influence over news media appears to be at its strongest since the end of the Soviet era.
Several foreign language broadcasters have seen their programming curtailed or pulled off the air in Russia in recent years. Last year, Russian authorities dramatically curtailed the number of stations broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America news programs.
The BBC said the licensing documents it received in May 2006 allowed almost one-fifth of Bolshoye Radio's content to be produced externally. Richard Sambrook, director of BBC Global News, called on the station to respect the original agreement.
"We cannot understand how the license is now interpreted in a way that does not reflect the original and thorough concept documents," he said.
Relations between London and Moscow have plummeted to their lowest level in years.
British prosecutors have demanded that Russia hand over a businessman they have accused in the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and British citizen who died of radioactive poisoning in London last year.
Russia has refused, saying it is constitutionally barred from extraditing Russian citizens. It has also waged a public relations campaign accusing Britain of trying to recruit spies in Russia. "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" -- Captain Renault, 'Casablanca'
NEW DELHI: If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was China's head of government he would have been shot for "bluffing" to the nation over a controversial nuclear deal with the United States, former defence minister George Fernandes said.
The landmark agreement opens the way for civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries, but critics say it will eventually hurt India's nuclear security because of U.S. laws on nuclear trade governing the pact.
"What has emerged is that the prime minister of the country has betrayed the nation by continuous bluffing, something unbecoming of the head of the government," Fernandes, who was part of the previous Hindu nationalist-led government, said in a statement.
"If it were China, they would have settled it with one bullet in his head," the maverick veteran politician said in the statement sent to Reuters on Friday.
The deal aims to give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in three decades despite New Delhi having tested nuclear weapons and not having signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Both the Hindu nationalist opposition and communist allies of Singh's Congress party-led coalition have attacked the historic nuclear deal, saying it was an unfair and unequal pact.
Singh has strongly defended the deal, saying it is crucial for India's development and would not impact New Delhi's foreign or security policies.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/17/2007
16:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
U.S. troops battled gunmen in a mosque after their combat outpost north of Baghdad came under machinegun and rocket-propelled grenade fire that killed one soldier, the U.S. military said on Friday. The military said an aircraft fired a Hellfire missile at two gunmen on the roof of the Sunni Arab mosque in the town of Tarmiya on Thursday after ordering everyone inside to evacuate.
"These insurgents displayed total disregard for the community by using a mosque, a sacred place for Muslims to worship, as a sanctuary to commit their acts of terror," said Major Mike Garcia, spokesman for U.S. troops in the area. He said the mosque sustained only minor damage in the operation in which 20 people were detained. The U.S. combat outpost had been repeatedly attacked by gunmen in the mosque since May, he added.
Rooters editorial staff adds:
While it is unusual for U.S. troops in Iraq to attack religiously sensitive sites such as mosques or even enter them, they have launched assaults in the past on mosques suspected of being used as bases for militants or to store weapons.
#2
Why "attack" the mosque and risk more of our soldiers' lives? Call in an airstrike or artillery to level the damned pisshole along with everyone inside of it.
Posted by: Ho Chi Threrese8236 ||
08/17/2007 16:31
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Because, Zen, you flatten the place, you end up making enemies out of the entire neighborhood - and getting a ton more soldiers killed as they have to sort out the hood for the next 6 months. Or I suppose you'd say kill all them too, huh?
Think it through. Mindlessly blowing shit up is stupid if you don't think through the consequences.
#7
I'll offer a plan. I'm not military, but I think I can noodle this one out.
OPSEC requires that this be done quietly with no advance warning.
H-hour is about 0500. Surround the mosque with a cordon of Iraqi Army troops leavened with a few US advisors. No one in, no one out. Vehicles stay away.
Put a UAV overhead -- two -- and make sure the data stream works.
Get the local mayor on board to help with the PR effort with the citizens. The PR effort is mounting AFTER the operation but needs to be planned in ADVANCE.
Iraqi army special forces and US Marines/Rangers lead the way. You have LOTS of manpower for this. You have an Apache loitering nearby if you need that kind of firepower. Your people arrive in Bradleys and Strykers to augment firepower. That helps make the cordon something no one wants to mess with.
No warning. Doorknockers gain entry. All doors are opened (not blown, opened) at once. IA leads the way inside to ensure that no one gets too upset at infidels inside. Everyone inside gets one chance to throw his mitts in da air and come out. Forfeit the chance and you forfeit your life.
Real important -- this is methodical, careful, basic infantry work. Our guys KNOW how to do this. There's no need to blow the place up; you take it apart carefully, grab the bad guys and use the intel. Anyone shoots, you flatten them.
Clear the mosque a room at a time. IA leads, US forces advise and follow. Everything is searched, and you look for hidden weapons caches, etc.
Operation ends successfully. Bad guys are hauled away, mayor gets the keys to the mosque, PR campaign starts, and IA/US forces do their after-action review.
That's how I'd do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2007 18:31
Comments ||
Top||
#8
If Islam is a religion of peace, then any site from which shots are fired, cannot be a bona fide mosque. Still CAIR berates US counterattacks. Then again they insist that ALL the Gitmo detainees are muslims. US security first!
#9
Because, Zen, you flatten the place, you end up making enemies out of the entire neighborhood
With all due respect, OldSpook, I'll argue that. Recent events have sufficiently polarized the average Iraqi citizen against terrorists towhat I'd like to think isa sufficient degree whereby it would no longer garner so much public opprobium if a jihadist hive got demolished.
Of course, such a concept relies heavily upon a simple and highly cost effective tactic that the current administration has ignored completely: Namely, you leaflet the entire neighborhood and carefully explain how and why their local mosque needed a complete remodeling job. Let's look back into the article:
the Sunni Arab mosque
The U.S. combat outpost had been repeatedly attacked by gunmen in the mosque since May, he added.
A.) It's a Sunni mosque. Right about now, they're not the most popular kids on the block.
B.) This taurine fecal matter has been going on for many months. Somehow, I doubt that this escaped any notice by the locals.
Combine the two and it's pretty safe to say that a major retaliation would only be decried by the usual suspects.
Or I suppose you'd say kill all them too, huh?
PS: You can lay off the exceedingly tiresome and thoroughly disproven "kill 'em all" meme anytime. Either that or start providing some cites and links.
Steve, compare the cost of your operation with lobbing in a few shells or missiles. Yes, I'll admit that your method would gather more intelligence. I still maintain that leveling the place would serve substantially towards pour encourager les autres.
#10
Leveling the Moskkk feels better than it works.
It does a good job of getting the bad guys, but it also acts as a punitive measure against the locals. The problem with that, is that it amounts to nothing more than stirring the ant hill. Its already well established that this type of punitive measure doesn't work in Iraq. Argueably, for punitive measures to work there, they would have to be monsterously punitive and we, as a nation, are not willing to do that. Which leaves us with only one option. Conventional COIN: Working with the locals and bringing them to your side. (at least while you need them)
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/17/2007 21:05
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Hell, we could have our 'cake' and eat it also; leave the building standing, just liquidate the life...One mini neutron warhead would do the trick; the ones with the self 'melting' shell, "wink-wink"! Those who KNOW, know what I'm talking about! But Oh, if your going to keep it a secret, than use the damn thing!!!
#12
Working with the locals and bringing them to your side.
Fer cripe's sake, Mike N., there's no "bringing them to your side". Do you even understand that? America represents Law based upon human decision and election. Islam is wholely founded upon Koranic dictates and nothing else, period. Permitting people to self-govern is an outright abomination to Muslims, are we clear?
I'll try to come back and address your other points, but this one is entirely overriding.
#13
Argueably, for punitive measures to work there, they would have to be monsterously punitive and we, as a nation, are not willing to do that.
How does thatin any waydisqualify the need for "monsterously punitive" measures? In case no one has noticed, this is what will be required to get Islam's collective attention.
It's like the farmer who sells a stranded salesman his prize mule so he can ride it into town. The salesman hops into the saddle anddespite his "gees" and "gaws"gets precisely nowhere.
After half an hour of this nonsense, the salesman demands his money back from the farmer. The old geezer walks up to the obstinant mule and slams down an arm's length of two by four squarely in between its beady eyes. While the mule staggers blindly about the farm's courtyard, the farmer tells the salesman, "First you have to get his attention."
#14
The problem with that, is that it amounts to nothing more than stirring the ant hill.
Mike N., you're dangerously close to the "killing terrorists only creates more terrorists" meme. I doubt that this is your intention but I hope you'll drop in and explain it away. Or not.
A U.S. Marine Corps search-and-rescue helicopter crashed during a training flight over southwest Arizona, killing four people on board, officials said Friday. One person survived.
The HH-1N Huey crashed about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Yuma on Thursday. The wreckage was discovered early Friday, and three Marines and one Navy sailor were pronounced dead at the scene, said 1st Lt. Rob Dolan, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma. The injured Marine was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center and is listed in stable condition. The names of the dead and injured will not be released for 24 hours under standard military policy, Dolan said.
The chopper assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma was last heard from at about 4 p.m. Thursday, Marine Sgt. Ryan O'Hare said. The aircraft was flying on a routine training mission near the Army's Yuma Proving Ground, a sprawling 1,300-square-mile (3,367 square kilometers) military reservation along the Arizona-California border used to test combat systems and helicopters.
God bless these servicemen, their families and all those who know and love them.
#1
I don't think people realize how dangerous "normal" non-combat operations can be. We live about 70 miles from Ft. Bragg, and about 120 miles from Camp Lejuene. It seems that every few weeks there are reports of some soldiers or Marines killed or injured in the evening news.
My son was a US Marine on active duty 1996-2000. My biggest worry at the time was that he would be killed or seriously injured in an accident. That was without any combat. I can't imagine how hard it must be for family of people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Day by day, I am more surprised at the turn in the Iraq debate. I know this is going to sound like pie-in-the-sky optimism, but I wonder if by the time General Petraeus makes his report, there will be something of a consensus on Capitol Hill - "we know that the surge has improved security for the Iraqi people and beat the hell out of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The question is, how do we get enough political stability so that we can hand this all off to the Iraqis and come home with honor?"
Take a look at these striking comments from five-term Congressman Brian Baird, D-Wash., who voted against the invasion in 2002, after recently returning from Iraq:
U.S. Rep. Brian Baird said Thursday that his recent trip to Iraq convinced him the military needs more time in the region, and that a hasty pullout would cause chaos that helps Iran and harms U.S. security...
With Congress poised next month to look at U.S. progress in Iraq and a vote looming on U.S. funding for the war, Baird said he's inclined to seek a continued U.S. presence in Iraq beyond what many impatient Americans want. He also expects Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. troops in Iraq, to seek a redeployment of forces. "People may be upset. I wish I didn't have to say this," Baird said. He added that the United States needs to continue with its military troops surge "at least into early next year, then engage in a gradual redeployment. I know it's going to cost hundreds of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars."
It was Baird's fifth trip to the Middle East, and he conceded that what he has learned has put him again in an unpopular position with some voters. . . .
What happens if a signficant number of congressional Democrats say, "we're willing to stay some time longer, to ensure the job is finished properly," while their presidential candidates are chanting, "Get out now, get out now"?
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2007
15:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
I have told you before and I will tell you again, this is worth finishing properly.
Jules Crittenden explores the fever swamps of the antiwar Left so you don't have to . . .
A terrorism conviction by a jury of his peers should shut up the Padillista cheering section. Don't you think?
Cat's got Firedoglake's tongue, after visions of sweet release for Padilla expected from a quick jury turn-around at the end of a "Kafkaesque trial" prove premature. Later, special correspondent Lewis Z. Koch, who's been covering this thing five years, chimes in with a rant about how Padilla was psychologically tortured. Firedog cat has his tongue on the central issues of the case, too. Koch by the way, is a fan of this site. Or he was. Don't know if his FDL pals have filled him in yet.
Newhog indignation here. Should have been terrorist Bush on trial instead of peace-loving American Padilla. Bush torture to blame. This seems to be emerging as the main thread. Padilla was driven so crazy he couldn't refute his fingerprints on the document and his voice on the tape.
OK, a couple more. Left Field: fear wins out. Yeah, Americans are stupid. LF adds remark about what a failure Bush's anti-terrorism policies are. There must be a successful terrorist attack on the mainland U.S. in the last six years less one month that I've forgotten. Shakespeare's Sister (really, that might actually be more insulting to Shakespeare than "Newshogger" is to pigs) sniffs that to wingnuts this will justify everything that was done to Padilla over the last 3 1/2 years. Well ... no, not really, that was already OK.
About that torture-nullification theory, by the way, judge didn't agree.
The AP, to its credit, includes here something missing in earlier reports, that none of the above seem much interested in noting:
U.S. officials said Padilla, while incarcerated in a military brig in South Carolina, admitted exploring the dirty bomb plot. But that evidence could not be used at trial because he was not read his rights and did not immediately have access to an attorney.
. . . It turns out, when the United States made the mistake of treating a turncoat enemy combatant as such, rather than treating him as a garden-variety domestic criminal, they screwed their primary case due to Miranda issues. This would not have been a problem had Padilla been subjected to a military tribunal and summary execution. You know, like George Washington used to do. The kind of thing you would expect for a traitor who has taken up arms against his country.
But it is fascinating that there are Americans who hate their president so much, they are willing to believe anything that terrorists, their legal representatives and their sympathizers say, to the point of ignoring reports in their own Bush-bashing press.
#2
In my opinion, post 9-11 or post the first few months of the Afghan operation, the Dept of Justice should have proposed a comprehensive law to replace the obsolete stuff we have now with provisions distinguishing between the various cases of
- Americans who are captured working with enemy combatants
- Americans who are captured working with illegal enemy combatants (like AlQ)
- resident aliens who are...
- non citizens who are...
Instead, the Dept of Justice basically stalled, let Congress suggest some stuff, etc.
Of course the lefties went nuts but this was entirely predictable and in fact enabled by the Dept of Justice in capacity.
Imphal, India: Twelve members of banned insurgent groups were arrested and pistols, ammunition, rifle parts and extortion notes seized from the official residences of three MLAs of the ruling Congress and the home of a former legislator during a search in Manipurs capital on Friday.
Eight cadres of the Kanglei Yaol Kanna Lup (KYKL) were arrested from the home of Congress MLA W Brajabidhu Singh in the high-security Babupara area, where only ministers and legislators live, during a search carried out following reports that militants were sheltering there, Director General of Police Y Joy Kumar Singh told reporters here.
A disassembled M-16 rifle, two 9 mm pistols, ammunition and extortion letters addressed to businessmen were seized from the septic tank of a toilet in the MLA's residence.
A cadre of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and one of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), both banned groups, were arrested from the official residence of another Congress MLA, K Meghachandra Singh, the police chief said.
A cadre of the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and a KCP member were arrested from the homes of Congress MLA Bijoy Koijam and former MLA N Sovakiran during the search, he said.
Cases have been registered against the three MLAs and the former legislator. The developments had been brought to the notice of the government, he said.
The search, headed by Inspector General of Police M Karanjit Singh, was continuing at Brajabidhu Singh's house.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/17/2007
12:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Probably time to impose Presidential rule from Delhi
Posted by: john frum ||
08/17/2007 12:50
Comments ||
Top||
#1
...I'm wondering when the character assassination of General Petraeus will start. He's way too popular and respected for the Dhimmis, and if they can;'t find a way to torpedo the message, they'll do it to the messenger. Could very well be why they don't want Petreaus to deliver the report himself, but rather the tame Trunks of the Administration.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/17/2007 14:06
Comments ||
Top||
CNN released a new opinion poll today, and it appears that the slime campaign on General David Petraeus has now officially begun with a month to go before his report to Congress. CNN claimed on their Situation Room that only 28% of responders would be more likely to support the war if Petraeus reports the surge is showing signs of progress, 72% wouldn't. And worse news, if one were to believe this poll, only 43% of those polled trusted Petraeus to give an accurate report in September, while 53% said they don't trust the top U.S. military commander in Iraq.
