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Uttar Pradesh minister issues bounty for beheading cartoonists
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Africa Horn
Ten crew died in US helicopter crash off Djibouti
Damn. Deep condolences to all families and fellow service-people.
NAIROBI - Ten crew members died when two US military helicopters crashed off the coast of Djibouti on Friday, the US military in the Horn of Africa country said on Sunday. “The Department of Defense confirmed the deaths of 10 CH-53E crewmembers as a result of the crash that occurred off the coast of northern Djibouti on Friday,” it said.

The two helicopters carried a total of 12 crew when they crashed during a training mission. The military earlier said two crew were rescued on Friday, injured but in a stable condition. “Next-of-kin notifications have been made to all family members of the deceased; however, names are being withheld in deference to family members’ privacy,” Sunday’s statement said.

Add: Names of Troops Killed in Crash Released.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Agreed. God be with the families.
Posted by: Ptah || 02/20/2006 7:51 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigerian hard boyz blow up houseboat, pipeline
Nigerian militants who have kidnapped nine foreign oil workers said they had blown up a military houseboat and an oil pipeline manifold on Monday, the latest attacks in a campaign that has cut exports by a fifth.
Military ... houseboat?
In an e-mail, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also threatened to attack any vessel trying to use Royal Dutch Shell's 340,000 barrel-per-day Forcados oil export platform, which the group bombed on Saturday. "Patrol units ... carried out attacks on one houseboat belonging to the Nigerian army and the Shell Ughelli Odidi-Escravos manifold. Both were destroyed with explosives," the militants said, adding that the soldiers in the houseboat fled before it was destroyed.

The militants said that Shell was planning to use one manifold on the Forcados export platformwhich was not damaged in Saturday's attack to export oil. "Regardless of whatever security arrangements they depend on and time of the day, we will attack this vessel and execute everyone on board. It is needless to say what will happen to the surviving manifold in the next few hours," they said.

The government says the militant movement is a cover for thieves siphoning crude oil on a commercial scale from pipelines across the vast wetlands region of southern Nigeria.

The militants accused Nigerian military and security commanders in the area of being responsible for the theft. "Oil is not like diamonds and requires ships to come in unhindered. This is facilitated by the heads of these security organisations who are paid a standard fee for every vessel loaded," they said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:38 || Comments || Link || [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Military ... houseboat?

Maybe it's too swampy for a structure on the solid ground (No solid ground)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/20/2006 13:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Either that, or the river is too shallow for deep draft ships, and you need small barges to get around.
Posted by: mom || 02/20/2006 23:14 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Ctg JMB commander remanded again
Feb 19: JMB Chittagong divisional commander Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad was taken on a 5-day police remand Sunday for interrogation on his involvement in blasting bombs in Panchlaish thana area during the August 17 serial bombings across the country. Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Court granted the 5-day remand when he was produced in the court.

RAB arrested Mohammad from Kathtuli area under Pahartali thana in the port city on December 13 and recovered huge amounts of explosive items.
"Say Mohammad, how's about youse taking a walk wit us later tonight?"
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez to ditch presidential term limits
"The Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire ... for a safe and secure society!
Snip, duplicate. And Dan gets 7 comments so far, and I get only 2. Hmmmph. Work my fingers to the bone, I do, and I get no respect, maybe don't deserve none, grumble grumble natter natter ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:41 || Comments || Link || [336104 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What a surprise that is.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2006 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Chavez last year opposed a move by one of his allies to end term limits, insisting he did not have any intention of remaining in the presidency permanently.

Just until he dies.

The former soldier, who led a failed coup attempt in 1992, has won the support of millions who have benefited from a multi-billion dollar social investment campaign that has provided basic services like free health care and education.

a. I guess everyone has their price

b. Who let him out of jail?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/20/2006 7:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Everywhere on the left they say Bush will have a third term and how much they admire Chavez.

Leftism really is a mental illness.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/20/2006 8:14 Comments || Top||

#4  My biggest shock is there is no suprise meter on this one :).
Posted by: Ol Dirty American || 02/20/2006 8:20 Comments || Top||

#5  I hope he broke it to Jimhi Carter gently.
Posted by: Captain America || 02/20/2006 8:49 Comments || Top||

#6  A regular George Washington, is this guy.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/20/2006 8:50 Comments || Top||

#7  "I might sign a decree calling for a popular referendum -- do you agree that Chavez should run for a third term in 2013?" Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast.

Ahhh, the reference to oneself in the third person, the surest sign of a raging egomaniac. Who does he think he is, a pro athlete?
Posted by: Raj || 02/20/2006 9:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Please note that one of the primary reasons this guy is running roughshod all over the place is because his opposition is utterly worthless.

Why the very idea of good government is so anethema in Central and South America is just mystifying. Often as not, is it eerily like Woody Allen's "Bananas".

Just an endless line of banditos waiting for the last one to fail so that they can take over. Government indistinguishable from a criminal gang.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/20/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#9  His opposition has been jailed, harrassed and protested peacefully.

Earlier, of course, there was the coup attempt against him.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Great comments on this thread.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/20/2006 9:58 Comments || Top||

#11  This board needs a Gomer Pyle photo available for stories like this.
Posted by: Ulatch Elmaing6229 || 02/20/2006 10:11 Comments || Top||

#12  There is no "I" in Hugo.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/20/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#13  His opposition has been jailed, harrassed and protested peacefully.

Earlier, of course, there was the coup attempt against him.


And before that, he had two coup attempts of his own against the government.

AND, the coup attempt against him happened shortly after people protesting against him were shot by his partisans.

I suspect the coup attempt was just a means for him to distract people from his crimes; he got a lot of the opposition to put their necks on the line when they had no real chance of success, and got a lot of the leftists here, there, and everywhere to talk about what a victim he was while he was having people shot.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 02/20/2006 11:10 Comments || Top||

#14  Kicked out a couple US military attaches, too.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 11:11 Comments || Top||

#15  Just when you thought the classic South American banana republic tin pot dictator image was a thing of the past ...
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 11:31 Comments || Top||

#16  a .50 caliber term limit
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 12:26 Comments || Top||

#17  ..has won the support of millions who have benefited from a multi-billion dollar social investment campaign that has provided basic services like free health care and education.

The free gravy train won't last. And by the time things go into the toilet, it probably won't be possible to remove the guy without the loss of quite a bit of blood.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/20/2006 14:37 Comments || Top||

#18  Where is Pinochet when we need him? Or we might try convince Chavez to accept an invitation from this guy...
Posted by: Sonia Belle || 02/20/2006 16:58 Comments || Top||

#19  Welcome, Sonia. Note: her blog possibly NSFW.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/20/2006 17:07 Comments || Top||

#20  Agreed on both points, Sea. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 17:12 Comments || Top||

#21  nice bio: March '05 Penthouse Letters, I think....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 17:25 Comments || Top||

#22  Married? Too bad thisn maybe PDees soulmate.
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 19:43 Comments || Top||

#23  Lesbosity doesn't attract me, 6, lol.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 19:46 Comments || Top||

#24  Sure, glad you asked. I figure there are six kinds of sex...
1) with self
2) with myns
3) with wymyns
4) with other species
5) with Space Aliens (they only seem to dig Greek)
6) that Tantric stuff... which is like mixing sex & ADD

Sure, you're welcome. Anytime. :-)
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 21:30 Comments || Top||

#25  PD - sometimes I feel like a lesbian trapped in a man's body - where does that fit in? :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 21:34 Comments || Top||

#26  #1, of course. You can, you know, with yourself. I'm too shy to say it...
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 21:37 Comments || Top||

#27  LOL
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 21:46 Comments || Top||

#28  I'm actually jealous. People suggest this to me pretty regularly, but no joy. Sigh.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 22:01 Comments || Top||

#29  maybe Chavez could have Cindy Sheehan as a running mate. In this link below the picture shows them pretty chummy

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10704025/
Posted by: Jan || 02/20/2006 23:09 Comments || Top||

#30  if each had half a mind (and they do) - they'd complete each other
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 23:12 Comments || Top||

#31  But would she get a sash with schprockets n' doo-dads, too?
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 23:13 Comments || Top||

#32  lol
Posted by: Jan || 02/20/2006 23:16 Comments || Top||

#33  I get the impression that shiny objects might distract Cindy "Peace Mom" to where she forgets everything she might have had to say. They keep sprockets, mirrors, and bird seed away from her...
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 23:19 Comments || Top||

#34  Lol. Lawzy, I'm in a good mood. Time to get dressed and run off to Ruth's Chris for our 9:00 reservation, heh. :-)
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 23:24 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
US seeking Georgian help for Iranian airstrikes?
American officials have been quietly probing whether Georgia, situated just northwest of Iran, will be willing to allow Washington to use its military bases and airfields in the event of a military conflict with Teheran, The Jerusalem Post has been told.

The Americans have been putting out feelers, a high-ranking Georgian government foreign affairs official told the Post, in advance of a possible military strike to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.

American reports in recent months, speculating about the possibility of a campaign against Iran because of the failure of diplomatic efforts to thwart a potential nuclear weapons program, have suggested that sustained military action, rather than a single strike, may be required given the number of Iranian nuclear facilities, their divergent locations and Iranian defenses.

Georgian government officials said that Tbilisi fears harsh Iranian military retaliation against the Georgian republic if US forces were to use its territory as a base for strikes against Iran, but nonetheless may feel obligated to accede to such a request, given the country's heavy reliance on US aid and support. The US maintains its own military bases in Georgia.

While the Americans have been testing the waters lately in this direction, the source indicated, no official request of this kind has yet been made.

Georgia is also worried about the possibility of civil unrest, citing the strong opposition by its Muslim minority to the country's participation in the war in Iraq, where there is a limited Georgian military contingent.

Military collaboration with the US would also have "a most negative effect" on relations between Moscow and Tbilisi, which remains strained since the election of Georgia's US-educated president, Mikhail Saakashvili, in 2004.

Saakashvili is considered one of the most consistent US supporters in the post-Soviet bloc and enjoys solid American backing. Indeed, Saakashvili is often accused by Moscow of maintaining an "American outpost in the region."

The Georgian source added that a similar US request might be made to Azerbaijan, an immediate neighbor of Iran and another close American ally.

The close proximity of both countries to Iran makes Tbilisi and Baku desirable partners in a potential alliance against Iran.

Rumors of a possible military alliance between Washington, Tbilisi and Baku first appeared in late 2004, when the Azerbaijani press reported on a meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and senior Pentagon officials, in which the possibility of military cooperation was said to have been discussed.

Both Georgia and Azerbaijan have denied that discussions on such cooperation took place. "We do not hold any negotiations that concern military cooperation with the Americans," Kakha Imnadze, Saakashvili's press secretary, said last May.

Officials in Baku also rejected the reports. Aliyev claimed that he learned of such negotiations from the press. But, it seems, despite the hasty denials, Iran has taken the reports rather seriously.

At the beginning of February, Iranian officials implied that any country that helped the US in military action against it would be subject to harsh retaliation. Neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan possesses sophisticated air defense systems to protect their air space from an Iranian strike, the Georgian government official noted.

While Georgia would allow the US to use its soil for technical support during an attack on Iran, Temuri Yakobashvili, an expert on Georgian strategy, told the Post that Washington had yet to formally ask Tbilisi for assistance in such an attack.

"At this stage there have not been formal requests," said Yakobashvili, head of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi. Georgia, he said, would be more inclined to allow US forces to use its territory in a military offensive if Iran "did something outrageous against Georgia."

Georgia, he said, would most likely be used not as the base for the attack but as a stopover for the US Air Force as well as a transit spot to stock up on fuel and ammunition. "The US is preparing for a variety of scenarios," Yakobashvili said. "Georgia can be used as a transit or for stockpiling ammunition."

US forces, Yakobashvili said could also use Azerbaijan as the launch pad for their attack. Azerbaijan, which is closer to Iran than Georgia and enjoys strong ties with Israel and Washington, is also home to US radar stations which line its border with Iran.

Azeri officials have, however, ruled out the possibility that their land would be used in a military offensive against Iran, warning that their involvement could trigger harsh Iranian military retaliation against Baku.

"We will probably not let the US use Azerbaijan to launch a strike on Iran," Azeri Minister of Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov told the Post last week, adding that an attack on Iran would destabilize the entire region.

US officials stationed in the region said they did not need Azerbaijan's or Georgia's cooperation in an attack against Iran. According to the sources, if the US wanted to attack Iran, it could always use Iraq or Afghanistan, where US forces are already heavily deployed, as its base.

Meanwhile, Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehei on Sunday warned that any Israeli attack against it would be "stupidity" and provoke a swift response, state-run television reported.

Israel has said it would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear capability, and has indicated it might take "necessary steps" if negotiations fail to convince Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program. Last month, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Muhammad Najjar said if Israel attacks Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran will respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into "an eternal coma" like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Iran resumed small-scale uranium enrichment earlier this month after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported it to the UN Security Council over its controversial nuclear program.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:31 || Comments || Link || [336086 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There will be no peace in Iraq without very heavy military actions in Iran and Syria by US.
Posted by: Annon || 02/20/2006 5:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Yep, or a toppling of both regimes by some other method.
Posted by: BillH || 02/20/2006 8:06 Comments || Top||

#3  "American officials… The Jerusalem Post has been told… a high-ranking Georgian government foreign affairs official… of a possible… American reports… speculating about the possibility… have suggested… may be required… Georgian government officials… were to use… may feel… the source indicated… is considered… often accused… The Georgian source added… might be made… in a potential… Rumors of a possible… press reported… senior Pentagon officials… in which the possibility of… was said to have been… Officials in Baku… the reports… claimed that he… But, it seems… the reports… Iranian officials implied… the Georgian government official noted… an expert on Georgian strategy, told the Post… would be more inclined… if Iran… would most likely be… could also use… Azeri officials have… involvement could trigger… will probably… US officials stationed in the region… According to the sources… if the US wanted… and has indicated it might…"

Proof Positive
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/20/2006 11:54 Comments || Top||

#4  The American people will neither confirm nor deny contacts with the government of Georgia. We do take notice of the extreme leverage held by al-Qaeda terrorists over that government. We ask that the government of Georgia negotiate with al-Qaeda, as are American emissaries negotiating with that terrorist group in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hopefully we can bring misunderstood terrorists into the democratic fold, and have them participate in elections, as has been achieved in Iraq. When Georgian Christians surrender to Muslim agents of the religion of peace, then American peace and security will be advanced.
Posted by: State Department || 02/20/2006 16:30 Comments || Top||

#5  "State" is our troll from British Columbia. And he's growing rather tiresome.

It won't be long before he wears out his welcome here and we change the locks on the door.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:35 Comments || Top||

#6  The same one as before, lotp (I'm afraid I've forgotten his names)? Or has he a little friend?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 17:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Same one. He's on timeout right now.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 17:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Georgian government officials said that Tbilisi fears harsh Iranian military retaliation against the Georgian republic if US forces were to use its territory as a base for strikes against Iran

I think the Georgians are much more concerned about Russian retaliation.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/20/2006 20:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Carter's an asshole, he'll never help out ... OH!!! THAT Georgia ... never mind.
Posted by: DMFD || 02/20/2006 22:47 Comments || Top||

#10  At the beginning of February, Iranian officials implied that any country that helped the US in military action against it would be subject to harsh retaliation. Neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan possesses sophisticated air defense systems to protect their air space from an Iranian strike, the Georgian government official noted.

