(Reuters) - Separatist militants detonated a powerful landmine in Indian Kashmir killing eleven people, including nine soldiers, in one of the biggest attacks in recent weeks, police said on Sunday. stepping up the tempo while Perv's visiting W?
The jeep in which the men were travelling was blown apart when it ran over the landmine late on Saturday in Pulwama, south of Srinagar. A spokesman for Kashmir's frontline rebel group Hizbul Mujahideen called newspaper offices in Srinagar and claimed responsibility for the blast.
The victims included the jeep's driver and another civilian accompanying the soldiers who were headed for an operation against militants, said to be hiding in nearby mountains. "It was a huge explosion, it shook the whole area," a police officer said.
Soldiers in the neighbouring district of Anantnag shot dead three militants after laying a siege around a mosque where the rebels had taken shelter, an army spokesman said. He said the militants died after a night long gunbattle that ended on Sunday. a mosque?...where's that damn surprise meter...
Right here ...
Muslim militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir have often take refuge in mosques when they are chased by soldiers, who generally do not enter places of worship to avoid angering people in India's only Muslim-majority state.
Guerrilla violence has increased in Kashmir in recent weeks, which experts said could be aimed at derailing a new round of talks between India and Pakistan over the Himalayan region. The two sides are due to meet later this week to consider a popular demand to start exploding bus services between the two parts of Kashmir they control.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004
9:59:03 AM ||
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Jordan, fearing the spread of the Sunni insurgency into the country, has closed its border with Iraq. Jordanian officials said the move would block all travelers coming from Iraq into the Hashemite kingdom. Jordanians and other nationals would be allowed to enter Iraq. A Jordanian police statement said on Saturday that neither vehicles nor passengers would be allowed from Iraq. The statement did not say for how long the border would be closed. The decision was announced a day after a van exploded at the Iraqi border post of Trebil. The explosion on Dec. 3 destroyed a room employed by U.S. Army personnel who supervise the transport of supplies and soldiers to and from Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:58:09 PM ||
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Editor's note: Filling in for David Horsey this week is Rick Steves, author of the "Europe Through the Back Door" books and host of the popular public television travel program, "Rick Steves' Europe."
...On Sept. 11, 2001, the World Trade Center towers collapsed and angry clouds of dust chased U.S. citizens through the streets of New York City. The world was outraged. And the United States was outraged. So much so that -- three long years later -- many Americans still refuse to even dignify the attack by asking, "Why did they do it?..."
...So, why did they do it? Because "they hate freedom?" Come on -- that's ridiculous.
A billion Muslims throughout the world have three serious concerns: Palestine needs security and self-respect; they want the American military out of Islam; and they want control of their natural resources (to charge whatever they like for their oil). These are three basic foreign policy questions that any U.S. president could address without compromising the security and interests of America or Israel... "We want all Americans to die. Can't you just meet us halfway?"
The writer is a moonbat, personified. Here's his quote at the end of the article:
Could we more effectively fight terrorism by understanding what motivates it and then taking away the source of the anger? Wouldn't it be cheaper and wiser to just face our enemy, ask "Why?" and respond constructively?
Ladies and gents, this fellow is a lemming. He wants to roll over and die. The 'moose has it right: this fellow would meet them halfway, no further than that. He'd toss you and me into the funeral pyre as long as he could keep his public radio broadcast, his latte, and his eco-friendly SUV. He wants to be the last one eaten by the bear.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
12/05/2004
9:56:46 AM ||
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#1
I don't even know where to start with this idiot. I'm sick of this self-loathing "we made them do it" crap. Someone whack him with the clue bat.
#3
I encountered this exact same sort of mindset last month at a weekly dinner party I attend. After carefully explaining the difference between high-context and low-context societies, this one person then asked; "Why is it that we can't come up with some sort of win-win solution with the Arab cultures."
I did my best to explain that there were few aspects of most authoritarian Arab cultures we could leave in place (i.e., wife-beating, theocracy, abusive capital punishment, terrorism, etc.) without having completely compromised our own goals or, conversely, remove (even individually) without deeply offending the Arab culture involved.
Mind you, this same moron is someone who proclaimed that "America deserved 9-11" and how "we shouldn't go sticking our nose where it doesn't belong." I then asked him how it was that America going into the Middle East and providing oil extraction technology that increased regional wealth one thousand-fold (if not greater) constituted some sort of dire affront.
Right about that time this person became verbally abusive and I was left to speculate as to exactly how he had already lost several teeth in his upper jaw, right about where a solid left-hook should land.
PS: Someone here at Rantburg posted a link to an excellent article on high and low context cultures. If they see this request, I hope they will post the link again. I did a site search and was not able to find it.
#4
We've bought tour guide books from Steves in the past (one trip to the UK) and have watched his numerous PBS programs. No more. What a complete idiot! Is he trying to score points in some Muslim country where he hasn't been able to get a visa? Stuff it, Steve, and I don't mean in your backpack!
#5
Crap, I used to like his books and programs.
Ok, Mr Steves, I have asked myself why they hate me. I think I have figured it out.
I, a mere woman, dare to drive my own car and have my own money. No man controls what I do with that. Get this....my crazy father had this bizarre idea that he should leave an equal portion of his estate to me as he left to my brother! He even made me the executor of his estate!
I have traveled overseas without male permission on my own passport. I talk to males every day who are not my relatives. My husband is not the first man I have ever kissed, and I am not the least bit ashamed of that. As a matter of fact, I think he's damn lucky to have me. I've talked back to him on occasion (and, he doesn't think he has the right to beat me when I do. If he even tried, I'd deck his ass and he knows it.)
I worked for a police department once upon a time, so I worked in close contact with men. I even ordered some of them around and touched other men (try and put handcuffs on without touching someone. Believe me, there were a couple I would have really not wanted to touch.)
I walk around with my head uncovered. In the summer, I have strolled down the street in shorts and a tank top. More men have seen my bare ankles than I can count. The only two times I wore a veil were on my Communion and wedding days....and they weren't opaque.
I fly kites, listen to music and read any book I please. If I want a beer with my BBQ pork ribs, dammit, I'm having one. Or two, if I'm not driving.
Although I do not share the beliefs of atheists, Jews, Shias, Voodoo priests, Wiccans, Buddhists, or that crazy guy down the street who worships citrus, I believe with all my heart that they have every right to worship whatever gods they want as they see fit (or in the case of the Buddhists and atheists, no gods). My god does not demand that I kill them to give him glory. If my god wants 'em dead, he, being all powerful, does not need my help to accomplish this.
I will never say Muhammed is a prophet. I believe him to be nothing more than an illiterate trader who married well.
I refuse to live the way they demand that I live.
Other than all that, Mr Steves, I don't think they have a problem with me.
p.s. Desert Blondie, you nailed it! We keep hearing about a "clash of cultures", but it's really a clash of OUR culture with their LACK of culture! Yes, they invented some cool stuff a thousand years ago...but have spent, at least, the last 100 hundred years making everyone wonder if it was worth it! (though I can't imagine a calculator with Roman Numerals!)
"The United States' overwhelming global dominance is unprecedented in human history. Many Muslims fear the Americanization of their culture. In addition, the United States declares natural resources (such as oil) in Muslim countries 'vital to its national security.' And our immense military -- as big as the rest of the world's combined and unfightable by means other than terrorism --defends U.S. access to markets and natural resources throughout the globe."
So, author dude, what exactly is the problem? Sounds like we're good to go.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/05/2004 13:04
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I'm almost close enough to bitch-slap him. I won't go out of my way, but I'll definitely give him a piece of my mind. Everybody else should feel free. I think LGF has contacts listed for the SeattlePI.
#13
Desert Blondie---Excellent comments. Now if any males among us have the energy to crank out one of those rants, we will combine them and ship them off to Rick Stevie Wonder.
What happened to Desert Blondie is what happened to my wife during her doctoral dissertation. The topic spoke to her, got the juices flowing, and it wrote itself.
RSW must have been reading the latest edition of the Dhimmi's Handbook. The topic spoke to him, and with a little White Slag, he cranked out this piece of drivel article and that brings us up to the present.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 14:09
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#14
Did you notice how the AOS dove for cover just to avoid recochets? :)
I doubt if he'll go the way Carlo or Barzini did. But I wouldn't expect an invitation to Crawford any time soon if I was him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:55:29 PM ||
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#1
He is a loser, with a big letter "L" on his forehead. First and foremost, he is tactless and has no ability to conceal that fact, a cardinal sin in international politics. He bears comparison to Napoleon III, a novice who thinks himself a master of realpolitik, made a fool by the real masters he despises.
#2
Will Zapatero receive forgiveness from Bush⦠for getting out-of-line? If so, what tribute must Spain pay to stay in Americaâs good graces?
Tansoborn obviously has 'issues'. Zapatero is going to remain at arms-length with the White House for a long, long while. He might as well use the time practicing his role as Chirac's flunky.
#3
Zapetero is Chiraq's suck boy. No chance Bush will warm to him any time soon. He has a mouth that writes checks even Chiraq can not honor. As long as he is running things Spain will suffer with the US. His "popularity" hurts Spain as well.
The King is a devout christian and Bush honored him with a long visit. It certainly was not to dis Zappy. I am quite sure Bush made that very clear.
The state I live in was once part of Spain and the El Camino Real means something to us native sons. It is quite proper to honor the King of Spain in Texas another state that was once part of the Spanish realm.
The UPDF [Uganda Peoples Defense Force] on Saturday, clashed with soldiers suspected to be members of the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), who where crossing to Eastern Congo via Bunagana border post, military sources have said. A senior military officer who preferred anonymity, told The Monitor on Saturday, that UPDF soldiers who were on routine patrol in Kisoro, battled the suspected Rwandan troops on the foothills of Mountain Muhavura for two hours. Military sources said RDF was crossing to Congo at around 11am when UPDF's 17th battalion tried to intercept them from using Uganda territory. "We engaged them for some good hours and they sustained injuries. We managed to capture four SMGs and unspecified amount of ammunition," a UPDF officer said. The Commander of the 17th battalion, Capt. Jingo, could neither deny nor confirm the clash.
The Defence and Military spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, yesterday said it was still too early to confirm whether they were Rwandan forces. "Yes, we battled a roaming force in the district of Kisoro which was moving towards Ugandan territory. But we are still verifying whether they were Rwandan troops or Congolese rebels of the RCD-Goma," Bantariza said by phone yesterday. RCD-Goma is a Rwanda-backed Congolese rebel group. At Bunagana, Uganda, Rwanda and DRC share a common border. Local authorities in Kisoro said the fighting had led to an influx of hundreds of Congolese refugees, who were by last evening, camped at Bunagana primary school. Eyewitnesses at the border sub county of Nyarusiza told The Monitor that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers have been crossing Bunagana border from the Rwanda side into the DRC since last week. A source at Kisoro Police said that the "strange troops" first encountered Ugandan Administrative Police Patrol and "refused to identify themselves." The police informed the UPDF which mounted border patrols, mid last week. Rwanda's Army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga, declined to comment on the issue. Rwanda has denied deploying its troops in the Congo as the UN monitor body Monuc claims, mounting evidence of Rwandan troops in Congo.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:52:33 PM ||
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EILAT, Israel (AP) - Egypt freed an Israeli Arab man convicted of spying in exchange for Israel's release of six Egyptian students Sunday, a swap that signaled a warming of relations between the two countries. Israel may also release Palestinian prisoners in the future, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said.
Egypt released Azzam Azzam, who was sentenced in 1997 to 15 years in prison after an Egyptian court convicted him of espionage. At the time, Azzam ran a textile factory in Egypt, and Israel has denied he was an agent. The case against Azzam was based, in part, on allegations he used invisible ink to transmit information. Israel, in turn, released six Egyptian students who had sneaked into the country in August and were arrested on suspicion they tried to kidnap Israeli soldiers and commandeer a tank.
Azzam's imprisonment has been a key point of friction between Israel and Egypt, whose ties remain cool despite their 1979 peace treaty, and the students' arrest had angered many in Egypt. But Israel's relations with the Palestinians and with Egypt have been steadily improving since the death last month of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The transfer took place at the Taba crossing between Israel and Egypt. After Azzam crossed into Israel in a van, he was taken to a nearby airport at the Red Sea resort of Eilat. Israeli security officials who accompanied Azzam said he cried and flashed a victory sign as he emerged from the van.
Several hours later, he boarded a small military aircraft, smiling an waving before takeoff. Asked by reporters how he was, he said: ``Very good. Thank you, thank you.'' Azzam briefly spoke to his wife Amal, as well as to Sharon, from Eilat. ``Azzam, I can't believe it's you,'' his wife told him, looking faint and emotional as the family cheered in the background. Sharon told Azzam he had worked hard for his release and that ``the entire country is united in happiness over your return home.''
Azzam was expected to undergo a medical check before returning to his family in the northern Israeli village of Mughar. His brother, Iftan, said the family only found out earlier Sunday that he was about to be released. ``We invite the whole state of Israel to celebrate with us,'' Iftan Azzam told Israel Radio.
Sharon said in a statement Sunday that he was considering releasing an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners as part of the swap with Egypt. More than 7,000 Palestinians are being held by Israel.
Um, no, you got your boy back, the Paleos should stay in the slammer.
The swap came several days after Egypt's foreign minister and intelligence chief met with Sharon in Jerusalem. Earlier this week, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak praised Sharon, saying Palestinians should be able to strike a peace deal with the Israeli leader. Mubarak's comments marked a significant warming of ties after an extended frosty period during more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Shortly after the outbreak of the conflict in 2000, Egypt had withdrawn its ambassador from Israel.
Azzam was arrested by Egypt in November 1996. At the time, he was the director of a textile factory in Egypt under joint Israeli-Egyptian ownership. The case against him included women's underwear allegedly soaked in invisible ink.
This guy got jugged not for espionage but for handling womens' underwear.
An Egyptian teacher convicted as his accomplice was jailed for life with hard labor. Under Egyptian law, the court's decision could not be appealed.
The arrests of the six Egyptian university students - and the recent shooting deaths of three Egyptian policemen by Israelis along the border - had inflamed public sentiments in Egypt. Israeli officials said the six crossed into Egypt after their release. A security officer in the Egyptian city of al-Arish, near the border with Israel, said forces in the area were preparing to receive them. Another Egyptian security official said the students may face charges in Egypt for illegally crossing the border.
"You stupid boy! Whattaya think you are, a Paleostinian?"
"Gee, Dad, we thought it was a good idea at the time."
[slap] "Who told you to think?" [slap]
Ahead of the swap, Youssry Hassan Salem, the father of one of the students held in Israel, said ``we are sitting beside the phone to know the time and place where they are going to be released today.'' Salem said his son, Mohammed Youssri Hassan Salem, 24, engineering student at Helwan university, spoke to his family once in September and they received four letters from them since then. The other five were university students or recent graduates living in suburban Cairo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
9:51:31 AM ||
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#1
Great Islamic Ideasâ¢
"Hey! I know what we can do! We can steal a Joooooo tank! No, really! Stop laughing!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004 10:01
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#2
Sounds like one of those Brilliant Ideas hatched during an all-nighter...
#3
Those guys must have gotten a bag of White Slag at their all-nighter to hatch that hare-brained plot. Mebbe their controller was into it.
So for all the armor chaps out there, a question: What security is there to protect from unauthorized entry and starting of a tank? Just out of curiosity.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 13:24
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#4
Lol! "This guy got jugged not for espionage but for handling womens' underwear."
FYI for the RB femalians: in Saudi there are many lingerie stores - largely answering the "What's under that burqha?" question... but did you know that the staff of these emporiums are all men? Obvious - after the fact... So, um, need some help in the fitting room? I'll send Ahmad on the double... Double-heh.
#5
Jeeez.... .com you saying the staff handles the hmmm... merchandise? Damn now that could cause seething, it also explains the bizzare google image requests from that area.
I mean Camel, panties, smoking, sailor suit? I just don't know.
#6
I tried the search on Google, Shipman. No matches. In fact, it was so weird of a request that there was a statement there that said, "WTF is this?" LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 16:28
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#7
It pretty obvious you aren't a member of the Silver Searchers AP.
The two presidential candidates in the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh and Raul Khajimba, reached an understanding on holding, they told reporters in Sukhumi Sunday evening. "As a result of compromise we agreed that I would run with Khajimba in one team," Bagapsh said. He added that in the new elections he would be running as president and Khajimba as vice president. "But we will have almost equal powers," he said. Asked whether the question of forming a new Cabinet had been discussed Bagapsh said the matter would be negotiated later. He added that if the tentative understanding were reaffirmed during further talks Sunday night his inauguration expected on Monday, December 6 would be put off. The talks between Khajimba and Bagapsh were mediated by Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov and State Duma vice speaker Sergei Baburin. Abkhazia (Sukhumi) is de jure a province of Georgia, which gained independence in the 1990s. On October 3 Abkhazia held presidential elections. The Central Elections Commission declared Bagapsh the winner, however, the supporters of his rival disagreed with the election results provoking a political crisis
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:51:10 PM ||
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Three gunmen have been eliminated in Malogbek district, Ingushetia, a source in law enforcement told Interfax on Sunday. In Nizhniye Achauki law enforcers tried to stop a Lada car but the driver and two passengers refused to obey. The three were killed in an attempted detain them, the source said. They were identified as Alexander Saduyev, Feraji Itiyev and Yunadi Vakhiyev. They had fake documents of police officers on them. In addition six homemade grenades, two Stechkin handguns, one Makarov handgun and over 200 pieces of ammunition for small arms were discovered in the vehicle. Investigators are trying to trace their involvement in crimes committed in Northern Caucasus
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:49:50 PM ||
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UKRAINE's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko says he is determined to find out the facts behind a suspected poisoning attempt in the lead-up to the country's election.
