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MILF coup underway?
Today's Headlines
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli army to impose total closure on Palestinian territories
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Friday ordered a a full closure on the West Bank and Gaza from Saturday night until Wednesday, due to fears of Palestinian attacks during the Purim holiday and ahead of the March 28 elections. "We must make every effort to thwart terror attempts in the coming weeks in light of the sensitive period," Mofaz was quoted by the Haaretz newspaper online as saying at a meeting with security officials Friday.

He said vacations planned by security forces personnel and training sessions they are slated to undergo should be canceled if necessary. Mofaz also called for increased security in crowded areas, according to Israel Radio.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 21:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Delta terminal at LaGuardia evacuated
Authorities partially evacuated the Delta Air Lines terminal at LaGuardia Airport for about half an hour Friday after a man left a checkpoint before screeners finished testing a swab for explosives residue from his shoes, the Transportation Security Administration said.

Authorities stopped looking for the man early Friday evening after conducting an extensive search for him in the terminal, causing flight delays into Friday evening.

"We suspect that he left the checkpoint under the impression that his screening was complete," TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said. "The fact that the machine alarmed should not be a cause for concern as some commonly found substances can set it off."

Outgoing flights at Delta's terminal D were immediately halted after the man walked away. About an hour later, at 3:48 p.m. authorities evacuated the secure area of the terminal beyond the checkpoints while searching for the man using canine police units.

By 4:15 p.m. authorities started screening passengers again. Normal flight operations resumed with some delays just after 5 p.m.

"The lesson learned here is that passengers need to pay close attention during the screening process," Davis said.

Posted by: lotp || 03/10/2006 20:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The lesson learned here is that passengers need to pay close attention during the screening process,"
BS, the lesson is that TSA needs to keep a better eye on passengers it is screening. Sheeesh.
Posted by: Darrell || 03/10/2006 21:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The lesson is that the TSA effort is a joke that reduces security by diverting scarce resources away from activities likely to detect terrorists.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 21:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Release the Iraqi Docs Now: Version 3.1b
On February 16, President George W. Bush assembled a small group of congressional Republicans for a briefing on Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley were there, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad participated via teleconference from Baghdad. As the meeting was beginning, Mike Pence spoke up. The Indiana Republican, a leader of conservatives in the House, was seated next to Bush.

"Yesterday, Mr. President, the war had its best night on the network news since the war ended," Pence said.

"Is this the tapes thing?" Bush asked, referring to two ABC News reports that included excerpts of recordings Saddam Hussein made of meetings with his war cabinet in the years before the U.S. invasion. Bush had not seen the newscasts but had been briefed on them.

Pence framed his response as a question, quoting Abraham Lincoln: "One of your Republican predecessors said, 'Give the people the facts and the Republic will be saved.' There are 3,000 hours of Saddam tapes and millions of pages of other documents that we captured after the war. When will the American public get to see this information?"

Bush replied that he wanted the documents released. He turned to Hadley and asked for an update. Hadley explained that John Negroponte, Bush's Director of National Intelligence, "owns the documents" and that DNI lawyers were deciding how they might be handled.

Bush extended his arms in exasperation and worried aloud that people who see the documents in 10 years will wonder why they weren't released sooner. "If

I knew then what I know now," Bush said in the voice of a war skeptic, "I would have
Posted by: Captain America || 03/10/2006 20:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We are trying very hard to overlook the Russian role in removing WMD materials from Iraq. I hope Bush is getting a fair exchange for the favor of letting Putin save face.
Posted by: Darrell || 03/10/2006 20:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I still can't figure out how Russia has helped us.
Posted by: Danking70 || 03/10/2006 22:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Russia was the only power that could take the Iraqi WMDs out of the country before the invasion, so, we asked them to. The logic was straightforward.

1) We wanted to fight a conventional war. If the Iraqis used WMDs, we would almost have to use them back. That would be bad all the way around, and have huge international repercussions.

2) Russia provided a lot of those WMDs in the first place, and would be severely embarassed had they been found and exhibited before the UN. So they had no problem in doing this favor for us.

3) Syria was pretty much a client state of Russia and was conveniently located as a disposal site. Even the Israelis could, and did see where the WMDs were buried. This strongly lowered the threat of escalation in the war.

4) Lastly, Russia knew that Saddam was wacky enough to maybe try and prevent their taking those weapons out of the country. So not only were they probably prepared to fight their way out, the US was on stand-by to help them get out.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 22:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Why does that sound worse? lol!
Posted by: Danking70 || 03/10/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Mubarak, Jr. Moving In To Replace Daddy
The son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a group of close associates have moved into key political positions that put the younger man in line to succeed his aging father at a time when the government has taken steps to block opposition rivals from challenging the heir apparent.

Last month, Gamal Mubarak rose in the hierarchy of the governing National Democratic Party, whose grass-roots organization underpins his father's rule. He was named one of three NDP deputy secretaries general, and 20 of his associates took other high-ranking posts in the party. Mubarak had served as head of the party's policies committee, which helped fashion economic reforms.

Mubarak and his backers displaced some, but not all, of the veteran NDP activists known collectively as the old guard. Political observers saw in the move a gradual shift toward putting the NDP at the service of the president's son.

"Who can deny this is anything but a vehicle for succession?" said Hala Mustafa, an analyst at the government-financed al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

With the opposition on the defensive, there seems to be nothing blocking Mubarak's path to the presidency. "I don't see anyone who can stop him," said Joshua Stracher, a researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who studies the Arab Middle East.

Egypt has been singled out by President Bush as ripe for democratic reform. On a recent visit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed general criticism of the pace of change in the country, saying there had been "disappointments and setbacks" last year. She said she discussed these with Egyptian officials "as a friend, not as a judge."

A few days later, President Mubarak told an Egyptian newspaper that Rice was "convinced by the way political reform" was proceeding in Egypt and that during her visit, she "didn't bring up difficult issues or ask to change anything."

During a quarter-century in power, Mubarak, now 77, never named a vice president, unlike his two predecessors, Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the event he dies in office or resigns, elections would take place within two months. Theoretically, under rules decreed by Mubarak last year, multiple candidates could run to succeed him. However, the chances are shrinking that anyone but Gamal Mubarak will be able to launch an effective campaign, observers say.

Following weak showings in last fall's parliamentary elections, legal opposition parties, long hobbled by laws restricting assembly and speech, are in disarray. Only the Muslim Brotherhood emerged in a strong position, winning a fifth of the legislative seats despite violent efforts by police to block voters from reaching the polls. As a religious-based party, the Brotherhood was formally banned from participating but fielded candidates as independents.

The government recently undercut the Brotherhood by postponing municipal elections scheduled for this year. The two-year delay denied the well-organized group a chance to make yet another electoral splash. Moreover, for the Brotherhood to eventually sponsor an independent presidential candidate, the nominee would need approval from municipal councils, all of which currently are dominated by officials who support President Mubarak, and elements of parliament.

The election delay was announced only a few weeks after Gamal Mubarak publicly supported the ban on political activity by the Brotherhood.

"The question of how we should deal at the political and legal levels with attempts to circumvent the national consensus that bans religious parties is on the table," he told the state-run Roz al-Yusef newspaper. The Brotherhood, he said, "has no legal existence, so from the legal point of view we must deal with it on that basis."

The government also cracked down on democracy advocates. Last month, three magistrates who had complained of fraud during the parliamentary elections were questioned by police because they publicized alleged wrongdoing at the polls. Under 25-year-old emergency laws, it is a crime to besmirch Egypt's image.

Meanwhile, the second-place finisher in last year's presidential election, Ayman Nour, is serving a five-year prison sentence on charges of forging documents. Human rights groups say the charges are trumped up, and a chief witness in the case told the court that police forced him to testify against Nour.

Nour is also being investigated for other alleged crimes, including assaulting an NDP member and setting up a statue in a public square, which, under Egyptian law, can qualify as an offense against Islam. Last month, police questioned his wife, Gamila Ismael, for allegedly assaulting policemen.

Nour won only about 7 percent of the presidential vote. Since then, his Tomorrow Party has fallen apart. Observers say that by daring to run for president, he offended Hosni Mubarak. "Mubarak has it in for Ayman Nour," said Hisham Kassem, editor of the independent Masri al-Yom newspaper.

Gamal Mubarak's political and personal moves are now observed with intense curiosity by the press and the public. When word spread of his engagement to the daughter of a tourism and construction magnate, "the way the state press celebrated the news, it looks like they are crowning him, like a royal wedding," Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a human rights activist, told reporters.

Mubarak, 42, is surrounded by a group of devoted supporters who have taken to what Egyptian analysts call "managed reform." Some call the group a shilla , Arabic for gang. The group includes businessmen, academics and Egyptians with political pedigrees in their families. Most are in their late thirties or early forties; many were educated and worked in the West. English is their second language.

Among the most prominent are Ahmed Ezz, a steel and ceramics magnate who is newly in charge of overseeing membership in the NDP; Rachid Mohamed Rachid, a former chief executive of Unilever Egypt who is now minister of trade and foreign investment; Mahmoud Mohieedin, a former finance professor who heads the NDP economic policy committee and is also investments minister; Finance Minister Yousef Boutros-Ghali, nephew of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former U.N. secretary general; and Mohammed Kamal, a Cairo University political scientist who heads efforts to re-indoctrinate NDP members in a bid to modernize the party.

Kamal, the unofficial spokesman, said the group defined itself as an outward-looking alternative to political Islam. "We don't want to be associated automatically with the West, but we think it is okay to look outside of Egypt for solutions," he said. "New blood means people with fresh ideas as well as the political experience."

An unknown factor in Gamal Mubarak's apparent drive for power is the attitude of the military and security services. The military has supplied Egypt's last three presidents, including the elder Mubarak, and it is not clear whether it would accept a monarchical-style succession.

"I don't think Gamal can make it," said Kassem, the newspaper editor. "His group calls itself reformist, but it is based on simple nepotism, with Gamal at the center. When the father goes, this group could quickly lose altitude. Everyone will be yelling, 'Mayday, Mayday.' Not a happy situation."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 20:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  same story for years
Posted by: Glung Hupash4176 || 03/10/2006 22:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
FBI Warns of Possible Terror Threat at Sporting Events
With college basketball championships under way around the country, the FBI has warned stadium operators of a possible suicide bomb attack at sporting events.

In a directive issued today, obtained by ABC News, the FBI said a posting on an extremist message board "advocated suicide attacks against sporting events as a cost-effective means of killing thousands of Americans."

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they cannot confirm the credibility of the threat or whether the message is affiliated with al Qaeda.

The FBI said the Internet posting said the suicide attacks would be justified because the United States refused a truce offered by Osama bin Laden in his last videotaped statement, Jan. 19, 2006.


Posting Suggests Using American Suicide Bombers

According to the FBI bulletin, the author of the posting recommended using "three to five blond or black American Muslim suicide bombers." The FBI said the author suggested that homemade explosives be hidden under their winter clothing.

The posting recommended, according to the FBI, that one suicide bomber detonate inside the stadium and the others detonate at exit gates as spectators were fleeing.

"The combined explosions would create a panic that would kill far more spectators than the bombing alone," the FBI quotes the message as saying.

The FBI said it is unaware of any specific or credible plans to attack any sporting event but notes that terrorist groups have mounted attacks at sporting events in the past.

The FBI recommends that sports leagues and stadium operators review and coordinate security practices and emergency response procedures "to address this potential threat."

Posted by: Ulaise Angavins9207 || 03/10/2006 19:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are the Campus Liberals still willing to march for Palestine? Showing up to the game?
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 21:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Get your peanuts, popcorn, C-4 ...!
Posted by: doc || 03/10/2006 22:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Hell's Angels Suing Disney For Copyright Infringement
The Hell's Angels Motorcycle Corp. is suing a division of Walt Disney, Buena Vista Motion Pictures and a film production company for infringing on its trademark in the development and production of "Wild Hogs," a comedy about middle-aged bikers.

The motorcycle club says in the suit that it never approved Walt Disney Motion Picture Group's use of its trademark, and that the film studio has repeatedly exploited the Hell's Angels name as well as its trademark design featuring a helmeted, horned and feathered skull while publicizing the "Wild Hogs" movie.

Disney (Research) and Tollin/Robbins Productions have repeatedly referred to "Wild Hogs" as a movie about a "group of middle-aged wannabe bikers look(ing) for adventure out on the open road, where they soon encounter a chapter of the Hell's Angels," according to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

"We believe the suit is without merit," Disney spokesman David Caouette said.

Tim Allen, John Travolta and Martin Lawrence are slated to star in the film, which is expected to start production in late spring.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 19:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  sounds like trademark and copyright infringement to me.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 19:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Umm.... PD?
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:23 Comments || Top||

#3  as long as they don't cut into the crystal trade....
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:05 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Another Moderate Muslim Speaks Out
Question: "Does it make sense to you that a Muslim should claim that the Koran incites to terrorism?!"

Egyptian MP Ragab Hilal Hamida, from the Muslim Brotherhood: "I said these things in an [Egyptian] parliament session dealing with the Inter-Arab Agreement on Combating Terrorism. I noticed that the report of the [Parliamentary] Committee for Defense and National Security and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry were inaccurate when [they] dealt with terrorism, since [they] dealt with it in general [terms]. I specifically wanted to explain that [the term] 'terrorism' is not a curse when given its true meaning. [When interpreted accurately,] it means opposing occupation as it exists in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq!...

"From my point of view, bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri and Al-Zarqawi are not terrorists in the sense accepted by some. I support all their activities, since they are a thorn in the side of the Americans and the Zionists... [On the other hand,] he who kills Muslim citizens is neither a jihad fighter nor a terrorist, but a criminal and a murderer. We must call things by their proper names!"
Posted by: Whising Cholunter3801 || 03/10/2006 18:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't give a candy-coated crap WHAT you call them, as long as they're dead.
Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 || 03/10/2006 20:44 Comments || Top||


Europe
More from la Belle France
More from France:

In France Moslem girls demand to be exempted from Sports and Biology classes and are not penalized.

Moslem female students demand and get to be escorted by their husband and to be judged by a woman to their exams.

Moslem universtity associations question the right for “western culture” professors to judge the work of Moslem students.

Muslims demand and obtain the suppression of the Christmas celebration in schools, demand and obtain the prohibition of pork and of non hallal (preparation of food according to Islamic law) meat in the French schools where they are in majority, and demand additional days off for their Islamic religious celebrations?

They also demand praying rooms in schools, high schools and universities, demand arranged schedules for their 5 daily prayers, and demand a revision of history books to integrate the history of their country and religion. In order not to “provoke” Moslems, all references to Charles Martel, Jeanne D’Arc and many more, will be removed from school books.

In high school, Moslem students put on their coat before going to the blackboard “in order not to cause any covetousness”, that in Moslem fathers refuse to leave their daughters in a class with a male teacher.

In schools some students instituted the separate usage of 2 taps in the toilettes, one reserved for the “Moslems”, the other to the “French”, or demand separate cloakrooms because “a circumcised can not undress next to an impure”.

Moslem female medical students are required to work only with female patients. French doctors were violently beaten because they had healed women without the assent of their Moslem husbands.

Moslem women get special schedules that are exclusively reserved at public swimming pools.

In many French high schools with a North African majority, “Death to the Jews”, “Death to the Christians” and “Support Bin Laden” are inscriptions found on their walls.

A “book of good behavior” for Moslems which is sold in France explains how a good Muslim have to beat his wife: “with hands”, “with neither a whip nor a piece of wood”, “and avoiding her face”.

In Belgium, Islamic militias patrol the streets to “control the bad and racists white cops” and to apply their own rules.

New laws will force the Police and the Army to hire with priority people coming from immigration pools, and that 35 companies (such as France TV, Peugeot, Casino), have signed a foreign preference contract for staff recruitment.

Responses to the question “in the case of a conflict, would you defend the nation?” showed that out of 10 people coming from immigration, 7 answered no, 2 were laughing, and just 1 was willing to fight for France.
Needs a source...
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 18:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For a source, go HERE

Posted by: Wuzzalib || 03/10/2006 19:21 Comments || Top||

#2  IOW, problem-prone, debt-heavy French Socialism-Govt is being demanded to suppor a France-specific, Islam/Faith-Based "State within a State" which it likely cannot $$$ support. France = America where Americans must pay for the bulk of global modernization + create Global Empire in return, and for the sake of, an America that must give up both its sovereignty and control of its own affairs and endowments to anti-American OWG and anti-American American Socialism. Commies win by getting everything for nothing.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 23:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Let us celebrate ban on kite-flying
Editorial in the Pakistan Observer - "First of all, the way the kite-flying is done, is perceived to be an invasion of Indian culture. Things have deteriorated to such an extent that a Heera Mandi like culture was engulfing the whole of Lahore"

ULTIMATELY sanity has prevailed and the Punjab Government has taken the right step of banning kite-flying throughout the province. This followed a number of killings and injuries caused by coated string and metal wire during the last couple of weeks and increasing calls from different sections of the society to ban kite-flying.

The Government of the Punjab deserves credit for taking this bold and timely step as there were daily reports of casualties due to foul-playing in the sport. Metal wires cut throats of many a boy and girl while a number of young people had their limbs broken during blind pursuit of kites. All this had sent a wave of shock and anger throughout the province. It is regrettable that kite manufacturers and flyers paid no heed to repeated warnings by the apex court and the Punjab Government urging them not to use metal or chemically/glass coated wires to avoid loss of precious lives.

In fact, kite-flying, over decades, assumed dangerous and objectionable dimensions and that is why became a subject of heated discussions. Earlier, it used to be a simple sport with people going to open places to enjoy it. However, with the passage of time, undesirable tendencies crept in and as a result this sport started causing irritation among different sections of the society. First of all, the way the kite-flying is done, is perceived to be an invasion of Indian culture. Things have deteriorated to such an extent that a Heera Mandi like culture was engulfing the whole of Lahore, which is shameful. All this was going on under full official patronage.

Every year on the occasion of Basant or its edited nomenclature ‘Jashan-e-Baharan’, not only bureaucrats, Government functionaries, politicians and even high ups used to spend a few days in Lahore on one pretext or the other but foreigners too swarmed the metropolis, which was a slur on the good name of Punjab. No doubt, kite-flying had become almost an industry and it generated business of billions of rupees for different stakeholders but the loss of lives, reputation, values and culture overweighed the economic benefits. The decision to ban kite-flying is, therefore, fully justified, needs to be implemented with full force and other provinces too should follow the suit.
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 18:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Injuries are just an excuse, this is about keeping the land of the pure free of dirty indian kaffir influence

Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 18:47 Comments || Top||

#2  There they go confusing cause and effect again. The real source of their kite problems is electricy. Tear down, oh muslim lions, every electric wire with your bare sweaty hands. If it wasn't good enough for mohammed, it's not good enough for "The Pure".
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 18:59 Comments || Top||

#3  electricy = electricity
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 19:00 Comments || Top||

#4  shameful kite-flying = bad electermatricity juju

Posted by: wiringBehard || 03/10/2006 19:36 Comments || Top||

#5  shameful kite-flying = bad electermatricity juju

I love this place!
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 23:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
UAE Firm to Sell U.S. Ports to Wal-Mart
ScrappleFace warning
(2006-03-10) — Dubai Ports World, the Arab state-owned firm that recently bought control of six major American sea ports, today gave in to pressure from Congress and agreed to sell its U.S. operations to Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores.

The giant retailer’s CEO, Lee Scott, immediately addressed lawmakers’ concerns about security by announcing that blue-vested Cargo Greeters would be stationed at close intervals on docks, piers and tug vessels.

“While the ship captains will see these jovial, elderly folk as ambassadors of courtesy,” said Mr. Scott, “they actually have been trained in our stores to spot suspicious activity and to make sure criminals never leave the parking lot. In addition, we’ll provide them with weapons training in preparation for this new assignment.”

In other words, he said, “if you’re trying to move WMD through a Wal-Port, you may be surprised to learn that in addition to smiley stickers, Granny’s got a Glock.”

The Wal-Mart chief noted that because Cargo Greeters won’t have company-paid health insurance, “they’re highly-motivated to win the war on terror — to shoot first and ask questions later, rather than risk an expensive visit to the emergency room.”
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 16:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Halliburton would be good, too.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 17:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't believe this story. Double check this guy's sources. Walmart will just import Chinese ports for 1/3 the price and charge 5% less than Ports-Я-Us.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I think leaving off the warning might be fun.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Hillary'd have a bazillion shares of Walmart before she found out it was a joke. She made $450K from UAE (on her tax forms, trolls) - while shrilly denouncing the deal and turning a blind eye to what Bill's been doing (not a first)
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 19:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Methinks its either NY DAILY NEWS or NEW YORK POST that already has an arty on Hillary and Wal-Mart.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 22:05 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Saturday night re-run of the opening episode of "The Unit"
Saturday, March 11, 8PM ET/PT

Since it was discussed here, thought I would post for those who missed it. Evidently, CBS liked the ratings to be airing it again.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 16:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I taped it, along with NCIS - had rescue squad meeting that evening. Will probably sit down Saturday and watch them both (sans commercials); there's not much else on TV Sat. night. (Well, except for Design on a Dime. ;-p)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Barbara -- I think in another life, we must have been sisters!
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 16:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Hi, Sis! ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 22:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Bin Laden niece to star in reality show
Osama bin Laden's niece, an aspiring singer who posed for a sexy photo shoot in a men's magazine last year, has signed up for a reality television show about her life and her as yet unfulfilled "quest for stardom."
Is she the next one to see George Galloway in a catsuit?
Wafah Dufour Bin Ladin, whose mother was married to the al Qaeda leader's half brother, was born in California but lived in Saudi Arabia from the age of three to 10. "I understand that when people hear my last name, they have preconceived notions, but I was born an American and I love my country," Dufour said in a statement from ReganMedia announcing the deal to develop a reality TV series.
Is all teevee "reality" teevee anymore? Why do the glimpses I see of it seem so... unreal?
Dufour has dropped the "Bin Ladin" -- a different spelling of the Arabic name from that used by Osama bin Laden -- and now goes by the name Wafah Dufour. Based in New York, Dufour has been promoting herself as a musician and last December appeared in a sultry GQ photo spread, reclining on satin sheets wrapped in feathers and posing in a bubble bath wearing nothing but a necklace. "Her story will bridge the gap that people feel exists between the cultures she has lived in," ReganMedia President Judith Regan said.
Guess it'll bridge the gap between people who like women in neckties and people who like women nekkid...
"She is also a young woman who falls in love, has her heart broken, worries about her looks, doesn't always listen to her mother, and hasn't spoken to her father in years," Regan said.
"Dad?... Dad?... Hmmm... Lemme see, here... He's got a turban, right?"
Dufour's mother Carmen bin Ladin wrote the 2004 bestseller "Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia," an account of her rocky marriage to Yeslama, Osama's half-brother, who amassed a fortune in the family's construction business and started his own investment firm. Dufour, who earned a master's degree in law from Columbia University, was in Geneva with her mother at the time of the September 11, 2001, attacks. She had said in the past she has never met Osama bin Laden.
"I'm sure I'd remember it if I had..."
She cites U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure and The Cranberries among her musical influences.
I'm trying to reconcile her "master's degree in law" — from a law school? Didn't take the bar exam? Didn't pass it? — her vapid fixation on pop music.
Regan has published a string of celebrity authors including Michael Moore and porn star Jenna Jameson, and she was an executive producer on the reality show "Growing Up Gotti" about members of the family best known for its Mafia empire. The statement did not say when the show would be aired or on what channel.
"Growing up bin Ladin"?Makes me yearn for the understated good taste of the old Gong Show.
Posted by: Jinemp Shereque7033 || 03/10/2006 16:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
7 civilians killed, US tank knocked out?
BAGHDAD, Iraq Mar 10, 2006 (AP)— A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed truck at a checkpoint at the edge of Fallujah on Friday, killing seven civilians and wounding five, police said.

The bomber attacked as many cars waited to pass through the security checkpoint into the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, said police Lt. Mohammed Taha. Two of the wounded were police.

In east Baghdad on Friday, a large explosion set fire to a U.S. tank, Iraqi police Lt. Ali Abbas said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

There's a photo at the link. It's hard to tell, but something about it doesn't look like an M1 Abrams.
Posted by: Chinter Flarong9283 || 03/10/2006 14:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like an Abrams to me. Not sure if it is "knocked out" or not.
Posted by: CCat || 03/10/2006 14:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The M1's crew was unhurt. Looks like the tank rolled right over a roadside bomb that cracked it's fuel tank.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 15:45 Comments || Top||

#3  The hatch is open, the track is gone, that probably qualifies as knocked out. Temporarily knocked out, that is :-)
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 15:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Fox had video. Both tracks were blown off and it was burning. Totaled, dood.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/10/2006 18:24 Comments || Top||

#5  ...It's definitely an Abrams, but it takes a LOT to kill one beyond hope. There's some incredible footage out there somewhere of tests done during development where the techies filled the tank's mag with a typical combat load, then set off the mag - the mag doors bulge, smoke and sparks and shoots of flame get past the doors - but the doors stayed effectively sealed and the inside of the tank remained intact.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/10/2006 18:26 Comments || Top||

#6  It will be repaired. The fire is on the outside from spilled diesel. Tracks, road wheels, seals, and any melted circuit boards will be replaced.

Even in WW2, most Sherman's were repaired and fought another day. That was after a tank shell tore up the crew compartment, set gasoline and hydraulic fluid on fire. As long as it didn't blow all the main gun ammo stored in a carousel around the turret.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||

#7  The tank costs about $5m apiece. Tens of tons of it is solid steel-encased depleted uranium. They'll just replace any parts that don't work and return it to operation.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/10/2006 19:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Usually at that level they arent repaired.
Posted by: Omoter Hupolurt9095 || 03/10/2006 22:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Only a very close-up, very high-yield/powerful explosive can do that to an Abrams - its a tribute to the tank's overwhelming qualities that its crew survived mostly unhurt. Its true that a damaged FV that is repaired back to full working/oper condition doesn't show up on the Army's stats.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 22:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
SF gives the Iowa heave-ho
Surprise, surprise, surprise...
In the two years since the USS Midway found a permanent dock in San Diego Harbor, it has become a major tourist attraction. Nearly 900,000 people boarded the aircraft carrier in its first year of operation, rejuvenating shops and restaurants on the waterfront. The ship is booked years in advance for functions at up to $30,000 a pop.
Now the Navy has another ship it wants to bestow on a West Coast port: the big World War II battleship USS Iowa. But the ship has run into rough sailing and a harsh political headwind in the city the Navy thought would be an ideal home: San Francisco.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to spurn the ship. Supervisors who oppose the offer say they don’t want a ship from a military in which openly gay men and women cannot serve. They also say they don’t want it because they oppose the Iraq war, which city voters condemned in a 2004 ballot question.
What is we painted it pink and made it a homeless shelter? Nah, nevermind...
“I don’t think the climate has improved for tying a 10-story warship, or gun, to the waterfront,” Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval says.
Ooooooooooh...icky guns!
Veterans in the former Navy town are saying enough is enough.
“It’s outrageous, even for San Francisco,” Ingrid Sarembe, a Vietnam War-era vet and commander of an American Legion post in the city, says of the opposition to the Iowa. “And we have some pretty outrageous things going on here.”
So we've heard...
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former mayor of San Francisco, had pushed for her city to welcome the ship and to create a museum that would attract and educate tourists — but a challenger has emerged. Stockton, a farm hub in California’s Central Valley, is putting together a bid to place the Iowa at its freshwater port up the San Joaquin River from San Francisco Bay.
Richard Aschieris, director of the Port of Stockton, says the port has put together a donation of facilities worth more than $33 million, including a 1,000-foot-long berth, a building for a museum and 15 acres of parking on a site where the Navy once had supply and communication centers for the Pacific Fleet.
Hey, someplace normal will take it and the money it brings in...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 14:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hum -- wonder if the Navy is considering cancelling a tourist, money making event in October? Fleet Week. Would be more dollars they will lose.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Put the Iowa in San Diego, next to the Midway. Frank G gave me the tip about the Midway when I was down there. Great ship to tour through.

San Fran Freako used to be a great navy town, with a great history and tradition. Not any more.

The USS Iowa ought to fire a few farewell 16" salvos on the way out of the Golden Gate. Blanks or live rounds their option.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm shocked. I would have thought the San Francisco Supers would have been all tingly to have 9 of the world's biggest phallic symbols on public display.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 15:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Stockton, a farm hub in California’s Central Valley, is putting together a bid to place the Iowa at its freshwater port up the San Joaquin River from San Francisco Bay.

Yes, and when Lucifer’s Hammer strikes, Stockton will have their ark ready.
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 || 03/10/2006 15:54 Comments || Top||

#5  shouldnt SF want to honor the fact that many gay actually have served in the USN, openly or not?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 16:35 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder if they'll feel the same way about the big bad evil military when the BIG earthquake finally hits and the military's the only organization in a position to do something about it?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Oakland or Alameda (both across the bay) may have been contenders; Alameda already has the Hornet. They don't do much to promote it though.

A pity. SF has the dock space, and they have no use for it.
Posted by: buwaya || 03/10/2006 16:57 Comments || Top||

#8  San FUcisco, home of the druggies, trannies, queers, and whinos does not want the Iowa to dock there.

Say, is SF closer to Kimmie nukes than most cities in US? Just asking
Posted by: Captain America || 03/10/2006 17:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Is there any way to relocate ships currently in San Franscisco area to more accomodating areas? I'm sure we could take all the Bay Area tourist ships to somewhere more welcoming!
Posted by: Charles || 03/10/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#10  Hell, I don't see why New York couldn't have accepted! :D
Posted by: Whumble Whater5278 || 03/10/2006 19:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Send the Iowa home to Davenport. Time to improve the inland waterway system.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:26 Comments || Top||

#12  fuck you SF and pink tank ya rode in on.
Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 19:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Thanks AP - the Midway keeps getting better with more areas opened up for touring and more planes on the deck for exhibit. Pretty impressive that Stockton wants it - let them have it and send fleet week away from SF - gay PC pussies triumph over history and gratitude
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 19:54 Comments || Top||

#14  The Iowa ahould not be humiliated and forced to go to SF. It is a great ship with great history and the gay, anti war, PC idiots would only use it as an example of how mean and bad DOD is. The ship and the men who served on it deserve more respect.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/10/2006 20:25 Comments || Top||

#15  Be fun to watch the Navy float Iowa into SF Bay and aim the big guns on city hall....
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 20:33 Comments || Top||

#16  shouldnt SF want to honor the fact that many gay actually have served in the USN, openly or not?

Ah yes, I can see it now; the title of the documentary:

I took one for the team...
Posted by: badanov || 03/10/2006 21:16 Comments || Top||

#17  I'm sorry but I'm still holding out for a return visit by the BB's to Korea.

Tomahawks and 16 inch shells.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/10/2006 21:16 Comments || Top||

#18  maybe if the Supervisors saw that they were breech-loaded?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 21:55 Comments || Top||

#19  Wonder if the Village People could plead the case?
Posted by: RWV || 03/10/2006 22:38 Comments || Top||

#20  Thought just occurred about whether or not SF will be willing to accept help from the "homophobic" military after their next big quake. The rest of California would just like to see all of SF sink into the bay. Especially if Feinstein and Boxer went down with the rest of the human flotsam.
Posted by: RWV || 03/10/2006 22:41 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Pulitzer Finalists -- Here's the Likely List (just what you'd expect, too)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One of 'em -

(Photography)
Rocky Mountain News ('Final Salute')

was even featured on the 'Burg.
(Story about Marines notifying and helping the families of the flallen Marines...nice piece).

Wot happened to Michael Yon?
Posted by: Bobby || 03/10/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Edged out by NYT / WaPo agenda brilliance.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I wrote a comment to Michael Yon when the possibility of the Prize came up to remain independent and forget that Pulitzer Prize crap. He needed to keep his distance from the MSM people to maintain his edge and quality. They will use him and discard him. Who needs the MSM?
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Claudia Rosett is MIA as well - bastards!
Posted by: ryuge || 03/10/2006 21:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Final Salute made me weep like a little girl. That was before I found my son is joining the Army.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 22:05 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Tales From The Crossfire Gazette
A Juba League activist, an outlaw and a robber were killed in separate incidents of "crossfire" in Savar, Jhenidah and Bagerhat early yesterday.
Triple play
The dead are Iman Ali, a member of Dhaka district committee of Juba League, Nurul Islam alias Nuru alias Rocky, a top leader of the Janajuddho faction of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), and Mohon Molla, a robber.

UNB says Rapid Action Battalion arrested Iman Ali, 40, on Wednesday on the premises of Dhaka Judge Court.
"Iman, fancy finding you in court. Why don't you come with us?"
He was taken to Khagan village in Savar in the early hours yesterday to recover hidden firearms.
Yeah, we all know how those end....
According to Rab, Iman Ali was killed in "crossfire" in a shootout between his accomplices and the Rab members during the operation. Rab recovered a sawn-off rifle, a pipe gun and four bullets from Iman's back the spot. Iman Ali was wanted in a number of murder and other criminal cases, Rab sources said.

JHENIDAH
Police arrested Janajuddho leader Nurul Islam at Baka village of Jibonnagar upazila of Chuadanga district on Wednesday. After interrogation he was taken to Shuti-Durgapur village in Jhenidah Sadar upazila to recover firearms.
RAB or police, the song remains the same..
The superintendent of police at Jhenidah said a shootout occurred when a police team took the outlaw to the village at about 3:45am yesterday. Nurul was killed and constables Shafiqul and Masum were injured during the shootout.
"Ouch, that coffees hot! I think I burned my tounge."
One pipe gun and six bullets were retrieved from the spot, reports our Magura correspondent.

BAGERHAT
Rab arrested Mohon Molla, a notorious robber of the Sundarbans, at Kumarkhali village in Mongla upazila of Bagerhat on Wednesday. He was taken to West Govindapur village under Rampal upazila in the early hours yesterday to recover firearms.
Uh huh..
According to Rab, Mohon Molla, 49, was killed in "crossfire" in a shootout between the robbers and the Rab members at the village during the arms recovery operation, reports our staff correspondent at Khulna. One pipe gun, one air gun and four bullets were recovered from the spot.

Rab sources said Mohon Molla had been wanted in 10 criminal cases filed with different police stations of Bagerhat and Khulna districts.
CTL - F12
(_________) arrested (_________)leader of(__________)at (_________)of (_________)district on XXXXday.

After interrogation he was taken to (__________)village in (__________) to recover firearms.

The superintendent of (________) said a shootout occurred when a police/RAB team took the outlaw to the village at about (___):45am yesterday.

Cadre/band/followers of (_____), sensing approach of the team, opened fire, causing team to respond in kind.

(________) attempted to escape during the encounter and was hit by "crossfire".

Constables Smith and Jones were injured during the shootout.

(_______) was transported to (________) Hospital trauma center where ha was pronounced dead.

One pipe/shutter/country made gun and (X) rounds of bullets were retrieved from the spot, reports our correspondent.

Sources said (_________) had been wanted in 237 criminal cases filed with different police stations on twelve systems.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 12:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Nurul Islam alias Nuru alias Rocky..."

ROFL. This stuff just gets better every day, lol.

Uh, Steve, can you make a small modification? I preferred the previous reportage style on this tidbit:
One pipe/shutter/country made gun and (X) bullets rounds of bullet were retrieved from the spot, reports our correspondent.

It adds a certain something, methinks. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:29 Comments || Top||

#2  JMHO, but I prefer upazila to district.
Posted by: Grunter || 03/10/2006 13:38 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought an Upazilla was smaller than a District - more like a neighborhood. Like BAGERHAT
Upazilla.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 17:21 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Think the sun's interior is too hot?: Try 3 billion degrees
Record Set for Hottest Temperature on Earth: 3.6 Billion Degrees F in Lab that's only 2 billion KelvinScientists have produced superheated gas exceeding temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin, or 3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit. This is hotter than the interior of our Sun, which is about 15 million degrees Kelvin, and also hotter than any previous temperature ever achieved on Earth, they say. They don't know how they did it.

The feat was accomplished in the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories. "At first, we were disbelieving," said project leader Chris Deeney. "We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result." let the speculation begin
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 12:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Impressive, but I always try to bring such things into some sort of perspective, if possible. In this case, well, of course I'm forced to guess, since there's no precedent, but I still have doubts it would melt my ex's heart. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  try3 billion degrees

mental note: don't forgit, patent chile recipe.

Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#3  It's not the heat, it's the humidity...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 13:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Headline: "Hottest March on record. Bush's fault."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#5  How can they measure this, I wonder? And, more importantly, how do you contain something like this? It's like that old brain teaser, how do you contain an acid that eats through everything!
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 13:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Thai reds, Scotch bonnets, and a can of refried beans...
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 13:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Headline: "Hottest March on record. Bush's fault."

They don't know how they did it.

If we had only signed Kyoto...
Posted by: Xbalanke || 03/10/2006 13:47 Comments || Top||

#8  You measure the temp Dar, by looking at the wavelength of the light. Wein's Law. YOu contain it with a magnetic field. Any more questions?
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 14:06 Comments || Top||

#9  temp is average kinetic energy of molecules.An average test tube of air has about 1 followed by about 19 zeroes of air molecules.If you can accelerate one atom or one molecule up to very superhigh velocities that velocity can be said to be superhigh temp,but the first contacts with other molecules slows the speedy one down.the energy density is infinitesimally small,and useless for ordinary purposes although i am sure here are scientific uses,etc
Posted by: j morrissey || 03/10/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#10  I thought this part was interesting:

One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma’s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.
Posted by: Gloting Shomonter6233 || 03/10/2006 14:38 Comments || Top||

#11  One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma’s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.

This sounds like good old cold fusion.....well, okay maybe not really cold....