Sounds like the Georgians need "sophisticated air defense systems". I bet that problem can be solved.
Posted by: Anon || 02/20/2006 23:59 Comments || Top||


Europe
France arrests gang in torture death of Parisian Jew
The French police arrested late Thursday night most of the members of the gang that abducted, tortured and murdered Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jew from Paris.

Hundreds of SWAT officers raided apartments in Bagneux and arrested 12 people. Another suspect was arrested in Belgium.

"They acted with indescribable cruelty," the judiciary police chief leading the investigation said. "They kept him naked and tied up for weeks. They cut him and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight."

While the citizens of France were shocked by the unbridled violence of the gang, Halimi's family claims that the murder was motivated by anti-Semitism.

"We think there is anti-Semitism in this affair," Rafi Halimi, Ilan's uncle, told the press.

"First, because the killers tried to kidnap at least two other Jews, and second, because of what they said on the phone," Rafi Halimi added. "When we said we didn't have 500,000 euros to give them they told us to go to the synagogue and get it," Rafi said. "They also recited verses from the Koran."

But the Paris public prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, told Parisian Jewish radio on Thursday that "no element of the current investigation could link this murder to an anti-Semitic declaration or action."
nope, didn't happen and you can't prove it and why don't you just ... go on a vacation or something.
The umbrella group of French Jewish secular organizations, CRIF, issued a statement Friday calling on the Jewish community "to keep calm, cautious and wait for developments in the investigation."

Ilan Halimi's family points to the behavior of the kidnappers in their ransom negotiations, which began a few days after Ilan disappeared. Halimi was abducted on January 21 after a woman came into the mobile phone store where he worked and charmed him into a dinner date. The woman had been sent by the gang, which calls itself "The Barbarians." A police source said the gang is a group of childhood friends who grew up in Bagneux, a suburb south of Paris. The gang includes Muslims of North African descent and is headed by Youssef Fofana, who has escaped police capture so far. According to Marin, the gang had made six similar abduction attempts in the past.

After overpowering Halimi, the gang brought him to an apartment in a high-rise in Bagneux. They contacted Halimi's family and over the next three weeks demanded ransoms ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 euros. According to reports, at one point they agreed upon a deal and set a meeting place but the kidnappers backed out and eventually ended contact.

A source in the Jewish community said the gang's behavior suggested that the motive behind the kidnapping was violence for its own sake, particularly against Jews.

"Why didn't they release him when the realized the family couldn't pay ransom?" asked Sami Gazlan, who is responsible for security in the Jewish community.

Last Monday, a few days after the kidnappers ended contact with the family, Ilan was found near a suburban train station south of Paris, naked, handcuffed and gagged, with burns covering 80 percent of his body. He died on the way to the hospital.

The first break in the case came on Thursday after the police released an Identikit image of the woman suspected of "baiting" Halimi. The woman turned herself in out of fears that neighbors would identify her, and identified the apartment where Halimi had been kept.

The store where Halimi had worked was closed Saturday. Several shops in the area, the 11th arondissement, were closed on Friday, with signs explaining that it was a gesture of sympathy for Halimi's family.
good
Many of the shopkeepers were among the 1,000 or so people who attended Ilan Halimi's funeral in the Pantin cemetery.

Dozens of family members returned home, in the 12th arondissement, to begin sitting shiva after the funeral. Walking back, accompanied by police officers, relatives expressed their shock at the murder.

"We are in total shock," a close friend of Ilan's said Saturday. "All of us, Ilan's mother especially, have not yet begun to comprehend what happened."

The French are going to have to decide - RIGHT NOW - whether they will tolerate kidnapping and torture of French citizens on French soil. If the national authorities do not crack down right now, hard, they truly are lost.

I wish I could say I was betting they would stand up to this barbaric shit, but I'm not optimistic at this point. I think the car-b-ques have them cowering along the Champs Elysee.

Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 06:52 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  never again.
Posted by: RD || 02/20/2006 12:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Instapundit has a link to more on this story by an Israeli blogger. An interesting bit she dropped was, "I heard about it several days ago, only because my in-laws are French, and the affair has understandably shaken the French Jewish community to the core. We had a large wave of French Jews immigrating to Israel last summer. Something tells me that this summer we're going to have another one."

I'm very happy to see the Jews of France aren't as head-in-the-sand as we'd feared.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 13:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Thinking further, it will be interesting to see how the Rothschilds respond to all this. A goodly portion of them converted to Catholicism at one time or another, I understand, but the family still retains strong ties to Judaism and even Israel -- I think they sponsor a kosher winery there, amongst other endeavors (long before Zionism the family supported colonies of scholars in Hebron and such).
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 16:03 Comments || Top||

#4  If the upshot is all those dirtly little people go back to their sh!++y little country, the French would not be at all averse to letting the muzzies take credit the blame for it. Then they crack down on the muzzies. Sort of. If they ever do it to a real Frenchman.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/20/2006 16:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Re #4: A talking chimp! Amazing! Give 'em a banana!
Posted by: borgboy || 02/20/2006 16:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Based on NS' history of commenting here, I think he was being sarcastic, i.e. writing what he thinks many French secretly feel.
Posted by: anon || 02/20/2006 16:57 Comments || Top||

#7  especially the actual French diplomat referring to Israel as "that shitty little country"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Trailing Wife, you said:

"I'm very happy to see the Jews of France aren't as head-in-the-sand as we'd feared."

It's not the French Jews who are head-in-the-sand about Muslims. It's the French people.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/20/2006 17:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Per Trailing Wife:

"I'm very happy to see the Jews of France aren't as head-in-the-sand as we'd feared."

Reminds me of an old joke..

A preacher made his way one Sunday to dinner as a guest of an old farmer who didn’t get out to church much anymore. The farmer and his brood welcomed the preacher and he took his seat next to the farmer at the table. The family’s old hound, Dog, sat beneath the table, near his master as always.

Shortly after the soup was served an awful smell permeated the room. No sound, just the horrid smell. The farmer eyes shot down beneath the table. “Dog”, he said sternly. The Preacher muttered “no harm done.” It was passing the potatoes that that the farmer froze, having encountered a wall of putrid, eye-tearing fumes of hell bad smell. His family froze as well. The farmer sat, leaned beneath the table and hissed, “Dog”. The Preacher leaned over and touched the Farmer on the shoulder. “No harm done,” he soothed.

The gravy for the mashed potatoes had just been placed before the Farmer, when the smell came once again, a silent tsunami of sulpher and rotting meat. The farmer coughed, glanced at the Preacher and pushed back his chair. Leaning under the table, he commanded, “Dog. Get the hell out from under there before the Preacher damn suffocates you.”

It may be wise for the Jews of France to seek other countries for haven for a while.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 || 02/20/2006 18:48 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda planned missile attack on Incirlik
It has been revealed that al-Qaeda had been preparing for a missile attack on Incirlik Air Base putting the base on high alert.

The Air base commander has been setting up security systems to avoid possible attacks and has sought help from the Turkish Police Department and National Intelligence Organization (MIT), reports say. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Porter Goss sent the second crypto about the action plan of al-Qaeda to the Turkish intelligence authorities after his visit to Ankara. The first crypto informed that al-Qaeda was sending radioactive substances to determine locations via cargo companies. The CIA cautioned Turkish intelligence authorities about the action plan against Incirlik Air Base. The message was sent last week via the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The crypto writes al-Qaeda militants are preparing to sabotage the Incirlik Air Base, located in the Southern city of Adana, with a human propelled highly destructive missile.

Ankara, alarmed by the crypto, informed MIT Undersecretary, Gendarmerie Headquarters, and Security General Directorate. The gendarmes, who guard the region, have taken emergency measures around the American base against missile attacks. MIT and police units began multifaceted operations in Adana. The intelligence units had uncovered another action plan of al-Qaeda against Incirlik Air Base. Police intelligence had found out the organization was preparing to attack the base with a hijacked plane.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:11 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Democrats Hope To Unite On US Surrender Plan
After months of trying unsuccessfully to develop a common message on the war in Iraq, Democratic Party leaders are beginning to coalesce around a broad plan to begin a quick withdrawal of US troops and install them elsewhere in the region, where they could respond to emergencies in Iraq and help fight terrorism in other countries.

The concept, dubbed ''strategic redeployment," is outlined in a slim, nine-page report coauthored by a former Reagan administration assistant Defense secretary, Lawrence J. Korb, in the fall. It sets a goal of a phased troop withdrawal that would take nearly all US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2007, although many Democrats disagree on whether troop draw-downs should be tied to a timeline.

Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, has endorsed Korb's paper and begun mentioning it in meetings with local Democratic groups. In addition, the study's concepts have been touted by the senator assigned to bring Democrats together on Iraq -- Jack Reed of Rhode Island -- and the report has been circulated among all senators by Senator Dianne Feinstein, an influential moderate Democrat from California.

The party remains divided on some points, including how much detail to include in a party-produced document, fearful of giving too much fodder for attacks by Republicans.

But in its broad outlines, many leading Democrats say the Korb plan represents an answer to Republicans' oft-repeated charge that Democrats aren't offering a way forward on Iraq -- and to do so in a way that is neither defeatist nor blindly loyal to the president.

''We're not going to cut and run -- that's just Republican propaganda," Dean said in a speech Feb. 10 in Boston. ''But we are going to redeploy our troops so they don't have targets on their backs, and they're not breaking down doors and putting themselves in the line of fire all the time. . . . It's a sensible plan. It's a thoughtful plan. I think Democrats can coalesce around it."

Reed, an Army veteran and former paratrooper who has been charged with developing a party strategy on the war, said the plan is attractive to many Democrats because it rejects what he calls the ''false dichotomy" suggested by President Bush: that the only options in Iraq are ''stay the course" or ''cut and run."

''It's important to note that it's not withdrawal -- it's redeployment," Reed said. ''We need to pursue a strategy that is going to accomplish the reasonable objectives, and allow us to have strategic flexibility. Not only is it a message, but it's a method to improve the security there and around the globe."

The idea of a phased deployment of troops out of Iraq recognizes that a huge US military presence in the country is straining the armed services as well as feeding the insurgency, Reed said. He added that many military commanders agree that the nation should be moving toward taking American troops out of Iraq, to better equip the military to respond to threats around the world and give the Iraqi government a greater incentive to handle its own security.

Under Korb's outline, all reservists and National Guard members would come home this year. Most of the other troops would be redeployed to other key areas -- Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, and the Horn of Africa -- with large, quick-strike forces placed in Kuwait, where they could respond to crises in neighboring Iraq.

Korb said in an interview that setting dates for troop withdrawal would send a message to the Iraqi people that the United States does not intend to set up permanent military bases in Iraq. Starting the redeployment quickly will ensure that the Army does not wear out before the insurgents do, he said.

''The Iraqis want us to go," said Korb, who has opposed Bush's decision to invade Iraq from the start. ''If you're out by the end of 2007, we'll have been there almost five years. That's not cutting and running."

But some strategists say the goal of a near-total withdrawal within two years is overly optimistic. US troops that are a plane ride away won't be an effective deterrent, and Iraqi security forces appear unlikely to be able to handle the violence on their own in the near future, said Michael O'Hanlon, a centrist defense specialist who is a lecturer at Princeton University.

''You're demanding that the political system produces a miracle," O'Hanlon said. ''Any plan that envisions complete American withdrawal in such a period of time is still a prescription for strategic defeat."

The war has been a source of long-running tension among Democrats. Twenty-nine Democratic senators and 81 House Democrats voted to authorize the president to invade Iraq, and while most are now critical of Bush's handling of the war, some -- notably Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut -- remain staunch supporters.

Although ''strategic redeployment" could draw a large portion of Democrats into the same fold, Reed and other Democrats disagree with setting a timeline for troop withdrawal, saying that such decisions should be dictated by commanders on the ground.

Still, Reed noted that the Bush administration has begun modest troop withdrawals. The Senate in November overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for 2006 to be ''a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty," and on Friday, the White House issued a statement reiterating its position: ''In 2006, it is anticipated that the Iraqi military will take more of the lead for security throughout Iraq."

But the president has strongly rejected issuing any time frames, arguing that they would be exploited by insurgents who would strike as soon as troops leave Iraq. Democrats who have suggested time frames for withdrawal have faced harsh attacks from Republicans, who paint them as offering a strategy of defeat.

In November, Representative John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, shook much of Washington with his call for an immediate withdrawal of troops, and his estimate that all troops could be out of Iraq within six months. The generally hawkish Vietnam veteran also called for quick strike forces to remain close to Iraq -- similar to the Korb plan -- but that was largely overlooked in the barrage from Republicans.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Murtha plan amounted to ''surrender to the terrorists."

Representative Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio, delivered a blistering speech on the House floor aimed at Murtha, who spent 37 years in the Marine Corps: ''Cowards cut and run, Marines never do," Schmidt said, in remarks she later withdrew from the Congressional Record.

The attacks on Murtha demonstrated the political peril that could face Democrats who offer plans involving troop withdrawals.

Although Murtha has 99 House cosponsors for his plan, some Democrats remain skittish about offering a plan that they know would be attacked harshly -- and, they say, almost certainly misconstrued -- by political opponents.

Still, Dean, Reed, and others in the party are trying to develop a united Democratic vision for Iraq, based in part on the calculation that the war will be a big factor in many 2006 congressional campaigns.

Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat who voted in favor of the war and now supports the Murtha plan, said that while the war remains Bush's responsibility, Democrats should be able to tell voters what they would do differently.

''There are a lot of different views, but I personally believe that putting forward specifics about how to move forward in Iraq is important to do," said Meehan, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. ''I would like to see Democrats coalesce around a strategy like Korb's strategy."

This fall, in elections that Democrats hope will bring them back to power in Congress, more than 50 military veterans are running in congressional races as Democrats.

Those candidates are asked about Iraq all the time, and the idea of strategic redeployment is appealing to many of them, said Eric Massa, who is challenging an incumbent Republican in upstate New York and is helping to organize strategy for the veterans who are running.

''You can't stand in front of people and say, 'We want your vote,' and not tell people what it is they're voting for," said Massa, a former Navy officer. ''We all know that staying the course is not a strategy that's going to work."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/20/2006 11:39 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't mind a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, as long as they are withdrawing into Iran. Somehow, I don't think that's what The Scream has in mind.
Posted by: BH || 02/20/2006 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm glad they're uniting. --> target rich environment
Posted by: too true || 02/20/2006 11:49 Comments || Top||

#3  The Sheehanistas and assorted progressives will NEVER buy into this plan.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/20/2006 11:49 Comments || Top||

#4  The idea of a phased deployment of troops out of Iraq recognizes that a huge US military presence in the country is straining the armed services as well as feeding the insurgency, Reed said.

Just wait and see what a successful nuclear terrorist attack on American soil will do towards "straining the armed services as well as feeding the insurgency". If this is the Democratic "vision" for our country's future, they have no business leading it.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 11:56 Comments || Top||

#5  But, but they all have to come home and, uh, um, drill n' march around inside their bases n' stuff. They didn't join up to go fight in wars! What kind of twisted logic is that? Sheesh.

