A suicide bomber disguised as an Afghan soldier blew himself up in front of a police headquarters and killed at least four policemen in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, witnesses and officials said. Several other people were wounded in the attack in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province. "The bomber blow himself up as police stopped him while he was entering the police headquarters," witness Rahimullah said. Provincial police chief Nabi Mullahkhail, the apparent target of the attack, was inside the compound at the time but was unhurt, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Sanaa, 28 March (AKI) - An unmanned plane has been shot down while carrying out surveillance in Yemeni airspace over the country's southern Hadramawt province, according to a report on the Arab newspaper, al-Hayat, quoting Yemen government officials. The drone was shot down on Tuesday but the news was only confirmed by officials on Wednesday. The report said that the drone was Iranian-built and that it patrolled the area along the coast of Yemen. It is believed that the plane is used in reconnaissance missions to take photographs.
Hummm, I wonder what the range is on these?
Yemeni forces identified the drone and shot it down only after it penetrated well into Yemen airspace.
Wonder if we gave them a hand?
The government in Sanaa was not willing to comment on the news, even though in the past few hours there has been intense contact with Tehran over the episode. Recently, the president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh also accused the authorities in Tehran of supporting Shiite rebels in the north of the country.
Kind of makes me wonder about that "UFO" that crashed in Somalia the other day
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 13:18 ||
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#1
It's not possible. Iran is well known for insisting on respect for a country's territorial rights. /sarc off
#3
It was launched from Iran's aircraft carrier. Submersible aircraft carrier. Stealth submersible aircraft carrier. I'm sure they demonstrated it during their military exercises recently - but it was so stealthy you must have not seen it.
#4
Actually, Iran is now beyond "stealth" and is working on a new technology called "stealth-stealth". Not only are they invisible to to RADAR, they are ... well ... just plain invisible. There might be one buzzing around above your monitor right now.
They have also developed stealth bombs. Reports in some circles are that they have already tested them in New York with millions of people walking around not realizing they are really dead.
#9
FUCK YOU PAPPY you fucking moron!!! Out of all the dolts that write on this site you have got to be the stupidest most ignorant muther fucker walking. A broken clock is right at least 2 times a day, but you idiot can't even collect that. What a fucken moron. Do you know how stupid you are. Is your IQ you shoe size...it sure seems that way.
The US navy is staging major war games in the Gulf involving two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and their strike groups in the most intense military buildup since the 2003 war on Iraq. "This marks the first time the (carriers) John C. Stennis and Dwight D. Eisenhower strike groups have operated together in a joint exercise while deployed to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet," Lieutenant Commander Charlie Brown, spokesman for the Bahrain-based US Naval Central Command, told Gulf News yesterday. The sea and air exercises will be conducted amid growing tension in the region following Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines, including one woman.
But Brown denied that the exercise was aimed at exerting pressure on Iran or any other country. "This exercise demonstrates the importance of the ability of both strike groups to plan and conduct dual task force operations as part of the US's long-standing commitment to assuring friends and allies and to maintaining maritime security and stability in this region," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps England and the US have decided that Iran can keep the sailors. They'll be needed there to bury what's left of the MMs pretty soon.
#2
How many nuclear capable subs do we have in region at the moment? Or do our subs have such long range missile capabilities that it doesn't matter if they're in the gulf?
#3
Ramp up the heat in the Gulf. Fred, love that pic of the carriers at Ulithi in 1945! Now we have the means, all we need is the authority to let our forces do what is needed to do.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2007 1:26 Comments ||
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..Rather fitting that the shot of the carriers was known as 'Murderers' Row'...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2007 6:05 Comments ||
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#5
Yeah, awesome pic. Must confess I had never heard of Ulithi. A little googling turns up an interesting story.
#8
Need some "jointness" in this exercise - like a flight or six of B-1s making supersonic flybys between the carriers and Iran - at extreme low level (50-100 feet).
At one time just prior to the attack on Iwo Jima, there were 26 US carriers (14 fleet, 12 jeep) in Ulithi Atoll. There were also 8 battleships, 30+ cruisers, and over 200 DDs, plus some 24 amphibious assault ships. Too bad we don't have a navy that large today.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2007 11:49 Comments ||
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Two militants belonging to Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were arrested at Sarishabari upazila in Jamalpur district yesterday. The arrestees were identified as Mominul Islam Milon, 25, son of Tofajjal Hossain, and Akbar Hossain, 22, son of Mohammad Suruzzaman -- both from Satpoa village of Sarishabari upazila in the district.
Acting on a tip off, a team of Sarishabari Police Station led by SI Mohammad Tamizuddin arrested the two Ehsar members of JMB after raiding their houses at Satpoa village at around 12:30pm, police sources said. Police also seized a few jihadi books from their possession. The arrested JMB cadres are being interrogated at Sarishabari Police Station.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday in a case he described as ``lamentable.'' U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job. That's only been codified as a principle of common law since about 1400, I think, though without a "the king is immune from suit" principle all government action is hamstrung. I believe that was part of the intent here....
The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions. There are two guys who were nabbed today who're car bomb artists, responsible for 900 deaths and a couple thousand maimings. Boy, I sure hope nobody pees on one of them. I'd really hate to see their rights violated like that.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First had argued that Rumsfeld and top military officials disregarded warnings about the abuse and authorized the use of illegal interrogation tactics that violated the constitutional and human rights of prisoners.
Hogan appeared conflicted during arguments last year. On one hand, he said he was hesitant to allow allegations of torture to go unheard. On the other hand, he said the case was unprecedented. ``This is a lamentable case,'' Hogan began his 58-page opinion Tuesday. I really feel for them. [Urp!]
No matter how appealing it might seem to use the courts to correct allegations of severe abuses of power, Hogan wrote, government officials are immune from such lawsuits. Additionally, foreigners held overseas are not normally afforded U.S. constitutional rights. ``Despite the horrifying torture allegations,'' Hogan said, he could find no case law supporting the lawsuit, which he previously had described as unprecedented. You can keep looking back all the way to Roman law, and then you can look in the law books of every country in the world. 'Tain't there.
Allowing the case to go forward, Hogan said in December, might subject government officials to all sorts of political lawsuits. Even Osama bin Laden could sue, Hogan said, claiming two American presidents threatened to have him murdered. ``There is no getting around the fact that authorizing monetary damages remedies against military officials engaged in an active war would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the Armed Forces' ability to act decisively and without hesitation,'' Hogan wrote Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Judge Hogan's a Reagan appointee. Notch up one for the Gipper.
#2
"There is no getting around the fact that authorizing monetary damages remedies against military officials engaged in an active war would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the Armed Forces' ability to act decisively and without hesitation."
To the plaintiffs and the ACLU, that isn't a bug, it's a feature.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/28/2007 5:57 Comments ||
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#3
The only pertinent question is: What would they do if they captured one of our boys?
#4
Those determined to be unlawful combattants under the Geneva Convintion have NO rights. The ACLU is attempting to create a US Constitutional right for such prisoners. The ACLU needs to be shut down - preferably by force. The ACLU is determined to destroy the United States from within, or to weaken us sufficiently forces from outside can do so. They are enemies of the United States and its people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2007 11:54 Comments ||
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The ACLU is determined to destroy the United States from within, or to weaken us sufficiently forces from outside can do so. They are enemies of the United States and its people.
#7
What I think is the most interesting is how the MSM has covered for the ACLU all of these years. It could not have been very difficult to find this (and other) information and it would certainly have been of interest to the majority of Americans. It is getting more and more difficult to believe that the major networks are not also actively working against American interests. How else can you explain all of the information that has been withheld from us for the last 20 years? All of these years we have been reading/watching Pravda and just didn't realize it.
#10
How else can you explain all of the information that has been withheld from us for the last 20 years? All of these years we have been reading/watching Pravda and just didn't realize it.
Longer than that for the NYT - they've always had a soft spot for communist and anti-American regimes. See their denial of the Soviet-engineered Ukrainian famine, their soft-pedaling of Holocaust rumors while the publisher was using connections to get his family out, their glowing praise of the Khmer Rouge when they took over Cambodia, and their entire Vietnam War coverage. That was all over 30 years ago.
I apologize but I don't have time to find links to all these allegations right now. I'll try to dig some up when I get home...
Militants have launched a wave of attacks on security forces in a town in north-west Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, officials say. At least one soldier died in what officials said was a seven-hour onslaught in Tank near the troubled tribal region of South Waziristan. Security posts and private property were attacked with rockets and mortars. Armed men also seized the headmaster of a school, where two people died when police and militants clashed on Monday.
Police say they are gathering information about the number of people dead or wounded in the seven-hour battle with light and heavy weapons in Tank. Witnesses say several banks were ransacked and set on fire while the streets were littered with bodies. Shops and markets were closed on Wednesday following the night of violence. The authorities shut schools on Tuesday fearing a backlash after Monday's violence.
Local militant leader Ehsan Barqi was killed in the clash. Police said he wanted to talk to students at the Oxford Public School about jihad (holy war).
The latest attacks came on the day a delegation of tribal elders was to meet tribal militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, to seek his support in bringing normalcy in the city. Officials say the militants who tried to enter the school on Monday were all members of the "local Taleban". The BBC's Haroon Rashid in Peshawar says the violence in Tank comes after a string of attacks on policemen by suspected pro-Taleban militants in the region.
Tank is in North-West Frontier Province, about 100km (75 miles) from the Afghan border. It is next to the restive South Waziristan tribal region, where there have recently been heavy clashes.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 08:01 ||
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The provincial capital was rocked on Tuesday morning by another explosion near an aid agencys office, hours after a Monday evening blast in the cantonment area, which injured a senior Awami National Party leader and three others, said police.
