Michigan Democrats' lawsuit against the state elections office is an unsavory bit of political gamesmanship that should be quickly dispatched by the courts. The suit, filed in the federal district court in Bay County, challenges the state's balloting rules, specifically demanding that people who show up at the wrong polling place, without proof of registration or valid personal identification, be allowed to vote anyway and have their vote counted.
This would open the door to voter fraud and vote counting nightmares. Michigan already has generous policies to assure that it is as easy as possible to vote. Those rules were approved by the U.S. Justice Department and signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Currently, voters who show up at the wrong precinct are directed to the right polling place by election workers equipped with the state's qualified voter file. If their name is not on the state list, they are still allowed to vote, but their ballot is placed in an envelope and the voters have six days to prove they are registered. Likewise, if they arrive at the polling place without ID or a voter card, they can vote, and their ballot will be counted if they produce identification within six days.
The lawsuit, if successful, would eliminate those safeguards and make it easier for voters to cast ballots in more than one precinct. Chris Thomas, Michigan's director of elections, says the state's rules were carefully crafted to meet federal guidelines. He says vote counting will be difficult if the Democrats get what they're asking for. He also said that any change in rules this close to Nov. 2 would create chaos on Election Day. If the election is close, that could put Michigan in the position Florida was in after the 2000 vote. And that may be the real motive behind the lawsuit. Similar suits have been filed in Florida, Missouri, Ohio and Colorado, all battleground states where the margin of victory is expected to be narrow. Having a pool of ballots that could be contested in those states paves the way for a post-election legal challenge. A federal judge in Florida tossed out the lawsuit in that state Friday, saying the changes it demanded would violate federal law. The court in Michigan should do the same.
Michigan does an admirable job of helping its votes cast their ballots. Precinct locations are mailed to voters, are printed on the voter registration card, can be found on the Internet or obtained by calling the city clerk. There's really no excuse for a voter to show up at the wrong precinct. Or to show up without identification. Some measure of personal responsibility should be expected of the voters themselves.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:57:00 PM ||
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#3
Can you not see a better way to level the playing field? Get serious, guys. The stupid law is the one which bans the headscarves of the Muslim teachers. All for one and one for all.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/10/2004 23:25
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#4
I've ranted against the anti-headscarves laws before, mainly because I see them as the sorts of things that let the French and Germans pretend they're doing something about terrorism while they're taking bribes from Saddam (or the current government of Sudan).
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/10/2004 23:37
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#5
The Germans didn't mind making Jewish people wear yellow Stars of David on armbands during WWII. The Vichy French went along with the Germans.
There is a certain numbskullery in both cultures.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:48
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Police have arrested 17 non-Libyans suspected of being al-Qaida members who entered this North African country illegally, the interior minister said Sunday. Nasr al-Mabrouk said the men are from the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia and were arrested when they entered Libya. Al-Mabrouk did not specify the nationalities of the men, say when they were arrested or say whether they entered Libya individually or as a group. "Preliminary investigations proved that the group, numbering now 17, has a connection with Osama bin Laden, but the nature of this relation has not been established yet," al-Mabrouk told The Associated Press. Al-Mabrouk provided no details on the men's aims in Libya but said more information would be released in coming days. Libya has been known for a tolerant approach to immigration and foreign labor, but under European pressure it has toughened its stance and arrested hundreds of would-be immigrants.
My guess would be a herd of Paks and Uzbeks, come to push Hezb ut-Tahrir...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:46:30 PM ||
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#1
This Authentiseal.org site is pretty intense. It is amazing how many people, many of them professional and educated would make a flase claim to be a SEAL.
The article about John Kerry's service and the implications of his prefidy is pretty stark and damning.
It's a shame politics will prevent Kerry from accounting for his crimes, but maybe politics can give salve to those who did serve and did hold the line in Viet Nam, that at long last his crimes are revealed to the nation.
#2
The article about John Kerry's service and the implications of his prefidy is pretty stark and damning.
I heard of suspicions about Kerry's record for sometime now. Seems hard to establish what his record really is--other than his Viet protests and treachery. His Senate record is more transparent.
Took a look at the Seal site. It is disturbing that people would lie about military service. This is seriously wrong. It wrongs those who have served so gallantly.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:44
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I wonder what will happen to military recruitment and retention rates if Kerry gets elected. My hunch is, it won't be pretty.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/10/2004 23:48
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Dave, recruitment and retention will probably head south. I think it would be difficult to be in the military under Kerry. Probably won't be pretty. Clinton said he "loathed" the military. Doesn't seem like Kerry likes the military all that much either other than for what he can try to play it for. I think the military is on to him from what military polls I have seen.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:54
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The suicide bombings in Sinai have triggered a wave of conspiracy theories in Egypt, where many believe Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Jews were behind the attacks. Several Egyptians interviewed over the past few days on Arab satellite stations said they did not believe Muslim terrorists were capable of launching such massive attacks. Most interviewees agreed Israel was the only beneficiary of the bombings and claimed once again that the Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. Egyptian journalist Nabil Sharif Eddin said numerous conspiracy theories about Israel's alleged role have flourished. "Analyses based on conspiracy theories are spreading not only on the level of the man on the street, but also among political and intellectual circles," he said.
General (Ret.) Muhammad Abdel Fattah Omar, a former senior official with the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for the country's security services, was one of the first Egyptians to accuse Israel of masterminding the attacks. "In each operation, we should first try to find out who benefits from it," he said. "Israel is the only party that benefits from the Sinai attacks. The Israelis and their agents are the only ones who are able to enter this area without difficulty."
University professor Salwa Hussein vehemently defended the conspiracy theories as a "historic fact." She explained: "The Arab world lies in the heart of the globe and if its power continues to grow, the Arabs will control the other countries as was the case with the Islamic state... Today the conspiracy against Islam is continuing and even spreading."
Abdullah al-Ashal, a former top official with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said he had no doubts that Israeli hands were involved in the bombings. "Israel's ultimate plan is to bring Egypt to its knees and eliminate its regional role," he told the IslamOnline Web site. Ashal, who served as assistant foreign minister, went on to claim that by pointing a finger at al-Qaida, Israel was seeking to include Egypt in the US-led war on terror.
The Muslim Brotherhood organization issued a statement in Cairo in which it accused the Mossad and Jews of planning and carrying out the attacks. The group said the attacks were designed to divert attention from Israel's "brutal massacres" against the Palestinians and the "barbaric attacks by the American occupation forces in Iraq."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:24:00 PM ||
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Khartoum students burned down a university building in protest at high residence hall fees and armed police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstration, students and witnesses said. One student said others had been locked out of their halls after failing to pay the fees demanded by the administration. "They locked the doors but all our clothes and belongings were still inside and we have nowhere else to sleep," said 21-year-old student Badr al-Din from White Nile state, who asked that his full name not be published. "So the students got angry and set fire to the offices of the student support fund," he said on Saturday. Muhammad, a student who also declined to give his family name, said between 50 and 100 armed police had fired tear gas into the crowd and beaten students with sticks to disperse the demonstration. Police at the scene said no one was hurt in the disturbance, which began at about 1400 GMT.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:21:37 PM ||
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Security forces in Mauritania have arrested a prominent Muslim leader for allegedly backing a failed coup in the West African country. Shaikh Muhammad al-Didaw was the latest in a string of detentions of activists who have publicly called for national conciliation among political forces in the country, Aljazeera's correspondent said on Monday. Head of the Mauritanian Islamist Movement (MIM), al-Didaw's arrest follows those of fellow members Jamil Wald Mansur and Mukhtar Musa. Sources close to the government said all three were taken into custody in the city of Roso on the border with Senegal after being linked to a failed coup masterminded by Captain Salih Wald Hanana.
At least two attempts to oust President Muawiya Wald Taya have been made in the last 15 months. In August, Mauritanian troops were confined to barracks in the capital, Nouakchott, after unconfirmed reports of a foiled putsch. An opposition deputy and a human rights lawyer on 10 August said there was talk of more than a dozen army officers having been arrested at the time. The apparent attempt to kill the president took place at the airport as he was leaving for France. There was no official confirmation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:17:11 PM ||
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The US Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry has warned that if he wins the Nov. 2 election there will be no reprieve for sidelined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The United States, like Israel, has refused to deal with Arafat, and Kerry entered the debate late Saturday by warning that if he won next month's election there would be no reprieve for the veteran Palestinian leader. "We have been at this for a long time. Mr. Arafat has proven his unwillingness and incapacity to be able to act as a legitimate partner in the peace process," Kerry said in a Florida campaign rally.
Kerry also said his job as president, if elected, would be to "hold those Arab countries accountable that still support terrorists — Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Aqsa Brigades and others." The Democrat hopeful also praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his "courageous" plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year. Speaking two days after bombings at two Egyptian Red Sea resorts that killed at least 34 people, most of them Israelis, Kerry warned that the Jewish state was under attack. "People are trying to continue to create havoc... Israel remains under assault, kids blown up on buses, people sitting at restaurants, trying to live their lives," Kerry said. "I will not give one inch in our efforts to do that," he said.
President George W. Bush has riled US allies in Europe and the Middle East by refusing to deal with Arafat, saying he had links to terrorism and could not be trusted to make peace. On Friday, in the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri, Bush repeated his stern line on the Palestinian leader. "I wouldn't deal with Arafat because I felt like he had let the former president down and I don't think he's the kind of person that can lead toward a Palestinian state," Bush said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:06:57 PM ||
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#1
I guess Kerry found out that Arabs are a smaller voting block than Jews and Christian groups that support Israel.
#2
Ooo, Arafish must be shaking in his stinky boots.
NOT.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 21:31
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#3
Kerry is just blowing smoke because of poll figures.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:25
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#4
What's Kerry going to do, get really pissed and go to the UN and seek an International test???? And then ask the UN for a nutless resolution?
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:47
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Well, he was speaking in Florida -- heavy Jewish vote. Wonder what he has to say in Detroit?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 22:58
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#6
Kerry was sucking up to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Sharpton should stick with Saturday Night Live--he will get a better deal. Kerry=Clinton without the sex. Both extreme leftists. Both stick their finger (index) in the air to see what people want to hear and then say it. Kerry=No principles. Stick your finger (bird) in the air to Kerry-Edwards, vote for "W."
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:11
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#7
I'm sure that Kerry has blamed Bush and Republicans at some point for dealing with Arafat. If someone could find footage, it would make a great commerical!
#8
The USA's policy toward the Israel-Palestine issue is rather bipartisan. Whether the President is a Democrat or Republican makes little difference.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/11/2004 9:07
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well..tell me, Mike...what does Kerry's voting record say about that?
Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf was elected Somali president by lawmakers yesterday, according to an unofficial tally, in the 14th attempt in a decade to restore government to the lawless African country. Yusuf won 185 votes cast by parliamentarians meeting as an electoral college in neighboring Kenya, against 76 for opponent Abdullahi Addou, in a third and final round of voting, according to a Reuters tally of results that were read out one by one by officials. If the result is confirmed Yusuf will head a transitional federal government (TFG) that will attempt to shepherd the broken country of up to 10 million to elections under a new constitution in five years' time. Somali lawmakers voted for the new president for their anarchic Horn of Africa state in an election held in Nairobi. Three of six Somali presidential candidates who qualified for the second round in yesterday's election pulled out of the race moments before the start of the ballot. "I am pulling out of the race and I will support anyone who is elected. That is democracy," Salat, who won just 15 votes in the first round, told the packed stadium.
Interesting definition...
Salat's administration never managed to exert authority beyond a few pockets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "All my life I have worked for a united Somalia and it is for that reason that I am withdrawing," Barre, half brother to Somalia's last president, the late Mohammed Siad Barre, toppled in 1991, said on announcing his withdrawal. "For the sake of the Somali nation I give up my desire to be president," was Hussein Ado's valediction.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
9:02:08 PM ||
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Russians are dying in numbers and at ages that seem impossible to believe. Heart disease, alcohol consumption, and tuberculosis are epidemic. So is addiction to nicotine. You won't see many pregnant women on the streets; Russia has one of the lowest peacetime birth rates in modern history.Long life is one of the central characteristics of an advanced society; in Russia, men often die too young to collect a pension. In the United States, even during the Great Depression mortality rates continued to drop, and the same has been true for all other developed countries. Except Russia. In the past decade, life expectancy has fallen so drastically that a boy born in Russia today can expect to live just to the age of fifty-eight, younger than if he were born in Bangladesh. No other educated, industrialized nation ever has suffered such a prolonged, catastrophic growth in death rates.
In 1991, on the day the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russia's population stood at a hundred and forty-nine million. Without the huge wave of immigration from the former Soviet republics which followed, the country would have lost nearly a million people each year since then. If Russia is lucky, by 2050 the population will have fallen by only a third, to a hundred million. That is the most optimistic government scenario. More realistic predictions suggest that the number will be closer to seventy-five or eighty million—a little more than half the current population.
#1
I guess that means everyone will get a bigger apartment, and the country will make billions from the sale of carbon credits under the Kyoto Treaty. Almost as profitable as oil, and no effort to get it out from the ground.
/shallow shortsightedness
So, the Chinese will continue settling population in the border areas, and lots of them will be thrilled to get older Russians as wives. And in the end the Russian oil fields will fulfill Chinese needs rather than Europe's, while the children will have an adorable mixture of Slavic and Oriental characteristics. Hmmm....
#2
The demographic collapse west of the Urals is a major source of current and especially future instability. Add in massive industrial pollution in many parts of the country (with associated birth defects) and a rising Aids crisis.
It's not hard to imagine that the trend some see towards autocracy will accelerate over the next decade or so. I hope not, but ...
Oh yes, the fastest rising demographic, east of the Urals, is ethnic Chinese.
#3
Russia will likely devolve into a much smaller, Europeanized, reasonably well-governed and demographically stable western-oriented state with only a loose attachment to a set of de facto Chinese puppet regimes covering the Far East and the Siberian regions north and east of Novosibirsk.
Russia will never be both democratic and geographically vast. A smaller Russian Federation would allow for a better-governed, more democratic Russian entity stretching roughly from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk.
*snip*
In Washington, Republican Party chief Ed Gillespie criticized Kerry for saying in an interview in The New York Times Magazine that, "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." The "place were we were" is what got us attacked, DUMBASS.
He appeared to equate terrorism to ChIraq's behavior prostitution and illegal gambling, saying they can be reduced but not ended. With terrorists, I prefer the analogy to cockroaches. We may not be able to completely eliminate them, but the approach is one of extermination, not toleration.
"This demonstrates a disconcerting pre-September 11 mind-set that will not make our country safer," Gillespie said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "And that is what we see relative to winning the war on terror and relative to Iraq (news - web sites)." Polite way of saying, "Is Kerry fucking NUTS?" (Note to Ed: Yes)
Hours later, Bush's re-election campaign announced a new television ad that plays off of Kerry's interview comment. "Terrorism ... a nuisance? How can Kerry protect us when he doesn't understand the threat?" the ad says. The campaign said the ad would run on national cable television networks and the campaign's Web site. Heh.
Kerry also blathers on a bunch of racist crap about disenfranchisement, etc., etc. Barf. Read the whole thing if you need your blood pressure raised.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004
6:02:27 PM ||
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#1
You can't get any more European than that. The old..."If we close our eyes tight enough and can't see the terrorists standing in front of us, they can't hurt us."
#2
I was just over at the Freep, Barbara and Zulu. There's a thread with a link to Bush/Cheney.com. Kerry's "nuisance" quip is already grist for a new ad.
The link has the transcript up. Can only imagine what the video is going to look like.
Jack.
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
10/10/2004 18:57
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This terrorism-as-nuisance theme emerged in a long article/interview in today's New York Times Magazine (link here) which also contained these blindingly iridescent examples of utter incoherence:
"I think we can do a better job," Kerry said, "of cutting off financing, of exposing groups, of working cooperatively across the globe, of improving our intelligence capabilities nationally and internationally, of training our military and deploying them differently, of specializing in special forces and special ops, of working with allies, and most importantly -- and I mean most importantly -- of restoring America's reputation as a country that listens, is sensitive, brings people to our side, is the seeker of peace, not war, and that uses our high moral ground and high-level values to augment us in the war on terror, not to diminish us."
and
"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance," Kerry said. "As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."
And if that doesn't convince you to keep this friggin' dimwit out of the White House, nothing will.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/10/2004 19:05
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#4
John Fraud Kerry has his head up his ass so far he can't see what is going on.
I get so fed up with his "sensitive" bullshit.
Kerry has not had much success in attracting other countries to his way of thinking.
Soooooo, he equates terrorism to prostitution and gambling and that these things are nuisances. What a dumb fuck. What the hell part of we are in a world wide war against terrorism that he doesn't get. I guess all of it.
I worry that US voters will be duped by der slickness and lies. Some voters are fickle and piss away their vote for some of most damnable reasons.
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:38
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#5
We should be sensitive. 3,000 of our brothers and sisters were murdered and the same has been promised to the rest of us. I am very sensitive to that kind of thing. So we should kick ass until the rest of the world gets the idea that that is not the sort of thing one should do unless they wish their 72 virgins sooner rather than later.
Wow, now I feel as sensitive as Alan Alda.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/10/2004 19:45
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#6
Mrs. D, I would say that you have a very sensitive perception of the situation!