/channeling the Best-Intentioned of the Dhimmidonks

Others can cover the other end of the scale. Me? I'm becoming, like, y'know: kinder and gentler and stuff.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Me? I'm becoming, like, y'know: kinder and gentler and stuff.

[clutches at chestal region]

Gasp ... thud!
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||

#7  "...of US troops and install them elsewhere in the region, ..."

Exactly where else IN THE REGION are they going to put them? SA, Kuwait, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Syria.....???????
Posted by: AlanC || 02/20/2006 12:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Shhhhh, Zen! I'm in stealth mode, lol.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:20 Comments || Top||

#9  I believe Murtha said "over the horizon" and intends to stack 'em 10 deep on Guam - or something equally asinine.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:22 Comments || Top||

#10  I don't have adequate words to describe my complete and total contempt for the cowardly traitors of the Democratic Party. Warren Harding would be a VAST improvement over their current leadership. Last but certainly not least, I hate them for having made America a one-party state. I often disagree with the Republican stance on issues but after carefully listening to the Democrats (and parsing their words a la Slick Willie), I don't think I could vote donkey and still look at myself in the mirror every day. This is one man's vote that is lost to those Democrat criminals forever. It would be nice to have legitimate options other than the pachyderms; unfortunately, all the donkeys offer is cravenly abject surrender to our nation's enemies and THAT IS NOT AN OPTION.
Posted by: mac || 02/20/2006 12:29 Comments || Top||

#11  It looks to me like the Dems are going to demand what was pretty close to what is already 'planned' (if not announced), so they can claim credit for causing it to happen. There may or may not be a rigid timeline attached to the Dem demand, and there is no ANNOUONCED timeline attached to current ops, but you have to know that there are some internal planning timelines, and my guess is they are not too far off of one that is 'essentially out by the end of 2007'. (In fact, I bet those internal planning timelines are known to Dem leadership.) Even if military circumstances don't quite line up that way, domestic politics will.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2006 12:30 Comments || Top||

#12  I partly agree with Glenmore.

Probably the Admin aims to be below 100k (pychologically good for the elections) by Nov 06 and below 50k by Dec 2007.
Posted by: mhw || 02/20/2006 12:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Rumsfeld and teh Generals have already said almost all daily peacekeeping will be done by Iraqi army by the end of the year. The Donks are trying to take credit for a plan already in place, just like Hamas kicked the Israelis out of Gaza.... (*snort*)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 12:43 Comments || Top||

#14  Dean and his fellow loons are adopting the "a bad Democratic Party plan is better than no Democratic Plan plan" strategy." I guess that's the best you can hope for considering the psychological diversity of the mentally challenged who are involved.

"a slim, nine-page report coauthored by a former Reagan administration assistant Defense secretary"
No doubt a secret agent for Karl Rove.

YJCMTSU
Posted by: Darrell || 02/20/2006 12:44 Comments || Top||

#15  I had no idea that Senator Dianne Feinstein was a moderate. Guess I'm behind the times. I also guess that makes Kerry, Ted "Glub, glub" Kennedy, and Reid moderates too(?)
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 02/20/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#16  This is great!!

Just in time for the election season, the Donks are eager to demonstrate their cowardness.

I'm Karl Rove, and I approve this plan (he-he)
Posted by: Captain America || 02/20/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#17  Don't laugh, at least now the al Dems have a plan, and they might not need much. Now that the State of the Union is delivered, Bush is getting ready for his yearly 6 month hibernation. Before he starts his long nap, he'll nail down security at our ports with an Islamic nite crew, and take a strong stand on this cartoon business - oops, he slipped off to sleep before he could tend to that last matter. At this rate, the Dems will have Congress back and will be looking for peace with honor.

Posted by: Hank || 02/20/2006 15:01 Comments || Top||

#18  I think it's a pretty good plan and should be implemented once we win.
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 15:24 Comments || Top||

#19  "Not only is it a message, but it's a method…"

Bullshit! It’s not a plan. They’re just floating around their new slogan.
Do you really think Rummy’s gonna say… Heyyyy…didja hear what some Democrat wordsmith came up with? They call it "strategic redeployment". That’s just crazy enough ta work. Why didn’t we think of that? Pace…I want plans on my desk by the end of the week!
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/20/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#20  My fellow Minnesotans at Powerlineblog.com have been tracking the idiot Chairman of the Donks Party in Minnesota.

A pair of brillant TV commericals have been running in Minnesota, featuring brave soldiers who served in Iraq. The second commercial features several Gold Star parents who explain why their loved ones lost their lives in Iraq.

The Donk chairman says the commercial is "un-American, untruthful, and a lie."

The commercial is here: http://www.midwestheroes.com/

The Donks just never lose an opportunity to demonstrate their cowardness.
Posted by: Captain America || 02/20/2006 15:51 Comments || Top||

#21  They're digging deep in to the old play book, 1864 deep!

Copperheads (Peace Democrats)

Although the Democratic party had broken apart in 1860, during the secession crisis Democrats in the North were generally more conciliatory toward the South than were Republicans. They called themselves Peace Democrats; their opponents called them Copperheads because some wore copper pennies as identifying badges.
A majority of Peace Democrats supported war to save the Union, but a strong and active minority asserted that the Republicans had provoked the South into secession; that the Republicans were waging the war in order to establish their own domination, suppress civil and states rights, and impose "racial equality"; and that military means had failed and would never restore the Union.
Peace Democrats were most numerous in the Midwest, a region that had traditionally distrusted the Northeast, where the Republican party was strongest, and that had economic and cultural ties with the South. The Lincoln administration's arbitrary treatment of dissenters caused great bitterness there. Above all, anti-abolitionist Midwesterners feared that emancipation would result in a great migration of blacks into their states.
As was true of the Democratic party as a whole, the influence of Peace Democrats varied with the fortunes of war. When things were going badly for the Union on the battlefield, larger numbers of people were willing to entertain the notion of making peace with the Confederacy. When things were going well, Peace Democrats could more easily be dismissed as defeatists. But no matter how the war progressed, Peace Democrats constantly had to defend themselves against charges of disloyalty. Revelations that a few had ties with secret organizations such as the Knights of the Golden Circle helped smear the rest.
The most prominent Copperhead leader was Clement L. Valladigham of Ohio, who headed the secret antiwar organization known as the Sons of Liberty. At the Democratic convention of 1864, where the influence of Peace Democrats reached its high point, Vallandigham persuaded the party to adopt a platform branding the war a failure, and some extreme Copperheads plotted armed uprisings. However, the Democratic presidential candidate, George B. McClellan, repudiated the Vallandigham platform, victories by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Phillip H. Sheridan assured Lincoln's reelection, and the plots came to nothing.
With the conclusion of the war in 1865 the Peace Democrats were thoroughly discredited. Most Northerners believed, not without reason, that Peace Democrats had prolonged war by encouraging the South to continue fighting in the hope thatthe North would abandon the struggle.

Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust
Posted by: Angaith Grerens9024 || 02/20/2006 16:10 Comments || Top||

#22  By September of 1864 Atlanta was burned and Yankee victory was assured. It was just a matter of time. The '64 election was not close, and within six months the war was over. The current conflict is still largely a war of ideas, a clash of cultures in which an evil side, fanatically committed, battles the good side, ambivalent about whether it is truly good and the other merely misunderstood, for control of the 21st Century. Where is Sherman when you need him?
Posted by: Hank || 02/20/2006 16:54 Comments || Top||

#23  Angaith Grerens9024, my thoughts exactly. I hope President Bush deals with the 21st century Copperheads as effectively as President Lincoln dealt with the 19th century ones starting with plugging the leaks in government by imprisoning both the traitors who leak classified information and the scum who publish it.
Posted by: RWV || 02/20/2006 16:56 Comments || Top||

#24  “If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”
- William Tecumseh Sherman
Posted by: Angaith Grerens9024 || 02/20/2006 17:09 Comments || Top||

#25  And while we're at it -

“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.”
- - William Tecumseh Sherman
Posted by: Angaith Grerens9024 || 02/20/2006 17:11 Comments || Top||

#26  "[W]e made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and all our best generals to edit the newspapers."
R.E. Lee
Posted by: Hank || 02/20/2006 17:18 Comments || Top||

#27  nice quotes! Just wondering: who or what was on the copper pennies during the Copperhead days?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 17:21 Comments || Top||

#28  It was a small caricature of Jesus which so offended the Yankee Republicans, they burned Atlanta.
Posted by: Hank || 02/20/2006 17:28 Comments || Top||

#29  Injuns Frank. Natives Amerurikans.
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 19:47 Comments || Top||

#30  and they was bronzed Injuns in those days.
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 19:48 Comments || Top||

#31  "STRATEGIC DEFEAT" - which of course will eventually be spun into "LOCAL/TACTICAL/
BATTLEFIELD DEFEAT", as the MSM did with Vietnam.
Strategic Defeat > "proves" for the Dems that GOP-COnservative = Fascist-led America is too unreliable, defective, incompetent, and dishonest even for its own alleged warmongering imperialist Male Brute rapist abuser molester pants, or at least compared to our cookie-loving national Motherly Commies-Regulators-Totalitarians, ANARCHY = MOM + APPLE PIE, etal.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/20/2006 19:57 Comments || Top||

#32  that was a first class rant Joe - except for the Hildabeast and her thankles
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 20:01 Comments || Top||

#33  Vietnamisation for the 21st century.

We all know how well the Democrats supported that...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/20/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||

#34  “For those who confuse moral relativism for wisdom, who travel to foreign lands to undermine this campaign against terror, who compare American troops to our enemies, Franklin Roosevelt answers with a sharp reply: "As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed...The best way of dealing with the few slackers or trouble makers in our midst is, first, to shame them by patriotic example."”

I pulled this quote from the Officers Club blog great site.
http://officersclub.blogspot.com/
Officers Club has also got some editorial cartoons from WW2 Cat in the Hat that apply to today as much as yesterday. I found interesting the fact that the major papers of the same big US cities are the root of the problem. Self hatred

It clearly shows how such people as the “student council” should be treated. Unfortunatley our current leadership is just either too nice or weak to “question their patriotism” the result being that everyday it grows in strength and more and more insane. Shame is a powerfull tool and in some cases the better choice than debate. Debate with a retarded ignorance only dillutes your own standing while gaining nothing.

Posted by: C-Low || 02/20/2006 20:35 Comments || Top||

#35  Dr Seuss (Ted Geissel) made terrific pro-US propaganda cartoons. Today, Ted Rall, Doonesbury, et al would be calling him a W-tool. Do you think anyone will know who Ted Rall was in 20 years?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 20:54 Comments || Top||

#36  Frank---Ted Who? [.....rimshot]
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/20/2006 23:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
GI, Widow awarded $102.6 million from al-Qaida financier
A soldier wounded in Afghanistan and the widow of his slain comrade were awarded a $102.6 million judgment from the estate of a suspected al-Qaida financier.

U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said the lawsuit may be the first filed by an American soldier against terrorists under the Patriot Act.

But Sgt. Layne Morris, of West Jordan, and the family of medic Christopher Speer, could have a difficult time collecting their award, because the assets of the suspected financier are unknown.

Other soldiers have difficulty identifying their attackers, making it difficult to hold individuals responsible.

Morris cited news reports including interviews with his attacker's immediate family indicating that Omar Khadr, then 15, had wounded him and killed Speer. The ruling, released Friday, cited similar evidence that the boy's father, suspected financier Ahmad Sa'id Khadr, was linked to al-Qaida and trained his son to attack American targets.

Morris and Speer, who served with the 19th Special Forces, were attacked with grenades and automatic weapons in a remote Afghanistan village. Shrapnel severed the optic nerve in Morris' right eye, blinding him.

Soldiers arrested the boy, who is being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The Canadian government has protested the boy's imprisonment, because he is a minor.

In November, the U.S. government charged the boy with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy.

The ruling said the younger Khadr was 4 years old when his family moved from Canada to Pakistan, where his father co-founded a humanitarian relief organization that supported al-Qaida terrorist training camps. The boy returned to Canada in 1994, where he attended school for a year while his father was imprisoned in Pakistan on charges of funding the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, the court said.

The next year the family allegedly traveled throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, meeting al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden. It is believed the father was killed in a firefight in Pakistan.
more at the link
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 07:58 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As much as this seems nice, I object to the judiciary getting into any aspect on the conduct of war. Its the incorrect forum. It also opens up the US and others to be likewise 'sued' in foreign courts for conducts which are the proper venue of the legislative and executive branches. Just keep in mind the recent actions of some Spanish courts.
Posted by: Sleter Fluns1455 || 02/20/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  The people of the United States support this type of lawsuit, as long as the Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not subject to claims. Should that occur, we will again file an Amicus brief on behalf of our Saudi friends, as we did in the 9-11 lawsuit. Our friends can do no wrong, therefore we let them alone.
Posted by: State Department || 02/20/2006 16:25 Comments || Top||

#3  "State" is our troll from British Columbia.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Ah, the CaziFarkus troll.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/20/2006 20:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Yup.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 20:10 Comments || Top||


U.S. Freezes Assets of Charity Group, Cites Hamas
The Treasury Department on Sunday ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of an Ohio-based group the government claims funnels money to the militant organization Hamas.

The organization, KindHearts of Toledo, Ohio, was connected with the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation and the al-Qaida-affiliated Global Relief Foundation, the Treasury Department said. The government took similar action against those groups in late 2001. Under the government action, U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with KindHearts.

KindHearts describes itself on its Web site as a nonprofit charitable organization administering humanitarian aid to the world's poor. In the past, its officials have denied being connected to any terrorist group or individual. KindHearts board member and Cleveland lawyer Jihad Smaili reiterated that position on Sunday.

"We are absolutely surprised and disappointed in the government's action," he said in a telephone interview. "This conduct by the government is going to be felt immediately by people who need KindHeart's assistance all over the world and in the United States." He estimated the group provided $5 million to $6 million annually in charity assistance.

"This allegation that we support Hamas is unfounded and incredible," he said.

Smaili added that his group understands the current political climate after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and is "hoping the government will play fair and play by the rules even though the rules are made by the government." Citing secrecy surrounding some aspects of investigations involving alleged terrorist connections, he said, "I hope they don't use this unfair weapon against us and prevent us even knowing the reason they are doing this or the evidence they have."

The government claims KindHearts officials have coordinated with Hamas leaders and made contributions to Hamas-affiliated organizations. The United States considers Hamas, now the most powerful political group in the Palestinian parliament, a terrorist group.

"KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the facade of charitable giving," Stuart Levey, treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

A call to the KindHearts office in Toledo was answered by a man who identified himself as a federal officer. "We're padlocking the office," said the man, who did not give his name.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pakistan extremists: no letup in cartoon protests
I've been saying for a week or more that the protests in Pakistan are aimed at bringing down Musharraf
The leader of Pakistan's main Islamic alliance has said there will no let up in protests against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leader of six-party MMA, made the comments after being released from house arrest. In a separate incident 23 people were arrested after two churches were burned down by a mob.

