It matters little that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan might be completely innocent of any criminal wrongdoing in the United Nations' oil-for-food scandal. He is the man ultimately responsible for one of the biggest humanitarian aid efforts in history, which turned into one of the biggest financial rip-offs in history. As such, Annan has lost all credibility as leader of the world body. Its viability, in fact, may depend on his willingness to step down soon.
The United Nations' image already was reeling last month amid reports that it is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and peacekeeping soldiers in Congo. Then came Annan's acknowledgment last week that he was "surprised and disappointed" by revelations that his son had received $125,000 in vague "consulting" payments from a Swiss company that won a lucrative contract under the oil-for-food program. The secretary-general's professed shock upon discovering his son's involvement suggests gross inattention to duty, if not gross ineptitude. That's also true of Annan's unequivocal denials that he ever had any specific knowledge of any of the fraudulent deals being made while the mess of a program was operating under the guidance of his right-hand man. In other words, while he was failing to pay attention, as much as $10 billion in humanitarian aid -- money intended for food and medicine for Iraqi civilians -- slipped quietly as kickbacks and bribes into the pockets of corrupt opportunists all over the world.
Annan appointed an independent panel to investigate. The committee ended up toothless, however, when the U.N. Security Council balked at letting it take sworn testimony and gain access to the corrupt U.N. contracts. Now we have committees in the U.S. Senate and House conducting their own hearings on the scandal. The work is going slowly, thanks in part to Annan's lack of enthusiasm in giving congressional investigators access to documents and key U.N. officials. Last week, an exasperated Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate subcommittee that's been on the case for months, called for Annan's resignation. Coleman is right. Even though the investigation is far from over, it's already clear that the colossal corruption that occurred on Kofi Annan's watch has rendered him completely incapable of leading the United Nations back toward respectability.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/08/2004
9:53:21 AM ||
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Prior to World War II and the RAINBOW series of War Plans, the US maintained several color-coded war plans in case hostilities broke out with different countries. The US still maintains various war plans for Korea, Iran, and other contingencies, but we thought to modernize the different war plans for the present day, not including the Cold War. (Note: The author has no knowledge of current war plans of the United States, beyond which can be gleaned from internet sites such as www.Globalsecurity.org)
I edited out all the wargames and books they referenced. This should generate a excellent discussion
War Plan Black
Then:a Naval war against Germany in case the French were knocked out of World War I with the Germans trying to take over the French Colonies in the Caribbean.
Now: A plan to evacuate US troops and dependents from Germany in the face of rising European Union hostility against the US.
War Plan Brown
Then: A contingency plan against an uprising in the Philippines.
Now: A plan to counter an Islamic rebellion in the Philippines, provide military support to the Phillipines in the "War on Terror", or a counter to Chinese expansion in the Pacific.
War Plan Crimson:
Then: War with Canada in conjunction with War Plan Red
Now: Altercation of fishing or water rights, lumbar trade, agricultural trade, difference in security/immigration policy.
Special Note: The US invaded Canada during both the Revolution and the War of 1812 and was defeated twice. Of course, that was by the British Army.
War Plan Gray
Then: Naval war against Caribbean nations
Now: A Plan to invade Cuba or Anti-Drug Wars in the Caribbean
War Plan Green
Then: War with Mexico.
Now: Imposition of a security belt 40 — 80 kilometers into Mexico to secure the US Southern Border against illegal immigration, terrorist infiltration, or the drug trade.
War Plan Gold
Then: War with France.
Now: Why bother?
War Plan Orange:
Then: War with Japan
Now: War with Japan (but also applicable to a naval war with China)
Special Note: Also War Plan Red-Orange, a war against a UK-Japanese Alliance.
War Plan Purple
Then: War with Russia or With a Latin American country
Now: Drug Wars in the Caribbean, Anti-WMD Proliferation in the former Soviet Union
War Plan Red
Then: War with the United Kingdom, predominantly considering a British Amphibious landing Near Washington, D.C.
Now: More or less unthinkable.
Special Note: Also War Plan Red-Orange, a war against a UK-Japanese Alliance.
War Plan Scarlet
Then: War with Australia and New Zealand, in conjunction with War Plan Red.
Now: Retaliation against New Zealand Navy for attack on a US Navy ship carrying nuclear weapons.
War Plan Yellow
Then: War with China centering on the defense of Peking and relief of Shanghai during the Sino-Japanese War.
Now: Contingency plan for aid to Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, or other Pacific Regions in the event of a Chinese invasion or aggressive territorial expansion.
War Plan White
Then: Domestic uprising
Now: Operation Garden Plot for military support to domestic law enforcement operations during periods of civil unrest. (This plan has generated many conspiracy web sites.)
We seem to be missing the Middle East, Asian Sub-continent, and Africa. But, I'm sure our devoted readers can correct that.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
9:49:42 AM ||
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#1
War Plan Cornflower
Then: War with Iraq
Now: Nuke Mecca, Tehran, Palestine
#8
Ship - Lol! Now make that a multi-pronged attack and add Berkeley and a few other choice concentrated centers of idiotarianism and you've got a PLAN! ;-)
#19
TGA and phil_b:
Something about the sport keep it from becoming mainstream here in America... perhaps the loss of teeth.
The West coast school I went to actually had a girls rugby team, but you should've seen the, uh, ladies, that participated. Three inch leg hair, braided pits, and faces like bowls of day-old oatmeal. And then they'd drink afterwards.
#20
The Marine Corps actually has several rugby teams. I don't know how good they are but I heard they are good at inflicting punishment on their opponents.
#21
RUGBY is actually very popular in many US colleges and universities, both as official sport as as casual sport. SOCCER needs to be extensively reformed if it ever expects to become popular in the USA, as most US males play it only because nothing else is available, besides also to watch the girls run around and sweat. The babes know it - thats why in high school and college its no coincidence many of them "sex up" for the boys.
December 8, 2004: The government believes that the most senior Abu Sayyaf leader, Khaddafy Janjalani, is hading on Mindanao island, in an area controlled by the MILF. Janjalani is not being protected by the MILF, but at the same time the army can't go into the area without risking a major fight with the thousands of MILF gunmen in the area. The MILF does not want go looking for Abu Sayyaf members in its area, because it doesn't look good for Moslems to fight Moslems. It's also thought that Janjalani bribed local MILF leaders to leave him and his escort alone.
December 5, 2004: Police in the southern Philippines caught five Abu Sayyaf members in Zamboanga City. One of the men, Mahar Gahan, also known by his guerrilla name Abu Muslim, was killed. Gahan was an Abu Sayyaf leader in the area. Abu Sayyaf has been hunted intensively for so long that the organization has been reduced to a number of small, largely independent, groups. The rebels rely largely on criminal activities to support themselves. Since the Abu Sayyaf is a splinter group of the larger MILF, they get no cooperation from there. Although Abu Sayyaf professes a more hard core Islamic radicalism than MILF, few Islamic radicals in the region want to associate with Abu Sayyaf because the group operates too much like a bunch of bandits.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
9:42:55 AM ||
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EFL
David Blunkett has told MPs a new law targeting "incitement to religious hatred" will not curtail free speech. Mr Blunkett told MPs it was to protect people who "feel threatened ... and feel society is not embracing them". Awww, that's what they need! A big warm hug!
He said: "We are trying to stop groups of people who are prepared verbally, in writing and through the internet, to incite others to hate because of someone's faith not because of the argument about their faith." Ten pounds says they aren't going to find any imams guilty of this....
On Monday, Blackadder star Rowan Atkinson launched a comedians' campaign against the plan. The Mr Bean actor says it is "wholly inappropriate" and could stifle freedom of speech. Speaking at Westminster, Mr Atkinson was backed by a group of writers, MPs and the National Secular Society. They oppose part of the bill which will create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred to protect faith groups, particularly DruidsanimistsQuakersthat uppity Dalai Lama Muslims, from attack. But picking on Joooooos is ok!
There are already enough laws to deal with such extremists, they say. Mr Atkinson told a meeting at the House of Commons on Monday night there are "quite a few sketches" he has performed which would come into conflict with the proposed law. He added: "To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticise and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed." He said he had sympathy with the law's backers, particular British Muslims, but added: "I appreciate this measure is an attempt to provide comfort and protection to them. But unfortunately it is wholly inappropriate response far more likely to promote tension between communities than tolerance."
#3
Mr Atkinson told a meeting at the House of Commons on Monday night there are "quite a few sketches" he has performed which would come into conflict with the proposed law.
Including about half of one of the seasons of Blackadder.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/08/2004 8:04
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TEHRAN: Iran's judiciary on Tuesday said it was investigating four people suspected of spying on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme, contradicting reports that their trial had already begun. "The trial of the nuclear spies will probably take place in secret after the end of the investigation," judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimi-Rad told the student news agency ISNA. His comments were confirmed on state television by Abbas Ali Alizadeh, the head of Tehran's justice department.
"We're writing the verdict first, then we'll figure out what to charge them with"
On November 18, Ali Mobacheri, the head of Tehran's revolutionary courts, told the government newspaper Iran that the trials had already begun. He said that the accused had "infiltrated nuclear facilities" and "were spying for foreign countries". The accused have not been identified, and officials have also not specified for which countries they were allegedly spying. But the paper said: "In the past these individuals also spied for Iraq." In August, Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Yunessi announced the arrest of a number of "spies" who sent information on Iran's nuclear programme to foreigners.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
9:33:01 AM ||
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President Vladimir Putin's plan to end the election of governors by popular vote passed its final legislative hurdle Wednesday when the Russian parliament's upper chamber approved the bill. The law, which has been criticized as a step back from democracy, would give the president the right to appoint governors, who would then be confirmed by regional legislatures. If lawmakers reject the president's candidate twice, he could make a new nomination, appoint an acting governor, or dissolve the legislature. If a candidate is rejected for the third time, the president can dissolve the legislature without waiting for consultations to play out.
"The Imperial Senate legislature will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor President Putin has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away." "But that's impossible. How will the Emperor President maintain control without the bureaucracy?" "The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local's in line."
The Kremlin-loyal upper house, the Federation Council, approved the legislation by a vote of 145-1, with two abstentions. Putin must now sign the measure into law. "The most important thing now is that we can promise the population that the mere possibility of corruption is excluded, because the president himself takes responsibility for the person he entrusts with power as the head of the region," said Yuri Chaplin, a member of the upper house.
Then his lips fell off.
The Federation Council also approved legislation that raises the bar for political parties to get registered, requiring 50,000 members instead of the current 10,000 members, and setting a minimum membership of 250 in regional branches, compared with 100 now. The bill is expected to make it much harder to register new political parties. The vote was 131 in favor, with one abstention. Once that bill is signed into law, parties will be required to reregister by 2006.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
9:12:36 AM ||
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#2
Putin's not the problem. It's an institutional problem that goes back to Yeltsin and, really, the CPSU. Russia's government doesn't really govern. It can't pass laws, enforce the laws, administer justice, protect its borders, put down mickey-mouse insurrections, or pay pensions (unless oil's >$40/bbl) or fund hospitals or schools.
Our incompetent MSM journos are incapable of reporting on this, the truly important story in Russia, but the fact remains: Russia is a failing state.
#3
Compare the current situation in Poland and Russia. Poland took the hard medicine to evolve their economy, government, and society. The Russians took a dead end.
Posted by: Don ||
12/08/2004 10:24
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#4
Back to the Soviet model, since that worked so well, eh Vladdie?
#5
Someone pointed out that Americans are far more shocked by this than Europeans. America is almost unique in wanting governors to be "independent" of the ruling party. For the most part, governors are seen as being much like a cross between cabinet ministers and subordinate prime ministers assigned to regional governments, almost like liasons with the national government.
Lex, I suggest you read Pipe's "Russia Under the Old Regime." The Russian notion of governance was learned under Mongol tutelage and hasn't improved since.
#7
I know it well, Dread. Informs much of my analysis.
Don, Poland's communist stooges were never able to destroy civil society, as Stalin did. In Poland you have strong and independent free associations of citizens-- unions, the Church, farmers' groups-- that can involve the public in the business of governing themselves and serve as a defense against tyranny.
In Russia, no such associations exist. There are no unions of any consequence. The Church is completely corrupt and commands no allegiance from anyone under 60. Independent farmers were literally killed off in Stalin's war against the peasantry. Russia is quite simply a failing state with vast oil and gas wealth. Nigeria north. But with brilliant scientists, hackers and beautiful women.
#8
If Russia was just a "failing state", the problem would have been much smaller than it is. If it was just like Nigeria or Pakistan, the problem would have been small.
The problem however is that Russia is not only a failure in itself, but also the cause of failure in other countries.
#9
Russia is not only a failure in itself, but also the cause of failure in other countries
Typically eurocentric remark. Pakistan has been and still is a cause of "failure" in Afghanistan and NW India. Failed and failing states are always toxic to their neighbors because their governments typically can gain legitimacy only through pointless adventurism directed at their immediate neighbors.
#10
Pakistan has been and still is a cause of "failure" in Afghanistan and NW India.
Pakistan AFAIK has stopped from being a significant factor in harming Afghanistan. And as for Kashmir that's a) localized, only a small part of India, doesn't affect democracy in the rest of India b) not sure I'd blame *only* Pakistan for it.
#11
Pakistan has ceased to destabilize Afghan only because we've threatened Musharraf with political extinction. Again, there's nothing unique about Russia's failure and its effect on foreign policy. Saddam's failed state invaded and terrified his neighbors in order to show his people that ba'athism was the leading edge of pan-Arabism. Castro's failed state sought to destabilize Central America and Bolivia and sent troops to Angola as well.
#12
I think it serves us all well to remember that Pakistan pursues its own national interests. First, second, third and fourth on that list of national interests is countering India. Much of the prior support of the Taliban was predicated on securing a base to train jihadis to infiltrate Kashmir. There are undoubtedly elements in ISI that would love to see Karzai fail so that they can go back to dominating Afghan politics, but the Pakis probably aren't actively meddling...for the moment.
With the entry of two new liberal parties onto Egypt's political scene, four of the country's 19 parties are presenting themselves as the champions of free-market economy. The Political Parties Committee of the upper house of Parliament granted legality to El-Destouri El-Igtimai (Social Constitutional) Party on Nov. 25 a month after approving El-Ghad (Tomorrow Party). The committee had previously given the green light to only two other parties since it was founded in 1977.
Both parties say they are rooted in Egypt's liberal legacy that stretches back to the nationalist uprisings of 1919. In claiming that heritage, they vie directly with the Waved Party, which emerged directly out of that struggle. Heads of the new parties vehemently deny that their claims to that legacy pit them in conflict with the Wafd. "Our liberalism is that of Saad [Zaghloul] and [Mustapha] Nahas, which is monopolized by no one," said Mamdouh Qenawi, head of El-Destouri, referring to the heroes of 1919. Qenawi's comments, coming just days after his party was approved, echoed similar ones by the president of El-Ghad, Ayman Nour, who had earlier quipped that Zaghloul "isn't a trademark."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
9:03:35 PM ||
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Tokyo has expressed "extreme regret" at North Korea, after DNA tests showed that remains provided by the North were not those of a missing Japanese woman. Pyongyang has admitted kidnapping Megumi Yokota in 1977, saying she committed suicide in 1994. But Japan remained sceptical, and had called for proof that she was dead. Japanese Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the issue was now a "major obstacle" to ties, and said food aid to the North should be re-evaluated.
Bad move, Kimmi, the Japanese take their respect for the dead very seriously.
The remains were brought back by a Japanese delegation last month after a fact-finding mission about kidnap victims who have gone missing in the North. Pyongyang admitted in 2002 to abducting 13 Japanese nationals, who were to be used as cultural trainers for North Korean spies. Five were allowed to return to Japan, while North Korea said the others had died. The DNA test results were made public on Wednesday. "The bones belonged to a number of other people," Mr Hosoda said. "It would be difficult under such circumstances to provide further assistance to North Korea," he said. Megumi Yokota's mother, Sakie, said the results showed North Korea was not telling the truth. "It's good that the results let everyone in this country know how Kim Jong-il's country is cruel, cold-blooded and inhumane," she said. Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, called North Korea's latest move "extremely insincere". The latest twist will fuel suspicions that Megumi Yokota is still alive and being held in the North. Some believe she is being detained because she knows too much about the secretive country.
More likely she died someway or another and the Norks don't know where the body is. So they tried to pass off a collection of bones as her. DNA exposed that ploy.
The confusion is also likely to be a major hindrance to Japan's normalising relations with North Korea, which is keen for economic aid. North Korea has handed over remains before which did not match the supposed deceased. In 2002, Japanese investigators were handed human remains which North Korea said belonged to Kaoru Matsuki, who supposedly died in a traffic accident in 1996. But a jaw fragment studied by a dental professor in fact resembled that of a woman in her 60s.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
9:02:14 AM ||
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#1
bet they ate her
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 14:51
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I guess that the NorKs don't watch CSI and aren't aware that forensic pathologists routinely use DNA for identification.
[exerpt]
Cpl Byles leaped into action on May 14 after his battalion, known as the Tigers, went to assist ambushed troops near a checkpoint on the main road between Basra and Baghdad.
When the squad's Warrior armoured vehicle was attacked, the corporal and another soldier jumped from it. They were immediately targeted by small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. After linking up with four comrades, quick-thinking Cpl Byles identified the enemy in a sun-scorched drainage ditch 200 yards away.
He said: "I decided the best way to attack was a full-frontal assault. It was my decision to fix bayonets and assault their position." It marked the first time British soldiers have gone into battle with bayonets since the 1982 Falklands War. And the NCO's surprise order horrified his own men.
Cpl Byles, who has a six-year-old son, said: "They were under the impression we were going to lie in our ditch, shoot the enemy from a distance and they would run away. "But I believe we caught the enemy on the hop that day and we had to take the fight to them."
As another Warrior provided covering fire, the men put fresh magazines on their rifles, scrambled over a muddy mound and sprayed the 60ft-long Iraqi trench. As they stormed the ditch, Cpl Byles saw around a dozen rebels brandishing weapons. He said: "The look on their faces was utter shock when five heavily-armed men jumped in on them."
#9
Does every thread have meander back to the MSM?I assume the MSM means"any media which disagrees with RBers".And does Fox News Channel count as part of the MSM?Oops,Fox agrees with youze!
Posted by: Me ||
12/08/2004 12:34
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#10
As long as the MSM continues to suffer form cranial rectalitis, I would say yes. Got a problem with that?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/08/2004 13:23
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#11
When we spend as much time dumping on the MSM as the MSM spends lying to us, it'll be even. Till then, lead, follow, or STFU.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/08/2004 13:36
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#13
Wow--I'm just glad it worked out for these Tommies. In this era of full automatic weapons, a 200 yd bayonet charge sounds like a suicide wish.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/08/2004 14:03
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#14
"Me" -- I can't fight with the Marines and the Army at Fallujah, but I damn sure intend to do whatever I can to cover their backs from attacks by MSM sources that either fail to report their achievements or make an international incident out of any perceived miltary screwup.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/08/2004 14:06
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#15
Funny how that works, though... When excited, especially with something like an AK, it can be hard to hit the side of a barn. I recall something Wyatt Earp said (from a thread on RB long ago, heh) about doing your shooting in a deliberate hurry, heh.
#16
nigh impossible to fire off a straight volley with an AK on auto , and thats what most jihadis use . Think they all watched too many Rambo movies :P maybe its your Psyops in Hollywood to congratulate for their ineptness at handling fire arms .
And thanks to all of you saying thanks Tommy's . Alot of us over here appriciate that .
The US-led military in Afghanistan yesterday said it had been contacted by Taleban members willing to lay down their weapons following an arms-for-amnesty offer by the US envoy to Afghanistan. US military commanders operating in south and southeastern Afghanistan have been contacted by Taleban declaring their desire to "join the peaceful political process," the US-led military spokesman, Maj. Mark McCann, told a news briefing in Kabul. "We don't have any specific names — although, we have reports of individuals, the Taleban making contacts with some of our commanders in the field," the major said. He also said there had been "contacts with senior (provincial) government officials and military representatives here in Kabul."
His comments follow US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's call last Thursday for Taleban insurgents to lay down their arms in return for an amnesty. The ambassador called on remnants of the Taleban regime to get in contact with tribal elders and the US-led coalition to declare their allegiance to the Afghan government. "I don't know exactly how far the process has gone forward,... however, we have seen what we call rank-and-file... people who wish to reconcile and become part of the peaceful political process," McCann said. A spokesman claiming to be from the Taleban rejected the offer last weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
8:59:17 PM ||
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#1
Sounds like they're tired of those brutal Afghan winters.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/08/2004 21:29
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Your right Matt, to stay warm, you have to light fires or use electrical devices in the mountains, and yes they leave signatures and can be spotted by drones or satellites!
For at least a century scholars have assumed that the Koran is a work of multiple authors. However, largely out of fear, no one has put together a coherent theory stating which verses are authored by which author. Until Now. Abul Kasem's theory is based on what might be called the literary construct (as opposed to the linguistic construct that scholars used in Bible criticism).
Who Authored the Qur'an?—an Enquiry
Abul Kasem
Email: abul88@hotmail.com
...This article delves into the very authorship of the Holy Qur'an.... By analysing, dissecting and carefully interpreting the contents of the Qur'an, the Ahadith (Muhammad's traditions) and Sirah (Muhammad's biography) the author has identified several parties who had undoubtedly contributed to the composition of the Qur'anic verses... The most important personalities involved in the creation of the Qur'an were: Imrul Qays, Zayd b. Amr, Hasan b. Thabit, Salman, Bahira, ibn Qumta, Waraqa and Ubayy b. Ka'b. Muhammad, himself, was involved in the make-up of a limited number of verses, but the most influential person who motivated Muhammad in the invention of Islam and the opus of the Qur'an, perhaps, was Zayd b. Amr who preached 'Hanifism'....
Posted by: mhw ||
12/08/2004
8:47:48 AM ||
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#1
This guy is so dead. Is he in hiding yet?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/08/2004 9:41
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#2
that's why he's using a hotmail account ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 9:58
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#3
I should have also pointed to some of this early research
In mid 20th century, Cook and Crone came to this conclusion,
"..[The Qur'an] is strikingly lacking in overall structure, frequently obscure and inconsequential in both language and content, perfunctory in its linking of disparate materials, and given to the repetition of whole passages in variant versions. On this basis it can plausibly be argued that the book is the product of belated and imperfect editing of materials from a plurality of traditions..."
#7
Xbalanke - Prolly using FireFox - I'm trying it out - and the buttons don't work in it. I'm tempted to look at the JS code to figure out why, but I hate JS so I haven't motivated myself, yet. Gotten lazy in my old age, heh.
Mr Badanov, our resident 'Nix lover prolly loves this JS shit I'll bet... go to it bad!
#8
.com: bingo - I am using FF. While I am a geek, I'm not a Java-anything geek, so I'll leave the JS debugging alone. I'll just add them manually in the future (making sure to close them!).
#9
Xb - I just took a peek a minute ago and see nothing obvious - looks clean (heh, Fred wrote it so I knew it would!) - must be the FF implementation of the Doc object or the JS engine FF 1.0 uses.
#10
Fred knows about the button -FF glitch, but sez it's a FF issue
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 14:06
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And he doesn't want to clutter his code up with all sorts of browser identification and work-around JS to make this one tiny little segment of RBdom happy? Why, uh, how sensible!
#12
Thanks for the info, gents. I know from painful experience that platform inconsistencies are a b**ch. I certainly wouldn't expect Fred to do a work-around, but I'll still use FF since I'm ornery like that.
Reminds me of an online poll of browser users that had options along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing from memory):
A) MS IE - resistance is futile; you will be assimilated.
B) AOL - something snarky about the IQ of AOLies.
...
E) Opera - 0.04% of the population can't be all wrong.
Security Council members have expressed confidence in UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, dismissing calls by some US legislators for him to resign over the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program for Iraq. Even US ambassador John Danforth said he had "great confidence" in Mr Annan although he repeated the White House view that no one could make a definitive judgment until all the facts were in from investigations into allegations of corruption in the $64 billion program. During a working luncheon of the 15-nation council, Mr Annan expressed his determination to "carry out the investigation and to make the facts known to everybody," said Algerian ambassador Abdallah Baali, the council president for December. "There was certainly a unanimous view that this was the right thing to do," Mr Baali said.
"Nobody in the room called for Kofi Annan's resignation. On the contrary, we all expressed our confidence in the secretary-general," said German ambassador Gunter Pleuger. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, there have been widespread allegations of corruption and violations of the UN sanctions on Iraq, some connected to the UN program but others involving separate direct oil deals with governments. Mr Annan has also come under scrutiny because his son, Kojo, worked in West Africa for a Swiss firm, Cotecna, which inspected goods under the program and is under investigation. There is no evidence that the younger Annan dealt with the Iraq program, and no specific charges of wrongdoing on the part of the secretary-general in the December 1998 UN award to Cotecna to inspect goods under the oil-for-food program. But a handful of US Republican legislators have called on Mr Annan to step down. Council members, however, said they wanted him to stay on.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004
8:27:46 PM ||
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#5
Mr Annan expressed his determination to "carry out the investigation and to make the facts known to everybody.
This statement and the product of a bull's rear end bear a suspicious resemblence.
Its too bad the UN won't be disbanded over this and that there aren't any felony charges hanging over this investigation.
Members of a US special operations task force punched and abused prisoners in Iraq in front of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) agents and then threatened the agents to keep them quiet, a official document has revealed. A letter from the head of the DIA to a senior Pentagon intelligence official, which detailed previously unknown incidents of abuse by US forces on prisoners in Iraq, said the agents also saw detainees with burn marks and bruises. It was written two months after photographs of US soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad became public, and five months after American commanders in Iraq first learned of the Abu Ghraib abuse.
The Abu Ghraib revelations prompted international outrage and undercut US credibility as it sought to stabilise Iraq amid a bloody insurgency after last year's invasion. The new revelations of abuses elsewhere were included in a June 25 letter from Navy Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the DIA, to Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defence for intelligence. The letter was one of numerous US Government documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act. Other documents depict a split between the Defence Department and the FBI over Pentagon use of harsh interrogation methods on prisoners. Vice Admiral Jacoby wrote that two unidentified DIA agents, who worked as interrogators and debriefers at a detention facility in Baghdad, saw task force officers "punch a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention". Vice Admiral Jacoby said that "the debriefer was ordered to leave the room". The date of the incident was not stated.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004
8:22:47 PM ||
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#1
GSTW - Your nym sucks. You sure you aren't Mikey in dysguyse?
#2
awww, poor you. Read something you didnt like ? awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Get over yourself
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004 3:19
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#3
If you had the option of matching my i.p address with Mikey, im sure you would discover im not the person your claiming me to be.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004 3:22
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#4
This article is a doozy. NY Times Agenda/reporting without all the fuzzy good feeling. Since it is in an Aussie newspaper, it could a plant given the source (ACLU)
Try this on for size:
Vice Admiral Jacoby wrote that two unidentified DIA agents, who worked as interrogators and debriefers at a detention facility in Baghdad, saw task force officers "punch a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention". Vice Admiral Jacoby said that "the debriefer was ordered to leave the room". The date of the incident was not stated.
Now the article's premise is that 'abuses' of Iraqi prisoners took place after April 2003, after Abu Ghrab: So, the date of the incident is not known? Is the location unknown as well? Is the event even real?
Since this story is premised that government documents were released and information for this article are 'revelations' why is there no detail? Could it be there are no details (details that include facts ) becuase there are actually no documents?
A former US Marine said his unit killed more than 30 innocent Iraqi civilians in just two days, in graphic testimony to a Canadian tribunal probing an asylum claim by a US Army deserter. Former Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey appeared as a witness to bolster claims by fugitive paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman that he walked out on the 82nd Airborne Division to avoid being ordered to commit war crimes in Iraq. Mr Hinzman, 26, claims he would face persecution if sent home to the United States, in a politically charged case which could set a precedent for at least two other US deserters seeking asylum in Canada. Mr Massey told Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) that men under his command in the 3rd battalion, 7th Marines, killed "30 plus" civilians within 48 hours while on checkpoint duty in Baghdad.
"I do know that we killed innocent civilians," Mr Massey told the tribunal, relating the chaotic days after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Mr Massey said that in some incidents, Iraqi civilians were killed by between 200 and 500 rounds pumped into four separate cars which each failed to respond to a single warning shot and respond to hand signals at a Baghdad checkpoint. At the time, US soldiers feared suicide bombers would try to ram checkpoints, he said. Searches found no weapons in the vehicles or evidence that those killed were anything but innocent civilians, he said.
