Ahmad Salaheddin is an Arab who has crossed the ethnic divide in Darfur's bloody war to fight alongside ethnic African rebels. His fellow rebels jokingly call him a "janjaweed" - one of the Arab militiamen who are their fiercest enemy. His presence, along with several other Arabs in a unit of the main rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army, is a sign of the complexity of the ethnic bloodshed in the western Sudanese region.
The fight in Darfur is usually defined as between Arabs and ethnic Africans: the ethnic Africans launched a rebellion in 2003 and the Arab-led Sudanese government is accused of arming Arab tribesmen in Darfur to help put it down. The Arab janjaweed militias have since carried out a campaign of violence against ethnic African civilians, killing and raping and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes, the United Nations says.
In general, the definition of Arabs vs. ethnic Africans holds true. It is not known how many Arabs have joined the ethnic African rebels, but their numbers are likely minimal. However, the rebels insist instances like Salaheddin are on the rise. There are also several major Arab tribes that from the start have refused Khartoum's enticements to join the janjaweed. So the government has armed smaller, more impoverished clans for the militias - disrupting the traditional power structures among the Arab tribes.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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A man accused of conspiring to bomb London's public transport system told a court Monday that he deliberately made fake devices that were not meant to explode but would spread fear and panic in protest against the invasion of Iraq. "I didn't think I was going to be in any trouble, because it was a hoax," he said.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, said he learned how to make the devices on the Internet, downloading a Web video on which an Arabic-speaking man in a ski mask described how to make explosives from hydrogen peroxide, an easily obtained household chemical. Why were you hanging out at Islamo-terrorist websites again?
"When I saw how easy it is to make the stuff, the idea came to my head that I could use it to make fake explosives," Ibrahim told jurors at London's Woolwich Crown Court. "Basically, if you know how to make it work, you can make it to not work." No, my dear, that would take a much deeper understanding of chemistry than appears within your capabilities.
Ibrahim and five other men are being tried on charges of conspiring to bomb the British capital's transport system on July 21, 2005 - two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 bus and subway passengers. Prosecutors say the July 21 plot failed only because the four bombs, carried onto three subway trains and a bus, failed to explode.
Ibrahim, who was born in Eritrea and moved to Britain at 13, said he was angry about the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and had attended anti-war demonstrations. Finding these had little effect, he said he decided to take "positive action." "Seeing non-Muslims speaking out and protesting against the war made me think I should do something stronger," he said. He and Omar first discussed the idea of a bomb hoax around September 2004. "He said, 'What if we do something that would stand out,'" Ibrahim said. "Something like fireworks or firecrackers, something that would make noise and cause panic."
Ibrahim described how he and several of the others bought hydrogen peroxide - a chemical commonly used in bleaching and hair-coloring products - from cosmetics stores, then boiled it in a saucepan at Omar's apartment to reach a concentration of 70 percent. The chemical was mixed with flour, packed into plastic tubs and topped with detonators made with the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.
Ibrahim said his initial plan had been to make eight to 20 realistic-looking devices, which would be left in public places and not detonated. But after the July 7 bus and subway bombings, the defendants decided instead to mount a series of mock-suicide bombings that echoed the earlier attacks, he said.
"Even though I don't agree with the 7th of July (attacks) it got Britain and the politicians talking about their role in Iraq," he said. "My aim was to cause maximum disruption and maximum publicity and get maximum debate about the war in Iraq. In other words, your aim was to spread terror. That makes you a terrorist. It's really quite simple, Mr. Eritrean Refugee.
HARDLINE international students have wrested control of a major NSW mosque, ousting the local cleric amid accusations the group is rapidly converting followers to extremist Islam. Up to 150 university students from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt who follow the fundamentalist Wahabbism ideology were central to the overthrow at the weekend of the executive board of the Newcastle Muslim Association.
Newcastle Mosque's deposed imam, Australian-born Bilal Kanj, who was also voted out on the weekend, said while the students openly denied their Wahabbi beliefs and radical Koranic interpretations, they were converting people during prayer group meetings and other religious gatherings. The cleric had moved to Newcastle only three months ago to work as a full-time spiritual leader.
Deposed association president Yunus Kara said the international students were aged between 20 and 30, and were known to make home visits to members of the port city's 600-strong Muslim population to preach their beliefs. He said an absence of proper religious leadership at Newcastle Mosque over the past 30 years - prior to Sheik Bilal's appointment - also meant the students could exploit the void to spread their own ideologies. Sheik Bilal said the students were becoming popular with the locals by adopting name-and-shame tactics, spreading lies about the town's moderate Muslim leadership.
Turkeys coast guard detained a ship with 184 Turks, Iraqis and Palestinians aboard trying to reach the European Union illegally via the Greek island of Lesbos, the semi-official Anatolian news agency said on Sunday. The ship was stopped on Saturday off the western coast. Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, has cracked down on illegal immigration following EU concerns over its inability to stop people from poor Middle Eastern and former Soviet states. Turkey is bordered by Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan as well as EU members Greece and Bulgaria.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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"Raiding American Forums is Among the Most Important Means of Obtaining Victory in the Fierce Media War and of Influencing the Views of the Weak-Minded American" Sheehan? Moore? MSM? Hollywood?
Islamist Website Instructs Mujahideen in Using Popular U.S. Web Forums to Foster Anti-War Sentiment among Americans
In the past few months, Islamists engaged in "media jihad" have increased their efforts to expose as broad a Western audience as possible to their jihad films, which purport to document the growing success of the mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistan. As part of this endeavor, they have posted jihad films on popular free video-sharing websites such as YouTube, LiveLeak, and Google Video, hoping that such films will tip public opinion in the West against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan - thus pressuring Western governments to withdraw their troops from these countries.
As part of the campaign to foster anti-war sentiment among Westerners, and more specifically among Americans, a member of the Al-Mohajroon Islamist website with the username Al-Wathiq Billah instructed mujahideen in how to infiltrate popular American forums and to use them to distribute jihad films and spread disinformation about the war.
"There is no doubt, my brothers, that raiding American forums is among the most important means of obtaining victory in the fierce media war... and of influencing the views of the weak-minded American who pays his taxes so they will go to the infidel American army. This American is an idiot and does not [even] know where Iraq is... [It is therefore] mandatory for every electronic mujahid [to engage in this raiding]."
"It is better that you raid non-political forums such as music forums and trivia forums... which American people... favor... Define your target[ed forum]... and get to know it well... Post your contribution and do not get into... futile arguments..."
Indicate You Are an American
Shades of the Vietnam war and Communist anti-war protests.
John McCain, formerly the leading Republican presidential contender, has told The Sunday Telegraph that restoring America's sullied reputation abroad will be "a top priority" if he wins the White House.
The Arizona senator, an Iraq war hawk, was talking aboard the revived Straight Talk Express - the vehicle that made his name during the 2000 presidential election and that he hopes will revive his faltering fortunes this time round. The bus ferried the senator, his aides, and journalists, to a series of public meetings throughout the flat, snow-covered farmland of rural Iowa, where voters will be the first to express their preferences for the party nominations next January.
Of America's poor image abroad, even with long-time allies, Sen McCain acknowledged candidly: "It is a very dispiriting situation and I know we will have to work hard to improve it."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/19/2007 06:31 ||
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#2
First wrong assumption: that the last five years is the primary reason that our rep is "sullied".
Second wrong assumption: that there is anything that anyone from any party can do, short of selling out our nation, to make the Euros "like" us.
To hell with the Europeans. They'll either be a depopulated cipher in 75 years, or a Muslim caliphate. Why would any sane person care what-these soon-to-be-extinct countries think of us?
There are any of a dozen or so well written articles by both Europeans AND Americans on the fact that while the Europeans at all levels oppose the battle in Iraq, their anti-Americanism is a far deeper, far older, and far more institutionally ingrained thing than the MSM and their anointed RINO McCain would have us believe.
With rare exception, western Europeans (especially the power and cultural elite but even to some extent the average person) have come to really hate Americans and America over the past fifty years. Their ersatz sympathy for 9/11 is the best example I can think of, when despite the expressions of sorrow by the leaders of various countries polling data two weeks after the bombing showed that more than half of the population of many countries in Europe were either glad of the bombing or indifferent.
Thanks for your bravery and service in Vietnam, Senator. But there isn't thing one you or anyone else can do to make the Euros our friends. They aren't, and they won't be, unless every firearm is confiscated, capitalism is banned or regulated into something unrecognizable, medicine is socialized, unemployment lasts for four years, retirement is at 55, authentic Christianity and Judaism are denigrated or destroyed, and our birth rates go below replacement. Their goal is to make the true thread of Western civilization go away, to be replaced with their own cancerous version.
