as always, an interesting read and too long to excerpt - hit his tipjar if you can
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007
18:08 ||
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#1
Lets ask the Dutch/Euros - WEEKLY STANDARD > THE KGB'S MAN IN COPENHAGEN. *FRANCE > RUSSIAN INVESTMENTS [espec Military-related ventures] at ALL-TIME HIGH.
A masked man took hostage 500 people attending an academic meeting in the Convention Hall of Tehran University here Tuesday morning.
Witnesses said that the man who carried a Kalashnikov rifle merely intended to inform the audience of his personal problems. Eye-witnesses also said that the man intended to show some CDs and documents to the hostages.
According to the reports the hostage-taker used to be a member of the Iranian police and was upset with the way he had been treated by his former department.
Following the attack, the anti-riot squads and snipers of the Law Enforcement police rushed to the scene, but before they started operations, the man surrendered himself to the officials.
The documents and CDs the man was carrying indicated that he had severe psychological problems.
Meantime, unofficial reports said that the same man took 23 students hostage at a Tehran school last year, but has apparently been released after it was proved that he had psychological problems.
#1
"the same man took 23 students hostage at a Tehran school last year, but has apparently been released after it was proved that he had psychological problems"
Damn! The DemoncRats Leftists run Iran too?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2007 18:26
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#2
Always said it and always will, Penn State Sub Shop needs to desperately improve their Veal hoagies. In related PYWAR-INTEL-NSA MIC news, the Gummint cannot confirm = cannot deny that Veal = Veal.
A group of researchers at Vanderbilt have built a mechanical arm that outperforms traditional battery-powered prosthetics the old-fashioned way: by strapping on a couple rocket motors.
The arm, which the team built for DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program, relies on a modified miniature version of the same rocket motors the space shuttle uses to reposition itself in space: hydrogen peroxide is burned in the presence of a catalyst to produce pure steam, which is then used to move the arm.
Unlike the batteries in traditional arms, which die quickly, a small canister of hydrogen peroxide concealed in the arm can last up to 18 hours, and provides about the same power and functionality of a human arm.
Cooler still is the method the arm deals with waste heat and steam: just like a regular arm, it's allowed to filter up through a permeable skin, producing "sweat" -- the same amount of perspiration you'd get on a warm summer day, according to the team. Check a video of the arm in action at the read link -- it's even niftier than it sounds.
Topeka, Kan., police captain Ron Brown earned a Purple Heart after he lost a portion of his hearing in both ears when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to the Marine reservistÂ’s head outside Fallujah in 2004. So he made sure he was there when former Sgt. Tim Debusk was arrested and charged with forging a Purple Heart citation on May 25.
Related
“I just told him that I thought what he did was despicable, and that I hoped he thought about the guys he disrespected who died for this country over Memorial Day,” Brown said.
Debusk’s trial is set to begin Sept. 7 with a preliminary hearing in Shawnee County District Court, where he is charged with “dealing in false identification documents” and “making a false writing.” If convicted, he could face up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine under the Stolen Valor Act that penalizes those who claim military awards they didn’t earn.
Marine Corps records show Debusk did not earn a Purple Heart, according to Marine Corps headquarters spokesman Maj. Jay Delarosa. Multiple calls were made to Debusk and his attorney, but neither could be reached by press time. The U.S. AttorneyÂ’s office handling the case also did not return calls regarding the case.
Records show Debusk entered the Corps in 1998 as a supply administration and operations clerk and separated from active duty in 2002. He was recalled at the end of 2004.
DebuskÂ’s last duty station was Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., where he served until transferring back to the Individual Ready Reserve in October 2005, according to records.
He did earn an Iraq Campaign Medal, although it was unclear from the records when he deployed. Debusk was discharged from the Corps on Jan. 7, 2007, under honorable conditions, according to records.
Retired 1st Sgt. Earl McIntosh, a member of the Topeka Marine Corps League, first reported the forged citation to the Marine Corps Reserve Center in Topeka and local police officials after he received a tip from a source he wants to keep anonymous.
McIntosh said the source handed over the allegedly forged citation to him after it was used to apply for a Purple Heart license plate.
McIntosh sent the Purple Heart citation to Maj. J.D. Lerom, who handles awards for Marine Corps Forces-Central CommandÂ’s adjutant. Lerom returned a memorandum to McIntosh stating they had no record of Debusk earning a Purple Heart, according to the document dated March 1 and obtained by Marine Corps Times.
Debusk was also arrested and charged in May 2006 for impersonating a police officer after he pulled over a vehicle and identified himself as a federal officer after flashing a Marine Corps Military Police Badge, Topeka police officials said. Marine Corps records do not show Debusk ever serving as a Marine Corps military police officer.
Debusk avoided jail time for impersonating a police officer and was issued a warning, according to Topeka city court documents.
Aug 21 02:40 PM US/Eastern
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry's trade group says she knows why—and there's little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes,'" Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. "It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page."
Schroeder, who as a Colorado Democrat was once one of Congress' most liberal House members, was responding to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that found people who consider themselves liberals are more prodigious book readers than conservatives.
She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who "can't say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion."
The book publishing industry is predominantly liberal, though conservative books by authors like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and pundit Ann Coulter have been best sellers in recent years. Overall, book sales have been flat as publishers seek to woo readers lured away by the Internet, movies and television.
Rove, President Bush's departing political adviser, is known as a prodigious reader. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Schroeder was "confusing volume with quality" with her remarks.
"Obfuscation usually requires a lot more words than if you simply focus on fundamental principles, so I'm not at all surprised by the loquaciousness of liberals," he said.
"As head of a book publishing association, she probably shouldn't malign any readers," said Mary Matalin, a GOP strategist who oversees a line of books by conservative authors, Threshold, at Simon & Schuster. Matalin said conservatives and others aren't necessarily reading less, but are getting more information online and from magazines.
The AP-Ipsos poll found 22 percent of liberals and moderates said they had not read a book within the past year, compared with 34 percent of conservatives.
Among those who had read at least one book, liberals typically read nine books in the year, with half reading more than that and half less. Conservatives typically read eight, moderates five.
By slightly wider margins, Democrats tended to read more books than Republicans and independents. There were no differences by political party in the percentage of those who said they had not read at least one book.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults and was conducted August 6 to 8. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
#1
I think that its just that liberals have a lot more disposable time than that of conservatives. I work for a living and don't have the time for taking stupid polls.
They're spinning a difference of ONE in the AVERAGE as something meaningful? And do you count short books with large type the same as a thick book with itty-bitty type?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/21/2007 16:49
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#3
I'd love to see the fiction vs. non-fiction statistics. As near as I can tell, liberals are largely into fantasy.
#5
No wonder 90%+ of what gets published is crap...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/21/2007 17:12
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#6
well, I read books - all the time. Usually 2/week, which explains the bags under my eyes. On my week-long vacation I read 5 books. Pat "Weepy" Schroeder can kiss my literate ass. I'll put big money down that I've read more in any two years than she has her entire life. She was a partisan loser in Congress, As a Presidential *snort* candidate, and in her current job, apparently
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007 17:23
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#11
And Liberals are less likely to tell pollster the truth.
If this were based on hard evidence like the number of books purchased and actually read I'd give it some credence. As it is, it says more about the unreliability of polling to determine people's real behaviour.
#13
She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who "can't say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion." she said slapping a NO BLOOD FOR OIL bumper sticker onto her car and putting her BusHITLER protest sign into the backseat of her car.
Fact is liberals carry their politics on their sleaves and all about show. They would buy up BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME to leave for people to see so they would look more intelligent. I imagine bookshelves filled with unread liberal titles to impress guests. This does not make one more intellectual, it makes one a mindless consumer with pretentions of granduer.
#16
Over here! Over Here! (waves hands, jumps up and down frantically)
I've written a book! (link here) A very nice book all about the frontier west and the greatest adventure no one ever heard about, and it's kinda conservative, not very much bad language, and the main love story is between a couple who have been married for years and are still crackers about each other... and I have to sell another 1,999,985 copies before I can even think of moving into a castle next door to JK Rowlings'!
Prove that Pat Shroeder is wrong, wrong, wrongedy wrong! Conservatives do so want to read books... just not the ones that the current literary industrial complex is pushing!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007 19:37
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#18
I wonder how many liberals have read the, for weeks, #1 book on the NYTimes list, and just this week, dropped to 2nd? I've smiled big time everytime I look to follow the ranking of Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell
#20
The book publishing industry is predominantly liberal, though conservative books by authors like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and pundit Ann Coulter have been best sellers in recent years.
This one fact alone explains that (statistically speaking) virtually neck-in-neck of "who reads the most" poll. We've had NOTHING to read that was worth the paper it was printed on until fairly recently. 9/11 was a BIG cause of that (at least for "young whipper snappers" like me, born AFTER the 1960's). Now, I can't get enough! I'm off to go get the SEAL Team 10 book as soon as I can.
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007 20:40
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#21
They conducted the poll on three weekdays. How many bets that they called peoples homes in the middle of the workday, spoke only with those who were not occupied with something USEFUL and discarded anyone who used words with more than two syllables?
When I was young and had the time and inclination I read 4-8 books a week. I am down to 1> per week because of time restraints, as well as the lack of anything interesting to read. Not being wealthy I do not buy books I don;t think I will like, restricting what I will read.
I tend to avoid political books, though. I have no trust for politicians and will not willingly give them money.
#22
Conservatives no longer read books. Only e-books.
Something to it. My eyesight is not what it used to be and sometime tired after a long day of coding. Too much squinting and headache follows. I prefer e-book format, where I can enlarge text so it is legible for me without much effort, the degree of enlargement varies from time to time.
#23
Thanks Frank G and Sherry, too! You won't regret it... and if you really, really like it, the next one will be a trilogy about the German settlements in Texas; adventure, true love, Indian raids, Texas Rangers, murder, revenge and Civil War too!
And cows. Gotta have cows... the cattle ranching thing, y'know.
#24
You know, that's pretty odd. Most of the liberals I run into on campus couldn't read an actual paragraph to save their life. Much less a full book.
#25
#23 Thanks Frank G and Sherry, too! You won't regret it... and if you really, really like it, the next one will be a trilogy about the German settlements in Texas; adventure, true love, Indian raids, Texas Rangers, murder, revenge and Civil War too!
And cows. Gotta have cows... the cattle ranching thing, y'know.
Sarge,
Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862
Nathan Bedford Forrest
<;-)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/21/2007 22:42
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Of the many things the Army teaches you, foremost is contingency planning, especially meeting the unforeseen. This axiom was apparently not factored into the run-up to the 123 Agreement with the US, singularly the most widely and hotly debated agreement in 60 years of India's foreign policy. Not only was there no fallback position, the political czars had also taken the Left opposition for granted. The Government expected future battles to be fought in the NSG, IAEA and US Congress, not on its own turf threatened by an unpredictable ally.
They were lulled into equanimity partly due to the fact that treaties and agreements in India do not require to be ratified by Parliament. In most countries you need a two-thirds parliamentary majority for the consummation of any agreement which impinges on national security. But in India national interest seldom figures prominently in any political calculus: Survival of the Government and electoral prospects determine the national agenda. Soldiers, on the other hand, fight for their regiment and their country. There is no other consideration except service before self.
Notwithstanding the current hiccups, it has to be acknowledged that the 123 Agreement with all its alleged imperfections and improprieties is a good deal, the result of skilful negotiations with experienced American interlocutors. With the deal, we are better off, not net losers, as the nay-sayers to the deal are claiming. The agreement has been politicised both in content and context. The opposition to the deal has come from the Left parties, historically antagonistic to the US. They support the UPA Government from the outside only to keep the 'bigger evil' - the BJP-led NDA - at bay.
Did the Government foresee the Left threat of withdrawal of support - "heavy political consequences" - if they went ahead with the agreement? The answer is probably is no, judging by the crisis that was generated over the spat between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, which the former passed on to a Kolkata daily in the citadel of the Left. The 'Breaking News' story catalysed the crisis.
Rumours about the aftermath to the crisis wafted across the central lawns of the Rashtrapati Bhawan on a hot and sticky Independence Day reception by President Pratibha Patil, where, for the first time, the ropes had been reconfigured to create a separate enclosure for Cabinet Ministers. It was conspicuously empty as Ministers chose to mingle with the aam admi. The Prime Minister, went the rumour, will have to go, as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was not kept on board about his 'Take-it-or-leave-it' challenge to Mr Karat. That this so-called non-Prime Minister had strategised his operational plan through the media showed the high value and credence he attaches to it.
It is strange that instead of lauding the Prime Minister for showing political spine in calling the Left's bluff over the 123 Agreement, Ms Gandhi chose discretion over valour and put the UPA on the defensive. She did not share the Prime Minister's new-found aggressiveness, ignoring a life-threat to the Government. One learns in the services the importance of the clarity in the chain of command and no premature deviations from a plan once it has been implemented. The dual command system followed in the Congress-led UPA Government is confusing as well as dangerous for scoring self-goals. Now everyone knows, if they did not earlier, that the UPA chairperson and not the Prime Minister has the last word. By retracting his challenge to Mr Karat, Mr Manmohan Singh had to eat crow.
Ms Gandhi may have saved the Government for some time and her electoral plans of the future, but her actions have severely undermined the office of the Prime Minister and the credibility of the Government at home and abroad. Gen KS Thimayya used to say, "Never make your subordinate lose face." By asking Mr Pranab Mukherjee to find a middle path, Ms Gandhi has let down her Prime Minister, the Government and the country in the larger interest of political survival. The lesson for the political class from this brief brush with brinkmanship is to be found in Sun Tzu's Falling off the Precipice. He offers a simple suggestion: "Be calm, firm and keep both feet on the ground."
The face-saving formula the media has described as deal-breather, not deal-breaker, was found in a meeting between non-Government actor No II and CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, sometimes the Government's special envoy to Nepal, and Mr Pranab Mukherjee. It is not clear who among the two re-discovered the evergreen committee formula, but it was Mr Yechury who announced that a panel would examine how the US Hyde Act will impinge on the 123 Agreement.
The Left is insisting that while this panel is in place, negotiations with the IAEA and the NSG should be put on hold, which effectively means the 123 Agreement is dead. A middle path to this would be for both to function in tandem, as time is at a premium due to the US election in 2008. US Under-secretary of State Nicholas Burns has said that India-related NSG and IAEA certifications have to be in before year-end for passage through Congress.
Over two-and-a-half years, the pros and cons of the 123 Agreement have been thrashed out in micro detail by all manner of experts. The debate has now turned into political theatre: India needs nuclear energy; no, it does not. India will join the nuclear club; no, it will freeze and roll back the nuclear programme. The US will help India in becoming a great power; no, it will make India subservient to the US... and so on.
Guess who's having the last laugh? The non-proliferation ayatollahs of the world, apart from China and Pakistan. Never reconciled with India's nuclear tests, which were attributed to China, Beijing has frequently criticised the 123 Agreement and, in fact, demanded India join the NPT as a non-nuclear state. Pakistan has said the 123 Agreement will disturb the strategic balance in South Asia and has asked Washington to do an equivalent agreement with Islamabad. Last year, President George W Bush told Gen Pervez Musharraf to his face, "India and Pakistan are two different countries with different histories." Consequently, the US will not apply the parity principle. Instead, all-weather ally China has agreed to oblige in case the 123 Agreement is done.
If this deal does not go through, China will rise as the dominant power in Asia, leaving India behind, tied down in the region countervailed by Pakistan. Blame it on the culture of coalition Governments, thanks to Mr VP Singh's Mandalisation of politics.
Ashok K. Mehta is a retired Major General of the Indian Army
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2007
15:43 ||
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Tomorrow never dies
By Ashok Malik
The India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement is just one element of a grand bargain that Japan and America are offering India. It is to the credit of the CPI(M) that only it has realised the implications
It is a strange week in Delhi. Communists don the garb of ultra-nationalists. India's formerly Right-wing party becomes an add-on of the Left Front. The accidental descent into an election that nobody - with the exception of Ms Mayawati and the BSP - is ready for is a clear and present danger.
In a week like this, only the big picture can provide reassurance. The small picture, alas, is simply too smudged.
While they are the villains of the day, Mr Prakash Karat and the CPI(M) need to be thanked for having brought into the open the philosophy behind the India-US nuclear deal. Yes, this deal is about energy security and containing greenhouse gas emissions from thermal fuel sources and such noble and good intentions. Yet, slipped into the 123 Agreement is the blueprint for 21st century security architecture.
By openly opposing the relationship with America - and by aligning their position with that of the Chinese Government - India's Communist parties have made a public debate on an overarching foreign policy decision simply unavoidable.
It is now becoming increasingly untenable to pretend that India's economic rise is simply a matter of higher GDP, better trade figures, more outsourcing contracts - and has no strategic implications. That may be the view preferred by the Indian ostrich, but the rest of the world is not looking at it that way. It is seeing India as a potential counterweight to China, at least as part of a mutually balancing concert of powers that would include, of course, both Asian giants and others such as the US and Russia.
In an extreme situation, India could have a role in a containment of China, though that eventuality seems far away. In any case, the very need to contain China would depend on how China and its polity evolve over the coming decade or two. To reflect on that right now would be to gaze into a crystal ball. For the moment, the world is only hedging its bets, which is why it is courting India.
The rise of China and what India should do vis-Ã -vis its northern neighbour are obviously exercising various groups of Indians. They are also the subject of cogitation in other countries. In offering India the civilian nuclear deal, the Republican Administration in the US has shown its cards.
In Australia, the degree of the national economy's dependence on China - Chinese factories are hungry for Australian commodities - has caused some disquiet. There is a perception, particularly to the right of the political spectrum, that this will compromise Canberra's ability to maintain an independent foreign policy, free of Beijing's influence.
It is this sentiment that is driving strategic affairs pundits in Australia to advocate sale of uranium to India. The point was made, for instance, in Widening Horizons: Australia's New Relationship with India, a paper brought out by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in May 2007.
In Japan - as the current visit of that country's Prime Minister, accompanied by 150 odd businessmen, makes clear - India is seen as the next Asian manufacturing hub. The 1,500 km long Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is, essentially, envisaged as a 10-year project for the transplanting of Japanese manufacturing facilities.
Japanese investment in India is the economic analogue of the nuclear deal or the American promise to provide India military hardware worthy of a future power. Why is Japan doing it? For one, it has a historically unsteady relationship with China. Second, Japan is an ageing society and moving its factories to India is part of an enormous retirement plan.
If it wants to retain the factories at home, Japan will have to open itself up to immigrant workers and managers - many of whom may be Chinese. It is looking at a more agreeable alternative - outsourcing manufacturing to India.
It is not television sets and mini-CD players that Japan wants to make in the DMIC. From high-end industrial electronics to elements of aerospace manufacture, very sophisticated technology transfer is on offer. The Japanese are also investing heavily in infrastructure.
There are no free lunches in economics, no free dinners in diplomacy. In return for Japanese investment, Australian uranium and American weaponry, India would not need to go to war with China - but it would need to make small, subtle and unavoidable choices. It is to the credit of the CPI(M) that it has understood the contours of the grand bargain and made its position clear.
In no country do complex foreign policy issues become the bread and butter of domestic, provincial politicians. India is not going to be an exception. As such, one cannot expect every member or party in Parliament to have an informed, enlightened view on the fork India finds itself at.
Yet, the role of the BJP in the entire discourse has been a trifle disappointing. As a nationalist party, which led a government that crafted the framework of 'modern diplomacy', surely it could do better than merely mimic Marxists and give them certificates of patriotism? Today, the credit for the deal lies with the Congress - even though it built on the gains of the NDA years - and the Opposition space lies with the Left. The BJP is everywhere - and nowhere.
Where will the Karat-Manmohan Singh brinkmanship on the nuclear deal lead to? In terms of ancillary negotiations and the wider foreign policy roadmap, it could delay matters rather than reverse the course. India's direction is inevitable; the Left is defending a lost cause.
Not that there isn't a precedent. Between the Spanish-American War and Pearl Harbour, 1898 and 1941, the US swung in and out of the international system. It saw intense internal debate over whether its economic muscle now obligated it to be a global power - or whether old-style isolationism was still feasible.
In 1919, at the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson helped frame the Treaty of Versailles, and helped found the League of Nations as part of 20th century security architecture. The US Senate, however, snubbed Wilson, rejected the treaty and kept America out of the League.
Wilson warned another war would engulf Europe within a generation. Provincial politicians, American exceptionalists and hyper-nationalists thought he was talking nonsense. Two decades later, Wilson was proved prescient. The US walked into World War II and recognised that this time there was no going back.
Do all aspirant powers go through such existential dilemmas? The big picture, remember, does look reassuring!
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2007 16:27
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Truly an amazing story. All of my problems paled when I read this story.
Hattip: hotair.com
Last night, I had to wait for two hours to catch a Black Hawk from the IZ to Camp Taji. (I'll write more later about Taji and Tikrit, where I was last week.) In the crowded landing zone trailer, I plopped down on my body armor on an unoccupied piece of floor, thinking I would just watch tv and maybe sleep a bit before my flight. Instead, the soldier next to me, curious because of my civilian clothes and obvious youth, struck up a conversation, and we ended up talking straight up until her flight left an hour later. I'm still in awed shock over the story the soldier told me.
Her name was Spec. Alison K., and I stupidly assumed that she must be a rear-echelon soldier with a job at the embassy or somewhere like that -- she was petite, blonde, and looked like a more likely candidate for Princeton's Cottage Club than for combat. I was dead wrong about that. After I'd explained to her satisfaction what I was doing in Iraq, I asked her where she was from, where she was stationed, and what her duties were, as I do almost any soldier I talk to. She was originally from California, she said, and was with the 2-2 BSB at FOB Rustamiya, in east Baghdad (she was wearing the Indian Head patch so I knew she was from 2nd ID). She was 25, and twelve months into her first tour. I asked if it had been a rough deployment; she said yes, her truck had been hit by IEDs four times. Clearly she was not a rear-echelon soldier.