Peshawar police chief Abdul Majeed Marwat said Tuesdays blast in the Pishtakhara area, near an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facility, caused no casualties, and the explosion aimed to scare people. The police official said a dynamite was detonated in an open field near the ICRCs office, which was bombed on February 10.
AFP reported that an explosive device had been hidden in a milkmans can and planted near the ICRC facility in Peshawar. Police have launched an investigation, but no arrests have been made yet over Tuesdays blast. The ICRC said the explosion took place close to its car workshop at around 4:20am. There were no injuries or loss of life, nor was there any material damage, it said. The ICRC does not yet have any information on the cause of the explosion or any possible motive. The ICRC is continuing to carry out its humanitarian work in the country.
Majeed Marwat rejected rumours of another blast on Tuesday morning. A powerful explosion in the cantonment area on Monday injured former senator Aqil Shah, the provincial information secretary of the ANP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Intelligence agencies have informed the Interior Ministry that Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Taliban in Waziristan, fled to Afghanistan on Friday. Sources told Daily Times on Tuesday that the intelligence reports mentioned that Mehsud had several meetings with Indian spies and former Afghan premier Gulbadin Hekmatyar in Afghanistan this week. The reports said that Hekmatyar had met Mehsud at an undisclosed location, while Indian intelligence officials met him at Mazar-e-Sharif.
The sources said that the intelligence agencies could not get the details of the meetings and Mehsuds close aides in Waziristan were unaware of his whereabouts. Mehsud and his group are accused of involvement in several suicide attacks in Pakistan. They are also accused of giving refuge to foreign militants and using them against security officials in the restive South and North Waziristan agencies. But in a jirga some time ago, Mehsud denied that he was involved in five explosions during Muharram, and in an attack at the Islamabad Airport when a suicide bomber blew himself up after being stopped by the police from entering the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
fled to Afghanistan on Friday
I s'pose technically it's too early to say, "He's dead, Jim."
If the tactic is filthy, if it's dishonorable, if it's against the laws of God, man, war and preferably common sense, it becomes their Legitimate Right.
Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Falluja in western Iraq on Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks using the poisonous gas, the U.S. military said. It said 15 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered chlorine poisoning. "Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are being treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation," a U.S. statement said. It said no Iraqi or U.S. forces were killed in what it called a "complex attack" using mortars and small arms as well as the truck bombs.
Chlorine gas was widely used in World War One but its use in insurgent attacks in Iraq has particular resonance there. Saddam Hussein attacked Kurdish areas with chemical weapons in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. Earlier Iraqi police said two car bombs exploded near an Iraqi checkpoint outside a U.S. military base in Falluja, killing eight Iraqi soldiers. U.S. spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer said the U.S. statement referred to the same incident but he could not confirm the deaths of the Iraqi policemen. "Iraqi police identified the first suicide attacker and fired on the truck, causing it to detonate before reaching the compound," the U.S. statement said. "Iraqi Army soldiers spotted the second suicide truck approaching the gate and engaged it with small arms fire, causing it to also detonate near the entrance of the compound."
U.S. commanders and the Iraqi government have blamed al Qaeda militants for several recent attacks using chlorine gas in Anbar, a restive mainly Sunni Arab province in western Iraq.
"The extent of the injuries from the inhalation is varied. It was very light to more severe. As far as we know none life-threatening at this point," Mercer said.
On March 17, insurgents deployed three chlorine car bombs on one day near Falluja and Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. Chlorine, which is turned from solid or liquid form to a gas by the blast, causes severe burns when inhaled and can cause death. The U.S. military said it discovered an al Qaeda car bomb factory last month near Falluja with chlorine tanks.
#9
Perhaps a bit more security around chlorine treatment facilities would be nice. Perhaps even something as simple as a GPS receiver that disables the truck if it strays from a set route without approval. Also, they could be getting it from other sources in the area . . . .
Baghdad, 28 March (AKI) - The 'Islamic State of Iraq' a name used by a group affiliated to al-Qaeda in Iraq has said it blew up two trucks - one in a crowded market - in the town of Talafar which killed some 60 people and injured scores more. In a statement posted on the Internet the group said it has carried out Tuesday's attack as part "of a noble plan called 'expeditions to avenge the honour' proclaimed by our emir Abu Omar al-Baghdadi."
The blasts marked one of the largest attacks in Talafar since US President Geroge W Bush used the town, which lies north of Baghdad near the Syrian border, to illustrate progress in Iraq.
According to witnesses one of the trucks stopped at the town's food market and the driver waited for hungry people - the town has experienced food shortages - to gather round the vehicle before detonating an explosive device. A second vehicle also carrying explosives blew up shortly afterwards. Ten people were killed when a man blew himself up outside a pastry shop in Talafar's market on Saturday.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 08:26 ||
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#1
life is cheap to the Muslims. Blowing up women and children is as meaningful as swatting a fly.
Two elderly sisters, both Chaldean Catholic nuns, were stabbed to death in their home in Kirkuk, city police reported Tuesday, saying the motive for the attack was not known.
Kirkuk police 1st. Lt. Marewan Salih said Fawzeiyah Naoum, 85, and her 79-year-old sister Margaret, were stabbed multiple time by two intruders who raided their home Monday night near the Cathedral of the Virgin in Kirkuk. They lived alone and there was no sign of a robbery, Salih said.
Chaldean Catholics are an ancient Eastern rite now united with Roman Catholicism. Adherents live mainly in Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq and most speak a dialect of Turkish.
#6
Hey these bitches deserved this!!!! What the hell were they thinking to begin with...
dumb bitches...besides this adds to the virgin population...where ever muslims go when they die.
Salt graphic needed?
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press Imaginary News Correspondent Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) - Shiite militants and police enraged by massive truck bombings in the northwestern town of Tal Afar went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents there Wednesday, killing as many as 60 people, officials said.
The gunmen began roaming Sunni neighborhoods in the city, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician.
Ali al-Talafari, a Sunni member of the local Turkomen Front Party, said the Iraqi army had arrested 18 policemen accused of being involved after they were identified by the Sunni families targeted. But he said the attackers included Shiite militiamen.
He said more than 60 Sunnis had been killed, but a senior hospital official in Tal Afar put the death toll at 45, with four wounded.
The hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the victims were men between the ages of 15 and 60, and they were killed with a shot to the back of the head.
Police said earlier dozens of Sunnis were killed or wounded, but they had no precise figures, and communications problems made it difficult to reach them for an update. The shooting continued for more than two hours, the officials said.
Army troops later moved into the Sunni areas to stop the violence and a curfew was slapped on the entire town, according to Wathiq al- Hamdani, the provincial police chief and his head of operations, Brig. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.
"The situation is under control now," said al-Hamdani. "The local Tal Afar police have been confined to their bases and policemen from Mosul are moving there to replace them."
Tal Afar, located 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, is in the province of Ninevah, of which Mosul is the capital. It is a mainly Turkomen city with some 60 percent of its residents adhering to Shiite Islam and the rest mostly Sunnis.
The violence came a day after two truck bombs shattered markets in the city, killing at least 63 people and wounding dozens in the second assault in four days. After Tuesday's bombings, suspected Sunni insurgents tried to ambush ambulances carrying the injured out of the northwestern city but were driven off by police gunfire, Iraqi authorities said.
The carnage was the worst bloodshed in a surge of violence across Iraq as militants on both sides of the sectarian divide apparently have fled to other parts of the country to avoid a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, raising tensions outside the capital.
The city was an insurgent stronghold until an offensive by U.S. and Iraqi troops in September 2005, when rebel fighters fled into the countryside without a battle. Last March, President Bush cited the operation as an example that gave him "confidence in our strategy."
But even though U.S. and Iraqi forces put up sand barriers around Tal Afar to limit access, the city has suffered frequent insurgent attacks.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqis detained in the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad are being held in two detention centers designed to hold at most a few dozen people, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing an Iraqi monitoring group.
The report said 705 people were packed into an area built for 75 at one of the detention centers, in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. The other center, on Muthana Air Base, held 272 people, including two women and four boys, in a space designed to hold about 50.
Officials from the monitoring group said they did not know the sectarian composition of the detainee populations.
Also Wednesday, explosions struck the government center in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, but there was no immediate word on casualties, officials said. Maj. Jeff Pool, a Marine spokesman in the area, said initial reports indicated that two suicide car bombers had attacked the building but detonated their explosives at the gates.
#2
The carnage was the worst bloodshed in a surge of violence across Iraq as militants on both sides of the sectarian divide apparently have fled to other parts of the country to avoid a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, raising tensions outside the capital.
So even though the "Surge" is having the desired effect, it is still failing, is that what I read?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/28/2007 10:16 Comments ||
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Don't know if it means the surge is failing. The sectarian violence is like a fever, it will have to run its course. It won't be cut short. Pent-up demand for payback will have to be depleted...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/28/2007 11:42 Comments ||
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#4
I'm finding it difficult to feel sympathetic. The bloody Sunni "insurgents" tried to ambush the ambulances taking the Shiite truck bomb victims to hospital.
I lost all sympathy for muslims a long time ago. That's just me.
More info - stories on your father's exploits as a translator for the Brits while in Persia would be appreciated.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
03/28/2007 11:59 Comments ||
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Can't say anything about the actual sources in Tal Afar or their info, but Sinan's a real AP correspondent in Baghdad, that much I can offer. And not a bad guy. He was one whose coverage of certain stories was edited by superiors in a way that left him frustrated. I saw it first-hand.