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:55
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#7
Among other complaints about Kerry's thinking, such as it is: prostitutes and gamblers don't try to impose their behaviours on innocent bystanders by violence. Even organized crime operates within pretty strict parameters, ie the Mob doesn't try to take over the elementary school PTA or undermine the government. I was always given to understand that the Mob are a actually a pretty patriotic bunch -- after all, their ancestors made the Exodus same as us law-abiding folk.
Besides, the argument has always been that the adolescent, naive, stupid, fat, over-aggressive Americans are oblivious cowboys, who by definition are incapable of sensitively listening to their sophisticated, nuanced, cultured elders.
I think Kerry is overcompensating for the anti-American nonsense his boarding school chums recited to torment him.
#8
I just had the pleaure of mailing in what I am sure will be one of MANY ballots that will defeat this idiot at the polls. This suit is empty and should not even be elect dog catcher let alone a US Senator! I think they have become our house of lords with everything that is bad about them and none of the good.
#9
Here's a definition of "nuisance" I just Googled: "One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother: Having to stand in line was a nuisance. The disruptive child was a nuisance to the class."
When have terrorists of any type been a nuisance? I don't think the British ever considered the IRA annoying. What about the Israelis? I'm sure they look at the problems over there as being simply inconvenient. (Sarcasm.)
I hope no one ever looks at terrorism as a nuisance. What the hell is wrong with this guy? He's scary. He plans on fighting a sensitive war against the future nuisances. Riiiight.
Hat Tip Drudge-
(Canyon News) Being a standard coward, Mark Halperin memo is sent on Friday, just before the debate, in the hope that the stink blows over by Monday, in case of discovery. Those of us "pajama-wearers" here of the great unwashed and unenlightened masses will not let it be so. ABCNEWS POLITICAL DIRECTOR MEMO SPARKS CONTROVERSY: BOTH SIDES NOT 'EQUALLY ACCOUNTABLE'
**Exclusive**
An internal memo written by ABCNEWS Political Director Mark Halperin admonishes ABC staff: During coverage of Democrat Kerry and Republican Bush not to "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable." I'm an ass and I admit it!
The controversial internal memo obtained by DRUDGE, captures Halperin stating how "Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win." And As a disconnected leftist, I am so arrogant that I believe even if this gets out, no one will care.
But Halperin claims that Bush is hoping to "win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions." Seems to me Kerry is doing a pretty good job of that himself without any help from the president, you SCUMBAG.
"The current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done," Halperin writes. But of course Halperin won't talk about whether Kerry is more like Walter Mitty or Baron von Munchausen in his storytelling...
Halperin's claim that ABCNEWS will not "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable" set off sparks in St. Louis where media players gathered to cover the second presidential debate. And prompted the loaded question at the end of the about admitting "mistakes" to be selected by Carley Gibson, who must have gotten an attaboy call from Snake Halperin. I can hear the snake to Charley now, "We'll get him next time dammit"
Halperin states the responsibilities of the ABCNEWS staff have "become quite grave." The longevity of his job may become "quite grave" if we can get enough Disney stockholders angry.
In August, Halperin declared online: "This is now John Kerry's contest to lose."
DROOL, DROOL
x x x x x
Halperin Memo Dated Friday October 8, 2004
It goes without saying that the stakes are getting very high for the country and the campaigns - and our responsibilities become quite grave
I do not want to set off (sp?) and endless colloquy that none of us have time for today - nor do I want to stifle one. Please respond if you feel you can advance the discussion. If you don't answer right, I know whose contract not to renew.
The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done.
Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win. I guess the Snake thinks stories about the lucky hat are not indicative of anything.
We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that. The "public" has an "interest" in actually seeing this come out. Here it proves he has joined Dan Rather and Mary Mapes as unpaid staff in the Kerry-Edwards campaign.
I'm sure many of you have this week felt the stepped up Bush efforts to complain about our coverage. This is all part of their efforts to get away with as much as possible with the stepped up, renewed efforts to win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions. Stepped up efforts to expose truth, SNAKE.
It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest. Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right. It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But we can give him a boost with impunity and no longer pretend to be fair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Posted by: BigEd ||
10/10/2004
5:27:03 AM ||
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#2
I had to read the whole memo five times to get an idea of what it means. When you think of it, it's a masterful achievement to write a memo of a few hundred words and say virtually nothing, but hint at so much. The guy has really mastered the gobbledygook of propaganda masquerading as responsible journalism.
So I thought I'd try to translate the memo into simple English:
These two guys both lie and fabricate, but their guy does it much better than our guy, and is using it against our guy. In fact, their guy could win if we don't support and push our guy. I know I don't have to tell you who our guy is. So go for it.
(I pasted in this comment from yesterday's article, because I think it still applies).
#3
"Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win."
Not "central to his efforts to win"??? They're the ENTIRETY of his efforts to win. Were it not for massive, non-stop lying and distortions, Kerry would be unable to make even the weakest case for electing him President.
I haven't heard an honest word out of a Democrat's mouth, other than Zell Miller and occasionally Joe Lieberman, in at least six years; and it's why I'm no longer a Democrat after having been one for three decades.
As for the rhetorical gymnastics in Halperin's memo, this is just the usual fare of leftist logic, as with the "all animals are equal, some are more equal than others" line in Animal Farm. Leftist logic can justify ANYTHING.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/10/2004 9:36
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#4
Halperin's also marginally literate. Not only is the memo devoid of logic; it's riddled with dumb grammatical mistakes and non-sequiturs.
More evidence of what we already knew: to be an MSM journalist or producer requires no real talent or training or professional commitment.
Screw these jokers. Smash the MSM. Let a thousand blogs contend.
Exactly what can be expected in a society as self-destructive as the Islamofascist Paleos. I wish I were shocked at the "moral equating" of the author. The problem is solely with Islam, and especially how the Paloestinians have perverted their society with joo-hating being the end-all and be-all of their society. They are just reaping a whirlwind of their own making.
One side accuses Palestinian gunmen of using children as human shields, a cruelty so callous as to have no equal. And one side accuses Israeli soldiers of trigger-happy indifference, methodically felling the very young with deadeye abandon. But there is a third truth here on the unspeakably mean streets of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. It speaks not so much to the sickening concepts of Israelis or Palestinians spending children as if they were mere shekels, but rather to a notion even more horrifying — that the social order here has broken down so completely that the children are simply spending themselves.
As of yesterday, there were 18 children among the confirmed toll of 94 Palestinians killed since Sept. 28, when Israel's tanks rolled into northern Gaza in a massive invasion to staunch the flow of rockets flying toward the civilians of Israel proper. Whether by helicopter gunship fire, the missiles of unmanned military drones or the periodic tank shells that pierce the eastern side of this compressed cinderblock city of 106,000, Israel is not only getting its man, it is getting a boy hovering fatally close to the action.
October 10, 2004: The Islamic terrorists who planned the attacks on the Egyptian beach hotel at Taba missed one important detail, the place was particularly popular with Israeli Arabs. About a third of those killed or missing were Israeli Arabs. That, plus the deaths among the Egyptian staff of the hotel, mean that about 40 percent of the dead and injured were Moslem. That, plus the Egyptian loss of jobs for several years, as Israeli tourists stay away, get the Islamic terrorists more ill will in Egypt, and the Arab world in general. The war on terror is a war of public opinion, as well as bombs and bullets. Islamic bombs have been killing a lot of Moslem women and children lately, and that does not go down well in the Islamic world.
The Egyptian police are already rounding up the usual suspects, including twenty Bedouins, suspected of supplying the ton of explosives. Bedouins have been smuggling, and operating on the edges of society, for centuries. Criminals and terrorists will go to Bedouins for what they cannot get legitimately. Israeli and Egyptian police are working together on the investigation, another development that is unlikely to please those behind the bombing.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004
3:51:45 PM ||
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get the Islamic terrorists more ill will in Egypt, and the Arab world in general
Awwwwww. Ain't that just too bad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 21:39
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I want to share this story from my nephew in bagdad. I encourage all to share and spread.......
He is a GREAT AMERICAN with a GREAT story.
His E-Mail is at end of letter and do feel free to send him a letter of support
One Proud Uncle
Robert
Uncle Robert,
I have a friend in Hawaii who has asked me to write about some of my experiences over here. She is trying to push a few people off the fence for the upcoming elections and wanted my personal insights into what I have seen. Here is a story I wrote for her that I thought you might like to read.
Here's a story for you about a man named Abbas Al-Janabi. Just another hard to pronounce arabic name? There's a lot more to him than that. Abbas was a good father, a good business man and a friend. Abbas was your average everyday Iraqi citizen. He started working with the U.S. Army in 2003 by procuring and selling goods to different units. He could get you anything you needed or wanted; from print cartridges, office furniture and supplies, satellite TV, cell phones to labor. He charged fair prices and never asked to make a profit on the labor he provided. He asked that we pay the workers directly so they could make more money. I met Abbas a couple of days after I arrived in Iraq. He was introduced to me by my counterpart in the unit we replaced and given a very good reference.
Abbas recognized early on that things were changing drastically in his country and he didn't want to get left behind. He decided to become an entrepreneur. Most importantly, he also recognized the value of fair business practices. He was very personable and humble. After he learned that I was married, he asked me the name of my wife. He never forgot her name and would ask me if Amy was well every time I saw him. He had a family too. His wife's name is Imam and he had a son and two daughters. A few weeks ago, he told me about how he was fixing up his house. Most of the homes in Baghdad are surrounded by garbage, dust and rubble. He told me how he had cleaned it all up and had installed a swimming pool in his back yard. He was very proud of his swimming pool. One could say he was living the American Dream, only he was an Iraqi, living in Baghdad.
That dream came to end at 2:00 a.m. on August 1, 2004. Some people didn't like that Abbas was prosperous. Some people didn't like the fact that because he was working hard, he was able to provide for his family and even have a few luxuries. These people decided that Abbas and his family didn't deserve to live. They crashed into his home and shot and killed everyone in the house. Not only was Abbas murdered, but so was his 11 year-old son, his brother and his brother's two young children. Then they looted his home. Luckily, Imam and their two daughters were staying with family that night, or they would have been murdered too. I have asked Abbas if he ever recieved threats. His response was always to shrug his shoulders and say something to the affect that is part of the world he lives in and that threats like that are rarely carried out. He never went anywhere without his MP5 submachine gun. I wish he would have had the opportunity to use it.
What these people did was pure evil. It was completely inhuman. The worst part about it is they will never be held accountable for what they did. One of our workers was Abbas' next door neighbor. According to him, these people did not murder Abbas because he was doing business with Americans. They murdered him only because of what he had. We Americans certainly have our own version of class envy, but this is ridiculous!
Abbas is gone now and those of us who knew him, miss him. I lost a friend. All but one of his workers quit their high paying jobs that I gave them because they were afraid that they would be next. The high paying jobs that I gave them earned them $10 per day to fill sandbags, pick up garbage, move cement bags and do carpentry work. This is about twice as much as they can make working anywhere else. Many of them used to work for Saddam building his palaces. Saddam paid them $2 per day.
The one worker who stayed on, Fuad, has decided to take his life into his own hands. Fuad is an unassuming little fellow. He stands a slender 5'4" high or so, doesn't speak a lick of English and favors wearing chino pants, a golf shirt and a fishing hat. He has recruited a new work force and become the "boss". This earned him a raise to $20 per day (more than most doctors make). He has also decided to take over Abbas' role as a vendor. Fuad knows what he's getting into. He is no stranger to violence. He has a plastic leg because an insurgent mortar round took his real leg. He also has some grotesque scars on his arm, chest and abdomen from his encounter with that mortar round. Fuad has picked up the dream and is running with it. Fuad wants to move up to the middle class. I wish him the best and hope that he succeeds. When the violence in Iraq is finally stopped, it will be people like Abbas and Fuad who will take their country to success. American servicemembers may be the heros in most Americans minds, and they should be, but guys like Abbas and Fuad should be the heros of the Iraqi people. They have the same drive to build something that made America as great as it is. They can do it here, we just need to give them the chance.
A lot of people have asked, why we are here. The short answer is that we are here to protect American interests. What then, are the bases of American interests? To me the simple answer to this question is to replace tyrany with freedom and liberty. I watched a speech by President Bush yesterday as he addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars. His position is that free societies are peaceful societies and I agree with him. He said that we are trying to help Iraq and Afghanistan develop into free societies and he hopes that it will spread to other parts of the region. I agree with and support his efforts 100%. It is a worthwhile effort.
People never hear about the individuals involved in this process. They hear from the "retired generals club" (arm-chair quarterbacks), the critics, nay-sayers and everything negative. We hear terms like "quagmire" and "shock and awe". We hear the statistics about how many servicemembers have been killed since it all started, but we never hear about what those people did. How many people's lives did they impact? How many times did they help out a family? How many times did they make a child smile? How many lives did they save, Americans or otherwise?
Where is the reporting on all the great things we have done over here? I see Iraqis denouncing the Americans on TV everyday just like you do. I have an advantage over you though. I have driven the streets of Baghdad and I've been out in the countryside. You know what I see? I see people waving and cheering us everywhere we go. I see children on the side of the road fascinated by all the big trucks they see rolling by. I see the smile on their faces when you throw an old man a cold bottle of water as you drive by. I see the delight in kids' eyes when you toss them candy, or sometimes more importantly, a meal. They don't hate us and they certainly aren't afraid of us. You have to almost beat the kids off with a stick whenever you stop on a street. When they do this, their parents aren't far away, watching to make sure junior doesn't get in trouble, but always with a wave and a smile for us "evil" Americans. Where is the reporting on that? What about all the people who now have water, sewer and electric service for the first time in more than 13 years? You'll never see a story on CNN about that. What about when we find families squatting in stables or garbage dumps, then help them to find a place to live? Ever see a story on CNN about that? You won't hear about it, but it happens. I know it happens because I have done it. Just last week I helped relocate six families who were squatting in some of Saddam's old horse stables into homes.
I've seen first hand that this place is in a shambles, but it's not from this war. Sure you see the odd bombed out building here and there that was most likely bombed by the Coalition, but the rest is a result of neglect on the part of an evil dictator who let his people slip into or close to poverty while he hoarded money and built palaces. I heard it said on a documentary that Iraq is a first world country that was put under the rule of a third world dictator for 30 years. It's true. This country has the resources to be one of the most prosperous in the world, yet it has all been wasted. We hope to change that.
I wanted to share Abbas' story because he was a part of all of this. He was a real person with a real life that was cut short by evil. It is the same brand of evil that killed so many Americans on September 11, 2001. There are literally thousands of stories in Iraq similar to those of Abbas Al-Janabi. These are stories of good people, who only want to live free and have the opportunity for success. They are not religious fanatics. They have their faith, the same as most Americans do, but they don't try to force it on anyone and only want to live in peace. Unfortunately, like Abbas' fate, many of these stories end in tragedy. Stuff like this happens over here every day. Do you ever see stories like this on the news? Is there ever an outrage or a call for justice? Abbas was not filthy rich, he was middle class. Imagine if this happened in America. The media coverage would be overwhelming. There would be countless hours of coverage on the manhunt for the killers and then the trial would be a complete circus dominating the news for months. The reality here is that there will be no manhunt for Abbas' killers. It's not important enough to waste resources on because of all of the other nut cases who are causing more trouble than simply murdering a few innocent people in their beds in the middle of the night.
Forget about whether or not there are weapons of mass destruction, it really doesn't matter anymore and I don't think it really ever mattered. I had to come here to come to that realization. Think instead about what these people deserve and how our country will be better off in the long run when we succeed in giving it to them. They deserve the right to choose their own destiny instead of being oppressed by a minority of whackos and thugs. These are the same whackos who, if given the opportunity, would just as readily murder you and your family as they did Abbas and his family. Think about this: If we don't stop them here, they might just get that opportunity some day.
Love, Rusty
HSC 411th EN BAN, UCD Camp Victory North APO, AE 09344
#8
RE:"I know it happens....We hope to change that."
Here is the greatest loss for the Democratic Party in 2004. There are tens of thousands of new leaders being made in Iraq as our fathers and grandfathers who experienced WWII and came home and decided to make a difference in their community and country. They became the political leadership in our towns, our states, and in our nation. They dedicated themselves to making this a better new world after see the ruin of the old world. They took a nation on par with may others in the world and built an economy and society that now stands way above all others. Still a way from perfection, but damn closer than anyone else. Now these young men and women are participating in building a country and improving the lot of the common man. The pride they have in doing this work will live with them for the rest of their lives. It is a positive construction force that can be repeated once these young people return their nation. Do you really think in any rational manner that the party that sold its soul to the anti-American left and denounces the work of these heros has the slightest chance to add their names to their rolls in future elections? These will be the next generation of names you will start to see on our ballots, people who know what real poverty is, what real opportunity is, and how to make a difference. And they will not be part of the party that betrays them today.
Posted by: Don ||
10/10/2004 8:41
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Great story - he's right, we don't hear anywhere near enough of this side of the conflict.
From my LiveDictionary plugin in Safari:
mensch, mensh:
a decent responsible person with admirable characteristics
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 8:54
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These will be the next generation of names you will start to see on our ballots, people who know what real poverty is, what real opportunity is, and how to make a difference. And they will not be part of the party that betrays them today.
True men and women of the people. In just four years veterans of the Iraqi War will be a badge of honor, even more so when Kerry's shameing words against what ourand Iraq's people are doing are turned back on him. These people, the Iraqis and Americans are truley winning the peace.
And guess what? They are doing it without a plan other than to enable liberty for all Iraqis.
Funny how that works.