Two faces ... Mr Yushchenko this weekend, left, and earlier this year.
His face remains disfigured as a result of a mystery illness that struck during the bitterly-fought campaign. "Soon the world will know what happened," he said from his office in Kiev yesterday. "I will reveal all the details of what they gave me to look like this." The Opposition leader said he fell ill after attending a dinner hosted by the Ukraine's secret police in the weeks leading up to the election. Doctors who treated Mr Yushchenko in Vienna found it difficult to find the cause of the condition - which was severe.
Mr Yushchenko's family has now gone into hiding in fear of their safety. "Even today, my family cannot live in Kiev," he said to London's Sunday Telegraph. "My children can't go to school. I believe the worst is behind us, but still it is not safe for my family. It will not be safe before we have completed the political transformation of this country." Mr Yushchenko has both US and Ukrainian citizenship. He and his wife have three children, and appeared together on stage at a demonstration on Friday in Kiev. New elections are scheduled in the country for December 26 following weeks of protests over alleged fraud in the November 21 poll. Details of the new poll were agreed upon last week in a bid to end the stalemate which has existed since the last election result was announced.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:21:43 PM ||
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#1
Hummm... interesting.. this is the first time I've read or heard, "Mr Yushchenko has both US and Ukrainian citizenship."
Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Osman Ismael pledged Sunday that his government will enter dialogue with a newly established armed group in Darfur in response to a call by the United Nations special representative. Speaking shortly following the Joint Mechanism meeting between Sudan and the United Nations, Ismael did not reveal any specific date set for the dialogue to start. He said however that the Sudanese government "will establish contacts with the Darfur Movement of Reform and Development to enter talks on the issues of humanitarian and security in Darfur, just as it did with the SLM and JEM in Abuja in November". On November 11 in Abuja, Nigeria, the three Sudanese parties to the conflict in Darfur signed an agreement on humanitarian and security expected to end almost two years of war in the area. Speaking to reporters, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the meeting of the Joint Mechanism discussed the recent rebel attacks on Taweela area in north Darfur, and aerial bombardment of rebels by the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:11:18 PM ||
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A day of horror and outrage was witnessed on Monday, 28 November when Abdurrahman Mohammad Al-Sawka was killed and Hussein Mohammad Karout wounded when a policeman opened fire to disperse a crowd of people gathering in front of the Sira Court in Aden. The court was crowded with people during a hearing concerning the alleged murder of Awadh Khamis Al-Hinki and Hussein Ali Masaod. An officer from the Intelligence Department was convicted of the murder of the two victims on 19 October 2004. The judge of the court adjourned the hearing for the third time and this aroused tension among relatives of the two victims who were present at the court. A source at the court security said the people assembled held a sit-in blocking the traffic in the street leading to the court. Security measures were intensified in the vicinity of the court to enable the suspect to be taken out peacefully since the protestors attempted to snatch him from among the police recruits.
On the other hand, an eyewitness said a policeman belonging to the central security got out of a police vehicle and fired randomly in the air and to the ground in an apparent attempt to disperse the crowd. As a result, passerby Hussein Karout was wounded in his foot and Abdurrahman Al-Sawka was killed while he was standing near the court carrying his child. An eyewitness described the murder scene by saying that despite being fatally shot, the victim tried to keep himself balanced and not fall in order not to harm his child before he was prevented from falling by some of the horror-stricken people, who were present at the moment.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:10:05 PM ||
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Stand near the runway at Frankfurt airport any evening and you can be in no doubt about the strength of German exporters' trading relationship with China.
Lufthansa, the national carrier, says passenger numbers on its China routes in the first 10 months were up almost 60 per cent on last year, and almost 20 per cent compared with 2002 (which was not affected by Sars and the Iraq war). The fastest growth has been in first and business class. But places on one flight to China this weekend were especially coveted. Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor, arrives on Monday with 35 business leaders on a trip largely dedicated to drumming up business leaving many disappointed colleagues behind. Friedolin Strack, Asia-Pacific co-ordinator for Germany's main business associations, says: "More than 150 companies applied to go." The enthusiasm is unsurprising. To the extent that the German economy has enjoyed a recovery this year, it has been export-led. Overall exports are up 10 per cent but exports to China, although accounting for 3 per cent of the total, increased 27 per cent in the first half of 2004. Only exports to Belgium showed stronger growth.
VDMA, the German engineering association, says China overtook France in August to become its members' second biggest export market after the US.
Such trends may be changing, however, making this trip more important. The brakes have been applied to China's expansion, and the euro's rise against the dollar is making German goods more expensive: the renminbi is pegged to the dollar. German exports worldwide in the third quarter were down 1 per cent compared with the previous three months.
Dirk Schumacher at Goldman Sachs says: "German exports to China have grown to a level where a slowdown there would certainly be felt. Of course a recession in France would have a bigger effect, but it would be like when Germany has economic troubles and the effects are really felt in Belgium and the Netherlands."
An aide to Mr Schröder admits that, as with the chancellor's five previous trips to China since May 1999, improving business ties will take centre stage this week, overshadowing talks with political leaders.
Mr Schröder is to open a Volkswagen factory and preside over ceremonies marking expansion of the China operations of DaimlerChrysler and the GeorgsmarienhÃŒtte steel company. A deal worth up to â¬1bn on the sale of 23 Airbus aircraft to Air China is also expected to be unveiled.
Mr Schröder's trip has not been universally welcomed. Critics in his centre-left coalition say too little emphasis is being placed on democracy and human rights. The Greens, the junior coalition partner, say the chancellor's proposal to lift the European Union's weapons embargo on China would "send the wrong signal to Beijing". Common sense among the Green's? My surprise meter pegged on that one.
But to the businessmen accompanying him, the chancellor is doing his best to serve his country's interests. They applaud his emergence as a champion of German industry.
Diether Klingelnberg, whose family runs a specialist engineering company and has secured a place on Mr Schröder's aircraft, says: "He has tried to help the German economy at home, but has not succeeded because of the opposition parties and some in his own side, so he helps in whatever way he can." But this time there are additional challenges. Joachim Schmid, managing director of the German construction equipment association, says credit restrictions in China are affecting his members, while the euro's strength is "adding difficulties".
But, Mr Schmid argues, the medium-term potential for German exporters is considerable: large excavators and pumps are big sellers. Last month's German-organised Bauma construction equipment trade fair in Shanghai attracted 50 per cent more visitors and 60 per cent more exhibitors than its first show in 2002.
So far the love affair with China seems to be continuing: Lufthansa says it has "not detected any notable slowdown" in China traffic in recent months. Germany also hopes to benefit from trade flows in the other direction: several Chinese-German travel agents this year launched package holidays to Germany for middle-class Chinese tourists.
Chinese managers are being invited to join self-drive motoring holidays in Bavaria, giving businessmen familiar with the quality of Germany's excavators a chance to test the quality of its cars as well.
Posted by: too true ||
12/05/2004
9:06:54 PM ||
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Putting Chinese businessmen on the road in Germany!!! Good Lord, that's an invitation to vehicular homicide. They drive like maniacs here, honking the horn the whole way. Obscure concepts like "right-of-way" and "stop on red" are unknown. Some of you might think I'm joking or trying to be funny, but I'm dead serious.
But to stay mostly on-topic, yes, China's economy is growing, and this story is rather humdrum. The English-language news regularly reports on the parade of foreign dignitaries coming to China to drum up business for their countries.
Palestine Media Center - PMC (Official PA website)
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=741
The PLO Executive Committee on Saturday affirmed its commitment to the peace process, urged a balanced, simultaneous and reciprocal implementation of the UN-adopted "roadmap" for peace in the Middle East, and reiterated the Palestinian demand that Israel's unilateral plan for "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip be an integral part of the Quartet-drafted blueprint. In a statement released following a meeting by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian leadership demanded a "timetable" for implementing the roadmap under the supervision of the Quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russian mediators.
PLO chief Mahmud Abbas chaired the meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei, and Minister of local government Jamal Al-Shobaki. The PLO demanded that Israel take "urgent measures" to lift the siege and closure it is imposing on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, end its military incursions, and stop its extra-judicial killing policy in order to facilitate Palestinian elections, the statement said. Local elections are scheduled for December 23, presidential elections for January 9 and legislative polls for mid-2005. PLO Chairman Abbas briefed the Committee on his latest meetings with Palestinian anti-occupation factions in Gaza City and confirmed that national dialogue will continue until the Palestinian house is put in order.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
9:03:06 PM ||
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That is quite the Paleo laundry list. And they have not even met with the Israelis yet. The Israeli govt will probably have only one or two demands:
1. Stay the hell out of Israel
2. Don't lob anything over the border.
Consequences stay the same, so no need to rehash that. I guess that about does it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 23:32
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France is resisting moves to reveal more about arms sales to China as the price of lifting the European Union's arms embargo on the country, putting Paris at odds with the rest of the EU.
President Jacques Chirac has championed lifting the ban imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre which the EU believes implies a near-pariah status China no longer deserves.
In spite of opposition from the US, many EU states want to ensure that lifting the embargo is largely symbolic by simultaneously increasing transparency on arms sales to Beijing. But Paris is resisting more openness.
The embargo is expected to be high on the agenda at the EU-China summit on Wednesday. While there is no prospect of it being lifted this week, the EU wants to signal to China that it will be removed soon perhaps in the first half of next year.
"The arms embargo is the EU's problem, not China's" said a European diplomat. "Most countries want tighter controls as a condition of lifting the embargo but France is an obstacle."And in other news, water is wet
China has put the arms embargo at the top of its priorities for its relationship with Europe, even though it says it had no intention of making big arms purchases from the EU. Uh huh.
Beijing has also made clear that relations with EU states including trade could suffer if the ban remains in place. The embargo is primarily a political rather than a legal measure, which has not ended the trade entirely: in 2002, EU countries granted licences for â¬210m ($281m) of arms exports to China. France accounted for half of the total, with licences worth â¬105m.
Because of such loopholes, most EU states want to toughen their code of conduct on arms sales and introduce a transitional regime for China and other countries that have previously been embargoed. But France is reluctant to give more details of the export licences it grants rather than just those it rejects.
The EU also says it wants an improvement in China's human rights such as ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights but is not insisting on formal linkage.
The US fiercely opposes any lifting of the embargo. Washington has been deeply sceptical that the EU could end the embargo without significantly increasing arms sales to China.
But last week a top White House official said the timing and terms of a European decision to lift the embargo were important.
"It's a question of timing, when would it occur?" he said. "And what can be done to ensure it does not result in a situation that is destabilising for the region and implicates our interests?"
The US is concerned about Chinese access to European communications equipment and a reduction in its dependence on Russian arms imports. While Congress is worried that ending the embargo would make Taiwan more vulnerable, the main fear of some US officials is that it would speed China's rise as a regional military rival to the US. Which is France's goal, and Belgium's, and maybe Germany's, and Spain's under Sappy boy.
Posted by: too true ||
12/05/2004
9:00:46 PM ||
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Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas Movement media spokesman in the Gaza Strip, has declared that Khaled Mishaal, political bureau chief of the Movement, would meet PLO executive committee chairman and PA presidential-hopeful Mahmoud Abbas in Damascus. Abu Zuhri in a press statement said that the Mishaal-Abbas meeting would tackle national dialogue, political partnership, unified leadership and the PLO as a possible grouping for all Palestinians.
Hamas considers the PLO as an accomplishment for the Palestinian people that should include all Palestinian forces after restructuring it on the basis of the Palestinian people's real interests, he elaborated. The Hamas spokesman stressed that his Movement did not table any new initiative as certain media were trying to circulate. "Hamas has nothing new on the Hudna (truce) issue and the time was not proper to table any such initiative on our part," he explained. Abu Zuhri affirmed that such an initiative could be considered only after the Zionist occupation authorities halted the daily aggression on the Palestinian masses. He noted that news reports quoting Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the recently released Hamas leader from Zionist jails, was not carried in full. The Sheikh only reiterated past ideas about a Hudna, Abu Zuhri noted, adding that the Palestinian forces could never ponder such a truce while the Zionist aggression was ongoing.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:55:57 PM ||
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The Mizan center for human rights has ascertained the importance of the supremacy of law and warned of the security chaos in the Palestinian lands. In a memo to the PLO executive committee chief and PA presidential-hopeful Mahmoud Abbas, the center warned that such chaotic conditions posed a real threat to the Palestinian society. It expressed satisfaction for fixing 9th January 2005 as the date for PA presidential election but opined that elections should also include the legislative council and local councils in order to realize the goals of ending the current Palestinian political impasse. The center pointed to its own statistics that showed 600 Palestinians were the victims of internal violence over the past three years. It elaborated on details of such incidents and underlined that 11 kidnappings were registered this year alone. The rivalry among various wings of the PA security apparatuses and misuse of influence and senior posts were among the prominent titles of such chaotic security situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:54:10 PM ||
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The Israel Air Force on Sunday positioned a battery of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles in the Haifa Bay area, in order to intercept any Hezbollah-operated drones launched from Lebanon. The decision to place the battery was reached after a Hezbollah drone invaded Israeli airspace over the town of Nahariya last month. The Iranian-made drone managed to fly in Israeli skies for about 15 minutes, undetected by the IDF's anti aircraft forces. Initially, IDF officials interpreted the incident as a Hezbollah muscle flex. Later, however, IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said that such a drone could theoretically carry 50 kilograms of explosives, and could be used to attack targets in Israel. The new Patriot missile battery is meant to facilitate the detection and destruction of any drone in the future, in the event Hezbollah decided to launch one.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:49:12 PM ||
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#1
This is ridiculous. Patriots are mid and high-altitude interceptors. That is like using a 105mm Howitzer to kill flies in your house(*). They are obviously there for a different reason--I suspect large missiles shipped to Lebanon from Iran. (*) amusing mental image, though.
A radical Islamic group has threatened to kill Indian cricketers when they tour Bangladesh from tomorrow, the Indian High Commission (embassy) said yesterday. "We received a hand-written fax letter on Thursday from a group called Harkat-ul-Zihad, saying that Indian cricketers will be killed if they visit Bangladesh," said a spokesman.
That's cuz beating a Bangla team would be un-Islamic...
Bangladeshi authorities suspect the locally-based group was behind an assassination bid on leading secular poet Shamsur Rahman here in 1998. "In revenge for the killing of 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat, we are going to kill Indian cricketers if they visit Bangladesh," Chowdhury quoted the letter as saying. The threat letter also drew a parallel with the Palestinian Black September attack which left 11 Israeli athletes dead at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
And their attackers dead over the next year or two...
The Indian cricket board delayed the team's departure by a day and the high commission said a security team would arrive in Bangladesh today to assess the situation. Bangladesh has promised to take high-level security measures, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:46:51 PM ||
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A black-turbaned Shia cleric drove through the streets of the southern Baghdad district of al-Amel on Saturday, carrying a loudspeaker and mocking the insurgents who scrawled anti-election slogans on the neighbourhood's walls. "Let those who wrote this show their faces, if they are men," residents quoted him as saying, as two dozen armed supporters followed his motorcade on foot, painting over graffiti that threatened to "cut off the heads" of voters. "Come and vote," the cleric said to passers-by. "We will protect you."
It was a rare display of militancy by one of the pro-establishment Shia clerics, who have so far strongly discouraged any action by their followers against predominantly Sunni insurgents, lest it trigger a civil war. However, with attacks against the Shia on the increase, and the strong likelihood that the Shia parties will dominate Iraq's first elected postwar government, clerical resistance against direct anti-insurgent action may be wavering. In the past, Shia-dominated parties and a few mosque-centred networks co-operated quietly with the US military in the gathering of intelligence, but the clergy kept its distance from the US military in the name of national unity. When bombers accused of being Sunni insurgents struck at Shia holy sites in August 2003 and February 2004, many Shia clerics saved their strongest criticism for the coalition authorities, who they said had failed to protect them from attack. However, insurgent threats against forthcoming elections, which have been strongly endorsed by senior Shia scholars such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, may be breaking down the clergy's resolve to stay aloof.