The only Americans who are "ugly" are those members of the cultural elite who have bought into cultural Marxism, multiculturalism, and evangelical secularism.
And those politicians who pander to them.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 7:40 Comments ||
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#3
I'm always amazed at how our politicians fixate on this non issue. I really don't care what any frenchman or migrant dweller of the sandy wastes thinks of me. Just. Don't. Care.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2007 7:43 Comments ||
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#6
We saved Europe's Ass Twice, WW1-WW2, Ungrateful Bastards, To HELL with them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/19/2007 7:54 Comments ||
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#7
What no mo uro said. Every word.
If McCain's the Republican nominee, I doubt I'll even bother to vote. "Revived Straight Talk Express", my aching ass...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/19/2007 7:58 Comments ||
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#8
One of the best books on anti-Americanism that I've come across is Anti-Americanism by the French journalist-philosopher Jean-Francois Revel. He makes the point that the prejudice and some of memes that pollute European thinking date back to the earliest exploration of the Americas, before the colonization of North America was even begun. *shrug* We can't fix this for them; like any addict they must fix this four century old addiction for themselves.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/19/2007 8:45 Comments ||
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#11
How nice. I don't suppose this was a joint announcement with Javier Solana to fix the world's view of "the condescending European," or with King Abdallah to fix the world's view of "the explosive Muslim"?
#12
The leftist Europhiles cannot get over their love of their rather idealized view of Europe and Europeans.
People such as Alec Baldwin and John Kerry want to get money from the US, but they love the elitism and "snoot" of European elitists over the dreary depression of American elitists.
Were they to live there any great length of time, they would develop disdain for the Europeans, too, and start to fantasize about somewhere else.
#13
European governments will hate us forever because we built the strongest, richest and most moral country ever with what they felt was their human refuse.
#14
Well, the "We dont need no stinking allies" crowd is out in force. Except we do, whether its putting pressure on Iran, or Zimbabwe, or fighting in Afghanistan, or boycotting Hamas.
McCain knows it. So does the Bush admin, post-Rummy.
Note, from WaPo, McCain continues to talk about the Iraq war and the necessity of winning to every audience. Rudy and Romney dont.
I guess if you're not as convinced of the importance of victory, youre not as convinced of the need for allies. Makes sense.
#15
You want the "allies" that undermine your efforts, stab you in the back and basically use your country as a political whipping boy or as a political scape-goat? You can have them, liberal-boy.
I'll stick with Eastern Europe, Denmark, Oz and some other fine countries. The rest can go to hell.
(which they are going too, BTW, with the muzzie influx)
#17
Most of the comments on this thread are SPOT ON. Euro hatred of America is ingrained. Hell, it's a part of their DNA. Trying to understand it and changing our foreign policy to suck up to them will only result in the loss of what little remains of our self respect.
#19
Liberalhawk, I have no doubt that you are well intentioned, but you are dwelling in an alternate reality.
Allies would certainly be useful in any struggle, but the Europeans are NEVER going to be well disposed towards us even if they were to become temporarily allied for some cause.
And the chances of this are small anyways, because much like the Democrats here, so great is the hatred for true strain (ie., American) Western thought that they would rather allow harm to come to the West than do anything that might enhance the chances of conservatism (such as support a victory against radical Islam) at the ballot box.
Not to mention the fact that losing to the Islamicists assuages the needs of their elite's ingrained masochistic multi-culti impulses.
You need to open your mind to the fact that for the most part the bulk of Europe has considered us an enemy for decades. We have done precisely the things they have not, and espoused precisely the philosophies they have reviled, and we have succeeded while they are pointed downward to what is, in all likelihood, oblivion. This galls them to their very core, the fact that they thought they were the true and functional thread of Western civilization and instead are a cancerous tumor on said civilization, and this gall gives them a rage and bitterness with no cure. Short of death, nothing strikes fear into the heart of a leftist than the possibility of admitting error.
I'll repeat it: nothing we can do, short of giving up capitalism, our guns, and our culture, publicly reviling authentic Christianity and Judaism, and shouting from the rooftops that America and the American way was always evil and wrong, will get the Europeans to "like" us.
And even that might not.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 10:54 Comments ||
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#20
LH,
You may not think much of Rummy, but no truer words were ever spoken when he announced that - this time around - the mission would define the coalition not the coalition defining the mission.
McCain is trying to curry favor with the MSM by sucking up to the Euro weenies. McCain looked at his poll numbers and felt his campaign needed a little boost from the NYT, WaPo, LAT, and the Sunday morning talk shows (except Fox) etc...
Europe is doing all it can to assist Iran to go nuclear. Watch it happen.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
03/19/2007 10:58 Comments ||
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#21
Most of the comments of this thread are idiotic.
1) America needs allies and still more needs some countries not actively helping the bad guys: think in confronting China against confronting China equipped with French planes.
2) America is now considered the big bad guy in world. You have managed to lose the PR war gainst the Soviet Union and you are losing it against Jihadis and two bit Latin Amaerican dictators
3) Some of this bad PR is due to your sins but 90% is due to America not paying attention to efforts at diabolizing it. KGB managed through an Indian newspaper to spread that AIDS was a military viris developped by the AZmerican armed forces. Where was teh refutation? NOWHERE (BTW, AIDS is useless as a military virus). When Al Quaida bombed the mebassies whare was the PR campaign mentionning Al Quida's racaism who for the sake of killing 12 Americans had killed over 200 Negros, and wounded over two thousand (many of them crippled for life and probably now dead of starvation)? NOWHERE. Instead America promoised to compensate the victims (Hint: I wouild have told them to complain to the Saudi embassy and offered them judicial help) and when the compensations didn't materialize the victims began blaming America insterad of Al Quiada. BRIGHT!!!!
Today the UE is trying to play the role of a counterweight to the USA and to begin with spreading hate of America between its populations. Do you try to contain UE expansion in East Europe? Nooooo, you encoyrage it. Do you have Radio Free Europe broadcast into France? Of course no.
All what you do is complain about not being loved while, like cows looking the train pass, you do nothing as children in France are being told that D-DAY was just for increasing the sales of Coca-Cola and Gillette.
PS: Forcing an airplane to take a longer route because there is country she can't overfly means being able to carry less bombs, to make less sorties per day and, in case it is damaged, it can lead to the loss of the aircraft. That is why even Ivory Coast can be valaable ally if there are bad guys in teh general area.
PS2: Ma Cain means that America must becaome dovish, I mean she must care about those who posinon the minds of tehir contries against her.
The man seems to be doing everything he possibly can to alienate the conservative base. One of the favorite phrases over at RedState is "I'll open a vein before I'll vote for McCain." How he expects to get the nomination is a mystery.
#23
OK, JFM, since I'm such an idiot, perhaps you can explain how the U.S. can wage a successful information campaign to get the bulk of Europeans to agree that free market capitalism is better than welfare state capitalism or socialism, that the Jews and Israel are friends of the West, that authentic forms of Christianity are good for the West, that private ownership of firearms is the last, best guarantee of a free society, that societies must be crafted to encourage women to procreate instead of (or at least as well as) simply having a career, and that the family is a more important institution than government, without basically every country in Europe howling in protest and jamming our signals.
Please be precise as to the mechanism.
Oh, and about the Soviet Union winning the propaganda war - how is the Soviet Union these days?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 11:14 Comments ||
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#24
Beginning, JFM?
I think not.
Cold War is over, just going back to the way it was, now w/24/7 access.
#25
We need allies. But true allies have shared vision and beliefs. Such as the growth of governments that support individual rights and freedom.
For the most part, this is not the case with Europe any more. They favor control and stability, collectivism over individualism.
So there is only the shrinking ground of a common enemy that hold us together - and they do not even recognize it nor the seriousness of the threat of Islamofascism.
That is why this sort of "ass kissing" tour that McCain proposes is simply wrong, and will ultimately be ineffective. Until we have chained ourselves to their collectivist policies and their desire for a "One WOrld" led by them, especially prevalent in western europe, Europe and its collectivists will never be happy nor comfortable with the US.
McCains effort is wasted - and shows the vapidity of his vanity.
#26
OK, JFM, since I'm such an idiot, perhaps you can explain how the U.S. can wage a successful information campaign
I can't tell you how to win but I can tell you how lose. Continue like now doing no effort to counter negative spin by Al Jazeera, Chavez or the corrupt european leaders who dream of ruling the world once they have managed to create conditions for America's downfall.