I hesitated to press for details, since you never know whether a soldier will want to go into what's happened to them, but she dove right in without my even asking. She drove a recovery vehicle for the 2nd BCT, 2nd ID, and went outside the wire three or four times a week to help drag burned-out Humvees, tanks, and Bradleys back to base. "We get either sniped at or IED'd pretty much every mission," she said. "East Baghdad's really rough, but it's awesome like that. You should visit before you leave!" It took me a moment to realize she wasn't being sarcastic. "The first time you get blown up by an IED, you're like, Dude, this is badass! but after that you're like, This really is not cool at all anymore. But riding out there, getting shot at, shooting back -- that doesn't get old." Many soldiers would disagree, obviously, it was hard to doubt her enthusiasm. She seemed to genuinely love combat, and she related two stories with particular relish. First, the time she was taping from her vehicle so that people could see what a convoy looked like, when, right there on tape, the truck directly in front of hers had hit an EFP and exploded in a cloud of flames. "It was insane," she added unnecessarily: "There no way you could ever plan to get a video like that."
The second story blew my mind. The previous week a soldier in her vehicle had been shot by a sniper and badly injured -- but saved from death by the bible he kept in his pocket, inside his armor. That sounded like something from a corny World War II-era morale-boosting story, of course, but seeing my disbelief she pulled out a photograph to prove it: a pocket bible, soaked in blood, with a squashed 7.62mm bullet embedded in it. There had been two rounds; both had penetrated the soldier's armor, and one had wounded him badly, but the other, which would almost certainly have been lethal, had been stopped by the bible. "He was asking for his bible at the hospital," she said, "so I found the top he'd been wearing and pulled this out of the pocket where he said it would be, and I was like, No fucking way." If he had died, she said, she would have been furious: "My two best friends from my unit have been killed out here already, one of them right in front of me, and losing a third one would have sucked ass."
That was one of the most intense stories I'd heard in Iraq, I told her, then asked, as an afterthought, what flight she was waiting for. "Oh, I'm on my way home for medical leave. I'm going to see by dad, which will be weird, since he's an Army colonel and never wanted me to join and ever since I enlisted we pretty much haven't been talking. I'm dealing with a divorce too -- never marry an infantryman, although I guess that wouldn't be a problem for you -- and it'll be good to get home and work on that." An estranged father and a divorce on top of twelve months in combat, four hits by IEDs, and two best friends' deaths -- I didn't know what to say. So I backtracked and asked, "What's the medical leave for?" That's when she dropped the bomb I'm still stunned by:
"The truck got blown up the day before yesterday, but this time it was an EFP and I actually got hurt -- not too bad, just shrapnel stuff. So I got evacuated to the CSH [combat support hospital] up here for treatment, and while they were working on me they found out that I was pregnant, which I didn't know about, and it was twins, and I lost them both in the explosion. So then they took some tissue samples during the surgery, which I guess is routine, and it turned out it was cancerous. So I'm going home to start treatment so they can see if they can stop it before it spreads. Sounds pretty bad when I say it all at once, huh? I guess it hasn't really all sunk in yet."
I couldn't believe my ears. This was by far the most devastating story I'd heard from any soldier here, and yet there she was, telling it to me in an completely calm and amiable voice. I had absolutely no idea how to respond. What do you say when a soldier tells you, without missing a beat, let alone breaking down sobbing as one might expect, that in addition to losing her two best friends and being in the middle of an ugly divorce, she has also been wounded by an Iranian bomb, found out she was pregnant with twins, found out they were dead, and then learned that, by the way, she also had cancer and had better leave her unit and start treatment right away? Nothing I could possibly say would come even close to acknowledging what she'd gone through and, beyond that, the stunning courage she was displaying in dealing with it.
While I stared at her, trying to figure out how to reply, Alison continued: "I definitely want to stay in the Army, but I think after this they probably won't let me. Andt blows that I have to leave my unit early, though. They still have three months to go. But I've been here for a year -- I guess I've done my duty."
I've met some pretty impressive soldiers over here, from Gen. Petraeus to Lt. Col. Peterson, but none of them hold a candle to this one. I hope that if I remember one thing from this summer, it's that this is what service and sacrifice are all about: heroes like Spec. Alison K.
#3
The enemy gets men who want infinite orgies. We get men and women like Spec. Allison K. To all reading these words who are now serving, or who ever have served, thank you.
I was bitching because my power was out for 2 days and my computer & phone were zapped by the lightning during the storm.
I'll shut up now.....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2007 18:17
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#6
Allison K is an example of the best and the brightest we have. What a lady!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007 18:26
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#7
I am stuck in training. Listening to this and wondering when I will be eble to get over there.
(I already know, but I cannot tell you that).
Honestly, that young lady is courageous, but also sick.
The bomb that hit her vehicle (any one of them) has caused a mild brain injury and is preventing her from realizing the severity of what she is facing. Someone needs to make certain that she is treated for this condition or she may have irreversible damage (which might be the case anyway).
#8
Scott Thomas Beauchamp will never write anything half as good in his entire journalistic career. He should just slit his wrists now out of respect for Spec. Allison K.
#9
Jame, you may well be right. Army's been raising profile/awareness of the mild head trauma issue for at least the last couple months stateside so if that's a consideration here we can hope it gets diagnosed and cared for quickly.
#11
Jame, keep us in the loop on your progress and if there's anything we can do here from the lowly 'burg.
And, that said, my hat's off to Spec. Allison K. Where do we find men (and women) like this? All over this fine nation, and yet, they carry on with life. Thank you to all who have, who are or who will serve!
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007 21:27
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#12
I was stunned reading this!
The question "Where do we get such men?" (from the movie 'The Bridges at Toko-Ri') obviously needs to be expanded to "where do we get such AMERICANS?"
#13
If the enemy were capable of thought--
the idea that we have an army full of soldiers like SPC Allison K. should chill them to the core.
"...and they shall know no fear." This is why the antiwar types hate us. Deep down inside, they know how worthless they are compared to soldiers like SPC Allison K.
Posted by: N Guard ||
08/21/2007 22:56
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#14
Wowser. I'm awestruck.
With nothing to add, I guess I'll go open a stubborn jar or kill a spider in the bathtub or something.
ELMWOOD PLACE, Ohio -- A train struck and injured a pedestrian who was sending a text message on his cell phone while crossing railroad tracks, a collision that hurled him about 50 feet, authorities and witnesses said Monday.
Zachariah Smith, 18, waited for a southbound train to pass Monday morning. He then walked around a gate and onto the tracks, apparently unaware that another train was coming from the other direction, said witness Mike Billups.
"The horn was blowing like mad and the kid was text messaging," said Mayor Richard Ellison, who went to the scene and talked to several witnesses after hearing of the accident. "The kid apparently was just daydreaming." Can you hear me now
Smith was knocked out by the collision, Billups said. Gee, Ya think maybe it was, like, you know, a round house punch?
After regaining consciousness, Smith was taken by paramedics to nearby University Hospital in Cincinnati with undisclosed injuries. He was listed in serious condition Monday night.
It was not clear how fast the train was moving. Any bets before the vulture attornys begin circling?
Gates and lights at the crossing were in working order, said Elmwood Place police Col. William Peskin.
#1
Does not qualify for Darwin Awards because he can still reproduce (hide your daughters). However, if he keeps trying . . .
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/21/2007 17:46
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Assuming he survives, the best he would get would be an honorable mention. You have to die or be rendered unable to reproduce to win a Darwin Award. (Ideally before you reproduce.)
Russia's military chief told the Czech Republic it would be making a "big mistake" to host a U.S. missile defense shield on its soil and urged Prague on Tuesday to delay a decision until a new U.S. president is elected. The Czech Republic is discussing hosting a radar station which would form part of the U.S. missile shield -- a system designed to intercept and destroy missiles from "rogues states" but which Moscow sees as a threat to its security.
...urged Prague to delay a decision until a new U.S. president is elected
"We say it will be a big mistake by the Czech government to put this radar site on Czech territory," said Yuri Baluyevsky, the Russian military chief of staff, after meeting the Czech deputy defense minister, Martin Bartak. He said the Czech Republic should hold off making a decision until after the U.S. presidential election, scheduled to take place in late 2008. Incumbent George W. Bush will not be running. "A decision will be made by the Czech side only after the evaluation of all conditions, technical and otherwise," said Baluyevsky. "I and my Russian colleagues simply ask that that process continue through to October-November of 2008, and I think you can all guess why." Asked by a reporter to clarify, he said: "I do not exclude that a new administration in the United States will re-evaluate the current administration's decisions on missile defense."
The missile shield is the latest in a series of moves by Moscow's former Warsaw Pact allies to embrace NATO, effectively moving the West's military capabilities closer to Russia.
Baluyevsky said the Czech move was a political rather than a military decision. "In my opinion it is a great disappointment that today's discussion sees no change in the last four months by the Czech government. You have taken a decision to continue construction of a radar site on Czech territory," he said. There are unfounded allegations that Russia is attempting to disrupt the peace and tranquility of Western Europe."
"In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Nos-sing!"
Bartak stressed that his government had not yet made a decision. "The most important thing I can say is that we have not yet said the final word on this and we will not until we have explored all avenues," he said.
Baluyevsky made his comments on the 39th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring," when Soviet tanks ended an attempt by the government of the day to promote liberal reforms.
#1
Asked by a reporter to clarify, he said: "I do not exclude that a new administration in the United States will re-evaluate the current administration's decisions on missile defense."
He continued, "After all, Democrats danced to the Kremlin's tune when we were openly Communists, there's no reason they won't do it again when we're openly imperialist."
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/21/2007 16:50
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#2
so, it's now in the open: The Democrats follow the Kremlin line and will open us to nuclear blackmail by rogue states. So much for "strong on defense"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007 17:02
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#4
See also PRAVDA > WORLD NEEDS A STRONG AND DEMOCRATIC RUSSIA, + RUSSIAN REMINDER: TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE OF THE NATION-STATE articles. * FREEREPUBLIC > Russia needs to retain its leadership in aviation and other military technologies.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/21/2007 19:19
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#6
Baluyevsky made his comments on the 39th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring," when Soviet tanks ended an attempt by the government of the day to promote liberal reforms.
This is what I call timing. That's like bin Laden using 9/11 to warn Uncle Sam to avoid trying to fight al Qaeda.
#7
One would think the Czech mind might make that same connection. Stand Tall™ with the Czechs and tell Putin to remember his place (minor league power and mischief-maker)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007 20:22
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WHEN Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan touches down in India this week, it will be the highest-level step yet in an effort to balance, if not contain, China's growing economic and political might.
As Beijing's influence in Asia and around the world has grown, common interests have forced Tokyo and Delhi to warm up their historically chilly relationship and to forge closer economic ties.
"The key issue facing the region is how to accommodate the rise of China," said Suman Bery, the director general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, a Delhi research group. Indian economists estimate that Japanese investment in India will reach $US5.5 billion ($A6.9 billion) by 2011, from just $US515 million last year.
Abe is on his first trip to India. He and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, are expected to unveil public-private partnerships and business initiatives. Leading the agenda will be a $US100 billion infrastructure project to create a high-tech manufacturing and freight corridor between Delhi, India's capital, and Mumbai, its port and financial centre. It would be the most expensive development project in India, and a third of the bill would be paid by Japanese public and private money. Abe and Singh are expected to announce that the two governments have reached formal agreement on the deal.
Japanese business leaders travelling with Abe will disclose similar deals on natural gas, transportation, currency swaps and Japanese investment in Indian educational projects.
Chief executives from Toyota, Mitsubishi, Canon, and others have joined a new India-Japan business leaders forum, which will meet for the first time today in Delhi.
Courting India has come slowly for the Japanese, who were highly critical of India's surprise nuclear weapons test in 1998. While Japan is a large lender to India, until now it has not been a big investor or business partner. Instead, Japan has virtually sat on the sidelines while countries from Switzerland to Brazil cemented business alliances in India, where economic growth is about 9 per cent a year.
Japan's trade with India was about $US6.5 billion last year — about 4 per cent of Japan's trade with China. "Whatever doubts Japan had for so long, now India is smelling like roses," said Jagdish Bhagwati, an economist at Columbia University and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "They want to get in before it is too late."
For Japan, India is an attractive market, both for its growing consumer spending and cheap labour. Tokyo also has an interest in diversifying its Asian trading partners and reducing its dependence on China. As an increasingly confident China has flexed its muscle regionally and globally, anti-Chinese sentiment has been rising in Japan, as has anti-Japanese sentiment in China.
"India is a much safer bet, in business terms," because it lacks the historical baggage, said Richard Tanter, professor of international relations at the RMIT University.
Then there is the economics. Japanese car makers, for instance, view India as a potential manufacturing centre that could offer lower labour costs than China. But India's manufacturing and export potential is still crippled by an inability to move goods in and around the country.
The proposed Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor could resolve that problem. The nearly 1500-kilometre corridor would include a high-speed freight line and nine 200-square-kilometre investment regions dedicated to industries such as chemicals and engineering, as well as three ports and six airports.
Infrastructure projects such as the industrial corridor are "the kind of thing Japanese companies are particularly good at", Bhagwati said. Japanese companies were heavily involved in the construction of Delhi's clean, efficient subway system.
India, which desperately needs more power generation, could be a particularly fertile market for Toshiba, which bought nuclear power plant maker Westinghouse last year. Any deals between India and Toshiba would be far in the future, though. The Indian Government is still deeply divided over a deal with the US that allows India access to civilian nuclear technology, and Japan may not support the US-India nuclear deal, given Tokyo's aversion to nuclear proliferation.
Still, yesterday, Singh stressed India's commitment to nuclear energy during the opening of a research centre in Delhi, calling oil imports an "unbearable burden".
The most successful India-Japan business partnership so far is a venture by the car makers Suzuki and Maruti. Maruti has become one of India's leading car makers after a troubled start in the early 1980s.
Culturally and economically, Japan and India remain far apart, a fact that government officials and economists say could complicate building a stronger relationship. Speaking yesterday during a meeting in a Delhi hotel to discuss the Japanese Prime Minister's visit, Bery said Japan's manufacturing was "state of the art", which has "not been our strong suit".
Minutes later, the five-star hotel fell victim to one of Delhi's frequent power disruptions; the lights flickered out and the meeting carried on in the dark.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2007
14:25 ||
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#1
India suffered a massive shortfall of 20,000 megawatts in power-capacity addition in the 10th five-year plan that ended in April.
There is a 25% power shortage in Maharashtra state, 20% in Uttar Pradesh state and 10-15% in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi states.
Average power theft or transmission and distribution loss is more than 20%.
Capacity addition of 70,000 mw during the 11th Plan requires an investment of $50 billion.
Currently
54% of power is from coal
34% from oil/gas
3% from nuclear
6% from hydroelectric
1% from wind + bio mass
Proven uranium reserves will support 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity.
India wants to add 20,000mw of nuclear power to the 3,300mw generated by state-run nuclear power plants.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2007 15:51
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#1
The comments on the MRE's are priceless. Classic american soldier, giving his (relatively) honest evaluation.
Some of the entrees you have to ask "what were they thinking?" Stuffed Cabbage? Chicken loaf? Some of the menu ideas are clearly heading toward Chiken ala King or Tuna with Noodles territory. Blargh!
Posted by: N Guard ||
08/21/2007 15:18
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#2
The comments are a laff riot:
This meal should be fiesta breakfast party. That would be funny.
Someone didn't like it though. "fiesta breakfast" was about as much of a fiesta as a full bodies dry heave. You're killin' me smalls.
Sounds British.
The way it turned my mouth blue flooded my mind with childhood memories, and for a slight moment, I was at peace!
Franklin Foer to the white courtesy phone, please.
This was a rough meal! Don't make it look like flat poop.
Words to live by.
I noticed this meal # is 666 I will probably die of a massive heart attack thank you for feeding me possessed food.
Maybe change the name "chicken loaf" scares me.
Our brave fighting men!
Put ranch dressing on everything! Airborne!
The pudding is the schnitzel.
Does this require translation?
Cig, chew, liquor
You want we should throw in a dame, too?
Seriously, several of these expressed a desire for chaw or cigarettes? Do they still do that?
This time, Nyles Reed didn't have to pay for his Purple Heart medal.
Monday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn awarded him the medal, saying it is "embarrassing" Reed was ever told he'd have to pay $42 to get his own.
The 75-year-old retired salesman got a standing ovation at a packed luncheon of the Pearland and Alvin Chambers of Commerce.
Navy officials notified him a couple of weeks ago that he had qualified for the medal 55 years ago as a Marine sergeant in Korea.
The medals were out of stock, officials told him in a letter. He got a nice certificate, but was told that if he wanted a medal to go with it, he'd have to either buy his own or reapply in 90 days.
Cornyn, R-Texas, said no combat veteran should have to pay for his own medals, and his staff made sure Reed got a medal provided by the federal government.
The medal Reed received Monday does create a problem. Reed already has a Purple Heart he bought at a Houston military goods store.
Reed said he took his certificate to the store to prove he was entitled to the award, but was amazed to find out all he needed was the $42.
"I've heard of people having medals they aren't entitled to. Maybe they'll take it back and refund my money," Reed said with a grin.
Back on June 22, 1952, Reed was heading for an artillery observation post near Panmunjom when a Chinese artillery shell blew his Jeep over, causing a deep gash in his cheek.
Reed went to a nearby aid station and got about 10 stitches in his wound. He still has the scar beneath his left eye.
"All I knew was that the Chinese were attacking, and they needed me at that observation post," he said.
His Jeep turned out to be as tough as he was. After it was put back up on its wheels, it took Reed to the observation post.
Because he didn't stick around at the aid station long enough to give anybody his name, there were no official records of his wound.
After seeing other veterans getting medals decades after they were in combat, Reed decided about three years ago to try to get his Purple Heart. "I had a couple of buddies who are still around who knew what happened, and they helped me," Reed said.
The heart-shaped medal was established in 1932 to honor members of the military wounded or killed during enemy action.
Reed said he wrote members of Congress, the secretary of defense and even the president.
"The most help I got was from Cornyn's office," he said.
He said he was deluged with letters of support after a story in the Houston Chronicle last week about Reed being told he would have to buy his own medal. "Some people even sent me checks to pay for the medal," he said.
"I'm especially proud of having this for my family," Reed said. He and his wife, Frances, have three children, eight grandchildren and eight great-granchildren.
He said he often wears a cap proclaiming he's a veteran.
"You know, they often call that the forgotten war," Reed said. "As long as I'm around it won't be forgotten."
Kate McMillan of Small Dead Anmials does cool airbrush art for a living and breeds some of Canada & the US' top champion miniature schauzers under the kennel prefix 'Minuteman'. Like her dogs, she's tough and persistent in taking on vermin and other annoying little critters. For your reading pleasure, here's an old column that's still relevant.
Entirely predictable, I guess. The "handyman" who confessed to shooting the editor now sez: "I didn't do it" and "they (Yusuf Bey IV) told me to take the fall". Complicating factors include spectacularly (and possibly deliberately) bad post-arrest management by the Oakland cop shoppe, when they apparently put Bey and Broussard together in the same interrogation room. Be sure to read the comments to this article at the link and then look over the related links, including the standard three-hankie "misunderstood black muslims" handwringer.
As his client sits behind bars charged with murdering a journalist, LeRue Grim, attorney for Your Black Muslim Bakery handyman Devaughndre Broussard is making a public case that the real culprit is bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV. "You would think he is the main guy responsible for all of this," Grim said Monday during a telephone interview. "That is just logical, he is in charge of the whole place."
Grim's comments come as he revealed new details about what was going on at the bakery weeks before the Aug. 2 slaying of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey and what Bey IV told Broussard while both were placed in the same interview room during a police interrogation. Grim said the details weretold to him by Broussard during a jail house interview Sunday night.
"My client tells me that Yusuf IV came in and said, 'Everything is on the line for us and the bakery and we're in survival mode,'" Grim said of the conversation he had with Broussard. "He tells him, 'If you take this, you're young, we will get you an attorney, we will get you manslaughter, we will get you probation and a year in county jail.'"
Broussard is facing the possibility of life behind bars for allegedly killing Bailey. Oakland police said the 19-year-old handyman confessed to the killing, saying he did the shooting because he was "a good soldier." He also told police that he was angry at Bailey for stories he was working on regarding the bakery's troubled finances and the Bey family feud, police said.
But ever since police said his confession was taken, Broussard has said he is not the person who pumped three shotgun blasts into Bailey.
Broussard first claimed during a television jail house interview, that he was beaten into a confession by police. About two weeks later, Grim claimed Broussard was told to take the fall for the killing by "a high-ranking member of the bakery." Police later confirmed that they placed Broussard and Bey IV together in an interview room before Broussard confessed to the killing. Police, however, would not say what was said during the conversation, only that Bey IV told Broussard to "tell the truth, tell them what you told me."
Grim said he is revealing the information in hopes of persuading police to take a look at Bey's involvement. "The police already announced that he confessed, giving the impression that it is all over," Grim said. "This is not necessarily what the police department is presenting it to be. There are questions about whether this confession was true."
Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said Monday that police continue to believe that Broussard's confession is true. However, Jordan said an investigation into any involvement Bey might have had with the killing will continue. "We believe Broussard's confession is valid," Jordan said. "We are looking into any or all of Bey's involvement and if we find any evidence, we will present it to the district attorney and hope to get him charged."
Bey IV's court-appointed attorney, Ted Johnson, said he had not had a chance yet to talk with his client and thus declined comment.
Nevertheless, Grim continues to say his client is a fall guy. Grim said Monday that his client decided to take the fall because he respects Bey IV and believes in the bakery's mission. "My client thinks the bakery is a good thing and that it helps a lot of people become 'good men,'"Grim said. "He was influenced by all that — Yusuf IV says they did a lot for him and to go on with the good cause and with the brotherhood. Yusuf IV kept telling him this is what a good soldier does. He tells him, 'You're a good soldier, we have to stick together,'" Grim continued.
Grim also said Broussard told him that about two weeks before the killing, he saw Bey IV and several other bakery members watching a videotape of what looked like the funeral for Yusuf Bey Sr. While the group was watching, they were pointing out different people who appeared on the video. Grim said Broussard did not think about the video until after he heard of the shooting and heard bakery members talking about how they saw Bailey on the video two weeks ago.
