Spike Milligan, comedian, author ("Adolph Hitler: My Part in his Downfall"), gadfly and the last surviving member of "The Goon Show," died Wednesday at the age of 83. Prince Charles, patron of the Goon Show Preservation Society, called Milligan's death "the end of a great era of British comedy." Even though not ticklish anymore, Milligan is now able to crack jokes and drink beer in the company of his peers: Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser and Marlowe. Britain is a little less Great for his passing, a little Greater for having had him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Afghan provincial authorities criticised plans to develop a national army and rein in warlords. As the first unit of the army held its second day of formal training under the eye of European officers, provincial officials complained the force was being organised without consultation or adequate planning. They also showed little understanding of why the army is seen as crucial to national stability, arguing that it should be gathered and trained at the provincial level where local warlords still hold sway. 'By ordering us to send 20 men to build up a national army they are just trying to waste time,' said Khalid Pashtoon, the spokesman for Kandahar provincial Governor Gul Agha. 'We do not like the set-up of the army in the way they have chosen.' If they don't kill it in its cradle, it's gonna grow up to bite them. Gul Agha and his backers know that. Expect attacks on the recruits and their bases by person or persons unknown.
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02/27/2002 ||
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Karzai began his three-day visit to Iran on February 24. During a meeting with Iran's supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Karzai won a public endorsement for the interim government in Kabul. The expression of approval by Khamenei, who is widely perceived as being aligned with conservative forces, indicated that Iranian hard-liners would refrain from action that undermines the Kabul interim government's authority. Karzai, in turn, thanked Iran for helping to end Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Conservative forces in Iran have reportedly provided aid to Afghan warlords - especially Ismail Khan, who controls the area around Herat.
Khatami, like Karzai, had reason to be pleased with the visit. Iranian conservatives had vigorously opposed Karzai's visit, saying that the Kabul government was little more than a US puppet. As late as February 23, two newspapers representing the conservative viewpoint claimed that the Karzai government was on the verge of collapse due to a "deep division" between secular and religious factions. The accounts implied that Karzai was a member of the secular faction, and therefore unfit to hold a leadership position. The intricacies of Iranian internal politix are beyond me. The balance of power seems so delicately balanced between the ayatollahs and the reformers - who in most other countries would be considered conservatives - that a good sneeze could send it either way.
Karzai seems to be a better politician when he's out of the country than when he's in it. We can only hope he's winning over the elements he needs inside Afghanistan like he seems to have done with Khamenei.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Police have closed the main office of Iran's largest student organization in an ongoing crackdown by religious hard-liners on reformist movements. The Office for Fostering Unity headquarters was raided and closed by police following angry exchanges between student leaders and a splinter group within the organization. Police and vigilantes loyal to the hardline faction within Iran's ruling establishment raided the office, bashed students and arrested more than 36 mainstream members of the student body. Move, countermove, counter-countermove... Khatami's up, time to arrest somebody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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More than 200 former Iraqi officers will meet in Washington next month under the auspices of the U.S. government to plan the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein. "This will be the largest conference of officers in opposition to Saddam's dictatorship ever held," Sharif Ali Bin Al-Hussein, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC), said. "It will have several aims -- to mobilize Iraqi officers and unite them with the democratic Iraqi opposition, to develop a plan of action to confront Saddam's regime, and to reinforce the important principle of the control of the military by a democratically elected government in Iraq's future." Are we sending signals or something? Or is Bush simply going to plan and execute the whole things in front of God and everybody?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has told a German newspaper that Israel staged the capture of a boatload of arms destined for Palestinian fighters in order to put pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. In the interview to Die Welt, Kharazi said Israel had "itself staged" the capture of the Karine A on January 3 "in order to have a means of putting pressure on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat". According to the Iranian minister, the whole boatload of arms affair was a "constructed story."
"The Israelis are well versed in that," he reportedly said. Yeah, yeah. We know. They do that all the time. And Yasser 'fessed up because he's really a Zionist agent. And the ship's captain, who also 'fessed up? His name's really Moshe, and he's another Zionist agent.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill said that President George W Bush has sought to intensify economic and defence collaboration with India. He said that US was working with India "in ways we have never done before to achieve peace and prosperity." Blackwill added that Bush was convinced that a transformation in Indo-US relation was necessary because of India's emergence as a world power and an influential leader of democratic nations.
Talking about defence cooperation between India and the US, Blackwill said that joint defence exercises would be carried out once a month for the next two years. Talking about the ongoing crisis between India and Pakistan, Blackwill emphatically ruled out mediating between the two neighbours. Praising Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for his courage, Blackwill said that Musharraf must implement his pledge of not allowing terrorism emanate from his country. Bush is displeased with Pakland over the Pearl case and Musharraf's willingness to let people like Omar Sheikh run around without a keeper. He's probably not real happy with ISI, either, since their operations are not only widespread but clumsy and uniformly antithetical to our interests. At this point we won't dump them - there's still hope, until Musharraf's either dead or buys a turban - but India makes a dandy big club to beat them with. Cranky Hermit doesn't agree with my suggestion that we dump the Paks, and he's probably right. But that doesn't mean we should coddle them. Even though we're stuck with them until they become Afghanistan with nukes, there's every reason to mend our fences with India as it breaks out of its central planning Nehru-Gandhi dynasty mold and becomes a modern state by doing all the things the Paks refuse to do 'cause it's against their religion.