#27
"I can't tell you how to win but I can tell you how lose. Continue like now doing no effort to counter negative spin by Al Jazeera, Chavez or the corrupt european leaders who dream of ruling the world once they have managed to create conditions for America's downfall."
Lose? Like against the Soviet Union? If we "lose" that badly against the Islamicists and Euroelite, I'll take it.
Also, whence cometh this "no effort" charge? Our leaders have categorically denounced these villains at every turn. Admittedly our academics and entertainers have not, but such is the price of a free society. I suspect the CIA is not exactly idle in this area , either.
You're going to have to do better than "you're not doing anything" , and come up with a specific action plan, before you can start calling me or anyone else an idiot, sir.
I would also add that we are doing what is probably the best ad campaign of all, every minute of every day, and that is leading by example. You don't need to proseltyze to do that.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 11:49 Comments ||
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#28
I have minimal problem with McCain spouting platitudes about allies, even those who are not sincerely US allies anymore.
He is fundamentally more of a Hawk than Bush is. If doing things like executing Jihadis at Ft. Leavenworth while closing Gitmo helps us, so be it. There is room to work here after a necessarily polarizing Bush administration. For instance, the French supposedly supported Israel going into Damascus last summer. McCain might have gotten that to happen.
My biggest problem with what he says is that we need to go along with European demands on Kyoto (or it's successor) as that issue is important to the Euros. In this regard, he's just being a Dhimmi to their neo-pagan eco beliefs. That's a bridge too far for me.
I'm all for reducing pollution. However, defining CO2, which we exhale and volcanoes belch, as a pollutant is insane. The science has not proven the magnitude of mankind's role in the recent warming trend, whether it can be reversed by human action, whether this is desireable (vs. a generally warmer planet where we can grow crops in new places -- like we could during the medieval'warming period') and, if so, whether cutting carbon emmissions is the best way to do it (vs. increasing atmospheric particulates, carbon sinks, Iranian nuclear winter, etc.). Yet, the Europeans, who abandoned faith in the Christian God after a century of slaughter, now demand that the US (which is already pretty efficient in terms of carbon emmissions per unit GDP and net carbon emmissions) make a ritual sacrifice to their Marxist project to appease the weather gods while they achieve their Kyoto targets simply by shrinking the population (OK, I give the French credit for using nuclear power though I guess that means they are no better pagans than they are catholics).
I am an Arizona Republican and planned to support McCain out of general loyalty. However, if he adopts Al Gore's apocalyptic worldview I'll have to look elsewhere for straight talk.
#29
Liberalhawk: of course we need allies. I'm just not convinced that we have any in western Europe other than Blair and the Danes.
I'd like to have western Europe as our allies, but I won't compromise our basic principles to gain their friendship. Sadly, as others here have commented, European anger at/with us goes back decades and is based precisely on differences in our and their basic principles.
We can cooperate with them on certain matters: we do today in the quiet war on terrorism. We'll have reasonable trade rules, cultural exchanges and tourism.
But we're destined not to be close friends -- we haven't been before and we won't be tomorrow.
Too bad, but we must not compromise.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2007 11:57 Comments ||
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#30
#21. JFM people believe that they wish to believe. IMO, it's easier to convert Paleos to peaceful coexistence with Israel than to convert EUros into US allies.
#31
I'd like to have western Europe as our allies, but I won't compromise our basic principles to gain their friendship.
Right on! And you will not get Europe as allies by compromising principles you will get just the temporary, very temporary alliance of European elites. Go over their heads and reach to the people.
#33
IMO, it's easier to convert Paleos to peaceful coexistence with Israel than to convert EUros into US allies.
Euros don't exist. The new european man doesn't exist, it's a contructivist dream, like the new soviet man. There only are europeans, they're flesh and blood people, just like you, yes, even you, Gromgoru. And, like it or not, the USA and Israel are european counties; that's what the "West" is about, white european civilization, period (with "Europe" not being "EU", again).
JFM people believe that they wish to believe. IMO, it's easier to convert Paleos to peaceful coexistence with Israel than to convert EUros into US allies.
You are right, except that I will change this to: it's easier to convert Paleos to peaceful coexistence with Israel than to convert Enarques into US allies (Enarques are the French high ranking public employees whose recruitment and carreer is prone to make them feel as lords of the universe. Most of our politicians are Enarques. Chirac, Jospin (former prime minister), Villepin, Roral (Socialist candidate) are Enarques. Sarkozyt is not one of the rare French politicians who are not Enarques. Those friendly French you find outside Paris are not Enarque (obvious) but aren't poisoned directly or through Parisian chic MSM by the Enarque spirit.
#35
A5089 - I remember reading that article when it first came out six or seven years ago.
I take your point, but remember that the Sovs were primarily about economic Marxism and used cultural Marxism as a tool, whereas today's left is the opposite.
I don't deny the existence and dangers of cultural Marxism, but I do think it's inaccurate to equate it with the Soviet Union. If you wish to say that's a distinction without a difference, feel free, but I disagree.
Your second post, however is MUCH better.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 12:51 Comments ||
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#36
"Liberalhawk: of course we need allies. I'm just not convinced that we have any in western Europe other than Blair and the Danes.
I'd like to have western Europe as our allies, but I won't compromise our basic principles to gain their friendship. Sadly, as others here have commented, European anger at/with us goes back decades and is based precisely on differences in our and their basic principles.
We can cooperate with them on certain matters: we do today in the quiet war on terrorism. We'll have reasonable trade rules, cultural exchanges and tourism.
But we're destined not to be close friends -- we haven't been before and we won't be tomorrow.
Too bad, but we must not compromise."
First of all Im not sure what basic principles McCain has suggested compromising on. We may not agree here on Global Warming, but I dont see how McCains position violates basic principles. Or how closing Gitmo would violate basic principles.
I DO NOT think the euros require US to adopt their positions on social welfare - nor do I think we need to require them to adopt OURS. Somehow when the USSR threatened the west, socialists who like big welfare states managed to get on just fine with free marketers who didnt.
Ditto, I dont think euro or US needs to tell each other what to believe about God. Thats really neither here nor there about international realpolitics. Note, neither wingnut anxiety about Euro atheism, or Guardian fears about fundies are realpolitik.
We have far more friends than Blair and the Danes. Right now there are Dutch and Canadian troops fighting hard in Afghanistan. France will be voting for sanctions on Iran this week (and thats with Chirac still in charge - IF Sarko wins, we should see a firmer France)
Its true France wants to strengthen its own power, and doesnt love us. Mature alliances can handle that. We need to work together wherever we can to the extent we can. Thats what international politics is about, not love and gratitude. And not whether we admire each others internal political choices. McCain, AFAICT, wants to take steps that will improve practical cooperation.
#37
"You may not think much of Rummy, but no truer words were ever spoken when he announced that - this time around - the mission would define the coalition not the coalition defining the mission."
And McCain accepted the mission, with the coalition that we had.
What he wants us to do is things, in line with our values, that can also make it easier for us to get coalitions in the future. and again, I dont think thats far different from what Rice, Gates,et al, are already doing.
#38
"I'll repeat it: nothing we can do, short of giving up capitalism, our guns, and our culture, publicly reviling authentic Christianity and Judaism, and shouting from the rooftops that America and the American way was always evil and wrong, will get the Europeans to "like" us."
Could you please let me know which is authentic Judaism, as I fear I may be going to the wrong shul. ;)
#39
JFM, I don't subscribe to doctrine that People are inherently good, but can be led astray by bad rulers. Me, I go with Ecclesiastes: "Man's nature is evil from his youth." or Begon, Harper, and Townsend: "an organism is not adapted to its environment---it's adapted to the environment of its ancestors" (i.e., humans simply not adapted for any level of social organization superseding a hunter-gather band).
#40
McCain is a self-agrandizing idiot that is best ignored. His belief that he can "repair" something that was never there in the first place just shows how really out of touch he is. The common man anywhere in Europe considers himself "superior" to Americans, for a host of reasons. The truth is, all the best from those countries left for America during the last 250 years, and currently make up the majority of the "Americans" the modern "Europeans" despise. The majority of politicians in Europe are still elitist, royalist wannabees that feel they have a "right" to lead the rest of the world, and hate the US for "usurping their rightful position".