#3
The ultimate irony: The seventh-century terrorists win and those who habitually demonized American military operations will themselves lose as well.
Yeah, but the demonizers will be glad.
And then they'll start complaining again.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2007 15:42
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Only once Bobby.
Posted by: ed ||
08/17/2007 15:50
Comments ||
Top||
#5
David is probably the most non corrupt and effective public servant in the US government. I AM so proud of this professional. If one congress person tries to assassinate his character, I shall take them and their state to the woodshed.
From a CNN article about a fight:
The first incident occurred late Thursday when soldiers from Task Force Lightning came under attack from the Honest Mohammed Mosque -- a Sunni house of worship in Tarmiya. A soldier was killed and another was wounded. You can't miss it, Achmed, it's right next to the taqiya-ria; they sell used RPGs as a sideline
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft and army snipers killed 13 gunmen north of Baghdad on Friday in fierce fighting that erupted as troops closed in to capture an al Qaeda cell leader, the U.S. military said.
The U.S. military this week announced the launch of a major new offensive targeting al Qaeda and Shi'ite militias, who they fear will step up attacks ahead of a key report on the Iraq war due to be presented to the U.S. Congress in September.
It launched an operation east of the town of Tarmiya on Friday targeting an al Qaeda leader "who provides guidance to senior terrorist leaders".
After being shot at from several buildings, troops had called in air strikes that forced out four gunmen, including a woman wearing a ski mask, who were then killed by aircraft and sniper fire, the U.S. military said. Nine more gunmen were killed during the fighting.
"Despite coalition forces' appeals for the terrorists to send out women and children to be taken to safety, a boy was killed in a building with an armed terrorist who had engaged the ground forces," a military statement said.
A day earlier U.S. forces in Tarmiya attacked a Sunni mosque in the town after machinegun and rocket-propelled grenade fire on their combat outpost killed one soldier. More than 3,700 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
U.S. President George W. Bush has sent an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq to help clamp down sectarian violence between Shi'ite Muslims and Sunni Arabs and buy Iraq's divided leaders time to reach a political accommodation.
Moderate Kurdish and Shi'ite blocs formed a new alliance on Thursday to support Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government in an attempt to break a political deadlock that has paralysed decision-making and stalled agreement on crucial legislation. Continued...
#1
A day earlier U.S. forces in Tarmiya attacked a Sunni mosque in the town after machinegun and rocket-propelled grenade fire on their combat outpost killed one soldier.
It's encouraging to hear that mosques aren't off-limits, nevermind al-Rooter's vague wording that carefully avoids directly connecting that mosque with said machinegun and RPG fire.
Russia is resuming a Soviet-era practice of sending its bomber aircraft on long-range flights, President Vladimir Putin has said. Mr Putin said the move to resume the flights after a 15 year suspension was in response to security threats posed by other military powers. He said 14 bomber aircraft had taken off from seven airfields across Russia. The move came a week after Russian bombers flew within a few hundred miles of the US Pacific island of Guam.
"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," Mr Putin told reporters at joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains. "In 1992, Russia unilaterally ended flights by its strategic aircraft to distant military patrol areas. Unfortunately, our example was not followed by everyone," Mr Putin said, in an apparent reference to the US. "Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation," he said.
In Washington, a state department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said Russia's decision was "interesting". "If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision," he told reporters.
Russian media reported earlier on Friday that long-range bombers had been flying over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A Russian air force spokesman said several pairs of bombers were in the air "accompanied by Nato planes," Itar-Tass news agency said.
Nato said it was aware of the flights but had no comment on whether the Russian bombers had been accompanied by Nato planes.
Itar-Tass quoted Russian air force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying: "At present, several pairs of Tu-160 and Tu-95MS aircraft are in the air over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which are accompanied by Nato planes."
In last week's incident near Guam, the Russian pilots "exchanged smiles" with US fighter pilots who scrambled to track them, a Russian general said.
The US military confirmed the presence of the Russian bombers near Guam, home to a large US base. Last month two Tupolev 95 aircraft - dubbed "bears" according to their Nato code-name - strayed south from their normal patrol pattern off the Norwegian coast and headed towards Scotland. Two RAF Tornado fighters were sent up to meet them. Russian bombers have also recently flown close to US airspace over the Arctic Ocean near Alaska.
Putin's 2nd term in office is coming to an end. He's looking for an excuse to stay on for a 3rd.
#2
Hey that's OK, Those Bears are already old and more long range flights only accelerates their fatigue. Maybe if Putty poot ever thinks he'll really need them they will either be down for structural repairs or maybe (wish, wish) suffer an in-flight breakup. Of course for the crews that would suck, but sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.....
#6
Dammit, Darth stole the words off my keyboard again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2007 19:11
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I had this sudden mental picture of a stealth B-2 Hovering just aft and above the russian bomber, those things don't have rear-view mirrors.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2007 19:21
Comments ||
Top||
#8
See also UPI.com > IS THE SCO BECOMING ANOTHER WARSAW PACT ORGANIZATION? Scoop - RUSSIA likely still gives relations wid Western Europe and SSSSSHHHHHHH USA higher priority, and may not be too thrilled about working wid other SCO nations.
*IONews affecting CHINA, DEFENSENEWS > INDIA plans to build to build roads, airfields, strongpoints along/next to disputed territory wid China.
#9
Guys, cut Putin a little slack. Russia is crumbling beneath him. The empire is gone and the Russian people are so demoralized that the population is collapsing. So he is going to do whatever he can to try to stop the slide (National Conception Day?) and needs a bogeyman to rally against. Better the West who is just going to chuckle and ignore him than the Chinese who might take offense, kick his ass and occupy Siberia. Besides Bearbaiting is time honored tradition among American aviators.
#10
"If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision," he told reporters.
Is it just me, or does this quote and the quote by Nicholas Burns about "peace can only come through strength" (in the $30 billion military aid package we're giving Israel) give you all hope that our newer State spokesmen have a lil more CO Jones than previous Staties? Or am I just reading into their quotes what I want to happen w/ State?
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007 22:24
Comments ||
Top||
Marcus Griffin is not a soldier. But now that he cuts his hair "high and tight" like a drill sergeant's, he understands why he is being mistaken for one. Mr. Griffin is actually a professor of anthropology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. His austere grooming habits stem from his enrollment in a new Pentagon initiative, the Human Terrain System. It embeds social scientists with brigades in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they serve as cultural advisers to brigade commanders.
Mr. Griffin, a bespectacled 39-year-old who speaks in a methodical monotone, believes that by shedding some light on the local culture -- thereby diminishing the risk that U.S. forces unwittingly offend Iraqi sensibilities -- he can improve Iraqi and American lives. On the phone from Fort Benning, two weeks shy of boarding a plane bound for Baghdad, he describes his mission as "using knowledge in the service of human freedom."
The Human Terrain System is part of a larger trend: Nearly six years into the war on terror, there is reason to believe that the Vietnam-era legacy of mistrust -- even hostility -- between academe and the military may be eroding.
This shift in the zeitgeist is embodied by Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq. Gen. Petraeus, who holds a doctorate from Princeton University in international relations, made a point of speaking on college campuses between his tours in Iraq because he believes it is critical that America "bridge the gap between those in uniform and those who, since the advent of the all-volunteer force, have had little contact with the military." In a recent essay in the American Interest, Gen. Petraeus reflects on his own academic journey and stresses how the skills he cultivated on campus help him operate on the fly in Iraq. As such, he is a staunch proponent of Army officers attending civilian graduate programs.
Over the past few years, Gen. Petraeus has been cultivating ties to the academic community, drawing on scholars for specialized knowledge and fresh thinking about the security challenges facing America. "What you are seeing is a willingness by military officers to learn from civilian academics," says Michael Desch, an expert on civilian-military relations at Texas A&M. "The war on terrorism has really accelerated this trend."
The terms of this relationship are most evident in the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual. In the face of a gruesomely persistent Iraqi insurgency, Gen. Petraeus was charged with revamping the outdated counterinsurgency doctrine. In an unprecedented collaboration, he reached out to Sarah Sewall, who directs the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, to help him organize a vetting session of the draft manual at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
The conference brought together journalists, human-rights activists, academics and members of the armed forces to exchange ideas about how to make the doctrine more effective and more humane. Ms. Sewall, who since 2001 has been trying to get the military to bring the concerns of the human-rights community to the table, tells me that with Gen. Petraeus it is like pushing on an open door. And according to Montgomery McFate, who had a hand in drafting the manual, this was probably the first time that anthropological insight has been officially incorporated into more than 200 years of military doctrine. In chapter one, it explicitly states that "cultural knowledge is essential to waging a successful counterinsurgency. American ideas of what is 'normal' or 'rational' are not universal." (The manual was published last month by the University of Chicago Press. Ms. Sewall wrote the foreword.)
"Anthropologists have the opportunity right now to influence how the national security establishment does business," writes Ms. McFate in an email from Afghanistan, where she is a senior adviser to the Human Terrain System project. A Yale University-trained anthropologist, she has been the target of bitter criticism from the anthropology establishment on account of her tireless efforts to convince the military that cultural knowledge is key to winning over the people in war-torn societies like Iraq and Afghanistan. She insists that a growing number of anthropologists are questioning the conventional wisdom and reconsidering whether the most effective way to influence the military is "by waving a big sign outside the Pentagon saying 'you suck.' "
That may be wishful thinking on Ms. McFate's part. A majority of members active in the American Anthropological Association seem to reject her as naïve and dangerous. And history provides plenty of legitimate cause for concern. There is a toxic legacy of military-funded clandestine research -- most notably the infamous Project Camelot in Chile in the mid-1960s and a 1970 scandal triggered by American social scientists' efforts on behalf of a Thai government counterinsurgency campaign. Roberto J. Gonzalez, a professor of anthropology at San Jose State University and a leading critic of rapprochement between the national-security community and professional anthropologists, has taken to the pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education to warn against "the militarization of the social sciences." In recent years, the annual meetings of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Anthropological Association have been dominated by discussion about what ethical responsibilities scholars have in relation to war, terrorism and torture. At such events, Ms. McFate and her rare sympathizers often sound like a lone voice in the wilderness.
So will these instances of cooperation be enduring? Do they represent the harbinger of a more pervasive reconsideration of Vietnam-era pieties in academe? Hard to say. But it somehow seems significant that no less an archetype of Vietnam-era agitation than Tom Hayden emerged last month to raise the dusty banner of anti-military antagonism. In an essay posted on the Web site of the Nation magazine, he attacked Ms. Sewall for collaborating with Gen. Petraeus on the new manual, which he dismissed as "an academic formulation to buttress and justify a permanent engagement in counter-terrorism wars" that "runs counter to the historic freedom of university life."
Mr. Hayden's article suggests a bizarre conception of the role of scholars in American life: that they should be held to a priestly standard of ethical purity. "Are academics so much purer than anybody else that we can't ever be in situations where we are confronting tough ethical choices?" asks Noah Feldman, a professor of law at Harvard who briefly, in 2003, was an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority. "If academics didn't get involved with these kinds of difficult questions, maybe all that would be left is a department of Kantian philosophy," he jokes. "Then we would be pure, but we would be irrelevant."
A drunken man in Mainz, Germany, was arrested after he attempted to hold up a bank there armed with get this a water pistol and a potato peeler. "Hmm I know what I'll do tonight! I know! I'll soak a bank!"
Police say that the man, identified as 52-year-old Walter Schoegl, had a stocking over his head and was waving said potato peeler when he demanded cash. "This is a stickup! Gimme all the money or I douse the lot of you!"
But he left with nothing after the bank teller told him that they had run out of money. "Nope, we don't have a pfennig. Really." "Oh well. I'll just leave, then."
He was still wearing the stocking on his head when he was arrested a mere five minutes later.
#1
"What (Sarkozy) said is, 'If I can communicate with you, then the news media can watch our conversation,' which is very different than having a conversation with the news media which (average people) watch," Gingrich said.
Talking over the head of our Big Media was Reagan's model, too. Reagan had a knack for explanation; the next GOP nominee had better do a pretty good job.
#2
Gingrich added: "Those of you who care about civil liberties had better be thinking about how we win this war before the casualties get so great that the American people voluntarily give up a lot of those liberties."
Spot on. Unfortunately, it's already happening.
"Those who would give up essential liberty, for a little temporary safety, deserver neither liberty, nor safety.
----Ben Franklin
Oh, them zany Dughmosh's...
Gaza Ma'an The leader of the Executive Force in the southern Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Kheil, said on Thursday evening that the weapons of the Dughmosh family are being handed over to the Executive Force in the headquarters of the preventive security service in Tel Al-Hawa. Kheil told Ma'an's office in the Gaza Strip that "any weapons that will be seen later will be confiscated, and its owner will be questioned legally". Oh, I'll bet that will be ...interesting.
Furthermore, all cars belonging to the Palestinian Authority that had been stolen from their owners will be returned, in addition to removing all the road blocks in the area. Sounds like "Animal House"...
Kheil explained that the agreement with the Dughmosh family was reached after the Executive Force besieged the powerful clan family for three consecutive days. The secretary general of the PRC-affiliated Salah Addin Brigades, Zakariyya Dughmosh, who mediated an agreement between the Executive Force and the Dughmosh family, confirmed that the weapons that had been handed were the family's weapons, "not the resistance weapons". Yep, they can keep them thar Jew killin guns. Uncle Zakariyya says it's okay.
He told Ma'an that "neither Hamas nor the Executive Force will obstruct the resistance weapons, which the Dughmosh family members possess, as they are legal weapons". ...and since they're just Jew killin guns, and have magical Jew killin powers, they can't be used agin them thar Executive Force boys.
He concluded, saying that the family had thanked him for his efforts in reaching the agreement, which followed clashes between the family and the Executive Force two days ago, leaving behind two dead Executive Force members. Thanks, Uncle Zakariyya. So what happens over the two guys we killed?
Oh, they get declared martyrs and toss the families a coupla bucks. Easier for everybody. Stay outta mischief now, boys. Don't make me come down here again.
A 32-year-old man who was cleared of suspected terrorist activity in Lebanon has been jailed for nine years over a shooting in Sydney's south-west. Saleh Jamal fired a handgun at a man at Greenacre almost nine years ago.The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, did not suffer life threatening injuries.
While on bail for another matter in 2004 Jamal fled the country. He was arrested in Lebanon on terrorism related offences, convicted, but acquitted on appeal.
He said he had been tortured in jail with the approval of Australian authorities, but a District Court judge today said there was no evidence that Australian officials had any responsibility for his treatment.
Standard al-Q claim.
Jamal was extradited to Australia over the Greenacre shooting and found guilty by a District Court jury. In sentencing him to nine years in jail, the judge described Jamal as a man of violence.
He thanked the judge and said he would ask God to give him a peaceful life. The court heard Jamal plans to study counter-terrorism and chemistry. He will be eligible for parole in two years, given the time he spent in custody in Lebanon. A bit more about this maggot.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/17/2007 11:25
Comments ||
Top||
#2
This article says: Saleh Jamal fired a handgun at a man at Greenacre almost nine years ago.The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, did not suffer life threatening injuries.
Greenacre is in Lakemba.
