(Thanks to LGF)
LAHORE: Ulema in Saudia Arabia have issued a fatwa (religious decree) declaring football an un-Islamic sport, and have urged the youth to quit it immediately, BBC radio reported on Saturday. I think they're talking about Soccer.
According to the report, the clerics urged the youth to volunteer for peace corps and other charitable groups, pursue extra-curricular education in arts and culture, study abroad, join a model U.N. club... indulge in jihad and other constructive activities that could help the Muslim ummah, the radio reported. The ulema argued that football wastes a lot of time outdoors getting exercise, engaging healthy competition and occasionally having fun and the participants wear shorts, which they said was an un-Islamic dress, the radio reported.
Following the decree, some players of the famous Taif Football Club have quit the game, the report added. Insanity sometimes is contagious. These Imams are the vectors for the spread of an epidemic that threatens the whole globe.
Posted by: Abd Al-Sabour Shahin ||
08/29/2005 04:07 ||
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#2
This will cause some serious unrest. Futball (Soccer) is VERY popular in the Middle East, almost as much as in latin America. More strikes against the religious establishment.
#6
You know your culture is screwed when a healthy competative team sport enjoyed across the globe is considered dangerous enough to be banned by religious edict.
#8
Taliban Utd. Beheadings at half time. Kick off toward Mecca, yellow card, 10 lashings, red card amputation.
Posted by: Wayne Bin Rooney ||
08/29/2005 16:27 Comments ||
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#9
Following the decree, some players of the famous Taif Football Club have quit the game, the report added.
They did more than that. From Rantburg's archives few days ago: Fatwa told football players to join al-Qaeda The decision of three footballers from a team in the Saudi city of Taif near Mecca to join al-Qaeda was prompted by a fatwa, or religious edict, condemning the game, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reports. Earlier this week the paper interviewed the captain of the team and father of one of the footballers, who was arrested while trying to carry out a suicide attack. Now Majid Sawat, Tamer Al-Thamali and Dayf Allah Al-Harithi's team-mates have revealed that the three were influenced by the fatwa, which banned Muslims from playing. Sawat's father confirmed that he is currently being held in Mosul prison. However, his two companions, Tamer al-Thamali and Dayf Allah al-Harithi, are reported to have completed their suicide 'missions'.
Posted by: ed ||
08/29/2005 19:24 Comments ||
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Invocations of radical Islam no longer resonate in Finsbury Park mosque as it puts its militant past -- including its links with the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 -- behind it.
Got rid of the bearded bully boyz, did you? A wise move...
"A new beginning for the mosque," says a banner that hangs over the doorway of the north London mosque, which Friday drew Muslims of all ages, backgrounds and dress. But in the wake of the London bombings last month that killed 56 people, including four apparent Islamist suicide bombers, there is a degree of skepticism over the government's attempts to clamp down on radicalism.
"Nope. Nope. That'll never work."
Once the lair of hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza, the mosque -- whose more notorious worshippers have included "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with September 11 -- reopened under new administration in February. Some 500 attend the mosque on average, mostly Muslims of Somalian, north African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani background, said Mustafa al-Mansur, the mosque's spokesman, who is himself from Bangladesh. "There are two types of people. There are people who stopped coming because of the previous management because they didn't feel safe or comfortable, and there are people who didn't care," he told AFP. "We don't see any recognizable faces any more," he added. "Since Abu Hamza left, the mosque was closed for several months. When Abu Hamza left there was a sigh of relief... Even some Abu Hamza supporters thanked us."
I guess they would. As faithful minions, they'd have to look at him...
Egyptian-born Abu Hamza was detained by the British authorities in May 2004 on a US demand for his extradition to face charges of aiding Al-Qaeda and setting up an alleged terrorist training camp in Oregon state. He had already lost his grip on the mosque, in January 2003, when police raided the premises, leaving him to preach on the sidewalk. He denies involvement in terrorism; his lieutenants have slipped out of sight.
"Mahmoud, da boss has lost his grip on da mosque! What should we do?"
"Let's go skulk somewhere, Ahmed!"
In his day, Finsbury Park mosque saw a number of would-be terrorist suspects pass through its doors, including Reid, Moussaoui -- once branded the 20th September 11 hijacker -- and Djamel Beghal, convicted in France for plotting to attack US interests in 2002. This past Friday a Pakistani imam, Souhaib Hassan, preached to his fellow Muslims in English -- seasoned with quotations in Arabic -- on morality and the qualities one needs in order to marry in the Islamic faith. "The mosque does not set an agenda for Friday prayers (but) we try to make sure that whoever we bring here to speak respects certain boundaries," Mansur explained. "I think Muslims can police themselves within their religious practice," he added, criticising what he called "draconian rules" set out by Prime Minister Tony Blair in the wake of the London bombings.
"I mean, we've done such a good job of it to this point!"
Those measures notably include deportation of foreign-born Muslims deemed to be sympathetic to terrorism.
I'm sure Draco would be proud. But he'd also consider it mere common sense. Draco, in fact, would probably have had them bumped off.
Outside the mosque Friday, two members of the Islamist party Hizb-ut-Tahrir collected signatures on a petition to protest the government's measures and Blair's intended ban on their movement. "Tony Blair has made himself a laughing stock," said Mansur of the prime minister who was already unpopular among many Muslims in Britain for having sided with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
So why aren't you laughing, Turban Top?
"He is the new sheikh for the Muslims. You will hear names like 'mufti Blair' or 'sheikh Blair'."
He likes being addressed as "effendi." When you're granted an audience, don't forget to bump your forehead on the floor three times before approaching him.
Mansur cast doubt on the effectiveness of Blair's strategy, saying that if Muslims are "radicalising", it is not because of people hearing fiery sermons, "but because of what they see in the media".
All the dynamite boyz who used to hang on Captain Hook's every word were mere coincidence.
"Muslims will sympathize with other Muslims in the world. They look for a channel to vent their anger."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Cap'n Hook was removed two years ago, but don't not forget the recent Finsbury mosque links with the July 7 and 21 london bombers. Call me sceptical for questioning whether the mosque has become a center for peace and love for the infidels.
Posted by: ed ||
08/29/2005 0:59 Comments ||
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The bombings in London are not terrorism but militants -- a reminder of that you too, pig England, must condemn all terrorism, everywhere. Tally, Blo.
#3
The "new" attendees are the same people who attended when it was a "radical" mosque. Only what they're saying in English has changed, as far as we can tell.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/29/2005 9:44 Comments ||
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The scene looks normal enough. A group of teachers sit talking quietly in an empty room in a brand-new, cavernous school. Drinking bad instant coffee, they chat about everything from a problem studentâ"God, I hope we're not going to get him next year"âto furniture for their staff room. One instructor, Elena Kasumova, leafs through a small questionnaire she gave some 11-year-olds 18 months ago. The first question was, "What do you fear most?" Spiders, answered one girl. Low grades, another. The loss of someone close to me, wrote a third.
The children who answered the questionnaire are all dead. The record books the teachers are arranging on the shelves have bullet holes in them. And most of the teachers are survivors of the Beslan hostage siege last September, when more than 1,100 peopleâmany of them childrenâwere held by terrorists loyal to Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev. At least 331 people died, including 186 children, in a chaotic rescue operation during which Russian security forces hit the school with incendiary grenades and tank shells. The fire brigade waited two hours before putting out the blaze that engulfed the gymnasium in which the hostages were being held.
The scene at the new school is about as close to normal as you get in Beslan. A year on, the small North Ossetian town remains deeply woundedâand bitterly divided. Survivors are still struggling with grief and anger, physical and psychological pain. Vitriolic disputes have broken out between survivors and the families of those who died, with allegations of cowardice sprayed on walls and lives ruined by whispering campaigns. Lidia Tsaliyeva, the school's 73-year-old principal, has been a main target. Fellow hostages say she played a heroic role during the ordeal, but others have made her into an accomplice of the terrorists; graffiti scrawled on a wall in the village calls her a "murderer."