Do the ions decompose, at those temperatures, like into quarks or something to get that energy gain?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/10/2006 15:16 Comments || Top||

#12  TC7860--Yes, one more question--can you elaborate on the magnetic containment? I should have known about the wavelength measurement (duh!), but I'm admittedly clueless about a magnetic field containing heat.
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 15:33 Comments || Top||

#13  Magnetic containment is like Mars Flies in a Klein Bottle, couldn't help it. Magnetic containment keeps the matter in the center of your vessel or along the path of a beam using the properties of a magnetic field. Physics stuff.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:44 Comments || Top||

#14  Dar
can you elaborate on the magnetic containment? I should have known about the wavelength measurement (duh!), but I'm admittedly clueless about a magnetic field containing heat.

Sure no prob Dar.


You've got to Accent-tchu-ate the positive,

E-lim-my-nate the negative,

Latch on to the affifmative,

and Don't mess with Mrs bosons In-between! »:-)
Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 17:04 Comments || Top||

#15  Is it just me or should I be concerned that at 3 billion degrees anything burns?

One breach in the containment field Gordie and there goes Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the planet earth. But, what the heck, it's science!
Posted by: Grains Sloger8947 || 03/10/2006 18:21 Comments || Top||

#16  Okay, I do appreciate the help from the scientists here, but I am still confused.

Heat is a form of energy, and energy is neither created or destroyed, right? How is the energy dissipated by a magnetic field, i.e. what form does the energy take and where does it go?

Also, where does the energy to create something 3.6 billion° F come from? I imagine there was not an abundance of matter heated this high--but still it seems that it would take massive amounts of energy to accelerate matter this highly.
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 19:07 Comments || Top||

#17  Heat is a form of energy, and energy is neither created or destroyed, right

Well now it depends Mr. Dar. It is possible to have an ideal energy - here look out my window. See that tank farm? That's energy. Now to be truthful it exists only in an ideal state, that being Texas, so it's hard for it to be useful. To be useful it must be moved (FOB) NY. That requires either more energy or $.
Posted by: Billie Sol || 03/10/2006 19:37 Comments || Top||

#18  Paging Dr. Tesla!
Paging Dr. Tesla!
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/10/2006 21:12 Comments || Top||

#19  D *** it, decadent capitalist Amerikan-skis stole from the we-invented-everything North Koreans and Russians again - first Chechyna, now the Sun. * BUGS BUNNY - "Of course you know this means war", in IRAN!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 23:26 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangla Bhai now fit to be quizzed
Dreaded militant leader Bangla Bhai, arrested wounded from Mymensingh Monday, is now fit for interrogation, State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar said yesterday. "The condition of Bangla Bhai is improving and he can be interrogated now," he told the press after the launching ceremony of an extended phase of a project titled 'Enhancing Capacity of Immigration Officials to Combat Irregular Migration in Bangladesh. He said the government detected some bank accounts of militants but declined to give any details of the investigating. "The investigators are trying to get to the roots of (terror) financing, modes of fund transfer and other related matters."

On fugitive JMB leaders like Khaled Saifullah, Salahuddin and Mahatab Khamaru, Babar said the government is not resting on the laurels of arresting Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai. "We need to make serious efforts continuously to arrest them. We need some time to get result,"he said.

Asked if the government considered taking actions against alleged patrons of militancy in the ruling alliance, the state minister said, "If we find any evidence of militant-links, we will take actions against them, no matter whoever he is." He also did not rule out the possibility of investigation into terror financing allegedly by some NGOs. No one will be spared as the government declared war against terrorism, he added.

Law enforcers are likely to take Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman to Sylhet tomorrow or Sunday on completion of remand. Sylhet Sadar Cognisance Court had placed Rahman on a 10-day remand on March 2 for interrogation in two cases filed under arms and explosives laws after his arrest the same day. Chittagong Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal, meantime, asked the government to produce Rahman and Bangla Bhai before it on March 21 in two cases under Explosive Substances Act.

Police yesterday took Shabbir Ahmed, 38, who was arrested at Paltan in Dhaka on Wednesday, to Sylhet for interrogation. Earlier he was taken to Brahmanbaria.
Shabbir, a friend of Moizul Islam alias Hridoy Chowdhury who was arrested with Abdur Rahman, was learnt to be a medium of JMB's financial network. Law enforcers found a chequebook of Shabbir at Rahman's Sylhet hideout. Shabbir opened the account in 1993 with Janata Bank's Brahmanbaria branch.

Sources said the Rab and police have come to know the names of at least 18 JMB cadres in Sylhet region.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 12:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "No one will be spared as the government declared war against terrorism, he added."

Works for me.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Bangla Bhai now fit to be quizzed

What's the capital of Wyoming?
Cheyenne.
WRONG!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhh!
Hey, sarge. He was right.
Shut up!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 15:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "Into the isolation booth, Bangla Bhai! You're the next contestant on the popular new game show, RAB Quiz Time. And now for your first question: What color is my lucky truncheon?"
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 15:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Can we assume that after the appropriate amount of "questioning", Bangla Bhai will be taken out at oh-dark-hundred to "recover" weapons? Watch you step. Mind the crossfire!
Posted by: SteveS || 03/10/2006 16:00 Comments || Top||

#5  BzzzzzzzzzzzzzT!
Wrong!
The answer is............... Frankfurt!
And it's pronounced Loooooooivulle.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 17:23 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Interviewed: Mark Steyn drawing lines in the sand.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Abdur Rahman "Confesses"
Militant chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman admitted to having personally ordered all the bomb attacks, from Cinema bombing in Mymensingh to recent serial bombings, RAB officials said Thursday, reports UNB. The JMB chief was further quoted as telling the interrogators that he had also ordered assassination attacks on several intellectuals, including Professor Humayun Azad of Dhaka University and Prof Yunus of Rajshahi University.

“The banned Islamic outfit used to collect explosives, bomb-making materials and firearms through smuggling and JMB commanders of northern region were assigned to collect those,” one RAB official told journalists, quoting from the confessions of Shaikh Abdur Rahman. At an impromptu press briefing in the Police Headquarters This (Thursday) evening, the disclosures were made following weeklong interrogation of the JMB supremo, held on March 2. Second-in-command of the JMB and operations commander of a twin-outfit, JMJB, Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai was also captured three days after his arrest, on March 6. Injured during the operation, his health conditions didn’t yet permit interrogation. He is under treatment in BDR hospital.

Additional Inspector General of Police Anwarul Iqbal, Director General of RAB Abdul Aziz Sarker and Director of the intelligence wing of RAB Lt Colonel Gulzar Uddin Ahmed replied to different questions. Explaining the reasons for calling the press conference, Additional IGP Anwarul Iqbal said that their attention was drawn to news reports published in different dailies regarding the arrest of Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai and their disclosures got from the interrogation.

Shaikh Abdur Rahman is being interrogated by the Task Force Intelligence (TFI)—nobody else is allowed to question him, he informed the press.

The police official called upon the journalists to contact concerned people for accurate information before filing a report to avoid confusions. He requested doing “neutral, objective and constructive report instead of writing confusing reports quoting RAB officials”.

Replying to a question, RAB Director General Abdul Aziz Sarker said that the Rapid Action Battalion is conducting operations to arrest the rest of the JMB operatives and to recover their explosives and firearms.
More late night searches for arms caches, "crossfires" predicted
He, however, avoid answering a question as to whether several Ministers and MPs would be interrogated as they were implicated in the reports as patrons Bangla Bhai. Aziz Sarker dismissed a newspaper report on a meeting of JMB military-wing chief Ataur Rahman Sunny with ministers as “false” and said that Sunny didn’t say anything about such meeting.

“JMB collected 10,000 pounds sterling from two Saudi (friends), and the rest of the funds from bank dacoity, NGO office loot, Jakat and other sources,” Lt Colonel Gulzar quoted Shaikh Rahman as saying during quizzing. He said that they were also investigating how the funding was channeled.

Replying to a question, Gulzar said that Shaikh Abdur Rahman assigned northern-region commanders of JMB, including Ataur Rahman Sunny and Abdul Awal, both Majlis-e-Shura members of JMB, to collect explosives and firearms through smuggling. “Shaikh Rahman ordered the killing of DR Humayun Azad of Dhaka University and Prof Yunus of Rajshahi University,” he said on the basis of Rahman’s reported confessional statements.

BDNews adds: Dacoities and bank robberies as well as money came from foreign connections were the main financial sources JMB. The JMB also used to mobilise funds from `Zakat' and `Fitra' as well as other donations.

Replying to queries, RAB director general Abdul Aziz Sarkar and additional IGP Anwarul Iqbal said that they are yet to get any link between the JMB and arms and ammunitions recovered in Chittagong and Bogra. They said that charge-sheets in the cases have already been submitted, but "we will inform you if any link is found following interrogating Abdur Rahman". Asked whether Rahman admitted their involvement in Udichi and Ramna blasts, Gulzar told BDNEWS that the interrogators are yet to question on the matters. He informed that they are now emphasising on conducting operation to root out the JMB while the details investigation will be carried out later on. "After the conclusion of operational activities, we would go into investigation side," said RAB chief Abdul Aziz Sarkar.

The RAB is yet to start questioning JMB's second-in-command, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, who is undergoing treatment at a hospital in the capital.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 12:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, baby... The graphic certainly fits RAB interrogations, lol. I've got humongous crocodile tears welling up...

Okay, better now. I can't wait for BB's epic.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Wake up, Abdur. We're taking a little ride. We'll stop for Bangla on the way.
Don't forget the shutter gun, sargeant...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  "And lift with your knees, dammit!"
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 14:24 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas: Israeli plan to finalize borders is act of war
The Palestinian Islamic radical group Hamas's supremo Khaled Meshaal slammed the Israeli government's plan to finalise the country's borders by 2010 as a "declaration of war".

The Hamas leader warned in an AFP interview that the Islamic group would refuse any international aid that required the party to soften its line toward Israel, which it refuses to recognise.

Rhetoric has soared between Israel and Hamas since the Islamic party's trouncing of the long dominant Fatah party at the polls in the Palestinian territories' January elections.

The upset victory has put Meshaal, 50, in the spotlight as the world waits to see whether Hamas, known both for its suicide bombings against Israel and its charity programmes for impoverished Palestinians, will renounce violence.

Meshaal, the Damascus-based political chief, presented a tough face in his interview at his heavily-guarded home in the Mazzeh neighborhood of the Syrian capital.

He denounced Israeli Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plans to fix Israel's permanent borders by 2010 through unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank.

"This is not a peace plan, but a war declaration, which will permit Israel to stay in the largest section of the West Bank, to maintain their wall and settlements, to refuse all concessions on Jerusalem and to reject the Palestinians' right of return."

"It is a unilateral disengagement by Israel in the interest of its security needs and not the demands of peace," said Meshaal.

"Olmert is in the process of committing the same errors toward the Palestinians that (Ariel) Sharon did."

Olmert, whose ruling centrist movement dominates opinion polls for Israel's election in three weeks, unveiled his new disengagement plan in interviews with the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz newspapers, published Thursday.

Olmert said he envisaged the borders would include the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, the Ariel region of settlements in the north, the "Jerusalem envelope", Maale Adumim and the "Jordan River as a security border". Meshaal, a former physics teachers whose family lived near the West Bank town of Ramallah until the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has previously broached the idea of a long-term truce with Israel, but has offered little in way of detail.

"When Israel commits to pulling back to 1967 borders, including east Jerusalem, destroying the wall, dismantling the settlements, recognising refugees and displaced Palestinians' right to return, and frees all the prisoners, then Hamas will take serious measures toward peace," he told AFP.

Sitting against a backdrop of posters of Hamas leaders killed by Israel, Meshaal, who survived a 1997 assassination attempt in Amman, confessed his life was still in danger.

"Israel does not hide its intention to eliminate the leaders of Hamas, even those who are elected like our brother (Ismail) Haniya," he said, referring to Hamas's designated prime minister, who has been charged with forming the next government in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli officials warned this week they would not rule out assassinating Haniya if he was found to be linked to any attacks against the Jewish state.

Meshaal said as the "top official" in the Islamist movement he hands out "functions and responsibilities according to a mechanism which Hamas prefers to keep secret".

He himself was promoted in 2004 after Israel assassinated the group's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Meanwhile, Meshaal also called on Jordan to change its policies toward Hamas since it deported him in 1999 and shut the group's Amman office.

"The manner in which they treat Hamas must change. We are no longer a movement, we represent the Palestinians legally through a democratic process," said Meshaal.

He added Hamas was ready to receive money "from any nation in the world", but would not accept any money on the condition of "political concessions."

Meshal also sought to extricate his party from any link to the Al-Qaeda terror group, whose deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri sought to champion the Palestinian cause and associate itself with Hamas in a message last week.

Hamas "acts on its soil against the Israeli occupier and does not have any operations outside Palestine. The world must be able to make a clear distinction between us and Al-Qaeda."
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The best thing about the Hamas win is that we don't have to pretend that they are a partner for peace.

Go ahead and declare War. The border issue will be settled right quick.
Posted by: danking_70 || 03/10/2006 12:47 Comments || Top||

#2  so war it is. I know who I'm putting my money on.
Posted by: 2b || 03/10/2006 12:47 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought Hamas was already in a state of war with Israel. So they are seething because somebody they've declared a state of war with has declared war back?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe it's like a Hamas-style "Revival" thingy. Must be hard to seethe 24x7 for years. S'okay, they'll have eternity to rest as things are going now.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Olmert responds to Hamas' Umpteenth Declaration of War
Posted by: doc || 03/10/2006 14:22 Comments || Top||

#6  I'll take the Isrealis and lay the points.
Posted by: Thromomp Gluque9990 || 03/10/2006 15:54 Comments || Top||

#7  "When Israel commits to pulling back to 1967 borders, including east Jerusalem, destroying the wall, dismantling the settlements, recognising refugees and displaced Palestinians' right to return, and frees all the prisoners, then Hamas will take serious measures toward peace,"...

Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Posted by: Xbalanke || 03/10/2006 17:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Only a [God/Faith-based] Leftie-Socialist would argue that his camp can attack and kill anyone anytime they want, but the other side can't - heck, the other side e.g. USA and 9-11, is not allowed to get angry and has to obey the "world community". Must be nice to have simple math that argues/proves only side has to compromise and tell the truth and be blamed for the repression of Muslims by Muslims. Poor President Kerry only has five mansions, etal. but its Washington whom "isn't giving enough".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 21:54 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
The American Thinker: The Antique Media's Internet Follies
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Too hot for New York, Rachel Corrie's story plays Seattle (surprise)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooooooooooh...Big Giant Puppets!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Whee! I am having such fun stirring up the pot there already this morning. My comments are under "WahEffingWah".
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 14:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Vehicles courtesy Caterpillar, Inc. and the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Posted by: Mike || 03/10/2006 14:14 Comments || Top||

#4  During the season, will there be plays or artworks of any kind sympathetic to the struggles of the Israeli people?
"I'll have to double-check on that," he said.


Yeah. Let us know on that, willya?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  living just north of this fiasco, thanks to the 'burg, i can now plan my weekend activities and where (not) to go. (ps tickets are only $15.)
Posted by: USN, ret. || 03/10/2006 14:38 Comments || Top||

#6  ...and sales are...flat.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 14:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Dar, I love your comments! I would add some myself by I am at work and they might ban my work IP address (this is the PI after all -- free speech for me but not for thee and all that).

Notice how quickly they brought up the Nazi label? I call that Projection.

I was going to note that Islam is the only major religion which practices human sacrifices (in the form of the victims of Corrie's friends...).

Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/10/2006 15:26 Comments || Top||

#8  I understand the story was too long so they compressed it for Seattle viewers. I think they were trying to squash any rumors of her pulling an "Elvis", though.
Posted by: anymouse || 03/10/2006 16:51 Comments || Top||

#9  It would be great to park a D-9 on the block of the theatre. On the bed of the belchiest semi in the West.

Serve pancakes from it. Oh, and have hookers. Hookers are always fun and add to the decor.
Posted by: Penguin || 03/10/2006 18:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
2 Border Agents Charged With Releasing Illegals for Ca$h
2 Border Agents Tied to Migrant Movers
The men released illegal immigrants and traffickers who'd been captured, earning cash in exchange, a federal indictment says.

Two supervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents who helped establish a successful cross-border anti-smuggling program have been charged with smuggling migrants for a Mexican trafficking organization.

The agents, both stationed in the Imperial Valley, released apprehended illegal immigrants in exchange for cash, pulling in about $300,000, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

The men, Mario Alvarez, 44, and Samuel McClaren, 43, also released captured members of a Mexican smuggling ring, dropping one off at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Calexico for $6,000, prosecutors allege.

Alvarez and McClaren, who were arrested Thursday, face potential 15-year prison terms. The eight-count indictment includes conspiracy, immigrant smuggling and bribery charges.

"The agents arrested today, who are supposed to represent the very best, epitomize the very worst," said Daniel R. Dzwilewski, special agent in charge at the FBI's San Diego office.

Authorities said the investigation is continuing. The two agents are scheduled to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in San Diego.

Alvarez and McClaren helped establish the much-heralded Guide Identification Prosecution Program, now known as Operation Against Smugglers and Traffickers Initiative on Safety and Security.

Under the program, smugglers who are not going to be prosecuted in the United States are handed over to Mexican authorities for prosecution. Many smugglers are not charged in the United States because federal authorities lack the resources and detention space.

The pilot program administered by Alvarez and McClaren was so successful that the two agents helped expand it across the Southwest border by training other Border Patrol agents.

Alvarez worked with the Mexican liaison unit in the Border Patrol's El Centro sector from November 2002 through last year, and McClaren worked with the unit from July 2003 through last year. El Centro is about 90 miles east of San Diego and about eight miles north of the border.

In an interview two years ago, Alvarez and McClaren expressed pride in the program's success, saying they had helped lock up dozens of smugglers who endangered the lives of migrants by taking them along perilous desert and mountain routes.

"The main purpose of the program is to save lives," McClaren said at the time.

Attorneys for Alvarez and McClaren were not available for comment.

News of their arrest shocked Border Patrol agents, who described the pair as hardworking, competent officers well-known at the agency's stations across the country.

"They were given a lot of credit for the fact that" their program worked, said one agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

Alvarez and McClaren built cases against smugglers, usually foot guides called coyotes, by taking statements from migrants. Those statements were turned over to Mexican authorities to get arrest warrants from judges. Mexican prosecutors then re-interviewed the migrants and submitted the statements, which were often sufficient to win convictions.

Typically summoned to help by other agents after large apprehensions, McClaren and Alvarez had wide leeway in the handling of the migrants and suspected smugglers.

Federal authorities said they took advantage of their trusted position to earn big profits, some of which they put directly into their personal bank accounts. Alvarez deposited $82,000; McClaren, $85,900.

The pair allegedly had ties to the Javier Sanchez-Perfino smuggling organization, meeting with members in person or conferring with them by cellphone.

The two men allegedly delivered or arranged to deliver apprehended immigrants to the organization at locations, including a stash house, near El Centro and Calexico. The organization would then transport the migrants to Los Angeles.

Two members of the organization are listed as alleged co-conspirators but are not charged in the indictment.

The agents are accused of driving two members of the Javier Sanchez-Perfino organization into the United States in their government vehicle in September 2004 for a $4,000 payoff.

In October 2005, the agents allegedly falsified documents to say they had returned a smuggler to Mexico, when they had actually picked him up at an immigration processing center in El Centro and dropped him off at the Wal-Mart parking lot, the indictment says.

The arrests are the latest involving agents from the El Centro Border Patrol sector, which stretches from the Imperial Valley to the Arizona border. An agent pleaded guilty last year to smuggling several hundred pounds of marijuana in a Border Patrol vehicle. Two other agents were caught in May by Mexican authorities when they allegedly tried to smuggle 1,300 rounds of ammunition into Mexicali.

Thursday's arrests are not "indicative of the Department of Homeland Security or the hard-working, professional and scrupulous men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol," said Carl L. McClafferty, chief patrol agent in the El Centro sector.

Salvador Zamora, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, said the cross-border anti-smuggling program would not be harmed by the allegations, adding that it has aided both U.S. and Mexican authorities.

But some agents expressed concern that the corruption charges could hurt efforts to get the Mexican government to devote more resources, including federal prosecutors, to the program.

"The Mexicans are always accused of being corrupt, but this doesn't make us look good," said one agent. "When things like this happen, it kind of sets you back. It does strain things."
And there is where security risks actually begin and end - with corrupt people.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rogue agents been shaking down yayo smugglers for dope and cash for decades...Que nueva?
Posted by: borgboy || 03/10/2006 14:37 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
WalMart Threatens US Banking System!
Congressmen: Wal-Mart threatens US payment system
A group of congressmen on Friday said an industrial bank owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, could threaten the stability of the U.S. financial system and drive community banks out of business.

In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters, a group of more than 30 congressmen asked the bank regulator to reject Wal-Mart's application to open a bank in Utah.

"Wal-Mart's plan, to have its bank process hundreds of billions in transactions for its own stores, could threaten the stability of the nation's payments system," the lawmakers wrote. "Given Wal-Mart's massive scope and international dealings, it is not possible to rule out a financial crisis within the company that could damage the bank and severely disrupt the flow of payments throughout the financial system."

The group included Ohio Democrats Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Rep. Tim Ryan, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil Abercrombie and California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez. A complete list of signatures was not immediately available.

Wal-Mart is trying to open an industrial bank to handle electronic payment processing. Industrial banks are state-chartered and state-regulated, and fall under the supervision of the FDIC. Commercial companies may own them because federal laws that bar non-financial companies from engaging in banking activities do not classify them as banks.
Prolly time to close 'em all down and shoot everyone in the Walton family.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and drive community banks out of business.

No tear here. It was the 'community' banks and savings and loans who brought on the Great S&L failure of the mid-80s. Even though they were not federally insured, the taxpayers ended up paying nearly a half a trillion dollars in the bailout. It was a prime time crying game with MSM focused upon some 70 year old farmer losing his stead or some 80 year old widow who put her savings in a non-FDIC bank/S&L. Real reporting was not to be found on how the banks and S&Ls had engaged in land speculation and unsound loans got them in the hole in the first place.

Get the names of the 30 congressmen and check if the local owners of the banks had made contributions to election committees. Usually the case at that level. Why would I be surprised?
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 || 03/10/2006 12:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The group included Ohio Democrats Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Rep. Tim Ryan, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil Abercrombie and California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez. A complete list of signatures was not immediately available.

I think they are 'saying' it's the local banks, but I bet the big money is coming from MBNA/Citigroup etc. There is mondo dollars in point-of-purchase fees (ie the credit card terminals, and WalMart wants to pwn them)
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 12:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Also: Heh.

Go Walmart! Bring the banking system to its knees! The last thing Walmart needs is to have its customers, ya know, unable to *pay* for anything.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought this was precious:

"In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters..."

Bet there was no strain attached, lol.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I'd bet Walmart's more interested in a reliable payment processor -- and skimming the float -- than anything else.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Finally a challenge to the British oligarchy that controls the worlds financial institutions that Lyndon LaRouche was talking about.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 14:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Wasn't it Wal-Mart who led the charge to get those POS payment-processing stations to recognize debit cards so they wouldn't have to pay Visa/MC charges? E.g. if you enter your PIN, it's a debit card transaction and no charge to Wal-Mart. If you sign the receipt, it's a credit card transaction and Visa/MC get their cut.
Posted by: Dar || 03/10/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#8  The Real Banks[tm]have been screwing the general population now for decades. Back before the Carter inflation kicked in, most states had usury laws with fix limits on the amount of interest that banks could charge. When the inflation rate climbed to 8%, the banks said they couldn't issue credit anymore and demanded the states drop the laws. The state governments paniced and did just that instead of modifying them to make the rate adjusted by the Prime [Interest Rate] of the Federal Reserve. Rates climbed to 21%. Then the Fed rate dropped and continued to drop, but the banks keep the credit rates high. Sucking vast capital out of the average household and into their pockets.

When Pappa Bush talked about doing something about it, the bankers/investors dropped a load on the Stock Market panicing the old guy who retreated. He was more interested in reelection than fighting by sending the SEC and DoJ after the wanks with RICO. A day or two of seizures [of personal assets under RICO] and playing with the market like that would have ended. Now the Bankers whine that they have to cover bad credit by consumers [rather individuals or other countries], but they are the one's making the loans, and the rest of us carry the consequences. The public is tagged with the liability not the lender. Have you ever seen a major institution report real loses and waved a stock payment? When you give credit cards to college students who have no assets, that should be the bank's problem not the other consumers.

Yep, get Walmart in there. The old saying 'sick a dog on a dog' comes to mind. Wish them luck.
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 || 03/10/2006 16:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Prolly time to close 'em all down and shoot everyone in the Walton family.

Especially John-Boy. He always creeped me out.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/10/2006 16:21 Comments || Top||

#10  There is definitely bigger money than Mom-n-Pop Bankers-n-Kettle Corn at play here.

The big banks must be nervous as all get-out. WalMart has worked much harder at gaining their customers' trust, and they know how to control costs. Which is something MBNA has no clue about.

Go Walmart!
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 16:21 Comments || Top||

#11  and they know how to control costs

Union busting being one of the ways.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 16:30 Comments || Top||

#12  Works for me, Rafael.

Everything unions were started for is now US labor law. The only thing the unions are "good" for anymore is protecting slack-offs, inflating wages (and therefore the cost of the end-product to consumers) in some industries far beyond their true worth, using the money skimmed (often unwantedly) from their members' paychecks for their own political and personal gain, and general corruption.

Pfui on the lot of them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:40 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
WaPo To Cut 80 Newsroom Jobs, Sources Say
The Washington Post plans to cut at least 80 newsroom jobs through attrition and buyouts, according to sources at the paper who said editors began giving staffers the bad news on Thursday in meetings and will continue today.

"My understanding is that the editors and managing editors brought this up with other issues of downsizing, but with no layoffs," said one source in the metro staff, which got first word of the news in a meeting Thursday. "It looks like through attrition and buyouts."

Another source in the national staff said a meeting was being held this morning to give them the bad news, with similar gatherings throughout the day. "Eighty through attrition and buyouts," the source said. "They are going staff by staff."

The paper has about 800 editorial employees, many represented by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. Rick Weiss, a Post reporter and Guild unit chair at the paper, could not be reached for comment this morning.

Other cost cuts also are being rumored, including the eventual closing of at least two foreign bureaus and changes to some other overseas bureaus that would have staffers working out of their homes.

Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Publisher Bo Jones did not return calls seeking comment.

Post spokesman Eric Grant offered no comment when asked about the pending cuts or any official announcement, saying only, "not at this point."
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "according to sources... said one source in the metro staff… Another source in the national staff said… are being rumored…"

Even stories about the WaPo are un-sourced conjecture. Ohh the irony!
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 14:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, it's not like they need reporters to actually investigate and report news or anything.

It will be interesting to see what they'll do for "stories" the day after Bush leaves office at the end of his second term.

Or rather, it would be interesting if I gave a sh*t about those biased clowns.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Do they want suggestions?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Finally figured out they're not adding any value.
Posted by: DoDo || 03/10/2006 19:32 Comments || Top||

#5  "Mr. Milbank? please clean out your desk...."
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Can they get rid of Tina Brown too? Pretty please?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 03/10/2006 22:12 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Lawyers Demand Capital Penalty for Al-Asadi
SANA’A – Up to 21 prosecution lawyers
Looks like they want to get this one right
called for the death penalty for Mohammed Al-Asadi, the Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Observer, and the permanent closure of the newspaper, during Al-Asadi’s trial on Wednesday.
Ooh, wonder who he killed?
The lawyers, commissioned by Sheik Abdul-Majid Zindani, the Chairman of Islah Shura Council and led by Mohammed Al-Shawish, also called for the confiscation of all the newspaper’s property and assets, and for financial compensation to be paid to be the Muslim’s ‘Finance House’, which last existed during the time of the Caliphs, 1200 years ago.
Sounds like they're making a comeback.
All hail His Corpulence the Caliph!
They recounted a story in which a lady was killed during the Prophet’s [no ptui?] lifetime after she insulted him, and that the Prophet ptui then praised the killer.
"Nice job, Abu Bakr! Lopped her nut right off, you did!"
They said that they wanted the same punishment to be applied on “those who abuse the Prophet” (ptui PBUH).
Oh, oh. I think he's in deep kimchi.
Al-Asadi, who denies all charges, is accused in connection with allegations of republishing insulting cartoons first printed in Denmark of the Prophet Mohammed (ptuiPBUH).
Oh, no. Not that! A capital crime indeed
The newspaper published thumbnail images of the cartoons in the February 4 edition, which were obscured with a thick black cross.
If you clicked on them did they go full size?
Twelve of the prosecution lawyers turned up to the trial
"We've got a quorum",
crowding and jostling each other in the busy court room
a little horse play, boys?.
Several times the lawyers disagreed among themselves, and the judge ordered them to organize their team better.
Good thing there's only one judge
They also demanded personal financial compensation for the psychological trauma they claimed they suffered by the actions of the newspaper, which they said has impaired their ability to do their jobs and follow their normal daily lives.
I didn't know lawyers could suffer psychological trauma.
The lawyers demanded Al-Asadi to be punished according to criminal law. The editor faces a potentially heavy prison sentence if convicted. They also asked the judge that the Yemen Observer should be even made to pay the costs of advertising any sentence made against it by the court. The defense team, Mohammed Naji Alaw and Khalid Al-Ansi, from the human rights HOOD Organization, criticized the prosecution team’s actions.
"Those people are crazy!"
They said the prosecution lawyers failed to say exactly who they represented and who is funding them.
"Some sheik. I forget his name."
Alaw challenged the prosecution’s demands for compensation. “These people are demanding money from the Yemen Observer,” Alaw said. “How much money do they want? Can you put a price on the Prophet Mohammed (ptui PBUH)? You cannot. Our Prophet is greater than all the money in the world.”
"Anything less than a demand for all the money in the world is an affront to the Profit! I demand they be arrested and beheaded on the spot!"
The defense team read out an Arabic translation of the two articles that accompanied the crossed out images of the cartoons. They said that the articles made it clear that the newspaper had condemned the cartoons, had defended Islam and the Prophet (PBUH), and had reported the different reactions from all across the Arab and Islamic world. They demanded that the translations be included in the file case. However, both Attorney General and the prosecution team both claimed that the charges rested on the pictures alone,
Everybody knows no one in Yemen can read. They just buy it for the pictures
and that the accompanying articles were therefore not part of the case. Al-Asadi, who has already spent 12 days in prison but was released on bail two weeks ago, said: “I am disappointed at the length of time that this ordeal is taking, and at the way the accusations are made. I was surprised at what they asked for, and the damage to the newspaper they want. They want the assets of the newspaper – its computers, equipment and its buildings, as well its money to be confiscated.”

The prosecution lawyers claimed that Al-Asadi and the Yemen Observer should thank them for seeking to solve the issue through the court, and avoid potentially violent reactions from people on the street.
Maybe we can reach an amicable out of court settlement, hint, hint?
However, the defense team said they regarded such comments as a veiled threat of violence.
I'm surprised you can sell veils that small in Yemen.
Judge Sahl Mohammed Hamza said there were many things missing from the prosecution team’s argument, and told them to complete their file. He was forced to bang his gavel several times to keep order in packed court room, telling one prosecution lawyers to speak on all of the group’s behalf. He adjourned the court until March 22. It is the second time that the trial has been adjourned. The newspaper’s license to print hardcopies of the paper remains suspended. Three representatives of the international human rights watchdog Amnesty International also attended the trial.
"Everything seems in order," said the Amnesia International mutt. "The judge uses a gavel and everything, just like back home. I just wish I spoke Arabic."
Posted by: Jack Bauer || 03/10/2006 11:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yemen.

Freakin' Dr Who adventure into the Heart of Darkness.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  There is a petition at Reporters without Borders to Free Mohammed Al-Asadi that might be of interest to you.


http://www.yobserver.com/cgi-bin/yobserver/exec/view.cgi/22/9522


via, Michelle Malkin at http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004733.htm

Posted by: Adriane || 03/10/2006 18:46 Comments || Top||

#3  As soon as I read Yemen, 21 prosecution lawyers, and
death penalty, there was no need to read on. This story is obviously about moHAMmed (may Miracle Whip and lettuce be upon him) cartoons. Silly 7th century gits.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 18:53 Comments || Top||


Europe
Paintings reveal artistic side of General Franco
I also heard he was nice to little old ladies and once petted a dog on the head, and the dog wagged its tail.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 11:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Somebody has to do this...
I HEAR HE'S STILL DEAD!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 11:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, he and Gary Gilmore competed at the '76 Corpse Diving championships, but Gilmore lost points due to poor execution.

God, I'm getting old ...
Posted by: Unung Flinens2749 || 03/10/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Team Cuba protests anti-Castro sign at WBC
Posted by: Ulaise Angavins9207 || 03/10/2006 11:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Puerto Rico officials had threatened not to host the opening rounds of the tournament if Cuba was not allowed to play."

Guess we know where they stand when it comes to freedom and liberty.

But then we always did. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:46 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spain drops journo death charges against US soldiers
Spain's National Court has dropped charges against three U.S. military men in connection with the 2003 killing of a Spanish television cameraman in Baghdad. "There was no crime, rather an act of war against a mistakenly identified enemy," said the court in the ruling made public on Friday. The same court last October had upheld warrants for the arrest on murder charges of two U.S. Army officers and a sergeant in the killing of Jose Couso in April, 2003 during the chaotic days when U.S. forces were taking control of the Iraqi capital.

Couso, who worked for Spain's Tele 5 network, was killed while filming from a balcony of the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital. A colleague from Reuters, Ukrainian photographer Taras Protsyuk, also died from the explosion of the round fired by a U.S. Army tank. The three accused men never were in Spanish custody. The charges carried possible jail sentences of 10 to 20 years. Judiciary sources said Pedraz would formally "archive" the case on Friday, "in accordance with the criteria of his hierarchical superiors".

Last month, U.S. authorities refused Pedraz permission to question the three soldiers implicated in Couso's death: Sgt. Thomas Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp of the 3rd Armored Division of the U.S. Infantry. The United States rejected Spanish jurisdiction in the matter and repeated the official version of the U.S. Army that the round that killed Couso was launched as part of an action of returning enemy fire, presumably from Iraqis in another part of the hotel.
Tedious details at the link.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 10:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Glad to see the judge figured it out. And now we have a precedent for the next case .... and I've no doubt someone else will try it on for size.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2006 12:58 Comments || Top||

#2  TW

Don't rejoice so soon. The socialist government is hard at work for purging the Spanish judiciary and restricting its independence.
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 13:18 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Harris Poll Shows Military Still Most-Admired U.S. Institution
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2006 – The military continues to be the most admired institution in America, according to the latest Harris Poll.

A total of 47 percent of Americans said they have a "great deal" of confidence in the military. Some 38 percent of Americans said they had "only some" confidence and 14 percent said they had "hardly any" confidence in the military.

The military was followed in the poll by small business - a new category in 2005 - with 45 percent of Americans saying they had a great deal of confidence; colleges and universities, 38 percent; the Supreme Court, 33 percent; and Medicine, 31 percent.

At the bottom of the survey, released March 2, were law firms at 10 percent, Congress at 10 percent, organized labor at 12 percent, major companies at 13 percent and the press at 14 percent. Yea, baby!

Anchoring the middle was organized religion at 30 percent, the White House at 25 percent, public schools at 22, the courts and justice system at 21, and television news at 19.

The military has done well in the poll since the mid-1980s. The first poll, conducted in 1966, had the military at 61 percent approval rating. The next poll, conducted in 1971 showed the corrosive effect of the Vietnam War on America. Only 27 percent of Americans had confidence in the military then.

The public confidence in the military climbed after the 1970s and by 1989 the military was the most-trusted organization in the United States.

Harris Interactive, based in Rochester, N.Y., conducts the poll without sponsors. "We do this on our own," public relations coordinator Kelly Gullo said.

Gullo said Harris Interactive pollsters canvassed 1,016 U.S. adults via telephone. She said the sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 3 percent.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 10:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Congress at 10 percent

What the Dems don't grasp is that in their efforts to undermine the President, they're also taking themselves down.

the White House at 25 percent

Which supports the old saying that 'you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than someone [Congress] else in your group'.

A total of 47 percent of Americans said they have a "great deal" of confidence in the military

Which while good in a normal sense, because of the low numbers on the first two, it is not healthy for a republic. There is a little thing Jefferson wrote about 'consent of the governed'. Tick off too many people, too long, and that consent could move to other institutions. Something about ignoring history. I doubt the American military has any stomach to step in to the situation, that does not preclude it from being forced upon them. Fortunately, in the record the usual American approach up till now has been for military leaders [Washington through Eisenhower] to do it through more traditional methods.
Posted by: Hupoting Groluse9049 || 03/10/2006 10:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Not at all a knock on the miliary, but this is actually very bad for the (small "r") republican form of government.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  The good news is the press is working very hard to beat lawyers in this poll. They'll be around 9% before you know it!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Polls are the height of idiocy. The only kind of poll that is remotely accurate is an immediate "yes or no" poll, done right after people have been focused on something. e.g. coke vs. pepsi.

However, if even intelligent people have not been thinking about something, and are "ambush polled", which is most of the time, the results make them sound like dumbasses.

That is, if you were asked, right now, to name the justices of the Supreme Court, and only given 30 seconds to reply, how many would you get right; compared to if you had several minutes to think about it first?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 13:32 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN staff votes no confidence in Annan management
The U.N. Staff Union voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to express no confidence in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top managers after Annan announced plans to overhaul the U.N. bureaucracy.

A motion "to express a statement of no confidence in the secretary-general and his senior management team" was opposed by just two of the more than 500 U.N. employees attending a closed-door emergency meeting of the staff group, said Staff Union official Guy Candusso.

But a U.N. official said the vote at U.N. headquarters did not reflect the views of the far greater number of employees working in the field, who were pleased Annan's overhaul plan would improve their working conditions and career prospects.

Annan explained the plan in a videoconference on Thursday with staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Haiti and Liberia, the world body's five biggest peacekeeping missions, the official said.

Annan earlier this week had unveiled a 33-page report on U.N. management reform that proposed outsourcing some U.N. work or moving staff out of the United States for some translation services, document production, printing and publishing and information technology.