From the link: He then skipped bail on charges of shooting at the Lakemba police station in Sydney's southwest in 1998.
So, which was it? An innocuous stray bullet that missed its mark? Or was this cretin trying to gun down some police officers? If these were two separate incidents, why was the latter and more serious offense omitted. If not, why was the serious nature of this crime downplayed?
This is almost as screwy as what comes next:
The court heard Jamal plans to study counter-terrorism and chemistry.
This is someone who is suspected of a terrorist attack in Damascus, had ties to Zarqawi and al Qaeda, used a false passport then suddenly has reformed himself and wants to study counter-terrorism counterintelligence and chemistry bomb-making.
Whatever judge gave this psychopath time-served for his incarceration in Lebanon so that he will be out in a mere two yearsjust enough time to cram on counterintelligence and bomb-makingneeds to be put on a watch list.
Ten militants jailed for suicide bombings on Bali that killed more than 220 people - many of them foreign tourists - received sentence reductions Friday to mark Indonesia's Independence Day.
It is a local tradition to cut jail terms on holidays, but the decision was likely to anger countries that lost citizens in the 2002 and 2005 attacks on the resort island's crowded nightclubs andrestaurants.
Those who benefited from Friday's remissions were found guilty of everything from helping plan the bombings, to sheltering the main suspects, to setting up a Web site on how to kill foreigners.
Six men involved in the Oct. 12, 2002, terror strikes that claimed 202 lives - 88 of them Australians - had their sentences cut by five months, said Ilham Djaya, the chief warden at Bali's main prison, citing good behavior.
Four others convicted for the 2005 attacks that left 20 people dead received two month remissions, he said.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Matalatta said about 64,000 prisoners had their sentences cut Friday, most by a few months, and of those some 6,600 were freed.(***)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2007
09:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm glad that this seems to have been straightened out(for now), but the there's still the larger issue of judges constantly expanding their purview into defense matters.
We still have enough vitality as a nation to keep this phenomenom from crippling us, but for how long?
#2
Its what you get when you have a branch of government unchallenged in accumulating power because one party or the other thinks that as long as it supports its 'issues', it's ok. Its what you get when one branch of government wielding a great amount of power is, to use their term, de facto uncountable to the people. Its what you get when you set up a branch of government that becomes the sole domain of a 'select' group or profession.
Because of recent cases of student sex videos involving young high school students in the area the local government of Indramayu in West Java intends to carry out tests on several thousand teen girls (in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth year of high school) to determine whether they are still virgins.
The regent of Indramayu, H Irianto MS Syarifudin, speaking on the sidelines of a book burning event, explained: The point of the examination is to inform parents of the status of their daughters virginity. If a girl was found to have lost her virginity her parents would be called into the school.
The overall purpose of the tests was: To make parents watch over the children better, so that later they cant just blame the schools or the teachers. The plan in the district, long known as a centre of the sex trade, has aroused much opposition.
#5
carry out tests on several thousand teen girls (in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth year of high school) to determine whether they are still virgins.
How can you tell, you rotten lousy shits? If a girl has inserted a tampon the tests will probably indicate penalties are warranted.
Fuck off and die in a rotting and eternal sulphurous hell you stinking worthless putrescent obsessive puritanical bastards.
Malaysia's Islamic opposition party demanded Friday that Gwen Stefani be forbidden from performing in the country, saying the U.S. pop singer would corrupt Malaysia's Muslim-majority youth.
Kamarulzaman Mohamed, an official of the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, said Stefani's planned concert in Kuala Lumpur later this month would promote promiscuity, worsening an existing "teenage social problem." "The issue is that Gwen Stefani brings with her a bad image. The way she dances, the way she dresses it's not proper," he told The Associated Press. "When our teenagers see this, it will induce them to behave improperly."
Earlier Friday, members of the party, the only opposition party to rule a state in Malaysia, handed a two-page memorandum to the organizer, Maxis Communications Bhd., to call off the Aug. 21 concert. They also submitted a memorandum to the Kuala Lumpur municipal authorities. Their protest, however, is unlikely to have any effect, and preparations for the concert are well-underway, and Stefani has promised to dress modestly.
Following a similar protest by the 10,000-member National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students earlier, organizer Maxis pledged that Stefani will follow the local code of ethics for foreign artists, which bans the unnecessary baring of skin. The Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry said enforcement officers would meet Stefani before the concert to remind her about local guidelines and monitor her stage act. I'm sure they'll all be scrutinizing her 'decency' very closely. Very, very closely.
Under the official guide to performing in Malaysia, a female artist needs to cover from the top of her chest to her knees including shoulders. No jumping, shouting or throwing of objects on stage or at the audience is allowed. Performers can also not hug or kiss and their clothes must not have obscene or drug-related images or messages.
A local company, which organized a Pussycat Dolls concert last year, was fined 10,000 ringgit (US$2,857, 2,091) after the U.S. all-girl group was found to have flouted decency regulations.
Posted by: ryuge ||
08/17/2007
08:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Jeebus, I would say their turbans would explode when they get word that Christina A. and Beyonce are coming also, but then I remembered the Indonesian don't wear turbans.
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007 9:05
Comments ||
Top||
#2
sounds like Kamarulzaman Mohamed got a tingling in his naughty parts while slo-mo'ing a Stefani music video, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2007 9:08
Comments ||
Top||
If their muslim values are so compelling, why do they have to worry about their adherents becoming corrupted? Wouldn't muslims just shun all these bad things on their own? Shouldn't they be expected to? Aren't they confident enough about their religion to believe that their people won't be drawn away from the magic of islam?
Instead, they ban performers, music, TV, literature, art, etc., cover women from head to toe, get insulted when others eat pork, beat people for not praying, kill converts, etc.
#5
"Let's see. If we flout the decency rules, sales of albums and stuff goes up %1500. But we will have to pay a $3000 fine. Decisions, decisions. I guess we'll have to vie for 'artistic integrity' on this one. Is there any way she can have a 'garment malfunction' on stage?"
#6
Kamarulzaman Mohamed, an official of the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, said Stefani's planned concert in Kuala Lumpur later this month would promote promiscuity, worsening an existing "teenage social problem."
He then asked for front row seats, a blanket, and a couple of gallons of hand cream...
Thailand will be sending an army contingent to India take tips from the Indian Army on fighting jihadis insurgency and participate in counter-terrorism training, it was reported Friday. Nearly 100 troops from the Royal Thai Army - which is battling a violent terrorist separatist campaign in southern provinces - will participate in a defence exercise at an army base in India's eastern state of Jharkhand, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
The exercise, called "Maitree" - meaning "friendship" in both Hindi and Thai - is the first of its kind between the two armies and planned for early September under a bilateral treaty on security cooperation.
In a joint statement issued during Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's visit to India in June, the two countries resolved to strengthen bilateral cooperation and combat terrorism. Both sides said terrorism constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
Security analysts told the Hindustan Times that such military collaboration forms a crucial component of India's "Look East" policy under which it seeks to consolidate ties with its fast-growing eastern neighbours.
"India is aggressively establishing its credentials in the military sphere with Asean countries," Uday Bhaskar, former director of Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses told the newspaper. "New Delhi is following a bilateral approach to expand defence ties - and not under the Asean Regional Forum banner - as these nations have a lot of internal sensitivities," he added.
India has also established maritime cooperation with a number of Asean members including Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and the Philippines.
In the past few years, a number of countries including the United States have been conducting military exercises with India to pick up tips in fighting insurgency. US Marines are due to conduct joint exercises at the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in India's north-eastern state of Mizoram next month.
I'm not real up on my Indian news, but I thought the Hindus respected *all* animal life, just putting cows above the others. I guess not!
NEW DELHI - New Delhi's stray dogs lead a difficult life. (better than in N. Korea)
But if it was up to one city councilor, they would find themselves in more hot water soup to be precise.
Shipping the thousands of strays to Korea, where dog meat is widely consumed in soup, was one of the more outlandish ideas proposed at a city council meeting to deal with the problem, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Thursday. Probably not so "outlandish" to those who are barely scraping by on tree bark and grass soups.
None of the ideas from the aforementioned Korean plan to drugging the canines so they sleep through the day are likely to be implemented anytime soon. Instead, the council chairman asked the presumably more responsible veterinary department to come up with a workable plan. *snicker* The veterinary department is more responsible than the City Council, LOL! Sounds awfully familiar to here.
Tens of thousands of strays live in New Delhi. Many are often cared for by people in the areas they live, but some become aggressive, and bites and rabies are a problem. Efforts to sterilize them have been largely unsuccessful.
City councilor Mohan Prashad Bharadwaj said he had read that Koreans are fond of dog meat and "maybe we can send all the stray dogs of Delhi there," the paper quoted him as saying.
A soup with dog meat called boshintang is popular in Korea, especially on the three hot "dog days" of summer on the lunar calendar. (I'ma bettin' that right now, the NKor's would eat it on the other 362 days of the year also)
The traditional belief is that dog meat helps boost stamina and virility, but activists regularly criticize the practice and call for bans on eating dog meat.
City officials could not immediately be reached for comment. They were too busy chuckling amongst themselves about the matter.
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007
08:13 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Shipping the thousands of strays to Korea, where dog meat is widely consumed in soup...
Except, there are millions of stray dogs in New Delhi alone. They'd make a great cash crop, if you could catch them and clean (not wash) them without the peasants revolting.
The Dog Catchers are routinely chased by residents that like the dogs. They are some mangy curs too! The dogs that is, but, some of the residents too.
Posted by: Natural Law ||
08/17/2007 13:22
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Industrially processing the stray dogs for food would be one helluva a lot more humane than what Vick was doing to his animals.
#3
Most of the stray dogs I saw in Bangalore (I doubt New Delhi is any different) looked like they were near starvation. It would take a lot of them to make a decent meal. Of course, the North Koreans would probably be glad for anything.
#4
Most of the stray dogs I saw in Bangalore (I doubt New Delhi is any different) looked like they were near starvation.
I suppose it depends on the neighborhood, in Muslim 'hoods the dogs are SOL, same with the slums. But in your middle middle-class 'hood, quite a few of the dogs are rather plump, as the people feed them.
You've never smelled dog crap until you've smelled it from a dog fed on curry and chapatis. Also, it depends on how well the garbage is handled for any given area, which in India can be a wide variable.
Posted by: Natural Law ||
08/17/2007 18:44
Comments ||
Top||
#5
You've never smelled dog crap until you've smelled it from a dog fed on curry and chapatis.
Jeebus, just reading that gives me the heebie-jeebies. Feeding my wolf-hybrid some cheese produces emanations that simultaneously violate multiple sections of the Geneva Conventions. Curry and chapatis? Geddouddahere!
Sweeping through Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district Friday, a 300-strong paramilitary ranger task force detained 18 terrorists insurgent suspects and seized seven weapons during a followup raid after a clash between authorities and militants in the area on August 10. The rangers also confiscated ammunition, radio transceivers, 20 mobile phones, and remote control circuitry. All detainees will be questioned by the police and undergo forensic tests.
Meanwhile, in Yala, two rubber tappers, a father and son, were attacked and shot by an unknown number of gunmen after their early morning work in a local rubber plantation on Friday morning in Thanto district. The victims, identified by police as Waelae Waemong and his 19-year-old son, were rushed to hospital.
New York, August 17, 2007(AKI) The killing of two Indonesian domestic workers by their employers in Saudi Arabia this month highlights the Saudi governments ongoing failure to hold employers accountable for serious abuses, campaign group Human Rights Watch warned on Friday.
Seven members of a Saudi family who employed four Indonesian women as domestic workers brutally beat them in early August after accusing them of practicing black magic on the familys teenage son, HWR reported.
Siti Tarwiyah Slamet, 32, and Susmiyati Abdul Fulan, 28, died from their injuries. Ruminih Surtim, 25, and Tari Tarsim, 27, are receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Riyadh Medical Complex. Saudi authorities have detained the employers.
"The brutal killings of these Indonesian domestic workers occurred in an atmosphere of impunity fostered by government inaction, said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in HWR's Womens Rights Division.
Not only do the authorities typically fail to investigate or prosecute abusive employers, the criminal justice system also obstructs abused workers from seeking redress, she added.
Approximately 2 million women from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and other countries are employed as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. They are routinely underpaid, overworked, confined to the workplace, or subject to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, according to HWR.
The shocking case of the four Indonesian maids is symptomatic of wider abuse, HWR says. Besides being victims of abuse themselves, many domestic workers are subject to counteraccusations, including theft, adultery or charges of fornication in cases of rape or witchcraft.
Saudi authorities and embassies of domestic workers home countries receive thousands of complaints of labor exploitation or abuse each year. Many more cases most likely go unreported, HWR said. During visits to Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka in November and December last year, Human Rights Watch interviewed Sri Lankan domestic workers sentenced to prison and whipping in Saudi Arabia after their employers had raped and impregnated them.
An Indonesian domestic worker was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for witchcraft, commuted from an original death sentence. The Indonesian embassy did not learn about the arrest, detention or trial of the worker until one month after the sentencing.
#1
We employed several Philippino maids over a 7 year period in Singapore. The practice is probably better regulated in Singapore than anywhere else. For example, conviction for any kind of physical abuse of a maid meant an automatic prison sentence (minimum 6 months), and there was a steady stream of stories in the press about maid abuse.
Our maid had a room with its own entrance on the side of the house and we took the attitude, if she did her job, then her life was her business. As a result our house became Maid Central for the neighbourhood, with constant stream of them coming to tell their tales of woe.
On several occasions, chinese neighbours came to complain that their maids had been sneaking out to come to our house. My response was predicable, i.e. piss off.
I hate to think what happens in a place like SA. Whatever you read will just be the tip of a very large iceburg.
#2
Killing your domestic staff rather than firing them is more convenient in that you do not have to bother with severance pay or unemployment claims. However, you then need to hire another maid to dispose of the bodies.
. . . One thing you don't want to say when you are a candidate for President is that you "feel very good" about being in Pahrump, Nevada. Pahrump, Nevada, is -- for those who know -- the whorehouse capitol of Nevada, and hence, as far as legal brothels go, the whorehouse capitol of the United States. Now that might be the normal metaphysical environment for politicians of all parties, but it just isn't done to glory in it. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2007
06:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ladies of the Evening and Pols, both servicing their clients for generations. A visit with either means you have less money and they have more. Actually, it does seem an appropriate setting. Wonder if Bill was working the crowd.
#6
I've long thought it would be a good idea to set up a brothel in Nevada specializing in celebrities.
Using a website in which subscribers can name a top ten list of celebrities they would want to have sex with, along with a dollar amount they would be willing to put in escrow to pay for it.
If the celebrity is interested, they can contact the website and only then see pictures of their "top fans". And if they are interested in turn, then a meeting is arranged in Nevada after the money has been placed in escrow.
Of course "most" celebrities wouldn't be interested, but some would be. And celebrities would also obsessively check the website to see what their ranking is among their peers. The more fans willing to pay for sex with you, the more popular you are.
There would be non-disclosure agreements to sign, as well as hotel accommodations paid for by the client and agreed to ahead of time. The usual.
As someone once remarked, "In Hollywood, you are either working or starving." So it may not be as unreasonable as all that.
Mira is one of the best known variable stars. Over the course of a year, it goes from magnitude 3.5 or so (easily visible naked eye) down to magnitude 9 (telescope needed) and back again.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2007
06:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Outgoing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen left Wednesday for China on one of his final trips as service chief.