The cartoons, first published in Denmark in September, have angered Muslims across the world. Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of Allah or the Prophet.
not so WRT Mohammed, BBC dhimmis (ptui be upon you)
Several people have died in protests, including five in Pakistan.

Qazi Hussain said his group will carry out a series of rallies in the run-up to US President George W Bush's visit to Pakistan next month.
"Our protests will continue. The European countries should realise the sentiments of Muslims. They should apologise to the Muslim world," another senior MMA leader, Liaqat Baluch, is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Qazi Hussain also called for a nationwide strike on Friday and said his campaign was also aimed at President Pervez Musharraf for his "pro-western policies".
well, it's overt now isn't it
On Monday, protests took place in more than a dozen Pakistan towns and cities. In another incident, police in the city of Sukkur in the southern province of Sindh, police arrested 23 people after two churches were burned down by a mob apparently enraged by reports that a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, had been desecrated.

Troops were called in to assist the police in restoring order after the incident which took place on Sunday.

"We have asked religious leaders to keep people under control and exercise tolerance," Sindh Inspector General of Police Jahangir Mirza told the BBC.

Correspondents say the protests led by Islamist opposition groups in Pakistan against the cartoons have recently broadened into an attack on President Musharraf.
Took you long enough to figure this out. But then BBC correspondents aren't known for being all that smart on these sorts of things.
Gen Musharraf has condemned the cartoons, which include one portraying the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:24 || Comments || Link || [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More cartoons, more trampling, more economic mayhem for Islamic countries, faster please.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 16:34 Comments || Top||

#2  While the Pakistanis are burning their country to the ground because of those cartoons, India is slowly becoming World's third-largest economy. Next time those two countries go to war, this is what could happen...
Posted by: Sonia Belle || 02/20/2006 17:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Ummmm, I think I'll be going back to Sonia's blog a lot ... for the articles.
Posted by: xbalanke || 02/20/2006 20:28 Comments || Top||

#4  xbalanke---LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/20/2006 23:00 Comments || Top||


King Gyanendra may be willing to restore democracy
Nepal's King Gyanendra made his first formal approach to the country's estranged political parties yesterday, urging them to join talks and try to put democracy back on track a year after he seized absolute power and fired the government.

"We, therefore, call on all willing political parties to come forth to fully activate, at the earliest, the stalled democratic process in the greater interest of the nation," King Gyanendra said in a national democracy day statement.

The king also urged anti-monarchy Maoist rebels to shun violence and rejoin the mainstream.

There was no immediate response from the rebels, who had called on Saturday for an indefinite nationwide strike against the king from April 3.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:45 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The whole wold knows that the communism is bad. Yet India, USA and Britain have policies which are hard on the King of Nepal and help the comunist. Folks, think straight.
Posted by: Annon || 02/20/2006 5:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I would be willing to back this King over a Maoist anyday.

He is not a bad guy.
Posted by: newc || 02/20/2006 11:29 Comments || Top||

#3  "Indefinite nationwide strike" - yet another Motherly Commie promise or agreement bites the dust.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/20/2006 20:55 Comments || Top||


Church burned down in Pakistan, no casualties
Hundreds of angry Muslims set a church on fire in southern Pakistan on Sunday during a protest over the burning of pages from the Muslim holy book the Koran, but no casualties were reported, police said.

They said that around 400 people also attacked and damaged a school run by a local convent in the city of Sukkur in the southern Sindh province, some 480 km (300 miles) north of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city.

"Some pages of the Koran were burnt by a man named Arif, who had converted to Islam from Christianity a few years back," local police chief Akbar Arain told Reuters, adding the police had already arrested the accused after registering a case.

"The issue seemed resolved, but some groups of angry youth first came to the police station demanding the custody of Irfan and later attacked and burnt a church," he told Reuters.

Some of the protestors were arrested but Arain did not say how many.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:36 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boys will be boys will be vicious animals.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 7:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Bird gotta fly, muslim gotta kill people and burn things.
Posted by: BH || 02/20/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#3  You like to do what you do well and you do well what you like to do.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/20/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Hundreds of angry Muslims set a church on fire in southern Pakistan on Sunday during a protest over the burning of pages from the Muslim holy book the Koran, but no casualties were reported, police said.

Oh, there's casualties all right, just not the kind that involves the counting of dead bodies.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/20/2006 14:39 Comments || Top||

#5  How do you report on a "Church burned down" story without ever mentioning the religious affiliation of the church? Was it Catholic (convent reference) or what?
How utterly PC.
Posted by: capsu78 || 02/20/2006 16:55 Comments || Top||


Uttar Pradesh (India) minister issues bounty for beheading cartoonists
A MINISTER in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has offered a £6m reward to anyone who beheads one of the Danish cartoonists who outraged Muslims by depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Yaqoob Qureshi, minister of minority welfare, said the killer would also receive his weight in gold. He made the offer during a rally in his constituency in Meerut, northeast of Delhi. Protesters then burnt an effigy of a cartoonist and some Danish flags.

A Pakistani cleric has also offered a $1m reward — and a car — as a “prize” to anyone who kills one of the cartoonists. Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi made his announcement after Friday prayers in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

The rewards were offered as it emerged that 11 people had been killed in riots outside the Italian consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi in protests linked to the controversy over the cartoons.

The protesters were said to have been angered by reports that Roberto Calderoli, an Italian minister, had appeared in public in a T-shirt with one of the images on it. Calderoli, the reforms minister, resigned yesterday “ to stop the shameful exploitation directed against me”.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:35 || Comments || Link || [336120 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, here we go again. This stupid politacian in India is acting as if India is a Islamic country when only about 15% of the population is muslims.
Posted by: Annon || 02/20/2006 5:34 Comments || Top||

#2  It has been reported that the Indian IB (Intelligence Bureau - responsible for internal security) believes the Chief Minister of UP to be in the employ of the ISI. These UP muslim politicians have also recieved funding from Saudi.

Given that law and order is primarily a state matter, this minister is unlikely to lose his job unless the Federal goverenment steps in.
Posted by: john || 02/20/2006 6:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I've long thought that turn around is fair play.
You issue a death warrant, one will be issued against you.
The problem is that it can't be a government initiative. What need to be done is to somehow set up an anonymous group, who can't be traced, but that donations can be made to, and then the bounty hunters can do their business.
I'm sure that that after a few of the issuers of death fatwas are deaded, the inclination to issue more by mad mullahs or government officials will cease.
Posted by: tipper || 02/20/2006 11:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Time to press charges for solicitation of murder and murder for hire against this nuck fugget. If India's federal government cannot do this, then they're not much of a power.

Wouldn't it be nice if Qureshi et al mysteriously turned up dead with cartoons jammed in various orifices?
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 11:36 Comments || Top||

#5  There are muslims ministers in the Indian Federal Cabinet on multiple charges of attempted murder, rape, banditry, coorruption, theft.

The ruling coaltion includes some truly revolting characters - unreconstructed marxists (some with allegiance to China), so called secualrists (who are really just anti-american liberals) and common criminals.

The Indian PM has issued a memo that ministers can send their civil service officials to cabinet meetings instead of attending themselves. He simply doesn't want to be in the same room with some of them.

Communal politics, and the need to remain in power, will dictate the federal response to this.
Unless pressure continues to build, nothing will happen to the UP government.

Ideally they can dismiss the lot of them and impose Presidential rule but that is very unlikely.

Posted by: john || 02/20/2006 14:28 Comments || Top||

#6  What tipper and zenster said.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/20/2006 15:10 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Danish apology fails to quell Muslim anger
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 08:24 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obviously apologies don't work so there is no reason to ever give one again.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/20/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  This looks like the fake Danish apology that appeared in the Saudi press.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/20/2006 9:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Good. Nothing should be made to serve in quelling this irrational and hyper-reactive Muslim sensitivity to what the rest of the world views as a good laugh. Islam can screw, blue and tatto itself before I'll ever apologize for making fun of it.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 11:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Why would anyone expect a Danish apology to quell Muslim anger? The Danish cartoons are clearly just a pathetic excuse to riot. Is there anyone in the world who truly believes that burning down a MacDonalds in Pakistan or storming a U.S. embassy in Indonesia or killing a bunch of rioters in Afghanistan or Nigeria -- all in February -- has any true basis in 12 cartoons published in Denmark in September?

The whole affair simply lends credence to the implication of the bomb-in-the-turban cartoon.
Posted by: Darrell || 02/20/2006 12:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey, Ott's right: It's the Sixth Pillar, now.

No point in applying logic to it. It is written 'n everything.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Danish apology fails to quell Muslim anger

Anyone stupid enough to riot over political satire isn't likely to be mollified by apologies.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/20/2006 12:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Didn't Binny say that if G W Bush would convert he'll be forgiven?

It's submission they want but what they'll finally be getting is a giant fan all the quicker where their true stuff will hit.
Posted by: Duh! || 02/20/2006 13:13 Comments || Top||

#8  The proper response is to run 'Part II' containing the next twelve cartoons.
Posted by: DMFD || 02/20/2006 22:24 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Soldier Killed in Attack; Troops Nab Suspects, Weapons
A U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq today, and coalition and Iraqi forces detained 42 suspected terrorists and discovered weapons caches, officials in Iraq reported today.

The soldier was killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb while conducting a combat patrol southeast of Karbala.

The soldier's name is being withheld until the family is notified. This incident is under investigation.

Elsewhere in Iraq, coalition and Iraqi forces detained 42 suspected terrorists and seized several weapons caches in operations during the last two days.

Iraqi security and coalition forces successfully identified and removed three roadside bombs, uncovered two weapons caches and detained three suspects in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division's area of operations, officials said.

The caches consisted of hand grenades, grenade fuses, rocket-propelled grenades, RPG propellers, 7.62 mm rounds, two AK-47 assault rifles, AK-47 magazines, 7.62 mm AK-47 rounds, 7.62 mm NATO rounds, a Iraqi protective mask, a bolt action rifle, 100 mm rounds and a 130 mm round.

Elements of 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, working with 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, both of 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, identified three roadside bombs near Iskandariyah while conducting combat patrols in the area.

Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, disrupted a terrorist staging area yesterday morning southwest of Baghdad.

The soldiers, acting on intelligence that the insurgent cell had been stocking munitions and weapons to prepare for future attacks, air assaulted into the village of Owesat under the cover of darkness.

More than 39 detainees were seized, including five suspects considered to be high-value targets.
Be interesting to learn who they got.
The soldiers also found several caches in and around the village containing 155 mm artillery rounds, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, RPG rounds, hand grenades, blasting caps, rolls of detonation cord, a mortar, a heavy machinegun, explosive powder and several hundred rounds of machinegun rounds.

"This was a well-planned and -executed mission," said Army Col. Jeffrey Snow, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, and the air assault commander for the mission. "We believe, as a result (of the mission), we have thwarted a significant attack that the insurgents had been preparing for."

The success of the mission reinforces the importance of people coming forward and reporting insurgent activity, Snow said.
The regular use of the word "suspects" instead of "terrorists" or "insurgents" denotes the migration of the Iraq conflict from a military to criminal action. This is a good thing, though it seems to be calling a spade something other than a spade.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/20/2006 16:58 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two days ago DOD announced that during an operation in a rural area approximately 30 miles northeast of Ramadi Feb. 11, a document was discovered that identified plans to attack and kill Al-Nimr tribal members.
Today we learn "More than 39 detainees were seized, including five suspects considered to be high-value targets." Right on time.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2006 19:07 Comments || Top||


U.S. Envoy Warns Iraq Over Sectarian Govt
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq warned Iraqi politicians Monday they risk a loss of American support if they do not establish a genuine national unity government, saying the United States will not invest its resources in institutions run by sectarians. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spoke at a rare press conference after Iraqi politicians said talks on a new government following the December elections were not going well because of sharp differences among the country's Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political parties.
Posted by: ed || 02/20/2006 08:32 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  YES!!!!

Time for some clarification...

Same rules as with the Paleos -- if you vote for chaos and division and the insanity of the past, then that's what you get - we have zero obligation to continue support from that moment on.

It is not a failure of US policy that democracy in either place has yet to yield a liberal democracy. This is their chance to choose. That's the essence of freedom - not some rubber stamp. We had to try - and we did - and they are on the verge of failing, not us.

If they chuck it, as the Paleos did, then they have chosen the past, not the future. If the Shi'a don't figure it out... then they can duke it out with the Sunnis - it is not something we can prevent - nor should we be involved, so we'll step out of the lower 2/3 thirds of the farcial confabulated entity called Iraq.

Iran, very shortly, will cease to be the Big Worry that made this a concensus bad move up until recently - at their insistence.

Kurdistan takes one more step toward reality.

My take.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  farcical. PIMF.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Agreed, .com. I'd hate to lose those airbases in the northwest Iraqi desert, tho. And it would be ... annoying ... to lose the oil production not only in the non-Kurdistan parts of Iraq but also in Iran and SA when they take each other on directly in a few years.

That said, it may not be something we can or are willing to prevent.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 13:11 Comments || Top||

#4  You forsee a war, or something similar, between SA and Iran down the road?

Hmmm. That must presume the Iranian Govt isn't decapitated? Or?

I'm not sure I can see it. I cannot picture the Saudis doing anything outside their borders. Anything beyond shopping and getting drunk, anyway. They may have their PakiWaki proxies do it for them, of course, but the entire GCC would be equally likely to farm out any actual conflict, IMHO.

I see Iran as a non-player by the end of 2007 or sooner. Possibly dismembered / partitioned once the Govt control is stripped away by MM suicide.

I expect the House of Saud to implode, more or less, by the end of the decade or sooner. The demographics are incredibly bad. And maybe, just maybe, sooner than that the smoke of PCism will clear enough for people to realize that with a single stroke we could remove the funding of a very large number of the components of Islamic terror. PakiWakiLand would implode rather quickly, I believe. The Republic of Eastern Arabia...

You've boggled me, lol. If you have a moment to sketch it out a bit, I'd appreciate it.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 14:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Not predicting it, quite, but it's a possibility IMO. And yes, it might well be done via proxies and sabotage rather than "force on force" conflict.

Suppose Iran owns southern Iraq, openly or de facto. The next thing that happens is pressure on the smaller Arab oil states around the Gulf.

The House of Saud is corrupt and lazy, but they are also venal and yes - they have massive demographic problems looming. A good way to bleed some of that off is to turn a blind eye to large numbers of jihadis leaving the Kingdom to sabotage the MM control of oil resources and of shipping in the Gulf.

Just some speculation on my part.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 15:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh.
Posted by: Hank || 02/20/2006 15:41 Comments || Top||

#7  If Iran is decapped and defanged, besides the obvious benefit of pulling the plug on Muzzy Viagara in the hands of people even more insane than the PakiWakis...

1) the much-dreaded Iranian Winter Qom Mullah defacto control of Southern Iraq goes *poof*

2) who would the Saudis contend with, beyond the usual ancient antipathy between Sunnis & Shi'a?

