A virulently anti-Semitic film about the Iraq war has provoked a storm of protest in Germany after it sold out to cheering audiences from the country's 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.
Valley of the Wolves, by the Turkish director Serdan Akar, shows crazed American GIs massacring innocent guests at a wedding party and scenes in which a Jewish surgeon removes organs from Iraqi prisoners in a style reminiscent of the Nazi death camp doctor Joseph Mengele.
Bavaria's interior minister admitted last week that he had dispatched intelligence service agents to cinemas showing the film to "gauge" audience reaction and identify potential radicals. Edmund Stoiber, the state's conservative prime minister, has appealed to cinema operators to remove what he described as "this racist and anti-Western hate film" from their programmes.
The £6 million film, the most expensive Turkish production ever made, had already proved a box office hit in Turkey, where it first opened last month at a gala attended by the wife of the country's prime minister. The production went on general release in Germany a fortnight ago and has had full houses ever since. More than 130,000 people, most of them young Muslims, saw the film in the first five days of its opening. At a packed cinema in a largely Turkish immigrant district of Berlin last week, Valley of the Wolves was being watched almost exclusively by young Turkish men. They clapped furiously when the Turkish hero of the film was shown blowing up a building occupied by the United States military commander in northern Iraq.
In the closing sequence, the hero is shown plunging a dagger into the heart of a US commander called Sam, played by Billy Zane. The audience responded by standing up and chanting "Allah is great!"
Afterwards, an 18-year-old member of the audience said: "The Americans always behave like this. They slaughtered the Red Indians and killed thousands in Vietnam.
"I was not shocked by the film, I see this on the news every day."
The nature of the film and the enthusiastic reception given to it by young Muslims, has both shocked and polarised politicians and community leaders. Bernd Neumann, the culture minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government complained last week that the reaction to the film "raises serious questions about the values of our society and our ability to instil them".
Kenan Kolat, the head of Germany's Turkish community, insisted that a ban on the film would make matters worse. "If it is withdrawn, it will raise levels of identification with the film," he said. "A democracy must be able to endure films that it doesn't approve of."
As opposed to cartoons about a religious Profit.
Alin Sahin, the film's distributor in Germany, argued: "When a cartoonist insults two billion Muslims it is considered freedom of opinion, but when an action film takes on the Americans it is considered demagoguery. Something is wrong."
But those arguing for a ban on Valley of the Wolves appeared to have won a partial victory last week when Cinemaxx, one of Germany's largest cinema chains, announced that it was withdrawing the film.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/25/2006
21:00 ||
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Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Basheer on Saturday re-affirmed his staunch opposition to transforming the African peace-keeping mission in the troubled region of Darfur into an international mission. In an address to a gathering of political and grass-root leaders from Darfur, the president said the African peace-keeping troops had been deployed in Darfur "according to an agreement with us and if they cannot pursue the mission they must withdraw."
Al-Basheer voiced anew his firm opposition to the deployment of international peace-keepers in the region, noting the African forces had been stationed in the troubled area to halt efforts intended to bring in foreign forces... Meanwhile, the Sudanese Press Center quoted official sources as saying that the Sudanese Government would start contacts with the Arab states within the coming days to secure funding for the African force.
"We don't want no damn furriners comin' in here an' sniffin' 'round our wimmin!"
A Kabul court on Saturday found a communist-era intelligence chief guilty of ordering hundreds of killings a quarter-century ago and sentenced him to death by firing squad. Relatives of the dead cried out: "God is Great!"
Asadullah Sarwari headed the government's feared intelligence department in 1978 after a Soviet-backed communist takeover, which was followed by a ruthless crackdown on its opponents. He later served as vice president.
"The government at the time was like a machine and I was just a part of the machine," Sarwari, 64, wearing glasses and sporting a graying beard, told the court.
The court heard testimony Saturday from more than 20 witnesses who claimed to have lost relatives, and saw video footage of documents, allegedly signed by Sarwari, in which he ordered killings.
Ghalam Sakhi Abasy, the state prosecutor, told The Associated Press that he had documented evidence of more than 400 killings ordered by Sarwari.
"According to the evidence, on video tape and written, and the participation of witnesses in an open court, I sentence you to death," Judge Abdul Basit Dakhatyari said.
He imposed the maximum sentence for the murders of "hundreds of mujahedeen and innocent people." The mujahedeen fought against the communist-era regime.
The verdict was greeted with chanting and applause from people in court.
Sarwari was cleared on a second charge of conspiracy against a post-communist government of the early 1990s.
Afghanistan's human rights commission welcomed the first prosecution for crimes against humanity in the country as a move toward ending impunity, but the group's leader criticized the chaotic conduct of the trial as "weak and lazy."
Sarwari conducted his own defense. Sarwari's son Ahmad Khalid said his father would appeal.
Sarwari had spent 13 years in custody before the trial. He was arrested in 1992 when Islamic guerrillas gained control of Kabul after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. He was held by the Northern Alliance after the capital fell to the Taliban in 1996, and was returned to a Kabul jail cell following the late-2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.
Ahmad Amin Mujadedi, one of the witnesses who testified against Sarwari, said he had been arrested in Kabul at age 15 with more than 40 other relatives because their family were religious leaders. He said the women and children, including himself, were released, but the men were assumed to have been killed.
"In our family we still have widows who are waiting for their husbands. We have mothers who are waiting for their sons," Mujadedi said. "When I pass this news to them that Sarwari was sentenced to death, those widows and mothers will be very happy."
The head of the Afghanistan rights commission, Ahmad Nader Nadery, said there was evidence of systematic torture, disappearances and extra-judicial killings by the intelligence apparatus Sarwari headed.
But Nadery said Afghanistan's fledgling legal system was not yet ready to try such cases and noted Sarwari had to conduct his own defense after his counsel resigned and no replacement could be found, and witnesses were not properly cross-examined at the four hearings.
"He is one of the notorious people in the history of Afghanistan, but it's a lost opportunity that his trial was conducted in a weak and lazy way," Nadery said.
Rights groups have called for a war crimes tribunal to bring justice for gross abuses in Afghanistan's bloody past -- including those committed by former mujahedeen leaders who were key players in the civil war and have become lawmakers and figures in the present government.
#2
"All I'm saying is that there are some things beyond the ken of mortal man that shouldn't be tampered with. We don't know everything, Andy. There's plenty going on right now in the Twilight Zone that we don't know anything about and I think we ought to stay clear."
Rest in peace.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/25/2006 20:10
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#3
Rest in Peace, indeed. An icon of humor, but a man of gentle grace.
#5
Don Knotts (as Barney Fife on Andy Griffith) was the bug-eyed uncle who you would never put in charge of anything except taking care of another's heart.
Barney: "You give em 45, they take 50. You give em 55..."
Barney, in wedding drag, to Ernest T: "I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth!"
Reviews by U.S. intelligence agencies supported Dubai Ports World's purchase of the British company running terminals at six American seaports, and the assessments were made available to the Treasury Department-run interagency committee that approved the deal, according to senior administration officials.
The intelligence studies were coordinated by the Intelligence Community Acquisition Risk Center, a new organization under the office of the Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, said one official. The center normally does broad threat analyses of foreign commercial entities that seek to do business with U.S. intelligence agencies.
Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, yesterday asked the panel's chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), to have a full briefing on intelligence reviews of the port deal and provide "any classified intelligence community assessments that are pertinent." Holt's concern is finding out how closely potential terrorism threats were examined, according to congressional sources.
While contents of the intelligence assessments remain classified, current and former intelligence officials yesterday spoke highly of the level of counterterrorism cooperation provided after Sept. 11, 2001, by Dubai and several of the other states that make up the United Arab Emirates.
A former senior CIA official recalled that, although money transfers from Dubai were used by the Sept. 11 hijackers, Dubai's security services "were one of the best in the UAE to work with" after the attacks. He said that once the agency moved against Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and his black-market sales of nuclear technology, "they helped facilitate the CIA's penetration of Khan's network."
Dubai also assisted in the capture of al-Qaeda terrorists. An al-Qaeda statement released in Arabic in spring 2002 refers to UAE officials as wanting to "appease the Americans' wishes" including detaining "a number of Mujahideen," according to captured documents made available last week by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. The al-Qaeda statement threatened the UAE, saying that "you are an easier target than them; your homeland is exposed to us."
One intelligence official pointed out that when the U.S. Navy no longer made regular use of Yemen after the USS Cole was attacked in 2000, it moved its port calls for supplies and repairs to Dubai.
Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Tuesday praised the "superb" military-to-military relationship with the UAE, saying, "In everything that we have asked and work with them on, they have proven to be very, very solid partners."
The new emir of Dubai, Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who as crown prince was the UAE defense minister, also played a major role in pushing financial deals such as the Dubai Ports World's purchase of the firm, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. of London.
SFGate reports that Homeland Security objected to the deal at first, but okayed it later.
#3
It's only a issue because Chuck Schummer wanted it to be. He is a real peice of scum. What this job entails is counting beans. No relationship to "port security" at all.
Posted by: SPoD ||
02/25/2006 17:57
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#4
Just another issue for the Dems to manipulate and use to try make President Bush look bad.
#5
Something else to consider: Dubai is just one small part of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE consists of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujeira, Sharjah, Ras al Khaima and Umm al Qiwain. The UAE, plus Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait, are our most important allies in the Middle East. All of these entities are monarchies, with the local sheik the monarch of power. ALL of them fear Iran, and are only slightly less fearful of Saudi Arabia. This whole issue could blow up in our faces far worse than the Iraq invasion has. I think too much of the reaction has been of the knee-jerk type, instead of careful thought. Just my 2c.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2006 21:59
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#6
I knew when the Dems burned the midnight oil with Blame Bush press releases and when rantburg was suddenly filled with trolls using the issue to bash Bush, that it was probably going to turn out to be just about like this.
After hearing of a newspaper account of an unclaimed $853,492 Powerball ticket from October, Steve Jones decided to do a little housecleaning. Of the three tickets he swept out from under the bed, one wound up being the prizewinner.
On Thursday, Jones took the ticket to the Louisiana Lottery Corp.'s headquarters in Baton Rouge and walked out with $597,447 after taxes. "Someone had mentioned to me there was a story in the paper about the missing ticket," Jones said. "I buy them all the time, and after he told me that, I went into the room I sleep in and started looking. I grabbed me a mop and went up under the bed and found three of them."
Jones took the tickets to a liquor store where he buys many of his lottery tickets, and a store clerk scanned them. "The first two were nothing, but the third ticket said I needed to go the lottery office," said Jones. "I didn't know whether it was the Match-5 winnings or something else. But when they said I had to drive to Baton Rouge, I started looking for someone to drive me."
The retailer who sold the Match-5 Bonus ticket got $8,534. Match-5 Bonus, pays a bonus to players who match the five white ball numbers but do not correctly match the red Powerball number when a record Powerball jackpot is surpassed. Jones' ticket was to expire April 17. Winners of the lottery's draw games, such as Powerball, have 180 days after the drawing to claim their prize.
We'll see ... looks like the religious conservatives may be joining forces against the seculars/moderates.
THE movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, alleged to have played a role in the anti-Sunni violence over the last few days, publicly made peace with political and religious Sunni leaders overnight.
Four sheikhs from the Sadr movement made a "pact of honour" with the conservative Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, and called for an end to attacks on places of worship, the shedding of blood and condemning any act leading to sedition.
The agreement was made in the particularly symbolic setting of Baghdad's premier Sunni mosque Abu Hanifa where the Shiite sheikhs prayed under the guidance of Sunni imam Abdel Salam al-Qubaissi.
The meeting was broadcast on television and the religious leaders all "condemned the blowing up of the Shiite mausoleum of Samarra as much as the acts of sabotage against the houses of God as well as the assassinations and terrorisation of Muslims".
The statement made reference to the key concerns of both communities with the violent aftermath to the attack on the Samarra mausoleum which saw more than 119 people die.
The sheikhs condemned "those who excommunicate Muslims" a reference to the "takfireen" or Islamist extremists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who justify killing fellow Muslims by declaring them non-Muslims.
"It is not permitted to spill the Iraqi blood and to touch the houses of God," said the statement, adding that any mosques taken over by another community should be returned.
The meeting also announced the formation of a commission to "determine the reasons for the crisis with a view to solving it", while also calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.
On the political front, Salam al-Maliki, a cabinet minister allied to Sadr, and Iyad al-Sammaraie of the Sunni Islamic Party proclaimed their own reconciliation at a joint press conference, aired on Iraqi state television.
The Islamic Party belongs to the Sunni National Concord Front, which won 44 seats in parliament and has broken off talks on forming the next Iraqi government since Wednesday's eruption of violence.
While overwhelmingly Shiite and representing thousands of poor and disaffected Shiites across the country, Sadr's movement has often made overtures to the Sunni Arabs over their mutual dislike of the US presence in the country.
Still, the roving bands of gun-toting, black clad youths attacking Sunnis and their places of worship on Wednesday were widely believed to have connections to the Mehdi Army, the armed wing of Sadr's movement.
In fact, Sadr's office in Najaf issued a statement Saturday calling on his followers to eschew their trademark black uniforms.
"The order has been given to members of the Mehdi Army to no longer wear their black uniform, so that it not exploited by those who commit crimes," said the statement.
The statement added that those attacking mosques were "criminal bands with no links to the Sadr movement."
#2
Yes, but. If either party thought it could get the job done alone, there would be no alliance. Thus, this is a necessary step on the way to negating their influence. Besides, They'll spend most of their time worrying about which will double cross the other first. It's sort of like the Paks having us as allies.
#4
well the good news is they will never be able to establish Sharia. They may be able to agree on religious conservatism, but they will never agree on who gets to wear the bejeweled turban.
The raid was carried out after Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Salah refused a White House request to arrest the prominent radical Sheikh Abdul Majid Zindani, head of the powerful Islamist al-Islah (Reform) party and Iman University of Sanaa, for inciting to terrorism.
DEBKAfiles counter-terror sources report that although the sheikh is on a UN list of terrorists, Salah included him in his official party to the Islamic Conference summit in Mecca last December. He is respected as a scholar in Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni president demanded US intelligence proofs of Zindanis involvement in terrorism. Iman University is known as a breeding ground for radical Islamists. He has been recorded in a speech as accusing Bush and the Jews of conspiring to carry out the Sept. 11 attack in New York
Muslim "intellectuals, NGOs, activists and academicians" with whom the 'Prime Minister's High Level Committee For Preparation of Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India' has interacted so far have demanded that "there should be at least one Muslim on each selection board, including the SSB (Services Selection Board)" that conducts recruitment tests for the defence forces.
The committee, headed by retired Justice Rajinder Sachar, is in the eye of a raging storm over its audacious attempt to gather information about the number and ranks of Muslims in the defence forces by writing directly to the service chiefs.
Muslims have also petitioned the Sachar committee to recommend that "affirmative action should be taken for bringing the representation of Muslims in the police force at par with their population in every State." In other words, they have demanded proportionate representation in the police through the quota route.
These and other demands are listed in a note on "Issues raised at meetings with, intellectuals, NGOs, activists, academicians and district representatives, business community, youth and later discussed with Chief Ministers, Chief Secretaries and other state level civil and police officers" prepared by the Sachar committee.
"Whenever recruitment is going to be made the intention of the Government should be widely publicised through print and electronic media in the local language in the areas of substantial Muslim population," the note says, adding, "The district Superintendents of Police may have meetings with the officers of Employment Exchange and public and service commissions; the latter may organise special registration camps in areas of substantial Muslim presence. The actual process of recruitment should begin after all this exercise is in place."
The committee has also listed the demand that "there should be Minority Cells in UPSC, AICT, CBSE, IITs, etc." At another place, the note says, "Reservation (for Muslims) in jobs and educational institutions is a must."
But, if and when Muslim quota is institutionalised, "In Government employment Muslims who qualify on merit should not be counted against their quota of reservation (general or OBC, as the case may be)," the note says. It asserts, "Clear instruction should be given by the Governments to Public Service Commissions and all others. Rules of procedure should not preempt the policy of reservation given to Muslims."
The note lists several demands for proportionate representation of Muslims in politics through either the reservation route or nominations: "Muslims should be nominated, like Anglo-Indians, to Parliament, Assemblies and municipal bodies, wherever their representation falls short of their population percentage... Autonomous Councils should have Muslim nominees."
There is also a demand to fix a "quota for Muslim beneficiaries of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan." The committee has been asked to recommend generous funding for madarsas and their registration without following established procedures. "There is a strong case for relaxation of norms of recognition of educational institutions established by Muslims," according to the note.
While "Muslim history has been tarnished in many text books and should be corrected," Muslim NGOs "should be allotted land for building schools" and "those who are in the process of establishing schools for Muslims should be helped out by way of having a soft corner."
Government should "happily and quickly accord minority status to those institutions who apply for it," the note says. As for Aligarh Muslim University, "Central HRD Ministry's order for 50 % reservation for Muslims in AMU is laudable," the committee has been told.
But "the recent Allahabad High Court order nullifying it as well as the minority character of AMU should be undone through parliamentary legislation."
Muslims have demanded, according to this note, that the Union Government should create a corpus fund of Rs 100 crores to be used for giving "loans to Muslims without charging interest".
They want that the "Central Government should pay interest from the education budget."
Moreover, "banks should be advised to simplify the loan disbursement process" for Muslims.
Significantly, these and scores of other demands are likely to form the bulk of the Sachar committee's recommendations to the UPA Government for planning. As well as formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes for Muslim welfare.
If the note listing the demands is any indication, communal quota could soon be a reality in every sphere of national life in India.
Posted by: john ||
02/25/2006
14:27 ||
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No muslims ever in security or military posts because they follow the edicts of their death cult first and give loyalty to their nation and the rule of law well down the list. The religion is incompatable with modern nation states and political structures.
Posted by: SPoD ||
02/25/2006 16:12
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#4
But they are perfectly suitable for managing six of our ports! Lord knows how they will use the profits.
#6
It has been noted that each and every year, sure as clockwork, Rep Charles Rangle (D-NY) requests about 500 Billion dollars in appropriations solely for his tiny district in New York City.
