Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on Wednesday for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies that would include India, the United States and Australia, but omit the region's superpower, China.
Abe's comments came in an address to a joint session of India's parliament at the start of a visit that aims to boost trade between Asia's largest and third largest economies, and counter China's growing strength.
"This partnership is an association in which we share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and respect for basic human rights as well as strategic interests," Abe said.
"By Japan and India coming together in this way, this 'broader Asia' will evolve into an immense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United States of America and Australia."
His speech did not mention China in relation to the "broader Asia." While Abe has improved ties with Beijing, he has also stressed the need to forge closer links with democracies in what analysts have called a tacit criticism of Beijing.
Tokyo's navy is due to take part for the first time in U.S.-India exercises in the Bay of Bengal next month.
India also used the visit of Abe and 200 businessmen to woo investors for infrastructure projects ranging from transport to nuclear power.
New Delhi is aiming to seal an economic partnership agreement -- expected to include a free-trade accord -- by the end of this year, Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said. Abe pledged to double bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2010.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is facing a political crisis because leftist allies are trying to block a civilian nuclear deal with the United States that the government says is crucial for India's economic development.
The communists say the government should not push ahead with the deal which will entail talks with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) of which Japan is a member.
"My sincere hope is that when the matter comes forth to the Nuclear Suppliers Group that we will have the support of the Japanese government," Singh told a joint news conference.
The Japanese premier said he understood the plans of India -- armed with atomic weapons -- to use nuclear energy to cope with global warming and help meet its fast-growing economy's demand for power.
"But, at the same time, as the only nation to suffer an atomic bombing, we attach special importance to nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament," Abe said.
"From that perspective we have to carefully look at its effect on the nuclear non-proliferation framework."
India's poor transport network and frequent power shortages are the Achilles' heel of its economy, hindering its ability to compete with China.
Tokyo is considering offering low-interest loans to help build a high-speed freight rail link between New Delhi and Mumbai as well as funds for a $90 billion industrial corridor between the two cities, Japanese officials said.
"These projects are critical to India's aspirations of wresting the manufacturing space that at present is dominated by China," said a report prepared by KPMG consultancy group and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007
22:08 ||
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ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi on Tuesday stunned both the treasury and opposition senators when he roundly criticised the foreign policy, describing it as one of appeasement at the cost of national interests, sovereignty and honour.
He also condemned recently-passed US legislation and the derogatory statements about Pakistan made by some American presidential candidates.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amals Prof Khurshid Ahmed immediately stood up to endorse most of the views expressed by the minister, and welcomed the change of heart, describing it as part of the change that had taken place in the wake of the July 20 landmark Supreme Court judgment.
Interestingly, taking cognizance of the strongly-worded speech of the minister, the Foreign Office reacted officially, saying that only the foreign ministers statement would be true representation of Pakistans foreign policy and Pakistans relations with various countries.
However, not a single PPP or the PML-N lawmaker took part in the debate during which statements of US presidential candidates and a recently-approved Pakistan-specific law were severely criticised.
Commenting on the statements made in the Senate on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the foreign mQinister would wind up the debate on the subject on Aug 22.
Dr Niazi said in his speech that the key role Pakistan played in bringing about the downfall of the former Soviet Union was a blunder. It resulted in the emergence of a unipolar world and gave the US a licence to attack any country it wished, he said.
He said that American presidential candidates statements threatening Pakistans internal security were a reflection of the jaundiced thinking of US leaders who had forgotten lessons of history and the glorious past of Muslims.
Lashing out at the recent US law attaching strings to financial assistance to Pakistan, Dr Niazi described it as insulting and demanded that we must return and refuse to accept such assistance.
He said the country should learn to stand on its own feet by rejecting all foreign assistance as a proud Muslim nation.
Recounting events of the 1971 war with India and the countrys dismemberment, he said Islamabad kept waiting for the arrival of the Sixth US fleet in the Bay of Bengal as had been promised by the then US government. But the fleet never turned up, he said, adding that no good should be expected of the US in future as well.
He said while the US officials never stopped the mantra of do more, ignoring the fact that Islamabad had rendered tremendous sacrifices in the war on terror, the US signed a civil nuclear agreement with India, instead of Pakistan. He said while India was encouraged when it had carried out nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, heavy sanctions were slapped on Pakistan when it conducted nuclear tests and aspersions were still being cast on nuclear assets of the country.
The minister said that events which followed the 9/11 incident proved that it was the brainchild of Jews. He said that according to holy Quran, Jews and Christians could never be friends of Muslims.
Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the MMA said that the American presidential candidates statements had exposed Gen Musharrafs US-centric policies, because after staking everything, national interest, pride and sovereignty Pakistan was still accused of doing little in the so-called war on terror.
He said while the Iranian leadership had staunchly resisted the US pressure with full backing of its people, Pakistans military government had abjectly surrendered to the US dictates because of lack of genuine support from the people.
He accused Gen Musharraf of compromising everything on a single telephone call of the American President.
Treasury bench members Nisar Memon and Anwar Bhinder supported President Musharrafs foreign policy, saying it was based on ground realities.
Dr Kausar Firdaus called for review and revision of the foreign policy, and said the government should consider withdrawing Pakistan from the so-called war on terror that had cost the country dearly in terms of losses of life and national dignity.
Senator Shahid Bugti said that an individual had put the countrys solidarity at risk only to prolong his rule.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007
18:21 ||
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#1
So.. the Pak defense secretary (who called for jihad on US and India) is a crazy islamist ... the parliamentary affairs minister is a crazy islamist.. the Pak information minister is a pathological liar and an islamist, the religious affairs minister (Zia's son) is a crazy islamist
Perv has got one hell of a cabinet there...
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007 18:31
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NEW DELHI - The Indian government formally approved the US$100 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), the country's largest infrastructure project, ahead of the three-day visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week.
Japan was made the official partner in the DMIC project during a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Tokyo last December. The Japanese government and corporate sector are expected to provide up to $30 billion in loans and investments to support the initiative, in what would be one of Japan's biggest financial contributions to a single foreign project of this nature.
The first phase of the 1,500-kilometer project from next January to 2012 will include six investment mega-regions of 200 square kilometers each. The second phase will span 2012-16 and will aim to strengthen the industrial hub and integrate the areas further.
The Congress party-led federal government is rolling out the red carpet for Abe, recognizing the growing strategic and business importance of Japan to India. Abe, who arrived in the country on Tuesday, is scheduled to address a joint session of the two houses of Parliament, a courtesy not even extended to US President George W Bush when he visited India in March, because of opposition by the left-wing parties. Abe met with Manmohan on Tuesday evening.
Abe, like Manmohan, faces serious domestic political problems, but it is strongly believed that a momentum in India-Japan relations has already been established. New Delhi sees Japan as a natural ally, given mutual historical suspicions about China and close workings with the United States. Abe has said that Japan's relations with India may become more important than with the US or China.
Abe heads a strong delegation of senior executives from companies that include Toyota, Canon, Mitsubishi, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Fujitsu Ltd, Suzuki Motor Corp, Japan Airlines and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Most of these companies are looking to tap the growing Indian market further.
On the agenda is a Japan-India comprehensive economic-partnership agreement, including free trade in goods and services and investment-promotion measures that the two governments are looking to fast-track and implement in the near future. Manmohan and Abe are scheduled to take up the issue in detail. When Manmohan visited Tokyo in December, the two countries spoke about a free-trade agreement within two years.
"Our goal is to try [to] increase our trade volume considerably," Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said this week. According to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Japan's trade with India was $6.5 billion in 2006, less than 4% of its trade with China. India too generates far higher trade figures with China and the US. Between 1991 and 2006, Japanese companies invested $2.15 billion, or just 6% of the total foreign direct investment into India.
The $100 billion investment in the DMIC is a big chunk of the estimated $320 billion in the short term and more than $500 billion in the medium term that India needs in the infrastructure sector and that the government has committed to generate. New Delhi has been keen to support infrastructure projects, including facilities for manufacturing.
The Japanese have been shy of investing in India, given its weak infrastructure that includes power, ports, airports and roads. Japanese institutional investors have been actively involved with the Indian stock markets, but direct investment has not been substantial.
However, with the Indian economy clocking more than 9% growth for the past few years, and prospects of improved infrastructure, Japanese industry and investors are in serious rethink mode. The CII has predicted that two-way trade between India and Japan could double to $14 billion by 2012 from an estimated $7 billion in 2007.
And certainly, the DMIC is one big area of involvement. The DMIC will run through the northern states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, following a proposed Delhi-Mumbai dedicated rail freight corridor and an Arabian Sea port.
The corridor envisages a freight rail network, industrial parks, special economic zones, airports, seaports, power plants, food-processing parks and other infrastructure along the stretch between the two major commercial hubs of Delhi and Mumbai.
This year, an Indian delegation led by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath visited Japan and had talks with potential investors such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Itochu and Suzuki. Most of the infrastructure work connected to DMIC will be executed in public-private partnership format.
A corporate entity, Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corp, is to be formed to implement planning of the project, development of its various segments, coordinating with all investors and the two governments, monitoring of implementation, and raising funds.
Business apart, India and Japan are also seeking each other as strategic partners in making a combined pitch for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council and military and security cooperation in East Asia to check the influence of China. Beijing has been anxious about the "Quadrilateral Initiative" (Quad) involving India, the US, Japan and Australia.
India is looking to host its biggest multilateral exercise with navies of the four countries as well as Singapore in the Bay of Bengal next month. Twenty-five warships will include the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and the US nuclear submarine SSN Chicago. The US, Japan and India held similar exercises off the Japanese coast last year; this is the first time that the Australians will take part.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has conveyed Beijing's concerns to Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee over China not being kept in the loop about a forum that will relate to issues in East Asia.
Though the four countries in the Quad have said disaster management remains the focus of the Japan-promoted exchange, China is anxious that such dialogue could broaden into a deeper military and security cooperation among the four "democracies".
New Delhi is also looking at Tokyo to back its civilian nuclear deal with the US in international forums such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which need to endorse the pact. Japan's support could tilt the balance, since it is a major civilian atomic power and the only nation to have been attacked with nuclear weapons.
Tokyo is also considering the possibility of a nuclear-energy cooperation with India, with the business potential of setting up nuclear plants in India estimated at $100 billion. Accompanying Abe are top executives from Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Toshiba, deeply involved in the global nuclear-power business.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007
18:05 ||
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#1
The ghost of Chandra Bose smiles on.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/22/2007 22:09
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#3
Never, NEVER buy munitions that carry the Tennessee Guarantee*
*
1.) WE TELL YOU IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM
2.) YOU GET TO TAKE IT HOME AND FIND OUT IT'S BROKEN
3.) WE LET YOU COME BACK AND CALL US A SON-OF-A-BITCH
4.) YOU GET TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE AND NEVER COME BACK AGAIN
Interesting bit of work. Intriguing that it is being done in part by Saudi Arabian universities. At least somebody over there realizes the oil will run out soon, but the sunshine won't - and they have LOTS of sunshine in Saudi Arabia. Lots of silicon too.
ANYTHING related to Saudi Arabia is ultimately somehow related to the war with Islamism.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Placing a film of silicon nanoparticles onto a silicon solar cell can boost power, reduce heat and prolong the cells life, researchers now report. Integrating a high-quality film of silicon nanoparticles 1 nanometer in size directly onto silicon solar cells improves power performance by 60 percent in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, said Munir Nayfeh, a physicist at the University of Illinois and corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.
A 10 percent improvement in the visible range of the spectrum can be achieved by using nanoparticles 2.85 nanometers in size, said Nayfeh, who also is a researcher at the universitys Beckman Institute.
In conventional solar cells, ultraviolet light is either filtered out or absorbed by the silicon and converted into potentially damaging heat, not electricity. In previous work, however, Nayfeh showed that ultraviolet light could efficiently couple to correctly sized nanoparticles and produce electricity. That work was reported in the August 2004 issue of the journal Photonics Technology Letters.
To make their improved solar cells, the researchers began by first converting bulk silicon into discrete, nano-sized particles using a patented process they developed. Depending on their size, the nanoparticles will fluoresce in distinct colors. Nanoparticles of the desired size were then dispersed in isopropyl alcohol and dispensed onto the face of the solar cell. As the alcohol evaporated, a film of closely packed nanoparticles was left firmly fastened to the solar cell.
Solar cells coated with a film of 1 nanometer, blue luminescent particles showed a power enhancement of about 60 percent in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, but less than 3 percent in the visible range, the researchers report. Solar cells coated with 2.85 nanometer, red particles showed an enhancement of about 67 percent in the ultraviolet range, and about 10 percent in the visible.
The improved performance is a result of enhanced voltage rather than current, Nayfeh said. Our results point to a significant role for charge transport across the film and rectification at the nanoparticle interface. The process of coating solar cells with silicon nanoparticles could be easily incorporated into the manufacturing process with little additional cost, Nayfeh said.
With Nayfeh, the papers co-authors are graduate student and lead author Matthew Stupca at Illinois, professor Mohamed Alsalhi at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, and professors Turki Al Saud and Abdulrahman Almuhanna, both at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the Grainger Foundation and the University of Illinois. {HT Glenn Reynolds}
#3
Fine, except that the oil *isn't* going to run out in the lifetime of anyone alive today. Think of the nifty solar panels they'll be making in 100 years!
#5
The media trots out the improving photovoltaics efficiency myth on a regular basis.
Efficiency means bugger all (except perhaps it's effect on size). The issue is cost. Solar energy is just too expensive and oil would have to go to several hundred $ per barrel for it to be competitive, or photovoltaics would have to get dramatically cheaper (extremely unlikely)
#6
Phil, there are CIGS solar cells that can be painted/printed on plastics (e.g. Nanosolar, Konarka). Their efficiencies currently are low (6%) but will improve, with latest R&D cells at 20% (better than polycrystalline silicon cells) and cost can come down to less than $1/watt.
Posted by: ed ||
08/22/2007 21:07
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#7
If nothing else, alternative energy sources are useful to provide marginal increases in available power, such that additional power plants need not be built at great cost. Especially in areas where the alternative source is consistently available. I've no idea how photovoltaic cells would survive sandstorms, though.
According to the CEO, Martin Roscheisen, the conversion efficiency (percentage of incident light energy converted to electrical energy) of the Nanosolar SPV cell is above 12 per cent for its first product prototypes.
...
The company is now offering solar panels at below $1 per peak watt.
Will pay more attention to them in the future.
Posted by: ed ||
08/22/2007 21:17
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#9
Not to be overly pessimistic but if Saudi Arabia keeps on like it has, long before the oil runs out most of their abundant silion will be fused
The U.S. Army and Air Force have discovered that low power lasers can be pretty lethal battlefield weapons. For decades, the conventional wisdom was that you needed a high powered laser (as in instantly burning through the metal skin of a missile). But over the last few years, it's become obvious that slow burn (lower powered) lasers will do useful stuff like cause the explosives in shells, missiles and roadside bombs to go off. That's very useful, and the U.S. Department of Defense has been conducting lots of tests of late to find out exactly how useful these cheaper, easier to use (because of the lower power requirements) lasers would be.
More work is also being done on lasers that can blind enemy sensors. This sort of thing has been around for years, but new, cheaper and more sensitive sensors are also more vulnerable to lasers. With progress, you often get new perils as well.
The army is mounting slow burn lasers on hummers, and plans to use them for detonating roadside bombs. The air force is mounting similar lasers on C-130s, so that death from above will have a new meaning. In development are lower power lasers for blowing up rockets, missiles and shells in flight. Microwave and laser powered weapons are soon to be in use on a wide scale. It shouldn't be a surprise, given the great deal of development work under way.
#1
RIAN > Second TOPOL-M[Bulava] MISSLE BATTALION to be deployed. Russia to conduct over 100 LR Missle exercises THIS FALL [Fall 2007]. Relate to RIAN > FORMER US CIA OFFICIAL SAYS USA READY TO ATTACK IRAN IN SIX MONTHS.
* GULFNEWS/MENEWS > US designation of Iranian IRGC as "Terrorists" meant as act of provocation agz Iran. US War agz Iran looms ever closer.
Meanwhile, back in WESTPAC, MVARIETY > ANDERSEN AFB USED FOR SIMULATED ATTACK MISSIONS/BOMBING RUNS. * PAC STARS-N-STRIPES > First F-22's deploy to Japan. Planes may possess anti-Missle/SATWAR capability.'Round batch of circa 40 F-22's to event deploy to Alaska.
#1
heartbreaking......I'd imagine the evil *ssholes that did this were sending a message to the dad who works as a security guard. That culture needs to disapear post haste.
#3
When the time comes for Western leadership to consider first strikes against the MME (Muslim Middle East), it is these sorts of incidents that will linger in their memories as the codes get sent out.
Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.
And now the Democrats, along with wavering Republicans, will face an advertising blitz from Bush supporters determined to remain on offense. A new pressure group, Freedom's Watch, will unveil a month-long, $15 million television, radio and grass-roots campaign today designed to shore up support for Bush's policies before the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, lays out a White House assessment of the war's progress. The first installment of Petraeus's testimony is scheduled to be delivered before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a fact both the administration and congressional Democrats say is simply a scheduling coincidence.
The leading Democratic candidates for the White House have fallen into line with the campaign to praise military progress while excoriating Iraqi leaders for their unwillingness to reach political accommodations that could end the sectarian warfare.
"We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Anbar province, it's working," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday.
"My assessment is that if we put an additional 30,000 of our troops into Baghdad, that's going to quell some of the violence in the short term," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) echoed in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "I don't think there's any doubt that as long as U.S. troops are present that they are going to be doing outstanding work."
Advisers to both said theirs were political as well as substantive statements, part of a broader Democratic effort to frame Petraeus's report before it is released next month by preemptively acknowledging some military success in the region. Aides to several Senate Democrats said they expect that to be a recurring theme in the coming weeks, as lawmakers return to hear Petraeus's testimony and to possibly take up a defense authorization bill and related amendments on the war.
For Democratic congressional leaders, the dog days of August are looking anything but quiet. Having failed twice to crack GOP opposition and force a major change in war policy, Democrats risk further alienating their restive supporters if the September showdown again ends in stalemate. House Democratic leaders held an early morning conference call yesterday with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), honing a new message: Of course an influx of U.S. troops has improved security in Iraq, but without any progress on political reconciliation, the sweat and blood of American forces has been for naught.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) made a round of calls yesterday to freshman Democrats, some of whom recently returned from trips to Iraq and made news with their positive comments on military progress. "I'm not finding any wobbliness on the war -- at all," Emanuel said.
The burst of effort has been striking, if only because Democrats left for their August recess confident that Republicans would be on the defensive by now. Instead, the GOP has gone on the attack. The new privately funded ad campaign, to run in 20 states, features a gut-level appeal from Iraq war veterans and the families of fallen soldiers, pleading: "It's no time to quit. It's no time for politics."
"For people who believe in peace through strength, the cavalry is coming," said Ari Fleischer, a former Bush White House press secretary who is helping to head Freedom's Watch.
GOP leaders have latched on to positive comments from Democrats -- often out of context -- to portray the congressional majority as splintering. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), an Armed Services Committee member who is close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said many of her colleagues learned a hard lesson from the Republican campaign.
"I don't know of anybody who isn't desperately supportive of the military," she said. "People want to say positive things. But it's difficult to say positive things in this environment and not have some snarky apologist for the White House turn it into some clipped phraseology that looks like support for the president's policies."
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), who made waves when he returned from Iraq by saying he was willing to be more flexible on troop withdrawal timelines, issued a statement to constituents "setting the record straight."
"I am firmly in favor of withdrawing troops on a timeline that includes both a definite start date and a definite end date," he wrote on his Web site.
But in an interview yesterday, McNerney made clear his views have shifted since returning from Iraq. He said Democrats should be willing to negotiate with the generals in Iraq over just how much more time they might need. And, he said, Democrats should move beyond their confrontational approach, away from tough-minded, partisan withdrawal resolutions, to be more conciliatory with Republicans who might also be looking for a way out of the war.