The Sauds are laying a gigantic egg - probably an explosive shitstorm. Many ways for it to play out. Only one has the element of economic stability sans terror - taking it away and managing the output in some manner - JFM suggested a "trust". I dunno. It will affect so many different things that it's bigger than my brain, lol. I did some speculation way back - the fallout will be all over the map.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 16:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Islam is inherently peaceful and nothing beligerent can come out of that noble faith. The American people support the uniting of the Iraqi people under an Islamic Constitution, which will ensure that Iraq is governed according to the principles of the noble faith. If a tiny minority of extremists choses to attempt to hijack the noble faith, then the people of the United States will support the government of Iraq, as long as they don't adopt the Taliban policies that forced Americans to shell out some $400 billion in support of the noble faith.
Posted by: State Department || 02/20/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Lameness continues to hobble State.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 16:24 Comments || Top||

#10  "State" is our troll from British Columbia.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Lol - isn't there a severe penalty available for trolls who drone total BS on multiple threads - each indistinguishable from the other? The verbiage varies, but the substance, none, doesn't, lol.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 16:38 Comments || Top||

#12  A troll!? I thought he was joking.
Posted by: SR-71 || 02/20/2006 16:47 Comments || Top||

#13  He's on timeout right now.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 17:57 Comments || Top||


Jaafari unlikely to stay PM
Ibrahim al-Jaafari's nomination to continue for four more years as Iraq's prime minister is already in trouble, according to Iraqi sources.

"I doubt he will be confirmed," said a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shia political coalition that last week nominated al-Jaafari.

The nomination by the UIA, the largest political group in the new Iraqi Council of Representatives, or parliament, was supposed to make confirmation a formality.

But al-Jaafari is unpopular with the Kurds, the second largest bloc in the council. And his most powerful backer, anti-American Shia militant Muqtada al-Sadr, is anathema to another bloc, led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which the Kurds insist must be part of the new government.

At the same time, al-Jaafari is having trouble holding together his own coalition, which nominated him by a majority of just one vote. One party in the Shia bloc - the Virtue Party, which voted against him - is publicly threatening to pull out. At the same time, sources in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which fielded the losing candidate, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said they have not given up hope that Abdul Mahdi will get the job.

According to sources who provided for the first time a precise breakdown of the secret vote, al-Jaafari won with support from his own Dawa Party, which, including a splinter group, gave him 25 votes, as well as 29 votes from al-Sadr's faction (one member was absent), and 10 votes from independents. The Supreme Council, Virtue and the rest of the independents voted for Abdul Mahdi. There are 275 members of parliament.

On Thursday, Iraqi President and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, during a provocative meeting with the defeated Abdul Mahdi, warned that al-Jaafari's nomination does not mean appointment, according to an Iraqi television report. He has also insisted that the new government must include Allawi, who tried to put al-Sadr in prison when Allawi was prime minister.

Talabani is still expected in the next few weeks to give al-Jaafari the opportunity to draw up a cabinet. But under the Iraqi constitution, if he fails to win endorsement for his cabinet from a majority in the Council of Representatives, al-Jaafari will have to give the opportunity to someone else.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:53 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since Ibrahim al-Jaafari became prime minister, terrorist attacks have diminished (albeit slightly), Al-Sadr have joined the democratic process, and the Sunnis stopped boycotting the elections.

Even if the American withdrew all their forces now, the democratic government in Baghdad would most likely survive.

With Jaafari or without him...
Posted by: Sonia Belle || 02/20/2006 16:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Only the point about al Sadr had much of anything to do with Jaafari - and that just blew up in his face.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 16:06 Comments || Top||

#3  I assume she commented primarily to get people over to her site. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda plans to assassinate Albu Nimr tribal leaders
The U.S. military has found documents that detail Al Qaida plans to kill Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq.

U.S. officials said the documents outlined plans to launch rocket strikes against Sunni tribes that support the new Iraqi government. They said other documents detailed plans to sabotage Iraqi telecommunications infrastructure.

The documents were found on Feb. 11 in the Anbar province around 50 kilometers northeast of Ramadi. Officials said the documents outlined plans to strike opponents in such towns as Baghdadi, Haditha and Hit.

Al Qaida planned to kill members of the Albu Nimr tribe, officials said. They said the plan was to have included rocket attacks against and assassinations of Albu Nimr members in Hit.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:25 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ironic, isn't it? I mean that Sunni tribal leaders now will come crying to U.S. troops for protection.



:)
Posted by: Groter Shack9754 || 02/20/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||


Tater "Rejects" Iraqi Constitution
Influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he rejects the Iraqi constitution backed by his partners in the biggest parliamentary bloc, threatening to reignite one of the country's most explosive issues.

"I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all," he told Al Jazeera television late on Saturday.

Sadr, a rebel leader turned political kingmaker, said the charter was unacceptable, complicating efforts to form a government more than two months after parliamentary elections.

"If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody has the right to call for the establishment of federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south, north, middle or any other part of Iraq," said Sadr.

His stand could give political ammunition to Iraq's Arab Sunnis, who want major amendments to a charter they fear will give Shi'ites and Kurds too much power and control over oil resources.

The young cleric, who led two armed uprisings against U.S. and Iraqi troops, has emerged as a potent force in Iraqi politics, joining the powerful United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won 128 of 275 seats in parliament in December 15 polls.

A swing vote by Sadr's supporters in a UIA ballot on its candidate for prime minister is likely to keep the Dawa party's Ibrahim al-Jaafari in the top job in government.

The Shi'ites, who will have a majority in the new assembly, have already insisted there can be no major changes to the charter, which was approved in October and envisages a federal Iraq with considerable autonomy for the regions.

Iraq's biggest Sunni political bloc has said it is committed to talks with Shi'ites and Kurds to form a government of national unity if its key demand on changing the constitution is met.

A review of the Iraqi constitution is set to start some time after the new government and parliament is formed.

Sadr's rejection of the charter could put him at the heart of one of the most sensitive sectarian issues in Iraq, where he is seen as an unpredictable but popular leader.

Sadr rose to prominence after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 by mobilizing his Mehdi Army militia to fight American troops and by speaking out for poor Shi'ites.

His uprisings against U.S. troops made him one of the few Shi'ite leaders to gain the respect of minority Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and have led the insurgency against U.S. troops and the new Iraqi government.

Although Sadr has said his Mehdi Army was always ready to fight, he has maneuvered through political minefields to a position where he can make or break Iraqi leaders.

The young cleric recently went on a tour of Arab states, projecting a new image of a religious statesman. But Sadr always likes to remind people that his militia stands ready to fight.

"The Mehdi Army will serve the Arab and Muslim countries and will defend them whether in Syria or Iran," he told Al Jazeera.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 00:24 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think Tater needs to get a special invite for a meeting where someone will pull out a gun and shoot him in the head.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O' Doom || 02/20/2006 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Boy am I confused!

He joined the Shiite parrty, who don't want to change the constitution, but he says it's no good.

Federalism is bad, but he want to maintain his own army, to work inside and outside Iraq.

The Sunnis like him, the Iranians like him - is he going to join up with Iminajag as the 12th Whoois?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/20/2006 7:58 Comments || Top||

#3  And his picture is different, isn't it?

His finger used to be farther from his nose, right?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/20/2006 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Bremer was right about Tater. This guy should have been an ex-Tater 3 year ago.
Posted by: Captain America || 02/20/2006 9:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Please note that now he is "influential" and a "kingmaker". Which sounds better than what he was being called before.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/20/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Stick a fork in em.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/20/2006 11:16 Comments || Top||

#7  And his picture is different, isn't it?

His finger used to be farther from his nose, right?


Heh.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/20/2006 11:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Why is this guy still stealing precious oxygen that could be used by far more deserving lifeforms like cockroaches and lice?
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 12:00 Comments || Top||

#9  The people of the United States affirm our support for the choice of al-Sadr to participate in democratic elections. If that means formation of a government that is an enemy of the American people, then we will have to point the blame at our 70 year old strong-man/client state policies in the Middle East. Freedom is our watchword, and it will bring us peace in 50 years or so, after the Arab and Persian peoples decide to abandon Taliban style Islamic Statism. Whatever happens, we will keep up the subsidies, and demonstrate our resolve against all adversity. The American people are prepared to take all casualties, necessary to advance eventual freedom, and bare all expenses.
Posted by: State Department || 02/20/2006 16:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Freedom is our watchword, and it will bring us peace in 50 years or so, after the Arab and Persian peoples decide to abandon Taliban style Islamic Statism.

Unless Persian and Arab governments abandon the sponsorship of terrorism a lot sooner than 50 years from now, many of those countries will be glassed over glow-in-the-dark parking lots. I'd say about 50 months (not years) is all they have.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 16:48 Comments || Top||


Saddam to hang within months
EFL
Saddam Hussein could be executed within months if he is found guilty of ordering the massacre of 140 people from the town of Dujail, the chief prosecutor in the former Iraqi dictator's trial has said. And the ousted Iraqi dictator, who faces 11 other charges, will not be able to cheat the hangman by dragging out legal proceedings in a series of trials.

The prosecutor, Ja'afar Moussawi, said that under a law passed late last year, all death sentences must be carried out within 30 days of an appeal failing, regardless of any other charges. "Once one of the accused on the Dujail case, for example, has been sentenced to death, then he won't be tried on other charges," Mr Moussawi said in an interview. "Other charges will automatically be dropped against that particular defendant, even if the case itself is brought against others."

Mr Moussawi was reluctant to be drawn on how long the Dujail case, which began four months ago against Saddam and seven co-defendants, would take but said it had "passed the 75per cent mark". A panel of nine judges had already been selected to hear any appeal and the process was unlikely to take more than a month, he said. Under Iraqi law, it was not possible for a death sentence imposed on anyone -- including the former president -- to be commuted.

The prosecutor's comments will be welcomed by many Shi'ites and Kurds exasperated by the slow pace of the trial and by its accelerating descent into farce as the accused repeatedly hurl insults at the judges. However, abandoning other trials that might shed light on Saddam's role in atrocities ranging from a poison gas attack that killed 5000 Kurds at Halabja in 1988 to the brutal suppression of a Shia uprising in southern Iraq in 1991 may dismay the relatives of those who died.

According to one Kurdish group that searches for missing people, some women consider themselves still engaged to fiances who vanished decades ago, while many married women cannot accept they have become widows. Prosecutors selected the massacre carried out in the predominantly Shia town of Dujail for the first case against Saddam because it appeared relatively clear-cut anad easier to prove than those involving wider allegations of genocide. According to government officials, retaliation against the villagers was led by Barzan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of Saddam who was head of intelligence, and by Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former vice-president. They are also on trial.

But the case has not proceeded as smoothly as prosecutors hoped. Although 26 witnesses have given heart-wrenching accounts of torture and imprisonment during the crackdown, proving that Saddam was directly responsible has been difficult. Last week, the prosecution produced documents that purported to show the former dictator had ordered the killings, and called two witnesses. Both complained that they had been made to testify and could not provide useful testimony. One, Fadhil al-Azzawi, a former ambassador in Moscow, said he had not even been in Iraq at the time. "I reject being a witness in this case because I do not have information," Mr Azzawi said. "I was forced to come to court." Three other former Saddam loyalists who were compelled to give evidence last week failed to corroborate most of the prosecution claims.
Got any new batteries for the Surprise Meter?

The defence claims the judge cannot be impartial because he was born in Halabja, the scene of the gas attack, and some of his relatives died. Just like robbery and rape victims are prejudices against their attackers.

Lawyers also claim he was a member of a Kurdish party opposed to Saddam's regime and that he was convicted in absentia and given a life sentence in one of Saddam's courts in 1977. Several international human rights groups have criticised the handling of the trial and have argued that it should be moved to an international tribunal. Like the one dawdling on the Kmer Rouge?
Posted by: Jackal || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Within months?

Howzabout TOMORROW!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/20/2006 15:15 Comments || Top||

#2  His demon sons are calling for their father.
Posted by: Duh! || 02/20/2006 16:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Pay per view could balance the budget.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2006 19:09 Comments || Top||

#4  why is there a typo "s" in the title? :-)

Kill him now
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 19:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, they could move it to The Hague - where Milosevic will eventually die of old age before the trial gets finished.
Posted by: DMFD || 02/20/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||


Remains of missing German plane found in northern Iraq
In a grisly end to the three-day hunt for a missing German plane, search parties directed to the site by a mountaineer shepherd found the wreckage of a private plane Sunday three days after it disappeared with six people aboard - five of them Germans. There were no survivors, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  directed to the site by a mountaineer shepherd
Spencer Tracy?
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 5:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Good grief, 6 - you're as old as I am. ;-p

(Of course, I saw that movie on TV - did you see it in the theatre?)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/20/2006 15:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Are you kidding? I was on the Plane!
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 15:52 Comments || Top||


3 more death squad corpses
Sunday police found bodies of three men — bound, blindfolded and shot execution-style — in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. They appeared to be the latest victims of sectarian tit-for-tat killings, which have sharpened religious tensions as Iraqi politicians try to form a national unity government following the December parliamentary elections. The Interior Ministry has announced an investigation into allegations of Shiite death squads in police ranks after U.S. troops arrested 22 policemen preparing to kill a Sunni Arab last month.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We keep hearing about these killings, but never WHO the victims really are. They're called 'sectarian tit-for-tat' etc., but is that really all they are? It looks like they are 'executions' - probably people specifically targetted for who they are, what they did, or what job they have, not just random revenge.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2006 7:24 Comments || Top||


Four Iraqi Truck Drivers Killed in Ambush
Gunmen ambushed a convoy of trucks carrying construction material Sunday to U.S. military north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi drivers, police said. An police general died in a roadside bombing in northern Iraq. The ambush occurred near Nibaie, about 35 miles north of the capital, police Lt. Khalid al-Obaidi said. The area has been the scene of several ambushes and roadside bombings in the last few days.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF bumps off top Islamic Jihad commander in West Bank
EFL. I wanted the Dancing Girls, but couldn't find which file it is.
You want it, you got it.
Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus early Monday shot and killed Islamic Jihad's top commander in the region, the militant group said.

Lt. Col. Benjamin Shick, an Israeli commander, said his forces caught a group of militants, including Ahmed Abu Sharik, 30, off guard on the second day of a raid in Nablus. "We found a group of people we have been seeking for a while and we went for them," he said. "We know every street and alley, where they are and where they hide."

Military officials said Abu Sharik had been involved in numerous attacks on Israeli soldiers, and he helped plan a recent suicide attack in Tel Aviv. The army also arrested 15 militants overnight throughout the West Bank.
Posted by: Jackal || 02/20/2006 18:25 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The entire Muslim world is outraged by this crime. We demand the UN revoke the existence of Israel or Allan will be very angry, and we will rocket Zionist kindergartens!
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||

#2  houris, Jackal
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 18:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Update: Lt. Col(P) Benjamin Shick
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||

#4 
"...and we will avenge..the gates of hell will come...the blood of the Joos...etc.."

insert yer favorite Rant rite 'bout now..
Posted by: macofromoc || 02/20/2006 19:39 Comments || Top||

#5  What does the (P) mean, Besoeker?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 20:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Promotable. In the US (at least).

Officer records are reviewed by promotion boards. Those selected for promotion go on an ordered list, which is made public. They are actually promoted as slots come available.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 20:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Navy, it's 'Selected'.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/20/2006 20:19 Comments || Top||

#8  so I'm trying to follow. does this mean they declare death to denmark, burn the estonian flag and rampage against the lithuanian embassy?
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/20/2006 20:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Woo-hoo!