The shock waves from Beslan are still felt far beyond the town. Many Russians were profoundly shaken by the television footage of dead and terribly injured children. And the Kremlin's failure to protect its people was another blow to President Vladimir Putin's image as a tough, take-charge leader. For Stanislav Kesayev, deputy speaker of the North Ossetian regional parliament and a critic of the Kremlin's handling of Beslan, the chaos surrounding the school seizure and the botched rescue attempt is symptomatic of the way Russian officials treat ordinary people as "cattle." "I teach law," says Kesayev, who heads a local inquiry into the siege. "I tell my students: Try to work to make things better here for your grandchildrenâbecause you won't be able to get this country out of the total mess it's in in time to help your children."
This week the first anniversary of the crisis will be formally marked with speeches and ceremonies in the old school gymnasium. A monument, which locals say will include a gold-painted structure said to depict a tree of life, will be unveiled at the cemetery where most casualties are buried. Next week, two new schools will open, one with tennis courts and the other with a pool. After a year of near-total silence, Putin has said he will meet a vociferously critical group of mothers who lost children in the tragedy.
The commemorations are unlikely to bring reconciliation or catharsis, just more pain. "We're all dreading them," says Kasumova. Families of those who lost children in the siege accuse survivors, especially teachers, of failing to save their loved ones. "If you survived, you have to be a coward," is how Kasumova sums up the prevailing logic. "When the explosions started, the person next to me was torn to pieces," she says. "I still don't know why I survived."
Children with the lightest physical injuries went back to school last November. Others are still receiving treatment and will not start the new year on time. Most are wary of unusual sounds, their teachers and parents say. Some, as they enter a new classroom, check for ways to escape. One young girl recently burst into tears when she saw the old school from a distance. Many have lingering pain, both physical and psychological. Vika Kallagova, 14, still drops by the hospital occasionally for treatment of shrapnel wounds that have not fully healed. Like many children in Beslan, Vikaâwho escaped from the school with her 9-year-old sister, Olyaâis introverted and reticent. "I never want to talk to a psychiatrist again," she says.
Critics of the government investigations claim that officialsâboth from the Kremlin and Beslanâare saying as little as possible in the hope that the controversy over the botched rescue will fade away. A federal commission of inquiry, composed of members of both houses of the Russian parliament, said last September they would need six months to complete their work. The inquiry is still limping along, with little sign that it will be finished in the near future. Prosecutors investigating the case still have not been able to identify the bodies of 11 of the 31 terrorists who died. And local officials last week banned journalists from the new school that will house most of the teachers and students who survived the siege.
Only Kesayev's commission of inquiry has broken new ground, forcing prosecutors and military officers to admit that rocket-launched incendiary grenades and tank shells had been used, details that had previously been denied. Russian officials say these weapons did not cause the fire in the school, and tanks were called in only after all the surviving hostages had been freed. Kesayev, who was in the Russian emergency command center in Beslan throughout the crisis, also claims that the Kremlin deliberately failed to respond to an offer by moderate Chechen guerrilla leader Aslan Maskhadov (killed by Russian special forces in March) to negotiate the hostages' release. That assertion is supported by a former Russian official who was also in the Beslan command center: "Someone higher up decided: 'Why make Maskhadov a hero?'" Russian officials reject the assertion, voicing doubts that Maskhadov's offer was genuine and claiming that fighting broke out anyway before they could act on it.
Meanwhile, the war in Chechnya drags on, promising more horrors to come. Last week, a new underground government was announced with Basayev, widely believed to have planned Beslan, named first deputy premier. Asked recently if there could be more Beslan-style attacks, Basayev answered: "Of course."
In Beslan itself, there's little mention of Basayev or the government inquiry. "We will never know who was behind the raid," says one of the teachers as she makes final preparations for the start of the new school year and, hopefully, the return of at least a semblance of normality. Life goes on, but everyone in this battered, brokenhearted town knows that nothing will ever really be normal again.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/29/2005 13:51 ||
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A U.S. Senate delegation led by Senator Richard Lugar was detained for three hours at the Perm airport on Sunday as it tried to leave the country after visiting nuclear weapons-related facilities, the U.S. Embassy said. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said the delay was "for customs reasons." The Chicago Tribune, which had a reporter traveling with the delegation, reported that Perm border guards had demanded to inspect the group's military DC-9 jet and that U.S. officials refused, citing a joint U.S.-Russian agreement exempted military planes from inspection.
"We don't search Russian airplanes in the U.S. You will not search U.S. planes in Russia," said Ken Myers, a senior Senate staff member in the delegation, the Tribune reported. Russian officials asked for proof that the jet was a military plane, the newspaper said. The plane has large logos reading "United States of America" on the sides of the fuselage.
#2
Now if it had been Senator Kennedy, Senator Turbin, Pelosi et al, this could get very interesting. Your papers are not in order comrades. A brief stay at our local hotel for the night. This way.
Posted by: Bill N ||
08/29/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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Right, Bill N. I'm from Massachusetts: take my Senator ... please.
PHNOMPENH - North Korea told the visiting Thai Foreign Minister it was unable to take part in six-party talks on its nuclear crisis scheduled for this week because âtrust and confidenceâ are lacking. âThe North Korean foreign minister told me what he had in mind, what had caused North Korea not to be able to participate in the six-party talks scheduled for Monday,â Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon told reporters on Sunday without elaborating.
â...I hope that the talks can resume at least by mid-September or within September at the latest,â he added.
Chinaâs top envoy to the six-party talks, joining China, Russia, Japan, the United States and the two Koreas and aimed at dismantling North Koreaâs nuclear weapons programme, flew to Pyongyang on Saturday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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These guys know how to run the clock. They should be NFL coaches or something...
#2
I'm still waiting for the table seating to end the talks. Boy that Kim knows how to make me wait!!!! I think we should loiter a few B52's and see how quick the short guy shows up to the talks. But we will keep playing nice until he parades his nukes and tells us to STFU! Lets just get this guy over with.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/29/2005 23:06 Comments ||
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France's struggle to overcome disaffection among its large Muslim population has provoked a battle over plans for the "backdoor public funding" of new mosques. In a project calculated to counter extremists' attempts to indoctrinate young Muslims on sink estates, civic leaders in Marseilles have set aside 60,000 square feet of wasteland for a Islamic centre in the La Pomme district. An even grander scheme would create a central mosque for up to 8,000 worshippers. More Islam is seldom the the right answer to any problem.
But opponents say the plans amount to public aid for a religious group in defiance of a 1905 law separating church and state. The issue is likely to end up in court.
Marseilles sees itself as the France's most cosmopolitan city. Muslims number 200,000, one in four of the population. The moves to encourage Islam's moderate voices echo last year's call by Nicolas Sarkozy for a review of the law to allow mosques to be built with state aid. Then finance minister, now head of the interior ministry, Mr Sarkozy saw his idea shot down as opinion backed France's secularist ideals. Have to take issue with Sarkozy here. How is state-sponsorship of Holy Men any better, from a secularist point of view, than dealing head-on with troublesome ones you already have?
For senior Muslim figures in Marseilles, however, the city's plans reflect his hopes of dismantling the network of makeshift mosques in poor areas. Abderrahman Ghoul, an imam, said: "We want to find ways of changing the negative images of our faith - extremism and suicide bombers. Helping people with facilities to meet and worship with dignity will contribute to that." And so much the better if the non-Muslim community foots the bill, huh? If I wanted to improve my image locally, I wouldn't ask my neighbours to repaint my house.
But the Left-wing Free Thinkers' Association claims that Marseilles officials are relying on a 1942 amendment passed by the Vichy regime. "We understand the anger of Muslims who feel we are discriminating against them," said Henri Huille, the association's area president. "But we were just as strongly against the use of public money towards restoring the Notre Dame statue overlooking the city." So why make unnecessary apologies, moron?
#2
I hope her book is a smashing success and read by many women and men who cannot fathom the military way. May it smash a lot of the illusions about the roles that women can perform as soldiers, that they are not Madonnas or whores; barbie dolls or Rambos; all exceptional or all ineffectual. She shares much with her male peers, and much she does not.
In truth, for the most part it is *not* an adventure, it is just a job, and not a terribly enjoyable job at that. But at the same time it is filled with rarefied *purpose*, a meaning, and an intensity that cannot be duplicated in the civilian world.
Even in that brief article, she speaks of the desire to return to her comrades, and that purpose. That aching need being felt by more and more soldiers who have come home to normalcy, that there is nothing here that can match the intensity of life over there. No life or death decisions, no peaks and valleys of emotional intensity, no terrible enemies and extraordinary friends.