"We should sit down with Republicans, see what would be acceptable to them to end the war and present it to the president, start negotiating from the beginning," he said, adding, "I don't know what the [Democratic] leadership is thinking. Sometimes they've done things that are beyond me."
In the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, former senator John Edwards issued a scathing attack on Clinton's remark. But he said there has been "progress in Al-Anbar province."
"Senator Clinton's view that the President's Iraq policy is 'working' is another instance of a Washington politician trying to have it both ways," Edwards campaign manager David Bonior said in a statement. "You cannot be for the President's strategy in Iraq but against the war. The American people deserve straight talk and real answers on Iraq, not double-speak, triangulation, or political positioning."
#1
Any decision to for the USA to truly leave will be left to Dubya's post-Jan 2009 successor as POTUS. Short of new 9-11's or WMD-Nuke Terror Amer Hiroshima(s) inside Amer proper, ALL THE US DEMOLEFTIES = ANTi-GOP'ers ARE DOING IS POSTURING/PC-ing FOR 2008 WID NO SERIOUS INTENT TO PULL-OUT. FROM IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, ANDOR THE ME-MUSLIM REGIONS. Dubya is entrenching = emplacing, NOT retreating. Radical islam is down, not out yet, but Amer's position in the ME is solidifying and has NOT yet been seriously damaged [despite US casualties] by the Terrorists, and Osama Bin Laden [iff alive?]as MAHDI-HIDDEN IMAM-SALADIN, etc INCARNATE IS NOT AROUND TO DE FACTO PHYSICALLY LEAD THE ARMIES OF ISLAM AGZ THE USA-WEST. AND, Waffle/PC-happy US Pols gener do NOT wish to be linked wid any defeat or failure, Amer or Allied or Muslim or even PCorrect Radical islamist, Amer Allied or Enemy, etc.!
Colectively, MilPol and Economically, there's little to no reason for anti-Bush-GOP Pols, Dems, and MSM to continue promo = defend anti-US Radical Islamists-Terrorists, not even on a "neutralist/moderate/centrist" basis. THE RADICAL MULLAHS KNOW THIS, ala their PRO-ISLAMIST, ANTI-US/WESTERN, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC/MATERIALIST, "GLOBAL OIL/RESOURCE CATACLYSM", "Asses-and-Camels Forever" RANTS.
A Black Hawk helicopter went down Wednesday in northern Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005. The military said initial indications showed the UH-60 helicopter experienced a mechanical problem and was not brought down by hostile fire, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation.
It was one of two helicopters on a nighttime operation. The four crew members and 10 passengers who perished were assigned to Task Force Lightning, the military said. It did not release identities pending notification of relatives.
#3
God grant peace and serenity to the families of these brave men who died to protect us all. May their names never be forgotten, and may their deeds be remembered with pride.
I made a list once of all the people I knew that died while serving in the military. There were 97 of them, counting those I knew between 1964 and 1991. Eleven died in non-combat aircraft crashes, 33 died in automobile accidents, eight died in Vietnam from combat, 14 died during training exercises, and eight died from "unknown causes". Two had heart attacks on duty. Two died in Desert Storm. One was killed in a freak electrical accident. One committed suicide. I don't remember the cause of death for most of the rest. The Military is a very dangerous occupation, even during "peacetime", and not for the faint of heart. You have to love what you're doing to make the kind of commitment the military demands. These men were doing what they loved most - protecting the rest of us. They are heroes, each and every one of them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/22/2007 16:22
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#4
So sad. My prayers to their families and fighting brethren.
I believe I heard that this helo went down in Northern Iraq. I wonder if it was a spec op group going up to engage/reconoiter the Iranian Rev Guard said to gathering on the border.
#5
My thought too, remoteman. Noting as they're Task Force Lightning, it makes me *hope* so. Here's to hopin' the other chopper full gets some good Mullah training exercises soon.
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 20:25
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#6
I made a list once of all the people I knew that died while serving in the military. There were 97 of them, counting those I knew between 1964 and 1991. Eleven died in non-combat aircraft crashes, 33 died in automobile accidents, eight died in Vietnam from combat, 14 died during training exercises, and eight died from "unknown causes". Two had heart attacks on duty. Two died in Desert Storm. One was killed in a freak electrical accident. One committed suicide. I don't remember the cause of death for most of the rest. The Military is a very dangerous occupation, even during "peacetime", and not for the faint of heart. You have to love what you're doing to make the kind of commitment the military demands. These men were doing what they loved most - protecting the rest of us. They are heroes, each and every one of them.
Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-08-22 16:22
Old Patriot thanks for telling us about the People you knew who died in service.
My Pop died DIED: July 30, 2007.. Long illness with that god damn Leukemia. He was such a rock right up to the end God Bless him.
Navy, Pharmacist's Mate, South pacific WWII, Duration, Most of the Beach invasions.. Ship Hospitals and Beach-Head Shore Hospitals, triage.
Another real good buddy Vietnam Vet, just had his lung cancer, which was in remission, pop up and spread to his brain. Now he has a tumor the size of an olive in the center of his skull. Bad prognosis.
Have you noticed that you are crossing out more old names in your address/phone book than you are adding new ones? or is that just me?
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2007 21:33
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#2
A leading Jewish community representative said the incident made clear that the government had failed to do enough to stop extremists from creating "no-go areas" for foreigners in the east.
Yet one more thing that Muslims and Nazis have in common: Exclusive enclaves.
It's long past tea to make this entire world a "no-go area" for Islam and Nazism.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Political Islam is an attractive concept for many Muslims, and some expect it to resolve some of the economic, political and cultural problems they face. But most dont know how this will happen.
From the early 19th to the mid-20th century, the Islamic world produced a string of scholars -- Jamaluddin Afghani and Syed Abul Aala Maududi in British India, Hassan al-Banna and Syed Qutub in Egypt and Ali Shariati in Iran -- who provided an intellectual basis for what is now known as political Islam.
What they wrote made sense in an era when most of todays Islamic nations were either under direct colonial control or had just regained independence and were still struggling under a colonial legacy.
But the Islamists, unlike the nationalists, never believed that the end of colonial rule will also bring economic, social and cultural freedom from Western influence.
When the British left the subcontinent, they also left behind a system, and enough people to run that system, which prevents the formerly colonized nations to attain full independence, says Khurshid Ahmad, a leading intellectual of Pakistans Jamaat-e-Islami Party.
At a recent lecture at the University of Birmingham, England, Ahmad argued that the developing world currently owes a total of $3.242 trillion to the richest countries of the world. He said the richest 1 percent of the world earns as much as the bottom 57 percent.
Ahmad and other Islamist economists blame the worlds interest-based economy for this disparity and want to establish an interest-free economic system.
But the problem is that the Islamists have been unable to implement this system. Individual financial institutions have tried to implement this new system in some countries, but at best they offer cosmetic changes or rephrase the economic jargon to justify the prevalent interest-based system.
Another major complaint Islamists often voice is the Wests cultural domination. They want it to be replaced by an Islamic culture.
But Islamic culture itself is a contentious term. Muslims in Iran or South Asia are culturally as different from Arab Muslims as all of them are from Western culture. In fact, all of them have borrowed more from Western culture than they have from one another.
Politically, the Islamic world is even more divided. Perhaps the only common factor in more than 50 Muslim nations is that most of them are run by autocratic rulers.
Several major Muslim states have serious differences with one another and have also often gone to war against their co-religionists.
To provide an intellectual basis for the unification of more than 50 nations with such major economic, cultural and political differences is a huge task. And since the 1960s, the movement known as political Islam has not produced any major intellectual.
Islamic political parties also have had very little experience in running a modern state. The only country that has remained under religious rule for a considerable period is Iran, where Islamists toppled the shah in 1979.
But there is little in the Iranian experience that fascinates ordinary Muslims. Most Muslims outside -- and many inside -- Iran blame the religious elite that is running the country for creating more problems than they resolve.
Another example is Afghanistan, where extremists like the Taliban and al-Qaida had an opportunity to create a model Islamic state but failed miserably.
For almost five years the Taliban and al-Qaida movements had an entire country at their mercy, with full freedom to do what they wanted. Osama bin Laden and his clique had enough resources and plenty of connections in oil-rich Arab states to get the finances they needed to build roads, schools, hospitals and factories destroyed in 20 years of war and civil strife.
They did not.
Instead, they turned Afghanistan into a launching pad for terrorist attacks against the Western world. Many in the Islamic world believe the Taliban and al-Qaida failed in running Afghanistan because they did not know how to run a modern state.
Political Islam also has been unable to resolve the differences that exist between their version of an Islamic state and the modern nation-states that exist in todays Islamic world.
Their ultimate goal is to create an international fraternity of Muslim nations that can slowly be guided toward a united caliphate. But they are unable to explain how they will make modern Muslim nation states accept such a caliphate. Will nation-states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Morocco be forced to join such a caliphate? Will they willingly give up their sovereignty for the sake of a greater unity or be forced to do so?
How would the rest of the world react to the emergence of a new religious bloc in the world? Will it lead to a greater jihad against the rest of the world?
Within an Islamic caliphate, how much power shall the caliph have and how much freedom should be given to its citizens? Will there be a free media? Can women appear on television and cinema screens? Can there be music in an Islamic state?
How would people dress? Will the veil be imposed on women living in an Islamic state, whether they like it or not? Will all men be forced to grow beards?
Each of these questions evokes emotional debates within the Islamic world, sometimes causing violence and bloodshed.
It is not that political Islamists do not have answers to these questions. They do. The problem is that their answers are not acceptable to an overwhelming majority of Muslims.
It is not that political Islamists do not have answers to these questions. They do. The problem is that their answers are not acceptable to an overwhelming majority of Muslims.
The modern, interest-based banking system is well-entrenched in many Muslim countries. Poor Muslim nations depend on financial assistance from the United States and other Western nations and financial institutions. They cannot defy them.
Rich Muslim states neither have the desire nor the intellectual depth needed to create an alternative economic system. They are even less willing to share their riches with poorer Muslim countries.
Workers from poor Muslim countries in these rich states are often treated like slaves and return home with a taste of bitterness that remains with them for the rest of their lives.
Middle-class and educated Muslim women are not willing to wear the veil, at least not the type presented by the mullahs and the Islamists, though many cover their heads with scarves.
Both Muslim men and women are addicted to Western-style television shows, films, music and other cultural influences and are unwilling to give them up. They are unwilling to go along with the Islamists or the traditional mullahs, like the Taliban.
They fear that in a Taliban-like state, or the Iranian-style Islamic republic, they will be marginalized and will be forced to accept an orthodox version of Islam that they do not believe in.
Muslims have become so used to the modern nation-states, many of them will put up a fight if forced to give up their Pakistani, Afghan, Syrian or Algerian identities in return for a new identity introduced by the likes of bin Laden or Mullah Omar.
Rich Muslim states are not likely to abolish visas and open their doors to poorer Muslims just because Islamists want them to do so.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007
11:08 ||
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#1
Workers from poor Muslim countries in these rich states are often treated like slaves and return home with a taste of bitterness that remains with them for the rest of their lives.
Many Indian and Pakistani Muslims have discovered that their Arab hosts consider them second rate Muslims, because they are not Arab. The shock of being at the bottom of the heap, way below kaffir westerners for example, in a place like Saudi Arabia, which Muslims are taught to idiolize, can be overwhelming.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007 11:17
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#2
"Many in the Islamic world believe the Taliban and al-Qaida failed in running Afghanistan because they did not know how to run a modern state."
It is irrelevant whether they know how to run a modern state - they do not DESIRE to run a modern state. Their goal is to run a 7th century feudal theocracy.
#3
The typical Taliban are incapable of running a public toilet, far less a village, a city or a state.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007 13:31
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#4
And since the 1960s, the movement known as political Islam has not produced any major intellectual.
And neither has the US, at least in the MSM's view of "intellectuals." John you hit the nail on the head in #1...that's a weakness that we need to exploit wholesale. Preach from on high the dangers of Islamic Fundamentalism, not only to Western/Free nations, but to the "other" co-religionists. Pakistani/Indian muslims are virtual slaves in the more 'western' Muslim nations (Dubai comes to mind). They (native African Muslims) are getting slaughtered by the janjaweed in Sudan(Darfur). Heck, we had the latest use of chemical weapons in the 80s during the Iran-Iraq war. All of these are internal sect/race wars that we need to play off each other.
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 19:42
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#5
A veritible goldmine. Where, oh where, to begin:
He said the richest 1 percent of the world earns as much as the bottom 57 percent.
Which is less an indictment of capitalism than it is a blasting of Islamic tribalism.
But Islamic culture itself is a contentious term. Muslims in Iran or South Asia are culturally as different from Arab Muslims as all of them are from Western culture. In fact, all of them have borrowed more from Western culture than they have from one another.
Which stands as irrefutable proof of Western cultures superiority despite all the mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance that Islam summons forth to explain this away.
Politically, the Islamic world is even more divided. Perhaps the only common factor in more than 50 Muslim nations is that most of them are run by autocratic rulers.
Which takes us right back to that dreadfully inconvenient 57:1 ratio.
And since the 1960s, the movement known as political Islam has not produced any major intellectual.
Which goes a long way towards explaining why Islam is spread more often at gunpoint than by popular word of mouth.
Most Muslims outside -- and many inside -- Iran blame the religious elite that is running the country for creating more problems than they resolve.
Which serves as the template for political Islams leaders everywhere.
How would the rest of the world react to the emergence of a new religious bloc in the world?
High temperature plasma is an answer that readily springs to mind.
Will it lead to a greater jihad against the rest of the world?
Is a frogs ass watertight?
Within an Islamic caliphate, how much power shall the caliph have and how much freedom should be given to its citizens?
Lets just say that, in this case, the 57:1 ratio is off by several orders of magnitude.
Will there be a free media? Can women appear on television and cinema screens? Can there be music in an Islamic state? How would people dress? Will the veil be imposed on women living in an Islamic state, whether they like it or not? Will all men be forced to grow beards?
Why does he ask such silly questions?
It is not that political Islamists do not have answers to these questions. They do. The problem is that their answers are not acceptable to an overwhelming majority of Muslims.
Unfortunately, Islams clerical elite are in far more general agreement about this and, at days end, that is what will finally determine the ummahs dismal fate.
Muslims have become so used to the modern nation-states, many of them will put up a fight if forced to give up their Pakistani, Afghan, Syrian or Algerian identities in return for a new identity introduced by the likes of bin Laden or Mullah Omar.
This is where wingnuts like Ayatollah Khomeini came up with how patriotism is paganism. Remember what he said at Qom in 1980:
We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah, for patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.
This is why Islam is doomed. Any true resurgence of it will require so much destruction of Islamic and Western lands alike that none of the major nuclear superpowers will tolerate any such thing.
#6
All of these are internal sect/race wars that we need to play off each other.
BA, sounds callous on the surface, but it's really not. We need to turn Machiavelli mode on. Blowbacks? Maybe, but I suspect it'll be a child's play in comparison if we get stuck in the see-no-evil mode.
The Iraqi government has issued a new list of wanted people, including the names of some top officials in the former regime headed by the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"Topping the list are Deputy Commander of the Iraqi Revolutionary Council Izzat Ibrahim Al-Doori," Lieutenant General Abdel-Karim Khalaf of the Interior Ministry told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
Al-Doori was the sixth most wanted man on the US army's original list. The second most wanted man on the current Iraqi list is Mohammad Yunis Al-Ahmad, who is said to finance most of the attacks against the Multi-national force (MNF) in Iraq. He now heads the Iraqi Baath party abroad and is trying to bring its members back together.
The third most wanted is Taher Jalil Habbush Al-Takriti, former head of the Iraqi military intelligence and is also currently involved in financing attacks against the MNF, Khalaf said.
He added that all those whose names were cited in the list were involved in financing attacks against the MNF.
The Iraqi police had called on the Interpol to apprehend Al-Doori and Saddam's daughter Raghd Raghead, who is said to be living in Jordan.
The current issue of Columbia Magazine carries a profile by Tim Warner of New Republic editor Franklin Foer celebrating him as "the fixer" who is resuscitating the magazine. . . . Oh, he "fixed" it, all right!
If not the most poorly timed article in the history of journalism, it is nevertheless laughable in light of the ordeal inflicted on the magazine by its Baghdad fabulist and will to believe him on the part of "the editors."
As Hugh Hewitt noted, Mr. Foer is more interested in 'influencing the influencers' than in getting the facts right.
Warner attributes the decline of the magazine's circulation from 101,000 in 2000 to 60,000 before the reign of Foer to disenchantment with the magazine among its hate-consumed barking moonbat liberal readers: "The magazine's stance on Iraq and its support of Connecticut senator Joseph I. Lieberman in 2004 brought vehement criticism and open disdain from liberal critics, especially those in the blogosphere, who have treated the New Republic as their personal piñata." Foer notes that the magazine is making up lost ground in its strident opposition to Bush "on a whole array of views."
Circulation is up to 66,000 since Foer took over. Six thousand new subscribers and another Stephen Glass remarkable job he's doing. Dean Barnett has more here.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/22/2007
09:45 ||
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The current controversy between the ruling UPA coalition and the Left on the one hand, and the right on the other, is entirely a political confrontation. This unwarranted war of words and egos should never overshadow the very important accomplishments in the realm of research and technology but should be responsibly resolved within the political framework. The issue of nuclear energy at hand is not a laughing matter. Not only is it linked with the destiny of 1.2 billion Indians today, but it will be of remarkable consequence to innumerable billions in the generations that are to follow. What is at stake is not just the present but the future as well.
During debates and arguments it has come to the notice of intellectuals and concerned citizens such as this writer that the Muslim community in India as a whole is being seen to be opposing the current nuclear deal. This illusionary and concocted idea is presented before the people of India as the dominant opposition to the 123 agreement. Such allegations, with no evidence whatsoever, will throw the Muslim community in India into another confrontation with liberal and progressive-minded Indians in the future.
What is important for the world to know is that Indian Muslims, in their psyche, behaviour and views, are as progressive as, if not more than, other outwardly looking communities across India. The desires and aspirations of younger Indian Muslims are the same as those of Hindu and Christian communities in India. For example, one would find educated Muslim boys and girls lined up in as much number and in similar proportions as any other social group in front of diplomatic missions of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The educated middle class amongst the Muslim community is no more inclined to be content with meagrely paid and often exploitative jobs in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and other countries in the Middle East. Above all, newly educated Muslims indeed have already become aware of the fact that future jobs and satisfying professional lives are to be found more in India than abroad.
Yes, Muslims of the older vintage do get sensitive at the utterance of the word Israel, but these are dying noises. What is common knowledge is that India has since long balanced foreign policy options with both the Palestinian cause notwithstanding the great personal affinity with the late Yasser Arafat displayed by many of its leaders and Israel. Who in India now does not know that Israel is one of the largest suppliers of defence equipment and ammunition to the country? It has partnered in a number of high technology agricultural projects. You will even find Israelis undertaking tulsi cultivation in some parts of Uttar Pradesh. One finds Israelis living in large numbers in many parts of the Himalayas, albeit as tourists. Even so, I have yet to come across any Muslim in these specific areas or elsewhere who is agitated over government policy.
It is, however, important to say that George W. Bush is not the United States and the United States is not Israel. The Muslims in India are now mature enough to know the difference and judge accordingly.
I am at pains as an Indian Muslim to understand as to how a highly respected and distinguished political party can use the Muslim community as a whole as canon fodder, so to speak, in order to make its own vulnerable position secure. It is also not uncommon to find heretic and self-centred and self-proclaimed leaders within the Muslim community. They are indeed far too great in number and we all know who they are and how much political and social support they actually claim from the larger community across India.
In this context it is important to highlight an important political reality: the Muslims in India are the most secular voters. I know of no political party in India for which the Muslims have voluntarily not voted. As psephologists will confirm, when the BJP came to power, a good proportion of Muslims did indeed vote for that party. This is evidence good enough to make the point that it would be wrong on the part of any single party to say that they represent the whole of the Muslim community in India or that any one single party can influence the community as a whole.