No one has ever calculated how much he actually gets, but the estimates range from the hundreds of thousands of dollars to a few million, almost always based solely on the population of his district.
#8
India ! Listen Up ! The correct quota for Mooooselimbs on Anything in India is ZERO. Ship their sorry asses to Pak Land where they can bare their teeth and ooze spittle until they dehydrate.
Doctors in mainland France have detected a mosquito-borne disease among people returning from the Indian Ocean region, where the virus is spreading rapidly, a senior health official said on Saturday.
France's health minister has blamed "Chikungunya" fever, for which there is no known cure or vaccine, for directly or indirectly killing 77 people on the French island of La Reunion off the southeast coast of Africa.
French health officials say 157,000 people have now been infected by the disease on La Reunion, about one in five of the population.
"We have people returning from La Reunion who have symptoms of chikungunya and their diagnoses have been confirmed," Francois Bricaire, head of the infectious diseases service at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris, told Europe 1 radio.
"It's not surprising, quite simply because of the contacts between the island of La Reunion and mainland France."
He said about 30 cases had been found by his service and it was likely that other medical services had detected cases. The disease can only spread via mosquitoes and Bricaire did not say whether the people with symptoms were confined or allowed home.
Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told Europe 1 that the mosquito which carries the virus could be present in southeastern France but gave no details.
The illness, which has also been found in the nearby Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles and Mauritius, is marked by high fever and severe rashes. Most people recover although it is extremely painful.
The number of people infected in Mauritius has risen to 962 from 341 the previous week, the Mauritius government said.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is due to travel to La Reunion on Sunday. He faces growing criticism over the failure to prevent the disease spreading and said this week that the entire island should be cleared of mosquitoes.
The spread of chikungunya is likely to increase health concerns in France following confirmation of the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at a farm in the east of the country where thousands of turkeys died.
First recognized in East Africa in 1952, chikungunya leaves the immune system weak, proving opportunities for other diseases to set in. The name comes from the Swahili for stooped walk, referring to the posture of those afflicted.
La Reunion is a popular tourist destination for European travelers. The Reunion Committee on Tourism has reported tour cancellations but has not provided figures for costs incurred.
The fossilised skeleton of a rabbit-like creature that lived 55 million years ago has been found in Mongolia, Science magazine reports. Gomphos elkema, as it is known, is the oldest member of the rabbit family ever to be found. Gomphos was surprisingly similar to modern rabbits - and probably hopped around on its elongated hindlimbs.
The fossil adds weight to the idea that rabbit-like creatures first evolved no earlier than 65 million years ago. "This skeleton is very complete," co-author Robert Asher, of Humboldt Universität, Berlin, Germany, told the BBC News website. "Gomphos gives us valuable information about the anatomy of early rabbits - it tells us what they looked like.
"Gomphos had a true 'rabbit's foot'; that is, a foot more than twice as long as the hand that could be used for hopping."
But the ancient creature did have some traits that were unlike its modern relative. For example, Gomphos had quite a big tail and some of its teeth were more squirrel-like than rabbit-like.
Prior to this discovery, the oldest, most complete fossil lagomorphs (the family which includes rabbits, pikas and hares) were about 35 million years old. Scanty fossil evidence has led to some uncertainty about when modern placental mammals first appeared in evolutionary time.
One camp believes that modern placental mammals (which include elephants, bats, rabbits, lions etc, but not kangaroos, opossums or echidnas) existed long before the famed "KT" boundary 65 million years ago, which marked the demise of the dinosaurs. The other camp disagrees with this view, and instead claims that modern placentals did not originate until close to, or shortly after, this event. Gomphos has waded - or hopped - into the debate, adding evidence to the latter theory.
Hitherto, there was a strong school of thought that suggested lagomorphs are more closely related to an extinct group of Cretaceous animals called the "zalambdalestids", than they are to other, modern mammal groups. Zalambdalestids lived before the great mass extinction event 65 million years ago. So, if they were close relatives of the lagomorphs, it would suggest modern placental groups were diverging during the Cretaceous period.
But an analysis of Gomphos suggests this is not the case, Dr Asher and his colleagues believe. This makes it more likely that modern lagomorphs - and other placental mammals - originated after the dinosaurs went extinct. "This skeleton gives us more data to throw into the analysis," he told the BBC News website. "And using this new information we favour the second idea."
There are still too many complaints of sexual abuse against United Nations troops, the head of peacekeeping operations has said. Jean-Marie Guehenno said the UN had investigated 295 cases under a new reporting system introduced last year.
That's about 295 too many.
It could take several more years to reform the system fully, says Jordan's UN envoy who last year urged changes.
The 18 peace missions worldwide employ 85,000 staff from over 100 countries, with a budget of nearly $5bn.
Mr Guehenno said although significant progress had been made in reducing the number of cases of sexual exploitation following an investigation in the Democratic Republic of Congo two years ago, much more needed to be done. "Allegations being lodged against UN peacekeeping personnel remain high and unacceptably so," he said. He noted "how hard it is to change a culture of dismissiveness, long developed within ourselves, in our countries and in the mission areas."
It's not hard at all. Investigate the first claim, and if the perpetrators are guilty, send them to Gitmo for 20 years in the slammer. Gitmo is convenient, well-run, and it would shut up all the protesters, so it's a win-win for everyone. Do this once or twice and watch the behavior of the UN peacekeepers change.
Mr Guehenno said only the strict enforcement of a complete ban on prostitution in areas occupied by peacekeepers could strengthen the UN's policy of zero tolerance against sexual exploitation.
Jordanian UN ambassador Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein said the increase in allegations was "not entirely unexpected" since there was now a system in place to facilitate complaints.
"Before we just brushed the allegations under the table, but now the peasants are complaining. It's so inconvenient," he noted.
Briefing the UN Security Council on how the problem was being addressed, the ambassador said it could take three to four years for the reform programme fully to take hold.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2006
14:13 ||
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#1
excuse me while I go throw up. Can you imagine the outcry if it was the US military instead of the UN?
The sooner we kick the evil UN off our soil, the better. Kill it. Nothing good has come from it. Nothing.
#2
Zero is the correct number. Saying it will take time isn't good enough.
Posted by: SPoD ||
02/25/2006 15:10
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#3
Do they have an empirical breakdown of complaint by country? I'd like to know who are the most accused entities. Was the majority of abuses from the Congo op?
Most of these countries don't know how to train or what it means to be a professional warrior. Discipline & Spirit are two key ingredients. Raping women and children doesn't qualify you for it either....just a bunch of third-string blue-headed clowns in tree suits.
#4
IIRC, last year I linked an article about an australian soldier having to be evacuated from Timor after he denounced to the UN hierarchy a jordanian "peacekeeper" having forced a young local boy to perform oral sex on him; his safety couldn't be assured, so he had to be evacuated.
I'm pretty sure the peacekeepers from non-western (or at least non-western standards) militaries may be a real danger to the population they're supposed to guard, without even acknowledging their potential bias (such as muslim troops aiding albanian kosovars against the serb minority supposedly under their protection).
#5
Most of these countries don't know how to train or what it means to be a professional warrior. Discipline & Spirit are two key ingredients. Raping women and children doesn't qualify you for it either..
#7
Broadhead6, there was a pretty nasty case in the AO involving "a senior French official," but he wasn't a peacekeeper (even nominally), so he doesn't count I guess.
The ones I've heard about were Jordanian (the case with the Aussie -- which ended up with Australian Steyr AUGs pointed in the general direction of Jordanian M16s and vice versa) and Pakistani.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/25/2006 18:20
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#8
The Congo op may be "infamous" in this regard, but I think that there were accusations thereof in Liberia as well.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/25/2006 18:21
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The discovery of a fossil beaver that lived when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth could challenge some currently accepted ideas on mammal evolution. Castorocauda lutrasimilis , which was unearthed in China, is a species previously unknown to science. It dates back to 164 million years ago, a time when mammals were thought to be primitive creatures confined to land. But this animal was adapted to life in water, meaning scientists may now have to rethink their theories.
The fossil was found in the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation, a deposit rich in the remains of dinosaurs, early insects and other organisms. Like modern beavers, the creature had fur, a broad scaly tail, and webbed feet for swimming. It was about the size of a small female platypus and had seal-like teeth for eating fish.
Such advanced features have surprised many scientists, suggesting mammals that lived during the hey-day of the dinosaurs had already conquered a variety of environments. The mammals of the time were once thought to be largely primitive shrew-like creatures, scuttling at the feet of dinosaurs, and only flourishing when the dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago.
Commenting on the find, revealed in the journal Science, Thomas Martin of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany, said it showed mammals had conquered the water 100 million years earlier than previously thought. "This exciting fossil is a further jigsaw-puzzle piece in a series of recent discoveries, demonstrating that the diversity and early evolutionary history of mammals were much more complex than perceived less than a decade ago," he wrote.
similis:
Main Entry: si·mi·lis si·mi·li gau·det
Pronunciation: 'si-mi-lis-'si-mi-lE-'gau-"det
Usage: foreign term
Etymology: Latin
: like takes pleasure in like
Hmmmm - thought they were on WesPac tour...seem to be a little further west. Wonder why?
Aircraft from the San Diego-based carrier Ronald Reagan began bombing targets in Iraq this week after arriving for duty in the Persian Gulf, according a news release yesterday from the ship.
An F/A-18E Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Attack Squadron 115 launched the first combat mission from the Reagan on Wednesday.
The Navy commissioned the ship in 2003, and it moved to California the following year. The carrier left San Diego Jan. 4 with about 6,000 sailors on its first combat deployment.
Rear Adm. Michael H. Miller is commanding the Ronald Reagan Strike Group, which also includes the cruiser Lake Champlain, the destroyers McCampbell and Decatur, the combat-support ship Rainier, strike fighter squadrons 22, 113 and 115, early warning squadron 113, electronic-warfare squadron 139 and helicopter anti-submarine squadron 4.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2006
12:52 ||
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Let's hope RR's namesake gets the Mad Mullahs to think a bit more clearly just like the man himself did in 1981.
Posted by: Scott R ||
02/25/2006 14:04
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#5
I note with satisfaction one of Reagan's escorts is the destroyer Decatur. Once again, a "Decatur" gives tyrants in the Middle East reason to fear the United States of America.
#8
Just the Reagan. The T Roosevelt (the good one), is at Corfu, Greece. Also in the Persian Gulf is the
Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG)
[22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) (SOC)]
USS Nassau (LHA 4) - Persian Gulf
USS Austin (LPD 4) - Persian Gulf
USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) - Persian Gulf
#12
There is a bit of symbolism, in that Iran freed the hostages while Ronald Reagan was taking the Oath of Office: there was disappointment in the collective MSM voice that day when they commented that former President Carter was cheated of the credit for releasing them. And in those words.
Oh Lord, let a bomb carried into the Gulf by a figheter from the Ronald Reagan take out a Mullah...
[ Editor's Note - A few days ago I, CYBØRG/ASM, received this request from someone claiming to be a Sargeant in the United States Army to commit a felony for them. ]
From: Kris Lenning
To: webmaster-at-hackcanada-dawt-com
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2005 11:30 PM
Subject: website hack
Sir,
My name is Kris Lenning, I am a SGT in the united states army and I currently work with networking and computers. I have recently been asked by my supervisor to hack and remove a webpage from the internet. I am not able to do this and I am trying to recruit some help. Could you help me or point me in the right direction to get this done.
Many many thanks
SGT Lenning, Kris
JSOTF J-6
SYSAD...
"I also believe that winning the war on terror will not happen by military strength alone. This is fundamentally about America's values and leadership. . . . The idea of winning hearts and minds has been derided by some. But I don't think that we can overlook its singular importance. . ."
-- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, February 25, 2004
In Mrs. Clinton's "hearts and minds" crusade, this will not go down as a good week. A United Arab Emirates government allied with America, that provides a Persian Gulf base for U.S. military operations, and that was the first Middle Eastern country to join the U.S. Container Security Initiative, has been rewarded with Congressional demagoguery that a company it owns can't be trusted to manage commercial operations in U.S. ports. With Mrs. Clinton herself leading the jeers.
And why? For no other reason than that it would be an Arab-owned company. If it is "foreign" ownership that's alarming, the same politicians would also be denouncing the Chinese, Singaporean and British companies that already manage some U.S. port operations. So the message that all Arabs need not apply comes through loud and clear.
Is Dubai an ally and trading partner, or a nest of terrorists? By the way, to make this argument does not mean we are accusing critics of racism. We are accusing them of error, not to rule out stupidity. These columns have long supported profiling young Middle Eastern-looking men in airport screening, for example, as a way of reducing the odds of another 9/11. But Mrs. Clinton was absolutely correct to note back in 2004 that to win the war on terror we need Arab and Muslim allies. And trashing friends who are engaging in legitimate commercial transactions is not a good way to keep those allies.
It is also not a good way to convince the world that we mean what we say about free trade and investment. The port-management business is dominated by non-American companies in part because high labor costs drove U.S. firms out of the business. That's also in part the handiwork of the International Longshoremen's Association, an affiliate of the protectionist AFL-CIO.
And, lo, the New York Sun reported this week that "nearly every politician who has been at the forefront of the opposition to the Dubai deal is on the receiving end of some Longshoreman largesse" in the form of campaign contributions. They include New York Representatives Peter King (R), Jerry Nadler (D) and Vito Fossella (R) and Senators Clinton, Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.).
usual cause, usual suspects.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/25/2006
12:08 ||
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WSJ, subscription
In life, Ilan Halimi sold cellular phones on a boulevard named after Voltaire, off a square dedicated to la République. He was an ordinary young Frenchman, except for one thing; he was Jewish, which got him killed. So in death, after 25 days of torture, Ilan Halimi became a symbol of this Continent's failures in dealing with its poor and maladjusted Muslims.
His story is shaking France in a deeper, possibly more lasting, way than the recent riots or the ongoing fracas over the Muhammad cartoons. Last week, on a Monday morning, Ilan was found naked, handcuffed, with burns and bruises over 80% of his body, stumbling on train tracks in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, south of Paris. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Each detail of his kidnapping and ordeal that emerged in the past week fed widespread popular outrage.
On Jan. 20, the 23-year-old Ilan, depicted here, went for a rendezvous with a young woman he met at his store and fell right into the hands of his kidnappers. In the previous month, this group tried to entrap six other men, four of them Jewish, using women as bait. Ilan was whisked to the cité de la Pierre-plate, a large housing project in Bagneux, a Paris suburb (or banlieue) that's home to immigrant and French lower-middle-class families. In an empty third-floor apartment and later a basement utility room, he was tortured to death. Several times, as Nidra Poller this week reported in the Journal's European editorial pages, the kidnappers called Ilan's family and read them verses from the Quran while their son screamed in agony in the background. Their demands for ransom from Ilan's modest parents never turned out to be serious.
Once unmasked, the identity of these barbarians came as no surprise. The police believe that up to 15 young men and women from the banlieue, maybe more, took part. These "youths," a French euphemism, grew up together in Bagneux. The gang is a mixed lot. Most, but not all, are Muslims born in France to Arab or African parents of limited means. In their raids, police found Islamist literature and documents supporting a Palestinian aid group. But last year's bonfires of cars set by similar "youths" showed that the bonds formed among the delinquents of the projects often transcend religion or ethnicity. That doesn't make the "gangrene" in French society, in the acid words of the left-leaning Libération yesterday, any less difficult to live with.
As it happens, the gang that murdered Ilan Halimi calls itself the "Barbarians." The crime was orchestrated by their leader Youssouf Fofana, a 26-year-old Muslim with a criminal past who refers to himself as the "brains of the Barbarians." On the run for a week, he was arrested late Wednesday in the Ivory Coast, the birthplace of his parents. Fofana told the Ivorian police that Ilan Halimi was kidnapped because Jews "have money"; he denies that he or his accomplices were motivated by hatred for Jews, specifically. By all accounts, Fofana is a vicious thief, and now admitted killer, who could never keep a job and, according to one acquaintance quoted in the French press, "spent all his time with kids of 16-17, around whom he could feel superior."
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/25/2006
11:45 ||
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#1
That doesn't make the "gangrene" in French society, in the acid words of the left-leaning Libération yesterday, any less difficult to live with.
whew. Liberals calling the "youths" gangrene? Color me surprised.
[T}the administration has, now, to cope with failure. It can defend itself historically, standing by the inherent reasonableness of the postulates. After all, they govern our policies in Latin America, in Africa and in much of Asia. The failure in Iraq does not force us to generalize that violence and anti-democratic movements always prevail. It does call on us to adjust to the question, What do we do when we see that the postulates do not prevail -- in the absence of interventionist measures (we used these against Hirohito and Hitler) that we simply are not prepared to take?
It is healthier for the disillusioned American to concede that in one theater in the Mideast, the postulates didn't work. The alternative would be to abandon the postulates. To do that would be to register a kind of philosophical despair. The killer insurgents are not entitled to blow up the shrine of American idealism.
Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy.
He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.
Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.
Who's been defeated? Someone we know? Zarqawi? Saddam? The late, unlamentable Uday?
Oh. Us.
Mr. Buckley, you seem like a smart fella. Act like one. Get your head out of the sand and look around. In three short years we've removed a heinous dictator, whacked his evil spawn sons, put a nasty insurgency on the run, and helped a people fashion a state that has potential to grow into a real first -- an Arab democracy. You've fallen victim to the sort of shallow, day-by-day, short-term thinking that you normally lampoon.
We've done all this at the cost of 2,000 lives (every one of them blessed), money that in relative terms is somewhere between chump-change and modest, and at a political cost that both at home and abroad is near-zero. Why near-zero? Face it: were the French ever going to love us? Were the Germans ever going to follow us? Were the Spanish ever going to grow a spine when the chips were down? No. So the Europeans don't love us. How is that different than five years ago?
And at home, the Democrats have allowed the moonbat wing of their party to drive out millions of sensible voters. That would have happened regardless, because the moonbats have an agenda that is a mile long. Their agenda is one of control, and without a war in Iraq, they would have found other wedges to drive into our society. You've been fighting them a long time, Bill, you should know that.