I thought Tal Afar had slightly different fault lines than most of Iraq - more of a mix of Turkomen, Arab, and even Kurd communities. Either I'm wrong or this story wrongly crams the situation there into the familiar template.
Interesting thing about the detention issue. A "serious" war as I and many others would have long preferred to wage certainly would entail a much, much more serious detention operation. But I think that was/is not an insuperable challenge if the decision is made to do it. There needs to be a massive detention of military-age males, in different categories and different locations, for purposes of sorting out and extracting info. And of course the weird quasi-judicial aspects need to be streamlined.
There's no getting around the fact (esp. in Iraq, where the "insurgents" are usually very well defined by location and affiliation, are extremely weak and isolated in an economic sense, and are very vulnerable to threats, bribes, and manipulation) that no "insurgency" can last a week without the male population, ages 18 - 40, available to "fight" it. And yes, Virginia, I don't give a crap if the local economy collapses due to half the work-force sitting behind wire. That's what WFP food rations are for (and we've got extra in Iraq).
Massive effort? Yes. More effective, more likely to achieve our objectives within the resource, time, and political constraints on us - yes. Elegant, full of finesse, likely to appeal to the war-college-and-executive-seminar part of the brain? No.
#7
I lost all sympathy for muslims a long time ago. That's just me.
It's not just you.
Verlaine, your internment policy makes waaaay too much sense. Why, the fighting would dribble off to foreign sourced terrorists in only a few weeks. Much of the "insurgency" depends upon a steady supply of (however briefly) warm bodies. Corralling that one resource would choke off much of the resistance. Like I said, waaaay too much sense.
#8
Verlaine, Zenster, have you guys been using drugs? I mean, do you really believe that Iraq can made into a useful --- or, at least, harmless --- member of international community?
Cost and hassle a fraction of what has been done in previous history in pursuit of similar goals - a fraction.
Engaging the world (with action, not talk, as the term is usually understood) is the best course for a global, status quo power that is paradoxically at the same time the greatest engine of change. Plunging into mesopotamia has put us in the middle of the action. It has costs and can cause little children to have nightmares (at least in NPR households), but it's the smart adult way to pursue our interests.
#11
"I mean, do you really believe that Iraq can made into a useful --- or, at least, harmless --- member of international community?"
I don't think it's a matter of "believing" that it can be, in the sense of taking the notion on faith; at least it better not be, because IMO that would be quite naive and fanciful.
But I've supported our Iraq effort from the beginning and still support it, because the notion-- i.e., that Islamic/Arabic society can somehow be brought to a non-toxic (or, at least, a far less toxic) state by the removal of oppressive dictatorships and the introduction of democratic self-governance-- simply has to be given a try as a testable hypothesis.
And for good reason: it became glaringly obvious shortly after 9 AM on 9/11, as the second plane slammed into the South Tower of the WTC, that the monstrous ideology which propelled that atrocity would stop at nothing in it's quest to destroy Western civilization. No atrocity, even the slaughter of hundreds of millions, would be beyond these monsters.
As the towers collapsed, it sunk into me: This means war. And on the heels of that thought, another came: This will be a war of extermination. No matter how hard we try to make it not so, the Islamic world's intense tribalistic solidarity-- their sense of oneness with the Ummah-- will mean that it's now Us versus Them. A fight to the finish, a war of annihilation. A decade from now, three-quarters of a billion people will lie dead from this conflict. And there's not a fucking thing we're going to be able to do about it.
I shook off that thought, just said "No!!" to it. Too much. Too horrible.
And over the next couple of days I began to formulate things in a somewhat different way; the idea took shape, that we've got to find out if it is somehow possible to fix whatever the hell is wrong with the Arab/Islamic world, because if we can't, the consequences will be almost too horrible to contemplate; it will mean they will eventually succeed in doing something so heinous, so monstrous, so vile that we will feel compelled to annihilate them altogether.
And that is how I've thought of our effort in Iraq, from the beginning: as a test of the hypothesis that Arab/Islamic society can be turned away from a calamitous collision with the West.
I can envision my grandchildren challenging me with two possible questions.
Question One goes like this: "Grandpa, why did your generation nuke the entire Islamic world right after 9/11? WHY????????? Couldn't you have at least TRIED to see if it was possible to reform them and turn them away from confrontation with Western civilization, before flying off the handle and murdering 1,200 million people??? YOU HEARTLESS, SOULLESS BASTARDS!!!!!!!!"
And Question Two goes: "Grandpa, what was that idiotic nonsense your generation tried to pull off after 9/11??? 'Middle East Democracy'??? Give me a fucking break!! I mean, how naive could you get, anyway??? Wasn't it OBVIOUS, right from the start, that you'd ultimately have to exterminate those Muslim bastards, every last one of them??? YOU NAIVE FOOLS!!!!"
I don't know about you, but I'd **MUCH** rather end up being asked the second question.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2007 18:48 Comments ||
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#12
carlislian, I surely didn't mean any disrespect to the War College (or any similar institution) - I was just stealing a good old line (from PJ O'Rourke or Mark Steyn, I can't remember) to make my point that a much tougher and much less "sophisticated" approach in Iraq would probably have yielded good returns (still could, though US political conditions and the return of sovereignty make it much harder).
Dave D., well put. My perspective's a bit different. I have no doubt that the Iraqi regime was taken out because of a reasonable judgement that it represented an intolerable potential (potential) force multiplier or armorer for the global jihadis. You couldn't "contain" the sort of activity that we feared most. Past history and prudence indicated that the risks of trying to "deter" such activity were too high.
In short, the urgency of regime change in Iraq was tied entirely to the WMD issue - properly so. Not one bit of post-war (ISG) "investigation" was needed, not one element of pre-war estimates needed to be vindicated, to support the basic calculation. With proven (that is proven, already observed, not in any doubt) virtually unlimited financial resources, capacity for suicidally reckless behavior, and unvarying malevolence towards the US and its interests and true allies, Iraq's WMD potential was simply intolerable post-9/11. This rationale was never dependent on what was found after the war, or interrogations of regime officials. It was pre-emption, pure and simple, and while one could differ with the judgement that it was the best course of action, it the only one sure to solve the problem, and to this day no one has offered a serious alternative.
Having pre-empted the potential threat, it was consistent with our history, values, and the strategic assessment you lay about above to attempt some transformation of Iraq. I've always called it the exploitation phase.
In an academic sense, I think it's fair to say Dubya might have been able to paraphrase Lincoln's famous statement about preserving the Union without freeing a single slave if he could. That is, if Bush could have dealt decisively with the Iraqi WMD problem without freeing a single Iraqi, if for some reason that were his only choice, he'd have done it. The point being not that he/we wouldn't have wanted to free the Iraqis, or that we see no strategic value in doing so, but to distinguish between the urgent and primary rationale and all the other things that make sense to do once you've achieved your primary objectives.
In any case my personal take on history and what I've seen with my own eyes around the world is that these things are messy and slow and frustrating and might even never completely get to where you want them, but that doesn't mean they aren't neccessary and in your vital interest to do. We didn't nuke Japanese cities to give women the vote or break up quasi-feudal industrial cliques, but both positive developments were direct outgrowths of our nuking said cities. And nuking them still would have been the right thing (morally AND strategically) if post-war Japan had turned out far worse than it did.
#13
Good points all, Verlaine. I wasn't suggesting that I thought the freedom/democracy thing was our "only" reason for deposing Saddam, or even the "main" reason; God knows, there was always an abundance of darned good reasons to do what we did.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2007 19:36 Comments ||
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#14
I'm less pessimistic than many here - I also don't think that CW II is near. I do think it will take a better message to the public, a further lessening of the power of the ABC's networks (they're already on a decline) and a lessening of the NYT et al (they're doing a FINE job themselves at that), and another attack on the soil of the US. I propose Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Portland or Vermont as suitable welcoming grounds for the delivery of a WMD by their Islamic Overlords. They deserve to have their strong efforts rewarded
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/28/2007 19:44 Comments ||
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#15
Wow. Good thoughts, guys -- I'm going to come back to this thread later to ponder. Mark Z., I wish I could tell stories, but Daddy keeps OpSec to this day. What little I know I heard from Mama: The British wouldn't allow the Jews of Palestine into the Army for much of the war, lest they learn how to use weapons, and strategy and tactics. But, they were doing things with the Soviets on the (then) Persian border, and desperately needed Russian translators. So the word went out through the community, and Daddy volunteered (he must have been in his early-mid twenties at the time). Basically, he translated for the Brits and -- well, spied isn't really it -- tried to learn/observe things useful to a community that would soon seek independent nationhood. That's all I know.
#16
do you really believe that Iraq can made into a useful --- or, at least, harmless --- member of international community?
"[U]seful"? As an oil producing nation, perhaps. Useful to the overall global community as a productive contributor to this world's progress? Not really. "[H]armless"? No, not with Islam's historical track record. With years of 20:20 hindsight available for retrospection? After deposing Saddam we should have spun on our heel and marched straight out of tarbaby Iraq.
Without that hindsight, importing democracy into the Middle East was one of the only functional alternatives available at that time. Merely averting our gaze or pretending that the problem of Islamic global jihad was going to go away on its own simply was not an option.
I don't think that either Verlaine or myself were trying to posit Iraq as being able to be salvaged or fully rehabilitated. If anything, much like our cooperation with all of the UN's useless rigamarole, America was obliged to undergo compliance with the accepted global forms and normatives in order to maintain our sense of moral authority.
