Slightly EFL.
Playing down hysterical predictions that Iraq is headed toward civil war, President Bush said Saturday that he's optimistic a new government will unify the nation. He denounced any moves by Iran or Syria to interfere in Iraq's effort to build a democracy. "I'm optimistic that the leadership recognizes that sectarian violence will undermine the capacity for them to self-govern," Bush said. "I believe we'll have a unity government in place that will help move the process forward."
The president's hopeful words came a day after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called the new parliament into session March 19 for the first time since it was elected nearly three months ago. Talabani said he feared "catastrophe" and "civil war" if politicians could not put aside their differences. He'd make a good Democrat.
Also on Friday, the State Department announced the discovery of the body of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., one of four "Christian" Peacemakers activists kidnapped last year in Iraq.
"I fully recognize that the nature of the enemy is such that they want to convince the world that we cannot succeed in Iraq," Bush said Saturday about the continuing violence in Iraq. "I know we're going to succeed if we don't lose our will."
The president also said that while Iraq's security forces need more training, they performed well after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque, which led to the deaths of hundreds and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. "There are some people trying to, obviously, foment sectarian violence some have called it civil war but it didn't work," Bush said. "Secondly, I'm optimistic that the Iraqi security forces performed in most cases really well to provide security. All but two provinces after the blowing up of the mosque were settled."
Bush spoke in the Roosevelt Room at the White House after receiving a briefing about the remote-controlled, homemade bombs that Iraqi terrorists insurgents conceal in cars or set off along roads. The devices are the leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Joining the president were Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Montgomery Meigs, a retired Army general who is leading the effort to find ways to counter the devices.
The United States alleges that the Syrians are aiding the terrorism campaign insurgency by allowing foreign terroristsfighters to cross their border into western Iraq. Washington also claims the Iranians are encouraging radicalism among Iraq's Shiites and permitting bomb-making materials to cross its border. "If the Iranians are trying to influence the outcome of the political process, or the outcome of the security situation there, we're letting them know our displeasure," Bush said. "Our call is for those in the neighborhood to allow Iraq to develop a democracy, and that includes our call to Iran as well as to Syria."
#2
With all due respect, President Bush, the Moolahs already know we are pissed off. Time for the "wanted: dead or alive" talk.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 21:53
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Just a thought for speculation, as I watched the re-run of The Unit tonight.....
Top stated... "Show me a Ranger tab..." to that gathered group of National Guardmens.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was no shortage of men willing to serve our country. There was a shortage of a trained civilian population, ready to go to war. It took months to years to get those kids somewhat trained for the forces ahead of them.
We lost battle after battle, on land and on sea. Something in my somewhat fuzzy mind of that period of history, tells me, it was over a year, before we scored a victory. We were losing, by large numbers, in the Pacific, in Africa (oh, forget that Africa hadnt attack us) as we began our march into countries that wasnt a part of these attack on us.
But our civilian soldiers, trained and went forth.
But, today.... our civilian army is trained, battle hardened, and ready. Has there even been time, when our nation has had a civilian army so versed in the wares of war?
I remember, during Katina, General Honore stating, Point those guns down, were not in Iraq. A civilian army, prepared. Maybe the terrorists need to rethink this image of a paper tiger.
Just a thought that I feel our enemies havent understood...... we really dont understand misery. From our enemies standpoint, we dont know how to look into the mind of most of mankind. Real suffering is at the center of everyones history but Americans. We are different, individual Americans. When we go into enemy countries, our soldiers are alive, and these soldiers want everyone else to be alive, too. They hand out food, they smile, they help the people, and they fight to keep them safe. There is a goodness in our people, that has been put forward through the years. Just briefly, on 9/11, there was a sadness throughout the world for us. Could it have been from the thought , there should be one country in the world where suffering is not permitted to exist? We had our day of suffering.
I just have to be grateful to know, we now have that trained, battle hardened force, that if some Special Force Top says to a group of National Guard folks, Show me Ranger tabs,..... now, they are there. Not only Ranger tabs, but a group that responds when some Top says, Show we combat experience, and all stand up. Somewhere in the thinking of Iran, seems to me, they are forgetting these silent civilians that have been to war.
These terrorists, who follow our media, think they are winning the battle, that Americans are weak, and tired of the war, tired of the deaths, and have no backbone left. That the battle is theirs. Our media and politicians state, Iraq is a training ground for terrorists. How stupid of them! Iraq has become an incredible training ground for our services. A place to battle, a place to test components of battle. They cant beat us there at our game, so they are providing us with the perfect, on the job training for our forces.
And, now, we have a trained civilian force that is the best in the world. Yes, bring it on.
#4
Lots of really, really good writing today. I saw The Unit tonight, too. I'm not sure I can watch it again -- too intense, and I empathized perhaps too strongly with the newbie wife... or perhaps that's just my flu talking. ButSherry raises critically important points that will shape the entire world's future; and in America, the silent majority is a pack, not a herd.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his government was determined to put priority to solving the problem of unemployed youth in the country. Ahmadinejad, who arrived in Poldokhtar city Thursday morning on the second day of a two-day visit of this western province, made the remark while addressing local officials and residents of the city.
"We are determined to use all potentials and capabilities of the government to put the youth in meaningful occupations and constructive activities," he said.
Digging bunkers, testing 'special belts', camping around oil terminals, government buildings and other special places, minefield clearance...
Sorta like the old Civilian Conservation Corps, without any of the good points.
Addressing the enemies and global arrogant powers, he said: "If you think you can make the Iranian nation yield by threatening it with punitive action in your meetings, it is time for you to know that this nation will never surrender."
But Iran certainly will have problems with its 'yuts'...
More than 1,600 severely wounded servicemembers have received cash payouts through the new Traumatic Servicemembers Group Life Insurance program in its first three months, according to program officials.
The program, launched in December, allows servicemembers to pay $1 a month for insurance in cases of severe wounds such as the loss of a limb, loss of sight or extensive burns. Payouts range from $25,000 to $100,000.
The payouts so far total more than $103 million and include 66 troops who have been injured since Dec. 1 and already received their cash. Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs said theyre pleased with the quick turnaround thus far.
That was really the intent of the law, said Stephen Wurtz, the deputy assistant director for insurance at the department. The idea was to get them a quick infusion of cash over this transitional period, to help them cover expenses. So far, were very gratified that its working that way.
When Congress approved the coverage, they made all troops on active duty eligible for the protection, but also included provisions to retroactively pay servicemembers who had been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan since combat operations started there.
So far, 1,543 troops have received the retroactive payments, Wurtz said. Defense officials estimate about 5,000 troops total are eligible under those guidelines.
Wurtz said they also anticipate about 900 new payouts each year.
Last week, during a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, Chairman Larry Craig, R-Idaho, told members of the Paralyzed Veterans of America he is pleased with the results thus far. Craig had sponsored the bill creating the new insurance program last year.
These are young men and women with amputations, severe burns, total blindness, total deafness, paralysis and a host of other disabilities sustained in defense of America, he said.
Going forward, the wounded warrior insurance will help close the gap in financial help these heroes need during their convalescence.
The $1 premium is not expected to cover all costs associated with the new insurance program, but Congress has mandated any additional expenses come from the Defense Department budget, not from additional rate increases.
#1
Article: The $1 premium is not expected to cover all costs associated with the new insurance program, but Congress has mandated any additional expenses come from the Defense Department budget, not from additional rate increases.
This is the kind of stealth defense budget cut in the guise of a budget increase that Hillary can go along with.
Police said the body of Tom Fox, kidnapped in November with three colleagues by a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, was discovered on Thursday with the hands tied and a single gunshot wound to the head at a rubbish dump in western Baghdad. The American, who had campaigned against what he called the dehumanization of the U.S. occupation, appeared to have been beaten with electric cables before his death, said a policeman who found the body beside a railway line.
Purported "Al-Qaeda Undercover Soldier, U.S.A": Last Warning to American People - Two Operations Will Occur; Your Homeland Security Agency Must Surrender; States Far Away From Washington, D.C. Such as Arizona Will Be Hit; We Await Orders From Our Commander Osama Bin Laden; America Will Be Brought to its Knees... Little do they know that living in Arizona for a length of time makes you dangeously crazy. Maybe they should watch the new version of 'The Hills Have Eyes'.
#3
I wonder if AQ knows that we have several (legal) machine-gun owners in this state? I know someone who has an MG-42 and a Maxim. Both work (the Maxim fitfully).
#4
Having lived in AZ for a time, DB, I must say that Nick Cage in "Leaving Arizona" is more like it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 21:59
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#5
Raising Arizona?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 22:06
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#6
Of course, the unspoken warning is "No farm animal is safe where we operate." So lock up your sheep, goats and donkeys, just in case they're in your area.
1) Nick Cage (or Sean Young/Tori Amos type.)
2) Everybody shooting at Nick Cage.
3) The desert animal phase/survivalist.
4) Extras in a Sergio Leone film.
5) Rustlers/crusty old coots/prospectors
According to the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2005-06, released last September, China ranks 46th on the Growth Competitiveness Index and India 55th.
Its a pity that the GCR is often cited but seldom read. Beyond the table on overall rankings of country competitiveness, the report contains a wealth of valuable information and insights. In particular, a measure designed to capture the microeconomic foundation of economic growth, the business competitiveness index (BCI), adds significantly to the China-India comparison debate.
China dominates India on almost every macroeconomic indicator. In the 2003-04 GCR, China was ranked at 25th place on the macroeconomic environment index, compared with Indias 52nd place. Newspaper headlines reveal the same story: China has had a faster GDP growth, and its per capita income is twice that of India. Chinas exports have been growing faster and are substantially larger in terms of volume. It produces more steel, builds more roads, highways and skyscrapers faster than Indians can build slums. For foreign analysts, the most favored measure of economic success is the level of foreign direct investment (FDI). And almost every comparison of China and India will tell you that China attracts 10 times the amount of FDI as India.
Looking at microeconomic indicators, however, a far more complicated picture emerges. In 2004, India ranked 30th in the BCI, far ahead of Chinas 47th place ranking. On other components of microeconomic competitivenesscompany operations and strategy, and quality of the national business environmentthe Indians (30th and 32nd) were similarly ahead of the Chinese (39th and 47th). Yet perhaps the most stunning revelation is that since 1998the first year this microeconomic ranking was producedChinas standing has declined, whereas Indias has improved substantially.
Despite a sharp increase in FDI amidst a growth rate of nearly 10% a year, Chinas microeconomic foundations for growth since joining the WTO have deteriorated. India, in contrast, has quietly and solidly improved its microeconomic competitiveness. In terms of BCI, China was ahead of India by two places in 1998; in 2004, it was behind India by a yawning gap of 17 places.
The most important thing to note in any China-India comparison is that there is a substantial difference between the macroeconomic measures and microeconomic measures of these two countries. Chinas GDP growth is faster, as widely acknowledged, but its corporate performance has been very poor. The index of Shanghai Stock Exchange has declined by 50% since 2001. Based on Standard & Poors Compustat data for 346 top-listed companies in both countries, BusinessWeek calculated that the average Indian firm posted a 16.7% return on capital in 2004 versus 12.8% in China. This performance gap between Indian and Chinese firms has long persisted. According to a UBS report, during the 1998-2003 period, the average return on capital employed (ROCE) for an Indian firm was about 17%. For Chinese firms the figure was only 11%. If anything, these numbers may overstate Chinese performance. Many of the performance indicators do not take into account the fact that the cost of capital is heavily subsidized for state-owned firms in China. BusinessWeek quotes Chen Xiaoyue, president of Beijing National Accounting Institute, as saying that two-thirds of 1,300 listed Chinese firms fail to earn back their true cost of capital. This implies that return on capital might have been negative if capital were appropriately priced in China.
This growing gap between macroeconomic and microeconomic performances has several serious implications. That India came from behind China provides the single best proof that Indias achievements are due to its longer history of capitalism. The fact is that China was significantly ahead of India in economic liberalization in the 1980s and for the first half of the 1990s. My view is that economic reforms began to stall in China since the late 1990s, but in India they have continually moved forward, however gingerly.
The performance gap also raises some serious questions about the state of the Chinese economy. As Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, author of the microeconomic competitiveness study, pointed out: Wealth is actually created in the microeconomic foundations of the economy. GDP is an output measure, and the idea of economic growth is not so much to increase output but to create wealth. That the Chinese firms are making lowerand potentially negativereturns on their investments suggests that value is not being created. Indeed, there is now evidence that the Chinese economy is less impressive in wealth creation compared to the Indian economy. The World Bank has just released a report that provides some measurements on wealth creation (based on 2000 data). Chinas per capita income is about twice that of India, but by wealth measures, China is only 37.6% wealthier than India. China looks especially poor in the area of intangible capitalwhich is a function of education, rule of law and other intangible characteristics of an economic system. China has an intangible capital of $4,208 per capita as compared with Indias $3,738.
Journalist Simon Long duly noted in a survey article in the Economist that China produced more, but India was more efficient in the long-run. Yet his conclusion seemed to proclaim: But who cares? This obsession with output measuresapparently shared by Brezhnev and Western observers alikeis extremely damaging. For one thing, this obsession overstates Chinese achievements and understates those of India. The outputs China produces are visible, especially in the form of skyscrapers in metropolises, but to appreciate Indian strengths one has to interact with Indian entrepreneurs and managers in order to understand their impressive visions and capabilities.
Output obsession has also led to a wrong policy model. The idea that building skyscrapers, airports, highways and power stations is equivalent to economic growth has done the biggest damage to Chinas microeconomic competitiveness. In China, this idea has led to massive and forcible seizures of land, the destruction of perfectly functional housing structures and a reduction of arable lands. These actions are terribly destructive in their economic effects, one of which is that the sense of property rights securityso fragilely maintained since the end of the Cultural Revolutionis undermined. The damage is especially extensive in rural China. My own research shows that rural entrepreneurship flourished in some of the poorest regions of China in the 1980s, but in the 1990s, financing became more difficult and, according to Chinese education researchers, rural basic education suffered.
A country cannot stray from its microeconomic fundamentals forever. At some point, Chinas macroeconomic performance will have to converge to a level compatible with its microeconomic conditions. Growth will slow down unless the Chinese leadership begins to proactively correct the deep institutional distortions in the Chinese economy by immediately banning all forcible land grabs and creating market-based land transactions, launching privatization programs, drastically improving both political and corporate governance and accountability, and opening up Chinas financial sector to both domestic and foreign competition. Given Chinas deep advantages in basic education, its formidable technical and scientific prowess, and its long and successful tradition of entrepreneurship, there is not a single good reason why China should lag behind India on microeconomic competitiveness.
Mr. Huang is an associate professor in international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of Selling China (Cambridge, 2003). He is working on a book about the domestic private sector in China, entitled Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006
18:53 ||
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#1
Interesting. Much of the same irrationality displayed in the Great Leap Forward.
#2
China's already facing a worker shortage for their industries at current wages. As soon as they try to mimic the model of running factories in less well-developed countries they are going to come smack up against their lack of management structures, accountability measures and incentives.
I just hope they do it slowly so that WalMart has time to source elsewhere. ;-)
#3
Article: According to a UBS report, during the 1998-2003 period, the average return on capital employed (ROCE) for an Indian firm was about 17%. For Chinese firms the figure was only 11%.
The writer uses these number to suggest that Chinese state subsidies promote the inefficient use of capital. However, another reason for the lower returns might be that it is more difficult to start up a company in India, and easier to start one up in China. Competition could simply be more brutal in China. Note that there is lots of foreign investment in China. This means a lot of foreign firms are producing for the Chinese market, reducing returns for Chinese firms. There is little foreign direct investment in India, which means little competition for India firms producing the same thing. Could this be why Indian firms are making more money?
The one thing Yasheng Huang doesn't seem to understand is that companies in closed economies are hugely profitable. This is because the state makes it difficult for competitors to enter their markets. In closed economies, it's the *people* who make no money.
#4
The key metric is the return on capital. Investors have been pouring money into China despite the fact, they aren't getting the return they could get elsewhere. The reason is that the investors believe that sometime in the future the payback (from investing in China) will warrant the poor returns they are currently recieving. "We can't afford not to be there, even if we aren't making any money from being there." If this sounds reminiscent of the Internet bubble, its because the thinking is the same. Will it end in a similar bust? I'd say the chnaces are a lot higher than many think.
#5
phil_b: The key metric is the return on capital.
Return on capital has been very high in India even before the recent opening of its economy. It's when return on capital starts to head south that we will know that India's economy has truly opened up. Efficient use of capital doesn't mean returns are high - it means that capital is allocated where returns are the highest - it's a relative kind of thing. Returns in China are low because the Chinese savings rate is high, meaning capital is cheap and domestic competition is therefore ferocious. Returns in India are low because the Indian savings rate is low, meaning capital is expensive and domestic competition is therefore tame. The treatment of foreign investors in India is also atrocious - this is why most of them avoid India despite over a decade of hype. Note that Enron walked away from a billion dollar power plant investment in India - that's $1b hard-earned simoleons it had to write off. Companies like Enron invest in India. Companies like Intel invest in China.
#6
phil_b: The reason is that the investors believe that sometime in the future the payback (from investing in China) will warrant the poor returns they are currently recieving. "We can't afford not to be there, even if we aren't making any money from being there." If this sounds reminiscent of the Internet bubble, its because the thinking is the same. Will it end in a similar bust? I'd say the chnaces are a lot higher than many think.
The Internet bubble involved handing out free goods and services in return for mouse-clicks. The China phenomenon is part of a well-trodden path first explored by other East Asian countries. In fact, many of the major foreign investors in China are the ex-tiger economies - they are there because it is cheaper to manufacture in China. Japan used to manufacture in Southeast Asia. As did Korea. As did Taiwan. As did a host of American and European companies. They have moved some of their facilities to China.
The Internet, in contrast, was pure hype. Advertising revenues will pay companies to hand out free goods and services. Consumers will start spending a much bigger chunk of their household income on telecom-related services.
By contrast, the China story isn't even particularly Chinese - it's a story of manufacturing being moved to a poor country because of it opens up its economy. In effect, it's a rerun of what the tiger economies experienced in the 70's, 80's and 90's, except China has a deeper pool of cheap labor. India hasn't opened up its economy. That's why the profit margins of domestic firms is high. Once foreign companies are allowed in, Indian companies are going to get crushed, and returns will plummet, as they have for Chinese firms.
Some Indian companies are doing quite well in international competition - like Bharat Forge, Reliance, Tata
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 21:09
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#8
john: Crushed?
Some Indian companies are doing quite well in international competition - like Bharat Forge, Reliance, Tata
No offence - but has foreign competition been allowed in their home markets? Has Honda been allowed to build a plant in India to compete with Tata? Gimme a break.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 21:22
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#10
like Bharat Forge, Reliance, Tata
...Mittal Steel. I don't think you can discount the experience some of these companies gain in the global market.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 21:29
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#11
It seems Intel has announced investments of 1 billion in India
Nokia has just opened a plant
"Built up in 23 weeks, the plant commenced commercial production from January 2 this year and has already made over one million handsets. The facility currently has around 1100 employees."
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 21:31
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#12
John, a Honda Accord costs $40,000 in India. It costs about $28,000 at worst stateside. Tariffs are involved. Honda isn't competing on a level playing field with Tata.
Note also that Honda lost US$30m in a single strike at its Indian operations. You don't get that kind of thing in China:
Labor dispute at Honda Motor Co's motorcycle factory in India that developed into clashes between workers and police on Monday is hurting production, with the company incurring a loss of 3 bln yen to date, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported without citing sources.
The dispute was triggered by the dismissal of four and the suspension of 50 employees for stopping production lines, with workers going on strike at the end of May, the business daily said.
The average production units at the factory dropped to 400 motorcycles a day in June, although production has gradually recovered to 1,000 units, the Nikkei said.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda, account for 25 pct of Honda's global motorcycle output.
Honda said the company is investigating the link between the labor dispute and the demonstration.
Mittal is a peculiar case hard to ategorize it as an Indian company - it is only now building a plant in India. A lot of top management is poached from the state owned Steel Authorty of India though...
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 21:35
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#14
Note also that Honda lost US$30m in a single strike at its Indian operations. You don't get that kind of thing in China:
Do you know what was behind these series of strikes against Japanese plants?
Response to a Japanese minister suggesting that companies investing in China should hedge their bets and invest in India also.
Karat - the leader of the CPI(M) Communist Party of India (Marxist) paid a visit to Beijing.
When he returned (with his orders), the unions launched their attacks.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 21:39
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#15
The Honda plant would be sourcing its parts locally so import tariffs would not apply.
There are heavy excise duties on car purchases though..
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 22:03
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#16
The imported Honda units are of course another story...
the tariffs would apply..
I doubt Tata has a car in that category though...
The Honda would compete against other brands
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 22:06
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#17
Looking at the Tata page, there doesn't seem to be a model in the Accord category...
http://cars.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/index.aspx
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 22:15
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#18
India has all those things (which I don't actually understand) + Aishwarya Rai. It's just unfair!
#19
John: Do you know what was behind these series of strikes against Japanese plants? Response to a Japanese minister suggesting that companies investing in China should hedge their bets and invest in India also. Karat - the leader of the CPI(M) Communist Party of India (Marxist) paid a visit to Beijing. When he returned (with his orders), the unions launched their attacks.
A Honda Accord costs $30,000 in China (China charges a 20% tariff on the auto parts imported for assembly by Honda, but Chinese auto assembly wages are $2 per hour). Vs $40,000 in India. And $28,000 in the US. Not real surprising why profits for Tata are high - it's sitting behind high tariff barriers, as India's state-approved national champion.
#21
Note that Enron walked away from a billion dollar power plant investment in India - that's $1b hard-earned simoleons it had to write off. Companies like Enron invest in India. Companies like Intel invest in China.
I could mention Motorola's huge investment in semiconductor plants in China. The same semiconductor division that later went on to take a big nosedive.
Anecdotes are not data.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/11/2006 22:31
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#22
Phil: I could mention Motorola's huge investment in semiconductor plants in China. The same semiconductor division that later went on to take a big nosedive. Anecdotes are not data.
Actually, they are points of data. Motorola's semiconductor division was losing money and is an also-ran - that is why it was spun off. Enron's power plant division was perhaps the only money-making division at the company. So Motorola lost money in semiconductors in China - heck, it lost money in semiconductors worldwide. Enron made money with power plants, but lost money in India.
Motorola has other investments in China - notably in cell-phones. It made huge amounts of money there, and is now reclaiming the top spot it once had in China - from Nokia.
#23
Zhang, I was specifically referring to FDI, which by definition can choose any country to enter. FDI should flow to where it generates the highest returns (discounting risk). We both agree that in the case of China it doesn't. So either economic theory is wrong or FDI flows to China for reasons other than return on capital in the normal timeframe of.
I still maintain the comparison with the dotcom bubble applies.
Speaking of data - savings rates are much lower in India, and investment returns are higher. This should mean that India's population buys more stuff. Let's look at auto sales in 2004. Chinese consumers bought 5m cars in that year. India's number was 1m.
This suggests one thing to me - the Chinese are under-reporting, not over-reporting growth rates. There's a rational reason for this - during the ideological era of the Great Leap forward, the incentive was to over-report, because the alternative - accurate reports about the dismal failures of collectivism - was being executed as a capitalist roader for sabotaging the Chairman's great plans.* Today, reporting high provincial growth rates means bigger demands from the central government for taxes, which are collected by the provinces (unlike in the US, where they are handed directly to the respective levels of government - city, county, state, federal). All of the provinces are sandbagging to evade central government demands for tax revenues.
But doesn't lackadaisical reported economic performance pose a threat to the jobs of government officials? No - because (1) they get and keep their jobs not for performance reasons, but because of favors rendered to specific higher-ups and (2) high single-digit percentage growth is nothing to sniff at. And if they're fired, there's lots of favors they can call in - lots of ex-officials have turned successful private businessmen. Note that Deng Xiaoping had no official position immediately prior to becoming China's top leader - all he had were scads and scads of favors rendered while coming up through the ranks before becoming the commander of the Chinese military. But just prior to becoming China's top leader, he had been purged (dismissed) from his official positions for years.
* Many provincial officials would have liked to report the correct (but dismal) numbers during the great disasters of that period. But they would have been shot, and new officials instituted to report the sparkling numbers the Great Helmsman (Mao) expected to see. So they provided falsely optimistic numbers, confiscated entire harvests for central government coffers and left tens of millions to starve.
#25
phil_b: Zhang, I was specifically referring to FDI, which by definition can choose any country to enter. FDI should flow to where it generates the highest returns (discounting risk). We both agree that in the case of China it doesn't. So either economic theory is wrong or FDI flows to China for reasons other than return on capital in the normal timeframe of. I still maintain the comparison with the dotcom bubble applies.
Actually, I wouldn't agree that FDI doesn't flow to where it achieves the highest return in China. It's not a mania. SC Johnson, Procter and Gamble and other consumer goods companies have plants in China not because they are blinded by a myth, but because they are competitive against Chinese manufacturers, who sell products for about the same prices as they do. A bottle of body wash (which the Chinese seem to prefer to bars of soap) sells like hot cakes despite its sticker price of 30RMB, half-a-day's pay in the wealthier cities. I can't imagine the average American paying $4 for a bar of soap. But the average Chinese will pay 30RMB for a bottle of body wash. The Chinese market is a gold mine for foreign companies currently, and is likely to become a much bigger factor in years to come.
Why do foreign companies invest in China? Because of China's liberal investment policies, as well as its low costs. Goods from China are cheap because Chinese land and labor are cheap, and because China has fewer investment restrictions than countries like India, Korea and perhaps even Thailand. Returns on domestic Chinese investments are low because China is awash in capital, not because of inefficient allocation of capital. But foreigners make good money in China because the opportunity is large, and they invest only in those sectors where they can make money.
A man in California claims the image of Jesus appeared to him while he was eating a plate of manicotti at an Italian restaurant, according to a Local 6 News report. Leo Williams said the image appeared before his eyes in the form of a bubbling, burned portion of cheese on his pasta dinner. Williams showed several people at the business who said they also saw the Jesus image and began to take photos of the discovery.
"I looked at the plate and before I started to eat it I thought, I'm not sure about this," Williams said. "So, we called the hostess. She came over and just got chills. The next thing you know you got the cameras coming out. You got people who are eating here coming to our table to see it. They just had chili chills. There were about 100 people taking pictures."
Williams said since the lunch, a chronic stomach problem he has had since birth has vanished.
#2
Human brain is wired to see potential patterns. So it's not surprising that some people will find meaningful patterns where others see nonsense.
BTW, it appears that other mammals mostly experience all the discrete sensory details around them, whereas we first and foremost see general patterns. The difference between their brains and ours is that ours has a much bigger frontal and pre-frontal cortex, with a lot more interconnections. The cortex actually suppresses a lot of sensory input in the process. It's not just that dogs have much better equipped noses, for instance - it's also that we don't pay attention to what our noses DO smell, much of the time.
My source on this is a variety of studies that track brain activity while people and animals perform various tasks / are presented with various stimuli. For an interesting and non-academic-ish book that talks about this (and a bunch of other things) try Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. She's the famous animal behaviorist who works miracles in redesigning feedlots, cattle ramps etc. and who is also a high-functioning autistic. Unlike the majority of people who think in words, she thinks in pictures and discrete memories of smells etc., i.e. in ways that she believes are a lot closer to the 'mental' activity of other mammals.
Sorry for the long comment ... it's a topic that not only plays into my professional work, but also interests me as a dog lover.
#4
BTW, it appears that other mammals mostly experience all the discrete sensory details around them, whereas we first and foremost see general patterns. The difference between their brains and ours is that ours has a much bigger frontal and pre-frontal cortex, with a lot more interconnections. The cortex actually suppresses a lot of sensory input in the process.
Right, lotp. One of the first "Oh, wow, man!" effects of hallucinogenic drugs is often the suppression of that human ability to filter out "noise." Very mundane things become very vivid and important. Later effects often over-stimulate the human ability to see patterns, creating many, if not most, hallucinations ... er, or so I've been told.
#5
I think the important question here is: why manicotti? Given the wide assortment of Italian cuisine, selecting a specific manicotti must have meant something. Of course, it also depends whether it was, say, a Napolini manicotti or a Sicilian manicotti; vegetarian, beef, chicken or ham--noting of course that there is no mention of chicken in the KJV bible at all.
Economic comparisons of India and China inevitably start with the two nations obvious strengths. India punches above its weight in the service sector, particularly information technology and it-enabled services. China is the undisputed leader in attracting foreign direct investment, and it is remarkably open to trade for a large developing country, with imports and exports accounting for more than 50% of GDP. With these starting points, both countries appear to have bright futures.
But in fact their strengths are symptoms of underlying weaknesses. Indian capital and talent is drawn to the IT sector largely because it is one of the few new fields which has not yet been stifled by government regulation. Service companies, especially in fields that export their product over a fiber-optic line, also stand out because they are less vulnerable to the countrys infrastructure bottlenecks.
Likewise, Chinas dependence on FDI stems from the weakness of the countrys banks and capital markets. With a savings rate of more than 40% of GDP, there is plenty of capital around, but few domestic institutions to allocate it efficiently. Moreover, high trade figures are symptomatic of a shortage of innovative companies able to create new products and build global brands. So far, China is stuck as the worlds low-cost workshop, importing components, snapping them together and shipping them out again, adding little value.
This analysis means that it would be foolish to extrapolate the future of these two giants from the consensus view of their strengths. Rather, both are going to change dramatically as they address these weaknesses. That will take them in new directions with new growth trajectories.
Today India and China are racing at breakneck speed, with as little as one percentage point difference in their growth rates, and in theory they could sustain this pace for decades. Because China embarked on its economic reform program 13 years before India, it currently enjoys a healthy lead in per capita GDP. But Indias challenges are more conventional for a developing country, and more easily addressed. China, by contrast, faces several perilous transitions which will slow its growth. As a result, India is set to steal the spotlight as leader of the developing world.
Miracle or Mirage
Lets stipulate that China is not willfully fooling the world with outrageously inflated statistics as it did during Mao Zedongs time. But some part of its latest economic miracle will also turn out to be a mirage. This growth is driven by levels of savings and investment the world has never seen in a market economy. Even though China has largely abandoned state planning, it still resembles Stalinist Russia in this one respect: Mobilization of capital, labor and raw materials provides the bulk of its growth, not productivity gains.
In fact, given the amount of investment, the biggest surprise of Chinas growth is how slow it remains. As a recent World Bank study said, [T]he growth outcome, while high in comparison with other countries, is not commensurate with the input of resources. During their high growth phases, both Japan and Korea grew faster than China today, with a lower level of investment.
All this makes many economists nervous about the quality and sustainability of Chinas growth. Before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, East Asias fastest growing economies were dependent on this kind of mobilization of resources rather than productivity growth. The result was that when faced with overcapacity, companies could not make the profits necessary to service the debts they had incurred in order to build their factories.
