Tawhid and Jihad, the Iraqi militant group of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, apparently has changed its name two days after announcing its merger with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization. An Internet statement released Tuesday under the purported new name, al-Qaida of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers, claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. military convoy west of the Iraqi city of Fallujah the same day. The two rivers in the new name refers to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq.
I see they kept the "jihad" but ditched the "unity" (tawhid). Wonder who their marketing consultant was for this name change. Did they do any focus group testing?
Kinda dumb to have "unity" in the name of a jihadi terrorist group, isn't it?
Witnesses in Habaniyah, west of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, reported seeing three American Humvees burning, but the U.S. military didn't comment on the alleged attack. "A lion from the martyrdom brigades ... plowed into an American convoy that had entered Habaniyah," said the statement. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified. "The brother, God accept him, managed to destroy five Hummer vehicles and all those inside," the statement added. The claim was posted under the new name by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, a pseudonym that al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group had said was its legitimate source of information. The statement, written in similar language to previous Tawhid and Jihad statements, also was posted on a Web site known as a clearing house for Islamic militants. Al-Zarqawi's group declared allegiance to bin Laden, citing the need for unity against "the enemies of Islam," in an Internet statement posted Sunday. That statement also could not be verified. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on American troops, Iraqi security personnel and the kidnapping and beheading of several foreigners.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
9:58:36 PM ||
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#1
Good plan. Declare allegiance to a rotting corpse feeding worms in an Afghan cave. Next?
#2
The Unity translation of Tawhid isn't very accurate, since Tawhid is a specific Islamic concept referring to the absolute oneness of Allah, as opposed to the Trinity of Christianity.
If you look around the Internet, you will often see Islamists (including al-Zawahiri) with a clenched fist with the index finger sticking up. That is the symbol of political Islam, and comes from this concept of Tawhid.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/20/2004 1:26
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#3
Thanks for the information Paul. A better translation may then be "Monism" (all is one).
Better plan: declare allegiance to a rotting, monist corpse.
#4
Tawhid and Jihad, the Iraqi militant group of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, apparently has changed its name two days after announcing its merger with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.
"Cannon Fodder Boys" might be an appropriate new name.
#6
The Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban said it had added al-Zarqawi's network, Jama'at al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad - known as Tawhid and Jihad - to the list on Monday. It said the group is also known as the Monotheism and Jihad Group.
oops...they changed their name. Darn! Back to the conference table guys, we need to draft a whole new resolution.
A judge on Tuesday ordered trials for 17 suspected members of the Red Brigades for their alleged role in the 1999 slaying of a labor consultant, Italian media reported, as it emerged that the leftist terror group kept files on top figures, including Premier Silvio Berlusconi. The murder of Massimo D'Antona, who was advising the government on a bitterly contested labor reform, was the first high-profile attack by the Red Brigades after a decade of silence. Three years later, the group killed another labor consultant to the government, Marco Biagi. The judge ordered trial to begin Feb. 17 in Rome for 15 of the suspects, the reports said. Two other suspects were to be tried separately.
The Red Brigades bloodied Italy during the 1970s and 80s, the so-called "years of lead," with attacks that mainly targeted police, military and business leaders. Their most notorious act was the 1978 kidnapping and slaying of former Premier Aldo Moro. Investigators searching computer files provided by an arrested Red Brigades suspect found notes in alphabetically ordered files on top personalities, including Berlusconi, in the years before he became premier in 2001, and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, a former central bank governor, the Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom reported. Enrico Letta, a former minister and currently a center-left lawmaker, told reporters he apparently was a target of the Brigades, according to clues found by police in the files. Letta appealed to the arrested suspect, Cinzia Banelli, to continue to cooperate with authorities. Banelli reportedly gave investigators the password to open the files. The file about Ciampi gave details on his bodyguards at his private residence, ANSA said. The news that Berlusconi and Ciampi "were monitored by the Red Brigades along with other top political figures confirms the inviolable need to keep up the guard," said Renato Schifani, the Senate whip for the premier's Forza Italia party. ANSA quoted a center-left senator, Stefano Passigli, as saying authorities informed him on Monday that he, too, was a Red Brigades target in 2000 when he was an undersecretary to former Premier Massimo D'Alema.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
9:55:52 PM ||
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#1
The New Red Brigade (NRB) is picking up where their predecessor group left off. During a meeting of radical groups in Italy a few years ago, the NRB offered both training and encouragement to eco/animal rights associated terrorist groups. Training included bomb making and assassination techniques. The Earth Liberation Front, Greenpeace and Animal Liberation Front were front a center. In a final send off speech, an NRB spokesman proclaimed (I paraphrase) ââ¦itâs time to put down your signs and pick up gunsâ¦â
CARE International has suspended its operations in Iraq following the kidnapping of its director there, the head of the aid agency's Australian arm said Wednesday. "Our staff are not operating currently there, they're certainly not working there now in light of the current situation," Robert Glasser told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday. Hassan, who holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship and is married to an Iraqi, is among the most widely known humanitarian officials in the Middle East. She is also the most high-profile figure to fall victim to a wave of kidnappings sweeping Iraq in recent months. The Arab television station Al-Jazeera broadcast a brief video on Tuesday showing Hassan, wearing a white blouse and appearing tense, sitting in a room with bare white walls. An editor at the station, based in Qatar, said the tape contained no audio. It did not identify what group was holding her and contained no demand for her release. Hassan, who is in her early 60s, was kidnapped early Tuesday while being driven from her home to CARE's office in a western neighborhood of the capital, a CARE employee said. The employee said the group did not employ armed guards. The organization would not evacuate its staff because of the kidnapping, Glasser said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
9:55:03 PM ||
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#1
When they (the terrorists),hold up her head for all the world to see, eyes glazing straight ahead in horror, we'll see just how much care is left in CARE! Even now, Blair is rehearsing his 'horror' speech.
#3
Another money-grab a la 2 Simonas... until I see the T&J flag and towel-heads.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/20/2004 6:58
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How do they do it?
Perhaps because they are the only major none western news broadcaster with a world wide reach in that corner of the globe. If you were an arab terrorist in the middle east who would you send propaganda tapes to?
The Taliban's one-eyed leader Mullah Omar has lost the confidence of some of his commanders after the failure of the insurgents to disrupt Afghanistan's first presidential election, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
"Wot do we do now, Ollie?"
"I don't know, Stanley! What do we do now, Omar?"
But a Taliban spokesman denied any rift in the movement.
"No, no! Certainly not!... Duck!"
U.S. military spokesman Major Scott Nelson told reporters the Taliban leadership was in disarray after a campaign built around rocket attacks and roadside bombs failed to dissuade millions of Afghans from voting in the Oct. 9 poll. "There has been serious disagreements between Mullah Omar and some of his lower commanders on how (what) strategy to follow up after the elections," Nelson said. Better intelligence and a strategy of taking the fight to the Taliban paid off with a string of arrests and discovery of planted explosives. Nelson said Afghan security forces had detained some 100 guerrillas on the polling day alone, while U.S.-led forces killed and captured 22 in the two days before the vote. "There is significant demoralisation among the Taliban because they were unable to disrupt the election," Nelson said.
"I'm so demoralized! I just hate it when they vote!"
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi denied any rift in the movement's leadership and said it was U.S. spin-doctoring. "This is just propaganda. Our Jihad (holy war) will continue," he told Reuters by satellite telephone.
"We have a crack team of islamic lawyers who are going to protest the disenfranchisement of absentee jihad fighters whose votes were thrown out due to not having a Pakistani postmark."
With vote counting still underway, Hamid Karzai looked set to retain the presidency he has held since being placed at the head of an interim government after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Karzai says there are only around a hundred Taliban whose crimes are so great that they are unredeemable, but he has held out an olive branch to more moderate elements of the movement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
9:41:59 AM ||
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Police in Pakistan's Punjab province say a man who was tied to a railway track and killed by a train may have been the victim of an "honour killing".
That's a new twist. Normally it's the woman tied to the tracks by a mustashioed villian.
Police say the man eloped with a woman and the couple later married without the consent of the bride's parents. The families were reconciled but police are hunting the bride's brother who they say held a grudge against the man.
Wanted her for himself, did he?
A relative of the groom was tied to the track at the same time and was also killed by the train, police said. The police chief of Toba Tek Singh district, Saeed Akhtar Bharwana, told the BBC the police had registered a case after receiving a complaint from the family of the husband. The police say they cannot confirm a motive for the killing without a statement from the wife, who has gone missing along with her family since the incident.
Check the other tracks.
I think she was the one tied to the log, up at the old saw mill...
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
9:38:25 AM ||
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A senior religious leader in Iran has severed ties with radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr for encouraging his followers to fight US troops. Grand Ayatollah Kazem Haeri, one of the top authorities in Shia Islam, said Mr Sadr was no longer his representative in the holy city of Najaf. A spokesman said that Mr Sadr's actions no longer reflected the ideas of the Grand Ayatollah's teachings.
Been nice knowing ya, Moqtada.
But he praised a scheme to disarm Shia militias in Baghdad's Sadr City slum.
Speaking on behalf of the Grand Ayatollah in the Iranian seminary town of Qom where he lives, his brother, Mohammed Hossein Haeri, told the BBC that Mr Sadr had not been blamed for damage to Najaf's holy shrines during heavy fighting in August. The Grand Ayatollah wholly blamed the US and British for damage to the shrine, his spokesman said. But Mr Haeri stressed that direct fighting with US forces was not a correct move. The Grand Ayatollah is considered the successor of Moqtada Sadr's father, the Ayatollah Muhammad Sadeq Sadr, and acted as the younger Sadr's spiritual guide.
So, if the Grand Ayatollah's based in Qom, are the Iranian mullahs cutting Sadr loose to swing on his own or is this just for PR purposes?
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
9:29:13 AM ||
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#1
Get Real!!!Silly Infedels.
Rules of engagement in Iranian politics cannot allow an open endorsement of George Bush for a second term and Tater, at the same time. That would be against the teachings of Prophet Mothbreath.
#2
The Grand Ayatollah wholly blamed the US and British for damage to the shrine, his spokesman said.
Once an idiot, always an idiot.
No matter, if any of his armed followers play the mosque game again, the mosque in question should suffer a similar fate, preferably something worse than simple "damage".
At least six Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, in a gun battle that erupted between rival Palestinian Authority security forces in Gaza City on Monday. In a separate incident in the northern Gaza Strip, a Hamas activist was killed during an armed clash with members of Islamic Jihad. Eyewitnesses said the Gaza City clashes started around noon, when members of the Preventive Security Service affiliated with former security minister Muhammad Dahlan opened fire on a number of security officers from Military Intelligence, headed by Gen. Musa Arafat. The confrontation began when Preventive Security personnel tried to arrest Muhammad Abu Jarrar, a top Military Intelligence officer, at his home. Jarrar and some members of his family opened fire at the force, seriously wounding Tamer Daghmash.
In the evening, the clashes spread to other parts of Gaza City, with both sides using hand grenades and assault rifles. Daghmash's friends attacked Military Intelligence headquarters, wounding two officers. In retaliation, scores of Military Intelligence officers attacked the Preventive Security headquarters. The tension started on Saturday, when Arafat's security officers kidnapped a member of the Preventive Security in response to the abduction of one of their men a few days earlier. The two kidnapped men complained that they had been tortured. The armed clashes ended on Tuesday morning, following the intervention of senior Fatah officials. Tensions have been running high between the two security services since the appointment of Arafat as overall commander of the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip last July. Dahlan's supporters have launched a series of attacks on Arafat's men and offices in different parts of the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month, Arafat narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb was detonated near his convoy. No group claimed responsibility, although many Palestinians believe that Dahlan's supporters were behind it.
In other scenes of lawlessness in the West Bank, gunmen belonging to the Aksa Martyrs Brigades closed down the offices of the Palestinian Legislative Council and PA Tax Authority in Jenin. They entered the offices and ordered all workers to leave within 10 minutes before closing them indefinitely. Zakariya Zubeidi, commander of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, said the move was to protest against the failure of the PA to pay salaries to the families of Palestinians killed in the violence. "The Palestinian parliament has approved a series of laws that harm the monthly fees allocated for the victims of the intifada and the families of the martyrs," he said. "This is at a time when senior PA officials are wasting public funds and spending money on themselves." He also accused the tax department of deducting almost half of the payments sent to the families.
#2
These "scenes of lawlessness" are perfect illustrations of what anarchy means in practice (as opposed to the theoretical paradise that some "libertarians" advocate).
#4
"I hate the infidel more!"
"No, I hate him more! He put panties on my head!"
".......Pansy."
"Die Jew-lover!"
Posted by: Charles ||
10/20/2004 8:57
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when members of the Preventive Security Service affiliated with former security minister Muhammad Dahlan opened fire on a number of security officers from Military Intelligence, headed by Gen. Musa Arafat
this aint anarchy. This is the PLAN, folks. We do have a dog in this fight.
#7
Gang wars, "families" blasting away at each other, corrupt government officials. This is better then watching "The Untouchables" with my dad on Friday nights when I was about 8...
Best and worst countries in the Global Corruption Perceptions Index released Wednesday by Transparency International. Scores are based on a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 10 (least corrupt). The United States ranks number 17, with a score of 7.5, tied with Belgium and Ireland.
Top 10:
1. Finland 9.7
2. New Zealand 9.6
3. Denmark 9.5
3. Iceland 9.5
5. Singapore 9.3
6. Sweden 9.2
7. Switzerland 9.1
8. Norway 8.9
9. Australia 8.8
10. Netherlands 8.7
And the losers are...
Bottom 10:
133. Angola 2.0
133. Democratic Republic of Congo 2.0
133. Ivory Coast 2.0
133. Georgia 2.0
133. Indonesia 2.0
133. Tajikistan 2.0
133. Turkmenistan 2.0
140. Azerbaijan 1.9
140. Paraguay 1.9
142. Chad 1.7
142. Myanmar 1.7
144. Nigeria 1.6
145. Bangladesh 1.5
145. Haiti 1.5
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
8:21:30 PM ||
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Nigeria? Damn! I hope my dealings with the son of Sani Abacha are OK...better check my balance online..
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 20:39
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#2
clearly a racist poll...9 of the top 10 are whitey countries....
Posted by: Mr. K ||
10/20/2004 21:19
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#3
Damn! Now I am REALLY worried about those "Haiti Wood and Logging, Inc." shares I bought over the Internet from the President of Haiti, ArMobongo, who, strangely enough lives and works in Lagos, JUST UP THE LIST.
#5
I'm just happy to see that Bangla is now only the second most corrupt country in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004 22:32
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Mr. K,
"9 of the top 10 are whitey countries...."
I think you need to hit your statistical "refresh" button. Denmark is no longer "whitey". Denmark is one step away from being a Islamic state. Therefore, 8 of the 10 are whitey.
BTW, where in the HELL is Mexico. No corruption survey is complete is without our angelic and saintly neighbors in the South.
Critics and friends of military-ruled Myanmar on Wednesday urged the country's new prime minister to make good on government promises to move toward democracy, a day after the junta shuffled a more moderate leader out of power.
Well, that sounds hopeful. I guess. They'll be a beacon of democracy in no time flat at this rate.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
8:17:31 PM ||
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Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the self-made billionaire who rebuilt Beirut from the ruins of civil war, dissolved his Cabinet on Wednesday and said he won't lead the next government, a surprise move that could bolster Syria's role in Lebanese affairs. Hariri's decision could make him a more powerful force in Lebanese politics, building support among a disillusioned public ahead of parliamentary elections in May. It is more likely, however, to indicate that Syria is strengthening its hand in Lebanon by seeking to bring in an entirely loyal Lebanese administration to face the mounting international pressure on Damascus' dominance here.
Syria has been the power broker in Lebanon for more than a decade. Hariri, who has been prime minister for 10 of the 14 years since the end of Lebanon's devastating 1975-90 civil war, submitted his resignation to President Emile Lahoud at a brief meeting Wednesday, his office said. "No one disagrees about the magnitude of the internal and external challenges faced by Lebanon," he said in his statement. "I deemed it appropriate to present the government's resignation together with declining to nominate myself to premiership."
Lahoud accepted the Cabinet's resignation and asked Hariri to continue in a caretaker capacity until a new Cabinet is formed. But Lahoud, who has been locked in a power struggle with Hariri for several years, did not comment on Hariri's decision to step down himself. The two reportedly have been discussing the formation of a new government for two weeks but apparently failed to bridge their differences. In his statement, Hariri said the challenges facing Lebanon needed to be dealt with by a coherent team but cited the "known political realities" in his decision to quit and decline any possible invitation to form a new government. Officials close to Hariri said his resignation was in earnest, and that he would not lead the next government. But others maintained there may be still room for a Hariri comeback. "He won't be a puppet of Lahoud," said Ali Hamadeh, a political analyst with the leading independent newspaper An-Nahar. "This may not be the end."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
8:15:05 PM ||
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#1
this is disturbing. Hmmmmm what would happen if there was a decapitating strike on Syrian leadership? Or an emasculating barrage on the syrian military assholes launching mortars into Iraq? I'd like to see the Syrian old guard that runs Assad and Syria take a humiliating beating. Soon
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 20:24
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#2
Well, at least one small nation is standing tall, while most of the old colonial powers sit on the sidelines.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
~John Stuart Mill
#7
We have a good sized Soman community here. Pissing them off isn't a good idea if you want to live. Most here are Pentecostals and never get in a bit of trouble. However I pity the poor SOB that manages to piss one off enough to come to blows. You could be all kinds of DEAD in a hurry.
Zarq's plan: he's writing letters to the voters of Clark County, Ohio.
Islamist militants leading attacks on foreign troops in Iraq have announced an alliance with al-Qaeda, with the aim of influencing the US election result, experts on extremism say. Several Islamist websites broadcast a statement this week saying that militants led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who have claimed responsibility for numerous kidnappings and killings, have pledged allegiance to Great Caesar's ghost Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader. "The Zarqawi statement is timed to come just before the US election," a leading Islamist who follows the Iraqi groups closely said on Tuesday. "What they want to tell the American people is that Bush has turned Iraq into a battleground for al-Qaeda." umm, hasn't Bush been saying exactly that? And that it is better to fight al-Qaeda there than here? And that this Iraq is central to the war on terror? And that this is why we must be committed in Iraq, not wishy-washy?
"The groups in Iraq want to show that al-Qaeda officially exists in Iraq," said Mustafa Alani, director of the security and terrorism centre at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "These people are aren't stupid, and their political timing is certain to defeat their stated goal right. There's an agreement on timing between the jihadists in Iraq and al-Qaeda, but the link is ideological, not operational. There is no group in Iraq that is receiving orders from al-Qaeda," Mr Alani said. A dissident with links to Islamist groups said on Tuesday that the formation of the alliance with al-Qaeda was unlikely to radically alter the military capability of the insurgents. "But there must have been discussion with Osama bin Laden on this agreement," the dissident said. "Nobody below him would have been able to authorise it," he said, adding: "All jihadis are regarding Iraq as the main field of jihad. They are investing their human and other resources there. They are feeling that Iraq is going to be a turning point in the current history of the battle between the Muslims and the Americans."
#1
To be fair, that's like lighting a house on fire and then being commended for trying to put it out. Previous to the invasion, all intelligence points to the fact that there was little Al Qaeda presence, activity, or connection to or with Iraq. Transforming Iraq into an Al Qaeda battlefield is only a good thing if the number of Al Qaeda is stagnant and they are all simply drawn to one area to be decimated.
However, the number of Al Qaeda isn't stagnant. And the war in Iraq has been a recruitment blessing that only Allah or, apparently, George W Bush, could have granted to Al Qaeda.
#2
Anyone who claims that "Al-Qaeda officially exists in Iraq" has got to be a Republican operative. Just ask Carter, Moore, Dean, Gore, and Kerry - the quincumvirate from hell.
#4
"a lot of evidence demonstrates formal contacts between the Baathist tyranny and the Al-Qaeda thugs prior to the liberation of Iraq".
Well, the bipartisan 9/11 commission said there was scant evidence, and I believe V.P. Cheney even recently claimed in the debate that he never said there was any link between Saddam and Al Qaeda.
So unless you have evidence they don't have, I'm not quite sure where your getting that from.
I'm all for a thorough prosecution of war against Al Qaeda and radical Islam, but it must be done right.
#5
There is no evidence that the Baathists were directly involved in 9/11, but there is plenty of evidence that they were talking and cooperating with Al-Qaeda.
#6
my read is that zawquari gave his "bayah"--oath of allegiance-- to ubl because he's running out of money and moonbats--he was fiercely independent as he doesn't want an alliance with the apostate shia who he depises more than the kufr and ubl builds jihadi bridges with shites in the enemy of my enemy mold--but zawk is giving up his numero uno rights because his tits are in the ringer--he's losing guys right and left--this way he gets to slip into iran with ubl and stay a macher while keeping his head attached to his shoulders--its a ghazi thing--these guys think they are knights under the banner of the prophet--they believe this medieval apocalyptic bullshit--where is hulagu khan when you need him
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
10/20/2004 1:47
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#7
Could we introduce a Hulugu Day to celebrate the massive defeat of Islamofascism?
#8
"I'm all for a thorough prosecution of war against Al Qaeda and radical Islam, but it must be done right."
Doing it right is fighting it in the middle east where these islamo-fascist murders come from. Not in New York city or Washington state. I would hope this is a great recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda. I hope Iraq is a huge magnet that draws these terrorist morons like so many iron filings. Kill them off as quick as they can be recruited. I want the US to disrupt their operations every day and in every way. Kill off their leadership as quick as it assumes power. Kill them there not here. Don't let them think if they hold with and support islamo-fascism they can sleep well at night. Who do you think scares Al-Qaeda that pair of fops Kerry and Edwards or President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney?
#9
Official. That's a funny word for such a scattergun set of fuckwits. Hell, they can't even keep their ID cards sorted. Twin Rivers Jihadis of Doom, Pasty Cavewall Smears of Death, Suicide Pregnancy Machine Brigades, The Industrial Shredders for Oily Food Regime, Glowing Rag Domed Killers of Qomeini - it's all a bit muddled. I'm thinking they just need a Day Runner and an account at Kinko's.
Who the fuck really cares? Dickie Clarke Tracy?
Fry 'em up now, and debate the genealogy later. Over a case of cold ones, if that floats your boat. Just my 2 cents.
#11
This largely an issue of semantics. AQ is not a sharply delineated organization. I.e. we can't say that AQ stops here and non-AQ starts. A lot of us use AQ as a generic term like the 'Russian mafia' to mean fundamentalist inspired islamic terrorists (becuase the religous label is non-PC). Saddam was up to his neck in sponsoring Islamic terrorism. Whether the individuals were in contact with UBL or not, is neither here nor there.
I've just noticed .com has made the same point a little more colorfully :-)
#15
Any of you guys familliar with HHG? This AlQ law enforcement mentality / approach reminds me of the "B" Ark guys, after they've crash landed, unable to invent the wheel - because they can't decide what phreakin' color it should be. We've all been infected by the Fibbie Flowcharts of Doom. Pfeh.
#16
febuary 10, 1258--the day the abbasid caliph and all his retainers surrendered to hulagu--blessed day--he killed all the muzzies but let the caliph live for a while longer in a rope a dope obeiescence type mode--then he had him strangled after the caliph told him where the gold was--his later conversion to islam was a political move to control his subjects in the il-khanate which was persia and surrounding territory--his wife was a nestorian christian--he didn't kill the christians in bagdad--just the muzzie fuckfaces--works for me
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
10/20/2004 2:46
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#17
.com, you seem the type who always knows where his towel is.