Residents of al-Amel say the anti-election graffiti marked the first time that insurgents had directly threatened them personally as Iraqi citizens exercising their rights as opposed to threats against "collaborators" with the US military or the government. Religious Shia had already been split over violence in Latifiya, a Sunni enclave that lies on the main highway south of Baghdad leading to the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. Dozens of Shia, from clergy to army and National Guard recruits, have been killed by Sunni ultra-puritans while driving through Latifiya, which along with two nearby towns has been labelled the "Triangle of Death". Two weeks ago, a delegation of tribesmen from Basra calling themselves the "Brigades of Anger" approached Mr Sistani, asking him for permission to launch reprisals in Latifiya, says Sheikh Musa al-Musawy, a representative of the Grand Ayatollah in Baghdad. Mr Sistani refused them his blessing. "The government will deal with this problem, and the law will take its course," he reportedly said. However, the Washington Post reported that the brigades had launched an attack on Latifiya on Saturday, clashing with Sunni insurgents in the town.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:36:10 PM ||
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#1
Hmm. I'm thinking the "black-turbaned Shia cleric"
in this article might deserve some patented RB respect.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
12/05/2004 21:30
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âLet those who wrote this show their faces, if they are menâ
Is he calling them terrs 'girlie-men'???!!!!
"...and since then, he was known as Abu Ahnuld"
#3
It was a rare display of militancy by one of the pro-establishment Shia clerics, who have so far strongly discouraged any action by their followers against predominantly Sunni insurgents, lest it trigger a civil war.
The only thing that is protecting the Sunni's right now is the American presence. Sheer numbers will dictate that the Shia will be able to win any "civil war" that breaks out between the Shia and Sunni's. It's really not a US problem.
#4
2b,"The only thing that is protecting the Sunni's right now is the American presence", very good point. But how to implant that message into them sunni numbskulls is another matter.
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, has rejected calls for his resignation over allegations about the UN's Iraq oil for food programme. "I think resignation is comparatively easy," he told the Financial Times, responding to calls last week by two US Republican senators for him to leave. "It is much more difficult to stay on and continue to do the job you are elected to do and focus on the important agenda of the organisation and the membership."
Gonna take the Bill Clinton approach and tar the prosecutor, is he?
Mr Annan asserted that his son, Kojo, whose relationship with a Swiss inspection firm implicated in the oil for food investigations has come under scrutiny, had never lobbied him on behalf of anyone. He said he had not been aware of any instances when Kojo might have traded on his name. He had never received any money from him although there had been occasions when Kojo would introduce him to friends. "He knows that I have always been very sensitive about conflict of interests and it is not something that I would appreciate," Mr Annan said.
After speaking to his son in recent days, "he [Kojo] indicated to me that he and his lawyers are co-operating with the Volcker commission [into the multi-billion-dollar oil for food programme]. I encouraged him to do so." Mr Annan appealed for people to allow the UN reform process and investigations into alleged fraud in the oil for food programme to take their course. "I wish we would all hold our horses and not jump to conclusions until the report of the investigative committee is in," he said. "In today's atmosphere, where there is leak after leak and relentless negative articles, one can very easily gain the impression that everything that is alleged is true. You repeat it three or four times and you begin to believe it and expect everybody else to believe it." Mr Annan conceded that there were grounds for criticism of the way the UN was managed. "I would accept there are some constructive criticisms, which we take very seriously," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:32:57 PM ||
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If you look up "cult of personality" in the dictionary, you might find a picture of Turkmenistan's president, Saparmurat Niazov. And wherever you look inside Turkmenistan, you'll see the same image. It is not a simple matter of the ubiquitous public murals of your average dictator: Niazov has a golden statue of himself in the capital, Ashgabat, that moves with the sun. On state television, Niazov's portrait revolves continuously on the corner of the screen. His nationalistic, quasi-spiritual tome, the Ruhnama, not only forms the basis for much TV programming but also dominates Turkmenistan's education curriculum. He's renamed the months of the year, with the month of January now replaced by his self-adopted name, "Turkmenbashi" or "father of all Turkmen."
With no checks on his power, Niazov makes bizarre decisions that essentially become law without any public debate or legislative procedure. In August, he decreed that those seeking a driver's license must first pass a 16-hour course on the Ruhnama. In the same month, he personally banned nas, a popular form of chewing tobacco, and earlier in the year, he declared gold teeth not only unsightly but also forbidden. His building projects, perhaps the most megalomaniacal aspect of his rule, now include a multimillion-dollar contract to build an ice palace in the desert. All of this would be simply comical if it were not so deadly tragic. The apparent lunacy of a dictator is no joke to those who suffer under him.
More at the link...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:27:34 PM ||
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The suspects in the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) robbery case in Swat were affiliated to a banned militant organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar. A senior police official while quoting a wounded robber, Khalil Ahmad who is in hospital for treatment, told Daily Times on Sunday that most robbers had participated in Kashmir and Afghan jihad and had stolen Rs 2.2 million from the bank for purchasing weapons.
"Gimme yer dough! I gotta purchase weapons!"
"What's that in your hand?"
"That's my old weapon. I need a new one!"
"They looted the bank to purchase weapons for participation in jihad," said the official who wanted his identity to be kept anonymous. The wounded robber told the police that the gang leader 21-year-old Farooq Shah had refused to hand over the money to the police when the police commandos surrounded them. "This money should be spent on jihad and was not for returning," Khalil quoted Farooq as saying before the latter blew himself up in a mosque.
Did he take the money with him?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:15:22 PM ||
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It was 102 years old, boring, unpopular, and basically, as economist Marta Lagos puts it, "a middle-of-the-road piece of nothing." Now, it's a phenomenon. Las Ultimas Noticias (LUN) - The Latest News - is Chile's most widely read newspaper today, setting tongues wagging, talk-show hosts chatting, celebrities and politicians denying, serious folks wailing, and advertisers calling.
No, it's not a tabloid, insist the employees at the slightly shabby downtown newsroom. Rather, they say, it's a revolution in journalism, a reader-driven product that reflects the changing values and interests of a postdictatorship public that grew up on a diet of establishment news and now wants more. Or, as some say - because of the often low-brow content - less. This revolution has occurred, says the paper's publisher Augustine Edwards, thanks to his decision to listen to "the people." Three years ago, under Mr. Edwards's guidance, LUN installed a system whereby all clicks onto its website (www.lun.com) were recorded for all in the newsroom to see. Those clicks - and the changing tastes and desires they represent - drive the entire print content of LUN. If a certain story gets a lot of clicks, for example, that is a signal to Edwards and his team that the story should be followed up, and similar ones should be sought for the next day. If a story gets only a few clicks, it is killed. The system offers a direct barometer of public opinion, much like the TV rating system - but unique to print media.
What news, then, did readers choose in a week when a dozen world leaders gathered in Santiago for an important trade meeting? Among the top stories: Where Secretary of State Colin Powell went to dinner and what he ate (shrimp with couscous). Also, a rundown - with a photo of scantily clad waitresses - of which delegations gave the best tips (Japan). "This is very experimental, and it seems to be working," says Axel Pricket, a senior editor at LUN. "But," he hesitates, "how are you going to get a journalist to cover an important visit, say, of the Chinese trade minister when you know in the evening everyone will click on the story of the scantily clad girls?" No editor, he points out, is going to be able to say: "Let's showcase an issue which is totally uninteresting to the public."
"And why in the world would they want to?" roars Edwards, dismissing arguments that it is a newspaper's role to educate and inform the public, and rolling his eyes at the charge that the media is causing a "dumbing down" of society.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:07:12 PM ||
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Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko kicked off campaigning for the Dec. 26 presidential election rerun Sunday with a call for quick passage of anti-fraud legislation. Supporters signed up by the thousands to monitor balloting and ensure a fair vote. "We are witnessing a struggle between forces of good and forces of evil," Yushchenko told throngs of chanting supporters gathered at Kiev's main square and waving his campaign's orange flags. "The entire world is applauding our victory. The entire world is proud of Ukraine."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
8:03:22 PM ||
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President George W. Bush told visiting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf Saturday that he would make the creation of a Palestinian state a central priority of his second term in office. "I assured President Musharraf that there is an opportunity at hand to work toward the development of a Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East. I told him that this will be a priority of my administration," said Bush.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House after they met, Musharraf went a step further, saying Bush agreed that resolving the conflict was "the core issue" of the global war on terrorism and pledged deeper personal involvement. "I think the president himself said that this is the core issue, the core at fighting terrorism is resolution of the Palestinian dispute," said the Pakistani leader, who has repeatedly expressed that view himself. "Within that, whatever I can do, I will contribute, but I'm very glad to say that president Bush is absolutely concerned and he thinks that it's a priority with him to resolve the Palestinian dispute and create a Palestinian state."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
7:58:22 PM ||
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German police have raided more than 30 sites believed to be connected to a banned Islamic organisation, al-Aqsa. The raids happened a day after the country's top administrative court upheld a 2002 ban on the group. The German government alleges that the charity raises funds for the Palestinian militant movement, Hamas. Al-Aqsa, which says it raises funds to alleviate poverty, had won permission to continue fundraising on a temporary basis last year. The raids were conducted on 34 sites in Berlin, Bremen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The Interior Ministry says the police seized "extensive" materials. The German Interior Minister, Otto Schily, said the raids had targeted sites connected with two groups suspected of taking over from al-Aqsa in 2002. He said if the suspicions were confirmed, he would ban the new groups as well. On Friday, a German court upheld the original decision to ban the charity, saying there was evidence it provided financial support for attacks by Hamas on Israeli targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
7:53:23 PM ||
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Way to go Pierre
PARIS — Police at Paris' top airport lost track of a passenger's bag in which plastic explosives were placed to train bomb-sniffing dogs, police said Saturday. Warned that the bag may have gotten on any of nearly 90 flights from Charles de Gaulle (search), authorities searched planes upon arrival in Los Angeles and New York. French police said the explosives were harmless and there was no chance of their going off, since no detanators were connected to them.
More than 300 passengers were evacuated and their luggage searched when their Air France flight from Charles de Gaulle arrived in Los Angeles late Friday the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said
Two Air France and one American Airlines flight to Paris were also searched in New York City, TSA spokesman Norm Brewer said. No explosives were found on any of the flights.
French police at Charles de Gaulle deliberately placed up to five ounces of plastic explosives into a passenger's luggage Friday evening, police spokesman Pierre Bouquin said. But a "momentary lack of surveillance" led to the bag being lost on a conveyor belt carrying luggage from check-in to planes, he said.
"Kato, ze bag is lost! Find it immediately!"
"Yes, Inspector!"
Authorities immediately alerted the relevant airlines that one of between 80 and 90 planes that left the French capital from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday could be carrying the explosives, Bouquin said. Four of the flights were en route to the United States, while others were headed to places like Japan and Brazil, Bouquin said. Some were domestic French flights. The flight searched in Los Angeles was delayed two to three hours before continuing on its next leg to Tahiti in the South Pacific.
"These dogs must be trained in the most realistic situation possible ... to be the most effective," Bouquin said. "Indeed, it's possible that someone will have a surprise when he opens his bag."
"Mahmoud, what the hell is this?"
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
12/05/2004
7:43:01 AM ||
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#1
lets the dogs at the bags final destination sort it out , obviously the french cant . Ohh wait a minute , the french cant sort anything out
#4
The police probably thought the dogs would find the stuff for them, but failed to take into account perfume causing there canines to take up smoking to offset the smell.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/05/2004 9:32
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I guess the dogs need more training. Sure,flirting w/stewardesses may cause cop to lose sight of bag,but what is dog's excuse?
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/05/2004 12:09
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#6
New t-shirt: "My parents went to Paris and all I got was this bag of explosives"
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/05/2004 12:11
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#7
Well, folks, let's put a little science and logic to this exercise. Dawgs detect the explosive by smell. Smell from the explosive eminates from the surface. Why not make a film of explosive on a hollow shell the shape of a piece of C-4, Semtex or whatever you are using? You will only use a small fraction of 3 oz of explosive originally used. You could also surrepticiously put a small locator transmitter on the bag to keep track of it during the exercise.
I ain't gonna fly on Air Phrog, no more. (with apologies to Bob Dylan)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 13:58
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
7:32:29 PM ||
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#1
I'm surprised to hear we're giving aid, this quick! Why can't WE wait until the budding democracy takes shape and then reward them (ala Libya)? I don't want a dime of my taxpayer money going to that ****hole country, until it's government and peoples are singing like canaries to us!
Algerian security forces killed and wounded Muslim militants and destroyed several arms caches for Islamic groups in eastern Algeria, sources said Thursday. The security sources said government forces clashed with a group of Muslim gunmen Wednesday night in the center of the city of Shalaf, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Algiers and was able to kill one, wound another and capture two others. The forces also confiscated the gunmen's arms and communications equipment. In a related incident, the army destroyed 12 arms caches for Islamic groups in the province of Boueira in eastern Algeria during a large-scale combing operation in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
7:31:11 PM ||
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#3
Too bad the MSM did not show any snuffie beheading videos, that should have adjusted the idle screws of the American public. Know your enemy and all that.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 20:20
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Bloody pledge of Mugabe's protege
TREVOR GRUNDY
SHE already has brains, wealth and the ear of the president. Now a little-known former woman guerrilla-leader with the chilling nickname of 'Spillblood' is laying plans to become Zimbabwe's first female head of state. When she was a teenager in 1974, Joyce Mujuru told her mother that she was leaving home to join Robert Mugabe's fight for freedom in the then white-ruled Rhodesia. She said to her startled parent: "I want to be called Spillblood because my ambition is to spill as much white blood as I can."
During the war against Ian Smith's white-officered army and air force she proudly boasted of taking an AK47 from a dying black soldier and shooting a Rhodesian Air Force helicopter out of the sky. "A helicopter saw me," she recalled. "I lay on my back, aimed and fired. Bullets hit the machine and it fell out of the sky. There was black smoke everywhere as it hit the ground. A big bang followed."
A big bang and later lots of fame and money for the ruling party stalwart who joined Mugabe's first Cabinet in April 1980, though she could then hardly speak a word of English. After being anointed one of Mugabe's two vice-presidents at the ruling party's annual congress yesterday, the 49-year-old will be in a strong position to take over as national leader after the death, retirement or downfall of her mentor. "Spillblood is one of our most wonderful women," Zimbabwe's first vice-president, Simon Muzenda, used to tell British journalists in Harare before his death last year. And Spillblood now sees herself as Zimbabwe's first woman head of state. So does her wealthy and influential husband, Solomon Mujuru, who white soldiers tried to capture and kill when he was head of Mugabe's 'terrorist' forces during the Rhodesian War (1972-1979) which cost at least 32,000 African lives.
In those days he was known as Rex Nhongo. Soon after Independence, he told a group of fellow tribesmen at the plush Harare Club: "I didn't fight the liberation war to end up a poor man." Today, he's one of Zimbabwe's wealthiest black farmers after buying up a large percentage of the country's once grain-rich provinces close to the capital city. He and Spillblood have five children, all of them educated in England. Both are on UN/EU/UK sanctions lists. Neither is allowed into Britain, not even for shopping at Harrods.
Comrade Spillblood tells friends in Harare that she is determined to serve her country to the best of her abilities and few doubt her hunger for supreme power. A senior Zimbabwean journalist said that with the vice-presidency secured, it was almost certain she would become Mugabe's number two after next March's elections. The other vice president will be 81-year-old Joseph Msika, who says he also intends to leave politics when Mugabe retires in 2008, clearing Mujuru's route to the presidency.
Mujuru has the backing of an influential lobby. Powerful women's leaders told Mugabe last week that if he wanted their support at the elections he must appoint a woman with a sound guerrilla war background who had become associated with government. Mujuru already enjoys the trappings of power. Comrade Spillblood owns several farms, sits in the back of a chauffeur driven Mercedes-Benz and takes her holidays in Cape Town with her husband, still known to millions of people as "the general". But she also poses as a champion of the poor. "She likes to see herself as Zimbabwe's answer to Winnie Mandela," says Sikota Chiume of the now dwindling opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"My war experience changed my entire life," Mujuru has said. "I became very, very strong and learned to make decisions and not to wait for men to decide everything." She tells male MPs who insist a woman will never lead Zimbabwe, that while they were at home by the fire in Rhodesia she was busy killing white soldiers in the African bush. When Mugabe ordered the occupation of more than 4,000 white-owned farms in 2000, Comrade Spillblood advised Mugabe supporters to go out and return with the blood-soaked T-shirts of not only whites but any blacks who wanted them to stay on the land.
At last week's congress Mugabe, once again, underlined his awesome strength by presenting himself, Msika and Spillblood as the country's three candidates for national leadership. Political observers point out that all three are from the same small ethnic branch of the majority Shona tribe - the Zezurus. Tribalism is known throughout Africa as "the wasting disease". Like HIV and Aids, it is biting hard in Zimbabwe where national leaders from other ethnic groups, including the powerful Karangas and Ndebeles, are being sidelined as Africa's most ambitious octogenarian dictator goes for yet another three years of power.
The row over the England cricket tour, which went ahead last week only after Mugabe allowed in the media organisations he had previously banned in another display of political muscle, was a distraction from the cathartic events that preceded the assembly. While most of the world counted runs, 81-year-old Mugabe stepped up an already advanced campaign to win - by fair meals or foul - next year's general election. He suspended six ruling provincial chairman of the ruling party Zanu (PF) for daring to oppose his approval of Comrade Spillblood as one of the country's two vice-presidents. He also indicated that the man who once seemed almost certain to take over from him when he retires from politics, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of the Parliament, was now out of the race for the presidency.