Grim also said the murder weapon was found at Broussard's duplex because bakery members gave it to him and told him to hide it. "They decided that my guy was going to take the fall, he thought that was not a good idea but because he feels Yusuf IV has done a lot of good things, he was influenced," Grim said. But after sitting in jail for two weeks and talking with his family, Grim said Broussard decided he no longer wanted to take the fall. "He did think about whether he wanted to risk his life by putting it all out, and even last night he had mixed feelings," Grim said. "But he decided to go ahead and do it."
#1
what Bey IV told Broussard while both were placed in the same interview room during a police interrogation
The detectives who permitted this egregious violation of detainee management need to be busted down to walking a beat. This one slip allowed Bey and Broussard to get on the same page about who takes what rap and why.
If Broussard is so determined to shrug off these charges, he'd better begin fingering the real shooter and provide convincing testimony towards that end. If he cannot, off to the pokey with him. These Oaktown flatfoots had damn well better make sure Broussard faces life in prison without any chance of pleading down to manslaughter. Bey's promises need to fall through like a certain bridge in Minnesota.
#3
FREEREPUBLIC > FRED THOMPSON > USA will have to rebuild military for GLOBAL FIGHT. USA took a "holiday" during the 1990's which saw the USDOD's force levels and capabilities eroded = all but destroyed.
* ALso in FREEREPUBLIC > FR Poster/Netter Opinion > IRAN > USA = USDOD will have to prepare for global/worldwide "WIDESPREAD CONFRONTATION". Likely NOT just in the ME or against Iran-Syria andor Radical Islamism???
European Union said Tuesday it will resume vital fuel aid to the Gaza Strip's electric company, bringing a measure of relief to Palestinians who have sweltered at home or choked on generator smoke during five days of power outages.
Poor darlings.
The EU had suspended payments for the fuel that powers major Gaza electricity generators on Sunday, suspecting the strip's Hamas rulers were pocketing electricity revenues. On Tuesday, the bloc announced that fuel shipments to the power plant would resume the following day. Hamas denied skimming money, saying the allegations were an attempt by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' government in the West Bank to discredit the Islamic group.
"Yeah. They wuz jus' tryin' to make us look bad!"
Hamas has been going door to door in Gaza in recent weeks, ordering residents to pay long-overdue electricity bills. While Hamas denies it controls the electricity company,
"Certainly not!"
Abbas' Fatah insists it does, citing the arrest last month of the Gaza electric company's executive director. The electricity crisis confronted the Islamic militant Hamas with a major crisis just two months after it seized control of the strip, vanquishing Fatah forces loyal to Abbas.
At a falafel stand in downtown Gaza City on Tuesday, people waiting in line covered their noses with their hands to avoid the fumes of the gas generators and stench from a pile of garbage that had been mounting for nine days due to a strike by unpaid municipal workers. "I stepped out of work to get some fresh air but I smell only exhaust from the generators and burnt garbage," said a mother of five who would only give her name as Nawal. "Then I go home to live in darkness. So 24 hours a day I can't avoid the noise and the misery of the dirty pollution of Gaza."
#1
Doesn't it bother these people that their very existence is dependent upon charity from people they hate and despise? It bothers me that Western governments are foolish enough to waste money on Palestinians.
Foreclosure filings rose 9 percent from June to July and surged 93 percent over the same period last year, with Nevada, Georgia and Michigan accounting for the highest foreclosure rates nationwide, a research firm said Tuesday.
The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. The figures are the latest measure of the ailing housing market, which has seen defaults and foreclosures soar as financially strapped borrowers have failed to make payments or find buyers.
In all, 179,599 foreclosure filings were reported during July, up from 92,845 in the year-ago month, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc.
A total of 164,644 foreclosure filings were reported in June.
The national foreclosure rate in July was one filing for every 693 households, the firm said.
"While 43 states experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, just five states -- California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia -- accounted for more than half of the nation's total foreclosure filings," said RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio...
#1
Rise of Continent-consuming Mega-Cities = Megalopolises or higher. *D *** ng it, iff Amers want Suburbia = Subural of yore, WE'LL HAVE TO INVADE/TAKE OVER OTHER COUNTRIES FOR THEIR PEACE-AND-QUIET.
#2
Let's not forget how in their haste to expunge all Jewish artifacts from this ancient temple site Muslims have excavated so much soil from around the mosque's foundations as to structurally destabilize it. Of course, when it collapses the Jews will be to blame. Most ironically, tight Jewish security at al-Aqsa is probably the only thing that has prevented some moron Palestinian from detonating himself inside of the place.
#6
And for those who might be unmoved by the desecration of an active church, consider the fact that they damaged irreplaceable, priceless 3rd century Roman mosaic floors in the process.
I'm glad I got to visit in 87 - it's been going downhill ever since.
#8
I'm sure we've covered this before, but how do you say chutzpah in Arabic?
They really have no clue about structures anyway, half of me says Let's just go ahead and get it over wid, go ahead and let the place implode of their own doing. Of course, it'll still be the Jooos fault.
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007 21:02
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Manila - The Philippine government has postponed the scheduled resumption of peace talks with Muslim secessionist rebels in Malaysia due to its failure to decide on how to move forward in the negotiations, a guerrilla spokesman said Tuesday.
Negotiators for the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were set to depart for Kuala Lumpur on Monday when a Malaysian official informed them that the two-day talks scheduled to start on Wednesday will not push through.
'We were already in Manila and we were all set to go to Kuala Lumpur...but at the last hour the government has asked for a postponement,' said Mohaqher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator.
Iqbal said Rodolfo Garcia, head of the government peace panel, told the Malaysian facilitator that he (Garcia) 'has not been given clear guidelines on how to proceed with the peace process.'
Peace talks between the MILF and the government have been stalled since September last year after the two sides failed to agree on the scope of a proposed Muslim homeland in the southern region of Mindanao.
Garcia, who was appointed chief government negotiator only in June, said he asked for the postponement of the resumption of the talks because he still has to clarify details about the government's positions on issues to be discussed in the talks.
'I asked for it (postponement) because I need more time to clarify some things, concretize stands to have the definite negotiating positions to present to them in the next rounds of talks,' he said.
Garcia said that despite the postponement, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remained upbeat about the peace talks - a priority in her programmes to achieve lasting solution to the decades-old Muslim insurgency in Mindanao.
'It is not right to say that the president is lacking political will, she is determined to solve the problem in Mindanao,' he said.
Garcia said the ongoing military offensives against Islamic militants in the southern province of Basilan and nearby Jolo island were not a factor in the postponement of the talks.
The operations in Basilan and Jolo were triggered by the killing of 14 marines, 10 of whom were beheaded or mutilated, during a firefight with MILF forces in the town of Albarka on July 10.
The MILF admitted to killing the marines, whom they accused of violating a 2003 ceasefire agreement, but denied beheading or mutilating them. An inquiry later blamed al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels for the crime.
Cleared for publication: The IDF and the Shin Bet have arrested Yassin Sabana, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad who served as one of the organization's commanders in the town of Qabatiya, near Jenin. Sabana was jailed in Israel between 2003 and 2004 and was involved in terror attacks against IDF soldiers. (Efrat Weiss)
An Israeli strike Terminated killed three militants from the radical Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel on Tuesday, officials said.
In a text message to journalists in Gaza, the militant group said the gunmen were killed east of the town of Khan Yunis as a result of a direct hit.
An army spokesman said that the military "attacked and identified hitting three armed gunmen that were identified close to the security fence in the central Gaza Strip." Can a gunman not be armed?
Israel has carried out a number of strikes and incursions inside Gaza since Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, took control of the territory in mid-June.
On Monday, six Hamas militants were killed in an Israeli strike on a jeep in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
The latest deaths took to 5,830 the number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, the vast majority of them Baby Ducks Palestinian, according to an AFP count. And if you can't trust the quai d'orsay's mouthpiece about that, then, who can you trust, I ask you?
At least 11 people were wounded Tuesday in an explosion in southern Philippines, the police said.
A home-made bomb went off around 7:30 p.m. in front of a small market across from a busy park in Zamboanga City, 850 kilometers south of Manila, police officer Jay Agcaoili said.
He said initial investigation showed the crude bomb was planted under a chair near the market.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
08/21/2007
10:55 ||
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MOSCOW (Interfax) - Chief of the Russian General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky said that Russia will have to take military measures in response, if elements of the U.S. missile defense system are deployed in Europe.
"I would describe as a big mistake the possible decision of the leadership of the Czech Republic to deploy elements of the U.S. missile defense system in its territory because Russia will simply be bound to take measures to build up its security in such conditions," he told the Moscow press after talks with his Czech colleague Martin Batrak on Monday.
#1
And what will you do? Point your missiles at us again? Put M.A.D. back in action? Spend money you don't have to overcome our improving missile interceptors? Build more nukes?
#2
Maybe our installation of missile defense systems in the Czech Republic will need to include several thousand very well-armed "advisors".
As always, the Russians display a really shitty grasp of just how poorly their threatening PR campaign comes off. Rampaging around in hob-nailed boots doesn't do much to win hearts and minds when unsolicited military invasions are no longer a viable option.
#3
You've got to remember how effective Islamic terrorist threats have 'influenced' the Euros. So, why shouldn't Putin try the same game? You get what you tolerate.
#4
FREEREPUBLIC Poster > Russia is facing a severe demographic disaster, wid a net loss of up to 50.0Milyuhn people by 2050, and exclusive of the stresses of any national Regional-Global competition agz the USA, China [control of SCO/Eurasia], or the threat to Russia = SCO/Eurasia from Radical Islamism.
Two Swiss students on holiday played frisbee with an object they found on a beach unaware it was a live land mine.
Lukas Aider, 20, and Christoph Kurz, 19, took a plunge in the Danube river in Budapest when they found the mine and began their potentially lethal game.
A lifeguard watching stopped them and immediately called the police.
A bomb squad then arrived to make safe what turned out to be an old Soviet 6 kilogrammes(13 lbs) anti-tank mine.
#1
Lukas and Christoph need to send thank-you notes to their guardian angels, and to the EOD crew.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007 10:44
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These guys must have been pretty strong in order to play frisbee with a mine that weighs 6 kg. A standard discus only weighs 2 kg.
Of course, if the antitank mine had gone off, it would have taken out everybody in the immediate neighborhood.
Just imagine how many more will be found when Global Warming Climate Change really takes off! From the SF Chronicle. Fairly short article, so I post it in full.
(08-20) 19:10 PDT -- The frozen remains of a missing World War II airman have been discovered on a remote glacier in Kings Canyon National Park, not far from the spot where the body of his apparent crewmate was discovered in 2005, it was announced on Monday.
A hiker discovered the remains on Wednesday at an elevation of 12,300 feet near Mount Darwin inside the park. The remains, which were accompanied by a World War II era uniform and parachute, were being taken on Monday to the the Fresno County coroner's office. Life imitates the Onion...finding this guy 65 years later on Mt. Darwin? Whatta the odds of that?
Because of the cold temperature at the recovery site on the Mendel Glacier, the remains included skin, hair and soft tissue, according to Army Major Brian DeSantis of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii. The command will work to identify the body once the coroner releases it to the military.
"This body was found 100 feet from where the last one was found," DeSantis said. "We're hopeful it's from the same incident." Why, oh why, did they not search around a little bit in 2005?
On Oct. 16, 2005, an ice climber found the body of a man later identified as Leo Mustonen, 22, one of four fliers aboard an Army Air Corps AT-7 plane that took off from Mather Air Force Base on Nov. 18, 1942, on a routine training mission and was never heard from again. The plane was believed to have crashed in a blizzard. Can we assume that 2 more bodies will be found in the next few years?
After Mustonen's body was found, searchers scoured the area, looking for other remains, but were hampered by the thick snowpack. "If only Al Gore were here!" added the searchers.
This summer, however, the snowpack at the site was about one-third of normal, DeSantis said.
"Basically, the snow and ice receded enough for the remains to become exposed,'' he said.
DeSantis said a military forensic anthropologist is on his way to Fresno to assist authorities in identifying the remains. A serious question...were airmen (in times of training) required to wear dog tags too, or just Army grunts back then? I'd assume since all the other organic stuff is still around, his dogtag would be too.
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007
10:31 ||
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Something about high mountain snowpack & dead bodies means that finding remains is a tricky thing, remember the millenia it took to find Ötzi, decades for George Mallory, etc. The other crewmembers are probably under several feet of solid ice.
#1
I'm not too sure of this. I once heard that up until the middle of the 19th century, red was considered the "masculine" color because it was the color of blood, and only men went off to war to blead, and so on--the cultural shift to viewing warm colors as "feminine" only occurred about 100 or so years ago.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007 10:43
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#2
Explain it to that guy. I'm sure he'd like to have an excuse.
#6
Men tend to be judged by acts, and women by appearances fair or unfairly. The corolation to this is men wear colors that blend in and women wear colors to stand out. Pink stands out, I believe it's as simple as that. There are exceptions of course, Rockstars being the best example, that reverse this trend very successfully but the trend is there none-the-less.
More than a week old, but I missed it until I stumbled on that website; that's very weird, I actually suscribed to that list among others, and there was NOTHING racist or inflamatory about it, it was only articles relative to the WOT, very similar to what one finds in RB and with frequent and multiple overlappings. So, this is why he stopped it. The only adds Bruce Tefft made were occasional one-liners about double-speaking muslims or muslim orgs, way tamer than many comments here. This is lawfare pure and simple.
#3
I hope ever so much that the Peshmurga sets up a vicious ambush (with help) to send a message to Iran. Only a handful of Iranians should survive to return to their country and tell the tale.
#5
OldSpook: I was thinking more along the lines of an air-fuel explosive like the BLU-96 2,000 pounder.
The Russians had a neat one they used in Afghanistan called "black rain". It was a thin liquid sprayed in droplets by helicopter. Once it dried it became a hard, tar-like substance that would ignite if you walked or drove over it, then stick and burn.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/21/2007 16:39
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#7
Black Rain/Red Mercury supposedly caused the Siberian Crater, the Czarist Precursor to the KGB were tipped to all sorts of wild and crazy stuff, including No-Crop-Circles and the whereabouts of Ambrose Bierce.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/21/2007 18:56
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Kind of goes inline with the recent shelling activities goin' on in Kurdistan/N. Iraq, eh? The MM's really wanna stir up the antbed don't they?
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007 21:21
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CHINIOT: One woman was killed and four others injured in an alleged hand grenade attack on a mud house by two motorcyclists in Mohallah Qasim Town on Monday. The explosion seriously injured Razia Bibi alias Gogi, Bushra Ahmad, Halima Mohammad, Rabia Basri and Sughran Bibi. They were rushed to Tehsil Headquarters Civil Hospital where Razia Bibi died from her injuries.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
08:46 ||
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Security forces took action against militants in Sui in collaboration with Dera Bugti district police on Monday, as result of which a militant commander was killed and 15 suspects were arrested, District Police Officer (DPO) Dera Bugti Najum Tareen told APP. The security forces and police took action after the militants fired rockets at them, officials said. The name of the killed militant commander, whose body is currently being kept at the Dera Bugti Civil Hospital, could not be ascertained. However, officials said he was wanted by the police in connection with numerous criminal cases. The forces recovered 15 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, five Kalashnikovs, five kg explosives, and hundreds of bullets from the possession of the militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
08:45 ||
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The Philippine government said Tuesday it had suspended peace talks with Muslim insurgents, saying it needed more time, and insisting the move was not linked to a military operation in the restive south. The talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been waging an insurgency for decades in the southern Philippines, had been due to resume in Malaysia Wednesday.
"I need more time to clarify some things," said government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia, who requested the delay. He expressed hope that the talks could resume by the second week of September, after the government had "finalized its negotiating position." Garcia said his request had nothing to do with the current military offensive against Muslim extremists in the south of the country, which was launched in response to the killing of 14 marines in an ambush last month.
MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said Tuesday that his group was ready for the talks, but had been told by the Malaysian facilitator that Garcia had "not been given clear guidelines on how to proceed with the peace process."
"That means we cannot resume the talks, because the government is not prepared to concede anything," Iqbal told ABS-CBN television in an interview, claiming that Manila had put off the talks, once before, in May.
I'll just post the link, as it's a YouTube video/song. Posting in Opinion, as I'm sure we'd come up with some more folks to put in this video, but he's made a GREAT start.
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007
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A wounded bear attacked an unlucky hunter in Finland on the first day of the hunting season Monday, but the man survived suffering only a big fright and a few stitches, officials said.
Together with two hunting buddies, the man was tracking a brown bear he had just wounded with a bullet in a thick forest in Kiite, in eastern Finland near the Russian border, when the bear released its anger on the shooter.
The animal escaped another round of heavy-calibre fire and the jaws of the man's hunting dog before turning on the hunter.
The bear bit the man in the arm and clawed his neck, head and back before the two other men succeeded in scaring off the animal and shooting it dead.
Yes, folks, it was a bear-knuckle fight to the Finnish.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007
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Meddle ye not in the affairs of Bears as ye be crunchy and taste good with Ketchup.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/21/2007 9:22
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I'll bet the farm this guy pooped in his pants somewhere around the second shot.
Hundreds of thousands of students had their first day of school on Monday. Some of them had to learn to carry guns and be prepared to shoot -- polar bears.
Students on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard aren't allowed to leave their village without a shotgun and ammunition. That's because hungry polar bears can be behind every swing on the island.
Although no one wants to shoot a polar bear, and they're indeed protected by national law, the huge white animals can quickly outrun a human. And humans don't have a chance if confronted by an aggressive bear.
So everyone on Svalbard needs to be able defend him- or herself, and students undergo weapons training every year. "We feel more secure and look forward to learn a lot more," said Helga Therese Tilley Tajet of Moelv. She's studying meteorology at the University of Oslo and will concentrate on the Arctic marine climate for the next six months at the university on Svalbard, UNIS.
The students are also trained in Arctic survival techniques in addition to how to use a weapon. "It's absolutely necessary," said UNIS director Gunnar Sand. Much of the course work involved is carried out in the field, and the students also go trekking in their free time.
The school lends out weapons, ammunition, tents, sleeping bags, survival suits, snow scooters and other equipment that's essential in the Arctic landscape. "Polar bears are one thing," Sand noted. "Even more dangerous is the extreme cold, and the winds. There also are dangerous glaciers, steep cliffs, and it's a long way between settlements."
#1
Coincidentally, I'm sure, the crime rate on Svalbard is nil...
Posted by: sofia ||
08/21/2007 9:16
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Norway allows its people to defend themselves from bears and cold and winds but when threatened by another human the law says to bend over and grab yer ankles. Nordic political logic?
#4
. . . everyone on Svalbard needs to be able defend him- or herself, and students undergo weapons training every year. . . . The students are also trained in Arctic survival techniques in addition to how to use a weapon. . . .
Note to self: if you ever meet anyone from Svalbard, be sure to stay on their good side.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007 10:33
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Kinda beats the old "When I was a kid I had to walk 5 miles thru the snow to get to school, uphill both ways" rap.
Rantburgers, please help me educate this gentleman. My brain hurts from reading the entire article. Comrade Brook can be reached at editor@dissidentvoice.org
by Dan Brook / August 20th, 2007
Dripping, spilling, spreading, burning. Welcome to the New World Chaos, what the Bush administration is now calls “the long war”.
They've been calling it "the long war" since late 2001.
The cost is mounting: over 3,700 Americans
Still a smidgeon compared to previous wars. They'd have been barely noticed at Tarawa.
and perhaps three-quarters of a million Iraqis,
That number, we'd guess, would be based on the inflated Lancet figures, with a fudge factor addition. It would also include the number of dead the hard boyz have created. But even with their liking for mass casualties and mass graves, I'd doubt that we're close to the 750,000 dead mark except in the overheated imagination of Indymedia.
as well as over 100 British and over 100 people from other countries — not to mention over 1,000 privatized “contractors”, whose outsourced
"Outsourced," you know is a bad word. When jobs are "outsourced" they're taken from honest Merkin workers, with lunch buckets and cloth caps and union cards, and given to shifty-eyed furriners, who go sniffin' 'round our wimmin... In this case, apparently the shifty-eyed furriners are from places like Texas and Kansas and even parts of southern California.
And some of those Texans and Kansans may have even...voted Republican.
jobs were formerly done by soldiers — now dead from this latest oil war,
Oh. Gotcha. The soldiers are all dead now, so we had to hire the shifty-eyed furriners...
in addition to the tens of thousands (or more) with physical and mental injuries, each one a human being with a family and friends;
I'm not an expert in the field, though I do know quite a bit more about it than the writer, but as an educated guess I'd say we were running at just a smidgeon over one serious injury for each KIA, with a serious injury defined as one that gets the victim a trip home with a stop at Walter Reed or Bethesda. I don't have any figures on psychological effects; I don't think anyone does, since they'll be somewhat subjective. Probably everyone who'd ever been under any kind of stress feels its results for the rest of his/her/its life. Certain sights, sounds, and particularly smells can briefly put me in another place at another time. On the other hand, life with no stress at all is bland and tasteless and maybe even pointless, probably something like what the author leads. For the most part people deal with those stresses. As a compassionate society, we try to help those who can't. But the mere fact of stress doesn't negate the value of the effort that produces it, anymore than do the casualties.
more international ill-will and terrorism,
International ill will from Castro, Mugabe, Chavez, and the ayatollahs doesn't bother me in the least. In fact, ill-will from them is usually an indicator of the rightness of the action.
Count me as also unmoved by any approbation flowing from Brussels or Turtle Bay.
due to U.S. aggression and arrogance,
We were pretty much at peace with the world on 9-11-2001...
as well as a raging civil war; fewer civil rights, due to the so-called Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act;
If they're only "so-called," what is their actual designation?
less privacy, due to domestic spying; hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps even a trillion dollars, in public tax money gone and at least $2 billion more each week; and hundreds of billions of dollars in private profits for giant corporations (ExxonMobil, the worldÂ’s largest oil company, announced soaring profits of $36 billion for 2005, exceeding any corporation in U.S. history, based on revenues of over $1 billion per day, which include continuing subsidies from the U.S. government).
He's making the assumption that profits in and of themselves are bad, naturally...