Darn, of course you HAVE to know! You don't say which one son of Tolui, but lemme guess... Hulugu!
(I thought that the writing style is rather familiar--LGF).
#19
Okay, let me get this straight... The best candidate that the Democratic Party can come up with is an ultra-liberal, flip-flopping, pacifist Francophile senator from Massachusetts who we wouldn't even be seeing if he hadn't married the ketchup and pickle queen in a church that should have excommunicated him years ago. Kimmie, the Iranian mullahs, and Chirac are campaigning for him. Zarqawi thinks he is, but actually Zarqawi's helping Bush too. Meanwhile Soros is sending me junkmail in triplicate telling me that I should vote his preferences because, after all, he's a billionaire. You know something? -- you can't make this stuff up! But it really leaves me wondering about the sanity of my neighbor down the street who has a Kerry sign on his front lawn.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/20/2004 9:12
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#20
You know that at the time of WTC attack on 9/11, it was already Sept 12 in Afghanistan?
No it wasn't. It wasn't even Sep 12 in Sydney, Australia, where I was living at the time. It was 10 or 11pm on Sep 11.
#21
tw - A fellow HH - Cool! I mourned the passing of Adams as if he were immediate family, sigh. And yewbetcha, got my towel, my guide, digital watch, Panic! glasses and I'm ready for that hyperspace bypass, lol! Still looking for Trillian, however, heh!
#23
.com, my girls know that the answer is always 42, and did book reports on Hitchhiker's Guide -- much to their teachers' puzzlement. Its so nice that the younger generation has good taste (they're into Pink Floyd, too)
#25
OMG, .com, THANKS! I've saved the files for their delectation. DO YOU HAVE THE WHOLE THING??? If so, please send it to me post haste -- that will take care of Xmas/Hanukkah gifts for the whole family!!!!!!! (yes, I'm excited. Sorry, all)
#26
The whole 13-part (42 minutes each) PBS series??!!?! No - sorry! I wish I did!
I'll look around - mebbe, just mebbe, it can be had... I have many "odd" sources, but I can offer no guarantees! I'll snarf up whatever I can lay my connection vacuum on, heh.
#28
My husband's favorite! And the reason it took me several years to pursuade him that the girls would enjoy going to summer camp. Heh, your very own self, buddy.
#31
That's the one, Desert Blondie. My local NPR station has played the radio series twice during my sojourns Stateside, so I made two non-intersectingly incomplete sets of tapes. Very frustrating.
BTW, best wishes for all happiness for both of you in the years to come!
#32
tw - it's been interesting looking around. I found DVD's on eBay in the $20-$25 range that may be the original as shown on PBS, may not - and more.
The funniest thing is that the BBC has continued the series - in "phases" which appear to be series extensions. They are in phase 3 now. I downloaded the first 6 episodes (in MP3) of phase 3 from an obscure (to me) UseNet Group. I've listened and there is much overlap, but new chars and new storylines, of course, to keep it interesting.
The bad thing is that I'm so far out of the HHG loop (because I was out of civilization for most of the last 10 years) and can't be sure what is what, lol!
If you're into UseNet, I found the new series / phase 3 files in:
alt.binaries.sounds.radio.bbc
I'll upload them and post links so you can d/l them - on THIS thread - within the hour. That will introduce you to the new phase, anyway!
ABC news anchor Peter Jennings said he's getting an earful on media coverage. Jennings is on a swing through battleground states, is he stumping for Kerry?
including Iowa and Missouri, where polls show the race could go either to President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry. "I think one of the best reasons to go on the road is just to listen," Jennings told KETV NewsWatch 7's Rob McCartney during a stop in Kansas City, Mo., Monday. Jennings said the media is now under the hot lights. "I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective," Jennings said. Jennings said that everyone -- even journalists -- have points of view through which they filter their perception of the news. It could be race, sex or income. But, he said, reporters are ideally trained to be as objective as possible. "And when we don't think we can be fully objective, to be fair," the anchorman said. You get an 'F' on both Peter....
Does the public think network news is fair? There are a number of opinion polls that show news consumers feel that the media does have a slant. Jennings maintains those polls may be driven by groups with an agenda. Agenda: Get reliable truthful news.
"There's a whole industry of conservatives saying, 'Ah, it's those damn liberals,' and a whole group of liberals saying, 'It's all those damn conservatives,'" Jennings said. The problematic response, Jennings said, is the way people tailor the way they consume news. No Peter. The problem is that your monopoly on the 'NEWS' is over. People can do their own research now. People can comment and discuss the news with others (some of which are very knowledgable - there are several here on Rantburg I respect). People can see that the MSM is giving the terrorists a free pass by calling them 'militants' or 'resistance fighters' instead of terrorists (i.e. someone who deliberately targets and kills innocent civilians) deliberately slanting the news (not mentioning the rapes or murdered children in Russa). People are realizing that the MSM is deliberately lying with the goal of directing public opinion (see CBS) - and has been for some time. The only 'tailoring' is to assign a 'credibility index' to news sources such as yours (zero).
Hat tip Dhimmi Watch Followup on the Muslim convert who wanted to play basketball in a burka thingie. She is now deprogrammed. Andrea Armstrong, the college basketball player whose desire to compete covered in Muslim clothing caused a national controversy, says she has returned to the Christian faith in which she was raised.
"Sorry. Changed my mind. Ignore what I just said, okay?"
In a letter to the editor of The Oregonian e-mailed Oct. 6, Armstrong wrote that loneliness and distance from her family led to her conversion to Islam. Armstrong, who attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, is from Lakeside, about 90 miles southwest of Eugene on the Oregon coast. "I know that my actions caused great controversy over the past few weeks," Armstrong wrote. "I had no idea that a decision that I thought I was making for myself would reach out so far beyond myself and affect so many."
"I had no idea I'd look quite that stoopid!"
Armstrong did not respond to interview requests. The letter is Armstrong's first public comment since a Sept. 15 statement that she was leaving the team. Armstrong converted to Islam in June, according to a Sept. 11 story in the St. Petersburg Times. She began wearing a head scarf, long pants and long-sleeved shirts in keeping with the religion's traditions.
Now they'll have to kill her, 'cuz she's an apostate...
Armstrong and USF basketball coach Jose Fernandez agreed that she would not wear traditional Muslim clothing in games, according to the Times. Yet when Armstrong, 22, returned to school in August, she told the coach she wanted to adhere to her faith, according to the Times. She showed up for team photos Aug. 30 fully covered. What happened next is in dispute.
"No, no! That ain't the way it happened!"
"Shuddup! It did so!"
Fernandez told The Oracle newspaper of USF that Armstrong quit the team that day to pursue her faith.
"I ain't got time for basketball! I gotta bang my head on the floor five times a day!"
Armstrong told the Times that Fernandez said wearing long clothing would make her teammates uncomfortable and that Islam oppressed women. She also said Fernandez called her parents and told them she had joined a "cult." Armstrong told the Times that she left over the dispute about her clothing.
"If I can't have sequins, I'm leaving!"
"Well, fine then! Leave and be damned!"
Fernandez declined the Times' request to comment and did not return a message from The Oregonian.
"Your call is very important to me. At the tone, please leave your name and number and the date and time of your call and I'll get back to you. Eventually."
School officials said they would seek a waiver from NCAA guidelines to accommodate her dress, and Armstrong quickly returned to the team.
"See? See? We're caving! That's the way you can tell we're an institute of higher education!"
Yet on Sept. 15, four days after news broke of the alleged dispute about her clothing, Armstrong issued a statement saying she had quit the team because she did not want the issue "to cause further distraction."
"I'm so frightened! Oh, hold me Ahmed!"
"Back off, y'brazen hussy!"
Bedier said that Armstrong received hate-filled e-mails denouncing Islam, and that one man waved a newspaper story while following her in a car as she drove home on a scooter.
... her burka waving in the wind...
Contacted Oct. 7, Bedier said he had seen no indication that Armstrong was reconsidering her conversion to Islam. "Her only hesitation was whether she was going to play or not," said Bedier, who said he had last spoken to Armstrong two weeks earlier. After being given a copy of Armstrong's letter to the editor, Bedier did not respond to requests for comment.
"Wotta waste of time! Oh, well! She must be killed..."
South Florida officials said they would allow Armstrong to keep her basketball scholarship even after she left the team. But Armstrong withdrew from school Sept. 23, according to the registrar's office.
"I'm outta here!"
Armstrong played for North Bend High School and accepted a basketball scholarship to Kansas State, where she played for two seasons. Seeking more playing time, she transferred to South Florida in 2002 and played her only season there in 2003-04, when she was co-captain and averaged 3.4 points per game. This season would have been Armstrong's last year of eligibility.
Now it's her first year as a laughingstock...
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004
6:17:14 AM ||
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....I believe the technical term for Miss Armstrong's situation is, "She's a nut."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/20/2004 9:17
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I believe that you should have said 'attention hoor'.
Changing religions is a significant thing, not to be done lightly. She appears to have done it lightly, with little consideration for its effect on her lifestyle.
It would make sense for Islam in America to proselytize high-profile people to attempt to make the religion more acceptable in the US. I wonder . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/20/2004 9:30
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#3
I believe the correct term is "She's young." Let her have her privacy back so she can finish growing up, though 22 is getting long in the tooth.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 9:37
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What is it with USF? Home of Sami al-Arian. It would be a hoot to watch her play in a burka. And what team is really looking for someone who only averages 3.4 points/game?
Posted by: BA ||
10/20/2004 10:28
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"I had no idea that a decision that I thought I was making for myself would reach out so far beyond myself and affect so many."
Yeah, and I'll bet that she's the type that would recklessly cross three lanes of traffic just so that she won't miss a turn.
#7
I agree with the old Russian Czar that determined that his nation would be Eastern Orthodox Christian rather than Islam because Islam forbids booze!
They hate the Jews, they hate the booze, they hate a woman's right to choose, they're gonna lose!
THEY called it "Spectre baiting". Sergeant Craig Brodie, 33, sensed his men's nervousness in the grim little joke as their Warrior armoured vehicle crawled down a darkened street in the southern Iraqi city of Amara. They were keyed up for action and concentrating for all they were worth.
Lurking in the shadows ahead was a group of rebel gunmen from the Mahdi army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi'ite cleric. Brodie's job was to lure them into the open so an AC-130 Spectre gunship overhead could destroy them with its cannons and howitzers.
The rebels would show themselves only if they were attacking the British Warrior, so it was no surprise to Brodie that the atmosphere in the vehicle was tense.
By contrast, the American voice in his earphones could not have been cooler. "Steel rain on call," drawled the controller of the US special forces gunship circling in the starry night sky and waiting for the moment to strike.
There was a pause as the Warrior edged forward. Then the controller, codenamed Basher 75, came back on the radio. Six to eight armed men had been spotted with the Spectre's night vision equipment. They were preparing to ambush.
"Any foxhounds out?" asked the controller, checking that there were no dismounted soldiers who needed to get back inside Brodie's vehicle fast.
It was just as well the answer was negative. The Mahdi militiamen were now less than 100 yards away and the Spectre was about to swing into action.
Colonel Matt Maer, of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (PWRR), had given special written authorisation for the Spectre to open fire even if his own troops were within the potential blast area. This was to be the first such "danger close" engagement signed off by a British commander since the Korean war.
Brodie locked down his hatch and stared through his night-sights at the Mahdi militiamen. "We were in so close we watched them laughing and joking," he recalled. "Basher then announced, 'Rounds on the way,' and at the same time I engaged with my cannon.
"The strike was an awesome sight. There was no flame, just a big puff and then hot metal shrapnel flying in all directions. In three or four seconds the smoke cleared and there was nothing there at all. The militia had been vaporised."
The battle that began that night — August 10 — was codenamed Operation Hammersmith and became the biggest fought by British troops since the invasion of Iraq last year. More than 100 engagements would follow in 48 hours.
Rest of 3 page article at link.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004
6:10:54 AM ||
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"Steel rain on call."
I like that. "Steel rain." Nasty.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/20/2004 9:18
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The unit motto is probably "We make house calls" or possibly "Weddings our specialty."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 9:29
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In three or four seconds the smoke cleared and there was nothing there at all. The militia had been vaporised.
#6
This has been SOP with US forces for some time - going back to Vietnam - and ya gotta have bait to lay a trap. Glad to see the cousins are comfortable (???) with the ploy, now. The accuracy and devastation of the "on call" Spectre is first rate. Being inside an armored (armoured? heh) personnel carrier is a nice improvement over trying to find a depression in the elephant grass - improves your survivability and guarantees the identification of friend vs foe. Good show, chaps!
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
10/20/2004 12:03
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#9
The SPECTREs are flying in Afghanistan, SPOOKY is on the job in Iraq.
Posted by: a fan ||
10/20/2004 16:00
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#10
Spooky was the Vietnam era AC-47 gunship. The AC-130 is Spectre.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004 16:23
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#11
Anybody know if they've ever thought about tricking out a C-5A/B with some firepower? It might not be feasible, but I'll bet it'd be something to see.
#14
The AC-5B would be something to see when it cut loose, but I don't think it would be practical. The C-5 is built for lift capacity, not maneuverability. The C-130 is pretty darned maneuverable for something that big--I've heard it's sometimes referred to as "the only four-engine fighter plane ever built"--and that's how come it can lay down the fire so precisely.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/20/2004 18:12
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This sounds like a variation of an SAS "Quick Response" technique. Where three shooters sit in the back of a Jeep. To possibly draw and return massed firepower in a wide spectrum.
An AC-5B would be a waste of an aircraft. Since the 5 is very susceptable to stalling in a banked Pylon turn. Which is what a Spectre uses to deliver such pinpoint devastsation.
The C-130 is incredibly maneuverable, Mike. And does handle like a fighter. I've got dents in my scalp from not being strapped in when a Herk flew through mountain passes and ridges.
Dodging simulated SAMs. On its way to drop fuel bladders and Ground Contollers at a lake bed for A-10s in Vegas during training exercises.
Jack.
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
10/20/2004 20:19
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The C-130 sounds like a wonderful toy to not play nice with.
Hat tip Jihad Watch
UP TO 20 people suspected of taking part in an operation to free the British hostage Ken Bigley have been murdered in a purge of the terrorist group headed by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it was claimed yesterday.
Oooh! Purge! I like purges!
A senior Iraqi resistance source in al-Zarqawi's stronghold of Falluja said two Syrian guards had helped the 62-year-old Liverpool-born engineer to escape after he was held at a mosque on the edge of the city. Their car was halted for routine checks by insurgents with links to al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group before they could reach the safety of an area under American control. According to the resistance source the Iraqis recognised Bigley, who was disguised in Arab dress. Al-Zarqawi is said to have been incensed that his group had been compromised and ordered the insurgents to behead Bigley.
"Awright! That does it! Off with his head!"
Instructions were given that the murder should be filmed and presented to resemble as closely as possible the beheadings of Bigley's American companions, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, who had been abducted with him in Baghdad three weeks earlier. The Syrian guards were handed over to senior Tawhid and Jihad members for further interrogation and were killed later, along with as many as 18 suspected collaborators. The details emerged a week after a Saudi described as a spokesman for Tawhid and Jihad claimed the guards had received a large sum of money from British intelligence. A western military intelligence source said MI6 had paid a network of local Iraqis for information in the hunt for Bigley, but insisted that the principal aim had been to kill or capture al-Zarqawi. Intelligence specialists flew out to Baghdad to assist in the search for Bigley, the source said. But the four or five raids they helped organise on "safe houses" all proved fruitless.
They gave it a try, and it beats hell out of paying ransom...
The source said the coalition remained confident that the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi's reign of terror would eventually be halted. "It's only when the Iraqis themselves tire of al-Zarqawi that he will be found," he added. Much of the secret information-gathering work against al-Zarqawi is being co-ordinated by the Iraq Survey Group, whose intelligence experts were originally focused on the vain search for weapons of mass destruction. The group is using agents seconded from the CIA and MI6, while the main force on the ground involved in raids on militant hideouts is the US 10th Mountain Division.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004
6:05:15 AM ||
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Syrian guards, eh? I hope people are writing this down for future reference...
#2
Instructions were given that the murder should be filmed and presented to resemble as closely as possible the beheadings of Bigleyâs American companions, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, who had been abducted with him in Baghdad three weeks earlier
I find that to be a very interesting detail. Not sure exactly what it means. Did they want to make it look like Zarqawi was there...or that he oversaw it? I remember that the Jihadi's went to excessive lengths to assure us that Zarqawi had ordered it, blessed it and personally overseen the beheading. Just so there wasn't any doubt or anything.
Or could it mean that this is all BS and that he was actually killed earlier on than they want us to believe?
Regardless..it's an interesting and odd detail in an odd story.
#5
When Iraqis tire of al-Zarqawi? Is there a great precedent in Islamia for having had enough of any terrorists? I haven't seen too many people taking to the streets of Palestine or Iraq demanding Islamicists stop their murderous rampages.
I do think the numbers of jihadi recruits would increase enormously were mosques attacked, but OTOH perhaps Muslims would understand what the price is for their tolerating "heroic jihadi" crimes if we did so. They certainly need a little fire under their rears for motivation. Whatever tactic we use, we should employ the strategy of hurting the things they value.
#6
Hmmmm.... wasn't it Abu Nidal's group that was destroyed from the inside by his increasing paranoia? He was led to see turncoats and informers at every turn, which led him to conduct purges which eventually rendered his group next to non-existant and ineffective. Dare we hope that some clever-cogs in intelligence are encouraging Zarqawi down the same path?
#7
I haven't seen too many people taking to the streets of Palestine or Iraq demanding Islamicists stop their murderous rampages.
there was a demo against Sadr in Najaf a couple of months ago. I suggest you check Healing Iraq, Messopotamian, and other Iraqi bloggers. These things dont get much publicity. Also realize that demoing against terrorists in Iraq means taking your life in your hands, since terrs are still going around killing.
#8
I didn't say there weren't any-I said there weren't many, at least that we've heard of. Of course you are right, they would be taking their lives in their hands. The question they should be asking themselves is:
are we taking our lives in our hands by risking bombing and continued war from America while we protect Islamic martyrs
or
are we taking our lives in our hands by enraging jihadis while we work to be in control of our own lives, for the first time in decades?
I don't mean to be flippant, LH, but one some level, those are the choices they are faced with.
#10
jules asked if theres precedent for muslims having had enough of terrorists (I presume on ANY grounds, financial or otherwise) I think there is abundant precedent, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Algeria. For the most part this isnt expressed through demonstrations (though sometimes it is - and when it is, its not well reported)but through day to day actions in support of the regimes doing battle with the terrorists. For the most part demonstrations in that part of the world i either manipulated by govts, or stirred by demagogues - theyre not part of ordinary democratic political discourse. That, among other things, is what we are trying to change. But they certainly dont NOW have a political culture like ours.
Every week the jihadis kill Iraqi police and national guards, or people lining up to join the IP and ING. With what result? People CONTINUE to line up to join the IP and ING. That says it all, i think. Even if many of those are doing so mainly for money. Theyre risking their lives. To DO something, not merely to say something.
#11
I've seen the long version of the Bigley beheading video. There were 2 things that seemed very odd, when compared to previous beheadings by Zarqawi's group. First, all 6 masked terrorists, standing behind Bigley, were wearing street clothes. Khaki pants, bright colored button down shirts, vests, it seemed they were rushed to do this. The second diffrence was it was shot with 2 cameras. The first camera was straight on, while the 2nd shot appeared to come from Bigley's immediate left. The camera shots seemed to transition seamlessly. IMO, if we are to find Zarqawi, I think detaining all Al-Jazeera employees in Iraq for questioning, would be a good start. Someone is definately helping on the production end of these videos.
#13
LH-That they are doing so mainly for money is worrying. If their reason for signing up morphs into the chance to fight for their own people's freedom from tyranny, we'll all breathe a sigh of relief.
Destro-I like your Al Jazeera idea. If they're so comfortable with watching a decapitation and not moving an inch to save someone's life, maybe they can be next in line.
#15
I will not kneel before these terrorists. If I don't join the army, who is going to defend the country from the terrorists?" - an Iraqi recruit, after yet another hideous terrorist assault on an Iraqi National Guard building.
from the New York Times, via Andrew Sullivan.
Not a demonstator. Not a blogger. A soldier. In the beginning was the deed.
#19
I will not kneel before these terrorists. If I don't join the army, who is going to defend the country from the terrorists?" - an Iraqi recruit, after yet another hideous terrorist assault on an Iraqi National Guard building.
A true Iraqi hero. Wonder if his story will go down in history (as it should) as one of the founding fathers of the new deomcratic Iraq.
#20
LH-Do you think that was true of Revolutionary War soldiers, too
I dont know. Ive read less than I would like about the War of Independence. It was certainly true of many soldiers in the Army of the Potomac, and the officers had mixed motives as well. Certainly from what my Dad told me, most men in the "greatest generation" went to war because they had to, not in a fit of anti-fascist enthusiasm.
#21
BTW, i daresay most Americans in 1776 were farmers on their own land. While times may have been tough, with trans-atlantic trade interrupted, they could feed their own families. Unemployment in Iraq today is still widespread (though decreasing) and a rather more serious matter than in the West.
One of those who survived the blast was a national guard soldier named Qusay Hassan. He spoke with anger following the death and maiming of his comrades, and his spirit seemed unbroken.
"I will not kneel before these terrorists," Mr. Hassan said. "If I don't join the army, who is going to defend the country from the terrorists?"
and heres something from strategy page, via instapundit
Foreigners are mystified at how Iraqis continue to join the police and army, despite the car bombings and other attacks directed against them. It's not just for the money. For many of these recruits, there is a dead relative, murdered by some Sunni Arab thug working for Saddam. It's civil war, and the coalition wants to prevent it from turning into an orgy of revenge. What gets little reported in the West is the enthusiasm among Iraqis, and especially members of the government, for just bombing Fallujah into rubble.
This morning my uncle whoâs a highschool principal found a post signed by Al Tawheed Wal Jihad group on the door of his school. It seems that they are distributing a poster throughout Baghdad demanding all government employees to stop going to work, threatening to behead anyone who disobey! It reads:
In the name of God most merciful most gracious
A threat to all government institutes and all government employees. Why do you keep going to work and schools and keep silent about the occupation? We will behead anyone who commits to work in government institutes.
Allah Akbar Allah Akbar
wal yakhsaâa Il khasiâoon*
Al Tawheed Wal Jihad group.
And here we sit, comfortably, typing about the "cowardice" of ordinary Iraqis.
#24
I could not call them cowards. I think they are of two minds, wanting to be faithful to their religion, but de facto-by doing so in modern-day Iraq-ending up being supportive of terrorist jihadis, consciously or not. I appreciate the fact that they don't have the luxury of casual, detached, and patient consideration of the war. But with death coming from both directions, wouldn't choosing
1.) the option with the best chance to deliver national freedom
2.) the option that doesn't involve blackmail
3.) the option where you punish those who intentionally targeted your family, friends rather than soldiers who UNintentionally killed your family WHILE killing terrorists and insurgents
4.) The option where the fighters are obviously helping you with medicine, financial support, military support
be more compelling?
I am glad to see from your post-scripts that this seems to be the case, at least point 3.