Victory sometimes is dramatic: a surrender of a foreign power on one of our battleships anchored in the harbor of their captial city. Victory isn't always dramatic. This is one of those times. The destruction of the shrine in Samarra is a short-term setback. The long-term favors us in dozens of ways. We're going to see a decent Iraq out of this (or alternately, a decent Kurdistan and a cordoned-off lower Iraq). There are millions of Iraqis who want that, and as long as we keep someone from putting his boot on their necks in the next year or two, that's what they'll get.
#1
I don't always agree with Bill even though I appreciate his legency.
I also take issue with the timing of his conclusion. A terrorist inspired set-up in Iraq, yes; but that doesn't mean we head for the hills.
We should follow the example of Churchill.
Is Bill offering up a better alternative? No. Giving in to the terrorists is no alternative at all.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/25/2006 12:05
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#2
Like the man said, failure is not an option.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2006 12:20
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#3
Steve,
This war will not be won or lost in Iraq; it will be won or lost in the living rooms of America. Bush has done an abominable job of fighting that war. The reaction to the Dubai Ports World is one indicator. This column is another.
I too disagree with what Buckley is saying in the micro view of what is going on in Iraq. But in the macro view of what is going on in Ameican living rooms, I am very worried; and this column is just one more indicator that things are not headed in the right direction. My real fear is that it may be too late for Bush to actually demonstrate the leadership necessary to continue this war to final victory.
#4
Much as I have always admired WFB, I think he's way off base on this one. My subscription to NR is running out in a couple of months. After reading this article I'm going to have to think real hard about it before I renew. If I want defeatism I can go to DU or Kos and get it for free.
Posted by: mac ||
02/25/2006 13:01
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#5
Buckley is a very smart cookie but he's been wobbly on Iraq since the get-go. I think he just has no faith at all that Arab culture will make the right choice for a change. I hate to say it but the Arab historical record backs him up, still I'm optimistic.
Arabs, more than almost any other culture seem unwilling to back any horse until they are absolutely positive which one is the strong horse. That will grow more apparant as time goes on and we'll get a cascading effect. I'm hoping the latest Mosque attacks will be the start of it.
#6
Gotta agree on the characterization of WFB as a wobbly with regard to Iraq. I am a subscriber to NR and I can attest that every jot and tittle from the old sage has been nothing but pessimism and failure on Iraq, and the WOT, since before OIF. Strange stuff, but WFB has been pretty fixated on the gathering gloom in pretty much anything that grabs his attention. Maybe it is a function of his age.
Posted by: Red Lief ||
02/25/2006 13:30
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#7
My real fear is that it may be too late for Bush to actually demonstrate the leadership necessary to continue this war to final victory.
Ah yes, 7 steps to blaming Bush. I don't think anyone in Western society could have understood the backwards nature of the Islamic world. But I think that Bush took the right course in Iraq and in his quest for promoting Democracy world-wide. Hamas is the perfect example. The people got what they wanted and now they have no complaint when they get what they asked for - war. And they will lose, as anyone with half a brain can see. Apparently the palestinians believe otherwise and so now they have the leaders they asked for and now nobody will feel sorry for them when they lose their war. It's what they wanted, an opportunity to attempt to push the Jews into the sea.
Before they could hide behind the poor-poor-pitious-paleo's, because their plight was the responsibility of bad decisions by leaders other than their own. Now they chose their leaders and they can demand results. When the Israelis smite them, hey, they wanted war, they got. it. Too bad so sad for them.
I think the idea that we let people elect the leaders they want and suffer the consequences of the actions is a far better idea than any other we have had to date. It may not be perfect, but it's certainly better than the Arafat era where nations don't get to learn from their own mistakes and the people don't have the ability to hold their leaders accountable for their fate.
#10
"I think the idea that we let people elect the leaders they want and suffer the consequences of the actions is a far better idea than any other we have had to date."
-Spot on imho brother. Which is why I concur w/you on the Paleo's voting like they did. No more excuses for when they get dealt with.
#11
Remember that Buckley is still a Yalie schoolboy at heart, and is probably part of the extended clique at CIA that is being seriously purged right now.
#12
49% OF THE COUNTRY IS BITTER AT BUSH, AND THE MAIN REASON IS B/C OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ONLY PRINTING BAD NEWS AND PRINTING ANYTHING THAT MIGHT MAKE HIM LOOK BAD!! WE WILL WIN IN IRAQ.
#13
It can defend itself historically, standing by the inherent reasonableness of the postulates. After all, they govern our policies in Latin America, in Africa and in much of Asia. The failure in Iraq does not force us to generalize that violence and anti-democratic movements always prevail. It does call on us to adjust to the question, What do we do when we see that the postulates do not prevail -- in the absence of interventionist measures (we used these against Hirohito and Hitler) that we simply are not prepared to take?
It is healthier for the disillusioned American to concede that in one theater in the Mideast, the postulates didn't work. The alternative would be to abandon the postulates. To do that would be to register a kind of philosophical despair. The killer insurgents are not entitled to blow up the shrine of American idealism.
I believe we are winning in Iraq as well, but the road would have been easier because of "...the absence of interventionist measures (we used these against Hirohito and Hitler) that we simply are not prepared to take?" I think THAT is what is depressing Buckley, and I am forced to agree with him: we know what worked for Japan and Germany, and it worked beautifully. We simply were NOT prepared to do in Iraq that worked in Japan and Germany.
Buckley is not prepared to abandon American Idealism: read that last sentance I quoted. That Idealism is what properly led us into Iraq. It is that Idealism that shames the Canadians into spitting envy and the Euros into pusillanomous (sp?) sniping. We practice the virtues that leftists, liberals, and democrats seem to believe is their birthright, but which they do not deserve because they have not followed up words with actions.
He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.
Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.
Buckley is talking about TACTICAL defeat, not strategic defeat. Professor Hanson has said that the loss of the Turkish front prevented the spectacle of American Armor rolling through Sunni territory shattering illusions that they could defeat the Americans in the end, and that happened right at the beginning of OIF. THAT was the sort of measure we used against Japan and Germany, but not in Iraq.
All is not lost, of course, and Buckley is not saying that. Our military is wonderfully adaptable, and Buckley believes in them. But they won't change tactics if they don't believe they're working.
Buckley is saying, "things are bad, so change your tactics and win." The fifth column is saying, "Things are bad, so retreat."
Yeah, he may be mislead, but he's a mislead patriot who wants us to win, not a pretend-patriot who secretly wants us to lose. Give him credit, at least, for THAT.
#15
One of my personal sayings: The weighing of facts, pros and cons, the gnashing of teeth and hand-wringing engaged in by the conscious mind is merely cover to justify the decision made subconsciously the instant the need arose.
In other words, some (many?) people actually make up their minds long before there are sufficient facts to do so with any certainty. I've heard it referred to as a "maybe gate" in the brain that allows us, sometimes to our chagrin, to sum a few thousand bits of incomplete fluff and believe we have "analyzed" the issue and our position makes sense.
Effectively, I believe, in these people the subconscious makes a snap judgment - based upon an array of personal foibles and maybe the very few actual facts available - often merely just following the wind of conventional wisdom, and thereafter the conscious mind works to justify it. It is most apparent when contrary facts come long, yet you can see the person's position taken doesn't weave them into the equation for recalculation... No... In fact, for these sad individuals, their position usually hardens and they cast as far afield as needed to explain away these inconvenient new bits - and reaffirm their original brain fart. Challenges to, and derision of, the position often further calcify it and a bunker mentality necessarily follows.
Those who are not afflicted marvel at the cognitive dissonance required.
We see it every day, for example from the Hollyweird types who ramble on about being muzzled, lol, about imagined lost constitutional rights, also demonstrably untrue, and on and on. I think of it as a mental illness process, a dysfunction that is sometimes localized to a certain group or class of issues.
Perversely, it seems to be most common among those who demonstrate an unhealthy need for external validation. More cogdis, lol.
The UAE port management issue is a classic example.
#16
Methinks what Buckley is trying hard NOT to say, vv maintenance of US "strategic policies", is for Dubya and Rummy to attack Iran and Syria, sooner than later. Might as well - MadMoud is all but officially demanding Arrogant Male Brute GOP-led Congress pass a joint resolution = formal declaration of war authorizing invasion anyways. The IRGC and alllied US Motherly Desperate Waffen MarxFrau Commies demand Iranian "People's War".
#17
Perversely, it seems to be most common among those who demonstrate an unhealthy need for external validation
that is sooooo true. In fact, it is something that I have been noticing over the last 3 years. Nice people with Cog D. becoming sad individuals as their position usually hardens and they cast as far afield as needed to explain away these inconvenient new bits
and they all have in common that need for external validation. One other thing - if what the perceive as external validation suddenly requires that they do a 180 (such as cartoons and free speech, or it's ok for Clinton to provide interns with plum positions in exchange for sexual favors) they have no problem doing the 180, and simply see no Cog D in their positions - because they really don't have any positions of their own. They just say what they think will get them the validation they seek.
#18
Yep, I can see that, 2b. I guess that, somewhere within their psyche, they know they've abandoned reason - so other leaps of illogic (lol) are not that difficult - they have nothing to lose, such as integrity or honor, both jettisoned when they left reality behind.
It's sad, but what we're calling validation morphs into mere attention, faux fame, I think - and I'm pretty sure you're saying something similiar, no? I presume there's some addictive quality, there.
Sheehan might be the example of the ages. A more pathetic creature is, IMHO, rather hard to imagine.
EU justice and interior ministers have sealed a landmark data-retention law, forcing telephone operators and internet service providers to store data in the fight against terrorism and organised crime.
The data retention directive was approved by ministers in Brussels on Tuesday (21 February), putting an end to a heated debate in and outside EU institutions for over a year and a half.
The directive aims at tracking down terrorists, paedophiles and criminal gangs, but civil liberties campaigners have argued it damages basic privacy rights and breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to the directive, member states will have to store citizens' phone call data for six to 24 months, but the deal does not stipulate a maximum time period, cooling anger among member states who want longer storage periods.
The data would only detail the caller and receiver's numbers, not the actual conversations themselves, while so-called failed calls - calls that do not get through - will not be covered.
EU countries have 18 months to implement the rules, which already have the backing of the European Parliament.
"This is a wonderful example of how co-operation between the council [member states], the commission and the parliament can work," Austrian justice minister Karin Gastinger, hosting the ministers' meeting, said.
The data retention directive was tabled after the Madrid bombings in March 2004 and then fast-tracked under the British EU presidency after the London underground attacks last July.
Britain, France and Sweden have stressed the need to retain data in order to trace terrorists using modern technology.
Swedish justice minister Thomas Bodstrom said on Tuesday he was satisfied with the deal, arguing that fast-moving changes in the telecom market made it important to force phone companies to comply.
Telephone call records are usually saved for a month for billing purposes, but ever more popular pre-paid subscription contracts have led some companies to ditch paperwork.
"In five years, the police would have been faced with a catastrophy, if this deal had not been clinched today," Mr Bodstrom said.
Ireland and Slovakia voted against the law, saying they regard national security as a matter for member states not the EU.
"This remains our position and we believe that provision for data retention should be made by way of a framework decision under the third pillar," an Irish official indicated.
The third pillar is a technical term relating to intergovernmental decisions made by unanimity, while so-called first pillar decisions are typically made in conjunction with the European Parliament by qualified majority.
"In the circumstances, and for the legal reason I have indicated, we would merely wish to formally record the fact that Ireland cannot support the adoption of the proposed directive," he added.
Dublin insisted that Ireland retains its veto in justice matters, and is currently cosulting the Irish attorney general about how to proceed with an appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The ministry of justice in Slovakia said Bratislava agreed with the content of the directive but also objected to placing it under the first pillar.
Polish president Lech Kaczynski has said the EU constitution has "no chance" of being ratified in Poland, while pleading for a new, less centralist kind of charter. The Polish leader made his remarks in an interview with French daily Le Figaro on Friday (24 February), ahead of a two-day visit to France on Friday and Saturday. "This treaty has practically no chance of being ratified in Poland, neither by referendum, nor via the parliamentary route," he was quoted as saying.
Mr Kaczynski's interview reiterated earlier calls for a new EU charter, looser and more decentralised than the EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters last year. The Polish leader told Le Figaro "In any case, it should take reality into account, that is to say the differences between the members of the union as far as the levels of development are concerned as well as traditions and expectations."
Underlining the central role of nation states in his thinking, he said "what interests the Poles is what will come out of Poland, not the future of the union as a whole. It's the same in France." "What interests people is what Jacques Chirac says, not the declarations of Mr Barroso," he said mockingly.
On Wednesday he had stated that the current EU constitution text "brings us closer to a super-state," according to PAP.
The trip to Paris constitutes Mr Kaczynskis first visit to a capital in "old" Europe, before a trip to Germany planned in March. Le Monde writes that Mr Kaczynski's choice of Paris shows a warming-up in Franco-Polish relations which suffered during Polands support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Mr Chirac famously said in 2003 after Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic backed the US position "They missed a good opportunity to shut up," adding "These countries have been not very well behaved and rather reckless of the danger of aligning themselves too rapidly with the American position."
Poland has not forgotten Mr Chiracs "unfortunate" remarks, Mr Kaczynski indicated. He told Le Figaro "to me, that way of thinking of the type 'we welcome you in the European Union, but you have to abide', that doesn't make sense."
A Maryland organization that runs four government-funded day-labor hiring centers is training volunteer "legal observers" to videotape members of the Minuteman border security group and to picket their homes, places of work and their children's schools.
"We are going to target them in a specific way," Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland told the Maryland Gazette, speaking of the Minutemen volunteers who have set up a surveillance site across the street to discreetly photograph contractors who pick up day laborers at the center.
Going out with their own cameras will only be the first step his group takes.
"Then we are going to picket their houses, and the schools of their kids, and go to their work," Torres said. "If they are going to do this to us, we are going to respond in the same way, to let people know their neighbors are extremists, that they are anti-immigrant. They are going to hear from us."
The Minuteman Project's "covert" campaign to monitor day labor centers has been in operation for a little over a week. The group, which started with much-publicized efforts to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and report sightings of illegal aliens to the Border Patrol, has turned its attention to the employers who hire undocumented workers.
"From a national standpoint, we want to close the border down and stop the flow of illegals," said Stephen Schreiman, president of a newly formed Maryland chapter. "We want to do the same thing here, but our approach will be a little different. What we want to do is to basically discourage contractors and businesses from hiring illegals. It's against federal law.
"We're going to go after these [contractors] at the state and local level because these people aren't paying taxes. We're going to take these people and through a vetting process determine which ones are not paying their taxes and doing business in an inappropriate manner and then turn them over to the appropriate authorities for prosecution. That should put a damper on the hiring of illegals."
The most recent annual report for Casa de Maryland, a non-profit, shows $2,771,615 in income for 2004-2005, of which 51 percent was provided by various government agencies. According to its website, the organization's employment program provides day-labor placement for "low-income Latino and African immigrants ... as employers seek to replace permanent workers." "We never ask for documentation," Torres told the New York Times in December. "Our mission is to help anyone in need of service, regardless of their immigration status. We are proud of that."
Casa's operation has not only been blessed by government funding but it has the support of the local business community.
"In this area, the commercial sector hasn't been harmed in the sense of people being deprived from work because of the day laborers being here," said Erwin Mack, executive director of the Takoma⁄Langley Crossroads Development Authority. "Consequently, while there are issues with their right to be in the United States, that's not what we're concerned about. We're concerned that they wait in an area that doesn't hurt our commercial properties.'
That's not good enough for Minuteman's Schreiman who intends to pursue his effort to inform the authorities about unlawful activity and have the law enforced.
And Schreiman's commitment to stay within the law and the fact there have been no complaints filed with the police over the Minuteman surveillance isn't good enough for Casa's Torres, who told a Spanish-language newspaper it would be better if the Minutemen did not interfere with Casa. But it is Torres threat to recruit individuals to picket Minuteman members' children at school that has the greatest likelihood to escalate the tense, but so-far peaceful, situation.
"Threatening children like this is outrageous," said Minuteman Civil Defense Corps President Chris Simcox. "Casa de Maryland's funding should be pulled and its contracts cancelled. It is beyond belief that taxpayer dollars are funding this thuggish behavior."
The Maryland Minutemen have their work cut out for them. Takoma Park, site of the Casa day-labor center they've been monitoring, has declared itself a Sanctuary City and prohibits its employees, including police, from arresting illegal aliens or assisting federal immigration authorities. Stalking school children is a great way to end up in prison, and quickly.
#3
There will be blood if the Maryland state government doesn't stop this nonsense. Threatening children evokes a visceral, atavistic response. The first child harmed will start a series of actions that no sane person wants to see. These people will find that there is a limit to tolerance.
#4
Takoma Park, site of the Casa day-labor center they've been monitoring, has declared itself a Sanctuary City and prohibits its employees, including police, from arresting illegal aliens or assisting federal immigration authorities.
All it takes is a federal grand jury to bring in charges of abetting and accessory to the fact to change this attitude. However, don't expect George to make even a wee display of enforcing the existing laws. No help there.
#5
this is so over-the-top that it can't be ignored. Their funding must be cut if not cancelled, and Gustavo driven from his cushy taxpayer-paid job. Let him dig ditches. First time they harrass a child will be the end of their organization, and dipshit's too stoopid to understand that. Now contractors, employers are complicit in the threats...think that won't kill his little hiring center?
"Tom Beauchamp of 222 main street employs illegals from a hiring center that threatens and harrasses American citizen children. Tell Tom what you think. Oh yeah, you pay for those illegals and the harrassment"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2006 12:41
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#6
I just erased a comment that would have set asbestos on fire. RVW is absolutely correct that there will be bloodshed if these people follow through on their actions. Enough is enough. It's long past time to enforce the immigration laws and I'm rapidljy getting to the point where I want to see illegals coming across the border shot on sight. Let's treat them the way Mexico treats those who come across their southern border.
Posted by: mac ||
02/25/2006 12:48
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#7
Most people won't pay any attention to people taping each other usually, but the moment these guys mentioned the Minuteman's kids, they pretty much just lumped themselves in with child molesters. It doesn't matter what they say now, just the fact they brought someone's kids into it tends to freak out Joe Average.