Political parties must not project the Muslim community as a whole as a political constituency. It is a sum of heterogeneous groups. In any case, now there is an educated class emerging within the Muslim community and no one can afford to ignore its point of view.
The writer is chief economist, NCAER, and was member-secretary of the Sachar Committee. Views are his own
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007
09:28 ||
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#1
Interesting.. I think the fear of a backlash from the Hindus is growing.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007 9:40
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Rome, 22 August (AKI) - Police in Rome have halted the construction of a new controversial mosque because of irregularities with building laws. "Certain rooms were being enlarged and a partition wall knocked down without authorisation", police officer Carlo Buttarello was quoted as saying by Rome-daily, Il Messaggero.
But Rome's city council manager for security, Jean-Leonard Touadi, said the stoppage was temporary, and it "just needs for regulations to be respected", for work to resume. The site for the planned mosque whose opening was scheduled for 7 September, is adjacent to the Roman Catholic Church of San Vito in Rome's multi-ethnic Esquilino neighbourhood.
The mosque's location next to a Christian site and concern with Islamic extremism associated with some Muslim centres in other parts of Italy including Milan has incensed those opposed to its construction.
But Touadi dismissed the criticism. "Rome, the city which hosts the Vatican and the largest mosque in Europe (inaugurated in 1995 and shown in the photo), cannot and must not fear a new place of worship which instead must be guaranteed", he was quoted as saying by Il Messaggero. The "Vatican" is a sovereign state, Touadi. It is not "hosted" by "Rome" or by Italy. Speaking of "fear", why does Saudi Arabia forbid the construction of Christian churches within its borders?
Two of those opposed to the mosque are right-wing city councillors, Federico Mollicone and Stefano Tozzi, both of the opposition Alleanza Nazionale party - a member of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition.
"While we respect every sort of religious freedom, we find it inexplicable that [Rome mayor Walter] Veltroni and the city's Prefect can authorise and accept such a move in a district where cohabitation between Italian and foreigners is very difficult," they said in a joint statement issued Tuesday before the police's intervention at the site.
"In addition choosing that site in front of one of Christianity's most ancient churches is a serious religious provocation which would never be possible in Islamic nations," Mollicone and Tozzi said. Reciprocity
The Esquilino mosque which aims to serve Rome's Bangladeshi community was to open with prayers led by Sheikh Ubeidulhaqq, a prominent Muslim cleric who serves as imam of the Beit al-Mukarram mosque in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.
Posted by: mrp ||
08/22/2007
09:07 ||
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#1
Something tells me this will move the dedication back to ... September 11.
#4
The Esquilino mosque which aims to serve Rome's Bangladeshi community was to open with prayers led by Sheikh Ubeidulhaqq, a prominent Muslim cleric who serves as imam of the Beit al-Mukarram mosque in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.
Somehow, the idea of old Italy hosting a large community of bengladeshi strikes me as unsettling. Seems like we (europeans) have not only been thrown out of whatever foreign land we were in, up to today (see zimbobwe and Sa), and are being besieged in our own homeland.
VILNIUS, Aug 21, BNS A member of Lithuanias elite VIP Protection Service has been dismissed after an incident worthy of Steven Segal movie Under Siege.
Jonas Paulikas, a major in the service was sacked after drawing his gun and shooting at the chef in a Vilnius restaurant. He will no longer work for us. We will not give further comment, but it has been determined that the officer downgraded the name of an officer [equivalent to bringing the service into disrepute] and according to the statute, the penalty for that is dismissal," Rymantas Mockevicius, the acting head of the Service, told BNS.
Paulikas, who was assigned as a bodyguard to former president Algirdas Brazauskas, was one of the longest-serving officers in the VIP Protection Service, having worked there since 1991.
Last week, after an argument with staff at a Vilnius restuarant, Paulikas pulled out his Sig Sauer gun and fired up to seven rounds at the chef, who was reported to be running around the kitchen trying to dodge the bullets. No-one was injured.
The officer was arrested and discovered to be severely intoxicated. What he ordered from the menu to provoke such an extreme reaction is not recorded.
#2
Paulikas pulled out his Sig Sauer gun and fired up to seven rounds at the chef, who was reported to be running around the kitchen trying to dodge the bullets. No-one was injured.
So, not only this guy is an un-professional alcoholic, but he's a bad shot as well!
TALLINN - An Estonian is to be charged with genocide. According to charges brought by the Estonian western circuit prosecutor's office, 88-year-old Arnold Meri is alleged to have taken part in the March 1949 mass deportation of Estonians to Siberia as well as supervising deportations to Hiiumaa Island.
A total of 251 civilians were detained in Hiiumaa on March 25, 1949. They were taken to the port of Paldiski by boat the next day and later loaded into railroad cars and transported to Siberia for life.
In 1949, Arnold Meri was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, a member of the Central Committee of Komsomol [the youth wing of the Communist Party] and first secretary of the Estonian branch of Komsomol. Meri, born in 1919, served in the Red Army in World War II and was awarded the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union in August 1941. He was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1948. Meri served as deputy minister of education of the Estonian SSR in 1961. Ironically, he is a cousin of Estonia's former president and independence leader Lennart Meri (1929-2006).
During the deportations of March 1949, 20,702 residents were taken to Siberia from Estonia. The deportees were allowed to return in the years after Stalin's death, by which time 3,000 had perished.
Reacting to the charges, Meri said it is unlikely that he will live long enough to stand trial, Eesti Paevaleht newspaper reported. Meri said that while he had never denied his participation in the deportations, his role was not what he was being accused of. "I was sent to Hiiumaa as a commissioner of the Central Committee and my task was to make sure that no excesses took place during the deportations and that the entire activity corresponded with the laws of that time. During the week that I spent there I was not able to check anything, as I was actually never shown the relevant documents," Meri claimed.
Meri described himself as being in very bad health. " I do not believe that I've got more than two years to live I'm virtually deaf and blind. I just measured my blood pressure, which was slightly over 200. That should do to describe my health condition," he said.
As recently as this May, Meri donned his Soviet-era uniform and joined commemorations of the Red Army's sacrifices. And to celebrate the Revolution's many glorious victories over saboteurs and class enemies.
Meris activities in 1949 have been under investigation for more than a decade. Given his own estimation of his parlous state of health, it seems that there is little likelihood of a conviction ever being recorded. In view of that fact, the decision to prosecute looks more like an attempt to record a symbolic charge against him for posterity than a genuine desire to see the legal process through to the bitter end. A more cynical observer might see this move as a well-deserved response to Putin's effort to rehabilitate the butcher, Josef Stalin.
As Democrats scramble in the wake of the realization that President Bush's surge is working in Iraq, Senator Clinton is suddenly talking about preparing to fight a new war. She's always been a master at hedging her bets, but her speech Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars where she admitted that the surge she opposed is "working," beats all. In the same breath she added, "We're just years too late in changing our tactics We can't ever let that happen again We can't be fighting the last war. We have to keep preparing to fight the new war."
New Yorkers can take that to mean that, for all her flailing, she will press for passage of the retreat she has sought to legislate, the Iraq Troop Protection and Reduction of 2007. She co-authored the measure, which, her campaign Web site says, "will end the war before the next president takes the oath of office." Like every other Democrat running for president, Mrs. Clinton opposed the troop surge she now concedes is working. Some of her other legislative meddling would cap the number of troops in Iraq to pre-surge levels.
So what exactly is going on here? It turns out that General Petraeus has been masterful in presenting the data of the military campaign to both Democrats and Republicans. He has made it clear that the president understands that his mission requires bipartisan tolerance, if not support from both parties. Another thing that is happening is that for the first time Iraqi sheikhs of both the Sunni and now Shi'ia stripe are joining arms with our GIs against Al Qaeda, the Iranian terror network, and the followers of Moqtada al Sadr known as Jaish al Mahdi.
All of these entities have sought to destroy any hope for a stable Iraqi democracy from day one, but in the case of Iran and Mr. Sadr it took nearly three years to unleash the military against the Mullah terror masters in Iraq. The new strategy in Iraq also commits our soldiers to protecting civilians and openly patrolling with Iraqi security forces the neighborhoods we left to the terrorists in 2005 and 2006. This means that the daily revenge killings and the ethnic cleansing are stalling. Baghdad may not be safe -- yet -- but in many swaths normal life is returning and with it the prospect of political reconciliation.
Neither Senator Clinton nor Senators Levin and Durbin and other Democratic party leaders are fools. They understand that the new strategy in Iraq presents the best chance we've had in a long time to leave Iraq better than we found it, which the Left needs to be forever reminded was a failed state in every sense of the word. Yet we have not won just yet. General Petraeus next month will say many things, but we hear one of his key points will be to say how fragile the progress in Iraq really is. Should Congress pull the plug on him now, we would be betraying the best allies we've ever had against Al Qaeda and Iran, pro-American Muslims.
So what exactly then is this 'new war' that Mrs. Clinton says we ought to be preparing to fight? And how does she think we will win it if we just allow our current allies in Iraq to be slaughtered by the enemies we will have to fight elsewhere if they drive us from Iraq? And how are the Democrats going to lead in a new war after beating the drums so avidly for retreat in the current fight? The truth is Mrs. Clinton doesn't believe all the clap trap she's been spooling to her party's base. We hear that in private conversations with military brass, she pointedly says she will not run the war, if elected, as she promises to during the campaign -- which is one of the most astounding things we've heard of late.
Once the primaries are done and the general election approaches and as we rack up more success in Iraq, Mrs. Clinton's handlers will bend over backwards to emphasize these hawkish qualifications she placed in the speeches when she was trying to woo those Americans who believe the president and his top advisers are war criminals. At some point, Mrs. Clinton will have to take on the left wing of her party. And that is going to be some donnybrook. It's conceivable that it will turn out to be the new war about which the senator is suddenly talking. She will certainly need to win it if she is going to abandon her commitment to retreat and seek to lead our troops to victory in Iraq and beyond.
#7
I second that, OldSpook. Most of Washington needs to be gutted and rebuilt. For the sake of our shrinking culture we must keep the word alive on the net and radio until we can get enough real Americans on TV to steer America to better days through honest leaders.
I remain optomistic on America.
#8
"She would sell her country and her mother for power."
The big question is would she sell Bill for power?
Posted by: kelly ||
08/22/2007 18:26
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#9
"Changing our tactics..." ala TOWNHALL/WEEKLY STANDARD > "THE DAY PRESIDENT HILLARY CLINTON SURRENDERS AMERICA"??? Artiiikle - IOW, let the future USSA = anti-US OWG "Negotiate" Amer's problems away, espec on when is America Amerika. Let the OWG-NWO decide when to save Amerikans from Americans.
* "Sell out her mother and country for power" > wel-l-l, thats what God = Law of Unintended Consequences, Probabilities, Asteroids,.........
.................@etal is good for. GOD IS DEAD article > World will find out starting on a certain 12/8th known to Madonna-Headbangers Ball fans, Nostradamus, and Guam Taotamonas from the 1960's/70's, etal. First off though, a specific fiery object has to fly over WESTPAC but not strike the Region or Earth. *D *** nged MCDONALD'S DOUBLE-MEAT BIGMACS/MEGA-MACS!
Two Christian girls, little more than children, were kidnapped from their families recently, forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to strangers. Both of the kidnaps took place in Faisalabad, the third largest city in Pakistan, and both were completely ignored by the police. The phenomenon is not a new one however, underlined numerous human rights activist, but it is dangerously on the increase.
On August 5 Muhammad Adnan, a Muslim from Zulfiqar colony Faisalabad and his sister kidnapped Zunaira, an eleven years old Christian girl from her home in Warispura. After the kidnap, they forced her to convert to Islam and marry her kidnaper Muhammad.
The small girls mother, Abida, told AsiaNews: When I was roaming in streets in search of my daughter two Muslim men of the area told me that they saw Adnan and his sister taking my daughter. Abida decided to go to the kidnappers house, from which however she is thrown out. Returning home, she was contacted by two men who revealed the kidnappers identity and offer to act as negotiators for her daughters release in exchange for money.
Despite being desperately poor, Abida gives them 12 thousand Rupees (200 Euro): I didnt want to inform the police, because my daughter was engaged and I didnt want my relatives to know. Unfortunately I found out too late that those men who said they would help me only want money: I have sold all I have, but it wasnt enough and now I am alone. Abida then turned to the police, but they refused help. The fact that the marriage is invalid given the age of the bride, is not a matter for the police said the officers.
In the second case Shumaila Tabussum, (16), was kidnapped from her home on August 16 by a Muslim man Mazher and some other unknown people. They told Shumaila that her father had been seriously injured in an accident and offered to accompany her to the hospital where he had been taken. The girl, without waiting for her mother, got into Mazhers car: on the way she met two uncles at shouted the news of her fathers accident to them. These made their way to the hospital but found no-one.
Salamat Masih, 37, Shumailas father, immediately reported the abduction to the police. He told AsiaNews that he is very worried because cases such as these are on the increase: Christian girls abducted, forcibly converted and subjected to becoming the wives of complete strangers.
Khalil Tahir, chairman of a free legal aid organization Adal Trust and a well known Christian lawyer confirms this: the growing number of attacks against Christians is worrying. We try to aid the victims families and at the same time help those who are subjected to this violence legally and practically, but the government must intervene with force if this is to be stopped.
#4
The September National Geographic features an article titled "Islam's Fault Line - Pakistan" in which the story is told of a girl who is raped by a gang of thugs as a warning to her family to vacate a plot of land that the thugs want and how the thugs, cops and courts are all in cahoots.
Rantburgers will likely take issue with the article's claim that the majority of Pakistan's muslims are moderates who do not want violence. It tells of Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinna who envisioned a country in which Islam, merged with democratic ideals, would embrace the future. But the fault line is now between the moderates and a handful of fundamentalists who are spreading talibanization.
The impression is that this is an ugly, impoverished and dangerous little cat box.
#5
But you don't understand Islamomolest culture?... This is a holy act to save those two fortunte girls from being stoned as apostates. This is not kidnapping and rape it is a sacred rite...
How dare we interfere. It is not politically correct...
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Islamic Republic is the most secure country in the world for making investments.
"Requests for making investments in Iran have had an upward trend. The volume of Iran's trade dealings with other countries has also been increasing," Ahmadinejad said at a meeting with Iranian nationals residing in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.
The chief executive went on to say that entrepreneurs from many countries including Malaysia, China and Spain are willing to put substantial amounts of money into Iran projects and are confident about the security of their investment.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the president said, "Iran has managed to go through the arduous process of achieving industrial-scale nuclear fuel production thanks to the Resistance of the Iranian people and the consensus over the nuclear program. No one can stop this from moving ahead."
"All those initially against Iran accessing nuclear technology for peaceful aims acknowledge the Legitimate Right of the Iranian nation today. But it is difficult for them to admit their mistake due to their arrogance," he stated.
The President gave assurances that those with ill intentions can no longer cause troubles for Iran.
He added, "The ill-disposed were concerned about Iran reaching the zenith of knowledge and success in its nuclear fuel technology because they were well aware that such achievement would change the international equations in favor of the world's nations."
President Ahmadinejad arrived in Baku on Tuesday for a two-day working visit at the head of a political and economic delegation.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
08/22/2007
07:58 ||
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#1
I like the picture.If anyonec suffers from small man syndrome its him!!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
08/22/2007 9:28
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#2
Ignore that man behind the curtain! The following is from 2005, imagine how much worse it has become in almost two years.
Capital flight in Iran over the past fortnight reached its highest recorded level since the 1979 Islamic revolution, prompting financial advisors to the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to call for a temporary suspension of the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), according to market investors.
The market flight took a dramatic turn for the worse after Ahmadinejad made a speech in Tehran calling for the destruction of Israel and threatening Irans Muslim neighbours that developed ties with the Jewish state, an investor close to the government, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
The hard-line presidents remarks were condemned by the international community, and Tehran received a reprimand by the United Nations Security Council.
The capital flight began in earnest in June, after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new president. Ahmadinejads record as a radical Islamist and a former Revolutionary Guards commander, and his reputed remark that stock exchange speculation is forbidden in Islam sent jitters through the countrys markets. Nervous investors have been transferring their capital to safe havens such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In the past four months, the Tehran Stock Exchange has lost more than 20 percent of its value.
The following article is a must read for anyone unfamiliar with how Ahmadinejad has crippled Iran's petroleum industry: From the Wall Street Journal
Because it controls the oil revenue, which comes in U.S. dollars, the Islamic state has a vested interest in a weak national currency. (It could get more rials for the same amount of dollars in the domestic market.) Mr. Ahmadinejad has tried to exploit that opportunity by printing an unprecedented quantity of rials. Economists in Tehran speak of "the torrent of worthless rials" that Mr. Ahmadinejad has used to finance his extravagant promises of poverty eradication. The result has been massive flights of capital, mostly into banks in Dubai, Malaysia and Austria. Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the Islamic Chief Justice, claims that as much as $300 billion may have left the country since President Ahmadinejad was sworn in.
#3
Interesting links, Zenster. Thanks! I can understand the Iranians sending their money to Dubai. I could even understand Switzerland or Liechtenstein, were they doing that. But why Austria?
NEW DELHI: A mysterious delegation of Indian Muslims, invited on a rare visit to Israel, was apparently attacked with rockets by the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, Press Trust of India said on Tuesday.
Sirens warning of an impending rocket attack went off when the Indian delegation was visiting the southern Israeli city of Sederot. The visit was a hush-hush affair till the attack happened.
We heard a warning shot which was followed by a siren. We were immediately rushed to take shelter behind the mountains where we heard the sound of another rocket attack which hit the city, Maulana Umair Ilyasi, leader of the delegation, told PTI after the attack took place on Monday.
The delegation is visiting Israel on the invitation of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Australian Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAFC).
The AJC and the AIJAC had arranged a trip for the visiting Indian delegation to the southern city of Sederot, which is just 800 metres away from the Gaza border.
We were just watching the Gaza Strip from the top of a mountain when the rockets were fired from the Hamas-controlled territory, Ilyasi, General Secretary of the All India Organisation of Imams of Mosques, said. Will that make him think?
#1
And then, seeing the indiscriminate targeting of innocents by HAMAS, the visiting Muslims vowed to support Israel in establishing her legitimacy in the middle east and in defending herself against terror.
#2
I was watching IBN yesterday and they said that one of the rockets in that attack hit a daycare center but fortunately no chidren were in it. Funny how that is not even mentioned.
#6
This story is evidence that the MSM is causing Global Warming. If the MSM could be believed at least by these Indians, then a simple video of the rockets hitting the Sederot area with MSM explanation would have saved the trip to the scene saving carbon credits. However, the MSM have exposed their agenda and no one believes anything they say, especially that which they don't say and reveal as fact supported by third party commentary.
(ANSAmed)- A 19-year-old Saudi Arabian woman, Myriam, has undergone a successful s*ex-change operation in Jeddah and now, with her new name of Khaled, aspires for just one thing: a driving licence. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving, added Okaz daily, reporting the news today. "The first idea that came to my mind a few hours before the operation, was to have a driving licence," Myriam/Khaled told the newspaper, adding she was encouraged by her family to have the operation. S*ex change operations are rare in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia. "I entered (the hospital) with the abaya (traditional women's garment) and I came out with thub, ghotra and ogal, the white tunic and hat worn by men," Myriam/Khaled said.
#1
"I entered (the hospital) with the abaya (traditional women's garment) and I came out with thub, ghotra and ogal, meat and two veg the white tunic and hat worn by men," Myriam/Khaled said.
#4
WOW, last week is was cross-dressing Pakistanis who hate the US, and now Saudi wimmins wanting a driver's license? What has this Muslim world come to?
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 15:20
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A Polish couple were pulled apart and arrested by police for having sex on a pavement alongside a busy road in broad daylight.
Pictures of the pair were caught on a shopping centre's CCTV cameras and have been reproduced in local newspapers.
Kamila Steranovska and Tomasz Mienkowicz, both 19, stripped off and started romping in front of astonished passers-by in the middle of the day in the Praga district of the capital Warsaw.