The suspected leader of a Muslim cell plotted to devastate Spain with a suicide bombing that would kill senior judges and destroy case files at a court that serves as a center for investigating Islamic terror, officials said Wednesday. Police also said they had intercepted hundreds of letters from suspected cell members in which they said they were willing to stage suicide attacks. A report from the National Police intelligence unit, obtained by The Associated Press, quotes a protected witness who had been in contact with United Arab Emirates-born Mohamed Achraf, who Spain says was recently arrested in Switzerland. Authorities in Switzerland deny this.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/20/2004
5:09:06 PM ||
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How can this be? I thought the Spainards purchased protection by withdrawing from Iraq. Does this mean Islamist murderers can't be trusted to keep their word?
What a friggin' shock.
Pre-emption and unilateralism are the two most frequently used terms against President George W. Bush's foreign policy in the current presidential election campaign. Sen. John Kerry, the Democrat Party's presidential nominee, accuses Bush of breaking with an established tradition of American foreign policy. Kerry says the US should use force only after it is attacked, and then, only in conjunction with allies, and endorsement by the United Nations. Unilateralism and pre-emption, Kerry asserts, are alien to American traditions. But are they?
Both the kind of foreign policy that Kerry offers and the one practiced by Bush after Sept.11 , 2001 have deep roots in American history. When the United States emerged as an independent nation in the 18th century, virtually the entire world was dominated by European colonial powers. The chief concern of early American leaders was to steer clear of European rivalries, and avoid trouble in their own backyard.
#2
"In 1812 , however, the British attacked the United States, showing, not for the first time in history, that when a major war is fought somewhere it is bound to drag in other nations."
Well, no they didn't. The US declared war after many outrages which included supplying the natives for years in the Northwest Territories the weapons and materials to conduct what would be considered today as terrorist raids in the Ohio Valley. The Battle of the Thames [Canada] during the war would break the natives and end for all intents and purposes further serious attacks in the eastern portion of the Territories.
Posted by: Don ||
10/20/2004 9:17
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Veerappan, India's most wanted and most elusive brigand who murdered with impunity, was finally shot dead in his jungle hideout by elite commandos using some of the very tactics he employed for well over two decades to build a vast criminal empire. Using deception, undercover agents and a meticulously laid out network of informants, Tamil Nadu's Special Task Force (STF) commandos - set up only to nab him - trapped the 50-something Munuswamy Veerappan Gounder, made famous by his trademark handlebar moustache, into taking a van ride in a forested region where policemen ambushed and gunned him down Monday night. Operation Cocoon to track and eliminate the forest bandit succeeded because of extra-ordinary intelligence said K Vijaykumar, chief of the combined Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday. In a remarkable success story of perseverance, the STF - made up of commandos toughened by living in the inhospitable jungles of southern India straddling the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border - planted a mole in Veerappan's gang who drove the van that led him to his death.
Any chance these fine commandos would like to work in Fallujah?
President Bush and Senator John Kerry have very different views of the war on terrorism, and those differences ought to be debated in this presidential campaign. But the debate should focus on facts, not distortions of history. On more than one occasion, Senator Kerry has referred to the fight at Tora Bora in Afghanistan during late 2001 as a missed opportunity for America. He claims that our forces had Osama bin Laden cornered and allowed him to escape. How did it happen? According to Mr. Kerry, we "outsourced" the job to Afghan warlords. As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality.
First, take Mr. Kerry's contention that we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded." We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir. Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.
Second, we did not "outsource" military action. We did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew Tora Bora, a mountainous, geographically difficult region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is where Afghan mujahedeen holed up for years, keeping alive their resistance to the Soviet Union. Killing and capturing Taliban and Qaeda fighters was best done by the Afghan fighters who already knew the caves and tunnels.
Third, the Afghans weren't left to do the job alone. Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes. Pakistani troops also provided significant help - as many as 100,000 sealed the border and rounded up hundreds of Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
10/20/2004
4:12:23 AM ||
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What the heck does he know?
He wasn't wounded 3 times in Vietnam. He didn't have to brave the Boston mob in court. He didn't have to snowboard down mountains with clumsy secret service guys all over the piste. What the heck does he know.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/20/2004 7:46
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UKIdiot, lol! Launched another air-biscuit trying to be of consequence? Lol! Your J. Arthur pud-pulls are as laughably pathetic as your world view. Wotta ponce tool-fool, lol! FOAD / HAND.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 12:05
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I am a little confused. Perhaps I need a Massachusetts education so that I am not such an idiotic American.
1.) Isn't Kerry's main gripe about Bush that he acts unilaterally, not working with international partners in the WoT? Isn't the constant gripe that we impose ourselves on foreign governments instead of letting them participate in deciding the course and sharing the burden of action?
How does that square with:
2.)...Kerry's accusation that we are outsourcing the job [to an international partner]?
#10
actually, Franks did get 3 Purple Hearts in Vietnam, and was wounded in action several additional times but deemed them minor wounds that didn't require hospitalization... unlike Kerry who took every scratch, including self-inflicted wounds, to be a PH case.
Posted by: Jeff ||
10/20/2004 13:04
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#11
I do believe that Jack is Back was engaging in sarcasm.
#17
Easy! You didn't see the film records of the stockpiles being looted, while US soldiers stood by without orders? Why on earth would you respect someone with that degree of negligence.
You need to access David Hackett's website, before blindly accepting military spin.
#19
David Hackett Fishcer or David Hackett Souter?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 19:36
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Ummm... Anon Nona
I don't know if you remember, but at the time the weapons were being looted, the U.S. soldiers were busy conducting an invasion. They didn't empty their bladders in the same place twice, let alone have time to stand around watching Saddam's playmates help themselves to secret stockpiles. At least that's how the embedded reporters told the story -- with lots of film for various stations around the world, I might add.
Mrs. D: there's a David Hackett, rider (lots of videos, of himself and friends riding) and a Prof. Dave Hackett (biology, university in CA) as well.
Hat Tip M Drudge... Heinz Kerry Separates Self From Mrs. Bush Don't you just love AP spin... Teresa Heinz Kerry says she doesn't know if first lady Laura Bush has ever had "a real job" and suggests their different experiences help make them different people. Laura Bush taught in public schools in Texas from 1968 to 1977, the year she married George W. Bush. In an interview published Wednesday in USA Today, the newspaper asked the wife of Democratic candidate John Kerry if she would be different from Laura Bush as a first lady. "Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good," Heinz Kerry said. "But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up. So her experience and her validation comes from important things, but different things." Of course my job was to marry a soup and ketchup baron, and guess what? I did! Then I married an ambitious narcissistic ambitious bozo who might actually become US President, then I will be Queen of the World
Heinz Kerry said she sees her age as a benefit — she is 66 and Bush 57. "I'm older, and my validation of what I do is a little bit bigger — because I'm older, and I've had different experiences. And it's not a criticism of her. It's just, you know, what life is about," she said. Shove it, Scumbag!
Karen Hughes, an adviser to President Bush, criticized Heinz Kerry's remarks as "indicative of an unfortunate mind-set that seeks to divide women based on who works at home and who works outside the home." And, those who have so many homes, they don't have a real home...
#1
I look at pictures of the woman (a lady she most definitely is not) and I have to wonder how much she pays her hairdresser and beautician. Even in photos that don't catch her in mid yawn, she looks like she's gone overlong between visits to the nearest $10 walk-in Klip'n'Kurl. I mean, JFK always looks so immaculate -- but then maybe if you've bought and paid for it, you don't have to try as hard.
I don't have a link as yet but Terraazza, on Fox News, said "I don't know Laura Bush but I seriously doubt she has ever held a real job". Teaching, I guess, is not a real job.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/20/2004
3:50:08 PM ||
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..said "I donât know Laura Bush but I seriosly doubt she has ever held a real job".
This, coming from someone who married into her ketchup fortune.
An Australian journalist kidnapped in Iraq was freed after his captors checked the popular internet search engine Google to confirm his identity. John Martinkus was seized in Baghdad on Saturday, the first Australian held hostage in Iraq since the US-led invasion. But his captors agreed to release him after they were convinced he was not working for the CIA or a US contractor. He was reported to be making his way home to Australia on Tuesday. His executive producer at Australia's SBS network, Mike Carey, said Google probably saved freelance journalist Martinkus. "They Googled him and then went onto a web site - either his own or his book publisher's web site, I don't know which one - and saw that he was who he was, and that was instrumental in letting him go, I think, or swinging their decision," he told AP news agency.
Martinkus told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was snatched at gunpoint from outside a hotel close to Australia's embassy in Baghdad by Sunni Muslims, and that they had threatened to kill him. "I told them what I was doing (and that) I wasn't armed," he said. Asked how he coped, he said: "I just kept talking."
Posted by: .com ||
10/20/2004
3:45:51 AM ||
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#1
Now the asshole is praising his kidnappers:
"Mr Martinkus said his captors had threatened to kill him, but treated him with respect once they established he was independent.
"These guys ... (are) not stupid," he told reporters.
"They're fighting a war but they're not savages.
"They're not actually just killing people willy-nilly.
"They talk to you, they think about things.
"(From their perspective) there was a reason to kill (British hostage Ken) Bigley, there was a reason to kill the Americans; there was not a reason to kill me (and) luckily I managed to convince them of that."
Asked if he thought Iraq was on the road to recovery, Mr Martinkus said, "No, it's on the road to s---."
But the 35-year-old Melbourne man plans to return to the stricken country."
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11125242%255E421,00.html
#2
Asked if he thought Iraq was on the road to recovery, Mr Martinkus said, "No, it's on the road to s---."
That's interesting. It's almost like his real feelings about his captors came out in that sentence and everything he said about them before was just PC. Unless he himself is PC. One would have to check his site to find that one out.
#6
Could Google trace back the query to an IP number? someone's got to be able to track Internet traffic and the exact location of network access points in Iraq.
Unfortunately, you cannot trace it back to the PC in question. The public ip address on the PC in question could be dynamically allocated by ANY ISP in the world. So tracing the ip address can ONLY result in which ISP has the public ip address pool. The ISP is usually an innocent bystander. The only way it can be traced to the PC, is to use a internet mapping software while the terrorist is online e.g. tracing a phone call. Ascertaining the exact or triangulating the ip address on a PC on the internet, at a particular given time, is next to impossible. I can get into more details about tracing, brute force attacks, or DoS, but it will be boring. Hopefully, you have a better understanding, now.
#8
Yeah these guys are really smart, if the CIA can forge identification documents how hard is it gonna be to forge a fake website or two. Create a dozen blogs to link to it to ensure it gets to the top of the google listings. Put the guys face on it and some insane anti_american rantings. It could be done in a day or less. Yeah they're really smart.
#9
Poison Reverse, actually the first link to the Internet, from the computer to the ISP should be easy to track down -- once an IP number has been identified we know which ISP they use.
If I dial up to Earthlink, they know who dialled up, at what time, and which IP number I got. Would they record where the dial up call came from? maybe.
If I use a broadband connection such as DSL (not sure they have such in Iraq yet), then I have a more or less permanent IP number which my ISP can easily trace and reveal.
My point is that connecting to the Internet always leaves certain tracks. I hope someone is working on it in Iraq, e.g. looking at connections to the Islamofascist websites.
It's funny that you mention, Earthlink. They are not going to give up a damn thing.
Now, getting back to your point. Yes, when you dialup to Earthlink they know that "someone with your username & pass" has dialed in which results in the PC receiving an DHCP address. Again, Earthlink does NOT know whether its you or someone else that spoofed your username & pwd. Also, Earthlink or any ISP would have to be looking (logging) for a specific username&pwd, in order to start tracing it. EARTHLINK DOES NOT KNOW whether its you or a terrorist that has spoofed your username & pwd, when the PC dialed in. This goes for DSL or Cablemodem. If its is a DSL or Cablemodem the terrorist can use split tunneling via VPN and use terminal server or private connection "hairpinning" from, for example, a legitimate private ip network. This can make source and destinaion packet identification, difficult to determine. Without knowing the time (dialin) and location or whether the user is a terrorist or a law abiding citizen, it is next to impossible to track the person down via IP. Tracking certain ip's will lead to legitimate heads of state and that is a diplomatic NO NO. The NSA & FBI have been installing tracking software at ISP's such as "Magic Lantern" & "Carnivore" for a while now, but to no avail.
Tracking terrorists in a "ip world" would require the cooperation from EVERY ISP around the world. The truth is, 98% of the foreign countries will NOT help us. Hell, some U.S. ISP's will not help.
ZAMBOANGA CITY, 20 October 2004 — Another broadcaster was killed in a broad daylight attack yesterday in the southern province of Surigao del Sur, police and media advocates said yesterday. Eldy Sablas have just boarded a tricycle yesterday morning after buying something from a department store in Tandag town when a still unidentified gunman appeared from behind and shot him repeatedly with a .45 cal. pistol. Investigators said the victim suffered three gunshot wounds in the head and in the body.
Bet it was two in the chest and a finishing shot to the head. Sounds like a professional job.
The 30-year-old broadcaster of radio station DXJR was the eighth journalist to be murdered in the country this year, according to the watchdog National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). He was the second journalist to be killed in the Caraga region, comprising the Agusan and Surigao provinces in northeastern Mindanao. Last year, Rico Ramirez, a radio reporter, was shot dead while on his way to work in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur. "It is high time for the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to prove itself and its claim that there is press freedom in the country by bringing to justice the killers of journalists," NUJP national president Inday Varona said.
The NUJP and the Butuan-based Professional Responsible and Organized Media of Caraga (PRO-Media of Caraga ) said Sablas' death could have something to do with his repeated attacks against illegal gambling, illegal logging and illegal drugs in the province.
"Brilliant! How do they do it?"
Sablas delivered his last on-air report from the Tandag police station.
Humm, he do any reporting on bad cops? Just a thought.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
3:40:04 PM ||
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#1
Radio journalists in the Philippines, especially ones out in the provinces, have a really dangerous job. This is not new either. They were bumping them off with regularity since I was a kid in the sixties. Politics there is sometimes a bloody game.
#4
A Tricycle is kind of a motocycle with a (rather large) sidecar which can hold 2 people (in the sidecar that is). Good for getting around crowded streets.
Another Filipino transportation is the Jeepney. Think of an cross between a Jeep and school bus.
Jeepneys are often garnishy decorated with symbols (mostly religious / catholic), statues, colors, etc...
The United Nations has issued a statement calling on Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon, in accordance with a resolution passed last month. The Security Council statement was unanimous, meaning that it received the backing of Algeria, the only Arab member of the Security Council. Lebanon said the call set a "dangerous precedent of interference". Syria's ambassador to the UN said the US had pressured other Security Council members into accepting the statement. US deputy ambassador Anne Patterson said Washington was "quite pleased that this was a unanimous strong decision". She added: "It is important... that Syria cease interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, disarm militias and remove Syrian troops from Lebanon." ...more...
Regards asshats, state enablers, and failed states, "interference" is our middle name. So is "unilateral" and "regime change" and "topple" and "democratization" and "wymyn's rights" and ...
Posted by: .com ||
10/20/2004
3:30:50 AM ||
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Wow! Such quick action!
Like they've only been there, what, forty years?
I thought it was ok for Arabs to oppress each other according to the UN.
#2
38 years DB. And in theory they came in with the invite of the Leb govt - the christians actually called them in for help against the PLO and local allies in 1976. In, I think 1989, the Taif accords were signed, calling for gradual withdrawl. And they did take out some troops.
But in recent years they havent taken out any. And the move to change the Leb constitution, against the will of many Lebs, is bringing things to the fore. So the timing really isnt surprising.
BEIRUT/JEDDAH, 20 October 2004 — Twenty-seven years after his mysterious disappearance in Libya, Imam Mousa Sadr is making a comeback to haunt relations between Beirut and Tripoli.
I love a good mystery, it is almost Halloween.
Two passports believed to belong to Sadr and his aide Muhammad Yaqub were handed to the Lebanese authorities by the Italian government yesterday. The documents show that Sadr and Yaqub entered Rome and had their passports stamped days after their disappearance. Sadr, a leader of the Lebanese Shiite community, traveled to the Libyan capital in August 1978 along with two aides. He held a long meeting with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi that, by all accounts, was acrimonious.
Those usually don't turn out well.
Days later the Lebanese government accused Libya of having organized the disappearance. Later, Beirut broke all ties with Libya. Lebanese sources yesterday described the reappearance of the passports as "a suspicious development". Italy claims that the passports were discovered recently when a number of illegal immigrants were arrested with a stock of stolen travel documents. "The entire episode is strange," a Lebanese source said yesterday. "Just days after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited Qaddafi, we get the missing passports." The implication is that Berlusconi arranged the reappearance of the passports as a gesture of good will to Libya with which Italy is engaged in multibillion-dollar business negotiations.
Huuummmmm, I don't think Berlusconi would do that. At least I hope not.
Sadr was born in Iran but was dispatched to Lebanon in 1960 to represent the Grand Ayatollahs of Qom, the principal center of Shiism in Iran. In the 1970s, he created the Movement of the Dispossessed (Harkat Al-Mahroumin), which was later transformed into the Amal (Hope) movement. Sadr who hailed from a major clerical family was related to the late Ayatollah Khomeini as well as the Iraqi rebel leader Muqtada Al-Sadr. Another prominent relative of the missing Imam is Iran's President Muhammad Khatami.
OK, it's true. Every one in Turbanistan is related.
Imam Sadr's disappearance has been a subject of heated exchanges between Lebanon and Libya at all Arab League ministerial meetings and summits since 1978. The reappearance of the two passports strengthens Libya's claim that Sadr left Tripoli safe and sound. But that opens another mystery: how did the Imam vanish on his way home via Rome?
Just because his passports showed up in Rome, doesn't mean he did. I would of had a couple of boys fly to Rome using Sadr's passports just to confuse the issue if I was Qaddafi. Bet they were supposed to have been found there back in 1978, but got misplaced or stolen somehow.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
3:23:33 PM ||
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Parisian club hurts Sioux pride
The Sioux tribe of North America is demanding that the famous Parisian nightclub The Crazy Horse change its name out of respect for a former chief.
Oh, boy! More Tales of the Easily Offended™!
Harvey White Woman, a descendant of Crazy Horse, told the club that "my family are offended whenever there is a show of disrespect to our culture". The letter was delivered to the club by Alfred Red Cloud, 53, on behalf of the Oglala Sioux from South Dakota. Mr White Woman said the letter was prompted by the discovery that stage shows at the Crazy Horse featured pseudo-Indian feathered headdresses - on mostly naked dancers. ...more...
Native PC crosses giant pond.
Posted by: .com ||
10/20/2004
3:18:47 AM ||
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If you're an Indian who answers to the name "Mr. White Woman" I think changing the name of a nightclub should be your second priority.
#5
LOL--Maybe that's why they were one of the fiercest tribes on the Great Plains--they had the most lawyers! Nothing sends a chill down my spine like the phrase "Lakota Litigators".
Posted by: Dar ||
10/20/2004 9:08
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#6
Overwrought PC multiculturalists vs. the French.
Who do I root for?
Posted by: Mike ||
10/20/2004 9:32
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Hmm, IIRC there's a fairly good strip club in San Francisco called the 'Crazy Horse Theater'. I guess the Sioux haven't heard of it.
Posted by: Pat Phillips ||
10/20/2004 11:41
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#10
Chief White Woman wantum trade headdress with Crazy Horse dancer.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004 11:49
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#11
Harvey White Woman, a descendant of Crazy Horse, told the club that "my family are offended whenever there is a show of disrespect to our culture".
I think I understand where the hair-trigger sensitivity is coming from.
Most Union officer vets were Republicans (Party of Lincoln) although G.A. Custer was enough of a political opportunist (like another decorated war vet we know) that I'm sure he would've accepted the Dem nomination had it been offered.
#15
They weren't all republicans. George McClelland ran against Lincoln on the Democratic party ticket. Got his ass whipped there, too. Just like the seven days.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
10/20/2004 20:37
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Saudi security forces arrested two wanted terrorists, one disguised as a woman, as they press ahead with a crackdown on extremists blamed for a string of terror attacks, an Interior Ministry spokesman said yesterday. The two were arrested in the southern township of Houtat Bani Tamim on Monday night and found in possession of 10 hand grenades, a machine gun and three pistols, Brig. Mansour Al-Turki said. "A security checkpoint stopped a suspect car in Houtat Bani Tamim," 170 km south of Riyadh, Turki said. "The driver stepped down (and was arrested) but his companion, who was disguised as a woman, sped away. Security forces gave chase and arrested him in the town of Addalam," 100 km south of the capital.
"Don't you know it's against the law for women to drive.....hey, you ain't no woman!"
"There was an exchange of fire during the chase, but no one was wounded," the spokesman said, adding that the two men were "wanted by security authorities for their links with extremists." But Turki did not say whether the two figured on a list of 26 most-wanted suspects, 10 of whom remain at large. Police have seized from the two 10 hand grenades, three guns, a machine gun, 14 magazines of live ammunition and explosive material.
The usual holy relics.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
3:12:50 PM ||
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C'mon, they were duck hunting! My daddy always took grenades when he went duck hunting.....
Osama Bin Laden is hiding in Chinese territory near the Pakistan border, British journalist Gordon Thomas wrote in Spanish newspaper El Mundo on October 13. Thomas wrote that Bin Laden made an agreement with Chinese authorities to stop guerrilla war by Chinese Muslims against the government. Thomas said that on the final stretch of the US presidential race, Bin Laden could become the ace in President George Bush's sleeve. Washington is currently negotiating a top-secret agreement with Beijing to remove Bin Laden from the turbulent Chinese Muslim provinces, he said.
More than five million people, many of them fanatical followers of Bin Laden, live in these provinces, considered one of the most volatile regions on Earth. The past summer, Bin Laden was given asylum by Beijing in exchange for his guarantee that guerrilla action against the establishment would cease, Thomas said. He wrote that the region had been relatively calm since Bin Laden's arrival, but a deal between Beijing and Washington could spell trouble for the Al Qaeda leader. Bin Laden's capture would virtually guarantee President's Bush's re-election in the upcoming presidential elections.
"The new Bush administration would present Beijing as its latest ally in the war against terrorism. China would enjoy the status of one of Washington's most favoured nations and the deal would probably lead to vastly improved economic ties. China's human rights record would be wiped clean," Thomas quoted a Pentagon employee. The employee reportedly said only a "handful of high ranking members of the Bush Administration" were aware of the plan "to take Bin Laden in exchange for special relations with China".
Right. It's the Secret Plan. Don't tell anyone, ok?
Thomas said the anonymous Pentagon source provided details of the plan to capture Bin Laden. He said this was not the first time a US administration had resorted to similar tactics during an election campaign. Thomas said Bin Laden's refuge had been spotted by a US satellite and was near a lake on the Pakistan-China border. He said a detachment of Pakistani and US special forces were lying in wait on the Pakistani side, hoping to capture Bin Laden in flight towards Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Zhang Qiyue, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, sharply denied on Tuesday that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Chinese territory. United Press International reported. At a press briefing, Zhang said she had not read Thomas's article. "I do not know what he has based the story upon, but it is irresponsible. I can say in clear terms that Bin Laden is not in China." Osama Bin Laden is alive and operating from the western reaches of Pakistan or perhaps going back and forth across the border, said US State Secretary Colin Powell. He said he was pleased with Pakistan's efforts to capture Bin Laden in the tribal areas, adds the news agency Online.
In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Powell said, "Bin Laden is still out there, and we think he is alive. We are working closely with the Pakistanis to capture him. President Bush is briefed on it regularly so he has not taken his eye off the Bin Laden ball. After all, this is the guy responsible for 9/11."
Acknowledging Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism Powell said, "I spend a lot of time with the Pakistanis. I regularly talk with President General Pervez Musharraf who briefs me on his plans. We have got the Pakistanis doing more in those tribal areas than they've ever done there before to put down Taliban militants and to put down Al Qaeda. They don't want them there either."