#8
I guess I do underestimate the power of human stupidity. This guy runs a tax-funded day labor hiring center. And he doesn't grasp how his actions will cast a brighter light on himself than on the Minutemen?
Wow. Life is hard. It's harder when you are stupid.
#9
As soon as you insinuate video taping or tacitly harassing school kids you cross the line. Where I come from you never mess w/another man's wife and you never-ever f*ck w/another man's child. Mr. Torres' self-righteous dumb-ass might just end up in a shallow grave if he keeps this shit up. I wouldn't lose any sleep.
#10
"What we want to do is to basically discourage contractors and businesses from hiring illegal."
A bit off-topic but it occurred to me how the individual citizen can contribute to this issue.
If not out of principle then perhaps out of protection; when choosing a contractor verify that they only use legal workers to complete all work.
US labor reports state that Illegal aliens are classified to have the highest rate of uninsured workers. Contractors employ illegal aliens to cut costs so not surprisingly they rarely insure their workers. If insurance coverage is not a mandated requirement for employment and is left to the discretion of the individual, it is proven that lower-paid workers most often choose to go without. As a homeowner you are legally responsible to cover all medical costs of an uninsured or underinsured worker on your property if they are injured. Perhaps more alarming is that regardless of citizenship status, any worker (including sub-contractors) can bring a lawsuit against a homeowner for injury, death, as well as monetary disputes. Without a signed waiver releasing the homeowner from liability an individual worker or his family can place a lien on the consumers property until the dispute has been resolved. The unscrupulous contractor believes meeting complete tax requirements is an obligation for the other guy. Therefore he stays under the radar and pays illegal workers in cash. An employee background check is also an expense that is neglected. Criminal background checks are costly, especially for out of country inquiries. So these contractors rely on the honor of the individual. (You know the one that is here illegally) Of course training typically is on on-the-job or completely nonexistent. An finally, the individual consumer is rarely charged but, intentionally or not, if you have work performed by illegal aliens either directly or through a contractor you could be in violation of Federal law.
As a consumer you are within your rights to demand your contractor use only legal employees. Remember, price is what you pay quality is what you get.
#11
The Minuteman group is only performing every citizen's duty to report violations of the law to the authorities. Threatening them and their families for doing so is, as far as I am concerned, much worse than what Martha Stewart was sent up the river for. It's closer to the plot of "Mississippi Burning."
The very fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn't right there WITH the local Minuteman group, checking ID and running these slimebags' prints qualifies as a national scandal. The "mainstream media" is sure missing a good story - they're even passing up a chance to embarrass their archenemy in the White House, and this time they'd be morally right to do so. Why are they silent?
Threatening the Minutemen and their families is a despicable act which shows Casa de Maryland's basic function as a crime syndicate. The fact that state and local governments and private employers involved are willing accomplices, financiers and beneficiaries of Casa de Maryland's criminal activities only means that each of the people and organizations involved must be prosecuted if the law is to mean anything.
I was SURE that a couple of Civil Rights Acts passed in the 1960s - not to mention the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution - forbid what Casa de Maryland and the local governments involved in supporting them are doing. Under these laws, state and local governments and Casa-like organizations such as the KKK which tried to uphold segregation were eventually defeated in the 1960s and 1970s. All it took was a very little backbone on the part of the Feds.
It's time for the Federal Government to remember that they're not allowed to look the other way when Federal law is being not just violated but openly defied. Where are all the Federal marshals and troops which Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon used to establish primacy of Federal laws over state and local defiance?
#12
Wow. can you imagine what a video tape of these asshats stalking little kids will do if shown on the evening news? Hell hath no fury will have nothing on this.
I don't think even the mob in its heyday threatened a man's kids did they?
#13
Rarely. The code of Omerta forbade doing so. touching the wife and kids who are not participating in Our Thing was the equivalent of using WMD, without pantywaist NGO carping about illegality.
#14
Uhhh... Hasn't it occurred to these clowns that people who can shoot straight had kids who can shoot straight?
I think #12 CF's idea is a great one - start taping these jerks taping children. And have an armed backup in a van nearby - and another person to tape what happens when the first person get threatened by the illegals and/or their enablers.
I'd pay good money to see that. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/25/2006 21:52
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#15
I haven't had a firearm in my house since I joined the Air Force in 1964. Last week, I told my brother I was going to pick up the two shotguns and the single-shot .22 he's been keeping for me, and I asked my FIL for his old 30-06 (he's 87, and can hardly walk - certainly not hunt any more). I'm also planning on buying a pistol of some description - probably a .38 magnum, so my wife can handle it, also.
Sooner or later, we're going to have to have a knock-down, drag-out battle, not only with the illegals in this country, but also with all the mushy-headed "idealists" that believe human nature is something other than what it is. The winners will be those most heavily armed, and willing to use them. It's going to be a bloody, bloody mess, but there's no hope in he$$ that it can be avoided.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2006 22:25
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A substance found by a University of Texas student at a dorm has tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, officials said.
Two students were receiving medical attention for potential exposure, although neither has exhibited symptoms, said Dr. Theresa Spalding of UT Student Health Services.
The chunky powder was found by one of them at the Moore-Hill dormitory Thursday afternoon and reported to university police. Preliminary tests came back positive for ricin Friday.
School officials said they haven't determined where the ricin came from, UT police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.
The powder fell on the student's hands from a roll of quarters she unwrapped to use for laundry. The student's roommate is the other person who was receiving treatment; the quarters had been in their dorm room for several months, Spalding said.
The dorm was sanitized and inspected, and students were cleared to return early Saturday, the university said.
Health officials met with students and staff who were potentially exposed, but so far, none have shown any symptoms, the university said in a statement. Symptoms can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.
"We were very concerned as soon as we heard about the positive testing late this evening," Spalding said Friday.
Ricin is extracted from castor beans and can be added to food or water, injected or sprayed as an aerosol. It can be in the form of a powder, mist, pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.
So there are "moderate" muslims out there. This is the Letter to the Editor I've been hoping would appear from our silent muslims. Go Amir!
As a practising Muslim, I was saddened and angered by the cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a negative way. My anger is directed, not at the Danish cartoonists, but instead at fellow Muslims worldwide who have darkened the image of my beloved Prophet by their atrocities.
I saw a group of Canadian Muslim leaders congratulating Canadian Muslims for their calm reaction to the cartoons. But it is quite easy to remain calm when only a few outlets with small circulations have dared to publish some of those images. This is hardly a show of tolerance and peaceful coexistence; rather it shows a nation willing to sacrifice its freedom of speech because it is terrified of a possible reaction by a small minority in its midst.
Meanwhile, Muslim student groups at Saint Mary's University in Halifax are demanding the expulsion of a professor who posted some of the cartoons on his office door, while Mohamed Elmasry, head of the Canadian Islamic Congress, is threatening to take the Western Standard to court for publishing the cartoon. So much for calm reactions, but thanks for not rioting violently, I guess.
If I were a Muslim leader, I would try to explain to my fellow Muslims that it is freedom of speech that allows us to practise our religion freely in Canada, and the price for this is to accept views critical of ours. If I were the prime minister of Canada, I would declare my unconditional support for freedom of speech, including speech that I may find offensive. And if I were the minister of immigration, I would revoke the visas of the members of that Muslim student group at Saint Mary's University who are international students who now demand expulsion of one of the school's professors. I would remind them that they are merely guests in this country. Guests do not impose their views and ways on their hosts.
But as a private citizen, all I can do is to buy a copy of Western Standard, enjoy my Danish pastry and write opinion letters to Canadian newspapers and media to let them know that Mr. Elmasry does not represent the views of all Muslims in this country.
(Fire Island, NY) -- The Right Reverend Percy Dovetonsils III, Bishop Suffragan for the Diocese of Fire Island, Provincetown and San Francisco, today called for the beheading of the entire editorial staff of Catholic Monthly for publishing a cartoon in which Jesus of Nazareth is depicted as being the "Son of God."
The cartoon, published in the October 12, 2005 edition of the magazine, and titled "Jesus Raising Lazarus from the Dead," shows a halo-crowned Jesus miraculously bringing Lazarus back to life. In contemporary Episcopalian theology, all references to religion, miracles, holiness, God, and the Bible are considered to be blasphemous -- distracting believers from more important religious priorities such as promoting same-sex marriage and voting rights for illegal immigrants.
"The pictorial representation of the alleged divinity of the notorious Jewish political leader variously known as Jesus, the Son of Man, and the Son of God is deeply offensive to all progressive-minded Episcopalians," said Bishop Dovetonsils this morning at the annual Solidarity Breakfast of the anti-1st Amendment lobbying group, Episcopalians Against Christianity. Bishop Dovetonsils, wearing a stunning mauve DKNY robe and mitre designed by LaCroix, then said that it was the duty of all Episcopalians to heed the call to jihad as long as they can work it around political marches, cocktails at the country club, and their weekly squash games.
Many people supported the supercops because snuffing out the bad guys, most felt, was better than putting them through a failing justice system where witnesses could be manipulated and cases drag on for years
Once the poster boy of Mumbais police force and eulogised by Bollywood filmmakers, Daya Nayak has been accused of corruption and links with the underworld
For eight years, Daya Nayak killed with impunity - sometimes with his pistol but often with an AK-47 automatic rifle - as he bumped off people suspected to be gangsters or involved in acts of terrorism in Mumbai.
These days, the policeman just kills time.
Once the poster boy of Mumbais police force and eulogised by Bollywood filmmakers, Nayak helped to dramatically curb organised crime in Indias financial capital, breaking the back of violent gangs and sending mobsters on the run.
But after years of tormenting crime dons, the past has returned to haunt him.
The tall, moustachioed Nayak, 34, has been arrested and ordered held until early March as anti-corruption officers probe allegations he had amassed wealth, including real estate worth millions of rupees, far beyond what his salary could pay for. Nayak is not alone in his fall from grace. More than half a dosen officers of a crack force, formed over a decade ago, have been accused of corruption and links with the underworld.
Known in the Indian media as encounter specialists for shooting down criminals in raids, the men have either been dismissed or suspended until an investigation into their financial assets is completed.
Nayaks critics claim that as well as taking mob money; the so-called supercops have been routinely killing gangsters in stage-managed shootouts and in custody. Human rights workers have branded the deaths nothing more than extra-judicial executions.
Ive done nothing wrong. These charges are false, the sub-inspector, who says he killed over 80 criminals in shootouts, said recently after appearing in a Mumbai court.
In the late 1990s, Mumbai, then known as Bombay, faced a tide of mafia killings, abductions and extortion demands.
Poor migrants from villages and small towns were drafted into gangs, taking up the gun for cash, earning relatively small amounts but more than they could hope to make honestly.
The underworld was remote-controlled by bosses based in Dubai, Malaysia and Karachi who had fled India to avoid arrest, leaving behind associates to carry out their orders.
Rough Justice: Mumbais authorities hit back, giving a free hand to officers like Nayak who worked informers and wielded their guns to administer justice.
In a decade of violent confrontations, the officers busted hideouts and shot dead at least 350 suspected gangsters, drawing cheers from businessmen and the Bollywood set, prime mob targets.
Newspapers splashed photographs of the officers across their front pages, while film directors explored Nayaks climb from abject poverty. Many people supported the supercops because snuffing out the bad guys, most felt, was better than putting them through a failing justice system where witnesses could be manipulated and cases drag on for years. Human rights activists say police routinely killed criminals in cold blood after taking them to a lonely spot and telling them to run. When they did so, or even if they did not, they were shot, usually in the back.
They kill them (criminals) somewhere and then take their bodies to hospital and put it down as a shootout death, PA Sebastian, a human rights activist, told Reuters.
Sometimes, rights activists allege, officers blaze away as they compete with each other for media headlines.
But police say they open fire only in self-defence.
Does a policeman enjoy killing? Those killed are trying to get us. They arent saints, said officer Pradeep Sharma, who police records say has shot dead 104 criminals.
Sharma is facing an inquiry in the disappearance of an accused in a 2002 bomb blast in Mumbai. Human rights activists say the man, Khwaja Yunus, was killed in custody while police say he simply escaped.
Many of these encounters are fake and killings by police extrajudicial, said criminal lawyer Majeed Memon.
Sharmas boss says the controversial tactics have yielded results.
Its for all to see that stern police activity has curbed crimes, Mumbai police commissioner AN Roy said. reuters
On February 19, 2006, Iran's Channel 4 covered a film seminar that included a lecture by Professor Hasan Bolkhari. In addition to being a member of the Film Council of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Bolkhari is a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, and active on behalf of interfaith issues.
The following are excerpts from Bokhari's lecture.
Hasan Bolkhari: "There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry."
[...]
"Some say that this creation by Walt Disney [sic] will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse - especially the mouse.
"Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe."
[...]
"If you study European history, you will see who was the main power in hoarding money and wealth, in the 19th century. In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the antisemitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it.
"Watch Schindler's List. Every Jew was forced to wear yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed 'dirty mice.' Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was 'dirty mice.'
"I'd like to tell you that... It should be noted that mice are very cunning...and dirty."
[...]
"No ethnic group or people operates in such a clandestine manner as the Jews."
[...]
"Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. As it turns out, Hitler had behind-the-scenes connections with the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion ].
"Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits. Unfortunately, we have many such cases in Hollywood shows." Disney, BTW was anti-Jewish enough so that in his tenure, no Jews were hired by Disney.
#2
The 'learned' professor, to say the least,got his studios mixed up. Tom and Jerry were produced by Fred Quinby the head of the cartoon division at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
#6
In addition to being a member of the Film Council of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Bolkhari is a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, and active on behalf of interfaith issues.
What the heck does this mean in the context of Iran? How fast do the muslims kill/imprison/chase out other faiths?
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has ordered his Cabinet and the Workers' Party to appoint economic technocrats to major foreign missions in an effort to learn from outside economies, a government official in Seoul said.
The order came after Kim returned last month from a nine-day trip to China's southern booming commercial cities, including Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen. Kim was evidently impressed by the thriving economy of his nation's red capitalist neighbor. Kim toured the same cities that Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leader, visited during his famous "southern tour" in 1992, after which he repeated his call for a greater opening of China's markets.
Under Kim's order, North Korea is prepared to name senior Trade Ministry officials as ambassadors to Russia, Germany and other countries. "Vice Minister of Trade Kim Yong-Jae was designated as North Korea's new ambassador to Russia," the official said.
Mun Chang-Hun, a director at the Trade Ministry, has replaced North Koreas ambassador to Germany the official said. Official announcements would come sooner or later, the official said.
Kim Jong-Il has also ordered Prime Minister Pak Pong-Ju, an economic technocrat, to manage the country's day-to-day economic affairs, according to intelligence officials.
A NKor economic technocrat?
South Korea's spy agency also said that North Korea has designated some economic technocrats to lead diplomatic posts in other countries in Europe and Asia. "The move is expected to prompt a massive generation sift in the country's diplomatic elite," an intelligence official said. The North's diplomatic posts overseas have been assumed by Kim's aides, including Pak Ui-Chun, in his 70s, who has been Pyongyang's ambassador to Moscow since April 1998.
#2
If you can't come up with the ideas yourself, steal them from others. The NKors have finally figured out they're being left farther behind every day. Watch for some major spy scandals to occur, featuring NKor embassy staff.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2006 22:06
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#3
Hey Kimmie, your guys already know how to counterfeit currency and other financial instruments. That should be technology enough. What else do you need to know?
If widespread fraud and waste at the United Nations is not stopped, Japan says it may cut its funding for the scandal-ridden international organization.
Responding to a U.N. officials argument that his organizations peacekeeping operations need more money to avoid future lapses, Japanese U.N. mbassador, Kenzo Oshima, said his government, which kicks in 20 percent of the peacekeeping budget, will "find it very difficult" to keep underwriting such operations unless corruption, waste and sexual abuse by troops are halted, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The threat arose during a special Security Council session called to discuss an internal investigation that unearthed the fact that nearly $300 million was lost in waste and fraud in peacekeeping procurement. According to the Times, the session was held as part of a U.S.-led effort to spur reform of U.N. management after another investigation revealed that a lack of oversight and rules had allowed corruption and subversion of the U.N.s $64 billion oil-for-food program for Iraq.
The internal investigation report says the procurement department had a grievous lack of internal controls, and that rules were often flouted from 2000 to 2004. The report noted that it costs about $5 billion to support the U.N.'s 18 peacekeeping missions around the world. It said the scale, diversity and immediacy of needs allows opportunity for waste, fraud and corruption.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/25/2006
08:07 ||
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Just an editing error; that's a tag that appears in the html command for most of our images (to get them to the right margin). For some reason it appeared twice on the Bolton image, so I fixed it. AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2006 10:28
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#9
One will not get reform until the UN is hit in its pocketbook. That will get their attention. Only trouble is, the whole concept is flawed from the git go. I would like to see more ad hoc groups of representative democracies make bilateral agreements for specific tasks with goals and sunset clauses than the open-ended open-checkbook style of organization like the UN is.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 12:43
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#10
Amen, Mark E. It just ain't the same without that tough-talkin' moustache!
#12
whatever you do, make sure to put the stake through its heart so it can't come back to life at a later date. It's evil. Kill it. Everything it touched became worse, not better.
...The Democrat majority in the Washington State House of Representatives is censoring Republican commentary on Mrs. Gregoire's budget. The Olympian reports "House orders news releases edited for forbidden phrases"
House Republicans say there are "seven dirty words" you can never say when talking about the Democrats' budget this year in Olympia. Republican news releases using the forbidden phrases were removed from Web sites and edited this week by order of the House Chief Clerk's Office and its legal counsel.
The reason: The words impugned the motives of the other party's members at taxpayer expense, House Chief Clerk Rich Nafziger said Thursday. "You can't use taxpayers' dollars to sling mud."
Rep. Joel Kretz went ahead and issued a press release listing the 7 forbidden phrases:
1) "Shell game"
2) "...lack of honesty with taxpayers..."
3) "It's not truthful to say this money is being put into reserve."
4) "Tax-and-spend liberals"
5) "...lack of truth in the majoritys message..."
6) "...the majority party does not believe..."
7) "Disingenuous"
Speaking of which, this is a good time to learn more about Mrs. Gregoire's tax-and-spend liberal budget, which proposes $503 million in new spending and disingenuously claims that money is being put into reserve.
