Connecticut // U.S. Senate - - Dem Primary
724 of 748 Precincts Reporting - 96.79%
Lamont, Ned 141,623 51.85% **Winner
Lieberman, Joe (i) 131,491 48.15%
Georgia, U.S. House Democratic District 4
Precincts Reporting: 153 of 167 (92%)
Hank Johnson (winner) 36853 59%
Cynthia McKinney (I) 25683 41%
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
23:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
A New York man mauled by his pet tiger has failed in his bid to sue the city for entering his flat without a warrant. Antoine Yates was jailed after being arrested in 2003 when police found the 200kg (32st) creature, named Ming, and a two metre (6ft) alligator, Al, in the tiny fifth-floor flat. Mr Yates claimed that when he returned to his home, cash, jewellery and a pet rabbit were missing.
George, put the jewellery down and help me get this tiger's jaws off the guy's head!"
The whereabouts of the rabbit have not been ascertained, but there is no indication in the record that Al the alligator was questioned in that regard.
Judge Sidney Stein said it had been an emergency situation: "The whereabouts of the rabbit have not been ascertained, but there is no indication in the record that Al the alligator was questioned in that regard."
"I didn't mind the rescuers helping with getting Ming's jaw off of my head, but that rabbit was a dear friend of mine!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
21:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz has decided on Tuesday to appoint Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky as his representative in the Northern Command for the duration of the war.
Kaplinski was appointed to supervise and coordinate activities on the northern front.
OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam was to remain in his current post, while retaining all of the responsibilities and authorities of the position.
When pressed by Channel 2, Adam expressed some displeasure, but said it was perfectly legitimate to appoint a senior officer, especially when it is a deputy chief of staff, to assist the commander of a front at times of war.
Some senior officers in the Northern Command were reportedly more disturbed. They stated that the nomination was a real hit to Adam's authority. Channel 2 quoted unnamed sources as saying that Adam considered resigning because of the move.
Halutz expressed his full confidence at the capabilities of the IDF's chain of command and in particular those of the Northern Command headed by Maj.-Gen. Adam, an official statement released by the IDF said.
The reason behind the decision was not immediately clear. It may be related to the planned cabinet meeting on Wednesday and the possible approval of a massive expansion of the ground operation up to the Litani River or even further north.
#3
This is a very positive move. Kick some serious ass, Sherman's March to the Northern border (of Lebanon).
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 20:05
Comments ||
Top||
#4
No surprise. Hope it fixes some stuff(it is impossible to fix all and even less considering Halutz and Olmert ). He is a former Golani Brigade Commander. I said things werent going right, HZB is still popping almost 200 rockets a day.
I hope he isnt a Zukhov...Russkies know it wasnt good idea to serve under Zukhov he shortenend the live of his own soldiers with his brutal offensives.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 20:12
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Remember Kaplinski is the guy who at the end of week one said we won't have to send in ground troops because the IAF has destroyed 40% of Hezb'Allah's infrastructure. Again, I can't wait for the book.
#8
Okay, so he bought the flyboy jib, at least he's infantry. The Golani Brigade brings fear to the enemy.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 20:34
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Could have been disinformation, too. That's why I'm waiting for the book. I'll bet there's been more fighting going on within the senior command/political levels of Israel than with Hezb'Allah.
#12
Big boss doesnt like the job North boss is doing so sended a supervising boss :) The supervising and the big boss have apparently the problem of thinking that airforce mainly can finish the job and made various over optimistic declarations in the past. The North boss from the news just seems to be happy doing the less possible.
#13
Which part? The disinformation meant he was lying to the press to mislead the Hezb'Allah about Israeli assessment of the situation and plans. That's the problem for a civilian of trying to figure out what's going on real time during war. It may or may not be in the interest of either party to let you know the truth because when they tell you, they also tell the enemy.
By even the most conservative estimates the Sudanese Muslims have been killing - slaughtering - as many of their own countrymen every week for the last 10 years as have been killed so far in the current Israel - Lebanon (HezbAllah) War. Why has the 'world' said almost nothing about that for all those years yet screams in outrage around the clock for the past month over Israel's modest attempts at self-defense? Of course - silly me - because in Lebanon the evil Joooos are doing most of the killing, while in the Sudan it's those lovely, civilized practitioners of the wonderful 'Religion of Peace'. Arrrgghhh!!! It just does not compute. My brain feels like HAL trying to compute tic tac toe.
#1
The problem, Glenmore, is that you are looking for rational behavior from irrational people. You can frisk the Islamonuts (or the liberal Dhimmicrats for that matter) all day long and not find an ounce of logic. Cause and effect does not phase them either. It's a battle between the Jews and a demonic cult that wants to overlook the fact that the Jews predate it in Israel by a thousand years and then some.
MARSHALL, Texas A truck transporting zoo animals overturned early Tuesday, spilling about two dozen penguins, an octopus and tropical fish along a highway north of Marshall, authorities said.
Three penguins that landed in the highway were killed by oncoming traffic and one died in the crash, authorities said. Another penguin suffered a broken wing. Most of the fish lived and the octopus appeared unharmed, officials said. The octopus and fish were traveling in plastic bags, and some fish died when the bags burst.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006
19:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No quips here: As an animal lover I am saddened.
#6
Liberals demanding the elimination of global warming by the stoppage of emissions of SUVs and cow's methane gas, penquins are in Texas in August? THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME!
The Libyan government took 25 years to repair diplomatic ties with the United States to be able to reopen an embassy in the District, but it can't because the District's utilities authority refuses to turn on water service.
At issue is more than $27,000 in outstanding water and sewer bills for the property where the Libyan government is trying to reopen its embassy on U.S. soil for the first time since 1981.
The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) has filed liens and shut off sewer and water service for the property, located at 2201 Wyoming Ave. NW. The dispute prompted Libya last week to file a lawsuit against WASA in federal court in the District. The suit demands that water and sewer service be turned on and that WASA pay $1 million in damages. Not quite Lockerbie bucks but its a start.
This isn't the first time WASA has tangled with a foreign government. The utility has filed property liens against more than a dozen foreign countries in recent years, though several embassies eventually settled the debts, records show.
In its lawsuit, Libya says it hasn't occupied the Wyoming Avenue property since 1981, when the United States cut diplomatic ties with the country and shut its embassy.
The Libyan government wants to reopen the embassy because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice upgraded relations with Libya in May.
During the years Libya had no embassy in the District, the United Arab Emirates took control of the property. For several years, "squatters" stayed there without permission from Libya or the United Arab Emirates, the suit says.
The United Arab Emirates evicted the squatters in 2003 and ordered water and sewer service to be shut off, the suit says. Squatters without water or sewage ewww that sounds messy.
WASA won't provide water or sewer service until the outstanding bill is paid.
WASA records show water and sewer accounts at the property in the name of the "United Kingdom of Libya," and the authority has filed a lien demanding payment.
The Libyan government, however, says it shouldn't have to pay because it didn't authorize the service. Try that oldie but goody with your local utility company and see how far you get.
A WASA spokeswoman yesterday said she could not comment on the dispute because the authority's policy is not to discuss pending lawsuits.
In general, WASA spokeswoman Michele Quander-Collins said, the agency doesn't treat foreign embassies any differently than any other ratepaying customers.
"Basically, if they're in arrears, we pursue the customer, no matter who they are," she said. "Most of the time, once we file a lien, the customer will make arrangements to pay."
But collecting debts from foreign governments can pose different challenges.
"We've seen situations where the embassies have claimed they weren't there when the service was rendered, or else their country is no longer in existence," Miss Quander-Collins said. "And then they want to pay with dinars, I mean really does anybody even know the exchange rate?"
WASA has filed liens against several foreign countries for debts ranging from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, according to city records.
The Republic of Yugoslavia fell apart in the 1990s, becoming the independent states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Yet Yugoslavia still owes more than $14,000 to WASA, according to a lien filed last year.
The former Zaire -- now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo -- has had more than $20,000 in outstanding bills owed to WASA, according to a property lien the utility filed at the D.C. Office of the Recorder of the Deeds in April.
An official at the Congolese Embassy yesterday said officials would not discuss the matter.
Other countries facing WASA liens for outstanding bills in recent years include the Ivory Coast, which owes $6,151, and the Republic of Guinea, which owes $10,796, city records show. Just wait till the Palestinian embassy opens.
Click on link and look carefully at the photos. Especially the last one. Hat tip: Roger Simon
July 30 photo, shot by the Associated Press's Lefteris Pitarakis, showing covered "bodies" after Qana strike.
Worst case of rigor I've ever seen.
[Mods - any way to make pics appear here?]
(Note: August 8, 2006, Best of the Web - no permalink.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2006
17:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I really don't care how many body photos there are or whether the subjects are alive or dead. This is war and Israel is going to have to kill people, including some civilians in collateral damage. All these jihadis need to be beamed a steady stream of photos of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki to remind them that their stupid aggressive actions are not self-serving and that, so far, Israel is handling them with kid gloves. I just hope that, when the right moment comes, Israel will take off the kid gloves and deal with Iran. August 22nd would be good.
#2
Darrel, pics of Dresden et. al. won't mean anything. They know we (civilization) won't bother to defend ourselves if it means killing "too many" "innocent" people. So they crank up the propaganda, alongside a willing press, counting on their allies and fellow enemies of civilization to paralyze us.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/08/2006 19:19
Comments ||
Top||
#3
From what I have seen about this photo, it is real. The guy was developing a case of rigor mortis. What I found was several photos from several angles at different times (if you go looking for it on the internet) and they all show the same position. This same picture showed up here within the last few days and has already been hashed out!
#4
Gorb - assuming the guy really is dead, he died in an odd position and stayed in that position until rigor set in, which takes quite a while.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) we need to question every photo that comes out of the Mid-East. There are too many photos of dead children supposedly crushed in a collapsed building with no blood, abrasions, or even dust on them. Obviously blown-up buildings (can't tell if the bomb came from the IDF, was a "work accident," or was planted by the Hizzies) with one clean, new-looking stuffed animal right in the middle.
Until the MSM clean up their act, if they can - and start questioning the "media opportunities" set up by TERRORISTS who would gladly cut off some media heads if they were deemed no longer useful - I can't and won't trust them. And they brought that lack of trust on themselves.
Schade.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2006 20:09
Comments ||
Top||
#5
The guy was really dead. He seems to have been dead much longer than the 6Am or 1AM building collapse. An the uncovered bodies did not have visible crush injuries. Now stories are coming out the bodies were moved there for the press to photograph.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 20:22
Comments ||
Top||
#6
He has his left knee straight up, and one of his arms ended up being pulled straight up, too. There are "before" pics of this guy that show him with his arm down, I think, which would lead me to believe he was killed recently. I don't know if rigor mortis can make a body change its position like that, but I think it can.
Yes, we do have to question every photo. Until the MSM start trumpeting that fact, many are guaranteed to fall victim to the terrorist propaganda machine, both here and abroad. But it is against their interests to do that, and you know what that means to a corrupt institution . . . .
Good luck, pops. Bin Laden will send in a absentee ballot for you...
CANBERRA (Reuters) - The father of Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks has been nominated for the country's "Father of the Year" award, angering the Australian government which said it was being used to score political points. Nahhhh.Ya think?
Hicks was detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late 2001 and has been in custody in Guantanamo Bay since 2002, where he is awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.
His father Terry Hicks has led a four-year campaign to have his son either face trial or be set free, but Australia, a close ally of the United States and with forces still fighting in Afghanistan, has refused to seek his release.
Jon Stanhope, head of the local Australian Capital Territory government -- which has authority over the national capital Canberra -- said Terry Hicks was an inspiration to all parents. "To show the enduring and unconditional love and the grace that Terry Hicks has shown in supporting his son, I think is wonderful," Stanhope told Australian radio on Saturday. And a right fine terrorist ya raised there, Terry! Good on ya!
But Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who has long campaigned against allowing David Hicks to return home, hit back at Stanhope and said the nomination was not appropriate.
"I don't think politicization of the program of nominating outstanding fathers of the year is a good way to go," Ruddock said on Saturday.
The Father of the Year award, to be announced on September 1, is an annual award to recognize a high-profile person who is seen as a good role model for fathers, either through support for their family or the community. It is run a by the Shepherd Center charity, which raises money to help deaf children, and is administered by a council made up of prominent Australians and community leaders. This should do wonders for fund raising...
Previous winners include sportsmen and military leaders, as well as Prime Minister John Howard and former conservative Australian prime ministers Malcolm Fraser, William McMahon and Robert Menzies.
Excellent roundup of the story by blogger Brendan Loy ("Irish Trojan") at the link. Sen. Lieberman's website and e-mail servers have been DoS'd for the last 18 hours--just in time for election day!--and the Kos Kiddies are spreading a bogus story that it's because Lieberman didn't pay his bandwith bill. Lamont's campaign denies doing it themselves, and I tend to believe them--but I wouldn't put it past some of the BDS sufferers who've lined up behind Lamont.
Anyway, go hit the link.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006
15:46 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I may be crazy but I hope that Lamont, McKinney, and every other LLL Mo0b@+ running under the Democratic Party banner. It will only hasten the partys demise and keep them from power.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006 19:23
Comments ||
Top||
#4
A country needs two parties.
Three is too many, one not enough.
What we need to do is chase out all these stupids who think Che Guevara was some kind of great guy: basically bar the DU from the DNC.
Let 'em vote for LArouche or something.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 21:30
Comments ||
Top||
#5
#4: "basically bar the DU from the DNC"
That won't work - the DNC has to want the DU to be gone. And they don't.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2006 21:40
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I am a Dem.
Those DU babies threw me out after one post.
It is very uncomfortable to be stuck in the middle with vrtually no voice.
Rantburgers are MUCH (infinitely) mre tolerant than the 'tolerant;'
liberals.
I want them gone. They need to straighten up. This is not a game anymore . MArbles are at stake.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 21:54
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I was a Dem for 31 years. No more. I can't even imagine what kind of mental space I'd have to be in, to even consider voting for one of the current crop of idiots.
Or ever again, for that matter.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/08/2006 22:07
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I am waiting for one person (either party) to lay out what Rantburgers all know (deplatitudinization) and describe a tough policy.
No0body does it. Even the president dances around the subject.
Beyond that I still cling to certain values but not to others.
Pro choice
Pro -universal healthcare
pro Social security
Pro-military
Anti flag burning and flag burning amendment
Anti gay marriage and anti anti-gay marriage amendment
Anti illegal immigration
Pro-mass deportation
Pro WOT
Pro nuking Iran
Generally still LOVE my country just like mom and dad taught me.
And STILL learning who my real friends are. Just like Joe L.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 22:34
Comments ||
Top||
#9
We are your friends, J. D. Lux. Regardless where we stand on the lesser issues, we here all agree on the critical one: winning the War on Terror completely -- now -- so that our children won't have to re-fight it, either there or, God forbid, here. And I think that's how we'll all vote, regardless of party, until that happens.
#10
Thank you TW.
The level of decency here is abnormally high.
At dinner we spoke of this leiberman thing and thhe subject of another thread, the latent anti-semitism (not so latent) of the left wing.
I am not religious but I am trying to explain to my daughter that even though we are not religious and her mother is a catholic and I , a JEw she bears my name and must understand that the Jews are HER people, and that she is going to hear diusturbing stuff as I have.
Then she tells me a story.
At summmer camp, there were a couple of JEwish girls annd one was saying that she lives where there is no Temple so she had no Bat Mitzvah.
They gave her an impromptu ceremony, and some of the less well-educated girls werte teasing and making fun.
She says she tollf them off and I beleive it. Karatte lessons are a good thing. Gives you some spine.
I may not have any but at least I know how to grow it.
The thought that I could die while this stuff goes on and on is very hard.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 22:56
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Good riddance to bad garbage. Leiberman changes his views to suit his moment. So another dhimmicrat slimes in place.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 23:05
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Yes, Fred, et al attract an amazingly high caliber here. This place has kept me sane across several different dimensions since I found it -- only one of which involves knowing whether or not to worry when Mr. Wife gets on an airplane to fly across one of the oceans.
Charming story about your daughter -- clearly she understands the purpose of a bar mitzvah is to become a formal part of the Jewish community, and she made it happen. And kudos on her standing up to the idiots -- not many have grown character so young.
No guarantee she'll encounter antisemitism though. Truth to tell, I haven't really, despite living in Germany and then Belgium for half of the 1990s, amongst the corporate expats.
First if you are going to visit the link comment out access to "goldhost.com" by adding the following to your HOSTS file as fits your OS
127.0.0.1 goldsea.com
The port at Gwadar is without doubt currently Pakistan's flagship infrastructure project. A source of great pride for the Pakistani government, its much anticipated inauguration as the country's energy hub has been twice delayed and it is envisaged to become operational by year's end.
Built with Chinese assistance - just how much is debatable, though US$200 million for the first phase is an accepted figure plus loans - this multibillion-dollar scheme is regarded as not only an important economic asset but also a strategic one. The first phase included the construction of three multi-purpose ship berths, while the second, to be completed by 2010, involves nine more berths, an approach channel and storage terminals, by which time it will provide full warehousing, trans-shipment and industrial facilities. The Pakistani government is positioning Gwadar as "an energy port and hub for storage and refining".
No country knows the strategic value of the port more than India, which is unsettled at the prospect of having at the very least a possible Chinese listening post so close to home and at worst a possible Chinese naval presence on the Indian Ocean.
Consider for one minute, however, the possibility that despite the hype, fears, euphoria and general interest, Gwadar might just be a big, lumbering white elephant. Consider also the possibility that the security situation is now so poor in the area surrounding the port - and more widely in the surrounding province of Balochistan - that even the port's authorities are reportedly questioning whether the facility can become operational in the near term.
If proof were needed of the local population's changed attitude, it is witnessed in the security situation. When the port's construction first started, it was reported that about 200 Chinese engineers operated freely in the town, welcomed by its inhabitants and housed without security fears among the population. As the project has developed and local grievances increased, the number of engineers has steadily decreased and the 20 or so who are now left are stationed at the army's barracks, under guard 24 hours a day. A number have died in attacks, the largest of which occurred in May 2004 when three were killed and 11 others (nine of whom were Chinese) injured in a car-bombing.
As the situation stands, a five-star entertainment resort in a part of Pakistan surrounded by barely controlled desert (and not forgetting that Afghanistan's Taliban-heavy provinces border Balochistan) will surely top the attack list for a range of militant and terrorist elements. Partying aside, the prospects similarly look poor for the viable operation of the port.
#3
dammit - that was me - she lies, just ask Hillary
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 18:59
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Is Gwadar anything like gaydar? In either event, both seem appropriate for that part of the world.
Posted by: Tibor ||
08/08/2006 20:23
Comments ||
Top||
#5
China's next step is security = technical units, ala CUBA-PANAMA CANAL, and then a Chinese-protected railroad network linked to Gwadar. Never doubt that once America = Amerika + West is escargot histoire', the gloves will come off between China vs Russia over whom is the big boss of the SCO and Mackinder's World Island of Eurasia ,and exclusive of Radical Islam.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on the brink of handing President Bush the worst diplomatic disaster of his presidency. She is poised to agree to two United Nations resolutions that will tie the hands of both Israel and the United States in the war on terror and, in particular, inhibit future action on its number one state sponsor Iran.
The catastrophe is the brainchild of Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has effectively turned the United Nations into the political wing of Hezbollah. Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns are working furiously to satisfy a timetable dictated by Annan, not by the interests of the United States.
How did the United Nations become the forum for producing peace between Israel and its neighbors, which have rejected the Jewish states existence for the past six decades? In the last three weeks, a multi-headed hydra of U.N. actors has risen to defeat Israel on the political battlefield in an unprecedented disregard of the U.N. Charters central tenet: the right of self-defense.
Existing Security Council resolutions have for years required the Government of Lebanon to fully extend and exercise its sole and effective authority throughout the south, [and] ensure a calm environment throughout the area, including along the Blue Line, and to exert control over the use of force on its territory and from it. A combination of Iranian aggression, Syrian support, and Lebanese impotence and malfeasance, has actively prevented the implementation of the existing resolutions.
Posted by: j. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 15:23
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Now I know why we don't declare this WW3 and be done with. The moment this becomes WW3, the UN goes the way of the League Of Nations.
Years ago, many of us called for an end to the charade known as the UN. The situation has gotten worse. Please terminate the UN now.
#3
Pull the plug on the U.N. now. Send these useless idiots back to their home country. More than useless, they are dangerous. Get them off the welfare roster.
#7
Nah, they just pick a few more turds.
It has gone way too far towards CAmeroon and Guinea making world policy.
Somebody needs to retool whatever the mandate of the UN is and how they go about picking a reasonably strong individual with some ethics and credentials to lead the organization toward something instead of constantly "writhing in it's own waste".
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 21:25
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I once defined (on these pages) Colin Powel as UN ambasador to US, guess the person changes but job description does not.
#1
I don't know if it's just my armchair analyst spideysense kicking in, but that dude seems to be a tad bit better trained than the cannon fodder that the Paleos put out against the IDF.
Not to mention, some decent gear.
AR/M16/M4 with optic, foregrip and collapsible stock.
#2
Lessee here:
AR/M-16: check
Human Shields: check
Personal Photographer, courtesy of AP: check
Yep, definitely nice kit.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/08/2006 15:39
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Courtesy of US Government in the 1990's. One 25mm smart shell will end this crap. Wonder how the program is going.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 19:05
Comments ||
Top||
#4
A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militant,
Odd.... no mention from the AP of the human shields. But they did mention that 4 other human shields 'civilians' were wounded... implying that the blame is on Israel for arresting the 'militants'.
August 7, 2006: In recent exercises over Alaska, the F-22 has been put to the test. The results have been staggering. F-22s notched an impressive 108 to 0 "kill ratio" often when outnumbered by as much as 8 to 1 by simulated Su-27/30 aircraft. In a very real sense, this is a preview of what is to come for forces facing the F-22. The F-15 and F-18 scored a 2:1 kill ratio against the simulated Flankers. This is not the only time that F-22s have shown their capabilities. Eight F-22s faced off against 33 F-15Cs earlier this year, and "shot down" all of the F-15Cs with no loss to itself.
Why does the F-22 dominate? The answer lies in the two biggest rules of air combat. The first rule is, "Speed is life." The F-22 has speed reaching nearly 2,600 kilometers per hour, and having the ability go faster (up to 1,830 kilometers per hour) than the speed of sound without using its afterburners. It is faster than a Eurofighter, Flanker, or Rafale. It can catch its target, or get out of a situation, should that rare occasion arise.
The second rule is, "Lose the sight, lose the fight." The F-22 is very capable of making an opponent "lose sight" of it often through its stealth features that cause enemy radars to perform poorly when looking for an F-22. This means the F-22 will "see" its opponent far sooner than it will be seen itself. In aerial combat, 80 percent of those planes killed in air-to-air combat never knew the opponent that killed them was there.
In a very real sense, the F-22 is the superfighter of the 21st Century. The F-22 is emerging as a long-range fighter (with a range of over 3200 kilometers), capable of fighting when outnumbered 4 to 1 (or more), and it also has significant edges in the areas of speed and stealth. The F-22 is proving to be a very reliable plane (with less than 7 percent of sorties being aborted). Some problems have emerged as the F-22 joins the operational force, most notably with a titanium boom on the first 80 planes, but these problems are being fixed. The F-22's high speed and performance also gives weapons like the AMRAAM and JDAM much more range than from the F-15E or F-16.
The F-22's biggest weakness seems to be its price tag ($361 million per plane). But it is quickly proving it is capable of clearing the skies against as many as eight opponents per F-22. When you consider that the Eurofighter costs $58 million per plane, and the Rafale pushes $66 million, while the F-35C pushes $61 million, the F-22 isn't that bad, particularly when two F-22s at $274 million can easily wipe out eight Eurofighters at $464 million.
While the U.S. Air Force may be engaging in some puffery when it comes to describing the F-22, the track record of new American combat aircraft over the last few decades, indicates that the F-22 is, indeed, an impressive combat aircraft. But, as with any warplane, it won't be until the aircraft actually experiences combat, that it's reputation can be established as more than just potential.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006
14:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hear that China? Wanna continue to piss and moan over Tiawan? You have been put on notice.
#5
Unit cost is a big deal. Note the price on the initial buy is $360 million because it absorbs NRE, R&D, etc. Next buy is $137 million. At volume could go to $115-120 M per unit. I hope they can keep the line open long enough to find out if the UCAVs are good enough to fully replace manned aircraft.
#7
NS, you in the industry, kind of sounds like it.
Note, the first buy is usually SRIP, short range initial production (not range in the plane, but range in terms of length of mgf activities).
Then there will be LRIP, long range, which indeed drops production cost significantly.
A second or even third round of NRE will be included for LRIP as well as design and ME refinements.
Finally spares and repair will enter into the picture and much of the cost will be recouped.
Too bad most don't understand this as it makes unit cost much cheaper and even generative to the companies involved due to the long term maint and spares required.
We can build many, many of the plane and should!
But SRIP to LRIP gap allows the decision you point to, do UCAVs give us enough.
#8
"fraid the end is nigh for flyboys. Do (heart) F-22s though.
2020 fly force is bots in space...sorry flyboys
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 21:06
Comments ||
Top||
#9
My father was. I'm in consumer electronics. It's not that much different, just faster cycles and less BS.
I doubt the AF will let go of manned aircraft until UCAVs are proven in combat. One reason is that the cost differential is not that great yet. Remember that the Army still had a horse cavalry unit in 1943 and in 1944 was planning on how to use horse cavalry in the invasion of Japan. The B-52 is now 54 years old and the last one was built 44 years ago. Given procurement cycles I should not be surprised to see the F-22 still flying in 2030 or 2040.