And that phrase is a perfect counter to Kerry's incessant change that the president went to war without a plan toi win the pleace. Simply say: We have a plan and we are implementing it. Liberty justice for all Iraqis. Give that to them and let them make their own way.
#11
Barbara: I don't know. I must have gotten things mixed up somewhere.
Don: while some 18 year old kids are joining the army and being exposed to foreign cultures while fighting a war that's virtually one part combat and two parts civil affairs, a lot of kids going to "top colleges" instead are going to be getting their educations in an environment more parochial than 1940's rural Mississippi.
I don't know if anyone's thought through the long-term effects of that, but I hope it manages to shake things up a bit.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/10/2004 12:25
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th9ose 18 year old kids in that environment are getting a better education about life though phil. Unlike those kids going too the good colleges those kids in afghanistan and I raq are helping other ppl and not throwing keggers on the weekend.
It's the "top colleges" I'm referring to as the parochial environment.
The kids in the army are going to have a "wider" education in many ways than the ones who are going to ivy league schools and getting lectured by postmodernist idiot-savants about how lousy western civilization is. That's what I was trying to say.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/10/2004 18:17
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#14
Thanks Rusty for this story. I am truly sorry your friend and his family were murdered. 9/11 and beheading type evil. There is only one thing to do and that is to root out the evil wherever it is.
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 18:58
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Insurgent networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against U.S. and coalition forces, according to a CIA report. Investigators said one group recruited scientists and sought to prepare poisons over seven months before it was dismantled in June. U.S. officials say the threat is especially worrisome because leaders of the previously unknown group, which investigators dubbed the "Al Abud network," were based in the city of Fallouja near insurgents aligned with fugitive militant Abu Musab Zarqawi. The CIA says Zarqawi, who is blamed for numerous attacks on U.S. forces and beheadings of hostages, has long sought to use chemical and biological weapons against targets in Europe as well as Iraq.
An exhaustive report released last week by Charles A. Duelfer, the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s and never tried to rebuild them. But a little-noticed section of the 960-page report says the risk of a "devastating" attack with unconventional weapons has grown since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year. The Bush administration, which went to war primarily to disarm the Baghdad regime of suspected illicit stockpiles, has not previously disclosed that the insurgent groups that have emerged and steadily expanded since Hussein's ouster are trying to develop their own crude supplies of such deadly agents as mustard gas, ricin and the nerve gas tabun. Neither of the two chemists who worked for Al Abud had ties to Hussein's long-defunct weapons programs, and Duelfer's investigators found no evidence that the group's poison project was part of a "prescribed plan by the former regime to fuel an insurgency."
For now, the leaders and financiers of the network "remain at large, and alleged chemical munitions remain unaccounted," the report says. It adds that other insurgent groups are "planning or attempting to produce or acquire" chemical and biological agents throughout Iraq, and says the availability of chemicals and munitions, as well as sympathetic former Iraqi weapons scientists, "increases the future threat." The discoveries are separate from several attacks this year involving chemical munitions, the report says. In May and June, insurgents used old chemical-filled artillery shells, left over from Iraq's pre-1991 stocks, in three roadside bombs. Partly because of the age of the weapons, no chemical injuries were reported. In all, U.S. forces have recovered 53 decaying chemical-filled shells or artillery rockets that apparently were looted from unguarded ammunition bunkers or other sites.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
3:20:08 AM ||
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incorrect amounts of the precursors and inadequate processes
Sounds like somebody is trying cookbook recipies. Fortunately the sort of person that would be able to sucessfully produce a militarily useful quantity and deploy it effectively can usualy find more productive employment elsewhere. Given the problems these guys have with plain old explosives (Is it the red or the blue wire, Ahmed?) the thought of adding (insert favorite persitant agent here) is for me distressing only because of the numbers of potential (relatively!) innocent bystanders involved.
Still, its good that our side got ahead of the curve here. NBC suits are uncomfortable to operate in.
Posted by: N Guard ||
10/10/2004 8:01
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Another factor is that chemical and bio-weapons are the other two legs of the WMD 'triad'. The US has the option to respond in kind whenever WMD are used against itself or its allies.
I'm under the impression that the US has eschewed chemical and bio-weapons. If so, that leaves one other kind of weapon, and the US has quite a few of them.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 8:42
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#3
The US has no bio weapons. The US has been destroying chem weapons stocks under the Chemical Weapons Convention and all stocks are supposed to destroyed by 2007. The US may be behind schedule (extensions are in the treaty) since we may be pacing destruction of our stocks with the FSU's stock destruction. The FSU is behind schedule.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004 12:40
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Fights over a political party's future are common after the party loses a big election. But John Kerry figures to face a fight over control of the party from fellow Democrats even if he beats George W. Bush on Nov. 2. *snip*
Whether they succeed in electing Kerry or not, key leaders see the newfound unity among these groups as a first step toward building the kind of political movement any president, whatever his party, must heed. *snip*
With Bush vanquished, the Democrats' internal battles will begin.
"We're going to celebrate with John Kerry the night of Nov. 2. But the morning of Nov. 3, we're going to start organizing to take the party away from him, Not very far away, as far as I can tell. You'll just be more open about your plans to damage America by turning it into a Tranzi paradise. For the Islamonazis to destroy.
because we have serious disagreements about what the party should stand for and where this country needs to go," Not as serious as the disagreements the majority of Americans - the normal people - have with YOU, Big Bertha.
said one activist at the "What We Stand For" conference, Bertha Lewis, co-chair of the Working Families Party in New York state and a leader in the grassroots election fraud antipoverty group, ACORN.
"In 2004, we have to elect anyone but Bush," OK, I can go with that. Let's elect Cheney!
said a veteran labor strategist working to link unions with other progressive groups. "But if we keep working and build on the lessons learned and the partnerships we're forging during this fight against Bush, we can elect somebody we really like four or eight years from now." Who? Nader? Jesse Jackson? Al Sharpton? That must make sKerry feel warm all over.
All this signals a historic shift in the American left's approach to national politics. In the past, left-wing groups and individuals would moan about a Democratic nominee's perceived deficiencies and defect to a protest candidate, such as Ralph Nader or Jesse Jackson.
By contrast, the Beat Bush Brigades are showing a new patience and maturity. Which makes them very dangerous to our country's future.
They are working in the short term to elect a Democrat they see as imperfect in order to build their movement's strength over the long term. *snip*
If Bush wins on Nov. 2, the battle for control of the Democratic Party will probably come quickly. Dibbs on the popcorn concession! :-D
Leftists will argue that Kerry and the centrists forfeit any right to leadership if they cannot defeat the most vulnerable incumbent since Jimmy Carter. Nope, no bias there.
If Bush is defeated, Bite your tongue!
the battle will unfold more gradually. The left will probably cooperate with Kerry on some issues and fight him on others, while it focuses on building the media, research and grassroots institutions that can swing the party in its direction. Building? Hell, they've already got the "media institutions that can swing the party in its direction." Like ABCNBCCBSCNNLATNYTWaPo, et al.
Read it all at the link. Normal Democrats, watch out. You'll soon have no party left. This is your last chance to take the party of Truman and Kennedy back; it may already be too late.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004
2:12:36 PM ||
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Well, hell - I see Dave D beat me to it. Sorry, Dave, didn't see yours.
Editors, please delete mine.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 14:14
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This is interesting. Doctrinally, JK is *the* most left of the lefties. So what are the radicals *really* proposing? In other words, are they willing to abandon socialism for what amounts to anarchy? That is, whoever can stimulate the herd to stampede in whatever direction is the new leader, until they run into an obstacle. At this point, the cease to be a political party, except clenching the bones of the old organization. Something has to give: they have lost the Presidency, the Congress, the Governorships, and even the State houses. Except for pockets of the bureaucracy from which they are being excised like little planar warts, they have nothing left.
#3
So stupid, really: a hawkish centrist or even a hawkish liberal would win this election easily. Kerry could have trounced Bush merely by running to Bush's RIGHT on Iraq, Iran, the jihadists, because at bottom this is a war to defend liberal wesetern civilization against a fascist enemy. Hitchens, Paul Berman and a handful of others get it, but the vast majority of the Deanie/Mikey/Jimmah idiotarians do not.
A leftist Dem party would be a permanent minority party commanding maybe 25% of the national vote and dominant only along four narrow axes: Cambridge-NYC-DC, LA/SF, Chicago-Detroit and Portland-Seattle. A party symbolized by Mikey Moore, Nancy Pelosi, Jimmah and Howard Dean would not be capable of winning single state house or senate seat between the Hudson River and the Sierra Nevadas.
In other words, the Dems would be most competitive in the states that are LOSING POPULATION, and increasingly less competitive in the states that are gaining population, electoral votes and congressional seats. These states are the bellwethers for America's political future: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Texas.
Absolutely insane to argue that a party dominated by government employee unions, a demented Wall Street billionaire and a crackpot conspiracy-monger can win over a majority of voters in the high-growth, suburbanized, increasingly yuppie and anti-government core states.
#4
It would be nice if some grown-ups took over the Democratic party. I rather like the idea of having a functional two (or more) party system.
Of course, I must admit I would enjoy the hideous spectacle of the Dems running Al Sharpton for President. Not sure who they could chose as V.P for 'balance', though. Pelosi? Boxer?
#6
'Opie' Edwards was being interviewed on the Fox News Sunday show.
He was not laughing non-stop and treating everything as a joke, in fact seemed really fed up with being put on the carpet by Fox's Chris Wallace, who did not back down on the issue of the 'entire' the new WMD report, which Opie tried to duck.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004 18:00
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The far left Monied MoonBats can try. They have the $$$ and more than a few Dems are seasoned Political Whores. Who'll hike up their skirts and lie back. While others in fly-over states defect to the Republican party.
Jack.
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
10/10/2004 19:01
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I thought the Democratic Party was taken over by the leftwing wingnuts long ago. What would a further left party look like. I mean to the left of Kerry, Kennedy, and Clinton. That is pretty weird to think about. Members will be channeling Jim Jones or Charlie Manson???
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:29
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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the fanatical leader of the terror gang that kidnapped Kenneth Bigley, is believed to have handed down a summary execution order and then watched as the Briton was beheaded. Zarqawi is believed to have been enraged after Mr Bigley made a bid to escape after three weeks in captivity. The order to kill him apparently came just hours after he was recaptured and returned to the hostage-takers.
Last night Ibrahim Janabi, chief of staff to the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said a military operation aimed at flushing out Zarqawi and his gang from Latifiya, where Mr Bigley was held, was imminent. The SAS is believed to be operating alongside crack US Delta Force troops. "The security forces are moving into position. There is a scheduled attack on Latifiya imminent. We want to eradicate Zarqawi," he said.
A man who identified himself as Abu Amir and said he was a spokesman for the terror group, told an Iraqi reporter working for The Sunday Telegraph that Zarqawi watched as gang members decapitated the 62-year-old civil engineer. "Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi decided yesterday that it was necessary," he said. "As soon as he gave the order we carried it out immediately. He stayed in the room to watch in person as we killed Kenneth. He praised us."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:56:10 AM ||
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He had a go, so those fuckers beheaded him whilst Zarqawi watched.
I just want to here the story come up that there's been a firefight, and that all those animals were killed, along with 20-30 tooled up 'bystanders' that got in the way. For no casualties on our side. And that we know have Zarqawi's balls in a vice and are interrogating him.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 3:50
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Aplogies, my grammar was screwed up in the last post (here = hear, know = now).
I like the idea of a jar...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 8:45
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As soon as he gave the order we carried it out immediately. He stayed in the room to watch in person as we killed Kenneth. He praised us."
Ha! Me thinks they doth protest too much. Zarqawi was there...he gave the order..he praised us... honest! If it's so important that we know that Zarqawi was present - why didn't he show his mug in the video tape?
Sounds to me like Zarqawi wasn't there, but they want very badly for us to think that he was.
Texas Tech handed Nebraska its worst loss in the Cornhuskers' storied 114-year history, with Sonny Cumbie throwing for 436 yards and five touchdowns in the Red Raiders' 70-10 victory Saturday night. Tech (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) recorded its first victory in eight tries against Nebraska (3-2, 1-1 Big 12), which set school records for points allowed and margin of defeat. Before Saturday, the most points scored against Nebraska came in a 62-36 loss to Colorado in 2001. Nebraska's largest previous margin of defeat was 54, set in a 54-0 loss to Minnesota in 1943 and matched in a 54-0 loss to Indiana in 1944 and a 61-7 loss to Minnesota in 1945.
Cumbie, who came into the game leading the nation in passing yards at 417 yards a game, threw TD passes of 22, 80, 6, 3 and 2 yards. It was his sixth straight game of more than 350 yards passing and his fourth of more than 400 yards this season. For Nebraska, it was a numbing low for a longtime power that hasn't contended for a national title in recent years. The Huskers won two national championships in the 1970s under Bob Devaney and three more in the 1990s under Tom Osborne. They had nine wins or more for 33 straight seasons and spent 54 straight weeks in the AP Top 10 before going 7-7 in 2002 under Frank Solich. Solich replaced the retired Osborne in 1998, but was fired after last season despite going 10-3 and finishing 58-19 in six seasons. Bill Callahan was brought in after a long search, and the former Oakland Raiders coach replaced Nebraska's traditional run-first mentality with an offense that emphasized the short pass. But Saturday, the passing game backfired on Nebraska, which threw five interceptions and set up easy Tech scores.
Tech has scored 70 points in each of its two home games this year. The Red Raiders beat TCU 70-35 in September after trailing by 21. Cumbie completed 44 of 56 passes, including 14 straight in the third quarter, and had one interception. His longest TD pass came late in the first half when he found Jarrett Hicks on the left sideline for an 80-yarder that made it 21-3. It was the longest TD pass by Tech since coach Mike Leach brought his aerial offense five years ago. The longest previous pass came in Tech's 49-45 win over Mississippi last season when B.J. Symons threw a 70-yard TD pass to Carlos Francis.
Tech running back Taurean Henderson scored the first rushing touchdown against Nebraska in the past 26 quarters when he capped an 86-yard drive on a 3-yard run to give the Red Raiders a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. Henderson scored three touchdowns, one passing and two rushing. Johnnie Mack also scored three: one in the air and two on the ground. This is especially sweet because Nebraska was responsible for Tech's worst loss ever, a 56-3 rout a few years ago. I had to leave at the half, when the score was 21-10. I got back early in the fourth, and could scarcely believe my eyes at the new score, 56-10. Tech scored 21 in the third and 28 in the fourth. Earlier this year, they spotted the bumbling TCU Horned Frogs a 21 point lead and came back to score 56 unanswered points in a game that ended up 70 to 35.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
10/10/2004
1:45:40 AM ||
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#1
Pardon my ignorance, but these sound like basketball scores to me. Still, I'm happy for you, AC.
#2
As a Nebraska alumni - I am not amused!
This is a team where selling just the Ok. game tickets, once upon a time, would cover a big hunk of ones tuition
#3
The Huskers should have kept Pelini. I have no problem with them wanting to broaden their offensive horizons, and the "west coast" system is as good as any, but I'm still shocked by the fact that they brought in Callahan.
In other NCAA football news, my Sooners handled the Texas Longhorns yesterday 12-0. 12 points isn't all that impressive but pitching a shutout against Texas IS!
Oh and in case any of you were wondering who the Heisman favorite would be at this point in the season just remember the name Adrian Peterson. :)
Boomer Sooner!
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
10/10/2004 7:49
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I am shocked by this score! I lived in NE for 14 years and became a huge fan. Last few years though I've changed my major allegiance. As an OU allumi I'm proud of the sooners!! OU-Texas game yesterday was awesome! Don't know if I'll ever follow the Huskers much again.
Posted by: AF Lady ||
10/10/2004 9:24
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#5
This was uncalled for! Nebraska has never run up the score on anyone! This is different!
LOL! The 85 scholarship limit does grind slow, but exceedinglty fine don't it?
Pointing to Lebanon as a stable exception in a troubled neighborhood, President Bashar Assad has suggested an end to Syrian intervention in Lebanon would lead to chaos there. Assad, addressing a conference of expatriate Syrians in Damascus on Saturday, rejected accusations his country seeks to dominate its smaller neighbor. He described a U.N. resolution calling for Syrian troops to pull out of Lebanon "blatant interference" in Lebanon's internal affairs. "We have no interest in such domination," Assad said.
On Sept. 2, the U.N. Security Council narrowly adopted a U.S.-French resolution calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the election of a new Lebanese president according to the constitution. The following day, apparently under Syrian pressure, Lebanon's parliament voted to extend President Emile Lahoud's term until 2007, beyond the constitutional maximum in defiance of the U.N. resolution. Assad said the resolution had nothing to do with extending Lahoud's mandate and was "ready a long time ago."
The aim of the U.N. resolution, he said, was to damage Lebanon-Syrian relations and put pressure on both countries. Assad said Lebanon and Syria were two of the most stable countries in the region, suggesting a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon would destabilize that country. "Do they want to throw this region, with no exception, in the heart of lava inside the volcano?" he asked. Opposition groups in Lebanon long have called for an end to Syria's dominance and interference in domestic affairs. Although Assad said Lebanon has no natural resources to be coveted, the country remains strategically important for Syria as a playing card in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Assad also denied what he said were media reports that Syria has held secret peace talks with Israel, saying his country wants to negotiate publicly with the Jewish state. It was not clear what reports he was referring to. "For us, the peace process would never be anything but public," he said. He said if the Israelis prefer to hold secret talks, they are "thinking that the negotiations are a crime or a disgraceful act." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rebuffed Assad's offers to resume talks, saying Syria must first expel militant Palestinian groups based in Damascus and rein in Hezbollah guerrillas along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:26:06 PM ||
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Russian forces fighting in the breakaway republic of Chechnya said yesterday they had killed a Canadian mercenary who was fighting alongside anti-Kremlin rebels. Rudwan Khalil, who according to his passport is a 26-year-old resident of Vancouver, was reportedly killed along with three other rebels on Thursday in a gun battle outside Niki-Khita, in the Caucasus mountains in southern Chechnya. A Russian army spokesman said Mr. Khalil, described in local news reports as being of "Afro-American origin," was an explosives expert sent from abroad to aid the cause of Chechen independence.