To further bolster his power, the President approved legislation that will make it a criminal offence, with a possible sentence of 20 years in jail, to "make a falsehood" about Mugabe, the police or the army or to criticise Mugabe in a private letter or e-mail. Ian Coltart, legal adviser to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said: "This is the most fascist legislation we have ever seen - worse than anything done by Ian Smith when he ran Rhodesia."
Somebody put the PC aside for security's sake . GOOD!
The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised. Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.
Marine commanders working in unheated, war-damaged downtown buildings are hammering out the details of their paradoxical task: Bring back the 300,000 residents in time for January elections without letting in insurgents, even though many Fallujans were among the fighters who ruled the city until the US assault drove them out in November, and many others cooperated with fighters out of conviction or fear.
One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons. "You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based downtown for some time.
Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, " 'What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?' All this Oprah [stuff]," he said. "They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, 'I'm with you.' We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe."
"They're never going to like us," he added, echoing other Marine commanders who cautioned against raising hopes that Fallujans would warmly welcome troops when they return to ruined houses and rubble-strewn streets. The goal, Bellon said, is "mutual respect."
If that doesn't work, try Oderint dum metuant.
Most Fallujans have not heard about the US plans. But for some people in a city that has long opposed the occupation, any presence of the Americans, and the restrictions they bring, feels threatening. "When the insurgents were here, we felt safe," said Ammar Ahmed, 19, a biology student at Anbar University.
"Unless they were thinking of cutting off my head, of course."
"At least I could move freely in the city; now I cannot." US commanders and Iraqi leaders have declared their intention to make Fallujah a "model city," where they can maintain the security that has eluded them elsewhere. They also want to avoid a repeat -- on a smaller scale -- of what happened after the invasion of Iraq, when a quick US victory gave way to a disorganized reconstruction program thwarted by insurgent violence and intimidation. To accomplish those goals, they think they will have to use coercive measures allowed under martial law imposed last month by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. "It's the Iraqi interim government that's coming up with all these ideas," Major General Richard Natonski, who commanded the Fallujah assault and oversees its reconstruction, said of the plans for identity badges and work brigades.
But US officers in Fallujah say that the Iraqi government's involvement has been less than hoped for, and that determining how to bring the city safely back to life falls largely on their shoulders. "I think our expectations have been too high for a nascent government to be perfectly organized" and ready for such a complex task, Colonel Mike Shupp, the regimental commander, said at his headquarters in downtown Fallujah.
While one senior Marine said he fantasized last month that Allawi would ride a bulldozer into Fallujah, the prime minister has come no closer than the US military base outside the city. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has not delivered the 1,200 police officers it had promised, although the Defense Ministry has provided troops on schedule, US officials said. Iraqi ministry officials have visited the city, but delegations have often failed to show up. US officials say that is partly out of fear of ongoing fighting that sends tank and machine-gun fire echoing through the streets.
Meanwhile, the large-scale return of residents to a city where only Humvees and dogs travel freely will make military operations as well as reconstruction a lot harder. The military must start letting people in, one neighborhood at a time, within weeks if Fallujans are to register for national elections before the end of January. The government insists the elections will proceed as scheduled despite widespread violence. The Marines say several hundred civilians are hunkered down in houses or at a few mosques being used as humanitarian centers. In the western half of the city, civilians have not been allowed to move about unescorted. In the eastern half, controlled by another regiment, they were allowed out a few hours a day until men waving a white flag shot and killed two Marines. "The clock is ticking. Civilians are coming soon," Lieutenant Colonel Leonard DiFrancisci told his men one recent evening as they warmed themselves by a kerosene heater in the ramshackle building they commandeered as a headquarters. "It's going to get a lot more difficult. We've had a little honeymoon period."
If DiFrancisci's experience dealing with a small delegation of Iraqi aid workers is any indication, sorting out civilians from insurgents in large numbers will be overwhelming. One afternoon last week, DiFrancisci, a reservist from Melbourne, Fla., and a mechanical engineer, was ordered to escort workers from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society out of the city on their way back to Baghdad. The Red Crescent, an equivalent to the Red Cross, had been butting heads for days with Marines who initially denied the aid organization entry to the city, insisting the military was taking care of civilians' needs. The society finally won a Marine escort in and refused to leave, setting up in an abandoned house. Dr. Said Hakki, the group's president, met DiFrancisci and Lieutenant Colonel Gary Montgomery at a mosque, eager to mend fences. "We want to play by your rules," Hakki said.
Then get out. Those're the rules.
Montgomery agreed that Marines would ferry a group of aid workers to Baghdad, along with several women and children who had been rescued from houses. But when the Humvees pulled up to the Red Crescent house, scores of young men who had taken refuge there were milling around the streets. There was no way to tell whether they were fighters. "All these military-age males are out during curfew," Montgomery told Hakki. "If you all don't follow the rules, you're going to get people killed."
"There's the road, Hakki. Use it."
Tensions rose when about a dozen women and children started climbing into ambulances for the ride to Baghdad. One man tried to get in, gave the Marines who challenged him several versions of his age, then decided not to go rather than discuss it further. Suhad Molah, a young woman in a veil that showed only her eyes, was indignant that a translator said she might be Syrian because of her accent, implying she was the wife of a foreign fighter. "I am Iraqi," she said, adding that she and her children had been trapped in their house for weeks.
The Marines were also suspicious when more than a dozen men, not the handful they expected, said they were Red Crescent staff members headed back to Baghdad. Some had no identification, and there was no way to verify whether they were the same men who had come out from Baghdad. "This is not a 'muj' rescue service," DiFrancisci said, using slang for mujahideen, or holy warriors. Montgomery remarked, "The real negotiations start after you've agreed on something." The Marines let the men go after Hakki vouched for them, but not before the Iraqis grew angry that their motives had been questioned.
Seethe and be damned.
The convoy headed onto the highway, but only after a dozen Marines had spent two hours organizing and searching the vehicles. Back at their headquarters, the team debated the procedure for allowing civilians to return. Major Wade Weems warned that there should be a set number per day so that a backlog would not form behind the retina-scanning machine, fueling resentment. When they heard of the proposal to require men to work, some Marines were skeptical that an angry public would work effectively if coerced. Others said the plan was based on US tactics that worked in postwar Germany. DiFrancisci said he would wait for more details. "There's something to be said for a firm hand," he said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004
6:35:07 PM ||
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#1
Fallujah, I'd like to introduce Big Brother. He's going to make life a lot more orderly for you.
#2
Since the Fallujans (Sounds like a Star Trek race of beings) like to keep murderers, criminals, and boomers in their midst, they are going to have to learn a different lifestyle. If they cannot, maybe the place needs to be reduced to sand and salted. Hats off the Marines for working to make something out of this sh*thole. I hope some Sunnis can learn to do some positive things besides yearning for the good life under Saddam.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 19:19
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If you don't want to play by the rules, go somewhere else.
#4
Why isn't a Kurdish police force being installed?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/05/2004 19:23
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"...Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned..."
I am amazed our people can finally see the light on such measures! I was beginning to think car and truck bombs were being launched from an orbital platform or something! If the same explosions had been caused by scud missiles or Katousha rockets, we would have long had a defensive barrier up! Do the same for Baghdad, These people know how to get around without automobiles; which are only 100 years old!
#7
It occurs to me, reading today's rantburg, that the Sunni's need to come to terms with the fact that in less than a month, an elected government will be in place. The Sunni's don't seem to grasp that it is the Shia majority that holds their fate in their hands. We will stabilize and begin to go home. The Shia, once oppressed by the Sunni's, and with many a grudge against their Sunni oppressors, may not be as compassionate in their dealings with this arrogant minority, as the Americans have been. At some point, they are going to grasp this and have an oh &*^% moment.
The best news about the campaign to carry the Iraq war to the Sunni heartland is that the Bush administration has finally discovered, or admitted to itself, who the enemy is. It now remains to be seen whether this campaign has come too late to convince the Sunni-on-the-street that it's safe enough to stand up against the "insurgents" and to participate in the politics of Iraq's future by voting in the January elections. Given that the almost certain outcome is a Shia-led government, forward-looking Sunnis will need great courage. And the rejectionists can be expected to accelerate their own campaign of intimidation, execution, and terrorism, making it likely that the next two months will be very bloody ones, though much more so for Iraqis, and mostly Sunnis, than Americans.
Even if the elections are very far from perfect, they will be a watershed event in Iraqi politics. And the elections will be followed in a few months by perhaps a more important event, the writing of a new constitution. But in both cases, the process itself is the purpose; as in the United States, it may well be the second constitutional convention and the peaceful transfer of power in a subsequent election that mark the real maturity of Iraqi democracy.
It is a testament to both the thick-headedness and the bull-headedness of the Bush administration that we have been brought to this moment. It is quite true that we embarked upon the Iraq war more out of commitment to our own ideals than from a firm understanding of Iraq itself. But that's exactly the commitment and the kind of belief that has proven absolutely necessary to cast off the shackles of conventional thinking about the Middle East in general and Arab societies in particular. That conventional wisdom--promulgated by the foreign policy bureaucracy that's become a conduit for the views of the other Arab Sunni governments and remains traumatized by the Iranian revolution of 1979--was almost entirely blind to the rise of Sunni fundamentalism. Notably, Saddam Hussein was not; in his later years he became less Baathist and more Sunni.
Just as American policy sought for decades to make a deal with the dominant Sunni power structures throughout the region--an effort that not only failed but exacerbated the level of violence--so has American policy for post-war Iraq been too accommodating to Sunni power. Perhaps we have simply hoped that the Sunni leaders would understand that their days of rule were at an end without feeling the hard hand of war. Perhaps now the example of Falluja will serve. But perhaps not.
This insight--that the Sunnis are the central problem in Iraq--reveals too how the war in Iraq is intimately connected to the larger war in the Middle East. The real problem of Osama bin Laden is not that he is a terrorist but that he is a sectarian fascist. If he had tank armies and missiles, he would use them just as Saddam did. The enemy in Iraq is much the same as the enemy in Afghanistan, in Sudan, in Indonesia.
Indeed, many Sunni Muslims--the Iraqi Kurds, most obviously--recognize this problem and are anxious to see the old order in the region swept away. It may be that Americans have now begun to see the conflict for what it is: a civil war within Islam. Whether we understood it or not, we have long been a participant in this war. The campaign in Falluja may signal not only the end of the beginning, but perhaps an end to our strategic illusion.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/05/2004
6:31:58 AM ||
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THE father of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks was heckled at a Eureka Stockade event this morning. Terry Hicks was invited to lead the dawn lantern walk in the Victorian city of Ballarat today, a move criticised by many including Premier Steve Bracks. The ABC reported Mr Hicks kept a low profile during the walk and received support from about 1,000 people who marched with him during the event. However, after he spoke at the Eureka Centre, a small number of people accused him of using the Eureka story for his own political purposes. "How dare you hijack this event," one man yelled from the crowd.
Mr Hicks told the ABC: "I don't mind people having a go at me but could they please come and ask me the story personally." His 29-year-old son has been held on Guantanamo Bay for three years since he was captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, and is accused of fighting with the Taliban against US and coalition forces. During his speech, Mr Hicks said in some areas justice had not changed in a century and a half. "One hundred and 50 years ago there was a lot of injustices," he said. "Today, particularly on my side and what I'm doing, we still have injustices."
Today's dawn event was one of many held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade. The battle at the Eureka Stockade was the result of tensions between miners and the Victorian government over unjust taxes. Miners, who were not landholders, were not allowed to vote and were being targeted by crippling taxes enforced by an over-zealous police force. Rioting miners burnt down the Eureka Hotel and built the Eureka Stockade out of wooden slabs and carts on the site of the burnt-out hotel. Two days later, at 4.45am, government forces stormed the camp and about 30 miners and six soldiers were killed.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/05/2004
6:09:06 PM ||
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Seems to be a prime specimen of that particularly Australian species Wankeris Dexteris Australianensis, or the Southern Right Wanker...
Silence is too often assumed to be consent. It's great, his heckling made all the Nightly News in Australia, even SBS (Special Bash-america Service).
All the news networks showed him shouting 'how dare you hijack this event?!'
fantastic.
as if the fight for freedom from taxes without representation has anything to do with freedom for a traitor Islamist convert who fought with a represive bunch of Islamist nutters!
david hicks should have been shot on sight not dragged back to gitmo. Shoot him for the traitorous dog he is.
#3
I keep waiting for a Gitmo spokesman to announce, with great sadness, that ALL of the detainees died in a tragic mass slippling on bars of soap incident. Speaking haltingly, and wiping back tears, he could explain how the change in soap brands to a more Islamic-freindly one turned into disaster when the new brand was found, too late, to be more slippery than the old.
UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei has denied charges that he collaborated with Iran ahead of publishing written reports on his investigation of the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program. Mr ElBaradei says members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are never shown reports on individual members, "not the least of course an inspected country".
He was reacting to news reports that he had heeded Iranian demands to drop mentions of IAEA requests to visit the Parchin military site and Iran's use of the sensitive material beryllium in a report he had made to the IAEA board in September. The United States wants the IAEA to take Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. The US alleges that Iran is running a covert nuclear weapons program. But Mr ElBaradei says the "jury is still out" on whether Iran's program is peaceful or not. Mr ElBaradei characterised as "gutter accusations" reports that he gives Iran advance looks at his reports. The reports are filed ahead of IAEA board of governors meetings that decide how tough the agency will be on Iran over its nuclear program.
He says "we don't leak (special IAEA reports on Iran) to any single person outside the 10 or 20 people who are involved in the process" of drafting the text at IAEA headquarters. "We don't negotiate our report . . . at the end of the day not a single paragraph is shown to any single country until the report is out," Mr ElBaradei said. He says the IAEA did not "even discuss" the report ahead of time with Iran beyond technical requests for information.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/05/2004
4:42:11 PM ||
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Sorry I can't trust the "word" of a member of the RoP. Prove it El Baradei. Your word is meaninless.
#2
Worthless as all other regular denials of the same sort from the same Creed.
Posted by: Wo ||
12/05/2004 7:03
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"He says 'we donât leak...' "
Does anyone else find this curious, in view of the pre-election Al Qaqaa leaks? El Baradei and Annan both need to go ... NOW.
No, never! Iran hasn't been making the least attempt to influence Europe's perception of their nuclear power weapons program.
Asked if there was a guarantee for Europeans to fulfill commitments they had made in relations to Iran, Asefi said, "Their words are their guarantee." "If they (Europeans) fail to keep their words and fulfill their commitments, then the Islamic Republic will no longer be faithful to its commitments, too," Asefi said.
As to ElBaradei. I hereby nominate him for the Kofi Annan honorary "Most Effective Leadership in the role of Assuring Regional Stability" award.
It couldn't be any worse, even if ElBaradei leaked the verbatim contents of all negotiations to Iran. Whether it is a case of malfeasance or sheer incompetence, the results are identical. Nuclear aspirations of Islamist autocracies are being green-lighted by the UN while they simultaneously seek to thwart all attempts at stopping them.
Annan and ElBaradei both must shoulder the blame for whatever Jihadist nuclear atrocity arises out of their obstructionism. May they rot in hell.
#8
Nuclear aspirations of Islamist autocracies are being green-lighted by the UN while they simultaneously seek to thwart all attempts at stopping them.
And why should anyone be surprised that this is the policy being adopted?
Posted by: very anonymous ||
12/05/2004 15:12
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A leading rights group is urging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sideline warlords implicated in rights abuses and strengthen the rule of law when he announces a new cabinet. Mr Karzai will be sworn in for his first elected term, which will run for five years, next week. Human Rights Watch also urges Mr Karzai to be more forceful in seeking greater assistance from the United States and NATO to improve security ahead of April parliamentary elections. In an open letter, the New York-based group calls on Mr Karzai to also take up the issue of US military abuses in the battle against Islamic militants and to take stronger action to promote women's rights.
Mr Karzai, who has been interim President since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, is to be inaugurated on Tuesday in Kabul. The Government says he is expected to announce his new cabinet within a week of the inauguration, which is to be attended by Vice President Dick Cheney. "This is President Karzai's big chance," Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's executive director for Asia, said. "He has a popular mandate from the Afghan people. He should use it to end impunity and warlord rule, now and forever."
The rights group praises Mr Karzai's efforts to sideline warlords in his previous administration. However, it says there is an urgent need for him to create a commission to vet all senior government posts and exclude those guilty of rights abuses. The Government has given few clues about its choices for the new cabinet. The panel's make-up is seen as crucial to determining whether Afghanistan can chart a course of reform away from warlordism and weak central control, and whether it can shape an economy that is not dominated by illicit drugs.
Boy, this stuff is all so simple when you don't have to worry about the side effects of anything you do.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/05/2004
4:41:03 PM ||
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The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Thingy Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The New York Times newspaper published leaked details of the report, which accuses the American military of beating some detainees, as well as using physical coercion described as "tantamount to torture". Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Red Thingy Cross has denied Australia's request to see the report, and it is not appropriate to ask the US for a copy. Mr Downer says he will wait for the results of a US Naval investigation into allegations of mistreatment at the prison. "If there are any concerns about maltreatment then that's something that we'd vigorously take up with the Americans," he said.