FORT BELVOIR, Va. - The Army is considering a proposal to allow a private developer to build a military theme park that would include 4D rides and bars including a 1st Division Lounge.
Military officials said a massive entertainment and hotel complex built next to a national Army museum could draw more than 1 million people a year. But authorities in Fairfax County are objecting because of already traffic-clogged roads surrounding the proposed site.
Universal City Property Management III, of Orlando, Fla., submitted the unsolicited proposal for the theme park last year.
You can command the latest M-1 tank, feel the rush of a paratrooper freefall, fly a Cobra Gunship or defend your B-17 as a waist gunner, according to the proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
County officials have no authority over the Armys decision because the site is federal property. County Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman said he thought the entertainment concept died last year and said he had no interest in turning a military museum into Disney on Rolling Road.
But the Army notified the county last week it is planning to move the military museum from Fort Belvoir to a site a few miles away that would be large enough for the entertainment complex. This will only work if they hire a professional theme park designer *and* go for Disney-quality standards. Their security will also have to be air tight, given the nuts, fruits and terrorists out there.
#3
This might be a recruiting move aimed at pre-teens and young teens. I'm pretty sure it's NOT being proposed because the military leadership doesn't have enough to do each day.
And if it is an indirect PR/recruiting move, then the location is important -- attracts those visiting Washington.
Sorry about the traffic. Have lived in the area twice, commuted way too many hours for too few miles for bunch of years, feel your pain.
#5
Another big target will be MOM. I'll bet plenty of clean cut GIs will be available to demonstrate and explain all the benefits to a young person of enlisting in the Army. And showing how the Army has protected our families in the past.
But dump the B-17 snd add an AC-130 H/U. Better yet, a Commanche.
As for traffic, at least they build more roads in DC/VA/MD when traffic gets worse.
#7
Nimble, if you thought the Mixing Bowl [the I-95/395/495 interchange] was bad enough now, just see it when this shows up. People will be able to rollerskate to work faster than they can driving.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/08/2006 16:30
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Keep the B-17, it's cool. Add some other historical weapons and ideas to it. Why not have some part of it devoted to the Civil War? That might well be popular.
If it can't be in Washington, put it in Orlando next to Disney and MGM. You want the Disney folks to have the management contract anyway, so put it next to the most popular tourist destination in the country.
A week in Orlando: a day in the Magic Kingdom, a day at MGM, a day at Seaworld, five minutes at EPCOT, and three days at the Military Theme Park. I'm sold.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006 17:33
Comments ||
Top||
#9
If they do something in the DC area, they really should provide a connection with the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum Annex, near Dulles Airport. Everyone here should visit it; they have a Blackbird, the Enola Gay, an AEC Uranium-survey plane, the Enterprise prototype, and many more planes of history.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/08/2006 17:53
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Theme Park, eh? An Arcade sounds like fun. 'Whack-a-Jihadi' and 'Sand-monkey Shooting Gallery' would be sure to please.
Excerpted from a much longer article--go read it all.
These are dark times for the world: we are on the brink of the nuclearization of ancient pathologies. It's a very strange feeling to read 19th-century novels and travelogues and recognize the old psychoses currently re-emerging in even more preposterous forms. I'm a bit behind in responding to the gazillion Jews-are-to-blame-for-everything emails, but when I do I usually say I take a relaxed view of hatred but take my advice and don't get over-invested in it. There's a very sharp short book by Andrew Roberts called Hitler And Churchill: Secrets of Leadership and, as you go through it, you realize that the key difference between the two is that the prime minister had a very shrewd understanding of what the Führer was like and the Führer had absolutely no clue about the prime minister. To Hitler, Churchill was "that puppet of Jewry": he didn't offer that as a bit of rhetorical red meat for the Saturday-night Nuremberg crowd, but as a serious analysis in the privacy of his study. That's the problem with full-blown Jew-hatred: it's not just a toxic frosting on what may otherwise be a perfectly agreeable cake, so much as a reliable indicator that your entire worldview has been infected. Which is why it doesn't usually work out so well for the Jew-haters. "I have a premonition that will not leave me," wrote Eric Hoffer, America's great longshoreman philosopher, after the '67 war. "As it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us."
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006
13:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's the problem with full-blown Jew-hatred: it's not just a toxic frosting on what may otherwise be a perfectly agreeable cake, so much as a reliable indicator that your entire worldview has been infected.
I have never met anyone who thought the Jews were in control of everything who didn't also have a 5-mile long train of boxcars filled with insecurity, loathing and idiocy in tow.
#2
Same with all racist jerks. They are so hateful and insecurity of themselves, they gotta force it on someone else to make themselves feel better or they will eat a bullet.
#4
MARY MATALIN was on HANNITY AND COLMES thia AM [Guam time] - she admonishes the Dems and asked what had happened to the Dems in the looming primary victory of Lamont over Lieberman. The Party of Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson os dead - HANNITY > iff Lamont wins, as he is expected to iff post-primary outcome trends continue, it'll be a sign that MOVEON.org and the FAR/RADICAL/ULTRA-LEFT now has de facto, pro forma control of the core of the Dems in [Clintonian] America = Amerika. and that today is that day = death of the old Party. MATALIN > new MOVEON. etal., FAR/RADICAL LEFT-led Dems = in favor of anti-USA geopol isolationism, retreat, and concessions, and also favor a domestic agenda that suppors the "Coarsening" of Amer politics, culture, beliefs, and society in general, i.e. to "justify" national-universal-pervasive Governmentism/Socialism in America. MATALIN > new Dems Party want to "RUN AWAY", and NOT TAKE A STAND ON ANYTHING. IOW, MARX et LENIN et STALIN, etc VIDAE - ALL HAIL THE FUTURE PEOPLE"S REVOLUTIONARY CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERIKA; ALL HAIL OUR GREAT LEADERS IN MOSCOW-BEIJING. The extermination of 200Milyuhn-plus Amerikans + 90%-plus of World's population is "necessary" for the Enviro, good SOcialism, OWG, Russia-China = Commie Asia = Mackinder's WOrld Island, and the Global Politburo, the
"status quo" for Americans = Amerikans, for Amerikan Hated Nazis-Hitlerists = well-meaning but defective Limited Communists-Totalitarianists.
A Tucson animal terrorist activist was sentenced to eight months in federal prison Monday for interfering with U.S. Forest Service agents who were trying to capture mountain lions in Sabino Canyon two years ago. Rodney Coronado will also have to spend three years on probation upon his release, pay $100 in restitution and stay away from activists involved in such groups as the Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front and Earth First.
U.S. District Judge David Bury told Coronado he wanted to send a message that if you use "force and violence in civil disobedience you are going to be punished for it; it's anarchy."
Coronado, 39, Matthew Crozier, 33, and Esquire magazine writer-at-large John Richardson were arrested in the spring of 2004 after authorities accused them of interfering with the mountain lion hunt. Coronado and Crozier were accused of digging up a trap and laying false scents to distract hunting dogs. They were later indicted on misdemeanor charges of interfering with a forest officer and depredation of government property, and a felony charge of conspiracy to impede or injure an officer of the United States.
Coronado has spent time in prison for setting fire to a mink researcher's offices at Michigan State University. He has also claimed responsibility for sinking two whaling boats and damaging a processing plant in Iceland in 1986. During an appearance on "60 Minutes," Coronado defended those who use
tools such as arson to fight urban sprawl and animal abuse. If only this had been California, he could have put away under Three Strikes.
Coronado told the judge he was ready to accept full responsibility for his actions, but said they were meant as "nothing more than an act of civil disobedience, a protest." They were committed "out of love and compassion for those mountain lions that I lust after love," Coronado said. And torching condos was for the love of cougars, too? Methinks you simply hate humans and their activities.
"Civil disobedience" is sitting at the "whites only" counter; no one was harmed (except some of the protestors) and nothing was damaged. They did it deliberately to get arrested and sentenced and accepted the punishment. That was the whole point: to show the unjust laws for what they were. You are an anarchist (possibly a terrorist) and interfered with rangers doing their duty. You hoped to get away with it. Not civil disobedience at all.
#2
Rodney Coronado was also under investigation in San Diego for giving a lesson to "activists" in how to build firebombs the same night a huge Condo project burned to the ground in University City - with a banner taking credit by ELF left at the site
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 12:54
Comments ||
Top||
#3
The only way this violent individual should only get six months is if he has to share his cage with those mountain lions.
Link points to a sucribers-only article, posted entirely. By Bernard Lewis
During the Cold War, both sides possessed weapons of mass destruction, but neither side used them, deterred by what was known as MAD, mutual assured destruction. Similar constraints have no doubt prevented their use in the confrontation between India and Pakistan. In our own day a new such confrontation seems to be looming between a nuclear-armed Iran and its favorite enemies, named by the late Ayatollah Khomeini as the Great Satan and the Little Satan, i.e., the United States and Israel. Against the U.S. the bombs might be delivered by terrorists, a method having the advantage of bearing no return address. Against Israel, the target is small enough to attempt obliteration by direct bombardment.
It seems increasingly likely that the Iranians either have or very soon will have nuclear weapons at their disposal, thanks to their own researches (which began some 15 years ago), to some of their obliging neighbors, and to the ever-helpful rulers of North Korea. The language used by Iranian President Ahmadinejad would seem to indicate the reality and indeed the imminence of this threat.
Would the same constraints, the same fear of mutual assured destruction, restrain a nuclear-armed Iran from using such weapons against the U.S. or against Israel?
There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers.
#1
This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.
Yes, and if anything does happen to Israel, we would be well advised, to hit Magic Mulla Central, Downtown Teheran, with a few well placed MOABs, so they are ID'ing what's left of Ahmadisnutz, and his cronies by DNA on bone chips the size of fleas. Using a MOAB reducxes the damaging the environment... because many innocent Iranians want out of this mess, and we don't want to harm them long term, we should not nuke Teheran.
Of course if our microwave/particle-beam weapon is ready, a few mullas exploding after they scream and start to smoke might be something interesting for Al-Jazzy or Cabal Network Nonsense to report. Get the paint scrapers handy, as well as the protective clothing. Cleaning exploded mulla on the wall is messy and a biohazard.
And if anyone doesn't like these descriptions, just think what the people in the airplanes thought when they realized that those horse feces f**kholes were flying those plane into the buildings, and they were going to die?
Flying planes into buildings, because of some mega-carnal reward they would get?
But they were doing so in the name of the devil they called Allah.
Or what about the people in those buildings (WTC) who saw the planes coming and had no escape?
Think long and hard before you criticize my rant. And don't bother me with this PC shit about us lowering ourselves. If you think this way than you have burka envy, and have no survival instinct.
A few mullahs dying an agonizing though relatively quick death (way to quick - less than a minute) is mild compared to the 9/11 horror. Allah akhbar, Baby!
#3
Lewis mentions the limitations posed by the Mutually Assured Doctrine, during the Cold War. I beat myself up sometimes when I think of what we should be doing in WOT, when we are NOT subject to MAD. We can use nuclear extortion, and all the other side could do was accept it. Yet we don't, and we are paying for it in crippling fuel prices while doing nothing as Iran develops nuclear weapons.
#4
The fact we (the West) are liberal democracies with a "public opinion" (shaped by "progressives")???
I really, really would have liked to live as a westerner in an 21st century technology Europe with 17/18th century values. Do you think any of this jihad sh*t would be happening?
Years of multiculturalism, PC, demasculization, UNism, brotherhood of manism bullshit. That is what limits us. We fight like we are afraid to do what it takes to win. The other side fights with no limits. Our military has both hands tied around their nuts, and they still are kicking ass. They just can't finish the job with all the liberal, feel good, ass nuggets running around in the State Department and the government.
Fucking nuke the assholes and then accept their unconditional surrender, or nuke them again and again into oblivion.
#6
The answer to any such attempt by Iran must be as follows, and must be announced beforehand (ie by next week): When the first such missile is launched, we will respond, not with nukes, but with MOABs and Daisy Cutters, and they will be packed with pork blood amongst the explosives, separately, dog and pork DNA will be seeded in all Iran's waterways. This will have no impact on health, but will render all who eat or drink unfit for Paradise. In fact, call in the news networks to have them film the bombs being packed and the dried DNA pellets prepared -- especially Al Jazeera, the BBC and CNN. Thus, all those killed in the response will made unclean and deemed unfit for Paradise. Whether or not Mullah Ahmadenijad believes his 12th Imam will make all pure, doubt will be sown in his followers' minds.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 19:10
Comments ||
Top||
#10
I really, really would have liked to live as a westerner in an 21st century technology Europe with 17/18th century values. Do you think any of this jihad sh*t would be happening?
Bugger that. 19th century -- when the Thuggee were wiped out and the Brits put down the Mahdi in the Sudan.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/08/2006 19:11
Comments ||
Top||
#11
A lot of bad things have been predicted for August 21/22. If the Persians use nukes on that day, August 23 will be the beginning of the end of the Muslim world.
See: http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/
2003_09_01_belmontclub_archive.html#106401071003484059
Much cited, but worthy of review
#15
I just home we have the belly for it if it happens and not piss around with the United Nations or allow the media to 'frame it approprately' for the masses.
The most interesting part:
Now we have the Haij photos, some of which indicate staged casualties. Examination of photos from Qana, where an Israeli smart bomb was alleged to have killed over fifty women and children, indicates that the dead bodies had been dead for some time already, and were brought to Quana so they could be brought out of a bombed building.
Many of us were thinking just this from the advanced state of rigor mortis of the bodies. Did experts examine the photos and come to this conclusion? Sadly, SP doesn't give references.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006
11:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Joe, put the keyboard down, step away from the monitor.
The Vecna BEAR robot (Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot) is being developed as an adjunct to other rescue technologies for extracting combat casualties. I always love the military's acronyms for these weapons systems...gotta sound tough, even when doing gentle activities.
The BEAR bot has three main elements; hydraulic upper body, mobile platform and dynamic balancing behavior. The robot should be able to fully stand up by straightening the tracked units. According to Gary Gilbert, Ph.D., Program Manager, U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRCpart of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command):
"Robotic extraction of combat casualties from under fire or from hostile or contaminated environments is the 'holy grail' of the TATRC mobile robotics program. The BEAR prototype as envisioned in the VECNA proposal and current research contract is the most promising approach I have seen to safely extracting casualties from urban and wooded terrain or from other areas with numerous obstacles that would impede entrance by other vehicular or aerial robots. The versatility and flexibility of the BEAR that would enable it to do multiple combat support taskssuch as loading vehicles or carrying heavy equipmentmake it more attractive than other robots that can only support a limited set of specialized tasks."
A multi-functional BEAR? Who'da thunk it?
A variety of remarkable new technologies have appeared in just the past year to provide for social care and rescue; some are in prototype and some are already in the field:
ROBHAZ-DT3 Rescue Robot In Iraq This variation on an awardwinning robot design will be used to support Korean troops in Iraq. Why do the Koreans get to have all the fun? Robot Nannies - The Fact, The Fiction SF writers have been thinking about robot nannies (and other forms of automated child care) since at least WWII. This fall, Korea will have some in the home. Great, just what Hollywood needs...more mechanized nannies. TerminatorBot CRAWLER Gives Danger Two-Fingered Salute A rescue robot modeled on the movie Terminator. No comment.
Just don't connect them to Skynet. Nothing good comes from that.
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006
11:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
This will save many heroic soldier/Marine and Corpsman/Medics lives..although probally on most ops units won't be able to haul them around but they still should help nontheless..
~~~~
Reminds me of the drug robots that UCSF has used for the last few years. They look abit like R2D2.
When delivering they leave the main pharmacy in the basement all by their lonesome and take the elevators and roll throughout 14 floors of UC, Moffitt and Long hospitals [same group of huge buildings all connected] and deliver almost all of the controlled meds. very tough and tamper resistant and avoid people and all obstacles.
~~~
[..]...The biggest challenge for the wireless implementation was to deploy the Access Points to successfully operate the wirelessly-enabled robots all over the hospital. These robots, affectionately named Elvis and Lisa Marie, operate through Wi-Fi enabled controls to travel up and down hallways to whatever location their medicines need to be dispensed. This in itself is a challenge; but, these robots also must summon the elevator, ride the elevator to its required floor, and let the elevator know when it needs to get off.
The communication between the base station and the robots, and between the robots and the elevators, is done via Wi-Fi connection. According to Richard Van Derworp, The challenge with elevators is two-fold. Not only do the robots need to maintain a connection to the wireless network running 60+ miles per hour, but, we also need to maintain that connection while roaming between and authenticating to different Access Points outside the elevator shafts. Elevators are federally regulated, and we cannot mount any wireless devices inside the elevator shaft without a permit.
The solution? Van Derworp and his team designed a special network of Access Points using custom antennas directly outside the doors of certain elevators. This not only kept the robots in constant communications with the wireless network, but also allowed the implementation of Ciscos Fast Secure Roaming to enable the robots to maintain their Cisco LEAP authentication during their ride in the elevator. Fast Secure Roaming was developed because some applications running on client devices require fast reassociation when they roam to a different access point. Voice or robot communication applications, for example, require seamless roaming to prevent delays and gaps in conversation or connectivity.
During normal operation, LEAP-enabled client devices mutually authenticate with a new access point by performing a complete LEAP authentication, including communication with the main RADIUS server. When a wireless LAN is configured for fast, secure roaming, however, LEAP-enabled client devices roam from one access point to another without involving the main server. Using Cisco Centralized Key Management (CCKM), an Access Point configured to provide Wireless Domain Services (WDS) takes the place of the RADIUS server and authenticates the client so quickly that there is no perceptible delay in voice or other time-sensitive applications.
The first phase of the wireless installation is being used internally by the robots, doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. In the next phase of the WLAN rollout, the Medical Center staff intends to offer patients service via hot spots for wireless access.[..]
After so many years of heated debates homosexuality is no longer considered a chronic mental disease in China. However, being a homosexual there is a serious violation of the law. So, sexual minorities in China are not conscripted into the army. The Chinese army with 2.5 million people under arms is the worlds most numerous. And none of the soldiers belongs to sexual minorities. To find out if conscripts are heterosexual or not all of them must undergo thorough medical examination. Doctors need to find out if a foreign object was ever placed into a conscripts anus.
Those suspected of homosexuality are rejected as defective. The Chinese leadership states that a gay army cannot have high morale. At the same time, conscripts having same-sex partners serve in the armies in 23 countries of the world, in Britain and Israel for example. Great Britain even launches special advertising campaigns to engage homosexual conscripts in the Navy.
Ex-president of the USA Bill Clinton allowed conscription of sexual minorities into the army. But the US army faced another problem during the operation Desert Shield in Iraq when the number of female soldiers was so great that sexual activity in the army nearly frustrated the entire of the operation.
The official annual budget of the Chinese army is $30 billion while the real return reaches even $70 billion. In Russia , the amount makes up $23.8 billion. In 2007, the US supposes to spend $439 billion on the defense.
In large Chinese cities twenty men account for one woman, and this is the reason why homosexuality is so widely spread in the country. In the Chinese villages the ratio is better: one woman accounts for seven men.
In the Ancient Sparta, same-sex lovers were subject to conscription into the army and were certainly enrolled into one group. And it is known that the warriors of the army in Sparta had absolutely high morale.
#1
Ex-president of the USA Bill Clinton allowed conscription of sexual minorities into the army.
No conscription here. It's been a volunteer Army since President Nixon's time.
But the US army faced another problem during the operation Desert Shield in Iraq when the number of female soldiers was so great that sexual activity in the army nearly frustrated the entire of the operation.
Someone is living in another universe. It created problems, but not in the manner or magnitude the writer implies. The biggest hit in morale was when women intentionally got pregnant in order to get removed from the theater of operations. Nothing like pushing 'equality' for years and then one group has a quick release valve from danger the other doesnt. . Should have been treated like a male using a bayonet for a self-inflicted wound in order to avoid combat.
And it is known that the warriors of the army in Sparta had absolutely high morale.
It's also known that there are no longer any Spartans. Sparta suffered a population decline in its enrolled citizens and then was basically destroyed by its more populous neighbors whom the Spartans had at one time or another antagonized.
#5
It's also known that there are no longer any Spartans. Sparta suffered a population decline in its enrolled citizens and then was basically destroyed by its more populous neighbors whom the Spartans had at one time or another antagonized. Posted by Snaviting Angulet5501 2006-08-08 12:14|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
I saw some Trojans at the gas station recently however.
#6
Great Britain even launches special advertising campaigns to engage homosexual conscripts in the Navy.
Special appearances by the Village People:
In the Navy, yes, you can sail the seven seas.
In the Navy, yes, you can put your mind at ease.
In the Navy, come on now people, make a stand.
In the Navy, can't you see we need a hand.
In the Navy, come on, protect the motherland.
In the Navy, come on and join your fellow, man.
In the Navy, come on, people, and make a stand.
In the Navy, in the Navy.
#8
Ya gotta love it, Red China outflanks the western leftists by taking the high moral ground. Also, in China and all other countries of the world, marriage is between a man and a woman. Even in the ME, where goats, sheep, donkeys, and camels are sometimes close cousins.
#9
To find out if conscripts are heterosexual or not all of them must undergo thorough medical examination. Doctors need to find out if a foreign object was ever placed into a conscripts anus.
Oh this is hilarious, to find out if anything has been stuck up his anus, they stick something up his anus.
Fucking brilliant.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2006 18:29
Comments ||
Top||
#10
So the recruit goes to the Medic complaining of pain in his posterior. The Medic quickly determines that the recruit has a foreign object inside. He removes it and to his shock, it's a rose. "Here's your problem. You had a rose up your butt", he says. The recruit replies, "Read the Card, Read the Card!"
Kim Jong Il attended a Russian art performance and visited a tire factory July 4, a day before the missile launches, and he hasn't appeared publicly since, according to South Korea's spy agency.
The North's propaganda machine hasn't reported on Kim's activities since the missile launches, but last week the country's official news agency said Kim sent a consolation message to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Kim usually visits military units a few times a month to bolster his "songun," or "military-first," policy that rewards the 1.1 million-strong military with the country's scarce resources despite chronic food shortages, according to the AP. Out of Kim's 131 public activities last year, 70 events were military-related, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry. So far this year, 52 of 69 public activities were connected to the military, the backbone of Kim's totalitarian rule.
Some North Korean watchers have speculated that Kim might be in a bunker since the communist country is believed to have imposed a quasi-war footing after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution condemning the North's missile tests and calling for nations to stop any missile-related trade with the country.
In 2003, Kim disappeared from the public eye for seven weeks when his hard-line regime quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the United States invaded Iraq.
Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea analyst at the independent Sejong Institute, attributed Kim's latest absence to massive flood damage in North Korea, saying he has shied away from the public in times of crisis in the past.
A senior South Korean intelligence official, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of his position, didn't attach any significance to Kim's seeming absence from public, saying he often disappeared from the public.
#2
A senior South Korean intelligence official, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of his position, didn't attach any significance to Kim's seeming absence from public, saying he often disappeared from the public.
New crop of imported hookers and cognac.
He has been busy!
NANJING: A new bar in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, is offering an outlet for the stresses and strains of modern life. Customers will be able to pay money to beat up staff, smash glasses, shout and scream, and, if these anger management techniques don't work, receive psychological counselling.
Rising Sun Anger Release Bar was set up in April by Wu Gong, a 29-year-old man from neighbouring Anhui Province. Wu said he got his inspiration from the Japanese occupation of Nanking similar bars in Japan, but felt a personal need for the type of service after his experiences as a migrant worker in Guangdong Province.
The bar employs 20 "models," well-built men in their 20s and 30s, who are available to be hit. Customers can specify how they want the models to appear they can even dress as women and then they are free to give them a sound beating. Wu assured China Daily that models are fully equipped with protective gear, and the bar gives them regular physical training so they are prepared for attack.
And you pay extra to get the models who don't hit back.
The bar has four psychological counsellors, who are in fact psychology students from local universities.
The bar charges 50 to 300 yuan (US$6.25-37.5) for every customer in accordance with their demands. "With rent of 6,000 yuan (US$760) per month, we can just about make ends meet," Wu said, but he added that he was confident about success as his customer list was growing.
Wu said that at the moment most of his customers were women, especially those working in service and entertainment companies such as KTV or massage parlours.
So a massage parlor attendant comes to the bar to beat up a man. There's a novel occurrence.
Public opinion was divided over the bar. "Violence will not solve your problems. If people really feel angry, they should adjust their lifestyles or seek psychological treatment," said Liu Yuanyuan, who works for Siemens.
"Pressure in today's society comes from just about anywhere, from family or from work, from your boss or from your girlfriend. We get no place to vent anger. The idea of beating someone decorated as your boss seems attractive," said Chen Liang, a salesman.
Zhang Yong, an employee of Xiaoran Psychological Consultation Centre in Nanjing, admitted that "no matter how civilized people have evolved to be, some still find that violence is the best way to get rid of their burning rage. The existence of the bar, despite its controversial business scope, reflects the demands of a large proportion of people." Zhang warned that as the business the bar is engaged in is not subject to any regulations, customers should be careful about overcharging or hurting the models.
The city's industrial and commercial administration bureau told China Daily that Wu's bar has been registered as a dancing venue, and there is no mention in the licence about anger release. "He applied for the business of anger release but we would not give permission. It has never been listed as a proper business in this country," said an employee surnamed Wang
Wang said the bureau would discuss Wu's case and check on the bar in the following few days if necessary.
In their last two-and-a-half minutes, the pilots who flew former Proteas captain Hansie Cronje home, ignored at least 13 warnings that there was an obstacle in their way.
After the 13th warning, pilots Willie Meyer and Ian Noakes flew into the mountains at 214km/h.
