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Japan sets up missile defence shield near Tokyo
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Africa Horn
Sudanese hijacker arrested
A Sudanese man armed with a knife hijacked a Sudan Airways plane from Libya and forced it to land at Khartoum airport early on Friday but was later arrested by special forces, a civil aviation authority official said. "The hijacker burst into the pilot's cabin about one and a half hours from landing and told the captain he wanted to meet with the British ambassador, then he asked to meet the American ambassador and the media," Abdel Hafiz Abdel-Rahim told Reuters. "Snipers dressed as journalists then took him into custody," he added. The plane, which was carrying 210 passengers, began its journey in Tripoli.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Helicopter, hospital hit in Somali attack
Insurgents shot down a helicopter gunship in Somalia's capital on Friday and mortar shells slammed into a hospital as government and allied troops battled hundreds of gunmen in the streets of Mogadishu.

More than 30 people have been killed since the government launched a major offensive on Thursday to quash a growing insurgency by Islamic militants, according to hospitals and witnesses. Somali soldiers and troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, who are here to protect the fragile government, were under severe attack for a second day. "The helicopter looked like a ball of smoke and fire before crashing," said Ruqiya Shafi Muhyadin, who watched as the helicopter rolled over in the sky and went down in a residential area near the airport.

An Associated Press reporter said an anti-aircraft missile hit the helicopter.

Dr. Mohamed Dhere, who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from an underground room, said three mortar shells hit Alhayat hospital, injuring a doctor and a staff member. "Since early this morning I have been hiding here from the mortar shells so I can't help rescue people. I urge the two sides to respect health facilities," Dhere said.

The number of casualties was not immediately clear. On Thursday, fighting killed at least 10 people - but it was likely that many more had died. Hospitals were overwhelmed with the wounded and corpses were scattered in the streets. Doctors trying to tally the numbers said up to 30 people may have died. Mogadishu resident Abdi Hussein Aboke said he saw 10 bodies in the street on Friday, all apparently civilians. "Some were lying in alleys between houses while others were lying on the streets," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Several killed in clashes in Algeria
About 18 people were killed as Algerian government troops battled Islamic militants in the Kabylie region east of the capital, local correspondents said on Thursday. They said heavily-armed troops and government militia had surrounded between 50 and 80 members of the al-Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in a hideout in the Amizour district. To try to break out, the militants had attacked an army roadblock on Wednesday, killing three soldiers. In a counter-attack, government forces killed some 15 of the rebels, including a mid-ranking leader. There was no immediate official confirmation of the clash.

Algerian security forces are stepping up an offensive against the GSPC, raiding targets in cities and mountain hideouts, with deaths on both sides.
This article starring:
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tunisian 'terror' suspects get prison time
Fourteen Tunisians have been sentenced to between four and 10 years in prison for "belonging to a terrorist organisation," legal sources said on Monday. Three of the defendants, Ghaith Ghazouani, 23, Mahar Bezyouch, 24, and Mohammed Amine Aoun, 22, were sentenced to 10-year prison terms for having ties to Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which announced in September it was linking up with Al-Qaeda. Three other defendants were sentenced to eight years behind bars and the eight others received four-year sentences, one of the defence lawyers, Samir Ben Amor, told AFP.

A judicial source confirmed the verdict handed down in a Tunis criminal court over the weekend, adding that four other people had been sentenced in absentia to 24 years in jail.
This article starring:
GHAITH GHAZUANISalafist Group for Preaching and Combat
MAHAR BEZYUCHSalafist Group for Preaching and Combat
MOHAMED AMINE AUNSalafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Samir Ben Amor
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tunisian 'Terror' Suspects Get Prison Time 'Beheading'

Does that work better for snarky use of quotes?
Posted by: WTF || 03/31/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd much rather see him swinging from the end of a rope than either being in prison or beheaded. His swinging can be observed by his "comerades", who can contemplate the same fate.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/31/2007 14:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, and you can set your watch by him, swinging.
Posted by: WTF || 03/31/2007 22:49 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen army fails to beat Houthis
Tribal sources said Wednesday that bloody clashes between the Yemeni army and Houthi loyalists are continuing on various fronts in Sa’ada. Army forces retreated from Dhahian city, a Houthi stronghold, after facing severe resistance there. Meanwhile, material and human losses are increasing.

Aleshteraki.net reported informed sources in Sa’ada as saying, “Army forces and hundreds of tribal volunteers managed to penetrate many streets of Dhahian after deadly confrontations with Houthi loyalists waged since last Tuesday afternoon.”

Eyewitnesses declared, “The Yemeni army is employing a new method in its war on Dhahian, as many units are allowed to enter the city for some time and then withdraw and resume other attacks. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles are positioned on all streets and outlets leading to Dhahian in order to prevent any infiltration to and from the city.”
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To pop, or not to pop? This is the question.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, many Yemenis are nationalists. And the country has a professional army that is not concerned with pleasing hearts and minds. They will regroup and unleash hell.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/31/2007 3:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I wish I could care about crap like this anymore. Now all I can muster is: "Feh. Muzzies killin' muzzies. Better that than killing infidels, so fire away boys".
Posted by: Brett || 03/31/2007 10:53 Comments || Top||


Guantanamo Detainee Makes Torture Claims
A Saudi terror suspect says U.S. interrogators tortured him for five years and he confessed to involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole just to satisfy them and "make the people happy," according to a Pentagon transcript of a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, is the second "high value" detainee to contend he was tortured while being held in secret CIA prisons prior to transfer to the detention site in Cuba last September. In a transcript released Friday by the Pentagon, he said he made up the stories linking him to the Cole attack, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead and nearly sank the $1 billion destroyer in Aden harbor in 2000.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
ABD AL RAHIM AL NASHIRIal-Qaeda
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a Saudi of Yemeni descent
Life can be f***ing cruel sometimes 'eh?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 2:35 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
2 Bangla Bhai aides held in Bagmara
Police arrested two aides of hanged JMB kingpin Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai
"hanged JMB kingpin" has such a nice ring to it, yes?
from Bagmara upazila yesterday, reports our staff correspondent from Rajshahi. They are Mobarak Ali, 40, of Goalkandi and Mohammad Ali, 42, of Konabaria in the upazila. With them, 20 associates of Bangla Bhai have been held in the recent crackdown. They were arrested following a tip-off that militants were prowling around after the hanging of top JMB leaders, Officer-in-Charge of Bagmara Police Station Mirza Golam Sarwar said.

The two were also accused in three cases -- one for Mukul murder, one for attempt to murder Sripur union Chairman Makbul Hossain Mridha and the other for police assault in Bhawaniganj, he said. Mobarak and Mohammad had been hiding since Bangla Bhai went underground from so-called Bagmara operations in 2004.

Gaibandha police arrested a JMB leader from village Dhanghara under Gaibandha Sadar upazila in the early hours of Thursday, reports our Gaibandha correspondent. Police got information that Raju Sarder was involved in reorganising JMB activists. He was a charge-sheeted accused in two cases -- one for four bomb blasts at an open stage drama at Takier Bazar under Palashbari upazila on December 20, 2004, and the other for two powerful bomb blasts at Mohimaganj Brac office in Gobindaganj upazila on February 10, 2005. Eighteen people were injured in the two incidents.
This article starring:
BANGLA BHAIJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Chairman Makbul Hossain Mridha
Mirza Golam Sarwar
MOBARAK ALIJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
MOHAMAD ALIJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
RAJU SARDERJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
SIDIQUL ISLAMJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


22 Hizbut Tahrir men held while holding secret meet in city
Police arrested 22 members of the cultural wing of Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh in the city's Mohammadpur area yesterday evening. The arrestees, most of who are students of Dhaka University and North south University, were holding a secret meeting at a house on the third floor of a five-storied building at Aziz Mohalla in the area.
Cultural wing?
Raiding the meeting venue, the law enforcers also seized a huge quantity of party leaflets, posters, compact disks (CDs) and party books. Some of the posters read: "Awami League and BNP alliances' sycophancy to the United States and India is responsible for the present situation of the country. Police filed a case against the arrestees for holding a meeting violating Emergency Power Rules.
And took their lunch money and the keys to their auto-rickshaw for good measure.
The arrestees told The Daily Star they are the cultural wing members of Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh and met one of their fellow members at the house to chalk out a programme ahead of Eid-e-miladunnabi. Guardians of at least five arrestees told The Daily Star at Mohammadpur Police Station that they were not aware of their sons' involvement with the party until they were arrested. Police said the arrested members of the organisation used to hold secret meetings at Baitul Mokarram Mosque Fridays and distribute party leaflets.
This article starring:
Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  apparently "secret" has a different meaning over there
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 10:48 Comments || Top||

#2  So, can we have some "secret" hangings now?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/31/2007 14:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Inline staring:
auto-rickshaw

Posted by: RD || 03/31/2007 18:18 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Japan sets up missile defence shield near Tokyo
Japan trucked its first ballistic missile interceptors to an air force base north of Tokyo on Friday in an effort to beef up its defences against its unpredictable neighbour North Korea. The deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers, capable of shooting down incoming missiles in the final stage of flight as they near their target, was sparked by Pyongyang’s firing of a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan.

But Tokyo rushed the equipment into service a year ahead of schedule after North Korea unnerved the region last year by firing more missiles and testing a nuclear device. “We consider it very meaningful to deploy the air defence missiles close to metropolitan Tokyo, which is the centre of business and political activities,” Kazumasa Echizen, the Iruma air base public information chief, said in a statement. “We will continue our efforts to be ready for any possible emergencies.”
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They may also come in handy if any big lizards start getting ideas.
Posted by: mojo || 03/31/2007 1:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Also handy in the Anti-Mothra role.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 2:37 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: 3dc || 03/31/2007 3:27 Comments || Top||

#4  The Japanese are gearing up on an accelerated schedule, and the media effort is keeping step.

For example
Posted by: mrp || 03/31/2007 8:48 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Fighting continues in Wana, 56 killed
Pakistani tribesmen traded heavy rocket and mortar fire with foreign Al Qaeda militants in a border region for a second day on Friday, leaving 56 people dead, said the Interior Minister on Friday. Explosions could be heard in Wana, the capital of the lawless South Waziristan, a day after a ceasefire between the tribesmen and the mainly Uzbek and Chechen rebels broke down.

Violence first erupted in the mountainous region on March 19 when a Taliban commander-turned-government supporter, Maulvi Nazir, ordered foreign insurgents led by wanted rebel Tahir Yuldashev to disarm, leaving 160 people dead last week. “Fifty-four people were killed today (and) two yesterday. They include 45 foreigners,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP. “The fighting is going on … it intensified today after peace talks failed. Tribes are insisting on their demand that these people either surrender or quit the area.” An aide to Maulvi Nazir earlier told AP over the telephone that local tribesmen had killed 35 Uzbeks and lost 10 of their own men. The government says the latest developments reflect the success of its policy to encourage local tribesmen to expel foreign Islamic extremists, instead of costly and politically damaging army operations.

Earlier, a security official said tribesmen overnight seized control of a school that foreigners were using as their base in Ghawakha, a town near Wana, killing seven Uzbeks. Another official said three tribal fighters were also killed and six wounded in the fighting. Residents said the militants also shot dead a local man who was travelling in the area on his bike.