The Red Thingy Cross says it cannot release reports because of a confidentiality agreement with the US. "While the ICRTC has felt compelled to make some of its concerns public, notably regarding the legal status of the detainees, the primary channel for addressing issues related to detention remains its direct and confidential dialogue with the US authorities," it says on its website. "The ICRTC's lack of public comment on the conditions of detention and the treatment of detainees must therefore not be interpreted to mean that it has no concerns. Confidentiality is an important working tool for the ICRTC in order to preserve the exclusively humanitarian and neutral nature of its work."
The lawyer for David Hicks, Stephen Kenny says the Red Thingy Cross report alleging torture is consistent with inmate statements. "What it does is confirm the treatment and the allegations that have previously been made by not only David to us, but by others who have been released," he said.
Please tell me that this lawyer is just being a mouthpiece and that he's not this gullible.
The report, which the Red Thingy Cross is yet to confirm, says some prison doctors violated medical ethics by helping plan interrogations. The Pentagon says it is not mistreating detainees at Guantanamo Bay. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has defended the US Government's treatment of detainees. "They're treated humanely and in accordance with standard international, relevant international practice," he said.
Australia's minor political parties have seized on the report. Incoming Democrats leader Lyn Allison accuses the Government of not doing enough for Australian detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib. "It's been prepared to walk away and say, 'well, we'll just leave it up to the United States' and I think that's an abrogation of responsibility," she said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/05/2004
4:33:46 PM ||
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The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba
First sentence and already this is confusing me. Why don't you ask the Red Thingy for the report?
Posted by: Charles ||
12/05/2004 9:38
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It's only available in selected edits to the NYTimes and WaPost, who'll do the "right thing", as teh Red Thingy sees it - i.e.: Bash America
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004 9:50
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The Federal Government is under pressure to condemn the possible use of evidence obtained by torture in the United States military commissions taking place at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A court in Washington hearing an appeal by Guantanamo detainees has been told that the US military panels may use such evidence. The Federal Government says that while torture is inappropriate, it has no intention of fighting plans by the US Government to use the evidence.
Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says that while such evidence is not an accepted part of civilian trials, it can be used in military trials. "We've always known that that was the approach in the military trial arrangements," he said. Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Nicola Roxson says the use of such evidence condones torture. "I think it does and I think it highlights the reason that in Western countries like Australia, and in the ordinary American civilian system, would not allow material to be used in court when it's been obtained from torture because that gives it some weight, gives it some credibility, as an indication that the state says that this is acceptable material to use," she said. Ms Roxson says it is wrong to condemn torture, but then talk about how evidence obtained through it can be used. "It's inappropriate but we still want to go on and talk about how it can be used. I don't think you can have it both ways," she said. "This is something that all Australians would be concerned about. I am quite astounded Mr Ruddock is not being stronger on this issue."
Lawyers acting for Australian detainees in Cuba have called for the Government to renounce the practice. Two Australians, Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks, are being held at Guantanamo Bay. The lawyer for Hicks, Stephen Kenny, says the US Government's plan to use evidence resulting from torture will hamper any chance of a fair trial. "If you want to try people, give them the proper protection, give them the same rights you give your own citizens and put them before a proper court and give them a chance to defend themselves," he said. "Don't take them to a place where you're trying to hide them beyond the rule of law, which is what they did in Guantanamo Bay." Mr Kenny has again called on the Australian Government to bring Hicks home and allow him to defend himself against allegations of war crimes before an Australian court. About 70 years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled evidence gained through torture was inadmissible. But the US deputy associate Attorney-General, Brian Boyle, has told the District Court in Washington DC that the Guantanamo review panels are allowing such evidence. This week the International Committee of the Red Cross accused the US military of using tactics "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, a claim the Pentagon rejects.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/05/2004
4:32:57 PM ||
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They were caught fighting against us. My response is to ship them back to Afganistan shoot them on the site of their capture and return ther ashes in a urn and be done with it once we have no further use for them. OED.
'Lets Talk' your host Dr.Kareem, letters to Al-Jazeera...
Dear Dr. KareemâŠ
The existence of Syria in Lebanon is a source of power for the Lebanese people and for the Arab nation.
Anybody can see that... Ummm... How?
Syria is the leader of unitary ideology in the Arab world, and it has the right to support its neighbor Lebanon to enhance the modern Arabic renaissance after the unbelievable number of disasters over our heads.
Exactly what gives it this 'right'? Where's it enumerated?
It is great mistake for any native Arabic speaker and those who have Arabic blood to adopt the ideology of those who resist and fight any idea that might irrigate the idea of unity among Arab countries.
Why? What if the person, even if he's a native Arabic speaker or has a drop or two of Arab blood, doesn't agree that unity should be imposed across the Arabic-speaking world? What if he/she/it thinks there are legitimate national interests in the existing Arab countries and even in propsective Muslim countries that wouldn't be represented by a Baathist regime?
Any country asks for the Syrian withdrawal definitely doesn't look for the Lebanese interest, but rather wants to separate Arab countries from each other and undo and lateral relations between them.
What if there are legitimate historical reasons for thinking that Lebanon doesn't necessarily have to bow the knee to Syria? Syria's historically tried to be Lebanon's hegemon, and Lebanon's historically tried to maintain its independence. Its moments of greatness have come when it hasn't been anyone else's footstool. Rather than wanting to be Syria's lapdog, if I was Lebanese I'd be thinking "Phoenecian," rather than "Arab." But what the hell do I know?
Alzoabi from Michigan
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
2:26:08 PM ||
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Is Dr Kareem going for the pith helmet-turban look? Class. Very 2005.
Saudi Arabia has criticised its Gulf neighbours for forging separate economic and security agreements with foreign powers, accusing them of weakening Gulf solidarity. "It is alarming to see some members of the GCC enter into separate bilateral agreements with international powers in both the security and economic spheres, taking precedence over the need to act collectively," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a conference on security in the Gulf on Sunday.
A bit unhappy over a mild deflation in Soddy hegemony over your neighbors?
"These separate arrangements are not compatible with the spirit of the charter of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council]). They diminish the collective bargaining power and weaken not only the solidarity of the GCC as a whole but also each of its members in both the intermediate and long terms," he said. "In the economic sphere, the agreements entered into are in clear violation of the GCC's economic accords and decisions." Prince Saud added: "What is more important, these agreements impede the progressive steps needed to achieve full Gulf economic integration ... . They will ultimately negatively impact the economic sectors in all GCC countries, which in turn will have dire consequences and adversely affect the GCC business community."
"How're we gonna make all of Arabia Soddy if you go doin' what you feel like doin'?"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
2:13:19 PM ||
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I'm waiting for the headline that says Neighbours Rap Saudis
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/05/2004 16:11
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Ah, I see. So for Mubarak, having more candidates that have some chances of getting votes damages the Paleo unity.
Well, somewhat close, Mubarak, the unity as an overriding factor is not a democratic vote but a demographic vote... so no cigar.
#4
There is obviously bad blood between Marwan B and the Egyptians. I think Mubarak thinks that Barghouti's people were the ones who spat at the Egyptian FM when he visited Temple Mount (aka Holy Enclosure) in Jerusalem.
#5
Refresh me, does this mean that if Barghouti runs (from jail) and wins the election, Israel HAS to let him out of prison...on 'gp'? Or would this require just a run off of the second and third choices?
#6
If Barghouti wins, this will just show that the Paleostinians have dug themselves such a deep hole that it would be most efficient to keep digging till they came out the other side. But based upon the history of Paleostinian choices, I would not be surprised that they would vote for such a stupid choice.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 20:24
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If Barghouti wins, all Israel has to do is put his cabinet in adjoining cells.
Iran is "seriously concerned" about the human rights situation in Europe, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi in Tehran Sunday, responding to an EU letter recently sent to Iran on its alleged human rights violations.
"I mean, they hardly hang anybody in Europe anymore, much less girlies who flirt..."
Speaking during his weekly briefing, Asefi told reporters, "human rights are not a one-sided issue, Iran, too, is seriously concerned about human rights situation in Europe. Unfortunately, anti-Islamism is increasingly growing in Europe and Europeans should consider necessary measures to prevent further violations of (religious) minorities rights and those of Muslims in particular, in all European countries." Asked on the date of resumption of Tehran's talks with Europe under the Paris agreement, Asefi said that serious talks would start "next week," according to IRNA news agency. He added that a number of "working groups" are currently being formed to work on the materialization of agreements in different fields. Asked if there was a guarantee for Europeans to fulfill commitments they had made in relations to Iran, Asefi said, "Their words are their guarantee." "If they (Europeans) fail to keep their words and fulfill their commitments, then the Islamic Republic will no longer be faithful to its commitments, too," Asefi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
2:07:25 PM ||
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This is like Stalin critiqueing America on its death penalty.
#2
I just can't think of anything funny enough to cover this.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/05/2004 15:02
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that last line was the nugget - this is another "out" for the mullahs from any promises on nukes. "We have to sadly withdraw from our previous committments due to human rights disregard by our European partners"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004 15:10
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#4
So how soon do we and Israel start making glass in Iran? Tomorrow sounds like a great time...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/05/2004 16:34
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Not at all. This is a message to the Europeans that they had better stop cracking down on Muslims for whatever reason. They have indicated their dhimmitude in the nuclear power deal and if they now try to act uppity, the Iranins will start saying they are building the nukes we all know they are building.. The Europeans should expect a lot more lecturing from their betters the Mullahs.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/05/2004 20:05
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I said it yesterday and I'll say it again: you can't make a deal with the devil and still hold the high moral ground. And you can't really win in the deal either. Europe has been totally suckered.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/05/2004 20:21
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I cannot believe that Europe has been totally suckered. They know damn well what the Iranians are up to. There is some serious money in contracts with Iran, oil, gas, nuclear, infrastructure, that the EUniks are into with Iran. Russia, same boat. They lost Iraq. They are not suckers. They have sold their souls for filthy lucre.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 20:28
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#9
I agree, AP. They aren't being snookered - they went into this intentionally and frankly don't care about the nukes -- or the mullah's oppression of Iranians, for that matter.
Posted by: too true ||
12/05/2004 21:09
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#10
Mike Tyson decries lack of class in athletics today...film at 11.
#11
Europe hasn't "been suckered." They're on the same side as the Iranians. The goal is to prevent the US hegemon from attacking Iran while preserving fat Iranian contracts for the Three Dwarves' national champion exporters.
The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Mahmud Zahar, dismissed any suggestion that his movement could soon halt attacks against Israel. Last week, there were reports that Zahar and PLO chief Mahmud Abbas discussed a possible declaration by Hamas of a truce. But the Hamas leader said Sunday talk of a ceasefire had not even featured in the discussions. "No single word was said about a truce," he said, according to AFP.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
"Until now we are still defending ourselves, defending our people, pushing the Israelis outside our territory." Meanwhile, Dr. Mohammed Al-Hindi, a prominent leader of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, has asserted his Movement's rejection of either short or long-term truce with Israel, especially in light of the "Zionist continuous aggressions on the Palestinian people," the latest of which was the assassination of Mahmoud Kamil, one of the Movement's field commanders. Al Hindi's comments came after the meeting with Egyptian embassy's officials held Saturday in Gaza city. Well-informed sources in the Islamic Jihad said that Dr. Al-Hindi confirmed, during meeting the Movement's absolute boycott of the PA presidential elections. He noted that his Movement was still considering its participation in the PA legislative elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:58:49 PM ||
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Well, not now that Islamic Jihad has pissed in the punch bowl.
KHUSHGUNBAD, Afghanistan - Eight-year-old Mohammed Imran thinks Jaweed, the local shopkeeper in this eastern Afghan village is "cool" because his shop is full of sweets. "Uncle shopkeeper is a cool man -- he has got lots of candies," Mohammed told AFP as he hung around outside the store. But it wasn't long ago that local children were scared of Jaweed and people insulted the 28-year-old for being a gun-toting militiaman -- one of around 60,000 fighters loyal to local warlords and commanders across Afghanistan.
Jaweed is one of almost 25,000 fighters who have laid down their weapons as part of a UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program which was launched in Afghanistan last May and is almost at the halfway point. After more than two decades of war, the country is awash with weapons and privately disarmament staffs think there may be as many as five guns per militiaman, most of whom owe allegiance to local commanders. But while only 25,000 guns have been collected, officials from the program hope that if they can break the link between local commanders and their poorly paid fighters and offer people an alternative livelihood, many like Jaweed would jump at the chance. "I'm happy with my new life -- very, very happy," he said at his booth-like shop in Khushgunbad village some 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
The ex-fighters are given the choice of working in agriculture, training for the police force, national army or de-mining, or setting up a small business like the shopkeeper, who said was sick of toting a gun for a living. "I was tired of weapons, I wanted something different so I decided to become a shopkeeper," said the ethnic Pashtun, who has fought to feed his family for more than a decade.
Jaweed said he did not bear arms for a cause but simply to keep a roof over his head in his poverty-stricken village, switching sides to join whichever commander held sway over the area at the time. First he fought for Mohammad Zaman, a regional mujahedin leader, then for the fundamentalist Taleban who ruled Afghanistan between 1996-2001, and finally he joined the forces of Hazrat Ali, another regional warlord who decided to disarm just over a month ago. "I had no cause to fight for. I took the gun because they were paying me. I was hungry and I needed to feed my family," says the father of five children.
Former fighters receive an initial 250 dollars to start a business and a further 450 dollars to invest in the business a month and a half later, according to the UN scheme's officer for Nangahar province, Homayoun Wafa. Another ex-militiaman, 40-year-old Wahidullah, from Laghman province, told AFP: "I was sick of having a gun on my shoulder, it gave me nothing."
"I carried a gun for 22 years, I fought the Russians, I think now it is time for work, not for fighting," he said as he came to the disarmament program office to collect his second cash package. Afghanistan's disarmament drive only picked up speed ahead of the country's October 9 election, so it is too early to say whether demobilised militiamen might later revert to being soldiers working under local commanders. Disarmament officials are working on incentives to offer alternative jobs, overseas travel and other sweeteners to local commanders, 80 percent of whom are illiterate and struggle to be re-integrated into civilian life.
The program is a priority for President Hamid Karzai, who won Afghanistan's presidential election having pledged to break the control of warlords and militia commanders who have mocked the central government's attempts to extend its authority into the provinces. Disarmament staff admit that military strongmen like Hazrat Ali, who has maintained his private militia in Jalalabad even though he was appointed as police chief, are reluctant to cede power. "The powerful warlords are resisting the program despite the fact that many ordinary militiamen are happy to be disarmed, because they fear that they will lose their power," said one official. A US-led scheme is also underway to build a multi-ethnic national army recruited from ordinary citizens, including volunteers from among the former militiamen.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:44:27 PM ||
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If the Democrats had any common sense, they'd be pushing the administration for a boost to this program. Relatively low-cost, a somewhat sucessful UN operation, and politically amenable objective.
Then again, while it would lend some much needed foreign policy gravitas, it doesn't buy/get them any domestic votes, so it won't happen.
The United States could cut its forces in Afghanistan next summer if Taliban militants accept an amnesty to be drawn up by President Hamid Karzai and neighboring Pakistan, the senior U.S. commander here said Sunday. Any reduction in the 18,000-strong mainly American combat force in Afghanistan would relieve the U.S. military, stretched thin by the much larger deployment in Iraq. Still, the force is unlikely to shrink before parliamentary elections slated for April. "By next summer we'll have a much better sense if the security threat is diminished as a result of, say, a significant reconciliation with large numbers of Taliban," Lt. Gen. David Barno told The Associated Press in an interview. "That will change the security dynamics tremendously," he said.
Afghan officials have repeatedly urged supporters of the former ruling regime to abandon the fight or return from exile to help rebuild the country shattered by 25 years of war and a debilitating drought. But plans for a reconciliation program have emerged only since Karzai's landslide victory in the landmark Oct. 9 presidential election. Such a program could anger ethnic minorities who suffered under the Taliban as well as regional powers, such as India and Iran, who are wary of Pakistan's influence in the region. Barno said Karzai, who is to be sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected leader on Tuesday, is to produce a list of Taliban members who are considered beyond rehabilitation and pass it to Islamabad. The government of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf would then "review it and make any comments on it, and I think there'll be a collectively subscribed-to list that says here (are those) who we all believe we're going to go after," he said. "As that list gets finalized here ... we'll see both countries moving forward to look to arrest and bring to justice those individuals," Barno said. He said the final number could be whittled down to less than 100.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military will start a register of lower-level Taliban members willing to return to their villages and live in peace. The step would be a precursor to a reconciliation plan the Afghan government has yet to formally announce. "There'll be great interest in those first few figures who come in to see how they're treated, to see if they're protected or not," the general said. "If it works, I think that there will be a significant number of people following it up. You'll see some of it starting in December, or in January for sure," he said.