The impact of the crash in which Cronje was a passenger broke the aircraft in two. All three people on the plane were killed instantly.
The alert, called a ground proximity warning, is a mechanical voice cautioning pilots to "pull up". "Why did they not respond?" Judge Siraj Desai asked accident investigator Andre de Kock on Tuesday morning. "They thought they were over the sea. They did not expect to be over the mountains.
"It does happen in certain accidents," he said.
"But is it reasonable for a pilot not to respond to 13 warnings?" Judge Desai asked.
"When you get the first pull-up warning you are supposed to immediately engage full thrust and climb higher," De Kock said.
"There is no indication that they tried to pull up the plane," De Kock said.
He on Monday testified that a combination of human error, possible instrument failure and bad weather had caused the plane to crash in the Outeniqua mountains. "It's like holes in a cheese, sometimes the holes line up and you will get an accident," De Kock said.
Judge Desai is leading the inquest into the death of Cronje, Meyer and Noakes. An inquest normally follows a fatal aircraft accident.
Cronje died on June 1 2002, aged 32, after the Hawker Siddeley he was a passenger on crashed into the mountains near George. The pilot Willie Meyer and co-pilot Ian Noakes were also killed.
De Kock also said further responded to question to his finding that the plane was "technically unairworthy" as not all the paperwork - indicating what repairs was done on the plane - was properly signed off. He said that it was probably signed off by ground staff but not completed in the paperwork on the plane. "We found that this has happened before in other accidents."
He said that the owner of the Hawker Siddeley aircraft had contracted repair work to the aircraft out to another plane repair company. "We could not verify if it was done."
#1
Sheesh. This really makes the pilots sound totally ignorant.
I have to wonder however if there were some other instruments onboard that weren't working correctly. How could their navigation be so off? Considering even a $50 hand-held GPS receiver could be used to verify one's expected position on a plane, it boggles me how anyone can get so off course anymore?
Posted by: Dar ||
08/08/2006 16:12
Comments ||
Top||
This is from yesterday's "Morning Edition" JOHN HENDREN reporting:
This is how staggeringly pointless the killing in Iraq is getting: shepherds in the rural western Baghdad neighborhood of Gazalea have recently been murdered, according to locals, for failing to diaper their goats. Apparently the sexual tension is so high in regions where Sheikhs take a draconian view of Shariah law, that they feel the sight of naked goats poses an unacceptable temptation. They blame the goats.
I've spent nearly a year here, on more than a dozen visits since the early days of the war, and that seemed about as preposterous as Iraq could get until I heard about the grocery store in east Baghdad. The grocer and three others were shot to death and the store was firebombed because he suggestively arranged his vegetables.
I didn't believe it at first. Firebombings of liquor stores are common, and I figured there must've been one next door. But an Iraqi colleague explained matter-of-factly that Shiite clerics had recently distributed a flyer directing groceries how to display their food.
Standing up a celery stalk near a couple of tomatoes in a way that might - to the profoundly repressed - suggest an aroused male, is now a capital offense.
I've seen a lot in Iraq that has surprised me. A family living in the guard shack of an abandoned nuclear plant, suffering from what local doctors described as radiation sickness; the bearded head of a bomber, 500 feet from his still flaming vehicle. Sick stuff. But I've also been inspired: by a soldier who agreed to an interview with a bullet in his leg; by American military surgeons who operated side by side on an Iraqi policeman and an Iraqi insurgent; and Iraqis who've returned to work with us, despite death threats, kidnappings, and slain relatives.
Yet over three years of visits, I've never been able to fully appreciate the violent justice there. I've heard of a boy in Najaf whose throat was slit for blinding a neighbor's cow with a rock. I've learned a new oxymoron: religious assassins. And I've watched friends move repeatedly, to stay ahead of attacks by insurgents. And now, Iraqis are dying over goat panties and naughty veggies.
#1
I have always been in favor of an Iraqi democracy, mostly because I believe every bird should have one chance to straighten up and fly right. However, I am also in favor of eliminating Islam in all it's forms. If that includes killing every muslim nutcase, then let it be so.
There's not enough time and padded cells to save every soul in the ME. Many will have to change on their own or be cleansed. The lunacy of Islam will become the joke of the future and all of the remaining muzzies will deny their faith addiction.
Many international commentators who understand what a Hizbullah victory will mean for international security rightly argue that the international community today is repeating the mistakes of the 1930s, when it refused to contend with the growing dangers emanating from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Here in Israel, the historical period that is being recalled with increasing frequency is the winter of 1973. Then, in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, as Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan sought to place all the blame for Israel's refusal to prepare for Egypt's October 6 invasion, in spite of obvious signs that it was about to take place, on the IDF, demobilized IDF reservists, led by Captain (res.) Moti Ashkenazi, launched a national protest movement. Their demand for accountability forced Meir and Dayan to resign and set the conditions for the Likud's rise to power in 1977.
THERE IS a palpable sense in Israel that we are on the edge of a revolutionary moment. Our national leadership in the government, the IDF and the media has utterly failed us.
As we stand poised on the edge of an even larger war, the main question that hangs in the balance is what lessons the Israeli people will take from the current fiasco. Will we continue to believe their fictions, or will we find a way to abandon them and move on with leaders who understand that territory is vital, that the jihad is real, that Israel has a right to defensible borders, and that Israel is not to blame for our enemies' hatred?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia rejected a request from Texas Republicans on Monday to allow the GOP to replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the general election ballot. "In terms of legal options, they are exhausted," Republican lawyer James Bopp Jr. said. "The order will stand requiring Tom DeLay to stay on the ballot." Republicans have reached the end of the road and it is now up to DeLay to decide whether to campaign for the 22nd Congressional District seat he held for more than 20 years. DeLay has suggested he is up for a fight if forced to stay on the ballot, but he once walked away from the race and faces a serious challenge from Democratic nominee Nick Lampson.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks that prohibited the state Republican Party from replacing DeLay. "We've always been confident in our legal position. It's time to put all the legal proceedings behind us and move on to a vigorous campaign," said Cris Feldman, lawyer for the Texas Democrats. "It's time for Tom DeLay to decide if he is going to cut or run."
DeLay was at his Sugar Land home Monday, but refused to come to the phone to discuss his intentions. When a reporter knocked on his door later, no one answered. Dani DeLay Ferro, DeLay's spokeswoman and daughter, did not provide an immediate response.
State law does not allow a party to replace an official nominee who withdraws from the race if another party also has a nominee for the office. Otherwise, Sparks said, a party could always replace a weaker candidate with a stronger one. Five judges, both Republican and Democrat, have come to the same conclusion regarding this case, Democratic nominee Nick Lampson said in a statement. "The people of this district have been without a member of Congress for long enough. It's time for the voters to decide who will represent them in Congress," Lampson said. "I look forward to a strong issue-based campaign against Tom DeLay."
The 41-page motion, filed by Bopp, argued that there was a good chance the full court would want to hear the constitutional issues the case raised. The motion, sent to Scalia because he handles appeals from the 5th Circuit, also said it would be in the best interest of voters to allow the Republicans to pick a new candidate for DeLay's 22nd District seat. "The 5th Circuit's decision restricts the voters' range of choices because it requires the (Republican Party of Texas) to keep an ineligible candidate on the ballot," the motion read. "It limits their choice because the opportunity to vote for an ineligible candidate is no choice at all."
DeLay fended off three challengers in the March GOP primary to win the nomination for re-election in November. Then in April, while under indictment and in the midst of a federal influence-peddling scandal, he announced he would not seek re-election. DeLay resigned from office in June and moved his official residence to Virginia, though he maintained a home in Sugar Land. Texas Republican Chairwoman Tina Benkiser ruled that DeLay was ineligible to serve in office and should be removed from the ballot.
The Texas Democratic Party sued, claiming DeLay and Benkiser were committing a sham to get around a state law that limits the ability of political parties to replace a candidate who merely withdraws from a race. The party said the U.S. Constitution sets residency for eligibility purposes on Election Day, but not for any days before then. The federal appeals court panel agreed, saying Benkiser had "unconstitutionally created a pre-election inhabitancy requirement." "I'm surprised at the outcome," Bopp said. "The Democratic Party has been successful at picking the Republican nominee."
Lampson has used the summer to define himself as candidate. He's also kept up with aggressive fundraising, having raised more than $600,000 between April 1 and June 30, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks how money is spent in politics. He has $2.1 million cash on hand. "We have to assume Tom DeLay will run an aggressive campaign," said Mike Malaise, Lampson's campaign manager. "DeLay has no choice but to base all of his hopes on a smear campaign against Lampson. There's not a lot of rehabilitation (DeLay) can do for himself." My prediction: Tom Delay runs, telling the voters not to let the Democratic Party or the court pick their senator for them. Let them know that if convicted of anything, he'll resign and let their Republican governor schedule a special election.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006
09:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It truly would be amusing if Mr. DeLay wins the election. Could he be put up for Speaker if he does?
DENPASAR, Indonesia - Indonesian prosecutors on Tuesday sought jail terms of up to 15 years to four militants accused of involvement in the 2005 Bali bombings.
The four have been on trial under anti-terrorism laws since May over various roles in the Oct. 1, 2005 suicide blasts that ripped through three restaurants on the resort island, killing 20 people.
The highest demanda 15-year jail termwas sought for Muhammad Cholily, who prosecutors said had close links with Azahari Husin and Noordin Top, leading figures in the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiah, blamed for various bombings in Indonesia. Cholily was directly involved in the Bali bombings. His role is very big because the defendant made the bombs with Azahari. The bombs were later transported by Noordin Top, prosecutor Suhadi told reporters after the trial session in a district court.
In separate trials, prosecutors asked the Denpasar court to punish the other three, including Anif Solchanuddin who is accused of delivering bombs to Top, with 10 years in jail each. Under Indonesian law, sentencing demands from the prosecution serve as strong advice, but judges could also punish defendants with harsher sentences. That means all four could still receive the death sentence, the maximum penalty for their charges, if convicted.
Jemaah Islamiah is also blamed by police for another terror strike in Bali, the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, partying on the tourist island.
Azahari, who often travelled with Top, was killed last year during a shoot-out near the East Java city of Malang. In a late April raid, Indonesian police killed two militant suspects at Tops suspected hideout in the Central Java town of Wonosobo, but failed to capture him.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006
09:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe they will get 2 years in the can, like their partners.
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday branded U.S. sanctions against two leading Russian arms exporters "an unfriendly act" and warned they could rebound on U.S.-Russia relations.
The United States announced sanctions on Friday on seven firms from Russia, India, North Korea and Cuba for selling restricted items to Iran, which Washington fears is trying to make nuclear weapons.
The sanctions were imposed on Russian state export agency -- Rosoboronexport headed by a close friend of President Vladimir Putin -- and state-owned warplane maker Sukhoi.
"This looks like unfair competition. It was an unfriendly act towards Russia and it was not done in a spirit of cooperation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"If we are to speak about possible consequences of this act for bilateral relations, of course it has not contributed to a further strengthening of the partnership. Among other things we can not rule out further negative consequences for this relationship," he said.
The U.S. State Department said it imposed the sanctions after Washington received information the companies had transferred materials to Iran that could contribute to the development of weapons of mass destruction or missiles.
The sanctions took effect on July 28 and will be in place at least until July 28, 2008.
Last year Russia signed a contract to sell Tehran TOR-M1 ground-to-air missile systems and to modernise Iran's Russian fighters, bombers and military helicopters.
Russian media said the sanctions were triggered by Rosoboronexport's announcement last month of $3 billion in arms deals with Venezuela, tied up in a visit to Russia last week by President Hugo Chavez. Continued...
JERUSALEM -Four Palestinians were wounded and two militants arrested Tuesday during an Israeli incursion in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said. Some 40 armoured vehicles thrust into the town of Qabatiya and Israeli troops captured two members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbass Fatah movement.
The Israeli soldiers responded with gunfire to stone-throwing, wounding four Palestinians, the sources added.
Never throw rocks at guys with guns.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006
08:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
ROSTOV-ON-DON, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - The interior minister of the southern Russian republic of Daghestan survived an assassination attempt Tuesday morning but a regional prosecutor was killed in an earlier car bombing, a spokesman said. Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov emerged unhurt from the attack on his car as he was traveling a highway connecting the North Caucasus republic's capital Makhachkala and Buinaksk, another regional center, the spokesman said. Three of accompanying policemen were wounded.
Andzhela Martirosova said an explosion went off as the minister's motorcade was passing. His car managed to travel another 100 meters after the explosion before it came under a sustained five-minute burst of gun fire from a nearby forest. Magomedtagirov was on his way to the crime scene in Buinaksk, where at 8:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. GMT) Bitar Bitarov, the town's prosecutor, was seriously wounded when an explosive device planted on a roadside detonated as his car was passing. Bitarov later died in the hospital.
Russian television channel Vesti reported that armored personnel carriers and a helicopter had been brought into the area of the attack on the interior minister to hunt down a group of militants thought to be responsible for the assassination attempt.
Daghestan, which borders on Chechnya, has had a troubled history in the last few years and Bitarov was the chief legal officer in a town which itself saw a horrific apartment-block bombing in 1999 that killed 64 people. Law-enforcement officials in Chechnya said the events in Daghestan had not affected the situation in the republic and no measures to tighten security along the border would be taken.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006
08:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Eleven Egyptian students who arrived in the United States last month are being sought by authorities after failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University. The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas, according to U.S. authorities and university officials.
The other six have arrived at the Bozeman, Mont., campus for a monthlong program on English language instruction and U.S. history and culture, university spokeswoman Cathy Conover said.
When the 11 didn't turn up by the end of the last week, the FBI issued a lookout to state and local law enforcement, said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko. "At this point all they have done is not show up for a scheduled academic program," Kolko said. "There is no threat associated with these men."
They are between 18 and 22 years old, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the search for the men is continuing. U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement declined to make their names public.
"Calling all cars! Calling all cars!" Be on the lookout for eleven men with characteristics typical of young Egyptian men!"
"Uh, Chief, what are their names?"
"We can't tell you that, it would violate their rights. But be on the lookout!"
The government probably will seek to send the students home once they are located because they have violated the terms of their visas, the official said.
Boy howdy, THAT'll bring them out of hiding.
The government tightened the student visa process after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when it learned that four of the hijackers entered the country on foreign student visas.
The school has tried repeatedly to contact the students, Conover said, including sending e-mails. When that failed, the school notified Homeland Security officials and registered the Egyptians as "no-shows" in the system developed after Sept. 11 to track foreign students, Conover said.
There, that oughta do it.
They were participating in an exchange program Montana State arranged with Mansoura University in Mansoura, Egypt. "We hope this doesn't cast doubt on this program because we think it's important to have international students on our campus and in our community," Conover said.
We do too. There are some great students from India, Poland, Bulgaria ..... and even some from Egypt who show up where they're supposed to.
#4
Oh ya. Dumb ass, foggy bottomed, liberal jackassed state department.
Not just them, but also universities and colleges who are more concerned about their bottom line than America. Not surprising given the amount of Anti-Americanism that is promoted in both those institutions.
#5
"Calling all cars! Calling all cars!" Be on the lookout for eleven men with characteristics typical of young Egy uhm er characteristics typical of young men
"Uh, Chief, whats their description?"
"We can't tell you that, that would be profiling and it would violate their rights. But be on the lookout!"
#6
Maybe they were gonna study goats. Ya know, Montana's full of "wildlife," lol.
Of course, I think they should be detained forever for not having met the terms of their "student visas". We have GOT to take these threats seriously, and the student visa entry point is one we need to shut down ASAP (at least to select nationals).
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006 11:26
Comments ||
Top||
#7
A comment from underneath the article.
Why shouldn't the photos and names of these "students" be listed and available to the public? If Homeland Security can take away the privacy rights of U.S. citizens why should these people have preferential treatment? I say to the F.B.I. FIND THEM and find out who sponsered them and follow the money trail!
It is well past time that names and pictures of such people be public knowledge.
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006 14:46
Comments ||
Top||
#10
And of course the question is, why the hell are we still giving out student visas to these countries?
That question leapt to mind for me as well, DV. Countries with major terrorism problems should be subject to intense scrutiny with respect to visa issuance. Short of radio collar tracking, there are few ways to ensure that individuals remain available for interview and deportation subsequent to visa expiration.
Substantial monetary bonds are not the answer in that terror groups would happily sacrifice the funds to insert operatives. As always, the Muslim pratice of taqiya makes any and all efforts ineffectual. Our government needs to better understand the exact nature of the threat we face due to Islamism. Currently, they do not and Americans routinely are placed in harm's way due to this.
Short of an outright ban on issuing visas to all nations with Islamic majorities, it is hard to envision what other measures would be of substantial use. I'm confident there would be a large number of individuals (including some here) who would argue that such an approach could only serve to further alienate our Middle East allies.
Personally, I would see such a restriction as one more solid object lesson in the penalties faced by nations that countenance terrorist operations (specifically Islamist) in their midst. Why America should reward such countries by giving their populations access to our superior educational systems and technical on-the-job training when we face internal attack by their less savory elements is beyond me.
#11
Umm The New York BinLaden Times of course has not been spilling the beans publically, aided by Clintonista CIA moles traitorous to the USA.
BTW : Here are the 11 :
Ibrahim El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed 4/29/86 20
El Dessouki Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed 2/21/85 21
El Bahnasawi Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali 4/2/86 20
Abd Alla Mohamed Ragab Mohamed 2/15/84 22
El Laket Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi 9/1/86 19
El Ela Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou 2/2/85 21
El Moghazy Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed 8/8/86 20
Abdou Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa 2/25/84 22
El Gafary Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa 7/1/88 18
Maray Mohamed Saleh Ahmed 9/12/85 20
El Shenawy Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad 8/12/88 17
Now lets do some basic detective work :
Its called Google.
Google search on #1, above - Ibrahim El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed...and guess what comes up. Another fellow in France with the name all the same except the first Name... Ayman El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed...Is this guy with the website an older brother?
http://www.inrialpes.fr/planete/people/elsayed/
Hello Homeland Security? Is anyone there?
Anyone curious about such a connection?
Has anyone talked to Ayman?...
#13
Once again the FBI is left with a massive recovery to cover a State Department screw up.
I would love to see the FBI director do a full blown rant on the MSM chewing out the head of the State Department. Maybe the SD would awaken just a tad.
#14
An Iranian runs down students at UNC and it's not terrorism.
A Pakiwaki shoots Jewish women in a Jewish Community center because he's mad abbout Israel and it's not terrorism.
An Egyptian shoots employees at the El Al counter and it's not terrorism.
Mel Gibson shoots his mouth off while drunk, and it's non-stop hate crime time.
We doubled the number of student visas from Saudi Arabia this year. (Anyone remember Visa Express?)
I think a large part of the country is stuck on stupid.
Four outta five ain't bad, SR-71, but you're way off base with Mel Gibson. Alcohol never does any talking. It lowers inhibitions a person might have with respect to any well-submerged feelings they maintain, but alcohol never speaks on its own.
Mel Gibson enjoys an unusual degree of purported credibility as a major celebrity. His previous film came dangerously close to perpetuating the ancient blood-libel against the Jews and his spouting off while being arrested now seems to bear this out. I urge you to connect the dots. Remember, Gibson's father is well-known for his Holocaust denial.
As to the other four, you are absolutely correct and this country's media bears direct responsibility for obsfucating the material nature and consistent pattern of Islamist hate crimes against peaceful American citizens.
Finally, good catch BigEd. Five years ago our nation was attacked by those who chose to overstay their visas. Why our population should not be made immediately aware of another round of potential assailants is beyond me. These names should be spread far and wide so that law enforcement and service industry employees can be alerted to their presence.
#15
Recently saw where two university with which I am familiar initiated programs on "internationalism." This is another name for multiculturalism. Many universities are doing this. Since universities generally cap enrollment, I can only assume that U.S. citizens are getting frozen out of professor and student slots.
If we are at war with the islamofacists, then every facet of this war must be waged. The hell with them filling student and professor slots. Taxpayers are helping to subsidize them only to have them turn around an plot 911s. Screw them. This is idiotic and dangerous. We need to get smarter and not be stuck on stupid.
I have to respectfully disagree with you on the alcohol thing. I've known some alkies who, while not resorting to racist rants, will say some pretty vicious and untrue things simply for effect. It doesn't mean they actually believe it. They're simply out to hurt the other person with whatever comes to hand.
As Jonah Goldberg pointed out, if alcohol were truth serum then Andrew Sullivan could untwist his panties over waterboarding at Gitmo while we served the scum there a dozen Cosmopolitans.
That said, who knows? Maybe Mel is an anti-Semite. As you pointed out, he was brought up by a wacky father.
#19
Sorry but I am an alcoholic been clean for 20 years and I been so drunk I didn't even know what my name was and could have said anything and would have never remembered it.
#20
I still call bullshit on the POTC being antisemite. If you know anything about the bible - Jesus was preordained to die for our sins. The Romans and Jewish powerbrokers simply did their part. As a Catholic I wouldn't be Christian to hold those events against our Jewish friends, neighbors, and allies.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 18:13
Comments ||
Top||
#21
Zenster, if you don't see the difference between Mel Gibson and the other cases I cite, I can't help you.
Mel spoke hatefully and stupidly. No one I know gets moral or religious instruction from a drunken Hollywood actor. These others atempted to or succeeded in killing people.
The point is the stupid media, Homeland Security, the FBI,... are all unable or unwilling to admit what is operating here.
#23
Homeland Security should be posting photos, names, etc. on the internet for these 11 - they need to be found right away. As in "before August 22", for instance. This has all the indications of being really serious. There MAY be an innocent explanation, but it will take a whole lot to convince me. And 'deportation' should not be the first choice if they are found and cannot satisfactorily explain themselves - unless you drop them off at 30,000 feet and let Allan catch them.
#24
I believe that Homeland Secrurity is so wracked with political correctness that they cannot come to grips with the problem. If this is true, they are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
#26
"I think a large part of the country is stuck on stupid."
I used to believe that, not anymore. When it comes to the State Dept., I think they know exactly what they are doing. They're helping their allies.
"Four outta five ain't bad, SR-71, but you're way off base with Mel Gibson."
No. You are missing his point. His first four bullet-points might as well earn crickets chirping, but let a drunken actor shoot his mouth off and the media holds a circus.
The media actively supports our nations enemies, the DoS actively supports our nations enemies while simultaneously treating us as though we're stupid, and our politicians stand around with their thumbs up their ass.
It looks to me like someone is waiting for something bad to happen. I still believe and say that we're going to have to take these assclowns to the woodshed! Media, State and our elected representatives. Soon.
#28
Both points are true of Mel Gibson.
Zenster is right. His Aalcohol/truth serum rant seemingly proves the biaas contained in a movie that has become a religious icon, tainting otherwise decent folk.
and at the same time he is just a hoolywood actor s77tfacedly running his mnouth and hardly worth all that media time compared to actual events.
PS. I think they could use Alcohol as truth serum, but people who don''t ordinarily drink will get sick before they get to that point, so you'd have to work them up to it.
Posted by: j. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 19:06
Comments ||
Top||
#30
No moore guinness for you !
MAnishewitz.
hmmmmmmm....
come to think of it MAnishewitz might work at gitmo too.
Don't be wasting that Shapiro's tho'.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 19:39
Comments ||
Top||
#31
I saw at least 4 of those camel dudes, in white robes and standing by a nuke plant. Boys will be boys.
#39
How will you feel on 8/23 when nothing's happened?
If nothing happens but nothing changes not that much better.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/08/2006 20:51
Comments ||
Top||
#40
I'll give 'em a hint. Start checking businesses run by Egyptian immigrants in the Northeast - motels, distributorships, restaurants, etc. Lots of 'students' work under the table at these places during their stay.
At least two people, one of them a three-year-old boy, have been killed by a car bomb in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, police and witnesses say. The bomb went off near a girls' school in a residential area of the city. A Tamil government minister opposed to the Tamil Tigers told the BBC the target was one of his party colleagues. The blast comes as the Tigers and military continue heavy fighting in the Trincomalee district in the north-east of the island.
Douglas Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) which opposes the Tamil Tigers' armed separatist campaign told the BBC that the target was his colleague S Sivathasan. Police say the bomb was attached to the van that Mr Sivathasan was travelling in.
I'd say that was a clue
Mr Devananda told the BBC's Sinhala service that Mr Sivathasan was in intensive care in a Colombo hospital but that his life was not in danger. The grandfather of the boy killed in the blast said: "The child is three-years-old. His mother is working as a maid here. We were going home after work when it exploded," Reuters reports. A number of other people were injured in the blast. Last month, Mr Devananda's press aide was shot dead by gunmen in Colombo.
Meanwhile a French relief agency, Action Against Hunger, says two more of its workers have been found dead in the town of Muttur in Trincomalee district. On Sunday, 15 aid workers were found dead in their compound lying face down and shot at close range. There has been widespread international outrage at the killings, which came as government and rebel forces fought over a water dispute. Both sides have accused each other of the killing of the aid workers.
The two new bodies were found in a car - they had apparently been killed while trying to flee the scene of the attack on the aid group's compound. Action Against Hunger has suspended all its work in the area and says it is waiting for the results of a post mortem. The Sri Lankan government has promised an independent investigation into the killings of the workers - 13 men and four women.
Journalists have not been able to get into Muttur. Reports from those residents who have not fled the town speak of rotting bodies in the streets. Some also say that the Tigers have blindfolded some civilians and taken them away for questioning.
On Tuesday the military said suspected Tamil Tiger rebels had ambushed a government patrol near an air force base in the north-east, killing one person and injuring two others. More than 800 people are estimated to have been killed in Sri Lanka in low-level fighting in recent months. Despite the upsurge in fighting both sides still say they are acting defensively and therefore complying with the conditions of a 2002 ceasefire.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006
08:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON--My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I
... in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.
spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.