Chinas squandering of capital will have long-term consequences. While some believe that future growth in demand will take care of overcapacity problems, it is more likely that Chinese companies will have to export their way out of trouble. Given that trade tensions with the U.S. and Europe are already running high, this sets the stage for a crisis in the global trading system.
Moreover, the banking systems nonperforming loans are officially estimated at about 25% of total loans, but most experts put the real figure at around 40%. At that level, they are bankrupt. Because of the high savings rate, new deposits continue to flow in, keeping the banks liquid and allowing them to go on lending. But when the flow of savings slows, as it must some day, the government will have to recapitalize the banks and add their losses to the national debt. At current levels that is still manageable, but for how much longer nobody knows. Occasionally there are small bank runs in China, but so far the government has been able to maintain confidence by standing behind the banks.
Chinas incremental capital-output ratio, a measure of the amount of investment needed to create a given amount of GDP, is high and rising. According to the World Bank, the ratio has steadily risen to 5.4 in 2002 from 3.96 in the first half of the 1980s. The crisis in 1997 was preceded by a similar phenomenon in East Asian countries.
The FDI Champion
Much attention is paid to the fact that China pulled in some $60 billion of FDI last year, while India attracted an estimated $5 billion. In part this is due to measurement problems. If India used the standard definition of the International Monetary Fund, its FDI figure would be closer to $10 billion. And a large portion of Chinas FDI, perhaps one-third, is really domestic capital leaving and then re-entering the country, so-called round-tripping, in order to receive the preferential treatment given to foreign-invested enterprises.
Even so, China remains a bigger destination for investments by multinational companies. But is this a sign of strength or weakness? Many argue the latter.
Despite its abundant savings, Chinas most dynamic companies often struggle to get funding. Thats because the banking system is almost entirely state-owned, and the banks are reluctant to lend to private companies. As Yasheng Huang and others have written, entrepreneurs access finance by partnering with foreign companies. The more entrepreneurial state companies which want to escape government interference also sell stakes to foreign firms. Since foreign-invested firms get all sorts of preferential treatment compared to locals, such as tax holidays and exemption from troublesome regulations, the incentive is all the greater to find a foreign partner.
Why does China treat foreign businessmen better than its own people? One answer is politics. The Communist Party is afraid of nurturing a class of local entrepreneurs which could form an independent power base. It is more comfortable with foreigners, especially overseas Chinese, because they generally have no interest in challenging the power of the party.
This explains why the foreign-invested sector of Chinas economy accounts for most of its productivity gains and about half of its exports. These companies have brought in management and production techniques perfected elsewhere and combined them with cheap Chinese labor. But there is little local innovation in such enterprisesresearch and development, design, branding and other such high value-added activities have up until now been kept in the headquarters abroad.
Truly private businesses have contributed to Chinas growth, but they have to keep a low profile. The typical entrepreneur raises his start-up capital from friends, family and underground banking institutions. He reinvests his profits, and when his business reaches a moderate size, he stops growing that enterprise and uses his profits to start from scratch in other industries, creating a mini-conglomerate. Therefore private enterprises, while very entrepreneurial, never have a chance to achieve real efficiency through economies of scale and concentration on a core business.
So what Chinese companies do get loans from the banks? Mostly state-owned enterprises, which are protected by officials at various levels of government. They account for only 25% of output, yet they receive 65% of lending.
True, state companies are not as hopeless as a decade ago. Between 1998 and 2003, the government undertook massive lay-offs of 50 million workers, or more than one-third of the state-sector workforce. It also sold off most of the small- and medium-sized SOEs. Today we are told that the remaining large SOEs are profitable on the whole.
But there is good reason to be skeptical. Reforming SOEs without changing ownership makes little difference in their performance. We know that these companies do not face a hard budget constraint, meaning it is possible for them to use new borrowing to cover up past losses.
Incredibly, Beijing harbors dreams of creating state-owned conglomerates that will become world-class like Japans keiretsu or Koreas chaebol. Conveniently ignored is the fact that these companies, while receiving much government support, remained private. While it dithers over privatization, vested interests that will resist future reforms are becoming more entrenched.
Together these phenomena explain why there is so little total factor productivity growth in China, so little innovation. China is not developing world-famous brands because its big companies are not nimble or savvy enough. By handicapping its own entrepreneurs, China has so far largely confined itself to being an assembly center for the worlds multinationals.
India Shining
Indias approach has been almost exactly the opposite of Chinasit nurtured its own entrepreneurs and held multinationals at arms length. Its largest private firms are about 10 times the size of Chinas. The problem was that they were sheltered behind a high wall of protectionism until a decade ago, so they didnt have to compete with world-class companies. In a hangover from colonialism, Indians worried that if multinationals were allowed in, they would exploit Indian workers and consumers, strip the country of profits, and drive local companies out of business.
That attitude is largely history, although vestiges persist. Indias trade barriers are still high, with peak tariff levels at 20%, compared to Chinas 10.4% and a developing country average of 13.4%. Nevertheless, it has been gradually opening and finding that its companies not only cope with competition, they thrive. Success in the IT sector has been the catalyst, showing Indians that they can be world-beaters.
India has a huge advantage in its financial institutions and capital markets. Its banks are largely privately owned, and while their levels of nonperforming loans are relatively high at around 15%, they conduct credit risk analysis on their borrowers and are run along commercial lines, in contrast to China. India also has a functioning stock market.
As a result, Indian companies use capital more efficiently. The countrys incremental capital-output ratio is generally lower than Chinas, and in recent years it has actually been falling. As is normal for a developing country, its savings rate, currently around 25% of GDP, is not sufficient to finance its investment. This reflected in higher interest rates: Indias prime lending rate is consistently over 12%, compared to 8% in China. But now the vast pool of global capital is discovering India. The country is set to reap the benefits of higher levels of investment as FDI and portfolio investment increases in the coming years.
That will be combined with a huge wave of new and trainable workers. Demographically, India is a young country, with more than 40% of the population under the age of 20thats 450 million people, as compared to 400 million in China. More important than their ability to work is their ability to think: The generational divide in India is pronounced, with the young by and large uninterested in the zero-sum socialist ideas of their elders. Its also revealing that they are pursuing advanced education with a zeal that was formerly thought of as a Confucian traitAmerican universities enroll 80,000 Indian students, compared to 62,000 Chinese.
Finally, India is attractive to multinationals because it has a commitment to the rule of law and protecting intellectual property. Not that either is always well implemented, but the contrast with China, headquarters of the worlds IP pirates, is striking. This explains why India has home-grown, innovative companies, and is becoming a base for multinationals to conduct research in high-tech fields. Many came initially to arbitrage lower wages on routine work, but are now pressing into cutting edge fields.
Even the notion that business gets done more quickly in China needs to be re-examined. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, was shocked it took months just to conclude a land agreement for a 15,000-employee facility in Hangzhou. Of Chinese officials, he complains, Sometimes you can get confusing signals. Getting money out of Chinese clients is not easy either; Infosys gets paid in 56 days on average in India, but in China it must wait 120 days.
Politics in Command
To Chinas credit, it is addressing many of its problems. But here is where the contrast between Indian democracy and Chinese authoritarianism really comes into play. China has done well by picking the low-hanging fruit, the easy reforms in which there were many winners and few losers. For instance, by freeing farmers to produce their own crops 25 years ago, rural incomes rose and the supply of food in the city improved. Allowing prices to fluctuate with supply and demand corrected gross misallocations of resources. But more recently reforms have required difficult choices, such as laying off state workers.
So far, Beijing has continued to press ahead. But it is facing a rising tide of discontent, with about 75,000 public demonstrations a year. The benefit of authoritarianism was supposedly that China could make decisions for the greater good without being stymied by the objections of a minority. Yet it is becoming increasingly unclear whether the Chinese government can retain the consent of its people.
Chinas embrace of globalization was never built on a solid foundation, and thus a public backlash against the government could bring the whole edifice down. Andy Xie, Morgan Stanleys chief Asian economist, recently released a report entitled Time to Change, which concluded: Rising internal tension over inequality and external friction over Chinas trade success suggest that Chinas government-led and export/investment-driven development model may be reaching its limits.
Meanwhile, Indias politics are as tumultuous as ever, but the caravan of reform moves on, regardless of changes of government. Thats because under its strong democracy, India has worked through dissent rather than sweeping it under the carpet. Now the country is finally getting a fillip from the phenomenon that has kept China afloat all these years: When a rising tide is lifting most boats, disputes over necessary reforms become less acrimonious. At or above the current level of 8% growth, some believe, India is able to pursue reform and use its increased revenues to compensate sectors of the population who are temporarily left behind.
So can India learn anything from China? Certainly China has done better at providing necessary infrastructure, but that is already well understood. More critical is the problem of excessive labor regulations, which China eliminated first in special economic zones and then nationwide. In Chennai, the editor-in-chief of the Hindu, N. Ram, borrows the old Chinese term iron rice bowl to describe jobs at his newspapernobody can be fired, no matter how little work they do. Its better than a government job, he says.
This especially hurts Indias ability to attract investment in manufacturing. And it is manufacturing, not services, that can provide employment for the hundreds of millions of low-skilled farmers who will leave the land. This is also the key to raising productivity and incomesat present, the roughly 60% of the population engaged in agriculture produces just 22% of GDP output is growing at less than 2%.
Yet so far, parliamentarians are reacting to a spate of farmers suicides by approving money for make-work schemes in the countryside, instead of clearing the way for a manufacturing boom that could offer life-saving opportunity. Changes in labor regulations are the No. 1 policy change that could unlock faster growth.
A close second is opening up the retail sector fully to foreign competition, and here again India could learn from its neighbor. By allowing in firms like Wal-Mart and Carrefour, China has benefited consumers, stimulated demand, helped to develop a host of other industries and fostered the creation of distribution networks. Until now, both moves have been blocked by left-wing parties in the ruling coalition.
Nevertheless, the incremental steps being made show that these changes are within reach. For more than a decade, China has been the darling of the global business community, which fawns over its miraculous growth. Now India is poised not only to shine, but even to eclipse China.
Mr. Restall is the editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006
18:49 ||
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#1
Hugo Restall is guilty of wishful thinking here. He is basically saying that even though China is far ahead of India in terms of economic growth, India will pull ahead because India's government will make the necessary market-opening changes to India's laws to get this to happen. But these changes haven't happened yet, and it's not clear they ever will.
Inside every Indian isn't an American trying to get out. Indians have a bigger superiority complex than the Chinese - their view is that Indian civilization is so superior that they shouldn't have to appropriate the white man's way of doing things. The Chinese, on the other hand, have a less damaging version of this superiority complex, which simply adopts everything Western, yet continues to claim that the 0.001% of their culture that remains Chinese is responsible for their success.
This openness to Western practices is why a trip to China can be disorienting - a lot of its cities look like brand-spanking new, but more crowded versions of American cities, whereas Indian cities are hard to mistake for anything other than Indian cities. When you go to India, you will see plenty of men and women wearing traditional Indian clothing. You will see no one wearing traditional Chinese clothing in China.
Commentators like Restall don't understand that China is privatizing state-owned companies as fast as it can. The companies still owned by the government are being run as profit-making operations. The reason they haven't been totally privatized is because there are a lot of welfare obligations attached to them - and the government wants these obligations to vanish instead of taking them on as the companies are privatized. But from a political standpoint it would be risky to throw tens of millions of workers off the social safety net provided by their employers. What Restall takes to be political unrest is really fallout from the government gradually privatizing state-owned companies. Those demonstrations are a sign that privatizations are occurring on a gradual but steady basis.
As to why Chinese brands are not busting out into the global marketplace, this is a pretty nutty question. How many Malaysian, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Taiwanese or Korean brands do you know of? And these were the fastest-growing East Asian (and world) economies during the 70's, 80's and the 90's. In fact, how many Indian brands do you know of? Are India's Mittal Steel or Wipro household names in America? Japan is the big megillah - it is the one Asian country whose brands have penetrated markets around the world to the same extent that the big Western countries have. There is only one Japan. China isn't Japan. But if China (or any of the East Asian tigers) isn't going to be the next Japan, India isn't remotely in the running.
This sudden surge of affection for India is, in my view, nuts. India sided with the Japanese war criminals during the Japanese war crimes trials. It sided with the North Koreans and the Chinese during the Korean War. It sided with the Soviets during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. India will never become as loyal an ally as even France. The fact is that there are lots of democracies that will not become our friends. India is one. Russia is one. I don't think we should kid ourselves about the value of a good relationship with India - it is at best, a borderline hostile neutral.
Korean brands are quite plentiful and well known. Hyundai, anyone? Samsung? to name only the first two that come to mind.
Electrical engineers are quite familiar with Taiwanese brands for components and board assemblies, among other things. You aren't buying in that market so you may not be aware of Taiwan's large position there or the reputation of various Taiwanese mfgrs.
Singapore? Let's see ... according to the CIA Factbook, their famous financial services sector represents about 1/2 their economy. Their 'brand names' are the names of the world financial services firms, all of whom have major activities in that small country.
Restall is right to point to the relative maturity and transparency of India's financial markets as an important factor in projecting growth there. And while I have personal experience with the arrogance of some in the Brahmin caste, I also have plenty of experience with immigrants from India who have displayed great energy, focus and flexibility in settling here and building small businesses. Some of the most successful are investing profits back in India.
We'll have to wait and see how things work out, but it's not at all clear to me that China will out perform India economically over the next generation.
#3
lotp: Hyundai, anyone? Samsung? to name only the first two that come to mind.
Those are the *only* two. And one of them is still vaguely thought of as the Korean Yugo. Name me *one* Indian (and any non-Japanese and non-Korean East Asian) brand known to the average consumer. Bottom line is you cannot, and have written several paragraphs showing that you can't.
#4
lotp: We'll have to wait and see how things work out, but it's not at all clear to me that China will out perform India economically over the next generation.
You're entitled to your views, but it's not clear at all to foreign investors (as opposed to India-boosters) that India will outperform China over the next generation.
#5
Well, in my modest way I am an investor and my money is NOT in China, for good reason. I don't claim to be a market whiz, and lately I've been focused on technical research rather than the markets. But my MBA *is* in finance and operations from a top-10 B-school.
It's true that India's exports are not as far advanced, or as consumer-oriented, as China's. But this issue is not where they are right now -- it's where things are headed. And to this MBA China carries a lot more risk than many seem to think.
BTW, my step-father was Chinese, from Beijing. This isn't an issue of cultural chauvanism, it's a recognition of structural issues in economic, legal and social systems.
And, I'm a bit puzzled by your insistence on brand names as a measure of economic output. The big 5 Korean conglomerates are vertically integrated, but do sell the raw inputs to others (as with, for instance, steel). Your metric is unconvincing to me.
And ... do I really have to list all the other Korean brands sold here in the US? A quick google of several consumer electronics categories brings up more than a few additional Korean brands, if you insist that only consumer goods 'count'.
#8
ZF, this is silly. For Taiwan brands, you ignore companies like Acer, which just displaced Toshiba as the 3rd largest brand of notebook computers in the world:
Acer has unseated Toshiba as the world's No. 3 notebook brand in Q4 2005, with 66.7% year-on-year growth -- highest among the top-five notebook vendors, according to preliminary data from Gartner Dataquest. Acer notebooks ranked No. 1 in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and No. 3 in Asia Pacific with 117.1% growth, the highest among the top-ten vendors.
No well-known Taiwanese brands, my foot.
Note that, unlike the Chinese purchase of IBM's line, Acer's is engineered by THEM. Human capital matters.
China has potential, but it also has many many potential pitfalls going forward.
#10
lotp: ZF, this is silly. For Taiwan brands, you ignore companies like Acer, which just displaced Toshiba as the 3rd largest seller of laptop computers in the world. No well-known Taiwanese brands, my foot. Note that, unlike the Chinese purchase of IBM's line, Acer's is engineered by THEM. Human capital matters. China has potential, but it also has many many potential pitfalls going forward.
Acer sells the vast majority of these laptops under somebody else's label. Acer doesn't have a brand name - it has manufacturing facilities.
I think there is a strange underlying assumption here. And this assumption is that China and India are going to catch up to the United States. That is the underlying premise for the assumption that China and India should have well-established brands overseas. The fact of the matter is that China and India have a glide-path towards catching up with Thailand. The brutal reality is that they will probably never catch up to Malaysia, let alone South Korea. China and India should not even be mentioned in the same breath as these United States. China will outpace India. It will not outpace Thailand. And India will never catch up to Thailand.
#12
Acer doesn't have a brand name - it has manufacturing facilities.
Boy, you don't read the computer magazines I read. Acer is a brand name in it's own right. It has been for a good while now. Lots of multipage full color glossy ads.
#13
NS: Interesting forecast of 17 largest economies in 2050 and winners and losers in that economy.
Interesting survey. Kind of weird, in the sense that it projects higher per capita GDP growth rates for India than China over 45 years, yet comes out with a higher 2050 total GDP for China, in spite of the fact that China has a smaller population than India. What I found weird was its projection of 2.4% GDP growth for the US. I think we'll do better than that. Much better.
Nonetheless, these projections are like the weather forecast - partly in the sense that they are garbage - and partly in the sense that they rely on too many political and technological changes that are unknowable at this stage. Besides, if auditors can't even report the past accurately (re Enron), how can they predict the future?
#14
NS: TSMC. UMI. Ever heard of them? Is BASF a well known brand in America? Daewoo is probably better known. ZF's one point that is well taken is that both these countries performance will be determined by domestic constraints more than anything else.
Apples and oranges. Everybody's heard of BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volkwagen and Audi. Hyundai is an also-ran - Daewoo isn't even an also-ran. Dow Chemicals is a lot like BASF, but nobody's heard of a lot of its brand names.
Besides, this is getting silly. Comparing the East Asian tigers to China and India is like comparing a guy in a bespoke suit to hoboes in rags. Korean autoworkers make $10 an hour. Chinese autoworkers make $2 an hour. Chinese wages can grow 10% a year for decades and never match the Korean ones. China and India are decades behind the East Asian tigers. And they will remain far behind for next few decades. The question here is whether China's rags will be better-looking than India's rags. Based on current Indian economic policies, I have little doubt that this will continue to be the case.
#15
I am pretty inept along the axes of things financial or business. Yet even I have heard of Acer, LG and BASF. I don't know if that helps any of you who actually understand the arguments in this thread. ;-)
(2006-03-11) The sudden death of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in a United Nations prison toady wont keep the butcher of the Balkans off the witness stand nor slow the proceedings in his genocide trial, according to an unnamed spokesman at the Hague.
If he thinks that he can slow down this court by dying, hes gravely mistaken, said the anonymous source. Theres nothing that can retard our administration of justice, nor reduce the credibility of this global institution.
Mr. Milosovic, imprisoned at the Hague five years ago, faces a variety of war crimes charges, including the genocide of more than 8,000 Muslims during his bloody decade ruling the former Soviet state.
The court spokesman said that after an autopsy, Mr. Milosevic would now undergo another round of psychiatric examinations to determine his continuing fitness to stand trial.
#1
I kinda in a strange way believe this will happen. I know scrapple face is satire but I hardly doubt that the court is done milking all the money it can from the world at large.
Cuba has purchased a top-of-the-line Russian airliner for President Fidel Castro, the BBC reported Thursday.
The plane is one of two Russian planes being purchased by the communist island for a total price of $110 million.
The other plane will reportedly be used to transport Cuban workers back and forth from Venezuela.
Russian manufacturer Ilyushin said Castro`s plane was completely customized for the long-time Cuban leader and included state of the art electronics and a sofa bed.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006
17:00 ||
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Can I buy an "e" Vanna? As in plane
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 17:05
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It's all your, Captain. Installed and everything. ;-)
Iran on Saturday explicitly warned for the first time that it could use oil as a weapon if the U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions over an Iranian nuclear program that the U.S. and others suspect is trying to produce atomic bombs.
Later in the day, diplomats said Russia is pushing for a new round of international talks to be held away from U.N. headquarters, apparently hoping to head off a showdown in the council.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi raised the possibility of using Iran's oil and natural gas supplies as a weapon in the international standoff and also noted Iran's strategic location at a chokepoint for a vital Persian Gulf oil route.
"If (they) politicize our nuclear case, we will use any means. We are rich in energy resources. We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world," Pourmohammadi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Iran is the No. 2 producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia. It also lies on one side of the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for most of the crude oil shipped from the Persian Gulf nations.
Pourmohammadi's statements were the most specific yet in a series of threats issued by Iranian officials as the Security Council discusses how to cajole Iran into reimposing a freeze on uranium enrichment and fully cooperating with a U.N. probe of its suspect nuclear program.
Iran's government denies it is trying to develop atomic weapons, saying its program is intended only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity.
Tehran insists the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty gives it the right to enrich uranium for reactor fuel, even though the process also can produce the fissile material needed to make atomic bombs.
Russia, which has economic and political ties to Iran, has been trying to mediate a settlement and avoid U.N. sanctions. It is thought to fear Iran could spurn negotiations entirely at a time when the West fears the Islamic state is determined to obtain atomic weapons.
In Vienna, Austria, a Western diplomat told The Associated Press that the Kremlin is trying to arrange talks March 20 among the five permanent Security Council members - the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France - and Germany.
The meeting is envisioned for Vienna because Russia wants to take the focus off the council's deliberations in New York, said the diplomat, who agreed to give details of the confidential discussions only on condition of anonymity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov floated the idea of multilateral talks on Iran earlier in the week but did not suggest a date or venue. On Friday, John Bolton, America's ambassador to the Security Council, also said continuing consultations made "a lot of sense."
But the Western diplomat suggested Washington wants the main focus to remain on the Security Council, emphasizing that route was approved in January by Lavrov and the foreign ministers of the other permanent members.
The five permanent council members considered proposals Friday on how to get Iran to answer questions about its nuclear program, abandon uranium enrichment and stop construction on a reactor.
The five planned another meeting Monday morning to look at a revised draft of a resolution involving Iran, the Western diplomat said.
Another diplomat who had seen the draft told AP it calls on Iran to halt construction of its heavy-water reactor and stop all uranium enrichment, but does not contain any threat of punishment against the Iranians.
The lack of a threat is a clear effort to get Russia and China on board. If that does not happen, Bolton and other senior U.S. officials have suggested Washington might try to rally its allies to impose their own targeted sanctions.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006
16:51 ||
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America held hostage: Day 1,000,000,000
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 16:56
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We are getting close to the start gate, as far as the previously mentioned deadlines given for Iran.
The big question, at first are we going to play big defense, only swatting known offensive weapons sites, and running it into a long term air war; or, are we going to do a big and intensive up front to take out as much of the offensive capability as possible, using much less defense against the weapons that get through?
Hat tip: Murdoc Online
There are some great pix along with the story of the end of the last Tomcat deployment at link. Be sure to check out both Parts 1 and 2.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/11/2006
16:34 ||
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Police have found a bomb at a railway station in Mumbai, India's financial hub, four days after a series of deadly blasts in a holy Hindu city, which were blamed on Islamic militants.
Police discovered the device inside a bag on a platform of the commuter railway station in central Mumbai on Saturday and took it away to a nearby beach to be dismantled.
"It hasn't yet been disclosed what sort of bomb it was," a police spokesperson said. "It was lying in an unattended bag."
The discovery came after 23 people died on Tuesday in three blasts in the northern holy Hindu city of Varanasi at a railway station and a crowded temple.
It also came on the eve of the 13th anniversary of a wave of 13 bomb explosions in Mumbai's financial district that killed around 260 people in what was seen as a reprisal for Muslim deaths in Hindu-Muslim riots.
The police spokesperson said there had been no arrests in connection with the bomb found on Saturday and that it was too early to say who planted the device.
Police say they suspect pro-Pakistan Islamic rebels fighting New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir were responsible for the explosions in Varanasi.
Yah think? And here I was supposing it was those pesky Lutherans again. Was the bag from Coach? Could've been the Episcopalians, too ....
Cities across the country including Mumbai were put on alert after the Varanasi bombings amid fears of further attacks and retaliatory violence against Muslims in the mainly Hindu country.
Police were searching a number of railway stations, according to media reports, but police said they had not closed any of the stations which take the bulk of Mumbai's commuters to work.
In August 2003, two car bombs killed nearly 60 people in Mumbai. Police believed those blasts were the work of pro-Pakistan Kashmiri militants.
A federal judge issued a highly unusual classified ruling yesterday, denying a motion for dismissal of a case against two leaders of an Albany mosque who are accused of laundering money in a federal terrorism sting operation.
Because the ruling was classified, the defense lawyers were barred from reading why the judge decided that way.
The defense lawyers had asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying that they believed the government's evidence came from wiretaps obtained without a warrant by the National Security Agency.
The two mosque leaders, Yassin M. Aref, 35, and Mohammed M. Hossain, 50, were charged in August 2004 with conspiring with a government informant to take part in what they believed was a plot to import a shoulder-fired missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat.
The classified order by Judge Thomas J. McAvoy of United States District Court for the Northern District of New York came only a few hours after the government filed its own classified documents to the judge. Prosecutors were responding to a motion filed on Jan. 20 by Mr. Aref's lawyer, Terence L. Kindlon.
The prosecutors asked the judge to review their papers in his chambers without making them public or showing them to the defense. At midafternoon the judge issued a document announcing that he had entered the classified order denying Mr. Kindlon's request.
It is common in federal court for judges to place documents and legal discussions under seal, meaning that the judge and the lawyers can be informed of the proceedings, but the public cannot. In this case, Judge McAvoy's order is classified, a higher degree of secrecy. As of late yesterday, Mr. Kindlon, even though he has a federal security clearance to represent Mr. Aref in the trial, had not been able to see the substance of the ruling.
"Frankly, I'm taken aback," Mr. Kindlon said. The ruling "holds out no promise of anything" for him to see the decision, he said.
Christopher Dunn, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has asked to participate in the case, said such decisions appeared to be rare. Mr. Dunn said his group had no record of a classified decision in a case that it had handled.
In his motion, Mr. Kindlon cited an article in The New York Times on Jan. 17 that reported that "different officials agree" that the security agency's program had "played a role" in the arrest of Mr. Aref and Mr. Hossain. Mr. Hossain's lawyer, Kevin A. Luibrand, joined the request to dismiss the case.
Mr. Kindlon asked that all evidence in the case stemming from N.S.A. wiretaps be given to the defense. He argued that the program was unconstitutional and so the evidence should be suppressed.
"The government engaged in illegal electronic surveillance of thousands of U.S. persons, including Yassin Aref, then instigated a sting operation to attempt to entrap Mr. Aref into supporting a nonexistent terrorist plot, then dared to claim that the illegal N.S.A. operation was justified because it was the only way to catch Mr. Aref," Mr. Kindlon wrote in his brief.
Whether or not the program is constitutional is a matter of intense political and legal debate that has not been resolved by the courts. Since the government classified its motions, there is no way at this point to know what argument persuaded Judge McAvoy.
The arrest of Mr. Aref, an Islamic scholar who is the imam of Masjid As-Salaam in Albany, and Mr. Hossain on Aug. 5, 2004, came after a yearlong sting operation in which the informant posed as a terrorist. They are accused of agreeing to launder $50,000 in payments for a Chinese missile that he showed them.
At first, prosecutors said that both men had ties to a terrorist group known as Ansar-al-Islam. The government soon dropped those claims after it turned out they were based on a bad translation of a piece of evidence by the Defense Department. Mr. Aref was free on bail for 13 months, but he was sent to prison to await trial after the government brought new charges. Mr. Hossain remains free on bail.
Mr. Kindlon said Judge McAvoy's action convinced him that there was N.S.A. wiretap evidence in the case. "If they were not involved, the government would have told me, 'You're delusional,' " he said.
As Senator John F. Kerry prepared to make a return to presidential-style politics with a classic day of New Hampshire campaigning, he said that the 2004 run left him tougher and more eager to fight.
''When you get knocked on your ass and lose a race, you've got to stop and reflect on what you're doing, why you're doing it, what matters, and what's important. And I did," Kerry said in an interview in his Senate office on Thursday. ''There's a very different John Kerry now who is absolutely crystal clear about how I communicate what I need to communicate. . . . People are going to be looking for leadership."
Kerry's efforts to launch another presidential bid have prompted grumbling from some Democrats, who question whether a second Kerry candidacy would be good for the party -- or even realistic. Some party insiders expect that leading fund-raisers and strategists will push Kerry out before the race starts, in favor of a fresh face for a party desperate to retake power.
But in most respects, the Massachusetts Democrat has never stopped running for president. He has maintained an aggressive financial operation that, since the end of the last campaign, has raised nearly $4 million for Democrats in races across the country, and has sent $3 million of his own campaign funds to help other candidates.
''I only know that I'm in a position to make this choice," Kerry said, reflecting his belief that he'd be a viable candidate should he decide to run. ''I'll do what I think is the right thing to do, based on my own gut and desire. I will not worry one instant about conventional wisdom. It was dead wrong in the last race, and it probably will be dead wrong again this time. I just don't buy into some of the things I hear around here based upon what happens when I go out and see people around the country."
Kerry has about $15 million on hand in his campaign accounts, a figure that is surpassed only by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York -- who has a war chest of about $17 million -- among potential 2008 Democratic contenders. He sends regular e-mails to a list of 3 million supporters and has begun trying to energize them by urging them to lobby on legislation and to help veterans who are running for Congress.
Many of the key figures from his 2004 run are still in Kerry's fold, working for either his Senate office or his political action committee. He has assumed a higher-profile role in the Senate. And since November 2004, he has visited 22 states to campaign for local Democrats, deliver speeches, and generate support for his proposal for universal healthcare for children.
''He's done a good job positioning himself as well as could be under the circumstances," said Joe Keefe, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman. ''In a party that historically wants to bury the previous nominee, he's in a good position to buck that trend."
Kathy Sullivan, the current chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democrats, echoed Keefe, saying, ''I think people like John Kerry. They feel a real comfort level with him. That's an advantage. [But] you have to remember that the Democratic Party, unlike the Republicans, tends to be cruel to those who served as the banner carriers in the previous election."
Indeed, many Democrats remain sorely disappointed in Kerry's failure to defeat President Bush in a race they considered winnable. Looking to 2008, they are urging the party to turn to a new voice to reach out to voters who decided in 2004 that they couldn't support Kerry.
''I'm a very big fan of John Kerry, and I wish he had won very, very much. But I think he's had his shot, and we need a new direction," said John Wertheim, an early Kerry supporter in the last presidential race who is now chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party. ''I do sense that there is a feeling in the party that he has had his chance, and that we need to move on to someone new. We need a real breath of fresh air, a new voice for the party."
Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said many in the party remain upset about Kerry's inability in 2004 to refine his policy positions into a coherent vision, a shortcoming that crystallized with his statement that he voted for Iraq war funding before voting against it.
''A commander is responsible for everything his unit does or fails to do," Fowler said. ''Senator Kerry has to persuade people. The burden of proof is on him. But it would be a grave mistake for people to summarily dismiss him."