The military hopes the Taliban's failure to derail the Oct. 9 vote has persuaded a significant number of the rebels that the insurgency has no future, easing pressure on U.S. troops who have failed to crush a rebellion along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Commanders say the Taliban are divided internally and that the authority of fugitive Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is fraying. Supporters of renegade Afghan leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a group viewed as smaller but more fanatical than the Taliban, Barno said, are also signaling their willingness to give up the fight.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:37:00 PM ||
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This is nothing but The BEAUCRATIC BULLSHIT BLUES.
PLEASE READ MUSHARRAF: BIN LADEN LOCATION IS UNKNOWN. BY PETER BAKER, WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER.
I feel that Musharraf has cut a deal with Bin Laden, to allow him safehaven in the remote area of Pakistan in return for him not making any more assassination attempts on him. He is there-believe that! Don't ever think that Musharraf wasn't up to his neck in nuclear prolifertion with Khan. That is why he is being given full protection. In return for Khan keeping his mouth shut about Musharrafs role with nuclear sales to varous countries. There is a lot we don't know about and too much nepotism and cronism going on. We have a situation where the fox is in charge of the hens once again.
Let us look at this 20 /20 and from many angles
or perspectives. Fred your list needs to be checked more than TWICE thus, it is inconclusive!
Your article is terrific, but the jury is still out on this matter.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/05/2004 14:02
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President Thabo Mbeki arrived to a rousing welcome in the central Ivorian rebel stronghold of Bouake, where a rebel spokesman said the South African statesman was regarded as a "guarantee" to the peace process in the divided west African nation. Mbeki was met as his plane touched down by Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces (FN) rebels, who have staged an uprising against Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo since September 2002, effectively splitting the country into a Muslim-dominated rebel north and Christian government-held south.
Just another flash point on Islam's bloody border...
"We have reached a point where the Ivory Coast peace process went off the tracks. We want to reach a point where the process gets back on track," Soro said later.
"Now that the Frenchies are leaving, we need somebody else to take up our cause..."
"We have no problem with President Thabo Mbeki being here," FN spokesman Konate Sidiki shortly before Mbeki arrived at around 10:00 am in the city, some 350 kilometres north of the commercial capital Abidjan. "President Thabo Mbeki must take the peace process in his hands. He's the only guarantee," Sidiki told AFP.
"Gosh, I miss the Frenchies!"
Mbeki and Soro -- under a military escort which included South African special forces and two helicopters overhead -- then drove to a hotel in the city centre while tens of thousands of people, many dressed in white traditional costume, lined the streets. Many carried placards in French and English saying "We demand that Gbagbo resign" and "Welcome President Mbeki. Gbagbo must leave power." At the Ran Hotel, some five kilometres from the airport, Mbeki pressed rebels at a public meeting, saying the FN leadership owed it to the people of Bouake, which has an estimated 600,000-strong population, "to reach a decision."
And that decision is...
"The challenge is that later today when we leave Bouake and we tell people 'no decision has been made', we would have let them down," Mbeki said, before meeting Soro behind closed doors.
Yeah. But what's the decision, Thabo?
Adressing Mbeki, Soro added he (Mbeki) was "the only man in the world who can understand the situation in the Ivory Coast. You give hope to all the people in the Ivory Coast."
"Now that the Frenchies are leaving, you're better than nothing..."
One of the issues to be discussed is the disarmament of his soldiers as a prerequisite for the peace process, Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo told AFP on Saturday. In a speech to the Ivorian parliament, Mbeki called for "a return to safety" in the country, warning that a culture of violence should not be entrenched here. Mbeki arrived in the troubled country late Thursday and has been shuttling between talks with with various groups in the country, caught in the grip of a bitter conflict with political and ethnic origins.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:27:17 PM ||
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Government-backed militia in Sudan's Darfur region continue to rape women refugees with complete impunity, according to a UN report which said the overall humanitarian situation in Darfur was worsening. "Sexual violence and rape continue to be reported in all three regions of Darfur," said Jose Diaz, a spokesman for UN High Commission on Human Rights, based on a report from a team of UN observers in the war-torn western region. "Women and girls are afraid to leave the camps... there is widespread impunity because the police refuse to register complaints by IDPs (internally displaced persons)," he told reporters on Friday.
"We have to do something about it!"
"Right. Let's have a meeting."
In their November report, the 16 observers also reported attempts by the Sudanese government to forcibly relocate civilians who have sought shelter from the fighting in camps in South Darfur, notably in Al Ger and Otash. Diaz said that the observers had brought all known cases of abuse to the attention of the authorites, to little effect. Concerning the forced displacement of civilians, Diaz said that UN staff were often powerless to act because the relocations were "undertaken by police and law enforcement officials".Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
12:55:08 AM ||
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UN staff's jealous
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004 8:18
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#2
I say we send in the Kurds. They'll know what to do.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/05/2004 9:34
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#3
Hold a meeting, have a lunch, and get the Seattle papers to ask "why?" and then maybe eventually they will all be dead and we won't have to do anything about it.
#4
Slap a study on it, all right, that's the ticket. When the study is completed, there will be two situations:
1. Everyone will be dead, like 2b sez, or
2. The UN will not implement the recommendations, so #1 will apply anyway.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 13:18
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About 400 inhabitants of three villages in France's eastern region of Marne have been evacuated after a soldier threatened to blow up a site storing explosives. The Marne district says the Sergeant Major has locked himself up at the site, which mainly stores anti-tank mines. He is reported to be angry that he is coming up to retirement age and wants to continue his military career.
Right. That's the way to continue your military career. Expect orders sometime next week for the Ivory Coast...
"Given the risks to people in the surrounding area, the Marne prefect has decided to evacuate the inhabitants of Connantray-Vaurefroy, Lenharree and Normee," the district said in a statement. "This concerns about 400 inhabitants." Police have taken positions around the site. Dominique Dubois, a top official in Marne, says that the Sergeant Major had probably been at the site since Friday.
The old cafard got to him, eh?
No contact has yet been established with him. "The man wants his dossier to be re-examined because he will soon reach the age limit," he said. "He is 47 and on December 17 he will reach the age limit. He would like to pursue his military career." The retirement age for soldiers in France varies according to their job.
I think he might be overdue.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:24:13 PM ||
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Two words: James Jordan.
Another two words: But desperate.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
12/05/2004 20:19
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The United States military has announced the end of a nine-day offensive launched in the "triangle of death" rebel area south of Baghdad, saying 200 insurgents had been rounded up. The operation to reclaim control of the area, which earned its nickname from the assassinations, ambushes and kidnappings carried out there, followed on from the assault on the western city of Fallujah which was launched on November 8. US-led forces moved on Fallujah in the largest and military operation since the 2003 invasion, in a bid to remove what was seen by the US military and Iraq's interim Government as one of the main obstacles to holding viable polls in January.
Operation Plymouth Rock was launched on November 23 by some 5,000 US marines, British troops and Iraqi forces, aimed at flushing out rebels who were thought to have fled Fallujah. The operation was wound up on Wednesday, the US military said. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said it had rounded up 204 suspected militants and discovered 11 arms caches during the operation, causing "serious damage to insurgent activity". Marines were particularly pleased with the role played by Iraqi national guards, who led several operations during the sweep, despite "a concerted campaign of intimidation and terror that has cost dozens of national guards their lives". The US military said that "while Plymouth Rock is finished, the pursuit of insurgents south of Baghdad continues". "Each and every day we are learning more and more about those participating in insurgent activity, and we are tracking them down one by one," said Colonel Ron Johnson. "No quick fix is envisioned. The solution lies in patience, persistence and sustained presence," he said.
GAZA A senior leader of the Islamic Jihad movement insisted yesterday that his group would reject any ceasefire or long-term truce with Israel. Mohamed Al Hindi told reporters in Gaza that "in light of the numerous statements on ceasefire or truce, the Islamic Jihad rejects even discussing this issue and talking about either short- or long- term truces."
Well okay then, this means the Israelis can just whack these boys.
He said that "this is the clear position as long as the attacks are continued against our people and the Palestinian territories," adding "the latest aggression was Friday's assassination of an Islamic Jihad militant in Jenin." "We reject talking about a truce or a ceasefire as long as the reasons of death of Yasser Arafat are still vague, and we don't know if he died of a food poisoning or radiation," said Al Hindi.Â
Oh, make something up, you're good at that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
1:23:57 AM ||
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Hudna or no hudna, it's still pretty difficult to tell Hamas operatives apart from those of Islamic Jihad. I guess we're back at the old "point and shoot" solution once again. Too bad for Hamas.
Terrorists Guerrillas have shot dead 17 Iraqis working for the US army and killed a National Guard commander and three bodyguards in attacks north of Baghdad, which take the toll from three days of violence to more than 70. Insurgents have launched a series of attacks in Sunni areas since Friday, mainly targeting Iraqi security forces and civilians working with the US military. The US 1st Infantry Division says gunmen in two cars have opened fire on two civilian buses carrying Iraqis to work at an arms dump outside Tikrit. As well as the 17 killed, 13 Iraqis have been wounded.
In a separate incident, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle beside a National Guard convoy in the rebel stronghold of Baiji. That attack has killed local National Guard commander Mohammed Jassim Rumaied and three of his bodyguards. On Saturday, a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Kurdish peshmerga fighters in the city of Mosul, killing 16 people. The peshmerga have been helping secure Mosul since most of the city's police fled after an insurgent onslaught last month. Two suicide bombers also struck at a police station just outside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad on Saturday, killing seven people and wounding more than 50.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:22:49 PM ||
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"We can't fight the Americans, so we'll target the locals."
The Iraqis need to start whacking as many of these jihadinuts as they can, with or without our help. The more they kill, the sooner they can live in peace. They should start with the nutjobs that preach violence every Friday.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/05/2004 16:19
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NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced the opening of the Western military alliance's Iraq headquarters during a surprise snap visit to Baghdad on Friday. And addressing a group of alliance officers already in the country to train Iraqi officers, de Hoop Scheffer stressed that NATO was in Iraq "on behalf of the Iraqi people". "It is their priority, they want to be as soon as possible less dependent on others," said de Hoop Scheffer, whose visit was the first by a NATO chief to the war-wracked country. Asked about how many Iraqis had so far benefited from the training, in Iraq and abroad, NATO information officer Colonel Petter Lindqvist said "perhaps a hundred". Lindqvist stressed that NATO itself would not be involved in fighting insurgents, despite a rising tide of violence ahead of the elections. "It is a NATO decision that NATO will not engage on the tactical level and we are not entering into any combat whatsoever, except from self-defence point of view," he said. We don't do windows.
Several hundred instructors due in the country will be protected by a NATO force, with the aim of training 1,000 Iraqi officers a year. Lindqvist said NATO at present had 20 instructors in the country and the rest were being trained for the job. Several alliance members opposed to last year's US-led invasion of Iraq will not be participating, including Belgium, France and Germany, as well as Spain, which withdrew its troops from the country following a change of government. The article does not break down participation by country. Let me clue you in. The majority are American.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned Friday, warning of a potential global outbreak of the flu and health-related terror attacks. "For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," he said.
Thompson, the eighth member of Bush's 15-person Cabinet to resign since the Nov. 2 election, said he tried to leave office a year ago, but stayed through Bush's re-election campaign at the request of the White House.
"It's time for me and my family to move on to the next chapter in our life," he said.
News of his departure came not long after Bush introduced former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik as Tom Ridge's successor to be secretary of homeland security. ...more...
Did anyone else find this comment, uh, um, well hell, stupid beyond phreakin' belief? Or is it just me? Don't let the door hit ya in the ass there, Tommy. Dipshit.
#2
I have to admit that Thompson's comments were the strangest that I have ever heard from a man that I formerly respected. Maybe he was pushed out. Maybe he is suffering from the early phases of dementia. Maybe he was abducted by aliens and this is a replacement. In any event, he can't leave soon enough now.
#3
I don't know about food, but an attack with a person to person communicable fatal disease (Ebola?) would be devastating - worse than a nuclear attack. All it would take is one person going around smearing the contents of a vial on a handrail once a week.
#4
Thompson's complete quote was not cited in this article. In other articles I read, he was responding to a direct question raised by reporters at the press conference as to what his biggest worries were as he was leaving federal government. He said he had 2 main worries:dangers from a global flu outbreak and a possible terror attack on the nation's food supply. Then he eleborated on those 2 concerns by saying, as it applies to the latter:
"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said as announced his departure before department employees. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that." He also said that while inspections of food imports have increased dramatically, they remain "a very minute amount" and that better technologies are desperately needed. Food poisoning, Thompson said, is something he worries about "every single night."
Thompson wasn't exactly giving away secretive information to OBL or planting ideas for future acts of terrorism in AQ's minds. I think AQ had figured out a while ago that our food and water supply are nice soft targets.
If anything, I am grateful that Thompson went on public record to remind Congress that there's a caveat to removing trade barriers with Third World countries where sanitary agricultural practices are iffey or worse still, where extremists may lurk, and that Congress can't just be motivated by $; it needs to approve $ to have proper checks inplace on our side of the border re: what's being imported for sale in US supermarkets.
So how do these comments make Thompson beyond his depth or suffering from early phases of dementia?
#5
I think that Thomson ate some of that contaminated food for lunch before the press conference, then during the conference, the toxins kicked in. This is an idiotic statement. It is true that the US food supply is vulnerable, but deal with it in Homeland Security, not the MSM.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 16:50
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#6
Perhaps Thompson has dealt with Homeland Secuirty only to find it an issue subject to a turf war. I can easily see the FDA (HHS), HS and even the Dept of Agriculture getting into a turf war over this issue with no progress being made. Some times the press is useful as a means to get such controversies refocused for outside the beltway priorities. If that's the case, it's not dumb. It the probelm is being effectively attacked it is.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/05/2004 17:15
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#7
Glomosing Crong, while there may be considerable truth in what TT says, saying it in a press conference is the equivalent of yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Yes, he isn't telling technologically sophisticated terrorists anything they don't already know, but he is titillating a legion of unstable wannabes looking for their 15 minutes of fame. The last tampering scare, in October 1982, involving cyanide laced Tylenol capsules, spawned imitators throughout the country. Hopefully noone will take TT's words as a way to settle a score and blame it on terrorists.
Muslims from across the UK will join demonstrations against the Musharraf regime this Monday [December 6th] when President Musharraf meets with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and later addresses a gathering of UK Pakistanis in Central London. Demonstrations will also take place at other events where President Musharraf will be in attendance including a lecture at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and a gathering of UK Pakistanis in Manchester on Tuesday [December 7th]. The demonstrations are organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir, and will draw attention to Pakistan's lack of independence under the Musharraf regime and the continued subservience of Musharraf to foreign powers.
They're really cheesed about his lack of subservience to holy men...
Nadeem Ajaib Khan, an organiser of the demonstrations, said, "Musharraf has dutifully carried out Bush's demands he has sold out over Kashmir, has permitted American forces to establish bases in Pakistan, has legitimised the occupation of Iraq, has provided logistical support and intelligence to US forces in Afghanistan and has surrendered control over Pakistan's economy to multinationals. The Western inspired dictator Musharraf is keen to use brutal tactics to suppress the rise of Political Islam in Pakistan whilst simultaneously promoting secular values it is therefore no surprise that he receives a warm welcome from Western warmongers."
... and equally no surprise that Islamist nutcakes squall about it.
Dr Imran Waheed, a UK based doctor and the Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "These demonstrations show the massive unease with the Musharraf regime amongst Muslims in Britain. Demonstrators will roll their eyes and jump up and down call for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah [Caliphate] which will stop 'Busharraf', end Pakistan's subservience to foreign colonialist powers and unify the vast armies and resources of the Muslim world into a single state."
"A state ruled by holy men like, ummm... me. A state commanding vast resources billions of barrels of oil, disciplined armies of cannon fodder, millions of dancing girls..."
"Hizb ut-Tahrir can see the Khilafah on the horizon now is the time for the Muslims of Pakistan, particularly the people of power and influence, to remove the weak Musharraf and establish the Islamic Khilafah." The Downing Street protest will take place on Monday 6th December 2004 at 10 a.m. GMT and the later protest will convene at 8.00 p.m. GMT at The London Hilton, 22 Park Lane, London, W1K 1BE.
"Be there, or be square!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
12:11:45 PM ||
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get cameras out and keep snapping till u have no more film pls MI6 :) All those dipshits in one place at one time , great photo opportunity .... Smile ..... then deport ..
#3
So did the protesters rent out a hall in the Hilton, or are they using the venue as an address of convenience? Are you gonna make it to the show, Bulldog?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 13:38
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Unfortunately not, AP. I'm not in London till next w/e. Shame.
"The demonstrations ... will draw attention to Pakistanâs lack of independence under the Musharraf regime ... Demonstrators will call for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah [Caliphate] which will stop âBusharrafâ, end Pakistanâs subservience to foreign colonialist powers and unify the vast armies and resources of the Muslim world into a single state."
So they actually resent Pakistan's independence and want it in some sort of lock-step mediaeval Union of Malevolent Superstitious Former States? Some independence that would be. Sounds like a fate worse than membership of the EU.