In his 2006 State of the Union speech, Kingpin Bush
President Bush to you, bub...
admitted the obvious: “America is addicted to oil”.
We have a nation that's 3000 miles from sea to shining sea, about 1500 miles from 54-40 or Fight to the home of the Brownsville Tigers. Connecting our far-flung cities across the fruited plain is a transportation system that's based for the most part on long strips of concrete called "highways." Traversing those "highways" are things called "trucks," which carry "goods." Those "goods" can consist of anything from machine parts to the organic kohl rabi favored by people like the writer as a garnish to their tasty vegetarian meals of radishes and mushrooms. Making those "trucks" move is something known as "fuel." We are addicted to having our strawberries in March, instead of having to wait until July. We're addicted to having our stores' inventories up to date, rather than having to check on alternating Thursdays to see if the shipment of gingham's arrived by wagon train yet. "Fuel" still comes from oil, and it's that to which we're addicted. It would be nice to be able to grow organic gasoline in our urban balcony gardens, but it requires extraction, transport, and processing that's beyond the average citizen's means. Being "addicted" to oil means that it's one of very few absolutely basic requirements to run our society.
What George Bush the Lesser
Can we dock him 10 points for ad hominems?
didnÂ’t admit, among other things, is that the U.S. military is the worldÂ’s largest consumer of oil and the worldÂ’s largest polluter.
Really. If we just shut down the U.S. military all skies would be blue and the smog would lift...
America is also addicted to war for oil,
Which is why we're in Iraq and we've seen the price of oil double. It's a real pity we're not addicted to war for oil, because every fluctuation in the price of transportation has an effect on the rest of the economy. I think most of the public would gladly accept the return of 35 cent per gallon gasoline, even at the cost of imposing Wal-Mart on most of the Muddle East. Having gone without it since 1973 - a mere four years after Congress repealed the Oil Depletion Allowance, the start of disincentives to domestic oil production - the public would probably look with disfavor on those who might want to make it go away again.
with the Bush Administration addicted to lying, deception, secrecy.
Another 10 for ad hominem.
Indeed, the warmongers and war profiteers have us over a barrel. As they say, “to the victor go the oils”.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone outside Indymedia say that. Military people certainly don't think in terms of oil production, and diplomatic policy from what we can make out here isn't predicated on oil. Many of us wish it was, since that might bring back 35 cents a gallon high test.
Prior to formally ordering the illegal invasion of Iraq in March 2003,
It was "illegal" because the author disagreed with it.
self-declared “war president” George W. Bush
... since he's under the illusion that we've been at war since 9-11-2001...
(who even the Washington Post repeatedly calls the “worst president ever”)
... and we all know what right-wing stooges the WaPo is...
sternly warned the Iraqis: “Do not destroy the oil wells”. The war on Iraq was, reportedly, originally named Operation Iraqi Liberation, instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Someone quickly realized, however, that the acronym would be OIL.
Sounds pretty apocryphal to me. What about Gog and Magog? Do they fit in?
That wouldn’t make for good PR — not that it didn’t clearly represent their interests, but not the interests the criminal Bush gang cares to advertise.
Another 10 for ad hominem...
In either case, they seem to have meant liberalization of the economy instead of liberation and free markets instead of freedom.
Now there's an interesting statement, and I could probably spend the rest of the day dissecting it. To put it in the short form, rather than boring all and sundry with a 130-page disquisition on elementary economics and political theory, I'll point out that liberalization of the economy is liberation and free markets are essential for freedom. The writer obviously favors managed economies, like Cuba or Zim-bob-we or some other success story, and considers free markets harbingers of the return of the kulaks. To the totalitarian, freedom accrues to the state, rather than to the individual, whose place is to produce goods and services according to plan and of course to sacrifice him/her/itself in the service of the state. That's elementary Mussolini.
We can suppose, therefore, that it was a concession as well as a salute to their Capitalist-in-Chief
Capitalist is bad, of course. Capitalist is robber barons and plutocrats, not venture capital and startups and such...
to name some of the U.S. military bases in newly-occupied Iraq after oil companies. (The 101st Airborne Division really did name a Base Exxon and a Base Shell somewhere in the deserts of Iraq!)
Never heard of them, but if they existed I'd doubt they were named by the White House. I'd also doubt that they were named for the shadowy hands behind the war. For one thing, if the hands were shadowy, why would they advertise?
While there are now reported to be over 100 U.S. bases in Iraq, both large and small,
... all of them named after oil companies...
it appears that the long-term plans are to build and maintain four to six “permanent super-bases” — each as large as 20 square miles and as sprawling as American suburbia
"Suburbia" is bad. It evokes visions of Stepford. "Urban" is good. "Rural" is pretty much non-existent.
with its requisite multinational fast food outlets,
"Fast food" is bad. It will be replaced by tasty vegetarian meals of radishes and mushrooms, come the Revolution, garnished with organic kohl rabi.
not to mention movie theaters
No! Not movie theaters!
and golf courses — costing “several billion dollars”.
I'm already signed up for the Baqouba Open...
Following the recent U.S. wars in former Yugoslavia,
... where we were defending Muslims, in large part. We didn't become involved when the Serbs and Croats were fighting it out...
Afghanistan,
Home of al-Qaeda. Was there a particular reason we shouldn't have been there? Or were we there to despoil the Afghans of their oil?
and Iraq, U.S. military bases have mushroomed in these regions,
Better to fly the troops in for operations from U.S. bases, after getting rid of their movie theaters and golf courses...
adding to the already extensive empire.
Have we received our tribute from Germany this year? And who's slated to become the next satrap of Korea?
With occupied Iraq slated to have the largest U.S. Embassy — staffed with more than three thousand personnel and costing $1 billion to construct — in addition to the “permanent super-bases”, those immense material and human resources should be able to adequately guard their financial interests and liquid assets.
At which point are they going to start turning a profit for us? To date it's been all investment with no return.
In the first “combat operation” of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, navy Seals claimed a “bloodless victory”, according the New York Times (22 March 2003), seizing two oil terminals “in the battle for Iraq’s vast oil empire”. Tellingly, administration officials are now referring to “the long war”.
You said that. Y'know, one of the signs of senility is when you start to repeat yourself. And another thing: one of the signs of senility is when you start to repeat yourself, so watch it!
The battle is fixing to be longer than a transcontinental pipeline.
Boy. That's witty. Which continent?
Even though Commander-in-Mischief Bush
Another 10 for ad hominem...
declared an end to “major combat operations” on May 1, 2003, after landing under a giant banner on an aircraft carrier barely off the coast of San Diego announcing “Mission Accomplished”, and transferred so-called “sovereignty”
Remember, it's only "so-called." It's actually something else, entirely different. The disignation is there to fool those who aren't privy to the secret knowledge...
to Iraqis on June 28, 2004, the business-oriented Bloomberg News reports that “The battle for Iraq’s oil is just beginning” (June 18, 2004). Whether speaking of insurgents, pipelines, or profits, in July 2003, bombastic Bush brashly declared: “Bring ‘em on!”
I'm sorry. This is not thought. It's pure regurge.
I suppose we should first determine Mr. Brook's sincerity - was his piece of excrement produced without consuming any oil? Of course not. Like the rest of America, he too is addicted to oil.
Indirectly the Iraq war is 'about the oil' - but not just Iraq's oil, and not just the US supply. All the world suppliers and consumers are inextricably interconnected. And the Persian Gulf states are a huge part of that supply - the stability of the region is in the best interest of pretty much the whole world. And, like it or not, what we have now is 'stability' - relative to what it could be.
If it was only about the US supply, and the US cared nothing about international law or world opinion, it would have almost certainly been cheaper and easier to attack and annex the oil regions of Venezuela and/or Mexico (shorter supply lines and fewer language problems.)
I do kind of like the OIL acronym - maybe we can use it for Operation Iranian Liberation!
Sorry, I don't have the stomach to read the rest of this mess.
#3
it appears that the long-term plans are to build and maintain four to six “permanent super-bases” .........American suburbia with its requisite multinational fast food outlets, not to mention movie theaters and golf courses —
I've been to a few of them here in the last 30 days..... anyone got a grid on the ones he's talking about? My golf game is indeed suffering.
#4
Cut that guy some slack, he's writing at DISSIDENT voice, he's a Rebel™, a Non-conformist™, a Free-thinker™ in a sea of sheeples, and he's trying to Enlighten™ the sweating masses. He is our better, we should acknowledge that.
#5
"Rantburgers, please help me educate this gentleman."
Forget it, Marine0352; people like him are beyond educating. They believe the crap they believe not because they're misinformed, but because they NEED to believe it lest their entire self-image collapse.
People like him are mentally defective, not uneducated.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/21/2007 9:52
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This is what over 70 years of marxist and neomarxist subversion produces : self-replicating memetic warbots hellbent on weakening/destroying their own society because they've been taught it's Evil.
#7
The article is unreadable. Clearly Mr. Brook did not acquire a degree in any of the many fields where clear written communication is required. The verbs with which he starts the article are only tangentially related to the subject matter, and the second paragraph is comprised almost entirely of a single run-on sentence totalling 203 words. Perhaps when Mr. Brook can write better it will be worthwhile to fisk his attempt at thinking. In the meantime, the editor at Dissident Voice should be hung for dereliction of duty.
#9
#3
I thought the entry fee for the Baqouba Open was much too high.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007 11:05
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#10
I think the world would be a safer and more stable place if the US did seize all the oil fields in the ME, walled them off and sold the oil to the world markets at just above cost. The terrorist backers would be out of cash and the rest of the world would have a stable source of energy.
#11
Just one (of many) lil' problems with his theory:
Those "sprawling, huge metropolis like" bases in the Middle East we're building? Won't that actually decrease the amount of CO2 the military puts out because they're closer to "ground zero" where we need to be most of the time? I consider that a plus in the War on Air Pollution.
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007 15:52
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#12
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR > MUST WE STOP FLYING TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING, SAVE THE PLANET. Support your local Hosses/Asses-and-Camels distributor(s). Smokestack- and Union-intensive industries = Amers must live in Tents + Togas + Polygamy, etc.
A gunman killed Kubusoh Bukiyakong, 30, while she was working with two friends in a rubber plantation in Narathiwat's Rangae district. The gunman walked up to Kubusoh and fired three times. The victim died instantly as her friends narrowly escaped by running away.
Meanwhile, in Yala's Ban-nang Sata district, a resident was shot dead while leaving home to work in an orchard at about 9am. One of two men on a motorbike opened fire on Piramlee Apibalbae, 43, as he was about to leave his house. In Narathiwat's Muang district, terrorists militants sprayed AK-47 bullets into a teashop, injuring three men at 8pm on Sunday.
The southern violence continues unabated with more killings on Monday night. In the latest attack, a security guard for Sungai-kolok municipality was brutally murdered after his neck was slashed by his attacker. The 41-year-old victim was identified as Mawi Chamai-upai. Authorities confirmed the incident took place near a convenient store in Sungai-kolok municipality. Investigators are still tracking down the person or group of people responsible for this attack. Only last month another security guard died in the same way in the same area.
Tonight, PBS will air "Gold Futures," a film by Hungary's Tibor Kocsis. The film focuses on residents in Romania's Rosia Montana, a rural Transylvanian town, who are divided over the benefits of a proposed gold mine. It also features Gabriel Resources, the Canadian mining company trying to convince them to relocate so it can dig for a huge gold deposit estimated at 14.6 million ounces, worth almost $10 billion. PBS describes the film as a "David-and-Goliath story."
While the film gives time to supporters and opponents of the mine, it leaves unsaid that half of the villagers voicing opposition have now either sold their homes or will not have to move, because they live in a protected area where the village's historic structures and churches will be preserved. Viewers who see pristine shots of the Rosia valley won't realize the hills hide a huge, abandoned communist-era mine, leaking toxic heavy metals into local streams--or that while the modern mining project will level four hills to create an open pit, it will also clean up the old mess at no cost to the Romanian treasury.
The other side to the controversy is told in a new film that will never be shown on PBS, but is nonetheless rattling the environmental community. "Mine Your Own Business" is a documentary by Irish filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. They conclude that the biggest threat to the people of Rosia Montana "comes from upper-class Western environmentalism that seeks to keep them poor and unable to clean up the horrific pollution caused by Ceausescu's mining."
Mr. McAleer, a former Financial Times journalist who has followed the mine battle for seven years, says he "found that everything the environmentalists were saying about the project was misleading, exaggerated or quite simply false." . . .
. . . osia Montana Mayor Virgil Narita supports the mine because it will create 700 permanent local jobs. He was re-elected with 80% of the vote this year. And in late 2004, the Council of Europe sent Eddie O'Hara, a British Labour Party member of the European Parliament, to Rosia Montana to file an official report. Opposition to the mine, he said, was "substantial," but it was "very much fueled by outside bodies, presumably well-meaning but possibly counterproductively. It seems in part at least exaggerated." Mr. O'Hara concluded the opposition "do not take account of modern mining techniques and in fact the Rosia Montana project will help to clear up existing pollution." He also warned that not allowing the mine "would remove any chance of local development for some time."
And there's the rub. Rosia Montana needs a cleanup and development. Three-quarters of its 600 families lack indoor toilets, unemployment tops 70% and the only truly viable crop is potatoes. In "Mine Your Own Business," Andrei Jurca, the local dentist, tells Mr. McAleer "we don't need foreign advocates. We are smart enough to take our own fate in our own hands." Other villagers note that concerns about Gabriel's use of cyanide in gold mining are misplaced. Seven out of nine existing gold mines in European Union countries use cyanide and the allowable limits in Rosia Montana will be lower than all of them. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007
06:36 ||
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An Australian court has overturned a government decision to revoke the visa of an Indian doctor who was accused, but later cleared, of involvement in the failed car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow. The courtÂ’s decision was a bitter blow for the federal government, which has been criticised by civil rights groups and lawyers for its bungled arrest and subsequent release of Dr Mohamed Haneef in July.
Also a blow to common sense.
Dr Haneef, 27, was arrested in Brisbane, Queensland, in July and held for 11 days before being charged with “recklessly supporting terrorism” by giving the SIM card of his mobile phone to a second cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, after leaving the UK last year.
British police have charged Sabeel, 26, with withholding information that could have prevented an act of terrorism. His brother, Kafeel, died earlier this month of burns sustained when he allegedly crashed a Jeep packed with explosives into the front of Glasgow Airport on June 30.
Charges against Dr Haneef were dropped for lack of evidence and he consistently maintained that he gave away his SIM card so that his cousin could take advantage of extra minutes remaining on a pre-paid plan.
Needed those extra minutes to finalize the terror plan.
During his detention, immigration minister Kevin Andrews revoked Dr Haneef’s working visa on character grounds, saying he had a reasonable suspicion the doctor had an “association” with Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed.
But Justice Jeffery Spender ruled that Andrews made a technical error in cancelling the visa by applying a character test incorrectly. Justice Spender granted the government 21 days to respond to his ruling. Mr Andrews said the government would appeal. “When I made the decision to cancel Dr Haneef’s visa, I made it in the national interest and I stand by that decision,” the minister said.
The government was accused of making him a scapegoat. What side are these courts on again?
I spoke with a Cypriot guy who claimed to have personally traveled through much of the land some time before the Jewish people really got going there. I doubt he really cared one way or the other so I figure he was probably telling the truth. He said he only came across one jewish woman who was working some land with a tractor. That was it. No Arabs.
Anybody know if any parts of this video are wrong?
#1
The video in all important respects is true. The Jew's error was to think they could share the prosperity they brought with the Arabs. Big time error which has taken 60 painful years to slowly and partially rectify. The Gaza isolation is quite simply the solution to that error. It will be imposed on the West Bank. Whether Arab areas of Israel will be divested to such an entity the future will decide.
#2
Mark Twain and others visitors to Palestine (the historical region, not the soviet-arab "paleo" construct) noted how barren it was, devoid of inhabitants and cultures; and the cities were the same, dusty, sleepy, and scarcely populated. Truth is, Israel is a modern creation, BY THE JOOOOOOOS... Before them, there was not a pre-existing arab Nation-State, but a semi-desert, stagnant minor turkish (ottoman) willaya/british mandate, with no distinct identity.
Actually, this is exactly the same as for modern algeria, a creation ex-nihilo of the pieds noirs (spanish/italian/french colonists), out of an ottoman human & cultural desert, whose current leaders now claimed was the equal if not the superior of France before colonization.
#4
It is true. Missing the part about how they were promised that land in the first place.
Usually, Israel gets sacked by some punk army, they spread out, then everyone deserts the land, then they come back, then everyone fights them about it. Rinse, repeat.
#6
Herman Melville visited Palestine in the 19th century and also concluded that the place was a barren, depressing dump.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
08/21/2007 10:02
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#7
A few notes. First of all, Israel is tiny, while yes, indeed, it was a wasteland. Second, the few Arabs who lived there *leased* the land from its mostly Lebanese owners. The Jews bought the land they then occupied.
So somebody rents a house, then a buyer approaches the owner and buys the house. But the renters claim that the house is theirs because they rented it.
#8
Darth,
Agreed. We have the comming attractions from the Gaza strip. All you have to do is look at what the Palis did with the greenhouses they inherited.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/21/2007 13:37
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A robber who held up a bookmaker's shop in Leicester with his girlfriend's vibrator has been jailed. Nicki Jex, 27, of Braunstone, Leicester, hid the sex toy in a carrier bag pretending it was a gun, Leicester Crown Court heard.
The manager at Ladbrokes in Narborough Road handed over more than £600 in cash when he pointed it at her on 27 December 2006, the court heard.
On Monday, Jex, who pleaded guilty to robbery, was jailed for five years. Sentencing him, Judge Philip Head said: "It's right to record that you did not have a firearm but you pretended you had and intended that those you confronted believed that you did, and it must have been truly terrifying for them at the time."
The robbery was captured by CCTV inside the shop. Pic at link.
As Jex left with more than £613 in till contents and other money, he was followed outside by the shop's last remaining customer Wayne Vakani the court heard.
"The defendant pointed the vibrator in the bag at Mr Vakani and warned him to back off," said Tim Palmer, prosecuting. "Mr Vakani then kept a discreet distance but kept an eye on the defendant and watched where he went."
The court heard that it was thanks to this customer that the defendant's hat, worn during the robbery and containing his DNA, was discovered nearby.
Initially Jex denied any involvement but later changed his plea. He was a drug addict with a string of previous convictions dating back to February 2002, the court heard. In mitigation, Phil Gibbs, defending, said Jex, a qualified chef and engineer, had a "fragile" state of mind. He told the court: "One can be thankful that the item he had wasn't a firearm. On the other hand, think of the damage and pain it could have caused.
"Frankly, he didn't care less what happened to him at that time. He was falling into the abyss and that's the Root Cause™ of drugs."
Mr Vakani was awarded £500 by Judge Head for his "very considerable courage".
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007 6:15
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#2
Ummm... Judge Head vs. the Vibrator Robber?
And while I approve of the good Mr. Vakani receiving an award for his actions, I think it should have been more to mitigate the pain and suffering this man will get from his mates for facing down Mr. Good-Times.
U.S. military officials are narrowing the range of Iraq strategy options and appear to be focusing on reducing the U.S. combat role in 2008 while increasing training of Iraqi forces, a senior military official told The Associated Press on Monday.
The military has not yet developed a plan for a substantial withdrawal of forces next year. But officials are laying the groundwork for possible overtures to Turkey and Jordan on using their territory to move some troops and equipment out of Iraq, the official said. The main exit would remain Kuwait, but additional routes would make it easier and more secure for U.S. troops leaving western and northern Iraq.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because internal deliberations are ongoing, emphasized that the discussions do not prejudge decisions yet to be made by President Bush. Those decisions include how long to maintain the current U.S. troop buildup and when to make the transition to a larger Iraqi combat role.
It is widely anticipated that the five extra Army brigades that were sent to the Baghdad area this year will be withdrawn by late next summer. But it is far less clear whether the Bush administration will follow that immediately with additional drawdowns, as many Democrats in Congress are advocating.
Bush has mentioned publicly that he likes the idea, first proposed late last year by the Iraq Study Group, of switching the emphasis of U.S. military efforts from mainly combat to mainly support roles. But he also has said that this should not happen until Baghdad in particular is stable enough to enable Iraqi political leaders to make hard choices about reconciling rival interests among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
There are now 162,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, of which 30,000 have arrived since February as part of Bush's revised strategy to stabilize Baghdad and to push Iraqi leaders to build a government of national unity.
Military efforts to stabilize the country effort have made strides in recent months, but political progress has lagged.
In a joint statement Monday, Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., said that while the military buildup has "produced some credible and positive results," the political outlook is darker. The senators said that during their visit to Iraq last week they told Iraqi leaders of American impatience with the lack of political progress, and "impressed upon them that time has run out in that regard."
In a separate telephone interview with reporters, Levin urged the Iraqi assembly to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and replace his government with one that is less sectarian and more unifying.
Speaking to reporters in Washington by phone from Tel Aviv, Levin acknowledged that while there is broad frustration with the lack of action by the al-Maliki government, U.S. officials cannot dictate a change in leadership there. He said he and Warner did not meet with al-Maliki when they were in Iraq this time.
In response to Levin's remarks about dumping al-Maliki, Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, noted that Iraqi leaders have been holding talks in recent days on ways to move toward a unified government.
"We urge them to come together, reach agreements and show the Iraqi people and the rest of the world their determination to create a stable and prosperous Iraq," Johndroe told reporters, adding that the administration believes al-Maliki is capable of moving the talks to a successful conclusion.
Under pressure even from members of his own party to change direction in Iraq, Bush is expected to decide his next steps after hearing in September from Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, on what the U.S. troop buildup has accomplished.
Petraeus and Crocker are likely to present their views to Congress on Sept. 11 or 12, said Johndroe, the National Security Council spokesman. Johndroe said White House officials are consulting with congressional leaders this week on setting a date for the testimony.
Bush also will receive advice and recommendations from Defense Secretary Robert Gates as well as the Joint Chiefs and Adm. William Fallon, the top commander for American forces in the Middle East.
Bush's options are limited, politically and practically. The Army and Marine Corps do not have the capacity to increase troop levels, or even to maintain the current number beyond next spring. With the 2008 presidential election approaching, it's not so much a question of whether troop levels will be cut but when and how much.