Only peace, tranquility, emptiness and loss of purpose back home.
#3
Moose, I agree with your sentiments. This person has incurred a number of life experiences, some difficult ones predating her service.
When I saw the title of this article, I thought it was some bullshit "piss on the military" piece--far from it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2005 1:37 Comments ||
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#4
I didn't understand why the book is in print in the UK but not the US?
The fact that her husband is an injured vet compells me to purchase the book. Plus, she would provide an interesting perspective.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2005 1:45 Comments ||
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#5
I'm sure it's available in the US. I just read it a week or so ago. She simply tells her story, warts and all. Typical war stories, really - good units and bad units, clueless leaders and inane rules coupled with brave individuals working to get things done despite the system.
#7
I think the Army should BEG this woman to return to uniform, she is everything that they need in a female role model. If not they should hire her to conduct classes for women/men. Fact: most males like (and want) to have sex with females and this will become critical when they are forced to work and live in close quarters (for both). The story about the rock throwing and boobs shows she can see beyond the action and not see it as sexual harassment. How many other women would see it the other way? And the story about the interrogation (feeling guilt) should be in the manual if not already there. I also believe that all military stories should be presented warts and all. Let the audience take away what they want. I am definitely getting this book.
#8
Sex is key to a woman's experience in the US military
I thought maybe this was a new recruitment slogan.
This isn't the first military memoir by a woman. I remember reading an excerpt from She Went to War by Rhonda Cornum. If I recall correctly she was a medic (or doctor) in GWI. Her helicopter was shot down and its crew captured by the Iraqis. She had two broken arms. Some of the Iraqis were pigs, others unexpectedly respectful.
I'm sure that wasn't the first female memoir, either, but I expect most of the rest are from nurses or war corresondents or somesuch. I have Martha Gellhorn's The Face of War around here somewhere, waiting to be read.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/29/2005 16:17 Comments ||
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#10
Personally, I thought that being tough-minded, and being comfortable with excercising authority was the key. Yeah, there will be a certain amount of sexual tension, when you are the only woman in a unit, or one of four or five--- but you brush it aside and move on, and do your job. The guys you serve with, the guys in your unit--- they are your brothers. And brothers sometimes play rough, and talk tough. Deal with it, don't be a girly girl, and go off crying about it.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Sunday that Iran, as a powerful country, is the best friend of its neighbors and the best guarantor of regional security. Speaking with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammad Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is willing to turn the Persian Gulf into a gulf of friendship and brotherhood through expanding brotherly ties with regional states.
He called Iran-Kuwait ties very deep and valuable, adding that the expansion of bilateral ties in the cultural, political, and social spheres would strengthen the security of the two countries. The president stressed that Iran considers the security of Kuwait to be connected to the security of the Islamic Republic, adding that Tehran also considers it its duty to support the interests of Muslim countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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In other words, please don't allow the Americans to use Kuwait as the launch point to Tehran.
Posted by: ed ||
08/29/2005 0:15 Comments ||
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Cuban minister of transportation in a visit with Iranâs ambassador to Havana, emphasized on trade expansion between both countries, and also expressed his satisfaction in having Iran to supply part of Cubaâs transportation requirements. Ahmad Edrisian, Iranâs ambassador, announced that Havana would send a delegate to Iran soon to survey Iranian auto production companies in the fields of manufacturing various kinds of buses, trucks and automobiles. The Cuban minister has further welcomed Iranian companiesâ participation in Cuba International Transportation Exhibition to be held on September 21- 24 of this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Ever try driving the Theocrat-mobile? It's a real killer.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2005 1:10 Comments ||
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Hope it works out better than the 200,000 bicycles Fidel imported from China during the Special Economic Period (gas shortage). Cast steel frame 1 speed, caliper brake rear only.... 48 lbs.!
Iranian judges are to carry handguns from today after a judge was seriously wounded yesterday in the fourth attack on a judiciary official in the last four weeks, officials said. Tehranâs criminal prosecutor Fakhroldin Jaffarzadeh said the latest shooting meant judges would have to be armed. âAll judges from prosecutorsâ offices will carry firearms from tomorrow and, in case they feel in danger, they are licensed to shoot,â he told the ISNA students news agency.
"Yer honor, I object!"
[BANG!]
"Aaaaiiiieeeee!"
Judge Mohammad Reza Aghazadeh was fighting for his life after he was shot in the eye outside his Tehran home yesterday morning, Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad said. âI hope God helps us keep him alive,â he said. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, but the IRNA official news agency said Aghazadeh had been presiding over a major land transaction near the industrial city of Karaj, just west of Tehran.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Allowing/requiring the judges to carry guns most certainly doesn't guarantee they'll be able to protect themselves... only that someone will get hurt. I can't imagine the Mullahs will require the judges be given training in using the things effectively.
TEHERAN - Iran does not consider Britain, France and Germany to be its sole nuclear negotiating partners and the three European states could be marginalised from future diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
âIran does not want to substitute them as negotiating partners,â foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said of the so-called EU-3, who have been engaged in close to two years of tough talks with the Islamic republic. âWe will continue negotiating with them, but on the other hand we will not restrict our negotiations to being with just these three countries,â he added, saying Iran had also been talking with countries such as Japan, Malaysia and South Africa.
I'm sure they could strike a deal with Hugo Chavez.
âWe want to have negotiations with other countries, it is up to the Europeans not to remove themselves from the negotiations,â he said, accusing the EU-3 of refusing to recognise Iranâs right to the nuclear fuel cycle.
According to Asefi, Iranâs âmain negotiating partner is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)â, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Notice that they don't mention the only two nations that will take serious offense at them having nuclear weapons and might do something about it. This is just a charade / shakedown. They should call in Jesse Jackson as a consultant.
he US military and NATO peacekeeping forces on Monday dismissed reports carried on Islamic websites that Osama bin Laden had been injured in western Afghanistan.
US spokesperson Colonel James Yonts said that his military had checked claims that the al-Qaeda leader had been wounded by Spanish troops based in the western province of Herat.
"When we looked into that report - you know any allegation such as this, we take it very seriously - we found no proof," he said.
The claim first surfaced on August 24 in a story on Italian news website Adnkronos International.
It quoted two messages carried by "various Islamic websites", the first of which said Bin Laden had been wounded in a clash with the Spaniards, while the second gave details including that the injury was to his left leg.
The Nato-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, which has hundreds of Spanish troops based in Herat, also ruled out that any of its troops had injured bin Laden, who has a $50m on his head.
"I'm afraid that was just a rumour. No truth in it," Nato's Major Andy Elmes said.
A Spanish helicopter crashed near Herat on August 16, killing all 17 Spanish peacekeepers aboard. Madrid has said there were no signs of an attack.
However, Yonts said that the 19 000-strong US-led coalition would continue to hunt for the Saudi, who is widely believed to be hiding along the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"We want nothing more than to bring that man to justice, there is no doubt about that, and we're doing everything inside Afghanistan, and through the help of the border central Asian states as well, looking for that individual," Yonts said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/29/2005 13:39 ||
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"I'm afraid that was just a rumour. No truth in it," Nato's Major Andy Elmes said.
Major Elmes continued, "Mr. bin Laden has not been wounded, he is, in fact, in stable condition after having activated his Wonder Twin powers inside a cave in Tora Bora and assuming the shape of a large, inordinately pulpy blood stain."
Posted by: Scott R ||
08/29/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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India sought the extradition of criminals and international terrorists like mob boss Dawood Ibrahim during talks between the home secretaries of India and Pakistan that began here Monday.
Both sides managed to cover good ground on a host of issues, including terrorism, drug trafficking and the release of civilian prisoners, officials of India's home ministry said after the end of talks Monday.
India has reportedly upgraded the list of 20 alleged criminals that it says are hiding in Pakistan and whose extradition it is seeking.
"There are some criminals, terrorists and those who support terrorism and we are going to request our counterparts that they should be sent back here to face the legal process," India's Home Secretary V.K. Duggal told reporters.
During the two-day talks, which are part of the ongoing composite dialogue process, India will not only press for the extradition of Ibrahim but also ask Pakistan to hand over wanted criminals it describes as "terrorists".