Reiterating that the US helped prevent an Indo-Pak war two years ago, Powell said, "We stopped the Indians and the Pakistanis from going to war, we at least helped them stop themselves from going to war two years ago". Powell said that even though the US has had some tough times with some of its allies and friends, "with most of our allies and friends, we are doing well. Our relations with China are the best we have had in 30 years."
China is a force of 1.3 billion people. India has 1.1 billion people. That gives us close to half the world's population that are on good solid ground with us".
Posted by: Destro ||
10/20/2004
3:09:32 AM ||
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#1
"More than five million people, many of them fanatical followers of Bin Laden, live in these provinces."
I want a recount.
#3
lots of press releases on the whereabouts of UBL lately. I'd kinda like it if he was "found" in the next two weeks, looking fat and recently dialysed.
Lookee here sarge...I found this dude in a hole and he claims to be Osama!
#5
thisn been goin round for days now. think ima post em link to this few days ago some thread but dont remeber which. mrr blog was discuss it alot but the subject has been quiet now last 2 days
#6
If I was the evil Bushitler(tm) and Chainey, I would just order the guys at Disney World to build an animatronic Osama. Then I would demonstrate my determination to lead the WoT by kicking him in the nuts at a press conference. Take that Terrorist Scum!
No need to drag his flea-bitten, bomb-damaged carcass back from Pakistan.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi guerrillas resentful of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's growing influence are giving the government information putting security forces hot on his trail, a senior official said Wednesday. "The Iraqi insurgents have watched Zarqawi's people grab the limelight and gain ground. They are angry. So some are coming forward with information," National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Reuters in an interview.
Even if it's not true, it's a nice story to spread around. Might give people ideas and make Zarqawi start looking at them funny and purge a few. Now where have I heard that before?
Staring at a photograph of the elusive Zarqawi, Rubaie said the interim government was closer than ever to tracking down the most wanted man in Iraq, to its unlikely allies. "We missed him by two days a few weeks ago and he is running out of places to hide," Rubaie said. Rubaie, named National Security Adviser by former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer, was sidelined after the June 28 handover to the interim government. He retains his post but a minister of state now handles most of his functions.
Zarqawi, a self-declared ally of al Qaeda, is the biggest security nightmare for the Iraqi authorities, masterminding suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. The U.S. military stages almost nightly air strikes on suspected Zarqawi safe-houses in the rebel-held city of Falluja, though residents deny all knowledge of his presence.
"Who? Never heard of him."
Rubaie said evidence was found a few weeks ago in a safe-house that suggested Zarqawi had been there two days earlier. He declined to say where the house was located.
"The government is in contact with insurgents who have been following Zarqawi's movements," he said.
Although some guerrillas were stepping forward with information on Zarqawi, Rubaie said there was still some cooperation between insurgents and the Jordanian militant's followers because the insurgency is not united. "There are no ties on the leadership level. But there is some cooperation in terms of insurgents providing safe-houses and getting something in return," he said.
Rubaie said Zarqawi, whom he described as a "master of disguise," is always on the move, setting up safe-houses in several cities including Falluja, the northern towns of Mosul and Baquba, and even Baghdad.
That's what Sammy & Son's did. We only have to get lucky once.
Iraqi officials and the U.S. military have long insisted Zarqawi was holed up in Falluja with foreign fighters. But Rubaie said 80 percent of Zarqawi's followers were Iraqi Muslim militants and only 20 percent were foreign fighters from countries including, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Somalia, including some with European passports. Rubaie said the authorities had so far captured 93 foreign fighters. They have never been presented to the press.
We've noticed that. They just disappear into that Black Hole no one talks about.
A former physician based in Britain, Rubaie returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam in 2003 hoping to help transform Iraq from a dictatorship to a democracy. But he spent much of his time watching one Zarqawi attack after another. He said Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was pursuing a hard-line security strategy that would backfire.
"You need a carrot and stick approach. You cannot just use force. You need to engage in a serious dialogue not just hold a few talks," said Rubaie. He said the government had failed to dispatch the right people to deal with influential clerics and tribal leaders who could help isolate guerrillas and Zarqawi's supporters.
"Like, ah, me."
Looking at the photograph of a clean-shaven Zarqawi, Rubaie shakes his head. "I am obsessed with Zarqawi. How can anyone behead a human being?" he asked. Rubaie said he hopes the government can impose security before elections scheduled for January. But he worries about the consequences of crackdowns. "We can't just use security to justify using force. This will undermine what we came back to Iraq to accomplish in the first place," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
2:56:21 PM ||
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We missed him by two days a few weeks ago and he is running out of places to hide
that couldnt possibly be true, they keep saying that theyve just missed him, i mean they kept saying that about Saddam - oh, never mind.
#3
Iraqi guerrillas resentful of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's growing influence are giving the government information putting security forces hot on his trail, a senior official said Wednesday.
*sniff sniff* Ah, the smell of cannibalism on a crisp Iraqi autumn morning....
From StrategyPage: October 20, 2004: On October 13, five soldiers out of 19 in a fuel delivery platoon of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, refused to take their seven vehicles north along the highway that runs from Kuwait to Baghdad. The soldiers complained that the trucks were in poor shape, had no armor and that the fuel they were carrying was contaminated. The entire platoon was relieved of duty and other troops came in and took the trucks, and the fuel, north. The mission was completed without incident. The "mutiny," as the media described it, was big news. It shouldn't have been. Such incidents have occurred in every war where American troops have to drive trucks through dangerous territory. World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, the Gulf War. In most cases, a senior officer or NCO comes in, has a "vigorous discussion" with the troops, and the mission is carried out. Sometimes that doesn't work, in which case the NCOs and officers of the unit are relieved, or at least see their promotion prospects evaporate. The army goes by the old adage, "there are no bad troops, only bad officers."
The 343rd Quartermaster Company belongs to the 13th COSCOM, a logistics and maintenance organization with some 15,000 troops. In the last six months, the 13th COSCOM has lost 26 troops, and had over 200 wounded or injured. Spend a year working for 13th COSCOM, and you have about a three percent chance of getting killed or injured. Historically, that's a low casualty rate. In World War II, units of that size often suffered that many losses in a single day, and for many days at a time. But this is now, this is Iraq, and 13th COSCOM is not a combat division, but a "combat support" organization. However, the war in Iraq is unique. For the first time in military history, the non-combat troops are suffering higher losses than the combat troops. Naturally, the combat troops are better prepared to handle combat than the combat support troops who, historically, rarely get shot at. While the Iraqis are bad shots and lousy soldiers, they are not stupid. They know their chances of surviving are much better if they attack American combat support troops, especially if they are just riding past in a convoy of trucks. Taking on American infantry, especially if they are in armored vehicles, is known to be suicidal.
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Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
2:51:00 PM ||
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#1
I was just discussing this very topic with my former A-Team SGT, buddy, guy I work with and this is what he wrote:
Tom,
Failure to obey a lawful order or a direct order if given, conduct unbecoming of a soldier, conspiracy and mutiny are in order for the platoon members of the 343 QM that did not comply with their mission orders. These are just a few charges that I can think of under the UCMJ. There is NO excuse not to even attempt to complete the mission. They all took the same oath of allegiance to their country and theirs is the Profession of Arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose the nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of their public service must be duty, honor, county. When it comes to the mission verses the welfare of the troops it's always the MISSION FIRST. There are no excuses. NONE.
#3
"The entire platoon was relieved of duty and other troops came in and took the trucks, and the fuel, north. The mission was completed without incident."
Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the Leper Colony. [Pull out your copy of 12 O'Clock High for the meaning.]
Posted by: Don ||
10/20/2004 17:09
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I'm pretty ignorant in these matters, but I suspect the solution has a lot to do with training and mental preparation.
I recall a cable tv interview near the start of GWII with a driver in a Marine supply convoy that had come under fire. From his questions, the reporter seemed to think that attacking supply lines was some unprecedented genius idea. The Marine's response was "You don't understand. We're not just truck drivers. We're truck drivers with guns!"
#5
Well, I like to think that American soldiers are independent thinkers who don't blindly follow orders. If it was a certain failure, I don't see why they'd feel it was necessary to risk their lives to deliver a cargo of contaminated fuel, all because their commanders refused to deal with reality.
I'm also guessing that the enlisted Marines in question. Plus several senior NCOs, lieutenants, captains. Maybe a najor or two are going to be sent to other (Hopefully, front line) units. Far away from prying reporters.
Jack.
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
10/20/2004 20:08
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FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Marines destroyed a known insurgent command and control post on the north side of the city at about 1:30 p.m. Oct. 20. The post was used by insurgents to discuss operations and as a prime meeting location to plan attacks against the Iraqi government and its people. Aircraft used precision munitions to destroy the post. Before today's strike, the anti-Iraqi forces post was observed for more than 30 days. Reports indicated consistent insurgent activity including hardening of structures, emplacement of cement barriers, large formations of armed personnel, weapons positioning and munitions storage. Additionally, individuals frequenting the house and courtyard near the fighting position were observed digging into the adjacent road, setting improvised explosive devices, then repaving the road. Days later, the same individuals were spotted wiring explosive devices near the area. Destruction of the target further disrupts the anti-Iraqi forces' ability to destabilize the Fallujah area.
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Multi-National Force-Iraq struck two adjoining Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist safe houses in north east Fallujah Oct. 20. Both safe houses were effectively destroyed at 3:44 a.m. Intelligence sources confirmed that several Zarqawi terrorists were using the safe house to meet and plan attacks against Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Security Forces, and Multi-National Forces during the month of Ramadan. Removing these criminals from active service to Zarqawi, diminishes the capabilities of his Al Qaida-linked terrorist network to conduct attacks, and strengthens the safety and security of the sovereign country of Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
2:46:17 PM ||
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#1
Before todayâs strike, the anti-Iraqi forces post was observed for more than 30 days.
They see you when you're sleeping
They know when you're awake
They know if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake
#2
Hardees is an American fast food chain - they've got pretty good burgers and roast beef sandwiches.
Posted by: Sheik Abu Ben Ali Al-Yahood ||
10/20/2004 2:36
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This is EXACTLY the kind of western values that the mullahs are trying to stomp out. Put this kind of stuff on Arab television and, first thing you know, some guy will be late for call to prayer.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/20/2004 8:52
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#4
And no sick comments about "In âN Out" please...
I guess you don't want to hear about "Jack In The Box" then either.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004 8:53
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#5
Must be one rats ass, shitty burger if this is how they gotta plug it.
#10
"Must be one rats ass, shitty burger if this is how they gotta plug it."
Hardee's burgers were pretty good, I've eaten them since the sixties. However, when CKE Restaurants (Owners of the Carl's Jr. chain) purchased the Hardee's operation, they dumped the Hardee's menu in favor of the Carl's Jr. menu.
An outstanding Marketing decision as the CJ menu is vastly superior. The burgers are in fact much better than anything you will get at any of the other fast food establishments, with the notable exception of Whataburger or Sonic.
#13
Hardees also owns Carl's Jr. part of Karcher enterprises
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 11:32
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In Saudi Arabia, it's still Hardee's name on the signs. They have a mixture of original Hardee's stuff (funny - no pork cutlet sandwich, though...) and Carl's. The outlet on the Corniche in Al Khobar was my fav drive-thru. Always spent about 50SR - approx $13... food is expensive there cuz almost everything is imported, of course.
Like the old song says, "Return to sender/Address unknown/No such number/No-one's home"
Thousands of cards mailed by county election boards to newly registered voters in Hamilton County and throughout the state are being returned because the people can't be found. John Williams, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said the situation indicates that there might not be as many new voters as some expect in a state deemed crucial in the presidential election.
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett on Tuesday said it's a result of statewide registration fraud conducted by independent groups that support Democratic candidates. "By most accounts, their work can only be considered sloppy, haphazard and, in some cases, downright illegal," Bennett said, noting that the state party plans to take out full-page ads in Ohio newspapers encouraging citizens to stop voter fraud. snip
Bennett cited instances in 10 counties where potentially fraudulent voter registration forms were submitted. He said many were submitted by groups he terms "auxiliaries of the Democratic Party": the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and America Coming Together. The groups paid people to register voters. Some registrations were filled out for dead people, some contained fake addresses, and others named fiction characters such as Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins.
Jess Goode, spokesman for ACT in Ohio, has denied wrongdoing by his group. He said the Republican Party is scared of the number of new Democratic voters headed to the polls in two weeks. An estimated 7.9 million people have registered in Ohio, up from 7.1 million at the beginning of the year. Williams is currently investigating fraud by someone working for ACORN who he said submitted voter registrations for about 35 people who don't exist. Newly registered voters in Hamilton County are mailed a card telling them where to vote and what political districts they live in. But thousands of those cards were returned because the people, or the addresses listed on voter registration forms, couldn't be found. "There is quite a number," Williams said, noting that not every returned card is a suspected case of fraud. "People do actually move.''
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#1
Has anyone made preparations against the PRI (Dems) working with the media to set up a nasty election day rouse.
The PRI knows which precincts in Cleveland where fraud is highest. A few grams of well placed crack saw to that before they were caught. So the GOP attorneys and challengers know of these as well, because the cross-spying efforts are at least reasonably efficient. So, the PRI using their contacts with al-Jazzera West (CBS) or al-Arabia West (CNN) have a well placed camera crew, placed down the block. The PRI legal team (ACLU) has placed a couple of angry violent ambulance-chasers in a polling place, keeping their cool until the time is right. Also, a couple of prime selected AFL-CIO goons, are also nearby, and at the ready. Then, several voters come in, Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Garfield Katz, and try to vote. The "HI" sign is given to the TV crews, and the lawyers start to bicker. Upon arrival of the TV crews teh AFL-CIO goons start into action, pummeling the GOP lawyers, while being egged on by the PRI lawyers. When the camera starts rolling the PRI lawyers suddenly become calm, and explain to the sycophant reporter that these evil Republicans were suppressing the vote, and Ms. Poppins was fulfilling her constitutional right. Ms. Poppins will be elderly (probably a costume), and a minority, of course, and the al-Jazzera, and al-Arabia networks will have it shown nationwide for the noontime news.
Dan Rather, reporting in the evening will belie his "even-handed" BS, by breathing heavily at the sight of the video...
Newsweek's Evan Thomas, who in July acknowledged that the media "want Kerry to win" and "that's going to be worth maybe 15 points" for the Kerry-Edwards ticket, on Sunday reaffirmed his belief that most reporters "absolutely" want Kerry to win, but on CNN's Reliable Sources he argued that his 15 point estimation was a "stupid thing to say." When host Howard Kurtz wondered if it is worth five points, Thomas acceded, "maybe."
The July 12 CyberAlert reported: Recognition of the obvious. The media "wants Kerry to win" and so "they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic" and "there's going to be this glow about" them, Evan Thomas, the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, admitted on Inside Washington over the weekend. He should know. His magazine this week sports a smiling Kerry and Edwards on its cover with the yearning headline, "The Sunshine Boys?" Inside, an article carrying Thomas' byline contrasted how "Dick Cheney projects the bleakness of a Wyoming winter, while John Edwards always appears to be strolling in the Carolina sunshine." The cover story touted how Kerry and Edwards "became a buddy-buddy act, hugging and whispering like Starsky and Hutch after consuming the evidence."
The full Thomas quote on the July 10 Inside Washington, a weekend discussion show taped at and run by the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, DC, WUSA-TV, and carried by many PBS stations across the country:
"There's one other base here: the media. Let's talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards -- I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox, but -- they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all, there's going to be this glow about them that some, is going to be worth, collectively, the two of them, that's going to be worth maybe 15 points."
Fast forward to the October 17 Reliable Sources on CNN where Thomas appeared, in the program produced live at 11:30am EDT Sunday from CNN's top floor set with the Capitol dome in background, with Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank and conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham.
Host Howard Kurtz asked Thomas: "Well, it is a tight race. But do you believe that most reporters want John Kerry to win?"
Evan Thomas: "Yeah. Absolutely."
Kurtz: "Do you think they're deliberately tilting their coverage to help John Kerry and John Edwards?"
Thomas: "Not really."
Kurtz: "Subconsciously tilting their coverage?"
Thomas: "Maybe."
Kurtz: "Maybe?"
Thomas: "Maybe."
Kurtz: "Including in Newsweek?"
Thomas, nodding: "Yeah."
Kurtz reminded him: "You've said on the program Inside Washington that because of the portrayal of Kerry and Edwards as 'young and dynamic and optimistic,' that that's worth maybe 15 points. So that would suggest-"
Thomas: "Stupid thing to say. It was completely wrong. But I do think that, I do think that the mainstream press, I'm not talking about the blogs and Rush and all that, but the mainstream press favors Kerry. I don't think it's worth 15 points. That was just a stupid thing to say."
Kurtz: "Is it worth 5 points?"
Thomas: "Maybe, maybe."
Milbank insisted that reporters like him would prefer a Kerry presidency only because they favor spending time in Nantucket over Crawford.
Another bias flashback: More evidence of journalistic support for Kerry over Bush. From the August 2 CyberAlert:
By a one-party state-like overwhelming margin, political reporters who are covering the presidential campaign think John Kerry would make the better President, New York Times reporter John Tierney discovered in overseeing an informal survey of 153 journalists at a press party during the Democratic convention last week in Boston. "When asked who would be a better President," Tierney relayed in his Sunday news section "Political Points" column of tidbits from the campaign trail, "the journalists from outside the Beltway picked Mr. Kerry 3 to 1, and the ones from Washington favored him 12 to 1." For details: www.mrc.org
For a look at how Tierney, appearing on FNC's O'Reilly Factor, maintained that "most reporters are driven not by ideology," see the August 4 CyberAlert which features a picture of Tierney: www.mrc.org
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/20/2004
2:24:32 AM ||
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#1
Well may I comment that I think you guys in the MSM are doing a shit job of reporting the news and frankly I don't beleive anything you tell me. You a bunch of reakin Morons who would do better in a petting zoo with the chimpanzees mimcking someone. What a pathetic bunch a ass wiping, syncophatic, unconstructive, defeatist punk mother fuckers you all are.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
10/20/2004 10:02
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#2
Don't hold back, Bill - tell us what you really think. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/20/2004 13:25
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#3
Naw, we need some /seething/! Personally I feel like the MSM are a bunch of traitors that need to be prime examples of how being a traitor earns you death. We need a law that if a reporter is found to have lied or 'mis-stated' the truth, they spend 5 years as Leroy's cellmate in a Federal prison and if do so about a federal election, then it should be considered an act of treason and they get executed. Yes...I hate reporters.
#4
This election is entirely about the institutional media trying to hang on to their fading authority and power.
Their reign of terror began with the 1960 election, when the visual power of television superceded all rational considerations and put Hollywood's choice, JFK, in the White House.
This process has gone on for decades, until many millions apparently accept media pronouncements at face value. Last night, I briefly watched the deranged liar Bill Maher pontificating about "what thinking people believe" and "how thinking people" see things. The only support for this was Maher's word alone, his authority as a celebrity.
It was almost comical that these mindless pronouncements were being made in the name of "thinking people" as though anyone with an ounce of reasoning power would accept a media personality's word for anything.
#6
What AC said. It used to be that a NY Times reporter was a major cultural figure with a prestigious and influential position in society. In fact, most of Pinch's reporters are just people who write stuff. They do not write better than many bloggers-- in fact, that write worse than a Lileks, a Steyn or a Wretchard-- and certainly have less insight and worse judgment than the best bloggers. The only thing that distinguishes them is the thoroughness of their reporting and the quality of their sources. But even that's not clear anymore.
The NYT used to be the paper of record. Now it's just a lifestyle guide for a certain bicoastal and college town demographic.
#7
Maher's a clown. The next phase in the blogosphere's continuing assault on the crumbling MSM stronghold is for bloggers to webcast their own streaming video and audio productions.
Screw these jokers on the networks and cable. I want to hear Steyn, and Lileks, and Iraqis, and military experts like Ralph Peters, and genuinely wise and insightful people like Tom Wretchard.
#8
Well, as the election nears the MSM is pulling out all the stops in its pro-Kerry push. Yahoo's news site is leading with "US Warplanes kill family of six in Fallujah" (by Yasser Faisal) with the requisite picture of a blanket-wrapped bundle identified as a child being pulled from tne rubble. Right under that photo is another, from AP, of a son sobbing into a US flag over the death of his father, an Army staff sgt.
I wonder just how far they will go? We have a couple more weeks to find out, I guess.
#9
Lex, the New York Times is the newspaper of record that overlooked the Holocaust story. They've been biased for a loooong time. The prestige comes from the big words they use, and the number of subordinate clauses in their sentences.
Federal health officials said Tuesday that 2.6 million additional doses of flu vaccine will be available in January, far fewer than the 48 million lost to contamination at a British manufacturing plant. The shipment also arrives after the date the government recommends for vulnerable Americans to have had their shots. ... People should be vaccinated in October or November, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... [Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services] said there was enough antiviral medicine available to treat 40 million people — shortening illness in people sick with the flu and preventing illness in healthy people. Between vaccines and antiviral drugs, enough medicine will be available to treat 100 million people this flu season, he said. more details on suppliers for additional vaccine
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/20/2004
2:21:04 AM ||
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Pakistan has arrested a Yemeni national who is an important figure in al Qaeda's new leadership and another foreign national who is one of the network's communications specialists, officials said on Wednesday. The Yemeni, identified as Saleh Nauman, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore about 10 days ago while trying to slip out of Pakistan, an intelligence official told Reuters. "He is an International Man of Mystery important figure in al Qaeda's new leadership," said the official, who asked not to be named. "He had been here in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last eight years and wanted to sneak out of the country." The man had arrived in Lahore from Islamabad about 10 days before he was intercepted by intelligence agents in the city, another intelligence official said.
"Drop the rocket launcher and come out witcher hands up, Saleh!"
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters authorities had arrested another suspect, who he identified as Abdul Rehman, a communications expert for al Qaeda. He said the man was arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar, not far from the Afghan border, three days ago. "He is a communications expert, but I do not know any other details," Ahmed told Reuters. Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the government's Crisis Management Cell, said investigators were trying to determine Rehman's real identity but added that he was not a senior al Qaeda figure. "No, not at all," he said when asked if he was among leading al Qaeda figures for whom the United States has offered rewards.
"Sorry. Gotta buy yer own beer tonight!"
Pakistan has arrested more than 70 al Qaeda suspects, some of them foreigners, in a major crackdown since the detention of Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert from the network, in July. Since March, Pakistan's army has been battling hundreds of al Qaeda-linked militants in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Officials say at least 246 militants, including 100 foreigners, and about 171 members of the security forces have been killed in the fighting. Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters, including Chechens, Uzbeks and Arabs, are believed to be hiding in the remote region.
BOYS TOWN, Neb. — An Iraqi orphan credited with helping American troops capture insurgents in Baghdad started a new life Tuesday at Girls and Boys Town, the storied home for troubled youngsters.
Wearing a Boys Town windbreaker and holding a plastic American flag on a stick, 16-year-old "Johnny" — the nickname U.S. soldiers gave him — said he was happy to be in the United States. "Everything's OK," he said. "Real cool."
Soldiers in Baghdad encountered the boy living on the streets and discovered that he knew a lot about the people behind insurgent attacks in the city, said Lt. Col. Brian McKiernan, commander of the 1st Armored Division's 4-27 Field Artillery Unit.