Posted by: Donald ||
12/05/2004 14:03
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âMusharraf has dutifully carried out Bushâs demands â he has sold out over Kashmir, has permitted American forces to establish bases in Pakistan, has legitimised the occupation of Iraq, has provided logistical support and intelligence to US forces in Afghanistan ..."
And, unlike other local regimes, Musharraf has remained in power.
Hizb ut-Tahrir can see the Khilafah on the horizon ...
Yes, except that it's actually called the "event horizon," as in; "The Khilafah will come into existence only when our universe recedes into its event horizon."
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/05/2004 14:49
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#8
There are also several excellent coloquial metahorps invented by the common folk: when hell freezes over and when pigs would fly (and they don't mean icicles on a town sign, nor gratuitious throwing of piglet into air).
People can't predict the future, but can predict trends. In the whole Star Trek or derivates, there is not one single moose-limb. Why do you think is that?
Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister has reached out to Iran, praising the country for hosting a conference on Iraq's security and saying the two countries can help with the upcoming Iraqi elections. "Both the kingdom and Iran can play an important role in founding stability in the Middle East region, especially in Iraq," Prince Nayef said, describing the two countries as "regional powerhouses ... that can help the Iraqi government in holding elections."Â
I don't know who's more gullible, the person who said this or the person who reported it as true.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
1:19:33 AM ||
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There's some kinds of helping
That helping's all about.
And there's some kinds of helping
That we can do without.
Shel Silverstein
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/05/2004 1:38
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..and saying the two countries can help with the upcoming Iraqi elections.
Uhhh, no. Iraq doesn't need "help" from the likes of the Saudis or the mullahs..
#3
Saudi Arabia and Iran's long history of fair elections open to all makes them the perfect dynamic duo to help Iraq with theirs! Now if we could just get North Korea to lend some of their valuable experience...
In unrelated news the Los Angeles based Bloods and Cripps gangs jointly announced they are opening a series of Boys Camps to help get America's youth off the streets.
#4
Realizing that Iran and SA are the bastions of democracy and liberty, aren't these countries already trying (as they might) to influence the upcoming Iraqi elections?
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/05/2004 10:51
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Saudi Arabia and Iran? Isn't that a lot like having Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on your campaign planning committee?
#7
Nice try at setting up the good-guy image, SA and Iran.
1. You know that elections are scheduled and going forward in Iraq.
2. You know how much your cannon fodder has been hurt in Fallujah and all around the 'triangle.'
3. This end-of-the-year makeover is not going to change the fact that you guys are the kings of terrorist funding on the globe.
4. You two also realize that a successful Iraq will spell doom to your kleptocracy.
5. You also will realize that one or both of you will be next for regime change, one way or another.
6. And that goes for your little dog Syria, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 13:33
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#8
Long live Persia! Long live The Republic of Eastern Arabia!
#10
.com, you forgot long live, South Azeristan, Western Baluchistan, East Kurdistan, and how could I forget Arab Khuzestan cos thats where all the oil is.
Jessica Clements never told her mother what it was really like Iraq. She smiled in the pictures she sent home, and said nothing about the bombings or the bodies she saw. "I think I was very vague," said 27-year-old Clements, an Army staff sergeant. "I never went into detail because I didn't want her to worry any more than I know she already would be."
Jessica's mother, Kim Wyatt, who works at an Ohio nursing home, was worried about her daughter but didn't fully realize the dangers she faced. "Her letters were always upbeat," said Wyatt. "The only thing she told me was that it was really dirty. ... She was always, 'Fine, everything's going great.'" Then came May 5. Wyatt got the call at 10:30 that morning. "I don't know who called me," she said. "I just remember the phone call, and he told me that Jess was injured in an accident, and I dropped the phone ... and took off running."
Clements' truck had been hit by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. She had taken shrapnel in her hip and back, and, much more serious, to the right side of the brain. She had been in Iraq just five months. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Poffenbarger operated on Clements in Baghdad. "The situation was fairly desperate," said Poffenbarger, a neurosurgeon normally based in San Antonio, Texas. "The bleeding was ongoing, the brain was swelling, and I really had a lot of concern that potentially she might die on me on the operating table." The prognosis was grim -- doctors believed Clements' chances of survival were slim, at best. "I asked them if she was alive, and they said she was, [but] they didn't give us any hope," Wyatt remembers.
After the operation in Baghdad, Clements, who was still in a coma, was flown to a military hospital in Germany to be stabilized for the long trip back to the United States. A doctor in Germany, believing Clements didn't stand a chance, sent Poffenbarger an e-mail asking why he sent her. Poffenbarger sent back his reply: "I said, 'This one's special. ... Stick with her, get her to America. I think she's going to wake up.'"
Clements finally did come out of the coma, but it was two weeks later. She awoke at Walter Reed Army Medical Center near Washington, D.C., and she was in agony. Surgeons had temporarily removed part of her skull to protect her brain from swelling. She was often exhausted, dizzy and had awful headaches, but Clements eventually began a rigorous course of physical therapy to help her regain some of what she had lost. "It was more of a survival thing for me," she said. "How am I going to get through this? How am I going to get my damn leg to move? It won't move. I remember thinking to myself, 'I'm moving my leg but it's not going anywhere.'"
Like many people with a brain injury, Clements has no memory of the day she was hurt. But the people treating her, some of whom gave her a two-percent chance of survival, say something remarkable has happened. Lt. Col. Rocco Armonda, a neurosurgeon who treated her at Walter Reed, said, "Her recovery has been so steep and so dramatic that ... she may in fact recover to near 100 percent."
Clements still has a long way to go. She had to undergo more surgery just a week ago, and she's fighting the military for better benefits. But there are hopeful and joyous moments. Her boyfriend, Greg Ramos, who promised to wait for her when she left for Iraq, proposed to her over the summer. "She's herself," said Ramos. "I mean, she laughs, and we joke around, the same way we did before she left, so it feels to me that he's back to herself."
Clements' mother, who has spent countless hours by her daughter's bedside, couldn't be more grateful. "It's definitely a miracle. We got us a miracle," said Wyatt. And the doctors who have treated her and continue to treat her still call her their "Miracle Girl." ABC News' Ned Potter reported this story for World News Tonight on Nov. 28, 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
1:15:09 PM ||
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"Jesse's Story" has been all over Power Line for months now. Search the site for the previous links. It's truly remarkable what the surgeons have done for her, and how much help she's gotten. She's currently in a VA hospital near her home, but goes back to Walter Reid for regular check-ups. She's been walking with a walker for several weeks now. There was a huge article in her home-town newspaper about her.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/05/2004 16:14
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"She had to undergo more surgery just a week ago, and she's fighting the military for better benefits." Ned Potter's other agenda. They are 'saluting the troops' but only with a backhand at the goverment. No soldiers DO NOT have to fight for benifits if they are wounded in combat. ABC just had to taint a miracle of a hero! Fuck you very much ABC!
#4
"she's fighting the military for better benefits"
Standard procedure for any Physical Review Board. Their job is to set the minimum percentage of your disability, your job is to get the maximum. Been that way for at least two decades. ABC just wants to get their whack in.
AMMAN — Jordan's Queen Noor said yesterday her son will continue to serve Jordan, despite King Abdullah's decision to strip him of the crown as heir to the Hashemite throne.
Til he's found floating face down in the Jordan River.
Noor neither referred to Abdullah nor his decision — an unusual move in Jordan, where the absolute monarch is venerated by his family and subjects alike. The absence of any mention of Abdullah in Noor's written statement underlined her disappointment in the ouster of her son that she had hoped would rule Jordan.
Abdullah had chosen Prince Hamzah, now a 24-year-old American college student, as his heir hours after their father — King Hussein — died of cancer in February 1999. The designation was widely seen out of respect for Hussein, who is known to have favoured Hamzah among his 11 children from four marriages. The late king often described Hamzah publicly as the "delight of my eye."
In a written statement to The Associated Press, Noor said Hamzah "has always been a source of pride and joy for me, his family and his father King Hussein whose indomitable faith lives on in him."
"God willing, he will continue to fulfill King Hussein's wishes for him to serve Jordan," added Noor, who is touring the US.
"My faith in him and in our beloved Jordan is constant and undiminished."
On Sunday, Abdullah — who enjoys absolute powers which include dissolving parliament and ruling by decree — stripped his half brother and heir of his title as crown prince in an abrupt shake-up aimed at redeeming the full power the king inherited from Hussein. The king said he wanted to remove the threat this Nancy-boy posed relieve Hamzah of his duty and give him space to undertake more responsibilities in state affairs.Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
1:13:53 AM ||
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Well, if that's the case, why didn't the old man publicly declare him his heir before he kicked the bucket? Did Hussein himself ascend to the throne when he was a kid? It's not like Abdullah has slit his throat (yet......isn't that what the Ottomans used to do? I know they killed their rivals, I just forget how.)
If this isn't an advertisement for writing out a damn will, I don't know what is.
#2
Desert Blondie: It's not like Abdullah has slit his throat (yet......isn't that what the Ottomans used to do? I know they killed their rivals, I just forget how.)
#3
Hamza was a backup in case Abdullah got himself croaked. Now that Abdullah has his own son & heir, he's cut Hamza out of the line of succession. Perfectly understandable. Nothing to see here.
#4
#1,#2
Specificly, the looser in Ottoman politics would "be sent a (the) bowstring". And it just wasn't for family, either-- I know of at least 2 Visiers that got "strung along" after falling from grace. No speakers circuit for you!
It is a good question why Hamzah hasn't died, been arrested, or taken an extended vacation in Europe yet. Awaiting developments...
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/05/2004 17:16
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The Afghan authorities plan to invigorate the country's fledgling tourist industry by developing Osama bin Laden's Tora Bora mountain hideout as a visitor attraction.
Hassamuddin Hamrah, the man in charge, believes that the caves which once housed bin Laden and his fighters, together with the remains of mangled Russian tanks and crashed helicopter gunships from the 1980s, will prove a tourist magnet.
But he said the plan was being undermined by scrap metal merchants from across the border in Pakistan who were taking the wrecked military hardware.
"We wished to keep the artillery, tanks, aircraft and also the military posts and front lines. But the Pakistanis have frustrated our plans," Hamrah said.
"They were coming and buying the metal scraps so a lot of people took these things to Pakistan. The things we thought existed have been taken away."
It is a popular saying in Logar province, south of Kabul, that the Russian artillery shells were not cold before the high quality steel was being sold across the border to the scrap dealers.
"We have plans to make a tourist site at the Tora Bora caves. Many Americans wish to go there," Hamrah said.
"Our main problem is lack of budget so we are approaching the private sector. We request that anybody, any company, who is interested should contact us."
He added that three Japanese tour company bosses had already visited the site, high in the White Mountains near Jalalabad.
The extraordinary complex of caves and bunkers was created during the 1980s as a mountain fastness by the Mujahideen, and expanded at bin Laden's expense in the 1990s. It is reported to include barracks, lavish living quarters and tunnel systems large enough to hide armoured vehicles.
In October 2001, American B-52s pounded Tora Bora with Daisy-Cutter liquid fuel bombs to try to winkle out bin Laden and his followers.
Bin Laden escaped and is still at large, probably still near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Afghan Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry believes that the country's notoriety is a strong pull for adventurous tourists. "We have a lot of historical places but Afghanistan is known all over the world because of the war," Dr Hamrah said.
With this is mind the Tourism Ministry also hopes to develop some of the great battlefields of the Soviet occupation as tourist destinations.
Tourism was once a major industry for Afghanistan. In the 1960s and 1970s the country was a key stopping point on the Hippy Trail from Europe to India — famed for its spectacular scenery, ancient ruins and local intoxicants. But the Russian invasion of 1979 placed Afghanistan off limits and, for 25 years, it has remained in tourist limbo.
Now the first visitors are returning. The latest issue of the Lonely Planet Central Asia guide is the first to include a section on the country.
Previous editions contained a two word entry on Afghanistan: "Don't go!" Since the fall of the Taliban, the Afghan tourist board has hosted 35 tour groups, numbering some 247 people, mainly from Europe and Japan.
The aid community in Kabul was astonished by the appearance in September of a tour party of septuagenarian Californians who arrived on the day of a large car bomb. One of the group, who were napping as their hotel was rocked by the blast, described the experience as "a pretty loud wake up call".
The kidnap of three United Nations workers in October and a suicide bomb on a Kabul street that killed a young American woman have put the expatriate community on high alert.
But Dr Hamrah dismissed any scaremongering. "We have sent groups to the farthest parts of the country. They have come back safely and are saying that the people welcomed them warmly."
The siege of a security forces camp in Jammu and Kashmir finally ended after about 30 hours yesterday as paramilitary forces shot dead two separatists after having lost five of their own men. Security personnel combing the camp in Sopore town, 55km from here, located the bodies of the two militants who had stormed it at 6 a.m. on Friday taking the 25-odd inmates completely unawares. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) lost five of its men as fighting erupted early on Friday in the complex that the CRPF mans along with the elite Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. "The operation has ended," a senior police officer told IANS on telephone from Baramulla district where Sopore is located. Yesterday, Indian soldiers entered the ground floor of the camp where the two militants had taken cover after storming it hurling grenades and firing automatics.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
1:12:01 AM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004
10:55 ||
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#1
President Bush may be making a mistake with suggesting a national sales consumption tax. Not because it is a regressive tax, but because it is an involuntary tax. Instead, if he proposed a national lottery, say, with a ONE BILLION DOLLAR top prize, suckers would Darwinistically lay down endless amounts of money, regressively. The government would make far more money, and pay out very little. First of all, the $1B would be halved by those who don't want a 30-year annuity, as with most big lotteries. Then the $500M would be halved again, through federal, State and local taxes. So the great national prize would be worth all of $250M. And with odds that are ridiculous, the government would rake in four or five billion profit every week. It wouldn't cause inflation, and would be entirely voluntary.
#8
You are right! For every dumb female there is a male ditto! Stay SMART AND SINGLE.
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/05/2004 14:04
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#9
The National Lottery - aka the Idiot Tax.
Posted by: Donald ||
12/05/2004 14:36
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#10
I will ask Congress to enact, as rapidly as possible, the NIT bill (National Idiot Tax).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 16:43
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#11
OTOH, this guy was a parking lot attendent and ran up $40,000 of debt. If I were his wife I would have been desperate and very very angry about that. Now that he's solvent, getting out makes sense 'cause it's not likely he's got better sense now than he did a few months ago .....
The American Ambassador in Cairo, David Welsh, met the spokesman of the Egyptian opposition parties, Rifaat Al Saeed, on Thursday for two hours, and talks between the two reportedly focused on democracy. This is for the first time in many years that an American Ambassador has met a representative of Egyptian opposition parties. Saeed said his meeting with Welsh focused on general issues, including democracy, but refused to elaborate further. He said it was the American Ambassador who had called the meeting. The opposition in Egypt has launched a campaign, demanding political reforms and changes in the constitution. They are also demanding a maximum of two successive terms for President. The 'Consensus Party', at a Press conference on Tuesday, accused the Egyptian government of using the emergency law to ban public meeting in Cairo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/05/2004
1:05:43 AM ||
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EFL and nuggets.
HOBART, Ind. - A woman's effort to assuage her 6-year-old son's fears of his grandfather's ghost by selling it on eBay has drawn more than 34 bids with a top offer of $78. WTF?
Mary Anderson said she placed her father's ``ghost'' on the online auction site after her son, Collin, said he was afraid the ghost would return someday. Anderson said Collin has avoided going anywhere in the house alone since his grandfather died last year. In a description titled ``This isn't a joke,'' Anderson told Collin's story on eBay: ``I always thought it was just normal kid fears until a few months ago he told me why he was so scared. He told me 'Grandpa died here, and he was mean. His ghost is still around here!''' Lest the boy's fears scare off potential bidders, Anderson added, ``My dad was the sweetest most caring man you'd ever meet"
Couldn't resist posting this - too wierd
My Grampaw thinks so, too...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004
10:51:37 AM ||
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Weird, indeed. Somewhere along the line, at some unremarkable moment, someone fed this poor kid some bullshit. Soaked up every drop. This is one of those examples of where it's irresponsible and dangerous (blowback is a bitch!) to feed inane ideas, your opinions, biases, fears, the usual half-baked BS we all carry around at times, etc. into the sponges that are our children. Give them the tools to think clearly and critically for themselves and then STFU, heh, is the best path.
#4
The grampaw made the grandkid tidy up his room. Bad, meanie grampaw! How insensitive! What if his ghosts returns and made the kid to tidy up the room again???!!!
#5
Beware what you tell your grandchildren. I told my 5 year old grandson that Cheerios were donut seeds and the next week he was outside planting the whole box. My daughter was mad at me for a month and made me tell him the truth.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/05/2004 19:19
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Most of Norway's top politicians, but very few Imams participated in Saturday's Muslim torchlight protest march in Oslo against violence and terrorism.
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik was disappointed over the fact that most Imams boycotted the protest march.
- They say they are against violence and murders. Why don't they join us here in this protest, Bondevik said to NRK during the march.
A group of Muslim leaders in Norway had wanted to disassociate themselves from violence and terrorism, and had organized the torchlight march through downtown Oslo to mark their stand.