This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing--in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." . . . I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.
Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony. (Not that it ever did.)
Here are just a few examples (there are many, many more anyone with a search engine can find) of the type of thing the liberal blog sites have been posting about Joe Lieberman:
... as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews; thanks ever so much for reminding everyone of this most salient fact, so that we might better ignore all that jewish propaganda [by Lieberman] about participating in the civil rights movement of the 60s and so on"
(by "tomjones," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005)
"Ned Lamont and his supporters need to [g]et real busy. Ned needs to beat Lieberman to a pulp in the debate and define what it means to be an AMerican who is NOT beholden to the Israeli Lobby" (by "rim," posted on Huffington Post, July 6, 2006).
"Joe's on the Senate floor now and he's growing a beard. He has about a weeks growth on his face. . . . I hope he dyes his beard Blood red. It would be so appropriate" (by "ctkeith," posted on Daily Kos, July 11 and 12, 2005).
On "Lieberman vs. Murtha": "as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews; thanks ever so much for reminding everyone of this most salient fact, so that we might better ignore all that jewish propaganda [by Lieberman] about participating in the civil rights movement of the 60s and so on" (by "tomjones," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).
"Good men, Daniel Webster and Faust would attest, sell their souls to the Devil. Is selling your soul to a god any worse? Leiberman cannot escape the religious bond he represents. Hell, his wife's name is Haggadah or Muffeletta or Diaspora or something you eat at Passover" (by "gerrylong," posted on the Huffington Post, July 8, 2006).
. . . And these are some of the nicer examples.
One Sunday morning on C-Span I debated Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on the Lieberman versus Lamont race. Afterwards I received a series of emails--many of them in ALL CAPS (which often suggests the hyper-frenetic state of these extremist haters)--that were of the same stripe as the blog posts, and filled with the same level of personal hate.
He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety. . .
But the issue is not just emotional outbursts by these usually anonymous bloggers. A friend of mine just returned from Connecticut, where he had spoken on several occasions on behalf of Joe Lieberman. He happens to be a liberal antiwar Democrat, just as I am. He is also a lawyer. He told me that within a day of a Lamont event--where he asked the candidate some critical questions--some of his clients were blitzed with emails attacking him and threatening boycotts of their products if they did not drop him as their attorney. He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety. . . .
Mr. Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton between 1996-98, is the author of "Scandal: How 'Gotcha' Politics (i.e. the stuff we did to Ken Starr) Is Destroying America," forthcoming from Palgrave.
The rabid visciousness of the common North American moonbat (Liberalis ieffinghatebushis) is no news to anyone who's spent any amount of time here in Rantburg observing some of the pathetic creatures caught in the municipal Sink Trap, or peeked in at the DU/Kos/MyDD/TimesSelect fever swamps, but it is interesting that (1) now they're turning on brother liberals like Lanny Davis with a fury equal to what they use on us conservatives, (2) Davis (to his credit) is sufficiently bothered by this that he actually breaks the "no enemies on the Left" rule to speak up about it, and (3) Davis seems to be on the ragged edge of recognizing (and admitting out loud) that this is the logical end of the attack machine politics he and the other Clintonistas perfected in the 1990s.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006
08:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony.
It took The Church [tm] a couple hundred years to acknowledge that Galileo was in fact correct. It's taken this writer only forty years to figure out what the rest of the Rant community has known for as long. Hey Mr. Davis ever read George Orwell? Four legs good, two legs better.
#2
(2) Davis (to his credit) is sufficiently bothered by this that he actually breaks the "no enemies on the Left" rule to speak up about it
I'm not sure this should be given to his credit. His boy is losing. This would still be true if Lieberman were winning, but Davis wouldn't be saying any of it.
#3
(2) Davis (to his credit) is sufficiently bothered by this that he actually breaks the "no enemies on the Left" rule to speak up about it
Only to strike a "these guys are acting like rightwingers" pose while doing so.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/08/2006 11:39
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right."
Mr. Davis, seeing how youve long refused to believe enlightened individuals that just happen to be minorities such as Shelby Steele or Thomas Sowell you might have tried asking your Poverty Pimp and Race Baiter pals behind closed doors if they had ever experienced any intolerance from the Liberal elite. If you had, you may have not been so reluctant to come to your most recent conclusion.
#6
sure, I remember Lanny condemning - "a vote for Bush is like more black churches burning" and James Byrd's daughter in the NAACP ad saying "a vote for Bush would be like dragging her father behind a truck again"....
lying sack of shit has just begun to realize what his 24/7 Clinton campaign cohorts has done to American politics. He decides to come clean, yet still tries to invoke moral equivalence. Motion Denied, counselor
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 12:06
Comments ||
Top||
#7
So when do the Donk Show Trials[tm] and Party Purges[tm] start?
I want to stock up on soda and popcorn and program the Tivo.
#8
Sometimes, your on a horse heading for Damascus and God pops you out of the saddle with a lightening bolt and you join the good guys right then and there and start a new career writing epistles.
Most conversions are just not that spectacular. Optimist that I am, I'd like to think that this is Lanny Davis' first halting, uncertain step away from the dark side.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006 12:47
Comments ||
Top||
#9
I'd like to think that this is Lanny Davis' first halting, uncertain step away from the dark side.
Cynic that I am, I expect he's just being his sleazy self getting into a win-win position for the post election punditry.
er no. Clinton was the victim of hate politics on the right. He was also hated by the more savvy folks on the left (ie Howell Raines, Lewis Lapham, the Nation, etc) That the sillier folks on the left (Im talking about you, Salon) were fooled into supporting him cause the right hated him is neither here nor there. The savvier folks on the center (like Dick Morris) fully understood this. They hit back when they were hit, and got vicious when they were slimed.
Why should centrists always play nice, and lose. Lieberman, maybe, should have hit back harder.
You know damn well that when Kos and pals try this stuff on Hillary, theyll live to regret it.
"...When he started investigating President Clinton 's Whitewater dealings, Jim Leach knew he wouId be playing hardball. But the Iowa Republican never expected to see Jack Palladino lurking around his house. But there Palladino was, scoping out Leach's Northwest Washington premises one evening as the congressman arrived home in 1994.
Palladino, a San Francisco private detective who had been paid more than $100,000 by the Clinton campaign in 1992 to deal with what Clinton intimate Betsey Wright called "bimbo eruptions," quickly scurried away, and Leach never went public with what he saw. But the House Banking Committee chairman privately told colleagues the intended message was clear: You mess with us, we'll mess with you. William Clinger got the same treatment.
When the now-retired Pennsylvania Republican congressman was probing Commerce secretary Ron Brown's business dealings in 1995, a New Jersey detective named Louis Stephens suddenly started snooping around.
Stephens had been hired by Brown's ex-business partner and mistress Nolanda Hill to button up Clinger's sources. About the same time, a member of Clinger's staff got a call from a reporter working on a Clinger profile. She'd been tipped by a supposedly solid source that Clinger was a wife-abuser who'd once viciously pushed his spouse down a flight of stairs in a rage..... "Can I prove it was the White House behind the story? No," concedes a well-informed source. "Do I think it was them? Absolutely. They do have a pattern of getting into your past." ....
The president's impressive people skills and abundant personal charm mask a streak of political cold- bloodedness and score-settling worthy of a Mario Puzo novel. That's particularly true in the way he and his lieutenants deal with anyone-critic or innocent victim alike-who poses a potential menace to the massive effort to keep the lid on the various scandals dogging Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, and his administration...." Weekly Standard 8/4/97 Thomas M. DeFrank and Thomas Galvin
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, exposing a rift with his American partners on security tactics, as 24 people were killed Tuesday in a series of bombings and a shooting.
The U.S.-Iraqi air and ground attack was launched before dawn Monday in Sadr City, which is controlled by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia. Police said three people, including a woman and a child, were killed in the raid, which the U.S. command said was aimed at "individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities." Three people were captured, the U.S. military said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he was "very angered and pained" by the operation, warning that it could undermine his efforts toward national reconciliation. "Reconciliation cannot go hand-in-hand with operations that violate the rights of citizens this way," al-Maliki said in a statement on government television. "This operation used weapons that are unreasonable to detain someone - like using planes." He apologized to the Iraqi people for the operation and said "this won't happen again."
Hours after he spoke, central Baghdad was shaken early Tuesday by three near-simultaneous bomb explosions near the Interior Ministry building in the Al-Nahda neighborhood. Ten civilians were killed and eight people were injured, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid. Cause - meet effect.
A few hours later, two roadside bombs exploded within minutes of each other in the main Shurja market in central Baghdad, killing 10 people and injuring 50, said police Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun.
On Monday, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, met with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., to discuss security operations in Baghdad. Talabani said he told Casey "it is in no one's interest to have a confrontation" with al-Sadr's movement.
The public positions taken by al-Maliki and Talabani signal serious differences between Iraqi politicians and both U.S. and Iraqi military officials on how to restore order and deal with armed groups, many of which have links to political parties.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Casey made no mention of al-Sadr but said he had discussed plans with Talabani to bring "fundamental change to the security situation in Baghdad" before Ramadan, which begins in late September.
Al-Sadr has risen to become a major figure in the Shiite community and a pillar of support for al-Maliki. The prime minister's apology and criticism of the U.S. forces may have helped placate al-Sadr, who on Monday urged his followers to show restraint. Don't go out and kill so may Sunnis today. Wait until tomorrow.
In a statement read at all Mahdi Army offices, al-Sadr urged his militiamen to be "calm and patient, and avoid being drawn into civil war," said the cleric's aide, Mohammed al-Fartousi.
He said al-Sadr urged the militiamen to purge all those who bring the Mahdi Army into disrepute. They should also "denounce the kidnapping of Iraqis, denounce destruction of mosques and denounce killing of innocent people," said his aide, Mohammed al-Fartousi.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006
07:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The US will regret that they let Mookie slip out of Najaf unharmed. Another effort by our brave troops wasted. Bring in Gen. Honore!
#4
In a statement read at all Mahdi Army offices, al-Sadr urged his militiamen to be "calm and patient, and avoid being drawn into civil war," said the cleric's aide, Mohammed al-Fartousi.
Boy, if that's not rich, I don't know what is. Tater's now pacifying his goons from trying to start a civil war? The ultimate example of projection, methinks...PTUI!
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006 9:42
Comments ||
Top||
#5
What is this fu*kers game ? He goes to DC and demands help after he falls on his ass. Now he chastises that too much force is being used. He wants US military to go in and hold hands ? Time to dump this asshole and basically abandon this hole. Send all US troops to guard oilfields and pipelines. Pump the oil. Anyone gets within 1 mile, waste them.
#8
The Mahdi Army has murdered thousands of Sunnis and cleansed much of north Baghdad of the majority Muslim sect. Should this continue because the PM has political relations with the al-Sadrites?
#9
Most discouraging. How the hell do we hold in and create a realistic government when there are armed militias that have the defacto backing of the prime minister? It is no wonder that the military is itching to have a coup. So do the Iranian puppet strings go to Maliki then Sadr or the other way around?
I went to Iraq in the 1970s to do a course in Islamic studies. While I was there, I saw that my own community did not have the same quality of life as other Muslim communities in the Middle East - our own land, our own country.
Prior to 9/11, no terrorist organization had killed more Americans than Hezbollah, which was responsible for the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing, among other attacks. The outcome of Israel's current war with the "Party of God" remains very much in doubt. But the good news is that Israel is being given all the diplomatic cover it could have hoped for to strike a blow to the terror group and its Iranian patrons.
The U.N. cease-fire resolution for Lebanon offered on the weekend by France and the U.S. isn't everything we might like. But it does show a new international sobriety concerning the Hezbollah problem. While there are few sources of vocal support for Ehud Olmert's Israeli government, there does seem to be widespread recognition that a return to the status quo before Hezbollah attacked is unacceptable.
Thus the draft resolution would allow Israeli troops to remain in southern Lebanon and to act defensively should the Hezbollah rocket barrages continue. A second resolution would then be needed to create a multinational peacekeeping force whose mission would be to disarm Hezbollah, not just verify that it isn't launching Katyushas.
We doubt this or any other U.N. plan can succeed before Israel has done a lot more to degrade Hezbollah's military capabilities. But the U.S.-French approach is certainly far preferable to the kind of solution proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which is essentially an unconditional Israeli cease-fire that would leave Hezbollah intact and ready to attack again whenever it chooses. For Hezbollah, this would be a major victory--one that would damage both Israel and Lebanon for years to come.
Reaction to the Security Council text has certainly been clarifying. "This agreement is bad in every sense of the word," said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, whose government effectively ran Lebanon until last year. President Bush gave the appropriate response yesterday at his Crawford ranch when he said that "Syria and Iran sponsor and promote Hezbollah activities." He added that the Syrians "know exactly what our position is. The problem is that their response hasn't been very positive. As a matter of fact, it hasn't been positive at all." . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006
07:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
An Indonesian Muslim group announced Tuesday that it had sent 20 of its members to Lebanon in order to join the Jihad against the Jewish state. The claim, made by the Islamic Defenders Front, was reported by the Associated Press, which warned that it had not been verified.
Spokesman Soleh Mahmud said the 20 men left Indonesia five days ago and are now undergoing training in Lebanon under the supervision of Hizbullah. "They are ready to die to defend Muslims," Mahmud said.
Opponents of President Bush and his Iraq policy have jumped on a comment last week by Gen. John Abizaid, commander, U.S. Central Command, before the Senate Armed Services Committee: "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war."
Ignored in most of the media coverage was what Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same hearing: "I believe that we do have the possibility of that devolving to a civil war, but that does not have to be a fact." Gen. Pace added: "Our enemy knows they cannot defeat us in battle. They do believe, however, that they can wear down our will as a nation."
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY.) called the administration's Iraq policy a failure, which can only encourage the terrorist insurgents to keep on fighting and killing Iraqis and American soldiers. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI.) seemed fixated on timetables for withdrawal instead of defeating those who want to destroy the elected government of Iraq.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reminded the panel that the United States and the free world are in a "global struggle against violent extremists." Rumsfeld's testimony bears reading and repeating to a large number of people who, in their quest for pleasure and personal peace, appear to lack the staying power required to defeat perhaps the greatest evil the world has ever faced.
Taking note of the differences between the way the United States and terrorists fight, Rumsfeld said, "one side puts their men and women at risk in uniform and obeys the laws of war, while the other side uses them against us." We have seen that in the world's reaction to Guantanamo Bay prison and Abu Ghraib. Terrorists use torture and murder and no court of public opinion or judicial entity holds them accountable. The rare instance of abuse by American soldiers is punished.
Rumsfeld elaborated on the difference between the two sides: "One side does all it can to avoid civilian casualties, while the other side uses civilians as shields, and then skillfully orchestrates a public outcry when the other side accidentally kills civilians in their midst. One side is held to exacting standards of near perfection; the other side is held to no standards and no accountability at all."
Rumsfeld noted how the enemy uses our media to undermine American resolve, "planning attacks to gain the maximum media coverage and the maximum public outcry." And then, most importantly, he said: "If we left Iraq prematurely - as the terrorists demand - the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East. And if we left the Middle East, they'd order us - and all those who don't share their militant ideology - to leave what they call occupied Muslim lands, from Spain to the Philippines, and then we would face not only the evil ideology of these violent extremists, but an enemy that will have grown accustomed to succeeding in telling free people everywhere what to do."
For those who claim Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terrorism, Rumsfeld noted, "This enemy has called Iraq the central front in the war on terrorism."
During World War II, U.S. and German forces fought the battle of Hurtgen Forest. It began Sept. 19, 1944 and ended Feb. 10, 1945. That was one battle in a strategically insignificant corridor of barely 50 square miles east of the Belgium-Germany border. The Germans inflicted more than 24,000 casualties on American forces, while another 9,000 Americans were sidelined due to illness, fatigue and friendly fire. Had live TV beamed this battle to America, there might have been an outcry that the policy was failing and somehow a cease-fire and an accommodation with Hitler should be achieved.
America won that war because the objective wasn't to understand the Nazis, or to reach an accommodation with them; the objective was to win the war. Anything less in this war - against an equally evil and unrelenting enemy - will mean defeat for the United States and for freedom everywhere. That's what Rumsfeld was getting at when he said, "We can persevere in Iraq or we can withdraw prematurely, until they force us to make a stand nearer home. But make no mistake: They are not going to give up, whether we acquiesce in their immediate demands or not."
#1
Piss poor analogy Rummy. Your Hurtgen Forest example simply highlights past leadership absense from the action and failures.
With US forces outnumbered 10 to 1, the first step down the road to this disaster can be traced to the following order:
COMBAT UNITS ARE AUTHORIZED TO BASE DAILY REPLACEMENT REQUISITIONS ON ANTICIPATED LOSSES FORTY EIGHT HOURS IN ADVANCE TO EXPEDITE DELIVERY OF REPLACEMENTS. TO AVOID BUILDING UP OVERSTRENGTH, ESTIMATES SHOULD BE MADE WITH CARE. SIGNED EISENHOWER.
This order was based on the necessity of providing replacements for battle losses in time to insure that the initiative would not be lost in battle situations where the enemy was on the run but might recover if replacements were not quickly available. Unfortunately, the order enabled inept staff officers to bring in replacements at such a fast pace that companies and even divisions could take tremendous losses that only could be acceptable because of this replacement policy. The officers making these decisions were never close enough to the front lines to be in danger themselves so they were always around to continue to make more costly mistakes.
Combat veterans said that only on the rarest of occasions was any officer above the rank of captain or officer from the staff were ever seen.
#2
Besoeker - what planet are you on? The Hurtgen was a close quarters, bloody, no quarter given battle. Forward replacement had little to do with its conduct. This reads like a cheap shot.
#3
I'm sure you've noted that the analogy was Thomas', not Rummy's. But aside from that, I think Thomas' point was that the cost to the US of the Iraq operation, in historical context, is not that great. All this, of course, including the true but shopworn caveat that every killed or wounded is a tragic loss for our country and the families involved.
Having said that, I am leery of these historical comparisons if they rely too much on numbers. The key point, which Rummy makes and the clueless or irresponsible among us including elected officials routinely miss, is that this is a battle of wills. WWII had far worse losses, far far far more mistakes and disasters, but was still a test of wills with our enemies.
#4
Thanks for the correction Verlaine, hope things are quiet at Victory and elsewhere. Wen I see Rumsfeld's name I can't even think straight anymore. I agree with your historical analysis of the battle 52. My point was "lack of leadership" ... which is what I think Rumsfeld has provided quite all on his own.
#5
"I'm sure you've noted that the analogy was Thomas', not Rummy's"
I note that. Whatever issues I have with Rummy, i respect him far more than I do Cal Thomas.
". But aside from that, I think Thomas' point was that the cost to the US of the Iraq operation, in historical context, is not that great. All this, of course, including the true but shopworn caveat that every killed or wounded is a tragic loss for our country and the families involved.
Having said that, I am leery of these historical comparisons if they rely too much on numbers. The key point, which Rummy makes and the clueless or irresponsible among us including elected officials routinely miss, is that this is a battle of wills. WWII had far worse losses, far far far more mistakes and disasters, but was still a test of wills with our enemies."
But this isnt a war being fought like WW2. No dozens of divisions, aircraft carriers, etc. Its more like the cold war, a shadowy war of covert actions, economics, diplomacy, with the occasional flare up to hot war. In case anyones forgotten, we abandoned Viet Nam, and 14 years later the Berlin wall fell.
Now Im NOT saying we should withdraw now from Iraq - Im heartened we seem to be taking on Sadr, I note that the Iraqi army seems to be improving, and I hope the influx of US troops to Baghdad can restore a greater degree of order to the capital. And yes, this is the central front of the WOT, as much as any other single place is.
BUT - whats happening in Iraq, the number of iraqi deaths, the number of US combat deaths, needs to be seen in the context of Iraq, NOT in the context of World War 2. If the number of Iraqi deaths in Baghdad grows large enough that ordinary Iraqis abandon the central govt entirely, and give all their support to sectarian militias, if Sadr pushes Malike and Sistani aside and establishes in southern Iraq a situation like Hezbollah established in S Lebanon, if KSA and Jordan try to do to Sadr what Israel is doing to Nasrallah, etc, etc it will be little comfort that Baghdad was safer than circa 1943 Shanghai, or that US casualties were less than in the Battle of the Bulge.
#6
You're not a hawk. You can't handle a fight. You can't handle dead soldiers. You want to make peace at any cost, no ?
You're all phalking lucky I'm not Sec Def. The bodies would be buried in trenches as I went door to door searching for weapons, uniforms, korans, whatever. Only when they lost their appetite for a fight would they be invited to vote, and take responsibility for their future. You don't defeat an enemy with jestures, gut a generation out of them and they usually sober up. A nuke will have a similar effect. Bush, Rummy, Blair, none of them have managed to get the attention of mother Islam long enough to make demands.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006 17:13
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Rumsfeld noted how the enemy uses our media to undermine American resolve, "planning attacks to gain the maximum media coverage and the maximum public outcry."
The main stream media are altogether too willing dupes or dopes. This self-destructive arrogance is difficult to understand. They are a party to publishing fake photographs and stories siding with the enemy. The press would not like the world of islamofacism.
You might not like what WX has to say about his response but like it or not, I think he's pretty much on target with what it will take to win this war. The unfortunate thing is that it will take another 9/11 or worse to make all the people thinking like you realize it.
Posted by: mac ||
08/08/2006 17:52
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Gen. Pace added: "Our enemy knows they cannot defeat us in battle. They do believe, however, that they can wear down our will as a nation."
And they are being helped, willingly and cynically, by the Democratic Party and its paid propagandists in the media.
Want a depressing statistic? Try this: Americans are being killed in Iraq at a rate only slightly higher than they are being killed in recreational boating mishaps here at home.
And that's all it has taken, with the Democrats' connivance, to bring America to within a hair's breadth of giving up in Iraq and slinking home with our tails between our legs-- and calling it "responsible redeployment" or some such pablum.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/08/2006 18:57
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Can't we all just get along?
Posted by: Rodney K. ||
08/08/2006 18:58
Comments ||
Top||
#12
Unfortunately none of those in the senators or press at the hearing were self aware enough to realize Gen. Pace's comment was directed at them.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 19:13
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Cal Thomas's analogy is one of the worst I've seen. Hurtgen was probably the worst run and most wasteful US campaign of WWII. Hurtgen was just one WWI-style frontal infantry attack after another. If Iraq is Hurtgen, we are in trouble.
#14
Hurtgen was a complete waste of US lives and strenghts. The US Army should have gone around it where air, armor and artillery dominance could be used and then set the forest on fire with the Germans in it. Bradley should have had his ass kicked for refighting WW1.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 20:02
Comments ||
Top||
I am not a gloom & doom person, except when it comes to myself, and I am still optimistic in general, since I learned long ago that depending on a US-USSR thermonuclear exchange eventually disappoints and promotes bad savings habits. Nevertheless, when you wake up and read that the entire Alaska oil supply is OFF LINE for the next nine years or so, you wonder: what next? Texas-sized comet chunks heading for America? Comet-sized Texas chunks heading for Europe? The pace of bad news seems to have picked up an unnerving momentum. Enough with the flow. Some ebbing would be nice.
Mind you, its not the actual news that bothers me as much as the reaction to it; the reactions speak to something amiss in the heart of the West, a failure of nerve, a fatal lack of faith in the civilization were entrusted to defend. But the heart has two ventricles. Theres a large portion of America who well, no. I cant make generalizations like this, because theyre ridiculous, and its not for me to speak for 150 million of my countrymen. But Ive had this suspicion for the last year. People joke about the American street, the basic Joes rising animosity to the Middle East. I dont think theres a rising hatred of the area; I think theres a growing indifference. In the end, thats worse.
In the end, most Americans simply dont care what happens to the Middle East aside from Israel. Theyd like the region to be free; theyre happy when everyone gets to vote. They don't give a fig about Libya but it would be nice if Egypt was safe, what with all those museums and the like. Theyd be perfectly fine if every nation in the Middle East was like France open, free, stable, great vacation destinations, full of politicians and intellectuals who didnt like the US but confined the rhetoric to tart epigrams or unreadable academic polemics. Its the seething sectarian nutwad component that makes people weary. The looped scripts, the Jew-slagging, the misplaced blame, the unslakable aching sense of injustice over things that happened 500 years ago. Okay, well, sorry about the Crusades. Now you Persians apologize for Ionia and the war on the Greeks. Cmon. Cmonnn, ya knuckleheads. I knew Darius, and he was a Party. Animal. But lets send it all to the big Bygone House and hug, for Mr. Planets sake! (Bill Murray for UN Secretary General. Seriously.)
But this isnt going to happen. Mind you, Im not raising this to debate the veracity of the claims or the reactions, just to note what many people think, inasmuch as they think about it at all. (Which they don't, and that's why it seems a spiky shouting ullulating Durkastan, just like America seems like Fat-Ass Burger Whore Town to others. ) So. As I was saying: most people would like the Middle East to be free and happy and prosperous and free of incomprehensible religious differences (Sunni, Shiite, Sufi help us out, guys; do they all have to start with S?) and generally off the radar. Thirty years of hearing Death to the Great Satan, however, hasnt left the average American mad. Its left them bored. It's left them disinterested in the final consequences to the societies in which the chanting mobs appear. They dont care. And as I said, that may have more injurious consequences than Disappointed Engagement or Active Animus. The former leads to withdrawal; the latter leads to rash plans quickly nixed when the anger cools.