A police spokesman said: "They were so engrossed in their act that when we tried to arrest them they told us to get lost and leave them to finish what they were doing.
"They said they just couldn't help themselves."
Police released the pair without charge after no-one complained. Police may now have to answer a wrongful arrest charge from the couple.
Baghdad (AKI) - The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
"AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces," al-Jashaami said.
Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of "most wanted" officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government. In return, for cooperating in the fight against al-Qaeda, al-Douri has asked for guarantees over his men's safety and for an end to Iraqi army attacks on his militias.
For the low-level 'insurgents', maybe, but for him, no.
Recent weeks have seen a first step in this direction, when Baathist fighters cooperated with Iraqi government forces in hunting down al-Qaeda operatives in the volatile Diyala province and in several districts of the capital, Baghadad.
#2
48 hour rule. But, if Al Douri is still alive and in charge of anything, this could be significant.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/22/2007 10:00
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#3
IMHO - it is significant. I agree Al-Dhouri needs killing, but if the movement can be stripped of supporting AQI, it's a big move, and a success for al-Maliki, along with the accords with SIIC and the Kurds - see Captain Ed's take
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2007 21:07
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#4
Boy, talk about the rats leaving the ship. Getting a little warm for you, al Douri?
#2
The difference is that the Serbs had sense enough to fight these bastards and actually had them on the run until the UN/NATO/US intervened. And now, according to the article, ethnic Albanians (read muzzies) are threatening violence if the Russians and Serbs are successful in blocking their aspirations for total independence from Serbia for Kosovo which is historically a Serbian province. So my question is how will the NATO forces in Kosovo fare against the Kosovo Liberation Army? My guess is probably not as well.
A drunk staggering home from a beer festival took a short cut through a zoo's bear cage - and was found half-eaten next day. Amazingly, Branko Jovanovic, 22, was still alive when zoo staff discovered him - despite having a leg torn off and half his face chewed away. But he died later on his way to hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, after keepers battled to prise him from the jaws of the Tibetan black bears. The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Some how, I think there's more to this story, and I really don't want to know.
Zoo director Vuk Bojovic said: "I will never forget what I saw. The bears had taken him to a corner to eat him, and torn off his leg and most of his face, but he was still alive. "The bears were really aggressive - they obviously regarded him as food and fought to hang on to their meal. It took ages to get them away from him." Drunks, the other white meat
Ghoulish visitors have made the two bears - Masha and Misha - an overnight hit with double the usual number of people coming to see them. Officials now plan to make it harder to get into the bear enclosure - even though the wall Jovanovic climbed was 18ft high.
And they also hit out at the beer festival organisers. Bojovic said: "We had warned the organisers to stage it further away. "We have had all sorts of problems from revellers although we did not think anyone would be stupid enough to enter the cage. Don't go to many beer fests, do you?
"The area where the beer festival takes place is up on a hill while the zoo is downhill, and the bears' cage has no roof so the drinkers were always throwing things in there. "Keepers have found beer cans, mobile phones and even used condoms in the cage. "We warned the organisers that they needed to control their guests better. "We want it moved to a new location far from the zoo next year."
Owners of Israeli s*ex sites report high percentage of entries from Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The hit: Clips starring female soldiers and Mossad women.
Adar Shalev
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict apparently does not disturb and even encourages Arab internet users from consuming kosher Hebrew pr0n. Operators of a number of pr0n sites report that between two and 10% of their users arrive from Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority. Some websites even go as far as offering services in Arabic.
Nir Shahar, who manages the Israeli pr0n website, 'Ratuv' (wet), said that his company produced pr0n movies that have typical Israeli themes featuring female soldiers, female Mossad agents and policewomen.
It turns out there is a high demand for such content even in countries that are defined as "enemy sates." The most popular video clip among Arabs, "Code name: Deep investigation," is described as "a parody dealing with the Vanunu affair with agents investigating the affair using e*rotic means."
In the past several months we see an increase in traffic from countries that have no diplomatic ties with Israel including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt," Shahar said.
Due to the demand, Shahar added an Arabic version of the site. "We received many thank you messages from Arab surfers. Many of whom asked if the female soldiers really serve in the IDF," he said.
Looking at photos
"We get hundreds of hits from surfers that live in countries where pr0n is prohibited," said Gil Naftali owner and operator of another Hebrew sex site, S*exV. "We don't have an Arabic version because users log in to watch photos and video clips that require no explanations." I'll say!
According to site statistics, last month there were over 2,000 hits from Riad, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The average time a Saudi surfer spends on S*exV is 17:23 minutes. Just enough time, no more, no less.
Data also shows that 10 percent of the visitors to the most popular s*ex site in Israel, Domina, are Arabic speakers. "That is because we offer content in their language," said Tzahi who operates the site.
Nothing seems to stop the pr0n-consuming Saudi, not even technical difficulties: "In many places Israel is blocked, at times the entire suffix ".co.il" is blocked. Users connect through proxy servers and reach us that way," he said.
The motive behind these initiatives is purely economical, and by means the desire to connect people through the international language of pr0n. That's how I learned english, you know!
"Israeli and Arab surfers do not communicate on the website. Ideology? No, it's purely business," Tzahi laughed. "Pr0n will not bring about peace but at least we get some money out of our enemies' pockets."
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
08/22/2007
07:27 ||
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#1
2-10%? hell, "Goat Week" on Animal Planet gets more Arab hits
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2007 7:55
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#2
...long-term migration from the country reached 385,000 in the year to July 2006.
A number of long-term migrants who arrived in the UK in the same period was 574,000
KHOST, Afghanistan (Rooters) - The governor of Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday when a suicide car bomber struck his convoy, witnesses and officials said.
At least three of governor Arsala Jamal's bodyguards were killed in the attack, which occurred close to a base for Western troops just outside Khost town, they said.
Minutes after the attack, Jamal told Rooters he was fine.
"The attack was against my convoy. I am fine, but I see some people in flames in cars ahead of me."
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2007 9:27
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#3
It goes back further than that. It's the definition of the Yiddish word chutzpah. (Pronounced with the hard, throat-clearing kh sound, not the soft French sh.)
BAGHDAD - A helicopter went down in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005.
The military said initial indications showed the aircraft experienced a mechanical problem and was not brought down by hostile fire, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation.
The UH-60 Black Hawk was part of a pair of helicopters on a nighttime operation when the crash occurred. The four crew members and 10 passengers who perished were assigned to Task Force Lightning, the military said. It did not release identities pending notification of relatives.
The deadliest crash occurred on Jan. 26, 2005, when a CH-53 Sea Stallion transport helicopter went down in a sandstorm in western Iraq, killing 31 U.S. troops.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/22/2007 8:07
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#3
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
Rest in peace, and God bless.
Posted by: sofia ||
08/22/2007 8:32
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#1
are you allowed to own guns legally? If not why not own them anyway, if they will save your life?
How cohesive are the middle class or white folks on this do they help each other yet?
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2007 7:38
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#2
Perhaps Besoeker or Rhodesiafever could be more precise on that, but it is my understanding that legal gunownership in SA has been severely restricted since the end of the apartheid, which would be logical if the new power want the whites to be toothless (IIUC, criminals seem to have no troubel finding even heavy weaponry, often withthe help of private security forces or police).
#3
If you include Coloreds, Indians and many Zulus the ratios get considerably better. One of the non-PC facts about South Africa is that the Whites would not have been able to conquer and rule the country without cooperation from many Blacks.
One of the things that South Africans told me during Apartheid was that if the majority took over, the big violence would be Black on Black.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/22/2007 9:52
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#4
Why are there any whites left? After the SA reaction to Zimbabwae I would have moved to Australia to farm. Reminds me of the Jews in Germany insisting they are Germans until it was too late to be honest.
#3
Nichole Kidman had better seriously consider firing her agent, because even though she works a lot, the only movies of hers that get any "buzz" stink on ice. She is close to getting a "Jonah" reputation.
The Invasion.
Bewitched.
The Stepford Wives.
The Hours.
Moulin Rouge.
Eyes Wide Shut.
#8
"we need all the things the Kingdom of Heaven used to promise us but failed to deliver."
-someone doesn't understand their scripture or at least distorts it. My $.02 -- The kingdom of heaven or heaven on earth was a parable to describe if all men treated each other as brothers, i.e. love thy neighbor as thy self (one of Jesus's two big commandments)...the kingdome of heaven would be on earth. I.E. - the onus was on us to bring about that change through riteous action thus creating a very caring society, it was not up to God just to intervene because he thought it was time. Also, it didn't mean that the clouds would fall to earth and everyone would piss lemonade, shit skittles & eat all the orang pushups they wanted......in contrast, you'd have the best caring society possible by following Jesus' ethical construct, not some hocus pocus about angels running around on earth. No one ever said there still wouldn't be bad things on earth going on......hence free will in a dynamic environment. God I hate some atheists (hahaha, I love that line).
#10
I liked Eyes Wide Shut, but then I'm a Stanley Kubrick fan. Nicole is attractive in a skinny pale girl sort of way, but the movie would have been fine with just about anyone else in her role.
It may be that her agent is doing the best he can with what he has to work with.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said on Wednesday. Like any self-respecting man would do.
Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict".
The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.
"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."
DES MOINES, Iowa - A woman who police say assaulted people with a hammer while she was naked was arrested on a variety of charges, including assault and obstruction of emergency communications.
Satin Delfrano, 32, of Des Moines was arrested on Sunday after police were called to a complaint of a woman armed with a hammer assaulting three other women.
Officers went to an upstairs bedroom and found Delfrano. They allowed her to get dressed and then handcuffed her and led her outside.
Delfrano tried to walk away on her knees and kicked an officer in the leg, injuring the officer, police said.
Delfrano also was charged with assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
08/22/2007
07:02 ||
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#1
If this involved clustering of fascist white supremacists forming 'militias', how many inches of column space on page one or how many minutes of daily evening news would be consumed in the media sharkfest?
#2
I see the general population is coming around to the debate roughly described as WHAT DO WE DO WITH THESE MUSLIMS ?
Some here would bury them all. (me too)
Some would deport them all. (costs too much)
Some would isolate and remove radical imams.
Whatever, I hope in the end, we demand Islam either change or be erradicated by genocide. I can't feature passing this cancer on to other generations. There's just no logic to that kind of cowardice. And yes, not dealing with the problem is cowardice.
#3
There's just no logic to that kind of cowardice.
Cowardice knows no logic. It s an emotional state.
I agree that there is a degre of that in our western societies. But not all of the patterns can be attributed as such. Many factors in play... for instance ignorance, or sheer inability to project trends, because the base you can build them on has been, shrunk or removed in the past 30 or so years.
It is rather ironic that our inability to deal with the problem as society at large, in rational ways, will be much more costly in the long run. People don't feel affected by it yet, it does not burn them so they don't feel like it should be them dealing with the fire that is yet somewhere in the distance--maybe it will pass them by, they think.
One hopes that they'll wake up before there would be no escape.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
08/22/2007
07:00 ||
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#1
"ALGIERS: Dozens of foreigners who joined Al-Qaeda's Algeria-based North Africa wing have been leaving because they are dead disillusioned,
a recent deserter from the group said in remarks published on Wednesday."
I bet Al-Qaeda in Iraq is having similar problems.
#2
"They are doing the opposite of what Islam advocates," he said, mentioning suicide bombings and racketeering. "Resorting to suicide attacks and explosives is the strategy of organizations at bay."
Interesting statement from a former AQ/Maghreb leader, even if he did qualify it by saying that the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are different.
David Beckham and Justin Timberlake are the targets of an alleged Al-Qaeda murder plot. A chilling internet video, which has been posted on YouTube, brands Becks, 32, and JT, 26, as criminal influences on young Muslims. Fellow footballers Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry, as well as rapper P Diddy, are also mentioned.
The warning footage was posted by a Glasgow-based website named after Al-Qaeda that encourages attacks on Westerners.
Who to root for, who to root for? I'm so conflicted. Ya know, this might be the only way to open the eyes of some on the left as to what the threat really is. Course, they'd most likely blame Bush.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/22/2007
06:07 ||
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#2
Qui bono? Justin Timberlake cd sales! Who owns Justin Timberlake's record company, Jive Records? Sony BMG! Chief Executive Officer Rolf Schmidt-Holtz = former editor of Gruner + Jahr/neocon/Bilderberger Group/Hitler Diaries False Flag experts Stern! 666 times 23 carry the square root of Pi = profits! Israel! Cheney! Fire doesn't melt steel! I question the timing! No blood for N-Sync!
#15
Brit news also mentions Posh Spice's hubby. I gotta ask why and what relevance/value do these male celebrities have for Radical Islam and Dubya-WOT in general??? OTOH, compare wid RUMORMILLNEWS Netter > VICK'S Case? > POTUS Dubya allegedly abused animals as a young man.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/22/2007 19:28
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#17
Whisky Mike, why don't you and whoever else wants to hear the story join us in the O Club? Scroll up to the yellow box in the right margin and click on it. I'm buying the first round of drinks while Free Radical relates his tale. :-D
NAJAF: Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr congratulated his supporters yesterday for the imminent withdrawal of British forces from the southern city of Basra.
The troops are due to leave their last base in Basra and move to an airbase outside the city in the coming weeks, after coming under daily mortar and rocket bombardment from local Shi'ite militias.
British commanders insist they are not being forced out and will leave the city in the hands of the Iraqi security forces but Sadr, in a statement issued by his office in Najaf, claimed the decision as a victory.
"We heard and you heard too, of the intention of British troops to withdraw from our beloved southern Iraq. Congratulations are due to us, to you and to the honest resistance," he said.
Last August, when British troops left their base in the southern town of Amara it was immediately looted by local citizens and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia held a small-scale victory parade.
Now, his Shi'ite militia fighters are among the strongest opponents of US and British forces in Iraq, and have taken the lead in the daily attacks against British bases and convoys in Basra.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
08/22/2007
04:48 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
Sadr needs to take "credit" for a .50 caliber round in his turban.
#5
Hummm.. I wonder how Kuwait is feeling right about now?
IIRC it's mostly Sunni, and there's fat ole agressive Iran packed full of Assatollahs and missles and Quds [cuspidors] Forces.
Not to mention Tater and his Tots the Badr Boys just up North of them in I-raq.
Course Kuwait has us, the USA and that pre-positioned stuff which we're presently using [used up more likely] and our forward bases but maybe Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are gonna cut and run and pull us all back to Okinawa like Sen. Murtha wants?
Or hey maybe well do like the demoC*raps did in RVN in 1973-1975, bug out to the US of A.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2007 7:22
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#6
Naw, we're gonna win this one baby, by the grace of God interceding in our affairs and pinching our politicians heads......HARD!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2007 7:26
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#7
#4 Like there wouldn't be another one in his place?
#8
Like there wouldn't be another one in his place?
Come on, gg. You live in the Middle East, if not Israel, right?
What Wretchard says about the Palestinian leadership is eqally applicable in all high context Islamic societies:
The Israeli strike against the terrorist top tier exploits the weakness inherent in terrorist organizations which are unstable alliances based on a delicate balance of internal intimidation. None of them, the Palestinian Authority included, are either transparent or accountable. They are exceptionally vulnerable to changes in their leadership. They can stand the loss of any number of teenage fighters or youthful suicide bombers without much damage but are rocked -- as Yassin's death illustrates -- by death at the top.
These maggots make themselves irreplacable, it's how they stay in power. This is why so often the only way to remove them is by force. They wouldn't have it any other way. They create and flourish in a society that is cowed and religiously bullied (in every meaning of the phrase).
#9
Why does that piece of shit continue to draw oxygen? Why (at the least) hasn't the acting government arrested him? Why does anyone pretend that anything even remotelyr resembling "peace" can be had while simultaneously allowing an armed resistance to exist within the center of the country with no consequences to those that are the public face of the resistance? Who the fuck do they think they're kidding?
It makes me absolutely sick that we were given an 8 year run at the driver's seat and did so little with it. What is the point of power if one is unwilling to use it?
#10
What is the point of power if one is unwilling to use it?
It's for posturing and moral preening that is of little consequence in genuinely important affairs but of great significance to those who value style over substance.
#11
It's a good thing we didn't 86 this piece of shiat.
/sarc
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/22/2007 13:26
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#12
#8. Come on Zenster, IDF killed 500% of Hamas leadership. US Military had (approx) the same success with Al Qaeda Iraq. Its like stopping baseball in USA by killing the top league players.
You live in the Middle East, if not Israel, right?
??????????????????????????????????
#13
"Why does that piece of shit continue to draw oxygen? Why (at the least) hasn't the acting government arrested him? . . . "
All bets are hedged.
There are ramifications from endless public policy debate over whether we stay to win or declare all Iraqis hopeless squabblers, ourselves losers, and go home. So bets will remain, to some degree hedged.
#14
...or declare all Iraqis hopeless squabblers...
Islam breeds nothing BUT "hopeless squabblers". There is no such thing as a open, fair, and participative society within any territory dominated by Islam. I cannot fathom why we allowed them to craft a constitution that is openly linked to Islam, nor erect a political system that recognizes religious factions rather than political ideologies.
#17
gg, obviously I have confused you with someone else whose 'nym sounds similar.
Come on Zenster, IDF killed 500% of Hamas leadership. US Military had (approx) the same success with Al Qaeda Iraq. Its like stopping baseball in USA by killing the top league players.
A cute analogy to be sure, but let's face it, attendance at the games would drop if all players in the majors were taken out of the game. Trying to replace them with peanut league strings wouldn't create the same level of play. So it is with Islam's clerical and terrorist elite. We've mostly been taking out cannon fodder as compared to the big shots. That ratio needs to invert before reasonable progress will be obtained.
There is no such thing as a open, fair, and participative society within any territory dominated by Islam. I cannot fathom why we allowed them to craft a constitution that is openly linked to Islam, nor erect a political system that recognizes religious factions rather than political ideologies.
Absolutely spot on, Crusader. Permitting Afghanistan and Iraq to install shari'a based constitutions was a singular folly upon our part. As a military occupier, such a thing should simply have been forbidden with all proponents of such jailed or executed.
One could argue that such a measure might involve killing off a large portion of each respective society but it still remains that those same people will get even larger numbers killed by persisting with their jihadist activities. If we are going to be so idiotic as to pretend that we can save Islam from itself, then there's a huge number of people that need killing. Such pantywaist strategies as persuasion and negotiation play negligible roles in such a plan.
A decade or so from nowmost likely after the needless deaths of several million Americansthat question (or a variant of it), will ring in the ears of several successive generations.
#19
Last August, when British troops left their base in the southern town of Amara it was immediately looted by local citizens and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia held a small-scale victory parade.
Here's to hopin' that WE remember this event, and that some of our best and brightest snipers are on a "training exercise" in and around Basra when the Brits pull out.
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 20:20
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The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year -- equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey. Norway is concerned that Al Gore its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.
Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway's technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year. Much like cows, bacteria in Hillary's a moose's stomach create methane gas which is considered even more destructive to the environment than carbon gas. Cows pose the same problem.
Norway has some 120,000 meese moose but an estimated 35,000 are expected to be killed in this year's moose hunting season, which starts on September 25, Norwegian newspaper VG reported. Are there any carbon credits to be claimed here?
Typical clueless MSM reporting on global warming. A human emits about a kilo a day of CO2 by breathing. A moose is about 7 times the size of a man. So a moose will emit more than 2,000 kilos of CO2 a year just by breathing.
Peru's Expreso newspaper carries a photo of a tin with a label sporting photos of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Peruvian opposition politician Ollanta Humala, who lost to Alan Garcia in last year's presidential election. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, a message on the label reads: "The Peruvian government acts in an inefficient, slow and heartless manner, notwithstanding the pain of the victims, leaving them to the mercy of hunger, thirst and delinquency."
Ingredients: 1 part seething, 2 parts despair.
Directions: Mix well, cover, let stand for two or three weeks without a shower or a hot meal. Wear eye protection when opening, contents may be explosive.