#1
Wouldn't expect any less from the state party of a senator who claims Osama bin-Laden is a hero.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/25/2006 8:30
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#2
"The words impugned the motives of the other party's members at taxpayer expense, House Chief Clerk Rich Nafziger said Thursday. "You can't use taxpayers' dollars to sling mud."
Who says?????
Hmmm....I remember something from civics class:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
and from the Constitution of the great state of Washington:
Section 2-
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.
Section 5- freedom of speech.
Every person may freely speak, write and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right.
Now, i wonder if I make a permutation of the forbidden phrases, can they pass muster. What if I say the other side is lying about the facts?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/25/2006 9:56
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#3
I think the point here is that the Donks don't want the official record of the House to contain these phrases, and the Repubs, of course, want them in there.
We're all certain, of course, that this is an even-handed policy, and the Dems would never, never use official House records to disparage the Repubs. Nope, nope, never happen, nope.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2006 10:24
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#4
The DNC Mantra: Free speech for me but not for thee!
BTW: EFFwa is sponsering an initiative in Wa state to require all voters to re-register and prove US citizenship. Which I think is a doubleplusgood thing. Particulary when people keep finding bogus voter residences (at malls, non-existent addresses) and duplicate registrations in the voter's database.
So if you are a Washington Voter be sure to find this initiative and sign it. (and perhaps even if you aren't - after all its illegal to challange even an obvious fraud)
#6
I'm trying to imagine what the MSM would do if they got hold of a scrap of paper written by the lowest-ranking flunky in the Bush administration suggesting the possibility of such a thing.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2006 13:34
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#7
Matt - perhaps we should write one up (in MS Word) and fax it to CBS....
#8
I'm still waiting for the Osama bin Laden Memorial Daycare Center...
And Sexualy available goat center.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/25/2006 20:21
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#9
That obscene, pornographic, Dick Dastardly, GOP = Limited Democrat, Capitalist Federalist Male Brute B******o!? Such dastardly obscene techno-laguage isn't fit for mice or men, espec for FASCIST = LIMITED COMMUNIST AMERIKANS.
Posted by: too true ||
02/25/2006 13:15
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#7
This is one thing I DO agree with WFB on. We're wasting far too much time and energy fighting this drug business. Legalize it, tax it, make laws stating that discriminating against users is perfectly legal, slam anyone operating under the influence in jail forever, and count the money we save. It's a losing battle that we don't need to fight. The idiots who are smoking this stuff now probably won't smoke any more of it if it's legal and those who want to be a part of productive society will avoid it anyway. Legalize it and get on with dealing with much bigger problems.
Posted by: mac ||
02/25/2006 14:15
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#10
I hate drugs and think pot heads are pussies but I agree w/you Mac. Legalize, regulate, and tax it accordingly. I had a buddy who ran a similar though albeit smaller operation on the west side of Detroit. He had a fake wall in his garage w/black lights on timers and everything. The fake wall & ceiling was covered in tin foil - go figure. Anyways he was the most paranoid dude you'd ever wanna meet. One because he had enough cannabis to put himself away for 30+ years and two because he was always smoking his own shit. He claimed he was addicted to pot though most cannabis advocates I've met say it is not habit forming. Either way, I could give a rat's *ss because as I said, I think it's a lame waste of time - though it doesn't concern me if some numb nut wants to get high in their own house as long as they don't operate a vehicle or distribute to minors.
#12
No one can deny marijuana is a drug, but there are much worse drugs, like alcohol. The government should legalize grass, and start spending money on discouraging drugs that actually completely ruin people's lives= crack and crystal meth. Pot maybe be a gateway drug, but the current methods of fighting drugs are obviously not working.
LAHORE: Law and order in the city on Friday was normal and almost all markets and commercial centres except Alfalah Building on The Mall remained open despite a strike call by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). A majority of Lahoris found roaming on the streets or busy shopping were of the view that mullas were politicising the issue of the publication of caricatures of Prophet Mohammad (PTUI PBUH) in European newspapers.
... thereby disproving the theory held by some here that all Paks are lunatics...
They said every Muslim and not only the ones in Pakistan was offended by the caricatures, but the way the mullas had protested had only brought disrespect for Muslims, Pakistanis and Lahoris.
I think they might have gotten that gift for understatement from the Brits...
They said the mullas were happy after protesting violently in the country, but they had in fact damaged the cause even more.
The protests are the important part. The issue's a side... uhhh... issue.
Ehtasham Ali, shopping at a clothing outlet on The Mall, said he had first inquired if protests were taking place on The Mall and then gone shopping. People had lost faith in the mullas who after damaging properties had claimed to have held a successful protest, he said, adding that when the media had projected the violence and looting on TV and newspapers, the mullas said the looters were not from among them and that the whole incident was a conspiracy against the religious activists. However, the mullas were behind the whole episode, he added.
"No, no! Really! It's a conspiracy, I tells yez! Hatched in a smoke-filled room in the dead of night, by dark men of sinister demeanor! I seen it!"
Munir Ahmed, a government employee, said he left work by 11:30am to get home before protestors could block all city roads. However, he had to buy groceries after coming home and when he left he saw that the situation was normal. Condemning the February 14 incident, he said it was one of the worst things Lahore had ever witnessed and that the religious parties should mend their ways, especially protests, on issues directly related to Muslims. He said the government should stop looters and punish people responsible of rioting in the city.
That's kind of an original idea. I wonder how it'd work?
Hamid Ali said the government needed to train law enforcement personnel to handle riots because they were not trained to handle the February 14 riot, which encouraged the protestors to loot.
I'm not sure Pak law enforcement's actually trained to do anything.
He said nothing had happened on Friday because the government had not allowed anybody to disturb Lahores law and order. Zareen Sabir said it was everybodys right to protest on such an issue, but nobody had the right to damage anyones property. Religious parties should arrange protests in which every citizen could participate and show their strength to the publishers of the caricatures while conveying the massage that their (publishers) action was against Muslim beliefs, she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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#1
so, not all Paks are lemmings. Can they lead?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2006 0:16
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#2
"the religious parties should mend their ways"
Right here we go I'm holding my breath, heaa
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erm
US actor and director George Clooney said this morning he was proud to be denounced as unpatriotic for questioning US policy because he wanted to be on "the right side of history."
Interviewed on BBC television's Newsnight about his latest films Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck Clooney said that not only did he accept the right to be attacked for his views but he even relished them.
Clooney, who has weathered attacks since opposing the 2003 Iraq invasion, said at one point that it was "frustrating" to be listed as a "traitor" on a set of playing cards, but he also accepted people's right to free speech.
He later admitted he relished the attacks. "I think it's important to be on the right side of history," Clooney said. "I want to be on that deck of cards. And I want to be able to say that they boycotted my films... I want to be able to say I was on the cover of a magazine called a 'traitor,"' he said.
"I'm proud of those because those were badges of honour for me because that was when you did it when it was hard to do," the actor and director said.
Brave, brave George.
Clooney has received critical acclaim for Syriana - about oil politics and Islamic extremism - and for Good Night, and Good Luck, a reminder of the threat to civil liberties through a story about the anti-communist hysteria in the US of the 1950s.
That wasn't a hysteria, that was an appropriate reaction. The Commies at the time were more idealistic goo-goos who didn't understand (yet) what Stalin had done, but that didn't stop them from wanting the same system here.
Clooney said Syriana did not single out US President George W. Bush's administration for attack, though it "certainly goes at this administration" as well as at 60 years of failed Middle East policy. "If it's an attack, it's because you're asking questions," Clooney said.
George C and George B agree on one thing: 60 years of American foreign policy in the Middle East has failed. George C wants to stick his head in a bucket, and George B wants to spread personal liberty, freedom and democracy. You be the judge.
Clooney has said the chilling effect of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US politics had inspired Syriana and its unflinching look at the ways extremism and political instability are fostered by the interests of big oil.
#7
"O Brother Where Art Thou" was the only film of his I thought he did a real solid job on. Other then that this dude really bores me. Clooney giving geo-political advice to the Bush Admin is like me trying to tell Martha Stewart how to make a holiday desert or explaining to Bret Favre what a first down is....can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit Mr. Clooney....
#8
BTW, BH6... how are things going over there now?
Posted by: Phil ||
02/25/2006 10:58
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BH6---Oh Brother Where Art Thou? is one of my favorite movies.
When the fellows were holed up in the barn with the lawmen pumping .45s into it and setting it on fire, Clooney kept saying, "Damn! We're in a tight spot!"
Hope things are going ok for you over in the sandbox, BH6. Stay safe. We appreciate your comments.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 12:34
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#10
I'll make the supermarket tabloids, they'll write some awful stuff But the more they run my name down the more my price goes up
So let's hitch up the wagons and head out west
To the land of the fun and the sun
We'll be real world bachelor jackass millionaires
Hey hey, Hollywood, here we come
'Cause when you're a celebrity
It's adios reality
No matter what you do
People think you're cool
Just 'cause you're on TV
#11
Phil/AP - everything's fine, thanks for asking brothers. I'm outta here in less than 3 weeks for sure. (Actually closer to 13 and a wake up but whose counting!) It's been a good deployment, we lost a few lads from the engineer unit on the base and some EOD brothers but all the guys in my unit are coming back fine. We had one of our MP's lose a leg from below the knee cap due to an IED a couple months back while on a Combat Logistics Patrol (CLP). However, due to the new up armor we got on the hummers it could have been much worse. One of my boys has hit two IED's in the past 8 weeks and is convinced the new armor saved his jewels both times. Most of the injuries are actually due to vehicle accidents on our own part more than anything else. In the six months I will have been here we supported two historical elections, and four major operations. We're pretty proud of what we've been able to accomplish. As usual the MSM has not covered things here imho very accurately. I think this is a common theme that you will hear from other vets as well. Matter of fact, a side from military correspondents I know of only one civie journo showing up here - some Argentinian babe who I think flew here by mistake - though she did manage to interview one of my Marines who was incidentally Argentine himself.
I'm at TQ and this place is probably one of the lesser hot spots to boot - I'm surprised more media nerds didn't stop by. I think they like the nicer USAF base in Balad and Camp Cupcake in Kuwait - pussies. Anyways, we probably got mortared and took rocket fire a dozen times since I've been here. I think why we took such little action (my wife begs to differ on that point - about it making her feel any better) was a combo of good relations w/the locals via our CAG & MTT teams in Habbaniya and some kick ass counter intel on our part which waxed some insurgent mortar teams a couple months back. Another thing that helped was when Steel Curtain kicked off around November and 3/6 & I think 2/1 killed about 200+ hajjis on the Syrian border by a place called Sedat (sp?) - it's near Al Qaim. I'm pretty sure the news never told the whole story on this event as we don't really advertise our ass kickings anymore. I had buddies & peers who were there first hand and can attest to the ass kicking we put on those mother fuckers. It was a turkey shoot. I have more stories on this but it would take longer than I have here and some are pretty f'n nasty for the internet. Bottomline - I ensure you would be proud as shit to know how "efficient" American troops are.
I know Bill Roggio who comments here once in a while was in Al Anbar for about a month last fall - he might of been around there at the time w/RCT2. Other then him (who seems to be a credible guy though more optimistic about Iraqi cognitive powers than I am) and maybe some of his colleagues the media have been a bunch of Class-A Number-One Ass-Clowns in my book. Some times I wonder if were not clipping the wrong clowns. I'd like to choke-out a few folks on MSNBC/CBS/&CNN. Anyhow, we're proud of our service here but are ready to come home and see the family. I do absolutely appreciate everyone's support while I've been here and hopefully another Rantfest in D.C. can happen sometime soon and I can shake all your hands in person if possible and maybe buy a few rounds for y'all. I will guarantee one thing though, come this 17 March when I'm back in CONUS, in the greatest country in the history of the mud ball, my Irish-ass is gonna be drunk as cooter brown on a three day bender.
#13
You've got a right to be proud. Thanks to you all. You guys have done a great job. Now just come back in one piece so we can read some of those stories real soon.
#15
we don't really advertise our ass kickings anymore. I had buddies & peers who were there first hand and can attest to the ass kicking we put on those mother fuckers
#18
Aye, and thanks as Well, broadhead6, to you and your men. I took the liberty of posting your post at my website, where I said the following:
However, if you stagger away from the Rantfest with one less dollar in your wallet than when you walked in, everyone there should be covered with eternal shame for the rest of their lives...
Let me know when the next one will be, and whether you're going, and I'll Amazon to Fred a contribution to help you along to total inebriation.
#19
I echo all the comments, BH6. Thanks for all you and your boys do for us. Good luck and Godspeed, my friend!
Posted by: BA ||
02/25/2006 22:19
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You and your Marines have made us as proud as we expected, Broadhead6. You'll be pleased to know the major lights of the MSM have been losing significant sales -- market share is no longer even an issue, because the market itself is shrinking -- as ordinary Americans have noticed the journalists refuse to report important news like your little turkey shoot, or are slanting things blatantly. So while y'all are winning the war in the sandbox, the MSM is losing their war back home. My view, anyway. ;-)
Taliban guerrillas killed four Afghan soldiers in an ambush in the restive southern province of Helmand where British troops have begun setting up bases as part of an expanded NATO deployment. The soldiers were killed during a patrol on Thursday night in Girishk district and the attackers fled after a brief clash, district police chief Khan Mohammad Khan said on Friday. "The soldiers were patrolling in vehicles when they were attacked," he said. "Four soldiers were killed and one wounded while one Taliban fighter was killed and five wounded."
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said Taliban fighters had killed 12 Afghan soldiers in the ambush.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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#1
hunt them down. Kill them and any supporters they have past the Pak border. Time to let Perv know pressure comes from all directions
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2006 0:12
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#2
Four Tqaliban wounded? They'll be amenable to questioning then. Find out where they came from, and do something about it. (I wanted to say, "Wipe out the village," but then I thought of babies out in snow, and I flinched. I'm not cut out for soldiering, I'm afraid.)
I propose a compromise, TW: kill all the men. Kill any boys holding guns. forcibly teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and craft skills to all the women and children. The Torah, the Christian New Testament, and Rantburg will be the primary texts:
"If Fred bans three trolls in the morning and four in the afternoon, how many trolls has Fred banned that day?"
#8
Rantburg would be good for advanced studies, say beginning in the fifth or sixth year. Before that, make them read the old McGuffy Reader and a history of the Western World from the early 1950's, before the leftists "revised" it. Senior courses would also include Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, plus anything in writing by Scalia and Clarence Thomas. THEN let them read the Koran - and protect them when they laugh.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2006 14:14
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#9
I'm so confused, I thought Boris was a lop-eared serbian troll?! Is he a lop-eared serbian troll from Atlanta? Is Atlanta in Serbia? It's too complicated, I'll never graduate!
BARA: A top-level meeting on Friday approved action against self-proclaimed spiritual leader Mufti Munir Shakir for taking law into own hands as residents of the area have been told to leave their homes to minimize losses during the operation against miscreants.
"Take what you can carry and get out! There's a posse a-comin'!"
Continued fighting in Bara between two rival groups had prompted the Governors House to intervene in the situation.
According to a statement from the Governors House, the decision to intervene comes as Shakir-led radical groups continued attacks on rival group members for the second consecutive day after clashes left three dead and several wounded on Thursday. It was concluded (in the meeting) that to restore peace and avoid ongoing bloodshed of innocent people, it has become absolutely necessary for the government to take action.
"Lt. Chaudry! It is necessary to restore peace and avoid ongoing bloodshed of innocent people!"
"Yessir!"
"Tell them to send up the dynamite!"
The meeting unanimously decided that punitive action against the Mufti group be taken immediately and the political administration (of Khyber Agency) had been directed to issue notices to residents of the areas to clear their houses immediately to minimise damages.
"The government's coming the save you! Run!"
A resident of Bara sub-division told Daily Times that there was absolute lawlessness as the administration had given the Shakir group a free hand. The radical group continued attacks on the rival group on Friday burning down the house of the deputy chief of Bara Peace Committee, Maulana Mustameem, in Nala Malikdeenkhel, Jan Muhammad Afridi said.
Bara Peace Committee... headed by a holy man... and they burned down his house. I like it!
A tribal journalist said that two people were killed when the Shakir group attacked rival group members and six were wounded. He said the armed group members were attacking rivals and the deployed paramilitary force was not intervening in the clashes.
"Who? Us? Intervene? Yer kidding, right?"
Earlier, Shakir defied a Jirgas decision to leave Khyber Agency whereas the rival group leader, Pir Saifur Rehman, left the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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Yeah, right up there with "We're from the government, and we're here to help you."
Bara Peace Committee... headed by a holy man... and they burned down his house. I like it!
Would have been better if the holy man had been in his house when they burned it down, but hey, I'm mature enough not to riot when I can't get what I want.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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"Also Friday, a Hamas militant was killed in Gaza while improperly handling explosives. Hamas identified the man as Abed Moati Abu Daf, 28, "the most prominent trainer" of militants in Gaza, and said he died on a "training mission."
#2
The Paleos are down to third and fourth string explosive handlers. But with Iran taking more and more of the support, I would expect to see some new faces, perhaps more competent even, in the Paleo perloo.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 12:47
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Baghdad residents stayed off the streets on Friday as the government put the capital under a last-minute daytime curfew to try to stop sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias on the Muslim day of prayer. In a critical test for the Shia-led governments authority and its for its new, US-trained forces after two days of killings, police and Iraqi troops were out in force in Baghdad, turning back those few motorists unaware of the ban on traffic announced overnight. US forces kept a low profile. Reprisal attacks on minority Sunni mosques and more than 130 deaths following Wednesdays suspected Al Qaeda bombing of a Shia shrine have seen the United States and United Nations joining efforts to avert all-out civil war that could wreck US hopes of withdrawing troops and inflame the entire Middle East.
Gunmen stormed a house and killed two Shia men and a woman in Latifiya, just outside Baghdad, at dawn on Friday despite the curfew. Two children were wounded in the attack. The streets of the capital were quiet at mid-morning but residents feared the violence could boil over. A spokesman for radical young Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr said his followers planned to march to mosques in his Baghdad stronghold despite the curfew to worship at the weekly midday prayers.