Kerry insists that he hasn't made up his mind about whether he will mount another presidential bid, as virtually all potential candidates say this early in an election cycle. But behind the scenes, his aides have implored former supporters to refrain from backing other candidates. Kerry has made his intentions clear by criss-crossing the country with a vigor that has suprised many who questioned his commitment in the past. And he has made special time for the first-in-the-nation primary state that happens to be less than an hour's drive from his Beacon Hill home.
Many of Kerry's actions over the past 15 months seem designed to put to rest lingering doubts about his candidacy. Last spring, he authorized the release of his full military records, finally addressing an issue hammered home by the ''Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," the group whose attack ads battered Kerry's candidacy.
Really? Where are they?
He quickly sought to defend Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, after Murtha announced a proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq. Kerry, who was criticized for being slow to respond to the Swift boat veterans, said he wouldn't stand for ''Republican 'Swift Boat-style' attacks" on Murtha.
On Iraq, Kerry gave a speech last October calling for troop withdrawals and saying he would not have voted for the war given what he now knows -- a far crisper response than any he offered during the campaign.
Though he has never been known as a master legislator, Kerry has been more active in the Senate. He pushed through better benefits for families of veterans and led two major filibuster efforts: to block oil drilling in the Alaska wilderness and to stop Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. from joining the Supreme Court.
If Kerry does make another run, he'll be battling his party's recent history of shunning failed nominees. Not since Adlai Stevenson half a century ago have Democrats turned to a nominee who had previously lost the election for the presidency.
Kerry is banking that his fund-raising on behalf of candidates for everything from city council to the Senate will build him loyalty that will turn into endorsements during a presidential run. He has stayed in regular contact with his 2004 supporters in New Hampshire, Iowa, and other states; fund-raising for local Democratic candidates and organizations is at least the nominal motivation behind today's stops in Hampton, Newmarket, and Nashua.
''I'm energized. I'm as focused as I've ever been," Kerry said. ''You've kind of got to dust yourself off, and say, 'OK, I took one in the jaw on that.' . . . I am a much better public person-slash-candidate as a consequence of that [campaign.]" The democrat whom the gods would destroy, they run against Hillary.
#1
This should make for good folly, popcorn anyone?
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 17:07
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#2
He doesn't get it. He think the press was nice to him last time 'cause they like him. this time around they will dump him in the garbage like like week's rotten fish.
It's going to be ugly to watch.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/11/2006 17:58
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#3
He authorized a full docs release - to a distant relatine in France. Who doesn't speak english.
She is 52 years old, married, grew up in the Kansas City suburbs and now lives in Virginia, in a new three-bedroom house.
Anyone who can qualify for a subscription to one of the online services that compile public information also can learn that she is a CIA employee who, over the past decade, has been assigned to several American embassies in Europe.
The CIA asked the Tribune not to publish her name because she is a covert operative, and the newspaper agreed. But unbeknown to the CIA, her affiliation and those of hundreds of men and women like her have somehow become a matter of public record, thanks to the Internet.
When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.
Only recently has the CIA recognized that in the Internet age its traditional system of providing cover for clandestine employees working overseas is fraught with holes, a discovery that is said to have "horrified" CIA Director Porter Goss.
"Cover is a complex issue that is more complex in the Internet age," said the CIA's chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Dyck. "There are things that worked previously that no longer work. Director Goss is committed to modernizing the way the agency does cover in order to protect our officers who are doing dangerous work."
Dyck declined to detail the remedies "since we don't want the bad guys to know what we're fixing."
Several "front companies" set up to provide cover for CIA operatives and its small fleet of aircraft recently began disappearing from the Internet, following the Tribune's disclosures that some of the planes were used to transport suspected terrorists to countries where they claimed to have been tortured.
Although finding and repairing the vulnerabilities in the CIA's cover system was not a priority under Goss' predecessor, George Tenet, one senior U.S. official observed that "the Internet age didn't get here in 2004," the year Goss took over at the CIA.
CIA names not disclosed
The Tribune is not disclosing the identities of any of the CIA employees uncovered in its database searches, the searching techniques used or other details that might put agency employees or operatives at risk. The CIA apparently was unaware of the extent to which its employees were in the public domain until being provided with a partial list of names by the Tribune.'
At a minimum, the CIA's seeming inability to keep its own secrets invites questions about whether the Bush administration is doing enough to shield its covert CIA operations from public scrutiny, even as the Justice Department focuses resources on a two-year investigation into whether someone in the administration broke the law by disclosing to reporters the identity of clandestine CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Not all of the 2,653 employees whose names were produced by the Tribune search are supposed to be working under cover. More than 160 are intelligence analysts, an occupation that is not considered a covert position, and senior CIA executives such as Tenet are included on the list.
Covert employees discovered
But an undisclosed number of those on the list--the CIA would not say how many--are covert employees, and some are known to hold jobs that could make them terrorist targets.
Other potential targets include at least some of the two dozen CIA facilities uncovered by the Tribune search. Most are in northern Virginia, within a few miles of the agency's headquarters. Several are in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington state. There is one in Chicago.
Some are heavily guarded. Others appear to be unguarded private residences that bear no outward indication of any affiliation with the CIA.
A senior U.S. official, reacting to the computer searches that produced the names and addresses, said, "I don't know whether Al Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could."
Down on "The Farm"
For decades the CIA's training facility at Camp Peary, Va., near historic Williamsburg, remained the deepest of secrets. Even after former CIA personnel confirmed its existence in the 1980s the agency never acknowledged the facility publicly, and CIA personnel persisted in referring to it in conversation only as "The Farm."
But an online search for the term "Camp Peary" produced the names and other details of 26 individuals who according to the data are employed there. Searching aviation databases for flights landing or taking off from Camp Peary's small airstrip revealed 17 aircraft whose ownership and flight histories could also be traced.
Although the Tribune's initial search for "Central Intelligence Agency" employees turned up only work-related addresses and phone numbers, other Internet-based services provide, usually for a fee but sometimes for free, the home addresses and telephone numbers of U.S. residents, as well as satellite photographs of the locations where they live and work.
Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, the senior U.S. intelligence official replied that "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly."
The official noted, however, that the CIA's credo has always been that "individuals are the first person responsible for their cover. If they can't keep their cover, then it's hard for anyone else to keep it. If someone filled out a credit report and put that down, that's just stupid."
One senior U.S. official used a barnyard epithet to describe the agency's traditional system of providing many of its foreign operatives with easily decipherable covers that include little more than a post office box for an address and a non-existent company as an employer.
Coverts especially important
And yet, experts say, covert operatives who pose as something other than diplomats are becoming increasingly important in the global war on terror.
"In certain areas you just can't collect the kind of information you need in the 21st Century by working out of the embassy. They're just not going to meet the kind of people they need to meet," said Melvin Goodman, who was a senior Soviet affairs analyst at the CIA for more than 20 years before he retired.
The problem, Goodman said, is that transforming a CIA officer who has worked under "diplomatic cover" into a "non-official cover" operator, or NOC--as was attempted with Valerie Plame--creates vulnerabilities that are not difficult to spot later on.
The CIA's challenge, in Goodman's view, is, "How do you establish a cover for them in a day and age when you can Google a name ... and find out all sorts of holes?"
In Plame's case, online computer searches would have turned up her tenure as a junior diplomat in the U.S. Embassy in Athens even after she began passing herself off as a privately employed "energy consultant."
The solution, Goodman suggested, is to create NOCs at the very outset of their careers, "taking risks with younger people, worrying about the reputation of people before they have one. Or create one."
Shortage of `mentors'
But that approach also has a downside, in that "you're getting into the problem of very junior, inexperienced people, which a lot of veteran CIA people feel now is part of the problem. Porter Goss has to double the number of operational people in an environment where there are no mentors. Who's going to train these people?"
In addition to stepping up recruiting, Goss has ordered a "top-down" review of the agency's "tradecraft" following the disclosure that several supposedly covert operatives involved in the 2003 abduction of a radical Muslim preacher in Milan had registered at hotels under their true names and committed other amateurish procedural violations that made it relatively easy for the Italian police to identify them and for Italian prosecutors to charge them with kidnapping. It's also interesting that for years now, some of our top public operatives have had flexible Internet biographies, their backgrounds changing on an annual basis. I suspect the only covert operatives who have been "compromised" are those hang out at Langley for six months of the year, and often host CIA cocktail parties.
#1
Article: At a minimum, the CIA's seeming inability to keep its own secrets invites questions about whether the Bush administration is doing enough to shield its covert CIA operations from public scrutiny, even as the Justice Department focuses resources on a two-year investigation into whether someone in the administration broke the law by disclosing to reporters the identity of clandestine CIA operative Valerie Plame.
This is obviously the reporter seeking to pin the blame on the current administration, in spite of the fact that the Internet existed throughout the Bush administration. Other clandestine services appear to have had no trouble hiding their secrets. Do we hear about the identities of covert DEA, FBI, local police and Special Forces agents being disclosed over the Internet. The correct question is whether the culture of incompetence that has pervaded the CIA since it was castrated during the Carter era has made it impossible to salvage. Perhaps the correct approach is to abolish the CIA and set up a new intelligence agency from the ground up.
#4
Stansfield Turner's rank incompetence, willingly politicizing and pressuring the experienced and respected field agents to retire, damaged the CIA (perhaps) beyond repair. It was his tenure that yielded the "culture of incompetence" that has plagued the agency ever since.
The Internet does expose the security gaps to far more people, in real-time, and of course this includes enemies of the US who actively seek such information.
The problem is that there are gaps and exposed information in the first place. This is but one consequence of the (now) obvious incompetence. Most of it resides above the field agents and analysts - in mid-level and upper-level management.
From the outside, it's impossible to determine whether Goss lacks the determination to do wholesale cleanup or the authority to do so. We've seen some prominent ranking people who've been dismissed or forced to resign, but there's little chance this approach has accomplished anything more than to cause the remaining intelligent (LOL) bad apples to keep their heads down to wait out the political cycle. In civil service of all varieties, and the State Department is a case in point, this is a failed methodology.
Even the military, which needed a thorough house-cleaning to remove the defeatist rot from the Vietnam era, and allows for much easier removal when such is identified, had to "grow" its way out of the disastrous condition of having allowed politicians to advance along with, and too often instead of, seasoned and capable officers.
I do not believe we have anything like the luxury of time it took post-Vietnam for the military to shed much of its dead weight through attrition anyway, not to mention that a military career is usually about half that of an agency career.
Goss' task is both huge and thankless - very literally - as every political agent of any rank has a political "master" (sponsor and, perhaps mentor) who appreciates his or her willingness to leak information and advance renegade political agendas within the agency.
Would that the will existed to get serious about the problems and aggressively identify and remove the tumors, unapologetically bloody and deep surgery, instead of layering on more pointless gauze over unbroken skin.
Culling the agency herd makes sense at this point, and we would actually be less vulnerable during a rebuild from scratch if the DoD agencies took over for the duration, but all of this is politically impossible. Culling the Legislative and extra-governmental power-broker herds, those who would lose their insider agents, would necessarily have to come first, LOL.
Unless and until a major catastrophe occurs which makes this obvious to all, nothing significant will happen. Goss and Rice will be forced to continue sniping the occasional arrogant fool, leaving the smarter, truly dangerous, "foreign" agents in place.
The rate of friendly fire deaths for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is substantially lower than in other major military conflicts, a decline that Army officials attribute to better training and high-tech equipment.
Over the past four years, 17 soldiers have died in friendly fire incidents such as the one that killed former professional football player Pat Tillman, according to Army data.
The 17 soldiers felled by friendly fire incidents are about 1 percent of the 1,575 soldiers who have died overall. More than 2,500 troops from all services have died in the two conflicts.
The 1 percent rate is well below that of Operation Desert Storm when 17 percent of all service members who died were killed by friendly fire. Rates for World War II, Vietnam and the invasions of Grenada and Panama were also higher than the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
So far, the 2004 death of Tillman, an Army Ranger and corporal, during a firefight near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been the only one in the war to trigger a formal criminal investigation. Army officials said its Criminal Investigation Command has reviewed other incidents, and there have been some reprimands or administrative punishments handed out.
Officials said they could not provide details on those reprimands, including how many there have been.
Of the 17 deaths caused by U.S. or other coalition allies, 10 were in Iraq and seven in Afghanistan. They occurred in 11 separate incidents.
The information the Army provided Friday consisted of numbers, not names of those killed or details of the incidents. Identities of the victims of friendly fire have been previously reported.
Pentagon spokesman Paul Boyce said friendly fire deaths have declined due to increased training, better leadership and new technology that makes it easier to identify forces.
For example, a small, thumbprint-size square of reflective material is embedded into the upper portion of soldiers' sleeves and allows others to identify them as U.S. troops.
Army officials say today's more lethal weapons, difficult battlefields and rapid-paced engagements are most often the cause of friendly fire deaths.
"Combat is highly complex and stressful," Boyce said. "Operations are conducted 24 hours a day, in all types of terrain and weather."
Boyce said that in addition to intense engagements with weapons being fired from air, land and sea, "soldiers become fatigued and equipment can malfunction. These and other occurrences produce what is called the fog of war."
The rate of friendly fire deaths for all U.S. troops in World War II was 12-14 percent; Vietnam, 10-14 percent; Grenada, 13 percent; and Panama, 6 percent.
The Tillman family's outspoken and anguished reaction to his death contributed to the military's decision to probe the matter further. Last week the Army launched a criminal investigation into Tillman's killing, and the Defense Department said its inspector general is looking into allegations of a cover-up.
The investigation will review the Army's failure to tell Tillman's family for several weeks that he was killed by gunfire from his fellow Rangers, not the enemy as they were initially told.
Tillman's shooting wasn't the first time in the Iraq war that the military initially failed to acknowledge that a death was the result of friendly fire.
It took nine months for the family of Army Spc. Jesse Buryj of Canton, Ohio, to learn that his death in Iraq in May 2004 was not the result of an accidental vehicle crash as they were first told. He was killed by fire from U.S. or Polish soldiers in Karbala after a dump truck hurtled through a checkpoint and crashed into the armored vehicle in which he was riding.
Some 375 gang members have been arrested in 24 states and the District of Columbia over the past two weeks as part of a yearlong operation targeting gangs with criminal immigrant members, the Homeland Security Department said Friday.
The arrests bring to 2,388 the number of gang members apprehended through Operation Community Shield, which combines local law enforcement with federal immigration forces. Of those arrested, 922 were members of Mara Salvatrucha gangs, which have ties to Central America.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that previously local law enforcement might arrest gang members and not be aware they also had immigration violations that could be used "to incapacitate violent criminals." Meanwhile, immigration officials would arrest gang members and not know they were wanted for serious criminal offenses.
"In much the way we have connected the dots against the war on terror, we are now connecting the dots against gang violence," Chertoff said.
Chertoff said none of the gang members was identified as having ties to al-Qaeda, but more than 260 of those arrested in the last two weeks have committed crimes like rape, murder and assault and brought drugs and weapons into neighborhoods. Of those arrested during the past year, 533 were charged with crimes and 1,855 with immigration violations.
Those in the country illegally will be deported after serving any sentences, officials said.
Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said: "With Operation Community Shield, ICE is sending a clear message to gang members that ICE intends to deal strongly and forcefully with you if you come into our country and break our laws."
When the operation began, its purpose was to target members of Mara Salvatrucha. But as the operation progressed, officials expanded it to other gangs in various communities.
In the two-week operation that began Feb. 24, law enforcement arrested 44 gang members in Dallas; 41 in San Diego; 22 in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area; 22 in Miami; and 19 in Raleigh, N.C.
Gang members were arrested in these states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia.
Federal officials have identified 5,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members in a database, but the number of gang members in the country is unknown, making it difficult to determine the impact the arrests have had on its membership.
However, David Brown, a Dallas assistant police chief who attended the Washington news conference, said the 149 arrests in his city since Operation Community Shield began had contributed to a 20 percent drop in the city's murder rate.
Brown said local communities are increasingly sharing information about gang members, particularly those who are foreign-born, because many of the gang members move between cities.
ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said the cost of the operation for a year was not available because it involves different aspects of the agency's budget.
Myers said Citizenship and Immigration Services assisted by flagging for ICE those gang members who had applied for immigration benefits.
#1
I find it hard to read about ICE without thinking of the rather cheesy-but-now-mysteriously-hard-to-find Dean Martin "Matt Helm" movies. ICE being the name of Helm's secret spy agency.
Of course, nothing compares to MILF, for having chosen an unfortunate acronym.
#3
I do hope our judicial system holds fast. It's upsetting how the bad guys often get off by being afforded every excuse on the books and off.
Bravo to our law enforcement!
Posted by: Jan ||
03/11/2006 14:06
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#4
they bagged 41 in San Diego - all with prior criminal records - all illegals
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 14:34
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#5
What seems to be under emphasized is how organized these syndicates are. They have infiltrated every major city barrio in the US and have been continuously expanding into smaller towns to avoid detection. They have learned to exploit the socio-economic conditions on Native Reservations to peddle their poison. And they openly recruit members in prisons from all persuasions. Their illegal status in some situations is used to their advantage to launder their dirty money. Banking institutions willingly accept ITINs for identification and assume the cash they deposit is mattress money.
Theyre here for a Better Life all right; but at whos expense?
Two militants were executed by hanging Saturday for the killing in Amman of a U.S. diplomat, police said. Laurence Foley, a 60-year-old administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan, was gunned down outside his Amman home on Oct. 28, 2002. Jordanian authorities blame Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for Foley's death.
The two executed militants are Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan, and Yasser Freihat, a Jordanian. They were convicted of belonging to a cell headed by the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi. The two appealed their convictions, but the appeals court upheld their death sentences in November. A police statement said bin Suweid and Freihat were executed before dawn at Swaqa Jail, 60 miles south of the Jordanian capital.
In July 2004, a Jordanian military court found 10 people, including al-Zarqawi, guilty of a terror conspiracy that led to the killing of Foley. Six were sentenced to death, including al-Zarqawi and four other Jordanians believed to be in Iraq.
When we grab ol' Zarq, I'm not averse to wringing him dry and letting the Jordanians hang him, as long as he never leaves US custody until his worthless neck is actually in the noose.
One of the 10, Moamar Ahmad al-Jaghbeer, was later captured by U.S. forces in Iraq and extradited to Jordan, where he is being retried for Foley's murder and another terror case. An 11th man was acquitted for lack of evidence.Jordan has sentenced scores of militants to death in recent years. Saturday's executions were the first to involve militants believed linked to al-Qaida.
#3
then they shoot them and electrocute the remains...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 15:20
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#4
Slice'em into bacon, cut'em into ham
Chop'em into hotdogs, squeeze'em into Spam
Throw their little eyes out in the rain
Pickle their feet and scramble their brains
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
03/11/2006 15:57
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BUNGLING crooks who robbed a van on its way to Heathrow got away with £75million in MONOPOLY money. The gang snatched the white Ford Transit from a street convinced it was crammed with genuine currency. But it was carrying hundreds of copies of the family board game, plus bundles of worthless Monopoly £500 and £100 notes to be used in an ad campaign.
Police last night vowed to send the hopeless Great Game Robbers straight to jail WITHOUT passing Go. One detective quipped: There will be no Get Out Of Jail free card for these chancers when we catch them.
And they wont be collecting £200 either.
The brand new liquid petroleum gas van was stolen as its driver made a delivery in Slough, near the airport. A courier was due to drive it to Heathrow next day, so its cargo could be loaded on a plane to Czech capital Prague.
Inside were copies of a new express travel version of the traditional property-buying game and piles of notes issued by the fictional Bank of Monopoly. They were to be used as props in a commercial by makers Hasbro, being filmed in Prague to highlight how Monopoly has become an international game. One scene was to show notes raining down over the city on to happy players.
Police are working on the theory that word got around the criminal world that an important shipment was in transit and that somehow the gang became convinced that real money was involved. A police source said: Apparently the driver left his keys in the van and came back to see a man inside trying to start it.
He tried to haul the thief from the vehicle but was unsuccessful and it sped off.
The van was spotted ten days after the theft, but its contents had gone. A 32-year-old man at the wheel was arrested and was last night being held on remand.
There is no need for a U.S. military presence in the Gulf regardless of the amount of oil we import.
It's certainly true that a disruption of the oil supply from the Middle East would increase the price of crude oil everywhere in the world. But just because the security of Middle Eastern oil has the characteristics of a public good for all consumers in the world does not imply that the United States has to provide that security. Oil producers will provide for their own security needs as long as the cost of doing so is less than the profit they gain from the oil trade. Given that their economies are so heavily dependent upon oil revenues, they have even more incentive than we do to worry about the security of production facilities, ports, and sea lanes. And if producing countries provide inadequate security in the eyes of consuming countries, consuming countries can pay producers to augment it.
In short, whatever security our presence provides (and many analysts think that our presence actually reduces security) could be provided by other parties were the U.S. to withdraw. The fact that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait paid for 55 percent of the cost of Operation Dessert Storm suggests that keeping the Straights of Hormuz free of trouble is certainly within their means. The same argument applies to al Qaeda threats to oil production facilities.
It's no surprise that the political class has convinced itself that bigger handouts to farmers and more automobile regulation constitute a "secret weapon" in the war against bin Laden. It is a surprise, however, that so many otherwise serious people are willing to believe them.
#1
This is goofy tripe. No only is the full article very thin in facts, large sweeping assertions are made sans any proof, it is logically inconsistent - using the same fact to make conflicting points. In other words, they have a conclusion they want to sell and the facts do not get in the way. Cato Institute. A dishonor to the man.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has died, the UN tribunal said on Saturday, just decades months before his war crimes trial was expected to conclude.
It was expected to conclude? Who knew?
"Milosevic was found lifeless on his bed in his cell at the United Nations detention unit," the tribunal said in a statement.
"Time to get up, Slobo!... Slobo?"
"The guard immediately alerted the detention unit officer in command and the medical officer. The latter confirmed that Slobodan Milosevic was dead."
"He's dead, Jim!"
The tribunal said the Dutch police and a Dutch coroner were called in and started an inquiry. A full autopsy and toxicological examination have been ordered.
"Dr. Quincy? Ms. del Ponte's on the line. Should I tell her you're out?"
Milosevic's family has been informed, it added. The tribunal did not say how Milosevic had died. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Milosevic had died of natural causes.
I'd guess he died of boredom, myself...
This was the Netherlands. Wonder if they euthanized him?
In a statement at an EU foreign ministers meeting just after news of Milosevic's death was confirmed, he said: "With the death of Milosevic, one of the main actors if not the the main actor in the Balkan wars of the late 20th century has left the scene."
G'bye, Slobo! Give our warmest regards to Himmler!
"I would like to spare a thought for all those who suffered so much from ethnic cleansing, tens of thousands of men, women and children, which Milosevic conceived and planned."
"... but they're all dead, and we were all so much younger then, so it's time to move on."
Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said on Saturday it was a pity former President Slobodan Milosevic had not been tried in his own country. "Milosevic organised many many assassinations of people of my party, of people of my family... He ordered a few times asasination attempts against my life," Draskovic told reporters at a European Union foreign ministers' meeting. "What can I say? I can say it's a pity he didn't face justice in Belgrade."
Wonder if Ramsey Clark's signed up to represent him before St. Peter yet...
Milosevic's death does not change the need for Serbia and Montenegro to come to terms with its past, the Austrian presidency of the European Union said.
5... 4... 3... 2... Cue the Munchkins!
Milosevic, 64, suffered a heart condition and high blood pressure which had repeatedly interrupted his trial in The Hague on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Two cardiologists treating Milosevic in The Hague had warned he was at risk of a potentially life threatening condition known as a hypertensive emergency, when surges in blood pressure can damage the heart, kidneys and central nervous system. Last month, the tribunal rejected a request by Milosevic to travel to Russia for specialist medical treatment, noting that his trial - that has already lasted four interminable years - was in the final stages and he might not return to complete it. The court said Milosevic's lawyers had not shown that his medical needs could not be met in the Netherlands and said experts from abroad could come to The Hague to treat him. Milosevic, who was overthrown in 2000 and sent to The Hague in June 2001, said last month his health was worsening.
So, on his headstone they can engrave "See? I told you I was sick!"
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/11/2006
08:26 ||
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#1
A week after Milan Babic.
I wonder what would be the reaction be if the same thing happened to Sadam?
#4
The UN has a "Detention Center"?
The way they rail about Gitmo you'd think that there was no such lawful thing as any "Detention Center?.
Ah, I get it now, they want to run all phases of any type of incarceration "Center" for when they themselves "Visit" for the next 20 or so.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2006 8:45
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From another article:
The European Union (EU) said Saturday that the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague is a sad moment, but does not change the need for the region to come to terms with the past.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters here that she had been informed of the news on the death of Milosevic.
Plassnik said the passing away of any human being is itself a sad moment and that the death of Milosevic "does not alter in any way the need for the region to come to terms with the legacy of the past, of which Slobodan Milosevic has been a part."
No doubt Plassnik would have found a good word for Hitler; but then he was an Austrian, too.
#13
The worst thing about Slobo is that he discredited anti-jihadism. As it stands, the worst ethnic cleansers in Europe - Kosovo and Bosnia - do so under the protective wing of NATO. If the Serbs had articulated their concerns of Muslim extremism, and used civil means - where possible - of social pacification, they could have led Europe in counter-terrorism. Like President Nixon, Milosevic gave a "sword" to the wrong people, and they cut his political throat.
#14
He should have just plead guilty. If you take the usual maximum Euro-sentence of < 10 years, subtract time served and time off for good behavior, he would have been home five years ago.
What he had to say, he typed into the computer. He waited until the e-mail had disappeared into virtual space. Then Abu Osama al-Sudani set off. To the wardrobe, to the safe, across the hallway, past the nursery, through the front door and out into the night, where his trace vanished in the darkness. Abu Osama's wife knew nothing of all this. When she woke up the next morning, she desperately contacted relatives, friends and finally the police. But Abu Osama did not resurface.
Two months later, the phone rang. "Your husband has been killed in Iraq," said an unfamiliar voice. "In Iraq? Killed?"
The most chilling footage in a new al-Qaeda video comes near the end of the hour-long extravaganza of bomb blasts, sheep-slaying, and maimed Americans. It shows hooded militants at work in a primary school class in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Children are asked to sing jihadi songs, quizzed on what they think of America and rewarded with pens, rulers and erasers. The video, of which Adnkronos International (AKI) has obtained a copy, is the work of Ansar al-Sunna, part of the galaxy of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seeks to show the extent of militants' control in the restive al-Anbar province.
The video, shot in high resolution and professionally edited, is a collage of various propaganda excerpts, linked together by a presenter, wearing a balaclava, who gives his name as Abu Suleiman al-Ruwi, and says he belongs to the media division of Ansar al-Sunna.
Ansar al-Sunna, or Army of the Protectors of the Sunna [which refers to the collective teachings of the Prophet Muhammad], is a Sunni extremist group said to be linked to al-Qaeda and Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks and kidnappings in Iraq.
Children have appeared only on rare occasions in video propaganda material by al-Qaeda and its affiliates and this video is unprecedented in its use of children.
The hour-long film begins with a historical recap, from the start of the war in Iraq, (the marines landing, the toppling of the giant statue of Saddam Hussein and the speech by US president George W. Bush) to the emergence of Islamic militants attacking US military posts, as well as footage of anti-war demonstrations around the world, snippets from last year's Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and copies of the Koran being thrown to the ground or having pages ripped out.
This chronological review precedes the footage of the Ansar al-Sunna militants who are ready to launch missiles and attack US armoured vehicles, but also to support the local population.
In the segment dedicated to the town of Ramadi, hooded men are seen slaying and butchering sheep and then delivering cuts of fresh meat in black plastic bags to children in the street, a helping hand to the poorer families.
It is children of Ramadi who the terrorist formation are seeking to influence. In a segment entitled "Lions of the country in the city of Ramadi", a hooded man carrying a microphone and his camera-wielding colleague interview youngsters on the streets. The children contest the US presence and say they are happy that Ramadi remains under the control of the mujahadeen.
Forty six minutes in, the presenter announces the visit by mujahadeen to the schools of Ramadi. The first to welcome the men, again masked, are boys in class 6B, aged 10-11. As well as reciting jihadi songs, the youngsters are asked for an opinion on the US. "Americans kill children" one boy says.
The Ansar al-Sunna operatives then move on to talk to much younger boys, in their first years at primary school.
The school appears a modern, solid and well kept structure, albeit spartan; the children are clean, tidily dressed and seem well-nourished.
The next stop is an all-girls class, where headbands outnumber Islamic headscarves, and the young girls appear giggling and far from fearful of their masked interlocutors.
Several girls, aged 8-9, are asked to sing Islamic songs. All classes are given pens, pencils, rulers and erasers.
Before the closing salute of the Ansar al-Sunna presenter, there are images of two small boys, clad in black tunics and wearing black ski masks, just like the adult jihadis. They hold each others' hands as the smaller of the pair struggles to hold aloft a pistol, too big for his tiny hand
This is the story of a man who set out to liberate his people from servitude and sin. It is the story of a hoodlum and drunkard who found strength in religious faith and then used that faith to cudgel unbelievers. It is a story with no foreseeable end even if the man were to die today, the world would be struggling with his legacy for a long time to come. It is the story of Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most dangerous man in the world. Today, no one is quite sure how this story began.
But if it began at any specific point, then on the afternoon of August 19, 2003 on Canal Street, in the north of Baghdad, when a gardener with dusty hair and blood-streaked overalls stumbled onto the street. As he died, he was holding a hoe in his hand. He had probably been weeding the lawn in front of U.N. headquarters when a van packed with 1000 kilograms of explosives blew up below the office window of Sergio de Mello, the U.N. special representative in Iraq. De Mello himself lay trapped in the rubble. Rescue workers kept giving him water. When his strength began to wane, he sent a final message to his family. Just over an hour later, he bled to death.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
04:23 ||
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#1
One day, Zarqawi caught a fellow prisoner reading Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". "Why are you reading the writings of an infidel?", he barked. Not long after, the man received a threatening letter. In poor Arabic, written in a childish hand, Zarqawi ordered him never to read this "Dozeefski" again.
Isn't that the book Saddam was reading in his hole? Anyway, interesting reading, thanks for the article. B. Raman suggests here that Zarqawi might have known Abdul Basit. Now if Zarqawi knew Basit, and Basit was working for the Ihsan Barbouti and the Iraqi gov't as 'Ramzi Yousef', that might mean Zarqawi had a relationship with Iraqi intelligence prior to the founding of Ansar al-Islam. And in fact B. Raman states that Zarqaiw was involved in the 1994 Mashad shrine bombing.
#2
Zarqawi is driving the American military in Iraq to the verge of despair.
Gee, somehow is missed that in the other media stories.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/11/2006 7:04
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A little peek at al-Zarqawis astrological chart provides some interesting insights too
Name: al Zaqari
October 30 1966
12:00 PM Time Zone is EET
amman, JOR
Rising Sign is in 28 Degrees Capricorn
You are practical and reserved but very ambitious. An achiever and a hard worker, you respect success. Older looking and very serious as a youth, things lighten up and you relax more as you mature. You have a serious view of the world as being a difficult place to be in. Very envious of those who seem to have an easier life than you have, relaxation and play do not come easily. It is important that you had abundant parental support as a child so that you do not feel lonely and isolated as an adult. Generally, you have a good, earthy sense of humor that can carry you through when times really do get tough. You are purposeful, self-willed, industrious, realistic and responsible.