Not surprisingly, the offending cans have stirred up a political storm.
Among the well-fed and properly domiciled chattering class, of course. The actual victims are still trying to figure out if *this* rock can be piled on *that* brick.
Humala's Nationalist Party - whose logo also features on the label - has denied responsibility, blaming a "weak and cowardly" campaign to damage its image, according to the Miami Herald. President Garcia said he didn't believe Humala was behind the fishy propaganda. But the Expreso newspaper said the cans were handed out from Nationalist Party trucks, fuelling the theory they could be the brainchild of local Humala or Chavez supporters.
The Venezuelan ambassador to Peru was quick to disassociate his government from the controversial labels. "This is a damaging manipulation, a vile manipulation because Venezuela has brought humanitarian aid, not party politics," he reportedly told Lima's CPN Radio.
"Such calumny! Venezuela's honor has been impugned! I shall write Turtle Bay at once and register a case! You could go to Den Haag for this!"
The LA Times said the row was symptomatic of a wider divide between South Americans who support the policies of powerful socialist leader Chavez and those who disapprove of his anti-U.S. rhetoric.
President Garcia is a Washington ally who has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of interfering in Peru's affairs. During last year's presidential campaign, he also branded Humala "a Chavez lackey", according to the newspaper. But while there's no love lost between Garcia and Chavez, the Peruvian president has publicly thanked Venezuela for the quake aid it's sent.
As long as the perpetrators of "tuna-gate" remain shrouded in mystery, it's hard to know whether the cans were a roaring a success or a political own-goal.
Either way, the controversy makes Bolivian President Evo Morales look like a saint in comparison. He and his cabinet have promised to donate between 25 percent and half of their pay this month to the tens of thousands of families left homeless by the devastating Peru quake.
Sorry, Evo. Chavez outflanked you. You can't put Citizen Hugo's face on half your salary, and your noble sacrifice has already been spent in brothels in Buenos Aires.
"International aid is not always enough when there is a natural disaster, but a small contribution will always help the families affected by the earthquake," Morales said.
Just ask millions of satisfied Red Cross donors.
Big natural disasters can make or break governments. They can make a town mayor a hero who'll go on to be president, or they can expose the faultlines of state corruption and fuel a revolution. Sometimes tragedies persuade long-standing enemies to unite and help each other out. Other times governments score goals by giving aid to traditional enemies to highlight their weakness.
In the case of Peru, some quake survivors have got so fed up waiting for help to arrive that they've packed up and left town. According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, aid workers say there's actually plenty of relief to go round, but the problem lies with distribution bottlenecks.
Some have criticised a decision to put ministers in charge of the relief effort. "Local authorities, the ones who know the area best, and titular head of the civil defense system, have no role. They have been replaced by ministers," Frank Boeren of Oxfam International told the paper.
To those still waiting for relief to trickle through, the tuna scandal must seem like a cruel and cynical sideshow.
#4
Big natural disasters can make or break governments. They can make a town mayor a hero who'll go on to be president, or they can expose the faultlines of state corruption and fuel a revolution.
Jeebus, is somebody gunnin' to have Mayor Nagin on the 2008 Donk ticket? Or is this a RWC (Right Wing Conspiracy) jab at the incompetence that is the most corrupt city in the most corrupt state in our Union?
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 19:47
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#5
Bart Simpson calls Apu: You got Hugo Chavez in a can? ...
Posted by: ed ||
08/22/2007 20:36
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(SomaliNet) The UN Security Council called on the secretary-general on Monday to begin planning for the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers to Somalia to replace an African Union force that has struggled to put troops in the chaotic country.
The push came as part of a resolution approved unanimously on Monday by the council extending the AU force's mandate for another six months and urging African states to pledge soldiers to the undermanned mission. The UN authorised the AU to send an 8 000-strong peacekeeping force to Somalia in February to calm the country after Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted a fundamentalist Islamic movement that had controlled much of the south.
But only 1,800 troops from Uganda are on the ground six months later, far fewer than the number needed to bring a lasting peace to the country. Troop deployments from other African countries have been delayed because of lack of funding and logistical help.
Nobody thought of that at the time, of course ...
The resolution, sponsored by Britain, calls on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to begin making contingency plans for the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers to replace the African force, although it does not provide a timeline for any potential hand-over.
How about if the EU handles this one? The UN will hit the US for at least 25% of the tab, and we're a little busy elsewhere. Let's see the Euros step up.
Francois Lonseny Fall, Ban's special representative to Somalia, has said the AU's expectation is that a UN force will replace the AU troops at the end of the six months. But some Security Council countries believe there must be a peace to keep before UN troops are sent to Somalia. China's deputy UN ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, said earlier this month that "everything depends on the security situation inside the country."
Wouldn't want anyone shooting at the Mighty Uruguayans ...
South Africa's UN ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, said on Monday the African countries on the council supported the resolution without "great enthusiasm" because they "expected the Security Council to take decisive action about the deployment of UN troops in Somalia." He said the AU is "doing the job that the UN is supposed to be doing", and doesn't have the resources to fulfil its mandate to place 8 000 troops in the country.
Vladimir Putin announced ambitious plans to revive Russia's military power and restore its role as the world's leading producer of military aircraft yesterday. Speaking at the opening of the largest airshow in Russia's post-Soviet history, the president said he was determined to make aircraft manufacture a national priority after decades of lagging behind the west.
The remarks follow his decision last week to resume long-range missions by strategic bomber aircraft capable of hitting the US with nuclear weapons. Patrols over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic began last week for the first time since 1992.
Presidential aides hinted yesterday that Russia could shortly resume the production of Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic nuclear bombers, now that the aircraft are again flying "combat missions". The bombers would be used as a "means of strategic deterrence", a presidential aide, Alexander Burutin, told Interfax.
We could always crank out a few more B-2s. Any chance some of the older B-52s in the boneyard could be rebuilt?
Mr Putin said Russia would also resume the large-scale manufacture of civilian planes. "Russia has a very important goal which is to retain leadership in the production of military equipment," he said.
Boy howdy, Airbus versus Tupolov, there's a real choice ...
The new emphasis on Russia's revived military prowess comes against a backdrop of deteriorating relations with the west. Mr Putin has denounced the US's missile defence plans in Europe, scrapped an agreement with Nato on conventional armed forces, and grabbed a large, if symbolic, chunk of the Arctic.
Yesterday a senior Russian general warned the Czech Republic it would be making a "big mistake" if it permitted the US to use its territory. Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia's military chief of staff, said Prague should hold off any final decision on the shield until after next year's US presidential elections. "I do not exclude that a new administration in the United States will re-evaluate the current administration's decisions on missile defence," he said, after a meeting in Moscow with the Czech defence minister, Martin Bartak.
Unfortunately he's right about that; Hildebeast would be certain to cancel it.
Speaking at yesterday's MAKS-2007 international airshow, Mr Putin said: "Russia, as a state that has acquired new economic capabilities, will continue to attach special importance to high technology and development."
Analysts, however, took issue with Mr Putin's claim that Russia was already the leading producer of military aircraft. However, they acknowledged that Russia had developed some impressive "technologies". These include a new S-400 missile and aircraft interceptor system, similar but better than the US Patriot, and a lethal new supersonic cruise missile, the Meteorit-A. "They have some very good kit," one industry observer said.
Russia also used yesterday's airshow - held at Zhukovsky, a former Soviet airbase on the leafy outskirts of Moscow - to show off its latest generation of jet fighters. These include an upgraded Sukhoi jet, the SU-35, which has a new engines and a new radar system, and a revamped "vector thrust" MIG, the MIG 29-OVT. "They are good aircraft. The MIG can do a very lovely flip," the industry observer added.
Wonder if can see an F-22? And if so, can it run away fast enough?
One analyst said Mr Putin did not want confrontation with the west but was determined to restore Russia's strategic parity with the US. "Russia wants balance. It wants a strategic balance with the US," Ivan Safranchuk, a Moscow-based expert on defence, told the Guardian.
Russia once again wants to be a "Malaysia with Missiles" ...
"Russia wants to do this as cheaply as possible. But with the Bush administration withdrawing from arms control treaties, Russia is saying it is also ready to keep the balance at a high level of cost."
Asked about Russia's resumption of long-range bomber patrols, Mr Safranchuk said: "It's significant. For 15 years the political leadership was constraining the military on this. Now it isn't."
In the 1960s and 1970s the Soviet Union produced more civilian planes than any other country in the world apart from the United States. After the collapse of communism, Russia's impoverished government drastically cut spending on its aircraft industry. Factories producing military planes fared better than those building civilian aircraft, mainly because of buoyant sales to India and China. But Russia started to fall behind the west in the design of advanced fighters and other military aircraft.
Mr Putin is now determined to make Russia the world's third-largest manufacturer of passenger jets - after the United States, with Boeing, and the European Union, with Airbus. Russia's passenger airlines own about 2,500 ageing aircraft - of which just 100 are western-made models - although they fly one-third of all Russian passengers.
Last week Russian officials said they planned to build 4,500 civilian aircraft by 2025, while the Kremlin has pledged £125bn to boost the civilian industry. As part of the plan to boost significantly Russia's civilian aircraft industry, a new state-controlled organisation, the United Aircraft Corporation, has been created. It is led by Sergei Ivanov, Russia's hawkish first deputy prime minister, who sat next to Mr Putin during yesterday's airshow - and the leading candidate to be Putin's mouthpiece succeed him after next year's presidential elections.
#1
KOMMERSANT > AFFORDABLE SPACE PROJECTS FROM RUSSIA; whilst WORLDNEWS > RUSSIA TO MAINTAIN/ EXPAND AEROSPACE LEADERSHIP. Ditto similar dedicated efforts by CHINA as per lunar exploration-surveying.
#2
The article ignores the fact that most of the world dumped the Soviet/Russian aircraft as soon as the Soviet Union went away, at least in the commercial aircraft field. And the airlines that kept the Russian planes have the worst safety records in the world. Most Russian airlines have gone with either Boeing or Airbus aircraft, when they could afford them.
Other than China, who are the Russians going to sell the bombers to? As far as the jet fighters go, the MiG-29 is a good aircraft but not the one I would want to be flying against the latest F-15 or F-22. Sukhoi build really good CAS aircraft and that is a pretty open field - Sukhoi should make some good sales IF they can keep the service and support up to par, which has been a BIG problem for a lot of Russian equipment.
Besides which, Putin and Russia should be more concerned with the Russian Far East and the demographic implosion in the country - Siberia has to look awful tempting to the Chinese about now. And with a decreasing population and fewer divisions to protect the Russian Far East, the temptation to redraw boundaries may become overwhelming to the Chinese in the next 20 years.
#3
Russia wants balance. It wants a strategic balance with the US
What for? It's not like we need to or want to invade Russia. Nah, this is just sign of a Russkie inferiority complex: bring back the good old days when someone was scared of us!
#4
The Russians have demonstrated that even if you have all the tanks, guns, and wings your generals want, it won't make an effective fighting machine. However, I guess, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Just remember, this time you won't have the Germans invading Poland from the West when you go in from the East.
#5
Any chance some of the older B-52s in the boneyard could be rebuilt?
Sadly, no. Several of them - about 10 - may be able to come back but the rest are basically spare parts bins for the rest of the fleet.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/22/2007 9:02
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#6
Don't look at the man behind the curtain.
Meaning, yes in public and the press Russia is harping against the US. It is something that their public understands well. But they want to be strong against the Chinese and muzzie aggression. They know we aren't going to invade. They just want to make sure that if they do nip off pieces of territory from the muzzies, that the US will think twice about interfering.
Two Muslims were shot dead and 19 people, including several policemen, were wounded in twin bomb attacks near a busy railway station Tuesday in Thailand's restive south, police said.
The first bomb, hidden in the front basket of a motorcycle, went off during the morning rush hour in Yala, one of three insurgency-torn provinces bordering Malaysia, they said. As police rushed to the scene, a more powerful bomb exploded, injuring 19 people, including eight policemen and four from the local press. The second explosive was hidden inside the same motorcycle, and insurgents detonated it through a remote control, police said.
Also in Yala, a 28-year-old Muslim man was gunned down by militants at a tea shop early Tuesday, and another 27-year-old Muslim man was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in the province late Monday.
It has emerged that two RAF jets have intercepted a Russian bomber over the north Atlantic. Typhoon interceptors shadowed a Russian Tupolev-95 "Bear" reconnaissance aircraft last Friday. It is the first time the £60m Eurofighter has been scrambled on a genuine alert since it took over defence of Britain's airspace in June.
The MoD said in a statement: "RAF Typhoons from Numbers 3(F) and XI Squadrons launched to shadow a Russian Bear-H aircraft over the North Atlantic Ocean on Friday 17 August 2007."
The £67 million fighter jets were officially put on active standby last month. A dozen Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of 3 (Fighter) Squadron are now on round-the-clock active duty at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire. Tornado F3 jets based at RAF Leuchars in Scotland will share the same role over the northern UK airspace for some five to six months yet before they too are replaced.
It will be at least another year before the controversial fighter jet is ready for air-to-ground combat operations, which could see squadrons deployed to Afghanistan, RAF chiefs said last month.
#1
RAF 3rd generation fighters intercept rickety old 40s era russkie prop aeroplane...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/22/2007 1:36
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#2
Looks like Pootie has had to resort to nationalism to hold his frail state together. I'll bet scrambling the interceptor only plays into his plans for the excuses required to build up his military.
England needs Russia's energy, so they are afraid to get too aggressive.
I would think ignoring these things would work best. He wouldn't dare do anything anyway, so why waste the time and energy for what amounts to a show? If one of these pathetic dinosaurs crashes on British soil without an escort then Russia would have a lot of explaining to do and it would probably take the wind out of Pootie's sails.
It'd be a shame if some of those flying barns just crashed into the Atlantic and disappeared.
#3
Nope. Bears are turboprop not piston based. They are much faster than piston-based WWII fighters like Cosrasirs or Mustangs and only lightly slower than B52s.
Also Cold War jet interceptors aprticularly eth Jaguar found that Bears could accelarate better than them so it was not that easy to keep them shadowed.
Also the Bear is much newer than late Fourty's. I think it entered service in the in the late 60s after the failure of a project of a jet bomber with a range in the same order than the one of the B52.
The threat of the Bear, who was able to sink a ship with a single hit of the huge missile(s) he carried compelled the Navy to adopt a fighter carrying a very lon,g range, wide angle radar couple with the super long range Phoenix missile. This was the F14
#4
Also Cold War jet interceptors aprticularly eth Jaguar found that Bears could accelarate better than them so it was not that easy to keep them shadowed.
Maybe this is true, but I have a hard time believing a glorified propeller-driven plane with a top speed in the 500mph range could accelerate faster than a jet plane that can go almost 1000mph. Perhaps this is true if the Bear didn't have any kind of load.
I checked wiki and the bears seem to have their roots in '40s technology, and the turboprops themselves seem to have their roots in '50s technology.
#6
Bears are 1950s era turboprops, but then so are C-130s. The Bear was developed because the Soviet jet engines at the time were unable to push a heavy bomber to range with a good load. The dual contra-rotating props on each engine develop the needed power and give a good range to the plane. If the Russians bother to update the avionics, the Bear is still a good plane to have and a threat to maritime shipping.
#7
Also, for long range at moderate speeds over open oceans, turbo-props are an acceptable approach. The P-3 Orion is a turbo-prop and it has been patrolling the oceans since 1962. That is the big strength of the Bear for the Russians : it has long legs and can carry some pretty devastating anti-shipping missiles. Plus, it is already built and doesn't eat fuel like a standard jet bomber.
Jet engines take more time than piston or turboprop ones to go from low to high power ( a feature wo allowed Mustangs, Tempests and Spitfires to hold their own against German jets) and that can allows the Bear to get some lead and perhaps hide in cloud. Also third genaration fighters were not optimized for high cruise speed and are able of crossing the sound barrier only when using fuel thirsty afteburners. In fact their predecessors were better at supersonic sustained flight than them (look at the charts to be convinced). It could be that the Jaguar had a particulrly poor cruise speed for a jet. Also don't forget that the mission is not to catch with teh Bear and down it but to shadow it for as long as possible thus the jet needs to avooid going beyond its econmy speed. I don't think it was unrelated that the F14, the primary Bear hunter, was the westen fighter who could stay longer at transonic or near transonic speeds (at these speeds the F14's wing was at prcatical effects a delta).
With Russia becoming agressive agsin the wisdom of not replacing the F14 can be questionned. The Hornet be it in noraml or Super version does not fill Tomcat's niche: high cuise speed and endurance, ability to engage the traget at very long distances well before it can close with the carriers.
Jet fighters need to use afterburners for crossing the sound barrier and these will burn the plane's fuel load very quickly. (I don't think it is unrelated that US Navy's "anti-bear" plane is at parcatical effedcts when its wings are positionned for high speed a delta plane and this uses muvch less fuel
Michael Jordan coming out of retirement sounds neat, but the reality on the playing field doesn't measure up to some Hollyweird dream story. Give it a rest. Your family needs clothes, shoes, food on the table, and a roof over their heads. Save the need for 'flash' for another day and time.
#10
Air to air missile accelerates faster than turboprop or jet...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/22/2007 11:46
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#11
Before the Tomcats came along, the CV's launched the Phantoms to escort any approaching Bears. Agree with JFM's assessment of the Hornet; a one size fits most is at best a compromise, and not excellent at anything. Short legs, or light ordnance load, one or the other because you cannot hang missles on pylons holding drop tanks. And the loss of the carrier based tanker platforms ( think KA-6D and to a lesser extent, the KS-3A experiment) for deep penetration means that you give up long time surveillance of the incoming bad guys. Yes the Super Lawn Dart can carry a buddy store, but it reminds me of the old joke about mopeds and fat chicks (no I do not know why).....
I do not expect the CV version of the JSF to do any better in the Bear escort role either.
Missing from this is any reference to the LTV A-7E, the Corsair II; single engine light attack, it was also pressed into Bear escort duty from time to time. Missles and guns and fairly long legs.
What I see is the gradual dismantling of Naval Air Pwer and the USAF getting it all. planes and CVs are not getting any cheaper; and with the push to UAVs, expect the Fly-Boys to grap everything with wings......
#12
Thanks, JFM. Do you think all this is still true if the Bear is hauling some kind of weapons load that we care about?
Practically speaking, I think the Bears would get one good attack, and after that they would all be big, slow, shiny flying targets/deathtraps. All the talk of endurance, acceleration, hiding in the clouds, fuel efficiency, etc. would mean nothing to a Jaguar, JSF, or just about any plane with radar that is attacking a Bear instead of just "escorting" it with radar turned off.
Anyone know if Bears have been retrofitted with some kind of defensive capability? Seems to me they have guns, but I don't know how useful they would be (except at ranges far closer than they would be attacked from).
Practically speking I have seen the video where a single missile from the Bear virtually desistnegrated what looked like a destroyer or bigger ship. A carrier could survive (perhaps) but would be out of action for months.
After that it doesn't matter if the Bear is downed (except to her crew). That is why the Navy wanted so badly an interceptor able to down them from sixty miles or so.
#15
BEARS are still good as standoff platforms for ALCM's, ASW,+ anti-SAT. However, GMD-TMD > as wid Russ LR missles, armed/arming Russian bombers can be detected while still readying for takeoff on their airfields, which in turn gives US-Allied interceptors more time to catch-and-destroy. The Russians know GMD will potens nullify any of their military advantage(s) > 'TIS ONE REASON WHY THEY ARE PO'ed/BELLIGERENT RIGHT NOW, AND WHY FOR "WAR AGZ USA NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT DESIRED" circa 2018 or after.
#16
I think the trend will be towards creating a air-to-air UAV units to each carrier task force for CAP purposes. Ground-launched aircraft with 500-600 mph cruising speed and 35-48 hour loiter time.
Global Hawk has a published speed of 400mph now. With a slightly more powerful engine, and armed with the appropriate radar system and AIM-120Ds, it could escort a Bear from the moment it left Soviet Russian-Cuban-Venezuelan airspace to wherever the Bear lands.
