Eleven Russian soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in various attacks and mine explosions in another wave of violence in the war-torn rebel republic of Chechnya, military sources said yesterday. The biggest single loss came when six interior ministry soldiers were killed and one injured when their truck was blown up on Monday by a remote controlled mine in the rebel capital Grozny, a Russian military source in Chechnya who asked not to be further identified told AFP. Two soldiers were killed and three injured when another army truck was blown up yesterday. Meanwhile, gun battles killed two Russian soldiers and a sapper died while trying to defuse a bomb outside the capital, military sources said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
9:57:26 AM ||
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I was born into a fanatic Muslim family in Uzbekistan...I was married off to a Muslim man. I was 10 and he was a 60-year-old brute. He promised my stepmothers that he would not sleep with me until I reached the age of puberty. But he came to my room soon after our marriage took place...I decided to find a newly-established feminist organization as I hoped they would listen to my story and help me. Of course they couldn't help me as they were too busy celebrating someone's birthday...I'm trying to forget my past. However it's really hard to do as my husband managed to nearly ruin my life. I will never have children because of premature sex. I have never had boyfriends because I'm afraid to be touched by men in a 'romantic' way. I'm working with a psychologist to get over this complex.
I think everyone understand why I'm no longer a Muslim.
Posted by: mhw ||
12/07/2004
9:55:36 AM ||
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Mary Daly? Catherine McKinnon? This should be just up your alley.
*crickets*
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
12/07/2004 10:30
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I'm sure the Corrie family will take up the lady's cause...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:33
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What explains why their sons are so screwed up and women hating is because their mothers take out their frustration at being cattle on the little guys while their young and defenseless. Muslim mothers are extremely domineering and extremely ambitious for their children. Its a given part of muslim culture to pinch and slap the hell out of kids who are disobedient or not attentive in their studies.
#7
Toss in the fact that, in many Islamic societies, Mom is a phreakin' ninja whose face they won't see after toilet training, and you can get some extreme Oedipal effects...
Police have arrested a Dutch national once sought by the United States on suspicion of supplying thousands of tons of ingredients for mustard gas and nerve gas to the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. "The man is suspected of supplying thousands of tons of raw materials for chemical weapons between 1984 and 1988 to the former regime in Baghdad," the public prosecution service said in a statement Tuesday.
The 62 year-old suspect, identified as Frans van Anraat on Dutch television, was arrested in Amsterdam Monday. The United Nations described him as Saddam's most important middleman for acquiring chemical materials, prosecutors said. "The chemical weapons were used by the Iraqi government in the war against Iran and against the Kurdish population in north Iraq," the statement said. Iraq used chemical weapons to kill 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in the town of Halabja in 1988 and fought a brutal war with Iran from 1980-1988.
Van Anraat is suspected of breaching the law of war and of complicity to genocide, and will be brought before a court in the Dutch town of Arnhem later this week. He is suspected of having had direct contact with Iraqi authorities and using financial fronts to cover his tracks, according to the international investigation which led to the arrest. He worked through a Panamanian company based in Lugano, Switzerland, according to investigations by authorities in the Netherlands, the United States, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Jordan. The inquiry centered on 36 deliveries of raw materials for chemical weapons. The ingredients for mustard gas and nerve gas came from Japan and the United States.
A criminal investigation by U.S. customs authorities based in Baltimore a few years ago found that Van Anraat had been involved in four shipments of thiodiglycol, an industrial chemical used in making mustard gas, to Iraq.
The shipments originated in the United States, were shipped to Europe and reached Iraq after passing through Belgium's Antwerp port and Aqaba in Jordan.
Washington had asked the Dutch government to arrest Van Anraat in December 1997, but police could not track him down, according to a transcript of parliamentary questions to the Dutch Interior Minister last year. The request for his arrest was withdrawn in November 2000, without an explanation.
Van Anraat was detained in Milan in January 1989 following a U.S. request, but he was released after two months. He then headed to Iraq where it is thought he stayed until the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria, the public prosecution said.
Wonder what he knows about Iraq's more recent chemical program? Bet he'd be willing to cut a deal, being he's in it for the money and not a jihadi.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
9:41:10 AM ||
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"I don't know nothin!"
"Here's a $20."
"Look in the basement at the old Fallujah hospital complex."
Posted by: Charles ||
12/07/2004 11:31
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Palestinian militants killed one Israeli soldier and wounded four others when they detonated a booby-trapped chicken coop in the central Gaza Strip.
The attack was claimed by Hamas, which said two of its fighters were killed in gun battles following the explosion.
No word on the fate of the baby chicks
O, the avianity!
The Israeli army quickly struck back, killing a militant from the Islamic Jihad group in a missile attack. There have been few such clashes in the weeks since the death of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The renewed fierce fighting comes just over a month before Palestinians vote for a new leader of the Palestinian Authority on 9 January. The chicken coop exploded in a huge blast during an Israeli search for hidden weapons on Tuesday on the Karni-Netzarim road south of Gaza City just before dawn. An Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded, Israeli army and Palestinian sources said. Palestinian militants hiding nearby are then thought to have opened fire on the troops. Israeli forces hit back, firing a missile which killed an Islamic Jihad fighter and at one point making a brief incursion into al-Sejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, which is controlled by militants. Hamas said two of its fighters were believed dead in the 45-minute shoot-out. Other reports suggest four Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were wounded or died.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
9:33:28 AM ||
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The chicken coop exploded in a huge blast during an Israeli search for hidden weapons
[T]he United Nations' credibility has been steadily eroded by its own misdeeds, with a burgeoning scandal over its incompetent and sometimes corrupt management of the Iraq oil-for-food program being the most damaging example. Last week it was reported that the son of U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan received a series of payments from a Swiss firm that won a lucrative contract under the oil-for-food program. This development has fed growing doubts that the United Nations will be able to own up to its problems or reform its operations so long as Annan remains at the helm.
But mismanagement, corruption, and manipulation of the program by Saddam Hussein allowed his regime to amass at least $21 billion outside of the United Nations' control, with the great bulk of that sum -- $17.3 billion -- pilfered between 1997 and 2003 on the secretary general's watch. In effect, the United Nations colluded in Saddam's successful evasion of U.N. sanctions. The most damning charge so far -- that a former chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, accepted bribes from Saddam's regime -- was made in October by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer, who led a Senate investigation into the scandal. The program is now the subject of at least four congressional investigations, three U.S. federal investigations and the U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has underscored the urgency of such investigations, noting not only that the size of the fraud is "staggering," but also that some of Saddam's vast illicit stash might right now be funding terrorists and costing American lives. In an opinion piece in last week's Wall Street Journal, Coleman urged Annan to resign. "As long as Mr. Annan remains in charge, the world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that occurred under the U.N.'s collective nose."
Annan's handling of the fallout over the past week has done nothing to improve his perceived credibility: He has refused requests from congressional committees for access to the United Nation's 55 internal audits and other reports, or for the chance to interview U.N. officials who oversaw the program, saying that it would interfere with the Volcker inquiry. That inquiry is expected to release an interim report in January. The full report could take another year and cost as much as $30 million -- to be funded with leftover cash in the oil-forfood program.
Annan's intransigence should not deter the Senate subcommittee on investigations or other congressional investigations. Volcker can hardly be expected to conduct a thorough and unbiased inquiry into a scandal in which the U.N. secretary general and his son are involved. The world deserves a full and thorough accounting of what transpired. The sooner the United Nations can get past this matter, the sooner it can get back to the important business of making itself an effective instrument for collective security against terrorism, failed states, and acts of genocide, a goal that Annan has strongly supported. The secretary general should place this critical mission ahead of his personal interests, and step aside. Given his own lack of credibility on the oil-for-food program, this step is the price Annan must pay to help restore the U.N.'s credibility, and to salvage his legacy as secretary general.
Bad news for Republicans. Some Dhimmicrats are starting to understand.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004
9:20:29 AM ||
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some of Saddamâs vast illicit stash might right now be funding terrorists and costing American lives
To way too many of the UN's members, that statement would be considered a positive point for Kofi's management style. The only thing that would make it better to them is if he said Jews were dying because of it, too.
#3
The New Dems On Line will be harshly criticized for this by the old line left but eventually they (the NDOL) will win as more and more gets out about the UNSCAM.
#5
while I will miss the feeling of superiority I get when comparing myself to the professional moonbats on the left, it would be beneficial to all of us if sane democrats managed to above the dung to provide real debate and real solutions for today's problems.
#6
'Course the Dems could simply be angry they didn't get a cut.
Seriously,I think this is Dem attempt to stop public investigation of UN. If Kofi resigns now,some new guy/gal can come in and say "It's terrible what happened,but that's in the past,I'm going to clean up UN so it won't happen again,yadda,yadda,yadda." Supporters of the UN(most Dems)have to be horrified at the thought of Sen.Coleman holding public hearings,esp.since the Dems fav Repub,Sen.McCain,is supporting Coleman.
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/07/2004 12:22
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Israelis are not dying directly as a result of Saddam's programs anymore: the payments of US$10,000-25,000 to families of suicide bombers ceased with the invasion of Iraq. However, I would not at all be surprised if those who control the hidden band accounts continue to fund various Palestinian terrorist groups aimed at Israel. But these days I imagine their funding efforts must be mostly aimed at reclaiming Iraq from the invaders -- a textbook example of throwing good money after bad.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 17:01
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Better if Kofi stays and the UN becomes completely irrelevant. There's no way to reform the UN. The problem's not Kofi but the fetish of national sovereignty and France's UNSC veto. The best outcome is for us to create a parallel organization, bypass the UN, and let the world gradually become convinced of Kofi's incompetence and the UN's uselessness.
SOUTH Korea has shelved a plan to replace the English word for condom with a Korean word after a string of complaints from people with identical or similar sounding names. The Korean Anti-AIDS Federation said it would drop the use of a suggested new word for condom, "ae-pil", which was derived from the Chinese characters for love and necessity. The name, picked from 19,000 suggestions sent in by the public, had prompted complaints from many South Koreans with similar-sounding characters in their names, federation official Kim Hoon-soo said. "An old lady called to complain, saying she was worried about her grandson being teased due to her name being 'condom'," Kim said, adding the federation had dropped its push for a new name. The federation promotes condom use in South Korea, where only 10 per cent of people use condoms when having sex.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/07/2004
8:48:42 AM ||
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How about Juche - The Army-Based Condom!!
Keeps 'em on the other side of your DMZ!!! ;)
One of the key measures of a society's health is how easily you can insulate yourself from its underclass. In America, unless one resides in a very small number of problematic inner-city quarters or wishes to make a career in the drug trade, one will live a life blessedly untouched by crime. In Britain, alas, it's the peculiar genius of Home Office policy to have turned the entire country into one big, rundown, inner-city, no-go slum estate, extending from prosperous suburbs to leafy villages, even unto Upper Cheyne Row.
The murderers of John Monckton understood the logic of this policy better than the lethargic overpaid British constabulary. An Englishman's home is not his castle, but his dungeon and ever more so - window bars, window locks, dead bolts, laser security, and no doubt biometricrecognition garage doors, once the Blunkett national ID card goes into circulation. All this high-tech protection, urged on the householder by Pc Plod, may make your home more secure, but it makes you less so. From the burglar's point of view, the more advanced and impregnable the alarm systems become, the more it makes sense just to knock on the door and stab whoever answers.
Mr Monckton's killers thus made an entirely rational choice. He was a wealthy man, living in a prestigious neighbourhood of £3 million homes, and he presumably had the best security system to go with it. But time it right, get him to the front door, and the state-enforced impotence of the homeowner makes him as vulnerable as any old loser in a decrepit urine-sodden block on Broadwater Farm.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
12/07/2004
8:36:20 AM ||
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Ooooh the touchy-feely mob are gonna love this.. Let's hope that the predicted change in the law occurs. The author may be right about common sense dictating the outcome of such trials. Let's hope this marks a turn towards elevating the rights of the common man above those of the criminal. Great post btw.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/07/2004 8:57
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Obviouslt Steyn's back from his post-election R&R in a BIG way. Classic. Take back your basic rights, Brits!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 9:30
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Obviouslt? *starts coffee drip*
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 9:31
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"and the state-enforced impotence of the homeowner makes him as vulnerable as any old loser in a decrepit urine-sodden block on Broadwater Farm"
Couldnt have said it better myself .
I live in a relatively good part of my city (nottingham - gun crime central) , but even after a number of years living in a run down area , I still keep my old hickory axe handle handy , and my dog is a vicious lil bugger when it gets going (poor old postman ) . Perhaps the laws were introduced to protect burglars from folk like me *shrug*
#5
Tony Blair's re-election campaign platform is reducing crime. I suggest he propose to allow his citizens to arm themselves with something more substantial than a rolled-up copy of the Daily Mirror.
#7
Here in Illinois, Home Invasion is a Class-X felony... making the perp eligible for the death sentence. I'd just as soon execute that sentence as soon as the jamoke crosses the threshold, and certainly before he reaches my carpet.
Not sure about my future state of Maryland, though. Anyone?
#8
Maryland is a concealed carry "may issue" permit state. Gun laws here.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004 12:34
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The one thing I want to know, is why the stiff-upper-lip route? Seems to me the impotence isn't so much state-enforced as it is personally inflicted. I seem to remember reading something somewhere about Americans taking up residence in London that were given instructions on "how to be a proper victim" when confronted, as the authorities had observed that Americans had a tendency to fight back.
Seems to me that what the Poms need to do in increasing numbers is fight back, instead of meekly acquiesing to the whims of public officials that can't even guarantee an individual's safety in his/her own home.
#10
eLarson, prepare thyself. Maryland is as blue as it gets.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 12:53
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Behold the gentle, superior Euro's wish to believe that violent crime is a purely American phenomenon caused by suburban red-state gun owners.
Yet another MSM meme in action here. In fact, the homicide data overwhelmingly indicate what is obvious to every American: violent gun injuries are concentrated in urban drug-dealer infested ratholes. The 98% of Americans who don't live in these ratholes have a lower risk of violent death than the average Finn, Swiss or Frenchman.
#12
eLarson, Maryland is a blue state that is getting decidedly pinker. We're still beholden to the Big Blue Machine that is Baltimore party politics, *but* the times, they are a changin'. E-mail me for details...
#13
Mrs. Davis - So is Illinois. :) Cook County is one densely populated area, and there are some counties along the Mississippi that are pretty blue, too.
#14
Hmmmm. I am glad I live in a come in here and die residence. Even in my "blue state" if I feel threatend and you are in my home uninvited your ass is mine. Thats the law. That is should not be the law is clearly insane.
U.S. troops have captured 34 Iraqis, including 10 wanted for making explosive devices to attack coalition forces, the military said Tuesday. South of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed three Iraqi National Guardsmen. Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division detained seven members of a car bomb-making cell Monday evening in As Siniyah, about 150 miles north of Baghdad. Another seven people, including three suspects wanted for making roadside bombs, were captured during raids Monday in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, about 80 miles north of Baghdad. During a search of one house, soldiers found three homemade bombs, a weapon that has been used to deadly effect against hundreds of American and Iraqi soldiers since the onset of the war last year. Several hundred U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested 20 suspected militants Sunday in the southern Baghdad district of Rashid following a short firefight, the military said in a statement Tuesday. Exxxcellent
Posted by: Spot ||
12/07/2004
8:35:32 AM ||
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Several hundred U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested 20 suspected militants Sunday in the southern Baghdad district of Rashid following a short firefight, the military said in a statement Tuesday.
Kill 'em. If the Paleos can execute suspected collaborators without any outcry from human rights groups, why not apply the same standard in Iraq?
Students who use computers frequently at school perform worse than their peers at maths and reading.
Those using computers several times a week performed "sizeably and statistically significantly worse" than those who used them less often...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:25
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#4
that probably has more to do with the increased amount of time they spend playing games and surfing the net for music or porn, than it does with using the computer.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 20:27
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IIRC it was Socrates who said books [or the ancient version thereof] made people lazy because they then didn't have to memorize the material.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 20:32
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#7
wrong Halo, Mrs D
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:37
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This is an absolutely craptacular and worthless study. At least if the reporting is accurate. It does not demonstrate the purported conclusion.
As phil_b pointed out, the "at school" qualifier is selectively applied. "Those using computers several times a week performed "sizeably and statistically significantly worse" than those who used them less often.
In addition, there is no real discrimination between the alleged results in math and literacy tests for students with computers at home.
Furthermore, what is a computer? GameBoy? Xbox?
At best, this study undermines Clinton's attempt to subsidize computers in schools... because the dumbarses who don't have them at home are still going to be dumbarses if they get them at school.
I took every computer class I could and slept through all the others, since you always pass to the next grade level there really was no incentive to learn english/math/ etc.. and tests were so pathetically easy I could generally get a C anyway
end result, I sucked at everything but computers when I finished hs
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday called for an end to a 15-year-old European arms embargo on China imposed after the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, as the two countries signed contracts worth $2.1 billion for Airbus jets and other industrial goods. On his sixth trip to China, Schroeder received a warm welcome from Premier Wen Jiabao, who called the visit "another family meeting" at the start of talks in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's legislature in central Beijing.
At a news conference later, Schroeder noted his past calls for an end to the European Union's 15-year-old ban on weapons sales to China, and said, "My opinion hasn't changed." Wen called the ban an outdated "result of the Cold War" and said he hoped for a decision on it at a European Union summit on Dec. 17, though he didn't say whether he expected the ban to be lifted. Wen is expected to lobby European leaders this week at an EU-China conference in the Netherlands. Beijing says a failure to lift the arms embargo could harm diplomatic relations.
Germany and France are eager to do business with China's military, which is spending billions of dollars modernizing its arsenal, with much of the business now going to Russia. But other EU governments say Beijing has failed to do enough to improve its human rights record. Schroeder has also been criticized by members of his Social Democrat and Green party coalition for backing a lifting of the arms ban.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: JerseyMike ||
12/07/2004
7:44:37 AM ||
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Boy, those hippocritical Germans. They HATE to kill people, but boy do they LOVE to sell weapons so that others can.
#4
Frank, I draw the opposite conclusion. We need to keep those bases now, more than ever. If we're gone and the Germans spend all their time talking to frogs, they'll go bonkers again. No Rhineland redux.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:08
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#5
? So our bases are there to also keep the German peace? You and I are clearly seeing things different today. OK....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:11
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The Germans down, the Russians out and the Americans in. The problem with taking NATO out of theater is that it weakens each of these goals. I have no reason to believe the Europeans have really fundamentaly changed in the last sixty years. Their behaviour since the fall of the Soviet Union has only reinforced my opinion. Better to leave our troops there than to have to send them over one more time. To get Europe permanently fixed will take at least 100 more years.
It is good to discuss differences with someone you respect. Makes one test ideas and think.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:18
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#7
Well, removing them would certainly put to the test the international community's notion that force must never be used. Then, once again, those stupid brutish Americans would have to go in and save all the Euro geniuses from their own deadly illusions. Or would we?
No deal is too smarmy for business there (which is why they have no problem buying hostages back).
The Germans, like the French, are not above putting their principles aside when it comes to closing a big deal. Hypocritical bastards is an understatement.
Posted by: jeff ||
12/07/2004 10:38
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The Germans, like the French, are not above putting their principles aside when it comes to closing a big deal
Heh heh - some Americans aren't either:
Former president Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc.
"I hope you all make lots of money," Clinton told executives at the launch of Accoona Corp., which donated an undisclosed amount to the William J. Clinton Foundation.
The Chinese government, one of several large backers, has granted Accoona a 20-year exclusive partnership with the China Daily Information Co., the government agency that runs an official Chinese and English Web site.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:45
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#10
I bet that it does great searches, but you're not allowed to see the results.
#11
If we're gone and the Germans spend all their time talking to frogs, they'll go bonkers again.
If they end up going at it with each other, I don't see why that's a bad thing....
Better to leave our troops there than to have to send them over one more time.
Why send them over at all? Twice is enough; the third time there's a problem, they can either fix it among themselves or kill each other in the process. Too much American blood has been spilled over there already. Enough is enough.
#12
"Call me paranoid, but the EU is doing everything it possibly can to undermine the U.S."
Really?
Then tell me: if the EU wasn't around, what would have prevented Chirac and Shroeder from lifting their own nations' embargo without needing to convince anyone else on the matter?
#13
Aris, that's apples and oranges. France and Germany managed to lift their own nations' embargo against Saddam Hussein's Iraq without convincing anyone else...although it must be admitted that after they had acted unilaterally, they did attempt -- without success -- to convince the UN Security Council to lift that embargo. Convincing others answers their purpose of poking the U.S. in the eye, not enabling change of their own private policies.
Oh, and you previously mentioned you'd finished your studies. Congratulations! What's in the future for our Greek correspondent?
#15
#9 Just goes to show you with the Clinton's, EVERYTHING is for sale. The Lincoln bedroon, himself etc. I bet the Chinese were laughing their asses off. Look at the former US President,
he really is a cheap whore! lol
#16
My questions to Herr Schroeder is how far will he go in selling military equipment to the Chicoms? One issue would be the sale of German diesel submarine technology to the Chicoms. They won't sell diesel boats to the Taiwanese. Will they sell 'em to the Chicoms?
If they sell Airbuses to the Chicoms, that's one thing. The Chicoms can always get them refit for dual use. I am interested in the real mil stuff.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 14:45
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#17
JerseyMike> What difference does that make Aris?
Well, your reading of the story was that the EU was "doing everything it possibly could to undermine the US", including arming China.
My reading of the story, however, was that the EU is one of the forces that prevented France and Germany from lifting the embargo against China.
So, I'd say it's the difference between black and white.
trailing wife> What's in the future for our Greek correspondent?
A couple months or so of doing various paying projects, then a year or so at the army. Then we'll see.
#22
France clearly does act as if it owns the EU, even though it doesn't. We'll see what happens after the Dec. 17 summit, Aris. If the ban is lifted, JerseyMike's perspective may be better than yours.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/07/2004 20:18
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#23
Europe's fixation with moderating America's super-power status at any cost is simply insane. China has yet to show significant improvement of its human rights track record or any substantial abatement of the rampant corruption and graft within their borders.
How anyone in Europe can possibly pretend that China is ripe for anything but a melt-down or civil war is beyond me. Should it become necessary to blockade the Persian gulf, China will be one of the first to be hurt, as they continue to rely upon Iranian oil.
All we need is a well-armed China to contest the much needed actions against Iran that are almost guaranteed to come. While Europe manages to blind itself to how emperiled they are by Iran's openly hostile arms development, America cannot possibly afford to disregard the huge danger of enabling any capability for Middle East intervention by the Chinese.
Europe must be confronted with some sort of excruciating price tag should they continue to envision arming the Chinese. Their blinding greed must not be allowed to steer them into a catastrophic head-on collision with America's security needs.
A grandson of former President Jimmy Carter has been charged with burglary and possession of marijuana.
Time to send him for an extended vacation in Jamaica...
Police in Peachtree City, Georgia, say 17-year-old Jeremy Carter broke into the house of a former friend and took a video game console over the weekend. Kid's on his way to another Nobel Peace Prize for the fam.
Jeff Carter says his son is just like uncle Billy innocent and will be exonerated. No comment from the former president. Anyone placing bets they blame his behavior on a killer rabbit?
#4
His former friend wouldn't let Jeremuh borrow the vodeo console. Jeremuh wanted the video console. Had to have it. Jeremuh was mission oriented. The mission was all that mattered. Jeremuh completed the mission with 100% success. End of story.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 22:59
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A criminal court here on Monday opened a trial of five Moroccans who had formerly been held by the United States at its prison camp in Guantänamo Bay, Cuba, including a man suspected of being a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. The trial is the first of former Guantänamo detainees to be held in an Arab country.
The men, who were all arrested during the invasion of Afghanistan and whom the Americans turned over to the Moroccan government in August, are charged with belonging to or assisting a criminal group that was preparing to commit terrorist acts. Moroccan investigators say all of the men were either members of Al Qaeda or had been heavily influenced by the group's teachings while living in Afghanistan. The judge set Dec. 20 as the men's next court date. The defendants were identified as Muhammad Ouzar, Ibrahim Benchekroun, Muhammad Mazouz, Redouane Chakouri and Abdullah Tabarak, whom officials suspect was a bodyguard for Mr. bin Laden.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/07/2004
7:19:03 AM ||
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A Retrosexual man, no matter what the women insists, PAYS FOR THE DATE.
A Retrosexual DEALS with IT, be it a flat tyre, break-in into your home, or a natural disaster, you DEAL WITH IT.
A Retrosexual not only eats red meat, he often kills it himself.
A Retrosexual doesn't worry about living to be 90. It's not how long you live, but how well. If you're 90 years old and still smoking cigars and drinking, I salute you. If you are still having sex, you are a God.
A Retrosexual does not use more hair or skin products than a woman. Women have several supermarket aisles of stuff. Retrosexuals need deodorant and shaving gear - that's it!!
A Retrosexual does not dress like a homeboy with baggy pants that look like he's shat himself, or with a gay chain from pocket to pocket. If wearing a hat, wear it correctly - not on the side like a faggot. Ear rings and necklaces (unless you are an Australian fast bowler) are out!
A Retrosexual should know how to properly kill stuff (or people) if need be. This falls under the "DEALING WITH IT" portion of The Code.
A Retrosexual watches no TV show with "Queer" in the title.
A Retrosexual does not let neighbours screw up rooms in his house on national TV.
A Retrosexual should not give up excessive amounts of manliness for women. Some is inevitable, but major re-invention of yourself will only lead to you becoming a handbag carrying little puss, and in the long run, she ain't worth it.