Sun is in 06 Degrees Scorpio.
Intense and complex by nature, you have extremely strong emotional reactions to most situations. Feelings are often very difficult for you to verbalize. Therefore you have a tendency to be very quiet - - to brood and think a lot. You seldom get overtly angry, but, when you do, you are furious and unforgiving. When you make an emotional commitment, it is total -- you are not attracted to superficial or casual relationships. If you are challenged, you take it as a personal affront and tend to lash out and fight back in a vengeful manner. You love mysteries and the supernatural. A good detective, you love getting to the roots of problems and you enjoy finding out what makes other people tick. You are known to be very willful, very powerful and quite tenacious!
Moon is in 17 Degrees Taurus.
Warmth, comfort, security and familiar surroundings are necessary for you to feel at ease. Very loving and affectionate, you prefer a steady, patterned way of life. Patient, calm and steadfast, you are not easily upset. Others look to you for support. You tend to be a slow starter and a slow mover -- others may try to rush you, but they will never succeed. Emotionally, you are quite stubborn -- your attitudes about people and things were firmly set in your youth and will change very little as an adult. You are also very cautious and conservative about spending money. It is not that you are selfish, you just need to feel secure. Beware of a tendency to become overly complacent and too self-satisfied.
Mercury is in 00 Degrees Sagittarius.
Your mind is very curious and inquisitive, always seeking information on a wide variety of topics. The broader the subject matter (philosophy, science, religion, metaphysics), the more it will appeal to you. You prefer to deal with abstractions -- the small but important details associated with any subject tend to slip your grasp. You are known for being blunt, honest and truthful.
Venus is in 04 Degrees Scorpio.
Your feelings about others are deep, powerful, intense and complex. When you like someone, you do so totally and obsessively if you do not like someone, they do not exist. Your faithfulness and loyalty to your lover is unquestioned, indeed at times it is too much so -- you get so possessive that you almost smother your partner. At times, your feelings are kept deep within you and, because they are so complex and intense, they frighten you -- this is the way that you try to ignore them. But the more you try to do this, the more explosive things get when you eventually do express them.
Mars is in 10 Degrees Virgo.
Very careful and systematic, you pay great attention to details. You are always seeking perfection and sometimes get bogged down searching for the ultimate when adequacy would have been sufficient. You dislike abstractions, preferring whatever is practical, useful and demonstrable. You have a strong and enduring sense of personal responsibility, and you demand that others be as responsible and upright as you are. Very critical of yourself and others, sometimes you carry this too far and become overly intolerant of others and their right to choose their own lifestyles (EFL)
A month before tight national elections, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was besieged today by two new embarrassments: Prosecutors asked that he be put on trial for corruption, and his health minister resigned over accusations that he spied on political opponents. Neither development seemed the silver bullet that would kill off Mr. Berlusconi's chances for a second five-year term, as the opposition might fervently wish. Over a decade in which Mr. Berlusconi has been both in politics and the courtroom, Italians have long overlooked legal proceedings against him.
Still, this race, at a time of no economic growth and growing frustration among voters here, might be different. Polls indicate that Mr. Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, is running behind his center-left challenger, Romano Prodi.
Prodi is not center-left. There's no center in the man.
There are other problems as well, including an earlier resignation of a minister and continuing disarray among his center-right allies. "It's another two hits on a ship that is not very seaworthy to begin with," said James Walston, a professor at the American University in Rome.
But like anyone who follows Italian politics, Mr. Walston was quick to add that, whatever his weaknesses, Mr. Berlusconi has been fighting hard for re-election and remains very much in the race. "We certainly can't count him out," he said.
Italians go to the polls on April 9 and 10.
Following reports that their investigation was complete, prosecutors in Milan said today that they would ask that Mr. Berlusconi and a British lawyer, David Mills, be put on trial for judicial corruption. The prosecutors released no details, but the case has been widely reported in the Italian news media, and centers on whether Mr. Berlusconi ordered $600,000 to be paid in 1997 in exchange for Mr. Mills' providing false testimony in two other cases against Mr. Berlusconi.
Both Mr. Berlusconi and Mr. Mills have denied the charges, but the case has reverberated in Britain. Mr. Mills and his wife, Tessa Jowell, the British culture minister, separated last weekend after a parliamentary commission cleared Ms. Jowell of any impropriety after accusations that the money was used to pay off the mortgage on the couple's house.
Mr. Berlusconi's allies today dismissed the charges. They said that the timing, during the election, proved the prime minister's long contention that left-leaning prosecutors have a vendetta against him. His spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, released a statement calling the charges "false theories shameful and impossible."
Prosecutors have been quoted in Italian news reports as saying they needed to act quickly because the statute of limitations for the crimes was shortened under legislation passed by Mr. Berlusconi's government. A judge must hold hearings on whether the case will go to trial, a process unlikely to be completed during the last month of campaigning. Such trials drag on for years and as has been the case in other corruption cases against Mr. Berlusconi are often voided because the statute of limitations run out.
Later today, the nation's health minister, Francesco Storace, resigned because of a widening scandal over whether he spied on political opponents during a hard-fought regional election last year. Earlier this week, 16 people, including police officers and private investigators, were arrested in the case. There were suspicions that Mr. Storace ordered video surveillance and wiretapping against opponents as he sought re-election as the president of the Lazio region, which includes Rome. He lost the race, and Mr. Berlusconi later appointed him health minister.
In announcing his resignation, Mr. Storace, a member of the National Alliance party, which is aligned with Mr. Berlusconi, released a statement saying that "the mere suspicion" of guilt "hurts me and makes me indignant."
Last month, Mr. Berlusconi's reforms minister, Roberto Calderoli, was forced to resign after he appeared on a television program wearing a T-shirt printed with the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have caused riots around the Muslim world. He stepped down after more than a dozen people were killed in a violent anti-Italian demonstration in Libya.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
04:07 ||
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The lead-up to the war in Iraq put the issue of the potential acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by terrorist groups at the top of the list of Western priorities. More than two years after the American and British occupation of Iraq began, however, no evidence for the existence of such weapons on Iraqi soil has been found, nor is there is any real proof of operational cooperation between the Saddam regime and any Islamist terrorist groups in field of WMD. Moreover, there are also no real signs that Qa`idat al-Jihad or affiliated Islamist groups plan to use WMD in the near future.
In a confidential, January 2004 report written for the United Nations, a panel of experts led by Mr. Michael Chandler, concluded: The al-Qaeda terror network is determined to use chemical and biological weapons and is restrained only by the technical difficulties of doing so. The experts added, The risk of al-Qaeda acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction also continues to grow Undoubtedly al-Qaeda is still considering the use of chemical or bio-weapons to perpetrate its terrorist actions However, what al-Qaeda lacks still today is the technical complexity to operate (WMD) properly and effectively. They want to (acquire and use WMD), but have difficulties in dealing with it.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
04:05 ||
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#1
...These guys are - and in no way am I minimizing the potential horror here - classic James Bond villains:
1. They want to rule or control the rest of the world.
2. They are going to sit there and give us a long detailed explanation of how they are going to do it, because in their arrogance and fanaticism, they are convinced we cannot stop them.
We are being warned.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/11/2006 11:22
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#2
The author wrote: We are really puzzled to see the Americans and their followers in the Western world think that they are able to confront people who wish to die more than they [the Americans] want to live.
We have far more bullets than they have bodies. Thus far, in Iraq particularly, their wishes have been accomodated admirably. Win-win, I think.
#4
We are really puzzled to see the Americans and their followers in the Western world think that they are able to confront people who wish to die more than they [the Americans] want to live.
Since when has an insane death-wish been a viable long-term strategy? The kamakazis startled us and spiked our casualties, but we mowed them down and moved on - to the bloodiest, most no-quarter fighting in the Pacific war - and we still won.
These jihadis are pikers compared to the WW2 Japanese. It's the enemies within and the lack of perseverance at home that I worry about.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/11/2006 18:31
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#6
"The sense of humiliation is not simply a consequence of military occupation, such as in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, or Kashmir. Rather, it is primarily the feeling of American-Western cultural domination."
Their humiliation is much more than that. Were we to pull out of every Islamic country in the world, jihadists would still rage from humiliation-whether because of an innocent glance of affection from a female to a male, the "dishonor" of a daughter who has a relationship outside the jail of her faith, a neighbor having better livestock, a neighboring country having more natural resources, a thieving or murderous autocratic ruling family killing its citizenry...No, humiliated jihadis will continue to express themselves in murderous rage throughout Islamania until jihadists realize their own violence humiliates them more than any outsiders could ever do.
Al-Qa'eda is flooding the unruly border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan with propaganda DVDs, in a media campaign designed to win recruits and sympathy.
The films, sold for 40p each in local markets and distributed throughout Pakistan and across the Afghan frontier, depict Taliban forces attacking American, Pakistani and Afghan soldiers. Punishment killings and damage inflicted by American and Pakistani forces on both Islamic fighters and local civilians are also portrayed.
To the alarm of the Pakistani authorities, the blood-soaked movies sell well in the hard-bitten North West Frontier Province, despite a police crackdown on their production and sale.
"We have moved against any form of production that is against Pakistan or our allies," said a spokesman for the government of the semi-autonomous, and largely lawless, Tribal Areas.
"Not only have we confiscated illegal films, but we have countered them with leaflets and messages broadcast through our three radio stations in the Tribal Areas".
Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the region has become a refuge for local and foreign radical militants, believed to include Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Last week the Pakistani army temporarily lost control of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, to forces loyal to the Taliban and al-Qa'eda.
It was the heaviest fighting witnessed since an operation in 2003 when the army entered the Tribal Areas at the behest of America. During the operation to re-establish control over Miran Shah, the army claimed it killed more than 100 militants, while civilian casualties are unknown.
Despite the presence of 70,000 of its troops, the army has only managed to exert minimal control over the porous border region. The Miran Shah incident underlined fears that weak central government presence has enabled the free movement of militants, money, weapons and now propaganda in the region.
Qari Amanullah, a DVD shopkeeper in the town, said: "These jihadi DVDs have made our businesses flourish. There is a great demand for such films because they are popular with all age groups.
"Young boys used to watch movies, particularly Indian blockbusters, but now these DVDs have replaced movies and even young boys are going to be addicts.
"The DVD showing the recent killing of bandits by the Taliban and then hanging their dead bodies from electricity pylons is the current top of the chart."
He said that a DVD about Taliban fighters, The Young Eagles of High Mountains, is another hit with about 20,000 copies already sold.
The films, mostly scripted in Urdu, Pashto and Arabic, are produced by two "production companies", Ummat Studios and Jundullah CD Centre. The films do not mention their contact details, but the Shawal and Mir Ali areas of Northern Waziristan - the latest battlefield for Pakistani troops - are believed to be the centre of production.
Naeem Noor Khan, an al-Qa'eda computer expert, is said to have visited South Waziristan before his arrest in Lahore last July.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
04:03 ||
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#1
DVD's?
Kinda blows the image of poor starving pesants living in mud huts and scrounging in the fields for leftover grain, doesn't it?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2006 8:51
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#2
And what is the American Embassy doing? Huh?
My god, from the country which developed landfills full of AOL coasters, Netflix, and other creative applications for CD/DVDs, you'd think we'd have 'Bill Gates' the market on free DVD with our message slickly tucked into a free Bollywood movie. Once again, the State Department is still in mid-20th Century. Someone send a note to Rummy to get SOCOM on the job.
#3
RE: CD propaganda: can we distribute 40 million CDs to Waziristan by C-5? The terminal velocity of one of those little monsters from 45,000 feet would cut halfway through the walls of their mud huts. Next earthquake, EVERYTHING would fall down. Then we could go in as "humanitarians" and clean up - both literally and figuratively. Who said God isn't on OUR side? He just needs a little help now and then.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/11/2006 15:46
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Heh. I think that the cold at the launch elevation would cause them to shatter too easily to do real damage, but it's an interesting plan OP. ;-)
Insurgent groups in one of Iraq's most violent provinces claim that they have purged the region of three quarters of al-Qa'eda's supporters after forming an alliance to force out the foreign fighters.
If true, it would mark a significant victory in the fight against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa'eda in Iraq, and could partly explain the considerable drop in suicide bombings in Iraq recently.
"We have killed a number of the Arabs, including Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Kuwaitis and Jordanians," said an insurgent representative in the western province of Anbar.
The claims were partly supported by the defence ministry, which said it had evidence that Zarqawi and his followers were fleeing Anbar to cities and mountains near the Iranian border.
It is this move that is believed to have prompted a statement a fortnight ago from the insurgent groups in the central city of Hawija that they were declaring war on al-Qae'da. It is being interpreted by intelligence experts as a response to an unwanted influx of foreign fighters seeking refuge. Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgents had originally welcomed al-Qa'eda into the country, seeing it as a powerful ally in its fight against the American occupation.
But relations became strained when insurgents supported calls for Sunnis to vote in last December's election, a move they saw as essential to break the Shia hold on government but which al-Qa'eda viewed as a form of collaboration. It became an outright split when a wave of bombings killed scores of people in Anbar resulting in a spate of tit-for-tat killings.
In reaction, the insurgent groups formed their own anti-al-Qa'eda militia, the Anbar Revolutionaries. The group has a core membership of 100 people, all of whom had relatives killed by al-Qa'eda. It is led by Ahmed Ftaikhan, a former Saddam-era military intelligence officer.
It claims to have killed 20 foreign fighters and 33 Iraqi sympathisers. Many more are said to have fled. The United States has confirmed that six of Zarqawi's deputies were killed in Ramadi.
Osama al-Jadaan, a tribal chief, has claimed that with the support of the Iraqi army his supporters have captured hundreds of foreign fighters, and has sought to prevent jihadis entering the country from Syria.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
04:02 ||
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#1
I wonder how this would have turned out if we had a 600,000 U.S. boots on the ground. I'll admit I've on occasion lapsed into tirades (not here) about overthtrowing Saddam "on the cheap," but I have a hard time believing that we could have gotton the Sunnis to see anyone but the U.S. as an enemy if we had gone the McCain/Powell/Shali route of "overwhelming force."
#5
This is an option but it is a basically a "putting all your eggs in one basket option"
Why?
The option is based on the belief that with 600,000 combat troops one would overwhelm the Iraqi resistance thereby:
1) ending it quickly or
2) rendering it insignificant/politically acceptable losses(one is too many for myself)
However there was a couple opposing factors:
1) The Bush Administration was operating under the belief that they would basically be welcomed in large parts of Iraq (as seen by their original choice to head the occupation, LtGen Garner).
2) Current military doctrine is based on maneuver warfare, using our superior training/technology as a force multiplier (being more places, more powerful with a "much less" logistic train).It is what our forces have trained for and is the best at.
3) With todays current forces putting 600,000 boots in Iraq is much easier said done. To accomplish this would require using a major portion of our active global forces(stripping them from some other needed places) and the activation of a very large portion civilian reserves for replacement/needed Iraq Force support(remember much of the '90s force reduction was transferring these functions to the National Guard).
Could we have done it, yes, but would it have accomplished reducing the resistance to at least an acceptable loss (the political left would howl about the loss of one but I believe you mean like me the excessive sickening loss of Coalition and civilian lives).
In this scenario the presence of large forces would permit the physical garrisoning/patrolling of Iraq. The resistance in larger areas would be faced with superior firepower and their lines of logistics/communications would be disrupted. It is also is possible that such a force would discourage much of the resistance from forming.
Would it work, maybe.
Factors working against short term resistance resolution:
1) It would require months to activate/transit/supply the forces. The resistance lives there and already have their stuff.
2)600,000 boots does not mean 600,000 combat troops. It takes many soldiers to service those on the pointed end of the stick. Today every soldier is a combat trooper that was not the case then.(lack of armor plating/insufficient small training for logistic forces). More forces in more places means more target of opportunities against logistic/protection forces. It is reasonable to expect proportional losses to increase force size. Would this have been politically viable?
3) Failure to understand Sunni/Arab character:
A) Sunnis are not Nazis. The have been on the top so long that can not imagine being on the bottom (a view shared by many in the west if we leave the sunni/baathist will be back in power tomorrow. What foolishness, if we left the summer of 03 the Shiite and Kurds wouldve slaughtered the Sunni but if the west believed it why not the Sunnis.
B) Combat forces are trained to fight with superior firepower and mobility (simply put pin it move kill it).This doctrine is not as effective because firstly, it is difficult to id on non uniform opposition and fails to take into account the Arab character. Two words to desribe Arab culture-Honor and fatalistic. Inshallah (as god wills it) is the viewpoint of those who fight. Honor to ethnic/family/etc. or revenge compel them to fight. Sunnis.Revenge, war is not clean; innocents get caught in the crossfire compelling Iraqis to seek revenge. More combat troops may very well increase support for insurgents due to crossfire. It took a sadist brutal Saddam to force the Iraqis to swallow their honor. Not an option for the Coalition.
Factors working against long term resistance reduction:
Will keep this short since I already owe Fred a car in bandwidth usage
1) War breaks equipment. Needed repair/maintenance/retrofit is presently accomplished during rotation, some repairs/maintenance require specialized facilities. Many retrofits were accomplished while gear was stateside/Established foreign bases.
2) Soldiers are human beings. Reading the mil-blogs one see the emotional stress or joy at midpoint of tour our forces endure. We could not ask multi-year combat deployments of our best yet it would be necessary since we do not have the reserves to replace them.
3) Political Correctness.600,000 boots would not deal better with Sadr or discourage support for insurgent/al queda.
4) Political viability. I am sorry to say this but America would not tolerate a long term massive deployment of forces (sorry boss my guard has been called up for a few years orI only see my child/spouse/parent 2 weeks a year).
600,000 may have reduced the short term resistance but it would have reduced the militaries options and may very well have increased the problems.
Unfortunately, it requires an Iraqi forces/solution to finally solve the resistance and that takes time.
Fred, I apologize for the length but second guessing our forces really frustrates me (no offense perfesser/lopt).
IMHO America is blessed to possess the finest military force in history and global society should kiss its ass in gratitude
#7
No argument from me, AlterEgo. The logistical, doctrinal and political issues you raise would have required tactics that we're using now selectively, but which raise great resentment among many Iraqis. 4-5 times the troops there would have done so even more, without (as you noted cogently) guaranteeing we could have prevented / controlled the insurgency very much better than we have.
Ultimately we can set the conditions for Iraqi freedom, but they have to put it into action.
America is blessed to possess the finest military force in history
You'll get no argument from this wife of a retired career officer. ;-)
Suspected Muslim insurgents have beheaded a man in the restive south of Thailand, an official said Tuesday.
The body and severed head of Abdulaziz Japakiya, 41, a Muslim who worked on rubber plantations, was found by villagers early Tuesday near a plantation in Yala province, said district chief Surachai Wongsupalak.
Authorities believe he was killed by Islamic insurgents, who sometimes target fellow Muslims they suspect of cooperating with government authorities.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
04:01 ||
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#1
Now, that's a climax ! Religionists-of-peace beheading OTHER religionists-of-peace ! Excellent ! I think Bush should quote this fact in his next speech, to praise the consistency of what he calls "the noble faith".
At least Grover Norquist, the oh so dear friend of Rove, will be happy.
#2
Btw, beheading a muslim prevents him from going to heaven according to what dear old Shyam said; he was (is) my (ex) uncle in law, and a nepalese gurkha, and he fought one indian-pakistani war (1971, I'd say, he enlisted at 15), during which he killed supposedly 12 pakistani soldiers (7 with his rifle, and 5 with his knife, or the other way around... prisoners???), I suppose he was probably saying the truth, and the idea was to behead ennemies to send them to an eternal in-between limbo.
He actually isn't the first one to use that term. Felucia, Mygeeto, and Saleucami were far better choices and a free cookie to whoever is as big a geek to get that reference without looking.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who wields growing political influence and whose militia has clashed with U.S. forces, described the United States, Israel and Britain as a ''Triad of Evil'' in a television interview Friday.
The anti-American al-Sadr also said last month's attack on a Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra was carried out ''in collusion with the occupiers and the Zionist entity of Israel,'' meaning the U.S. and Israel.
Hundreds of Iraqis died in the subsequent sectarian violence. Sunni Arabs say al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, was behind much of the bloodshed.
The Triad of Evil reference was an obvious play on the words President Bush used in his 2002 State of the Union address, when he labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the ''axis of evil.''
Al-Sadr, whose militia launched two uprisings against U.S. troops in 2004, refused to name any group that he believed was behind the bombing of the Askariyah shrine in Samarra but hinted at members of Saddam Hussein's former regime or Sunni extremists.
''Those who carry arms could be takfiri extremists, Saddamists or others. But those who control arms are the Triad of Evil that are Israel, America and Britain,'' the black-turbaned cleric said during the one-hour interview on state-run Iraqiya television.
The extremist takfiri ideology urges Sunni Muslims to kill anyone they consider an infidel, even fellow Muslims.
Al-Sadr said the attacks on Sunnis that followed the Samarra explosion ''were a natural reaction'' by Shiites angry over the attack. He said he rejected any attacks on mosques of either Muslim sect, although violence after the Samarra bombing damaged many.
The firebrand cleric, who was on a regional tour when the Feb. 22 attack on the shrine took place, cut short his visit and came back ''in order for the country not to be pulled to street battles. I wanted to salvage the Iraqi people from these problems.''
Speaking about the country's political crisis that erupted in recent days over the Shiite parliamentary bloc's nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to form a new government, al-Sadr said ''I don't intervene in such small matters.''
But al-Sadr's political power was showcased last month when al-Jaafari was nominated as the government's next prime minister over his heavily favored rival by a single vote - thanks to the support of al-Sadr's followers in the parliament. That support, in part, has caused a coalition of politicians to come out against al-Jaafari's candidacy.
Al-Sadr's followers hold 30 seats in the 275-member parliament. The remainder of the Shiite blocs control 100 more.
''The candidate for prime minister must demand the withdrawal of the occupiers, or put a timetable for their pullout. I don't support any person who does not say that,'' al-Sadr said. ''What is important is that the occupiers leave because they are behind what is happening in Iraq.''
''Putting a timetable on foreign troop withdrawal represents a victory for Iraqis, not for terrorists,'' he said.
The cleric, speaking from the holy city of Najaf, said Saddam Hussein should not be tried but executed immediately. He criticized what he called American intervention in the trial and said it has taken so long.
Saddam was believed to have ordered the 1999 assassination of al-Sadr's father, Mohammed Sadiq, a top Shiite religious leader who spent years in jail under the former Iraqi leader.
''I call for the execution of Saddam,'' al-Sadr said. ''He who did not let judicial authorities work under his rule should not be tried.''
''He who shed the blood of Iraqis and Muslims easily, should have his blood shed easily,'' al-Sadr said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:58 ||
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#1
Triad of evil, how original.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 4:33
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#2
wow a new catch phrase - not as good as 'Axis of Evil' but not bad i guess for a savage. War of the words, is this whats its come too???
Posted by: DanNY ||
03/11/2006 6:09
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#4
Apparently, Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr forgot it was thwo-thirds of the evil triad that permitted him to come out of the shadows so he could be the one who wields growing political influence...
How quickly they forget....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/11/2006 7:29
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#5
DD - Star Wars Ep III. And thanks, my browser already has a cookie.
#9
Thanks alot Frank! The imagery of tooth decay made my day. al-Sadr needs a root canal, a long, slow, root canal. How long are they going to put up with the Muckster? If he is taken out, his followers will run around like a loose baloon until they run out of air. Why are they putting up with this guy?
BTW, still stuck here. We have a blizzard going on. 200 yards vis, winds gusting to 43 kt, snow, blowing snow, 9F. It's a lovely day in the neighborhood. The weathermap isobar pressure contours look like a contour map of an open pit mine. We're doomed, doomed, I tell ya....
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
03/11/2006 12:53
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#10
That pesky Global Warming getting to you guys again, AP?
#11
AP keep hunkered down and stay warm, hopefully a warmer springtime is just around the corner.
"The cleric, speaking from the holy city of Najaf, said Saddam Hussein should not be tried but executed immediately. He criticized what he called American intervention in the trial and said it has taken so long."
Makes me wince to want to agree with this remark from Sadr.
no cookie for me, I always need to look stuff up. DMFD, liked the Star Wars reference though lol.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/11/2006 13:58
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#12
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Anti-American "sophisticates" may sneer, but Axis of Evil was actually a neat turn of phrase. Sadr's Iranian masters seem to think so.
#19
I wonder if Sadr doesn't have some use to us. It is very convenient to have him and his followers chasing down the Sunnis sometimes.
Let's start a rumor that he is a zionist agent.
#21
Cloudy, threatening rain, moderate winds about 25 MPH and around 70 f, windows open, air off, and night just now falling, probably heavy rain tonight, in Mobile about 8 miles to the bay, and 20 or so north of the gulf coast.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2006 18:47
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#22
Tater needs to be eliminated before festivities in Iran commence.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 22:03
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Please, someone refresh my memory...Why hasn't Tater had an unfortunate accident with an IED or 50 cal sniper rifle?
#24
Dunno. Maybe because he has a significant following and if he's offed, a replacement will arise. Ultimately Iraq has got to get past what he represents (including his blackshirts).
Or (and this isn't necessarily much different from the first explanation) because he is high profile and stupid, in a streetsmart sort of way, and therefore we can track what he's doing.
With the stage set for a high stakes U.N. Security Council debate next week on possible sanctions for Iran's nuclear program, Tehran on Wednesday warned the United States that it too can inflict "harm and pain" and hinted its weapon could be oil.
The sharp statement, which followed a warning this week by Vice President Dick Cheney that Iran could face "meaningful consequences," came on a day when the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency concluded a series of meetings on Iran and forwarded its report to the Security Council.
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general Mohamed ElBaradei found that after nearly three years of inspections, the nuclear agency remains unable to rule out the possibility that Iran still has secret nuclear activities, which could include work related to uranium enrichment and efforts to adapt weapons to carry a nuclear bomb.
The IAEA board of governors last month reported Iran to the Security Council pending ElBaradei's report. The IAEA demanded, among other things, that Tehran cease all nuclear enrichment activities, answer all outstanding questions about its nuclear program and ratify a protocol that allows more wide-ranging inspections. But Iran ignored the demands.
Economic actions are unlikely in the near-term from the Security Council. And on Wednesday, the foreign minister of Russia, which has veto power, disparaged their use as a diplomatic tool.
However, the referral of Iran's case to the U.N. council in New York opens a chapter Iran has sought to avoid.
A.H. Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the gathered ambassadors in Vienna on Wednesday: "The United States has the power to cause harm and pain, but the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain."
Asked if Iran, the world's fourth largest oil supplier, would use its oil exports as a weapon to punish the West, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's National Security Council said that "if the situation changes we will have to review our oil policies."
Meanwhile, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, testifying before Congress, said Iran "directly threatens vital American interests" and Washington planned "a concerted approach (in the council) that gradually escalates pressure on Iran."
At the same hearing, Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, was asked whether the administration was prepared to launch a military effort. Joseph replied that President Bush "has made clear that there are no options off the table."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:57 ||
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#1
oh well if they want to use oil as a weapon then we might as well destroy all their refinerys and oil industry facilities so as to stop these silly games - kinda like a kid mis-behaving with a toy , if he carries on he'll have his toy taken from his cot. :)
#4
it always amuses me this 'card playing' talk - do all the leaders meet up with various packs of assorted cards and role dice and flip cards over a big map of the world, kinda like dungeons and dragons the board game or warhammer is it?
#6
Iran's only real export is oil. That money runs the entire country. How the hell could they quit selling it, even for a day? I bet oil futures prices in the Iranian stock market are doing well today.
#7
The oil card, like a nuke, is much more useful to them as a threat than a weapon. The cost of actually using either is quite high, but successful bluffs are free for as long as fools fall for it. And the population has grown quite a bit since Barnum said there was a sucker born every minute.
#8
The Iranians assume that they have the oil card. They also assume that the world will play nice. They keep tickling the dragon's tail, and the dragon stirs a bit. Inductive M² logic sez, since nothing happened, it's ok to keep tickling the dragon's tail. There will be a point where the dragon(s) will have had enough. Keep tickling M²s and you will find that tipping point.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
03/11/2006 13:00
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#9
Yeah, its not like they have the [b]Pistachio Card[/b] to play any more with so many California Pistachios on the market.
#12
assign a card to a mullah. When his card comes up, wipe his house(s), his family (if they refuse to leave) his assets (that BMW/Mercedes dealership in Tehran) his entire existence. Off the world. Then announce "next?"
These Mullahs are mostly thugs who've used Khomeini's revolution for power and wealth. Take both away and their shysters selling snake oil and hate. The true believers like ahmadinijad.... should be assassinated first wave
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 16:10
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#13
If the Shiite Arabs are nice, maybe we can award them the oil rich lands currently owned by Iran. They already live there anyhow.
GENERAL Moshe Ya'alon, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces, has revealed that Israel could neutralise the Iranian threat for several years by hitting dozens of targets spread around the country.
General Ya'alon told the Hudson Institute in Washington on Thursday that the Iranian sites could be struck with greater accuracy than was achieved by the air force in its frequent "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
His remarks, the most explicit yet about Israel's capacity to strike at Iran's nuclear sites, drew sharp criticism from officials in Israel who have been attempting to maintain a low profile on the issue in order to leave it as a matter for the international community.
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 been more supportive of the war."
Bush told Hadley to expedite the release of the Iraq documents. "This stuff ought to be out. Put this stuff out." The president would reiterate this point before the meeting adjourned. And as the briefing ended, he approached Pence, poked a finger in the congressman's chest, and thanked him for raising the issue. When Pence began to restate his view that the documents should be released, Bush put his hand up, as if to say, "I hear you. It will be taken care of."
It was not the first time Bush has made clear his desire to see the Iraq documents released. On November 30, 2005, he gave a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy. Four members of Congress attended: Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee; Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee; Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona; and Pence. After his speech, Bush visited with the lawmakers for 10 minutes in a holding room to the side of the stage. Hoekstra asked Bush about the documents and the president said he was pressing to have them released.
Says Pence: "I left both meetings with the unambiguous impression that the president of the United States wants these documents to reach the American people."
Negroponte never got the message. Or he is choosing to ignore it. He has done nothing to expedite the exploitation of the documents. And he continues to block the growing congressional effort, led by Hoekstra, to have the documents released.
For months, Negroponte has argued privately that while the documents may be of historical interest, they are not particularly valuable as intelligence product. A statement by his office in response to the recordings aired by ABC said, "Analysts from the CIA and the DIA reviewed the translations and found that, while fascinating from a historical perspective, the tapes do not reveal anything that changes their postwar analysis of Iraq's weapons programs."