In Basra and other cities in the heavily Shia south of Iraq, where the curfew does not apply, weekend activities looked normal and religious leaders said they expected full mosques.
Even if the curfew calms passions on the Muslim holy day, Iraqs government will still have to demonstrate it can control Shia militiamen who have been attacking Sunni targets and setting up their own checkpoints in defiance of the state. Sadr and other Shia leaders involved in government have called publicly for calm but their militia forces have been on the streets since the violence erupted on Wednesday. US President George W Bush called for calm and the UN envoy invited all parties to talks on a way out of the gravest crisis Iraq has faced since the US invasion three years ago. Sunni political leaders pulled out of negotiations on forming a government from groups elected in a ballot in December. Senior Iraqi officials said leading clerics including Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, were straining to rein in Shia militants but one said privately he feared even Sistani might be unable to control some gunmen.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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Not according to this little news item. Police: Gunmen kill 13 Shi'ites NE of Baghdad
Gunmen broke into the house of a Shiite family northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 13 people, police said.
The editor of a small Finnish culture magazine was fired on Friday for publishing new Prophet Muhammad cartoons satirising the global row over the caricatures, said the magazine. Jussi Vilkuna, the editor-in-chief of Kaltio, was sacked after he refused to remove the cartoons from the publication's website as requested by the magazine's board of directors.
"Herbert? Those aren't vertebrates are they?"
"No, Maudette. Those are trilobites, I believe. Or maybe Finnish publishers."
"It was a very big mistake to put these comics in the magazine. We are very sorry about this and have just fired our editor Jussi Vilkuna. We will now as soon as possible take the cartoons off the web," said Harri Kynnoes, chairman of the board.
"Please don't burn our embassies!"
In the series of drawings, which appeared on the magazine's website but not in its print version, Mohammed is debating freedom of speech with a cartoonist. Vilkuna had served as editor for almost seven years. Three insurance companies withdrew their advertisements from the Kaltio website in reaction to the caricatures. Kaltio, which calls itself an "opinion-magazine", has about 2,000 print subscribers throughout Finland and has been published for more than 60 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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The Arab press publishes offensive cartoons against Judaism frequently in Arab newspapers, without a peep of protest from anyone. Now, the Fins knuckle under to their hollering about offensive cartoons as to another religion. Where are the demands that the Arab press fire their editors, stop their abuse. Look at Iran -- calling Mickey Mouse and Tom & Jerry a subversive act of the Jews? Where are the mobs of protestors? Where is a whisper of protest. I'm neither of these religions -- but I am stick and tired of the knuckling under to the most vocal, most violent minority and the absolute absence of balance in reporting.
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is set to vist Damascus next week for talks with his Syrian counterpart Basher al-Assad, according to Syrian government sources. The talks will focus on how Syria should respond to a United Nations request that it co-operate with an investigation on the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. Mubarak and al-Assad are expected to discuss measures that will satisfy both the UN and the Syrian government, some of whose top officials have been implicated in the 14 February 2005 killing of Hariri and 20 others in Beirut.
Egypt along with several other Arab states, including Qatar - whose foreign minister Hamad bin Jasim Al Sheykh recently visited Damascus - is trying to persuade Syria to cooperate with the UN commission while at the same time attempting to find a face-saving strategy for Damascus.
Ambassador Ahmet Oðuz Çelikkol, Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, is going to Baghdad over the weekend for high-level talks with state officials and political party representatives, said Foreign Ministry sources yesterday.
Çelikkol is expected to reiterate the significance Ankara attaches to Iraq's territorial integrity and political unity and also exchange views with the sides involved with regard to efforts to form a government in Iraq. Sources did not say when and with whom the ambassador would have talks in the neighboring country.
This will be the first trip to Iraq by Çelikkol since he succeeded Ambassador Osman Korutürk last month.
Following the Dec. 15 polls in Iraq, Turkey said it would continue to strongly support the political process in Iraq and reiterated that it was ready to cooperate in every sphere with the future government in Iraq.
Ankara says Iraq's territorial integrity has vital importance for the safety of both Iraq and the region as well as for the future of the Iraqis. Çelikkol's visit comes at a time when the clashes between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq are on the rise.
The Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the deadly violence in Iraq, urging Iraqis to refrain from reprisals after the bombing of a major Shiite shrine.
It is obvious that the goal of those who resort to terrorism is to start sectarian and ethnic conflict in Iraq, said a written statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, after the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra sparked deadly reprisals against Sunni mosques and worshippers.
The most efficient way to undo this game is to remain prudent in the face of those inhumane provocations, refrain from reprisals and strengthen national unity, the statement added.
Ankara fears that instability in Iraq may lead to the breakup of the country and the secession of the Kurds in the north, which, in turn, could fuel unrest among Turkey's own Kurdish population.
COPENHAGEN: Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which angered the Muslim world by publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PTUI peanut butter upon ham) last year, has won a Danish critical journalism award for its initiative.
Maudette! Look! There's vertebrates everywhere!
Denmarks largest daily was honoured with the Victor Prize for having opened everyones eyes by showing how easy it is to introduce cracks in freedom of expression and how so-called political correctness is infiltrating what we believe to be inalienable rights, said Hans Engell, the editor of tabloid Ekstra Bladet which awards the prize, during a prize ceremony in Copenhagen late on Thursday.
Bravo, Hans! Couldn't have said it better myself!
The Victor Prize, named for the late editor-in-chief of Ekstra Bladet Victor Andreasen, was handed to Jyllands-Postens editor Carsten Juste. This prize is awarded to Jyllands-Posten for its adamant defense for months of freedom of expression, which is under threat, said Engell. Jyllands-Posten only did its duty: exercise its right to freedom of expression, he added. Juste, guarded by two secret service bodyguards, noted, how fragile freedom of expression is as he accepted the award, his newspaper reported.
I was never that fond of Tuborg before, but it's tasting better with each bottle. I salute the Danes.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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Ham, Cheese and Booze. I am on a Buy Danish kick.
#2
Am a regular danish bacon , and danish pastry freak at the moment .. And of course washed down with some danish beer .. Yummy , I have already put on , just under , half a stone :)
Am considering a leaflet drop in the local mosque of some danish cartoons' just to see what would happen .. Prolly wont do it as I cant be bothered by a full scale mussie riot outside my front door just yet :P
#4
It would seem to me that if one adds up all the casualties and property damage caused by the bruhaha over the Mo Cartoons, they might qualify as Weapons of Mass Destruction (Weapons of Mass Delusion?).
Heck fire, they may be outlawed soon as illegal weapons of war by the next Geneva Catering Event Convention.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 12:23
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#6
RE this article and the one above: This can be solved by one simple statement by the combinded diplomatic corps of the Western world. Simply grow spines and tell the muzzies that the next time a (country name) embassy is burned, the nation where the burning took place will cease to exist. Follow through the first time. There won't be a second.
These people are still 10th century tribesmen: if you're stronger than they are, and meaner, they respect you. If you show ANY sign of weakness, they'll walk all over you. We need to show them exactly how strong we are. We are NOT strong by giving in to them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2006 14:34
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#7
These people are 10th century tribesmen
I think you gave them a few centuries too much credit.
#9
This crap happens because the West does not stand up to all the seething and mahem. A little power projection and these Islamic clowns will back off. Accommodation and legal procedures are seen by the Islamists as signs of weakness to be exploited. Take a look at the video of the Danish Embassy demo in London via LGF and you will see some nutcases that should be put on the next freighter to the ME....or worse. I am afraid that it will take a big hit to tip the balance. 7-7 did not wake up the brit govt, except for intelligence services. It is like 1938 all over again. Drives me up the wall.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 15:18
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#10
Havarti. If you haven't tried it, go get some (it's a Danish cheese).
Didn't know what it was until about 30 days. It's been a great little discovery, compliments of radical Islam. Funny how the world turns.
Posted by: Bald Infidel ||
02/25/2006 15:45
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A small Canadian university has ruled out campus-wide wireless internet access because its president fears the system's electromagnetic forces could pose a risk to students' health.
Lakehead University, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, has only a limited Wi-Fi connections at present, in places where there is no fibre-optic internet connection. According to president Fred Gilbert, that is just fine. "The jury is still out on the impact that electromagnetic forces have on human physiology," Mr Gilbert told a university meeting last month, insisting that university policy would not change while he remained president. "Some studies have indicated that there are links to carcinogenetic occurrences in animals, including humans, that are related to energy fields associated with wireless hotspots, whether those hotspots are transmissions lines, whether they're outlets, plasma screens, or microwave ovens that leak."
Lakehead University published a transcript of Mr Gilbert's remarks on its website. Spokeswoman Eleanor Abaya said the decision not to expand the university's few isolated wireless networks was a "personal decision" by Mr Gilbert. He didn't want to spring for a free tinfoil hat for everyone. And underwear.
But the president's stance has prompted a backlash from students and from Canadian health authorities, who say his fears are overdone. "If you look at the body of science, we're confident that there is no demonstrable health effect or effects from wireless technology," said Robert Bradley, director of consumer and clinical radiation protection at Canada's federal health department. He said there was no reason to believe that properly installed wireless networks pose a health hazard to computer users.
Adam Krupper, president of the Lakehead students' union, estimated about 1000 of the school's 7500 students have laptops that could pick up a wireless signal, and he said students "really, really" want Wi-Fi on campus. "Considering this is a university known for its great use of technology, it's kind of bad that we can't get Wi-Fi," he said.
Mr Gilbert is a former vice-provost of Colorado State University who holds degrees in biology and zoology. He was previously a zoology professor. I could understand an English major, but a zoology professor?
#5
Just like all that cell phone brain cancer that is now in epidemic levels! Killing all our ... what? Studies proved no link and they are safe? Um... but, studies also ... false? ... um ... GLOBAL WARMING AND BUSH HATES BLACK PEOPLE!!
#7
What about cell phones? He is not banning cell phones. Maybe he should put a Faraday Shield over the university and run everything on hydraulics. /tinfoil hat
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 13:02
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#8
Tell him, that as soon as your born everything you do slowly kills you, so live a little.
Posted by: john ||
02/25/2006 15:03
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#14
100 megawati megawatts? Daymn! I could set up the transmitter outside the garage and turn the snow to steam on my driveway during the worst of blizzards.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 15:38
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#15
Turn snow to steam... probably not too far off the mark: 100 million watts-- the output of nearly a quarter-million microwave ovens-- pumped into that dinky 6" long antenna on the router would yield some interesting phenomena, that's for sure.
The air around the router, probably for many meters, would be ionized a harsh, brilliant electric blue; and the temperature within a few feet of it would be higher than the surface of the Sun.
#18
"Some studies have indicated that there are links to carcinogenetic occurrences in animals, including humans, that are related to energy fields associated with wireless hotspots, whether those hotspots are transmissions lines, whether they're outlets, plasma screens, or microwave ovens that leak."
Speaking of microwave ovens that leak, I had a friend in HS whose microwave was an old 70's beast that was built in to the cabinets of his parents' home. I was over there one day, goofing off and one of the other guys opened the microwave door WHILE it was still running and the thing kept running. Needless to say, I didn't have my tinfoil on, so there's no telling how messed up I am. And, on another note, what the heck's a "Carcinogenetic?" Is that something where I don't get cancer, but my kids could? Never actually heard the term, but I'm no zoologist.
Posted by: BA ||
02/25/2006 22:01
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The Supreme Court on Friday directed the inspectors general of police (IGPs) of the four provinces and the Northern Areas to stop womens marriages to settle family feuds, declaring the customs of Vani and Swara un-Islamic. A three-member bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan directed the IGPs to protect Vani victims. The court also summoned a report from the IGPs by the last week of April.
The court was moved to abolish the social customs of Vani and Swara (a mode of dispute settlement in which young girls of the offenders family are wedded to the men of the victim family as compensation). The court also heard the cases of five girls from Mianwali who have appealed to President Pervez Musharraf and the chief justice to save them from Vani, and a petition by freelance anthropologist Samar Minallah against the notorious customs. Five girls Asiya, 8, Amina, 9, her sisters Abida, 7, Sajida, 5, and Fatima, 7 were given in verbal Nikah in compensation of a murder to save their elders. Amina, Sajida and Abida have reportedly threatened to commit suicide if not protected from the custom.
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The executive producer of CBS "48 Hours Mystery" has apologized for airing an altered image of the front page of the Tribune in an episode about the murder trial of Ryan Ferguson that aired Saturday night. CBS aired an altered image of the Tribunes front page for its 48 Hours Mystery. The producer, Susan Zirinsky, said she didnt know the image of the front page containing the story about Fergusons sentencing had been manipulated until this week after Tribune Managing Editor Jim Robertson complained to CBS in an e-mail. "It was an egregious oversight for us not to know it," Zirinsky said. "It was a graphic, and we dont feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."
Bob Steele, a senior ethics faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a premier journalism training center in Florida, said CBS executives should apologize to viewers and use the networks Web site to explain what went wrong and accept responsibility for an ethical failure. "What they did wrong was twofold," he said. "One, they altered reality by changing a piece of documentary journalism. Secondly, they deceived their viewers because they left them with the impression that what they showed was a truthful representation of what the newspaper showed."
The TV newsmagazine showed several front pages from the Tribune during its hourlong program "Dream Killer," about the trial of Ferguson, found guilty in October of killing Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt. During the show, which raised the question of whether Ferguson was wrongly convicted, a graphic of the Tribunes Dec. 5 front page showed a photograph of Ferguson that was different from what actually appeared in the Tribune. The original photograph showed Ferguson in a jail uniform as he appeared at his sentencing. In "Dream Killer," Ferguson was shown in a suit and tie.
Zirinsky said the graphic has been changed in the master tape of the program to accurately reflect the Tribunes front page. A freelancer hired by CBS for the first time was responsible for the alteration, Zirinsky said. "We feel we are doing the right thing," she said. "We have apologized to the editor."
Eh? Looks like a minor oversight to me.
I gather the tone of the whole program was slanted towards this killer. Photoshopping the newspaper front page to make him look respectable and mature rather than the shot of him in an orange jumpsuit talking to his lawyer in court fits that. They really didn't need to show the newspaper at all, so why do it if not to convey a visual impression?
#3
Wouldn't it be more efficient just to post articles about things that See BS News gets right? At this point there's got to be a presumption that anything CBS produces is fictitious.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2006 12:03
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#4
I bet Bob Schieffer's not even his real name....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2006 13:02
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Well this is what you get when your bias a certain way, objectivity goes out the window and this crap happens
ENUGU: Muslim and Christian mobs killed 11 people in three Nigerian cities on Friday, extending a week of tit-for-tat religious riots that have claimed at least 157 lives and injured more than 900. In Kontagora, machete-wielding Muslim mobs killed nine people and torched four Christian churches, said a Nigerian Red Cross official. They also looted shops owned by minority Christians, police said.
In Enugu, Christian youths armed with machetes and clubs attacked Muslims, beating one motorcycle taxi driver to death and burning a mosque. A stray bullet also killed an 8-year-old Christian girl and rioters blocked off the area with burning barricades. James Obi, a market trader who was part of the mob in Enugu, said they killed the taxi driver, known locally as an Okada, after a rumour that a Muslim policeman killed a Christian boy. We got angry and we killed one of them on Okada. His corpse has been set ablaze, he said.
In Potiskum, Muslim youths burned shops, churches and houses belonging to minority Christians early on Friday. Police said 65 rioters were arrested. Federal Police spokesman Haz Iwendi said the violence broke out late on Thursday in Kontagora. There were skirmishes in Kontagora. It started last night and continued this morning. Eleven deaths were recorded. Nine churches were burnt and vehicles were destroyed, he said. Twenty-six suspects have been arrested, he said, adding, the place is now calm.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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#1
...a week of tit-for-tat religious riots that have claimed at least 157 lives and injured more than 900.
Lawyers for Saddam Hussein on Thursday demanded the disqualification of a judge presiding over the former Iraqi leaders trial, saying he was biased and prejudiced. Ramsey Clark, the former US attorney general who is helping defend Saddam, handed out an English-language version of a motion against Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman at a news conference in Washington DC.
The motion, which Clark said was submitted to the court on Wednesday, claims the judge is not impartial and has a manifested bias against defendant and had repeatedly violated standards of fair trial, human rights and basic due process in the courtroom. The document states that under international legal standards, everyone has a right to trial by an impartial judge who harbors no preconceptions about the mater before them. It claims Abdel Rahman is biased because he opposed Saddam Husseins government and becaue he is a native of the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja, the target of a 1988 chemical attack by Iraqi warplanes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So he would be disqualified to judge THAT incident, not this one, which was committed against the Kurds.
It is the duty of the judge to stop grandstanding and outbursts calculated to disrupt the proceedings. The failure of the lawyers to control their clients leads me to believe that their (the lawyers) behavior is worthy of censure in itself.
#1
Im thirsty , all this rain in the north !! alas but its all undrinkable , i personally blame the j0000's , zionist , and anyone including the water companies for not being Islamic enough ..
#4
Shep, I've read accounts (which I can't find right now, sorry) that some British farmers are in trouble with their crops / pastures. Is that your understanding too?
#5
From what I understand, a large part of Britain's water supply problem would evaporate were they to repair leaky supply pipes. But water is so inexpensive there, nobody wants to bother.
#8
There's two kinds of droughts from my experience in Caliphornia. The first is the kind that nature creates. It results in farmers no longer being able to grow cotton in the desert. The second is man made. It results in "If it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow."
#9
I've got a couple of Austrailian Caroma toilets at home, NS. There are two buttons on top: the half flush gives a chaser, and the full flush gives a woosher. That cuts down water use greatly and appropriately.
It is true that many cities, especially older ones have a high percentage of their water wasted because of old water mains. That sould be addressed, but like in NYC, we are talking about extremely expensive and extremely disruptive.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 12:57
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TW,
I spent a month in London in Sept/Oct. Walked by a broken water pipe near a tree on Bayswater Road across from Hyde Park on the first day I was there. It was gushing at least 5 gal/min. I have no idea how long it had been broken before I saw it but it wasn't fixed until the day before we left. As this example shows, the British simply aren't careful with water. Maybe a serious drought will convince them they need to be a bit less profligate.