The latest clashes were concentrated in Azam Warsak, Shen Warsak and Kalusha areas of South Waziristan. Residents say between 300 and 500 Uzbeks and Chechens are holed up in the area. They said the Uzbeks were effectively under siege in the mountainous terrain as all roads leading to the troubled towns were being controlled by tribal commander Mullah Nazir. A tribal leader, Haji Sharif, ruled out any negotiations with the foreigners on Thursday. Yuldashev, the Uzbek leader, was formerly a close confidant of Osama Bin Laden, according to officials.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Better than football.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  It would be if I could read their numbers.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 2:38 Comments || Top||

#3  They've decided not to go a-jihading in Afghanistan, it seems.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/31/2007 5:49 Comments || Top||


Taliban attack video shops, cable office
Taliban militants seeking to impose Islamic law blew up two video shops and torched a cable television operator’s office in Kohat, officials said on Friday. There were no casualties in the blasts which happened late on Thursday. The attackers forced people out of the local office of World Cable 2000 and sprinkled kerosene over it before setting it on fire, the officials said. Later they detonated crudely-made bombs at the video shops, which were empty at the time. Both shops were badly damaged.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seems to me you create video shops and the like as flypaper to capture and kill toons.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/31/2007 3:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Cable TV operators vs. the Taliban?
Tough choice there...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/31/2007 17:23 Comments || Top||


Jamiatul Ansar, Khudamul Furqan merge
Maulana Abdul Jabbar, the head of the Khudamul Furqan, has merged his banned militant outfit with Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil’s Jamiatul Ansar, also a banned organisation, sources told Daily Times on Friday. Founded by Khalil, Jamiatul Ansar was previously known as Harkatul Mujahideen, which was banned by the Pakistani government following the 9/11 attacks because of the organisation’s involvement in militant activities.

The sources said the merger of the two groups – both from the Deobandi school of thought – took place last month, and common friends had been trying to resolve differences between the two militant commanders over the last three months. The sources said that Maulana Abdul Jabbar would be offered a key position in Jamiatul Ansar, currently being headed by Maulana Badar Munir.

Khudamul Furqan, is also suspected of being involved in terrorist attacks on churches.
Law-enforcement agencies arrested Maulana Jabbar some three years ago for his alleged involvement in an unsuccessful attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf’s life in Rawalpindi, but he was released in October last year, and he has kept a low profile since. His outfit, Khudamul Furqan, is also suspected of being involved in terrorist attacks on churches.

Maulana Jabbar got involved in militant activities in the early 1980s after formally joining the Harkatul Ansar, and stayed in Afghanistan till Mulla Omar’s ouster. He later joined the militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad, founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, but formed Khudamul Furqan when difference between him and Masood Azhar emerged. Maulana Jabbar later alleged that the top leadership of Jaish-e-Muhammad had facilitating law-enforcement agencies in his arrest.
This article starring:
MAULANA ABDUL JABARKhudamul Furqan
MAULANA BADAR MUNIRJamiatul Ansar
MAULANA FAZALUR REHMAN KHALILHarkatul Mujahideen
MAULANA FAZALUR REHMAN KHALILJamiatul Ansar
MAULANA MASUD AZHARJaish-e-Muhammad
Harkatul Mujahideen
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Jamiatul Ansar
Khudamul Furqan
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


26 clerics on 'hit list' of terrorist outfits
The intelligence agencies have informed the Interior Ministry that sectarian terrorists would target 26 clerics and other important personalities on the occasion of Eid Miladun Nabi. Sources told Daily Times on Friday that most clerics on the terrorists’ hit list belonged to the Sunni and Deobandi sects.

They said that another intelligence report submitted to the Interior Ministry stated that extremists were also expected to target senior government officials, foreigners and diplomats on Eid Miladun Nabi. Airports and other sensitive buildings could also be attacked, they added. The sources said that following these reports the Interior Ministry had directed the provincial home secretaries and police chiefs and the chief commissioner and inspector general of police of Islamabad to take necessary precautionary measures.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good terrorists.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 1:18 Comments || Top||

#2  "We need to talk".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/31/2007 22:25 Comments || Top||


Security official killed in Dera Bugti operation
A security official was killed and five others injured in an operation against farrari camps in Dera Bugti on Friday, reported Geo TV.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told the channel that security forces launched the operation on Friday in which Ahsanullah was killed, and Nisar, Azmat, Younas, Afzal and Muzaffar were injured. He said security forces arrested 35 miscreants in the operation, and seized a cache of arms. According to the channel, an important farrari commander was also arrested in the operation.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who em in heck is the ISPR?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||

#2  the Cultural Wing of the ISI
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 15:47 Comments || Top||


Search operation in Tank within 24 hours
Law-enforcement agencies will launch a house-to-house search operation within the next 24 hours to collect illegal weapons in Tank, and a relaxation in the curfew imposed in the area will be extended by two hours from Saturday, said a spokesman on Friday.

In a press note, the spokesman for law-enforcement agencies said cases had also been registered against militants involved in damaging private and public property on Wednesday, but did not name the people who had been booked. Killers, trouble-makers and dacoits will be brought to justice for destroying Tank city’s peace,” read the press note.

DIG Zulfiqar Ahmed Cheema said security forces would launch the search operation if residents did not hand over illegal weapons voluntarily. “All types of illegal (unlicensed) weapons must be handed over to the government,” the senior police official told reporters at a briefing in Tank city on Friday.

Observers viewed the announcement as “unworkable”. The search operation would also aim to identify residents sheltering outlaws, said the press note. Tank city has been under curfew since tribal militants from South Waziristan “attacked” it from all directions early on Wednesday morning.

DIG Cheema said the curfew would be completely lifted when the situation had been brought under total control. “The curfew was imposed to protect the residents of Tank city,” he added. However, paramilitary soldiers fired at a group of people near an FC gate at 1:10pm, although the authorities relaxed the curfew from 1pm to 3pm. “Nobody was injured in the firing,” said a man who was waiting for the curfew to be relaxed on Friday. Among the group of people was a Daily Times correspondent as well. Local journalists demanded an inquiry into the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  24 hour notice of an upcoming operation. Must be a Cum Laude graduate of the Maliki School of Governance.
Posted by: Albemarle Unavimp5200 || 03/31/2007 18:01 Comments || Top||


Iraq
212 Suspects Taken Up In Baghdad
A crackdown on violence in Baghdad resulted in the arrest of 212 suspected insurgents and terrorists by multinational forces, officials said Saturday.

Coalition military leaders labeled 50 of those captured in and around the Iraqi capital during the previous 48 hours as terrorists and the other 162 as suspects, the Kuwait News Agency said.

The officials also said the multinational force had deactivated 11 bombs and freed one person who had been abducted, KUNA reported.

However, they also said 12 police officers had been killed and 19 others were wounded.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army said it had detained 16 terrorists near Arab Jbour, south of Baghdad, during operations Friday night and early Saturday.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/31/2007 17:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  On one level I love it, of course, kudos to the Iraqi and Coalition troops who are trying to do The Right Thing... but I have the usual observation / complaint: way too many "arrests" and "detentions", not nearly enough deaders.

The Catch and Release program will get most of these back into circulation most rikki-tikki.
Posted by: Punky Crolutch3978 || 03/31/2007 17:30 Comments || Top||

#2  When it becomes 212 suspects released in pieces, call me.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 20:46 Comments || Top||


Coalition forces capture 16 suspected terrorists
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces captured 16 suspected terrorists during operations Friday evening and Saturday.

During an operation Friday evening in Arab Jabour, Coalition Forces detained one suspected terrorist and destroyed a weapons cache found in the man’s vehicle. The weapons consisted of a DShK anti-aircraft machinegun and several small-arms weapons.

Overnight in Mosul, Coalition Forces detained six suspects with alleged involvement in the distribution of improvised explosive device-making material. Four other suspects were detained with alleged ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq operations.

On Saturday, south of Fallujah, Coalition Forces captured five suspects with reported links to foreign fighter facilitation and terrorist financing operations.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/31/2007 13:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DShK aka: Dushka
Posted by: Little Sweetie23234 || 03/31/2007 17:12 Comments || Top||


Iraq the Model Home Searched by US Army
I tried to post this but it didn't seem to work. Here goes again.
I often find myself in arguments with people about the behavior of American soldiers when they search homes and many of the people I talk to base their argument and negative impression on the footage of some raids we see on TV or on experiences of presumed relatives or friends.

When I try to counter the idea of 'they knock down doors unnecessarily, steal jewelry and treat people bad' by saying that there must be a good reason the troops sometimes act rough and that 'for every reaxction there must have been an action' I often get the response of "what do you know about that? The Americans never searched your home"

Well, last night they did…

At the end we stood to take some pictures together.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/31/2007 08:49 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, looky here. The reasonable Iraqi was right about US military behavior.

The sad part is, many on the left are not going to want to hear about this.
Posted by: Mike N. || 03/31/2007 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  nice to hear our boys behave as we at RB expect. Whotta surprise, no? No
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 10:43 Comments || Top||

#3  99.99% of the Americans act like this. They are pleasant, yet professional. Unlike their countrymen on the left...
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/31/2007 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  I for one question their grilling.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 11:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Ship, you prefer charcoal or gas to the wood fire to grill your fish?
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/31/2007 12:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Propane, 8 inches of peanut oil and a serious batter.

Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 12:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Cornmeal batter no doubt, Huh, Ship...
Posted by: badanov || 03/31/2007 13:51 Comments || Top||

#8  This is unbelievable!! The brothers make the news because President Bush refers to them and shortly after we search their house??

Is anyone in the military paying attention to the blogs and the impact that they have. I'm stunned. Absolutely stunned.

And as for our military acting respectful - I'm not at all stunned since I have no doubt that is the norm.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 13:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Dude Mil doesn't know cause Iraq the model keeps themselves secret, there is a reason for that. They are not even in the photo at their blog. All the military saw was a bunch of cars at a house in a Sunni neighborhood of course you are going to get searched.
Posted by: djohn66 || 03/31/2007 14:03 Comments || Top||

#10  It is the WAY BadMan.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 14:13 Comments || Top||

#11  ...after the search was conducted, a suitable location was found where the BBQ grill could be safely utilized for the beefsteaks.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/31/2007 14:22 Comments || Top||

#12  Dude Mil doesn't know cause Iraq the model keeps themselves secret,

They came to DC and met the President of the United States of America!!. They gave talks in the US. They should be receiving protection - not this kind of crap. I'm still stunned.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 14:26 Comments || Top||

#13  Anonymoose - maybe you are right. I hope so.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 14:28 Comments || Top||

#14  In that neighborhood, everyone knows what the score is. I'm thinking it would have been far more suspicious if the house hadn't been searched.
Posted by: mrp || 03/31/2007 14:47 Comments || Top||

#15  Add more to all the "conspiracy" thoughts. Maybe Bush had them "searched" just to make sure they were okay after his mention. Making sure the bad guys hadn't gotten to them, and maybe words were whispered in a couple of ears during the visit, "we got your back."

I read on one of the mil blogs the other day, there was a tank sitting beside a shiek's home in Anbar. I'd say, someone felt he needed to be protected! Might be the same with the brothers.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/31/2007 17:02 Comments || Top||

#16  Ima havin a hard time figurin out how this could have been a bad move by the military.

Its the closest thing to a media coup they are ever going to get. A genuine grassroots phenomenon liked their behavior so much they asked to have their pictures taken with our troops and are spreading the positive word.
Posted by: Mike N. || 03/31/2007 20:35 Comments || Top||


Truck bomb (in Tal Afar) tolls climbs above 150
This a new body count from the bomb a couple of days ago.THE death toll from a suicide truck bombing in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar this week has risen to 152 with more than 340 people wounded.

An official confirmed that 152 people were killed - nearly double the 85 deaths initially announced - and another 347 wounded in the blast, which triggered deadly reprisal killings of at least 70 Sunni Arabs.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/31/2007 07:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


More details: Time: A Deadly U.S.-Iran Firefight
The soldiers who were there still talk about the September 7 firefight on the Iran-Iraq border in whispers. At Forward Operating Base Warhorse, the main U.S. military outpost in Iraq's eastern Diyala Province bordering Iran, U.S. troops recount events reluctantly, offering details only on condition that they remain nameless. Everyone seems to sense the possible consequences of revealing that a clash between U.S. and Iranian forces had turned deadly. And although the Pentagon has acknowledged that a firefight took place, it says it cannot say anything more. "For that level of detail, you're going to have to ask the [U.S.] military in Baghdad," says Army Lieut. Col. Mark Ballesteros. "We don't know anything about it."