Sidebar: However tattered America's moral authority might seem to be, allow me to state without equivocation that it most certainly is not. So long as the vast majority of this globe's population want nothing more than to immigrate to the United States, that alone will serve as ample proof of our moral authority. Beyond that simple proof lies a nearly miraculous legal Constitution plus an economic and technological engine the likes of which this world's history has never seen. Six, count them, six landings on the moon with all personnel returned safely back to earth. This nation's achievements speak for themselves. They intrinsically refute every iota of leftist self-loathing and anti-Americanism the liberals, or our foreign enemies, can summon.
America has done more than enough to certify its moral authority. The glaring fact that, when danger strikes, so many of our harshest European critics still scurry to shelter beneath our military umbrella is more than a little telling.
We have done our homework. All the blanks have been filled in concerning Islam's complete and total incompatibility with all other cultures. Due to a degree of unanticipated spinelessness upon the part of Western leadership in general, all that awaits is Islam's ultimate transgression. To date, there is absolutely nothing to indicate that such an atrocity is not forthcoming. It's arrival is a compound equation of Western inaction and Islamic stalling for the precise opportunity to challenge all forbearance and patience that possibly could be shown.
As David D. has so aptly put it:
And Question Two goes: "Grandpa, what was that idiotic nonsense your generation tried to pull off after 9/11??? 'Middle East Democracy'??? Give me a fucking break!! I mean, how naive could you get, anyway??? Wasn't it OBVIOUS, right from the start, that you'd ultimately have to exterminate those Muslim bastards, every last one of them??? YOU NAIVE FOOLS!!!!"
I don't know about you, but I'd **MUCH** rather end up being asked the second question.
Much sooner than later, the second question will be asked. Islam would have it no other way.
BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. soldiers foiled two suicide truck bombings against their base in a small town west of Baghdad and killed as many as 15 attackers, the U.S. military reported Tuesday.
The attacks began when a water truck tried to drive into the base just north of Karmah, a town not far from the city of Fallujah, at about 2 p.m. Monday. A soldier opened fire and the truck bomb exploded. "Sheesh! What kinda' bullets you got in that M-16, Mac?"
The military said 30 insurgents responded with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. Five minutes into the firefight, a dump truck following the same path as the exploded water truck tried to smash into the base but the driver was shot and the load of explosives blew up. Count ears, divide by two.
The military estimated it killed 15 insurgents in the fight and said eight soldiers were wounded. Seven of the wounded returned to duty after treatment by medics at the site. One soldier was hospitalized.
By the time this gets to Rosie "Beast" O'Donnell it will have become a couple of ice cream wagons loaded with fluffy bunnies and baby ducks------- but only if Tehran says so.
Dunno, what with the prevalence of cousin-marriages.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2007 5:18 Comments ||
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#3
US Military couldn't hold a shit hole town like Baghdad and AP expects me to believe that the US Military actually foiled an attack. Bullshit I don't believe it...
Bomb attacks killed 75 people in Iraq yesterday, including 48 who died in twin truck bombings in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, police said. Among other attacks, suspected Al Qaida militants killed 21 people in bombings targeting police and Sunnis who have formed an alliance against the militants, officials said. The attacks follow an upsurge in violence in recent days. US and Iraqi security forces have deployed thousands more soldiers in Baghdad to try to stem a sectarian war that threatens to tear the country apart.
One of the blasts in Tal Afar, a mixed town of Shiites, Sunnis and Turkmen near the Syrian border, was detonated by a suicide bomber in front of a Shiite mosque, police and witnesses said. Police Brigadier Karim Khalaf Al Jubouri said the bomber lured victims to buy wheat loaded on his truck. A second truck bomb exploded in a used car lot.
On Saturday, a man wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in Tal Afar, killing 10 people. In 2006, US President George W. Bush held up Tal Afar as an example of progress being made in Iraq after US-led forces freed it from Al Qaida militants in an offensive the previous year.
Near Ramadi, in western Anbar province, a suicide bomber exploded his car outside a restaurant on a main road, killing 17 people and wounding 32, a hospital source said. The restaurant was frequented by police in an area where local tribes have joined the tribal alliance against Al Qaida. Many police were among the casualties, the hospital source said.
Earlier four people were killed in two blasts in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. One of the dead was the son of tribal leader Shaikh Thahir Al Dari, said Ahmad Al Dulaimi, head of the provincial council media office in Anbar province. Dulaimi said it was a double suicide car bombing, but a relative of the shaikh, a member of the anti-Al Qaida alliance, said the son was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the car he was in. Another person was wounded in the car. Relatives blamed Al Qaida for the attack.
Dari's dead son, Harith Al Dari, is the nephew of his namesake who leads the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, an influential body of hardline clerics. The cleric has spoken out against the anti-Al Qaida alliance that includes his own tribe. Thahir Al Dari is the head of the Al Zobaie tribe, to which Deputy Prime Minister Salam Al Zobaie belongs. The deputy prime minister was the target of an assassination bid last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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US forces captured two leaders of a major car bomb cell responsible for attacks that killed around 900 Iraqis, mostly in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, the US military said on Tuesday. It said in two separate statements that the two men - Haytham Kazim Abdallah Al Shimari and Haydar Rashid Nasir Al Shammari Al Jafar - were caught during separate operations in Adhamiya, a mainly Sunni Arab area in northern Baghdad, on March 21. "It is estimated that since November, the car bombs from this cell have killed approximately 900 innocent Iraqi citizens," one of the statements said. It said another 1,950 had been wounded. Just think about the magnitude of that statement. Two men, responsible for almost a thousand dead, almost 2000 maimed.
The first of the two suspects was captured when US forces noticed his vehicle weaving in and out of traffic and his driver ignored signals to stop.
The second was detained around seven hours later after the giggle juice kicked in and US forces received "actionable intelligence" that led them to stop a passing vehicle, the statement said.
US and Iraqi forces are engaged in a major security crackdown in Baghdad aimed at stopping sectarian violence that has been killing hundreds of people a week in recent months.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
There is no known punishment that would even come close to getting justice on these cowards. Beyond the fact that they are mass murderers beyond the scale of any Dahmer or John Wayne Gacey, etc. them and their ilk threaten to destroy an entire nation. Argh. This is so frustrating. At least they will never set off another bomb that kills and maims women and children.
#2
These sort of individuals is what torture was invented for.
Call me a brute, I give not a flying rusty fuck.
Cordially extract evey single bit of information possible with promises of leniency, then begin coercing them with increasing levels of pain. Allow them to recuperate physically so that they are better able to endure successive rounds of even more intense and grueling interrogation.
Make these vile pieces of human excrement wish they'd never been born. Make them sing until they're hitting the high Cs with effortless ease.
More than anything, make sure that all 3,000 dead and maimed Iraqis plus the other 1,000 or more collateral victims of revenge cycles are given their due.
Between these two turds, this conflict was extended by a solid year or more. In the past, now or in the future, it matters not. The actions of these shits has resulted in escalation, exacerbation and extension of a conflict that almost might have ended but for their ghoulish intervention.
#4
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: I won't tell you who the traitor is, or when we'll attack. However, the Duke will die before these eyes and he'll know, he'll know, that it is I, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who encompasses his doom!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/28/2007 6:01 Comments ||
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#5
I bet the locals in Baghdad have an interest in their fates....how about chaining them to a post in some public square and handing out free whips...
#6
As I said yesterday, 40-grit sandpaper in a hand sander, applied to the sensitive areas of the body until they no longer exist. They'll talk. You won't be able to shut 'em up.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2007 12:23 Comments ||
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#7
anyone know who these two are linked to? AQ, Sunni, Shia?
#10
As I said yesterday, 40-grit sandpaper in a hand sander, applied to the sensitive areas of the body until they no longer exist. They'll talk. You won't be able to shut 'em up.
If that's what it takes, Old Patriot, I've got only two words, 20-grit.
Soldiers and police raided a village in Rangae district of Narathiwat early Wednesday and detained 13 Muslims for questioning. Mamuwoh village is believed to be a centre where insurgents make bombs and use them against villagers and authorities.
The 13 people, including five men and eight women, were detained under martial law at an army camp for interrogation. Police found M16 guns, three bombs, amulets, mobile phones and wristwatches which insurgents could use to trigger bombs. They also found materials used in making bombs.
COLOMBO, March 28 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops have driven Tamil Tiger rebels from a key stronghold in the island's restive east, the military said on Wednesday, as the government probed how a rebel plane managed to bomb a base in the capital. Troops seeking to evict Tiger fighters from the eastern district of Batticaloa found late on Tuesday a complex of bungalows they say was a hurriedly abandoned rebel headquarters whose occupants fled to nearby jungle.
"We have captured a Tiger headquarters in Kokkadichcholai, south of Batticaloa," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. "It was real luxury living. They had bungalows, conference halls." "They have withdrawn," he added. "When we went in, no one was there." The Tigers, who have lost an estimated 600 square km (230 square miles) of terrain to military offensives in the east in recent months, were not immediately available for comment.
The rout comes after a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber tried to blow up an army camp in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing nine people. The previous day, the rebels carried out their first air strike since fighting erupted in 1983. The government has yet to explain how the Tigers managed to fly a light aircraft over the capital undetected, drop bombs and fly back to their northern stronghold without being shot down. But it says the Tiger air wing also represents a threat to South Asian neighbours like India. Land and naval battles between the foes are now commonplace, and both sides repeatedly ignore calls from the international community to halt fighting that has killed around 68,000 people since 1983 -- around 4,000 in the past 15 months alone.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appealed yet again to both sides overnight. "The Secretary-General is disturbed by the extensive and escalating violations of the ceasefire in Sri Lanka, which now includes an air attack this week by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," a UN statement said on Tuesday. "The Secretary-General appeals to the parties to the conflict to break this vicious cycle of attack and retaliation, which only leads to more bloodshed and victims," it added. "He urges them to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible, without preconditions."