We need allies to help fight this war, but they must be WILLING allies that recognize a common goal. Once this war is won, whether we remain allies depends upon the wants and needs of the various nations and their people. Europe is reverting to the form it held before World War II (actually what it held during the latter half of the 19th Century, or as close as it can get), while the United States continues to move forward. Trying to please European pseudo-monarchies is a waste of time and energy. We are not the ones that need to change, and McCain is an idiot for not recognizing it. I don't give a tinker's da$$ if "Europe", "Africa", "Asia", or the Martians like us. I do care if they are actively trying to undermine our government, our institutions, and our way of life, and will raise holy he$$ with them over that. Both the governments of France and Saudi Arabia have proven time and again they are working against us, and need to be considered the enemies they are. Sorry, JFM, but THAT'S straight talk, not the crap John McCain is spewing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2007 13:53 Comments ||
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#41
"Could you please let me know which is authentic"
Simple, the churches/synagogues which don't subscribe to "liberation theology" or any other form of cultural Marxism pretending to be spirituality. Those that do know who they are and don't need me to delineate them, either way.
As far as the Euros requiring that we tow their line on things economic and social, I would refer you to the following: Kyoto, GMO foods, rules about what constitutes "organic" foods, attempts to ban firearms in the U.S. through the mechanism of the U.N., etc., none of which are even remotely countered by anything the U.S. does.
BTW, I didn't see anyone here saying that they want to force Europe to become theist again, unhelpful ant anti-intellectual ad hominem offensive attacks on alleged "wingnuts" notwithstanding. I would never want to force anyone anywhere to do so. And nobody on this forum has done so. (Projection on your part, perhaps?) However, there is a large and growing body of evidence that America's spiritual life is a major bone of contention for the Euro elite, and that they would do whatever they could to get rid of it. Certainly their ideological brethren in our education and entertainment industries seem to be hell bent on it.
Socialist big-government types have always been cozy with free-marketers? Examples, please? If anything, socialist welfare statists played communists against free marketers for their own gain.
Practical cooperation may be a good thing incertain instances, but that isn't what McCain is talking about. He's talking about going hat in hand to people who will continue to hate (and thwart) us NO MATTER WHAT WE DO and expecting them to love us. This is folly.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 14:03 Comments ||
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#42
1. However, there is a large and growing body of evidence that America's spiritual life is a major bone of contention for the Euro elite
Lots of atheist euros dont like the religiosity of many Americans. And that applies to some Euros who aint elites - plenty of folk anticlericalism in europe. BUT AFAICT thats not driving US-Euro relations, not among most ordinary folks, and not among foreign policy makers.
"and that they would do whatever they could to get rid of it."
No, I dont see that. I dont see them doing ANYTHING to get rid of it, just sneering about it.
"Certainly their ideological brethren in our education and entertainment industries seem to be hell bent on it."
Well seeing as atheists in America LIVE in America, you could see why that would be an issue to them, and not to Europeans. Kinda the way say, French unemployment benefits are a big issue to French corporations, but not real important to us.
"Socialist big-government types have always been cozy with free-marketers? Examples, please? If anything, socialist welfare statists played communists against free marketers for their own gain."
The entire history of anti-communist Social democrats during, and even before, the cold war.
"Practical cooperation may be a good thing incertain instances, but that isn't what McCain is talking about. He's talking about going hat in hand"
How so? What is he suggesting that he doesnt already believe in anyway?
"to people who will continue to hate"
Again, I dont think most Euros do.
"and thwart)"
They will thwart us on occasion, as we will thwart them on occasion.
"us NO MATTER WHAT WE DO and expecting them to love us. This is folly. "
Expecting other countries to love us is certainly folly. International politics is based on interests, not love. What we need to do is make sufficient changes so they will not feel threatened by us, and they will see our power as more in their interests than they currently do.
If youre looking for love, well govts, foreign or domestic, are "all the wrong places"
#43
"What we need to do is make sufficient changes so they will not feel threatened by us"
Aha! We finally get to it.
We are "threatening" and all of the responsibility for changing is up to US!
What should we do, then? Convert to socialized medicine, guaranteeing that our capitalism will die as surely as theirs has? Give up our guns so that we seem less like scary cowboys? Give up some free market power and entrepreneurial freedom so that their failing business model looks a little better? Stomp on and mock our devoutly spiritual so that we seem more secular and sophisticated? Sign on to the terrible confluence of gaia-worship, luddism, and Marxism known as anthropogenic global warming?
Which goat do we kill to make our Euro overlords happy?
Tell everyone, Liberalhawk, what things specifically do YOU personally think we should change or give up that would induce the Euros to love us enough- pardon, "see our power as in their interests" enough - to be our allies in the WoT?
More importantly, what things about our social, economic, and political landscape are too important, in your opinion, to be compromised in this attempt?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 14:30 Comments ||
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#44
"What we need to do is make sufficient changes so they will not feel threatened by us, and they will see our power as more in their interests than they currently do."
It think it would be more appropriate for THEM to make sufficient changes so they will not feel threatened by us, and see our power as more in their interests than they currently do.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/19/2007 14:56 Comments ||
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#45
Dave D, proving that brevity is sometimes best.
Thanks for saying it better than I did.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 14:58 Comments ||
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#46
LH,
Why do you (or McCain for that matter) think that changing the Guantanamo detainees into Levenworth detainees would make any difference at all?
Are you saying that the Euros are so simplistic that the geography of the prison is relevant?
Isn't there real problem that there ARE detainees at all? And, in that case, I think you found your principle.
#47
If one lacks shared values and a shared understanding of how things are, one cannot be effective "allies". Europe will need to wake up and have a good look around before they'll ever be any use to us again.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/19/2007 15:13 Comments ||
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#50
LH, I'm surprised by your statement that we need to make changes sufficient to defuse this ill-defined concept of a "sullied" image. As you sensibly say elsewhere, there will always be areas of agreement, conflict, disagreement, compromise, etc.
What I think is wrong here is that the premise that there is practical, real-world cooperation ("allies") that is missing, which could reasonably predicted to materialize if somehow the vibe about the US were different.
(anecdotal, unscientific, yet pertinent data alert) I am specifically aware of great consternation on the Euro side, specifically intel - because of the destructive leaks (SWIFT, renditions, others) that left true allies out to dry (some of these allies are the same ones whose politicians and press trash us in public, BTW). So, yes, there DOES need to be a big change here - the outrageous, criminal activity by career govt. employees in betraying ongoing intel operations in war-time needs to be shut down, punished.
I am not aware of any practical, real-world cooperation that is not occurring due to the image thinggy. Nothing.
But to dwell on McCain's specifics - that is, to barf, as Sea noted above - boy is that boy not ready for prime time (well, actually, any breathing organism is ready for the MSM's prime time these days, so long as they mouth the right nonsense). Ahemm, moving Gitmo guests stateside would run afoul of both perception and legal pitfalls - incredibly stupid idea (exJAG, please correct me here if I'm off-track).
Global warming? Please.
If McCain had the sense and the political courage (we know he's got the other kind in spades), he'd be "distancing" himself from Dubya in denouncing the failure to explain, educate, and advocate on behalf of the US position (usually, the legally and morally principled position) in recent years. THIS has been Dubya's most serious failing - because it affects his successors, not because it affects his approval ratings.
This gets us back to the so-called image problem. Exsqueeze me? The US image is "sullied" because we took out one of the most odious, dangerous, blood-soaked regimes in modern history, and are sacrificing our people to help create a stable and potentially far more democratic and prosperous country? Ditto for the Afghanistan example? Because we recognize the naked emperor in the case of the Geneva Conventions, and even while too timid to formally call everyone's bluff by convening another session to address the clear inadequacy of the current language, apply most of the POW provisions to those who are arguably among the worst war criminals seen since rules of war evolved?
LH, even accepting the odious, factually incorrect, and outrageous premise of a "sullied US image", as McCain does, is the problem. This is the "alternate reality" referred to above.
Close observation of McCain some years back (long before his maverick status or presidential doings) convinced me the guy's not right, and I'm confident most people will have the same reaction. That's quite apart from his substantive problems - little things like not understanding and even expressing public disdain for the US Constitution.
#51
What we need to do is make sufficient changes so they will not feel threatened by us"
Aha! We finally get to it.
We are "threatening" and all of the responsibility for changing is up to US!
What should we do, then? Convert to socialized medicine, guaranteeing that our capitalism will die as surely as theirs has? Give up our guns so that we seem less like scary cowboys? Give up some free market power and entrepreneurial freedom so that their failing business model looks a little better? Stomp on and mock our devoutly spiritual so that we seem more secular and sophisticated?