He also recommended more financial oversight, simplified hiring and firing procedures, staff buyouts, more training and a modern information system.

The costs of the plan could run to $500 million. Approval rests in the hands of the 191 U.N. member-nations.

Annan argued existing rules and regulations "make it very hard for the organization to conduct its work efficiently or effectively" and said a "radical overhaul" was needed.

But staff members said they feared he would slash payrolls and programs in order to cut down on costs.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, whose government has pushed hard for extensive reforms at the United Nations, declined comment on the staff vote but said all organizations needed to regularly review their activities to see which were better performed internally and which could be outsourced.
Posted by: lotp || 03/10/2006 09:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like they're in agreement with Bolton.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 11:37 Comments || Top||

#2  *snicker*
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  heh, heh!
Posted by: 2b || 03/10/2006 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Doesn't sound like they agree with Bolton. They are afraid of losing their $100k+ salaries for doing jack sheit.
Posted by: NickVtx || 03/10/2006 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Gotta watch those Spembles. Sometimes they play with yer head...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  The way of the Spembles is indeed obscure.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Why Iran Needs Hundreds of IRBMs
March 10, 2006: Iran is believed to be increasing production of it's Shahab 3 IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile.) This missile is basically 1960s technology, with the addition of GPS guidance. Russian and North Korean missile technology has been obtained to make the Shahab 3 work. This has resulted in a missile that apparently will function properly about 80 percent of the time, and deliver a warhead of about one ton, to a range of some 1,700 kilometers, to within a hundred meters of where it was aimed. By world standards, this is a pretty effective weapon.

Iran is believed to have been building Shahab 3s since 2004, even though they continue to refine the design, and conduct test firings. Iran is believed to have 50-100 Shahab 3s, and is building about one a month. But there are rumors that production is being increased, to as many as 7-8 a month. Israel appears to be the main target. Iran has threatened Israel with destruction, rather openly of late. Shahab 3's could be fired with high explosive warheads, and hit, with enough accuracy, to kill mostly Jews, and not Israeli Arabs or Palestinians.
Not that they'd care very much if they did

Israel has threatened to retaliate with nukes if Israel is hit with chemical or nuclear warheads. Israel has Arrow anti-missile systems that can stop Shahab 3s, but only a few at a time. If Iran launched a dozen or more Shahab 3s simultaneously, some would get through. If Iran had several hundred Shahab 3s, they could launch most of them at Israel, using high explosive warheads, and do a lot of damage. Israel could respond with its own Jericho II missile, but this system was designed for use with nuclear weapons, and Israel apparently only has 20-30 of them. Israel could respond with air strikes, and cruise missiles from submarines in the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean. But, again, this would appear as a limited response to massive Iranian missile attacks. An Iranian attack with nuclear warheads would kill a large number of Moslems, and even radical Iran might be put off by that, because Israel would likely respond in kind.
Likely? It's a given they would vaporize Iran, the only question is how many other Arab capitals they'd take down with them.
A large number of IRBMs could also be used to intimidate nearby Arab countries, as these missiles could damage oil production facilities.
If you are the Israeli government and see Iran launching a hundred Shahabs at you, do you wait till they impact and check what type of warhead they used, (and risk losing your missiles)or do you launch on warning?
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  it it going to be the 6 day war all over but on a much larger scale. me thinks so.
Posted by: bk || 03/10/2006 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  it it going to be the 6 day war all over but on a much larger scale. me thinks so.

You think it will last as long as six days?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  If nuke, about an hour.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  If they're not careful we'll use the Earthquake Ray© on them again...
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/10/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#5  BK. You nailed it. Israel has to launch on warning. It is illogical to do otherwise once a nuke is a possibility (ie now).

They need to announce the doctrine for their own protection. Of course, we do not want them to declare being a nuclear power.
Posted by: JAB || 03/10/2006 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Anybody have some iodine pills? I feel a chill coming on.
Posted by: Perfesser || 03/10/2006 11:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Likely? It's a given they would vaporize Iran, the only question is how many other Arab capitals they'd take down with them

This hadn't really occured to me but there really is little downside for Israel. I mean they'll be hated anyway for destroying Iran (civilized nations don't do such things old chap) even if Iran deserves it. So why not take out Damascus or Mecca or target-x while the world is in shock and the Islamoids are getting ready for some good Jew hating.

I'd have plans to expel the Pals (for their own safety, don't you know) into Jordan and Egypt ready to go in case of nuclear blasts from Iran. Oh, and the Al Aqsaqa Mosque would of course be levelled by fallout from whatever Iran launched even if the missiles came nowhere near.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/10/2006 11:21 Comments || Top||

#8  BK. You nailed it. Israel has to launch on warning. It is illogical to do otherwise once a nuke is a possibility (ie now)

Absolutely right. Since Iran has seen fit to both pursue nuclear weapons and declare its intention of wiping Israel off of the map, Israel is now entitled to assume that any missile arriving from Iran is nuclear tipped.

Iran must be made to realize the consequences of its bellicose posturing. Such poor stewardship of nuclear technology carries a price tag of suspicion and those worries force the targets (Israel and America) to adopt doctrines of pre-emptive and overwhelming response.

This needs to be pointed out to Iran in no uncertain terms. One single missile lift off with a launch track towards Israel, Iraq or any American naval group earns them a shot at being the Windex King™.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||

#9  the only question is how many other Arab capitals they'd take down with them

Perhaps it's time for Israel to read the riot act to its hostile neighbors. There is no down side to a nuclear attacked Israel glassing over the entire Middle East in its death throes. I wouldn't bet a plug nickle against them already having a target configuration that specs all of the major Arab capitals.

Some bright individual needs to produce a Middle Eastern version of the old "The Day After Tomorrow" video showing what sort of scenario would result from a single Iranian missile launch. They could even over-ride Al Jazeera's prime time broadcast and do a "War of the Worlds" news report-style broadcast of the footage. I'd wager 90% of the Arab world would wet sh!t itself ... twice.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 11:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Just having hundreds of IRBMs doesn't mean much unless you have the capability to keep them operational.

I wonder if the muckety mucks realize this or if the worker bees even bother to tell them. Like a lot of countries, Iran has tried to do prestige stuff on the cheap (e.g., the Khomenei airport).

Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 12:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Just having hundreds of IRBMs doesn't mean much unless you have the capability to keep them operational.

I don't think they plan on holding onto them for very long.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 12:28 Comments || Top||

#12  I don't think they plan on holding onto them for very long.

Yup, RC. This gets back to the apocalyptic aspect of Ahmadinejad's particular flavor of Islam. It concerns me that Bush, also a member of an apocalyptic faith, may not entirely appreciate how ardently the Iranians seek a rather precipitous culmination of their religious vision.

The Iranians are essentially in pole position awaiting the first glimmer of a green light on the Christmas tree. Massive missile capability or nuclear weapons both give them a go-ahead to wreak total havoc. So long as Israel perishes, there is no down side for Iran. I fear that Bush is incapable of abandoning his own more (likely) benign view of end times in order to fully comprehend the immediacy of the looming danger that Iran represents.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 13:03 Comments || Top||

#13  The Methodists are apocalyptic? I realize I'm not up on the more obscure Christian sects, but is this a new development?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#14  tw, by definition, all Christian sects are apocalyptic. They unanimously await the second coming which largely connotes the destruction of our world as we know it. This is the definition of end times and for those who do not share such a vision, it can be truly disturbing to talk with someone who is so hell-bent (as it were) on the rapture that they could care less (except when it comes to proselytizing) about who does and does not make the cut. This sort of eschatology, especially when it emmanates from top leadership (be it Ahmadinejad or Bush), doesn't tend to set well with others who are more concerned with the continuation of our species instead of its putative salvation.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 14:04 Comments || Top||

#15  Hundreds of high explosive IRBMs could serve as a decoy screen against the arrow and let them sneak some Nukes through.

If there are 30 arrows and 100 irbms - well one somewhere in the mess with a nuke should get through.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 15:00 Comments || Top||

#16  Zen - that is just anti-christian crap and you know it. You think W walks around hoping for the end times and rapture all day? Does anybody? Jeebus. Get a grip. I thought you were better than that. Guess I was wrongf
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 15:31 Comments || Top||

#17  Frank, what I have said is not anti-Christian. Do you mean to say there are large numbers of Christians who do not eagerly anticipate the second coming of Jesus? Is the rapture not a central component of the Christian faith, or are all those "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned" bumper stickers just for grins?

Do you not recall objections issued by the Saudis with respect to their own concerns that Bush might be driving a Middle East crisis in order to achieve his own particular vision of the end times? Are you not familiar with how a significant number of Christians contribute support to Israel solely for the purpose of ensuring that they are around to be converted in the final days and thereby fulfill the ultimate requirements of the apocalypse?

What part of eschatology do you not understand? It's a central tenet of your own Catholic faith. Like it or not, it will tend to rub non-Christian or non-apocalyptic believers or people in general the other way. However much Christianity is focused upon mankind's salvation, there are ten to one thousand times that many people who are more concerned with humanity's continuing existence and not its demise.

If I am so anti-Christian, how is it that I have bothered to gather and gain some remote comprehension of its belief structure and goals? If I am so anti-Christian, why do I so vigorously advocate freedom of religion and, to this day, maintain that it is among the foremost reasons behind the economic success and military supremacy of America today?

I'd have thought you knew me better than that.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 15:53 Comments || Top||

#18  FWIW Zenster, a rapture isn't a central tenet of Christian faith. The central tenets you can check out pretty quickly in one of the creeds. There's a bit of disagreement on some of the "extras." That Jesus will return with judgement _is_ one of the central tenets, of course. For some of us that's a hopeful doctrine: things won't always be this hellish of a mess.
Posted by: James || 03/10/2006 16:07 Comments || Top||

#19  Zenster I like some of the stuff you say, but you got warp things about religion. I am a religious and most religious people I lnow don't sit around hoping for the rapture. When the rapture gets here it will and man cannot make it come sooner
Posted by: djohn66 || 03/10/2006 16:17 Comments || Top||

#20  Right, James.

Listening to Zenster's attempts to enlighten us about what Christians do or do not hold to, is like expecting extremist Moslems to lecture accurately on the finer points of mediation and dispute resolution.

Example: "Is the rapture not a central component of the Christian faith, or are all those "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned" bumper stickers just for grins?"

FYI, the "rapture" (that believers will not go through the great end times suffering) was an early false doctrine that crept into the some of the church, which, like gnosticism, was defined and refuted as heresy by Orthodox Christianity. Some still hold to it, usually because they don't know any better.

Since DAY 1, Zenster takes every occasion to bash Pres. Bush--I think it's because Zen is a homosexual and has a chip on his shoulder regarding mistreatment of homosexuals by religious people, and the Pres. is religious, or some such thing--and he vehementantly opposes what he calls "faith-based" policy, probably for the same reason. (Feel free to correct on this Zen, but this is my take on your communications over the past couple of years.)

What's nutty is that everything has been readied for the Jerusalem Temple to be rebuilt, including training of the priests, the altar, the curtain, the stones are all cut, etc., etc., and they're just waiting to begin the building process. But, the Arabs and the mosque seem to be in the way at present. Also, the return of Jews to Palestine (Israel) was not believable a century ago. It seems we're witnessing a history which was recorded ahead of time, as it were.



Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 16:33 Comments || Top||

#21  I think there is a substantial difference between being a leader who is a Christian that believes that there will be 'End Times' when God decides the 'End Times' are upon us and being a Muslem leader who wants to be the guy who pushes the button to bring about those 'End Times.' Don't you, Zenster?
Posted by: Scott R || 03/10/2006 17:26 Comments || Top||

#22  Zenster, you're way out of your knowledge base when you try to talk about Christian doctrines. If you feel compelled to try to interpret US foreign policy in terms of Christianity, please take a little time to educate yourself first.

'apocalypse' - from the Greek meaning the revealing of hidden things.

'eschatology' - having to do with End Times
Posted by: has some theology || 03/10/2006 19:09 Comments || Top||

#23  Let me add my voice to the others echoing that "the Rapture" is *not* a "central tenant of Christianity".
Posted by: Crusader || 03/10/2006 19:15 Comments || Top||

#24  Zenster, read the 10 commandments and then you'll have a much better idea of what I believe most Christians are striving for. The ones I associate with certainly are.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO || 03/10/2006 19:23 Comments || Top||

#25  attributing religious belief by bumper-sticker is not me sense of "investigation". Most, if not all Christians are happy where they are, not hoping for death. The point is, is when it happens (your death, more likely than "rapture") - you wanna be right with God and teh world. I find that a societally beneficial attitude, whether you're Christian or not. I, frankly, have more to do here on earth before welcoming my way elsewhere, but if it happens, so be it. That's the majority attitude. To say different due to extremists is beneath you
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 19:37 Comments || Top||

#26  And many Christians, myself included, believe the second coming is on a personal level (in other words accepting Christ) and not a physical manifestation. The predictions of the end in the bible (ie. the destruction of Jerusalem) actually did happen in 70AD, as predicted within that generation.
But I will agree there are some who believe otherwise. So be it. I'm not going to tell people what to think.
Posted by: gwlnt || 03/10/2006 20:40 Comments || Top||

#27  Frank G:
There is nothing in Islam that is parallel to Augustine's two-cities concept (Holy Jerusalem v Worldly Babylon in early Christianity). I have become convinced that the original civil-plan of Koran nation-building was implemented in Taliban Afghanistan. Every major Wahabi Sheik fatwahed on Taliban' authenticity to Koran prescriptions. When that model failed, educated Wahabi ignoramuses turned to the nominal "Andalusian" model, which in reality was Judaeo-Christianity with minarets. However, Muslims are being peddled a vision of a modern Khalifate, where there is peace and prosperity, once the Kafirs and Munifiquns (fake-Muslims, AKA: Shiites if one is a Sunni, and vice versa), are laid waste. A Muslim Reconquista ideology aptly describes the current aggression against the Euro-surrenderist dhimmocracy.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 20:46 Comments || Top||

#28  er....agreed, but that was almost Joe M-like...slow down :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 21:08 Comments || Top||

#29  I think there is a substantial difference between being a leader who is a Christian that believes that there will be 'End Times' when God decides the 'End Times' are upon us and being a Muslem leader who wants to be the guy who pushes the button to bring about those 'End Times.' Don't you, Zenster?

Absolutely, and that should already be clear. If not, please see below.

And many Christians, myself included, believe the second coming is on a personal level (in other words accepting Christ) and not a physical manifestation.

I can only wonder how many Christian theologians would argue that your definition, no matter how reasonable, is a cafeteria approach.

Frank, I can only hope that you've viewed the splendid documentary work by Frontline dealing with both the apocalypse and the life of Christ. They are 'From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians' and 'Apocalypse!'

I have watched the 'From Jesus to Christ' series with my Christian friends and they were very impressed and approving of it. So, please do not think my knowledge is derived solely from bumperstickers. On my bookshelf at home is the Oxford Annotated Bible which traces every passage back through Latin to ancient Greek and even into Aramaic where necessary.

That Jesus will return with judgement _is_ one of the central tenets, of course.

Unless you’re going to go all cafeteria on me that means you’re eagerly anticipating the arrival of Christ on this earth. His advent is generally considered to portend the end of life as we know it. So, rapture or not, this is an apocalyptic approach to faith. If you look into it, the apocalypse has been predicted dozens of times ever since the destruction of the Temple Mount, if not about fifteen minutes after Christ’s crucifixion. This not something that you just happen to have penciled in as a possibility for next summer’s vacation. It is an event that is central to your religion’s doctrine and deeply hoped for.

For some of us that's a hopeful doctrine: things won't always be this hellish of a mess.

That’s a nice sentiment, but it does not change how Christianity desires arrival of the end times. To the majority of this planet’s believers, namely Animists and Buddhists, a desire for this world’s demise might come off as, shall we say, a little odd?

When the rapture gets here it will and man cannot make it come sooner

While you may have such a reasonable approach to the second coming, not all Christians do. Nor does Iran’s Ahmadinejad. He fully believes that he can precipitate his Mahdi’s arrival by initiating a catastrophic war so dire as to summon forth divine help. Therefore, it is entirely reasonable to be concerned about just how well Bush is able to discriminate between his (probably) more benign observance and the much more alien intent of Ahmadinejad. If Bush is so hidebound in his own observance that he is unable to comprehend how someone else’s vision of the apocalypse might vary drastically from his own, then we have a problem of doctrine overshadowing a situation where reason would serve better. I’d say that’s a very justifiable concern.

And finally, this bit of bull’s pizzle:

Zenster takes every occasion to bash Pres. Bush--I think it's because Zen is a homosexual …

Why I’m bothering to respond to such baseless and factually incorrect drivel, I don’t know. After being labeled a troll and being subjected to baiting like only a professional troll is capable of, I can only laugh.

Gosh, perhaps you missed the “Iran sez they got a killing field waiting for the US” thread where I posted the following:

“My dislike for Bush is well known hereabouts, but this I vow. I will oppose any impeachment attempt based upon Bush attacking Iran, with or without congressional approval. I will demonstrate in the street and employ whatever speaking skills I have to persuade everyone I know with respect to this vital issue. America at large continues to be relatively blind regarding the threat we are confronted with. If Bush can summon the wisdom to unilaterally dismantle Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program, he will have my full support and defense from any repercussions in any way I can.

As I have said many times before, Iran obtaining nuclear weapons would go down in history as one of the most catastrophic events of this new century.”

Yeah, sure, that’s me taking “every occasion to bash Pres. Bush”. As to all the other trollery, it can only be explained by someone who blindly attacks another person without ever bothering to actually read that person’s writings. I’ll leave it at that.

I hope this clears things up a bit. Please remember that I vigorously support freedom of religion. If that means nothing to you then there really isn't much to be said.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 21:36 Comments || Top||

#30  Zen - rather than watching someone else's film, I've lived it. Is that not close enough for you to take my observations and views seriously. I don't need to hear from a single filmmaker to say that in my 46 years, no Catholic has said or hinted that they'd hope to be swept up in "Rapture/End times" soon, if ever. The Revelations are ome time in the far future in 99.9% people's minds. Only the Iranians nutjob welcomes the coming of teh 12th mahdi. I just don't think he'll realize it was U.S. GPS enabled, and he doesn't say much past the fury, flash, and light of a JDAM. Even less if the message is in hebrew - the atomic particles garble the way to hell, but he'll find it, eventually
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 22:01 Comments || Top||

#31  Zenster:
The President hears the same redundant "Death to America" chanting that you do. Enforcing the Bush-Doctrine (pre-emptive war against terrorism, that is: aggressive Islam) requires constant threat analysis, strategic positioning, operational flexibility and tactical silence. We can only speculate what will be done to squelch the Mullah threat, but don't assume either that the status quo is acceptable to the Bush Administration, or that they are weak to the point of impotence. The President is both subject to political influence from security hardliners, which includes Dems like Senator Liberman, and recipient of intelligence that speculators could only dream of. I think GWB will do the right thing on Iran, and bring the Euros on-line.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 22:20 Comments || Top||

#32  Frank, I thought you were not for the "kill em, kill em all" philosophy? I guess it all depends on whose world view is being discussed.
Posted by: Constitutional Individualist || 03/10/2006 22:31 Comments || Top||

#33  Frank, I take your views seriously, you should know that from the emails we've exchanged. I also attended a Christian Academy while growing up. I've had Christian girlfriends, business partners and co-workers. I've made a point of studying this world's various religions.

Back when I would spend the weekend at my Christian business partner's home, I made a point of attending his church service on any Sunday I ended up at his home. I could have just as easily driven off in my car. I wanted to have a better understanding of my friend.

It is not only just the "Iranians nutjob" that eagerly awaits the second coming. I have talked to a Christian businessman who told me he "wanted the second coming to happen tomorrow" even if it meant the world's destruction. And if the end times are some "time in the far future in 99.9% people's minds", then their relevance, save as some sort of metaphor, becomes dubious.

My Christian fundamentalist next door neighbors refused to get a dog right before Y2K, citing how they feared that pet food production might be interrupted. They truly believed there was a strong chance that the second coming would be timed to our incredibly arbitrary Julian calendar. So, please don't tell me how so many people do not take this issue seriously.

To make things perfectly clear. I do not think that Bush is planning foreign policy around his own immediate vision of end times. I am concerned that in his fundamentalist thinking, he may not be able to comprehend how Ahmadinejad's vision of the apocalypse is entirely mismatched with his own. That is a valid concern and one that is based in fact. All of it derives from just how extreme of a threat Iran is and that Bush seems incredibly blind to consider allowing Iran to possess nuclear technology of any sort.

I welcome arguments to the contrary. Throwing Iran, even a symbolic bone, in the shape of access to nuclear technology is the exact wrong message to be sending these dangerous lunatics. And yet, that is the message emmanating from the Oval Office.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 22:33 Comments || Top||

#34  We can only speculate what will be done to squelch the Mullah threat, but don't assume either that the status quo is acceptable to the Bush Administration, or that they are weak to the point of impotence.

LTD, where have I ever said anything remotely resembling any of the above? The only thing remotely resembling acceptance of the status quo is Bush's willingness to permit Iran's retention of nuclear technology. Despite Iran being a signatory of the NPT, their genocidal rhetoric should and must disqualify them from participating on equal terms with the global community. If Bush's appeasment of Iran is merely dissembling on his part, it is an atrocious choice of times to do so. His message is not clear cut in this respect, when it needs to be most.

To address something that trailing wife mentioned; I do not expect Bush to be "perfect" when it is far more important that at least "good" steps up to the plate. What has put me off my kibble is Bush's willingness to constantly inject religious doctrine into his administration's actions. The Office of Faith Based Giving, his well-publicized stance on Intelligent Design being taught in public schools, his support for a discriminatory constitutional clause disqualifying gay marriage all represent significant tampering with the very foundations of our nation's legalistic bedrock.

That we should be spilling precious Ameican blood abroad fighting theocratic regimes while simultaneously eroding the vital separation of church and state at home is more than I am willing to accept. The Patriot Act and other counter-terrorism measure faze me not a whit. I fully support what is being done to combat global terrorism. Never have you seen me anywhere drink the Kool-Aid of BusHitler, war crimes charges or impeachment. All of that is ripe steaming horsehockey. Tampering with the separation of church and state is not. That single feature of our constitution is among a very few essential rights that have propelled our nation to rightful supremacy in this world. I cannot and will not countenance even the slightest molestation of it and view such meddling as nothing short of treason. Ergo, my dissatisfaction and concern about just how influential a role religiosity plays in the executive branch of our nation.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 22:50 Comments || Top||

#35  Fuck Yoooooooouuuuuuu

Howard Stern Rules
Posted by: Bite My Nuts || 03/10/2006 17:06 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
How to Spot a Pirate (Seriously)
March 10, 2006: Although no one seem to have issued any "official" guidance, merchant mariners plying pirate-infested waters, as well as naval personnel conducting anti-piracy patrols, seem to have developed some simple "rules of thumb" to improve their chances of spotting pirates.

Boat Size: Most pirates, whether in the northwestern Indian Ocean, off Somalia, or in the region around the Straits of Malacca, are using relatively small boats, essentially the same size as used by the local fishermen. So if a couple of fishing skiffs try to approach you, watch out. And be especially careful if they're moving at a good clip. That's because ordinary fishermen are loath to open up their engines, since fuel is money.
Unlike American bass fisherman.....

Crew Size: Most fishing boats have at most three crewmen. If there are more than that in a boat, or in nearby several boats, it's likely that someone's up to no good.

Fishing Gear: If you don't spot nets or other equipment associated with fishing, the boat may be looking for bigger game.

Birds: Fishing boats usually are accompanied by little clouds of sea birds; no birds, no fish, and that means pirates.

Fishing Grounds: Even in the relatively undeveloped regions where piracy flourishes, local governments usually maintain websites identifying fisheries, particularly those in their exclusive economic zones. If you spot fishing boats far from any of these, caution would be advised

Weapons: Even if there are only two or three guys in a boat, if they're waving weapons around, it's probably a good idea to avoid them.
"Yar, we be simple, though heavily armed, fishermen!"
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birds: Fishing boats usually are accompanied by little clouds of sea birds; no birds, no fish, and that means pirates.

Unless of course, they have parrots onboard.
Posted by: Penguin || 03/10/2006 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  A few days ago someone here pointed out that

"You might be a pirate if..."

You are wearing camo pants under the traditional fishers' robes.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Try shouting "Yo ho! Yo Ho!" to the unidentified boaters. Pirates will respond with "It's the pirate's life for me!"
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  If you are cruising in pyrite pirate infested waters, it would be good to have a Ma Deuce or two on mounts aboard.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Look for peg-legs, and listen for cries of "Avast, ye scurvy lubbers!"
Posted by: mojo || 03/10/2006 10:33 Comments || Top||

#6  This article reads like rules of engagement for the Q-ship . . . once we get a Q-ship in commission, that is.
Posted by: Mike || 03/10/2006 10:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Argh!

(It just had to be said)
Posted by: Dreadnought || 03/10/2006 11:14 Comments || Top||

#8  I can't believe the Navy or Coast Guard hasn't built a handful of Q ships, loaded them with marines and just sailed around looking for trouble.

I'm surprised they haven't loaded GPS gear into the bulkhead of a ship, declared an emergency so as to leave it abandoned near pirate waters, and let the pirates take the boat to port to see where it goes.

I'm surprised they haven't gotten some cargo with GPS gear on it and (and some explosives) tried to have it shipped for super low cost hoping for a shady ship to take it on and disappear with it, leading them back to the pirate base where it could be detonated.

Two months with serious attitude and the pirates could be cleaned out.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/10/2006 11:16 Comments || Top||

#9  In addition to converting some freighters to Q-ships, we'll need a C&C ship. I have an idea:

US Navy CVN-21, USS John F Kennedy

It's being retired, is non-Nuclear, and still capable of putting up some serious air power...
Posted by: mojo || 03/10/2006 12:16 Comments || Top||

#10  The best bet is to send in the Pirates' natural enemies, THE NINJAS!:

Image hosting by Photobucket
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Lol, Moose. For those that wanna look like a ninja, at least, here's how...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:07 Comments || Top||

#12  Arrrr, I be a Pirate!!
pirate
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#13  Hi ya Ace!
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 13:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Looking good with the patch, Ace! Trolling for pirates. Will have to have a variety of vessels. As long as you sink each attacker and take out the crew (allah a la crab bait, lol) the trick won't be known. As soon as the first radio call comes in from Achmed on the doomed vessel to Somalia Control, the jig is up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||

#15  All hail Ace, four-hooved king of the pirates!
Posted by: Phil || 03/10/2006 16:00 Comments || Top||

#16  Hail, Ace.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 16:07 Comments || Top||

#17  I can't believe the Navy or Coast Guard hasn't built a handful of Q ships, loaded them with marines and just sailed around looking for trouble.

This could be a great hobby! Much more exciting than bass fishing. Time for Congress to get off their porky butts and issue some Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Argh, indeed!
Posted by: SteveS || 03/10/2006 16:14 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Video Games Can Save Your Life
March 10, 2006: The U.S. Army has discovered a remote control gun turret that works, and cannot get enough of them. The army wants over 9,000 CROWS (common remotely operated weapon stations), but is only getting 15 a month. There should be about a thousand CROWS in service by the end of the year.

The idea for CROWS has been around for nearly half a century. Years of tinkering, and better technology, eventually made the remote control gun turret effective and dependable. CROWS us a real life saver, not to mention anxiety reducer, for troops who drive through bandit country a lot, and have a turret mounted gun (usually in a hummer). The guy manning the turret mounted machine-gun is a target up there, and too often, the bad guys get you. Not with CROWS. The gunner is inside the vehicle, checking out the surroundings on a computer monitor (with night vision and telephoto capabilities). CROWS also has a laser rangefinder built in, as well as a stabilizer mechanism to allow more accurate fire while the vehicle is moving. The CROWS systems cost about $260,000 each, and can mount a variety of weapons (M2 .50 caliber machine-gun, MK19 40-mm automatic grenade launcher, M240B 7.62mm machine-gun and M249 5.56mm squad automatic weapon).

But there's another reason, not often talked about, for the success of CROWS. The guys operating these systems grew up playing video games. They developed skills in operating systems (video games) very similar to the CROWS controls. This was important, because viewing the world around the vehicle via a vidcam is not as enlightening (although a lot safer) than having your head and chest exposed to the elements, and any firepower the enemy sends your way. But experienced video gamers are skilled at whipping that screen view around, and picking up any signs of danger. Iraqis are amazed at how observant CROWS is. Iraqis tend to just wrote this off as another example of American "magic." But the troops know betters. Video games can save your life.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like an idea whose time has come - for border work... all of the borders we deal with...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope they are smart enough to put a lifelike dummy up in the turret to draw fire.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/10/2006 9:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Ma Deuce v2.0, with the improved point-and-click interface.
Posted by: Mike || 03/10/2006 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  What I find intriguing about this is that once you are operating by wire, the wire can become really, really long. Suddenly, your people don't have to be on-site and the weapon can be manned 24/7 if need be.

You also solve some packaging issues. Even the most battle hardened Marine is soft and squishy compared to hydraulics and circuit boards. Plus, he wants all sorts of creature comforts like oxygen, food, bathroom breaks, and a temperature range where water remains liquid.

As the article mentions, one of the biggest problems is how to give the operator situational awareness. Anyone who has played with a flight sim knows how hard it is to maintain a sense what is happening around you.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/10/2006 10:52 Comments || Top||

#5  In the borders thingy, I was picturing something like armored sensor kiosks - for lack of a better term.

You can put sound, IR, movement sensors which trigger an attention alarm. One operator could monitor literally dozens - as long as operators were available on short-notice call once one (or more) is triggered. Of course, you'd also have an alarm for a unit dropping out, such as someone cutting the power source.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Intergrating it with a metal storm system would rock!
Posted by: ShepUK || 03/10/2006 11:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Always to simple things US army arrives late.
Many soldiers died because HMMVV and M-113 doesnt have crew protected weapon stations. And many M113 CPWS were rusting in depots.
Posted by: Omoter Hupolurt9095 || 03/10/2006 11:20 Comments || Top||

#8  "That's all you do is play video games!!!!!
But mom, I want to be a soldier, it's a career move."
Posted by: plainslow || 03/10/2006 11:39 Comments || Top||

#9  SteveS: You're right, in that this is an intermediate step on the road to teleoperated or even fully autonomous weapons systems mounted on robots. (I seem to remember reading a book about that not too long ago.)
Posted by: Mike || 03/10/2006 14:11 Comments || Top||

#10  The army wants over 9,000 CROWS (common remotely operated weapon stations), but is only getting 15 a month. There should be about a thousand CROWS in service by the end of the year.

I have to laugh. There will be nothing like that quantity fielded by the end of the year. Maybe in Recon Optical's wet dream (they are the manufacturer).

CROWS is a good system, but it is heavy and expensive. It is not appropriate for a HMMWV as it overloads the already overloaded vehicle.

If the vehicle is down for service, that weapon system that is well more than twice the cost of the vehicle is down too.

CROWS and the similar Enforcer system made by Konnegsburg on the Stryker are for gunship-style vehicles, lead vehicles dedicated to a force protection role.

There are other lighter, much less expensive remote weapon systems that mount the M-240 7.62mm weapon that are appropriate for the majority of vehicles out there. These can be easily removed from the vehicle and placed on a tripod for checkpoint, perimeter security or remote sniper duty. They can be networked (unlike CROWS) together for FOB perimeter security. They can also be mounted on small UGV's for armed recon missions. Much more flexible, much more cost-effective and an ideal complement to the bigger CROWS and Enforcer systems.

And yes, video game skills do transfer to these weapon systems. This is first-person-shooter with the real thing.
Posted by: remoteman || 03/10/2006 17:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Yessirreee, boss, even da missles have their own missles, the lasers have lasers, etc. Imagine a single JSTARS, etal. carrying a handful of self-defense armed UAVS, where the latter UAV themselves each have enuff "babies" inside to = the firepower/abilities of a Cold War-sized escort fighter squadron, or better. And now you know yet another raeson why Russia-China, etal, believe war against America at or shortly after 2015-2018/2020 is not only possible, but DESIRED.
Gotta stop hyperpower America and its Allies somehow, some where, some time, and iff Comies-Lefties can't rule the world, NO ONE WILL. GOING TO TAKE THE WORLD WID THEM TO HELL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 23:06 Comments || Top||

#12  Phase 2:

Posted by: DMFD || 03/10/2006 23:43 Comments || Top||

#13  i was lost until i played vids

look at meeeeeee

HOWARD FUCKING RULES
Posted by: Eat Pig Shit || 03/10/2006 17:08 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
El Jefe Gets New Jet, Doubles as "Venezuelan Worker" Transport
Airbus loses yet another sale....sheesh.

Cuba is buying one of Russia's most up-to-date airliners, carefully crafted for President Fidel Castro's personal comfort. The purchase is part of an initial Cuban order for two brand new Ilyushin planes worth $110 million (£63 million) which Russian officials say is a shot in the arm for their struggling airline industry.

To head off criticism that a new presidential jet is an expensive luxury in austere times, Cuba says one of its new planes is being used to ferry workers to and from Venezuela. And anyone else who can pay in advance with hard currency....big bills ok. Call now to make YOUR reservation! 1-800-FLYELJEFE

To finance the deal, Cuba has paid 15% of the total sum up front, the rest coming from a 10-year loan from Russian banks.

Russian NTV Mir television said the designers at Ilyushin had worked hard to give Mr Castro as smooth and secure a journey as possible. "This is a sofa bed on which he can spend his hours of rest or read a book from his own library. Everything has been designed to be as ergonomic as possible, with a personal reading lamp," designer Aleksandr Kuchukhidze told the channel.

The interior of President Castro's new presidential plane
Designers have used beige colours throughout the plane. Principal interior designer Anton Nikolayev added: "Beige colours will predominate. Business meetings and talks can be held here." The station showed the little luxuries the president could expect: a DVD player, drinks bar and leather seats. But security is paramount too: the plane comes with armoured cockpit doors and a system for making bombs safe. I don't think Boeing has that option.

The report showed the Ilyushin Il-96-300, built in Voronezh, being handed over at Havana's Jose Marti airport. It said the order was one of the biggest the Voronezh Ilyushin plant had secured this decade. "These are the first Russian civilian aircraft to have been exported in the last 15 years," Ilyushin finance director Aleksandr Rubtsov said.

"We are convinced that Cuba can become a springboard for exporting our planes, above all in the countries of Latin America." Just tell ol' Hugo that Condi digs anything Russian...especially planes. He'll spring for a couple...

Russia and Cuba plan to sign another contract in Cuba on 10 March for the supply of a further five airliners, for an undisclosed sum. Cuba has been a key customer of Soviet-built aircraft - whether civilian Ilyushins or military MiGs - since the Cold War era. Even today, Cuban pilots for the newest Ilyushins are being trained in Russia, and Ilyushin engineers are in to Havana to school ground crews on maintaining the planes.
Well, that inspires confidence. They've got such a great track record
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 03/10/2006 09:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...and we'll toss in the Iranian maintenance for free.
Posted by: Mr. Ilyushin || 03/10/2006 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Next thing you know he'll want overflight and landing rights.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe he wants to join the Mile High Club
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 03/10/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Bet it can't outrun a Standard ER-2.
Posted by: Mike || 03/10/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#5  :>
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:20 Comments || Top||

#6  foot pegs in the wheel wells for those "passengers" - "dress warm!"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Aimless Antagonism in Armenia
March 10, 2006: There seems to be a pattern here, in the post-Cold War confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. One side or the other cranks up the rhetoric, then there's a border incident or two, then both sides dampen down the flames. On March 7th, troops from Azerbaijan and Armenia fired machine-guns and mortars across the border. One Azerbaijani soldier was killed, and several wounded.

Both countries continue to disagree over possession of Nagorno-Karabakh, a 4,400 square kilometer district, full of Armenians, surrounded by Azerbaijani territory. Technically, there has been a truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan since 1994. But it has been a hot truce. Between 1991 and 1994 there was a war between the two countries over Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenia won. Some 20,000 people died, and over a million (400,000 Armenians and 700,000 Azerbaijanis) fled their homes as Armenia occupied 31,000 square kilometers of Azerbaijani territory, to connect Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Most of the refugees were from areas dominated by one group, who drove out the minority. Some 40,000 Azerbaijani civilians were driven from Nagorno-Karabakh. The situation was humiliating for Azerbaijan, who saw it as yet another example of more powerful and wealthier (via oil fields) Moslems being defeated by a smaller number of armed and more capable Christians. The Armenians have survived, although surrounded by Moslems, for centuries. But the Armenian economy is a disaster, particularly since Turkey and Azerbaijan have closed their borders with Armenia. Since the early 1990s, the best educated Armenians have been immigrating. They join a three million strong community of expatriate Armenians. This group can raise millions of dollars on short notice, and have provided the emergency funds when needed for the fighting against Azerbaijan. Some twelve percent of the 150,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are armed and organized to defend the mountainous area, and are backed up by even more troops in Armenia. .

But Azerbaijan is making a serious effort to create an effective military. In the early 1990s, better trained, led and organized Armenian troops defeated more numerous, but inferior Azerbaijani. This defeat was largely caused by Azerbaijani corruption and double dealing among themselves. Moreover, the Armenians have a military tradition going back centuries.

Azerbaijan has been debating this sorry situation for over a decade, but there was no popular will for another round of fighting. That is changing, and the government is putting lots more money into the military (from $175 million in 2004, to over $500 million this year.) A new generation of Azerbaijani commanders, trained in the West, not Russia, are in charge. Corruption is still a crippling presence in the Azerbaijani army, but there is more attention to training, and preparing for another round of fighting. This time, the Azerbaijanis are talking about invading Armenia itself.