A Retrosexual is allowed to seek professional help for major mental stress such as drug/alcohol addiction, death of your entire family in a freak BBQ accident, favourite sports team being moved to a different city, favourite dog expiring, etc. You are NOT allowed to see a shrink because Daddy didn't
pay you enough attention. Daddy was busy DEALING WITH IT. When you screwed up, he DEALT with you.
A Retrosexual will have at least one outfit in his wardrobe designed to conceal himself from prey.
A Retrosexual knows how to tie a Windsor knot when wearing a tie and ONLY a Windsor knot.
A Retrosexual should have at least one good wound he can brag about getting. This does not include males who have had cosmetic surgery.
A Retrosexual knows how to use a basic set of tools. If you can't hammer a nail, or drill a straight hole, practice in secret until you can -- or be rightfully ridiculed for the wuss you are.
A Retrosexual knows that owning a gun is not a sign that your are riddled with fear, guns are TOOLS and are often essential to DEAL WITH IT. Plus it's just plain fun to fire one off in the direction of those people or things that just need a little "wakin' up".
Crying. There are very few reasons that a Retrosexual may cry, and none of them have to do with TV commercials, movies, or soap operas. Sports teams are sometimes a reason to cry, but the preferred method of release is swearing or throwing the remote control. Some reasons a Retrosexual can cry
include (but are not limited to) death of a loved one, death of a pet (fish do NOT count as pets in this case), loss of a major body part, or loss of a major body part on your ute.
When a Retrosexual is on a crowded bus and or a commuter train, and a pregnant woman, heck, any woman gets on, that retrosexual stands up and offers his seat to that woman, then looks around at the other so-called men still in their seats with a disgusted "you rude pricks" look on his face.
A Retrosexual will have hobbies and habits his wife and mother do not understand, but that are essential to his manliness, in that they offset the acceptable manliness decline he suffers when married/engaged or in a serious healthy relationship - i.e., hunting, boxing, shot putting, shooting, cigars, car maintenance and drinking piss and talking shit with the boys.
A Retrosexual knows how to sharpen his own knives and kitchen utensils.
A Retrosexual man can chop down a tree and make it land where he wants. Wherever it lands is where he bloody well wanted it to land. Except on his ute--that would happen because of a "force of nature", and then the retrosexual man's options are to Cry, or to DEAL with IT, or do both.
A Retrosexual will give up his seat on a bus to not only any women but any elderly person or person in military dress (except 2nd Lt's) NOTE: The person in military dress may turn down the offer but the Retrosexual man will ALWAYS make the offer to them and thank them for serving their country.
A Retrosexual man doesn't need a contract -- a handshake is good enough.
A Retrosexual man doesn't immediately look to sue someone when he does something stupid and hurts himself. We understand that sometimes in the process of doing things we get hurt and we just DEAL WITH IT!
#2
Ha! Maybe I should buy you a ring with a big chunk of flint on it.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/07/2004 18:43
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#3
Hold on a minute - what's this shit about deoderant? Izzat one of those things you might hafta do if there are wymyns around? Unpaid-for ones, I mean? The rest of it I can DEAL WITH.
#4
Addendum: the Retrosexual man will be properly informed and prepared to give explanation of the fact that ownership of guns, sharp things, and heavy, pointed things is in no way connected with conceptualization of his sexual prowess (or "lack" thereof), "gender identity," or any real or imagined "compensation."
TWO French police officers will face disciplinary proceedings after bungling a training exercise that caused a slab of explosives to be placed on a flight out of Charles de Gaulle airport, the headquarters of the gendarmerie in Paris said today. The two men are also being suspended from their functions as dog-handlers because of "grave professional misconduct."
Police services around the world were continuing to hunt for the 150 grams of explosives - the size of a bar of chocolate - which left Paris on an unknown flight on Friday evening. Experts said the material was harmless because it was not connected to a detonator. In a routine test, the two dog-handlers placed the bar of explosives inside a random bag as it passed on a conveyor belt between check-in and the aircraft loading bays. One dog successfully detected the item, but the other did not. Before it had the chance of a second attempt, the bag had been taken off towards its destination. Yesterday, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin described the police behaviour as "reprehensible and scandalous" and promised an investigation.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/07/2004
5:33:00 AM ||
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#1
"In a routine test, the two dog-handlers placed the bar of explosives inside a random bag..."
doesn't that stuff leave a residue even after you remove it from the bag?
Posted by: jeff ||
12/07/2004 10:30
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Yeah, Jeff. Somebody is gonna get screwed someplace by security. And who's going to believe his story that the French did it?
BRITISH police were probing why a top secret file detailing security arrangements for the visit of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Britain this week was found abandoned on a London street. The 17-page document was reportedly found by a delivery driver in a brown envelope on upmarket Curzon Street hours before General Musharraf and his wife touched down at Heathrow from Washington on Sunday. Titled "Visit of His Excellency General Pervez Musharraf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan", the papers reportedly disclosed the security arrangements at the London hotel where the president and his entourage were staying. The dossier containing maps showing General Musharraf's movements, explaining how to identify undercover police, and giving details of police radio channels and secret police call signs, was given to the Daily Mirror newspaper.
Did the Brits hire Frenchies to handle this operation?
"The documents did not detail personal protection arrangements for the president," said a spokesman from London's Metropolitan Police. "His personal protection was not affected. "Our understanding is that they were found by a member of the public and handed in to the Mirror, who gave them to us yesterday," he said. "We have reviewed our policing operation, and liaised with the Pakistan High Commission." An investigation has been launched by the police's Directorate of Professional Standards into the circumstances surrounding the loss of the documents. General Musharraf is in London for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Pakistani High Commission and Mr Blair's office did not comment on the security blunder.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/07/2004
5:27:01 AM ||
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#1
Assuming it's an original, which the article fails to specify...
Given the limited distribution of such a document and what it did - and did not - contain, the suspect list must be quite short, indeed. Good hunting, boys. Either someone is a PakiWaki jihadi symp - or someone is about to be incredibly embarrassed:
"Gentlepersons, please sign back in the dossiers you were given. Thank you."
#2
whoa! Sounds like the drop didn't go as planned. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out who was the culprit. Wonder if Tony's got the cahoneys to perform a public hanging.
AUSTRALIA would double anti-terrorism aid funding for Indonesia to $20 million in the next year, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. Mr Downer said that terrorism remained a threat in Indonesia. But he also told business leaders in Jakarta that Indonesia's transition this year to full democracy had increased Australia's confidence in its giant neighbour, helping ease security jitters after a string of deadly attacks. "That is quite an extraordinary transition in this country," he told the Indonesia-Australia Business Council. "I think that has had a very strong impact in Australia. "I think amongst ordinary Australians the thought that today Indonesia is a democracy, a credible democracy, that its elections were free and fair elections, that not just the winners celebrated their victory, but the losers accepted their defeat. I think this type of transition in Indonesia has really penetrated public consciousness in Australia."
Mr Downer yesterday met Indonesia's new President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the sidelines of a summit for moderate religious leaders aimed at combating sectarian extremists. Mr Downer, who has worked with five Indonesian leaders, said his reception from the new Indonesian government was the warmest he had encountered. It set the scene for a renaissance in relations that hit a low in 1999 brought about by the post-independence vote slaughter in East Timor and Australia's peacekeeping intervention there. Mr Downer faced questions from business leaders on why the government refused to drop tough travel warnings against Indonesia, which were impacting on investment between the two neighbours. He said the Government had a duty to inform Australians about the risk of more terrorist attacks, especially in light of the recent Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta.
"At the end of the day we can only tell people what we believe to be the truth: that is that there is the possibility of terrorist attacks in Indonesia," he said. "I agree it's had some impact on business and certainly an impact on visitors. That's one of the reasons why we work with the Indonesians so enthusiastically in the area of counter-terrorism. If we can fix the problem the travel advisories will fix themselves." He said Australia would increase its anti-terror aid over the year ahead. "We have spent about $10 million so far on counter-terrorism activities in Indonesia," he said. "Now we are going to double that figure over the next year to $20 million."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/07/2004
5:24:17 AM ||
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HAMID Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president today, promising to restore security to the war-shattered country three years after the fall of the Taliban. Mr Karzai took an oath on the Koran as he was inaugurated in front of foreign dignitaries including US Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The ceremony at the heavily fortified presidential palace in Kabul took place under watertight security amid threats by the ousted hardline Islamic Taliban regime to disrupt it.
Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld both warned that "extremists" still wanted to take back Afghanistan, and the Taliban yesterday night launched a deadly attack on a checkpoint in southern Khost province. The audience erupted in applause after Mr Karzai took the oath and kissed the Koran. He himself then swore in vice presidents Ahmed Zia Masood and Ustad Mohammed Karim Khalili, standing between them on the podium. He promised in his oath to exert his efforts "towards the prosperity and progress of the people of Afghanistan". Addressing the audience, he also pledged to tackle the problems facing Afghanistan after 25 years of war, including the swelling drug trade, powerful warlords and Taliban remnants.
Afghan, NATO and US forces drew a tight security cordon around the capital before the inauguration and many streets in downtown Kabul were closed. Mr Cheney hailed it as a "great and historic moment for the people of Afghanistan" and praised the US role in bringing democracy to the country. Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld, who arrived separately, were to leave the country immediately after the inauguration and an official lunch with Mr Karzai. "The military mission is not over," Mr Rumsfeld told US special forces at the Bagram airfield just outside Kabul. "It is not over, there are still groups, extremists, that would like to take this country back.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/07/2004
5:22:50 AM ||
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ABOUT 600 leaders from central Iraq's Shiite Muslim provinces announced plans to begin setting up their own autonomous region, following a meeting today in the holy city of Najaf. Representatives agreed to set up a security committee for their five provinces and a regional council to stimulate the economy of their neglected region. Iraq's provisional constitution recognises the federal nature of Iraq, most of whose Kurdish population lives in three northern provinces with a large degree of autonomy.
Participants of the Najaf meeting underlined the importance of holding elections on January 30, and backed Shiite leaders' rejection of largely Sunni calls to delay the vote. Shiites make up about 60 per cent of the Iraqi population but were oppressed under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, which favoured the minority Sunnis. The meeting opened with an appeal from the governor of Najaf province, Adnan al-Zorfi, for a regional gathering of presidents of provincial capitals with an executive council made up of governors and provincial administration leaders. He also called for a consultative council with greater powers than the existing provincial councils that would draw up unified political, economic and security policies. "We must turn ourselves into a regional unit in the context of a federal Iraq," said Ukail al-Khozai, deputy governor of Karbala, another Shiite holy city.
The congress involves the provinces of Babel, Qadissiyah and Muthanna as well as Najaf and Karbala. The idea of forming a Shiite autonomous region has been floated for months, but this was the first time that the region's leaders met to draw up concrete measures.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/07/2004
5:19:08 PM ||
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#1
A good idea. A step towards potentially independent Kurdistan, too.
#4
Not just our variety, either: look at how Britain has vastly increased autonomy for Scotland, and has come up with intelligent proposals for solving the Northern Ireland mess. Kurds as Scots, Sunnis as Irish: it can work in Iraq.
OTOH Baghdad is the country's nerve center and can't be spun off to one faction. And the shi'a and kurds will ahve to have some meaningful sunni participation in the security forces if the crackdown that's needed is to avoid looking like a civil war.
#10
Coming from the Shi'a, not the Kurds, this has legs and "legitimacy" - so it will serve the non-idiotarian segments of the Iraqi population.
The South and the North become federal zones, republics, whatever word one wants to use - Baghdad becomes an administrative zone, I guess - and the Sunnis, well, let's see... no oil, no power, no relevance. Yep, this is the sweetest Shi'a revenge possible which does not lead to the wholesale dissolution of Iraq as an entity...
In a sense, effectively, it's a peaceful (for now) Shi'a declared civil war...
The Kurds must emulate this, as closely as possible to prevent the inevitable Ba'athist UN thug Brahimi's attempts to derail / obfuscate the process. Truly, a fascinating development.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty is calling for expanded police powers to combat terrorism. He says police need greater powers to force terror suspects to say who they work with and what they know about planned attacks. "If society really expects law enforcement to prevent and disrupt terrorist activity, then we need to look at other models that are working or that are under development in other parts of the world," he said.
"We really want to take a look at Morocco's new Truncheon XJ6.1®"
Mr. Keelty says the AFP's overseas counterparts have a greater ability to force suspects to provide information about planned attacks. "These include questions such as the person's identity and movements, what the person knows about a recent explosion or another recent incident endangering life and what they know about a person killed or injured in a recent explosion or incident," he said. Mr Keelty was speaking to a conference of criminologists in Melbourne last night.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/07/2004
5:11:43 PM ||
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#8
The list of "approved" tools is so long the photo would become totally messy. We could always use the old rubber hose, the hand-cranked telephone and naked wires, bamboo splinters, a good set of truncheons, a dull axe, a vial of acid, some barbed wire, a straight razor,... I'm sure you get the idea. As in any job, it's not the tools that are important, but the person using them. A skilled practitioner can get the necessary information from anyone.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/07/2004 14:50
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The remembrance of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor took on partisan political spin Tuesday with a Democrat leader using it to attack House Republicans. Could McAuliffe be any more politically tone deaf?
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a special Pearl Harbor Day statement, said national unity 63 years ago enabled Americans to go forward and defeat the country's enemies, but the same kind of unity needed now was being undermined by Republican disagreements over provisions of the yet-to-be-voted on intelligence reform bill. This from the party that has time and time again violated the time-honored tradition of leaving politics at the water's edge?!
"While we as a nation are united in this fight, We are? When did that start including the Democrats?
there are clearly deep divisions within the Republican Party, divisions that are impeding our fight against terrorism," he said. Should I laugh or cry? James Sensenbrenner's concerns over handing out driver's licenses to people who have no legal right to be here is just as much a part of the 911 Commission's as intelligence reform. The 19 hijackers had 63 valid driver's licenses between them...
#5
I always thnk of Dick McAuliffe who led the bigs in runs scored in 1968, it was a good year, altho I did turn 50 that year.... again.
Posted by: Helen Thomas ||
12/07/2004 18:02
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#6
I remember you from my first press conference, Helen.
Posted by: Thomas Jefferson ||
12/07/2004 21:17
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#7
There's a point that I forgot to bring up. Terry (The Greatest DNC Chairman ever--Long may he reign!) didn't even mention the Democrats in terms of being able to shape this legislation.
#8
Terry is just doing fine where he is. I really think that his statements clarify the democrats' position. Keep Howie on deck, but keep Terry batting. Heh heh........moroons...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 23:26
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An identity-stealing e-mail Trojan horse that disguises itself as the Lycos Europe antispam screen saver is being distributed around the Internet, an antivirus company has warned. F-Secure said Tuesday that the key-logging Trojan steals usernames, passwords, credit card details and e-mail addresses, and travels as an e-mail attachment. Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure's director of antivirus research, said the recent media attention given to the Lycos Europe "Make love not spam" campaign could be an incentive to open the file.
"We hates them nasty spammers, don't we, my precious..."
"The whole case has been full of surprising turns from the beginning," Hypponen said. "Whoever is behind this is someone who felt they were being attacked by Lycos. They are trying to teach people a lesson. A lot of people heard about the screen saver but couldn't download it because the ("Make love not spam") Web site was down. Lots of people would be interested in looking, though."
The subject of the Trojan e-mail reads: "Be the first to fight spam with Lycos screen saver." It comes with an attachment file labeled, "Lycos screensaver to fight spam.zip." Hypponen warned that the Trojan was dangerous if opened, but no more so than other password-stealing malicious software.
Remember, friends don't send friends Trojans!
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
3:11:30 PM ||
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December 7, 2004: The U.S. Air Force has ordered 288 AFM-158 JASSM missiles. These 2,300 pound weapons cost $389,000 each and are basically 1,000 pound JDAMS (GPS guided bombs) with a motor added. JASSM has a range of 350 kilometers and is designed to go after enemy air defense systems, or targets deep in heavily defended (against air attack) enemy territory. The air force and navy plan to buy over 5,000 JASSM, but there has been some opposition in the military and in Congress. The missiles are ten times as expensive as a JADM bomb of the same weight. But the aviators make the argument that many aircraft and pilots would be lost if the air defenses of a nation like, perhaps Iran North Korea Syria Saudi Arabia Pakistan France China, were attacked without using JASSM.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
3:06:45 PM ||
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#1
Naw, this looks like a definite nod to the N. Koreans. Well you could also make the argument that Iran may be on the list for receiving some of these.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 16:12
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#7
JASSMs also have a terminal seeker that the JDAM lacks. If you need 1 meter vs 10 meter accuracy... Yes radars can see bombs. The airplane guys hope that the SAM guys shoot expensive missiles at their cheap bombs.
Posted by: Peter V ||
12/07/2004 16:18
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Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 16:48
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#10
much less than a jet and the pilot
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 17:00
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#11
Agreed. Do you know the cost of the next gen cruise missiles? I recall the last gen was $1million. Are they getting cheaper or more expensive?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 17:02
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#12
no idea, bet they didn't drop in price ....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 17:05
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#13
I expect they're like computers, the computer you want always costs $3,000, but it's way better than the last $3,000 computer you bought. In this case cruise missles always cost 1 MILLION DOLLARS! LOL. But digital maping is out, GPS is standard and loitering is around the corner. When they are not armed they also can crank out SETI@Home Workunits in less than 3 hours.
#14
$400K is cheap compared to a $3 million Patriot missile. Tomahawks are around $550K (production cost) and wonder once JASSM R&D is figured in if it isn't just as cheap to buy Tomahawks.
Posted by: ed ||
12/07/2004 17:28
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#15
Ed,
These sound like they go faster and are less vulnerable to interception than Tomahawks.
#17
Okay, let's talk delivery systems, here. I gather a B-52 can drop 51-500 pounders. Can it drop 11 of these (2300 pounders), or would it be more practical to use a C-130 or other enormous platform? And practically speaking, at 350km max strike zone, I would think that you would have to be at tremendous altitude, which could be a problem for lower-altitude designed aircraft.
#18
I was actually thinking a high altitude drop, but stand corrected on radar signature...How much length would a motor add? The JDAM kits are negligible, just GPS nose gear/brains and workable fins at the rear
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 18:37
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#19
S300 batteries are toast. Each launcher costs $25m. Even if you drop 10 JASSM's on each launcher, you're looking at 4m in cost vs $25m in destructive effect.
From Asia Times: For instance, last August Russia clinched a deal to export to Vietnam two S300 PMU1 air defense batteries (or 12 launchers) for a reported nearly $300 million. The S300 PMU is an advanced version of the SA-10C Grumble air defense missile.
The fighting in Iraq is a continuation of the war that began in March, 2003. While Saddam's army and government was quickly demolished, his supporters in Sunni Arab areas of central Iraq were still there. Saddam didn't rule Iraq with the army, but with a force of skilled and ruthless terrorists. With a strength of over 100,000 men (and a few women), the work was often done at night. Real, or suspected, opponents of Saddam were kidnapped, beaten or killed in the dark. Broad daylight executions, or mutilations, in public places, were also used. Terror is fueled by frightening images, either mental or visual. The work of these terrorists continues, but the victims are fighting back.
Saddam's thugs were chased out of northern Iraq ten years ago, with the U.S and Britain providing backup for the Kurds doing the chasing. In southern Iraq, Shia Arab gangs have been forming to go after Saddam's men in mixed Shia/Sunni areas of central Iraq. Saddam's thugs have been terrorizing and killing Shia Arabs. This is done mainly gain dominance and control in towns and neighborhoods with mixed populations. The thugs want everyone to know who the real boss is. The main target of the Sunni Arab gangs are the police and security forces. But these are increasingly staffed with Shia Arabs and Kurds. Saddam's men cannot threaten the families of Kurdish cops, and are having a harder time reaching the kin of Shia Arab police and soldiers.
Western journalists have a hard enough time covering the battle involving American troops, but they are almost completely cut out of this other war. All you hear reported is the occasional killing of a prominent Sunni Arab (usually a clergyman). But the body count on both sides is quite high, and trending against the Sunni Arabs. If the Sunnis gather together in large groups, to overwhelm local police, they risk getting caught, and demolished by American troops. Operating in smaller groups, and there is increasing danger from Shia Arab (and even Kurdish) death squads. This is a very dirty war, which will eventually get reported as such. But for the moment, it's a dangerous beat for reporters, because neither side wants journalists along, and will kill any who get too close.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
3:05:00 PM ||
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#1
The Iraqi Sunnis better get on the electoral train before it leaves the station, and get some representation amongst the country's institutions (police, military). Otherwise, they look like they're heading for a well-earned extinction.
#3
But for the moment, it's a dangerous beat for reporters, because neither side wants journalists along, and will kill any who get too close.
At least both sides agree on something. Works for me, too. Attrition will steadily erode the base and power of the Saddamites. Their days are numbered. They are rowing against the current. Enough of them better start horsetradin' or they will just be out in the cold Jan 30----or dead.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 17:54
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#4
Bush states" Terrorist won't rule Iraq's future"
Deb Riechmann, Associated Press.
Camp Pendlton, C.A. President Bush appearing before cheering U.S. Forces Tuesday, declared that terrorist won't be able to control Iraq's destiny because "free people will never choose their own enslavement" I feel Mr. Bush is promising roses to all, but we will get pricked with thorns- the world is not meant to have homeostasis! I could be wrong.
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 18:48
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Following is the full text of President Bush's speech to Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004, as transcribed by The Federal Document Clearing House. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you all. Thank you for the warm welcome.
It was getting a little quiet back at the White House...
(LAUGHTER)
... so I decided to drop in on the Devil Dogs. The rest at the link.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
2:56:32 PM ||
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#1
If you compare this item to the Terry McAuliffe item right above it, it's not hard to see why the election turned out the way it did.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/07/2004 15:43
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#2
General Sattler recently visited with some of the wounded in the Fallujah campaign. One Marine was pretty beat up, but when he saw the general he lifted his hand and said, "Sir, I've still got my trigger finger. I can get back out there." That is the spirit of the Corps.
#3
I just watched this for the second time on Fox.
You absolutely must see the film clip of Bush as he heads to the podium to speak to the troops at Pendleton. You will never see or hear a more raucous ear-splitting welcome in your whole life. This is the CinC and His People - and it phreakin' rocks. The level of mutual respect and admiration is awesome and palpable. These people are being asked to execute the pointed end of the Bush Policy... to die if necessary - and they LOVE the man who's doing the asking. We Americans are blessed beyond words.
Now picture anyone in the Dhimmidonk party, absolutely anyone, and what reception they would receive from the men and women at Pendleton. Try Dean or Skeery and let your imagination conjure up what that reception would be like.
#4
a good speech and on TV (Fox, of course) his heartfelt pride and praise (and condolences) came through...to the point of tearing up at times
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 16:15
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#5
It was the exact same thing at the Army-Navy game. The Navy locker room even had the jerseys of their fallen comrades framed on the wall. These men and women know what they are being asked to do, and they do it well. Hoo-ah! Dubya!
#7
"...The terrorist[s] understand what is at stake. They know they have no future in a free Iraq, because free people will never choose their own enslavement."
Or said another way, terrorists are enslavers of humanity. Chillingly true. Best line.
#8
It's too bad the former CIA station chief who sent that defeatist cable couldn't have joined the President on this trip.
"Sir, request permission to light the dude up, sir."
Posted by: Matt ||
12/07/2004 17:41
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#9
Interesting... we know of our "Greatest Generation" and how Americans supported our troops. Check out any of the MSM and their history programs to tell us this.
Americans want to support this "Great Generation." Those of us here, know, through the Internet, lots of ways to extend our support.
My family, in the heart of JesusLand in the heart of a Red State, don't know how. At home, during Thanksgiving, I was appalled at just what my family didn't know. And I'm just a lit'le old lady in Texas, but I know how to use the Internet, so I don't have to depend on my "yellow dog, liberal, local newspaper (the heart of the blue state in Texas, Austin) to get my news and form my opinions. With each "story" I told, they wanted to know, "where do you get this info?" They want to support.... just didn't know how.
Yet, I just watched, through Fox, our CIC with his troops (bless each one of them and get down on those knees and thank God we gave them 4 more years of their CIC) ..... and in his speech, he actually gave, twice..... a web address of where we, citizens of the USA could go, to find lots of ways to support our troops.
Did the MSM play this part of his speech? If you want to place a bet with me on this... I'll take the bet!~~~ And win.....
I had to watch (read) the speech, to find this part.
Looks like W is taking his message to the people.... and bypassing the media. Wonder how long it will be before they realize this is what he is doing? He went straight to the Marines with his message!!!!!!! "kinda quiet at the White House, so I thought I would drop in on the Devil Dogs."
No, the MSM will continue to misunderestimate him. Now, I just have to figure a way to get his message to my family.... Brian Williams (nor none of the MSM) isn't gonna do it.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), one of the most adroit and deceptive Islamist groups in America, is preparing its fourth annual convention, which will be held in Long Beach, CA on December 18. It is beyond predictability that this unfortunate event, with participation by some of America's worst apologists for and adherents of Islamist extremism, will hear from its podium extensive complaints that American Muslims are targets of slander, hate, and threats from ordinary non-Muslims, and protests against "ethnic profiling," as well as other forms of purported harassment, by law enforcement.
But the same MPAC that comports itself as if it had no Islamist nature whatever, and had only just heard about Wahhabism and other radical doctrines, also targets and even profiles people. That was what MPAC chief executive Salam al-Marayati did on radio within hours of the September 11 atrocities. According to The New York Times of October 22, 2001, he told station KCRW, "If we're going to look at suspects we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what's happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies."