None of the above, as those are all domestic matters, of no international importance.
"Sign on to the terrible confluence of gaia-worship, luddism, and Marxism known as anthropogenic global warming?"
Its widely held science, acknowledged by the Bush admin. We should cooperate in getting a new treaty that balances our interests with theirs, yes.
"Tell everyone, Liberalhawk, what things specifically do YOU personally think we should change or give up that would induce the Euros to love us enough- pardon, "see our power as in their interests" enough - to be our allies in the WoT?"
I think McCain is on the right track.
"More importantly, what things about our social, economic, and political landscape are too important, in your opinion, to be compromised in this attempt?"
None, as I dont think this about domestic politics.
Why do you (or McCain for that matter) think that changing the Guantanamo detainees into Levenworth detainees would make any difference at all?
Are you saying that the Euros are so simplistic that the geography of the prison is relevant?
Isn't there real problem that there ARE detainees at all? And, in that case, I think you found your principle."
1. We have already changed our treatment of detainees, in particular as regards the legal standards for holding them. However Gitmo has become an image problem. Yes, many Euros ARE hung up on the name of the place now. Its become a code word. I presume McCain wants to clear that. And yes, that holding them in CONUS would make clear that we are not trying to go through subterfuge to keep the courts from having authority over them. Whatever limits we ARE going to place on the courts, we will do so by statute.
Certainly in prior wars we held EPWs in CONUS. IIUC the prior examples of illegal combatants that the admin has cited were held in CONUS as well.
#53
LH says "None, as I dont think this about domestic politics."
Sorry I think you are way wide of the mark here.
This "image" thing is very much about domestic politics at least as it involves trade and economics generally. One of the major hairs across EU ass is that we out perform them in spades. Kyoto has NOTHING to do with environment and everything to do with economics.
The problem is that the US saw through the illusion and realized that the whole treaty was a way to stomp on American economic might.
They have the same problem with Holywood and American culture in general. They can't compete so they loathe us and try and come up with ways to thwart us.
GM crops, same thing. Most all foreign policy from time immemorial has been about trade as have most wars in one way or another. The Euros can no longer compete on the playing field of global commerce so they look for other ways to drag us down to their level.
That is the elites and anyone that they can brainwash.
#54
"The US image is "sullied" because we took out one of the most odious, dangerous, blood-soaked regimes in modern history, and are sacrificing our people to help create a stable and potentially far more democratic and prosperous country? Ditto for the Afghanistan example? Because we recognize the naked emperor in the case of the Geneva Conventions, and even while too timid to formally call everyone's bluff by convening another session to address the clear inadequacy of the current language, apply most of the POW provisions to those who are arguably among the worst war criminals seen since rules of war evolved?"
See thats the thing. We DONT call another conference, we just decide to change the thing on our say so.
Look, I supported overthrowing Saddam, despite the lack of UNSC support. So did McCain BTW. Now if we had done Iraq, but taken a more conciliatory stand on Geneva that would be one thing. Or Iraq and Geneva, but been more conciliatory on Kyoto. Its the combination of things, that makes folks wonder if we dont just think of ourselves as too strong to need to listen to anyone else on anything, even as we use our strength to pressure others.
And the practical losses include everything from difficulties getting them to cooperate on isolating Hamas, to getting them to lean more our way on missile defense in eastern europe, to more flexible uses of force in Afghanistan.
Now I realize you can say that even if we did all we could REASONALY do it wouldnt matter on any of those. If you beleive that, that their decisions are NEVER impacted by the things we have done (thus far), well than from you POV your position makes sense. I dont think theres anything I could post that could prove you wrong - even examples of cooperation during previous admins wouldnt be proof, as each international situation is unique.
I guess Im not saying one cant disagree with McCain (and myself) on this. Its just that I dont think you can PROVE McCain wrong either, and much of the reaction I saw upthread is NOT based on a rational assertion that marginal changes in US policy wont lead to significant changes in Euro behavior, but were more gut Euro hatred ("theyre socialist atheists who want to pry my gun from my cold dead hands" sort of thing)
Id call it Euro Derangement Syndrome, or McCain Derangement Syndrome. Its the flip of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Where someone on the left cant simply say that Bush is wrong on a particular issues, but that hes crazy, or a moron, or a fascist. Similarly many on the right cant simply say someone they disagree with, like McCain, is wrong, but that hes a traitor, or crazy.
#56
If one lacks shared values and a shared understanding of how things are, one cannot be effective "allies". Europe will need to wake up and have a good look around before they'll ever be any use to us again.
Are you helping in any way? And I say it not for Eurpean's good but for your own good.
Let's have an example: a few weeks ago there was a roundtable about "Americ's society" in Paris. There was selection of politicians and experts and a number of people, not fomaing-at-the-mouth leftits but people genuinely interested assisted and... got the customary BS about how evil was America, how you had theree homeless per square mter and how yopu could get no medical treatment unlless you were as rich as Bill Gates.
If your whiole State Department were not a bunch of losers you would have had someone of your emabsssy assisting incognito to the meeting and at one point would have raised and told "Excuse me but why is you haven't a single American in your panel? Did you fear contradiction?" And then proceeded to thrash the show.
You are losing the battle for public oppinion because you don't fight
#58
LH, points taken on EDS, and perhaps MDS (though both are actually based on real problems, not imagined ones). But I don't think there's any "there, there" on the specifics in question. That is, I don't think it would have been either (1) substantively defensible (2) diplomatically productive to have been more conciliatory on Gitmo or anything else - and while of course I can't prove/disprove hypotheticals in this or any other case, I find it unserious to assert that Euro positions (and here we're lumping together a considerable variety of things, I admit) on missile defense, Hamas, or esp. involvement in Afghanistan would have been any different.
I think each of those specific areas you mention has their own sad history of Euro mistakes, dysfunction, craven irresponsibility, or simply disability.
In short, we need not and should not be conciliatory when we're correct, and the matter is vital. On other things, sure toss 'em a bone if it can be shown to be currency for their domestc political and will actually allow them to do something we like. I just don't think you've found any such examples, and I haven't noticed any myself.
Finally, as for EDS and MDS, the outrage is quite reasonable. Triangulating when the US is involved (unavoidably, and honorably) in a fight for the security of the wider western world, against the most ruthless and odious characters in recent history - sorry, that's simply outrageous. Paying gigantic ransoms in Iraq that are without any doubt channeled into killing and maiming our soldiers is beyond outrageous - and it's not just the Germans who are guilty on this score.
I'm quite willing to accept the most irresponsible Euro players (France, Germany, Belgium, perhaps Spain) back into the fold, if they start supporting international law, civilized values, and sensible strategy. Until then, their image is terribly sullied for me.
Not an iota of derangement here - robot-like, cold-blooded calculation and knowledge of how the world actually works, followed by great anger and resentment at the craven, irresponsible, arrogant, and dangerous behavior of countries and should and often do know better.
Rhetorical question: How the hell did the US, of all countries, get the "arrogant" tag, when the Euros and others are behaving as they do?
#59
JFM, what you said. As I myself, said in a post above. The most serious (not to mention mysterious) failure of this administration is their near-silence in the face of the ocean of lies, disinformation, and distortion that washes over the world on a daily basis (and that's just in the "free western press" - I'm not even considering the propaganda organs in many parts of the world).
Sadly, I have direct and extensive experience in the heart of this issue. It's just as bad as it seems from the outside.
#60
'"Tell everyone, Liberalhawk, what things specifically do YOU personally think we should change or give up that would induce the Euros to love us enough- pardon, "see our power as in their interests" enough - to be our allies in the WoT?"
I think McCain is on the right track.
"More importantly, what things about our social, economic, and political landscape are too important, in your opinion, to be compromised in this attempt?"
None, as I dont think this about domestic politics.'
What incredibly weak, sneaky, dishonest attempts at an answer.
Responses like these are those of a dissembling lawyer or politician who fears what his debate opponent would do to him should the real truth about his opinion be known to all.
Do you not know the meaning of the word "specific"?
You have not answered my questions sufficiently. Tell me which EXACT policy changes you would have us make that would induce the Euros to "share our interests". Not generalities, not "let's elect McCain", not "let's sit and chat", actual differences in existing policies.
I'm guessing that all of them require that conservatives must sacrifice issues about which they care, and all will either affect issues you and you ilk on the left care about not at all or will actually advance them.