He also said Marines killed four unarmed demonstrators, and more Iraqis the next day during another spell of checkpoint duty in the occupied Iraqi capital. "I was never clear on who was the enemy and who was not," said Mr Massey. "When you don't know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?" asked the former Marine, later honourably discharged from the service with severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
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Posted by: God Save The WOrld ||
12/08/2004
8:21:35 PM ||
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#1
"four separate cars which each failed to respond to a single warning shot and respond to hand signals"... "no weapons in the vehicles or evidence that those killed were anything but innocent civilians"
It' s called a war. If you are that stupid that you do not respond to clear signals, then you must be presumed that you have hostile intent. It is as simple as that.
"I was never clear on who was the enemy and who was not"
Yea, they seem to look alike and the enemy does not have "enemy" note written by sharpie on the forehead. It is kinda on purpose.
This is such a bunch of crap that iritates me to no end.
#2
"in graphic testimony to a Canadian tribunal probing an asylum claim by a US Army deserter."
The DNC couldn't have written a better script.
I'm sure if the civilians had reacted to 1) a warning shot and 2) hand and arm signals these civilians would NOT have been shot. It's called "Rules of Engagement" and the "deserter" should have studied them a little more. The soldiers were well within their rights and I would have made the same call.
Come back and talk to me when we start shooting people at random without warning for no reason.
#4
Could it be that the deliberate use of suicide carbombs as a tactic of war caused US forces to drop the Officer Friendly attitude to any vehicles that didn't stop at checkpoints? Our tsk-tsk loving neighbors to the north don't seem to realize that carbombs are considered outside the "rules of war". Maybe the upstanding Canuckistaners will outlaw carbombs so they will never be used again.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2004 4:00
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Ed, our upstanding Canusckistaners can outlaw anything, but the question is if it is relevant any.
Anyway, I doubt that IRB would be inclined to involve somme fuzzy feelings in regards to the claimant and buy that crap. I mean, we don't have much of an army and this would set a bad precedent (not sure where canuck soldiers would claim asylum, North Korea?), it was a bit different with conscripts during Vietnam war, but in this case it's someone who signed up.
#8
Yeah, by the article's own reporting, this Marine is suffering from PTSD and severe depression. The PTSD means he might be hallucinatory, and the severe depression means that he has a problem with magnifying and dwelling upon negative stimuli and warped recollection of past negative stimuli. The combination ought to render him incompetent to offer testimony in any well-run court.
GSTW, FOAD.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/08/2004 8:15
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Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Douglas Powell at the Pentagon said Massey's charges had been investigated and were unproved. Massey is a former Marine recruiter who served in Iraq as the staff sergeant for a platoon that ranged from 25 to 50 men. He said his men, fearing suicide bombers, poured massive firepower into cars that did not stop as they approached the roadblocks. In each instance, he said, none of the cars was found to have contained explosives or arms.
Tough for them, but they should have stopped.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004 11:51
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#13
Whats that song...
You dont put on superman's cape...
You don't spit into the wind...
You don't pull the mask of the ole lone ranger...
[You dont drive fast toward a MARINE checkpoint...]
And you dont mess around with jim...
#16
This is old news. I remember each one of those incidents being splashed all over the "news" when they happened. They even showed film of one of the incidents when our guys shot up a vehicle that didn't stop at a checkpoint. Tragic, but perfectly understandable under the circumstances. To try to impute a whiff of war crimes to these incidents is just execrable.
#18
This is truly out of the Anti-War play book and how far down the road will be an Oliver Stone docu-fantasy ala Born on the Fourth of July. For those of you that missed it:
In BOTFOJ,a teenager (played by Tom Cruise) Kovic joins the Marines, and is sent to Vietnam where he is permanently crippled.
Kovic is sent back home and, at first, pretends that everything is all right â but it isn't. He's soon swearing at his parents, breaking down in tears, yelling about the horrific images he witnessed in Vietnam, cursing America â all this leading to his own self-destruction.
Kovic's story is a true one, but it is also greatly exaggerated by Stone with his use of factual inaccuracies and manipulation of truth. Cruise's performance is one of his finest (and he was nominated for Best Actor in 1989), but both he and Stone try too hard â they take a good story and turn it into an overwhelming anti-war propaganda piece. The movie feels like it has no purpose â as if Stone is using it as an excuse to bombard us with more of his theories about warfare and how wrong it is.
War happens. And we can't ignore it. A movie such as "Born on the Fourth of July" takes a stab at a specific event in America's past, shaming the veterans (Kovic included) through its ignorant and naïve outlook. Stone spends so much time trying to convince us why Vietnam was a blunder, and why it was a disgrace, and why it was a horrible decision, and why Republicans are idiots (check out the grand finale outside the Republican National Convention), and why Kovic's fight for "the truth" is honorable, that he forgets to honor the vets themselves.
As Jarhead said, if his fellow Marines (hey, finally Massey can be accurately called an "ex-Marine", catch up to Massey, they may well help him reprise the Tom Cruise role...broken legs, to match his obvious break with the Corps and his former fellow Marines.
The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to approve the intelligence reorganization bill that had been held in committee for weeks. The bill is likely to reach the Senate on Wednesday. President Bush has said he will sign it. The legislation, drawn from recommendations made by a independent commission that reviewed intelligence failures that led up to the September 11, 2001, attacks, would overhaul the U.S. intelligence community. It would put most assets and budgets under the newly created post of national intelligence director. The bill stalled November 20 when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter and House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner persuaded House Speaker Dennis Hastert not to bring it to the House floor for a vote. Many Democrats and Republicans were angered because they said they had the votes to pass the bill -- without the two congressmen and their supporters. Hastert, R-Illinois, held back, and House-Senate conferees went to work to find language that would ease Hunter's concerns.
A top House GOP leadership aide predicted Tuesday that 20 to 40 conservatives will vote against the bill. If the number tops 50, it will be "troubling," he said. Nevertheless, he said, GOP leaders will press ahead on the vote. "They're not going to turn back at this point," the aide said. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee, said Hastert likely will win a "slim majority of the majority," referring to the speaker's stated goal of gaining the support of most Republicans. President Bush pushed for the bill in his radio address Saturday and in a letter to Congress on Monday, and Vice President Dick Cheney joined in the weekend talks.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004
8:17:26 PM ||
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#1
With the exceptions of a few, they will sign it. It's political suicide not to.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 8:07
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#3
This is a mistake, the 9/11 commission was a joke and the President ought to know better. I can't figure out why he was so quick to jump on this. Another layer of bureaucracy won't solve anything and it doesn't even include any border securing measures which in my view is the most obvious problem.
#5
The Democrats were fools on this just like the TSA. They push an issue simply to hurt Bush without regard to its benefit to the nation. Bush succumbs to the "public outcry" and the nation is worse off. He won the election. I hope he tells them to STFU when they come up with their next screw Bush idea.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/08/2004 8:19
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#6
I don't understand why you all think this is such a bad idea. Duncan Hunter, who I respect, signed onto this once they fixed his concerns. Just because they didn't pass all of the immigration reforms we need doesn't mean that it's not a good bill. Personally, I think they rope-a-doped the Dems. The Dem leadership knew enough of their members would vote yes for it to pass and could not afford to appear to be opposed to it since it would confirm everyone's knowledge that they are weak on homeland security. I think the Dems made a strategic decision to make it look like they overwhelmingly supported this popular bill but the Republicans did not. Don't fall for it.
#7
This bill was a result of the 9/11 commission's recommendations. The major problem that I have with this bill, is that it does not cover drivers licenses. The 9/11 commission clearly played policical games with the final report. The last time I checked, the 9/11 hijackers had in possession, 63 different drivers licences. For this intelligence bill NOT to cover the drivers license issue, is just plain irresponsible (mild picante sauce). The majority of the politicians are STILL in the pre 9/11 mentality. After GW's term is up, I am NOT going to feel safe.
#8
2b - my point is that 75 is not "a few" - there are still legitimate concerns, yes, about immigration. Now, .com believes, and I hope, that W will address immigration reform in a meaningful way after the new year. I am looking for other than an amnesty discussion, the last of which caused a huge rush of illegals attempting to be incountry when the amnesty hits. Shut down the border, establish national ID card rules, and as long as my rep. Hunter is satisfied, then so am I
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 15:08
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This is beyond Dems vs Repubs. Our nation has a gaping window of vulnerability that's about 2,000 miles long, and no one in Washington is serious about closing that window.
The buck stops with the man in the Oval Office. Long past time that he put forth an immigration policy focused on our needs and not those of his amigo Vicente Fox.
#10
Right with you, Frank-and lex. And if neither the Pubs or the Crats get it-watch that third party swell in 2008. Folks are sick of this immigration charade. We either live by rule of law or we don't.
EFL. Some of us seem to be getting older. There is a link to a Jerry Blavat interview I could not make play. Posted this using the new toolbar helper. What is really cool is not only does it title and source your post, but it copies whatever you have highlighted into the text. Very well done!
Legendary Philly entertainment entrepreneur Dick Clark has had a stroke, according to his spokesman in California. The spokesman, Paul Shefrin, said Clark, 75, is recuperating from the health scare suffered earlier this week. "The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long, so I'm hopeful to be able to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in bringing in the New Year once again," said Clark in a statement. No other details about Clark's health were released in the statement. Last April, Clark, 75, announced he had type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, since 1994, but kept it a secret from everyone except close friends and family. Clark graduated from Syracuse University in 1951 with a degee in business administration, and he moved to Philadelphia in the early 1950s.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/08/2004
8:11:29 PM ||
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An Iraqi businessman was negotiating several months ago to sell a prime piece of commercial real estate in central Baghdad. He had tentatively agreed on a price with a Kuwaiti investor, who planned someday to build an electronics superstore on the 9,850-square-foot property. But after President Bush was reelected in November, the Iraqi jacked up the price 25 percent. The prospect that a reelected Bush administration would stay and fight -- and ultimately stabilize Iraq -- had instantly made his property more valuable. Snip
The war has become a classic test of wills. An example is the insurgents' campaign to close the capital's most important strategic artery, the road from the airport to central Baghdad and the Green Zone. When the insurgents added roving car bombs to their mix of ambushes and roadside explosives, the United States decided last week to ban official travel along the road. It was an insurgent victory, but probably a momentary one. The Americans have already decided on their response: They will take two lanes of the four-lane highway and create a dedicated road that will be open only to official traffic. Iraqis, car bombers and ordinary citizens alike, will be forced to use the other two lanes, safely across the median.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/08/2004
7:37:08 PM ||
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SEVERAL thousand Christians took over the compound of the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypt's capital today, hurling stones at riot police in a protest over a woman who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam.
The stones injured at least 30 people, including 21 police. Some policemen were seen wiping blood from their heads in the streets outside the compound in the city's Abbasiya district.
Police sealed off the compound, parking 40 trucks around its walls, and closed adjacent roads.
Protests began at the cathedral on Sunday as word spread that the wife of a Coptic priest in Abou al-Matameer, a town 135km north of Cairo, had been forced by her civil service boss, a Muslim, to convert.
A security official has said the 47-year-old woman, Wafaa Constantine, was found living in a Muslim household in Cairo and had become a Muslim of her own free will.
Some Copts, as Egypt's Christians are known, said Constantine had been kidnapped and taken to Cairo with the complicity of local authorities.
The facts of the case are not clear, but have highlighted the potential for friction between Egypt's Muslim majority and Christian minority. The Copts account for an estimated 10 per cent of the population of 70 million.
Last night a brother-in-law of Constantine entered the compound and told the protesters through a loudspeaker that the woman had returned home.
"My brothers and sisters, my brother just told me that she arrived in a safe place and she is in good condition," Meshiha Maawad said.
The protesters clapped and whistled, but refused to leave. They demanded that Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, speak to them. The Pope has offices in the compound.
An assistant to the Pope, Bishop Yoanas, told the crowd that the Pope had left the compound because he was "upset" that the authorities delayed Constantine's return.
Some protesters said that they would not leave the until they saw Constantine herself. But, as the night wore on, many did leave.
Among the injured was Matyas Abdel Maseh, a young priest with a bandage around his head. Leaning against a wall for support, he said he was hit by a stone thrown by the police as he tried to stop the demonstrators from getting too close to the compound's gates.
"The Government is attacking Christians," he said. "The army outside the gates is attacking us with stones."
The protesters got the "stones" by chipping pieces of masonry from steps and other pavings in the compound.
Accusations of forced conversion surface every year in Egypt.
The editor of the Coptic newspaper Watani, Youssef Sidhom, accused the government and local authorities of being reluctant to investigate and prosecute cases of forced conversion.
#1
The question is boxed into a dated paradigm. The border *cannot* be "secure" without an iron curtain that stretches its length, with three divisions to permanently police it. And to achieve what end? NOTHING OF VALUE. The "reform of immigration law" amounting to giving citizenship to illegals is the other half of the failed paradigm. Bush's idea of easy-to-obtain work visas is very reasonable, but is adamantly opposed by those stuck in the old paradigm: many of whom don't want "legal" workers who can unionize and demand better pay and working conditions, but who want vast numbers of "illegal" workers to exploit. And if we're talking about non-Mexican illegals, such as Arabs, the simple solution of paying Mexicans a bounty for information leading the capture of such illegals is a simple and inexpensive solution.
Official Iranian sources are claiming that they have information about Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signing an agreement in 2003 in which Pakistan promised to help Saudi Arabia develop nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The Iranian reports emphasize that the nuclear cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is at an advanced stage and that for the first time the Saudis have access to nuclear technology. The international news agency United Press International (UPI) reported that Iranian Prof. Abu Mohammed Asgarkhani claimed in a lecture that Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear arms picked up after it learned about the Pakistani-Saudi deal and the possibility that Saudi Arabia would eventually acquire nuclear weapons. Israeli and Western sources are not attributing much significance to the Saudi ability to develop, even partially, nuclear weapons. Pakistan owes Saudi Arabia a great deal because Saudi Arabia essentially financed development of the Pakistani bomb.
Outsourced the program, why do you think they call it the "Islamic Bomb" and not the "Pakistani Bomb"?
A Saudi representative may have been the only foreigner invited to visit Pakistan's nuclear facilities. Pakistan was also the middleman between Saudi Arabia and China for the purchase of long-range Chinese missiles. Those missiles, based in Saudi Arabia, have meanwhile become obsolete, and the Saudis want to upgrade them. The Americans told the Chinese that would be a violation of an agreement in which the Chinese promised not to sell missiles. The Chinese say it would not be a missile sale, but an upgrade of an existing missile sold a long time ago, but Washington remains opposed to the deal.
Saudis have aprox 50 CSS-2 "East Wind" missiles with a CEP of 2.5Km. Details here.
The Iranian reports about nuclear dealings between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is apparently motivated by Iran's interest in pointing out that other countries in the region are involved in military nuclear development and that they are not coming under international criticism because they are friends of the U.S.
Posted by: phil_b ||
12/08/2004
6:12:33 AM ||
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...Iranâs interest in pointing out that other countries in the region are involved in military nuclear development and that they are not coming under international criticism because they are friends of the U.S.
Iran, our olde friend. We know, we know. You both are on the radar screen. Just because the EU, the US and others are bitching about your nuke program does not mean that we are not paying attention to the Saudi's program. Don't worry. They will get equal attention in the end.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2004 11:37
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Debka (this time not salt to taste) reported this several months ago. Pakistan also houses Soddi madrassas as a breeding ground for jihadi's. I agree with Alaska P., we got our eyes on Paki and Soddy weapons deal.
The leader of the al Qaeda attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia had been jailed for "extremist ideology" and once worked for the kingdom's austere morality police, local newspapers said on Wednesday. Saudi dailies said Fayez Awad al-Jihani was the head of an al Qaeda cell in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where the brazen daylight attack on the U.S. consulate took place on Monday. Jihani was one of four attackers who died in the assault. A fifth was wounded and arrested. Saudi authorities identified three of the assailants, none of whom were on a list of top wanted militants.
The attack, in which five non-American consulate staff died, was the first on a Western diplomatic mission and the first big strike in six months in the world's top oil exporter by militants bent on driving Westerners from the cradle of Islam. Leading Saudi newspaper Okaz quoted sources close to Jihani's family as saying he had been jailed for four months "due to extremist ideology", was freed in October 2003 and disappeared three months after that. It said rumours surfaced then that he had gone to the western Iraqi city of Falluja.
Al Qaeda's Saudi wing claimed the consulate strike, which was codenamed "the blessed Falluja attack" after the city where U.S.-led forces launched an offensive against insurgents including supporters of al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Another Saudi daily, al-Watan, quoted a cousin of Jihani as saying he had been fired from the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice five years ago for "misconduct". Okaz said Jihani, who was in his mid-20s, joined the authority after graduating from high school but was sacked after he assaulted some people detained by the morality police. The authority is a pillar of the ultraconservative kingdom. Answerable only to King Fahd and separate from ordinary police, members of the authority patrol the streets with police escort, ensuring their strict interpretation of Islam is upheld. The body has come under unprecedented scrutiny in Saudi Arabia after a wave of al Qaeda attacks in the kingdom since May 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
6:01:18 AM ||
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#1
'Another Saudi daily, al-Watan, quoted a cousin of Jihani as saying he had been fired from the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice five years ago for "misconduct".'
Wander what they consider to be misconduct?
#5
Or maybe he was one the dumb morality police who stopped firemen from rescueing schoolgirls at a burning school because their heads weren't covered. Saudi has the trash of the earth.
#6
"Has come under unprecedented scrutiny" Yeah, not enough of them use henna in their beards. Not enough of them have their pajama pants and/or thobe cut high enough.
Unprecedented scrutiny, but answerable only to Fahd? Well, I guess, we'll have to investigate Fahd's relations to the Morality cops. Questioning will immediately follow Fahad's recovery from the stroke that afflicted him in the '90's. Right guys? Thank you Reuters for the insights.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 13:48
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#7
Reuters is so anti-american, the editors plot all day along against america
There is a little-known movement sweeping across the United States. The movement is "natalism."
All across the industrialized world, birthrates are falling - in Western Europe, in Canada and in many regions of the United States. People are marrying later and having fewer kids. But spread around this country, and concentrated in certain areas, the natalists defy these trends.
They are having three, four or more kids. Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating thing they can do. Very often they have sacrificed pleasures like sophisticated movies, restaurant dining and foreign travel, let alone competitive careers and disposable income, for the sake of their parental calling.
In a world that often makes it hard to raise large families, many are willing to move to find places that are congenial to natalist values. The fastest-growing regions of the country tend to have the highest concentrations of children. Young families move away from what they perceive as disorder, vulgarity and danger and move to places like Douglas County in Colorado (which is the fastest-growing county in the country and has one of the highest concentrations of kids). Some people see these exurbs as sprawling, materialistic wastelands, but many natalists see them as clean, orderly and affordable places where they can nurture children.
If you wanted a one-sentence explanation for the explosive growth of far-flung suburbs, it would be that when people get money, one of the first things they do is use it to try to protect their children from bad influences.
So there are significant fertility inequalities across regions. People on the Great Plains and in the Southwest are much more fertile than people in New England or on the Pacific coast.
You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates.
In The New Republic Online, Joel Kotkin and William Frey observe, "Democrats swept the largely childless cities - true blue locales like San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Boston and Manhattan have the lowest percentages of children in the nation - but generally had poor showings in those places where families are settling down, notably the Sun Belt cities, exurbs and outer suburbs of older metropolitan areas."
Politicians will try to pander to this group. They should know this is a spiritual movement, not a political one. The people who are having big families are explicitly rejecting materialistic incentives and hyperindividualism. It costs a middle-class family upward of $200,000 to raise a child. These people are saying money and ambition will not be their gods.
Natalists resist the declining fertility trends not because of income, education or other socioeconomic characteristics. It's attitudes. People with larger families tend to attend religious services more often, and tend to have more traditional gender roles.
I draw attention to natalists because they're an important feature of our national life. Because of them, the U.S. stands out in all sorts of demographic and cultural categories. But I do it also because when we talk about the divide on values in this country, caricatured in the red and blue maps, it's important that we understand the true motive forces behind it.
Natalists are associated with red America, but they're not launching a jihad. The differences between them and people on the other side of the cultural or political divide are differences of degree, not kind. Like most Americans, but perhaps more anxiously, they try to shepherd their kids through supermarket checkouts lined with screaming Cosmo or Maxim cover lines. Like most Americans, but maybe more so, they suspect that we won't solve our social problems or see improvements in our schools as long as many kids are growing up in barely functioning families.
Like most Americans, and maybe more so because they tend to marry earlier, they find themselves confronting the consequences of divorce. Like most Americans, they wonder how we can be tolerant of diverse lifestyles while still preserving the family institutions that are under threat.
What they cherish, like most Americans, is the self-sacrificial love shown by parents. People who have enough kids for a basketball team are too busy to fight a culture war.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/08/2004
5:53:18 AM ||
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#1
My goodness. We, who used to be called simply 'parents', now have an -ism all our own. I guess its official now, 'cause its in the New York Times! D'you suppose parents are trying to make the best environment for their children outside the NYT delivery zone...like, say, Ghana or Venezuela?
#2
Give me a break. This movement is as ficticious as all get out. So, people who want to raise families - away from the cities with drugs - and thus move to less populated areas are doing so because they are natists? Who the *((&& makes this stuff up?
#3
hmmmm sounds like the blue staters wanna enforce a limit on numbers of red state children? I suppose they'd justify it as an environmental/abortion issue? LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 8:03
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#4
lol! Just another weak attempt by clueless blue noses to view the Average American as gun totin' militia members. Look at the bright side, if this prevents the blue noses from having more children to prove their blueness - we all win.
#5
Don't laugh - eugenics is coming back in a big way. I've heard plenty of leftists talking about "breeders" needing "birth licenses" before they can conceive a child. Of course violators would be given abortions and prison sentences. They weren't kidding when they said this.
The justification given was that if adoptive parents have to meet exacting standards in order to qualify for a child, natural parents should as well. Frightening stuff.
#6
gromky
You are not far off the mark The discredited and racist eugenics movement is still alive and well in "Planned Parenthood". The eugenics movement has alway been just under the surface with some of the well off left. It still has a foothold in some of the social welfare departments in the north east.
#7
whoa..whoa...whoa. eugeneics through Planned Parenthood? Let's not overstate the case. These people choose not to have children, generally because they are unwed. It may be murder, depending on how one views it, but calling it eugenics - seems a bit over the top.
As for birth licenses - there was a time when the wedding certificate was, for all practical purposes, a "birth license".
Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating abortion or birth licenses, (definitely treading on dangerous ground) - but let's not confuse abortion - the (perhaps misguided) choice not to become a parent, with forced abortions.
#9
And this would be different from 1996 (when Clinton won) how?
Posted by: Tom ||
12/08/2004 8:43
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#10
moose - I get your point - but it's probably true that abortion results in a decrease in crime. Most of the people who are having abortions are young, unwed, women, whom we can all agree, do not make good parents.
Noting a probable fact, that abortion rates result in decreased crime is a long way from forcing eugenics. Rather, I'd suggest that they are presenting a case for keeping abortion legal.
#11
Planned Parenthood offices were originally in areas where "the wrong kind of people" lived. There is something in that woodpile. I am not even talking about our current time I am talking in the near past. Check out the founders and the people involved in it. If you can, look at some of the old eugenics propaganda films. Some nasty crap.
#12
oh please. Planned Parenthood is in the neighborhoods where the "wrong kind of people" live it's because that's where the most of the young, unmarried women were getting pregnant.
What...so now you want the ghettos to multiply out of control? Look, if Planned Parenthood didn't offer abortions, they'd be in the same neighborhoods. The rich girls can get birth control from their doctors.
#13
I'm done with this paranoid crap. Why don't we all just get a gun and move to a
commune compound in Montana. There, the women will all do nothing but birth babies and we'll shoot our food and grow our crops.
#14
No Planned Parenthood is everywhere now. When it started out was only in poor areas. You are not understanding me I think. When it started some people who believed in euginics were involved. I don't think that is the case now.
#18
just as an FYI aside - I read this week that blacks in California are now reproducing at a rate below latinos (of course) and whites! Education and income advances are usually the reason....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 9:47
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#20
If you wanted a one-sentence explanation for the explosive growth of far-flung suburbs, it would be that when people get money, one of the first things they do is use it to try to protect their children from bad influences
right you are Frank. Which is another reason why Brooks, in this (surprise) NYT article is so full of it. These families are moving to areas where it doesn't take a $200,000 a year salary to afford having a family. It's not because they are shunning materialism and opting to breed in great numbers, as he so obtusely puts forward, but they are simply going somewhere they can have room and space to raise a family without having to earn that much.
#21
There is a little-known movement sweeping across the United States. The movement is "natalism."
The only good movement is a bowel movement.
All across the industrialized world, birthrates are falling - in Western Europe, in Canada and in many regions of the United States. People are marrying later and having fewer kids. But spread around this country, and concentrated in certain areas, the natalists defy these trends.
Note how 'natalists' 'defy' trends. I bet you anything falling birthrates coincide with decisions not to have families at all, coincide with not having sex at all or with an improperly equipped person.
They are having three, four or more kids. Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating thing they can do. Very often they have sacrificed pleasures like sophisticated movies, restaurant dining and foreign travel, let alone competitive careers and disposable income, for the sake of their parental calling.
That's why they call 'natalism' the Roe Effect. Let the LLL refuse to bunk in with someone who is fertile. The outcome is fewer leftists, not a bad idea.
In a world that often makes it hard to raise large families, many are willing to move to find places that are congenial to natalist values. The fastest-growing regions of the country tend to have the highest concentrations of children. Young families move away from what they perceive as disorder, vulgarity and danger and move to places like Douglas County in Colorado (which is the fastest-growing county in the country and has one of the highest concentrations of kids). Some people see these exurbs as sprawling, materialistic wastelands, but many natalists see them as clean, orderly and affordable places where they can nurture children.
Yeah! What the hell do they know? Let leftists raise what few kids they deign to have in filth and squalor.
If you wanted a one-sentence explanation for the explosive growth of far-flung suburbs, it would be that when people get money, one of the first things they do is use it to try to protect their children from bad influences.
Like this article, for example.
So there are significant fertility inequalities across regions. People on the Great Plains and in the Southwest are much more fertile than people in New England or on the Pacific coast.
Not more fertile. They just happen to know what to do with it.
You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates.
In The New Republic Online, Joel Kotkin and William Frey observe, "Democrats swept the largely childless cities - true blue locales like San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Boston and Manhattan have the lowest percentages of children in the nation - but generally had poor showings in those places where families are settling down, notably the Sun Belt cities, exurbs and outer suburbs of older metropolitan areas."
Why have a child when you can deal with adults who never grew up.
Politicians will try to pander to this group. They should know this is a spiritual movement, not a political one. The people who are having big families are explicitly rejecting materialistic incentives and hyperindividualism. It costs a middle-class family upward of $200,000 to raise a child. These people are saying money and ambition will not be their gods.
Note the 'statistic', upwards of. That's some good propogandistic writing there. Also note what this writer calls pandering the sane world calls politics. Its kinda kewt how this guy can call politics pandering in a sleazy way, yet it is an issue with the writer in this article.
Natalists resist the declining fertility trends not because of income, education or other socioeconomic characteristics. Itâs attitudes. People with larger families tend to attend religious services more often, and tend to have more traditional gender roles.
Now, I am no expert but I am willing to bet you, were I to bed down with a willing leftist female I am willing to bet her equipment is the same as a conservative female.
I draw attention to natalists because theyâre an important feature of our national life. Because of them, the U.S. stands out in all sorts of demographic and cultural categories. But I do it also because when we talk about the divide on values in this country, caricatured in the red and blue maps, itâs important that we understand the true motive forces behind it.
Isn't that cute? The election of 2004 is now a caricature rather than a devastating loss for the left.
Natalists are associated with red America, but theyâre not launching a jihad. The differences between them and people on the other side of the cultural or political divide are differences of degree, not kind. Like most Americans, but perhaps more anxiously, they try to shepherd their kids through supermarket checkouts lined with screaming Cosmo or Maxim cover lines. Like most Americans, but maybe more so, they suspect that we wonât solve our social problems or see improvements in our schools as long as many kids are growing up in barely functioning families.