Duggal will raise security concerns and urge Pakistan's Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, who is leading an 11-member delegation, to widen cooperation in combating terrorism.
Unconfirmed reports suggested Shah handed over a list of some Pakistanis who were suspected to be involved in terrorist activities and were living in India.
"We cannot discuss all this in the open. These matters are sensitive," said a home ministry official who was part of the Indian delegation.
Duggal and Shah will continue discussions Tuesday and a joint statement is expected at the end of the talks.
Meanwhile, India has thanked Pakistan for its decision to provide consular access to Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national sentenced to death in Pakistan on charges of being a spy.
Duggal said consular access was the first step towards working on Sarabjit Singh's clemency plea before President Pervez Musharraf.
Home ministry officials said both sides had agreed during Monday's talks to work out a mechanism whereby civilian prisoners lodged in jails in both countries would be released.
"We will try to make a distinction between civilians like fishermen and those who are hardened criminals," said an official who did not want to be named.
Both countries have hundreds of prisoners in each other's jails. A majority are fishermen and civilians who strayed across sea and land borders.
"We will make efforts to expedite the finalisation and signing of a memorandum of understanding for an institutional mechanism on drug control," said a senior home ministry official.
Earlier, arriving here for the third round of talks between home secretaries of both countries, Shah had said he had come with a "very positive mind", but avoided comment on whether the release of Sarabjit Singh would be discussed.
He said, "Usually the agenda (of India-Pakistan home secretary-level talks) is terrorism and drug trafficking but this time we have requested that we would like to discuss the issues of prisoners being held in both countries".
On the issue of Sarabjit, Shah just said: "Let us see."
The talks come ahead of talks between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan in Islamabad Sep 1.
The foreign secretaries are expected to confirm a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the UN summit next month.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/29/2005 13:28 ||
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Prosecutors in Europe and the US continue to face hurdles in achieving convictions in civilian courts of alleged al-Qaeda suspects, despite the recent jailing in Germany of a Moroccan man linked to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Defence lawyers for Mounir al-Motassadeq, jailed for seven years for membership of the Hamburg terrorist cell run by the September 11 suicide pilots, last week appealed against the verdict, raising the prospect of another trial.
Kai Hirschmann, terrorism expert at a security studies centre in Essen, western Germany, said Mr Motassadeq's conviction had been a breakthrough because the court had recognised that ideological support for the Islamic jihad, or holy war, was sufficient basis for prosecution on charges of membership of a terrorist cell. Yet he said he was "unsure the conviction will hold in the appeals court". A ruling is not expected until next year.
Mr Motassadeq was in 2003 the first man to be convicted for helping plan September 11, but his first conviction was overturned a year later by the appeals court.
Prosecutors in Spain and Italy have for similar reasons struggled to achieve convictions of al-Qaeda suspects.
In the US lawmakers and judges have made only scant progress in devising rules to allow for the civilian prosecution of suspected al-Qaeda suspects. Zacarias Moussaoui, thought by US officials to be the intended 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks, pleaded guilty in April to six counts of conspiring with the hijackers after the courts finally rejected his demand to subpoena al-Qaeda detainees in his defence. He is due to be sentenced next year.
But the Moussaoui case, along with the life sentence given to shoe bomber Richard Reid, remains among only a handful of cases in which Washington has been willing to use the civil courts to prosecute those with clear links to the al-Qaeda network.
The current situation is somewhat different, in that the war on terror is not being fought against a nation. That makes agreement on strategy and tactics even more difficult, and disagreement much easier. Everyone is inventing it as we go along, and no one will know who is right until itâs all over. Actually, the disagreements will probably continue, with one faction insisting that if things had been done their way, the terrorists would have been defeated much sooner.
But what is, âthe planâ currently in use for defeating Islamic terrorism? There is a plan, although for political reasons, all details cannot be admitted. Some knowledge of military (and terrorism) history, plus a close look at what has been done so far, makes it pretty clear what the plan is.
The first move was to round up as many members of the organization that planned and supported the 911 attacks. That included taking down the Taliban government in Afghanistan, and closing all the terrorist training facilities there. The world-wide roundup resulted in the arrests of thousands of suspects, and the jailing of most of the known al Qaeda leaders. We tend to forget that, while focusing on the few who are still at large.
Then came the invasion of Iraq. This was apparently done for two reasons. The main one, based on everyoneâs agreement (including Bill Clinton, France and Russia), was that Iraq had chemical, biological, and possibly nuclear, weapons, and would be likely to supply terrorists with such weapons. Many terrorists had taken refuge in Iraq, and Saddam was known to use terrorists to do his dirty work (like the Iranian rebel groups he hosted, and helped to carry out terrorist operations inside Iran.) Such use of terrorists was common throughout the Middle East, but Saddam was seen as very unpredictable and unreliable, even by Middle Eastern standards. There was general agreement that the removal of Saddam would be a good thing.
The second reason for going into Iraq was given less play, but was more important. The Arab world needed a wake-up call on the subject of Islamic terrorism, and the reason for most of it (corrupt government). Overthrowing Saddam, and giving the Iraqi people an opportunity to create a democracy, confronted the Islamic terrorists in the sharpest possible way. Al Qaeda, and many Islamic conservatives, have pronounced democracy as âunIslamic.â One reason Islamic radicals hate the West is because of their decadent attitudes towards elections, women and freedom of speech. By invading Iraq, and preventing any more attacks inside the United States, the Islamic terrorists are revealed as impotent loudmouths. This, naturally, enrages many Moslems who back Islamic terror, but it also forces the vast majority of Moslems to reconsider their tolerance for Islamic terror, and the corruption in their societies that they all complain about, but wonât deal with. The Iraqis are now forced to deal with it. The Sunni Arab minority, that had long dominated Iraq, refused to surrender, and, along with Islamic radicals, sought to show that the old tricks (terrorism) still worked. Who will win? That's what some of the arguments are about.
Thatâs The Plan. What are the complications? The first one is that the Arabs may not be able, or willing, to deal with their own, largely self-inflicted, problems. So far, Iraqis have turned out, despite death threats, to elect a government. Thereâs no shortage of volunteers for the police and security forces. But the terrorists have plenty of volunteers as well, and corruption is still a problem.
To further complicate things, Europe, and much of the rest of the world, loudly opposes The Plan. This is partly a knee-jerk reaction to the defeat of the leftist Democrat government in the United States in 2000. Europeans felt more comfortable with the Democrats, even to the enthusiastic call for American participation in the invasion of Kosovo in 1999 (which, like the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was carried out to overthrow a âterrorist stateâ in an operation the UN would not approve.) The Europeans also felt that they could live with thugs like Saddam, and convince him to stop supporting terrorists. Iraq, like several other Middle Eastern nations (Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen), had been willing to host, or at least tolerate, al Qaeda operations. Europeans are not big on bold moves and risk taking. They would rather try a bribe or a well timed assassination. But now they are stuck with the after-effects of the antics of those American âcowboys,â and they donât like it, especially if the American tactics work.
Arabs, and Moslems in general, opposed the invasion of Iraq because the leaders of most Moslem states operated the same way Saddam did, just more discretely. The people got their information from sensationalistic, and rabidly anti-Semitic mass media, that portrayed all the ills of the world as a Jewish conspiracy. Despite this revival of Nazi doctrine (and, with some Islamic radical groups, the Nazi salute), Europeans looked the other way. That has also started to change, as the European attitude towards Moslem migrants produced a far more fertile breeding ground for Islamic radicals that in the United States. Europeans largely dismissed this at first, until the bombs went off in Spain (2004) and Britain (2005). No one likes to admit they are on the wrong side of history, so most Europeans continue to contort themselves into positions that dismiss The Plan, yet still allow them to do what needs to be done to deal with their more immediate (than those âwrongheaded Americansâ) exposure to more terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/29/2005 10:48 ||
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August 29, 2005: The largest Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, is openly boasting of the success of its terror attacks in forcing the Israelis to leave Gaza. Hamas, and other Palestinian terror groups believe continued attacks will lead to the destruction of Israel, which has long been the goal of most Palestinian political groups. Officially, however, the Palestinian Authority, says that the goal is a separate Palestinian state. Israel goes along with this, but also continues to build the security wall between the West Bank and Israel. The Wall has proved successful in keeping terrorists out, but it also makes it very difficult for Palestinians to work in Israel, or to export goods, and thus create jobs within the Palestinian territories. As a result, Palestinians, and their European allies, condemn the Israeli wall (ignoring the Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks). But the Israelis appear determined to complete the wall, and continue raids into Palestinian territory to kill or arrest known, or suspected, terrorists. Most Israelis have given up on trying to cooperate with the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has an opportunity to eliminate the Palestinian terrorist organizations and establish peace. But this is not expected to happen, and Israel is preparing to seal off the Palestinian territories and ignore them.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/29/2005 10:38 ||
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#5
This is a very good plan. I'm glad Sharon finally gave up on the the negotiation game, and gave the Palestinians what they claim they want. Let the Palestinians eat the result until they choke on it!