There's no certainty that the more numerous, wealthier, and now motivated Azerbaijanis would be able to push the Armenians back. Maybe not this decade, maybe not this generation. But it's the attempt you have to watch out for. The Azerbaijanis can afford to buy lots of artillery, warplanes and foreign advisors. Moreover, Azerbaijan is a dictatorship, and there's no better way to distract an unhappy population than a little more war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Bomb explodes at Hindu temple on Indonesian island
POSO, Indonesia - A small bomb exploded Friday outside a Hindu temple on an Indonesian island that has been plagued by religious violence, seriously wounding a man who was guarding the compound, police said. The blast on the outskirts of Poso, a coastal town on Sulawesi island, was caused by a low-intensity bomb that was placed in the home of the temple’s guard, said Poso’s deputy police chief, Maj. Andreas Wayan. It detonated when the 40-year-old man, Nengah Sugiarta, opened the door, causing the roof and wooden walls to collapse, he said. “Whoever did this wanted to create panic and spread terror here in Poso,” Wayan said, adding that police found black powder, nails, shrapnel and a battery at the scene, indicating the bomb was homemade.

Hundreds of onlookers gathered around the temple after the blast, which riddled Sugiarta’s legs and waist with shrapnel and wood. The Hindu man, who has been the temple’s guard for 15 years, was taken to a nearby hospital.

Some 3,000 security personnel have been deployed to the region - where Muslim-Christian clashes in 2001-2002 left more than 1,000 dead - following a resurgence of violence several months ago. Most of the victims in the latest attacks, including market bombings and the beheadings of three school girls, have been Christian. Wayan said it was too early to say who was behind Friday’s attack - the first to target Hindus in Poso, a city 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

Police questioned three residents who were near the temple at the time of the blast, he said, providing no other details.

Though nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 210 million people are Muslim, Poso’s population has an almost equal number of Christians and also a small number of Hindus, most of whom arrived from the island of Bali in the last three decades.
The government moved thousands of Hindus to Sulawesi and other islands after the 1963 eruption of the Agung volcano, one of the most powerful in the 20th century, devastated dozens of villages on the mountainside in eastern Bali.

A local Hindu leader, I Wayan Sumariasa, condemned Friday’s explosion and questioned the motive, saying his community had good relations with Muslims and Christians living nearby. “I don’t understand why our temple became the target ,” he said. “We don’t know who would have done this.”
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wayan said it was too early to say who was behind Friday’s attack

Hint: they were at prayers listening to an imam telling them to enslave the unbelievers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  This is a perfect example of why I want Islam outlawed and banned from the earth. These are all the same nationality. People living and playing together throughout the centuries. But enter the caveman religion of blood, Islam, and now they bomb. Next, will be rape, kidnapping, murder, more bombing, and dhimmitude.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/10/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#3  What is this, International Piss Off the Hindus week or something?
Posted by: mojo || 03/10/2006 10:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Damn, that's a surprise. First, years of ongoing murdering of Christians on this outlying island. Then, BOOM ! A Hindu temple just up and explodes.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 03/10/2006 10:47 Comments || Top||

#5  "Whoever did this wanted to create panic and spread terror here in Poso"

With insight like that and he's only Deputy Police chief?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 14:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pak court frees doctors convicted of treating militants
KARACHI - A Pakistani court on Friday freed two doctor brothers who had each been sentenced to seven years in prison last year for giving money and medical treatment to militants, their lawyer said. The brothers, Akmal and Arshad Waheed, were found guilty in March last year on a charge of harboring members of a domestic militant group called Jundallah, blamed by authorities for a series of terrorist attacks in the country. They were also convicted of providing members with medical treatment covertly, providing them financial assistance and sending them for terrorism training.

On Friday, a two-judge panel of the Sindh High Court in Karachi quashed the convictions and ruled that the physicians be freed, said their lawyer, Ilayas Khan. Iqtidar Hashmi, a prosecution lawyer, said he would make a decision on whether to appeal the court’s decision after seeking instructions from the government. The doctors, whose trial was held last year in a jail for security reasons, have said that they had done nothing wrong by providing medical treatment to war-wounded people from Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bet their names are Mudd
Posted by: DMFD || 03/10/2006 23:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Three killed as Afghan police clash with suspected Taleban
KABUL - Two suspected Taleban rebels and one policeman were killed in a three-hour clash between insurgents and security forces in restive southern Afghanistan on Friday, police said. Three police and an unknown number of Taleban fighters were also wounded in the fierce exchange of fire in Dishu district of Helmand province, which shares a long border with Pakistan, provincial police chief Abdul Rehman Khan said. “One policeman and two Taleban were killed in the three-hour clash with police in Dishu district,” Khan told AFP.

The fighting started when a group of Taleban attacked a police post shortly after midnight, he said. Two Taleban bodies were still at the site Friday and there were bloodstains on the ground that showed that a number of wounded Taleban had escaped the area, he said.

A purported Taleban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an undisclosed location but said they had killed at least 10 police in the attack. “Our Mujahideen (holy warriors) attacked the police post at midnight and killed 10 police. One Talib was also wounded in the incident,” said Hanif.

The attack comes amid a heavy opium poppy eradication campaign by the government using tractors and hundreds of men and soldiers in the area, but police said the Taleban attack was not related to the eradication process. “The eradication campaign is still ongoing successfully,” Khan told AFP. The police post attacked is in an area called Rabatak, which is close to a famous drugs bazaar.

In a similar incident in Nangarhar province on Thursday two suspected Taleban rebels and a woman were killed in an clash with police. There are frequent attacks against US-led and Afghan forces by remnants of the ousted Taleban, mainly in south and southeastern Afghanistan along the porous border with Pakistan. US and other foreign troops are helping Afghan forces try to stem a deadly insurgency launched by the extremist Taleban after they were removed from power in a US-led military operation in late 2001. Violence, most of it blamed on the insurgency, was responsible for more than 1,600 deaths last year - mostly militants killed by security forces.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 09:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lovers of Islam Unite! - Pancakes for Mohammed, peace be upon Her

Keep your calendars open for Sunday, March 18th, at 11 AM for the first annual Pancakes for Mohammed, peace be upon Her, Sunday Pancake Fundraiser at Dennys. This is a great way to raise money for our Islam saving cause while eating great pancakes. And remember, “Hold the sausage please!”

For those of us who are trying to convince our Muslim brothers and sisters about the true gender of the Prophet, peace be upon Her, come out and speak up and bring a few shekels to donate. Also, be sure and bring your best drawing of the Prophet, peace be upon Her. I propose that each group vote on the best depiction of the Prophet, peace be upon Her and pay for the winning artist to eat for free.

Now remember, drawing the Prophet with a bomb on Her head has already been done, so please, choose something else.
Posted by: mohammedisawoman@yahoo.com || 03/10/2006 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 12:05 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Car Bomb Kills Police Official in Southern Russian City
A car bomb exploded outside a government office in the southern Russian city of Makhachkala on Friday, killing one police official, the The Associated Press reported quoting local police spokeswoman. The RIA-Novosti news agency said that the blast killed one person and wounded another, but ministry spokeswoman Marina Rasulova could not immediately confirm that. She said a car exploded next to the regional office of the Emergency Situations Ministry, located in the center of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

However, a short time later Ms. Rasulova elaborated that the blast had killed the deputy head of the ministry‘s criminal investigation department, Magomed Magomedov, who was sitting in a car parked next to the regional office of the Emergency Situations Ministry.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 08:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a civil war. Pull out.
Posted by: plainslow || 03/10/2006 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Quagmire!
Posted by: RJB in JC MO || 03/10/2006 19:27 Comments || Top||


Europe
Dutch jail 'terror group' Muslims
A court has convicted nine Muslims of belonging to a terrorist group and planning to attack Dutch politicians, jailing them for up to 15 years. Two men in the so-called Hofstad group were jailed for 15 and 13 years for using hand grenades against police. The court did not pass a jail term on the group's leader, Mohammed Bouyeri, as he is already serving life in prison for murdering film-maker Theo van Gogh.

The trial has been treated as a test of tough new anti-terror legislation. The new laws enable the Dutch government to prosecute those suspected of being potential terrorists.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 08:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yay Holland. It's a long time coming, but they are finally getting their laws caught up with the new realities.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 9:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tehran Mulls Taking UN Atomic Agency To Hague Court
Vienna, 10 March. (AKI) - A member of the Iranian delegation to the UN atomic energy agency board meeting in Vienna says Tehran may take the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the International Tribunal in the Hague. The Iranian diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous, underlined that under the IAEA statute, no signatory of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) can be asked to suspend its nuclear activities. "Almost all the 16 resolutions approved by the IAEA on Iran ask our country to suspend part of its nuclear programme" he said. "There are all the conditions to bring the IAEA to the international court, given that under article 17 of this body's statute the competent court for disputes between the agencies and member states is the Hague" the diplomat added.

Western nations, spearheaded by the US, argue that Tehran's failure to fully comply with the NPT's delegated monitoring body, the IAEA, means it is reneging its obligations as an NPT signatory.

In the Iranian capital there are also rumours that the government plans to open up a second judicial battle front, this time to request financial compensation for the damage suffered from the suspension of uranium enrichment. In this second case, the government is reportedly considering denouncing the governments of Britain, France and Germany - all members of the EU trio which has for two years been engotiating with Tehran to ensure transparency in its nuclear activities and reassure the international community that its civilian nuclear programme is not a cover for creating atomic weapons. These government, according to Tehran, are guilty of not having respected an accord signed in Paris on 15 November 2004 with the government of former president Mohammed Khatami.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 08:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Please, please do this. Please. I've got the popcorn cart clean and ready to go. And the cotton candy machine.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 8:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll bring the lemonade, sodas and beer.
Posted by: lotp || 03/10/2006 9:00 Comments || Top||

#3  An international agency can request an advisory opinion from the ICJ, but IIUC a country can bring suit against another country, but not against a UN agency. In any case the ICJ has no enforcement mechanism, aside from actions of the UNSC. And of course if the UNSC took Irans side the IAEA referral would be moot.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 9:14 Comments || Top||

#4  'under article 17 of this body's statute the competent court for disputes between the agencies and member states is the Hague" the diplomat added.'

Oh. didnt know that. Still, id have a hard time seeing the ICJ strike down an IAEA res backed by most of the P5. BTW, I still havent seen a list of which countries voted for the referral resolution.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 9:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Another bid to buy time. If we go along with it, we're fools.

Yet another reason to treat the UN and the ICJ with contempt, IMHO.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||

#6  I just like the mental image of Larijani trotting off to Den Haag, imploring the international community to "Do Something, mommy. The Americans are being mean to me again."
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 9:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Iran needs a Dirty Harry moment....

You gotta ask yourself....do you feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?
Posted by: PlanetDan || 03/10/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Now Dan,

In tribute to Clint ya gotta get it right...

You gotta ask yourself....do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/10/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#9  "Another bid to buy time. If we go along with it, we're fools."

doesnt buy time at all. The UNSC process moves along apace, the ICJ suit will be in parallel. If the UNSC is going to stop and wait for the ICJ, i havent heard of it.

Purely a propaganda move, afaict.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 9:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Jesus, LH, you haven't been paying attention. Iran has just involved one of the tranzi's holy bodies; anything taken to the UNSC will be met with "give the process a chance", no matter that the process is meaningless.

Keep clicking your heels and wishing, but the international community ain't gonna do squat to or about Iran. The only question is who will block it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 10:18 Comments || Top||

#11  They might fellate them, RC. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:20 Comments || Top||

#12  Oh, no, not the hag
Posted by: Captain America || 03/10/2006 12:16 Comments || Top||

#13  "Jesus, LH, you haven't been paying attention. Iran has just involved one of the tranzi's holy bodies; anything taken to the UNSC will be met with "give the process a chance", no matter that the process is meaningless."

We shall see. Id rather see what actually happens.

I agree theres a real chance the Russians will block sanctions. I doubt very much that the ICJ will come into play however. If the Russians try to delay it will be based on their "negotiations" not on ICJ involvement.



Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#14  And the ICJ gives them a convenient excuse.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 15:17 Comments || Top||

#15  They can delay if they want to without that. "the real chance for a negotiated settlement", even if its phony, has more clout than the ICJ for a delay - not that some folks arent interested in the ICJ, but an ICJ suit has nothing (legally) to do with the UNSC's schedule, and i think everyone knows that.


Besides if the Russkies thought the referall might be not just mistaken, but illegal, they presumably would have voted no on the IAEA board - does ANYONE have the record of the vote? I havent seen it.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 16:33 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mine Hits Wedding Bus In Baluchistan
Islamabad, 10 March (AKI) - At least 26 people have been killed and several others injured when a bus carrying wedding guests, including women and children, hit a landmine in the troubled south-western Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
Normally bombs are delivered to Pakistani weddings instead of the other way around

The incident happened near the town of Rakhni, about 300 kilometres from the provincial capital Quetta, at about 8.30 am local time, Raziq Bugti, a spokesperson for the provincial government, told journalists in Quetta. He also said the mine had been planted by tribal rebels fighting the security forces.

Baluchistan is the source of Pakistan's main gas reserves and has been the scene of increased violence between rebels and security forces. The rebels are demanding greater political and economic rights. The tribal separatists have targeted gas plants, electricity lines and railway tracks. Thousands of paramilitary and army troops, backed by jets and helicopter gunships, began a major offensive in December. Baluch nationalist leaders claim hundreds of people, including women and children, have been killed in bombardments in the Kohlu district. The military has denied the allegations, saying it was targeting only "terrorists."

It has been difficult to confirm the conflicting claims, but reports say this latest blast is one of the heaviest civilian casualties in a single incident.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 08:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Normally bombs are delivered to Pakistani weddings instead of the other way around
Now that, that's damn chilly.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 17:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Who's mine was it anyway?
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 18:11 Comments || Top||


Surveillance Flights Begin In Waziristan
Karachi, 10 March (AKI) - US surveillance aircraft have begun flights across the tribal belt of North Waziristan which lies on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Tribal sources told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the flights have been taking place over the last two days, coming soon after the meetings in Islamabad this week between the top US military comander, General John Abizaid, and Pakistani authorities. The aim of the meetings was to sort out a mechanism to combat cross-border infiltration by militants and at the same time ensure that neither Pakistan nor the allied troops will then face complaints of breaching borders. "The aircraft comes from the Afghan side, goes up to the Datakhail area [near the 'capital' Miran Shah] and around and then it goes back,” said a tribal source in a telephone interview with AKI on the condition of anonymity.

Similar flights were observed before the the controversial US attack on the Bajaur Agency in January in which 13 civilians were killed in apparent missile strikes carried out by US-led forces. Currently there are 20,000 American troops in Afghanistan but Pakistan does not officially allow them to operate across the border. Pakistan for its part has deployed 80,000 troops in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. North Waziristan has been the scene of recent fierce clashes between the Pakistani troops and pro-Taliban tribal militants. Officials say that at least 140 people have been killed.

According to sources, soon after the recent demolition of an Islamic seminary or madrassa run by wanted cleric Maulana Abdul Khaliq in North Waziristan earlier this week, the situation in the tribal area has deteriorated. Pakistani officials said that Khaliq had been using the religious school as a meeting place for militants in the area. Khaliq, together with another cleric, Maulvi Sadiq Noor, are believed to be leading the pro-Taliban militants in the area.
"Islamabad has so mishandled the situation, that it is now beyond any control," tribal sources told AKI. "Now the governor of [Pakistan's] North West Frontier Province and even [Pakistani president] General Pervez Musharraf are meeting with tribal leaders to try and sort out the situation but ironically it is beyond the control of all of them," the source said.

For the first time in the history of North Waziristan, the tribal leaders have become powerless in their own areas. After centuries of their control, teenagers and young men in 20s are now the ones who claim to be in power in North Waziristan. Most of them are not the students in any Islamic seminary yet they choose to refer to themselves as Taliban [which literally means 'student'] as a mark of kinship with the hardline Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

These Pakistani Taliban, as they are generally referred to, are those who fought alongside the Taliban regime during the initial days of the movement and they took their ideological inspiration from them. When these Taliban returned to the tribal regions of North Waziristan from where they originally belong, they spread the Afghan Taliban ideology and currently these militants refer to themselves as Pakistani Taliban and they pledge their allegiance to Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban have in recent months established their power centres all over North and South Waziristan where they now resolve local disputes, provide a system of policing against bandits and robbers, resolve family feuds and provide counseling in family and religious matters. The new system has rooted out the old tribal jirga system (tribal councelling).

In fact, the tribal jirga began to lose its significance when former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif introduced political reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and instead allowed the representation of tribal leaders in Pakistan's National Assembly and Senate through a system of votes. Previously, FATA had representation in the tribal region but only through the tribal jirga. The jirga used to comprise powerful Maliks or tribal chiefs who would then only elect a member among themselves. As a result, only tribal chiefs, usually the richest and most powerful were then made the members of the senate and national assembly. Once At one time, people such as Ayub Afridi, who was believed to be the biggest drug baron in the world, was elected on tribal seat in the national assembly of Pakistan.

This method of choosing tribal representation eventually destroyed the system in which the strongest or richest leaders were always elected. During the 2002 elections, even less powerful and poorer clerics managed to secure a seat in the national assembly. For example, in North Waziristan, Pir Nek Zaman is member of the national assembly and he comes from a very modest background. He lives in a mud hut in Razmak, North Waziristan and does not even own a vehicle.

However, the recent emergence of the Pakistani Taliban has turned the tables yet again. Over 100 tribal chiefs have been killed by the Pakistani Taliban on the suspicion of supporting the government of Pakistan and many of those still alive have fled from North Waziristan or have decided to live under the control of these young pro-Taliban militants.

According to sources, the current situation in North Waziristan suggests that an all out war is looming in the valleys of this tribal belt, with the US-led allied forces stationed on Afghan side of the border and Pakistani troops stationed in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.
I'll like to call this a hammer and anvil opportunity, but since the Paks seem to be using a Nerf mallet, I'll pass
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 08:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  introduced political reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
Like Jeff Davis introduced the minimum wage.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 17:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Are copis being sent to Delhi in real time?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 17:43 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Catholic Leader Objects to New Cardinal
A leader of China's state-controlled Catholic church said Friday he suspected the Vatican appointed an anti-communist Hong Kong bishop to be cardinal because the pope wanted to play a role in the Communist Party's demise.

Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, noted that the Roman Catholic Church was active in toppling communism in Poland in 1989. Liu suggested that Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, whose appointment to cardinal was announced last month, would be part of a similar strategy in China.

"Why would you appoint someone who doesn't support communism as a cardinal?" Liu said in an interview in Beijing with Hong Kong Cable TV.

"Is it like Poland? Didn't the church play a big role in Poland?" Liu asked.

Liu argued that socialism and Christianity were compatible.

"China's socialist system comes from God. We should all protect it and obey it. This is what the Bible tells us to do," he said.

China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communists took power. People can worship only in government-controlled churches, which recognize the pope as a spiritual leader but appoint their own priests and bishops.

But millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome. They say they are frequently harassed, fined and sometimes sent to labor camps by authorities.

On Thursday, Zen said in a statement that comparing China and Poland "is an act of far-fetched imagination."

"It is obvious that Catholics do not accept communism because of its atheistic premises," he said.

Zen noted that Liu speaks for the state-run church, and said that Chinese Catholics can't freely voice their opinions about the church.

"If freedom were granted to the bishops, priests and faithful to speak out, one would hear views that are very different from those expressed by Mr. Liu," he said.
Sounds like Liu is a member of the US Council of Bishops. Catholic or Episcopalian, take your choice.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/10/2006 08:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Is it like Poland? Didn't the church play a big role in Poland?" Liu asked.

Yeah, but not the way the Chinese rulers would like.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Bishop Joseph Zen has been around for quite some time, I think.
Posted by: Whumble Whater5278 || 03/10/2006 19:16 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The Democrats are the real party of arrogance
by Byron York
How many times have you heard Democrats describe George W. Bush as “arrogant”?

Too many to count. And truth be told, a number of unhappy Republicans are using the A-word themselves when referring to the president these days.

But if you want to see arrogance — lots and lots of it — you need look no further than the Democratic Party’s plan to win the House and Senate this November.

Simply put, Democrats believe they can ask voters to give them control of the legislative branch without revealing any sort of policy or plan to deal with the most pressing issue before the country today: the war in Iraq.

And Bush is arrogant?

Not only do Democrats not have a plan, they’re proud of not having a plan.

Last December, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sat down with a group of reporters and editors of The Washington Post. The journalists asked what Democrats would do about Iraq were they to win power in 2006.

“Pelosi said Democrats will produce an issue agenda for the 2006 elections but it will not include a position on Iraq,” the Post reported. “There is no one Democratic voice ... and there is no one Democratic position,” Pelosi said.”

It was dramatic proof of the party’s disarray on the war, but the Post gave the story the most charitable headline possible: “Pelosi Hails Democrats’ Diverse War Stances.”

A better choice would have been: “Pelosi: Dems Have No Clue On Iraq.”

Now, three months later, Pelosi’s party is no closer to having a clue. And unfortunately for them, the voters know it.

Just look at the results of the latest Post poll, released this week. In the survey, the paper asked, “Do you think the Democrats in Congress do or do not have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq?”

Seventy percent of those polled said the Democrats do not have a clear plan, versus 24 percent who said they do. (If there is anyone among that 24 percent who would like to share what the clear Democratic plan is, he or she should call Nancy Pelosi immediately.)

Of course, just 34 percent say the Bush administration has a clear plan, but that leaves the question: Why give power to a group that has even less of an idea what to do?

The Post also asked, “Which political party do you trust to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq?”

Despite all of the setbacks in the war, despite its growing unpopularity, Democrats had no advantage. Forty-two percent chose them, and 42 percent chose Republicans.

The Democrats’ numbers on that issue have been falling for months. In November 2005, 48 percent of those questioned by the Post trusted Democrats to handle the situation in Iraq — versus 37 percent who trusted Republicans. In December and January, the Democrats’ number ticked downward to 47 percent and has now fallen to 42 percent.

That’s not exactly a show of confidence in Democratic leadership.

Nor is there much faith in the party’s ability to handle other issues. The Post asked, “Overall, which party, the Democrats or the Republicans, do you trust to do a better job in coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years?

Forty-two percent said Democrats, and 40 percent said Republicans, while 14 percent said neither.

As recently as January, Democrats had a significant lead in that category, 51 percent to the GOP’s 37 percent. Now, nearly all of that is gone.

The paper also asked whether respondents have a favorable or unfavorable impression of each party. Results for Republicans were 51 percent favorable, 46 percent unfavorable. For Democrats, it was 55 percent favorable, 41 percent unfavorable.

After Abramoff, Katrina, prescription drugs — after everything, that’s not much of an advantage.

As for that elusive agenda, Pelosi and her colleagues are still working on it. Even without Iraq, they don’t appear to be able to agree on much of anything. There were reports the agenda would be out last year, and then early this year, but so far nothing has happened.

Questions that were unanswered many months ago are still unanswered. Should they come up with their own version of the Contract with America? Some say yes, and some say no. Right now, “no” is winning. Tomorrow, maybe “yes” will be winning.

And how about a slogan? Surely that’s simple enough that everyone can agree, right?

Well, it took Democratic leaders months to come up with their big, catchy sales pitch: “Together, America can do better.” But now the Post reports that “there is an effort afoot to drop the word “together.” It tests well in focus groups and audiences, Democratic sources said, but it makes the syntax incorrect.”

Ouch. After all that work, they’re still looking for a few words to summarize what they stand for.

Well, if “together” tests so well, how about “Together, together, we can’t get our act together”?
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 06:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Illegals March madness
The fifth column is marching.

Supporters of illegal immigration, open borders - and perhaps Mexico - have been taking it to the streets of America lately. Protesters are demanding the U.S. Senate kill legislation that would kill the overflow of illegal aliens swamping this republic.

House Resolution 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, is sponsored by James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis. It directs the Department of Homeland Security to "take all actions necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire land and maritime border of the United States ... ."

For starters.

Mr. Sensenbrenner's bill also calls for mandatory minimum sentences for illegals, penalties for their enablers (including employers), a good fence along the Mexican border and so much more. The text of the bill is available online at judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/immbillsection.pdf.

"It criminalizes people and does not offer solutions," said Omar N. Lopez, coordinator of a protest march today in the Chicago area by almost 80 organizations. "It calls for the expulsion of undocumented workers."

Maybe after the march Mr. Lopez could explain how one criminalizes a foreigner whose mere presence on American soil makes him an illegal.

Criminalizing those who help illegals is a darn good solution. Arresting an employer of illegals and then making him do the perp walk in handcuffs would send a message that everyone would understand.

And what does Lopez, a naturalized American citizen from Mexico, think about a sturdy fence along the border?

"It's a terrible idea," he said. "In America we love democracy. We rejoiced when the Berlin Wall came down. So to build a wall is just a complete contradiction with the principles of democracy in America.

"The Border Patrol testified in Washington that a wall would do nothing to stop the flow. We need more technology."

Mr. Lopez might want to brush up on Cold War history. The Berlin Wall was very effective in preventing East Germans from crossing into freedom. Lethally, so.

When did deterrence contradict America's democratic principles?

"It's a sign of how difficult it is to enforce laws even as modest as the provisions of Sensenbrenner's bill," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "They are furiously opposed by activist groups."

Since public opinion polls constantly indicate that an overwhelming rainbow coalition of everyday Americans oppose illegal immigration, why don't the politicians inside the Beltway do something about it -- like maybe defending the southern border to stop the invasion?

"Overwhelming support for something does not automatically translate into policy," Mr. Krikorian said. But the intensity of the opinion matters a lot. It's not a high-priority issue for most Americans. But for those who favor illegals (to derive money or power) it is much more important, he said.

Why are some Americans not so passionate about defending the border?

"The main reasons are ambivalence about immigration and fear about name-calling," Krikorian said.

Mr. Lopez says racism is one of the reasons groups opposed to illegal immigration support the bill.

But how big a role does that play?

"I'd say 99 percent," Lopez said.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 06:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  People want to emigrate and work in the west...

There's a demand for these types of workers...

The answer is simple. Come up with a rational basis for immigration numbers (say long term vacancies minus unemployed) and AUCTION those places off to foreign bidders.

The money raised should be returned direct to citizens.

Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/10/2006 8:31 Comments || Top||

#2  That's funny....my sweetie (still waiting for the FBI to finish up his background check so he can finally get his green card) thinks that a fence wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I guess he and the rest of his buddies from the old country, who completed the total pain-in-the-ass legal process and live here now with the appropriate documentation, are anti-immigrant and didn't realize it.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 03/10/2006 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  "The Border Patrol testified in Washington that a wall would do nothing to stop the flow."

Contrary to Mr. Lopez’s statement the Border Patrol reps unanimously testified that existing fences have a measurable deterrence. They also all agreed that building more fences was a good idea. Their concerns regarding the “wall” were about logistics. For instance, rugged terrain in some areas makes the concept of building a “continuous” wall problematic. Also the question of responsibility as to which entity would be responsible for maintenance. (ie. Replacing lights and sensors that are shot out is currently a problem) But the biggest concern had to do with lack of man-power and who would be responsible in the event that the wall is breached.
It’s amazing how some people regarding this issue have no problem with telling flat-out lies.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  However, this just all treats the symptoms and not the underlying cancer which is the fundamentally base corrupt government of Mexico. Its time to stop being cordial with it. Its time to actively undermine it.
Posted by: Gloluper Omick7641 || 03/10/2006 9:13 Comments || Top||

#5  It is clear that Mr Lopez is a racist and doesn't think the Mexican government can possibly provide the jobs and basic needs for thousands of Mexicans as most countries are able to do or that Mexican workers can manage to fill out the paperwork required by immigrants from every other country in the world.

I find racists disgusting and even more so when he appears to be a self-hating racist.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/10/2006 11:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Today's Tucson (excuse for a) newspaper touts "50 news Miles of Border Fence" for a cover headline.
As if....
Posted by: borgboy || 03/10/2006 12:12 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
U.N. emergency fund opens with half needed pledges
The Vampire Elites spring into action...
The United Nations' new global emergency fund began work on Thursday with slightly more than half the $500 million dollars its director had hoped for.
We ordered a really big pot. Please fill it with money so we can "manage" it and take credit for everything, k?
The first grants from the Central Emergency Fund went to drought-stricken northeastern Africa and western Ivory Coast, where angry mobs recently burned down U.N. aid offices. The dollar amounts of the grants were not given.
They're, um, classified. It's a special feature of the new "transparency" thingy.
The fund opened for business with pledges totaling just $256 million from 36 donor governments. Canada, Australia, Spain and the United States were among governments announcing pledges at the launch.
*groan*
The goal had been to raise $500 million, but U.N Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said the response nonetheless amounted to "a big step" forward as the sole source of emergency funds had previously been a U.N. standby loan facility of just $50 million.
Yes, we have so much more to play with now! No more 3-star hotels - we're waay too important. Now about that 7% tax thingy...
But international relief group Oxfam has argued the fund would need $1 billion to ensure an adequate U.N. response.
Hey! We want in, too!
"The fund will make us quicker, more flexible and predictable" in dealing with both man-made humanitarian disasters like the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region and with natural disasters like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Egeland said.
We have a track record of doing nothing, even when funded, but we hold the most fabulous press conferences!
He had asked for the fund after the tsunami, and the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly approved it last December.
Classic Other People's Money UN Resolution.
The idea is to give the world body the ability to quickly send emergency supplies to an affected area without having to wait for international donors to send checks or make good on pledges.
Lol. Right.
The money in the fund would be continually replenished as contributions later poured in for each individual disaster.
So it would really be better if you just go ahead and open up a vein, you see...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 06:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Boy sodomized and murdered in mosque
The body of an eight-year-old boy was found from the toilet of a mosque on Tuesday and police claimed that the child was killed after being sodomized. Hadyara police station duty officer Shaukat said that Suhail was the son of labourer Yaseen, a resident of Pathankay Village in the Hadyara police precincts. The boy’s uncle Sardar said that Suhail was a student at a madrasa near his house. He said Suhail left the house around 11am to play with other children and was not seen again. He said some villagers went to the mosque for prayers around 1pm and one of them went to the toilet, where he found Suhail’s slaughtered body. The villagers told Suhail’s family and called police, who sent the body for an autopsy and started an investigation on Sardar’s complaint. Investigators said the unidentified murderer (s) could have cut Suhail’s throat after sodomizing him.
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 05:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I give up, this whole thing sounds very "Islamic" to me.
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  most of the sodomy in the Islamic world is covered up

this one --- wow
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  I can see the local headlines now:

YOUNG SHAHEED ATTAINS PENETRATING INSIGHTS AT MADRASA BEFORE GLORIOUS MARTYRDOM
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 15:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Silly child. Submit. don't scream!
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 22:19 Comments || Top||


Britain
"Suspicious" explosion kills family in Staffs UK
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 03/10/2006 04:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A strange one this, eh Allan? Incidents like this always make me suspect you know who...
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/10/2006 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I note that the family's name is conspicuiously absent.

Bet it wasn't "Smith".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/10/2006 8:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Someone playing with a 'chemistry' set trying to build some wardrobe accessories? Or a payback hit?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/10/2006 8:10 Comments || Top||

#4  rofl , hiya howard long time no see :) , I too wonder about this one - looks like someone put a 500lb bomb through the roof!
Posted by: ShepUK || 03/10/2006 8:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Satan in the bathtub?
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 8:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Hi Shep - yep crazy muslims or one serious house party.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/10/2006 8:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Well seems I'm wrong.

The dead man was named by a neighbour as Rodney Hine, a man in his 40s who worked at agricultural engineering firm Bateman's.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/10/2006 8:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Looks like he took the undampened fertiliser home.. and got it mixed up with his meth... apologies to one and all.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/10/2006 8:30 Comments || Top||

#9  "A notice had been erected by gas supplier Transco next to a hole in the pavement directly outside the house. "

Nice to have my prejudices repudiated for once.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 03/10/2006 8:34 Comments || Top||


Arabia
UAE reaction to the ports deal
The decision by the United Arab Emirates on Thursday to order state-controlled Dubai Ports World to end its control over US port facilities marks the lowest point yet in the relationship between President George W. Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Mr Bush had warned repeatedly that blocking the deal would send a dangerously discriminatory message to the world. He threatened repeatedly to veto any congressional legislation.

But with his public approval ratings at record lows and his Republican party abandoning him, one of the US’s closest allies in the Arab world concluded that he was no longer in control in Washington.

The decision by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, is likely to avert the political backlash that hit Washington last month and may prevent any further damage to diplomatic and security relations between the countries. But it underscored that Mr Bush, who still has nearly three years to go in his second term, has become perilously weak.

Dennis Hastert, the Republican speaker of the House and one of Mr Bush’s most loyal backers in Congress, emerged from a White House meeting on Thursday morning and signalled that he could not hold back the opposition to the deal. “We want to protect the American people and we will continue to do that,” he said.

“There’s a Republican initiative right now that says, ‘Get us the hell out of here’,” said Frank Lautenberg, a Republican senator from the port state of New Jersey.
Um, he isn't a Republican and that isn't exactly a trivial point ...
The acquisition of five US port terminals by an Arab company became an unlikely target for an outpouring of American anger and fear. While administration officials and port security experts insisted there were no security concerns raised by the transfer of port facilities from a British company to a Dubai company, members of Congress said they were flooded with calls and letters from ordinary Americans angered by the deal.

The White House promise to reopen a national security investigation into the deal, together with a concerted public relations effort by DP World, seemed only to deepen the anger.

More than four years after the September 11 attacks, it brought together a toxic combination of anxieties over America’s place in the world. Traditional protectionists, worried by foreign acquisitions of US assets and the outsourcing of jobs to distant and little-understood countries, lined up alongside security hawks who warned that even a close Arab ally such as the UAE was vulnerable to terrorist infiltration.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 01:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is a defeat for Dubya but nothing he can't recover from with tact - in times of war or national emergency, espec sovereignty, identity, way-of-life, freedoms and territory are at stake, Americans want their own Govt. and Army to be in charge for the duration. The UAE, however imperfectly, has been one of Amer's most outstanding allies since the Cold War - nothing personal, UAE, its just an American trait.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2 
A well deserved and MUCH needed wake up call for the Republican leadership. Americans do not like Muslims. This is a GOOD thing.

Posted by: Nana || 03/10/2006 2:01 Comments || Top||

#3  The acquisition of five US port terminals by an Arab company became an unlikely target for an outpouring of American anger and fear.

To all the rational and independent thinkers on Rantburg, I'd like to throw this at you:

What did you expect? Years of worrying about the next terror strike, acknowledged inadequacies in security all over the place (or the perception thereof), Iran going nuts, Iraq almost going nuts, Afghanistan still not mission accomplished, "Saudis are not our friends", cartoons, Eurabia, Muzzy-first theories... then along comes Mo from the UAE and Joe and Ellen average American are supposed to react with joy? Can't blame the pols really, their livelihood depends on knowing which way the wind's blowing. Sure the MSM plays a large role, but c'mon, they didn't have to work that hard this time.

It is a defeat for Dubya

Depends how you interpret things. It might make it harder to work with a few people in the middle east (though I think this contention is overdrawn), but he can still claim to be their friend. He did all the right things. I even suspect he might have known this would be the end result, or at least a long shot.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 2:19 Comments || Top||

#4  What! Doesn't anyone here access the White House website? President Bush made a provisional statement on the live issue of the DPW port's deal, in consideration of State to State relations with the UAE. He never made a final statement on the issue, because he went with the political flow and chose not to run counter to the consensus reached by the law-makers. The effect: no Arab control of US ports; continued good relations with the UAE. And the security-over-liberty thinking will help sell the White House plans on Iran. Nobody is crying in their beer - or tea - at the White House.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 2:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Article: But it underscored that Mr Bush, who still has nearly three years to go in his second term, has become perilously weak.

This kind of windy, leftist commentary is why I think FT is appropriately printed on pink paper, although red would be better. GWB is the president of a *democracy*. He is a weak leader by *design* as leaders of all democracies must be. He can do only what most of the electorate wants, anyway. Kim Jong-Il and Hu Jintao are strong leaders. They can do whatever they want. GWB is no weaker or stronger than any other president. When Reagan pushed through his tax cuts, Congress went along because that was what the electorate wanted. Bush's wishes are being ignored on this issue by Congress, not because he is weak, but because, once again, the electorate doesn't want Dubai involved in running American port facilities, whether or not the security aspect is involved. Period.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/10/2006 2:45 Comments || Top||

#6  The Wall Street Journal is running a lot of op-eds from lobbyists who work for foreign countries. I think a lot of is just excessive - there's a lot of slippery slope rhetoric about how this is going to lead to a major trade war. Which is nuts.

If they want to bring on a trade war over our security concerns, I think they'll find us more than ready to take them on. Remember - we forced many countries put on controls over capital flows in order to curb terrorist financing - something much more onerous than merely curbing the acquisition of a union-riddled port operation. They could have started the trade war then. They didn't - because it will hurt them more than it hurts us.

The funny thing is that Arab governments have brought this upon themselves by fanning the flames of Islamic radicalism. All of their embassies piling on top of Denmark for the comic jihad, combined with the uncontrolled violence of the Islamist demonstrations have really pissed off the American street. Don't they understand that Americans are not a bunch of sheep to be pushed around? Doesn't Bush understand that prostrating himself before Muslims is bad for his image at home?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/10/2006 3:06 Comments || Top||

#7  But with his public approval ratings at record lows and his Republican party abandoning him, one of the US’s closest allies in the Arab world concluded that he was no longer in control in Washington.

Kind of sounds like editorializing to me.

I think people should've trusted Bush on this. He's already proven himself a shrewd world leader in the WOT. Doubt he'd be an idiot all of a sudden.

This is a victory for the Dems. Probably why Clinton is over there: "Well, if my wife was president, this thang would be different . . ."

Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 4:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Ironically the USA is de facto imposing all a kinds of rules on how foreign countries run their ports. If they don't their shipments face delays, more inspections, extra costs, etc.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 5:29 Comments || Top||

#9  So, Nana, Americans not liking Muslims is a "Good Thing"? Most people here where I work are ambivalent about the issue. as long as Security is not compromised they see no problem with the Port deal. This has MUCH more to do with Partisan Politics and very little to do with Public Opinion. I trust the MSM opinion polls about as far as I can throw my thumb. They do not report the news, they influence public opinion.
Doesn't Bush understand that prostrating himself before Muslims is bad for his image at home? Zhang Fei, Bush did no such thing. I suppose if a French Company had bought the British one you would say Bush prostrated himself before the French. The funny thing is that Arab governments have brought this upon themselves by fanning the flames of Islamic radicalism. Maybe I didn't notice but I don't believe the UAE had any Cartoon Protests. This wasn't and isn't about "Arab Governments" but about one State owned Company getting a contract to collect fees and pay bills. Nobody bitched when the Brits had the contract, but then, they aren't brown, either. So do we Nationalize all foreign-owned companies here? This was a panic reaction to a non-issue.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/10/2006 9:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Lol. What this issue has accomplished in singular fashion is that it emptied all the closets.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 9:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Zhang Fei, we do not want a trade war, period.
Such a trade war lead directly to the Great Depression which would still be going on were it not for WW2. It would be a disaster to have to relearn that lesson.
This Dubai thing was a bump in the road, let's move on.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/10/2006 9:56 Comments || Top||

#12  One thing we have to remember when considering the reaction of the "American Street": most people can't tell Dubai from Djibouti. To a lot of people, including a lot of congressman, geography is foreign territory in more ways than one. This fact supports Deacon Blues's analysis that the flap is a panic reaction.

I have been dealing with Medical Stuff again, so I have missed most of the debate on this issue. Thank you for some very informative comments above.
Posted by: mom || 03/10/2006 10:14 Comments || Top||

#13  Nobody bitched when the Brits had the contract, but then, they aren't brown, either.

Oh, look! The racism card!

It ain't about race.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 10:26 Comments || Top||

#14  "I think people should've trusted Bush on this. He's already proven himself a shrewd world leader in the WOT. Doubt he'd be an idiot all of a sudden."

ex-lib:

I was just wondering if you said this with a straight face or is it a unintended attempt at humor?
Posted by: Just Curious || 03/10/2006 10:36 Comments || Top||

#15  Now, dear Congress, what are you going to do about this?

The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia
Owners: Government of Saudi Arabia, Saudi individuals and establishments

Head Office Riyadh, KSA

The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) was established in 1979 to meet the transportation needs of Importers and Exporters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East.

Marine Terminals:
Baltimore, MD
Halifax, Canada
Newport News, VA
Houston, TX
New Orleans, LA
St. John, Canada
Houston, Texas -- busy, busy port. Lots of oil
Savannah, GA
Wilmington, NC
Port Newark, NJ
Brooklyn, NY

Not to mention the west coast ports operated by the Chinese Army, that was a Clinton deal.

And if Clinton puts together a deal with his friends to get this handover.... well, just askn', you know.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 10:38 Comments || Top||

#16  mom...you should check out yesterday's thread on this one. Man, that was one heated argument. It all boils down to this in my mind:

Yes, I'll admit it...my first GUT instinct was that something was rotten in Denmark over this deal. I ranted about it then. But, then, one very important life lesson hit me between the eyes: The old saying that the left makes decisions based upon feelings, the right makes decisions based upon facts.

Then, I came to hear the real details of this issue. A little from the White House, but more from people like .com, Old Spook, etc., whose opinions I hold in high esteem. Why? Because THEY HAVE BEEN THERE. Then, more details came out about the deal (ya know, this wouldn't affect security one iota, they're only collecting the money, longshoremen/unions will still work the docks, etc.) and I realize this all was a FEELINGS-based decision (pure politics). I've gotta wonder if the backlash would've been so severe in the cartoon-ifada had just occurred? I think not. Of course, the MSM fanning the flames didn't help. I've now come to change my mind on this whole issued based upon the FACTS. Will there be an increased chance of a bomb in a container b/c of this deal? Possibly, but I think it's an infintismally smaller increase than most people think. I always harken back to the Founding Fathers..."Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither..." And, truly, I really do think that this war is best fought over there...and killing this deal could have backlashes over there (Dubai shutting down its port to American trade/military shipments, anger on the "Arab street" for being discriminated against, etc.) that far outweigh the small increase in the chance a bomb could be set off in one of these ports. But, I guess, the good news is that maybe Halliburton gets another contract...that'll inflame the libs.
Posted by: BA || 03/10/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||

#17  And the security-over-liberty thinking will help sell the White House plans on Iran.

Shrewd observation, there.

Doesn't Bush understand that prostrating himself before Muslims is bad for his image at home?

Aren't you exaggerating things just a wee bit there, ZF? I'm curious because I haven't seen any sort of inclinations for this upon your own part in the past. While I have accused Bush of improperly appeasing the Iranians with offers of allowing them any sort of nuclear technology, and even though I am uncomfortable with his close business relations with the Saudis, I'd still have a difficult time saying that Bush is "prostrating himself before Muslims".

I do feel that Bush's overemphasis upon religiosity has resulted in far too much leeway being given to Islam, especially in terms of requiring them to clean their own house, but the overall campaign against Islamist terrorism hardly permits any definition of "prostrating".

Should Bush actually come out against the Mohammed cartoons, then I'd apply that label. The State Department's position came perilously close to this, but the Oval Office has yet to lockstep with it, so I'm withholding judgement at this time.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 12:17 Comments || Top||

#18  Oh, look! The racism card!

It ain't about race.


Good catch, RC.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 12:21 Comments || Top||

#19  BA - I'm against this deal based on just a "gut feeling". I too respect the views of those at rantburg and have considered them and as a result I have not commented about why I "feel" it is not a good idea. My feelings are my uniquely my own and have less impact than those with knowledge who "feel" it is a good idea.

However, the question I have is - what's in it for me in backing this deal? Why should I care if this deal falls or stays. I'm supposed to lose sleep if Dubai or Walmart gets this deal? I didn't know or care a month ago, why is it his suddenly be the most pressing issue for me to be concerned that a country with an overaching hostile interest in the United States controls our ports? I don't care. I'm not racist, (and I think that's a disingenuious argument). I just don't think, on gut level, it makes any more sense than the Chinese port deal made in LA. So why should I care if this deal falls or flies in order to soothe egos in Dubai?
Posted by: 2b || 03/10/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#20  wxjames: Such a trade war lead directly to the Great Depression which would still be going on were it not for WW2.

Actually, lousy central bank policy, combined with excessive leverage in the stock market ($9 debt for every $1 of equity, compared to $1:$1 today) and a federal government obsessed with maintaining budget surpluses led to the Great Depression.

Trade isn't necessary for a healthy economy. It is beneficial - but not strictly necessary. A much more important factor is sound domestic economic policy. For most of his existence, Uncle Sam has financed his (i.e. Federal) expenditures via tariffs on imports. This means, of course, that tariffs weren't exactly low. Especially compared to today. And yet the US economy outpaced its competitors to the extent that it is not only the largest economy in the world, and has one of the highest per capita incomes - it achieved this with the highest population growth rate - by far - among the Western powers.

Note that the immediate postwar period wasn't exactly a halcyon period for free trade. We opened up our markets. Europe and Asia closed theirs, with our approval - it was necessary to help prevent their markets from being completely swamped with cheap American goods. And we prospered anyway. (Another interesting fact is that the Federal debt was 130% of our GDP back then, compared to roughly 50% today).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/10/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||

#21  "What did you expect? Years of worrying about the next terror strike, acknowledged inadequacies in security all over the place (or the perception thereof), Iran going nuts, Iraq almost going nuts, Afghanistan still not mission accomplished, "Saudis are not our friends", cartoons, Eurabia, Muzzy-first theories... then along comes Mo from the UAE and Joe and Ellen average American are supposed to react with joy? Can't blame the pols really, their livelihood depends on knowing which way the wind's blowing. Sure the MSM plays a large role, but c'mon, they didn't have to work that hard this time."

Cmon, pols stirred the whole pot - including some pols on my side of the aisle (Shame on you Hillary). If they had been sensible, this would never have gotten out of hand.

UAE is still on our side - well sure, it would be silly of them not to be - the minute they say, hey, we like AQ, theyre dead meat.

But if youre AQ, this is useful for propaganda, useful for swaying fence sitters. Of course if youve bought the line that there ARE no fence sitters, that every muslim hates us cause of some line in the Koran, then I suppose that doesnt matter.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#22  This was a panic reaction to a non-issue.

Maybe so but it wasn't borne out of thin air. I'm sorry but you can't have it both ways. Either you're at war and Islam is evil, or you have to tone down the rhetoric. Otherwise, you get the panic response.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 13:40 Comments || Top||

#23  Small point here really but since he was quoted (albeit misidentified) I listened to Frank Lautenberg’s rambling dissertation on this subject. He reminded me of the old man you placate at the family function just so he doesn’t get upset and soil himself. I don’t hail from NJ nor am I a democrat but I get embarrassed for him every time this senile old fool opens his yap.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 13:44 Comments || Top||

#24  Cmon, pols stirred the whole pot - including some pols on my side of the aisle (Shame on you Hillary). If they had been sensible, this would never have gotten out of hand.

I give people a little more credit than that. Pols have stirred many a pots before with various degrees of effect. Your side of the aisle does it all the time. This time they didn't have to stir much. Admit it, Americans now have a button that can be pushed.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 13:46 Comments || Top||

#25  Sure theres a button. But its still a question of whether you push it or not.

Sure its a war. And LOTS of muslims are evil. But the ones who arent are essential to our side of the war. And the govt of UAE, though its far from perfect, IS on our side, more so than quite a few other govts over there. As for rhetoric, i dont think Dubya has ever said Islam is evil, and has been lambasted here and in other places for that.

Both sides have pushed hot buttons in the past. Sometimes with response, sometimes not. Im blaming the pols for what they DID do this time. I think the public could have been educable. But when the Congress isnt trying to educate them, only an admin whose credibility is crippled, theyre not going to get educated.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 14:34 Comments || Top||

#26  FT.com began censoring via BBC type moderation its discussion site several years ago.
FT regulars moved to:
Serious Topics
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 15:24 Comments || Top||

#27  But the ones who arent are essential to our side of the war.

You don't have to convince me of that, but you don't have to look far to see that some people don't believe in the existence of moderate Muslims, for example. Is such rhetoric consistent with allowing UAE to manage US ports? Apparently a lot of people didn't think so.

And the govt of UAE, though its far from perfect, IS on our side, more so than quite a few other govts over there.

True. A case that could have been made stronger, perhaps, if Bush had made a quick stopover in the UAE on his way back from Pakiwakiland. Maybe that would have helped.

As for rhetoric, i dont think Dubya has ever said Islam is evil,

I was refering to some peoples' rhetoric in general, mainly in the blogoshpere. You don't have to look very far, hint hint.

I think the public could have been educable.

Well, again, I give people more credit than that. Some people knew the facts, but still were opposed to this deal, for a milliard of reasons. Just because you disagree with them, doesn't mean they were uneducated.

Basically, now when I look back at the whole ports thing, it's not surprising to me that it turned out the way it did. It was just a natural progression of things and an interesting insight into the current state of the American psyche. Like .com said, a lot of closets have been emptied.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 15:41 Comments || Top||

#28  "I was refering to some peoples' rhetoric in general, mainly in the blogoshpere. You don't have to look very far, hint hint. "

Yah, well, im with you on trying to educate the blogosphere, including the immediate vicinity.


But in all fairness, i dont think you can pin this on RB or LGF. Total eyes they get still isnt that big. Even more mainstream blogs (which were not united on this). Im more inclined to the MSM, both the right (Fox, Wash Times) AND the left, in different ways. And to Bush, who took the right stand, but has lost much credibility. AND to the congress members, who still have SOME credibility, and with exceptions like McCain, IIUC, didnt even try to wield it.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 16:28 Comments || Top||

#29  But in all fairness, i dont think you can pin this on RB or LGF...

I don't hang around LGF, and I'm not The Management here at RB, but what moderators I've talked to about this situation seemed to disagree with the general panic and jingoism that the opposition to the port deal had congealed around.
Posted by: Phil || 03/10/2006 16:35 Comments || Top||

#30  Seething? Burning American (and Israeli) flags?
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/10/2006 16:39 Comments || Top||

#31  The term "tipping point" in regard to public opinion in this country has been thrown around the net since 9/12. Why shouldn't this be seen as an example that the American public is getting close to reaching the tipping point? (Yes, I'm aware that the pols manipulated certain aspects of the debate, but pols have done that since the country was founded.)
Posted by: Crusader || 03/10/2006 16:40 Comments || Top||

#32  The Dems won on this one, at least so far, because the President looks "weak," and like his own party is against him, which in turn weakens his foreign image of strength, which benefits the Dems next election. They have a tough time with the national security thing, and they're hoping to disguise that. The port deal was just the thing. In politics, "it's never about what it's about." I hope he can pull out of this one, because the whole thing is frustrating.
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 16:41 Comments || Top||

#33  The only problem Democrats have on National Security is allowing Republicans paint them as "weak" while they promote the "fiction" that they can somehow defend the U.S. better than their counterparts. Historically speaking it is the Democratic Party that is stronger on defense as far as action is concerned. Republican ideas of defending the U.S. is based upon "throwing money at the DOD. Republicans being "stronger on
defense and National Security is a "myth" that the dems need to start exposing.
Posted by: Left Angle || 03/10/2006 16:52 Comments || Top||

#34  Speaking of emptying the closets... got a live one.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 17:56 Comments || Top||

#35  Well, it's going to get very dicey here as the election year draws closer. Expect more of the same, on steroids.
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 18:03 Comments || Top||

#36  And LOTS of muslims are evil. But the ones who arent are essential to our side of the war.

I dispute this, liberalhawk. The Muslims who aren't evil really don't matter when it comes to us winning the global war on terrorism. We will win it. Where the Muslims who aren't evil assume any importance is in making sure that they and any other "moderate" Muslims don't wind up DEAD when this world gets f&cking fed up with all of the Islamist atrocities.

So far, they're doing sh!t-all of a job.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 23:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
US banks ordered to cut ties with Syria
Acting to crack down on terrorist financing, the Treasury Department on Thursday ordered all commercial banks in the United States to end their relationships with two Syrian banks.

The order covers the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria and its subsidiary, the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank.

The department said that all U.S. banks must close any accounts they have with the two banks.

"Today's action is aimed at protecting our financial system against abuse by this arm of a state-sponsor of terrorism," said Stuart Levy, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

"The Commercial Bank of Syria has been used by terrorists to move their money and it continues to afford direct opportunities for the Syrian government to facilitate international terrorist activity and money laundering," Levy said.

A message left Thursday with a spokesman for the Syrian Embassy was not immediately returned.

The order makes final a preliminary order against the two banks that Treasury issued last May.

At that time, Treasury issued a finding that the Commercial Bank of Syria was a "primary money laundering concern" under provisions of the Patriot Act that allow the department to cut off dealings of U.S. banks with foreign banks that receive such a designation.

"As a state-owned entity with inadequate money laundering and terrorist financing controls, the Commercial Bank of Syria poses a significant risk of being used to further the Syrian government's continuing support for international terrorist groups," Levy said.

He said that the serious risks posed by the Syrian bank "have not been adequately mitigated" by the Syrian government's limited efforts to address problems in its financial system.

With the announcement, the Treasury has moved to shut down U.S. activities of nine foreign banks under provisions of the Patriot Act.

The action against the banks does not freeze their funds in the United States. It prohibits U.S. banks from holding accounts of those banks. Such accounts are used by foreign banks to do business in the United States if they do not have subsidiaries in this country.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 01:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More, faster, please...
Posted by: DanNY || 03/10/2006 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't necessarily want to be faster. We want to boil the frog slowly ....
Posted by: Steve White || 03/10/2006 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Agreed. We need to ratchet that up slowly while we deal with stabilization in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: lotp || 03/10/2006 8:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't they still have a sizable sum parked there by Saddam?

IIRC, they admitted to it once or twice in the early days after Baghdad fell - but have been stonewalling ever since.

Offer the Kurdish peshmerga a 25% recovery fee, lol.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Isn't there some way of laundering all those North Korean supernotes through these Syrian banks and then impose a ban on drawdowns from those accounts to strip out the institutions in question?
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 11:43 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
NAB arrests 2 officials for quake fund plunder
PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested two government officials accused of releasing millions of rupees from the President’s Relief Fund for Earthquake Victims to their relatives and undeserving people on fake national identity cards. Saifur Rehman, a patwari, and Mir Dad Khan, a general councilor, were nominated for distributing relief funds among the October 8 earthquake victims in Abbottabad district. Iqbal Ahmad Khan, the NAB prosecutor, told the court that the accused were arrested on the complaints of the earthquake victims, adding that the accused issued funds to people who were not entitled to receive them.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Off with their heads!
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The National Accountability Bureaucracy---now there is an oxy-moroon if I ever hear one.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||


Basant cancelled under mullah pressure
The Punjab government buckled under pressure from religious parties on Thursday and imposed an immediate ban on kite flying in the province, effectively cancelling the Basant festival. The prohibition order means that festive Basant activities planned for the weekend will no longer be held. Officials of the Punjab government told Daily Times that all the district governments and relevant law enforcement agencies have been directed to ensure the implementation of the ban. Violators of the ban can be punished for up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine of Rs 40,000, or both.

The MMA had planned a protest rally against the Basant festival today (Friday) after the Friday prayers, while a faction of the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) had announced a shutter-down strike on Saturday. The provincial government was concerned that protests on the two days that Basant festivities would be at their peak were likely to turn violent, sources said. They said that the government has imposed the ban to avoid a “law and order situation”. A provincial government official said that the decision to ban kite flying immediately was taken in a meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi late on Thursday night. The meeting was also attended by Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja and Chief Secretary Salman Sadiq. The official said that the government took the decision to prevent more casualties in kite flying accidents. At least 10 people have died in the last 12 days while flying kites in Lahore alone. Four children were injured in the latest kite flying accident on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The M³ cave in to the radicals demands as always. It's not a "public saftey" issue from someone who cares about people flying kites with wire for string around power lines. Life is really cheap in Punjab. It's all about keeping the radical allenists happy. It always will be.
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 2:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Fun is sin. No fun.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 22:20 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egyptian Authorities Charge 14 Over 2005 Tourist Attacks
Egypt sent for trial 14 people accused of involvement in a series of attacks on tourists last year, the public prosecutor said yesterday. The fourteen, including two women, were charged in connection with a bombing on April 30 close to the Egyptian museum, a popular tourist attraction, and a gun attack on a tourist bus the same day in another part of Cairo. The group was also accused of involvement in a bombing which killed three tourists at a Cairo bazaar last April 7.

State security investigators found that the 14 had made explosives using instructions from the internet, had helped purchase explosives and weapons and monitored tourist sites in preparation for the attacks. The two bombs in April killed the bombers and some officials described them as suicide operations. Two women who fired on the tourist bus on April 30 died that day. One committed suicide after shooting and fatally wounding the other. They were later identified by the Interior Ministry as one of the bomber’s fiancée and sister.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Digs In for Confrontation With United States
Iranian regime was yesterday digging in for a confrontation with arch enemy the United States, with its supreme leader vowing not to halt a disputed nuclear drive despite looming UN Security Council action. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran, suspected by the West of seeking atomic bomb technology, might be the biggest challenge to US policy in the Middle East. Iran says it wants nuclear power only for civilian uses. Russia, anxious to avert any move to impose UN sanctions on Iran, urged Tehran to cooperate with UN nuclear inspectors.

Speaking a day after it became clear the UN Security Council would take up the Iran standoff, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — ultimate decision-maker in the Islamic Republic — urged officials not to give in to Western pressure. “If the Iranian nation and government step back on nuclear energy today, the story will not end there and the Americans will make another pretext,” he told senior clerics. But he also called for “wisdom and expediency” in handling the issue, a possible nod to faint internal criticism in Iran that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior officials have antagonized the West with needlessly inflammatory statements.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Mullahs can dig in all they want; they will be fighting their own people when conflict breaks out. Once people start dying, that is when the defeatist fingers start pointing in the right direction.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 2:51 Comments || Top||

#2  better dig deeper than our bunker busters can go.
Posted by: 2b || 03/10/2006 12:16 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Kim Jong-Il gets jiggy with it
NORTH Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il may launch a sneak attack on the world's pop charts - with the love-song I Am a Front-line Soldier's Wife. Kim Jong-Il's latest attempt to consolidate power has been to authorise a swathe of new love songs to re-invigorate the population and entrench his control of one of the world's last communist states, according to local reports.

In recent years a moribund economy and several recent severe famines have had a terrible effect on the North Korean people, destroying morale and causing unrest. But many North Koreans are now singing songs glorifying the women revolutionaries helping to build the nation, official media has reported.

In a country where popular reading material includes the mandatory Kim Jong-Il classics On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction and Songun Politics of Our Party Is an Effective Socialist Political Mode, catchy tune titles such as "Song of Coast Artillerywoman" and "I Am a Front-line Soldier's Wife," are bound to sweep the Korean communist motherland into a love frenzy.

North Korean media outlets have previously labelled the North Korean leader as the world's greatest golfer, reporting that he scored five holes-in-one and scored 38-under-par in his first game.

Since the Korean War ceasefire in 1953, North Korea has waged an unending propaganda war upon the "decadent cesspool" of Western liberal democracies, especially the US, Japan and their allies. The country has jealously guarded its independence, severely limiting the flow of outside ideas, technology and visitors over its borders. But a thriving North Korean love-song export industry may be just around the corner.

For music-lovers tired of silly love songs, say the new North Korean hit tune, "A Girl Innovator Dashing Like a Steed" is a refreshing change of pace. Other popular airs include "Song of Coast Artillerywomen," "Girl Silk-weavers of Nyongbyon" and "I Am a Front-line Soldier's Wife," the KCNA news agency reported. Songs promoting family values include "Love your Wives" and "My Mum Who Worries Herself About Her Child."

"A lot of songs have been composed in the country in reflection of the pride and happy life of the women who are playing a great role in all fields of social life," official media said.

It is unclear whether the tunes have a beat that people can dance to. However it may be the first step towards cultural colossus Kim Jong-Il filling the hearts and minds of twelve year-old girls with such movie classics as "They Were Always Together on the Road to Bring about the People's Well-being," and "Great Leadership over the Drive to Successfully Build a Great Prosperous Powerful Nation."
Posted by: tipper || 03/10/2006 01:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is unclear whether the tunes have a beat that people can dance to.

This article needs a 'Risk of Choking' warning at the begining.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Warning: do not play backwards.
Posted by: Screaming Nun || 03/10/2006 3:25 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 3:34 Comments || Top||

#4  If you sing loud enough, you won't hear your stomach growl, or your kids cry.
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Tonight on "Norkie Idol"...can Kim Jong Il defend his title for the 751st straight week? Tonight at 9 on KCNA, right after "Dances With Human Scum"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  North Korean media outlets have previously labelled the North Korean leader as the world's greatest golfer, reporting that he scored five holes-in-one and scored 38-under-par in his first game.

Miniature golf, no doubt, given his stature
Posted by: Snoluting Ebbinetle3163 || 03/10/2006 14:22 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran rejects as "unjust" IAEA decision on its nuclear program
Iran Thursday rejected as "unjust" a decision by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to refer its nuclear program file to the U.N Security Council, and said it won't be bullied into abandoning its pursuit of nuclear energy. "The people of Iran will not accept coercion and unjust decisions by international organizations," Iranian television quoted hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying during a visit to Iran's western province of Lorestan. "Enemies cannot force the Iranian people to relinquish their rights. The era of bullying and brutality is over," he told a crowd of supporters.

On Wednesday, the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded a three-day meeting in Vienna on Iran's nuclear program, formally opening the path to Security Council action. Soon after, IAEA chief Mohamed Elbaradei sent a Feb. 27 report on Iran's status to the council.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Abbas willing to help deprogram Aussie JI members
A FORMER Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leader used by Indonesia to "deprogram" terrorists in custody says he would be happy to come to Australia to help re-educate extremists.
The Federal Government is examining the use of deprogramming after a suggestion from Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty.

Mr Keelty studied anti-terrorism strategies in Indonesia, where Malaysian-born Nasir bin Abbas, a former JI operative, is used to help deprogram terrorists.

In his new role, Mr Abbas talks to arrested terror group members to open their minds to more moderate Islam, as well as extract information on terrorist operations.

Mr Abbas, the brother-in-law of convicted Bali bomber Mukhlas, today told ABC radio he wants to help terrorists in custody understand the true meaning of Islam.

"I give my advice to the police that I want to re-educate some of my friends, especially the new arrests - I want to tell them that they misunderstand about Islamic struggle and they also misunderstand about the meaning of jihad," Mr Abbas, the brother-in-law of convicted Bali bomber Mukhlas, said.

"If they need me to go to Australia to help them ... I will do that."

Mr Abbas said he has had "many" successes. Part of the job involves convincing people to turn in fellow terrorists.

"People can change if we talk to them and if we give them a reasonable argument or logical argument, I think people can change," he said.

"After I give them an explanation about understanding Islam and what is the true Islamic teaching, then they ... cooperate with the Indonesian police."

But Mr Abbas declined to comment on claims by civil liberties groups that the practice was similar to torture.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 01:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hunter called it: This will be an extremely popular program among the jailed asshats. Lol. RFSP.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Building moles. Oh, I bet they'll cooperate. Learn to hide yourself better and off you go.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 20:21 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Qardawi VS Amr Khaled
Mshari Al-Zaydi
If you feel that your feet were bound by an invisible piece of rope but you think that you are free, how do you know that you were tied up in the first place? Simply keep walking until you feel the rope distressing your ankle, only then would you be aware of your real limits. Something of this sort happened to the young Egyptian Islamic herald Amr Khaled, who has recently become an engaging media phenomenon after he introduced changes to the conventional perception of the "Sheikh" and added new elements to the preaching discourse. He has won the approval and blessings of the more traditional clerics who themselves had found it difficult to reach the hearts of the new generations.

Nowadays, the shaved young Islamic propagandist has found himself in a confrontation with Youssef Al Qardawi, the popularized Sheikh with a zealous discourse. In addition, he is an Islamic thinker with political and social ideas regarding the crisis of the Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Amr Khaled sees an opportunity to reintroducing Islam to the West through Danish crisis. Therefore, he is now calling for a large conference to be held in Copenhagen where Muslim scholars and clergymen will meet to engage in dialogue with their non-Muslim counterparts in early March. Qardawi on the other hand rejected this idea and instead called for a counter conference in Bahrain to take place mid-March under the leadership of "the Global Coalition to Support the Prophet Mohammad." Moreover according to Asharq Al Awsat (3 March 2006), Al Qardawi reprimanded Amr Khaled for his peacemaking efforts as he considered this may bring about an end to the Muslim anger. He emphasized the "need for Islamic nation to wake up."

However, Amr became more insistent despite Qardawi's objections to sign a statement back in February that was also signed by 41 prominent Islamic figures, as Qardawi argued for a stronger statement. Among those who had signed the statement were Amr Khaled himself, Salman Al Ouda (Saudi Arabia), Ekrima Sabry (the Mufti of Jerusalem), Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah (the Lebanese Shi'a scholar) and others. Qardawi said that such a soft declaration would break the flow of the "nation's uprising" and he now rejects the Copenhagen conference allegedly for the same reason. Does this mean that Amr Khaled and his camp are wiser, more moderate and more learned than Qardawi? Does it mean that Qardawi is jealous of them? The answer to both questions is no.

Surely, the rejection of Qardawi and his team will say that Amr Khaled and his supporters, or the members of the "Copenhagen group" are brothers, nevertheless brothers who took a wrong stand. From my perspective, the matter is really beyond right and wrong.

Al Qardawi is more aware of the importance that group feeling remains active and inflamed, thus making it an issue of "identity" for which Islamists are known to be professional in mobilizing. Thus the way Qardawi perceives the crisis is as a great opportunity to "revive" an Islamist political project and to make the most out of the momentum created by the Danish cartoons fiasco for other battles too. The logic is the following: whoever manages to unify the masses of the Muslim world and elsewhere in protest against the Danish transgressions could do the same for other purposes.

Qardawi and those like him believe that the Ummah has stepped away from supporting their project. They consider that the rallying of the Ummah around them, and their method as the only way to resolve the crises including that of Palestine and of identity and culture, which in their view should be strictly Islamic. Furthermore, they seek to rally the masses for other political, economic and sportive issues. They seek to re-draft social and political life according to a perspective inherent to the fundamentalist discourse.

The Danish cartoons crisis was ideal in this respect. Qardawi spoke frankly in his interview with Asharq Al Awsat speaking about the demonstrations, the boycotts, and the global Muslim campaigns, saying, "What has occurred is the instigator for the Muslim nation which was torn by political differences but is unified by the love for the Prophet (PBUH)." He then spoke about the "young" Amr Khaled who provoked the Sheikh, as he does not understand the implicit gain behind keeping the Muslim rage inflamed. He told Asharq Al Awsat, "I have advised him several times not to break the flow of the awakening of the Muslim nation for the sake of Denmark." This whole account makes us realize that there are certain objective conditions that must remain, as they are conducive to the existence of some ideologies and discourses. For those, the climates of crises are ideal.

Some followers of those ideologies may be not fully aware that such crises are ideal and not negative; they are not aware of the full picture and act with the best of intentions. They may disturb the waters and cause some embarrassment and this was clear to me as I read what seemed to be a sincere commentary by the young propagandist Amr Khaled who was disappointed by Qardawi's statements. Khaled said, "Sheikh Qardawi is an honorable scholar who taught me the essentiality of dialogue. However, I see no reason for his objections." What our young Islamic herald missed was that the "dialogue" that Sheikh Qardawi once taught him was only good for attracting supporters. However, when those supporters number hundreds of thousands and are ready for action upon instruction of the Sheikh then things are bound to be different.

Over the next few days, I believe we will increasingly hear talk asserting that Amr Khaled is only a preacher, not a jurist. Consequently, they will say, he is not qualified to lead. I agree with this opinion. However, the point is when this was voiced by impartial writers and analysts before the present crisis and the ensuing confrontation between Khaled and Qardawi, some Islamists would quickly consider this a biased attack that aimed at the spread of Islam through the success of Khaled in reaching deep into the minds of generations and classes that were previously untouchable by traditional clergymen.

It seems however that the Islamic movement strategists believe it is time Khaled handed his responsibilities back. He has consumed his role and now the rest is up to the Islamist jurists who are closer to the movement. Their role now is to mobilize, redirect, and rationalize the masses towards the ultimate goal: the actualization of the social, religious and political project of the Islamist politicized parties.

When Qardawi shouts, "revenge, revenge; rage, rage," he is in fact maintaining the survival of the Islamic movement. Had the Danes apologized according to the conditions of the Muslim masses and had for example taught the full biography of the Prophet Mohammed by Ibn Hisham in their schools, then this would have been less of a gain than having the masses perpetually aligned in a state of religious anger.

Naturally, in the eyes of the global "protectors of the religious rage of the masses," mobilization and religious tension are great results of the Danish crisis for the shrewd Islamists. Perhaps, this is not realized entirely by the younger generation and those who do not realize are an embarrassment.

Sheikh Qardawi in fact is re-enacting a pre-Islamic scene from our Arabic heritage. He is imitating Al Zeer Salim who saw revenge as the reason for existence. He had the chance to take revenge on several occasions however; he preferred to continue fighting which became his reason for existence. This state of mind is not something especially akin to Qardawi and those like him, but is rather salient in the Arab culture as a whole with its varied political trends. Like Amal Dunqul's words in her poem to assassinated Egyptian president Sadat, that warned him not to sign a peace treaty with Israel, Qardawi repeats this warning to Amr Khaled, to "not make peace."
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 01:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Qardawi is obviously smarter than Khaled, and more evil. No matter how many a$$ ki$$ing Euro progressives show up at the Denmark Conference, Khaled is bound to look ridiculous. In his cynical, vile heart, Qardawi understands that the cartoon row is absurd - he's basically admitting that it's little more than a pretext to foster greater extremeism. I take small comfort from the fact that he appears to be worried that the wave is dissapating, and could roll back further thanks to the clueless Khaled, who appears to be a guy with some shreds of sincerity, despite being a religious fanatic.

The clerical class of the Muslim world obviously feels that they can and should be in control of the Ummah, as well as the rest of the world. They all sense that this is their time to make a move to grab power. With globalization, the spread of democracy and Western ideas, and the stagnation, collapse (or forced removal) of the old military dictorship order, this epochal shift is their one and only chance to make a move and impose their values in the face of sweeping modernization.

These are our cursed enemy. They must be defeated and the idea that they can be allowed to have unlimited power and impose their arbitrary tyranny on the rest of society based on their ability to wave a Koran in the air and role their eyes.
Posted by: Monsieur Moonbat || 03/10/2006 4:10 Comments || Top||

#2  The Muslim threat is largely demographic and economic. In France, etc Caucasian majorities are not as yet able to comprehend the implications of the fact that when over one-half of births are Muslim babies, implementation of Sharia will - in a generation - not be open to debate. In addition, the Muslim work participation level rarely approaches 50%, anywhere those statistics are taken. In Muslim supremacist Indonesia, the participation of the productive class of ethnic Chinese is over 60%. Muslim sloth is due to both discrimination against women, and the impact of costly salat (prayer) obligation. An inordinate amount of the national income of a Muslim majority State is used to prop the parasitic cleric class. In the West: Muslims are never cost-effective, and add nothing to our cultural life except the joy of derision. Scroll down on the following post, to the section on the impact of Muslims on France (sorry for the cut-and-paste):
http://english-france-echos.blogspot.com/
(Note of caution: France-Echos lumps blacks with Arabs. That is unfair. According to Thomas Sowell: 14 million African blacks were enslaved by Arab Muslims, vs 11 million by white feudalists. Blacks are the principal victims of Muslim aggression).
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 5:26 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad warns West will suffer
Iran's hard-line president on Thursday warned the West will suffer more than his country if it tries to stop Tehran's nuclear ambitions, vowing to press ahead with the program as the confrontation moved into the U.N. Security Council.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments came as Tehran struck an increasingly threatening tone, with the top Iranian delegate to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency warning a day earlier that the United States will face "harm and pain" if the Security Council becomes involved.

"They know that they are not capable of causing the least harm to Iranian people," Ahmadinejad said during a visit to Iran's western province of Lorestan, according to the ISNA news agency. "They will suffer more."

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate. Some diplomats saw the comments as a veiled threat to use oil as a weapon, though Iran's oil minister ruled out any decrease in production. Iran also has leverage with extremist groups in the Middle East that could harm U.S. interests.

The move to the U.N. Security Council takes the standoff to a new level, but how much it escalates depends heavily on the council's first steps.

The five permanent members with veto power — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — debated on Thursday how tough an action to take over Iran's nuclear program, which Washington says aims to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies that claim, saying it intends only to generate electricity.

The council could consider sanctions, but that seemed unlikely due to opposition by Russia and China. Instead, the first response will likely be a nonbinding presidential statement.

Britain has proposed that the statement ask
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report back in two weeks on Iran's compliance with IAEA resolutions.

The toughest talk so far has come from Washington, where U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States wants the statement to include some condemnation of Iran. He said the U.S. may eventually seek a so-called Chapter 7 resolution, which can be enforced with military action.

Burns suggested Wednesday that Washington would also urge its allies to move beyond the Security Council and impose targeted sanctions against Iran if it doesn't clear up the doubts surrounding its nuclear program.

Russia, however, warned against dropping the diplomatic approach with Iran and — in a sign of its reluctance to condemn its ally, Tehran — said even the two-week deadline proposed by Britain was too short.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Iraq was a timely reminder of what can happen when the world turns its back on diplomacy.

"We don't want to be the ones to remind (everyone) who was right and who was not in Iraq, although the answer is obvious," Lavrov said in an interview on Russian state television, remarks that highlighted a deep rift with Washington over how to handle the standoff.

Former Israeli armed forces chief Moshe Yaalon said Thursday that
Israel has the capacity to strike Iran and delay its nuclear program by several years, Israel TV reported.

Yaalon told the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, a single assault would not be enough, and Israel was not limited to an air attack, a possible reference to submarine-fired missiles.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged the international community to "maintain restraint and patience" with regard to the Iran nuclear issue.

Iran has threatened in the past to end negotiations with Russia over a compromise proposal and restart full uranium enrichment — a key step in the nuclear process that the West is trying to persuade it to give up — if it is referred to the Security Council.

Iranian officials did not repeat those threats Thursday, a day after the IAEA held an intense debate over a critical report that accused Iran of withholding information on its nuclear program, possessing plans linked to nuclear weapons and refusing to freeze uranium enrichment.

Soon after the meeting ended, ElBaradei said he would send the report to the Security Council within 24 hours.

"The people of Iran will not accept coercion and unjust decisions by international organizations," Ahmadinejad said, according to state television. "Enemies cannot force the Iranian people to relinquish their rights."

"The era of bullying and brutality is over," he added.

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, also was defiant, telling a group of clerics that Iran would not drop its nuclear ambitions, state television reported.

"Authorities are obliged to continue toward achieving advanced technology, including nuclear energy. The people and the government will resist any force or conspiracy," he said.

He charged that Washington was looking for an excuse to continue what he called a psychological war against his country.