While foreign citizens have frequently been killed fighting alongside Chechen rebels in the past, this is the first time a Canadian is reported to have taken part in the conflict. Russian state television last night showed camouflage-clad Russian soldiers standing over the bodies of the four men, exhibiting a Canadian passport and a B.C. driver's licence issued in June, 2002. A man listed as M. Abubaker of Vancouver, who identified himself as Mr. Khalil's brother, told The Canadian Press yesterday that he was unaware that his brother had been reported killed. "The last thing I knew was that he went for a wedding. A buddy of his was getting married," Mr. Abubaker said. "He went to visit my dad and from my dad he went away a little bit looking for a job. Then he went for a wedding and is supposedly coming back. He's just a Vancouver kid. He grew up here."
Then how do you explain the corpse?
Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, said from Ottawa that a passport with the same name and number as the one shown was issued in Vancouver. But he said Ottawa has not confirmed the Russian account of Mr. Khalil's activities. RCMP in Vancouver were trying yesterday to track down Mr. Khalil's sister, who was listed on the passport as next-of-kin. They said a family member asked them to withhold information on the case.
Major-General Ilya Shabalkin told Russian news agencies that when the fight broke out, the three Chechens accompanying Mr. Khalil were escorting him to a meeting with Akhmed Avdorkhanov, a top Chechen commander who reports directly to the republic's deposed president, Aslan Maskhadov. Maj-Gen. Shabalkin described Mr. Khalil as a "highly skilled demolition sapper" sent to replace an Algerian fighter taken prisoner last month by Russian soldiers. News of the apparent involvement of a Canadian mercenary may force the conflict higher onto the agenda when Prime Minister Paul Martin visits Moscow next week. Canada has in the past avoided public pronouncements on the war.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:25:08 AM ||
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#1
The story out of Moscow said the Canadian's name was Rudvan Khalil. His brother's name is M. Abubaker. Isn't Khalil an Egyptian name? What is Abubaker? Why are their names different?
The story said Khalil is of Afro-American origins. Wouldn't he be of Afro-Canadian origins if he lived in Vancouver all his life?
How did he get to be an explosives expert? Where does someone with the name Khalil get such training in Vancouver?
The story said Khalil was going with three Chechens to meet Akhmed Avdorkhanov, a top Chechen commander who engineered the Beslam massacre.
Khalil's brother said he was going to the ubiquitous Muslim wedding (Where many terrorists get killed. Must be the AK-47s and RPGs).
When I was recently in Vancouver, I did not see many Afro-Canadians. Are there not many of them in Vancouver?
The story has a lot of inconsistencies unanswered questions.
Terrorists do have a way of ending up dead--can we speed it up?
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:24
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Terrorists do have a way of ending up dead--can we speed it up?
Amen John Q!
Kill 'em, Kill 'em all...as fast as we can... before they can kill one more innocent.
Just listened to another interview with Craig Winn. This man needs to be heard by as many individuals with limited understanding of Islam as possible. Try reading some of the material on his website of www.prophetofdoom.net to begin understanding this satan-inspired belief system.
#3
A. Bungfodder=JQC. Thanks Constitutional Individualist!
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:59
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#1 Kahlil is his middle name, and yes he is egyptian. He was born in sudan, but lived in egypt his entire life before coming to canada. His last name is infact Abubaker.
#2 He was not an explosive expert. Thats what the russians claim. He was infact a model/actor.
#3 He was taking a connecting flight from Chechnya to to go to a friends wedding.
#4 There are many Afro-Canadians in vancouver, you just don't know where to look.
#5 He wasn't a fucking terrorist, he was 26 year with a bright future ahead of him, and was planning to open a Hip-hop clothing shop in Bahrain. Radwan was a friend of mine, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
if you still are confused email me, candy_man_2001@hotmail.com
"No, no! Certainly not! It's just coincidence they let those guys out of jug a few months ago!"
The Sinai resort bombings were Egypt's first major terrorist attacks since the 1997 Luxor massacre by radical Islamists, but government officials and analysts said Saturday they probably don't signal a resumption of militant activity in Egypt, which has shown zero tolerance for Muslim extremists. Egyptian terrorism experts believe Thursday's car bomb attacks on the Taba Hilton and two beachside camps farther south were isolated events carried out by foreign terrorists, most likely linked to al-Qaida. They said Egyptian Islamists, thousands of whom were jailed, killed or forced underground in the secular government's crackdown on militant groups in the 1980s and 90s, have neither the means nor the inclination to launch a wave of attacks inside the country.
Leaders of the country's largest group, Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, announced a unilateral cease-fire in 1997. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which counted al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri as one of its leaders, has disbanded. Kamal Habib, a former member of Islamic Jihad who was jailed from 1981 to 1991, said it is highly unlikely that any Egyptian Islamic group was responsible for the bombings. He said Islamic militants no longer feel the deep animosity they had in past decades. Militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 after he forged close ties to the United States and made Egypt the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. "The Islamists don't consider the Egyptian regime as an enemy anymore," Habib told The Associated Press.
Three claims of responsibility for the Sinai attacks have surfaced from little-known groups, but there was no evidence any of them was authentic. Mohamed Salah, an expert on Egyptian militants and the Cairo chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, believed the attack was an isolated strike by an organization like al-Qaida, not the start of a pattern by a local group. "It is very difficult for there to be more attacks in Egypt because there is no base for militant groups here anymore," Salah said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:31:44 AM ||
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Members of a new Somali parliament, which is sitting in Nairobi, vote on Sunday to elect a president.
Hell of a lot safer than Mogadishu.
It is the culmination of two years of talks in the Kenyan capital, aimed at ending more than a decade of lawlessness in Somalia. Optimism about the future for the country is tempered by the knowledge that there have been numerous recent failed attempts to restore stability. The parliament is made up almost entirely of thugscroniesbrutes clan leaders and warlords. There are perhaps three or four favourites among the list of 28 presidential candidates. At one point there were more than 70 prospective leaders but that number was cut dramatically when candidates had to put up a non-returnable $2,000 bond.
We could have done that in the Dem primaries this year and made a bundle. Except I don't think Kucinich could have paid up.
The 275 MPs, which were nominated in August, say they are hoping to find a democratic future for their country. Somalis are hoping that a new administration under a new president and prime minister will set them on the road to peace and stability, but there have been more than 6,254 a dozen failed attempts to restore order in Somalia since 1991.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004
12:27:40 AM ||
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Israeli soldiers on Saturday shot and killed a Hamas militant whom the military said was responsible for a rocket attack that killed two Israeli preschoolers last week and triggered an army offensive in northern Gaza. Abed Nabhan, 25, was one of five Palestinians killed Saturday in the continuing Israeli operation in northern Gaza. Nabhan, a Hamas field commander, was killed when Israeli troops shot at Hamas militants preparing to fire an anti-tank missile from the Jebaliya refugee camp. After the deadly rocket attack on the Israeli border down of Sderot on Sept. 29, the Israeli army launched the largest incursion into northern Gaza since Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out four years ago. About 2,000 troops and hundreds of army vehicles took control of a five-mile strip of northern Gaza in an effort to force militants out of rocket range of Israeli towns. The army said Nabhan was responsible for the Sderot attack as well as a Sept. 30 attack on an army post in northern Gaza that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded two others. Nabhan and three other Hamas gunmen were preparing to fire an anti- tank missile Saturday at Israeli troops in Jebaliya when the army shot first, setting off an explosion that killed Nabhan and wounded the other gunmen, the army said.
Late Saturday, two Israeli aircraft fired missiles toward Palestinians in separate incidents in Jebaliya. The first strike, near a market, wounded four Palestinians, including two militants who were standing near a land mine, hospital officials and witnesses said. The militants were in critical condition and two bystanders were moderately wounded, hospital officials said. The second strike seriously wounded two other militants, hospital officials said. Israeli military sources said soldiers identified a group of Palestinian gunmen, attacked them from the air and identified a hit on at least three of them. Earlier Saturday night, an explosion rocked a five-story house near Jebaliya, killing two people, hospital officials said. The army said the house was hit by an errant anti-tank missile fired by militants. Residents said the explosion was caused by two tank shells fired by the Israeli military. Tanks began moving near the area late Friday and militants were active in the neighborhood, residents said. Witnesses said the explosion hit the former home of Mahmoud Salem, one of the suicide attackers responsible for the double bombing at the Israeli port of Ashdod in March that killed 10. The Israeli military said it was coordinating with Palestinian rescue workers to put out the fire in the house.
Earlier Saturday, a lengthy gunbattle erupted between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops just outside the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing two Palestinians, according to medical officials. The deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed to 94 since Israel began its offensive in northern Gaza. Nearly half of those killed were civilians; 18 were age 16 and under. The gunfight in Beit Hanoun broke out when Israeli troops tried to move to the east side of the town and Palestinians tried to stop them, residents said. Meanwhile in southern Gaza, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile Saturday morning at a group of Palestinians in the town of Khan Younis, killing two Palestinian security officers who were armed and wearing civilian clothing, hospital and security officials said. The Israeli military said it had targeted two armed gunmen.
Later Saturday, five Israeli tanks, two bulldozers and two jeeps moved into the village of Orabia east of the southern Gaza city of Rafah and used loudspeakers to call on residents to leave their houses so they could be demolished, residents said. The military had no immediate comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:24:31 AM ||
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#1
How come the pali peoples get all the vogueing stuff? The Joooooooos always look like your next door neighbor's son/daughter in the Army.
Lawmakers Saturday approved a $447 billion 2005 defense spending bill as Congress pushed forward with final actions before adjourning for the elections. Attempting to complete work so members can return to their states and districts to campaign, the House and Senate approved a 3.5 percent pay raise for military personnel and expanded health care for reservists. Also included is $25 billion for operational costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, the measure kills a $23 billion leasing contract between Boeing Co. and the Air Force for refueling tankers. However, the Air Force can still buy 100 of Boeing's 767 aircraft for such purposes after the completion of studies.
In separate action, the House approved without dissent a $32 billion homeland security funding bill after days of political breakdown concerning a controversial extension of federal milk subsidies that Northeastern senators wanted included in the final bill. The proposed 2-year, $2.4 billion extension of the subsidy benefiting small dairy farmers was opposed by Western lawmakers whose dairy constituents tend to be larger farmers and left out of the final bill by GOP leaders. The Senate is expected to approve the bill sometime in the next few days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004
12:22:16 AM ||
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A Web site used by a Chechen warlord to claim responsibility for last month's school siege in Russia has come back online based out of Finland, three weeks after Lithuania shut it down following pressure from Moscow. Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera said on Saturday it was hosting the site, www.kavkazcenter.net, and that there were no grounds on which it could be closed down.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it..."
Not until something explodes in Helsinki, anyway...
The Kavkaz Center site was used by Shamil Basayev to claim responsibility for the Beslan siege in southern Russia, where more than 320 people, half of them children, were killed. "Our lawyers and police have checked this during the last 24 hours, and there is no content that would allow us to close the (site)," TeliaSonera spokesman Jyrki Karasvirta said. He said according to Finnish law the site could only be shut if it posted child pornography or racist or bigoted content. "We have an agreement with the client, and we have no legal right to close it," he added. Karasvirta said a company owned the site, but gave no further details.
A note posted on the site said it was experiencing serious funding problems and asked readers for financial help or sponsorship. The Lithuanian state security department blocked Kavkaz Center's site on Sept. 18, under pressure from Moscow, shortly after Basayev posted a statement saying he was behind a wave of attacks in Russia. Among those were the school siege, the near-simultaneous downing of two passenger planes and a bomb attack in Moscow. In his statement posted on the site, Basayev also said his violent campaign for an independent Chechnya would continue.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:22:01 AM ||
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#1
"Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera said on Saturday it was hosting the site, www.kavkazcenter.net, and that there were no grounds on which it could be closed down."
Hmmm...but if every respectable IP provider put your address on their block list on their routers and nothing is able to be transmitted from your IP cause no one is accepting message traffic, the effect will be the same and your other customers would have to find another server to operate from.
Posted by: Don ||
10/10/2004 9:00
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This is how ISPs police their biz - there is, indeed, such a thing as the Internet Death Penalty: when no one will route traffic to you or accept connections from you... as long as they'll police themselves, then no legal beagles need to get involved. But if they don't, if they give the sickos and haters and jihadis and spammers a home, well then, shut the entire company down - and demand action from every country's legilslative and police entities to cooperate - or else. Access can be cut off at any agreed-upon level, even countries.
#4
Oh, ick, TGA, that site is a sick one. Yep, time for a DOS there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 13:44
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Germany has actually won the case against American neo-Nazi Gary Lauck for control the domain name, but of course the content will surely be published under a different name.
Would be easier if Neo-Nazis were classified as terrorists.
#6
ya ever notice the guys that like to dress up as Nazis are usually the pasty-faced pussies that got their asses kicked (and never got chicks) that you remember from school? That dweeb is one of them
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 14:09
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#7
Child pornography's out of bounds, but child torture, child slaughter, and targeting more children for torture and slaughter are OK. Love those progressive scandinavians.
The killings of Mufti Jamil and Nazir Ahmed Taunsvi come amid fears of escalating sectarian violence in Pakistan following two bombings against religious targets this month that killed more than 70 people. Both Jamil and Taunsvi were close associates of another Sunni cleric, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, whose shooting death in Karachi in May sparked riots by followers in the city.
"Alas, poor Shamzai!"
There was no immediate word on who was behind Saturday's assault, but suspicion would likely fall on minority Shiite militants. Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence.
Actually, you can probably pick violence of any type and Pakistan has a history of it...
While most majority Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully together, small extremist groups from both sects have staged attacks. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz condemned the killings but reiterated their resolve "to root out the menace of terrorism from the country," the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported. A prominent Shiite leader, Allama Hasan Tarabi, condemned the killings of the Sunni scholars as "the murder of humanity." He appealed for clerics of all the sects to find out "who is trying to pit Shiites and Sunni Muslims against each other."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:19:45 AM ||
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fears of escalating sectarian violence in Pakistan
They misspelled "certainty."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:48
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This sectarian violence in Pakistan has been going on for quite some time. I know several RBers follow the situation quite closely.
How close is Pakistan from a full-blown Shia versus Sunni civil war? How does the Sunni/Shia divide manifest itself in the various terrorist groups and radical political parties?
#3
He appealed for clerics of all the sects to find out "who is trying to pit Shiites and Sunni Muslims against each other."
Sectarian violence in Pakistan has always been blamed on external forces. If it is not âthe American handâ and âthe Jewish lobbyâ behind the massacres, it is âthe Hindu elementâ, âthe Afghan factorâ, âthe Iranian designâ, âthe Saudi financeâ â even âthe Al Qaeda networkâ. One of the factors sustaining sectarian violence for decades is our failure to look within for the causes and culprits. Blaming outsiders is easy but hardly solves a problem. There is a pressing need for admitting that the âMuslims cannot kill Muslimsâ notion is not helpful in combating sectarian crime. It is high time we realised that we have a âsituationâ. The only time we have had a degree of success in dealing with sectarianism has been when we have dealt with it in an objective manner. There are no two ways about it.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/10/2004 1:09
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Kirk;
I don't think there is much chance of a Sunni/Shia civil war, but if there was, the Shias would be exterminated since they are outnumbered and outgunned.
Essentially all the Pakistani Jihadis belong to either of two Sunni sects - the Deobandis and the Alhe-Hadith (Salafis). There are other sects in Pakistan, but essentially the sectarian conflict is a war between the Deobandis and the Shia.
The grand Deobandi alliance is probably the biggest force in Pakistan after the stateâs armed forces. Based in Karachi, the Binori Complex houses leaders that sit in the shuras of the various Deobandi jehadi militias. Its religious scholars sit in the shura of Sipah-e-Sahaba as well as he shura of the two militias Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Muhammad. Since they also have similar influence over the JUI, the Sipah-e-Sahaba of Maulana Azam Tariq and the JUI, both factions have a kind of secret liaison, so that the manifest anti-Shia orientation of the Sipah doesnât encompass the JUI although the latter has the same unspoken view.
The Shias aren't allowed to run above ground militias like the Sunnis, because the ISI only use Sunni Jihadis in Kashmir and Afghanistan. The Shias do have underground terrorist outfits that often assasinate Deobandi leaders in response to massacres of Shia.
You can read more on Pak sectarianism here if you want.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/10/2004 1:27
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Thanks, Paul. Good info. One more naive question ...
"the ISI only use Sunni Jihadis in Kashmir and Afghanistan"
Is the ISI running rogue operations in Afghanistan, or is Musharraf hedging his bet, in the unlikely event the U.S. and its allies are ejected from Afghanistan?