A nation that no longer cares about what happens Over There is a nation, I think, that has already made its peace, however subconsciously, with a horrible conclusion.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006
07:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
that has already made its peace, however subconsciously, with a horrible conclusion.
#2
Good question given the current state of public discourse in America but I have a sneaking suspiciion that if it came down to a choice between "us or them" we'd suddenly find an overwhelming majority more than willing to actively support our side of the conflict.
#4
It's left them disinterested in the final consequences to the societies in which the chanting mobs appear. They dont care.
Meaning if they got "Prejudicially Terraformed" we wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006 10:33
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Mike, I don't know how you arrive at any conclusion without a few paragraphs on how and why our media bullshits the shit out of us daily, tirelessly, and relentlessly. If it were possible for us to drop a crow bar into the MSM operational gears and bring them to a sudden halt, an additional 30 percent of Americans would awaken to the truth about the world on the same day. That would have an impact on our behavior and on our worldview.
I don't know. Sort of the Parable of the Cave. Some people just don't want to know. "Can we please stop talking about Iran and Korea and WMDs so I can go back to reading about Lindsey Lohan's breasts?"
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Several concerts on the Dixie Chicks' "Accidents & Accusations" tour have been canceled after slow ticket sales, but the group says it has replaced them with other dates. Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville are among 14 cities no longer on the original schedule released in May, according to a revised itinerary posted Thursday on the Dixie Chick's Web site. Other shows, including Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix, have been pushed back to later dates.
Remind me, Nashville is the 'home' of country music, right? A country all-girl band suddently can't sell tickets in Nashville? 'specially when they used to sell out there?
Billboard magazine and other trade publications have reported lackluster sales in some markets, particularly in the South and Midwest.
The North American leg of the tour kicked off July 21 in Detroit. Billboard magazine and other trade publications have reported lackluster sales in some markets, particularly in the South and Midwest.
i.e., the home of country music.
Group spokeswoman Kathy Allmand said Monday that the total number of North American dates remains the same, with several Canadian cities added in place of the U.S. shows.
The trio released a statement last week attributing the changes to attempts to "accommodate demand" or lack thereof and said more dates might be added next year. The group also said the adjustments will allow them to promote the documentary "Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Go Away Sing," for the Toronto International Film Festival in September. "We hope that our fans who were looking forward to a stop that is no longer on the tour will be able to join us at a nearby arena this fall, and we are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience these changes have caused," the Dixie Chicks said.
Many country fans criticized the band after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 on the eve of war in Iraq that the trio was "ashamed" President Bush was from their home state of Texas. County radio stations dropped them from their playlists and have been slow to welcome them back, despite strong sales of their latest album, "Taking the Long Way."
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006
06:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Next excuse - Its the Diebold ticket machines.
Boston - Hyannisport - Greenwich Village - Seattle - San Francisco - Paris - Brussels - Caracas - Havana - Damascus - Tehran - Pyongyang (at the Ryongbong Hotel lounge, natch)
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006 8:43
Comments ||
Top||
#4
lol, Besoeker! I can't fathom a tour t-shirt more worthy of burning. I guess most fans (much less, hardcore country fans) would rather go see Toby Keith now, eh? Reality sux, doesn't it, Natalie? Here's my prediction that they'll be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006 8:57
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I love how they spin it. One of the biggest country acts of all time has to cancel push back their Nashville tour date because of shitty ticket sales. I was surprised it was the same in L.A. They should revoke their citizenship and just ask the canadian government to take them in as it seems the only concerts they can sell out are north of the border. What you reap so shall you sew as they say.
#10
Tough to reinvent yourself as a blue-state pop/rock group if your name is the Dixie Chicks...somewhat of a cognitive dissonance. Like Mecca Jews - my new klezmer band :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 12:01
Comments ||
Top||
#11
It seems their audience is becoming 'more selective'...
#16
As much as I like schadenfreude, their current album is selling relatively well - relative to other current albums, I don't know how it compares to their own albums.
Looks like they won't be needing to apply to McDonalds any time soon - too bad.
#17
They "messed with Texas" in the middle of a Texan-led fight to save Texas, America + World. Of course you know their PC/political advisor(s) needs to be hanged, and hanged high, from the nearest Texas oak.
Last Thursday, three children were killed in a wedding celebration during which gunshots were fired in celebration. PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 21:15 on Thursday, 3 August 2006, three children were killed in a wedding ceremony when a gunman lost control of his assault rifle as he was shooting in the air in celebration. The killed children are Naser Salim El-Asmar (13), Ahmad Samir Abu Jilda 915), and Ala Adel Faris Hardan (17). The wedding ceremony was in El-Marah Quarter in the eastern part of Jenin. Several gunmen were firing in the air during the wedding.
PCHR is extremely concerned over the continued falling of victims, mostly children, by gunshots fired during celebrations and weddings. The Centre calls upon the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney-General, to seriously investigate these incidents and to bring the perpetrators to justice. The Centre calls upon the PNA and all Palestinians to work towards stopping the phenomena of firing guns during celebrations as they constitute a direct threat to the lives of civilians.
#4
The killed children are... Ahmad Samir Abu Jilda 915
That kid should have been on Ripley's Believe it or not! You don't see 915 years old kid very often nowadays... Well, nothing anyone can do anything about it now.
#5
Ahmad Samir Abu Jilda lived 900 years.
Ahmad Samir Abu Jilda lived 900 years.
But who call that livin
When no gal will give in
To no guy who's 900 years?
Posted by: Sporting Life ||
08/08/2006 7:42
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Porgy and Bess -- my favourite! But they went painfree to glorious sexual martyrdom in the sky, so that's ok... and besides they were part of the great breeding war to push the Jews off the land, so they were excess anyway. Or at least so Mahmoud Abbas would say, he of the Womb War doctoral dissertation. It does great damage to children to know they were already unloved the moment they were born, and these people do so as a matter of policy.
#4
...What I find amusing is that the Hezzies made SURE there was a big Hezbollah sticker on the vertical stab - "Not only are we stupid, we're proud of it!!"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/08/2006 10:26
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"Tonight on a very special edition of TLC's What Not To Wear, Stacy and Clinton do a fashion intervention on the Hezbollah drone fleet . . . and hilarity ensues."
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006 10:29
Comments ||
Top||
#7
What I find amusing is that the Hezzies made SURE there was a big Hezbollah sticker on the vertical stab - "Not only are we stupid, we're proud of it!!"
Perhaps they didn't want to be accused of any war crimes by flying an unmarked plane.
#1
The government tightened the student visa process after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks when it learned that four of the hijackers had entered the country on foreign student visas.
#2
Hurry up US congress and pass the Comprehensive Immigration reform legislation so these Undocumented Workers can come out of the shadows and onto the path of citizenship they so rightly deserve!
Despite complications, at least 15 countries have expressed a willingness to contribute troops to an international stabilization force in southern Lebanon if one is formed after a cease-fire and under a clear UN mandate. At least nine other nations say they're ready to provide support; six others remain undecided about their roles. The breakdown, with details where available:
Deploy troops:
AUSTRALIA - "very limited" contingent
BRAZIL - no specifics
CHILE - no specifics
FRANCE - no more than 5,000 troops
GHANA - no specifics
INDONESIA - 1 battalion (about 800 troops)
ITALY - no specifics
LITHUANIA - no specifics
MALAYSIA - 1,000 troops
NIGERIA - no specifics
NORWAY - 1 squadron of 4 missile torpedo boats, nearly 100 marines
PORTUGAL - no specifics
ROMANIA - no specifics
SPAIN - no specifics
TURKEY - "significant" contribution likely; no specifics
Provide support:
BRITAIN - possible technical assistance
CYPRUS _ transport humanitarian aid; possible staging point for forces
CZECH REPUBLIC - humanitarian aid, firefighting equipment
DENMARK - navy ship possible
GREECE - help transport aid
JAPAN - humanitarian aid
POLAND - keep 200 U.N. peacekeepers already in Lebanon
SLOVAKIA - doctors, humanitarian aid
UNITED STATES - train and equip Lebanese army
Undecided:
FINLAND
GERMANY
PAKISTAN
RUSSIA
SLOVENIA
SWEDEN
If it ever happens and I have my doubts, it looks like France, Turkey + Indonesia/Malaysia, with a few token forces from elsewhere. And if they do try and disarm Hizbollocks, they will take a lot of causalties and I predict will be withdrawn by the end of the year. Another bloody clusterf**k brought to you by the UN.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
#7
"Stabilization force"? Stabilization isn't the question-UNIFIL was all about stability: the regional "stability" of hating Jews, the "stability" of not confronting Islamofascism in the form of Hezbollah. The $1m question-what will any one of these troops DO to those who violate the ceasefire?
Australia looks like a good bet, but their presence is listed as "limited".
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
08/08/2006 9:23
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Olmert demanded 15,000 combat troops to enforce Hizb'allah disarmament, and Israel holds the high ground in this negotiation, so long as they don't give in to the world. At this rate, it'll be years before they stop plowing Lebanon with missiles.
#9
The last UN peacekeeping force did absolutely nothing. In fact, they watched Hizb build bunkers and bring in missiles. So why do this again? The UN has the imagination and the will of a gunnysack of hammers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2006 10:44
Comments ||
Top||
#10
They would there to protect the Hezbos from the Israelis. No?
#12
I can't think of anything worse than Hezb'Allah terrorist weapons pointed at the backs of German troops with their weapons pointed, pursuant to UNIFIL orders, at Jewish troops. No International force should go in until all Hezbs are dead at which point an international force will be unnecessary.
D-Day --- Stability force deploys
D+30 ---- Hizb'allan launches multiple suicide attacks on German, Norweigian, Spanish and Australian observation posts.
D+31 ---- 1st world nations begin withdrawal
D+32 ---- Hizb'allan approaches 3rd world and Islamic contingents and promises them safety in return for looking the other way and the occasional favor. Amazingly, all agree.
D+33 ---- Hizb'allan resumes infiltrating arms and militias into south Lebanon.
D+180 --- Missile attacks on Israel resume.
#14
11A5S
You seem unusally optimistic about the time lapse between "Hizb'alla resumes infiltrating arms and militias into south Lebanon" and "Missile attacks on Israel resume".
I'm assuming the time lapse would be 1 week.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/08/2006 14:32
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Australia's busy in its backyard. It seems to me they have to expect action in Indonesia.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/08/2006 16:20
Comments ||
Top||
#16
This just in form Israel; Keep mulling, we're reloading.
#18
I do believe the US should contribute, and heavily - as in, tell the Israelis to pull back beyond the blue line, then plaster everything south of the Litani with load after load of B-52s with a maximum load of iron bombs. THEN the UN can deploy the rest of its forces to grade, plow, and seed (with anti-personnel mines) the bare landscape of everything south of the Litani, build a few guard-posts along the river, and "maintain order and security". It'll be a bit rough on the locals, but all that have stayed were told to get out long before this. Tough.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/08/2006 17:07
Comments ||
Top||
#20
The West and allies better be careful on this one. The UN desn't really have the cajones to do anything that is useful. Any peacekeeping force has to be ready to disarm and/or kill the Hezzies. The U.S. seems to be assuming that Lebanon and the Hezzies are two separate entities. From what's coming out of Lebanon, this doesn't seem to be true--they seem to be wedded at the hip.
Contributing to the problem are the pencil-necked doofus in Syrian and the sawed off Hitlerian dictator from Iran. Why not go after the real problem?
#21
Frozen Al: I just figured that it'd take em 5-6 months to bring in another 5-10K rockets by mule cart, ambulance, taxi, etc. If there is a next time, I suspect that Hizb will try to coordinate it's barrages much more carefully and get more effect on target (which is a nice way of saying kill more joooos).
I forgot two milestones:
D+34 ---- UN GENSEK proclaims that the peacekeeping mission is "saved" because of 3rd world and Islamic countries remaining.
D+35 ---- Robert Fisk writes nasty column praising Maylaysia and Ghana for staying while the evil Westerners bugged out.
#22
The western troops will become human shields and the muslim troops will be hezb'allah allies. I am really ashamed for any US gov official who would even consider this. Israel should annex the land to the Litani river. The only troops should be Lebanese north of the Litani. If additional attacks are launched, then there is no doubt which government is responsible and should suffer the consequences. If you allow war to be launched from your territory and lose, you deserve to lose said territory. Actions have consequnces. End of story.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 19:27
Comments ||
Top||
#23
French backing out (no surprise), probably want Hezbos to watch themselves.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 20:41
Comments ||
Top||
#24
For some things we can depend upon the French. This was the nicest gift they could give to Israel. You've got months to go Olmert. Use them wisely. Pretend it's only weeks.
Arab media continue to revel in their victory over Israel. Hizbollah has not been smashed, Lebanese civilians continue to get killed, as do Israelis. In Arab eyes, this is winning. Which explains why the Arab world has fallen behind the rest of the planet in almost every measure (economically, politically, education, science).
Attempts to stop the fighting are doomed to failure because too many Arabs see Israel's destruction as the primary goal. While disarming Hizbollah would be in the best interests of Israelis, and the majority of Lebanese (those who are not Shia), that is not possible now because Hizbollah has been declared Islamic heroes for killing Israelis. Diplomacy is difficult when dealing with a culture of death, suicide and people on a mission from God.
Hizbollah does want some kind of ceasefire, because they are running out of resources (rocket and launch teams) faster than Israel is running out of anything (troops, money, jet fuel, smart bombs, etc). In the end, Hizbollah is a low budget operation up against the wealthiest and most powerful economy in the region. Trying to destroy Israel is a Fools Errand. But as long as the fools have rockets and suicidal volunteers, they will keep trying.
Arizona's Democratic Party introduced an "affinity" credit card last year to put a charge into political fundraising. To date, the party has lacked much affinity for its own idea.
The "JackassDonkey Card" - a MasterCard that puts a small percentage of the amount of each purchase into the state party's operating fund - was introduced amid no fanfare last year, said Jim Wagner, point man for the project. With fewer than 200 of the cards in use and a trickle of a cash flow, the Democrats are determined to get the word out. "This year, we're making an aggressive attempt to get it off the ground in Arizona," Wagner said. "This is a pain-free way to make donations to the party if you want to give and don't have the resources to do it." Democrat philosophy: if something is a failure, spend more on it and push it harder.
The card, issued by a Maryland-based subsidiary of Great Britain's Barclay Bank, pays the party up to a $40 royalty when approved and then kicks in slightly less than a buck for every $100 purchased on it. "What we're hoping for is what we call a 'sustained owner program' that would help us maintain a certain amount of income throughout the whole year," Wagner said. "We're thinking seven to 10 years from now it can provide a steady flow." For your successor party(-ies)
So far, it's hard to find anybody other than party officials with one in their wallet. Calls to the campaign headquarters of every Democrat in the mob running for Congressional District 8 resulted in either puzzlement or revelation. None of the committed volunteers or staffers owns the card. Few were even familiar with it. "We don't believe in borrow and spend, but haven't found a way to tax card-users directly" deadpanned Ross Lampert, spokesman for candidate Jeff Latas.
Wagner said he's busy hitting district-level meetings and functions and making the pitch for more participants in Arizona.
"There are more than 800,000 registered child abusers . mental health patients . illegal alients Democrats in Arizona, so the potential for this is huge," he said.
Arizona Republicans have pondered their own affinity card, but got hung up on the bureaucracy of it, said party spokesman Garrick Taylor. "Once you go up to $200 as a contributor, there has to be a filing with the Federal Elections Commission," he said. "We've taken a cursory look at this, but we're just not comfortable with the tracking requirements." Perhaps one reason for the failure is the millionaires like J. Forbes Kerry let their flunkies handle all the purchasing details, while a Daily Cooz poster living in his mom's basement can't pass the credit check.
An interesting interview with Diane Bondareff, a free-lance photographer, at Shape of Days, about free-lance photojournalism, and what you can and can't do to a news photo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Opposition from Lebanon caused the United States and France to delay vote on a UN resolution, diplomats said. The current draft of the Security Council resolution calls for "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations" %u2013 implicitly giving Israel the right to pursue "defensive" operations. Israel views the draft favourably, as it does not order Israel to withdraw its 10,000 soldiers from southern Lebanon.
Lebanon wants the draft UN resolution to include an explicit demand for a full Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon. France asked the US to delay a discussion of the draft resolution to make certain changes. France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said changes would probably be made to the draft resolution.
The Security Council has scheduled a public debate on Tuesday on the conflict, to be attended by envoys from several countries. A Lebanese official said Arab League foreign ministers would send a delegation to the United Nations to try to push through the amendments Lebanon wants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This requires further discussion. All parties retire for reconsideration and plan to reconvene in 90 days.
THE southern Lebanese port city of Tyre was completely cut off from the rest of the country by Israeli bombardments today, witnesses and police said to AFP. Israeli jets destroyed a makeshift bridge in Qasimiya, north of Tyre, and the military continued to bombard the road leading out of the city to the south, they said.
UN force spokesman Milos Strugar said "the provisional bridge north of Tyre, over the Litani river, and which connects the city to Sidon (further north) has been cut" by the bombing. He said traffic was also blocked from the south by intense shelling on the road leading to the coastal town of Naqura. The makeshift bridge in Qasimiya had been erected after Israeli warplanes destroyed two weeks ago the two bridges in the area which lead to Tyre.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
Lebanons Prime Minister Fouad Siniora won strong support from Arab states to plead his case at the United Nations for a full Israeli withdrawal even as Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes and launched a new commando raid in south Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 23 people in one of the heaviest tolls in days. Siniora got strong backing from the foreign ministers, who warned the UN Security Council against adopting resolutions that dont serve Lebanons interests. They decided to send a high-level delegation to New York to press Lebanons case.
Three loud explosions rocked Beirut shortly after nightfall and within two hours of the Arab ministers leaving. Lebanese security officials said they were artillery fired from ships off the Mediterranean coast where they also are enforcing a sea blockade. A Lebanese army statement called up reserve soldiers in a move apparently linked to a possible deployment of about 15,000 troops on the border.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is pressing for an arrangement in a draft UN resolution that has Lebanese troops deploying quickly in the south with the backing of a beefed-up UN force, so that the Israeli military can withdraw as part of any ceasefire deal. So far, the draft prepared by the US and France only calls for a halt in fighting, leaving Israeli forces still in the south until a more powerful UN force can be deployed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Musta been those sad tears from puppet-boy
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 0:56
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Keep crying. You do that so well. Have you been practicing, or is it second nature ?
Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani on Monday rejected a call for banning PTV advertisements promoting birth control medicines and items used exclusively by women. Durrani made these remarks in a reply during Question Hour in the National Assembly (NA). MMA's Muhammad Laeeque Ahmed had questioned the steps being taken by the government to control such advertisements. Durrani said that the advertisements for birth control medicines and items used exclusively by women were cleared by the PTV Censor Board. "All such advertisements are properly censored by senior media professionals. Therefore banning them will not be appropriate," he said. The issue could not be discussed further because of lack of time.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Indonesian police said on Monday that the government had banned Islamic militants from travelling to the Middle East or elsewhere to fight Israel. The comments by a police spokesman came after the self-styled head of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Muslim Youth Movement said more than 200 militants had been sent on missions to attack Israel's interests and countries that support the Jewish state.
Suaib Didu told Reuters last week fighters had been trained to carry out suicide bombings to revenge Israel's military strikes on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. "We will prevent them from leaving. The government bans such travel," national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said, adding there was no evidence anyone had left the country for the purpose.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If they really wanted to be helpful, they'd let them go, then give the routing to Israel.
#2
These guys are just illegal immigrants looking for a back door. Lebanon's nominal per capita GDP is four times Indonesia's. Many of these guys will want to do as little fighting as possible, especially shoulder to shoulder with Shiite heretics, and then stick around after the hostilities are over.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 10:32
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Jackal: How would you like to live in a country that views Lebanon as having its streets paved with gold?
They're in good company. Burma, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Cambodia and Laos are some of the other East Asian countries where much of the population would love to make Lebanese salaries.
IRAN yesterday rejected a United Nations demand that it halt uranium enrichment work, vowing instead to expand its controversial nuclear programme and threatening to block oil exports to the West if sanctions are imposed.
In a blunt response to international concern about Irans nuclear ambitions, Ali Larijani, the chief negotiator on atomic issues, said that Tehran was ready for a showdown with world powers when the matter was taken up by the UN Security Council this month. We will expand nuclear technology at whatever stage it may be necessary and all of Irans nuclear technology including the [centrifuge] cascades will be expanded, he said in Tehran.
The announcement was regarded not simply as another rhetorical outburst from Tehran but rather the precursor of a formal reply to the West which will be delivered in full on August 22.
Mr Larijani said yesterday that Iran had a right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to build a civilian nuclear programme. He said Iran was planning to expand its operations at the heavily-guarded Natanz facility in central Iran, where the authorities hope to have 3,000 centrifuges which enrich uranium by spinning it at supersonic speeds operating by the end of this year. We will expand nuclear activities where required. It includes all nuclear technology including the string of centrifuges, he said. We wont accept suspension.
Mr Larijani also served warning that Iran would retaliate if the world imposed sanctions. We will react in a way that would be painful for them. They should not think that they can hurt us and we would stand still without a reaction.
We do not want to use the oil weapon. Do not force us to do something that will make people shiver in the cold. We do not want that, he said.
Experts are divided over whether Iran would carry out its threat to withhold oil sales as a political weapon. The dispute with Iran is already responsible for pushing crude oil prices up to record levels. As Iran is the fourth largest Opec exporter, a freeze on oil sales could push up prices even further and could trigger an energy crisis.
Iran would, however, also suffer greatly. Oil accounts for 80 per cent of the countrys export earnings and the local economy would collapse if crude exports were halted indefinitely.
In the past Iran has cleverly managed to divide the permanent members of the UN Security Council, using China and Russia, which has large commercial interests in Iran and is building the main nuclear power station at Bushher, to avoid sanctions. The international mood has hardened, however, not least because of Irans support for Hezbollah in its war with Israel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
THE Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aziz Dweik, who was arrested by Israel over the weekend, was in hospital today after complaining of chest pains, the Israeli army said. "He complained of dizziness and chest pains. A prison doctor examined him and decided to transfer him for further tests to Sharei Tzadek hospital in Jerusalem," an army spokesman said.
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said in Gaza Mr Dweik was taken to hospital "after being severely beaten".
"He underwent tests at the hospital and will remain under observation." Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said in Gaza Mr Dweik was taken to hospital "after being severely beaten".
The RAB would never be so sloppy...
"We accuse the Zionist enemy. According to our information, he is in a serious state," Mr Masri said. Israeli troops seized Mr Dweik on Sunday from his home in Ramallah, branding him a terrorist.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...he is in a serious state...
That's true, unlike a made-up "state" like Palestine, or a non-serious one like Lebanon.
Mushir al-Masri seems to be saying the only thing he can imagine because that's the only thing he can imagine. "What do you mean he just developed chest pains? He has obviously been severely beaten because that is what we would do!"
Aziz probably developed chest pains because he thinks the only logical thing to do with prisoners is to beat them for no good reason.
A computer technician was sentenced to a year in prison for trying to ship to Iran more than 100 pressure sensors that could be used as components in explosive devices. Mohammad Fazeli, 27, pleaded guilty in May to one count of violating a US embargo prohibiting trade with Iran. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop one count each of conspiracy and making false statements.
US District Judge George H. King sentenced Fazeli in federal court on Monday. In an indictment unsealed in March, prosecutors alleged that Fazeli, a US citizen of Iranian descent, ordered 103 Honeywell sensors from an electronics company in St. Paul, Minnesota, in September 2004. Working with an associate based in Iran, Fazeli tried to ship the sensors to an address in the United Arab Emirates, authorities said. Prosecutors believe the ultimate destination was Iran. However, the devices never left the United States. The sensors were built to detect the pressure of liquid or gas, but authorities were concerned they could be used to detonate explosive devices.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A computer technician was sentenced to a year in prison for trying to ship to Iran more than 100 pressure sensors that could be used as components in explosive devices.
#2
My first read was 1 year per sensor. but a re-read proved me wrong; a Google search turned up the fact that he is a Clinton appointee; only 1 year for 100+ sensors to an enemy of the state. And he wil probably get out w/ time served or some other BS. Silly me for thinking we are serious.
#6
A computer technician was sentenced to a year in prison for trying to ship to Iran more than 100 pressure sensors that could be used as components in explosive devices. Mohammad Fazeli, 27, pleaded guilty in May to one count of violating a US embargo prohibiting trade with Iran. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop one count each of conspiracy and making false statements.
ONE YEAR? For potentially facilitating Iran's nuclear weapons R&D? You've got to know that these pressure sensors were most likely destined for efforts at physically modelling the explosive lensing needed to initiate a fission or fusion reaction (read; nuclear explosion). Other applications could be for monitoring line pressure in centrifuge outputs or hexaflouride production reactors.
Fazeli, a US citizen of Iranian descent.
Yoohoo, State Department. Are any of you connecting the dots with respect to how severe the problem of mixed alliegences are within America's Muslim population?
Finally, why in blue blazes was this maggot offered any sort of plea bargain? The obviously got the goods on this traitorous maggot. Collaborating with a terror sponsoring rougue regime that has overtly threatened use of nuclear weapons against America does not merit any sort of plea bargain. Rather the opposite, I would think. Maximum hard time, with no reduced sentencing for good behavior and minimum privileges during incarceration. These are our mortal enemies and are out to do us serious harm. It's long past the time for the judiciary to begin acting accordingly.
Russia has not supplied modern anti-tank armaments to the Middle East, so Hezbollah militants cannot possibly be in possession of them, Deputy President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov told Interfax-AVN. Had Hezbollah obtained modern close-combat weaponry, including grenade launchers, I think that Israeli army casualties would be incomparable to the current figures, he said.