The Columbine killers were from small families, so you can chuck that 'fact' out the door. And there is no correlation the writer reveals that supports his/her cntention that large families engender social problems. In fact in view of the Columbine massacre, the obverse can be shown to be true.
Like most Americans, and maybe more so because they tend to marry earlier, they find themselves confronting the consequences of divorce. Like most Americans, they wonder how we can be tolerant of diverse lifestyles while still preserving the family institutions that are under threat
Somehow, I don't think this writer is a strong advocate of familes, not after he/she decries them when they are too large.
You are correct in pointing out that Planned Parenthood was founded by a fanatic eugenicist (Margaret Sanger) whose objective was to reduce the "breeding" of "undesirables," including (but not limited to) black people. Before WWII, the organization was known as the "Birth Control League," and published the writings of German "racial hygene" theorists in its house magazine, The Birth Control Journal. The name change to "Planned Parenthood" came either during or after the war, a PR gag to mask the group's unsavory association with now-defunct Nazi Germany.
Have to disagree with you about PP in its current form, though. Take a look at some of the things PP and the "pro-choice" crowd say when they're talking to each other--the old desire to prevent the "breeding" of "undesirables" is alive and well, in an organization as dedicated to the wanton destruction of innocent life as any platoon of jihadis. Even if you think birth control is (or can be) a good thing, you still can (and should) recognize the PP crowd for the fanatics they are.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/08/2004 10:28
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#23
badanov - great fisk.
Mike...sometimes when evil people plan evil things - good comes out of it. If "undesirable people" can prevent themselves from having babies when they are young and stupid - it allows them to go to school, grow up and be considered "desireable" by the society as a whole. Oops... I guess their plan backfired. Too bad.
#24
Sticking my head in here to represent the womanly point of view. FTR, I don't have kids but would like to. :-)
My position on abortion is mixed.
The science has gotten way ahead of the ethics; doctors are able to deliver and incubate preterm babies so tiny that they could legally be aborted. How can you decide which baby lives and which baby dies? (And to add fuel to that fire, is it "right" to spend $1 or 2 million dollars to save that one tiny preemie?)
BUT. I don't really recognize the State's assumption of privilege over my womb. My body. Mine. Not the State's. Not the Republican's. Not the Democrat's. Not my husband's. And not the Supreme Court's. Mine. Mine. Mine. Get that?
OK then:
Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger in the 20's. If you Google around enough, you'll see plenty of evidence that she did good things for sometimes shady reasons. Here is a link to some of her own writings; it's long but worth it.
In closing, I just wanted to say that one thing that I've noted about religion (of every flavor) is that the more Orthodox it gets, the fewer rights have the wimmin and the more babies they are expected to bear.
#25
is that the more Orthodox it gets, the fewer rights have the wimmin and the more babies they are expected to bear.
well....I have to ponder that. To some degree, I would argue that Christianity made possible the environment that allowed women's rights to get off the ground. But...then...only because our Christian nation supported the idea of "equality for all". Certainly the churches themselves are always pushing for more members and the bible doesn't seem to weigh in on it.
#26
bad, Seaf-- have you guys read anything else Brooks has written? If you had, you might grasp that Brooks is not "decrying" large families, rather he's simply recognizing a crucial social divide that has huge political ramifications.
The key fact here is that Democrats, once the party of large moderate-income northern Catholic and southern protestant families, are now the party of childless secular bicoastal yuppies.
The Democratic party of my childhood (1960s-70s) was quite strong among large, non-rural white families, particularly Catholic families, and was very competitive in the suburbs. This was the party of the Catholic Youth Organization, of patriotic Americans who admired the Kennedys as much for their image as a large and devoted family as for their liberal idealism and commitment to public service.
In fact, in the postwar American Catholic mind, the two went hand in hand: you took care of your family and you took care of your community, with no one left behind. Feminism, gays, abortion: these controversies, while troubling, had not emerged as litmus tests for loyal Democrats, who in the domestic sphere were still mainly concerned with bread-and-butter economic issues. Neither was religion in the public schools an issue; these Democrats tended to send their children to parochial schools. Patriotism, like the paterfamilias, was an unquestioned good.
No more. As the Democrats' unionized base has shriveled, the Democrat leadership has shifted its domestic attention from economic to cultural issues. Abortion and gay rights stir the souls of Democratic activists these days, and these are the preoccupation of secular, urban, childless yuppies. The emblematic old-style Dem leader was Tip O'Neill, a blue-collar Catholic ward-heeler. Today's archetypal Dem leader is Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco socialite whose Catholicism, if it exists, is so muted as to be invisible. One can easily imagine O'Neill playing softball with his local CYO league and having a pint with the parents afterwards. But you can't picture Pelosi in her off-hours in anything but evening dress, shmoozing with software and money guy gazillionaires (does San Francisco even have a CYO these days?).
#27
have you guys read anything else Brooks has written? If you had, you might grasp that Brooks is not "decrying" large families, rather he's simply recognizing a crucial social divide that has huge political ramifications
I know I didn't just pull it out of thin air that the writer has a condesending attitude towards 'natalists.' Does his article repudiate the man's views in his books?
#28
Here's another way of looking at it: who are each party's diehards? What % of Repub activists, Freepers, Rantburg regulars have kids? What % of
Dem activists, Daily Kos/DU/Calpundit regulars have kids?
My guess is >50% for the former and <25% for the latter. If you ever scroll through the posts at Calpundit or (horrors) Kos, you'll notice something very strange: almost none of these people ever references his or her children. A large number reveal themselves to be gay. Almost all of them live in urban or college town enclaves. An old-time large-family liberal Democrat feels very much estranged from these people, whose lives seem to revolve around the internet, dating, internet dating, and the kind of globalist outlook that most people embrace for a year or two during college. It's a fair bet that less than one third of these people have children. Single and looking, they're highly sympathetic to the gays' preoccupation with sexual freedom and tend to be paranoid about the religious right.
When you look at Democratic party activists, you see the a slightly less flamboyant version of the kinds of people you encounter on Daily Kos or DU. Dem activists show far more interest in gay rights and abortion than in the needs of working-class families, perhaps because a large number of these activists are themselves gay or single women.
These Democrats' preoccupations overlap nicely with the news agenda of the preeminent liberal lifestyle guide, the New York Times: gays, feminism, European opinion, race relations, real estate prices, investments, fashion, Hollywood. If you're thinking of living in Democratville... just don't bring children along. Anyone with a large family feels completely left out of today's Democratic party.
This, I think, is the essential point of Brooks' article. He tends to be too cutesy in his descriptions of social mores and taste badges, but the man has his finger on a crucial-- probably the crucial-- problem of the Democratic Party today.
#29
bad, you're focusing too much on his stylistic flourishes and not enough on the essential point. A semi-smug air of condescension is the price of admission for anyone writing for the urban ledt-lib lifestyle guide that is today's NY Times.
#30
I'm sorry lex - regardless of any good ideas he may have had in the past, "natalism" is the stoopidist thing I've ever heard of. People aren't foregoing materialism and choosing to have more babies - they are just having a family and want to be able to afford some space, so they are moving to "red states" where the cost of housing is cheaper and they can afford to enjoy the luxuries of life.
Putting this all under a heading of "natalism" is insulting and stoopid.
#31
A few years ago I read "Generations", by Strauss and Howe. It's an interesting look at American history grouped by generations and their characteristics. A little New-Agey but fun.
But I got the chills when I read about my generation, the "Thirteeners" (roughly those born between 1961-1975). We were the generation everyone tried really hard not to have. Between birth control pills and Roe v. Wade, my generation is tiny compared to the self-involved and soon-to-retire Baby Boomers.
#32
yeah...but the baby-boom echo is coming on strong. I've always heard that 57- 75 were the "tweeners" as in between the baby boom and the start of the baby boom echo.
57 - 61 is technically part of the baby boom, but they don't share the same ideas, since the "beautiful ideas" of the 60's generation was already looking a bit tarnished with drug addiction, unwed mothers, welfare dependency and the killing fields by the time they came of age.
#33
People aren't foregoing materialism and choosing to have more babies
2b, I agree the "natalism" rubric is splashy and dumb, but this is how a columnist gets noticed. People across the spectrum are talking about Brooks. They don't talk about Krugman, or Jonah Goldberg, or Kos or Sully.
As to what's actually happening and why, neither of us, or Brooks, has hard data points so we're all just speculating here. My own guess, based in fair measure on my own experience, is that Brooks is right to argue that there's a very signficant trade-off between having children and advancing one's career today. If the Dems don't figure out a pro-family platform, they will be in danger of becoming the Eunuch Party
#34
"Go forth and multiply." Old Testament. I think most, if not all, god based religions do push a vigorous procreation plan.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/08/2004 11:21
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#35
DB... I have to agree with you and Sea. More members means more money in the offering plate :-)
Lex...ok..maybe so. I don't argue your point about gays, but I live amongst the blue and they have kids. I think it's something else that makes the urban areas that way. I don't know what exactly, but it's not for a lack of families.
#36
Lex, Seafarious, 2b, et al., you might be interested in an article and discussion of "Generation Jones," someone's cutesy term for 1954-65 model year human beings, that appeared earlier this week over at the Brothers Judd site.
I'm a '61-model myself (and a refugee from Planned Parenthood via Catholic Social Services and a nice adoption agency whose name escapes me). It seems a lot of us in this thread are "Jonses" here.
Now let's see if the rest of you can keep up with us. :-)
Posted by: Mike ||
12/08/2004 11:29
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#37
Every one of the liberal high achiever types I know has moved significantly rightward after having kids. Every one of the diehard liberal Bush-haters in my circle is childless. Brooks may have the causal link reversed, but there is no question that Dems are increasingly the party of people who care more about helping African children than about properly raising children here at home.
The evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker puts it well. He notes the idiocy of Chomsky's contention that we should adopt socialistic policies because "no one would treat his family the way we treat our fellow citizens." Well, yes: of course we favor our own kith and kind. We're programmed that way. The childless jokers who make up most Dem activists simply cannot grasp this fact.
#38
Mike..interesting to see that in print, cause I've been noticing for years that those born after 56 have very different than those born before. Those born before seem vested proving their failed ideas from the 60's - or at the very least, they just seem to accept them without question.
Lex, I've lived in several very blue places and ...while I agree with much of your point - it's just not true that the dem's don't have kids.
#40
I think some here may have seen NY Times and jumped to conclusions about the thrust of the article. David Brooks may have his columns published in the NYT, but he is really the antithesis of the NYT. He's moderately conservative and objective. He does not put forth an agenda. And when he does give 'opinions' (he understands the difference between opinion and reporting), he is introspective and usually acknowledges his own biases or the biases of those he is quoting.
His conclusion, âWhat they cherish, like most Americans, is the self-sacrificial love shown by parentsâ is meant as a compliment, not derogatory.
-- PH, Now Three Days Without a Human Rights Violation!
#41
lex..re: hard core, agreed. PH.. ok, but I still think the idea of "natalism" is stoopid.
I'm going to take a stab at this...I think that the political distinction between the boomers and the tweeners can be understood if you understand that the earlier leftie boomers are just terrified of "growing up". Their whole youth and being was wrapped around this idea that they were ringing in the new...and the older establishment was prudish, stodgy and dull. Thus, to grow up is to become those things, stodgy, dull, grey, colorless...old.
When it comes to sex, they can't deal with telling their daughters and sons to abstain to prevent aids, disease and pregnancy - because that makes them "prudes", a fate worse than death.
Likewise, they have to believe that war is bad, because to do otherwise would be shuck ones ideals of youth right into the trashcan - again making them feel old.
For a woman to put her emphasis on the family was "old fashioned". Women need to be free - like a cosmo girl should be. A family requires acknowledging the self-sacrifice that comes from quitting a job to stay home and enjoy your kids....
and it goes on.
But those of us born later looked around and said, hmmm... jobs suck, staying home with kids sounds kind of fun, maybe girls shouldn't feel the need to act like a mattress, and even a retard can have sex, drugs addiction is not cool, and if you have a war and nobody shows up, it means that good people get murdered, raped and subjugated by thugs.
#42
The Dems will continue to lose national elections so long as the emblem of the party is the Nancy Pelosi type rather than the Tip O'Neill type.
As this analyst in The New Republic points out, the Dems need to get back to child-friendly, pro-family policies such as emphasizing home ownership. It's not about "moral values", it's about an economic program that's in tune with what most Americans really need and want:
http://www.joelkotkin.com/Politics/NR%20Parent%20Trap.htm "...what do Democrats need to do? The unimaginative answer is to say that they should moderate their positions on issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, where the most liberal stance tends to turn off married parents with children. And perhaps they should.
"But far more important is for Democrats to return to a worldview centered around the baby-making electorate. Historically, Democrats appealed to families by stressing the need to expand home ownership--the GI bill, for example--and by emphasizing the importance of government in providing basic services, such as roads, libraries, and water and power systems, to suburban communities. They were also advocates for educating the middle class, which in the 1950s and '60s moved into suburbia. Today, Democrats too often seem preoccupied with either top universities--home of their much-beloved creative class--or inner-city schools. Improving suburban education needs to be once again placed front and center on the Democrats' agenda...."
Perhaps more than anything else, Democrats need a change in style. Democratic legislators too often seem hostile to suburban concerns, and indifferent to the aspirations of those who would like to buy a home and a small green place to call their own. In Albuquerque, for example, planners working for the local Democratic regime advocated banning backyards, an essential part of the middle-class family lifestyle. One [Democratic city planner] even told a local developer that his having four children made him "immoral."
A small--and probably extreme--example? Undoubtedly. But it speaks to a stereotype that Democrats have been battling for years now: that they disdain suburbia and the families who live there. It is long past time for Democrats to start undoing that perception.
Finally, Democrats might want to consider a change of venue for their next convention. They have held their last four gatherings in four of America's most liberal cities--New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston. Maybe next time, they should hold their convention in Houston, Orlando, or Phoenix, where families are growing, people are moving, and the future of this remarkably fertile nation is being nurtured. It's worth a try, because, after all, Democrats have little choice. Demographics will not save them. On the contrary, the Democrats' task now is to try to save themselves from demographics.
#45
one last thought...now not only does the "boomer generation insult the older seniors with this baby making electorate crap, but they insult the tweeners, X'rs and the baby-boom echo who really don't share their fear that growing up to raise a happy family or to be happily married, is such an embarassing fate.
Today, people have the freedom to choose the lifestyle they want. Women can choose a career and stay single. Men can choose to stay home with the kids. We just don't share their hang-up that the choice to focus on family makes one some sort of neanderthal.
#46
Seafarious-I am about where you are on this. I grew up in a large family and it was great, but others saying that you MUST incubate for society's sake is not only ludicrous but disgusting.
As far as Planned Parenthood starting in poor areas-well, I was born in 1960, so I can't comment on locations prior to that, but one of its first locations in the county I grew up in was between Wheaton and Carol Stream-hardly poverty central.
#48
2b, fine, do your own thing. No problem here. The point though is that Dems are completely ignoring the largest, fast-growing and arguably most important demographic this nation has. The result of this oversight is an absurd focus on Dem-leaning subgroups like 18-24 year-olds, who do not, repeat, do not vote, and african-americans, whose share of the population is shrinking.
The high-growth sunbelt suburbs are the key to political power in this country. Ignore them at your peril.
#52
Very good comments, all. I've long said that I was born on the cusp between the boomers and the GenX-ers, but I'm glad to know we have our own name, because we definitely have a post-boomer outlook. I can even see a difference between me and my husband, who was born in two years earlier, in 1959. Loathing Viet Nam informs his outlook in a way it does not do mine, f'r instance; fighting for women's equality ditto (our big fight before the wedding was whether I would keep my maiden name: he was appalled that I chose not to).
Like 2b, I do have a small problem with the having babies makes people conservative and take on traditional gender roles thing.
I know half a dozen families where the husband is the one staying home with the children. In each case both spouses worked until the first child was born, but then it was the lower paid spouse (the man in each of these cases) who quit his job. In all of these families there are three or more kids, and the woman's career is going great guns. (It turns out that when men choose to stay home, they attack the job very methodically, and don't whine about being disrespected or not being able to go out because the wife is too tired when she comes home from the office.)
In conclusion, having children may make people more conservative in their overall outlook, but it certainly doesn't mean unthinking reversion to traditional behaviours.
#54
My grandfather was 11th of 14 in the late 19th century. They were neither Mormon or Roman Catholic. It was considered "normal". This may have been an extreme case for now under this scenario, but, not so then. By the way, they were Methodists...
#55
TW & 2b: I would propose that while having babies does not inevitably make you conservative, it has a strong tendency to do so. When the neonatal nurse handed me #1 Son nearly 12 years ago, it was the most transforming thing that ever happened to me. Life is no longer about what you want, it's about what you have to do.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/08/2004 13:41
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#56
TW great comments.
Mike - I guess a baby really puts life into perspective. Reminds me of the ol' saying: if you are a conservative at 20, you have no heart, and if you are a liberal after 30 you have no brain.
I really think that the blue baby-boomers are stuck in the liberal mode because they are terrified that if they "grow up", they grow old.
#57
It's not that bearing and raising children makes one more conservative across the board. It's that it focuses your attention on a different set of issues, and these issues-- home ownership and schools quality, savings and ownership generally, and national security-- used to be front and center for Truman-JFK Democrats. Today, for whatever bizarre reason, these bread-and-butter liberal concerns are deemed "conservative."
To elaborate, when you have kids, you instantly become focused, laser-like, on the quality of the schools in your area. You start to compare the cost of private schools to increased mortgage payments for a house in heavily desired school districts.
Secondly, you become more focused on saving and less on consumption, which mainly means less going out, which means you spend less time in the company of single and childless urban yupsters.
Third, you take a much greater interest in security issues. The slaughter of children in some far-off land by muslim fascists gets more attention from you than news stories on gay marriage or the environment.
#58
There is a difference between smugness and pride. There are some fairly sweeping generalizations in this thread that may OR MAY NOT reflect reality.
#59
Succinctly put, the hypothesis is Red States: Knocked up; Blue States: F**ked up.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
12/08/2004 14:34
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#60
Lex...that's a good point. But the problem with the Dem's is, if history is to be a guide, that they worry more about how to "express" to the electorate that they "care" rather than making tough decisions that lead to actual results.
As long as I can remember - the Dem solution to improving failing schools and increased crime was to increase taxes, and throw money at the problem, without actually making any difficult changes that would make a difference. It is the Repub's that pushed forward the ideas of accountabiliy or longer sentences, ie: tough things that make a difference ...all against the shrill shrieks of "mean racist" by the left. But what was really mean and racist was holding the poor back with low expectations and allowing criminals to roam free in their neighborhoods.
#62
The Dems should wipe the slate clean and set about re-ordering their view of national priorities with an eye toward answering this fundamental question: How can we best help improve security (economic and physical) and quality of life for moderate- and low-income families?
If they were to do this, they'd find that national security, reforming and expanding health insurance, and expanding home ownership and school choice would zoom to the top of the list. In fact would displace just about everything else.
#63
lex...The Dem's have always had those things as their talking points. Health care, schools has been their mantra ad nasuem. It's not what they proclaim to care about but how they propose to fix it that's causing the stampede to the Republican's door.
How can they fix schools when they they are 100% beholden to the Teachers Unions?
Their proposal for fixing health care - tax and give away for free. Great! Just what we all want, crappy socialized medicine.
Social security - taxes, taxes and more taxes.
I'd suggest to you that if you want improvements in those areas, look to the party that can and has been best producing, rather than clinging to a sentimental hope that the Democratic party will someday get a clue.
THE re-election of British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be seen as an endorsement of the military action in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Following his own re-election and that of US President George W. Bush, a win by Mr Blair at a British election in coming months would demonstrate widespread support for the three nations' joint Iraq campaign. "Certainly it would," Mr Howard told ABC Radio National. "I'm conflicted when it comes to the British election (but) I really wish Tony Blair well because he's been extremely courageous. "I think of the three of us he had the most difficult internal task in relation to Iraq because his party was deeply divided and a large section of his party was openly hostile to his decision."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004
5:43:42 PM ||
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#1
The "unijust war and "immoral war" which has myriad UNO Resolutions behind it, the one which Great Bill Clinton made "regime change" official US policy, and which the dastardly USA is violating by obeying both the UNO Resols as well as Great Bill/Billary - you know, disobeying the world community and UNO by obeying it, AGAIN!?
#2
Good luck Tony. Either way, history will judge you favorably and your opponents harshly. Millions will be better off due to your strength and courage. What a legacy.
From East-Asia-Intel.com, subscription req'd
Japanese military planners are increasing defenses along the coast of the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea by both North and South Korea, to guard against infiltration attempts by North Korean spies and saboteurs.
The Japan Defense Agency has drafted a plan to position as many as 15,000 troops at 90 critical locations up and down the coastline, according to a report by Jiji Press. The troops will be equipped with the latest in radar and other equipment, on the alert for everything from North Korean trawlers to mini-submarines. Powered by Chicom oil or white slag
The plan reflects widespread fear among Japanese that North Korea, as it slowly builds up weapons of mass destruction, notably nuclear warheads, poses an immediate threat to Japan. Japanese are particularly alarmed by North Korea's ability to build missiles capable of delivering warheads to distant targets, including any point in Japan. NORK WMD blackmail. Hmmm...we have had the same thoughts on that issue concerning Iran, but the EU chooses to ignore it.
The defense agency has carefully selected locations for their proximity to previous points of North Korean infiltration as well as kidnapping incidents years ago, which victimized young Japanese, some of them still held in North Korea.
Defense planners hope that special Japanese troops will be able to capture North Korean infiltrators as they clamber ashore, and then question them to find out where they came from, who was issuing the orders and what were their precise targets. "Where did you come from. Who issued the orders, and what were your precise targets, you spy!"
"You'll never get me to squeal, Imperial Japanese Pig!
BLAM!
"Damn! That's my kneecap! I'll talk! I'll talk. It may be all lies, but I will talk!
Among other sensitive areas of greatest concern to the Japanese are points near nuclear power plants including Wakasa Bay in central Japan. Nice juicy Nork actual or blackmail target.
Jiji Press published its report at the same time that Asahi Shimbun reported a defense agency plan for research and development of surface-to-surface missiles that could be used against fairly close targets, such as North Korea. The Japanese aren't going to take NORK threats or blackmail lying down. Better pay attention to your little Nork dog, Chicoms.
The report is likely to create controversy since a surface-to-surface missile having more than capability could be perceived as being in violation of article nine of Japan's pacifist constitution, which forbids military threats against foreign powers. My gut tells me that Nork nuke threats will change Article 9 in jig time.
Japanese defense officials argue that they need better equipment, including airpower beyond the F4 phantoms now deployed, as well as sensory equipment in light of the potential threat from North Korea. I am sure all of that will come to pass. This is what happens when Kimmie and Co.'s existance is enabled.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2004
4:45:11 PM ||
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The government has evolved a strategy to counter the MMA mass contact drive and protest in the House by "getting benefit from the apparent differences among the component parties and notably exploiting their divergent point of views on religious issues."
The ghost of Anna Comnena's giggling like a girl...
Since the inception of current legislatures the opposition parties have continued protesting against a president in uniform but the movement suffered a serious setback by the 17th Amendment in the constitution passed with the help of MMA. The government was constantly trying to woo the MMA and was sure that the religious alliance would not ultimately go to the extent of becoming a danger to the system as it is running government in the two provinces of the country. To save their face in the public, the MMA continues to harp on their stand of not compromising with the government on the issue of uniform.
But that rings kind of hollow, since they came on board for it, then tried to hop off again...
The govt has adopted the strategy to exploit the visible differences among the component parties. The government gave task to an old associate of Jamaat-I-Islami to prepare a report on the seeming differences among the parties as well as in the JI. The former associate of the JI, once very close to MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and now member of the upper House, has compiled a comprehensive report on the subject that would be presented to General Pervez Musharraf, on his return from his foreign visit.
I think Qazi's being weakened by degrees. At the first, they were infinitesimal degrees, and now they're becoming more noticeable. I'm hoping they'll eventually be massive, though Qazi is a wily old fellow and I'm sure he's got lots of tricks up his sleeve many of them probably including having people bumped off. So it's not over yet, by a long shot.
The senator has compiled a list of descending points among the component parties of the religious alliance. The government believes that Maulana Fazlur Rehman is an easy target and if he proves a hard nut to crack then Maulna Sami-ul Haq can be used to neutralise the Deobandi school of thought. Sami-ul Haq has showed differences several times with the MMA, and had not attended the meetings of the Supreme Council of the religious alliance. He has also not addressed any meeting of the MMA, held in connection with the recent protest drive launched against president in uniform.
The enormity of the concerned parties' egos does make a handy tool. Fazl has probably been bought, the only question being whether he'll stay bought. Whipping Sami up to the point where he does something self-destructive shouldn't be too terribly hard for Perv, unless Sami gets to him first.
The govt agencies are also working on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUP-Noorani) that has expressed its dismay on the re-election of Qazi Hussain Ahmad as president of the MMA.
Noorani keeling over dead didn't help the JUP's chances. They haven't had anybody to throw into the breech.
The JUP thinks that the top slot of the religious alliance is their right as being the political heir to Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, it should be given to them.
Won't happen, unless they're willing to take it. And they don't have the hard boyz to do that.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
4:44:36 PM ||
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Controversial British parliamentarian George Galloway threw his weight behind Fatah firebrand Marwan Barghouti in next month's Palestinian elections and said he may visit Palestine to campaign on his behalf. Speaking at a conference organized by Lebanese supporters in Beirut, Galloway also called on the people of Lebanon to reject UN Security Council Resolution 1559, calling it an attack on Syria and Lebanon. The traitorous pig maverick MP also praised what he called "Iraqi resistance" against "U.S. imperialism." Galloway, who was expelled from the governing Labor Party last year, largely because of controversy surrounding his links with Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime, was in Beirut following his successful court action against a U.K. newspaper over allegations that he was being paid off by Hussein's regime.
Anything to keep your name in the papers, eh, Georgie?
#3
I'm sure he made the declaration of support after stopping by the deposit window of his bank.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/08/2004 17:49
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TGA Mr. Gore has come out steadfastly for an equitable ME peace process than involves both peace and process and Cat 5 cables for all. It is an intense plan than the DNC fears will not work in dial-up country. We shall see.
#8
i love the MSM euphemism of choice for the convicted murderer, Barghouti: "firebrand." Very convenient, as this word is never used in conversation, allowing its true meaning in this context to glide past the readers. It's as if the MSM decided to consistently refer to OJ Simpson as "excitable."
At least 20 Egyptian policemen were injured after a group of 1,000 Christians staging a sit-in at the compound of the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo threw rocks at them, an AFP journalist said. Roads leading to the cathedral, the seat of Pope Shenuda III, head of the Coptic Church, were sealed off, as the police tried to restore calm and restrain a protest over the disappearance of a priest's wife in the delta governorate of Beheira. The protesters claimed 48-year-old public sector agricultural engineer Wafaa Constantine was abducted by her Muslim boss, Mohammed al-Margun, and forced to convert to Islam.
An infidel, a woman, and an engineer. A triple threat.
Nearly 400 Egyptian Christians demonstrated on Sunday at the cathedral and accused police of complicity. The demonstrators, mostly young people, called on police to return the woman to her husband and family and chanted slogans calling on President Hosni Mubarak to intervene.
Here's a nice hot potato for you, Hosni. Catch!
"O Mubarak ...the hearts of Copts are burning with fire," they said. Father Philamon, the Orthodox Coptic priest in Abul Matamir, near the northern city of Alexandria, told AFP that Constantine, the wife of another priest in the town, had disappeared on November 27. He charged that two similar cases had taken place in the town in the past six months. Philamon accused Abul Matamir police of "pretending that Christians were converting to Islam of their own free will, which is false." The demonstrators said they would maintain a sit-in until "police return the wife of the priest".
#1
Nothing against the Copts, who I feel great pity for and anger against the Egyptians, but:
"O Mubarak ...the hearts of Copts are burning with fire"
or
"Our hearts and blood for you, O blank!"
Is it a tranlation issue or just my cultural insensitivity, but don't these chants in arabic/persian countries always sound so overwrought and overblown?
At least here and Europe the chants ("Hey hey, ho ho, blah, blah, blah's got to go!") are so lame you can't take them seriously. And I wonder how seriously most of the moonbats take them when chanting.