As soon as my transfer to PayPal goes through, I'll have to send the IDF some celebratory pizza. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/20/2006 21:46 Comments || Top||

#10  Sharik sleeps with the Sharks, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/20/2006 22:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Nice shooting, IDF.
Posted by: Mike || 02/20/2006 22:19 Comments || Top||

#12  so I'm trying to follow. does this mean they declare death to denmark, burn the estonian flag and rampage against the lithuanian embassy?

Only on the fourth Wednesday of a month containing more than two new moons. Otherwise, one inverts the order with Sharon being burnt in effigy after chanting of death to Norway preceded by a rampage against the Andoran embassy, but only if it is before tea time during a month ending in "R". If any of the exceptions still apply you must refer to Hoyle's rules of Fizzbin for clarification of whether the situation demands playing a shralk or the finesse of a kronk.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 23:09 Comments || Top||

#13  sounds like Paleo Calvinball rules :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 23:13 Comments || Top||

#14  I thank you Zen for clearing that up for me. I think it kinda seems a someday in the future when a Donk will go sane.
Posted by: mag44_vaquero || 02/20/2006 23:37 Comments || Top||


US seeking to actively weaken Hamas
SENIOR Israeli and Palestinian representatives have held secret talks in America to discuss ways of sidelining Hamas, the Islamic militant group that took power for the first time in the Palestinian territories yesterday after emerging as the surprise victor in elections last month.

Senior figures linked to the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government took part in two days of talks in Texas. The meeting was chaired by Edward Djerejian, 65, a former US ambassador to Israel and Syria, who was briefed by the US State Department before it began.

News of the contacts between the Israelis and supporters of the Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, emerged as the new Palestinian parliament, dominated by Hamas, was sworn in yesterday in Ramallah, on the West Bank. Abbas then asked Hamas to form a government.

Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel, immediately rejected calls by Abbas to open negotiations with the Jewish state. Abdel Aziz Duaik, who was elected speaker, said Hamas would try to live up to its “rightful duty to resist occupation”.

A participant in the US talks, held on February 8 and 9 at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston, said those present had discussed how to sideline Hamas, whose parliamentary victory has been seen as a serious obstacle to any peace settlement.

Jibril Rajoub, 50, national security adviser to Abbas who led the Palestinian delegation, confirmed yesterday that the meeting had been backed by Washington. “I believe that the State Department has a great interest that our talks should succeed,” Rajoub said.

“They know that Hamas can’t deliver and the most important issue now is to strengthen the position of the president.” He said that Abbas had been informed of the results of the meeting and “was encouraged and approved the understanding achieved between the two sides”.

Djerejian met senior State Department officials the day before the meeting and updated them by telephone during the sessions. The source said the most urgent issue under discussion had been how to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territories if the United States and other western countries went ahead with a threat to cut aid in response to Hamas’s victory.

One of the proposals discussed was to channel western aid to the Palestinians through governors who were members of Fatah rather than through a Hamas government. “What happened last month (Hamas’s victory) was a political accident that can still be reversed,” Rajoub is said to have told the meeting.

“It should all be done in a democratic and legal way. Money should not only continue to flow but even to increase, so long as it does not end up in Hamas’s hands.”

Rajoub is understood to have claimed that Hamas’s natural support stands at no more than 15%. “I believe that we can turn the clock back and new parliamentary elections are not ruled out in due course,” he is said to have added.

The talks appear to have opened a new channel of communication between Abbas, Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli prime minister, and the Americans, which is expected to be used again in coming months.

The source said the meeting’s findings had been reported to both leaders and also to Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, who is travelling to the Middle East this week.

Each side had four representatives. The Israeli side included General Uri Sagui, 60, a former head of military intelligence.

Djerejian is believed to have been planning the talks since the beginning of this year with the aim of promoting the Middle East peace process. His proposal took on a new dimension after Hamas’s victory.

Most of the principal breakthroughs in the Middle East have been the result of negotiations that began in secret. These included a peace agreement concluded in 1979 between Israel and Egypt and the so-called Oslo peace accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians, signed in Washington in September 1993. One of the architects of the Oslo agreement, Dr Yair Hirschfeld of Haifa University, was also a participant in the Houston talks.

Although Hamas has 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament, Abbas retains considerable power as president, controlling foreign affairs, security and peace negotiations. In his speech to parliament he demanded that the militants recognise existing peace deals and back his moderate policies — including negotiations with Israel — as the “sole strategic choice” of the Palestinians.

After the session, both Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s choice for prime minister, said that they would try to resolve their deep differences through dialogue. Haniyeh was prevented by Israeli security controls from travelling from Gaza to Ramallah and was forced to follow the proceedings on a video link.

Sami Abu Zahra, a Hamas spokesman, said there was a “clear political divide” between the two sides, especially over negotiations with Israel. But he added: “This difference will not lead to a clash between the government and the presidency as the political process is already blocked by the Israeli occupation which does not recognise any peace agreements.” After leaving parliament, Abbas told reporters: “Why assume that there will be a crisis? Let us resort to dialogue. Everything comes through dialogue.”

The Israeli cabinet is due to vote today on imposing sanctions against the Palestinians, including sealing Gaza and keeping out thousands of Palestinian workers.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:52 || Comments || Link || [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You weaken them like you weaken the terrorists in Iraq. The same methodology that Israel has used for years. We can start by exchanging IFF codes for the airspace over the West Bank and Iran.
Posted by: Sleter Fluns1455 || 02/20/2006 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  "..as the political process is already blocked by the Israeli occupation.."

Occupation, occupation, occupation. That's all these assholes ever obsess about.

Quite simply, there's no point in devoting any further efforts on the part of the Paleos. It's high time for them to either sink or swin on their own.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/20/2006 9:49 Comments || Top||

#3  One way to "actively weaken" Hamas is to make d@mn sure that we don't backtrack on withholding the money we said we would. Not a plug nickle for these bloodsuckers.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  “Money should not only continue to flow but even to increase, so long as it does not end up in Hamas’s hands.”
We've got plenty of people here in the U.S. who could use that aid and would be grateful for it and productive with it. Support democracy and natural selection: let the Palestinians live with their choices.
Posted by: Darrell || 02/20/2006 12:31 Comments || Top||

#5  "..as the political process is already blocked by the Israeli occupation.."

"Occupation, occupation, occupation."

:) "Mom, he's standing too close to me...make him move back..."
Posted by: Jules || 02/20/2006 12:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Heh, Jules -- The Cosby "he's touching me!" routine came to mind, lol.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Let ham asses fry themselves.
Posted by: Duh! || 02/20/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Occupation?

I wonder if a valid census has ever been done of who really is now in the West Bank. With all the settlements and the like in the last thirty years, can anyone say with certainty that the Israelis may not be in fact the bigger part of the population. With Gaza out of the picture, just who then is the occupier on the West Bank?
Posted by: Angaith Grerens9024 || 02/20/2006 16:41 Comments || Top||

#9  "Occupation, occupation, occupation"

yup. but only because paleos have committed to destroy, destroy, destroy Israel.

If they wanted to live in peace, Israel would be out, out, out.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/20/2006 17:45 Comments || Top||

#10  I wonder if a valid census has ever been done of who really is now in the West Bank.

I posted a link on just that question recently on p.4, if you want to go look for it. To sum up, the population numbers listed by the Palestinian Authority are high by at least 1 million (lots of double and triple counting), the Palestinian birth rate is only 3.something (PA women love their educations and their birth control pills), the Israeli birth rate is 2.something because the non-Euro Jews have lots of babies, and supposedly the Jewish population in Israel plus the West Bank is 67% of the total. Also, lots of quiet emigration of Palestinians from the PA as there appears to be no end to the chaos and violence under successive "governments."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 20:11 Comments || Top||


Israel pulls PA funding
Israel branded the Palestinian government a "terrorist authority" yesterday and halted the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money after Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament.

But the Israeli government held off on adopting even more drastic measures recommended by security officials, mindful of possible international reaction.

The sanctions came as the Palestinian militant group worked to consolidate its power and form a government, nominating one of its more pragmatic leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, to be the new prime minister.

Also yesterday, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in two separate incidents.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, was scheduled to meet with Haniyeh in Gaza today and formally ask him to assemble a Cabinet, a task Haniyeh would have five weeks to complete.

The Islamic group, which calls for the destruction of Israel and has carried out scores of deadly suicide bombings against Israelis, trounced Abbas' corruption-riddled Fatah Party in Jan. 25 elections, winning 74 of 132 parliament seats.

Israel and Western countries demanded the group renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist, but Hamas resisted pressure to moderate. The group took control of the Palestinian legislature when the new parliament was sworn in Saturday.

"The PA is - in practice - becoming a terrorist authority," acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet at the beginning of its meeting yesterday. "Israel will not hold contacts with a government in which Hamas takes part."

The Cabinet decided to stop the transfer of the roughly $55 million a month it collects in taxes and tariffs on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The order did not specify when the payments would stop, but government spokesman Asaf Shariv said the next payment, scheduled for early March, "won't take place."

The Palestinian Authority relies on that money to help pay the salaries of roughly 140,000 government employees, including about 57,000 in the security forces.

Should the government, the Palestinians' largest employer, be forced to lay off tens of thousands of workers, it would lead to increased chaos and poverty in Palestinian towns throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

The Cabinet held back from adopting far harsher proposals made by Israeli security officials, including a recommendation to seal off the Gaza Strip from Israel, barring thousands of Palestinian laborers from entering Israel and eliminating all trade with the impoverished area.

Israel's acting foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said the government did not want to worsen the daily lives of Palestinians or cause an international backlash against Israel.

But she warned that "Israel will take a number of additional politically significant steps regarding the Palestinian Authority." She did not elaborate.

Hamas condemned the Cabinet decision and said it was political posturing ahead of Israel's own election on March 28. Haniyeh said he was hopeful his future government would be able to find new sources of funding.

The head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said yesterday that Arab governments were considering providing the money to make up for the frozen transfers from Israel. Arab governments have not been among the top donors to the Palestinian Authority in the past, and some have failed to give pledged funds.

In violence yesterday, military officials said an Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb in the Gaza Strip, near the border fence with Israel. Two militants were killed, Palestinian security officials said.

Later, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Palestinian witnesses said the 17-year-old youths were shot after throwing rocks at soldiers. The army said they were planting a roadside bomb.

Witnesses said the army entered Balata, a militant stronghold, in search of fugitives.

• The Treasury Department ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of an Ohio-based group the government claims funnels money to Hamas.

The organization, KindHearts of Toledo, Ohio, was connected with the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation and the al Qaeda-affiliated Global Relief Foundation, the Treasury Department said. The government took similar action against those groups in late 2001.

Under the government action, U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with KindHearts.

KindHearts describes itself on its Web site as a nonprofit, charitable organization administering humanitarian aid to the world's poor. In the past, its officials have denied being connected to any terrorist group or individual.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:13 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Life is hard.

It's a lot harder if you're stupid.

And baby, ain't nobody got the drop on Paleos when it comes to stupid self-defeating shit.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 22:20 Comments || Top||

#2  "They won't release the money cuz they claim we're terrorists!"

"I know! Let's launch a Qassam at that kindergarten!"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 22:36 Comments || Top||


Gaza: 2 Killed in Israeli Aircraft Attack
An Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border fence on Sunday, the army said. Palestinians said two militants were killed.

Palestinian medical officials said the two bodies were recovered in Khouza'a, a border village near the Palestinian city of Khan Younis.

Residents said the two men, ages 18 and 20, were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group that has carried out several deadly bombings on Israeli targets in the past. The group did not immediately comment on the incident.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 00:38 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two more future fatherhoods Darwinized. Heading toward a second missing million of Palestinian population?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2006 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  That new pool-boy named Darwin is making terrific progress with all that slime in the shallow end.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3  "more chlorine!"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 12:32 Comments || Top||

#4  good fluffy pic.
Posted by: RD || 02/20/2006 12:46 Comments || Top||

#5  LOL Z!
Posted by: 6 || 02/20/2006 16:00 Comments || Top||


Israeli Cabinet decision puts PA in 'financial crisis'

The Palestinian Authority faces a "serious financial crisis" following Israel's slapping economic sanctions on the beleaguered body, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told reporters Sunday night. "The Palestinian Authority has faced a serious financial crisis since the start of the month," Abbas told reporters.

The Israeli Cabinet overwhelmingly approved Sunday the imposition of a range of sanctions against the PA following formation of a government led by Hamas, officials said. The measures, which include a series of economic sanctions, went into force Sunday, a day after the inauguration of a Hamas-dominated Palestinian Parliament, a senior government official said.

The sanctions include a freeze on the monthly transfer of tax duties owed to the PA that are worth some $50 million and constitute around a third of the Palestinian budget. The money represents around 30 percent of the PA's budget and secures salaries of 140,000 government workers, including around 60,000 police and members of security services.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Call me weird but HAMAS threatening to destroy one of the future Palestinian State's vital sources of revenue and econ development, i.e the hand that feeds the PA, kinda makes people or Govts. reluctant to keep supporting them.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/20/2006 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  They're still working on that cause -> effect / choices -> consequences thingy. A bridge too far...
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 2:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I've never understood why the Israelis continued a policy of feeding, clothing and arming people whose repeatedly sworn desire is to see every Jew in Israel dead or banished. If the Muzzy scumbags want war to the knife, give it them. "When it's time to shoot, shoot. Don't talk!" The election of Hamas means it's time to shoot.
Posted by: mac || 02/20/2006 8:46 Comments || Top||

#4  "The Palestinian Authority has faced a serious financial crisis since the start of the month," Abbas told reporters.

Whatever.

Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/20/2006 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Israeli Cabinet decision puts PA in 'financial crisis'

Any financial impact from the Israeli cabinet's decision is a fart in a windstorm compared to longterm economic damage done by the PA's endemic corruption. Electing Hamas to solve the problem was like putting out a fire with gasoline.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Western logic doesn;t apply.

That there would be a "financial crisis" never occurred to the average Paleo. That their "cause", which has always served the Ditatorships and Thugocracies and Monarchies and Mullacracies and Theocracies of the Arab and Muzzy World as the favored "Passion Play" and diversion, wouldn't be fully funded and kept alive is still beyond their ken. Those that didn't top off their Swiss accounts are in for a shock, methinks. The avg Paleo is going to get precisely what they've asked for - and they'll have to live with it - and / or die for it.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 12:18 Comments || Top||

#7  The avg Paleo is going to get precisely what they've asked for - and they'll have to live with it - and / or die for it.

I'll take "Die For It" for $100, Alex.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 12:32 Comments || Top||


Abbas warns of financial crisis
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said the Palestinian Authority (PA) is facing a "real financial crisis". He said aid had begun to decrease after last month's Palestinian poll. It was won by Hamas - regarded as a terrorist group by Israel, the US and the EU.

The EU - the biggest donor to the PA - has threatened to stop funding unless Hamas recognises Israel, renounces violence and abides by previous peace accords.

Speaking after the Israeli cabinet announced tough steps against the new Hamas-dominated PA, Mr Abbas said the Palestinians' situation was grave. "Unfortunately, the pressures have begun and the support and the aid started to decrease... therefore we are currently in a real financial crisis," he told reporters in Gaza.