You'd like to think that, except we've all seen how 'modern' Russian weapons work in the Middle East.
Ivashov previously headed the Russian Defense Ministrys Main Department of International Military Cooperation.
Ivashovs statement came as a response to a Monday article in the Israeli Haaretz daily claiming Hezbollah had obtained Russian RPG-29s from Syria. Hezbollah has rather primitive missile launchers for use in guerrilla warfare, items which Russia has never produced. Such weapons may be manufactured in the Middle East, Ivashov said.
Meanwhile, head of the Military Forecasting Center Anatoly Tsyganok ruled out the possibility of deliveries of modern anti-tank weapons to Hezbollah from Russia or Syria. Any accusations alleging Russian or Syrian deliveries of anti-tank weapons to any forces in Lebanon are unfounded. The Israeli side has not presented any evidence of this, and it is unlikely that it will, he told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
Except that they have. Right there in the MosNews. Oooops.
RPG-29 weapons have been supplied to India, China and some other countries. Most probably, such weapons, should Hezbollah militants really have any, might have been brought to Lebanon through third countries, Tsyganok said.
The majority of the Israeli Defense Forces ground-troop casualties, both infantry and armored, were the result of Russian-made anti-tank units of Hezbollah, according to intelligence sources quoted by Haaretz daily. The same sources note that these units have not retreated from southern Lebanon following the deployment of large Israeli ground forces in the area.
The Hezbollah anti-tank teams use a new and particularly potent version of the Russian-made RPG, the RPG-29 that was sold by Moscow to the Syrians and then transferred to the Shiite organization. The RPG-29s penetrating power comes from its tandem warhead, and on a number of occasions has managed to get through the massive armor of the Merkava tanks.
At first Israeli inquiries that Russia was transferring modern anti-tank weapons to Syria and on to Hezbollah were received with anger. The Russians demanded proof that this had been done.
Contrary to common practice, Israel transferred to Russia the tail-end of a rocket for analysis. The Russian response was that in the absence of a serial number it was difficult to identify it as part of a load delivered to Syria.
Oh. No serial number. Tail section wasn't good enough for you.
Israel believes Hezbollah also has an advanced anti-aircraft missile, the SA-18, from Iran, the paper adds. It is particularly lethal against helicopters, and even though none of the missiles have been fired against Israeli Air Force aircraft, the flights over Lebanon are taking the necessary precautions.
And let's keep an eye on the Russians at the UNSC -- wonder if they'll try to spoil the 'ceasefire' resolution at Arab request?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Request: RBee translator re: Hizbo member of kidnap team.
#2
We know nothing ! We did nothing wrong ! Don't look at us, we're completely innocent ! You told us to be good capitalists, what do you expect ! No more questions !
#5
Art Bell's guest HOWARD BLOOM denoted his opinion that be it from Iran proper, or via Hezzies-Hizzies, the final agenda of both Iran + Islam-based Radical Terror is the imposition of Radical/Revolutionary Islamist fundamentalism upon the ENTIRE WORLD, and that in antiquity, Mohammed and adherents only attacked the Jews both to PC acquire by force any Jewish wealth, etal. + espec to use same as prelude for larger follow-on military campaigns against his enemies. Bloom also indic that, despite allegations of the Western role in African slavery, Islam has by far uprooted or destroyed more African, etc. lives than anything the West ever did. Bloom > the "Islamic Bomb" was tested over ten yeras ago in 1998 by the Pakis in collusion wid Iran and other Muslim govts, + Israeli's response in Lebanon is in his opin only the openning shot of WW3. Bloom indic the major Islamist tactics agz the West is guile, i.e. deception and diversion etal., and espec "patience". CONCLUDES THAT IRAN HAS "SUNBURN" DUAL-USE CM'S + TECH, WILL LIKELY ATTEMPT TO DEV LONGER-RANGE MISSLES BASED ON SUNBURN AND OTHER TYPES, AND THAT IRAN AND ALIGNED RADICS ARE LIKELY NOT GOING TO STOP UNTIL THE WHOLE WORLD IS UNDER RADICAL ISLAM/ISLAMIST OWG. ALSO INDIC THAT ANY "ISLAMIST BOMB" ALSO POINTS AT MOSCOW AND BEIJING DESPITE ANY MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL TRADE BETWEEN THEM, AND ARGUES THAT A LARGE ALBEIT UNKNOWN PERCENTAGE OF US- AND INTERNAT MUSLIM COMMUNITIES ARE IN SUPPORT OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST AGENDAS.
#7
Thank you Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov for that brilliant clarification. We here at that Rant were saddened to learn of your pending retirement and relocation to Groznyy. You'll be missed.
Leftist intellectuals and human rights activists from around the world pleaded with the United States on Monday not to interfere with Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from intestinal surgery.
The usual suspects...
Many of the 400 signers of the open letter are from Latin America, and numerous Nobel Peace laureates are listed, such as former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and activist Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala.
Oh, yasss. She, Rigoberta Menchu.
Announcing the letter at a news conference, leading Cuban writer Roberto Fernandez Retamar said Cubans are convinced that Castro's handover of power to his younger brother and defense minister, Raul Castro, is only temporary. "In a few months, we'll have him back with us," Retamar said.
"He'll be dead, stuffed and mounted, but we'll have him back. He'll last another 80 years that way."
They'll make pilgrimages to his glass case in the mausoleum, forgetting -- if they ever knew -- what kind of man he was.
That optimistic assessment has been reinforced by statements from Fidel Castro's inner circle and Latin American allies, who say the Cuban leader is recovering well from surgery for internal bleeding. Cubans were told most details of his health would be kept "a state secret" to prevent enemies from taking advantage of his condition. Indeed, officials haven't said precisely what ails Castro or what surgical procedure he underwent.
The usual cancer rumors have surfaced. I'm hoping he's got pancreatic cancer, myself ...
President Bush said the United States remains in the dark about the illness, but he didn't miss the chance to motivate anti-Castro activists to push for change.
I'll bet he's not, really...
"The only thing I know is what has been speculated, and this is that, on the one hand, he is very ill and, on the other hand, he is going to be coming out of hospital," Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "Our desire is for the Cuban people to choose their own form of government."
Actually, our desire is for the Cuban people to string up the Castro brothers, but we're much too polite to say that...
... that happens the day after they choose their own form of government ...
On Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the United States is contemplating an invasion of the island in the wake of Castro's illness but said the U.S. wants to help Cubans prepare for democracy. "The notion that somehow the United States is going to invade Cuba, because there are troubles in Cuba, is simply far-fetched," Rice told NBC.
Why would we bother, when the place is going to collapse on its own?
'Far-fetched' and 'detached from reality' might describe the 400 letter-signers ...
"The United States wants to be a partner and a friend to the Cuban people as they move through this period of difficulty and as they move ahead. But what Cuba should not have is the replacement of one dictator by another."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Let's hope those 400 all join Fidel in a few months. Hell has lots of room.
#5
These type rants make me often wonder how bad it is at home. You know, when things are goin' south quickly at home, you have to have a handy-dandy "outside threat" (usually the U.S.) to blame to keep the heat off yourself. From Kim Jong Il to Hugo Chavez to Ahmadinijad and now, Castro, everyone's "afraid" of the US invading when they know full well we won't (well, maybe with the exception of Tehran). Why? Internal pressures must be noticing how crappy it is to live in "dreamworld" under a communist/totalitarian regime. But, what the hey, at least the trains run on time and there's always "free" health care.
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006 9:05
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Leftist intellectuals and human rights activists from around the world pleaded with the United States on Monday not to interfere with Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from intestinal surgery.
Another example of the 'intellect' of the left. Hey Bozos, that's what an embargo is all about - having nothing to do with Cuba. You were bitchin' about the embargo before today, not you insist that we in fact continue it. Look in the dictionary for Wanker and youll find 1.(n) leftist.
Turkey and France are engaged in a diplomatic tussle over Cyprus. France has been discussing a new "military cooperation" agreements with Cyprus. The terminology of one of the Turkish reports is shorthand for the problem: Turkey insists that France is talking to Greek Cypriots, not Cyprus.
France insists that this is not a "new" agreement. However, France is interested in assuring access to military facilities on Cyprus. Why? Think Lebanon.
France is also offering training for the Cypriot national guard. In early August, the Turks claimed that France wanted to build a military base in "southern Cyprus" (ie, the Greek-area of the island). Building a new base strikes many observers as unnecessary. Britain has bases in Cyprus and there is a large airbase at Paphos.
#1
Britain has 2 large military bases on Cyprus, which are UK sovereign territory, i.e. they are legally part of the UK. Cyprus doesn't have any say over those bases. So France talking to Cyprus rather than Britain is curious to say the least.
#2
You Turkish towels best recall that Al-Shiraq has said he would not hesitate to use full nuclear capacity if necessary. If you antagonize him it may be necessary.
(KUNA) -- The Israeli army aborted Sunday an operation that was planned to be carried out by Palestinian groups within Israel, Radio Israel claimed. The radio indicated that the army arrested a Palestinian from Nablus at a military checkpoint with four kilograms of explosions in his possession. The radio also claimed that the Palestinian removed his explosive belt after the army was suspicious of him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Interrogate the gentleman, then, after all the valuable intelligence is obtained, if any, reattach aforementioned explosive belt to his person in an open field, and set him off, like any unexploded ordinance.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2006 0:15
Comments ||
Top||
#2
AP - I assume you wanted him to be read his Miranda rights, first, no?
How about a single bullet, and use the explosives for something constructive?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006 6:05
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Palestinians/Lebanese reported. Israel claimed.
#5
Bobby---Maybe they can get some of his colleagues around him and they can sing Kumbayah while the belt goes off. Just an idea.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2006 10:26
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I would consider that 'constructive'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006 12:30
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Miranda for splodydopes;
You have the right to remain intact.
Anything that can be found which was once a part of you will be used to prove that you did not remain intact.
If intact, you have the right to an atorney.
If you can't afford an atorney, you have one phone call. If you can't afford a phone call, press one now.
#8
Guess I'm on a short fuse today because I say send him back into his own neighborhood on a crowded market day and detonate the charge there. Sauce for the gander and all that. Give these Palestinian morons a first-hand understanding of what they're breeding up in their midst.
The Philippine authorities have ordered the evacuation of about 35,000 people living near a volcano, saying an eruption could take place soon.
The alert was raised to four - the second highest level - following increased activity at Mount Mayon, in the centre of the country. It has been rumbling since February and started emitting lava in mid-July. Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines, having erupted about 50 times in the past 400 years.
People living in the region watched with alarm early on Monday as six successive volcanic blasts within 40 minutes sent ash up to 800m into the air. By mid-morning, Mayon's peak was covered in a dark cloud of volcanic material rising high above the crater. "This morning we recorded at least six small explosions and this signifies that Mayon is almost ready to burst," said Ernesto Corpus, chief of eruption prediction at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
Officials took the decision to raise the alert level to four, which means that an eruption could happen within days. Level five represents an ongoing eruption.
The army has sent 80 trucks to take villagers living within 8km (five miles) of the crater to 34 evacuation centres. The governor of Albay province, Fernando Gonzalez, said 29 villages around the volcano would be evacuated. But provincial officials said some residents were reluctant to leave their land, fearing looters.
Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz said the evacuation was going well, but warned that police would remove those who refused to leave. "If we have to carry them out bodily into the truck and get them out of the zone, the Task Force Mayon will do that," he told a press conference.
Officials said about 50,000 residents would be evacuated if a major eruption occurred, and a Phivolcs advisory urged people living in nearby areas to prepare to leave.
Mayon is one of 22 active volcanoes in the Philippines. Its most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people. Another 75 people died during an eruption in 1993.
#1
"Bailiff, please bring Mr. Spock to the Lord High Grand Inquisitor for Environment. Mr. Spock is to be charged for vulcanogenic disruptions to Mother Gaia (peace be upon her). Tell him to bring his checkbook."
#2
My volcanologist friend said that Mt. Augustine here in Alaska emits 500 tons/day of sulfur dioxide on a normal steaming day. During an eruption, it is estimated to put out 6000 tons/dayh. I would imagine that this volcano would be similar. So where is Al Gore, Kyoto signatories, and enviro-crats when this volcano stuff happens? Huh? Huh????
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2006 0:24
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Global Warming To Take A Hit
Posted by: Al Gore ||
08/08/2006 0:34
Comments ||
Top||
The Year Without a Summer, also known as the Poverty Year and Eighteen hundred and froze to death, was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops in Northern Europe, the American Northeast and eastern Canada[1][2]. Historian John D. Post has called this "the last great subsistence crisis in the western world".
It is now generally thought that the aberrations occurred because of the 5 April 15 April 1815 volcanic eruptions of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in the Dutch East Indies (in today's Indonesia) which ejected immense amounts of volcanic dust into the upper atmosphere. La Soufrière in Saint Vincent in the Caribbean in 1812, and Mayon in the Philippines in 1814, had already built up atmospheric dust in major eruptions. As is common following a massive volcanic eruption, temperatures fell worldwide owing to less sunlight passing through the atmosphere.
#6
Can we dispatch Al on an emergency flight ASAP ? He should be stationed at the rim to see if he can plug the damn thing before it spits out all the global warming juice. And Al, if it starts shaking, run like your ass is on fire. Don't look back, cause it probably will be.
#8
I consider it particularly unfair to Philippinos. There should be a big motha volcano in Soddy in Hejaz region. Exploding often. And one at Qom, although there is some, yet insufficient, seismic activity.
#9
The largest volcano in the middle East is only 50 Kilometers from Teheran. It hasn't erupted in historical times, but you never know (fingers crossed). Link
#12
In the grand order of karma in the universe, I propose as recognition to multi-culturalism that the society adopt the old pacific islander tradition of appeasing the volcano gods [cause we know the wackos will never accept old style Christian traditions]. Lets sacrifice the old fashion way by tossing a rube first earther, cause you just got to use a true believer, mother nature will not accept apostates or non-believers.
#14
You know? Acid rain really has been getting short shrift in the last half-decade or so. It's been "greenhouse" this and "climate change" that and "ozone hole" the other thing.
What with all the SO2 talk, can we get a moment of silence to remember the dreaded Acid Rain?
.
And thank you.
Fighting erupted early on Monday in a Shia militia stronghold of Baghdad, leaving three people dead, while 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a funeral in Saddam Hussein's hometown. A roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers late Sunday, the U.S. military said. No further details were released. Seven other people were killed and six bodies were found on Sunday. In Baghdad, sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district starting about 1 a.m. Monday and persisted for more than an hour.
... sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district starting about 1 a.m. Monday and persisted for more than an hour...
Iraqi government television and aides to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area. ``Several aerial and ground raids began in central Sadr City,'' al-Sadr aide Jaleel al-Nouri said by telephone as detonations could be heard in the background. ``We can see several houses on fire.''
The U.S. military said in a statement the fighting started when Iraqi and U.S. forces raided the area to catch extremists suspected of running torture cells. The forces took fire as soon as they arrived and one U.S. soldier was injured, statement said. The U.S. military recently reinforced its troop strength in the city to try to reclaim the streets from militias, including al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. ``There's gunfire from all sides,'' Kadhim al-Mohammedawi, a civil servant who lives in Sadr City, said by telephone. ``We can hear women and children screaming.''
The district became quiet after more than an hour, except for the sounds of emergency vehicles racing through the streets. Col. Hassan Chaloub, police chief of Sadr City, said three people including a woman were killed and 12 injured, including five children and two women. He said three cars and three houses were destroyed. He said U.S. jets flew over the city and calls of ``God is Great'' and ``There's no God but God'' blasted from loudspeakers in mosques.
Late Sunday, scattered clashes broke out between Shia militiamen and Iraqi soldiers near Hamza Square on the edge of Sadr City, police said. Two militiamen were killed and five combatants were wounded, including two Iraqi soldiers, police said.
... the mourners were attending services for the father of a local council member, who was killed in the attack...
The attack on the mourners occurred about 8:15 p.m. in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad. The bomber mingled among the crowd in a funeral hall and detonated an explosive belt, police said. Police Capt. Laith Hamid said the mourners were attending services for the father of a local council member, who was killed in the attack. Part of the ceiling collapsed and some people might be trapped under the rubble, Hamid said, adding that 10 people were killed and 22 injured. Later, the attacker's vehicle was found and detonated as a safety measure in case it was rigged as a car bomb, police said.
No, the sidebar doesn't make any sense to me, either. Why hold a funeral for him if he wasn't killed until the attack?
The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks across northern Iraq in recent days that have tested the capabilities of Iraq's U.S.-trained security forces. Iraqi authorities, however, have been heartened by the performance of the police in the northern city of Mosul, who stood their ground and drove off the insurgents after a series of attacks last week. In November 2004, Mosul's entire 5,500-member police force fled during an insurgent uprising and the U.S. military had to send American troops and Kurdish fighters to regain control of the city, Iraq's third largest.
Also Sunday, several U.S. Marines were wounded and a few vehicles were destroyed by a suicide car bombing in Anbar province, the U.S. military said without further details. Iraqi police said the attack was in Fallujah, a heavily guarded city 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad.
In scattered violence across the country Sunday, two policemen, two truck drivers, a government security guard, a Sunni preacher and a suspected insurgent were killed. Also Sunday, five bodies were found in Baghdad and one in the southeastern city of Amarrah. In the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, security forces fired warning shots to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who burned tires and blocked roads to protest high fuel prices and poor living conditions. Three people were injured in the protest in the town of Chamchamal.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
maybe, from his smell, they thought he'd been dead for a couple days?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 10:06
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Careful or Miss Deitz will make you diagram the sentence.
#3
the mourners were attending services for the father of a local council member, who was killed in the attack.
I think the local council member was attending the funeral of his father. It was Mr. Council Member who was killed in the attack. They can just drop him in the hole with dear old dad.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2006 14:05
Comments ||
Top||
(SomaliNet) In the fourth hand grenade in just a week, four people were killed and 20 others severely wounded in the Burundian capital, authorities said on Monday, Reuters reported. The catastrophic incident left two people dead on the spot and two others died in the hospital. According to a local official, the attacks were carried out by unknown assailants on Sunday night in the northern Bujumbura suburb of Ngagara. "Those criminals threw five grenades and shot at customers who were drinking beer," local government official Aime Desire Ndibanje said.
But no arrests were made so far and police had no immediate suspects. Meanwhile, some 300,000 illegal guns are thought by the Burundian government to be in the hands of civilians and armed groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - An unmarked ballot wafts in the breeze. Congolese election workers doze. Pieces of concrete weigh down stacks of vote tally sheets, keeping them from blowing away. A week after Congo's presidential elections unfolded in relative peace, experts say the disorder and chaos that has long hobbled the Central African country is creeping into the tallying - raising questions about the fairness of the outcome.
Remember this next time someone rails about how evil US elections are, when people can't tell the difference between Al Gore from Pat Buchanan in West Palm Beach.
"There was widespread chaos at counting centers," said Human Rights Watch's Anneke Van Woudenberg, one of nearly 2,000 international observers in Congo for the election and vote count. "There's a possibility for significant tampering."
Thanks Anneke, now go to lunch and make yourself more useless.
Suspect results could be used as an excuse for war - particularly as several candidates are former rebels with personal militias. Some candidates already are alleging fraud, and the seeming disorder at ballot-collecting centers could give their accusations momentum among Congo's 58 million people.
Oh, ya think? Former rebels might go back into the field if they don't get the results they want?
The July 30 elections were meant to let Y'urp-peon NGOs feel good about themselves end a transitional government led by President Joseph Kabila, who arranged the national unity administration in 2002 to halt six years of near-constant war. Turnout was 80 percent of the 25 million registered voters.
Riots have broken out in some places since the vote because the election commission has had trouble paying its workers. Observers also have complained about limits on voting monitors, poor security at counting centers and a lack of oversight. "There are some difficulties. We're missing materials. We have no transportation. It's hard and the conditions are terrible," said Guy Mukadi Nkongolo, a worker at one of dozens of centers where votes are being tallied, cross-checked and baled for storage. "But we're patient. Even if we have some small imperfections, for me it's OK," the 30-year-old Nkongolo said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Congo's been a mess for over a hundred years, ever since the Belgian King Leopold came stomping in and trashed the place. It's almost enough to make you want to root for Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1914.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006 7:13
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Afrikan disorder? How can this be? They must be talking about Indiana.
DUBAI Lebanon's war ravaged economy is on the brink of collapse, said Sami Haddad, Lebanon's economy minister in an interview on the BBC yesterday.
That usually happens when you're on the losing side of a series of wars.
As the heavy bombardment of the country in its fourth week, the direct damage to the country's infrastructure is estimated at $3.5 billion upwards while the reconstruction costs, according to analysts are likely to exceed $5 billion.
The war has hit Lebanon's key economic sectors such as tourism and agricultural exports hard. The conflict has almost wiped out Lebanon's tourism industry. Tourism accounts for about 15 per cent of the Lebanese economy, and had risen 50 per cent in the first half of 2006.
"Off to Kabul, Ducks, Beirut is being plastered!"
The government had hoped the country would draw in a record 1.6 million visitors this year, bringing in about $2.5 billion in foreign exchange to the economy. We have completely missed this year's tourist season. Confidence is a huge factor in the Lebanese economy. We depend a lot on tourism, and now that's been knocked, it could take years to come back, the minister said.
You can tell he's a minister 'cause he's so smart about this stuff.
Speaking about the collateral damage, Haddad said apart from the damage to the physical structures, the conflict has severely damaged the country's environment and in financial terms could amount to several billions of dollars.
Haddad welcomed international contributions, particularly those from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait that helped the economy to remain stable during the first few weeks of the war. While Saudi Arabia deposited $1 billion in soft loan it provided $500 million towards the Widows Ammunition Fund reconstruction of the country. Kuwait along with other Gulf states together have contributed another $500 million. Financial aid in all forms are welcome. We need more to rebuild the economy, Haddad said.
Lebanon, already saddled with a public debt of about $40 billion, or 180 per cent of GDP, will have to rely solely on foreign donations to rebuild.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tired of getting bombed? Just return the 2 Israeli soldiers, and retire Hezbollah. It really is just that simple.
#3
What a shame. And, no ones going to be coming there for years to come, since rubble inspection usually does not make it to No. 1 on most folks to do list.
FLASH floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 120 people in Pakistan's North West Frontier province, and forced hundreds of thousands out of their homes in neighbouring India, officials said today. The floods played havoc in five districts of Pakistan's NWFP, including two which were badly hit by a devastating earthquake last year, submerging hundreds of villages and causing extensive property damage.
The floods have swept away mud houses and people...
The situation is worse than last year, as the rains triggered more flash floods this time in our five districts,'' NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Khan said. The floods have swept away mud houses and people.
Ummm... Mud people, living in mud houses? Who knew?
By today, rescuers had recovered 43 bodies in Mardan, the second biggest city in the province, after a bridge overflowing with people collapsed on Saturday. Iqbal Khan said some 100 people were still missing in the incident. He said incessant rains and floods could lead to the spread of diseases like diarrhoea and other respiratory infections, especially among children. We are trying our best to provide food and medicines to every affected person but still there is a threat of an epidemic.
These things only happen because they don't have enough shariah, y'know...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 10,000 workers in Saddam Husseins former regime have been re-employed as part of national reconciliation, reversing their purge after the March 2003 US-led invasion, an official said.
More than 8,000 of the reinstated employees worked for the key interior and defense ministries, Rashid Najeb Saleh, the chief of the Agency for Dissolved Entities, told a news conference on Sunday. All Iraqis are under the umbrella of Iraq and now we are seeking the national reconciliation through this directorate, he said.
Any chance the 10,000 signed an apology or an acknowledgement of wrong?
The agency was set up by the government in 2005 to help tens of thousands of workers made jobless in the purge after the 2003 invasion toppled Saddam.
The program involved purging the government of senior officials who were members from Saddams Baath Party. But in the absence of proper records it is likely that tens of thousands of lower level officials were also sacked.
Most government officials in Saddams time were Sunnis, who had traditionally suppressed the majority Shiites. The de-Baathification purge fueled dissatisfaction among the Sunnis against the US-backed Shiite-dominated government, and contributed to the sectarian strife sweeping the country. The strife has taken the form of tit-for-tat killings by Shiite and Sunni extremist groups.
Saleh said the decision to reinstate former employees is very important to resuscitate a wide segment of our Iraqi society. He said nearly 700,000 Iraqi citizens including up to 400,000 members of Saddams armed forces have been deprived of their rights.
During Saddams time about 2.5 million people were members of the Baath Party. Many would have joined it to secure well-paid government jobs and perks rather than to show support for Saddam or Baathism.
I seem to recall any number of ex-Nazis saying the same thing in 1947.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Warning: the photo in the article (at the link, not the one to the right) may show Adnan Hajj's favorite 'rescue worker' with a different helmet. Not sure, take a look.
The Lebanese army called up 5,000 reservists last night to prepare for deployment along the border to try to speed up the departure of Israeli forces, the main hurdle to the United Nations security council adopting a ceasefire resolution. The Lebanese army will only be deployed when Israel and Hizbullah agree to end hostilities.
The army, regarded as neutral by Israel, has not been involved in the present conflict. Its deployment would mark a significant change in the balance of power within the country: for more than 20 years southern Lebanon has been a virtual no-go area for the Lebanese army.
Not neutral? This is the army that the Hezbies have thoroughly infiltrated. They have their own people in key positions and have intimidated others. A good chunk of the army is Shi'a and won't fight the Hezbies.
Fouad Siniora, the Syrian lackey Lebanese prime minister, told a meeting of his cabinet that he wanted the troops deployed much quicker than had been generally expected. Under Mr Siniora's proposal, up to 15,000 Lebanese troops would fan out in the south to guarantee an end to fighting, and the present UN peacekeeping force would be doubled to 4,000 troops to help until the international force arrives, an aide to the prime minister said.