Left unanswered was what the analysts made of the Iraqi official who reported to Saddam that components of the regime's nuclear program had been "transported out of Iraq." Who gave this report to Saddam and when did he give it? How were the materials "transported out of Iraq"? Where did they go? Where are they now? And what, if anything, does this tell us about Saddam's nuclear program? It may be that the intelligence community has answers to these questions. If so, they have not shared them. If not, the tapes are far more than "fascinating from a historical perspective."
Officials involved with DOCEX--as the U.S. government's document exploitation project is known to insiders--tell The Weekly Standard that only some 3 percent of the 2 million captured documents have been fully translated and analyzed. No one familiar with the project argues that exploiting these documents has been a priority of the U.S. intelligence community.
Negroponte's argument rests on the assumption that the history captured in these documents would not be important to those officials--elected and unelected, executive branch and legislative--whose job it is to craft U.S. foreign and national security policy. He's mistaken.
An example: On April 13, 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle published an exhaustive article based on documents reporter Robert Collier unearthed in an Iraqi Intelligence safehouse in Baghdad. The claims were stunning.
The documents found Thursday and Friday in a Baghdad office of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi secret police, indicate that at least five agents graduated Sept. 15 from a two--week course in surveillance and eavesdropping techniques, according to certificates issued to the Iraqi agents by the "Special Training Center" in Moscow . . .
Details about the Mukhabarat's Russian spy training emerged from some Iraqi agents' personnel folders, hidden in a back closet in a center for electronic surveillance located in a four-story mansion in the Mesbah district, Baghdad's wealthiest neighborhood. . . .
Three of the five Iraqi agents graduated late last year from a two-week course in "Phototechnical and Optical Means," given by the Special Training Center in Moscow, while two graduated from the center's two-week course in "Acoustic Surveillance Means."
One of the graduating officers, identified in his personnel file as Sami Rakhi Mohammad Jasim al-Mansouri, 46, is described as being connected to "the general management of counterintelligence" in the south of the country. . . .
His certificate, which bears the double-eagle symbol of the Russian Federation and a stylized star symbol that resembles the seal of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, uses a shortened version of al-Mansouri's name.
It says he entered the Moscow-based Special Training Center's "advanced" course in "acoustic surveillance means" on Sept. 2, 2002, and graduated on Sept. 15.
Four days later, the Chronicle reported that the "Moscow-based Special Training Center," was the Russian foreign intelligence service, known as SVR, and the SVR confirmed the training:
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Boris Labusov, acknowledged that Iraqi secret police agents had been trained by his agency but said the training was for nonmilitary purposes, such as fighting crime and terrorism.
Yet documents discovered in Baghdad by The Chronicle last week suggest that the spying techniques the Iraqi agents learned in Russia may have been used against foreign diplomats and civilians, raising doubt about the accuracy of Labusov's characterization.
Labusov, the press officer for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, confirmed that the certificates discovered by The Chronicle were genuine and that the Iraqis had received the training the documents described.
The Russians declared early in the U.N. process that they preferred inspections to war. Perhaps we now know why. Still, it is notable that at precisely the same time Russian intelligence was training Iraqi operatives, senior Russian government officials were touting their alliance with the United States. Russian foreign minister Boris Malakhov proclaimed that the two countries were "partners in the anti-terror coalition" and Putin spokesman Sergei Prikhodko declared, "Russia and the United States have a common goal regarding the Iraqi issue." (Of course, these men may have been in the dark on what their intelligence service was up to.) On November 8, 2002, six weeks after the Iraqis completed their Russian training, Russia voted in favor of U.N. Resolution 1441, which threatened "serious consequences" for continued Iraqi defiance on its weapons programs.
Maybe this is mere history to Negroponte. But it has practical implications for policymakers assessing Russia's role as go-between in the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Perhaps anticipating the weakness of his "mere history" argument, Negroponte abruptly shifted his position last week. He still opposes releasing the documents, only now he claims that the information in these documents is so valuable that it cannot be made public. Negroponte gave a statement to Fox News responding to Hoekstra's call to release the captured documents. "These documents have provided, and continue to provide, actionable intelligence to ongoing operations. . . . It would be ill-advised to release these materials without careful screening because the material includes sensitive and potentially harmful information."
This new position raises two obvious questions: If the documents have provided actionable intelligence, why has the intelligence community exploited so few of them? And why hasn't Negroponte demanded more money and manpower for the DOCEX program?
Sadly, these obvious questions have an obvious answer. The intelligence community is not interested in releasing documents captured in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. Why this is we can't be sure. But Pete Hoekstra offers one distinct possibility.
"They are State Department people who want to make no waves and don't want to do anything that would upset anyone," he says.
This is not idle speculation. In meetings with Hoekstra, Negroponte and his staff have repeatedly expressed concern that releasing this information might embarrass our allies. Who does Negroponte have in mind?
Allies like Russia?
Hoekstra says Negroponte's intransigence is forcing him to get the documents out "the hard way." The House Intelligence chairman has introduced a bill (H.R. 4869) that would require the DNI to begin releasing the captured documents. Although Negroponte continues to argue against releasing the documents in internal discussions, on March 9, he approached Hoekstra with a counterproposal. Negroponte offered to release some documents labeled "No Intelligence Value," and indicated his willingness to review other documents for potential release, subject to a scrub for sensitive material.
And there, of course, is the potential problem. Negroponte could have been releasing this information all along, but chose not to. So, in a way, nothing really changes. Still, for Hoekstra, this is the first sign of any willingness to release the documents.
"I'm encouraged that John is taking another look at it," Hoekstra said last Thursday. "But I want a system that is biased in favor of declassification. I want some assurance that they aren't just picking the stuff that's garbage and releasing that. If we're only declassifying maps of Baghdad, I'm not going to be happy."
He continued: "There may be many documents that relate to Iraqi WMD programs. Those should be released. Same thing with documents that show links to terrorism. They have to release documents on topics of interest to the American people and they have to give me some kind of schedule. What's the time frame? I don't have any idea."
Hoekstra is not going away. "We're going to ride herd on this. This is a step in the right direction, but I am in no way claiming victory. I want these documents out."
So does President Bush. You'd think that would settle it.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:55 ||
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Posted by: DanNY ||
03/11/2006 8:10
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#2
What do good businessmen know? Sound deals are mutually beneficial.
If the idea is that by keeping the docs secret, America is protecting Russia, what are we getting from Russia for this protection? Occasional solidarity in the WoT? A mirage of intermediation in the Iran standoff? Not good enough-not a good bargain.
These docs alone aren't going to sway the public; we need to release the evidence of Saddam and Co.'s violent crimes AS THEY WERE COMMITTED. Now THAT would be the most compelling night "on the network" ever.
#3
Isn't Negroponte appointed by the Prez? You'd think the big guy would have a little more clout with his unders. Maybe he needs to open a can of Texas whoop-ass on his boy.
Wednesday's bomb blasts in Varanasi are yet another telling link in the growing chain of circumstances indicating the rise of a new terrorist network in India.
If viewed together, the blasts in Varanasi and Delhi, the terrorist attacks in Bangalore and Ayodhya, the Mumbai car bombs of August 2003 and the Akshardham attack of September 2002 -- besides numerous arrests of terrorists, their supporters and seizure of weapons and explosives -- point out to a grand merger of various extremist and terrorist groups and organisations within India, and an extensive support base rapidly expanding.
To begin with, there is an alarming indication of Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Tayiba working with the predominantly Bangladeshi Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami to carry out terrorist attacks in India.
HUJI has a considerable presence in the Korangi township of Karachi, Pakistan.
HUJI, like Lashkar, is also linked to Al Qaeda.
Both fought not only during the Afghan jihad but their leaders have close proximity to Osama bin Laden.
Of the two terrorists shot down within hours of the Varanasi explosions, one is an Lashkar commander in Lucknow while the second a HUJI activist from Bangladesh in Delhi.
The HUJI commander Ghulam Yazdani, operating from Dhaka, was one of the main recruits for Lashkar and was involved in the Haren Pandya assassination, the Shramjeevi Express blast and the terrorist attack in Bangalore last year.
Yazdani originally belonged to Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh.
Another key link was the suicide attack on the headquarters of the Special Task Force in Hyderabad on October 12 last year. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the headquarters.
From the charred remains, the investigators could only find parts of rubber slippers, one of which carried a price tag 'Taka 100' -- a clear indication of the place of the dead terrorist's origin.
An important piece of evidence that unravelled after the suicide attack was the chance catch of a Bangladeshi named Kalim from a train in Patna.
He said he was a member of the Jamaitul Mujahideen Bangladesh, the group involved in several terrorist incidents in Bangladesh.
Kalim's interrogation revealed that he was being run by an anonymous handler who had met him twice to brief him about his mission. Kalim subsequently led the police to Lashkar's South India commander Abdul Rehman, another resident of Nalgonda.
This alliance could not have operated across the country without extensive local support.
One of the prominent supporters has been the Students Islamic Movement of India.
SIMI's involvement in such activities has long been discovered. The most prominent case was the serial train blasts in North India, which also heralded the alliance between Pakistan-based terrorist groups and religious groups like Ahl-e-Hadis in India, and the emergence of Lashkar leaders like Azam Ghauri, Abdul Karim Tunda and Jalees Ansari.
Ghauri, instrumental in setting up Lashkar networks in South India especially in Andhra Pradesh, who was killed in a police encounter.
Tunda is Lashkar's operational commander based in Pakistan. Ansari remains in prison. Another sign of SIMI's alleged involvement is the use of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that has been used in Bali, Madrid, WTC 1993 and Istanbul bombings.
Ammonium nitrate has also been used in India, the last incident being the Varanasi bomb blasts.
Similar material was used in the explosions aboard the Shramjeevi Express and in Mulund, Mumbai, in March 2003.
In 2000, similar explosives killed 11 persons aboard the Sabarmati Express near Barabanki.
The use of local recruits and locally available explosive material to create bombs are an indication of a changing strategy of the terror masters in Pakistan and elsewhere.
For groups like Jamaat-ud Dawa, the parent body of Lashkar, it is now easier to deny any links with terrorist attacks in India.
Another important change is to move out of Kashmir, to lessen the international pressure on Islamabad while expanding the terror network across India.
The fast emerging linkages between Lashkar, SIMI and HuJI (and Jam Jamaitul Mujahideen Bangladesh) depict the contours of a pan-Islamist network in Asia, linking groups operating in Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and several south Asian countries like Indonesia.
The primary objective of this coalition of terror is to create political upheaval in all these countries, particularly in India, by stoking sectarian and communal violence.
For India, the war on terror has only begun.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:52 ||
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A small bomb was placed in front of the house of the Kings closest personal advisor and former Prime Minister, Prem Tinsulanonda, on Thursday, wounding two western tourists. It is unlikely that it had anything to do with the Islamist insurgency in the south. Though there is considerable concern that the insurgents will at one point move beyond their area of operations and take their war to Bangkok and tourist venues, to date there is little evidence that they are doing so now. Simply their current strategy and tactics is working.
Thursdays bombing was more likely perpetrated by political operatives bent on creating greater political instability in Thailand.
Prem is known to dislike Prime Minister Thaksin, the billionaire telecommunications mogul turned politician, and his speeches are often seen as reflecting the Kings own sentiments. Thaksin had come under increasing political scrutiny despite his partys historical sweep of the polls in national elections in February 2005, winning an unprecedented 375 of 500 seats in the parliament. The luster wore off quickly owing to his handling of the economy, southern insurgency and corruption allegations. Yet what set off the current unrest was the sale of his familys stake in the countrys largest telecommunications conglomerate, the Shin Group to Singapores state-owned holding company Tamasek. The sale netted the Thaksin family $1.9 million tax free (there are no capital gains taxes in Thailand). Other irregularities such as a Bermuda based holding company and assets controlled by his son, further inflamed passions.
Under mounting popular opposition and the largest demonstrations since 1992, Thaksin dissolved parliament on 24 February and called for new elections on 2 April. Thaksin simply hopes to use the elections as a referendum on himself. Though his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party was set to lose some of their seats, Thaksins populism continues to garner TRT staunch support in the countryside where 80 percent of the electorate lives. Money politics and populist public works and other programs, are in full swing now.
The opposition parties raised the stakes by announcing that they were boycotting the polls and calling on the electorate to follow suit to de-legitimize Thaksin. There have been increased calls for Thaksins resignation.
The blast came as thousands of people rallied in Bangkok for a fifth consecutive day to demand the resignation of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin.
More importantly it came the day after the Thailands beloved Monarchs Privy Council met to discuss what steps or role the King should take. Their report, subm,itted to the King was not made public; but segments of the population have called on the King to ask for Thaksins resignation and appoint a care-taker prime minister.
It should also be noted that it was the fifth small bomb in Bangkok in the past few months all related to politics, not the southern insurgency.
One of Thaksins fiercest critics, another media tycoon, Sondhi Limthongkul implicated the prime minister in the bombing, saying that it was a warning to deter Prem from mediating in the conflict between Thaksin and his opponents. Others suggest that it was likewise perpetrated by pro-Thaksin forces, to justify imposing the July 2005 Emergency Decree which would give the government to shut down certain media and detain individuals without trial.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:51 ||
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The government vowed Friday to find those responsible for a small bomb that exploded in the capital amid a campaign to force Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power.
No one claimed responsibility for Thursday's blast outside the Bangkok home of former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda, now the chief adviser to the Thai king. The government has blamed its critics.
Thaksin visited Prem at his home to discuss the investigation and later told reporters he believed the attack was carried out by the same group that had planted bombs on at least two other occasions at the offices of anti-government groups.
Defense Minister Thammarak Isarangura Na Ayutthaya blamed 'people with ill intentions who want the political situation to get worse. They want the already-tense atmosphere to explode.'
Demonstrations against Thaksin that have drawn tens of thousands of people have so far been nonviolent. Both sides have appealed for calm ahead of snap elections set for April 2 that the opposition has vowed to boycott.
The opposition was wary of assigning blame for the bombing, which injured a British tourist.
'One thing we can say is that the bomber meant to create a state of confusion amid the political tension,' said Ong-art Klampaiboon, spokesman of the main opposition Democrat party. 'The blast could have been an effort to discredit the government or to threaten anti-government protesters and the opposition.'
The movement to force Thaksin from office swelled last month after his family announced the sale of its 49.6 percent stake in Shin Corp. to Singapore's Temasek Holdings for $1.9 billion. The sale was the biggest ever of a publicly owned Thai company. Temasek is the investment arm of the Singapore government.
On Friday, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission fined Thaksin's 26-year-old son, Phantongtae Shinawatra, nearly $150,000 for failing to fully disclose transactions related to his Shin stocks before selling them to Temasek.
Critics of the deal allege the sale involved insider trading and tax dodges and complain that key national assets - including the country's communications satellites - are now in the hands of a foreign government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:50 ||
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A bomb blast that occurred at the Pura Agung Natanaraga building in Poso, Central Sulawesi, at about 07:45 on Friday is believed to be linked to the arrest of terror perpetrators a few hours earlier, police said.
"We will develop the investigation in order to determine whether this morning`s bomb blast has something to do with some terror perpetrators captured earlier," spokesman of the Police Headquarters Senior Commissioner Bambang Kuncoko said on Friday.
However, Bambang could not elaborate on the number of terror perpetrators apprehended several hours before the bomb blast and the location of their capture.
He admitted there was an exchange of fire between the perpetrators and police personnel before the former were captured in a technical and tactical operation by local security forces.
The bomb was a low explossive designed to intimidate and exert more pressure on the public in a bid to trigger unrest among the people in Poso.
Police and military personnel had launched an operation to hunting down the alleged perpetrators of the bomb blast.
In addition to a possible intimidation, the police also alleged that the incident which injured a resident identified as I Negah Suliasta was also designed to divert the security agencies` attention.
In fact, the situation and condition of security in Poso and Central Sulawesi in general are actually under control.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:48 ||
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Almost two years to the day since al-Qaeda linked bombers killed 191 passengers and injured almost 1,000 in devastating train bombings the Spanish capital on 11 March, 2004, it has emerged that the bombers had planned to carry out further attacks in Spain, according to disclosures published on Friday in the Spanish daily, ABC.
A particuarly disturbing relevation in the ABC report is that other terrorist attacks were planned on Spanish soil. Investigators reportedly found details of planned attacks by the Madrid cell on the computer of one of the bombing suspects, Jamal Ahmidan, known as 'the Chinaman'. Among the cell's possible future targets were an English school in Madrid, and the Avila and Toledo synagogues, ABC reported.
Investigators found a kind of manual on how to organise a terrorist group that Ahmidan had downloaded onto his computer one week after the deadly attacks from an 'online al-Battar training camp' based in Saudi Arabia. The 'instructions' received by Ahmidan included how to form a terror command structure in a large city.
The manual contains information on the composition of an al-Qaeda cell. This needs to be made up of five groups: the leadership, information and logistics staff, operatives who carry out attacks, and financial officers. Only the leadership of a cell can know the objective of an attacks, according to the manual.
Just a few days after Ahmidan downloaded the manual, police found 12 kilogrammes of explosives near Toledo, on the tracks of the high-speed Madrid-Seville express train.
Ahmidan and several other Madrid train bombing suspects blew themselves up in a flat in a Madrid suburb when police moved in to arrest them three weeks after the bombings. A police special operations officer was killed and 18 police officers were injured in the blast.
The second anniversary of the Madrid train bombings will be marked in a low-key climate, with little pomp and ceremony - at the request of relations of the victims. More than 200 of the attacks still need medical assistance, and a further 264 need psychological help.
On Friday night prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia will attend a memorial concert for victims of the Madrid attacks and the 7 July 2005 bombings of the British capital London's transport system that killed 54 and injured 700.
No bombing suspect has yet stood trial. Judge Juan del Olmo is expected to present his first indictments in the complex investigation by 10 April: some 30 people out of 116 suspects, many of whom are Moroccan, are expected to be charged.
Del Olmo and the National Court have been warned that unless the investigation is stepped up, some of the 25 defendants currently detained might have to be released from custody before any trial ends. Spain's 11th March Association of Terrorism Victims president, Pilar Manjon said on Thursday she was starting legal action against del Olmo. Manjon is angry that del Olmo has so far asked only 10 of the hundreds of victims of the deadly attacks to testify before him.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:47 ||
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#1
When are they gonna celebrate their capitulation?
Over the Chechen border with Russia's southern republic of Ingushetia, two Russian special forces officers were reported on March 10 to have been severely wounded after coming under fire.
The incident took place in the village of Ordzhonikidzevksaya. The Ingush Interior Ministry says security forces are hunting down the attackers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:46 ||
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Thousands of police are searching Chechnya's southern mountains for an elusive rebel warlord who has been involved in deadly attacks during more than a decade of war in the southern Russian region, its prime minister said Friday.
In comments on state-run Rossiya television, Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said he was "100 percent" certain that the warlord Shamil Basayev was in the mountains of southeastern Chechnya. Rossiya showed footage of elite police forces crouching on mountainsides.
The search operation came days after Chechnya's parliament unanimously approved Kadyrov, the head of a shadowy security force widely alleged to commit abductions and abuse of civilians, as Chechnya's prime minister.
The capture and killing of Basayev would be a major victory for Kadyrov, who has strong backing from President Vladimir Putin and is the son of the region's first Moscow-backed president, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated by a bomb blast in 2004.
The death of the former separatist president Aslan Maskhadov last year, in what authorities say was an operation by security forces, left Basayev as by far the best-known rebel leader alive.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:44 ||
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Chechnya's new prime minister said Friday that all militant groups had been eliminated in the republic.
"We have finally eliminated all militant groups in the Chechen republic," Ramzan Kadyrov told a news conference. "Only a few notorious figures are left, and their elimination is only a question of time."
He said that more than 3,000 operatives had continued to search for notorious Chechen warlords Shamil Basayev and Doku Umarov in the mountainous regions of the republic.
"The core of these [search] units consists of pardoned militants who have great combat experience, know the tactics of illegal armed groups and are familiar with local terrain," Kadyrov said.
The Chechen PM said that Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for the Beslan school massacre in September 2004 and other attacks, was acting under the patronage of foreign secret services, and without their support he and Umarov would have been eliminated long time ago.
In a separate comment, Kadyrov harshly criticized Chechen officials who often traveled to Russia to visit their families.
"It is time to stop frequent visits to various cities in Russia in order to see your families under the pretense of going on business trips," Kadyrov said addressing officials at a government meeting.
"I warn you: either you put all effort into your work, bringing your families back to Chechnya, or you resign from your posts," he said.
The PM also said he planned to fight corruption in the republic.
"I will not allow anybody to embezzle the funds that have been allocated for the revival of Chechen economy," Kadyrov said. "Every ruble will be accounted for and will not be used for wrong purposes."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:43 ||
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Chechen President Alu Alkhanov on Friday disclosed some details of the special operation to destroy terrorists Emperor PalpatineShamil Basayev and Count DookuDoku Umarov believed to be hiding in the highland south of the republic. "The operation was carefully prepared and began a week and a half ago," Alkhanov told Itar-Tass by telephone from Algeria, which he is visiting as a member of the Russian delegation. "Pinpointed events are being carried out in several directions. This special round-the-clock operation involves the republic's law-enforcement agencies and specialized units of federal forces," the president said.
He did not comment on the results, but made it clear that it has yielded results. "When such serious work is on, there are always certain results, but we'll tell them later," he added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:42 ||
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#1
yeah so special they told the fckin news about it!
#2
Chechen terrorist #1 likes to be videotaped at the front lines, but it is likely that he is holed up in a cave somewhere. Like bin Laden, doctor-evils are generous with other people's blood.
Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a hideout of Islamist militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border, killing up to 30 guerillas, the military said on Saturday.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the overnight attack in the North Waziristan tribal region was ordered after intelligence reports suggested that militants were gathered in a compound along with a huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives.
"According to initial information, around 25 to 30 miscreants, including foreigners, have been killed," he told Reuters. He did not give the nationality of the slain foreigners.
Rugged North Waziristan has been the scene of fierce battles between security forces and Islamist militants this month.
More than 120 people have been killed since militants, most of them ethnic Pashtun tribesmen, attacked government forces and buildings last week, in revenge for a March 1 attack that killed 45 of their comrades.
Intelligence officials and residents said the latest attack targeted an Islamic school or madrasa owned by a local Islamist cleric, Maulana Sadiq Noor, and his adjoining house in Khatta Killi village near North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah. North Waziristan is around 400 km (250 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
"The security forces used two cobra helicopters and artillery in the attack," an intelligence official said on the condition of anonymity.
It was not known whether Noor was at the madrasa when the attack took place.
Noor and another cleric, Maulana Abdul Khaliq Haqqani, are wanted by authorities for harboring militants.
A large number of resident have fled Miranshah after the recent battles and authorities clamped a curfew in the town earlier this week to restore order.
Authorities announced a six-hour break in the curfew on Saturday but warned people not to carry weapons in public.
Afghan officials have long complained that militants use Pakistan's tribal region as a launching pad for attacks inside Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials say they are doing their best to stem the militants' cross-border movement and have urged Afghan authorities to do more on their side of the long, porous border.
Many Pashtun tribesmen, who live on both sides of the border, sympathize with the Taliban, and al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding in the region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:36 ||
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At least 26 people, including some foreigners, were killed late Friday in an assault by the Pakistani army on a tribal region near the Afghan border where it was believed terrorists were gathered, the military said Saturday. Pakistani helicopter gunships pounded the compound from air, and were followed by troops on the ground. The military acted after intelligence reports indicated terrorists were gathered at the compound in North Waziristan. The military said at least 26 people were killed, including some foreigners who have yet to be identified. However, local officials denied terrorists were at the compound. They said local villagers were at a house when the assault began.
An intelligence official in the region told The Associated Press the targeted compound belonged to a pro-Taliban cleric, Maulvi Sadiq Noor, although it was not clear whether he was there at the time. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
My guess would be that the holy man wasn't home at the time.
The official said security forces were looking for more foreigners believed to be hiding in North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous border region that includes Miran Shah. Noor and other pro-Taliban tribesmen have been targeted since earlier this week when their armed men captured government buildings following a military attack on an al Qaeda hideout near Miran Shah. AP reports.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:33 ||
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#1
I got it, smoke 'em out with a few Danish cartoons.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 4:29
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On March 10, 2006, the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) posted, on the Islamic websites, a final warning to the American people, on behalf of "Rakan Ben Williams" who defines himself as "Al-Qaeda under cover soldier, USA [sic]."
It is not clear exactly who is behind this name. Moreover, according to a previous statement by GIMF public relations bureau director Saif Al-Din Al-Kinani on the GIMF Internet newscast Sout Al-Khilafa, GIMF is not affiliated with Al-Qaeda. [1]
But on November 8, 2005, the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported: "The Global Islamic Media Front has threatened [the West] on the Internet by means of its new soldier, whom it calls Rakan Ben Williams, and whom it claims is a white Englishman who converted to Islam." [2]
Also, on November 24, 2005, the GIMF posted on the Islamic websites a similar warning, under the same name, that included an explicit threat to assassinate Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and U.S. President George W. Bush, when the time comes, with a clear mention of the possibility of doing so after they complete their current terms of office. Although this communiqué was directed to these leaders, it noted that it referred to all Western leaders, and included special mention of Berlusconi. At its conclusion, the communiqué said that it had been written by "the one who thirsts for the blood of the Crusaders, the secret soldier of Al-Qaeda, Rakan Ben Williams, Italy (the Vatican)." [3]
In the following warning, Rakan Ben Williams warns that, unlike after the 9/11, Madrid, and London attacks, which are still being investigated, "[after] the coming attack there will be no one to analyze and investigate, because the mind and the heart will be unable to comprehend it This will not be a single operation", the report added, "but two; one bigger than the other, but we will begin with the big one and postpone the bigger one, in order to see [how] diligent the American people is [in preserving] its life. If it chooses life, [it must] carry out the demands of the Muslims, and if it chooses death, then we are its best perpetrators." The warning appeared in Arabic and in English.
The following are excerpts from the original English version: [4]
The Last Warning to the American People (Rakan Ben Williams)
"I discern your wonder about this warning in which you do not quite recognize what to make of it. You are probably asking: Why would Al-Qaeda Organization announce its upcoming operations inside the mainland? Why the repeated warnings? Originally by the commander in Chief of Al-Qaeda (the victorious, by the grace of Allah), followed by the same warning through his trusted deputy, and now by Rakan Williams (Al-Qaedas under cover soldier in the west).
"What could be the theme?
"What exactly is being planned?
"Could it be another one of Al-Qaedas tricks?
"How would anyone in a right mind, while in the preparation stages, discloses the objectives? Let alone before completing the arrangements! Military experts would fully agree that such a disclosure would only come out from an insane.
"However, coming from Al-Qaeda, a disclosure like this reflects one thing and one thing alone: full faith and trust in Allah. Ultimate faith in Allah and His infinite power, He (Allah) is the only true protector and helper. The conviction in our men and their unexpected abilities to prepare and carry out such missions comes second to next in our trust in Allah.
"You ought not to be intolerably upset; for whoever survives this upcoming blow will have a probability to learn an amazing lesson in the art of conducting 'expeditions.'
There Will Be Two Operations in the U.S.
"Despite the fact that the New York, Washington, Madrid, and Londonexpeditions have been carried out a few years back. The search for clues on how they were conducted in such a successful manner is still going on and reports upon reports are still being written about them. However, the next expedition might not find someone who can provide analysis for. The top intellects, strategists, and analysts, will be totally clueless as to how to explain what occurred. Let me also inform you that we are talking about two operations, not one. The scale of one of them is larger than the other but both are large and significant. However, we will start with the smaller, and temporarily put the larger on hold to see how serious the Americans are about their lives. Should you value your own life and security, accept Muslims demands, but if you shall prefer death (over giving in to Muslims demands). Then, we, by the grace of Allah, are the best in bringing it (death) to your door steps.
Bush and His Clan are Incapable of Protecting You
"Do not put your hopes on Bush and his clan, they are incapable of protecting you, and if they think they are, let them foil or stop the two upcoming operations, and punish those who are responsible for them. But if they could not identify and foil the devastating events coming your way, you must ask yourselves: How long will we continue allowing ourselves to be slaughtered with full advance knowledge of our fate?
"Let me now inform you why we opted to inform you about the two operations and your inability to stop them before they are carried out. The reason is simple; you cannot uncover or stop them except by letting them be carried out. Furthermore, the best you could do would be to accelerate the day of carrying out the operations. In other words, if we schedule the operation to take place tomorrow, the best you could do is to make it happen today.
Your Homeland Security Agency Must Surrender
"This indeed is a sweet situation to be in. It is a win-win all the way for us. It is the ultimate control and the most stunning way to stop an operation (accelerating it with the same impact). What we are saying is this: You will have a choice of either let us carry it out on our own schedule and with our own hands or allow your own intelligence apparatus to cause it to happen. This second choice will cause a level of dissatisfaction (with your decision makers) to reach its highest level. Therefore, your Homeland Security Agencies would have no choice but to surrender and wait for the inevitable to happen.
"I will not give any more clues; this is enough as a wake up call. Perhaps the American people will start thinking about the magnitude of the danger that is coming their way.
American States Far Away From Washington, D.C. are Helpless
"O you helpless Americans, especially those living in States far away from Washington, D.C.! Your country is comprised of many States that should not have anything to do with Muslims. Take the State of Arizona for example; what does this State have to do with killing Muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq? What interest of theirs serving, helping, and siding with the Jews and Israel?
"If some members of your Congress and Senate are being used as Jewish tools manipulated by Israel, why do you bear the consequences?
"Why do you bring death and destruction to your homes and lives in an apparent sacrifice for a handful of dishonest men and women?
"They took advantage of your state of unawareness to advance their own agenda. They have built and strengthened the State of Israel while bringing adversity and destruction to you in the process. Therefore, the net result for you is death, losses and insecurity. But for them is wealth, fine and secure life. You have sent your loved ones to die in the Hell of Iraq not to bring you security but to bring security to the State of Israel. But the sad thing is that the pain will not stop at the loss of your loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the pain will even be greater when death and destruction comes once more to you in your own homes, by the grace of Allah.
We are Awaiting Orders from Our Commander Osama Ben Laden
"The operations are ready to go, we are just waiting for orders from the commander in chief, Osama Ben Laden (may Allah preserve him). He will decide whether to strike or to hold. We swear by Allah that there are so many tricks and tactical maneuvers that will make your heads spin, by the grace of Allah. You will be brought to your knees, but not until you lose more loved ones and experience significant destruction.
"Now is the time to wake up and dust off this state of complacency and ineffectiveness to save yourselves and your loved ones from catastrophes sure to come your way. Remove war mongers from positions of power and throw them in prisons, where they belong. Rid yourselves of 'the Jewish pests' that brought nothing to you but adversity and loss of lives and wealth. They have deceived you for many years, it is time now you turn the table on them and make an example out of them.
"Rid yourselves of media crafters who deliberately kept you in the dark for so long and made a mockery of you before the rest of the world. Boycott NBC news and dismiss its Jewish CEO, Fred Silverman. Do the same to INC news and fire its Jewish owner, Leonard Goldstein, the same is true for CBS and its owner William Bailey. Find credible media outlets that bring nothing to you but facts. Unfortunately you wont find any in your country. Do you know why? Because your rogue State fights any media dedicated to the truth, no matter how small it is.