A short Army press release issued on the day of the skirmish offered the following information: U.S. soldiers from the 5th Squadron 73rd Cavalry 82nd Airborne were accompanying Iraqi forces on a routine joint patrol along the border with Iran, about 75 miles east of Baghdad, when they spotted two Iranian soldiers retreating from Iraqi territory back into Iran. A moment later, U.S. and Iraqi forces came upon a third Iranian soldier on the Iraqi side of the border, who stood his ground. As U.S. and Iraqi soldiers approached the Iranian officer and began speaking with him, a platoon of Iranian soldiers appeared and moved to surround the coalition patrol, taking up positions on high ground. At that point, according to the Army's statement, the Iranian captain told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that if they tried to leave they would be fired on. Fearing abduction by the Iranians, U.S. troops moved to go anyway, and fighting broke out. Army officials say the Iranian troops fired first with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and that U.S. troops fell further back into Iraqi territory, while four Iraqi army soldiers, one interpreter and one Iraqi border guard remained in the hands of the Iranians.

The official release says there were no casualties among the Americans, and makes no mention of any on the Iranian side. U.S. soldiers present at the firefight, however, tell TIME that American forces killed at least one Iranian soldier who had been aiming a rocket-propelled grenade at their convoy of Humvees.

The revelation comes amid rising tensions over the past week since Iran captured 15 British Navy personnel in waters between Iran and Iraq. Analysts have suggested that some Iranian officials have argued against speedily returning the Brits, preferring to use them as a bargaining chip in Tehran's efforts to free five of its own officials captured by the U.S. in Erbil earlier this year. News that an Iranian soldier had been killed in a clash with American forces would do little to ease those tensions.

I don't understand all this coy behavior. It only invites problems. If the Iranians knew they would get their a$$ bitten every time they tried this $hit, they wouldn't do it unless they really meant it, and then everyone would know where they stood.

In the months after the incident, U.S. forces have kept up joint patrols on the Iran-Iraq border, where their movements are closely monitored by Iranian outposts. Increasingly, however, U.S. troops stationed in Diyala Province are moving to help counter-insurgency efforts in the Baqubah area, leaving a thinner American presence at the border. On some days, says Lt. Col. Ronald Ward, the U.S. commander tasked with helping Iraqi units maintain border security in the area, no U.S. troops appear there at all.
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 01:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like a hostage taking attempt.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/31/2007 9:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran learned that day that taking American hostages was not going to be easy, so they looked for someone else.
Posted by: djohn66 || 03/31/2007 9:41 Comments || Top||

#3  In 1979, when US territory WAS invaded, US military personnel were ordered to stand down. Let's hope we learned our lesson.
Posted by: doc || 03/31/2007 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Only 1?

How disappointing.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 03/31/2007 12:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Everyone seems to sense the possible consequences of revealing that a clash between U.S. and Iranian forces had turned deadly.

I had better been only deadly for the Iranians. If it turns out that any of our boys were killed by the Iranians, there should be hell to pay for the Iranians and any US official covering this up.
Posted by: Danking70 || 03/31/2007 13:24 Comments || Top||

#6  I still want to know why a flock of A-10s weren't called to the scene. That Iranian platoon should have been churned into damp red sand. Fuck all they could have done about it too, except bleed.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 13:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Inch by inch we edge to the confrontation that is long overdue. In one sense I kind of welcome our timidity at the national command level. The iranians are adept at balancing on the edge for maximum propaganda value to the muzzie media, but never confronting real force or resolve. They also are hugely successful at using cut-outs and proxies like hezbollah to insulate them from their obvious responsibility for attacks on America since the fall of the Shah. The Marine Barracks, LtCol Higgins, Station Chief Buckley, and so many more have a butcher's bill due from these creatures....one hopes they will push it too far and the event will unleash the massive can of whup-ass that begs to be opened. When that happens, they will act here, terrorism in the US, multiple locations and multiple types of attacks. The cementing of American resolve will be iron-clad, overcoming the cultural suicide of political correctness that threatens the very nation. Tolerance of the intolerant will end, and, sadly, fear will unlock the common-sense of our fellow citizens who have been lulled by material plenty and the nanny state into near suicidal ignorance of the way these people intent to dominate and end the Western World!
I wish it weren't so, but I'm convinced we need that bloody catharsis to save the Republic.
Posted by: JustAboutEnough || 03/31/2007 15:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Agreed, let's get it on.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/31/2007 15:42 Comments || Top||

#9  The cementing of American resolve will be iron-clad, overcoming the cultural suicide of political correctness that threatens the very nation. Tolerance of the intolerant will end, and, sadly, fear will unlock the common-sense of our fellow citizens who have been lulled by material plenty and the nanny state into near suicidal ignorance of the way these people intent to dominate and end the Western World!

Well put, JAE. This is why I refuse to fear for our country's future. I just cannot believe that good Americans will not rise up when the time comes. Yes, I know that time was 9-11, but just as you've said, too many have been lulled into forgetting the lessons of WWII. Once our nation's institutional memory of those lessons and the ones taught by Iran are remembered again, pity on those who are centered in our collective crosshairs.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 16:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Your lips to God's Ears, with a CC to lucifer to look for more bed space.....
Posted by: JustAboutEnough || 03/31/2007 18:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Good one, JAE. Me like!
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 22:50 Comments || Top||


US forces kill 16 Shiites in Baghdad
(KUNA) -- 16 followers of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr were killed and 14 others injured in a US air raid on Sabaa village, to the east of Sadr City in Baghdad, an Iraqi security source was quoted as saying here Friday. The US air raid, which was launched on al-Shaaira and al-Jadar in Sabaa village in Sadr City, came in response to a call by Moqtada al-Sadr, who has not been around for several months, for a mass demonstration against the presence of foreign forces in Iraq.

The demonstration call synchronizes with the fourth anniversary of the US-led war in Iraq. Al-Sadr said in a release circulated at al-Kofa Mosque in Najaf City "I invite you to a mass demonstration in Najaf on April 9th on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of occupation of Iraq." He also called on US and allied forces in Iraq to leave the country, saying that no one whoever had the right to extend the stay of occupying forces in Iraq. It is only the Iraqi people, who are opposed to the foreign military presence in the country, who can say yes or no to such a matter, he added.

He also urged all Arab and Muslim peoples to support the Iraqi people and back Iraqi resistance, accusing the foreign occupation of "isolating" Iraq from the Arab and Muslim space and spurring communal sedition in the region.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boommmmmmmmmmmm
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 1:02 Comments || Top||

#2  16 followers of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr were killed and 14 others injured in a US air raid

Allahu akbar!

I invite you to a mass demonstration in Najaf on April 9th on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of occupation of Iraq."

I suppose it would be asking way too much to drop a MOAB there. Gotta test the shelf life on those things anyway, don't we? We can always say "Whoops, fell out of the plane by accident!" And a few more incidents like that would be almost guaranteed to end the mass demonstrations, at least.

It is only the Iraqi people, who are opposed to the foreign military presence in the country, who can say yes or no to such a matter, he added.

He obviously doesn't read much news.

accusing the foreign occupation of "isolating" Iraq from the Arab and Muslim space and spurring communal sedition in the region

???
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 2:51 Comments || Top||

#3  I would be lovely if they were part of the group that just got back from being trained in Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/31/2007 5:47 Comments || Top||

#4  It would be lovely. I am not lovely at 5:47 in the morning.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/31/2007 9:23 Comments || Top||

#5  I am not lovely at 5:47 in the morning.

< Engage SHM* > "Why dear, you're always lovely!" < End SHM* >

* Smart Husband Mode
Posted by: Steve || 03/31/2007 10:07 Comments || Top||

#6  BAGHDAD, Iraq – Despite reports from individuals and some media organizations Coalition forces were not involved in air strikes over Sadr city on Friday.
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=11021&Itemid=21
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/31/2007 13:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Ima lern beer is overeidge overide ver over over-ride smersh-husband mode.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 14:17 Comments || Top||


Twenty five corpses found in Mosul
Twenty five corpses have been found in scattered places in the city of Mosul, according to police. A police source in Mosul told KUNA Friday that the Iraqi patrol vehicles were able to discover the corpses in scattered places in the city. It added that some of the corpses were blindfolded and had gunfire scars.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tater's Tots return to Sadr City
Shi'ite militiamen, who melted away from Baghdad when U.S. and Iraqi troops began their security crackdown seven weeks ago, are rolling back into the city with fresh Iranian training, Iraqi and other officials said. It is not clear whether the radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in control of the newly trained group, which some Iraqis describe as a "secret army" trained and equipped by Iran.

U.S. forces are concerned that, despite Shi'ite leaders' assurances that they have pulled their fighters off the streets, uncooperative militias will return and seek to destabilize efforts to secure the city. Videotapes and other evidence of Iranian propaganda have been found on people recently detained in Sadr City, said a member of one of the multiple Iraqi and U.S. security forces trying to return security to Baghdad.

Sadr City, a sprawling low-income area in northern Baghdad, is the home of Sheik al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, the Badr Brigade armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, followers of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, several smaller armed Shi'ite factions and criminal gangs. A new element appears to be entering the territory: an extreme Mahdi Army splinter group that broke off from Sheik al-Sadr, went to Iran for training and started to return, said one Iraqi with intimate knowledge of the group. "This is a special group, used for special operations, not controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr. This is a secret army," said the Iraqi, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. "They work for Iranian intelligence. They have good weapons, good salary."

The group's objectives are not clear, but the Iraqi said he thought the goal was to exacerbate simmering strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites. The daily number of sectarian executions is creeping up again in some neighborhoods of Baghdad, despite an enormous coordinated security effort by U.S. and Iraqi forces that has reduced incidents of violence.

U.S. officers in the field said that clearing Sadr City of violent militiamen is crucial to the overall success of the Baghdad security plan, which began last month and is expected to continue at least through August. "It is the linchpin of the whole plan. Failure in Sadr City equates to an overall failure," said Maj. Wilson "Trey" Rutherford, operations officer for the 2-235 Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne.

A Shi'ite stronghold since the days of Saddam Hussein, Sadr City accounts for roughly two-thirds of the population of Baghdad and about 15 percent of the population of Iraq. Yet it has been a no-go zone for both the Iraqi and U.S. armies for the past two years. Bordered by wealthy neighborhoods of large houses and yards covered by date palms and orange trees, the heart of Sadr City is a jumble of trash, crowded low-rise buildings with corrugated tin doorways and crumbling cement stairways. In the post-Saddam power vacuum, several militias and gangs have spawned in the slum. The challenge of clearing the city of its various militias, many of which are directly linked to the government, is daunting.

"We are 120 men and 17 Stryker [armored vehicles] facing 2.9 million people and staring right at the fangs of the beast," said one member of the U.S. forces who faces that challenge daily. U.S. forces have been waiting to enter the heart of Sadr City until they identify the enemies, know their numbers and understand what it will take to subdue them. "We might push something to a flash point and force people to react -- people who, if given another option, might react differently," said one U.S. official, asking not to be named.

Instead, U.S. forces are encouraging Iraqi security forces -- some of whom have personal ties to the neighborhood and are followers of Sheik al-Sadr -- to take the lead in the area as they go on joint foot patrols and visit with families on the outskirts of the area. The Iraqi National Police are coordinating with the U.S. in Sadr City with the approval of Sheik al-Sadr, said one U.S. official working in the area to train the police force. "There is a tacit political agreement here, but no one is sure how long it will hold," he said. "There may be elements that are unhappy with the level of cooperation."