Osama Shaltut claims to descend from the Prophet Mohammed and the centrepiece of his campaign for the Egyptian presidency is a promise to convert the entire world to Islam. The 66-year-old leader of the Solidarity Party, who wears a broad smile and a neatly-trimmed beard, does not like wasting time. "Why wait?" he asks. "The whole world should convert to Islam. Now."
So the 'Solidarity Party' is going to make the world convert to Islam? Great name for a political party ...
Shaltut, the only Islamist candidate in Egypt's September 7 presidential election, nevertheless knows he will have to wait before he can unseat President Hosni Mubarak, who is widely expected to be re-elected. When he introduces himself, Shaltut requests he be addressed as "Sharif" due to his holy ancestry or "Doctor" owing to his PhD in accounting.
His programme, he says, is threefold. "First, let's gather the leaders of all religions. Then, let's apply their principles and assess the results... Finally, let's proclaim the victory of Islam." But Shaltut admits such a process "would take around 10 years", so he advocates a universal conversion to Islam to speed things up and "for the good of humanity".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/29/2005 8:25 Comments ||
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#2
"Why wait?" he asks. "The whole world should convert to Islam. Now."
I'd like to see Condi respond to this one! "The whole world should have a McDonald's Starbucks on each corner. Now!"
"First, let's gather the leaders of all religions. Then, let's apply their principles and assess the results... Finally, let's proclaim the victory of Islam."
Boy, we aren't rigging the board in this game are we? Determining the outcome before you even start, eh? Wonder if Pat Robertson has something to say about this goon.
When asked about events such as the September 11 attacks or the US invasion of Iraq, he brands Osama bin Laden a "stinking dog" and a "bastard" and Saddam Hussein a "psychopath".
His newspaper carried a vitriolic article on alleged sexual harassment by Israeli soldiers against young Palestinian women, but his views on the Jewish state nevertheless appear less radical than those of other candidates or the leftist opposition.
"When we were young, we wanted to drive the Israelis into the sea, now all this is over," he says.
Shaltut, a former officer during the 1973 Yom Kippur war between Israel and Egypt, even advises Palestinian refugees to waive their right of return.
Somehow, I'm assuming this is the MMM (Mythical Moderate Muslim). If he spouts this stuff at the local mosque jihadi recruitment center, methinks he won't be around long. The Paleos giving up their "right of return?" Ptuh!
Posted by: BA ||
08/29/2005 8:28 Comments ||
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#3
No offense to any accountants out there but how does one get a PhD in accounting?
#7
"Osama Shaltut claims to descend from the Prophet Mohammed and the centrepiece of his campaign for the Egyptian presidency is a promise to convert the entire world to Islam."
A page out of the DNC play book. This pig is 66 years old. If he really is a descendant of prophet mohammed, he will live til the age of 666. Let's keep an eye on when he actually dies.
#10
... because his uncle, Mahmud Shaltut, issued a 1959 fatwa banning trips to the moon when he was the sheikh of Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam.
Sheesh! Now they tell me!
Posted by: Neil Armstrong ||
08/29/2005 10:32 Comments ||
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#11
Oh yeah, THAT'll happen. Right after monkeys fly outta my ass...
#13
Ah, a leader of lemmings if ever I heard one. Shaltut would do well to stick to space fatwas like his uncle. I can see a really good future in the space fatwa field and there is little competition.
#14
...because his uncle, Mahmud Shaltut, issued a 1959 fatwa banning trips to the moon when he was the sheikh of Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/29/2005 17:49 Comments ||
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#20
The whole world should convert to Islam
Whoa wait a second. Does this offer include the promise of free women?
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/29/2005 19:28 Comments ||
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#21
Goodness, I'd forgotten about that discussion, Rafael! Thanks for the memory ;-)
At the time, Steve wrote,
#15 I'm thinking specifically of one of Mr. Wife's cousin's brother-in-law, whose wife got mad at him one night, sewed him into the bedsheet, and beat him to a pulp with a frying pan.
Hummm, I had a supervisor who told me a story like that once. She wouldn't have been one of those peaceful submissive asian ladies, would she?
Posted by: Steve 2005-08-04 14:03
but I never answered. Steve, I don't think she was Asian, just more than a bit mad (as in nuts, not just angry). There are apparently lots more stories about her that I'm not told because I only married into the family.
From The American Spectator Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, and who's been intermittently camped outside President Bush's ranch in Texas demanding to meet with him for a second time, has been hailed as the public face of the antiwar movement. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has declared that Sheehan's moral authority is "absolute." So in the interest of more fully tapping that moral authority, here's a collection of Sheehan quotes:
"Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn't know anything, and we would already be a fascist state."
"Our government is run by one party, every level, and the mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government."
"Then we have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a five week vacation in a time of war. You know what? I'm never going to get to enjoy another vacation because of him. My vacation probably -- this is really sad because I have a really cute dress I was going to wear to the banquet tomorrow night -- but I'm either going to be in jail or in a tent in Crawford, waiting until that jerk comes out and tells me why my son died."
"You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East."
"And if you think I won't say bulls**t to the President, I say move on, cause I'll say what's on my mind."
"You get that evil maniac out here, 'cause a Gold Star Mother, somebody whose blood is on his hands, has some questions for him."
"The biggest terrorist is George W. Bush."
"If he thinks that it's so important for Iraq to have a U.S.-imposed sense of freedom and democracy, then he needs to sign up his two little party-animal girls. They need to go to this war."
"What can we do to get him out of power? And I'm gonna say the 'I' word: Impeach. And we have to have everybody impeached that lied to the American public, and that's the executive branch, and any people in congress, and we got to go all the way down... to the person who picks up the dogs**t in Washington because we can't let somebody rise to the top who will pardon these war criminals. Because they need to go to prison for what they've done in this world. We can't have a pardon. They need to pay for what they've done."
"It's up to us, the people, to break immoral laws and resist. As soon as the leaders of a country lie to you, they have no authority over you. These maniacs have no authority over us. And they might be able to put our bodies in prison, but they can't put our spirits in prison."
"Is there anyone in America who cannot yet see that Donald Rumsfeld is a liar, that he -- as with Hitler and Stalin -- will say anything so long as he thinks it will help shape the world to his own liking? Is there even one sane adult among us who cannot see that Donald Rumsfeld is a threat to our nation's security and to peace on our beloved earth?"
"Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC [Project for the New American Century] Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by George [W.] Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11."
"We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity now."
"I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people... since we first stepped on this continent; we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bulls**t to my son, and my son enlisted. I'm going all over the country telling moms this country is not worth dying for."
"Our country has been overtaken by murderous thugs... gangsters who lust after fortunes and power, never caring that their addictions are at the expense of our loved ones, and the blood of innocent people near and far. We've watched these thugs parade themselves before the whole world as if they are courageous advocates for Christian moral values... and for the spread of democracy. Yet we all know that they are now putting in place, all across this country, a system of voting that provides no way to validate the accuracy of the counting of the votes... and that, by its very design, prohibits recounting the votes. Our loved ones have been buried in early graves even as these arrogant thugs parade themselves before the entire world, insisting that democracy is worth dying for, killing for, and destroying entire cities for... In their secret hiding places, while celebrating newly won fortunes with their fellow brass, these men must surely congratulate themselves with orgies of carnal pleasure as they mock the dwindling multitudes who are yet so blind as to mistake them for God's devoted servants."