Watch Al-Jazeera and Visit Mujahideen Websites to Get Educated
"Visit Mujahideen web sites to get to know who they are. You will see for yourselves that they are not what your media outlets made you believe they are. If you cannot do that, the least you could do is to watch Al-Jazeera Channel; there you might get 20% or less of the truth about the war zones. Resent the corrupted politicians in Washington, D.C. and demand justice, if they do not give in to your demands, you must declare autonomy so you may live in peace and security.
"This is the last warning you will receive from us. Consequently, if you ignore it, we regret to inform you that we will carry out devastating operations against the States of America and we will not show mercy whatsoever, you would have brought destruction to yourselves. Do not ever forget, you have rejected the truce which was offered to you by Muslims; you have supported the thieves of the white house and blessed their adventures. Therefore, you get nothing from us short of similar treatment; for only blood for blood.
"May Allah facilitate a way for us to spill the blood of the occupiers and cut off the heads of the aggressors. Allah has full power and control over all of His affairs, but most mankind knows not.
"Rakan Ben Williams
"Al-Qaeda under cover soldier
"USA"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:30 ||
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#1
What if we drive out every last muslim instead? That would be a lot easier, not to mention cheaper.
#2
Rakan bin Williams is another personification of Johnny Jihadi. Rakan is a middle east comic book hero and bin Williams is the western jihadi.
The name is a code word that activates the western and EU sleeper cells and other influenced muslims. Watch for mosques that start invoking this name during Friday prayers.
#3
These idiots have no idea how absolutely dependent they are on the west. If they really could and did destroy us, they would all starve. The muslim world would collapse without the west.
#4
There are numerous lexical/syntactical clues in the post. At first, the word "expedition" caught my eye, making me wonder whether this is primarily about border infiltration. But this choice of words may mean something or nothing.
OTOH, the wordings/collocations reveal a (contrived or real)
non-native speaker of English:
"under cover" [as separate words]
"discern your wonder..." [odd collocation]
"What could be the theme?" [missplaced verb-a native speaker would put 'be' at the end of the question]
"How would anyone in a right mind, while in the preparation stages, discloses the objectives?" [substituted indefinite article for a possessive adjective; incorrect verb conjugation-English 101]
"But if they could not identify and foil the devastating events..." [odd use of conditional tense-a native speaker would use 'can' in this context]
"Military experts would fully agree that such a disclosure would only come out from an insane." [an adjective incorrectly used as a noun]
"...the next expedition might not find someone who can provide analysis for" [a very un-native-like sentence construction]
"have been carried out a few years back" [a native speaker would use 'were' in this construction, not 'has been']
Etc.
This person, (or persons-there are linguistic signs that this may have been written by two or more people of different fluency levels), whoever IT is, has a very poor understanding of the vocabulary, collocations, conditional tenses, sentence construction and word order of English. Those may prove useful or incidental clues.
A message entitled The Last Warning to the American People, composed by a purported al-Qaeda under cover soldier in the United States, Rakan bin Williams, and distributed in both Arabic and English by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaeda mouthpiece, today, March 10, 2006, warns of an impending twin attack on U.S. soil. He states: The scale of one of them is larger than the other but both are large and significant. However, we will start with the smaller, and temporarily put the larger on hold to see how serious the Americans are about their lives. Bin Williams also claims that the operations have been prepared and await only the execution order from Usama bin Laden.
The warning taunts analysts and intelligence operatives to discover the details of the next Expedition, and references the inability to find clues to the attacks in New York, Washington, Madrid and London to be pondered. In addition, bin Williams cites the refusal of the U.S. government to accept the truce extended by Usama bin Laden, and argues that this denial, coupled with the government seeking to empower Israel at the expense of Muslims and the medias alleged obfuscation of truths of the war abroad as the justification for the intended attack. Bin Williams asks: O you helpless Americans, especially those living in States far away from Washington, D.C.! Your country is comprised of many States that should not have anything to do with Muslims. Take the State of Arizona for example; what does this State have to do with killing Muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq? What interest of theirs serving, helping, and siding with the Jews and Israel?
As a means to avoid the catastrophes, the warning calls upon the American people to boycott the ABC, CBS and NBC media-networks, visit mujahideen websites, and [r]esent the corrupted politicians in Washington, D.C. and demand justice, if they do not give in to your demands, you must declare autonomy so you may live in peace and security.
In the past few months the name of Rakan bin Williams has appeared in Global Islamic Media Front publications warning of impending attacks, but not specifying a particular target. The introduction of bin Williams warns of attacks by Western European converts to Islam, in addition to another message threatening Italy and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. What was to be the last in the series concerning the secret soldier if al-Qaeda, a GIMF author speculated that the coming operation entered its operational phase.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:29 ||
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#1
The warning taunts analysts and intelligence operatives to discover the details of the next Expedition, and references the inability to find clues to the attacks in New York, Washington, Madrid and London to be pondered.
I believe there was enough material avalable from open sources to predict the primary sponsor, subcontracting organization method, and location of the 7/7 bombings, as well as timing to within a few days. Of course, that's with the benefit of hindsight. But I think it's possible to prevent the next round. The question is whether enough time is left.
#3
I think Rakan is a fictional entity - a mythical character, representing the "johnny Jihad" of the west. Kinda like GI Joe for the western aboding wannabes. Probably has a hero costume and a comic book too. Well, maybe not a comic book...
I fear Rakan bin Williams is a code name and the appearance of his name is the signal to activate the sleeper cells across the western world.
#4
I, too, wish more Americans would visit the mujahideen sites, the moderate muslim world would get its warning to take care of them or we would. And then it would be over.
#5
"...the warning calls upon the American people to boycott the ABC, CBS and NBC media-networks... ." This has to be a ruse. Those networks are on THEIR side.
#6
I think Rakan is a fictional entity - a mythical character, representing the "johnny Jihad" of the west. Kinda like GI Joe for the western aboding wannabes.
Abu Musab al-Suri might be the most dangerous terrorist you've never heard of. According to those who study such things, he is a man more dangerous for his ideas than any particular operation.
And what is worse is that ideas can live on long after operations -- so the fact that al-Suri is now in custody may not make him any less dangerous.
CNN recently obtained a series of videotaped lectures that al-Suri gave at his own training camp in Afghanistan six years ago. In them, he sketches out a vision on a whiteboard of what al Qaeda would become today - when it would need to be a looser, more diverse structure.
"He was thinking about what the post-9/11 strategy would look like for al Qaeda and having cells that would be hard to trace -- and cell leaders; making it flatter, an organization harder to penetrate," says CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, who met al-Suri nine years ago.
The al Qaeda of today looks remarkably like what al-Suri was drawing on that whiteboard - local cells in each country with little or no contact with an overall organization, but fighting for a common cause and under a common banner, in the name of jihad.
It is those kinds of al Qaeda cells inspired if not ordered by Osama bin Laden that spawned such attacks like that in Madrid in 2004 -- the second anniversary now upon us -- or the London bombings last summer.
So how did al-Suri come to play such a prominent role?
Mustafa Setmariam Nasar was born in Syria in October, 1958. As a young man, he was part of a failed uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against that country's dictator, Hafez al-Assad.
After Assad brutally crushed that putative revolt, Setmariam set off for Afghanistan and the jihad against the Soviets, taking the nom de guerre Abu Musab al-Suri, "the Syrian."
He wrote later that he met Osama bin Laden in 1988 and joined al Qaeda soon after.
Instead of staying in Afghanistan, which degenerated into anarchy after the Soviet withdrawal, al-Suri moved to the West -- first to Spain then to north London, where he continued his work on the jihadi fringes.
A photo taken from that era captures a man looking very much at home in the West -- a redhead with blue eyes and blue jeans.
He called himself a journalist and editor, but also worked as a go-between. In 1997, he took Peter Bergen and a CNN crew to meet Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. "He seemed to be a very intelligent guy, a very well-informed guy and a very serious guy," Bergen recalled.
Al-Suri was not a slavish follower of bin Laden; he was to criticize him as a "Pharaoh" for the way he set up and ran al Qaeda.
Indeed, al-Suri was launching his own vision of a successful jihad movement and he decided the best way to put it into practice was by returning to the Taliban's Afghanistan and setting up his own training camp, just outside the capital Kabul.
There, as the videotapes show, he sketched out his vision. You can see him draw a diagram that starts with a single point at the top and branches down from there. That was, he said, the wrong sort of organization, one that could be easily penetrated - one that by implication resembled al Qaeda before September 11.
Instead, he showed his students how to return to their own countries and set up their own cells. Don't make them more than 10 people, he said.
"You shouldn't expand or form too many [cells]," he lectured. "Form a cell with six people that you know, [even if] they don't know each other, in case you are caught they are all caught."
There is no reason to believe that al-Suri knew about September 11 until after September 11. But much of what he predicted came to pass - al Qaeda lost its foothold in Afghanistan when the Taliban was overthrown by the Northern Alliance and the U.S.-led coalition.
It has been commonplace since then to talk about how al Qaeda transformed itself from an organization into a movement and just how that happened might be due in part to al-Suri and his classes in Afghanistan.
One of his alleged proteges has been linked to the planning of the Madrid train bombings. Though al-Suri's name was mentioned early on in both the Madrid and London investigations, no evidence emerged to provide a direct operational link.
Judge Baltasar Garzon, who has been investigating Islamic terrorism in Spain since the 1990s, indicted al-Suri among more than 40 suspected al Qaeda leaders that also included Osama bin Laden.
In an Internet posting, al-Suri denied any connection to the Madrid attacks but praised them.
Al-Suri spent much of his time since September 11 on the run, after the U.S. put a $5 million price on his head. Two years ago, he published what he called his "History of the Jihad," a 1,600-page work, on the Internet where it has appeared on various Web sites.
Portions of his lectures also showed up on the Internet and made the rounds on VHS and video CD.
"To the extent that al-Suri played a pretty important role in creating the ideological movement and the way it should be organized in the post 9/11 era, he bears some responsibility for some of these attacks [in Europe]. Even if it is not an operational responsibility, it is an ideological responsibility," says Bergen.
Al-Suri was finally captured late last year in Pakistan. His whereabouts since have remained shrouded in secrecy, but just this past week, his wanted poster was removed from the State Department's Rewards for Justice Web site.
In an Internet message attributed to him and posted after his capture, he boasted: "I have in me a joy stronger than the joy of the farmer who sees the harvest of his fruits after a long planting and efforts and patience throughout decades of building."
We don't know how many people al-Suri trained at his camp or influenced through his Internet postings, but even with his capture, we may not have heard the last of Abu Musab al-Suri or his ideas.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:27 ||
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When they raided what they had been told was "Al Qaeda's command center" in a remote compound in South Waziristan's Shakai valley in June 2004, Pakistani special forces made a surprising discovery.
In a secret basement, the officers collected a treasure trove of computer equipment, including several laptops, printers and CD burners, as well as advanced video equipment.
While this discovery provided Pakistani and American counter-terrorism officials with a unique insight into al Qaeda's operations after 9/11, it only confirmed what they already knew about the organization's heavy reliance on modern information technology and, more specifically, the Internet.
After relying heavily on fixed and thus vulnerable Web sites until early 2002, al Qaeda quickly switched to hiding its online operations within more legitimate bulletin boards and Internet sites offering free upload services or connecting through such popular social network sites as Orkut and MySpace.
This technique of "parasiting" Web sites makes it harder for law enforcement services to track them and shut them down.
But while this capacity to network and spread propaganda represents a clear security risk, the most dangerous and stealthiest use of the Internet by al Qaeda is for communication, training and planning purposes.
From the Bali bombing in 2002 to the London attacks last July, every major terrorist operation undertaken by Osama bin Laden's organization since 9/11 involved extensive and clandestine use of the Internet.
British security services have established that the man considered to be the "cell leader" of the July 7 London bombings, Muhammad Siddique Khan, had communicated with several contacts in Pakistan through his own Yahoo! account.
According to Pakistani intelligence sources, the use of free and anonymous e-mail services such as Yahoo! or Hotmail by al Qaeda operatives is widespread.
To avoid being intercepted, the messages are not sent but saved in the account's draft box.
They can then be retrieved by other operatives by simply logging on to the same e-mail address with a shared password.
This technique makes it impossible for intelligence services such as the British GCHQ or the American NSA to read these messages without hacking into the servers themselves, which they are legally prohibited to do.
And even if they do read these messages, intelligence services worldwide are confronted with a second hurdle: Al Qaeda's operatives speak in code words which makes it impossible for any outsider to understand their true content if they have not penetrated the organization already.
Such "intelligence breaks" are extremely rare, but not unheard of. In October 2001, the British police arrested a French computer engineer linked to a major al Qaeda cell in Europe.
Kamel Daoudi was found in possession of a "codebook" that later enabled Western intelligence services to decrypt thousands of e-mails and phone conversations that they had previously intercepted but had not been able to crack.
Pakistani intelligence sources also tell ABC News that even bin Laden and Zawahiri still use these e-mail services to send their directives through the Internet.
Not directly, of course, but through intermediaries, usually bodyguards, who are sent on foot from the leaders' clandestine locations to the nearest house or cybercafé, where they simply log on and write their messages.
One of the most striking features of the remote Afghan-Pakistan border is the wide availability of Internet services, either private dial-up or cybercafés.
While hardly accessible by land or air, the town of Chitral in Pakistan's remote Northern Areas where Pakistani intelligence still believes that bin Laden spends his summers, has several cybercafés.
Beyond communications, al Qaeda is increasingly using the Internet for operational purposes.
Following the loss of Afghanistan as a sanctuary and training ground, the terrorist organization put thousands of pages of its training online.
From the making of an IED or deadly chemical weapons to the staging of an ambush, the Internet has now become al Qaeda's "virtual training ground."
Worse, according to French counter-terrorism officials, existing jihadi networks are taking their reliance on the Internet for operational purposes to a completely new level.
When they dismantled a network of Islamic militants linked to Abu Musab al Zarqawi's "Al Qaeda in Iraq" last fall, French authorities made a startling discovery.
One of the militants, Kaci Warab, had spent several months in a facility operated by Zarqawi followers near Tripoli, Lebanon, to be trained on detonator designs far more complex than anyone had seen thus far.
One of these designs, according to French counter-terrorism sources, involved the use of Web-capable cellphones which could be "activated" (thus detonated) remotely over the Internet from anywhere in the world by punching a password on a Web site.
Because it indicates a strong focus on operations involving the simultaneous detonation of dozens (if not hundreds, as seen in Bangladesh last year) of bombs throughout the world, this brand new usage of the Internet is causing a lot of worries among intelligence and law enforcement officials worldwide.
But beyond these specific operational considerations, there is no doubt that al Qaeda has been highly successful in using the Internet to not only survive the global war on terror but expand its "biomorphic" and deadly nature. It is one of the cruelest ironies that our most ardent enemies have become so skillful at turning our society against ourselves.
It's not much of a stretch to say that when al Qaeda was created in 1988 it became something of a "terrorist Internet Service Provider" linking together various elements of the worldwide jihadi community that had fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
To pursue this objective, bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri set up a unique structure whose essence was less an ideology than a function: connecting.
At its core, al Qaeda is a worldwide directory, a "global grid" linking together thousands of disparate human, financial, military, intellectual and technical resources around a central mission.
Throughout the 1990s, with its training camps and discreet networking around the world, al Qaeda weaved a complex web linking together businessmen, clerics, fighters, journalists and criminals, some of whom belonged to terrorist groups that ranged from Algeria's "Groupe Islamique Armé" to Pakistan's "Jaish Muhammad."
This function took on a whole new dimension with the advent of the Internet. European and Pakistani intelligence sources say a former militant trained in bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan has revealed that al Qaeda started using the Internet as early as 1993, even conducting online conference calls in 2000.
A Pakistani intelligence officer on duty at the border with Afghanistan in late 2001 recently told ABC News that "almost every Arab that we arrested in Pakistan in 2001 and 2002 was in possession of a laptop computer."
Now on the run, bin Laden's organization is even more virtual, which often means more dependent on the World Wide Web to spread propaganda and plot operations.
It is also one of the main reasons why, despite the many blows that it received since 9/11, many analysts believe the organization's operational capabilities have not truly diminished.
As the CIA and its allies closed some of these links, al Qaeda was able to use the Web to either redirect those links or activate others. This has occurred especially in countries such as Pakistan and Iraq, where Western intelligence agencies have considerable trouble operating.
The most visible part of al Qaeda's online presence involves the spread of statements and propaganda, which have spearheaded the explosion of jihadi Web sites in the past four years.
Law enforcement officials in Europe report that the number of such Web sites went from a dozen on Sept. 10, 2001, to close to 5,000 today.
While only a handful are currently operated by al Qaeda officials or militants, they serve a crucial purpose by "spreading activation" and nourishing the outrage or the global Muslim community, therefore laying the groundwork for al Qaeda's fundraising and recruitment activities.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:25 ||
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#1
Quick, close all the ports (Internet ports that is).
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 4:41
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A former delivery company worker has been cleared of conspiring to supply money and firearms to a terror group allegedly linked with al-Qaeda. A court heard claims Palvinder Singh, 30, helped to ship goods to Pakistan and handled huge sums of money.
Mr Singh, of Coventry, told Snaresbrook Crown Court he had let friend Mohammed Ajmal Khan use his bank accounts. Khan, 30, also of Coventry, admitted his role in supplying Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-e-Toiba. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Mr Singh, who was also alleged to have visited a body armour factory in Canada, said he was in the dock because he had let Khan use both his bank accounts as well as his debit and credit cards as a favour. He told the jury he had not known what the money was being used for. "I have no idea where it came from but it had nothing to do with me," he said.
Mr Singh, who said he would "grass on anyone" who supported terrorism, said he had thought the trip to Canada had been a fabric bulk buying trip.
Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, opened the case by saying that Lashkar-e-Toiba was involved in running training camps in Pakistan "for young Muslim men from everywhere in the world". He said that Khan was an important part of the group and that Mr Singh was used as "cover" to hide some of his friend's activities.
Mr Edis said the fact that Mr Singh was a Sikh and not a Muslim meant that he may be viewed with "less suspicion".
Among payments made from Mr Singh's account was for the shipment of material used to make bullet-proof vests to Islamabad, he said. These were among several pointers to "a clear, inescapable, unequivocal evidence of supporting terrorism", he added.
The jury took more just over four hours to acquit Mr Singh of conspiracy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:24 ||
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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.
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: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2006
03:22 ||
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#1
But Heinrichs wasn't a terrorist. Nope nope nope.
#3
look out for large groups of A-rabs at NASCAR events...they'll be wearing Shipman shirts
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 12:15
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"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"
Sporting events fit the profile of targets that yield high casualties and increased media attention. And any event that has "American signature Properties" would be of higher value. But the Jihadis in the past, for whatever reason, have been reluctant to target these events. There was Munich in 1972 but that was a Paleo grudge and was at the barracks not at the event itself. The 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing was motivated by warped social views not radical Islamic ideology. Even the dramatic "Manchester United-Liverpool match" plot turned out to be false. There may be other "mounted attacks" or foiled plots that Im not aware of but this seems like a CYA statement from the Feds.
The Foreign Office rejected as unwarranted on Friday the report by the US State Department on human rights practices in Pakistan. We reject the contentions made in the report regarding our political process, freedoms available under the law and our constitution, the functioning of state institutions, and general conditions relating to the rights and status of women and minorities, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. She said that the report lacks objectivity and fails to recognise the commitment of the government, and the important steps it has taken to promote and protect human rights in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
00:19 ||
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Having seen the nuggets from the Urdu press and such... Pakistan appears to be one huge insane asylum so the ill always reject the doctors analysis . What else is new?
Richard Boucher, the new head of South and Central Asia at the State Department, stopped short of offering an apology for the death of more than a dozen civilians in the Bajaur airstike by US planes. Asked at a talk he gave on Thursday at the Johns Hopkins University on President George Bushs recently-concluded trip to South Asia as to why the United States had not apologised for the death of innocent civilians, including women and children, in an airstrike on the tribal town of Bajaur, he danced around an answer, in the end falling well short of the apology that he could well have made. It was obvious that he was not going to venture an answer that would go beyond what, by all indications, is a well-considered decision, No apology!
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
00:14 ||
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Ain't going to apologize either for lots of dead German and Japanese women and children who died from 1943-1944 when we had aircraft which could reach their airspace. You don't like them dying, then get the terrorist mongers out of your house, neighborhood or town. Till then, we'll try to minimize damage, but we are not going to stop. Your choice.
Islamabad: A 5.2-magnitude earthquake jolted northern areas Friday, killing one person and injuring 22, officials said. The quake was an aftershock of the massive October 8 South Asian quake that killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan, seismological department chief Qamaruz Zaman said. The tremor was felt at 12:50 pm in Jhelum and Lahore in Punjab province and in the city of Mirpur in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Zaman said, adding the epicentre was located between Jhelum and Mirpur.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
00:06 ||
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Allan keeps sending them a message, but they just don't seem to get it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2006 0:42
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LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly has taken serious notice of an advertisement of a substandard aphrodisiac and directed district nazims and the departments concerned to take action against quacks and remove all billboards and wall chalking regarding sexual treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
00:03 ||
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Continuing its newfound pro-active stance, India on Friday said the Gilgit-Baltistan region known as Northern Areas is a part of Jammu and Kashmir and hence an integral part of India. In response to a question, official spokesman of Ministry of External Affairs said India has seen Pakistani media reports that some Pakistani missions are circulating new map of Jammu and Kashmir depicting the Northern Areas as a separate entity.
The spokesman, while taking note that Pakistan Foreign Office has denied it has circulated any new map, affirmed that the region was an integral part of India. We would like to reaffirm that the region of Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which on the basis of its accession in 1947 is an integral part of India, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
00:00 ||
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#2
What? A legal refugee is a person is exile who can prove a "well founded fear of persecution," if deported. Christians have been squeezed by Muslim states for centuries. Try: well founded fear of death.
#3
Coptics are about 6% of the population of Egypt. That's about 4 milion people. This means that unless they can show some credible personal and personalized threat, they are SOL.
#4
Amazing...the US aslyum system is so corrupt and populated with leftist officals, that they've even allowed people who hail from the Middle East (with European residence permits) to settle here. Some have lived in Europe for 10 plus years.
#5
Let me get this straight...they're claiming they were refused asylum because there is bias against Christians in Canada.?. Yeah right...hoser.
Heh...guess what...they missed the one year deadline to register for asylum in the US. Have a nice flight.
#6
Copts are being systematically threatened, assaulted, jailed etc. in Egypt and it will get a whole lot worse in the near future when Mubarak is dead. These people have my sympathy - they are in danger of being sent back to the tender mercies of the Muslim Brotherhood and related groups.
Three of the refugee board judges, he claimed, "are always refusing the refugee claims of Christians." Further, "one has an Iranian Muslim background. We have no problem with the board having Muslim judges. But we have a problem with a Muslim judge deciding a case involving Muslims against Christians."
#8
The article is at least a couple of months old. Liberals were still in power. Couldn't find any updates, but I doubt anything changed. Given that immigration judges aren't immune to scandal (that Montreal case comes to mind), they might have a point.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 21:09
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Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed were detained for one month under maintenance of public order (MPO) on Friday night. Earlier, the Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered they be set free after setting aside their conviction on charges of harbouring activists of Al Qaeda linked group, Jundullah.
Prison authorities confirmed to Daily Times that they had received a notification from the Sindh Home Department ordering the detention of the two doctors for a period of one month. On Friday morning, the SHC announced a verdict on the appeals filed by Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed against their conviction by an anti-terrorism court. They were charged with providing medical treatment to Jundullah activists and harbouring absconders.
The court allowed the appeal and ordered the release of the doctors provided they were not required in any other case. We are of the considered view that the prosecution has failed miserably to prove the case against the appellants, therefore, the conviction and sentence awarded to the appellants are set aside, held the anti-terrorism appellate (ATA) bench of the SHC.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
00:00 ||
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Opposition parties will not contest the general elections if they are held in the presence of President General Pervez Musharraf because his presence has worsened the countrys situation, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed told Daily Times on Friday.
Figure you're gonna lose, do you?
Qazi reached Islamabad on Friday after two-week house arrest at Mansoora, Lahore. He demanded that Musharraf resign from both the president and the chief of army staff slots.
What if he resigns from the president slot, Qazi, and not from the CoS slot? Kind of a nightmare for you, isn't it?
He criticised the foreign, economic and internal polices of Musharraf, saying that a war had started in Balochistan and North Waziristan and the Army was killing Pakistanis because of the governments wrong polices.
Actually they're killing Pakistanis who're intent on killing other Pakistanis, as well as killing Central Asians and Arabs and other riff-raff...
If the government and Army want to end the war in North Waziristan, I am ready to play my role, he said. He said that he supported MMA MNA Maulana Mirajuddins proposal that the government form a parliamentary committee to resolve the Waziristan problem.
I'm sure Qazi would be happy to play the same role in ending the fighting he played in starting it, only not behind the scenes...
He demanded the militarys involvement in politics be stopped and an interim government consisting of patriotic people be set up to run the country according to the Constitution. Replying to a question, the MMA chief said that the decision to tender resignations from parliament would be taken after consulting other opposition parties. He said the opposition parties had formed a steering committee, which would discuss this option. Responding to a question, Qazi said the MMA would take action against its MPAs, who have cast their votes in favour of government candidates in the Senate election. He said the MMA would also consider the proposal regarding the filing of references against government candidates, who committed horse trading in NWFP. The 17th constitutional amendment has no value because General Musharraf has broken his promise to shed uniform by December 31, 2004, he said. He called for the restoration of the Constitution in its original form. Qazi said the US had admitted that India was a regional superpower and was preparing India against China. People have realised and begun to oppose Musharrafs pro-American government, and the joint opposition will submit their resignation at a suitable time, said the MMA leader. Parliament membership has no meaning for us.
We know that. Probably most Paks know it, too...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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At least 26 people were killed and seven injured on Friday morning in Dera Bugtis Bekar area in Balochistan when the vehicle carrying them hit a landmine. According to Raziq Bugti, the spokesman of the Balochistan government, the people, mostly women and children, were on their way to attend a wedding in a trailer attached to a tractor.
It was not clear who planted these landmines and contradictory statements came from the nazim of Dera Bugti and the Balochistan government spokesman. Kazim Bugti, the Dera Bugti district nazim, said that Bugti tribesmen and security forces had installed these landmines. However, Raziq Bugti said that security forces had not planted the landmines.
We see carnage, death and destruction every day as we try to follow happenings in the Wonderful World of Terror. Every once in awhile one of them jumps out and gets me. 26 people, most of them women and kiddies, riding in a trailer on a farm tractor, all happy and wearing their good clothes, killed for no reason but pure viciousness is one of them. I can't think of a reason for any competently led military force to lay mines at random in an area with civilian traffic. Maybe I can see along the entire length of the Sui gas line, but not in a civilian area. That certainly doesn't say the Pak army's not capable of doing such a thing the key words in this case being "competently led." But my suspicions would fall on Akbar Bugti's minions. Akbar is now living in a cave, rather than in his heavily fortified manse in Dera Bugti, and I'll be real happy when he's dead, though probably not as happy as the inhabitants of his little fiefdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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On Monday, the State Security Specialized Penal Court (SSSPC) sentenced two suspects to five years in prison for attempting to assassinate former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Edmund Hall, in 2004. Under the verdict, Hozam Al-Mas and Khalid Al-Halilah faced a maximum five-year imprisonment term after being convicted of charges attributed to them by the Attorney General. Issued by Judge Umar Al-Baadani, the verdict stated that the suspects will be jailed in special places and receive kind treatment while their seized explosives will be confiscated to the States Treasury. Seized weapons included hand grenades and a Russian-made pistol.
The court began trying the suspects in January on charges of attempting to kill the U.S. envoy. They threw a hand grenade at him as he was entering a shop in the Hadda area. Charges were based on the Attorney Generals indictment that the suspects observed the ambassadors car in Al-Sabeen area, Sanaa. Accomplice Al-Halilah waited inside a taxi while Al-Mas jumped from the shops fence carrying a pistol and two hand grenades, plotting to kill the envoy after he parked his car and entered the shop. When a policeman saw him and ordered him to stop, Al-Mas fired on police and fled the scene.
Al-Mas pleaded guilty to attempting to kill the ambassador, but told the SSSPC he was nuts psychologically ill. Taxi driver Al-Halilah pleaded not guilty, saying he only drove Al-Mas to an arms market.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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The United Nations General Assembly has delayed until next week a decision to create a Human Rights Council, in a last-ditch attempt to overcome US objections and avoid a damaging vote that could unravel the project altogether.
The new council is meant to replace the widely discredited Human Rights Commission in Geneva, but the US says it would vote against it because its proposed form marks insufficient progress.
European and other UN members, as well as Kofi Annan, the secretary-general, agree the proposed council is not as strong as they hoped, but believe the current text is as good as they can get, and does mark a substantial step orward.
US opposition has focused on the mechanism by which the councils members are chosen. Washington says any candidate should win two-thirds approval in the 191-member UN General Assembly, but that was opposed by more than 120 countries. The current proposal says an absolute majority is sufficient.
The US also wants to exclude any country under Security Council human rights sanctions, but many countries were wary of giving the Security Council, dominated by five powers, veto rights over a human rights body meant to represent the UNs entire membership.
Supporters of the current text argue that the absolute majority still represents a substantive hurdle, and say compromise on that issue let them introduce another clause allowing the suspension of countries that commit human rights violations.
They also say the council will meet more often than the Geneva Commission, contains a mechanism to review the records of all members, and can hold special sessions with the support of only a third of its members.
In an effort to satisfy US demands, the European Union and associated countries, which could account for as many as 40 votes, have offered an assurance that they will not support the membership of countries under sanctions. There are efforts to convince other regional groups, and countries from the Community of Democracies, to make a similar pledge.
But Jan Eliasson, president of the General Assembly, is unwilling to reopen discussion on the text itself, saying this would open a Pandoras box of changes to a finely wrought compromise. Mr Eliasson is also reluctant to put the text to a vote, which would offer Cuba and others the opportunity to table amendments.
Instead, he still hopes to adopt the text by consensus, in which all countries would allow the council to be created, but could make statements afterwards. The US has so far rejected that formula.
A group of 32 human rights and other lobby groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issued a strong appeal for governments to adopt the text.
While some expressed concerns over a watered-down council earlier in the process, they now say the text offers a historic opportunity to create a better human rights protection system within the United Nations.
#1
Ok, I can understand if they don't want to call it the Villains, Thieves and Scoundrels Union. Maybe Koffee wants first dibs on that one himself for his rebranded UN. How about if they call it the Human Opression Council. I'm pretty sure Ambassador Bolton would be ok with that.
French police fired teargas outside Paris's Sorbonne university and at least 1,000 students formed a human chain around the landmark Arc de Triomphe Thursday in protests over a new youth jobs contract approved by the upper house of parliament.