"This time they have used nuclear energy as an excuse. If Iran quits now, the case will not be over. The Americans will find another excuse," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 01:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Better to suffer a little now than a lot later Mahmoud. I'll keep pushing for now. I can add a sweater or 2 and not drive as much if it means you and your M² pals are in historys ash bin. There is not anywhere in my town I need to go I can walk to a from. I don't need your oil or gas.
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Long time lurker(year plus),Thank you RBers for all your insights(the depth and variety of experiences is something else),there is nothing comparable to rantburg on the web.-sentimental mush/praise off
Would appreciate opinions on a disturbing scenario kicking around in my head from all your comments.
Lets start with a few conditions.
1)Ahmadinejad belongs to an apocalyptic sect which believes it must prepare the way for the return of the 12th imam.He is removing the old guard(who enjoyed their power under the current status quo)and replacing them with his blooded Iran-Iraq war cadre (posted on rantburg)
2)The WOT has shown that there are many muslims who believe that are mandated to do whatever is required to fulfill their vision of the koran,for which they will be greatly rewarded in the afterlife.(clear to anyone but dhimmis)
3)Iran developes nuclear weapons.(supposition now but looking more likely each day)
Scenario-Ahmadinejad fails through conventional means(support of terrorist,insurgents,economic leverage and military posturing/adventuring) to subvert the middle east governments,destroy Isreal and cripple the West.As a true believer(unlike most despots who are only concerned with keeping their share,a very large share,of the pie)
he is compelled to use nuclear weapons.Odds are he is only going to get one shoot at this.Nukes Isreal and sunni held oil interest,crippling three enemies(jews,the West and sunni) at once.Maybe throw one into Europe to subdue them.If he is lucky Isreal may not be able to respond and the West may accept a 'fate accompoli'.If unlucky Iran gets nuked but he doesn't care since they're all martyrs and will be rewarded by Allah.Either way he wins under his belief system and the way is prepped for the 12th imam to lead them to final victory.
This scenario explains Russia and China complicity.Putins dream of russian ascendacy would be possible due to its energy reserves.Russian power due to oil dollars and promises to keep the gas flowing to Europe.China on the hand would see Korea and Japan crippled due to lack of energy and exports(west not going to be buying much during an major economic crisis).China would suffer from the economic slowdown but its government/military has vast experience in dealing with peasant uprising.Not to mention its military maybe sated with pacific rim adventuring of its own.China's new third world oil producing friends(venezuela and angola to name a couple)may lessen the impact on them.
Question for .com and other experienced oil expats,would it be better to target the oil fields or refineries and how long to bring them back on line.
Posted by: AlterEgo || 03/10/2006 4:28 Comments || Top||

#3  All I know is that after 9/11 the Moslems have been wanting and needing an even bigger payoff. As it turns out, the Iranians were behind 9/11 and were using their Arab "brothers" who they see as inferior. To maintain power in the eyes of the Arab nations, Iran HAS to do something big. Standing up and mouthing off to the US is a first step, which then will necessitate action. Don't know what's going to happen, but Russia and China want oil, sure enough.
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 4:46 Comments || Top||

#4  I have a hard time believing that the average Joe Persian will consider the fact that his country has been largely transformed to glass as any kind of victory. I can never see TB's govt having the balls to retaliate if we were attacked but I think the US may take a stronger line. Pure conjecture AE but never underestimate the mullahs' crazed ambitions.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/10/2006 4:53 Comments || Top||

#5  AlterEgo - Of course you know I don't care for your scenario, lol, but that said, what you target depends upon the time frame you wish to deny them product / income - which I presume is your goal.

I doubt I'll say anything surprising to you, but since you asked, a quick take:

Immediate short-term denial means targeting finished product storage tanks and associated pipeline termini. These are the farms you see onshore which feed the terminals. Nothing to sell and no local use. Effect immediate & rebuild is measured in months.

Over there, wells are completed in weeks - months at most. Not deep and excellent ambient pressure in most locations around the Gulf. Gaia has a very bad local case of acne and you're poking a zit, so to speak. Since wellheads are scattered, they really don't make very good targets... one $25K laser-guided bomb per head? Who will lase the target? Etc. Rebuild would be ala Kuwait - which turned out to be very fast - 6-8 months for hundreds... but that was with almost unlimited resources and no security issues.

Pipelines, destroyed on a large scale would probably take down production for weeks to months, depending upon whether or not you also hit the concentrators, splitters, junctions, etc. The terrorist approach of poking a little hole somewhere and setting it alight - that's just an irritation. Don't tell the MSM, they think it's a major quagmiric catastrophe to shut off the pumps for a few hours and replace the damaged section, lol.

Raw product tank farms. Storage until refined. How much product you take out of the system is the key here. Building the tanks isn't much. Rebuild probably in a few moths if materials available. Then more time to refill.

Terminal facilities - where product is loaded onto tankers - that's months, at least... perhaps even a year or more. Different products require different gear / complexity. The facilities req'd for filling an oil tanker are simpler than for an LNG tanker, of course, and to facilitate tankers, you're talking about a platform out in water deep enough to accommodate 'em and seabed delivery lines from your storage facility onshore. I've seen simple ones and massive complex ones. Kharg Island took a few years, I'll wager.

Refineries are the big daddies. Now you're talking years - and as much as a decade. A full petrochemical facility, if designed and built from scratch can take 15+ years - I saw that in Southern Thailand projects. Even from existing designs and using any gear that is salvageable, rebuild is probably still measured in years. Every refinery is custom-built for the product types and quality it will have to process.

One thing to note is that you can't just flip a switch at the refinery end to shut down, then flip it back on when you've repaired everything leading to it. If the feed goes dry, I have been told that a cold restart is one complicated mother-bear. Others will have to address the time issue.

I'm sure others can offer other / more info. I was a programmer who spent only a little time, personally, on a rig - to develop sim software for top-drive offshore, lol. My focus was actually tuning thermal modeling in the infinite heat-sink of the ocean, heh. Lotsa caking possible on the annular returns if you use the wrong type of drilling mud. Temps greatly affect curing times for cement and all that rot.

Dunno if this helped. Others, please correct any mistakes / oversights. Thx. :-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 5:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Welcome, AlterEgo. It's always nice to have new, intelligent voices. Interesting questions you think up -- I look forward to reading the answers. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2006 7:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Iran is a huge importer of petrol. Several billion dollars a year. So they are vulnerable to cutting off imports of petrol most of which come by sea. Of course hitting Iranian oil refineries would make the problem worse for them
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 8:46 Comments || Top||

#8  alterego- "Thank you RBers for all your insights(the depth and variety of experiences is something else)," Good point. In a world were more and more kids leave thier home town, it is something that is sorely missed, the wisdom of our parents and grandparents. Now we have the wisdom of even more people. If we can learn to use it.
Posted by: plainslow || 03/10/2006 9:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Iran and the M²s have several serious vulnerabilities that could be exploited. phil_b at comment #7 mentioned one: petrol refining. Iran imports the majority of it. Cut this off by disabling refineries and you have one pissed off populace. The other thing is electric power. Generating plants and large transformers take months or years to procure and install. It would be nice not to destroy terminals like Karg Island and hit the critical nodes to bring the machine to a halt.

The question is one of will. Iran has been playing the EUniks like fish. They openly boast about it. Everything points to a preemptive decapitation strike by the Allies (whoever they are). Iran has threatened many countries. I have a bad feeling that someone is going to take a big hit, or Iran tests a nuke before something happens. I sincerely hope that President Bush makes good on his word that Iran will not be allowed to acqure a nuclear weapon.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 11:09 Comments || Top||

#10  Alter Ego, welcome aboard and thank you for the interesting observations about why Russia and China have been such facilitators with respect to Iran. Absolutely none of this bodes well for the region without Iran taking a pretty massive hit. The only question is how much pain we let Iran inflict before we lance the boil.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#11  It seems that I asked my question poorly,will try again.If iran was to use nuclear weapons on Sunni held oil deposits,to obtain the longest term hurt on the west,what would be the targets.Include in ones consideration of targets the difficulty from fallout.I would presume from .com reply that refineries would be the answer.Attempts to google number of refineries in the middle has proved frustrating.Also would I be wrong to assume that these terminals are close(in terms of nukes) to the refineries.
Howard UK-Unfortunately Joe Persia and Joe Arab(no offense meant in using these labels,just quick way to refer to average person in middle east) has never had a voice in their governments views,perhaps that is changing too.
ex-lib-It is my understanding that Russia is energy exporter though on refined products I am unsure.On China I suggest that it may be willing to accept short term problems for strategic gain.
Posted by: AlterEgo || 03/10/2006 17:34 Comments || Top||

#12  If Iran did that then Iran would be glass. Game over. Somebody would do it. The responders might be the US, Israel, Saudi, India, France, England, ...
Actually the list is pretty long. We might be surprised who uncloaked as being a nuke armed state.

Remember, Saudi has lots of real mid-range ICBMs (bought from China) and something is on top of them that likely goes boom.

Saudi paid for most of Pakistan's bomb so maybe pak bombs on the Saudi ICBMS?
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 19:27 Comments || Top||

#13  a living Iran would never receive the benefits of such an attack. Should it take place, Israel unleashed would be a fearsome thing (survival instincts and advanced weaponry - good mix for the Israelis). Russia gains slightly in run up on oil prices, China loses - oil from Iran. Chavez loses - he'll pipe up and have an accident, and the Canadians win big on oil sands

JMHO and best guess
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:21 Comments || Top||

#14  Welcome AlterEgo. Good to hear from you.

There is a swing factor in this. Mahmoud is nuts. His driving focus is the return of the Mahdi. The lunacy factor should be considered. Striking Israel is a given. But that may be all he needs, in his mind to set the holy wheel a'rolling.

I don't think he intends for Iranians to survive. This is buried deep in the "we will harm America" puffery. It's a heads up to his people, but they're not listening. I believe he said only that America would suffer more than his people. It's a heads up Iran.

He expects and wants and is driving towards being nuked himself. He believes this will start the ultimate and final jihad and the arrival of his blessed Mahdi. And he does it by striking Israel - and very soon.

Kimmy should be firing off a few more missiles soon, next week. Mahmoud is waiting for it. He's supposed to send the US scurrying towards NK while "negotiations" continue at the UN.

Mahmoud has some nukes - more still on way from Pak or NK, weeks behind schedule which is why the penis -wagging. Two more weeks is all he needs for the ultimate suicide attack.

Palestinians are expendable. They're only reason for being was to take out Israel. Mahmoud does that, just a lot more martyrs and EU outrage and so much the better.

Refineries is the second wave, and that's Al Q's job.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 21:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Pillar sez Iraq may still seek WMDs
For anyone who doubted my initial read on the man, I present you with yet more proof ...
A former top CIA official said Thursday that despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is likely to be looking for weapons of mass destruction within the next five to 10 years.

Paul Pillar, who until last year was in charge of intelligence assessments for the Middle East, said the CIA warned the Bush administration before the Iraq invasion in 2003 that a change of regimes would not necessarily solve any WMD problem.

In a speech at the Middle East Institute here, Pillar said Iraqis live in "a dangerous neighborhood," with rival countries pursuing weapons of mass destruction. So the CIA had warned that a future Iraqi government would likely want the very weapons Hussein was (wrongly) suspected of hiding, including nuclear weapons, he said.

"Iraq may turn once again to ... a WMD program," Pillar, who is retired from the CIA, said Thursday. "And wouldn't that be ironic?"

Pillar recently published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine that for the first time fully laid out the CIA's side of the battle with the Bush administration over Iraq intelligence.

Pillar charges that the administration never sought strategic assessments from the CIA about Iraq. He said in his article that the Bush administration made its decision to go to war and then "cherry-picked" items from intelligence assessments in an effort to justify the decision to the public.

The biggest discrepancy between the CIA's intelligence and the administration's line on Iraq was the claim by Bush that there was a relationship between Hussein and al-Qaida, Pillar wrote. There was no intelligence supporting that theory, Pillar said, but the administration wanted to capitalize on "the country's militant post-9/11 mood," he wrote.

Pillar wrote that the intelligence community, on its own initiative, warned the administration before the war that there was a significant chance of violent conflict in Iraq and that the war would likely boost radical Islam throughout the Middle East.

In his speech, Pillar said Iraq is serving the same purpose that Afghanistan once did, as an inspiration and a base for radical Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
The Religious Policeman: My new Best Friend
Posted by: tipper || 03/10/2006 00:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He is extremely bright, and answers his e-mail (which betrays a US address, even though he has hinted at being in the UK). The incident where the Muttawa locked girls in a burning building rather than have them venture unrobed into the streets, was decisive in his turn against the Muttawa. The Muttawa has a website with no pictures, they being good Muslims who promote vice and prevent virtue (or whatever).
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 5:36 Comments || Top||

#2  and he has a Lilak sense of humor

too bad the NYTimes or the WaPo don't let him have a column every month or two
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 8:01 Comments || Top||

#3  fun blog, informative too.
Posted by: RD || 03/10/2006 13:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
US to shut down Abu Ghraib prison
The US military will soon close Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison and transfer its 4537 detainees to another detention facility, a US military spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 00:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


11 civilians killed in Iraq blasts
Explosions in Iraq have killed at least 11 people and wounded 19 others - all civilians, police said. One of the deadly blasts on Thursday targeted an Iraqi army patrol in al-Amariyah, a middle-class neighbourhood in west Baghdad, killing nine civilians and wounding six, according to Major Falah al-Mohammedawi of the Interior Ministry.

At Yarmouk hospital in west Baghdad, a car bomb was detonated, killing at least two people and wounding 13 as they entered the clinic, according to police Lieutenant Thaer Mahmoud.

The US military confirmed that a mass abduction from a security firm was the work of kidnappers masquerading as Interior Ministry commandos. In an audacious attack on a locally owned security firm on Wednesday, attackers dressed as commandos stormed into the company's east Baghdad headquarters and took away 50 people, many of them ex-military personnel from the Iraqi army, which was disbanded by the former US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer. "We can confirm based on our investigation that individuals dressed like this, in chocolate-chip desert combat uniforms, riding in eight vehicles, drove up and kidnapped 50 local nationals," US military spokesman Major-General Rick Lynch said on Thursday, referring to his combat fatigues. "We don't know who did that. In our conversations with Iraqi authorities, they do not know either."
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 00:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
UN action against Iran likely to be impotent. Wotta surprise.
The decision to refer Iran to the UN over its nuclear weapons ambitions is viewed with scepticism by experts who have followed
North Korea's more advanced nuclear threat.

UN Security Council is expected to confront a defiant Iran next week, after months of fruitless talks with foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany.

The world body has the power to impose political and economic sanctions on Iran for violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT) by hiding much of its nuclear programme for two decades. It can even back those sanctions by military action if deemed necessary.

"But in reality, the UN has proved to be a paper tiger in the past. You only have to look at North Korea," said Kim Tae-Woo, a nuclear policy specialist at the Korean Institute for Defense Analyses, affiliated to
South Korea's ministry of defense.

Iran said last year that it would defy international pressure and forge ahead with uranium enrichment and pull out of the NPT if referred to the UN Security Council.

North Korea took that step in January 2003 after kicking out inspectors from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in December 2002.

That same month North Korea removed IAEA seals and monitoring cameras from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and said it was reactivating its nuclear facilities, frozen under a 1994 accord with the United States.

Experts say that Iran has been closely watching North Korea's path to nuclear confrontation with the outside world.

In January, Iran removed IAEA seals and monitoring equipment from its nuclear facilities.

"It looks like Tehran has taken a page out of Pyongyang's brinkmanship playbook," said Peter Beck, a Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group.

One month after Pyongyang withdrew from the NPT, a step that Tehran has yet to take, the IAEA declared North Korea in violation of non-proliferation accords and referred the Stalinist state to the Security Council.

A hopelessly split council, with Russia and China opposed to any sanctions against North Korea, expressed concern but took no action on what IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei described as the world's most dangerous non-proliferation issue.

He later said the UN failure to take action had set "the worst precedent of all" to would-be nuclear proliferators, telling them there were no consequences for violations.

In the absence of any sanctions, North Korea declared itself a nuclear power two years later. Experts, including the IAEA, believe Pyongyang has since manufactured some six nuclear bombs.

With similar disunity among its members, prospects are bleak that the UN Security Council will show more backbone against Iran, said Beck.

Washington, along with its European allies, favours a tough line on Tehran while Russia and China, with close economic and energy ties to Iran, oppose sanctions.

"The major impediment to UN action on North Korea was opposition from Russia and China," he said. "We face a similar situation with Iran.

"At least Russia and perhaps others are not ready to get tough with Iran yet. That is the fundamental stumbling block."

Kim said that North Korea's defiance of the world community has been relatively cost free. It is now freely producing plutonium and making nuclear bombs while the Security Council members turn a blind eye.

"Given these facts, the possibility is even slimmer for them to produce any resolution to impose sanctions on Iran," he said.

He cited Iran's position as a key oil producer and its ability to take reprisals against countries by shutting of oil supplies.

"The United Nations or any other international body has never taken any substantial steps to punish problem countries regarding nuclear proliferation," he said.

"I am not expecting any significant steps from that quarter."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Norkies have been in violation of the Pyongyang Protocols/Accords for nearly 10 years now, when they themselves originally admitted to breaking it - the Norkies didn't care about lying to Bill Clinton becuz, SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH, with Bill they lied merely to another liar. In any case, NorKor = Iran, etal > the burden is on the USA, and ONLY THE USA, to prove NK=Iran are doing what NK and Iran, etal. themselves claim to be doing vv nuke dev. Its not even the weekend yet and most of the Conservative commentators on TV are already proclaiming that, while mostly acknowledging that Iran under Mad Moud is a direct open threat to Israel, the ME, and the USA, that Dubya should not somuch invade abd takeover Iran as destroy Iran's ability to dev or deploy nuke missles for several years worth of time, i.e. to "SET BACK". CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER as example argued on BRIT HUME's show that Russia and China will never allow the USA to threaten their supply of oil from Iran hence will not/
never allow the USA to unilater control Iran.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I said it a few weeks ago. Torch it for the insurance money...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 13:51 Comments || Top||

#3  more MSM stupidity.

Nkor is the most totalitarian society on the planet, worse than Saddam, a million soldiers with a firm grip on millions of halfstarved peasants. Only real trade is with China, who wont cut them off for fear of a flood of refugees, and general disorder.

No comparison to Iran, a nasty place, but a much looser degree of control, and a vulnerable regime.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 14:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Now is it POSSIBLE Russia and China will block sanctions at the UNSC? Sure.

But theres a different set of concerns, levers, and costs for them, in part because sanctions on Iran have a greater chance of being effective IF passed than wrt NKor.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 14:29 Comments || Top||

#5  LOL TU!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Torch it for the insurance money...

Only if there are no survivors.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 15:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Time to play the Tokyo card.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran digs in for confrontation with the US at the UN
Iran's hardline regime was digging in for a confrontation with arch-enemy the United States, with its supreme leader vowing not to halt a disputed nuclear drive despite looming UN Security Council action.

"Today, the Iranian people and the officials of the Islamic republic of Iran, more powerful than before and like steel, will stand against any pressure or conspiracy," a defiant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

He vowed that Iran, "relying on God and using wisdom and rationale and by maintaining unity, will continue on the path to advanced technology, including nuclear technology."

Describing the stand-off as a "matter of destiny" after a quarter of a century of tensions with Washington, Khamenei also urged Iranians to brace for "possible pain and trouble".

The
International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday opened the way for Security Council action against Iran, which despite its denials is suspected of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development.

Envoys of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- the five veto-wielding, permanent members of the Council -- have already discussed the issue and could formally take up the case in the course of next week.

Unlike the IAEA, the Security Council has enforcement powers and can impose punitive measures, including sanctions. The aim is to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment work, which can provide the fuel for civilian reactors but also material for atomic weapons.

"If the Iranian people and the government retreats from its right to nuclear technology, the (American) adventure will not end and the Americans will come up with another pretext," Khamenei said.

"We should stand firm on the matter, and... by enduring possible pain and trouble will be victorious."

Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also struck a defiant tone, declaring that "the time for bullying is over" and that the West "can not do a damn thing" against Iran.

"Some powers think that if they sit in a session, they can force the Iranian people to retreat. But all the Iranian nation, young or old, urban dweller or villager and farmer or factory worker are all saying one thing: nuclear energy is our undeniable right," he said.

Although Tehran has proposed suspending industrial-scale enrichment, it is refusing to halt enrichment research -- but the Western powers argue that even this would allow the clerical regime to acquire nuclear weapons know-how.

"Iran will not give up its right to research and development," senior national security official Abdol Reza Rahmani-Fazli, the deputy of top Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani, told state media.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to cooperate with the IAEA in order to achieve its rights, but will not accept the politicisation of the nuclear case," he said.

Iran's Assembly of Experts, an 86-member council of top clerics, also issued a statement warning the country's opponents of a "heavy price" if tensions escalate further. The previous day, another Iranian official also threatened the US with "harm and pain".

The only voice of dissent was from reformist president
Mohammad Khatami, who warned the country could face "great problems".

IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei has said a political settlement is possible, and urged all sides to "lower the rhetoric" to achieve this.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Thursday Iran had become the focus of US action on the world stage as she sought Congress' backing for a package to promote democracy in the Islamic republic.

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran, whose policies are directed at developing a Middle East that would be 180 degrees different than the Middle East we would like to see develop," Rice told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian television that President George W. Bush had assured him of Washington's "prudence" in handling the affair during their meeting in Washington Tuesday.

"When... I met President Bush he told me explicitly that on future action over Iran it was necessary to be very prudent," he told Rossia television in Moscow.

Moscow has been trying to broker a compromise under which Iran could enrich uranium in Russia. Beijing has also advocated a negotiated solution.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So Mr. Lavrov, what do you think a prudent course of action regarding Iran would be?
Posted by: Grunter || 03/10/2006 8:19 Comments || Top||

#2  State Dept. report on Iran's human rights violations.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61550.htm
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  One 10 kiloton device 3 miles above the ground over the capital just before dawn will get their attention. Nothing less. Of course, no one is going to do it, so expect a lot a whining and blood to flow later.
Posted by: Gloluper Omick7641 || 03/10/2006 9:17 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela slams US rights claim
In the latest diplomatic spat between the two countries, Venezuela has declared that a US state department report, saying Hugo Chavez’s government violated human rights, is nothing more than "toilet paper". The blunt riposte from Caracas is the culmination of weeks of arguments between the two countries which saw two diplomats expelled. The US state department released its 2005 report on world human rights on Wednesday, pointing out that opponents of Chavez were harassed, restrictive laws on the media and use of the judicial system for political ends.

The Venezuelan vice president, Vicente Rangal said: "These reports are just toilet paper, exactly that, toilet paper, because the US state department officials have no authority to judge any country in the world. If any country or any government violates human rights and is a centre of corruption, it's the US government," he said.
So there.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 00:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Right now in venezuela the people are all looking at each other saying, "What the hell is toilet paper?"
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  You just don't see the "Poopy Head" defense much anymore.
Posted by: mojo || 03/10/2006 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Lol, mojo! Summation par excellence.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  "These reports are just toilet paper.."

Lies!…all lies...I have a stellar Human rights record.
Besides…who ya gonna believe….The Inter-American commission on Human Rights, Journalists and Reporters without Borders, The Inter-American Press Association, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, The World Bank, Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos, or the OAS?
Or my friends Libya, Iran, and Cuba?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 11:47 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
JMB supremo ain't talking ... yet
Shaikh Abdur Rahman, supreme leader of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was arrested from Sylhet on Thursday, has not disclosed much during his interrogation, while his injured lieutenant Bangla Bhai, who was captured on Monday, would need more medical care before being quizzed, officials sources said yesterday.

They said a medical team, including two burn specialists from Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), has been formed to treat Bangla Bhai who was severely injured when he set off a bomb before being captured on Monday.

Intelligence sources said Shaikh Abdur Rahman still remained tight-lipped about JMB connections inside and outside the country.

The special Task Force for Interrogation (TFI), which includes members from the National Security Intelligence, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Criminal Intelligence Department, Special Branch, Detective Branch and the Rapid Action Battalion intelligence wing, took turns to grill the kingpin.

Members of the stand-by medical team for the JMB chief said he had high blood pressure and diabetes.

Meanwhile, the medical team led by DMCH burn unit doctor Samondo Shen Lal has started treating the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) chief and operational commander of JMB Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai at the BDR Hospital at Peelkhana.

Hospital sources said about 9% of his body had suffered burn and splinter wounds in the blast. Another victim of the blast is still under police protection and is being treated in Mymensingh Hospital.

Another source told newsmen that the wife of Bangla Bhai, Halima Khatun alias Rina, is now under police custody with her child and two others arrested along with Bangla Bhai from Rampur are now under intelligence agency’s custody.

“If required, they would be brought before the TFI for interrogation in connection with the August 17 blast cases,” the source said.

Two other JMB activists who were arrested during ‘Operation Surya Dighol Bari’ along with Shaikh were also under supervision of the intelligence team.

Meanwhile, RAB has filed three cases with Muktagacha police station in Mymensingh district against Bangla Bhai and three others.

Others accused are his wife Fahima alias Zubaida Begum, bodyguard Masud and Chan Mia who gave shelter to Bangla Bhai.
They were accused of firing at RAB during the raid on his hideout, possession of arms and explosives.

Meanwhile, Fahima was taken on a 10-day remand while Newaz Ali, father of Chan Mia, on a five-day remand.

Masud was captured wounded during the raid and Chan Mia went into hiding.

Meanwhile, Britain welcomed yesterday the capture of two militant leaders in Bangladesh wanted for a deadly wave of nationwide bombings.

“The Bangladeshi authorities are to be congratulated,” British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said in a statement hailing the capture of in the past week of the leader and second in command of the militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

“This is a significant advance in the counter-terrorism activities of the government of Bangladesh and an important part of wider efforts to combat international terrorism,” Howells said in the statement released in Dhaka.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Time to break out the Ham Sandwich of Truth(tm).
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Hollywood's Jap intelligence officers would advise captives: "We have ways to make you talk." We learned those "ways," Shaikh.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 3:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Operation Diggle Barry...
How poetic.
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 03/10/2006 5:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I'd like to give Bhangra Barry a good diggling, f'sure.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/10/2006 5:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Man, I was hopin' for another round of the Tales from the Crossfire Gazette...geez!
Posted by: BA || 03/10/2006 10:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Man, I was hopin' for another round of the Tales from the Crossfire Gazette...geez!

That happens AFTER they start talking. Remember, the suspect has to reveal the location of the secret hideout where the crossfire occurs.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Ah, yes, RC...it all comes back to me know. I've been off the Rantburg-drip for a few weeks, so I'm getting a lil' rusty on the schedule of the Crossfire Gazette...please forgive me, lol!
Posted by: BA || 03/10/2006 10:45 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm ready. And we're running out of time!
Posted by: Jack Bauer || 03/10/2006 10:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Heh - came back for your "fix", huh? Lol. I understand. I think of them as an exclusive RB series: Tales of the Shuttergun... eat yer hearts out HBO, Showtime...
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Wow, with the other story today - Rahman singing a 3-part harmony all by hisownself - what a difference a day makes, eh?

Or maybe Gulf Times just pulls crap outta their, uh, imaginations? Heh.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 13:21 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Malaysia To Test Fire Latest Anti-ship Missile
For the first time in the region, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) will test fire its latest anti-ship missile --the Sea Skua --next week, but the location is still being kept secret. The Sea Skua has never been used by any ASEAN navy and it will be the first time that it will be fired from a helicopter.

According to a defence source, RMN's latest helicopter, the Super Lynx 300 has been entrusted the responsibility to launch the British-made weapon.

"The purchase of the Sea Skua had never been announced but has been in RMN's inventory since last year, and will be tested by RMN for the first time next week," the source told Bernama. According to reports in several defence journals, the purchase of the Sea Skua for RMN's Super Lynx helicopters was sealed in 2001 but details had been kept secret.

The source said that probably only one Super Lynx would be involved in the exercise but the location would be closely watched by RMN's state-of-the art warships like the KD Jebat and KD Lekiu, which are equipped with the sophisticated Seawolf missile system.

It is believed that only one of the missiles - which proved its worth during Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf - will be test-fired during the exercise.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/10/2006 00:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm sure the RN zapped argie ships with this during the falkland conflict a quarter century ago, hardly modern.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 03/10/2006 6:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Wikipedia: The Sea Skua is a lightweight short range Air-to-Surface (ASM) missile designed for the helicopter launched anti-shipping role. It is primarily used by the Royal Navy on the Lynx helicopter, although it can be ship launched and is in place as a shore battery in Kuwait.

With a weight at launch of only 320 lb (145 kg), the Lynx can carry up to four missiles simultaneously. The missile flies at high subsonic speed over ranges of 15.5 miles (25 km). It can be set to travel at one of four pre-selected heights, depending on the surface conditions. Near the target the altitude is raised to target acquisition height. The Sea Skua has semi-active radar guidance; the launching helicopter illuminates the target with its radar (originally the specially developed Ferranti Seaspray in the case of the Lynx), and the missile's homing head homes in on the reflected energy. On impact it penetrates the hull of a ship before detonating the 44 lb (20 kg) blast/fragmentation warhead. The Sea Skua is judged capable of sinking ships of approximately 1,000 tons displacement with a single shot, and can disable much larger vessels.

As well as the United Kingdom, the Sea Skua has seen service with Germany, India and Turkey. It was launched 12 times during the Gulf War, sometimes in appalling weather conditions, registering direct hits on every occasion.
Posted by: Steve || 03/10/2006 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  For the first time in the region, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) will test fire its latest anti-ship missile --the Sea Skua --next week, but the location is still being kept secret.

Maybe, hopefully, on a pirate ship in the Malaccan Strait?
Posted by: Hupoting Groluse9049 || 03/10/2006 10:44 Comments || Top||

#4  It's a tipical Light Heli anti ship missile. Nothing to talk about dozens of firings like this are made in whole world every year. Including big ones(Western standart) like Harpoon or Exocet
Posted by: Omoter Hupolurt9095 || 03/10/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, but Sea Skua is just a hell of a good name.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 19:29 Comments || Top||

#6  sounds like a Johnny Quest© weapon
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Unholy Alliance: Iran pledged to assist the Taliban after 9/11
Iran secretly agreed to assist the Taliban in its war against U.S. forces in October 2001, according to the transcript of a high-level Taliban official's tribunal session at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. The seven-page transcript, as well as thousands of pages of similar documents, was released by the Pentagon on March 3 in response to litigation brought by the Associated Press.

The detainee is not named in the transcript released by the Pentagon, but, according to allegations brought by the U.S. government, the detainee was "the governor of Herat Province in Afghanistan from 1999 to 2001." As governor of Herat, which is the westernmost province in Afghanistan and is situated on the Iranian border, he "worked for Mullah Omar" and "had control over police and military functions in Herat to include the administration of the Taliban's two largest divisions." (According to a list of former Taliban officials prepared by the United Nations, the governor of Herat was a man named Maulavi Khair Mohammad Khairkhwah.)

The detainee admitted that he was the governor of Herat, but denied that he worked solely for Mullah Omar or that he oversaw any aspect of the Taliban's military.

The government also alleges that he at one time served as "the Taliban spokesperson for the BBC and Voice of America;" a charge the detainee did not deny. Nor did he deny a third, more astonishing allegation:

Detainee was present at a clandestine meeting in October 2001 between Taliban and Iranian officials in which Iran pledged to assist the Taliban in their war with the United States.

In response to this allegation, the former governor of Herat admitted:

Yes, I participated in that meeting with the Iranians. There was a committee that came from Kandahar and I joined them and was just sitting there. They were conducting the meeting. My job was for the security of this committee. I was not the sole representative of this committee to talk with the Iranians. They were responsible; my job was to provide security and safety for the committee. If I were [sic] responsible for the meeting, conducting the meeting, and I was the representative then why would the committee come from Kandahar. The security was needed because they were not in a safe building. It was not a highway where everything would be safe. The meeting took place in an area off the main road where safety and security was necessary. That's the reason I went to the meeting.

Upon further questioning the detainee explained his role in setting up security for the meeting:

Q: When you provided security at this meeting with the Iranians, was the security police officers or military? What type of security was it?

A: There were armed [sic] post, they were doing the security. I knew the area and the crossing points, I new how to get to that area safely, so I was like a guide for them. There were post [sic] and they would not let people across the border, this was like a restricted area. I went with them and told the post this was an official meeting and told them to let us cross the area. I didn't have a gun.

Later, the detainee reiterated that the Taliban sent representatives from the central government:

The meeting with the Iranians, it was designed and conducted by the committee that came from Kandahar, which was the central government at the time. I was just a security member.

There is no information in the transcript identifying the Iranian representatives at the meeting. Nor is there any information on what actual support the Iranians provided, if any.

Importantly, the government's allegations and the detainee's corroborating testimony are at odds with the intelligence community's conventional wisdom regarding Iran's relationship with the Taliban. After years of mutual animosity, it was assumed prior to the war in Afghanistan that the Iranian regime would celebrate the fall of the Taliban. Each government had supported the other's opposition and diplomatic tensions flared repeatedly throughout the last several years of the Taliban's reign.

But the recently released transcript corroborates earlier reporting on Iran's cooperation with the Taliban, as well as al Qaeda. Afghani opposition sources reported in early 2002 that the Iranians helped Taliban and al Qaeda members escape approaching U.S. forces through the Herat province. For example, Time Magazine reported:

An adviser to [Herat] warlord Ismail Khan told TIME that shortly before the U.S. bombing campaign began in October, a high-ranking Iranian official connected to the hard-line supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini had been dispatched to Kabul to offer secret sanctuary to Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives. The Iranian official was apparently trapped in Kabul during the bombing, and remained there until the Northern Alliance took control of the city. Although the Iranians despised the Taliban for their persecution of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, their hatred for the U.S. may have run deeper.

And, according to sources in Herat, the Taliban and al Qaeda took the Iranians up on their offer. Shortly before Herat's Taliban garrison fled in November, a convoy of 50 off-road vehicles carrying some 250 senior Taliban and al Qaeda members allegedly crossed over into Iran, using a smugglers' route through the hills about 20 miles north of the city. A Western diplomat in Afghanistan claims that groups of Taliban and al Qaeda are still threading their way through the mountains of central Afghanistan and heading for the Iranian border. "The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has an eye on everything that happens along the border," says the diplomat. "Of course they know that Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are getting across."

There is no evidence in the newly released transcript that al Qaeda representatives attended the meeting in October 2001 in Herat. And the deposed governor pleads with the tribunal to "not accuse any of the Taliban as being al Qaeda." He also denies that there was any significant al Qaeda presence in Herat adding, "we would not do anything for al Qaeda."

But the detainee's denials ring hallow. Given what we know about al Qaeda's intimate relationship with the Taliban, Abu Musab al Zarqawi's training camps in Herat, and al Qaeda's history with Iran, it would behoove U.S. officials to press for additional information on the meeting, if they haven't already.

The importance of this allegation goes beyond understanding Iran's past behavior. Currently, some analysts assume that fear of U.S. retribution limits Iranian interference in Iraq and support for al Qaeda. But if Iran's leadership agreed to set aside its differences with the Taliban in order to stymie American operations against al Qaeda, then such assumptions are clearly no longer valid.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
N Korea missile tests 'a quantum leap'
Short-range missiles recently test-fired by North Korea are "a quantum leap forward" from the country's previous missile capabilities, the commander of US troops in South Korea has said. Speaking to the US House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee on Thursday, General Burwell Bell said the solid fuel missiles tested were more reliable and easier to move around than anything the North has produced before. Solid fuel missiles are also more durable and dramatically more accurate than liquid fuel missiles, he said.

US and South Korean officials said North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles on Wednesday, unsettling its Asian neighbors. The tests came came during a stalemate in six-country talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes. In addition, Bell said, the North was developing longer-range missiles with ranges "far beyond any requirement that they have for defence".

He said that with Pyongyang ready and willing to sell its missile technology to anyone willing to pay, there was a great concern about proliferation Bell's comments contrasted with those of Admiral William Fallon, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, who told reporters on Thursday the North's missiles could reach targets in South Korea, but not beyond. He said the North may have test-fired up to three solid fuel missiles, but he cautioned that he had not yet seen a detailed report.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2006 00:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  President Pervez Musharraf hinted Thursday Pakistan might be close to conducting another missile test, without, however, specifying of which weapon.

Musharraf's indication came during a speech at the National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM), which is an important part of Pakistan's nuclear and missile development establishment.

"It has all been done indigenously without any outside assistance. I am proud of you and the whole nation is proud of you," he told Pakistani scientists.

He added that the missile incorporates technologies which have so far been available to only three or four of the most advanced nations of the world.
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 5:39 Comments || Top||

#2  REUTERS.com and other blogs quote General Bell as stating that NK is also intentively dev missles THAT CAN HIT ALASKA AND PARTS OF CONUS, which by extens/definins also includes parts of CANADA. Iff JAPAN is any example, this means that if and when NK beats the war drums it'll be China's PLAAF, PLAN, andor Second Artillery? to do the per se buzzin and penetrating of American-NORAM air/sea space.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 23:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
Artists try not to offend Muslims as satire festival treads softly
An annual festival of satire in Valencia has fallen foul of censorship after more than four centuries following the furore over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
If they're too scared to do it they might as well just cancel...
In the Fallas festival, giant sculptures of the high and mighty are placed in the streets for the public to mock before being destroyed in an orgy of gunpowder and flames. It has survived attacks by the Roman Catholic church, various puritanical rulers and the Franco dictatorship. This year's figures will include President George W Bush, several of the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the Prince of Wales dancing, in Highland dress, with the Duchess of Cornwall. But self-censorship has seen Muslim and Arab figures modified to avoid offence.
In other words, they're willing to bravely defy those who represent no danger to them.
The Fallas season is now underway until March 19 but as it approached, Valencians watched global protests against newspaper cartoons of Mohammed with growing alarm. Last month, the mayor, Rita Barberá, urged artists to "temper freedom with a sense of responsibility" when referring to religious subjects.
When you temper freedom it's not freedom anymore. You exercise your freedoms because you can. If you're not free, you do the things you're allowed to do.
At least one well known local Fallas artist admitted to removing elements from his display of comic sculptures. He had sculpted three life-size figures of illegal Arab immigrants storming the Spanish border, in a reference to last year's crisis in Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's enclaves in North Africa, involving thousands of migrants. The artist has now removed details that identified them as Arabs.
Made them look vaguely Equimeau, did he?
The artist asked not to be named, partly for fear of reprisals, partly because he did not feel proud of such "self-censorship". But this year was "different", he said.
Yeah. This year he wasn't free.
Radical Muslim leaders appeared to be looking for excuses to cause trouble.
It's their stock in trade...
"We saw what happened in Denmark," he said. "Those artists may have had the freedom to draw Mohammed, but now they're living as virtual prisoners. They have much less freedom than before.
No, they're under threat. They're still free men. You're not.
"I felt responsible not just as an artist, but as a citizen of this city."
Did it for the children, did you? Isn't that special?
Félix Crespo, the senior official in charge of the Central Fallas Council that runs the festival, urged the neighbourhood committees that raise funds to build the sculptures to avoid mixing humour with religion, "because that can be misunderstood". Everyone assumed these warnings referred to Islam because sculptures of Roman Catholic priests, nuns, even of God, are a central part of the Fallas.
They obviously haven't held an auto-da-fe recently...
"The ordinary people do not know all the intricacies of Islam, they just saw that there was a very extreme reaction to these [Danish] cartoons, they heard that embassies were attacked, and so people felt cautious," said Mr Crespo. In the countryside near Valencia, many villages have their own festivals, involving mock battles between "Moors and Christians", in an ancient recreation of the Catholic reconquest of Spain from Arab rule.
"No, no! Can't have any of that!"
There have been subtle changes this year, which no locals would discuss, the Spanish newspaper ABC recently reported. In Bocairent, villagers refrained from burning life-size mannequins of the "Mahoma", a traditional figure presumed to be based on Mohammed.
Getting ready for another 700 years. The local artists' commune will probably have the turban concession. Who's up for an orange boycott?
Posted by: tipper || 03/10/2006 00:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As a rwdb we should blow things up when an effigy of the Prophet Bush (oil be upon him) is mocked!