#6
Just IMHO, I believe that Musharraf is allowing a certain level of calibrated support to the Taliban and Hekmatyar elements, while supporting Afghan political groupings, in order to keep Pakistan's options open. Similar to Iran supporting both Muqtada Al-Sadr in opposition to the occupation of Iraq, and SCIRI working within the system.
I believe part of the reason there haven't been many American casualties in Afghanistan, and why Kabul doesn't have bombs going off every day, is due to the Taliban being preassured by the ISI to keep their activities at a low level.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/10/2004 4:58
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#7
Jihadist Islamic is the default religion for the world's psycho killers.
The Jihadist Islamics have taken Muhammad's "examples" to heart. His murderous "examples" as found in Koran and Hadith. As such they are ticking time bombs and need to die before they kill innocents. This particular psycho killer was offing his fellow Muslims.
Jihadist Islamic is the default religion for the world's psycho killers.
The Jihadist Islamics have taken Muhammad's "examples" to heart. His murderous "examples" as found in Koran and Hadith. As such they are ticking time bombs and need to die before they kill innocents. This particular psycho killer was offing his fellow Muslims.
Jihadist Islamic is the default religion for the world's psycho killers.
The Jihadist Islamics have taken Muhammad's "examples" to heart. His murderous "examples" as found in Koran and Hadith. As such they are ticking time bombs and need to die before they kill innocents. This particular psycho killer was offing his fellow Muslims.
Jihadist Islamic is the default religion for the world's psycho killers.
The Jihadist Islamics have taken Muhammad's "examples" to heart. His murderous "examples" as found in Koran and Hadith. As such they are ticking time bombs and need to die before they kill innocents. This particular psycho killer was offing his fellow Muslims.
Two Chinese engineers helping Pakistan build a dam in a tense tribal region were kidnapped early Saturday along with at least one Pakistani security guard and their driver, officials said. The engineers were on their way to Tank, in the remote South Waziristan region where al-Qaida-linked militants are active, when five gunmen ambushed their two vehicles, police and intelligence sources said. Pakistan's Interior Ministry said law enforcement agencies were chasing the kidnappers and had sealed the area. "Our security forces are trying to rescue them without getting them harmed," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:17:33 AM ||
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Looking for a fundo funding source are they? They won't get much geld from the Chicoms.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 1:07
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UNIONS could be introduced at small and medium-sized companies as part of efforts to improve working conditions, it has been revealed. The idea is to raise standards to make jobs more attractive to Bahrainis. Foreign workers in small companies, which have up to 10 employees, outnumber Bahrainis by seven to one, according to Labour and Social Affairs Ministry employment bureau head Mohammed Deeto. In addition, expats now account for 60 per cent of the workforce across both small and medium enterprises.
Do Bahraini men have the same problem Soodi men have in lifting anything heavier than their wallets?
"The number of foreign workers in small and medium establishments has reached around 86,000, which is around 60pc of the overall number of foreign workers registered with Gosi," he said. "One of our most prominent problems in the local market is the low number of Bahrainis working in these establishments." Mr Deeto said it is necessary to introduce labour unions in small and medium companies to fight for improved working conditions and wage increases. "Once the circumstances of workers in these establishments are improved more Bahrainis will seek jobs there, which will lower the number of foreign workers," he said. Mr Deeto's comments were made in a presentation which addressed the relationship between the labour market and government, employers and workers. The presentation was given at a monthly meeting about the labour market and labour unions, which took place at the ministry, in Isa Town. He urged all parties to work together for the development of the country's labour market. "What we really need is for all parties to stick to their commitments to ensure the success of dialogues and their continuity in order to reach suitable solutions to develop the labour market," he said.
Keeping one's word in an Arab society? What a novel idea.
Meanwhile, Labour and Social Affairs Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi said the country is moving ahead with labour reforms. "The ministry will make available all the appropriate opportunities for upgrading unions in Bahrain and help them play their part in this operation," he said. Present at the meeting were ministry officials including Under-Secretary Shaikh Abdulrahman bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Assistant Under-Secretary for Training Abdulellah Al Qassimi, managers, department heads and some invited guests.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004
12:16:48 AM ||
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Islamic militants seeking to install a Taliban-style regime in northeastern Nigeria attacked a police convoy, killing three officers and abducting a dozen, police said Saturday. Borno State police chief Adewale Ajakaiye said the militants attacked a convoy on Friday carrying 60 policemen as the motorcade struggled in deep mud at Kala-Balge, a village some 125 miles northeast of the regional capital, Maiduguri. The radical sect known as Al-Sunna wal Jamma, or "Followers of Mohammed's Teachings" in Arabic, comprises mainly university students who want to create a Taliban-style state in Africa's most populous nation — home to 126 million people.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:16:05 AM ||
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A suicide car bomber rammed into an army convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday, triggering an explosion that left four people dead and 22 wounded, the army said. Two soldiers, a civilian and the bomber were killed in the attack on a highway connecting Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, with the frontier town of Uri, an army garrison, said Lt. Col. V. K. Batra. Twelve soldiers and 10 civilians were injured in the blast. Shortly after the attack, a local news agency in Srinagar said it received a telephone call from the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group claiming responsibility for the attack. The Current News Service said the caller identified himself as Abu Jindal and claimed to be a spokesman for the Pakistan-based militant group.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:14:54 AM ||
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#4
Oh, come on folks. This is classic Chirac looking for allies to take on American culture, economic dominance, technical superiority and military strength. He ain't interested in anything else than building up a counter weight to our influence in the world. Interestingly, we still have profound influence even though we are so despised, exactly for the reasons stated above. The Axis of Overt Evil is now in danger of being replaced by the Axis of Evil Intent - France, China and Germany. Russia will never join an alliance that has China in it - so this may be the weakest part of Chirac's plan and it could do danger to any European hegemony on the issues of defense and security.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/10/2004 9:59
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#5
But only if the Chinese learn French, n'est ce pas?
ABOARD THE USS JOHN F KENNEDY: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met 18 of his counterparts on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf yesterday to reassure them on US strategy for Iraq after saying more troops may be sent in for the January elections. The meeting on board Kennedy drew ministers from new Nato member countries from eastern and central Europe and former Soviet republics that have contributed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their counterparts from Iraq, Bahrain and Qatar. Rumsfeld flew to the Kennedy from Bahrain shortly after arriving from Washington. He said Washington was trying to find countries to provide troops.
The ministers also heard General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, in a video teleconference from Baghdad laying out his plan for retaking control of Iraq's violence-torn provinces that includes Baghdad and Al Anbar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004
12:11:22 AM ||
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Hi Steve, Mark Espinola here.
For over a week when I click 'comment' each time goofy sounding names display, such as 'Threang Ulereting1662', Glising Glaviter4997, Wholutch Omusing8119, or Glosing Chang5397, to name just four. Is this normal?
Glising Glaviter4997
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004 8:44
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I think it's part of Fred's anonymous poster code. If you enter something in 'Your Name' a cookie should be set on your machine. Check that it's still there, or reenter your details when you post again.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 8:47
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Tony is correct -- Fred changed the randomization scheme for anonymous posters. Partly because it was getting tough to tell the difference between "anonymous6083" and "anonymous6084" (think of the Welsh soldiers in Zulu), but also because it allows us to have some fun.
And what's wrong with "Glising Glaviter"?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 13:59
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What? Those ain't real people? I just thought they was European or sumptin'.
#6
Mark---actually Fred developed an algorithm for generating poster names using the language of the Orcs.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:32
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I had the same thing happen. Just assumed I was assigned a different name at random. Thought it had something to do with "scrubbing" my computer. A. Bungfodder is John Q. Citizen.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:54
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A gunbattle broke out between U.N. peacekeepers and supporters of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Saturday, wounding a peacekeeper for the first time in the force's 4-month-old mission. The clashes, which Haitian police said also left one officer wounded, came as protesters in the northwestern city of Gonaives crowded outside a Mass for flood victims accusing Haiti's interim president and prime minister — who were attending — of not doing enough to help hungry survivors three weeks after Tropical Storm Jeanne. Heavy gunfire erupted in the capital of Port-au-Prince after about 150 Brazilian troops using armored vehicles and 150 Haitian police in trucks rolled into the volatile slum of Bel Air, where armed young men have been demanding the return of Aristide from exile, Brazilian Lt. Col. Ezequiel Izaias said. Peacekeepers "came under heavy fire and they returned fire," said U.N. spokesman Toussaint Kongo-Doudou. The Brazilian soldier was wounded in the foot — the first casualty among some 3,000 peacekeepers, Kongo-Doudou said. He also said it appeared some of the gunmen were wounded, but it was unclear how many.
Kongo-Doudou said troops and police arrested more than 60 people suspected of attacking them. Police were seen detaining some men, holding them to the ground at gunpoint and tying their hands with rope. The clashes came a day after the beheaded bodies of a father and son were found in another Port-au-Prince slum of La Saline.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:11:06 AM ||
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That tears it. The UN will retreat now, while demanding that the US provide better security.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:15
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Must be a mistake,since when do UN Peacekeepers fught back?
Federal troops destroyed a large base of militants in Chechnya. The base was found four kilometers north of Dzhalgari in the Kurchaloi district with the help of local population, a source in the regional operational headquarters of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus told Itar-Tass on Saturday. The base consisted of beds for 30 people, several observation posts and trenches. Bedding, uniform and 150 kilograms of foodstuffs were found at the base.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:21:05 AM ||
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Good! Too bad the 30 people weren't there to be destroyed, too.
with the help of local population
Maybe the locals are seeing the handwriting on the wall....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 10:22
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I'll believe it when they've all been turned in...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:10:18 AM ||
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Fred,
Is something weird happening to Rantburg's format
or is it just my browser going berzerk ???
If this goes on my wrist is going to snap and fall off.
HELP !!!
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
10/10/2004 5:19
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Elder, this also happened recently. It's apparently a deliberate attack on the site by insecure little people (and I use the term in the loosest posible sense) who object to the opinions expressed here and post hate mail and attempt sabotage because they have neither the guts nor the sense of fair play nor the intellect to engage in genuine debate.
#8
That one is Boris. He put his comments in a table and set the width to 4000. He's been doing that for a few weeks now. He doesn't have anything to say, so he settles for trying to deface the site.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 11:03
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They can hand over their arms, or get handed their heads.
Their choice.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 19:08
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The word is - the al Sadr loyalists saw Samarra as a huge defeat and are ready to quit. The problem with the negotiations will be what to do with the foreign fighter "cancer" that has infected some of the cities. They are hell bent on dying for their own cause not for the Iraqis. The war will swing Allawi's way in the next two weeks as the Iraqis begin to clean their own house.
As I understand it, they're willing to give up their heavy & medium weapons. Sound like something's missing? Light weapons? So how much heavy weaponry do these throwbacks have - A few Medium MG's, medium mortars and of course RPGs are the only things I know of. Basically all they have is light , eg., personal, weapons. So in other words they give up squat. Whatever they do give up will be made good by their co-religionists in Tehran anyway.
Saddam Hussein saw his life as an unfolding epic narrative, with retreats and advances, but always the same ending. He would go down in history as the glorious Arab leader, as the Saladin of his day. One thousand years from now, schoolchildren would look back and marvel at the life of The Struggler, the great leader whose life was one of incessant strife, but who restored the greatness of the Arab nation. They would look back and see the man who lived by his saying: "We will never lower our heads as long as we live, even if we have to destroy everybody." Charles Duelfer opened his report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction with those words. For a humiliated people, Saddam would restore pride by any means.
(Is it possible to provide access to some reliable posters so these insects can be sprayed almost on the spot? I know I asked already, but I ask again. I would be willing to pitch in.)
FYI: People can get you IP off your posts. That in turn can be traced back to a particular login at a given time, based on RADIUS logs. And that in turn will yield a phone number or DSL connection. And that in turn will give a name and street address.
You keep this asenine juvenile bhavior up, you're going to get a visit one of these days.
Investigators lifted fingerprints, swabbed dust and collected tissue from the wreckage of three car bombings Saturday and detained dozens of Bedouin tribesmen, including quarry workers who could have provided the explosives that killed at least 33 people. Israel blamed al-Qaida for the Thursday night attacks in two Sinai resorts, and Egyptian investigators were leaning toward an al-Qaida connection as well. Egyptian investigators said they suspected eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israeli tourists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats. They also said there was a chance a local sleeper cell of Egyptians might have been activated to stage the attacks, Egypt's first terrorist strike in seven years. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the investigators said such a group would almost certainly be linked to Ayman al-Zawahri, who led the extremist Egyptian Islamic Jihad before merging the group with al-Qaida in 1998. The Egypt-born Zawahri is Osama bin Laden's top deputy.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:08:38 AM ||
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France's President Jacques Chirac declared the Chinese Army's massacre of Tiananmen democracy demonstrators an event in the past as he began a visit here designed to reap lucrative contracts for France's financially pressed state industrial enterprises.
The massacre in 1989 was "another time" he said during an interview with the Chinese Government news agency Xinhua, explaining his call for a lifting of the European Union's arms export embargo on China, imposed after Tiananmen.
The remark brought immediate protests. The New York-based group Human Rights in China, founded by exiles from the suppressed 1980s democracy movement, said that "15 short years" was not long enough to erase a major crime against humanity.
"President Chirac's remarks also profoundly dishonour the many Chinese people who continue to call for accountability for Tiananmen Square," it said in a statement, mentioning the retired army doctor Jiang Yanyong, the thousands of Chinese intellectuals who had signed petitions, and the "Tiananmen mothers" of victims still calling for a reassessment of the official line that the protests were a "counter-revolutionary riot".
Mr Chirac was unabashed as he stood next to the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, for a 21-gun salute from the People's Liberation Army in Tiananmen Square on Saturday before entering talks aimed at cementing what both leaders call a "strategic partnership".
The arms embargo had "no use at all" he told reporters later.
"It was an expedient measure adopted at that time. It was mainly derived from animosity towards China. The European Union has a ban on North Korea. That indicates that this ban is not logical."
The lifting of the embargo has been strenuously opposed by the United States, which fears it could lead to European weapons systems being used against its forces in any conflict over Taiwan, which the US is obliged by one of its own laws to defend.
Mr Chirac said France "completely understands" China's position on Taiwan and was worried tensions between the mainland and the island were worsening.
"Any challenge to the balance in the Taiwan Strait region will be very dangerous and detrimental for everyone," he said.
At an earlier stop in the Western Chinese industrial centre of Chengdu, Mr Chirac declared China a vital front for France in the "global economic battle", with big contracts being sought for the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the car maker Renault, the fast train maker Alstom and the nuclear power plant firms Electricite de France, Framatome, and Areva.
But France faces stiff competition from US, Japanese and other European nations. Its trade with China, valued at $US13.4 billion ($18 billion) last year, is behind that of Germany and Britain, and some of the new contracts may be won on political rather than technical grounds.
Chinese officials have indicated they might chose Alstom's high-speed train over Japan's bullet train for a new high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai because of lingering war animosity.
Mr Hu indicated that a Chinese goal in the "strategic partnership" with France was to resist US "unilateralism" and restore the United Nations Security Council as the forum for dealing with world crises.
Ohfergawdsake. What the hell did you think was gonna happen? A nice, big group hug?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
12:07:09 AM ||
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What did you expect, Fred? The MSM can't possibly approve of anything that might help Bush.
Or be good for the Oppressed Brown People.â¢
But on Saturday, Afghans who braved the threat of violence to cast ballots were just happy to vote.
"I am old, but this vote is not just for me. It is for my grandchildren," said Nuzko, 58, a widow who stood in line at a Kabul voting station. "I want Afghanistan to be secure and peaceful."
That's the bottom line. That's the real story. I'm just surprised the MSM reported it at all.
It must be killing the Lefties.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:13
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Don't forget to place blame where it belongs: the UN idiots are the ones that screwed up the ink in those precincts.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:46
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Mickey Kaus calls it the Feiler Faster Principle. So, last week before the debate, there were a lot of negative news affecting Bush - Bremer remarks, Rummy on Al-Queda/Iraq, Duefler report, etc. But consider a week closer to the election you get - Afghan elections (who'd have tought eet?), Howard wins big-time, NYT cover story on Kerry's wealth and blue blood upbringing that he is trying to disguise, etc. Look for Bush to move up in the polls this week.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/10/2004 9:52
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it's AP - WTOP doesn't do foreign reporting on their own
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 13:35
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A friend of mine who doesn't "do" the Internet told me something the other day that I'm still laughing about. He said he'd learned over the years what the initials "AP" stood for: "A$$hole Product". I can't find a thing anywhere online that would truly contradict him.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/10/2004 20:44
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With the exception of me, and you guys put the AP handle on me.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:21
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China has not so much joined the world economy as crashed into it. The daily headlines about U.S. companies ''outsourcing'' to China tell only part of the story. The other part is that China is beset with problems. While many pundits fret that the Chinese economy threatens the United States, China's continued move to a market economy, which will require solving those problems, should benefit the United States.
On the one hand, China's much-heralded economic growth during the last quarter century is unprecedented in world history. Annual incomes of the Chinese have more than quadrupled, from about $1,000 per capita to more than $4,000. At the same time, China is plagued by massive internal migration, officially disclaimed unemployment and an economically crippled and crippling collection of state-owned enterprises. An estimated 10 million people each year leave China's farms for its cities. This migration poses huge social and economic problems. And, with well over half of China's population still living in rural areas, there is no end in sight.