Come to think of it, Cindy Sheehan is a perfect mouthpiece for the anti-war movement. Why not go the whole hog and give her a bi-weekly column at the Times?
AoS note: edited out yellow highlight and replaced with italics. Highlight is for your comments. If you want to emphasize a point in the article, use italics or bold, or both. Thx.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2005 00:21 ||
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#1
Does the death pimp get a movie deal anytime soon. what are the chances.
...and, and, and,, what about bush/rove/haliburton/ made the germans bomb pearl harbor... mother shehan channeling john belushi.
#2
Those little towns and NE states, etal. whom wanted to separate from America after Dubya got elected in Y2000 should declare their independence like they wanted too back then, elect Cindy as their "Dear Leader"-ette, and call in the Commie Airborne/Air Group Army to protect the brand new CSAS - Cindy's Socialist American States. so Cindy can be one of 72 Virgins whom can give her Islamist Man that proverbial "one thing" ?????? Men are allegedly always after. * Remember, as per Dialecticism, Politicism and Relativism, by publicly working for the defeat, failure, andor destruction of their country America, the Lefties are privately quietly silently Patriots and in reality are for America, thus they can demand the full benefits of US citizenship while simul demanding NOT to fight for the country they hate = love. Thus they hate America and the American way while weirdly and msyteriously being unable to leave - you know, dem dar wily wascally Border Patrol agents down in the SW whom allow milyuhns and zilyuhns of illegal Mexicans, HIspanics-Latinos, and Islamists into America whilst forcibly keeping anti-American Americans in at pain of death!?
#3
There's an underlying petty, nasty streak in the lady coupled with a parroting of leftwing keywords. She's incredibly crude I'd say. Yet somebody sees her as the perfect propaganda power tool. I'd put it to them that it's an ugly debacle in progress. Has anyone in the MSM asked her why it is he should take the time to talk to her given her attitude? What is the point. To what useful end beyond creating more propaganda grist? There would be no conversation as such, that much is obvious. Has anyone in the MSM asked her why the hell she would think it is she should deserve CinC's ear any more than any other citizen or, moreover, more so than any other citizen who's lost a loved one in the military. At last check we are all equal. Her advocating that some should be more so sounds, frankly, more than a little undemocratic at best. I can't imagine that her son ever wanted anything like this to be linked to his memory.
I'm very proud to be a soldier of the U.S. Army because of the war on terror and our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not alone either. I'm surrounded by soldiers who are re-enlisting and volunteering to go to units that are deploying. In fact, despite all the negative news and protests, I see everyday that our military is actually doing very well.
This is quite obvious, except for the fact that most of the media seems asphyxiated with defeatism. The message from most journalists would lead you to believe that we soldiers are getting out, that no one is joining anew and that we want to stop fighting. This simply isn't true.
Yes, recruitment is lower, but the caliber of those who are signing up and the rates of re-enlistment are both extremely high. All 10 of our major combat divisions are ahead of expectations for retention of soldiers. In my unit, there are soldiers who specifically went active duty from the reserves because they want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Before September 11, a lot of soldiers were happy to just enjoy the benefits. Since that day, those soldiers have left. That is fine and not the disaster that defeatist reports are making it seem. Such soldiers were never the types to want to go on long deployments and face combat. Yes, they were heroes for signing up and being in a job that could go that direction, but they had other priorities that made their service contingent on enjoying the benefits rather than serving in war.
That changed on September 11. Now, just as we are told to expect when joining, we are going to combat and many soldiers are getting injured and killed. This is our job, and it is what we know can happen. I don't know why the media insists on trumpeting the idea that all of us are tired and worn out and just want to stop fighting. I don't, and I am not alone.
The fact is that we are not experiencing casualty rates anywhere near past conflicts, nor for that matter as bad as during peacetime. There were weeks in Vietnam when 350-400 Americans died, and in other wars thousands would die in single battles. Nothing like that is happening now.
From 1983 to 1996, more than 18,000 soldiers died. That averages to more than 1,300 a year, far more than have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan each year. Yes, that was mostly from accidents, drunk driving and other mishaps. Yet, while protesters in Crawford, Texas and elsewhere would have you think that our military can't survive with the low casualty rates of this war, I wonder why they were willing to accept the much higher peacetime casualty rates of the past? We lost around 3,000 innocent people on September 11, and with four years of war and the toppling of two regimes, we haven't lost that many in combat.
Injuries are high, but they are nothing compared to past conflicts. And most striking is how many are recovering well. I have been to both of the major military hospitals involved in this war, Landstuhl in Germany and Walter Reed in Washington, and I can tell you that there are many soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan and who want to return to their units and get redeployed.
Like I said earlier, though, the striking fact I see every day is that the soldiers who are joining now are of much higher caliber than those who joined before September 11. The senior commandant of the Marines recently testified before Congress that the same is happening with them. There maybe fewer than before, but those that do show up are willing and dedicated to being deployed and going to combat. These are also the types who are re-enlisting more than ever before. In fact, re-enlistment is up to 130 percent of expectations in some divisions.
My wife is in the National Guard. Theirs is an interesting experience right now in that there have been more casualties by accidents and reckless behavior off-duty than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are protesters not upset about that? Sadly it appears that much of the media are obsessed with defeatism. Even the message of the protesters â contradictory, false and confused as ever â is made front-page headline news every day. The few people they can exploit to push this defeatist agenda are made to appear to speak for all of us. That just isn't true.
Contrary to all the bad news, I see everyday that our soldiers are motivated and eager to contribute and participate in our nation's military missions. This is a very proud and important time to be serving. Considering that out of a population of 285 million, less than one-tenth of one percent are going to war right now, and considering the huge impact we are having on the world, this is a wonderful time to be a soldier in the U.S. Army.
Sgt. Joe Roche is with the 12th Aviation Battalion and stationed at Fort Belvoir.
#7
This woman is sick, she needs phsychiatric help. She has driven herself crazy, why would Bush meet with a crazy woman who just wants to scream profanities at him? Why should he meet with a woman who has called him a terrorist and a murderer,and a criminal, and a lier? Is she from another planet, there are 1,800 other families that have lost someone in this war that arent making an ass of themselves.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/29/2005 16:07 Comments ||
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#9
This woman is sick, she needs phsychiatric help. She has driven herself crazy,
I disagree, I think she hit the Big Prize in the MoonBat Lottery. She knows she was born for this gig, she missed it back in '68 but now things are finally turning her way. It was designed in the fabric of gawds own lovequilt of the universe.
#11
Army guy: thank you for Sgt. Roche's comments. Got a link by any chance? It was indeed a good read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2005 17:13 Comments ||
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#12
she's in love with the media being in love with her.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2005 19:37 Comments ||
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#13
That guy who got in trouble down there nailed it in one: "bitch in the ditch" will be darned hard to top.
Posted by: mac ||
08/29/2005 19:43 Comments ||
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#14
Cindy Sheehan is just MSM filler for the dog days of summer. While working for ten years in the library system of a large metropolis I saw hundreds of Cindy Sheehans -- mentally ill moonbats hungry for a reason to explain their sad plight. The crap Ms. Sheehan is blowing at the media is almost identical to the ravings of the mentally ill who came up to the reference desk of the library I worked at wanting the home address of some city official who had "ruined" their life. They each wanted to talk to the city official and to set the record straight. The sad thing is Cindy Sheehan's mania is treated like it matters. It simply doesn't; she is nuts and needs treatment.
Egyptian authorities released senior Muslim Brotherhood member Mahmoud Ezzat late on Saturday after holding him without trial for more than three months, official sources said on Sunday. Ezzat, the secretary-general of the Islamist movement's Guidance Office, was detained on May 22 as part of a crackdown on the Brotherhood a few days before a referendum on a constitutional amendment introducing presidential elections with more than one candidate.
The Brotherhood, which is Egypt's largest opposition group but which the government refuses to recognize, had called for a boycott of the referendum because of the conditions limiting independent presidential candidates. Because of the restrictions, the Brotherhood does not have a candidate among the nine opposition politicians challenging President Hosni Mubarak, who is seeking a fifth six-year term in the elections on September 7. But the Brotherhood, its eyes on parliamentary elections in November, has advised its members to take part in the presidential elections and to vote for the candidate of their own choice.