However, another group had opposed the march.
The background for the march is a statement by the spokesman for the Islamic Council In Norway, Zahid Mukhtar, who earlier commented on the murder of the Ducth film maker Theo van Gogh.
Mukhtar said on a nationwide TV discussion program that he could understand that Muslims had been provoced by van Gogh's latest film, and that he could understand why someone murdered him.
-We object to the murder and violence under any circumstance. Mukhtar's statements have created an ambiguity which we cannot afford, says Khalid Mahmood, City Council representative for the Oslo Labour Party.
However, on Saturday morning Aftenposten reported that central Imams from several Oslo's mosques do not wish to take part in the march.
-I react to the fact that Muslims continuously have to prove that we are against violence by participating in protest marches. We feel we are being forced to take part, says Imran Mushtaq, deputy leader of the Islamic Council of Norway, to Aftenposten.
He has therefore launched a campaign encouraging people to sign a petition titled "Muslims in Norway are of course opposed to all violence and criminal acts".
-This campaign is an alternative to the torchligh parade, Mushtaq says.
At the same time he accused Khalid Mahmood of creating a conflict in the Muslim community.
The founder of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam was questioned in Oslo by German police ahead of the arrests in Germany of three men suspected of plotting to attack visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allaiwi.
German police interrogated Mullah Krekar in Oslo early last week and he is thought to be linked to at least one of the men arrested on Friday on suspicion of planning attacks during Allawi's visit, the Norwegian daily VG reported Sunday.
All three have been ordered held over their alleged membership of Ansar al-Islam, described by German authorities as a foreign terrorist organisation. A fourth man, a Lebanese, was also arrested on Saturday in Berlin on suspicion of supporting Ansar al-Islam.
Krekar, who has lived in Norway since 1991, founded the group in December 2001, but insists that he has not been its leader since May 2002. "The content of what happened in the Oslo court has been classified by the court, so I cannot offer concrete comments," Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling said in a public television interview. He confirmed however that German police among other things wanted details of his client's European contacts.
Asked whether the telephone number of one of the men arrested on Friday was found in Krekar's possession, Meling told NTB news agency that, when Krekar was arrested in the Netherlands two years ago "he had an electronic phone book containing up to 2,000 names and numbers... so it is possible that the police found this man's telephone number at Krekar's" home.
Krekar's brother Khalid Faraj Ahmad meanwhile told NTB that Krekar's interrogation last week was in connection with an old case and that the interview had been planned for months. "He was questioned as a witness in a case concerning several Kurds who were arrested in Germany a long time ago," Ahmad insisted
More and more sex workers in Pakistan are practising "mutah" — a short marriage contract — to gain a sense of legitimacy and beat the law of the land.
In most red light districts of Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Hyderabad and other cities, every time there's a police raid, sex workers and their patrons seek cover by owing allegiance to any sect that allows mutah.
According to a tradition among some sects representing Islam, mutah takes place if both partners agree to enter into a marriage for a short duration, even for a few hours, based on verbal consent. There is no need for any documentation or testimony, apart from a confirmation from the man and the woman. A majority of the clergy in Pakistan is unimpressed by the opportunistic use of the provision.
Mutah is a controversial provision in Islam. According to the majority Sunni sect, mutah has no relevance in the modern world as it was granted during the time of the crusades when "warriors of faith" had to spend months and years away from home. Moreover, sex for money and soliciting are all "haram (prohibited)" under Islamic law.
Mutah, Sunni scholars point out, also envisaged male responsibility in areas like pregnancy, legitimacy of children, maintenance and so on. And more important, it was permitted only with divorcees and widows.
Local Sunni leader Haji Sheikh Ismail said like the triple talaq, mutah is a reprehensible provision that has "no relevance in the modern world".
But mutah finds acceptance among some sections of Muslims. In fact, it is sometimes considered a "gainful and favourable act". According to Sayyid Mujtaba Rukni Musawi Lari, who wrote Western Civilisation through Muslim Eyes, mutah was introduced to wipe out prostitution and other forms of illicit relationships from society.
But in Lahore's notorious Heera Mandi, prostitution could not be stopped even when the government machinery cracked down. Under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the sex industry grew stronger due to liberal policing. During Zia-ul-Haq's regime, mutah provided protection, yet a majority of the sex workers shifted to other areas.
After Zia, they again began operating out of the red light areas and mutah has given them a shield against raids by the police or other law enforcement agencies.
Neelam (name changed on request), who said she has used the mutah provision to "tide over financial difficulties", provided another angle. "It relieves us of a sense of guilt. At the end of the day, we seek solace that we have not committed a sin as grave as adultery," she said.
Mutah marriages are not limited to Pakistan. In India's Hyderabad, such incidents are common when cash-rich Arab sheikhs come searching for young brides. In most cases, the marriages last a night or so and greedy clerics even issue marriage/divorce certificates to provide legal cover. Poverty, ignorance and lust seem to be paving the way for exploitation of women, on both sides of the border.
Everyone needs a good laugh
A presentation of writings on the subject "People Blessed with Generals" done by foreign students studying at Kim Il Sung University took place at the Taedonggang Club for the Diplomatic Corps on Thursday on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il's assumption of the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army and the 87th birth anniversary of anti-Japanese war hero Kim Jong Suk. Present there were foreign students studying at different universities here.
Just how desparate a foreign student do you have to be to study in Pyongyang?
Put on the stage were dialogic poems, essays, travel notes, accounts of visits, impressions, etc. In the dialogic poem entitled "December 24 We are Observing" Chinese students impressively told the audience how significantly this day is marked not only by the Korean people but by the world progressives. In the essay titled "Focus of the World" and in the travel note captioned "Treasures of Korea" Chinese students highly praised the feats of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who has successfully carried forward his cause, their traits as great men and the Korean people's happiness of being blessed with the generals generation after generation. A Mongolian student in a speech entitled "The Language I Have Learned" spoke highly of the greatness of Kim Jong Il. They presented chorus "Remembering the Old Home", male vocal solo "My Blessed Life" and other Korean songs. It closed with chorus "Comrade Kim Jong Il Is Our Supreme Dumbf*ck Commander." Where can I find the lyrics to that?
Posted by: Spot ||
12/05/2004
10:12:05 AM ||
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#1
lyrics at www.juchetunes.com
it's sung to the tune of Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004 10:17
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....I don't know, guys. It just doesn't have the same ring as that golden oldie, "Can I Have That Boiled Grass When You're Done With It?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/05/2004 10:23
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#3
"If I were a gate I'd be swinging"
"If I were a Nork I'd be grazing"
Posted by: Tom ||
12/05/2004 10:48
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#4
A Little Carrot Juche if you please... I just see Bugs and Dear Leader in a short.
Grab a fence post, hold it tight, Womp your partner with all your might.
Hit him in the shin, hit him in the head, Hit him again, the critter ain't dead.
Wop him low and wop him high, Stick your finger in his eye.
Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound,
Bang your heads against the ground.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2004 11:53
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#6
The image of being a foreign student in Pyongyong, graduating and coming home to your impoverished Asian or African country, and your parents and friends asking what you learned....and then you realized that you learned not a damned thing except a bunch of Nork drivel. And you got some 'splaining to do about the scholarship. Then it's a Mose Allison moment:
What do you do after you've ruined your life
Where do you go
Who do you know
What do you do after you've blown the game
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2004 13:48
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#7
"People Blessed with Generals"
I can only assume this refers to how the American South, even now, feels it was "blessed" with General Sherman.
Just how desparate a foreign student do you have to be to study in Pyongyang?
I hear tell that Ethiopian students are awestruck by the dormitory cafeteria's mountainous portions.
#8
And it is quite clear that not a one of them is a protoge of Army First Man.
The quality of KCNA is steadily going downhill. At this rate, there will not be a Pyongyong Pete around that will be the NKOR equivalent of Baghdad Bob.
Israel's military captured 12 Palestinian fugitives in the West Bank over the weekend, including a Hamas commander. The commander was identified as Rami Abdul Latif Tayah, 26, who led Hamas's military wing in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. Tayah was accused of being linked to a suicide bombing in an Israeli hotel in Netanya in 2002 in which 30 people were killed. The bombing prompted an Israeli invasion of Palestinian cities in the West Bank. Israeli military sources said Tayah was also responsible for recruiting Hamas members and forming Hamas suicide and other armed cells. They said Tayah coordinated with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and maintained contact with Hamas in Jenin, Nablus and in the southern West Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2004
10:02:41 PM ||
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#2
I agree with Reynolds. For the first time in my life the UN is coming under some desperately needed scrutiny. Making Annan a scapegoat will just allow them to carry on with business as usual.
The UN is a corrupt institution, always has been. There are very good reasons why democracies always put elected officials (or the political nominees of elected officials) in charge of bureaucracies. Its to stop the bureaucrats spending all their time with their face in the trough.
Want to get a shocked silence at a dinner party, tell them 90% of the money their kids collect for UNICEF goes to fly 2nd cousins of corrupt 3rd world dictators around the world 1st class.
#1
That's kind of what is supposed to have happened in Spain during the Inquisition.
Cheap accusation and the accuser gets a cut. That's why the poor folks were, so the story goes, not often victims of the Holy Office's inquiries.
SURRRRprise.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/05/2004 9:22
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#1
Same article as yesterday, same big trainwreck-of-a-personal-life RED WARNING FLAG:
Like a lot of people who convert to Islam or any other religion, he did so after a particularly difficult period in his life in which he not only lost his "way" but also his job and his apartment, and, after a fight outside a nightclub, came close to losing an eye as well.
Same reply:
"Isn't it funny how so many people find God only after they have painted themselves into a moral corner and made life a living hell for those around them. Nobody finds Jesus on prom night."
#4
The left demonized Christianity, the Christian churches allowed Christ to leave the building and now the lost have to settle for Islam - where the accepting "grace" is replaced by "smite your enemies". It's a shame. 2,000 years of western civilization advanced on the idea of grace, charity, hope, peace and forgiveness and now we offer them the dark ages.
#1
Hard to believe, but we have an even greater abundance of deserving nominees than in years past. From the unspeakably vile Ted Rall to the evil (though defeated) mastermind George Soros, the idiotarian ranks have grown even as those of their terrorist clients have declined.
Nevertheless, I have to go back to a sentimental favorite, Mike Al-Moor, aka Lumpy Riefenstahl, the Ham-ass terrorist, etc.
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, but that has to change.
Lumpy has been so close so often and is a perenniel contender.
I think he deserves it this year, if nothing else for his obscene attempt to equate the Iraqi terrorists with the Minutemen and other Revolutionary War heroes.
That statement alone summarizes everything that is wrong and evil in the MSM and the pop-left. Osama=James Dean for these narcissistic demons, and Lumpy is the purest and most visible expression of their culture and their depravity.
Ted Rall, while surely an evil mediatarian terror-shill and prostitute himself, is too far outside the pop-left mainstream to matter.
He lacks MM's ability to pretend friendship and sympathy with his victims, transparent though that is. Rall is therefore less destructive, though probably more vicious in intent.
He may deserve a bullet or a rope, but not the Fiskie.
#4
Don't forget your organizational nominees -
International Red Cross
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
BBC
UN [why just one man and not the pack of liers and crooks?]
Posted by: Don ||
12/05/2004 8:56
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#5
If we open the competition to blogs we could add
#6
I say Kofi is the target of opportunity, with the Oil for Food scandal gaining steam, and now is the time to "crown" him. With any luck (fingers firmly crossed) he will be out of power by next year, while Moore will still be around (providing his health cooperates).
Besides, Moore has been keeping (by his standards) a low profile of late. I'm sure he has tons of treasonous crap (F911 sequel, etc.) on tap for the runup to the 2006 elections, let's save his for then.
#7
My Nominee list - By category (my own breakdown) and in no particular order within each - there are just too many deserving entities this year. I borrowed any good stuff I saw, so some of the commentary is mine, some came from Snark Specialists - I am not worthy.
Evil / Malevolent / Dangerous
1. Ted Rall (Subhuman)
2. Jacques Chirac (Missed so many opportunities to STFU)
3. George Soros (Tranzi / Socialist / Fascist Enabler)
4. Arafat (For taking so long to die)
5. CP Abdullah (Zionist Conspiracies, etc.)
6. John F'n Skeery (Traitor, Professional Liar, back-shooter, and worst Prez candidate Ever)
7. Tsar Putty (Speedbump)
8. Markos Zuniga (Daily Kos Blog)
9. Clinton Hangover (Tenet, Clark, Berger, Sheurer, et al - still endangering us after all these years)
10.Kofi Anon (UN Sacrificial Lamb and First Rank Fuckwit)
11.Mad Mullahs (For breathing)
12.Fat Fuck (For breathing)
Pure Partisan Politicians / Mercenary Agents
1. Ted Kennedy (Still stupid. Still drunk. Still a murderer.)
2. Howard Dean (YEAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!)
3. Tom Harkin (Liar. Vietnam Fighter Pilot flying cargo based in Japan)
4. Dhimmicrap Nat Committee (McAuliffe & Co - Gave Us Skeery and Meme Machine)
Socialist Media
1. Dan Rather (Truth & document expert)
2. NYT Staff (Consistency in lies, apologia, spin)
3. Al G (Consistency in lies, apologia, spin)
4. BBC (Consistency in lies, apologia, spin)
5. Air Amerikkka (Stupid concept, stupid execution, stupid staff)
6. Howard Stern (Lost in space. Didya send W that message, yet?)
7. DU Website (Insane. Spleen. Vent.)
8. Larry O'Donnel (Insane. Spleen. Vent.)
9. Kanadian Press (Insane. Spleen. Vent.)
Tool Fool
1. Kanadian Politicians (Insane. Spleen. Vent.)
2. Wally Crankcase (Alzheimers, but won't Go Away)
3. "Sorry Everybody" Blog (Sorry. Indeed.)
4. Hollyweird (Bullshit walked)
5. Bruce Springsteen, et al (Bullshit walked)
6. Al Gore (Still insane after all these years)
Special Mention
1. Noam Chomsky (Lifetime Achievement)
2. 56 Million Amerikkans with BDS & PEST (Psychobabble boon)
#9
What a list!! I'd vote for the NYT staff, but that's kind of a personal foible of mine. (I'm old enough to remember when the NYT was an American newspaper instead of an Al-Qaeda recruiting poster.) I'd include on the list Thereza (or maybe she gets the special Marie Antoinette Award); and Plantu, the LeMonde cartoonist who thinks dead American soldiers make for good fun.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/05/2004 14:33
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#10
Vi French have the best idiotarians in world, here is the choice of a honest jury:
1) Gold Medalist and Idiotarian champion: Jacques Chirac from France
2) Silver medalist: Dominique de Villepin from France
3) Bronze medalist: John F Kerry from France
You Americans just can't compete vith ze country who produced Sartre and Derrida.
Now everyone raise for the French national anthem:
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.
Muslim militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir have often take refuge in mosques when they are chased by soldiers, who generally do not enter places of worship to avoid angering people in India's only Muslim-majority state. 
Three gunmen have been eliminated in Malogbek district, Ingushetia, a source in law enforcement told Interfax on Sunday. In Nizhniye Achauki law enforcers tried to stop a Lada car but the driver and two passengers refused to obey. The three were killed in an attempted detain them, the source said. They were identified as 
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, has rejected calls for his resignation over allegations about the UN's Iraq oil for food programme. "I think resignation is comparatively easy," he told the Financial Times, responding to calls last week by two US Republican senators for him to leave. "It is much more difficult to stay on and continue to do the job you are elected to do and focus on the important agenda of the organisation and the membership."
A leading rights group is urging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sideline warlords implicated in rights abuses and strengthen the rule of law when he announces a new cabinet. Mr Karzai will be sworn in for his first elected term, which will run for five years, next week. Human Rights Watch also urges Mr Karzai to be more forceful in seeking greater assistance from the United States and NATO to improve security ahead of April parliamentary elections. In an open letter, the New York-based group calls on Mr Karzai to also take up the issue of US military abuses in the battle against Islamic militants and to take stronger action to promote women's rights. 
The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red 
Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says that while such evidence is not an accepted part of civilian trials, it can be used in military trials. "We've always known that that was the approach in the military trial arrangements," he said. Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Nicola Roxson says the use of such evidence condones torture. "I think it does and I think it highlights the reason that in Western countries like Australia, and in the ordinary American civilian system, would not allow material to be used in court when it's been obtained from torture because that gives it some weight, gives it some credibility, as an indication that the state says that this is acceptable material to use," she said. Ms Roxson says it is wrong to condemn torture, but then talk about how evidence obtained through it can be used. "It's inappropriate but we still want to go on and talk about how it can be used. I don't think you can have it both ways," she said. "This is something that all Australians would be concerned about. I am quite astounded Mr Ruddock is not being stronger on this issue." 
Dear Dr. KareemâŠ
Muslims from across the UK will join demonstrations against the Musharraf regime this Monday [December 6th] when President Musharraf meets with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and later addresses a gathering of UK Pakistanis in Central London. Demonstrations will also take place at other events where President Musharraf will be in attendance including a lecture at the 