McKiernan said Tuesday he took Johnny into the unit as a janitor in September 2003 and the boy learned some English. The boy eventually helped U.S. troops apprehend more than 40 insurgents and seize several weapons caches, McKiernan said. "He came to identify with the soldiers and admire them," McKiernan said. "He is a unique individual with a lot of heart, very loyal."
After learning that his unit was going to be transferred to Germany, McKiernan contacted Girls and Boys Town about helping the boy. McKiernan feared Johnny could be targeted by insurgents for helping the Americans. "I thought if we could give him a better lot in life, a fresh start, it would be worth it," McKiernan said.
Johnny arrived in the United States on Monday and ate a McDonald's hamburger for his first American meal. At Girls and Boys Town, he will live with a couple who have seven other orphans and two of their own children.
For privacy reasons, Girls and Boys Town would not disclose the boy's name.
Although Johnny had little schooling in Iraq, he said he wants to get a high school diploma and join the U.S. Army.
Boys Town was founded in 1917 by the Rev. Edward Flanagan as a home for wayward boys. It was depicted in a 1938 movie starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/20/2004
2:02:20 AM ||
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I'm only sorry that a McDonald's hamburger was his first American meal! If it had to be fast-food, the late adoption advocate Dave Thomas and the Wendy's chain he established should have been his introduction to the United States.
After months of observing and analyzing the pre-election campaign, Georgia is still waiting to see who the next de facto president of separatist Abkhazia will be. Since the October 3 election, denounced as illegitimate both by the Georgian government and international organizations, the two leading candidates have wrestled over the results and tension in the region has visibly increased. Today Georgia faces uncertainty not only regarding the two candidates Khadjimba and Baghapshi, but also Moscow, where government officials are recalculating their strategy in an election they had strongly tilted in favor of the current loser Khadjimba.
Back to the old drawing board!
Both Georgian and Russian media outlets acknowledge that situation did not transpire as Moscow had planned. Official Moscow tapped Khadjimba to win, sending influential Russian figures to campaign for the former prime minister. Even President Vladimir Putin supported him with a photo op and talk of support . But Moscow underscored Khadjimba's pro-Moscow line to such an extent that they in fact disenchanted zealous pro-independence Abkhaz voters who instead voted for Sergei Baghapshi.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/20/2004
17:54 ||
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#1
Too bad the LLL isn't required to watch these shows. Most still long for the day that the Soviet Union was king of the Hill.
Actually, I think that they really want a dictatorship; that way, they can make people do things without having to win messy elections and trying "persuade" people to do "the right thing."
#3
It would be well to remember that Russia is a schizophrenic nation, only half European in character. The other half, the other face, is purely Asiatic. This was remarked on by Kipling, who praised Russians as Asiatics, but looked on them with distrust when they put on European airs. And while the European in Russians might disdain the Stalinist slaughter, the Asiatic understands the greater purpose. And it truly *isn't* a flawed philosophy, it is just a different one. If a villager insults the Emperor, it is *expected* that his entire village will be razed in punishment. To do otherwise is unnatural and odd.
#2
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, widely considered one of the most liberal and activist in the country, said it saw no reason why animals should not be allowed to sue but said they had not yet been granted that right.
Oh give the 9th some time. They're probably working right now on rectifying that sad situation.
#6
Dr. Doolittle, Esq. - Atty to the animal kingdom: "He talks for those who can't...except to him"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 17:15
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Oh, I don't know, Mucky. San Francisco and neighboring Berkeley are legitimate fronts in the WoT, and the 9th Circus is a major force in legitimizing fifth column activity, so I think it belongs here. Fred may well decide otherwise, however.
#8
Don't worry we got Marineland covered like a red, wet blanket, even that bastard Shamu is with us. F*k the minimum wage! We want a piece of the action!
Alexander Torshin, the head of a parliamentary commission investigating last month's Beslan school hostage crisis, on Tuesday questioned officials' contentions that the raiders were using narcotics, saying he believes they were deranged by an unknown drug. The Prosecutor General's Office this week said autopsies of the terrorists showed that several had higher-than-lethal doses of narcotics and that some apparently had run out of drugs, inducing withdrawal symptoms "that are accompanied by aggressive and inappropriate behavior." Torshin, the deputy speaker of the Federation Council, said he was uncomfortable with the prosecutor's office's contention. "This answer did not suit me," he told Ekho Moskvy radio. "I think they were using something completely new."
Torshin and two other members of the commission were in Beslan on Tuesday to interview former hostages. Itar-Tass on Tuesday quoted an Interior Ministry drugs expert as saying the hostage-takers could have been using phencyclidine, also known as PCP or "angel dust." "This forbidden substance sharply raises the physical and psychological activity of a person; he does not receive painful sensations," Boris Kalachev was quoted as saying. Kalachev speculated that Chechen rebels could have produced PCP clandestinely. Also Tuesday, the federal command center for Chechen operations said it had received information from captured rebels that rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov had decided to try to increase drug dependency among young Chechens to lure them into rebel bands.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:59:03 AM ||
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Pakistan government has directed the provincial governments to take special measures for curbing the collection of Zakat, Fitrana and other kind of donations (religious donations) by any proscribed or Jehadi outfit during the fasting month of Ramazan, according to a report here on Tuesday. The News cited sources in the Interior Ministry as saying that all the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies had been directed to keep an eye on the activities of those workers of proscribed and Jehadi organisations who were on government's watch list to ensure that they would not involve in any kind of donation collection activity. The sources said special instruction were issued to the provinces not to allow Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (erstwhile Sipah-e-Sahaba), Islami Tehirk Pakistan (erstwhile Tehrik-e-Jaffria), Khuddamul Islam (erstwhile Jaish-e-Muhammad), Jamaatul Furqaan and others banned outfits to collect donations during Ramazan and on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Furthermore, the sources said, the provincial governments have also been advised to direct district and city governments to issue permission to known welfare organisations for collection of Zakat, Fitrana and other donations after thoroughly reviewing their applications. Local governments were directed to keep in touch with the provincial Home departments before issuance of any such permission. The sources said if any of the known charities tried to collect donation claiming they are helping Mujahideen in held Kashmir or elsewhere, the government would immediately take action against it, which might include a ban on its activities and freezing of its bank accounts. "We will take strict action against any individual or party, which would collect Zakat, Fitrana or other kind of donations in the name of Jihad or for any of the proscribe party," said a senior Interior Ministry official, requesting not to be named.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:57:28 AM ||
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Even if, as is likely, this is only partially enforced, money flows to terror organizations should decrease noticeably.
Kyrgyz police detained four citizens of Chechnya in Bishkek who are suspected of attempted murder against a police officer and illegal possession of firearms. "One of the detainees, an A. Akhtakhanov, was enlisted in illegal armed groups in 2001 when he was an officer of the Chechen Interior Ministry. He used data that he received at work to inform the bandits about the movement of Chechen government top officials," Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told journalists before his meeting with officials of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry. Akhtakhanov's messages "were used to arrange ambushes, which led to several top Chechen government officials and officers of the Chechen Interior Ministry being shot on the Kurchaloi-Gudermes transport routes," Nurgaliyev said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:56:02 AM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004
15:50 ||
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#1
;-) HT to Drudge
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 15:51
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Well, we know Her Heinzness never held a real. College, UN shill, then she got her Mrs. and quit working.....
Posted by: Rick T ||
10/20/2004 16:01
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#3
Real job....
Preview is My Friend
Posted by: Rick T ||
10/20/2004 16:01
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OOPS! Looks like someone told her she really stepped in it - she's issued an apology:
Teresa Heinz Kerry released the following statement today:
"I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a school teacher and librarian, and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children. As someone who has been both a full time mom and full time in workforce, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as First Lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past."
#6
The only word she wrote in that press release was "I".
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 16:21
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#7
"Forgot" my ass. She didn't know in the first place. The response sounds like a press release at a trial. Please, oh please, Kerry, Edwards, and Ketchup Lady, keep talking. You're doing yourselves more damage daily.
#12
Her Majesty probably received a hasty call from the NEA:
"Er, we know that Lara was a Repug and therefore a subversive influence in the education system and a class enemy, but we can't very well deny that she had the job, and it is a REAL JOB!"
#13
I can hardly wait for my Wife and Daughter (both teachers) to get home from work and let them know. SNORK
It won't matter much they are both die hard Republicans. But It does show what the elitists actually think, teachers are dumb (their unions support democrats.)
Posted by: Laura B ||
10/20/2004 18:38
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#15
Just think: if this woman's hockey-puck husband wins the election, we'll have to endure four YEARS of her crazy bullshit.
[SHUDDER]
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/20/2004 18:54
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I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as First Lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past."
It would be real nice if Mrs. H-K waited until she was sober before saying anything...
#25
OK Where's the evidence she's sober? Where's the evidence she's sane? None, eh? No links? Thought so. Idjit.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:03
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#26
No. Neither of us have evidence either way. But the 'she's drunk' proposition was made first. i simply asked for proof. I am asking for proof she was drunk, i have made no claims and therefore have nothing to prove.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:09
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#28
No. I'm saying you should prove me wrong before calling me an Idjit.. As i have not made any accusations it is up to you to prove yours; i am simply asking you to prove the validity of your statement that Ms Heinz was drunk.
#32
You called yourself an Idjit, I didn't. I just don't call you American as I suspect you're from somewhere else. And when did I ever say she was drunk? Why are you putting words in my mouth?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:15
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#33
No. 8 white raisins soaked in gin per day. Her Heinzness says so.
You see, thats fair enough. I'll happily accept that.
And when did I ever say she was drunk? Why are you putting words in my mouth?
Never directly. However i asked
It would be real nice if Mrs. H-K waited until she was sober before saying anything... What is that statement based on?
and you replied
The coherence and sobriety of Heinz' comment.
I would be interested to know what point you were making with that statement if you were not implying she was drunk?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:30
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#39
Hi Mikey AI! Long time, no hear! Where's your evidence I asked for on 5/12/2003? Still waiting! Will be back at 2400 to check. Thanks in advance, idiot
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 20:30
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#40
Take it easy on the raisins, Mucky.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:31
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#41
I'm not mucky or mickey or anyone else. Have only been posting on this board since i found it during a google search for "clark county" + guardian + ohio. Still, if you wish to dodge the difficult questions in this way Mrs Davis so be it.
#42
Not so fast, Idjit. Mucky is muck4doo. He said he was getting drunk (#35) and I told him to go easy on the raisins cause I don't want him picked up for DUI. And if you want to know how your letter to Clark County Ohio is going, check here.
And don't dodge the point of #38. We're keeping track.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:40
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#43
And if you want to know how your letter to Clark County Ohio is going, check here.
I have not written a letter to Clark County. An exercise in pointlessness. I also don't have a subscription to that obscure Springfield publication.
I'm not the one saying she's sober, you are.
Ah! now where did i say that? As i said again and again i was simply asking you to prove she was drunk. But, if you say you were not saying she was drunk then neither of us is questioning her sobriety or lack of it. Therefore she is innocent until proven guilty.
#44
Of course you don't have a subscription to News-Sun. Nobody in Springfield is an idjit that I know if, that's why I gave you the link.
You don't say she's sober? She must be sober or drunk. Then you must think she was drunk.
qed.
Say good night Gracie.
Good night Gracie.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 20:51
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#45
You don't say she's sober? She must be sober or drunk. Then you must think she was drunk. qed. Say good night Gracie. Good night Gracie.
By your logic you MUST be saying she's drunk. Therefore you are A) making a claim you are unable to substantiate and B) lying when you say when did I ever say she was drunk?.
Its dangerous to use childish arguments Mrs Davis because they can be so easily turned against you.
O i agree. I just like people to justify their statements with facts. If you are going to rubbish somebodies speech on the grounds they were drunk i want you to provide proof, otherwise its just so much heresay. But well said AC.
#49
Tell me, idiot, what are the Guardianista media-conformists going to do if Kerry wins and doesn't run up the white flag in Iraq and Afghanistan or abandon Israel to Eurabian terrorists or turn Bush over to the Hate-America Cult's kangaroo court?
Will Charlotte Raven finally join the vagina-bombers and try to sneak a MOAB onto one of our planes?
#53
But I'm still a pedantic anal asshat. Demanding proof from others that I'm too lazy to research myself, justifying it as a moral/ethical checkup on everyone but myself, and sucking up to new my overlords at Kofi Annan's beautiful edifice to multicultural participation in one-world patriarchy. You simpletons should bow now before I ask you to prove me wrong - with evidence. I'll be back at 10PM EST to check . Thanks in advance for your legwork to stop my trolling
#54
I believe Mrs. Davis was using sarcasm. Good God but you liberals are humorless old bluenoses. And no I'm not going to provide proof that you are liberal, old or a blue nose. So sue me.
"Sober" has two meanings, both appropriate to this discussion, but only one involves chemically altered mental state. Whatever Ms. Heinz-Kerry may be, she is certainly not a sober, or serious, person. On the other hand, she is an impulsive, elitist, obnoxious, overbearing little pissant of a woman, whose parents clearly didn't spank her enough when she was a child.
#58
Mrs Heinz is a intemperate, fat head (look at the pictures of her), elitist and clueless. Her insult of Mrs Bush was an insult against all teachers everywhere. My Wife the teacher was not amused. Her attempt to retract her insult was rightfully rejected on behalf of all those "little people" who teach and don't believe in your messed up socialist agendas.
A U.N. committee announced Tuesday that it has put the network of alleged terror mastermind Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi on its list of groups subject to U.N. sanctions. The Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban said it had added al-Zarqawi's network, Jama'at al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad - known as Tawhid and Jihad - to the list on Monday. It said the group is also known as the Monotheism and Jihad Group. The group apparently has changed its name according to an Internet statement released Tuesday, two days after it announced its merger with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.
The sanctions committee could add the new name as another alias, if requested by a member state. The Security Council shifted sanctions from the government of Afghanistan to al-Qaida and remnants of the Taliban in January 2002, after a U.S.-led force ousted the Taliban. The sanctions require all countries to freeze assets and impose an arms embargo and travel ban on the 316 individuals and entities on a U.N. sanctions list for links to the two groups.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:53:33 AM ||
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The Security Council ...said it had added al-Zarqawiâs network, Jamaâat al-Tawhid Waâal-Jihad - known as Tawhid and Jihad - to the list on Monday.
Must be why they just changed their name to Jihad Of Two Rivers..or whatever it is. If the UN is as effective as it ususally is, that would mean that the sactions are useless.
#2
A U.N. committee announced Tuesday that it has put the network of alleged terror mastermind Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi on its list of groups subject to U.N. sanctions.
Meaning what, al-Zarqawi is now authorized to secretly meet with the French government for super sweet sanction-busting deals?
Chris van Rossman's television came with a VCR, DVD player and CD player - plus a hidden feature that had a rescue team beating a path to his door. On the night of Oct. 2, the TV began emitting the international distress signal - the 121.5 megahertz beep emitted by crashed airplanes and sinking boats. The signal was picked up by a satellite, relayed to an Air Force base in Virginia, then to the Civil Air Patrol, then to officials in Oregon. Most signals are false alarms, but they're all checked out, and soon, men in Air Force uniforms, a police officer and Mike Bamberger, a Benton County Search and Rescue deputy, were at van Rossman's apartment door. The solution to the mystery was nailed when van Rossman turned off the TV before answering the door the second time. The signal stopped, too. An inspection of the television confirmed it was the source. Toshiba plans to replace the television and examine the offending one. "We have never experienced anything like this before at Toshiba," said spokeswoman Maria Repole.
"But now I know who ordered all those pizzas the other night."
Posted by: Bob ||
10/20/2004
15:00 ||
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#1
I think the TV willfully sent that signal after seeing van Rossman's apartment. "Look at this dump--I gotta get outta here!"
Posted by: Dar ||
10/20/2004 8:47
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#2
I wonder . . . was he watching Lost or Gilligan's Island when the TV started emitting its signal?
Posted by: Mike ||
10/20/2004 9:38
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#3
What's rather stupid is that the FCC threatened to fine HIM $10K a day for something that really isn't his fault.
#4
It's not his fault it happened the first time. After he knows the TV is emitting a errant signal, it is his fault if he doesn't get it fixed and keeps using it. $10K is the standard fine to keep people from being careless with the ELTs on their boats and planes. Think of it as a attention getter.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004 15:55
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#5
I still think the feds are overreacting in this case. It's not like it's an actual transmitter that's being used to intentionally interfere with bona fide distress signals. That having been said, maybe the FCC and other similar foreign bodies should look into requiring a standardized coded signal instead of a simple beep. Seems to me an asymmetrical signal would be difficult for rogue TVs to duplicate.....
#7
I have a built-in ELT (emergency locator transmitter) in my plane, as well as a portable one (EPIRB) in case I go in the drink. They transmit on 121.5 mhz. The tone is sorta a siren going from high pitch to low, then high pitch to low, etc. like a sawtooth wave. IIRC, that system will be completely phased out in 2006. The new 400+ mhz systems will be on line. Each one is registered, so you know who has the distress. Location will be pinpoint within minutes, due to a new waveform, instead of a half hour to hours with the old system.
Posted by: Alaska Paul In Nikolaevsk, Alaska ||
10/20/2004 19:39
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The al-Qaida affiliated terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for the series of brutal attacks two weeks ago in Sinai published a threatening message promising to continue attacks against Israel and Israeli interests. "Message to the damned [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and [Defense Minister Shaul] Mofaz: We have prepared for you an army of martyrs and we will not rest until you reach the depths of hell," the message reads. "We promise the masses of the Islamic nation to continue the Jihad until we destroy the Zionist enemy," Channel 1 TV quoted the message.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:48:59 AM ||
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#1
How is that different from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizballah? Jews must die? because Allah demands it?
#2
er, isn't this the same incident that muslims blame on mossad/US/zionists/tooth fairy? MEMRI.org has a summary of how the arab world seems to uniformly blame others on this.
#4
In light of Arafish saying one thing in English and another in Arabic, how does one say "Bring it on" in Hebrew?
Posted by: BA ||
10/20/2004 10:49
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#5
In light of Arafish saying one thing in English and another in Arabic, how does one say "Bring it on" in Hebrew?
I don't know the current colloquialism,(where is Elder of Zion when we need him?) but boyheh'nah (accent on the 2nd syllabubble) means "come here." I s'pose one could say more expansively, boyheh'nah habibi (friend in Arabic) if there were any uncertainly.
#7
Thanks, Kalle. 'Twas my husband who studied Arabic, not I, so I am ignorant of these critical little nuances. Although saying, "boyhenah habibti" could have dire consequences for the IDI man in question, if her brothers find out!
Up to a thousand foreign jihadists have infiltrated Iraq, but this is a fraction of al-Qaida's potential strength, a respected military thinktank said yesterday.
The foreign fighters are operating with the Sunni Ba'athists loyal to Saddam Hussein who began the insurgency, and possibly with Shia militias as well, according to the the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Basing its findings on information from its specialist contacts, including sources in governments and intelligence agencies, the institute said the invasion of Iraq had "enhanced jihadist recruitment and intensified al-Qaida's motivation" to mount terrorist operations.
The organisation estimated that al-Qaida had more than 18,000 potential terrorists in 60 countries, sympathetic, in varying degrees, to its cause.
"Furthermore, the substantially exposed US military deployment in Iraq presents al-Qaida with perhaps its most attractive 'iconic' target outside US territory," the report, The Military Balance, concluded.
"Galvanised by Iraq, if compromised by Afghanistan, al-Qaida remains a viable and effective 'network of networks'," the institute warns. After losing its training and command base in the Afghanistan war, al-Qaida dispersed, its leaders relinquishing operational initiative and responsibility to "local talent", according to the report.
But intelligence obtained by the US suggested that some of al-Qaida's activities, particularly bomb-making, had become more centralised and therefore "potentially more efficient and sophisticated".
Al-Qaida now needed less money to operate, and increasingly used the informal hawala system of financial transfers and remittances, which is based on trust rather than a paper trail and is difficult to regulate, the thinktank said.
Through regime change in Iraq, the report said, Britain and the US intended to usher democracy into the Gulf region to advance a long-term political convergence between Islam and the west.
Yet the insurgency and other state-building problems cast doubt on the political benefits of the entire Iraqi operation.
The report dismissed claims by US officials that the influx of jihadists into Iraq brought more terrorists into a smaller "killing zone". The al-Qaida movement was unlikely to concentrate forces in any one country, the institute said, adding that the 1,000 foreign fighters estimated to be in Iraq were a "minute fraction of its potential strength".
The institute's director, John Chipman, said yesterday: "The outcome of the US-led international effort to bring stability to the country is far from certain as the most powerful military power in the world struggles with a multi-faceted insurgency."
He said it could take five years before Iraq's own security forces were able to guarantee stability themselves.
Pointing a finger at the US, Christopher Langton, the editor of The Military Balance, said governments had to realise that post-conflict, peacekeeping operations were "manpower-intensive, as the human component replaces the weapon system as the key enabler to success".
He added that the use of partially trained reservists, or reservists with the wrong skills, was no substitute for fully trained soldiers, as the US had learned to its cost in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
The report also referred to the profusion of private military companies. Such companies could not provide the answer to the manpower problem because of a "lack of oversight on their activities allied to their lack of accountability".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:47:55 AM ||
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Is the IISS some kind of Brit Brookings Institution? This isn't analysis, it's posturing.
#12
These "analyses" seem bogus to me. So what if recruitment and motivation are up? Wouldn't that be expected when we decided to escalate the war? The numbers of terrorists is still small from a military point of view (we're not talking about million-man armies as in WWII) and they still appear to have limited capability to hurt us militarily. This war is still in the category of low intensity conflict, and we have the capability to wage war on a scale that Al Qaeda can't even imagine.
Posted by: V is for Victory ||
10/20/2004 8:57
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#13
some thoughts
1. the evidence on recruitment must be in parts i havent read yet. color me skeptical
2. Its still probably true that AQ remains strong.
3. Most interesting is the shift in methods of moving money
4. 1000 in Iraq out of 18000. As usual reality is a middle ground between ideological assertions. Yup, the fly paper effect IS happening. But no, its not enough to make the war in Iraq the central front of the WOT. At least not based on the flypaper effect alone.
5. Democracy in Iraq, as they hint, could be important. But its not there yet and has many obstacles. As we all know.
6. Radical Islam post-OIF is particularly strong in Europe. Yup, I think thats the key insight, and ultimately the reason for the division between us and the French. A win in Iraq can transform the Middle East, and change the strategic situation there. But Frances immediate problem, in a way thats difficult for Americans to understand, isnt the Middle East. Its the muslims in the suburbs of Paris and Marseilles. Our threat is essentially from abroad. While a few muslims here are radicalized and cooperate with terrorists, most dont, and they are fewer in number, and generally less concentrated. In France they are heavily radicalized and discontented, huge in number, and heavily ghettoized. Its a time bomb (well theres already violence, but thats only a hint at whats possible - and the potential reaction from the French right is just as dangerous to the Republic) The war in Iraq, to the extent it adds to the radicalization among French muslims (which I think we can admit it probably does) is a disaster to France, even if it improves the strategic situation in the Middle East.
#14
Of course the recruitment is up that is to be expected it is what happens in every war when both sides dig in resources. It's called focus: before war in terrorism "Al-queda" had social program to get good willing, had programs to teach religious stuff and a military wing. Now probably are all under military wing.
German build more airplanes in 1944 and had a bigger army too... that means they were being successfull at that time?
#15
#11 AI: the invasion of Iraq had "enhanced jihadist recruitment and intensified al-Qaidaâs motivation" to mount terrorist operations
Excellent use of stating the bleedin' obvious
This brought to you by the International Institute of the Study of the Completely Obvious (IISCO)!