Blackwill's official statements from the New Delhi embassy have been reported in the ToI religiously, but virtually ignored in the US press. That is a comment on the lack of breath of US press coverage, as Blackwill has repeatedly made significant policy statements which have served to indicate the sowings of US policies far before their harvest came to fruition. In particular significance here is the frequency of Indo US military exercises. Only NATO forces in the 1980's or US-S Korean forces today have a higher frequency of inter military liason. As the French and British proved [negatively] in 1940, if you wish to be allies, being able to communicate with each other is a good first step.
In re: US Pakistan relations, I'd offer that there is a significant issue regarding what exactly Pakistan will be over the long term. Referring to http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/afghan_paki_border_rel88.jpg gives the idea that one big source of instability is the ethnically heterogeneous nature of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, as they were defined by Mortimer Durand in his famous survey in the late 19th century. For all practical matters, both Kabul and Islamabad have been unable to control the grey area of Pushtunistan, and that may imply a bleak future for both Pakistan and Afghanistan as nation states. A break up of both countries along ethnic lines is entirely possible and the US should recognize that there may be little to support in either case. Religious cranks and narco warlords just add to this witch's brew of instability. So my response to the Hermit would be: "What's there to support asides from Musharraf who may be swinging from a tree tomorrow?" Posted by Tom Roberts 2/27/2002 1:04:32 PM
There is not much to support beside Musharraf that I can see. My response was made with the assumption that he could survive for an extended period of time, which I admit is less than assured. And I don't have a Plan B, but am hoping that some people who are more influential, knowledgeable, and intelligent than I have prepared contingency plans for Musharraf's death. But, as it stands at this point in time we *do* have someone to support and should make the best of it, otherwise you can take that whole map, color it grey, and call it Nomanslandistan. Posted by CH [crankyhermit.blogspot.com] 2/28/2002 9:56:23 AM
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Gunmen fired on a US military plane on Tuesday as it came in to land at a Pakistan airfield used as a US logistics base for the war in neighbouring Afghanistan, a police spokesman said. No shots, thought to be from an anti-aircraft gun, hit the aircraft and there was no damage or casualties, the spokesman said. "Eight people have been arrested about 30 km from the base," police spokesman Iqbal Ahmad said. An antiaircraft gun?!? Now, normally I'm against gun control, but I'd call an antiaircraft gun pretty damned extreme. Normally we don't strafe in "friendly" countries, but I'd be all for making an exception. And I'll betcha there are some Feds who'd really like to talk to those eight people arrested.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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At least 57 people, including 15 children, were killed when an express train carrying Hindu activists was set on fire by a mob in a Muslim-dominated area of Gujarat. Around 80 people were injured, some of them with severe burns. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appealed for calm and stressed that national security would be maintained at all costs. An indefinite curfew was imposed in the area and police were issued with shoot-on-sight orders, as reports came in of sporadic sectarian violence in various areas of the state, which has a history of Hindu-Muslim turbulence.
The activists on the train were returning from the northern town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, where tens of thousands of right-wing Hindus have been gathering in defiance of court orders to build a temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque that was razed by Hindu zealots in 1992. The attackers appeared to be Muslims, but officials including the prime minister refused to confirm their identity. "It is a very unfortunate and tragic incident," Vajpayee said, calling on the radical group spearheading the Ayodhya temple drive -- the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) -- to stand down. This was entirely avoidable, an episode brought about by the posturings of a bunch of jugheads who're jealous of the amount of attention Muslim idiots get. The head cheeses of the VHP should be rounded up. Those who aren't shot should be beaten. One also wonders what relationship, if any, there is to the attacks on Shiites in Pakland - though this mosque/temple situation has been brewing merrily enough of its own. Who's benefiting from it? I dunno.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Police and soldiers have detained thousands of people in eastern Malaysia and bulldozed hundreds of squatter homes in a crackdown against illegal immigrants and armed militants seeking refuge. Officials said that 2,548 illegals from Indonesia and the Philippines were rounded up in raids Tuesday across Sabah state on Borneo island. They will be deported and face a mandatory whipping if they return to Malaysia. A total of 615 homes were demolished. Nearly 4,000 officials are screening an estimated 600,000 immigrants from the neighboring Philippines and Indonesia, many of them without valid papers. Malaysia's come around a lot since 9-11. They're getting a little taste of prosperity as a result of g... g... (Dare I say it?) globalization, and they don't want to see it go bye-bye because of a bunch of turban-wearing loons. As incomes go up, patience with the silliness will go down. Laffer or somebody could probably plot it on a curve.