Ezzat, who is among the top four members of the Islamist movement, was the most senior Brotherhood member detained in a crackdown which began in March, when the movement started a series of street protests for political reform. Another leading Muslim Brother, Essam el-Erian, remains in detention.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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The constitutional wrangling in Baghdad is par for the course in Iraq's nation-building -- at least as filtered through the Western media. As the deadline approaches, we read that the whole magilla's about to go belly up, there's no agreement on the way forward, Washington's going to have to admit it called things disastrously wrong and step in to salvage what it can by postponing the handover to an Iraqi administration/the first free elections/the draft constitution/whatever.
This time 'round, we were reliably informed that the constitution was turning into a theocratic rout of Kurds, women and any other identity groups the media could rustle up. I'm not sure what the gay scene's like in Fallujah, but no doubt the Shia were railroading through constitutional prohibitions on same-sex partner benefits for gay imams, too. Iraqi women were better off under Saddam, we were told by various types, though the wags at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a David Horsey cartoon showing Condi assuring Bush "they won't get stoned to death as long as they keep their burqas on tight."
Ha-ha. So what do we find in Article 151 of the Iraqi constitution?
"No less than 25 percent of Council of Deputies seats go to women."
I'm not a great fan of quotas but for purposes of comparison, after two-and-a-quarter centuries, in the United States Senate, 14 percent of the seats are held by women. and my state has two of the worst: Di Fi and dumb as a Boxer of rocks
The only burqa on too tight here is the one David Horsey's pulled over his head with the eye-slit round the back. Has he ever met an Iraqi woman?
Iraqi nation-building coverage is like one almighty cable-news Hurricane Ahmed. The network correspondents climb into their oilskins and waders and wrap themselves round a lamppost on the boardwalk and insist that civil war's about to make landfall any minute now, devastating the handover/elections/constitution. But it never does. Hurricane Ahmed is simply the breezy back and forth of healthy politicking.
Remember the Afghan war? On Nov. 7, 2001, the New York Times' Maureen Dowd was sneering at the Northern Alliance for being a lot of useless layabout deadbeats. "They smoke and complain more than they fight," she scoffed. A couple of days later, Kabul fell so swiftly that on Nov. 14 Dowd switched smoothly -- with only the mildest case of columnar whiplash -- to whining that the hitherto layabout Northern Alliance had "embarrassed" us with their "savage force." bitchiness and cattiness on a high school level = NYT quality
That's the way our Iraqi allies work, too. They have to be nudged along -- which is why the U.S. strategy of hard (or hard-ish) deadlines works well -- but in the end they get there.
"What makes a good constitution?" asked National Review's Rick Brookhiser the other day. "Standoffs and horsetrades, frozen in time."
The English-speaking world's most significant and enduring constitutional settlements -- Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights -- were the compromises of rival power blocs: King John vs. England's barons, federalists vs. anti-federalists.
Brookhiser didn't add that the least enduring are those drafted by an ideologically homogeneous ruling class: This year's much ballyhooed European Union constitution, for example, was dead on arrival. By contrast, the constitution being hammered out in Baghdad reflects political reality. What the naysayers cite as the main drawback of Iraq -- it's not a real country, just a phony-baloney jurisdiction cobbled together to suit the administrative convenience of the British Colonial Office, never gonna work, bound to fall apart -- is, in fact, its big advantage: If you want to start an experiment in Middle Eastern liberty, where better than a nation split three ways where no one group can easily dominate the other two? The new constitution provides something for everyone:
The Shia get an acknowledgment that Islam is "the official religion of the state," just as the Church of England is the official church of that state -- though, unlike the Anglican bishops, Iraq's imams won't get permanent seats in the national legislature.
The Kurds get a loose federal structure in which just about everything except national defense and foreign policy is reserved to regions and provinces. I said in the week after Baghdad fell that the Kurds would settle for being Quebec to Iraq's Canada, and so they have.
The Sunnis, who ran Iraq from their days as Britain's colonial managing class right up to the toppling of Saddam, don't like the federal structure, not least because it's the Kurds and Shia who have the bulk of the oil. So they've been wooed with an arrangement whereby the country's oil revenue will be divided at a national level on a per-capita basis.
If you'd been asked in 2003 to devise an ideal constitution for Iraq's very non-ideal circumstances, it would look something like this: a highly decentralized federation that accepts the reality that Iraq is a Muslim nation but reserves political power for elected legislators -- and divides the oil revenue fairly.
And if it doesn't work? Well, that's what the Sunnis are twitchy about. If Baathist dead-enders and imported Islamonuts from Saudi and Syria want to make Iraq ungovernable, the country will dissolve into a democratic Kurdistan, a democratic Shiastan, and a moribund Sunni squat in the middle. And, in the grander scheme of things, that wouldn't be so terrible either.
In Iraq right now the glass is around two-thirds full, and those two thirds will not be drained down to Sunni Triangle levels of despair. There are 1 million new cars on the road since 2003, a statistic that no doubt just lost us warhawks that Sierra Club endorsement but which doesn't sound like a nation mired in hopelessness. A new international airport has been opened in the north to cope with the Kurdish tourist and economic boom. Faruk Mustafa Rasool is building a 28-story five-star hotel with a revolving restaurant and a cable-car link to downtown Sulaimaniya.
To be sure, we shouldda done this, and we shouldda done that. Yet nonetheless Iraq advances day by day. The real quagmire is at home, where the kinkily gleeful relish of defeatism manifested by Cindy Sheehan, Joan Baez, Ted Kennedy et al. bears less and less relationship to anything happening over there. Iraq's future is a matter for the Iraqis now -- which, given the U.S. media, Democrat blowhards like Joe Biden and Republican squishes like Chuck Hagel, is just as well.
LOL - Rep Squishes - so fitting....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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He's kind of right - these documents are not the product of chummy consensus - it's more like a knock-down drag-out fight, but conducted with words on paper instead of with weaponry, edged or otherwise.
"The following letter, from the Family Research Council [FRC] to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, speaks for itself and deals with the California Democrat's claim last week that she represented 145 million women on issues such as abortion.
"Could you clarify how you arrived at this number?" wrote Connie Mackey, vice president for government affairs, and Pia de Solenni, director for women's issues.
"According to the 2003 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 144,513,361 women and girls in the United States and, given our democratic environment and diverse society, we are confident in suggesting that the views of these women are not all represented by you.
"California, the state you represent, has about 17.5 million women and girls," the women note. "If you are suggesting that you represent 145 million women because of your stance on Roe v. Wade, polls show that women are consistently becoming more pro-life. ... We look forward to the explanation of your statement."
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2005 1:17 Comments ||
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Steyn is on target once more.
The MSM attempts to set the bar so high that any outcome other than Jeffersonian democracy falls short.
A constitution is a living document, both in terms of amendments over time and in terms of savings lives through a political process (over military).
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/29/2005 1:23 Comments ||
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What gets me about all of this (and something I think should be emphasized) is that it took this country over 10 years to "get it right." Even then, we sidetracked hot issues (slavery) which ended up costing us thousands of lives to resolve the issue. Of course, I'm hesitant to give the MSM any ammo about how long it took us to get it right.
Posted by: BA ||
08/29/2005 8:20 Comments ||
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#5
Well Frank, you are bitching about people who don't believe in freedom here, so why should they believe freedom works in Iraq? Di-Fi and Boxie think like communists and act like strict overbearing parents to 30 million Californians. Why should they give a rats ass about Iraqis, they cant vote democrat.
#6
It's pretty easy to knock on Di-Fi and Boxer but I ask you this: when was the last time the California Republican party ran a Senatorial candidate that was worth a damn? Not a nice guy -- Bill Jones was/is a nice guy -- but a hard-charging, tough, comes-out-swinging candidate? Not damn recently.
#2
I think it really sucks when sons of politicians try to use their father's positions to cash in...
Posted by: Kojo Annan ||
08/29/2005 15:29 Comments ||
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And the media will wail away that Ari's family is oh-so-corrupt and that "proves" that Israel is rotten to the core. Conveniently overlooking the fact that all the sons of ME leaders are corrupt layabouts, and that only Israel has the stones to investigate and press charges.