As long as the cooperation lasts, the Americans are making a huge effort to win over the population by operating free clinics and trying to explain to family after family the goals of the security plan. "When the coalition forces and the Iraqi forces work together in the town, we found the people like that, because they know these forces are there to keep them safe, and that the militia kill people without any reason," said one Iraqi officer. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he recently survived an assassination attempt.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  not good news the MMs have decided to up the ante with us - time to meet that and raise
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 10:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm... I wonder if they'll make a move during the House Dem visit.
Posted by: mrp || 03/31/2007 10:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Militia members need to be shot on sight and killed upon capture. Since such a policy would be in direct opposition to the current "Catch & Release" program, I'd don't hold out much hope.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 16:56 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
13 killed in Sri Lanka mortar barrage
Thirteen people, including eight civilians caught in a mortar barrage, were killed in fierce fighting between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels, the military and rebels said Friday.

In eastern Sri Lanka, where the army has stepped up its assault on rebel bases, mortar shells slammed into a village on the frontline of fighting late Thursday killing eight civilians, including at least 2 children. Separately, a roadside bomb placed by the rebels blew up a military vehicle on Friday, killing five Sri Lankan soldiers and wounding one, near Vavuniya the last government-held garrison town before rebel territory in the north, said military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe.

Both sides blamed each other for the shelling late Thursday, which came as the army stepped up its efforts to oust the rebels from bases they control in eastern Sri Lanka. The military has reportedly killing up to 140 insurgents in recent assaults. Fighting in the last two days has cantered on the rebels' Thoppigala base, one of their last redoubts in the area, which has proved difficult for the government to conquer due to a huge rock formation that provides perfect cover for rebel fighters during combat.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian Experts: US operation in Iran supposes usage of nuclear weapons
“A US military operation in Iran supposes usage of tactical nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, consequences of a US nuclear strike on Iran will affect neighboring territories as well,” First Vice President of the Academy for Geopolitical Issues, Capt. Konstantin Sivkov said at a news conference “When and how will be Iran attacked?” in Moscow, a REGNUM correspondent reports.

“Nuclear weapons will be mostly used against headquarters and nuclear development facilities in Iran, there are 128 of them; besides, administrative facilities will be also attacked,” Vice President of the Academy for Geopolitical Issues Vladimir Anokhin believes.

“Bush and the Republican Party need a fast, short and winnable operation in Iran in order to secure their positions and influence in the USA,” President of Academy for Geopolitical Issues, Gen.-Col. Leonid Ivashov added.
The Russians, like the Europeans, believe that you should dither around to the last minute, then use nukes.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/31/2007 21:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uh, huh? For a Vice President of the Academy for Geopolitical Issues he seems to be remarkably ignorant about bunker buster technology. (Fred, this nic generator thing is intoxicating. I may neer use my real nic again.)
Posted by: Chuckles Ulavilet7600 || 03/31/2007 21:28 Comments || Top||

#2  This is the second article from Russia about the US attacking Iran.

What are the Ruskies up to?
Posted by: Creatle the Rasher of Bacon9147 || 03/31/2007 21:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Ruskies lie, Persians lie, Freds nics don't lie.
:)
Posted by: Jiter Trotsky3217 || 03/31/2007 21:46 Comments || Top||

#4  “When and how will be Iran attacked?”
Not "if" or "whether". Interesting.
If you attack a nuclear facility when 'conventional'(non nuclear)bombs, how do you convince the skeptics that the resulting radiation is not from your choice of weapons?
Me thinks the Ruskies are setting this up for a big propaganda push.
Posted by: GK || 03/31/2007 21:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Or maybe the Russians are playing the mental card to get payment from the Iranians to finish the reactor. Or maybe we are using the Russians as a mouthpiece to telegraph what we want to do since nobody really believes them much anyway anymore.

Hmm....
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/31/2007 22:23 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm at the point where, despite all my past objections, if hitting Iran depends upon America using nuclear-tipped weapons, I'll resignedly have to agree.

As always, I'd really rather we did not sacrifice the moral high ground that we've husbanded so impeccably for the last 60 plus years. All the same, Iran must be brought down and if there is one single terrorist nation on earth that so richly deserves the horrors of nuclear attack, it can only be Iran.

Yes, both Russia and China deserve it even more. Russia for being the midwife of modern day Islamic terrorism, while China is on the Christmas list for mass murder in the unknown tens of millions called their "Cultural Revolution". Mounds of Dung Mao Tse-tung is Hitler's ideological twin and history needs to bear this out.

Being obliged to settle for less than global nuclear war, I'll happily see Iran's atomic R&D facilities bathed in nuclear fire. It would not only be more than appropriate, but would send an unmistakable message to all of our other terrorist foes of what awaits them as well.

Again, I still believe that we do not need to use nuclear weapons. I also think that Bush has the wisdom to understand why we should not do so as well. All said and done, per Dr. John Lewis' excellent discourse on why Iranian theocracy must go, whatever it takes, let's get this over with. Many other pressing tasks are at hand and Iran is merely one of the first in line at America's kissing booth.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 22:45 Comments || Top||

#7  consequences of a US nuclear strike on Iran will affect neighboring territories as well

Yes. It might shock their neighbors into playing nice for a while. In fact, they might find they enjoy it so much they will continue to do it even after they figure out it was for their own good.
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 23:44 Comments || Top||


How Britons were conned by Iranian gunboat trick
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/31/2007 13:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The speed and cunning shown by the Revolutionary Guards has raised suspicions that their action was premeditated. A senior military officer described it as “deliberate”.

This is from the Times! They still don't get it. Once the ostrich gets its wings in the sand, can it ever hope to extricate itself?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/31/2007 13:58 Comments || Top||

#2  The Times was the most pro-appeasementvoice during the 30s
Posted by: JFM || 03/31/2007 14:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, but it is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp. The same company that owns Fox News in the US.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/31/2007 15:20 Comments || Top||

#4  CP: Yes, but it is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp. The same company that owns Fox News in the US.

Rupert Murdoch is a businessman. With the exception of the New York Post, News Corp is a for-profit organization. The Times is a pinko rag to the left of the New York Times. Because that's what the British elites want.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/31/2007 15:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Interesting. I don't see it to the left of the NYT at all. I see it somewhat to the right of the NYT. Actually, they publish content from both perspectives. They are one of the few papers where I can find articles from both the right and the left perspective on an issue in the same day's paper.

Yes, I will grant you that they sometimes publish articles that might be to the left of the NYT's "official" position, but they will also publish articles to the right as well. The NYT is pretty much a "lockstep" paper. Articles must be in line with the publisher's agenda or they never see print. The Times of London gives me a different impression.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/31/2007 16:02 Comments || Top||

#6  The Times is a pinko rag to the left of the New York Times. Because that's what the British elites want.

So pink they don't realize they are at war and that they have no say in the matter. At this point they don't even seem to care whether they die on their feet or their backs. I know that's not the opinion of our UK contingent, but I never thought they were so far from the Brit mainstream.

Others have commented about being afraid. I'm not afraid of how it will all turn out, but it is starting to feel awfully lonely. Sort of May 1940.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/31/2007 16:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Nobody "wants" content from newspapers. You only get to read what the Editors "want" to provide to you. If you are interested enough to "want" specific content you go to the Internet where you can seek out multiple sources of whatever is your pleasure.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 16:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Nobody "wants" content from newspapers. You only get to read what the Editors "want" to provide to you. If you are interested enough to "want" specific content you go to the Internet where you can seek out multiple sources of whatever is your pleasure.

thats why the sales #s of these rags keep going down the shitter.
Posted by: RD || 03/31/2007 17:38 Comments || Top||

#9  I dunno. How are the conservative rags faring? Are there any worth mentioning? :-)
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 18:17 Comments || Top||

#10  are there any?
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 18:53 Comments || Top||

#11  National Review, Weekly Std
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 19:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Daily Torygraph.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/31/2007 19:22 Comments || Top||

#13  What is everyone expecting of the Britts; lets face it, this is the second time they reached for the vasoline® and now they have to take it real deep! With 'Big Bro" looking on down the block, maybe they feel comforted overall during the crisis!
Posted by: smn || 03/31/2007 20:22 Comments || Top||


Iran note ties nuclear stance to fear of attack
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran, in a confidential letter posted Friday on an internal Web site of the U.N. nuclear monitor, said its fear of attack from the United States and Israel prompted its decision to withhold information from the agency.

In the letter, Iran said the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency had repeatedly allowed confidential information crucial to the country's security to be leaked.

The IAEA, in response, urged Iran to reconsider, saying the decision would be in defiance of the monitor's 35-nation board. Both the Iranian document and the confidential IAEA response were made available to The Associated Press.

The exchange reflected heightened tensions arising from Iran's refusal to heed the U.N. Security Council and freeze uranium enrichment and the council's decision last Saturday to increase sanctions in response.

The IAEA also is waiting for Iran to respond to its requests to install remote cameras at key locations at Iran's underground enrichment plant at Natanz.

No enrichment is yet taking place at Natanz, but diplomats accredited to the IAEA said Friday it may start within days. If so, those cameras are crucial to IAEA experts' efforts to watch for attempts to alter machinery there to make weapons-grade uranium.

Iran insists it wants to enrich only to low levels, suitable for generating nuclear power. But the international community increasingly fears that the country may want to develop enrichment for weapons uses.

Iran said Sunday it would no longer provide the IAEA with advance notice about any new nuclear facilities planned -- a decision government spokesman Gholan Hossein Elham said came in response to the "illegal and bullying resolution by (the) Security Council."

Expanding on the decision, the confidential letter, dated March 29, declared that "the United States and the Israeli regime ... are threatening the use of force and attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran and have repeatedly stressed that military action is an option on the table."

"So long as such threats of military action persist, Iran has no option but (to) protect its security through all means possible, including protection of information which can facilitate openly stated and aggressive military objectives of the war mongers," said the letter, signed by Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA.

Blaming the IAEA for failing "systematically and repeatedly to maintain confidentiality of sensitive information," Soltanieh wrote that "therefore such dangerous dissemination of sensitive information will have to be curtailed through steps which limit their scope and availability."

The agency noted in its Friday response that the move is "contrary to the board's decision" and suggested it may indirectly breach agreements linked to the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Calling Iran's decision "regrettable," the agency, in a letter signed by a deputy of senior IAEA official Vilmos Cserveny, urged the Iranian authorities to reconsider their decision.

Iran had previously committed itself to informing the agency of any planned new nuclear construction before such construction begins -- a commitment it has not always kept.

Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright said Iran's decision could allow for clandestine nuclear work related to its enrichment program.

Albright, whose Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks Iran's nuclear program, said that Iran may be looking to build a "backup facility" for enrichment that would remain undetected -- and safe -- in case of attack by the United States or Israel.
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 02:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ..Man, they really ARE crazy. The one outfit that they shouldn't worry about leaking info to us and the Israelis is the UN.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/31/2007 17:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh yeah, I'm buying it. Sure thing. This is some of that Muzzy Logic stuff. (Isn't that what you guys call it?) Only a Muzzy could make "sense" of it, only a EUro tranzi symp would fall for it, and only a paid Muzzy agent (e.g. Elwatchdoggie) would flog it as legit.
Posted by: Punky Crolutch3978 || 03/31/2007 17:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Iran note ties nuclear stance to fear of attack

The eternal mystery of Cause and Effect once again manifests in Islamic thinking.

It is Iran's fear of attack that should be tied to their nuclear stance. Not otherwise. Silly mullahs. Nothing a good carpet bombing can't solve.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 23:48 Comments || Top||


Europe threatens action as Iran airs new 'confession'
EU foreign ministers support British position and warn of 'appropriate measures' if 15 sailors and marines not released

Don't get too excited, now...

The EU threatened to act against Iran last night if it did not immediately and unconditionally release the 15 British sailors and marines it has been holding for more than a week.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Bremen, Germany, threatened "appropriate measures" if Tehran did not let the group go, supporting Britain's position that the crew had been in Iraqi waters when they were seized eight days ago. The ministers did not spell out what measures would be taken, but British diplomats hoped they would involve an escalating array of punitive steps.