#2
"O Mubarak ...the hearts of Copts are burning with fire,"
If the region could just lay down at 20 percent tax on O the children could go to school, the hungry eat, the thirsty drink and the homeless find a bus.
Militants attacked an Afghan border post and an American patrol near the Pakistani frontier, sparking battles in which at least eight rebels and four Afghan soldiers were killed. In the bloodiest overnight incident, insurgents armed with assault rifles and rockets attacked the base of Afghan government troops near Tana, a town in southeastern Khost province, the commander said. An hour-long firefight destroyed part of the base and left four Afghan soldiers and at least six militants dead, Gen. Khial Baz said. "The Americans didn't come to help us," Baz said. "They only came this morning to ask questions."
"Hey, Khial! What was all that racket we heard last night?"
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Mark McCann reported what appeared to be same incident, but said American troops operating in the area said three Afghan soldiers were killed and two more wounded. The Afghan general, speaking from his headquarters in Khost city, said some 250 gunmen had attacked his men near the border, but McCann suggested the number of attackers was "much smaller."
"There wuz millions of 'em..."
"Dozens."
"Thousands of 'em..."
"Dozens."
"Hundreds of 'em! Really!"
"Coupla dozen."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
4:03:07 PM ||
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Now that the schools are again open, the upcoming generation of Afghanis will learn maths beyond counting "1, 2, many hundreds."
Five Moroccans held for nearly three years at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay including a suspected bodyguard for Osama bin Laden went on trial here [Rabat]charged with posing a threat to national security. Arrested in Pakistan and Afghanistan in late 2001, all five were accused of taking training courses in how to handle firearms and make explosives. Soon after the trial opened Monday at a Rabat criminal court, lawyers for the group won a two-week postponement until Dec. 20 to better prepare their defense. The court denied a request that the defendants be released from prison during the trial. Among the five was Abdelleh Tabarak, 49, suspected of serving as a bodyguard for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Sudan and Afghanistan. After spending two years and eight months at the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the men were turned over to Moroccan authorities in August.
Here's hoping they were thoroughly drained before finally being dumped. On the bright side, the Moroccans don't seem that enamoured of catch and release, either.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
3:53:03 PM ||
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Authorities on Tuesday arrested and charged the governor of the war-ravaged Aceh province in northern Sumatra in a high-profile corruption case that will test Indonesia's newly formed anti-graft court. The case against Gov. Abdullah Puteh is expected to complicate efforts to restore civilian rule to Aceh after martial law — imposed there last year to help crush a long-running separatist insurgency — was lifted in May. Puteh has denied any wrongdoing
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't me."
and refused to step down,
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it."
despite the charges that he illegally profited from a 2002 deal to buy a helicopter for his regional government. If tried as expected within 90 days, Puteh will be the first suspect to appear before the country's Special Corruption Court, established in 2003 to help fight the graft that is endemic in Indonesian society.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
3:48:01 PM ||
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CHICAGO (AP) - Three Islamic charities and an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian militant group Hamas were ordered Wednesday to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager shot and killed by terrorists on Israel's West Bank. A federal jury deliberated for one day before awarding $52 million in damages to the parents of David Boim, shot down at a bus stop outside Jerusalem eight years ago. U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys then tripled the damages. The judge found the defendants liable for damages in the case last month. How can you not love this judge? If these charities are in the U.S. then this judge might have single-handedly shut down Hamas funding in the U.S.
The attorney for the defense refused to present a case and sat silent "like a potted plant" on the grounds that this case was prejudiced against Islam.
#3
"The attorney for the defense refused to present a case and sat silent "like a potted plant" on the grounds that this case was prejudiced against Islam."
#8
If I was the judge, telling the press my court was prejudiced would get you slapped in a cell for contempt so fast your whole family's heads would spin...
Six men arrested following the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh are no longer suspects in the killing, but still face charges for belonging to a terrorist group, authorities said Tuesday.
I don't think the Dutchies want to continue playing catch and release. The fascination seems to have worn off, at least for awhile.
The prime suspect in the Nov. 2 killing, 26-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, remains in custody, officials said. But national prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said Amsterdam prosecutors have found no evidence linking six others to Van Gogh's killing. However, the men still face charges of belonging to a group of fundamentalists identified by Dutch intelligence as the "Hofstad" network, which is alleged to have links to the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and the 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 33.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
3:43:31 PM ||
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Haven't they ever heard of felony murder. If they all belong to the same criminal (terror) organisation, then they all own the murder.
Militants bombed two churches Tuesday in Mosul, wounding three people in a coordinated attack apparently aimed at stirring trouble between religious groups in this ethnically diverse northern city. Deputy provincial governor Khasro Gouran said one blast struck a church about 2:30 p.m. in eastern Mosul's Wihda neighborhood, wounding three people. An hour later, gunmen stormed a church in western Mosul, ordering a handful of people outside before bombing it, Gouran said. There were no casualties. The religious denominations of the churches were not immediately clear. Islamic militants have regularly targeted different sectors of Iraq's multiethnic population, including the minority Christians, in a bid to disrupt the U.S.-led reconstruction of the war-scarred country.
Christians especially, I'd say.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
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THREE Iranian men have sewn their lips together and a further 13 started a hunger strike in the latest protest by detainees aimed at forcing a review of their asylum claims.
Anyone else want some of this chicken?
Refugee advocates today warned that the men, held at the Baxter detention centre in South Australia, were prepared to die as a result of their protest, with the hunger strikers declaring they had few options left. "Many others will join the strike in coming days and we will continue until our situation is resolved," the detainees said in a statement issued by refugee advocates.
"Many of us have been here (in detention) for four or five years and we are tired, frustrated and extremely depressed. "We are peaceful people and will harm nobody but ourselves in our quest for freedom. "We simply ask to be recognised as genuine refugees and to be granted protection so that we can get on with our lives."
Refugee advocate Jack Smit said three of the hunger strikers had climbed on a roof at the detention centre and were vowing to stay there indefinitely. He said many hunger strikers had sent their "last will and testaments" to friends in the belief they would die. "They will definitely hunger-strike until they die - they have nothing to lose," Mr Smit said.
Yummm, cold-slaw!
The latest protest follows a decision by 11 Sri Lankan detainees on Friday to end their 10-day hunger strike, after refugee groups claimed their cases would be reviewed.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has denied the reviews were linked to the hunger strike. The Australian Democrats today blamed the Government's mandatory detention system for forcing asylum seekers to take such extreme protest measures. "When you put people in a situation where they have no hope, when the live in fear over months and months and months, it is inevitable that you will get not only severe psychological damage but it's inevitable you will get these acts of desperation like hunger strikes," Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett told parliament.
Gee, sounds like one of our Democrats.
An immigration department spokesman blamed misinformation spread by refugee advocates in relation to the Sri Lankans' hunger strike for the latest, similar action. "The misinformation is encouraging harmful behaviour among some detainees," he said. "Several detainees have placed two stitches in their lips and detention facility staff are closely monitoring the detainees."
"How's he doing, George?" "Don't know, I can't understand a word he's saying."
Detainees on the centre roof were "being handled carefully by centre staff", the spokesman said
."A fiver sez he lands face down!"
He refused to elaborate on what actions had been taken. last time they climbed up high they jumped head first into the ground and bounced like a tennis ball on concrete. [fingers crossed]
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004
3:26:32 AM ||
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France's interior minister vowed punishment for police who slipped plastic explosives into a passenger's luggage to train airport bomb-sniffing dogs — then lost the bag — saying Monday that the training method was "scandalous." "Youse guyz are sooooo gonna get it!"
The practice was made public after the bag was lost Friday night at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and likely ended up on one of up to 90 flights that departed at the time. The bag has still not turned up. Authorities have assured that there was little risk of detonation because special triggers are required to set off the plastic. "Just how little risk of detonation?"
"Under 100 percent. Well under 100 percent."
Police quickly ordered a halt to the practice, with spokesman Pierre Bouquin saying that sniffer dogs would stop using real luggage for practice. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Monday that an investigation would determine where sanctions could be applied. "First we have to decide who's gonna get it. Then they get it."
"I want to think that this was isolated and the product of an individual initiative," Villepin said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
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French Minister Seethes at Lost Explosives
So...when is Miss de Villepin going to start killing fellow Phrenchies?
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Asafi rejected Wednesday Egyptian accusations an Iranian diplomat is involved in conspiracies against Egypt. "These claims and accusations are mere lies," Asafi said, the Iranian News Agency, IRNA, reported.
"Lies, all lies!"
Egyptian Public Prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahed announced Tuesday police arrested an Egyptian agent for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards recruited by an Iranian diplomat in Cairo to carry out terrorist attacks against Egypt and Saudi Arabia and to assassinate important Egyptian officials.
Must be a mistake, that sounds more like a al-Qaeda operation than a Iranian one. And everyone knows there's no connection between the two, right? Here's a update on the story we posted yesterday.
Further stoking the allegations that Iran is behind much of the current unrest in the Middle East, Egypt's General Prosecutor Mahir Abdel Wahid revealed that Egyptian citizen Mohammed Eid Dabous was arrested and charged with spying for Iran's Revolutionary Guard, providing it with information to undertake terrorist attacks in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Wahid said Dabous gave the Iranians "the best locations to carry out assassinations and terrorist operations in Egypt." The information, he said, was given to Mahmoud Reda Hussain, a former official in Iran's diplomatic office in Cairo who is now a fugitive. Dabous was also charged with providing Iranians information on foreign residents in Saudi Arabia, who have been targets of terror attacks such as Monday's on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah. Dabous, a former director of a religious school in Saudi Arabia, received more than $50,000 for his work and was promised more than $670,000 to supervise terrorist attacks in Egypt.
A former Saudi religious school teacher, huh?
According to Wahid, in late 2001 Hussain invited Dabous to Iran and introduced him to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Relations between Iran and Egypt have warmed somewhat recently, but bilateral ties have been strained since 1979, when Egypt took in the deposed shah. The two broke off relations in 1980 over the Camp David accords. Two years later, Egypt accused Iran of supporting militants who killed President Anwar Sadat. Dabous was arrested in Egypt and will be tried by a security court. A trial date has not been set but he could get the death sentence if convicted.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
2:51:59 PM ||
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The U.S. military ordered a Marine Corps antiterrorism security team to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday to assist in security at the consulate, defense officials said. The officials discussed operational matters only on the condition of anonymity. The team is based elsewhere in the Middle East, the official said. These teams typically have 50 Marines and are experts in providing security and conducting raids in urban areas, said Maj. Matt Morgan, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Lejeune, N.C. They are often deployed in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. In Jiddah, they will reinforce defenses at the U.S. consulate that were breached by a group of attackers Monday. Eight people, including three attackers and five non-American embassy employees, were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
2:46:17 PM ||
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Gunbattles between rival militias in the central region of Galgudud have killed at least 42 people, wounded another 123 and displaced hundreds of villagers, witnesses and an aid agency said Tuesday. Fighting erupted in Galinsoor on Dec. 1, resulting in 29 dead and 30 wounded in the first two days, witnesses said. It later spread to other villages and continued Sunday, reportedly leading to seven dead and six wounded. Colin McIlreavy, head of the Somalia mission for the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said the group's two hospitals and a clinic in the region treated 123 people wounded in six days of fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
2:40:01 PM ||
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#1
To simplify we could call this RB Headline 10, and refer to it as RBH10 9/12/2004, as opposed to RBH10 15/4/2003.
I figure RB1 would be Secretary of Stasis to restart Peace Processor.
Egypt reported Tuesday reaching an understanding with Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and Europe for a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would include a truce and a peace conference in the American capital next summer. The report by Egypt's state-run news agency, MENA, came amid increased optimism over the peace process after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last month and the prospect of Palestinian elections in January. Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, has taken an active role in mediating between the two sides, and there have been signs of increasingly warm ties between Israel and Egypt.
MENA said Egypt's plan, which was discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other officials, included the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and a plan for Egyptian border troops to be responsible for security of the Egyptian-Palestinian border and the Palestinian side of the border with Israel. MENA said a dialogue among Palestinian factions on a cease-fire agreement would begin in March in Cairo. The report said Egypt would seek an international peace conference in Washington next July to discuss the plans, and predicted continued improvement in Israeli-Egyptian relations. In Jerusalem, an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, welcomed a possible truce.
Just as Egypt was talking of a new truce, however, Hamas militants broke three weeks of relative calm in Gaza, setting off a bomb that killed a soldier and triggering Israeli retaliation that killed four Palestinian gunmen. Hamas claimed its men dug a tunnel to booby-trap a chicken coop, then lured troops to the area with the help of a double agent and exploded the bomb, killing an Israeli handler and his bomb-sniffing dog. Israel TV reported that the dog set off the bomb, killing the soldier and two Palestinians guarding the entrance to the tunnel. The TV report said the tunnel was dug in the direction of the nearby Israeli border fence and was apparently designed to allow Palestinian attackers to cross under it into Israel. Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been urging militant groups like Hamas to stop attacks against Israelis, to allow for a calm presidential election campaign, but the militants have made no promises.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
2:38:18 PM ||
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Seems like Nixon used to do that, too. Did it right up until the very end, in fact...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
2:33:56 PM ||
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#1
I've known Kojo and Koki for a long time, they are not now, nor have they ever been "crooks", I've talked to Checkers Checkers about this, although yes, he is just a little dawg, but my daughters love love him. Anyway, Kojo and Koki are not "crooks" they are socialist third borrowers and should be allowed to build their nest nest egg. Or I could have Henry Henrys people kill them.
An Egyptian who was arrested after allegedly boasting about his role in the Madrid train bombings was extradited from Italy to Spain on Tuesday. "Hrarrr! Blew the infidels to smithereens! An' then... An' then... Oh. Hello, officer."
Rabei Osman Ahmed, alleged to be a key figure in the March 11 bombings that killed 191 people, was arrested in Milan in June, and the Italian Supreme Court agreed last week to deliver him to Spain for six months for questioning. Spanish authorities say they must then return Osman Ahmed to Italy, where he is still under investigation for links to Muslim militant groups in Europe. Spanish Judge Juan del Olmo, who is leading the investigation into the attacks, said Osman Ahmed, while living in Madrid, "managed to take control of a small group of Arab followers, all of them with extremist Islamic ideology, supporters of jihad and Osama bin Laden." Spanish authorities say the Egyptian, considered an expert in explosives, was a key figure in the planning of the bombings and in the structure of al-Qaida in Europe. Spanish investigators are especially eager to interrogate him because the other suspected ringleaders are dead — they were among seven suspects who blew themselves up on April 3.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
2:17:57 PM ||
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An Israeli Arab has been arrested on charges of spying for Iran, a police spokesman said Tuesday, underscoring growing Israeli-Iranian tensions. Authorities believe Mohammed Ghanam came into contact with Iranian agents during one of his frequent trips to Saudi Arabia, where he facilitated the visits of Muslim pilgrims from Israel, police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
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As 150,000 U.S. troops battle to stabilize Iraq, some officials in the Bush administration are already planning to turn up the heat on another member of the president's axis of evil.
Officials in the White House and the Defense Department are developing plans to increase public criticism of Iran's human rights record, offer stronger backing to exiles and other opponents of Tehran's repressive theocratic government and collect better intelligence on Iran, according to U.S. officials, congressional aides and others.
Iran has embarked on a nuclear program that some specialists fear cannot be prevented from producing an atom bomb; is trying to extend its influence in Iraq and remains a prime sponsor of Hezbollah and other international terrorist groups. U.S. intelligence officials also believe some top lieutenants of Osama bin Laden have sought refuge in Iran.
However, with the U.S. military now stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new campaign may be intended not to build support for military action against Iran, but to pressure Iran to change its behavior so military action isn't necessary.
It's far from clear, however, whether a more aggressive U.S. campaign to condemn the Iranian regime and court pro-Western forces would have any effect. The major Iranian opposition group, the Iraq-based Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK), remains on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups, but it's provided much of the intelligence about Iran's weapons programs.
The new, more aggressive tack is said to have the backing of secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser.
Among the steps under consideration, the officials said, are stronger public condemnations of Iran's human rights practices and treatment of women; increased U.S. broadcasting into the country; and financial backing for pro-Western groups.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized spokesmen and, in some cases, because final decisions haven't been made.
Rice previewed some of the ideas during a White House meeting last week with leaders of major Jewish-American groups, according to one individual who was present and others who were briefed on the session.
"We have to do more to help the human rights community and the dissidents inside Iran," Rice told the group, according to one participant's notes of the meeting, which also focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An administration official, asked about Rice's reported comments, said they reflected a "heightened attempt" to expose Iran's behavior. "We're trying to make plain for the international community the strategic challenge that Iran poses," he said.
At the same time, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which overseas U.S. international broadcasting, has proposed to the White House a major increase in broadcasting into Iran by Voice of America television, a U.S. official said.
The proposal, which is expected to win approval, would increase daily broadcasts from 30 minutes a day to about three hours, the official said.
"We expect that the White House will be as supportive of this plan as it was for increasing broadcasting to the Arab world," the official said. He couldn't provide cost estimates for the expansion.
The United States already operates a Persian-language radio service, Radio Farda, which broadcasts to Iran 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
More U.S. broadcasting to Muslim audiences was one of the recommendations of the bipartisan Sept. 11 Commission.
How to handle Iran is now shaping up as a major foreign policy issue for Bush's second term. But with the bulk of U.S. combat divisions tied down in neighboring Iraq, the president appears to have no good military options against Iran, which is almost four times larger than Iraq and has nearly three times its neighbor's population.
A limited U.S. air strike on Iran's far-flung nuclear facilities would cause worldwide outrage, could endanger U.S. troops in Iraq and would have no assurance of success. European allies favor diplomacy to curb Iran's nuclear program.
However, top Bush administration officials are now hinting that the White House is eager to start withdrawing troops from Iraq by the middle of next year. One rationale, a senior administration official said, is to give the president greater flexibility in dealing with Iran.
Calls for supporting Iranian dissidents have been fueled by an accelerating takeover of the country's institutions by conservative clerics, ending hopes for reforms backed by President Mohammad Khatami, whose term ends next year.
But while many Iranians, particularly the young, are fed up with their rulers and even pro-American, they're also deeply suspicious of foreign meddling in Iranian politics. Iranians who accept U.S. assistance for democratization are likely to be branded agents of the "Great Satan."
Former assistant secretary of state Lorne Craner said that when Congress made $2 million available in a fiscal 2004 appropriations bill for democratization activities in Iran, "We started looking around for what might be doable. ... It wasn't clear we'd be received warmly in Iran."
But Craner, who left government last year, said that could change if the U.S. government showed it was serious. "When you say you're willing, people start showing up," he said.
The omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last month includes a provision, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., for $3 million to promote democracy in Iran.
Some of the funds could be used to stage a conference in the United States that would bring together Iranian dissidents, human rights advocates and nongovernmental organizations.
That approach echoes the actions of the U.S. government toward Iraq during the 1990s, when it helped forge fractious Iraqi dissidents into the Iraqi National Congress. The INC and its leader, Ahmad Chalabi, helped persuade the Bush administration to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein, but much of the intelligence the INC provided on Iraq's weapons programs and terrorist ties has proved to be wrong.
The Bush administration also is considering adding Iran to a broader U.S.-backed program to promote democracy in the region, known as the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
"We are exploring ways to begin working with groups inside (Iran)," J. Scott Carpenter, the State Department official who runs the program, told the New York Sun newspaper last month.
Carpenter did not return a phone call seeking comment. About damned time. Faster, please.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
2:10:35 AM ||
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Unfortunately, I think that this is just PR "mumble" for public consumption, and what has been, and is, being executed and planned has long been underway, and is not available for public scruitiny, thankfully.
#2
A limited U.S. air strike on Iranâs far-flung nuclear facilities would cause worldwide outrage.
The wests worst nightmare, a nuclear middle east under sway of Islamists is coming to pass before our eyes - and worldwide outrage is a concern?
Guess who is on the Islamist target list after Tel Aviv gets smoked?
To parphrase JFK, we need to say that any nuke going off anywhere will be veiwed as an attack on the US by Iran and North Korea.
Back to the days of MAD.
I have 2 hopes, being an uninformed non-progressive civilian:
1) The Stae Dept has just now noticed Iran is a country somehwere in the M.E. and thinks that's quite lovely -- and hasn't had / won't have time to interfere or screw anything up.
2) Enough "someones" in the CIA involved with the Iran desk are on the job and we have some working relationships with the Persian people which are (or will be very soon) sufficient to allow us to help them topple / take over from the Mad Mullahs in conjunction with a full-scale decap / de-nuke / de-missile strike.
This situation, all by itself, is Tenet's legacy. No one will remember the "slam dunk" BS he fed Bush if Iran goes nuclear and hits Israel, as Rafsanjani has promised repeatedly.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/08/2004 18:39
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Dubya should work to promo the pro-democracy ideals of regional, historical leaders like ATATURK and others. Our target is the anti-democratic, anti-reform Mullahs and the Radicals, not the people of these societies. Dedicated ISLAMOPHILISTS, like FRANCOPHILISTS, have gotta know under OWG Communism-centric Russia-China will prefer to destroy them than tolerate anti-Communist, anti-MOscow/Beijing Islam - to help siborn and destroy America only means a quicker death for independent Islam, et al. CHIRAC mus be either very stupid or naive, or he's the Euro-equivalent of the anti-American American, Communism/Socialism = Capitalism, Leftism = Rightism, FASCIST = FASCISTA,...........etc. Billary Clinton, an anti-French Frenchman and closet but super-PC traitor and killer of France, the EU, and all democratic Europe!
#10
However, with the U.S. military now stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new campaign may be intended not to build support for military action against Iran, but to pressure Iran to change its behavior so military action isnât necessary.
As long as the mullahs remain in control in Iran, the possibility of inducing the desired behavior change is slim to none. The logical course of action then, is to get the Persian public to do the job themselves, with help from us wherever needed, be it overt or not. GWB, Dr. Rice, and the rest of the administration should know this, and should all be making plans accordingly.
The leaders of Iraq and Jordan warned yesterday that Iran is trying to influence the Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30 to create an Islamic government that would dramatically shift the geopolitical balance between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the Middle East.
Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar charged that Iran is coaching candidates and political parties sympathetic to Tehran and pouring "huge amounts of money" into the campaign to produce a Shiite-dominated government similar to Iran's.
Jordanian King Abdullah said that more than 1 million Iranians have crossed the 910-mile border into Iraq, many to vote in the election -- with the encouragement of the Iranian government. "I'm sure there's a lot of people, a lot of Iranians in there that will be used as part of the polls to influence the outcome," he said in an interview.
The king also charged that Iranians are paying salaries and providing welfare to unemployed Iraqis to build pro-Iranian public sentiment. Some Iranians, he added, have been trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and are members of militias that could fuel trouble in Iraq after the election.
"It is in Iran's vested interest to have an Islamic republic of Iraq . . . and therefore the involvement you're getting by the Iranians is to achieve a government that is very pro-Iran," Abdullah said.
If pro-Iran parties or politicians dominate the new Iraqi government, he said, a new "crescent" of dominant Shiite movements or governments stretching from Iran into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon could emerge, alter the traditional balance of power between the two main Islamic sects and pose new challenges to U.S. interests and allies.
"If Iraq goes Islamic republic, then, yes, we've opened ourselves to a whole set of new problems that will not be limited to the borders of Iraq. I'm looking at the glass half-full, and let's hope that's not the case. But strategic planners around the world have got to be aware that is a possibility," Abdullah added.
Abdullah, a prominent Sunni leader, said the creation of a new Shiite crescent would particularly destabilize Gulf countries with Shiite populations. "Even Saudi Arabia is not immune from this. It would be a major problem. And then that would propel the possibility of a Shiite-Sunni conflict even more, as you're taking it out of the borders of Iraq," the king said.
Iran has faced charges in the past of meddling in Iraq, but with the election approaching, Iraqi, U.S. and Arab officials have begun to make specific accusations and issue warnings about the potential impact.
"Unfortunately, time is proving, and the situation is proving, beyond any doubt that Iran has very obvious interference in our business -- a lot of money, a lot of intelligence activities and almost interfering daily in business and many [provincial] governates, especially in the southeast side of Iraq," Yawar said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters.
The interim Iraqi president, a Sunni leader from a tribe with Sunnis and Shiites, said Iraq's first democratic government must reject pressure to inject religion into politics. "We cannot have a sectarian or religious government," he said. "We really will not accept a religious state in Iraq. We haven't seen a model that succeeded."
The question of Iraq's political orientation -- secular or religious -- will come to a head when Iraq begins writing a new constitution next spring. Jordan's king said he had started to raise a "red flag" about the dangers of mixing church and state.
Abdullah said the United States had communicated its concern to Iran through third parties, although he predicted a showdown. "There's going to be some sort of clash at one point or another," he said. "We hope it's just a clash of words and politics and not a clash of civilizations or peoples on the ground. We will know a bit better how it will play out after the [Iraqi] election."
In Baghdad, interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih warned neighboring governments that Iraq is losing patience with them for not doing more to stop the insurgency, which undermines the prospects for peaceful elections.
"There is evidence indicating that some groups in some neighboring countries are playing a direct role in the killing of the Iraqi people, and such a thing is not acceptable to us," Salih said. "We have reached a stage in which, if we do not see a real response from those countries, then we are obliged to take a decisive stance."
But after meeting with President Bush on Monday, Yawar and Abdullah said they are committed to pressing fellow Sunnis to drop threats to boycott the elections and move quickly to register candidates.
The Jordanian monarch said sitting out the election would only hurt Sunnis. "My advice to the Sunnis in Iraq, and that I will make public, is to get engaged, get into the system and do the best that you can come January 30," he said. "If you don't and you lose out, then you only have yourselves to blame."
The Iraqi president said there is no point in delaying elections, as Sunni leaders have urged. "Extending the election date will just prolong our agony," he said. He predicted Sunnis will ultimately participate, adding that many of the same leaders agitating against the Jan. 30 date have begun preparing their own campaigns.
Yawar said he is putting together a balanced, "all-Iraqi list" of candidates that would cross sectarian lines, in apparent contrast to the Shiite-dominated candidate slate.
A civil engineer educated at George Washington University, he expressed hope that U.S. troops could begin withdrawing from Iraq by the end of 2005 if Iraqi authorities train enough of their own troops.
"When we have our security forces qualified and capable of taking the job, then we will start seeing the beginning of decreasing forces, and that's in hopefully a year's time," he said. But he would not indicate when he hoped the last U.S. soldiers would leave. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters this week he expected the U.S. military to withdraw within four years.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
2:07:02 AM ||
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U.S. military intelligence officials have concluded that the Iraqi insurgency is being directed to a greater degree than previously recognized from Syria, where they said former Saddam Hussein loyalists have found sanctuary and are channeling money and other support to those fighting the established government.
Based on information gathered during the recent fighting in Fallujah, Baghdad and elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle, the officials said that a handful of senior Iraqi Baathists operating in Syria are collecting money from private sources in Saudi Arabia and Europe and turning it over to the insurgency.
In some cases, evidence suggests that these Baathists are managing operations in Iraq from a distance, the officials said. A U.S. military summary of operations in Fallujah noted recently that troops discovered a global positioning signal receiver in a bomb factory in the western part of the city that "contained waypoints originating in western Syria."
Concerns about Syria's role in Iraq were also expressed in interviews The Washington Post conducted yesterday with Jordan's King Abdullah and Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar. "There are people in Syria who are bad guys, who are fugitives of the law and who are Saddam remnants who are trying to bring the vicious dictatorship of Saddam back," Yawar said. "They are not minding their business or living a private life. They are . . . disturbing or undermining our political process."
Abdullah noted that the governments of both the United States and Iraq believe that "foreign fighters are coming across the Syrian border that have been trained in Syria."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials have previously complained about Syria's role in Iraq, but officials said the latest intelligence has given impetus to new efforts aimed at curbing the activities of the Hussein loyalists there. The U.S. government recently gave the government of Syria a list of those officials, with a request that they be arrested or expelled, a State Department official said yesterday.
"We're bringing quite a bit of pressure to bear on them, and I think some of it is working," said another official, who works in federal counterterrorism efforts. Like other officials interviewed for this article, he declined to be identified by name or position because of the sensitivity of his specialty.