#4
Ok, here's what's really going on. For years Omri Sharon has acted as a sort of unofficial "go between" for his father with the PLO and Hamas. They respect him even if they don't like him. They also fear him because he knows how they think, not to mention who they are. He is a far more important man than one would think.
The Attorney General of Isreal is playing politics, possibly because of the Gaza pullout. By the standards of the Middle East Omri doesn't even begin to qualify as corrupt.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei accused Israel yesterday of destroying the chances of a viable Palestinian state by expanding its settlements around Jerusalem as he held a symbolic Cabinet meeting on the outskirts of the city. Qorei said that Israelâs settlement drive and its construction of a separation barrier in the region were leaving Palestinians living in the east of the city in âghettosâ.
âAll these things do not leave any room for the creation of a viable Palestinian state,â Qorei told reporters after the meeting. âThe Palestinian state should be built on the borders of 1967 and the Palestinians will not accept any state less than that.â
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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âAll these things do not leave any room for the creation of a viable Palestinian state,â Qorei told reporters after the meeting.
Life's tough. It's even tougher when you and the majority of your fellow Paleos are DUMBASSES.
#2
I don't think that there is anyone who has seriously considered the issue who believes that there will ever be a Palestinian state other than confusion. The people are dysfunctional. They have been welfare clients for over 50 years. They don't know how to do anything except kill Jews. Left to their own devices and unable to reach the Israelis, they will do the only thing they know how to do, kill each other. No nation wants them. No nation is willing to accept them. The wall is brilliant. The Palestinians can seethe, but they can't reach the Israelis. After awhile, donor fatigue will set in and these bastards will starve.
#3
The smart ones have been leaving for generations -- to the point that the Palestinian diaspora could support those who stayed home in tolerable discomfort if all outside funding were cut off.
#2
Tariq Aziz Has Grown Old, Lost Weight, Says Daughter
Sounds like the guy's doing a lot of worrying. Like worrying what will be revealed about his part in Saddam's regime, and what the consequences of such will be.
BRUSSELS - The European Union welcomed the publication of Iraqâs draft constitution on Sunday and urged all Iraqis to participate in an October referendum on the text. In a statement, the EU said it âcongratulates the Iraqi people on reaching this important milestone in the political process.â The statement was released by the British government which currently holds the EUâs rotating presidency.
âThe European Union encourages all Iraqis to play a part in the next stage of the political process by voting on the draft constitution in the October referendum,â it added. âBroad public support for the constitution will help ensure a stable future for Iraq.â
The EU offered help preparing the constitutional vote and national elections scheduled for December. âRepresentatives from across Iraqâs diverse community have now produced a constitution which we hope will set the foundations for a democratic Iraq,â the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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The EU offered help preparing the constitutional vote and national elections scheduled for December.
First, start by increasing the size of the Iraqi constitution to 247 pages...
Jamaat-e-Islami will hold "National Leaders' Conference" in Islamabad on September 4 to discuss the country's socio-political situation. JI has already extended invitations to former presidents, politicians, retired judges and military personnel, clerics, newspaper editors, scholars, labour leaders and students.
JI Deputy Secretary General Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha, MNA told reporters that issues pertaining to the country's solidarity, sanctity of the constitution, supremacy of parliament, crackdown on madrassas, an end to military rule, free and fair elections under an impartial election commissioner and rampant corruption will be the subject for discussion. Piracha said that he had already briefed Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raja Zafarul Haq and Imran Khan about the agenda for the conference.
Earlier Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal President and JI Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed addressed a meeting of the newly-elected nazims, naib nazims and general councilors. He accused the government of trying to disintegrate the MMA but said the government would be thwarted in its attempt and the religious partiesâ alliance would remain intact. Qazi said that parliament had been rendered powerless because of one manâs rule. Qazi said the government had exercised its influence to succeed it candidates in the elections. He said party-less elections pushed the country into chaos resulting in the killing of scores of people. Qazi claimed that the number of people killed in election violence was unprecedented in the countryâs history.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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The Tanzeemul Madaris (Barelvi) said on Sunday that it would not cooperate with the government on registering religious seminaries under the Amended Society Registration Act 1860. âNo seminary will be registered till the government resolves the issues and problems faced by them (seminaries),â Mufti Muneebur Rehman, Tanzeemul Madaris president, told a press conference. âWe want the government to start talking to the Ittehad-e-Tanzimat-e-Madaris-e-Dinya (ITMD) and settle all issues,â he said, demanding the government ban law enforcement agencies from visiting seminaries.
Gee, golly. I just can't imagine why they'd want to keep the coppers out...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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"You'll pry my madrassas from my cold, dead...er, wait, that doesn't sound right."
Several Islamic terrorist groups have shown up in Libya over the past year. The most prominent of these (if only because of their ability to publicize themselves) has been The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (Jama'at al-Islamiya al-Muqatila), or LIFG. So far this year, there have been several violent incidents between LIFG members and the security forces. The terrorists have not proved themselves very terrible so far. In one incident, an LIFG killer, armed with a sword, went after some policemen. The cops pulled out their pistols, and, well, you may have seen that one play out in the movies.
The Islamic terrorists know who their real enemy is, and during the 1990s made several unsuccessful assassination attempts against Khadaffi. Groups like LIFG understand that most Libyans are fed up with Khadaffi and all his posturing and inefficiency. Before Osama bin Laden got distracted with killing infidels (non-Moslems), guys like Khadaffi were at the top of the al Qaeda hit list. But al Qaeda gave up trying to take Khadaffi down, because thugs like Khadaffi know how to deal with Islamic terrorists. For example, after the Iraq invasion of 2003, many Libyan Islamic radicals wanted to go to Iraq and fight the Americans. Khadaffi let them, and gave orders that any who survived and tried to return home, were to be shot on sight.
The traditional (in the Arab world) way of dealing with violent dissent (like Islamic terrorism) is to come down hard on the malcontents, and err on the side of too much violence. But Khadaffi also has to deal with some truly new, and very dangerous ideas circulating throughout the Arab world. No, not Islamic conservatism, but democracy. The last thing Khadaffi wants is democracy. He knows most Libyans are unhappy, and would vote him out of office if given a chance. Khadaffi is trying to improve the economy, and is bringing in lots of foreign experts to help him do it. Thatâs why he dumped support for terrorism and nukes, in order to get out from under UN embargos. But itâs going to take a while to undo decades of misadministration. In the meantime, all those foreigners just inflame the Islamic radicals. To cope with this, Khadaffi plans to hire at least another 100,000 people for the security forces. Life is not going to be easy for anyone in Libya over the next few years.
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Hell, they should go back to killing each other. Nobody gives a rat's ass about that.
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.
Invocations of radical Islam no longer resonate in 
PHNOMPENH - North Korea told the visiting Thai Foreign Minister it was unable to take part in six-party talks on its nuclear crisis scheduled for this week because âtrust and confidenceâ are lacking. âThe North Korean foreign minister told me what he had in mind, what had caused North Korea not to be able to participate in the six-party talks scheduled for Monday,â Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon told reporters on Sunday without elaborating.
Cuban minister of transportation in a visit with Iranâs ambassador to Havana, emphasized on trade expansion between both countries, and also expressed his satisfaction in having Iran to supply part of Cubaâs transportation requirements. 
Iranian judges are to carry handguns from today after a judge was seriously wounded yesterday in the fourth attack on a judiciary official in the last four weeks, officials said. Tehranâs criminal prosecutor Fakhroldin Jaffarzadeh said the latest shooting meant judges would have to be armed. âAll judges from prosecutorsâ offices will carry firearms from tomorrow and, in case they feel in danger, they are licensed to shoot,â he told the ISNA students news agency.
Cindy Sheehan
Egyptian authorities released senior 
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei accused Israel yesterday of destroying the chances of a viable Palestinian state by expanding its settlements around Jerusalem as he held a symbolic Cabinet meeting on the outskirts of the city. Qorei said that Israelâs settlement drive and its construction of a separation barrier in the region were leaving Palestinians living in the east of the city in âghettosâ.
Jamaat-e-Islami will hold "National Leaders' Conference" in Islamabad on September 4 to discuss the country's socio-political situation. JI has already extended invitations to former presidents, politicians, retired judges and military personnel, clerics, newspaper editors, scholars, labour leaders and students.
The 