Posted by: BA ||
10/20/2004 10:46
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#16
Liberalhawk, while I agree with your statements concerning the threat radical Muslims pose to France, I donât believe France should get off so lightly.
In addition to the Islamic issue:
France has long been anti-American.
The Anglosphere is a threat to French cultural, political, and economic influence.
France has historically triangulated against the US and continues to do so.
By positioning the EU in opposition to the US, France uses the EU to magnify French influence.
Many French politicians and businessmen are corrupt by US moral standards.
So I donât think that the internal Muslim threat is the main driver of French foreign policy.
Justice would soon be served to Abdullah Mehsud, the mastermind behind the kidnapping of the Chinese engineers, Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Safdar Hussain said on Tuesday. "I am confident that he (Abdullah) will not escape. I want to see him punished as soon as possible," he told a news briefing at the 11 Corps Headquarters in Peshawar. Lt Gen Hussain said Abdullah was his primary target, but did not give a timeframe for his capture. "I have several options to ensure that justice is served to Abdullah — military action is one of them."
Defending the commando operation that resulted in the release of one Chinese engineer and the subsequent death of another, he said the operation was only launched after all other options were exhausted. "Had I delayed the rescue operation by 20 minutes, the hostages would have been killed. We intercepted a message by Abdullah ordering their execution," he added.
ASIO last night asked Spanish authorities to provide details of Australian phone numbers contacted by a group of seven alleged Islamic terrorists arrested across Spain on Monday. The calls were believed to have been placed by members of the alleged terror cell to numbers in Sydney and Melbourne in the past two months. Spanish national police allege that the group was planning to bomb Spain's highest court, possibly with help from the separatist terror group ETA. They believe some of the men were directly linked to the key organiser of the Madrid train bombings in March.
Plans for the new blast were uncovered when police tapped phones used by the seven men. Police were acting on information provided by a mosque elder to the Moroccan Secret Service. Calls were also made from the group to numbers in the US and Europe. Spanish investigators claim that remaining elements of the Madrid bombing cell had tried to recruit suicide bombers from Muslims serving short prison sentences. The arrests mark the second time an Australian link to a Spanish terror cell has been alleged. Late last year, the Sydney-based Islamic nutball firebrand, Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud, was alleged to have been in phone contact with the leader of al-Qaeda in Europe, Abu Dahdah, who is now detained in Spain. Sheikh Zoud has denied the claim.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't me."
But links between Spanish militants and alleged jihadis in southeast Asia have emerged over the past two years. The first known contact occurred in mid-2002 when Spaniard Parlindungan Siregar turned up at a militant training camp in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi.
Hmmm... Must be some sort of mistake here. Spaniards simply aren't named "Parlindungan Siregar." Spaniards are named "Juan Gomez" or "Amelia Lopez" or even "Carlos Perez y Ibarra de la Casa Grande en la Montaña Verde y Rojo." Sorry. Must be from someplace else. Prob'ly from Canada and lied about it.
In March 2003, regional terror tsar Hambali was arrested holding a forged Spanish passport.
See what I mean? Spaniards aren't named "Hambali," either. And if they were, it'd probably be "Hambalos." They're not Italian, y'know.
And in March this year, Spanish police claimed that one of the Madrid bombers made a series of phone calls to the inner circle of accused Indonesian terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir, whom Australia believes is the spiritual leader of Jemmah Islamiah. The bomber later died in a suicide explosion when cornered by police.
"They got me surrounded, Abu Bakar! What'll I do?"
"You know too much, Mahmoud! Sorry."
"You mean... [Gulp!]... The Belt?"
The men arrested on Monday were identified as Ismail Latrech, Mourad Yala, Magid Mchmacha, Ali Omar, Djamel Merabet, Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed and an illegal immigrant known as Mehdi. The Australian Federal Police expects to receive today advice about the phone numbers and addresses of the numbers called.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:36:53 AM ||
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the group was planning to bomb Spainâs highest court, possibly with help from the separatist terror group ETA.
Tawhid and Jihad, the Iraqi militant group of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, apparently has changed its name two days after announcing its merger with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization. An Internet statement released Tuesday under the purported new name, al-Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers, claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. military convoy west of the Iraqi city of Fallujah the same day. The two rivers in the new name refers to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq.
Witnesses in Habaniyah, west of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, reported seeing three American Humvees burning, but the U.S. military didn't comment on the alleged attack. "A lion from the martyrdom brigades ... plowed into an American convoy that had entered Habaniyah," said the statement. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified. "The brother, God accept him, managed to destroy five Hummer vehicles and all those inside," the statement added. The claim was posted under the new name by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, a pseudonym that al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group had said was its legitimate source of information. The statement, written in similar language to previous Tawhid and Jihad statements, also was posted on a Web site known as a clearing house for Islamic militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:35:28 AM ||
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#1
A.k.a. Monist Beheaders merge with Nihilist Murderers.
#4
Yeah but if they cut heads it may help them ride out the coming market collapse. At least they've got a lot of experience.
BTW, is this subject to SEC approval?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 9:33
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#5
Don't expect any attacks from the a-QoJitLofTR anytime soon; they have to integrate their personnel software and the paycheck software and get with their accountants and downsize the company motor pool and maybe pick a new food services company to run the commissary, and let's not forget letterhead, people! And with a name like al-Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers, they will have to do all of their printing landscape.
Posted by: (lowercase) matt ||
10/20/2004 15:37
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#6
LOL! OBL is their prime liquid (pls!) asset. $25 million would go a long way in covering the merger expenses.
Spanish intelligence agents warned police in November last year that an Algerian - now identified as a ringleader of the Madrid train bombings - was preparing an attack in Spain. The agents asked the Interior Ministry for urgent help in locating the suspect, Allekema Lamari, who had served jail time in Spain on terrorism charges and was considered dangerous. But the ministry did not heed the warning, El Pais newspaper said.
"Who was that on the phone, Juan-Carlos?"
"One of those intelligence guys."
"What'd he want?"
"I dunno. Somethin' about an Algerian or a Moroccan or somethin'. Got any more of those doughnuts?"
The newspaper quoted sources close to Spain's National Intelligence Centre (NIC). "We knew he was preparing something big, but not his target or when, although signs were it would be in December 2003 or January of this year," the newspaper quoted a source close to the NIC as saying. The Interior Ministry and Spanish police declined to comment on the report.
"El Pais is on the phone, Jefe!"
"Tell 'em I'm out!"
Last Friday, the ministry said it had identified Lamari as one of seven train-bombing suspects who blew themselves up on April 3 as police prepared to storm their apartment. Lamari (39) was the last of the seven to be identified.
"Okay. We got two lips left over. They appear to go together. Now, who do they belong to?"
Spanish police checked DNA from his remains at the apartment against saliva samples obtained from his parents in Algeria.
"Infidel!"
"Just spit in the cup, lady! Not on me!"
Spanish intelligence placed Lamari under surveillance when he got out of prison in 2002, after serving five years for allegedly belonging to an Algerian Muslim extremist group. El Pais said that on March 6, five days before the Madrid train bombings, the NIC issued a report to the then-conservative government, warning that Lamari had vanished from Lavapies, a Madrid neighbourhood with a large Muslim population.
"What do you mean, 'vanished'? Evaporated?"
"Uh... No, Jefe! We went out for lunch, and when we got back he wudn't there!"
"That ain't no definition of 'vanished' I ever heard!"
Several Moroccans later arrested in connection with the bombings also lived in Lavapies. Five days after the attack, agents asked that Lamari's photo be released to police nationwide, but the government did not act on this either, the newspaper said.
#2
Kalle I agree. I think one of the biggest problems with the FBI and CIA is that they tend to value intelligence gathering over actually stopping crime.
Take for example the cocaine epidemic in the 1970's and 80's. I believe that if they had arrested the primary and secondary US dealers early on, instead of observing them for years, they could have shut these guys down much more effectively. Instead, they gathered more and more intelligence while the network got bigger and bigger - so big that when they finally got their kingpins - the distribution networks were so well established that it was beyond control.
I think they need to stop just gathering intelligence and instead use targeted assinations to disrupt the networks. It seems to me that it would be easier to see whose really in charge if you start taking out links in the chain.
#3
It goes MUCH farther than that. The cops who ignored the warnings had STRONG ties to the socialist party, they had been involved in the "dirty war" (assassinations of ETA people) under the previous socialist governmant of Gonzalez and since Zapatero came to power they have been promoted.
There ware various articles at
http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com
this one being the more closely related to what I said
Three Pakistani soldiers were killed when suspected Al-Qaeda linked militants attacked an Army convoy in South Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan. The convoy came under attack Raghzay locality, where the military launched a major operation to capture a militant who kidnapped two Chinese engineers last week, sources said. Reports from Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan said the military is using heavy weapons including artillery to hit the suspected hideouts of Abdullah Mehsud, whose men had had held two Chinese hostages, one of whom died during a rescue bid. Security Chief of tribal region Mehmood Shah said yesterday that the security forces have identified location of Abdullah Mehsud, who according to him is 'rapidly shifting positions'.
"Get 'im!"
"He won't hold still, sahib!"
The visiting Chinese vice foreign ministar Du Dwei yesterday asked Pakistan to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in the country.
"Did I mention how large our army is?"
"Ummm... Yes. You did. Twice."
Mehsud was freed in March after 25 months in US custody in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He had refused to hand over the Chinese until safe passage had been granted for his men.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:30:08 AM ||
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Al Qaeda is present in more than 60 countries around the world and radical Islam is increasing in Western Europe, where Muslims often feel marginalised, a well-respected military and defence think tank in London said yesterday. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) also said that Westerners and Western interests in the Arab world appeared to face greater peril now than before the US-led war in Iraq. The US, through its military invasion and occupation of Iraq, had shown a desire to change the political status quo in the Arab world to advance its own strategic and political interests, it noted. "Al Qaeda seeks, among other things, to purge the Arab and larger Muslim world of US influence," IISS said. "Accordingly, the Iraq intervention was always likely in the short term to enhance jihadist recruitment and intensify Al Qaeda's motivation to encourage and assist terrorist operations," it said.
As examples of this increased threat, the IISS cited May 2003 attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the gathering of foreign fighters against the US-led coalition in Iraq, November 2003 attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey and the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid. The assessment was contained in the institute's annual report for 2004 on the military capabilities and defence economics of 169 countries around the world. IISS said that although half of Al Qaeda's 30 senior leaders and perhaps 2,000 rank-and-file members had been killed or captured, a "rump" leadership, including Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, was still intact with 18,000 terrorists potentially still at large. "Radical Islam appears to be on the rise in Western Europe," it warned, adding that Islamic terrorism was now the "principal threat to Europe. Furthermore, the sources of European Muslims' grievances... are increasingly social, economic and political marginalisation in host countries," it said.
According to IISS, terrorism, illicit trafficking and organised crime facilitated by globalisation, trade liberalisation, and weak borders were the important threats considered in 2004 defence planning. Britain and France were singled out amongst European nations for their swift response to the terrorist threat since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, while IISS noted that co-ordination throughout the European Union had been "harder to forge".
Meanwhile, an eighth suspected Islamic extremist was arrested in Spain yesterday as part of a police sweep in which seven others were arrested overnight, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso announced. The latest arrest took place in northern Pamplona, Alonso told reporters on the sidelines of a parliamentary session. He said the suspects were plotting attacks against the National Court, Spain's highest criminal court, or other judicial bodies. The interior ministry previously released a statement announcing the arrests of seven "radical and violent" Moroccans and Algerians living in Spain, most of whom have served jail terms. Four of them were arrested in the southern city of Almeria and the other three in the southern town of Malaga, the eastern city of Valencia and the capital, Madrid.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/20/2004
1:29:01 AM ||
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Pamplona+bulls+jihadies=???
The possabilities are interesting.
A CIA informant provided false information about an impending al Qaeda attack, but other intelligence sources reveal that the danger of a major strike by the group close to the upcoming elections is real, U.S. officials said. "We are concerned because a number of different threat reports we've received over the past few months indicate terrorists plan to disrupt the democratic process," said one official with access to intelligence reports.
Officials said that since the spring, numerous information sources, both electronic and human, have indicated that al Qaeda is planning a major attack on the United States or on U.S. targets abroad before the Nov. 2 election. But officials said several threat reports from April and May have been found to be "a deception" designed to fool U.S. intelligence agencies.
AS the presidential election approaches, the cynical charges of "failure" in Iraq obscure a fundamental truth: The conflict has improved our military dramatically. War teaches. And we're very good learners. We already had the best-trained, best-equipped armed forces in the world. Now we have the most experienced troops, as well. With enduringly high morale. Operation Iraqi Freedom and the subsequent occupation swept away a pile of dangerous nonsense. We found — again — that airpower alone cannot win wars and that the infantryman remains as indispensable in the 21st century as he was in the bronze age.
Ralph Peters is an excellent analyst who is strongly biased in favor of infantry. He believes Air Force claims of being able to defeat armies w/out ground troops are ridiculous and he sometimes goes overboard.
If I remember correctly,"Shock and Awe" was going to be a 3 day intense aerial bombardment before the troops went in.It never took place because info on Saddam's whereabouts caused the whole plan to be changed as a strike on Saddams supposed location prematurely started the war. All of which showed the quality of Gen. Franks-he lost his Northern attack at last minute,his air plan was thrown in toilet,and his ground assualt had to start days before he planned.How much or little he actually had to do w/planning,he controlled his battle and didn't let anyone panic.
Posted by: Stephen ||
10/20/2004 21:20
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I like that Ralph pointed out that our combat units have ALL had significant action. The entire US Army and Marines are basically combat vets. A look at the past 100 years of our military, you will see that almost every unit was skittish in their opening engagements. That is no longer the case. Can you imagine having the 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions on the Iraq-Syria (or Iran-Iraq) border? How much CRACK there would be in that whip? 50,000 of the best-trained, best-equipped AND most experienced troops lookin' at the border in an obvious way? They'd be quakin' in their f*cking boots. Singing the Jihidi Lament (JDAM version).
This is a new strategic and tactical benefit we have from opening this new front on the Islamofascists. A military that can absolutely obliterate any enemy imaginable. Just let you know where you are............
Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, finds it "inconceivable" that Russia, France or China might have been influenced in Security Council debates by Saddam Hussein's Oil for Food business and bribes. "These are very serious and important governments," Mr. Annan told Britain's ITV News Sunday. "You are not dealing with banana republics."
This has been Mr. Annan's chief response so far to the extensive documentation cited in the recent Iraq Survey Group report, from the CIA's Charles Duelfer, that under cover of the U.N.'s Oil for Food relief program Saddam was trying to buy up pals on the U.N. Security Council. Mr. Duelfer tells us that under the leaky U.N. sanctions and corrupt Oil for Food program, Saddam had already built the networks and was amassing the resources to rearm himself with weapons of mass destruction as soon as U.N. sanctions were entirely gone.
#1
"...it "inconceivable" that Russia, France or China might have been influenced in Security Council debates by Saddam Husseinâs Oil for Food business and bribes."
They weren't actually --- they'd do it anyway. The oil vouchers were just the icing.
#2
Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, finds it "inconceivable" that Russia, France or China might have been influenced in Security Council debates by Saddam Husseinâs Oil for Food business and bribes.
#3
Why should we believe Kofi Annan who is a serial aider of genocide on anything? I mean it is pretty obvious the French were using the "Oil for Food" program as a way to fill the coffers of the ruling partys well known political slush funds. These "Oil" or more aptly Blood vouchers were used to fill Chirac's well know political slush fun.
Federal investigators believe the second World Trade Center tower fell much more quickly than the first because it faced a more concentrated, intense fire inside, officials said Tuesday. The detailed hypothesis was discussed at a meeting of investigators with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the Commerce Department. NIST investigators are preparing a report, to be released later this year, detailing how and why the towers collapsed after being struck by fuel-filled jetliners on Sept. 11, 2001.
Lead investigator Dr. Shyam Sunder said Tower 2 collapsed more quickly than Tower 1 because the fire was more concentrated, weakening sections of interior and exterior support columns more quickly. Tower 1 was struck first and stood for 103 minutes, almost twice as long as Tower 2, which remained standing for only 56 minutes. "In Tower 2, you had a large concentration of combustible debris in the northeast corner, and the fire there was a more persistent fire," said Sunder. The flames stayed strong in part because the impact of the plane stripped away much of the fireproofing along the floors, investigators said. NIST probers now suspect the stripping effect of the collision was far more decisive in the course of the fire than whether individual floors had more or less fireproofing material. Investigators also say the towers would have probably remained standing were it not for the raging fires inside, which weakened the steel supports. The jet fuel from the planes burned away within minutes, but the office material and the plane debris continued to burn and break down the structural integrity of the buildings. As the fire continued, the heat and extra stress on the interior support columns caused them to compress downward. When the building's steel skin couldn't handle the extra weight, it began to buckle. Investigators have singled out an Associated Press photograph that they said may provide evidence to support their theory of how the buildings collapsed. The photo, taken shortly before the collapse of Tower 2, shows a "kink" in the building's corner at the 106th floor.
You can see the photo at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2004
12:38:33 AM ||
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I always assumed that as Tower 2 was hit a lot lower down the compressive pressure on the weakening steel was greater, and so it collapsed first.
#2
Mohammed Atta was the one flying that plane. He was a better pilot, hit Tower 2 lower, and had much more "tilt" so his plane hit on more of a diagonal and probably did much more damage to the structure of the building. Bastard.
When steel is heated to about 1,000 degrees F, it begins to expand, at the rate of 1 inch per foot. A ten foot beam evenly heated will grow ten inches longer.
Consider that the rivets, welds, and fasteners for the steel in the two towers were intended to handle movement stresses of an eight of an inch or less, any heating of the steel would begin to produce point failures.
Far sooner than the beams would start to sag from melting, the phase change would cause them to begin to push the exterior panels away from the building. You can see this on many of the videos. The panels jump outward followed by a puff of smoke. The loons see this as proof the Towers were blown up, rather than a result of the physics of the fire.
As the connections between the beams began to fail, the load stresses shifted. The near vertical collapse was due to the inability of the less heated exterior columns and beams to support an interior where the welds and rivets had been destroyed by heat related expansion. The center fell in, resulting in the generalized pancaking of the entire building.
The fireproofing was not intended to resist stripping by the friction of tons of aircraft sliding across it. This is not a defect nor a design flaw. Fireproofing material is just that, fireproofing. You can scrape it off if you try.
If you watch the video for Twoer Two, it can be interpreted that the pilot was attempting to strike the corner of the tower and possible topple it. Granted, the pilots were having obvious control problems (more typified by the attack at the Pentagon) but were I flying that sort of mission, I would try to destabilize the building by not hitting it square.
#4
There was a documentary a while ago that I thought explained the collapse of the towers rather well, echoing what Chuck said, if I remember correctly. The towers' design was ingenious in that it allowed for plenty of floor space, but no one would have been able to foresee and plan for a terrorist attack such as this.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/20/2004 12:58
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Slightly off topic, but I have always been awed by analysis by a structural engineer I heard on Sept 12 rr 13. His theory was that the debris pile for each tower, by all calculations, considering all the structure and "stuff" composing the towers, should have been 20-25 stories tall and not the 6-8 at ground zero.
The energy release was off the charts when the towers collapsed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2004
12:20:41 AM ||
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I used to carry a universal remote control in the glove box of my car. If I was at a bar, and I didn't like the programming on the TV, I'd go out to my car, get the remote, find the code for the TV, and change the freaking channel. Usually nobody noticed, and one or two times I got applause.
The editor of a reformist Iranian newspaper has been arrested as part of the authorities' crackdown on "illegal" Internet sites, the local media reported yesterday. Javad Qolam Tamimi, editor of the pro-reform daily Mardomsalari, was arrested on Monday evening for his involvement in the dissident sites, the daily Iran quoted a local judiciary official as saying. The arrest follows  the announcement on October 12 by Iran's hardline judiciary that a number of reformist journalists detained in its push against the Internet sites would go on trial after court hearings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2004
12:18:30 AM ||
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Well.....the pose sure looks rather familiar...
The top American commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday he has no evidence Osama bin Laden is in day-to-day control of al-Qaeda but suggested the long-absent terrorist leader is alive. Lt. Gen. David Barno, speaking to reporters during a visit to the Pentagon, talked mostly of a lack of evidence about bin Laden's whereabouts, health and current role in the al-Qaeda network. He remains, however, a critical target, Barno said. Still, "I don't see any indications that he is in day-to-day command and control, as it were, of the al-Qaeda organization or the other terrorist groups that work with him, certainly in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area," Barno said.
Barno suggested that bin Laden's death would be difficult to conceal from intelligence services, even if he died in a secret place, because his associates would talk about it. Recent communications from al-Qaeda's top echelon have come from bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, as videotaped messages. Early in 2004, Barno and his staff predicted bin Laden would be captured by the end of the year. No longer. "I retired my crystal ball, and I don't make predictions anymore in terms of when we're potentially going to get any of the figures out there that we pursue every day in Afghanistan," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
10/20/2004
1:21:54 AM ||
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When was the last time anyone saw evidence with some sort of time indicator, newspaper or citation of a current event, with UBL? It wasn't like the dude was camera shy before Tora Bora.
Posted by: Don ||
10/20/2004 9:09
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Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday fatally shot a former Tamil parliamentary candidate allied to a renegade Tiger leader, police said.
[BANG!]
"Y'got me! Rosebud"!
Kingsley Rasanayagam was gunned down while walking in the government-held town of Batticaloa, 220 kilometers (140 miles) east of Colombo, a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity. A bodyguard of Rasanayagam's was also injured in the attack, the officer said.
Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
Rasanayagam won in April parliamentary elections after running as a candidate for the mainstream Tamil National Alliance, a proxy party of the Tigers. He subsequently resigned his parliamentary post, largely because of pressure from the Tigers over his allegiance to a top eastern rebel leader who broke away from the rebels' main faction in March. Scores have since been killed in factional fighting that has threatened to derail a fragile cease-fire agreement between government forces and the Tigers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2004
12:08:51 AM ||
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A bodyguard of Rasanayagamâs was also injured in the attack, the officer said.
Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
Don't be silly, Steve. He was guarding the body.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European powers will offer this week to support Iranian construction of a light-water nuclear reactor, as part of a deal to persuade the Islamic republic to stop enriching uranium, U.S. and European officials said on Tuesday.
Driven by U.S. concerns that Iran is developing a secret nuclear arms program, the U.N. nuclear watchdog has demanded Tehran freeze its enrichment activities -- procedures that could produce fuel for atomic weapons. Britain, Germany and France will present a package of "carrots and sticks" on Thursday giving Iran a final chance to meet the demands or face possible sanctions.
Just when you think the Euros couldn't combine venality with stupidity any better ...
The Europeans outlined their proposal for ending Iran's uranium enrichment activities at a closed-door meeting of the Group of Eight major powers hosted by Washington last Friday, but the key incentive of support for a light-water reactor did not emerge until Tuesday. "The idea is that Iran would eliminate its plans for a heavy-water reactor and instead go to a light-water reactor system and the EU would help support construction of that," said a U.S. official who has seen the proposal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
It's the Clinton plan for the Norks, version 2.0
Nuclear experts say light-water reactors provide little help for any nation seeking atomic weapons, unlike heavy-water facilities, which can be used as an alternative to uranium enrichment in producing nuclear weapons material.