MPAC targets people, and with the release of propaganda for their convention, they have selected an impressive range of individuals they hope to marginalize. On the garish poster they have put on line, at www.mpac.org, five individuals are shown, identified as "THE FACES THAT ARE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT TERRORISM:" Osama bin Laden, Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum, Rev. Pat Robertson, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and terrorism expert Steven Emerson, who heads the Investigative Project, the most comprehensive counter-terrorist institute in the world today. The Investigative Project is uniquely effective in tracking the activities of Islamic militant groups.
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Some parents of rebellious teenagers in the US are turning to privately-owned correctional institutions to steer their wayward children back on the right path. But is this tough love tactic a step too far?
Probably not. But I'm sure Beebs thinks it is...
Perched on the edge of a cliff in Treasure Beach - a remote fishing village in southern Jamaica - there is a hand-painted sign on the wall: "Welcome to Tranquility Bay." This isolated boarding school is surrounded by security cameras, iron gates, barred windows and high concrete walls. It looks like a top security prison; but it is neither a prison, nor a juvenile detention centre. At a cost of between $25,000 (£13,000) and $40,000 (£20,800) a year, parents of unruly teenagers send their children here to learn how to behave.
That's a lot of scratch to invest in "going a step too far." Presumably, parents think they're getting something for their money.
Tranquility Bay is one of several facilities run by an American business organisation called WWASPS, the World Wide Association of Speciality Programs and Schools. According to their website, Tranquility Bay exists "to challenge and motivate the student in a structured, individualised learning environment... so they become mature, responsible and contributing members of society." The teenagers inside are typically enrolled on the programme for three years, but this varies and largely depends on when the institution, and their parents, think they are fit to graduate.
Three years is $75,000, by my calculations...
As I glanced around the institution, some pupils - mostly white Americans dressed in khaki shorts and shirts, and flip flops - walked past me in line, military-style, with vacant expressions. Not one of them looked at me, not even a peep from the corner of an eye.
Maybe they weren't interested?
Fifteen-year-old Shannon Levy's parents arranged for their daughter to be forcibly taken from their home and escorted to Tranquility Bay. "Three strangers - a lady and two big men - came into my house and sat me down on the sofa," Shannon told me. "They said I was going to Jamaica and they handcuffed me and said I could co-operate or they were going to throw me over their shoulder. I was screaming for my mom because I had no clue what was going on. I was very scared," she said.
Golly. Sounds very traumatic. I wonder what pushed her Mom to such desperate measures?
When I asked Shannon's mother Jayne why she felt the need to send her daughter to a school reputed for its harsh treatment of pupils, she simply said: "Desperate parents do desperate things." Shannon had disrespected her mother, was sleeping around, drinking alcohol, smoking pot and not doing well at school. Arguably, most of the children sent to the school flaunt typical teenage behaviour.
Arguably, most teenagers experiment with all or most of those things. Some take it to extremes of drooling stoopidity. When I experimented with disrespecting my mother at a young age the immediate result was a fat lip. When I experimented with warm beer out under the railroad bridge with my friends as a teenager, my Dad pointed out to me that gents can hold their liquor and I'd we well advised to learn my limits unless I liked puking. I never got into pot, but I knew enough people with psychological seams that opened up when they did get into it to make me want to stay away from it. Jayne sounds like she was one of those mothers who think children are little adults, rather than adults in training.
In order to recondition these children, once inside, they are completely cut off from their home life. They are not permitted to talk to their families until they conform to the programme - which is a reward and punishment system. If you do what you are told, when you are told to do it - and do it the way the programme says you should - you earn points.
Most people aren't born with habits of self-disclinine. Usually it's learned...
These points move you up to the next level in a "six-point plan", a method of acquiring "privileges". If you do not obey the rules, or as one former student told me, you cannot do what is required of you, you have to face the consequences.
I have a son in the Maryland State Police academy right now, who's living under the same rules. My sympathy meter isn't twinging at all.
One consequence is being sent to Observational Placement, or what is known to the kids as OP. On my way to the OP room I caught a glimpse of the sleeping dorms. They were furnished sparingly with thin, lumpy mattresses on wooden bed frames that fold up against the wall, and wooden shelves on which children have attempted to neatly fold the few items of clothing they are issued. In OP the children are made to lie on thin plastic mats on the floor, all day, sometimes day after day. They eat, sleep and stay in the room until the staff members guarding them decide they can leave. Shannon Levy told me she spent eight weeks in OP.
"Young lady, go to your room. And no terriblevision!" One assumes she was better behaved when she was allowed out...
To continue their education, the children work from text books and are partly self-taught. If they fail a test exam they do it again and again until they pass.
Gee, golly. Just like the state police here in Maryland. Come to think on it, that's the way lots of us learn: keep working on it until it finally sticks. Is the writer offering any more palatable options? Is there an easier way to learn?
Staff members are not trained teachers in all the subjects they supervise and are often recruited from the local community. During meals, students are bombarded with self-improvement messages over the tannoy. They are played over and over again. The children must then write essays about what they have learnt straight afterwards.
Terrible. Just terrible. I remember once having to write an essay on the contents of an Army security regulation as a sprout in uniform, punishment for my first security violation. There weren't any more, that I was aware of.
Despite its hard and strict methods, many parents like Megan Quinn - who placed her son in the school - are pleased with the results. Megan told me: "If it wasn't for the God-sent gift of this programme you'd be going to the lakeshore of Chicago where my father's buried, where my sister's buried, and putting flowers on his grave. So yes it hurts right now not to see him for 12 months but it would hurt a heck of a lot more not to see him for the rest of his life."
There are lots of teenaged brats like him. Scan the metro section of your local paper.
Other parents are not so convinced and taking legal action against WWASPs. "It was an act of desperation... and we were conned," said Julie Wilkinson, mother of ex-student Winston.
Don't feel like you got your money's worth? Child not what you expected? Or did you come to the conclusion that as a little adult, he shouldn't be required to do anything that was hard or good for him?
Concerns about the school's methods have also been raised by Bertrand Bainvel, head of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), based in Jamaica. He wants OP scrapped, because he says: "There is a high possibility it falls under the definition of child abuse."
There are openings for abuse in the system as it's described, but that doesn't mean the abuse is there. Presumably they're inspected regularly to make sure it's not. It's hard to make a certain type of person understand that discipline and abuse aren't necessarily the same thing. And that over-indulgence is another form of abuse, more widely spread in the Western world.
In response to the criticism, WWASPs say: "The schools have a tremendous record of success and growth. They have helped thousands of teens and their families and have a 97% parent satisfaction rate." I began to consider a conversation I had earlier with the uncle of one young female student, as he tried to make his way past security to visit her. "They're criminalising adolescence," he said, and as I walked out of the gate beyond the high walls into the full tropical sunlight, I wondered if he was right.
It sounds to me more like they're taking adolescent criminals and trying to make something of them. Though I suppose I could be wrong...
#1
Ahhh, these New Age parents! In the old days it was military school for the boys, and convent school for the girls. I imagine it was a good deal cheaper, too.
While I don't like the idea, for some over-the-edge youngsters this kind of thing is necessary. Yes it is brainwashing, but their old brains were leading them to self-destruction. Personally, I would try military/convent school first, with the threat of WWASP hanging over the kid's head, and parenting classes to make sure we aren't inadvertantly abetting the bad behaviour. This kind of thing should not be allowed to come as a surprise, but as a clear consequence of personal choices. But I'm funny that way.
#3
Sometimes I think these 'methods' are necessary. And often the parents bring it on themselves by (as the comments indicated) treating the adolescent as a 'adult' and not an 'adult-in-training'.
On the other hand I've heard of a lot of cases where the kid simply 'takes control' and, in effect, threatens the parents with the CPS (Child Protective Service here in WA). Often the kids learn this in school (both from the Administration and other kids...).
Often this is the only way a parent can 'fix' their mistake.
As for this reporter, one of these days he will find out that A) life is not fair, and B) Respect has to be earned.
#4
On the fourth hand, I've heard a lot bad about these institutions; they allegedly escape regulation as schools because they're treatment centers of some sort, and escape regulation as mental hospitals because they're allegedly schools of some sort.
I've gotten the impression that these places are positively bad for anyone who actually has real mental problems that can't be improved by massive administration of antidepressants, tranquilizers, or brainwashing.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/07/2004 18:41
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#5
As the fifth hand, I've known folks who've used these things. They've got kids who are out of control and whose next stop may be the slammer. They've also got perfectly normal kids who are being affected by having parents attention diverted to the live in juvenile delinquent.
Most of these kids have recreational drug problems that are dealt with using non-drug therapies. It can be a lot like boot camp in the sense of giving the kid a whole new self definition that repalces everything that was there before. If this is brainwashing, some need Clorox.
These parents have one helluva problem and don't get a lot of help from anyone. These situations are heart breaking and take a toll on marriages and everybody else in the family. I've missed this bullet on the first two. The third remains to be seen. I just hope my knowledge remains second hand.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 19:24
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#6
Somwehat ironic thought - they are not that far away from Guantanamo - where another species of delinquents are enjoying long stretches in "Observational Placement."
I live in Thailand - where thousands of minor drug offenders are sent to what amounts to "boot camp" for three straight years. There are certainly recidivists - but many evidently get straightened out. Most are happy that they didn't fall into the "non-minor" drug offender category - whose members tend to be summarily executed in Thailand "while trying to escape."
MILITARY troops stormed a remote Muslim enclave early Sunday and arrested three alleged members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the military said. The military also said it foiled a planned terror attack in Zamboanga City. The raid shortly before 2 a.m. in the coastal village of Taluksangay came barely 10 hours after security forces gunned down a suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorist Bahan Madhar (also identified as Majan Bajar) and arrested four other suspects near downtown Zamboanga City, said Marine spokesman Captain Rommel Abrau.
He said two other Abu Sayyaf gunmen were able to escape the latest operation in Taluksangay village. "In a follow-up operation, the same elements raided another ASG safehouse in the village of Taluksangay, which resulted to the arrest of 3 other ASG companions. During the raid, two ASG suspects were able to elude the raiding teams," Abrau said in a statement. He identified those who escaped as Abu Ibrahim, leader of an Abu Sayyaf unit in Zamboanga City and a man named Dujana. "Security forces are tracking them down," he said. The military tagged Bahan Madhar as one of those behind the series of bombings in Zamboanga City that killed dozens of civilians and a U.S. soldier participating in an anti-terrorism training with Filipino troops in 2002.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:30:33 AM ||
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The organizer of the bombing of the Chechnya's House of Government in December 2002 died while being detained in Ingushetia, a republic in the North Caucasus bordering on Chechnya, Ingushetia's Interior Ministry reported. According to the Interior Ministry, Alikhan Saduyev, a terrorist, had been on the federal wanted list and known to law enforcement agencies as the organizer of the bombing of a building near the Ingushetia department of the Federal Security Service on September 15, 2003. Two of his accomplices died in the fight during Mr. Saduyev's arrest. Chechen Interior Ministry identification papers were found on all three militants.
According to the ministry, law enforcement agencies conducted a special operation to arrest Mr. Saduyev in Ingushetia's Malgobek district yesterday. "While the suspect was being arrested in a car by Chechen Interior Ministry officers," the ministry said, "they rendered armed resistance and were killed in the return fire." The source said the militant was carrying Chechen Interior Ministry identification papers. "The police are investigating the involvement of the two other passengers in the car in various other crimes," the source said.
Mr. Saduyev was known as an active member of Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev's gang, the Ingush police reported. Yunus Shavlayev and Yunadi Vakhayev were the other two men in the car. Three Stechkin pistols, 200 bullets, a PSM pistol with no registration number, and six grenades were taken from the car. The bombing of the Chechen House of Government killed 71 people including 48 government staff members and 23 police officers and soldiers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:29:25 AM ||
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Chechen warlords are trying to get to Western countries via Georgia, official spokesman for the regional counter-terrorist HQ in the North Caucasus, Major-General Ilya Shabalkin told RIA Novosti. "Georgian officials have provided refugees from the Pankisi Gorge with the opportunity of moving to any European countries. According to the returning refugees and some other sources, including detained bandits, warlords are trying to make the most of this circumstance," said Gen. Shabalkin. "To this end, middling warlords try to get to Georgia via Chechnya disguised as refugees. This is the category of bandits who could have accumulated substantial funds by cheating other ordinary members of the illegal armed formations," said Gen. Shabalkin.
Pilfered the widows and orphens explosives fund, took the petty cash and split.
He emphasized that the accumulated sums of money thereby would let militants settle down abroad and lead a wealthy life.
Following in the great tradition of dictators everywhere, they'll head to France.
"They find it quite dangerous to stay and hide in Chechnya. Thereby, they are trying to escape fair retribution and Russian justice," stressed Gen. Shabalkin. He did not rule it out that many of these bandits would form organized illegal communities and gangs in the countries where they intend to move. "According to the returned refugees, Shamil Basayev [a Chechen separatist warlord] has turned to leaders of international radical extremist groups based in Arab countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and some others. He allegedly assured them of his readiness to continue bandit activities in Chechnya and to organize terrorist attacks all across Russia," said Gen. Shabalkin. In his words, Basayev has asked international terrorist organizations to provide additional funds and also to send new groups of foreign mercenaries to Chechnya who would be ready to fight for the so-called Caliphate in the North Caucasus
."Send warriors, guns and money..."
"According to many citizens returning from Pankisi, Basayev's address indicates that bandits in Chechnya are suffering substantial losses not only in terms of money and ordinary militants, but in terms of warlords of the lower and middle rank," said Gen. Shabalkin. He also noted that this was due to the effective efforts of the federal forces and local law-enforcers relying on the support of the local population. Gen. Shabalkin told RIA Novosti that about 300 Chechen refugees had recently returned home from Pankisi, Georgia. In his words, the Russian consulate in Georgia provides all-out assistance in preparing the documents required for their return to Russia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:27:19 AM ||
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Basayev's right-hand man and the leader of a militant group in Chechnya's Nauri district, has been arrested in Chechnya, Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the Regional Operational Headquarters for the Anti-terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus, told RIA Novosti. "Law enforcers have detained a 26-year-old resident of Chechnya who was hiding in the Rubezhnoye village in the Nauri district. He was reportedly an active member of the illegal militant movement and was appointed by Shamil Basayev to lead a gang that was active in the Nauri district," said Mr. Shabalkin.
The arrestee confessed he had undergone a month long blasting and mining course and had been trained by Arab mercenary Abdulhakim, a subordinate to warlord Abu al-Walid, according to Mr Shabalkin. "The arrestee also confessed that he had committed a series of grave crimes along with militants trained in Hattab and Abu al-Walid's camps," said Mr. Shabalkin. In June 2001, for example, the arrestee blasted a railroad section not far from the Mekenskaya station in the Nauri district. In November 2002, he blasted a section of the Terek-Nauri railroad when a freight train was en route. In 2003, the criminal activated an improvised bomb on the Nauri-Terek motorway, blew up a freight train on the Nauri-Nikolayevskaya railroad span, fired a vehicle carrying law enforcers from a grenade launcher on the Nauri-Ishcherskaya road and perpetrated a blast on the Terek-Nikolayevskaya railroad section. In September 2004, the militant shelled a police car, while in November 2004 he made an assassination attempt at the Rubezhnoye village administration chief.
[In other news:]
A militant was killed in a clash in Chechnya's Itum-Kalin district. Two federal servicemen were wounded, according to a Chechen interior ministry source.
Gunmen have kidnapped a police officer and a jobless man in Grozny, a source in the law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti on Monday.
A woman came to a police station yesterday saying unknown men in camouflage uniforms had broken into her home a few hours earlier. They threatened her cousin and an inspector of the Zavodskoi district's interior department with weapons, forced them into their cars and driven them away.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:26:10 AM ||
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#1
Will this asshat lead to Basayev? One can hope that the Russkies use all of their wiles in extracting info. Bagging Basayev, though I don't care a whit about Putty, would be a very satisfying moment. Beslan deserves an annihilation of him and his entire deranged gang.
Two Russian soldiers have been killed and seven others injured in a wave of attacks by separatists in Chechnya that included the capture of two pro-Russian Chechen policemen, military sources said. The two soldiers were killed on Monday in the mountains of southern Chechnya where most of the fighters are based. Similar attacks struck the capital, Grozny, where the pro-Russian policemen were seized, said the military sources. One of the policemen was taken from his home and another grabbed out of his car while he was on patrol on the war-ravaged capital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:18:43 AM ||
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Al Qaida has succeeded in fighting its way into the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia and holding the facility for several hours. Saudi security sources said five Al Qaida operatives, employing a car bomb and grenades, blasted their way into the U.S. consulate in Jedda on Monday and held the facility for about two hours. The sources said Al Qaida insurgents killed at least four Saudi National Guard officers and injured a U.S. staffer before Saudi commandos stormed the consulate and killed most of the attackers. A U.S. official later denied that any Americans were injured.
"I can confirm there has been an attack on the U.S. consulate in Jedda," U.S. embassy spokeswoman Carole Kalin said. At one point, Al Qaida was believed to have held up to 18 hostages inside the U.S. consulate. Within an hour of the attack, about 200 Saudi troops, backed by attack helicopters, surrounded the building and then stormed the consulate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:15:50 AM ||
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#1
what makes me cringe is saudi security forces are responsive and reactive , not pro active . This lets the terrorists set the pattern and pace of events . Now is this deliberate , you tell me ?
#2
Remembering that many members of the Saudi security forces -- including those who guard the royal family -- are either al Qaeda sympathisers or actually on two payrolls, should we think that the security forces merely reacting to events as they happen?
#3
Agreed. What did the terrorists and the Saudis (is there a difference?) do with files and information found while they were in the consulate? Just a vicious black bag job? By whom?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 11:49
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#4
Methinks they loaded the files into a waiting BMW's spacious trunk, its powerful V-12 left idling out back, and, before they could be stopped, was able to make a screeching getaway with AKs blasting away from every window while silk head bands blow in the wind. Large toothy smiles could be seen inside the sleek, leather trimed, sedans interior.
More info from previous story:
A Yemeni sheik facing terrorism-financing charges in Brooklyn explicitly promised to use money raised in the United States to finance Hamas, Al Qaeda and "everybody that we learn is fighting jihad," federal prosecutors said in a court filing made public yesterday. The filing included previously undisclosed excerpts from sealed transcripts of conversations during a sting operation in Germany last year. In secretly recorded meetings in a Frankfurt hotel, the sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, met with an American agent playing the part of a former Black Panther who was eager to contribute $2.5 million to terrorist causes. The sheik said he would pass on money raised in America to "everybody that we learn is fighting jihad to raise God's word," according to the prosecutors. "The way we see it is to support all organizations," including "Hamas, Al Qaeda, prisoners, mujahedeen and such," the prosecutors quoted the sheik as saying.
The comments were among the most damaging attributed to Sheik Moayad by the federal prosecutors in Brooklyn in a case that they have said may be the largest terrorism-financing case in the country. The filing portrayed the sheik, who is now in jail in Brooklyn awaiting trial, as applauding and laughing about deaths caused by a suicide attack in Israel. It also quoted him vowing revenge after his arrest in 2003 by German authorities who were working with American law enforcement officials. "Allah will bring storms to Germany and America," the prosecutors quoted the sheik as saying.
The trial of the sheik and an aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, on charges of supplying material support to terrorist organizations is to begin in United States District Court in Brooklyn on Jan. 10. The lead prosecutor, Kelly Moore, has said the sheik raised money for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups at mosques in Brooklyn and elsewhere. Several of the sheik's comments that were disclosed yesterday came during the meetings in Frankfurt in January 2003 in which a Yemeni informer working with the F.B.I. played a central role. The informer, Mohamed Alanssi, drew wide attention to his role last month when he set himself on fire outside the White House after a tangled dispute with the F.B.I.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:14:33 AM ||
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#1
I have a serious question. Why in the name of all that is holy, do we give vermin the benefit of any trial? They only deserve Total Extermination.
The Saudi branch of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror group used an Islamist web site to claim yesterday's unprecedented attack on the US consulate in the Saudi port of Jeddah, stating that some assailants had managed to flee after the operation. "Your brothers of the squadron of the martyr Abu Annas al-Shami stormed one of the bastions of the American crusaders in the Arabian peninsula, in Jeddah," the statement said. "They were able to withdraw from the consulate and reach a safe place, after losing two martyrs who covered the retreat of the mujahedeen, two of whom were wounded and are being treated," said the statement signed by the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula.
The attackers raided the Red Sea beachfront consulate compound in broad daylight in a hail of bullets and explosions that set off a fire and sent black smoke billowing into the sky. The Saudi interior ministry said in a statement issued early today that five members of a "deviant group" hurled bombs at one of the gates of the US consulate as a vehicle belonging to the mission was driving in. The five men "then managed to get in the area surrounding the consulate and tried to torch one of the buildings, attacking those who were on the site," said the ministry statement, read on state television. Security forces rushed to the scene and besieged the assailants, killing three on the spot and wounding the two others, one of whom later died in hospital, the statement said. "As a result of this criminal action, five people on the scene - a Yemeni, a Sudanese, a Palestinian, a Pakistani and Sri Lankan - were killed," said the interior ministry statement.
US officials said all Americans at the consulate were safe and accounted for, but five non-American employees and contractors were killed. The Saudi interior ministry said eight people were slightly wounded: two Yemenis, two Pakistanis, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, an Indian, and a Sri Lankan. Five security officers were injured, a number of whom were subsequently discharged from hospital.
The five gunmen claimed to be members of an "Al-Fallujah Brigade", in a call to the authorities made shortly after attacking the consulate, Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, said in Washington. US President George W Bush said the raid proved that terrorists were still active and the Saudi government vowed there would be no let up in its fight against Islamic extremists. "The attacks in Saudi Arabia remind us that the terrorists are still on the move," Bush said in Washington. "They want us to leave Saudi Arabia, they want us to leave Iraq, they want us to grow timid and weary."
Initial reports said staff at the consulate had been seized by the attackers before the security forces moved in, but a police officer at the scene later said no one had been held hostage. The police officer at the scene said four Saudi national guardsmen had been killed, and two were seen lying on the ground outside the compound after apparently being hit by bullets. But a Saudi security source denied any had been killed. As US authorities tried to assure the safety of Americans in the rest of the city and Saudi forces sealed off the consulate, the US embassy in Riyadh and consulate in the eastern oil city of Dhahran were closed as "a precautionary measure".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:10:28 AM ||
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#1
I did an RB search on the martyr al-Shami. He was one of Zarq's senior lieutenants and we iced him in Iraq early this fall. Too bad, so sad.
A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to government officials. The cable, sent late last month as the officer ended a yearlong tour, presented a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and security, the officials said. They said its basic conclusions had been echoed in briefings presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently visited Iraq.
The officials described the two assessments as having been "mixed," saying that they did describe Iraq as having made important progress, particularly in terms of its political process, and credited Iraqis with being resilient. But over all, the officials described the station chief's cable in particular as an unvarnished assessment of the difficulties ahead in Iraq. They said it warned that the security situation was likely to get worse, including more violence and sectarian clashes, unless there were marked improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its ability to assert authority and to build the economy.
Together, the appraisals, which follow several other such warnings from officials in Washington and in the field, were much more pessimistic than the public picture being offered by the Bush administration before the elections scheduled for Iraq next month, the officials said. The cable was sent to C.I.A. headquarters after American forces completed what military commanders have described as a significant victory, with the retaking of Falluja, a principal base of the Iraqi insurgency, in mid-November.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:07:17 AM ||
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#1
Well that's it, then. Let's pack up, ship out, and cower under our beds like proper dhimmis.
#2
hmmmm - maybe we need a Grand Jury investigation (like the Wilson/Plame debacle) to find out who leaked this classified gloom and doom fable cable, huh? Somebody should find themselves in jail?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:03
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#3
Do they need volunteers for this Grand Jury? I can think of several Rantburgers that should be on it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:09
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#4
How does something like this get leaked?
It must be highly classified.
#6
Of course this analysis is by the same CIA that concluded the Soviet Union was economically strong and that Saddam had all sorts of WMD. Guess the cable means - we're winning.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 10:29
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#7
This is a perfect time to do a thorough investigation and then FULLY prosecute ANY & ALL associated with this leak. This is perfect for several reasons: (1) the material itself won't be compromised by further release of it (2) it WAS classified and is therefore VERY prosecutable and (3) the President doesn't have to give a damn worry about negative reactions by the Dems!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:54
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#9
The text of assessment/cable stated that things will get worse,unless they improve. That's the kind of brilliant analysis we have come to expect from the CIA.
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/07/2004 12:00
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#10
Looney Left: Iraq is taking too long. Can't you like microwave it or something?
#11
How do I get on the distribution list for the CIA's top secret message traffic? Is it like an email list? If I signed up for it would I get a lot of spam?
Posted by: Matt ||
12/07/2004 12:28
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#12
When "classified cables" are provided to the NYT by CIA station chiefs, it's clear that the CIA is a rogue agency that needs to be purged immediately as a first step toward shutting it down and starting over.
Again, you can't "reform" the CIA. The rot's too deep. It needs replacing, not reform.