What things must change, then, specifically?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 16:44 Comments ||
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#62
"The most serious (not to mention mysterious) failure of this administration is their near-silence in the face of the ocean of lies, disinformation, and distortion that washes over the world on a daily basis"
Very well put. Instead of the great communicator, we have a Mumbler in Cheif. No fault of his own, he is inarticulate except in brief moments. But he should have at least had someone effective regularly banging the drum to counter the propaganda.
#63
"The most serious (not to mention mysterious) failure of this administration is their near-silence in the face of the ocean of lies, disinformation, and distortion that washes over the world on a daily basis"
Very well put. Instead of the great communicator, we have a Mumbler in Cheif.
America's cmmunication problems began weeeeelll before Bush. I mentionned the embassy fiasco. That was under Clinton.
Reagan could have been a great communicator in the home front but he was complete failure on the foreign front: it was under his administration that you had massive pacifist demonstrations who nearly put West Germany in the neutral side. It was under his administration that the UE adopted an explicit anti-american agenda. Before taht you had that failure called Jimmy Carter. A burning memory: Khmer Rouge handing leaflets in a university, had they been Americans they would have been lynched.
Still farther, in France the Communist Party telling that Americans had spread Black Plague in Korea.
#64
"The problem is that the US saw through the illusion and realized that the whole treaty was a way to stomp on American economic might."
Truer words were never spoken, AlanC.
The following statements are the truth, ugly as it may be, about GW:
1. Kyoto was never about concern for the environment. Ever. It was a way for Europe to increase overhead for U.S. business so that their own failed business/society model might compete against them more favorably.
2. If anthropogenic GW were some day to be proven true, and the solution were more capitalism and less regulation, the bulk of the people who advocate it now would drop it like a hot potato.
3. Many of the same people who revile large "C" Creationists (rightly so, IMO) are engaged in an essentially identical pursuit of a theory (GW) which is equally not proven by facts. Sorry, science correctly done is not done by consensus.
4. Almost without exception the scientists who favor GW are either people not in the meteorological field/have no training there, people who are meteorologists getting funded to study GW (usually by public sector monies), or people whose desired end point for society is the highly regulatory socialist one that the GW advocates want, anyways.
5. There are THOUSANDS of competent ,credible scientists worldwide who are NOT oil company employees and are NOT funded by the energy industry who have debunked GW or are at least skeptical of anthropogenic causes.
6. To one extent or another, GW is just another attempt to rescue socialism. It is the natural result of the left's attempts since the 1960's to change the ethical standard from "wealth is good" to "wealth is bad" and from "equality of opportunity" to "equality of outcome", coupled with resurgent paganism.
As I said above, anthropogenic GW is the intersection where the subsets of luddism, Marxism, and gaia-worship meet.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/19/2007 17:27 Comments ||
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#65
"See thats the thing. We DONT call another conference, we just decide to change the thing on our say so."
That is not just a lie, it's a STUPID lie. Not that I'd ever accuse you of being deliberately deceptive; God knows you've all the guile of a week-old puppy. But it's a lie nonetheless, in that it's the sort of childish, self-deceptive hogwash you liberals tell yourselves to justify your damnfool opinions.
The reality is that we spent well over a year in intense consultations with nations all over the globe, trying to build support for removing Saddam's regime. Month after grueling month, we did backflips and handstands before every power in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, attempting to win their support.
But the official Party Line among you liberals is that this grinding, glacial, yearlong process amounted to a "rush to war", and here we see that echoed in your witless pronouncement that "we just decide to change the thing on our say so."
You fool. You poor, well-meaning fool.
"...and much of the reaction I saw upthread is NOT based on a rational assertion that marginal changes in US policy wont lead to significant changes in Euro behavior..."
That is PRECISELY what those objections are based on, and they derive from years of bitter experience dealing with recalcitrant "allies."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/19/2007 17:35 Comments ||
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#66
Thanks for saying it better than I did.
Bah! You're batting 1,000, no mo uro. Exactly how are we supposed to pander to the suicidal Europeans? By slashing our own wrists in empathy? If these antiquated morons cannot cease their endless triangulating against America, what incentive is there to cozy up to them? These greedy bastids are enabling Iran's nuclear aspirations and are champing at the bit to sell communist China all the most advanced military hardware that money can buy. Some allies!
Send over a flotilla of new "Liberty Ships" to fetch the Brits and Danes, then let the rest of Europe sink into its own meticulously excavated socialist morass.
#71
It's like the Euroweenies are playing on a giant chess board and we are the opponent. Unfortunately, their own people are the pawns and wheeling and dealing with muslims, red Chinese, Martians, or Vegetarians are moves to advance their pathetic empires toward an imagined utopia. Since they fall back with alarming regularity, the evil opponent is to blame. After all, they have tried everything, socialism, secularism, marxism, common markets, one currency, one language, open borders, subsidized manufacturing, central government, social medicine, extra vacation, shorter work weeks, early retirement, and still they slide downward, ever downward.
De Nile may be a river in Africa, but Europe is an island awash in denial. When they are finally ready to change, we will know by changes to their work ethics, not their political excuses.
Senator McCain, it's not about us, you idiot.
#73
"You are losing the battle for public opinion because you don't fight."
So it's our fault again, is it? Sounds like typical guilt-inducing pop psychology to me. This whole argument is an exercise in "black is really white". Iraq has been a torturous, drawn out war because much of Europe NEVER DID join the fight and made a public spectacle of their opposition to America throughout the war. Had Europe from the beginning done the right thing-stuck with an ally to take out an obvious tyrant-the outcome might have been much different. Very little consideration is given to the possibility that a Europe united behind the US's deposal of Saddam might have provided just the kind of international "credibility" that South American and Asian "allies" might have respected. Persuasion might have even grown to portions of the Arab world itself, with such numbers. All things connect.
You say it is our fault for not countering every attack. A thousand gnats can sting a giant who is able to swat only 50. My question for you, ally, is why were European allies not loyal friends who would stand up for a friend who has sacrificed much for them? I have never believed this notion that it is primarily the elites that have the anti-American views. I lived there and saw plenty of it from the regular folk. They themselves are carrying that anti-American banner, with huge numbers, proudly and savagely. The coliseum is alive and well in 21st century Europe.
#74
Grampa was an Admiral in the Navy. Daddy was an Admiral in the Navy. That history alone, would suggest that John McCain has, probably unwittingly, developed an unbelievably exagerated sense of entitlement. After all, there's pure, rarified air at the +07 level for alcon (especially at USN).
He's a maverick (not the missile) because it's impossible for him to be anything else. Even if he might have been cut a little slack as a POW, which is doubtful, McCain has trouble bonding. I think he's confused, but doesn't realize it. Still (IMHO), McCain could handle the job. (at)
Posted by: Asymmetrical T ||
03/19/2007 22:22 Comments ||
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The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Sunday he intends to subpoena White House officials involved in ousting federal prosecutors and is dismissing anything short of their testimony in public. The Bush White House was expected to announce early this week whether it will let political strategist Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and other officials testify or will seek to assert executive privilege in preventing their appearance.
Convenient way to tie up the GOP strategists at the beginning of the '08 primary season. Also an object lesson in not keeping all your political eggs in one basket.
The chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., last week delayed a vote on the subpoenas until Thursday as the president's counsel, Fred Fielding, sought to negotiate terms. But on Sunday, Leahy said he had not met Fielding nor was he particularly open to any compromises, such as a private briefing by the administration officials. "I want testimony under oath. I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this," Leahy said. "I do not believe in this, we'll have a private briefing for you where we'll tell you everything, and they don't."
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the committee, said he had a long talk with Fielding on Friday and was reserving judgment. Specter said he would like to see Rove and Miers' open testimony because there were numerous precedents for it. "I want to see exactly what the White House response is," Specter said. "Maybe the White House will come back and say, 'We'll permit them to be interviewed and we'll give them all the records.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
D *** pesky new math again - eight fired by Bush for non-productivity = 93 fired by Clinton for nuthin save not being appointed, FOR LIFE, by himself; + not counting the many underlings which Bill also fired, or had fired via Janet Reno.
#3
Can we please cut Leahy's tongue out and use it as a doorstop? This man is clinically insane. I hope someone with a little common sense sees this as destructive to BOTH parties, and puts a stop to it. I don't hold out any great hopes, however. Neither party seems to have anyone of great character.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2007 13:55 Comments ||
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#4
There's a Schumer possible connection in this also.