Mullens visit to China is the first by a CNO since 1997, according to Capt. John Kirby, his spokesman. During the week-long trip, Mullen is slated to visit Beijing, naval facilities and schools at Lushun, Qingdao and Ningbo and will address students attending the Dalian Naval Academy, Kirby said. The Senate recently confirmed Mullen to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He will take over for Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace on Oct. 1.
Adm. Gary Roughead has been nominated to replace Mullen as CNO, pending Senate approval this fall.
In April, Chinese navy chief Vice Adm. Wu Sheng Li visited Norfolk, Va., where he met with Mullen and discussed maritime security and military-to-military relations. Wu has previously met with Roughead in Beijing, when he was U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander and Adm. William Fallon, former commander of U.S. Pacific Command who now heads U.S. Central Command.
During a speech in Washington last month, PacCom Commander Adm. Timothy Keating said his command is actively working to facilitate a good working relationship with the Chinese military.
Though Keating said he does not consider the Chinese military a threat to the United States, he did say the Chinese must work to improve transparency as they expand their forces and capabilities. So we're all going to be good buddies together? Somehow I think that won't happen.
Pressure for a referendum on the controversial European constitution grew last night amid growing signs of public concern and fresh claims that voters are being misled. All three main parties originally pledged a referendum on the original EU draft constitution. And yesterday, there were claims that the new document was essentially a revival of the constitutional settlement famously rejected by referendums in France and Holland in 2005.
The Open Europe think-tank published research showing the new draft was exactly the same length as the rejected constitution and contained similar threats to British sovereignty.
According to the think-tank, which campaigns for a more flexible, open Europe, the original constitutional treaty ran to 63,000 words. When the new proposals, involving a series of amendments to existing treaties, were put together in a consolidated text, the proposals new treaty came to the same length. Open Europe also sought to debunk the Government's argument that the new draft was substantially different from what went before. Neil O'Brien, the Open Europe director, said that although ministers insisted they had now inserted new "red lines" and opt-outs into the revised proposals, those safeguards were in the original constitution. Open Europe also raised concerns that the proposed new arrangements would end Britain's veto in foreign policy in 11 key areas including terrorism and mutual defence.
#2
They've never been keen on the concept of "...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...",
as amply demonstrated by those obstructing a plebiscite by the people on the EU Constitution (re: Britain).
INDONESIA'S Intelligence Agency had ordered several assassination attempts against leading human rights activist Munir Thalib before poisoning him on a trip to Europe in 2004, a police investigation has revealed.
The claims, presented to a Jakarta court yesterday, reopened hearings into the controversial murder case. They should also force President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to reform the feared agency and prosecute senior officials, human rights groups said.
A new investigation was ordered by Dr Yudhoyono after an initial murder conviction of an off-duty Garuda pilot and alleged intelligence agency (BIN) agent, Pollycarpus Priyanto, was overturned last year.
The police team interviewed other BIN agents, who revealed they had also been ordered to try to kill Mr Munir before the October 2004 presidential election.
#1
and this comment to the bbc by a lgf reader was perfect:
I notice you make no mention of the >7000 edits made from the BBC IP addresses.
Two that stand out are the change to George W. Bush's middle name, from Walker to W*nk*r. Also someone at the BBC changed "terrorists' to 'freedom fighters'.
There are many more or this ilk, all biased in the usual BBC institutional anti-US, anti-war, left wing direction.
For partial list of BBC edits people might like to look here, some of them are just amazing!
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=26669#c0316
(SomaliNet) As the current Somali government declared it will form Iraq-styled 'Green-Zone' to prevent the attacks from the insurgent groups, some seven grenade attacks aimed at the government soldiers happened in the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Wednesday causing human casualty.
Meanwhile, two soldiers died when roadside bomb exploded on their vehicle in Yaqshid district, north of the capital mid today. Two soldiers have also been wounded in similar explosion which occurred near the former dairy factory in the city. A Somali commander, Nor Ali Hirey, told the local media that he had escaped from that attack.
Around Black-Sea junction in Hodan district, one person was killed in grenade explosion aimed at government soldiers. Shortly after the attack, the security forces sealed off all roads for investigations over who was behind the latest attack. The local insurgents carried out the attacks, according to sources. Another grenade explosion targeting on the government troops has occurred in Bacaad market, north of the capital. No casualty was reported on the soldiers.
Also unidentified gunmen has killed a civilian man and wounded another man in Bakara market around 12:30pm local time. Witnesses told Somalinet one of the attackers armed with pistol shot the victim from close range.
The number of day light grenade attacks on the government positions has increased recently as the Ethiopian forces continue hunting down what they called 'the terror groups.' The latest incidents came as Somali Premier Ali Gedi in Nairobi, Kenya. said his government will create 'green-zone' to protect the Iraq-styled insurgent attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
US and Afghan troops pressed an air and ground assault on Thursday against Al Qaeda militants grouped in the Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the last known hideout of Osama bin Laden.
Afghan media reports said 50 Taliban had been killed but a district governor said these "are only rumours at this stage".
Afghan media reports said 50 Taliban had been killed but a district governor said these "are only rumours at this stage". Local residents said three villages had been bombed by the forces and up to 30 civilians had been killed in the fighting. The US military denied the reports.
Pakistani military said it had reinforced the border to stop militants escaping across the frontier. US military spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman said the operation was intended to disrupt Al Qaeda and other militants in the region. The assault was using precision munitions to avoid civilian casualties, she said, and intelligence indicated the fighters had gathered in dug-in fighting positions.
The US-led coalition here and Afghan officials have reported the emergence of a new anti-government outfit in the area called the Tora Bora Front. The shadowy group is believed to be an Al Qaeda-linked unit set up by the son of Younus Khalis, a key commander in the Afghan resistance to the Soviets, who later joined forces with the Taliban.
If he's not dead yet, Younus must be 158 years old. He was the Count of Jalalabad back in the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
The Afghans must have been utterly hypnotized with curiosity as to why the US and NATO consistently undercount enemy killed and wounded. That is just not done in Asia, and they must have spent sleepless weeks pondering it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/17/2007 9:35
Comments ||
Top||
#6
#5 ...dope herders...
Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-08-17 09:35
We need a few of those in Washington. Lord knows we've got enough dopes, especially in Congress.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2007 12:06
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Coupla good Sheep Dogs should do it, Border Collies and the like. (IQ of congresscritters is not notacibly above sheep anyway)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2007 18:05
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Most of the quality troops from the Northern Alliance have been absorbed into the ANA and are stationed where they can protect things like Kabul, electric generation plants, water and sewer systems, etc. Those target zones are where one always puts the most reliable troops, since those targets are the big ticket items for a country.
People need to understand that for the first time in its history, Afghanistan has a national government that is holding sway over large areas of the country, not just the 20 miles around Kabul. Afghanistan has NEVER before had a functional central government that actually control things or ran the country - even in the days of the King, he only had control over the major portion of Kabul, everything else was under the control of the local warlords who gave lip service to being "servants of His Majesty".
There is a reason that Afghanistan was known as the "End of the World" from Alexander the Great's time forward : one big, empty, and tribal infested area with too few cities, roads, or navigable rivers to be worth the effort.
Sudanese police have arrested 20 young Islamist extremists over the past days and seized weapons and explosives, the justice minister said Wednesday. "It is still premature to speak of any ties with Al-Qaeda," said the minister, Mohammed Ali Mardhi, but added it could not be excluded either. The men, in their 20s, were arrested between Sunday and Tuesday in various locations in the capital Khartoum and its sister city Omdurman. One policeman was wounded in an exchange of fire with the extremists. Stores of guns and explosives including nitroglycerin were found in the homes they had rented, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions from biofuels.
Biofuels - petrol and diesel extracted from plants - are presented as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels because the crops absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.
The study warns that forests must not be cleared to make way for biofuel crops. Clearing forests produces an immediate release of carbon gases into the atmosphere, accompanied by a loss of habitats, wildlife and livelihoods, the researchers said.
Britain is committed to substituting 10% of its transport fuel with biofuels under Europewide plans to slash carbon emissions by 2020.
"Biofuel policy is rushing ahead without understanding the implications," said Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, a conservation charity. "It is a mistake in climate change terms to use biofuels."
Dr Righelato's study, with Dominick Spracklen from the University of Leeds, is the first to calculate the impact of biofuel carbon emissions across the whole cycle of planting, extraction and conversion into fuel. They report in the journal Science that between two and nine times more carbon emissions are avoided by trapping carbon in trees and forest soil than by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels.
Around 40% of Europe's agricultural land would be needed to grow biofuel crops to meet the 10% fossil fuel substitution target. That demand on arable land cannot be met in the EU or the US, say the scientists, so is likely to shift the burden on land in developing countries.
The National Farmers Union said 20% of Britain's agricultural land could be used to grow biofuels by 2010. However, the researchers say reforesting the land would be a better way to reduce emissions.
Biofuels look good in climate change terms from a Western perspective, said Dr Spracklen, but globally they actually lead to higher carbon emissions. "Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia among others have huge deforestation programmes to supply the world biofuel market", he said.
The researchers say the emphasis should be placed on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use and moving to carbon-free alternatives such as renewable energy.
#3
Increasing BioFuel production to limit the impact and funds of Muslim terror supporting nations is a good thing.
If sufficient biofuels could be produced without significant adverse consequencies it would be a good thing. However, massive adverse consequences have already happened (vast areas of tropical rainforest cleared) and it will only get worse as the demand for biofuels increases.
The promotion of biofuels is set to be the worst ecological disaster of my lifetime. Nothing else compares.
And to think just a few years ago, there were serious proposals to turn all land in the UK above 300 meters into parkland - introduce bear, wolves and other extinct animals - because the land was no longer needed for agriculture.
Our milk costs have already gone up 150% because of a lack of corn feed.
Oil shale --- great.
Pig poop methane --- wonderful.
Nuclear power --- fine by me.
Ethanol power --- not worth it.
#7
Ethanol has become about 50% more efficient in just the past 8 years (more corn/acre, more ethanol per bushel, less natural gas per gallon of ethanol, more byproduct per ton of corn).
If you use old data, ethanol looks bad. Five years from now ethanol may look even better than today. Furthermore almost every ethanol plant has space available to add capacity for cellulose/glucose to ethanol operation when that becomes practical and because of the existing plant, adding that capacity will be less expensive and significantly increase the growth rate of cellu + gl 2 ethanol production.
No, Ethanol production isn't perfect but it is improving and has more promise than people give it credit for.
#8
Yes, mhw, but even *with* all those variables, it's still less efficient (in mpg or kpg) than gasoline, requires hundreds of thousands of acres more planted in corn (which, itself is very fertilizer and water intensive to grow), and effect a ton of other markets (beef and pork prices, milk prices, corn/grain to "poor nations" etc.). Finally, I've read stats that even if we (the USA) planted ALL of our current cropland in corn for ethanol, it'd only replace like 12% of gasoline needs.
As a *small* answer in our energy issues? Sure.
As a *single majik bullet answer? Not in a million years!
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007 15:16
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Ethanol production is not a magic bullet but in the scheme of a larger energy policy it makes sense.The production of ethanol consumes 15% of the corn the other 85% is made into other valuable by-products and feed that can be feed to cattle.So making ethanol out of corn is creating the most effecient use of our corn.When production hits fullstream I suspect that the feed by-products will be in pentiful supply lowering cost to producers and consumers.Ethanol makes good energy sense and good economic sense.
British military commanders are reviewing contingency plans for the evacuation of up to 22,000 Britons from Zimbabwe after months of rising violence and food shortages.
The Ministry of Defence has been asked to look urgently at what logistical help it could provide amid real concerns in Whitehall about Zimbabwes slide into chaos. Diplomatic sources said that the review was focusing on a civil contingency plan, which included seeking help from neighbouring countries. There is no plan to send in troops. Military evacuation from a third country would only be used as a last resort, one source said.
Under existing plans, Britons would be advised to take routes out of Zimbabwe into South Africa and to head for a former military base at Artonvilla in Limpopo province. The MoD has been asked to consider whether it could help in the airlift of Britons from the region. The diplomatic sources said that if the MoD were unable to do so, chartered commercial aircraft would fly the evacuees to Britain.
At the last count there were between 17,500 and 22,000 British nationals still living in Zimbabwe. If there was an evacuation they would be entitled to bring their families and dependants with them, which is what happened when we evacuated British passport holders from Lebanon last year, an official said.
#5
If they've been foolish enough to stay there or go into Zim for any length of time, then perhaps they should be left there. (Yeah, I know that's not gonna happen)
#10
I think those the Brits intend to evacuate are the remaining Zimbabweans that are British passport holders - lots of families moved to Rhodesia in the 1950s, and have members who did NOT surrender their British passports to the governments of either Rhodesia or Zimbabwe. So, in the main, white settlers, Indians, and mixed race peoples are to be evacuated - the Africans who did not file the proper paperwork when they could have in the 1980s are SOL.
#12
Thought you were better than taht, Tu, very cheap shot, and anny moose, get a fucking grip. These White people better than any of you. At least they fought a Terrorist war.
#13
I can't speak to how the news is in Zim, so I suppose it could be possible that the country going to hell in a handbasket just snuck up on the locals.
Britain, go get thos people, but only give them one chance. They don't get to change their mind later.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/17/2007 19:48
Comments ||
Top||
#14
Well, Mike, I can speak for those people, and I can tell you how it turned out, just as it is going to turn out for the West: Politics will win the War. Rhodesia was the first real Terrorist war, and you guys did not give a shite, gambling on who would win the elections. Still the same today.
And pussies like Anonymoose draw Darwin Awards for Rhodesians, phwah.
#15
Rhodesia, you're largely correct about America not giving a shiat. We didn't have much of a dog in the fight as we looked at it as a British colonial adventure coming to an end.
Unfortunately, the Rhodesians got the shaft. They had the country they worked hard to build turned into crap.
I still stand by my statement. Give the locals one opportunity to come back on the taxpayers dime. After at, they have to pay their own way back. Its likely that it will get messy there sometime soon and Britons deserve a chance to come to Britain.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/17/2007 20:41
Comments ||
Top||
Iraqi Forces, with U.S. Special Forces as advisers, targeted Al Qaeda in Iraq and and other terrorist operations in two intelligence-driven operations Aug. 15 across northern Iraq. The forces detained eight suspected terrorists, including the leader of a sniper cell in western Mosul.
In the first operation in the Al Mansour district of western Mosul, Iraqi Security Forces detained an alleged sniper amir who operates in western Mosul. Intelligence indicates the targeted individual actively recruits snipers to his cell from other groups and smuggles these snipers back and forth over the western Iraqi border in order for them to receive advanced sniper training in Syria. The forces also seized weapons, ammunition and assorted documents at the suspect's residence.
In a second operation, the 3rd Brigade 5th Iraqi Army Division forces detained leader of an Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist smuggling cell in the Hamrin Ridge region. Five other suspicious individuals were also detained. The forces also found weapons and ammunition at the targeted location.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The continued existence of armed militias is an obstacle to the promised Palestinian state, Western-backed prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday.
Reeeeeeeaaally? Ya think?
Building towards statehood and independence on the one hand, and continuing to tolerate armed militias on the other, are two mutually exclusive paths that will never meet, Fayyad said in an interview with the foreign press. We are learning that from experience. We need to deal with this. Thats the key principle that needs to be understood, and understood clearly, and that has to be implemented.
Nonsense. The Paleo Bill of Right® Amendments 1 through infinity clearly states that the Right® of being necessary to keep and bear free Arms to a Militia and shall not be infringed by the regulated security people of any State. Also, death to Israel!
By the way, those are Legitimate Rights™.