The tough statement was the kind of direct rebuke Britain had sought in vain from the UN security council on Thursday night when, in the face of resistance from Russia and others, the council only expressed concern but threatened no action. Despite the EU statement, prospects for a quick resolution to the crisis dwindled yesterday after another propaganda video and letter featuring more dubious confessions and apologies by the captives.

The only glimmer of hope for a quick diplomatic solution was a note presented yesterday to Britain's ambassador in Tehran, portrayed by Iranian officials as conciliatory, which bore some resemblance to a letter sent shortly before the end of a similar drama in 2004.

The letter restated that the British naval patrol was in Iranian waters when it was intercepted by boats of the Iranian revolutionary guard, which Britain denies. But unlike previous Iranian pronouncements it did not demand an apology, just a guarantee it would not happen again.

More dithering at link...

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the EU will just not play the spoiler this time around it would make things incredibly easier.

And if we can somehow pull off the coup of getting moral support and maybe just maybe even some over restricted nearly useless short nation building forces to boot it will be amazing.

Posted by: C-Low || 03/31/2007 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I wish Keith Laumer was still alive.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 0:57 Comments || Top||

#3  The PU is the biggest trade partner to Irant. Apparently "appropriate measures" doesn't mean commence
Posted by: Captain America || 03/31/2007 1:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Screw "threats", screw "measures" screw everything but Iranian facilities going up in flames, one by one, until the mullahs are brought to their senses. As 'moose has pointed out time and again, merely nailing Iran's very few but precious gasoline refineries will bring the entire country to a screeching halt. No more prinking about, Britain. It's long past tea for putting a boot up Iran's arse.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 1:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Blair must've pointed out to the EU that Britain was one of the few things keeping them afloat.
Posted by: mojo || 03/31/2007 1:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Assuming what the Mullahs want is their captured people in Iraq back (and possibly the defectee), the fifteen Brits aren't providing sufficient leverage. So expect another 'incident'. The danger for Iran is that the next incident results in shooting and likely dead Iranians with the resultant humiliation that needs to be avenged and the spiral quickly acelerates.

Whether that spiral is up or down depends on your point of view.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/31/2007 3:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Action with what? The mighty EU army?
Posted by: Mac || 03/31/2007 4:50 Comments || Top||

#8  This frightening display of irresistible and raw soft power will surely have the Iranians uncontrollably voiding their bowels.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/31/2007 5:56 Comments || Top||

#9  ZF, the effluvia from that voiding is about how much "soft power" is worth in this type of situation.
Posted by: Mac || 03/31/2007 6:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Sounds like it's time for the EU to write a really really strong letter.

I mean a really really strong one.
Posted by: Oregonian || 03/31/2007 7:27 Comments || Top||

#11  No, no; a REALLY strong one!
Posted by: Bobby || 03/31/2007 8:19 Comments || Top||

#12 
Go away, or I will taunt you a second time!
Posted by: doc || 03/31/2007 10:56 Comments || Top||

#13  A Demarche they'll never forget! This time in INK!
Posted by: Angereling Borgia || 03/31/2007 11:19 Comments || Top||

#14  I'm going to stick my neck out and predict "Iran will not exist within two to six months", they've gone too far this time, and any attempt at another such "Hostage taking" will be the final trigger.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/31/2007 11:49 Comments || Top||

#15  How many legions has the EU?
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/31/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||

#16  Much ado about nothing. Euros speak louder than the Europeans.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/31/2007 13:37 Comments || Top||

#17  EU Response. Heh.
Posted by: Brett || 03/31/2007 15:01 Comments || Top||

#18  Be sure to note how when Graham Chapman (King Arthur) asks about the Holy Grail, John Cleese suddenly switches over from his flamboyant French to pidgen Italian: "Oh yes, itsa very nice-a."

Yes, as a matter of fact I did see the Pacific West Coast premier of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". The entire audience was rolling in the aisles before the opening credits stopped running.

Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time about having seen them live at the Hollywood Bowl.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 15:50 Comments || Top||

#19  Did you void your bowels at the Hollywood Bowl ?
Posted by: wxjames || 03/31/2007 16:03 Comments || Top||


Foreign Office calls pictures 'disgraceful exploitation'
The Foreign Office in London Friday condemned as 'disgraceful exploitation ' an IRNA news agency interview with a British captive, who supposedly apologised to the Iranian nation for violation of its territorial waters. IRNA quoted Nathan Thomas Summers as saying in an interview, which Iranian television was also to carry, that he and the other sailors entered Iranian waters without permission and would therefore like to apologise to the Iranian nation for the violation. The British sailor was further quoted as saying that he had been treated 'very well and humanitarianly' and there has been 'no maltreatment.'

An Iranian cleric said at a Friday prayer ceremony that London was to blame for the fact that female British captive Faye Turney had not been released as initially planned by the Iranian government. 'It was decided in Iran that the female soldier would be released but the ballyhoo approach by the British government led to the decision being revised,' Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said at Friday prayers in in Tehran. 'We are neither looking for a conflict (with Britain) nor tension in the region but we will not allow any country to violate our territory and especially not Britain which has no positive record in Iranian history,' the Ayatollah said.

He added that Britain should 'no longer act as a great empire of the 19th century' and realise that the current approach would just further complicate the issue. Khatami also termed the dispute 'a bilateral issue' between Tehran and London and called on the United Nations Security Council and the European Union to stay out of it. The Iranian foreign ministry had earlier called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana to stay out of the dispute or at least study the facts more carefully before commenting. 'If Britain continued the current approach, then the issue would have a high cost for London,' the Ayatollah warned without further elaborating.

The news network Khabar reported that one of the British captives had 'disclosed' more details on the incident in an interview which is to be broadcast later Friday on Iranian television.

A number of Islamist students plan to stage a protest demonstration in front of the British embassy in Tehran following the Friday prayers. The Iranian government has delivered a note concerning the 15 British captives to the British embassy in Tehran, the Foreign Office in London confirmed Friday. It refused to reveal the contents of the communication, but commentators said it could be seen as an 'encouraging sign' that contact was being made with the embassy in Tehran for the first time since the Britons were seized a week ago. 'We can confirm that, as reported in the Iranian media, the Iranian government has sent a formal note to the British Embassy. Such exchanges are always confidential so we cannot divulge any details, but we are giving the message serious consideration and will soon respond formally to the Iranian government,' the Foreign Office in London said.

Last night the UN Security Council expressed 'grave concern' over the detention of the sailors and marines, and called for the crisis to be resolved as soon as possible. But the statement, agreed by all 15 members after more than three hours of negotiations in New York, was seen as a blow for Britain because it fell short of 'deploring' Tehran's actions and demanding the detainees' immediate release. 'It is shocking that the UN cannot speak out in defence of its own people,' British Iran analyst William Shawcross told the BBC Friday, pointing to the UN mandate under which British forces were assigned to patrol the waters in the northern Gulf where the 14 men and one woman were captured last Friday.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to release the female British sailor held captive in Tehran, the Mehr news agency reported Friday. Iran should further allow the Turkish ambassador to Tehran to visit the entire group of sailors, the report said.

Ahmadinejad said in his first reaction to the incident that instead of apologizing to Iran for having violated Iranian waters, Britain had complicated the issue by creating a political and media ballyhoo, eventually pushing Tehran into a legal course. In a telephone conversation on Thursday night, the Iranian president said he would order an 'evaluation of the Turkish request with a positive view.'
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foreign Office calls pictures 'disgraceful exploitation'

But still sits on its pasty white cheeks not giving a tinkers' cuss for the fifteen hostages. Screw them and their Tony Jacklin golf clubs and bleeding secret Masonic handshakes.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Ayatollah Khatami uses the word "ballyhoo"?
Posted by: Sonar || 03/31/2007 2:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Sure he does. Ballyhoo is a bait fish. Fitting for the stink Mahmoud's in.
Posted by: Clomoque Speaking for Boskone1275 || 03/31/2007 12:59 Comments || Top||

#4  damn tossed my cookies again.
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble || 03/31/2007 13:01 Comments || Top||


EU demands urgent release of British sailors
European Union foreign ministers Friday mandated the bloc's chief diplomat Javier Solana to work for the urgent and unconditional release of 15 British naval personnel captured last week by Iran. Defying calls by Tehran that the 27-nation bloc stay out of the dispute, EU ministers meeting in Bremen, Germany, issued a strong statement deploring the continued arrest of the British citizens. The statement said there was 'unconditional support' from the EU for Britain in its standoff with Iran and warned of 'appropriate' EU action against Iran if the sailors were not released 'in the near future.

Solana refused to give details of possible EU retaliatory moves against Iran but warned that the row over the sailors was 'complicating' already difficult nuclear diplomacy with Tehran. The chief EU diplomat insisted that he wanted the 'unconditional and immediate liberation' of the navy personnel. Iranian arguments that this was a bilateral dispute with Britain were not acceptable, he said, adding: 'They have to understand that when something happens to EU citizens, the EU acts in solidarity.'
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  EU demands urgent release of British sailors

[read in the voice of John Cleese]

Lesson Number One in How to Make A Demand:

Demands are something that must have negative consequences to back them up.

Demands made in the absence of any pending negative consequences are more commonly referred to as "requests". Requests made in place of demands are generally met with sneers, face making, laughter or other sorts of unpleasantness.

Demands backed by something so inconsequential as, say, finger wagging, repeated tongue clucking or sternly worded letters of reproof historically obtain rather low success rates as well. Such inadequately reinforced demands often can find themselves greeted by derisive suggestions, rude gestures or inappropriate speculation upon one’s personal matrilineal ancestry.

Demands made with negative consequences that rely upon force of arms frequently find a much more attentive audience. Successful examples of such force typically utilize gun barrels of a caliber measured with triple digits, guided missiles or, in extreme cases, devices that yield substantial amounts of neutrons in very short order. Demands backed in this sort of fashion occasionally may be received with less than appreciative demeanor. These displays can come in such forms as sulking, foot dragging and other counterproductive activities. However, even a slight physical demonstration of the abovementioned negative consequences usually renders tangible results without much further delay.

To review:

Demands that are refused must entail negative consequences.

Demands with negligible consequences often are greeted by some form of hilarity.

Demands whose consequences do not involve force of arms invite unpleasant replies.

Demands involving force of arms are a time tested and proven method of obtaining actual results.

Any questions?
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 2:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Nuke Tehran
Save Bandwidth
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 2:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Sooo...the EU has no army that they can commit, no artillery, no nuclear weapons to make good on the 'negative consequence' thingy.