One briefing slide in a classified summary of new intelligence data also says that new diplomatic initiatives are being used to encourage the Syrian government to detain or expel the Iraqi Baathists. "The Syrians appear to have done a little bit to stem extremist infiltration into Iraq at the border, but clearly have not helped with regards to Baathists infiltrating back and forth," said a senior U.S. military officer in the region. "We still have serious challenges there, and Syria needs to be doing a lot more."
The Syrian ambassador to the United States emphatically rejected the accusations as unfounded. "There is a sinister campaign to create an atmosphere of hostility against Syria," said Imad Moustapha, the envoy. He said his government "categorically" denies that Iraqi Baathists are taking refuge in his country. "We don't allow this to happen," he said. "Iraqi officials were never welcome."
As described by defense officials, new intelligence on the insurgency suggests some other emerging problems, such as how extensively U.S. operations in Iraq have been penetrated by members of the insurgency and by people sympathetic to it.
The Green Zone in central Baghdad, home of the U.S. Embassy and the offices of the interim Iraqi government, is especially "overrun with agents," said one Defense Department official who recently returned from Iraq. One activity that has been noticed is that when major convoys leave the zone, Iraqi cell phone calls from the zone seem to increase, he said. An additional concern is that the insurgency seems to be using some Iraqi companies to get into U.S. bases, he said.
Jeffrey White, a former Middle Eastern analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the Syrian role is part of what many intelligence officials believe are the increasingly organized attacks on U.S. forces. "In the last two months or so, this notion that this is a Baathist insurgency has gained dominance in the [intelligence] community," he said. Coupled with that, he said, "there is an increasing view that Syria is at the center of the problem."
Not everyone with first-hand knowledge of the intelligence is convinced that the United States really has a strong grasp of the nature of the insurgency, especially the idea that the insurgency is being directed from the top down. Some Special Forces officers contend that many of the small-scale roadside attacks with bombs or rocket-propelled grenades are mounted not on orders of a hierarchical organization, but rather by Iraqis working more or less alone who feel they have been humiliated by U.S. soldiers, or who simply dislike the occupation.
"I just don't have the sense that we're getting to where we need to be," said one Defense Department official. "We don't know where the enemy is."
The argument over the nature of the insurgency has also provoked some infighting over a classified briefing given late last month to Rumsfeld about steps U.S. forces could take in Iraq to put down the militants. One of the slides in the briefing, delivered by Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, deputy director for Middle Eastern affairs on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended actions that would "intimidate the intimidators."
Some U.S. officials in Baghdad resented the briefing, which they saw not only as a form of long-distance micromanagement but also as misguided in its recommendations. For example, some fear that it could lead to a resumption of the tough tactics used sometimes last year as the insurgency emerged, such as taking families hostage to compel an insurgent leader to turn himself in. Subsequent internal Army reviews have criticized such tactics as counterproductive.
One person familiar with the situation said that Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. general in the region, was sent a copy of the briefing and responded by sending a classified cable politely dismissing it and stating that he believes that U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq have the situation in hand. A spokesman at Abizaid's headquarters, the U.S. Central Command, declined to comment on that exchange.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
2:03:35 AM ||
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He said his government "categorically" denies that Iraqi Baathists are taking refuge in his country. "We donât allow this to happen," he said. "Iraqi officials were never welcome."
"We welcome many other terrorists freedom fighters from Palestine and other hellholes. But Iraqi Baathists? No! We have standards!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 9:39
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I bet our red-moustache friend is right over in Syria.
#3
Did we learn nothing? Why aren't we interdicting this Ho Chi Minh trail in the desert?
Good evening. Your primary mission tonight is a bombing run on this terrorist training camp across the border in Syria. Secondary mission is breaking the sound barrier at low altitude over Assad's house. That is all. Good luck and good hunting.
--PH, Now Three Days Without a Human Rights Violation!
#4
Let's take a deep breath, make sure the info is right, make allusions to Syria about the danger Baby Ass is putting his country in, and attack quickly and without warning. No occupation necessary. Iran then might start to change its tune.
If we can't force Syria to see the light, we got no business there. W, please remember what you said about those with us and those against us.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 14:36
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U.S. and Russian officials clashed Tuesday at a European security forum over Ukraine's disputed presidential runoff election.
In a sharp exchange, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of "new lines of division" and destabilization in Europe because of tensions over the crisis. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell rebutted the attack and offered rare criticism of Russia, pressing it to remove its military forces from two former Soviet republics and halt a slide in press freedoms and the rule of law.
Ukraine's Supreme Court has ordered a second runoff election on Dec. 26, following mass demonstrations protesting alleged widespread fraud in voting two weeks ago in which the pro-Moscow prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, was declared the winner against Viktor Yushchenko, who supports closer ties to NATO and Western Europe. International election monitors said the Nov. 21 vote was rigged.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a 55-nation group that began as a forum for dialogue during the Cold War, sent 600 observers to monitor the balloting.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, tension over the vote continued Tuesday as parliament adjourned for the day without voting on measures meant to secure a fair rerun of the presidential vote. Opposition forces are pressing for immediate passage of the reforms, but other factions say the changes must be made simultaneously with proposals that would reduce the powers of the president.
Russian officials have suggested that by paying such close attention to the election, the United States and Western Europe are making a power grab in what is traditionally a Russian sphere of influence. Western analysts, meanwhile, have accused Putin of trying to reassemble part of the Soviet empire by installing pliant leaders in countries on Russia's borders.
Speaking at the OSCE's annual ministerial meeting, Lavrov denounced what he called the "ever more deleterious practice of double standards" in monitoring elections, an allusion to the disputed 2000 U.S. presidential election.
"We mustn't allow the OSCE monitoring to be turned into a political instrument," Lavrov said. "In the absence of any objective criteria, monitoring of election processes becomes an instrument of political manipulation and a factor for destabilization in a whole range of issues."
In response, Powell told participants at the forum that "I categorically disagree" with the notion of "double standards" or that the OSCE has concentrated its efforts in the former Soviet republics for political reasons. "All OSCE participating states signed up to the proposition that fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law are of legitimate concern to us all," he said.
The OSCE is prepared to almost double the number of observers it will send to the new Ukrainian election, officials said. But disagreements over the role of monitors prevented the group, which operates on consensus, from agreeing on a communique.
Despite a suggestion from President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday that he supported a new election, Russia and Belarus blocked a statement -- offered by the Ukrainian delegation -- that would have recognized the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruling and offered backing for the new election, U.S. officials said.
In his remarks, Powell also said the United States would not ratify a 1999 treaty limiting the number of conventional forces in Europe until Russia fulfills commitments made that year to remove troops from Georgia and Moldova. More than 1,400 Russian troops are stationed in Moldova's breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transdniester, and 5,000 to 6,000 troops are at two bases in Georgia.
He also cited Belarus as an "egregious example" of failure to live up to commitments on human rights and democracy.
In Washington, a State Department official told a congressional panel Tuesday that there were "credible reports" of Russian financial backing for Yanukovych. John F. Tefft, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said that U.S. officials have complained about "the role of Russian citizens" in the election.
But in general, the Bush administration has held back from directly criticizing Russia's role in the election or the apparent larger Russian strategy of influencing elections in countries on its border, and Powell did not mention them in his remarks at the OSCE forum. He also said nothing about Russia's human rights record in Chechnya, where Moscow's forces continue to fight separatists.
Powell and Lavrov also had a private, 30-minute discussion, their first meeting since the disputed Ukrainian vote. An aide to Powell reported that the secretary of state felt that he and Lavrov "for one of the first times" were able to have a constructive conversation rather than merely reciting talking points.
Later, when a Bulgarian college student asked Powell at a youth forum whether the Cold War was coming back, Powell reassured her, saying it was not returning because "we have good relations with Russia" and he was able to speak candidly to Lavrov.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
2:00:54 AM ||
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It's rather funny that the Russians would have something to say about U.S./West involvement in the Ukraine, when Russia is clearly trying to stick their noses into Iraq.
It is an episode that has stirred the roots of Indian society: two senior students of a prestigious private school in Delhi indulged in an intimate sexual act in the chemistry laboratory. In the age of adolescent sex and uninterrupted Internet access, this should not be unnatural or untoward, even in a predominantly conservative society such as India, except for one detail. Earlier, such sexual encounters - whether it be school sex or children exposed to pornography on the Internet, in magazines or videos - formed part of informed discussions and intellectual debate on how best to tackle the issue.
This time there is a difference. The boy happened to possess a camera cell phone, and without the knowledge of the girl, recorded the proceedings, passed them on to a few friends to show off his exploits, who in turn forwarded them to a few more, forming an endless chain, with the said two-and-a-half-minute clip now being sold on the Internet and becoming the hottest-selling compact disc (CD) at Delhi's Palika Bazaar, where all such stuff is sold.
It is certainly not the first time that teenagers have indulged in sex, but the fact that everybody can see it happening has, as would be expected, created a different impact. The reactions that have engulfed almost everybody who can be heard have been to blame somebody. The boy and girl in question have been suspended from school, so have been the boy's friends who received the clip. Others have blamed the school administration for allowing students to carry cellular phones, and those too with a camera. Parents who indulge their wards by buying cell phones for them too are the culprits. The government, which has been lax in coaxing schools to keep students in check, has been blamed. Most important, it is the use and abuse of technology that progresses at a rapid pace, opening young minds to detrimental effects, that have come under the glare...
Insurgents detonated a car bomb in southern Baghdad early Wednesday, causing an unspecified number of casualties, witnesses said. The bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy was passing in the Dora area of southern Baghdad, witnesses said, adding that Iraqi civilians were injured. ''There was a car bomb but we have no further information as yet,'' an Iraqi police official said on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear if any American forces were injured in the attack, which happened at around 6:30 a.m.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
1:58:19 AM ||
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Federal forces in Chechnya have conducted a special effort to trace and detain subordinates of separatist leader Shamil Basayev, Interfax was told at the regional headquarters of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus on Tuesday. The effort resulted in the detention of a suspected militant aged 1977. Later he confessed that with a group he had committed several grave crimes in Shelkovskaya district, including murders of police officers and civilians.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
1:54:32 AM ||
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The effort resulted in the detention of a suspected militant aged 1977.
"Getting a little old for this, ain't you, Grandpa?"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004 10:28
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Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004
15:11 ||
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"Critics charge the technology is neither ready nor affordable, and say it fails to address the greater threat of weapons of mass destruction brought into the country by terrorists or other means."
First, if they had listened to the critics, the Wright brothers would have remained two unknown bike mechanics in Ohio. As to "affordable," lets compare the cost with, say, the total destruction of Seattle, or LA, etc.
The biggest hurdle to any new system is to actually get fielded. Once you have something in place, even if initially imperfect, improvements and upgrades generally quickly follow.
Finally, saying we shouldn't address one threat because there's some other threat out there is just silly. The "critics" appear to be in need of a heavy duty Cluebat session.
#3
The Left is out to protect Communism-centric Russia-China, Globalist Socialism, SWO and Mackinder's "World Island" Concept at any price, even iff the Western Lefts have to immolate themselves - notice I say "Western Lefts", eg FRANCE and US DEMSLEFT, while the CP's in Russia-China work to preserve themselves and modernize their economies and nuke arsenals. Under Dubya, the USA is de facto going full ahead with GMD - all one has to do is look up to the dark heavens. Iff the US successfully expands GMD unto the democracies in East Asia and Eastern Europe/CENASIA, RUSSIA, CHINA AND THEIR RESPECTIVE COMMUNIST PARTIES/BUREAUCRACIES ARE IMPLOSION MEAT - Chicom East Asian hegemony and Russian Eurasian hegemony, let alone GLOBAL HEGEMONY under anti-USA/WEstern OWG, IS HISTOIRE', NADA, FINIS', while their collusory mercs Radical Islam would had sacrificed all their fighting manpower and "credibility" for nothing!
A member of the notorious Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha was arraigned Tuesday in federal court for attempting to illegally cross into Brownsville last week. According to Border Patrol records, Francky Sanchez-Solorzano, 21, was arrested by Border Patrol on Thursday night as he and 13 others crossed the Rio Grande into Texas east of the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates. "Across the (McAllen) sector, he is the fourth or fifth (Mara) we have caught in the last several years," said Senior Border Patrol agent Daniel Doty, adding that many others in the group were classified as "other than Mexican."
Sanchez-Solorzano — from San Pedro Sula, Honduras — told Border Patrol agents he was headed to Miami and paid a Mexican smuggler 1,000 pesos to cross the river. It is unknown why Sanchez-Solorzano was headed to Miami, but U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Texas, said intelligence sources reported a meeting between the Maras and al-Qaida as recently as six months ago. Ortiz called the Central American gang "dangerous" and said they have cells in major cities across the United States. "I would like to compliment the Border Patrol," Ortiz said of Sanchez-Solorzano's capture. "This is very significant." Sanchez-Solorzano was arraigned Tuesday morning by U.S. Magistrate Judge John William Black, who gave him time served on a charge of illegal entry. Doty said Sanchez-Solorzano — whose affiliation with the Maras became known through the gang's distinctive tattoos — will be deported and returned to Honduras.
Sgt. Dionicio Cortez, a gang investigator with the Cameron County Sheriff's Department, described Mara Salvatrucha members as "very deadly" and "ruthless." The gang is involved in illegal money-making activities such as drug smuggling, human trafficking and murder for hire, he said. Cortez said the gang started more than 20 years ago in the streets of Los Angeles, but is now-based in Central American nations of El Salvador and Honduras with members ages 11-40. "Many from the older generation were guerrillas in the civil war of (El Salvador)," he said. Cortez said another Maras member from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, remains in county jail after being arrested in October for auto theft in San Benito. "They're not here to take over the gangs here because there are too many for them to handle," said Cortez, who noted the gang uses the Rio Grande Valley as a transit point to other destinations. Ortiz's spokeswoman Cathy Travis said the House and Senate are hearing a bill that would increase funds to increase border security to combat terrorism and organized crime.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
1:50:08 AM ||
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Will the Bush admin please get serious about cracking down on illegal immigration? What will it take for this country to develop a policy that advances our interests rather than Vicente Fox's?
#3
As I posted yesterday, the immigration issue is scheduled to be the first item Congress addresses after the Christmas holidays - at least that's what the Pubs will push.
Immigration issues have been existent for decades, guys. Just because it got "hot" in your view changes nothing about the political realities. Bush will tackle it and get the best he can out of the Congress. It's not like he's shy and retiring. He knows it's important and he knows the situation better than any of us who aren't Border Agents. My understanding is that it was one of the keystones of his original plans - until 9/11 cleared the decks and took priority. Political reality doesn't allow microwaving issues to suit. Sigh. He'll go after it - give him your support for doing so.
Wanna excrete some bile? Pick on Clinton's 8 years of feel-good bullshit - this issue was just as obvious and just as important for that entire period, too. At least Bush isn't a candy-pants self-promoting phantasy-bound phuckwit.
#4
According to Border Patrol records, Francky Sanchez-Solorzano, 21, was arrested by Border Patrol on Thursday night as he and 13 others crossed the Rio Grande into Texas east of the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates.
Just think: had this guy gotten at least ten or more miles away from the border area, he probably would have been home free. The Border Patrol doesn't seem to do anything to anyone once that distance has been covered.
One of eight men who were used as human shields during the armed assault against the American Consulate here said Tuesday from his hospital bed that the most vivid moment came when the gunman who was holding him captive and firing across his shoulder ordered him to raise his hands and scream, "God is great!" The cry is one of the last things a good Muslim hopes to utter before dying, and Abdel Jabar Nirous, a 27-year-old supply clerk from Sri Lanka, was convinced that his life was at an end. He struggled to wrench himself away from the man before passing out. When he regained consciousness, he said, "I saw my two friends lying dead in front of me and blood everywhere."
The description of what happened inside the compound contradicts statements made Monday by officials in the State Department and the Saudi Embassy in Washington that no hostages were taken during the attack. The eight men were used as shields for one to two hours on Monday, survivors in King Fahd Hospital said. They were taken outside to a dirt area near the middle of the compound by the attackers, who had breached the security surrounding the heavily fortified consulate. There the attackers engaged in a gun battle with Saudi security forces and the United States Marines. Three of them were killed and one seriously wounded in the shooting. It is unclear if all of the five consulate employees who died were among those held hostage.
The most senior American officials in the country, Ambassador James C. Oberwetter and Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the consul general in Jidda, defended security at the compound during a news conference on Tuesday, saying the measures had largely worked. "It's not good to hear gunfire outside your office, but I did have complete faith in the security of the building," Ms. Abercrombie-Winstanley said, referring to the main chancery building. The consulate's American employees were working in that building at the time of the attack and were taken to a secure area inside the building by marines. Security measures like magnetic doors, as well as gunfire from the marines, kept the gunmen from entering the building. No Americans died, and two suffered superficial wounds. At some point during the three-hour raid, the attackers pulled down and burned the consulate's American flag. Mr. Oberwetter sidestepped a question about who was to blame for the security breach that allowed four of the five gunmen - the fifth was shot down in the initial fight at the perimeter - to run into the compound through a gate that was slowly closing automatically behind a consular vehicle that had just entered. "I think using the word blame is the wrong way to go," he said. "Obviously the events of yesterday show a need for an improvement. We will be examining what additional steps need to be taken."
He said the immediate step asked for was additional security from the Saudi government, and he said he was sure it would be provided. The Saudi cabinet issued a formal condemnation of the attack, but other than that there was only a brief official statement listing the names of three of the dead attackers. It said the fourth had yet to be identified. Mr. Oberwetter said the way the attack had unfolded clearly indicated that the gunmen had studied at least the outer workings of the consulate, a sprawling walled compound of several acres near Jidda's waterfront. Reporters were not allowed onto the scene; the news conference was held in a hotel. Just as one barrier was being lowered and the hydraulically powered gate was being opened to let in a consular vehicle, the armed men in a car veered across several lanes of traffic and tried to speed into the compound. A heavy barrier raised out of the ground stopped them. "They clearly understood how our cars entered the compound, and in my view they had scoped it out," the ambassador said, noting that the barrier had worked the way it was supposed to. The gunmen shot at the vehicle that had passed inside, wounding two of the three passengers, and then stormed into the compound on foot before the gate closed. The attacker who survived was treated for bullet wounds and is in the intensive care unit at King Fahd Hospital, its director, Dr. Sami M. Badawood, said Tuesday.
"If anyone can break into the U.S. Consulate, which is the most heavily guarded compound in this city, then we are all vulnerable," said Georgene S. Wade, the director of the American International School. She said the school, with an enrollment of 600 this year, had already lost scores of students as private American companies followed the lead of the State Department and ordered spouses and dependents to leave the country. "Anyone willing to risk their lives for the cause, we have no defense against that," she said.
Mr. Nirous said he had been with three others in the general services office when he saw a bearded man in a track suit run by outside the window carrying a gun. At that moment the alarm system began emitting rapid squawks. The employees had been trained to lock all the doors and lie on the floor in case of such an attack, which they did, he said. About 20 minutes later the gunmen shot through both doors and started shouting at them, "Where are the Americans?" When they professed ignorance they were told to hand over their cellphones and their money and go outside, he said. Once outside, they were taken to the area near the middle of the compound where four other local employees joined them. Each gunman shielded himself with at least two employees. "They used us as a barricade," said Latif Aboulhosn, 62, a Lebanese electrician who was shot in the chest and leg. Breathing heavily in his hospital bed, with an intravenous line dripping into his neck, he said he could not be sure who had shot him as he tried to run away from the gunfire. He, too, was asked repeatedly where the Americans were, he said.
Salah Abdel Qawi, a bearded Yemeni dispatcher who also suffered a gunshot wound, said that for the most part the Saudi special forces shooting at the attackers seemed to be trying to pick them off. When the gunfire intensified, the attackers were all screaming, "God is great!" and the hostages took the opportunity to fling themselves to the ground. He said he remembered trying to press his face down into the dirt. The line between life and death proved a thin one. A Sudanese colleague lying next to him raised his head to try to figure out what was happening, Mr. Qawi said. "He got shot."
From what I've been reading, it looks like all the dead are ex-pat workers from third world countries.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
1:46:13 AM ||
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Interesting comment: From what I've been reading, it looks like all the dead are ex-pat workers from third world countries.
Jabar Nirous, Sri Lanka
Salah Abdel Qawi, Yemeni
A Sudanese colleague
Latif Aboulhosn, Lebanese
#2
Should I dare say the 2 most obvious words that have characterized every attack in the Kingdom of Venom and that the Press has avoided saying at all cost? INSIDE JOB!
#3
Damn right, Anon. You can be sure it's being investigated. However, my guess is Prince Naive already knows to what extent it was an inside job. W's job is to force the info out of the Royals.
Here is a good pretext to send a shot across the bow of the good ship Saud. Election here is over and now we want names. You don't cough them up and show us ALL your docs, good-bye Prince Bandar as Saudi ambassador to USA. THAT would be a shock and would really let House of Saud know we mean business. Fuel cell development is a bit too abstract for the tea sippers to grasp. The late energetic and Arabist Hume Horan was our ambassador to MK in '80's and the Saudis dissed us by telling our Repub admin to get him out of Dodge as he was actually doing one of the jobs ambassadors are supposed to do; namely find out what the atmosphere of a country is by going around and talking to folks. Too much for Royals.
Our disgrace was to submit to change.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 13:37
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Indeed, CM, tossing Bandar would be the wake-up call: not everyone in Washington is for sale and no longer are the suckups in charge.
I doubt this incident will be sufficient for that action, however... IMHO, the Paul Johnson killing was when this should've happened, but that was pre-election times and everything was uber-sensitive. Now is, indeed, the time to make a stand against the Saudi duplicity - and force CP Abdullah to confront Nayef... after all, they're rivals (Sudairi Seven vs Shammar - Abdullah is the only son) and until they have gotten the goods from their PakiWaki minions squared away, they need us - BS GCC Conference grandstanding and bluster notwithstanding.
#5
I like it! Toss in the suggestion that our experience is that an ambassador who stays too long goes loses his perspective and goes native, and things could get a bit more interesting than usual in the princely compounds, no?
Six of the 11-member terrorist cell that yesterday claimed responsibility for the attack on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah are still at large, a Saudi security official said yesterday.
Rats.
The official said five members of the cell took part in the assault, of whom four had died. While three of the dead had been identified, the identity of a fourth man who later died from his injuries was still being investigated.
Son of a prominent family?
But the official said the identity of a fifth gunman, who survived, was not being disclosed. Some officials have said the man may be Saleh al-Oufi, a central figure in al-Qaeda's operations in Saudi Arabia, though a senior Saudi security consultant denied this. Mr Oufi, who became a leading decision-maker in the terrorist group in June, is a former low-ranking soldier in the Saudi army. According to the Sawt al-Jihad Islamist website, which has distributed Saudi Islamist literature, he later joined Muslim forces in Afghanistan and Chechnya, before returning to Saudi Arabia. "This group had been chased in different parts of Western Province for the past two weeks," the security official said. "A few had been captured, and those who did the attack on the consulate were the ones who were left. There are another five or six others still at large," he said, adding that "even so, the group that is left are very limited in what they can do, though they have plans that are directed from [al-Qaeda] abroad".
Abroad where? NWFP, Teheran?
In a statement posted on the internet, a group calling itself al-Qaeda of the Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula yesterday claimed responsibility for the operation, calling it the Falluja attack. It also claimed that two Americans were killed during the attack, though US officials have denied this, saying they were only lightly injured. The statement identified the attack closely with the battle between US forces and insurgents in Iraq, saying it was carried out by al-Qaeda's Martyr Abu Anas al-Shami Brigade. The brigade was named after Abu Anas al-Shami, an associate of the Iraq-based extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to the website, Mr Shami was killed in the recent fighting in the Iraqi city of Falluja.
I'm coming to the conclusion that this is one of the only reliable methods of determining whether an al-Q member is really dead; if he gets his own Martyrs' Brigade.
Malaysia will launch a nationwide operation in January to rid the country of more than one million illegal migrant workers, a junior minister said on Wednesday.
Tan Chai Ho, Deputy Home (interior) Minister, said once the amnesty ends on December 31 security forces would arrest the illegals along with their employers and charge them in court.
"There are still many illegals in the country. According to unofficial data, there are some one million illegals. So we need to carry out a major operation to make sure there are no illegals in the country," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
Malaysia on Wednesday extended until the end of this month the deadline for illegals to return home.
It had earlier given them until the end of the Eid-al-Fitr Islamic holiday in mid-November to leave but the response had been poor.
"We hope that with the extension of the amnesty, more illegal (workers) in Malaysia will return to Indonesia," visiting Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said in Jakarta after talks with Vice President Yusuf Kalla.
Malaysia has announced that it will deploy more than half a million members of volunteer neighbourhood security groups to track down and detain the estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the country, mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Once the amnesty expires, illegal immigrants face jail sentences of up to five years and a whipping.
Tan said 18,607 people have already been caned, mainly from Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines, for entering the country without valid documents.
As of December 6 a total of 101,668 Indonesian migrants had returned to Indonesia, according to a statement distributed in Jakarta by Najib's staff.
#2
I'm going to have to send this to my brother. He was amazed at the way Indonesians were treated there. So much for "all Muslims are equal" crap.
BTW, while he was over there, his visa expired. He was hoping he would get deported, but they extended it for him instead. I've never seen so much swearing in an email before. ;)
Jordanian King Abdullah II said forces in Iraq are "getting close" to capturing terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "He's slipped through the net once or twice where we got closer to him than he would have liked," Abdullah told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "The Iraqis, Jordanians and coalition forces are working very hard to track him down -- and we're getting close." The king said he based his assessment on "hard intelligence."
The king said the search is ongoing and al-Zarqawi is a difficult man to track "in very difficult circumstances." Abdullah described al-Zarqawi as constantly on the move. He also said al-Zarqawi is thought to be inside Iraq after fleeing Falluja ahead of the latest U.S.-led assault on the city. "He's under pressure," Abdullah said. Abdullah said there is a link between al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda, but described it as a "loose association."
Wouldn't that be a nice Christmas present? I think I'll go boil some eggnog...
Nothin' sez "Christmas" better'n a steaming hot mug of hard-boiled eggnog and Zarqawi's head on a pike outside Forward Operating Base Delta...
It would look better mounted on the hood of Bush's pickup truck.
Now kids, there's enough there for everyone ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
1:42:02 AM ||
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"Heâs slipped through the net once or twice where we got closer to him than he would have liked," Abdullah told CNNâs Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "The Iraqis, Jordanians and coalition forces are working very hard to track him down -- and weâre getting close."
#5
yes frank . al-Zarqawi 's gimp brothers in arms will give him up soon enough . Am a firm beleiver that he'll be back stabbed as local folk prolly sick of his bully boy tactics . Whats ransom on him now ? $20mill ?
Saudi has named the slain gunmen who stormed the US mission. They have been identified as Fayez bin Awwad Al Jeheni, Eid bin Dakhilallah Al Jeheni and Hassan bin Hamed Al Hazmi. "The identity of the fourth, who is wounded, must be not be divulged for the sake of the (public) interest, and procedures are under way to establish the identity of the fifth person, who died in the incident," it said, adding that all four identified were Saudis. That'd be al-Jehani, what do ya wanna bet they're related to Khaled/Khalid al-Jehani, al-Qaeda's late OC of Gulf operations? And IIRC, wasn't there an al-Hazmi hijacker on 9/11?
There were two al-Hazmis: Nawaf & Salem. And as I'm posting this, follow the name link and look at the Wikipedia entries for these guys. Very interesting. Of special note: Both obtained US visas through the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in April of 1999. UPDATE: According to several news sources, Salem al-Hazmi is alive and working at a petrochemical plant in Yanbou, Saudi Arabia. He claims his passport was stolen by a pickpocket in Cairo three years before, and that pictures and details such as date of birth are of him. Back to you, Dan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/08/2004
1:39:17 AM ||
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"...petrochemical plant in Yanbou..."
The same plant where the attacks occurred this year? If anyone remembers that was an inside job.
France has proposed practical measures to ensure the country's Muslim prayer leaders speak French and understand France's way of life. In a newspaper interview, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said that from September, future imams must study law, civics and history. Three-quarters of France's 1,200 imams are not French, and a third do not speak French, he told Le Parisien. France has expelled several imams for preaching contrary to French law.