While Chinese officials claim low unemployment rates, the country's population of 1.3 billion belies the significance of this claim. At the end of 2000, the official estimate of the unemployment rate stood at slightly more than 3 percent. While this may seem low by Western standards, it translates into more than 20 million unemployed. Most observers believe the official statistics understate the extent of unemployment. According to the Chinese newspaper People's Daily, in the last six years China's state-owned enterprises, which still account for about 60 percent of output, laid off more than 28 million workers. To put these numbers in perspective, overall employment in goods-producing industries in the United States has declined by about 3 million workers since its peak of 25 million in 1973.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004
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Awwwwwwww
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:08
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"Aspects of this situation actually play to the advantage of U.S. companies. For China's transition to a market economy to be politically acceptable, the rate at which state-owned enterprises are restructured must keep pace with the rate at which new private-sector jobs are created. Foreign direct investment has been the major source of jobs for former employees of state-owned enterprises and displaced migrants from the countryside."
Which is why an invasion of Taiwan with an immediate resultant embargo of all trade with the US is sucide for the Chinese economy, instant vast unemployment without sustainable safety nets, and social disruption. Things a central control/management system can not quickly solve. Throw in the extent of corruption still operating in the system and you invite the historical Chinese cycle of revolt and fragmentation.
Posted by: Don ||
10/10/2004 8:21
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The company I work for sells control systems for the power, water and waste water industries. We are about to reach a milestone. Within the year, half of all our installed systems will be in China. If the Chinese market were to dry up, my company would be in for tough times. Thus, do not underestimate the power of the Chinese in negotiations with the US. If China were to threaten to close the market to us and give it to our European competitors because of our support for Taiwan, my company's president would be on the phone, in a heart beat, to any politician he can reach saying cut Taiwan off at the knees. He could care less about communism. My prez only cares about sales. Quote he on our Asian strategy, "China, there is nothing else." Even Bush had to pull Taiwan's chain a while back, telling them to knock off the independence chatter. It is my belief that China is ultimately going to have its way with Taiwan with a wink and a nod from us. The customer is always right. Look for more conciliatory speeches from Taiwan.
#4
Zpaz: I don't see any way the Chinese could close the market to us that wouldn't risk a similar backlash here.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/10/2004 13:58
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one big caveat is China's propensity for reverse-engineering technology and producing it themselves with no respect for patents or copyrights. Nobody can trust them with technology imports for longer than it takes to R-E the stuff. Just ask Pfizer
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 14:13
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Frank, oddly enough, they have not reverse engineered our stuff...yet. We actually have been expecting it, but nothing yet. One explanation is that our stuff is not a commodity yet. There is simply much more than a hunk of software in getting and keeping a power plant online. Also, I suspect the Chinese like having a $50 billion a year company as their supplier. It gives them a voice in Congress. That is the only way I can explain the non-emergence of a Chinese competitor. It will happen in time though. There is simply too much cheap talent in China.
Phil, in our case they do not have to close the market. They simply stop buying from us and start buying Siemens. Nothing overt. Just across the board drying up of contracts in many industries. I doubt there will be any backlash. Wal-mart needs their cheap supplies. We simply do not own our customers. It is the American way. That gives them power.
Trying to sort out who is dependent on who is a difficult and pointless task. We are simply interdependent.
Keep this in mind. There are 1.2 billion customers in China. There are 22 million customers in Taiwan. Which commands more respect from the American business community? Outright confrontation with China is a lose-lose for us and them.
#8
Economically, we and the Chinese are joined at the hip. This will be a difficult relationship to manage, but China is not more dangerous to us or our interests than the Soviets were, or the jihadists and their state sponsors are.
#9
Despite all said about getting along, a thug is a thug. The Chinese government needs to back the hell off Taiwan and get the hell out of Tibet to boot. I'll take their money, I won't take their shit.
#10
and there needs to be a cost to their adventurism...next time they take down a plane, sell a shitload of defensive weapons to teh Taiwanese. Status quo is they stay put
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 17:02
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With 1.3 billion Chineese, if they only buy 10 ounces of kilowatt hours/yr then we will get rich! rich! rich I tells ya!
Excellent review of North Korea's economics, and the role American and South Korean aid has played in keeping the NKors afloat, from Nicholas Eberstadt at the AEI. Way too long to post here but it's superb.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004
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Posted by: Robin Burk ||
10/10/2004 7:30
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Steve White---This is a DYNAMITE paper! I am about halfway through it. The question that is asked in the paper is why hasn't the NORK regime collapsed like the Soviet Union?
The answer seems to be that other countries are propping it up with various forms of aid. One of those countries is of course China. SKor is also in there. But the big surprise is the magnitude of aid given by the USA during the period from 1998 to 2002. It is absolutely unbelievable! I can understand Clinton doing it, but I cannot fathom why the Bush Administration was doing it for 2 years. The Norks have also turned to nefarious enterprises (missiles, narcotics, weapons) to help their balance of trade. The point so far is that our aid was the biggest contribution of any foreign power, and that this aid may have been the thing that prevented the evil regime of Kimmy from collapsing.
If this situation as mentioned in the article is true, then Congress needs to know what this country is doing and some serious ass in the Administration and State needs to be kicked and weeded out of the government. We cannot win the WoT with this kind of enabling mentality.
In the words of the immortal Pogo:
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 15:49
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Thank you Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Madeleine Albright. Without your sagacious policies, North Korea might have collapsed in the 90s.
THE ISRAELI government has ordered Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, to make the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists its main priority after last week's Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists. As rescuers pulled more bodies from the wreckage of the hotel, Dan Arditi, Israel's counterterrorism chief, urged tourists still in Egypt to come home, warning that the attacks on Thursday "don't lessen, even in the slightest, the risk that this will happen again".
The order to Mossad to turn its attention from Palestinian groups to Al-Qaeda was given by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, after Israeli intelligence sources said the size of the blasts suggested they were the work of Osama Bin Laden's network rather than Palestinian suicide bombers. Confirmation may be provided by fingerprints taken from bomb fragments and DNA obtained from the remains of the suspected bombers. Arditi had urged Israelis on September 9 to avoid the area because of indications of an imminent terrorist attack. His warning appeared on the front pages of the country's main newspapers on the eve of the Jewish new year. "This time Al-Qaeda hit our back yard," said a security source. "If we don't focus on them, next time it will be Tel Aviv. After four years of intifada we've succeeded in containing the Palestinian terror, but now we're facing a much more ruthless enemy we can't ignore any more."
It is not the first time Al-Qaeda has gone after an Israeli target, or that Sharon's government has vowed to take it on. The group claimed responsibility for the car bombing in November 2002 of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombasa that killed 14 people, including three Israelis. After that attack Sharon summoned Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, and ordered agents living undercover in Saudi Arabia and Yemen to hunt down those responsible. Almost two years later the perpetrators remain at large — a reflection, according to the security source, of the agency's concentration on combating Palestinian operations.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
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THE ISRAELI government has ordered Mossad , the foreign intelligence service, to make the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists its main priority after last weekâs Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists
Al Qaeda's done f*cked up. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near an Al Qaeda guy when MOSSAD gets them in their sights.
#6
Finally! Bush may be tied up in politics and requiered Alliances, but Isreal isn't. I wonder if Mossad will be working to give info to Delta Force and SAS in Iraq?
Posted by: Charles ||
10/10/2004 14:19
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after last weekâs Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists.
#8
Israeli's going after Black September thugs worked. No recidivism by terrorists--no tendencies to do further harm. Works for me.
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:49
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Charles,I think it will be other way around.If the Israelis are serious I would expect Guantanamo to be hosting "guest" interrogators soon.It would be one of those classic good news/bad news deals.Good news is Israelis might be willing to send people into Syria,Iran,etc to kill Al-Q leaders.Bad news it will feed European belief WOT is all about Israel.
Posted by: Stephen ||
10/11/2004 0:48
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A powerful "old guard" faction in the Central Intelligence Agency has launched an unprecedented campaign to undermine the Bush administration with a battery of damaging leaks and briefings about Iraq.
In that case they should be tossed. I no more want the CIA involved in politix than I want the Army involved in politix. Maybe less...
The White House is incensed by the increasingly public sniping from some senior intelligence officers who, it believes, are conducting a partisan operation to swing the election on November 2 in favour of John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and against George W Bush. Jim Pavitt, a 31-year CIA veteran who retired as a departmental chief in August, said that he cannot recall a time of such "viciousness and vindictiveness" in a battle between the White House and the agency. John Roberts, a conservative security analyst, commented bluntly: "When the President cannot trust his own CIA, the nation faces dire consequences."
It means it's time to dismantle the CIA and replace it with something else...
Relations between the White House and the agency are widely regarded as being at their lowest ebb since the hopelessly botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by CIA-sponsored exiles under President John F Kennedy in 1961. There is anger within the CIA that it has taken all the blame for the failings of pre-war intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes. Former senior CIA officials argue that so-called "neo-conservative" hawks such as the vice president, Dick Cheney, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, and his number three at the defence department, Douglas Feith, have prompted the ill-feeling by demanding "politically acceptable" results from the agency and rejecting conclusions they did not like. Yet Colin Powell, the less hardline secretary of state, has also been scathing in his criticism of pre-war intelligence briefings. The leaks are also a shot across the bows of Porter Goss, the agency's new director and a former Republican congressman. He takes over with orders from the White House to end the in-fighting and revamp the troubled spy agency as part of a radical overhaul of the American intelligence world.
Goss had better bring them to heel with a tight choke chain immediately. We don't need a praetorian guard in this country...
Bill Harlow, the former CIA spokesman who left with the former director George Tenet in July, acknowledged that there had been leaks from within the agency. "The intelligence community has been made the scapegoat for all the failings over Iraq," he said. "It deserves some of the blame, but not all of it. People are chafing at that, and that's the background to these leaks."
Chafe and be damned. The CIA has no place in internal American politix. It's an agency of the government, not a driver...
Fighting to defend their patch ahead of the future review, anti-Bush CIA operatives have ensured that Iraq remains high on the election campaign agenda long after Republican strategists such as Karl Rove, the President's closest adviser, had hoped that it would fade from the front pages. In the latest clash, a senior former CIA agent revealed that Mr Cheney "blew up" when a report into links between the Saddam regime and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist behind the kidnappings and beheadings of hostages in Iraq, including the Briton Kenneth Bigley, proved inconclusive. Other recent leaks have included the contents of classified reports drawn up by CIA analysts before the invasion of Iraq, warning the White House about the dangers of post-war instability. Specifically, the reports said that rogue Ba'athist elements might team up with terrorist groups to wage a guerrilla war.
When I went to work for the agency I worked for, I signed numerous non-disclosure statements. Whenever I got a new access, I signed non-disclosure statements. When I had my 5-year-updates, I signed non-disclosure documents. I guess those apply only to us guys working at the peon level.
Critics of the White House include officials who have served in previous Republican administrations such as Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA head of counter-terrorism and member of the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan. "These have been an extraordinary four years for the CIA and the political pressure to come up with the right results has been enormous, particularly from Vice-President Cheney. "I'm afraid that the agency is guilty of bending over backwards to please the administration. George Tenet was desperate to give them what they wanted and that was a complete disaster." With the simmering rows breaking out in public, the Wall Street Journal declared in an editorial that the administration was now fighting two insurgencies: one in Iraq and one at the CIA. With just 23 days before the country votes for its next president, both sides are braced for further bruising encounters.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:15:33 AM ||
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That's it. I call for a PURGE.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/10/2004 1:21
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If these sacks of skin can't shut up and get on with their jobs and quit attacking their boss Mr Bush by not keeping their mouths shut perhaps a bit of wet work will convince them. I don't care a whit that they don't like the heat. Seems to me they have been steping on their own meat. STFU and do your job or go to jail or worse. If it's known who these larpos are lock them up. Supporting Kerry on company time is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Posted by: Sock Puppet on the Road (to Doom) ||
10/10/2004 2:05
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They've crossed the line when they put politics and the agency ahead of thier oath to "uphold and defend".
The CIA is filled with careerists who dicked things up in Iraq, and blew it in 9/11, blew it in previous missle attacks during Clinton against Afghanistan, etc.
Its time the CIA was disassembled, and its functions assigned to the military for "direct operations", and the NSA/NRO for satellite stuff, and new part of the FBI to handle state-side counter-terr, and a revamped service along the lines of NSA except focused on HUMINT. And that agency would be along side rather than "first among equals" that the CIA is now.
Somone needs to break some heads over ethere at CIA and have them stand up, take the balme for the errors and gross mistakes, and get the ball rolling for reform, including firing the desk-bound pencil pushers who came to command during the 90's and dont know squat about running anything other than political ops. Bring back some cold-war guys who know how to manage an agency that is in a fight against a determined clever opponent - and promote some of the guys with filed experience now in the Stans and other regions.
Get rid of the residue of middle managers brought to senior positions from 91 thru 2001.
Its either that or have the CIA become completely ineefective and politicised.
In the face of that sort of insubordination, disloyalty, and seditious behavior by people inside th agency, we probably have no other resort than to tear the agency apart and rebuild it from the ground up. Look at NSA in the late 70's to early 80's for an example of how to do that.
#5
We, fuckwit Thriger? You're not American, asshole, and thus you have no say in the matter. In fact, given your silly mishmash, it's entirely likely you're either DhimmiSpanish (or similar SocialistScumTwit) or part of a Target-Rich Society. In the former, you're on your own and fucked... In the latter, we'll be seeing you real soon. Smile for the satellites, K?
#6
Fighting to defend their patch ahead of the future review, anti-Bush CIA operatives have ensured that Iraq remains high on the election campaign agenda long after Republican strategists such as Karl Rove, the Presidentâs closest adviser, had hoped that it would fade from the front pages.
Its my ball and you can't play with it. I think a lot of this is defending their territory from invasion by any overseeing or unified agency that might be created. And if they think Kerry will be their friend, well tell me where I can get some of that happy smoke too
#8
I wonder how many CIA personnel are like State Department personnel, on the US payroll when on active duty protecting the interests of the Saud family and in retirement on the Saudi dole. I doubt many in Ops are, but I'll bet a whole boatload of analysts and the types who do this political leaking are.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/10/2004 9:46
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#9
Many came through during the late 80's, 90's, when they botched the fall of USSR. Intel gathered previously from personal contacts shifted to intel from satellites and sigint, more of a NSA-type work. They've lost their expertise and focus and are circling the wagons rather than accept, adapt, and overcoming their faults. Clean house
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 10:06
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#10
I'm with Frank. Clean house.
November 3d.
And in State, too.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 10:11
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#11
When Colin Powell resigns after the election, I wanted to see him replaced by Donald Trump. Not that Trump would be good interacting with other nations. I just wanted him to serve for about two months. He could walk around the state department building saying just two words to every employee he met. Perhaps Bush could start him at Langley.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
10/10/2004 10:29
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#12
I've said it before in other posts, Dems could have taken Bush to the woodshed if they wanted to. Bush should have fired the top 3-5 tiers of CIA, FBI and State in the weeks following 9/11. The lesson of getting it right the first time would have gotten through, despite the deluge of lawsuits and MSM whining. Then Bush should have appointed to the top positions personnel who didn't owe their allegiance to the system, but to the nation and its president in a time of emergency. Should have, could have, didn't.
William Casey did not reform CIA, he merely used its assets to complete his mission for the president, much to the chagrin of the old line CIA. Casey just ignored them.
Mrs Davis, CIA in Saudi Arabia aren't like State, that is, wholly bought and paid for. They are like CIA in a Soviet state, operating on rumors and state pronouncements without independent information sources of their own, and unable to cultivate them because the Saudis are technically "allies."
And for SECSTATE when the hopelessly overrated and outmanned Powell resigns? Alan Keyes. What fun that would be!
#13
The self-promoting Vince Cannistraro was well known for his proclivity to surround himself with yes men. Check his comments in a google search. You will be surprised at the depth of his ignorance.
#14
I concur - if Bush has any glaring weakness, its being too "loyal" to people who failed in their jobs.
He should have demanded Tenet's resignation a week after the first planes hit. And continued on down the line until the heads of the failed parts of the CIUA were all relieved of duty.
We are now paying the price - leaks of calssified information for political purposes are despicable - and show that the CIA is has too many who are political opportunists determine to play the blame game instead of loyal Americans who are trying to do whats best for the nation.
#15
Laurie Mylroie wrote a book "Bush vs. the Beltway" about the war of the old guard -- those non dot connecting schmucks -- at CIA and State being conducted against Bush.
But first read the book by former CIA field officer Robert Baer -- not a conservative -- "See No Evil" about the nature of the CIA. Their capabilities in the field are about nil. They have been destroyed by the bureaucratic cancer which infects the top layers of the agency.
And to see how the agency got to where they can't find their arses with both hands, read Bill Gertz's "Breakdown".
#17
being too "loyal" to people who failed in their jobs.
One would hope that Bush, having been badly screwed by George "Slam Dunk" Tenet, will be a lot less inclined toward loyalty from here forward.
Let's see if he starts to clean house Nov. 3. Get rid of the arabists at State in the process.
#18
After the grand Election Day Victory the Bush White House shall need to place a rather substaial order for the following items to be shiiped to American inteligence service(s) Ajax, Comet, Spic and Span, Formula W-409, Fantastik-04, Lysol Plus Bleach, Tilex scum remover, Windex, 'new'-Pledge and order real heavy on the Raid for those real tough, leftover, lurking pests which maybe hidding in the back offices.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004 14:58
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#22
if Bush has any glaring weakness, its being too "loyal" to people who failed in their jobs.