Explain to me again why the Brits went to the EU for
the 'strong statement'?
Posted by: WTF || 03/31/2007 9:00 Comments || Top||

#4  EU demands urgent release of British sailors

Or they will taunt Iran a second time!
Posted by: CochinoMarrano || 03/31/2007 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Iran to EU: What are you going to do, bleed on me?
Posted by: CochinoMarrano || 03/31/2007 11:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Think this could lead to the break-up of the EU if Britain doesn't get the right kind of support?
Posted by: Danking70 || 03/31/2007 13:19 Comments || Top||

#7  No. Brussels wouldn't allow it.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 14:24 Comments || Top||

#8  If the EU imposed a 100% blockade on Iranian trade and commerce, Iran would be crippled beyond repair in about three months. Unfortunately, the EU gets too much of its oil from Iran to do that. Things would work out a lot better if they did, but they don't have the courage. I'd love to be proved wrong, but...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/31/2007 15:31 Comments || Top||


Britain seeks to turn up heat
Military strikes have a poor track record as a way to rescue hostages, leaving Britain with little choice but to ratchet up diplomatic and economic pressure as it tries to free 15 sailors and marines seized by Iran last week.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is under increasing pressure to act more forcefully after a leading British newspaper slammed the early response to the Iranian seizure as "pusillanimous."
British diplomats pressed ahead yesterday for a U.N. statement "deploring" the seizure and calling for the immediate release of the detainees. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also has appealed for support from Britain's partners in the European Union and from allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Oman.
"Blair's preference, indeed best hope, is probably the U.N.," said Simon Henderson, director of the Persian Gulf and energy policy program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in an analysis of the standoff.
Military analysts say history suggests that neither a surgical strike nor a massive military retaliation has a high likelihood of achieving the primary objective of freeing the hostages.
A U.S. Special Forces mission to rescue the more than 50 American hostages seized in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Iran misfired disastrously, contributing to the political downfall of President Carter.
Tracy Dove, a professor of history and international relations at the University of New York in Prague, points to a more recent example: Israel's 34-day war in Lebanon last summer.
For all the damage inflicted on fighters of the militant Shi'ite Hezbollah movement during the war, Israel never managed to win the freedom of two Israeli soldiers whose capture in a cross-border raid ignited the conflict.
"War conducted for the sake of liberating hostages rarely achieves its objectives, so this is not an option, despite the rhetoric," Mr. Dove said.
Mr. Blair told a British television interviewer yesterday that London has a "whole series of measures we can take," both at the United Nations and within the European Union, to pressure Iran.
"I'm not interested in confrontation for its own sake," he added, "The most important thing is to get the 15 personnel back safe and sound."
Britain, which has diplomatic relations with Tehran, has frozen bilateral contacts in the wake of the seizure, but a full rupture of formal ties is considered unlikely for the moment.
Former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, speaking in the House of Commons this week, said Britain should pressure its European allies, many with extensive energy and trade ties to Iran, to suspend or cancel export credits to Iran.
The Bush administration has strongly backed Britain in the crisis, which erupted while the United States was beefing up its naval presence in the region. The United States also is pressing Tehran to suspend its suspect nuclear programs and has put out tentative diplomatic feelers to Iran over stabilizing the security situation in Iraq.
Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday that the captured British sailors and marines were "entirely innocent" and were not operating in Iranian waters, as Tehran charges.
But, Mr. Burns added, "We are most definitely on a diplomatic track [with Iran]. We do not believe that conflict is inevitable."
Despite intense press speculation, Iran has denied any link between the capture of the British servicemen and five Iranians seized by U.S. forces in the Iraqi city of Irbil in January. Iran claims the five were diplomats, but U.S. military officials say they have evidence the Iranians were actively supporting militants.
A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters in London on background yesterday, said London and Washington were united in rejecting any prisoner swap.
"I don't think it's ever a good thing to create exchanges of hostages," the official said, according to a Reuters news agency report.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  leading British newspaper slammed the early response to the Iranian seizure as "pusillanimous."

English newspapers lose their nuanced approach?
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/31/2007 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  pusillanimous

Is that where the word pussy comes from?
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 2:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Britain can end this "hostage cricis" if they've got the nerve, and the support of the US. Simply capture Kharq Island, and tell the Iranians they're going to keep it until they get their hostages back. The Brits will then leave Kharq Island in the same condition their sailors and marines are returned in. Until those sailors and marines are returned, Kharq Island pumps ZERO oil for the mullahs (of course, the Brits may wish to fill up a few hundred ships as ongoing "blood money" for the families of the sailors and marines). Iran would be caught in an economic, political, and military pinch. Backed by the US military, no more than a batallion of British Marines would be needed to take Kharq Island.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/31/2007 15:40 Comments || Top||

#4  pusillanimous pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs, adjective:
Lacking in courage and resolution; contemptibly fearful; cowardly.


LOL!! very funny.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 16:13 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
U.S rejects deal to swap British sailors for captured Iranians
Posted by: Ebbeanter Ulemp4173 || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And they should refuse, don't give into their demands. They are terrorists.
Posted by: Flolumble Elmuling1667 || 03/31/2007 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  So when's Bush gonna open up the Eastern Front? just wanting to know when to invest in oil stock.
Posted by: Glise Mussolini9030 || 03/31/2007 0:31 Comments || Top||

#3  What an appropriate nic for a lefty troll, marching, chanting, conformist blackshirts that they are. As to your question, Glise, just find out where Rosie and the 9-11 truthers are putting their Islamo bribe money. They seem to be your authorities for everything else.

Personally, I am investing in rope manufacturers. We will need lots of it after an Iranian nuke goes off here.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 1:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Where does it say that Irant wanted such an exchange (hint: it doesn't)
Posted by: Captain America || 03/31/2007 1:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Personally, I am investing in rope manufacturers. We will need lots of it after an Iranian nuke goes off here.

Don't want to waste any of that expensive ammo. Eh, AC?

Good to see the USA is making Britain address the problem themselves. We'll be there to help do some of the heavy lifting, I'm sure. But no up front assets go into the pot. The Limeys must find their spine.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 1:18 Comments || Top||

#6  OFF TOPIC: Is it just me or does the whole concept of 9-11 "truthers" make you want to vomit and then vomit all over again? The entire notion is just so insanely warped and perverted that it eludes me how anyone can possibly be so lamebrain as to accept it.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 1:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Z, a few of my comments from LGF yesterday might be relevant:

Truthers' right to lie

Civil War 2, evil morons vs. Everyone Else.

Lefties, Islamos, and Truthers as endangered species
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 1:34 Comments || Top||

#8  We've been told the Eastern front is where German troops crossed Switzerland to get to. Then the "World Socialist Web Site" served as factual reference: The standpoint of this web site is one of revolutionary opposition to the capitalist market system. Its aim is the establishment of world socialism. That was provided as a source of facts, and nobody protested. I had thought this was a forum for reasonable people, adhering to reality instead of indulging in various derangement syndromes. Good bye.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/31/2007 2:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Kalle, what are you going on about?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 2:35 Comments || Top||

#10  Well, that was odd.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 2:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Mistaken crossposting that belongs to another site? Otherwise it does not make a smidget of sense.
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/31/2007 2:41 Comments || Top||

#12  Maybe Joe could make sense of it for us.
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 2:42 Comments || Top||

#13  A dustup from last evening. Come back soonest Kalle.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 2:46 Comments || Top||

#14  So when's Bush gonna open up the Eastern Front?

I'd wager it was Benito's post that tripped Kalle's trigger.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 2:50 Comments || Top||

#15  Cue terror groupies peace protesters blaming America for the failure to secure the release of our troops.
Posted by: Sonar || 03/31/2007 2:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Jeebus, AC! I don't know whether to thank you or insult you for linking to Rosie's truther meltdown. Worst of all was the applause that she was getting. I wish there was some way to allow these loons to clearly see just how wretched and moronic they actually are. Meanwhile, I still feel like vomiting.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 3:12 Comments || Top||

#17  Kalle, the "World Socialist Web Site" on the face of it, without ever going there, has to be something completely unbelievable. It's like relying on Ted Rall for facts. Sometimes a)we don't read all the articles, or b)think the argument is so damned stupid it doesn't merit a reply. Either way, the 'Burg is "a forum for reasonable people, adhering to reality instead of indulging in various derangement syndromes."
So don't take offense where none was intended.
Posted by: Mac || 03/31/2007 4:47 Comments || Top||

#18  Yes, 'truthers' disgusting. That meme is growing. Front page of some alterno mag in a Darwin newsagent yesterday had 9/11 conspiracy as front page photo.

ON IRAN:
The Brits were abducted in the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

Access to this area was what prompted Saddam to invade Iran in the 1980s.

Iran is posturing for dominance in the region as it can smell US withdrawal (as congress trying to put a date on).

The message Iran is sending IMHO is not just to the US (We can block the straits of Hormuz if you don't play ball) but also to the people of Iraq.

The people of Iraq well remember losing a million citizens in the Iran-Iraq war.

When the US leaves, Iran will attempt either a land grab (i think) or else set up a Shi'ite puppet ruler in Iraq.

Iran will go on posturing for dominance as it sees the US withdrawal of Iraq as a way to finally win the temporarily suspended Iran-Iraq war.

It might be remembered, it was Iranian intelligence on WMD that was partly relied on to make the casus belli for invading Iraq.

Those clever Mullahs have got a sweet cherry out of our efforts.

Short of war with Iran, I don't see a way the West can stop them.

What do you guys think of this situation strategically?




Posted by: anon1 || 03/31/2007 5:21 Comments || Top||

#19  I think I'll check my astronomical charts to see what phase the moon is in.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/31/2007 7:19 Comments || Top||

#20  Makes one wonder how anyone in their right mind could fail to connect the dots with how Iran's "hostage and leverage" falls into play; when it perfects and readies its bomb technology…

But as far as strategy; it looks like a serious war 'step up' is going on today, along the Iran/Iraq border...

And (believe it or not) we also have a 'Pelosi watch’... US Congress continues to ‘over-step' and micro-manage the war by meandering on in (with camera-crews) to play into the hand of the Syrian enemy… Ignoring Bush, Pelosi Going to Syria :/
Posted by: MB || 03/31/2007 8:16 Comments || Top||

#21  Truthers need to read Popular Mechanics

Physics is just another Bush plot

Linky

Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/31/2007 8:37 Comments || Top||

#22  Linky no work. My bad.

http:/www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/911myths/4213805.html
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/31/2007 8:38 Comments || Top||

#23  Linked to that article twice off of LGF and Internet shut down. ???
Posted by: Jules || 03/31/2007 9:03 Comments || Top||

#24  Full moon tomorrow night, Ship. They'll be out in force.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/31/2007 10:13 Comments || Top||

#25  Ooh. Full moon tomorrow already.

Unfortunately, that seems a little to soon for meaningful action.
Posted by: Mike N. || 03/31/2007 10:23 Comments || Top||

#26  "just wanting to know when to invest in oil stock."

If you missed Jan 03, you missed the bus.
Posted by: doc || 03/31/2007 10:48 Comments || Top||

#27 
Now that you've had your 100 yrs, La Bella Pelosi, What are you going to do next?
I'm going to Syria!
Posted by: doc || 03/31/2007 10:53 Comments || Top||

#28  I actually am heartened that the troll could look at a map or a globe and figure out which direction Iran is in... at least something useful came from his days spent in the madrassa.
Now if he can only figure out how much change back for my value meal without looking at the cash register, I would be most impressed. (you can even use your fingers if you need to)
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 03/31/2007 12:38 Comments || Top||

#29  Truthers = mentally ill. Their name is ironic, because truth is the last thing they are interested in. There is something wrong in their core that is forcing them to go that deep into denial. Maybe its that they simply cannot accept that people are as hate filled and evil as our enemies are. They simply cannot accept that people hate us enough to kill. They maintain that our enemies are just like us, yet the enemy proves the opposite in their words and deeds on a daily basis (car bombs with infants strrapped in them, etc) - so something has to give. Rather than give up their core beleif that "all people are the same, everyone is like me" they are forced into the delusional world where conspriacies give them a handy object to blame and an escape mechanism from the truth. Just liek a schizphrenic constructs fantasies that wllo him to deny the reality aroudn him, these folks are constructing the same thing to protect a "truth" they hold dear and cannot reconcile with the real world.

Want to know the truth they cannot handle? Evil exists, its real, and it will come and get you unless you fight it. And as a corallary, good exists and is objective, not subjective nor relative.

That's whats killing these folks. Look and see the "truthers" tend to be moral relativists who refuse to beleive that good and evil are objective and absolute - and most tend to be non-religious or heterodox if they are religious, leaving them no "support" mechanism (God, reason) to turn to , so they instead turn to other ways out.

Orthodox believers in God tend to innately grasp that there is good and there is evil and that those are aboslutes - and they have Faith to carry them though. Even hardcore rational agnostics and rational atheists have reason to fall back on.