Mr de Villepin said it was unacceptable that so many Muslim prayer leaders in France do not speak the language of the country in which they live and preach. He said imams must learn French - and receive further education in other subjects at French universities. The interior minister said that would help ensure that they could integrate and further that process among the country's five million Muslims. France has expelled several imams this year, for preaching contrary to French law or for posing a security threat by supporting fundamentalist forms of Islam. Mr de Villepin was keen to stress that he remained committed to helping Islam find its place in French society, saying that most French Muslims practised a tolerant and peaceful form of their religion.
Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith and head of Paris' main mosque, said he was confident that a new generation of imams being trained in France would be open to modernity and secularism. "All our staff and students are now graduates from French universities. They have acquired knowledge that has to be refined and deepened in the areas that will affect their work," he said. "So the future imams, the ones we are putting forward and training right now, will be imams who are open to secularism and modernity."
He said this was the best way to block "not only those ignorant imams, but also those who have ulterior motives and who would like to introduce into this country fundamentalism, archaism, or Islamic schools which are completely out-of-date, completely stuck in the past and totally alien to France". Preventing intolerance on all sides has become one of the biggest challenges faced by the current French government. Some in France fear that young Muslims - especially those in deprived suburbs - are becoming radicalised by the preaching of foreign imams.
#1
A short range am transmitter should be placed in each Mosque and allowed to broadcast the proceedings outside. If there is no signal, bust the imam.
If what's being broadcast is not in French, bust the imam.
If there is a translator translating from Arabic to French, and the translation is incorrect, bust the imam and the translator.
Police did act lawfully when they prevented three coachloads of protesters attending an anti-war demonstration at an RAF base, the Court of Appeal has said. The judges dismissed an appeal brought by a group of the coach passengers who said they should not have been turned away from last year's demonstration against the war in Iraq at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. Instead Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, sitting with Lords Justices Clarke and Rix, upheld a previous ruling. They also upheld an earlier ruling that Gloucestershire Police had acted unlawfully and breached the protesters' human rights by detaining them in their coaches on their journey back to London.
Lord Woolf said police had lawfully turned the protesters away but their action afterwards was "disproportionate". He pointed out the passengers were "virtually prisoners" on the coaches for the two-and-a-half hour trip and were unable to leave even to relieve themselves. After today's ruling, demonstrator Jane Laporte, from Tottenham in north London, said: "I think we are just disappointed that the court hasn't upheld our right to protest, which we consider a fundamental right of democracy."
Fairford Coach Action - a group of more than 80 passengers who decided to pursue the case against police actions on March 22 last year - say they are prepared to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. Afterwards, solicitor John Halford, who acted for Ms Laporte and many of the other protesters, said: "If the police really have this power, it begs the question whether there is a right to protest at all." Craig Mackey, assistant chief constable of Gloucestershire Police, defended the actions of his officers and insisted the force's response to the situation had been "proportionate".
#2
I would have thought they'd be in those plush excursion busses that have a small water closet in the back, like the Greyhound busses here in the States, rather than a bare bones city bus. If so, then the only issue is not being able to walk around and stretch their legs.
It is also not clear from the article whether the police actually escorted the busses all the way back to London to ensure that nobody exited the bus along the way, even to relieve himself. For that matter, was anyone in such need that he begged to be allowed to relieve himself, but was denied? This whole case sounds a bit flimsy to me.
GAZA: Four Palestinian terrorists militants and an Israeli soldier were killed and seven others injured yesterday in the heaviest Gaza fighting since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, raising the prospect that renewed violence could complicate a vote for his successor.
The blast, east of Gaza City, triggered a lengthy battle between soldiers and Palestinian fighters. Four terrorists fighters were killed in the fighting. Seven Palestinians, including two teens, were wounded, Palestinian officials said.
The fighting ended a period of relative calm in Gaza after the death of Arafat. The interim Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has tried to persuade terrorists fighters to suspend attacks on Israelis ahead of Palestinian presidential elections on January 9. The main terrorist militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have not given a specific promise, but indicated they would not disrupt Abbas' efforts.
Hamas claimed responsibility for yesterday's ambush.
"We dunnit, and we're glad we dunnit!"
Mushir Al Masri, a Hamas spokesman, said the attack was a "natural response to the continuous Israeli crimes against our people and against our terrorists fighters." It said two terrorists members involved in the ambush were killed. At a news conference, three masked terrorists fighters described an elaborate scheme to lure soldiers to the area with the help of a now dead double agent.
Hamas said it dug a tunnel near the chicken coop over the past four months and packed it with explosives. During that time, one of its terrorists members pretended to be an informant for Israel. The army frequently relies on Palestinian collaborators to gather intelligence.
Plots within plots.
Early yesterday, the informant told the army that a wanted fugitive would be in the area. When troops arrived, Hamas terrorists militants detonated the explosives, the group said. Hamas claimed to have recordings of its agent talking to his Israeli handler, but did not release them. The army declined to comment on the claims, but confirmed that a tunnel had been found near the blast site.
During the fighting, Israeli aircraft fired two missiles. Two terrorists fighters were killed and seven other terrorists people, including boys aged 14 and 16, were wounded. A large group of youths had gathered to watch the standoff, occasionally throwing stones at Israeli tanks and bulldozers in the area.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:52:47 AM ||
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Sudan has ordered the head of Oxfam to leave "as soon as possible" for violating visa regulations, a week after threatening to expel him in a separate dispute. Humanitarian assistance minister, Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid, said Oxfam director Shaun Skelton had a visa only for Darfur but was working in Khartoum and so had to leave the country. "They [country directors] have specific immigration requirements, which the head of Oxfam has failed in," the under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, Abdel Rahman Abu Doam, said. An Oxfam spokesman declined to comment. On November 29, Sudan ordered the expulsion of the country heads of Oxfam and Save the Children UK but postponed the decision, citing administrative difficulties and humanitarian concerns. Mr Hamid said the expulsion order had been suspended but could be implemented in the future. Sudan had accused the two organisations of dealing in political affairs, which broke the law, and of making statements in support of rebels.
"It ain't fair for them to meddle in our bidniz!"
Mr Hamid said Mr Skelton was free to apply to return. It was unclear whether other Oxfam staff were also at risk for violating visa regulations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:48:28 AM ||
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talking to the wrong people, asking the wrong questions, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 15:00
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Sudan had accused the two organisations of dealing in political affairs, which broke the law, and of making statements in support of rebels.
Actually, that's not a bad law when NGO's actually DO deal in political affairs (Red thingy, Atrocious international)
Young girls born in Europe to immigrant families from Africa are being subjected to ritual genital mutilation, and authorities are doing little to discourage it, a leading women's rights activist warned.
I'm surprised she had the temerity to voice a complaint.
Somalia-born supermodel and best-selling author Waris Dirie, who has campaigned to end the disfiguring practice she suffered at age five in her homeland, said yesterday that she estimates one in every three African families living in Europe is secretly carrying out the ritual on their daughters. No official figures exist.
The procedure — illegal in most European countries — is especially prevalent in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in Austria, where an estimated 8,000 girls born into immigrant families have been affected, Dirie said. "We don't know who's doing it and where," because there are few initiatives to prevent it or to encourage doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers and others to report suspected cases, Dirie said. An exception is France, where there is strong awareness and education, she said.
"What good is a law if no one is paying attention?" Dirie told reporters in Austria, where she was being honoured yesterday by a Roman Catholic men's movement for her efforts to stop the practice.
Islamic religious leaders are telling Europe's Muslim Africans that the prophets recommend the ancient ritual, which involves the removal of the clitoris, often with a dull blade and no anaesthesia, Dirie said.
And they don't want to offend the prophets (PTUI), now do they?
"That is a catastrophe," she said. "Every imam who is not actively against genital mutilation is guilty. Mutilation is not a tradition — it's a crime that must be abolished."
Although women generally perform the procedure, men are ultimately responsible because "untrimmed" young women "face great difficulties in African societies in finding a husband," Dirie said.
Between 100 million and 140 million women have undergone genital mutilation worldwide, and two million girls are at risk each year, according to the World Health Organisation, which says the practice can lead to infection, the spread of Aids and crippling physical, psychological and sexual problems. The practice has been on the rise not only among immigrants in Europe but also in Australia, Canada and the US, Who says.
Petra Bayr, an official with Austria's Socialist Party, said the bloc's women would press the government to consider genital mutilation an "act of violence" and legitimate grounds for women fleeing it to be granted asylum in Austria. "Women who are threatened with genital mutilation or have already suffered it should not have to wait for months for an open door," added Raimund Loeffelmann, a spokesman for the Catholic men's organisation honouring Dirie yesterday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:40:31 AM ||
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Female castration is simply unbelievably depraved.
#2
Dumb a** Africans...no wonder they will never be anything greater than coke bottle worshiping Neanderthals! I say help mass migrate any and all the females who want to leave and let the men rot on the damn vine in their beloved bush country!
#3
After the Muzzies take over Europe, GM will be all the rage. All the fashionable social climbers will want it. The French will design little clitlabia scar tissue piercings and have runway burkha-clad (separate seating) fashion extravaganzas to show them off.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2004 4:43
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Russian President Vladimir Putin cast doubt on Tuesday over the viability of holding elections as planned next month in an Iraq under "total occupation". "I cannot imagine how elections can be organized in conditions of total occupation of the country by foreign troops," Putin said as he met Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the Kremlin.
Sort of like the Ukraine, eh?
Allawi was seeking in his talks with Putin to smooth diplomatic relations, following a similar mission to Germany on a European tour of powers that opposed last year's invasion. The premier said Moscow would be given a "leading role" in helping restore Iraq's shattered industries -- a clear signal Baghdad was ready to give Russia access to its lucrative oil industry.
Cheez, you'd think that would be enough to get Vlad to pipe down.
Officials in Moscow said Russia would try to win back oil contracts it signed under Saddam Hussein's regime in exchange for Moscow's promise to write off 90 percent of Iraq's eight billion dollar Soviet-era debt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:35:44 AM ||
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Funny, I cast doubt on the Russkie elections, and the Ukranian elections, and any other democratic farce Tsar Putty has anything to do with. KGB slut.
Yo, Allawi, while you were over there, didya tell Putty the debts are null and void - and since he's trying to give your neighbor Iran nukes, there won't be any more biz for the rusty Russkies... ever? Making deals with scum like Saddam shouldn't pay off, anyway.
#2
Russian President Vladimir Putin cast doubt on Tuesday over the viability of holding elections as planned next month in an Iraq under âtotal occupationâ.
If I were Allawi, that would have been enough to put a halt to the meeting right then and there. How Iraq runs its own internal affairs isn't really any of Putin's business.
#4
heh..I'm guessing that Allawi didn't give him everything he wants. The super cynical and pehaps paranoid side of me wonders what kind of deal Pukin and Er'dogman worked out last week. Afterall, after the debacle in the Ukraine, it's clear that democracy is as much a threat to Putin as it is to everyone else in that region. Yippy probably lays awake at night wondering how he can make those oil fields his own and crush the Kurds all in one move. I just hope they both don't have massive delusions that can write themselves a much better deal. Putin has to be aware that this is all going to come back to bite him really, really hard. Is it possible that he learned nothing from Stalin's deal with Hitler? A united Islamic Middle East would start eyeing Russia before the ink dried. Sleep with the Devil and you're gonna get burned.
#5
In my book, over the last couple of months, Putin has gone from a run-of-the-mill ex-communist conman politician to a hysterically anti-US world leader just itching for a US upper cut. Is he on suicide watch?
Maybe Chirac's ill-timed quip to the eastern bloc EU candidates was really meant for Putin-
(paraphrase) they'd be better off if they'd just learn when to shut up?
#6
âI cannot imagine how elections can be organized in conditions of total occupation of the country by foreign troops,â
His imagination didn't seem to have much problem last August.
#8
Ukraine is turning into a real headache for Putin. He's losing out on his dream of a Greater Russia and... even more dangerous... he might in a not too distant day stare down his own people occupying Red Square to demand democracy. Putin's going down the authoritarian, dictatorial path and I wonder if Russians are willing to put up with it.
Ukraine is showing them they don't have to.
I think I frequently posted here that you can never trust Russia. I think that, despite those "sweet words" from Bush about Putin, he doesn't either. That's why Bush has been building that cordon of America friendly states at Russia's borders.
We might soon be very glad for it.
#9
Ukrainians have had at least a partial eye towards the West for a long time & are rather different from Russians that way. However, under Stalin and Brezhnev, a lot of ethnic Ukrainians were moved elsewhere in the USSR and Russians were moved in. That's one reason there's a split in the populace there and in some other former Soviet states as well.
#10
TGA: I think that, despite those "sweet words" from Bush about Putin, he doesn't either.
Bush is an operator. I don't think he has any qualms about doing what he has to do to ensure America's long term national interests, which do coincide to a large extent with Europe's interests - except where Europe gets to free-ride and play the good cop against America's bad cop.
Posted via the Rantbug 'post' link :). Seems to work on Firebird on XP :) Cool!
Hat tip: Drudge - EFL Air America Radio, a startup radio network that offers liberal talk and commentary, has signed a new contract with comedian Al Franken to stay on as its lead personality for at least two more years, the company announced Wednesday.
Air America: the Frankenetwork, lurching across the airwaves! Lemme get my pitchfork!
Air America also said that Rob Glaser, the chairman and chief executive of the technology company RealNetworks Inc., had joined the company as the chairman of its board. Glaser has also been an investor in the company, although he declined to disclose the value of his stake. Air America has been signing up more stations and gaining its footing following a shaky start earlier this year. The company went through a management shakeup in May, about five weeks after going on the air, that included the departure of its previous chairman, Evan Cohen, and other executives.
I loved the part when they threw pies at each other and then changed all the locks...
The network can now be heard on 40 stations around the country as well as on the satellite radio services offered by Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Air America also signed a new contract with Randi Rhodes, another popular radio personality, for three years. Its contract with Franken is for two years, with an option to extend for another year. The company did not disclose how much it was paying the personalities. Air America also said it had new commitments of $13 million from investors.
#1
Air America also said it had new commitments of $13 million from investors.
Man, I'd like to get my hands on that sucker list. I've know of some great deals on swamps lake front property in FL. Wonder how long it will take, after they collect the money, to declare bankruptcy.
#2
*ghastly grinding noise*
Air America investor: What's that sound?
Air America ex-listeners: That's your money going down the garbage disposal.
AAI: Then I'll just sue the rethuglicans for their sabotage.
AAeL: Suing because the audience wasn't there?
AAI: *goes off into a long moonbat rant with all the buzzwords and very little coherence*
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
12/08/2004 13:13
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You don't need more investors if you sell commercial time, but that requires a real listening audience to offer the advertisers. The problem they face is that radio is not print. There are far more stations than newspapers in any general area, so radio is really subject to supply and demand particulars that print is not. It's harder for radio to cooking the books on the number of listeners/readers than print.
Posted by: Don ||
12/08/2004 13:52
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#4
"The network can now be heard on 40 stations around the country".
CAIRO - Egypt raised the possibility Tuesday of returning an ambassador to Israel soon, according to the official Mena news agency, a move that would signal a revival of full diplomatic ties after a four-year break. "The new spirit in Israeli-Egyptian relations opens the way to a return of the Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv," the agency said, quoting "high-level sources".
Cairo recalled its ambassador in November 2000 after it accused Israel of defending itself using excessive force against the Palestinian intifada or uprising which erupted two months earlier.
Ties between Israel and its largest neighbour took a dramatic upswing on Sunday when Egypt released the Israeli Druze Azzam Azzam who had served seven years of a 15-year sentence for spying. Israel in exchange freed six Egyptian students who had been accused of plotting to kidnap and assassinate Israeli soldiers. The new atmosphere was further underlined Monday when officials said Israel, Egypt and the United States were to set up free-trade zones under an agreement to be signed on December 14.
Israel and Egypt have been liaising closely over next year's planned pullout of Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza, with both sides keen to ensure Islamic radicals do not step into any subsequent vacuum in the Palestinian territory. "The return of an Egyptian ambassador could be a precursor for diplomatic representation with countries from North Africa and the Gulf," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Monday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:33:18 AM ||
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wonder if he'll carry the arabic edition of "The Protocals of the Elders of Zion" under his arm when he steps off the plane at ben gurion airport
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/08/2004 2:59
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Regarding the last paragraph, one "North African" country is Morocco, I assume. Tunisia/Libya? Something the Egyptians, Israelis, and US know that we don't? Perhaps relations could be upgraded once Pal elections are concluded?
...may return...
...could be...
I love modals.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 13:03
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DAMASCUS - Syria freed 112 political prisoners under a presidential pardon on Tuesday, the official news agency reported. The agency did not give details about the prisoners that it said were released "in the framework of a presidential pardon." It said another 20 prisoners were released in November.
It was not immediately clear how many political prisoners were left in jail but estimates vary between none and hundreds, depending on the criteria of political prisoner, lawyers said.
Several hundred of the Arab country's Kurdish minority were arrested during riots by Syrian Kurds in northern cities that erupted after a soccer match brawl in March. "There are people who are sentenced to jail terms on charges that might not be seen as political by the authorities but there are hundreds of prisoners yet to be released," lawyer and human rights activist Anwar al-Bunni told Reuters. Bunni said activists were trying to identify who had been released in the latest move.
One source said the prisoners were from "all the colours of the political spectrum ... I am not certain but I think that there are no political prisoners left." Bunni said 160 others have been released so far this year.
Hundreds of political prisoners have been released since President Bashar al-Assad came to power. He introduced a measure of political freedom, but critics say authorities later cracked down again on political activists. Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:30:21 AM ||
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many of those released requested that those who met them at the gates of the prison help them as they searched for their tongues and limbs along side the desert highway to allepo
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/08/2004 3:05
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#2
I wonder who we will take care of first, Syria or Iran. If it is Iran, the Euro-weenie's will howl.
Syria, on the other hand, has the distinction of holding Sadamn's biological and chemical weapons. When we find them in Syria, that should PERMANENTLY ELIMINATE Dean, Gore, Kerry and the other anti-American Demoncrats from political viability in the future. It should also shut up the French and all other insane Leftists.
#3
Leaddog2, thank you so much for moving to an all-italic format. Its so much easier on my old eyes, not to mention my blood pressure. Perhaps some day you'll be able to take the final step, and wean yourself off the italics, too. But this is a good interim step.
Australia's foreign ministry said Wednesday it will boost security spending at its embassies by $52 million after a terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia left nine dead earlier this week. The money is in addition to $63 million earmarked for bomb-proofing windows at all Australian diplomatic missions after a suicide bomber exploded a truck outside the embassy in Jakarta on Sept. 9, killing 10 people, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. The terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Jiddah this week demonstrated the need for good perimeter security and hardened walls, Downer said. "In this age of terrorism, we just cannot be too careful in providing protection for our diplomats," Downer told parliament. The new money will be spent over five years starting this fiscal year and begin as the embassies most at risk, he said. The foreign ministry would not say how many buildings would be involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
12:29:42 PM ||
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RIYADH - The spectacular attack against the US consulate in Jeddah, claimed by the local branch of the Al Qaeda network, came to the backdrop of rising anti-American sentiment in Saudi Arabia, fueled by the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
Rising?
US policy, chiefly the continued occupation of Iraq, has helped radicalize young Saudis, a number of whom have gone to the neighboring country to join the fight against US forces or have been caught attempting to cross the border, clueless pundits who are just trying to fill airtime and get their names in the newspapers say. But they argue that local support for Islamist militants of the type who stormed the US consulate in the Red Sea city Monday is negligible and on the decline.
Which is why the local population stoned the instigators ...
That, at least, is the official view, which holds that the militants are a "deviant" minority. "I don't think they still enjoy the support they had a year ago. Now they have no support," commented Sheikh Mohsen al-Awaji, a moderate Islamist. "Al Qaeda claims to be targeting US interests, but the victims of Monday's attack were not American," he said.
"Al Qaeda is just too sloppy," he continued as he expressed his true feelings.
"My impression is that this group does not have much support, although there are some who sympathize with it," said liberal academic Khaled al-Dakheel. The "cultural environment" in Saudi Arabia encourages radicalization, he said. "I am referring to the education system ... and a tendency to look at issues from a religious point of view, sometimes from a narrowly defined religious point of view," Dakheel said.
Fatwa against this guy in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...
US President George W. Bush on Monday warmly thanked Saudi authorities for their quick response to the attack on the consulate, as Riyadh vowed to hunt down the terrorists until they were uprooted. But while Saudi Arabia remains a US ally despite post-September 11 strains, "the vast majority of Saudis object to American policies," Awaji said. Following Bush's reelection for a second term, "the Saudis look at the American people as supporters of this administration. This will create trouble for Americans everywhere," he said.
Of course the American people officially support our government. It's called "democracy". You might want to try it, your cousins in Iraq are about to ...
Dakheel concurred that the situation in Iraq was "fueling anti-American feelings here and in (other parts of) the region."
As if they need an excuse.
But Dakheel said he did not believe that growing anti-US feelings translated into increased support for Al Qaeda terrorism. "People are anti-American, but the majority don't think this (violence) is the right way to oppose US policy in the region," he said.
"No, no! Certainly not! Please keep your Marines at home!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:22:02 AM ||
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If the attack would have been marginally successful (dead Americans), they would have had plenty of support.
#2
Y'know, I can almost "see" the expats who work in the Dhahran Core Area coming out for a smoke - sticking closely together and slipping off to one side of the plaza area trying to be inconspicuous - and being eyeballed by the Saudis, who spend more time smoking than working. I'll bet the ongoing experience will give some of the expats the reason they've been looking for to quit. It sucked like an F5 the last year I was there (2003) - I'll bet it's 10x worse now. Everything comes to an end - time to leave, guys.
#3
Oddly enough, there is a matching rise in anti-Saudi sentiment in the States. Not just here at Rantburg, but in the mainstream -- my evidence being an anti-Saudi quip Jay Leno included in a recent monologue. Apparently, Leno's audience is Red Staters, so he tailors his jokes to appeal to the majority (albeit slim) of Americans. The Saudis would be wise to be more circumspect about their feelings: our soldiers are actually effective, our President has the elephant's memor, and Iraqi oil production is steadily increasing.
#4
reading today's rantburg, I do NOT understand why we simply don't make fuel cell technology available tomorrow. It would end this mess for once and for all. Nothing else will do it, except perhaps another form of fuel.
This is a mess. The leaders of these countries are evil and are more interested in assuring their own empires than they are interested in prosperity. And democracy threatens their power.
Our own countrymen on the left were raised in such a bubble that they are still scratching their heads and wondering why those peace birds did not work.
We need to get out of the middle east - and I don't mean troops - I mean oil. Let the Turks and Saudi's cut their deals with Russia and China only to find America kicking their behinds, once again, with superior technology.
Fuel cell and other technology IS currently available. The current oil companies could be kept busy in Alaska and the gulf. But what they already aren't supplying could be produced, here at home, within five years, if we really wanted. It would end this mess for once and for all.
I don't understand why Bush and our current elected officials do not embrace the idea of providing enough oil here at home to keep things moving AND also providing fuel cells and other forms of energy to make up the difference.
Jeesh...let's get a clue. These tyrants would nuke their own countries if they thought they could maintain their own power.
#5
I do NOT understand why we simply don't make fuel cell technology available tomorrow.
Because it's not economically feasible.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/08/2004 8:14
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Oh.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/08/2004 8:20
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"I do NOT understand why we simply don't make fuel cell technology available tomorrow."
Because it does not create energy -- it takes it from a fuel like hydrogen, methane, or natural gas.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/08/2004 8:48
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and constant war in the middle east is economically viable?
You are using the same logic that dims use to oppose the war on terror. The plan isn't perfect so we should do nothing. It's clear that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, even if we do drill Anwar. So let's get started now, instead of later.
#9
2b, it ain't about the oil, it's about expansionist fascist islam. Sure, the Saudis and Iranians use the oil money to fund attacks, but even if the United States was 100% energy indepentant, some one would buy their oil. And they'd still be trying to kill us.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004 10:24
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When have there not been anti-american feelings in the ME? I am so sick of those people repeating the same bullshit. Those feelings have always been there. They just hide them when it is convenient... like for example when the US save their asses from other tyrants.
#13
Steve---you hit the nail on the head. The HUGE wealth transfers due to the sale of oil from a bunch of psychopaths is the issue. We in the industrialized are literally financing our own destruction. The US knows it. Australia knows it. Lots of countries know it. Lots of countries choose to ignore it. Countries like Communist China encourage it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2004 11:45
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#14
we'd be much better off if we didn't need their oil. Plus, if we make new fuel techonologies available and they become cost effective, it would certainly devalue the price of their oil. It's a win/win all the way around. There would be plenty of work and markets left for you oil people if we open ANWAR and drill in the Gulf.
#15
Your sentiment is on mark, 2b, but as Steve says, even if we were energy independent, Islamofascists would still want the Caliphate, and would have plenty of money to terrorize. Certainly not as much, but think of countries that import oil. Off the top of my head, Japan, S. Korea, Italy, Spain, Germany, among others. They may not import all from the Kingdom, but as long as a large part of that oil comes from ME, there will be plenty of money available (How much did AQ need to commit 9/11?)from private parties to finance terrorism and countries (Syria, Iran) willing to aid and abet it.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 14:01
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#16
Increae in anti-American feelings? Must mean we are winning.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/08/2004 18:29
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The US will not negotiate with extremists who carry out terrorist attacks, and the only language to deal with these elements is their own language, a senior US diplomat told the Khaleej Times yesterday. "There is no way that we can initiate dialogue with these elements who only believe in violence. There is no logic in talking to them in a language that they do not understand. We can initiate a dialogue with those who believe in dialogue," Dr Nabil Khouri, deputy head of the US diplomatic mission in Yemen told 'Khaleej Times'. "Dealing with those who blow up cars could only be through security means," he said. He was responding to a question regarding a solution to the escalating attacks against US targets in the region following Monday's attack on the US Consulate in Jeddah that killed nine people.
Dr Khouri said the attack was another indication of the dangerous security situation in the Middle East and other parts of the world. He said these attacks call for bolstering security cooperation with countries of the region in order to eradicate these organisations and curb the escalating violent acts committed by them. Dr Khouri is of the view that the ideology these groups adopt is of the Stone Age. "They demand the Americans to get out of the Arabian Peninsula. But even after the departure of the US forces from the kingdom, we still have to have American diplomats there. This is the age of globalisation, and you cannot be isolated from the rest of the world."
Well all right, we have a diplomat with a pair.
On what his first reaction was when following news about the attack as an Arab American, Dr Khouri diplomatically answered: "I fear for the lives of all the victims of those attacks."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:17:20 AM ||
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#1
"I let my M-1 do all my talking."
-- WWII Poster
If anyone feels like acting as a guinea pig, here's a link you can add to your toolbar or favorites. It works in IE, but I don't have any non-IE browsers on this machine to test it on. Feedback would be appreciated.
To use, when reading an article, select the text you want to post by left-clicking and dragging the mouse over it. Then open the Post to Rantburg link. URL and text should be there for you (at least in IE)...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
12:12:54 PM ||
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Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority on Wednesday condemned as a sin the deadly shooting rampage at a U.S. consulate, and local newspapers reported one of the slain assailants was a former employee of the nation's religious police. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh reopened Wednesday, two days after militants stormed into the inner courtyard of a U.S. consulate in this port city firing their guns, grabbing human shields and killing five people. Four of the attackers were killed.
U.S. officials warned more attacks were possible, and the injured spoke of assailants opening fire and hunting for victims with shouts of "Where are the Americans?" Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik said in a statement that anyone who enters the kingdom with the permission of its leaders has a promise of security and should not be attacked. "What happened on Monday regarding the storming of the U.S. consulate in Jiddah, using weapons and explosives, killing innocent souls, petrifying secure ones, and undermining security in the kingdom are all forbidden acts and grand sins," al-Sheik said. As Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric, the mufti's words carry significant weight among Saudis, though his views normally wouldn't diverge far from the official government line.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
12:12:00 PM ||
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Dare I hope that this article captures the entire meaning of his condemnation?
No doubt Americans would not qualify as "innocent souls"...
#2
The total article is a beautiful work of making the MK look to be so shocked at who was responsible for attack.
Other comments of the past few days on the attack have pointed out that if the guy had been a muttawa (religious cop), then he had to have done something to a superior to get fired; thus "extremist views". Protocol of Zion extremist views are perfectly welcome, however.