Today thats what we are beginning to do in the West Bank and that is something that should be generalised. We simply cannot go back to a situation where matters are taken into the hands of the people acting outside of the... Palestinian authority. This is the key requirement, he said in the wide-ranging interview in English at his Ramallah office.
What did he say in Arabic?
Saying that actions done in the name of armed resistance had hurt the Palestinian cause, Fayyad said his government was committed to non-violent steadfastness. We know that practices that were engaged in under this heading of armed resistance were most detrimental to our cause, he said. To me, a child scaling a checkpoint trying to go to his school is a form of resistance. Its non-violent steadfastness. Thats our programme.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
The Netherlands plans to host the international court that will try suspects in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told Dutch public Radio 1 Thursday. Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a massive truck bombing in Beirut in February 2005.
"We will react positively" to the request of UN chief Ban Ki-moon to have the tribunal in The Hague, Verhagen said. "I am working under the premise that the tribunal will be in The Hague. Obviously we have to sort out some practical matters first like financing and where possible convicts will go to serve their sentences," the minister explained.
"I think it will work out," he added.
The United Nations secretary general wrote to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende last month asking the Netherlands to host the Hariri tribunal. Balkenende will send Ban his positive response "very soon," Verhagen said. The tribunal will also have jurisdiction over this and other attacks against anti-Syrian Lebanese figures carried out between October 2004 and December 2005 if they are linked to the Hariri slaying.
The Hague bills itself as the legal capital of the world ...
It's always good to have brand identity, I suppose
... and is already host to several international tribunals like the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has its headquarters in Freetown, has also moved the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor to The Hague.
At this rate Carla del Ponte will have work for the rest of her life. And beyond.
Posted by: lotp ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
A fresh lawsuit was filed against former BNP lawmaker Shahidul Islam Master on charge of extortion. Ruhul Amin Pintu of Boalia village under Moheshpur municipality filed a Tk 3 lakh extortion case with Moheshpur police station against the former BNP lawmaker of Jhenidah-3 constituency on Wednesday night. The other accused are former lawmaker's brother-in-law Master Shahidul Islam,
Rafikul Islam of Valaipur village, Mohiuddin, Golam Faruk of Fatepur village, Lutfor Rahman of Camp para, Bahazzel Hossain, Tazul Islam, Montaj Tarafdar, Aminur Rahman, Ashra Ali, Shahidul, Akbar Ali and Kamruzzaman. In the case statement, the plaintiff alleged that when he went to Moheshpur Sadar upazila on January 28, 2005, the accused swooped on him near the office of the former BNP lawmaker and demanded Tk 3 lakh from him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, with U.S. Special Forces advising, conducted a cordon and search operation in the village of Abu Bareyj, near Bulayj, and detained seven suspected terrorists Aug. 14.
One of the alleged terrorists was detained during the initial search on the east side of the village. The individual is a suspected cell leader and is believed to be operating a safe-house used by anti-Iraqi forces to conduct attacks in the Bulayj area. One other suspicious individual was also detained.
Another five individuals were detained during a search of the west side of the village who are believed to be part of a terrorist cell that is responsible for attacking an Iraqi Army checkpoint in Bulayj two weeks prior.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
A group of leading editors in Nepal have accused Maoists, who are now part of the interim government, of attacking press freedom through a "sinister pattern of intimidation and threats".
Ten editors of leading newspapers, magazines and a television station said that Maoist unions, demanding better conditions for workers, had even entered newspaper offices to physically threaten journalists. Their statement, issued late on Wednesday, comes days after a Maoist-affiliated labour union obstructed the publication and distribution of the Himalayan Times and the Annapurna Post, leading dailies published in the capital Kathmandu. "We didn't have such a serious attack on press freedom even during the direct censorship of media after the king's coup in Feb. 2005," the statement said. "We ask that the Maoist leadership ... honour its stated commitment to protect press freedom and not to incite attacks on the media," the editors said. The Maoist labour groups, which have also disrupted the production of other newspapers and a radio station in recent weeks, say they want better pay and service conditions for their workers in the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The damn chinese should get their whiney spoiled brat commie Moaist assholes out of Nepal,phuque china
[Assumes Cary Grant voice:]
"Joooooty, Joooooty, Joooooty!"
[Returns to normal Arnold Stang voice]
MINGORA: Pamphlets pasted on the walls of mosques and bazaars in Matta tehsil of Swat district warned locals on Thursday against working for non-government organisations, as a mullah issued a fatwa (decree) calling upon Muslims to wage a jihad against the "friends of infidels," eyewitnesses said.
Wannabe Little known Mufti Khalid Shah issued the fatwa saying that "since the US and Jewish states have made Muslims' lives miserable, jihad is mandatory against the people working for them at international and national levels".
"Every Muslim is under an obligation to wage a jihad against the people working for the US or other Jewish states," read the fatwa written in Urdu. It also warned people working for multinational companies to quit their jobs or "face serious consequences".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
#1
Wonder what Khalid Shah's screen name is at Firedoglake and Huffington Post?
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2007 6:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
He can type? IIRC he left school in the 7th or 8th grade to become a professional protester.
Ten militants and three soldiers were killed in an attack on a military convoy in South Waziristan, while two soldiers were killed and four others injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in North Waziristan on Thursday.
"Militants ambushed a military convoy near Chaghmalay, and air support was sought against them. Ten militants were killed and 12 injured while the security forces suffered two casualties," military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times.
Arshad said that two soldiers were killed and four others injured in a roadside explosion near Kaka Ziarat in Teti Madakhel, 70 kilometres north of North Waziristan's Mir Ali town, and the security forces had arrested six persons for carrying out the attack. The attacked convoy was heading to Dhandikach from the Speenwam area near the Pak-Afghan border, he added. The killing of the militants came hours after South Waziristan Political Agent Hussainzada Khan held a meeting with a 21-member Mehsud peace committee for the safe recovery of 15 Frontier Corps personnel taken hostage by the militants last week.
Maulana Mirajuddin, member of the National Assembly from the MMA, said the clash at Chaghmalay could hinder the safe release of the 15 FC personnel. "We discussed the release of the FC personnel and peace with the political agent. However, hours later the militants and security forces clashed and let's hope this incident does not affect the release of the kidnapped personnel," he told Daily Times by phone from Tank city.
Residents of Jandola, entry point of South Waziristan, said the Wana-Tank highway was blocked after Mehsud militants stopped traffic to and from Wana. This, they said, may lead to a conflict between the Mehsud and Wazir tribes. Truckloads of tomatoes and apples of the Wazir tribesmen in Wana waited for a long time for security clearance for upcountry transportation as the Mehsud militants blocked the Wana-Tank highway. The highway was later opened for traffic in the afternoon.
Earlier, Wazir elders said they feared a "full-scale war between the Mehsuds and Wazirs if the highway remained blocked and attacks on security forces in Wazir areas by Mehsud militants continued. Maj Gen Arshad said the government would not let the two tribes go to war.
Separately, NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai held a meeting with elders and pro-Taliban clerics in North Waziristan on Thursday, officials and security sources said. It was the governor's first visit to Miranshah after his return from Kabul where he attended the joint peace jirga of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Orakzai said that the 2006 peace deal with the pro-Taliban militants had "no guarantee mechanism" for implementation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
15 down and what, a coupla million to go?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/17/2007 11:30
Comments ||
Top||
Coalition Forces captured a highly sought Special Groups weapons facilitator before dawn Thursday northeast of Baghdad.
Coalition Forces conducted a raid to capture a known weapons smuggler and distributor connected to various Special Groups. The captured high priority individual was responsible for smuggling explosively formed penetrators (EFP), Katusha rockets and other weapons from Iran into Iraq. The target was also responsible for the distribution of those weapons to Special Groups and extremist militants operating throughout Baghdad. The weapons smuggler had direct ties to senior militant leaders and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force.
On the approach to the objective, Coalition Forces were fired upon by three armed gunmen. Coalition Forces returned fire, killing the three gunmen.
Five others detained during the raid are suspected of distributing weapons smuggled into Iraq from Iran. Four of the detainees tested positive for explosives residue. One of the buildings searched during the raid produced money and questionable documents that were confiscated for analysis and evaluation.
"Coalition troops continue to target terrorists who bring weapons and explosives, especially explosively formed penetrators, and other aid into Iraq," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson. "Coalition Forces will continue their focused operations against unhelpful Iranian influence interfering in Iraq. We remain committed to dismantling terror networks that seek to kill innocent Iraqis and the security forces that protect them."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: IRGC
#2
With the rate that photo has shown up lately, we're seriously over-fishing the "waters" of Iraq. Not that I want anything to change...
We need some big-shot mufti to declare a fatwa that anyone convicted of being a terrorist, or aiding them in their terrorist activities, will lose his left hand at the wrist, be declared an infidel, and shunned by all muslims. That would be more effective than any of the other crap we've tried that DIDN'T work. Begin with Maliki and al-Sadr.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2007 12:18
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Guys our Captain In Kona practiced "catch and release" but a grander that's going back to the dock!
Posted by: bruce ||
08/17/2007 16:53
Comments ||
Top||
The Pakistani government gave substantial military support to the Taliban in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks, sending arms and soldiers to fight alongside the militant Afghan movement, according to newly released US official documents, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Islamabad has acknowledged diplomatic and economic links with the Taliban but has denied direct military support. The US intelligence and state department documents, released under the country's freedom of information act, show that Washington believed otherwise, said the report. Among the documents acquired by the National Security Archive, an independent group pressing for government transparency, is a confidential memo sent in November 1996, from intelligence report from Islamabad to the Defence Intelligence Agency in Washington, describing how Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps was operating across the border.
"For Pakistan, a Taliban-based government in Kabul would be as good as it can get in Afghanistan," a state department briefing paper, dated January 1997, said, adding: "Many Pakistanis claim they detest the Taliban brand of Islam, noting that it might infect Pakistan, but this apparently is a problem for another day."
"The documents illustrate that throughout the 1990's Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency considered Islamic extremists to be foreign policy assets," Barbara Elias, a National Security Archive researcher, said. "But they succeeded ultimately in creating a Pakistani Taliban. Those years of fuelling insurgents created something that now directly threatens Islamabad." No one was available for comment at the Pakistani embassy in London yesterday. Pakistan has admitted having diplomatic and economic links with the Taliban but denies direct military support.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Lying bastards, don't forget to duck and cover Perv.
Western reporters actually in Kunduz in the days after it fell this week found much to dispel that doubt. Reports first appeared in the Indian press, quoting intelligence sources who cited unusual radar contacts and an airlift of Pakistani troops out of the city. Their presence among the âenemyâ may shock some readers, but not those who have paid attention to Afghanistan. Pakistan had hundreds of military advisers in Afghanistan before Sept. 11 helping the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance. Hundreds more former soldiers actively joined Taliban regiments, and many Pakistani volunteers were among the non-Afghan legions of al-Qaida.
Last Saturday, The New York Times picked up the scent, quoting Northern Alliance soldiers in a Page 1 story describing a two-day airlift by Pakistani aircraft, complete with witnesses describing groups of armed men awaiting evacuation at the airfield, then still in Taliban hands.
Another report, this in the Times of London, quotes an alliance soldier angrily denouncing the flights, which he reasonably assumed were conducted with Americaâs blessing.
âWe had decided to kill all of them, and we are not happy with America for letting the planes come,â said the soldier, Mahmud Shah.
IN DENIAL
The credibility gap between these reports from the field and the âno commentsâ from the U.S. administration are large enough to drive a Marine Expeditionary Unit through. Calls by MSNBC.com and NBC News to U.S. military and intelligence officials shed no light on the evacuation reports, though they clearly were a hot topic of conversation. âOh, you mean âOperation Evil Airliftâ?â one military source joked. âLook, I canât confirm anything about those reports. As far as I know, they just arenât happening.â Three other military and defense sources simply denied any knowledge.
Something is up. It certainly appears to any reasonable observer that aircraft of some kind or another were taking off and landing in Kunduzâs final hours in Taliban hands. Among the many questions that grow out of this reality:
Was the passenger manifest on these aircraft limited to Pakistani military and intelligence men, or did it include some of the more prominent zealots Pakistan contributed to the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qaida?
What kind of deal was struck between the United States and Pakistan to allow this?
What safeguards did the United States demand to ensure the evacuated Pakistanis did not include men who will come back to haunt us?
What was done with the civilian volunteers once they arrived home in Pakistan? Where they arrested? Debriefed? Taken to safe houses? Or a state banquet?
A bomb exploded at a scrap metal shop in the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon on Thursday, killing a Syrian man and injuring five Syrian nationals. The explosion took place in the village of al-Rawda, near the provincial capital of Zahleh.
Syrian national Hassan Qaderi was using a fire rod to open a closed barrel at his store in the eastern Bekaa Valley, the officials said. The bullets caught fire and the barrel exploded, killing the 40-year-old instantly, the officials said. The blast also wounded Qadri's three sons who work at the family business, and two other Syrian nationals. The five injured people were rushed to a hospital for treatment. Police searched the yard for further bombs, but did not disclose the results of the investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Saw stuff like this all the time in Iraq- Hajji scrap metal collector gets blown to bits trying to clean out old bit or UXO. Film @ 11.
These guys are simply not ready for the modern world.
Posted by: N Guard ||
08/17/2007 6:09
Comments ||
Top||
#2
My favorite's still the Thai guy that blowed hisself up beatin' on an old tank mine with a hammer.
Although two years have passed since the Islamist militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) launched a countrywide bomb attack, the government has not yet found out the true masterminds behind that group.
At least they're smart enough to figure that it wasn't Bangla Bhai and Abdur Rahman. There doesn't seem to have been a lot of brain power removed from the Bangla gene pool when they dangled.
The mystery about the masterminds remains shrouded especially because the six militant leaders who were hanged on March 29 this year were not allowed to speak out before the media before their death. Questions that remain unanswered include those about the foreign links and funding that kept JMB operations alive for years.
My guess, not verifiable at this point, would be the money came from Soddy Arabia, probably via Dhubai, through a low-profile front man for a Jamaat-e-Islami politician/holy man. Likely the actual chain has more links in it than those, and reeks of red herrings, but that's prob'ly the way it works.
Meantime, quoting high police officials the press reported that JMB leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai's killing mission of 2004 was launched upon the green signal of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her all-powerful son Tarique Rahman and the then state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar.
The entire BNP government stank out loud of its support for the Islamists. We even mentioned here a time or two about how the RAB was always going after Purbo Banglar and New Biplobi commies, but seldom after a turban.
But till date, the law enforcement authorities have not made any official move to initiate an investigation in this regard.
Mainly because an investigation would lead to some people who're still involving with the running of things, like top bureaucrats.
The press also reported that out of the top seven JMB leaders, four including Bangla Bhai were previously involved with Jamaat-e-Islami.
Do tell? Really? We are just so surprised.
Police investigation based on interrogation of arrested JMB leaders also revealed that most senior leaders of JMB had been previously involved with Jamaat.
Pure coincidence, of course.
The law enforcers had arrested a total of 698 JMB activists in connection with the August 17 bomb blast. The government filed 154 cases against them. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad, however, notes that the investigations are still being carried out. "As far as I know, most of the related cases have been already disposed of. The remaining cases will also be quickly disposed of," he said.
Meanwhile, some people who were affected by Bangla Bhai's atrocious killing mission in Rajshahi region have filed several cases against the leading local patrons of JMB in recent months. These patrons are former telecom minister Barrister Aminul Haque, former deputy minister for land Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu and former parliamentarian Nadim Mostafa. These leaders had patronised JMB operations in the Rajshahi region for their personal political gain. But the JMB had already been secretly operating in the country since the late 1990s in different names.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
#1
My guess, not verifiable at this point, would be the money came from Soddy Arabia, probably via Dhubai, through a low-profile front man for a Jamaat-e-Islami politician/holy man.