Late in the evening a large number of police officers remained deployed around the Sorbonne to contain some 200 protesters massed in front of the main entrance.
The face-off had begun in the early evening and tear gas was fired at around 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) to quell the student crowd and supporters who were pressing officers against the university gates.
Earlier there were several hundred protesters involved in the largely peaceful protest, shouting "scrap the CPE" and other slogans.
The controversial measure known as the First Employment Contract (CPE) -- a key part of the government's strategy to reduce youth unemployment -- introduces a two-year contract for those aged under 26 which can be terminated without explanation by the employer.
The diehard student protesters said they would keep up their protest at the Sorbonne all night.
The Rector-Chancellor of Paris Universities, Maurice Quenet, assured the press that the Sorbonne would open as normal on Friday, after being closed down on Thursday afternoon.
His office said that 80 students had erected barriers inside the university to stop classes from taking place.
Students also gathered near the Arc de Triomphe monument at the top of the Champs Elysees on Thursday afternoon before police took control of the broad square surrounding the arch around 5:30 pm (1630 GMT).
Police put the number of demonstrators at 1,000. Protestors claimed three times this number took part, mainly students from various faculties of the university of Paris.
"The aim of this hard-hitting action on the Champs Elysees is to make ourselves heard by the government which is not listening to us," Marianne, a 23-year-old Sorbonne student, told AFP.
"We will be determined, until the CPE is withdrawn," she said, adding that the demonstration was a peaceful protest.
French Prime Minister Dominique de "Villepin said 'it's not the street that rules' - but today it is!" one demonstrator, a student at Sorbonne university, told AFP.
Unions of employees and university and high school students also called for another day of protests across France to take place on Saturday, March 18.
In a joint statement they called for the next actions to be "even stronger than the last one", referring to mass demonstrations on Tuesday that saw 400,000 people take to the streets.
A day of action by university and high school student is also planned for March 16.
Earlier in the day France's conservative-dominated parliament approved the hotly-contested new youth jobs contract.
It was voted through the upper house Senate by 178 votes to 127 as part of a law on equal opportunities.
It had already passed through the lower house, the National Assembly, late Wednesday.
#2
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I assume that they are protesting 'which can be terminated without explanation by the employer'. I assume that the existing law doesn't permit this. Which would explain youth unemployment. What employer in their right mind would hire a new untested employee for a mandated two year stint. The person could turn out to be a complete bozo (or 'beauzau' in French) and then they'd be stuck with them. But, I guess they've stopped teaching macroeconomics in France.
#4
First, it's a stupid law attempting to reduce some of the ill effects of even stupider laws. French employers will not be willing to employ people until the government gives them more say in the terms of employment.
Second, French universtiy students tend to be the elite and will get government and private sector jobs based on their education and connections. They want to ensure that those jobs keep their protections. Unemployment is high amoungst unskilled and less educated. The cost of employing people in France means that no new jobs are openning for that class.
When thinking about France consider it is like a feudal society with an elite class (university educated headed to government and corporate mangement), guilds (unions) and serfs.
#6
I guess they've stopped teaching macroeconomics in France.
Ain't that the truth. Have a look at this ranking of university economics departments. Notice something? (if the link doesn't work: out of the top 25 economics departments in the world, 21 are in the US, 2 are Canadian, 1 is Dutch, 1 is in the UK). France comes in at number 46. If we limit the ranking to European universities only, France comes in at number 7, and it's not even a Parisian university, but the university in Toulouse. If you want to see the full ranking (200 universities) or other details, they can be found here. It's a pdf file: Pantelis Kalaitzidakis, Theofanis P. Mamuneas, and Thanasis Stengos (2003), "Rankings of academic journals and institutions in economics", Journal of the European Economic Association, 1: 1346-1366.
Years and years ago I went to an economics graduate school information session at a Canadian university. One student asked about European schools. One of the (Canadian) profs there stated quite simply, paraphrasing, "you are living next to the biggest economic powerhouse in the world, why would you even consider studying economics anywhere else?". Case closed.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 14:41
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#7
I'll admit I just skimmed the article, but how many cars were torched? Isn't that the way they do all protests in France?
A suspected criminal was killed in a shootout between the police and his accomplices at Damalkot in the capital city early Friday, raising the death toll from crossfire to 505 since June 2004.
Accompanied by 505 non-grieving mothers ...
The police said they picked up Javed Iqbal alias Mintu, accused in a number of criminal cases, from the New Market area on Thursday. He was also involved in the killing of college student, Momin, they claimed.
Killing a college student? Why the dirty low-life ...
... the Kafrul police carried out several raids on Ibrahimpur and Bhasantek areas to recover his arms and nab his associates, but failed.
That's 'cause they're the local cop shoppe and not the RAB ...
As the team reached the Damalkot jheelpar at about 2:15am, ...
The local cops have to learn to relax and enjoy the night air; 3 am is the right time ...
... the associates of Mintu opened fire on the policemen who retaliated by firing, the police said.
Mintu's henchmen being even less able than the usual henchmen to fill the air with lead, and the local cops being just as inaccurate in a shootout as the RAB ...
At one stage, Mintu tried to escape ...
"Now's my chance, these guys couldn't hit the broad side of a b---"
... and died on the spot after falling in the line of crossfire, they said.
Rosebud is rosebud, whether at the hands of the RAB or the local coppers ...
Later, the bullet injured Mintu was taken to the Emergency Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where the attending doctors declared him dead.
"Nice grouping, officer, all in the back of the head."
"Thanks, Doc. Sign here and we'll get him off to Dr. Quincy."
Though the police failed to nab any of the assailants, they seized a revolver with four bullets from the spot.
One stinkin' revolver? Oh well, there's always next time ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2006
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Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) allegedly tortured an SSC candidate, a Dakhil candidate and an HSC candidate at the Rab headquarters in Khalishpur under the city on Wednesday night for 'keeping and smuggling arms'.
Bet it was something different than making them all get naked in a pile.
The three torture victims were identified as Sumon, a student of St Xaviers High School, Rumi, a student of Khulna Alia Madrasa, and Masum Imam, an HSC candidate from Khulna Shahid Suhrawardy College -- all residents of Basupara in Sonadanga of Khulna City.
Sumon and Rumi sat for the examinations with severe injuries on Thursday.
"Excuse me, Mr. Proctor, but my I be excused? I'm not thinking so good."
"Quit whining and keep reciting those verses!"
Some Rab members entered their house scaling the boundary wall on Wednesday midnight, Shumon's father freedom fighter Mostafa Shaikh said, ...
'Freedom fighter'? Is that a Bangla synonym for 'holy man'?
... adding that they searched all the rooms of the house before taking Shumon to Rab headquarters. "When I wanted to know what the offence of my son was, a Rab man threatened me," Mostafa said.
"Shaddup or you'll get what sonny-boy's about to get!"
"Sumon was returned to me at 3:00am on Thursday with multiple injuries to several parts of his body. His legs were swollen. Again on Thursday afternoon Rab took Sumon to Khalishpur headquarters. He was set free at 7:30pm," he added.
Madrasa student Rumi also got similar treatment from the elite force, sources said. The two boys are suffering severe pain and still to recover from the mental shock due to the torture. They have been threatened with dire consequences for talking to media men, Mostafa Shaikh said.
Next up, a late night stroll for our two 'students'.
Rab men tortured HSC candidate Masum Imam until he fainted at the Khulna Rab headquarters on Wednesday midnight, his mother Monowara Begum said, adding that Rab men gave Masum electric shock on false allegation of keeping illegal arms. He was sent back to his father at 11:30 pm on Thursday, Monowara said.
He's not feeling so good either.
Rab-6 Director Col Shamsul Huda Shams said Sumon, Rumi and Masum were caught following information that they were in possession of illegal arms and the three admitted to their criminal activities. Col Shams, however, denied torturing them physically.
"We just called them funny names, and they started crying."
The matter has been brought to the notice of Rab Director General Abdul Aziz Sarker, sources said.
"Shamsul, how many times do I gotta tell you and the boys!"
"Sorry, sir."
"Remember, not in the face, never in the face!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2006
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If Pak had ever won a war, I'll betcha Perv would have even more medals.
President Pervez Musharraf ruled out on Friday the possibility of an independent Kashmir and said that the idea of self-governance was applicable in the present political scenario. The president made these remarks in a meeting with visiting Kashmiri leaders from across the Line of Control (LoC) here to attend a conference arranged by the Washington-based Pugwash think tank. The president said that an independent Kashmir as a solution to the issue was not applicable because both India and Pakistan do not agree to it, sources told Daily Times.
The idea of self-governance is acceptable and applicable, the president was quoted as saying. The president said that India had conveyed to Pakistan in categorical terms that it would not support the re-drawing of borders, while Pakistan had told the Indian authorities that the LoC as a permanent border was unacceptable, sources said. If the Kashmiris have any idea other than an independent state or self-governance, they should discuss it with me, they quoted the president as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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#1
Nice beauty queen sash
Stolen from Miss Pakistan?
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 12:56
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Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 18:58
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#4
Oh Perv...
Russia to supply 30 rocket systems to India
9 March 2006
BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union
Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
Perm, 9 March: The Perm-based Motovilikha Plants company is starting to deliver Smerch [Tornado] multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) to the Indian army. The total sum of the contract, which the plant had waited to get for more than five years, adds up to about 150m dollars, Marat Zagidullov, chairman of the company's strategic development committee, has said.
Over the next three years the enterprise is to deliver to India some 30 MLRS sufficient to arm three regiments, he said. "The Indian army will get a modified model of the multiple-launch rocket system, which is already very well known for its combat characteristics. It is mounted on a Tatra chassis and equipped with modified and improved fire control systems," Zagidullov noted. [Russian state arms seller] Rosoboroneksport is in charge of the overall coordination of the contract.
Motovilikha Plants is looking forward to an approximately 20-25 per cent year-on-year increase of the state order and foreign contracts. "We are ready to offer the Russian army, as well as our foreign clients, some up-to-date models of tugged and self-propelled artillery pieces, as well as multiple-launch rocket systems. The Vena self-propelled gun is among our latest developments. It is already undergoing tests and the military have highly assessed its capabilities," Zagidullov said.
Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0715 gmt 9 Mar 06
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 19:10
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#5
Kaliningrad Yantar to Build $1.6-Billion Frigates for India
Russia's Deputy PM and Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov has backed up the state-controlled Kaliningrad Yantar in its effort to execute the contract for constructing three frigates for Indian Navy worth nearly $1.6 billion.
Ivanov's decision ended the fight of several months between two shipbuilders, Mezhprombank's Severnaya Verf of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad Yantar. Both of them were eager to construct for Indian Navy three frigates of Project 11356.
In 2003 to 2004, St. Petersburg Baltic Works built and handed over to India three frigates of Project 11356 worth $1 billion. A new contract for another trio has been negotiated since 2002.
The talks proved more than fruitful. The new contract that is expected to be sealed this March sets forth an option for building one or two frigates to add to the nearly $1.6-billion construction of three frigates.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 19:14
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#6
John, do you have a larger version of that pic that I could steal and add to the RB pic library? If so, just post it here and I'll copy it over.
#7
Russia to upgrade Indian MiG-29 jets for $888 million
Tuesday, 07 February , 2006, 12:10
New Delhi: India's fleet of 67 MiG-29 multi-role fighters are all set to be refurbished for $888 million by Russian company RSK-MiG.
"The programme is part of the Indian Air Force's long-term plan to modernise its fighter fleet with the aim of expanding its strategic reach, firepower and area of responsibility over the next decade as India's burgeoning economy and regional importance proliferate," a senior IAF officer said.
The upgradation was granted financial clearance by the Defence Ministry in fiscal 2005-06.
The MiG-29 upgrade project has already been delayed by over two years. It is now likely to commence only in fiscal 2006-07 and be completed around four years later, officials said.
The upgraded MiG-29s will remain in service for 10-15 years.
The programme includes fitting the MiG-29s with upgraded weapons and a new avionics suite, with the old N-019 radar being replaced by the Phazatron Zhuk-M radar.
The MiG-29s will also be upgraded for mid-air refuelling to increase their endurance.
The IAF is currently refurbishing 125 MiG-21 Bis and 40 MiG-27ML fighters. These two jets are being equipped with advanced avionics, improved electronic warfare systems and precision weaponry to boost the IAF's ageing combat fleet that also faces a sharp reduction in numbers over the next decade.
According to officials, RSK-MiG, the original manufacturer of the MiG-29s, will be the sole vendor to upgrade the IAF's fleet of MiG-29B/S fighters and MiG-29UB dual-seat trainers.
RSK-MiG will independently source the equipment that the IAF will select for fitting on the jets. In addition, it will carry out life-extension checks on the upgraded multi-role fighters that were first inducted into the IAF in 1986.
"The avionics architecture that the IAF is firming up will be a mix-and-match of Russian, local and imported systems that are likely to be sourced from France, Israel and possibly even the US," the official added.
Various options being debated by the IAF include dispatching a limited number of MiG-29 fighters to RSK-MiG in Russia for being upgraded.
Meanwhile, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)Managing Director KP Puri recently said that 94 of 125 MiG-21s had been upgraded to the MiG 21 'Bison' standard at the HAL complex at Nasik.
The remaining 29 jets would be upgraded by the end of the year.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 19:17
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#8
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 19:19
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Palestinian fighters from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fired two Aqsa-2 rockets on the Israeli position of Kissuvim, in eastern Gaza Strip. Israeli army also said an anti-tank missile was fired at an army vehicle near the Gaza Strip border fence and fired a Qassam rocket at an open area south of Askalan. It said there were no injuries in either incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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#1
Up to version two point oh already? 2x as inaccurate too?
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/11/2006 3:13
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WASHINGTON - A dead body found in Iraq has been identified as missing US hostage Tom Fox, a peace activist who was abducted along with three Western colleagues three months ago, a State Department spokesman said on Friday. The FBI verified the identity of a body found in Iraq this morning. While additional forensics will be completed in the United States, they believe this is the body of Tom Fox, State Department spokesman Noel Clay told reporters here.
Clay said Foxs family had been informed of the discovery and that the government had offered its heartfelt condolences to the family.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2006
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#1
condolescences and a dose of f*&king reality
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 0:22
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#2
I don't care what they say or how often they say it, these idiots people are NOT Christians.
NOWHERE did Jesus of Nazareth tell his followers to embrace evil in his name.
I don't know when this guy actually died, but I have no doubt that shortly afterward he was getting an earful. And it wasn't complimentary.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2006 0:33
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#3
This reminds me of the brown (i.e. grizzly) bear activists that were eaten, while getting a little too close to their habitat. Except, of course, human enemies are a lot more dangerous than grizzly bears.
#4
True, Zhang Fei. But at least the grizzlies are animals, whereas the jihadis are
Oh, wait....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2006 0:59
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#5
To add some infuriating information on this, Tom Fox was probably singled out and killed for being American. The other three westerners are two Canadians, and one Briton, and there is some hope that these three are still alive. They were seen in a recent video, together, but without Tom Fox. The previous videos showed all four together, so this latest vid was an ominous sign that Tom Fox wasn't going to make it.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 1:32
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#6
was probably singled out and killed
...scratch the word probably...
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 1:33
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#7
Thank you for that infuriating, Rafael. Unfortunately that's reality, though. Yet another girlfriend of mine, on an archeology dig in Turkey from university, learnt to identify herself as Canadian when asked, because it just made things more comfortable. She always claimed to be married, too, for safety. Of course, this was the mid '80s, so perhaps things have changed now...
#14
Shortly after the protests against the Klu Klux Klan by the Moderate 'Mericans wind down, Shep.
Pardon me?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2006 11:09
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#15
Shortly after the protests against the Klu Klux Klan by the Moderate 'Mericans wind down, Shep.
Bobby, I don't understand your point. I seem to remember the last few KKK "rallies" that made news were heartily drowned out by moderate (and some not-so-moderate) Americans.
#18
I've been here (at the 'Burg) over a year, and know there are not many who think there ARE any Moderate Muslims. Maybe not.
But just because they're not parading down the street in Dar Es Salaam or Mogaidshu doesn't mean there are not some who find the current violence abhorrent. They would need police protection to protest, wouldn't they, and there'd be a lot who got waxed by the wackos.
The Klan had to be protected by the police in Cicero, Illinois in the 60's, but they didn't need to march to make themselves known or their presence felt in the 40's - just ask ol' Senator Bryd. I never protested the Klan, but I found their actions frightening and disgusting.
I didn't join the counter-protest at Bethesda Naval Hospital a few months ago, although the protesters there also disgust me. I didn't protest when the students were shot at Kent State. Some of you weren't alive then. But I think I am pretty moderate.
Maybe there are a few other moderates out there who find the concept of crowded streets and smelly bodies revolting. Why did I never protest the outrage? I guess I'm too "moderate". Thinking back, the thing that outraged me the most was the way returning vets were treated in the '70's. I might have counter-protested then, but I didn't want to get the tar beat out of me by the "Peaceniks". I suppose I was scared, and believed I had more important things to do.
If I were Muslim, I think I'd be terrified to express my shock and shame and disgust at the Islamofascists, and that's on the east coast of the USA. I'd sure as heck keep my head down in any other country.
We all better hope there are a lot of 'em.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/11/2006 15:40
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#19
This guy seems like a good candidate for that Mythical Moderate Muslim :-)
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 15:50
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#20
Of course, this was the mid '80s, so perhaps things have changed now...
Undoubtedly for the better, right? Of course. Someone in Turkey (I'm being delibaterately vague), a non-Muslim, went to a restaurant with a group of his Turkish friends (co-workers, if I remember correctly). Naturally the discussion turned to politics at some point. After voicing his opinion, the Turkish friends jokingly told him to be quiet and that he was lucky they didn't chop his head off. They all had a good laugh...except the non-Muslim. The more things change...
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 16:07
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#22
Kill the American and release the Canadians? My sympathies to pawns everywhere.
God bless America.
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 18:54
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#23
If what I've read in other reports is true, they tortured him for a while before killing him. No matter how misguided and/or stupid I might think he was, no one deserves that.
May God have mercy on his soul, and may the ones responsible be found....soon.
#24
Hear, hear, DB! While I don't agree with him at all, as a Christian (and believer in this war), I pray for God's mercy on his soul too. No one deserves that sort of treatment.
Posted by: BA ||
03/11/2006 22:39
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AMERICANS would not tolerate a fellow citizen being treated in the way the US has dealt with Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, David Hicks, his military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, said yesterday.
I'm an American. I would.
"I didn't mean you. I meant most Americans. The ones in the blue states."
They're managing to swallow it for Johnny Jihad, doing twenty big 'uns.
Major Mori said he believed Australia was the only country to have accepted US military commissions as a means of putting its citizens on trial. "I just don't understand why the Australian Government just won't move on this. Hicks has done four years at Guantanamo We know he didn't violate any Australian law," Major Mori said from the US.
"From an American perspective, e would not tolerate it for an American citizen. I just can't believe it's not rubbing people in Australia the wrong way."
It's probably because they don't like him. They don't care about him.
Hicks' Australian lawyer, Adelaide-based David McLeod, said the Federal Government had refused again this week to intervene on his client's behalf despite widespread condemnation of the military commissions set up to try detainees.
"He's here again, Mr. Minister."
"Tell him we don't care. Again."
"Yes, sir. Should I sneer?"
"No, no. That wouldn't be polite."
"Damn."
"I believe the supercilious look should do."
"But if my lip does lift...?"
"I'm sure it will be accidental, Higgins."
"Thank you, sir!"
The British Government is appealing against a British High Court decision to grant Hicks British citizenship. The hearing is set for next Friday. Nine British citizens have been released from Guantanamo Bay at the request of the British Government. Hicks has tried to secure his release by seeking British citizenship; his mother was born there.
Blair's government's appealing against the award of Brit citizenship. If they lose, they still have no obligation to ask that he be freed. And if he does, we have no obligation to comply.
Major Mori said Hicks' treatment was extraordinary when compared with the case of an aide to Osama bin Laden, Abdallah Tabarak, who was released from Guantanamo Bay in August 2004. Tabarak is said to have sacrificed himself for capture by operating bin Laden's satellite phone as he headed towards Pakistan from the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, while the al-Qaeda leader fled in the opposite direction.
Didn't Tabarak spill his guts? Has Taliban Dundee spilled his guts?
It was revealed recently that a former Taliban spokesman, Rahmatullah Hashemi, who also spent time with bin Laden, has enrolled in a course on terrorism at Yale University in the US.
That's an internal Afghan matter. If they choose to amnesty the guy, that's their right. It's their country, so they're free to screw it up as they please. And Yale's free to do stoopid things, too.
Major Mori said that even after considering the allegations against Hicks, those being released were far more culpable. "They (the US) are not pursuing enemy combatants. Unless you were in the first group of 700 captured (and taken to Guantanamo), you are not even considered for (trial by military commission)," Major Mori said.
Life's tough, ain't it? Maybe he should have been in Adelaide instead of Konduz.
Hicks' case faces further delay while the US Supreme Court considers the legality of the military commissions created to try Guantanamo Bay detainees. Lawyers acting for one detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, will argue that the commissions are illegal. Hamdan, from Yemen, was allegedly bin Laden's bodyguard and driver during the period he plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks.
I doubt if the Supreme Court will find them illegal. Even if they do, an anticipated verdict isn't the same thing as a verdict.
#1
If I were Aussie I'd hope'd he been lost at 25,000 feet over the Indian Ocean - take John Lindh with him
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 0:34
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#2
The Media were all over the Hicks story for weeks with very sympathetic coverage. Then they ran a couple of those TV polls and 90% of respondents thought Hicks should continue to rot in Gitmo and the media dropped the story like a hot potato, because it dawned them it was hurting ratings. The publicly funded broadcasters may have continued their coverage. I don't know because I don't watch them.
#3
So this lawyer says that any law that he disagrees with, isn't a law. That is a case for anarchy, if not evidence of the deranging power of zealotry.
#4
L-to-D: If the facts are on your side, argue the facts; if the law is on your side, argue the law; if neither the law nor the facts are on your side....
I know the TRANZIs in the UK would love to make him their own. That is why the Court over there ruled he qualified for UK citizenship. They can't have him.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/11/2006 3:03
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Rory, My law professor put it slightly differently.
L-to-D: If the facts are on your side, argue the facts; if the law is on your side, argue the law; if neither the law nor the facts are on your side....
If the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if neither the law nor the facts are on your side pound the table. 8^)
A top security official in Dagestan was killed in a bomb blast in the capital, Makhachkala, on Friday, according to the Russian TV. It said Magomed Magomedov, deputy chief of the interior ministry's criminal investigation department, was killed by the explosion caused by a bomb attached to his car in central Makhachkala. The blast seriously injured the driver of Magomedov's car. He was rushed to hospital, said the TV. Dagestan has turned into a field of confrontation between the Russian security forces and radical militants active in Northern Caucasus.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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Pakistani security forces in recent bloody operations in the North Waziristan tribal agency, bordering Afghanistan, recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition and flushed out terrorists, said military on Friday. The arms captured by the security forces include mortars, rocket, launchers grenades, fuse, anti-tanks and anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices as well as huge quantity of ammunition, explosives with electric improvised circuits, communication gadgetries, commando uniforms, foreign residential cards, tainting pamphlets, CD's, medicines and food items, said the military in a statement.
According to investigation, the statement said, the same kind of weapons and ammunition were used in various terrorist acts elsewhere in the agency. The terrorists have been using these weapons indiscriminately that often fell on civilian population. Besides, there had been numerous instances where mine blasts by the terrorist caused death to innocent civilians and personnel of security forces.
Security forces also busted terrorist's den, planning and organizing center established in the hostel of Madrassah Gulshan-ul-Aloom owned by Maulvi Abdul Khaliq near Miran Shah. Over 100 terrorists were killed by the security forces in the recent operation while nine others including foreigners were arrested. Master mind and chief of the involved group, Maulvi Abdul Khaliq has close relations with Abdullah Mehsud, a wanted terrorist has fled away.
Miranshah, North Wazoo (Rantburg News Service): Pak security forces in North Wazoo have managed to stumble over huge caches of arms and ammunition. "Comes as a complete surprise to me," stated Major General Shaukat Sultan. "Who'da ever thought there was that much arms and ammunition in the whole world, much less here in this little corner of Waziristan!"
The arms captured by the security forces include mortars, rocket launchers, grenades, fuses, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices, huge quantities of ammunition, explosives with electric improvised circuits, communication gadgetries, commando uniforms, foreign residential cards, pamphlets, CD's, medicines and food items, knives, brass knuckles, zip guns, coshes, a mothballed battleship, part of a death star, bludgeons, maces, scimitars, and boards with nails sticking out of them, said the military in a statement. No nuclear weapons have been found, but they haven't finished going through it all yet. No doubt by coincidence, the same types of weapons and ammunitions have been used in various terrorist acts elsewhere in the agency. Authorities are divided over whether there may be some connection.
The finds came after security forces busted a nest of vipers in celebration of the arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush. Quite to the surprise of local authorities, the vipers had nested in the hostel of Madrassah Gulshan-ul-Aloom owned by Maulvi Abdul Khaliq, who had recently begun lording it over Miranshah. Over 100 terrorists were bumped off and nine others were arrested. The holy man, believed to be a Close Personal Friend of Abdullah Mehsud, is, of course, nowhere to be found.
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KARACHI: Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) central vice president Mohammad Saleem Baloch has been missing from Karachi since early Friday morning, party sources and relatives told Daily Times.
Missing? Oh, dear!
They claim that he was picked up by law enforcement agencies from Kalakot while on his way home to Lyari Town. A white car carrying four armed law enforcement agency personnel picked him up at gun point, alleged his cousin Hakeem Baloch. Hakeem quoted witnesses as saying that a police mobile unit was accompanying the kidnappers. Not a single law enforcement agency, including the local police, has so far confirmed that he is in their custody, he added.
"Wudn't us."
My brother has been missing since early morning. We have approached every relevant authority but they did not tell us about his whereabouts, said Usman Baloch. However, the Lyari police said they had no knowledge of the incident.
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#1
prolly got a Micky Finn from some sultry wench in a bar, while doing Allan's good works
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 0:21
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Pakistan Muslim League-backed candidates lost three out of the four Senate seats of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in the backdrop of the government operation against militants there. Three candidates, backed by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), obtained FATA Senate seats. PML-backed candidate from FATA, Abdul Razik, was declared successful through a draw after he secured equal number (five) of votes among five candidates. Rules dictate that only MNAs hailing from FATA can elect FATA. There were 39 contenders for the four vacant FATA seats. MMA-backed Maulana Saleh Shah, Maulana Hafiz Rashid and Maulana Abdul Rashid secured six votes each and were declared successful.
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Jamaat collected dollars from America
ANP leader Bashir Bilour was quoted in Khabrain as saying that the Jamaat Islami declared that the Afghan war was jihad for the sake of serving America. It collected dollars and got the Pakhtuns killed. Had the clerics not sided with America in its war against the Soviet Union, the blood of the Muslims would not have flowed later on. He said that simple Pashtuns were made sacrificial lambs.
Gates of Paradise open in Pakpattan
According to Khabrain, the Gates of Paradise at the shrine of Baba Farid in Pakpattan were opened on the urs of the saint and 100,000 people passed through them each night. In Pakpattan, the place where the saint and poet Baba Farid lived, people lined up for miles to be able to pass through the Gates. Every year there is bhagdar (stampede) which kills people but this year there was mo bhagdar.
Politicians without issues
Ex-speaker National Assembly Sahibzada Farooq Ali Khan wrote in the daily Pakistan that after 1988, Ms Benazir Bhutto forgot the party ideology and fought elections on the simple fact that she was the daughter of a hanged prime minister. She did not put before the nation the ideas in which the party had believed. In the end, both Nawaz Sharif and Ms Bhutto had the same political vision. In Pakistan most politicians were of small stature but came to power through the patronage of the generals.
Dont stay long, Bush!
Sarerahe stated in Nawa-e-Waqt that President Bush was going to be three days in India but a few hours in Pakistan. In Pakistan only those who specialise in welcoming VIPs will welcome Bush since the rest of the nation would think it a major sin (gunah kabira) to say welcome to him. In fact, he should curtail his visit to three hours to claim half of what President Clinton stayed for when he visited Pakistan.
Fake Imam Mehdi makes victory sign
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, the fake Imam Mehdi who made his appearance in Faisalabad in December 2005 was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism judge of Faisalabad. When he heard the sentence, fake Imam Mehdi Shehbaz Ahmad said he was enjoying the sentence (anjwae kar raha hun). His followers were given life sentences. One fainted after hearing the sentence. According to Khabrain the fake Imam also made the victory sign. The followers said that Shehbaz was their owner and they could not abandon him as that would make them sinners before God.
An assessment of the economy
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi challenged the claims of the government in Nawa-e-Waqt that Pakistan was progressing economically. His assessment went like this: The tradition of wearing white clothes (safed-poshi) was losing its image. Starvation (faqa-kashi) was a common sight. The trend to commit suicide had increased. The middle class was being wiped out. The cobra (shish-nag) of poverty was snarling. Unemployment was on the rise. The whiplashes of high prices were raining on the bare backs of the people. And yet in spite of all this the economy was supposed to have reached its acme (bam-e-uruj) in stability.
India permanent foe
Writing in the Jang, Mukhtar Ahmad Butt stated that Pakistan had to deal with a neighbour that never accepted it from its heart. India always tried to harm Pakistan in one way or another. It responded to Pakistans efforts at establishing friendly relations with obstinacy and procrastination. Kashmir was the living example of Indias policy of hostility towards Pakistan.
Pakpattan no paradise at all!
Writing in the Jang, columnist Rehmat Ali Razi stated that Pakpattan, where the Gates of Paradise opened on every urs of Baba Farid, was no paradise. The city of 150,000 had hardly any roads which were intact. The load of the additional population of visiting devotees (100,000) paralysed the city with all roads blocked. The only two hotels closed down because no one could get to them as roads filled up with filth. The city had no garbage collection but when the visitors of Paradise arrived, filth accumulated on the streets which ran with the urine of the devotees. When the devotees filed through the Gateway to Heaven they brought excrement and urine with their feet which then clung to the tomb of Baba Farid.
Punish insulters of all prophets!
Daily Pakistan quoted PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as saying that Europe and the West should pass a law punishing insulters of all prophets including Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). If the West did not do this then more insult published in Europe would lead to disastrous consequences.
Insulting cartoons avenged in Mandi Bahauddin
Reported in the Jang, mobs in Mandi Bahauddin came out beating their breasts and hurling stones at passing trains and burning tyres in the streets of the city. The mobs also cried in pain on the insult of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) in Europe and burnt cars while breaking the windshields of many. They also wept profusely and stoned all public buildings while breaking glass at the petrol pump stations. Sensing the success of the mobs in Mandi Bahauddin, the political opposition announced an all-party day of protest on 3 March 2006. Meanwhile every party would hold aggressive rallies throughout the month of February to mark Islamic grief at the insult of the Prophet (pbuh) in Europe through the publication of cartoons. Opposition also demanded that ambassadors of all offending European countries be sent packing and Pakistan embassies removed from there.