President Mahinda Rajapakse's government says it is ready and willing to resume peace talks at any time, but is also pushing on with a declared drive to wipe out the rebels militarily. The Tigers, who want to carve out an independent state in the island's north and east, have threatened a bloodbath and say more air strikes by its nascent air wing will follow. Analysts expect the war to escalate.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2007 07:58 ||
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A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber tried to blow up an army camp in Sri Lanka yesterday, killing nine people a day after rebels carried out their first air strike since fighting erupted in 1983.
The military said troops shot the suicide bomber as he tried to drive an explosives-laden tractor into the camp in Batticaloa, setting off an explosion which killed him, three soldiers and five civilians, and wounded 13 others. The military responded to the attacks with a second consecutive day of air strikes across Tiger-held territory, saying it had destroyed artillery and mortar positions. "We suspect there were more than 200kg of explosives [in the tractor]," said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe. "You can't find even a piece of the trailer. If it had come into the camp, it would have been a major disaster."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The Buddhists should drive a elephant stampeded through the Tamil base area.
Iranian state TV showed video Wednesday of 15 British sailors and marines who were seized last week, including a female captive in a white tunic and a black head scarf who said the British boats had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain called the broadcast "completely unacceptable" and said it was concerned that the statements from sailor Faye Turney were coerced. The British government earlier released what it called proof the boat crews were seized in Iraqi waters, and said it was freezing all contacts with Iran except negotiations to release them.
Iran's foreign minister said Turneythe only female captivewould be freed on Wednesday or Thursday, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said it had received no confirmation of that. The British military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were taken Friday, and it released what it said were the GPS coordinates that proved that.
Several hours later, Tehran broadcast the video on an Arabic-language satellite channel, along with a letter from Turney saying the sailors and marines were inside Iranian waters when they were captured. "Obviously we trespassed into their waters," Turney said, sitting by herself against a floral curtain and smoking a cigarette. "They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested, there was no harm, no aggression," she said.
Turney, 26, was also shown eating with several fellow sailors and marines. What appeared to be a handwritten note from Turney to her family said, in part, "I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters." The video also showed a brief scene of what appeared to be the British crew sitting in an Iranian boat in open water immediately after their capture.
Before the video was broadcast, a Blair spokesman said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions. "It's completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television," the Foreign Office said after the broadcast. "There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters."
The statement also demanded that British diplomats be given immediate access to them as a "prelude" to their release. The Foreign Office said it had "grave concerns" about Turney's state of mind when she spoke on video. "I am very concerned about these pictures and any indication of pressure on or coercion of our personnel," said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. She added that Britain had "comprehensively demonstrated today that our personnel were operating inside Iraqi territorial waters."
British officials declined to comment after the broadcast on whether it violated the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. The chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross also declined to comment, saying the ICRC was not involved. President Bush spoke to Blair over a secured video conference call about the standoff Wednesday, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. "The president fully backs Tony Blair and our allies in Britain," she said.
Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sundaya location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position two miles east, placing the British inside Iranian watersa claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates. "It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," Style said.
Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denied this, saying, "That's not true. It happened in Iranian territorial waters." Iraq and Iran have never agreed on the ownership of waters near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where Britain said the sailors and marines were seized. Fixing the dividing line is difficult because of conflicting claims to rock formations, sandbars and barrier islands in the shallow waters of the northern Gulf.
Mottaki told The Associated Press in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that Turney would be released Wednesday or Thursday, and he suggested that the British vessels' alleged entry into Iranian waters may have been a mistake. "This is a violation that just happened. It could be natural. They did not resist," he told the AP. "Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released," Mottaki said Wednesday on the sidelines of an Arab summit in the Saudi capital.
The Iranian Embassy in London also said: "We are confident that Iranian and British governments are capable of resolving this security case through their close contacts and cooperation."
In a first act of retribution against Iran, Beckett suspended bilateral talks with Tehran on all other issues. Visits by officials were stopped, issuing visas to Iranian officials suspended and British support for events such as trade missions put on hold, her office said. Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel Wednesday as the standoff continued and on rumors that Iran had fired a missile at a U.S. ship in the Persian Gulf, where the U.S. is carrying out its largest sequence of military maneuvers since the launch of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 2004, eight British sailors were captured as they were delivering a patrol boat to the Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. Britain described the mission as "routine" but Tehran accused them entering Iranian waters illegally. A day later, Iran said the sailors would be put on trial, and Iranian TV broadcast video of them blindfolded and sitting on the ground. Two of them later read a statement of apology for entering Iran's territorial waters, saying it was a mistake. The sailors later told reporters they had been mistreated and subjected to mock executions. The eight were eventually returned to British diplomats in Tehran and flown back to Iraq. Iran initially promised to return the seized boats, but later decided to keep them for display at Tehran's War Museum. The Iranians also kept the crew's GPS equipment, and their coordinates have never been released.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 15:29 ||
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#1
Although normally being in full support, and that all of us here want to see Iran's nuclear program 'abolished' by all means necessary, does this not all seem to perfect.
The US army as I've read today is hoarding just outside of Iran's boarders, with massive war games only a few miles off the coast of Iran, this just all seems like the perfect excuse to go to war over.
We have all been here waiting to see what Blair will do, and now there appears to be mass confusion over what is happening (Iran convinced it's there water, Britain claiming it Iraq's, break of Geneva convention) was that not what happened with Afghanistan (yes we're glad it happened, but it happened in mass confusion, same as Iraq... where are the WMD's)
Although Iran is a threat, if this is all one big lie to go to war over... and please hear me out, it could be one big cover up just to lead and convince the British and American public that war is the answer (which it is, but 75% people in the UK are already fed up with the other 2)
Sorry to cast doubts into the integrety on British and US Governments, but this wouldn't be the first time, evidence can be made up, neither side wants to lose face. Convince me otherwise. e-mail whatever!
#2
Unless you're sayin that these sailors are imaginary, I maybe don't understand.
Are you saying the coordinates are bogus?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
03/28/2007 16:09 Comments ||
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#3
Quite possibly, no no, but possibly the sailors were sent into Iranian waters, knowing that they would be captured, then who do we believe? I don't know, I'm just saying it sounds to perfect to be true if you like and it could be a massive publicity stunt to try and boost ratings to go to war (which we should)
#5
Yes, Devilstoenail, because we all know that BUSH LIED! Right? and HALLIBURTON WANTS IRAN'S OIL! and BLAIR LIED TOO! just so we could GET IRAQ'S OIL!!! because it's so much BETTER now that oil prices have gone up, right? What next? 9/11 was an inside job? the attacks in London and Madrid were organized by the Mossad? the Japs were tricked into attacking Pearl Harbor?
Try to think. Quit reading the NYT.
There is no need to manufacture a casus belli -- we've already got ample supplies of that, thanks to thirty years of rule by the mad mullahs.
#6
Gee, perhaps you could weigh the relative credability of the two parties, one a dictatorial theocracy with a history of lying and seizing hostages, and the other a democratically elected government in a country with a free press and a history of openness. But I guess you already have, huh?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/28/2007 16:48 Comments ||
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#7
Hmmm. Is Rosie O'donnell using the pseudonym
"Devilstoenail" now?
#9
GET IRAQ'S OIL!
Yeah, I got mine--it came on Tuesday. It was the super-duper-secret payoff to all of us war supporters. Bet you those Leftards didn't know how right they've been all along. I keep mine behind the couch downstairs, because I like the way it sounds when I thump the barrels.
:-D Do you think actually reading this makes them realize how dump that war-for-oil meme has been?
#12
Take it easy on toenail. He's not saying he thinks it is a conspiracy, he's just saying maybe. I find it hard to blame him for being skeptical about it. He's not an American (all Americans should know better than to think Iran wouldn't do this) so perhaps his country doesn't view Iran the way ours does. This move is so mystifyingly fucking stupid, I can see it being tough to wrap an inexperienced (WRT Iran) brain around.
The inportaby part is, he wants them wacked anyway.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
03/28/2007 17:08 Comments ||
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#13
Jesus Christ I'm an idiot. That word is supposed to be important.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
03/28/2007 17:10 Comments ||
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#14
Take it easy on toenail. He's not saying he thinks it is a conspiracy, he's just saying maybe. I find it hard to blame him for being skeptical about it.
He's not skeptical - he's a true-blue Moby-style provocateur.
#15
In June 2004, eight British sailors and marines were detained for three days in Iran after being seized during another routine operation. They were paraded blindfold on television and forced to apologise for their "mistake."
On that occasion Iran insisted that the British boats -- which it has not yet returned -- were intercepted only after they entered Iranian waters on the Shatt al-Arab.
Sorry, Brits have no excuse for allowing Iran to again publically humiliate their military.
Thus, Brits should get troops back, roll out serious career ending sanctions on appropriate chain of command, exact double + payback on the slightest Iranian transgression in that area-I'm talking body count and reduction of iranian naval assets, and finally, don't let it happen again.
#16
If the Brits really desire to make a statement, Gordon Brown would stand up in Parliament and announce an emergency 50% increase in the MoD budget for the current fiscal year. Ain't gonna happen.
#19
Guys, Devilstoenail is rhodesiafever's son. They live in England, and both father and son are on the side of the angels.