Which means twice as many useless UNIFIL soldiers getting in the way.
The US president, George Bush, speaking at his ranch at Crawford, Texas, said that whatever happened at the UN, the US would not permit a vacuum in southern Lebanon into which Hizbullah, backed by Iran and Syria, could move fresh weapons.
He said the two-stage peace plan under discussion envisaged the Lebanese army, backed by an international force, probably led by France, moving into the Israeli border area and the international force also patrolling the Syria border to stop illegal arms shipments. "As these Lebanese and international forces deploy, the Israeli Defence Forces will withdraw and both Israel and Lebanon will respect the Blue Line that divides them," Mr Bush said.
An international force of about 15,000-20,000 is proposed to back up the Lebanese army.
I'm still waiting to hear who's going to provide this army. Maybe the Samoans have a few soldiers to spare.
A Lebanese army statement last night called on retired officers and regular soldiers who completed service five years ago to report to various military sections across the country from August 10 to 16.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That wasn't "Green Helmut Guy." As for a revamped Lebanese army, as long as it is 40% Shiite it cannot be trusted.
#3
"A revamped Lebanese army" may be just another morphing of more of the known s**t dying to hit the fan judging from the type of 'leadership' by invertebrate sinioras.
(KUNA) -- An envelope containing suspicious white powder was received at the Palestinian Ministerial Council Monday and sent a security officer to hospital in 'critical condition,' council employees told KUNA. The envelope was addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Naseredeen El-Shaer but appeared suspicious to security staff. Upon opening the envelope and inhaling the powder inside, five of the workers fainted and one is now in hospital in critical condition. A worker identified the victim as head of the security crew.
Palestinian security authority teams rushed to the scene and vacated the building and an investigation is already underway. Sappers are also combing the building in fear of explosive devices or other suspicious items somewhere inside. It was not apparent yet whether El-Shaer, who has been man-hunted by Israel since last June 25th, was in the building at the time of the incident. Security teams are banning the press and everybody else from entry to the building.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Candygram
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 0:45
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yesterday, the leftist I-télé news channel said it "looked like an israeli assassination attempt against the PM", lol, following the typical french msm way of propaganda : just let the arabs do all the talking directly without any counterbalancing ("it happened")... and reporting the israeli pov, if it is reported at all, indirectly and with conveyed uncertainty about its truthfulness ("the israeli gvt claims that, but we all know better, don't we?").
#3
If the press is banned, why aren't they livid about being denied access? Without their valiant efforts, how do we know this is not another set-up? Don't the press have noses?
Mebbe they gotta cold.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006 6:01
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Infidel Dr. Stephen Hatfill, obvious Joooooooo sympathizer, is a person of interest, the FBI confirmed
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 10:11
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Beat me to it, Frank. Good 'un.
Speaking of which, maybe America needs to start its own mass mailing campaign.
#6
Upon opening the envelope and inhaling the powder inside, five of the workers fainted and one is now in hospital in critical condition. A worker identified the victim as head of the security crew.
Hey, what is this stuff? Smell this. Whaddya think it is? Pass it over to him. Whadda you think it is?
The State Security Court (SSC) prosecutor on Monday charged four men with the possession and attempted sale of 39 kilogrammes of an explosive substance, judicial sources said. The four men were identified in the charge sheet as Fadi Abu Fara, Mohammad Yousef, and brothers Jihad and Imad Hassan, both being tried in absentia. The prosecution alleges that the men were found in the possession of 39 kilogrammes of mercury, a substance used in the manufacture of explosives.
On May 28, the prosecution claims the four men left their homes in Salt in order to sell two kilogrammes of the chemical but were unable to find a buyer. On returning to Salt, the men then hid some of the mercury by a farm fence close to the house of one of the defendants, said the charge sheet. Jihad Hassan was arrested while attempting to sell mercury to an unnamed buyer. The rest of the group was arrested shortly afterwards before allegedly being able to sell any of the substance, according to the charge sheet.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The gentlemen were messing with mercury? Mad Hatter's Disease coming up!
Seven people have been killed in continuing separatist violence in Indian Kashmir, but Islamic rebels freed three civilians held hostage during a standoff with the army, Indian police said on Monday.
Three militants and two Indian soldiers died in three separate gun battles with troops and counter-insurgency police, in the southern districts of Anantnag and Doda, late Sunday and early Monday, a police spokesman said. The region's powerful rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin claimed in a telephone call to an Indian news agency that its members had killed the soldiers and snatched their weapons.
In Anantnag district, a soldier was killed and two others were hurt when militants opened fire on patrolling troops on Monday, the spokesman said. Suspected militants, encircled by troops in the south of the state, held three civilians hostage for several hours before freeing them. "The three were freed by the militants unharmed," the spokesman said, adding that the troops engaged the militants in a fierce gun battle after they refused to surrender. Hizbul Mujahedin said that two of its members were involved in the fighting.
Meanwhile, a civilian was shot dead when suspected militants raided his house in Anantnag district late Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Three Iraqis were killed and a citizen was abducted Monday in unrelated incidents in Kirkuk city in northern Iraq. A police source told KUNA that a bomb planted in a car at the Wahed Huzayran (first of June) area exploded in Kikruk. The explosion resulted in the death of two and the injury of a civilian who was sent to Kirkuk Public Hospital for treatment.
In another incident, masked gunmen shot dead a civilian in Al-Hurriya area. Masked gunmen also abducted a citizen in Al-Wehda neighborhood in Kirkruk.
Meanwhile in Baghdad, six Iraqi soldiers were killed in Dayali province north of the capital, said a security source today. The source added that masked gunmen attacked a security checkpoint in Balaad Rose in Dayali killing six soldiers and injuring 15 others.
A joint Iraqi police and military force captured four insurgents in Kora Tapeh town. The arrest came after a short clash between the forces and the insurgents.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
QUETTA: Baloch insurgents on Monday claimed to have killed nine security personnel and injured 12 following clashes in Dera Bugti. Wadera Alam Khan, a spokesman for the Baloch insurgents, told reporters via satellite phone that violence had escalated on Monday after a brief break. "Nine security forces personnel were killed while 12 were seriously wounded," he said, adding that the clash had occurred at Daman in the north of Uchh gas field. "The assault was launched when security forces attacked the hideouts of Baloch fighters. Subsequently, both sides traded fire for many hours," he said.
Khan said the militants had captured seven security forces vehicles. "Two helicopters assisted the security forces and bombed the area, destroying one of the vehicles that the Baloch fighters had taken," he said. "No fighter was killed or injured." A Balochistan government official called the militants' claims "absolute nonsense".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
MIRANSHAH: Suspected tribal militants in North Waziristan have beheaded a man they accused of acting as a "US spy", officials said on Monday. The headless body of the local man was found at Madikhel village, 35 kilometres south of Miranshah, administration officials told Daily Times. A letter found near the body claimed that the man had been executed because he had spied for the United States. The killing represents the first such incident since June 25, when local militants announced a unilateral ceasefire to facilitate the Grand Jirga's "peace mission" to the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
vacationer
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 0:39
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The killing represents the first such incident since June 25
After all July is the month you take time off to barbeque...
(KUNA) -- Israeli warplanes struck on Monday the coastal town of Al-Ghazia located just south of the port city of Sidon killing 15 people, a security source said. The source said the aircraft carried out three raids targeting residential districts in the town, killing 15 people and wounding 18 others. The strikes devastated three apartment buildings and 15 residences, the source said, adding that rescuers were facing enormous difficulties in trying to remove rubble and pull out victims trapped underneath.
Earlier today, the assaulting jet fighters struck a residential building in the beachfront town of Al-Ghassania, farther to the south, killing a whole seven-member family.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Only 20 ? Any respectable bombing run should have produced 100 times as many ? Surely this is a joke.
BAGHDAD - The top US general in Iraq said on Monday that US and Iraqi forces would drive death squads and militants out of Baghdad, in another attempt to restore security to the capital by the end of September. There is a comprehensive plan ... to change the situation significantly prior to Ramadan, General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, told a news conference following a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Over 3,700 US troops from the 172nd Stryker Brigade began arriving in Baghdad on Sunday to help stem rising sectarian violence, which has threatened to push Iraq to civil war. The beefed up forces are an admission that Operation Forward together, a security crackdown in the capital driven by what the Iraqi government has said is about 50,000 Iraqi forces, had failed to ease violence.
What you will see are Iraqi security forces, supported by the coalition, clearing out areas where there are terrorists and death squads, and then establishing the security presence to protect the people, Casey said. Its clear to everyone that the people in Iraq are tired of terrorism and want peace and security. That peace and security will come when all Iraqis reject violence and accept peace.
The United States boosted its soldiers in the capital, in a blow to Washingtons hopes that it can start bringing its troops home, after Iraqi forces failed to curb increasingly savage sectarian attacks or confront armed militias blamed for fanning tension.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has sworn to disarm these groups, but must proceed with care because some are connected to members of his newly formed government of national unity.
And until that's fixed the violence won't go away.
All the operations are designed to protect the population, and if the people of Baghdad cooperate with their security forces, this can happen very quickly, Casey said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maliki might be playing to the taters, but a serious enema is in order and will be administered.
The 172nd is in surgical mode.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 0:41
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Seems like the press is still in the "impending civil war" mode.
Was it 12 or 18 months ago the bad guys torched a gasoline truck and killed dozens? (Over a hundred?) Remember when bombers killed dozens in a single blast? Kinda quiet, now, is it not?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006 6:04
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Does this mean they are going to roast Tater? He (and Iran) are behind a lot of this. Arrange for him to have an 'accident'.
#5
It is an interesting tactic the Islamists are using in Iraq. They kill as many Muslims as they can in order to wear down the will of the coalition to continue the efforts to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq. They say "leave - or we'll brutally kill our own innocent people." We don't leave, so the Islamists intentionally blow up innocent Iraqis day after day. The international media and the Arab world then attribute the deaths to the infidel US and coalition occupation, but strangely there are few photographs of the carnage wrought by Islamist bombs.
Then switch screens to Lebanon. There the Islamists launch rockets under cover of women and children in an attempt to kill Israeli civilians. As they launch the rockets, they anticipate there will be defensive retaliation at the site by Israel. Within minutes, Israel indeed retaliates with a pinpoint bomb at the site of the rocket launch, but the terrorists have gone leaving behind the civilian shields who have become innocent casualties. Then amid reams of photos of mangled bodies and wailing friends, relatives and parents, the international media and the Arab world again attribute the deaths to the infidels Israelis.
(KUNA) -- A 23-year-old Alquds brigades memebr, Rashid Al-Amri, Sunday died of wounds caused by Israeli bullets, said medical sources. Eyewitnesses told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that Israeli forces surrounded a house in Silat Al-Harthiya and demanded its residents to evacuate it. The Israeli forces then opened heavy fire on the house, killing al-Amri, added the eyewitnesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
RAMALLAH, Aug 6 (KUNA) -- A 23-year-old Alquds brigades memebr, Rashid Al-Amri, Sunday died of wounds caused by Israeli bullets, said medical sources.
(KUNA) -- A member of Al-Qaeda terrorist organization was killed and 11 others were arrested during a raid on Saturday, the US army on Sunday. In a press release, US army said the raid took place to the north of Baghdad in Al-Taji area that's known for containing a number of elements launching terrorist attacks in central Iraq. Through intelligence efforts, the cell was known for its role in producing bombs and launching attacks against security forces and civilians, added the army.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Sri Lanka Monday asked Tamil rebels to return to the peace talks and committed itself to find a negotiated settlement to all contentious issues. "We still believe that we must get back to the table. We feel Tamil rebels are also feeling the same because of international pressure," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told reporters after a meeting with senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja in Delhi Monday.
Samaraweera said he had good discussions with CPI leaders on the developing situation in Sri Lanka. "We agreed that the only way out was a negotiated settlement which would deal with the general aspirations of the people," he said. Sri Lanka has reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire agreement despite numerous attacks by the Tamil rebels, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Israeli warplanes Monday bombed the southern suburb of Beirut hours after Arab foreign ministers ended an urgent meeting in the Lebanese capital, a security source said. The source told KUNA the Israeli jet fighters unleashed two missiles at the southern suburb and a huge explosion could be heard around the capital. No casualties were reported so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two missiles is front-page news?
How many did the Hezbos fire at civilians?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006 6:08
Comments ||
Top||
#2
No casualties were reported so far
Them bastid Jews bomb us, and them bastid Blogers won't let us lie about civilian casualties!
The peace process in the Himalayan state of Nepal between Maoist guerrillas and Nepalese politicians is on the verge of collapse over the future of the monarchy and disarmament, a senior communist leader said yesterday.
The comments, by deputy rebel chief Baburam Bhattarai, were the first signs of a split in the alliance between the seven political parties and the Maoists that effectively removed the king from power in April. "The talks are very close to collapse," Mr Bhattarai told business leaders in Kathmandu. "The dialogue process is stuck at a very sensitive stage. The government is trying to force us to war again."
"They're twisting our arms! We got no choice but to go kill people!"
The rebel leader ruled out an immediate return to battle, saying that if the talks failed the Maoists would "launch a new peaceful, popular movement in the cities, and not go back to the jungles".
"I had a bad case of crotch rot last time in the jungle, and believe you me I don't want to go back."
Despite previous Maoist statements that they would accept a ceremonial monarchy if the people wanted one, Mr Bhattarai criticised the interim prime minister's recent statement in favour of a ceremonial monarchy. "We caution and warn the prime minister that we may have to leave him if he continues to protect the monarchy - and that protest will not only finish the king, it will also finish all those who are siding with the monarchy," Mr Bhattarai said.
The negotiations appear to have stalled because the Maoists are unwilling to give up their guns unless the Nepalese army is disarmed. The UN had proposed that armouries could be built in barracks for the rebels where weapons could be kept under two sets of locks. One set of keys would be held by the Maoists, the other by the UN. However, the Maoists would not accept the plan unless the country's military was similarly constrained. "What was being proposed was dissolving the [Maoist] People's Liberation army. It is not acceptable to us," Maoist chief negotiator, Krishna Bahadur Mahara told the Guardian. "We are not for the status quo. How can we accept demilitarisation only for us, and not for them?"
Because they're the lawful government?
Analysts say that the Maoists were attempting to strengthen their hand in the negotiations by talking tough. "The international community has been quite firm. India, the US, the EU have all told the Maoists they cannot join the interim government with guns in hand," said Kanak Mani Dixit of Himal magazine. "What they need is a face-saving measure (for the Maoists), because Nepal does not want to return to war."
Which means you have to cave-in to the Maoists, since that's the only 'face-saving' measure that they'll accept.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Fresh violence in different parts of Afghanistan claimed 13 lives, including a soldier of the International Security Assistance Force. A statement released from ISAF headquarters says one soldier died today (Sunday) from a gunshot wound sustained during a multinational operation in Musa Qala district in Helmand province. The incident occurred when ISAF troops came under small arms fire, following a successful mission, said the statement. It says nationality of the soldier will not be released by ISAF headquarters while further details about the operation, if becomes available, will be released later.
In the same province, fierce battle between Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces left at least 10 insurgents dead, claimed the Afghan government on Sunday. Provincial government's spokesman Mohyuddin Khan told journalists their forces clashed with Taliban as the latter attacked their convoy in the Garamser district last night. He said the fighting continued for several hours which resulted in killing of 10 attackers. Five others were arrested while rest of their colleagues managed to escape taking advantage of the dark. Khan said the Afghan army and police were supported by British forces in the battle. Taliban did not issue any statement on the fresh government's claim. Both Afghan officials and Taliban issue conflicting statements about losses and casualties to their opponents.
The attacker pre-maturely blew up his explosive-packed car and the blast took place yards away from the convoy...
In a separate attack in western Afghanistan , a group of armed men rained rockets at a police check post in the night killing two policemen. The provincial security officials in Badghis, the province where the attack was carried out, are tight-lipped about identity of the attackers. In Kandahar, the former stronghold of Taliban, a suicide bomber was killed when he missed his target Sunday morning. The failed attack was carried out in Daman district of Kandahar when a NATO convoy was passing through the area. The attacker pre-maturely blew up his explosive-packed car and the blast took place yards away from the convoy. Spokesman for the multinational force Major Innis said none of their soldiers was hurt in the botched up attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Watch that car, watch that car, Carl it's low on the axles, cock that 50, watch that car. KABLOOOII er what car sarge.
BARA: The political administration of Khyber Agency on Monday ended the suspension of 400 khasadars (tribal policemen) and released their salaries but warned that the administration would launch a crackdown on Zakha Khel Bazaar if the Lashkar-e-Islami did not abandon its activities by August 17. The administration made this decision at a jirga between the assistant political agent (APA) and elders of Zakha Khel Bazaar led by Malik Nadir Shah Afridi, Malik Mahmud Afridi and Malik Habib Jan. Around 300 Zakha Khel elders attended the jirga at Khyber House.
The APA warned the elders that arrests would be made under the Collective Responsibility Act if the Lashkar-e-Islami headed by Mangal Bagh did not stop its activities by August 17. The jirga also discussed the restoration of peace in Bara and the tribal elders assured the government of full cooperation. The APA urged the elders to protect their land and expel individuals challenging the government's writ from Zakha Khel Bazaar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defined the war with Hizbullah as an existential threat during a live Internet broadcast to US Jewish organizations late Monday. According to Olmert, "For the first time since the 1960s, Israel has an enemy whose goal is to eliminate our existence."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"For the first time since the 1960s, Israel has an enemy whose goal is to eliminate our existence."
Ummmm, maybe I'm missing some nuance, but what about the PLO and Hamas?
#3
Sadly, there are those in the Jewish community here who need it bluntly said. But supposedly the community has not been so united on Israel's side since 1973 (the Yom Kippur War).
I have a feeling Bibi Netanyahu is going to win the next election. The progression needed to happen -- the Intifadas demonstrated conclusively the falsity of the pacifists' fond hope that it would all go away if only Israel would do as the world prescribed; Olmert's Kadimah showed there is no Third Way without Sharon's warlike hand at the helm; only Bibi's way remanins.
#5
IIUC, Olmert has said that he didnt mobilize earlier cause Halutz didnt ask for it.
Kinda what Rummy said about more troops for Iraq. Ya know, something about no plan surviving contact with the enemy, the inherent uncertainty of war, all that. Odd that the folks who excuse Rummys 3 years of mistakes, are pouncing on Olmerts handling of the war, when we have so little real info about who ordered what, or even whats really happened on the ground in Lebanon.
As for the int. politics, ANY Israeli govt is going to have to pursue politics and diplomacy. Even Bibi. Bibi signed the Wye Accords. Not because of the cloth he is cut from, but because thats the strategic reality Israel faces.
#7
In 1998, then Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Sharon as Foreign Minister.
Phony "right-wingers" Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu have been busy for years surrendering Israel to the PLO Arab Muslim terrorists - In 1998, as then Prime Minister Netanyahu's foreign minister, Sharon assisted him and the Jew-hating Traitor-in-Chief Bill Clinton in crafting the agreement to surrender 13% of Judea and Samaria to the PLO Muslim Nazi terrorists.
Netanyahu and Sharon then went together to the infamous 1998 Wye Plantation summit, where they negotiated with the Arab Hitler Yasser Arafat. Under the supervision of the Jew-hater Bill Clinton, Netanyahu and Sharon agreed to surrender another 13% of Judea and Samaria to the PLO Nazi terrorists.
I hope they do a little better than Bibi. He speaks well.
RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Moroccan security services have arrested 44 suspected terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks in the North African country, the state news agency reported Monday.
The ministry said that the group's leader was a former convict who recruited Islamic radicals to train them in explosives use and planned to wage a holy war...
The suspects, who included five former soldiers with explosives expertise, were tracked down in Casablanca and six other cities and towns, the MAP agency reported, citing a statement from the Interior Ministry. Police also seized explosives, laboratory materials and propaganda leaflets, the report said.
Morocco's government has cracked down on suspected terrorists since suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003 left 45 people dead, and stunned a nation where most espouse moderate Islam.
The ministry said that the group's leader was a former convict who recruited Islamic radicals to train them in explosives use and planned to wage a holy war. The group allegedly sought to finance its activities through robberies of financial institutions and bank trucks, the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Steve! You edited out the most important part!
Human rights groups allege that innocent people have been caught up in the government's sweep, and that many are tortured.
Without that line, the AP would never have run the article. How many innocent people are killed by the barbarians? Is terror not a form of torture?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2006 5:57
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ah! It seems that Human rights groups are trying to welcome their new overlords and are in distress that they are not allowed to.
The cabinet committee formed to review draft amendments to the Hudood Ordinances has decided to delete a proposed change that would make sex with a girl below the age of 16 the offence of rape.
The ministers argued that in Islam, a woman becomes an adult when she reaches puberty.
Cabinet sources told Daily Times that several minister had objected to this clause when the draft amendments were presented to the cabinet for approval a week ago. The prime minister formed a six-member ministerial committee to resolve differences over the amendments.
The sources said Sher Afgan Niazi, the parliamentary affairs minister, Aftab Sherpao, the interior minister, and Dr GG Jamal, the culture minister, had argued at the cabinet meeting that this amendment would cause trouble in rural and tribal areas where girls are traditionally married off at a young age. The ministers argued that in Islam, a woman becomes an adult when she reaches puberty.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah, but they suddenly become children again when the muzzies need the Al Reuters or AP photos splashed across the front page.
Defense Minster Amir Peretz said Monday he has ordered the army to step up the offensive against Hizbullah rocket launching sites in Lebanon if the diplomatic process remains inconclusive. "We are at one of the most decisive stages of this war," Peretz told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Peretz said in the absence of a diplomatic agreement, he had instructed the army to "take control" of launching sites "wherever they are to minimize the fire of Katyusha rockets and take the Israeli people out of the shelters."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
RICHLAND, Wash. - A stolen truck full of doughnuts? Better believe Tri-Cities police were on that in a hurry. Moments after the theft of the Viera's Bakery van was reported early Friday in Kennewick, police issued an all-points bulletin. A Benton County sheriff's deputy quickly spotted the truck. After a chase at 30 to 35 mph, Richland police got it to stop and arrested the driver, Steve Swoboda, 19, for investigation of auto theft and felony escape. Still intact was the entire load of glazed, sugar and cream doughnuts, as well as apple fritters, bear claws. "In 24 years in law enforcement I've never had a call like that," Richland police Capt. Randy Barnes said. "To steal a bakery truck, how clever is that?"
Still intact was the entire load of glazed, sugar and cream doughnuts, as well as apple fritters, bear claws...
"It kind of sticks out, a doughnut truck," Kennewick police Sgt. Ken Lattin said.
The truck was taken while the delivery driver, Gilberto Gonzales, left the engine running during a stop at the Break Place Conoco. Gonzales asked the clerk if he recalled seeing a man who had been standing in front of the store. "The clerk said, 'Yeah, that guy's been wanting a ride to Richland for a while,'" said Mario Viera, one of the operators of the bakery. Viera said he was happy that none of the load was lost "but I'm going to make sure Gilberto doesn't leave the keys in the truck any more."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Still intact was the entire load of glazed, sugar and cream doughnuts, as well as apple fritters, bear claws.
"Unfortunately, the perp is gonna walk since all of the evidence mysteriously disappeared on its way to the station."
#2
After Steve gets out of intensive care and can eat through a straw after being severely beaten, he will be transported to a maximum security penitentiary for the rest of his natural life plus 10 years for good measure. "Had he been stupid enough to have stolen a Krispy Kreme delivery truck it would have been worse. Far worse." said the Captain.
If you want to find all the cops,
They're hanging out in the donut shop.
They sing and dance (Oh-Way-Oh)
They spin their clock and cruise on down the block . . .
All the cops in the donut shops
say:Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooo-aaa-ooo...
Walk like an Egyptian
Posted by: Mike ||
08/08/2006 9:56
Comments ||
Top||
#5
From what I heard, cops prefer healthier food than do-nuts. It has been a long time since I saw a cop eating one.
I remember when they opened a Krispy Kreme donut shop in my area. For over a month it seemed the police had traffic all re-routed to "reduce congestion" in the area. There were always about three patrol cars out front with their lights on. I don't think it was the least bit necessary. I'll bet KK was just doing a bit of advertising via the local police department! But it's true, even then I didn't see any of the police standing around eating a donut! :-)
ALBUQUERQUE (Reuters) - An Albuquerque policeman and his pilot face
disciplinary measures after using a police helicopter this week to
swoop in for a midnight snack of doughnuts, officials said on Friday.
The officer and the civilian pilot were on night patrol over the city
in a Kiowa OH-58 helicopter when they landed in a vacant lot next to a
Krispy Kreme doughnut store around 1 a.m. on Thursday morning.
``The contracted pilot and a police officer landed the copter early in
the morning, ran in and grabbed a dozen, came back out and took off,''
Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Brian McCutcheon said.
``I don't know whose brain child it was, but it's quite an ugly
child,'' he said.
McCutcheon said the event was being investigated as a possible misuse
of city funds as well as for safety reasons, although he added there
was no specific protocol for this case because it had ever happened
before.
``We've been given no reasonable excuse as to why they would even
think they could do this. But there could be some very serious
ramifications,'' he said.
An eyewitness told the Albuquerque Journal that he saw the APD
helicopter circle the Krispy Kreme and land in a nearby dirt field.
``I was angry, and I'm still kind of angry. That's my tax dollars,
your tax dollars. You've got no business flying in to get doughnuts,''
said Keith Turner, who works nearby and was taking a smoke break when
he saw the chopper swoop in,
The cost to the department of running a Kiowa, including fuel and
maintenance, is $80 an hour, McCutcheon said.