Posted by: mac ||
02/25/2006 12:58
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What percentage of water is for residential use in the UK? I'll bet it's under 10%. In Arizona, it's 60+% farming, 30+% mining and industry, and 7-8% residential.
All the low-water toilets in the world won't compensate for the usage by farming and industry, but that's where the regulators start first.
#12
True, Jackal. One thing about more energy and conservation: most govt and enviros go for the headlines and buzzwords, and do not list the energy sinks, from biggest to smallest, and prioritize conservation measures, based upon the best return for the effort. We are on a well here, so less water use means less electricity. I used to pack water where I lived up north, so I religiously do not believe in wasting it in my life.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2006 15:34
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Thousands of people peacefully protested across the country on Friday against the publication of cartoons of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in European newspapers. The protest call was issued by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Public gatherings were arranged after Friday prayers at Karachi Company, Tench Bata and Bakra Mandi in Islamabad, while a protest was held at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidry of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam led the protests.
A joint protest was carried out by the MMA and the Tahafuz Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz in Lahore. Demonstrations were held at Lawrence Road and the Lahore Press Club. MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed was detained in the JI headquarters at Mansoora and was not allowed to participate in the protest.
In Peshawar, two main rallies were taken out from Masjid Moonbat Mohabat Khan and Madni Masjid in Namak Mandi. Around 3,000 people participated in a protest rally in Gujranwala, which started from Sheranwala Garden and peacefully ended at Sialkoti Gate. Meanwhile, thousands of protestors participated in demonstrations in Khyber, South Waziristan and Bajaur.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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They might not look like sensitive sorts, but seven out of ten Hells Angels in Stockholm are on sick benefits with depression, Stockholms police commissioner Carin Götblad told the press on Monday.
"Øh, Spike! I'm sø depressed!"
"Me, tøø, Butch!"
Now the doctor who signed most of the mens sick notes could be struck off the medical register.
"Right. Thøse guys're depressed."
"Ja, sure! They løøked depressed to me!"
Doctor Roman Nowik is at the centre of an enquiry announced on Monday into members of the biker gang, which has about 30 members in Stockholm. It is believed that many of those on benefits were working at the same time. Police and officials at the Swedish social insurance administration (Försäkringskassan) say they plan to work together more closely to find proof that the bikers were cheating the system.
"Yøuse gøt nuttin' on us, cøppers! Nuttin'!"
Nowik told Dagens Nyheter on Wednesday that the Hells Angels members he had seen were not faking. They are depressed in many cases suicidal and have not tricked me. I am an expert on depression, he told the paper.
"Ånd whåt måkes yøu ån expert?"
"Dø I løøk håppy?"
But a report in December from the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) said that Nowik had often failed to provide medical evidence when signing sick notes. Meanwhile, officials at the insurance administration have said that announcing the investigation into the Hells Angels publicly will make the probe more difficult.
Christoffer Franzén at Försäkringskassan said the public announcement was unfortunate.
"Ja, sure! Very unførtunåte!"
Dagens Nyheter reported that many police were upset that a previously secret investigation had been put into the public domain. But Inspector Christer Nilsson said that the police had made the operative decision that it was not wrong, to announce that the Hells Angels were being investigated.
#1
LOL! Depression is prolly the easiest scam these guys ever pulled. Ja, sure, prove I ain't depressed, lol, er, I mean *sniff*... Just think of gang rapes as "group".
The more stories I read about Scandinavia, the more apparent it becomes that they're evolving into pluperfect morons. A whole new level of suckers and zoomers. The socialist tag is just cover.
#5
Nordic bikers are actually a staple of local organized crime, from what I understand, they're not a quaint odditiy.
In the mid 90's, they used rocket launchers and explosives to blow up each others HQ and nightclubs.
Still, I agree, Bandidos, Hell's, Rock Machines and the like are usually associated with the never-ending highways of the USA, not with the old continent's small roads.
Same "clubs" in Europe, btw, there are some RM in the south of France I think, and one famous 80-90's skinhead, Serge Ayoub/"Batskin" is now a parisian Hell's, and was convicted for traffiking metamphetamine a few years ago, he's out by now I believe.
IIRC, nordic bikers don't ride bikes that much, climate is too cold. Bikeless bikers, ha.
due to financial issues, but it opens the door to Muslim extremists winning seats
I doubt that'll happen. They'd be a side issue, since they're concentrated in the far south. But I don't imagine Toxin will be back as PM after the elections. Most anybody they get will have more testicular heft and less corruption baggage to lug around.
AMSTERDAM: The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague rejected Slobodan Milosevic's request for provisional release from detention in the Netherlands to travel to Russia for medical treatment, the court said on Friday. "The request is denied," the court said in a written decision. "The trial chamber is not satisfied... that the accused, if released, would return for the continuation of the trial." But the court said doctors treating Milosevic for a heart condition and high blood pressure could look after the former Serb president in the Netherlands, where he is on trial for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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QUETTA: Three people, including two Frontier Corps soldiers, were killed and one was injured on Friday when tribesmen attacked them in Dera Bugtis Pathar Nala area, some 375 kilometres southeast of Quetta. Balochistan government spokesman Raziq Bugti said the FC men were defusing landmines installed in the Pathar Nala area when unidentified men attacked them. An FC man stepped on a landmine that exploded, killing two personnel and injuring one critically. Paramilitary forces retaliated and killed one of the attackers, Bugti added. Government officials claim that tribesmen have spread a large number of landmines in the area situated near the gas plants. Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said that Loti and Pirkoh gas plants were closed after several attacks on gas pipelines and wells in the area.
Also,
Are you ready for this? Better sit down...
a gas pipeline
Surprise!
exploded in Saryab area and gas supply was suspended to nearby localities. No causality was reported. It was a third attack on a gas pipeline in Quetta since February 20. An attempt was foiled when law enforcement agencies defused a bomb on February 20 but two bombs were later detonated. Gas Company General Manager Muhammad Nawaz said that repairs were underway and would be completed soon. Online reported that at least three rockets were fired at an FC check-post in the Kahan area. No casualty was reported. The Pirkoh gas pipeline was damaged again by an explosion on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency on Friday, hours after top armed forces officials said they foiled a coup attempt to oust her from power.
In a televised address, the president said: Some [officers] attempted to break the armed forces chain of command, undermine the civilian government and establish an unconstitutional regime.
She signed a proclamation commanding the armed forces to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent or suppress all forms of lawless violence and any act of insurrection or rebellion.
This is the first time she has called out the military to perform law enforcement functions, which have been carried out by the police since May 2001, when thousands of supporters of former president Joseph Estrada assaulted the presidential palace shortly after his arrest.
Mrs Macapagal said some of the plotters had been detained and the chain of command from the military chief of staff down to battalion commanders was intact. As commander-in-chief, I am in control of the situation, Mrs Macapagal said.
Thousands of anti-government rallyists trooped to the streets to protest against Mrs Macapagals latest proclamation and to press for her resignation over allegations that she cheated in the May 2004 presidential elections.
Police forcibly dispersed two groups of anti-Arroyo demonstrators who tried to assemble along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, the capitals main road, where 20 years ago this week hundreds of thousands of people gathered in a peaceful revolt that led to the removal of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters managed to gather by late afternoon on Ayala Avenue in Makati city, the Philippines financial district, but the police had dispersed the gathering by early evening.
Pro-democracy groups condemned Mrs Macapagals latest proclamation. The Free Legal Assistance Group, which helps victims of human rights abuses, said it was a license given to the military and police to use against whatsoever they perceive to be enemies; it silences all forms of criticism, including media reporting.
Mrs Macapagals decision to declare a state of emergency, which was arrived at during a long cabinet meeting, came after the armed forces chief of staff, General Generoso Senga, announced that the commander of an elite fighting unit the Scout Rangers regiment was being held for allegedly planning to lead soldiers joining anti-government protests on Saturday.
Gen Senga said the scout rangers commander, Brigadier General Danilo Lim, contacted him on Thursday night to ask that he withdraw support from Mrs Macapagal. He said he refused and instead ordered the commanders confinement.
He added that the armed forces remained loyal to Mrs Macapagal and the government. A military spokesman said disgruntled troops had planned to announce to the crowd of protesters on Friday that they were withdrawing support from Mrs Macapagal, and were hoping that this would bring a groundswell of opposition to the president.
Military observers said the threat to Mrs Macapagal remained in spite of Gen. Sengas statement of loyalty because Brig. Gen Lim might still have accomplices among senior officers who remain unaccounted for.
Glenda Gloria, a writer specialising on defence issues, said: The situation is still very fluid. Lims accomplices will likely lie low after he was detained but may still move against the government if mass actions against Mrs Macapagal gather momentum.
The peso, Asias leading gainer last year, posted its biggest drop in over two years yesterday while the stock market index fell 1 per cent.
Several governments including Australia, Hong Kong and the US issued advisories urging their nationals to exercise caution when travelling to the Philippines.
#1
Between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters managed to gather by late afternoon on Ayala Avenue in Makati city
Reality check-it was closer to 5,000, if that. This was the 20th of the peoples power revolution. Pres GMA was afraid to death of a big rally that would turn into another movement. She had BG Lim detained and Special action Force commander Franco relieved. The troops and police stayed in their compounds and it now looks like her, the Pres', paranoia and overaction started this event. As TW said,"Good Theater". So now the Peso will slide and the exchange rate will make beer in the Philippines cheaper. Always a good side!
Posted by: 49 pan ||
02/25/2006 1:17
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#2
Incidentally, WWE posted an article about this because of a RAW event in Manila going on at the time, but that no violence was reported there.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/25/2006 16:39
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#3
It's always trouble when you're in town Pan...hmmm.
IRS exams found nearly three out of four churches, charities and other civic groups suspected of having violated restraints on political activity in the 2004 election actually did so, the agency said Friday.
Most of the examinations that have concluded found only a single, isolated incidence of prohibited campaign activity. In three cases, however, the IRS uncovered violations egregious enough to recommend revoking the groups' tax-exempt status.
The vast majority of charities and churches followed the law, but the examinations found a "disturbing" amount of political intervention in the 2004 elections, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said.
"It's disturbing not because it's pervasive, but because it has the potential to really grow and have a very bad impact on the integrity of charities and churches," Everson said in an interview.
The tax agency looked only at charities, churches and other tax-exempt organizations referred to the IRS for potentially violating laws that bar them from participating in or intervening in elections, including advocating for or against any candidate.
Those referred to the IRS represent a tiny fraction of more than 1 million tax-exempt organizations organized under section 501(c)(3) of the tax law.
The IRS examined 110 organizations referred to the tax agency for potentially violations, and 28 cases remain open. Among the 82 closed cases, the IRS found prohibited politicking and sent a written warning to 55 organizations and assessed a penalty tax against one group. Those organizations included 37 churches and 19 other organizations.
In the three additional cases in which the IRS recommended revoking tax-exempt status, none of the organizations were churches. The agency did not identify the three. The IRS found tax violations unrelated to politics in five cases. Examinations of the 18 remaining groups did not turn up any wrongdoing.
In some cases, the IRS found flagrant violations of the law. In others, charities did not understand their obligations. Many activities fall into an ambiguous area that requires closer scrutiny of context and timing.
"There are very few places where you can draw bright lines," Everson said. "People have to think about this."
Among the prohibited activities, the examiners found that charities and churches had distributed printed material supporting a preferred candidate and assembled improper voter guides or candidate ratings.
Religious leaders had used the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate, and some groups had shown preferential treatment to candidates by letting them speak at functions.
yes, we watched al-Kerry at some of them
Other charities and churches had made improper cash contributions to a candidate's political campaign.
The IRS said the cases covered "the full spectrum" of political viewpoints.
The tax agency set up a task force in 2004 to review allegations of improper political activity. The special procedures, revealed shortly before the election, drew criticism from some tax-exempt groups.
An audit by Treasury Department inspectors found nothing inappropriate in the examinations, but it faulted the IRS for creating the appearance of political motivations by waiting too long to announce the project and contact organizations.
The IRS said it plans to continue using the task force, and its speedier procedures, for this year's election and in the future. It also released detailed guidance to charities and churches about the prohibitions against political activities.
#2
I think both the left and the right did this. The left seemed more open about it - as always they believed that it was their superior right to do so. However, the right did it as well.
Churches should stay out endorsing candidates. While it is natural that their message might influence voting, as is only natural, blatant endorsement should be punished with the loss of their tax exempt status.
Ismail Haniyah, chosen by the militant group Hamas to serve as Palestinian prime minister, could be a target for assassination if Hamas carries out suicide bombings, a former Israeli security chief said on Friday. Avi Dichter, the former head of the Shin Bet internal security service and a possible future defence minister, also told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that Haniyeh would be arrested if he ever fell into the hands of the Israeli army.
Haniyeh brushed aside the comments as not worthy of a response. We do not fear threats, he said. Dichter told the Israeli daily that he does not see a situation where Haniyeh will have immunity just because he is prime minister. If there will be a terror attack in which Israel decides to respond with a preventive step, then Haniyeh would be a legitimate target because Hamas could not carry out a terror attack without Haniyehs authorisation.
Dichter, the architect of Israels policy of assassinating Palestinian militants, no longer holds a policy-making position but he wields clout within the centrist Kadima party which is expected to win a March 28 general election. (Haniyeh) was and remains a man of terror, Dichter said. If Haniyeh turns up at a military checkpoint I believe that he would be arrested, interrogated and put on trial for being involved in terror attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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#1
I consider any member of Hamas, the PLO or PLA a legitimate target. They need not do anything. Their public statements speak for them.
#2
I consider the sessions of the Paleo Parliament a "Target rich enviroment". More so now that Hamas is sitting in there.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/25/2006 1:06
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"I see no situation in which Haniyeh enjoys immunity just because he is the prime minister. In my eyes he was and remains a terrorist, whatever he does. Exactly like Marwan Barghouti. If there is a terror attack and Israel decides to reply with a targeted assassination, Haniyeh will be a legitimate target, because Hamas cannot carry out an attack without the leaderships consent."
ROME: Senior politicians in Italys government launched a policy manifesto on Thursday vowing to protect Western civilisation from what they said were the twin threats of Islamic fundamentalism and a moral vacuum.
Unfortunately, the second makes room for the first, and it's harder to fight.
Marcello Pera, speaker of the Senate and a friend of Pope Benedict, said people in the West were ashamed to stand up for their values and often blamed themselves for being victims of terrorism. The West has difficulty recognising itself, Pera told a news conference to launch the manifesto. As Pope Benedict said: the West doesnt love itself any more, he said.
Only certain parts of it. Unfortunately, they're firmly ensconced in some major universities. And in Washington.
And Cambridge, and Berkeley, and New Haven, and ...
The document, entitled For the West, Force of Civilisation, begins: The West is in crisis. Attacked externally by fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism, it is not able to rise to the challenge. Undermined internally by a moral and spiritual crisis, it cant seem to find the courage to react.
I'm giong to pause and feel a quiet glow of pride here, since the U.S. is in fact reacting, despite the efforts of the surrender block.
Pera, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis Forza Italia party, wants centre-right politicians to sign up to the manifesto ahead of an April general election which polls say the centre left, led by Romano Prodi, is more likely to win.
Prodi will be disastrous for Italia's participation in the War on Terror, and he'll be disastrous for Italy as a whole. He's a total loss with no insurance, as far as I can tell.
Many politicians and some business and media figures have expressed support for the text, which calls for the spread of Western civilisations universal and inalienable principles.
Freedom of religion. Personal liberty. The freedom to speak your mind.
Berlusconi himself has yet to sign the document, Pera said, adding however that the prime minister backed the project. Peras manifesto was launched to a background of protests throughout the Muslim world against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI PBUH) published in European newspapers. Many of the protests have turned violent and at least 11 people died in a riot outside an Italian consulate in Libya last week.
Consider it an Islamist attack on the cultural front.
Pera said the bloodshed could not be blamed on Europe. I dont think this can be seen as a response to something which happened in Italy and the West, he said. In those places, fundamentalism was already getting ready and waiting for someone to put a match to the gunpowder. Violence by Islamist extremists in Britain and France had shown those countries had failed to integrate immigrants into society, Pera said, insisting Italy must make newcomers respect the Italian way of life.
Otherwise it becomes the Islamic way of life...
Pera denied any suggestion that his rallying cry to the tendency Italys media has dubbed the theo-cons available online at www.perloccidente.it was in any way inflammatory. Theres nothing that suggests a clash of religions or a clash of civilisations in this document, he said.
It's there. They just don't mention it in the document.
Berlusconi, who in September 2001 outraged Muslims by saying the West was a superior civilisation, gave an interview to Arab TV station Al-Jazeera on Wednesday where he dismissed talk of any clash of civilisations and condemned the Muhammad (PTUI PBUH) cartoons.
Pay now, Silvio, or pay later. We're still going to pay.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"The chiefest of all virtues is courage"
Winston Churchill.
#2
Muslims made a strategic error with the cartoon rampages. The tide has turned. We've seen it in election after election. Even the hollow shell of the Democratic party is reduced to pretending that they will be "tougher" on terror and is putting forward a plethera of bitter, didn't make the promotion, veterans whose one and only qualification is that they are all against the war in Iraq and will only say that they will be "tougher" and would have done it "better" - but offer no real solutions of their own.
I predict that liberals world-wide will lose greatly in the next election cycles. The public is not as stupid as the logic-impaired liberals who had their hay-day and whose ideas failed as spectacularly as the collapse of the WTC.
#3
Start with little steps. How about making October 7th a national holiday celebrating the victory of the Battle of Lepanto. The array that day had the Left Division of 53 galleys, mainly Venetian; led by Agustino Barbarigo, with Marco Querini and Antonio da Canale in support. The Centre Division consisted of 62 galleys under Don Juan himself in his Real, along with Sebastian Veniero and Marcantonio Colonna. The Right Division to the south, consisted of another 53 galleys under the Genoese Giovanni Andrea Doria.
#4
And three big honking venitian muthafuckas up front that blew the hell out of the Ottoman armada before they got close to the front line. VDH has all the juicy details in Carnage and Culture.
Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack on a major Saudi oil facility at Abqaiq, the group said in an Internet statement.