/sarcasm.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/10/2006 5:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Last month, the mayor, Rita Barberá, urged artists to "temper freedom with a sense of responsibility" when referring to religious Muslim subjects.

You know, I was really hoping that these worthless gadfly artist Eurotrash types would really take the opportunity to stick it to Islam. But instead, they've got a yellow stripe down their backs. So much for "artistic freedom of expression". So much for actually hoping that artists would contribute something positive.
Posted by: gromky || 03/10/2006 6:10 Comments || Top||

#3  dhimmis
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/10/2006 7:27 Comments || Top||

#4  But Islam is compatible with Western freedoms! They keep telling us, it must be so!

Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 7:33 Comments || Top||

#5  "The ordinary people do not know all the intricacies of Islam, they just saw that there was a very extreme reaction to these [Danish] cartoons, they heard that embassies were attacked, and so people felt cautious," said Mr Crespo.

Just how "intricate" is it to see that they want to either convert or kill you at the point of the scimatar, Mr. Crespo. Geez, I had hopes of "artistic freedoms" sticking it to the muzzies too, but I guess they can only mock those they know will turn the other cheek. PTUI!
Posted by: BA || 03/10/2006 10:10 Comments || Top||

#6  "When danger reared it's ugly head,
he bravely turned his tail and fled"
Posted by: mojo || 03/10/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#7  I once met a Spanish guy who had a theatrical company- he was in the giant puppet business! Anyway he goes to this Fallas festival every year, and he was emphatic that everyone is satirised, nobody is sacred, nobody is above being made a fool of. That was ten years ago...
Posted by: Grunter || 03/10/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#8  "The ordinary people do not know all the intricacies of Islam, they just saw that there was a very extreme reaction to these [Danish] cartoons, they heard that embassies were attacked, and so people felt cautious,"

C a n ... y o u ... s a y ... d h i m m i ... ?

V e r y ... g o o d ... I ... k n e w ... y o u ... c o u l d !

[/Fred Rogers]
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 13:28 Comments || Top||

#9  "I felt responsible not just as an artist, but as a citizen of this city."

Ahhh yes..the ole "The Artist as Citizen". I'm sure Babs is beaming.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#10  I think everyone is just plain chicken of the Moslems--which the Moslems will see as a GREAT victory.

video: whiny Islamofacists in all their glory and two French guys trying to conduct a silent protest
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 17:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Moslem Political Agenda:

Infiltrate

Overpopulate to gain a majority presence

Promote and legitimize recognition of Islam

Demand changes in host country's culture norms

Weaken and subsume host democracies through the democratic process

Attack

When other cultures/countries allow Islam and its followers to dictate preference and limit freedoms in favor of Islam, its easier to see that Islam is a totalitarian system. The silver lining?
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||

#12  video: whiny Islamofacists in all their glory and two French guys trying to conduct a silent protest

Except they both were Americans. Arthur Wneir of labaf.blogspot.com and Erik Svane of eriksvane.com and no-pasaran.blogspot.com. And the two have more guts in their discarded toenail clippings than all the Spanish "artistes" combined.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 17:36 Comments || Top||

#13  They were AMERICANS? Yahoo!! and right on! Too bad for France, though . . . where's all their people?
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 17:41 Comments || Top||

#14  Islamic Protestors in Paris Come Face to Face with an Unexpected Counter-Protest
The Danish American (Erik) feels like replying that they have done the same to Chirac, to Mitterrand, to the civil servant salons, and to union demonstrations, but suddenly he and the French American (Arthur) start moving away. What has happened is that a short blonde Frenchwoman has tugged on their sleeves and gently but firmly started pulling them away.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#15  Thanks for the website link. On Erik Svane:

Biography for
Erik Svane

Height
6' 3" (1.91 m)

Mini biography

A Danish-American actor and writer born to a diplomat couple in Prague, Erik Svane lives (and works) between Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Beside being fluent in (American) English, French, and Danish, he has a good understanding of Portuguese, German, and Italian, and integrates foreign languages and dialects effortlessly. His training includes three workshops with Jack Waltzer of the Actors Studio, l'École Nouvelle du Théâtre (both in Paris), and classes at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas). He is proficient in horseback riding, speed-climbing, dancing, karate, and numerous nautical sports, and performs his own stunts. From 2002 to 2003, he spent six months in the Caribbean, playing the lead role in a musical comedy he helped write for a theater on the island of Saint Martin. Besides his acting career, Erik Svane is working on several screenplays, including a western, a fantasy involving Leonardo da Vinci, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, and a romantic action movie set in 19th-century Brazil.
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 17:52 Comments || Top||

#16  "Too bad for France, though . . . where's all their people?"

Boy, am I naive . . . :)

Goodbye, France.
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 18:02 Comments || Top||

#17  Terrorised into submission. islam wins.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 21:48 Comments || Top||

#18  Listen you fucking cocksuckers, we are sick of your rightwing shit. Fuck your mothers you shit bags. And fuck yourself to, asswipes. Fuck BusHitler, CheNazi and Cunti Rice.

Howard Stern Rules!
Posted by: Sirius Dude || 03/10/2006 15:31 Comments || Top||

#19  Put my post back motherfucker

Howard Stern Rules
Posted by: Suck My Cock || 03/10/2006 17:05 Comments || Top||

#20  fuck your mother, ass wipe
Posted by: Drug Me Up Scotty || 03/10/2006 17:11 Comments || Top||

#21  x fuckwad, kinds of judganmetal noooooooo
Posted by: Sweet Taste of Shit || 03/10/2006 17:20 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
MILF coup underway?
A supposed coup plot to oust the leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) sent rebels and government officials scampering Wednesday to verify the reports.

News of the failed coup allegedly hatched by more hard-line and senior rebel leaders against the moderate Murad Ebrahim spread like wildfire in military circles in the southern Philippines.

And if Ebrahim is removed, the five-year old peace talks between Manila and the MILF -- the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group -- could be in serious jeopardy, especially now that the negotiations are on its final stage.

But Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, said the MILF is intact and that the report could be a ploy by those opposing the peace talks. "There could be efforts to divide the MILF, but our group is intact and we are all united and behind one leader and that is Murad Ebrahim," he said.

Reports of the failed coup were attributed to Musanip Abdullah, a senior commander of Ebrahim. But MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said he spoke with Abdullah who denied the reports.

"It is a total lie. I have spoken with Abdullah and he strongly denied everything, and he did not talk to anybody about any supposed coup plot against Brother Murad Ebrahim," Iqbal said, adding that the reports did not say who hatched the supposed coup, but other sources claimed that a small rebel faction led by Samir Hashim, younger brother of MILF founder Salamat Hashim, is one of those opposing Murad's rule.

Hashim, the leader of MILF's elite 106th Base Command in Maguindanao province, is advocating the establishment of a strict Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

Although Hashim is popular among MILF hardliners, most of his supporters were linked by the military to the Southeast Asian terror network the Jemaah Islamiya.

Among them is Wahid Tundok, tagged as one of those who provided sanctuary to Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani and Dulmatin and Pitono, both JI bomb-makers, who were previously reported hiding inside so-called MILF stronghold in Maguindanao and blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings.

But Kabalu denied the reports about Hashim and Tundok and said they would never launch a coup against Ebrahim.

"Samir will never attempt to unseat brother Murad. He has no capability to unseat brother Murad and he is loyal to the MILF leadership, and this is same also with Wahid Tundok," he said.

The MILF suspended Tundok because of his links with the JI.

Secretary Jesus Dureza, chief peace adviser of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said he do not have any reports about the failed MILF coup. "I have no reports about it," he said

Security officials said there is a power struggle among top MILF leaders and one of them, Hashim, wanted to take over, but he lacks the support from the more moderate rebel leaders.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  At the end of the day they are still filipino's who love the drama.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/10/2006 6:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol, 49pan - I recall the first time I heard something on the news about General Fabian Ver. I was sure I'd heard it wrong... there was no Internet back then, so it took me quite awhile to dig up enough info to learn that they were all dragging around movie-star names, lol. Drama, indeed, lol.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 6:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Will Jodie or Anna be running MILF by this time tomorrow? Check in and see! (Must be over 18)
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  a coup may be in progress and 'scamper' is the best they can do?? that is only a step or two up from mosey and certainly not a sashay...
Posted by: USN, ret. || 03/10/2006 14:17 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea Wants United States To Stop Hostile Policy
A senior North Korean government official said Thursday Pyongyang would reciprocate by taking "a confident step" if Washington takes a practical measure to end its hostile policy towards the country. Deputy Director of North Korea's Institute for Disarmament and Peace, Ri Kwang Il, said there was no change in the stand of North Korea to maintain the goal of denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, implement the joint statement of the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks and seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue through dialogue.

"(However), in order to solve the security issue of the Korean peninsula, the US should make a prompt decision to abandon its hostile policy towards North Korea," he told the Malaysia and East Asia Conference, organised by the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre (MSRC) here, today.

The US has accused Pyongyang of developing nuclear weapons and has declared North Korea an outpost of "tyranny" and a "criminal state", making it more difficult for a solution to the nuclear issue and other related issues, which is being pursued through the Six-Party Talks.

Kwang Il stressed that a pressing issue now to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula was to put an end to the existence of the "US forces illegally stationed in South Korea".

Kwang Il said the US security strategy in Northeast Asia -- to maintain the structure of the Cold War era -- was the main stumbling block that threatened the security of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia. Kwang Il also accused the US of continuously renewing its plans to invade North Korea, thus bringing the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of war.

"The US war plan to invade North Korea mapped out with utmost secrecy out of its aggressive doctrine of `pre-emptive strike' has been designed to launch unilateral attack against us to destroy our nuclear facilities through an air raid and infiltration operation of the special unit," he said.

He claimed that at the end of last year, the US had decided to deploy its latest nuclear carrier, George Washington, at its naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, and "staged extremely dangerous exercises for nuclear pre-emptive attack aimed at North Korea from Nov 1 till Nov 10, 2005".

"The US dramatised the dangerous nuclear war scenarios to use 30 nuclear bombs in `case of emergency' in the Korean peninsula and conducted simulation exercises of dropping the nuclear bomb," added Kwang I1.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/10/2006 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Sea of Kim
that's a pretty good one.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 0:44 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
US labels Mindanao, Sulu Archipelago as terrorist sanctuary
The United States has tagged Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago in the southern Philippines as sanctuary and training grounds for terrorists.

Navy Admiral William J. Fallon, chief of the US Pacific Command, said the southern Philippines is also a recruiting ground for terrorist organizations.

"The southern Philippines, Mindanao, and the Sulu archipelago remain a sanctuary, training, and recruiting ground for terrorist organizations," he told the Senate armed services committee on Wednesday.

Fallon said activities by terrorists and their supporters have been centered in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia and that these countries are cooperating with the US.

"With the cooperation of those nations, we have been building capacity and strengthening the ability of those countries to resist the activities of the terrorists and to actively seek their capture or demise," he said.

He said Southeast Asia remains the command's focal point in the war on terror. He said winning the war on terrorism is his highest priority and to achieve that goal, the command is striving to eliminate the violence that now threatens the people and stability of the Asia-Pacific region. "We continue efforts to create a secure and stable environment," Fallon said.

"We have in place key elements to succeed in advancing US security interests and enhancing regional stability -- vibrant alliances, opportunities for new partnerships, combat ready and agile forces, and committed soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines to lead our efforts," he said.

He said the command is also working to mature joint and combined war fighting capability and readiness.

"Fundamental to success in the war on terror and continued stability in the Asia-Pacific region is our joint and combined war fighting capability and readiness," Fallon said.

"As virtually every operation and activity is conducted jointly and in concert with allies, it is important that we train to operate more efficiently as a multinational team."

Fallon did not say what terrorist groups were operating in the southern Philippines, but Manila previously admitted that dozens of members of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiya, including Dulmatin and Pitono -- who linked to the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, were hiding in Mindanao island.

Aside from the Jemaah Islamiya, the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, implicated in the spate of bombings and kidnappings of foreigners in Mindanao, and renegade members of the local Muslim separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front are also active in the southern Philippines.

Washington continues to support the Philippines, a key US ally in the so-called global war on terrorism, in fighting the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya. The two countries just concluded a joint anti-terrorism drill in the southern island of Jolo, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf group.

Fallon said the Philippines has taken the lead on initiatives to improve counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries.

Just this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation added the leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Khadaffy Janjalani, and his two lieutenants Totoni Hapilon and Jainal Antel Sali to the Most Wanted Terrorists and Seeking Information-War on Terrorism lists.

The FBI said the terrorists are being sought for their alleged involvement in various attacks or planned attacks around the world.

Major General Gabriel Habacon, commander of military forces in the southern Philippines, praised the FBI for the inclusion of Janjalani and two senior Abu Sayyaf leaders to its wanted lists and said the Philippines will closely work with US authorities in the so-called war on terror.

He said there is an ongoing operation to track down members of the Abu Sayyaf in the southern region, including suspected Jemaah Islamiya militants believed to be hiding in Mindanao island.

The FBI said Janjalani, Hapilon and Sali are part of the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf group, which is responsible for the kidnapping and murder of foreign nationals in the Philippines.

Last month, the US Embassy in Manila paid over US$100,000 reward to a Filipino in Zamboanga City who helped authorities capture Abu Sayyaf terrorist Toting Hanno.

Hanno was suspected of taking part in the abduction of three American citizens -- Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, and Guillermo Sobero -- from the Dos Palmas resort in the central Philippine province of Palawan in May 2001. Sobero was later killed and a year later Martin Burnham died in a US-led military rescue while his wife was wounded.

Hanno was arrested in May 2002, but escaped from the Basilan provincial jail a year later. He was recaptured in January last year on an island off Zamboanga.

Washington has already paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in rewards for the capture and killings of Abu Sayyaf members and leaders, including about US$359,600 to three men who helped locate Hamsiraji Sali, a key Abu Sayyaf commander who was killed in a clash with government troops in 2004 on Basilan island, about 15 miles south of Zamboanga City.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There's our great FBI, right on time! Let's see- the ASG took the hostages in 2001, Cut off the guys head in 2002 and now it's 2006 and they finally made the list? Oh and after 9/11 the three held by the ASG were the only Americans held by terrorists until later in 2002. I hear people complain about the CIA all the time on this site, but the FBI has being screwed up down to an art form.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/10/2006 6:18 Comments || Top||

#2  why is the FBI even involved in this I thought they were domestic.
Posted by: bk || 03/10/2006 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  The FBI has been very busy overseas in the last few years. Certainly they have expertise tracing suspicious bank transactions, amongst other things. A neighbor of mine came out of retirement to track down something in Iraq. He's been there for almost a year now.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2006 13:25 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Chechen Killer Korps smaller post-Maskhadov, but more radicalized
The death of Aslan Maskhadov, the moderate leader of the Chechen separatists, one year ago has proved a turning point for the rebel movement – though perhaps not in the way the Russian intelligence services intended when they announced that they had killed him.

The removal of Maskhadov, elected president in 1997 and killed on March 8, 2005, meant that the leading role passed to the radicals led by Russia’s most wanted man, Shamil Basayev. No major moderate figure has taken up Maskhadov’s mantle or has called for dialogue with the Russians.

Maskhadov’s successor as rebel president, Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev, is officially working with Basayev and has announced the creation of a “Caucasus Front” that stretches beyond Chechnya to the rest of the North Caucasus.

In February, Sadulayev reorganised his government, giving it a more radical complexion. In a rebuff to moderate envoys working in Europe, he called on all officials working abroad to return home and stripped Umar Khambiev of his post as presidential representative abroad. Another envoy Akhmed Zakayev, now resident in Britain, was demoted from his job as deputy prime minister, leaving him as merely culture minister.

The most eye-catching move was the appointment of the rebel movement’s exiled ideologist, Movladi Udugov, as head of the newly-created “National Information Service for the State Defence Committee”.

"Udugov's appointment to a high position while Akhmed Zakayev retains only the post of minister means just one thing: the radicals have won a victory," said Chechen political analyst Murad Nashkhoyev. "However, it is Moscow itself that has untied the Chechen radicals’ hands by killing Maskhadov, the elected president, and rejecting negotiations with its opponents."

The rebel commanders of the Nineties grouped around Maskhadov had Soviet backgrounds and little knowledge of Islam. They have been replaced by a new generation who talk about jihad and feel closer to the Islamic world than to Europe.

The thinking of these new-style rebels is typified by Ansar, a 40-year-old Grozny resident who fought on the anti-Moscow side in both the first and second Chechen conflicts.

"Chechnya cannot be independent if the whole of the North Caucasus is not independent,” said Ansar. “Otherwise, Moscow will simply crush us economically and politically, if not through war, which what it’s currently trying to do with Georgia. I think Sheikh Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, Shamil Basayev, Doku Umarov and all the other current leaders have come to understand this truth.”

A 23-year-old young man who said he is a member of a guerrilla group active in Grozny told IWPR, “Russia is engaged in real terror not only against Muslims in Chechnya, but also against them in the whole of the North Caucasus. The same thing’s really going on everywhere: Muslims are being killed, detained under various invented pretexts, tortured, maimed, and humiliated. Men are afraid of growing beards because they can be accused of being Wahhabis [Islamic radicals], with all the consequences that can entail. Women are afraid of wearing headscarves for the same reason.

"This is why a jihad is necessary, first and foremost the jihad of the sword - not only in Chechnya, but throughout the North Caucasus.”

This young man, who gave his first name as Islam, was critical of Maskhadov’s pro-western stance. Although he recognised that the late Chechen leader was “a very courageous man”, he said, “We should admit that he made a lot of mistakes. He relied on assistance from Europe and the West. He believed they would help to stop this massacre in Chechnya. He thought everything could be resolved through political negotiations. Time has shown that he was badly mistaken."

The policy of spreading the war to the rest of the North Caucasus was dramatised by last October’s attack on Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, in which dozens of people died.

In January, Basayev gave an interview, published on separatist websites, in which he said that Sadulayev planned to hold a big “majlis” or assembly in spring 2006 to unify the Chechen fighters. Basayev also said he "intends to cross the river Volga" in summer.

"Shamil Basayev's threats to 'cross the Volga' can be interpreted with some irony - but they cannot be ignored, as there are effectively no reliable data on the number of guns held by him and other field commanders,” commented Anatoly Petrov, who works with the Military Commandant's Office for Chechnya. “Most of the gunmen usually sit quietly at home, waiting for orders. They aren’t running around in the mountains, as people generally believe.

“It is quite likely that the leaders of the bandit groups want to carry out a few large diversionary and terrorist attacks this summer in order to make themselves heard again. The situation in Chechnya itself is under control. Therefore, in my opinion, the gunmen will try to do something in one of the North Caucasus republics, say Karachai-Cherkessia or Adygeia.”

Petrov said that the insurgents still enjoy support amongst the Chechen population “not only amongst young people who basically have nothing to do in a republic destroyed by war, but even among religious figures, and quite possibly among officials too”.

He cited an instance in which a Muslim cleric in the south-eastern Vedeno region who nominally supported the pro-Moscow government in Grozny was accused of aiding the rebels. In another case, a deputy to the mufti, or chief Muslim cleric, in Chechnya was dismissed after attending the funeral of rebel fighter Hussein Chersiev, killed in Ingushetia.

There are varying figures for the number of active fighters still operating in Chechnya. In January, Russian general Oleg Khotin put the number at 750, while pro-Moscow Chechen prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov said there were just 250.

Despite a reduced level of violence, and assertions by Moscow that it has the situation “fully under control”, there is still fighting going on in Chechnya – with some indications that it may flare up again with the start of spring. On March 3, a battle took place near the village of Serzhen-Yurt and locals reported seeing at least four military helicopters firing rockets into the forest. Residents of mountain villages say there has been an increase in artillery fire in their regions.

The young fighter Islam speaks with confidence about the future. "We are fated to victory," he said with a confident stare from unblinking eyes. "Because we have the two best choices - victory or paradise. Both are good for us. We will either eject the Russian aggressors from Chechnya and the entire Caucasus, or we will become shahids on the path of Allah and go to paradise. There is no third option."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UK sez Iran only months away from nuke tech
The west's confrontation with Iran over its nuclear activities intensified yesterday after Britain claimed that Tehran could acquire the technological capability to build a bomb by the end of the year.

A day after the International Atomic Energy Agency referred the dispute to the United Nations security council, British officials also indicated that London would back Washington's efforts to impose a UN deadline of about 30 days for Iran's compliance with international demands.

The five permanent members of the security council began consultations on an expected statement on Iran on Wednesday after Russian-led attempts to broker a compromise at the IAEA in Vienna failed. A deadline could be set as early as next week and would cover a period "of weeks, not months", officials said.

A senior Foreign Office official said that while it could take Iran several years to build a serviceable nuclear weapon, it might gain the technical knowhow within months. "By the end of the year is a ... realistic period," said the official. "It would be really damaging to regional security if Iran even acquired the technology to enable it to develop a nuclear weapon."

Until now, European diplomats have referred to a period of five to 10 years during which Iran might potentially build a bomb, while conceding that hard evidence is lacking. By publicly focusing on the level of Iran's technical capabilities, Britain may have shortened the timeframe for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons. The IAEA concluded this week that its assurances were insufficient.

Iran has 85 tonnes of uranium gas stockpiled for enrichment at its Isfahan facility, held under UN seals. American officials say this is enough for 10 bombs. Iran says it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges for enriching the gas at its Natanz underground complex by the end of the year. Western diplomats said any signs that Iran was moving the gas from Isfahan to Natanz would set alarms ringing.

Since last month, the Iranians are reported to have been feeding uranium gas into a small rig of 20 centrifuges at Natanz. That can yield little useful fissile material, but plenty of knowhow for a later, more ambitious project, said a senior official close to the IAEA investigation.

At the end of the Vienna talks this week, a statement by Britain and European negotiating partners said: "Indicators of a possible military dimension to Iran's programme continue to be a legitimate source of intense concern."

Britain maintains that military action to destroy Iran's suspect facilities is not under discussion. But the Bush administration, backed by Israel, has refused to rule out the use of force.

This week's Vienna breakdown has prompted angry recriminations. Faced with the threat of possible sanctions, Iran warned the United States on Wednesday that it could also inflict "harm and pain" in the dispute. Yesterday, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said at a congressional hearing in Washington: "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran, whose policies are directed at developing a Middle East that would be 180 degrees different than the [one] we would like to see developed."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't worry. I have it on good authority from all of our new posters that they're not as big a threat as Dubai.
Posted by: Phil || 03/10/2006 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh you mean the "liberal hawks" that just crawled out of the interweb I presume?

Well they are wrong.
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 0:40 Comments || Top||

#3  "Britain claimed…British officials also indicated…could be…officials said…A senior Foreign Office official said…it could take…it might…said the official…if Iran…European diplomats…Iran might potentially…Britain may have…American officials say…Western diplomats said…the Iranians are reported to have…said a senior official…of a possible…"

Conclusive!
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#4  They are a lot closer than the end of the year. don't forget the stuff they bought rather as well as the stuff they are making.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 21:53 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas: State with interim borders unacceptable
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday signalled disillusionment with the American-backed roadmap for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Addressing a multitude of Palestinian women in Ramallah, Abbas said the Palestinian people would not accept a state with interim borders.

"A state with temporary borders is not compulsory; it was voluntary. And we reject it outright." Abbas said he was against all forms of unilateral Israeli measures in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank.

Abbas had earlier advised the Fatah movement to consider wisely Hamas' invitation for joining a government of national unity.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/10/2006 00:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ok if the interim borders are unnacceptable here are the definitive ones: an area 6.5 feet long, 3 foot wide and 3 foot meter deep. Of course not in Jerusalem but in Gaza.

In case he is taller than 6.5 feet we could go until 8 foot.
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  This guy is so fifteen minutes ago.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 13:37 Comments || Top||

#3  "Palestinian" state with any borders is unacceptable.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/10/2006 16:42 Comments || Top||

#4  There is no "palestine". There is just no Israel. Borders are immaterial - it's just all eventually Wahabbi territory.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 21:50 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Khalizhad wants Iraqi leadership conference away from Baghdad
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad will try to persuade the country‘s main political players to take part in a conference, possibly outside Iraq, where they might get the long-stalled political process back on track, Time magazine said on Thursday.

Creation of a government is necessary for U.S. plans to draw down its 130,000-strong force in Iraq, he told the magazine in an interview.

Khalilzad told Time he would advocate a new initiative: lock the bickering officials up in a room outside of Baghdad and maybe outside of the country, and don‘t let them out until they have sorted out their differences.

He told Time he would push the idea over the next few days so Iraqi leaders could arrive at a common political agenda to be administered by an all-party government.

"I believe that if we get -- when we get -- the national-unity government, when we have ministries that are run by competent ministers, and as we get into the next phase of our Sunni outreach ... I see a set of circumstances, frankly, that would allow for a significant withdrawal of our forces," he told Time.

Political wrangling has slowed the formation of a new government. Iraq‘s president on Thursday delayed the first session of the new parliament by a week to March 19, more than three months after the general election.

Khalilzad said the main political hurdle was the deep division over who should be Iraq‘s next prime minister. The Shi‘ite alliance that won the largest block of seats in the December 15 general election has nominated Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is prime minister of the interim government.

Kurdish, Sunni and secular parties have mounted a strong challenge, demanding Jaafari‘s nomination be withdrawn.

They blame Jaafari for the interim government‘s failings, including its failure to act quickly to prevent the sectarian conflagration that followed a blast at a major Shi‘ite shrine in Samarra, Time said.

He told the magazine that once the prime minister was decided and legislators sworn in, he would invite leaders of the main parties to a conference "perhaps here or somewhere else," to help speed up negotiations.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


US plans to aid Iraq in the event of civil war
The U.S. military will rely primarily on Iraq's security forces to put down a civil war in that country if one breaks out, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told lawmakers yesterday.

Sectarian violence in Iraq has reached a level unprecedented since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and is now eclipsing the insurgency as the chief security threat there, said Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, who appeared with Rumsfeld.

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee when pressed to explain how the United States intended to respond should Iraq descend wholesale into internecine strife.

If civil war becomes reality, "it's very clear that the Iraqi forces will handle it, but they'll handle it with our help," Abizaid said later when asked to elaborate on Rumsfeld's remark.

The sobering assessment of sectarian tensions in Iraq shows the extent to which the Feb. 22 bombing of a holy Shiite shrine, and the ensuing revenge attacks that left hundreds of Sunni and Shiite Muslims dead, has shifted military calculations on a range of fronts, including what constitutes the top security challenge and prospects for further reductions in U.S. troop levels this year.

Yesterday's statements suggested that the imperative to curb sectarian violence, and the risk that it will evolve into civil war -- a risk commanders have long warned was real, if remote -- has now emerged as a central consideration for U.S. strategy in Iraq.

"There's no doubt that the sectarian tensions are higher than we've seen, and it's a great concern to all of us," Abizaid told the Senate committee, adding that the situation in Iraq is "changing [in] nature from insurgency toward sectarian violence." Asked about that comment after the briefing, Abizaid said that "sectarian violence is a greater concern for us security-wise right now than the insurgency."

Abizaid and Rumsfeld voiced the belief that Iraq is not currently engulfed in a civil war and expressed confidence in Iraqi security forces, saying they had performed generally well after the recent wave of sectarian unrest. The country "is not in civil war at the present time, by most experts' calculations," Rumsfeld said.

The key to averting a civil war, they told lawmakers, is the quick formation of a unified Iraqi government that is broadly representative of the main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish religious and ethnic groups.

"The situation, to the extent that it's fragile and tense, is as much a governance issue as it is a security issue," Rumsfeld said. "The need is for the principal players in the country to recognize the seriousness of the situation and come together to form a government of national unity that will govern from the center and do it in a reasonably prompt manner," he said. "That will be what it will take, in my view, to further calm the situation."

Rumsfeld's testimony included some tense exchanges with Democratic senators, who pressed to know what the latest violence in Iraq would mean for the presence in the country of U.S. troops, who currently number about 132,000, down from 138,000 earlier this year.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) repeatedly asked Rumsfeld whether 2006 will be a year of transition to Iraqi security forces, allowing the withdrawal of significant numbers of U.S. troops by the end of the year. Rumsfeld declined to discuss troop levels, saying it would be "ill-advised for me to make a prediction," but he said that Iraqi security forces are "doing a good job" and that Iraqi leaders are taking responsibility for conflict in the country.

"Proof positive the Iraqi security forces are as good as you say is when American troops can come home," Durbin responded. "That's proof positive. Every year we hear about growing numbers and growing capabilities, and yet . . . our best and bravest are still there in danger today."

Other Democrats called "unrealistic" Rumsfeld's decision to rely primarily on Iraqi security forces in an outbreak of civil war. "The real issue here is, where will those security forces place their loyalties, and will we be caught in the middle of a situation in which it's unclear to us who the enemy is," Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said after a closed Senate briefing on Iraq operations by Abizaid and Rumsfeld after the public session.

Reed, Durbin and other Democrats urged Rumsfeld to tell the Iraqi leadership that the United States would soon begin to withdraw troops, as a means of gaining leverage to compel the Iraqis to form a compromise government. "If that real government doesn't materialize, we might be stuck" taking sides, Reed said in an interview.

In Baghdad, tit-for-tat sectarian attacks continued yesterday, with a bomb targeting a Sunni mosque and killing five civilians. In all, car bombs killed 16 people in the capital. Another car bomb targeting a police patrol killed nine civilians, news agencies reported, citing police.

Iraq's government announced the hanging Thursday of 13 people convicted as terrorists. The hangings marked the first court-ordered executions of insurgents, although three other people -- convicted murderers -- have been legally executed since Iraq reinstated the death penalty in 2004. The Cabinet statement that announced the hangings identified only one of the condemned, Shuqair Fareed, a former Mosul police officer. State television had trumpeted Fareed's confession last year in about 90 killings, including the shooting of two colleagues as they gave him a ride home from work one day.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only al-Sadr would start a civil war on the orders of his Iranian masters, and with the indulgence of the Iranian born, Ayatollah Sistani. As for Jaafari, both Kurds, Seculars and Sunni federal-unionists are fed up with his sectarian bent. Al-Sadr death squads have murdered up to 1500 people in the past 3 weeks. Those are almost civil war numbers. I wouldn't plan on attending his next birthday party.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  If this DOES happen, I certainly hope we try and keep it together for a week to show goodwill, then go with a Kurdistan strategy.
Posted by: Charles || 03/10/2006 4:46 Comments || Top||

#3  "…when pressed to explain how the United States intended to respond should Iraq descend wholesale into internecine strife."

Gloom…despair…and agony on me…deep dark depression…excessive miseryyy…ohhahh!…

Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/10/2006 10:46 Comments || Top||

#4  WaPo's drooling, again.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 10:52 Comments || Top||

#5  As much as I detest Shiite and Sunni alike, I'd still have to go with letting the Shiites cleanse the f&ck out of Iraq's Sunni population insurgency just to send a message to the Saudis and all their Wahabbist minions.

Aside from Iran's rabid-dog impersonation, the Sunnis represent a much more overarching regional threat. Letting them see a goodly chunk of their folk get the gibbet might give them an idea of what's coming quiet them down a bit.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/10/2006 11:52 Comments || Top||

#6  notice how the WaPo headline (in italics below) implies that a civil war is underway,

U.S. Sets Plans to Aid Iraq in Civil War
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 11:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Yes, mhw. The WaPo is subtle, all right, like the p in swimming.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:05 Comments || Top||

#8  The real question is why do Bush supporters on the Iraq War react so defensively at the mere mention on a civil war in Iraq?
Posted by: Just Curious || 03/10/2006 16:44 Comments || Top||

#9  WTF? JC's funny enough without that low rent DU blackflag drool.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 17:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Note: particularly putrid comment deleted after #8 above.
Posted by: mods || 03/10/2006 18:59 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Escaped al-Qaeda liaison to JI gives 35 minute interview
A thirty-nine minute video interview with Farouq al-Iraqi, who is reported as Mehmood Ahmed Mohammed AKA Omar al-Faruq, an al-Qaeda lieutenant captured in Indonesia in 2002, was recently distributed amongst jihadist forums. Produced by al-Sahab, an al-Qaeda production company, the video shows al-Iraqi seated in a forest clearing, answering a battery of questions from an interviewer concerning Bagram prison, his escape, and messages he has for the mujahideen and Americans. Along with three other al-Qaeda prisoners at Bagram prison, including Abu Yehia al-Libi, Farouq al-Omar escaped from the prison in July 2005.

The video opens with a speech from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, originally aired in February 2005, in which he speaks to the U.S. maltreatment of Muslim prisoners. The video continues with pictures of people taken prisoners by American soldiers, and a voice in the background explains that what happened in Guantanamo was not an isolated event, but happens in all American prisons: “Mujahideen are exposed to the most abhorrent types of physical and spiritual torture”. The video proceeds to explain that despite the fact that US prisons are heavily guarded and fortified, “four lions of the lions of Islam” managed to escape from the Bagram prison, among them “the hero Farouq Al-Iraqi”. Before presenting the interview with al-Iraqi, the video summarizes his experiences, noting his arrest in Indonesia and his being branded as the head of al-Qaeda in East Asia.

Farouq al-Iraqi describes his incarceration in Bagram prison, calling it a variety of nicknames such as the “prison of darkness,” “prison of torture,” and “prison of music,” elaborating upon the reason for such aliases. Concerning his arrest, he states: “The reason for my arrest was that they accused me of being a Mujahid. Specifically, as I understood from several guards, it was because I carried a gun. That was the accusation”. He also notes that he heard of the additional accusation of him being the al-Qaeda leader in East Asia and being linked to the September 11th attacks in East Asia from CNN and other publications.

The interview continues as Farouq al-Iraq addresses words to the mujahideen to remain steadfast in their jihad, and to the Americans, stating the following: “They will never manage to drive away the fire of Allah, blessed and almighty. They will never manage to stop the procession of Jihad… Neither the American barricades will stop it, nor its forces, nor its vehicles nor its developed machines…We will fight them in this country, in Iraq, everywhere, even in their own country, with the help of Allah, blessed and almighty. We pray that Allah, blessed and almighty, will give us victory over them in their country”.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Al-Qaeda press release on Waziristan
A statement issued today, March 9, 2006, by a “member” of the Information Department of Labik, an al-Qaeda media organization, addressed the latest events in Waziristan, the mountainous region of northwest Pakistan bordering on Afghanistan. According to the statement, following the Pakistani army bombing of mujahideen houses in this area as a “gift” to the arriving U.S. President George W. Bush last week, a meeting was held by the tribal sheikhs, and “followers and immigrants” to revenge for Muslim blood spilled in the attack. A notice was allegedly delivered that the Pakistani army should withdraw from the areas in northern Waziristan, which went unheeded, so they announced the “raising of the flag of jihad”.

Operations targeting the militias and Pakistani army are described, including strikes at camp and bases, targeting several helicopters, and ambushes involving the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and armed weapons. In one instance, some of the mujahideen are said to have been surrounded by Pakistani soldiers from a nearby base and ordered to surrender. According to the statement: “The brothers were surrounded and they were asked to surrender, but the Islam lions never surrender. They did not go but only wishing to be martyrs for the sake of Allah, to move after that to the eternal life with the pretty women.”
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Al-Qaeda issues advice to prospective recruits
An advice for those Muslims seeking to participate in jihad, written by Abu Mariya al-Qarshi, was recently disseminated across jihadist forums. The advice answers the questions of those who alleged wrote to al-Qarshi requesting such information and of their “plight and their eagerness for jihad even though they lack equipment and numbers” and without knowledge of how to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan or Chechnya.

Al-Qarshi posits five suggestions for these prospective mujahideen, advocating them to read the texts of Abu Musab al-Suri, including his 1,600 page “International Islamic Resistance Call,” as possessing not only information to give physical direction, but mental, as well. He also parrots Usama bin Laden’s call to kill Americans and their allies, deeming this a “general directive,” and adds: “and as for their traitorous collaborators in our country, jihad is not wasted on those dregs of the people from the military if they fired at us, but the main targets are the heads of their people, the king, or prime minister, etc...”.

Further, al-Qarshi stresses the stages of jihad including material and spiritual preparation, suggesting that they read al-Battar, al-Qaeda training manuals to supplement their knowledge. The opening of new jihad battlefields will open soon, al-Qarshi assures; however, should the mujahid wish to open a new path in his own country, then he should “target the cheap easy targets of opportunity as they come”.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Read!!!!
Doesnt that shit come on a dvd or something?
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860 || 03/10/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Cuz That's Where The Money Is...
The ranking of the world's richest people as estimated by Forbes magazine. Listings include rank, name, home country or state, age where known, wealth in billions of dollars and source of the money. Listings where the home country is United States are for American citizens living abroad.