Pindi Bhattian up in arms after Quran desecration
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, in Pindi Bhattian people were outraged to find pages of the Holy Quran in the street. They took out an angry procession and went to the police station. The police at once took the pages in its control and registered a case. But the people were not satisfied as they wanted to burn public property to express their grief. The clerics warned from the mosques that if the culprits were not caught the people would destroy public property.
Ijazul Haqs recipe
Religion minister Ijazul Haq stated in the daily Din that if Pakistan and other Islamic states were to snap relations with the European countries that had offended by publishing insulting cartoons, then the offending states would suffer economically and will pledge never to insult the Muslims again by publishing cartoons.
Sardar Qayyum got me to Israel!
Quoted in Khabrain Maulana Ajmal Qadiri said that he had contacts with Israel which were helped by the Azad Kashmiri leader Sardar Qayyum. He said America had finalised its plans to attack Iran. He added that he was ready once again to go to Israel to further consolidate his contacts there.
Old leaders and new
Ex-speaker of the National Assembly, Sahibzada Farooq Ali Khan, wrote in the daily Pakistan that old leaders like Liaquat Ali Khan, Suhrawardi, Khwaja Nazimuddin, II Chundrigar and Muhammad Ali Bogra made their departure from politics without enriching their families. The daughter of Suhrawardi had to be given a stipend by the government. The new leaders were different. Ayub Khan was followed by his rich son Gauhar Ayub. Zia was followed by his rich son Ijazul Haq. Bhutto was followed by Benazir and Nawaz Sharifs family was now powerful because of the wealth of being in power.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Marches and processions, damage and destruction. They really are having a good time fussing about cartoons they've never seen in a place they couldn't locate on a map. By the time they get tired of it, there won't be much left of the last few centuries of progress.
#3
But the people were not satisfied as they wanted to burn public property to express their grief. The clerics warned from the mosques that if the culprits were not caught the people would destroy public property.
I have a copy of the Quran that CAIR's given out. My roommate's using it for a beer coaster. Does this mean my hand's gonna get chopped off?
#7
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi challenged the claims of the government in Nawa-e-Waqt that Pakistan was progressing economically.
Not exactly hard to do...
In its economic data, the Pak government has been including the import of used cars under industrial capital goods
Pak metal production fell by 60 % in the last two years - the reason? The batteries for a coking oven.
One oven goes down and their national production falls by 60 percent.
This is a nation that has yet to manufacture a high speed lathe, or a tractor...
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 18:36
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03/11/2006 19:24
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#10
I think this has been discussed before, but I can't remember the conclusion: Pakistan has got a number of nuclear bombs, but such things need frequent and persnickety maintenance. Do they have the skills and the mindset to keep the nasty things operational? Or have they become large and radioactive paperweights?
#11
Pakistan's military nuclear facilities and weapons are under monitor and seal, installed by the US and alarmed to alert Musharraf (and no doubt us) if the seals are breached.
That said, I don't have a clue about their operational readiness.
LOW-key ceremonies are being held today across Madrid to mark the second anniversary of the 2004 train bombings in which 191 people were killed. But two years after the worst terrorist attack on European soil, immigration is revolutionising Spanish society far more than the terrorist bombings ever could.
When did the two become disconnected?
In 2000, there were 900,000 foreigners living in Spain. That figure has now risen to 3.7 million (8.5 per cent of the population), an increase of more than 400 per cent. By one estimate, Spain has received more immigrants in the past five years than France received in the previous four decades. Last year, Spain received 560,000 immigrants, one-third of Europe's total.
Spain's getting all those immigrants from North Africa they're swarming in. Seems to me, it'd make more sense for them to take in an equivalent number of Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatamalans, and such. At least they speak the language, after a fashion, and share some of the culture. And I can't recall the last time I saw a Mexican blow up.
This massive demographic shift is starting to take its toll. A survey published in January found that 60 per cent of Spaniards believe that there are too many immigrants in Spain. In 1996, the figure was just 8 per cent.
In 1996 turbans were a lot more rare.
The poll also found that almost twice as many Spaniards see immigration as a more important problem facing Spain than terrorism and there is a widespread perception that the riots that rocked France late last year may offer a vision of the country's future.
Even worse, la Belle France's government actually seems to have more testicular capacity than Spain's, which is saying something.
Low-scale riots in June in an outer Madrid suburb, prompted by the murder of a local youth by a South American gang, were described by one leading centrist newspaper at the time as the "neighbourhood rebellion against the immigrants". High-profile turf wars between the so-called bandas latinas (Latin gangs) on the streets of Madrid have also helped to make immigration the dominant topic of conversation in bars and restaurants across the city. "In Spain, you never had to worry about armed people coming into your homes," Fernando, a Madrid office worker, told The Age. "Now things are different and it's because of the immigrants."
They're your borders. Close 'em.
There is also something of a sense of siege in Spain fostered by the daily arrival of boatloads of African immigrants along the country's southern coast and by the storming of the country's borders in Spain's African enclaves by hundreds of African immigrants in October. According to Fernando Vallespin, director of the Centre for Sociological Research, which carried out the survey, the situation is less alarming than the figures suggest.
"Remain calm! All is well!"
"We are far from being xenophobic in Spain," he argues, pointing to the clear majority of respondents who said that immigrants should have access to public education and free health care and who identified levels of education as far more significant than whether immigrants were wealthy, Christian or white. But even he acknowledges that the rising concerns about immigration are driven by the fact that "in the last three or four years we've seen an increased presence of foreigners in our lives".
I'd say the most important consideration would be whether the immigrants are civilized or not, and what they've been getting patently aren't. A nation reaches a saturation point where it can't admit any more immigrants because it hasn't digested the last batch, especially when they refuse to digest.
Complicating the issue is the awareness that the future prosperity of Spaniards depends upon large-scale immigration.
So bring in Mexicans. They're hard-working and they're mostly nice people. They just got fonny assents.
Spain requires 350,000 immigrants who, according to a Spanish Government study, generate twice the levels of tax revenues they consume every year over the next two decades in order to save its generous tax-financed pension system from bankruptcy.
Might want to have another look at that generous tax-financed ponzi scheme pension system, too.
#1
"in the last three or four years we've seen an increased presence of foreigners in our lives".
Oops. Get ready for more of them:
An announcement is expected on opening the Spanish labour market to workers from Poland and other European Union newcomer states.
A recent EU report says that the free movement of workers was economically rational, adding that the three countries which had opened their labour markets - Britain, Ireland and Sweden - had benefitted. About 35 thousand Poles currently live in Spain. Link.
But that was just an aside, here's comes the big one, from May 2005:
Spain stands by immigrant amnesty: Spain is processing work papers for about 700,000 illegal immigrants already living in the country after holding a three-month amnesty.
Oh dear. Don't know whether to laugh, cry or both.
One thing that isn't mentioned, though, is that many Spaniards with certain in-demand skills leave Spain for better, higher-paying pastures elsewhere in Europe. This is just the nature of things. Poles arrive in Spain looking for work, probably doing stuff that Spaniards won't do (like picking strawberries), and the Spaniards move on to bigger and better things. So I guess what I'm saying is that Poles fill the role of Mexicans. Except that Poles don't hold their crotches for the camera.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 1:14
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Disclaimer: that last statement of mine was in reference to a certain picture which I'm sure we've all seen here. Please don't label me a racist or something.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/11/2006 1:24
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#3
So bring in Mexicans. They're hard-working and they're mostly nice people. They just got fonny assents.
#4
Spain requires 350,000 immigrants who, according to a Spanish Government study, generate twice the levels of tax revenues they consume every year over the next two decades in order to save its generous tax-financed pension system from bankruptcy.
Yeah right. Let's assume that immigrants will ever accept being taken half of their salary for sustaining people who are not their own. Specially if the immigrants belong to a predatory culture who tells them they are hereensvolk, and that the alien elders have had so few children that the immigrants outnumber the people able to bear arms
#5
The de-reconquista continues. The Spanish are not replacing themselves. They can have muzzies or Mexicans. They chose Muzzies. Who thought the Spanish could ever make Franco look good.
#8
You dont know to what point: Izqueirda Unida (ie Communist Party) has asked for the reopening of Cordoba's Cathedral (former Mosque) to the Muslim cult.
The Party who alied with the Nazis keeps the line.
That was all about Spain bringing them in, not us.
I agree re: illegals. But I welcome the majority of legal immingrants from Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The ones I know work hard, are great family people and more than earn their keep. And their kids will contribute a lot to our economy too.
#10
And they'd do the same for Spain without as much language/cultural adjustment. This is so clearly a win-win that it is astounding the Spanish are not doing something about it.
#11
Spain had quietly developed strong relations with many Latin American countries under Aznar. Now under Zappy the rhetoric is stronger but the actual aid and relations are not.
In Baghdad, an Al-Qaeda leader, Ramzi Ahmad Ismail who is also known as Abu Qutadah, was arrested by the Multi-national Force.
"Stick 'em up, Ramzi!"
In a press release, the US army said the terrorist was apprehended last December during a raid on his house in southern Baghdad, adding that the terrorist was hiding in a canal near the house.
"We're here to pick up Ramzi!"
"He ain't here!"
"Mind if we look around? Jones, check the sewer out back!"
The Syrian-born Abu Qutadah was the head of a terrorist movement named the Islamic front for Iraq's liberation that killed many innocent civilians and military men. Abu Qutadah is thought to be one of the assistants of Abu Ayman who headed Iraq's intelligence during Saddam's reign.
In another development, Iraqi political figure Sayyed Muqatada decided to postpone a protest that was supposed to take place on Saturday due to fears of terrorist attacks. Followers of Al-Sadr told KUNA that they received confirmations about terrorist activities that will target the protest, which made Al-Sadr postpone it to protect the lives of innocent civilians. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were supposed to participate in the protest that was going to start from Baghdad's Al-Firdous square without carrying anything other than Iraq's flag as symbol of overall national unity.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The Syrian-born Abu Qutadah was the head of a terrorist movement named the Islamic front for Iraq's liberation caught hiding in a canal near the house.
The Boston Archdiocese's Catholic Charities said Friday it would stop providing adoption services because state law requires them to consider gays and lesbians as parents. The social services arm of the Roman Catholic archdiocese has provided adoption services for about a century. But it says state law allowing gays to adopt runs counter to church teachers on homosexuality. "The world was very different when Charities began this ministry at the threshold of the twentieth-century," the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir and trustees chairman Jeffrey Kaneb said in a joint statement. "The world changed often and we adapted the ministry to meet changing times and needs. At all times we sought to place the welfare of children at the heart of our work. But now, we have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve," they said.
The state's four Catholic bishops said earlier this month that the law threatens the church's religious freedom by forcing it to do something it considers immoral. Eight members of Catholic Charities board later stepped down in protest of the bishops' stance. The 42-member board had voted unanimously in December to continue considering gay households for adoptions. Sounds like it's time for them to re-create the orphanage. Orphanages were always supplemental to adoption, and would still provide a safe, nuturing, and supportive environment in the absence of acceptable adoptive parents. They represent the acceptance of the idea that there will always be more children than good adults to take care of them.
When the state starts deciding a church's theology, you're in just as much trouble as you'd be in if the theologians were deciding what the state can do. It's the reverse of South Waziristan or Iran, but neither condition is a good thing.
This is a real shame, because Catholic Charities has been a good force for getting difficult-to-place children placed in that state. CC isn't always on the good side in adoption/foster disputes, but getting older and special needs children placed is something they do well. The state is gonna miss them when they pull out, and pull out they will. On the other hand, the state has a law to enforce. Both sides, regretably, are going to take what each thinks is the correct decision.
As an aside, I would not want to see orphanages return. They were, for the most part, ghastly places and ruined a lot of kids. Every child needs a home.
#1
The people who made that law were high on crack. Not only a lebian or gay couple provides a doubous role model (remember that it is in society's interest that people be heteropsexual and have children) but in the case of gays, well men are nuts (as an aside I am one), more prone to violence and madness. That is statistics. And tehre is athe possibility of rape. I don't like the idea of children being educated by a man (except in the case of widower for his biological children) when there is no woman around to, err.., watch him. And here we have two men, the risk is multiplied by two.
I propose that whenever there is an "accident" in these adoptions (ie child raped or killed) one of the legislators who pushed the law is sentenced to death.
Massachusetts has passed a stupid law, as governments frequently do. It has asked part of society to compromise its principles, in essence for money and souls. That part of society has declined the deal.
Good for them. On the one hand, when religious groups fail to accept the world as it is, we get things fit only for angels or Taliban. However, many of the problems in the world occur when we compromise our principles too much. CC has chosen to stand for principle at a good place. It is well rid of the board members who resigned.
Now it is for the Commonwealth to pick up the slack its intolerance created. Let's hope there's lots of gay couples who want children out there.
#3
The Puritanism of modern Political Correctness has returned to the Bay Colony.
While they set out to escape the intolerance of Church of England, the Puritans themselves were as intolerant of other beliefs sending the likes of Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson out of their domain. Now modern secular Puritanism is amok. Maybe its time for a return to Crown government as well. Trade you Massachusetts for Alberta and Saskatchewan.
#5
Nope. They have to keep Ontario and Quebec. We'll consider some royalty stream from the Alberta oil sands, though - but only if they pay for beefing up security at the border in exchange.
#6
why do people who want to help, have to help everyone equally? If I wanted to set up a private charity that only helps black children or Muslim children, or blind children - that may not be the best thing, but is a good thing for the children I do help. It is more than would be available if I didn't help. Once again the idea of immaculate purity denies good at the expense of perfection.
Two armed Palestinian groups Friday claimed they shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers and destroyed an Israeli army vehicle in Northern Gaza Strip. Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades and Al-Quds Brigades, the military wings of Fatah and Islamic Jihad respectively, said a joint group moved to an Israeli army monitoring position in Beit Hanoon and opened fire at the israelis wounding two of them. They said in a statement the group fired two mortar shells at an army vehicle and caused damage to it.
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Four Palestinians were wounded on Thursday in the Israeli shelling of a residential neighborhood in northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli tanks stationed nearby the borders fired a shell on a residence in Al-Nada neighborhood north of Beit Lahya, wounding four Palestinians, three of them of the same family. The Israeli tanks began shelling areas in northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, claiming that Palestinian factions are using them as missiles launching sites against Israel.
Mr. Cause, meet Mr. Effect. Mr. Effect, Mr. Cause.
Posted by: Fred ||
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gonna take a lifetime of lessons to teach the Paleo pissants that, Fred
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2006 0:31
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Only 4? Only wounded?
C'mon, IDF - you can shoot better than that!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2006 0:40
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ISLAMABAD: Wild boars entered the premises of the parliament on Friday as the balloting for Senate elections was underway. Eyewitnesses told Daily Times that a small herd of wild boars entered the premises of the parliament from a green area near the Supreme Court building. They said that the herd was stopped by police personnel as it was headed towards the parking lot.
Boy, they're thick. They missed the significance of a major earthquake hitting Muzzafarabad. They're ignoring the significance of the parliament in Islamabad being overrun by swine. And they'll probably miss the import of Qazi being carried off by demons in a month or two. They're never gonna become Lutherans.
Posted by: Fred ||
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How could they tell the pigs who entered the parliament from the senators pigs already there?
(with apologies to 4-legged swine everywhere)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2006 0:39
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Senator Kennedy and his staff on an overseas junket?
#4
I'm surprised there are any porcine species in the Pakistan in the first place. I would have thought the ancestors of these maniacs would have wiped them out long ago.
The $30 million F-16 fighter jet was the pride of the Pakistani Air Force. Alas, it was not to last. This gleaming denizen of the clouds was brought crashing down in flames by one of the Islamic nation's oldest enemies: pork. It's little piggy brain boiling with kamikaze fury, a suicidal wild boar charged into the jet's front wheel on takeoff, sending it skidding across the runway in a veritable inferno of sparks. The pilot ejected seconds before fire engulfed the mighty metal war machine. (Stuff magazine - October 2000).
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2006 18:21
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The Imam of a Sunni mosque in central Samarra, 150 km north of Baghdad, was killed on Friday in a car bomb attack nearby a mosque.
Awww. Gee. Shucks. An imam. I'm just so broken up.
A source in the Joint Coordination Center told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that a car bomb went off nearby Othman bin Affan Mosque, killing Razzaq Al-Samarrae and wounding a woman and a child. The source added that an explosive device was [also] detonated targeting an Iraqi Police patrol in Samarra, killing two civilians and wounding others.
In another incident, unknown gunmen on Friday assassinated Iraqi Army Colonel Sabah Ismael and burned his car in southern Kirkuk. Also, a group of unknown gunmen abducted Director of Huwaijah Youth Center Saheb Saleh.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Army announced that it arrested 17 suspects, including 12 wanted extremists, in three separate operations in different areas. A press release issued by the Iraqi Army said its forces arrested 12 suspected terrorists in search operations in the areas of Al-Jazeerah, Ramadi, and Falluja, noting that detainees are being interrogated.
"Oooooww! [Gasp!]... Yer violatin' me human rights!"
"Hit him again, Mahmoud!"
The Iraqi Army forces also arrested five suspects in search operations in A'dhamiya and Baghdad Al-Jadidah areas during the past 24 hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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#1
seems to me that there becomes a point when we have to realize the value of killing the commanders of the army we are all fighting against.
Tribal clerics announced the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in South Waziristan on Friday, saying that feuds and tribal enmities would now be resolved through Islamic laws instead of the tribal jirga. Eyewitnesses and tribal elders told Daily Times that the announcement was made during Friday prayer sermons in Wana and other towns of South Waziristan. We are glad to announce that an Islamic judge will decide cases from now on and not the jirga, a cleric in Wana was quoted as announcing.
Looks like the situation is well out of hand. Perv must be taking the gas pipe about now.
The announcement was made following letters from local Taliban commanders to all prayer leaders asking them to enforce Sharia here, a tribal cleric said. We were under great pressure from the commanders to announce the enforcement of Sharia in Waziristan, he said. He said that the announcement effectively buried the role of tribal elders, vesting hand-picked clerics with absolute power. This will strengthen the Talibans influence in the area, the cleric said.
That's the way to do it, I guess. Organize a few bands of fascisti, slaughter a few people, and take over. Wish I'd thought of that. I could be a potentate now.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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Fred, dear, considering how you've neglected to enforce anything remotely resembling Sharia here in your private pocket kingdom -- witness the fact that I, a female, am brazenly posting without masculine supervision!! -- I don't think you are actually potentate material. For which I am truly grateful. ;-)
#2
We will see how the "tribals" take to losing power. Give it a few weeks or so. Towel-o-bhan will start showing up dead. It's The the and wooly Wakipaki frontier after all.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/11/2006 3:08
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Watch out, TW, Fred's gotta burka with your name on it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/11/2006 4:31
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I'm sure the tribal elders will take the loss of power with equanimity and grace. Or not ...
#5
The thing is, in a traditional tribal society like this the old men have all the power and all the women, and the youths have nothing except numbers and free time and frustration. With the aid of the Taliban, the youths have power, and they still have the edge in numbers. And, they've been killing off the tribal leaders with impunity. I don't imagine it will make much difference for the downtrdden women and children, whether their abusers are young or old, so why should they involve themselves? In Afghanistan it took the intervention of Coalition ground troops and Special Forces to overthrow their Taliban, which isn't going to happen here... and the Pakistani troops don't look to be comparably effective.
I would be very happy to be shown where I'm wrong in my thinking, because this is not a happy scenario.
#6
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, already require statutory conformity to the "injunctions of Islam." Jamaat-i-Islami got Zia to add that, and their current political existence is based on creating a sharia state. Prior to 9-11, Mushy incorporated Afghanistan - Taliban/al-Qaeda/Markaz-dawa, Sipah-e-Sahaba et al - into a common security zone, under the principle of "Pakistan in depth." The only Pakistanis who oppose shariazation are the handful of remaining Seculars, who read Daily Times and a few Sindhi publications.
Central to sharia is this Koran mandate: "Jihad is prescribed to you." In the current jihad, sharia is advanced by induction of dhimmitude. When the West serves Muslim aggression, it is WE who enforce sharia. Until we discard our state of pathological dissonance, that prohibits perception of the mortal threat of Islam, WE ARE THE ENEMY. Jihadis are not advancing; we are retreating.
#7
trailing wife:
Sharia is on the move everywhere in Islamania. In January, a current photograph revealed Egyptian leaders with their wives dressed in Islamic coverings. A similar photo opportunity, dating to the seventies portrayed the wives in Western dress. If the West continues to practise containment - versus civilizing stewardship - abroad, and excessive tolerance of own Muslim usurpers, on the home front, in the next 10 years, we will be able to photograph Egypt's male leadership in Ghazi (Warrior) garb. And their weapons will be even scarier and their allies will be in your neighborhood.
VIENNA: The United States and Europe want the UN Security Council to give Iran a two-week deadline to halt suspect nuclear work, according to a draft text for Council action obtained on Friday. The draft says that the Security Council should call upon Iran without delay: to re-establish full, sustained and verifiable suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and says that the UN nuclear watchdog chief should report to the Council within 14 days on the implementation by Iran of the actions it has requested.
The draft, which was written by European states on the Security Council, marks the beginning of the process by Council members to agree on a presidential statement and which could extend past next week. Entitled Draft elements for Security Council action on the Iranian nuclear programme, the text begins: Security Council action is necessary to reinforce the authority of the IAEA. A Western diplomat said that there was to be a meeting in New York Friday of the five permanent members of the Security Council and that the United States, Britain and France expected to receive reactions to their draft text from the Russians and Chinese.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2006
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#1
That would coincide nicely with the next new moon...
More, Faster, Please...
Posted by: DanNY ||
03/11/2006 1:31
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Is that "weeks" as in God created the universe in 7 "days?"
The Khartoum government described as "a great victory for Sudanese diplomacy" the African Union's (AU) extension Friday of mandate of its forces in Darfur until end of September. Foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Mohammad Ibrahim was quoted by state media as saying Sudan has succeeded in keeping the African presence in Darfur despite international pressure to replace the AU forces with a competently-led an international one.
The AU council for peace and security approved the extension of mandate of its forces in the troubled Darfur province. Ibrahim noted that the AU decision included the formation of a new committee chaired by the rotating AU president to try to reach a political settlement for Darfur no later than April. He said his government was optimistic a final solution could be reached before next April.
Ibrahim said the AU decision emphasized the role of the UN to backing peace but not peacekeeping. The AU is deploying 7,000 troops in Darfur to monitor a fragile ceasefire for the conflict that erupted in February 2003, between the Sudanese government and rebels in Darfur. The conflict killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over two million others. The lack of plunder financial funding and logistics made the AU considered shifting the task to the UN.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his government was determined to put priority to solving the problem of unemployed youth in the country. Ahmadinejad, who arrived in Poldokhtar city Thursday morning on the second day of a two-day visit of this western province, made the remark while addressing local officials and residents of the city.
Police said the body of Tom Fox, kidnapped in November with three colleagues by a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, was discovered on Thursday with the hands tied and a single gunshot wound to the head at a rubbish dump in western Baghdad. The American, who had campaigned against what he called the dehumanization of the U.S. occupation, appeared to have been beaten with electric cables before his death, said a policeman who found the body beside a railway line.
Cuba has purchased a top-of-the-line Russian airliner for President Fidel Castro, the BBC reported Thursday. 
Iran on Saturday explicitly warned for the first time that it could use oil as a weapon if the U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions over an Iranian nuclear program that the U.S. and others suspect is trying to produce atomic bombs.
Police have found a bomb at a railway station in Mumbai, India's financial hub, four days after a series of deadly blasts in a holy Hindu city, which were blamed on Islamic militants. 
A federal judge issued a highly unusual classified ruling yesterday, denying a motion for dismissal of a case against two leaders of an Albany mosque who are accused of laundering money in a federal terrorism sting operation. 
As Senator John F. Kerry prepared to make a return to presidential-style politics with a classic day of New Hampshire campaigning, he said that the 2004 run left him tougher and more eager to fight.
Some 375 gang members have been arrested in 24 states and the District of Columbia over the past two weeks as part of a yearlong operation targeting gangs with criminal immigrant members, the Homeland Security Department said Friday. 
Two militants were executed by hanging Saturday for the killing in Amman of a U.S. diplomat, police said. 
Former Yugoslav President 
In a statement at an EU foreign ministers meeting just after news of Milosevic's death was confirmed, he said: "With the death of Milosevic, one of the main actors if not the the main actor in the Balkan wars of the late 20th century has left the scene." 
With the stage set for a high stakes U.N. Security Council debate next week on possible sanctions for Iran's nuclear program, Tehran on Wednesday warned the United States that it too can inflict "harm and pain" and hinted its weapon could be oil.
Thousands of police are searching Chechnya's southern mountains for an elusive rebel warlord who has been involved in deadly attacks during more than a decade of war in the southern Russian region, its prime minister said Friday.
At least 26 people, including some foreigners, were killed late Friday in an assault by the Pakistani army on a tribal region near the Afghan border where it was believed terrorists were gathered, the military said Saturday. Pakistani helicopter gunships pounded the compound from air, and were followed by troops on the ground. The military acted after intelligence reports indicated terrorists were gathered at the compound in 
A former delivery company worker has been cleared of conspiring to supply money and firearms to a terror group allegedly linked with al-Qaeda. A court heard claims 
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."
Richard Boucher, the new head of South and Central Asia at the State Department, stopped short of offering an apology for the death of more than a dozen civilians in the Bajaur airstike by US planes. Asked at a talk he gave on Thursday at the Johns Hopkins University on President George Bushs recently-concluded trip to South Asia as to why the United States had not apologised for the death of innocent civilians, including women and children, in an airstrike on the tribal town of Bajaur, he danced around an answer, in the end falling well short of the apology that he could well have made. It was obvious that he was not going to venture an answer that would go beyond what, by all indications, is a well-considered decision, No apology!
Islamabad: A 5.2-magnitude earthquake jolted northern areas Friday, killing one person and injuring 22, officials said. The quake was an aftershock of the massive October 8 South Asian quake that killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan, seismological department chief Qamaruz Zaman said. The tremor was felt at 12:50 pm in Jhelum and Lahore in Punjab province and in the city of Mirpur in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Zaman said, adding the epicentre was located between Jhelum and Mirpur.
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly has taken serious notice of an advertisement of a substandard aphrodisiac and directed district nazims and the departments concerned to take action against quacks and remove all billboards and wall chalking regarding sexual treatment.
Continuing its newfound pro-active stance, India on Friday said the Gilgit-Baltistan region known as Northern Areas is a part of Jammu and Kashmir and hence an integral part of India. In response to a question, official spokesman of Ministry of External Affairs said India has seen Pakistani media reports that some Pakistani missions are circulating new map of Jammu and Kashmir depicting the Northern Areas as a separate entity. 
Opposition parties will not contest the general elections if they are held in the presence of President General Pervez Musharraf because his presence has worsened the countrys situation, 
At least 26 people were killed and seven injured on Friday morning in 
On Monday, the State Security Specialized Penal Court (SSSPC) sentenced two suspects to five years in prison for attempting to assassinate former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, 
The United Nations General Assembly has delayed until next week a decision to create a Human Rights Council, in a last-ditch attempt to overcome US objections and avoid a damaging vote that could unravel the project altogether. 
French police fired teargas outside Paris's Sorbonne university and at least 1,000 students formed a human chain around the landmark Arc de Triomphe Thursday in protests over a new youth jobs contract approved by the upper house of parliament.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) allegedly tortured an SSC candidate, a Dakhil candidate and an HSC candidate at the Rab headquarters in Khalishpur under the city on Wednesday night for 'keeping and smuggling arms'.
Palestinian fighters from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fired two Aqsa-2 rockets on the Israeli position of Kissuvim, in eastern Gaza Strip. Israeli army also said an anti-tank missile was fired at an army vehicle near the Gaza Strip border fence and fired a Qassam rocket at an open area south of Askalan. It said there were no injuries in either incident.
AMERICANS would not tolerate a fellow citizen being treated in the way the US has dealt with Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, 
A top security official in Dagestan was killed in a bomb blast in the capital, Makhachkala, on Friday, according to the Russian TV. It said 
Miranshah, North Wazoo (Rantburg News Service): Pak security forces in North Wazoo have managed to stumble over huge caches of arms and ammunition. "Comes as a complete surprise to me," stated Major General Shaukat Sultan. "Who'da ever thought there was that much arms and ammunition in the whole world, much less here in this little corner of Waziristan!"
KARACHI: Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) central vice president Mohammad Saleem Baloch has been missing from Karachi since early Friday morning, party sources and relatives told Daily Times. 
Jamaat collected dollars from America
LOW-key ceremonies are being held today across Madrid to mark the second anniversary of the 2004 train bombings in which 191 people were killed. But two years after the worst terrorist attack on European soil, immigration is revolutionising Spanish society far more than the terrorist bombings ever could.
In Baghdad, an Al-Qaeda leader, 
The Boston Archdiocese's Catholic Charities said Friday it would stop providing adoption services because state law requires them to consider gays and lesbians as parents. The social services arm of the Roman Catholic archdiocese has provided adoption services for about a century. But it says state law allowing gays to adopt runs counter to church teachers on homosexuality. "The world was very different when Charities began this ministry at the threshold of the twentieth-century," the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir and trustees chairman Jeffrey Kaneb said in a joint statement. "The world changed often and we adapted the ministry to meet changing times and needs. At all times we sought to place the welfare of children at the heart of our work. But now, we have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve," they said.
Two armed Palestinian groups Friday claimed they shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers and destroyed an Israeli army vehicle in Northern Gaza Strip. Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades and Al-Quds Brigades, the military wings of Fatah and Islamic Jihad respectively, said a joint group moved to an Israeli army monitoring position in Beit Hanoon and opened fire at the israelis wounding two of them. They said in a statement the group fired two mortar shells at an army vehicle and caused damage to it.
ISLAMABAD: Wild boars entered the premises of the parliament on Friday as the balloting for Senate elections was underway. Eyewitnesses told Daily Times that a small herd of wild boars entered the premises of the parliament from a green area near the Supreme Court building. They said that the herd was stopped by police personnel as it was headed towards the parking lot.
The Imam of a Sunni mosque in central Samarra, 150 km north of Baghdad, was killed on Friday in a car bomb attack nearby a mosque. 
Tribal clerics announced the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in 
Council action obtained on Friday. The draft says that the Security Council should call upon Iran without delay: to re-establish full, sustained and verifiable suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and says that the UN nuclear watchdog chief should report to the Council within 14 days on the implementation by Iran of the actions it has requested.
The Khartoum government described as "a great victory for Sudanese diplomacy" the African Union's (AU) extension Friday of mandate of its forces in Darfur until end of September. Foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Mohammad Ibrahim was quoted by state media as saying Sudan has succeeded in keeping the African presence in Darfur despite international pressure to replace the AU forces with 