#13
Lex is correct. I grew up during a time when the CIA and FBI deserved, or at least so I thought, great respect because they were the premier intelligence agencies on planet Earth. No more. Since 9/11 I learned some hard truths. I no longer have ANY confidence in the abilities of the CIA or FBI to protect my countrymen or family. Scrap 'em and start over.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
12/07/2004 13:05
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#14
William Peterson or Marg Helgenberger should take over the FBI Forensics Lab - the one part it seems is worth saving... -Jerry Bruckheimer
#15
I wonder if this is one of those traceable memos, the kind where they know who leaked by subtleties of wording or details of information? Could this be part of Goss's housecleaning effort? Or have I read too many novels ;-)
#16
With the bats in Langely, anything is posible. Goss might have leaked it to nail the station chief on whom he didn't really have the goods. I'm with Lex.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 13:40
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#17
The fact that we haven't had a single attack in the US since 9/11 makes me respect them. I think they both just need a good house cleaning and better ability to hire and fire.
I don't think it's anything that good management and improved, enforceable standards can't fix. As for these self-righteous Sheurer types - nobody's irreplacable. Time to make that fact painfully clear.
#18
During my time in the Marines I occaisionally handled classified documents. I was careful as hell, and scared of the consequences (to me and others) if I mis-handled one.
NOW, of course, I know that I should have been leaking them to kick-start a book deal! What a dumbass Jarhead I was!!
#19
2b, it's not just a few bad apples. CIA case officers and station chiefs do not "leak" to the media-- it's simply not done. That these senior officials are using the NYT as a mouthpiece for supposedly classified analyses, and publishing tell-all books with their supervisors' permission, and slamming the White House in many other ways, is intolerable.
This is beyond tweaking org charts. It's now a national security issue. The only way to halt this treasonous behavior is to shut it down.
I agree with you, but I doubt that it will occur. I am a strong Bush supporter, but I am AGAINST the intelligence bill that tried to take satellite oversight away from the miltary. I am NOT CONVINCED that today's compromise is in America's best interests. (So, I believe that the President is wrong on that one).
I know of No bureaucrat outside of the military in D.C. that is really trustworthy. On the other hand, some of the armchair general military dinosaurs are the worst of all. So.... we will see.
#22
Another dimension to this memo: the CIA paramilitaries have been described as being ineffectual and there have been suggestions that all paramilitary operations come under DOD control. Those suggestions mesh with the renewed emphasis and skill at Special Ops in DOD, including the new chief of staff of the Army (a special ops guy).
If the Baghdad CIA guy runs 300 people, they're probably not analysts, you know? So is he pushing for more people of his own? Undercutting the rep of the DOD guys for excellent work? Or just avoiding any blame whatsoever for whatever goes wrong?
Posted by: too true ||
12/07/2004 18:13
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#23
I saw the ham-fisted stupidity of the CIA operation in Saigon "close up and personal". It seems the CIA station chief in Baghdad is following the same scenario. We used to hate passing on information to the Saigon office, because we knew it would be all over Saigon before sundown. That place leaked like a seive, there were more bugs (electronic types) than people, and security was lax or non-existent. There was a turf war going on between CIA and the embassy, which didn't help things (same thing may be going on in Baghdad). I have little respect for the cloak-and-dagger boys at CIA. On the other hand, I know quite a few of the imagery people personally, and they rate every bit of respect I can give them. Some of their technical people are also first-rate.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/07/2004 21:19
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#24
The station chiefâs cable has been widely disseminated outside the C.I.A
the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., also reviewed the cable and initially offered no objections
There are embedded reporters throughout Iraq.
So why are common sense observations creating such a flap as being a "leak" of secretive information? Actually the CIA cable seemed to be more critical of the Iraqis than anything else and it doesn't take a spook to figure out the main problem that threatens Iraq's future stability: unless there were marked improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its ability to assert authority and to build the economy.
It's not like this was Geraldo drawing US military strategy in the sand on internationally televised television.
A mysterious group has claimed responsibility for an apparent bomb attack on a Hydro-Quebec tower.
I love a mystery
The message was received in French by news media outlets on Monday. The Initiative de Resistance Internationaliste (IRI) denounced what it describes as the "pillaging" of Quebec's resources by the United States. "An explosive device was placed under a Hydro-Quebec pylon of the Radisson-Nicolet-Des Cantons power line, near the American border. Through this operation, we are making public our refusal to be silent witnesses to the waste and pillaging of our resources at the hands of the United States empire," said the statement, translated from French by CTV's Montreal bureau. "We are also acting against Hydro-Quebec's exploitation to the benefit of private enterprises, which profit from each opportunity that imperialism provides."
Private enterprise + profit = Bad
The group, which sent its communique to al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite TV news network, also dragged Iraq into the equation -- along with Bolivia, Colombia and the Palestinians.
Cuz they're all connected in the struggle of the international proloteriat!
"We refuse to allow all the weight of resistance to fall on the noble Iraqi people, who are being massacred because they were an obstacle to the American energy hegemony, or to the Bolivian peasants courageously mobilizing against the pillage of their gas resources, even risking their lives," the note said.
It's all about the oil, and the water power, apparently.
"We also refuse to let the Colombian and Palestinian people confront the imperial army alone, whether or not it is hidden behind a national banner." It isn't clear when the attack occurred, although a hunter on an all-terrain vehicle discovered damage to a hydro tower Nov. 30.
The IRI said authorities hid news of the attack "from the population during the chief dictator's visit" -- possibly a reference to the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 visit to Canada by U.S. President George W. Bush. If true, one student leader who was involved in anti-Bush protests said the IRI's act of sabotage went too far.
"I think it makes people afraid, and I don't think that was the kind of message we meant to get out when we went to Ottawa," said Tim McSorley of the Canadian Federation of Students.
The incident happened near Coaticook, which is in Quebec's Eastern Townships. A bomb squad was dispatched Friday to the site by the Quebec provincial police.
Test results of materials found near the tower have not been released, so an explosive attack can't be confirmed yet. Police say they've never heard of the group before this. However, they have seized the original letter sent out to some Quebec media outlets to analyze it. They won't confirm if the details in the group's note are accurate.
A Hydro-Quebec spokeswoman said the tower is part of a line that delivers electricity from James Bay to the Boston area, adding that service wasn't disrupted. We are taking that event seriously, and we are increasing security around our strategic installations," said Marie Archambault of Hydro-Quebec.
The ongoing investigation involves the provincial police, Hydro-Quebec and the Canadian counter-terrorism force. Security analyst Michel Juneau-Katsuya said: "This is an act of sabotage, but we're just a step away from terrorism. And for that reason, the United States will be very interested to see how we respond to it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:02:31 AM ||
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So separate, already.
Like most of their ilk, they're all whine, no action (terrorist acts don't count as "action" among civilized people - but of course this is Frogistan-Lite we're talking about, so "civilized" may not enter into the picture).
Geez.
Take a cue from Nike: Just do it.
Or shut up.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/07/2004 10:16
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#2
Or Ledeen, Faster! Please!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:19
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#3
They can't just do it, Barbara. Its like Puerto Rico... every time they take a vote (at vast expense to the national government, of course) it turns out that the peepul prefer the status quo. So what's a poor separatist to do? (This nonsense is why my mother-in-law finally got American citizenship -- apparently the whine has been unchanged for generations)
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld indicated Monday that he expected American troops to withdraw from Iraq within four years, but he cautioned that any final decision hinged on the progress that Iraq's civilian government and security forces made by then. Asked by reporters traveling with him whether United States forces would be out of Iraq by the end of his second four-year term, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I would certainly expect that to be the case and hope that to be the case." He noted that President Bush had repeatedly said American forces would stay as long as needed in Iraq. But his answer offered intriguing clues to his thinking on two crucial subjects: the duration of the American military presence in Iraq and how long he will stay in his job.
If they're gonna be out in four years, that means they won't be needed there in four years (or we'll have decided by then it's a lost cause, I guess...)
The Defense Department announced last week that it would increase the number of American troops in Iraq to 150,000, from 138,000, by early next month, to help provide security for the Iraqi elections on Jan. 30 and to keep pressure on the insurgency. Pentagon officials said the increase was only temporary, through next March. But many American military officers and senior Iraqi ministry officials have forecast that the United States will have to keep a sizable troop presence in Iraq for years to come to battle a resilient and deadly insurgency and to help prevent the country from spiraling into civil war.
Mr. Bush asked Mr. Rumsfeld last week to stay on as defense secretary, a request Mr. Rumsfeld confirmed Monday that he "enthusiastically" accepted. But he said they had not discussed how long he would remain, and he declined to go into the subject. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane on Monday, Mr. Rumsfeld struck an unusually reflective tone and ticked off several points that suggested he would relish the opportunity to serve another four-year term. Ultimately, of course, that decision rests with Mr. Bush. He said he enjoyed working with Mr. Bush, whom he called "an excellent executive," was in good health, had no young children and was eager to tackle of series of continuing professional challenges, from revamping the military's overseas basing arrangements to overhauling the Pentagon's personnel system. He remained defiant in the face of critics who say the United States failed to send enough troops to Iraq initially to handle postwar security and, now, to combat the insurgents.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
2:00:21 AM ||
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One of the dumbest things Rumsfeld has done.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 9:45
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#2
I disagree. He just put Iran, Saudi, Syria on notice that they can forget about us leaving after the elections next month - we've got unfinished business
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:00
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#3
He could have done the same thing by saying "As long as it takes." Any time you give squirrels like this light at the end of the tunnel, they gain a new weapon, patience. He should say we're still in Germany and Korea and we'll stay in Iraq that long if that's how long it takes. This is announcing the abandonment of an ally. As bad as 1975.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:06
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#4
you think the bad guys can maintain status quo for one year, much less four? How would we be abandoning an ally? All it would take is a "revisiting" of security assumptions in a yr or two to change anything he said off the cuff today
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:08
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#5
I think the bad guys are not just al-Q, but Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. So yes, I think they can wait and will. Their current strategy has failed and createing a new one is easier with a date certain for U. S. withdrawal. I agree that all it will take is a "revisiting" but it was still a bad signal to send to the enemy.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:12
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#6
fair enough. I just don't think they have 4 yrs...the landscape will look a lot different in less than a yr or 2, IMNSHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:19
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#7
I agree completely that things are changing, but the Chinese curse. I don't know how long the Iraqis will want us there in what capacity. I wouldn't be surprised if they want us infidels out soon. I also wouldn't be surprised if they concluded it's a rough neighbourhood and it would be a good idea to keep a protector nearby. At come point we have to accept it's their country and we have to go with what they want.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 10:23
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#8
post- election, sign long term basing rights (particularly those nice ones (H1, H3) we're renovating in the western desert) with Allawi
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:28
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#9
Is it not also sending a message that if we stay in perpetuity there, that Iraqis won't have to exert quite as much energy and capital into their democracy themselves? What incentive is there for Iraqis to take responsibility for their country if we do all the tough lifting for years and years?
I agree with you to this extent Mrs D-we should avoid boxing ourselves into a corner with too explicit and rigid language about the departure date.
#10
If you read the net, vice the MSM, the iraqi people know some of the terror and destruction going on in their country is the work of Iran and other neighbors. Once a stable government takes hold in the next four years, don't you think they will want some form of American military force, much like we did in Germany, to keep potential threats from using or threatening to use military force against them. However, it is better for the Iraqi to ask rather than for the American to insist.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 10:36
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#11
I suspect it will be a lot like all American occupations. We'll leave the minute you formally ask us, but you live with the consequences. I wonder if the Phillipines have ever had second thoughts about throwing us out.
Frank, several eastern bases might come in even handier, I hope.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 11:18
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#12
yep
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 11:25
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#13
My question is this: If we stay in Iraq for 4 year, what about Syria and Iran? Are the plans for them scrapped?
Posted by: Charles ||
12/07/2004 11:35
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#14
That's what they'll have to keep asking themselves every morning when they wake up and see a U. S. base across the border. Just that might have an ameliorative effect.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 11:44
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#15
I love Rummy, but... I hope this is some wheels within wheels thing beyond my ken. Sigh.
#18
That's the only beneficial construction I can see, but it could have been done better privately.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 13:00
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#19
I have to disagree here. I think it was brilliant. It tells the ordinary Iraqi that we will be leaving allowing them to want/enjoy our protection while it's here and to plan for the future when we are gone. This will prevent them from getting the Euro-complacency of depending on Americans while at the same time blaming us for being.
Rumsfeld has made clear - enjoy the protection we are offering now - we'll be gone soon and you're on your own.
#20
And I see two groups sighing in relief, with a couple of potential reactions...
The asshats think they'll be around to see it - but reality says that's not likely.
Joe (Yagoub) Iraqi thinks, "Hmmmm. If they're leaving, then mebbe we don't need to march around carrying banners and other stupid shit... mebbe we should get bizzy with this election thingy..."
#21
I suspect that those troops will be on the move within the 4 year window, perchance to Syria, perchance to Iraq, perchance to Saudi, perchance to Turkey...
#22
Iran WILL NOT be allowed to develop or keep Nuclear Weapons. You can draw your own conclusions on that, but I suspect that many Iraqi's will join us in the eventual move on Iran.However, Iraq's participation MAY NOT be a military move. It could EASILY BE the contrast between an Iraqi democracy and Iran's theocratic dictatorship.
As for Secretary Rumsfeld's comment, he is very cagy, so I will wait and see.
#3
So if the election gets too close for a valid recount, or irregularities occur, then it automatically goes to the Kalashnikov Supreme Court, I guess....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 22:51
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#4
ROTF
Posted by: Matt ||
12/07/2004 22:52
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Pope still Catholic, sun to rise in east to-morrow, a pet sheep which was blamed for eating flowers on graves at a cemetery has been cleared of the crime. Colin Peake, Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordinator for Stroud, warned Ms Deburiatte in November that the animal was banned from the cemetery and must also be kept on a lead. He reminded her the sheep was only licensed to live in her back garden and threatened to inform Trading Standards staff and officials at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Why is it I think Colin is bucking for a job at the Ministry of Silly Walks?
After the 32-year-old protested the sheep's innocence observations were mounted on the graveyard.
Alert the SAS! (Sheep Activities Service)
It was not until two deer were spotted in the cemetery eating roses last week that Colin was finally cleared.
Ah hah! Twas Bambi did the dirty deed!
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom ||
12/07/2004
16:21 ||
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NBC reads Rantburg! Well, no, not really.
They are the faces under the masks and the suicide bombers behind the wheel. They are also foreign fighters in Iraq who are willing to give their lives to kill Americans. After their deaths, names and photos of the so-called "martyrs" are sometimes memorialized on militant Web sites. During the past two months, NBC News scoured the Internet, cross-referencing names, tracking down biographical information and, in some cases, making direct contact with family members. All told, NBC News found information on 31 individuals, including:
* One man from a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia
* The reigning Kung Fu champion of Jordan
* A former police officer from Kuwait
* An al-Qaida operative from Turkey
NBC News terror analyst Evan Kohlmann says their backgrounds are diverse some successful, others young and unemployed and in at least three cases, they came from France.
I know. I was surprised too.
"It's unusual, perhaps, but I think its part of a trend, of European-born Muslims, who are going to fight in jihads around the world," says Kohlmann. Though the terrorists came from at least eight countries, all shared one overriding belief that America is waging war on Muslims.
One well-known cleric from Jordan, Omar Yousef Jumah, was killed in September and eulogized in a video posted on the Internet only days ago.
FYI, this guy is the al-Shami dude who inspired the consulate bombing in Jeddah yesterday. From this article, we learn that Jumah alias Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami was Zarqawi's "spiritual adviser." I also note that there seems to be some debate as to whether he was born in Jordan or Palestine. I'd guess Jordan since he was so close to Zarq, and Palestinians generally don't go high up the al-Q org chart. Plus, he wasn't even a suicide bomber; he was killed by an American bomb.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, the cleric's parents say they didn't know he'd even gone to Iraq until they learned of his death. "Omar sacrificed his kids, his wife, his youth to be a martyr," says his mother. "I'm very proud of him." Jumah and his family celebrated the 9/11 attacks. Omar Yousef Jumah's father says they were all "very happy to see victory for the Muslims."
"America has attacked us in our homes, so it is good that America is attacked in its core," echoes Jumah's mother. His parents say Omar was secretive and spent his time teaching Islam. They say he told them he was going to Saudi Arabia last year. In fact, he went to Iraq, where he attracted the attention of Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who called Jumah, "my soulmate in joy" and said of him, "as my shadow never left me he was a true friend." The Zarqawi video also suggests Omar played a role in the beheading of American Nick Berg. Omar's parents say they didn't know he was involved with Zarqawi, just that he died fighting Americans. "We support what Omar did in Iraq because it is a duty," says Jumah's father.
Families of most of the terrorists expressed pride and support. But one Saudi father is furious. He blames radical Saudi clerics for his son's death, complaining the clerics manipulate young Saudis, telling them it is their duty to go to Iraq and fight the infidels. In fact, almost half of the so-called "martyrs" NBC News identified came from Saudi Arabia, as part of a seemingly endless stream of young men educated, and not willing to die for the mere chance to kill Americans.
Sooner or later, we'll have to remove this cancer at it's source. Sooner, please.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
1:57:50 AM ||
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Though the terrorists came from at least eight countries, all shared one overriding belief â that America is waging war on Muslims.
Heh, if the U.S. were to be waging war on Muslims, it wouldn't be in doubt.
In fact, almost half of the so-called "martyrs" NBC News identified came from Saudi Arabia, as part of a seemingly endless stream of young men â educated, and not â willing to die for the mere chance to kill Americans.
Not a problem. If these weak-minded fools want to die, oblige them.
#3
"Omar sacrificed his kids, his wife, his youth to be a martyr," says his mother. "Iâm very proud of him." Jumah and his family celebrated the 9/11 attacks. Omar Yousef Jumahâs father says they were all "very happy to see victory for the Muslims." "America has attacked us in our homes, so it is good that America is attacked in its core," echoes Jumahâs mother.
This is pure unvarnished tribalism at its ugliest. It's this kind of mindset that we must defeat if we are ever to be safe again, anywhere. There are two ways to defeat it: we can change hearts and minds, or we can eliminate those that think this way. We're trying the first approach now. If it doesn't work...
They say he told them he was going to Saudi Arabia last year.
I'm beginning to believe that Syria and Iran can wait. Our next target in the Middle east should be the magick kingdoom and it's death-cult. Nukes would be messy, but quick.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/07/2004 21:28
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, working in Jordan and Iraq to train Iraq's newly established Department of Border Enforcement, have been key players in the arrest of 41 terrorists seeking to join al Qaeda insurgents, CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said yesterday. The terrorists, arrested by CBP border-support teams working with newly trained Iraqi border-enforcement agents, had sought to enter Iraq for what Mr. Bonner called "continuing violence and terrorism" aimed at U.S.-led coalition forces, Iraqi authorities and civilians. Those arrested maintained a weapons route effectively arming the insurgency within Iraq, he said.
"I had a chance to visit our CBP training teams and border-support units to thank and salute them for the dedication they have shown and the sacrifices they have made on a voluntary basis to help rebuild Iraq," Mr. Bonner said in a telephone interview from Amman, Jordan. "They needed to be told how much their efforts are appreciated by the Iraqi people, the governments of both countries and the American public in helping to support U.S. objectives of building strong and effective governmental institutions in Iraq." More than 20 CBP officers in Jordan have trained 1,600 Iraqis since August at the Jordan International Training Academy in Amman — all of whom were assigned to the Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement. Another 500 Iraqis started new training classes this week, and will graduate in January.
"The Iraqis are charged with securing and controlling the border and, like CBP, they are the front line for border and customs enforcement," Mr. Bonner said. "This may be the only other country in the world besides the United States that has aligned all its border agencies into one. "The United States in building effective and credible government institutions in Iraq, and I am glad CBP is playing an important role in that effort," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
1:55:15 AM ||
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"My, what a lovely Syrian accent you have...Hands on top of your head, fingers interlaced. NOW!"
Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, raised the possibility Monday that U.S. forces in Iraq could start to be reshaped as early as next year to reduce the number of combat troops and concentrate on the development of Iraqi security forces.
Abizaid declined in an interview to set a timetable for the shift, saying it would depend on the outcome of national elections in January and evidence that Iraqi forces could assume a greater share of combat operations against the country's entrenched insurgency. Other senior U.S. officers who elaborated on the plan said the change would not necessarily lead initially to an overall decrease in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq but could eventually facilitate a lower troop level.
This outlook comes in the face of a series of brazen attacks by insurgents intent on disrupting the elections and terrorizing Iraq's fledgling security services. The violence, together with a campaign of intimidation aimed at those associated with the new governing structures or with the Americans, has deepened perceptions of insecurity, particularly in areas heavily populated by Sunni Arabs. It also contributed to a Pentagon decision last week to boost the U.S. force to 150,000 troops.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
1:52:41 AM ||
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Operations continue at a blistering pace as the Abazaid PR offensive enters a second week. Which enemy didn't he threaten here?.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 11:07
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#2
and he can do it in Arabic too
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 11:23
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And it is yielding insights into how the insurgents sought to use Arab news media to their advantage.
What insight is that? Al Jazeera is the perfect example, and it's right out in the open.
U.S. troops captured 14 Iraqis, including 10 wanted for making explosive devices to attack coalition forces, the military said Tuesday. The soldiers, from the 1st Infantry Division, detained seven members of a car bomb-making cell Monday evening in As Siniyah, south of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Another seven people, including three suspects wanted for making roadside bombs, were captured during raids conducted later Monday on six houses in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s hometown, 80 miles north of the Iraqi capital. During a search of one house, soldiers found three complete improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs, a weapon which has been used to deadly effect against hundreds of American and Iraqi soldiers since the onset of the war last year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
1:49:34 AM ||
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In order (best to worst):
nurses
grade school teachers
pharmacists
military officers
doctors
cops
clergy
judges
day-care providers
bankers
auto mechanics
local officeholders
nursing home operators
state officeholders
TV reporters
newspaper reporters
NYT reporters drag the average down for newspaper reporters, no doubt.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/07/2004 15:30
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Sixty-three years after the sneak attack that plunged the United States into World War II, hundreds of men who died aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma are finally getting their own special tribute. A new exhibit of photos, artifacts and oral histories was unveiled Monday to honor the 429 men from the Oklahoma who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack. That is the second-highest number of Pearl Harbor casualties behind the USS Arizona, where most of its 1,177 killed crewmen remain entombed after the ship sank in the Japanese attack. The anniversary also will be marked with simultaneous ceremonies Tuesday aboard the Arizona Memorial above that sunken battleship, and on shore at the National Park Service's visitors center. Each ceremony was to feature a silence pause at 7:55 a.m. - the minute the attack started.
``It's about time,'' said Oklahoma survivor George Smith, 80, of Tenino, Wash. While the better-known Arizona has a gleaming white memorial straddling its hull, the Oklahoma has gone largely unrecognized over the years. On Monday, 86-year-old Paul Goodyear, head of the USS Oklahoma Survivors Association, joined four other survivors and about two dozen friends and family for the exhibit's unveiling at the USS Arizona Memorial museum and visitors center. Goodyear, who organizes an annual USS Oklahoma reunion, had lobbied for the exhibit at the Oklahoma state capitol earlier this year. Survivors of the USS Oklahoma are pressing for a permanent memorial. ``There was more than one ship out here, yet nobody knows the Oklahoma,'' Goodyear said Monday. ``I don't think it will come in our lifetime.''
Goodyear said there are 143 survivors left, and Smith is the youngest of them. When it sank, the Oklahoma was anchored off Ford Island on Battleship Row in the middle of the harbor, next to the USS Maryland. The Oklahoma took the brunt of the torpedoes, leaving the Maryland relatively intact. The Oklahoma was refloated in 1943 and sold for scrap after the war, but it sank in the Pacific while being towed to California.
Can't imagine what it was like to be in Oahu that morning.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2004
1:30:55 AM ||
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#1
Ya give one to the Oklahoma, then West Virgina wants one, then Tennesse and the Mary. Maybe 1 great big one.... how deep the Oklahoma sink?
#2
Although the Arizona Memorial is for that ship, why can't we make it for every ship sank that day, and the crews who were on them? I already feel like the vision of the Arizona Memorial honors and symbolizes every man who died serving that day.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/07/2004 12:12
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#3
Ship- Oklahoma's final resting place is somewhere between Hawaii and California. The USN History Center site has some chilling pictures of Oklahoma as she was raised. The old girl really does deserve a memorial of her own - as she went over, Japanese torpedo planes broke off their attacks on other warships to go after her - those were torpedoes that didn't hit other ships. Her loss and the terrifying ordeal the men trapped inside her went through meant that other ships lived.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/07/2004 23:33
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The Netherlands plans to ban all terrorist groups listed on the European Union's blacklist. Active involvement with such groups will be a criminal offence, the Dutch government said on Tuesday. The groups on the blacklist include the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party, now called Kongra-Gel), the Palestinian group Hamas, the Islamicist organisation Al-Takfir, the Muslim Al-Aqsa Nederland foundation, and the Marxist New Peoples Army (NPA) of the Philippines. Other foreign groups can also be declared by a court to be operating in breach of public order, the government said. The new measures are part of a legislative proposal unveiled by Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Interior Minister Johan Remkes. The proposals will be submitted to the Dutch Parliament for consideration, the website regering.nl said.
Under present regulations, the Dutch government can only freeze the bank accounts of organisations named on the EU list or recognised terrorist groups. In future, these groups will no longer be allowed to operate in the Netherlands and will not be able to recruit members or appoint leaders. The Cabinet's proposal states that inclusion on the EU's list is sufficient reason to ban an organisation in the Netherlands. Organisations are only placed on the EU list if all 25-member states agree. The EU is advised by the United Nations over which groups to place on the terror list. Some of these groups have links with the terror network al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan, news agency Novum reported. A ban does not necessarily mean the group will be disbanded, but continued work in the name of the organisation will become a criminal offence. Conviction will carry a sentence of 12 months jail. Members have nothing to fear if they are not active in the group.