These poor souls in the "truther" camp have none of that, which is why they accept such far fetched irrational things are reality - since they cannot adequately deal with what true reality has for them.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/31/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||

#30  Folks, if you read the linked BBC article, the text does not support the headline. There is no mention of the Irantians wanting to exchange for the captured Irantians.
Posted by: Captain America || 03/31/2007 13:28 Comments || Top||

#31  No but there is a US denial, probably in response to a provocative, hypothetical question from the beeb that should not have been answered.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/31/2007 13:43 Comments || Top||

#32  I agree that truthers are mentally ill. The biggest problem that we have faced since the 1960's is that the media complex has presented the mentally ill as sane. They are given all of the limelight. Want exposure? Do what the Dixie Chix did. I happen to know for a fact that many very popular celebrities have actively supported the troops. You will NEVER see it in print. But any negative comment, any snide remark is given 24/7 coverage - usually co-inciding with a new release. Pavlov would be so proud.

Notice how the media complex has done little to shine the light on the Dianne Feinstein issue? Why do you think that is?

For 30 years we have had the lunatics in charge of the media asylum and 2 generations later, it has taken it's toll on our once great society. Thirty years ago there would have been such outrage at Rosie's deranged comments she would have been fired immediately. Today she is allowed her frothing lunatic say and granted respect for having the "guts" to say it.

It's a crazy world we live in. So crazy that it has become extremely dangerous. For the first time in years, I have felt pangs of fear about the future.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 13:48 Comments || Top||

#33  For the first time in years ever, I have felt pangs of fear about the future.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 13:50 Comments || Top||

#34  "Truthers = mentally ill. Their name is ironic, because truth is the last thing they are interested in. There is something wrong in their core that is forcing them to go that deep into denial."

That much I definitely agree with. Amen.

"Maybe its that they simply cannot accept that people are as hate filled and evil as our enemies are. They simply cannot accept that people hate us enough to kill."

Sometimes I wonder-- is it that, or is it that they need to believe their "truthy" bullshit to justify, and give structure to, their own irrational hatred of Bush, of Republicans, and of "flyover country" Americans in general? Whenever I read their crap, what jumps out at me more than anything else is how deeply and profoundly alienated these people are.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 13:52 Comments || Top||

#35  "For the first time ever, I have felt pangs of fear about the future."

You're not the only one.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 13:55 Comments || Top||

#36  Sometimes I wonder-- is it that, or is it that they need to believe their "truthy" bullshit to justify, and give structure to, their own irrational hatred

wonder no more.

what jumps out at me more than anything else is how deeply and profoundly alienated these people are.

I don't think they are alienated. I know too many of them to believe that the case. Instead they have found sanctuary, commraderie and acceptance by espousing these beliefs. There is no conviction behind these beliefs. If Nancy Pelosi and the media complex told them tomorrow to wave the flag - they'd be there, ready to party, flags in hand.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 14:19 Comments || Top||

#37  Sometimes I wonder-- is it that, or is it that they need to believe their "truthy" bullshit to justify, and give structure to, their own irrational hatred of Bush, of Republicans, and of "flyover country"

I think they just want to be one of the cool kids.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 14:23 Comments || Top||

#38  There is something wrong in their core that is forcing them to go that deep into denial. Maybe its that they simply cannot accept that people are as hate filled and evil as our enemies are. They simply cannot accept that people hate us enough to kill. They maintain that our enemies are just like us, yet the enemy proves the opposite in their words and deeds on a daily basis (car bombs with infants strrapped in them, etc) - so something has to give. Rather than give up their core beleif that "all people are the same, everyone is like me" they are forced into the delusional world where conspriacies give them a handy object to blame and an escape mechanism from the truth.

Word, OldSpook. This is the triumph of moral relativism over reason. I'm beginning to think that moral relativism is a greater poison than Political Correctness or Multiculturalism.

Moral relativism is a sort of fundamentalist interpretation of: "All men are created equal". In truth, all men are not created equal. Some are born blind, others disfigured or crippled. There are few chances that they will ever become astronauts or brain surgeons.

None of this changes the elementary fact that all of these men are created equal under the eyes of the law: Which is how I read this particular passage. Moral relativists so badly want an ultimately homogenized society of one-size-fits-all thinking and moralistic norms that they willingly subsume the vast gulfs between cultures and individual intentions in order to do so. All men, regarless of intent or ability, are created equal. Period. Moral relativism's revival tent is suddenly so large it threatens to collapse and smother all inside.

Want to know the truth they cannot handle? Evil exists, its real, and it will come and get you unless you fight it. And as a corallary, good exists and is objective, not subjective nor relative.

Bingo. Moral relativism's Pollyannaish mentality is shattered by having to recognize that evil really exists. In an intense irony, by refusing to accept the existence of evil, the moral relativists bring it about themselves. As the old saying goes about all that is necessary for evil to succeed, so we have what could be good people instead turning their back on the fight in a vague but disquieting hope that evil simply can be wished away.

It is this morally relativistic one-size-fits-all mentality that is entirely unfazed by the short migration over to Multiculturalism. Suddenly, all people, cultures, faiths and governments are equally good. Communism and Capitalism become interchangeable, Muslims and Methodists are the same and Shiites and Scandinavians are merely brothers separated at birth.

When this fallacious worldview became threatened — quite an easy thing to do as it turns out — the moral relativists cobbled up their most potent weapon: Namely, the Newspeak of modern day Political Correctness. Waiter and Waitress become Waitron. A massive leveling of the language — well suited to one-size-fits-all thinking — is thrown into high gear and uncomfortable words, thoughts and ideas are ushered out of the arena of political discussion.

Yesterday’s Rantburg article, "EU: Don't confuse terrorism with Islam" is a monument to this sort of thinking. Included were such gems as:

One alternative, suggested publicly last year, is for the term "Islamic terrorism" to be replaced by "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam".

This is a forcible attempt to decouple Islam and terrorism, as though merely doing so will put and end to this barbaric scourge. Thus begins moral relativism’s disconnect from reality. Political Correctness detaches us from the terms and concepts we need to address and combat the threats we face. This sort of philosophical disarmament — more a sort of dismemberment, really — is the hallmark of wishing away the discomforting notions that loom over such puerile thinking.

As the moral relativists seek to install their masterwork of Multiculturalism, they simultaneously betray the very constitutional rights and liberties that enabled them to attempt such a monstrous distortion of reality in the first place. Others, who are well aware of this betrayal, with increasing frequency, are beginning to recognize it as nothing less than treason.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 15:24 Comments || Top||

#39  Pavlov would be so proud.

For some strange reason that name rings a bell.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

#40  Rosie stated that 'it was the first time that fire melted steel.' indicating how ridiculous to believe that the plane crash fires had actually melted the steel structure of the Twin Towers.

Widly known fact: (specially for you, Rosie)
Iron and steel are prepared in a molton state in various blast furnaces to be poured into casts or drawn through shapes while pliable until finish dimentions are achieved. These blast furnaces contain flames played on the crucible of metal to cause melting. The first time this was tried was in the copper age, in what, 5,000 BC ?
Posted by: wxjames || 03/31/2007 15:58 Comments || Top||

#41  Heh. Yeah, that plus the issue was fire weakening the steel, not literally melting it. If Rosie had a brain, she'd realize structural steel in a building like that are clad in insulating material for a damn good reason: when steel gets hot, it loses strength.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 16:11 Comments || Top||

#42  correct, and deformation approaches the inelastic range, like Rosie's undergarments
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 16:43 Comments || Top||

#43  "Others, who are well aware of this betrayal, with increasing frequency, are beginning to recognize it as nothing less than treason."

Very true Zenster. It's also a betrayal of Humanity itself. Populist and faddist delusion of the unthinking crowd.

For many years now this very perversion has been exported as a devious fad elsewhere as well to feed the kneejerk anti-Americanism such as may be found in SE Asia too.
Posted by: Duh! || 03/31/2007 16:58 Comments || Top||

#44  The first of the three comments I linked in #7 will not go to the comment itself for some reason. The other two work ok and are followups to the first. Here is the first one:

I predicted 20 years ago that paranoid conspiracy theories would one day become a major factor in national and world politics. We are seeing that happen before our very eyes. Saturation media can turn many minds and the education system has wilfully failed to teach logic and critical thinking to anything resembling an adequate degree.

Thanks to decades of media indoctrination, millions of Americans literally do not know what "free speech" means. The media culture's self-serving definitions of the term have displaced common law and Constitutional definitions, with the result that open sedition, treason, and (ironically) the suppression of genuine dissent are taken for granted.
As a refresher for some of Rosie's defenders, the Constitution does not guarantee freedom from criticism, opposition, or ridicule; it does not guarantee the right to the forum of one's choice; and it does not guarantee the right to be taken seriously.

It especially does not provide for the right to silence one's critics, as leftists invariably advocate when they characterize opposition as an attack on their rights, a criminal offense. We saw this last year from idiot Dixie Chick defenders here in Lubbock and this attempt at criminalization of anti-leftist opinions is the unvarying response of left-conformists to all criticism.

There are limits on free speech, and on the right to free speech. Rosie may endorse moronic conspiracy lies that exist only to facilitate mass terrorism, but ABC is quite within its rights to fire her for it, and people are not criminals for urging them to do so.
Anyone who says otherwise is a self-declared totalitarian, a tool of Middle Eastern savages, and an enemy of the United States.

I have the right of free speech, too, lefties. Don't like it? Come and get me. I'm waiting.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 17:08 Comments || Top||

#45  If it's a global cancer, how do you expect to survive a civil war? Or are you thinking 'scorched earth'?
Posted by: Lionel Phusoper8019 || 03/31/2007 17:33 Comments || Top||

#46  (Rosie) I could wile away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain
And my head I'd be scratchin'
While my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain

I'd unravel any riddle
For any individ'le
In trouble or in pain

(Dorothy)
With the thoughts you'd be thinkin'
You could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain

(Rosie)
Oh, I would tell you why
The ocean's near the shore
I could think of things I never thunk before
And then I'd sit and think some more

I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 17:37 Comments || Top||

#47  Explain your reasoning. How would the conspiracy movement's being a global cancer make my survival impossible?

I may not survive, in fact, but conspiracy believers are stupid and irrational by definition. Their own ignorance and hubris will destroy them. It is therefore their survival that is less likely.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 17:41 Comments || Top||

#48  re: #45

One battle at a time, as all wars are waged and won.
Posted by: Albemarle Unavimp5200 || 03/31/2007 17:46 Comments || Top||

#49  think of drunk drivers - it's always his passenger and the other driver in his own lane that wind up around a tree. The drunk always wakes up to survey his carnage and say, "bummer, Dude".
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 17:46 Comments || Top||

#50  I am willing to bet my life that reason will triumph. I do it every time I get in an airplane or take my cardiac meds.
How many are willing to bet their lives that the evil Bush gang blew up the WTC?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 17:47 Comments || Top||

#51  Has anyone got any ideas why people like Rosie are so susceptible to every conspiracy theory that comes down the pike? Personally I think it's because they are so far removed from practical decisions when it comes to conflict that they have lost their edge. And of course it's human nature to resist the idea that you have spent your entire life so far only to come to a stupid conclusion.