The statement, posted by the al Qaeda group in the Peninsula on a Web site often used by militant groups, said two of its members carried out the suicide operation, but gave no details.
"With grace from God alone, hero mujahideen from the squadron of Sheikh Osama bin Laden succeeded today (Friday)...in penetrating a plant for refining oil and gas in the town of Abqaiq in the eastern part of the peninsula, and then allowed two car bombs in driven by two martyrdom seekers," it said.
The statement added: "These plants help in stealing the Muslims' wealth of oil."
The group said it would give further details of the operation and those who carried it out at a later stage.
It said the operation was within the framework of efforts by al Qaeda to prevent the theft of Muslims' wealth by "crusaders and Jews" and to force "infidels" out of the peninsula.
Al Qaeda leaders have called on militants to wage attacks on oil targets in the Gulf region.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
I know how much you .... dislike, disdain, (fill in the blank with your favorite harsher word) the Arabs, and perhaps the Saudis in particular, what with their Wahabist fundees and all.
But are you really cheering for a major interruption of the international economy? Is there an upside that would outweigh the downside for lots of people?
#3
Sure there's an upside. Park your honkin SUV in the driveway for a few weeks and walk your obese ass the 300 yards to McDonald's for the supersized take-out.
Lose weight. Reduce oil consumption. Look for alternatives. Paradigm shift. It's all choice.
#4
Well, Canadian troll, I don't own an RV, I don't weigh 300 lbs and I don't eat at McDonalds.
I do, however, have a pretty good handle on what a major oil shock would do to a lot of economies -- not the US so much as most European states and an awful lot of poor people.
#5
I can accomodate both of you -- there's this 50 km wide strip of sand on the eastern edge of the Arabian penisula ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2006 12:06
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#6
Apologies lotp: I most certainly didn't mean to use a personal YOU. Heaven forbid! I admire you. Sorry for the implied personal - not at all my intent. scusi!
It's hard to use a "one" or "average man" ,you in english. I do echo your fears of economic impact. I just think there is a lot that "average guy" could do to reduce dependence on foreign (or simply unfriendly) oil. There may well be a dearth of it in the offing.
#7
Thanks, HC - and I agree. Just ask my daughter who keeps eyeing the thermostat which is a few degrees lower than in other winters, or my husband who has to wend his way past wooden racks with clothes airdrying. ;-)
And yeah - we can and should (gently) encourage one another to take this seriously.
#9
We should just make sure the price of oil never goes below $50 a barrell by putting an import fee on any imported oril or oil derivative product that raises the price to $50. If domestic producers of alternatives know that the price will never go below $50 per barrell, there will be plenty of domestic alternatives developed. Just be prepared to hear lots of squeals when Arabian oil goes to $10 per barrel and every body realizes that gas could cost $1.00 per gallon if only we got rid of that pesky import fee.
#12
I drive a "gas-guzzling" Dodge Caravan, because it's the only vehicle that doesn't HURT to drive. My house is 68 during the day (got used to it in Europe), and 60 at night. I do what I can to conserve, don't make unnecessary trips, combine trips when I can, and all those other conservation ideas people have come up with. My utility bill has almost doubled in the last two years, partly because of increased cost and partly because of poor management by the local city government.
We could greatly increase national production by reviewing, and in most cases loosening, federal and state restrictions imposed by "conservationists". We need to drill in the ANWR. We need to drill off ALL our coasts where there is oil. We need to develop a viable oil shale industry, increase efficiency, do better with coal, and look into what others are doing in such places as Brazil and South Africa. It all takes money, and the only money that's going to be effective in the short term is that invested in private enterprise.
The one thing we're going to have to do for any of this to work is to make those people that demand we don't do ANYTHING pay a price for their behavior. Until they have to foot part of the bill themselves, they will continue to "do good" at the expense of the rest of us, with no cost to themselves. It's time to rein in these "useful idiots" and shut them down. It's also time to get the Saudi influence out of our government and NGOs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2006 14:26
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#13
Better a major upset now than dhummitude 20 years down the road, lotp.
#14
I say turn up the heat. Ok...maybe not, but the faster we get to fuel cells and renewable energy sources, the sooner the Saudis princes will not have money to fund Wahabbi terrorism.
Our own oil industry won't be hurt. They will stay busy here in the US and Alaska for years to come and won't have to act like serfs for the Saudis anymore.
Here it's 65F day and 60F at night. I drive a Ford Escort and the Wife drives a Ford Focus. My personal space is heated by a bunch of computers. energy price doubled while consumption is down.
We are getting more Insulation by hook or crook.
Posted by: SPoD ||
02/25/2006 14:38
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#16
#13, if it would work out that way .... I think we'd see the usual western EU suspects desperately elbow each other out of the way in their haste to proclaim solidarity with the Eurabia ideal.
It's time they felt the pain too. Typical of Al-Q though, they had little vision. One refinery, Hah! should have gone after the pumping facility at the port, or sunk a tanker in the straits.
Russia and China stepped up their efforts on Friday to persuade Iran to accept a compromise proposal over its nuclear program that may avert the threat of U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Lu Guozeng arrived in Tehran for three days of talks to try to find a way to ease Western suspicions that Iran wants to make nuclear bombs.
Time is running out for Iran to avoid formal referral to the U.N. Security Council at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on March 6. Tehran says all it wants is nuclear power stations to generate electricity.
Iran has offered U.N. inspectors information about a shadowy uranium-processing project that Western intelligence has linked to warhead design, a senior diplomat in Vienna said on Thursday.
The diplomat, close to the IAEA but asking not to be named, said IAEA inspectors would be in Tehran this weekend to check the information on the "Green Salt Project".
Russian officials have played down expectations of a breakthrough at the Tehran talks and analysts say Iran is in no mood to compromise.
High oil prices and U.S. problems in Iraq meant that for Iran "this is probably not the time to concede," the International Crisis Group think-tank said in a new report.
It said it expected Iran "to press ahead, strengthening its position for the day genuine negotiations or confrontation with the U.S. might begin."
Senior cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani told worshippers at Friday Prayers in Tehran that Iran was telling the West: "Nuclear energy is so entwined with our honor and dignity that we will never let your ominous plans be implemented."
Worshippers responded with chants of "God is Greatest" and "Nuclear energy is our indisputable right".
RUSSIA, CHINA AGAINST SANCTIONS
Russia and China, both of whom have burgeoning energy and trade ties with Tehran and veto rights on the Security Council, do not favor the use of sanctions against Iran, which denies any intention of making nuclear arms.
But with Iran seemingly unmoved by the threat of Security Council referral or the possibility of military action, Moscow and Beijing have joined Western calls for it to immediately halt atomic fuel research and enrichment which it resumed last month.
Kiriyenko's visit to Tehran follows a round of inconclusive talks in Moscow earlier this week over Russia's offer to enrich uranium for nuclear reactors on Iran's behalf, keeping nuclear technology needed for building bombs outside Iran.
Russian news agencies said Kiriyenko was due to meet top Iranian officials on Saturday. The Iranian state television reported he was also due to visit the Gulf port city of Bushehr, where a Russian-built atomic reactor, Iran's first, is due to come onstream later this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he still held out hope for reaching a deal with Iran on the joint enrichment project, but members of the Russian delegation sounded more cautious.
"The Russian offer of a joint venture is still on the table," Kiriyenko told Russian reporters in Tehran.
An unnamed source in the Russian delegation, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency, made clear Kiriyenko will not press too hard with the joint project and had other things to discuss.
"The subject of tomorrow's talks is the widest range of cooperation issues including energy sector, aircraft industry, cargo transit and the peaceful use of the nuclear energy," the source said.
Iranian officials have suggested China could also take part in the proposed joint enrichment facility in Russia.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking on a visit to Indonesia on Thursday, said Tehran was seriously considering the Russian offer but had concerns over the details.
Western diplomats fear Iran may be prolonging the talks with Russia in the hope of delaying any U.N. Security Council action.
Iran says it cannot rely solely on foreign partners to supply it with nuclear fuel and, therefore, must retain the capacity to produce at least some of the enriched uranium it needs to feed a large network of planned atomic reactors.
#1
"a senior diplomat in Vienna said...The diplomat, close to the IAEA but asking not to be named...Russian officials...this is probably...said it expected...might begin...news agencies said...Iranian officials... The Iranian state television reported...An unnamed source in the Russian delegation...the source said...Iranian officials have suggested...China could also...was seriously considering...Western diplomats fear Iran may be..."
#2
This one is worth watching. Iran managed to get the group of Four (US, EU, Russia China) to split up and is negotiating with parties separately. Kiriyenko is deeply anti-US and China is signing a major oil/gas deal with Iran.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered its deputy registrar in Karachi to confirm whether the conversion of three newly converted girls was forced or based on their free will. The court ordered its Karachi Registry to meet Reena, 21, Reema, 17, and Usha, 18, in the presence of a Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) representative at the Edhi Home and record their statements to ascertain whether they accepted Islam out of their free will or under pressure. In our opinion it is appropriate to record statements of the girls under oath to verify whether the statement of their counsel was correct or not, a three-member bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Faqir Khokhar and Justice Shakirullah Jan observed.
The girls were living in Madrassa Taleemul Quran in Karachi, but were later shifted to Edhi Home on the orders of the Supreme Court. An FIR was lodged regarding the girls abduction and rape. The three sisters were later found in a religious seminary getting Islamic education. The Supreme Court took up the application and summoned the girls to record their statement. The girls appeared in court on December 16 and testified that they had accepted Islam out of their free will. On Friday, their counsel gave a letter written by them to the court, stating that it was difficult for them to travel from Karachi to Islamabad for hearings, thus their case may be disposed of.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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Two Palestinians trying to cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel to find work were shot dead by Israeli soldiers overnight, Palestinian medical sources said on Friday. Suleiman al-Hamaydah and Mohammed Dukhan, both aged around 20, were shot dead in the Deir al-Balah area near the security barrier separating the southern Gaza Strip and Israel. Another Palestinian was shot and wounded, the sources added. An Israeli army spokesman said troops had spotted four suspect figures near the barrier and opened fire. "One Palestinian was killed and another was arrested. A third who crawled towards the barrier was apparently hit," he said.
Same dead guys, different story, from Rooters, via Asharq al-Aswat...
Israel army kills two militants on Gaza border
The Israeli army shot dead two Palestinian militants and wounded a third on the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, local ambulance staff said. The Israeli army confirmed that in two separate incidents after midnight in the same spot near Kissufim junction, soldiers spotted Palestinian men laying devices near the border fence and opened fire, hitting three of them. An army spokeswoman said one man was being questioned. There was no claim of responsibility from any Palestinian militant organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2006
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#1
so they were looking for work as IED layers? Kill them dead. Send your apologies via heelfire
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2006 0:09
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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.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Basheer on Saturday re-affirmed his staunch opposition to transforming the African peace-keeping mission in the troubled region of Darfur into an international mission. In an address to a gathering of political and grass-root leaders from Darfur, the president said the African peace-keeping troops had been deployed in Darfur "according to an agreement with us and if they cannot pursue the mission they must withdraw." 
After hearing of a newspaper account of an unclaimed $853,492 Powerball ticket from October, Steve Jones decided to do a little housecleaning. Of the three tickets he swept out from under the bed, one wound up being the prizewinner.
The raid was carried out after Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Salah refused a White House request to arrest the prominent radical Sheikh Abdul Majid Zindani, head of the powerful Islamist al-Islah (Reform) party and Iman University of Sanaa, for inciting to terrorism. 
Doctors in mainland France have detected a mosquito-borne disease among people returning from the Indian Ocean region, where the virus is spreading rapidly, a senior health official said on Saturday.
Polish president 
A Maryland organization that runs four government-funded day-labor hiring centers is training volunteer "legal observers" to videotape members of the Minuteman border security group and to picket their homes, places of work and their children's schools.
A substance found by a University of Texas student at a dorm has tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, officials said. 
North Korean leader 
If widespread fraud and waste at the United Nations is not stopped, Japan says it may cut its funding for the scandal-ridden international organization.
LAHORE: Law and order in the city on Friday was normal and almost all markets and commercial centres except Alfalah Building on The Mall remained open despite a strike call by the 
Phil/AP - everything's fine, thanks for asking brothers. I'm outta here in less than 3 weeks for sure. (Actually closer to 13 and a wake up but whose counting!) It's been a good deployment, we lost a few lads from the engineer unit on the base and some EOD brothers but all the guys in my unit are coming back fine. We had one of our MP's lose a leg from below the knee cap due to an IED a couple months back while on a Combat Logistics Patrol (CLP). However, due to the new up armor we got on the hummers it could have been much worse. One of my boys has hit two IED's in the past 8 weeks and is convinced the new armor saved his jewels both times. Most of the injuries are actually due to vehicle accidents on our own part more than anything else. In the six months I will have been here we supported two historical elections, and four major operations. We're pretty proud of what we've been able to accomplish. As usual the MSM has not covered things here imho very accurately. I think this is a common theme that you will hear from other vets as well. Matter of fact, a side from military correspondents I know of only one civie journo showing up here - some Argentinian babe who I think flew here by mistake - though she did manage to interview one of my Marines who was incidentally Argentine himself. 
Taliban guerrillas killed four Afghan soldiers in an ambush in the restive southern province of Helmand where British troops have begun setting up bases as part of an expanded NATO deployment. The soldiers were killed during a patrol on Thursday night in Girishk district and the attackers fled after a brief clash, district police chief Khan Mohammad Khan said on Friday. "The soldiers were patrolling in vehicles when they were attacked," he said. "Four soldiers were killed and one wounded while one Taliban fighter was killed and five wounded." 
BARA: A top-level meeting on Friday approved action against self-proclaimed spiritual leader 
The editor of a small Finnish culture magazine was fired on Friday for publishing new Prophet Muhammad cartoons satirising the global row over the caricatures, said the magazine. Jussi Vilkuna, the editor-in-chief of Kaltio, was sacked after he refused to remove the cartoons from the publication's website as requested by the magazine's board of directors. 
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is set to vist Damascus next week for talks with his Syrian counterpart Basher al-Assad, according to Syrian government sources. The talks will focus on how Syria should respond to a United Nations request that it co-operate with an investigation on the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. Mubarak and al-Assad are expected to discuss measures that will satisfy both the UN and the Syrian government, some of whose top officials have been implicated in the 14 February 2005 killing of Hariri and 20 others in Beirut. 
Ambassador Ahmet Oðuz Çelikkol, Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, is going to Baghdad over the weekend for high-level talks with state officials and political party representatives, said Foreign Ministry sources yesterday. 
COPENHAGEN: Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which angered the Muslim world by publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the inspectors general of police (IGPs) of the four provinces and the Northern Areas to stop womens marriages to settle family feuds, declaring the customs of Vani and Swara un-Islamic. A three-member bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan directed the IGPs to protect Vani victims. The court also summoned a report from the IGPs by the last week of April.
The executive producer of CBS "48 Hours Mystery" has apologized for airing an altered image of the front page of the Tribune in an episode about the murder trial of Ryan Ferguson that aired Saturday night. CBS aired an altered image of the Tribunes front page for its 48 Hours Mystery. The producer, Susan Zirinsky, said she didnt know the image of the front page containing the story about Fergusons sentencing had been manipulated until this week after Tribune Managing Editor Jim Robertson complained to CBS in an e-mail. "It was an egregious oversight for us not to know it," Zirinsky said. "It was a graphic, and we dont feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."
ENUGU: Muslim and Christian mobs killed 11 people in three Nigerian cities on Friday, extending a week of tit-for-tat religious riots that have claimed at least 157 lives and injured more than 900. In Kontagora, machete-wielding Muslim mobs killed nine people and torched four Christian churches, said a Nigerian Red Cross official. They also looted shops owned by minority Christians, police said. 
Lawyers for Saddam Hussein on Thursday demanded the disqualification of a judge presiding over the former Iraqi leaders trial, saying he was biased and prejudiced. 
Thousands of people peacefully protested across the country on Friday against the publication of cartoons of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in European newspapers. The protest call was issued by the 
hey might not look like sensitive sorts, but seven out of ten Hells Angels in Stockholm are on sick benefits with depression, Stockholms police commissioner Carin Götblad told the press on Monday.
AMSTERDAM: The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague rejected Slobodan Milosevic's request for provisional release from detention in the Netherlands to travel to Russia for medical treatment, the court said on Friday. "The request is denied," the court said in a written decision. "The trial chamber is not satisfied... that the accused, if released, would return for the continuation of the trial." But the court said doctors treating Milosevic for a heart condition and high blood pressure could look after the former Serb president in the Netherlands, where he is on trial for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.
QUETTA: Three people, including two Frontier Corps soldiers, were killed and one was injured on Friday when tribesmen attacked them in 
ROME: Senior politicians in Italys government launched a policy manifesto on Thursday vowing to protect Western civilisation from what they said were the twin threats of Islamic fundamentalism and a moral vacuum. 
Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack on a major Saudi oil facility at Abqaiq, the group said in an Internet statement.
Russia and China stepped up their efforts on Friday to persuade Iran to accept a compromise proposal over its nuclear program that may avert the threat of U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered its deputy registrar in Karachi to confirm whether the conversion of three newly converted girls was forced or based on their free will. The court ordered its Karachi Registry to meet Reena, 21, Reema, 17, and Usha, 18, in the presence of a Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) representative at the Edhi Home and record their statements to ascertain whether they accepted Islam out of their free will or under pressure. In our opinion it is appropriate to record statements of the girls under oath to verify whether the statement of their counsel was correct or not, a three-member bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Faqir Khokhar and Justice Shakirullah Jan observed. 
Two Palestinians trying to cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel to find work were shot dead by Israeli soldiers overnight, Palestinian medical sources said on Friday. Suleiman al-Hamaydah and Mohammed Dukhan, both aged around 20, were shot dead in the Deir al-Balah area near the security barrier separating the southern Gaza Strip and Israel. Another Palestinian was shot and wounded, the sources added. An Israeli army spokesman said troops had spotted four suspect figures near the barrier and opened fire. "One Palestinian was killed and another was arrested. A third who crawled towards the barrier was apparently hit," he said.