U.S. commanders in Iraq believe they are making substantial progress toward stabilizing Baghdad and other contested parts of the country—including in Anbar province in western Iraq where the insurgency has weakened noticeably this year. But they are dubious about the ability of Iraq's political leaders to take advantage of the improved security in ways that promote political reconciliation.
Petraeus and other senior commanders have said in recent weeks that the U.S. troop buildup will end in 2008, but Petraeus has not yet recommended a follow-on strategy to Bush. Much depends on judgments about how soon Iraqi security forces will be ready to assume a bigger role, as well as the likelihood of political progress.
#3
RUSSIA > debate on "RUSSIAN DOCTRINE" i.e. preservation of Russian traditions and values = "Russian/SLavic-ness"???. Also,COUNTERTERRORISM
BLOG > THE DECENTRALIZED [Regional-Global]NETWORKS OF MUSLIM TERRORISTS AND TRANSNATIONAL MAFIAS. LUCIANNE > Islamist Terror and Mexican Mafias.
#4
It is also waging an aggressive, under-the-media-radar campaign for a cabinet-level Peace Department in the United States. Sponsored by Ohio Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich (along with more than 60 cosponsors), House Resolution 808 would authorize a Secretary of Peace to “establish a Peace Academy,”
Most people, and most of his colleagues, realize that Kucinich is a Looney Tune Quack who should be on serious meds. If he is one of the authors main worries then we should be all right.
Paramilitary troopers have apprehended 15 suspected Al Qaeda activists from a border town in Manipur after the group entered the region from Myanmar, officials said Monday. A defence ministry spokesperson said Assam Rifles troopers nabbed the group from a house Friday at Moreh town, 110 km from Manipur's capital Imphal. Moreh is located on the border with Myanmar. They were proceeding to Bangladesh via Manipur and Silchar in Assam, the sources said. Foreign currency, including US dollars, was seized from the arrested persons, the sources said. The other currencies recovered from them were Bangladeshi Taka, Myanmarese Kyat and some coins.
While one of the activists had a work permit of Thailand, identity card, hospital card, income tax card, a bank receipt of a Kuala Lumpur bank were also seized from the others, the sources said.
The activists were identified as Mohammed Nasen (42), Faizu Rehaman (17), Sled Salam (21), Abul Hussein (42) and Mohammed Rehman (18), all Bangladeshi nationals. The rest were identified as Mahabu Basar (22), Mohammed Junet (28), Basir Ahmad (21), Mohammed Salim (23), Sabir Ahmad (31), Mohammed Rohid (17), Abdullah (32), Mohammed Abdul (18), B Ahmad (18) and Sali Ahmad (32), all from Myanmar-Bangladesh border, the sources said.
"The group of 15 Muslim migrants had entered Moreh from Myanmar without valid travel documents. We shall be formally handing them over to the police Monday for further interrogation," defence spokesperson Lalit Pant told IANS. "No arms or ammunition were recovered from the group." Police and intelligence officials said 10 of them were Myanmarese and five were Bangladeshi nationals - the group members were planning to enter Bangladesh through neighbouring Assam. "There is a strong suspicion that they have links with the Al Qaeda or some other Muslim fundamentalist or terrorist groups. We shall soon be interrogating them," a senior police official said requesting not to be named.
Manipur, bordering Myanmar, is a hotbed of insurgency. Most rebel groups in Manipur have bases in Myanmar from where they carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Britons view Muslims with more suspicion than their American or European counterparts, according to a poll published in the Financial Times on Monday. According to the Harris Interactive survey of 6,398 people, only about 59 percent of Britons believed it was possible to be both a Muslim and a British citizen, compared to more than 70 percent of Spanish and French voters. Fifty-two percent of British respondents also said they expected a "major terrorist attack" in Britain within the next 12 months, the highest proportion of the six countries surveyed, with 32 percent of Spanish voters, 30 percent of Americans and between 15 and 18 percent of French, Germans and Italians expecting such an attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#2
Most of the UK media is quick to cover extremist comments by Muslim leaders. In contrast, the DOJ's labeling of CAIR and the ISNA as unindicted co-conspirators in a Texas case, has NOT been widely reported. Journalists should have no agenda other than to report the facts.
#5
Yes! Great Idea, let Bush do it. Then he can be blamed if it doesn't work out. Here is an idea, why doesn't the Government of Britain take a stand on something.
#6
RE: #5 Yes! Great Idea, let Bush do it. Then he can be blamed if it doesn't work out. Here is an idea, why doesn't the Government of Britain take a stand on something."
They already did; they approved of the Iranians providing food and shelter for a bunch os Sailors and Marines recently. And also provided, free for the taking several small patrol boats.
Sounds like they stand for something......
Armed raiders killed a policeman and wounded four others in an attack on a refugee camp in Darfur, adding to fears about the safety of displaced people the war-torn Sudanese region, officials said on Monday.
The attackers fired on a police post at Al Salam camp in the south of Darfur, the base for thousands of people who have fled their homes during more than four years of revolt. "This happened yesterday in Al Salam camp," deputy governor of South Darfur state Farrah Mustafa told Reuters from Darfur. "They killed one of our police and injured four."
Mustafa said investigations were continuing into who carried out the attack. He said 26 armed men attacked the post and tried unsuccessfully to steal police vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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A security court convicted and sentenced four Egyptian terror suspects on Monday to life in prison for their involvement in three 2005 terrorist attacks that killed two French tourists and an American, judicial officials said. Five others, including two women, received jail sentences that ranged from one to 10 years in prison, while the court quitted four others over the lack of evidence, the officials said. The verdict hearing for another suspect was postponed because he was sick and could not attend, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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The war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been postponed until Chuck dies peacefully in his sleep early next year to allow his defence team more time to prepare. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has given Taylor's defence lawyers another four months to examine new evidence.
Taylor has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, for his role in Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war. He is accused of arming and controlling Sierra Leone's notorious Revolutionary United Front in exchange for diamonds.
His defence team has argued that witnesses who could testify in Taylor's favour are reluctant to do so because of UN sanctions imposed on many of his relatives, friends and associates.
I swear that my shoes had NOTHING to do with these horrible crimes- they were on my feet at the time. Even though I've got the limited edition ones with the skull and crossed-crutches on the side.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday hinted it would renounce its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing if India were to resume trials, last carried out by both countries nine years ago. New Delhi has said its right to conduct tests will not be undermined by a bilateral civilian nuclear deal with the United States which has raised concerns here.
“We take seriously the assertions by the India leadership about the possibility of resuming nuclear tests,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly briefing. “Resumption of nuclear tests by India would create a serious situation obliging Pakistan to review its position and to take action, appropriate and consistent with our supreme national interest,” she said.
That's right, boys, use up your nukes testing them. Show us what big stuff you are.
Aslam said that Pakistan had proposed a nuclear test ban treaty to India to end the arms race in South Asia. “Pakistan continues to adhere to its unilateral moratorium on testing. We have also proposed to India a bilateral agreement on a test ban,” she said. “Pakistan does not want a nuclear arms race in the region but at the same time we are committed to maintain a credible minimum deterrence in the interest of strategic balance which is indispensable for our bare survival peace in the region.”
“We have been emphasising repeatedly that Pakistan has also its energy needs and we have future energy procurement plans which include the development of civilian nuclear power plants,” she said. “We want to develop civilian nuclear power generation under international safeguards.
“Pakistan is fully committed to non-proliferation and we believe that for effectiveness of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime Pakistan must be treated and viewed as a partner.”
Pakistan has also raised eyebrows over an Australian bid to sell uranium to India, saying it would tilt the strategic balance in New Delhi’s favour. “Like the US-India nuclear deal, the decision by Australia to sell uranium to India is a matter which warrants close attention. Any development that can impinge on the strategic balance in South Asia is a matter of vital concern to us,” Aslam said.
Especially since the long-term strategic balance is running against you.
A US report said earlier this year that Pakistan was building a third nuclear reactor to produce material for atomic bombs.
That's different, of course.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Wonder if India is cooking up a layer cake and needs to test for doneness.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/21/2007 5:55
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#2
India isn't about to resume testing.
The statements made in their parliament were in response to opposition criticism. All Manmohan Singh said was that their voluntary moratorium on testing was still in effect but they reserved the right to test again. The 123 agreement signed with the US made no mention of testing.
One of the motives behind the Chinese proliferation of nuclear weapons is to tie down and hopefully disarm regional rivals.
Thus North Korea gets the bomb, China organizes a big conference where the entire Korean peninsula and hopefully East Asia is denuclearized. So no bombs for South Korea, or Japan.
China gets to keep theirs however.
Pakistan got the bomb for the same reason. India's hands get tied and China can push for "South Asian" disarmament.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2007 8:05
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Earlier, the prosecution and the defence finished their arguments and the court recorded statements of 14 prosecution witnesses. According to the prosecution, a group of JMB members led by Salahuddin killed Hridoy Roy of Sonarcor in Jamalpur's Sarishabari upazila on April 23, 2003 because he allegedly converted poor Muslim locals to Christianity. A murder case was filed with Sarishabari Police Station following the incident without naming any suspects. Investigation into the case later revealed that JMB members had been behind the killing.
This article starring:
AMIR KHAN
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Judge Mohammad Israil Hossain of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4
SALAHUDIN ALIAS SALEHIN
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
SHARIF MONWAR ALIAS SHIPLU
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Iran is threatening to strike the U.S. with "stronger punches" while Hezbollah vows it is ready to become "dismembered limbs to keep Iran strong and dignified." This will likely leave Lebanon in the crossfire.
The Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Gen. Rahim Safawi, who met Hizbullah's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem at a religious conference in Tehran, has threatened the United States with "Stronger Punches" and an Iranian dissident expected the group to strike in Lebanon. Safawi made the remarks in an interview with the Iranian daily Keyhan stressing that "America will receive stronger strikes and punches from the Revolutionary Guards in the future."
"We will not remain silent in the face of American pressure and we will use all the force we have to confront the Americans. The Revolutionary Guard Corps has a tremendous power ? and we have sophisticated weapons," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
EINNEWS > IRAN > IRAN READIES MISSLES FOR NUKE WARHEADS, + US OFFICIALS: THERE WILL BE AN [US?] ATTACK UPON IRAN articles.
#2
Hezbollah vows it is ready to become "dismembered limbs to keep Iran strong and dignified."
Yeah, we can accommodate dismemberment of Hezbollah. Iran was never strong and dignified you dipwad. We can also dismember Iran. Every a$$hat in the mideast wants to be a comedian.
Electricity in Gaza on Monday became the latest battleground in the struggle between the coastal strip's Islamic Hamas rulers and their Fatah rivals, who have accused Hamas of pocketing electricity revenues. The losers are hundreds of thousands of Gazans, who have been plunged into darkness as European donors cut off key electricity aid.
On Sunday, the European Union stopped paying for fuel to power generators that produce electricity for at least half of Gaza's population of 1.4 million. On Monday, it said the payments would not resume because it had received word that Hamas was "diverting" electricity revenues.
Oh golly, there's a surprise, huh? Diverting cash to the Widows Ammunition Fund instead of paying for the widows' electricity?
"We are ready to resume our support to the Gaza power plant within hours once we receive the appropriate assurances that all the funds will be exclusively used for the benefit of the Gaza population," the European Commission - the EU's executive branch - said in a statement.
"Hamas is collecting all the electricity fees and never pays the costs of the electricity," said Jawwad Hirzallah, deputy minister of economy. "The Europeans were paying $10 million that Hamas collects from the people and doesn't pay the costs. So the European Union found itself paying the electricity company, while Hamas was pocketing the revenues."
Nice little scam, and the Euros -- up until now -- were easy marks.
But the Islamic militant group - which last month arrested the electric company's Fatah-affiliated executive director on corruption charges - has denied taking the utility's money. And it accused the government in Ramallah of trying to discredit it through the electricity crisis. "The government in Gaza is not involved in the operations of the (electric) company," said Ala Araj, a Hamas adviser. "In the next few days, the government will announce the investigations of the former director of the company, who stole money the EU donated."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
This is beyond obvious. They must have known it was happening. Who got pi$$ed off in Euroland? Or, more likely I think, did someone on the west side of the Atlantic have a little talk with someone on the east side?
#2
Gaza – Ma'an – Details of financial and administrative corruption in the Palestinian power company in Gaza was revealed by the deputy chair of the Palestinian power authority, Kan'an 'Ubeid, on Monday evening.
At a press conference in Gaza City, 'Ubeid said there was evidence of money and grants being embezzled as well as finances provided for projects that never materialized.
He called on the European Union to send monitors and auditors from local and international companies to investigate the accusations that money paid in utility bills was ending up in Hamas' coffers.
'Ubeid also called on President Mahmoud Abbas to bring to justice those alleged to have been involved in corruption at the power company. He revealed that a number of suspects have been arrested and have admitted to stealing fuel from the company.
He accused the Palestinian minister of information Riyad Al-Maliki of falsely claiming that Hamas took control of the power generating company and its income.
"There had been a contract with a local company to supply 430 thousand litres of fuel to run the company's generators, and the grant was stolen by the former general manager of the company, the financial manager in cooperation with the supplying company," 'Ubeid explained.
'Ubeid also a grant of 586,000 US dollars from the European Union appeared to be unaccounted for.
#3
Europe should treat Palestinians like Israelis. That is, give them mucho money for attacking The Other with impunity. Thank Yaweh no Israelis ever get accused/convicted of embezzlement, nepotism, rape, harassment or other corruptions...not even their leaders.
Right.
I think this ongoing hammering of the already-weak will work. It certainly did in the Warsaw Ghetto. Sick, hungry, dying Jews just had to be treated that way. Their errant ways forced the Germany Army to a fair fight: tanks against pistols.
Same thing per the IDF and Hamas. ItÂ’s only fair that a super-power with nukes goes against an occupied people with no army, borders, access to the outside world, etc. We wonÂ’t go into how Jews used terror to create their racist state. What was the Stern Gang compared to Hamas.
Oh. I see. Both targeted civilians.
Funny how IsraelÂ’s "most moral soldiers in the world" got their clocks cleaned in Lebanon by Hizbollah. I guess 40 years of shooting kids for throwing stones, humiliating grandfathers in front of their families, making pregnant women give birth at checkpoints, etc. doesn't keep so-called warriors strong, much less right.
#4
I knew it! Damn Jooos making those Hamas guys steal all that EU money and put their own people in the dark! I knew it!
Awwwwww...look what you made us do!
#5
Yes, indeed, MereMortalMan is correct. Just as the Nazi effort reduced the Jewish population of Europe by something like 90% (a reverse decimation -- how clever of them!) and the number of Jews on the planet by one third, so the Israeli effort in the Palestinian territories increased the Palestinian population from 500,000 in 1948 to 4,000,000 today, with another million or so Palestinian expatriots, a ten-fold increase. Truly genocidaires to match the Nazis!
#6
MerelyMortalMan : what the esteemed and graceful Tw said (see this too, but that's all lies, of course!).
Your talking points are straight out of the massive propaganda effort sustained by the Forces of Progress and the arabs over the last few decades : you've bought them line and sinker, congrats.
BUT, let me tell you, even if those were true, even if this was what really is happening in those disputed (and not occupied, that's not my dinstinction, but international law's) territories... I wouldn't care, and would support the israelis, even if they were Racist™ oppressors of those poor, wretched innocent brown people... because those poor, wretched innocent brown people define themselves as my ennemies, because the persons who support them here (either the leftist bots or the local version of poor, wretched innocent brown people) define themselves as my ennemies,a nd because in last analysis, Israel is a white, european, western State, and you've got to support your kind (sorry, gr*omgoru!), espcially in those stormy times (post-60's).
#9
Silly me; I would have thought that by now these fools would have figured out that infrastucture is necessary to survive and become productive. But after the greenhouse demo derby and the other various public utility trash-a-thons these asshats have done, why didn't I see the obvious??? perhaps I am the one in need of an application of the Cluebat......
Six security personnel were killed and 18 others, including a civilian, were wounded on Monday when a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a checkpoint on Kurram Road in Tal tehsil of Hangu district, officials said.
Seven police officials were killed and several injured in a similar attack at the entrance of the Hangu Police Training Centre last month. Hangu District Police Officer (DPO) Ghulam Mohammad Khan said the suicide bomber came in a blue jeep from Miranshah and struck the Militia Mandoori check-post.
According to sources, a woman died when security forces opened indiscriminate fire after the incident. There were also reports of cross firing in the district after the blast. After the blast, senior police officials rushed to the scene and blocked the Hangu-Kurram Agency road.
Meanwhile, militants fired three missiles at Mir Ali camp on Sunday night. "One of the missiles hit the house of a Frontier Constabulary jawan, injuring a woman," they said.
Militants fired rockets at the Gunggat Jaur Khasadar post in the Kuz Hameer Kund area of Safi tehsil, on Sunday night, causing minor injuries to two Khasadars.
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08/21/2007
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A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only officer charged with abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison after an investigator acknowledged he failed to read the defendant his rights. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan is the last of 12 Abu Ghraib defendants to be court-martialed. He still faces four counts, including cruelty and maltreatment of detainees.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Malaysia's government has freed another four suspected Islamic militants jailed without trial for more than four years but authorities have restricted their movements, activists said Monday. It was the second release this year of alleged militants held under the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial. Four men were freed in June.
The latest four releases came on Aug. 15, 16 and 17 from the Kamunting prison camp in northern Malaysia, rights group Abolish ISA Movement said in a statement. The suspects were freed on the condition that they remain within the districts in which they live. Three of the men - Shukry Omar Talib, Mohammed Kadar and Mohamad Azmi Abdul Karim - were arrested in early 2002 while Shahime Ramli was detained in March 2003. All were held on suspicion of being members of the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, the rights group said.
The group called for the restrictions to be lifted so that they could return to normal life. It also slammed the "selective releases" of ISA detainees by authorities, saying another 40 JI suspects held under the security law remained in Kamunting. The group called on the government to "release or prosecute all ISA detainees in Kamunting."
Internal Security Ministry officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The government usually does not publicly announce the release of people held under the ISA. No reason was given for the release, but security officials have said in previous cases that suspects were freed after they repented following intensive rehabilitation. Hundreds of people were arrested under the ISA in a sweep against Jemaah Islamiyah and its local affiliate, Kumpulan Militan Malaysia, mostly between 2001 and 2003. Jemaah Islamiyah is widely blamed for a string of terror attacks in the region, most notably the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly Western tourists.
Malaysian opposition groups and activists have called for the ISA to be repealed, saying the law is widely abused to silence dissidents, but officials insist it is necessary to protect national security and ensure stability.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
Three years into the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally and its chief Sheikh Hasina, progress in the investigation still stands at the start line, thanks to the influence on it of the immediate past four-party alliance government. The case now also stands as a glaring example of how governments' top levels can manage to manipulate criminal investigations to meet their own political ends.
Less than a month into the attack, the then ruling BNP lawmakers in the parliament in presence of the erstwhile prime minister Khaleda Zia blamed AL for perpetrating the grisly attack on its own rally endangering the life of its own chief while leaving 24 killed and over 300 others maimed. The government's stance subsequently influenced the then investigators of the case enough to weave a story, involving a ward level AL leader and former ward commissioner of Maghbazar area in the capital, Mokhlesur Rahman. They attempted to feed the public the woven story through an ostensible confessional statement made by a petty criminal Joj Miah, in which he had named Mokhlesur as one of the planners of the attack.
Police officials, who had been tight-lipped about the case until the recent regime change bringing in the seat of power the current military backed caretaker government, are now saying that the erstwhile supervising officer of the case, criminal investigation department's (CID) Special Superintendent Ruhul Amin, invented Joj Miah out of the blue to keep the real criminals out of the reach of the probe. Joj's very weakly woven statement drew media criticisms finally making it appear as blatantly meritless, and he himself turned out to be a creation of the police department's well practiced imaginations, when his sister soon after his arrest divulged to the media that CID had been paying Joj Miah's family Tk 2,500 a month for upkeep since the arrest.
Continued on Page 49
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WASHINGTON — After a brief trip to Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin said Monday that the Iraqi Parliament should vote no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki because of its sectarian nature and leadership.
"The Maliki government is non-functional," Levin, D-Mich., said in a conference call with reporters.
He hasn't bothered checking out the Dhimmicratic Congressional Caucus lately, has he?
Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the panel's top Republican, just returned from a fact-finding mission to the country. The two reported that they are encouraged by the effects of the recent U.S. military surge there, but their enthusiasm is tempered by concerns about Iraq's political climate.
"We have seen indications that the surge of additional brigades to Baghdad and its immediate vicinity and the revitalized counter-insurgency strategy being employed have produced tangible results in making several areas of the capital more secure. We are also encouraged by continuing positive results — in al-Anbar Province, from the recent decisions of some of the Sunni tribes to turn against Al Qaeda and cooperate with coalition force efforts to kill or capture its adherents," the two said in a statement issued after leaving the country.
Speaking with reporters, Levin said he hopes when the Parliament reconvenes in the next few weeks, it will dissolve the government, which he said "cannot produce a political settlement because it is too beholden to sectarian leaders."
Levin said "broad frustration" exists across Iraq and within the Bush administration with al-Maliki, and he noted that the Iraqi constitution provides that 25 members of Parliament can sign a petition to hold this vote.
In a separate event, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an on-again, off-again supporter of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a British newspaper on Monday that the Iraqi government is on the brink of collapse. "Al-Maliki's government will not survive because he has proven that he will not work with important elements of the Iraqi people," the cleric was quoted by The Independent as saying. "The prime minister is a tool for the Americans, and people see that clearly. It will probably be the Americans who decide to change him when they realize he has failed. We don't have a democracy here, we have a foreign occupation."
The trip, which included an excursion to Jordan, gave the lawmakers a chance to see progress on the ground. The two met with a host of American and Iraqi officials, including Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The senators also met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Deputy Presidents Adil Abd Al-Mahdi and Tariq Al-Hashimi and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih.