1. William Gates III, Washington, 50, $50, Microsoft
2. Warren Buffett, Nebraska, 75, $42, Berkshire Hathaway
3. Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico, 66, $30, telecom
4. Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden, 79, $28, Ikea
5. Lakshmi Mittal, India, 55, $23.5, steel
6. Paul Allen, Washington, 53, $22, Microsoft, investments
7. Bernard Arnault, France, 57, $21.5, LVMH
8. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, Saudi Arabia, 49, $20, investments
9. Kenneth Thomson and family, Canada, 82, $19.6, publishing
10. Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong, 77, $18.8, diversified
11. Roman Abramovich, Russia, 39, $18.2, oil
12. Michael Dell, Texas, 41, $17.1, Dell
13. Karl Albrecht, Germany, 86, $17, supermarkets
14. Sheldon Adelson, Nevada, 72, $16.1, casinos, hotels
15. Liliane Bettencourt, France, 83, $16, L'Oreal
15. Lawrence Ellison, California, 61, $16, Oracle
17. Christy Walton, Wyoming, 51, $15.9, Wal-Mart inheritance
17. Jim Walton, Arkansas, 58, $15.9, Wal-Mart
19. S. Robson Walton, Arkansas, 62, $15.8, Wal-Mart
20. Alice Walton, Texas, 56, $15.7, Wal-Mart
21. Helen Walton, Arkansas, 86, $15.6, Wal-Mart
22. Theo Albrecht, Germany, 83, $15.2, supermarkets
23. Amancio Ortega, Spain, 70, $14.8, Zara
24. Steven Ballmer, Washington, 50, $13.6, Microsoft
25. Azim Premji, India, 60, $13.3, software
26. Sergey Brin, California, 32, $12.9, Google
27. Larry Page, California, 33, $12.8, Google
28. Abigail Johnson, Massachusetts, 44, $12.5, Fidelity
29. Nasser Al-Kharafi and family, Kuwait, 62, $12.4, Construction
29. Barbara Cox Anthony, Hawaii, 82, $12.4, Cox Enterprises
29. Anne Cox Chambers, Georgia, 86, $12.4, Cox Enterprises
32. Stefan Persson, Sweden, 58, $12.3, Hennes & Mauritz
33. Charles Koch, Kansas, 70, $12, oil, commodities
33. David Koch, Kansas, 65, $12, oil, commodities
35. Raymond, Thomas and Walter Kwok, Hong Kong, $11.6, real estate
36. Adolf Merckle, Germany, 71, $11.5, drugs
37. Sulaiman Bin Abdul Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia, 86, $11, banking
37. Vagit Alekperov, Russia, 55, $11, oil
37. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy, 69, $11, media
37. Lee Shau Kee, Hong Kong, 78, $11, real estate
41. Vladimir Lisin, Russia, 49, $10.7, steel
42. Michael Otto and family, Germany, 62, $10.4, retail
43. Pierre Omidyar, Nevada, 38, $10.1, eBay
44. Leonardo Del Vecchio, Italy, 70, $10, eyewear
44. Michele Ferrero and family, Italy, 79, $10, chocolates
44. Forrest Mars Jr., Virginia, 74, $10, candy
44. Jacqueline Mars, New Jersey, 66, $10, candy
44. John Mars, Virginia, 69, $10, candy
44. Viktor Vekselberg, Russia, 48, $10, oil, metals
50. Mikhail Fridman, Russia, 41, $9.7, oil, banking
51. Spiro Latsis and family, Greece, 59, $9.1, banking
52. John Kluge, Florida, 91, $9, Metromedia
53. Carl Icahn, New York, 70, $8.7, leveraged buyouts
53. Kirk Kerkorian, California, 88, $8.7, investments, casinos
55. Birgit Rausing and family, Sweden, 82, $8.6, packaging
56. Mukesh Ambani, India, 48, $8.5, petrochemicals
56. Serge Dassault and family, France, 80, $8.5, aviation
56. Hans Rausing, Sweden, 80, $8.5, packaging
59. Galen Weston and family, Canada, 65, $8.4, retail
60. Susanne Klatten, Germany, 43, $8.1, BMW
61. Rudolf August Oetker and family, Germany, 89, $8, food
62. Oleg Deripaska, Russia, 37, $7.8, aluminum
63. Sumner Redstone, California, 82, $7.7, Viacom
64. Alexei Mordashov, Russia, 40, $7.6, steel
65. Donald Newhouse, New Jersey, 76, $7.5, publishing
65. Samuel Newhouse Jr., New York, 78, $7.5, publishing
65. Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, France, $7.5, Chanel
65. Reinhold Wurth, Germany, 70, $7.5, manufacturing
69. Joseph and Moise Safra, Brazil, $7.4, banking
70. Philip Knight, Oregon, 68, $7.3, Nike
71. George Soros, New York, 75, $7.2, hedge funds
72. Ernesto Bertarelli, Switzerland, 40, $7.1, biotech
72. Suleiman Kerimov, Russia, 40, $7.1, stocks
74. Philip and Cristina Green, Britain, $7, retail
74. Francois Pinault, France, 69, $7, retail
74. August von Finck, Germany, 76, $7, investments
77. Mohammed Al Amoudi, Saudi Arabia, 60, $6.9, oil
77. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair and family, United Arab Emirates, 52, $6.9, banking
79. Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler, Germany, $6.8, ball bearings
80. Charles Ergen, Colorado, 53, $6.7, EchoStar
80. Edward Johnson III, Massachusetts, 75, $6.7, Fidelity
82. Kun-Hee Lee and family, South Korea, 64, $6.6, Samsung
82. Stefan Quandt, Germany, 40, $6.6, BMW
84. Saleh Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia, 94, $6.5, banking
84. Rafael del Pino and family, Spain, 85, $6.5, construction
84. Stanley Ho, Hong Kong, 84, $6.5, gaming
84. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, Denmark, 92, $6.5, shipping
84. Keith Rupert Murdoch, New York, 75, $6.5, News Corp.
89. Philip Anschutz, Colorado, 66, $6.4, investments
89. Hasso Plattner, Germany, 62, $6.4, SAP
89. Vladimir Potanin, Russia, 45, $6.4, metals
89. Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia, 40, $6.4, metals
93. Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Russia, 57, $6.3, telecom
94. Micky Arison, Florida, 56, $6.1, Carnival Cruises
94. Curt Engelhorn, Germany, 79, $6.1, drugs
94. Friedrich Flick Jr., Germany, 79, $6.1, investments
94. German Khan, Russia, 44, $6.1, oil, banking
94. Ronald Perelman, New York, 63, $6.1, leveraged buyouts
94. Johanna Quandt, Germany, 78, $6.1, BMW
100. Dan Duncan, Texas, 73, $6, energy
Stopped at 100 - more at link.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 00:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wish my name was on that list
Posted by: Texhooey || 03/10/2006 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  3477250005, Mechanic, poorhouse, Enron stock
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/10/2006 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Where are the evil 'Merchants of Death'[tm] or 'War Profiteers'[tm]? /sarcasm off
Posted by: Hupoting Groluse9049 || 03/10/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Notice -

17. Christy Walton, Wyoming, 51, $15.9, Wal-Mart inheritance
17. Jim Walton, Arkansas, 58, $15.9, Wal-Mart
19. S. Robson Walton, Arkansas, 62, $15.8, Wal-Mart
20. Alice Walton, Texas, 56, $15.7, Wal-Mart
21. Helen Walton, Arkansas, 86, $15.6, Wal-Mart


If Sam was still alive, he'd be worth (a bit over) $75 billion, ahead of Bill Gates.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/10/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler, Germany, $6.8, ball bearings

ball bearings?

Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden, 79, $28, Ikea

Can't be the furniture. It's the lower level, where a woman can't walk through without picking up at least 3 things.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Fighting shifts from Miranshah to Norak
Troops pounded a remote village with artillery after militants fired rockets at security forces on Thursday, officials said, as clashes along the Afghan border flared up again.

The attack targeted Norak village, five kilometres west of Mirali in the embattled tribal region of North Waziristan, but it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, a senior security official said.

“Rockets were fired on the army and paramilitary positions from this village and this morning the artillery has responded,” said the official.

Ovenight, militants fired several rockets at checkpoints and the army’s base in the region’s main town of Miramshah but there were no immediate reports of any casualties.

Local officials said a paramilitary soldier was wounded when militants fired a rocket at a vehicle carrying water to a checkpoint in Mirali.

Miramshah was still under the control of security forces following bloody battles last weekend in which around 140 militants and five soldiers were killed.

Authorities relaxed a curfew for five hours on Wednesday to allow people to buy vital supplies, residents said.

Pro-Taliban militants ambushed the vehicles of the top officials in North Waziristan late Tuesday near Norak, killing a guard and injuring two others.

Another report quoting a security official says tribal militants launched rockets on a military post on Thursday in a volatile region near the Afghan border, killing two paramilitary soldiers and wounding another.

The attack happened before dawn on the outskirts of Mirali, said the official.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Assassination attempt on top Pakistani official in North Waziristan
Pakistani forces shelled suspected militant hideouts near the Afghan border yesterday after a senior government official survived an ambush on his convoy.

The violence in the North Waziristan tribal region has highlighted the challenge President Pervez Musharraf faces from Pakistani militants allied to Al Qaeda as Pakistan wages its part of the war on terrorism.

The government’s top official in North Waziristan, Zaheerul Islam, said one of his bodyguards was killed in the late Tuesday ambush as he was travelling from the curfew-bound town of Miranshah to the city of Peshawar.

Islam said four of the attacking gunmen had been killed as his guards fought back. Later, security forces shelled suspected militant hideouts in the area.

“Miscreants’ hideouts were destroyed and this operation will continue,” Islam said by telephone from the town of Mir Ali, also in North Waziristan, where he had stopped after the ambush.

Residents of the area said artillery fire resounded all night and more people were joining the thousands who had already fled.

Waziristan is part of what are known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which cover about 27,220 square km of mountainous territory and are home to about 6mn people, most of them Pashtuns.

Few of Pakistan’s federal laws apply and outside interference is deeply resented.

Islam said security forces had on Tuesday destroyed a madrassa that had been run by a prominent militant cleric.

“It appeared to be a madrassa but terrorists were being sheltered there and a lot of weapons were also found there,” he said. The whereabouts of the cleric were not known.

Meanwhile, a rights group said yesterday Pakistan’s army and the militants they are fighting near the Afghan border should both avoid civilian casualties and must not deliberately target civilians.

Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of civilian deaths and the destruction of property in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan tribal agency, but these could not be confirmed because the area is closed off.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Islam said security forces had on Tuesday destroyed a madrassa that had been run by a prominent militant cleric.

“It appeared to be a madrassa but terrorists were being sheltered there and a lot of weapons were also found there,” he said. The whereabouts of the cleric were not known.'

Yup, it was a Madrassah alright.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/10/2006 9:10 Comments || Top||


Pakistanis defend Miranshah violence
A senior Pakistani official Thursday said retaliatory fire that killed dozens of militants in the border region of Miranshah on March 3 had become inevitable after the talks with the pro-Taliban tribesmen stalled and some of them opened fire at the forces' headquarters.

'We tried our best to convince the angry tribesmen that the military operation in another village was aimed at Taliban and al-Qaeda miscreants, but they refused to listen to us,' Zaheerul Islam, the administrative officer of the North Waziristan agency told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an exclusive interview.

Islam, who himself survived an ambush on Tuesday in the turbulent border zone, gave a graphic description of the events that culminated in the deaths of at least 60 people within three minutes.

'The reticent tribesmen refused to believe our version of the military operation in the Saidgai village and while we were still discussing, somebody from amongst them began firing into the defenses of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) - the paramilitary force responsible for the security in the region.

'Within three minutes, we put down 60 to 70 people, and the rest escaped,' Islam said of the bloody event, in the first-ever eyewitness account of the events.

Islam claimed the authorities had mounted a blitz operation on a hideout in the Saidgai village after verifying report that the 'miscreants' had been putting up there and also planning subversion in Afghanistan.

Pakistan authorities use the term miscreants for the militants.

'They were a mixed bag - Afghans, Uzbeks, Chechens, Chinese Uigurs and local supporters,' the official said. He added that insufficient surveillance on the Afghan side of the border enabled them to move back and forth across the Duran Line - the official border separating Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Islam said militants were taking advantage of an ambiguous policy of the Islamic Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) part, which used to support Afghanistan's hard line Taliban regime.

Militants 'are hiding there as it is not clear whether JUI opposes them or supports,' he said.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao earlier this week claimed that Pakistan had 'credible information' of involvement of foreigners from Afghanistan in the recent violence in the tribal region.

Following skirmishes between the security forces and pro al-Qaeda militants, the authorities barred outsiders from entry into the area, and also clamped curfew in Miranshah, the administrative headquarter of North Waziristan, to check the spiral of violence.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps if the locals did'tn make the "foreigners" so welcome they wouldn't have these problems.
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Urban Pakistanis view tribal-rurals as barely human. And the fact that they worship Arabs as master-race heros, doesn't sit well in Karachi and Islamabad.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 0:43 Comments || Top||


Europe
3/11 plotters linked to France, Belgium, Italy, Morocco, and Iraq
But they aren't al-Qaeda, according to the AP story. Riiight. At any rate, one might contrast this description of the plot to that which is now appearing in the English press ...
The judge leading the investigation into the Madrid bombings has said the attacks were carried out by a local cell linked to a international terrorist network.

Judge Juan del Olmo said the cell of Islamic fanatics which planted the bombs had links stretching through France, Belgium, Italy, Morocco and to Iraq.

The judge's claims come in documents issued with a judicial order to detain nine suspects for up to two more years without trial.

They show an extensive terrorist apparatus which conceived, planned and carried out the attacks which killed 191 people and left 1,500 injured.

So far 116 people have been charged in connection with the Madrid attacks.

Del Olmo said within a month indictments into about 30 people will be issued.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have cause to suspect that secret diplomacy is ongoing, on an Article 5 (NATO) response to Iranian nuke proliferation. The Ayatollahs "Death to___ " chant targets now include most of the Allies.

See NATO 5:
"The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."

A collective security agreement on a common response would imply general adoption of the "Bush Doctrine" (pre-emptive response to manifest threat challenge). Iran's proliferation game is: aggressive war preparation. Check out this "France-Echos" link, now in English (pardon the cut-and-paste):
http://english-france-echos.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Video: wanna see what it's really like in Europe regarding Islamofacists? Stand up to them now, or pay later. But it looks like it's already too late, IMO.
Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 5:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Dan, you're so right on this one. This AP story is crap. If you compare the Expatica report to the AP report, you can see spin all over it.
Posted by: Asgerd || 03/10/2006 13:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Its becoming evermore obvious that Iran's Mullahs in reality want de facto IRAN/SHIA-centric regional empire in the LT, certainly more than the per se destruction of ISRAEL, and more than the protection of Muslim, Radical Islamist, andor Sunni interests agz the West. The Mullahs ambitions are a dangerous double-edged sword aimed inevitably at both the West and Russia-China - THE MULLAHS > STOP US NOW, OR A NUCLEARIZED RADIC ISLAMIST WORLD EMPIRE IRAN SHALL BE. As indicated before, all of us Americans and Westernists, regardless of personal or political ideo or beliefs, are in a "KILL OR BE KILLED", "FIGHT OR DIE", "RULE OR BE SLAVE", etc situation, IFF ONLY BECUZ AMERICA'S ENEMIES ARE NOT GOING TO ACCEPT THE STATUS QUO VV EXPANDING AMER GLOBAL AND EXTRA-GLOBAL HYPERPOWER/HYPER-DOMINANCE +, AND ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE INNOCENT OR NEUTRAL AMERICANS ANY OTHER CHOICES. Iff America does not attack and wage war, America will be attacked and warred against -America either accepts Socialism and anti-sovereign OWG, or AMERICA AND AMERICANS WILL BE DESTROYED, PERIOD! No matter the politics of the past, and no matter how many agreements and concessions America made or makes, mainstream America is already being told that American-specific Holocaust/Genocide is good for them and the world. And by CLINTONISM, American holocaust/
genocide is okay becuz Americans demand to be destroyed anyway -= American Holocaust is what Amerikans want for our Birthdays and for XMAS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/10/2006 22:53 Comments || Top||


Spanish Muslims live under suspicion since 3/11
At Mussa Bachiri's butcher shop, the customers used to include a man now jailed on suspicion of playing a role in the Madrid terror bombings two years ago this week.

The alleged bomber was just a casual acquaintance who ran a cell-phone store down the street. Still, Bachiri wonders if he is not somehow tainted by association _ simply for sharing the man's Moroccan roots and Islamic faith.

"My Spanish neighbors look at me the way they always did," Bachiri said, pausing on an afternoon of chopping beef and slicing liver in Lavapies, an immigrant-rich district of Spain's capital. "But deep down inside, who knows?"

Two years after the bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500, human rights groups and Muslims themselves say with relief that there has been no significant backlash against Spain's estimated million-strong Muslim community.

But Muslims feel targeted in subtler ways _ a rise in job application rejections, trouble finding housing, grumbling from neighbors when they want to set up a mosque.

"This is not something you can measure. But people live it. They notice it," said Begonia Sanchez, spokeswoman for immigrant aid group SOS Racism. "They notice it when they get on the bus. They notice it when they seek work. They notice it when they run into neighbors in the stairwell."

Islamic militants claimed responsibility for Spain's worst terrorist attack, saying they acted on behalf of al-Qaida to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq.

Most of the 24 people in jail on suspicion of taking part in the March 11, 2004, bombings are Moroccans, many of them longtime residents who owned businesses, received grants for university studies and otherwise blended into or benefited from Spanish society.

Human rights groups and Muslim leaders say Spaniards harbor negative stereotypes of Moroccans _ the pejorative term for them is 'moros,' or Moors, an allusion to the 700-year Moorish occupation of Spain _ and the Madrid attacks served as an excuse for more flagrant discrimination.

Bachiri said that when Moroccans _ Spain's largest immigrant group and the main component of the Muslim community _ call up a landlord to ask about a rental, there comes an inevitable query about nationality. "When you say Moroccan, they say 'OK, we'll call you back,'" he said.

Kamal Rahmouni, president of a Moroccan immigrant aid group called ATIME, recalls that a female colleague who wears an Islamic headscarf was spat on in the subway following the attacks. He remembers making a point not to speak Arabic on the street and telling colleagues to do the same.

"There was a sense that the country, or society, was betrayed by a few people who had been trusted," he said.

After the bombings, however, the Socialist government did several things that helped calm Spaniards and avert a violent backlash against Muslims, said Jesus Nunez Villaverde, an expert on the Islamic world and director of a Madrid think tank, the Institute of Studies on Conflict and Humanitarian Action.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero unveiled an international campaign, now taken up by the United Nations, to encourage dialogue between Western and Islamic nations, Nunez Villaverde said. The government also hired more police officers specializing in Islamic extremism rather than launch a broad crackdown on immigrants.

In addition, Muslims in Spain quickly condemned the attacks, said Mansur Escudero, a Spanish Muslim leader.

On the first anniversary of the attacks, Escudero went so far as to sign what is considered the first fatwa, or religious edict, against al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. It declared bin Laden an apostate for defending terrorism as legitimate and urged Muslims around the world to denounce him.

That earned Escudero swift condemnation as an infidel on a Web site associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, and a flood of e-mails Escudero interpreted as death threats.

But Nunez Villaverde said it remains to be seen how Spain will handle its Muslim population in years to come because immigration is still a new phenomenon here. It's only been a generation or so that Spain's been wealthy enough to lure immigrants rather than send off emigrants as it did in the lean decades after its 1936-39 civil war.

He said Spaniards are only now getting used to seeing blacks, Asians and North Africans in significant numbers. The Muslims here tend to be first-generation arrivals _ unlike second- and third-generation citizens in France _ who are not yet in a position to assert themselves socially or politically.

Down the road, how Spain treats its Muslims and other immigrants _ and how the latter react _ is anybody's guess. "We have no guarantee that just because nothing has happened so far it is not going to happen tomorrow," Nunez Villaverde said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All the community did was blow up and murder civilians!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/10/2006 11:17 Comments || Top||

#2  They could always go home.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/10/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#3  "My Spanish neighbors look at me the way they always did," Bachiri said, pausing on an afternoon of chopping beef and slicing liver in Lavapies, an immigrant-rich district of Spain's capital. "But deep down inside, who knows?"

Sounds like maybe it's not your neighbors that are the one's with the "suspicion" issues, Mussa?
Maybe it's, I dunno,...you?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/10/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#4  That's why, so far, there wasn't a sequel.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/10/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#5  "My Spanish neighbors look at me the way they always did," Bachiri said, pausing on an afternoon of chopping beef and slicing liver in Lavapies, an immigrant-rich district of Spain's capital. "But deep down inside, who knows?"

Oh, indeed Bachiri. What have they been telling you down the mosque? Alittle paranoid? Want to kill the infidels, "deep down inside"?

Do you notice subtle things like suicide bombers, threats to wipe Israel off the map, Iran wiping the world off the map, riots and idociocies over cartoons, acid hits of women, subjugation of women, denial of basic freedoms....
But you are, in your own admiited fantasies, "looked at funny" and this is greatest tragedy of all.

Why, on earth, would your neighbours object to mosque that encourages hatred and violence and injustice.

Fancy that. But they don't. Silly fools. You said yourself they look at you as always.

do I hear a guilty soul?
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 22:10 Comments || Top||


Intel officials say no link between 3/11, al-Qaeda
Color my skepticism here, just look at the description of the indictment.
A two-year probe into the Madrid train bombings concludes the Islamic terrorists who carried out the blasts were homegrown radicals acting on their own rather than at the behest of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, two senior intelligence officials said.

Spain still remains home to a web of radical Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian groups bent on carrying out attacks — and aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq — a Spanish intelligence chief and a Western official intimately involved in counterterrorism measures in Spain told The Associated Press.

The intelligence chief said there were no phone calls between the Madrid bombers and al-Qaeda and no money transfers. The Western official said the plotters had links to other Islamic radicals in Western Europe, but the plan was hatched and organized in Spain. "This was not an al-Qaeda operation," he said. "It was homegrown."

Both men spoke on condition of anonymity, the first because Spanish security officials are not allowed to discuss details of an ongoing investigation and the second due to the sensitive nature of his job.

The attack has been frequently described as al-Qaeda-linked since a man who identified himself as Abu Dujan al-Afghani and said he was al-Qaeda's "European military spokesman," claimed responsibility in a video released two days later.

Ahead of Saturday's anniversary of the March 11, 2004 blasts — which killed 191 people and wounded 1,500 — victims' groups have been clamoring for more progress in the investigation.

Gabriel Moris, whose 30-year-old son died in the bombings, said: "These past two years have done nothing to clear up what happened. My questions are simple: Who ordered the massacre? Who killed my son and the other innocent victims?"

The intelligence official said authorities know more than they have revealed, including the suspected ideological and operational masterminds of the attack.

"We haven't explained it well enough to the victims because we can't reveal judicial secrets," he said, adding the investigation is nearly complete.

Authorities believe the ideological mastermind was Serhan Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian who blew himself up along with six other suspects when police surrounded their apartment three weeks after the bombings, and that Jamal Ahmidan, a Moroccan who also died that day, was the "military planner."

Law enforcement had focused on another man, Allekema Lamari, as the head of the group. But the official said evidence, particularly from wiretapped phone conversations, indicated it was Ahmidan who gave the military orders. Lamari also died in the apartment blast in a Madrid suburb as authorities closed in.

Some 116 people have been arrested in the bombings, and 24 remain jailed. At least three others — Said Berraj, Mohammed Belhadj and Daoud Ouhane — are sought by authorities, though all are believed to have fled Spain long ago. The intelligence official said the top planners are all either dead or in jail.

While the plotters of the Madrid attack were likely motivated by bin Laden's October 2003 call for attacks on European countries that supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there is no evidence they were in contact with the al-Qaeda leader's inner circle, the intelligence official said.

Most of the plotters were Moroccan and Syrian immigrants, many with criminal records in Spain for drug trafficking and other crimes. They paid for explosives used in the attack with hashish.

That is a far cry from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States — allegedly planned by al-Qaeda leaders like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh and funded directly by the terror network through international wire transfers and Islamic banking schemes.

Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, said the model used in Madrid, and likely for the July 7 London transport bombings fits in well with al-Qaeda's business plan.

"Al-Qaeda is not and never was a topdown organization that did everything in terms of attacks around the world. They have a key role in ideological terms ... but they rely on local cells and those that are inspired to carry out these attacks," he said.

After the fact, bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are happy to claim responsibility because they recognize the carnage as inspired by their movement.

Still, Wilkinson cautioned that just because no direct link has been established between the Madrid plotters and al-Qaeda, it doesn't mean none exists. "If security officials knew everything that was going on, we would have caught Osama bin Laden by now," he said.

Both the Spanish intelligence chief and the Western official said there is reason for concern despite the lack of a direct al-Qaeda connection.

"There were a lot of moving parts to the March 11 plot, but we were still not able to detect it, and that is scary because a similar thing could happen again," said the Western counterterrorism official. "Since March 11, there have been plans for other significant attacks that the Spanish have disrupted."

Those plans include a scheme in late 2004 to bomb buildings in Barcelona, including the 1992 Olympic village and office towers known as the city's World Trade Center complex. Police also thwarted a 2004 plot by Moroccan and Algerian militants to level Madrid's National Court — a hub for anti-terror investigations — with a 1,100-pound truck bomb.

And agents specializing in Islamic terrorism have arrested dozens of suspects — all allegedly working to recruit potential suicide bombers for the Iraq insurgency.

At least two Spanish citizens — including March 11 suspect Mohammed Afalah — are believed to have blown themselves up in Iraq, and an investigation by the respected El Pais daily revealed some 80 others have traveled to the country in recent months intending to do the same.

The intelligence official said the March 11 attacks were a wakeup call, and authorities are much better prepared now to stop Islamic terrorism. But he said the bombings show how easy it is for those bent on terrorism to carry out attacks.

He said authorities believe the Madrid bombers learned how to construct the bombs — all connected to Mitsubishi Trium T110 mobile phones — from Internet sites linked to radical Islamic groups. The devices were similar to ones used in the 2002 Bali bombing, he said, evidence that militants in both countries got information on the same radical websites.

Spanish authorities were monitoring several of the bombers in the months before the attack — and actually stopped Ahmidan's car on a highway in late February, unaware he was leading a caravan of other terrorists transporting the explosives used in the blasts.

The intelligence official said authorities had never imagined a group of petty drug traffickers were capable of planning such a massive attack.

"Had we been told a day before (the bombing) that this is what was going on, we would have dismissed it," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like a politically-motivated cover-up. Zapatero doesn't want to admit that al Qaeda put him in power.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/10/2006 3:09 Comments || Top||

#2  ZF,

At least they didn't try to recycle the "ETA dun it" idea.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 03/10/2006 10:30 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Sunni Arabs increasingly against Zarqawi
Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned on and were killing foreign al-Qaeda fighters, their one-time allies.

A local tribal leader and Iraq's Defense Ministry have said followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, have begun fleeing Anbar province and Ramadi, its capital, to cities and mountain ranges near the Iranian border.

“So far we have cleared 75 percent of the province and forced al-Qaeda terrorists to flee to nearby areas,” said Osama al-Jadaan, a leader of the Karabila tribe, which has thousands of members living along the border with Syria.

He claimed his people have captured hundreds of foreigner fighters and handed them to authorities. The drive, dubbed Operation Tribal Chivalry, is designed to secure the country's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to prevent foreign fighters from crossing in.

After the U.S. invasion in March 2003, residents of the province – which also includes cities like Fallujah, Haditha and Qaim – became known for their violent anti-American sentiments. The province is still the most dangerous in Iraq for U.S. troops. In the past two days alone, two U.S. Marines were killed by hostile fire there.

Relations between residents and the foreign fighters started to sour, however, when the foreigners started killing Iraqis suspected of having links to the Americans or even for holding a government job.

The rift became an outright split four months ago, with a wave of assassinations and bombings that killed scores of Anbar residents. The attacks were blamed on al-Qaeda.

“We were fed up with the situation,” said one Ramadi resident, complaining about closed roads, unemployment and a lack of security. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his life.

In late November, tribal and religious leaders, former army officers and hundreds of ordinary Iraqis met in Ramadi with U.S. military commanders for a first-ever comprehensive dialogue on what could be done to speed a U.S. withdrawal.

Afterward, gunmen began killing some of those who had met with the Americans or who had urged Sunnis in the region to vote in the U.S.-backed parliamentary elections on Dec. 15. Several top clerics and a tribal leader were killed.

The deadliest attack – a suicide bombing Jan. 5 among a line of police recruits in Ramadi – killed at least 58, including U.S. troops.

Stunned city residents turned on al-Qaeda, and al-Jadaan, of the Karabila tribe, announced an agreement with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to help with security.

The moves by al-Jadaan's men and Iraqi army units against al-Qaeda forced many of the foreign fighters to flee to central and eastern areas of Iraq – some to the mountains near Iran – that have large Sunni populations, al-Jadaan said.

That prompted tribes in the central city of Hawija, where some al-Qaeda fighters sought refuge, to issue a statement earlier this week openly declaring war on foreign al-Qaeda members.

The declaration was prompted by the killing a week ago of tribal leader Suhaib Abdullah al-Obeidi. Al-Qaeda also killed three Shiites – a father and his two sons – and a Communist Party boss.

“We are against the killing of civilians for sectarian or ethnic reasons. That's why we are shedding the blood of Muslim extremists, especially al-Qaeda,” said Abul-Rahman Mansheed, a top Sunni politician in Hawija.

Army Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, in the nearby city of Kirkuk, said the military soon would launch a major attack, with help from the local tribesmen, to clear that region of al-Qaeda as well.

Claims such as those issued by the tribesmen and local military officers are nearly impossible to confirm, but the considerable drop in suicide bombings throughout the country recently indicates operations by al-Qaeda foreigners have been hampered.

Al-Jadaan, the Anbar tribal leader, looked confidently to the future and – if his prediction comes true – what likely will be a hero's role in the eyes of the U.S. military.

“Under my leadership and that of our brothers in other tribes, we are getting close to the shelter of this terrorist,” al-Jadaan said of al-Zarqawi. “We will capture him soon.”
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/10/2006 00:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, dear. Will al Zarqawi find himself in the dreaded Iraqi quagmire?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#2  And in a few months he will have to face the brutal Iraqui winter.
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 18:13 Comments || Top||

#3  The drive, dubbed Operation Tribal Chivalry.. We are the Lions who say, "Ni!"

In late November, tribal and religious leaders, former army officers and hundreds of ordinary Iraqis met in Ramadi with U.S. military commanders for a first-ever comprehensive dialogue on what could be done to speed a U.S. withdrawal.

"Well, for starters, y'all could stop killing each other. The Sunni's could collapse the myth that they are the majority in Iraq. Understand that all of ya are Iraqi's. The differences among you are what make you rich in culture, and should make you rich in tolerance and understanding, are what add to your identity as Iraqi's, not subtract.

You could accept to consider that all people should be equal under the law - and in your hearts if you can stretch that far. That each and every one of you has equal access to the necessities and foundations of life. And you can accept to consider that you will have to protect these rights from others who would want to deny you - and fight for freedom and equality, not vengence.

You could get your government and security up and running and demonstrate that you will be just fine on your own. Safe, secure, free, equal and ready to grow.

Or just safe and secure, dammit. Then we can get our asses out of here a.s.a.p."
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 03/10/2006 19:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Too late.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/10/2006 20:13 Comments || Top||

#5  to Iran, ya say? We should follow them with killing machines..
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:35 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Polar Ice Caps Melting; Sea Levels Rising
A classic piece of BBC 'science' reporting that buries the real conclusions toward the end, in the hope most people don't read that far. This is the interesting paragraph.

"The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," he said.

A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair"

OMYGODWEREALLGONNADIE!

/moonbat-gorebot
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Call me when S.F., Marin and Santa Monica are under water OK?
Posted by: SPoD || 03/10/2006 0:50 Comments || Top||

#3  and as a result of this millimeter rise in the melting ice caps, we Texans and all of the Southwest portion of the US are suffering droughts, while there is snow in the Sahara Desert. This increase, just goes to proves, this all means, Gore's discovery of the Internet just increase our knowledge of the coming end of our world, created by Global Warming.

Or somethin' like that
Posted by: Sherry || 03/10/2006 0:53 Comments || Top||

#4  This so called global warming is pissing me off.
I want to grow pecans and oranges in Chicago. Its not looking like it will happen anytime soon.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/10/2006 0:53 Comments || Top||

#5  A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.

More if it is an RCH.
Posted by: Penguin || 03/10/2006 1:19 Comments || Top||

#6  0.1 mm is used as the standard thickness for human hair, or sea level rise of 6 hair thicknesses over 10 years due to Polar icecap melting.
Posted by: ed || 03/10/2006 1:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Ed, you are quite right. I managed to drop a zero in there. I amend my conclusion.

A human hair is about 0.1 of a millimeter thick, so every year the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 1:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, it was nice knowing you all. Puttin' on my scuba gear now.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/10/2006 1:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Yeah but, what about them hurricanes? Surely that's all the evidence one needs.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/10/2006 2:32 Comments || Top||

#10  We can't do much about global warming, extreme weather, extinction, etc. But do we really need to add nuclear proliferation to that list?
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 4:03 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm really scared, though, cuz of the headline. I mean, I don't have the time to read articles, so I rely on the headlines. Wonder how many others do that. Wonder if the news organizations know that . . .

Posted by: ex-lib || 03/10/2006 4:50 Comments || Top||

#12  So the increase is 3mm a year? Ie 1 foot per century. At this step it would take 6 centuries before the seas raise as much as an average man height.

Oh and there is just 98% of the raise who is not explained by ice-cap melting. Where is this water coming from? Volcanos? Leftist crocodile tears about Irak? Pissing contests?
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 7:44 Comments || Top||

#13  jfm

The majority of ocean scientists feel that most of the rise in sea level is due to the expansion of water (it gets less dense when it is warmer).

the warming of the oceans over the past few centuries is undoubtedly due to a whole number of reasons; warming of the lower troposhere is one of them
Posted by: mhw || 03/10/2006 8:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Damn, no wonder I found a good deal on a beachside condo.....
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 03/10/2006 8:41 Comments || Top||

#15  If the rising sea level is because of the polar ice caps melting then the rise in level has to be exclusively from the South Pole. Since the northern ice cap contains no land underneath, it could melt in its entirety and not raise sea level one iota.
Posted by: Texican || 03/10/2006 8:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Ya beat me to it, Texican. Glacial melt and South Polar ice melt will raise the level, but not North Polar ice.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/10/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#17  Lol - I can see it now: the brains of thousands of liberal arts majors exploding... Yeah, okay, some of the burger-flippers (philosophy majors), too.
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#18  Greenland DB gottem Eskimos, ducks eider, icesheet and land underneeth the ice.
Posted by: 6 || 03/10/2006 10:23 Comments || Top||

#19  A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair.

Should read: A human hair is about 0.1 millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about six times the width of a human hair, or approximately 6 * 10 -20 light-years.
Posted by: KBK || 03/10/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#20  .com,

Hey, us philosophical guyz know about Archimedes. (G)
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 03/10/2006 11:48 Comments || Top||

#21  Lol EB. Lemme phrase it this way:
All burger-flippers are philosophy majors, but not all philosophy majors are burger-flippers.

Better? Lol...

I know I shoulda made it ethnic-studies majors but it didn't hit me until about 3 microseconds after I hit submit. Ain't that always the way?
;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/10/2006 11:53 Comments || Top||

#22  Shit. Now South Jersey's gonna be under water.
Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 || 03/10/2006 12:24 Comments || Top||

#23  Bangladesh is going to be in deep doodoo water, too. There goes the RAB and the Crossfire Gazette stories, unless they go Water World.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/10/2006 15:37 Comments || Top||

#24  #23 Gletle Snarong3002: "Shit. Now South Jersey's gonna be under water."

And the downside is....? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/10/2006 16:50 Comments || Top||

#25  Bangladesh's problem is the land is sinking, due to the uplift of the Himalayas.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/10/2006 17:19 Comments || Top||

#26  Well, if George Bush would have signed Kyoto the bloody Himalayas would not be uplifting!
Posted by: kelly || 03/10/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#27  "And the downside is....? ;-p"

All the freeloaders from Camden will be over here on this side of the river, knocking on our doors wanting free stuff. Think NOLA was bad? HA!!!
Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 || 03/10/2006 18:03 Comments || Top||

#28  The majority of ocean scientists feel that most of the rise in sea level is due to the expansion of water (it gets less dense when it is warmer)

Even if we admit it the rest of the math is correct: a 1 foot raise per century. It would take centuries before it is a problem for the Seychelles Islands.
Posted by: JFM || 03/10/2006 18:23 Comments || Top||

#29  Two hundred year old paintings of Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro, reveal a large ice cap. That has gone now. I wouldn't mind some good science on global warming, but not from the Beeb.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs || 03/10/2006 20:22 Comments || Top||

#30  200 yrs of industrial age around Mt. K, huh? Lotsa impact there
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2006 20:37 Comments || Top||

#31  Even if the current rate of rise in sea level would produce 12" increase in a century, there is nothing in the literature to suggest that this rate of rise could be or should be expected to be constant or increase or decrease over a hundred year period.

Predictions over time like this are usually probability measures for single event occurances, such as severe storms or damaging rainfalls, not for predictions of trends.
Posted by: john || 03/10/2006 20:52 Comments || Top||

#32  Were those Mt. K pictures painted in 1816?
Posted by: Darrell || 03/10/2006 20:59 Comments || Top||

#33  If you take your typical 12 inch world globe, the average ocean depth on that scale is about the thickness of a hair. I'd put my money on deep ocean vents being the source of the 'excess' water.
Posted by: KBK || 03/10/2006 23:05 Comments || Top||



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Fri 2006-03-10
  MILF coup underway?
Thu 2006-03-09
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Wed 2006-03-08
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Mon 2006-03-06
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Fri 2006-03-03
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Thu 2006-03-02
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Mon 2006-02-27
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