#17
Give me an F-35C over the F-14 for the interceptor role any time. It carries more fuel (19K lbs vs 16K), longer ranged (600+nm vs 500nm combat radius), better radar, sensors, comms, and missiles, more maneuverable, possibly supercruise, and won't be hogging maintenance bays all day. And did I mention stealth? Let the F-14 enjoy its well earned retirement.
As for the F-18E/F. Want more range? Build it with advanced versions F-414 engines and get 20% more power (and a better fighter) as a bonus.
Posted by: ed ||
08/22/2007 20:18
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#18
I think the Bears would get one good attack
They only need one good attack. Unlike these patrol missions where they fly around in onesies and twosies, a strike against a carrier would involve a swarm of Bears.
Worst case, they appear suddenly out at the edge of your radar coverage. At 250-300 miles out, they launch of shitstorm of missiles and turn for home. Maybe your Hornets have the legs to catch them if you have been paying attention; maybe not. Right now you have other worries. Missiles, lots of them, inbound at supersonic speeds. Life will be very exciting soon.
WASHINGTON - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhuttoon Tuesday urged President Pervez Musharraf to present a power-sharing reform package by the end of August, saying her party was becoming jittery with approaching elections.
I have shared with General Musharraf that my party is getting very upset, because elections are around the corner, and that, by the end of this month, we really need to know where we stand, she told the American PBS television network. We either have a package or we dont have a package, she said. And if we have a package, well, then, we need the measures that weve agreed upon to come into play.
Bhutto said if she was not able to cut a deal with Musharraf, she still intended to return to Pakistan and campaign for her party and join other moderate political parties to try and bring about a transition. I hope it doesnt come to a breakdown in the negotiations between General Musharraf and the PPP. But, at the end of the day, we cant afford to be contaminated by his unpopularity without getting the price for democracy, she said.
LUCKNOW The Forward Bloc (FB), a constituent of the Left alliance supporting the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre, has come out openly against the stay of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in Kolkata.
West Bengal Assembly Deputy Speaker B.P. Ghosh, who received a memorandum from nine Muslim organisations here yesterday, said that the FB would press for her deportation from India so that nobody should be allowed to hurt the feelings of other people. Naib Imam Eidgah and member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Khalid Rashid led the delegation of Muslim organisations, including the Jamat-e-Islami, the Ulema Council of India and the Jamiat-e-Ulema, to demand the cancellation of Taslimas extended visa in India.
Ghosh, who was here to meet the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Sukhdeo Rajbhar, said: Secular society does not allow attack on other religions and people are free to have their own faith. I will forward the memorandum to the government for action. I will ask the Centre to pack her off to Bangaldesh.
"People should be cautious in their free expression so that it does not lead to communal trouble," he added.
Fred noted elsewhere tonight how freedom of thought is the most essential and fundamental freedom: protect that and all your other freedoms follow. Taslima should have, in a country that calls itself a 'democracy', the right to be insulting to another religion, as long as she understands that she might be insulted in turn. What the folks in this article want isn't the right and opportunity to respond, they want her dead. To the extent they can kill/silence/deport her, India isn't yet the democracy that it needs to be.
Posted by: ||
08/22/2007
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#1
Questions are starting top be raised about the deafening silence from women and human rights activists over the assault by a elected state representative on Taslima during her book launch.
These same activists defended free speech loudly when a coalition of Christians and Hindus protested an art exhibition that featured Jesus Christ with semen dripping from his penis into a toilet and the Hindu goddess Durga, with a fetus emerging from her vagina.
Incidently, the state representative, a muslim, has historical ties to those that backed Hyderabad's accession to Pakistan. He has built an office tower that 'coincidently' overlooks a DRDO (military research) facility and has a record of asking detailed technical questions in parliament on Indian defence matters. Many think he is an ISI spy.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007 8:58
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#2
nobody should be allowed to hurt the feelings of other people
Police were called to the Australian National University in Canberra last week after the student continued to disrupt lectures - despite repeated warnings from staff.
Reform Jew? Hindu? Buddhist? Baptist? Mormon?
An internal email reveals the student had not responded to repeated orders to stop the behaviour. "The student ... has been interrupting classes to make statements about his religious convictions," ANU College of Law dean Michael Coper wrote in the email. "It has been pointed out to him, by a number of colleagues over a considerable period of time, that, while we respect his religious beliefs, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing them, and that to disrupt class is inappropriate."
The email does not reveal the student's religion but it does link his comments to current national security concerns. He is understood to be a Muslim.
Oh I never would have guessed!
"We have no evidence that (the student) is likely to pose any physical threat to others yet, but I can understand why you might be concerned given the prominence accorded to security issues in today's world," the email says.
Not to mention his being a general pain in the ass disrupting classes.
"He has now been excluded, as a result of action both by the university and the police, for a period of 28 days pending misconduct proceedings." Police said officers escorted the student from campus but he was not arrested.
#1
"It has been pointed out to him, by a number of colleagues over a considerable period of time, that, while we respect his religious beliefs, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing them, and that to disrupt class is inappropriate."
And that right there is the problem. If this lunatic had been advocating a cult founded by a paedophile and whose rewards include rape in this world and rape in the next no professor would "respect" his views and expect to keep his job. Unless, of course, this cult was dressed up as a religion and had a habit of beheading its opponents.
Venezuela's National Assembly, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez, gave unanimous initial approval Tuesday to constitutional reforms that would allow him to run for re-election and undoubtedly possibly govern for decades to come.
Assembly President Cilia Flores said Chavez's proposed changes to the constitution, including the lifting of presidential term limits, were approved by all 167 lawmakers after about six hours of debate. Final approval is expected within two or three months, and voters will then decide whether to approve the changes in a referendum.
Peanut One is cleared for landing...
The assembly has been solidly pro-Chavez since the opposition boycotted a 2005 vote and had been expected to sign off on the changes proposed by Chavez in Tuesday's first reading. The reforms, if approved, would extend presidential terms from six to seven years and allow Chavez to run again in 2013.
Government opponents have attacked the reforms, saying they will weaken democracy by permitting Chavez to become a lifelong leader like his ally Fidel Castro of Cuba. Ismael Garcia, one of the assembly's few dissenting voices, criticized pro-Chavez lawmakers for excluding opposition groups from the discussion, arguing that Venezuelans of all political leanings must be included in the debate before the proposed reforms are put to a national vote. Garcia, who voted for the initial approval despite his criticism, said issues "such as the economic path of a new society" must be discussed. "This isn't just any debate," he said.
Other reforms would create new types of property to be managed by cooperatives, give neighborhood-based "communal councils" administrative responsibilities usually reserved for elected officials and create "a popular militia" that would form part of the military. The workday would also be reduced to six hours.
Flores said government-friendly lawmakers have the right to approve the reforms without changing the proposal that Chavez presented last week. "We are not imposing anything," she told state television.
A senior Hamas operative was killed in an AIF air strike in Gaza early Wednesday, and three more were wounded. The IDF said it struck a group of armed men who had approached the border fence with Israel. Hamas identified the operative as Yehia Habib, a senior field commander in Gaza City.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
The newish thing here was that two kids (grade school age)were killed when they were retrieving the qassan launcher. The IDF didn't know their ages obviously.
This puts Hamas in an interesting position. They would like to start a propaganda offensive against the Israelis as child killers (all their agents in the US and Europe are queued up raring to go). However, to do would result in more widespread knowledge that they use kids to aid the terrorist actions.
This is not a difficult position for Hamas. They know the media will only pick up on the "children killed" aspect of the story and will ignore the "retrieving qassam launcher" part.
That might have been true a year ago. However, Hamas has made a number of enemies since then. In fact, since the incident in question, there haven't been any "Jews killing children" demos in Egypt, etc. Even Iran, which nominally supports Hamas, hasn't mentioned it yet.
#4
Give him time, mhw. Ahmadinijad is still trying to convince us furriners that Iran's *the place* to invest your money. He'll get to the blaming Joos tomorrow, I'd bet.
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 20:13
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U.S. President George Bush says, despite Washington's frustration with the slow pace of political progress in Iraq, it is up to Iraqis to decide the future of their government. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, the president is responding to an influential U.S. Senator who says Iraq's parliament should dismiss Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee says Mr. Maliki's government cannot achieve a political settlement, because it is too bound by its own sectarian prejudices. Michigan Senator Carl Levin wants Iraq's parliament to remove Mr. Maliki's government, because he says it has "totally and utterly failed."
Speaking at a news conference, President Bush replied that it is up to the Iraqi people to determine the future of their government, not American politicians.
And that's the rub, isn't it? It's their country, and within certain limits they're free to screw it up the way they please. We don't live there, and our politicians aren't in charge there.
The great hope we had for the Muddle East was that we would be able to nudge them into "democracy." The fundamental problem we had with that was one of definition: to us it's been a mostly mutually understood shorthand for "individual liberty." Democracy by that definition is a symptom, not a cause. It's a way for free men to govern themselves. In the horrible caricatures of democracy that have been grown in the mutant garden of post-colonialism, we've seen things purporting to be democracy that feature things like
Bangladesh, where parties notable mostly for their corruption take turns despoiling the nation;
Pakistan, where the military decides who's going to rule - not govern - and then sets up the alliances to make it happen, making sure to take care of their own first;
Zim-bob-we, where the "parliament" is controlled by crooks spouting pseudo-Marxist gobbledygook whose primary intent is to despoil the country and provide for themselves, to the extent the former Breadbasket of Africa now has 80 percent unemployment, the world's highest rate of inflation, and actual starvation;
Iran, where a presidential system exists and is controlled by million- and even billionaire theocrats who decide who's going to run, then decide who's going to win;
Egypt, Yemen, Azerbaijan, and all the places where the "people's will" is expressed by hereditary presidents-for-life.
Each of these, and all the others who're pretty much like them in spirit if not in mechanics, uses the form of democracy to continue functioning at the same old stand of despotism. "The people's will" always needs, for one reason or another, to be controlled, throttled, directed, whether to keep them from repudiating the Vanguard of the Proletariat, the One True Religion, or The Greatest Mind of His Age. "Democracy" is always desirable in such places within limits, the limits being the validation of the rulers.
It would be to the advantage of the oppressed common folk to throw off these systems, but we forget that it's a frightening thing for them, too, even the ones who're capable of formulating the idea. In Iraq there is a tradition that literally dates to the dawn of civilization of The Masses being at the service of the rulers. That was the mechanism by which we came to have civilization in the first place. Iraqis after 5500 to 6000 years of this are by now conditioned to being ruled, not governed. In their own minds they need to be told what to do, whether it be by the tribal sheikh, by a clan elder, by Sargon II, or by Moqtada al-Sadr. Islam flourishes in countries like that, because it has rules for everything, to include peeing, pooping, and other activities that we in the West didn't used to discuss in mixed company. You never have to worry about what to do next because somebody's already told you, or is willing to tell you.
Is there a possibility of individual liberty in that kind of society? Not while they're living in thrall to Islam. The Islamic Masses are denied the fundamental right to change religion, which means they don't have any true freedom of thought. From freedom of thought flows all other freedoms. Probably the best we can hope for is fair-minded and benevolent rulers, not expressing the People's Will, but doing what's best for them. As a matter of our own state policy we should probably be looking for them right now and providing them with the means to impose their will.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
U.S. President George Bush says, despite Washington's frustration with the slow pace of political progress in Iraq, it is up to Iraqis to decide the future of their government.
They have, it's shari'a and that means we, or someone else, will be coming back to upset the applecart sometime in the near future.
Islam flourishes in countries like that, because it has rules for everything, to include peeing, pooping, and other activities that we in the West didn't used to discuss in mixed company. You never have to worry about what to do next because somebody's already told you, or is willing to tell you.
#2
REALITY > Dubya isn't leaving the ME, and not even the Dems vv 2008 are gonna leave, Wafflecrats included. Radical Islam is gonna need more pressuurrre to make 2008-minded US Pols notice.
HANGU: The Zargri Taliban shoora (council) has banned the sale of narcotics and audio-video business in Zargri areas and decided to give stern punishments to violators. Reports from Naryab said the Taliban shoora had imposed a ban in Zargri, Shanawari, Naryab, Chapri Naryab, Kahi and other areas of Hangu district and decided to burn the houses of those violating the ban and to fine them up to Rs 50,000. Hangu DPO Ghulam Muhammad Khan said the ban was limited to the Zargri area, adding that locals and madrassas were also involved in this exercise. Mian Hussain of Jamia Uloom Islamia Zargri, denied that his students had any role in the ban.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday the recent increase in American troops in Iraq may well have helped tamp down violence, but he insisted there is no military solution to the country's problems and U.S. forces should be redeployed soon.
Obama spoke a day after his main Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, made similar comments. She said the tactics of the short-term troop increase were working but political progress did not seem to be in sight and the U.S. should begin bringing some troops home. Obama said in a telephone briefing, "If we put 30,000 additional troops into Baghdad, it will quell some of the violence short term. I don't think there is any doubt about that." But that won't solve Iraq's critical political problems, he said in the call and again later in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
"All of our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq," Obama said at the VFW convention in Kansas City. "No military surge can succeed without political reconciliation and a surge of diplomacy in Iraq and the region. Iraq's leaders are not reconciling. They are not achieving political benchmarks. The only thing they seem to have agreed on is to take a vacation."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
O'Bama: No Votes Military Solution in Iraq For Me
#3
"...leaders are not reconciling. They are not achieving political benchmarks. The only thing they seem to have agreed on is to take a vacation."
Iraqi Parliment or American Congress?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/22/2007 6:50
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#4
All of our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq
What the hell has he been smoking?
The surge is working and the Dems are getting desparate, trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
#6
Obama has convinced me! Convinced me that I could never, ever vote for him, that is.
If he can find time between stupid statements, I suggest he read "The Pentagon's New Map". Not only will it count as one of his nine books, it will help him understand the whole point of being in Iraq.
#9
She said the tactics of the short-term troop increase were working but political progress did not seem to be in sight...
She's correct (much to my chagrin). There can be no progress until we remove Islam from the Iraqi political equation. What we have at the moment is a never ending battle to see which faction of Islam is the most Islamic--such a standoff guarantees that Iraq will remain firmly stuck in the 7th century.
#11
Jeebus, TW. I hope you'd either pulled to the side to hear that, or (if like Atlanta rush-hour traffic), you were just sittin' still.
And, I hope you made tea-time too.
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 19:55
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#12
It was rather a shock, BA, but a nice one. And right after that the cars ahead sped up, so perhaps they were listening all to the report, too. After all, the reports have been coming thick and fast, lately -- even the Washington Post has noticed, according to the article GolfBravoUSMC posted this morning. We may be winning the battle for the home front, finally.
#13
I think it's just become SO obvious that the surge is winning that they can't ignore it anymore. Either that, or they're hedging bets, so that they can say they were behind the surge before it was behind them.
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 22:37
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#14
If Izzat Ibrahim is really changing sides that's the turnng point. The second half will probably be as awful as the first half, but in reverse.
Posted by: Fred O'Grunion ||
08/22/2007 23:26
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The Lebanese government demonstrated mercy by agreeing to permit the families of the terrorist Fatah al-Islam militia to safely flee the devastated Palestinian refugee camp on Tuesday. The humane gesture comes after the wives and children of the terrorists vowed to fight to the death with their respective husbands and fathers. The request to leave could be a sign of desperation from Fatah al-Islam, indicating that they are nearly eliminated from Nahr al-Bared.
The Fatah al-Islam group had asked the Palestinian Clerics' Association late on Monday for help in arranging a ceasefire in the fighting at Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon so their families could leave, an association member said. "The army leadership agreed to the proposal ... to facilitate the departure of the families of the fighters of the Fatah al-Islam organization," the army said in a statement.
The army, which has demanded the surrender of the al Qaeda-inspired militants, said it had repeatedly called on the group to let their families leave but did not say when the civilians might be evacuated. Between 40 and 80 civilians, mostly the wives and children of the militants, remain in the camp, Lebanese and Palestinians sources estimate. The camp lies in ruins after tank, artillery and helicopter bombardment. Most of the camp's 40,000 refugees fled early on in the fighting which has killed nearly 300 people, making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. The army said it was not clear how many militants remain in the camp.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Haj of the Palestinian Clerics' Association earlier told Reuters he was waiting for the militants to come back with "numbers of civilians fleeing and the time period".
A Lebanese soldier was killed in Nahr al-Bared on Tuesday, bringing the army's overall death toll to 141 since the conflict began on May 20, security sources said. At least 100 militants and 42 civilians have also been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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An Indonesian court has rejected a class action lawsuit filed by hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who had sought the disbanding of the police's anti-terrorism unit. Bashir, who has been accused by foreign governments of being the spiritual head of regional Islamic extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), had alleged the unit violated human rights.
The 68-year-old served more than two years in jail for his role in the Bali bombings in October 2002, which left 202 people dead and were blamed on JI. Among the dead were 88 Australians, for whom the anti-terrorism unit was named. Bashir's lawyers had demanded the court declare the actions of the US and Australian-funded unit in violation of the law for making arbitrary arrests.
The unit, known as Detachment 88, has made a string of militant arrests in recent years, including several high-profile catches this year. Judge Wachyono told a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court the class action suit filed by Bashir's lawyers in June did not meet legal requirements. "The panel of judges is of the opinion that the defendant did not provide details on which groups he represents and therefore the suit is unclear and vague," he said.
The suit alleged officers from the unit had used torture to obtain confessions and that their work discriminated against Muslims as they were the unit's sole targets. About 70 supporters of Bashir protested the verdict by banging on tables and shouting, "Disband Detachment 88!" and "Allahu Akbar!" (Holy Shit! God is greater).
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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An Iraqi man saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians when he intercepted a suicide bomber during a Concerned Citizens meeting in the town of al-Arafia Aug. 18. The incident occurred while Soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, were talking with members of the al-Arafia Concerned Citizens, a volunteer community group, at a members house. I was about 12 feet away when the bomber came around the corner, said Staff Sgt. Sean Kane, of Los Altos, Calif., acting platoon sergeant of Troop B, 3-1 Cav. I was about to engage when he jumped in front of us and intercepted the bomber as he ran toward us. As he pushed him away, the bomb went off.
The citizens actions saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians. Kane felt the loss personally because he had met and interacted with his rescuer many times before the incident. He was high-spirited and really believed what the group (Concerned Citizens) was doing, Kane said. I have no doubt the bomber was trying to kill American Soldiers. It was very calculated the way the bomber tried to do it. If he hadnt intercepted him, there is no telling how bad it could have been.
Kane believes the citizen is a hero. He could have run behind us or away from us, but he made the decision to sacrifice himself to protect everyone. Having talked with his father, I was told that even if he would have known the outcome before hand, he wouldnt have acted differently.
Capt. Brian Gilbert, of Boise, Idaho, the commander of Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, currently attached to 3-1 Cavalry, echoed Kanes sentiment. I spoke with the father, Gilbert said. He said he has no remorse in his sons death because he died saving American Soldiers.
Later that night, the Concerned Citizens group contacted the local National Police director, Lt. Col. Samir, with the location of the al-Qaeda cell believed to be responsible for the attack. The National Police immediately conducted a raid that resulted in four arrests.
Despite the citizens death, Gilbert is encouraged by the cooperation between citizens and the Iraqi National Police. The effort of the Concerned Citizens group has made the area much safer, he said. They are proud of who they are and their area, and want to get rid of the terrorists in their area.
Gilbert also praised the Iraqi National Polices role in eliminating insurgents in the area. The cooperation between them and the Concerned Citizens has been key, Gilbert said. The NP has done a great job of responding to the tips they have been given by the group.
Gilbert said he believes the area is improving because of the efforts of local citizens. The death, while unfortunate, demonstrated how close many in the area have become with the American Soldiers operating there. I consider many in the town friends, and I know they feel the same, Gilbert said. This is a tough situation, but well move on and try to prevent things like this from happening again. Ive talked with his family and told them how brave their son was. This is a huge loss for everyone involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Wow. Hats off to the guy.