He confirmed that the United States had asked the PA to return $50m following Hamas' victory, but he said talks on the subject were continuing, AFP news agency reported.
I don't think we'll see the $50 million, but it sends a great signal to ask for it back.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:


IDF separates two more Paleos from gene pool
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians during confrontations with stone throwers in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata on Sunday, witnesses and medics said.

They said soldiers were searching Balata, near the city of Nablus, for suspected militants when they came across stone-throwing youths and opened fire. Two 18-year-olds were killed. A third youth was wounded in the incident, medics said.
"Aww, Avi, you let one get away!"
"Sorry Sarge, but did you see how fast he was running?"
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the incident.
Something more needs to be said?
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Filippino government says bomb not responsible for presidential palace explosion
An explosion on the grounds of the Philippine presidential palace on Monday was probably caused by chemicals in a trash bin set off by a lit cigarette, not a bomb, the head of security told reporters.

"Nobody was injured," press undersecretary Isabel de Leon told reporters, adding President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was inside the palace at the time.

The army tightened security on Sunday after finding a bomb in its top military academy, one of the alleged targets of a plot to overthrow and possibly kill Arroyo, who survived an impeachment attempt last year over allegations of vote-rigging and graft.

Witnesses said the ground shook and a green rubber trash bin was shredded by the blast, which brought government workers from their offices.

"There are no indications of an explosive. We suspect that some chemicals have been compacted in the garbage can," Delfin Bangit, head of the Presidential Security Group, told reporters.

"It may have been triggered by something like a cigarette butt."

In Manila, police were already on maximum alert over the plot and expectations of large protests planned for February 24, the day before the country marks the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Last week, Reuters reported the plot involved a mass escape of mutineers originally set for January, hostage-taking at last weekend's gathering of military commanders, occupying army camps and removing Arroyo.

On Sunday, the commander of the police's elite force denied rumours his men were planning to storm the main police camp in Manila and hold commanders hostage as part of the plot.

Talk of a plot by some elements of the military has been growing since the escape from an army camp in January of four alleged leaders of a bloodless, one-day mutiny in 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:30 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  sounds like the "season" is in full swing over there
Posted by: Glereling Hupock5874 || 02/20/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||

#2  #1 sounds like the "season" is in full swing over there

oops
Posted by: bk || 02/20/2006 12:14 Comments || Top||

#3  reports are now it was a bomb in the admin building. Sounds to me someone was send a message to GMA. Hope she got it.
Posted by: 49 pan || 02/20/2006 18:05 Comments || Top||


5 Abu Sayyaf killed
Troops killed at least 5 gunmen with links to the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group in fierce clashes Monday in the southern Philippine island of Basilan, officials said.

Military officials said four soldiers were wounded in the fighting that erupted before sunrise in the hinterland village of Semut in Tuburan town. A still undetermined number of gunmen were also killed and wounded in the clashes.

"We have no reports of civilian casualties, but we are closely monitoring the situation in the area," Christopher Puno, a spokesman of Governor Wahab Akbar, said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:28 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  more "seasonal" trouble?
Posted by: bk || 02/20/2006 12:14 Comments || Top||


Mob Attack On Jakarta Embassy Repelled; Pakis Seal Islamabad
Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy yesterday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.

Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a mass demonstration, where they fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.

Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other publications in Europe and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world.

Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church yesterday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Koran, Islam's holy book.

A day earlier, Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 persons. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons in the past three weeks.

In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the prophet."

Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush, and they smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes.

The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery."

A protest organizer said the West, in particular the United States, is attacking Islam. "They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name.

Reuters news agency said the protesters were angered over the depiction of Muhammad in a frieze that adorns the facade of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Pakistan, where protests last week left five persons dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal -- or United Action Forum.

Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five persons.

Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great" and "Any friend of America is a traitor."
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 03:16 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is the muslim world asking for isolation? Demanding Isolation?
Because we can shure give it to them. No more food handouts, cash for their governments, a total ban on business and trade. If that is what they want, maybe
we should think real hard about giving it to them.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 02/20/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US now backing Syrian opposition
Syria has condemned America for funding opposition groups, just as Condoleezza Rice begins a Middle East tour to push efforts to spread democracy and counter Iran's aggressive nuclear policy.

The American authorities said last week that they had allocated £3 million to "democratic reformers in Syria". The money is part of £180 million in Washington funding to promote reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.

The US has also condemned Syria's alleged role in the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, a year ago.

"It is interference in our internal affairs. We reject it totally," said Walid al-Moualem, Syria's foreign minister.

The American secretary of state arrives in Cairo today to meet Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president. Last week, Miss Rice said she was "disappointed" that the president had postponed municipal elections, planned to begin in April, for two years.

Egypt is one of America's chief targets for its scheme to promote democracy in the Middle East.

"The message that I will take to Egypt is that Egypt needs to stay on the democratic course," Miss Rice said.

She will also ask Egypt to refuse finance to the prospective new Hamas government in Palestine as long as it fails to recognise Israel's right to exist.

Egypt is one of the few Arab countries to have signed a peace deal with Israel.

Miss Rice will then travel to Saudi Arabia, continuing her appeal for regional leaders to be tougher with Iran, which last week she called "the central banker to terrorism and a strategic challenge to the United States, to the world, and a destabilising influence in the Middle East."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:47 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The American authorities said last week that they had allocated £3 million to "democratic reformers in Syria".

Is that Khaddam's Muslim Brotherhood buddies or some other variety of reformer?
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/20/2006 13:17 Comments || Top||

#2  In light of the recent alliance between the former Vice President of Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood, the people of the United States are proud to finance this democratic opposition to Baathist Secularism. If yet another Islamist government forms under US subsidy, Americans will respect the will of the Syrian people. As President Bush said on Sept. 16, 2001, "Islam is peace." War cannot come out of Islam, a noble faith that gives comfort to over one billion people. Americans will fund the Muslim Brotherhood government of Syria and, in the process, extend freedom in the World. If the Muslim Brotherhood choses to finance terror and threaten Israel, then we will rely on our infinite resolve to...Let me get back to you on that.
Posted by: State Department || 02/20/2006 16:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Left Dangle's ronery.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#4  "State" is our troll from British Columbia.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:34 Comments || Top||


Iranian negotiator: Russian-Iranian nuclear deal possible
There's your RB Standing Headline, lol.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 02:58 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They don't have the time. They need more time. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing this.

Time to strike.
Posted by: Ptah || 02/20/2006 8:09 Comments || Top||


Small Bomb Shakes Iranian Oil City
TEHRAN -- A percussion bomb exploded in the restive southwestern Iranian oil city of Ahvaz on Sunday, shattering windows but causing no injuries, the official IRNA news agency reported. IRNA quoted an unnamed security official as saying the bomb exploded at 9:45 pm (6:15 p.m. British time). No other details were immediately available.
It was a kaboom. What're the details of a kaboom?
A similar device blew up in Ahvaz, capital of the predominantly Arab province of Khuzestan, on Jan 29. Khuzestan has simmered with ethnic unrest since April, when five people died in protests ignited by rumours the government was considering settling non-Arabs in southwest Iran to dilute Arab influence there.
Boy oh boy, the Mad Mullahs™ would have even more to worry about if unrest were to worsen in Khuzestan.
Seven people were killed in bombings in June and six died in a blast in October. Some minor oil facilities were bombed in September. Eight people were killed last month when bombs ripped through a bank and government building.
Terrible. Just terrible. I feel so bad for them. Is there any more of that popcorn?
It's coming, it's coming. Had to make a batch for the Paleo party next door.
About three percent of Iran's 69 million people are Arabs. Authorities are sensitive about protests and discontent in the southwestern Arab territories, home to Iran's biggest oil fields. A preliminary United Nations report has pointed to discrimination against Arabs with regard to basic amenities, resources and legal rights.
But the Mad Mullahs™ do that to everyone, so why the unrest?
Iran accuses Britain of stirring unrest in Khuzestan, a charge London denies.
Gee, that would indeed be a shame if our cousins were meddling.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  6:15 - BRITISH TIME...
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar || 02/20/2006 5:17 Comments || Top||


Qassem insists Jumblatt is part of 'conspiracy'
Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said Sunday "MP Walid Jumblatt is part of an international conspiracy that aims to put Lebanon under American tutelage, which is trying to hamper the ability to face Israel."
"It's a conspiracy, I tells yez! Hatched in a smoke-filled room, in the dead o' night, by dark men of sinister visage! I seen it! I seen it with me own eyes!"
In an interview with Syrian newspaper Tishreen, Qassem said that the issue of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 "was not over yet but is staggering due to the government's stagnation."
"We are, of course, obstructing as hard as we can..."
"Jumblatt's positions do not fall in line with the building of a stable country," he said.
"Not a stable country like Syria, anyway. Or Iran. Or one o' those other utopias."
The Hizbullah official added that Jumblatt's escalating statements "highlighted his anger at the progress of the situation."
"He can't get angry. Only we can get angry. We make our living being angry. What if he corners the market on anger? What'd happen to us? Our families would starve!"
"However, such statements do not affect our presence in the Cabinet or our relations with the Future Movement. We are comfortable about the progress achieved and we hope that Jumblatt will return to this national path, which serves Lebanon's interests."
"If not, his car's gonna explode and we'll work with somebody else."
Speaking on the issue of the presidency, Qassem said that Hizbullah would not sign the petition which the March 14 MPs are distributing that calls for the removal of President Emile Lahoud.
"We're pretty fond of Emile. We find him... tame."
Qassem said that the Shiite party won't sign the petition because it "is based on a political and not a legal point of view, which Hizbullah does not share." As for the March 14 Forces' claims that allying with Hizbullah is tantamount to allying with Syria and Iran, he said: "We are proud of our relations with Iran and Syria because they have always supported Lebanon and the resistance, asking nothing in return."
"So we can take that as a 'yes'?"
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hezbollah the other day just endorsed Jumblatt did they not for taking over as pres parliamentary leader whatever.

What did Bady Assad and Adamahmajan call with a WTF.

We got a full court press rolling in the ME their is dissent backdoor dealing crossing double crossing fake crossing ect... all over.

In 30yrs+ when the classified cools off this WOT is going to blow people's minds about the amount being done nobody short the above top secret certified even know parts of.
Posted by: C-Low || 02/20/2006 1:08 Comments || Top||


5 killed in Kurds protests in NW Iran
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18 – At least five people were killed and dozens injured or arrested in the course of clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and government forces in Iran’s Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces, according to a statement emailed to Iran Focus by Kurdish activists.

Iranian Kurds staged several rallies in various towns and cities in the north-western regions of Iran on Thursday and Friday, the report said. There were street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the towns of Maku, Bazargan, and Sardasht, the report added.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep. Topple the wankers and this puppy'll shatter like a fake Waterford crystal anniversay bowl, that's the thing for the 15th anniversary y'know, hit with a greasy ball-peen hammer on a dark and stormy night.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 22:16 Comments || Top||


Iran cracks down on Sufis: hundreds remain jailed
Iran Focus has obtained a partial list of names of Islamic mystics arrested during a protest in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, earlier this week. Islamic mystics, or Sufis, focus on the direct perception of Truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love. Sufism, common to both Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam, has its roots in Iran. Its followers oppose Iran’s ruling theocracy on spiritual grounds.
Not being given to brutality, they would...
Police arrested some one thousand Sufis as clashes broke out after the place of worship used by the mystics was demolished Tuesday on government orders. Hundreds were injured during the clashes after police fired teargas and used truncheons to attack the demonstrating Sufis. The partial list of those arrested was provided to Iran Focus from a reliable source in Qom.
A long list of names follow.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/20/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
I won't be caught alive: Bin Laden
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2006 13:30 || Comments || Link || [336090 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hokay!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 14:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Funny, Saddam claimed the same thing. Of course, I think Bin Laden peaked at 3000 degrees and is now food for worms.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/20/2006 14:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Works for me! Ditto on the Saddam Comment.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/20/2006 14:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like he's had a premonition that the end is near.

In any case he should be denied his narcissistic dream of 'martyrdom' as far as is feasible. Death on the quick is far too convenient.
Posted by: Duh! || 02/20/2006 14:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I just feel sorry for the Army medic who's going to have to check him for lice.
Posted by: Matt || 02/20/2006 14:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Suits me fine. Who ever said that was our aim anyway?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 02/20/2006 14:46 Comments || Top||

#7  All this doesn't matter, By US Presidential Decree, he's wanted Dead OR Alive; UBL's destiny is written and the silver platter is still there! The only thing UBL has to think about is whether his trigger is quicker than the US's!
Posted by: smn || 02/20/2006 14:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Ideal scenario is we take him alive; suck his brain dry of information and break his spirit by various and divers means falling under the rubric of "stress interrogation," then string him up in a pig-leather noose. Of course, a "leaked" video of the execution surfaces shortly thereafter, in which Osama is heard to profanely curse Allah for forsaking him a moment before the trap door opens.
Posted by: Mike || 02/20/2006 14:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Looks like OBL is getting outside help

Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/20/2006 15:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Give him a sex-change operation followed by a white wedding to Guy the Gorilla.
Posted by: Apostate || 02/20/2006 15:16 Comments || Top||

#11  #8 "break his spirit"
Shave his lousy beard first as the very first preliminary humiliation. Save on the lice check.
Posted by: Duh! || 02/20/2006 16:18 Comments || Top||

#12  Find him, milk him for information like the last cow on the farm, publically try him and execute him upon a finding of guilt. Distribute video records of the trial and execution throughout all Islamic countries.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 16:38 Comments || Top||

#13  Sorry Zenster, UBL isn't worth a penny of tax payers money 'to try'. I hope he detonates himself (if he can beat out a late night cruise missile) or swallow that cynanide capsule he purportedly carries in the roof of his mouth. His soul goes to GOD, but his ass belongs to Bush!!
Posted by: smn || 02/20/2006 17:19 Comments || Top||

#14  If we are able to capture bin Laden, we are obliged to ourselves to try him according to American legal or military jurisprudence. It would be best for these proceedings to be transparent (save for sensitive issues of national security), and his execution to be recorded for general distribution.

A clear message must be sent to our enemies that attacking America dramatically foreshortens your lifespan. No amount of diligence should be spared in ensuring that perpetrators of such attacks are apprehended and executed for their crimes.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/20/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#15  I could be satisfied with a video of him being dragged out of his spider hole after the grenade goes off. We don't need any more Saddam-type trial theater.
Posted by: Darrell || 02/20/2006 17:31 Comments || Top||

#16  Come and get me copper...

UBL has nothing to offer if he is mistaken taken alive. Kill him, then try him if you must.

This is war, not police enforcement.
Posted by: Captain America || 02/20/2006 18:14 Comments || Top||

#17  Public impaling in front of the White House sound real good
Posted by: djohn66 || 02/20/2006 18:18 Comments || Top||

#18  Vlad Tepes would be proud.