The legislative proposal would allow give Dutch authorities the power to take action against foreign groups that are not listed on the EU terror list, but who carry out illegal activities in the Netherlands. Before the activities of these groups can be ended, public prosecutor (OM) will have to apply to a civil court judge for a ruling that the organisation has operated in breach of public order. Once such an order is granted, people who continue to work on behalf of the organisation will face 12 months in jail.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
12:47:28 PM ||
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The Netherlands plans to ban all terrorist groups listed on the European Union's blacklist.
Turkey must be barred from joining the European Union due to its "culture" and Muslims in Germany have to make far bigger efforts to integrate, Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber told opposition conservatives on Tuesday. "An out-of-Europe nation like Turkey with its different history and diffent cultural traditions will not fit into Europe," said Stoiber in a speech to a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party congress. Stoiber, who was narrowly defeated by Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Germany's 2002 general election, said he backed a rejectionist stance to Turkish EU membership outlined by CDU chief Angela on Monday. Highlighting of Turkey by both leaders indicates the CDU/CSU sees a "nein" to Ankara's EU membership as a sure vote winner in the next election in 2006 in which Merkel expected to be Schroeder's challenger.
Stoiber said Turkey and the 25 EU member states were divided by a host of issues including economy, geography and finances but "above all by cultural differences". Taking in Turkey would reduce the EU to a mere free trade zone and put too much strain on the Union's joint institutions, said Stoiber. EU leaders are due to decide on whether to begin membership negotiations with Turkey at a 16 to 17 December summit in Brussels. Even if a green light is given, accession talks are expected to last up to 15 years.
With breaks for lunch.
Stoiber also had blunt words for the estimated 3.4 million Moslems living in Germany of whom ethnic Turks comprise about 2.5 million. "Our nation demands from immigrants the will to integrate," he said, adding that the chief problem today was a lack of will by the second and third generation born in German to do this. Those living in Germany have to learn the language, accept German values and send their children to German schools, he said. There was no space in Germany for "preachers of hate" or the oppression of women, Stoiber said. "To those who do not want to accept this, all we can say is 'you picked the wrong country'," he said to applause.
Works for me.
Stoiber insisted German patriotism was not aimed at foreigners but rather at getting all those who lived in the country to accept Germany's rule of law and democracy. On other issues, Stoiber slammed Schroeder for Germany's weak economy and said the CDU/CSU needed to take power in 2006 to push through big state spending cuts and other reforms to cut unemployment which is over 10 percent and rising. He also called for scrapping a Schroeder government ban on nuclear power stations under which all such plants - currently producing 30 percent of German electricity - will be phased out in the next two decades.
TGA, how is this playing in Germany?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
12:42:59 PM ||
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Turkey must be barred from joining the European Union due to its "culture" and Muslims in Germany have to make far bigger efforts to integrate, Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber told opposition conservatives on Tuesday.
#6
Many of the Turks in Germany are second and even third generation. They don't speak Turkish, and they resent their reality as second class citizens. Its the alQaeda types who come for the free university and space to plot to establish the Caliphate who are more of a concern.
#7
Trainling wife, I agree completely! In any culture (and obviously including our own) those who choose to participate and assimilate are not the problem. And assimilation doesn't have to include any loss of the original culture...just a willingness to work within the new one, including language and laws.
The Turks have been staunch allies for some time. But blocking us access to Northern Iraq at the start of the invasion is still troubling.
#8
I'd have a little more sympathy for these f'ers had they seen a little clearer two years ago. They's goin to be more and more Europeen eyes opened as time goes by. These curvy knifed folks don't assimilate well.
#9
Hank don't you think in the interests of full disclosure you should mention that you are in direct competition with these fellas in the Home Heating Industry?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:11
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#11
I did attend the congress. And yes I agree.
Nobody will force Turks to eat bratwurst. The key problem is the language. Children only speak Turkish at home and with their friends. Many Turks can't read three sentences of German fluently at High School.
This is not xenophobia, this is common sense. We can't allow imams trained in Saudi Arabia flown into Germany teaching Muslim kids to hate kufr Germany. We don't want parts of our cities to become extraterritorial like some Parisian banlieu slum.
Quite a few Turks agree with that assessment btw.
House Republicans yesterday called for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign in light of the oil-for-food scandal and threatened to withhold funding from the United Nations unless it fully cooperates with investigators. "The oil-for-food program is a scandal of enormous proportions, and it may reach into the highest levels of leadership at the U.N.," said Rep. Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who introduced a resolution yesterday calling for Mr. Annan to resign. "I don't think we'll get all the facts as long as Mr. Annan is remaining at the helm," Mr. Wicker said. Nineteen Republicans and one Democrat — Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi — had signed the resolution, as of late yesterday.
snip
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004
12:42:32 PM ||
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A fungal disease of soybeans first reported in Japan in 1902 has spread across the planet and devastated crop yields. The fungus — called soybean rust — reached Africa in 1996 and arrived in South America five years later. In China and other parts of Asia, the disease has reduced soybean yields by up to 80 per cent, and it cost Brazilian farmers US$2 billion last year. In September, hurricanes carried spores of the fungus on to North America.
A severe shortage of tofu will likely result in a drop in the Moonbat population, perhaps making them an endangered species.
I blame Bush, if he'd only signed The Protocols of Kyoto....
It has to be Bush. I understand Volvo production's down, too...
#1
Soy is a prime component in many foods, one way or another. Cool Whip, for example. All Hershey sweet chocolate products contain soy. Another soy derivitive is the mono-diglyceride used for emulsion. 60% of processed foods in the US probably contain soy or a soy byproduct.
#2
I hate to say it, because of all the soybean farmers who are obviously going to be devastated by this, but I don't think I'll miss textured soy. It has been introduced in so many products that it boggles. Yet, with 100% confidence, I can say that I don't eat anything in which it serves a beneficial role. For me it's just taste-reducing filler.
Regardless, this is a huge global opportunity for bio / genetic engineers to prove their worth to the idiots - and I hope they're up to the task for the millions who depend upon this crop.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/07/2004 13:59
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#6
Yeah, I just checked my soybean datasets, and unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be any indications of a production dip in the areas I cover. Other than one dealership in the southeast Delta, everybody's having their best year in at least six years. Maybe that one dealership is the fall-point, but I can't tell - I don't have any history for him.
Hey, there's an upside to this fungus landing with the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. Those Delta agribusinesses use obscene amounts of fungicide and dual-purpose pesticides which can double as fungicides. They'll barely notice the additional chemical burden down there - the productive fieldland down there is like the Somme in the immediate postwar era. Gassed sterile.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/07/2004 14:10
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#17
Looks like I was wrong about the fungus getting a toehold on the continental US. I was just talking to a field rep from just-west-of-east Texas, who says that some soybean farmers in southern Louisiana got hammered by the rot. Our only customers in that end of the state are all cotton or sugarcane growers, so it's not showing in my numbers.
A soybean rot like this is especially nasty - you can lose in excess of 80% of your crop in a few days if you don't hose it down with fungicides, four applications' worth, and quick-like. Soybeans aren't a very profit-dense crop - their main selling point is their low chemical and fertilizer footprint - which makes the necessary treatments particularly painful, fiscally speaking.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/07/2004 19:36
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#18
Yipes... most of Illinois (the red parts, dontcha know) is covered with soybean fields. I always knew I was getting close to U of I when I could smell the roasters in Gibson City. Hopefully this won't spell the beginning of the end.
#20
4 bucks a pound at em grocry store by my house.>:(
What can I say, Mucky? That is truly pricey. You may want to switch a grocery store or move from your location beyond polar circle a bit more south.
You can grow your own, too, even on a balcony, let alone if you have a strip of a backyard at your house. That way you eat them for free the whole summer and most of the fall.
I'm presuming their recruitment of foreign jihadis continues apace...
The number of foreign workers recruited by Saudi companies dropped by 38 percent in the last three months to 98,531 from 160,493 during the same period last year, according to Dr. Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, deputy labor minister for planning and development. The drop was 68.71 percent in the recruitment of production workers and 15.86 percent in service personnel.
More native Saudis going to work? More expats getting the heck out? I'm assuming the "production workers" means oil industry types...does this mean they're drilling less, or is the Saud economy in a downslide? Should we even trust or care about these stats?
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/07/2004
12:29:57 AM ||
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#1
Saudi's are the laziest bums. They won't work as a grocery clerk because it's insulting, they let the foreigners do it, even though they have very high unemployement.
#3
Some fraction of this is probably part of Saudization, but I would guess most is not - and the work goes wanting. That doesn't mean they aren't hiring Saudis, heh, I said the work goes wanting.
The word I'm getting is a steady withdrawal of expats. Particularly everyone is sending their families back, with the men then hanging on as long as they dare or need, according to their plans. The Jeddah Consulate attack yesterday will prove that nothing is over and that no one is safe - at least outside Aramco's Dhahran Camp, which is undoubtedly better defended than any consulate. So the contractors who have to live outside will definitely continue to dwindle. The Aramcons inside the Camp will prolly become prisoners - and fall out as their finances allow.
Just a guess, but I suspect that Aramco is beginning to feel the effects of the intelligent Westerners withdrawing. There are, of course, Aramcon Employees who are financial slaves and even Stockholm-ish morons (recall Paul Johnson) who'll try to stick it out, but really - those people aren't the ones who make Aramco work. The Western Aramcon population has steadily dropped over the last decade or so - cuz the Saudis wanted the slots and to live in houses in "Little America". The real expertise bubble today is the contractors - and they're not renewing - they're leaving.
#4
What's to stop technically competent Chinese, Indians, Turks, or even Iranians from replacing Westerners? I ask because I think is a massive shift underway in who will be the sponsors and protectors of the oil rich Persian gulf.
Posted by: ed ||
12/07/2004 1:56
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#5
Most foreign workers will be unskilled low skilled construction worker and maid types. What interesting here is a sharp reduction in the workers who do the grunge work. I'll assume if you can't get a Saudi to man a grocery checkout, you sure as hell won't get them to clean toilets or repair roads in 50 degree heat.
Tie this news in with yesterday's news that the increased oil revenues are not going into the banking system and yesterday's article's conclusion that the money is going into economic development (in SA) is clearly false (or otherwise more workers would be coming in).
So where is all that money going? Anyone else smell rats preparing to leave a sinking ship.
#6
They'll hire them, no doubt, and these people will try to fill the holes, no doubt. And it won't be enough for several reasons - all of which sound arrogant, so I'd rather not elaborate much. You have no difficulty admiring the work of the US Military and seeing in them the best of the best. You think US expat contractors aren't similarly kick-ass - relative to anyone on the planet? Lol! We are.
#7
It does indeed sound arrogant, .com, but no less true. In part because Americans bring their work ethic with them: when we were in Germany my husband was threatened with sanctions for going to the office on weekends (the girls were still babies, and home was not a good work environment), and for not taking his entire 8 weeks of vacation each year. The other part is that our culture teaches thinking beyond the defined requirements of the job, which can be a multiplying factor for the abilities of others (it can also drive them crazy, as they feel their turf is being trod upon, but that's another story).
#9
not only for arrogant reasons I suspect. Much of the non-hellhole third world has its own very considerable needs for technical expertise for development, resource production, etc. I cant imagine say China, with its huge infrastructure plans having many engineers to spare, and i suspect they absorb a good share of Japanese contractors as well. The only 3rd world country that has traditionally had lots of good university graduates to spare has been India, and even there the growth of the economy may finally be catching up to the excess numbers of University graduates.
#10
trailing wife and .com,
You are both absolutely right! My husband had an opportunity to work on a major project there and he was accused of thinking too much.
"....There are, of course, Aramcon Employees who are financial slaves and even Stockholm-ish morons (recall Paul Johnson) who'll try to stick it out, but really - those people aren't the ones who make Aramco work."
The above is a very sad statement but very true. There exists a number of westerners who, for the money, have compromised their professional ethics. They do not realized that once they come back to the real world, they are deemed unemployable because they have forgotten how to earn an honest day pay.
#11
Lol! I was a Type A who thought 60+ hrs was a normal week, heh. You folks will recognize this "complaint": "Slow down! You're making people look bad."
You can imagine the form of some of my replies - since I'm such a sensitive and diplomatic type - after I stopped laughing in their faces, that is, heh. I didn't want to learn how to coast along - I knew I wouldn't be there in LalaLand forever - and that's a bad habit if you know you're coming back to The World. I could say much much more...
One little allegory (proving how arrogant I am, in case Lh doesn't yet have indigestion over this, this, unseemly American honesty): anybody can crank out cookies if given the cutter and dough. But somebody has to design new cutters, new processes, new methods - and those people, in my 30 yrs as a no-shit keyboard-swinging programmer, don't grow on trees - and university degrees have nothing to do with it. It's a way of thinking which does not include conformity - it's individualistic, it's risk-taking, it's arrogance to go your own way, it's to fear failure less than you value success, and it's in-your-face when necessary because you often have to fight your own management to do anything useful. Hell, most of those wimps were mediocre techies who realized they couldn't keep up and started pandering and brown-nosing for a management position. Cheesedicks. Note, also, that the adventure-seekers commonly have most of these other traits - part of a "type", if you will. Think about it. Just for fun, now, tell me where you can find those traits bundled with fundamental technical skills and we'll agree on where the kick-ass people come from. Big Hint: it isn't phreakin' China. F**kin' Duh.
#12
Good point, LH. Then, too, in China at least the engineers belong to the State, as do all employees, and thus cannot choose to work abroad simply because the pay is [much!] better. As for India, the U.S. has long been the destination of choice for India's excess technical people -- the wives aren't treated like servants just because of their skin colour. (True story: American-born Indian friends of mine were sent for three years to the Phillipines, where both the locals and the expats treated her like crap. It took her the better part of 18 months to find friends who accepted her as American. She was very happy to come back home, poor dear.)
Spot on, Desert Blondie. Did your brother get the concerned speeches (not entirely untrue) about the need to find a better work/life balance?
#13
I had similar experiences when I was stationed in Germany in 1988. We had a big flap the Friday before New Year's. I'd let all my people go at 2:30 because things were unbelievably slow. Got a priority call at 4:10 for work that HAD to be done by Sunday, and delivered to three commands. By 6:00 I had a full crew working. We worked around the clock and met the deadline by 2 hours. We had to deliver one copy of the materials to Mons, to NATO headquarters. There was no one on duty that could accept it until Tuesday morning. By then, things had already been taken care of and the crisis resolved. Americans think and work differently than Europeans, and the Europeans are better than some Asians, most Africans and all the folks in the Middle East about working.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/07/2004 14:39
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#14
I think its the pioneer mindset, OP: if I don't get it done correctly and on time, people will die -- no option to wait until later, or until the authorities take care of it. Oh yes, and its just me out here, so I'd better get moving.
#15
Getting back to the thread, however, the work that is not getting done is setting the table for future exploration and expansion that will be needed in the years to come. Saudis appear to be the only ones with "excess capacity" that can be relyed on as a makket carrot or stick. Without developing new capacity, our interests are threatened when the market tightens and no one can be pressured to extract more.
More prices to be paid in a stagnant capacity market is nothing to take comfort in.
#16
.com: âtell me where you can find those traits bundled with fundamental technical skills and we'll agree on where the kick-ass people come from. Big Hint: it isn't phreakin' China.â
China values conformity over individualism and tradition over innovation. However China is rapidly changing. Take the Chinese out of the old Chinese culture and they can be very creative and productive. E.g., Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US. I follow scientific developments closely. Most science papers today have at least one Asian co-author.
trailing wife: âThen, too, in China at least the engineers belong to the State, as do all employeesâ
This is no longer true. State industry is closing down and laying off workers. Those workers have to find new jobs on their own. Unlike the US and Europe, there are few state support systems for those without work.
I donât believe it is difficult for Chinese to leave China today. (Iâve met many students from China who are studying in the US.) It may be difficult for Chinese to go to other countries because those countries impose visa and immigration restrictions.
#17
Finding other foreigners to replace the Western expat is not the problem for the Magic Kingdom. It's finding Saudis who will accept working with 3rd world-looking people. An ethnic Chinese from Malaysia who replaced a Westerner just wouldn't fit in the eyes of most Saudi tea sippers. Some time soon the boys will be sitting around an office massaging their gums with sawak sticks and rueing the day when the "khawaja" meester Beel and meester Jeemes left to go back home.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/07/2004 16:39
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#19
trailing wife, actually, no.....mainly because he's single, could drink them under the table, and took off each weekend to go exploring in the Central European heartland. His company paid for the rental car and the gas. Plus a per diem. Lucky little bast*rd! ;)
#20
OP: Americans think and work differently than Europeans, and the Europeans are better than some Asians, most Africans and all the folks in the Middle East about working.
Chinese work hours in the (private sector) textile, toy and electronics industries are as follows: 8 am to 7 pm, with a 1.5 hour lunch break in between. Most of East Asia work really long hours, and work half-days on Saturdays. No comparison with the US, let alone with Europe.
trailing wife: Then, too, in China at least the engineers belong to the State, as do all employees, and thus cannot choose to work abroad simply because the pay is [much!] better.
Actually, they wish they belonged to the state. China is trying to export as many college graduates as it can to ease the unemployment problem among new graduates. China's job market is laissez faire with the exception that connected folks (public or private sector) get the good jobs.
trailing wife: True story: American-born Indian friends of mine were sent for three years to the Phillipines, where both the locals and the expats treated her like crap. It took her the better part of 18 months to find friends who accepted her as American. She was very happy to come back home, poor dear.
True story - foreign-born Indian American friends of mine have been stationed in East Asia and been treated like any other American.
" 'Cos our moose limb population ain't, y'know, pious enough!"
The Thai government is financing for the first time the pilgrimage of 350 citizens. They are part of 10,100 Thai pilgrims who will perform Haj this year, according to Thai Consul General Sukasem Yothasamutr. "The total number this time marks an increase of 3,100 over last year," he told Arab News during a reception he hosted to mark his country's National Day on Sunday. The first group of 420 Thai pilgrims will fly in on Dec. 13. Phuket Airline, Thai Airways and Royal Brunei Airline are transporting 95 percent of the pilgrims. The rest will come by other carriers.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/07/2004
12:18:53 AM ||
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#1
Phuket? That's an airline I would definitely pick if I were a moose-limb. I recommend it wholeheartedly. Hope they would be Phuked (or is it Phuketed?) well.
#2
why don't they send them in origami planes--run by feelgood airlines--a division of appeasement r'us industries of bangacock
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/07/2004 2:07
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#3
This is just stupid. There are people in need of clean drinking water, medical care and facilities, decent housing, etc. -- and they're gonna fly a handful Mulims to the hajj? Though the final price tag isn't given, Toxin should pull the plug on this boon-doggle.
#6
BTW, Phuket Air is rather new - and so is its fleet. Compare to some domestic carriers in the US, heh. I've flown ON Phuket TO and FROM Phuket several times. I'd worry far more about United and American... If I'd known how you'd get off on the name, I'd have brought you back a t-shirt, heh.
Posted by: Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood ||
12/07/2004 6:51
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#8
always makes me chuckle that the two most popular destinations for westerners is phuket and bangkok , but then again my humour can be fairly limited and self explanitory :P
Oh and pres tell how they are pronounced for the sake of me being stoopid .
#12
What a capital idea! Let's send a few hundred members of our already agitating Muslim population to visit the seat of radical Islamism for weeks of intensive training as jihadis. Then we'll bring 'em back home and gape in astonishment as even more unrest occurs.
This is just a sophisticated, nuanced call for appeasement.
India on Monday urged Nepal to invite insurgent Maoists for peace talks ahead of a visit by head of state King Gyandendra expected later this month and suggested "aggressive" border patrols to cut rebel supply lines. "They have a programme which, I have to admit, has some very progressive elements and I do not think there should be any difficulty in the establishment accepting them," Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said of the Maoists in New Delhi.
"Cutting off heads is a little extreme, yes, but many other parts of their program are very, ah, progressive!"
"And they have to be convinced that they cannot win an armed struggle and that their bargaining power would diminish if they continued with their agitation for long," Saran told a seminar on Nepal, which adjoins India. Saran said Kathmandu will have to offer assurances in a bid to appease a bunch of Maoists win the confidence of the rebels.
Or, you could just kill them.
"Certain assurances such as a level-playing field have to be given to them and some parts of their programme accepted to convince the Maoists to come to the political mainstream and participate in elections," he said. Nepalese political parties and the monarchy, between whom there was a "lack of trust and confidence" seemed to be thinking that by striking deals with the Maoists, they could marginalise the other side, he said. "The Maoists have been playing off one institution against the other to advance their own interests," Saran said. "The Maoists are seeing a fractured polity in Nepal. The political parties, in their rivalry, do not seem to understand that the need now is to rise above their differences to ensure that the multi-party system survives," he said.
And by giving the Maoists power, you'll guarantee the survival of a multi-party system, right?
The foreign secretary called for "aggressive and proactive" border patrolling by Nepalese security forces and said India will have to match the exercise on its side of the frontier "so that pressure is mounted on Maoists to return to peace talks." "The Maoist insurgency in Nepal poses a challenge to both countries as it is not limited to geographic boundaries but has linkages to similar movements in (Indian states of) Bihar and Andhra Pradesh," Saran said. Saran also said India believed the monarchy had a constructive role to play in Nepal, which is sandwiched between India and China. "But it is necessary that the monarchy look upon its interests as convergent with the interests of the political parties," he added.
Less talk, fix the problems in the country, and rub out the Maoists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2004
1:19:39 AM ||
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On Tuesday Napal invited India to negotiate with Kashmir separatist.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 10:49
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#2
If the Nepalese don't kill the Mao terrorists, there goes the tourist business.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 11:44
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#3
From some stories I've read, the Mao terrorists have become a tourist attraction. They'll stop a tourist party, accept a "donation", pose for pictures with them, maybe steal some gear or food, and let them go their way. Seems like they know a cash cow when they see one.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004 12:09
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#4
"I was accosted by an armed band of Maoists, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt stolen off my back!"
An US army deserter has begun making his case for political refugee status so he can stay in Canada. Jeremy Hinzman, 25, is the first of three US deserters to appear before a refugee and immigration board in the city of Toronto, seeking asylum. The paratrooper served in Afghanistan but left the US for Canada after his unit was ordered into Iraq last year. Mr Hinzman, who took his wife and son with him to Toronto, says he believes the US-led war in Iraq is illegal. He said: "If you're given an illegal or immoral order, it's your duty and obligation to refuse it. I felt the order to Iraq went under that."
Mr Hinzman's mouthpiece lawyer is presenting what he says is evidence of US war crimes in Iraq at the hearing. And a left-wing lobby group of nutters campaigning on Mr Hinzman's behalf argues that he was merely obeying international law by refusing to fight in Iraq because the United Nations never authorised the use of force there. But immigration experts point out that Mr Hinzman voluntarily signed up to join the US army in January 2001, knowing that it might involve service overseas.
Oh yeah, there is that.
No American citizen has ever made a successful refugee claim in Canada, although it is thought the prisoner abuse scandals in Iraq may help his case. If Mr Hinzman loses his bid to win asylum in Canada, he faces deportation to the US and up to five years in prison for desertion.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/07/2004
1:17:51 AM ||
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#1
Revoke his citzenship. Then he can truly claim asylum.
Posted by: ed ||
12/07/2004 1:26
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#2
Given recent Kanadian political moonbattery, they'll prolly accept one soon - to "Show the Evil American Beast" they're not afraid. Yawn.
Time to check on the progress of that Northern Friendship Fence, again?
#3
I hope gets his fill of sex with his wife and hugs his son, because when it's over, he won't like where his sex or his hugs will be coming from. He's a coward plain and simple. His life is no more important than all the men and women currently serving honorably in hotspots around the world.
After his jail time, they should revoke his citizenship.
#8
It's not the 60s, it's not a draft Army. Its an all volunteer force. He signed the contract, he took the money. However, then there is that recent opening in N.Korea for an American deserter to backfill. The Canadians can make it an exchange to show their humanitarian side by saving some real refugees.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 10:16
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#9
The paratrooper served in Afghanistan
So he served in Afghanistan but refused to serve in Iraq? There's so many different angles on that it hurts my head thinking about it.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/07/2004 12:08
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I'm sure all those goofballs who threatened to move to Canada after the election are watching this closely.
Coastguards rushed to save a parachutist who ditched in the sea only to find they were rescuing an Action Man toy.
Passers-by raised the alarm after seeing a silhouetted figure hit the water off Hastings, East Sussex, at around 3.40pm. The Hastings lifeboat was launched, and began a hunt more than a quarter mile out at sea. However, when the coastguard crew finally tracked down the parachutist it turned out to be the popular plastic hero toy. A spokesman said: "We located Action Man just after teatime. It looks like a kid tied him to some helium balloons and set him loose. He must have gone up pretty high, because it came down from above the clouds, and appeared very much like a man in a parachute crash-landing. Now we just have to find the kid who is missing his favourite toy," the spokesman added.
The United States will sooner or later rejoin the Kyoto Protocol, even though the Bush administration still shuns the United Nations' global warming pact, French Ecology Minister Serge Lepeltier said Tuesday. Lepeltier, speaking on France-Inter radio, said that the Protocol, due to take effect February 16, would become an irresistible force. "I am convinced that we are going to bring the United States into Kyoto, even if it doesn't want to," he said.
"At least, that's what I told M. Chirac."
Lepeltier suggested the US federal government would be caught in a "vice". It would be pressured on one side by US firms doing business in Europe and on the other by US states, such as California, which are starting to take individual action on climate change, he predicted.