The fact that the locals turned the suicide cell at all speaks volumes about the trust they have in the security apparatus.
Later that night, the Concerned Citizens group contacted the local National Police director, Lt. Col. Samir, with the location of the al-Qaeda cell believed to be responsible for the attack.
Why didn't the locals turn in this cell sooner if they knew it was there?
The National Police immediately conducted a raid that resulted in four arrests.
Solid. I sure hope that the ba$tard who blew himself up was among those they arrested. They've got to get these guys off the street ASAP!
Ghassan Tueni, publisher of An Nahar ridiculed in his weekly column Lebanon's army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman for being dragged into politics and tempted to head what he termed "military government."
"We expect from the brave Lebanese army to achieve victory in its war on terror at Nahr al-Bared instead of allowing those with suspicious intentions to tempt it to (lead) a military government," Tueni sarcastically exclaimed in An Nahar's a front-page editorial.
He expressed fear that such a government would turn Lebanon into "dictatorships" just like Hosni al-Zaim's coup that overthrew democracy in Syria and Saddam's takeover of Iraq. "Oh! Our courageous army, Our wise and patient (army) commander, beware of being misled," Tueni pleaded. "You can give orders in war, but orders are (restricted) to the constitution when it comes to ruling Lebanon and safeguarding its identity, historical message, human rights and freedoms."
Addressing Suleiman, Tueni said: "Devote yourself to bandaging the wounds of your soldiers and worry about achieving civil rule. Then there will be no room for criticism that the army is unable to protect its border and that the need to maintain 'civil' resistance will last forever with the help of divine power until Lebanon achieves independence and sovereignty," Tueni said in reference to Hezbollah. "Let the army be the only resistance. Only then that the army would be contributing to uniting the Lebanese, not by their military rule."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
there is a fine line between bravery and stupidty. Am I the only one who thinks it's a bad idea for a publisher to publically challenge one who is "attempting to head a military government". It might have been a good time to be a bit more diplomatic.
GUWAHATI: An Indian soldier who died in a Himalayan plane crash 39 years ago was cremated on Tuesday after his glacier-entombed corpse was recovered by a military expedition team.
Mahendra Nath Phukon was among 102 army and air force personnel who died when their AN-12 aircraft went down on a flight to the Kashmir outpost of Leh on February 7, 1968. There were no survivors of the crash in the wilds near the 6,264-metre high Chandrabhaga mountain.
The wreckage was first sighted only in July 2003, buried deep inside a glacier. Since then the army has launched recovery expeditions every summer. On August 2, the army recovered three bodies from the glacier, one of them was Phukon -- still in uniform and carrying his identity card. He was a 20-year-old craftsman with the electrical mechanical engineers corps.
It has been a long wait for Phukon's family in Deodhai village, Sivasagar district, about 360 kilometres east of Guwahati. His body was carried in a coffin draped with the Indian flag to his village with full military honours on Monday. Thousands of people turned out for the funeral on Tuesday to pay their last respects.
"It was like a dream -- we feel happy that we were able to perform the last rites even after 40 long years and sad as it was, a tearful reunion for the family," Mahendra's elder brother Tuben said.
Tuben and his brother Durganath have both retired from the army and their parents long since died. "I think it's more the mystery that everyone is intrigued by -- the fact that here's this plane that crashed more than 39 years ago, and there's still somebody up there in fine fettle," Durganath said.
The last time Mahendra came home was to attend Tuben's marriage in 1967. "Unfortunately we didn't even have his photographs to show our children -- at least now they got a chance to see him," Tuben said.
This was the second time the family had performed Mahendra's funeral. "After coming to know about the crash we waited for some days and later performed a symbolic funeral little knowing the corpse would arrive 40 years later," said Jiten, the oldest of the four brothers, said.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007
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#1
It wasn't that long ago when discovered US casualties of the War of 1812 were buried, with full honors. Never forget.
Police of Chechnya's Naur district succeeded in freeing 15-year old Angelina, a resident of the Rostov region, who had been kidnapped and taken for an unknown destination in a car the other day, Dmitry Nikiforov, the chief of the press centre of the operational group of the Russian Interior Ministry in the Chechen Republic, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Police detained the car in Naur populated locality. The hostage and the abductors were in the car. They are 21-year old Khizir, 19-year old Adam and Ibragim, and 20-year old Adam. They were taken to the police station for investigation, while the underage girl was handed over to her relatives, Nikiforov said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Gunmen killed seven members of one family on Tuesday near Latifiya, a mostly Sunni Arab town in Iraqs Triangle of Death south of Baghdad, police and an Interior Ministry official said. Officials were unable to give a concerted account of what happened, disagreeing on how many women were among the victims or to which religious sect they belonged. A police captain in Latifiya, who asked not to be named, said three women and a 2-year-old girl were killed and two women wounded when gunmen stormed into a house in the village of Muwelha near Latifiya, 40 km south of Baghdad. Three men from the same family also died, he said. Colonel Abbas al-Jabouri, head of police in Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, also said three women and a young girl were among the dead. However, an Interior Ministry source in Baghdad said all of the dead were men, with two women also wounded. Police and Interior Ministry officials also differed on whether the family were members of Iraqs majority Shiite community or were Sunni Arabs.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and millions displaced in a wave of sectarian violence since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the town of Samarra in February 2006. The Triangle of Death is a stronghold of Sunni Arab insurgents. US forces are targeting them as part of a major new, nationwide push against Sunni Arab and Shiite militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
Sopunds like the US Marines to me. Execute them all.
Posted by: John Murtha ||
08/22/2007 7:33
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#2
Tater's Death Squads most likely.
just guessing: He could undo all the hard surge work until he's hit along with the rest of his top people. Badr next plz. before the Brits leave Basra.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2007 7:42
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Orakzai Agency elders told Bakka Khel and Jani Khel tribesmen on Thursday to release three abducted Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldiers within a week, or face action against their tribes.
Malik Wahid Ali, Malik Iltaf Hussain, Malik Gul Shan Ali and Malik Kinan Ali appealed to the NWFP governor, the chief minister and the FC chief to help in the release of the FC men. They were kidnapped on July 31 from a bus on their way back to Saidgi Bannu to resume their duties after spending time in their village, Malik Wahid Ali told a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club.
He said the kidnappers stopped the bus at gunpoint in the Bakka Khel area. Wahid said five of the nine FC soldiers escaped, and one - Shah Hussain - was shot dead. Irshad Ali, Najmul Hasan and Sameen Ali were taken hostage. We have information that the soldiers are now in the custody of the Jan Khel Wazir tribe, he said.
The elder said that the kidnappers had contacted them through Umer Usman and demanded Rs 1 million and release of five of their tribesmen arrested by the government in ransom. The kidnappers are not Taliban. They are local militants, said Wahid.
Other elders said they had held jirgas with the district coordination officer (DCO), Frontier Region (FR) Bannu officials and others on the issue, but it was futile. We have another jirga tomorrow [Wednesday], they said. They said they wanted to resolve the issue peacefully.
The Orakzai elders said if the men werent released within a week, they are capable of taking hostage Bakka Khel and Jani Khel tribespeople who live in our area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, announced Tuesday it would no longer honor understandings reached with Israel, and called on its members to carry weapons to defend themselves against the IDF. "We call on all our members who handed over their weapons to the Palestinian security forces to report to their commanders so that they can be issued new weapons," said a leaflet distributed in Ramallah.
The group said the decision was made after the IDF arrested two Fatah gunmen who had been given amnesty by Israel in line with understandings reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel agreed last month to stop pursuing some 270 Fatah fugitives on condition that they surrender their weapons and sign a pledge to refrain from terrorist activities. Earlier this week, the PA said Israel had "pardoned" another 110 Fatah fugitives in the West Bank - a claim that Israel denied.
The latest leaflet is seen as a challenge to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to dismantle the Aksa Martyrs Brigades and other Fatah-linked armed groups in the West Bank. According to the group, Israel on Monday night arrested Iyad Bisharat and Ahmed Abu Jalboush, two Fatah gunmen whose names had appeared on the first list of pardoned fugitives. "We call on all our members to display caution and not to be deceived by the so-called amnesty from Israel," the leaflet read. "We will no longer honor the agreements that were reached with Israel over the issue of the wanted men. We won't hand over our guns. This is a lie designed to split the Palestinian resistance."
The group said it had previously warned against the "plot" aimed at confiscating the weapons of Aksa Martyrs Brigades members in the West Bank. "The Israeli enemy does not respect any commitments or agreements," it said.
The Fatah group also criticized PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad's government, holding it responsible for the arrest of its two men. "Fayad must clarify his position vis-á-vis the arrest of our men, whose names had appeared on the list of wanted men who received amnesty," it said.
An Israeli official said in response that such a move by Fatah's military wing would only escalate violence. "Israel expects the Palestinian Authority to take proper steps to root out terrorism against Israel, and to work with Israel to chart a more promising future for both sides," an official in the Prime Minister's Office said. "Incitement such as this only serves to ratchet up the situation, and would only harm the chances for progress between both peoples."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs
#1
Boy howdy, that whole amnesty thingy worked out ever so peachy keen, dinnit? Ain't it about time for Israel to burn the Roadmap for the kindling it is and get on with expelling every last Palestinian from within its borders? By this time, nobody should be fooled about any prospects for peace so long as a single Palestinian continues to draw breath.
The release of a man suspected of links to Al Qaeda could undermine Pakistans claims of winning the battle to contain terrorism within its borders, analysts and experts said on Tuesday. Pakistans Supreme Court heard on Monday that Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who is alleged to have been an Al Qaeda computer expert, had been released without charge after three years in custody. Khan, who was arrested on July 12, 2004 in Lahore, is now at home in Karachi, his lawyer Babar Awan told AFP.
Shortly after his arrest, Pakistani investigators said interrogations of Khan and searches of his computer files and email records led them to an active worldwide Al Qaeda ring that was plotting fresh attacks in Britain, Pakistan and the United States. They said Khan helped Al Qaeda by developing secret codes and helping its operatives send encrypted email to each other.
A senior official involved in the investigation told AFP, He [Khan] was a key figure in 2004 Al Qaeda plots to stage new terror strikes in the US, Great Britain and Kenya and his arrest led to the capture of an Al Qaeda sleeper cell in great Britain. But there was no serious attempt made by the intelligence agency which had him in custody for the past three years to initiate any legal proceedings.
According to the official, who did not want to be identified, Khan could have been tried under the Security of Pakistan Act or for waging war against other countries using Pakistan as a base. But when the Supreme Court started hearing the petition early this year, it was too late to initiate any legal proceedings against Khan, he said.
Khans case is among several where people arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks on Western targets and helping Al Qaeda have later been released by courts. Awan said he had petitioned the Supreme Court in an attempt to discover his clients whereabouts, part of a case taken by relatives and rights groups on behalf of hundreds of missing people allegedly abducted and held without charge by intelligence agencies. I told the Supreme Court that so far the government had not indicted Khan and no case had been registered against him, Awan said.
In another case, heart specialist Akmal Waheed and his brother, orthopaedic surgeon Arshad Waheed, were jailed for seven years in March 2005 for alleged Al Qaeda links. Their convictions were set aside last year.
Analysts said these and other cases undermined the credibility of the governments claims to be making progress in curtailing terrorist activities within Pakistans borders. It shows that the real culprits are free to do whatever they want and the authorities are catching innocent people to prove their efficiency, said defence analyst Talat Masood. It weakens Pakistans case when it says that we are fighting terrorism and then it arrests people who are not genuinely involved suspects, he added. Catching the wrong people also gives big leverage to militants who are active in the country. That is why there is so much cynicism against the war on terror and many people are now saying its a farce.
Political analyst Hasan Askari said Pakistani intelligence officials claims of success in conquering the Al Qaeda threat were running out of steam because of the inability to prove charges against suspects. In the war against terrorism it is a very serious problem that you cannot come up with evidence against the terror suspects because most of the evidence is circumstantial and hard to prove in a court, Askari said. Any perceived propaganda value of high-profile arrests such as Khans was also evaporating as the courts pressured authorities to build better cases and produce solid evidence, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Khans case is among several where people arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks on Western targets and helping Al Qaeda have later been released by courts.
Anyone sensing a pattern here?
It shows that the real culprits are free to do whatever they want and the authorities are catching innocent people to prove their efficiency
The above pertains to Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Iraq or Yemen? Choose from the following answers.
Soldiers assigned to 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, discovered four weapons caches in Qubbah and Mukeisha villages, in the Diyala River Valley, Iraq, during Operation Lightning Hammer, Aug 18.
While conducting a clearance operation in the village of Qubbah, Soldiers discovered two caches consisting of small-arms ammunition and magazines, 20 sticks of dynamite, detonation cord, 78 blasting caps, one pistol, a suicide vest carrier, six DVDs of suicide bombers, land contracts to rent land to members of the Islamic State of Iraq, propaganda encouraging extremists to kill Coalition Forces and a Wahabbist handbook.
Two other caches were discovered in the village of Mukeisha, which contained 14 Katusha rockets, 10 rocket-propelled grenades, 20-60mm mortar rounds, five 60mm mortar tubes, eight sticks of dynamite, and a DSHKA anti-aircraft weapon system. The discovery of these caches will significantly degrade al-Qaidas ability to conduct operations in the Diyala River Valley, said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division commander. Taking away their weapons systems further allows the local and provincial government to begin rebuilding the systems that provide essential services like food, water, and electricity to the citizens in this area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Senator Prof Khursheed Ahmad of the MMA has said that the NWFP Assembly would be dissolved before Musharrafs re-election. He told Geo News he hoped the Balochistan assembly would follow suit. If MMA members resigned from NA and provincial assemblies, he said, credibility of the presidential election would become questionable without a complete Electoral College.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Coalition Forces killed five terrorists and detained 11 suspected terrorists during three operations in central and northern Iraq Tuesday targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq and its supporting terror networks.
Iraqi civilians west of Baqubah reported that al-Qaeda in Iraq operatives had moved into the area and forced civilians out of their homes. Coalition Forces moved into the area to conduct an operation targeting a terrorist facilitator believed to operate a safe house for terrorist meetings. An assault force element moved into the target buildings to secure them, but encountered two armed men inside who drew their weapons. Coalition Forces engaged and killed the men. Another armed man emerged from a nearby building with a weapon aimed at the assault force. Coalition Forces responded in self-defense and engaged the armed man, killing him.
When surveillance teams observed armed men maneuvering to a small palm grove near the assault force, Coalition Forces attempted to call them out of their fighting positions, but the enemy fighters did not comply. Coalition Forces responded appropriately to the armed hostile threat and engaged with small arms fire while close air support aircraft engaged the armed men with machine gun fire. Ground forces assess one terrorist was killed in the engagement. At the scene, the ground forces discovered improvised explosive devices and safely disarmed them. Five suspected terrorists were detained.
In Mosul, Coalition Forces captured a Syrian who allegedly facilitates the movement of foreign terrorists and supports an al-Qaeda in Iraq bomb-manufacturing network. Receiving small arms fire when they arrived on the objective, the assault force returned fire. The ground forces assessed one suspected terrorist was wounded, and four suspects were detained for their ties to the bomb-making cell. Intelligence reports indicate the cell was planning a large-scale attack in the Husaybah area.
Using information gained during an operation Jul. 26, Coalition Forces raided a series of buildings south of Kirkuk targeting a close associate of an al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader. Upon arrival at the scene, surveillance teams observed one man moving into position against the assault force. Coalition Forces, responding appropriately to the hostile threat, engaged the man, killing him. The ground forces detained two suspected terrorists for their alleged ties to the terrorist leader. Iraqis are making it clear they do not support al-Qaeda in Iraq, nor do they want terrorists in their communities, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson. With their help, we will continue our assault on al-Qaeda in Iraq and its terror networks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
There is definitely a pattern here. If a sucessful operation yields one or more prisoners, then the intel gained gives birth to additional operations. Also, sucessful operations yield weapons and bomb making gear which is destroyed, and any brave enough to resist are 'engaged and killed' at the scene.
Now, put yourself in the al Q position;
This is a high price to pay for what again ? To upset sunnis and shias and start a civil war ? To inflict casualties on the infidel forces ? To score 6 dozen well rounded raisins ? To hang out with the guys at Allan's Snackbar ?
I must be missing something, but then, I can't think like an 8th century sandmonkey.
BTW, I hated those PT belts. And anything someone else wanted to tie me to or onto me. Like hats, those damn hats, and the PT belts. Why cannot that die now? Does not the new PT uniform cost 1/4 salary as it is? Who made that company anyways?
I keep my PT belt in the trunk. Guess it is a "trunked system".
Former CIA Director George Tenet did not marshal his agency's resources to respond to the recognized threat posed by al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency's inspector general concluded in a long-classified report released today. The report, which Congress ordered released under a law signed by President Bush this month, also faulted the intelligence community for failing to have "a documented, comprehensive approach" to battling al-Qaeda.
Tenet, now a professor at Georgetown University, heavily criticized the report as "flat wrong" in a lengthy statement, saying the judgments are contradicted by a report issued by the agency watchdog just a month before the 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. CIA Director Michael Hayden also said he did not want to release the report, saying it "would distract officers serving their country on the front lines of a global conflict. It will, at a minimum, consume time and attention revisiting ground that is already well plowed."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
But I heard on the news this morning that Michael Scheuer is also critical - as if he was (and is) blameless....
#2
DER SPEIGEL > CIA REVEALS ITS ERRORS PRIOR TO 9-11. USCIA knew two of the 9-11 hijackers were in America before 9-11 but failed to inform the FBI. Forgot Muhammed Atta, etal. was at Penn State.
#3
POPULISTAMERICA > YOU ARE DESTROYING AMERIKA - YES, YOU. D *** ng it, we want to make it absolutely positively undeniably categorically unequivocally clear to the Amer people -------------------------------------------------------------???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????.................................and don't youse fergit it!
Law-enforcement agencies have traced a network of terrorists operating across Pakistan and arrested two members allegedly linked to last months suicide bombings in Islamabad, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters here on Tuesday.
Cheema said the security and intelligence agencies had uncovered a well-connected gang of terrorists that were planning suicide bombings across Pakistan. He said these terrorists were linked with Lal Masjid and Waziristan, adding that more members of the network would be arrested soon. Asked about any information learnt from the suspected terrorists since their arrest, Cheema said, Details will be shared with the media once the whole network is busted. He said more arrests were expected over the next few days and a state of high alert had been placed on all security agencies in this regard.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
These "security officials" look like they came out of the neighborhood madrassa
Pakistani security officials examine rockets used by militants in an attack on the military checkpoint in Bannu, a troubled town near the Pakistani tribal area North Waziristan, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007. Suspected militants attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan before dawn Wednesday, triggering a shootout that left three soldiers dead, police said.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/22/2007 10:24
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#4
Of course, I'ma thinkin' nuttin says Paki "justice" like broadcasting your taking down a terror cell in the local newspaper before you do it. Do I smell ISI on the case?
Posted by: BA ||
08/22/2007 20:07
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BARA: Mufti Munir Shakir, a controversial cleric leading a group to fight a rival sect, was warmly received after his release from a 14-month-long detention in Karachi, eyewitnesses said on Tuesday.
He was one of the many missing people whose disappearance the Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice. I am happy to be back with my fellow terrorists well-wishers and supporters, The cleric told reporters at Sheikh Muhammadi in Khyber Agency where he is staying temporarily. He said he was arrested moments after he landed at Karachi airport on May 16 last year. The cleric, in his 40s, led Lashkar-e-Islami and confronted the rival Barelvi school of thought group Ansarul Islam. I am a free citizen of this country and can live where I feel best, he said.
"Hi ho, hi ho, it's to Wazoo we go!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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At least 23 people, including two police officers, were killed in clashes as fresh violence swept Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday. Eight Taliban militants and two policemen were killed in fighting which erupted late Monday in the southern province of Ghazni where the Taliban have been holding 19 South Korean aid workers hostage for the past month, police said. The fighting in the provinces Qara Bagh where the Korean aid workers were kidnapped on July 19 and Ander districts was still ongoing Tuesday, provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP. Two other police were seriously wounded, he added.