From The American Spectator "It's becoming increasingly apparent that the long knives that took out those U.S. Attorneys were coming from McNulty's office," says a Senate leadership staffer, who points to recent revelations that the DAG's chief of staff, Michael Elston, made what some in Washington interpreted to be threatening or intimidating phone calls to the outgoing USAs. Elston has denied that those types of calls were made.
"McNulty doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut and his head down," says a Republican staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The amount of harm he has done to his own reputation by impugning the reputations of others is remarkable."
McNulty has made no secret within his circle of political allies that he has larger ambitions than being Gonzales's deputy.
"If I had to guess, he views himself as the logical replacement for Gonzales should he be forced out," says an acquaintance who says he's familiar with McNulty's thinking. "You have Schumer calling for Gonzales to resign, and who's close to Schumer? Former DAG Jim Comey and [special prosecutor and U.S. Attorney] Pat Fitzgerald. Both of them are close to McNulty, and if you look at who got pushed out, they're USAs who weren't part of the Comey/Fitzgerald/McNulty crowd."
and I read the other day (can't find it now) that with the AG resignation, that would put McNulty in charge, as a good friend of Chucky Schumer.
Clarice Feldman Lost in the kerfuffle about the Gonzales firings of 8 US Attorneys is the fact that Chuck Schumer has a hidden agenda: acting not only as the Senator from New York but as well as the Attorney General of the U.S. He pushed for the appointment of a Special Counsel, wrote at least 2 letters to the Attorney General resquesting updates on the investigation and demanding action on the CIA referral letter respecting the public identification of Plame.
He obtained from Deputy AG Comey the promise to appoint a special counsel and looked the other way when one was appointed outside the statutory and constitutional framework for such appointments. Both Comey and Fitzgerald were well-known to him at the time having worked in the Southern District of New York .
If he succeeds in forcing Gonzales to resign, Gonzales' Deputy will undoubtedly take over. That deputy, McNulty, like Comey and Fitzgerald, also comes from the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is close to Schumer and his former colleagues.
Jay: Doctor, thank you very much for taking my call, maam.
Dr. Laura: My pleasure.
Jay: I am an ex-military soldier with a loss of limb, and Im having a difficult time reconciling between being revered as (quote) a war hero and reviled as an oppressor. Friends, family
Dr. Laura: Who reviles you as an oppressor?
Jay: Believe it or not, my family.
Dr. Laura: You mean your mother and father?
Jay: And my sister as well.
Dr. Laura: Who do they think you oppressed? I mean, how stupid is your family?
Jay: My family is .ah, theyre not with the current times. My sister is currently in India, in her second marriage. She married a Pakistani of all things.
Dr. Laura: Oh. And she doesnt understand the problems between Pakistan and India?
Jay: No.
Dr. Laura: But shes living there
Jay: Well, she chooses not to
Dr. Laura: Has she been on a train thats been blown up yet?
Jay: No, and I certainly hope shes not.
Dr. Laura: I mean, this is just stupid. I always want to tell these people, gee, why dont you go march in front of, lets do some history, I dont know .lets march in front of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, militant Islam right now, you go march in front of the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Brotherhood, Al Qaeda .you go march over there and talk about oppression! To tell an American soldier that he oppressed somebody is somewhere between stupid, ignorant and evil.
And you know what, Jay?
Jay: I did my job.
Dr. Laura: Jay .
Jay: I did my job.
Dr. Laura: You cant just say you did your job. They said that in Nuremburg. Thats not the truth. You stood between the innocent and evil. And more evil cropped up. So now we have a worse time dealing with evil. People who have killed their own just for the sake of some power in their town. These are oppressors. You dont see anybody in Minneapolis taking out a whole segment of Minneapolis, because theyre of the same religion, but they believe a little differently.
Go read it all. The Doctor rocks!
Posted by: Mike ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Anyone who fights Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army is a hero. Period.
#2
Dr. Ruth is no limousine liberal; she knows whereof she speaks. She's the sole member of her family to survive the Holocaust, only because her mother sent her alone on a Kindertransport to Switzerland at the age of 11. Afterward she went to Palestine, where she was trained as a sniper in the Haganah. In 1948 the Arabs tossed a bomb into the student dormitory where she slept, killing three of her friends, and nearly completely tearing off her legs. link Dr. Ruth is one of my heroes.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2007 7:45 Comments ||
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#4
Never mind. It's Dr. Laura, not Dr. Ruth. Clearly it's much too early for me to get near a keyboard. A good interview, and presumably heard by a wide audience. Mike -- thanks for posting it.
#9
yes i think her son is on hi way there now. saw a segement on fox news in the morning where steve mentioned towards the end of the segment and she almost lost it near the end of the segment.
KOLKATA, India - Security was being increased across eastern India on Sunday after Maoist rebels called for a strike to protest the killing of several peasants in a West Bengal village, police said. At least 14 people died in the village of Nandigram on Wednesday after police opened fire as they protested against a planned Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Since economic zones bring jobs, and jobs bring less dependence on Marxism ...
The call for a strike on Tuesday is likely to disrupt life in rural areas of three eastern states and the central state of Chhattisgarh. The authorities have also warned there could be violent protests. Hundreds of police are being mobilised and paramilitary troops readied for deployment in areas where the rebels are active. We are on high alert as the Maoists could try to disrupt law and order especially after recent events, A.K. Maliwal, a senior police official, told Reuters in Kolkata.
Maoist rebels distributed leaflets and sent notices to village council offices in Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal, urging everyone to join the strike, police said.
West Bengals ruling communist administration on Saturday shelved plans for the SEZ after facing a barrage of criticism. Maoist-backed organisations in India have threatened violent movements against New Delhis plans to build more SEZs.
Earlier on Sunday, suspected Maoist rebels blew up part of a boundary wall around a proposed Tata Motors car factory in Singur in West Bengal, a police official said. Maoists rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers.
To ensure that they stay poor, of course.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
See realted for NEPAL - SCOOP.NZ [paraphrased] > US Concerns over Nepal Maoist Problem + A Dangerous Game for Nepal's Maoists. *Usual GIST -Commies NOT taking "NO" or "Compromise", etc. for an answer - need to keep their arms while everybody else gives up theirs.
#2
See related for NEPAL - SCOOP.NZ [paraphrased] > US Concerns over Nepal Maoist Problem + A Dangerous Game for Nepal's Maoists. *Usual GIST -Commies NOT taking "NO" or "Compromise", etc. for an answer - need to keep their arms while everybody else must Must MUST M-U-S-T, D *** you, give up theirs, ELSE MEANS WAR [anyways].
Punjab University (PU) has remained under the indirect control of the Islamist youth group, Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), for several years. The universitys administration has finally decided to resist against this parallel administration and its control.
The IJT has, over the years, influenced over 25,000 students of the university. It has been involved in various activities that students welcome.
PU authorities have finally started resisting the IJT elements following some exposure of the situation by the media. They have expelled (struck off the universitys rolls permanently) and rusticated (suspended for one to two years) IJT activists. The activists have said that the charges against them are baseless. They have complained that the press is biased against them in its coverage of the situation. Organisation leaders have denied claims that they force their views on students. They also deny charges of harassment. Several recent incidents, however, have showed that the IJT has existed as a parallel administration in the PU.
When some American journalists visited Lahore to film a documentary on the IJTs political activism a few months ago, they met with the IJT national chief, Nasarullah Goraya, who used to be the head of the IJT PU chapter. He assured them that the IJT had no say in PU administrative affairs. However, when the journalists visited the PU New Campus, a PU guard stopped them. He did not allow them to enter until an IJT representative told him to let them in. The IJT then hosted tea for the Americans in the teachers room. Representatives of the group were unable to explain how they wielded such power in the varsitys affairs.
A few weeks ago, a Seraiki-language television channel was prevented from interviewing, PU students, until it obtained permission from the IJT. The channel was seeking teachers and students comments concerning its launch. An IJT representative prevented them from speaking to any student.
Most recently, the varsity expelled an IJT member and rusticated two other students for illegally detaining and beating up a student for taking part in the performing arts festival.
The IJT activists beat up the student when they saw him throwing coloured powder on another student. They attributed this act to the celebration of the Hindu cultural festival of Holi. They detained him, in their own words, to teach him a lesson.
The IJT has also opposed, for over a year, the launch of a music department and performing arts in the university.
Stakeholders believe that the PU authorities are on the right track. They say that the removal of the IJT will take a long time.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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MQM leader and founder, Altaf Hussain, warned the government to immediately stop the process of state suppression on lawyers and political party workers who were protesting the Presidential reference against CJ Iftikhar Mohammad Choudary. The MQM reserves the right to decide on its future line of actions if suppression is not curtailed, Hussain said Sunday.