Other pearls: He was released, then disappeared. Families weren't accepting condolences. Nice contrast to Paleo bombers families. Etc. Etc.
Last week while my car was being fixed, I was talking to the Palestinian family that owns the shop. A frank discussion. "Bargouti (one in prison) is stupid. He's in jail. Paleos can't vote for a killer./ Saudi has plenty of $50/barrel oil revenues to fix their security/religious problems once and for all./ You know, Mike, Arabs are crazy."
Slowly but surely, the tide is turning. Just keep up pressure, W, Rummy, and Condi.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 13:19
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Of course he condemns the attack, the attackers failed to kill any Americans.
Posted by: Scott R ||
12/08/2004 18:36
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Gulf countries are making noises about new security arrangements that would reduce their traditional alliance with the United States, a move whose feasibility was quickly questioned by observers.
I think it's a stupid idea, do I count as an observer?
Did you keep your visitors' pass and souvenir parking ticket from the UN tour? Good. That makes you a certified international observer.
The ideas were floated during a weekend conference at the press hotel bar organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, under the theme "security and dialogue in the Gulf", and held in Bahrain, the base of the US Fifth Fleet.
Where they could sit in the balmy breezes, secure in the knowlege that the US Navy was surely on patrol.
Speaking at the meeting, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal stressed the "urgency of global reforms in countries of the region." He also stressed "the need for a security (system) in the Gulf, based on four pillars: the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), plus Yemen, Iraq, and a country to be named later India."
As if the Master Race is going to depend on a bunch of heathen Hindoo for their security.
"The international dimension of security proposed for the Gulf requires the positive participation of Asiatic powers, which have shown themselves recently on the international scene, particularly China and India," the minister said, witnessing to a desire for change by the political heavyweight of the GCC. Besides Saudi Arabia, the GCC comprises Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Sterling security credentials, each and every one.
Prince Faisal, who had criticised US policy in Iraq, said "security in the Gulf needs international guarantees which cannot be ensured by a single party, even by the sole world superpower."
Fine. Go handle your allenist wackjobs by yourself.
His Iranian countpart, Kamal Kharazi, underlined Tehran's position. He favoured "the creation of a security system in the Gulf with all the countries in the region taking part, on the basis of independence ... and without proceeding to any agreement with foreign powers which may threaten, directly or indirectly, the security of all the countries" of the area. "Collective security is not something which can be exported to the region," Kharazi told the conference, which was attended by Stephen Hadley, the new national security advisor to US President George W. Bush, and by the head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid.
"Who needs to depend on a superpower for their security when you have us Iranians next door?"
Opening the conference, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Mubarak al-Khalifa called for the setting up in the Middle East of "new institutions ... susceptible to lay down the basis of a durable peace which would allow continued development in econnomic and political fields."
That sounds positively ... Y'urp-peon.
More specifically, his Omani counterpart, Yussef bin Alawi Abdullah, called for a regional group to be created taking in the GCC countries, Iraq, Yemen, non-Arab Iran and Pakistan. "The GCC countries could think of a new organisation with the involvement of Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan, which will be based on cooperation, especially economic cooperation," the minister said.
And all at the table stroked their long flowing beards and nodded piously in agreement.
But a Western diplomat in the Bahraini capital told AFP he believed a modification of the Gulf countries' traditional alliance with Washington would be impossible. The diplomat, who asked not to be named, stressed his belief that "the GCC countries with the exception of Oman still have no confidence in Iran." "In the short term, any regional security arrangement is not possible under the current regime in Tehran, while it needs time for Iraq to achieve internal stability," he said. "I doubt that the major powers can accept such a security approach," he said.
He later added a statement about allowing the fox to guard the henhouse, and then wandered off to the hotel bar to get a stiff drink.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2004
12:10:28 AM ||
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I expect China will eventually be the new protector. They both don't mind shooting their own citizens.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2004 4:30
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Gulf countries are making noises about new security arrangements that would reduce their traditional alliance with the United States, a move whose feasibility was quickly questioned by observers.
The term 'observers' is journalese for other journalists.
#5
After reading Putin's comment about the invalid elections in Iraq, due to the occupation - it's becoming more clear what is going on here. These countries, threatened by the inevitable prospect of democracy in their region are under the delusion that they can join to crush it. No wonder we are sending more troops.
That they will inevitably begin to eat each other up doesn't bother them because each one has their own delusions of grandeur.
We don't even have the will to carry out the world's cleanest, most conscientious conventional campaign without spending more time on the few mistakes than on what we've accomplished.
The US will never use nukes. Saddam and bin Laden called our bluff.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/08/2004 8:11
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RC, ...without spending more time on the few mistakes than on what we've accomplished.
Who's we? Don't bag 'we' with MSM. Did you expect from them something else?
Anyhoo...
Some fresh snippets...
Seems Syria is on the table:
Washington Post reports US troops in Fallujah discovered global positioning signal receiver containing âwaypoints originating in western Syriaâ to direct bomb charges.
Jordanâs Abdullah charged in Washington: Foreign fighters are coming across the Syrian border after training in Syria. Another White House visitor Iraqi president Yawar said Saddam remnants in Syria are trying to bring back âthe vicious Saddam dictatorship.â
#9
Who's we? Don't bag 'we' with MSM. Did you expect from them something else?
"We" means the entire country. I know rantburgers are sane, but there aren't enough rantburgers to make a difference when the press gets its Crusade on.
Until we have a press that doesn't commit treason as easily as it breathes, we're screwed.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/08/2004 10:23
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but there aren't enough rantburgers to make a difference when the press gets its Crusade on
Not currently, no, but this can and will change. All the more reason for rantburgers and bloggers to start sourcing and reporting news stories themselves.
We're really in a footrace here to develop democracy in the middle east before the mullahs get nukes and the other gulf-region thugocrats figure out how to play off the mullahocracy against us. Likewise, at home we're also in a footrace to develop alternative news sources before the MSM can pull another Cronkite a la Tet.
#11
Look, it's nice to talk and discuss the future of the region. But the FM of Iran was in the same room as our NSA and Abizaid? Huh? Did they get up and walk out when the Irani spoke? Or did they exchange business cards? This can only prop up the Mullahs, which is not in our or Iranian's interest. Do we want the Mullahs in power or out of it, W?
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 14:12
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British and Irish leaders published a detailed plan Wednesday for reviving a Catholic-Protestant administration in Northern Ireland — a peace-building project still on hold because of unsolved arguments about IRA disarmament. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern have spent the past year struggling to forge an unlikely agreement between the province's two biggest and most polarized parties: the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and the Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party. Standing together inside Belfast's riverfront concert hall, Blair and Ahern insisted that a deal between the two long-standing enemies was tantalizingly close. They conceded that a breakthrough had been thwarted in part because the IRA refuses to allow photographs of its disarmament to be published _ but they stressed that an eventual deal was inevitable.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
12:07:53 PM ||
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lessons to be learnt for all , everywhere in the world , Rome wasnt built in a day . Blood feuds go a long way further than anything else . Hate is the most basic human function .
Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on the logistics of the upcoming election to replace Yasser Arafat, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday, but he denied reports that the two sides had worked out a broader deal to end their decades-old conflict. I doubt that'll happen for awhile, but with Yasser dancing with worms it becomes much more likely...
The Palestinians had demanded that Israel cease military operations and withdraw from Palestinian cities and towns to allow candidates to campaign for the Jan. 9 presidential elections to replace Arafat, who died last month. The Palestinians also insisted that residents of east Jerusalem be allowed to vote, a demand that Israel has resisted. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Mideast war, to be their future capital. The two sides have agreed to hold the elections using the same procedures that were in place for the last Palestinian elections, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said. "We received assurances that the elections of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip will take place as they did in 1996," Erekat said. "I am satisfied with that. I am happy." During those elections, residents of east Jerusalem were allowed to vote at five polling stations in the region, but their ballots were officially classified as absentee ballots.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
12:02:17 PM ||
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lol - Paleo ex-pats, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 14:44
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The eldest son of late President Francois Mitterrand was convicted Wednesday of tax fraud and sentenced to a 30-month suspended prison term. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was found guilty of not having declared revenue paid by billionaire businessman Pierre Falcone between 1998 and 1999. He was accused of having evaded $798,000 in taxes.
Falcone is the central figure in an investigation into alleged illicit weapons sales to Angola. Mitterrand, who served as counselor on African affairs from 1986-92 under his father, has been investigated by French authorities for several years for his suspected role in the alleged arms trafficking. Mitterrand told the Paris court in earlier testimony that he only advised Falcone about oil markets in Africa. He also said he has been a resident of Mauritania since 1996 and that he paid tax there. Mitterrand was not present in court. His lawyer, Olivier Schnerb, said he had been suffering from a sleep disorder and "was not well at the moment."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
11:56:06 AM ||
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Canada's special operations military unit, Joint Task Force 2, has been awarded the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in battle. It's just the second Canadian military unit to receive the honour. U.S. President George W. Bush made the presentation in California to the American commander of the multinational force in Afghanistan of which JTF-2 was a part from October 2001 to April 2002. The citation, first awarded after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7, 1941, is given to units of the United States and allied nations "for extraordinary heroism in actions against an armed enemy."
"The unit must display such gallantry, determination and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart and above other units participating in the same campaign."
The only other Canadian unit to receive the citation is the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, for actions at the 1951 Battle of Kapyong during the Korean War. Military officials refused to release details of JTF-2's exploits in Afghanistan.
"We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you."
While their operations went largely unnoticed by their countrymen, their U.S. counterparts took journalists into combat operations for days on end. Officials say that's because the U.S. special forces number in the tens of thousands, while Canada's contingent is believed to be fewer than 1,000, and members could be targeted by Canadian left-wing loonies terrorists. In a recruiting video released in May 2003, the deputy chief of defence staff, Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison, described in cryptic terms JTF-2's involvement in Afghan operations. "In numerous challenging missions against Taliban and al-Qaida targets, they captured enemy personnel, equipment, and material of significant intelligence value and hampered the enemy's ability to conduct operations against us and our coalition partners," said Maddison.
The unit became the centre of attention for a few days in 2002 after a photograph emerged showing JTF-2 soldiers bringing in enemy prisoners to a holding facility at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. It was the first evidence that Canadians had taken prisoners during the conflict, coming at the peak of debate over the fate of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters captured by the Americans. In the fall 2001 budget, the federal government announced a five-year, $118.5-million special forces expansion project.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
11:51:44 AM ||
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Maybe with this new administration in Canada, those Canadian snipers will get the medals they earned in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Don ||
12/08/2004 13:44
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While serving in [CLASSIFIED] during the period [CLASSIFIED], JTF-2 was engaged in [CLASSIFIED]. Despite [CLASSIFIED] and [CLASSIFIED], it performed its assigned duties with merit and distinction.
Though military officials won't release details of JTF-2's exploits in Afghanistan, the citation says the task force was "the driving force behind myriad combat missions."
Its "extremely high-risk missions" included:
-search and rescue, recovery dive operations, non-compliant boardings of vessels, reconnaissance.
-sensitive site exploitation, direct action missions, apprehension of military and political detainees.
-destruction of cave and tunnel complexes, identification and destruction of al-Qaida training camps, destruction of enemy ordnance, co-ordinating unconventional warfare operations.
The task force "set an unprecedented 100 per cent mission success rate ... while operating under extremely difficult and constantly dangerous conditions," the citation says.
"They established benchmark standards of professionalism, tenacity, courage, tactical brilliance and professional excellence while demonstrating superb esprit de corps and maintaining the highest measure of combat readiness."
U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins, settling in northern Japan after his release from a military prison and four decades in North Korea, has expressed hopes of becoming a Japanese citizen, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The Asahi newspaper said Jenkins, who abandoned his Army unit in 1965 and defected to North Korea, would soon apply for permanent residency in Japan on the remote island of Sado, where he arrived on Tuesday. Jenkins' wife, Hitomi Soga, is Japanese, and their two North Korean-born daughters, Mika, 21, and Brinda, 19, received Japanese citizenship soon after their arrival in Japan in July. The North Carolina-native, who served 25 days in a U.S. military jail after being convicted of desertion, said Tuesday that he would like to spend the rest of his life in Japan, but he did not publicly mention the possibility of Japanese citizenship. No skin off my fore. Just keep him out of the U.S.A.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
1:12:28 PM ||
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Japanese citizenship...ha! The Japanese don't let anyone naturalize. It disturbs the "wa", don't you understand. You can live there 40 years and still be an outsider.
Still, if anyone has a chance, it's Jenkins. I don't know how the Japanese feel about making him one of their own, though. They might feel he's better off as an American.
#3
Actually, you can become a naturalized Japanese citizen. It is most commonly done by Koreans (some but not all have been there for generations, anyway), Chinese, etc, but there are those from Western countries who do so: Konishiki and Akebono to name some prominent former Americans that I can recall.
Finally, there was a Finnish guy who not only naturalized, but got elected to local office (this was in the mid to late 90s; not sure if he is still in office)
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
12/08/2004 23:52
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Pollution in European cities is rampant. But if the European Union has its way, that will soon change. As of Jan. 1, all cities will have to comply with new clean air laws. Downtown tolls and street closures may result. Expensive lawsuits are also in the works. The faces of the traffic experts attending the ADAC (German Automobile Association) industry conference became visibly longer with each sentence uttered by the speaker. German traffic taboos, after all, were being broken -- the freedom of German roads was under attack. The future, he was saying, could include the following: the closure of more city streets to traffic; the widening of the snail-paced 30 km/h (18 mph) zones within metropolitan areas; even the imposing of temporary driving bans. The timing of the meeting was appropriate: Friday, Nov. 13.
And here I was, thinking it had something to do with the BBC. Read the rest at the link.
ELF, read the whole article
For months, vast swarms of locusts have been buzzing through Africa, eating everything in sight. Now, they have reached European shores. Can the plague be stopped?
Prob'ly not...
It was like deja vu, a flashback to that all-too-familiar invasion of feathered-friends from Hitchcock's thriller "The Birds."
Locusts don't have feathers. It's more like a flashback to the no-longer-very-familiar biblical plagues...
The difference: this time, the attackers had four wings and six legs, and there were 200 million of them. A steady rustling noise like silk paper filled the air last week when a cloud of locusts swarmed over Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, two holiday-paradise islands of the Canaries.
"Herbert! My vacation is being ruined! Do something!"
"Locusts turn holiday into horror trip," screamed the headline in Germany's mass-circulation tabloid Bild. Strong winds had literally blown the 6-centimeter (2.5-inch) long animals over from Africa. Shocked vacationers barricaded their holiday apartments -- hardly surprising, as they weren't exactly in the mood to watch this miracle of nature.
"Helga, splash some lamb's blood on the doorjam, just to be safe!"
Then again, few would have imagined that these ever-munching insects, Schistocerca gregaria in Latin, are normally very peaceful desert inhabitants. Tainted brown-beige, the locust in its solitary form resides in the deserts of Africa, living as a loner. But inside Dr. Jeckyl looms an ominous Mr. Hyde -- and through a seemingly magical transformation, the insects morph into the orange and yellow colored vandals straight out of the Book of Revelations that are now invading Portugal's coastline in masses in addition to the Canaries.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/08/2004
11:16:19 AM ||
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Well, if you can fry 'em like cicadas in Md. and Pa., gourmet fast food stands can become prosperous!
SADDAM Hussein's first meeting with a defence lawyer was abruptly cancelled today, apparently because of pressure exerted by US authorities on the special Iraqi tribunal trying him, the chief of the former dictator's legal team said. Ziad al-Khasawneh said in an interview that the Iraqi Bar Association obtained court permission last week for defence team member Khalil al-Duleimi, an Iraqi, to meet with Saddam today. "But the syndicate called the lawyer earlier today to say the meeting has been indefinitely postponed," said al-Khasawneh, who heads the Jordan-based legal team appointed by Saddam's wife Sajida. "The abrupt cancellation indicates that there was a last-minute decision to ban the meeting," he said. "That decision appears to have come from the top, neither from the court nor from the Iraqi government because both have no say in front of Iraq's real ruler, the United States of America. There was obviously an American veto on the meeting."
Officials from the Iraqi Bar Association in Baghdad were not immediately available for comment. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said he had no information on the purported meeting. US authorities have refused to let the legal team or other lawyers see the Iraqi dictator, who was arrested in December 2003 and is being held in a US-controlled jail. No lawyer was at Saddam's side when he was arraigned July 1 in Baghdad on broad charges that included killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991. Saddam's legal team consists of 20 lead lawyers and another 1500 volunteers. The lead lawyers are from countries including the United States, Britain, France, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya. Most of the volunteer lawyers are from Arab countries.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/08/2004
10:52:34 AM ||
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Tell 'em thay get to share their client's fate. That'll thin out the ranks toot suite...
The German chief federal prosecutor's description of events surrounding what appears to have been an attempt to assassinate Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, was unusually detailed. Point by point Kay Nehm made it clear just how advanced plans were to carry out an attack on Allawi during his visit to Germany late last week. His report shows that the plans allegedly hatched by three Iraqis arrested in Germany on Friday were so rushed they probably would have had difficulty carrying them out. However, it also reveals the suspects to be more than fringe figures, with the plot leader said to have close links with the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group in Iraq.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
10:50:39 AM ||
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THE appeals trial of six men convicted in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole opened today with prosecutors demanding the execution of two defendants who escaped the death penalty. The first convictions in the al-Qaeda attack that killed 17 American sailors were handed down in September, with four Yemenis sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. Two men - Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden, and Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi - were sentenced to death. Al-Badawi, interrupting proceedings from behind bars in the courtroom dock, shouted to Judge Saeed al-Qattaa that the proceedings were a sham. "I know the verdict is ready in your pocket," al-Badawi yelled.
Prosecutors said defendants Fahd al-Qasaa and Maamoun al-Msoua, who were sentenced to 10 and eight years respectively, should be executed because their collaboration in planning the attack has been proven. The prosecution added that the previous trial was erroneous in not sentencing them to death since Yemeni law stipulates that any crime that results in a death is punishable by death.
Al-Nashiri, who is believed to have masterminded the Cole attack and also thought to have directed the 1998 bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was the only defendant not present during the trial. He is in US custody at an undisclosed location. Al-Badawi said he would not recognise the court and the four other defendants asked the court to contact their lawyers to be present in future hearings. The lawyers could not be reached by The Associated Press to explain their absence. The trial was adjourned until December 15.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/08/2004
10:49:11 AM ||
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"Yer Honor, if killin' infidels is wrong, I don't wanna be right."
At least 36 people were injured in Indian Kashmir when a grenade exploded near a police patrol in a busy marketplace in the south of the troubled region. The explosion took place in a road in the Anantnag town. Police reported that most of the victims were civilians. "The blast caused chaos," a police official said. That's usually the case, isn't it? Toss a grenade in the general vicinity of cops or soldiers and don't worry about the number of women and kiddies maimed...
Earlier Wednesday, two rebels were killed in northern Baramulla district in an overnight gun battle with security forces. A third rebel was shot dead during clashes with security troops in Anantnag district. Violence has escalated in Kashmir recently, which analysts said could be aimed at hampering a new round of peace talks between India and Pakistan over the Himalayan region. Oh, do tell? Remember to send a Thank You card to Hafiz Saeed...
The new attack comes as Indian President Abdul Kalam visited the disputed region and as India and Pakistan were holding meetings in New Delhi to discuss a bus transportation service between the two sides of Kashmir under their command. Kalam, whose post is largely ceremonial, is dubbed "missile man" for heading the scientific team which developed Indian missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads in 1998. In his address to the forces serving in border areas, he praised their services and told them that the government was acquiring "latest weapons and equipment" for them. "You're allowing us (the government) to focus on developmental issues by protecting our borders," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2004
10:44:28 AM ||
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Oooh I sooo look forward to the new bus route being opened up . NOT! aka turkey shoot alley .
The marines have long maintained that "every marine is a rifleman." This means that everyone, no matter what their regular job, but keep their infantry skills up to date. Now the army is adopting the same attitude because of the way operations play out in Iraq. That is, anyone traveling outside a base has to be combat ready. And those in bases have to be prepared for combat emergencies. As a result, there are a lot of things everyone in Iraq (and to a lesser extent in Afghanistan), have to get down cold if they want to get out in one piece.
· Emergency Action Drills. These are the things you do when there is an emergency. You must practice them with the people in your unit, to make sure everyone understands and does it the same way. When someone new comes into your unit, you have to go through all the drills for them. The drills are varied, ranging from what to do during various situations while on the road, to where the bomb shelters (or trenches) are in your camp. For combat units, these drills are no great shock, as most combat operations are a succession of drills (which are practiced regularly). But for non-combat support troops, these drills are a new experience, and more practice is always useful. Drills save lives.
· Practice changing tires, and doing it quickly. This does two things. First, you learn how long it takes, even when you are in a hurry. This can be a useful bit of information if you are under fire while changing the flat. Second, practicing it forces you to make sure the spare tire is in good shape, and can quickly be reached (along with any tools needed.)
· Mister Grenade can be your friend, even on the crowded streets of Baghdad. If your vehicle has a glove compartment, re-label it as the "grenade compartment." Carry one smoke, one fragmentation and one tear gas grenade. If you're stuck in traffic and the situation outside it starting to look dicey, then drop a smoke grenade out the window and try to get moving. You MUST be moving if you drop the tear gas grenade, because you cannot drive through the tears. Most other drivers will give you a wide berth when they see the smoke or tear gas grenade go off. For those who keep coming, with evil intent, the fragmentation grenade may come in handy (it is good for getting at bad people hiding behind something.) Remember, when using grenades, do not touch the pin until the grenade is outside the window. Accidents happen, and having a smoke grenade go off in your vehicle will ruin your day, at the very least.
· Carefully plan each trip on the roads, especially in areas where the bad guys are particularly active. Remember, the most frequent targets are large convoys of big trucks. So stay off the MSR (Main Supply Route) used by those guys. Give everyone in your convoy a strip map of the coming trip, and make sure the "assistant driver" (the one who takes over if the primary driver is hit) studies the plan as well. Select a route that you feel is least likely to be watched, and attacked by gunmen.
· Especially when outside your base, always have your weapon (usually an assault rifle or pistol, or both) with you at all times. Carry as much ammo as you can. In an emergency it will not be enough, but the more the better (14 or more magazines is not unreasonable). Only the stuff you have on you counts, as you may have to get out of your vehicle in a real emergency. Look around, the troops in Iraq have discovered many clever ways to carry all these magazines.
· Always wear your Kevlar helmet, and your armored vest when outside the compound. When in the compound, always know where your vest and helmet (and weapon) is. Keep the weapon clean.
· Practice basic combat operations, like changing magazines (you take cover when you do this, people who don't, often get shot). Practice aiming and shooting. Lots of firing ranges have been set up in Iraq, and lots of ammo has been provided for practice.
· Practice shooting at long range (800 meters.) While it's true that most combat is at shorter ranges (under 100-150 meters), you will sometimes find yourselves being shot at by people farther away. In a situation like this, a little practice before hand will pay big dividends. Might even say your life. Think about it.
· Make sure your first aid gear, and skills, are always up to snuff. Get extra medical gear if you can, and learn how to use it. The Special Forces medics always get the latest and greatest stuff, so find out what they are using and see if you can scrounge some of it up.
· Always be ready to return fire when on the road. Nothing discourages ambushers more, and ruins their aim, than lots of return fire. You might even kill a few of them.
· Don't throw candy to the kids while you are on the road. This just encourages them to get to close, and sometimes get run over. This is bad for the child, and for you as well. The dead kids family will come after you. Remember, every Iraqi family is allowed, by law, to have one AK-47.
· If you are in a firefight and you wound one of the enemy, don't let him crawl or limp away to safety. Kill him. These guys are doing holy war and will keep shooting even if wounded. They cannot hurt you if they are dead.
· Cars and trucks, unless armored, are not bullet proof. If you are in a firefight, take cover behind concrete or steel. Fighting from behind an unarmored vehicle means you will eventually get shot when you don't expect to. Indeed, when ambushed and in an unarmored vehicle that cannot move, the best thing to do is get away from that vehicle as soon as possible.
There's a lot more to learn. The above items are but a sample of what you have to know to survive in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
10:44:25 AM ||
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Mister Grenade can be your friend
I will have to clear out my glove compartment and get the Grenade Triad. Might help in traffic....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2004 11:59
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I think the Marines have found that dead people can hurt you. However, unrecognizable masses of organic matter are less likely to hurt anyone, except for the smell.
#4
If you are in a firefight and you wound one of the enemy, donât let him crawl or limp away to safety. Kill him. These guys are doing holy war and will keep shooting even if wounded. They cannot hurt you if they are dead.
Print this out, and distribute this to all U.S service personnel. It bears repeating over and over again.
#5
I was hoping the Army had learned somethings from Viet Nam...guess not.
When I was in-country and near an Army support base, following a nasty night-time assualt on the Army position which resulted in several KIA/WIA, the Army commander approached our Marine unit (a force logistic support group) and asked if we would provide several Sergeants to lead Army squads made up of Army remington-raiders, cooks bakers and supply clerks.
Lucky for the Army, the Marine NCO's could talk both combat shoot, move and communicate, and typing, food service and bullets, beans and band-aids.
December 8, 2004: North Korea is facing growing unrest propelled by uncontrolled movement of news via new cell phone networks. North Korea has always tightly controlled information. Radios must be manufactured so that they only receive government stations. Anyone found with a radio that can receive foreign stations is tossed into a labor camp, or worse. Few North Koreans have telephones, and fewer still have computers or Internet access. But several years ago, Chinese telephone companies began bringing cell phone service to areas along the North Korean border. At first, coverage was spotty. But a year ago, new transmission equipment was installed along the border, making it possible to use the Chinese cell phones all along the North Korean border. There has been government owned cell phone service inside North Korea since 2003, but it is expensive for foreigners ($1200 to get the phone, plus about a dollar to make a one minute call, and 25 cents to receive a call.) The government tightly controls who can have a North Korean cell phone, and it's assumed that the phones are tapped. The North Korean system is limited in its coverage. The system covers the highways running between Pyeongyang and Hyangsan, Pyeongyang and Gaeseong and Wonsan and Hamheung, as well as those cities themselves. The North Korean system was soon linked to the Chinese system. This was bowing to economic demands. China is North Korea's largest trading partner, and the source of oil and food assistance. It was North Korean officials working along the Chinese border who forced the issue on connecting the two nations cell phone networks. But now more powerful transmitters allow Chinese cell phones to pick up signals throughout North Korea. This means that the countryside, long completely cut off from anything outside North Korea, was getting news within minutes. Before the cell phones, rural areas often didn't get news about events in North Korea for weeks. That has all changed, and it making North Koreans aware of what a mess their communist rulers have made. The government quickly picked up on this and made cell phones illegal (except in the hands of authorized officials) throughout much of the country. Hundreds of cell phones have been seized, but people have simply gotten much better at hiding them. Chinese cell phones are much cheaper to own and operate, and preferred over the government issue ones. The growing number of refugees from North Korea, and unrest inside the country, is due in part to the increased use of cell phones. Many government officials are in a panic over this, because they have always tightly controlled the flow of information. The current generation of North Korean officials have no experience in a society that has free flow of information. They can't force the Chinese to turn off their cell phone service along the border, and many officials have become addicted to the convenience of cell phone use. It would appear that the North Korean dictatorship will end, not with a bang, but with a ring tone.
"Can you hear me now?"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/08/2004
10:42:52 AM ||
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What an interesting year. Dan Rather and Kim Jung Ill may both be brought down by free-flowing information!
#2
king kim; the lefts continuing example of a long history of leadership under socialisms values. Here is to hoping all those in the American left get their tickets to this paradise....Our State Department should arrange a trade, for every American leftist they take, we'll take 50 out of Nk labor camps....to be so lucky....the left has a record....its on dsiplay everyday
#3
My thoughts exactly, Justrand. Substitute "blogs" for "cell phones" and you have our situation exactly. Smash the MSM! Let a thousand blogs contend!
#4
Cool. I expect the authorities are in a panic. It's much harder to oppress an informed populace.
Great snark, Steve. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/08/2004 11:32
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I REFUSE to use a Cell Phone personally. I hate the noise and privacy intrusion. However, I would gladly pay to help some North Koreans obtain information about the True horrors of Kim Jong IL, the Demon Master. It is too bad we cannot help those lost souls over there in such a simple way.
[bolding removed by ed.]