Elsewhere in Ghazni, two Afghan civilians were killed and two injured when a landmine apparently intended for security forces went off under their vehicle on Tuesday, Ahmadzai said. The Taliban had planted the mine, aimed at us, the police commander said.
In separate clashes between Taliban and security forces, seven militants were killed in an operation by Afghan and coalition forces in neighbouring Helmand province on Monday, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Seven terrorists who had infiltrated the area to destabilise it were killed during an operation by Afghan and coalition forces, the statement said, referring to a 10,000-strong US-led force based in the province. The operation took place in Helmands troubled Sangin district, where four Afghan army soldiers were also injured the same day after their checkpost was attacked by Taliban rockets.
Four other Taliban guerrillas were killed late Monday in the southwestern province of Farah, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang told AFP. The militants had attacked a police compound, initiating a firefight that lasted two hours. Sarjang told AP that police sustained no casualties while six Taliban were also wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has called on the army to stay out of politics following months of tensions between the Islamist-rooted government and the staunchly secular military.
Let us not mix the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces) up with politics. Let it stay in its place. Because all our institutions conduct their duties in line with what is set out in the constitution, Erdogan told Kanal D late on Monday.
If you draw them into politics, then why are we here? Erdogan asked in the interview. For us the armed forces are sacred. They have a special place. The army, which has ousted four governments in the past 50 years, has voiced its opposition to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul becoming president because of his Islamist past. Gul won most votes in the first round of a presidential election in parliament on Monday but fell just short of securing the two-thirds majority needed to become the European Union-applicant countrys next head of state immediately. The secular elite, which includes army generals, blocked Guls first bid to become president in April, triggering a parliamentary election in July which was intended to defuse the crisis over the presidency.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
then quit mixing religion and politics, asshole
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/22/2007 7:40
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South Korea has asked the Taliban for more time in talks over the fate of the remaining 19 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday.
Talks between Taliban and Korean negotiators are deadlocked after more than a month since the Taliban kidnapped the 19 Koreans. Two of the male hostages have already been killed and the Taliban are threatening to kill the rest if the Afghan government does not free jailed rebel prisoners.
After talks last week, the Taliban freed two female captives as a gesture of goodwill, but little progress has been made since.
Korean negotiators have stressed that they have no power to persuade Kabul to free Taliban prisoners and that it is a matter for the Afghan government to decide. The Korean delegation has said they are making all efforts to make the American and the Afghan governments agree on the release of Taliban prisoners, said Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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MIRANSHAH: Two army convoys were attacked on Tuesday with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in North Waziristan and Bannu, while four people were killed and several injured in an inter-tribe feud over 2,000 kanals of land near Miranshah, officials and tribal elders said. There was no loss of life or damage to vehicles in the two attacks, security officials told Daily Times. They said that the military was adopting new methods to avoid collateral damage in the wake of such attacks. The first IED attack took place near Thall Bridge, while the second attack targeted a military convoy heading towards Bannu.
Online adds: Unidentified militants targeted an FC Fort on the Jandola-Tank Road in Manzai, South Waziristan, with rockets and automatic weapons, while the Tank-Jandola Highway was closed following reports that militants had planted a landmine in Manzai.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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LANDI KOTAL: A bomb exploded in an oil tanker at around 6:30am here on Tuesday, while the bomb disposal squad defused another bomb attached to an oil tanker at Torkham.
The explosion at Landi Kotal luckily did not ignite the oil tanker that was carrying 40,000 litres of oil for NATO forces in Afghanistan. After the blast, oil from a portion of the tanker flowed onto the main road. The other bomb attached to an oil tanker at the Torkham border was seen by a watchman, who raised an alarm. The administration immediately called the bomb disposal squad from Peshawar and they successfully defused the bomb. This tanker was also carrying oil for the NATO forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Eleven men convicted of crimes ranging from kidnapping and murder to rape and planting bombs were hanged in Baghdad on Tuesday, the Iraqi prime ministers office said.These people were convicted by the Iraqi judicial process, and a verdict of execution was certified by the appeals chamber under due process, a statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
and may allan have mercy on their rotten dogman souls...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/22/2007 1:37
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#2
may a stray dog piss on them after they're cut down.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/22/2007 7:47
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May all the farm animals they have molested take a dump on them as they lay in their trench.
Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 14th infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., detained several men during an air assault mission along the Euphrates River, Aug. 20. One of the men detained was dressed as a pregnant woman.
Crimson Shogun was an operation targeting al-Qaeda-allied terrorist networks in the Owesat and Fetoah areas along the river and brought together more than 100 Soldiers of 2-14 Inf., 50 Iraqi army troops and two local residents who volunteered to help identify terrorists. Thirteen men were detained for further questioning, one of whom was on the battalions list of persons of interest. His brother was also detained, and was found by the Soldiers of Company A disguised as a pregnant woman in an attempt to avoid capture.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
He could have gave birth to more orphans and widows.
Every day, My pressure on this shall become worse.
Every day, I have two to 9 beheadings and car bombs and shootings. The problem is not me. The problem is Moslems. Were I the problem, they would ask me questions. Instead they preach BS to me, and kill people for abosulutely no reason other than their perspective. Now is the end for this.
I demand change and I demand it immediately so I may concentrate on bigger issues for the human race. But no dice. Moslems do whatever they see in that book that was NOT written by GOD. And maybe it is time for GOD to act in BIG ways.
#2
According to an article on Background page today, he could be tried under Sharia law for cross-dressing.
Maybe if he's going to dress as a woman, we ought to make him one. Anybody have one of those spear-gun-looking things that stretch out a teeny, tiny rubber band so it can be slipped over the relevant anatomy and released safely (safely to the releaser, that is)?
#5
Hold it. Wasn't there a story just yesterday about a muslim protest of transvestites being let out of jail in somalia? Can't these muzz make up their minds about cross dressing?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/22/2007 11:38
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#6
But seriously folks, isn't it just a wee bit ironic how Muslim abuse of their own social dictates (tahara or "purity"), forms the best reason for abolishing such laws?
The endless parade of terrorists utilizing women's garb to elude detection or perpetrate attacks has become our best reason for banning all such forms of disguise. As always, Muslims sow the seeds of their own destruction. The self-martyring aspect of Islamic culture permeates it right down to the philosophical level. Islam cannot help but destroy itself by seeking domination which will demonstrate just how utterly unfit shari'a law is to regulate even a toy train human life.
The IDF is planning to set up a radio station which will broadcast to Gazans propaganda against terrorism, Channel 10 reported on Tuesday. The station will also transmit warnings prior to IDF attacks. It is expected to cost NIS 10 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Try music and a call-in gardening show. I'd say Car Talk, but you can just imagine the calls whining about the failure of their car to explode.
Former commanders of Saddam Husseins military went on trial in Baghdad on Tuesday for their role in crushing a Shiite rebellion in southern Iraq at the end of the 1991 Gulf War in which tens of thousands were killed. Standing alongside the military officers were Saddams former defence minister at the time and his personal secretary. The most high profile of the 15 defendants is Saddams feared cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as Chemical Ali.
The rebellion, and a simultaneous one in Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, erupted spontaneously in early March 1991 after a US-led coalition routed Saddams army in Kuwait. Rebels seized control of many towns in the south. The rebels expected US forces to come to their aid, especially since then US President George Bush senior had called on the Iraqi people and the military to oust Saddam. But, in a decision that has since been much debated, Bush and his coalition partners held their troops in check and Saddam was given a free hand to launch a swift counterattack with tanks and helicopters.
Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the crackdown, either by the pursuing security forces or in prison. Prosecutors in the case have put the death toll at 100,000. Bush has since argued that, while he hoped a popular revolt would topple Saddam, he did not want to see the break-up of the Iraqi state and feared the collapse of the multinational coalition, including Arab states, that he had assembled.
The 15 accused face charges of crimes against humanity for engaging in widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population. Three of the accused, including Majeed, were sentenced to death in the earlier Anfal trial, which dealt with a military campaign against Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988 in which tens of thousands of people were also killed. The five convicted in the Anfal case are appealing their sentences. If Majeed and the two others sentenced to death lose their appeal they could be executed before the latest trial is completed.
The court will hear about 90 witnesses and hear audio tapes and after-action reports. US officials involved in the court said there was little remaining evidence of the orders given because Saddam had ordered the destruction of records.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Dennis Kux, author of two acclaimed books on US relations with Pakistan and India, said in a comment on the possibility of martial law in Pakistan that the US will not support a military government unless it quickly sets a date for new elections.
Kux said it is his feeling that Musharrafs compass has lost its bearing and is flying around in all directions. Kux, a retired US ambassador who began his career with a posting in Pakistan, told Daily Times, On Monday he [Musharraf] says X, Tuesday the opposite and Wednesday something else. Given the legal constraints on what Musharrafs wants to do because of the Supreme Court fiasco and the shift in public attitudes, he has no good choices from his perspective.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
In light of the Palestinians' election of Hamas, I'd file this under: "Be Very Careful About What You Ask For"
#2
Musharraf is fine albeit unpopular. It takes more than a popular candidate to make something that works. Democracy is possible if you have less than insane leaders in that part of the world.
KHAR: A tribal jirga on Tuesday gave a four-day deadline to the Taliban in Bajuar Agency to take a final decision on their peace agreement with the government. A 120-member jirga including Bajaur political agents, MNA Maulana Sadiq and Senator Maulana Rashid gave the deadline in a meeting at the agency headquarters. The jirga convened the meeting due to increasing incidents of explosions and rocket attacks at security checkposts in the agency. The Taliban and the local administration had signed a peace agreement a few months ago. Jirga head Malik Aziz said that the Taliban had sought till August 25 to take a final decision on the peace agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Islamists who have fought the Lebanese army at a Palestinian refugee camp for the past three months are seeking a truce to let their families and other civilians flee, an intermediary said on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Fatah Al-Islam group, Abu Salim Taha, called the Palestinian Clerics Association late on Monday to ask for help in arranging a ceasefire in the fighting at Nahr Al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, an association member said. Palestinian clerics have tried unsuccessfully in the past to mediate between Fatah Al-Islam and the army, which demands the unconditional surrender of the Al Qaeda-inspired militants.
Lebanese and Palestinians sources have estimated that between 40 and 80 civilians, mostly the wives and children of the militants, remain in the camp, which lies in ruins after weeks of tank, artillery and helicopter bombardment. Most of the camps 40,000 refugees fled early on in the fighting. We have always called on the militants to allow the women and children to flee. And now we have no objection to those civilians leaving the camp, an army source said but gave no word on the terms of a truce.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Haj of the Palestinian Clerics Association told Reuters the group had given Fatah Al-Islam the armys response and were now waiting for the militants to come back with numbers of civilians fleeing and the time period. Another Lebanese soldier was killed in Nahr Al-Bared on Tuesday, bringing the armys overall death toll to 141 since the conflict began on May 20, security sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
Is this the same group that's been wiped out several times over the past few weeks?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/22/2007 6:41
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#2
Note to the Leb Army: "Look under the Burqua for stubble on their way out...."
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday strongly condemned the meetings and negotiations held between Israel and Fatah, "no one is qualified to give up Jerusalem. We will not give up any part of Palestine and won't accept any plan derived from secret negotiations," said Haniyeh. "Solutions for the refugees are a political fraud and we will not accept them under any circumstances." Israel Radio quoted Haniyeh as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Haniyeh: 'Refugee solutions are a political fraud'
Finally noticed that, did he? I sure hope Israel catches on sometime soon.
Task Force Marne Soldiers and aviators joined forces Aug. 18 to kill five insurgents targeting a combat outpost southeast of Baghdad. Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment reported receiving small arms fire at Combat Outpost Cahill from two sides late Saturday night. No Soldiers were injured by the sporadic gunfire.
The Soldiers on the ground were able to guide 1st Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade aircraft onto the squad-sized enemy element within minutes of the initial contact. The aircraft engaged and destroyed one truck and one anti-aircraft weapon system. The 1-15th Infantry is assigned to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, out of Fort Benning, Ga., and the 1-3 CAB is assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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Coalition troops responding to reports of weapons being moved into a mosque south of Mahmudiyah were attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade Aug. 18. A local resident called Coalition Forces and reported weapons being unloaded from a vehicle and moved into a mosque. Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., investigated the report.
As the vehicles came up the road near the mosque, an RPG was fired from the building. It struck the vehicle and caused a small fire which Soldiers quickly extinguished. Another platoon of 2-15 FAR troops arrived and secured the area. A bystander said a group of armed men had fled the mosque in groups of three and dispersed in different directions. Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division searched the mosque, finding five possible rocket-launching devices. They also examined nearby buildings. A home near the mosque contained a flak vest and ammunition. Iraqi troops detained 10 people on suspicion of involvement in the incident.
As Soldiers of 2-15 FAR returned to Forward Operating Base Mahmudiyah, another RPG round was fired at them, but missed. The detained men were taken to the Iraqi Army Compound in Mahmudiyah for further questioning. The mosque was not damaged during the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2007
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#1
The mosque was not damaged during the incident.
Gaza's public employees are getting paid on one condition: Stay home.
Such is the irony of life in the Gaza Strip now that Hamas militants are firmly in charge. A rival pro-Western government in the West Bank is delivering salaries to most of Gaza's civil servants as long as they don't work.
The moderate Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas doesn't want its money propping up Hamas, which violently seized control of Gaza in June. But neither does it want to punish Gaza's mostly pro-Fatah 90,000 civil servants whose salaries form the backbone of the already badly bruised economy. The result is a lot of inactivity. And many fearful for their safety in a Hamas-dominated land aren't pleased about their holiday from work.
Continued on Page 49
#2
As luck would have it, I had the String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor Opus 131 by Beethoven playing, from the soundtrack Band of Brothers, whilst reading this.
Really sad violins....
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/22/2007 6:56
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The U.S. Army and Air Force have discovered that low power lasers can be pretty lethal battlefield weapons. For decades, the conventional wisdom was that you needed a high powered laser (as in instantly burning through the metal skin of a missile). But over the last few years, it's become obvious that slow burn (lower powered) lasers will do useful stuff like cause the explosives in shells, missiles and roadside bombs to go off. That's very useful, and the U.S. Department of Defense has been conducting lots of tests of late to find out exactly how useful these cheaper, easier to use (because of the lower power requirements) lasers would be. 
Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.
GOP leaders have latched on to positive comments from Democrats -- often out of context -- to portray the congressional majority as splintering. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), an Armed Services Committee member who is close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said many of her colleagues learned a hard lesson from the Republican campaign.
The Iraqi government has issued a new list of wanted people, including the names of some top officials in the former regime headed by the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
TALLINN - An Estonian is to be charged with genocide. According to charges brought by the Estonian western circuit prosecutor's office, 88-year-old Arnold Meri is alleged to have taken part in the March 1949 mass deportation of Estonians to Siberia as well as supervising deportations to Hiiumaa Island.
Two Christian girls, little more than children, were kidnapped from their families recently, forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to strangers. Both of the kidnaps took place in Faisalabad, the third largest city in Pakistan, and both were completely ignored by the police. The phenomenon is not a new one however, underlined numerous human rights activist, but it is dangerously on the increase.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Islamic Republic is the most secure country in the world for making investments. 
NEW DELHI: A mysterious delegation of Indian Muslims, invited on a rare visit to Israel, was apparently attacked with rockets by the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, Press Trust of India said on Tuesday.
A Polish couple were pulled apart and arrested by police for having sex on a pavement alongside a busy road in broad daylight.
Baghdad (AKI) - The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, 
A drunk staggering home from a beer festival took a short cut through a zoo's bear cage - and was found half-eaten next day. Amazingly, Branko Jovanovic, 22, was still alive when zoo staff discovered him - despite having a leg torn off and half his face chewed away. But he died later on his way to hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, after keepers battled to prise him from the jaws of the Tibetan black bears. 
Owners of Israeli s*ex sites report high percentage of entries from Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The hit: Clips starring female soldiers and Mossad women.
KHOST, Afghanistan (Rooters) - The governor of Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday when a suicide car bomber struck his convoy, witnesses and officials said.
BAGHDAD - A helicopter went down in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005. 
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said on Wednesday. 
DES MOINES, Iowa - A woman who police say assaulted people with a hammer while she was naked was arrested on a variety of charges, including assault and obstruction of emergency communications. 
NAJAF: Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr congratulated his supporters yesterday for the imminent withdrawal of British forces from the southern city of Basra.
The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year -- equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey. Norway is concerned that 
(SomaliNet) The UN Security Council called on the secretary-general on Monday to begin planning for the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers to Somalia to replace an African Union force that has struggled to put troops in the chaotic country. 
Vladimir Putin announced ambitious plans to revive Russia's military power and restore its role as the world's leading producer of military aircraft yesterday. Speaking at the opening of the largest airshow in Russia's post-Soviet history, the president said he was determined to make aircraft manufacture a national priority after decades of lagging behind the west.
WASHINGTON - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhuttoon Tuesday urged President Pervez Musharraf to present a power-sharing reform package by the end of August, saying her party was becoming jittery with approaching elections.
LUCKNOW The Forward Bloc (FB), a constituent of the Left alliance supporting the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre, has come out openly against the stay of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in Kolkata.
Venezuela's National Assembly, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez, gave unanimous initial approval Tuesday to constitutional reforms that would allow him to run for re-election and 
U.S. President George Bush says, despite Washington's frustration with the slow pace of political progress in Iraq, it is up to Iraqis to decide the future of their government. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, the president is responding to an influential U.S. Senator who says Iraq's parliament should dismiss Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
HANGU: The Zargri Taliban shoora (council) has banned the sale of narcotics and audio-video business in Zargri areas and decided to give stern punishments to violators. Reports from Naryab said the Taliban shoora had imposed a ban in Zargri, Shanawari, Naryab, Chapri Naryab, Kahi and other areas of Hangu district and decided to burn the houses of those violating the ban and to fine them up to Rs 50,000. Hangu DPO Ghulam Muhammad Khan said the ban was limited to the Zargri area, adding that locals and madrassas were also involved in this exercise. Mian Hussain of Jamia Uloom Islamia Zargri, denied that his students had any role in the ban.
Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday the recent increase in American troops in Iraq may well have helped tamp down violence, but he insisted there is no military solution to the country's problems and U.S. forces should be redeployed soon.
Former CIA Director George Tenet did not marshal his agency's resources to respond to the recognized threat posed by al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency's inspector general concluded in a long-classified report released today. The report, which Congress ordered released under a law signed by President Bush this month, also faulted the intelligence community for failing to have "a documented, comprehensive approach" to battling al-Qaeda.
Law-enforcement agencies have traced a network of terrorists operating across Pakistan and arrested two members allegedly linked to last months suicide bombings in Islamabad, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters here on Tuesday.
In separate clashes between Taliban and security forces, seven militants were killed in an operation by Afghan and coalition forces in neighbouring Helmand province on Monday, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Seven terrorists who had infiltrated the area to destabilise it were killed during an operation by Afghan and coalition forces, the statement said, referring to a 10,000-strong US-led force based in the province. The operation took place in Helmands troubled Sangin district, where four Afghan army soldiers were also injured the same day after their checkpost was attacked by Taliban rockets. 
Eleven men convicted of crimes ranging from kidnapping and murder to rape and planting bombs were hanged in Baghdad on Tuesday, the Iraqi prime ministers office said.These people were convicted by the Iraqi judicial process, and a verdict of execution was certified by the appeals chamber under due process, a statement said.
Former commanders of Saddam Husseins military went on trial in Baghdad on Tuesday for their role in crushing a Shiite rebellion in southern Iraq at the end of the 1991 Gulf War in which tens of thousands were killed. Standing alongside the military officers were Saddams former defence minister at the time and his personal secretary. The most high profile of the 15 defendants is Saddams feared cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as Chemical Ali. 
Gaza's public employees are getting paid on one condition: Stay home. 