Devilstoenail dear, Rantburgers play rough. But stick it out, learn what they have to teach, and they'll come to respect you as much as they do your father. You came here because you wanted to learn more than BBC drivel, and so you shall. And you'll get one round the ear 'ole to let you know when you absorbed some BBC rot without noticing. That's 'cause they aren't treating you like a kid. ;-)
Ever since the months prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, there have been a few reports in the newspapers that the Central Intelligence Agency was casting aspersions on the intelligence the White House was relying on to justify the war. The CIA has never given a position on whether the war is needed or justified or said that Bush is wrong to go to war. But doesn't it seem much more likely that the CIA is an extremely right wing organization than a left wing one? After all, even if the people working for them and at least a lot of the leadership really wanted a war for their own reasons, there are a lot of reasons for them to not want to tie their credibility to what they know is faulty information. They and their personnel, present and former, could use other means of promoting the Iraq war, and still be motivated to make the statements in the media. If the CIA got behind faulty information, they would have to make a choice between whether they would be involved in scamming the American people and the world once the military had invaded Iraq and no weapons were found- so: 1) Imagine the incredible difficulties involved in pulling off a hoax that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. Imagine all the people you would have to be able to show the weapons to- the inspectors from the UN / the international community, the American press, statesmen, etc. Then imagine the difficulties of substantiating that story to people who would examine it- the lack of witnesses to a production plant that made the weapons or to transportation operations or storage of the weapons during Hussein's regime of them. 2) If the story fell apart upon inspection or the CIA tried not to hoax it at all, imagine the loss of credibility they would suffer. The CIA, it is safe to bet, does not want to be known to the American people as a group that lies to them to send them to war. Even within the CIA there could be disagreement among people about how involved they should be in promoting the war or the neo-con agenda more broadly, so the CIA would have to worry about lying to and managing its own people after trying so hard to get them to trust their superiors in the agency, and perhaps there simply might be too many people in the agency who knew enough about what was going on in Iraq to know if someone was deceiving people to promote this war.
So there is a lot of reason to be cautious against being seen as endorsing what they knew was false intelligence even if they were very strong supporters of going to war.
What explains the failure of the mainstream media to cover the purge scandal for so long, and so many other scandals? Do you think somebody just set up newspaper editors to cheat on their wives, and threatened to tell if the editors wouldnt play ball when they come back some day and ask for something?
It wouldnt be that hard to do, when you think about it. People wouldnt talk about it.
#22
funny that the report didn't factor in the 5X as many Clintonista-purgegate-prosecutors that were fired and replaced with obedient cronies ie, 'friends of Bill' in the 1990s...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/28/2007 21:25 Comments ||
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#25
Devilstoe....the Iranians notified the Brits of the GPS co-ordinates. Unfortunately for them, those were in Iraq waters. Two days later, the Iranians changed the co-ordinates to Iran water. Iranians lie, always have, always will. It's hereditary.
Where is the Geneva convention outrage from the EU rights organizations regarding uniformed military captives being forced to wear an islamic headscarf for the cameras?
#26
The CIA has always preferred to hire "gentlemen" from the Ivy Leagues, Swan dear. It's nothing to do with being Left or Right, and everything to do with being One of Us. That crowd despise President Bush because he rejected them by going down to Texas -- even to the point of his accent -- much as a previous generation loathed FDR for betraying his class. (In fact Barbara Bush still won't speak FDR's name, that was so drilled into her in her youth.) Such is their loathing, that they've openly worked to sabotage whatever Bush does, even though he invaded Iraq based on CIA repeated assurances that Saddam Hussein had serious stocks of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
Equally, the mainstream media decided before the 2000 election that Bush was some sort of crazed Rightwing, radical Christian set to force us all to be baptized and study the Gospels instead of evolution in our schools. Based on the reportage I've seen in the New York Times, et all since the 2000 campaign, they haven't been interested in investigating anything that contradicts those memes -- with a few interesting exceptions. That's why I ended up here at Rantburg -- the news is raw, not predigested pap, and for the most part the commentary is startlingly well-informed. Stick around, Mr. Rutgers student, and you'll learn things well worth knowing.
#27
com'on let's see some throat slicing...don't you miss it? Kill the limy bastards. Cowards...Basara..pffff...the The Swiss could have held Basara...
DEBKAfiles military sources note that the exercise was launched March 27 the day before the Arab League summit opens in Riyadh, to demonstrate the Bush administrations determination not to let Iran block the Strait of Hormuz to oil exports from the Persian Gulf, or continue its nuclear program.
Taking part are the USS Stennis and USS Eisenhower strike forces.
With Irans Revolutionary Guards one week into their marine maneuvers, military tensions in the Gulf region are skyrocketing and boosting world oil prices.
Intelligence sources in Moscow claim to have information that a US strike against Iranian nuclear installations has been scheduled for April 6 at 0040 hours. The Russian sources say the US operation, code-named "Bite," will last no more than 12 hours and consist of missile and aerial strikes devastating enough to set Tehrans nuclear program several years back.
The maneuver also occurs four days after 14 British seamen and one crew-woman were seized by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards warship, with no sign that their release is imminent.
London insists its marines were on routine patrol on the Iraqi side of the Shatt al Arb on behalf of the Iraqi government. Tony Blair has threatened "a new phase" in the crisis if the captured personnel are not speedily released.
The warplanes are flying simulated attack maneuvers on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and seeking mines, off the coast of Iran.
US Navy Cmdr Kevin Aandahl declined to say when the maneuver was planned or how long it would last. He said US warships would stay out of Iranian territorial waters up to 12 miles from the Iranian coast. Tehran does not recognize this limit and claims a deeper stretch of water.
Our military sources explain the presence of the French naval strike group led by the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle which joined the two US carriers last Friday: The group will carry out security missions in the Arabian Sea and its warplanes fly in support of NATO in Afghanistan.
#3
Isn't the 12th imam supposed to emerge from occultation right about then? What a treat it would be for Iran to get a hefty dose of whup-ass right at the time they're supposed to receive divine assistance. I hope against hope that our military planners truly comprehend the sort of double whammy this would be in terms of a propaganda grand slam. As in: "Your God has abandoned y'all, ya buncha worthless fuckwits!"
What better way to discredit Ahmadinejad than by simultaneously blitzing their much vaunted nuclear program and kicking Iran's military ass without the slightest intervention by their precious 12th imam? Trust me, I already know there'll be a huge number of Iranian clerics who will declare this to be a sign that their people were not Islamic enough. But you still gotta love the idea.
#4
Many Netters swear by DEBKA so it may be premature to automant discount 'em - it is clear that Dubya wants Moud to know Radical Iran "as is" will not be allowed to have nuclear weapons, nor to continue to support International Terror, nor to control/dominate the ME. As said times before, [IMO] Dubya is in "Fortress ME" mode - THE BALL IS IN MOUD'S CORNER AS TO HOW IRAN = RADICAL ISLAM WILL RESPOND TO US-LED/INDUCED LOCAL-REGIONAL-GLOBAL ISOLATIONISM + MILPOL CONTAINMENT. Osama & Co. have made it clear that any means will be considered = employed to cause or induce the PER SE defeat and destruction of the USA-West - WHILE WAR IS HORRIBLE, NO AMER SHOULD BE AFRAID OF WAR, CONVENTIONAL OR NUCLEAR, WHEN IT IS REALIZED ENEMIES INTEND TO DESTROY AMERICA ANYWAY NO MATTER WHAT IS DONE VIA APPEASEMENT = COMPROMISE. There are things in life and human behavior that only war = strength = force can resolve. * CHURCHILL [paraphrased] > "Nations or Societies that choose to die fighting will one day rise again, Nations or Societies that do not will not rise again and may be doomed to permanent oblivion andor irrelevance", or words to these effects. AS ALSO SAID TIMES BEFORE, ASSUMING THAT NEW 9-11's/AMER HISROSHIMAS OCCUR ANYWAY, WHICH DO ORDINARY AMERICANS PREFER - THAT AMER RESPOND = RETALIATE FROM A POSITION OF GEOPOL-NATIONAL STRENGTH, or vis-a-vis WEAKNESS; THAT AMER MILFORS BE "OVER THERE" NEAR, ON, OR INSIDE ENEMY BORDERS; VERSUS ENEMY MILFORS BEING "OVER HERE", i.e. BEING NEAR, ON, OR INSIDE OUR OWN + IN OUR CITIES AND BACKYARDS! In the Land of America, not Amerika - the USA, not USSA - why is it that the concepts of OWG + National-Global Socialism, etc. CANNOT BE DISCUSSED OPENLY AMONGST MAINSTREAM AMER ON ITS OWN MERITS, WHY MUST DEMOLEFTIES DISGUISE THEIR AGENDAS WHEN REPUBS ARE IN POWER, WHY MUST AMERICA FIRST BE DEGRADED + HUMILIATED, IFF NOT DESTROYED, IN ORDER TO DISCUSS THESE CONCEPTS!? DOES GOVT SERVE THE PEOPLE, OR PEOPLE SERVE THE GOVT??? Remember, WOT > LEFT > may be about OWG + Communism-Socialism, among other reasons/
premises, BUT THE LEFT HAS NOT SAID SOCIALIST AMERIKA WILL BE THE ONE TO CONTROL OR DOMINATE SAID FUTURE OWG AND FUTURE SWO-CWO. LEFT > USA must LOSE, NOT WIN, the WOT, unilaterally/
voluntarily = forcibly.
#6
Intelligence sources in Moscow claim to have information that a US strike against Iranian nuclear installations has been scheduled for April 6 at 0040 hours.
This is an outrage! How dare these upstart Russkies sell us out before our own media have a chance to do it!
RIA Novosti had this story a couple of days ago. Operation Bite: April 6 Attack by US Forces Against Iran Planned, Russian Military Sources Warn (Link is to an English translation.)