I'd wager that the money came from Soddy aRabida, but the instructions and training came from Pakiwakiland via the ISI. The Pakis have NEVER been happy with the loss of the "eastern provinces".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2007 13:08
Comments ||
Top||
Coalition Forces killed six terrorists and detained 26 suspected terrorists linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq during coordinated operations east of Balad the week of Aug. 9-14.
Coalition Forces conducted the two operations to disrupt terrorist operations in the area. During a 24-hour operation Aug. 10, they found a small cache of machine gun rounds and components used to make improvised explosive devices. The ground forces detained 21 suspected terrorists for their alleged ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Several women on the scene wept while the men were detained. They told ground forces they were crying because they were happy that their sheikh, who had been run out by terrorists, could return to the community.
Coalition Forces followed up the 24-hour operation with a precision raid Aug. 14. As they began the operation, surveillance teams observed several men maneuvering into a previously secured area near the assault force. Coalition Forces, responding to the organized enemy force, requested close air support to engage the men. After the air strike, ground forces assessed six terrorists were killed in the engagement, and detained five suspected terrorists on the scene.
"Terrorists cannot conceal themselves in small villages, disrupting the lives of Iraqi citizens," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson. "There are no safe havens for terrorists here -- we will continue to seek them out wherever they hide."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
Iraq's president and prime minister announced a new political alliance between mainstream Shiite and Kurdish parties on Thursday but, crucially, no Sunni leaders have yet signed up. "Signing this agreement will help solve many problems in the present crisis and encourage the others to join us," President Jalal Talabani said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Maliki's government has been paralysed by the decision of the main Sunni political bloc to withdraw its ministers from the government during a power sharing dispute with the premier's Shiite supporters. The deal formalised an alliance between Maliki's Dawa Party, Vice President Adel Abdel Mehdi's Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Massud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (PDK).
But Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and his National Concord Front, the main Sunni faction, boycotted talks that led to the bloc's creation, and the government remains bitterly split on sectarian and ethnic lines. "This is a patriotic agreement which was not struck in the interests of the signing parties but in those of the Iraqi people and the government of national unity and the march of democracy in Iraq," Talabani said.
Some additional details in the FT here.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
(SomaliNet) At least three people were killed and 18 others wounded yesterday when grenade bomb exploded inside the livestock market in Afgoie town, 30 kilometers south of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, witnesses said. According to the witness, the bomb was targeting on municipals that were collecting taxes inside the market but the explosion killed three civilians, one of whom was businessman.
Among the victims was a teenage boy who was killed in the blast. After the incident, the security forces cordoned the scene of the explosion and began investigations over who was behind the latest bomb attack. By yesterday, no one was arrested for the attack as the police commander in the town pledged that they will pursue the plotters. Like wise, no group had claimed the responsibility of the attack as Afgoie town had seen several times of bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
JERUSALEM - The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to provide Israel with $30 billion in defence grants over the next decade, a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a bulwark against Iran. At a signing ceremony in Jerusalem, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States would help Israel maintain a military advantage over foes ranging from Iran and Syria to their proxies in Lebanon and Palestinian territories.
There is no question that, from an American point of view, the Middle East is a more dangerous region now even than it was 10 or 20 years ago and that Israel is facing a growing threat. Its immediate and its also long-term, Burns told reporters. The United States faces many of the same threats from the same organisations and countries as Israel does, and so we felt this was the right level of assistance.
Burns said the new aid to Israel, which currently receives $2.4 billion in annual military grants, would not be conditioned on diplomatic progress or concessions though one of the major priorities for our government ... will be to help push forward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States, Burns said, considers this $30 billion in assistance to Israel to be an investment in peace, in long-term peace -- peace cannot be made without strength.
Burns and Fischer said the sides had not finalised details on what weaponry would be supplied to Israel under the new deal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
peace cannot be made without strength
strength: i.e.: The ability to cause serious harm to your opponent. The threat of getting your collective a$$ whupped always has been a great motivatior to come to the bargaining table, especially if all you have to do is quiet down and act all civilized and such so you can get your economy back.
#2
Bout time!! The US needs to give or sell the Israelis whatever the advantage needed; to stomp the living crap out of the Iranians as their 'expansionistic' threats continue. Let there not be a Pearl Harbor type surprise without them knowing that should they move on Israel, they can kiss Tehran and Qom goodbye, for atleast the next 60 years!!
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007 9:28
Comments ||
Top||
#5
SteveS - "completely dedicated to the destruction of the other" So true, and the other side has a state department that believes lollipops and hugs can fix everything - thus the ongoing problem...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/17/2007 9:39
Comments ||
Top||
#6
sum massive Long range help,
IOW let the Israelis use the monies efficiently to make DEEEEEEP STRIKE VEHICLES with massive bomb loads and loiter time.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/17/2007 11:34
Comments ||
Top||
Bollywood big daddy Subhash Ghai had paid gangster Dawood Ibrahims brother Anees between Rs 20 and 25 lakh in extortion money, incarcerated don Abu Salem told investigators under the influence of truth serum in Bangalore in December 2005. Producers Rakesh Roshan and J P Dutta, he said, had not paid even a dime. Ghai was not available for comment. When asked if he knew any policemen, Salem said that the one policeman he knew was Mumbai encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma. Salem admitted that he was guilty of only one thing: loving Monica Bedi. Hamne sirf pyar kiya tha .
"And if loving her is a crime, then let me be guilty."
The transcript of Abu Salems narco-analysis, now in the possession of Star News, has the gangster naming Chhota Shakeel and Anees Ibrahim in almost every murder and extortion case in which he is suspected to have played a part. A drugged-out Salem, who had been administered sodium pentothal, answered questions on a number of crimes from murder and extortion to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
"Another glass of giggle juice, sahib?"
"Yesh, yesh. I shank the Lushitania too, y'know!"
Salem said that he was living in fear that Mumbai's gangsters - Dawood Ibrahim, Anees Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan-were out to finish him. Dawood, he said, was angry with him for giving the CBI information about the blasts.
When contacted Pradeep Sharma told TOI, "The maximum number of Salem men have been killed by me in encounters. I was the first to arrest Salem gang members involved in the murder of Ajit Dewani (secretary of Manisha Koirala). When he was extradited, he specifically told the CBI not to put him in police custody under my supervision."
Confessions under the influence of drugs, say officials, are not valid evidence in a court of law. One of the chief reasons for this is that this is not a fool-proof method. But it helps to piece together a case by providing valuable insight, explain investigators.
"F'r example, we believe we'll be able to solve JonBenet Ramsey's murder once and for all!"
It remains to be seen how much the investigation stands to gain from Salem's 'confessions'. Anees's name crops up repeatedly. Anees and Shakeel are named for builder Om Prakash Kukreja's death ("Shakeel made the plan and Anees supplied the weapons from Bhendi Bazaar"); it was Anees who gave the supari (contract killing) for Subhash Ghai and director Ram Gopal Varma. Anees is named again in the murder of cassette baron Gulshan Kumar. Salem denied that music director Nadeem Khan (suspected of being involved) had anything to do with the killing.
Salem said that Anees made him make extortion calls to builders, but gave him very little for his efforts: Kabhi das-panch haat de deta thaa . (Sometimes, he would give me 5 or 10 per cent of the money).
UP gangster-turned-politician Babloo Srivastava was named as being responsible for Vikram Wahi's death and Chhota Rajan for killing producer Mukesh Duggal and Nepal MP Mirza Dilshad Baig "because he was a Dawood man".
Salim Kurla and Hegiway are named in the blasts case. When asked who Hegiway was, Salem said he was the man who had been sent to kill builder Pradip Jain.
On the personal front, Salem said that one of his aliases was Arsalem Moizin and that his nephew in Lucknow was paying his legal bills. He also talked about his fascination with the film world, and how he had rented a theatre in Chicago called Discipline.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
An Israeli scholar has firmly rejected comments by controversial UK Liberal Democrat politician Jenny Tonge, who recently accused Israel of driving the Palestinians to their current impoverished situation and claimed that this issue was being used to fuel Islamic extremism.
"Ever since 1948, Palestine has been used as a battle cry and a propaganda weapon for Islamists worldwide," she said in a speech in the House of Lords last month. "I have witnessed this in some African countries and, more recently, in Bangladesh. Palestine is what the West does to Muslims. That is the message. The Palestinians have been brought to their knees. A cultured and well-educated society with high skill levels has been reduced to a Third-World country. The statistics are there for all to see."
Tonge also alleged that the IDF was disrupting school exams in Nablus, resulting in a generation of illiterate and unskilled Palestinians.
"Even education is being destroyed as children are terrorized by raids on their schools," she said, claiming that the products of such a system would be "capable of very little except low-wage labor. The economy cannot be rebuilt unless Israel changes its policies."
But Dr. Jonathan Spyer, research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, disputed such assertions, which he said betrayed an "appalling ignorance of Islamist movements. Radical Islam is a political idea, some of whose proponents use the method of terrorism. This idea sees world events as shaped by a struggle between the forces of authentic Islam, and those of the non-believers. It uses a long list of supposed Muslim grievances as a way to mobilize support," he told The Jerusalem Post.
He noted that al-Qaida had been formed to overthrow the Saudi Arabian government in opposition to the US presence there in the 1990s. "Al-Qaida hardly mentioned the Palestinian issue prior to 2001."
"The idea that this trans-national idea, which feeds off many local issues, is somehow 'traceable' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would be settled by the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel - an outcome which the Islamists in any case reject - is an absurd one. It's used by people like Tonge in order to hold Israel to blame for radical Islam's war in the West."
Baroness Tonge was sacked as a member of Parliament and as the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman in 2004 after expressing support for Palestinian suicide bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Muslims use any reason for war as they dont enjoy the alternative life being married getting a job and bringing up kids etc!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
08/17/2007 7:54
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Gotta blame somebody, and, of course, it's too dangerous, in a personal sense, to blame the Muzzies.... Jenny the T. comes across as a real ditz, but in her defense, is, undoubtedly, the product of a government school system.....
#3
Another anti-Semitic Brit that couldn't buy a clue with all the wealth of Africa. I'm sure Baroness Tonge has no idea what the paleostains are "taught" in their schools, or the Arab response to "palestinian" refugees from 1948, or the declaration of the Mufti of Jerusalem that caused most "palestinians" to flee their homes in 1948 and establish those refugee camps. What a worthless piece of unflushed fecal matter.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2007 13:14
Comments ||
Top||
from the bio: Controversy and allegations of antisemitism
Following her election to Parliament in 1997, Tonge served as Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on international development but was sacked by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy in January 2004 after saying she could understand why a Palestinian would become a suicide bomber and also that she would consider becoming one were she a Palestinian. Tonge refused to apologise. [1]
In 2004, Tonge led pro-Palestinian activists and several Lib Dem MPs to stand for a two minute silence in honour of the deceased Hamas leader; Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Yassin, As leader of Hamas, Yassin presided over numerous deadly suicide bomb attacks targeted at Israeli civilians. By honouring a Sheikh Yassin, some questioned Tongeâs earlier insistence that she did not support terrorism herself. Melanie Phillips was especially critical.[2]
In September 2006, she claimed in a speech at the Liberal Democrat conference (aired on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Today") that the "pro-Israeli lobby has got it financial grips on the Western World" and on "our party". [3] She was accused by anti-racist groups of reviving the language of classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, and heavily criticised by Norman Lamb MP, spokesman for Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell. Campbell later declared while he agreed with Barroness Tonge that the "pro-Israeli lobby does have its financial grips on the Western World" he did not agree with the assertion that it had influence on the Liberal Democrats.
Indonesia's president claimed victory Thursday against terrorists in the world's most populous Muslim country, which has not suffered any attack in nearly two years following a crackdown on Islamic militants, but said more must be done to tackle terrorism's root causes. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his state of the union address that "the acts of terrorism that have caused unrest in our society in the past years have been handled."
"We have succeeded in preventing and tackling the acts of terrorism in the country," he said. But he said the country needs to solve its root causes, such as "poverty, injustice, extremism and a culture of violence."
"We have to be serious about preventing and fighting terrorism, because we want to save our people and our nation," he said. "This is our responsibility, also, to the global community."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
Southern Africa's political leaders rallied round Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, and publicly lauded as a hero the man who has brought his country to the brink of total collapse.
Barf.
Mr Mugabe was greeted with cheers, applause, dancing and laughter from fellow dignitaries when he arrived in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, for the two-day summit of leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC). Mr Mugabe, 83, smiled broadly as he acknowledged the rapturous welcome.
Zimbabwe's combative justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, accompanying Mr Mugabe, said: "There are no political reforms necessary in my country. We are a democracy like any other democracy in the world." Human rights organisations say all Zimbabwean parliamentary and presidential elections since 200 have been heavily rigged, but the justice minister said: "We have a most efficient electoral system. I can't see how a system can be more transparent or any fairer."
As Mr Chinamasa spoke, reports surfaced that a 15-year-old boy and a security guard were crushed to death as hordes of shoppers had tried to buy scarce sugar in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo.
#5
I just rolled in from Zibabwe...and are my balls tired...HIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Posted by: Bob ||
08/17/2007 10:54
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Just when you think Arab tribalism is this world's scourge, African leaders meet the challenge and prove just who invented the original concept. Each and every one of Mugabe's fan club should be garrotted slowly and then left on a street corner for the dogs to eat.
#7
"British military commanders are reviewing contingency plans for the evacuation of up to 22,000 Britons from Zimbabwe,.....which included seeking help from neighbouring countries". (From the article above).
Well, I have no faith in the British plan, if that is what they call a plan. Most Zimbabwean British Passport holders will have taken the gap by the end of the year, from what I can gather. The ones that stay will be old Rhodesians who have decided to die there.
(Sorry, both articles go together, only one comment).
#8
"British military commanders are reviewing contingency plans for the evacuation of up to 22,000 Britons from Zimbabwe,.....which included seeking help from neighbouring countries". (From the article above).
Well, I have no faith in the British plan, if that is what they call a plan. Most Zimbabwean British Passport holders will have taken the gap by the end of the year, from what I can gather. The ones that stay will be old Rhodesians who have decided to die there.
(Sorry, both articles go together, only one comment).
War veterans and MPs are calling for a dedicated military hospital amid an overcrowding crisis at the country's only ward reserved for soldiers.
Rising casualty rates in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent weeks have put a massive strain on the ward at Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham. The 'military-managed' section at the hospital has just 14 beds but in the last month alone 145 injured soldiers have been flown back from war-torn zones requiring treatment. Many of them have lost eyes and limbs and are psychologically traumatised by their experiences on the front line.
As a result of the overcrowding, they are being treated in ordinary wards amongst civilians who have no understanding of the horrors of the war. One soldier who was being treated in a normal mixed ward at Selly Oak said he woke up to find himself surrounded by "old women and drug addicts" while another said he was confronted by a Muslim man who accused him of "killing my Muslim brothers"
Campaigners said wounded servicemen were being left with the "crumbs of the NHS".
Yesterday campaigners spoke out at the way the wounded servicemen were being treated and said they were being left with the "crumbs of the NHS".
Simon Weston, a veteran who was badly burned in the Falklands conflict in 1982, said: "We should build a bigger unit for these people and ideally it should be a separate military wing or building. Our boys shouldn't be living off the crumbs of the NHS like this.
Major Gen Patrick Cordingley, who led the Desert Rats in the Gulf War in 1991, said: "I found there was no space wounded men to share their experiences and draw strength from each other."
Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said: "The men and women of our Armed Forces deserve the best medical care. Anything less will be seen as yet another breach of the military covenant."
Selly Oak has been the only hospital receiving frontline casualties since March this year when the last of the old military hospitals closed at Haslar, Portsmouth.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Defence said that although soldiers were treated on civilian wards they each had a dedicated military nurse.
Key quote from this story about an apparent Italian mob hit in Germany:
The slayings in Duisburg, an industrial city in Germany's Ruhr region, marked the first time a southern Italian crime syndicate has exported a vendetta, according to Italian officials.
The syndicate, known as the 'ndrangheta, is based in Italy's Calabria region, linked to crime around the world, and today considered even more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia
This incident would be mostly a curiosity here, were it not for the fact that there's good evidence that the boundary between organized crime of various sorts and terror groups is growing increasingly tenuous. Leaving aside hard drugs, which have financed the Taliban and others for some time, the Pentagon is concerned about street gangs morphing into urban insurgencies. When you stir in large immigrant slums, as with the French muslim banlieus, the mixture is more dangerous than authorities are admitting..
My community newspaper (not WaPo or WaTi) reported the local synagogues are finding swastikas and MS-13s spraypainted on their buildings...
MS-13 is a huge example on our side of the Atlantic. And they're making alliances with Islamists.
Hamas detained the Palestinian attorney general in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the highest-ranking Palestinian Authority official to be seized by the Islamists ruling Gaza, witnesses said. Members of Hamas's Executive Force detained Ahmed al-Mughani and his bodyguards after besieging his office in Gaza City and then driving off with the men, they said.
Mughani is close to Hamas's secular rival, the Fatah party headed by president Mahmud Abbas. He is the highest official from the Palestinian Authority to be detained by the Islamists since they seized control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody takeover two months ago, overrunning security forces loyal to Abbas.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas as to why Mughani was detained. On July 31, a hardline Hamas leader said the group aimed to reform the judicial system in Gaza to try Fatah members for alleged graft. "We are going to reform and reconstruct the judicial system," said Mahmud Zahar, who served as foreign minister in the first cabinet that Hamas formed after it swept a legislative election in January 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Right. They will reform the judicial system all right. They will bring the guilty bastards in, give them a fair trial and then hang (or shoot) them. Or maybe they will save time and skip the trial part.
#3
Tell them their reactor is causing it, it'll only stop when the reactor is deactivated. (I don't notice an excess of brains in NORK, worth a try)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2007 6:12
Comments ||
Top||
#4
So, Halliburton's Flood Division finally got their targeting down-pat, eh? Of course, I'd rather them get it spot-on and target Kimmie's palace.
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007 8:37
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Naw, sink their reactor in a huge mud pit/sinkhole, then innocently ask for mort time to deliver aid. (Exactly twice as long as they've been stalling, oh and the portion they have to provide is the first 25 million.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2007 18:58
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Flame me all you want:
We should interdict all relief and disaster aid until Kim permits verifiable closure of his nuclear facilities. I don't farking care if we gun relief flights out of the sky. No more foreign support for this ongoing crime against humanity.
Either we take steps to ensure creation of massive public unrest inside North Korea or we watch BILLIONS more dollars swirl down the porcelain orifice. The entire East Asian quadrant is being destabilized by Kim to the tune of untold BILLIONS of dollars in security measures. Better we apply the stranglehold now than wait for some new military catastrophe. The North Korean people cannot possibly suffer any more than they do now.
The Six Party Talks have shown ZERO progress to date and it's time to tighten the choke collar on these scurvy dogs. Isn't it about time to learn our lesson from pissing away all the millions we spent on Indonesian tsunami aid?
#4
THe funny thing is that the Methodists were Fijians and that Fijians were cannibals until they switched to Methodist prolezitiraing and Rugby playing.
Flanders: A song which we call, "The Reluctant Cannibal":
Seated one day at the tom-tom,
I heard a welcome shout from the kitchen:
"COME AND GEEEEEEEEEEET IT!"
Roast leg of insurance salesman!
A chorus of "yum"s ran round the table:
(Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum...)
Except for Junior, who pushed away his shell,
Got up from his log, and said:
Swann: "I don't want any part of it!"
Flanders: What? Why not?
Swann: I don't eat people.
Flanders: Hey?
Swann: I won't eat people.
Flanders: Huh?
Swann: I don't eat people.
Flanders: I must be going deaf!
Swann: Eating people is wrong.
Flanders: It's wrong?
Swann: Don't eat people.
Flanders: Have you gone clean out of your mind?
Swann: I won't eat people.
Flanders: What's the matter with the lad?
Swann: Don't eat people.
Flanders: He keeps on repeating.
Both: Eating people is bad.
Flanders: But people have always eaten people,
What else is there to eat?
If the Juju had meant us not to eat people,
He wouldn't have made us of meat!
Swann: Don't eat people.
Flanders: Oh no, not again.
Swann: I won't eat people.
Flanders: All the day long.
Both: Don't eat people.
Flanders: He keeps on repeating.
Both: Eating people is wrong.
Flanders: Well... I... I never heard a more ridiculous idea in all my born days. To think that a son of mine should grow up to be a sissy - me, chief assistant to the assistant chief! I suppose you realise, son, if this was to get around, we might never get self-Government.
Swann: I won't eat people!
Flanders: Have you been talking to one of your mothers again? You're not getting to be one of these cranks who think that eating people is cruel, are you? Seeing the man sitting in the pot and you think he's suffering. Oh, it's not like that at all. Why, he's just had an invigourating chase through the forest, sitting there in the nice warm water with all the carrots and dumplings and things, he's thinking, "Oh, the pleasure and happiness I'm going to give to a heap of people". That man in the pot there, he enjoys it!
Swann: Eating people is wrong!
Flanders: Look son, son, I admire your sincerity. Always be sincere... whether you mean it or not. But you're young, you're young, when you're young you think you can change the whole world overnight, even eating people - I know, I've been young myself. Take it from your old Dad, you've just got to learnt to take the world as it is.
Swann: I won't let another man pass my lips!
Flanders: I know why you say "Don't eat people", because you are a coward, Francis, that's your trouble. Yes, a yellow-livered coward. You wouldn't mind eating people if you weren't afraid of ending up in the pot yourself - how despicable! If you go on like this you're liable to get ME into hot water.
Swann: I won't eat people.
Flanders: That's enough!
Swann: I don't eat people.
Flanders: I don't want to...
Swann: Eating people is wrong!
Flanders: Communist!
Flanders: Going around saying "Don't eat people",
That's the way to make people hate'ya.
We always have eaten people, always will eat people,
You can't change human nature.
Flanders: Now let's try...
Swann: I won't eat people,
I don't eat people,
I won't eat people,
I don't eat people!
Flanders: Must have been someone he ate!
Swann: Eating people is out!
Flanders: I give up, I give up, you used to be a regular anthrophagi. If this crazy idealistic idea of yours was to catch on, I just dunno where we would all be. Just about ruin our entire internal economy. Fortunately, I suppose it's catching on isn't really very likely - why, you might just as well going around saying "Don't fight people", for example...
Swann: Don't fight people? Ha, ha! Don't fight people?! Ha ha ha!
Flanders: There, imagine? There, you see! All part of the same...
Both: (laughing) ... fantastical impossibility!
Flanders: That's the boy!
Both: RIDICULOUS!
Posted by: bruce ||
08/17/2007 7:11
Comments ||
Top||
#6
bruce, I'm sure that dropped the toothpicks right out of their mouths! Encore!!
#16
Recently, a large corporation hired several cannibals to increase their diversity. "You are all part of our team now," said the Human Resources rep during the welcoming briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any employees." The cannibals promised they would not.
Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard and I'm satisfied with your work. We have noticed a marked increase in the
whole company's performance. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?" The cannibals all shook their heads, "No."
After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?" A hand rose hesitantly. "You fool!" the leader continued. "For four weeks we've been eating managers and no one noticed anything. But NOOOooo, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something!"
#17
Pepsi Cola's most successful American salesman was growing bored with trying to drum up new domestic accounts. In a flash of inspiration he decided to expand his market overseas. He took the globe on his desktop, spun it quickly, and jabbed a finger down at random. Beneath his fingertip lay the outline of Africa, so it was off to the dark continent to sell Pepsi.
Driving in his Pepsi truck through the African hinterland, he was ambushed and captured by cannibals. They trussed him up, commandeered his truck and drove back to their village. Out came the enormous cauldron which they then filled with Pepsi. Into the pot went the poor salesman. They proceded to cook him in his own Pepsi.
#18
Real story. A older friend of the family was one of the early missionaries to New Guinea. He would do deputations in the inner tribes. This story was while the Japanese occupied the edges of the island.
He came to a village and noticed fresh knuckle bones in the fire pit.
He then went on to have his service. He got to the communion part and they congregation told him he could skip it as they had a real one the night before.
Cannibals tend to respect Christianity because in our Eucharist we eat our god.
#3
The Aussie $ tanked this week. Down 12% against the USD and more against the Yen. Everyone is unwinding Yen borrowings and selling (previously bought) AUD. The era of cheap money is over down here. It's the biggest story of the year and the MSM (dismal as always) is completely oblivious to it.
The Taliban have published the movement's first military field manual detailing how to spring ambushes, run spies and conduct an insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday. At 144 pages, Military Teachings - for the Preparation of Mujahideen, is a minutely detailed "how to" book on subjects ranging from tactics and weapons to building training camps and espionage.
The guide, which is similar in its aims to British and American military field manuals, was obtained by The Daily Telegraph from a source in Pakistan who claimed to be close to the Taliban. Its cover bears the image of two crossed swords and the holy Quran, the arms of the Taliban's ousted government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The book "will soon be made available to the commanders in Afghanistan as well as its adjacent tribal areas in Pakistan", the source said.
The book, written in the Pashto language, "will soon be made available to the commanders in Afghanistan as well as its adjacent tribal areas in Pakistan", the source said. He added that copies of the manual had been circulated to the Pakistani tribal area of Bajaur. Its publication highlights the extent of the Taliban's revival six years after it was deposed by a US-led invasion. "This is the first of its kind and shows a significant level of organisation," said Brigadier Mahmood Shah, a retired military intelligence officer who was in charge of security in the tribal areas. Brig Shah said "soft" Pakistani government policy towards the pro-Taliban militants had allowed them to flourish in the lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal areas that straddle the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Maulana Nek Zaman, a MNA from North Waziristan, said the manual had a potentially large readership. "It is not a case of just Taliban who are fighting but all the tribes are resisting because they have been attacked," he said.
Last year the Taliban published a pocket-sized code of conduct which described suicide bombers as "Omar's missiles", referring to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar. It laid out the rules of daily life including a ban on relations with young boys ? an activity favoured by some Afghan fighters.
The military manual is divided into 10 chapters and appears to be the result of a collaboration between religious scholars and specialists in terrorist, logistical and intelligence tactics. It is illustrated with simple formulas for the preparation of explosives, pictures and diagrams of light and heavy weaponry, ammunition and communication equipment. The bulk of the manual details basic military skills such as firing positions and how to use different weapons.
"In a situation where infidels and their crooks are ruling the world, it is the prime duty of all the Muslims to take arms and crush those who are bent upon crushing the Muslims throughout the world."
It advises on how to carry out remotely controlled attacks on enemy vehicles, and shows how to strike aircraft and armoured vehicles by targeting weak points.
It shows with diagrams how to target vehicles passing through rough terrain at low speed and how telegraph poles and trees can be used to range in on a target. It also explores methods of blowing up bridges, railway tracks and power and telephone lines.
Its preface sets out the Taliban's justification for war: "In a situation where infidels and their crooks are ruling the world, it is the prime duty of all the Muslims to take arms and crush those who are bent upon crushing the Muslims throughout the world. This is the best time to take on the usur
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
NYT Book Review: "A terrific read! Couldn't put it down! An impressive debut effort!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2007 7:11
Comments ||
Top||
#2
You stole my byline!!!!
Posted by: NYT Reporter ||
08/17/2007 8:28
Comments ||
Top||
#3
It laid out the rules of daily life including a ban on relations with young boys
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for an end to presidential term limits on Wednesday to extend his rule and consolidate a self-styled socialist revolution in the OPEC nation.
"Compañeros y compañeras, it is a fact of history that when a nation becomes prosperous the rich - plutocrats you might call them - are to be seen everywhere!"
The leftist former soldier also proposed eliminating central bank autonomy, strengthening state expropriation powers and giving himself control over international reserves as part of an overhaul of Venezuela's constitution.
"Who better than a man on horseback, a man of simple pleasures and tastes, like me, to protect this Great Nation of ours from the perils of being taken over by the rich!"
Chavez's left-wing policies have sparked the ire of critics and US officials who brand him an authoritarian menace and accuse him of using Venezuela's oil wealth to undermine democracy, but his majority poor supporters have handed him repeated electoral victories.
"We Venezuelans are simple folk. We prefer the simple things in life, unlike those greedy, avaricious bastards up north!"
Unveiling his constitutional reform plans, which need to be approved in a referendum vote, Chavez said presidential terms should be extended by one year to seven years without restrictions on re-election. Under the current constitution, Chavez is in his second and final term and could not be elected again after it ends in 2012. The reform proposal would allow him to stay for as long as he keeps winning elections. "If anyone is going to say this is a project to enthrone oneself, no," Chavez said. "This is only a possibility, a possibility that depends on many variables."
"I, a simple captain, am attending to those variables."
In his lengthy speech to a loyal Congress that stretched until midnight, Chavez said the government should be able to control assets of private companies before winning court expropriation rulings. He also said the maximum workday would be reduced to six hours from eight hours per day, and proposed providing social security benefits to informal workers like cab drivers and street vendors as part of his campaign to instil "21st Century Socialism".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You forgot the part where anyone who votes against me gets deported or shot depending what mood I am in.
Posted by: Hugo Chavez ||
08/17/2007 3:00
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"I doubt there is any country on this planet with a democracy more alive than the one we enjoy in Venezuela today."
HUGO CHAVEZ
the Venezuelan President, announcing plans to alter the country's constitution to allow him to stand for office indefinitely
Courtesy of Time "Quotes of the Day"
The pic of him is classic by his quote. I wonder if he just woke up one day and decided he was the god of Venezuela. He's one of the crazy ones fo' sure.
Posted by: NOLA ||
08/17/2007 6:25
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Hugo Chavez: Dictator, or just a dick? News at 11.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
08/17/2007 8:40
Comments ||
Top||
#4
What is the problem with term limits? If you are President For Life, you only need one term.
Iran's judiciary chief has publicly criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for needlessly changing top officials, in a rare intervention in politics by one of Iran's most respected clerics, media reported on Thursday.
The criticism by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi comes in the same week the president unexpectedly replaced his oil and industry ministers, amid continued economic problems in Iran. "Unfortunately, the treatment of some managers is the source of heavy blows to the Iranian system," Shahroudi said in a speech to the Iranian audit court on Wednesday reported by the ISNA agency and picked up by all moderate newspapers. "If we repeatedly change managers and ministers, nothing will improve," he said. "It should not be done in a way that if we want to groom an eyebrow we end up by poking out the eye," Shahroudi commented, using a traditional Persian proverb.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iran's judiciary chief has publicly criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for needlessly changing top officials
#2
the wisdom of the persians is really something, if only they could get rid of these asshats and really get down to business. I like them for the most part
(SomaliNet) One soldier was killed and two civilians were wounded in friendly gunfire which occurred north of the Somalia capital last night, sources said on Wednesday -amid the insurgency escalating in the war-ravaged city of Mogadishu.