A European official confirmed the Europeans included a light-water reactor as part of their package to win a verified suspension and eventual termination of Iran's uranium enrichment. Other incentives in the European offer, which will be detailed to Iranian officials in Vienna on Thursday, include resumption of an EU-Iran trade pact and guarantees of Russian fuel.
U.S. officials are generally skeptical that the negotiations will work because Iran has previously broken pledges made to the Europeans. But in principle, they could accept Tehran's building of light-water reactors. The United States has threatened to press for U.N. sanctions over Iran's nuclear programs. Tehran says its nuclear efforts are only for power generation.
If Iran rejects the European offer, diplomats say most European nations would back U.S. demands that Tehran be reported to the U.N. Security Council when the International Atomic Energy Agency meets in November. The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear program for more than two years. While it has uncovered many previously hidden activities that could be related to a weapons program, it has found no "smoking gun."
Report them to the IAEA, that'll do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2004
12:03:08 AM ||
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I'm all for 'carrots and sticks' as long as the stick has some serious stick. How about we trade, even up, one reactor for a handful of bunker-busters?
As for the IAEA, I'm not sure they could find their ass if it was radioactive and they had Geiger counters in each hand. May Hans Blix could help them search?
#3
I said 2 days ago Chirac would find a way to proliferate with Iran. France has a long history of proliferation. Where did Isreal get it's nuclear technology? Iraq? Chirac is a pig that will sell nuclear technology to anyone. I can't explain Germany or the UK's thinking other than they are stone stupid. Chirac needs to stay in power to stay out of jail or he needs a huge slush fund to do the same.
#7
Europe may exist as a land mass but not as a unified people. Lumping the UK in with France and Germany brings tears to my eyes. We have been making a fist of it even in the face of fierce left wing media opposition.
Posted by: Edmund Burke ||
10/20/2004 9:58
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Britain, Germany and France will present a package of "carrots and sticks"
#12
France provided a heavy water reactor (HWR) to Israel in the late 1950's. HWRs are great for making plutonium and is the type Russia is providing Iran, only 40 times as large (with options on several more).
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004 11:47
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#13
Great! If Iran has nukes they will act as a deterrent to war in the mid east.
#14
Nice try EuroIdiot. But much of southern Europe is now in range of Iranian missiles. In a few years all of Europe will be in range of nuclear tipped missiles. Hope you like being slaves and your women like harem life.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004 11:57
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#16
Ahh, but American Idiot, if Europe actually used its nukes, that would be warlike and mean. Europe prides itself on being the nice continent. The Mullahs, on the other hand, enjoy it when such an opportunity presents itself. In fact, they go looking for opportunities, rather than waiting calmly for a visit. That's why they built the silly things in the first place.
#17
You think your nukes are going to have any effect? There is a good chance of nuclear war starting in the next 10-20 years. The reasons you can speculate about. But in the exchange Iran will be obliterated. In their dying gasp the mullahs will launch all they have remaining. That means a few (if any surviving ICBMs) and a lot of medium range missiles. The US has an anti-missile capability now, that will only improve, and will be able to intercept any surviving ICBMs. You Europeans (and Russia) will be faced with dozens and possibly hundreds of medium range nuclear missiles Your civilization will have 10 minutes to kiss your ass goodbye. Launch your missiles at Iran, or whoever else you want. It won't matter. You will only be bouncing radioactive Persian rubble.
So for the sake of your Euro cities, you better pray the mullahs are overthrown and their nuclear program buried.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2004 12:29
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#19
Excellent analysis #17, but I believe it will be much sooner than 10-20 years if the mullahs get the bomb. They have stated that they will use it on Israel as soon as they get it. Rafsanjani told the Iranian parliament that the destruction of Iran would be a small price to pay for the elimination of Israel.
#20
The mullahs can talk the talk. They're preachers after all. It remains to be seen if they can survive the counterstrike.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 13:44
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Mrs Davis, I doubt they will survive the counterstrike, but do you really think they care about that? I mean, as long as they take a bunch of infidels with them, they've got those virgins (or crystal raisins) waiting for them in Paradise with Allah....
#22
Nuclear experts say light-water reactors provide little help for any nation seeking atomic weapons, unlike heavy-water facilities, which can be used as an alternative to uranium enrichment in producing nuclear weapons material.
Don't know what $*#% nuclear experts that are talking to but it's total BS.
In a commercial light water reactor, the typical fuel mix is 3% U-235 and 97% U-238. U-238 is fissionable, but not fissile and thus useless for sustaining a chain reaction.
However, U-238 when it absorbs a neutron becomes U-239, which then kicks off a beta particle to become Neptunium-239, which then becomes Plutonium-239 by another beta decay. And that ladies and gentlemen means that you now are in possession of something to make nuclear weapons.
Unlike uranium enrichment, the separation of plutonium from all the other fuel components is a simple chemical extraction (albeit with a need for a great deal of radiation shielding).
Unless the Euros think that they have the balls to demand that the Iranians hand back the spent fuel rods, all they are doing is making sure that their cities are getting hit by Nagasaki-style Fat Man plutonium bombs rather than Hiroshima-style Little Boy uranium bombs.
Bottom line: the Iranians are awash in crude oil, which means that they can supply their entire country's electric needs with #2 Fuel Oil. They don't need nuclear reactors.
#25
EuroMoron LOL! We got nukes too? LOL.
The UK has Nukes (and is out of range)
France has Nukes and they'll use them against Iran? LOL! I love an optimist. Perhaps you were thinking about Mother Russia? Europe? LOL!
#27
When you are talking nuclear exchanges, you are talking about lots of radioactive contamination. I was a kid in the fifties that could read well and distinctively remember the higher and serious levels of radiation due to fallout from the US and Soviet hydrogen bomb tests. IIRC, India was getting high levels, and so was places like Anaktuvuk Pass in Alaska. I have worked out in the Nevada Test Site, and seen what a pain in the ass decontamination is. This stuff is not a joke. It contaminates a place for a long time. The Mad Mullahs need to be stopped before they get nuclear weapons. They are suicidal nutcases. The US or Israel needs to do what they have to do to stop it. European leaders are EUnichs. We will not win popularity contests doing it, but it has to be done. The alternatives are pretty bad.
Posted by: Alaska Paul In Nikolaevsk, Alaska ||
10/20/2004 19:22
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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said his sex life suffered after he praised President George W. Bush at the Republican convention, infuriating his Democratic wife.
"Don't touch me, you... you... you Republican!
"I'll be back!"
The movie star politician told an audience in Monterey, California, that his wife and Kennedy family heiress Maria Shriver was not amused at his electrifying speech in support of Bush's White House bid and cold-shouldered him after the convention. "Well, there was no sex for 14 days," the "Terminator" star quipped when asked by former Democrat White House chief of staff, Leon Pannetta, what Shriver thought of Schwarzenegger's backing for Bush. While she has taken on the role of first lady to California's Republican governor, Shriver is an arch-Democrat and the niece of slain US president John F. Kennedy and of his brother, Senator Robert Kennedy. Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican, said that he is not likely to hit the campaign trail for Bush, but said he was considering making one appearance in the battleground state of Ohio. The governor, who took office almost a year ago, has been cagey about publicly committing himself to campaigning for Bush with whom he has little in common apart from their party affiliation. A Fiscal conservative, Mr Schwarzenegger is a social liberal, supporting abortion rights, stem cell research, gun control and even gay marriage, issues to which Bush is heavily opposed.
Americans go to the polls in less than two weeks, on November 2, to elect a president with Bush facing Democrat John Kerry, who shares most of Schwarzenegger's stances on social issues. A jocular Schwarzenegger said that he had no interest in watching the presidential debates between Bush and Kerry. He quipped that if he wanted to hear a great discussion between an intelligent liberal and a Republican, "I'd just take my wife out to dinner."
Posted by: tipper ||
10/20/2004
1:16:56 AM ||
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Sometimes life is a bitch. Sometimes your wife is.
They are the ONLY team to come back in baseball from a 3-0 in a 7 game series. And in the process they pinned the Choke monkey on the back of their hated rivals, the NY Yankees!
Former South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has asked Florida voters to consider which presidential candidate could "return your country to be a beacon of freedom and peace."
Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, released an open letter Wednesday to the residents of Florida.
He urged Florida voters "to consider your vote not in terms of whether the individual is a Democrat or a Republican but whether he can lead your nation with wisdom and return your country to be a beacon of freedom and peace for the world." Except for the Clinton and Carter years, the US has always returned to being a beacon of freedom and peace.
#1
It's really hard to say anything without coming off like a racist but I can try. The "Reverend" is typical of the many "reverends" that were the cause of my leaving the United Methodist Church. Being a "Reverend" and a NPPW still doesn't give him a right to meddle in our election. If the good "Reverend" wants to worry about election I suggest he worry about the upcoming one in Zimbabwe next door to his country South Africa.
BTW I have the right to include "Reverend" in fron of my name. That and a dollar twentyfive will get you a cup of regular coffee. The Reverend should stick to what he knows which is being an Anglican priest and STFU.
Edited for brevity.
Puncture holes were found in the bellies of two US Airways jets at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, which the FBI said was not likely caused by normal wear and tear. Officials said the punctures discovered Monday morning during routine visual inspections are similar to damage recently found on another US Airways jet in Florida. No passengers were in the planes, which were temporarily grounded for repairs. The two planes found damaged Monday, a Boeing 737 and an Airbus 321, had come from Pensacola, Fla., and Pittsburgh. US Airways, Charlotte's dominant carrier, said the planes had punctures about the same size as holes a screwdriver would make. Airline spokesman David Castelveter characterized it as minor exterior damage. Such puncture holes likely would not endanger a plane or its passengers, aviation security experts said. They also pointed out Monday's grounding of the two planes proves the safety checks in place work: the damaged planes did not fly. The article goes on to speculate that disgruntled employees may have done this. USAir has been teetering on bankruptcy and within the past week received approval to cut union workers' pay around 21%. Most USAir employees I know here in the Pittsburgh area, which was a USAir hub but downgraded in the past year, aren't exactly thrilled about their prospects.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/20/2004
10:58:31 AM ||
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When this story gets disseminated, I suspect their prospects will look a whole lot bleaker. Dummies. Airlines with employees like this deserve to go out of business.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/20/2004 12:27
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#2
Assuming that it is indeed sabotage by employees, all I can say is:
"Attaboy people! Make sure your jobs are put in jeopardy even faster! If you'd rather be not working at all than working for a bit less pay, then more power to you!"
The Progress for America Voter Fund,
http://www.pfavoterfund.org/
an independent, conservative advocacy group, today releases a TV commercial it calls "Ashley's Story." The organization says it will spend $14 million to run the 60-second commercial between now and Nov. 2. This is a nuclear weapon among political ads. It doesn't even mention Kerry.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
10/20/2004
10:50:31 AM ||
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This sounds great, but I wonder why we haven't seen any testimonials from Afghans or Iraqis who are alive today because of Bush.
The article speculates that Kerry may respond with some equally heart-warming anecdote about Kerry. Good luck finding one. "And then he said to me, 'Little girl, just who do you think you're talking to?'"
Posted by: Matt ||
10/20/2004 14:40
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Posted by: too true ||
10/20/2004
10:41 ||
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If youze guys have trouble downloading this Flash file, I, uh, have a copy. Let me know and I'll make it available. I tried numerous times and it wouldn't complete downloading - so I sorta kinda cheated a little bit, heh.
#3
Nice work. Does a version exist that is a bit more hi res?
Pierre
Posted by: Pierre ||
10/20/2004 13:57
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#4
rkb, maybe these Evangelical Christians would change their mind if they actually studied the Koran and thought a bit about what it's like to be "slaughtered" by Zarqawi in the name of Islam.
Thanks, Man in Black, for an uplift to my spirits. The mud and nastiness of this campaign - especially of the Dems -- wears on me sometimes. It's important to remember what's at stake, not only in this election but for the next years.
Been a conservative Dem a long time. I'm for Bush this time around and although I seldom pray, I'm praying a lot these days.
Posted by: too true ||
10/20/2004 18:38
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Rosie the Riveter has given way to Sally the Sniveler.
During World War II, young Rose Will Monroe was the face of American women in adversity: strong, supportive and resolute against the enemy forces that threatened our existence. Tens of thousands like Rosie rolled up their sleeves, gritted their teeth, and flexed their muscles in factories and shipyards and arsenals across the country. They made rockets and rifles and bombs and boats. They painted and drilled and welded. When they got home to their kids, they cooked and cleaned and collapsed in bed after praying for their husbands and brothers and uncles on the battlefield. Rosie and her sisters in arms didn't have the luxury of complaining about their lack of "me time." There was a war to be won. And so, as this presidential campaign season has constantly reminded us, there is today.
But Rosie is gone. And in her place, we have Hysterical Women for Kerry.
They are self-absorbed celebrities who support banning all guns (except the ones their bodyguards use to protect them and their children). They are teachers' union bigwigs who support keeping all children hostage in public schools (except their own sons and daughters who have access to the best private institutions). They are sanctimonious environmentalists who oppose ostentatious energy consumption (except for their air-conditioned Malibu mansions and Gulfstream jets and custom Escalades.)
They are antiwar activists who claim to love the troops (except when they're apologizing to the terrorists trying to kill our men and women in uniform). They are peace activists who balk at your son bringing in his "Star Wars" light saber for the kindergarten Halloween parade (but who have no problem serving as human shields for torture-loving dictators). They are ultrafeminists who purport to speak for all women (but not the unborn ones or the abstinent teenage ones or the minority conservative ones or the newly enfranchised ones in Afghanistan).
In battleground states, the Kerry campaign has dispatched such incoherent nervous Nellies to scare the pantyhose off of young women and moms. Kerry's sister, Peggy, landed in Ohio at a Women for Kerry rally to scare up female votes to oppose President Bush's "war against women." At a time when Islamofascists are chopping off heads and kidnapping aid workers and plotting to kill schoolchildren, and at a time when untold numbers of malefactors are crossing into our borders, Peggy Kerry chose to whine about the alleged gender gap in white-collar salaries. "That is not fair," she said. "Let me tell you what my brother is going to fight for-pay equity." Meanwhile, a teacher for Kerry complained: "If we lose the White House again, it is very possible we will lose public education."
In Michigan, actress/legal observer Christine Lahti rallied Kerry women by warning: "Listen up. If (Bush) is re-elected, he will appoint a (Justice) Clarence Thomas clone and reverse Roe versus Wade." The Kerry campaign has also sent actress Sharon Stone-who recently blamed President Bush for preventing her from kissing fellow actress Halle Berry in the awful movie "Catwoman"-to drum up female votes in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
But if Hollywood had to crown a poster girl for the new Sally the Sniveler campaign, it would be Cameron Diaz. Rosie the Riveter delivered a unifying message to her fellow American women with simple, rousing clarity: "We can do it!"
In stark contrast, here's a painful partial transcript of Diaz's vote-beseeching appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last month:
Diaz: "We have a voice now, and we're not using it, and women have so much to lose. I mean, we could lose the right to our bodies. We could lo-if you think that rape should be legal, then don't vote. But if you think that you have a right to your body, and you have a right to say what happens to you and fight off that danger of losing that, then you should vote, and those are the . . .
Winfrey: "It's your voice."
Diaz: "It's your voice. It's your voice, that's your right."
We've come a long way, baby. The wrong way. Get a grip, girls. You are an embarrassment to a nation at war.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/20/2004
10:34:01 AM ||
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#1
No, Michelle, they are an embarrassment to the human race.
Too bad these chicks didn't get their heads ripped off in "Team America".....
#2
DB - Seen the 2 new Skeery ads on 9/11? One is wife, other a daughter, of victims of WTC attack. Both manage to blame Bush for their deaths. Truly disgusting shit - and this after the Dhimmidicks had squealed that Bush couldn't even refer to 9/11 in ad because it would be divisive / unfair somehow.
Living in a "battleground" state is bizarre. All I see are political ads, those smarmy prescription medicine ads (i.e. Cialis, heh), and Ginsu knife style kitchen gadget ads.
#5
Amen, 2b. She rocks like an earthquake! I tell you, I'm extremely happy (fortunate!) that I find myself on the same side as Michelle in every issue where I've read her offer her opinion - whew! Very den Beste-like in her logical arguments.
#7
.com - No, haven't seen them, but then again I'm not watching much TV these days. Every time a political ad comes on, I start swearing at the set. Freaks out the new hubby to hear his (usually) sweet tempered girl start shouting "F*** off and die, bastard!!" at the commercials.
But you gotta admit, it is pretty funny to see an ad for one of these schmucks followed by an ad for heartburn or insomnia medications!
And I used to vote Democrat......sigh.
#8
CF - No - I'm a phreakin' expert on them, now - unfortunately for me, lol!
DB - Lol! I'm alone, but I do have to wonder if my apartment neighbors can hear me shout the same sort of epithets at the TV, lol! Used to scare the hell out of my daughter (I was a very happy Single Dad with custody for 10 yrs) when I'd talk to the TV. She "got it" later on: it's a way to reduce the stress of so much idiocy going unchallenged!
#9
.com, that's why I'm soooo glad that 1) my neighbors are mostly elderly, and 2) the apartment building is masonry construction. They can't hear much. Oh, and everyone thinks my big ol' rottie/shepherd mix is mean when they first meet her (I do have to yank on Cookie's leash, only so she doesn't bowl people over to love on them.....)
#12
I'm not sure if my husband will be glad or sad when this election is over. Glad because he's limited to what channels he can watch without me saying things like - "Bring up Cambodia, Bill, bring up Cambodia!!" Ohhhh!! CAN YOU BELIEVE he didn't bring up Cambodia???? - before I dramatically storm off to be consoled by my friend, the Internet.
Glad because I won't spend 654 hours a day on the internet, flipping from site to site...hoping to find that one little nugget of information that will assure me that that GW indeed has this in the bag, (that and oooh..lookie what's going on in Fallujah - such an interesting 20 page article)... what the..OMG!! [looks up from screen - eyes spinning in circles - back aching from spending day slouched in chair staring at the screen] Is that the garage door opening? Oh &^%$! I better get dressed before he makes it up the stairs!!!
Of course, it's equally possible that he will be sad when it's over, because I won't be spending 625 hours on the Internet every day...and thus allowing him complete control over the remote and being blissfully unaware of everything that we should be doing around the house.
The previously unknown diary of 18-year-old Helga Deen - who was murdered along with her family by the Nazis at the Sobibor death camp in 1943 - has been loaned to the Tilburg Regional Archive.
In her diary, Helga describes her experiences, feelings and surroundings at the Dutch Vught concentration camp in the month before she and her family were transported to Sobibor.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/20/2004
10:23:29 PM ||
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Abdullah Mehsud, left, former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who allegedly led kidnapping of Chinese engineers, talks to reporters near Chagmalai on Thursday, Oct 14, 2004 in South Waziristan along Afghanistan border.
Ummm... Lemme get this straight: AP photographers can find him, but the entire Pak army only suspects where he might be?
About 1,000 Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships, mortars and artillery Wednesday pounded a mountainous region near the Afghan border where a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers is believed to be hiding.
Took a real mastermind to come up with that idea, by Gum!
The assault targeted the village of Spinkai Raghzai in South Waziristan, a tribal region where the Pakistani army has been hunting Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida associates. But the top military commander in the region said Tuesday it was unlikely bin Laden was hiding in the area, as U.S. authorities suspect.
"Nope. Nope. Not here. Maybe... ummm... someplace else."
Abdullah Mehsud, a former prisoner at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who was released in March, had been hiding in the area. The one-legged militant, who is Pakistani, is believed responsible for the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers on Oct. 9. Since returning home, he has taken command of militants in South Waziristan and has forged ties with al-Qaida, Pakistani intelligence officials say.
But Amnesia International and Human Rights Watch say most of those guys in Guantanamo are innocent, pure as the driven snow, just in the wrong place at the wrong time! How could this be? No doubt Mehsud is just doing charity work in the area, right?
Also Wednesday, intelligence officials said they had captured a suspected al-Qaida communications expert of Middle Eastern origin whom they identified as Abdul Rahman.
That tells us a lot. Most of the guys in the Wonderful World of Islam who aren't named Mahmoud are named Abdul Rahman.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed confirmed the arrest of a terror suspect, but would not provide further details on when or where he was captured. The man did not appear to be on either the FBI's most-wanted terror list or a similar Pakistani list.
Maybe under another name? Look under "Mahmoud." They sometimes lie about their names.
The assault Wednesday was directed at Spinkai Raghzai, a village about 35 miles northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. Militants returned fire with mortars and guns but there was no word on casualties. The village is believed to be a Mehsud stronghold, an intelligence official said. But Mehsud's whereabouts have not been known since last Thursday, when commandos raided a house where five of his men were holding the two Chinese engineers. One of the Chinese was freed but the other was killed in the assault. All five kidnappers were also killed. Security chiefs then vowed to hunt down Mehsud, who had been hiding in mountains close to the raided house and disappeared after the attack. "You can't be sure where he is," the intelligence official told The Associated Press.
"He's everywhere! He's everywhere!"
The army has also been hunting bin Laden in South Waziristan, a region bordering Afghanistan. But Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the top commander in northwest Pakistan, said late Tuesday his forces have found no sign of the terrorist leader. However, Hussain said there are still hundreds of militants, many suspected of ties to al-Qaida, in the region. Since March, security forces have killed 246 of them, including 100 foreigners, and arrested 579. About 170 army and paramilitary troops have also been killed in the crackdown, he said. "Our war against foreign terrorists will continue ... until we are successful. We will rest after the foreign terrorists are eliminated," he said.
Also Wednesday, police said they had arrested a Pakistani identified as Arfan Ali Shah, suspected of masterminding the Oct. 6 car bomb blast at a gathering of Islamic radicals in the city of Multan that killed 42 people. The motive for that attack was believed to be sectarian rivalries within Pakistan.
Sen. John Kerry has a simple strategy if the presidential race is in doubt on Nov. 3, the day after the election: Do not repeat Al Gore's mistakes.
Unlike the former vice president, who lost a recount fight and the 2000 election, Kerry will be quick to declare victory on election night and begin defending it. He also will be prepared to name a national security team before knowing whether he's secured the presidencyâŠ
Found via the Kerry Spot, which adds, "Notice nowhere in this story is there any suggestion that Kerry's plan would be affected by actual election results."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/20/2004
10:04:46 AM ||
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#1
Bingo. This will, indeed, be the game - should've seen it coming weeks ago. You can bank on this.
Picture the possibilities!
Incumbent President in squeaker...
Administration in place...
Election outcome tied up in courts...
Jan 20th, both Bush and Skeery show up for Oath of Office...
Dhimmidick appointees show up for "work"...
#2
Calling Florida election results (I think is was Afghan Dan Rather)early for Bush in 2000, resulted in the heavily Republican panhandle (one hour behind) not going to the polls (stupid, but they thought Bush had the state). This is often glossed over when Dimlight O'Crats point out that Bush only carried FL by 500+ votes. The number would have been much higher without the Rather flub.
#3
Skeery's campaign has announced (just heard on Fox) they have $6.8M for post-election legal fee fund, at present. Also, even if the election is NOT close, they will challenge - whatever that means. And another goodie: The Fed Election Comm says there will be NO limits on the legal fund donations, soft money will be OK, so we can expect Big Bux from the usual Socialist Fascist Sources.
#4
well...when it gets right down to brass tacks...the military supports GW by, something like, 75%. So, if the courts can't decide...then guess who wins? If you want to start a war, you might want to have something beside crazed un-armed pacificsts on your side.
#5
.com -- I fear you may be right. I've suspected Kerry may see himself -- even after a clear loss -- as the head of a "shadow presidency".