They put zero-hour at 0400, which would be more sensible. Btw, the code-names of US operations have had two words since about the mid-80s, Desert Storm for the '91 offensive, Iraqi Freedom in 2003, Hippie Roast for the upcoming attack on Berkeley.
#8
WHILE WAR IS HORRIBLE, NO AMER SHOULD BE AFRAID OF WAR, CONVENTIONAL OR NUCLEAR, WHEN IT IS REALIZED ENEMIES INTEND TO DESTROY AMERICA ANYWAY NO MATTER WHAT IS DONE VIA APPEASEMENT = COMPROMISE. There are things in life and human behavior that only war = strength = force can resolve. * CHURCHILL [paraphrased]
Absolutely spot on, Joe. I wish your content was always this lucid clear.
why is it that the concepts of OWG + National-Global Socialism, etc. CANNOT BE DISCUSSED OPENLY AMONGST MAINSTREAM AMER ON ITS OWN MERITS, WHY MUST DEMOLEFTIES DISGUISE THEIR AGENDAS WHEN REPUBS ARE IN POWER, WHY MUST AMERICA FIRST BE DEGRADED + HUMILIATED, IFF NOT DESTROYED, IN ORDER TO DISCUSS THESE CONCEPTS!?
Some right fine questions, Joe. The left knows damn well that much of what they seek absolutely will not play in Peoria. Fortunately, sites like Rantburg (PBUF) [Peace Be Upon Fred] and others are busily ripping the mask from the left's agenda. Liberal self-loathing and anti-Americanism is quite simply writ in script far too large for anyone more sane than them to ignore.
#11
I'd rather have an Operation, period. Whether 2 words or 3, don't care.
However, at the place (heh) and time of our choosing.
As for Debka's predictions, it never failed me to have 2 buckets of salt handy. In 2003, they were off by some 14+ days as the start of Iraq war was concerned, while I was 3 days off (a shaker worth of salt ;-) ).
#12
This 6 april date has been circulated in french rightwing online circles too (especially those who do have more than a fondness for russia and poot-poot, and a dislike of the americano-zionist/US-rael Empire).
Btw, on a light side, note that "operation bite" in english mean "opération bite", or operation c*ck or d*ck, in french.
Clearly, this is meant to Humiliate the Ummah by conveying the idea the MM are going to be heavily butt-raped, prison-style. When will the Humiliation cease, I ask you?!
#13
Oh, okay, so it translates loosely to "Up yours". Would be a good name as any. ;-)
Still, seems to me that what circulates in Froggistan has the same source (likely Russians leaked, but the ultimate origin may be obscured) as similar disinfo appearing in other periodicals/sites.
In my view, the earliest any action would be taken is 3 weeks from now. But likely it will take more time.
OTOH, supplying "interim" dates may be a good way to go. In fact, I would release "sure" dates every 10-14 days, for a period of 2-3 months. Can't imagine anything more demoralizing to the enemy readiness.
#19
If I were me, I'd do it on April 1st just for the humor value. And the name would be Operation Bite Me. All those weird names like Pave Low simply lack marketing pizzaz.
#21
I think April 1st would be a lovely day. Not only is it April Fools Day in America, but it's my father's birthday. Destroying the Mullahs would be such a lovely birthday present for him -- he worked in Persia as translator for the British Army during the war, apparently.
#22
"All those weird names like Pave Low simply lack marketing pizzaz."
The US used "Pave" as a prefix for all sorts of systems, Paveway being the family of laser guided bombs, for example. "Have" was another system prefix, used chiefly (but not exclusively) on various countrmeasures and defense suppression devices.
My favorite was an IR countermeasure called "Have Charcoal." It worked by super-heating little ceramic bricks and ejecting them overboard as decoys.
#26
To me it sounds like we intentionally leaked fake attack timing through Moscow as a warning to the Iranian leadership that we aren't bluffing and that real action WILL take place if they don't back down. The military exercise is another such warning. It seems likely there will be a few more such signals, both public and secret, before the actual event, giving the Iranians jangly nerves and showing them that we control the flow of the events, not them. So far, they've been sending hardline signals back (e.g. the Brit sailors) but there is the possibility they might crack because even people as irrational as some of the hardline mullahs can see the complete disparity of forces and also be mindful of Saddam's fate in the end.
#29
trailing wife----ya beat me to it on the April 1st date. But that is because I am 4 time zones behind ye.
I read Joe M's massive missive last night before bed. It was like reading a telegram, but it made sense, in its wordy way. Good post, Joe!
Posted by: Alaska Paul at Homer, Alaska ||
03/28/2007 12:16 Comments ||
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#30
Operation "Thor's Hammer", launched at 0400, April 1, 2007, with three US Carrier Air groups, everything we have in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus whatever we can fly up from Diego Garcia (plus whatever sub- and ship-launched Tomahawks are available). Hit the nuke sites with nukes, everything else with conventional weapons and napalm, Burn Khark Island to the ground, destroy the refineries in Abadan, totally level Bandar Abbas, and hit every airfield, naval shipyard, army barracks, and any other militarily significant target. Use napalm on the anti-ship missile platforms - it'll cook 'em off even if it doesn't destroy them. Have US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan on high alert for the attacks. Step back and tell Iran "This is the first step. We'll ratchet up the attacks until you surrender." Then follow through. I don't remember who said it, but it fits this situation to a "T": "It's always easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission". Bush should make the attack, then go on national television and say what he's done, and why, going all the way back to 1979. The American people will support him, and the Donkeys will have to seethe in private.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2007 12:50 Comments ||
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#31
I feel we've missed the obvious choice ... Operation Flying Pig
#32
I've always felt Iran has a trick or two up their sleeve if we attack. They have been BEGGING us to attack for a couple of years. Any thoughts on what they might try to do?
#34
The dreaded 12th Immam will pop out of his well and sweep across the entire world, laying waste to infidels and their cursed infrastructure, but not harming any virgins.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/28/2007 14:48 Comments ||
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#35
They learned it from what they have observed. They say they want to fight then back down once the US really climbs in the ring. Repeat over and over to wear the US down, exploit the military budget/resources and drive up gas prices to piss evryone off. Then they watch the US news to see the libs dare GB to get involved in another fight. The Hostages will be released soon and they dont even get a wrist slap.
#36
Intrinsicpilot, they don't believe we'll attack. Think about it, they fought Iraq for eight years in the 80's and it ended in a stalemate. Then remember it took our forces a few weeks to totally conquer Iraq, so there are no tricks. They are piss ants. It's just the legacy of leaders like Jimmuh Carter and Bill Clinton and the current braying of the kennedy/kerry/pelosi/murtha types that has convinced the Mad Mullahs that we are pussies. That is the danger of the donk approach and it is what makes leaders like carter, clinton and chirac so dangerous. Piss ants like the Iranians think they can get away with all kinds of crap. It has to stop somewhere and diplomacy has failed. Bush needs to take action while he still can and let kennedy/kerry/pelosi/murtha bray.
#37
Hezb'allah are known to be in the US, slipped tracking and went underground. I imagine they could pull off a couple atrocities CONUS.
And do you think for one moment that the Iranians could possibly refrain from boastfully taking credit for those same atrocities? Their hatred of America and admission of guilt would just as soon spell their doom. Were Iran to perpetrate a series of 9-11 magnitude atrocities on US soil, I would have no problem advocating that their entire nation be exterminated with nuclear fire. I doubt many other Americans would feel any different. Iran's morbid fascination with brinksmanship will be their death knell.
#39
It hasn't been clarified whether the "0040" hours is actually 12:40 am or 4am, whatever; it is probable an 'intentional leak' or messaged on an 'code broken' secured transmission for propaganda points. So it has to be seen if the US will 'alter' it's spring 'surprise offensive'!!
#40
The USA is and has gone to shit. No leadership, cowards running the country. Afraid to set things right. It's so frustrating watching what bushy does...which is nothing. Bushy doesn't matter anymore. I should have voted for Kerry, at least all the BS would be over. Some real attacks on US soil would happen again and more US citizens die and nothing will be done about it except for the most important thing, trying to understand why they hate us. Let's just let it happen again, buy a Muslim a gun. Let's start helping their cause. I can start beating my wife for no good reason and do any chicks I want...and if they don't like the way I do them I can beat them to. Let's just give up and let them have their way. Give the left what they want.
The U.S. military has denied reports that Iran fired a missile at a U.S. ship in the Persian Gulf, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The rumors of an attack had sent oil prices soaring, but Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown of the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet said all ships in the Gulf had been checked and the rumors were untrue.
The British government, which is entering the sixth day of its standoff with Iran over 15 British sailors Iran seized in the Persian Gulf, also said that none of its forces had been attacked. Crude oil futures had jumped nearly eight percent Tuesday in a matter of minutes, topping $68.00 as rumors of a military confrontation in the Persian Gulf spurred panic buying, Dow Jones reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S. kicked off a military training operation in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday that commanders said was meant to send a message to Iran. The operations are the largest show of U.S. force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#5
How much of Iran's oil is actually being sold on the world market, versus being refined for domestic use? I seem to remember that Iran's actual exports were falling even as Iraq's are rising to take up the slack.
#10
Couldn't we just sink every single ship,boat, and craft in the Iranian Navy? That would alleviate any fears of supply disruptions.
There is still the threat of shore-based silkworm missiles. If you examine the Straits of Hormuz, you'll see that the entire Persian Gulf narrows down to all of a few dozen miles. Some 40% of the world's oil supply transits this stretch of water every day. Easy pickings for Iran and a single supertanker sunk mid-channel could choke maritime traffic for weeks or even months while the wreckage was removed. Iran, as always, is using their preferred strategy of blackmail, be it with hostages or global petroleum exportation.
Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by American troops near Iran's borders, apparently in preparation for an attack. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday quoted a high-ranking security source as saying, "The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran".
The official added that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched. He noted the U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years, reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Russian Vice President of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, General Leonid Ivashov, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to launch a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future. A new U.S. aircraft carrier battle group, the USS John C. Stennis, with a crew of 3,200 and around 80 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, eight support ships and four nuclear submarines are heading for the Persian Gulf, where another aircraft carrier group led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been deployed since December 2006. The U.S. has also sent Patriot anti-missile systems to the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Nah, they're all just trying to get their 1040s all filled out before the deadline.
#5
Garb's suggesion probably explains why all the Sudden the Russians decided they needed full payment for Buesher for moveing any further.
They must haver learned after sending all kinds of weapons on credit to Saddam only to see the new Iraqi gov after Saddam fell in no uncertian terms give the Russians two options, 1) excuse the Iraqi debt and get some money back and some browny points or 2) hold firm get 0 and a big F*ck you to boot.
#9
Okay, I'll bite, what are the RUSSIANS [ + Chicoms] doing???
Realizing that to triangulate any further against American interests would involve an obvious and direct commitment of their own troops. These sodding rotters have been working both sides of the street like the political crack whores they are.
Permit me to suggest that if we succeed in toppling Iran's government, it is time to extract a price for their historic meddling. The Tehran Embassy. The Marine Barracks. Khobar Towers. The cost of every single last Iraq campaign EFD fatality, or injury or rehabilitative therapy bill plus each nut, bolt and screw needed to repair or replace all of the equipment we've lost to their sponsorship of international terrorism.
It's time to seek compensation for all of the damage they've done over the years. Expropriate their oil fields, pump them dry until every last cent is paid, then go ahead and top off our strategic national reserves to boot as a gratuity just in case we need to show up for round two with these worthless turds.
Iran needs to be punished for the economic damage done by escalating global oil prices with their destabilization of the Middle East. Let's make sure that this time it's Iranian blood for Iranian oil
#10
If the US goes in there and "kick ass and take names", with no afterward nation building, and also destroy the oil infrastructure so that no one profits or gain in the short term; the Mullah regime will be set back at least 30 years! Israel could then back down and defuel their "Light Of God" Cobalt CBM's!
#11
"Someone posted this, and the mod with the color of fresh baby shit sink trapped it. Why?"
I whacked it because it sounded to me like one of those left-wing assholes who like to go around leaving stupid little comments mocking people who own guns; that, or some yahoo who's really, REALLY eager to start killing people.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/28/2007 7:27 Comments ||
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#12
"ours is not to reason why Chiper Threreger8956 but to do or die."
Yes, reasoning is only done by people with IQ's of over 100
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/28/2007 9:48 Comments ||
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#14
Yes, reasoning is only done by people with IQ's of over 100
Thank goodness dear RD is considerably brighter than that, then. But my real question is why the concern about an unintelligible comment sinktrapped yesterday -- it's nothing to do with Russia's report of increased activity by the US military. But then I haven't an IQ of 100, so perhaps it's too complicated for me to understand.
#16
They could start off in 480 B.C. and be ahead....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/28/2007 11:47 Comments ||
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#17
Screw this April 6 @ 0400 (or whenever): Launch the jets now! follow up with all other sorts of fun toys. either that of call on the CdG to act as the Dedicated Ship of Surrender and we all go home. (I only picked the CdG because of the practice the French have in that fine art of sword dropping)
#19
USN, Ret...it hasn't been clarified whether the "0040" hours is actually 12:40 am or 4am, whatever, it has been leaked by now so it has to be seen if the US will alter it's spring 'surprise offensive'!!
#20
smn: I know and could really give a damn; i just think we should lay a little, ok, a whole lotta whupass on em. glass the sand, and turn the entire freakin country into a solar collector, and then send the energy to the US. then the entire gulf can drink their precious oil and we can all drive Priuses (ok, now as a dedicated motorhead I will go wash my mouth out for saying that 'p' word)
#21
It's a build up alright, of escape containers to get out of there before the Irainians kick the fuck out of the USA.
Com'on Sink a carrier or two..don't worry the USA have about five or six more....
Some 90 cars stolen in Lebanon were smuggled into Iraq by way of Syria in the first two months of 2007, according to sources in Lebanon. Although cars smuggled into Iraq mostly end up for sale on the black market -- and are not specifically destined for use in suicide bombings -- Syria's failure to enforce effective border controls on stolen cars raises serious questions as to its ability, or willingness, to prevent other types of cross-border smuggling and infiltrations, including by suicide bombers. As such, the situation helps to undermine efforts to bring security and stability to Iraq.
Car theft is a well-organized criminal activity in Lebanon, and most of the stolen cars end up in Syria. During the period of Syria's military presence in Lebanon, some Syrian intelligence officers participated in the trafficking of stolen cars, charging criminal organizations approximately $1,000 per car for their help in getting the vehicles across the Lebanese-Syrian border. Since the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country in 2005, incidents of car theft have slowed down noticeably, which suggests the extent to which Syrian officials were involved.
The cars are stolen in Lebanese cities and then taken to chop shops in the northern Bekaa Valley near Baalbek, where Hezbollah maintains a strong presence. At these facilities, the vehicle identification number is erased from the engine block and other indications of the car's origins are removed. From there, they are taken along the rugged back roads through the Anti-Lebanon Mountains into Syria.
When the cars are ready to be smuggled out of Lebanon, Syrian intelligence officers enter the process. Under an arrangement with local officials, the Syrian facilitators turn a blind eye to the smuggling operation -- apparently as long as the smugglers are not caught by Syrian border patrols. In that case, the officials would prosecute the smugglers, though it is not clear whether they would go after the intelligence officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Could explain why the brits were snatched.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/28/2007 0:38 Comments ||
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#2
Putting the V in VIED. Hezbollah doing thier part.
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The US navy is staging major war games in the Gulf involving two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and their strike groups in the most intense military buildup since the 2003 war on Iraq. "This marks the first time the (carriers) John C. Stennis and Dwight D. Eisenhower strike groups have operated together in a joint exercise while deployed to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet," Lieutenant Commander Charlie Brown, spokesman for the Bahrain-based US Naval Central Command, told Gulf News yesterday. The sea and air exercises will be conducted amid growing tension in the region following Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines, including one woman. 
Two militants belonging to Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were arrested at Sarishabari upazila in Jamalpur district yesterday. The arrestees were identified as Mominul Islam Milon, 25, son of Tofajjal Hossain, and Akbar Hossain, 22, son of Mohammad Suruzzaman -- both from Satpoa village of Sarishabari upazila in the district. 
Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday in a case he described as ``lamentable.'' U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job. 
Hogan appeared conflicted during arguments last year. On one hand, he said he was hesitant to allow allegations of torture to go unheard. On the other hand, he said the case was unprecedented. ``This is a lamentable case,'' Hogan began his 58-page opinion Tuesday. 
The provincial capital was rocked on Tuesday morning by another explosion near an aid agencys office, hours after a Monday evening blast in the cantonment area, which injured a senior Awami National Party leader and three others, said police. 
Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Falluja in western Iraq on Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks using the poisonous gas, the U.S. military said. It said 15 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered chlorine poisoning. "Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are being treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation," a U.S. statement said. It said no Iraqi or U.S. forces were killed in what it called a "complex attack" using mortars and small arms as well as the truck bombs.
Chlorine gas was widely used in World War One but its use in insurgent attacks in Iraq has particular resonance there. Saddam Hussein attacked Kurdish areas with chemical weapons in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. Earlier Iraqi police said two car bombs exploded near an Iraqi checkpoint outside a U.S. military base in Falluja, killing eight Iraqi soldiers. U.S. spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer said the U.S. statement referred to the same incident but he could not confirm the deaths of the Iraqi policemen. "Iraqi police identified the first suicide attacker and fired on the truck, causing it to detonate before reaching the compound," the U.S. statement said. "Iraqi Army soldiers spotted the second suicide truck approaching the gate and engaged it with small arms fire, causing it to also detonate near the entrance of the compound."
BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. soldiers foiled two suicide truck bombings against their base in a small town west of Baghdad and killed as many as 15 attackers, the U.S. military reported Tuesday.
Bomb attacks killed 75 people in Iraq yesterday, including 48 who died in twin truck bombings in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, police said. Among other attacks, suspected Al Qaida militants killed 21 people in bombings targeting police and Sunnis who have formed an alliance against the militants, officials said. The attacks follow an upsurge in violence in recent days. US and Iraqi security forces have deployed thousands more soldiers in Baghdad to try to stem a sectarian war that threatens to tear the country apart.
Iranian state TV showed video Wednesday of 15 British sailors and marines who were seized last week, including a female captive in a white tunic and a black head scarf who said the British boats had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain called the broadcast "completely unacceptable" and said it was concerned that the statements from sailor Faye Turney were coerced. The British government earlier released what it called proof the boat crews were seized in Iraqi waters, and said it was freezing all contacts with Iran except negotiations to release them. 
Some 90 cars stolen in Lebanon were smuggled into Iraq by way of Syria in the first two months of 2007, according to sources in Lebanon. Although cars smuggled into Iraq mostly end up for sale on the black market -- and are not specifically destined for use in suicide bombings -- Syria's failure to enforce effective border controls on stolen cars raises serious questions as to its ability, or willingness, to prevent other types of cross-border smuggling and infiltrations, including by suicide bombers. As such, the situation helps to undermine efforts to bring security and stability to Iraq.