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02/27/2002 ||
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Commentators here also recall that Nobel laureate V S Naipaul's Among the Believers, with its description - considered contentious here - of travels through Muslim societies, was praised by the right-wing US publication The New Republic, notorious here for its anti-Arab stances, as "the most notable work on contemporary Islam to have appeared in a very long time". Knew I shouldn't have gone to Ottawa last week. When did this happen?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Support was building for a Saudi peace plan for the Middle East, as Israel and the Palestinians resumed security talks aiming at halting the bloodshed. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was ready to meet any Saudi leader to discuss the initiative. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, perhaps the most dovish member of Sharon's government, welcomed the Saudi plan during a visit to France, noting it was the "first time that Saudi Arabia has openly joined the peace process." Toldja the peace lobby'd push for it. "You really look tired, lady. Here, lemme hold your purse for ya."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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American and Pakistani officials have begun detailed talks on arrangements that could lead to Pakistan's turning over Ahmed Omar Sheikh, to the United States, officials from both countries said on Monday night. A decision could come as early as today, when the American ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlin, is to meet President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan for the first time since Pearl was determined last week to have been killed. But they said any deal might be contingent on when Pakistani investigators said they had completed their questioning of Sheikh. The White House is considering invoking an extradition treaty it struck with Britain in 1931. The treaty was later extended to India, then under British colonial rule, and the State Department asserts that, by extension, it covers Pakistan. The US is digging through antique treaties, and the Paks are probably brain-storming until their turbans burn to try and think up reasons why he couldn't possibly, so sorry, be extradited. This'd be funny, if it wasn't heartbreaking.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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Dutch police have detained a suspect in the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massood. An arrest was made on an international warrant issued by Belgium, which is seeking the suspect's extradition. Reports said the suspect was Mohammed Sliti, a Tunisian-born Belgian citizen. Sliti was taken into custody at Schiphol airport as he arrived on a flight from Tehran. Sliti was among a group of more than 100 "refugees" detained when crossing the border between Afghanistan and Iran earlier this month. It was not immediately clear why he was released or came to Amsterdam. Wonder if the Iranians tipped the Euros on him? Are they being good to get out from under the Axis of Evil designation, or wasn't he useful anymore?
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02/27/2002 ||
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A female Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up at a West Bank checkpoint, wounding at least three Israeli policemen, Israeli witnesses and police officials said. The woman arrived at the West Bank checkpoint near the central Israeli town of Modi'in in a Subaru car with two Palestinian men. At the checkpoint, a policeman approached the car to inspect it when the woman got out and detonated explosives strapped to her body, Shahar Ayalon, the Israeli West Bank police commander, said. The two passengers were critically wounded in the blast. Israel's Army radio said one of the passengers also had a bomb strapped to his body. One policeman was moderately wounded and the other two were slightly hurt. Gotta derail any peace initiatives. If there was peace, they'd have to get jobs. How much fun would that be? How heroic does a gunman feel wearing a paper hat?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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The United States is planning to send elite military forces to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to help train that country's troops, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, opening a third front in its war on terrorism. A final decision had not been made but Army special forces trainers were expected to go to Georgia soon in what would become a third front for the U.S. military in the war on terrorism after Afghanistan and the Philippines. Ain't that interesting. Can't wait to hear the details of the SF and the SpetsNaz comparing notes and techniques. Little doubt that there will be (if not already) SpetsNaz involvement. I'd guess that this phase will also be more bloody than Afghanistan was, more of a guerilla war like the Talibs would have liked to have fought.
Georgia, significantly, wasn't a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, presumably still isn't. The diplomatic implications are very significant, in that the Russers regard Georgia as their stomping grounds and Georgia under Shevardnadze has fiercely maintained its independence. The political strings are horribly tangled, going back to the late Zviad Gamsakhurdia (the self-styled "Saddam Hussein of the Caucasus") and his alliance with equally late Dzokar Dudaev in Chechnya after being tossed out of Georgia. Khattab, the current leader of the Chechen banditi is a wily and vicious commander. And there's a large part of the media who buy the Chechen side of things against the Russers. If we do manage to do anything - and there aren't even any guarantees of that - it's going to be extremely ticklish.
The net result of this may well be a partition of Georgia [see http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/ethnocaucasus.jpg ] along ethnic lines, as the Ossetians and Abkhazis have ongoing insurgencies against the Tblisi government. In particular, the Ossetians have harbored Chechen fugitives and the recently cited pass where al Qaedaistas were sited is through the Caucasus in this Ossetian area. The Russians are interested in not having independent nations on their borders, and having protectorates in Abkhazia and Ossetia is consistent with their actions in the rest of the Caucasus, Moldavia, the Ukraine, and Belarus. Posted by Tom Roberts 2/27/2002 2:03:05 PM
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02/27/2002 ||
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Interior Minister Prince Naif has expressed the hope that the United States would respond positively to the Kingdomâs request to hand over the Saudis detained in the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Certainly, as long as you cut their heads off.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/27/2002 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