Personally, I think conflict is part and parcel of being human, and that when it is removed then bad things will happen. My grandmother once made the comment that mental problems diminished during WWII. Hmm.
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 18:15 Comments || Top||

#52  Goeb, I think it's because they have so little intelligence they can't possibly imagine the world as it really is. Rosie can't imagine that heat melts steel. Why? because she lacks the intelligence to rationally confront the realities. It's like the person who opposed the construction of a dairy farm near her home. When asked where she thought milk came from she said, "I go to the grocery store and buy it". There is no connection between the actual production of something and getting the finished product in the store.
I could wile away the hours
just pissin on the flowers
And cussin' at the rain the rain
And my head I'd be scratchin'
While my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain
You could be another Lincoln
If you could keep your feet from stinkin'
If I only had a brain.
This is an example of The Scarecrow Principle. You don't need an education, all you need is a diploma!
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/31/2007 18:26 Comments || Top||

#53  gorb,
Psychologically, conspiracist beliefs rationalize helplessness and relieve feelings of inferiority. Rosie is a ruthless media beast and probably does not have these feelings herself, just as she probably does not believe her own claims. She is pandering to her audience.
The actual conspiracy dupe can tell itself
"it is not my fault that I can't understand complex issues, they're bogus anyway."
"People who seem smarter than me really aren't, they are being taken in by a conspiracy or they are part of it."
"It is not my fault I have failed, the all-knowing conspiracy stacks the deck."

In People of the Lie, the brilliant psychiatrist M. Scott Peck said that "the avoidance of responsibility is the root of all mental illness." I think he hit the nail on the head.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/31/2007 18:39 Comments || Top||

#54  "the avoidance of responsibility is the root of all mental illness."

Innnnnteresting! I have to mull upon that.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 03/31/2007 18:50 Comments || Top||

#55  Rosie is a ruthless media beast whore

There, fixed your typo.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/31/2007 18:53 Comments || Top||

#56  "Has anyone got any ideas why people like Rosie are so susceptible to every conspiracy theory that comes down the pike?"

Stupidity.
Ignorance.
Bigotry.
Immaturity.
Superstition.
Insanity.
Bad genes.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/31/2007 19:09 Comments || Top||

#57  What is everyone expecting of the Britts; lets face it, this is the second time they reached for the vasoline® and now they have to take it real deep! With 'Big Bro" looking on down the block, maybe they feel comforted overall during the crisis!
Posted by: smn || 03/31/2007 20:25 Comments || Top||

#58  Despicable "Truthers". Their critical thinking skills development was warped by their paranoia and self-loathing. Now that they have a guaranteed MSM buy-in, (PROVIDED that they maintain an over-the-top, in-yer-face, beyond-edgy, anarchistic and obnoxious persona); "Stand By" to get even more pissed off. There all pathetic ingrates. (AT)
Posted by: Asymmetrical T || 03/31/2007 21:11 Comments || Top||

#59  Make that "They're", vice "there. Uhmmm, My bad.
Posted by: Asymmetrical T || 03/31/2007 21:14 Comments || Top||

#60  I may not survive, in fact, but conspiracy believers are stupid and irrational by definition. Their own ignorance and hubris will destroy them. It is therefore their survival that is less likely. I am willing to bet my life that reason will triumph … How many are willing to bet their lives that the evil Bush gang blew up the WTC?

AC, all of us who seek America’s survival must believe as you do. Your determination reeks of Ayn Rand’s positivism and I can only hope that you are proud of it. I am and it continues to buoy my optimism regarding America’s future.

There is no connection between the actual production of something and getting the finished product in the store.

Deacon Blues, I believe Karl Marx’s doctrine relied upon what was know as: Alienation of Product, (i.e., disconnection from what one built for a living), Alienation of Value (i.e., being paid in currency instead of bartered goods) and Alienation of Life (i.e., as in loss of importance with respect to the social fabric), in order to impose communism. Perhaps someone more versed in Marxist doctrine would please correct me if I am wrong in my quote.

You are absolutely right. In America’s increasingly service based economy, so few people are actually engaged in building anything, that they have ZERO concept of what is involved in manufacturing even a five-minute toy. Structural steel and the complex aspects of cantilever support, bracing and compound forces may as well be astrophysics for these morons. All of them bet their lives on it every time they ride an elevator or fly in a passenger jet, but their ignorance makes them refuse to bet their lives on an issue such as terrorism where everyone’s life is at stake. Go figure.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 23:17 Comments || Top||

#61  "the avoidance of responsibility is the root of all mental illness."

Ya mean like that old Cause and Effect thingy the Palestinians have so much trouble with?

AC, I'm really enjoying your mindset in this thread.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 23:21 Comments || Top||

#62  Interesting ideas. I'll have to think about them. Thanks.
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 23:49 Comments || Top||


Hicks guilty, home in two months
David Hicks will be home within two months and has agreed to testify against other terrorist suspects. He was formally convicted last night of providing material support to terrorism and will receive a maximum of seven years in jail as part of a plea deal agreed this week. The sentence is expected to be handed down this weekend.

Hicks admitted he had trained with al-Qaeda, fought with the Taliban and that a friend of his believed he had approved of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The judge revealed that the plea bargain included a provision that he would get no credit for the five years he has already served in Guantanamo Bay and that had agreed not to sue the US for any illegal treatment he had received. The plea bargain included a ban on him speaking to the media for one year, and agreement that if he made any money from selling his story the money would go to the Australian Government. He also agreed that he had "never been illegally treated by any persons in the control or custody of the United States".

Hicks, 31, entered the military commission hearing room a different man to the one who wore prison scrubs and long hair on Monday. He wore a blue suit, purple-spotted tie and white shirt. His hair was cut short and neat, parted on the right side. He looked as if he was applying for a job. The judge, Colonel Ralph Kohlman said, "Good morning Mr Hicks." He sat next to his lawyer, Major Michael Mori, quietly answering the judge's questions about his understanding of the terrorism charge to which he was pleading guilty.
Anybody have a tissue? I just had an anticlimax.
Earlier yesterday, the chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, said that if Hicks's guilty plea was not genuine and was being offered only to escape Guantanamo Bay, that would be perjury. Hicks, who is said to have renounced Islam while in prison, took the oath before giving an explanation of behaviour, swearing to tell the truth "so help me God".

He also admitted attending a second training course in April 2001 on guerilla warfare and mountain tactics. It was during this course that he met Osama bin Laden. When bin Laden arrived at the camp, the recruits had their weapons taken away and were lined up when he spoke to them. Hicks admitted that he had asked bin Laden why al-Qaeda's training manuals were not in English. He also admitted attending a third training course in June 2001 on urban fighting, which included sniper training and techniques on kidnapping and assassination. He admitted conducting surveillance of the former American embassy in Kabul.

Two days before the September 11 attacks, Hicks left Afghanistan, travelling to Pakistan. He saw the television coverage of the World Trade Centre attacks there. The next day, he returned to Afghanistan. He denied having any advance knowledge of those attacks. When the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan began on October 7, Hicks was at Kandahar's airport. On October 10, he went to guard a tank outside the airport, staying there for about a week. He went to the front lines in Konduz, but fled when they were overrun. Hicks had met Arab fighters who said they intended to fight to the death, but he decided to flee, using his Australian passport. He was captured while trying to flee.

Hicks's father, Terry, said earlier this week: " He's had five years of absolute hell. I think anyone in that position if they were offered anything they would take it."

The judge led him through his confession, which was largely as the prosecution had alleged for several years, other than omitting that he had been asked to be a martyr for al-Qaeda, or had met the American Taliban member John Walker Lindh, or the British shoe bomber, Richard Reid. Hicks said that in January 2001 he travelled to Afghanistan with the assistance of the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba to attend an al-Qaeda training camp. In Afghanistan, he travelled to Kandahar. He went to an eight-week training camp, where he learnt about weapons, land mines, explosives and tactics.
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "included a ban on him speaking to the media for one year"

Yeah that'll work.

Johhny Taliban got more for this, granted one of our guys died in his presence but who knows if this Hicks didn't train them? ... If Hicks gave up intel, after it's acted on we should make it public so his former masters know who gave them up. This reformed Jihadi thing isn't sitting well with me.
Posted by: Flolumble Elmuling1667 || 03/31/2007 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  should have shot him on the battlefield.
Intel is god but the time has come for take no prisoners.
War can be won without intel, and it will probably be a cleaner victory as it will force societal changes that are needed at home.
Posted by: anon1 || 03/31/2007 5:26 Comments || Top||

#3  now can we proceed on Major Mori's prosecution?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 11:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's all take solace in the fact that this rutbag is returning to a country whose soldiers have fought just as bravely along side of ours. It's only a matter of time before this louse accidentally crosses paths with one of Australia's Diggers. When that happens, Hicks will likely get his face rearranged, or far worse.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 15:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Mori must be pissed. All that work, reputation in th toilet, career gone... and the mook cops a plea.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/31/2007 17:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Hicks gets nine months.
Posted by: KBK || 03/31/2007 18:04 Comments || Top||


Good morning...
ElBaradei: Iran is not a nuclear dangerJapan sets up missile defence shield near TokyoCII asks govt to leash extremismFighting continues in Wana, 56 killedEU demands urgent release of British sailorsSeveral killed in clashes in AlgeriaHelicopter, hospital hit in Somali attackU.S. critical of tepid African response to Mugabe
Posted by: Fred || 03/31/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll show you my dagger if you show me yours. :-P
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  HEY GUY"S,
I'm back in the desert!!! Sure could use one of those here!!! and I'm NOT talkin' bout' the dagger either!!:)(very sexy)
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 03/31/2007 3:34 Comments || Top||

#3  That Goddard sure lit the fuse on my rocket.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 4:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Be careful out there, AG. Miss Goddard was certainly a very nice bit of eye candy.
Posted by: Mac || 03/31/2007 4:33 Comments || Top||

#5  You rock ARMY GUY. God bless.
Posted by: Captain Lewis || 03/31/2007 7:53 Comments || Top||

#6  AG: Good luck, good hunting, and come home safe.
Posted by: Mike || 03/31/2007 8:04 Comments || Top||

#7  good luck and safe desert stay AG!
Frank G
Posted by: Frank G || 03/31/2007 10:09 Comments || Top||

#8  THANK YOU ARMYGUY!
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/31/2007 10:14 Comments || Top||

#9  HITM ARMYGUY!
Posted by: Shipman || 03/31/2007 11:07 Comments || Top||

#10  You go get em ARMY GUY. Give a big Rantburg Hoorah to all of our brave men and women in the sandbox.
Posted by: Remoteman || 03/31/2007 15:09 Comments || Top||

#11  God Bless you and your comrades, ARMY GUY!
Posted by: Ptah || 03/31/2007 20:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Ditto what y'all said so well. ARMYGUY, please tell your friends about all those at home who not only support everything they're doing, but how many of us don't believe what's being reported on CNN and the New York Times.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/31/2007 22:47 Comments || Top||

#13  Hey ARMYGUY! Thanks and good luck.

And good hunting :)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/31/2007 23:27 Comments || Top||

#14  A final thank you to ARMYGUY. Please stay safe and good hunting. America needs you more than ever!
Posted by: Zenster || 03/31/2007 23:50 Comments || Top||

#15  ARRRRRRmyGuy! Good luck over there!
Posted by: gorb || 03/31/2007 23:52 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2007-03-31
  Japan sets up missile defence shield near Tokyo
Fri 2007-03-30
  Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai stretchy neck
Thu 2007-03-29
  Arab League unanimously approves Saudi peace plan
Wed 2007-03-28
  US starts largest exercise since war
Tue 2007-03-27
  Hicks pleads guilty
Mon 2007-03-26
  Release Sufi Muhammad in 72 hours or Else: TNSM
Sun 2007-03-25
  UNSC approves new sanctions on Iran
Sat 2007-03-24
  Iran kidnaps Brit sailors, marines
Fri 2007-03-23
  LEBANON: 200 KG BOMB FOUND AT UNIVERSITY
Thu 2007-03-22
  110 killed as Waziristan festivities enter third day
Wed 2007-03-21
  40 killed in Wazoo clashes
Tue 2007-03-20
  Taha Yassin Ramadan escorted from gene pool
Mon 2007-03-19
  5000+ kilos of explosives seized in Mazar-e-Sharif
Sun 2007-03-18
  PA unity govt to meet officially on Sunday
Sat 2007-03-17
  Gaza gunnies try to snatch UNRWA head

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