And next, the thinly veiled threat:
"American corporations which have operations in Europe ... are going to have to meet the rules which we set in place to uphold Kyoto, at least on (European) soil," Lepeltier said.
Or they might just decide to move somewhere else
"It may not happen today and it may not happen tomorrow, but the United States will inevitably have to develop these technologies because they do not want to lag, which would be a major risk for their companies."
It's not the technology they're worried about...
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/07/2004
11:52:34 AM ||
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#1
How is California going to take action on Kyoto, when they import so much power from out of state?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/07/2004 12:18
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#2
[span class=BugsBunny]
"He don't know me very well, do he?"
[/span]
Posted by: Mike ||
12/07/2004 12:19
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#3
"I am convinced that we are going to bring the United States into Kyoto, even if it doesn't want to," he said.
Not before 2008, at the earliest. And what's more, there's another hurdle to have to overcome, called the U.S. Senate..
#5
as long as China, India et al are exempt, there's no chance we'll voluntarily kill our economy to appease these assholes. The whole deal in CA is over CO emissions from cars...2008 or 2010 (not sure..) model cars will have even stricter emissions controls
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 12:25
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#6
Does anybody know where this guy Lepeltier gets his drugs?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 12:36
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I believe his Ogalala brother Lawrence (?) Lepeltier supplies him with peyote from South Dakota
#8
Please, tell me it's ScrappleFace! Did he say "rejoin the Kyoto Protocol"? What doesn't he understand about a 95-0 Senate vote? And why would a U.S. firm spending money it doesn't want to spend in Europe then lobby to spend even more on the home front? How very French.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/07/2004 12:51
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#9
Famous last words: ".... we are going to bring the United States... even if it doesn't want to,"
Reminds me of a certain british king in the 18th century who thought he could tax us, even if we did not want to be.
#10
Famous last words: ".... we are going to bring the United States... even if it doesn't want to,"
Reminds me of a certain british king in the 18th century who thought he could tax us, even if we did not want to be.
#14
Perhaps by 2008 Phrawnche will be mandatory in California Schools so that you can read your car's owner's manual. Of course, you'll need Spanish so you can talk to the help. So the CTA will drop English from the curriculum..oh, they already have?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 13:37
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GC Reminds me of a certain british king in the 18th century who thought he could tax us, even if we did not want to be.
#16
It may not happen today and it may not happen tomorrow, but the United States will inevitably have to develop these technologies because they do not want to lag...
Hey, Frenchie, how many inches to a foot? how many feet to a mile? BTW, Thomas Jefferson formally proposed adapting the metric back in his administration. We're still waiting.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 13:44
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#17
yeah, the US is lagging the French in technology, huh? How much French software do you see? How's that French Carrier?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 14:02
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#18
Don, you ignorant fool, it's not "metric" anymore -- it's "SI" (le "Systeme International"). Of course this stupid American computer system makes it too complicated to put a proper accent mark above the first "e" in "Systeme". And you will embrace Kyoto once you abandon your ignorant, foolish ways. And you will lust for Ta-rayza. And there will be portraits of Chirac on every wall. And your wife will wear the veil, though not in public. And your children will memorize the Koran. Slap me, someone! -- I need to awaken from this nightmare!
Posted by: Tom ||
12/07/2004 14:07
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#21
lol - bet it's an arrogant little bastard, too!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 14:26
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#22
Duel fuel cars are selling in the U.S. faster than they are being built. Each year new houses are increasingly more energy efficient, as are household appliances (furnaces & air conditioners, hot water heaters, clothes washers & dryers, dishwashers). People are increasingly replacing high energy incandescent lightbulbs with low energy compact fluorescents, and extremely low energy bulbs should be coming on the market soon. Xeriscaping and gardening with native plants are all the fashion, reducing water and chemical usage. For that matter, how many fleece sweaters/vests/jackets do you own, which are made from recycled plastic bottles? Do you use recycled paper for your computer printer? Does your community provide curb-side recyling of glass/paper/plastic?
Even as Americans have more stuff, the pollution they are putting into the environment, and the energy they are taking out, are not increasing commensurately. (No, I do not have sources. This is a summary of all I've read on the subject over the past few years. But I have no doubt there are Rantburgers who can quote us relevent statistics.) Even those eeeevil factories have discovered that first cut increases in energy efficiency and decreases in their pollution load lead to major cost savings. Even simple reductions in package weight and introducing compact forms of current products, eg "ultra" laundry detergents, result in major reductions in shipping costs due to fewer trucks needed (decreased manpower, equipment and gasoline!).
I suspect the U.S. is doing about as well against Kyoto requirements as is France, without onerous government intervention. Indeed, as I recall, Kyoto signatory countries have made no progress against stated goals, and have even slipped from where they were when Kyoto was written. I would love to hear Bush, or someone at the cabinet level (maybe the new Sec.State?) make a major policy speech detailing U.S. progress on pollution/energy use/recycling, especially with regard to Kyoto goals, and detailing comparisons with various E.U. countries. And, mentioning in passing that when Clinton submitted Kyoto to Congress, as required by the Constitution, it was rejected 95:5.
Sorry for the rant, all, but I pay attention to Green issues, and this has bothered me for a long time.
#23
When the Froggies get tough with China and India about emission standards, when they decide to get rid of their obscene agricultural subsidies, and when they decide that bribery is not part of international business, then we might listen to their proposals. Until then, it's easier to take North Korea seriously than France. Right now the French are just pissant wannabes.
The US will continue making environmental progress. The US will not let Europe choke the US economy using the anti-US Kyoto treaty. New, environmentally friendly technology will be introduced as economically feasible.
Threats against US companies operating in Europe will increase the cost of doing business in Europe so US companies will invest less money in Europe.
#27
Lepeltier lives in a fantasy world more elaborate than do the Arabs. Two can play the game of industrial base destruction. Put high tariffs on French pharmaceutical companies, unless all research and manufacturing is done in the US. Place mind numbing red tape on any leading edge goods they produce. Put several hundered percent tariffs on very high profit margin goods such as French cosmetics and high fashion. We can go far and have fun at this game.
Posted by: ed ||
12/07/2004 16:36
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#28
We are poluting less and enjoying it more all without Kyoto so why do we need it? Our anti-polution laws are even tougher in many respects than Europe. So Mr Phrog you lose again it seems.
#29
I was going to wait a few more days before posting this, but something unusual is happening in the southern oceans. The graphic shows temperature anomalies - differences from long term averages. The extensive cold areas in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans have only developed over the last 4 or 5 weeks and I have no idea what this means. It doesn't seem to be related to el nino/la nina.
#31
Lepeltier suggested the US federal government would be caught in a "vice". It would be pressured on one side by US firms doing business in Europe and on the other by US states, such as California, which are starting to take individual action on climate change, he predicted.I hate to say it but he's right. Once all US firms doing business in Europe comply with Kyoto there is no longer any thing required to comply so the US might sign at that point.
#32
Once all US firms doing business in Europe comply with Kyoto there is no longer any thing required to comply so the US might sign at that point.
RJ? *shakes head* San Diego boy? Any firm which absorbs Kyoto req'ts due to EU req'ts will be a failing company - they will have no influence in the US.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 18:34
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#33
Okay, explain it to me...
My former employer is a U.S. company. It has manufacturing plants in about 20 countries. I can see the Kyoto cost in a plant in Europe, but how would that affect a plant in the U.S.?
Posted by: Tom ||
12/07/2004 20:02
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#34
Anyone who thinks individual companies will comply with Kyoto (whatever that means since Kyoto says nothing about companies) is living in a fantasy land. All governments can do is tax energy or send energy intensive industries off shore which will be the main effect of Kyoto. So contrary to what the article says, European companies will send economic activities offshore including to the USA. That is, the economic effect of Kyoto will be the exact opposite of what the article says. I note that unemployment is rising in Kyoto signatories and falling in non-signatories.
#35
Kyoto now has carbon trading which the US invented and wanted in the first place. The US is on the way to Kyoto standards anyway so as rjschwarz wrote, in a few years it may be worth signing. Also, other countries have signed, but they may not actually comply. I'm from Canada, we signed, but no one has forced me to replace my pickup with one of those little hybrids. Our gov't will just continue to make the right noises without actually doing anything, and I doubt we will be the only country doing the same thing.
#36
Guys, wait a minute.....wasn't there something in Kyoto that violated the US Constitution? I can't remember what it was.
Anyway, 95 votes against and none for.....not even from Sen Kennedy and the other left wing environment guys......plus even Clinton was against it.....but the Frogs think they're going to cram it down our throats?
#37
Hope Froggy Boy enjoys sending his hard earned tax money to Russia and Pooty Poot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 23:18
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#38
Yet another veiled attempt at re-distribution of wealth. Kyoto has nothing to do with environment, otherwise China and India would not be exempt. This is nothing more than guilt money being exacted by the UN so Third World thugs and dictators can line their pockets and buy weapons to subjugate their subjects.
Under Kyoto industrialized nations do not reduce pollution, they just buy credits from under-industrialized Third World nations.
If GWB weakens on this protocol and decides to be Santa Claus yet again with the UN, we're through economically. China and India are laughing to the bank.
Indian and Pakistani officials were due to hold talks on Tuesday on opening a bus route between the divided zones of Kashmir after the prime ministers of the nuclear rivals pledged to carry forward peace talks. "If the two countries succeed in opening the bus service, the buses will be exploding on a regular basis peace process will move ahead at a good pace," said leading Kashmiri journalist Tahir Mohiudin.
I don't think I'd want to be on the first bus. Or the second.
"If the talks fail, the chances of the process moving forward would recede drastically," warned Mohiudin, who this week returned from a tour of Pakistan and the zone of Kashmir under its control. The bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad has been a long-pending demand of families divided on both sides of the volatile de facto border also called the Line of Control (LoC). The bus service was stopped soon after a short war between India and Pakistan in 1947. But since January this year, when a peace process ended over two years of tension, the countries have been discussing the possibility of restarting the service if travel document issues can be resolved. Pakistan is opposed to residents in its area of Kashmir travelling on passports and visas, according to Mohiudin. They fear it would amount to accepting the LoC as the permanent border.
Though creating all those passports would stimulate the local counterfeiting industry.
Perhaps they could agree that everyone should travel using false documents, or documents vetted by Dan Rather. Problem solved!
Though Kashmir is split between the two rivals, both claim it in full. Any recognition the LoC as the international border would be tantamount to both sides accepting the final division of Kashmir. Islamabad wants some other arrangement like local police or civil administration on both sides issuing travel permits. Kashmiri separatists opposed to Indian rule are also not in favour of passports for travellers. Hardline leader Syed Ali Geelani, based in Indian-controlled Kashmir, is emphatically opposed to the service. "It will be detrimental to sanity and common sense our freedom struggle," said Geelani. The bus service is aimed at bringing together families that have been cut off from each other for decades during which they have relied solely on letter writing. The other option is spending days in New Delhi to get a visa and then travel to Wagah -- the only land crossing between India and Pakistan -- and then to Pakistani city of Lahore, from where they travel to the Pakistani zone of Kashmir.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2004
1:14:29 AM ||
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#1
the bus route commonly know as 'turkey shoot' will become operational minus IED around 2012 .
I visited Kashmir once b4 it became a shit hole , and I must say its one of the most beautiful places in the world . They make nice wooly jumpers to wear too :)
A French hunter who killed one of the 18 bears surviving in the Pyrenees mountains on the Spanish border intends to fight criminal charges claiming he fired in self-defence, his lawyer said Tuesday. Rene Marqueze, 62, was placed under formal criminal investigation Tuesday for destroying a member of an endangered species, the lawyer, Thierry Sagardoytho, said. Marqueze killed a 15-year-old female bear called Cannelle (or 'Cinnamon' in French) on November 1 while out on a boar-hunt in the Aspe Valley. The bear, which the hunter said he happened upon as she was with her cub on a cliff-edge, was just one of three indigenous bears left in the Pyrenees.
Stumbled onto a mother bear with a cub on the edge of a cliff, sounds like one of those classic "Outdoor Life" covers.
Their number has been boosted by the introduction of about 15 bears brought in from the Balkans. The two remaining indigenous bears are both males. "I didn't want to kill it. It was just as I was running away that it launched itself after me," Marqueze told a local newspaper. He said the bear "roared and jumped forward with incredible speed, like a horse in full gallop. I turned, I fired at its side. I had no choice. It was the bear or me."
"She's charging, Ned! Shoot her!"
Marqueze added the anger of environmentalists over the incident was misplaced. "I'd like to see what all those who have called me a murderer would have done in my place."
They'd have followed that great French tradition of running like hell.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
11:40:34 AM ||
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#1
The two remaining indigenous bears are both males.
#3
I would agree it was self-defense. After all,any bear has a decided intellectual edge over any Frenchman ;)
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/07/2004 12:11
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#4
Bears--why do they eat us?
Posted by: Mike ||
12/07/2004 12:16
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#5
a bear charges you and you shoot it in the side...nice trick
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 12:22
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#6
In the spirit of Anglo-Gallic reconcillation I move that we air drop 48 pairs of silver backs into said mountainous area. Think how much more fun the Pyranees Stages would be in the next TDF.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 12:56
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#10
What on earth was he doing hunting in the range of a highly endangered species? Do we allow such things on this side of the pond? I know the fine for killing a member of an endangered (or even merely threatened) species is set extremely high, por encouragement les autres (my apologies for the bad spelling. I took a two month language course at the public library when I was seven, and had only got as far as Flemish in the one year we lived in Brussels).
#13
If this were in the states, 45 lawsuits would have already been filed on behalf of the cubs. This Frog would be working for the bears for the rest of his natural life.
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 18:52
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#15
Feme La Bush! Au Voir** Andre`a.
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 18:53
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#16
Marqueze added the anger of environmentalists over the incident was misplaced. "I'd like to see what all those who have called me a murderer would have done in my place."
MUSCAT — Minister of Education Yahya bin Saud Al Sualimi opened a four-day forum on 'teaching and learning of mathematics and its applications in the economy and administration' here on Sunday.
"Hey! Stop that! That ain't Islamic!"
Under-secretary for General Education and Syllabuses at the ministry Muna bint Salim Al Jaradaniya, in a speech, said she hoped the forum would lead to "new ideas on mathematics teaching and learning techniques and syllabuses for the benefit of teachers and supervisors of the subject in schools."
"WHA-T-T-T-T? A WOMAN! Stop that right now or by Allan I'll get my gun!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2004
1:12:01 AM ||
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Now,
Mahmud and Yahya repeat slowly after me :
1+1=2
2+2=4
4+4=8
8+8= ??
#4
Al Jazeerah incites 5,000 volunteers to join the jihad, and Al Arabiya incites 2,000, and the BBC incites 300. If 70% go to Iraq, 25% to Afghanistan, and 5% to other places, how many will return home in five years or less?
#5
Achmed moves to Europe and is given $1 million dollars in cash to influence western opinion. He pays out $400,000 to politicians, invests $250,000 in a publishing company, and uses $200,000 to fund a special bonus program for BBC and Reuters employees.
How much can he then pocket after buying off 500 British professors?
A. Nothing, he'll need more.
B. $150,000, they work for free
C. $3,000,000 they pay him for the privelege.
#6
That's bad, AC. I'd already started doing the arithmatic in my head when I got to the last sentence, and I laughed so hard I completely lost my place. Which is just as well, since I was clearly well on my way to the wrong answer.
#7
There are 15 men in Mohammed-Phillippe's jihad cell when US forces attack Fallujah. 3 are killed by snipers as they move up to their assigned positions. 1 blows himself trying to rig a booby-trap. The remainder split into two equal groups. One group is wiped out when a JDAM hits the chicken coop they are hiding in. Two others are killed when a tank shell hits their minaret. One is knifed in the back by an irate civilian who gives away their position. How many have survived the battle?
A: One, the guy who shot Mohammed-Phillippe and surrendered.
#8
Ability in mathematics is not ethnically dependant. It does seem to be more prevalent in young people, however. Older folks rarely make math discoveries.
EFL: Some 300,000 Baha'is live in Iran, where their religion was founded in the mid-19th century. Iran is also where Baha'is have long faced harassment and persecution for their beliefs. "Baha'is have no rights in the Islamic republic, even rights that other recognized [religious] minorities enjoy in Iran," said Abdolkarim Lahiji, vice president of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues. "For example, a Baha'i teenage cannot enter Iran's universities; either he would have to lie and say that he is not a Baha'i, or else be deprived of the right to higher education. The Baha'i community of Iran had organized computer-based correspondence classes for youth, the authorities have repeatedly disrupted these [classes] and confiscated teaching materials and generally they have made life for the Baha'i minority difficult." Diane Alai is the United Nations representative of the Baha'i International Community. "For 20 years, Baha'is have been imprisoned, condemned to death," Alai said. "Their properties have been confiscated. People have been expelled from their jobs. Elderly people are not receiving their pensions. Baha'i properties have been confiscated. Baha'i holy places have been demolished, cemeteries desecrated."
The Baha'i faith was founded by Mirza Hussein Ali Nuri, known as "Bahaullah" -- Arabic for "the Glory of God." The unity of all religions, the unity of humanity, and the equality of men and women are among the main teachings of Bahaullah.
Men and women as equals? We can't have that now, can we?
Some Muslims consider Baha'is to be heretics. Many see theological conflicts with Islam as the main motive for the persecution of Baha'is. Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad is "the end of prophesy." The Baha'i faith, founded several centuries after Islam, states that divine revelation will continue.
"People are free to choose their way, and the Holy Koran has clearly stated: 'There is no compulsion in the religion,'" said Abbas Mohajerani, a professor of Islamic theology and philosophy in London. "The Baha'is or any other sect are free to take the direction they want, but when it comes to the principles of a religion and law you have to bear in mind that Islam explicitly says that Muhammad is the last prophet sent by God and whoever does not believe it is not a Muslim."
"And must be killed!"
Baha'is believe that God has revealed himself to humanity through a series of divine messengers. The messengers have included Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad. According to the Baha'i faith, Bahaullah is the latest of these messengers. The Baha'i faith has about 5 million followers in more than 200 countries and territories throughout the world.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
11:17:56 AM ||
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I can't be sure if Victor Hugo was involved but don't be fooled by the Bahais. In many respects, Bahais are a kinder gentler version of islam but under the surface they have some pretty strong cult like tendencies.
The least known aspect of Bahai faith not often mentioned but an extremely important tenent of the faith is that all bahai energies are to be directed to establishing one world government and one world state religion and one official language. Property is to be equally distributed once this one world state is established.
Theres much more thats disturbing about these folks, but they tend to be harmless otherwise and most certainly shouldn't be treated as badly as they are in Iran.
#3
You're thinking of Hoa Hao, in Vietnam, an offshoot of the Cao Dai sect. Huynh Phu So, the founder of Hoa Hao, was locked up in a French nuthouse, and got out by converting the warden. Or that's what they told me...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2004 14:03
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Hmmmmmm..... sounds like a reasonable faith.
No pagodas or statues should be built besides the existing ones. Instead, let us reserve our money to come to the assistance of the poor and the needy, a really beneficial act unlike building a large pagoda or casting tall statues.
Let us not require the services of sorcerers, magicians, astrologers, and fortune tellers. Let us not offer food as offerings to Buddha because Buddha would never accept such bribery.
Let us not use flags, banners or streamers. Let us not burn votive paper because this is a futile waste...
Let us not cry or conduct expensive funerals; instead let us pray quietly for the deliverance of the deceasedâs soul.
Let us not compel our children to marry the one they do not like. Let us not demand large financial gifts from the bridegroom or organize big wedding parties, because this will result in impoverishing ourselves.
An exhibit featuring a film about US President George W. Bush's home town in Texas won the Turner Prize, pipping a digital recreation of Osama bin Laden's house. Jeremy Deller, 38, a British artist was announced the winner ahead of three shortlisted rivals at the Tate Britain gallery in central London and awarded a cheque for 25,000 pounds. "Memory Bucket", documenting his travels last year through the US state of Texas, features various encounters with locals, including a survivor of the Waco siege, and takes a look around Bush's favourite burger bar near his ranch. Deller's unnarrated film concludes with the image of millions of bats emerging from a cave at sunset and blackening the sky.
That's it? No secret plan to steal the oil, no oppressing the poor, no dead baby ducks? What the hell has happened to the Turner Prize that they've suck this low? And where the hell did I put my video camera?
Accepting the 20th annual Turner Prize award, Deller thanked "everyone who recycles, those who look after wildlife and bats, and the Quaker movement". He thanked the teacher who did not allow him to take an art examination in his school days, saying: "It's probably a good thing. If I had taken it, I probably wouldn't be here so it was a good decision." He said his work was "about Bush but it's not anti-Bush." "I'm surprised and shocked," he said. "It hasn't really sunk in to be honest... you don't make things like this to win prizes, you do it to satisfy yourself. This is ultimately a personal thing about what I'm interested in." His creation was seen as a comparatively tame for an award which is known for attracting controversy.
I know I'm shocked, there's not one cross in a vat of urine
Previous winners of the prize, awarded to a British artist under the age of 50, include Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, and, last year, transvestite potter Grayson Perry.
My personnel favorite
Others on the 2004 shortlist included the duo Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, who recreated an interactive digital model of bin Laden's former house in Afghanistan. Yinka Shonibare, who was born in London and grew up in Nigeria, and Turkish-born Kutlug Ataman were the other final competitors for the prize. Deller, the youngest of those shortlisted, was previously best known for works such as "Acid Brass", in which a brass band played contemporary dance music, and a meticulous recreation, using actors, of a battle between striking coal miners and police in the 1980s.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
11:05:47 AM ||
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How can this be??? A reward for honest reporting. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of such a thing before. I feel so confused. There must hidden, subliminal text within the document to brainwash us.
Bless their pea-pickin' little hearts. They still don't get it.
The scholar, UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive sciences George Lakoff, is a hot item in liberal circles these days as he argues Democrats must develop a message that resonates more deeply with voters..."It's all about words and craftsmanship," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, of Lakoff's advice. "He shows us that we ought to take the Republicans' words and show why they don't work, why they just aren't so."
It's not the Republican words, perfesser, it's their ideas.
Lakoff says that over the past three decades conservatives have built a powerful message machine in Washington and the Democrats are long overdue to match it. "It's very elaborate, very clever," he said of the GOP effort, which helped the Republicans win a majority in the House a decade ago.
Bwahahahaha.
Lakoff describes how well-financed think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute churn out ideas and go out of their way to make experts available for print and broadcast reporters, talk show hosts and op-ed pages. Then Republican officeholders and candidates stick to the party's message and effectively use the same words to drive home their message...The result, Lakoff says, is that Democrats and liberals often find themselves on the periphery of the public policy debate...Although Tuesday will mark the first time Lakoff has appeared before Democrats as a group, on Capitol Hill, he has already found a receptive audience. Among them is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco...
Just go read the article. Many of the new Dem talking points will be coming from this guy's book.
#1
Ah, Lakoff and his voodoo... He won't be singing "I've got my mojo workin'", anytime soon.
The al-qubos believe that Potemkin villages are more real than reality itself. The common sense dictates that if you are in a hole, you should stop digging.
#4
The Dhimmidonks aren't on the periphery of public policy, Professor Moonbat, try Pluto. Words, ideas, policies and all. No wonder Madame Moonbat is on-board.
Perhaps this clown is the jester-in-waiting behind Chomsky. With statements like this: "The Republicans are so good at sticking to their talking points and not getting into minutiae, while Democrats always want to have a detailed debate." it's clear he wasn't watching the same election season the rest of us were. It's bizarre. Dhimmidonks must all come from Backasswards - a small M-class planet in the Moonbat System where everything is inverted. It must intersect with the Sol System at Pluto.
#5
Utterly clueless. If the Dems want to get serious about a message and a platform and an organization that can win in this century, they need to build a party that's strong in the high-growth new economy sunbelt states: FL, CO-NM-AZ-NV, NC-VA-TN, TX. Forget Berkeley, think Tampa and Nashville and Colorado Springs and Phoenix and Vegas. And focus on hispanics + yuppies + active and former military families without college degrees.
#7
Jeez louise, can the Dummycrats get any more fargin' stupid?? Peter Beinart of the New Republic wrote a long essay in this week's edition which lays out, chapter and verse, why the Dums are screwing the pooch by clinging to the McGovern/Carter/Moore mindset on national security and foreign policy.
Between taking advice from a Berserkely leftist assnugget professor and the apparent real possibility that Screamin' Howie Dean might become the next DNC chairman, Beinart and like-minded thinking liberals (Michael Totten and our own Liberalhawk are others in this category) are just shouting into the wind. While the idea of the Copperhead Dems being treated to semipermanent exile from the Presidency and Congressional-majority status definitely has its appeal, I'm not into the idea of our country turning into a de facto one-party state. No matter how good they are, any political party needs a vigorous opposition to keep 'em honest.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
12/07/2004 0:47
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#9
Beinart and like-minded thinking liberals (Michael Totten and our own Liberalhawk are others in this category) are just shouting into the wind
Not really. The party's elites, from Lieberman and Biden to Holbrooke and the New Republic editors like Beinart and Marty Peretz, are still solidly hawkish and sensible on foreign policy.
And I will contend again that it was Kerry's utter idiocy on same ("terrorism is a nuisance, like prostitution...") that caused at least 1.5-2 million Democrats like myself to desert him for Bush. Lieberman could have retained these votes and carried Florida and Ohio without losing any states in the Northeast or West Coast. So it's not at all clear that the Dems are no longer nationally-competitive; they simply need to purge the MikeyBoy and MoveOn idiots from their ranks, as Truman Dems did to Wallaceite leftists back in the late 1940s.