He was making a telephonic address from London on the 23rd foundation day of the party. The address was heard simultaneously at the Lal Qila ground (Azizabad), in major cities of Sindh, as well as in Quetta and Lahore. Hussain declared that the MQM was part of the coalition of the government for the welfare and development of the country, but was not bound to support state terrorism. Altaf also condemned attack on GEO TV Islamabad and said he regretted the action and firmly believed in press freedom. He demanded that the president and the PM immediately release all the lawyers and political party activists who were arrested during recent protests. He urged people of to wait for the decision of Supreme Judicial Council in context of the Constitution. Hussain said that the time has come for government authorities and decision-makers to formulate policies in the larger interest of the country. He also demanded that the government announce provincial autonomy for the sake of the stability and integrity of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah. Terrorism should remain in the private sector.
A Pakistani official denied on Sunday that Pakistan was playing a direct role in arming and financing the Taliban.
M Akram Shaheedi, press minister at the Embassy of Pakistan, in a letter in New York Times took exception to an article run by the newspaper on March 11 that included the accusation. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are killings our citizens and soldiers and nearly assassinated Pakistans president and prime minister. So how can our intelligence agency play a direct role in arming and financing the Taliban? he wrote. Shaheedi also disagreed with the newspaper article which said that President Pervez Musharraf has regularly brokered agreements with Islamists in the provinces. The ruling Islamists in the North-West Frontier Province, the embassy official explained, were voted to power in the 2002 elections and the government respects the verdict of the people. He quoted State Department official Richard Boucher, who told a Senate committee recently that Pakistan is enormously cooperative. No country has captured more Al Qaeda or lost more men doing it than Pakistan. According to the Pakistani official, improvement of United States-Indian relations is not at all a threat to Pakistan. Pakistan considers it a positive development. Pakistan and India are pursuing dialogue sincerely and are committed to seek out the resolution of all outstanding issues, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I believe that most of the arms funding is coming from the Taleban's heroin industry allies. Saudi and UAE Islamofascists are providing the rest. But the arms are from Pakistan, and Taleban friendly border services are looking the other way when the arms flow. I would doubt that Musharaf is providing funding.
A claim by the alleged mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States that he personally beheaded American reporter Daniel Pearl will be used in an appeal of a British-born mans conviction in the slaying in Pakistan, a lawyer said. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who has claimed that he planned the Sept 11 attacks, said at a US military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that he beheaded Pearl for allegedly being an Israeli intelligence agent, according to a transcript released by the US government last week.
Rai Bashir, a lawyer for Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 in Pearls slaying, said he will use Mohammeds testimony as evidence that his client did not kill Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter. What we were saying for so many years in our trial, in the appeal, (is) that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is innocent and he has not committed that murder, Bashir said in an interview on Saturday with Associated Press Television News. He has not abducted Daniel Pearl, and he, along with his co-accused, is innocent, Bashir said in the interview in Lahore. But now we are happy that this version has been verified by the Pentagon after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD - The Iraqi navy plans to acquire 21 new vessels, including four new patrol ships from Italy costing 100 million dollars, US and British naval officers said Sunday. Its manpower will also swell from a current 1,200 personnel to between 2,000 and 2,500 by 2010, US navy Captain Michael Zamesnik told reporters.
The modernisation programme will also see the Iraqi navy buying three Malaysian-manufactured patrol boats, he added. The Iraqi navy has taken great strides in rebuilding itself from the ravaged effects of war, said Zamesnik, who is part of the transition team working with the fledgling force. He said the navy was being developed with the aim of ensuring the security and protection of Iraqi territorial waters, key infrastructure and to counter terrorism, smuggling and illegal activity at sea.
Captain T. Radakin of Britains Royal Navy said the Iraqi navy had already made significant progress in the past three years. There has been significant reduction in piracy activities, smuggling oil oil, he said.
Roughly half of the navys current personnel are former members of Saddam Husseins armed forces, the two officers said. In the officers cadre, about 75 to 80 percent are from the previous regime, Zamesnik added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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Security forces and rescue services to participate Tuesday in massive drill simulating conventional and unconventional terror attacks across country, in order to implement lessons learned from war in Lebanon. Siren to be sounded in south, center of Israel at 2 p.m. The Home Front Command decided not to sound the siren in the north and in Gaza vicinity communities in order not to cause panic.
The drill is aimed at examining the Home Front's preparedness for different emergency scenarios. Among the scenarios: A missile hitting a building in Netanya, causing the three-story house to collapse, and a missile landing at the Reading Power Station in Tel Aviv, causing a large number of casualties. The rescue services will be dispatched to other "missile landing" areas in Petah Tikva and in a Jaffa community center. In Be'er Sheva a drill will be held simulating a "mega-terror attack," simultaneous to a heavy barrage of rockets in southern Israel, causing many injuries.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday named Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan as his national security adviser, presidential aides said. The appointment puts Dahlan, a top official in Abbas Fatah party, in a sensitive position as Palestinian leaders try to reform their myriad and competing security services. As Gaza security chief in the 1990s, Dahlan led a crackdown on Hamas militants. The Islamic militant group, which is now in a unity government with Fatah, still has rocky relations with Dahlan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Mister Capone to the white telephone ... Al Capone to the white telephone, please. Paging Don Corleone on line two ... Don Corleone, line two ...
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out peace talks with the Palestinians, saying contacts will be limited to humanitarian issues until the new coalition government explicitly renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist. Speaking at the weekly meeting of his Cabinet, Olmert said he would boycott the new government and urged the international community to follow suit. The Cabinet overwhelmingly endorsed Olmert's position.
The rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah installed their new unity government on Saturday, hoping the alliance will end months of infighting and persuade the international community to lift a year of economic sanctions. Israeli officials fear the new government will cause the tough international stance against the Palestinians to crumble. Israel and the U.S. on Sunday ruled out a resumption of financial transfers to the Palestinians. But Norway announced it would lift sanctions, and Britain and the U.N. also signaled flexibility. While the coalition's platform is more moderate than that of the previous Hamas-led government, Olmert said it fell short of international demands to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept past peace deals. He also noted its affirmation of the right to "resistance."
"This is a government that does not accept the conditions of the international community and sees terror as a legitimate goal," Olmert told his Cabinet. Olmert said he would maintain contact with the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected separately and is not a member of the coalition government. But Olmert said the discussions would be limited to "quality of life" issues for Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Ahmad Salaheddin is an Arab who has crossed the ethnic divide in Darfur's bloody war to fight alongside ethnic African rebels. His fellow rebels jokingly call him a "janjaweed" - one of the Arab militiamen who are their fiercest enemy. His presence, along with several other Arabs in a unit of the main rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army, is a sign of the complexity of the ethnic bloodshed in the western Sudanese region.
KOLKATA, India - Security was being increased across eastern India on Sunday after Maoist rebels called for a strike to protest the killing of several peasants in a West Bengal village, police said. At least 14 people died in the village of Nandigram on Wednesday after police opened fire as they protested against a planned Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Punjab University (PU) has remained under the indirect control of the Islamist youth group, Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), for several years. The universitys administration has finally decided to resist against this parallel administration and its control. 
A claim by the alleged mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States that he personally beheaded American reporter Daniel Pearl will be used in an appeal of a British-born mans conviction in the slaying in Pakistan, a lawyer said. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who has claimed that he planned the Sept 11 attacks, said at a US military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that he beheaded Pearl for allegedly being an Israeli intelligence agent, according to a transcript released by the US government last week.
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi navy plans to acquire 21 new vessels, including four new patrol ships from Italy costing 100 million dollars, US and British naval officers said Sunday. Its manpower will also swell from a current 1,200 personnel to between 2,000 and 2,500 by 2010, US navy Captain Michael Zamesnik told reporters.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday named Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan as his national security adviser, presidential aides said. The appointment puts Dahlan, a top official in Abbas Fatah party, in a sensitive position as Palestinian leaders try to reform their myriad and competing security services. As Gaza security chief in the 1990s, Dahlan led a crackdown on Hamas militants. The Islamic militant group, which is now in a unity government with Fatah, still has rocky relations with Dahlan.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out peace talks with the Palestinians, saying contacts will be limited to humanitarian issues until the new coalition government explicitly renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist. Speaking at the weekly meeting of his Cabinet, Olmert said he would boycott the new government and urged the international community to follow suit. The Cabinet overwhelmingly endorsed Olmert's position.