Posted by: doc || 02/20/2006 20:37 Comments || Top||

#19  Two words: 'Moussaoui trial'. My preference - a short film: Bin Laden vs. Predator.
Posted by: DMFD || 02/20/2006 22:06 Comments || Top||

#20  I can't figure out why anyone, except those who analyze the tapes looking for clues to their location so we can kill 'em, gives a shit.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 22:09 Comments || Top||


Sakra emerges as high-ranking al-Qaeda leader
Right up to the hot August night his apartment exploded, Louai Sakka's neighbors took him for a newlywed. The lanky Syrian was not seen much in the corridors of the high-rise residential complex where he lived in this sunny resort city, but he spent time nuzzling an attractive young brunette and sipping beer beside the pool.

His real identity began to emerge shortly after 3 a.m. on Aug. 4, when the windows of Apt. 1703 blew out, showering the parking lot with the contents of the kitchen and bits and pieces of the massive bomb Sakka had been painstakingly assembling in the living room. Sakka, who escaped the inferno only to be arrested two days later, turned out to be a senior operative for al Qaeda and intimately linked to major terrorist plots in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, where he had worked beside Abu Musab Zarqawi, a longtime confederate.

He showed up in Antalya last summer with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and a face altered by plastic surgery. After his arrest, he told investigators he had planned to die steering a yacht laden with explosives into a cruise ship he believed was filled with U.S. soldiers and which was already approaching across the turquoise Mediterranean.

The attack, just 48 hours away when the chemicals ignited, was intended to crown a wide-ranging career in terrorism. Sakka played a role in the so-called millennium plot to attack hotels in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 31, 1999. Turkish prosecutors also describe him as the planner of the 2003 truck bombings that killed 57 people in Istanbul, financed with $160,000 in al Qaeda funds.

Between attacks, according to his attorney, Sakka provided false passports and other means to help Islamic militants through the web of paths that U.S. military officials call rat lines. The routes crisscross Turkey to and from Afghanistan, Chechnya and, since 2003, Iraq, where Sakka traveled after the Istanbul bombings. Insurgents say Louai al-Turki, as he was known there, played a prominent role in major attacks on U.S. bases and commanded insurgent forces in Fallujah when it served as the militants' headquarters.

"He's been involved in this for 15 years," said the attorney, Osman Karahan.

The significance of Sakka, who was 32 at the time of his arrest, was slow to emerge. But he spoke at length to Turkish interrogators, admitting his role in past plots and describing Iraq as a training ground for terrorists comparable to Chechnya and Bosnia in the past, according to people who have read a summary of his statement. Sakka, who remains in a jail in Istanbul, declined to sign the account, however, on the advice of his controversial attorney.

"Actually, he does not deny his past activities," said Karahan, who subscribes to the same militant vision of Islam as many of his clients. "We are people who work for justice, so we want to tell the truth. Things need to be taken out of the shadows." Investigators have pressed Sakka to provide evidence against Karahan.

The attorney's office candidly declares his beliefs. The waiting room features copies of Kaide magazine, the Turkish spelling of Qaeda, with ads announcing the martyrdom of Turkish volunteers in Iraq. Copies of a paperback titled "Virgins of Paradise: Eyes Like Fawns and Shining Skin" are on sale for $4. Every image of a human face, including the portrait on Karahan's diploma, is covered by a tab of paper. "Angels don't come where faces are pictured," Karahan explained.

The lawyer said he handles almost 80 percent of the criminal cases brought against Islamic militants in Turkey, a practice that increased sharply after Sept. 11, 2001, when Turkey began detaining large numbers of suspects at its borders. In 2000, he secured the release of Sakka's wife and three children, who were taken in an operation that narrowly missed Sakka.

"He called me on the phone from Holland," Karahan said. "He said he was in Istanbul a few days earlier but managed to escape."

Born in Aleppo, in Syria's north, the son of successful factory owner, Sakka forsook a "rich life" for the struggles of radical Islam, the attorney said. He said Sakka worked in Turkey starting in 1998, easing the passage of militants through a country that U.S. and Turkish authorities have long acknowledged is a major logistical hub for terrorists. Karahan said that included preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks, notably in Bursa, a city 60 miles south of Istanbul.

It is unclear when Sakka crossed paths with Zarqawi, but a Jordanian court convicted both men in absentia for plotting to attack an Amman hotel, border crossings and Christian tourist sites during the celebration of the millennium.

By 2003, Turkish prosecutors say, Sakka was in the thick of the planning for the bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul over two days in November that year. Though Karahan said Sakka now denies involvement, an indictment released Feb. 10 charges that he "proposed" the attacks, with specific approval from both Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. Testimony in the mass trial of more than 70 Turks already charged in the case indicated that Sakka provided all the funds for the attacks, with the largest installment delivered in a sock stuffed with euros from Saudi sympathizers, according to the indictment. When the bombs went off, he cheered as he watched satellite television reports with the leading Turkish plotters, all of whom had fled to Aleppo.

Sakka next surfaced in Iraq, infiltrating the border via routes he was known for helping volunteers navigate, insurgents said. A former member of Zarqawi's group, Abu Khalid Dulaimi, 55, said Sakka arrived in Fallujah in March 2004 with seven Turkish men and helped defend the city against the first, aborted Marine offensive in April. Reunited with Zarqawi, he was well known as a key aide to the insurgent leader. Prosecutors say he was involved in the slaying of a Turkish truck driver.

Dulaimi said Sakka provided coordinates for mortar attacks on U.S. bases in Mosul, Samarra, Baghdad and Anbar province. He said Sakka also played a "vivid" role in an attack on Abu Ghraib prison, where the inmates included two organizers of the Istanbul bombings. A third organizer, Habib Akdas, was reported killed in the second, successful Marine offensive on Fallujah in November 2004.

In the aftermath of the fall of Fallujah, foreign fighters in Iraq convened a shura, or council, Karahan said. The meeting authorized 10 separate attacks on Israeli targets. Sakka, who told Turkish interrogators he learned bomb-making in Iraq, volunteered to strike the Israeli cruise ships that regularly call on Turkey's southern coast, Karahan said. The attorney said Sakka believed U.S. soldiers used the vessels for R & R and that his own days were numbered because his surgically altered face had appeared on an insurgent video of a downed American drone in Iraq. Turkish doctors had detected a nose job and scars suggesting Sakka might also have altered his chin and eyebrows.

"He decided it's about time his life ends, because he changed his face but he was still recognized," Karahan said.

In Antalya, Sakka spent lavishly preparing for the attack. Using an alias, he put down $60,000 on a villa in the Beldibi neighborhood, insisting on the unit closest to the beach, with a panoramic view of the resort city and its harbor. "His criterion was it had to be directly on the water, no matter what the price was," said Mehmet Yildirim, the watchman.

The two-bedroom Apt. 1703 was closer to town, in a complex overlooking the marina where Sakka moored a 27-foot yacht, the Tufan. On board was diving equipment and a submersible water scooter, capable of running for 45 minutes at a depth of 75 feet.

Karahan said Sakka spent days chatting with Israeli tourists, who flocked to the Turkish coast in summer, and learned the precise arrival time and route of the ship he planned to attack as it approached Antalya. In a rented Hyundai, he ferried the ingredients for a one-ton bomb -- hydrogen peroxide, aluminum powder, acetone -- from the port city of Mersin. Then he scoured Antalya's industrial zone for a shop that worked with chrome.

Sakka needed someone to build a distiller, a glorified pressure cooker to concentrate the hydrogen.

"He said he wanted to increase the hydrogen peroxide to 70 or 75 percent by extracting the water," said the metalworker who did the job, at the cost of another 2,000 euros, after checking out Sakka's claim that he wanted to use the chemical to bleach wood. The metalworker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety, said his only suspicion was that Sakka might be making drugs. But he said a friend who works with chemicals told him the wood-bleaching purpose made sense, and Sakka named a genuine firm in Syria as his employer.

During the week it took to build the device, Sakka spent time at the shop; one day, the conversation turned to al Qaeda. "God knows how it came up," the metalworker said. "I said, 'Nah, there's no such thing as al Qaeda.' Probably he was thinking, 'Yeah, you'll find out!' "

He did not look the part of an Islamic radical. The metalworker recalled pulling up next to Sakka on a street, rapping on the window and asking him why he wasn't in Syria, where he claimed he was headed the day the distiller was lifted into his trunk. Sakka's reply was a leering nod toward the striking young woman in the passenger seat, apparently the companion neighbors saw him nuzzling by the pool at the apartment complex.

Inside his apartment, the living room became a workshop crowded with plastic vats, gas masks, fire extinguishers and PVC pipes to circulate the water needed to keep stable more than 1,000 pounds of hydrogen. The room held 200 pounds of aluminum powder and 13 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives. Sakka said he intended to finish assembling the bomb on board the Tufan to ensure that no Turks were endangered.

How the fire began is unclear. The metalworker suspects it was sparked by his creation, wired for industrial use at 7,500 watts, enough to melt the wiring in a residential building. Hamid Obysi, a fellow Syrian who was assisting Sakka, told police they were both awakened by the explosion -- a small one, by all accounts, and less damaging than the resulting fire -- and scrambled for their lives, leaving behind a laptop computer, four cell phones, a digital camera and seven fake IDs. They took a taxi to Beldibi, where, after a quick visit to the villa, Sakka gave the guard 2,000 euros and instructions to keep quiet, prosecutors said. The fugitives left town by bus, with Sakka giving Obysi 1,000 euros in getaway money. Obysi was arrested trying to enter Syria.

Sakka proceeded east to Diyarbakir and made plans to double back, booking a domestic flight to Istanbul. He got as far as the police check at the airport, where his attorney said he surrendered to police officers who found his ID suspicious.

"I'm the one you're looking for," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/20/2006 03:21 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:


MEMRI TV: Saudi TerroristPreparing for Suicide Bombing in Iraq (vid w/attack)
Taqiya campaign of utterly bogus prison abuses against women, by us sons of dogs and pigs... here it works like a charm on a love-starved Saudi moron.
Title links to transcript. Video link on this page - play #1037.

Letter: My brothers, the mujahidoon for the sake of Allah, what shall we, your sisters in Abu Ghureib prison tell you? We have been attacked by the sons of apes and pigs. They tore up our Korans, disfigured our bodies, and humiliated us. What have you heard about what we see here every day? By Allah, one of us was raped several times in one day by those apes and pigs.

Are you really unaware of what is happening to us? There are 13 women with me in prison, all unmarried. They are raped for all to see and hear. They prevented us from wearing clothes and from praying. One committed suicide after she was raped by an American dog, and then severely tortured. She began to bang her head against the wall until she died.

I, Fatma, your sister in faith, say to you: Remain faithful to Allah. Leave their tanks and planes, come to us in Abu Ghureib prison, and kill us along with them. Destroy us along with them. Don't leave us to them. Kill us along with them, and then maybe we will have peace.

Fatma

Friday, December 14, 2004
Buy any of that? Well, they do. Know your enemy. Watch the vid.
Posted by: .com || 02/20/2006 01:49 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...come to us in Abu Ghureib prison..."

Approach by the SE side, there is a ditch you can use there to come in unseen by the infidels. Ignore the strong odor of gasoline in the ditch.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/20/2006 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Can't they think up a different name than Fatima? Let's be original here!

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/20/2006 18:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, they sure have a variety of names for boys. Aside from the 80% named after Moe.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/20/2006 18:34 Comments || Top||

#4  "Michael Jackson"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2006 18:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Bush: US must not be "hostage" to foreign oil
Interesting emphasis on foreign oil. A subtle boxing in of Congress, I think, over ANWR etc.
The United States must reduce its dependence on oil from foreign countries that can hold it hostage, President George W. Bush said on Monday as he tried to revive an agenda obscured by controversy over Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident.

"Some of the nations we rely on for oil have unstable governments or fundamental differences with the United States," Bush said in a speech at the start a two-day swing through Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado.
blinding glimpse of the obvious, but Congress acts as if they're blind to it
"These countries know we need their oil and that reduces influence. It creates a national security issue when we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us," he added, without naming the countries.

Drawn-out publicity over Cheney's accidental shooting of a quail-hunting partner during a trip to Texas cost Bush valuable time last week in trying to push his agenda. His efforts to promote health care proposals were drowned out by the focus on Cheney, who delayed commenting publicly for four days.

Disputes over a domestic eavesdropping program and the response to Hurricane Katrina have also thrown Bush's administration off stride.

Bush toured a Johnson Controls Inc. battery development center and looked at two hybrid SUVs before making a speech at company headquarters in Milwaukee.

Bush said he envisioned a future in which a plug-in hybrid car could drive 40 miles on a lithium-ion battery, then stop at a filling station for ethanol, a fuel usually made from corn.

"We're close to having this vision realized in America," Bush said. The trip could be conducted without consuming a drop of oil, he said.

Bush in his State of the Union address last month said the United States must break an addiction to Middle East oil. He has called for improving alternative-fuel technology to reduce U.S. oil imports from the region by 75 percent by 2025.

He has promoted alternative fuels such as ethanol, and research into producing fuel from wood chips or grasses.

Frank Verrastro, director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last week he did not understand why Bush was singling out the Middle East when Saudi Arabia was a reliable oil supplier, compared with Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria.

Bush, a former oilman, said "I know it came as a shock to some to hear a Texan stand up there in front of the country and say, 'We got a real problem. America is addicted to oil.' But I meant it because it's a true fact and we've got to do something about it now."

"Less than half the crude oil used in our refineries is produced here at home. Sixty percent comes from foreign countries," he said.

High gasoline prices have weighed on Bush's popularity as the midterm election year gets under way with control of Congress up for grabs.

Government figures show the national average price for regular unleaded gasoline last week was $2.28 per gallon, up about 39 cents from a year ago. That was down from the all-time high of $3.07 a gallon set in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina disrupted Gulf Coast refineries.

Bush reiterated his call for building more U.S. nuclear power plants as an energy alternative to expensive natural gas. "I think it makes sense to do so," he said.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 16:49 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then have a heart to heart talk with your brother the Govenor of Flordia and his consistant obstructions to off shore drilling.
Posted by: Angaith Grerens9024 || 02/20/2006 17:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Yup: Jeb, Arnold, and all of Congress.

What's needed is a widespread public awareness of the costs involved in our current dependency on foreign oil. That will give political cover to the smart politicians and undercut those who oppose doing anything real to end that dependency, such as drilling more here or building nuclear power plants.

That's why it caught my eye to have Bush making the clear connection between dependence on foreign oil and our economic vulnerability to nuts like the MMs.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2006 17:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Apart from Nuclear and Coal, this is the best hope for US oil independence.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/20/2006 18:59 Comments || Top||

#4  This administration needs to have a realistic and specific as possible energy plan. They need to show the sources as they exist and where the new ones will come from. I see some bar graphs, pie charts, simple and direct communications to the public. Straight forward stuff so the average american can see what the real story is without people in congress and enviro-nuts laying a big emotional handwaving trip (shuck and jive act) on us. There are too many people on both sides of the fence that have vested interests in their sources or proposed sources.

We need to know:
1. Our present energy demand by sector.
2. Present sources of energy by type and location.
3. What will we need in the next decade, 20 years, 50 years.
4. Possible sources and locations of sources.
5. What we can really expect from conservation.

I see something like Ross Perot presentations of simple charts and graphs, with simple explanations.

Someone has to lead the way, and it won't be congress. They are hopeless. Whoever does it, it must be done.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/20/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||



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