This will be much easier to do if the party shifts its geographic and demographic focus to ordinary, working-class folk who are pro-military and skeptical of Republican economic elitism. Hispanics are a natural and obvious target, as are middle-income families in high-growth western states. Win them over, purge the Kos idiots, and you've got a leg up on the Republicans for 2008.
#10
So it's not at all clear that the Dems are no longer nationally-competitive; they simply need to purge the MikeyBoy and MoveOn idiots from their ranks, ...
Um, I gently suggest that you are contradicting yourself. Until they purge the MoveOn idiots, they won't be competitive nationally.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2004 1:09
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#11
Not so. My point is that the MoveOn jokers are freaks who glommed onto the party and began f*cking up its processes after 2000. What we've seen since the 2000 election is a bizarre aberration, and I'm expecting the party to return to normal DLC centrist territory in 2006 just as Truman steered the party away from flirting with communists in the late 1940s.
Note the difference between Gore's policies and behavior up until late Oct 2000 and thereafter: he had always been a solid centrist with a strong record of hawkishness and sensibly pro-Israel, pro-defense positions. Only after he decided to shift into conspiracy-mongering MoveOn mode did he depart from the standard DLC positions adhered to by the party's elite since 1992.
#12
Sobiesky, "vigorous but loyal" should go without saying. Unfortunately, with the current crop of Quislingcrats...well, you know... ;-)
Lex, you're right about the elites (Biden, Lieberman, etc.) being "hawkish and sensible". Unfortunately, the party's hard base is pathologically isolationist. George Will and others have described liberal Dem isolatonism as being a reversed image of old-style Republican isolationism.
Many pre-WW2 Republicans believed "America is too good for the world"; the Chomskyite leftist base of today's Dems believe "the world is too good for America" and its irredeemable evils. They won't admit it (well, not publicly, anyway...), but they want America either destroyed outright, or at least hobbled and driven from the world stage.
Given the fact that the media's totally in thrall to this faction, the Beinarts, Liebermans and Holbrookes (and you, too, Liberalhawk) have one hell of a fight in front of them. I don't know if they can win this one.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
12/07/2004 1:22
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#13
Get aboard the "B" Ark II! Hurry! The mutant star goat is back again - and he looks hungry!
#14
Though the media does lionize the far left candidates, the bigger factor is the concentration of campaign contributions in the Dem party. I believe the top 10 Dem contributors in the last pres race gave about $100 million. What do you think is the % of total contributions by the top 100 or 1000 Dems? Mega contributors like the Progessive Insurance honcho and Soros give the receiving candidate (especially in the primaries) instant credibility, staff, and ad money. They in effect steer the Dem party to the far left candidates. If the max amount that one can give in a political season were limited to $100-1000, which is affordable for the middle class, then these mega rich far left voices would fade into the background, and a more sane candidate can thrive in the primary by the force of ideas.
Posted by: ed ||
12/07/2004 1:50
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#15
The Prof has a point although its hardly fiendishly clever and its tied in with one of those things that the media dare not mention, which is the Republicans are the party of people who work at real jobs. For them developing a plan, assigning roles and executing the plan are not novel ideas, businesses do this every day. To the Left, most of whom who have never held a real job in their entire life, working as a team to execute a plan is a foreign concept.
#16
My point is that the MoveOn jokers are freaks who glommed onto the party and began f*cking up its processes after 2000
I disagree, lex. The party may have *talked* a good game, but look at their actions. Think, for instance, about Clinton, who ran on a centrist position and then immediately did two deeply divisive things: let Hillary convene a secret healthcare nationalization planning group and pushed acceptance of gays on the military.
Clueless. many of us who voted for him learned our lesson back in 92-94 and won't be fooled again.
Posted by: too true ||
12/07/2004 8:07
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#17
I think a number of TV comics were hoping that Teresa would be the 1st lady.
But it turns out that Democrat comeback deep think can actually give Teresa a comedic run for its money. The Berkeley prof's suggestions for the Dems included language points. My favorite was that they would change 'trial attorneys' to 'public protection advocates'.
For me, it wasn't socialized healthcare or gays in the military that turned me against him-it was the ways he thought he, in the public eye as a president of the US, could treat women--ok to humiliate his wife in public with his affair and subsequent perjury about it, and ok to treat Monica as a disposable human urinal. That tells me volumes about the man and his Faustian wife and their unsuitability for the presidential office.
#19
I, as a Republican, find this strategy unique and clearly GENIUS. Ms. Pelosi, I fearfully bow to your clever "message" and await a Dem President and Congress in 2006 or 2008 or...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:06
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#20
Sobiesky said:
common sense dictates that if you are in a hole, you should stop digging.
To you and me it does, but to DemocRats, "common" sense dictates that if you are in a hole, you need to call for a backhoe so you can dig faster and deeper.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/07/2004 10:37
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#21
It's not a hole- it's an ooportunity!
Posted by: Terry McAuliffe ||
12/07/2004 10:40
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#22
Of course they don't get it. It has only been five weeks since the election and they are still psychologically spent. They're looking for an simple explanation that saves face and doesn't require much effort. The Berkeley professor has found an audience in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco -- perfect. Now all they need is for Michael Moore to bless the union and Kansas will rise up in an Orange Revolution.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/07/2004 12:41
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#24
To me, this symbolizes, in a nutshell, the difference between the liberals and conservatives. Conservatives want actions, liberals want words.
That's why they like the UN and "peace birds" and songs like Imagine. All you have to do to make them happy is to tell them that you have a new idea that will fix everything. It's a perfect, cure, new and improved....the only reason it hasn't worked yet is because not everyone's on board - but as soon as they can get the unenlightened to see the light...all will be ok.
Conservatives want actions and results. Future promises of "new and improved tonics for baldness" are disbelieved until proven true.
#29
SPeaking of the target high-growth southwestern states, here's the Republican Colorado Senate Leader lamenting the Dems' recent triumphs in nearly every election except the presidential one:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/006osifb.asp
Again, there are millions of Dems who split their tickets this year and voted for Bush-Cheney. There was and is no national realignment toward the Republicans, only a pathetically screwed up Dem presidential nominating process and party dividions re the war. Fix those and you ahve a nationally competitive party again.
#32
This is not just PEST. The Dems were on a big lazy turn to the Left after the Clinton presidency and they turned some more after the 2000 election. But it was after the 2002 Congressional elections that they braced for the G's and made a 90 degree turn at speed to the Left.
It was Pelosi that said they had lost all those Congressional seats because they hadn't attacked the President enough!
Um, no. It's because that's all you did without providing any semblance of an alternative, you stupid little rabid poodle.
And now, they've apparently hit the nitrous. They really and truly believe that there are more nutjob moonbats out there in places like Berkeley and NYC than there are people in the 'fly-over' states. They believe their problem in not the message, but the delivery. Thus they feel they can make statements like calling the large numbers of people who voted for Bush retarded, incestuous, gun-totin' maniacs.
Every time I see Pelosi, all bug-eyed and frothing at the mouth, I mentally scream, "Put her down before she reaches the livestock!"
#33
The Democratic left; Gore, John F'in', Screamin' Dean, and their Chomskyite authoritarian fellow-travellers; are products of the institutional media and the power of the fully evolved 1960s media culture.
Reality-based leaders like Biden, Lieberman, and Charles Stenholm, on the other hand, adhere to a tradition that predates the rise of the current media culture; an event that many observers date to the 1960 campaign and the election of Hollywood's candidate, John F. Kennedy.
The power of the institutional media is fading now, and its ideological allies will inevitably fade with it. The Renaissance of the Democratic Party will occur only if the party's 40 year alliance with Big Media and its devil-spawn, the pop-culture left, can be broken.
#35
I find it fascinating that a party that calls itself Democrat can hold the people of this country in such utter contempt. They no longer deserve the name.
#36
Lex. Your static analysis is absolutely correct about this single data point. But if you look at the trend line, it ain't good for the donks and each election it gets worse. The danger for the Dems is holding on to your logic one election too long. Maybe the next one. If Bush manages to pick up congressional seats in all four elections, it may be a first.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 16:59
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#37
The pending divorce between the Democratic Party and the MSM/pop-left will not be amicable. In classic co-dependent fashion, one of the leading abusers has recognized reality long enough to at least issue a denial: Moore denies he hurt Kerryâs campaign
Moore's solution, in the usual manner of co-dependent enablers, is even greater dependency in the form of MORE media-cult control over the Dems.
#38
There should be more than two parties in the US. The Dems are lost because they know their own party is a house divided. Split it up and may the party with the best ideas, from among several parties, win-the rest can duke out third fourth and fifth places in the mezzanine.
#39
Mrs D, there are three crucial domestic challenges which neither party is addressing or showing any signs of wanting to address them:
1) the health insurance catastrophe, which is driving Ford and GM (aka "HMOs on wheels" acc to Wall Street analysts) ever closer to bankruptcy and will in due course bankrupt the rest of us;
2) the immigration catastrophe, which pro-business Repubs have no desire to try to fix;
3) the weakening dollar + federal deficit mess, which is due mainly to Americans' inability to save but also due to Bush's spending binge. This along with entitlement spending is now threatening a nasty downward spiral of foreign capital withdrawals, higher interest rates, slower growth, a weakened dollar and more Treasury withdrawals etc.
The Republicans have shown zero interest in addressing these deep, fundamental challenges to our prosperity and strength. We need a serious, loyal opposition that will push hard to move these issues to the top of the agenda and propose intelligent solutions. Perhaps the Dems are incapable of providing such opposition; I don't know. But I do know that our situation is very precarious, and Bush / Rove aren't getting the job done.
I myself would prefer to see Lieberman and Giuliani and Schwarzenegger types split off from both parties and create a sensible, hawkish, centrist party that would instantly be competitive across the west, incl California, and probably Florida and Texas and the upper South as well.
hmmm...I kinda have to agree with Michael Moore on his point that Kerry was a bad candidate and that without the Hollywood, MSM help, he would have done even worse. Face it, this election hinged on only 600,000 votes in Ohio. Had the Dems run a candidate that was even remotely qualified, the MSM and hollywood popculture edge would have made the difference.
But that being said, I see one other thing differently. I think, that with the rise of the alternative media, the current Democratic party is as dead as the UN. It will hang around for awhile, but "the party" is far too clueless and self-perpetuating to survive. It's like Bob Jones University...too out of touch...but still enough followers that they see no need to change.
I think we will see either the rise of an independent party or the splitting of the Republican party into Shwarznegger Repub's v/s the Trent Lott Repubs.
The reason I say that is because the Democratic party doesn't have any new ideas to replace the ones that already failed back in 60's and 70's. It's like the product Draino; they keep packaging it "new and improved" and people keep retrying it cause of the advertising hooking each new sucker born every minute. Everyone uses it at least twice because it's easier and cheaper than calling a plumber. But eventually everyone finally gets a clue that it never works and never will, no matter how "new and improved" it gets.
#45
Lex, I agree the phrase courageous politician is an oxymoronism.
Health insurance catastrophy. I believe the Republicans did quite a bit to rectify this problem. The process to transfer responsibility from the employer to the individual has begun. We will see more and more steps taken that hew to this theme. I am very impressed with the way Bush has handled this one.
Immigration catastrophe. I semi agree on this one. Better define what you mean by catastrophe and we might converge. This problem is diofferent in California than in Texas than in New York than as a national secuirty issue. Which catastrophe is yours?
The weakening dollar and the government deficit are two mutually exclusinve things. I agree that Bush could have done a better job with the dollar, but he wouldn't solve it, unless you want to erect trade barriers or court a recession. Likewise, the profligate spending will go on until the loyal opposition raises some flags. There is nothing a politician, regardless of party, likes to do more than to spend other people's money on his friends and supporters. The Republicans have done that. However, they have also kept a recession from sprialing out of control and fought two wars. So it's not as bad as it could be.
Finally, you did not raise, or believe Bush has resolved, the Social Secuirty crisis. Like health care, Bush has started to tackle this one by moving responsibility and control to the individual and away from the nanny state. I think this is good, though I think boomers will still end their days mostly in poverty. But at least he is trying here.
He's got a year to finish his domestic initiatives. It will be interesting to see where he decides to spend his political capital.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 19:11
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#46
He said today, in regards to the intel bill just passed and Sensenbrenner's concerns, that the immigration issue will be first on the runway after the Christmas break.
#47
Health insurance is another Titanic in the making, and indiv responsibility for coverage isn't going to save us. I myself favor making insur mandatory, like auto insur, and changing coverage terms to make it focused mainly on catastrphic illness. Also increase rewards for wellness, increase co-pays for routine care and cut down on botox, acid reflux etc nonsense.
As to immigration, I'm speaking mainly of illegals. I see no major problem with large numbers of legal immigrants and would like to eliminate all immigration curbs (exc security-related ones) for anyone with an advanced science or technical degree.
Re the dollar and the deficit, they're intimately related so long as our national savings rate is low. High deficits mean high dependence on foreign capital means high vulnerability to a change in those foreign investors' perception of the risk-reward calculation for US Treasuries. It used to be that European debt was relatively unattractive to US debt, which helped convince Asian central banks to hang on to Treasuries. No more. Try reading what bond guru Bill Gross of PIMCO has to say on this. It's very, very scary, and coming at us a lot faster than you think.
Re Soc sec'y, I salute Bush's courage in trying to revise it root and branch. Would that he'd do the same with Langley.
#48
Lex - I'd like to see the current hoops retained on citizenship, and the scrutiny for long-term visas raised. Illegals should be shipped out forthwith and the gates closed. They bear no loyalty to this country, just the income we can provide. A pressure-relief valve for corrupt Mexico is all we are
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 19:39
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#49
Lex, you underestimate the importance of individual responsibility explicitly, but given your comment that you want to focus on catastrophic illness indicates that you get that too much health care is waste on "patients" who think it's free or feel they have to get even with the insurance company because they haven't filed enough claims. I think HSA's and personal portable health insurance directly address these probelms better than any other solution I've heard.
On immigrations, Bush has proposed a solution of the worker cards for Mexicans that is to him and his money supporters a precondition for cracking down on illegals.
The national saviangs rate is a third issue has little to do directly with government deficits or the value of the dollar. However, Bush's tax reform proposal should address stimulating savings and reducing consumption. Bush should also get credit for eliminating the double taxation on dividends, a move that should stimulate real investing instead of capital gains speculation.
Five years ago it was surpluses as far as they eye can see. Now it's deficits as far as the eye can see. My conclusion is that analysts make more money the more extreme their forecasts, but ultimately the eye can't see very far.
The more we write, the more impressed I am with what Bush has managed to accomplish while fighting two wars.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 19:39
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#50
I salute Bush's courage in trying to revise it root and branch. Would that he'd do the same with Langley.
I'm not sure that wasn't Goss's charter.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 19:42
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#51
You guys and gals missed the point of the article. The fact that the Dems picked a cunning linguist from Berkeley to get them out of the ***ahem*** mess that they got themselves trapped in says volumes......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 23:33
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#52
cunning linguist? Shheeeesh - where are the pack of cunning runts? LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 23:44
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A high court on Sunday put a terrorism case on hold and agreed to wait for another court's decision on the constitutionality of a case against four Bahrainis charged with planning terror attacks in the country and having contacts with foreign terrorists, a defence attorney said. A three-judge constitutional court panel heard the defence's challenge and, after meeting privately for a few minutes, granted the defence's request. "We have a very strong case, this trial is unconstitutional," said Abdullah Hashim, one of three attorneys that brought forth the case, who said the court has the jurisdiction to examine the basis of a trial and rule on its validity.
"Yeah! We got a constitutional right to plan terror attacks!"
The four suspects were arrested June 22 and released a day later, then re-arrested July 14 after investigators searched their computers and allegedly found documents on making bombs and poisons. Government prosecutors could not be reached for comment on the ruling.
They were out back pounding their heads in frustration.
It is not clear when the constitutional court will make a ruling on the case. Hashim said a ruling by the court in the defense's favor would remove the "basis for the trial," though the prosecution could appeal the decision. The four — Yasir Kamal, Bassam Bukhuwa, Bassam al-Ali and Moheiddin Khan — were later released on November 1, but the charges were not dropped. Kamal, however, was jailed last month for fleeing from court in September.Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2004
1:09:10 AM ||
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German prosecutors on Tuesday accused a 30-year-old Iraqi man of recruiting militants for the Iraqi insurgency and smuggling wounded fighters back to western Europe for treatment. Federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said Lokman M. was a leading figure in the West European branch of militant group Ansar al-Islam, with close ties to its leader in Iraq and to other members in Italy and Sweden. In a second case, also involving Ansar al-Islam, Nehm said he believed that three Iraqis arrested last Friday had been planning to assassinate visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, despite the authorities' failure so far to discover any weapons or explosives. "We are convinced that we prevented an attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi," Nehm told a news conference.
Nehm's accusations were among the most detailed to emerge so far concerning alleged activities of Iraqi militants in Europe, and their links to the insurgency raging against U.S.-led forces and the interim Iraqi government. Nehm said Lokman M. had procured medical equipment for fighting units in Iraq and arranged for volunteer fighters to travel there. "In addition to that, he was responsible for smuggling members who had been wounded in Iraq into western Europe for medical treatment," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "In this way, in September 2003 he organized, among other things, the smuggling in of a severely wounded leading official of Ansar al-Islam from Italy via France to Great Britain."
Security sources say fighters have traveled to Iraq from a number of European countries to join the insurgency. A probe into Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, the suspected brains behind the Madrid train bombs in March, indicated he recruited volunteers in France, Belgium and Italy to fight in Iraq. In Italy, a judge charged six North Africans in September with recruiting suicide bombers to go to Iraq. Prosecutors are also investigating a suspected recruitment network in France. They believe French militants may have entered Iraq via Syria, noting an increase in the number of French Muslims traveling to the country, ostensibly to study Islam, in 2003. A 19-year-old Franco-Tunisian man was killed in fighting in the rebel Iraqi town Falluja in July. The European Union's counter-terrorism chief told Reuters in an interview last week such recruitment represented a worrying trend. Among other things, security officials fear militants who gain experience in Iraq will return and pose a threat back home.
Nehm gave further details of the probe into the alleged Allawi plot, saying the three suspects had been detected via intercepted phone calls in which they spoke in code. One of them, Berlin-based Rafik Y., had carried out a reconnaissance trip in the German capital and reported by telephone that he had "inspected the building site." Nehm said Rafik, after getting the go-ahead from the others, initially considered targeting Allawi at an event last Thursday evening where the premier had been due to meet Iraqi exiles. When this was canceled in the light of the intercepted phone calls, he switched his attention to a Friday morning meeting Allawi was due to hold with businessmen at Deutsche Bank in Berlin, Nehm said. The three men were arrested in raids in the early hours of Friday, but that meeting too was canceled as a precaution. Nehm said last week the alleged plot was an "ad hoc" affair and the raids had been launched after police intercepted a series of increasingly "hectic" telephone conversations pointing to an attack.
They're not very good at "spur of the moment" attacks, they rely too much on orders from higher up. You see the same problem with Arab armies, lower level personnel won't make decisions on their own. It's a cultural thing that works in our favor. We keep disrupting their planning cycle and they have to start from scratch.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
10:48:00 AM ||
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Posted by: Mike ||
12/07/2004
10:45 ||
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#1
Moment of silence
Thank you.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
12/07/2004 10:56
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#2
Little-known story: Japan had subs set to attack San Diego and other western ports two weeks later on Christmas Eve and cancelled the attacks hours before they were due to start
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 11:05
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#3
My wife's father was the radioman aboard the U.S.S. Maryland, and sent the now famous "This is not a drill" message over & over that day. He had gone below for his watch just before the attack and remained on station for hours sending every message handed to him. He had enlisted in 1938, served on multiple ships during the war, and wound up aboard a destroyer in Tokyo Bay from which he watched the surrender through binoculars!
Four years ago we took him back to Pearl Harbor, his first visit since 1941. He did fine until we got to the pedestals with the plaques showing the names of all the servicemen killed aboard each vessel. When he looked at the long list of names from the U.S.S. Oklahoma he started crying. We asked him why, and he replied: âbecause they saved our livesâ¦they took all the punishment that otherwise would have hit the Marylandâ. It was a staggering day for us all, and gave his assembled kids and grandkids a chance to realize how much a part of history their Grandpa was.
#4
That's beautiful, Justrand. True story: A friend was visiting DC on Veterans' Day. We went to the WWII memorial late in the evening to pay our respects. Many people had been by during the day, leaving cards and flowers, but our favorite offering by far was the 10/28/04 copy of the Boston Globe, showing the jubilant World Series Champion Red Sox. I knew there must have been a big cheer up in Heaven for that!
#8
Nope, not me. That's the patented PruitTech PenNamerator (TM, all rights reserved). Fred did this all by his onesies. Didn't even tell us mods it was coming...just switched it on one day and bingo! He's like that sometimes...
#10
While it is good that we stop for a moment and Remember Pearl Harbour.... it would be wise for the rest of the world to step back and ponder the consequences of hasty action.
#11
Shipman # 10 you are correct!! Look at the BIG MESS we are in now!
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 18:59
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#12
Seafarious # 4 It must have been a Yankees fan who did that?
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 19:01
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#13
Shipman # 10 you are correct!! Look at the BIG MESS we are in now! My late Uncle Merchant Marine Captain, Charles Jackson spun tales of that battle and I recall his famous quote"Haste makes waste". May Uncle Charles rest in peace**
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 19:05
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#14
It's not a BIG MESS Andrea, it it a MINOR QUAGMIRE, such as a small COUNTRY would find itself in if IT GAVE INTO DESPAIR and opted for OWG! I am happy we AGREE!
Egypt said it has charged an Iranian diplomat and an Egyptian national over a plot to assassinate an unidentified public figure. Egyptian Mahmud Aid Dabbus is accused of being paid 50,000 dollars by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to kill the unnamed target and of spying for the Islamic republic, charges that carry a possible 25-year prison term. His alleged accomplice was identified as Mohammad Reda Doust, who served in the Iranian interests section in Cairo but left the country about a year ago for another post and will be tried in absentia.
He'd be Mahmud's controller, most likely back in Iran or assigned to another embassy somewhere.
The charges were announced by prosecutor general Maher Abdel Wahed, who told a news conference that Dabbus had been under surveillance for some time and was on the verge of carrying out a "terrorist operation" in Egypt when he was arrested nearly a month ago. The attorney general said Dabbus had provided Iran with information on "political, economic and social conditions in Saudi Arabia", as well as on foreigners living in the kingdom. The suspect used to work in Saudi Arabia, according to the charge sheet. Dabbus was also accused of providing Iran with details on a petrochemical facility at the Saudi port of Yanbu, where six Westerners were killed in a shooting rampage in May that was blamed on Islamist militants.
Blamed on al-Qaeda, of course there are none of them in Iran, right?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
10:27:53 AM ||
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#1
Anyone willing to bet Mr.Doust is now working in an Embassy in Europe?
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/07/2004 20:45
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After years of bitter internal divisions and a series of crackdowns from the Islamic republic, the Iranian democratic opposition in the last two weeks has organized a united front to push for a referendum on the powers of the supreme leader. In an interview with The New York Sun, a founder of the new front, which comprises the major student groups as well as leading lawyers and activists inside the country, said organizers this week began fanning out across the country to collect the names of fellow citizens for a petition supporting changes to the constitution to allow a referendum. "We think this is a good step that all the opposition groups are united in one direction, the direction of the referendum," Mohsen Sazegra said in a telephone interview from London. "As far as I know, this is a unique event. All groups from monarchists to republicans, from left to right are now behind us and they support the referendum movement."
Mr. Sazegra is a founder of what in Farsi is called Tahkimeh Vahdat, which is translated into "strongest unity." The organization includes many of the reformists who had tried to work within the system with President Khatemi, as well as supporters of the son of the deposed Shah, Reza Pahlevi. Perhaps most important though, the new unified front includes the Islamic student organizations active in the country's universities. These groups originally supported the 1979 Islamic revolution but in recent years have demanded more political freedoms for the Iranian people. Indeed, activists led by one such leader, Abdollah Momeni, shouted down Mr. Khatemi yesterday in one of their boldest acts of defiance before the international press in recent months. In the middle of a speech at Tehran University, the onetime reformist president was heckled with taunts of "Shame on you," and "Where are your promised freedoms?" according to a dispatch from the BBC and wire services. Mr. Khatemi, who was reported to be visibly flustered, responded by saying, "My period is going to be over soon but I do not owe anyone," the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. "Those power-seeking fanatics who ignored the people's demands and resisted reforms...the ones who destroyed Iran's image in the world, they owe me."
The confrontation between a group of students and Mr. Khatemi could go a long way in dispelling the notion in the West that Iran's democratic opposition has been demoralized after hard-line clerics prohibited most reformers from running for the elected assembly and have recently intensified efforts to arrest anti-regime bloggers and shut down critical newspapers. For years, Iran's opposition movement was driven underground and was said to lack a unifying leadership. Often, Western reporters would not print the names of the anti-regime rebels because of a fear of repercussions from the state, which has jailed and in some cases tortured and killed leaders of demonstrations in the country. Furthermore, there was little agreement among the Iranian opposition on the regime's repression.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2004
10:25:39 AM ||
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#1
After some reflection, I figure this is a show front of people angling for position should the Black Hats be toppled. I see nothing useful in what Sazegra does or says. Talking to the NY Sun is both stupid and dangerous if one is involved in the real opposition. Sitting in London is not opposing and calling upon America or whomever to impose sanctions "not against the Iranian people, but against the officials of the regime" (a neat feat, indeed) is a F**kin Duh worthless waste of newsprint / pixels.