Residents told Somalinet that soldiers within the government mistakenly exchanged gunfire last night causing the death of one police officer while two civilians injured by stray bullets. After 15 minute gun battle, the government soldiers recognized each other. Meanwhile, Islamic insurgent groups have carried out hit and run attacks on two government positions in Mogadishu. The first assault was targeted on the Hodon district police station while the second hit was targeted on government barracks in the main industry road of the capital. No casualty was reported on the soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
(SomaliNet) In a bid to end the differences among Hawiye, the dominant clan in Somali capital Mogadishu, negotiations brokered by well-respected Somali traditional elders are under way, a Somali politician Abdulahi Sheik Hassan said yesterday.
There are efforts to unify the varying ideologies within the Hawiye people. Mr. Hassan, who had recently backed out his opposition against the Somali government and attended the reconciliation congress. "I am hoping that Hawiye leaders will lastly agree on their common destiny and drop the hostility," said Hassan.
The clan's traditional leaders have been at odds over the participation of the reconciliation conference and split into two parts. Some argued that the conference should be political rather than clan-based and be held a neutral location outside of the country. One part led by the Hawiye leader dropped their negative position and joined the peace process while the other part stuck firmly on their stand.
Mr. Hassan said why the conference was halted for a week was to give chance to Hawiye clan to resolve their discrepancy and attend the clan-based reconciliation congress which has entered its second phase of political discussions last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
The United States has urged President Pervez Musharraf to explore some kind of political arrangement with opposition politicians, a US official said on Thursday. "There are elections coming up in Pakistan and there is a moderate centre in Pakistani politics and that moderate centre has an interest in seeing the political and social reforms that Musharraf put in place continue," said the official, asking not to be named.
Perv will do whatever benefits Perv and his military backers. I had some trepidation during the CJP dustup, but while he's a lousy general he's a damned good politician in a treacherous, labyrinthine environment.
The official was commenting on a New York Times report that the Bush administration is quietly encouraging Musharraf to share power with former premier Benazir Bhutto, citing US and Pakistani officials. The US official declined to say whether the Bush administration was encouraging a Benazir-Musharraf deal but made clear that it wanted to see "moderate" forces in Pakistan strengthened. Asked if the US risked appearing to prop up a military ruler regarded as a vital ally by the Bush administration, the official said any deal was up to the Pakistanis to work out. "We can encourage parties to look at where there are overlapping interests."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Authorities announced that Daud Zubeidi, the brother of Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades commander Zakaria Zubeidi, was arrested three months ago during an exchange of fire with IDF troops, Israel Radio reported Thursday evening.
Zubeidi confessed to investigators that he was planning to kidnap an Israeli woman from the village of Ya'abed, near Jenin. The woman would come to the village routinely to buy charcoals for barbecue and Zubeidi was planning to exploit his knowledge of her routine to hijack her, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs
President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, will attend an unprecedented show of joint military force today amid fears that the Russian leader is trying to turn an increasingly powerful central Asian alliance into a second Warsaw Pact.
The United States will be anxiously watching the military manoeuvres - held under the auspices of the six-member Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) - from afar after its request to send observers was rejected.
Founded in 2001, the SCO, which includes the four central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China and Russia, is rapidly gaining a reputation as an anti-Western organisation.
Washington has plenty of reasons to be uneasy. Founded in 2001, the SCO, which includes the four central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China and Russia, is rapidly gaining a reputation as an anti-Western organisation.
That image seems to be one that Mr Putin is happy to cultivate. Analysts say that the Russian president believes the organisation is emerging as a bloc that is rapidly becoming powerful enough to stand up to the West.
Russia's most pro-government newspapers, often used by the Kremlin as propaganda vehicles, yesterday proclaimed the arrival of an "anti-Nato" alliance and a "Warsaw Pact 2". At the annual SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, Mr Putin praised the alliance's growing strength. "Year after year the SCO becomes a more significant factor in strengthening security and stability in the central Asian region," he said.
In a thinly disguised swipe at Washington, which mirrored earlier attacks on American "unilateralism" and "diktat", he added: "We are convinced that any attempts to resolve global and regional problems alone are useless."
For the most part, the summit's agenda concentrated on promoting energy co-operation in central Asia, whose vast resources have elevated the region's geopolitical importance.
#4
Agree wid #1. In any case, DIALECTICSM-REALISM says we still have to trust Putin's comments. The new surreal "FULDA GAP 2" then, is the entire Muslim World + East Asia-Pacific + espec ALCAN-NORAM per se.
A contingent of troops from the tiny Pacific kingdom of Tonga will leave on Saturday for a six-month deployment in Iraq. Captain Toni Fonokalafi, who will lead the 55 soldiers, said Wednesday that the Tongan troops will be based at Camp Victory in Baghdad. The contingent is the second to be sent from Tonga, which has a population of 110,000 and a military numbering about 450 troops. After two weeks in the United States for training, the Tongan troops will leave for the Middle East on September 1, Fonokalafi said. They will mostly provide security at Camp Victory, which is situated near Baghdad's airport. The first six-month deployment of Tongan troops to Iraq took place in mid-2004 and a final rotation is due next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Man I had to look on the map to see where the Pacific kingdom of Tonga was. That's great, now if we can only get more countries to pitch in and help out.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/17/2007 1:21
Comments ||
Top||
#2
perfect guys for this, they're massive and very intimidating and thats just the civilians, brave and steadfast. good on ya.....
#5
Who next, Micronesia? They could prob'ly spare 20 Yappies or so.
Posted by: NOLA ||
08/17/2007 2:46
Comments ||
Top||
#6
NOLA...WTF? Yappies? Do you know any Tongans? Who made you the juror of their motivations? I'd really like to see you face to face with a Tongan and repeat that...I really would.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/17/2007 3:01
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I'd really like to see you face to face with a Tongan and repeat that...I really would.
I would really like to see NOLA after he had talked with the Tongan. :-)
#9
I have nothin against Tongas, they could break me in half without even breathing heaving, but 55 of them in a war zone without hand to hand combat? I get that every little bit helps, but when your whole army is 450 people and your country is 110k, maybe we need to find "bigger" friends, at least in population terms.
Not too sure about the juror of motivations part. I'm sure their motivations are great. They just gave away more than 10% of their military which would be awesome, if they had more military.
Just looking at the numbers.....
Posted by: NOLA ||
08/17/2007 6:41
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Kinda like the Texas Rangers: "Sure we only sent one Ranger. There was only one riot!"
How many major cities in Iraq?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007 8:07
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Let them do do their version of the haka before their missions.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/17/2007 8:41
Comments ||
Top||
#13
While it's sort of useful to list Tonga as a coalition member, in order to shame countries like Germany into contributing, what's really important here is that we are giving friendly armed forces some combat & SASO hands on experience.
I have a feeling they and we are going to need those skills for some time to come.
#14
Great comment, lotp. While I somewhat snickered originally at their small contingent, I'm sure we'll be fighting side-by-side in years to come. Plus, they get the additional training to use back home in case the *need* ever arises they'd have to use it.
Posted by: BA ||
08/17/2007 9:15
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Rugby, JFM? You are full of surprises. :-)
Just as supporter. I grew in Spain and they don't play rugby there. But I am a big All Black supporter: when my daughters were still babies I used to sing them the hakka. They both found it very funny.
#17
Thanks NOLA....but as you can see from other comments, it's not always about who's bigger. Just as important, is who's at risk, and who can benefit most. That's why saying that "they just gave away 10% of their military" shows a lack of a basic understanding of what such a mission accomplishes. Again, it's a motivation thingy.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/17/2007 11:53
Comments ||
Top||
#20
Some countries "get it", others don't. Most of the world is going to have to deal with muslims in the near future. They sooner they learn the best way to deal with them, the better. Tonga gets it, Britain doesn't. The French don't have a clue, while the Japanese want to pick up the knowledge on the cheap. I'm not sure what the Germans are up to. Most of the countries of the former Warsaw Pact have a dual commitment: to learn how to deal with muslims face-to-face, and how to build and maintain a quality armed force with combat experience. The Australians, with Indonesia as a close neighbor (and thorn in the side) are learning how to deal with muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Timor. The knowledge will come in handy when they have their own internal muslim problems. Fiji is the Pacific nation that needs the experience the most, but unfortunately are currently tied up with internal problems.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2007 13:35
Comments ||
Top||
#21
What's interesting to me is that in this war a great many of the smaller countries have sent fighting contingents, not to mention a lot of the medium sized countries like Korea and Japan. I'm under the impression that historically such countries have tried to stay as uninvolved as possible, except for earning money on UN peacekeeping missions. I know why I see this war as different, but why do they?
#22
I know why I see this war as different, but why do they?
A bunch of possible reasons:
- wanting to get on Uncle Sam's good side
- practice operating with US or NATO forces
- for a lot of the eastern bloc countries, I think their experience with the fUSSR has given them the ability to recognize totalitarianism when they see it.
I'm kinda sorta hoping the last one is the significant one for most.
Several people are feared dead after the military attacked armed gangs in Nigeria's oil city of Port Harcourt. Reports suggested both militants and military personnel were killed in subsequent fighting, but officials have not yet confirmed any fatalities.
It follows clashes that raged last week between powerful rival armed gangs that left at least 15 people dead.
Militant groups in the Niger Delta say they are fighting to gain more local control over the region's oil supplies.
Residents in some parts of Port Harcourt described blazing buildings and streets deserted except for men on motorbikes carrying automatic weapons. Others said they had seen helicopter gunships firing into the city, as well as armoured personnel carriers near government offices.
The fighting followed an operation by the military against the base of one of the major gang leaders in the city, Soboma George.
Major Sagir Musa said the gang leader was "linked to different kinds of atrocities in terms of hostage-taking, killing and maiming of innocent citizens". "Members of the joint taskforce made a surprise attack on the hideout, and in the process, Soboma George is suspected to have been killed," he said.
The army said it arrested a number of militants during the raid, but he was not among them. For most of last week rival gangs fought pitched battles around the city leaving many dead, mostly bystanders.
FAISALABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Thursday that he would be re-elected from the current assemblies and in uniform "at any cost" before October 15, Online reports.
Gen Musharraf flew here to rally support for his re-election from legislators belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) from Faisalabad and Sargoadha divisions. He told them that presidential elections would be held between September 15 and October 15. "The president told the parliamentarians that he is going to contest the election in uniform and it is fully according to the law and constitution," Minister for Textile Industries Mushtaq Ali Cheema told Reuters, after Musharraf met with more than 100 legislators from the national and provincial Punjab assemblies. "We assured full cooperation and support to him and told him we stand by him."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2007
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He doesn't sound like he's going to take no for an answer.
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.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft and army snipers killed 13 gunmen north of Baghdad on Friday in fierce fighting that erupted as troops closed in to capture an al Qaeda cell leader, the U.S. military said.
A drunken man in Mainz, Germany, was arrested after he attempted to hold up a bank there armed with get this a water pistol and a potato peeler.
Because of recent cases of student sex videos involving young high school students in the area the local government of Indramayu in West Java intends to carry out tests on several thousand teen girls (in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth year of high school) to determine whether they are still virgins.
. . . One thing you don't want to say when you are a candidate for President is that you "feel very good" about being in Pahrump, Nevada. Pahrump, Nevada, is -- for those who know -- the whorehouse capitol of Nevada, and hence, as far as legal brothels go, the whorehouse capitol of the United States. Now that might be the normal metaphysical environment for politicians of all parties, but it just isn't done to glory in it. . . .
Pressure for a referendum on the controversial European constitution grew last night amid growing signs of public concern and fresh claims that voters are being misled. All three main parties originally pledged a referendum on the original EU draft constitution. And yesterday, there were claims that the new document was essentially a revival of the constitutional settlement famously rejected by referendums in France and Holland in 2005.
US and Afghan troops pressed an air and ground assault on Thursday against Al Qaeda militants grouped in the Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the last known hideout of Osama bin Laden. 
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The continued existence of armed militias is an obstacle to the promised Palestinian state, Western-backed prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday.
A group of leading editors in Nepal have accused Maoists, who are now part of the interim government, of attacking press freedom through a "sinister pattern of intimidation and threats". 
"Militants ambushed a military convoy near Chaghmalay, and air support was sought against them. Ten militants were killed and 12 injured while the security forces suffered two casualties," military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times. 
Coalition Forces captured a highly sought Special Groups weapons facilitator before dawn Thursday northeast of Baghdad. 
The Pakistani government gave substantial military support to the Taliban in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks, sending arms and soldiers to fight alongside the militant Afghan movement, according to newly released US official documents, The Guardian reported on Thursday. 
A bomb exploded at a scrap metal shop in the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon on Thursday, killing a Syrian man and injuring five Syrian nationals. The explosion took place in the village of al-Rawda, near the provincial capital of Zahleh.
Although two years have passed since the Islamist militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) launched a countrywide bomb attack, the government has not yet found out the true masterminds behind that group.
JERUSALEM - The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to provide Israel with $30 billion in defence grants over the next decade, a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a bulwark against Iran. At a signing ceremony in Jerusalem, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States would help Israel maintain a military advantage over foes ranging from Iran and Syria to their proxies in Lebanon and Palestinian territories.
Bollywood big daddy Subhash Ghai had paid gangster Dawood Ibrahims brother Anees between Rs 20 and 25 lakh in extortion money, incarcerated don Abu Salem told investigators under the influence of truth serum in Bangalore in December 2005. Producers Rakesh Roshan and J P Dutta, he said, had not paid even a dime. Ghai was not available for comment. When asked if he knew any policemen, Salem said that the one policeman he knew was Mumbai encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma. Salem admitted that he was guilty of only one thing: loving Monica Bedi. Hamne sirf pyar kiya tha .
Indonesia's president claimed victory Thursday against terrorists in the world's most populous Muslim country, which has not suffered any attack in nearly two years following a crackdown on Islamic militants, but said more must be done to tackle terrorism's root causes. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his state of the union address that "the acts of terrorism that have caused unrest in our society in the past years have been handled." 
Southern Africa's political leaders rallied round Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, and publicly lauded as a hero the man who has brought his country to the brink of total collapse. 
War veterans and MPs are calling for a dedicated military hospital amid an overcrowding crisis at the country's only ward reserved for soldiers.
Hamas detained the Palestinian attorney general in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the highest-ranking Palestinian Authority official to be seized by the Islamists ruling Gaza, witnesses said. Members of Hamas's Executive Force detained Ahmed al-Mughani and his bodyguards after besieging his office in Gaza City and then driving off with the men, they said.
The Taliban have published the movement's first military field manual detailing how to spring ambushes, run spies and conduct an insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday. At 144 pages, Military Teachings - for the Preparation of Mujahideen, is a minutely detailed "how to" book on subjects ranging from tactics and weapons to building training camps and espionage.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for an end to presidential term limits on Wednesday to extend his rule and consolidate a self-styled socialist revolution in the OPEC nation. 
(SomaliNet) In a bid to end the differences among Hawiye, the dominant clan in Somali capital Mogadishu, negotiations brokered by well-respected Somali traditional elders are under way, a Somali politician Abdulahi Sheik Hassan said yesterday. 
Several people are feared dead after the military attacked armed gangs in Nigeria's oil city of Port Harcourt. Reports suggested both militants and military personnel were killed in subsequent fighting, but officials have not yet confirmed any fatalities. 
FAISALABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Thursday that he would be re-elected from the current assemblies and in uniform "at any cost" before October 15, Online reports.