Yet another fault of following the New Testament ... I often get the feeling that the president -- no offense to believing Christians -- is too much of one, or at least he's still got too much "love" and not enough "wrath" ... if I were president, here's what the next DCI's initial meeting would look like:
It's simple. You work with me, I will help you. If you try your best but come up short, I will fight to help you to do your job. But if you betray me or undermine me -- I will END your career. And that of your wife. And that of your children. I will hound you onto death, I will RUIN you and your entire family, so that you may be an example for Directors to come.
Dismissed.
So, how was that?[/preening]
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/10/2004 22:16
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#23
republican do not represent America
this scum full of complexes and mental insecurity are the clowns of the planet and will be make irrelevant. time is come ,we will go against this bastard that cause 1000 soldiers to die for no reason
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/10/2004
11:51 ||
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#1
Influential figures on the party's left wing are planning a long-term campaign to move the Democrats to the left [after the election]...If the left's campaign is successful, it could transform the political landscape of the United States...
Yeah, by handing the government over to the Republicans for the next 50 years.
Don't miss the cabinet post for Howard Dean, plus the "right-wing media infrastructure".
Thus the threat of four more years of Bush may end up calling forth a genuine American left for the first time in a generation -- an ironic accomplishment for this most right-wing of presidents.
Uh huh. Look, you guys lose because Americans, generally speaking, hate your ideas. And when they don't hate your ideas, they hate you. They hate the pink-painted, Bushitler-shouting, dangly-bit-exhibiting, pot-smoking, tree-hugging, polyamorous moonbats sashaying up and down the streets of Berkeley. If you want to win, you've got to keep those folks under a blanket. It may not be faaaaaiiirrr, but it's true.
If, on the other hand, you figure this would compromise your iron integrity, I salute you. Just get used to losing.
#2
Allow me to introduce you to an historical figure that pretty much sums up what is about to befall the democratic party when they lose big in November:
#3
Clue No. 1 to Donks - you can only get close in elections when you lie and obscure your parties' leftist ideals and tax and spend mania. Kerry will be haunted by his pledge not to raise taxes
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 13:52
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#4
polyamorous moonbats sashaying up and down the streets of Berkeley
#5
This is the central question nagging the Democrats: do they lose elections because they've wandered too far into the fever swamps of the Left? Or do they lose elections because they've become, as the author of this article apparently believes, "too much like Republicans"?
Sometimes I wonder if the "real" purpose of the Clinton impeachment was to drive the Democrats insane so they would start doing crazy shit that would cost them elections; if so, the tactic has succeeded (with a little help from the 2000 election fiasco) beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/10/2004 14:22
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#6
A leftist Dem party would be a permanent minority party commanding maybe 25% of the national vote and dominant only along four narrow axes: Cambridge-NYC-DC, LA/SF, Chicago-Detroit and Portland-Seattle. A party symbolized by Mikey Moore, Nancy Pelosi, Jimmah and Howard Dean would not be capable of winning single state house or senate seat between the Hudson River and the Sierra Nevadas.
In other words, the Dems would be most competitive in the states that are LOSING POPULATION, and increasingly less competitive in the states that are gaining population, electoral votes and congressional seats. These states are the bellwethers for America's political future: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Texas.
Absolutely insane to argue that a party dominated by government employee unions, a demented Wall Street billionaire and a crackpot conspiracy-monger can win over a majority of voters in the high-growth, suburbanized, increasingly yuppie and anti-government core states.
#7
Bush/Rove should get to work Nov 3 to set about a serious immigration reform policy that could win over both hispanics and lower-income whites in the core high-growth border and western states mentioned above--esp Texas Calif and Florida, also CO AZ NV NM.
Anyone who can lock up these states' votes will have a lock on the White House and Congress for another quarter century.
I, personally, have nothing much against polyamorous moonbats as long as 1) they do their polyamorizing indoors, 2) they don't expect me to join in, and 3) I don't have to pay for their offspring.
But most people aren't as tolerant as I am, and if, when they think Democrat, they think "nekkid weirdos on parade", the Democrats are doomed.
It needn't be this way. The Republicans have a couple of weird cousins in their closets, too, but they do a better job of keeping them there. In fact, I'd say the Republicans have done a good job of alienating their weirder cousins, while the Democrats embrace theirs.
That's very loving and tolerant, I suppose. And the kiss of death. I say this as someone who has, over the years, voted Democrat over Republican at a rate of about 9:1.
#9
Angie - you forgot "and don't frighten the horses." ;-)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 16:22
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#10
Ladies, you are positively poetic today. That image is going to wander through my nightmares and daydreams at least until the election.
And just think: with the way the kids as a group are heading rightward, some years from now we may see yard signs in Berkeley that say, "pink-painted, dangly-bit-exhibiting, pot-smoking, tree-hugging, sashaying polyamorous moonbats who try not to scare the horses FOR CONDI"
If I have to dream about it, I'm going to dream it my way!
A SUICIDE bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into an army convoy in Indian Kashmir last night, killing four soldiers and a civilian and wounding 30 more, police said. Jaish-e-Mohammad, a rebel group based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack on a highway near Pattan, south of Srinagar, summer capital of the region. The attack comes days after India and Pakistan proposed talks on various issues, including a bus service through divided Kashmir.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:12:38 AM ||
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Two Chinese engineers and their Pakistani security guard were kidnapped early today by unidentified men in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area, bordering Afghanistan, where security forces have launched operations to flush out hiding Al-Qaeda militants. The duo- identified as Wang Peng and Wang Ende- were abducted by five persons when they were on their way to Tank, where they were working on Gomal Zam Dam, a Rs 12 billion hydro-power project, Chinese embassy officials said. One Pakistani guard, who was escorting the two engineers who worked for state-run Chinese company Sino Hydro Corp, was also kidnapped, the officials said, adding their vehicle was found abandoned by the road. Pakistan security forces have launched an operation to rescue them. The kidnapping is the latest in the series of attacks against Chinese workers in Pakistan. Late last month three Chinese personnel working on the same hydro-power project came under heavy firing by unidentified attackers.
A deadly car bomb attack on Chinese engineers helping Pakistan to build the multi-million dollar Gwadar seaport had killed three of them on May 3 this year. On June 10, unidentified assilants shot dead 11 Chinese road workers in Kunduz province in Northern Afghanistan, in the deadliest attack on foreign civilians since the fall of the Taliban.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:11:56 AM ||
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The group headed by suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a car bombing in western Iraq on Wednesday that authorities said killed 10 police recruits and that the group said left 40 dead. A statement on an Islamist website late Saturday said "one of the lion's cubs of the 'Brigade of Candidates for Martyrdom," belonging to the group Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) managed to infiltrate members of the infidels' would-be civil defense ... killing 40 of them." The statement, at www.ansarnet.ws/vb/, could not be independently verified.
In a rare car bombing in Iraq's barren western plains, a suicide attacker on Wednesday rammed his vehicle into a group of people signing up with the national guard at a military base in Anah, some 260 kilometres (160 miles) west of Baghdad. Police said 10 young recruits were killed and 24 wounded in the latest attack on the fledgling force, which has been repeatedly targeted by the insurgents.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:11:00 AM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004
11:02 ||
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#1
should've gone on Pg 2 - my bad
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 11:02
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#2
From the article:
The official pointed to a report of those comments published in August in Kenya's daily Standard newspaper, in which Ms Maathai was quoted as saying that HIV/AIDS was created by scientists for the purpose of mass extermination.
And here all this time I thought it was AKs and machetes doing all the killing
#3
Absofuckinglutely looney tunes. IIRC the oldest known case of an HIV death that can be proven is the Englishman from the late 50s early 60s who is thought to of gotten it in North Africa. Could any one of possibly assembled HIV then. I suspect that HIV has been around a lot longer than we think. Its just that most of the victims when they got sick jsut died much quicker simply because they did not have the medical care available we do today. As to the spread of HIV in Africa today, there is one simple rule to protecting yourself from HIV. Don't fuck around. The sexual oractices of some African cultures is helping spread HIV much quicker than it would in a more restained shall we say population. Some of these practices such as sharing the wife with the guest have been around a long time and the cultural resistance to change is a big factor. I am not making a moral judgement on these pracices it is just that if the practices of your culture is helping cause its death it is time to change your culture
Scientists have pinpointed what is believed to be the earliest known case of AIDS, a discovery that suggests that the multitude of global AIDS viruses all shared a common African ancestor only 40 or 50 years ago.
http://www.aegis.com/news/sfe/1998/SE980201.html While the modern world rocked to Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, an African tribesman died of a mysterious disease in 1959 in a clinic in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo - what is now Kinshasa, Republic of Congo, Dr. Toufu Zhu of the University of Washington in Seattle reports in the Feb. 5 issue of the journal Nature.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004 12:03
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#7
Terrific. It is a joy to see the transnational progressives who award the prize have their own shit blown back in their faces. It properly reflects on many of the selections made in recent years. Jimmah, where are you on this one boy?
#8
The gal won a Nobel PEACE Prize. This has nothing to do with biology. She is an ecologist, true, but that is a long, long way from virology and molecular biology.
Like someone said, you don't need facts to have an opinion.
#9
Ah, excellent. When we read of the prize the other day, I wondered where the "kick in the leg" was. She didn't seem to have the looney toons quality so necessary for your modern peace laureates. I'm glad to know the Nobel committee is not slipping.
It is a joy to see the transnational progressives who award the prize have their own shit blown back in their faces.
You're dreaming. The TP lap this crap up. After all, if AIDS was created, You Know Who has to be behind it.
#10
Well given the fact that Hans Blix and Baradei were seen to be most likely to receive the prize I guess we should not complain.
But we really need to hear the "Nobel" Peace Prize Owner Yasser on that issue. Does anyone doubt that HIV was created in a Zionist lab to kill... ummm... black Palestinians?
#11
Bonkers Babe Award 2004. There are some Bonker Boy Awards also: UN (2001), Kofi Annan (2001), Yassar Arafat (1994)--[trying to motivate him to quit his terrorist ways]--probably keeps him from being assassinated. There have been some legitimate Peace Awards (in my humble opinion). Other Nobel Peace Prize Winners Link (hope I got the html right): Nobel Peace Prize Winners
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 13:11
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#12
..Well, take a look and see who swept the Science and Physics prizes this year, and you get the feeling they HAD to come up with a Barking Moonbat(TM) for the Peace Prize.
One more like this, and I think ol' Al will come back from the grave and start throwing his invention at the judges.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/10/2004 15:04
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#13
The Nobel committee had to throw the 3rd world a bone so they gave this brain damaged Kenyan the Peace prize. Can't have all pale white people up on the stage. With a sprinkling of Asians.
Kofi Annan can win it next. Another one short in the IQ department.
#17
This is the normal result of an "international" committee of individuals picked not on the basis of knowledge but on the basis of diversity. The very kind of group (U.N. or E.U.) that Skerry would look to when some major decision needs to be made.
Several slouching Muslim rebels spring to attention as visitors approach the makeshift meeting room in a corner of their camp. Inside, Al Haj Murad's bookish appearance and gentle voice belie his status as the head of the Philippines' largest Muslim militant group and one of the country's most powerful men. "We are solid," he says during an interview with Reuters, expressing certainty that he has the full support of his at least 12,000 fighters.
Shows of unity are more important than ever for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as it returns to peace talks with the government after a three-year break and tries to shake off allegations that its camps are a training ground for militants. But deepening divisions within the MILF between moderates and Middle-East influenced radicals could turn out to be one of the biggest obstacles to ending the 30-year-old conflict. The risk is that the MILF may splinter if its leadership signs a peace deal that falls short of the long-cherished goal of independence for Muslim-majority areas, leaving southern Mindanao island stuck in conflict and poverty. "I think the MILF is having a lot of trouble in their own ranks," said Zachary Abuza, a professor at Boston's Simmons College and an expert on the Mindanao conflict. "There's growing radicalism within the MILF that's scaring the older generation. At the same time the general population their constituency is getting really war-weary."
Division in the MILF helps explain why it has found it so difficult to address international concerns about its links with militant groups such as Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiah. Analysts say individual commanders may have kept links with the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, blamed for a string of attacks in Southeast Asia, including the 2002 bombings of nightclubs on Indonesia's Bali island, without the leadership's permission. Despite expressing confidence in his group's unity, Murad voiced concern that the older generation may not be able to control a younger, more radical breed of MILF fighter for much longer. "What we are afraid of is that the younger generation will replace the older generation of leaders and because they are more involved in the war, the possibility of them turning radical is very, very high," he told Reuters on Saturday.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:10:08 AM ||
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The first warnings filtered into the offices of Israel's Shabak security service last January. Terrorists were plotting to carry out an attack on Israeli tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where luxury hotels and bungalow resorts overlook the Red Sea. But the details were scant and, as often occurs with intelligence, only partly accurate. The reports referred to a shooting attack that would be staged by Palestinians with weapons smuggled from Gaza into Egypt. It wasn't until September, eight months later, that the information veered in a different direction. New intel pointed to an upcoming attack by "international jihad"—the term Israeli intelligence uses for Al Qaeda and related Islamic groups—according to a source familiar with the reports.
Israeli security officials now believe that Al Qaeda, using Egyptian operatives, probably carried out the twin attacks at the Taba Hilton and a second resort last week, killing 33 (with at least a dozen people still missing). If they're right, one likely result will be a more aggressive Israeli campaign against Osama bin Laden's network. Already, Mossad considers tracking the group one of its two main objectives (preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb is the other). "To protect Israelis, we have to be active in many places around the world," one senior official said. "We have to be very alert and very patient."
So do the perpetrators. Their preparation—gathering intelligence, smuggling up to 2,200 pounds of explosives and recruiting bombers—probably lasted a year or more, according to the same source. Though Shabak issued a warning Sept. 9 urging citizens to avoid Egypt, nearly 20,000 Israelis had been vacationing in Sinai the day of the blast. Now officials are wondering if they should have closed the Taba border altogether. "The terrorists would probably have just waited a few weeks and then carried out the attacks," says Boaz Ganor, who heads the International Counter-Terrorism center in Herzliya. "In fact, I wouldn't exclude the possibility that when Israel issued the warning, the terrorists may have waited."
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:08:18 AM ||
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At least 56 people were killed in Thursday's terror attacks in Egypt, but searches for missing people continued Saturday. In Taba, Israeli soldiers and Egyptian crews continued digging through the rubble beneath the Hilton Hotel's lobby and eastern wing hit when a car bomb carrying hundreds of pounds of explosives crashed into the hotel. The Israeli army reported 30 bodies were recovered at the hotel, but only 12 have been identified. Six were Egyptians and six Israelis. Eight more Israelis are missing, Israeli Maj. Gen. Ya'ir Naveh said. Channel 1 TV quoted Egyptian sources as saying that at the site of the second bombing, at Ras e-Satan, there were still 19 unidentified bodies. Seven bodies have been identified, three of them are Israeli.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
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An Egyptian security official on Saturday denied reports that Egypt had arrested 30 suspects in connection with the blast that rocked Taba Hilton in South Sinai Thursday night, the official MENA news agency reported. "Investigations are still underway by a team of investigators, who arrived in Taba on Friday and began examining the scene of the blast," a security source was quoted as saying. The source added that all details of the blast are expected to be unveiled after the end of the investigations.
MENA reported earlier that an Egyptian presidential spokesman said Saturday that it is still too early to say who were behind the blasts. The Egyptian security agencies were exerting utmost efforts to unravel all aspects of the attacks, but it is still too early to talk about how the explosives reached the site of the blast, who were behind the attacks and why they did this, Maged Abdel Fattah was quoted as saying. A deadly blast Thursday night rocked Hilton Taba hotel in Egypt's Sinai Peninsular, which was popular with Israeli tourists. Shortly after that, two other blasts occurred at holiday camps in Ras al-Sultan and Nuwaiba, not far away from Taba. Casualties vary in media reports. But Egyptian Interior Ministry said Saturday afternoon that the bombings claimed the lives of 34 people, including 30 in Taba Hilton hotel and four in two other explosions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:05:13 AM ||
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An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a home near a Hamas stronghold in the Jebaliya refugee camp on Sunday, killing one civilian and wounding eight other Palestinians, hospital officials said. It was not immediately clear why the army targeted the house, which was near the Kholfa Mosque, a power base for the militant group Hamas. The army did not immediately comment. The strike killed a 38-year-old Palestinian civilian and seriously wounded eight other Palestinians, including a girl, hospital officials said. It also caused extensive damage to homes and stores nearby, witnesses said.
The attack was the latest in a 10-day-old Israeli operation in Jebaliya. The army is hunting down Palestinian militants who fire rockets at Israeli towns. Tanks and infantry operating in Jebaliya's narrow alleys, and the army has increased missile strikes on militants and weapons' workshops. Also Sunday, a Palestinian gunman wounded earlier in the offensive in northern Gaza died in the hospital, officials said. The two deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed in the operation to 96. Almost half of those killed were civilians, 18 were age 16 and under.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:47:14 AM ||
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#1
It was not immediately clear why the army targeted the house, which was near the Kholfa Mosque, a power base for the militant group Hamas
yep, just a randomly aimed missile, like Qassams
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 11:04
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#2
who gives a damn if it killed a civilian? Thats all the pali's go after is women and kids
#3
From another article today:
http://rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?ID=45546&D=10/10/2004 Witnesses said the explosion hit the former home of Mahmoud Salem, one of the suicide attackers responsible for the double bombing at the Israeli port of Ashdod in March that killed 10.