If there was anything substantive about this clown, he'd be talking to Porter Goss, not the NY Sun, and we would know nothing about it.
I suspect this is merely a self-serving bit of PR fluff for stature... his opposing days are over, and he's hoping for a slot after the Mullahs are gone. Just my take.
you may be right to some extent but remember that:
1. exile groups haven't got much they can do beside this kind of thing
2. even a pseudo united front against the Mullarky may lead to a real united front-- the lack of a real united front among the exiles was a big handicap in Iraq
3. the exile groups are already providing material support for the in-country opponents of the mullarky
4. even a pseudo united front can get the mullarky in the MSM better than no pseudo united front --- and bad press is something that the mullarky really, really, really, hates
One in three of France's imams don't speak French, the country's interior minister said in an interview published Tuesday, proposing initiatives to help Islamic religious leaders better adapt. "Today, of the 1,200 imams who practice in our country, 75 percent are not French and one-third do not speak our language," Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told the daily Le Parisien. "This is not acceptable. In France, we should have French imams speaking French," he said.
Can't have that, you can only quote from the holy book in the holy language of Arabic.
Villepin called for theological and secular training for future imams, a measure he said would be implemented next year. Additional steps should be taken to ensure that imams who already are practicing get further training, he added. Measures aimed at getting imams to integrate into French society do not violate a 1905 law providing for the separation of church and state, Villepin said. Rather, they will help balance freedom of religion and the neutrality of the state, he said. Citing the overwhelmingly moderate version of Islam in France - only 50 of 1,685 Muslim places of worship are deemed to have radical ties - Villepin said he is committed to helping Islam find its place in this country. "Islam in France is tolerant and more calm than we imagine," he said. "It legitimately aspires to find its place within the republic."
It's much easier to take over a country from the inside.
Villepin also expressed support for the creation of a foundation to manage money destined for Muslim groups in France and better control currently unrestricted funding, an idea opposed by the Union of Islamic Organizations of France.
All that cash with no controls. Makes your mouth water, doesn't it, Dominique?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
10:17:44 AM ||
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#1
"Dominique de Villepin? Feh! We don't take no orders from a woman!...er..what?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 10:38
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#2
Boy have they got their priorities straight in France. Obviously, addressing the language being used is so much more important than addressing anti-Semitic, anti-Western sermons coming from the pulpits.
#4
Yeah, let the Imams speak French. Then the govt can arrest them for adding Non-French words to their sermons, like jihad, dhimmi, Ulema, Caliphate, you got the picture.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2004 11:54
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#5
Well, I imagine French security has many more French-speakers than Arabic-speakers, so requiring sermons to be in French would make it a trifle easier to monitor what's being advocated in the mosques. Doesn't help much with the after-hours study groups, though.
Posted by: James ||
12/07/2004 13:47
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#6
"the after-hours study groups"
Ah, you must mean Islamic Engineering 101: Bomb Design and Application.
;-)
#7
Ahhh.. if they classify mosques as businesses, I think they've already got a legal basis for forcing them to speak French.
Also, it occurs to me that martyrdom might be less attractive in French... who would want to be with THE 72 virgins, especially considering how many martyrs had gone before him?
#8
It not the language it's is the theology. 99% of west doesn't get it is the theology that is the problem not the language. No way in hell you are going to get them to change their theology. All you can do is send them back to "Islamland" contain them and wait a few centuries for them to catch up.
#10
It not the language it's is the theology. 99% of west doesn't get it is the theology that is the problem not the language. No way in hell you are going to get them to change their theology.
SPoD: For a minute there I thought you were talking about the donks hiring that Berkley professor to come up with new words to help relate to those red-state religious folk! lol!
Posted by: BA ||
12/07/2004 20:43
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A senior Fatah official said negotiations are under way to convince Marwan Barghouti to withdraw from the race for Palestinian Authority president. Hatem Abdel Kader, a member of Fatah's Higher Committee, was quoted on the Voice of Palestine Radio as saying Tuesday that Barghouti's final decision will be taken within the next two days.
"Is that your final answer?"
"Contacts are under way with Barghouti to convince him to pull out his candidacy to protect Palestinian unity," Abdel Kader said.
"We're gonna make him a offer he can't refuse."
Barghouti, Fatah chief in the West Bank, is competing in the race with Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah's sole nominee. Barghouti, a popular figure, is serving a life sentence in Israel on conviction of involvement in terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.
Most likely that's the safest place for him.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2004
10:02:59 AM ||
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#1
I can't believe my brother won that election.
Kill the Canker he sez.
#1
This lengthy article in the City Journal by the wonderful Heather MacDonald deserves at least one extracted quote:
If the government were serious about ending illegal entry and its threat to national security, it would fund adequate detention space.
But the administration seems determined to maintain the schizophrenic status quo: we try to catch trespassers at the border, but once they slip across, they're home free.
Finally, putting national security ahead of political correctness would mean ending the special status granted Mexican illegals.
President Bush should announce that henceforth, illegal entry will be treated like the crime that it is. To be against alien lawbreakers is not to be against immigrants, he should explain. Border laws protect the country for those immigrants who respect America's laws. Our inability to control who comes into the country is our biggest security threat, he should explain, and we must empower every branch of law enforcement to apprehend the lawbreakers. Washington should allocate the resources to detain and deport illegals, and should start enforcing long-standing laws against employing alien lawbreakers. A deafening roar of "racism" will result; but with the country at war, pandering to the race advocates must give way to protecting American lives.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 9:43
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#2
I think we also need to halt the flow of federal funds to cities, counties, and states who refuse to abide by our immigration laws but provide 'sainctuary' to illegals and terrorists by outlawing cooperation betweeen local law enforcement and federal law enforcement. In many cases the local cops cannot even investigate (or ask) if a person is an illegal alien or not.
Also we need to point out that illegals are not, legally, immigrants and stop the verbal association between illegal aliens who are lawbreakers and the image of the immigrant (who are welcome and made this country great!) who comes here legally and are law abiding. Legally there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant since (obviously) illegals have not been granted immigration status.
#3
Ah, just annex Mexico and give it Commonwealth status as PR. Imperialism? Yep, just ending Mexico's stealth imperalism. You don't respect my southern border then there is no need for me to respect your northern border.
Posted by: Don ||
12/07/2004 10:24
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#4
Don, the problem is we don't want Mexico. They would prefer we pay for everything and we will if the border for the US ends up next too Honduras.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/07/2004 11:30
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#5
Well said, Mrs. D. CrazyFool-I like your ideas too-let's add community colleges and other educational institutions to the list. They need to start demanding that students present acceptable forms of ID, including soc #s, to be able to attend classes in the US.
Tipper, you always post the best articles. This one's a keeper.
#6
I think we also need to halt the flow of federal funds to cities, counties, and states who refuse to abide by our immigration laws but provide 'sainctuary' to illegals and terrorists by outlawing cooperation betweeen local law enforcement and federal law enforcement. In many cases the local cops cannot even investigate (or ask) if a person is an illegal alien or not.
An *excellent* idea. Too bad GWB wouldn't have the balls to put this into practice for fear of offending Latinos. (even though illegals include others besides Latinos)
#7
Exactly, BAR. Exposes the Achilles Heel of the Repubs--the party is split into those who stand up for rule of law and those who don't. Those who advocate rule of law have a couple representatives in the Repub party on the immigration issue. Those who don't advocate rule of law easily fit into Dem circles on immigration and that says something. Amazing that we're at this juncture with so little leadership from our governmental reps after 9/11-apparently, it is insignificant to them that the hijackers were in the US on false IDs.
On the bill coming out of the 911 report, the common denominator of bipartisanship was not rule of law or the safety of the US.
#8
Let's present the Mexican Government with a fat bill at the end of each year to cover all Federal, State and municipal services given to persons entering illegally from Mexico. If they don't pay, yank their $20+ million per annum in foreign aid.
#9
The WH has no business sending our soldiers to fight in foreign wars, claiming it's to make our nation safer, all the while letting every illegal Miguel and Mohammed to come through our southern border. It's just a matter of time before we suffer the consequences of our President's oversight. And btw what's the point of doing deep body cavity searches on airline passengers to the tune of billions of dollars of year, when terrorists can choose to bring an array of nasty goods across the deserts of California or Arizona using Mexican soldiers as escorts? If GWB's overt pandering to business interests and Latino votes were't so dangerous to our national security, this would be a comic situation kind of like a Keystone Cops film. GWB's open borders mentality has nothing to do with being compassionate. If you all feel "more safe" because Saddam has been removed inspite of our open borders here, you must be drinking some pretty expensive Egg Nog.
#12
Let's see... how many things can you accomplish at once? No, a step-wise approach isn't allowed. Satisfy all of MY concerns at once or you're shit. Everything you've done is shit. Me Me Me. You have to commit political suicide every time I have a tic about an issue. ME ME ME! You're SHIT Bush! I'm the Great Arbiter of All Things!
#13
Jules, the problem with Social Security #s is that they are so easy to forge. Birth Certificates are not much better and need to be standardized. A passport or greencard would be better ID but not everyone has a passport. A drivers license is worse then useless.
We may well need a [puts on asbestos suit] national ID card to prove citizenship.
#14
GS: The WH has no business sending our soldiers to fight in foreign wars, claiming it's to make our nation safer, all the while letting every illegal Miguel and Mohammed to come through our southern border.
Our troops fight abroad so we don't have to fight at home. Note that all the jihadis are talking about going to Baghdad to fight Uncle Sam instead of staging another attack on US soil. Why? For the same reason that the Confederate Army was drawn into stand-up fights with the Union Army in order to defend Southern cities after Sherman burned Atlanta. You draw your enemy out by attacking what he holds dear.
As to GWB's border policy, I have my disagreements with it, but Kerry would have made it even worse. Clinton brought forth the motor voter law. What would Kerry have wrought, in addition to amnesty?
#15
CF - as a pretty libertarian Republican, I never thought I'd support a nat'l ID card, but times, and I, have changed. National ID with biometric stds is it!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 19:41
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# 14 Zhang Fei you are correct. Camp Pendelton, C.A. President Bush appearing before cheering U.S. forces Tuesday, declared that terrorist wont be able to control Iraq's destiny because "Free people will never choose their own enslavment". The million dollar question is "will they ever be free?". I think Mr. Bush is promising ROSES- and who will receive the THORNS??
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 19:44
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#17
wow Andrea! That was DEEP
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 19:47
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#18
# 15 Frank G. I agree with you on this- but it would only be another way to steal identity- along with cloning of people, sheep, cats we are on a slippery slope. I'm NOT sure that would work.
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 19:48
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#19
I would not accept a "national ID". National standards for an Drivers License yes. A national ID no. I am a Citizen of the Republic of California, A state in the United States. A California ID or driver license is all I need. I don't fly, plan on flying. I don't need to identify my self to the federal government. I don't want shit form the feds and I don't need their ID or permission to do jack shit. I don't want some faceless assclown in Washington DC determining if I am a "citizen" with a right to exist/work. How many of you can prove you are a citizen besides your easily faked birth certificate?
#20
Thanks for the response. I have posted more under OPINION section that is note worthy.
I'm logging off now- more work to do at home
where my security is safe- except for a stolen car or two!
Posted by: Andrea ||
12/07/2004 19:51
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#21
Let's see... how many things can you accomplish at once? No, a step-wise approach isn't allowed. Satisfy all of MY concerns at once or you're shit.
Oh, sorry, GWB has had only 4 years to deal with open borders. How selfish of me to expect that he would include border control in a new intelligence reform bill that he has personally rammed through Congress inspite of outcry from his own House Republicans.
No,you are totally right, com. I should be a more "global minded" citizen and rejoice that Jorge Bush is keeping Iraqis, Germans, Phillipinos,and South Koreans safe. I'm a better person to think "them, them" than "me, me." Thank you for opening my eyes to your selfless worldly wisdom.
Read the article, Republicans: losing the border while winning the war, in today's Washington Dispatch before you suggest that border control is such a trivial selfish issue.
#24
Frank, I think that those days are close to over, except for illegals in California. I believe it is now Federal law that states must get I-9 quality ID before issuing a DL to an American.
Immigrants are a different story. I'd make them register once a year, just like when we were kids. Remember the PSAs every January directing aliens to go to the Post Office and complete their allien registration form? We should also be getting DNA, prints, retinas and all the other biometrics we are getting in Fallujah for foreigners, expecially Mexicans.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 19:59
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#25
LOL Ship! Really! Mrs. D - I have no problems with that - I want secure borders, with only legal immigrants and visitors. How we reach that is a discussion, but putting the military on the border (which would distress some) would be my first step. F*ck Mexican sensitivities! I live here in San Diego, and we deal with it every day.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:03
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#26
SPo'D - I seldom disagree with you, but I do here. If it takes a national ID to actually do what everyone says they want, including you: immigration laws enforced, the ability to identify individuals with certainty, the removal of political shenanigans from the process, flight safety (I'd already decided to undergo the biometrics qualification), etc - then this is where that road leads. You sound like you have a strong Libertarian bent... Did you serve in the US Military? If so, then all of the aspects of your privacy that you're objecting to are already on file, bro. If not, better pay those delinquent parking tickets, heh.
Magic won't do it. Integrated nation-wide databases, hard biometrics, and national standards will. It may or may not require a standard ID card, but it will require blanket standards. At that point, what does it matter what it says on your DL or whatever? The effect and benefits will be the same. And that fact will scare the shit out of some people, but then those that are worried are probably worried more about hiding from "the man" than they are for the security of their fellow citizens. Tough shit.
#27
Frank, If you're in SD, you've got the problem big time.Love the road signs with the fleeing family. I don't know whether that means I get bonus points or what. I'm not sure how much military we need. Based on the Israeli example, I'd say it's more like a quaretr mile of broken glass and a wall from sea to shining gulf.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/07/2004 20:09
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#28
Glom - If you were interested in the issue, instead of making it sound as if George W Bush is personally responsible for what displeases you - and your issues are the only issues that matter, then I'd take you seriously. You're apparently not.
What he has accomplished in the last 3 years is, obviously, not a perfect match for your personal bitch list, not to mention beyond your ken. Sorry. I'm sure you are the only person on the planet who gets it - and Bush is clueless. Right.
Why don't you go back to your Dhimmidonk haunts and cry a river. Bush will continue to do what it is possible at each moment in time and you can complain about the other reality where you get everything you want precisely when you want it because you're the only person with the vision and intellect to run things. Y'know - that other reality where you're President.
#29
The problem for Dubya on this would be the DEAFENING roar from the MSM so loud, it would make abu Graib seem like the silence of outer space. Drown out all other sounds. Drown his message.
Mexicans have crossed that border unmolested for a century or more. It was, and is, in the interest of BOTH countries. Mexico rids itself of population that can't afford, and we get Mexicans WILLING to work. I know many people who do because they are here to work and earn money for their families. And they do work....hard.
The problem is the risk of Jihadis co-mingling with them and getting over the border. The Mexicans and coyotes would be very leery of allowing any Aarbs along due to the huge increase in risk. Worst case now, they get sent back. Have some Aarabs with them and the risk is immensely higher, like Apache's, JDAMs or talking to the FBI. Plus, they might figure Aarabs have some monetary value and take them themselves to turn them in for the reward.
I think it much easier, and more likely that illegal entries will come through Canada. After all, they have done it before.
#30
Brett - that's not the only issue - we have hospitals closing and huge deficits in state programs because of illegals using the emergency room as their primary physician (the courts say we have to treat and pay for em - *spit*) and their children are resonsible for huge school expenditures that are not recouped. They are a fiscal drain as well as a security risk and a stream of warm piss on our sovereignty
*rant over, for now*
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:21
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#31
"the courts say we have to treat and pay for em - *spit*"
#32
Let's see... how many things can you accomplish at once? No, a step-wise approach isn't allowed. Satisfy all of MY concerns at once or you're shit.
I agree with .com. It's ridiculous to think that Bush can wave a magic wand and not only end illegal immigration, but miraculously make the millions of illegals working here suddenly disappear. Do you think our economy wouldn't completely reel when the MILLIONS upon millions of jobs they fill and houses they occupy suddenly went empty? It's not a simple problem let's not pretend that it is.
The immigration issue IS key to homeland security - but it needs to be tackled at the congressional level. The president can and should push for it, but saying he should "fix it" is like saying he should "fix" health care. What do you think, that he can get his pen and write "free health care for all" and that will make it happen? No, it's huge and complex and needs to happen at the congressional level. Same with illegal immigration. It's too complex to just say that Bush should fix it and think that he can make it so.
#33
Oh, 2b - he could effectively end illegal immigration with a pronouncement the border is closed to illegals and stationing the mil (including state nat'l guard) on the border. 99% drop in 1 week
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:25
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#34
Nope the feds got nothing on me .com other than a copy of my finger prints that are about 21 years old if they can find them. Last time I checked about 6 years ago they couldn't. I want it to stay that way. A national standard for drivers licenses is the way to go. We don't need a national "passport." A national ID reeks of internal passports. Any data a federal employee needs on me can be kept on the back of my drivers license that can be matched against a database kept and controled in my home state. My wife who actually travels a heck of alot more than me has a real national ID it's called a US passport. If I wanted one I would get one.
Now if you want to go the Starship Troopers route I might go along with more federal intrusion. Our immigration issues with our border can be dealt with by militarizing our border with Mexico and legalizing all the Indios we have here now.
#35
2b - Thx... Though I'm sure Skeery could do it. He'd look right into the TV camera and say so and tell you it wouldn't cost a dime. And the result? We'd be taxed to death for his "plan" - which wouldn't accomplish shit after it was PC-ized.
Magik is the Dhimmidonk solution. It's the same as the Cry of the Three Year Old: IWWIWWIWI!*.
#36
Last I checked the military was pretty busy and "state of the art" national guard would only take how many years and how many trillions? A stepwise approach for such a big and long term problem would yield better (and less painful) results over the course of time. The economy in CA and Texas would collapse if they all just disappeared. Wishing and proclaiming doesn't make things so.
#38
2b - my last on this tonight - you underestimate the effect of teh force on the border and overestimate it's need - wide swaths are virtually unpassable, and we already use remote sensing to cut down on personnel needs. San Diego was a sieve. We built fences and channelled the traffic to the desert and east, effectively cutting illegal immigration by 80-90% in the SD sector (which formerly was the highest intrusion area)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2004 20:36
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#39
2b - And when he does promise things, unlike 90% of politicians - and we can quibble about the number, he delivers.
BTW, this thread now deserves a BDS / PEST Warning! Label, heh.
#40
Frank, I've seen the border - the thousands waiting to cross nightly - and I agree that we need to fix it. We could fix it in a night if we just started shooting them dead. But we WON'T so it's a meaningless solution.
I'll leave it at I like Bush because he didn't promise what he knew he couldn't deliver. It needs to be done at the representation level.
#41
I've done a lot of studying on this issue, and know how complex it really is. Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions, and the few difficult solutions are expensive. There is nothing that can't be done, however, with enough money and enough people working on it. There IS a solution. I worked out a plan that would provide a limited closure (40%) in two years, moderate closure (75%) in five years, and full closure in ten years. The cost? $42 BILLION, plus $1.6Billion a year to operate. That's just for the US/Mexico border. We'd have to do the same thing in the north to truly keep out the jihadis, at a cost of $60Billion, plus 1.8billion a year to operate. It would also take ~246,000 people to fully staff and operate all the pieces. I'm not sure the entire thing would be cost effective. Then I consider the cost of one 30KT nuke in Chicago or Omaha, and wonder why we're not doing it already.
#42
GC - Can you identify where you are (I understand a desire for anonymity) in this issue? Do you work at a Govt agency, on staff for a politician, State law enforcement, etc.?
And details would be pretty awesome - obviously this is a topic of great interest. It's so late in the day, however, I'd actually hope you'd post any details you feel comfortable making public on a similar thread tomorrow - so we have more time to bat it around. Are you game?
#44
Why don't you go back to your Dhimmidonk haunts and cry a river. Bush will continue to do what it is possible at each moment in time and you can complain about the other reality where you get everything you want precisely when you want it because you're the only person with the vision and intellect to run things.
The fact that the House Republicans rebelled the first time round that the intelligence reform bill surfaced, that is until the WH twisted their arms, would seem to indicate that there more people than selfish old me who see the dangers of open borders, including elected GOP. Furthermore, the majority of citizens according to various polls are concerned about illegal immigration. The public wants our borders sealed so why should GWB be afraid of what the MSM has to say about him enforcing immigration laws on the books.
According to stats and live links provided by numbersusa:
84% percent of Americans worry about illegal immigration. Of those, 37% worry a "great deal" about it. (Gallup Poll, March 8-11, 2004)
65% of Americans favor stopping ALL immigration during the war on terrorism (Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll, November 2001)
No issue upset the public more than President Bush' amnesty/guestworker proposals, with only 30%of Americans supporting him on that.
(CBS News/New York Times Poll, January 2004)
74% of resondents believe the U.S. should NOT make it easier for illegal aliens to become citizens of the U.S. (CNN/Gallup/USA Today Poll, January 2004)
52% of Americans oppose President Bush's guest worker-amnesty program for illegal aliens from Mexico; 57% oppose such a program for illegal aliens from other countries. Furthermore, at least 2X as many Americans strongly oppose the proposal as strongly support it
(ABC News Poll, January, 2004)
How can people say that's it's impossible to fix illegal immigration here but it's highly possible to democracize Muslim countries in the ME?
#45
Yep, just as I thought. Another Dhimmidonk loonie (aka operative) who had to go reload at DU in order to respond. Polls. Right.
The answer to your closing question, though you do not deserve an answer, is politics, as you so ably demonstrate. The reason this will be a long, hard, slugfest is because of partisan jackasses like you.
Name your solution. Go ahead, big mouth. Lay out the plan. How many troops and border agents? What technologies would you employ? What would the ROE be? Would you deport everyone caught? All countries equally? Would you naturalize everyone? How would you handle the economic effects? How about in-country security - would you implement a national ID system?
No, wait. Pfeh. Nevermind. No more DU Talking points. Just play with yourself.
#46
At the end of the day, what do we really have? A re-shuffled org chart? A czar? (Or do you prefer Tsar? If the so-called czar can't kick some apparatchik to the curb on his own authority, then he ain't a czar no matter how you spell it. But I digress.)
Who controls the spy sats? And the info they produce? If it needs to go plinking around a bureaucracy like a ball in a pachinko machine before it reaches the field, how's it going to be different than today?
#47
99.9% of all non hispanic dhimmicrats hate anything with word mexican/guest worker/amnesty attaced to it. Some day Hispanics will get a clue and stop getting kicked in the teeth. I don't think the Di or it's frothy frinds at the dailykoz ever will.
Posted by: Trolling for allen ||
12/07/2004 21:57
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#48
Another Dhimmidonk loonie (aka operative) who had to go reload at DU in order to respond. Polls. Right
You initially accused me of being selfish -remember you used the phrase "me, me, me"? I replied with supportive info, not spleenic sputtering, to show it was you that was out of step with the majority of Americans not me. And please take note, mr. brightlight com, numbersusa is not a liberal website.
As for solutions, I'd implement a biometric national id system for all American residents. Spending $ on more czars and bureucrats per the intelligence bill is throwing good money after bad if you don't secure the borders and get a handle on who is legally supposed to be here.
Those who are found to be illegal aliens should be deported asap. Then I'd enforce existing law that was put into place under the Reagan administration - fines against employers of illegal aliens. National security takes precedence over big business concerns about cheap labor. Does big business deduct from their profit margins the tab for health care, education, welfare, federal prison costs for illegals. Until they do, they have no room to whine. If the above measures don't quell the tide of illegals, then yes I would militarize the borders.
If you want to adopt illegal aliens and act as their sponsor feel free to do so on your own dime and at your own risk.
99.9% of all non hispanic dhimmicrats hate anything with word mexican/guest worker/amnesty attaced to it.
The most vocal champions of illegal aliens are left wing bleeding heart limousine white Democrats, so stuff your unfounded anti-whitey rant. Even legal Hispanic citizens are p.o.'d about our WH's lacklustre efforts to protect our borders.
47% of Latino voters in Arizona voted in favor of Proposition 200.
30% of Hispanics in California would like to shut down all immigration for awhile.(Zogby Poll, March 2002)
Hispanics are evenly divided about an amnesty for illegal aliens from Mexico, with half opposing it.
(Zogby Poll, September 2001)
43% of Hispanics believe the U.S. government doesn't do enough to stop illegal migrants from entering the country.
(International Communications Research Poll, May, 2000)
75% of California Latinos think illegal migration from Mexico to California is a problem.
(Public Policy Institute of California, January 1999)
/ But the world would still be better off had the Coalition not invaded Iraq to forcibly remove the war criminal and genocideer Saddam Hussein. /end "anti-war" idiocy
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.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner 
The organizer of the bombing of the Chechnya's House of Government in December 2002 died while being detained in Ingushetia, a republic in the North Caucasus bordering on Chechnya, Ingushetia's Interior Ministry reported. According to the Interior Ministry, 
"Law enforcers have detained a 26-year-old resident of Chechnya who was hiding in the Rubezhnoye village in the Nauri district. He was reportedly an active member of the illegal militant movement and was appointed by Shamil Basayev to lead a gang that was active in the Nauri district," said Mr. Shabalkin.
Coastguards rushed to save a parachutist who ditched in the sea only to find they were rescuing an 