A Krispy Kreme employee who asked not to be identified said he didn't
see why people were making a big deal of the unusual doughnut run.
Lebanon is ready to deploy 15 000 troops in the south up to the border with Israel when the Jewish state pulls out all soldiers from the area, information minister Ghazi Aridi said after a cabinet session on Monday. "The government asserts that it is ready to send 15 000 troops to the south, with the Israeli withdrawal beyond the Blue Line," or Lebanon's UN-drawn border with Israel, he said. Asked about the military presence of Hezbollah which has been controlling the border area, Aridi said: "Where the army will be, it will be on its own."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ready? Morphing Hezbos no doubt
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 0:54
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Where the army will be, we will be elsewhere. Shooting over their heads if need be.
U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, dogged by an influence peddling probe in Washington, will not seek re-election, state Sen. Joy Padgett said early Monday. Ney called Padgett on Saturday and asked the fellow Republican to run in his place, saying that defending himself has been a strain on his family, she said. "It's a very sad time," Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site. She said Ney told her, "that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this.'" Padgett told The Associated Press she would run for Ney's seat.
Calls to Ney's office and staff were not immediately returned. He has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing. Padgett said Ney told her he intends to serve the remainder of his term. The six-term congressman from Heath in central Ohio had insisted he would not resign even if indicted over his dealings with now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
In his first primary test in a decade, Ney won 68 percent of the vote May 2 against a little-known opponent. However, he faced a tough challenge in November from Democrat Zack Space, who had made the Justice Department's investigation into Ney a focus of his campaign. For the first three months of 2006, Ney's campaign spent more than it raised, a deficit he blamed on mounting legal costs. In the past three months, it was unusually intense campaigning in his expansive rural district that caused the incumbent to spend $52,675 more than donors gave him, he said. "I'm embattled and attacked; I understand that," Ney told The AP last month after Space raised about $190,000 more than Ney for the quarter.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Six Iraqis were killed and 20 others were injured Monday during several attacks in Baghdad and Dayali Monday, a police source said. The source in press remarks that six civilians were injured after a booby-trapped car exploded near the southern gate of Al-Mustansirya University. The explosion caused damages to nearby properties, added the source.
Meanwhile, a statement by the joint Iraqi police and army forces in Dayali province said that four Iraqis were killed and seven injured due to a road-side bomb explosion. In another incident, road-side bomb targeting a police car patrol in Khan bani Saad town near Ba'akoba in northern Iraq. An Iraqi joint forces source told KUNA that the explosion caused the death of two Iraqi and the injury of seven others.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Serious difficulties that the war is causing Syria:
[..]
One of those problems is a serious inflow of refugees from Lebanon. It looks like the Israeli effort to clear civilians out of Southern Lebanon was not strictly humanitarian in nature. It was also meant to destabilize the Syrian regime.
[..]
What, then, provoked Mohsen Bilal to offer to jump headlong into an Israeli trap? Contrary to Washington's hopes, the Bashar al-Assad regime may not be viable after the destruction of Hezbollah. The flood of refugees is painful to absorb. In addition, Syria's economy depends on Lebanon. Syrian workers in Lebanon remit US$4 billion a year, double Syria's reported exports. The Assad regime and its supporters draw substantial income from Lebanon's black market, which Syria continues to dominate despite the removal of Syrian troops last year.
US as well as Israeli analysts assume that the Syrian regime will do anything to survive, but in the wake of Hezbollah's collapse and the breakdown of Lebanon's Shi'ite community, it may not be obvious to Bashar Assad how he may accomplish this. Without the skim from Lebanon's black market and the remittances from Syrian workers in Lebanon, the regime's purse will shrivel and its hold on the reins will slacken. Double-crossing its allies in Tehran at just that moment might not be the wisest move, particularly with remnants of Hezbollah fleeing into Syria.
[..]
What is the black market of which Spengler speaks? Blonde Lebanese hasish well known in the region and a favorite of many Israelis.[ hat tip Yehudit of Kesher Talk ] A Deep Purple concert was scheduled for this summer in Baalbeck. That would have attracted tourists from Israel and Europe. Not to mention many Lebanese. The Syrian's get a cut for providing protection all up and down the supply chain.
[..]
#1
Deep Purple concert in Baalbek, eh? Well, Bashar, you shouldn't have let the Hezb dogs off the chain but now that you have, don't complain about what it's costing you. Just "Hush!"
Posted by: mac ||
08/08/2006 17:57
Comments ||
Top||
#2
no Smoke On The Water jokes?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 18:31
Comments ||
Top||
#3
there was a photo I was thinking of inculding with this but Rantburg is to family values oriented so I refrained.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said on Monday that a desktop computer with personal data on as many as 38,000 U.S. military veterans had disappeared from Unisys Corp., a subcontractor.
Disclosure of the breach comes three days after authorities arrested two teenagers in the theft of a laptop and hard drive containing sensitive data on as many as 26.5 million veterans and military personnel. The equipment in that case, turned in to authorities on June 28, was stolen May 3 during a burglary of a VA employee's home, authorities said.
In the latest case, Unisys told the VA on August 3 that the computer was missing from the company's offices in Reston, Virginia, the VA said. The VA and Unisys said the data may include names, addresses, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. The data do not contain personal financial information, Unisys said in a statement, but the VA said it may include patients' insurance carriers and billing information, dates of military service and claims information that may include some medical information.
Nope, no personal financial information, just all the ID you need to get the personal financial information.
The VA's inspector general, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement agencies "are conducting a thorough investigation of this matter," Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson said in a statement.
Jim, it's time for you to go ...
The agency said it believes the records concern about 5,000 patients treated at the VA medical center in Philadelphia and about 11,000 seen at a VA facility in Pittsburgh over the past four years, as well as about 2,000 deceased veterans. The agency said it is also investigating whether the computer contained information on about another 20,000 people who were treated at the Pittsburgh medical center.
Unisys said it had launched a "comprehensive search and investigation" and was working with the VA and law enforcement agencies investigating the incident.
... and it's time for a new contractor ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Steve, I would like to politley correct your in-line: "Jim, it's PAST time for you to go."
Or to put it another way that may be more familiar to the regulars: " You're Dead (professionally), Jim."
#4
This is really getting disgusting. Someone's head needs to go
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 21:07
Comments ||
Top||
#5
What has to go is the automatic linking of SSNs to names in the military. Given the amount of data and the number of people involved, it would be almost impossible to keep this stuff from getting stolen unless we want to make names and SSNs classified.
Last year, my reserve center sent out a list of everyone eligible for some gedunk War on Terror/Poverty/Obesity ribbon. 150 personnel: full names, ranks and SSNs. Unclassified, these papers could be seen floating around everywhere in the building. Makes me want to...write a strongly worded letter to SECDEF.
(KUNA) -- Two Iraqi police officers were killed on Monday and three were injured among them one civilian when gunmen attacked them in the city of Mosul. An Iraqi police source from Mosul said unknown armed men opened fire at several policemen in the city, killing two, and injuring three others, among them a civilian bystander.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Seven British anti-war protesters were arrested Monday after campaigners boarded a plane at a Scottish airport to search for US weapons being transported to Israel, police said. Two men and a woman were in custody after getting on what is understood to be a military plane at Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, in the early hours of this morning. Police confirmed a further four people, two men and two women, were also arrested at the airport.
Anti-nuclear campaign group "Trident Ploughshares" said its activists had boarded a US plane while carrying out an investigation into the British Governments involvement in the transport of arms to Israel. The arrested protesters were expected to appear in court tomorrow.
Four people were arrested at the airport yesterday after breaking through security fencing and running onto the main runway, the police added. It follows protests last weekend when two flights carrying hazardous material were diverted to the Royal Air Force base of Mildenhall, in Suffolk, southern England. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the body responsible for policing the transit of the flights through civilian airports, said yesterday that it had given permission for the two US flights to stop at Prestwick last weekend, but no others. "We have not issued permission for the carriage of any dangerous cargo to Israel," a spokesman for the CAA said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
nice security - why weren't they shot?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2006 10:18
Comments ||
Top||
#2
...Some years ago some protesters got onto an RAF base where an SR-71 was doing a RON and managed to spray graffitti on it. Airport security seems to be a real problem over there.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/08/2006 12:04
Comments ||
Top||
#3
One day a crew is going to close the cargo ramp and some haggis-for-brains will end up being the designated love goat for some Pashtun tribe.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2006 13:03
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"understood to be a military plane " as in it wasn't, it was a commercial freight job, though frank is right these naive fuckers should of been shot where the fuck was security
Senior representatives of the Taliban attended the grand tribal jirga's meeting with NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday, and were told that foreign militants should leave Pakistan. Maulvi Mir Qasim and Maulvi Muhammad Aalam, considered close to the Taliban in North Waziristan, were among 45 other jirga members who met Orakzai, official and tribal sources told Daily Times.
"The foreign militants must leave our soil," Orakzai told the Taliban representatives and jirga members. "Those who prefer to stay in Pakistan due to some genuine reason can be allowed after the tribesmen guarantee that these foreigners will obey the laws of the land," he said.
A jirga member said that Orakzai was told to stop the "army's direct interference in official administration business". The jirga assured the governor that the Taliban would abide by the law if the security forces withdraw from North Waziristan, he said. He said that Orakzai had asked the jirga members to make the Taliban meet the government's demands as "generously" as the government had accepted their demands — the release of prisoners, removal of check posts and restoration of privileges for elders. Official sources said the meeting had a difference of opinion on cross border infiltration. The Taliban commanders are asking for safe passage, which the government refuses to accept, said the sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Israel on Monday said it had ordered its ambassador to Venezuela to return home for consultations, following last week's recall to Caracas of Venezuela's Israel envoy, in protest at what President Hugo Chavez called Israel's "genocide" in Lebanon.
We have a problem with the leadership in Caracas that hugs the Iranian president who calls for the annihilation of Israel.
Chavez, an outspoken left-wing leader, has angered Israel with his display of affection for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. "We are disturbed by the one-sided Middle East approach of the president of Venuleza," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told The Associated Press. "We have a problem with the leadership in Caracas that hugs the Iranian president who calls for the annihilation of Israel."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yep, that could be a problem for diplomacy
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2006 0:48
Comments ||
Top||
ALMOST a quarter of British Muslims say the 7/7 bombings can be justified because of the Government's support for the war on terror, according to an opinion poll. And nearly half of those polled, or 45 per cent, believe the 9/11 attacks on New York were a conspiracy between the United States and Israel.
A third of those questioned said they would rather live under Sharia law in the UK than British law.
The survey, for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary to be screened tonight, found Muslims under 24 were twice as likely to justify the 7/7 attacks as those aged over 45. It found 24 per cent either agreed or tended to agree that the 7/7 bombings were justified, although 48 per cent said they "strongly disagreed". A third of those questioned said they would rather live under Sharia law in the UK than British law. The survey also reveals concerns among Muslims about Britain's moral standards, with 40 per cent saying it is a country of bad moral behaviour.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I wonder what percentage of real Brits think its justified to make Islam illegal.
#5
Pebbles, you are such a gentle soul... That would cost a bundle. You need to find more economical approach. How about deportation to the place of origin?
#7
I know, I know, some were born in UK. How about this... They have to go to Mekkka at least once in their life. How about accomodating and facilitating their religious duty by airdrop over Mekkka. No shoots necessary, Allan will provide, no doubt about it.
#8
They already cost a bundle. 90% are on benefits. The net difference would be very low, and the security boost/crime lowering/cultural improvement resulting from it would offset this.
#9
How about voting rather than blowing yourselves to bits to make a political point? How about getting a job to relieve the poverty in your community? How about speaking English to help you get on in society? Nope, not interested. F*ck off then.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/08/2006 8:10
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Howard UK: How do you REALLY feel? I'd like to see the MSM take a poll of UK citizens who have been there for 4-5 generations and see the outcomes of what they feel about Islam. These polls, while I'm highly skeptical of them, don't bode well for our cousins across the pond. Godspeed and happy huntin' dear Brits.
Posted by: BA ||
08/08/2006 9:18
Comments ||
Top||
#11
"A third of those questioned said they would rather live under Sharia law in the UK than British law."
In that case, why not swap 'em for the suffering non-muslims living in Indonesia, Pakistan and even Malaysia, for example? There'll be takers from over there.
#13
What more proof do the Brits and European want as to where their country is going. Prayer rugs anyone?
Posted by: Art ||
08/08/2006 10:18
Comments ||
Top||
#14
These polls, while I'm highly skeptical of them
Indeed BA! Its not that the conclusions asserted of this poll are implausible. But can someone explain how the polling solicitors can ethically claim that the respondents of one isolated poll translates into an entire segment of the population? On the rare occasions Ive been asked to participate in a poll, I always have something more important to do. (You know like clip my toenails or something.)
#15
Good point, Depot Guy. 44 percent of those polled simply hang up without comment. Polls are also slanted for results by the questions and by the phone numbers called.
recently, in Lebanon, a poll was taken asking if people support Hezbollah. Those called thought it was Hezbollah calling, so they said 'sure, love 'em'.
If I were a pollster, I would take a poll like an IQ test. Results:
Among group1, people who cannot think for themselves, global warming is the top issue.
Among group2, educated, the war on terror is the top issue.
Among group3, self-educated, the war against Islam is the top issue.
Among group1, coporate America is the enemy.
Among group2, American imperialism is the enemy.
Among group3, stupidity is the enemy.
10 kafirs (infidels) and munafiqs (traitors) were annihilated and at least 13 others wounded in various military operations of the Mujahideen in the Chechen capital Jokhar and in southern Chechnya during 24 hours (August 5 to August 6), reports a spokesman in the Chechen Military Command. These figures are not complete and do not include the information coming with some delay from certain areas of Chechnya, stressed the spokesman. 2 Mujahideen martyred (Shaheeds insha Allah) in the attacks, and 4 others were slightly hurt.
The Mujahideen attacked kafirs and munafiqs in Jokhar [Grozny] as well as in Vedeno, Nozhai Yurt and Kurchaloi districts of Chechnya. 2 Russian invaders were killed and 3 injured in Jokhar. One invader and 3 proxies were annihilated and 5 others wounded in two different attacks in the area of village Dargo and the district center Vedeno. 1 Russian soldier was killed and 4 wounded in a brief firefight in the area of village Nikikhat. The invaders used support helicopters in this battle. 3 Russians were killed and one wounded in a special operation of Mujahideen in a forest tract near village Yalkhoi Mokhck. No detais of this attack were reported. It is only known that the Mujahideen traced a mobile group of Russian kafirs and blew it up.
Russian artillery and aviation bombarded the Vedeno Gorge and mountain areas near villages Dargo and Yalkhoi Mokhck as well as the regions on the Chechen-Dagestani border. No information on the casualties of civilians is available.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
A New York man mauled by his pet tiger has failed in his bid to sue the city for entering his flat without a warrant. Antoine Yates was jailed after being arrested in 2003 when police found the 200kg (32st) creature, named Ming, and a two metre (6ft) alligator, Al, in the tiny fifth-floor flat. Mr Yates claimed that when he returned to his home, cash, jewellery and a pet rabbit were missing. 
The Libyan government took 25 years to repair diplomatic ties with the United States to be able to reopen an embassy in the District, but it can't because the District's utilities authority refuses to turn on water service. 
Kim Jong Il attended a Russian art performance and visited a tire factory July 4, a day before the missile launches, and he hasn't appeared publicly since, according to South Korea's spy agency. 
Eleven Egyptian students who arrived in the United States last month are being sought by authorities after failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University. The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas, according to U.S. authorities and university officials. 
Al-Sadr has risen to become a major figure in the Shiite community and a pillar of support for al-Maliki. The prime minister's apology and criticism of the U.S. forces may have helped placate al-Sadr, who on Monday urged his followers to show restraint. 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Several concerts on the Dixie Chicks' "Accidents & Accusations" tour have been canceled after slow ticket sales, but the group says it has replaced them with other dates. Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville are among 14 cities no longer on the original schedule released in May, according to a revised itinerary posted Thursday on the Dixie Chick's Web site. Other shows, including Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix, have been pushed back to later dates.
Opposition from Lebanon caused the United States and France to delay vote on a UN resolution, diplomats said. The current draft of the Security Council resolution calls for "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations" %u2013 implicitly giving Israel the right to pursue "defensive" operations. Israel views the draft favourably, as it does not order Israel to withdraw its 10,000 soldiers from southern Lebanon.
THE southern Lebanese port city of Tyre was completely cut off from the rest of the country by Israeli bombardments today, witnesses and police said to AFP. Israeli jets destroyed a makeshift bridge in Qasimiya, north of Tyre, and the military continued to bombard the road leading out of the city to the south, they said. 
Lebanons Prime Minister 
Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani on Monday rejected a call for banning PTV advertisements promoting birth control medicines and items used exclusively by women. Durrani made these remarks in a reply during Question Hour in the National Assembly (NA). MMA's Muhammad Laeeque Ahmed had questioned the steps being taken by the government to control such advertisements. Durrani said that the advertisements for birth control medicines and items used exclusively by women were cleared by the PTV Censor Board. "All such advertisements are properly censored by senior media professionals. Therefore banning them will not be appropriate," he said. The issue could not be discussed further because of lack of time.
IRAN yesterday rejected a United Nations demand that it halt uranium enrichment work, vowing instead to expand its controversial nuclear programme and threatening to block oil exports to the West if sanctions are imposed. 
A computer technician was sentenced to a year in prison for trying to ship to Iran more than 100 pressure sensors that could be used as components in explosive devices. Mohammad Fazeli, 27, pleaded guilty in May to one count of violating a US embargo prohibiting trade with Iran. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop one count each of conspiracy and making false statements. 
Leftist intellectuals and human rights activists from around the world pleaded with the United States on Monday not to interfere with Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from intestinal surgery.
(KUNA) -- The Israeli army aborted Sunday an operation that was planned to be carried out by Palestinian groups within Israel, Radio Israel claimed. The radio indicated that the army arrested a Palestinian from Nablus at a military checkpoint with four kilograms of explosions in his possession. The radio also claimed that the Palestinian removed his explosive belt after the army was suspicious of him.
The Philippine authorities have ordered the evacuation of about 35,000 people living near a volcano, saying an eruption could take place soon.
Fighting erupted early on Monday in a Shia militia stronghold of Baghdad, leaving three people dead, while 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a funeral in Saddam Hussein's hometown. A roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers late Sunday, the U.S. military said. No further details were released. Seven other people were killed and six bodies were found on Sunday. In Baghdad, sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district starting about 1 a.m. Monday and persisted for more than an hour. 
(SomaliNet) In the fourth hand grenade in just a week, four people were killed and 20 others severely wounded in the Burundian capital, authorities said on Monday, Reuters reported. The catastrophic incident left two people dead on the spot and two others died in the hospital. According to a local official, the attacks were carried out by unknown assailants on Sunday night in the northern Bujumbura suburb of Ngagara. "Those criminals threw five grenades and shot at customers who were drinking beer," local government official Aime Desire Ndibanje said. 
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - An unmarked ballot wafts in the breeze. Congolese election workers doze. Pieces of concrete weigh down stacks of vote tally sheets, keeping them from blowing away. A week after Congo's presidential elections unfolded in relative peace, experts say the disorder and chaos that has long hobbled the Central African country is creeping into the tallying - raising questions about the fairness of the outcome.
DUBAI Lebanon's war ravaged economy is on the brink of collapse, said Sami Haddad, Lebanon's economy minister in an interview on the BBC yesterday.
FLASH floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 120 people in Pakistan's North West Frontier province, and forced hundreds of thousands out of their homes in neighbouring India, officials said today. The floods played havoc in five districts of Pakistan's NWFP, including two which were badly hit by a devastating earthquake last year, submerging hundreds of villages and causing extensive property damage. 
The State Security Court (SSC) prosecutor on Monday charged four men with the possession and attempted sale of 39 kilogrammes of an explosive substance, judicial sources said. The four men were identified in the charge sheet as Fadi Abu Fara, Mohammad Yousef, and brothers Jihad and Imad Hassan, both being tried in absentia. The prosecution alleges that the men were found in the possession of 39 kilogrammes of mercury, a substance used in the manufacture of explosives.
Seven people have been killed in continuing separatist violence in Indian Kashmir, but Islamic rebels freed three civilians held hostage during a standoff with the army, Indian police said on Monday.
(KUNA) -- Three Iraqis were killed and a citizen was abducted Monday in unrelated incidents in Kirkuk city in northern Iraq. A police source told KUNA that a bomb planted in a car at the Wahed Huzayran (first of June) area exploded in Kikruk. The explosion resulted in the death of two and the injury of a civilian who was sent to Kirkuk Public Hospital for treatment.
QUETTA: Baloch insurgents on Monday claimed to have killed nine security personnel and injured 12 following clashes in Dera Bugti. Wadera Alam Khan, a spokesman for the Baloch insurgents, told reporters via satellite phone that violence had escalated on Monday after a brief break. "Nine security forces personnel were killed while 12 were seriously wounded," he said, adding that the clash had occurred at Daman in the north of Uchh gas field. "The assault was launched when security forces attacked the hideouts of Baloch fighters. Subsequently, both sides traded fire for many hours," he said.
MIRANSHAH: Suspected tribal militants in North Waziristan have beheaded a man they accused of acting as a "US spy", officials said on Monday. The headless body of the local man was found at Madikhel village, 35 kilometres south of Miranshah, administration officials told Daily Times. A letter found near the body claimed that the man had been executed because he had spied for the United States. The killing represents the first such incident since June 25, when local militants announced a unilateral ceasefire to facilitate the Grand Jirga's "peace mission" to the area.
(KUNA) -- Israeli warplanes struck on Monday the coastal town of Al-Ghazia located just south of the port city of Sidon killing 15 people, a security source said. The source said the aircraft carried out three raids targeting residential districts in the town, killing 15 people and wounding 18 others. The strikes devastated three apartment buildings and 15 residences, the source said, adding that rescuers were facing enormous difficulties in trying to remove rubble and pull out victims trapped underneath.
(KUNA) -- A 23-year-old Alquds brigades memebr, Rashid Al-Amri, Sunday died of wounds caused by Israeli bullets, said medical sources. Eyewitnesses told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that Israeli forces surrounded a house in Silat Al-Harthiya and demanded its residents to evacuate it. The Israeli forces then opened heavy fire on the house, killing al-Amri, added the eyewitnesses.
(KUNA) -- A member of Al-Qaeda terrorist organization was killed and 11 others were arrested during a raid on Saturday, the US army on Sunday. In a press release, US army said the raid took place to the north of Baghdad in Al-Taji area that's known for containing a number of elements launching terrorist attacks in central Iraq. Through intelligence efforts, the cell was known for its role in producing bombs and launching attacks against security forces and civilians, added the army.
(KUNA) -- Sri Lanka Monday asked Tamil rebels to return to the peace talks and committed itself to find a negotiated settlement to all contentious issues. "We still believe that we must get back to the table. We feel Tamil rebels are also feeling the same because of international pressure," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told reporters after a meeting with senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja in Delhi Monday.
The peace process in the Himalayan state of Nepal between Maoist guerrillas and Nepalese politicians is on the verge of collapse over the future of the monarchy and disarmament, a senior communist leader said yesterday.
RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Moroccan security services have arrested 44 suspected terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks in the North African country, the state news agency reported Monday. 
The cabinet committee formed to review draft amendments to the Hudood Ordinances has decided to delete a proposed change that would make sex with a girl below the age of 16 the offence of rape. 
RICHLAND, Wash. - A stolen truck full of doughnuts? Better believe Tri-Cities police were on that in a hurry. Moments after the theft of the Viera's Bakery van was reported early Friday in Kennewick, police issued an all-points bulletin. A Benton County sheriff's deputy quickly spotted the truck. After a chase at 30 to 35 mph, Richland police got it to stop and arrested the driver, Steve Swoboda, 19, for investigation of auto theft and felony escape. Still intact was the entire load of glazed, sugar and cream doughnuts, as well as apple fritters, bear claws. "In 24 years in law enforcement I've never had a call like that," Richland police Capt. Randy Barnes said. "To steal a bakery truck, how clever is that?"
U.S. Rep. 
(KUNA) -- Six Iraqis were killed and 20 others were injured Monday during several attacks in Baghdad and Dayali Monday, a police source said. The source in press remarks that six civilians were injured after a booby-trapped car exploded near the southern gate of Al-Mustansirya University. The explosion caused damages to nearby properties, added the source.
(KUNA) -- Two Iraqi police officers were killed on Monday and three were injured among them one civilian when gunmen attacked them in the city of Mosul. An Iraqi police source from Mosul said unknown armed men opened fire at several policemen in the city, killing two, and injuring three others, among them a civilian bystander.
(KUNA) -- Seven British anti-war protesters were arrested Monday after campaigners boarded a plane at a Scottish airport to search for US weapons being transported to Israel, police said. Two men and a woman were in custody after getting on what is understood to be a military plane at Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, in the early hours of this morning. Police confirmed a further four people, two men and two women, were also arrested at the airport.
Senior representatives of the Taliban attended the grand tribal jirga's meeting with NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday, and were told that foreign militants should leave Pakistan. Maulvi Mir Qasim and Maulvi Muhammad Aalam, considered close to the Taliban in North Waziristan, were among 45 other jirga members who met Orakzai, official and tribal sources told Daily Times.
ALMOST a quarter of British Muslims say the 7/7 bombings can be justified because of the Government's support for the war on terror, according to an opinion poll. And nearly half of those polled, or 45 per cent, believe the 9/11 attacks on New York were a conspiracy between the United States and Israel. 