The visit comes ahead of an expected September report from Petraeus that is to outline the 18 benchmarks laid out by Congress to measure progress in Iraq. The White House said Monday that report should be provided in open hearings on Capitol Hill on Sept. 11 or 12.
Levin and Warner said that during their meetings they had few reassurances that the Iraqi government will be able to cooperate in any meaningful way. "In many meetings with Iraqi political leaders, of all different backgrounds, we told them of the deep impatience of the American people and the Congress with the lack of political progress, impressed upon them that time has run out in that regard, and told them of the urgent need to make the essential compromises," the lawmakers said. "In all of our meetings we witnessed a great deal of apprehension regarding the capabilities of the current Iraqi government to shed its sectarian biases and act in a unifying manner."
Levin said the Iraqi government is "stronger and more capable" than 10 months ago when Levin was last in Iraq. The Iraqis have trained 10 of 12 divisions — 163,000 troops. But he said that until U.S. troops pull out of Iraq, the country's army won't take the lead. Levin is still pushing for the U.S. to begin drawing down to well below pre-surge levels in the next four months.
Despite progress being made on the military side of the surge, Sen Levin said that without political progress the military successes won't add up to much. "There is consensus: there is no military solution to the conflict," Levin said.
While many of the military goals have been met, opponents of the Iraq war are using the failure for reconciliation on several key political goals as ammunition to call for a withdrawal.
Without a political compromise, a lasting calm seems unlikely. However, an additional 20,000 troops are expected to rotate in by December. This is not associated with the surge but would briefly increase the numbers of U.S. soldiers in the country.
#1
Old meme: "There is no military solution!"
New meme: "We might have solved the military part but the political situation is unsolvable!"
Next meme: "Yeah, okay, but try this one!"
The Democrats will never admit victory and their MSM enablers will never hold them to their previous statements.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
08/21/2007 9:41
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One of the hijackers of a Turkish plane received training at an Al Qaeda camp and wanted to be flown to Iran so he could eventually join Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Monday, citing police.
Authorities didn't say at which Al Qaeda camp 33-year-old hijacker Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, an Egyptian of Palestinian origin, received training. Police said Talikh, along with Mehmet Resat Ozlu of Turkey, wielded a fake bomb and claimed Al Qaeda ties when hijacking the plane early Saturday after it took off from northern Cyprus. The pair held passengers and crew hostage for more than four hours before surrendering peacefully at the Turkish Mediterranean resort Antalya, where the plane had been diverted after taking off.
Dozens of Turks have joined Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or Iraq, police have said. Suicide bombers linked to Al Qaea hit Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people in attacks that targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank. In February, a court sentenced seven people to life in prison for the bombings.
The two hijackers had met in northern Cyprus a year ago and were lovers living together at the same house for a month, police said.
The two hijackers had met in northern Cyprus a year ago and were lovers living together at the same house for a month, police said. Ozlu was registered at the literature department of a university in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, Anatolia said.
Police said that during their interrogation the two suspects confessed that they wanted to divert the plane to Iran and travel to Afghanistan to join the "jihad." The men were among 136 passengers on board an Atlasjet flight that departed Saturday from Ercan in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus. Six crew members were on the flight.
The suspects told police during initial questioning that they tried to storm the cockpit shortly after takeoff. Passengers said they failed to break the door down.
The suspects told police during initial questioning that they tried to storm the cockpit shortly after takeoff, Antalya Governor Alaaddin Yuksel said. Passengers said they failed to break the door down. "They claimed to have bombs," passenger Erhan Erkul told Turkey's NTV television. Police said the men had not been armed with explosives.
"Shuddup, knucklehead! Stand back! I'm gonna storm the cockpit!"
[CLUNK! BOUNCE!]
"Hey, Moe! Are you okay, Moe?"
It was the fifth hijacking or hijacking attempt of a Turkish plane in four years by people falsely claiming to be carrying explosives or arms ? despite increased security at airports following the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.
Police questioned two passengers on suspicion of ties to the hijackers, but released them after concluding that they were not linked, Anatolia said. The hijackers allowed women and children to get off the plane. While doing that, a group of men escaped by breaking down the rear emergency exit. Six of the passengers were injured when they jumped onto the tarmac from the back of the plane, including a man who broke his pelvic bone.
This article starring:
MEHMET RESAT OZLU
al-Qaeda
MOMEN ABDUL AZIZ TALIKH
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Turkey
The deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament resigned on Monday in protest at internal feuding that has resulted in the legislative body being gridlocked for months. "The brothers [of Hamas and Fatah] cannot get together. I therefore present my resignation to the presidency of the legislative council and I will not change my mind," Hassan Khreisheh told a news conference in Ramallah.
Zowie. Actual Arab honor. Hoodathunkit?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Why would one protest a gridlocked legislative body? In my experience gridlock is the best possible alternative.
Two top militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit were gunned down by Indian security forces in south Kashmir Monday. Police said personnel of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police surrounded a house in Ganavpora village in Pulwama district, 50 km from here early Monday. "As the security forces tried to enter the house, the hiding militants opened heavy fire, which was returned. The fierce firing continued till late this afternoon. Two militants of LeT, including the outfit's district commander for Shopian district, was killed," a police spokesman here said.
He said arms and ammunition were recovered from the site. The slain militants have been identified as Abdul Hai Rather, LeT district commander, and Shiraz Ahmed, his associate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Army helicopters dropped at least three bombs at suspected underground bunkers of Islamic extremists in a north Lebanon refugee camp on Monday, and two more soldiers were killed in the fighting, a senior military official said.
The bombs dropped by the helicopters weighed 400 kilograms (880 pounds) each and could level entire buildings, local media said. A military official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity according to army regulations, said one soldier was killed overnight and another died Monday, raising to 140 the total number of troops killed since fighting erupted May 20.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Jordan is not ready to surrender Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter to Iraq, despite an Interpol alert and a new push from Iraq for her handover, a top government spokesman said Monday.
Nasser Judeh cited traditional Arab protection of a woman guest living in the country as the reason, but Iraqi officials contend the daughter deserves trial because she is funneling money to violent Sunni militants in Iraq. However, Judeh would not rule out the possibility that Raghad Saddam Hussein, 38, who enjoys asylum in Jordan, could be handed over to Iraqis at some later date.
The issue is one of several things that have caused tension between Iraq and Jordan in the last few years, as Shiite-Sunni tensions inside Iraq and across the region have grown. Jordan, which is mostly Sunni, has been leery of Iraq's Shiite-led government, while Iraq fears that Sunni insurgents get money and aid from the large Sunni Iraq refugee population in Jordan.
An Interpol red alert issued last year saying Raghad is wanted for "crimes against life, incitement and terrorism" gained new publicity after Iraqi government announcement this weekend. Government officials in Baghdad have previously accused Raghad of similar crimes - saying that she was one of several wealthy Amman-based Iraqi Sunni Arabs who are funding militants fighting a bloody insurgency that has bred sectarianism and brought the country to the brink of all-out civil war. Jordan has rejected requests by two successive Iraqi prime ministers, including the current Nouri al-Maliki, to hand over Raghad.
Raghad's asylum in the Hashemite kingdom was granted on humanitarian grounds, Judeh said. Privately, government officials have said that to hand her over would violate Arab codes of honor and would be embarrassing for Jordan. Under terms of her asylum, Raghad agreed "never to practice any political or media activities" while living in Jordan, Judeh said.
A red alert is only a warning from Interpol, not an arrest warrant, Judeh said. He would not say whether Raghad was mentioned during last week's high level security talks with Iraq's security adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie in the Jordanian capital. But Jordan's independent Al Arab Al Yawm daily reported Monday that al-Rubaie handed Jordanian officials a "list of wanted people, with Raghad at the top."
Citing unnamed members who were part of the Iraqi security delegation, the Arabic-language newspaper said the wanted among others also included Raghad's two cousins, Iraqi Sunni opposition leader Mishan al-Jubouri; a prominent journalist in Iraq, and the eldest son of Saddam's deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who is now in US custody.
Raghad, her younger sister Rana and their children came to Jordan in July 2003, three months after Baghdad fell to US-led forces who toppled their father. Jordan's King Abdullah II granted them asylum because they were considered as women and children left with no family and no male protection.
In 1996, Abdullah's late father, King Hussein, granted asylum to the women's husbands, including Raghad's husband Hussein Kamel - who was responsible for Iraq's nuclear file and the country's military industrialization - after they defected from Iraq. But months later, the men were lured back to Iraq where they were executed.
Raghad is known to have considered King Hussein as an "uncle." Hussein enjoyed good relations with Saddam, who provided cash-strapped Jordan with free oil. Former Information Minister Saleh Qallab ridiculed the allegations against Raghad in comments Monday in Jordan's pro-government al Rai newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
If someone comes into my house and tries to run criminal enterprise from it they would no longer be welcome as a guest. AFAIAC, Raghead Hussein does not seem to be behaving like a guest.
#5
Seems this could be handled by suspending jordanian diplomats' immunity until the witch is deported. It's a safe bet many of the diplos would already be jugged for this or that but for their immunity...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/21/2007 13:53
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A leader of rebels in Yemen, Abdul Malek Al Houthi, said yesterday a new war will never solve the problem between him and the government. "A military solution is a crime against the whole country, and if the authorities resorted to the military solution, they will never succeed as they did not succeed in the previous wars against us," said Al Houthi in a statement sent to local media. "And for us, we are not afraid of the threats. We are ready to defend ourselves and our principles and they [military] will be the losers if they went to war against us," he said.
The rebel leader's statement came after the President Ali Abdullah Saleh had threatened decisive military action against Al Houthi rebels if they did not give up the rebellion. "He has to respect his word and withdraw from his positions, otherwise, a military solution will be the decisive end," Saleh said earlier.
Al Houthi demanded continuation of dialogue although the talks with him achieved nothing during two months. "The authority escapes by going to war when it is defeated in dialogue, and when it is defeated by arguments and logic," Al Houthi said.
The government accused Al Houthi of foot-dragging and being not committed to the Qatari-brokered agreement for ending the fight between the government troops and the rebels. The Qatari side in the mediation left Sana'a last Friday for the second time since they started the process in mid-June. The mediation failed to convince Al Houthi to carry out the 10-point agreement during a period of 20 days. "There is no foot-dragging from our side in implementing the agreement and we have implemented everything which was wanted from us, but it is the government that has dragged its feet and did not implement anything until now," Al Houthi said.
He accused the Presidential committee of siding with the government saying, "It was always focusing on the points which obligate us and ignoring the points obligating the government. It was working as per certain instructions. Detentions are continuing and we face continuous provocations."
"The people of Sa'ada are witnessing our implementation of the agreement and our descending from mountains. We have documents proving everything we have done in the past but they want to militarise all the evacuated areas and this is what we refused because it does not go with the agreement. We also refuse deporting citizens from their areas," Al Houthi said.
Officials close to the government said the mediation had reached a deadlock after Al Houthi put new conditions to the mediators. He did not want to surrender two important places: Mutrah and Al Naqa'a, two strongholds south of Saudi Arabia. Another condition was to surrender the body of his brother Hussain who was killed in September 2004 in the first confrontations between government troops and the rebels. While Al Houthi and his followers say they are implementing the agreement and will not respond to 'government provocations', local sources in Sa'ada said that Al Houthi was building new positions in preparation for a new war.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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A majority of top US foreign policy experts say that Pakistan is most likely to become the next Al Qaeda stronghold and most likely to transfer nuclear technology to terrorists in the next three to five years, a new survey shows. According to the survey, 35 percent of the 108 experts polled by Foreign Policy magazine and the Centre for American Progress said that Pakistan was most likely to become the next Al Qaeda stronghold followed by Iraq 22 percent, Somalia 11 percent, Sudan 8 percent and Afghanistan 7 percent. Seventy-four percent of the experts said that Pakistan was most likely to transfer nuclear technology to terrorists. Forty-two percent said North Korea, thirty-eight percent said Russia, thirty-one percent said Iran and five percent said the US. Respondents were asked to name more than one country. A modest number of the experts favoured threatening Pakistan with sanctions. Yet about the same number support increasing US aid to the country. More than half of those surveyed believed the current US policy towards Pakistan was having a negative impact on national security. A majority of the experts said they would expect another September 11-scale attack within the next decade.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
I would say Iran would be number one if they got their hands on nukes either made by themselves or bourght from North Korea.
Another to worry about is Saudi who are behind all Sunni violence worldwide!!!!
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com/ recommended reading!
Posted by: Paul ||
08/21/2007 5:10
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Iran's ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has raised controversy after claiming in a new book that revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini did not favour the mantra of "Death to America". The revelation in the latest edition of Rafsanjani's diaries comes amid growing strains between Tehran and Washington but also after landmark talks with US officials on security in Iraq. The slogan "Death to America" symbolises Iran's enmity with the US and is chanted by the faithful after Friday prayers and often during speeches by the Islamic republic's top leaders. The comment comes in an entry from July 5, 1984, five years before Khomeini's death and in the midst of the 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which cost a million lives on both sides.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Rafsanjani is a liar. Khomeini coined the phrase "the great satan" in reference to the US. And his practise of leading the "death to america" chant after Friday prayers at Teheran University, goes on to this day. In fact, EVERY Ayatollah has led the prayers and chant, more than once. Suprise: the chant was cancelled for the first Friday after 9-11, then re-started the next week.
#4
If the US is 'The Great Satan', and Ahmadenejad says 'Iran will be Hell for the American soldiers if they invade,' and Hell is 'home' for Satan, does that mean Ahmadenejad plans a 'Welcome Home' party for us?
A computer expert who was accused of being al-QaedaÂ’s communication chief and was linked to the Heathrow bomb plot has been freed by Pakistani authorities. Lies! All lies!! He's as innocent as a puppy.
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan was arrested in Lahore in July 2004 but never charged. Uh huh.
Investigations had shown that he was the key connection between Osama bin LadenÂ’s inner circle and al-QaedaÂ’s operatives in Britain and the United States. He had also worked in close association with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. Close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears, and shout "Puppy! Puppy!"
Pakistani investigators said that Mr Khan had invented secret codes that enabled al-Qaeda operatives to send encrypted e-mails and messages via the internet. The information gleaned from Mr KhanÂ’s computer after his arrest revealed al-QaedaÂ’s plans for terrorist attacks against Britain and top financial institutions in the US. He's innocent anyway! Puppieeeee!
His interrogation helped to break down al-QaedaÂ’s cell in Britain and led to the arrest of Dahron Bharot, alias Eassa al-Hindi, and nine others. Bharot has recently been sentenced to 20 years jail. Among those arrested was Mr KhanÂ’s cousin, Ahmed Babar. So he had lots of info on the bad guys on his computer, his cousin is in the clink, but this guy didn't do ANYTHING wrong except maybe pee on the rug a little bit.
PakistanÂ’s Deputy Attorney-General, Mahbooba Elahi, said yesterday that Mr Khan had been allowed to return to his home in Karachi.
"Go forth, and encrypt no more!"
She gave no explanation as to why he was freed. Because he looked at you with those sad puppy-dog eyes? Never mind Ms. Elahi: I'm sure us Rantburg people can dream up a few possible explanations.
In Afghanistan, they are making an army from enemies. During the country's civil war nearly two decades ago, Ahmad Zai Waris and Zubir Ahmad fought on opposite sides of the lines, Waris heading a mujahedin group determined to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan and Ahmad as a soldier fighting for the Soviet-backed government. Now Waris and Ahmad live together on a military base in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar, hard against the Pakistan border. They often stay up late talking about guerrilla tactics of the past and how to use them against their new, shared adversary: the Taliban.
That's whatcha might call a "perfect storm" of doctrine raw material.
"If we are strong, no enemy will be able to infiltrate our villages. If the enemy cannot attack the army from villages, then they will have to fight from the open, where they can be defeated easily. And if fighting is in the open areas, civilians will not be at risk," says Waris. "We are the future of Afghanistan."
I'm not sure if they're talking about a "village watch" program like we had in Vietnam or a different approach. In Vietnam it didn't work all that well. The Vietnamese can be vicious warriors, but they don't have the tradition of it at the village level. The march at the behest of their rulers. Pashtuns have an opposite problem: they're too quick to shoot people up.
Some 38,000 Afghan soldiers have been trained by U.S. and coalition forces since 2003, and many already accompany NATO troops on the ground. The U.S. and the international community have launched an ambitious plan to nearly double the size of the Afghan National Army (ANA), to 70,000; to build a fully functioning police force of 82,000; and to lay the groundwork for a National Afghan Air Corps by December 2008. But building a strong army in the middle of a war is a difficult undertaking. Much of the Afghan corps is young, illiterate and prone to desertion. Few units are judged capable of fighting the resurgent Taliban on their own.
My guess would be that a bigger problem would be subordinating that warrior tradition to a soldierly approach. It's discipline and coordination that win wars, not individual ferocity - which is great for winning individual fights.
If the U.S. hopes to salvage some success for its increasingly parlous enterprise in Afghanistan, that will have to change.
I doubt anyone who knows anything about the subject was surprised by the fact that building a professional army within Afghanistan would be a complicated matter. Just the language differences were daunting enough. The fact that they're doing it slowly is a good sign. The previous Afghan army was modeled on the Soviet and it didn't work quite as well as its model, which in turn wasn't as great a shakes as it was made out to be at the time.
At a time when U.S. and NATO forces have come under scathing criticism for civilian casualties - figures compiled by Taliban and talibunnie threats media groups and human-rights organizations indicate that since the beginning of the year, the number of civilians killed by Western forces is on a par with those killed by militants - putting an Afghan face on the war has become an essential part of regaining the faith of the public.
It's a standard guerrilla tactic to mix with the civilian population for cover - it's not even a terrorist tactic. Think Chairman Mao: "The guerrilla is the fish, the people are the sea." Where you edge from guerrilla tactics into terrorism is when you start using them as physical shields, or you intentionally set things up so that your enemy damages them.
"All this anger about civilian casualties by foreign forces - it's just like Baghdad before everything started going downhill," says a Western official who has spent time in both countries. Because of a shortage of ground troops, the U.S. and NATO have relied on heavy and imprecise air strikes and artillery fire against the Taliban.
Except that our airstrikes are for the most part pretty precise. Within reason we hit what we're shooting at. If the Talibs pack what we're shooting at with women and children it's not a shortcoming on our part, it's a war crime on their part. But I don't hear the critics going on at length about the daily war crimes being committed by the head choppers.
Afghan forces, on the other hand, understand local culture and can live within communities, gathering intelligence and establishing security. "Every Afghan soldier that can fight effectively reduces U.S. boots on the ground, earns critical support from Afghans and has the potential to reduce collateral damage," says U.S. Ambassador William Wood. I call bullshit on all of the bolded sections above. What really pissed me off were the factual errors in terms of casualties and "imprecise" fires. Oh, and the gratuitous hit on the Westerners in favor or the locals
But progress toward that goal remains halting, as a visit to the centralized Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC) makes clear. Many recent recruits had never been to Kabul before and found it hard to adjust to barracks life and a fully planned schedule.
In 1943 my father, swept up by the draft, was on his first trip outside the hills of Kentucky at the age of 33. No doubt he found it difficult to adjust to barracks life.
Some were mystified by the socks that came with their uniforms.
I'm not sure where that mystery comes from.They're used to sandals, but they do wear socks with them.
Like soldiers around the world, they complain particularly about the food. "The cauliflower is much better at home," says Mohammad Rahim, 18, as he picks over a meal of vegetable stew, rice and bread served out on the range where he's been drilling on targeted fire.
Right. My Mom cooked better than the army cooks I had when I was in basic training, too. She was nicer to me than my sergeants, too.
For 18 weeks the recruits learn to march in formation, set up camp, shoot weapons, organize missions and react to ambushes. Staff Sergeant Robert Paul Rosell, a California National Guardsman who works as a mentor to the Afghan battalion led by Waris and Ahmad, says, "The hardest lesson is getting through the idea of 'one target, one shot.' They tend to go blacko on ammo." Other military trainers call it the "spray and pray" school of target practice.
That's a cultural characteristic.
Rosell has spent the past four months living at a small ANA base in eastern Afghanistan, about a mile (1.6 km) from the Pakistan border, part of a new program to embed U.S. soldiers with Afghan companies to ease the transition to full independence. It's rough work. For the first month of their deployment, the troops had no showers.
Life's tough in the field. But someday, they'll look back on it, and they'll think: "Boy! We really smelled bad!"
Snow, mud and rain dogged every patrol, and landslides caused the collapse of a couple of barracks and a chow hall. The post's remote location meant that food supplies flown in by helicopter were sometimes delayed - and when they did come, half the vegetables had already rotted. Even the camp dogs, a white Lab named Musharraf and a mutt called Putin, were getting tired of potatoes.
"Musharraf? You are named after a dog?"
I'm not surprised, considering that potatoes are among dogs' least favorite foods.
The Afghans held impromptu dance performances when patrols went well and cracked jokes when they didn't. "Even on the worst days, they'd still be smiling," says Rosell. "These guys can handle anything."
That's not an exclusive cultural trait, except maybe for the dancing. It's a characteristic of good troops.
That's good, since the job of an ANA soldier is one of the most dangerous in Afghanistan. The dark khaki camouflage uniform, a gift from the U.S. government, may as well be a beacon for insurgent attacks. Several hundred ANA forces have died in combat since 2003, and a Taliban directive has decreed that ANA soldiers are infidels for their affiliation with the foreign forces. Insurgents prefer to target Afghan forces rather than NATO, knowing that the poorly prepared troops rarely drive armored vehicles and that they lack sufficient retaliatory firepower to mount a counteroffensive.
What they need is tighter liaison between the Afghans and the NATO troops. In an ideal world, they'd fight as a single force. I would guess that's an ultimate goal.
The rising military death toll has made recruiting new soldiers even more difficult, says Colonel Karimullah, head of army recruiting in Kabul. "The boys themselves are not afraid," he says. "But it is their parents who make the decisions to let them join, and when they see all this on TV, they don't think it's worth it."
Young men of that age group usually think of themselves as indestructible. I shudder when I think of some of the dumbass things I did when I was that age. Mom and Dad, with a years-long investment in raising them, view things differently. The teevee's a reminder they didn't have during the Soviet era.