#6
leaddog2--The key is to remember the phone is there for your convenience, not your callers'! If you don't want to be disturbed, turn it off or turn the ringer down and let calls go to VM. You're the one paying for it, so don't let it dictate your behavior!
Of course, you can't do much about the noise and privacy intrusion from others' cell phones in public places, but that's another problem altogether... *sigh*
Posted by: Dar ||
12/08/2004 14:52
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Cell phones are damn near as bad as wedding rings.
Why did the NORKS even let them in the country? It doesn't make any sense. Radios no... cell phones yes? Lack of high quality protein is starting to show on the decision making process.
#8
Leaddog2,
If you refuse to own a cellphone fine,but don't let other peoples' bad manners deter you. If I may sugest a few things(I used to sell them for a living).Think of the cellphone as insurance,it's a pain paying every month,but if you need it...Other uses are calling local highway patrol if idiot is weaving all over freeway,automobile help in emergency and checking w/spouse if forgot what kind of fruit to get in grocery store(avoiding that argument when you get home-priceless!).As Dar wrote-it's YOUR phone,either keep phone turned off,or the ringer off.Don't give cell# to anyone-"I don't have one","its for company use only","I don't give it out." VoiceMail is feature of most plans-you don't want to be bothered w/it you can get it turned off when activating phone.
Get smallest reasonably priced phone. Give it the pocket test-put keys in one pocket,phone in other;walk around and sit down,it shouldn't be too noticeable. This is how you will normally carry phone,so make sure it "fits".
Get cheapest 1 yr.contract plan w/some minutes-usually $25-30. Don't go for 2 yrs. if you can help it-in the long run waiving the $25-35 activation fee isn't worth it.Because phones have at best 1 yr.warranty,it is better at end of 1 yr. to get new phone and new 1 yr.contract.(Most companies to keep customers from switching will send you a free phone if renew.You keep your first phone as spare in case second gets lost/destroyed.Replacement cellphones are costly.)
If you are buying phone in store and not crowded,ask salesperson to program your home phone# and autoclub/AAA into phones first 2 memory spots.(Also good idea to program your local power and phone co.s' emergency #s.,if you have them w/you get salesperson to program them also.Most cellphones have lighted keypad,making easier to call in the dark.)If the store is not crowded and the salesperson can't be bothered to program #s,fine,leave and go elsewhere.If the people in store can't be bothered to help you when you are giving them money,what are they going to do if you have a question/problem later?
The only accessory you need is car-charger.Plugs in cig lighter and should both power phone and recharge batt.Most places will include one for free,otherwise WalMarts,Office Depots,etc. have them for $10-20.
Try phone out along your normal travelling area for first week. To save minutes(cheap hint!)cell co.s have free# to call for customer support(611 often),call that and check reception. If you find too many dead spots,another phone from same co. ain't gonna help,return phone and cancel service. Make sure you keep box and ALL the material in box.Cell co.s give you between 14-30 days to cancel w/no penalty. After that,you are stuck!
Differ co.s have differ reception in differ cities. A few yrs. ago a company using an actress married to an elder actor as spokesperson and a company who's name rhymed w/splint had the most customer complaints. I don't know what is situation today.
I know this is long and has nothing to do w/WOT so if you delete,I understand.Stephen
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/08/2004 17:19
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Delete? No! Good advice from someone who knows.
Doctors at the Austrian clinic that treated Ukraine's opposition leader confirm there was a plot to kill him. ... "This is no longer a question for discussion," Dr Korpan said. "We are now sure that we can confirm which substance caused this illness. He received this substance from other people who had a specific aim." Asked if the aim had been to kill him, Dr Korpan said: "Yes, of course." Follow the Title link to read 2 pages of details.
#2
I read the poisoning happened at a dinner thrown by the Ukrainian secret police.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2004 4:21
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It doesn't matter whether the culprit was a bribed Ukrainian chef or a turncoat Moscow sympathizer; they have Putin's interests at heart!If I were Yushchenko, first I wouldn't eat anything not from a can; have a taster (like Saddam), and shoot the person who took the food off the stove and brought it to him!
Members of the Columbia High School brass ensemble were not allowed to play Christmas carols at their holiday concert this year -- not even instrumental versions. At a school board meeting Monday night, parents and students alike expressed their outrage. "This is censorship at its most basic level and political correctness to its extreme," said student Ryan Dahn. "When you close that door you are supporting ignorance, and I think it's a very sad thing," said parent Melanie Amsterdam.
The controversy is by no means an isolated case. The role of religion during the Christmas season is a source of annual angst. But this year, people in "red," or Republican, America -- particularly Christian conservatives -- are in an unprecedented uproar. They are sending letters to public schools in Chicago, where the words "Merry Christmas" have been excised from a popular song; boycotting Macy's, which has removed "Merry Christmas" signs from its department stores; and protesting the exclusion of a church group from Denver's annual Parade of Lights. "What they don't understand is that by not wanting to offend anyone, they're excluding a huge group of people, and that is all of those of the Christian faith," said Doug Newcomb, business administrator of the Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colo.
Lawyers Ready to Sue
Attorney Demetrios Stratis, affiliated with the conservative civil liberties group Alliance Defense Fund, is one of 700 Christian lawyers across the country poised to pounce on such cases. "We just don't believe that you need to stamp out religion in the public square," he said.
There are those in Maplewood -- and in "blue," or Democratic, America generally -- who say religion should be a private matter. "Holiday celebrations where Christian music is being sung make people feel different," said Mark Brownstein, a Maplewood parent. "And because it is such a majority, it makes the minority feel uncomfortable."
But Eric Chabrow, who is Jewish, says his son, Sam, should be able to play Christmas songs in the high school band. Chabrow is a part of "blue" America and generally supports the separation of church and state. "I think that people have become a little too dogmatic in their beliefs on either side," he said. "And I think in this world today, we need to look at that center. I mean, the center in this country is vanishing. And maybe that's what's happening here." He says there must be solutions that are neither "red" nor "blue" -- just common sense. Solutions may not be forthcoming: Christian lawyers may sue the Maplewood school board, while the school superintendent is vowing not to bend to outside pressure.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/08/2004
10:38:38 AM ||
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Grinch picture?
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
12/08/2004 10:58
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Chabrow is a part of "blue" America and generally supports the separation of church and state.
News flash: so does Red America. It's just that we can tell the difference between government "establishing" a religion, and the free exercise of one.
#4
The following happened in my son's school. Every friday they get to choose a movie to watch. A classmate suggested a movie about Christmas and the teacher said no because it could offend people of a different religion. A muslim kid stood up and said that it would not offend him and that he would gladly watch the movie.
Someone has to get rid of liberals in teaching positions. They are doing more to create differences among kids of different religious background than the mullahs and Imans of Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/08/2004 15:59
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#6
Seems to me Grant established Christmas as a national holliday some time back. The name Christmas is for someone but I forget who. I mean there has to be a reason we get a week off in December. Now what was that guy's name?
#7
Non-Christian comment. This PC stuff is crap in it's purest form.. I'm not offended by christmas songs; I hum them all during December. And if I was offended: so what? When did people get this insane idea that they have a "right" to not be offended?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
12/08/2004 20:16
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EFL & HT to WorldNetDaily
A Virginia man who admitted Monday to coating his motel room with the contents of 14 jars of petroleum jelly in May will have to pay $3,886 for damages to the motel. He didn't have much of the goo -- typically used as diaper rash ointment or as a balm for chapped lips -- in his possession when he was booked in at the county jail, a correction officer said. "He looked normal," booking officer Anthony Rando said. "He didn't look slippery," Rando said, but he carried the smell of petroleum jelly with him into the jail. No comment.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
12/08/2004
10:33:00 AM ||
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Pretty slick for a rash act, but he slipped up in the end.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/08/2004 10:36
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#2
Mike - You are a very bad man.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/08/2004 11:06
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#3
Just another case where petroleum jelly has landed someone in deep sh*t.
Posted by: Don ||
12/08/2004
10:26 ||
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#1
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
A. Lincoln, 1863.
Posted by: Don ||
12/08/2004 12:00
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Diplomats and peers have joined scientists and churchmen to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair to publish a death toll in the U.S.-led war in Iraq. In an unusual open letter to the premier made available to Reuters, the 44 signatories said Blair had rejected other death counts from the war -- figures span 14,000 to 100,000 -- without releasing one of his own. Any totalling of the Iraqi war dead could embarrass Blair ahead of a general election expected in months in a country that opposed the U.S.-led war.
The group urged Blair to commission an urgent probe into the number of dead and injured and keep counting so long as British soldiers remain in Iraq alongside their American allies. "Your government is obliged under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population during military operations in Iraq, and you have consistently promised to do so," they wrote in the letter to be published on Wednesday. "However, without counting the dead and injured, no one can know whether Britain and its coalition partners are meeting these obligations."
The inquiry, they added, should be independent of government, conducted according to accepted scientific methods and subjected to peer review. Signatories included Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden, who spent 32 years in the military; Sir Stephen Egerton, a former British ambassador to Iraq; human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger and the Lord Bishop of Coventry, Colin Bennetts.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/08/2004
10:19:34 PM ||
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It would also be interesting to keep a tally of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed at the hands of insurgents and how many bodies are plucked from mass graves.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/08/2004 4:06
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#4
What a motley crew. They have too much time on their hands. I'm not sure why it's up to Blair to try to count Iraqi dead. Since when is it the job of one side to count the dead of their enemy? Surely the will and the means to get an accurate tally of Iraqi dead should come from the Iraqis themselves? Or am I missing something here?
#5
It's not about dead Iraqis. Otherwise they would want an accounting of the 1 million missing during Saddam's rule. Well not entirely missing. More than 300,000 have been found so far and new mass graves are being discovered. Why didn't Sir Stephen Egerton and the others speak up when they were in positions to do something about it?
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2004 4:26
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#6
See this is the story, any Iraqi killed is the fault of Tony and George no matter who did it or why. That is all these people are any good at tearing stuff down. They haven't built up one thing good in their whole useless LLL life.
Since retiring from the RAF, he has been closely involved in developing foreign and security policy for the Liberal Democrats. He is now a member of both the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy Committee. He is deputy Chairman of the National Liberal Club. He became a Life Peer in June 2004. His wife, Sue, is the Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Finchley & Golders Green, and they live in Hampstead.
I see the missus is up for something in the Liberal Democratic Party. Could that explain why Sir Timothy Garden is making such a fuss?
Goddam those facts! They get in the way of a perfectly decent agenda-pushing 'news' item. I guess what were once considered press releases are now 'stories.'
#12
Bleeding hearts always want to count caskets instead of honor the fallen for the cause in which they died to advance. Disgusting.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/08/2004 18:27
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#13
Come on, people. Since when is counting civilian deaths in this "war" a bad idea? Don't get distracted by the secondary issues. This is a war against no clearly determined enemy and innocent people are dying. We should know about it. The fact that Blair said no is clear indication he is hiding something and afraid of the truth. Sure we should have counted Saddam's atrocities and everyone else's for that matter, but just because we didn't, does this mean we shouldn't now?
Why don't we Americans look directly at the war? We avert our gaze, knowing that the situation in Iraq grows more desperate by the day. Vaunted "coalition" efforts to "break the back" of the "insurgency" have only strengthened it. The violence among Iraqis would surely qualify as civil war -- except that only one side is fighting. The structures of relief and repair are gone. Whole cities are destroyed, populations displaced. The hope of Iraqi elections is mortally compromised. "Coalition" members are dropping out. The mission of American force is to secure the country, but it can't secure itself. The performance of US intelligence has been consistent: Its strategic failures caused the war, and its tactical ignorance of the enemy is losing the war... Alas! Alack! Alarm! All is Lost! We must run away and hide! Chaos reigns! Aiiiieeeeegggghhhh! It's Vietnam all over again, but without the good music and free love!
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
12/08/2004
10:17:35 AM ||
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#1
There is a line from 12:00 high...where the propaganda radio spewing into the ready room says (something like), you've already lost the war, go home.
another thought:
Heh...maybe this is all just another Bush cabinet "rope-a-dope" tactic where they get the Dem's to get all indignant about Bush's inability to pass immigration reform so that when he brings it to the floor, they jump all over it.
Bush seems like the kind of leader that realizes the best way to get your opponents to support your own ideas is to make them think that they are their own.
#2
"In the grim future of 40th century America there will be only war!" (apologies to Warhammer 40K freaks evrywhere)(grins)
I think that the scale of the Left's defeat/irrelevence is finaly starting to sink in.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/08/2004 10:27
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#3
Who from the Boston Globe's stable of Krugman wannabees is the author of this fluff. I'd guess Derrick Jackson or Tom Oliphant, though it could be Ellen Goodman on a day when her Valium is below therapeutic levels.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/08/2004 10:35
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WHY DONâT we Americans look directly at the war? We avert our gaze, knowing that the situation in Iraq grows more desperate by the day.
Note the use of the phrase 'grows more desperate'. The writer has nothing to back the contention that things are getting worse, just that they are. You will find that in some journalistic circles it is okay in a 'news' article to state the 'fact' that a trend is present even when a de facto trend does not exist at all. The only criteria is that the 'trend' was not apparent when the writer began the story.
Vaunted "coalition" efforts to "break the back" of the "insurgency" have only strengthened it.
Vaunted with goddam good reason.
I don't know what you would call the Battle of Fallujah, but it is in no way a loss for the good guys, except that it is a loss for the bad guys if you are a defeatist.
The violence among Iraqis would surely qualify as civil war -- except that only one side is fighting.
Forgive my ignorance but the last time I checked we were shooting back and so are the Iraqis.
The structures of relief and repair are gone.
Read: Our leftist friends want peace. they just don't want to live to see it. They want the kind of peace that only a military defeat of the US can deliver.
Whole cities are destroyed, populations displaced. The hope of Iraqi elections is mortally compromised.
The clock is still ticking for the elections. We are still in the game and we are winning.
"Coalition" members are dropping out. The mission of American force is to secure the country, but it canât secure itself. The performance of US intelligence has been consistent: Its strategic failures caused the war, and its tactical ignorance of the enemy is losing the war...
AGain, I point to Fallujah. To reduce a city in three weeks fighting with literally hundreds of enemy casualties with a tiny number of friendly casualties;
We just told the Iraqi enemies, you can't hide baby; but if you do we will dig you out, bury you by the hundreds, and we will still be ready for a lot more than you can dish out.
Fallujah is not just a tactical victory; it will be shown to be the event that breaks the resistance. As can be seen by this letter, the resistance is concerned they really have lost. Jihadis just found out they can't hole up in a city and conduct operations with impunity. There is a cost involved.
#6
James Carroll. His column regularly appears in the Globe, like a Herpes flareup
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 11:04
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#7
We've all seen the bumper sticker: "War is not the answer". The other day a woman with one on her car saw me snickering at her bumper sticker. She asked me what was so funny. My reply: "It depends on the question". (her) "Huh?"
I told her that "war" isn't the answer to EVERY question, for instance: "What's for dinner?" But for questions like: "How do you remove a murderous dictator who has shown a willingness to murder any and all who stand in his way, including through the use of WMDs?" then the answer is "War".
If the question had been: "How do you free an oppressed people from the muderous clutches of Saddam and his demonic offspring?" the answer would still be "War". Though if we weren't involved it would have been a Civil War, and MILLIONS would have died fighting it!
#12
The 16th of December is the 60th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge which had 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed. Elements of the 106th Division surrendered in mass. This German offensive was unanticipated by Allied war planners. It was not until March and April 1945 that the U.S. authorities allowed the Luxembourg refugees to return to their villages in the Ardennes. The villages had suffered severe damage, and it took months and sometimes years of reconstruction.
Thank God, we didn't have twerps like those running and writing the Globe back then.
Posted by: Don ||
12/08/2004 13:14
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#14
December 7 and this guy can't mention a word about Pearl Harbor. Aren't you glad now that W won?
BTW, count the number of scare quotes in the piece. Look, I love sarcasm, too, but if that's your only tool to make your point, Carroll, go back to composition class and I'll be your teacher.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
12/08/2004 14:28
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#15
I don't know what you would call the Battle of Fallujah, but it is in no way a loss for the good guys, except that it is a loss for the bad guys if you are a defeatist.
For the press, Fallujah was a defeat for the "good guys". Remember, the press is as much the enemy as your average jihadi.
In fact, I'm starting to think that terrorist operations depend on three types of personnel, instead of two:
Brains: Plan the operations, run training, make up the justifications, generally not expendable.
Mules: Carry out the attacks, guard the brains, generally expendable.
Mouths: Publicize the justifications and attacks, wage propaganda war against enemy.
The US press is, by and large, the "mouths" of the jihadist movement, the green movement and various racialist movements.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/08/2004 15:39
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#16
Hmmmmm... I wonder if Vietnam would have turned out differently (or how differently) if there had been an alternate media.
EFL
Ready to trade that Yo for an Eh? There are those who insist that smart American travelers should stow their Yankee identity and simply pretend they're Canadians to ensure safe passage overseas. Something like a Bull Mastiff pretending to be a kitty cat?
New Mexico-based T-Shirt King, in fact, is offering a "Going Canadian" kit for $25 that includes a T-shirt emblazoned with the Canadian flag and the phrase "O Canada," a matching maple leaf patch for luggage, a window sticker, lapel pin and a little guide called "How to Speak Canadian, Eh?" I have spent my adult life traveling around the world. And never once has such an impish idea crossed my mind. I am an American and take responsibility as such. If fact, I once had a bit of tussle with a Canadian in Ethiopia. When he learned I was an American he rolled his eyes. I charged right for him. He flinched, realizing I saw his little eye roll. I never thought I would do something like this, but it was instinctive. My translator—thankfully—pulled me away.
Do not back down from being an American. Do not be ashamed. Stand up for our moral imperative. Most important take responsibility for the vote you cast at the ballot box. Let no one tread upon us.
I disagree. When you travel abroad, you should disguise yourself as a Canuck. That way you can start fistfights, get drunk and throw up on your host's carpet, grope female (or male, if that's your bag) MEPs, drive in the wrong lane, and no one will blame the rest of us.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
12/08/2004
10:10:26 AM ||
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Dragon fly,
Good for you! Of the most obnoxious people I have met when living over seas, Canadians top my list. Their self-righteous attitude combined with an inferiority complex (always get pay less than Americans) really makes them unbearable.
My husband would rather do tourism at home than pretend that he is a Canadian or any other nationality.
As a matter of fact, that is something that Americans should be emphasizing nowadays: tourism at home!
#2
Anyone who has traveled abroad knows that American English is distinctive. You can pick an American out of a crowd a block away by sound. It is exceedingly difficult for an American to pretend to be anything other than an American. That said, I have have worked on more than one occasion with the Royal Canadian Air Force (or as the budgeteers in Ottawa now style them, Canadian Forces, Air), and found them to be good people, but cannot begin to imagine why an American would pretend to be a Canadian. Most people in the world would give their left testicle to be an American. For an American to want to pretend to be a Canadian is like asking to be sent to the minors, to single A ball at that. On the other hand, I have known a few unscrupulous Americans to pretend to be Australian to hustle impressionable young ladies.
#3
Anti-americanism today in the two countries I know best, Russia and France, is less overt, widespread and virulent than it was during Clinton's two terms. The French were positively hysterical in the early 1990s because they were terrified of our new dominance. The Russians were enraged by the Kosovo air campaign in 1999.
Anti-americanism has been around for decades. Any American who would cower behind a badge of inferiority like the maple leaf should do himself and us a favor and swap his US citizenship for Canadian citizenship.
#4
This is nothing new. A classmate of mine on an archeological dig in Turkey (near Izmir, I think) in the '80s pretended to be both Canadian and married. This saved her bacon, so to speak, when she and a friend, on their way into town, were accosted by a local gent inebriated on his own testosterone. He nearly cried when she showed him a photo of "her little son," and gallantly escorted them the rest of the way. She says he was very belligerent until the girls disclaimed American citizenship... the picture just tied a ribbon around it.
Discretion is sometimes the better part of valour. But I still prefer your solution, Dragon Fly ;-)
#5
Interesting. I'm from the center of Michigan and whenever my wife and I traveled to Scotland the folks there thought we were Canadian. It was the accent. A gentleman in Cornwall nailed us once, however. He was hiking as we were. As we were coming from the direction he was heading he asked for some advice. When I told him to "head out that-way (pointing), he said, "ah you're American". When we asked how he knew he told us that it was the "head out".
Posted by: Jim K ||
12/08/2004 12:47
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#6
Yep, head-out is way American!
Paint Your Wagon, Head Out, git off 'en my propity, grab stakes, grub stake, that's not so far..... all dead give aways.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 14:40
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#9
Somewhat tangential to this thread, there was a reality TV show a few years ago that I thought was terrific. They put groups of tourists from different countries (UK, Germany, Japan, USA and a couple of others) in various situations and see how they reacted. It was fascinating to watch different cultures at work. The Japanese trying to get group consensus before doing anything. The Brits getting drunk for pretty much any reason. And I recall the American's primary concern was what is the 'right' thing to do in this situation.
#10
(I hit the post button before I got to my conclusion) If something bad was happening and I had a choice of people of different nationalities to team up with, I'd choose the American.
#12
I was in India on business a couple of years ago and people (esp kids) would see us and shout "Hi Americans!" and come running over. I saw a fair number of European tourists while there (gave the evil eye to a couple of them in the hotel once), and at the time I wondered if they ever got that reaction. I kinda hope so, since it would probably bug the crap out of them. ;)
Everybody's explanation of the accent is probably on target as to why we got spotted so easily as Americans, especially since they speak the British style of English and all know what it sounds like, and of course we sounded nothing like that (our group being from Texas).
While there we also met a couple of Israeli's, who I mistook as German because that's what they were speaking to each other (of all things).
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/08/2004 22:36
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#13
They should try paying for their vacations in Canadian Dollars rather than US$. Currently $1 = 1.224 CAD.
#16
When I've travelled, people asked if I was a Yank. I would say, "Yes, I am from Alaska." Then they start yabbering all about igloos and grizzley bears, etc etc and we would get along great. Always worked that way. They think youre from the moon or something. Heh heh. I haven't tried passing out fatwas yet.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2004 23:12
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#17
It's not just our sound, it's our dress, carriage, our package.
When I was in Greece I was asked if I was a Brit, but no one really wants to mess w/you when you say you're from Chicago.
THE price of preserving the BBC is the pain of job cuts, which could lead to 10,000 staff leaving, the Director-General announced yesterday. Staff were shocked and unions threatened strike action as Mark Thompson announced one of the biggest reforms in the corporation's history. BBC employees who supported Greg Dyke's methods are now facing the consequences after Mr Thompson criticised "four years in which we haven't stressed productivity and efficiency very much". What? We cannot discontinue Euro laziness. Are you out of your mind?
The first to go are 2,500 staff working in human resources, finance, marketing, training, legal services and other non-programme-making departments. The department, known as "professional services", takes the brunt of the savings, losing nearly half its staff and facing a budget cut of £57 million.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Poison Reverse ||
12/08/2004
10:08:23 AM ||
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Awwwwwww - ain't that just too bad. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/08/2004 11:56
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#2
Out in the cold?
Here, they would whine about the "CHILLING EFFECT" of the silenceing of divergent voices would have on public perceptions of current events...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2004 13:46
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#4
It's all about the money. These "ponces" have antagonized the government they depend upon to extort "license fees" from all Brits that own a TV or radio. The charter is up for renewal in 2006 and quite possibly may not be. It will be a lot harder for BBC elitists to look down their noses at their audience when it's no longer compelled to pay their salaries.
A statement from the National Union of Journalists, Amicus and the broadcasting union Bectu read: âFar from preparing the BBC for charter renewal, we believe a policy that requires such colossal job cuts, reductions in programme commitments and the sale and privatisation of core sections of the BBC risks destroying its ability to continue as Britainâs leading public service broadcaster, and poses a substantial risk to the BBCâs continuing right to the licence fee.â
#8
This is the deserved backlash for trying to bring Blair down and subvert the government. How could the BBC expect that this would not happen. They are being gutted and moved out of thir cozy digs at the same time. The selling off of "core assets" is mostly dumping non broadcast activities. The re organization will perhaps save the BBC.
My spanish text book was published by the BBC. Is this a core activity of a Broadcaster?
#9
Unlike US networks,the BBC itself made most of it's programming. By buying more programs from outside sources,the BBC no longer needs so many production people. W/less production people employed there is less administrative overhead needed,hence the layoffs among administrative personnel first. The production people will prob finish off programs currently in production,then they're gone. In a fine bit of irony,the strongly anti-capitalist BBC is going to a free-market system of obtaining programs in the hopes of saving money.
Posted by: Stephen ||
12/08/2004 17:39
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Even US ambassador John Danforth said he had "great confidence" in Mr Annan although he repeated the White House view that no one could make a definitive judgment until all the facts were in from investigations into allegations of corruption in the $64 billion program. During a working luncheon of the 15-nation council, Mr Annan expressed his determination to "carry out the investigation and to make the facts known to everybody," said Algerian ambassador Abdallah Baali, the council president for December. "There was certainly a unanimous view that this was the right thing to do," Mr Baali said. 
Controversial British parliamentarian 
CHICAGO (AP) - Three Islamic charities and an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian militant group Hamas were ordered Wednesday to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager shot and killed by terrorists on Israel's West Bank. A federal jury deliberated for one day before awarding $52 million in damages to the parents of David Boim, shot down at a bus stop outside Jerusalem eight years ago. U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys then tripled the damages. The judge found the defendants liable for damages in the case last month. 
Jordanian King Abdullah II said forces in Iraq are "getting close" to capturing terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "He's slipped through the net once or twice where we got closer to him than he would have liked," Abdullah told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "The Iraqis, Jordanians and coalition forces are working very hard to track him down -- and we're getting close." The king said he based his assessment on "hard intelligence."
Russian President Vladimir Putin cast doubt on Tuesday over the viability of holding elections as planned next month in an Iraq under "total occupation". "I cannot imagine how elections can be organized in conditions of total occupation of the country by foreign troops," Putin said as he met Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the Kremlin.
Pollution in European cities is rampant. But if the European Union has its way, that will soon change. As of Jan. 1, all cities will have to comply with new clean air laws. Downtown tolls and street closures may result. Expensive lawsuits are also in the works. The faces of the traffic experts attending the ADAC (German Automobile Association) industry conference became visibly longer with each sentence uttered by the speaker. German traffic taboos, after all, were being broken -- the freedom of German roads was under attack. The future, he was saying, could include the following: the closure of more city streets to traffic; the widening of the snail-paced 30 km/h (18 mph) zones within metropolitan areas; even the imposing of temporary driving bans. The timing of the meeting was appropriate: Friday, Nov. 13. 
Doctors at the Austrian clinic that treated Ukraine's opposition leader confirm there was a plot to kill him. ... "This is no longer a question for discussion," Dr Korpan said. "We are now sure that we can confirm which substance caused this illness. He received this substance from other people who had a specific aim." Asked if the aim had been to kill him, Dr Korpan said: "Yes, of course."
Members of the Columbia High School brass ensemble were not allowed to play Christmas carols at their holiday concert this year -- not even instrumental versions. At a school board meeting Monday night, parents and students alike expressed their outrage. "This is censorship at its most basic level and political correctness to its extreme," said student Ryan Dahn. "When you close that door you are supporting ignorance, and I think it's a very sad thing," said parent Melanie Amsterdam.
Why don't we Americans look directly at the war? We avert our gaze, knowing that the situation in Iraq grows more desperate by the day. Vaunted "coalition" efforts to "break the back" of the "insurgency" have only strengthened it. The violence among Iraqis would surely qualify as civil war -- except that only one side is fighting. The structures of relief and repair are gone. Whole cities are destroyed, populations displaced. The hope of Iraqi elections is mortally compromised. "Coalition" members are dropping out. The mission of American force is to secure the country, but it can't secure itself. The performance of US intelligence has been consistent: Its strategic failures caused the war, and its tactical ignorance of the enemy is losing the war...
THE price of preserving the BBC is the pain of job cuts, which could lead to 10,000 staff leaving, the Director-General announced yesterday. Staff were shocked and unions threatened strike action as Mark Thompson announced one of the biggest reforms in the corporation's history. BBC employees who supported Greg Dyke's methods are now facing the consequences after Mr Thompson criticised "four years in which we haven't stressed productivity and efficiency very much".