Sounds like a righteous application of fire control.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004 12:15
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#5
It's not WTOP. Here is the article's byline:
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press Writer
We shouldn't have people who are our enemies reporting the news for us.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004 13:16
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#6
WTOP biased? Ask Fred
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 13:34
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#7
Frank - true, but WTOP always publishes and broadcasts the stories (off the wire) that shed the absolutely and positively most negative storyline that they can find.
The Taliban vowed to turn the Afghan election into a day of bloodshed, but the rebels mounted only a smattering of small-scale attacks on police and civilians and a larger clash that left many of their own dead. After months of what proved to be empty threats, military commanders and ordinary Afghans said Sunday the vote was a serious setback for the holdouts of the hard-line Islamic regime that was driven from power by U.S. bombs almost three years ago for harboring Osama bin Laden. "Yesterday was a big defeat for the Taliban and a huge defeat for al-Qaida," Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press. "It shows that the political process is overwhelming any influence they may have."
Voters also said the Taliban had been exposed as weak. Bismillah Jan, a driver for an aid group in this southern city, where the Taliban began, said his fear of attacks on Saturday quickly disappeared when he saw the heavy security on the way to the polling station where the atmosphere "was like a festival." "This government has the support of the world and the help of God," said the 20-year-old, who recently returned home after a spell as a refugee in Pakistan. "The Taliban are weak and they are fading day by day."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:45:28 AM ||
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...but the rebels mounted only a smattering of small-scale attacks on police and civilians and a larger clash that left many of their own dead.
Maybe the Afghanis ought to put a notice about a "do-over" vote at a few polling stations. Then lie in wait when the Talibs show up.
A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists and investigators were looking into Palestinian militant involvement, Egyptian security officials said Sunday. The tribesman said the buyers, whom he couldn't identify, had told him the explosives would be used in the Palestinian territories, an Egyptian investigator said. "The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Relatives of the attacks' 34 victims, meanwhile, mourned their dead as rescuers finished their search for victims. Israelis, Egyptians, Italians and Russians were among the victims of Thursday night's blasts. Egyptian security officials said some of dozens of Bedouins detained for questioning after the car bombings in Taba and the resort area of Ras Shitan to the south have been cooperating with authorities and have provided valuable information about the explosives. Israeli officials have complained in the past of weapons and explosives being smuggled into the Gaza strip from Sinai. The Israelis maintain they come through tunnels dug beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.
Also, Palestinian and Egyptian officials told The Associated Press that Egyptian security and intelligence officers have been discussing the attacks with officials from the Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Egyptians were seeking information about members of the groups upset about Egypt's plan to help secure the Gaza Strip in the event of an Israeli withdrawal. Egypt has come under fire from some Arabs as aiding Israel; Egypt maintains it needs to ensure stability along its border in the event of a security vacuum left by Israel's departure. The officials said Egypt is not suggesting the two factions were behind the attacks, but rather are probing the possibility disgruntled defectors from the groups might have been involved. These discussions were taking place in Gaza and in some Middle East capitals, one official said without specifying which ones. On Saturday, Egyptian investigators said they suspected a group of eight to 10 terrorists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:42:21 AM ||
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boy howdy! How uncomfortable that they killed all those Joooos in Egypt. If they'd managed to smuggle the 'splosives to Gaza to kill Joooos in Israel, that would've been nifty though....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 10:48
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well, when the Palestinians refugees flood across their border they can take up residence in those blown up hotel buildings- and live like their grand leader, Arafat.
#3
That Bedouin sure had a lot of explosives to sell. Those were huge bombs.
IOW I'm skeptical/ Egypt is desperate to show they are halfway competent in order to make ALL TOURISTS feel safe. Tourism was terrible for years after the mass murder of Euro tourists at Luxor by Islamic Brotherhood types.
A "nookie brides for jihad" campaign has been launched by Islamic militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, intimidating local families into offering their daughters to foreign fighters waging war on America and its allies. A fundamentalist group, the Islamic Council of Mosul, has written letters to residents in western parts of the city, which is near the Syrian border, demanding that the name of every girl is put on a list. The register is held at the Al-Mahmood mosque whose imam, Zinad al-Jaburi, boasts that he has married off three of his daughters to Syrian terrorists. "These people are heroes they have come to Iraq and want to make their new home here," he said. "Marrying local women ties them to us and our families."
According to local residents, Mr al-Jaburi has threatened his followers with death if they do not respond to the letters distributed at his mosque, which place a religious obligation on recipients. "Join your daughters to our Syrian brothers who have come to help Iraq," they read. "Allah says you must marry your daughters to good men. We ask each honest father that lives in Mosul city to support the project in order to be a real Muslim and achieve the glory of the holy Koran."
The first Syrian man to be married at the mosque was killed soon after during an ambush on American troops. Shihab Rifaie, who was purportedly in Mosul dealing in imported second hand cars, married an 18-year-old called Sara whose father had put her name on the mosque list. Her family refused to talk about their late son-in-law but a neighbour, Yunis Lilou, said: "I am too astonished for words that these people would make their daughters marry a suicide terrorist. We must control the situation and destroy this movement." Local police say they are aware of the forced marriages but are unable to tackle the problem because of the culture of fear perpetuated by the foreign jihadists. Families have been torn apart over the marriages, with fatal consequences. At the end of last month, a 24-year-old local man, Ayad Mazher, killed a young Syrian fighter who had won the agreement of his father to marry his sister, Sarhan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:34:26 PM ||
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They rent cars and houses using stolen IDs. They disguise themselves as women or as hip young men.
Especially women. It's the underwear. They can't resist them...
The money they raise for Iraqi prisoners in U.S. jails funds terror operations. This, Saudi officials say, is the kind of information being gleaned from scores of Saudi militants arrested in an aggressive government campaign. Two suspects have appeared on television to talk about life underground, telling of injured comrades who die from lack of medical care, supposedly devout Muslims who don't bother praying the mandatory five prayers, and uneducated youths who consider Saudis in uniform to be infidels. Such information has enabled the kingdom to strike at the root of al-Qaida's Saudi infrastructure, kill or capture several of its leaders, and publicly portray it in a humiliating light.
But no one is willing to declare the network dead or paralyzed, and foreigners know the successes do not mean they should let their guard down. The U.S. Embassy continues to warn Americans that they face a "serious threat to their safety while in Saudi Arabia" and that credible information indicates terrorists "continue to target residential compounds" in the kingdom. The warnings came after a particularly violent period in which a compound and two oil companies were attacked in the Eastern Province, several Westerners were killed in Riyadh and an American hostage, Paul Johnson, was beheaded. "It's not in our security interest to assume they cannot carry out a large operation," said Brig. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman. "If we assume they can't, it would have an adverse effect on our alertness and level of preparedness to confront them."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:33:42 AM ||
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Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals. Three executives of France's largest oil corporation have been charged in Paris over claims that they funnelled millions of dollars through a Swiss company in order to bribe officials to gain oil deals in Iraq and Russia. The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac
... always assuming he's capable of being embarrassed...
as it follows on from claims last week by the Iraq Survey Group that Saddam indirectly paid French politicians and individuals to gain support for lifting UN sanctions and influencing French policy. The ISG's claims were dismissed by Chirac as politically motivated.
In the Nineties, French oil companies Total and Elf-Aquitaine won the rights to develop the $3.4 billion Bin Umar project and the vast Majnoon field in southern Iraq. Total, which acquired Elf, had been unable to exploit these fields while the UN trade embargo against Iraq was still in place. US hawks have accused France of opposing the Iraq war in order to protect its vast oil interests in the country. The three Total executives, arrested after raids on the firm's French headquarters on 29 September, have all been charged with complicity in the improper use of corporate funds. French investigating magistrate Philippe Courroye, who has been probing these payments since 2002, is examining the movements of funds between a Total subsidiary in Bermuda and a Swiss company, Teliac SA. The Swiss firm is alleged to have served as an intermediary for some $20 million in payments by the oil group into offshore accounts in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands between 1996 and 2001. Courroye has not given any details of what oil deals the alleged bribes were linked to. Total's former head of operations, Jean-Michel Tournier, is alleged to have told the French authorities the company used the Geneva-based firm to pay bribes to 'certain beneficiaries' in return for gaining access to reserves in Iraq and Russia.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004
1:03:08 AM ||
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What's new? Anyone who has ever worked off-shore and had to compete with the French know how the game works. We have FCPA and it is prosecuted firmly. The French have French Inc. which invests in government back assistance to every deal made including advancing bribe (baksheesh) money. Whenever I see the French in play (look at the telcom deal in Costa Rica)I know someone will get rich whether they win or lose.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/10/2004 10:16
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The quid pro quo in Elf's case for decades was kickbacks to political slush funds for French pols of both major parties. The state helps (Total) (Elf) (Aribus) (Alcatel) (Bouygues) (Renault) win contracts, and these firms send back political contributions through one of their many complex holding company entities.
A U.S. system that integrates existing missile and radar assets has succeeded in intercepting a simulated cruise missile similar to ones obtained by Iran from China. The Complementary Low Altitude Weapon System, or CLAWS, was said to have successfully intercepted a BQM-74 surrogate cruise missile target through the integration of assets common to a range of U.S. allies in the Middle East. The cruise missile target, flying at low altitude, was intercepted during a test this week at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
In 2003, the U.S. PAC-2 and PAC-3 missile defense systems failed to intercept Iraqi cruise missiles fired toward Kuwait during the war against Saddam Hussein, Middle East Newsline reported. Officials said U.S. troops in Iraq could be vulnerable to cruise missiles fired by neighboring Iran, which has procured such weapons from China. Officials said all mission objectives were met in the interception of the BMQ-74 by a U.S.-origin air-to-air missile. The missile defense system has been integrated by Raytheon. "This test harnessed the elements of the CLAWS Family of Systems and demonstrated a capable, working architecture that will give us an advantage on the battlefield," Maj. Steve Grass, project lead of the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, said. "We are looking forward to taking the next step."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
10/10/2004
10:12:58 AM ||
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I'm thinking we need to test that AEGIS anti-missile system on the next NK test launch. Gives em a lotto think about if we shoot that skeet from the sky right after launch
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 14:41
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"...shoot that skeet from the sky......"
LOL Frank!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:29
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CLARE SHORT, the former cabinet minister, has provoked outrage by describing the cause behind Osama Bin Laden's terrorism as "just". In an interview with a Dubai newspaper, the MP, who resigned from the cabinet after the Iraq invasion last year, makes a fierce attack on the prime minister. However, her most contentious remarks were those in support of Bin Laden's cause. In the interview with the English-language Gulf News, Short said she had been reading a book by a US intelligence analyst that painted a sympathetic picture of the Al-Qaeda chief. "The author says Osama Bin Laden considers it a war, a defensive jihad, because the people in the Middle East are being crushed and destroyed and their resources, their oil, misused and they have got to defend their civilisation and their religion," she said. "So I think the killing of civilians is always wrong, all the Prophet Muhammad's teachings said it was wrong, but I think the cause is just."
Oxygen, please! My breath has been taken away...
Short saw little difference between the actions of British and US troops and terrorists, claiming allied forces had deliberately killed innocent people. "I think all of us should criticise the immoral message of targeting innocent civilians and it's clear the coalition has done that to innocent civilians in Iraq as well," she said. Parts of the interview, in which Short compares Iraqi insurgents to French resistance fighters in the second world war, appeared last week. However, The Sunday Times has now obtained a copy of the full interview. Short makes a strident attack on Tony Blair. "The mood of the cabinet in the build-up to the Iraq war was very worried. People kept saying we must go through the UN and Blair kept saying, yes of course, yes. He gave us a whole series of half-truths and deceptions . . . He gave his word to support (George) Bush and at the same time he misled his party, his cabinet, parliament and country into thinking that he wanted to avoid war." Her comments have been denounced by the Tories, who accused her of encouraging more terrorist attacks. Short was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:12:07 PM ||
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Moronic misguided miscreant idiot.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:50
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Yes, that's right, folks. Like a severe case of herpes, Claire Short is back shooting off her mouth about his favorite cause: killing yehuds and fellating Islamofascsts, the New Socialists of the 21st Century.
#4
Sounds like she read Imperial Hubris by "anonymous". It also sounds like she's seriously cherry picking out the bits that agree with her opinion to create her own set of half truths and deceptions.
It's not a bad book, but to say he is sympathetic to bin Laden is a gross distortion. There is a level of understanding of bin Laden in the book not found in much other work about him, but the author is unflinching in his assesment of what needs to be done and who the victor must be.
Posted by: Jack ||
10/11/2004 0:55
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Besides making stupid comments to the press - what is Ms. Short doing these days? Flipping burgers?
The Escambia County Republican Party would not normally be considered a high-risk tenant. But in this bitter campaign season, politics can be risky business. Between 7 and 9:30 a.m. Saturday, one or more vandals threw rocks at the Republicans' county headquarters on Creighton Road, breaking the outer panes of three large plate-glass windows, said Alan Levy, a member of the party's executive committee. Last week, the landlord replaced two similar windows, which were broken at the front of the building shortly before the office officially opened Oct. 2, Levy said. "This is not the way we do politics in this country," he said. "It's ridiculous. It's absurd. It wasn't like this four years ago." The same windows broken out Saturday morning had been spattered with luminous pink paint the day before, said Laura Tkach, a party volunteer. "It's outrageous," she said.
Levy reported the Saturday incident to the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ted Roy said there are no suspects. Local law enforcement agencies do not keep statistics on politically related vandalism. But judging from anecdotes, this presidential campaign has generated more criminal mischief than most, both Republican and Democratic activists say. Supporters of Democratic Sen. John Kerry have complained for months about what they call widespread efforts to steal or deface their signs. Ron Melton, who chairs the Escambia County Democratic Party, said he has a hard time keeping a Kerry-Edwards sign up for more than 24 hours at a time in front of his computer business on Navy Boulevard. "We've had more signs stolen, run down and spray painted," Melton said Saturday. "It's getting pretty feverish."
Levy said entire streets were cleared of Bush-Cheney signs the day after the party passed out a large number last weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004
10:07:52 PM ||
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This may explain why I have seen so few Bush-Cheney signs in yards and so many Kerry-Edwards signs. This is Republican country too.
A bomb exploded Sunday at a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least four people and injuring others, officials said. A witness said a man carrying a briefcase tried to enter the Husainia Hall mosque in the ancient walled part of the city during evening prayers but was blocked by security guards. He then detonated a bomb in the briefcase. "Our two security guards were martyred and the suicide bomber was killed," said witness Sajjad Bhutta.
The state news agency quoted Punjab province Home Secretary Hassan Waseem as saying that four people were killed and others injured. The bomb went off at the mosque at 5:40 p.m. after prayers, said Raja Basharat Illahi, the province's law minister. The attack was the third this month against a religious target in Punjab, stoking fears of spiraling sectarian violence. On Oct. 1, a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque killed 31 people in Sialkot city. Six days later, a car bombing at a gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in Multan city killed 40 people. No group claimed responsibility for those attacks, which prompted authorities to ban religious gatherings across the country -- except for Friday prayers at mosques.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004
10:02 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 10:13
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Our two security guards were martyred
They misspelled "murdered"
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 10:26
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Barb, in this case the guards just might have the right to be classified as martyred. If not for them, many more casualties could have occured.
Not all innocent casualties, but some.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/10/2004 14:10
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It is incidents like this that remind me how very glad I am to be American. Our Hatfields and McCoys kept their feud within the family. Over there, it splits entire countries.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004
08:37 ||
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Another one was reported and even BIGGER. Magnitude 7.1, same location, NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA 'A major earthquake occurred at 21:26:56 (UTC) on Saturday, October 9, 2004.'
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004 14:34
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The 7.1 is the same earthquake as the 6.9... It was upgraded..
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.
Michigan Democrats' lawsuit against the state elections office is an unsavory bit of political gamesmanship that should be quickly dispatched by the courts. The suit, filed in the federal district court in Bay County, challenges the state's balloting rules, specifically demanding that people who show up at the wrong polling place, without proof of registration or valid personal identification, be allowed to vote anyway and have their vote counted. 
Russian forces fighting in the breakaway republic of Chechnya said yesterday they had killed a Canadian mercenary who was fighting alongside anti-Kremlin rebels. 
Israeli soldiers on Saturday shot and killed a Hamas militant whom the military said was responsible for a rocket attack that killed two Israeli preschoolers last week and triggered an army offensive in northern Gaza. 
Investigators lifted fingerprints, swabbed dust and collected tissue from the wreckage of three car bombings Saturday and detained dozens of Bedouin tribesmen, including quarry workers who could have provided the explosives that killed at least 33 people. Israel blamed al-Qaida for the Thursday night attacks in two Sinai resorts, and Egyptian investigators were leaning toward an al-Qaida connection as well. Egyptian investigators said they suspected eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israeli tourists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats. They also said there was a chance a local sleeper cell of Egyptians might have been activated to stage the attacks, Egypt's first terrorist strike in seven years. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the investigators said such a group would almost certainly be linked to 
A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists and investigators were looking into Palestinian militant involvement, Egyptian security officials said Sunday. The tribesman said the buyers, whom he couldn't identify, had told him the explosives would be used in the Palestinian territories, an Egyptian investigator said. "The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals. Three executives of France's largest oil corporation have been charged in Paris over claims that they funnelled millions of dollars through a Swiss company in order to bribe officials to gain oil deals in Iraq and Russia. The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac 