Though recruitment rates have risen from 600 to 2,000 a month, re-enlistment is still a problem. Only half the soldiers renew their contracts once their three-year tours are up.
A 50 percent reenlistment rate's really pretty good for first-termers.
If a fair number of the ones who muster out remember what they were taught, remember that the fella from the next village wasn't so bad even though he snored at night, and remember that they're part of a nation as well as a tribe, a clan and a village, the other 50% will become just as valuable over time.
Many Afghans say their $100 monthly salaries are less than what they can make growing poppies or smuggling.
Money's not a motivator for military service, though. If you want to make money, you become a a lawyer or a politician. Once military pay makes it into the "adequate" range - enough to keep body and soul together, maybe even enough to support a family if you go career - mission and unit become the motivators. If the guy's not motivated by the mission and his unit, you don't want him anyway.
The escape rate, the equivalent of going AWOL in the U.S., is an ongoing headache for both the American and Afghan commanders. After a grueling tour in eastern Afghanistan, Waris sent his men home for a month's holiday. Six weeks later, they were still trickling back to their base near Kabul. One soldier, already late by a week, had told friends he was afraid to return, for fear of the commander's anger. Waris had to promise he wouldn't punish the man before he would agree to come back. "What can I do?'' he asks. "We need these guys."
The U.S. Army had the same sort of problems up until 150 years ago. They're rooted in society's structure, and that's changing, albeit reluctantly, in Afghanistan right now.
The Bush Administration has asked Congress for $8.6 billion to build up the Afghan National Security Forces over the next two years, with the international community contributing an additional $1.7 billion a year thereafter. (Considering that its fiscal 2005 GDP was $7.1 billion, Afghanistan can hardly be expected to foot the bill.) "It's a bargain," says Major General Robert Durbin, former commander of the Combined Security Transition Command in Afghanistan. "We are spending $15 billion a year now for the presence of U.S. forces. So for a fraction of the cost, you have the Afghans pick up the fight. So we have the option, if we so choose, to reduce our forces, and that's a good return on investment." Staff Sergeant George Beck Jr., a U.S. soldier training new recruits at the KMTC, says, "It's all about crawl, walk, run. Right now the Afghan army is at a crawl. In a few more years it will walk, and in 10 it will run. Then we can all go home."
Assuming we're successful in that, it's going to put the Afghans in an interesting position. Assuming they train to close to U.S. standards, they're going to end up with a well trained, highly disciplined, and highly motivated military. Their neighbors to the east - the guys who keep rattling on about strategic depth and who're trying to run the insurgency the Afghans are fighting - won't be in the same category. The Afghans will still be outnumbered by about five to one, but with a few strategically placed friends, they'll be in a position to keep the great gamers at a distance.
An even more interesting position is what these soldiers do over time. Some will make the Army a career, but many won't -- if they come home and become leaders that will make the Army an institution for civilizing and democratizing Afghanistan. And that will be an even stronger lesson for the neighbors to the east.
#3
The escape rate, the equivalent of going AWOL in the U.S., is an ongoing headache for both the American and Afghan commanders. After a grueling tour in eastern Afghanistan, Waris sent his men home for a month's holiday. Six weeks later, they were still trickling back to their base near Kabul.
This is their culture speaking. It's perfectly acceptable behavior there, and they think western forces are too anal about these things.
I also understand that these guys get out of bed whenever they are darned good and ready. Left to their own devices, they would probably only fight when they felt like it, and not when the weather wasn't to their liking. If true then this probably hampers the overall effort, too. Lots to overcome here.
#4
It si good to have an army of warriors, eager to fight but it is not enough. You also need people who kepa awake and alert when they are on guard duty even if their replacement has been delayed, peopple who don't bicker when tey have to dig trenches, peole who can refrain from firing or retreat when ordered even when they thrashing their direct opponents. That is an army of soldiers and these beat armies of warriors 9 times out of ten.
But of course the best is when an army is both an army of warriors and soldiers at the same time.
#5
A key element in this effort is the new national military academy. Creating professional officers out of tribal members and forging a new Afghan identity that transcends tribal ties.
It's low profile in the press, but a lot of effort is going into this & it will pay off over time.
#6
I was geographically disoriented. "Neighbors to the east", Fred - you refer to the southeast, not their friends to the west, who also would like to see anarchy on their border, as opposed to an islamo-democracy.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2007 6:43
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#7
Let's get a meter reading on this agenda-driven tripe.
#8
"The hardest lesson is getting through the idea of 'one target, one shot.' They tend to go blacko on ammo." Other military trainers call it the "spray and pray" school of target practice.
Not so much cultural as doctrinal. The Soviets favored spray-and-pray tactics, and the AK-series rifles are optimized for this style of shooting. The Afghan communist government's army was trained by the Soviets to Soviet doctrine, and most of the rebels copied it. (However, do see the chapter on Afghanistan in the 1985 edition of James Dunnigan's Quick & Dirty Guide to War, in which he describes Afghan tribsemen conducting a goat-shooting contest at 500+ yards with .303 Lee-Enfields.)
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007 8:43
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#9
JFM:
At the risk of stating something you know better than I, there's a difference between Warriors and Soldiers. Think of the Zulu, Sioux, or Apache, all of whom were brave and superb fighters, yet would have gone home after an hour at Gettysburg.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/21/2007 9:10
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#11
I feel like I need a bath after wading through that... Time has hit bottom and still floundering. A large part of the problem is who owns it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2007 11:29
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#12
I would suggest that the writers of this "fact" based article are certainly unfamiliar with Joghn Keegan's "The Face of Battle" or his Chapter entitled "Any mother's son will do" on basic training, from Roman times til now. Military history, and the study thereof, are anathema to the modern day press. Sighhhh.
Posted by: Total War ||
08/21/2007 11:39
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#13
Oh she's certainly qualified to offer expert opinions on the subject...
Aryn Baker is the associate editor at the Asian edition of Time Magazine, based in Hong Kong. Since joining Time in 2001, she has worked as a reporter, editor and correspondent, covering everything from the first Tibetan beauty pageant to IranÂ’s Paralympics volleyball team, AfghanistanÂ’s first female Olympian and Pakistan's polio eradication program. Prior to moving to Asia, Baker earned her M.A. in Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where her focus was on radio and international reporting. While in the United States she wrote freelance articles for the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, the East Bay Express, the Asia Wall Street Journal and the Village Voice. She also produced a weekly news radio program for KALX in Berkeley, and interned at KQED in San Francisco. Journalism is a second career for Baker, who worked as a pastry chef in Paris for several years after earning a B.A. in Anthropology at Sarah Lawrence College.
#14
re#12 My apologies. I just fact checked myself. The Chapter "Every mother's son will do" was from Gwynne Dyer's T.V. series/book called "War". Despite having been written by a Canadian and premiering on PBS, it is still a great piece of writing and worth a read/watch.
Posted by: Total War ||
08/21/2007 12:17
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#15
At a time when U.S. and NATO forces have come under scathing criticism for civilian casualties - figures compiled by Taliban and talibunnie threats media groups and human-rights organizations indicate that since the beginning of the year, the number of civilians killed by Western forces is on a par with those killed by militants - putting an Afghan face on the war has become an essential part of regaining the faith of the public.
Scathing criticism by who? The same groups and media hacks who distort these figures in the first place, or the mindless bleeding-heart dweebs who swallow their traitorous pablum whole? You caught the big fish, Brett. What a stinker.
If the Talibs pack what we're shooting at with women and children it's not a shortcoming on our part, it's a war crime on their part. But I don't hear the critics going on at length about the daily war crimes being committed by the head choppers.
This remains the central issue. The media's adamant refusal to indict our Islamic foes for near-constant war crimes is beginning to resemble aid and comfort to the enemy. They remain just as silent on how Islam itself is a standing violation of human rights.
Much like how after a while Moderate Muslim™ silence is no longer consent but, instead, becomes a lie: So it is with the media's silence regarding Islam's horrific catalog of war crimes and human rights abuses. The West must walk on eggshells while anything goes our barbaric foes. This is treason writ large.
A top Iraqi Shiite militia leader predicted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government was nearing its end because it has been tainted by its close work with American forces, a British newspaper reported Monday. Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told The Independent newspaper that al-Maliki's government was on the brink of collapse, despite efforts to bolster its base of support.
"Al-Maliki's government will not survive because he has proven that he will not work with important elements of the Iraqi people," the cleric was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "The prime minister is a tool for the Americans, and people see that clearly. It will probably be the Americans who decide to change him when they realize he has failed. We don't have a democracy here, we have a foreign occupation."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Be nice if this guy's life was near it's end.
Is he still hiding in Tehran?
#2
Tater may be half right. Maliki government may be near its end. If so, it may be partly because it is 'tainted' by association with the US. But it would also be partly because it is tainted by its association with Iran. In some ways Maliki is in a position similar to Musharraf in Pakistan - trying to find a 'middle' between enemies on one side and enemies on the other. They also have in common a shared border with Iran. Hmmmm.
Zimbabwe's failing infrastructure, with burst sewer pipes and persistent water shortages, has triggered a diarrhoea outbreak in Harare, a senior city official said. Harare's director of health services, Prosper Chonzi, said some 900 diarrhoea cases were recorded every day in the capital's 60 clinics, where people received free treatment. Mr Chonzi said the outbreak coincided with the escalation of water supply problems in Harare. Tests confirmed that contaminated water was the main cause.
Last month, a diarrhoea outbreak killed 20 children who had drunk suspected contaminated water in Kadoma, 140 kilometres west of Harare. Several people from two Harare townships contracted cholera after drinking water from shallow wells.
An Arab journalist, who has worked for various Middle East newspapers for over 25 years from the US, has pointed out the likely pitfalls of the National Security Agency (NSA) using its new powers to monitor overseas communications without any approval from a judge.
Mohammad Ali Salih writes in the Washington Times that he has 12 brothers and sisters, more than 30 cousins, about 50 nieces and nephews and many friends scattered in seven Muslim countries. There are also tens of readers who respond to his writings, in Arabic and English, in print and on the Internet. If the NSA, using its new powers to monitor overseas communications, electronically looks into his communications for catch words like "Allahu Akbar" and "Kafir" it will find them in there. "If the NSA is looking for certain names of terrorists, their supporters, helpers and financiers among my family members, it will not find them. If the NSA is looking for Muslims who are very critical of US policies towards Muslims, especially in the aftermath of September 11, may Allah help all of us," he writes.
Salih, who is from Sudan, writes that his brother begged him to return home during a recent phone conversation, and cursed "Bush and the rest of the 'Kafirs' who are killing Muslims all over the world". Another brother talked about the village's madrassa and said that some Arab businessmen from the Gulf had helped rebuild it. A sister, also on her cell phone, sang a popular local song about Condoleezza Rice that went, "Rice, the best of all prides. If my father agrees, I will marry you. And I'll keep you at home." His father said a prayer for him, "May Allah guide you. May Allah protect you from evil. May Allah defeat your enemies."
Salih points out that his relatives and friends are not exceptional. In Egypt, 92 percent believe that the US intends to "weaken and divide" Muslims. Ninety-one percent support "attacking US forces in Iraq". Another recent poll by Gallup, conducted in 10 Muslim countries, found that an "overwhelming majority...strongly doubted the US is trying to establish democracy in the ME". And an earlier poll by CNN found that people in nine Muslim countries called the US "ruthless and arrogant," with most describing themselves as "resentful" of this. He adds, "But, in spite of its faults, I believe America is God's heaven on earth. Never before in the history of mankind has a nation been so free, strong, advanced, diverse, proud and built on faith. According to many polls, most Muslims, like others, would love to come to America. That includes my relatives and friends, the young among them usually ask me to find a way for them to come to study."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Relax, Mo. We're screening for "eggplant" and "Chinese checkers". Also "yodel", but only on Thursdays after a hard rain.
#2
"'The sun rises in the east'. I repeat, Mahmoud, 'the sun rises in the east.'"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2007 0:42
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#3
This is only the first stage of the NSA's muslim conditioning project. When the NSA computers detect an allah akbar, 100,000 volts is sent down the line.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2007 0:55
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#4
Cool yer jets Mr & Mrs muslim, were gonna find a way to reverse immigrate you in the end.
#10
30 cousins, about 50 nieces and nephews, donkeys, goats, and sheep; we are all brothers and sisters sleeping under the same tent. Some of us got traded for water or grain and now the sun never sets on the Salih family.
#12
It takes a helluva lot of nerve for a family of Sudanese to lecture the people of the United States of America on FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. Sheesh, look at what the government of Sudan, ruled by al Qaeda sympathizers, are doing to their own people, most of whom are MUSLIMS. Frickin' hypocrites of the first water.
The visiting Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his host, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, find their carefully planned party this week to celebrate the worldÂ’s newest strategic partnership ruined by their domestic political opponents.
After his big defeat in last month’s elections to the Upper House of the Japanese Diet, Abe is fighting for political survival. Singh, too, is under pressure from his communist allies for the ‘sin’ of engineering independent India’s greatest diplomatic victory — the liberation of the nation from three and a half decades of nuclear isolation. In politics no good deed ever goes without being punished.
Underlying the political instability staring at Abe and Singh is the deeper challenge of getting Japan and India to overcome decades of reactive foreign policy and end the historic under-performance of the two nations on the Asian and global political stage. As Abe and Singh try to establish Japan and India as great powers, they face strong domestic political reaction.
In Japan it goes by the name of “pacifism” that has become a cover for avoiding regional and global responsibility. In India it is called “non-alignment”. When India is well on its way to become the world’s third largest economy, and poised to shape the security order in Asia, our communists want India to stay for ever the third world subaltern mouthing empty slogans.
For different reasons, both Japan and India were unable in the second half of the 20th century to fulfil their national aspirations for leading Asia and securing a seat at the global high table. Defeated in the Second World War, Japan consciously chose to forgo great power aspirations in favour of an undiluted focus on national reconstruction.
Newly independent India had a sense of its own destiny to lead Asia. Its fascination for state socialism, however, saw IndiaÂ’s relative decline amidst the Asian economic boom. Its alliance with the Soviet Union during the Cold War put it at odds with much of Asia, including China.
Since the end of the Cold War, both Japan and India have struggled to elevate their power positions in Asia. JapanÂ’s emphasis has been on lending political muscle to its well-known economic strengths. IndiaÂ’s in turn was on acquiring an economic foundation to match its strategic ambitions.
The foreign policies of both nations have undergone considerable changes in the last few years. Thanks to the efforts of AbeÂ’s predecessors, especially Junichiro Koizumi, Japan has begun to liberate itself from many of the self-imposed restrictions of the past.
These prohibitions amounted to eight noÂ’s in JapanÂ’s foreign policy during the Cold War: no dispatch of the armed forces abroad, no collective self-defence arrangements, no power projection ability, no more than 1 per cent of the GNP for defence spending, no nuclear weapons, no sharing of military technology, no exporting of arms, no military use of space.
In post-Cold War Japan, all these taboos, except the one on nuclear weapons, have been either modified or are up for change. Even the difficult question of nuclear weapons is being openly discussed after the North Korean atomic tests last year.
The recent changes in Indian foreign policy have been no less dramatic. If the relationship with the US has grabbed the most attention, the positive evolution in IndiaÂ’s relationships with all the great powers, including China, has been impressive. And it is on the verge of being accepted as a de facto nuclear weapon power.
IndiaÂ’s rising profile in the extended neighbourhood stretching from Africa to East Asia through the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and Southeast Asia has been equally significant. India is also actively seeking to reintegrate its periphery with the framework of regional cooperation.
Despite the rapid transformation of their foreign policies, Japan and India have run into a new political barrier, China. Barring left-wing ideologues, few have difficulty in recognising the fact that China does not want other powers to rise in Asia. It was equally predictable that China would do its utmost to prevent Japan and India from gaining permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council. Nor is it shocking that China is the only nuclear weapon power that opposes the Indo-US nuclear deal.
ChinaÂ’s clout to limit the political aspirations of India and Japan is not limited to the international domain. Beijing has been adept at leveraging domestic lobby groups in both countries to prevent outcomes it considers unacceptable.
Thanks to the CPM, China does not have to wait for the International Atomic Energy Agency or Nuclear Suppliers Group to kill the nuclear deal. It has got the Indian communists to demand the deal never go before either grouping.
Neither Japan nor India has a desire to contain China. Japan is today ChinaÂ’s largest trading partner and has a complex but intimate relationship with its neighbour. New DelhiÂ’s relations with Beijing have been better than ever before.
Yet a much larger challenge confronts Tokyo and New Delhi. Will they accept a subordinate status in a Sino-centric order that has begun to emerge in Asia? Or will Tokyo and New Delhi persist with the construction of a multipolar Asia in the face of Chinese resistance at home and abroad?
If Japan and India want a place in Asia equivalent to that of China, they have no alternative but to impart a strategic dimension to their bilateral economic engagement, deepen their political cooperation on issues ranging from maritime security, high technology transfers, regional stability and global warming.
If they rise to the occasion this week, Abe and Singh will be remembered for their leadership in transforming Asian geopolitics and not by the length of their prime-ministerial tenure.
The writer is a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2007
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#1
EINNEWS/OTHER > CHINA, JAPAN TO BENEFIT MUCH FROM COOPERATION. Related - may also alter traditional US-Japan/US-Asia security arrangement. *OTOH, SSSSSHHHHHHH RUSSIA'S POWER GRAB - IS IT TOO LATE FOR USA TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT? article.
FREEREPUBLIC Poster [paraphrased] > India's de-regulated economy, comparative to the China's, in LT will make it more resilient than China's, and in fact to eventually surpass China.
#2
I agree with your Freeper poster, JosephM. Also, as far as I am aware, Indians are in the habit of supplying what they claim to be selling, as opposed to the many recent stories of Chinese corner-cutting to the point of killing the customer.
Turkish internet users have been blocked from accessing sites on the Wordpress.com hosting service. A court in Istanbul ordered the website be blocked after lawyers complained that a number of blogs hosted by Wordpress were libellous of Islamic creationist author Adnan Oktar.
Turkish internet users attempting to access more than a million Wordpress sites are now redirected to a site that says in Turkish and English: "Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of TC Fatih 2 Civil Court of First Instance."
Kerim Kalkan, a lawyer for Oktar, said that the court first ordered Turk Telecom to block a couple of specific websites, but the authors of the sites soon moved the allegedly libellous content to other Wordpress sites. "It was when this happened that we applied to the court to order that all websites of Wordpress be blocked," Kalkan said.
Kalkan said the court first ordered that Wordpress be blocked on August 13 and that Turk Telecom implemented the order on August 17. "We have also sent messages to other blog hosting sites and if the libellous content moves to them, we will again apply to the courts to have those blocked also," he said.
The Wordpress website has posted a number of emails and letters from Oktar's lawyers, asking for the various sites to be taken down. "We have applied to you to remove the unlawful statements regarding my client Mr Adnan Oktar ... The number of our attempts to inform and warn you regarding these defamation blogs must have been at least 20, many times through your support page, a couple of times to your legal department and we even sent a regular mail to Mr Matt Mullenweg. Most of our attempts were unanswered," read an email received by Wordpress.
The blocking of sites hosted by Wordpress is similar to the blocking of the popular video-sharing site YouTube after a number of videos were deemed by an Istanbul court to be insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish republic. The ban was lifted a few days later after the videos were removed.
News of the latest ban has upset many Turkish bloggers and advocates of freedom of speech. On a Wordpress blog entry titled "Why we're blocked in Turkey: Adnan Oktar", which is itself blocked in Turkey, Wordpress users have expressed their anger. "Because of this problem I have [had] to move my blog," wrote one Turkish blogger.
In response to a question on whether Wordpress should stop hosting the sites that allegedly libel Oktar, a blogger by the pen name of "savedbymcr" wrote: "My opinion is that if you give in to this it will only be the beginning. Everyone will start filing lawsuits and having blogs removed and sites shut down. Blogs are/were intended to be a place to speak your mind, not speak about what a government deems appropriate."
The sites that Oktar's lawyers wanted removed were written by Edip Yuksel and his supporters. Yuksel is described as an Islamic reformist who is based in the United States and who has frequently criticised Oktar.
Oktar himself is an Islamist who under the name Harun Yahya has written and distributed many books supporting creationist theories. His latest book, The Atlas of Creation, has been distributed unsolicited to schools across Turkey, the US and Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Christian members of the March 14 coalition stressed Monday that they are "the Christian political authority that will have the basic and effective role" in electing a new President. The stand was outlined as a meeting grouping 29 Christian members of the multi-sect majority coalition was underway at the residence of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Merab, northeast of Beirut.
Geagea, in a dialogue with reporters, said the meeting was aimed at "countering efforts by foreign intelligence to choose a president" for Lebanon. He stressed that the "era of foreign influence (in Lebanon) is gone and fabricating a president by outside powers is not right."
Geagea stressed that such rejected options of foreign interference in choosing a president for Lebanon were "applied during the era of Syrian hegemony." A vacuum in the presidential office is "a red line," Geagea announced. He disclosed that there had been some contacts with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun concerning the election of a new head of state to succeed President Emile Lahoud, whose extended term in office expires on Nov. 24.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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A suicide attacker detonated his explosive-laden car at a roadside security post in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four troops and wounding eight others, officials said.
The paramilitary post was targeted on the outskirts of Thal, a town in the North West Frontier Province, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he did not have the authority to speak to the media. The army's top spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad confirmed the bombing but said he did not have any immediate confirmation of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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(Interfax) - A suspected militant, a resident of the village of Komsomolskoye, has been arrested in Chechnya's Gudermes, a source in Chechen law enforcement services told Interfax by phone on Sunday. An improvised grenade was seized from the suspect, he said.
In other developments, two large barrels, filled with weapons and ammunition, were discovered in a wooded area on the limits of the village of Komsomolskoye. The cache is believed to have belonged to a criminal armed group led by Bantayev. Three mortar mines, six grenades, 504 cartridges, 300 grams of explosives, 20 improvised detonators and four electrical detonators, a plastic bottle filled with aluminum powder and a Kenwood radio unit were discovered in the barrel, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Zimbabwe's Parliament meets for a new session on Tuesday that will consider two major pieces of legislation, one to give the president considerable sway in appointing a successor and another to nationalise foreign firms.
Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is seeking to consolidate power in the face of growing discontent at home and abroad over policies that critics say have plunged the economy into crisis.
Political analysts said the veteran leader, re-energised by the support from regional leaders at a summit last week, wants to quickly ram through legislation enabling Parliament to pick a successor if a vacancy arose mid-term and an economic empowerment Bill to nationalise foreign-owned firms.
Critics, including the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), say the plans would hurt an economy already enduring the world's highest inflation rate, above 4 500%, and increase political tension.
"Mugabe will feel re-invigorated by events at the SADC [Southern African Development Community] meeting and I have no doubt he will move with speed to make sure that legislation is passed by Parliament," Eldred Masunungure, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said. "The cost of nationalisation to the economy is great but that is not a matter that would worry the government. Its goal is to maintain power at all cost."
The Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to merge presidential, parliamentary and council elections but analysts say a clause allowing Parliament to choose a new president if a vacancy arose in between elections would give Mugabe room to manoeuvre a dignified exit. Mugabe (83) plans to stand for another five-year term next year but political analysts say he may seek to retire mid-term and would be able to anoint a successor if the legislation were passed because Parliament is dominated by his Zanu-PF party.
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A car bomb exploded in Acre on Monday morning moderately wounding one person, who police claim is familiar to them. Police, sappers and firefighters reached the scene shortly after an explosion was heard from a private vehicle. Police suspected that the incident was an assassination attempt of a local criminal. The wounded man was evacuated to a hospital and four other people suffered from shock.
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08/21/2007
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Some 20 people who were taken hostage by gunmen in southeastern Iran were freed in neighbouring Pakistan on Monday after a Pakistani police operation, Iranian media reported a day after they were seized. "As a result of a surprise operation by Pakistani police ... 21 Iranian hostages were freed, 15 bandits were arrested and two of them were killed or wounded," Iran's state broadcaster quoted an Iranian deputy commander as saying.
Iran's ISNA news agency said 20 hostages had been freed, but it did not make clear whether this meant all of them were now released because some previous reports said as many as 30 were held. Others gave lower figures.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Hadn't heard about the hostage taking in the first place.
If you take the combined credibility of the ISNA, the Pakistani police information section and the Iranian military command it adds to pretty close to zero.
RTWT
The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq--but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda's road to Iraq through Damascus.
Thanks to Gen. David Petraeus's new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, and the strength and skill of the American soldiers fighting there, al Qaeda in Iraq is now being routed from its former strongholds in Anbar and Diyala provinces. Many of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, meanwhile, are uniting with us against al Qaeda, alienated by the barbarism and brutality of their erstwhile allies.
As Gen. Petraeus recently said of al Qaeda in Iraq: "We have them off plan."
But defeating al Qaeda in Iraq requires not only that we continue pressing the offensive against its leadership and infrastructure inside the country. We must also aggressively target its links to "global" al Qaeda and close off the routes its foreign fighters are using to get into Iraq.
Recently declassified American intelligence reveals just how much al Qaeda in Iraq is dependent for its survival on the support it receives from the broader, global al Qaeda network, and how most of that support flows into Iraq through one country--Syria. Al Qaeda in Iraq is sustained by a transnational network of facilitators and human smugglers, who replenish its supply of suicide bombers--approximately 60 to 80 Islamist extremists, recruited every month from across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and sent to meet their al Qaeda handlers in Syria, from where they are taken to Iraq to blow themselves up to kill countless others.
Although small in number, these foreign fighters are a vital strategic asset to al Qaeda in Iraq, providing it with the essential human ammunition it needs to conduct high-visibility, mass-casualty suicide bombings, such as we saw last week in northern Iraq. In fact, the U.S. military estimates that between 80% and 90% of suicide attacks in Iraq are perpetrated by foreign fighters, making them the deadliest weapon in al Qaeda's war arsenal. Without them, al Qaeda in Iraq would be critically, perhaps even fatally, weakened.
That is why we now must focus on disrupting this flow of suicide bombers--and that means focusing on Syria, through which up to 80% of the Iraq-bound extremists transit. Indeed, even terrorists from countries that directly border Iraq travel by land via Syria to Iraq, instead of directly from their home countries, because of the permissive environment for terrorism that the Syrian government has fostered. Syria refuses to tighten its visa regime for individuals transiting its territory.
Coalition forces have spent considerable time and energy trying to tighten Syria's land border with Iraq against terrorist infiltration. But given the length and topography of that border, the success of these efforts is likely to remain uneven at best, particularly without the support of the Damascus regime.
Before al Qaeda's foreign fighters can make their way across the Syrian border into Iraq, however, they must first reach Syria--and the overwhelming majority does so, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, by flying into Damascus International Airport, making the airport the central hub of al Qaeda travel in the Middle East, and the most vulnerable chokepoint in al Qaeda's war against Iraq and the U.S. in Iraq.
Syrian President Bashar al Assad cannot seriously claim that he is incapable of exercising effective control over the main airport in his capital city. Syria is a police state, with sprawling domestic intelligence and security services. The notion that al Qaeda recruits are slipping into and through the Damascus airport unbeknownst to the local Mukhabarat is totally unbelievable.
This is not the first use of the Damascus airport by terrorists. It has long been the central transit point for Iranian weapons en route to Hezbollah, in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions, as well as for al Qaeda operatives moving into and out of Lebanon.
Now the Damascus airport is the point of entry into Iraq for most of the suicide bombers who are killing innocent Iraqi citizens and American soldiers, and trying to break America's will in this war. It is therefore time to demand that the Syrian regime stop playing travel agent for al Qaeda in Iraq.
When Congress reconvenes next month, we should set aside whatever differences divide us on Iraq and send a clear and unambiguous message to the Syrian regime, as we did last month to the Iranian regime, that the transit of al Qaeda suicide bombers through Syria on their way to Iraq is completely unacceptable, and it must stop.
We in the U.S. government should also begin developing a range of options to consider taking against Damascus International, unless the Syrian government takes appropriate action, and soon.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#2
wx,
Or maybe we could just take over operation of Damascus airport for them (even if they don't like the idea). But not with TSA doing the screening - sub-contract that to the Israelis.
The Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, today failed to win sufficient support to become president in the first round of voting in parliament. But Mr Gul, suspected by secularists of harbouring an Islamist agenda, is expected to prevail next week in further voting, when a parliamentary majority will suffice. Mr Gul, who has pledged to protect Turkey's secular basis, received 341 votes, short of the two-thirds majority of 367 required to clinch victory in the first round.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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A Pakistani accused of using his computer skills to help al-Qaeda has been released after three years in custody, a government official and the man's lawyer said Monday.
Pakistani officials have said that information from Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan quickly led them to a Tanzanian wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, which killed more than 200 people. Khan, who was captured in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore in July 2004, has also been linked with terror plots in the U.S. and Britain, and to the arrests of suspects in Britain.
Deputy Attorney General Naheeda Mehboob Ilahi said in the Supreme Court on Monday that Khan, believed to be in his late 20s, was released and returned to his home in the southern city of Karachi. Ilahi provided no details.
The court has been pressing the government for information on dozens of people whose relatives say they were picked up and held incognito by Pakistani intelligence agents for alleged links to militants. Khan's lawyer, Babar Awan, confirmed that his client had returned to his family but said he had not been able to speak to his client to ask where he had been held, and by whom. Awan said Khan was never charged or brought before any court.
Khan, an engineering graduate, was suspected of being a point man who sent coded e-mails to al-Qaeda operatives possibly planning attacks in the United States, Britain and South Africa. Twelve days after his arrest, Pakistani authorities pounced in the city of Gujrat on Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who had a $25 million bounty on him for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Information from those captured, including maps and photos found on their computers, helped prompt the U.S. government to issue a warning about a possible al-Qaeda attack on financial institutions in New York and Washington.
Clues gained after Khan's arrest helped British investigators nab Dhiren Barot, a confessed al-Qaeda terrorist sentenced last year to life imprisonment for plots to bomb U.S. financial targets such as the New York Stock Exchange and London hotels and train stations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
ISI connections anybody????
Posted by: Paul ||
08/21/2007 5:01
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Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed on a bilateral mechanism to facilitate the implementation of decisions and recommendations made at the Pak-Afghan Joint Jirga held in Kabul from August 9 to 12.
The fifth working committee of the jirga agreed on forming a permanent jirga. The committee was assigned the task to make both countries agree on "a bilateral mechanism comprising of an adequate number of members from each side to meet periodically to facilitate the implementation of decisions and recommendations made by the jirga and discuss any other related issue". The committee recommended a practical strategy for the implementation of decisions and their monitoring by both the governments and the media. It suggested involving tribal elders from both sides and exchange of information. The committee also decided that it would meet after every two months.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: Taliban
Rep. Bob Filner is facing an assault and battery charge after an incident at Dulles Airport where he allegedly pushed an United Airlines bag claim employee as first reported by ABC7/Newschannel 8. Filner, a Democrat from California, allegedly attempted to enter an employees-only area on Sunday night.
Van Cleave spoke with several witnesses who said they heard Filner yell "You can't stop me," before pushing aside the employee and refusing to leave the office.
Filner disputed the account in a statement issued by his office.
"Lies! All lies!"
"Congressman Bob Filner is on his way to Iraq, visiting our troops,
"Murray! I punched out a baggage claim underling at the airport! Fix it for me!"
"Yes, Your Congresship! I'll set up a trip to Iraq and it'll all be cleaned up by the time you get back!"
"Iraq? What am I gonna do there?"
"Visit the troops, Your Enormity."
"What troops? I thought we pulled them out?"
"No, Your Imperiousness. You only voted for it."
and will have a full statement when he returns. Suffice it to say now, that the story that has appeared in the press is factually incorrect - and the charges are ridiculous," the statement said.
The encounter happened after Filner "experienced a delay in claiming his bag," according to a United Airlines statement. United said it regretted that delay and was cooperating in the investigation.
They lose my bags from time to time but I rather suspect that if I went through a door marked 'Employees Only' I'd be spending time talking with a federal prosecutor. Wonder if Nancy Pelosi comes to the rescue?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2007
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#1
Since his party affiliation is not disclosed, I'm assuming he's a Dem.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2007 6:18
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#2
So Filner didn't dispute the charges, but his staff did. How convenient!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2007 6:58
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#3
"Do you know who I am little man?"
Is anyone else getting sick and tired of certain congressional elite acting like the American Nobility? And the media's protrayal of them as such (as long as a D follows their name)?
IDF troops operating in Nablus on Monday surrounded a number of houses hiding Palestinian fugitives. According to the reports, as of Monday evening, one person had been arrested in the operation. There were no reports of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs
#6
Speaking of the the label/term "Queen", RENSE/GLOBAL RESEARCH/WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL MEDIAS/INFOWARS > NAU - WILL CANADA'S QUEEN BECOME QUEEN OF THE UNITED STATES, + WORLD POLICE STATE; + NORTH AMERICAN UNION AND THE MILITARIZATION OF THE ARCTIC, and similar. *CANADA.com > THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING; + FREEREPUBLIC > US Officio > NORTH WEST PASSAGE BELONGS TO CANADA, or title to that effect. OTHER > US STATE DEPARTMENT [unknowingly?]allowing many 00's of Islamists into the USA.
SO, is BRITAIN taking over the USA, or vice versa??? More evidencia/indicia of the post-Cold War, post-USSR, OWG-NWO BATTLE FOR GERMANY???
The Zimbabwean government has denied that a sharp increase in cases of diarrhea is related to chronic water shortages in Harare and other cities, although the state-run Herald newspaper has quoted Harare's top health official, Prosper Chonzi, as saying city health centers are treating around 900 cases of diarrheal disease a day.
Chonzi told the Herald that public health officials fear "the situation might get out of hand" if there the regular flow of water to Zimbabwean cities is not restored. Most of the country's major cities have had severe water shortages in recent months due to electrical power shortages, breakdowns, or a lack of water purification chemicals.
But Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that there is no evidence the "watery diarrhea and dysentery" are linked to water shortages, adding that the latest outbreaks are not "serious."
"No, no, certainly not!"
But opposition lawmaker Blessing Chebundo, chairman of the parliamentary committee on health, said that in cities where the Zimbabwe National Water Authority has taken over municipal water systems, residents have been going without water for days or weeks, increasing their risk of infection by drinking water from other sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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#1
All part of Bob's plan to reduce the surplus population.
#9
I'm just trying to get over gov't officials whose names are "Blessing" and "Prosper" in a God-forsaken place like Zim-bob-we.
*mind boggles*
Posted by: BA ||
08/21/2007 20:43
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I'm just trying to get over gov't officials whose names are "Blessing" and "Prosper" in a God-forsaken place like Zim-bob-we.
Most of these may be literal translations of their names. Don;t forget that most of the Western names you hear have meanings in the root languages they come from.
Not amoebic dysentery, mojo. The first sign of that is sudden onset heavy bleeding from the rectum. (Think a flood of blood, like when a pregnant woman's water breaks.) When Mr. Wife fell ill with amoebic dysentery while on a business trip in India, the bleeding was so heavy he called home to say goodbye, in case he died en route to the hospital.
Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki warned Washington that its policies were leading the world on a "dangerous path", an official statement said on Monday.
"Steve, what's wrong? You're shaking."
"I'm not shaking, Fred, I'm seething."
"What, you're upset over what the Eritreans said?"
"Nah, Grossman fumbled three times last night!"
Two days after Washington said it was considering adding Eritrea to its list of "state sponsors of terrorism", Issaias gave an angry two-hour interview broadcast late on Sunday on state television. "Its strategy of monopoly and dominance through fomenting confrontation among peoples is leading the world to a dangerous path," he said, according to an official English translation released on Monday by the Information Ministry. "If the situation is at all to really change, US administration officials need to change their frame of thinking and put an end to their acts of adventurism, as well as weaving conspiracies to undermine our national interests," Issaias added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2007
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Yeah, and ESPN was going over the "highlights" of Michael Vick's career:
2002 - Named to Pro Bowl (celebrate by killing a few puppies. Real puppies, not Talipuppies.)
2004 - Named to Pro Bowl (celebrate by killing a few puppies. Real puppies, not Talipuppies.)
2005 - Named to Pro Bowl (celebrate by killing a few puppies. Real puppies, not Talipuppies.)
#2
Really smart to threaten the nation who donates 1/2 the total food calories eaten by your nation. Enjoy your rock soup, assholes.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2007 0:50
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#3
No, MOSLEMS are leading the world down a dangerous path. Moslems like you, issaias. Now when are you letting go of the thousand preachers of mine? and when are you going to stop funding these boomer groups?
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.
(from the AP)
European Union said Tuesday it will resume vital fuel aid to the Gaza Strip's electric company, bringing a measure of relief to Palestinians who have sweltered at home or choked on generator smoke during five days of power outages. 
Manila - The Philippine government has postponed the scheduled resumption of peace talks with Muslim secessionist rebels in Malaysia due to its failure to decide on how to move forward in the negotiations, a guerrilla spokesman said Tuesday. 
MOSCOW (Interfax) - Chief of the Russian General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky said that Russia will have to take military measures in response, if elements of the U.S. missile defense system are deployed in Europe. 
Two Swiss students on holiday played frisbee with an object they found on a beach unaware it was a live land mine.
Security forces took action against militants in Sui in collaboration with Dera Bugti district police on Monday, as result of which a militant commander was killed and 15 suspects were arrested, District Police Officer (DPO) Dera Bugti Najum Tareen told APP. The security forces and police took action after the militants fired rockets at them, officials said. The name of the killed militant commander, whose body is currently being kept at the Dera Bugti Civil Hospital, could not be ascertained. However, officials said he was wanted by the police in connection with numerous criminal cases. The forces recovered 15 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, five Kalashnikovs, five kg explosives, and hundreds of bullets from the possession of the militants.
A robber who held up a bookmaker's shop in Leicester with his girlfriend's vibrator has been jailed. Nicki Jex, 27, of Braunstone, Leicester, hid the sex toy in a carrier bag pretending it was a gun, Leicester Crown Court heard. 
Britons view Muslims with more suspicion than their American or European counterparts, according to a poll published in the Financial Times on Monday. According to the Harris Interactive survey of 6,398 people, only about 59 percent of Britons believed it was possible to be both a Muslim and a British citizen, compared to more than 70 percent of Spanish and French voters. Fifty-two percent of British respondents also said they expected a "major terrorist attack" in Britain within the next 12 months, the highest proportion of the six countries surveyed, with 32 percent of Spanish voters, 30 percent of Americans and between 15 and 18 percent of French, Germans and Italians expecting such an attack.
The war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been postponed until 
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday hinted it would renounce its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing if India were to resume trials, last carried out by both countries nine years ago. New Delhi has said its right to conduct tests will not be undermined by a bilateral civilian nuclear deal with the United States which has raised concerns here.
A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a Majlish-e-Shura member of the 
Iran is threatening to strike the U.S. with "stronger punches" while Hezbollah vows it is ready to become "dismembered limbs to keep Iran strong and dignified." This will likely leave Lebanon in the crossfire.
Three years into the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally and its chief Sheikh Hasina, progress in the investigation still stands at the start line, thanks to the influence on it of the immediate past four-party alliance government. The case now also stands as a glaring example of how governments' top levels can manage to manipulate criminal investigations to meet their own political ends. 
Police officials, who had been tight-lipped about the case until the recent regime change bringing in the seat of power the current military backed caretaker government, are now saying that the erstwhile supervising officer of the case, criminal investigation department's (CID) Special Superintendent Ruhul Amin, invented Joj Miah out of the blue to keep the real criminals out of the reach of the probe. Joj's very weakly woven statement drew media criticisms finally making it appear as blatantly meritless, and he himself turned out to be a creation of the police department's well practiced imaginations, when his sister soon after his arrest divulged to the media that CID had been paying Joj Miah's family Tk 2,500 a month for upkeep since the arrest.
WASHINGTON — After a brief trip to Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin said Monday that the Iraqi Parliament should vote no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki because of its sectarian nature and leadership.
Authorities didn't say at which Al Qaeda camp 33-year-old hijacker 
The deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament resigned on Monday in protest at internal feuding that has resulted in the legislative body being gridlocked for months. "The brothers [of Hamas and Fatah] cannot get together. I therefore present my resignation to the presidency of the legislative council and I will not change my mind," Hassan Khreisheh told a news conference in Ramallah.
Two top militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit were gunned down by Indian security forces in south Kashmir Monday. Police said personnel of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police surrounded a house in Ganavpora village in Pulwama district, 50 km from here early Monday. "As the security forces tried to enter the house, the hiding militants opened heavy fire, which was returned. The fierce firing continued till late this afternoon. Two militants of LeT, including the outfit's district commander for Shopian district, was killed," a police spokesman here said.
Army helicopters dropped at least three bombs at suspected underground bunkers of Islamic extremists in a north Lebanon refugee camp on Monday, and two more soldiers were killed in the fighting, a senior military official said. 
Jordan is not ready to surrender Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter to Iraq, despite an Interpol alert and a new push from Iraq for her handover, a top government spokesman said Monday. 
A majority of top US foreign policy experts say that Pakistan is most likely to become the next Al Qaeda stronghold and most likely to transfer nuclear technology to terrorists in the next three to five years, a new survey shows. According to the survey, 35 percent of the 108 experts polled by Foreign Policy magazine and the Centre for American Progress said that Pakistan was most likely to become the next Al Qaeda stronghold followed by Iraq 22 percent, Somalia 11 percent, Sudan 8 percent and Afghanistan 7 percent. Seventy-four percent of the experts said that Pakistan was most likely to transfer nuclear technology to terrorists. Forty-two percent said North Korea, thirty-eight percent said Russia, thirty-one percent said Iran and five percent said the US. Respondents were asked to name more than one country. A modest number of the experts favoured threatening Pakistan with sanctions. Yet about the same number support increasing US aid to the country. More than half of those surveyed believed the current US policy towards Pakistan was having a negative impact on national security. A majority of the experts said they would expect another September 11-scale attack within the next decade.
A computer expert who was accused of being al-QaedaÂ’s communication chief and was linked to the Heathrow bomb plot has been freed by Pakistani authorities.
A top Iraqi Shiite militia leader predicted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government was nearing its end because it has been tainted by its close work with American forces, a British newspaper reported Monday. Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told The Independent newspaper that al-Maliki's government was on the brink of collapse, despite efforts to bolster its base of support. 
An Arab journalist, who has worked for various Middle East newspapers for over 25 years from the US, has pointed out the likely pitfalls of the National Security Agency (NSA) using its new powers to monitor overseas communications without any approval from a judge.
Christian members of the March 14 coalition stressed Monday that they are "the Christian political authority that will have the basic and effective role" in electing a new President. The stand was outlined as a meeting grouping 29 Christian members of the multi-sect majority coalition was underway at the residence of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Merab, northeast of Beirut.
A suicide attacker detonated his explosive-laden car at a roadside security post in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four troops and wounding eight others, officials said. 
Zimbabwe's Parliament meets for a new session on Tuesday that will consider two major pieces of legislation, one to give the president considerable sway in appointing a successor and another to nationalise foreign firms.
A car bomb exploded in Acre on Monday morning moderately wounding one person, who police claim is familiar to them. Police, sappers and firefighters reached the scene shortly after an explosion was heard from a private vehicle. Police suspected that the incident was an assassination attempt of a local criminal. The wounded man was evacuated to a hospital and four other people suffered from shock.
The Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, today failed to win sufficient support to become president in the first round of voting in parliament. But Mr Gul, suspected by secularists of harbouring an Islamist agenda, is expected to prevail next week in further voting, when a parliamentary majority will suffice. Mr Gul, who has pledged to protect Turkey's secular basis, received 341 votes, short of the two-thirds majority of 367 required to clinch victory in the first round.
A Pakistani accused of using his computer skills to help al-Qaeda has been released after three years in custody, a government official and the man's lawyer said Monday. 
Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed on a bilateral mechanism to facilitate the implementation of decisions and recommendations made at the Pak-Afghan Joint Jirga held in Kabul from August 9 to 12.
Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki warned Washington that its policies were leading the world on a "dangerous path", an official statement said on Monday.