This idea -- of Kerry declaring himself the winner and taking the fight to the courts -- is exactly what vodkapundit was talking about in his famous rant. It strikes at the very legitimacy of the system by saying you're not going to follow the rules if they don't break your way.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/20/2004 12:32
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#6
maybe Teresa can buy Elba and establish him as King there
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/20/2004 12:39
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#7
RC - Such has been demonstrated in the same-sex marriages and similar. If they don't like it - they just ignore it.
And I forgot to Thank You for this post - it really will be a watershed event in American history - of the wrong sort, but extremely important nonetheless. If Skeery "wins" - and with all the voter fraud afoot it appears he has an excellent chance of pulling it off, I will NOT contribute one thin dime to his disasterous term. That, as far as I am concerned, will be that. You guys will prolly need a decade to "recover" - and that ignores the inevitable disasters that will occur, from Iran to domestic terror hits.
#8
.com, if the election is in doubt come the first week of January, things will get settled in a hurry.
The House will meet and vote (if necessary) to elect a President, per the Constitution. If GWB plausibly has ? 269 EV, he's the President. Kerry would have to have serious claims to 270+ EV to be elected, and those EV would have to be pretty clean looking. If the 2000 Election had ended up in the House (e.g., Florida never sent its Electors to vote, so no one had 270 EV), there's no question GWB would have been the winner.
The Senate then will meet, elect the Vice-President (Cheney in this scenario), and start to confirm the appointees of the elected President. The Dim appointees won't get the chance to show up for work.
Of course, if sKerry really does win, there won't be a problem, as GWB and crew have enough class to respect the rules and clean out their desks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2004 13:36
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#9
I have had the same fears for a while now - that at some point we are going to get a losing Presidential candidate who REFUSES to lose - who is so sure of their Righteousness that they will say something along the lines of, "The People didn't know what they are doing." And remember my prediction from a couple weeks ago - that in the last part of October, some 'voter rights' group or groups we've never heard of will announce "proof" of a massive vote fraud plan on the part of the GOP, and the Donks will demand the election be postponed - or worse, handed to Kerry.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/20/2004 13:49
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#10
Over on Democratic Underground last night (and I should NEVER EVER EVER go there; it's bad for my blood pressure), they were speculating that the flu vaccine shortage (and the school plans found in Iraq) were Repug ploys to keep people from voting. Gah. Did I mention I should NEVER EVER EVER go there?
#11
Creath Crort, I don't know any military men or women who are going to do anything close to what you say. They may not like the C-in-C (ie. Clinton), but they aren't going to do a palace coup.
For those who don't know, if we have a bona-fide or "apparent" 269 to 269 EV tie, then it goes to the House. Each state delegation gets one vote. The Pubs would win, in that case, if party lines are observed. There is no identified solution, AFAIK, for a 25-25 tie there.
But that's not the scenario that I believe will occur.
"Kerry would have to have serious claims to 270+ EV to be elected, and those EV would have to be pretty clean looking."
If there are states in dispute, as is currently planned by the Dhimmidick strategists (no matter what the vote results are, btw) and neither candidate has 270 without counting one or more of the disputed state's EVs, then it doesn't go to the House - it goes to the courts. This is a no-brainer for the LLL's - just dispute enough swing states, which they have already announced they will do.
Anything can happen, then, given the massive voter registration fraud, silly system hernias, such as the Colorado EV / popular vote gambit, the Ohio court ruling which says any voter in OH can vote anywhere - and officials are req'd to be able to validate - or are forced to accept the vote if unable to link all systems to validate, wild-eyed efforts to disenfranchise military votes, unverifiable overseas absentee ballots, not to mention the most obvious avenue for fraud: No valid official picture-ID required to vote.
Maybe you'll be right - there'll be enough votes to overwhelm the Loonies. Maybe we'll see a John Howard type of silent majority motivated to vote. Maybe it will be sufficient to overwhelm the assholes - eventually. I doubt it, utterly, but I've been wrong many times. I see this election ending up in the courts because all challenges must be handled by rule of law. No matter how silly or absurd, it will end up in the courts because they have decreed they will challenge in numerous states - more than enough of which are in doubt that they actually have a chance of changing some results.
#13
More than - enough to make this conservative Democrat gag.
Bush has my vote and my support. I've had enough.
Posted by: too true ||
10/20/2004 15:04
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#14
Relax, folks. This election will not be close.
As in the Calif governor's race, and the FL governor's race, and several other state races, the polls have no connection to how millions of centrists and swing voters will actually vote on Nov 2. There are at least a million national security Democrats who find Kerry horrifying but are not willing (or able) to come out openly for Bush. In the privacy of the voting booth, these closet Bush supporters will make their presence felt. But not before Nov 2-- the wrath of colleagues, neighbors, friends, even family is too great for them to come out openly.
#16
One caveat: Rove needs to quit worrying about the fundamentalist vote and go after every Lieberman and DNC Democrat he can find between Philadelphia and Detroit. At least 100,000 votes there, enough to tip one or more of PA, OH and MI.
#17
How about this scenario: The LLL talking heads on ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN declare Kerry the winner, he claims victory, but then the final tallies throw the election to Bush. Can you imagine the howl from the left? It would be litigation after litigation for the next few months.
#18
I have talked to more than a few democrats here that are not goin to vote at all. They don't like Kerry, don't like Bush, and despise Nader. I say don't ever vote for a candidate you will not later support. It's better in my view to not vote at all.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/20/2004 15:47
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#19
Sure, declare victory early. Just one more thing to flip/flop about. "I won before I lost."
I can almost hear the Acceptance of Defeat speech: "The People have spoken. The bastards!"
#22
Why wait - declare victory today and have done with it. Why let a pesky thing like an election decide the important issue of John Kerry becoming President. Voters are such a ... nuisance.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
10/20/2004 21:27
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#23
Lessee...
There was the Papal Court in Avignon during the Middle Ages. Rome and Avignon spent a lot of time excommunicating each other, as I recall.
And a few years ago Lackawanna, NY had three mayors, 'cause the job was just too lucrative. The old guy stayed in, the new guy moved in, and I still have no idea where the third guy came from. ;-)
North Korea's No. 2 leader has told China that his country still regards six-nation talks on the dispute over its nuclear program as the best way to reach a solution, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday. On Monday, Kim Yong Nam met his Chinese counterpart, Wu Bangguo, who told him that a settlement was the "common wish" of the international community.
Colin Powell: "The U.S. of A. will only participate in six-way talks. You, us, the SorKs, the Chicoms, Japan and the Russers."
Mr. Kim: "Absolutely not, capitalist running dogs! Dear Leader is a vastly important personage when his hair is moussed properly and America must "negotiate" only with him. The others are as slugs under his elevator shoes."
Mr. Wu: (whispers something in Kim's ear and yanks a short chain attached to Kim's neck.)
Mr. Kim: "Please, effendi, we were, er, perhaps a bit...well...[sharp yank]...hasty in our observations. Of course we shall most graciously be honored to join all of you in discussions. Shall I bring some pine needle tea? I'm told it's delicious and quite filling..."
Kim responded "in the strictest terms that the position of (North Korea) concerning the six-party talks is unchanged - that is, to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through the six-party talks," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a regular briefing. "It is a very important theme at the moment," Zhang said. "The various parties believe that the six-party talks is the best way to solve the nuclear issue."
"Nicely done, Marvin."
"Thank you, Mr. Secretary."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2004
10:04:12 PM ||
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#1
Is there anything left to John Kerry's foreign policy? France and Germany say no to troops in Iraq. Iranian Mullahs say no to the nuclear fuel offer, now hold that open. NoK will go ahead with 6 party talks, not bilateral with US. Kerry says he would have sent troops to keep Aristide in power in Haiti. Aristidistas get excited by this bloviating, which leads to the deaths of 50.
The alleged leader of the eight terrorist suspects arrested earlier this week on fears they were planning a bomb attack against the High Court in Madrid has been linked to the Netherlands, it was reported Wednesday. The man — who is currently being detained in a Swiss jail — has been identified as 30-year-old Algerian Mohammed Achrat. He is suspected of having links to both the Netherlands and Belgium, Spanish press agency Europapress reported. Spanish newspaper El Pais also said one of the other arrested men had a Dutch passport. Achrat was reportedly arrested in Switzerland several days ago. He is suspected of recruiting volunteers to fight in a Jihad, or Islamic holy war and of sending money to the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia. It is unclear who he allegedly sent the funds to and for what purpose. A spokeswoman for the national office of the Dutch public prosecutor — which is carrying out investigations into terrorist activities in the Netherlands — said the Spanish authorities had been in contact with Dutch justice officials. But Spain has not yet officially requested help with the investigation from the Netherlands, Dutch news agency ANP reported. The Algerian was arrested in Switzerland on request from Spanish authorities and is suspected of holding links to the Algerian terror movement, Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
The spokeswoman could not confirm whether the arrests in Spain would lead to an investigation in the Netherlands. The Dutch intelligence service AIVD has estimated at least 100 Islamic extremists are active in the Netherlands and the Dutch government issued a terror warning on 9 July. An 18-year-old man considered responsible for the alert is facing trial on allegations he was preparing a bomb attack.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected criticism on Tuesday that his country was sacrificing democracy in the fight against terrorism and urged Europe to take steps to avoid becoming a haven for terrorists. Speaking after a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, Lavrov said he was concerned that suspected terrorists were being allowed to move freely in Europe. Lavrov said some nations in the bloc were giving terrorists a podium to voice their views and to find allies and raise cash. "If this is not the support of terrorism then I understand nothing in this life," Lavrov told a news conference. "That is why that in the process of protecting human rights, we cannot allow those who, at the very least, are under strong suspicion of being connected to terrorism to run loose in Europe," he said.
Bot said he and Lavrov shared similar views on how terrorism should be fought and said Russia and the EU were taking steps to better coordinate their efforts, adding that EU anti-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries would visit Moscow. However, Bot published an article in several European newspapers on Tuesday in which he noted fears among EU leaders that Russia was backsliding on democratic freedoms in the wake of a string of deadly attacks in August and September.
#1
Eventually, terrorism will be "a nuisance," just as Kerry said
But whose nuisance? Whose suffering?
Who is going to be sacrificed on the altar of someone's nuisance level?
Things are tolerable only to a point; after that they become intolerable.
How many nuisances will make it more than a nuisance?
We are not talking of prostitution but terrorist attacks.
What State of the Union spin will Americans have to hear to calm their nerves at the latest nuisance, if it occurs in the US?
Abu Hamza is to be given a new hook — on the National Health Service. The taxpayer will pick up the bill for the aluminium replacement, which could top £5,000. Details of his new hook emerged on the day he faced court to be charged with ten counts of inciting murder. At one stage, consideration was given to replacing BOTH hooks with prosthetic hands at a cost of £30,000, health service sources said. Muslim Hamza, currently at top-security Belmarsh Prison, South East London, has complained his original hook is broken.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/20/2004
03:58 ||
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#1
"Ar, look at my shiny, new silver hooks!"
"Yeah, yeah, now down with the pants so we can get out those old hooks."
Posted by: Charles ||
10/20/2004 8:52
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#2
That's fine. Give him his nice, shiny new hook.
Shove the old one up his ass.
#7
Why in the hell is NHS forking over hard earned taxpayers' money for new hooks or better for this murderous slime? Bulldog Will, Howard, Tony, what is going on in the UK with these PC moonbats??????
Posted by: Alaska Paul In Nikolaevsk, Alaska ||
10/20/2004 18:50
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#8
The same crap that's happening in California, AP.
#1
THe Human Rights idiots have it backwards. Russia's problem is less that its military's brutal than that it's ineffective: badly organized, badly led, poorly trained, underpaid, completely demoralized. Only when Russia's military is reformed and reorganized will it stop the bloodshed in Chechnya, in the fastest way possible: by winning the war.
And the Beeb cited the HRW report, jules. You wanted the full 88 pages? Since I've just started reading it myself, here's just one example:
The story of one conscript illustrates the stresses associated with stodnevka particularly vividly. On May 27, 2002, Dmitrii Samsonov wrote to his parents and grandmother that the stodnevka was starting on June 19. He asked them all to send him supplies. For example, he wrote to his mother: âMama, this is what I need for the next four months: every week a transfer of forty to fifty rubles, and a small package with Prima [cigarettes] and filter cigarettes⦠Mama, donât forget to send this immediately. Immediately!â
The letter was delivered late and his parents received it only the day before the start of the stodnevka. A few days later, a second letter arrived in which Samsonov expressed his desperation:
Today the stodnevka is starting and I havenât received anything from you, nor from mama or grandma⦠I donât know what to do. Itâs 2:00 p.m. now. It will be lights-out in eight hours. I think that I will not survive this night. Or actually, I will survive but it will cost me a lot. I wrote to you, begged youâjust in case, I also wrote to grandmaâso you would [send me money] quickly but nobody responded. You just donât understand how important it was for me. I needed 200 rubles for the stodnevka, a pack of Yava Zolotoi [a cigarette brand name] and four cigarettes per day by June 19. That was itâ¦
As a post scriptum to the letter, Samsonov wrote: âI love you very much and miss you but I donât know how Iâm going to survive now.â In a letter dated July 13, 2002, Samsonov wrote that he was in a military hospital with a broken wrist. He wrote: âIâm not going to explain how that happened. It would take too long. I just wanted to inform you that I survived the beginning of the stodnevka.â In the letter, he repeated his requests for money and cigarettes.
On July 24, 2002, his parents received a telegram saying that their son had died the day before. Later, they were told that he had slit his veins.
#4
Yes, the hazing is horrific, and yes, dozens of recruits each year are killed or kill themselves to avoid it.
But the big story here is that Russia no longer has a state capable of preserving its integrity-- I mean, doing the most basic things a state must do, like paying pensions, preserving the borders, paying teachers' salaries and keeping hospitals open, and raising and supporting an even minimally competent military.
Russia is Pakistan North. Only high oil prices prop up the rotten structure. Had Russia an even halfway competent military, the Chechen insurrection would have been put down many years ago.
#5
Aris, I was looking for some backup of their claims, not an unreasonable expectation to to make of the Beeb, a news organization. Noenetheless, Aris, and lex, thanks for the info.
A broken wrist, then a suicide. It makes you wonder exactly what happens in dedovshchina. His horror and fear are clear, but exactly what is going on there is not.
#6
Hazing has a long history in the Russian/Red/Soviet Army. I heard parts of the story today on a BBC broadcast and it was to me a real yawner. Nothing new here.
Lex, I have a theory about ground forces.
A country spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to train a unit in weapons and tactics in military behavior; these men/women are then deployed into a combat environment.
The moment those soldiers are ordered to attack defenseless targets, as a matter of direct orders, you may as well shoot those soldiers as well for whatever combat efficiency they may have developed in the course of their training, it is gone for good, gone forever, never to come back. It is like opening a bottle of beer and letting it set out.
Now, you take surviving cadre from those units and you move them up in the ranks and what you have is a ruined military, incompetent and unable to perform a simple combat mission without heavy losses to themselves and to defenseless targets.
This is the point the Russian Army is at now. Demoralized and weak. Fortunately their expriment with a contract muilitary has shown some positive results. At the moment the experimental unit, the Russian 106th Airborne Division, now deployed in Chechnya is providing a template for the rest of the army. Chances are it may not end the hazing, but it could definately give the Russian Army the edge it needs to finally end the Chechen war with a win.
The Beeb/HRW report is agenda pushing at its worst. Aris drooling all over it is proof enough of that for me.
#7
The Beeb/HRW report is agenda pushing at its worst.
It seems to me to be agenda pushing at its best. HRW's agenda of caring about human rights is hardly a secret -- though certainly a nuisance for some people.
Aris drooling all over it is proof enough of that for me.
Yeah, you've shown already you have a very personal and *interesting* definition of "proof".
#1
"If the US bombing stops, that would be another positive indication and the negotiating channels could be reopened," Sheikh Abdul Hamid Jadu, said."
Sheeeeeek Abduuuuuul,
FYI....The U.S version of "positive indication" is to continue the bombings and create wide "channels" filled with JDAM shrapnel and terrs body parts.
#2
"If the US bombing stops, that would be another positive indication and the negotiating channels could be reopened," Sheikh Abdul Hamid Jadu, said. as he loaded up his family and personal belongings into his minivan and headed for the hills.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Taliban's one-eyed leader 
At least six Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, in a gun battle that erupted between rival Palestinian Authority security forces in Gaza City on Monday. In a separate incident in the northern Gaza Strip, a Hamas activist was killed during an armed clash with members of Islamic Jihad. Eyewitnesses said the Gaza City clashes started around noon, when members of the Preventive Security Service affiliated with former security minister Muhammad Dahlan opened fire on a number of security officers from Military Intelligence, headed by Gen. Musa Arafat. The confrontation began when Preventive Security personnel tried to arrest Muhammad Abu Jarrar, a top Military Intelligence officer, at his home. Jarrar and some members of his family opened fire at the force, seriously wounding Tamer Daghmash. 
ABC news anchor Peter Jennings said he's getting an earful on media coverage. Jennings is on a swing through battleground states, 
Pre-emption and unilateralism are the two most frequently used terms against President George W. Bush's foreign policy in the current presidential election campaign. Sen. John Kerry, the Democrat Party's presidential nominee, accuses Bush of breaking with an established tradition of American foreign policy. Kerry says the US should use force only after it is attacked, and then, only in conjunction with allies, and endorsement by the United Nations. Unilateralism and pre-emption, Kerry asserts, are alien to American traditions. But are they?
Veerappan, India's most wanted and most elusive brigand who murdered with impunity, was finally shot dead in his jungle hideout by elite commandos using some of the very tactics he employed for well over two decades to build a vast criminal empire. Using deception, undercover agents and a meticulously laid out network of informants, Tamil Nadu's Special Task Force (STF) commandos - set up only to nab him - trapped the 50-something Munuswamy Veerappan Gounder, made famous by his trademark handlebar moustache, into taking a van ride in a forested region where policemen ambushed and gunned him down Monday night. Operation Cocoon to track and eliminate the forest bandit succeeded because of extra-ordinary intelligence said K Vijaykumar, chief of the combined Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday. In a remarkable success story of perseverance, the STF - made up of commandos toughened by living in the inhospitable jungles of southern India straddling the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border - planted a mole in Veerappan's gang who drove the van that led him to his death.
Teresa Heinz Kerry says she doesn't know if first lady Laura Bush has ever had "a real job" and suggests their different experiences help make them different people. Laura Bush taught in public schools in Texas from 1968 to 1977, the year she married George W. Bush. In an interview published Wednesday in USA Today, the newspaper asked the wife of Democratic candidate John Kerry if she would be different from Laura Bush as a first lady. "Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good," Heinz Kerry said. "But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up. So her experience and her validation comes from important things, but different things." 
The United Nations has issued a statement calling on Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon, in accordance with a resolution passed last month. The Security Council statement was unanimous, meaning that it received the backing of Algeria, the only Arab member of the Security Council. Lebanon said the call set a "dangerous precedent of interference". Syria's ambassador to the UN said the US had pressured other Security Council members into accepting the statement. US deputy ambassador Anne Patterson said Washington was "quite pleased that this was a unanimous strong decision". She added: "It is important... that Syria cease interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, disarm militias and remove Syrian troops from Lebanon." 
Harvey White Woman, a descendant of Crazy Horse, told the club that "my family are offended whenever there is a show of disrespect to our culture". The letter was delivered to the club by Alfred Red Cloud, 53, on behalf of the Oglala Sioux from South Dakota. Mr White Woman said the letter was prompted by the discovery that stage shows at the Crazy Horse featured pseudo-Indian feathered headdresses - on mostly naked dancers. 
Saudi security forces arrested two wanted terrorists, one disguised as a woman, as they press ahead with a crackdown on extremists blamed for a string of terror attacks, an Interior Ministry spokesman said yesterday. The two were arrested in the southern township of Houtat Bani Tamim on Monday night and found in possession of 10 hand grenades, a machine gun and three pistols, Brig. Mansour Al-Turki said. "A security checkpoint stopped a suspect car in Houtat Bani Tamim," 170 km south of Riyadh, Turki said. "The driver stepped down (and was arrested) but his companion, who was disguised as a woman, sped away. Security forces gave chase and arrested him in the town of Addalam," 100 km south of the capital. 
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Marines destroyed a known insurgent command and control post on the north side of the city at about 1:30 p.m. Oct. 20. The post was used by insurgents to discuss operations and as a prime meeting location to plan attacks against the Iraqi government and its people. Aircraft used precision munitions to destroy the post. Before today's strike, the anti-Iraqi forces post was observed for more than 30 days. Reports indicated consistent insurgent activity including hardening of structures, emplacement of cement barriers, large formations of armed personnel, weapons positioning and munitions storage. Additionally, individuals frequenting the house and courtyard near the fighting position were observed digging into the adjacent road, setting improvised explosive devices, then repaving the road. Days later, the same individuals were spotted wiring explosive devices near the area. Destruction of the target further disrupts the anti-Iraqi forces' ability to destabilize the Fallujah area. 
Newsweek's Evan Thomas, who in July acknowledged that the media "want Kerry to win" and "that's going to be worth maybe 15 points" for the Kerry-Edwards ticket, on Sunday reaffirmed his belief that most reporters "absolutely" want Kerry to win, but on CNN's Reliable Sources he argued that his 15 point estimation was a "stupid thing to say." When host Howard Kurtz wondered if it is worth five points, Thomas acceded, "maybe." 
The Yemeni, identified as 
The al-Qaida affiliated terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for the series of brutal attacks two weeks ago in Sinai published a threatening message promising to continue attacks against Israel and Israeli interests. "Message to the damned [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and [Defense Minister Shaul] Mofaz: We have prepared for you an army of martyrs and we will not rest until you reach the depths of hell," the message reads. "We promise the masses of the Islamic nation to continue the Jihad until we destroy the Zionist enemy," Channel 1 TV quoted the message.
Spanish intelligence agents warned police in November last year that an Algerian - now identified as a ringleader of the Madrid train bombings - was preparing an attack in Spain. The agents asked the Interior Ministry for urgent help in locating the suspect, 
The editor of a reformist Iranian newspaper has been arrested as part of the authorities' crackdown on "illegal" Internet sites, the local media reported yesterday. Javad Qolam Tamimi, editor of the pro-reform daily Mardomsalari, was arrested on Monday evening for his involvement in the dissident sites, the daily Iran quoted a local judiciary official as saying. The arrest follows  the announcement on October 12 by Iran's hardline judiciary that a number of reformist journalists detained in its push against the Internet sites would go on trial after court hearings.
The top American commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday he has no evidence Osama bin Laden is in day-to-day control of al-Qaeda but suggested the long-absent terrorist leader is alive. Lt. Gen. David Barno, speaking to reporters during a visit to the Pentagon, talked mostly of a lack of evidence about bin Laden's whereabouts, health and current role in the al-Qaeda network. He remains, however, a critical target, Barno said. Still, "I don't see any indications that he is in day-to-day command and control, as it were, of the al-Qaeda organization or the other terrorist groups that work with him, certainly in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area," Barno said.
Abu Hamza is to be given a new hook — on the National Health Service. The taxpayer will pick up the bill for the aluminium replacement, which could top £5,000. Details of his new hook emerged on the day he faced court to be charged with ten counts of inciting murder. At one stage, consideration was given to replacing BOTH hooks with prosthetic hands at a cost of £30,000, health service sources said. Muslim Hamza, currently at top-security Belmarsh Prison, South East London, has complained his original hook is broken.
